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..
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
.jpg)
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.
.jpg)
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
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
Monday, May 12, 2008
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.
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.
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.
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