Things I've never tried before 2

Korean olive leaf tea (made from olive leaves harvested in Australia).

I found this in the pantry at work, where people leave stuff that they no longer want. It hurts my heart to see tea abandoned like this, so I took the orphan home to give it a try. This is loose-leaf tea, so there's no way to prepare it at work anyway. And lo and behold - I like it! It's a little on the bitter side so I can understand why most people won't enjoy it, but I for one don't like sweet or sweetened teas, so this is perfect. Plus it's supposed to have a bunch of health benefits, natural antibiotic properties etc - a total keeper!

Siam Chan

Siam Chan is the little hole-in-the-wall Thai place across the street from the Royal Theater on Santa Monica Blvd. We hadn't been there in ages, and were mighty surprised to find that they have changed their menu to include a whole bunch of Chinese dishes, such as this super-sized egg flower soup.

pad thai

oily eggplant

today's special: the crispy trout with apple salad. Thai apple salad is a fabulous idea - it's basically green papaya salad with apples instead, and it works great. Very tasty. Not so sure about that overbreaded trout, but it was worth a try. Coming to think of it, I haven't really been lucky ordering trout as far back as I can remember. Why do I keep trying?

I guess there is no word in Thai for trout?

only in LA: a bilingual fortune cookie...

Things I've never tried before...

apricot kernels ("the poor man's almonds") and dried pomelo - yum!

Alternative title for this post:
Things I'll miss about LA: Trader Joe's

Banana Cream Pie

Ritesh was watching the Food Network the other day (when we still had the TV connected due to the inauguration - it has meanwhile been unplugged), and on one show people were talking about some of the best things they had eaten in their lives, ever, anywhere. And one guy mentioned as the best thing he'd ever eaten in his entire life the banana cream pie at a place called Bandera right here on Wilshire, three blocks from our house.

Now you have to understand that Ritesh loves loves LOVES banana cream pie, and that he has been cursed with a wife who'll bake him any variety of Germanoid chocolate-cherry cake including a full-blown Black Forest Cherry Cake from scratch, and who's made him banana bread and even banana oatmeal, but who's been singularly sheepish about the prospect of making a banana cream pie (I'll have to learn, I know, I promise I will). All this to say, the prospect of the world's best banana cream pie just around the corner triggered Ritesh's decade-long deprivation as well as my guilt over it and propelled us over to Bandera right the next day.

And here is is, the famed banana cream pie. Ho hum. Not bad. Really, it was perfectly respectable, apart from the fact that the custard wasn't banana flavored, which is the way Ritesh likes it. It was just a plain vanilla custard, and the only thing that made it a banana cream pie were the banana slices on top. My original peeve was that I thought they used whipped cream out of a spray can, which just doesn't taste as good as freshly whipped cream, but I have meanwhile had a couple of comments from someone who works at Bandera and insists it is indeed fresh whipped cream and not from a can. So take note that my impression may have been wrong.

We were a little disappointed at not being blown away, but that was a function of overblown expectations - it was really a very decent pie. What we couldn't get over, though, was that this was the best thing this food network guy had eaten in his entire life... I mean, come on! Not just the best banana cream pie but the best thing out of all foods, ever? What does this guy live on? Just goes to show, TV is full of crap.

an ok mojito, at Bandera.

Things I'll miss about LA...

Korean Taco Trucks - (Ritesh took this picture)

Countdown to Mumbai

4 weeks today!

Recession Lunching 2

An itsy-bitsy bite-size cupcake (chocolate-beet!) from BreadBar, for $1. Hey, Sprinkles cupcakes are $3.95 per piece, so this is great. Who can handle them giant cupcakes anyway...

Lucifer's & Scoop's

Last Sunday, we trekked over to Los Feliz for lunch at a notorious new pizza place, w/ Greg and Phinney. Notorious, if you must know, for their spicy sauce that goes by the ill-boding name of "ringburner". Ahem.

simple tossed salad w/ wild arugula to start

the peperoni ultimo w/ pineapple and arugula. So far so good. Really not that spicy.

the pumpkin pizza w/ spinach. Nice flavor, not spicy at all.

and the crowning glory of the menu: the stellar rosemary-lamb pizza w/ olives and feta - spicy in a flavorful kind of way, not outrageous or painful or anything. Made us fantasize about regular BYOT (bring your own topping) pizza nights. Should really follow through on that...

and dessert at Scoop's, which was conveniently located on the way home. Flavors today included chocolate guinness, coconut thai tea, pistachio cardamon, salty caramel, vanilla malt, the classic brown bread, and avocado pale ale sorbet, which we just sampled but didn't actually get because it was a little too beery

Recession Lunching

This salad is from the salad bar at the Courtyard Cafe in the Century City mall, and it costs exactly half of what I would spend on a salad from Mrs. Winston's. I've eaten there about five or six times already this year, so that's $30 saved - not bad. It's tasty, too, but the selection is pretty limited, so I'm basically getting the same thing every time. Plus most their salads are pre-mixed, with the dressings that must be major fat-bombs (Chinese chicken salad, Caesar salad, broccoli salad w/ bacon...). And it's not organic either. But hey, you can't argue with a $4.99 per pound salad bar...

Moles La Tia

There's this great place out in East LA that specializes in moles, not the burrowing mammal, but the thick and spicy Mexican sauce that is originally from Oaxaca. Moles can be made with any number of ingredients, chili probably being the only constant, but the most famous one must be the mole negro that is made with chocolate, which you can find at most decent (and not so decent) Mexican places around here. However, to get any variety of different moles, you have to trek out east.

Ritesh's best ever fresh horchata w/ jamaica and pumpkin seeds, and my cucumber-lime agua fresca

some pretty limes (Ritesh is forever asking for extras at any restaurant we go to, if it's not limes or roasted chilies, then it's onions or pepper or what have you. He always gets what he asks for, too. Hmm...there's a lesson in there somewhere. I never ask for anything, and guess what that gets me...)and here's the piece de resistance - the mole sampler platter: top left is a pistachio mole that goes with the salmon in the middle, top right is a passion fruit-sesame mole that goes with the veal, bottom right is the notorious mancha manteles (=tablecoth staining) mole poblano, the spiciest one on the menu, to be eaten with the pork, and bottom left my favorite, the velo de novia (=bridal veil), a white mole made w/ white chocolate, white wine and pine nuts, to be eaten with the halibut. Oh My God. This was amazing. Although it has to be said that it totally knocked us out and we had to take a long digestive nap afterwards...

Jan 20, 2009 - Inauguration Dinner

You'd think that to celebrate Obama's inauguration, we'd pick some proudly American restaurant. Or a Hawaiian BBQ joint. Or an Indonesian or even a Kenyan place - we have all of these here within reach, so we have no excuse. But lo and behold, we went for Japanese tapas at Sasaya instead - and the only justification I can put forward is that this is where we go for special occasions, like our anniversary last year and my promotion, and that it just felt appropriate. This reminds me of an article I read somewhere, the New Yorker, I think, about how untold numbers of Americans are putting Obama's picture up in their living room as though he was a family member - and that's kind of what it feels like, a little bit - one of us is moving up in the world - break out the sake!

Anway, we did buy a special bottle of shoju to commemorate the day - Sasaya keeps your bottle for you in a special glass cabinet, so you can come back whenever and have it there waiting for you...

miso soup

my favorite, which we get every time: agedashi mochi

nice little salad w/ a great sesame dressing

another favorite: toasted sting ray fins w/ a spicy mayo-based dipping sauce

Japanese eggplant

salmon escabeche

some veggie thing that was on the house - they were really happy to see Ritesh there again (he's the one who spends big on whole bottles of sake/soju...)

dessert: edamame mousse (sic!) w/ whipped cream, very nice

we signed and dated our bottle, so we can find it next time...

This may be a little lame...

... but I've officially given up on the new blog, which I just wasn't enjoying, and have decided to stop fretting over it and to just continue with this one, period. Phew. I'm relieved. I may not chronicle every single thing I eat every day (at least not until we get to Mumbai :) but will at least keep a record of some of the fun stuff. Below are a couple of posts I salvaged from the now-defunct new blog...

Greyhound

Michael, one of my lovely co-workers brought us some fresh ruby red grapefruit from his friend's tree in Palm Springs, along with a recipe for a greyhound - basically a shot of vodka w/ fresh squeezed and strained grapefruit juice. Didn't sound that great at first, but once we tried it we were hooked! We only had lychee infused vodka, so we used that, but it worked beautifully. The only quibble was that Michael suggested to salt the rim, which didn't work all that well flavorwise (salty graepfruit??). Sugaring it seems like the way to go here...

greyhound

Turmeric Latte

This is based on turmeric tea, an Indian home remedy for colds and sore throats that Ritesh's mom used to make for him when he was little. The basic version uses just milk and turmeric, but Ritesh added some more spices to round out the flavor. Turmeric has natural antibiotic properties, and it did help my sore throat right away, but you need a good amount of it for it to work. Thankfully, this is actually pretty tasty...

turmeric latte

1 cup of milk (dairy, hemp or soy, as long as it is not fat free - you need some fat in there for it to be palatable)

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 pod cardamom

2-3 cloves

a couple of pinches of cinnamon (to taste, really)

Heat the spices in a pot until they start releasing their scent. Then add the milk, stir well, heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Strain out the cardamom and cloves and froth with a whisk if you like. If using unsweetened milk, feel free to add agave nectar or sugar to taste. Enjoy!

Change ...

Apart from the infinitely more momentous change happening yesterday, there is also some change in the air in our little world. The big news around here is that it looks like we may very well be moving to India later this year. Yep. Not London, but Mumbai instead. It’s not 100% certain yet, but here’s what’s going on: Ritesh is in the running for a Fulbright research grant, and passed the first, major hurdle a couple of months ago when he was accepted and recommended by the US government side of things. The Fulbright is a bilateral grant, so now the ball is in the court of the Indian government, who are notorious for taking their own sweet time before they let anyone know their decision. As we were getting a little antsy, Ritesh finally called the Fulbright office to inquire about the percentage of recommended candidates that are accepted, and the person in charge of India explained that all candidates are ranked, and that based on Ritesh’s ranking, he’d be very surprised if he didn’t get it. (Way to go, Ritesh!). There’s no guarantee, of course, but it sounds pretty encouraging. The researchers he would be working with in Mumbai are even more optimistic – they think that based on the strength and the relevance of his project, his acceptance is as good as certain - just paperwork, they said. So again, it’s not 100% for sure, but we’re at about 90%, which is enough to start thinking about preparing oneself a little, and actually talk about it, which I’d been a little hesitant to do – I’d hate of course to make a big fuss over nothing.

However, as it happens, Fulbright or not, we are going on a little trip to Mumbai before then, in Feb/March. Ritesh is presenting at the World Conference on Tobacco OR (sic!) Health which is taking place in Mumbai this year, and yours truly is tagging along for the fun (and the paid hotel room, ha). We’re thinking of this as a kind of scouting trip for the longer stay, knock on wood, and hope it’ll help us prepare. This trip comes at a bit of an awkward time for me work wise, so I had to finally fess up and discuss the whole thing with my boss yesterday. This is the same boss who vetoed my transfer to the London office last year, on account of my being a “pillar of the team”, as I’m told by the London office, so needless to say he was not happy about the possibility of me leaving. In fact, that threat loomed so large in his mind that he didn’t really care that I’m off on a 2 week 2 day vacation at the most inopportune time of the year, when everyone’s presence is so required that we’re not really supposed to take any vacation days whatsoever...

The good thing is it’s all out in the open now, and feeling a lot more real as a result. We have booked our tickets, too – we’re flying out together on Feb 25, which is exactly five weeks away from today!

I will definitely blog from Mumbai – I can’t wait to continue with the Everything I Ate theme over there as I imagine the food there to be wildly interesting and worthy of chronicling. Until then, the thing that’s foremost on my mind here is the fact that we’re leaving LA. If you know me at all, you know that I have been wanting to leave (and go back to Europe) for a very long time. But now that leaving is becoming a real possibility, I find myself a little more ambivalent, and almost a little wistful. I’ve spent 14 years of my life in California, so leaving that behind requires some processing. So I’m thinking I’d like to blog about my farewell to LA, as a way to consciously and mindfully let go of our life here as we move on to different pastures. What’s really going to happen, I project, is that I’ll be saying farewell to a lot of my favorite foods and food places (sorry, can’t help it…) – and then we’ll either not leave or be back in a year or something. But enough already, I’m just afraid of jinxing us…:)

I've been puttering around on a new blog I created on wordpress.com, which is a much cooler host than blogger and lets you do tons of nifty things. Still, and I can't really explain why, I just don't like it all that much. I've changed templates there three times, always trying to find something I'm comfortable with, something that feels like mine, but it just hasn't happened. Maybe I'm just used to my super-simple interface here, and the fact that there's so few options you can pretty much blog in your sleep? Whatever it is, I will try and import some posts from the other blog into a new blog here - but I need a title! I've been thinking Farewell to LA, but that's not going to cover Everything I Ate in Mumbai. Daily Mumbai would be ok, but ahem, we're not there yet and what if we don't go. Decisions, decisions.... I could use some input here! Any ideas welcome!

Tues, Jan 20, 2009 - Yay!

9.01am Pacific Standard Time - the minute Obama became president. Not sure if you can read what it says on the screen: "Barack Obama just became president; the constitution states his term begins at noon even without oath". He took the oath at 9.04am.

Now all he has to do is save the world... :)

Good Riddance!

Hope you're all having a fabulous Inauguration Weekend! Will post update on Inauguration Day, Tuesday, once Obama is president...

a hint of things to come...

Petra has blog withdrawal

TOP TEN CUISINES OF 2008 (by number of meals consumed):

1. Indian (94)
2. Mexican (35)
3. Japanese (28)
4. Italian (26)
5. Vietnamese (23)
6. Korean (19)
7. Mrs. Winston's (18)
8. Thai (17)
9. French (12)
10. German (11)

Runners up were Chinese (9), Brazilian (8), Moroccan and Middle Eastern (7 each), Cambodian and Cuban (4 each).

Overall: 1 year, 375 posts, 5300+ visits.

And 2200+ miles traveled on our last road trip:


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PS: Ritesh has blog withdrawal, too. Last night I found him moping on the courch, wistfully scrolling around the last entries. I miss the blog, he said, and, almost pouting, I don't even know what you had for dinner at Laura's. I proceeded with an exact description of the mushroom risotto Kathleen made (her mom is Italian, and she really has it in her genes), and of the spinach salad w/ goat cheese, fresh raspberries and toasted almonds that I whipped up. But honestly, it wasn't quite the same. And I agree. Even while at Laura's, I couldn't help but ponder how lovely the salad especially would have looked on the blog, while kicking myself for not bringing the camera.

Alright, alright, time to let go now...it'll all be ok. Right?

Well then...this is it!

2008 is over, and so is this eponymous blog. It’s been a great year, global financial meltdown notwithstanding, what with Obama getting elected, my new godson being born, Greg & Phinney getting married and Laurence and Jacob coming to Germany and meeting my family for the first time. It’s been a little short on travel, only one quick trip to Europe, and three or so trips in the Western US, but hopefully this will be amply compensated for in 2009 (guess where I’ll be blogging from come summer – more on that later :).

The blog itself has been a trip. A lot of fun, and a great experience. It definitely did what I hoped it would do, make me more mindful of what I eat, and help me slow down. It’s made me seek out a bigger variety of foods, and healthier foods, than ever and it’s also made me eat outside more than I would have otherwise. But it’s done a lot more than that. For one, it’s given me an outlet, something to focus on outside of my insanely intense job which was (still is) threatening to swallow me whole. It’s been a little window of creativity and pause, every day, and as such has been a lifeline to a buried part of myself that really needed some attention. It has also given me discipline, to stick with the strict documentary principle of really recording EVERYTHING I ate, not just the fun or interesting bits or the things one would be comfortable showing to a roomful of strangers, and to stick with it for a whole year. I faltered a couple of times, due to overwhelm and a vague feeling of pointlessness, but I came back to it every time. Although maybe this isn’t due as much to my discipline as to the encouraging comments that popped up on the blog and put me back on track - thanks to everyone who’s been kind enough to check in on me and make sure that I saw this through!

This includes, of course, Ritesh, my partner in crime, who has been my biggest fan and checked every post as soon as I wrote it. I’ve already thanked him in one of the comments below, but wanted to do it again up here, just so he really, really REALLY gets just how much I appreciate all his support throughout the year. It takes a special kind of husband to be able to sit at the dinner table and wait, fork in mid-air, until the missus is done with that godforsaken picture – night after night, for an entire year! Thanks, love, for not giving me too much of a hard time for all the fuss, thanks for all the tech support, and thanks for cooking all those fabulous meals, which I’m sure are the real reason why people kept coming back to the blog!

I’ve been thinking about where to go from here. I could easily continue with the food blog in a 2009 edition, perhaps with more relaxed rules, such as documenting interesting and worthwhile meals only, instead of every single thing. I could also venture more into foodie territory, start adding recipes (some of which long-promised on this blog, I know, I know) and restaurant reviews. But somehow I have a sense I may try something a little different ... hmmm.... I can't quite talk about it yet, but will post the link here as soon as I can.

Thurs, Jan 1, 2009 - Taos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque

9.13am - The patio in front of our room in Taos. Love the adobe style.9.29am - more of that great home made granola, w/ peaches, yogurt and soy milk

9.32am - a small home baked cinnamon bun that we shared

9.37am - baked egg with chili and cheese

scrambled egg w/ home made red chili.

This was our last breakfast here - bye-bye Taos!

12.45pm - home made tamales from La Tiendita, a small greasy spoon that comes attached to a gas station on the way from Taos to Santa Fe. Ate these in the car.

2.32pm - A joyful lot, them New Mexicans. Hard to imagine Californians bothering to paint freeway overpasses...

2.59pm - shared a carne adovada burrito, at the Burrito House in Santa Fe. Not nearly as good as the carne adovada we had last night at Orlando's, and what's worse, it left Ritesh all New-Mexican'd out, so he didn't want any more of this kind of food for the rest of the trip...

Santa Fe, New Mexico

8.11pm - dinner in Albuquerque: Vietnamese rice cakes w/ basil scrambled eggs, peanuts, and a tasty dipping sauce, at Kim's Vietnamese Restaurant, which was a fabulous find. The owner/chef lived and cooked in France for 20 years and has a really nice spin on some traditional Vietnamese dishes.

8.18pm - lemongrass lotusroot beef soup, super spicy and fantastic

8.25pm - and an amazing Vietnamese veggie curry w/ apples! All the veggies were as perfect as can be - this was just outstanding! We were very impressed, and lucky enough to be able to chat with the owner/chef for a little while. Very smart, cosmopolitan woman - if we lived in Albuquerque, I'm sure we'd go eat and catch up with her every week. Would be great even to take some cooking classes with her, she's so good.

8.45pm - her fabulous chocolate-coconut flan. Incredible. She told us the secret behind its light and airy texture - now we'll have to try and reproduce...I'll let you know if it works!