Hide Downhill

After an energizing yoga class with Matthew at Yogahop, I was in the mood for some sushi so we stopped at Hide Sushi on Sawtelle in West Los Angeles before picking up some ingredients for dinner at the Japanese markets in the area.  Hide has been around forever; at least 15 years in my recollection and has long been the standard for fresh, reasonably priced sushi.  I hadn't been in at least a year; my suspicions should have been alerted the moment I walked in: during peak lunch hour, the restaurant was maybe 1/3 - 1/2 full.  In the past, there are usually there are lines out the door.  We ordered hamachi (yellowtail), toro (fatty tuna), aji (horse mackerel with ponzu and ginger), uni (sea urchin), scallop special (scallop with mayo and smelt eggs) and an unagi (sea eel) handroll.  While it satisfied my basic craving for sushi, I was definitely a little disappointed.  The fish just wasn't as fresh as I'm accustomed to; I feel like the fish at Sushi King with Saito-san, my go-to sushi spot in Santa Monica, is a lot fresher, and even the fish at Marukai market, when carefully selected, is a lot better.  I felt like the pieces were also sloppily cut; it just did not have the precision that good nigiri should have.  The fish was also a little bit too cold, like it was still slightly frozen or not fully defrosted, which masked the full flavor of the fish.  Apologies for the poor iphone quality of the photos:

Aji: you can see how unevenly cut the fish was; even the thin slits weren't uniform

 The toro just didn't have the sweet melt-in-your mouth texture and was a little stringy, and the uni was a little bland

Hide Sushi

2040 Sawtelle Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90025

(310) 477-7242 

Back to Bali

Rice paddies in the mountains around Manggis, Bali

After picking up my parents at the airport, we stopped to have lunch at Simpang Cafe, an Indonesian restaurant near National and Overland.  There are a couple of Indonesian places in the area including the Simpang Market next door and Indo Cafe across the street.  Simpang recently remodeled, at least since the last time I was there, and the new cafe is nice and more spacious with new tables and chairs.  We ordered the Nasi Bungkus (rice with chicken curry, beef rendang, Balinese style egg, spiced potato with chicken gizzards, and vegetable curry, wrapped in a banana leaf), Nasi Goreng (chicken fried rice), Chicken satay, Gado Gado (a salad with tofu and  peanut dressing) and the oxtail special.  My favorite was the Nasi Bungkus; it reminded most of the food that we had in Ubud, Bali.  I love the interesting and different flavors of the various curries with the heat of the sambal, which matches well with the steamed rice.  The Nasi Goreng and chicken satay were also good.  The soup that came with the Nasi Bungkus and Nasi Goreng as part of the lunch special was also very good, interesting flavor.  The gado gado wasn't as good as the ones we had in Bali, and had a little bit too much dressing, and the oxtail was rather bland.  I will definitely be back to try some more of their rice dishes.

Nasi Bungkus

Nasi Goreng

Bali is one of my favorite places in the world; I've visited twice in the last two years.  It has everything: beautiful scenery, unique and special culture, wonderful welcoming people and delicious (and often inexpensive) flavorful food.  Here are a couple photos of my favorite places and things in Bali:

Pool at Amankila, my favorite hotel in the world

Ducks in Ubud

Monkeys in the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud

 Lovely Balinese dancers

Bintang, an Indonesian beer. We drank lots of these on the beach

Local fisherman catching the wonderful seafood we had at the warungs at Jimbaran Bay

Catch of the day

Simpang Asia

10433 National Blvd

Los Angeles, CA  90034

(310) 815-9075

The Three Stooges

I've been dog-sitting Otis and Floyd's uncle, Toby these last few days.  Three dogs are quite the handful; feeding time and walks are new adventures.  They each have their own beds, but for some reason, they prefer to squeeze into one (small) bed.

It has been another drizzly, overcast day in Santa Monica.  The dogs already have a bit of cabin fever; Otis decided to destroy a ballpoint pen completely.  I left them the dogs at home in the morning as I ran a couple of errands, including to Pier 1 to look at throw pillows (thanks A!)  I picked up a brown pillow on sale for the gray living room Room and Board sectional to play off the color of our brown Room and Board chairs; I still have to find a few more to round out the collection.

I See You...

I may be a little too jaded, but that is one of the lamest movie lines ever.  K. and I watched Avatar last night and we both agreed that it was pretty bad.  Starting with the positive, the special effects were pretty cool and some of the digital scenery was quite pretty.  I don't go to movies very often at all, but I was impressed at the technological improvement (and we weren't even watching the 3-D version).  Otherwise, the plotline was incredibly predictable, the characters were cariacatures, there were some very cheesy lines, the acting was mediocre, and the movie was way too long.  It was a typical, overbloated, James Cameron movie; it still surprises me that it could get nominated for an Academy Award Best Picture, though I shouldn't be, as Titanic actually won Best Picture a few years ago.  I am so glad that James Cameron did not win best director though.  At least we had a nice quick dinner beforehand to redeem the night; we stopped for some tacos at Tacos Por Favor in Santa Monica.  It is my other favorite taco place; I think Tacomiendo has more interesting fillings and the tortilla chips are a little better, but Tacos Por Favor is very solid and cheap too.  We ordered 6 different tacos: chorizo & cheese (salty, but my favorite), al pastor, carnitas, carne asada, pollo (chicken) and shrimp.  I like their hot salsa; it has a lot more heat than Tacomiendo's.  Their tomatillo salsa is very refreshing and the pico de gallo is always nice and fresh.

Today, I started out my week right by going to Dee Dee's yoga class, which was a nice kick-off to an otherwise gray and overcast Monday.  Jen, a fellow wine clubber also came, and the three of us had a nice leisurely lunch at Marmalade Cafe at the Plaza El Segundo to discuss some business ideas.  The food was solid, no particular standouts, except for the large portions and quick service.  After lunch, I explored the Plaza, and stopped in a few stores, including Lululemon, where I picked up a pair of their Run:Speed Short on sale which are cute and lightweight and will hopefully inspire me to go running more.  I love Lululemon; however, I find it expensive, but have luckily been able to buy almost everything I own on sale.  They almost always have a sale rack that is worth checking out, and stores put items on sale at their own discretion, so it's worth checking out a couple of stores.  The Plaza El Segundo is really nice, with lots of apparel stores, such as Anthropologie and J. Crew, big box retailers like Best Buy and PetSmart, and also a Whole Foods and Yogaworks.

 Back of the shorts; I like the details like the zippered pocket on the top and venting. The technical material is silky and lightweight 

Tacos Por Favor

1406 Olympic Blvd

Santa Monica, CA  90404

(310) 392-5768

Lululemon

2008 E. Park Place

El Segundo, CA  90245

Belgian Feast

I made mussels a la mariniere with chorizo last night for the first time as part of a little Belgian feast (Belgian beer + moules = Belgian feast).  I combined several of recipes that I found on Food Network and Epicurious, and the results were delicious, the perfect meal for a slightly chilly and gray May day.  Mussels are actually quite easy to make; the most difficult and time consuming part was making sure the mussels were clean: pulling off the beards, scrubbing the shells and making sure they released any grit that they might be storing.  First, I dumped my 4.5 lb bag of mussels (from Whole Foods) into a large bowl filled with water, some ice cubes and 1/3 cup of flour (not sure why you need the flour, but that's how Ina does it).  I also prepared another large bowl of water with the same ingredients.  I pulled off the beards of the mussels using my fingers and a sometimes a paring knife, one mussel at a time and placed them into the sink until I collected a handful.  Then I scrubbed each mussel completely one by one and put them in the clean bowl of water. Then repeat with the remaining mussels, a handful at a time.  I discarded any mussels that were even slightly open or had shells that were particularly gritty.  I probably ended up with about 4 lbs of cleaned mussels in the end.  To cook the mussels was much easier:

• Over medium heat in my Le Creuset 5 quart oval french oven, I drizzled a little olive oil and sauteed two links of chorizo, casing removed and chopped up, for about 8 minutes, until they were browned and cooked through.  I then removed the chorizo with a slotted spoon and put them onto a paper towel lined plate
• Next, I sauteed 1 small onion, chopped up finely, and half a shallot, chopped up finely (I had some leftover shallot) in the pot with the remaining oil from the chorizo for about 5 minutes, until they were softened.  I then added about 6 cloves of minced garlic and sauteed them for another 1 minute.  I seasoned everything with pepper, a couple shakes of red chili flakes (~1 tsp), a couple of shakes of fennel seed (~1 tsp) and a little salt (you don't need too much salt, because the mussels and chorizo are salty)
• Then, I added half a bottle of white wine (I used 2 buck chuck Sauvignon Blanc; I thought it was fine in the mussels, though it was pretty bad when I tried a sip straight), 1/4 cup of chopped parsley, 1 TB of chopped fresh tarragon, a cup of halved cherry tomatoes 3 slices of a small lemon and brought it to a simmer
• Finally, I added the mussels, a handful at a time (don't pour them from the bowl or else all the grit that they release will go into the pot), added back the chorizo, stirred it around, and covered with a lid for about 10 minutes, stirring it up every so often, until the mussels open

That was it! 4 lbs of mussels pretty much completely filled the pot, so it was perfect.  I just ladled the mussels into two large bowls and ladled the broth over the mussels, so there was nice chunks of chorizo and onion and shallots in every mussel.  I then sprinkled some freshly chopped parsley and dinner was served.  I discarded any mussels that weren't more than 1 centimeter opened.  I thought that the flavors worked really well together: the mussels went well with the spicy meatiness from the chorizo, with the added flavors from the onions / garlic / shallots, slight acidity from the lemons and tomatoes, heat from the red chili flakes and slight anise flavor from the fennel seeds and tarragon, and freshness from the parsley.  The broth was really really good, nice and rich, and very flavorful.

I also toasted in the oven an organic sourdough boule from Whole Foods, sliced about a centimeter thick.  When the bread was nicely toasted, I brushed it with olive oil and rubbed a clove of garlic, sliced in half, all over the bread, for some fragrant garlic bread to dip in the broth of the mussels.  We paired the meal with a large bottle of Schneider Weiss, a German hefeweizen (wheat beer) and Malheur, a Belgian dark ale (you can find both at Whole Foods).  We were stuffed; we ate all the mussels and most of the bread.  We didn't even have room for the chili shrimp cocktail that I made again for K. to try.  It was a great meal and I'm looking forward to making it again soon.

Before: two heaping bowls of mussels

After: a huge bowl of empty shells

Friday Night Drinks

Sorry for the poor photo quality; I've been using a point & shoot for the last couple of days because I need to buy a new DSLR lens

Last night, we made some peach old-fashioneds, inspired by a drink we had a few weeks ago at Milk & Honey in NYC.  I'm not sure we entirely got the proportions correct, but here's how we made it: 1 tsp of sugar (a lot of recipes call for 1 cube of sugar), 1 shot (2 oz) of Maker's Mark, and a couple splashes of Fee Brother Peach Bitters that I picked up at Surfas (I think it was only $7 and will last awhile).  First mix together the sugar, bitters, and a splash of club soda so that the sugar dissolves.  Then add ice and bourbon. I thought it was quite good; I'm still working on acquiring a taste for "brown liquor" (whisky, bourbon, scotch, rye, etc), and the peach flavor and sugar definitely helped out a bit.  It sort of tasted like a strong and boozy Snapple Peach Iced Tea.  I was particularly excited to test out these special welded metal spoon straws that they use at M&H and their sister bars, Little Branch and the East Side Company Bar.  You can buy these straws directly from the bars at $2 a piece; we got ours the last time we had drinks with A. and John at Little Branch over the winter holidays.  We'll just have to mix more cocktails at home so that we can use these straws again!

Sibling Rivalry

This morning, I took Otis and Floyd for a nice long walk down Montana Avenue.  I was a little apprehensive as there are tons of other dogs on Montana, but luckily, the dog presence was rather sparse today.  Our first stop was the Montana library to drop off two books I just recently finished: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera and "Feeding a Yen" by Calvin Trillin.  I did not really like the Unbearable Lightness of Being; it took me forever to finish and was just rather odd.  Maybe something got lost in translation for me, but I didn't really get it.  Feeding a Yen was ok; some interesting anecdotal stories, but overall not as good as Trillin's "The Tummy Trilogy" which I loved, not only for the descriptions of the food, but also for the charming relationship with his wife, Alice.  After the library, Otis and Floyd helped me pick out some clothes for a colleague's new baby boy at Janie and Jack's.  They have the cutest ensembles with great detailing; it's been my go to place for baby clothes for friends over the last few years.

I love the little embroidered crabs

Lunch at home today was slow scrambled eggs topped with a couple of farmer's market cherry tomatoes halved, a chiffonade of basil from my basil plant, and a little bit of goat cheese.  It was so good; the creamy eggs, with the sweet and just a little acidic tomatoes, tangy goat cheese, and the fresh basil was the perfect combination.  I ate the whole plate before I could take a picture.

Lately, Otis and Floyd have been involved in ferocious matches of tug-of-war with Toby's stuffed animals.  Floyd has really come out of his shell; when we first adopted him over six months ago, he was the most timid, sweet little dog and never showed any interest in playing with toys.  Now, due to his tenacity, he is often the winner at tug-of-war versus Otis, who has several pounds on Floyd.  No matter how heated their fights get, they are still inseparable at the end of the day and are the bestest of friends.