Recreating a Restaurant Favorite

I've written about the Spicy Beef Salad from one of my favorite local haunts, Daisy Mint. It's tangy, spicy, fresh and light and I am, in a word, addicted.

So today I decided to try and recreate the infamous salad. I researched numerous Vietnamese and Thai spicy beef salad recipes and - after a few tries - nailed the dressing (which is essential to the salad). Though I didn't make mine quite as spicy as Daisy Mint's, my version is pretty damn close to theirs. This will be my new favorite homemade dinner!

Steak/Marinade

1 lb flank steak

1/3 cup of low-sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon chili sauce

Salad

6 cups of romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
2 tomatoes, sliced
3 green onions, sliced diagonally
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped

Dressing:
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp soy sauce, low sodium
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp fish sauce, bottled
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 serrano pepper, seeded and minced (you can leave seeds for more spice)

Directions
Preheat grill or broiler.
Prepare marinade by mixing together the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and chili sauce. Place in a plastic container with the flank steak and let marinate for at least one hour.

Dressing: Combine all dressing ingredients in a jar or bowl; mix well. Set aside.

Place steak on a grill rack or broiler pan coated with vegetable oil spray. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare or longer until desired degree of doneness. Cover with foil and let stand 5 minutes. Cut steak diagonally across the grain into thin slices. Cut each slice into 2-inch pieces.

Prepare salad mixture (lettuce, tomatoes green onion, cilantro and mint leaves).
Combine salad mixture, steak and dressing in a large bowl, tossing to coat.

Enjoy!

Sonoma: Farm to Table

I'm a big farmer's market person. There's few things more appealing to me on a Sunday morning than spending an hour or so at my local farmer's market perusing all the fresh produce and organic cheeses, honey and eggs. It always inspires my cooking and, most importantly, supports the local farmers.

When I was in Sonoma recently researching a farm-to-table story, I had the opportunity to meet some farmers face-to-face. We stopped by Field of Greens, which is an egg farm. The owner calls his chickens "Free Will Chickens," because they all have the free will to go where they want in a very large coop and field. Each chicken has an average of 9 feet to roam in; that's 9 feet PER CHICKEN. The eggs were fresh and the yolks were a beautiful bright yellow. We had them later that evening on top of a beautiful piece of filet mignon at Kenwood Inn.

We also visited the garden for the Michelin-starred Farmhouse Restaurant. Mick, the head gardener/farmer, showed us his crop of pea shoots, lettuces, chards and turnips. We had some of the pea shoots with a fantastic savory cannoli with mushrooms, a little smoked ham and a light cream sauce. It was fresh and wonderful.

Mick explained how the garden came to be. The restaurant had the land, which was not being used. They hired Mick - a seasoned landscaper - to plant and maintain the garden on their land. The restaurant uses what it likes and Mick can sell the rest to other local restaurants or at the farmer's market and keeps the profit. It's a fantastic arrangement that benefits everyone involved, and promotes the Slow Food concept.

Support your local farmer's markets and you'll be helping yourself while helping the farmers. On average, I spend about $15 for a whole week's worth of produce (I'm single so that's for one person). The savings allows me to buy free range chicken and organic meat, which can be quite pricey, at places like Whole Foods or How's Market while keeping my grocery bill to about the same it would cost me to buy everything at a Ralph's or Von's. Sure, it's a bit more trouble but it's worth it!

Why I Love Fling

I've always been a salty-tooth person. Give me a bag of Sun Chips or Japanese shrimp chips over ice cream or cookies any day. But lately I've been craving sweets, namely chocolate. Dangerous, I know...

So I was thrilled when I found Fling, a 170-calorie chocolate candy that is rich, satisfying and not an overindulgence in the calorie department. Now I realize that there are plenty of options with all the 100 Calorie Paks and sugar-free chocolate, but honestly - do they really satisfy? Usually "diet" candy is either a) a tiny portion or b) tastes like crap. Fling, whose motto is "Naughty, but not that naughty," is perfect. It's a great once-in-a-while, fabulous chocolate treat that is guilt-free. Fling comes in milk chocolate, dark chocolate and hazelnut.

Just to clarify: I in no way am affiliated with the company that makes Fling and I discovered it in a grocery store, not because I got free samples or anything of the sort.

All Style, No Substance

I recently stayed at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco, while on my way back to Los Angeles from Sonoma. It was just one night, so that I could catch up with a couple of girlfriends who live in the city. I arrived mid-day, tired and hungry.

I ordered the Thai Beef Salad: Seared Carpaccio of Spicy Thai Beef with Avocado, Shredded Coconut, Orange Segments and Asian Greens, with Hot and Sour Dressing. Though I haven't heard many great things about Asia de Cuba, which is the chain restaurant at the Clift, the description was tempting and it was exactly what I was in the mood for. I called room service and it was delivered within 20 minutes.

The salad was wrought with problems. It looked amazing, but upon closer inspection (and a huge bite), I realized the greens were absolutely DRENCHED in a syrupy, sticky-sweet dressing. The beautiful carpaccio was covered in what tasted like Sriracha sauce, which I normally love but this was way too much. There was way too many coconut "shavings," which were very thick and left pieces of hard coconut bark in my mouth. In a word? YUCK.

I should have sent the salad back, but I was too exhausted to deal with it (I know, I know). I ended up scraping the Sriracha off of the beef and eating it with some crackers from the mini bar. I will send the Clift an email letting them know about the salad, as it is only fair. However, I cannot imagine how a kitchen can send something like this out at all. When you "toss" one cup of dressing with a cup of greens, it doesn't take a Michelin starred chef to understand it's going to be a soggy, goopy mess.

The hotel itself was lovely, and the service was prompt and courteous. But the food leaves much to be desired.

Taking Some Time in the Slow Lane

I'm a city girl. I was born in Tokyo, spent my formative years in Los Angeles, and lived in San Francisco for many years. What appeals to me about a metropolitan city is easy access to all things cultural, the diversity of the people and, of course, the variety of food available any time, any day of the week.

But lately I'm starting to feel like a tiny fish in a gigantic ocean here in Los Angeles, and sometimes I think I might be happier someplace else. Call it a pre-midlife crisis or a nagging itch, but my life here is starting to feel too predictable. It's hard to meet people in this hectic city, and sometimes I feel like I'll still be here, in the same apartment, doing the same things, five years from now. Since I travel a lot for work, I've had the opportunity to explore a number of places in the last couple of years, and every time I return home from a trip I think I've found my new home. Last year, it was New Zealand. Before that, it was Italy. But when I start to think of the details of living in a foreign country, it's exhausting. The cost, the language, the distance away from family and friends - too much, too far, too extreme.

So right now, the day after I've returned home from a long weekend in Sonoma, I'm thinking I may have found my new home. Keep in mind it's only been a day and I am well aware of the fact that I might just come back down to earth and change my mind in a few weeks. But right now, at this very moment, I'm kind of loving the idea.

My friends Dan and Jess, who I visited in Forestville on Thursday, love their life away from the big city. They've got their gigantic porch, their big dogs and a creek running through their front yard. They took me to their local pub, Stumptown, and we shot some pool and drank some really good local wine. We had dinner at Ace Cider House, and feasted on barbecued oysters and curried chicken pie. We took a walk around the woodsy neighborhood and saw the most amazing sunset, and later, huge stars in the sky.

Of course, as a city girl, there are things that scare me. There seem to be more bugs up there. Nighttime is dark - I mean pitch black - and the roads can be narrow and enveloped by ditches that would surely swallow me up if I accidentally turned the steering wheel one inch in the wrong direction. There's definitely a gun-rack element up there, but there are also a lot of intelligent, kind and down-to-earth types as well.

The thing I liked most about Sonoma County is that people know each other. I know that people in small towns often complain about this, but I like it. There's a sense of community that has been impossible to find here in Los Angeles, and a feeling of opportunity because of it. People seem genuinely interested in helping each other out and to bettering the community. All of that makes the bugs and dark nights seem easier to tolerate.

For breakfast, we ate at Pat's Restaurant, a tiny divey diner in Forestville. The local fisherman and farmhands meet here daily for the restaurant's housemade donuts and danishes (served with a side of whipped butter, no joke). It was cozy and friendly and the food was solid, much like the community it serves. I'll give it some time, but maybe, just maybe, this city girl can find what she's looking for in the country...stay tuned.