Happy St Patty's Day!

We made our traditional corned beef and cabbage St Patrick's Day meal a little early over the weekend this year as K is traveling for work today. It was tasty as usual; picked up about 5 lbs of flat cut corned beef brisket from Pavilions this year along with a few pounds of organic carrots, cabbage and potatoes and of course Guinness! Followed pretty much the same recipe as previous times, although I cooked the veggies a little longer since we had toddlers dining with us. Little k loved everything (except potatoes which she never likes). A true 1/4 irish baby! It was a little bit saltier than previous times, should have soaked it in cold water like we did the first time.

So Thankful

For family, friends and food. Happy 2013 Thanksgiving! First time hosting Thanksgiving at home since three years ago.

Excellent 2009 horizontal Pinot Noir (loved the Rivers Marie Silver Eagle Pinot)

Lazy Sundays in Los Olivos

Wine tasting at Longoria

I love the little town of Los Olivos. It's such a cute little strip of tasting rooms, shops and restaurants, a perfect last stop to a day of wine tasting, or in our case, a morning stop before the drive home. We just stopped at two of our favorite tasting rooms, Tensleys, which make one of my favorite syrahs, the Colson Canyon, and Longoria, with its lovely outdoor garden. We grabbed a tri tip sandwich from the market before heading home, back to reality.

Isabel Marant Ariana jacket, Capu Elvis belt and Salome shorts, Jean Michel Basquiat Uniqlo shirt, Swedish Hasbeen x H&M sandals, Balenciaga bag and Prada sunglasses

The Ballard Inn

One of my favorite places to stay anywhere is the Ballard Inn up in Santa Barbara wine country. It's a charming little bed and breakfast a few minutes away from Los Olivos and right near the wineries on Alamo Pintado Road. We stayed in the Gaviota Room for our 1 year anniversary and this time stayed in the larger adjacent Mountain room for our fifth anniversary. Love the little touches like cookies with turndown service, afternoon wine and hors d'oeuvres, strawberry lemonade on the porch and a hearty post slight wine hangover breakfast. The restaurant downstairs is excellent, perfect for a relaxing dinner after a day of wine tasting. Best part is, you don't have to drive anywhere afterwards! I can't remember the last time we've gone out to a fancy dinner. My favorite dish was probably the beef tenderloin and we had a really good bottle of Demetria Cuvee Constantine that went perfectly with dinner.

Pork belly with napa cabbage fondue

Hamachi with soy yuzu vinaigrette

Rack of Lamb with edamame puree

Grilled Beef Tenderloin

Celebrating 5 Years

Gazebo at Beckman

We went up to Santa Barbara wine country for our first trip without little k in celebration of our five year wedding anniversary. We drove up Saturday late morning and arrived in time to visit a few vineyards: Lincourt, Rideau and Beckman. There's nothing more immediately relaxing and transporting than wine tasting amidst the beautiful scenery. We chilled in some adirondack chairs under shady trees at Rideau and had a little cheese, salami and bread picnic from Bay Cities with our wines in a little gazebo by the duck pond at Beckman.

Lincourt. Nice spot for a wedding

Chilling at Rideau

Some of the vines at Rideau

Beckman wine and cheese picnic from Bay Cities

Beckman. Always a favorite late afternoon stop

Day 1 wine tasting outfit: Etoile Isabel Marant Manuel Stars and Birds romper, Swedish Hasbeens x H&M sandals

First Rose of the Summer

Where did the summer go? It's almost September already with labor day around the corner. We usually drink Rose all summer long, but this summer, we've mostly stuck with beers because I can only fit in a glass a day because of little k, so we don't open bottles of wine as often. Beckman's 2010 Grenache Rose: a more full bodied Rose, which I prefer, though not a lot of complexity of flavor. Roses are meant to be drunk young, so this one may have lost its flavor a bit, since it has been refrigerated since last summer and probably should have been consumed then.

A relaxing afternoon

A glass of Rivers Marie (my favorite pinot maker) 2009 Summa Old Vines Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and a sleeping baby. Nice Pinot, but not my favorite from Rivers Marie. Beautiful layered nose, lots of cherry and fruit but just a little too acidic for me.

Saturday Night Carrot Risotto

I've been slowing easing my way back to cooking, about once or twice a week. It's been at least a few months since I've been cooking regularly, and it's still a bit hard to find the time, but I'm making more of an effort as I still find it relaxing and therapeutic, a way of getting life back to normal. While I can no longer cook things that take 4+ hours to cook, I've been looking for inspiration and new recipes. Saturday night, I decided to give this carrot risotto recipe via S. a shot, primarily because I wanted to use up this bag of carrots that had been sitting in my fridge for a few weeks. It's hard to really get inspired by carrots, and I thought this was a nice way to use a lot of carrots. Only changes were the addition of some peas and omission of thyme. It was pretty good; I think it could have used a little more salt and seasoning along the way and probably would have been even better with fresher carrots in season, but it was a comforting and hearty one pot Saturday night dish that went well with a bottle of our wedding white wine, a 2006 Morgan Metallico Chardonnay.

June 2008 and Now

June 21, 2008

June 21, 2012

The four year anniversary gifts are flowers or fruit. These peonies fit the bill perfectly, as they are not only my favorite flowers, but they were also the flowers (in this same shade) in my wedding bouquet. We opened a bottle of 2005 Chateau D'aiguilhe Bordeaux last night as well which is our wedding wine; we have a tradition of opening a bottle every single anniversary. Happy to say that 2005 Bordeaux are still holding up well! We usually also open a bottle of our wedding champagne, 2005 Schramsberg's Blanc de Noirs, but my drinking is more limited these days so another time. Usually we celebrate with a roadtrip up north, including meals at Passionfish and Jockos; year 1 we did Santa Barbara / Big Sur / Monterey, year 2 we did Sonoma / Monterey / Pebble Beach / Big Sur and year 3 we did Carmel / Monterey / Muir Woods /  Point Reyes. This year we kept it low key and stayed at home and made some pizza. Time flies; happy fourth K!

Jimbaran Bay: Seafood Warungs

The local fisherman putting the boat away for the day

We spent our first two nights in Bali at Jimbaran Bay in the southern peninsula, not too far from the airport. It's nice to have a few days at the beach to relax a little bit, although a day or two is more than enough for me; 2-3 hours under an umbrella at the beach is enough for me for an entire trip, I'm just not a huge beach person. I like Jimbaran mainly for the seafood warungs. On our first trip, we mostly ate at the southern most warungs, near the Intercontinental and Four Seasons. This year, our hotel was right next to the middle warungs, which we tried. It could have just been more peak season (July), but I thought the seafood was better at the southern warungs a few years ago. Nevertheless, we had a delicious lunch right on the beach; freshly caught prawns and whole snapper grilled on the spot in the signature lime chili marinade, served with sambal, garlic, and my favorite chili, ginger, scallion, vinegar dipping sauce, and a cold Bintang beer.

Not complete without a stray dog under the table

ink. Review: Voltaggio on His Own Terms

I don't think I've ever been as excited about a restaurant opening as I have been about Michael Voltaggio's ink., which I first heard about almost a year ago in November. Michael Voltaggio has been my favorite Top Chef winner by far and I've been eager to try his food ever since he won several years ago. I may have had some of his cooking at the Bazaar pre-Top Chef, but I never made it to the Langham in Pasadena and missed out on various one night pop-ups that he has appeared at. Ink only opened a few weeks ago in late September, and I was lucky to score a Saturday night reservation for 2 for K's birthday early one morning.

We were a little late for our reservation due to typically brutal traffic on Santa Monica Blvd, but they were really nice about it when I called and we were seated right away. The restaurant was about 3/4 full when we got there at 7, although completely full by the time we left. The space is nice, clearly very masculine with dark paint, but relatively open feeling with high ceilings, a sushi bar and bar on the right as you enter, and a open window into the kitchen, much like at Test Kitchen, where you can see the chefs, including Michael Voltaggio and Cole Dickinson, constantly hard at work. The restaurant doesn't feel formal, stuffy or intimidating at all; definitely more on the casual side. Service was great, very friendly, helpful and prompt. Pretty much each course was served one at a time.

We definitely over ordered a little, with 8 courses plus a dessert between the 2 of us. We were really eager to try as much as we could from the menu so we really stuffed ourselves. The food was really good; lots of big, contrasting yet complementary flavors and textures in the dishes. Clearly a lot of thought was put into each and every component of the dish. The descriptions on the menu were a little vague, so you really didn't know what to expect until the dish was in front of you, which was quite fun. Before the visit, I assiduously avoided all reviews of the restaurant like the plague in order to preserve the surprise. Some dishes were a touch on the salty side, but I would rather more flavor than less flavor. There's not really a discernible theme or ethnic cuisine to the menu, it's probably just food that Voltaggio enjoys eating and cooking. While there were a lot of new flavors, it wasn't quite as "avant garde" or as "modern" as I would have expected, given his background at Bazaar and from what I remember of his cooking on Top Chef, but that could be an unfair comparison because it may not be his style anyway. Also, it's not necessarily a negative, as modern cooking is sometimes unnecessarily fussy and more about the technique over taste. In any case, good or bad, it definitely wasn't as innovative as the food I had in Barcelona and Madrid earlier this year. But it was definitely tasty and an overall good experience. His food is flavorful and comforting and not overly precious or refined. It's quite approachable, which is also the vibe of the restaurant. I think he changes the menu quite often, as the opening night menu (via kevineats) only had a little overlap with our menu, so I would definitely like to return to see what else he comes up with. The wine list was short but well edited with good by the glass selections that matched up to the food, and the cocktails were excellent.

Dungeness crab / smoked mayo, bok choy kimchi

Spaghetti / giant squid, squash, hazelnut-ink pesto, piment d'espelette

Bay scallops / lamb neck and chickpea poutine, yogurt curds

Kale / burrata, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin preserves, yuzu

Seaweed mashed potatoes / sea grass, sea beans

Quail / banana polenta (not pictured, served in a separate bowl), beet juice, sorrel salad

Berkshire pork tenderloin / charcoal crust, macaroni and cheese, leeks

Veal cheek / red curry, nante carrots baked in salt, fried sticky rice

Apple / creme caramel, burnt wood sabayon, walnut

Tequila / serrano, lime, grapefruit, soda

My favorite dishes were the ones where every component worked perfectly with the other components without overwhelming the others. Favorite dishes included the bay scallops; I loved the crispy chickpea fries, the rich lamb ragu, the sweet seared scallops and the tangy yogurt. I also loved the super tender veal cheek, which had a bit of Southeast Asian flair with the curry. The kale with burrata as well as the buttery and creamy seaweed mashed potatoes were a bit salty, but so delicious as well. We were totally stuffed at this point, but the apple creme caramel was amazing; airy, creamy, crunchy all at the same time with luscious caramel, tart fresh apple and smoky flavors.

We also bought the Voltaggio brother's cookbook, which the chef was nice enough to sign for us.

ink.
8360 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(323) 651-5866

Pizzeria Mozza: Good for Infants Too

Pizza alla Benno

We had friends with a 7 month old baby staying with us over the weekend so we took them to Pizzeria Mozza for a late lunch on Sunday. It's a really good place to take a baby; it's noisy with lots of distractions for a baby, plenty of highchairs, and continually serves food from noon through dinner so can accommodate unpredictable nap schedules. Best of all, plenty of delicious food and wine for the big people. There were several tables with babies when we were there for a 2pm lunch so we fit right in. We ordered the fried squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta (we devoured them so quickly I didn't have a chance to take a picture), bone marrow appetizer, fennel sausage pizza (we order this every time), pizza alla Benno, proscuitto, arugula and tomato pizza, gorgonzola dolce, grilled radicchio and rosemary pizza, and a nice earthy bottle of 2009 Lagrein. Everything was great; I loved the very generous portion of bone marrow (ask for extra toast), and the pizza crusts were thick and chewy as usual. Since I've been on a bit of a spice kick, my favorite pizza was probably the pizza alla Benno with nice smoky speck, a very thin shavings of pineapple and jalapenos.

Bone Marrow with roasted garlic, parsley, flake salt and toasted bread

Fennel sausage pizza with panna, red onions and scallions

Proscuitto, arugula, tomato pizza