Gastronomy 101

Photo from Eater L.A. The L.A. location of Pink Taco just opened in Century City. I don't think I can ever eat there due to the fact that the name makes me want to puke. I wouldn't go to a seafood place called The Bearded Clam either. I like restaurant names to remind me of things I actually LIKE to eat. Although granted, there's probably a significant portion of the population for whom that is actually the case in this instance. Also, is it just me, or does the exterior look like Juicy Couture and Von Dutch got together and had a terrifying baby? Dietberry: Also, in frozen yogurt news, since that seems to be the hot topic these days. A new one has popped up on Melrose, seemingly overnight. It's called Dietberry, and I thought as I drove by, that the sign said "Dietberry 44" so I'm wondering if they're going to claim their yogurt has roughly half the calories of Pinkberry's? Why not just eat air, then? I'll stick with gelato for now.

The bell pepper is the best known sweet pepper, and takes its name from it's vaguely bell-like shape. These are not hot peppers, but rather are mild and crisp with a sweet flavor and juicy flesh. Most bell peppers are bright green, but also may be a variety of other colors, including red, yellow, orange, purple, and brown. I used to think that I disliked bell peppers. Then I thought that I liked for things to be cooked with peppers, but didn't like to eat the peppers (I have particular tastes). Now I know that I don't like green bell peppers. The green bell peppers are not as ripe as the other colors and therefore are more astringent and less sweet. To learn how to roast the peppers, please see my informational post: How to Tender Roast Bell Peppers . If you've already read it, please note that I have updated it with a new method I like better, although I left the old one up so everyone can choose for themselves. Bell peppers are better off stored at room temperature th...

One of Shakespeare's great tragedies is King Lear , in which a vain and prideful king learns too late that honesty is more valuable than flattery. King Lear asks his daughters to tell him how much they love him, and while the two eldest go off into mad hyperbole about how much they love their father, the youngest honestly replies that she loves him as much as she should, but that she still has some love left over for others, like a husband. King Lear's blood boils at this simple yet honest answer, she is banished, and tragedy ensues. But King Lear is based on an older tale, one that has versions in countries from England to Austria, Germany and Italy, and all the way to India. In the version I remember of the older fable, the old king similarly asks his daughters to describe their love, and while the older two profess to love their father more than life or more than the whole world, the youngest replies that she loves her father more than salt. While you or I may be able to un...

I know you saw my last post about summertime and eating salads. Right? RIGHT? Well, it's all very well to make fancy salads, but to be perfectly honest, most of the time my salads are as plain as can be. Just whatever greens I have, combined with whatever else I have to throw in: nuts, dried fruit, caramelized ginger, spare vegetables, and sometimes even just the greens. In that case, it's good to have some dressings on hand to add some variety when all you have are a week's worth of greens and the a bag of slivered almonds. Luckily for me, Food & Wine recently featured three simple recipes for basic salad dressings that are completely easy to make, and easy to improvise, so that if you anticipate eating several salads in the near future, you can have enough on hand to get you through the next few days of salad-eating. I know this post isn't the most entertaining, but it's fairly useful, so check out the following salad dressing recipes while I try to get my gro...

It is not quite summer, but lately it feels as hot as summer. This means that when your day is already long and sweltering and you come home to an apartment with no air conditioning, where the walls are releasing the heat they have gathered throughout the day, the last thing you want to do is go turn on the oven. This is the time of year when I eat salads nonstop and save the heavy cooking for the chefs in the restaurants. But eating salads all the time gets pretty boring and I'm always looking for something new and interesting. May's issue of Bon Appetit had a very unique salad from chef Bill Granger . There's not a piece of lettuce in sight here, but instead the incredibly different combination of green beans, oranges, and green olives. This is why I need creative chefs and food magazines, because I could never come up with something like this in a billion years. We happened to have an overabundance of green beans in the house, since J. and I had both purchased some witho...

Mangoes are a tropical fruit, originating in India, where they were considered sacred. They come from an Asian tree called Mangifera indica . This tree is distantly related to cashews and pistachios and has been cultivated for thousands of years. California is now a large producer of mangoes, so we are lucky enough to be able to find locally grown mangoes here. Mangoes come into season in the spring and stick around until early fall. When purchasing, look for pieces with unblemished, yellow skin with a slight blush of red . A larger mango will have a better fruit-to-seed ratio. If you can only find green fruits , place the mangoes in a paper bag at room temperature and it will ripen, continuing to sweeten and soften from the seed outwards. Ripe mangoes can be stored in the fridge in a plastic bag for up to five days. On the outside, mangoes start out green and gradually transform to a brilliant yellow and red as the fruit ripens. Inside, they are bright yellow-orange and extremely ju...

Okay, so I have discovered something good about being a "blogger." Most of the time I'm kind of embarassed to admit I have a blog, given how often I've heard about how bloggers are just any hack with a keyboard and an agenda to ruin a restauran t or whatever. But I don't think I am a hack, and I don't have an agenda. This blog is kind of like a school notebook for me, where I keep track of what I've been doing and learning. No one else has to read it, but it's cool when they do. I especially like when people add to my posts with extra tidbits of information, and of course I like it if people ever tell me I am awesome. But I never expected to actually get perks out of it. I'm not the type of person to be relied on to review a product that you send me (ask the marketing survey people!) and I don't expect someone to beg me to quit my job and write my blog full time for a sweet salary, or write the next hit food book or whatever. But I have discove...

Wow you guys, it's been forever and a day since I posted something here. I am not abandoning my blog! But June is not only the month of dads and grads for me (of which I have both), but weddings and birthdays as well. Not to mention job stress and life stress and it has been all I can do to fulfill my actual obligations, let alone do fun things. Plus, I actually have been working on the blog, it's just that this post took me FOREVER. But I have several more already lined up and waiting so hopefully it won't be too long until the next one. In addition to being too long since I posted at all, it's been too long since I furthered my wine edumacation. I finally pulled out my wine book, which was gathering dust on the shelf, while I spent my time actually drinking the stuff, rather than bothering to learn anything new. Now it's time to get back to it. Since you and I have learned such fancy knowledge about our wine, we probably want to be able to also impress our friends...