Food Love

Brisket taco topped with the roasted poblano and bbq sauces, cabbage & cheese from Salt Lick Taco Bar in Austin airport on my layover back from Tampa. Highly recommend stopping by if you find yourself in the right terminal!

Three Things

1. Salon Salon of Anna Maria Island did a wonderful job on hair and makeup!
   
2. Bradenton Beach and the surrounding beaches made for a peaceful, sunny mini-getaway.
3. The glowing bride and myself - we've come a long way since middle school days!
   

East Coast Weddings (Weekend III)

Off to the southern gulf coast of Florida to take part in and celebrate the nuptials of Christina Reed and Matthew Beers this weekend! I've known them since middle school :)

Three Things

1. Magnolia Bakery's cupcake of the month is Snickerdoodle. I suggest everyone within reasonable distance to one of their bakeries go get one as soon as possible. It's also a super awesome coincidence that the (early) birthday celebrant's favorite cookie is Snickerdoodle.
2. Popbooth is one of my favorite apps on my phone. Highly recommend that you download it to your iPhone or iPad!
3. I can't say enough good things about the crew at Lola Gaspar in Santa Ana. We shared the cured chorizo flatbread, short rib mole and special ribs of the day - the cocktails and drink options were great, and I'd like to give kudos to Bartender Ed for introducing us to their homemade bourbon + tangerine wheat beer combo.
   

Cities Across the (Atlantic) Pond - Alsace Wine Route

Working a bi-continental role while I was with GE Energy had me splitting time between Greenville, South Carolina and Belfort, France. While Belfort was quite a small town, the train service was well connected to other cities in the Alsace region. My two favorite to wander around were Strasbourg and Colmar - mainly due to the architecture that made you feel like you'd step into the pages of old storybooks and the great wineries along the route.

Food Love

I love almond croissants. I also love pain au chocolat. As the nice older baker gentleman at the Los Feliz Farmer's Market pointed out the other day to me, I shouldn't have to choose - I should just get a chocolate almond croissant from his stand. And so I did.

Localizing - Props sans photos

Unfortunately for my blog's audience, sometimes my hands are too busy stuffing my face with the food I eat to capture good documentation prior to the plate/coffee-cup/glass being cleaned.

• Black Market Liquor Bar (Ventura & Carpenter) - Ricotta gnudi. Order it.
  
• Cafecito Organico (Hoover & Bellevue) - One visiting friend this weekend exclaimed, "I've never had a coffee kick in this quickly" after a long night out in Venice.
  
• Tacos Delta (Sunset & Lucille) - Quick service and some ridiculous magic salsa paired well with a great fish and shrimp tacos combo plate.
• Eveleigh (W Sunset & Sherbourne) - I normally don't do oysters. This dining experience changed that. Served with a crazy champagne & black pepper granita. Mind blown. My other favorites included their hangar steak, burrata & heirloom tomatoes and duck rillettes.
• The Village Bakery & Cafe (Los Feliz & Garden) - Lemon-Rosemary-Almond-Olive Oil Cake is heavenly.
  

Three Things

Dedicated to my excuses for the slacking in updates this past week/end:

1. DIY-ing this year's Halloween costume, the Hamburglar.
2. Roaming around Pacific Beach in wonderful 80+ degree weather.
3. Grubbing on incredible banana blackberry pancakes from Isabels Cantina
   

Food Love

Pistachio macaron from Bouchon Bakery in New York. Thomas Keller, you sir are amazing.

Food Love

Before I left Baltimore for New York, Allison and I did brunch at Miss Shirley's near Loyola College. She had the veggie egg tower, and I had the chicken fried steak on biscuits with gravy.

Three Things

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a teensy bit of an obsession with shoes. Since the cleanse of my collection before moving to California, I try to limit purchases to classic versatile styles that I know I'll get a lot of mileage out of - style and comfort-wise. Here are my three current go-to themes:

Metallics
(Hunter wedge wellies & Kelsi Dagger pumps)

Classic black with attention to detailing
(Mossimo booties & Rosegold pumps)
Neutrals
(Schutz peep toe booties & Cole Haan pumps)

LA Weekly posted a fun top 50 list of why its namesake city is THE best: http://t.co/X7LLcYi6

Food Love (& Localizing!)

Braised short ribs and poached eggs from Rockwell VT

Localizing - Indian Summer

in·di·an sum·mer

Noun:

A period of unusually dry, warm weather occurring in late autumn. A period of happiness or success occurring late in life.

(Thank you, Google definition search.)

It's supposed to be well over 90 today and tomorrow. Such a tease that we had temperatures drop into the 60s the other week, allowing me to break out the fall boots. I even got to break in the Hunter wellies with a full day of rain at one point.

Sigh.

Back they go to the waiting queue for another rainy day.




Sneak peek at next Tuesday's Three Things:

Three Things

I am quite excited that they've extended deliveries to a year-round system for the CSA California drop-off at my work. Since joining in late spring, the batches of fruits and veggies have gotten me to try all sorts of new recipes. Here are photos of my latest experiments from the latest batch:

Roasted tomato soup from Smitten Kitchen

Sausage and Kale Soup from Martha Stewart

Cauliflower Gratin from Smitten Kitchen

Localizing - Temescal Canyon

Food Love (& Localizing!)

Fresh squeezed peach juice, homemade sausage & homemade ricotta donuts with blackberry puree courtesy of the Gastrobus which comes weekly to the Los Feliz Farmers Market - only a few blocks from my apartment!

Three Things

Three snapshots from my 10 days on the East Coast in September.

Reunited with Feven and Allison at Cleo & Alex's wedding in Street, MD

Bacca - Tamara's adorable golden-doodle pup

Enjoying Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA & soft pretzels with Pete after Desi & Tim's wedding

Dee Eye Why

Latest experiment resulted in two new bracelets!

• Double-wrap bracelet from reworking chained pieces out of an old necklace I haven't worn in a while plus a large glass bead
• Single chain bracelet with turquoise beads woven in and out of the links

Food Love

Chorizo tacos from Miski Gourmet truck

East Coast Weddings (Weekend II)

Tomorrow, I'll be heading to South Jersey reunite with some great UMBC friends in celebration of the nuptials of Desi Tubb and Tim Conway.

Miss Tubb, or should I say the soon-to-be Mrs Conway, is pictured at to my left. Many of my fond early-college memories of pasta and t-shirt parties, long runs in Patapscos and bus rides to meets include Desi and the additional lovely ladies of UMBC XC below...see you girls soon!

Food Love (& Localizing!)

Mint-lime (Vegan!) sorbet from Paradis Ice Cream

East Coast Weddings (Weekend I)

Today we're headed up to Street, Maryland to celebrate Cleo and Alex's wedding!

The lovely bride is pictured to my immediate right - she and Allison helped me plan a surprise visit for Feven and Emily one fall when I was helping to recruit at Maryland schools for GE IMLP.

Food Love (& Localizing!)

Sapporo-battered soft-shell crab and chips with vinegar and tartar sauce from Papa's Place

I absolutely adore this family-run business which is a short walk away from my apartment. Allison and I stopped in on a hot sunny day and were treated with amazing service and given samples of their heavenly watermelon-strawberry-pineapple lemonade during our lunch.

Headed Back East for Weddings!

I'll be East Coast'ing it for the next 10 days - attending two weddings (one in Maryland, one in New Jersey) and working from the NYC office in between. Aside from the obvious excitement about the lovely friends I'll catch up with, I am quite looking forward to Yuengling, Pub Dog pizza, being in the city during NYFW...not so much the head and humidity, but I'm sure I'll survive :)

Back to packing!

The City That Never Sleeps

A friend recently asked me what my favorite city was. I couldn't answer. As my blog header indicates, I've done my fair share of adventuring via plane, train, automobile and the occasional boat.

What better to do than use that question as a subject of a series of blog entries. But where to start?

Many thoughts later and after going through my past years' albums, I still can't rate the cities I've visited. They've all featured such unique memories. There are some that I'd like to claim pseudo-local status based on the volume of friends, family and stories...out of these, New York City takes the cake. Even if I can't rank my favorite cities, I can name my favorite places to eat, visit, drink and wander around within each. That should count for something right?

So here's my NYC rundown:

1. The High Line - thisconverted rail line (pictured above) is hands down one of my favorite places in the city. With Frying Pan not too far from the northern beginning of the park and Chelsea Market and the Standard (pictured at right) along the way, it's a one-stop shop for fun and food with a great set of views.
2. Bars and restos along and nearby St Marks Place - Bua, Rai Rai Ken and Polonia ...unrelated to food, but definitely a great stop inthe surrounding neighborhood is Galleria Nails - THE best manicure and pedicure quality and deals and are amazingly friendly.
3. Beauty Bar - Countless nights out in NYC have ended with a great dance party in the back room of this bar. Additional points because Artichoke pizza is so close.
4. Sunday brunches - Atlanta and the South gave me an appreciation for the Sunday brunch ritual, but New York has it refined to an art and the options seem endless. Braai offers a great South African spin on the brunch norm, and Prince Street Cafe became a go-to after one fun New Years Eve trip.
5. Russian baths - After all the eating and drinking and walking around the city, sometimes you just need to relax and decompress. In fact, its become the New Years Day afternoon tradition.

Ohhh memories. This entry makes me even more excited to be headed back to the city for a week of work in between weddings in Maryland and New Jersey. Also, while favorites and traditions are always good to have on deck, I'm always open to suggestions of new places to try out...so send 'em my way.

See you soon, NYC!

Three Things

This week's Three Things post is more of a Three Pictures Across Three Years post. One of the friends I'm excited to catch up with next week in NYC is Alana - we met via IMLP, the only two girls in our US Energy class...many cities later, we've both moved onto new professional adventures on opposite ends of the country but are only a tweet or blog away!

2008 - Atlanta, new roomies first night out on the town!

2009 - Shanghai, out of the classrooms

2010 - New York City, right before we flew out to Atlanta for IMLP graduation

(International) Food Love

Sacher Torte from Cafe Aida in Vienna

Localizing - LA Weekly's Annual Pancake Breakfast

As mentioned in my Runyon Canyon entry, much enjoyable grubbing was done while Allison visited me last weekend. We introduced her to In & Out, Papa's Place, food trucks, Fred 62, House of Pies, Wahoo's fish tacos...

...but best of all, we attended LA Weekly's First Annual Pancake Breakfast. The event was held downtown at the Vibiana, a gorgeous event space that had been the city's first cathedral - and there was already a long line when we arrived a few minutes before the event start time of 11am. The doors open promptly and the line moved swiftly; once checked in, we were greeted with awesome coffee mugs and handy forks with curved edges to help cut through the pancakes that awaited us.

And what a crazy amount of pancakes (and coffee and breakfast cocktails) awaited us. As we got in line for our first tasting, we came up with a strategy to take on traditional breakfast-type options first and then circle back for the savory types. LA Mill's line for individual pour'ed-over iced or hot coffee seemed endless, so we grabbed free water bottles and set off.

To recap:

• Tried 15 out of 20 restaurants
• Original Pancake House was actually visited twice becausethey served their apple dutch baby pancakes then refilled with a round of Kijafa cherry crepes
• Favorite traditional breakfast-style pancake? Fig's lemon-ricotta pancakes topped with blueberry butter and almonds
• Favorite non-pancake? Nickel Diner's Irish carbomb donut hole
• Favorite savory pancake? Kobawoo House's seafood pancake
• Runner(s) up? Square One's pancake topped with bacon and bacon-infused carameland Tiara Cafe's milk pancake topped with a chilled lemon sabayon and Maldon salt

So. Well. Where was I?

The event recap. Right. Well, obviously it was an amazing opportunity and sure worth the $25 ticket cost considering the sheer (unlimited!) amount of quality foods and beverages.

Who's coming into town for the next Jonathan Gold/LA Weekly food event?!