NEWS: Dine LA Restaurant Week

Hey you guys! It's Restaurant Week in Los Angeles! If you have never heard of this, I encourage you to check it out. During restaurant week, local restaurants show off their goods by offering fixed price menus at reduced prices. There are three tiers of prices:

Deluxe Dining: Lunch is $16 and dinner is $28 for three courses.
Premier Dining: Lunch is $22 and dinner is $34 for three courses.
Fine Dining: Lunch is $28 and dinner is $44 for three courses.

In all cases, it is a bargain. It is a chance to revisit that old standby that you just kind of keep overlooking these days or to try a place that is normally out of your league. There are options for everyone and the menus are available online so you can see if they appeal to you. There are many vegetarian and even some vegan options for those with restrictions.

The list of participating restaurants, their price level, and menus is here: Participating Restaurants.

I always take full advantage of Restaurant Week, and it usually works out to both my and the restaurant's favor. Last year I went to Grace, and had a great experience. Grace is an investment for me so now I know that it is worth the money and am inclined to go back for a special occasion.

The other night, we tried Luna Park. I've been to Luna Park many times, but I have a tendency to forget about it, tucked away in its kind of odd location and because it's just a fun place, good for some relatively inexpensive food, cozy and dark, and just generally a good value. Eating here reminded me that it's here and an option for casual dining. I also got to see that they've added a fun thing to their cocktail menu: a "flight" of cocktails where you get three mini-versions of their cocktails to sample. The menu offered for Restaurant Week was a really good example of some of their regular menu selections and as such it's a good representation of the experience you would get if you came back on a regular night.

Next up for us is Cube. It's right down the way, but we haven't been yet. Now we can try it for a lower price to see if we want to make it one of our regular "go out" places. Also on Thursday, I'm getting an unexpected visit from my world-traveling parents who are off on their travels again so we'll be going out then as well to a location as yet unknown. I will try to report back on what I discover!

RECIPE: Porcini Mushroom Soup

I am about to put a recipe up here for porcini mushroom soup. I am also about to put a picture up of the soup I made. The two soups are similar in idea, but they are not the same soup. So why I am I putting a recipe for one soup up when I made a different soup? Well, because ... the recipe I'm putting is the recipe I meant to make, and it looks like a really good recipe .. but some things happened along the way, as they do, and I ended up with a different soup.

First, I couldn't find porcini mushrooms at the store. The only dried mushrooms were in the Asian section, so I ended up with shiitake mushrooms instead. I would have liked the correct mushrooms, but we can't always get what we want, eh?



Then I came to the part in the recipe where it said "tomatoes." I'm able to eat tomatoes when they're in a soup, usually, but I really don't like tomatoes. If I have control over whether tomatoes can be in something or not, sorry, but they're outta there.

After that, I made the soup as directed until ... well, I got to the part where it says to puree a portion of the soup and throw it back in with the rest of the soup. So I pureed the portion ... and ... it just smelled so good. And the rest of the soup looked so chunky ... the mushrooms were pretty big for a bite. So before I knew what I was doing I had my immersion blender in that pot and the rest of it was all pureed. Okay, I admit it ... I also just really love to use my immersion blender. Still, I think the soup was really nice pureed, although the picture from the magazine with the big chunky mushrooms looks very nice and rustic. But pureed, the soup was nice with some parmesan cheese on top.

Hey, a recipe is only a guideline right? It's an idea and you can follow it or you can try something else. Comments on Epicurious are mixed as to whether it needs more salt or not. I found it to be find but I agree it could have been improved with more salt. It was fine with the cheese though and the garlic and onion add enough that it's not bland.



Eat with a piece of crusty bread on a cold day. It's a nice hearty soup, and great for winter.

PORCINI MUSHROOM SOUP
Gourmet, December 2008
Makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 ounces dried porcini mushrooms (1 cup)
• 6 cups tepid water plus 2 cups hot water, divided
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 2 celery ribs, finely chopped
• 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds white mushrooms, sliced or quartered
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped dill

PREPARATION:

Soak porcini in 2 cups hot water 15 minutes.

Cook onion in butter with 1 teaspoon salt in a heavy medium pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Add celery, carrot, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Transfer porcini with a slotted spoon to pot and strain soaking liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a large glass measure. Add white mushrooms to pot with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring, until mushrooms are tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, remaining 6 cups water, and porcini-soaking liquid. Simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes.

Purée 1 cup vegetables and 1 cup liquid in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids), then return to pot. Stir in parsley, dill, and salt to taste.

Cooks' note: Soup, without dill and parsley, can be made 3 days ahead and chilled. Add herbs after reheating.