by Christina Waters | Dec 5, 2007 | Food, Home |
First off, there are changes on Water Street. Il Trullo is changing hands – and soon to become something called Limoncello. The word on the street is that Giovanni di Maiao, chef of the original Cafe Bella Napoli, might be coming back to the kitchen. Mangiamo, and stay tuned!. . . And work continues to progress on the long-awaited reincarnation of Oswald. I talked with Eric Lau yesterday and he admits that the opening date has been pushed back to mid-February. But that yes, Damani and Keet are both be on board as partners. “We’re ready to shift into restaurant mode,” said Lau, who admitted the whole build-out of that corner space at Front and Soquel is “very complicated. There are lots of engineering issues.”
Lau also revealed that the new Oswald will open with a full bar — “and that’s pretty exciting. We’re really striving to create something that can deliver the excitement that Oswald did in 1995,” he said. “We want to grow it and redefine it – polish up the concept a bit.”
I told Lau that we were all getting hungry. . . .
by Christina Waters | Nov 26, 2007 | Food, Home, Travel |
That would be the “Original California-Style” hot pepper sauce known as (ta-da!) The Pepper Plant.
We discovered this zippy hot sauce at Margie’s Diner in Paso Robles on the way back from the Mojave last week. Made in Gilroy, this all-natural product is saucy and thick (unlike Tabasco). It is also much, much more peppery than Tabasco, and lacks Tabasco’s distinctive vinegary subtext. The Pepper Plant is loaded with jalapeño puree, chili peppers and garlic. It adds miles of peppery panash to even the most ordinary soft boiled egg. Your condiment shelf needs this product!
by Christina Waters | Nov 14, 2007 | Food, Home |
Rummaging around the seductive shelves at River Cafe & Cheese Shop, I was looking for a substantial lunch. Something to go with that fabulous bbq pulled pork and slaw sandwich. Hmmm, what’s this? A platter filled with gemlike gigante beans, green olives, yellow roasted peppers, caramelized onions, squares of feta and aromatic oregano. Yes! A bean salad to end all bean salads. I bought a large container full of this glorious creation (actually it was the smaller of the two sizes available, $4.35) and took it home.
Glistening in a lemon-scented dressing, the salad begged to be presented on a pretty red plate. Done. Along with that succulent organic pork on francese, it made one of the finest take-out lunches I’ve had all year. Any year. River Cafe & Cheese Shop – 415 River Street, SC – deals in oral temptation. This is a good thing.
by Christina Waters | Nov 5, 2007 | Food, Home |
Ginger & Garlic Vinaigrette: Perfect with arugula.
Three parts minced ginger to one part minced garlic.
That’s how it begins.
Then whisk in your best olive oil and sherry vinegar in 3 to 1 proportions.
Add sea salt to taste.
Toss with arugula.
Killer. (You’ll see.)
by Christina Waters | Nov 1, 2007 | Food, Holidays, Home |
You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a sushi bar decorated for Halloween. Mobo did a fine, if restrained job of tossing a few pumpkins and spiders and cobwebs here and there on October 31.
But I was there for one thing – my favorite guilty pleasure lunch. Sushi. More specifically, tekka maki (maguro rolled into tight little rolls) with shiso (that peppery leaf that tastes uniquely like itself and nothing else). And since it was a holiday, I decided to splurge and have one order of hamachi nigiri. Add a tall glass of green tea, and you’ve got All Hallow’s Eve heaven on a plate. $13, not counting tip. Pure luxury, soaked in wasabi and soy. Arigato.
Mobo Sushi, 105 S. River St., SC 425-1700
by Christina Waters | Oct 24, 2007 | Food, Home, Travel |
Granted this is high-end tourist dining, but still…when in the belly of the downtown LA art scene — I refer to the splendid, if self-congratulatory performative smorgy known as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum, the Disney Hall, yada yada — you will invariably find yourself with few dining choices. Of course you could always buck the worst traffic this side of the East Bay and head to some chi-chi hot spot on Melrose, or in Santa Monica. But let’s say that like me you’ve got only one day and one location — the Music Center complex. Your options are limited – and pricey. But you know that going in. So. Last Sunday, armed with a ticket for a 2pm matinee of Mozart Dances, I needed a light lunch, and a light post-performance dinner, before heading back to LAX and the flight home.
Kendall’s Brasserie obliged with the lunch part – Kendall’s is very 
conveniently located in the street-level front of the Dorothy Chandler, i.e. downstairs from the huge plaza and performance hall itself. Right across the street, the Frank Gehry crumpled spaceship that is Disney Hall blazed in the late morning sun. The huge boulevards were largely empty, it was already 85 degrees out — a typical Sunday in downtown, Civic Center Los Angeles.
Kendall’s — part of the spiffy Patina empire of performing arts caterers — is a comfortable, generic grill with a no-brainer menu of crowd-pleasers. I chose a ballotine appetizer ($13.95) of Long Island duck, studded with pistachios, foie gras and a violet mustard sauce. A fluff of lettuces, and an entire jar of cornichons (I counted 14 of them) topped the tasty, if uninspired creation. Wonderful grainy bread and a too-chilled, but generously poured Covey Run 2005 Sauvignon Blanc rounded out my meal. Maybe the glut of little pickles signaled that this was a dish for a man? But in the same generous spirit, there were at least 20 pistachios in the delicious duck paté. Service was perfunctory, but given the convenience of the whole thing, it wasn’t exorbitant. I left half the wine so as to be able to soak up more of the amazing dance performance.
