Friday, June 25, 2004

Olives

For my birthday a friend took me to Olives. The bonus was that she knows the pastry chef there. So for dessert we got the hook up.

For appetizers, she had the crab cake special. The meat was tender and flakey, without being overly oily. It was fantastic and the best crab cake I've ever tasted. I opted for a shaved artichoke salad over a risotto cake. Unfortunately, cheese permeated the entire dish, overpowering the artichoke. The risotto cake was also somewhat hard and dry.

Moving on, my friend ordered a Mediterranean sea bass with lobster vinaigrette. The bass was prepared simply, with salt rubbed on the skin, the lobster was buttery. While the fish was uninspiring, the lobster was good.

I ordered the crispy Long Island duck with chorizo basmati, golden raisin glaze and eggplant puree. The meat was perfectly cooked, the texture was perfect, and the duck very flavorful.

Then it was time for dessert. The pasty chef sent out four. By far the best was the selection of seasonal soberts. Lemon and mango sorbets sat on crisp wafers floating on a pool of tapioca. The sorbets were incredibly refreshing, the fruit ripe on the tongue. Next was the warm chocolate pudding cake. The chocolate pudding was thick and bitter and rich. The warm cake stood in the center, a dollop of chocolate ice cream melting upon its surface. Three bites and I was full.

The caramelized banana bread proved surprisingly light and flakey, rather than dense. The bread was sandwiched between layers of crisp dough. Butter pecan ice cream melted on the side above banana fritters.

Last on the list was the peanut butter molten cake, which came with milk chocolate ice cream and delicious ice milk. The latter was set on top of a thin chocolate wafer supported by chocolate peanut butter columns. The cake was good, but the mixture of peanut butter and chocolate soon proved a little too much. It ended up last on our list, but only because the other desserts were so incredibly fantastic. I'm not eating dessert for at least two weeks.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Nana

If you ever find yourself in Park Slope looking for some good food Asian food, you need look no further than Nana on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn. The interior of the restaurant stretches back towards an outdoor garden (note the neat light fixture by the open kitchen; and while we're on the subject of furnishings, the lobby of the bathroom has a neat southeast Asia guesthouse quality to it). The outdoor patio sports plastic folding chairs in bright neon colors while the sound system played a mix of Brazilian influenced electroncia and Enya-inspired mood music. In the evenings and on weekends a live DJ brings a club-like atmosphere to the restaurant.

A friend was taking me out to dinner to thank me for watching her cats. We were seated outside by a squeaky fountain. For appetizers we had a spicy deep fried squid that was very tasty and edamame, which was slightly undercooked. For dinner we shared a sushi/sashimi platter. The fish was incredibly fresh and flavorful. I'll go out on a limb and say it was some of the best I have had. The fish practically melted on our tongues. After dinner we walked around Fifth avenue before returning for dessert. Our waitress was surprised to see us again. The deep fried ice cream was good, the fried banana over green tea ice cream was just ok. The flip side of the menu offers cooked entrees, which I didn't have the opportunity to sample this time around. But I'll definitely be back to try the other menu options in order to supply an update to this entry.

And if I'm a member of this blog now I definitely have to get a digital camera to take pictures of the food and settings. Does anyone have a cheap digital camera they're planning on throwing away that they want to send me? :-) Unfortunately I couldn't invite any of you to come with me on the last few culinary excursions.

Shik Do Rak

b4 i left for taiwan, we had a mini get together... at 1 place we like for it's inexpensive and unique korean bbq.... yummy, followed by starbux. thnx everyone for coming down to OC. i've bn wanting to go back ther for some yummy food and soju.
we ordered set combo 5, so it came with all kinds of beef and some mushrooms, and 3 bowls of cold noodles in the end which was a nice change of palette. the best part of it i think is the wrap (noodle wrap?) and salad tht goes around the meat, so it's not just all meat... and it isn't marinated like the usual korea bbq, u dip the meat in a sea salt/sesame oil mixture or the typical spicy red sauce...
SHIK DO RAK has 2 locations, original is in LA, on Olympic (divy tho)
and the 1 i prefer is in Garden Grove, on Garden Grove blvd and Galway.


waiting...

isn't it yummy?

time to eat!!!!

thnx to shirleen's starbux radar, found starbux! here's shirls and denny boy!

jimmy chou chou & kelley!

myself, chou chou and kel...

g'nite time to go! another great evening of food and friends hanging out...

Saturday, June 19, 2004

zinc cafe & market (vegetarian)

i chanced upon zinc cafe last summer in laguna beach, taking my mom ther, not realizing it's vegetarian cafe. wht attracted me first was how cute it looked and felt like. dat day tho, maybe i was worried about my mom's not liking the food tht i didn't really get a chance to really enjoy my own meal. then a few weeks ago, as my brother n i were driving around looking for a place to eat in newport area, i was attracted by it's simple cuteness again, not realizing it's the same place. we wnt there for lunch n coffee. yummy!!!!! had the lunch special.
wnt ther again today and it's still yummy. it's healthy n tasty.
so if u'r ever down in the area n need a place to eat, i'd say this is cool. i guess all 3 locations r near the beach. i hardly ever get to find yummy vegetarian places tht i really like, this is one for sure tho.

Monday, June 14, 2004

first post...

well, this past thursday, we had our dining club outting hosted by Jimmy at Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock
(i don't hv the card for the address n number anymore...anyone?)
ther's a little wait, but well worth it.
lots of cheeze, something to indulge in once in a while. the salads were great too. and thnx to jimmy for also bringing wine to share (was dat a bribe for the grand vote? hmmmm....)
we all forgot our cameras, but thnx to kel's fone, here's something



and backtracking a little, also from kel's fone, we hv a few pictures from the mansion picnic dennyboy had set up for us...