Fine Dining Part II

I had a FABULOUS time at Cut after a small hiccup with a bitchy hostess

an excerpt:

"OH....MY... F********CKING GAAAWD!!!!!! Both appetizers were probably the best thing EVER!! I swear once it hit my tongue, my tastebuds were doing the happy dance while on steroids!!!!! The bone marrow was so soft, flavorful and was so good with the mushroom "marmalade". And the pork belly? So soft and succulent it just melted. It was told by the bread lady that it's cooked in duck fat for 3 days. SAY WHAT NOW???? Duck fat? 3 days? Fat cooked in fat (confit style), how can you go wrong with that????"

you can read the full review here:
http://www.yelp.com/user_details_review_search?userid=NBJVYt7sO-2WDg3bPwBT0Q&q=wagyu

Fine Dining

Over the Years, both before and after attending culinary school (but mostly after), I've had the privilege to dine at some very nice restaurants throughout Southern California.

Places like the French Laundry, Guy Savoy, and Le Cirque, and Craft will always be among my list of restaurants to eat at in some point of my life, but until then I will have to stick to the ones LA has to offer. Now don't get me wrong, LA has A TON of higher end restaurants that have helped shape LA's reputation for fine cuisine, but New York still is the food Mecca of this country.

Of the restaurants that I've been to that have been higher end meals: Delmonico's (Las Vegas), BOA Steakhouse, Ruth's Chris, Roy's, Napa Rose, and... that's all I can think of so far.

In terms of LA restaurants that I want to try, there's Hatfields, Providence, Craft, Table 8, and many others.

I suppose this is all a warmup to my dinner this Saturday. I will be dining at Cut Steakhouse in Beverly Hills. I will be dining with my cousin and a couple friends. I am a huge carnivore and I love a very good steak and I will be looking forward to this meal. I try not to overhype or expect too much out of a restaurant because I've found that contributes to ruining your overall dining experience. I of course will be expecting a good dinner, but I will not set specific standards for the food or the service.

I'll post a picture... that's if I remember to take a picture.

Website

I apologize to my maybe 3 readers that I haven't updated my site in awhile. Honestly, I sometimes forget about it.

Anyway, I just want to let you guys know that my website is still under construction. I know, I know, it's been taking a long time but please be patient. In the meantime, please visit my flickr site for some samples

www.flickr.com/photos/austios

And please check back often for the launching of my site!!

-A.

Gluttony

This past Sunday I made it to the last day of the LA County Fair.

The fair, or any county fair for that matter, is synonymous with gluttony. What else is there to do besides check out the demonstration, the petting zoo, the pig races, and play the carnival games? Eat, eat, and eat. Did I forget eating?

The food at the fair is usually pretty good. There's no denying it. I have my favorites and I also have discovered new delicacies each of the past 4 years I've gone. Well, the first 3 years I went to the Orange County Fair, which is basically the same thing.

So this year, I went expecting myself to eat quite a bit. Funny thing was I wasn't even very hungry when we showed up Sunday afternoon, but I knew once we got inside, that wasn't going to stop me.

I started out with BBQ corn, which they dip in melted butter and offer various seasonings to sprinkle on as well as things like vinegar and lemon juice. I sprinkled a little bit of lemon garlic powder and pepper on mine. I then shared a turkey leg with my friend, which meant that she took maybe 6 bites and gave me the rest, which I didn't have a problem with because I tore that thing up. I got it down all the way to the bone and left very little meat on it.

We moved on and made our way to Chicken Charlie's, where the fried chicken smelled so good but I wasn't totally in the mood for it, so I just got a deep fried twinkle and an order of deep fried oreos. I've had both before, but they were so good. I'm a little sad I didn't see deep fried love me tenders anywhere. A love me tender is a peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich. It was Elvis' favorite snack and is probably what sent him packing for Heaven, haha. Don't quote me on that. But I had them last year at the OC Fair and it was REALLY good.

We made our way into the Lifehouse concert and we all shared a basket of kettle chips.

Not for one moment did I feel full. I probably could have had another turkey leg and still not be full.

Wedding Cakes

As a pastry chef, one of my favorite thing about weddings is the cake. I have a major sweet tooth and I'm always looking forward to diving in to something sweet after my meal.

I've had several people ask me if I do wedding cakes, as I do private catering. To that I promptly reply "no", going on to say that it's too much trouble to make a wedding cake from home. There are a few, however with my set up, it's a little harder. Plus I don't have the patience to make elaborate wedding cakes.

With as many weddings as I've been to in the past 9 months (which is still only 5), but overall over the years, I've had the opportunity to sample many cakes from various bakeries. I also always find myself asking where the cake is from. I guess its just so I know where to refer people if they are in that area.

Back in April, at Jeremy & Serena's wedding, I actually don't remember the cake nor do I have a photo, as I didn't bring my camera with me into the banquet. However, as a wedding photographer, Serena gets to see a lot of cakes and like it when she posts some photos up on either her website, flickr, or facebook profile and it includes the cake. I remember wen she shot Darren & Tiffany's wedding, their cake was very simple yet elegant, almost an art deco kind of design, and Serena said they got it from Porto's Bakery in Glendale. I did not know Porto's did wedding cakes...

And then last week was Eddie & Tina's wedding. I don't think I asked where they got the cake, but it was good



I suppose this is all a setup for Torrance Bakery. 2 of the weddings I've been this year have been from there and it by far has been my favorte wedding cake that I can remember. The cake is very moist, flavorful, not overly sweet, and the frosting is not too sweet either. They are decorated very beautifully as well

The first is my brother's cake. They got married back in April in Redondo Beach, so I assume that bakery was referred to them because it was near by. I want to say it was a green tea cake with I don't remember what frosting. I just remember the cake being very moist and delicious.



The 2nd cake was at my cousin's wedding in July. They got married in Palos Verdes, so I also assume Torrance Bakery was one of the bakeries that was referred to them. They got a half white, half red velvet cake. 2 of the tiers were white, the other 2 were red velvet. I was lucky and got a piece of red velvet. Again, very moist, flavorful, and wasn't overly sweet. Their cake was decorated more simpler, but still looked very beautiful.



I have a feeling when I get married (whenever that is), I will be wanting to get our cake from here....

Coming Soon...

I know... I've been neglecting this blog for a couple months. I have a few things I should and want to share with you.

I'm actually on my way out, but I promise you some more "auditory" and visual food porn to come....

Sacramento

I had the pleasure of visiting my friend up in Sacramento a couple weeks ago and my friend Kevin gave me a couple of restaurant recommendations while I was there. For a really good burger that rivals Fatburger, he told me to go to Ford's Real Hamburgers.



I got the half pound cheeseburger. Nothing fancy, just an all beef patty with 2 slices of cheese, lettuce and tomato on a bun. With a side of steak cut fries and a milkshake, it was good... definitely better than Fatburger.



Then the next day, for breakfast, Kevin lead me to Tower Cafe.



They had seriously the BEST french toast I've ever had. It was soft and delicate in the middle like bread pudding, but nicely toasted on the outside. I would go back to Sacramento just for this french toast.



On Wednesday when I went to Ford's, I spent the rest of the day walking around Downtown Sacramento and saw the Capitol Building. On Thursday when I went to Tower Cafe, I drove out to Napa Valley for some wine tasting and had a great time there. I definitely need to go to Napa again, next time with at least one other person, and spend more than an afternoon there.

I saw a place on FoodNetwork's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" in Sacramento that I actually looked up but didn't have a chance to make it out to. It's called Squeeze Inn. They have a burger there with so much cheese, it melts and gets crispy on the griddle, it forms a skirt. Looks really good and I have to go there next time I'm up there in the area.

Nor Cal

I've been in Northern California all this week. Eaten at a couple places recommended by friends. Will post pictures when I get back.

Top Chef May 14th

For those of you who have been watching Top Chef, can you believe the drama going on?!?!?!

I mean oh my gosh, people do not like each other right now. Well, at least between Lisa, Dale, Spike, and Andrew. It's known that Dale & Lisa don't like each other, a few people don't like Andrew, and almost everybody doesn't like Spike. Spike is a little bitch and no matter what he or anybody says, I feel he used his win in the quickfire to indirectly sabotage eveybody else. But it was good to see the judges call him out for not making great use of the ingredients he used.

I think it was uncalled for Lisa to call Andrew out for not fulfilling all the rules. Granted that the judges criticisms that his dish lacked substance were valid, I was a little surprised he was picked to go home. But I guess it just goes to show that rules and rules and it's apparent the judges will take that over anything else.

Speaking of Lisa, I just don't like her. I think she's got a bad attitude and just looking at her whenever she's on judges table, she's got that "Why the F**K am I here?" look EVERY TIME. Tom was right in saying that no matter what, she needs to keep a better eye on her items. I say that because I've been told that before and it's true, someone else's doing or not, it's no excuse.

I just can't believe the drama going on and it'll be crazy to see it continue..

Sapphire

I had the chance to have lunch at a restaurant that I had no idea existed and went to on a recommendation from my mother. Yes, my mother. The restaurant is Sapphire Laguna Restaurant & Pantry in Laguna Beach.





I walk in and I'm greeted immediately by one of the 2 hostesses. Both seemed very upbeat and that they loved working there. As I was shown to my table, the hostess kindly asked me for my name. I suppose it was so they can make it seem more personable. She saw that I had my camera with me so she stated the obvious fact that it was such a nice day out to take photos. After she left, I was almost immediately approached by who I'm assume was the floor manager to take my beverage order. I got iced tea. My server returned with my iced tea and a little ceramic pitcher which contained simple syrup. A nice little change from the typical packets of sugar and sweeteners, which he brought as well. I still was looking over the menu and he went off to come back a couple minutes later.

A lot of the menu choices looked pretty decent, but nothing really seemed to stick out. Down at the bottom was where I saw the Kobe Burger with havarti cheese, caramelized onions and arugala. That seemed to be the only dish where all of the components I really liked and could have any meal. It came with a side of shoe string fries.



The service here was pretty good. If you read some of my other reviews, you'll notice how much of a stickler I am for good service at a restaurant. Never did I ever have to ask for more iced tea and I seemed to have enough simple syrup to last me the several refills. My food came within a good time from being ordered and came open faced, with the top bun sitting along side the patty. The 2 slices of tomato staring right at me noticeably had salt on it, which tells me they season all components of their food. That's a good thing.

Again, everybody here seemed very nice. During my meal, my server came up twice to make sure everything was ok and to see if I needed anything, and even the executive chef went from table to table to see if everything was in order. It's good to see the executive chef take a moment to do something like that. And then after I finished my burger and fries and my plate had been cleared, the other hostess came up to talk to me because he thought she had seen me somewhere previously. I kindly corrected her but then we got to talking about how I'm in the industry and that most recently I was the pastry chef at Scott's Seafood in Costa Mesa. She excuse herself and as I was ordering dessert, my server asked me about Scott's and said he helped open the Costa Mesa location back in 1981. I'm saying all this because it wasn't like they were bugging me, but they were all nice and pleasant about it.

Anyway, dessert. I ended up ordering the warm Valrhona chocolate cake. Served with pistachio ice cream, chocolate sauce and caramel sauce. Again, nothing to really rave about but you can't really go wrong with a warm chocolate cake.



I would definitely come back here again. On a nice day, it's perfect for lunch. I could imagine it'd get a little colder at night being right on PCH in Laguna Beach and I didn't take the time to notice any heat lamps. I'm sure they do.

A very pleasant restaurant considering it was on a relative whim.

Addiction

I used to have these maybe once or twice a month. Now I am up to twice or thrice a week.



And the funny thing is this is usually how I order and the exchange goes down:

me: "Venti passion fruit iced tea with melon syrup"
cashier (holding cup and sharpie): "Any sweetener with that?"
me (thinking 'is he/she deaf??'): "melon"

I think those high school and college students need to clean out their ears

Regular

Let me ask you folks: are you a regular at any restaurant? And I don't mean a regular in terms of you go there all the time, but a regular in terms of the people who work there know you.

I am a regular at Cafe Blanc in Costa Mesa. I believe I have mentioned about this place in previous posts, and I am just in love with it because it is exactly like the type of patisserie I want to open.

For those who don't know, Cafe Blanc is owned by Chef Tomi Harase. A well-mannered Japanese man in his 50s runs the kitchen and is helped by his lovely wife and who I'm assuming is his daughter, as well as 2 or 3 additional staff, all Japanese. His English isn't perfect and I sometimes have a hard time understanding what he's saying with his still heavy accent, but he is a very wonderful and genuine individual. I became a regular because over a period of maybe 3-4 months last year, I was going into his store once, sometimes twice, a week. I am the type of person when I find a restaurant I really like and/or I believe in the product or find a dish I REALLY like there, I am very loyal.

So now every time I go in, he always says hi from back in the kitchen and always comes out front to greet me again with a handshake. He knows I am also a chef and have worked at various restaurants. We usually just exchange small talk, but you speak with him for just 5 seconds and you'll immediately pick up on his kind character.

Anyway, my point. Lately, but not always, every time I go in to get several desserts to go, he has been generous enough to give me a complimentary item as a gesture of thanks for always coming in. For instance, the first time he gave me something for free was actually an item that he was soon to put on the menu. It was a coffee and hazelnut based dessert that is now called Volcano.

But throughout these months he has given me items such as macarons, cookies, chocolates, and just tonight when I went, he gave me a rather large croissant, bagging and holding it up, saying, "for breakfast tomorrow". I generously thanked him, made my purchase, and went on my way. I think one of the best parts is whenever I leave and the way he says bye:

"ok, thank you. See you next time. Have a good night, thank you. See you soon" - like he sort of repeats himself. It's funny.

As long as Cafe Blanc remains open, I will always be a loyal customer.

Forget Taco Tuesday, It's Taco Weekend!

This weekend I definitely had my fill of taco. On Saturday, Kevin and I went to El Taquito Mexicano, aka "Taco Truck" for some killer street tacos. Seriously, they are the bomb and if you go on Yelp, it's on there. I like the carnitas the best, but they were out!!! Regardless, I had 7 tacos... which left me pretty full but they're so worth it.

Then last night, I went with my parents down to my aunt's house in Laguna Niguel for a Mother's Day dinner and because one of my cousin's from Australia was in town. There was SO MUCH food. Chinese rice noodles, oyster pancakes (a Taiwanese dish), potato salad, meatballs, cold Chinese beef (forgot what the actual name is), and as you can probably guess from the post title, tacos. Yes, a pretty interesting mix of food. There was grilled chicken and carnitas, with onions and cilantro, and guacamole that my aunt made. So needless to say, because I didn't get any carnitas at Taco Truck, I loaded up on the carnitas. I think I had another 7 or 8 tacos. Along with all the other food, I was stuffed. And then there was dessert. Fruit salad with whipped cream and from Trader Joe's, a flan and chocolate cake parfait. It was good. A layer of chocolate cake, then flan, then a thin layer of chocolate ganache and topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce. I think I had about 2 1/2 pieces of that. So I was full!!

Seriously though, if you have a chance, go check out Taco Truck. Everybody that's local to San Marino knows about it.

I Live To Eat

Question for everybody: Do you "eat to live" or do you "live to eat"?

The answer for me is pretty obvious. Look at this post title as well as the title of my blog: I live to eat. Food is my life. It's why I became a chef. The love of food is what drives me to further my career. Whenever I travel, all I really care to do is eat. Seriously, within an hour of landing in Chicago last year, I was at Portillo's for an authentic Chicago dog. When I go to San Antonio next month, that's all I'm looking to do is eat and get some good Tex-Mex and BBQ.

So again, my question is: do you "eat to live" or do you "live to eat?

Americana

So tonight I had dinner and saw a movie with one of my buddies from college, Jeff out in Glendale. We went to the new "mall" across the street from the Glendale Galleria called "Americana". When we pulled up into the parking structure, we both agreed it was a lot like the structure at The Venetian in Las Vegas, as we walked out of the structure, the place was more or less an exact replica of The Grove out in Los Angeles. Jeff went on to tell me that Americana was designed by the same people that did the Grove. And finally, they had a large moving fountain that seemed like a smaller version of the fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. We didn't walk around the entire place but I saw Cheesecake Factory and Katsuya, as well as a Beard Papas stand and Wetzels Pretzels.

We ended up going around the corner to California Pizza Kitchen because Americana was infested with a huge crowd of people, just like the Grove usually is on a Sunday afternoon. CPK is nothing to rave about, but I like the food there and it's pretty consistent between locations. You can't go wrong with any of the pizzas. It better be that way because with pizza in the name, their pizzas should be their best dishes. I got the carne asada pizza, which is served with applewood smoked bacon (though I got maybe like 2 crumbles), onions, bell peppers, and diced tomatoes. Definitely one of my favorites there. I also tried the raspberry mojito. I didn't really taste much raspberry, but I like mojitos so I wasn't complaining.

I love going out to high end restaurants, but sometimes you just want to have a relaxed dinner at a more casual place.

Apologies

I just want to make things clear and apologize to a certain couple who I previously had a post up here about (indirectly) for what I thought was a neutral and professional opinion but ended up being tactless and offending.

I just hope you guys know I love you and want the very best for you. I sincerely regret my previous statements and I hope this hasn't been a hinderance to our friendship.

Austin

Shooting

So after a couple weeks of deliberation (because I'm a cheap Chinese man), I decided to just fork up the money and pay to get some headshots done for my website. I figured I might as well since I'm already paying a friend of mine to create all the graphics and do the layout for my site. I loosely tried several weeks ago to do a couple shots myself, but I didn't get anything I seriously would consider. Luckily I knew a great photographer who might've been willing. So I emailed her and asked her if she could do me the favor.

Her name is Sandra P. Her site is www.sandrapphotography.com. She is a really good and friendly professional wedding photographer and does engagement and lifestyle photos as well. I don't think I would have asked her if she strictly did weddings, which I'm under the impression that some photographers are. Plus I like her style and approach and it just so happened we also recently became friends. We brainstormed over email and got down a couple good ideas.

So today was the day. We met up in Oldtown Pasadena on what was a hotter than normal day. Of course being late April, Summer is just around the corner. We began taking some shots in front of the gate at Villa Sorriso, which is actually quite decorative. I just thought it was a plain iron gate. We then made a bold move and asked the 2 employees who were setting up for lunch service if we could use a table for some shots. It was actually her idea and while I normally wouldn't have thought about the idea, I figured at that time in the morning on a Sunday, they were still setting up and not even open. They were nice enough to let us. We got a ton of shots in there but we still tried to keep it short. They probably were wondering if I was someone famous or up and coming, me with my chef's coat on having photos taken. That reminds me, I need to get my own coat so I don't have to use my grad coat from CSCA (California School of Culinary Arts), which is still a very nice chef's jacket and I use that as my presentation jacket when I have gigs, but I think it'll be better for my reputation if people didn't see that.

We moved on to some more shots outside of the restaurant, then around the corner to DeLacey, in front of a soon to be open tea and herb boutique (already forgot the name) and the adjacent alley for some "brick wall" shots. All in all, I would say she probably took about 100 shots, so I have quite a few to choose from. I quickly changed and grabbing a lemonade at Le Pain Quotiodien (I think I spelled that wrong) turned into brunch. I got a cheese almond danish, which I originally had thought it meant cheddar cheese mixed throughout but ended up being a cream cheese filling, but it was just as satisfying. She got a bowl of gazpacho, which on a warm day like it was today, it was quite refreshing, especially with the cucumber garnish. She also got a bowl of fruit and we shared the curried chicken salad sandwich. LPQ (which she kept referring to the restaurant as and I found MUCH easier than attmepting to pronounce the long name) has always had good food, well at least the 2 times (including today) I've been there. She managed to take some more shots of me pouring and drinking my iced tea before we left.

From there we went to Starbucks for some more shots, which was one of her original ideas, but they kicked us out saying we couldn't take photos. We both found that strange, especially because it wasn't like we were taking photos of the product, but oh well. We tried Crate & Barrel but gave up finding it hard to take photos with the floating salespeople.

We agreed we believed we got some good shots as well as a decent variety. Now I just have to wait for the proofs.

Thanks again Sandy!!!!

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend, my brother, Ben, got married to his blushing bride, Aivan, at the Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club in Redondo Beach. It was a great wedding at a wonderful locale. The only thing about it was the wind coming off of the harbor.

Friday night was the rehearsal. Because it was windy, it was a pretty quick rehearsal. We then had dinner at Sea Empress Chinese Restaurant in nearby Torrance. All the food was pretty good. We all liked it a lot and stuffed ourselves. I don't have any photos of the food because I was too busy eating, but I did manage a photo of the restaurant itself.



The food at the banquet on Saturday was decent. The cake was good though.



However, the really good food came the day after. We had brunch at the hotel's restaurant, Baleen. The decor is a little on the casual side but still had a hint of elegance. Along with the hotel, the restaurant is sandwiched between the docks and the harbor wall.



Ben & Aivan ordered the crab cakes as an appetizer. It was served with guacamole, tomato jam, and chimichurri sauce.



Kris ordered clam chowder as his starter.



I also ordered 2 dishes. The first was steak and eggs, served with home fries



And vanilla bean brioche french toast, served with spiced banana and maple syrup.



Overall a good weekend with good food. You definitely can't beat that.

BOA

For those of you who really know me, you know how much I love meat. You will probably agree with me and safely say that I am one of the biggest carnivores you've ever met. I don't think I could ever go vegan or vegetarian. I jokingly think that vegetarians have something psychiatrically wrong with them. I know they don't though. I commend people who choose not to eat meat for either religious, dietary, or personal reasons; I just don't think I could ever lead that kind of lifestyle. Would I be healthier? Probably. Would I live longer? Most likely.

Anyway, this post isn't to give you a health lesson nor a guilt trip for eating the side of a cow or slab of pig.

As a few of you may know, my brother is getting married soon. As his bachelor party, we (meaning him, I, his best man Kris, and few others) were supposed to go on an overnight fishing trip. Well, that entire weekend, we were getting reports of bad weather and that the trip could possibly be cancelled. Well, mid Friday evening was when we got official word that we wouldn't be going fishing. We were all pretty bummed.

Well, whether or not the fishing trip was to happen, we were planning on taking my brother out for a nice steak and go to the shooting range afterward. After much deliberation on a date, we ended up going for lunch on a Sunday to BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood. I thought BOA was in Santa Monica, but turns out they have 3 locations, the other 2 being in Santa Monica and Las Vegas. I had heard a couple good things about BOA and when I heard we were going here, I got excited. We actually were supposed to go to Fogo De Chao, which is a high end Brazilian BBQ restaurant. That would've sufficed as well.

When we first got there, it was at the beginning of lunch service so we were the only ones there. Long story short, the service was good as was the food. I got the Kansas City bone-in filet mignon. Of course cooked medium rare. When I was a lot younger, I used to get my steak well done. Looking back, I have no idea what the hell I was thinking. As I got a little older, I moved up to medium. In most cases, medium was still a little overcooked. It wasn't until college did I see the light and start ordering my steaks medium rare, especially if I was at a high end quality restaurant such as BOA.

And now for the visual aid...


Served with a whole head of roasted garlic and a caberet sauvignon reduction sauce.

Been a while

It's been over 9 months since my last post and I'm in dire need of an update. I've got a few things to talk about (such as my trips to Chicago and Dallas), but right now I'm at work, so I currently do not have the freedom nor the photos to post about my culinary adventures.

But do not fear for I shall return....