11.24am - some pastries from Finance, courtesy of Cecy wo shared with me, at work.
2.39h - couldn't decide which soup to get, so got half of each: Italian wedding on the left, chicken gumbo on the right, from Gelson's, at work
3.29h - protein juice blend, at work.
7.10h - Del'Amore's signature white pizza, with Ritesh, before going the see The Exiles at the Hammer Museum.
10.34am - eggs Marcella (with penne pasta, pancetta, sun-dried tomatoes and fontina cheese, plus potatoes), from Coral Tree Cafe, at work
2.14h - award-winning Parisian macarons from Paulette in Beverly Hills, at work. I managed to limit myself to four of them and take the rest home for Ritesh to try. But the full dozen I got here (plus one extra on the house) are: coconut, sweet almond wedding, Sicilian pistachio, Earl Grey tea, caramel, chocolate, lemon, violet cassis, coffee, grapefruit, peach and vanilla. Outstanding macarons. Can't imagine they make them better at Laduree.
7.57h - lebanese lemon chicken, hummus, baba ganoush, salad from Gabbeh Mediterranean Grill on Washington, and Hedy's fried rice, at Laura's for Jasper's birthday, with Laura, Richard, Jasper, Jane, Gary, Inger, Didrik, Susan, Marjane and a few neighbors.
7.57h - what it says on the bottle
9.19h - Laura's famous traveling bowl, which spent the better part of the decade moving around the country with Jane
9.21h - Jasper's birthday cake and fruit salad - should really post a picture of the birthday boy on his big day...
...and here he is, little Jasper with his hand in the cake, and his lovely mom. Can't believe it's been a year since the day that I trekked over to St. John's hospital with matzo ball soup and our DVD player...
10.17am - more grapes, at work
1.49h - Ritesh's Indian cabbage and potatoes and cucumber-carrot-tomato salad with tomatoes from Nady's garden, at work
3.03h - a yellow plum and some almonds, at work
7.38h - chips and salsa, at Monte Alban Oaxacan Restaurant, with Ritesh
7.48h - my chile relleno, filled with a sweet mole chicken, plus beans and rice, at Monte Alban, with Ritesh
7.48h - and Ritesh's consome de pollo, of which I got barely a spoonful this time...
12.46h - an incredibly tasty kale salad and wasabi sweet potato salad with a slice of cranberry walnut bread at M Cafe de Chaya in Culver City, with the lovely Camilla who I hadn't seen in way too long.
12.46h - a shitake mushroom inari (rice-filled tofu pocket) plus an eggplant inari, w/ soy sauce, at M Cafe de Chaya, with Cam. M stands for macrobiotic, which I remembered as being a bland and boring cuisine. But this is fabulous. I think this place may be my new favorite restaurant...
12.46h - a glorious and healthy brown rice pudding w/ raisins and candied pecans, which I took to go and had later at work.
16.02h - a dairy free (and gluten free) cupcake from The Sensitive Baker, at work. Not bad, but not great either. As I said to Cam, I'd rather have less of the real thing than a whole one of these. But if you really have to stay away from dairy and wheat, this is really good stuff.
20.20h - Ritesh's Indian cabbage and potatoes, w/ poppadum and pita bread, at home, with Ritesh.
10.29am - leftover German cheesecake - another sweet thing that benefits nicely from some tart fruit. At work.
13.37h - a free sample hazelnut truffle, at the new Leonidas store in the Century City mall.
14.53h - salmon gravelox sandwich from Breadbar, at work.
18.59h - seared tuna salad, at Yen Sushi, with Judith, who's in town from Paris.
19.07h - rainbow roll, shared with Judith, at Yen Sushi.
19.16h - baked New Zealand mussels, at Yen Sushi, with Judith.
19.28h - baked salmon salad, at Yen Sushi, with Judith.
11.46am - leftover cheesecake, mango, red currants, and the crowning glory, one of Nady's huge and succulent figs...
12.36h - leftover mache, and Nady's incredible cherry tomatoes. So sweet and flavorful, they don't need any dressing. At home, with Ritesh.
12.39h - leftover roasted chicken, potatoes and fennel, at home, with Ritesh
14.57h - tried a new dairy free bread recipe, in honor of the tomatoes. With tomatoes of this caliber, you really don't need very much at all, but they're perfect on some nice buttered bread, with some salt and pepper. This bread turned out nice, but the recipe asked to split the dough into two halves, and the resulting two loaves were just too small - check out the tiny slices compared to Nady's tomatoes! So no open-faced buttered sandwich... instead, just some olive oil for dipping, salt and pepper. Perfect.
16.13h - fresh squeezed OJ from Nady's oranges, at home
18.56h - Ritesh was feeling a little under the weather and wanted soup at Pho99. These are our usual appetizer egg rolls...
19h - and here's the veggie pho, at Pho99
14.43h - Ritesh fixed up some lunch, hummus w/ cucumbers and tomatoes, at home.
19.30h - Nady brought treasures from her garden! Check out these heirlooms - we're in tomato heaven! Thanks, Nady! Plus there's more - lemons, oranges, kumquats, figs ! We'll be feasting tomorrow, and the rest of the week...
19.58h - what was left of Ritesh's guacamole when I remembered to take a picture. In the end, we pretty much demolished an entire bag of tortilla chips and 4 avocados worth of guac. And this was just appetizers :)
20.00h - mache w/ a yogurt-honey-mustard dressing and fresh red currants, w/ Nady, David, Mingus and Ritesh
20.10h - Ritesh's signature roasted chicken. We couldn't roast a pig for Nady's b-day, so we figured, at least a chicken...
20.17h - the roasted chicken, all taken apart, with fennel decor
20.17h - potatoes and fennel from the roasting pan
21.7h - and a piece of German cheesecake w/ a faint lavender note. A little too faint (I just added some to the crust, like Surfas does with their lavender lemon bars). Will use more next time.
