Grubtrotters

My friend Cheryl Tan challenged me and some fellow food bloggers to share a family recipe today to celebrate the launch of her new book called A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family. (No relation to Tiger Mom, although confusion may boost sales.) I have yet to pry any Pennsylvania Dutch favorites — shoo-fly pie, anyone? — from my 91-year-old Nana, but I have been busy getting some lessons from my Chinese mother-in-law, Catarina, who is a huge foodie and fantastic cook.

Given that we’re in the midst of the 15-day Chinese New Year celebration, I thought it would be appropriate to share one of my favorites: Chinese tea eggs. Tea eggs are not specifically a new year’s dish, but given that it’s the Year of the Rabbit, and rabbits symbolize fertility and remind me of Easter, which reminds me of eggs, this one just feels right. Plus, the recipe is simple. So simple that I made them for my son’s first birthday party a few weeks ago, and they were a big hit. The eggs come out looking like beautiful tie-dyed little treats. The flavor is salty, with a subtle touch of tea and Chinese spice.

Ingredients:  1 dozen eggs,  1 tbsp. salt, 1 black tea bag, 2 whole star anise

Directions: Start by boiling a dozen eggs, drain and cool. Crack the eggs, but don’t remove them from the shells. Place the cracked eggs in a single layer in a large pan. Fill the pan with water until the eggs are 3/4 covered. Add the tea bag, salt and star anise. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Cook uncovered for 2-8 hours, adding warm water to the pan as needed. The longer the eggs steep, the richer the color and flavor. Serve hot or cold. — Jenny

It’s a rainy night, perfect for ordering in. And I just found two new favorite pizza delivery places. The Good Pizza Cafe in Westchester has some of the best delivery pizza I have tasted in LA, and the crusts are made with 100% organic flour. Move over, Abbot’s. Good Pizza is better. The capricciosa with artichoke hearts, prosciutto, pepperoni and mushrooms is to die for. There’s only one size, and it’s a huge 18 inches for $22.95. The spaghetti and meatballs aren’t bad, either.

For a much smaller pizza, more Roman style, try Pitfire Artisan Pizza in Culver City. These pizzas, cooked in a wood-fired kiln that reaches 900 degrees, are fancy without the hipness of Mozza or Gjelina. Pitfire is family friendly and fantastic. I love the Burrata pie with carmelized onions, arugula, hazelnut and pesto. Sometimes we add anchovies for a kick. The Big Sur with shrimp, garlic and chilies is also amazing. Come to think of it, I haven’t tried a bad pizza here, and I usually order three or four and share them with my husband. They’re tiny so you need more than one if you plan to share. Our other favorites are wild mushroom, as well as green eggs and ham with prosciutto, rapini and an egg cracked on top. (I haven’t see that outside of Italy). The sausage pizza with sweet fennel is also wonderful, and they have seasonal pizzas like pumpkin. So order in and enjoy.

I have compared meals at places like The Bazaar in Beverly Hills and Green T. House Living in Beijing to performance art. But there’s a feast being held in Los Angeles three days before Thanksgiving next week that actually is performance art. GEO Home Los Angeles Pop-up is described as a “unique art event where the food and the guests are the art.” It will be held Monday, Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Good Girl Dinette in Los Angeles. Tickets are $45, and this is an exclusive, one-time event. If you’re into food and art, it sounds too cool to pass up. But there are only 25 seats available so you will have to act fast to be a part of it.

“In this synaesthetic performance series, I will cook a meal that reminds me of home,” says Genevieve Erin O’Brien a self-described Queer Vietnamese-Irish American interdisciplinary artist, community organizer, and popular educator. The four-course menu will be a surprise, but O’Brien just returned from living in Vietnam, and the theme is Saigon meets Los Angeles. Eastside Brewers will be making a special coconut porter and jasmine infused lager for the event, and there will also be wines from Sainstbury Winery of Napa Valley.

O’Brien is not a professionally trained chef, but her work has been presented at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and O’Brien’s mother is a Cordon Bleu chef. “I’ve been working under her for the past 36 years,” she says. “I spend most [of my] time in the kitchen cooking, experimenting, or eating.”

While some artists paint, “I use food as my medium,” she says. “As a bit of a nomad, food has always been anchor to a place that for me has never really existed – a place called home. I will create a performance of home by preparing and sharing a meal with you. I am attempting to create and recreate sounds, tastes flavors, memories from my mind.  I have these convergences of destinations and adventures and flavors that happen in my head, a nostalgia that can be evoked by food.  Sometimes I’m trying to capture what foods I miss when I am overseas, and sometimes it is about trying to recreate dishes authentically when I don’t have access to the right ingredients, essentially an experiment in failure.  With food as my medium, the viewer is forced to engage with the art in a different way. It is not a static experience.  More than anything the work is about creating community.”

If all this does not intrigue you, consider the fact that 10% of all proceeds from the event will be donated to a Vietnamese charity.

RSVP at erin@erin-obrien.com.  Please include your name, how many people are in your party, and your phone number. Once you RSVP, you will be emailed a confirmation and given directions for payment via PayPal.  Due to space constraints, she cannot accept reservations for parties of more than four people.

Just days after Susan Feniger’s Street offered discounts to unhappy Taste of Abbot Kinney attendees, the restaurant is now providing free appetizers to people who vote in Tuesday’s election. Bring your ballot stub and make a $10 purchase to get the free app. “Yay, Democracy,” she tweeted. We say, Yay, Susan! The Counter burger joints are also giving away a free side of fries to anyone with an “I voted” sticker. And Bite Bar & Bakery in Santa Monica is offering a 10% discount through Nov. 3. After you have had your fill of grub, you can down a free Espolon tequila margarita at Pink Taco with your sticker from 7-9 p.m. or get a free sommelier’s choice glass of wine with any purchase at Pourtal wine tasting bar in Santa Monica. Would you rather drink at home while watching election results? Colorado Wine Company in Eagle Rock is offering 10% off all bottles to go with your sticker. At Sprinkles cupcakes, you don’t even have to show proof that you voted. (But please don’t let that stop you.) Just be one of the first 50 people at any location to whisper “vote,” and you will get a free red velvet cupcake. A few national chains are also getting in on the freebie action. Of course, there’s been some buzz that freebies requiring proof of voting may actually be illegal.  A St. Paul restaurant was forced to cancel it’s voter discount because it ran afoul of laws against providing financial incentives to vote. So grab these deals while the getting is good. Vote early, vote often, and eat fast. — Jenny

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Last week, I read about two studies that made me want to pop open a bottle of wine or throw back a brewski or two. According to an article in Discovery News, people who drink more are smarter:

“More intelligent children in both studies grew up to drink alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than less intelligent children.”

But then today comes news of a new study that says alcohol is more lethal than illegal drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine. This is from the Washington Post:

“When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.”

The timing of the latest study looks like a gift to the proponents of Prop 19, the pot legalization measure on Tuesday’s California ballot. But taken all together, does this mean that smart people have a death wish? — Jenny

What was your favorite Halloween candy as a kid?

The organizers of the Taste of Abbot Kinney are making good on their promise of restitution to attendees that were unhappy with Sunday’s event, which suffered from food shortages and long lines. This just in from Varina Bleil, executive director of the nonprofit in charge of Taste:

“Inside Out Community Arts is pleased to offer you several more discounts as our way of apologizing for the food supply issues at Sunday’s Taste of Abbot Kinney. We are extremely grateful to the restaurants and merchants who have stepped forward with these great offers to thank you for your support of Inside Out through your purchase of Taste tickets.

In addition to yesterday’s notification of a 30% discount at Susan Feniger’s STREET for brunch, lunch or dinner Sunday through Thursday from now through November 30th, all Taste of Abbot Kinney attendees may use your Taste receipt or any unused Taste tickets to redeem the following discounts from venues on Abbot Kinney Blvd. or in the surrounding Westside of Los Angeles:

15% off at Marla’s Caribbean Cuisine (until October 24, 2011)
15% off at Topo Ranch Organic Cottons (until November 11, 2010)
15% off at Juicy Leaf (until October 24, 2011)
10% off at Robert Graham (until November 11, 2010)
15% off at Market Gourmet (until October 24, 2011)
10% off French Market purchases (until January 1, 2011)
15% off Lilly’s French Cafe and Bar (until January 1, 2011)
15% off Coutula (until January 1, 2011)
15% off at Brick House or a 3 topping pizza for $8 (until January 1, 2011)

** Two unused Taste tickets will get a special surprise ‘taste’ at Shima gourmet sushi restaurant (until January 1, 2011)

The Pod Photography is offering a discount Holiday Card Photo Session and family portrait for $195. It includes a 30 minute session, 25 custom holiday cards and an online viewing gallery. http://ThePodPhoto.com  +  310-399-0878  +  1219 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Venice 90291

We sincerely hope these offers will invite your future support of our free, after-school arts and education programs for at-risk youth throughout Los Angeles.”

For a recap of what went wrong at Taste, click here and here. Interesting that some of the restaurants that ran out of food samples the earliest are not offering discounts at this point. Yes, I’m talking about you, Tasting Kitchen. I’m sure some people will still be unhappy that these offers require spending more money. Except Shima, that is. Go Shima! But Inside Out has clearly made an effort to make up for the event’s shortcomings. Time to give them a break. What do you think? Are you satisfied with the end result? –Jenny

Test Kitchen Bar

Neal Fraser’s salted caramel ice cream was some of the best damned ice cream I have ever had. I’m not much of a dessert person, and I don’t usually like to combine salty and sweet. Chocolate covered pretzels sound like dog treats to me. (OK, dogs are allergic to chocolate, but you get my point.)  This ice cream was so subtle, so delicious — the perfect finish to Fraser’s one-night stint at Test Kitchen, a West LA venue that lets various chefs try out new menu items. The place was buzzing Tuesday night — so loud, in fact, I could barely hear the women sitting next to me. No matter. Who needs to chat with food like this in front of you?

The five-course dinner was exclusive to subscribers of BlackBoardEats, the Groupon of food sites. Fraser, who shut down his restaurant Grace a few months ago, will reopen soon at a new location inside St. Vibiana Cathedral.

Neal Fraser at Test Kitchen

We got a preview, starting with some crispy (ie. fried) olives and crispy pig ears. It was kind a cross between chewy french fries and calamari, except it was, well, the ears of a pig. Much more impressive was the steelhead tartare on chive blini with horseradish, creme fraiche and smoked trout caviar. Even in these recessionary times, I do love me some caviar. I have provided a closeup to get you salivating.

Steelhead Tartare

The second course was a smoky kabocha squash and roasted chestnut soup with bacon and saba, which is a reduced grape must, according to a quick Google search. You know our motto here: Bacon makes everything better, and the soup did not disappoint. Next came the wild striped bass with baby artichokes (not all that memorable), followed by the wood oven roasted Sonoma quail with cherry rosemary stuffing and a “cocoa nib gastric” sauce. The quail was cooked perfectly, and the stuffing felt like a wonderful preview of the feast to come in a few weeks. I tend to like my meat savory and salty rather than paired with a sweet sauce so I could have done without the fancy chocolate smeared on the plate. But the quail was so good that I threw caution to the wind and picked up the tiny little legs and sucked the meat off the bone. Quail can be so frustrating if you try to be polite and eat it without fingers. So screw polite. I don’t get out often enough to stand on formality. The ice cream I mentioned at the top was accompanied by a Valrhona Gianduja chocolate tart with some candied rose petals. It was very, very sweet, but I ate the entire piece anyway. Who wouldn’t? — Jenny

The first offer of restitution to unhappy Taste of Abbot Kinney attendees is here. I just got this from Varina Bleil, executive director of inside Out, which organized Sunday’s event:

“Inside Out Community Arts wants to offer our deepest apology for the food supply issues at Sunday’s Taste of Abbot Kinney. We are extremely grateful to the restaurants and merchants who are stepping forward with special offers to thank you for your support of IOCA through your purchase of Taste tickets.

We are thrilled that the immensely popular Susan Feniger’s STREET is generously offering a 30% discount on brunch, lunch or dinner Sunday through Thursday from now through November 30th.  Simply present your proof of Taste receipt or any unused tickets to your server and you will receive 30% off your entire bill, including drinks.  Please note this cannot be combined with any other offer.  Inside Out would like to thank Susan Feniger and STREET for their support.  We sincerely hope this and other offers which we will be extending to you over the next few days will invite your future support of our free, after-school arts and education programs for at-risk youth throughout Los Angeles.”

You can read an explanation of what went wrong at Taste of Abbot Kinney here and here. Looks like this may just be the first offer of amends to surface. While STREET is a gourmet global street food restaurant in Hollywood, I suspect future discounts may come from restaurants a little closer to home, say from the street that actually hosted the festival. That would be nice for Venice residents. So hold onto your unused tickets and stay tuned here for the latest. –Jenny

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