Seems to me that this is the perfect opportunity to do a list of some sort (I do love me some lists, let me tell you!). Today, I’m featuring the long-winded yet appropriately titled, “Foods that I Generally Love and Where You Can Get the Best of Said Foods” list. I’m a bit brain dead today, so please forgive the literal and lackluster title. Hopefully, you’ll find the content more appealing.
A Great Sandwich
It’s simple, really: Two slices of bread and a number of fillings in the middle does a sandwich make. However, it wrecks my head how difficult it can be to find a good-tasting, well-constructed sandwich. Some sandwiches are tasty, but perhaps the bread is so overly toasted or thick that it scrapes up the roof of one’s mouth, while others may be well-constructed but ill conceived otherwise (example: layering lots of “slick” ingredients on top of each other like roasted peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers and having it all squirt out one side as you take a bite from the other). There are sandwiches so big, taking a bite requires surgical restructuring of one’s jaw. There are others that are too soggy from over mayo-ing or saucing, and some so dry you feel like you’re competing in a Saltine eating contest. Ever try that? Without water, it’s nearly impossible to eat 10 Saltines at once!
One of the most memorable I’ve had was a shrimp po’ boy at the Sandcastle Café & Grill on Saint Simons Island in Georgia. The lightly battered and fried shrimp, still warm from the fryer, sat atop a bed of freshly shredded, cool iceberg lettuce and was coddled between two slices of a chewy/crispy baguette that was lightly brushed on the inside with a tangy house mayo. Two, thin slices of red, ripe tomato added a slight sweetness and balance to the savory notes of the sandwich. The best part? Bite after bite, the sandwich held together beautifully. The photo above was the last bite of one-half of the sandwich, and look! Everything is still in its rightful place. I seriously dream of this sandwich!
The Perfect Pairing of Fruit and Food
I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve never been a big fan of fruit in my savory food. Melons wrapped with prosciutto, blazing cherries atop a perfectly good steak, grapes bobbing around in my soup…I do not find pleasure in such things. Sure, I understand the sweet/savory concept, but this is often abused by overzealous chefs or home cooks who take the idea and go fruitloops with it. And also I'm weird.
However, I will occasionally come across a meal that seamlessly incorporates fruit with savory in a manner that is both surprising and pleasing to my palate. Case in point: the bacon-wrapped apples served with a double-cut pork chop at Bar Marmont in West Hollywood. I don’t recall what kind of apples these were, but the fruit had a subdued sweetness and a hearty texture. The bacon was moist and tender, and the salty fat really worked well with the delicate acid of the apples. The combo bite of apple, bacon and pork was devastatingly delicious and left me with an open mind toward other fruit and savory pairings – though I’ve yet to meet one I’ve liked as much!
A Wonderful Piece of Beef
At home, I’m cooking just for myself so I rarely buy beef at the grocery store. The packages almost always contain too much for just one person, and I don’t want to be consuming red meat more than once or twice a week. So when I go out on the weekends, I’m often seeking a beef fix.
As for what cut I prefer, it doesn’t really matter as long as it’s tender and delicious. I adore the simple, inexpensive skirt steak at Malbec in Pasadena. Grilled over an open flame and adorned with a straightforward chimichurri, the steak tastes of juicy, savory animal flesh and earthy charbroiled goodness. Another example of beef done superbly well is the Wagu Beef Carpaccio at Stonyridge Vineyards on Waiheke Island in Auckland, New Zealand (yes, it’s worth the trip!). Gorgeous, crimson slices of rare beef atop a bed of lightly dressed greens, served with a glass of the winery’s finest red? Why, yes – I believe I will partake in such culinary fantasies! You should too.
Rice Pudding
We’ve all had rice pudding that resembles grout filler with bits of dried maggots, but rice pudding doesn’t have to be that awful end to a meal you dreaded as an impressionable, young child. Rice pudding can be dreamy, creamy and the stuff that dessert fairytales are made of, and Chef Josef Centeno (opening his Lazy Ox Canteen next week) understands this better than most mortals.
His rice pudding with caramel and crushed almonds, which he used to serve at the now-irrelevant Lot 1 Café in Echo Park, is a wonderful example of rice pudding gone good. The secret? After making the rice pudding with the usual ingredients (rice, sugar, milk, etc.) he lets it cool, and then folds sweet, whipped cream into the mixture, bringing a rich lightness (<--work with me) to this typically heavy dessert. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this rice pudding makes an appearance on the Lazy Ox menu.
The Hangover Cure Breakfast
Though most of the time I am a fairly responsible adult, I’ve been known to drink a few too many on a Friday or Saturday night. You know how it is: the mood is lively, the conversation is crackin’ and the waitress is taking full advantage of your fuzzy state of mind by opening bottle after bottle of your favorite wine – or at least that’s what you’ll tell your friends later. Before you know it, you’re waking up with a heinous headache and a sour stomach.
No better cure than a greasy breakfast, but which one? My favorite is the typical Irish breakfast, and I’m not talking about the kind that comes in a tidy little bag with a string attached. At Burke's in Drogheda, Ireland, an Irish breakfast consists of a fried egg, two black puddings, one white pudding, two rashers, two sausages, a side of beans and a slice of fried bread. If this doesn’t fix you right up my pained friend, nothing will. Go back to bed and cry yourself to sleep on your huge pillow, OK? P.S. I’ve heard you can get a pretty proper version of this breakfast at Lucky Baldwins in Pasadena and Sierra Madre.
Chocolate Cake
I don’t really have much of a sweet tooth, but I will admit to my weakness for a moist, dense slab of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Perhaps it’s because one of my earliest cooking memories was of my sister and me baking Betty Crocker cakes as a child (in a real oven, no EasyBake for us!). Whatever the reason, I occasionally have a hankering for this very basic dessert treat.
The best I’ve ever eaten, and by “the best” I really truly mean the best has got to be the Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcake with Cappuccino Ice Cream at Brooks Restaurant in Ventura. It’s more like a mini bunt cake than a cupcake, and it is utterly lush and loaded with deep, dark chocolate righteousness. Rarely am I in Ventura but this bastion of chocolateness is reason enough to take the two-hour drive up north.
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