there are a couple of things i have failed to discuss: our pizza at luggage room and nook.

luggage room pizza caught my eye on tasting table because they advertised 70 year old sourdough starter. we finally tried it out on one of our many trips eastward. we decided to add whatever weight we lost off our heads at the hands of lisa to our tummies. we had the fallen angel and a special farmer’s market ‘za with corn and fresno chiles and goat cheese. i enjoyed the crust as it had a bit of the sour flavor i’m used to in my bread and it had a nice chew, but the ingredients, especially on the fallen angel, were just too heavy-handed. and there was too much cheese which overpowered the crust. i must admit, though, that i loved the fact that the dining room was in the old luggage room of the del mar station and we sat underneath a large wooden sliding door, seemingly original.

nook, on the other hand, has impressed us with its black beluga lentils with merguez sausage and the caesar salad. their soups have also been enjoyable: on two different occasions we enjoyed the pork and green chile stew and black eyed pea soup. my recent craving for mac and cheese was also fulfilled and satisfied by nook as was my curiosity about their shrimp and grits. the shrimp and grits were just as fatty as those at larkin’s but there was a seasoning and elegance to nook’s that i really enjoyed. however, one can only eat so much shrimp and grits in a lifetime. i think i’ve eaten one too many. i would stay away from the squash and zucchini couscous and the burger and the shiitake/gruyere bread pudding. the fries and onion rings were oversalted, but there was a nice crunch to each and they weren’t too oily or thickly battered.

nook | 11628 Santa Monica Blvd #9 Los Angeles, CA 90025 | 310.207.5160

luggage room pizzeria | 260 S. Raymond Avenue pasadena ca | 626-356-4440

on our recent visit to nook, we peeked in the window of western bagel and saw bialys. sadly, they are not real bialys. they are bread with bialy ingredients baked on top. and our carb-heavy breakfast left my tummy a little upset. not all was lost as the chocolate chip bagel was good with a good crumb and not too sweet. the salt bagel was nothing like that at bagel nosh. it was pillowy, less dense, but when i bit into it, the bitten edge stayed squished so it was also gummy. not my favorite. oh, bagel nosh, why can’t you be open at 630am on weekends?

bialy stick

the other contestants

what i’ve learned from mr. epstein:

• secret ingredient in pasta: seeded jalapeno and/or italian red pepper flakes
• watery sauce will not grip the pasta
• keep a small bowl of cool water nearby; as pasta cooks you can pick one out w/ slotted spoon and drop into the bowl and taste w/o burning mouth
• pasta is the main ingredient; not the sauce
• if serving pasta later, reserve the boiled pasta water and ladle some into the pasta as you reheat to loosen pasta
• putting mozzarella cheese on basil and not hot pasta will prevent melting and stringiness
• strattu: fragrant tomato concentrate (infinitely more so than tomato paste)
• find a quality butcher who trims his own prime beef and grinds the scraps for hamburger
• he strains freshly beaten eggs and scrambles them over a bain-marie instead of open flame (we did this w/o the straining…m used less butter than i do when i scramble them on open flame so, of course, they weren’t as good)
• potato chips: russet potatoes sliced almost paper-thin on a mandoline, soaked briefly in cold water to eliminate starch so they don’t stick together, drained, spun, and thoroughly dried in the fridge, three inches of canola or peanut oil heated to 350; the drier the potatoes, the faster they will brown and the less the oil will bubble when you add the potatoes, adjust flame to compensate for temp drop when you add each handful/batch (we just watched cook’s illustrated do the same thing with 1/4″ fries; their recipes were about 90% the same); epstein recommends chips and matchsticks for more crunch and less sog
• oil floats on water so unless you make an emulsion, or greens are bone dry, add oil to the greens first, vinegar second

bain-marie scrambled eggs a la jason epstein and m

vital gluten is the key

kl + ml are having twins! this is the closest i will ever get to such an accomplishment.

almond cake at village bakery and cafe / 9 jan 11 @ 2 pm

my honey took me on a date to atwater village. with a blackboard eats coupon in hand, we had brunch at village bakery and cafe and had almond cake (among other things). reminds m of childhood. we are soooooo going back.