World Cup of Yum

Bacon-Wrapped Bananas

They’re bacon-wrapped bananas… need I say more? I love these for football parties. They are salty, sweet, and a little spicy. The bacon fat caramelizes the banana as it cooks so you get amazing crispy bits. And they’re easy to pop in your mouth as you watch the game. Guessipe 4 bananas, each cut into…

Animal Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #21 Animal is another of several restaurants by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo that make appearances on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. In addition to Animal, Jon and Vinny have Son of a Gun, Jon & Vinny’s, Petit Trois, and Trois Mec – all within about a 3-mile radius in the Fairfax area. So far I’ve only been…

Turkey, Mashed Cauliflower, Gravy, Butterscotch Pudding

Cookbook Club – Thanksgiving For November’s Cookbook Club, we decided to do a Friendsgiving celebration. Instead of specifying a cookbook, we left it open to give everyone a chance to test run the recipes they planned to make for Thanksgiving. I had planned to make mashed cauliflower and gravy, but ended up also making turkey,…

Lukshon Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #20 Lukshon is the modern Southeast Asian restaurant by Sang Yoon (the chef famous for the “Changes and Modifications Politely Declined” policy he started at his burger place Father’s Office). Its patio area has the luxury of facing the pedestrian-only street of the Helms Bakery complex, so you can enjoy the weather while having…

Brussels Sprouts Salad

Brussels sprouts have become so trendy that it seems like every restaurant has them on the menu, usually roasted and often with some sort of sweet glaze like balsamic or maple. But I never saw them raw, and began to wonder if you could serve them that way. They do after all resemble tiny cabbages….

Sunday Supper

A group of our food-loving friends got together for a Sunday Supper potluck, and it was quite the fall feast. Warming comfort food was abundant and wine was flowing! I made jook (go here for my Guessipe), which is a hearty soup made with turkey and rice, then dressed to taste by the eater. This…

Jook

Jook is one of my favorite Thanksgiving family traditions. It is a hearty rice soup, which my family makes using the turkey carcass. We intentionally leave a lot of meat on the bone when carving the turkey, expressly for this purpose. As soon as the turkey is carved, we start the jook cooking, so that…

Baroo Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #18 Baroo is one of the most strikingly different restaurants I have been to. In some ways, it is so very LA… in a strip mall next to a 7-Eleven, with no sign other than the remnants from the previous establishment which looks to have once read “Thai Noodle”; ingredients that are local, sustainable,…

Breakfast Toasts

I am torn about the fact that “Toasts” have become a thing in LA restaurants. On the one hand, I quite enjoy them. On the other hand, I think it’s absurd to pay $12-$15 for what really amounts to a dressed-up bit of something on a slice of bread, especially when that something is often…

Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party

If you haven’t heard of it, you need to know about this amazing (as in causes amazement, rather than startlingly impressive) show called Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party. It is exactly what it sounds like – a cooking show with Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg. Of course my foodie friends and I had to check it…

Fermented Bean Curd Spareribs

Fermented bean curd is a wonderful seasoning you can buy jars of at the Asian market. It has a salty, almost meaty flavor, which is so good that in a pinch I’ve been known to just mash up a cube of fermented bean curd and eat it over rice. So if you mash it over…

Brains and Spiders (Cauliflower Olive Gratin)

Cookbook Club – Halloween For October’s Cookbook Club, we wanted to have a Halloween party, so instead of choosing a cookbook we just asked everyone to make something spooky-looking, creepy to eat, or otherwise Halloween themed. I made Brains and Spiders! AKA cauliflower and olive gratin. Go to my Cookbook Club site to see all…