Well, our
little “18 inch farm” planted along the back wall of the houses where we get sun is thriving. This morning I picked a couple of lovely breakfast radishes. 
The first I just rinsed and ate but the second made it into the house. Toasted bread, butter, thinly sliced radish and GOOD salt. That’s what I call breakfast!
I just got home from attending Share Our Strength’s 25th annual Los Angeles Taste of the Nation event. This year marked a change in venue after a goodly number of years that the restaurant, wine and spirit tasting was held at a beautiful park in Culver City. I hope they stay in this new space on The Lot in West Hollywood for as long since it is a great space and well suited to the event. The Lot is the old Warner Bros. Hollywood studio. Here’s information if you’re interested; the place fairly drips Hollywood history http://www.seeing-stars.com/studios/warnerhollywoodstudios.shtml.
Share Our Strength supports local organizations across the country working to end childhood hunger. Great event for a great cause!! Not many photos here though the presentations were as pretty as delicious; it’s just not what the day was about.
My day started on the flip side of the food coin, doing my regular monthly volunteer stint at SOVA food pantry, which served to make me aware not to be wasteful as I sampled from some of LA’s best restaurants. I did a quick walk-through to plan my eating, fully intending NOT to throw anything away. I started out with a quick espresso from Intelligentsia Coffee and moved onto the savory bites. My salad course was wonderful Chilled Korean Noodles with Spicy Sesame and Seared Tofu from Susan Fenniger’s Street, followed my fish course (from several places including Jimmy Shaw’s Loteria Grill’s scallop ceviche – all raw, so I wanted to get that in early on this pretty warm afternoon). There was lots of seafood this year. Two years ago was the year of the pork belly; not a good year for Kosher vegetarians. There were great vegetarian options this year; I would imagine that there was some feedback on the issue in 2010.
As I said, it was pretty warm so I stayed away from the alcohol
with the exception of a Watermelon SacrifICE made with Plymouth Gin, which was oh so refreshing! Recharged and onward!
I had a lovely skewer of beef filet (properly rare and simply seasoned), fabulous paella (good crunchy soccarat and lots of saffron YUM!) from Joe Miller of Bar Pinxto. I was not at all fond of Haven Gastropub’s foie gras cheesecake. Too bad since they are here in Pasadena. I’m not likely to go there if that’s their signature dish.
Super good and a few blocks from where I work is Ray’s and Stark Bar at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I find museum food to be pretty good (at good museums anyway), but this place is a step above. Today they were dishing up house made squid ink pasta with octopus. Again YUM! 
After all this and other odds and ends in between I was starting to hit the food wall. I headed over to see Mary Sue Milliken at the Border Grill station for a hug and a quesadilla (and as it turned out a kilo wheel of Cacique Family Reserve cheese).
Time for sweets! At this point I didn’t need much. I tiny scoop of strawberry ice cream that I had spotted earlier, a glass of Short Cake’s New Orleans style iced coffee (cold brewed with chicory, sweetened and with milk but still dark and strong) and a scoop of Pazzo Gelato’s coffee toffee gelato.
What’s for dinner? Sparkling water. Several glasses…
…please support this restaurant.
Last night Michael and I had a date to see The Children at Boston Court (which was excellent by the way) and so we took the park-and-walk option and picked a restaurant near the theatre. When I did a show at Boston Court several years ago I often popped into Japon Bistro around the corner for a quick sushi snack before the show (no sake except on a night when the owner insisted that I have a small glass of ‘rocket fuel’).
It’s as good a choice now as it was then. We started with garlic edemame and spicy tuna stuffed shishito peppers beautifully tempura fried then moved on to the Yellowtail Jalapeno Sashimi with house made yuzu soy sauce, several other lovely sushi presentations and finished with vegetable and shrimp tempura. All accompanied by a flight of 3 sakes that were wonderful. Oh, yeah, did I mention that they know their sakes and change the selection seasonally?
On new years day 2012 they closed as all smart businesses along the Rose Parade route do, and when they returned on the 3rd they found a flooded restaurant. They were closed for 4 months and have reopened with half the staff and a slightly paired back menu. We noticed no diminishment in either food or service.
So, if you’re in Pasadena and in the mood for sushi, put them on your list.
I’m lucky enough to live in a very cool little bungalow court (the only thing that keeps it from being a pedestrian street is that our address is on the street out front; perhaps we should try to get ourselves named…) Anyway, we get together on all fair weather holidays. Yesterday’s weather was perfect as was the food and company. I ate too much…never said that before…
I used a recipe from Fellow wordpresser Conor Bofin. Well, at least I read it before I went shopping… I used a mix of beef and lamb in my kabobs and made a yogurt tahini sauce. Grilled tomatoes and romaine with just a little olive oil and lemon. There was swordfish, corn lots o’ guacamole and plenty of dessert +++.
Deb and I went downtown to do some crayon rubbings of some very cool utility covers 
near the Grand Central Market (more on that in another post) so we took the opportunity to stop at Daikokuyo for ramen. I 
managed to break out of my habit of going with what I knew would be good and I was not sorry. Deb went for the signature ramen which is the sure thing but I had the ramen salad. It was delicious and our waiter was nice enough to bring me a bowl of broth on the side so I had the best of both worlds by dipping my ramen in the hot soup.
A couple sat down next to us and we found ourselves coveting out neighbor’s bowl…
The show behind the counter was pretty good too.
This is why I like living close to the city. Just 
far enough out but close enough to jump on the metro (which was HOPPING today) and get the real deal of anything that the ethnic mix of Los Angeles has to offer. Oh and there was a little adorable girl there who thought she was Gene Krupa. She hadn’t quite gotten the hang of chopsticks (for eating) but she had a mean slurp!
Flori Cooks 