Believe it or not

I'm eating at Chili's...

Dirty & delicious

Sunday Dinner

Last night Mamacita spearheaded what can only be described to as a fitness dinner for the family.



I took charge of the halibut. Made a nice rub of fresh garlic, peppercorns, salt, cayenne, crushed red pepper flakes, coriander seeds and oregano. Then smothered the fish in olive oil and set those puppies on the grill. Once grilled I doused them in fresh lemon juice and served. Halibut is always my favorite so I was happy to chow down!


There were three salads. Three!! One was just a basic romaine lettuce and veggie salad - a Kousakis family dinner staple.

My sister made up a delicious heirloom grape tomato and bocconcini salad, dressed with oil and balsamic.



And mom roasted some beets and tossed them with mixed greens, carrots, sweet corn and feta. I love roasted beets and how they bleed all over everything, including the white cheese! The sweet/salty combo of the beets and feta is unparalleled.



All in all it was a perfectly healthy, perfectly delectable meal.

Brite Spot

Last night I very luckily happened upon Brite Spot, an amazing all-night eastside diner with an old school feel and an extensive and respectable menu. If you know me you know I love a late night diner run with all the trimmings. I also love fresh, real food. Brite Spot combines these two and proves to be is the cleanest dirty diner food I've encountered.




I devoured my bacon cheddar omelette (deductions for what looked and tasted like processed cheddar on my eggs) but top marks went to the banana cream pie.



Real banana. Real cream. Real crust. I can safely call this the best diner pie I've ever had. It didn't last long.

Brite Spot is a bit over-priced, but the authenticity of the food, the diversity of menu and the eccentricity of the decor truly make up for it. Echo Park location is a plus but parking can be difficult.




Grade: B-

Summer Cornucopia

Decisions, Decisions

Choices always bring out the neurotic in me.


I opted for halvsies:
Just when you thought it couldn't get gayer...

What's For Lunch at Crafty?

Oh, you know, just some Ass Meat Mini-Wraps.

Home and Native Candy Land

I could list a million things I love about going back to Canada but near the top of the list is the chocolate bars, known as candy bars south of the 49.

It's a magical place where peanut butter cups don't belong to Reese, they share his name; where Mr. Big is best friends with Oh Henry!; where Coffee is Crisp and where Caramilks are so h-core they eat Rolos for breakfast.

Perhaps it's nostalgia but, for me, I'm pretty sure it's actually the taste and quality that put. these treats a step above the crap we get in the US.

Top Marks: Wunderbar

Peasants' Rations

A huge and integral part of the fitness lifestyle is the peasants' ration.

Eating enough to satiate the hunger but by no means indulging oneself is a fine art that dates back to the ancient samurai.

Room 907 and I have been subscribing to the peasants' ration credo for years now. Here is our latest light lunch:



Tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, oil, balsamic.

Midnight Snack

Parmesan yam fries, Iron Chef: dipping sauce and a solid glass of white.

Mecca

Whole Foods, West Vancouver

Life Lessons

When I eat a bunch of bad stuff, say, for instance, a few handfuls of those great Hawaiian potato chips and three pieces of cake's worth of frosting, I think eating a bunch of salad or broccoli will "balance it out." What I really need to do is just stop eating.

Naan-Sequitor

Food Weakness: Nostalgia Edition

Mother's Circus Animal cookies.
Best frosted cookie in the biz.
One is never enough.

Malibu's Most Wanted

Those of you who have not trekked out north on the PCH to Malibu Seafood should waste no time. Fresh, delicious and well prepared fish and shellfish await you. Top 3 seafood joints of my life, easy - this place is basically an institution. Menu is extensive, with lots of grilled and fried items. Patio seating exclusively with great views of the Pacific. BYOB but don't forget your corkscrew, there's no corkage here and you may get a nasty sneer from that elderly couple drinking the bottle of white when you ask for help. There's a little market, too, which sells just about everything on the menu. Great date spot, great out-of-towner spot, great post-beach binge spot. A little pricey but worth it. Parking is busy so find a spot on the highway. Try the clam strips - they're to die for (so much so they were sold out last night).

Alaskan Halibut (above) and Chilean Sea Bass. Delicious coleslaw.

Fried shrimp. Fish taquitos. Mmmm...

Food Weakness

Onion Rings

Osteria Mozza

I'd like to think that I have a pretty solid grasp on the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to restaurants. My recent trip to Osteria Mozza, Mario Batali's LA eatery, fell into a totally new category: the outstanding! This place really brings to light the difference between dining and fine dining. The entire meal was orchestrated beautifully, so much so that the one and only uncoordinated dual-server plate setting stood out like a sore thumb. Our salty and seasoned waitress was impeccable, the somalier was superb, the bussers were attentive and hardly noticable (the way it should be) and the decor, including the famed mozzarella bar, was simple, elegant and inviting.

Ok but enough about the "stuff" let's talk about the food. I am usually hesitant to go out for italian food, mainly because it's usually cheaper, healthier and tastier to just make pasta at home, but Osteria Mozza ain't your grandma's pasta joint. Not since a trip to Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger back in 2001 have I had cuisine if this caliber. The menu was crafted to near perfectlion, making every bite succulent and significant.

My four course meal started with a shared plate: an oozing, creamy burrata served with grilled bread slathered in olive oil.

This is what my share ended up looking like:

This dish was easily up there with the best cheeses I've ever eaten. A+

Next for me came the Coach Farm goat cheese ravioli
MotherFUCKER, was that good! The cheese was supremely silky, and what a difference homemade pasta makes! A

My main course was a no-brainer: pancetta-wrapped quail with sage and honey.
Forgive the subpar photograph as no image could ever do justice to this unparalleled dish. Two quails completely wrapped in salty-sweet meat on a bed of roasted radicchio, bathing in oil, balsamic and honey and sprinkled with perfectly fried sage leaves. The flavors married together wonderfully with a balance of savory and sweet I can't say I've ever enjoyed so much. This is one of those awesome dishes that highlights the quality of the ingredients and the simplicity of the method rather than the cleverness of the chef or the innovation of a technique. I found it to be extremely playful, very quaint and stellar in it's composition. The balsamic bath got to me a little at the end but that's only because I couldn't stop sopping up every last morsel on the plate. And I've come to the conclusion that I could eat fried sage happily for the rest of my life. A

Dessert brought many delights to our table. I can't quite remember what my dish was called, as by this point I was too enchanted by the wine and candlelight to retain anything but sense memories. A petite chocolate cake dusted with powdered sugar and surrounded by candied almonds was placed in front of me. The crowning piece de resistance was the single scoop of homemade bourbon gelato.
The gelato really took the cake (pun always intended). Sweet, creamy, salty, a little sour; an intriguing flavor indeed. The cake itself was good but not great but as the gelato melted into the warm nooks and crannies (ew, sorry) of the cake I got the point of it all. B

A solid dining experience all around, from valet drop-off to valet pick-up. If you've got the dough and your looking to get a couple Michelin stars under your belt this is a sure bet.

Overall: 4.5 stars

Sister's tagliatelle verde with lamb ragu

Brother's tagliatelle with wild boar ragu

Brother's leg of lamb

Father's halibut

My favorite dessert:
Sister's olive oil cakes with olive oil gelato and rosemary brittle.
Sweeter than you'd think. Truly superb.

Osteria Mozza's famous mozzarella bar.

Baby's First Food Job

My friend Eryn knows I love to cook so when she got a little too busy to prepare a meal for the 20+ baby shower guests she was hosting at her house last Sunday she called me up and asked for my services. This was the first time ever that someone has offered to pay me money to cook food for them! I was so excited. It felt like a huge step in the right direction.

Eryn asked if I could make some mini Asian turkey burgers to go along with the Chinese chicken salad she'd ordered and the plans for the decor. For the record I do not like the concept of mini burgers, especially when they're called sliders!! Ew!

Here's why went down:
BURGERS
4.5 lbs ground dark turkey meat
1 ear white corn, off the cob
1 carrot, grated
3 green onions, diced
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 handful cilantro, leaves, no stems
3-4 tbs hoisin sauce
1 tbs sesame chile oil
1-2 tsp Chinese Five Spice
Salt & pepper

SAUCE
1.5 cups mayo
1 tbs hoisin
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs Mae Ploy chili sauce
1 clove garlic
Salt & pepper

FIXINS
24 French rolls or 16 hamburger buns
6-7 tomatoes, sliced
1/2 pineapple, sliced
1 head butter lettuce

Put the burger ingredients in a bowl (also I don't actually measure ingredients, I just sorta go with what I like, so please follow your heart).




Mix

Form into 24 small patties, or probably 16 large patties
I put them in the fridge overnight but you can get them right on the grill. Always, ALWAYS season before grilling. Grill 3-5 minutes per side, longer if patties are bigger. Shouldn't be more than 7-8 minutes a side.


Mix sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Assemble burgers, sauce and fixins on toasted buns.
They are delicious if I do say so myself. Again, following reipes exactly is for pussies so do whatever you feel, whatever you think works!

Bon appetit!

Food Weakness

Anything Reese's!

Telly Says Must Have

We all know there are plenty of kitchen gadgets out there, many of which are useful and some of which, well, I wonder why they even exist. But no kitchen is complete without one of the simplest of culinary tools, the mortar and pestle. I am the type of cook that likes to start from scratch with whole foods, nothing wrapped in plastic, nothing pre-sliced, so naturally my cupboards are stocked with as many whole spices as possible: cardamom pods, fennel seeds, peppercorns, cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks, you name it!

I love grinding up my own little spice concoctions! Mostly it's the smell that eminates from my little marble bowl that gets me, but I also love the feeling that I'm actually working in a kitchen. In this fast-paced, convenience-driven, touch-screen-tapping society using a little elbow grease has become something of a novelty, so I have no problem taking some time to do some smashing.

Last weekend was what can only be described as my first catering gig. I made some Asian turkey burgers for a friend's party. Rather than spend $4.50 in a jar of Chinese Five Spice I got a $3.50 jar of star anise (which was the only of the five I didn't already have in my spice drawer) and pounded out my own custom made Five Spice - black peppercorns, star anise, cloves, coriander seeds and cinnamon.


Not only was it cheaper but it was fresher and probably more delicious than the premixed. If you don't have one of these little treasures go out and get one! The one pictured above only set me back $25 at Sur La Table and it's very high quality, high performance and easy to clean. Whether you're making Chinese Five Spice, garlic paste or pesto (a namesake of the device itself) a fine mortar and pestle is a must have for any working kitchen.

God Bless...

...the crafty truck sandwich bar!

1.5 avocados, mixed greens, tomatoes, horseradish mustard, roasted pepper spread, mayo and hot sauce all on toasted fitness bread.