World Cup of Yum

Carrot Coconut Curry Pasta

We were doing a pasta party, and all of the standard sauce bases were covered – tomato, vodka, bolognese. So I wanted to experiment with something different. When I was recovering from knee surgery, my cousin had made me a big batch of carrot coconut curry soup, and I remembered thinking those flavors might be…

Gailan with Oyster Sauce

Cookbook Club – All Under Heaven; Land of Fish and Rice For January’s Cookbook Club, we celebrated Chinese New Year with two cookbooks – All Under Heaven by Carolyn Phillips and Land of Fish and Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop. I chose the Gailan with Oyster Sauce. Go to my Cookbook Club site to see the…

Vincenti Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #27 Vincenti in Brentwood is not only one of the “10 great Italian restaurants” Jonathan Gold has written about; it also makes Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. A large bar runs the length of the restaurant. Many of the patrons are in business attire and look like they might be having a work meeting….

Closing Out the Year of the Monkey

Chinese New Year is one of my favorite holidays. It’s largely centered around food, and you go home with sweets and red envelopes full of money. Need I say more? I inherited my love of food from my family, so there is no shortage of good eats at our Chinese New Year feast. It typically…

Lychee Longan Pie

For Chinese New Year, my cousin had the genius idea of making a Lychee Longan Pie. As far as Chinese desserts go, canned lychee and longan are better than most in my opinion. You just open the can and eat the fruit, but it’s way better than that red bean nonsense that passes for dessert…

Sticky Rice Stuffed Chicken

When I was a kid, my grandma often made sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves. I loved it, but she lived across the country so when I couldn’t get it from her, it would always be one of the items I ordered at dim sum. There was something kind of magical about peeling open the…

Salt’s Cure Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #26 Salt’s Cure is a Hollywood spot on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. While some of the places on his list are street trucks or hole-in-the-wall (dare I say “dives”), this is more of a date night restaurant. Dimly lit (thus the grainy pics), bar, patio seating, and prices to match. If you’re…

Amaretto Coffee Cupcakes

I know that cupcakes have been all the rage lately, but I have to admit I haven’t been swept up by the craze. I just can’t get super excited about paying $6 for a single cupcake at some shop dedicated solely to the art of the cupcake. With $6 worth of ingredients, I could make…

Pok Pok LA Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #25 Pok Pok LA is one of the several Thai restaurants on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. Somewhat more expensive than your typical local Thai joint, it’s part of something of a Pok Pok empire, with the original Pok Pok in Portland. Inside there is a well-stocked bar. Outside is a patio area that…

A.O.C. Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #24 A.O.C. is one of Suzanne Goin’s restaurants to regularly make Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list (Lucques is another, which I haven’t made it to yet, but it’s on my list to make it to their Sunday Supper!). A.O.C. has a beautiful courtyard patio with big doors into the restaurant and bar, vines creeping up the surrounding…

Snowy Smorgasbord

What happens when a bunch of foodies go up to a cabin in the mountains for a winter weekend getaway? A lot of cooking and eating… oh, and some snow play too. Day 1 Coconut pancakes for breakfast. Some off-trail riding to work up an appetite. Chicken under a brick, chickpeas romesco, and garlic rice…

Spicy Peanut Noodles

This was my aunt’s go-to dish for parties. I think it’s an Americanized version of a peanut noodle dish that probably originally called for egg noodles. But she always used spaghetti, which is so convenient because I always keep a package of dry spaghetti around. It’s a simple, make-ahead dish that people will rave about….