Finally...Dinner at Angelini Osteria

Some complimentary Prosecco...always nice to dine with someone who has some connections (Masaki!)

Braised baby beets

Beets, burrata, and field greens

Gino (not Angelini), debones the Branzino tableside

My green Lasagna with flash fried spinach

Chocolate Crostata and Panna Cotta

I finally got to eat at Angelini Osteria in celebration of Angie's birthday (from last month). The usual family suspects (me, Yuki, Masaki, and Jeni-koro) met up at this restaurant on Beverly Blvd. My cousin Masaki/Bryan has been raving about this place for the longest time. I've heard lots of great things about the chef/owner Gino Angelini. It was delicious....lots of great flavors, simple, but always dependable. The green lasagna was extra creamy with what tasted like, very high quality ricotta and some other fancy cheese (not just your store bought ricotta and mozzarella). My favorite dish was the beets and burrata. So creamy and just goes so wonderfully with the sweet fresh beets. Can't wait to go back and try more of the items on the menu. Be aware, we were there wed night and it was super packed. Reservations are a must! Apparently La Terza is good, but I have yet to try it.

Angelini Osteria
www.angeliniosteria.com
Phone: 323-297-0070
Fax: 323-297-0072
7313 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90036
4 BLOCKS WEST OF LA BREA
ON THE NORTH SIDE
(CROSSTREET: POINSETTIA)

Angie and Jessica's Birthday Celebration: Golf Themed Pub Crawl

Angie and Jessica's birthday this year was definitely celebrated in style....golf style. I don't think anyone of us actually plays golf, but we brought out the argyle outfits and crawled around the Santa Monica area from bar to bar. We started off at the "clubhouse" which was Jessica and Mark's home. They did a lovely job decorating with golf themed plates, napkins, and coasters. They made some yummy pigs in a blanket, shrimp cocktail, sangria, and Jessica's mom made a homemade lemon bundt cake. Daniella made her always popular cheese balls. Angie and I made Chibi Cheesy Cakes, spicy tuna crudite, and Mac and Cheese. After drinking and eating we took our crew to the SM promenade. I made some golf score cards to help people keep track of their drinking. Each "hole" had a par, or amount of drinks you aimed to drink. Now opposite of golf, you actually want a higher score. There were a bunch of people who were getting their double bogeys. After the tee off at the clubhouse, we continued to Cabo Cantina where we picked up a few more for our team. It was funny, because I would see someone in argyle and think they were part of our party. Next we moved to Brittania where Angie and Jessica love to drink and sing karaoke. The last stop on our crawl (you can really only get to so many places before it turns 2am) was Makai where we got out dance on. It was so much fun hanging out and you know me...I love a good themed party!

The Original Pancake House: Perhaps My New Neck of the Woods???

I've been searching lately for a place....a home to call my own. I started out in the Westside area because I just love the neighborhood and I work around here. I put a bid on a place in Santa Monica but got outbid. So I kept looking, going to open houses and doing my research. My parents suggested looking for a single family home out of the area. That seed was placed in my head awhile back when I was dating Kirk who always said the closest good city to West LA where you could even fathom buying a home would be Torrance. But I thought, I really want to stay in West LA so I looked for condos. I guess the more I looked, the more I was starting to think $600,000 for a two bedroom condo? I wanted to keep my options open and not be so rigid, so I went to a open house in Torrance. The house was so cute, 3 bed, 2 baths with a perfect backyard for entertaining. It was a bit small, but it had a garage and beautifully remodeled kitchen. The great part was it was in my price range! Of course it got snatched up that day and I didn't even have a chance to blink, let alone put an offer in. But it did give me some hope that maybe I can afford a home. I'm still looking in the westside, but I'm looking in the Southbay as well. I started checking around the neighborhood, doing some drive-bys, and scoping the surrounding areas of the Torrance. Before doing that, we stopped off to try the Original Pancake House. I have always wanted to try it but if you don't get there before 9, it is impossible to get a table without waiting for a long time. We got seated right away and my eyes popped open with a huge assortment of pancakes. I was boring and tried to plain buttermilk ones. Wow, you could taste the buttermilk in that pancakes. It was so delicious. My date had the potato pancakes which were basically like hashbrowns. So good....I can't wait to go here again, possibly as a Torrance resident.

Wilshire Restaurant - Dine LA Week

My favorite week of the year aside from all the holiday and vacation weeks I have, is Dine LA week. For a few weeks out of the year, a ton of restaurants in the LA County area have specialty 3 course menus that highlight their restaurants. You can try these places for dinner and some for lunch for a reasonable price for a nice tasting menu including a appetizer, entree, and dessert. This year, I toned it down to one place. Lately I've been trying to limit the amount of "luxury" eating due to trying to lose weight, eating healthier, and saving money. Luckily my best friend Jennifer sent me a nice giftcard to Wilshire as a thank you awhile back. What better time to use the giftcard, so thank you Jennifer!

The restaurant was uber trendy and I thought used the spaces quite uniquely. We started off at the bar for drinks. One of the bars was located outside and sort of intertwined with the trees (the bar was basically built around the tree). My friends Adrienne and Alex tried Wilshire and had a bad experience with the food and service, so I was a little biased. However, I think they redeemed themselves and I thought the food was great and the service excellent.

I decided to have the Dine LA menu which included a variety of choices for the appetizer, entree, and dessert. For the appetizer I had the choice of Kabocha gnocchi, grilled octopus salad, or something I can't remember...hehe. I chose the octopus salad which was grilled nicely and served with some frisee and a puree of some sort, I think a red pepper one. My date decided to go off menu and started off with a large crabcake singaporean style. It was spicy with large chunks of crab. For the entree, the choices were duck leg cassoulet, pot pie for two, and diver scallops. The pot pie sounded delish, but it was for two. The duck leg was unique and I've always wanted to try a cassoulet which is a French dish that is slow cooked with white beans. The meat on the leg fell of the bone with just a touch of my fork. It was so tender and perfectly flavored with 5 spice giving it a sort of Chinese taste to it. My date opted for lamb which was tender and served with an interesting array of Indian spiced quinoa, a soy flavor Japanese eggplant, and Raita. I guess they were going for a Indian, Asian, American fusion? For dessert, it was a no brainer choice....doughnuts! Three red garnet yam doughnuts served with praline ice cream. It must of just been fried because it was hot and crispy.

Wilshire has a great happy hour menu and some specials on certain days. It is a great place for some good cocktails and asian-french-american fusion food.

Angie's Sushi Themed Birthday Party

Ok, so I know I've been a little M.I.A. lately, but in my defense I've been a little busy at work. During my off times, I've been training for a little half marathon which I did last week, so now I can breathe a little.

For Yuki's (Angie) birthday celebration, my mom so graciously hosted a make your own sushi party and invited all of Angie's close friends. Of course, my dad and Chibi were there. Chibi made his appearance as co-sushi chef in his sushi man outfit. My mom cut up all sorts of goodies: salmon, tuna, yellowtail, uni, unagi, tamago, sweet shrimp, spicy tuna, spicy scallop, avocado, krab, cucumber, etc. For those of you who haven't had make your own sushi, it is basically like temaki (the hand roll) you get at the sushi bars. You take a piece of nori (seaweed), put some sushi rice on it, then pick and choose what you want on top. My favorite is spicy tuna and kaiware. For desserts, Jessica's mom (Linda C) made two cakes!!! My favorite red velvet cake and she is famous for at her dessert parties that I've previously blogged about and a german chocolate cake. They were to die for. I was in charge of decorations. I decided to buy everyone a pair of chopsticks. I also rolled up washcloths to look like onigiri (rice balls) with a red pom pom to act as the umeboshi. It was a great way to celebrate and everyone had fun making their own sushi concoctions.

A Tale of Two Cities: Atlanta and New York City

During my two glorious weeks of vacation from work, I had the pleasure of traveling to see two of my best friends, Eric who lives in New York City, and Jennifer who lives in Atlanta. I spent two weeks running around shopping, drinking, and most importantly EATING!!! Of course I did other fun stuff like Shakespeare in Central Park, visiting the Williams Sonoma outlet in Georgia, watching movies, and catching up with very dear friends of mine (Jennifer, Eric, and Gina)...something I needed. Already I miss my east coast buddies and am looking forward to the next time we see each other again.

Part I: Atlanta, Georgia

The first part of my trip was spent in Atlanta, GA with my best friend Jennifer and her new hubby Anthony. They just moved into a beautiful new apartment home in the midtown area and so graciously hosted me at their place. I was so happy to just spend some quality time with my friend whom I rarely see since she lives on the east coast. We just relaxed, caught up on gossip, watched movies, went shopping and ate of course. I didn't take pictures of the Indian take out we had. I still think in the US, that is one of the best indian food places (called Cafe Bombay). I love eating at this place....makes me crave indian food just thinking about it.

This was our breakfast at the Flying Biscuit which has a bunch of chains all over Atlanta. I went there before when I was in Atlanta for her wedding. Their biscuits are very scone-like and their pancakes which are oatmeal pancakes are pretty unique and tasty with fruit on top.

On my last night there, I wanted to try a nice place with my hosts so we went to the Watershed in Decatur. They served nouveau Southern food which is always a favorite of mine. I had the red rice, shrimp, and okra. Jennifer had these delicious salmon croquettes and Anthony had this big plate of fried catfish, fries, and hush puppies. As much as I love southern food, I have a hard time eating a lot of fried food now, which limits your choices. As an appetizer we ate this really tasty grits with cheese bread. Gotta love the grits....especially in the south.




My obsession with cupcakes was satiated at Matty Cakes in Atlanta. And to top it off, they had a red velvet cupcake flavor. I must say, one of the most moist red velvet cupcakes I've ever had. Very rich, but not so sweet cream cheese frosting topped off the cupcake. If you're in the area, try this place.

Part II: New York City, New York

Took this picture with Eric and Johanna in Eric's Brooklyn apartment. He ended up moving back to Brooklyn to his old place he used to live at, now rooming with old Whitney-ite Niroshi. He lives right in the middle of it all (across from the subway stop), so it is pretty hustle and bustle. The first night, I could hear people till the wee hours of the morning, drunk, and fighting on the streets.....totally New York.

On my last day in the city, Eric and I had breakfast at this little eatery called "Egg" which happened to be right down the street from his apartment. It was quite delicious with southern style eats such as grits, biscuits and gravy, and some stinkin hot sausage. My egg was not poached quite right, but the cheesy grits and Eric's biscuits and gravy were awesome.


I was super lucky to have a chance to meet up with my friend Gina. Now most of you know this chica, but for those of you who don't, she is totally cool! With her high fives, gorgeous smile, and excellent taste in food and drink. I think we are very similar and personality and hobbies, that's why we get along so well. I'm so sad she moved away because she was my favorite person to hang out with on the westside. So we met up one of the nights in NYC at this great place called Cafe Mogador (101 Saint Marks Place, NY, NY 10009: www.cafemogador.com). They are known for their tagine dishes (pronounced tazheen)....a pot that looks like of like a teepee that cooks/steams the food making the meat just fall off the bone. I had the leg of lamb with this interesting green sauce of various spices. Oh my...the most tender piece of dark lamb meat...oh so good. We shared some homemade hummus and pita that was also just fresh as can be. I will definitely be looking for more moroccan places in LA!



After dinner with Gina, she took me to this dessert bar called Chikalicious (www.chikalicious.com) right down the street from Cafe Mogador. NYC always comes up with the new hip and happening places. This dessert bar just served desserts. I had the black and white cupckae and a sea salt caramel macaron and Gina had the soft serve. Just both solid, tasty, well executed desserts for an affordable price. I tell you...LA NEEDS to have more dessert only places to hang out at after dinner. I NEED it!!!

When I was in NYC, I was on a quest for a fabulous black and white cookie. I walked all the way down 5th avenue from Rockerfeller Center to MOMA to get try this cookie from a bakery called William Greenberg Bakery (www.wmgreenbergdesserts.com). It was delicious and worth the walk. The cookie was ginormous (see thumb in picture for reference). It was very cakey tasting and the frosting was perfect. I kept trying to get both flavors in each bite (anyone seen the Seinfeld episode at the bakery?) I was so content sitting in front of the nbc studios with my cookie and my iced decaf coffee from Dean and Deluca.

It is a must for me to eat the Halal food lamb on rice that my friend Malcolm got me hooked on. Eric told me to try this one at Rockefellar center so I went there...twice! I loved it so much I made a special trip out there right before my plane ride home to bring it on the plane (so good!!!). The pieces of lamb are shaved off this large roasting stick, then sauteed on a grill with veggies, put over rice with, white and red sauces, and served. All for a mere 6 bucks. I want it soooooo bad right now.


Random find somewhere while driving in NYC....a bar called Chibi's Bar. Had to take a picture of this for my little Chibi and for Angie.

I had to eat pizza in NYC...so Eric and I stopped over for me to try Lombardi's Pizzeria (www.firstpizza.com) . Now Eric must have told me a dozen times that this is not new york style pizza....but I just wikipedia-ed it and it says it is. I think New York style pizza just means that it is thin and foldable and that it is made with the New York tap water and high gluten bread flour. It was delicious and I love folding the pizza and taking a big bite. Lombardi's is also known for their coal oven cooking style which you can taste in the pizza.

Katz's Deli is widely known for their pastrami sandwiches. There is just a ton of meat on the sandwich and the pastrami is cooked fresh and hot and cut in to very thick slices that ooze with juice and fat. I love how they give you a slice whilst you wait at the counter to give you a delectable preview of what's to come. Always crowded....always great meat.



Another must eat for me in NYC is Joe Shanghais in Chinatown. I just love the SLBs (shao long baos) which are the soup dumplings. I've said it before and I'll say it again....Din Tai Fung absolutely does not compare to Joe Shanghai. Joe's has much larger dumplings with tastier meat and soup inside. I also love their other dishes like their handmade shanghai noodles and their onion cake. As Eric would say, they never let you down with their food.

Hungry Hungry Hippo...Who Are You?

So I basically know all my avid blog readers...except for one: Hungry Hungry Hippo. And out of curiosity I would just like to know a little more about you who has written so loyally to my thoughts. Email me please at mmonoda@yahoo.com. Look forward to it.

Dinner and a Movie: Julie/Julia and Torafuku

Today I went to go catch the new movie Julie/Julia and it was so good. So good that I would go see it again in the theater (which for me is hard bc I hate sitting there for so long). So good that I would buy it on DVD and watch it over and over again. So good that I would (and have) bought the Julia Child's Cookbook for inspiration. I think for me, I related to this movie so well being the wannabe chef/cook and of course occasional blogger. It hit my two greatest loves: eating and cooking and my newly found love for blogging. I sat on the edge of my seat the whole time, laughing, gasping, and of course drooling.

After dinner, I thought about eating Panda Express at the mall, but like my sister said, we can't eat the PX after seeing all that gourmet food in the movie. So we ventured off to Torafuku which is this Japanese restaurant right next to the Westside Pavilion that I always see but have never tried. It was very "Japanese" meaning the wait staff and cooks were probably from Japan as were most of the clientale. It was as authentic as you could get in the area. I had the chef's Omakase dinner set. It came with all sorts of yummy goodies. The Japanese always know how to present items to look so delectable. The set included some kurobuta tonkatsu, ebi tonkatsu, tamago, 4 pieces of sashimi, miso-shiru, tsukemono, gohan, saba-yaki, and nimono. Very delicious and all for the mere price of $25. I would definitely recommend this place for some tasty, authentic Japanese food.