27 November 2006

Working Pho

I don't hide my love of noddle soups, but my heart is divided between what kind of noddle soup I adore most. I have great fondness for wonton noddle soup and will go to any lengths to eat a really good bowl. And the truly good bowls are burned into my memory, where and when I had them are mentally filed away, but easily recalled at the moments notice—2 food stalls in 2 different towns in Malaysia; Full Kee, Wheaton, Md.; Good Tastes, Portland, Ore., etc....

Then there's laksa, a sentimental favorite, which in someways is also my birthright, or at least I've eaten it almost since birth—as early as a child can handle hot, spicy adult food. It is one of the noddle soup I prefer to eat at home, because members of my family make it well. Although I will eat laska at the drop of hat in Malaysia.

Ramen is a noodle that has a hold on me both in its lowest and highest form. I won't deny eating cases of instant ramen in college, while now I have the pick of many wonderful ramen shops across LA. I crave cold soba in the summer and like hot udon when I don't want ramen, but still want something Japanese.

Finally, I find myself with Pho. I will confess there are times I forget about Pho, distracted by other noodle soup vying for my tummy time. But invariable I will return to it; and when I do, I remember why I like it so much—soft rice noodles, fresh basil and bean sprout, a beefy broth with the touch of lime you control.

Such was the case when I needed to have a working dinner a couple weeks ago. Hungry after work, but not done with work, E and I needed a good meal to sustain us for a couple hours of overtime. It was Pho that galilantly saved the day, or should I say evening—a good bowl to make the job bearable.

While I can't say Pho 99 is my number one Pho, my feelings run deep enough to stand up for it and say it's about as good as one gets on the Westside.





Pho 99
11819 Wilshire Blvd. (at Granville)
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 312-7881

Labels: , , ,

26 November 2006

Turkey Day Apple Cranberry Pie

It was a quiet Thanksgiving with friends for me. On the buffet table was turkey with all the traditional trimmings—yams, mash potatoes, stuffing, and green beans. And since it was Thanksgiving, I really tucked in; I pushed aside any concerns about calories, piled my plate high, and went back for seconds without any guilt

For my part, I brought an apple pie to the meal. I can enjoy a good piece of pie anytime, but I only seem to bake pies between Thanksgiving and Christmas; although I might make the odd berry pie in the suumer. And my pie baking during the holiday season always includes a least one apple pie. This year tried a new recipe from Food & Wine for a double-crust apple cranberry pie. I added a few squirts of fresh squeezed orange juice to the sliced apples, but otherwise I followed the directions below. The cranberries made the pie somewhat tart. While I didn't mind, I could see that others might prefer a sweeter apple pie with a more traditional warm spice flavor.

APPLE CRANBERRY PIE

Ingredients

Double-Crust Pastry
1 1/2 pounds tart apples
1 cup fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the Double-Crust Pastry into an 11-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the round to a 9-inch pie pan and fit it against the bottom and sides without stretching. Using a small sharp knife, trim the dough flush with the rim. Refrigerate the pie shell for 30 minutes.

Using a small sharp knife, peel, quarter and core the apples. Slice them lengthwise 1/4 inch thick. In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the cranberries, sugar, flour, orange zest, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Pour the filling into the pie shell. Dot with the butter.

Preheat the oven to 400°. Lightly moisten the edge of the pie shell with cold water. Roll out the other half of the Double-Crust Pastry into a 12-inch round and drape it over the pie. Trim the overhanging dough to 1/2 inch. Tuck the excess dough under the rim of the bottom pie shell and press to seal; crimp decoratively. Using a small sharp knife, cut 3 or 4 steam vents in the top.

Bake the pie for 20 minutes. Cover the rim with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the apples feel tender when a cake tester is inserted into the center of the pie.

Transfer to a rack to cool.


DOUBLE-CRUST PASTRY

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening or lard
4 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Directions

In a food processor, combine the flour and salt and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening and process until the mixture is rough textured, with particles the size of peas.

Add 3 tablespoons of the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing briefly after each addition. Add another tablespoon of the water and pulse just until the dough begins to hold together. Add 1 more tablespoon of water if necessary.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and gather it into a ball, handling it as little as possible. Divide the dough in half. Pat the 2 pieces into disks, wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes or overnight before rolling out.

Labels: , , ,

Persian State of Mind



I've been thinking about Persian food ever since a post about Azerbaian Pilaf with Pomegranate Meatballs on the food blog, "Toast". Lucky for me, I live in LA where there are Persian restaurants a plenty. So one evening, my friend S and her husband D helped me get my Persian fix at Javan in West Los Angeles.

Our meal began with lots and lots of lavosh eated with slices of raw onions, butter, and sumac. That was only the beginning of the feast of plenty that characterized the evening. Food round one was 2 appetizers: eggplant topped with yogurt and mint or Kashk O'Bademjan and yogurt with cucumber and herbs or Must O'Kheyar. Although I generally dislike most "fruit-on-the-bottom" yogurt, I'm a fan of plain yogurt, especially in Greek, Middle Eastern, and Indian cusines—I like yogurt, but I don't like it sweet. In this case, the yogurt was thick and creamy, a nice dip for the bread.

The sheer amount of food they serve at Javan is thrilling—big dishes, piled high and spilling over with rice and meat. When our entrées came out, we were shuffling and shifting plates to fit everything on the table. I had a combination of 2 kinds of lamb stews cooked in a tomato sauce, Gheymahont and Badenjanont (below, top right). The lamb fell off the shank, fork tender and moist; and the tangy sauce helped to balance the meat's richness. S ordered chicken with sautéed walnuts in a pomegrante sauce, Fesenjannt (below, bottom right)—a luxurious dish. The pomegrante sauce was concentrated and complex. It had a deep, mellow spiciness that reminded me of certain Malaysian curries that are slow simmered until the flavors meld and deepened. D got the Zereshk Polo (below, bottom left), a baked chicken dish served with sour currant and saffron rice. The chicken was the well-prepared, but the real delight was the rice. The currants sparkled in the rice like red jewels and added a taste that was equally lively on the palate as they were bright to the eyes.




We didn't finish our dinners, but that didn't stop us from getting desert—Baghlava and Persian ice cream. Both sweets were flavored with rose, but the baghlava was the more satisfying of the two deserts. It was sweet without being cloy and the pastry was tender and flakey. Unfortunately, the ice cream tasted like it had been in the freezer too long. It came frozen hard on a plate and when it did thaw a bit, it softed to a gummy, gluey texture—not ideal for ice cream.



Overall, the food was good and the large servings made it a good value. I need to remember to eat Persian food more often.


Javan Restaurant
11500 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 207 - 5555
www.javanrestaurant.com


Labels: , ,

16 November 2006

Nook Take-out

Nook is one of the those restaurants I don't go to enough. I'm reminded of this every time I eat there. I really enjoy their simply elegant, well-prepared dishes offered at a reasonable prices—Nook is just a good value, and what girl doesn't like a good deal, food or otherwise.

But now, I don't need to be at Nook to have their food; I can take it out, instead. While I've always known they have this option, I've not exercised it, because I doubted their quality food would travel well—I know better, now. I was proven wrong when I didn't feel like cooking dinner after a long day at work and wanted to treat myself to good food, but eat in the comfort of home.



I called in my order: Arctic Char with roasted fingerling potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and black-eyed peas, and key lime pie for desert. Everything was waiting for me when I walked in to pay. Once home, I didn't waste a beat plating the food. Even before I took a bit, I was excited by all the colors concentrated in one place. The inky purple potatoes, silky yellow sauce, and pale pink fish were popping off my white plate.

The Arctic Char was a first for me and I found the fish to be mild tasting with a rich, soft texture. It was similar to salmon in look and mouth taste and feel, although its flesh seemed slightly fattier. It was cooked to perfection, as were the roasted potatoes, which were firm without being tough. The tomato, red onion, black-eyed pea salsa gave the otherwise mellow dish a pleasant flavor contrast. Although the peas were on the hard and crunchy side, the tomatoes were sweet and the onions, sharp. Overall, it was a light, fresh tasting dish. I was satiated eating it all without feeling stuffed.



Dessert was an individually made key lime pie with macerated blueberry sauce and whipped cream. The pie was certainly tart, a nice palate cleanser, but made a little too sweet for my taste. The whipped cream and blueberry sauce were necessary with each bit to soften the sugary lime and smooth out the sour pucker. Not great, but it was good enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Nook encourages their meals to go by giving a discount on all the food that's ordered out. Even more reason to get their take-out—a nice meal and a little money saved.


Nook Neighborhood Bistro
11628 Santa Monica Blvd., #9
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 207 - 5160
www.nookbistro.com

Labels: ,

05 November 2006

Pinkberry on the Brain

For the past 2 weeks, the few friends I've come in contact with either on the phone or over lunch have all asked me one question: have I been to Pinkberry?

Unbeknown to me, there seems to be frozen yogurt revival in Los Angeles--one friend thinks this "fro-yo" craze could potentially sweep the country. It might be the 1980's all over again when TCBY appeared in strip malls everywhere. Let me know if a Pinkberry shows up in your neighborhood—currently, they have shops in LA and NYC.

Well, regardless of frozen yogurt's current popularity, perceived of otherwise, I must confess I'm rather ambivalent of this form of frozen desert. Those who know me well in food know I'm completely committed to ice cream. I love the creamy goodness of ice cream and wouldn't think of being unfaithful to it with other forms of frozen treats that seek to reduce its sweet richness with a lighter, lower calorie alternative.

But I'm also a person who likes plain yogurt with fruit and granola for breakfast, and I'm open-minded enough to try to its frozen equivalent, not as an ice cream replacement, but as a snack in its own right.

So, A. and I went to Pinkberry for Friday lunch—an end of the workweek treat. I got a medium-size cup of plain frozen yogurt with 3 toppings. The toppings I chose were blueberries, blackberries, and granola—my tried-n-true yogurt topping combo. A. got the same thing, but picked 3 fruit toppings: kiwi, mango, and blueberries. (Pinkberry also has green tea frozen yogurt.)

Flavor-wise, I found Pinkberry’s yogurt pleasantly tart—how I like my yogurt, soft or frozen, to taste. Its texture was smooth; while icy, it wasn’t grainy. The fruit toppings were generous applied, which I appreciated, especially with berries that tend to be a pricier fruit. All in all, it was light and refreshing, satisfying without being filling. Pinkberry wasn’t ice cream, but it was still good in its own way.



Pinkberry has 5 locations in the Los Angeles Area.

868 Huntley Dr.
West Hollywood

7123 Melrose Ave.
Melrose & La Brea

6th & Berendo
Koreatown

10911 Lindbrook Blvd.
Westwood

12044 ½ Ventura Blvd.
Studio City

www.pinkberry.com

Labels: ,

01 November 2006

Gingerbread and Procrastination

One evening I couldn't bring myself to study, so I avoided my books by baking—a common procrastination technique for me. Feeling in the mood for gingerbread, I roamed the internet for a recipe. One attributed to Laura Ingalls Wilder caught my eye, as I read all her Little House on the Prairie books as a child.

I did modify recipe, because this modern girl just wasn't going to use lard—I used 1/2 cup butter, instead. I also processed the mixture more like a cake. First, I creamed the butter with sugar and then added the eggs and folded in the the dry ingredients. And finally, I incorporated the hot water.

I was more liberal with the spices and used heaping teaspoons of the spices, except for all-spice, which I didn't have in my cupboard, and I interpreted a "moderate oven" as 350 degrees.

I was actually disappointed in the recipe when I nibbled on a bit of the gingerbread that same night. It tasted flat like the spices were weak and unformed in the cake. But some kind of magic happened overnight and it had much better flavor the next morning when I had a piece for breakfast; the spices seemed to matured and mellowed in those 12 hours and the gingerbread tasted more like itself–rich, warm, and now wonderfully spicy.

But here's the recipe, as I got it from the website.


LAURA'S GINGERBREAD

1 cup brown sugar blended with
1/2 cup lard or other shortening.

1 cup molasses mixed well with this.

2 teaspoons baking soda in 1 cup boiling water
 (Be sure cup is full of water after foam is run off into cake mixture).
 Mix all well.

To 3 cups of flour have added one teaspoon each of the following spices: ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves; and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sift all into cake mixture and mix well.
Add lastly 2 well-beaten eggs.
The mixture should be quite thin.


Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes.
 Raisins and, or, candied fruit may be added and a chocolate frosting adds to the goodness.


In addition, I added a lemon icing from Nigella Lawson's Fresh Gingerbread with Lemon Icing in How to be a Domestic Goddess.

Icing
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon warm water

Whisk the lemon juice into the confectioners' sugar first, then gradually add the water.
Spread over a cool cake and allow to harden before cutting.

Labels: ,