"Dinner & Drinks" or "Drinks & Dinner"?

Sometimes I have a drink with dinner and sometimes I have dinner with my drink...

It might sound a little funny but what we drink has an influence on what we are eating... and vice versa! The textures and flavors of our food have so much to do with the experience of eating why not the aromas and sweetness of a drink, floral spiciness and aromatic brightness of gin or the oaky mellowness of a good rye or bourbon?

Sometimes the medicinal tangy-ness (is that a word?) of a gin and tonic while refreshing on a warm summer day is also the perfect foil for a well seasoned skewer of shrimp, or just right to cut through the fatty aftertaste of a grilled halibut steak.

A good friend of mine an Irishman (bless his heart) thinks Bushmills is perfect with everything. Is that because he likes Bushmills? Or because he just has a diet that pairs well with Bushmills? I'm not sure but I do know (thanks to him) I'm more of a Power's man myself...

Cherry lime caipirinhas

Recently my summer cocktail has become a variation on the Caipirinha. As I enjoyed these before with the grilled meats of Brazil & Argentina known as churrascaria I automatically associate caipirinhas with grilled meats and even barbecue. When you think about it, that makes sense. Consider the smoky flavors of the oak grilled barbeque of Texas or the mesquite flavor imparted to the sirloin the Brazilians call Picanha. Here in California we can get passable examples of both, but the caipirinha is the cocktail that bridges the gap in my mind. There is a slight smokiness that the liquor Cachaça imparts to the drink, then there is the fruitiness of the drink no matter the variation makes it a great set of flavors to enjoy with any kind of grilled meat.

Another drink that has been one of my favorites is the Negroni. Equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, it truly is one of the simplest drinks to make yet it has some of the most complex flavors. I recently had this at Fishbar in Manhattan Beach, while it was a little disconcerting that I had to explain what was in it to the waiter, as I said it is simple enough to make, and easy to remember. I made this choice of a drink with my choice from the menu already in mind. As an appetizer I ordered the fried calamari, and for my entree, the grilled scallop skewer with garlic fries and sauteed spinach. Basically everything I ordered would taste good with my drink. The spice from the gin and the bitter of the Campari would offset the slight greasiness that comes anytime you have fried food, but the underlying layers of flavors in the drink, spice, bitter, and sweet, pair so well with fish that this is my go to drink when I'm having a dinner down by the bay or the beach.

Manhattan made with Knob Creek Bourbon

One of my all time favorite drinks is the Manhattan. This is another simple drink, bourbon or rye, sweet vermouth and just a splash of bitters. This drink goes so well with beef, but why? For me it's a memory, having dinner at Val's Steak House in Daly City or Joe's of Westlake was a short-lived tradition for me and some of my close friends. At the time Val's had one of the best bartenders, I never got his name but he knew mine and he knew my drink was a Manhattan. At the same time a rib eye was and still is my steak of choice, along again with some french fries and some steamed broccoli. The steaks at Val's were fire grilled, this grilling was a little different from the outdoor grilling that I talked about earlier, Brazilian and Argentinian grilling is often done on a spit, where this was hot direct heat with just the grill between the meat and the heat. Because it was cooked perfectly medium-rare this steak went so well with my drink, the smokiness of the oak of the bourbon and the spice in the vermouth went right along with the simply seasoned, perfectly seared steak. My mouth is watering just thinking back to those days. Around the same time I would regularly go out to Joe's of Westlake and have a Manhattan there with the Veal Parmigiana! Even if we were there for lunch we ordered the dinner portion with ravioli, or spaghetti! With the crusty French bread it was a wonderful carb on top of carb experience. But the Manhattan with the veal! To his day when I think of pairing food and cocktails, this is what I think back to. The ice cold, sweet, yet bracing bourbon, along with the breaded veal, and the barely acidic marinara... the creamy mozzarella... One set of flavors to sip and enjoy and the other to chew over and savor!

The last pairing I would think about is dessert and a cocktail. I'm talking more than adult chocolate milk here! About 10 years ago when I worked for Bevmo (back then it was Beverages & More) I was sent to a seminar at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, the seminar was on pairing food and cocktails. This seminar opened my eyes to the idea that food and cocktails could be paired. At the beginning the pairing of a gin and tonic with some pan seared salmon and sea beans got my attention, but the clincher was the dessert. A warm rum toddy, paired with the most perfect creme brûlée I had ever had. The rum toddy was warmed just to around 110 degrees and a stick of Ceylon cinnamon was used as a stirrer, the creme brûlée had the perfect balance of sweet and cream, along with a generous amount of vanilla that could clearly be seen as I took each bite, on top of it all the brûlée, the crust of melted and slightly scorched sugar. The rum, a spiced rum was the perfect partner and palate cleanser. As soon as I finished off the creme brûlée I realized that I had had the presence of mind to ration the toddy so that I had just enough to sip right through to the last bite of dessert. For me that was the most successful pairing of food and drink possible, one that brought out the nuances of each part and made it a whole and wonderful dessert.

So that is it, the pairing of food and drink might not be your priority, if you're a Bushmills type that eats meat and potatoes for every meal this doesn't matter! But if you want to try and pair the perfect cocktail with your meal think about why mimosas are so good with brunch, or why margaritas taste so good with that Mexican food. Or even why that light crisp lager tastes so good with Thai food? It's because the flavors were meant to go together!

So the next time you decide to have cocktail, ask first should I have dinner with my drink or should it be the other way around?

My Weekend Adventure - Grand Central Market

Downtown is not someplace we go very often, Chinatown sure! San Gabriel Valley definitely! Out to the South Bay of course! Downtown though not highest on my list of places to go. My weekend adventure at the Grand Central Market is a place I plan to go back to.

At first you might think, "What's another market in a city like Los Angeles?"
In my one visit I can say that it isn't just another market. While the layout of the place is something you can find on the internet it doesn't really do it justice, the open air stalls and the smell of food add something to the atmosphere that reminds me of similar markets I visited in Mexico City. I think that similarity was cemented in the first couple of minutes into our visit.

Las Morelianas

As you enter the market on Broadway you are greeted by the Las Morelianas. Roughly translated it's The Ladies From Morelia, Morelia is the capital of Michoacan. This is meaningless unless you realize some of the best carnitas come from Michoacan! But I digress! As we stood looking up at the menu the fellow behind the counter offered us a sample.

In this one bite I relived all of the meals in my Uncle's restaurant in Mexico City. It was the simplest of samples, the shredded carnitas, just enough to have a bit in every bite of a warm tortilla. Carnitas is one of my favorite foods, it is a bit of my heritage that I am most appreciative of. Every time I see carnitas on a menu I look to it for some comfort. I had come to the market to eat, so I only ordered one taco. Elena loves chewy textures so when the cook asked if we wanted skin (cueritos I knew she would enjoy it. 
Tasty doesn't cover this. The meat I can't say enough about, the fire of the onions mellowed in some vinegar, with the great floral bite of Mexican oregano, and to top it all off, literally, the cilantro and chopped onions. And then just like home I added some salsa made of red chilies. Most of the time I say "That was the best I ever had!" I try not to exaggerate, this was some of the best carnitas I have had in years.

DTLA Cheese

At first if you walk up to this counter it looks like a 8 foot section of a cheese counter. Some of the cheeses in there looked really good, I probably would have bought something if the couple in front of us didn't want to talk about all of the different cheeses in the case.


But I digress... I'm going to do that a lot in this post. What got me to stop was the menu, when the menu starts with "Cheesey Potatoes" as the first item, I'm hooked. There are two choices, Manchego or Cheddar...  I chose the Cheddar mostly because of the bacon... and the creme fraiche... and the chives. It is such a classic combination that you can't go wrong, but the roasted baby potatoes were cooked perfectly and that elevated the whole thing. Each bite of the potatoes may not have had every element that was slathered on top of the wonderfully roasted potatoes but each potato was done just right and that is not an easy task... I know this because I ate the potatoes by themselves, then I would savor the starchy sweetness, then take a bite of the salty, tangy, cheesey, bacon, creme fraiche goodness. Can you tell I liked this? Can you tell I'm going to get it again?

A&B Coffee

Like the Grand Central Market website says "Don't let the name fool you!" What this place is, is a one stop shop for just about an Latino seasoning.

What I really enjoyed here was the selection of mole. Typically what mole that we find here in the store is muddy flavored and sometimes rancid because the oils from the nuts don't keep for very long. What A & B Coffee has is fresh mole trucked in from Oaxaca on a regular basis. 

As you can see the mole when it is fresh stands up on its own. 

As we stood at the counter and talked to the young lady about the moles it was clear she knew what she was talking about. Each mole has it's own characteristics, each one has an individual flair that separates it from the other moles. From the earthy chocolatey flavors of the mole negro, to the nutty sweetness of the mole verde. There were seven different moles in the case, and we were able to sample several of them. In the end we took home the mole verde and the roja. 

Look for this sign to find the mole!

Sun's Produce

Our second to last stop was Sun Produce, really this is what people expect, fresh produce fairly inexpensive prices and really some lines. The cramped space was filled with fresh produce, some of it on the edge of freshness, our avocados for instance were on the back end of fresh. I mean what did I expect when they were 2 for $1? But I digress, again. It seemed like an anomaly out here in the middle of the kebabs, Mexican, and Chinese foods. But there on the other side of the aisle stood another small market with the same long lines and fresh produce. 

Walking Around the Market

We actually made more than one circuit around the market. The first time around the line at the Ana Maria taco stand was down the aisle, the second time it was nonexistent!  Then on the far side of the market was Belcampo Meat Co. I'll just show you what caught my eye there.

Granted there were beautiful cuts of meat, smoked meats, sausage, and like DTLA cheese there was a kitchen. The Twice Cooked Duck sandwich and the Belcampo burger were enough to keep me there.

As we walked back to towards Broadway, we saw the Better Booch, fresh kombucha was sounding pretty good as I got more and more full. And La Huerta, basically a dried fruit and nut stand, there was fresh seafood at Lupita's Seafood. But what we both wanted was more carnitas, at this point I was too full to eat another taco, really what had I eaten, a monster taco, and some awesome Cheesey Potatoes. I figured we spent a little more than $25, but it was worth it. Elena didn't eat any potatoes so she had room for more tacos. And she did enjoy them.

On down the road the mole became a couple of meals, while the avocados didn't pan out the mushrooms were a topping for a steak. And the carnitas, will be something I keep going back for. The lardo butter... Definitely in my future, just like the Twice Cooked Duck sandwich from Belcampo.

This was my weekend adventure, downtown traffic, the memories of my visits to Mexico City, and Cheesey Potatoes. All rolled into a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. Something I plan to do again? For sure and for certain!

Food Memories - Grandpa's Picadillo

Picadillo

I haven't posted anything for a while mostly because I have been so busy, but over the weekend my wife asked me to cook for some friends and I decided that this was the perfect time to write another post about my food memories. While I looked forward to cooking for our friends I wasn't invited. Well I was invited but movie night with "the girls" isn't my thing...

For movie night my wife planned tostadas. While it can be a classic Mexican dish I gave it the spin my Grandfather (Papi) taught me, that spin is to "make each dish your own."

Classically picadillo is ground meat with a sauce with bits of bell peppers, olives and what are generally considered warm spices like cloves, cumin, and coriander. My version is a little different I am not a big fan of bell peppers and my wife is not a big fan of olives. That is the biggest part of making a recipe your own, finding a way to add in the things you like or replace the things you might not like.

My version of picadillo uses potatoes to add a little filler to the dish, another change was the use of oregano and red pepper flakes for the seasoning. The technique of cooking the tomato paste in preparing the sauce for the picadillo is relatively simple but is also the key to developing flavor in the dish.

That being said, this is not the healthiest dish and it's not something that we eat on a daily basis. While this post is not about the tostada dish as a whole the picadillo is the star of the dish. Everything else, the guacamole, salsa, cheese, sour cream, Mexican crema casera, all of that is something you can pick and choose. But the picadillo can be unique to each cook. Part of this post comes from the fact that some people think that if it's not the way their grandmother or mother made it, its not right. There are some things where this is so true. Home-cooked dishes are the times you can give things a little twist. After all when you make something your own you are more likely to cook it again. At the same time, when you make it your own you can inspire others to cook and make each dish their own!

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs ground beef
6-8 medium white or red potatoes medium dice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium white onion finely chopped
4 - 6 cloves of garlic crushed
6 oz tomato paste
1 small jar of capers, drained
1 qt beef stock
2 -4 cups of water
2 tbsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flake
3-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste

Directions

Sauté the onions and garlic in 1 1/2 tbsps the olive oil, lightly salt the onions and garlic, this will add a layer and depth of flavor. Once complete set aside, and brown ground beef. Drain the fat from the beef and set aside. Add remainder of olive oil and return onions and garlic to the pan and add red pepper flakes just barely toasting the red pepper. Add tomato paste to cook the raw flavor out of the tomatoes. Now you can add the beef stock, oregano and Worcestershire sauce and bring the sauce to a simmer. Return the ground beef to the pot and add the potatoes to the mixture.

Let the picadillo simmer and add about 1 cup of the water, bring to a simmer, keeping an eye that the water is cooked into the sauce and absorbed by the potatoes as they cook. Keep stirring every few minutes. Continue adding water and checking if the potatoes are done. Depending on how large you cut your potatoes you will need to cook them a bit longer adding more water.

Once the potatoes are finished cooking, add drained capers to the picadillo and taste for salt.

The Dish

Once you have finished the picadillo you can use this for more than just tostada's, when we were kids this was my Papi's go to dish, this became a filling for tortas, enchiladas, or just something to put on the plate next to the beans and rice eaten with tortillas.

Anytime Papi stepped into the kitchen I remember my Grandma would call his food "pig slop," but to us kids the pigs wished they ate as good as we did. Through his dishes Papi opened a world of cooking to me that I will always enjoy. He made me try dishes as a kid that I probably would never have tried he reminded me all of the time that just because someone cooks differently doesn't make it wrong, and he awakened in me a desire to share with others the gift he shared with me. It all started in his kitchen standing on a milk crate learning how to make a simple breakfast for the family.

Local Eats Part I

Local eats are one of those things...

Either you know where to go or you don't. Personally I like the local joints near my place. Within walking distance from my house I can find cocktails and plenty of good grub, not just ethnic food but a variety of ethnic foods, tonkotsu ramen, vegetarian Indian curry, pho, teriyaki, Japanese curry, Hawaiian plate lunch, Korean fusion, did I leave anything out? Oh yeah Mexican, Cuban, Pastrami, Salvadoran, oh sushi, and several others that I can't even recall as I type this. 

Really my thing is your local eats are YOURS! Just like anything that is yours take care of it. I really do love going to Chinatown or Monterey Park for Chinese food or dim sum, or I love going across town for something that I think is funky or sounds tasty. The Oinkster in Eagle Rock has some great pastrami. But I have Johnnies right around the corner from me. I'm not saying it's the best but it is Westside and that makes it mine.

What really toasts my cookies is when neighborhood people tell me, "Oh that place is okay but this other place halfway across town (in a place YOU never go).... is better!" There is nothing wrong with that per se, I love to hear about new places, what is wrong to me is telling me without even trying the local place that your taste is better than mine!

Listen up its not!!!

All of that being said thanks for listening, now on to the restaurants!

My favorite local spot is near the corner of Washington and Sepulveda. Yamadaya Ramen is some great food. Tonkotsu Ramen is the be all and end all of ramen in my world. I grew up eating that ramen in freeze dried form with the packets, that was probably where I decided that I could be creative with food, I mean what 12 year old thinks, "Lemme boil these noodles then stir fry them." Yamadaya Ramen brings this to a whole other level for me. The 'tonkotsu' broth is made by taking pork bones and boiling them for hours and hours and hours before draining off the broth and using that as the base for your ramen noodles. The KICKER for me is the 'kakuni' braised pork belly cut into 4 oz slices. I won't even go into detail about the different versions of broth that you can get, needless to say its not your simple cup o' noodles.
Here is the link to my Yelp review so I don't get too verbose in here:
Yamadaya Yelp REVIEW

Samosa House
Let me begin this review by saying I am not a vegetarian! I have been in the past but I love meat too much. That having been said, this vegetarian food rocks. Every once in a while I go on a vegetarian kick, when I do this is where I go. Granted it can be expensive, but that's cause when you walk in you see all the stuff that looks good, Chile Pakora, Naan, Samosas, then you look at the steam table and end up ordering the combo plate on top of everything else I just mentioned that's when the bill adds up. The samosa here are the signature item. And the Naan is especially awesome when they take it right out of the oven.

Super Pho & Teriyaki

Yes pho and teriyaki in the same place. They also have some killer kim chee and Korean grilled pork, but I digress. For a good bowl of soup this is my second choice. The only reason it's second is that I don't like the "green medicine dispensary" next door. The pho broth is light and tasty here, it is the very opposite of the tonkostu broth at Yamadaya. The flavor of the herbs and spices permeate this dish. The star anise and pepper aren't overpowering but you know they are there. The teriyaki is done pretty well here too. The service did go down hill a little but the last time I went through there it was pretty good.

Mitsuwa

This place isn't a restaurant in and of itself but the food court is a good spot to get some grub. The vendors provide some decent variations on Japanese fast food. Santouka, Misasa, and Sanuki each do something a little differently, ramen, curry, tempura are the staples of the menus. Plenty of food but it's only for cold hard cash.

Rutt's

This is just a good place for what we imagine as Hawaiian food. The roast pork with gravy gets an honorable mention as one my favorite dishes. Not the best but right up there in the running. Royales (stir-fried rice dishes) are the breakfast of choice and the fench toast made with Kings Hawaiin bread is great. But the spam musubi is the best here.

Tito's Tacos
For me I often wonder what I did before I discovered Tito's! This is NOT Mexican food. This place is LA food! The greasy tacos, the blenderized salsa, the white paper bags filled with chips. As a little kid my Grandfather would take me to Jack in the Box for the tacos along the way to the Marina in San Francisco. Back then they were 4 of $1. It was a great memory that resurfaced the first time I ate at Tito's. The fried taco shell with the melted (or not so melted) American cheese slices. The chili with the chunks of beef, and then the burritos filled with that same chili and cheese. 

I'll continue this down the cause as you go down the road there is always a better place to eat!