SG brought NY starter to CA. we let the ingredients from both states comingle. over the course of a week, SG taught me how to bake bread. need to make rye… need to make it sour…

floury, crispy goodness

SG came to visit and we ate our way across a couple of counties. this is not a list for the faint of heart:

• tres leches cupcake @ hotcakes
• beef tongue sandwich + ash-e-joe @ attari
• burger + beer @ father’s office
• doughnuts @ rustic canyon
• short rib taco, spicy pork taco, chicken taco and kim chi quesadilla @ kogi bbq truck
• one sesame ball split 3 ways @ dim sum truck
• pollo a la brasa
• sweet potato latte @ cafe loft cafe loft
• skewers and curry goodness @ soi56 soi56
• juicy pork, juicy pork + veggies, and fish dumplings @ din tai fung
• beef noodle @ 101 noodle express
• shoyu, ten-shin and fake tonkatsu ramen @ foo foo tei
• goat milk gelato + others @ bulgarini gelato
• 9 course omakase @ kiyokawa
• appetizers @ sunnin lebanese cafe – i like the rekakat + fried cauliflower
• appetizers and rice and chicken koobideh (awesome!) @ shamshiri
• saffron + pistachio ice cream @ rose + saffron
• pain au chocolat @ bite bar and bakery
• gobs and gobs of southern thai @ jitlada
• kanom krok @ street vendor in thailand plaza thailand plaza parking lot
• crab stew @ on dal 2
• ceviche @ mariscos chente – we were supposed to have grilled snook and cockroach shrimp – the green sauce here is awesome!
• spudnuts
• burundi coffee @ conservatory for coffee and tea
• octopus tacos, shrimp tacos, al pastor taco @ la playita and al pastor @ the la oaxaquena truck on lincoln just south of rose. saw 2 other trucks out and about on lincoln – yay!

It’s really hard to compare actually. One has 4 eggs, 4 TBSP of butter and 4 TBSP of heavy cream. The other has 6 TBSP of buckwheat flour and 6 TBSP of white flour. One has virtually no carbs. The other is all carbs. Next time I’ll take a picture but the coconut flour pannie basically looks like an egg pancake. An egg pancake with a bit of flour…

Am @ samosa house east on the SW corner of washington + overland having jackfruit, chana, dal, garlic naan and chai. The location isn’t that great for foot traffic but they do have a bit of parking and the interior is bright and modern. I miss all the samosa house west smells though and I can’t buy my indian cooking essentials here. It’s a stone’s throw (1 block west) from conservatory for coffee and tea. I may indulge twice today!

m has discovered a new way to bake bacon: on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet. the bacon not only cooks faster but it gets crunchy so m is happy without being burnt so i am happy. and it doesn’t sit in its own fat so everyone is happy.

a restaurant. in LA. went for NM’s bday. had marrow bone covered in parsley. pig ear fried to a crisp. fried sweetbreads (i love organs!). and sundry other items but those were the *special* ones.

i made kale chips tonight, but ruined them with too much salt (damn!). lots of recipes for this and it’s super easy: de-rib the kale, wash and dry completely, toss with olive oil and salt, lay out on roasting pan and roast @ either 350 or 375 for 5-10 minutes, turning over halfway. (so easy but go easy on the salt…) great way to eat kale when your farmers market and csa box is bursting with it.

99 things to eat in LA before you die

dear god, we haven’t even made it through the restaurant list (ahem, we have indeed given up and only seek out the a 99 restaurant if we desperate or are in the ‘hood and the food sounds interesting. after our experience at border grill, i’m less and less inclined to continue down the path of the revered 99, but my need to complete lists is undeniably strong).

after perusing this list, i have to stop at the entry for the ivy’s corn chowder. absolutely not. i cannot complete this list. i refuse.

i’ll list in the comments how many of these i’ve already had and those i *may* be interested in.

as an aside, i just unsubscribed from this email newsletter because i simply don’t read them and i don’t ride the bus anymore where i would have mindless time to read them…but when i do read one or two, i’m reminded why i signed up in the first place: to have an unending list of food places to go and to raise my food expectations beyond any achievable level. having said that, i’m still unsubscribed. to be continued…