Eli’s Top 5 L.A. Sambones June 23, 2010
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , 6commentsThe sandwich, the sammy, the sambone is an art. Crafting the perfect sandwich requires balancing the right ingredients, bread, temperature and sauce to engineer a finished product worthy of human consumption and blogger photography. L.A. has legit awesome sandwiches found all over town. Here now, are my 4 current favorite restaurant sandwiches in LA. (and my go-to lazy sandwich when I’m at work and need to stretch $10 into 2 meals…) This list is not all inclusive and isn’t scientific. I wrote it mostly because I’m hungry and at my desk. I just really am digging these sandwiches at the present time. Let us know what your go-to sandwich spot is, what you order and why in the comments section.
1. Gjelina’s Turkey Prosciutto with Pesto Aioli Arugula and Avocado. This sandwich is so hip it got an ironic tattoo of a fixed gear bike on its calf.
2. Mendocino Farms Kurobuta Pork Belly Banh Mi with pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, cucumbers, jalapenos, chili aioli on panini grilled ciabatta. It’s a 15 min drive in traffic from my work to MF’s and it’s in a strip mall and it’s completely worth it without even blinking.
3. Huckleberry house made brisket on Ciabatta bread. Eating here makes me feel like I’m in a movie where people live in California. I mean I live in California already. yes, i get that. But not IN a movie IN california. Go there and you will understand what I’m saying.
4. Canter’s Deli- The Fresser. Corned Beef and Pastrami piled sky high. I order it with 2 sides of 1000 island and eat til I’m sick. I’ve eaten this 10 times wasted and 5 times sober. Honestly, it’s still pretty damn good sober but the $15 price tag stings less when I’m smashed-house and can food coma nap on the ride home.
5. Eli’s sambone of the week – Rotisserie chicken from Ralph’s stuffed into a La Brea Bakery sourdough baguette dipped into packaged roasted red pepper hummus. I’ve never pretended to be classy or denied the fact that I buy chicken kept under heat lamps stored in plastic bags.
For more tasty LA Sam’s check out this list from grubstreet. 26 of LA’s top sam-bam-thank you maams : http://losangeles.grubstreet.com/2010/05/the_los_angeles_sandwich_regis.html#
Photo from Midtown Lunch's article on Mendocino Farms (via google img search)
NEW LAist.com interview with Chef Akasha Richmond June 23, 2010
Posted by Eli in : Cooking, Stories, Uncategorized , add a commentThe new “From Market to Menu” article on LAist just went live!
Chef Richmond talks about her new passion for jamming (like…making jam, not rocking out), working as a private chef for Michael Jackson and how and why she made the move to Culver City to open up her restaurant – Akasha.
Read the whole interview here: http://laist.com/2010/06/23/from_market_to_menu_akasha_richmon.php
Gift Ideas for Teachers and Grads: NBC 10 Philadelphia June 9, 2010
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , add a commentThank you to Leah Ingram from The Suddenly Frugal Blog : http://www.suddenlyfrugal.com/ for featuring our cookbook on NBC 10 Philadelphia!
Please check out her blog for amazing frugal living tips.
Max is alive! Out from the Breslin for a day off!! He…Cooks. June 3, 2010
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farWith my one day off this week (falling on Memorial Day) I decided to cook up a storm and invite some people over to our new place in Park Slope as it has a backyard (a true rarity in NYC). Being a cook at a restaurant I don’t have much free time, and when I do, I’m often so burnt out that I don’t feel like cooking. But I still love doing it and so this past Monday, I went to Los Paisanos, a butcher in Carroll Gardens, to start my day. I got 3 kinds of sausage, their house-made burger mix, and a whole flank steak.
Once I got home I started in on marinating the flank with some crushed rosemary, garlic, lemon rind, and chilies. I lit the grill and roasted eggplant, tomatoes, and red peppers. Once they were cool, I chopped them with oregano, garlic and red wine vinegar to make a delicious caponata for the sausages. People started to arrive and I quickly chopped some parsley and mint for a chimichurri sauce for the flank. Burgers, sausages and flank went on the grill and we dug in to
the homemade guacamole. An hour later and we were stuffed to the top,
but there was still room for homemade rhubarb strawberry crisp.
The Pics:
burger with homemade caponata (roasted eggplant, pepper, and tomato)
and bacon cheddar potato salad
chimichurri sauce: mint, parsley, oregano, chilies
flank marinade: rosemary, chili, garlic
US! At the Pacific Wine and Food Festival! Max in LA! May 21, 2010
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Umm….AH-MAY-ZING.
So we got booked at this and we are totally honored to be a part of such a kick-ass culinary field.
Max is flying into LA so we hope to have at least one other event while he on the golden coast. We are already planning on where to eat when Max is out here. He’s here for 50 hrs and we have 12 restaurants already on a list. This is gonna get gross.
Some of the chefs who are going to be there at the PF&FF: Chefs Cora, Voltaggios (both), Malarky, Delcour, Pagancoss, Hoffman and many more! They are announcing new people all the time and it’s going to be a hell of a weekend. You can buy ticket starting in June but for big groups,media or random questioniess: http://www.pacificwineandfood.com/contact-us/
We are doing a 30 min demo on Sunday…time and place TBD but we will keep you posted as soon as we know more.
We don’t want to cause a scene or anything but there is some big name talent so we are putting together sort of a multi-faceted entertainment show featuring POSSIBLY some cooking.
Tentative game plan of attack for our PW&FF demo:
First off we are working on a SICK dance routine. I’m def doing at least 2 backflips during the demo. That one chick from DWTS’s has been working with me here in LA for months.My glutes are absolutely becoming maximised.Speaking of… Max has been training on weekends with the cast of that Broadway show where they do all that dancing. He’s approaching graceful Julliard status. At the demo there are going to be girls in sexy chef outfits shooting FITK branded pot holders and wine glasses out of cannons like at Pistons games,we’ve secured a lazer light show courtesy of VFX Light Tech Inc. (they do like every tight Bev Hills bar/bat mitzvah) and we are going to come out for our demo on white horse (max) and tamed tiger (eli). Also there will be live graffiti art by BANKSY but it WILL NOT be political at all so…don’t get all crazy and think we are going overboard or anything.
We hope to see you there. Tickets go on sale in June. Until then…have fun envisioning the above.
And follow Pacific Wine and food Festival on Twitter here for tons of updates on the REG: www.twitter.com/PacificWineFood
Website for pretty pics and more serious info: http://www.pacificwineandfood.com/
