Cholada, Malibu

Ah, we were so hungry after our hike that half of the food was gone before I realized that I wanted to take pictures of it.

Cholada came highly recommended by a Thai friend who said that this was the best Thai food she has had in L.A.. We got a spicy basil stir fry, green papaya salad, panang curry and a noodle dish. What amazed me the most was that each dish wasn't oily, and the chefs really let the flavors of the ingredients shine through.

Being in the 'Bu has added benefits--celebrity sightings! While we were there, George Bluth Sr from Arrested Development stopped by for take out.

Cholada

More Everyday Asian Meals

Shungiku is garland chrysanthemum. It is commonly used in Asian soups and salads. I found a bunch of organic shungiku at Nijiya and bought it without even knowing what to do with it. I decided to add it to a stir-fry. It's a bit bitter, and it's said to be good for the digestive tract. I stir-fried it with thinly sliced beef, bean sprout and turnip and topped it all with chopped leftover inari tofu skins.

Below are two egg drop soups I made recently. They contain turnip greens, turnip bulb, bean sprouts and beef in it. The broth is dashi stock that I made myself. You can also add brown rice to it and season the broth with mirin (a japanese cooking wine). I just seasoned to taste with salt and soy sauce. Add the egg at the last minute and turn off the heat once the egg white has cooked (ideally the yolk will still be a little runny). Alternatively, instead of keeping the egg yolk whole you can mix it all up inside the broth.

Le Pain Du Jour, Santa Monica

Le Pain Du Jour in Santa Monica is one of my favorite bakeries. I've tried the pain au chocolat, the ham and cheese croissant and the spinach croissant, and they're all drool worthy, but the one that takes the crown is the almond croissant. Dusted with powdered sugar and sprinkled with toasted almonds, this croissant with its fluffy yet crunchy pastry shell is the juiciest pastry I have ever eaten. "What is that? Almond extract?" I wondered. "Butter," Brad replied. Well butter never tasted so good, and for this I'll gladly take the extra calories.

After my first croissant, I was dreaming about having another one, so I asked for it for Valentine's Day. Yes, just a croissant please. Brad happily obliged (and got one for himself too along with a ham and cheese croissant).

One last thing, it is cash only and selection runs out as the day goes on. Go early for best selection.

Le Pain Du Jour

See's Chocolates

Ah, the post-Valentine's Day chocolate coma...

Another client gave me a box of chocolate for Valentine's Day! I'm spoiled, aren't I? ;) See's chocolates brings back a lot of childhood memories, mostly of biting into each one, not knowing what was inside. (Insert Forest Gump quote here) All of the chocolates in this box were delicious, with my favorite probably being the dark chocolate caramel chew.

An Everyday Soup Meal and Sprouting Rice

My Asian food addiction is still going strong and I've been making and consuming dashi soup broth like crazy. This soup has napa cabbage, sprouted brown rice and thinly sliced pork inside a broth of dashi mixed with just a little soy sauce. You can also add mirin, a japanese cooking wine, to taste for added flavor.

With some leftover Harumi carrot tuna salad, it was such a satisfying and healthy meal!

By the way, I've been sprouting my brown rice lately. How do you do it? First soak the brown rice overnight in filtered water. Then rinse the rice and drain the water from it. Place the rice in a colander and let it sit, covered, for 12 hours. Then rinse it again and let it drain. Let it sit for another 12 hours covered (don't put it in direct sunlight). Then cook as normal. Sprouted brown rice is more nutritious than regular rice and is easier to digest.

Jacques Torres Valentine's Chocolates

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

In honor of V-day, here's a post on every woman's favorite dessert--chocolate! And this is no ordinary chocolate... It's made by the self proclaimed "Mr. Chocolate" himself, Jacques Torres.

Ah, I'm a lucky girl. One of the families I work for gave me this Jacques Torres heart shaped box of 34 assorted chocolates. If you don't know who Jacques Torres is (that's ok, I didn't until a week ago), his list of awards and accomplishments are overwhelming. He was the former pastry chef at Le Cirque and is considered one of the country's finest chocolatiers. He has stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but thankfully you don't have to go to the big apple to get his chocolates--he sells them online here.

So what's a girl to do with 34... err, 28... um, 20 chocolates? Pace herself, I suppose. Hehe. And share them so she doesn't go into a chocolate coma! My favorite flavors so far have been the white chocolate key lime (it's the one with the cute love bug on top), dark chocolate coconut, pineapple pastis, European peanut butter and dark chocolate spiced with ancho and chipotle chilies.

Jacques' chocolate chip cookies have gotten considerable media attention. Martha Stewart, the NY Times and others have proclaimed this the best cookie ever. I got to try one and it definitely lived up to its reputation. The dark chocolate inside is swirled throughout the cookie instead of kept as "chips". The recipe for his cookie can be found here.

Japanese Snacks

I was craving snacks, but didn't want to regret eating them later. I went to Nijiya and picked up these sweet potato snacks--just sweet potato, sugar and canola oil. They're crunchy, not too sweet, and pretty guilt free.

I also went to Whole Foods earlier and picked up these Wasabi vegetable crisps. They're good, but that wasabi goes straight to my sinuses. Next time I'm going to get the regular vegetable crisps without the wasabi.

Updated Recipe Index

Happy Friday everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I have finally updated my recipe index (see top right) after months of neglect. I've also added more tags to the entries.

Homemade spicy Inari sushi

You can pay $5 at Nijiya for five pieces of pre-made inari sushi, or you can pay the same amount for twenty inari skins and stuff them yourself. Yup, I got wise and started making my own inari. The skins that I bought are free of msg. I stuffed them with homemade sprouted brown rice mixed with rice vinegar, canned tuna, salt and a little soy sauce to taste.

Next, I topped each inari with a mixture of sriracha and mayonnaise, ginger and avocado (optional). Brad proclaimed it the best inari he's ever eaten. They're so pretty! The avocado and sriracha mayo sauce gives it a nice creaminess, the tofu skins are mildly sweet, and the ginger perks the whole thing up.

Beard Papa's Cookie Cream Puff

We had a couple of friends over for dinner during the weekend and I made some okonomiyaki and Harumi's carrot tuna salad. For dessert, they brought over Beard Papa's new cookie cream puffs! The crunchy cookie coating tastes sort of like gingerbread and adds a new dimension of flavor to the vanilla cream puff that I really enjoyed.

Wilshire, Santa Monica

Wilshire (the restaurant) located on Wilshire (boulevard) offers gourmet food in a beautiful modern outdoor oasis.

My friend and I came here for lunch last week. Just our luck, when we got there we discovered that it was DineLA week, which meant that they have a 3 course meal for $22. This is a great deal, since on the regular menu just the entree would have been around $18.

We chose the:

Lobster bisque with lemon grass creme fraiche

Ahi tuna salad seared rare with fingerling potatoes, tomato, artichoke, egg

Almond pear tart with champagne sabayon, almond ice cream

We also got complimentary brioche and butter which was so good. I'd eaten dinner at Wilshire before (get the short ribs!) and the service and food this time around was just as perfect. After lunch we got a tour of the whole restaurant! Click here for more info about DineLA.

More Everyday Asian Meals

I've been on a Japanese/Asian food kick for a month or so. When I don't feel like going off of a recipe, I have been whipping up these instant stir fry meals that are so easy and delicious.

Here are the ingredients I typically use:

bean sprouts

thinly sliced carrots

napa cabbage

onion (white or green)

egg

thinly sliced beef or pork

japanese greens like mizuna or turnips

soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste

you can garnish with...

shredded nori

bonito flakes

sriracha sauce

sriracha and mayo mixed