valentines day dinner.

on valentines day, i made a dinner for sam, sara, vic and lisa.

on the menu, there was:

- lemon drop martinis
- tomato bruschetta
- garlic smashed potatoes
- mixed greens with a shallot vinegarette
- sauteed flank steak with arugula and roasted cauliflower and red peppers
- warm chocolate cake with a strawberry-mint sauce

it was all pretty delish.

a few things to remember from last time:
- real 100% lemon juice is different than the lemon juice that comes in the plastic lemons.
- bruschetta does not stay on bread.
- roasted cauliflower tastes WAAAAAY better than regular cauliflower
- why bother blending red peppers for a sauce when you can just eat them whole?
- warm chocolate cake made from epicurious is low fat / low calorie. but does not stay in one piece.
- strawberry mint sauce is delish

all in all a good meal. the kitchen was a wreck, but hey, by the end i was pretty tipsy....

i'd like to end this blog with a pic of sam handling my meat.

la creperie cafe.

last wednesday, i had a great dinner with bubs at la creperie cafe. of course, i was late, and got lost even WITH GPS in tow.

i finally arrived, and sat down to a lovely glass of wine. we started with bread, a french onion soup and a side salad. the french onion soup was FANTASTIC. so delicious.


for our entrees, bubba ordered the mussels with safron and fennel, which came with a side of fries. i ordered the steak frites salad, which was HARDLY a salad after including the dressing, steak, gorgonzola cheese and FRIES ON TOP. but omg, it was fantastic.

we ended the meal with a crepe topped with chocolate, and served with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. i pretty much devoured every part of this meal. it was fantastic.

8/10.

barcade and father's office.

after nobu the other night, me and asian mike met bubs, maurice and maurice's wife angelica met at Barcade. we got $20 in quarters and started at the games! my favorite was pacman. :) they sell beer and wine, cash bar only. a nice, chill place to start the night.

after Barcade, we headed over to Father's Office, which i LOOOOOOVED, especially for the wine on tap!!! i got a glass of pinot noir from the Melville winery in the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara. This pinot noir was a 2007 from the Vernas Vineyard. It was not too light, even for a pinot noir and had a nice ruby color and red fruit flavors and aromas.

The boys went all out and got some nice beers. They started with a Curieux beer, which was a tripel aged in burbon barrels for 8 weeks from the Allagash Brewing Company, located in Maine, CA. it had an alcohol content of 9.5-10.5% ABV and was served in a 750mL bottle.

Next the boys decided on a biere de Champagne, DeuS Brut des Flandres. It was a premium Belgium beer, and had an ABV of 11.5%.

All in all, great night. I gotta go back to FO for their burgers, which have been RAVED about by my friends. As i was leave, i especially appreciated the "thank you " sign placed below, as this is oftentimes a problem for me. :)

ohhh celebrities.

haha, i love the part of this article about michael phelps promoting subway. fantastic.

nobu!

sooooo, last saturday night, me and asian mike went to nobu. it was pretty freaking fantastic.

we arrived at nobu in los angeles at approximately 8:00pm. While the outside of the restaurant looked relatively boring, it was gorgeous as soon as you walked in the doors. the entrance led to the lounge and bar area, which was really nice, and i would be very interested in stopping by, even if just for a cocktail. we were seated immediately.

upon sitting, we ordered the edamame (to the left) and took a look at the drink menu. STILL not knowing very much about sake, we decided to order two small sake's:
- Hokusetsu onigoroshi, the "devil killer", a drier and sharper sake
- hokusetsu daiginjo, the original "nobu" sake - black label, which was much sweeter
we both decided we liked the "devil killer" more. i loved that it was the cheaper of the two!!! i was so glad we got to get both to compare...

after our edamame and sake was delivered, we received our first appetizer, which was a yellowtail sashimi topped with jalapeno! this is probably the first time i'd eaten a jalapeno in its full slice on anything, but i though i should experience the meal and dish in its entirety. it was spicy, but FANTASTIC!

next we had the lobster salad with a spicy lemon dressing. the lemon dressing WAS spicy, but it was super good too! the lobster was sooo juicy and delish, and i even ate the biiiiig mushrooms which were delicious.

for our two main dishes, we had nobu style wagyu beef and crab tacos. they were fantastic. i prefered the wagyu beef. then we had the blackened cod with a miso sauce. the cod melted in your mouth. it was fantastic.

we finally had a spicy tuna roll, and shitake mushrooms tempura (mikes choice) and sweet potato tempura (my choice).

for DESSERT. we had the most FANTASTIC "bento box" with included a warm flourless chocolate cake (which seemed almost like chocolate sauce in the middle), green tea ice cream (which complimented the rich chocolate) and a sesame crunch cookie. it was the perfect way to end such a fantastic meal.


the service throughout the meal was great. very quick, attentive and very polite and knowledgable.

we left full. satisfied. but both commented on how it was VERY nice to have our meal in smaller portions, as neither of us felt "stuffed" at all. mike's favorite was the lobster salad. i couldn't decide at all what mine was. it was all fantastic.

8.5-9/10.

nobu prep!

sooooo, in preparation for NOBU tonight (!!!), i am doing some sake research. so far, i've learned about pure vs. non pure (alcohol added) sake. pure sake contains four ingredients. sake rice, water, yeast and koji mold. also, sake is classified by sake rice milling percentage, which determines how much of the rice has been "polished" away. this leaves either 70%, 60% or 50% of the original rice is left.

in my research, i've found wine spectator's sake guide, which is really fantastic, however pretty restricted without a password. also vine connections has a great guide to sake.

chicken, roasted red peppers and artichoke pasta.

after failing to find a roasted red pepper cream sauce (which kristina probably wouldn't want anyways, with the inevitable heavy cream and fat content), i decided to just make a simple spaghetti sauce.

i began by sauteeing an onion and 5 cloves of garlic. after they were nicely browned, i threw in two cans of diced tomatoes, artichoke hearts, sliced sweet plum tomatoes, roasted red peppers (which i roasted myself!), herbs and chicken. i simmered it down for about 30 minutes on a medium heat and then threw it over some spaghetti noodles.

the end result was pretty delish! i loved the vegetables in there, and the artichoke gave it a nice touch of saltiness.

and yes. i'm thinking i'm definitely going to need some canteloop tonight. anyone game??
mmm.

until tomorrow night!

napa rose.

on friday, i went out to get a few drinks with one of my favorite boys. :) We went to "Napa Rose" inside the grand californian hotel at disneyland.

we shared an appetizer of "Sautéed Hand Harvested Diver Scallops with a Sauce of Lemon and Lobster, accented with Tahitian Vanilla", which was priced at $17. as someone who isn't particularly fond of scallops, i thought it was VERY good. i especially liked the lemon and lobster sauce, which i enjoyed by sopping up the thick broth in bread, scooping a little lobster on the slice with each bite.

for my wine, i started with a 2006 Verve Negroamaro, made from 100% negroamaro di salento grape. i was unsure where the italian region specified on the menu was (apulia), until i checked online and realized that "apulia" was just english for the puglia region of italy (located in the "heel" of italy). it was an IGT wine, which doesn't meet the stricter DOC or DOCG italian wine standards. regardless, at $14.75/glass, it was a nice wine. well balanced, not too fruit forward, and went well with the heavier lobster cream sauce.

my second glass was a 2004 tempranillo by (ugh) clos du bois from alexander valley. i usually would NOT order a clos du bois wine from a wine list, but it was the only tempranillo on the list and it was only $9.50/glass, haha. not terribly exciting, but not horrible. it definitely was more acidic than the first wine, but that was to be expected, i suppose.

all in all, napa rose was a nice restaurant. it limited the disgustingly gross "overly-happy" staff that usually frequents all of disneyland. the service was prompt and the presentation was nice. the wine list was long, and impressive (it has made wine spectators wine list in the past). parking wasn't even horrible, considering where i was, and was free for the first 3 hours. overall a nice experience. :)

menu generator!

SO, upon trying to find a nice roasted red pepper spaghetti sauce for tonight, i found this, which i LOVE so far. haha. my first run through, i got the "light african dinner". maybe i'll try it out.