The Happy Tastebud

The Fish at FuRaiBo

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:58:37 -0800

Contrails and a Big Truck

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:41:20 -0800

Bar Pintxo

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:14:41 -0800

Review coming soon.

Pancake Gone Awry

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:58:16 -0800

Wed 04.16.08 - Gluten free, diary free, and egg free pancakes are a bit funky to start with, this mornings batch is comical. Experiment gone awry.

How To Spice Up an Instant Noodle Soup...

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:52:58 -0800

Photos by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 camera phone.

I am a big fan of the Thai Kitchen Spring Onion Rice Noodle Soup Bowl. Gluten-free, check. Dairy-free, check. Egg-free, check. Canola oil free, check. Takes only 3-4 minutes to make... Sign me up! After I first found this little gem of Jenifer friendly food goodness at Trader Joe's a few years back, I would just make it by the package directions. But ever since I have returned from Ireland, I have made it a meal by adding whatever complimentary veggies and meats that I have in the refrigerator and/or chicken broth if I have it on had. Happy Spiced Up Thai Kitchen Rice Noodle Soup Bowl: 1 package of your fave flavor of Thai Kitchen Rice Noodle Soup Bowls (or any other instant noodle package, but I won't vouch for quality & gluten-free with other brands) 1/2 bowl (the plastic bowl that comes with the Rice Noodle Soup) of water 1 bowl (see directly above) of Chicken broth or veggie broth All the packets of stuff that come in the Thai Noodle packaging. Put all of the above in a pan on the stove that will fit plus room or find a big bowl and do it in the microwave. If stove, boil for 5 minutes. If microwave, nuke for 3 minutes. As the soup is cooking, chop up whatever tasty vegetables and/or meat you have in the refrigerator that would be complimentary. I like to use leafy green veggies: Bok Choy, escarole, spinach, kale, etc. I also like to use pork (bacon or pancetta, pre-sauted/cooked), turkey or chicken leftovers, or cooked ground beef for extra protein. Add the veggies and cooked meat to the soup, cook until boiling or the veggies are wilt-ish/ cooked to your taste. Serve. Eat. Be happy.

Tokyo 7-7, i love you

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:58:50 -0800

this is a love letter to one of my favourite restaurants in Los Angeles. ever. why i haven't written this before, i don't know.

many years ago, feeling somewhat homesick for my childhood home in Okinawa, Japan, i was moaning about my need for cheap & cheerful Japanese eats. a friend who lived in Palms had an idea. "i know!" he said. "you have to go to this little Japanese greasy spoon/coffee shop in an alley! you can get something with rice & i'll have a cheeseburger."
i was, understandably, dubious. but hah! little did i know...
i fell in love that morning, deeply and completely. where else can you get yakisoba and fries? gyoza and a thick chocolate shake? a tuna melt and sunomono? the little obasan waitresses were friendly and efficient, and the food was simple & surprisingly ultra-delicious. i soon was taking other friends to Tokyo 7-7 myself.
nowadays, i live within walking distance, and the obasans don't even bring me, or my husband (who over the course of many breakfasts at Tokyo 7-7 went from boyfriend to fiance to husband) a menu anymore -- they just greet us with a cheerful "Ohayo!" (good morning) and give me my delicious cha-shu royal and green tea, and bring my honey his $2.35 breakfast special #1 with a root beer float.
once you find this little neighbourhood gem (park in the Cardiff structure & walk out into the alley, not to the street), you too can quickly become a regular and decide if you like the club sandwich or the udon noodles better. or heck, have 'em both!

3839-B Main St. Culver City, CA 90230 or call (310) 204-5728 for more information. hours: Monday-Friday 7 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. parking in said Cardiff structure is first 2 hours free. cash only!

Fraîche out of luck

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:50:18 -0800

living in Culver City, which has been more or less given the prom queen crown of New Foodie Mecca of Los Angeles, gives me the exquisite opportunity of having serious decision problems every time i go out to eat. with so many restaurants to choose from, you'd think i'd have a bountiful supply of choices...but really, people, what do we do when faced with indecision? that's right, we go with the familiar. and every time i do, i always wonder briefly what food adventure i'm missing out on.
Fraîche, since it's opened, has been one of those potential adventures. so it was with great anticipation that i made plans with Ms. Jen to finally try this restaurant that has been getting swooned over by critics and regular eaters alike...and then found myself making plans to go again a week later with 2 girlfriends who both wanted to go there. i figured this was a good thing: more menu sampling would be possible.
so, the nutshell reviews: Trip Number One. Ms. Jen & i had reservations, and were seated immediately. tables are close enough so that you can easily eavesdrop on the ones beside you if your own dinner date isn't that interesting. had a decent red wine and an order of the lamb spezzatino. Ms. Jen enjoyed the steak & frites. the food was...good. it wasn't anything super spectacular, and i failed to taste anything other than yummy lamb stew. that's fine, but for all the hype & the prices, i was hoping for a surprise tingle of the tongue; something to distinguish this dish from one i might make myself at home, or an unexpected or especially memorable flavour to emerge. Ms. Jen's steak had the same quality: completely good and delicious but nothing memorable.
now, i am not a foodie. i am not a gastroperson. i am a small girl of modest means who loves to eat and does so with great energy and pleasure. i associate good food with good company and love it when i get a food buzz -- when a meal just blossoms with flavour intensity or quality so that the next day you remember it and have a Pavlovian response. while Fraîche was a lovely restaurant, it did not provide that buzz. and due to the modest means of which i mentioned, when those sorts of prices are charged and that sort of difficulty in getting a reservation is involved -- my expectations will indeed rise.
Ms. Jen wisely pointed out that i would have another chance in a week to see if our *eh* reaction was a fluke, or would be repeated. i admit i really, really, really hoped it was a fluke. after all, i can walk to Fraîche.
so Trip Number Two. two nights ago, as you may recall, was a downpour. we had no reservations and were hoping that between the very Not Angeleno Friendly Rain and the weeknight, we'd be able to get a table. upon arrival we were told that yes, we could get a table in about 15-20 minutes. let's just say that about 70 minutes later, we were seated, and that after an ordeal ordering a glass of wine from very snotty bar staff. ah well, the price of eating at an "it" restaurant in L.A., we think. this time around i had the monkfish, which came in a delicious sauce with spinach. i also tried the roasted corn soup that one of my friends ordered. and while i did enjoy the meal, i again had the total *eh* reaction: there wasn't a whole lot of interest or subtlety to the foods i ate. maybe it was the rain, maybe it was being tired, but honestly -- i felt rather depressed going home. it was as if i'd finally gotten to meet a good friend's new wonderful/smart/funny boyfriend that she's so excited about, and all he did was drink cheap beer, tell poopookakafart jokes, and not know who Vladimir Putin is. does this make him a bad person? no. but not very sparkly or special.
so does the *eh* factor make Fraîche a bad restaurant? not by a long shot. but not very sparkly or special.

Fraîche

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:00:32 -0800

Fraîche is the new over-hyped, over-buzzed and over-priced for what one gets restaurant in Culver City. The food, wine, and service is good, but at the prices that Fraîche is charging, the food and wine should be more than just good. Fraîche bills itself and the reviews bill it as a fine-dining wine bar, it is neither.

Fraîche's food is decent heavy-protein-starch-very-little-vegetables comfort food and the wines by the glass are wildly overpriced for the bad selection of whiles (of the 5 whites, only the Babcock Chardonnay was decent) and an ok selection of 5 reds. For a place that is being reviewed as Culver City's best new fine dining and wine bar, it is not as the selection of wine's by the glass is poor, but barely decent or adequate for a restaurant of its stature. Do they think Los Angeles is London, to over-charge for bad to decent wine by the glass?

To earn the name, a wine bar should have at least 10 wines of white and red available by the glass and 5 of each should surprise you. The joy of a wine bar is not in buying a bottle of wine, but trying at least 2 different glasses of wine that you would not otherwise buy or try. A.O.C. delivers on this score, with over 15-20 wines each by the glass in red and white varieties, of which at least half can't be found out and about.

The interior at Fraîche is fine and lovely. The server that I and the Happy Tastebud's hadashi had on Monday evening was good, nice, and attentive. But the party of four on one side did not have such a happy experience with their server who ignored their table.

As for the food, it was good but not great nor delightful. I was hoping that Monday night was owner-chef, Jason Travi's night off and that the food's heaviness with no counterpoints were a result of an inexperienced kitchen staff reproducing his recipes. No such luck on Monday, as both Mr. Travi and his wife, Miho were in the open kitchen.

Did Fraîche know when the LA Times' critics were in the restaurant and they received extra attention? Or do we give credit the to the heavy starters and main dishes on Monday and on Tuesday, when hadashi encountered much the same with work colleagues, to a winter menu? I think not. Rather than buzz, Ford's Filling Station, Culver City's 'gastropub' which is a block or two down from Fraîche, serves delightful comfort food at the same price range.

A.O.C. is a full orchestra. Ford's Filling Station is a good three chord rock song with fast and slow bits as well as tart counterpoints. Fraîche is a single middle C note held for many measures.

If you find yourself in Culver City in need of a delightful meal and glass of wine, ignore the Fraîche's buzz, and walk down the street to Ford's for a meal that is worth the price.

Bacon Blogging

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:26:56 -0800

Various folks had a day of bacon blogging yesterday, I have been having a whole week of bacon. Right now my Mom and I are on holiday in Ireland and England. Due to my food allergies (no diary, eggs, or tomatos) and gluten-free world a full Irish or English breakfast is out of the question, so I have been eating rice bread toast and bacon every morning at various B&Bs.

Since, I <3 the pig, this is good.

Friday Food Fun

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:13:59 -0800

1) A few new food blogs that I have run across this week or two:
   Just Bento | meal in a box
   Chocolate & Zucchini : Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen
   lobstersquad : A Food Blog with Drawings
   The Sensitive Baker Blog
   CeliacChicks

2) The LA Times food section is recommending Osteria Mozza this week in its restaurant review, particularly the mozzarella bar. It sounds very intriguing.

3) Regardless what cranky commenters at Yelp may say, What's Wharf continues its reign as my favorite local restaurant and one of my top 10 of all time. I have always liked that Walt's serves good seafood and has a wait staff that is willing to help you find something on the menu that will work with one's food allergies. I first found Walt's while still in high school on the recommendation of my allergy doctor who said that they are one of the best restaurants in SoCal for catering to folks with food allergies.

Sometime this spring, Walt's brought on a new executive chef, Christopher Krajacic, who has been revitalizing the menu and rotating in new dishes, as well as adding a Chef's Tasting Menu, all the while keeping old favorites on the menu. Last week when I took my sister Allison to her "Last (gluten-full) Meal" at Walt's, I had a chance to talk to the Christopher the Chef about his additions to the menu and thank him for keeping the menu friendly for folks who multiple food allergies. He told me that in a previous job he was a caterer for the San Diego Celiac's Society.

Well, Christopher, bring on a gluten-free tasting menu!

tv crew with happy tastebuds

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:11:33 -0800

i just had one of the best crew meals ever...
last night we shot at a place in Koreatown called "Aroma Spa & Sports." it's a multi-story building with a spa (of course), multiple mall-style shops, salons, and restaurants, and the craziest yet most brilliant golf facility ever. some genius thought, "hey! if i chop off the side of the building and put a net over the parking garage, i could have a multi-story driving range!" (photos here.)
anyway, since we were shooting at the driving range, our (Asian) executive producer decided it would be easier if we all just got petty cash to eat at the downstairs food court, and the (Asian) director agreed. at first, there was a muted outcry from a few (non-Asian) crew, but the longtime (any ethnicity) Los Angeles dwellers/eaters quickly shepherded them through the delicious Korean food choices, and soon everyone was sitting down to pure deliciousness.
it was somehow a very joyous experience to look around and see all these people eating things they'd never heard of before -- hot and spicy tofu soup, various incarnations of bi bim bap (vegetables & meat layered over rice with a red sauce), all sorts of noodles, and of course, their discovery of the yumminess that is banchan (a particularly fabulous feature of Korean cuisine, which basically is little dishes of stuff -- pickles, kim chee, potato salad, onion cakes, fish cake, glass noodles, etc.) i had a scrumptious bowl of dol sot bi bim bap, which means it came in a hot stone bowl which literally grills the rice to a crusty gloriousness.
since this was all on petty cash (i.e., the production manager hands you cash, and you use it or lose it), everyone also had frozen yogurt with red beans or boba tea for dessert. more slurping hilarity ensued.
it was no accident that everyone was in unusually good moods the rest of the evening and we actually wrapped early, we were so efficient. it was gratifying to see that so many people were quite pleased with themselves for going out of their comfort zones and getting another stamp in the food passport.

London Italian Restaurants

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:23:44 -0800

Why is it if an Italian restaurant in London is authentic and tasty it is also a BIG BIG BIG ripoff?

Several times in the last few times I have visited London each of the Italian restaurants I have eaten at have had numerous extra and hidden charges in the bill that can't be reversed and the waiter claims it was stated on menu.

Tonight, I had a lovely risotto and glass of wine for nearly $50 USD after it was all said and done... WHAT!?!? Table fee, £2 extra on the risotto for God only knows why, and an undefined £3, plus 12.5% mandatory gratuity. It was not worth it. Good, but not that good.

I would tell you to avoid L'Accento on the Bayswater / Notting Hill border, but they are not the only ones. There was the Italian with the $45 tuna last year ($18 before bullshit charges) in the Pimlico/Chelsea area last year. And then...

Basically, unless it is cheap pizza, just say no to Italian in London as many of the authentic restaurants seem to be also cheating the customer. No need to be ripped off with extra charges when you can make a good risotto at home.

der Fischfest

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:28:33 -0800

not counting Bobo's Stunning Bluefish, a dish that was the specialty of my Chinese grandmother, this is one of the best pieces of random fish i have ever eaten. okay, since her bluefish wasn't random, i'll say this was the best piece of random fish bought from a food stand i have ever eaten.
in America, firefighters have pancake breakfasts as fundraisers. (why, by the way?) but in Germany, they have "fishfests." it's a grand old time -- all the firetrucks get pulled out in front, and they give kids rides. big tents go up, and long tables with benches are set up. it's a state-fair type atmosphere, with plenty of beer available. the fish is all extremely fresh, and you pay by weight. there are lots of demonstrations and activities for the kids, and of course this involves setting loads of things on fire, so the firemen can demonstrate their firefighting gear. Germans love setting loads of things on fire, i think.
in any case, you get your grilled or lightly-battered whole fish wrapped in paper, a cone of chips, a tall glass of something, and have at it. no utensils except for a small wooden pronged thing that is utterly useless in the end. no worries, since you WANT to lick your fingers...

Friday Food Fun

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:24:31 -0800

101 Cookbooks on Chocolate Coconut Pudding (dairy free!)

Elise at Simply Recipes on The Meat We Eat. Excellent post / photo blog on sustainable free range pigs on the Willis Farm in Iowa. I love the photo, midway down, of the mama pig and her piglets walking through the grass.

Something in Season on How to Make Gluten Free Biscotti, Part I

Making Tomato Cubes

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 10:31:12 -0800

Ms. Jen's steps for what to do with all those gorgeous late summer tomatoes that you were tempted into buying at the store or farmer's market OR a friend with a garden foisted off on to you... Make tomato cubes for later use when you need a burst of summer tomato-y goodness in a dish you are cooking. Easy steps to fresh tomato paste cubes: 1) Obtain kick ass tasty tomatoes. Wash 'em. Dry em'. 2) Put a big pot of water to boil. Drop tomatoes in, watch, after minute or two the skins should be split. Use any number of kitchen implements to pull the tomatoes out of the pot and into a strainer without burning yourself. While wearing kitchen gloves, see part above about not burning yourself, peel off the skins of the tomatoes. Put in bowl or another pot. 3) When all of the tomatoes are nekkid and skinless, you have two choices: Tomato Rustica: pop all of the skinless tomatoes in a big pot to fit, chop 'em up a bit with a wooden spoon or paddle, and simmer, stirring occasionally so they don't stick or burn on a low burner, until the tomatoes have reduced to thick paste. Simmering may take up to 3-4 hours. OR Tomato Sauce: wait for skinned tomatoes to cool. Slice in half. Scoop out the seeds, leave interior walls and other non-seed flesh. Chop up. Put in pot on a low burner, simmer until the tomatoes have reduced to a thick paste. Stir as needed. Simmering may take up to 3-4 hours. 4) Cool paste. Pour paste into a clean ice cube tray. Put in freezer. Freeze until frozen through. 5) Release frozen tomato cubes and store in a zipped freezer bag. Put back into freezer until you need some good fresh homemade tomato pastes for a sauce, stew, or soup when all the tomatoes in the store are winter dull. Pull out a cube or two and cook it up. Happily use until bag is empty. 6) Repeat Steps 1 through 5 next August or Sept.