A Perfect 4th of July

This 4th of July my favorite cousins *wink* were in town with the wonderful exchange students, Marta & Liza. I took advantage of their presence to invite a whole passel of people over for an Independence Day celebration. People cooked, B sliced a watermelon, F made everyone laugh, JAF charmed our collective pants off, the dog had the run of the house and we all had a fantastic time.


J gave me the inspiration to cook Mom's fried chicken for late lunch/early dinner. Mom is an attorney, and I am assuming she approaches law the way she approaches cooking. She likes precision, not guesswork. However, this chicken recipe is a different thing altogether, a heretofore unknown part of her personality. She doesn't even have it written down. WTF? She emailed me an extremely imprecise recipe with no ingredient measurements or things of that nature. Although, she did discuss the temperature of the electric frying pan that I don't have. Who has an electric frying pan anymore? Mom. That's who.

I counted around 20 people coming to celebrate. Since there would definitely be more food, I bought 4 chickens cut into parts, rinsed them, dried them on paper towels and cut each giant breast into two smaller but still rather giant sized pieces. Above is only two of the four, I think.


In a paper bag I dumped flour (maybe a cup), some sea salt, some Italian seasonings, some cracked pepper and some paprika for color. After slightly drying, salting chickens and letting them sit for 20 minutes, I threw 3-5 peices at a time into the paper bag, shaking to thoroughly coat in the dry goods mixture. Then into my skillet with a little butter and vegetable oil they go. I would give you a temp for the skillet, but since mine is not electric, the temp is somewhat immaterial to me so I refrained from committing that to memory. I knew the skillet was hot enough when water droplets sizzled after being sprinkled into the fat. I preheated and cooked at a medium temp.

This is a time consuming process. Each side cooks about 12 minutes, trying to cook them equally on at least three sides. I kept a meat thermometer handy for the times when I was paying attention more to guests than to chicken. If the internal meat of the chicken reached 180, they were cooked through.

Above is more or less the finished product. Shots taken of huge piles of fried chicken on a platter are less mouth watering for some reason than the chicken still cooking in the pan. Naturally, it did not taste exactly like Mom's. However, it was delicious. Most people ate two or more pieces. Some people exclaimed over the deliciousness as soon as they bit into their first piece, D included. Thanks Mom, it was perfect.

The second dish I cooked was inspired by BoHo in Hollywood. They offer delectable oyster po' boy sliders. While EKD and I were tweeting about copying their recipe, I realized how easy it would be to make. Since I was already wandering down the Southern food path, I decided to throw these in for the party as well. Served at BoHo on a biscuit, I started with Pillsbury refrigerated dough. To my reader who asserts that I am all that is wrong with the culinary arts in this country for using anything instant or convenient, you are right. I suck. I did not make biscuits from scratch. The end.

I knew the amount of dough for a full sized biscuit would create too large of a bun for the sliders.
For a trial run, I made 50% sized and two 25%, cutting the dough and then reshaping into rounds.


They came out of the oven after 8 minutes perfectly round, brown and delicious.


50% size was juuuuuuuust right.


Liza & Marta sat at the bar keeping me company, cutting and shaping the dough for all the sliders. Four containers worth. Good work girls!


J holds the platter of mini biscuits in the sun for me to shoot. They tasted as lovely as they look despite the preservatives and chemicals, and left me plenty of time to work on the oysters. Using four 8 oz cans of fresh raw oysters from the seafood section at the Silver Lake Von's, I dunked each one in cornmeal, then buttermilk, then cornmeal again, frying them lightly in vegetable oil. Inside the bun, my European production line spread a pesto aoili (made from Mom & Sue's springtime pesto and mayo), and lined each bun with arugula before welcoming the hot little oysters to make pretty platters of oyster po' boy sliders.


Liza is vegetarian, so a half dozen of those suckers were made with battered and fried tofu. Reportedly delicious.

I know I loved them, and I also know the several dozen sliders did not last long on the platter. They were all eaten within about an hour. I was barely done cooking and they were all already gone. Just what every cook hopes for, happy and hearty eaters.

Definitely an inspired meal, dessert was motivated by the gobstoppingly delicious Mexico City Sundae served at the Rivera press preview for East LA Meets Napa last week. Vanilla bean ice cream with pine nuts, whipped cream, cinnamon and habanero caramel sauce.


I was totally winging it on this course. I looked up several caramel recipes on epicurious, deciding the best way to go about making the sauce was to infuse water with habanero oils by boiling and reducing, then substituting this for the plain water used in a regular caramel sauce, the way orange juice is used in an orange flavored caramel sauce.

There's really only one issue you need to keep in mind when boiling habaneros in water. Use a pan with a lid. I left mine open to the air, intending for the water to reduce somewhat. About 15 minutes later the entire population of my crowded kitchen were coughing and had watery eyes. D panicked, yelled at me in the bathroom that my food was smoking...I came running. Was it the fried chicken? The biscuits? The oysters? What had I left cooking that was already on fire? Nothing. Not a damn thing. But everyone looked like they were being poisoned. The oils and habanero essense were leaking into the air and the kitchen had filled with their spiciness. Most people went outside altogether. We opened some windows and doors, I covered the habanero water, and the toxins dissipated. It's not a party til someone is coughing up a lung.


Later, the caramel. Trial and error process, and thankfully sugar and water aren't expensive. I ruin one batch every time I cook caramel. Why do I not follow directions in a recipe? I have a mental block. I typically read the directions quickly, then cast them aside wantonly and go for it. Some recipes require more precision, correct amounts of ingredients, and appropriate tool use. Thank goodness for H, A, R & R. They stood by my side through a couple batches of caramel til we got a worthy product. Maybe next time I will do it right the first time.

Habanero caramel sauce. I also made a non-habanero batch for the fearful. Really, this was not that spicy. I could been more daring.


Drizzled over, (*gasp*, not homemade?), Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream

Whipped cream and cinnamon, with pine nuts under the whip. Thanks to R for making a beautiful whipped cream. Both sets of dessert were a wonderful way to end the meal. By this time we were all sitting around the chimenea with our shoes off, talking and listening to the fireworks. My European sous chefs long gone, an LA Galaxy match completing their world wind tour of Los Angeles while taking care of J's somewhat fragile emotional state.


It was all my pleasure to meet you, Marta & Liza. I enjoyed spending time with you and appreciated your endless support in the kitchen. Thanks for bringing my cousins to me and spending such a lovely day with my family.


Happy Birthday, United States of America.

Happy Birthday to you.

Mouth Heaven at Ludobites at Breadbar

Ludobites at Breadbar (til 08/22)
8718 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
310 205 0124
http://www.breadbar.net/events.html

Our Thursday night culinary adventure started walking down a hill and hopping on the bus, heading toward Chef Ludo Lefebvre and his Ludobites concept at Breadbar on the very eastern outskirts of Beverly Hills. The lovely 3 bus. The metro transit system in Los Angeles may have its faults: not enough lines, they don't run often enough, there are sometimes weird freaks with 3 foot wide 6 foot long dreadlocks that look like the world's largest poop high as a a kite on who knows what basically speaking in tongue. However, buses are cleaner and smell better than a taxi. They are incredibly safe. I find the drivers to have a wonderful balance between efficiency in terms of speed and safety. Air conditioners pump out so much cool air, one needs a sweater on an early July afternoon. Buuuut, they are unpredictable in terms of delivery time. We were 30 minutes late for our reservation. Nevertheless, Ludo's lovely and gracious wife made room for us despite it, with a nice little table on the sidewalk patio.

Breadbar is BYOB, no corkage. LOVES! Since we literally ran out of the house to catch the 6pm 3 at the corner, we didn't have time to swing by our local, Silverlake Wine. Lee's Liquor on 3rd is about a block away, so we stopped in there and among their kinda not so great selection found one lone bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. We're snargy like that. Louis Bernard Red Rhone Wine, 2005. A lower priced Chateauneuf, but after breathing a bit it was perfectly serviceable for wetting our whistles while noshing on Ludo's small plates.


Last night's menu above. What the hades is Ludobites? Ludobites is a guerrilla style pop-up restaurant created by Chef Ludo Lefebvre, recently featured as the melt-down king of pig's ears quesadillas on Top Chef Masters. Please do not hold that against him, different people work well in different kinds of situations, and in his own kitchen Ludo's food shines. He has a very loyal following of bloggers and food eaters in Los Angeles, and it can be hard to get a reservation right now at Breadbar. From his website Ludo says that the goal is to, "create a new 'bistronomy' cuisine that features Michelin style French cuisine with modern technique offered at affordable prices". The plan is to offer a "restaurant within a restaurant" by coming in to do temporary dinner service in restaurants that only typically offer breakfast and lunch. Genius in concept, one of my favorite recent restaurant experiences in execution.

Food. Wonderful food. All the food is small or moderately small plates intended to share. D has come along way during this heavy blogging year. He is now not only willing to eat oysters, but often requests them, and he is also now open to sharing small plates. Yay. We started by sharing the White Asparagus Veloute with Mozzarella Ice Cream, Shaved Fennel, Dried Olives and Lemon Zest. Starting off on the right foot, this was elegant and innovative.


Look at this pic carefully and you can see the differences in the two soft textures. On the outside the soup is, well, thick and soupy and the ice cream remains just barely frozen in the middle. The temperatures mixed interestingly, the soup being served at a fairly ambient temperature, and the ice cream just barely cold enough to be able to discern the differences in texture and flavor. Flavor from the dried olives was very intense, keeping the asparagus and mozzarella flavors from being too mild.


D was entranced by the Poached Egg 65 Degrees with Savory French Toast, Black Truffles and Parmesan-Onions. He claims this is the consistency to which soft boiled eggs are cooked at every Jewish deli on the planet, then served less fancifully over rye toast. He even challenged me to a culinary tour of the great Jewish delis in LA, comparing and contrasting soft boiled eggs on toast moving from the Westside to the Eastside.

I counter challenged him that they could not be this delicious without the black truffle and whatever those two delicious sauces are on the bottom of the plate. I wish I snapped a pic of the egg broken open. The yolk was that perfect bright orange with a luxurious almost pate-like texture. Spreadable, and not the slightest bit runny. Good thing the bus person came along when he did, because I was about embarrass my easily embarrassed husband by licking the plate. I swear.


Above is the Cod with Spiced Butter, Fresh Porcinis & Almonds served Tonnato style. This was the only meh of the evening. The ingredients all look and sound wonderful together, the quality was good and the freshness and texture beautiful together. But the flavors were flat. There was nothing popping on this dish. Next.


Next was good, very good. Creamy Polenta, Cantal Cheese and Oxtail Meat.

While fairly well buried in the delicious and not overly rich polenta, the oxtail meat was generously portioned. Basically it was just barely surrounded by polenta. I might make this at home with the leftovers the next time I make oxtails. Because I rarely cook, it takes true inspiration to get me in the kitchen. If I want to riff on something a chef does, that is the highest compliment I can give.

Surprisingly, D was less inspired by the Heirloom Tomato Salad, with Red Onions, Feta Mousse and Oregano. He said, this isn't that original or unique. My thought was this is the perfect spin on a classic summertime heirloom salad, with the feta mousse. Not much needs to be done to a Greek style tomato salad to improve upon perfection. He wisely agreed. It was acidic marvelousness balanced by the creaminess of the cheesy mousse.

Strangely, we ended with the Chicken Liver Mousse with Cornichons and Green Apples. Strange because it's really an hors d'ouevres. It was super good though, the sweet green apple surprising against the sour of the pickle and the richness of the liver.

We had a really wonderful meal, with great service. Really great, comfy personal service. Nothing pretentious or ever the least bit formal. I love this kind of service, like these people could be your next door neighbors or someone you sat next to having drinks at your favorite bar. I definitely plan to go back before August 22nd. And after August 22nd, I will follow wherever Ludo's food leads.

And we took a stinky cab home.

Douchebaggery at The Bazaar?

Has the level of douchebaggery at The Bazaar risen to such heights that the staff must treat paying clients like schoolchildren worthy of a scolding? Apparently so, by both witnessing the complete takeover of the restaurant & bar area by the ex-Skybar crowd and experiencing a bit of a scolding by a waitress in Le Patisserie.

After supper in the neighborhood (more on that blissful experience later) the bright idea to revisit The Bazaar for a special after dinner cocktail struck us as inspired. We strolled over in the cool evening air, reliving our meal over and over in our conversation. As we rounded the corner of the parking loop at the SLS, I was amazed at the nightclub like frenzy at the valet parker, in energy and in dress. Y'all know what I mean.

Inside we headed to the very crowded bar and paid $40 for a vodka/soda and a vodka/caipirinha. Is that a lot of money for a couple cocktails? Yes. That was close to half the price of a 6 course small plates meal of quality equal to The Bazaar right round the corner. But we know where we are, and covering the heavy overhead of that décor & good address is spendy.

The problem arises in finding a place to drink the $40 worth of vodka. The bar area is packed. The music is a little thumpy, and there's nowhere to sit. So we stroll over to the Patisserie side and sit on one of their delicate couches, to be asked quickly if we'd like dessert and to be told in no uncertain terms that we cannot sit here without ordering dessert. We tried to explain there was nowhere to sit in the bar, and we were planning on staying about 10 minutes, finish our drinks and leave. "No, this The Patisserie. You can't just drink here." D, with his sweet tooth & sweet nature, naturally asks for the menu fully intending to order dessert. The server says of course we can see it and adds over her shoulder, "if you don't order you have to leave". After that comment, and it was far more about the method of delivery than the message itself, there was no way I was going to stay for one of Jose's beautiful desserts.

I understand that this is an "it" spot. Everyone wants to be at The Bazaar right now. The food is fantastic and fantastical. The atmosphere is a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Pan's Labyrinth. The people are beautiful. By only allowing people ordering dessert to sit in the Patisserie, management is actually trying to protect their serious diners' experience from what is most likely the temporary onslaught of the B&T/striped shirt/mini-skirt/Skybar brigade. However, I recall our second visit to The Bazaar. After dinner we strolled through the retail area with a cognac, I took snaps of the sweets, and we curled up cozily on a Patisserie couch & emptied our snifters unaccosted.

I love The Bazaar. I am beyond thrilled at Andres' success and happy to have a culinary venture of this genre and reknown in my fair city. I know their food will outlast the fickle nightclub crowd. I just hope in the meantime they can find a way to protect their foodie clientele from their professional partying clientele a little more nicely.

OK, OK, I Like You La Grande Orange

La Grande Orange
2000 Main St
Santa Monica, CA 90405-1010
(310) 396-9152
http://www.lagrandeorangesm.com/

You are adorable! From the walk up window where one orders breakfast pastries, salads, burgers and sandwiches to the open kitchen and service area customers walk trough to get to a table, you're just fun and lively.

Your English muffins were the only pastry really worthy of note, not being a pastry eater. These muffins were bigger than my head. It may be hard to tell with no physical frame of reference, but these were easily treble the size of the ones you buy at your local market. Where on Earth are you getting these behemoths?

You make fresh juices to order for a mere 3 bones.

And c'mon, how cute is that kids' menu? PB&J Sushi roll with vegan orange jello slices? I want.

La Grande Orange offers some quality reading material to patrons with giant tags on them so media kleptos don't go running off into the sunset with Gourmet magazine or The New Yorker. I know of these media kleptos from first hand experience. I have been known to nick an Allure from the nail salon, or even worse a tabloid so I can read about the latest Brad-Jen-Ang drama. BTW, I am totally enjoying the trumped up possibility that Ang is jealous of Brad's friendship with Jen. Be careful what you ask for, home wrecker.

The dining area is spacious and varied. Lots of regular tables to sit at, booths and even taller bar height tables all with access to free wifi. The high ceilings ensure that what could be a crowded space remains spacious feeling.

I was very tempted by the bar itself. It is a little on the small side, but offers a small selection of great beers but nothing too fancy-pants. Exact same thing with the wine list. My cousin ordered for me some Pinot Grigio (not knowing I don't love Pinot Grigio, it is usually a safe wine for everyone else on the planet) that was very decent )for a Pinot Grigio) and when going to the bar for a second trip I noticed several other wines worthy of drinking. No big names stood out at me, which tells me someone probably chose for flavor and value rather than name recognition in the same price category which usually merits very mediocre wines.


I ate a burger. I have been on a burger kick recently, it must be the season. Or maybe the fact that the entire food blogging universe is talking about, photographing and eating burgers. I am such the happy band wagoner.

This one was damn good. The Green Chili Burger. Roasted poblano pepper, sharp cheddar cheese and medium rare ground beef. Tasted great, and I loved the pepper with it. NO spiciness whatsoever, but the flavors were delish. Meat cooked to perfection. Good bun. Toasted a little, but not to the point it would tear up my mouth like a cheese grater. Also, nice bread flavor and texture. Didn't fall apart after being exposed to the juicy meat.

Wall of wines.

And various other things. They sell a cute tee-shirt with a peace sign constructed from little oranges. We were tempted.

All in all, La Grande Orange is an adorable spot. Full service dining area in the evening, counter service with runners during the day. My companions ordered a Rainbow Roll, Pulled Chicken Nachitos, salad, and Liza the German exchange student ate a veggie burger she raved about on and on. I always think of veggie burgers as being ubiquitous in Europe, so I assumed she knew what she was talking about. If I hadn't met her 5 minutes prior, I would have been eating off her plate.

Media Preview at Rivera: East LA Meets Napa

East LA Meets Napa
Benefiting AltaMed Health Services
July 10th
Union Station
800 North Alameda Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Last night, John Rivera Sedlar of Rivera Restaurant in DTLA hosted a media event previewing the upcoming benefit for AltaMed Health Services, East LA Meets Napa. During the event Cástulo de la Rocha, President and CEO of AltaMed spoke of the organizations founding mission and development. AltaMed started as a free clinic and now serves underserved populations, providing community access to medical and dental clinics, complete senior services, including adult day health centers, case management, and the Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), youth programs as well as HIV/AIDS and substance abuse prevention and treatment. De la Rocha noted that they serve more than 240,000 clients per year.

As an end to support this worthy cause, and I think as an end unto itself as well, over 20 restaurants and more than 20 wineries will present offerings to ticket holders a week from Friday. See the current list here. The gist of the event is to educate consumers on how to pair high quality Latino foods with fine wine as a companion beverage, as opposed to the standard margarita or Corona (Tecate, if you are in my house). All the food presented on the 10th is Latin, and all the wine makers and/or vintners themselves have their roots in Latino ancestry, although the wines are all made in California.

As shown on the menu above, three of the many restaurants participated in the tasting last night. Rivera, headed by chef de cuisine Joe Panarello and the charming John Rivera Sedlar who made himself very present during the event for scintillating conversation about his beautiful restaurant (now a favorite of mine) and the upcoming event. Rocio Camacho, chef of Casa de Moles La Tia, was also quietly in attendance seeing to food and chatting just a little. I have not yet gone to Moles La Tia, but it is on my to-do list, written right there on a post-it in my iPhone alongside Ludobites, Huckleberry and Palate Food + Wine. Also, in the house were Daniel Salcedo, Jay Arroyo and Nikomi Arroyo of Whitter's Phlight. Phlight started out as a small tapas restaurant, and through offerings of specials the owners discovered what their regulars really wanted to see on the menu in Whittier. The menu now includes a mix of Latin-American cuisine and Spanish style tapas. Might just warrant a trip out to Whittier, methinks.

I arrived a tiny bit late, after spending the afternoon with my wonderful out-of-town cousins tracking down the Beatles star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame. I arrived hot and thirsty. Immediately, I was supplied with this amuse-bouche-esque deliciousness. From the Rivera kitchen, this is shrimp in a pineapple foam. Loved the mixture of salty and sweet, and although they are hiding in this pic there were definitely nice sized chunks of shrimp in there. After delicately spooning out the shrimp and foam I knocked back what was left of the sweet/savory juice like a caballero sucking down his tequila.

Next tasting was a spin on a regular menu item at Rivera. For a snack, Rivera offers patates xips. Housemade potato chips form Kennebec spuds with chipotle-lime crema and caviar. The above spins that menu item by changing the topping to butter poached Maine lobster in chiplotle crema. Delicioso!

This item won my heart. My heart that is cold and wooden toward anything dessert oriented. Melted it like buttah in the hot Zona Rosa, D.F. August sun. I spoke to Mr. Sedlar about its absence on his regular menu. This I would have noticed. If I ever see it appear on the menu, I plan to skip dinner and dive straight into a vat of this. Treble size, face first.

OH! You wanna know what it IS! The Mexico City Sundae. Housemade vanilla bean ice cream is the base of the sundae. Drizzled on top is habanjero spiced caramel. Topped with roasted pine nuts, whipped cream and freshly grated cinnamon.

I have never had anything better tasting in my mouth, ever.

The wines were great, too! Of particular note is the Sequoia Grove 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and the Madrigal 2008 Sauvignon Blanc. And the wines were very generously shared. Alexia Haidos of Double A Public Relations and Marketing spoiled us bloggers by asking us which wines we liked the best and sending us home with a swag bottle. There is one cold bottle of Madrigal Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge waiting for me to crack open and suck down.

I am looking very much forward to July 10th. I plan to coast my bike from Echo Park right down the Sunset/W. Cesar E Chavez hill toward Union Station and likely walk it back up the hill toward home at the end of the evening.

Viva California y Mexico!