World Cup of Yum

Fig Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #14 Fig is the bistro in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. It’s one of the only hotel restaurants on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. Fig is an adorable place to go for brunch, which is what we did. It’s also a good excuse to wander through the enchanting Fairmont grounds even if…

Guelaguetza Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #13 Guelaguetza is an absolutely gigantic Oaxacan restaurant in Koreatown. In addition to tons of seating, there is a bar area, stage where they often have live music, gift shop, and cases filled with prepared sweets and drinks for purchase. A regular on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list, he calls Guelaguetza “one of the best…

Chimichurri

One of the things I like best about eating at Argentinean restaurants has always been the chimichurri. Instead of butter or olive oil, chimichurri is usually served with the bread as you wait for your meal to arrive. And once the grilled meats appear (which is usually what you’d be eating at an Argentinean place),…

Tar and Roses Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #12 Tar and Roses is one of the few westside establishments on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. It has Santa Monica prices to go along with its Santa Monica location, but it’s worth it when you have an occasion to splurge on a nice night out. The restaurant is a long narrow rectangle with…

Wood Oven Pizza

There is a giant wood-fired oven in Westchester that is open to the public for pizza-making on the second Saturday of every month. It’s so hot it only takes about 4 minutes to cook a pizza! People from all over come together for this amazing community cooking event. Everyone brings home-made dough, sauces, and toppings…

Tortilla Chips 3 Ways

I love Sundays during Fall, because they combine two of my favorite things – food and football. I had a package of corn tortillas that I needed to do something with. So for one football party, I decided to try my hand at homemade tortilla chips. I am normally the first person to say some…

Miso-Glazed Eggplant

Cookbook Club – Lucky Peach Bonus Recipe The thing that I really liked about the Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes cookbook was that the recipes were so simple (see all the dishes from the Lucky Peach Cookbook Club event on my Cookbook Club site). The Miso-Glazed Eggplant sounded great, and epitomized simplicity. For…

Roasted Squash with Red Glaze

Cookbook Club – Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes For September’s Cookbook Club, we used Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes by Peter Meehan and the editors of Lucky Peach. I chose the Roasted Squash with Red Glaze. Go to my Cookbook Club site to see all the recipes we got to try…

City of Gold

City of Gold is a documentary in which Jonathan Gold explores the food culture of LA. Given my little side project of working my way through Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list, seeing this movie was a must for me. I was so excited to hear that they would be doing a City of Gold event at…

Pineapple Cream Pie

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I love pie. Not only is it one of my favorite desserts to eat (ok yes, one of my favorite breakfasts as well), but pie also tends to be one of the baked goods most forgiving of improvisation. That fits well with my Guessipe style of cooking. One…

Shortcut Kimchi Cucumbers

When I was little, I got on a kimchi-making kick with my mom. Kimchi takes days to ferment, and can be pretty stinky (we did it in the garage). I give credit to my mom for going along with this for several months – I think she thought of it as good mother-daughter bonding. But…

MoCh4 Cookies

These are the best cookies I’ve ever had. Bold statement, I know. But seriously, they’re awesome – a hit at every party I’ve brought them to. People are always asking me for the recipe. So here it is! I even gave them a clever name. What the heck is MoCh4? These cookies have Chocolate Chips,…