Tag Archive for food

Omnivores For Vegan Cuisine

June 18, 2009 admin No comments
Omnivores For Vegan Cuisine

Omnivores For Vegan CuisineI have a new story up on Dinela.com called “An LA Carnivore’s Guide to Veggie Dining.” The biggest delight in writing the piece was the wonderful meal I experienced at Madeleine Bistro in Tarzana. Run by husband and wife team David and Molly Anderson, Madeleine serves fine, animal-free cuisine. Sound like an oxymoron? I was shocked by how tasty and filling the food was. David Anderson is a bit of a vegan genius. A veteran of five-star restaurants, he was the only student in his culinary school class to get an A in butchering, although he temporarily lost his voice from the stress.

My favorites were the artistically presented beet tartar, the grilled lemon rosemary seitan and the chocolate souffle. Don’t ask me how he does the souffle without any eggs or milk. Like I said, he’s a genius. If you’re looking for something a little less fancy, he also makes comfort food, including a surprisingly delicious veggie version of the Big Mac for lunch. I brought the leftovers home to Victor, who is the biggest fan ofFogo de Chao‘s all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse that I know. He devoured the vegan cuisine and licked his fingers.

If you can’t imagine driving to the Valley for a vegan meal, then wait six months. The Andersons are currently securing financing and looking for a space in West Hollywood to launch a new vegan restaurant by the end of the year. The new place will be “bigger, with a bar, more of a scene kind of place,” says co-owner Molly Anderson. It will also have a new name.

The Andersons have no plans to close Madeleine, but they are considering making it a more casual restaurant to fit with its Valley setting. Whole Foods is opening up nearby, and Yoga Works is coming in across the street. So they want to capitalize on the post-yoga crowd. Right now, hungry yogis sporting Hard Tail and mats may feel out of place at a fancy restaurant with tablecloths.

As a fledgling yoga teacher who worries about the environment, I’m trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my diet. Madeleine makes that easy. When the food is this good, you don’t miss the meat. We swear. – Jenny

Madeleine Bistro, 18621 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana; 818-758-6971.

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The Secrets of Skinny Chefs

February 21, 2009 admin No comments

You’ve probably heard the term, “Never trust a skinny chef.” But in LA, chefs often have to be camera ready. You never know when the Food Network might call. This city is full of beautiful chefs serving food to beautiful people, and I’ve always wondered how they manage to stay so trim amid all that temptation. Then one night while watching late-night TV, I ran across Ford’s Filling Station’s new chef, Kristi Ritchey, in an infomercial for Barry’s Boot Camp. She was touting the fact that she’d lost 100 pounds.

The Secrets of Skinny ChefsI decided to dig a little deeper and came up with this piece that will appear in Monday’s LA Times. The answer, of course, is working out really hard and watching what you eat — unless you’re Table 8 Chef Govind Armstrong, who is blessed with an inability to gain weight no matter what he eats. But what surprised me most is how many chefs refuse to eat their own food.

Here’s Page Moll, chef at the beachcomber Cafe in Malibu: “I’ll make you a great crème brûlée or flourless cake, but I’m not going to eat it.”

“Every dish we do we taste over and over,” says Sona and Comme Ca Chef David Myers. “You get sick of it.”

I suppose I can identify. Back in college, I had a summer job at Billy Bakers in San Pedro. Oat bran muffins were all the rage at the time. For years after leaving that job, I couldn’t eat another muffin. The thought made me cringe. In fact, the first muffins I truly have enjoyed since then were the fresh ones baked every day on a recentWilderness Safaris trip to the Kalahari Plains Camp and the Okavanga Delta in Botswana. Enough time and distance from the saturation source, I suppose. Plus, those muffins were goooood.

So if cooking is an appetite suppressant, maybe those who want to lose weight should get a job in a kitchen. Then again, if you have a serious sweet tooth or issues with impulse control, that strategy just might backfire. Here’s Kristi Ritchey: “There were definitely times after a workout — I’m not going to lie — there were a few days when I ate cheesecake for breakfast.”

Good to know that chefs are only human. — Jenny

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Food Love

August 19, 2008 admin No comments

Food LoveMore proof of the power of food to bring two souls together. The LA food bloggers behindOishii Eats and Eat Drink & Be Merry, met and fell in love over food and just got engaged. They detailed their food courtship (with lots of lovely photos) and announced the happy news on their blogs today. Congrats and best wishes to them. We asked whether these two food lovers will keep their blogs separate or join forces like we did. And apparently they are planning a joint blog and other food ventures. Our Chicago writer/foodie friends Claire Bidwell Smith and Greg Boose also got engaged recently and launched a joint blog called She Wrote, He Wrote, where they each detail their shared meals and experiences from their separate points of view. Couples that blog together stay together. At least, that’s the plan. – Jenny

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Question of the Day

August 8, 2008 admin No comments

My favorite late summer picnic grub is:

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Food Network Casting Call

August 7, 2008 admin No comments

Here is your chance to be on TV. The Food Network is developing a new show called “Eat The Clock” that is being billed as a culinary version of “The Amazing Race.”

The program plans to showcase chow buffs in different cities, including Los Angeles. We have the official pitch from the casting execs:

Are you are a connoisseur, critic, chef, aficionado, restaurant owner or are just in a serious love affair with food?

The Food Network is currently casting foodies of all kinds in the Los Angeles area to be a part of a fun and exciting new TV series!

The show focuses on two teams who race through many of LA’s culinary hot spots competing in challenges in the ultimate chowhound smack down!

It’s an amazing “food-adventure” race!

We are looking for high-energy, dynamic and competitive two-member teams (husband & wife, parent and child, two good friends, two co-workers, etc.) who are 25-45 and have some connection, knowledge or experience in the food industry. Who thought fighting for your next meal could be so fun?

Contact info:

Sam Kivi 818-255-9330

Pete Brophy  818-255-9329

food@beyondcasting.com

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blue on blue: We Love Options

June 16, 2008 admin No comments

blue on blue: We Love OptionsNot that we’re cracking any kind of huge mystery here, but you know one of the reasons Communism flopped was because nobody had any choices. That’s why we love the spirit of the DeTox-ReTox promotion at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills. Every Sunday this summer from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., its blue on blue poolside lounge will offer selections to either keep the Saturday night party raging or ease your pain. (Our favorite hangover description is from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” courtesy of Lou Grant: Did you ever feel so sick you’d have to rally to die?) The options:

DeTox Drinks

Mixed berry smoothie with bee pollen ($8).

Sparkling pomegranate lemonade ($6).

Pitcher of cucumber/lemon water ($3).

ReTox Drinks

Build your own Bloody Marys ($14).

Mimosas & mixers ($14).

DeTox Menu ($8 each)

BBQ brisket sliders

Thai chicken with cucumber cream

Fingerling-ricotta baked tater

Crab and corn hushpuppies

Spicy beef rice wraps

ReTox Menu ($8 each)

Tuna sashimi & pina-soy colada

Scallop ceviche

Salmon BLT flatbread

Duck and apricot strudel

Chicken and vegetable pot pie

No doubt that sometimes a greasy burger is the perfect hangover cure, but trust us when we tell you that those spicy beef wraps (above, right) can provide just as much comfort with 38 times the taste. And if you can eat them in a swanky, modern spot in the sun, so much the better.–Victor.

Avalon Beverly Hills, 9400 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills 90212

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Beverly Tofu Pops, Sizzles and Spits

June 5, 2008 admin No comments
Beverly Tofu Pops, Sizzles and Spits

I don’t make it to Koreatown very often anymore. An ex of mine used to live there, and I’d rather not revisit those memories. Of course, when Josef Centeno was the chef at Opus, I did occasionally override my aversion. (Incidentally, I can’t wait to try Centeno’s new place, Lot 1 in Echo Park, and I hear he may still be chef at the upcoming Latin restaurant downtown called Casa. The more Centeno, the better.)

Beverly Tofu Pops, Sizzles and SpitsIn any case, my Koreatown famine ended a few days ago when I had to visit the Chinese Embassy to get a visa for my trip to Hong Kong and Beijing next week. My visa adventure coincided with the lunch hour so I stopped off at Beverly Tofu House on Olympic, just west of Vermont. Lucky pick.

With valet costing just $1.50, I knew this was going to be a great deal. Beverly Tofu is an odd little spot resembling a woodsy cabin inside and out. It’s decorated with family-style picnic tables, with legs made from logs and hard wooden benches for seats. The attentive servers start you off with lovely Korean banchan: tiny bowls full of pickled cucumbers and turnips, a potato dish, cabbage floating in a bowl of spicy water, bean sprouts, spicy kimchi, which is fermented cabbage, and, of course, their signature tofu dish. The tofu was so delicate and ethereal, it was impossible for this Westerner to eat with chopsticks. Fortunately, they provided a spoon.

I ordered the seafood combo soon tofu, which is a steaming hot stew that arrives at your table popping and sizzling and spitting like a volcano about to erupt. Because this was my first visit, I ordered it medium spicy, which was perfect for my palate. It was loaded with tiny unshelled shrimp — heads and all — oysters, clams and mussels that tasted like they had just been snagged from the sea. The server cracked an egg right at the table and plopped into the center of the stew, which was so hot it cooked the raw egg on the spot. Watching those around me for guidance, I scooped out a few spoonfuls the stew into a little steel bowl full of rice, mixed it in and then took a bite.

Delicious. This meal was hearty, spicy and warm. I filed it away mentally as the perfect dish to have the next time I catch a cold. There was so much food, I couldn’t finish, which is rare for me. I’m sure the banchan is meant to be shared. Despite the vast quantities of grub for someone lunching solo, the meal was still light enough not to make me feel over-full. The kimchi, by the way, was wonderful, and you can buy it to go.

I’m not sure I’ll be going out of my way to drive from Venice to Koreatown very often, but the next time I find myself back there, I won’t hesitate to revisit this spot. –Jenny

Beverly Tofu, 2717 W. Olympic Blvd., 213-380-1113.

 

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Can Monks Make Chocolate Healthy?

June 3, 2008 admin No comments

We’ve all heard of organic and fair trade chocolate. But there’s a new product on the market called Intentional Chocolate, which has the blessing of the Dalai Lama. In fact, the chocolate itself has been blessed by Buddhist monks and other expert meditators who infused it with good intentions: “Whoever consumes this chocolate will manifest optimal health and functioning at physical, emotional and mental levels, and in particular will enjoy an increased sense of energy, vigor and well-being….for the benefit of mankind.”

Can Monks Make Chocolate Healthy?

Sounds nice, but does it really work? Well, the founder of Intentional Chocolate wanted to find out, too. So he commissioned Dr. Dean Radin, author of “The Conscious Universe” and senior scientist at theInstitute of Noetic Sciences to conduct a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled pilot experiment. Radin’s study, published last November in Explore, the Journal of Science and Healing, found that people who ate an ounce of Intentional Chocolate for three days scored themselves 67% higher on a standard psychological scale measuring well-being, which was much better than those in a control group who ate regular chocolate. You can watch Radin give a one-minute explanation (aka commercial) here.

This is one small pilot study, and perhaps it was a fluke. But what if it’s replicated, and we someday learn that the mood and intentions of the people making your food actually affect the food and how you feel after eating it? Perhaps someday we will all get to know our restaurant chefs before eating out. Angry chefs will be considered hazardous to your health. We’ll light a candle and set the mood when we cook at home. Sound far-fetched? As a fledgling yoga teacher, I can tell you that we always set an intention before class becausesankalpa, as it’s called, is a powerful thing.

Regardless of what you think of the study, I can definitely recommend Intentional Chocolate for its flavor. The truffles are especially divine. Among the most nirvana-inducing chocolate I have tasted, for sure. It comes from the makers of Hawaiian Vintage Chocolates, which is a favorite of chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay and Charlie Trotter. It may have been the power of suggestion, but I started having some pretty interesting insights after eating it. The chocolate isn’t cheap, but you can feel good knowing that 10% of the proceeds go toward the Deer Park Buddhist Center. Log ontowww.intentionalchocolate.com to order some chocolate, boost your mood and make a difference. What could be better? –Jenny

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Saying No to Nobu

May 21, 2008 admin No comments

LA Times Food Critic S. Irene Virbila rips into Nobu Los Angeles for being more scene than substance. In her weekly review she disses the restaurant for its lack of creativity and for sub-par ingredients.

Saying No to Nobu

Some of the raw seafood is first-rate, some just a notch above mediocre. But the rice is gummy, and the nori sash around the sushi is not the best quality. Plus you don’t even get freshly grated wasabi. Maybe omakase is the way to go. Maybe that’s where his chef — Ricardo Sauri from Nobu Miami — breaks out his best stuff. Then again, maybe not.

…We’re already into the third course of our omakase, and still not a bite of carbohydrates. A Japanese restaurant where you don’t necessarily get rice? I’m thinking: This is perfect model food. Pretty to look at, lean, bites like bonbons, fish bonbons. And there you have it.

SIV seems most bothered by Nobu’s “commercialism and repetition,” especially his use of the same sauces he bottles and sells, even in omakase dishes. As for the aforementioned scene, she thinks the blandness of the food and crowd might be related.

The menu offers few surprises, but maybe that’s the point. The bicoastal or bicontinental beautiful people want their comfort food wherever they are. The rest of us come to see what they’re eating or what they’re wearing.

The one positive note for Nobu Matsuhisa is a nice plug for his Beverly Hills restaurant, also a favorite of ours here at Grubtrotters.

What’s missing is the unpredictability and sheer fantasy of the specials at his first restaurant, Matsuhisa, in Beverly Hills — that blackboard scribbled with intricate dishes and combinations of ingredients that the “Top Model”-material servers haul around from table to table. (That restaurant is still open.)

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