Ombre red velvet, aka dinner.

Someone always has to get the last word.

The Maine event

Living in LA means keeping abreast of the constantly evolving restaurant scene.  Locally grown ingredients, craft breweries sprouting up like California poppies in April, and freshly squeezed juices with odd, sometimes inedible sounding ingredients seem like the only offerings in this glamorous town.

But that would be an incorrect assumption.  We are also experiencing a fat trend here, which is being nurtured by our huge selection of specialized food trucks.  Which we're ok with.

One of those food trucks, while not one of the worst offenders by any means (Coolhaus, anyone?), is The Lobsta Truck.  Full disclosure: I may have a personal relationship with the owners and managers of this mobile eatery, but my review has not been slanted by this in any way.  No really.  If you don't believe me, you'll just have to try them for yourself.

The grill

If you're lucky enough to spot the big red truck, pull on over and get in line quick.  While the menu isn't huge, it doesn't need to be.  Lobsta rolls, crab rolls, two types of soups, whoopie pies, and ice cream sandwiches along with a good selection of sodas and chips are all you need.  I opted for the Lobsta Roll.  And man, did I inhale that thing.  I wanted another almost immediately after finishing my first, which is a truly rare occurrence.  Just take a look at that beautiful lobster, covered in either butter or mayo (or half and half), on buttery golden Texas toast.

A Lobsta roll

Starving yet?  Check out their website to see where they're stationed this week.  They cover a large area, so don't worry if you're in the valley or OC- you've still got a chance to try out this yummy truck.

Anyone out there want to see a particular truck reviewed?  I'll head on out and give it a try!

Step away from the PBR

If I haven't made it clear yet, let me do it now: I love beer.  A simple combination of water, yeast, hops, and grain can create such incredible, effervescent results.  At UC Davis, I was lucky enough to study, however briefly, under Charlie Bamforth's tutelage.  Haven't heard of the legend?  Watch just about any documentary about beer and his Jack-O-Lantern grin will surely make an appearance.

Charlie Bamforth- professor, scientist, heartbreaker.

I'm an IPA kind of gal, something a lot of men have a hard time believing.  The hoppier, the better (my favorites are Dogfishhead's 90 minute, El Segundo's White Dog IPA, and, not surprisingly, Russian River's Pliny the Elder).  Of course, this means I'm a fairly inexperienced taster for many other categories of the golden fizzy stuff.  So when I was asked to participate in a Belgian tasting class at King's Row Pub in Pasadena, I was really excited.

After the two hour drive through downtown Los Angeles in rush hour traffic, I really needed a beer.  I was greeted instead with a hop-infused vodka distilled by Anchor Steam (who apparently also have a distillery...who knew?).  It smelled of hops, tasted less like vodka than expected, and sat heavy on the tongue.  Perhaps not something I'd drink every day, but it was truly interesting.  Bon Appétit did a review of the stuff quite literally days before my encounter.

The tasting consisted of a set of four Belgian and four American Belgian-style beers.  We were given advice on how to taste each brew by our instructor, trained cicerone and general bad-ass James Willis.  We tasted everything from Duvel to Allagash, grading each on their unique characteristics.  I had a terrible time guessing which beer was domestic and which was a true Belgian, which may have hurt my pride just a smidge.  The free IPA battered fish and chips helped me recover.

The head on this beer was so thick it reminded the whole table of merengue

I didn't realize Belgian ales could be so red!

Overall, the event was really interesting, informative, and tasty.  James is incredibly enthusiastic and educated in all things beer, which only further convinced me that everyone who is even remotely interested in the stuff should pay him a visit.

Want to learn more?  Check out my article, then hop on over to their website.  And with that awful pun, I'm off to do more exploring around my kitchen and my town.  Visit again soon!

Habañero tequila

A few years ago, at a dearly departed restaurant in Pasadena, I fell in love with a drink.  They called it a Lavender Screwdriver- freshly squeezed lemon juice, vodka, and lavender simple syrup served in a low ball with one cylindrical ice cube large enough to take sole responsibility for cooling the cocktail.  I've tried replicating it with little success and now I fear I will never taste the winning combination again.

Why the sad story?  Because it led me to try infusing!  Infusing alcohol (or simple syrups, as they did for the Screwdriver) is incredibly easy and seems just as impressive to your guests.  It takes little effort and you don't even need a recipe.  Mango rum, cherry vodka, fig flavored bourbon...all are possible and actually taste like the real thing, unlike those flavored monstrosities you can find in the grocery store.  I decided to be a little bold on my first adventure and use an ingredient I've never dared before- habañeros.

Really, the only two ingredients for this recipe are a bottle of tequila and a pepper or two

Wearing gloves while cutting these tiny peppers is mandatory

After cutting your peppers, wrap in cheese cloth and crush them in your jar

Cover with tequila...

And wait!

I let the peppers sit in the tequila in the fridge for about three days before taking them out.  Since I left the seeds intact, there was no need to infuse for any longer to get the right amount of heat.  And boy, did three days do the trick!  For any of the fruit flavored alcohols, the infusing time goes up to about a month and you'll need much more flavoring to get results (that jar should be packed with your selected fruit, with all seeds and rind removed).

The next step was to make a cocktail that you could drink without sweating.  So I came up with the following:

Habañero Grapefruit Margarita

Two parts fresh grapefruit juice
One part Habañero tequila
One or two wedges of lime
Sprinkle of sugar
Rock salt (for the rim)

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add the juice, tequila, sugar, and lime juice (I like to throw the whole wedge in there).  Shake until well mixed.  Pour into a glass rimmed with salt and add a lime wedge.

Now, I loved this drink but some of my friends couldn't appreciate the added kick.  In fact, at a party I remember hearing a loud yell followed by groaning across the room after someone was tricked into taking a swig of my concoction.  What a pansy.

We can pickle that!

While hilarious, Portlandia was not my inspiration for my recent adventure.  What inspired me to pickle?  Two restaurants on the Westside.

Cafe Surfas home-made pickles (via Yelp)

Mendocino Farms home-made pickles, which make their tuna sammy KILLER (via TheMinty)

A few weeks ago after spending the day at the Kubrik exhibit at the LACMA with my boyfriend and I found ourselves at one of our favorite spots: Mendocino Farms.  I decided to stray from my favorite combo, the Drunken Goat on a Highway, and try their tuna.  What really struck me: the pickles!  Weeks later, after discovering Cafe Surfas in Culver City another moment of pickled clarity- their standard side salad comes with an amazing balsamic, pretty edible orange "confetti" flowers, and...home-made pickles!  Needless to say, I had to get in on this.

Hanging out with my buddy, Hal, at LACMA

A quick trip to Trader Joe's for the cucumbers (I bought 9 of the Persian variety) and a failed trip to Ralph's for some pickling spice (again, they fail me), and I was ready to tap dance my way around this project.  I ended up adjusting a pickling spice recipe I found on the great wide web, keeping some of the most important ingredients present: allspice berries, cumin seeds, peppercorns, and a crushed cinnamon stick.  The next important ingredient?  Fresh dill, of course!  Also making appearances are fresh garlic, kosher salt, and apple cider vinegar.

What really struck me was the smell of the apple cider vinegar when I was making the brine.  The smell instantly reminded me of the pickles that inspired me in the first place, so I was really encouraged to wait the three whole days to reap the rewards.  

I know you're all dying to know: how did they turn out?  I cracked open the lid and if it didn't smell like fresh pickles!  But you know...they're missing something.  Was it the mustard seed?  Is the brine not flavorful enough?  Or maybe they haven't sat long enough.  I suppose I'll just have to test the competition once or twice more in order to find out that missing ingredient.

Does anyone out there have a pickling recipe they swear by?  Share!

Empty promises and a full sink

Forgive me, Father.  It's been one year since my last confess...er, blog post.

Yes, it's been a while.  I hope we can still be friends.

Recently (as in, yesterday), I started contributing to an online magazine for the city of Pasadena.  Technically, I am the lifestyles editor.  In addition to photography and "reporting," I have to attend various events in Pasadena and the surrounding areas that include modern art auctions, restaurant openings, and beer tastings.  It's a really tough job.

Yesterday I attended the official grand opening for a grilled cheese sandwich restaurant called Melt It! Grilled Cheese Co.  You can check out my article here.  It was actually perfect timing since I managed to track down the Grilled Cheese Truck a few weeks ago.  

The Brie: brie, fig compote on a French roll from Melt It!

The Mac 'n' Cheese grilled cheese from The Grilled Cheese Truck

My opinion?  Well, while I wanted to give a real side-by-side comparison, I caved and ordered the Brie instead of Melt It's Mac'n'Cheese.  I wished for more cheese, but realized the molten perils that come along with over stuffing a grilled sammy with brie.  The addition of the fig compote really made the sandwich and I appreciated the quality and amount of the bread- crusty, flavorful, and not too thick.  As for the famed Grilled Cheese Truck?  It was about what I was expecting.  A decent amount of cheese with some pretty good macaroni nestled between some disappointing bread.  The side of chipotle mayo was a great addition.

Did I mention that Melt It! makes deep fried Oreos, too?  If you haven't been able to figure it out from my previous cupcake post, I LOVE Oreos.  That may have put Melt It! over the edge.  That and I don't have to stand in line behind a food truck's exhaust pipe while my stomach eats itself.  I highly suggest you check them out.

Deep fried Oreos

What's going on in MY kitchen?  Next post I'll show you what's lurking in my cupboards.

Summer peach pie

Yes, it is January.  But lately here in Southern California, you could almost believe it was summertime again.  That and I currently have a large stock of photos I need to get through before I start sharing more recent endeavors.  So here is my first from-scratch peach pie circa 4th of July weekend, 2011.

The last company I worked for used to give out food as holiday gifts.  They regularly gave all one hundred-something employees turkeys for Thanksgiving and boxes of fruit for the 4th of July, along with other various food stuffs for important holidays.  I didn't stick around long enough to find out what they gave out for Christmas.

I've never made a pie crust from start to finish but I had to do justice to those peaches.  So I reached for my kitchen Bible- The New Best Recipe.  Here's my crust coming together in my ancient hand-me-down food processor.

I really wanted to do this right so I even went for the classic lattice top.  This peach pie ended up taking me two days since I did the crust and top a day ahead and storing them in the freezer.  This made assembling the pie loads easier.

The filling ended up being a bit of a fiasco.  The peaches were not very ripe and despite several days of sitting them in a covered bowl with the ripest peach I could find, I ended up having to deal with working with hard peaches.  I massacred those peaches, boy.  I don't know if you've ever tried to remove the pit of an unripened peach but I do not suggest you try it.  Lots of new and creative curses were invented that day.  But I persevered.

 The before and after pictures.  My oven is still a total mystery to me, so there were a few edges that were a little deeper golden brown than I had intended.  Despite that, the reaction was undeniably positive.  We were even fortunate enough to be able to pair it with home-made ice cream!

Coming up, I'll share my first commissioned baking project.  Next time: Baby bottle sugar cookies.