Archive for the ‘food’ Tag
In a way I’d love to frequent a place often enough that I’d be known, if not by name, perhaps by where I liked to sit or what I ordered. Colman Andrews recounts the numerous places around the world where this is the norm for his dining experiences. In My Usual Table: A life in Restaurants, Andrews shares his earliest recollections as a child dining in many of the landmark eating establishments in the Los Angeles area. As a kid he, with his family, was a regular at Chasen’s, the Brown Derby and Musso & Frank Grill (only the latter remains today).
Where does one go from there? Apparently, everywhere. Andrews grew up to be a wine connoisseur, dining critic and co-founder of Saveur magazine. He’s also authored several cookbooks.
My Usual Table is an eat and tell memoir with casual and not-so-casual name dropping: Wolfgang Puck, Ruth Reichl, Alice Waters, among others. Some meals are described vividly, some barely mentioned while he focuses on those associated with the meals. What’s most fun is following Andrews’ time line, which precedes, for example, the farm-to-table concept to the present.
Andrews is a fine story teller, but his voice begins to wear thin about 2/3 through. It’s difficult consuming and digesting such rich, often heavy fare for too long. I enjoy dining out, but there’s nothing like a home cooked meal or an occasional burger for basic sustenance. I’m happy, afterall, to have my usual table be in my own dining room.
My Usual Table: My Life in Restaurants
Three-and-a-half Bookmarks
Ecco, 2014
311 pages
Eat Your Words by Charlotte Foltz Jones (and illustrated by John O’Brien) is an entertaining look at the evolution of idioms associated with food. Although written as a children’s book, this should appeal to anyone with an interest in sustenance and words. It has nothing to do with nutrition and diets.
Foltz’s conversational, easy-to-read history of food and the language associated with it is immediately engaging because of its emphasis on fun. She shares how certain dishes or snacks came to exist. I suspect we all know about sandwiches and their debt to the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, but new to me, at least, is Sylvester Graham and his role in the cracker that bears his name.
Fun, often obscure, facts related to food are shared, including a section on what Foltz justifiably identifies as “silly food laws.” Who knew that in Lexington, Ky., for example, that “it is against the law to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket”? Of course, the larger question is who would want to? Food-related events are also listed, including the Berrien Springs, Mich., annual Christmas Pickle Festival. This suggests mistletoe isn’t the only reason to pucker up.
The book is written in an amusing tone, but it also contains interesting facts associated with the foods we consume every day. Get the book for a kid, but be sure to read it, too.
Eat Your Words
Four Bookmarks
Delacorte Press, 1999
85 pages including bibliography
I’m not Italian, but that’s my go-to comfort food and pasta tops the list. At Terroni in downtown Los Angeles, the pasta is made fresh daily on site. There’s little else that can offer such solace when it comes to food.
Terroni is located in a cavernous space that once housed a bank. The ceiling seems to reach several stories. Sculptures hang overhead, a boar’s head and art adorn the wall, the open kitchen surges with activity and the dining room is very contemporary given the historic roots of the building.
Bread is brought to the table in a brown paper bag. It’s old world and clever at the same time. Plus, the bread is soft with a chewy crust. We start with Arancini di Modica. The spin on these rice balls, besides the artful way they’re plated, is the cheese and hearty ragu. There are three of us and four arancini. We’re polite about it, but wish we didn’t have to share the fourth.
I order Maccheroncini Geppetto, which was difficult to say, but easy to eat. The rigatoni-like pasta was suffused with a tomato-based sauce featuring homemade sausage, garlic and fontina. The sausage had a nice spice kick easily absorbed by the pasta. I tasted the Spaghetti al Limone, which was like a lemon grove. Olive oil and parmigiano were part of the mix, but lemon was the overwhelming essence.
The restaurant is beautiful and likely to be noisy when busy; fortunately, it wasn’t on our visit. I enjoy good conversation with my comfort food.
Terroni Downtown
Four Plates
802 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles
Bread & Butter is bound to appeal to foodies. Author Michelle Wildgen combines her talents as a writer with her past restaurant experience to tell the story of three brothers with two competing eateries in their hometown.
Leo and Britt have been running Winesap, their fashionable restaurant for more than a decade. When their younger brother, Harry, returns home they find it difficult to be enthusiastic about his plans to open another upscale establishment in a weak economy. Yet, it’s not just the competition that has the older two apprehensive. Harry has bounced around from educational pursuits to various jobs in the years since he’s been gone. Leo and Britt are certain Harry lacks the stamina, knowledge and commitment to run a successful business. They see him as a neophyte, and Harry, who wants their support, is driven to prove them wrong.
Wildgen has created likeable, sometimes exasperating, characters whose voices and situations ring true. Eventually, Britt signs on as Harry’s partner while maintaining his front-of-house role at Winesap. Tensions mount as expectations, many unfounded, lead to several surprises when Harry’s place opens for business.
Descriptions of food, prepping for dinner service and the relationships among the employees (and owners) are vivid and realistic.
Ultimately, the siblings have credible culinary chops; they also have difficulty relinquishing family issues precipitated by birth order. This tends to bog things down a bit. Wildgen emphasizes that sometimes family members are often seen as what we want them to be, rather than who they truly are.
Bread & Butter
Three-and-a-half Bookmarks
Doubleday, 2014
314 pages
Bacon. It’s one of those foods that evoke smiles and salivation no matter when it’s served. Bacon Nation by Peter Laminsky and Marie Rama illustrates that bacon isn’t just for breakfast – as if.
In addition to 125 recipes, from the obvious Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp to the creative Bacon Jam – and that’s just among the appetizers, side dishes, salads, desserts, even poultry, featuring the favored pork product are included.
Last Christmas a friend shared her recipe for what she called “Bacon Crack” due to its addictive qualities. It featured a sweet and savory rub. Bacon Nation doesn’t contain this particular tasty treat, but has several others in the same category, such as Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies. Although not as sinful as Bacon Crack, they are easy to eat.
As with most well-executed cookbooks, Laminsky and Rama don’t rely on recipes alone, even though they could. The authors’ first chapter is dedicated to tips for purchasing and cooking bacon. They recommend thick cut for most of the recipes, and explain the difference between dry and wet cured. The former is rubbed with salt (often pepper, occasionally salt;) and the latter is brined.
Each section, or chapter, features a brief prologue, and individual recipes are accompanied by an also-brief introduction. These range from explanations of how the recipes came about or what was done to modify them for the home cook.
Chapter 12, by the way, is entitled “Breakfast Means Bacon.” Since it comes near the end, I really don’t believe the authors/chefs.
Bacon Nation
Four Bookmarks
Workman Publishing, 2013
310 pages, including photos and index
Bouchon Bistro used to only offer fried chicken dinners once a month. Reservations filled within minutes; sometimes it felt like having one wrong lottery number. Now the odds are a little better: the crispy fried chicken in Thomas Keller’s restaurant is served twice monthly.
Although, the regular menu is available, I have to wonder why anyone would consider it. The sides, aren’t always the same, but by all accounts the chicken has a consistently high wow factor. Recently, the meal included fork-crushed potatoes, pole bean salad and Parker House rolls. The chicken is the star of the night. Plump from soaking in a lemon/herb brine for more than 12 hours, it’s deep-fried for a coating that shatters as soon as it meets your lips.
(Keller has numerous dining establishments. He’s authored several cookbooks, including Ad Hoc at Home featuring the fried chicken recipe. The description of the process and lengthy list of ingredients intrigued me, so last winter I tried it. It was good to know that, with fortitude and lots of time, the chicken can be made at home very close to what Bouchon serves. Keller also edits Finesse, a beautifully-designed magazine with articles celebrating the beauty of kitchens: design, cooking, gadgets and techniques.)
Back to that chicken, it’s juicy on the inside and crunchy on the outside for the perfect combination of texture and taste: buttermilk, rosemary and thyme. The bean salad in bacon vinaigrette, although flavorful, wasn’t as stellar as the creamy potatoes and rolls; even with a chicken-only meal I’d feel like a winner.
Bouchon Bistro
Five Plates
235 North Canon Dr.
Beverly Hills, Calif.
Food trucks are an interesting phenomenon. They have a very different persona from other dining venues. After all, the cooking takes place in hot, cramped quarters – on wheels, which means they could be gone tomorrow. However, downtown Colorado Springs has a food truck court thanks to Curbside Cuisine in the paved area of a one-time gas station. On any given day, between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 8 p.m., made-to-order food is being served.
While perusing the menus of the various trucks (whose offerings on our recent visit included pizzas, wraps, crepes and the two we selected: Creole Kitchen and Maco’s Tacos), a woman walking away from the former, said, “The Shrimp Po’boy is to die for.” It had already caught my eye. There was further affirmation when I ordered: “That’s my best seller,” said the owner. And with good reason. Tender, lightly-breaded shrimp fried so quickly there’s no hint of oil, sit on a roll slathered with tangy remoulade loaded with lettuce and tomatoes. It could be habit forming.
The tacos were less impressive, although they’re a bargain at four for $5. The chicken was subtly seasoned, as was the pork, but both were overpowered by an abundance of diced onion and fresh cilantro – fortunately, I like those flavors. Burritos and tamales are other options at Maco’s.
The beauty of Curbside Cuisine is that the trucks are likely to consistently be in the same spot. Although, I’d follow Creole Kitchen almost anywhere.
Curbside Cuisine
Four Plates
225 N. Nevada Ave.
(Southeast corner of Nevada and Platte avenues)
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Aimee Bender’s second novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, is quirky but glum. The premise follows Rose, the young narrator, and her ability to discern people’s emotions through the food they prepare. This is in stark contrast to the concept that cooking and eating meals are meant to be enjoyed and shared. Poor Rose must develop a strategy to avoid knowing more than she cares or wants, but, of course, she also has to eat.
It doesn’t help that Rose’s family is on the eccentric side to begin with. Lane, her mother, is flighty. And, as Rose deduces from her mother’s cooking, Lane is also very unhappy. Rose’s father is distant and professional. Her brother, Joe, is a genius void of social skills, with an enigma of his own. Despite the food affliction, Rose is pretty much the clan’s anchor with Joe’s friend, George.
Bender deftly portrays the efforts young Rose endures to, at first, keep her disorder a secret and, eventually, live with it. Rose is wise and perceptive; she is smart enough not to reveal too much. Although there are a few light moments, it’s more than a slice of cake that’s particularly sad. Rose and most everyone around her are all woefully unhappy.
The story’s saving grace is Bender’s writing which blends melancholy with the bizarre, while throwing sensitivity and a bit of wry humor into the mix. She’s also excellent at describing a Los Angeles neighborhood that doesn’t rely on tired landmarks.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Three-and-and-half Bookmarks
Doubleday, 2010
292 pages
It’s been a while since I’ve written about dinner The Margarita at Pine Creek, one of my all-time favorite restaurants. Recently, I was there for lunch, when the choices are fewer and lighter, just right for a summer day. (Dinners are served as three or five course options.) Some things such as service, ambiance and the food are remarkable no matter when you’re there.
A good friend suggested it as the place to celebrate my birthday. He is an accomplished chef and connoisseur of fine foods. I am always happy to dine with him, not just for his good company, but also to get his take on the cuisine.
The lunch menu is strong on salads, with a few other selections, but I was immediately drawn to the Sesame Chicken Salad. My host was torn between that and the Duck Confit Salad, so he asked to substitute the duck for the chicken. Even though I was very pleased with my choice, I almost wish I had done the same.
A small loaf of fresh whole wheat bread with a ramekin of pimento cheese arrived at the table. Pimento-spimento you might say. Go ahead because then I could have the creamy, slightly tangy red-flecked spread all to myself.
The salads were large and overloaded with ingredients to augment the greens and roasted chicken/duck confit: fresh vegetables and a lightly-flavored sesame dressing.
A pecan crumb topping coffee cake was served as dessert. Although it was very good, it’s better suited to breakfast or brunch, something I’ll look forward to.
The Margarita at Pine Creek
Four-and-a-half Plates
7350 Pine Creek Rd.
Colorado Springs, CO
Beginning as a small outlet for seasonings, Garden of the Gods Gourmet has a long local history. It’s evolved as a local catering favorite and as a place to purchase upscale meals-to-go. Also, it has emerged as small, out-of-the-way lunch, and occasional dinner, spot. That latter point is precipitating an upcoming move to a larger, more visible location.
Sometime this fall, according to the market manager, it will relocate to the corner of U.S. Highway 24 and 26th Street. That will allow for longer business hours for the catering side and a bigger restaurant space. The new site should also include better ventilation.
Although it was a hot day on a recent visit, the limited shade in the patio area was far more comfortable than the stifling temperature inside. Fortunately, the soup of the day was a cold, refreshing roasted red pepper and corn which highlighted each ingredient. Along with a cup of soup, I had half of the Beef Banh Mi. Traditionally served with thinly-sliced pork, this roast beef version also featured pickled carrots, cucumbers, radishes and fresh cilantro on a baguette baked in-house. Because of the heat, and the inability to resist, we ordered the raspberry-lemon gelato. Neither flavor overwhelmed the other.
Garden of the Gods has successfully managed to remain a catering, epicurean market and restaurant with a cohesiveness that doesn’t make it feel like an establishment with multiple personalities. Its new locale is likely to better showcase its strengths.
Garden of the Gods Gourmet Café and Market
Four Plates
2528 W. Cucharras Ave.
Colorado Springs, Colo.
The Blue Page Special 