Korean BBQ Tacos And Stir Fried Seafood Udon

In celebration of the "blended" union of my mom (korean) and her husband (mexican/irish), I made them a dinner representative of their marriage!  I read about a taco truck in LA that sell Korean BBQ tacos.  Sounds simple enough.  In place of carne asada, I used Korean short ribs and added cilantro, raw onions, grilled onions, avocado and a little lime.    Because the meal was in great need of a starch, I also made a stir fry of seafood and udon noodles.  The last time I ate at Les Figues headquarters, Vanessa made pasta with sliced almonds and so I stole her idea and added almonds to the stir fry--I think they greatly improved the dish.  

St. Regis Brunch

My mother and her husband annually hold an office Christmas party.  This year we went to the St. Regis in Monarch Beach for their infamous brunch.  This is probably the best buffet I have ever been to.  Lots of sushi, salad, omelet bar, traditional American breakfast foods, a pancake bar (where you can mix in ingredients like Grand Marnier, coconut flakes, or Toblerone), tons of meat, and dim sum.  It's kind of a ridiculous mixture.  Also, their desserts are amazing-in addition to their usual petite yummies, they also had a crepe bar.  I think the winning dish today may have been the white truffled polenta.  Also, my blueberry, banana, almond, chocolate pancake was a close second.  Oh and the butternut squash ravioli in cinnamon cream sauce was up there as well.  And of course, everything is better with mimosas.

St. Regis Hotel

1 Monarch Beach Resort

Dana Point, Ca 92629

The Little Next Door

 I love French food.   While Saeyoung was here for Thanksgiving break we went to the Little Next Door in West Hollywood, which was adorable and very cobalt blue.  The service was, ehem, very French.  Saeyoung made the mistake of asking for ketchup for her pomme frites and I'm pretty sure we were the equivalent of lepers after that.  Nevertheless, the french onion soup was possibly the best I've ever had.  Saeyoung ordered a proscuitto sandwich (not pictured) and I ordered a lox sandwich with celery root salad.  We also had a lavender macaroon (also, not pictured), which was fantastic.  They had, what looked like, an amazing wine list though we weren't much for drinking that early in the day. Next time though.

The Little Next Door

8164 3rd st

Los Angeles, Ca 90048

Chicken (turkey) Rice

A good way to get rid of thanksgiving turkey-pretend it is chicken! This works best with jasmine rice cooked with chicken broth and then mixed with cilantro, grilled onions, raw diced onions, cilantro, and shredded chicken (turkey).  The sauce is a mixture of red peppers, fish sauce, sugar, and lemon.  

ronin, revisited

local wild mushrooms with gnocchi with plum wine sauce

seafood trio carpaccio-scallop, ahi, tuna

shoyu ginger salmon

blue crab cake

chicken lemongrass dumplings

spicy agedashi tofu

ahi tuna shimi

I've been meaning to take Saeyoung to this restaurant since I went with my parents when I first moved to Los Angeles.  And as I am living off of student loans, I've been doing some babysitting and saving all the money  for Saeyoung's Thanksgiving visit.  The money was well spent.  on food.  It might be of some interest to note that the other parties of two surrounding Saeyoung and me ordered three dishes-we ordered 9.  In general, everything was excellent.  The seafood carpaccio was served chilled, which felt really great after eating the saltier dishes, good palate cleanser.  I wouldn't recommend the chicken dumplings-they were more or less just dumplings.  I also wouldn't recommend the blue crab cake because it was on the salty side.  I think the winner of the night may have been the spicy agedashi tofu.  They make the tofu in-house and the broth was flavored with jalapenos.  We were craving rice to mix in the leftover broth.  I also recommend the gnocchi.  I was a little skeptical about Japanese style gnocchi, especially with the plum wine sauce but I really wanted the wild mushrooms.  It was pretty delicious though.  The gnocchi were thumb sized and a little denser than their Italian counterparts.  I was sad that this was our last dish and was too full to eat all of it.    

Ronin Izakaya

359 N. La Cienega blvd

West Hollywood, 90048

Thanksgiving 2008-Cho Style

gulab jamun and pumpkin whoopee pies

fig and yogurt salad

the spread

garlic noodles

sweet potatoes

toasted goat cheese and honey baguette

cheese and salami plate

shrimp and capers

roasted pumpkin fondue

pumpkin whoopee pies

menguez moroccan rack of lamb

chipotle meatballs with pomegranate guacamole 

pumpkin log

thanksgiving was as it always was.  we cooked for 1 1/2 days until our backs hurt and then dinner came and it seemed like there should be a lot more dishes with all the work we put in.  the menguez lamb was a pain in the ass to make but I think it was pretty good.  the pumpkin whoopee pies I made from a recipe from Baked, the cookbook.  They had kind of a gooey texture, so if you try the recipe I recommend baking it for about ten minutes longer than what the recipe says.  

Thanksgiving is always more work than is reasonable but we never mind for some reason.  No one complains or gets lazy.  It's kind of great.  

Ajisen Ramen

hiyashi ramen

miso ramen with bbq pork

beef and tomato ramen

My family and I went out for ramen today and we all had conflicting opinions.  I ordered the Hiyashi ramen, which is what I always get because ramen broth tends to be too salty for me. Again, hiyashi did not fail me.  Doc got a the beef and tomato ramen with a tomato soup base-completely a new idea for us.  It wasn't bad.  Saeyoung got the miso ramen and it was too salty.  Plus the pork was mostly boiled fat.  Overall, the ramen was passable, though probably not some place i will frequent.