Escape from LA in under 10 Minutes

What I love about L.A. is that you can drive under 10 minutes from home and feel like you are in a different world.  On Saturday afternoon, after a late night on Friday, we decided to get some fresh air with the dogs and drove 10 minutes up through Mandeville Canyon in Brentwood to hike Sullivan Canyon with the dogs.  It's pretty amazing, after only about 5 minutes of hiking, you are completely surrounded by nature: no houses, only hills and streams and greenery.  It is a very nice hike with the dogs; a good trail with lots of shade most of the time.  It is a moderate uphill one way and downhill on the way back; about 8 miles roundtrip (we didn't do the full roundtrip).  It was pretty quiet, we passed a couple of mountain bikers (including one on a unicycle, which was quite impressive) and a few hikers with their dogs, but otherwise it was just us most of the time.  I definitely want to make hiking a regular weekend activity; there are several trails in the area that I would like to explore.

Warm and Fuzzy

Since we had a pretty big Friday night out with dinner at Manchego on Main Street (nice that it was byob but the food wasn't memorable) and a couple of drinks out at Bar Copa on Main Street with a couple of friends, we decided to stay in Saturday night and watch The Blind Side, which I picked up at the library during the week.  I think it's pretty hard to watch the movie and not get the warm and fuzzies all over; it's just such a charming feel-good story.  It definitely inspires you to do good and give back to the world.  The story feels a little too good to be true at times, but it was still an uplifting and engaging tale, perfect for a relaxed Saturday night at home.
Update: Sunday night, we watched Up in the Air, which was only ok.  Not really an uplifting feel-good movie.

The Fifth Taste

 The Umami Burger

After a day of apartment searching in Santa Monica with Jeff, we stopped at the new Umami Burger in Fred Segal to review the day's findings on apartments and make a final decision.  The long tables outside on the patio was the perfect spot to do so, and at 3pm, we basically had the place to ourselves.  Umami, a Japanese term, is often referred to as the fifth taste (salty, sweet, bitter, sour being the other four main tastes).  The closest word that best describes umami would probably be "savory."  Umami is often found in such food as diverse as seaweed, mushrooms, soy sauce, and anchovies and is the flavor that the dreaded monosodium glutamate (MSG) tries to replicate chemically.  At Umami Burger, we ordered the eponymous Umami Burger, french fries, sweet potato fries, triple pork burger and market salad.  I really liked the Umami Burger: it was a nice thick, juicy patty topped with various umami containing ingredients: sun-dried tomatoes, shiitake mushroom, caramelized onions and a parmesan crisp.  It was definitely interesting to eat and flavorful, my only complaints would be that it was a little small (Father's Office burgers are bigger) and not exactly cooked as we requested (a little too rare).  The fries were fine; I prefer Father's Office sweet potato fries a little more as they have a little more heft and flavor to them, but I do like the Umami ketchup (at Father's Office, they still refuse to serve ketchup which just bugs me).  They also have a nice beer list with over 40 beers with about 10 available on tap.  I like beer with my burgers so we had Unibroue's Fin du Monde and North Coast Brewery's Pranqster.  I liked both beers a lot; I'm no beer connoisseur, but they are both beers in the style that I prefer: Belgian ales that are flavorful, a little spicy, not too bitter or hoppy, not too heavy or too light, with just a little hint of citrus fruit.  I like the triple fermentation style; my favorite beer is similar to the Fin Du Monde: the Tripel Karmeliet, also a Belgium ale.

Pork burger; I did not try it, but was told that it was good

Umami Burger at Fred Segal

500 Broadway

Santa Monica, CA  90401

(310) 451-1300

A Little Piece of Taiwan

After the farmer's market, we headed east, way east to Arcadia, for some xiao long bao (soup dumplings) at Din Tai Fung.  Din Tai Fung ("DTF") has long been one of my favorite restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan; during our week-long trip to Taiwan last October, we went to Din Tai Fung three times, which is saying a lot since there is so much wonderful (and fancier!) food in Taiwan.  Din Tai Fung is known for its soup dumplings: small, thin-skinned pork or pork / crab dumplings that release a lot of juice when steamed.  We ordered our usual: a small appetizer of tofu and seaweed, 1 steamer of crab / pork soup dumplings, 2 steamers of pork soup dumplings, 2 chicken soups, 1 spicy wonton, and 1 steamer of vegetable dumplings.  While everything is slightly better at the Taipei original, the DTF here is a worthy successor.  DTF still makes the best soup dumplings in Los Angeles (and New York).

You order yourself

Crab XLB

Clear chicken soup

Spicy wontons

Vegetable dumplings

Dessert: lychee, pineapple, peanut butter cup topped with mochi and sliced almonds at Yogurtland

Din Tai Fung
1108 South Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia, CA  91007
(626) 574-7068

 Taipei 101

Farmer's Market A-Bloom

Squash blossoms: I've never cooked with them, but I will give it a shot

We were able to hit up the Wednesday farmer's market on the earlier side yesterday and therefore had some of the best selection of produce that we've had in awhile.  Going to the farmer's market is definitely time consuming but well-worth it; the selection of produce is much wider than at our local Whole Foods, and it is cheaper too!  The farmer's market also seems to get in-season local produce sooner than Whole Foods, which seems to have a bit of a lag.  Now that we go pretty much every week, we have our favorite vendors and therefore are able to do our shopping much more efficiently.  We didn't have any specific meals planned or shopping list, so we just bought what looked the best and was in season. We bought some summer squash that we will probably grill on a grill pan and put it on top of salad greens while still warm (good price at $1.00 / lb and no pesticides):

More heirloom cherry tomatoes for salad / pastas:

Lots of organic salad greens: a big bag of arugula and a big bag of italian mix (wild arugula, mizuna, radicchio)

Our first cherries of the seasons: we bought a basket of the red bing cherries, which were sweeter than the yellow-orange rainier cherries:

Organic avocados for more guacamole:

Beets for roasting for salads:

Our first heirloom tomato, probably will just served it sliced with some burrata, fresh basil and balsamic

Peaches and strawberries also looked good, but we skipped them this week:

Our loquats (pi pa) are so much better. Maybe we should start selling them at the market

F.O.

The perfect cure to a blowout Memorial Day BBQ and lots of beer was...burgers and more beer.  On Tuesday, we went to the Father's Office in Santa Monica with our friend Jeff who was in town.  I have always liked the Father's Office burger: the patty is thick, juicy and salty, matched well by some peppery fresh arugula, rich caramelized onion and bacon compote and gruyere and blue cheese.  Occasionally the burger is too salty, and sometimes not cooked as requested (ie, medium well vs. medium), but it was perfect last night.  It's a little expensive for a burger, but definitely hits the spot and really convenient to our place.  I am also a big fan of the sweet potato fries and garlic aioli.  It wasn't too crowded when we got there at around 7pm on a Tuesday night; we were able to grab three bar seats after a couple of minutes.  It was pretty packed by the time we left around 9pm with lots of groups hovering around for seats.


Father's Office
1018 Montana Avenue
Santa Monica, CA  90403
(310) 736-2224

Japanese / Korean / Mexican / Spanish / Thai / Indonesian BBQ

The only photographic evidence: Korean bbq short ribs marinating

I was a delinquent blogger and completely forgot to take any pictures of our Memorial Day BBQ extravaganza.  We departed from traditional BBQ fare (dogs and burgers) and decided to really go all out on Monday; it was definitely a group effort: Jen and Dee Dee from wine club helped with the preparation for all the food and drinks.  For starters, we grilled Indonesian chicken satay with Jen's famous peanut sauce.  We also served grilled asparagus and grilled baby peppers, and fresh cucumbers, carrots and celery with assorted dipping sauces, including the peanut sauce, tzaziki, hummus, and salsa.  I also made my usual fresh guacamole (2 avocados mashed with a fork, juice from 1 lime, 1/4 of a chopped white onion, 1/2 cup of seeded and chopped fresh tomatoes, 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro, 1 tsp of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp of cumin, salt and pepper to taste) served with tortilla chips.

For the main course, we laid out an Asian taco bar: we grilled up Korean bbq short ribs, Japanese yuzu chicken legs, and thinly sliced spicy pork.  I essentially followed this recipe for the short ribs from thekitchn, with the addition of a kiwi and 1/4 cup of rice wine, and marinated it for 24 hours.  The short ribs grill up very quickly in a few minutes on the BBQ; after they were done, we let them cool a bit and sliced them with a knife / poultry shears.  The yuzu chicken was seasoned with some garlic salt and oranges, and rubbed with yuzu paste (the peel of a Japanese citrus fruit mixed with jalapenos for some spice) after they were cooked through (about 15-20 mins), and then also sliced.  I bought pre-marinated spicy pork which I cut with poultry shears before cooking and made more spicy with extra sriracha and a spicy korean soy paste.  I sauteed the pork in the wok on the grill.  To top the tacos, I made the cabbage / lettuce slaw, made with 1 head of cabbage, 2 heads of romaine, thinly chopped, about 1/2 a white onion, thinly chopped, 4 chopped green onions, 1/4 cup of sesame seeds and dressed with 1/3 cup of rice vinegar, 1 TB of mirin, 2 TB of sesame oil, 1 TB of sesame seeds.  The fresh slaw with just a bit of acid was a nice complement to the heavily seasoned meat.  I also had a bowl of (store bought) kimchi, fresh pico de gallo that I made, and sriracha sauce for toppings.  The tacos tasted best with the tortillas heated up slightly on the grill.  They were definitely a big hit; we went through at least 20 lbs of meat.  I know several people who had 6 tacos each!  Jen also made a thai noodle salad as a side dish that paired nicely with the tacos.

For dessert, Dee Dee made incredible ice cream sandwiches; one with chocolate chip cookies and the other was lemon bars with blueberry ice cream in between.  We also had some fresh berries and fresh whipped cream.  Jen made really delicious white sangria with peaches, apples and honeydew using Martha Stewart's recipe and red sangria with raspberries, oranges and apples using Bobby Flay's recipe.  We went through the sangria really quickly also went through a several cases of beer and a few bottles of wine.  It was a really fun party; we had over 20 people show up over the course of the afternoon.  People went swimming, went in the hot tub (we managed to fit 9 people in the hot tub, which was definitely a record).  The weather was a beautiful 70 degrees; it really was a perfect memorial day bbq and a great way to kick off the summer...hopefully the first of many summer bbqs.