Congratulations to Luvina Martinez of Orange who won 2 tickets to this Saturday’s OC Foodie Fest in Anaheim.

She will join many of you in sampling some of the best Gourmet Food Truck cuisine that Southern California has to offer!!

50 trucks will be gathered at the Honda Center in Anaheim to give you the best sampling and variety of food out there. In addition to the food, a nice selection of local bands will be performing.

Luckily, our little heat wave will be gone by Saturday as daytime highs for Saturday will top at 72 degrees with lots of sunshine in Anaheim.

Our winner, Luvina Martinez is married and has 2 children.  She is a local girl born and raised here in Orange.  She works in the medical field and enjoys reading, exercising and baking. She enjoys trying new things and  looks forward to trying out the variety of foods on Saturday as well as hearing the bands.

Do you want to join Luvina this Saturday? Tickets are almost sold out so buy your tickets now! Visit www.ocfoodiefest.com and click on the BUY TICKETS link now to get your tickets!

We’ll see you on Saturday and if you see me, stop me and say hello!

• Barcelona on the Go
• Dan Dan BBQ
• The Cupcake Lady
• The SeaBird Truck
• The Lime Truck

Joanna and I decided to break up and she got in line at Barcelona, while I went over to The Lime Truck. There, I ordered the Lime Club Sandwich and an order of Blue Crab Ceviche. Meanwhile over at Barcelona on the Grill, Joanna ordered a Catalan Sausage Sandwich and an order of Quince and Manchego. We wanted Empanadas, but something happened to the fryer. The Paella was the first item to sell out. Esteban, the owner said, if you call and place your “reservation” he will hold paella for you. Show up and the truck and he’ll have your Paella ready.

[Show as slideshow]

Tonight’s dinner was actually in two parts. I made the Orzo salad the night before and the chicken breast was cooked tonight.

Orzo Salad
Original Recipe by Giada DiLaurentiis

• 1/2 lb Orzo
• 1/2 cup Crumbled Feta
• 2 TB plus 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Fresh Ground Pepper
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
• 1/4 cup of Pine Nuts Roasted
• 1 handful of Baby Arugula Leaves

Cook the Orzo according to the package (approx 6-8 minutes) in plenty of water and salt. While the Orzo cooks, roast your pine nuts. Place the nuts in a skillet and toss over med-high heat until golden brown. They can burn very easily, keep your eye on them and swirl them in the skillet until your get the color you want. When done, remove from skillet and let cool. Place the cooled pine nuts and the lemon juice, salt, pepper, feta cheese and cranberries in a large bowl. When Orzo is cooked, drain and place on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle the 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the Orzo and spread out. This will help cook the Orzo faster. The Orzo should be cool enough in about 10 minutes. Place the cooled Orzo in the bowl  and toss lightly. Add your baby arugula leaves in If you can’t find baby arugula leaves, just rough chop regular arugula leaves] and toss adding the 1/2 cup of olive oil slowly. [We’re looking for moistness not wetness, so if you don’t use all the olive oil that’s ok. Taste it. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. The salad is great at room temperature, but its even better after it has sat in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Pan Seared Chicken

• 1 Chicken Breast
• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Teaspoon of Salt
• Freshly Ground Pepper
• 1 TB Italian Herb Seasoning (Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Basil, etc…)

Place chicken breast and all ingredients in a Ziploc bag. Seal and massage the mixture and the chicken together making sure it is well coated and the seasonings are spread. Let sit and marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Next, in a small skillet, place 1 tablespoon of olive oil over med-heat. Remove the chicken from the bag and make sure that most of the liquid has dripped off the chicken. When the oil is hot, place the chicken in the pan. Let this side of the chicken sear in the pan for at least 3-4 minutes giving it some good color. Once you have some good color on the one side, flip the chicken over. Lower the meat to medium and cook for about 7-8 minutes or until the breast registers 160 degrees with a thermometer. When it does, turn off the heat and the remaining heat will bring it up to 165 degrees. Remove from skillet and let sit for a few minutes. Slice your chicken breast and place over your salad.

What?!

Why is the Mayor of Los Angeles following me? I logged onto Twitter and started reading his Tweets. He attended the LA Food Fest yesterday and talked about all the good food, but it was on the 20th that I saw a tweet from the Mayor about a Good Food Initiative that his office launched.

The Los Angeles Food Policy Task Force convened in November 2009 to identify a Good Food policy agenda and the steps to get there. The Task Force has worked to develop a Good Food for All Agenda with specific action steps and recommendations for how to advance the Agenda. The Agenda seeks to increase access to Good Food for everyone, improve public health, create quality jobs and small food enterprise opportunities, increase equity in our communities, and improve environmental sustainability throughout the region.

The Good Food Agenda is a 93 page report developed by the Mayor’s office. I didn’t read thru the entire report, but from what I have read it is a very ambitious goal to bring the City of Angels to the forefront of being a model city in regards to creating a new regional food system. They have identified six key areas in the initiative:

1. Promote A Good Food Economy
2. Build A Market for Good Food
3. Eliminate Hunger in Los Angeles
4. Ensure Equal Access to Good Food in Underserved Communities
5. Grow Good Food in Our Neighborhoods
6. Inspire and Mobilize Good Food Champions

It sounds very exciting. You can download a copy of the Mayor’s Good Food Agenda here. You can also visit their website at http://goodfoodla.org/

Even if you aren’t a resident of the City of Los Angeles, it’s a very well researched document and anyone in ANY city will walk away with something.

I drove over and took a look inside. Looks like they still have lots to do. The main components are in like the grill and the fryer. No tables yet. Looks like they will be able to seat about 30 inside, but looks like there is room for some outdoor seating perhaps.

This corner was an empty lot for a long time and a developer came in and built some retail space here. It has been empty for a long time and the Corner Fish Grill will be the first to open in this new center. Based on where they are, I’m guessing they are a few weeks out from opening. Stay tuned!

Stop by this Saturday at the Tender Greens (8759 Santa Monica Blvd) in West Hollywood as over 70 bloggers and bakers will be selling over 2,000 baked goods.

You get the new owners and partners of the Manila Machine a new food truck hitting the streets of Los Angeles. Natassia Johnson of Joan’s on Third and Marvin Gapultos of Burnt Lumpia (a fellow food blogger) come together to make delectable Filipino cuisine more readily accessible to Los Angeles.

They officially launched today and were greeted with hungry mouths and sold out of most of their dishes like Chicken Adobo (chicken braised in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves and pepper), Longanisand Hubad sliders (sliders made with Longanisa Sausage) and don’t forget the Lumpia!

Let’s just say that this foodie needs to get his butt up to Los Angeles this weekend and find their truck and get some home cooked food in his stomach!!

You can follow The Manila Truck on Twitter at @manilamachine. There, you can find out where they will be setting up shop. Today’s stop was at 5th and Main near Downtown Los Angeles.

Congrats to Natassia and Marvin, can’t wait to meet you both and to have some great Filipino food! See you this weekend!

For more information and their full menu, visit www.themanilamachine.com

I can say that I have eaten at two of the ten and wholeheartedly agree that they should be there. Orange Coast Magazine’s Restaurant of the year is Park Avenue Restaurant in Stanton.

The remaining nine restaurants on the list are Sage, Fleming’s. Lucca Cafe, Watermarc, Sol Cocina, Marche Moderne, Charlie Palmer, Zimzala and Pizzeria Ortica.

A bit about Park Avenue Restaurant:

OpenTable says:

From the front door to the fireplace, Park Avenue promises unforgettable dining. Serving creative renditions of classic American food. Perfect for a business lunch or a casual dinner with friends. There is a two-bottle maximum for personal wines.

A few menu items that I may have to try when I visit are:

Either the Whole Wheat Flatbread with Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions and Fresh Mozzarella or the Lobster and Roasted Corn Fritters with Red Pepper Mayonnaise.

Uh oh…I saw Mussels with Garlic, Lemon and White Wine that may trump the other two!

For dinner, I’m a sucker for Seared Scallops for sure, but they have some dishes like 5 Spiced Baked Salmon, Medallions of Filet Mignon, Pan Seared Jidori Chicken and Texas Antelope Medallions served with Pear Risotto in a Red Wine Demi.

Dessert selections include a Warm Butter Cake with Caramel and Whipped Cream, but it is the daily flavor of the Warm Bread Pudding that has my interest. But if you eyes don’t gravitate to those two options, I’m sure the Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting will be placed in front of you…

This evening’s meal was with friends and co-workers Lisa and her husband Ed, Joanna and her fiancé Bill, Tim (a frequent dining partner) and Diane. I was inspired to bring this group of friends and foodies because of Restaurant Week here in the OC. The Old Vine Café actually wasn’t participating in this annual event, instead offering an OC Restaurant Week every day! They offer a prix-fixe menu for lunch at $20 and also offer an early dinner menu for $40. They offer two seatings for dinner and tonight our group gathered for the 8:30 seating.

We were all very excited to sit down and start our experience. Turns out that another co-worker of ours, Laura was there with her fiancé and a group of her friends. Yes, we were invading this small, intimate space! One by one members of our group arrived with Diane being the first – soon all of us were seated and our server explained the menu to us. They were offering three tasting menus and then their single plate options. Tonight’s tasting menus consisted of a Seasonal Tasting Menu, the Original Tasting Menu and the Vegetarian Tasting Menu. I opted for the Original, Tim for the Seasonal and Lisa had the Vegetarian. The tasting menus consist of a 4 course meal and includes wine pairings all for $65.00. While the Tasting menus offer smaller portions of food, the portions were perfect and the wine pairing make the tasting menus a value.

Tonight’s review will be based on the Original Tasting Menu with tidbits from my friends at the table. First course, a Sautéed Sea Scallop on a nest of Crispy Fried Yucca finished with a tarragon Chardonnay Sauce. The server presented me with a 2003 Louisvale Chardonnay from South Africa before my dish arrived – crisp and just a tad fruity in taste. While good, by itself it was unremarkable. However once the scallop arrived, the combination of the dish with the wine made the wine come out and thoroughly enjoyable. The scallop was nicely seared and was perfect in the inside. The sauce was flavorful, but didn’t over power the taste of the scallop itself.

My second course was handmade Fettuccini Pomodoro with Aged Pecorino Romano cheese. As a maker of handmade pasta, I know what handmade pasta tastes and feels like. Here, tender ribbons of Fettuccini in a light, flavorful tomato sauce was presented to me with a glass of 2005 Tre Serre Barbera – a red Italian wine that is unoaked. The tomato sauce is simplicity at its best and the pecorino cheese is where the flavor comes from.

Our server, I apologize for not getting his name, was most informative of all of our wine pairings and was very attentive to the needs of the table every step of the way. With seating in the Old Vine Cafe maxing out around 25 or so, attention to detail is part of why many patrons of the Old Vine Café come back time after time. Next up I was served a Maipe 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina – bold and fruity. Moments later Four Ounces of All Natural Filet Mignon & Crispy Fried Onions with Bleu Des Basque Demi Cream Sauce. While tasty and the meat at a perfect medium rare, it may have been sitting on the warming shelf a little longer than intended. The beef was lukewarm to the touch and the cream sauce seemed to have lost its sheen. As for taste, I want to learn how to make this cream sauce as it is a perfect accompaniment to the filet. Bleu de Basque cheese is made in the Pyrénées mountains in French Basque country. As mentioned before, the filet was a perfect medium rare  - I enjoyed every bite.

Now I opted for a substitution  on the fourth course and went with the Mini Pecan Tartlets garnished with vanilla Fleur De Sel Butterscotch Sauce and Whipped Cream. I’m a huge fan of salty and sweet. The addition of Fleur del Sel to the butterscotch was wonderful contrast to the sweetness of the pecans in the tartlet. But I have to be honest. I was taken by my dinnermate’s Pistachio Crusted Blue Cheese Cake drizzled with Natural Wild Flower Honey. Not a fan of Bleu Cheese as a standalone cheese, I absolutely love it in salads and with beef. Here was a slice of cheesecake made from Blue cheese that was creamy and amazing. The honey really rounded out the taste of the blue cheese in a way that I wasn’t expecting. If you go to the Old Vine Café, wait..I mean when you DO go to the Old Vine Café make sure to have the Blue Cheese Cake. It was served with a 2005 chateau Roumieu Lacose Satuernes.

What a wonderful evening. Our meal started at 8:30 and we were there fro almost three hours of great food, wine and conversation. Our group has decided that we are going to do another evening of food and wine in April.

To Mark McDonald and his staff, thank you for another wonderful and memorable meal. I need to remember that you are open for breakfast and I will need to come and try the Early Dinner Tasting Menu soon. One day I would like the opportunity to just watch you prepare and serve for one of the sittings and be an out of the way observer in the kitchen. Now THAT would be a treat!

P.S. I apologize that there are no photos in this post. I did take some, but the lighting was so dark all the photos were out of focus and dark. I really need to invest in a real camera.

Old Vine Café
2937 Bristol Street
Suite A102
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-545-1411
www.oldvinecafe.com

A week or so ago I made another childhood dish, Chicken Adobo. I didn’t blog about it since the photos turned out so horribly – the taste, was a different story. I need to be on the quest to make Filipino food more pleasing to the eye. While making the adobo, I have to say that the tastes and smells brought me back to the old kitchen in the house I grew up in. I, personally hadn’t made chicken adobo for probably over 15 years. My mom actually cooked it at least once a week when I was growing up.

The technique is simple (braising) and it gets better the next day. The ingredients are simple, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves. Tonight I decided to change the protien out and use pork. I really wanted to do pork ribs, but didn’t find any that I liked at Fresh N Easy. So I did bone-in pork chops instead. I had to braise it a bit longer than chicken and I found that there is this magic moment when the meat starts to fall off the bone and be the most tender meat. Served over fresh rice, it sure is a pleaser.

INGREDIENTS

6 skin-on bone in chicken thighs/1 rack of pork ribs
3/4 cup Kikkoman Lite Soy sauce
3/4 cup White vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons whole peppercorns
1 whole head garlic, peeled
3 bay leaves, cracked in half

DIRECTIONS

1. Take the garlic cloves and give them a good smash, but keep them whole. Add your protien (chicken or pork) and place into your pot.

2. For chicken, bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer. Cook, covered, for 30 minutes covered. Then uncover and continue cooking until the chicken is tender and the liquid has reduced some. Turn the pieces from time to time. You’ll know its ready when the meat starts to fall off the bone.

2a. For pork, same instructions as the chicken but you’ll have to braise a bit longer as the meat is more tough than chicken. I had to do mine for over an hour – keep the lid closed. There will be a moment when the meat is tender and falls off the bone. Then take the lid off and allow liquid to reduce. Oh, if you’re buying a small rack of pork ribs, cut them down to two-three rib pieces when cooking.

3. Take off the heat and serve over fresh hot rice.

Add some sauce to the rice and enjoy!

Probably 9 out of 10 “special rolls” in most Sushi restaurants are a California Roll with some kind of topping and a squirt or two of special sauce. Some have salmon skin or fresh water eel (unagi) or avocado and fresh tuna. While eating my rolls today I found myself unimpressed. This roll smothered in sauce and spicy tuna has lost its appeal after the second piece.

I need to remember that when I go to a place that serves sushi, that it is the nigiri-sushi that I really enjoy. Here, tender pieces of fish on properly-seasoned pads of rice. This allows for the freshness of the fish to come thru. Nothing better. My top favorites tend to be:

1. Sake – salmon
2. Saba – spanish mackerel
3. Ebi – shrimp
4. Unagi – fresh water eel

Lately, however, I have lost my taste for tuna. Its odd, since I used to down piece after piece of tuna in the past.

Did any of you catch Gordon Ramsay’s show last night, Cookalong LIVE?

In the show he made a three-course meal in one hour. One of the dishes he made was Steak Diane. I have been craving beef for several days now and decided that I was going to have Steak Diane, but with a Ribeye steak instead.  The recipe below is a severly edited version of Gordon Ramsay’s recipe from last night.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Rib Eye Steak
• 3 shallots, peeled
• 4 ounces crimini mushrooms, cleaned (if crimini unavailable use button mushrooms instead)
• 1 tablespoon salted butter
• 2 small garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, to taste (I used Reduced Sodium)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup brandy or cognac
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• Small handful of flat-leaf parsley

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat oven to 300f.

Cook the potatoes in a pot of boiling salted water for 10 minutes or until just tender. Drain the potatoes and set aside.

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet pan large enough to accommodate the Ribeye steak. Get a good sear on your Ribeye. When you have good color on the one side, flip over and sear for a minute.  Place pan in the oven.

I took a tablespoon of some fat from the Ribeye and placed it in another saute pan and added another tablespoon of Olive oil. Slice the shallots and add to the pan, allow to soften briefly before slicing and adding the mushrooms with a tablespoon of butter. Crush in the garlic using a garlic press or mince finely.

Add the Worcestershire sauce, then the mustard and heat through for a minute. Turn up the heat and tilt the pan away from you. Pour the brandy into the far end and allow it to ignite – be careful that the flame that flares up doesn’t singe your eyebrows! Once the alcohol has burnt off, swirl the juices around the pan. Add the cream and allow the sauce to thicken before turning down the heat. [NOTE: I have an electric stove, so obviously I didn't have a flame. So what I did was add the brandy and ignited it with one of those long neck lighters. Worked like a charm. Do be careful the initial flash goes pretty high, so I pulled my pan away from under my fan/microwave unit. When the flames started to go down, I put it back on the stove.]

Chop the parsley and add half to the pan.

By the time you finish the sauce, your ribeye should be about a medium. If you want med-rare, take it out halfway thru the sauce prep. Place your ribeye on your plate and let rest for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, take the juices from your pan and pour it into your brandy sauce and mix well. This adds TONS of flavor.

I hope you enjoy this, I sure did!

The first test was to cook some salmon, sous vide. For those unfamiliar to sous vide cooking, it’s all the rage right now on cooking shows like Top Chef and Iron Chef America. Basically it is cooking vacuum sealed food in low temperatures over a long period of time. A crock pot you say? No, not really. The vacuum sealed bag is immersed in temperature controlled water. This is the key. Sous vide cooking has also been brought to the forefront by such chefs as Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz and Wiley Drufresne.

My first experiment was with salmon. In a vacuum sealable bag (the ones provided to me were from Reynolds). It’s basically in the form of a ziplock bag. A device pulls all the air out of the bag. In the bag I had the salmon, lite soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a dash of sesame oil, a sliver of ginger, one scallion and  some salt and pepper. I cooked the filet for 45 minutes at 140 degrees. When I took it out, the color looked odd to me. With sous vide cooking there are no sear marks or browning. Usually with meat, after cooking sous vide, you would brown it quickly to achieve the look. Once I opened the bag, it smelled wonderful. Once I got the salmon on the plate, i broke into with with a fork. It was one of the most tender, moist, succulent pieces of salmon I have ever cooked or have eaten. The flavor really spread out over the entire piece of salmon, not just where the ingredients were. I was expecting that the place where the ginger was would be overwhelmingly ginger, it was not.

[Show as slideshow]

fIntrigued, I wanted to do another test. Cook a similar piece of salmon but leave it in there for 2x longer than its supposed to be cooked for. Another thing with sous vide cooking is that you cannot overcook the food. At least, that’s what I understand. Because the water temp is low, there is no way the food could overcook. More on that theory later. I did the same as before but instead of 45 minutes I left it in the water for 2 1/2 hours. My expecation would be that it would be drier and overcooked. I opened the bag and took the salmon piece out and it was just a moist and flavorful as the first piece. Here I was at just past midnight and eating my salmon in the quasi-darkness of my dining room in awe of what I was eating.

[Show as slideshow]

So what’s next…well I wanted to try some eggs. My first attempt was to cook an egg, in the shell. According to the instructions, 45 minutes. What I failed to check was the temperature. The machine was set for 138 degrees. Here’s the deal. From a scientific point of view, egg whites won’t coagulate at 138. No matter how long you leave it in the 138 degree water, it will never firm up. 45 minutes later I broke open the egg only to find a runny, non coagulated mess. The temperature was too low. so I took the eggs (I actually had two of them) and put them in a vacuum bag. Threw in some salt and pepper and a smidge of butter. Sealed the bag up and put in the sous vide supreme and left for work. Yes, I left for work.

Almost 9.5 hours later, the egg in the pouch was still runny and the whites never quite come together. Amazing! It was in the 138 degree water for over 9 hours and the egg was still uncooked. Eggs need to be at least at 142 degrees in order for the whites to coagulate. Yes, even a few degrees can make a huge difference.

Looking at the manual, they call for 147 degrees for 45 minutes. So, I repeated the experiment with two eggs. 45 minutes later, I took them out and the eggs did coagulate. I sprinkled some salt and pepper on top and what I ate was the fluffiest egg. I love soft-boiled eggs and they don’t compare to what I was eating. The egg whites alone were like this airly custard. Pushing my spoon thru the yolks produced an image of this dark, rich orange contrasting against the white. It was so soft, so smooth – i was in heaven again.

My next part of the experiment was to do a meat. I opted for boneless porkchops. The chops went into the vacuum bag with a touch of olive oil, salt, pepper and 1/2 tablespoon of butter. Note the instructions say that I don’t need a lot of salt and pepper. We’re talking a smidge above a pinch here – and not on both side, just the side visible to me from the top of the bag. The porkchops go into the Sous Vide Supreme for a minimum of 4 hours at 141 degrees.

So about 3.5 hours later, I take two more fresh porkchops, season them on both sides with salt and pepper and pan fry them in canola and a pat of butter (for fairness of the other having some butter) and cook them for about 4 – 5 minutes per side over med-high heat. They look real good.

At the four hour mark, I take the sous vide porkchops out. What I see thru the bag looks like a mess.

I take them out of the bag (there were 3 of them) and pat them dry. Why? Cuz I”m going to sear the outside of it for about a minute to give it some color. The color right of of the bag is a bit “greyish”.

Now, on the plate you have the sous vide porkchop on the left and the pan fried on the right.

Next I sliced into each chop on a diagonal. The sous vide chop seems very easy to cut thru. The color is even in the inside. The pan fried chop is a bit harder to cut thru. In addition, I see some pinkness isn the middle. Nothing to worry about, its a very light pink – the scare of trichinosis is no longer a factor in today’s pork products. The fact that the pan fried chop is still pink means I didn’t cook it long enough.

Now the real test. Taste and texture. The sous vide chop was indeed tender, but most importantly, there was flavor in the meat itself. It could have used a “tad” bit more salt, but the seasoning was throughout the meat.

My pan-seared chop was a bit tough to bite through, but not by much. What about the seasoning? Well if you remember, I did season the chop on both side prior to cooking. While it was very tasty on the outside, the main portion of the mean seemed less so.

So, over all, was it worth the 4 hour wait? Was the sous vide chop better than the pan-seared one? I think the sous vide chop won by the fact that it was cooked thru and thru and the seasoning was inside the meat itself. It did have a better texture than the pan-seared chop I have to say.

If I had more time, I would have liked to have done a pork chop but leave it in there overnight and see if the texture would still  be the same. According to all I have read about sous vide cooking, the result should be the same if at the minimum of 4 hours of cooking or if it was in there for 6-7 hours. I guess my egg test from earlier also helped make that statement true.

Will I go out and buy a Sous Vide Supreme? I’d like to. Maybe Santa will get me one for the Holidays. If I get a bonus at work I just might put some of it towards one, although I am looking to expand my small collection of All-Clad cookware as well.

Please take the time to visit Sous Vide Supreme’s website and check out some of the testimonials. It certainly does bring the ability to cook sous vide home. It is small, has accurate temperature control, seems well made and solid.

A sidenote: I would have liked to have tried this system with a better vacuum system. The test unit came with the Reynolds vacuum system and there was something about it that didn’t seem as thorough as say a FoodSaver or an Oliso Frisper. These units use thicker plastic and it seems that the plastic forms around the food better. With the FoodSaver you only use what you need. The Reynolds solution uses a battery powered pump. It did the job, but I feel that the seasonings may be have better if there was a true vacuum.

UPDATE: You can now purchase the SousVide Supreme at Sur La Table! That’s right and right now it’s $50.00 off for a total price of $449.00

The menu was simple:

Turkey, brined, then simple aromatics in the bird, butter under the skin
Ham, cracklin’ sugar coating
Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes with Buttermilk and Butter
Sausage Stuffing
Gravy
Roasted Asparagus
Yams in a sweet brown sugar sauce
Lumpias – thin ground pork, water chestnuts, scallions and seasonings rolled in rice paper
Braised Brussel Sprouts

[Show as slideshow]

Kogi BBQ features a fusion of Korean and Mexican flavors. They are best known for their Korean BBQ Tacos, they have expanded their menus to include burritos, quesadillas and occasionally a burger. They even offer a Spicy Tofu Taco. Their full menu can be found HERE.

The truck is scheduled to arrive at 10:30pm, so get there early and find the line. Expect to be in line for awhile. It is worth the wait! I have yet to get to the truck, so this may be my chance! Who’s going?

Gypsy Lounge – Tuesday 10/27
23600 Rockfield Blvd
Lake Forest, CA
10:30PM-Midnight

Rocks – Friday 10/30
26022 Cape Dr
Laguna Niguel, CA
10:30PM-Midnight

Photo credit: MonsterMunching.com – visit his link for a review of his last visit to the Kogi Truck.

Thanks to Rico Revilla for the heads up on this!

So there is not much for me to choose from. So … I went down to the lobby and bought myself an apple and a Nature Valley Granola Bar.

I’m here in DC for 4 days and hoping to taste some great food here. When I got out of the airplane I was hoping for some brisk fall temperatures, but they had a bit of a warm up on Friday and temps were in the upper 80s with high humidity. What is this? It’s Fall for the gods sake. It was quite muggy outside but according to the weather reports, temps will only be in the upper 60s with a chance of rain. Oddly the low tonite will 70 (it’s 73 and 2am EDT), but the daytime high will be in the 60s. The rest of my stay will be in the 60′s – yea!

Well gotta get to sleep so I can adjust to the time change. The Clarendon/Courthouse used to host a Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings. I’d like to see if I can make that.

Upon first glance of the outside it is a slight departure from previous Sur La Table’s in that the exterior was primarily in Black and White. The awnings and decor gave the exterior a distinct Parisian look. Once inside your eyes don’t know where to look. Everything from cookware to tableware to linens to pastry tips, if you can think of it, Sur La Table has it. That’s the magic about walking into a Sur La Table. It’s the variety and assortment that they offer that sets them apart from other kitchen/cookware retailers. In addition sales associates who have a passion for cooking just like you.

The store layout is full, but there is plenty of room for moving up and down the aisles of this new store. The main cashwrap area is in the center of the store like many of their other store layouts. As you walk into the store you have cookware to your right and ceramics, linens and glassware to your left. Behind the cashwrap area is small electrics and foods. In the far right corner you have cookbooks and bakeware, while the left corner has home and kitchen goods.Directly across the cashwrap to the right is cutlery.

As I mentioned earlier, tonight’s opening was a Friends and Family event. Friends and coworkers, Tim and Jennie came with me and Jennie brought a friend, Claudine! It was a fun evening with food provided by Zov’s Bistro. We each walked out of the store a little poorer tonight, but happier!  Claudine, Jennie and Tim had lots of questions tonight and answering their food and cooking questions brought me back to Sur La Table in Pentagon Row in Arlington, VA.  I was on the sales floor in-between cooking classes helping customers and helping them make the best decision for their cookware needs. I felt very much at home there. If you didn’t know it, you might have mistaken me for an employee if you overheard my conversations this evening.

If you get a chance this weekend go to South Coast Plaza West where it will be air-conditioned and where you can walk into Sur La Table and explore. Talk with a store associate about what your cooking passions are and if you are new to cooking, ask them what tools you might need to help you in your culinary journey.

Special thanks to Tia (Store Manager), Stephanie (District Manager). Will (Clientele Specialist) and Carol Wertheim. Thank you for welcoming us into your home, we look forward to coming again and again!

Sur La Table
South Coast Plaza – West Wing (formerly Crystal Court)
1st Level across from the Apple Store
333 Bear Street
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

[Show as slideshow]

It had ground beef, chaoyte squash, onions, garlic and some other ingredients. My mom is back in Tagaytay and it was the middle of the night over there, so I decided to make it from what ever ingredients I could remember. I probably added a few more ingredients than the traditional recipe for Chayote Ginisang, nevertheless, the first bite was perfect.

What is Chayote you ask? Chayote, also known as Mirlitons in the South, is a type of squash. Chayote is one of the key ingredients in Central American cooking. An old friend and co-worker, Elise Jimenez, told me of a Mirliton Casserole that her family made for the holidays. It was then that I realized that Chayote wasn’t just a Filipino thing.

Scott’s Chayote Ginisang
Makes 6-8 servings

2 Chayote Squash

1.5 lbs Ground Beef

1 Medium Onion Sliced

2 Garlic Cloves, smashed

3 Small coins of smashed Ginger

1/8 teaspoon Red Chile Flakes

1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup of bean sprouts

1/4 teaspoon Sesame Oil

1/3 cup of Fish Sauce (Patis)

3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce

1 cup of broth

Saute the onions and garlic and ginger in vegetable oil making sure not to burn the garlic. After a few minutes, add the ground beef. Break up the meat slightly with your spoon. Leave some big chunks for texture. Continue browning the beef over med-high heat.

Meanwhile, cut the Chayote much like you would a mango. There is a center “seed” or pit that is not hard but a bit tough to eat, so I cut it out. Slice the remaining pieces. Add the chayote and the remaining ingredients in the pan with the browned ground beef. Me personally, I like to give the ground beef some color and will even give it some browning before adding the remaining ingredients. Lower the heat to medium and cover with a lid.

The dish is ready when the chayote has softened. Serve over fresh rice. Mmmmm….sarap!

“We wanted to throw a huge party and thank every one of our guests for choosing Round Table for the last fifty years,” explains Round Table Pizza President Rob McCourt. “What better way to do that than to give them more of what they love — great pizza with the highest quality ingredients and dough that’s rolled fresh every morning.”

Fifty cent pizzas are available at participating Round Table Pizza restaurant locations. The special anniversary offer may not be available for delivery or on certain days of the week in your area. Call your local Round Table Pizza for details.

On Tuesday, July 14th from 5pm to 9pm you can have a taste of everything that is in the market for one, low, incredible price. Taste foods from over 36 vendors. Retail and merchants will also be offering special sales to help celebrate their “birthday”.

Ticket’s are wickedly priced at $20 for tastings and a beverage. For $5 more, you can add beer/wine to your ticket. $45 will get you all that plus a copy of The Original Farmers Market Cookbook. The authors will be onsite that evening to sign copies of their book.

Tickets are going fast so go to www.farmersmarketla.com to buy your tickets online!

I have yet to sample these delectable tacos and burritos. For example their signature taco is made with short ribs and topped with sesame-chili salsa roja, julienne romaine lettuce and cabbage tossed in Korean chili-soy vinaigrette, cilantro-green onion-lime relish, crushed sesame seeds, sea salt, then garnished with a lime wedge, orange wedge and red radish wedge.

A fellow blogger at There’s a Queer in my Soup, sent me a tweet on Twitter that they were coming. I think I will have to track them down this week when they are in Anahiem or Santa Ana to finally check them out.

Here is there TENTATIVE schedule. If you aren’t following them on Twitter, you should. @kogibbq. Any changes in locations and times will be Twittered.

I’m only listing the OC schedule. For a full listing for both trucks, visit ther website at www.kogibbq.com.

As always, you can always get some Kogi in The Alibi Room Mondays through Saturdays from 6pm to Midnight. They are located at 12236 Washington Blvd in Culver City if you don’t want to hunt down the truck.

1. Tuesday – 5/12
   Roja
   7:30PM-Midnight@2 J’s Cocktail Lounge – 120 W Houston Ave in Fullerton

2. Wednesday – 5/13
   Verde
   10:30PM-1AM@Santa Fe Springs – Stage Rd & Valley View at the 2nd warehouse to the right
3. Thursday – 5/14
   Verde
   7:30PM-Midnight@Juke Joint – 735 N Anaheim Blvd in Anaheim
4. Friday – 5/15
   None in The OC due to a private catered event
5. Saturday – 5/16
   Verde
   7PM-10PM@Santa Ana Artwalk – Santa Ana Blvd. & Santiago

Photo credit: KogiBBQ.com

From looks of the poster in the window, a new cupcake place is coming to the OC. The sign says FROSTINGS. It could very well a bakery, not just cupcakes.

No other information was available, no opening dates. A search on the internet also produced nothing. The employees next door at Lee’s Sandwiches didn’t have any information as well.

Frostings
23624 El Toro Road
Suite #D
Lake Forest, CA 92630

I recently gave some advice to a co-worker about how I like to cook a filet mignon. When he came back to me the next morning he told me that his filet was a bit tough and that his meat really stuck to the pan. It was then at this point that I remembered all the caveats that I didn’t tell him.

He went out and purchased an iron cast skillet. I told him to use a skillet with a metal handle or something that could handle heat up to 400 degrees. I have an All-Clad skillet that I use for my filet mignons. The skillet he bought wasn’t pre-seasoned. This caused alot of the sticking that he experienced. The next issue was the fact that it was cast iron. Cast iron conducts and holds heat way longer than any stainless steel skillet.

When I start my filet mignon, I preheat the pan with about 1-2 tablespoons of oil. While the pan is heating I season my filet. I only use kosher salt and pepper and I season liberally. I also make sure my meat is at room temperature and not striaght out of the fridge. Once I see that my pan is just getting to the smoking point (I can see the oil “rippling” in the pan and see small whips of smoke here and there) I place my filet in the pan. Once I put it in I don’t touch for it at least 1.5 minutes. At that point, the filet should release by itself and I flip it over. I’m not looking to blacken it just get good color. The instructions I gave my friend was to leave it in for about 2-3 minutes (in my head I was thinking it was med-high heat – when in fact I keep my heat on high). His beef almost blackened and started to cook the beef on that side. The cast iron retained all the heat and provided a hotter surface than I had anticipated. He had sticking problems but managed to release it and flip it over. It was almost black.

My next set of instructions was to flip it and then put it in a pre-heated 375 degree oven. I leave it in the over for about 5 minutes. This gives me just enough time to mince some shallots and get my mushrooms sliced for my sauce. I gave him the hand test method to check for doneness, but asked him to but a thermometer for his beef. I told him i like mine to finish at 125, medium rare. I offered that I usually will take my meat out at 120 as it will continue to cook even outside of the oven. Again, because of his cast iron his beef ended up cooking in the 5 minutes it was in the oven. Based on what he told me, his beef ended up being medium to medium well.

Once I was done with my veggies, I took my beef out of the oven and placed it on a plate a covered it with foil. Meanwhile I cooked my shallots and mushrooms, added my broth and wine and made myself a nice sauce. After about 10 minutes I had a nice med-rare filet with a red wine sauce, 1/2 of a baked potato from the night before and some asparagus I put in the oven while I cooked down the sauce. The asparagus simply had olive oil, salt and pepper.

My friends filet wasn’t a total bust, he said it tasted good, but that it was a bit tough. The next day we talked about it and how the factor of how cast iron vs stainless steel can make a difference. I then told him how to season his pan and how over time that an will be the best non-stick skillet he’ll have in his kitchen.

When I was a kid we only had solid color eggs. I wanted in on this action.

Happy Easter Sade, ToniLyn and Jessica!