CUT

What they say is true: CUT is the best steakhouse in California, possibly in the country.

Disclaimer: this photo does not belong to me. I stole it off the interweb because the interior of the steak is almost identical to how mine looked. Actually, mine was probably better. More evenly fatted, without those visible streaks.

We had our most spendy LA dining experience so far tonight, and I have to say I'm poorer but happier. We went late in the evening and it was much too dark for cameras, but I'll direct you to a fellow Chowhound's far superior photography here. Full disclosure that these are not my photos and not even the same menu items, but I'm sure Kevin will not mind a few more hits directed to his incredible blog. A link to the restaurant's website is here. I'm not sure where to start, so I'll go chronologically.

Location: CUT is located in the Regent Beverly Wilshire, Los Angeles's Four Seasons Hotel and also the hotel in Pretty Woman. It houses shops like Mikimoto and Escada--you get the idea. The Regent itself is designed with old world mahogany and marble sensibilities, but CUT is a stark contrast to the rest of the hotel. All glass, whitewash, and pale wood, CUT almost looks like a high end corporate cafeteria. I'm not saying it's not very nice. It is nice. It's contemporary, airy, spacious, uncluttered, and comfortable. I just wouldn't necessarily call it "fancy."

The Scene: a real taste of LA in this sense. The place looked like a scene out of Entourage, complete with all the stereotypical LA characters and cars. Quote classics: "Wow, this is what it's like to feel like the poorest person in the room" (J). "Mom, there are SO many limos outside!" (small child). Yeah kid, there's also a fleet of RRs and a Ferrari.

Service: thankfully, the service is nothing like the crowd. I really enjoyed the service at CUT. J said the host who made his reservation was a little pretentious ("Sir, we are not open on Sundays, and we are booked two months in advance on Fridays and Saturdays"--unless you're a celebrity, right?), but our servers were wonderful. Cheerful, down to earth, able to answer all our food and wine questions in plain English, and attentive without hovering. J and I agreed that service at cheap places tends to be either gruff or overly comfy-homey, service at mid-price places tends to be snooty or slick for the sake of seeming upscale, and service at truly high-end restaurants is perfectly tempered and smooth. I think of it this way: if you sit perfectly still and look out of the corner of your eye, you can sense that your server barely gazes your way every single time he glides by. But unless you flick a finger, turn your head, look confused, or seem to be unhappy with your food, he will just keep walking and not bother you. Every time you look up, however, there is either a busboy or a server ready to attend to you. I don't know how they do it, they just get it done.

Drinks: J had a very nicely done, though perhaps a tad sweet, dirty vodka martini. I had a nice Margaux Bourdeaux. I really enjoyed sipping it, but sadly it was a little too overpowering for the steaks. Kind of an unfortunate blunder to make at a steakhouse, but I can't say if it was my own fault or theirs for not warning me to get something lighter.

The bread: so many choices! Pei was happy. The cheese sticks on the table were light and crispy and made with a strong pungent cheese instead of low grade Parmesan. Then a server came by and offered us a choice of whole wheat sourdough, onion foccaccia, pumpernickle, and pretzel rolls. The onion foccaccia, with pockets of gooey caramelized sweet onions, won by a landslide.

Bone Marrow Flan: WOW! This ranks on my All Time Best Delicious Custardy Things List for sure. Other top contenders are the crab cheesecake at Palace Cafe in New Orleans and uni panna cotta at The Ritz Carlton Dining Room in San Francisco. They remove the marrow from the bone, make it into a custard, put it back in the bones, and serve it with dollops of mushroom marmalade topped with a thick beefy pan sauce and some parsley and onions. Brioche toast points come on the side. The combination of flavors is just astounding. Intensely beefy, yet pillowy, eggy, and creamy at the same time.

Veal Tongue: delicious tender slices of beef. Quite a generous portion, actually. There were six or seven large slices of tongue on a bed of beautiful sliced cherry tomatoes (yellow and red), cooked giant white beans, artichoke hearts and a vinegary salsa verde. This could easily be an entree at a restaurant, and it suffered only in comparison to the marrow flan.

Ribeye (day dry-aged 35 days, medium rare). Tasty! More beefy than other steakhouse ribeyes, cooked perfectly, with a nice crispy crust and just a touch of salt and pepper.

Filet Mignon (American Wagyu "Kobe style" from Idaho, just past rare). Mmmmm...the height of decadence. Okay, no, the real Kobe beef would have been the height of decadence, but we weren't ready to take it to that level. While the ribeye was good and better than most, I can say unequivocably that this is the best filet mignon I have had in my life. Incredibly thin but crispy crust giving way to a meltingly tender center. And even though the center was raw, it was warm, firm, and was not at all mushy or chewy the way raw beef can be. I'll still be thinking about this steak tomorrow. MAybe even Saturday. Maybe even next Saturday. Mmm...

Sweet white corn: it sounds so boring, and I know it's stupid to pay $12 for a plate of cut corn, but it was so good! The sweetness balanced the beef very nicely, and to their credit they gave us a mountain of it. I have over half in the fridge right now, waiting to be eaten tomorrow.

Marrow: you can get a side of sauteed marrow to eat with the steak. What a great idea! My only suggestion would be that they crisp the edges of the marrow more to offer some interest in terms of texture. Sprinkled with a little sea salt, though, this was great on the steak.

Dips: everyone gets a trio of mustards and some sea salt. A word on the salt: it's fairly high quality. Some sea salt has a lot of air in it, so the salt tastes more crispy and bright. It also tastes less salty per piece because more of the volume is air. I know, soooo nerdy. But it's true. You need the good salt if you want plenty of crunchy goodness without making a dish overly salty. The honey and whole grain mustards were good but not exceptional, but there was a deep brown violet mustard that was intriguing. The best description I can come up with is a thick paste that tastes like A1, but better, infused with a light floral essence. A nice surprise, though not my favorite.

Sauce: you can pick from maybe 10 sauces and gravies for $2, and I chose armagnac and green peppercorn sauce. This tastes like a very refined, subtle version of what Hong Kong steakhouses serve as their black peppercorn sauce. I ended up eating very little of it because it was fairly heavy and we were surprised by how filling the appetizers were.

Dessert: we were much too full for dessert, but our server brought us some confections anyway. The yuzi lemon bar was deliciously refreshing. It had the usual lemon bar crust, but topped with a silky, ever so slightly grainy, very soft yuzu custard. It was very tangy and only lightly sweet. The other confection was a cashew pecan bar, but I'm saving those for morning coffee (edit: and here they are! Very chewy with a dark caramel flavor).

Notables: a lot of people seem to enjoy fish at CUT. There are several "fish for two" choices that are grilled and then deboned and served tableside. The pureed potatoes also seemed popular. It comes in a tureen and has the consistency of very loose mashed potatoes. I'm sure it's chock full of butter and cream. We also noticed cute tea and coffee service after dinner, as well as several impressive wheels of cheese by the front door.

All in all, an incredible experience and worth it if you enjoy your steak. One thing on which CUT prides itself is its excellent array of appetizers and side dishes. I appreciate this now that my appetite is not what it was when I was 18, and I want more out of a meal than 24 ounces of beef. There are over a dozen choices in each category, and everything looks delicious and is presented in haute fashion. There's no baked potato with sour cream or glop of creamed spinach at CUT, however delicious those things are. Instead, you can get butter lettuce towers, wild field mushrooms, or a crabcake and expect them to be more than just menu fillers.

X-Bar, WTF?

So I have kind of a beef with X-Bar, located in the Century City Hyatt. I'm not going to even link to their website, I'm just going to vent. This is a classic story of a nice visit quickly gone sour.

Our friend Cat had been to X-Bar with her company and said it "sucked." I figure if you go somewhere with work and don't have to pay, but you still think it sucked, it was probably pretty bad. And not being super keen on keeping up with the bar scene, we figured we weren't missing out on too much. J went the other day with his office, however, and really enjoyed it. So he brought me there for nice summer cocktails, since how many months of the year can you enjoy daylight at an outdoor bar until past 7?

It started out great. X-Bar is fantastically adorable. It's chic, it's casual, the decorations are all bamboo and white canvas, and the seating is adorable. I'm a sucker for cute lounge chairs and unique knick knacks (funny plates, unusual glasses) at bars. So we grabbed a bar table outside and ordered some drinks.

Service was slow, but we figured it was an unusually busy Thursday and they had understaffed themselves. Our server took our order and my credit card to start a tab. We told her that we were going to pay with cash later and not to run the card, but she needed it anyway to make sure we didn't dine and dash.

About half an hour after ordering our drinks and sitting around watching amazing looking bar food float by, we got our Citrus Monkey (a grapefruit cocktail) and X-Margarita (made with anejo Patron and Grand Marnier Centenaire). The X-Margarita was excellent, the Citrus Monkey fine but not worth re-ordering.

Halfway through sipping (we'd been there an hour at this point) we decided to ask for our check because it seemed like it would take her awhile to come back with it. BOY did it take her awhile to come back with it. I think it took forty-five minutes for her to bring the check (we immediately handed her $40) and come back with change. She kept rushing by and blaming the holdup on the bar, so finally I just went to the bar to see where my change was. Bar was not helpful.

Then, she came back with $8 in change. AHEM, TWO DRINKS DO NOT COST $32. Okay, some places they do, but the menu clearly said $11. We couldn't find her to fix the mistake, for about ten minutes. We found her inside, she looked confused, apologized, and then insisted that one of our drinks was $18. We were so fed up by this point we took her word for it, left her a generous tip because she seemed so frazzled, and left. On our way out we opened a bar menu. Hm. $11 each it said. Too tired to argue, we left.

Do you see what's missing? She never gave me my credit card back, did she? Hmmmmm...so we had to call back, get the voice mail two times, and then call the Hyatt main line to complain that no one at their bar was picking up and I desparately needed my credit card. They had to physically send a security guard up to find my card and bring it down to hold in the safe.

What the hell?! Now I have to monitor my card for fraudulent charges, plus it was a pain in the ass to go back for it in the first place. I wrote a big long complaint to their manager. We'll see what happens.

Yes, it's my fault for not remembering to get my credit card back, but the place needs to be run better. What kind of bar server doesn't know that drinks don't cost $18, and what kind of restaurant lets a credit card sit around unclaimed indefinitely without turning it in to lost and found? They weren't even able to tell me if it had safely stayed at the cashier all night, or if it accidentally went out to another customer who had the decency to return it (with or without jotting down my number, hm?) And since when does it take two hours to grab two drinks and a check?

Food For the Eyes

I recently saw a list of top food movies on the web and realized I'd seen all the movies on the list. I am both a certifiable food nut and a TV junkie. I can't locate the list anymore, but I'll try and recreate it:

Big Night
Tampopo
Eat Drink Man Woman
Mostly Martha
Babette's Feast
Ratatouille

I'm definitely missing a few. Any ideas? If you mention it I'll remember! I'll add Chocolat even though it wasn't on this particular list. And a personal nod goes to The Three Musketeers (edit: doi, The Count of Monte Christo, retarded Pei) even though it's not a movie. The scene in which Edmund makes his great debut as the mysterious Count by throwing an exotic feast is masterful. He imports writhing beasts and luscious fruits from all corners of the world and sends a clear message that he is no ordinary noble. Phenomenal.

Jack N' Jills (Beverly Hills)

Starved after my trip to Paper Source last week, I stopped by Jack N' Jill's to grab a cobb salad to go. I was crazy angry at the price tag ($12 or $13), but I had already stopped by Il Fornaio and vetoed their hard-crusted, stingily filled, pre-packed, over-priced sandwiches and didn't have much time left on my meter.

Surprisingly, the salad at Jack N' Jill's was totally worth it! It was an enormous salad packed to the brim with good crispy lettuce and a generous amount of all the toppings. I ate it for lunch, snack, an early dinner, and had to throw away a little bit. This photo really doesn't show how enormous the salad was. And tasty, too.

My uncle roasted me some coffee this weekend. It smells great, but I have to let it sit for a few days. Yup, everyone makes a big deal about freshly roasted coffee, but it's really best two or three days after it was roasted.

More Invitations

I know every time I make a new invitation I like it better than the old one. But these are actually going to be in the hands of real people by some time next week. My uncle decided to up and go to Taiwan, so my mom told me to hurry up and make 20 invitations for him to take with him. Yes, my mother called my ass up and placed a rush order on wedding invitations. She also specifically ordered me NOT to use those dark and depressing ones I made before.

Luckily, Kelly Paper just got this beautiful pearlescent pink cardstock in. Only thirty cents a sheet! She also requested I use gold somewhere, so I hightailed it to Paper Source.

While there, I was inspired by their gorgeous Japanese paper DIY kits. The kits are pre-cut and $$$, so I did my own. These pink ones are going to Taiwan, and then I'm going to make the rest in whatever's left of the pink and in this blue.

And a shoutout to n, who gave me the cutting mat and rotary cutter last Christmas. It would never have occured to me to buy these on my own, but without them there's no way I could make a professional looking invitation on my own! THANK YOU!

Sawtelle Kitchen Ripoff

We tried Sawtelle Kitchen last week but I forgot my camera. The food is fine: simple, homey, Japanese-American, and reasonably cheap. I really liked my masago pasta so I recreated it at home.

Excuse the mess; I'm in the middle of making Chinese wedding invitations to send to Taiwan. The recipe for one serving of pasta is:

• 1/4 pound pasta, spaghetti or angel hair
• 3 tablespoons masago (the tiny orange fish eggs used in Japanese food)
• a very small handful of daikon sprouts
• 1/2 cup of crushed roasted seaweed. I see bags of this at the Korean market. They're already shredded and seasoned with salt and sesame seeds.

Boil the pasta, remembering to add salt to the water. Drain and toss with the other ingredients. Done!

K&L Wines

I paid a visit to the ne K&L Wines shop on Vine near Sunset yesterday. K&L is my favorite wine shop in San Francisco, so I'm thrilled that they have a Los Angeles store now. They have the rare and expensive wines, but by and large are a warehouse sized shop with a focus on well selected mid and low priced wines. To make a long story short, this is a place where you can find $10 wine that tastes like what most would consider $20 wine. It's also a place where if you start mentioning wines you've liked from them in the past, the clerks are extremely helpful in helping you find something new you'll love.

The big news from this visit: we've found our wedding wine! Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. The qualities are like that of a California Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel: big full mouthfeel, fruity, faint tannins, easy to drink. The clerk said Chilean winemakers realize their target audience is Americans (as opposed to European), so they tend to build a very Californian flavor profile at a fraction of the cost. We thought it would be a nice crowd pleaser. Our original choice was Seghesio Sonoma County Zinfandel, but at half the price Root:1 wins.

K&L will store whatever wine we buy until the wedding and deliver it the Friday before for $10! This is a huge bonus for me, since most wine shops are unwilling to store orders for that long. Being able to store this far in advance means I cantake advantage of special finds like Root:1 and add to my order as I find things I like. It also means one less thing to worry about in the 30 days leading up to the wedding. I have one prosecco (sparkling wine) in the fridge from K&L, and sometime soon I'll go in to find a white. Then I'll be all done!

Trivia: this wine gets its names because the root from its vineyard are the original stock that was brought from France however many years ago. Because Chile is so geographically isolated, grapevine pests and diseases never plagued the region, and no grafting of new vines to old roots was ever necessary. So in fact, some stock that is now extinct or rare in France and California is still thriving in Chile. Results? Cheap old vine wine. Okay, that and the fact that labor there is probably 25 cents an hour. But South America really does produce several wine grapes that are rare or extinct elsewhere.

No Name Korean

There are too many Korean places with no English name. This one is in a strip mall with Yuchun and Paris Patisserie.

Edit: I'm ready to add comments now.

Look at all the panchan! We love side dishes with Korean food. Sadly, most places use bleh napa kimchi. This place was no exception. But the rest of the stuff was great. From left, there's daikon kimchi, cucumber kimchi, potatoes, mung bean jelly, and napa kimchi.

I think I liked these as much as I like the cold noodles at Sa Rit Gol. Spicy, sweet, sticky sauce and boingy noodles. Yes, boingy.

Knife cut noodles in a rich beef broth. Simple, warm, and homey with a lot of soft cooked vegetables.

Beef knuckle soup. This is beef soup in its purest form. It's served with nothing except green onions. You even have to add your own sea salt.

Everything was delicious! Some post, huh?

Keeping it Cool

It's been very hot lately, so a nice cold dinner seemed like a great idea.

Plus, this took no time to assemble at all. Three prepared cold dishes froma Korean market and half a sliced up cucumber.

I've also been making durian milkshakes all summer long. It's great! You buy packets of frozen durian in the Chinese market. Put a cup of milk, three ice cubes, and one section of durian into a blender. Combine, and add a teaspoon of sugar or a few tablespoons of coconut syrup if you want. Torani or Monin, the kind they use in Italian sodas and coffee, work well.

Two Korean Bakeries

I haven't been very impressed by Korean bakeries in the past, but just this weekend I found two that I thought were worth a mention. I think, like with anything other style of food, I just needed to try enough places to come across the good ones.

I only bought a long baguette at Paris Patisserie, but C bought us a tiramisu to share after dinner. Sadly, we forgot about it and it sat in the car overnight. So very sad about that. We were impressed that it actually looked like tiramisu, since a lot of Chinese bakeries throw together cake and stiff mousse and call it tiramisu. Bleh. C also bought other pastries, though. How were those?

Bosco Cake Salon just has a cute name. We brought a chiffon cake to a barbeque this weekend, and it was the perfect dessert after a heavy meal: airy, light, and not too sweet. I forgot to take a photo beforehand, but I really loved the simple modern design on the cake. Just plain white whipped cream with a few dots of color, no elaborate whipped cream or fruit mountains.

Hors d'Oeuvres!

I'm throwing a party tomorrow night at my mom's house. The menu promises to be exciting, but here's a preview. I haven't come up with an original recipe in awhile, so I'm pretty happy about these. That's not to say they're particularly innovative, but it's always exciting when something turns out perfectly without a recipe.

For the filling:

• 1 package cream cheese or neufchatel
• 1 pound brown button mushrooms
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 6 large sage leaves
• 5 sundried tomatoes (the kind packed in a jar of olive oil)
• 2 tablespoons oil from the jar of tomatoes
• 1 can artichoke hearts
• salt and pepper

Allow the cheese to sit at room temperature until soft, about an hour. Heat a sautee pan over medium high heat, then add the olive oil from your sun-dried tomatoes. Dice the mushrooms into pea-sized chunks and chop up the herbs, and sautee over medium high heat until the mushrooms are cooked through, slightly brown around the edges, and have started to shrink slightly from moisture loss.

While the mushrooms are cooking, chop the sun-dried tomatoes into very small pieces unless you like chewing on big chunks of it. Roughly chop the artichoke hearts and squeeze as much water out of them as you can. When the mushrooms are done, let them cool a little. Then mix all the ingredients well with the cheese. Taste for salt and pepper, because depending on how salty your tomatoes and artichokes are you might need as little as a pinch or as much as a tablespoon.

To assemble, thaw a piece of puff pastry according to the instructions on the box, then roll the pastry out to half its original thickness. Cut into rectangles about one by two inches long. Fill with a teaspoon and a half of filling, wet the edges of the pastry, and squeeze the edges together. Bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes, or until the puff pastry starts to brown around the edges. Let cool a few minutes before serving!

I also practiced making bouquet balls.

I'm no fan of the concentric two colored bouquet, but it helped me keep an eye on how well I was doing the perfect circles.

Flowers, Flowers

I'm taking every excuse I get to make arrangements. This week, grandma's visiting from Taiwan with my uncle's new wife. What better reason to buy two dozen roses?

Anyway, I think the green roses were a bad idea. They're way too yellow in real life.

I'd like to get green orchids next time and achieve more of this look.

New Food Fun!

New kitchen toy! I've always wanted a cake dome, and this one has such a cute shape. I like how it's slightly wider on top.

And a new cocktail in the makes. It's not perfect yet, but I think it has potential. I bought cachaça, a distilled sugar cane liquor that is used in Brazil's national drink, the caipirinha. I do love a good caipirinha, but I wanted to try something new. This was a shot of Leblon cachaça, half a shot of rose water, a teaspoon of simple syrup, the juice of half a lime, and a few thin slices of Persian cucumber. I guess the effect is a South American-Middle Eastern fusion cocktail, but it's not perfect yet. It needs more sugar and more rose flavor, I think.

Arby's

I already know lc is going to give me grief about this post.

What? Sometimes a girl just wants junk food with horsie sauce.

Happy Monday

A huge box of cookbooks arrived from Amazon today: Small Bites is a cocktail/tea party cookbook of tapas, Charcuterie is exactly what it sounds like (J has been lusting after homemade prosciutto), Baking: From My Home to Yours is a high recommended book with great dessert photos, The Tartine Bakery cookbook is a San Francisco favorite, and The Green & Black's cookbook has amazing photos and both savory and sweet chocolate recipes. I'm so excited! Some of them are for me, some are wedding presents for other people, but I'm going to have fun flipping through the for the next few days.

Dinner today was duck noodle soup. We just boiled some noodles, added yo chai (a distant Chinese relative of broccoli or mustard greens), and threw in some roast duck we bought in Chinatown this weekend.

Vanille Patisserie and Beer!

It's good, it's really good! This is our second try.


It's a Witbier (white beer) with bitter orange peel in it. I really like it. It's fairly low in alcohol, has a lot more fizz than our last beer, and has a fragrant crisp finish. I think it has fairly fruity undertones, but no one else noticed.


And in response to Cat's comment under the Tudor House post, I absolve myself of all royalty obligations by spreading good vibes about her. Wonderful, thoughtful, sweet Cat brought us gifts from Vanille Patisserie when she was at Life Plaza this weekend.

Whee!

My mama bought me a present:

Thanks, mom! Too bad she didn't also buy me the mile long legs to match. Oh well. She also took us, her three lovely daughters, to dinner at Grace Restaurant. Portions are so big at Grace that we shared three appetizers and an entree and were pretty stuffed. I hope they didn't mind; we ate early and the restaurant was only two-thirds full when we left so hopefully it was fine. Light eaters are better than no business, right? Grace was as good as it was last time, but I think I'm done with it for awhile. I think my preference is to go to high end restaurants once, then move on to somwhere new for at least a few months if not a year. We had dessert at MILK down the street because my youngest sister and mom had never been. I know it's blasphemous to not have dessert at Grace, but the crowd wanted what it wanted. The passionfruit sorbet was amazing, as was the melon bar.

Santa Monica Food Tear

I haven't eaten in so many places in one day since I left San Francisco. We really went on a tear through the Santa Monica Promenade area this afternoon.

First we met up with a large group to have lunch/tea at Tudor House. We ordered a tea for two for the table to share. I was disappointed that it came with salad. I would have preferred more scones or dessert items. I saw other tables with tarts and gingerbread cookies. I must have missed that on the menu. Consensus all around was that they were too stingy with the clotted cream. This is a nice tea, and extremely well priced, but it's not fancy schmancy like The Peninsula (which of course is almost double the price).

J said the steak and kidney pie was better than King's Head's, but that the kidney was a little tough. He did like the sausage roll, and mashed peas are always kind of fun.

I had a cornish pastie with gravy and salad. Most people's dishes looked exactly like this, with different filling--beef and onion, lamb vindaloo, etc. There were also fish n' chips, which didn't look as good as the huge fish torpedoes at King's Head. All in all, a cute, relatively inexpensive spot to stop in. I would happily go back, but I'm not clamoring to introduce people to the place.

The three of us without previous engagements walked around a bit, admiring the view and taking in some fresh air. Then we stopped at Ma'Kai on Ocean Avenue and Broadway for their happy hour. On weekends happy hour lasts from 11-7 and features bar food around $3-5, and martinis and specialty cocktails for $7-10. The citrus mojitos were good, and I had a new drink called the English Rose. I really liked it: gin, lavendar flavored soda, and cucumber slices. Perfect after a huge lunch. Two things though: the server spilled water all over me. Accidents happen, it was a hot day so the water dried quickly, she apologized though not profusely. Whatever. But I was kind of expecting some kind of discount on our final bill. Nope. Second: the bathroom smelled vile. Like a bus station bathroom. It was weird, because it looked perfectly clean. It just smelled disgusting.

After I dried off we went to Ocean Avenue for happy hour oysters. Since it was past five we decided a light dinner was enough for all of us.

And we finished off with ice cream from King's Head. Mike taught me that the flakes candy bar stuck in it is what makes it truly authentic (along with the extra thick, creamy soft serve).

Phew, I feel full all over again.

La Conversation

Today I was a total cliche: reading Proust at a French cafe.

The mushroom and cheese croissant was pretty darned tasty.

And the strawberry cake was just plain delicious. Moist cake, and berries churned into the whipped cream and not just folded into white whipped cream.

Also: okay, okay, I guess I have enough readers now that inside jokes don't translate over the internets. My girlfriends and I talk a lot about how sad it is that women often don't have a positive self image, no matter their size and shape. We admit we have a sometimes overly healthy sense of self-confidence, but it's all in jest. None of us actually walk around in real life saying how hot we are. It's just fun to share an outfit that makes us happy or update each other on our fitness achievements. And it's much easier to post on the blog since I know all ten of my friends will eventually read it and laugh their asses off. Notice the replies to my post weren't "Wow, gee, you really are fantastic." They were more like "Shut up, biatch, you look like you spilled food on yourself." Touche. Very funny, guys. I can take it as well as I dish it.

Shameless Self-Congratulatory Posting

I take random photos of myself to remind me how hot I am.

Damnit, I look good and I'm not going to apologize for it. This is my favorite t plus jeans outfit. In the background: cookbook collection, cool wax painting from China, and latest attempt at bridal bouquet.

Fitness report: still running more and eating buttercream less. Abs and obliques coming in nicely.

Cakes Galore

I like all of these, but a few thoughts:

Imagine this with just ONE layer of flowers on top, not an entire ball. It's very structured. I like it up close because of the varied texture, but I think from a distance it's going to just look like a pile of styrofoam.

Very pretty. I think it goes well with the Casa Del Mar ballroom. Again, fewer flowers. I like that it's classic enough that no one's going to be surprised by it, but at the same time it's slightly contemporary in that each layer has its own uniqueness.

I don't like black piping, but the design itself is fine.

I think this would be beautiful for an outdoor or afternoon wedding, but I'm not sure if it works for me. I love the dot flowers. Maybe if the flowers were in white and I added two or three fresh flowers to each layer?

Big Balls of Flower!

I think I can say with confidence that I've mastered the art of creating a symmetrical ball of roses. I'm going to give flower arranging a rest until winter rolls around and I can see what flowers I have with which to work.

Vosges Exotic Chocolate Bars

Vosges Chocolate is possibly my favorite makers of exotic chocolate bars. For plain bars I prefer Scharffenberger or Green & Black's, but no one does funky combinations like Vosges does.


I bought my first Barcelona bar yesterday. Tasty. Lots of crispy grains of salt in the chocolate. I know it sounds borderline insane to talk about salt having the right texture to be paired with chocolate, but they used flakey salt that managed to keep its crispiness instead of being melted into the chocolate. It's a small detail, but probably hard to get just right. I also liked the use of crispier marcona almonds instead of regular almonds. I do wish they would use a darker chocolate than 41%.

Next: must locate a bacon bar. I haven't seen one anywhere yet. It's just crazy enough for me to be intensely curious.

The Many Flavors of Braise

We're working our way through a pot of Chinese "lu wei." Basically, it's a slow-cooked medley of snackish foods that are eaten cold with sliced green onions and a drizzle of sesame oil.

For the base of the cooking liquid I used a can of chicken stock, two can's worth of water, half a cup of soy sauce, half a cup of rice wine, an eighth of a cup of brown sugar, five slices of ginger, a tablespoon of star anise, and a tablespoon of Szechuan peppercorns. I brought the liqud and spices up to a simmer, then added:

• a pound of pork shoulder that had already been simmered in water for about an hour
• four eggs
• a package (4) of firm tofu
• a slab of honeycomb tripe bigger than two palms
• a package of seaweed knots (added in the last half hour)

This mix can simmer for two or more hours. We let it go at the lowest possible heat for about three hours yesterday. Everything can be eaten hot, but traditionally you would let it cool overnight, slice everything, and then serve.

Also, more flowers! I don't like this arrangement as much, but it's okay. Changes I would make: remove the yellow/green leaves and use coffee berries (they come on green leafy branches), use roses that are solid pink instead of gradiated, and use some large green orchids.

All the parents are very skeptical that I can pull of a DIY for so many flowers, but what they don't realize is this: I really could care less. I want to DIY so I can spend about a fourth of what I would for a florist and use the savings elsewhere--a better makeup artist, more food, extra music, exciting wedding favors, better alcohol, etc. I think those things, more than flowers, make a party memorable. And if disaster strikes and I somehow end up with no wedding flowers, I can honestly say I would not shed a tear. It's just not that important to me.

French Press

If your black coffee's not this frothy, it's not fresh enough. That froth comes from the coffee's natural oils, not dairy.

Pei as fashion icon: look at this masterful juxtaposition of Coach eyewear, Smith & Wesson head gear, and Marlin rifle craftsmanship. Watch out people, this bride is in training. Do not cross me. :)

Much Belated: Abode

My sister finally sent me photos from our brunch at Abode a long time ago. Ironically, we're going to Santa Monica again today. I wonder when I'll get those photos...better bring my own camera.

Great bloody mary at Abode! Nice oystery kick.

Fish of the day was grilled mahi.

My fresh beef hash looks like steak and eggs (which someone else had). This was really good! Nice fall apart meat with good flavor, runny eggs with a dark yolk.

Eggs benedict was the only thing I heard complaints about. Very mediocre, word has it.

This won the cutest entree award. Tiny blueberry pancakes with amazing maple butter and maple syrup. The lemon curd I really enjoyed. Tangy, fresh, and thick.

We stopped by CDM because people wanted to see it. They were setting up what appeared to be an artichoke themed wedding. See the 'chokes at the base of the tree? The enormous centerpieces inside featured artichokes bigger than a grapefruit. I think the centerpieces were about two by two feet, each with half a dozen giant blooming artichokes and white flowers. Interesting. Very interesting. I would have guessed it was a non-wedding event, but there was an alter set up inside.

Pipe Dreams are Fun

J wants this at the cocktail hour instead of passed hors d'oeuvres.

I told him that it would cost about three times as much as passed hors d'oeuvres, but that I would ask our catering director about it. I also have the disturbing image in my head of certain guests hovering over the table for the entire hour, instead of getting food and moving on like civilized humans.

Potstickers

Tonight, we had potstickers with a side of Chinese okra (more like a squash, if you ask me).

Potstickers are fun to make. You line dumplings up in a skillet with a tablespoon or two of neutral oil. It's best to use a pan that will allow you to crowd the dumplings. Sear the dumplings, uncovered, over medium heat until the bottoms are nicely browned. Some people like them golden, some like them charred. When they're as brown as you want, add enough cold water to cover the dumplings about a third of the way, then cover. Continue to cook over medium until the water is almost completely evaoporated. Even with the lid on, steam should escape out the sides. Remove the cover and cook until the bottoms are crispy.

BLT Deliciousness

I heart BLT sandwiches. I really do.

I don't think I need to say more.

And in random wedding news, I took a few gal pals to The Viceroy in Santa Monica, and we parked near CDM so they indulged me by letting me go in to visit the ballroom--again. It was their first time, and we noticed this balcony over looking the foyer outside the ballroom. They thought it would be hilarious for a bouquet toss, except it would have to be more like a bouquet drop if I didn't want to nail that chandelier. Also, the exit sign would require Photoshop. I do thin, however, that it's a great vantage point from which the photographer could get a few good cocktail hour shots. Or a group shot of all the guests gathered before dinner!

And Then There's the China...

Considering registering for this set. I need to see it in person to see if I like the quality of the plates, but the simplicity is appealing. It's casual enough to use every day, but could be dressed up with colorful placemats and chargers.
In other wedding news, my mother is trying to break my zen. She called to complain that I bought bridesmaid dresses that needed to be taken in. Her point was that I should have looked around and bought dresses in the right size instead of imposing on her and the bridesmaids time and money (she's paying for my sisters' alterations).

Hello? Do you know how hard it is to find a knee-length, raspberry pink, bridesmaid-appropriate dress that is not $300? All my bridesmaids are below an American size 0, so I bought the ABS dress precisely because it had been discounted from over $250 to $80, leaving plenty--PLENTY--of room to pay for alterations. I basically told her I wasn't going to argue with her because it was pointless.