Recently in food Category

Wine Spectator responds with their side of the story. (My post from yesterday)

The Executive Editor of Wine Spectator, claims in his forum post, that they did do research on the restaurant.  "On the Web site Chowhound, diners (now apparently fictitious) discussed their experiences at the non-existent restaurant in entries dated January 2008, to August 2008."  Also, they called the number listed and got a voice mail left by a real person (however never spoke to a real person live).  He further goes on to explain the entire wine list was actually a pretty good list, that many of the wines on the "base" list actually scored pretty high, and that they judged the wine list as a whole.  He also points out that the Award of Excellence is their lowest tier of restaurant recognition, and even though they are a victim of fraud at the hands of Mr. Goldstien, it doesn't take away anything from other legitimate winners of the Award.

I personally don't buy the argument that Wine Spectator is just the victim of a malicious blogger looking to sell a few more copies of his book.  They are trying to be an authoritative voice on wine, and they fact checked by just using an user-run internet site?  We're supposed to believe that they didn't have a single contact in a major Italian city that could have verified the restaurant was real?  I'm still waiting for the next part of this story, the one where Wine Spectator sues Mr. Goldstien for libel.

What does it take to win the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence?  Apparently $250 according to this post by author Robin Goldstein.  The Award of Excellence is given to the world's best wine restaurants, at least that is the idea.

While working on a paper about standards for wine awards, Mr. Goldstein submitted an application for Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence.  His application was for a restaurant called "Osteria L'Intrepido."  Along with the $250 fee, he submitted a menu of pedestrian nouvelle-italian cuisine, and a wine list.

While it is bad enough that a restuarant that doesn't exist could win the award, it is even more telling when you actually look at the wine list, particularly the reserve selections.  The reserve selections were intentially chosen from some of the lowest scoring wines in Wine Spectator over the last few decades.  Below the cut, check out the reserve selections along with the scores and some excerpts from the Wine Spectator reviews.

Because my favorite food blogger, Nicole at Pinch My Salt, hasn't been posting much, I thought I'd do a food related post tonight.  Since I've been in Los Angeles, my diet has definitely deteriorated and I haven't been cooking near as much.  So when I was thinking about my Lenten discipline this year, I thought it would be good to break a bad habit.  So I decided to give up fast food.  For the most part, its been pretty easy so far, however it does mean I've also given up In-N-Out for the course of lent.  Sad.  Anyway, one of the things I hope the breaking of the fast food habit would lead to, is more home cooking.  I haven't cooked at home as much as I would like so far, but I'm getting better about planning time into my busy schedule to do it.

Tonight's dinner was something that just came together in my head while grocery shopping last Monday.  I was thinking about how I could prepare the couscous I was planning to buy.  While in the produce section I noticed that the organic Asparagus looked pretty good and was a good price.  Remembering the White Truffle Honey I have in my pantry, the dish began to come together in my mind.  I don't really have a recipe per say for dinner, I just did things by personal taste preference.

Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Couscous
Feta Cheese
Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Dried Porcini Mushrooms (Rehydrated)
Asparagus
Butter
White Truffle Honey

Preparation:
Pan-steam Asparagus for approx 5 minutes.  Drain water.  Put some butter in pan (being careful to only brown, not burn the butter) with asparagus, add white truffle honey to taste.  Cook approx 2 minutes longer, making sure asparagus is fully coated with butter/honey mixture.  Remove from heat.  Prepare couscous.  Stir in Feta cheese to taste.  Stir in porcini and sun-dried tomatoes to taste.  Put couscous mixture on plate and top with asparagus.

I've been in Los Angeles almost three weeks now and it still really hasn't sunk in that I actually live here.  I don't know if it is a result of my only furniture being a borrowed Aero Bed and a small bookshelf or the fact that I don't yet have a car.  Whatever it is...it still just feels like a long vacation or perhaps more correctly business trip since I have been working since the 15th.

Not having a car in LA is definitely a much tougher thing than in Portland.  There is public transportation but for some reason it just doesn't feel as accessible.  Perhaps that is more of just the general mindset of the city around me.  I do have a lead on getting a car from a friend, but currently that's on the back burner.

I'm living a few blocks from USC in a pretty nice townhouse.  The rent is pretty much double what I was paying in Portland, but for the area, its proximity to the University (and therefore less need of a car)...its a pretty good deal.  The neighborhood is pretty interesting.  The immediate area is largely the college crowd, however a few blocks away the neighborhood becomes largely Latino.

Most of my explorations of the city so far have revolved around food.  There has been a lot of eating out these first few weeks.  The highlights are the biggest burrito I've ever seen at La Barca (in the neighborhood) for under $9 and some amazing ramen at Daikokuya in Little Toyko.

I've been to the beach (and got the resulting Norwegian Sun Tan...ie redness).

I saw Diana Krall at the Hollywood Bowl, which was a great show at a great venue.  Probably the best sound at an outdoor venue I've experienced.

I've been to a club in Hollywood (for DJ Heather & DJ Collete @ Deep)

For Nicole:

My infamous pork stuffed pork, served with seasoned potatoes.

1 Thick Rib Cut Pork Chop
1/4 lb Country Sage Pork Sausage
Fresh ground Pepper (to taste)
Seasoning Salt (to taste)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut a slit in the middle of the pork chop. Stuff pork sausage into slit on pork chop. Season the top and bottom of stuffed pork chop to taste. Place in oven. Bake for 1.5 hrs (or until correct temperature is reached in middle of stuffed pork chop).

One of my friends is "stuck" in Sicily as her husband is stationed by the Navy there.  Since she seems to have all the time in the world...she has started a blog of her culinary exploits.  Her blog is called Pinch My Salt.  Anyway, about a month ago she posted a recipe for Jagger Pie.  Now you may be wondering what exactly Jagger Pie is...or you may have guess by the title of this post...that it is a pie made with avocado.

Not many of my friends have fully appreciated the logic of "Well, I like avocado, and I like pie," statement I was prone to say when I spoke of this experiment.  But I set out to test this recipe anyway.  The ingredients are pretty simple.  It is just one avocado, a can of sweetened condensed milk and some lemon juice, all in a graham cracker crust.

When I finally cracked out a piece, I was pleasently surprised in how good the pie was.  Both of my friends that were brave enough to try the pie also enjoyed it.  I ended up not having any whipped cream on top (as Nicole's recipe called for), however I'm sure it would be good that way as well.  The pie is actually quite sweet and goes well with a tall glass of milk.