Dinner with Friends

A few nights ago my family packed our wine and cheese in a bag and drove over to our friends Jeff, Julia, Paige and Sidney's house for dinner.  The adults spent the first part of the evening conversing, while the kids played fun games like laser tag and hide and seek.  A normal game of hide and seek soon turned into tag, unbeknownst to the seeker.  We played that for a while, waiting for dinner to be ready.  My mom and Julia worked in the kitchen, so we had to avoid that room.  The moms made chicken picatta.  They pounded chicken, dredged it in flour then dipped it in egg.  They finished the chicken with panko/bread crumbs. Heating the pan with hot oil came next, then cooking both sides of the chicken while adding more oil.  At the same time Julia cooked some risotto, so both of them were flipping like crazy.  The dads sat in the living room and finished off the cheese that we brought for an aperitif.  They were oblivious to the three girls running through the room being followed by Andy, their small dog with a big bark.  I caught only snatches of their conversation about wine, cheese, vineyards and all the usual dad topics.  Soon, dinner was ready and we all gathered in the kitchen to load our plates.  The chicken was a masterpiece, it was now cooled and sprinkled with a sweet and sour lemon sauce.  You could still taste the clean white meat, and the bread crumbs gave it a nice crunch.  The risotto had miraculously been compacted into risotto cakes!  The were warm and gooey, due to the wonderful cheese that had been placed in the center.  I love green beans so I put some on my plate.  The only time I've seen white green beans is when I went to their house.  The fresh green beans were sugary and split in your mouth. There were also baked cherry and heirloom tomatoes.  They were warm and filled with warm juice.

Then came dessert time, I found out that Paige, a third grader,  had made the entire dessert herself!  She made the  fragrant raspberry sauce, the velvety brownies, but not the ice cold vanilla ice cream.  The brownies were chocolaty and warm, the raspberry sauce made them taste sour and sweet.  The ice cream, which I ate separately because I'm weird that way, was also very good.  It was all amazing.  

And it is always a treat to have
1. Dinner with friends (that have kids, especially if they are my great friends)
2. If the dinner is also super good too!
3.  If I can post it on my blog!

Kudos to the G family!!

Watermelon Radish

YojiSan

Kon'nichiwa everybody!
I am speaking a traditional Japanese greeting, and, even though I do not know much about the Japanese language, I do know about the food.  One of my favorite species of foods is the silent and spicy creature called Sushi.  YojiSan Sushi a great new restaurant from the restaurant group Drago.  My parents and I go to another sushi restaurant called Shu, and the same main chef there now has his own restaurant.  We thought that we should come by and visit him at his new place.  The architecture was very different from the dark and relaxing interior of Shu, it was filled with light and a bright red light adorned the center of the room.  We sat at the bar, and waved at Yoji.  My parents trust Yoji completely and wanted to do Omakase, as they always do, even though I never do it.  Today, I decided to be daring and agreed to Omakase as long as there were NO truffles included.  That was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my short life span.  Here is a picture of Yoji holding my business card.

Soon, he whipped up the first course of many.  This was a scallop inside its shell with pears, avocado and tomato.  Underneath the shell was a bed of blue salt, that, after a taste and a few questions I discovered that is was not edible.  On to the good part!  I have never tried scallop before, because I did not like the look of it.  I did not even INTEND to eat scallop, I didn't know it was on the plate, I thought it was only fresh veggies.  I soon found out that the chewy stuff that melted in your mouth like butter, that was only a tiny bit salty was scallop.  It was one of the best types of fish I had ever tasted and with the vegetables it tasted crunchy and groovy with many different flavors.

The next course was albacore, wrapped around watercress with sesame seeds.  The sauce was like a ponzu-yuzu mix.  The toasted almonds on the side gave the fish a crunchy and burnt taste.  My preference would be to not have the almonds, but they were soon drowned out by the delicate fish.  The dish tasted deliciously sour and the fish made it chewy and sometimes you got a little bit of fish taste.  The watercress was crunchy and crackled when you chomped down on it.

Next was a plate of three sushi tacos!  The first was filled with pieces of juicy Kobe beef and avocado, the taco tasted sweet and savory, the sweet sauce that the beef was soaked in made it taste candied and the avocado made it taste cool, cold cool.  The second was cod with jalapeno and cucumber, it tasted gushy and spicy when the jalapeno hit my tongue.  I was fried, literally, but not fried enough not to eat my favorite of the three.  SPICY TUNA AVOCADO!  The spicy tuna was stuck together, the way I like it, and the avocado was also mooshy.  The overall affect was moosh, and that was yummy!

Here comes my FAVORITE!!!!!  It was crab tempura, fried, with a sweet lemon sauce and crunchy cucumber base.  The crab tasted crunchy, fried, and sweet on the outside, but on the inside there was a fleshy sweetness too.  The lemony sweet sauce complimented the fish completely.  I basically liked it because it was sweet.

The last course was uni, sea urchin, which I have never eaten or ever want to eat.  My mother convinced me to force it down my throat.  It tasted like the sea, and it made me feel sick.

Lastly was dessert, this was my favorite.  Think about it....
warm dough on the outside and cold ice cream on the inside.

MOCHI MOCHI MOCHI MOCHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bringing Up Bunny

Hi everyone,

I have added a new pet to our family, a bunny.  She was my science project, and I decided to keep her,  my partner and I named her Cruella.  For those of you who might not know, rabbits do what they do best, pee and poop.  So, after some research, I decided to give her a bath.  Those of you who are reading and have your mouths hanging open and are quite confused and wondering "who would wash a bunny?" please close your mouths and listen.  First, I took apart her travel case and placed it in front of her hutch.  Then got the hose and dribbled a little bit of water into it, only up to her feet.  I strategically opened the door and grabbed her.  She clawed and made strange snuffling noises and tried to get back into the comfort of her bed.  Once she calmed down I put her into the water and washed her feet.  I had only intended to get her feet wet but I actually got her entire body wet, so I got a bottle of our dog's shampoo and cleaned her fur too. 

                                   

This was very cute and she seemed to like it.  After that I put her on top of her house and plugged in a mini hairdryer.  When I turned it on, she freaked out and bit my finger. Biting my finger is a habit she has whenever she is about to start licking it.  And yes, close your mouths again, bunnies do enjoy licking people. Holding her tightly, she allowed me to turn her into a puffball of white fur. She looked like a million dollars.

                                        

For any of you out there who need me hairdressing services, please comment on my blog.   After giving her a bath, I had many scratches and a big case of C.O.  C.O. is cuteness overload, and I had to lie down.

  But, I didn't lie down for long because the voice page rang through the house, "Dinner is served. Come to the table. Can you hear me?" and from the background, "Hang up mom, hit the red button."  Grandma said, "What red button?" And the rest was cut off, but I raced into the kitchen, to be greeted by a delectable smell.

Dad ushered me to my seat and placed a steaming plate of Dover sole, and risotto in front of me.  I cut a small slice, I'm quite neurotic about the possibility of bones, and took a bite.  Thankfully, no bones.  The light and meaty flesh of the fish was complimented by the olive oil and lemon-parsley sauce.  Overall it tasted great and there were enthusiastic "mmmmms" from around the table.  The risotto was infused with Parmesan Saffron, and tasted creamy and fresh.  The Caesar salad dressing was a little thin, but nothing can't be fixed by adding dark green romain lettuce.  Everyone likes the light green lettuce but I enjoy the darker green leaves.  Finally, best for last, there were baby artichokes, grilled to perfection by my grandma!  No kidding, my dad.

That's all everyone!

Bye bye!

Watermelon Radish

Amazing Birthday Dinner at the New and Improved Bel Air Hotel

Yes, last night we did have a birthday dinner for my mom at the new and improved Bel-Air hotel, we enjoyed the menu created by Wolfgang Puck. We sat at a lovely and warm outdoor table to start. This table did not meet the expectations of my grandmother, so we moved inside. Inside, the table did not meet the expectations of my father who was getting very annoyed at the kitchen door banging in his ear. Finally, after two moves, we went back to the original table. My grandmother agreed to sit under the heater and my father was quite happy that there was no annoying noise in his ear. The menu was spectacular, there were so many mouthwatering options. After a long time, we each decided what we wanted. Our kind server, Lathrop, came over to get our orders for appetizers. My mother, the birthday girl, went first, ordering tuna tare- tare wrapped in cucumber with edible flowers. Then it was my grandma's turn, she had spotted a nice spring salad with watermelon radish. My grandfather, who doesn't usually like things with exotic seasoning, ordered tortellini pasta with mascarpone cheese and sweet peas. It turned out that the pasta was one of the best appetizers we ordered. My father was caught between two options, the hand cut steak crudo or the scallop sashimi. After much inner debate he chose the scallops, and I chose the fava bean soup. While we were waiting for our interesting assortment of appetizers my mother opened the birthday cards from my dad. I had already given her a card, an egg hunt. Each egg contained a note saying something I loved about her and they each had a different face. If you use that idea for mothers day or a birthday you must pay me three million dollars because its my idea. I'm joking, really! The cards were lovely, and before we could talk more, the food arrived. I didn't try grandma's salad, but she said, "This is quite good." From her, that is a huge compliment.

Spring Salad

I did try my mother's tuna tar-tar, and it was very good. The tuna tasted fresh and with cucumber it tasked cold and refreshing, the edible flowers were just icing on the cake but I ate both of them.

Tuna Tare-Tare

I tried one of my grandpa's tortellini's, and that was enough. They were very sweet, and creamy, and the peas were drowned out in the cheesy sauce.

Pea Tendril Tortellini

I did not try dad's scallop, I never eat them, something about with seeing them alive at a sushi restaurant turns me off.

Scallop Sashimi

Of course, my soup was the best (hair flip here please). It tasted a lot like regular peas, but every once in a while you would get the strong taste of olive oil. Did I mention that there was a fruity foam on the top? Well there was. There were also whole fava beans at the bottom so that you could eat them with the puree/broth. I always know the best things to get at restaurants, so take me out to dinner!

Fava Bean Soup

After we finished the appetizers we talked and commented on how good the appetizers were. During this time my grandmother paid me the biggest compliment she has ever given me, "The part in your hair is perfect!" Even if it wasn't exactly perfect, I felt very honored and patted my hair all night. While I was wallowing in pride the main courses came.

Almost Perfect Part

My father ordered lamb saddle with a topping that tasted to me like cream cheese. The meat itself was rare, and it melted in your mouth.

Lamb Saddle

My mother ordered scallop and langoustine. I only tried a small piece of shrimp, which I drowned in sauce, so I'm not sure if I liked it or not. My mother did not enjoy it, but she liked my fathers and mine.

Langoustine and Scallop

My grandma got a grandma sized piece of salmon, which was crispy because it was grilled. It also melted in my mouth. My grandpa got a hamburger, a specialty order, which I didn't try but he seemed happy with it. But, he is with almost every hamburger.

Burger with Yummy Fries

I got, the best by far, three small pieces of Dover Sole. The sole was presented with mint, spinach and sliced green beans on top and drizzled in a fava sauce. I ate the vegetables and then tried the fish. Lets just say that I valued every morsel, it was amazingly yummy.

The ABSOLUTELY SUPER BEST Dover Sole

After all that food I didn't think I could eat another bite.......of dinner that is. Yes, it was dessert time. Mother said that, "They wouldn't sing or give her a birthday dessert." They did the later of the two, they brought her absolute all time favorite thing. A COOKIE PLATTER WITH A CANDLE AND CHOCOLATE SAUCE! She was overjoyed and sampled her various cookies, one chocolate chip cookie was about to explode with chocolate. It did, right on her shirt, thankfully it rolled down, leaving her spotless. I got raspberry sorbet which tasted exactly like an actual raspberry. It was amazing but super sweet and rich, so I settled for a peanut butter cookie which was good, except it didn't taste like peanut butter.

Raspberry Sorbet

The one problem was that once the restaurant was overwhelmed with people, the service became lackadaisical. If you don't know what that word means then

a) get a dictionary

b) it means lazy and lacking, it took almost 20 minutes to get the check

Thanks

Kellen-Watermelon Radish

Its that time of year

It's that wonderful Time of the year, the garden is being planted and we are all anticipating the yummy vegetables that will sprout out of the ground! Yes, I know what you're thinking, what about the watermelon radishes? This year we are planting plenty of those, they are so special that we have to order the seeds online. I plan to plant them myself, since we share a name. Once those light green bulbs are ready to be picked out of the ground, I will also be the first to cut them open. The bright pink interior will remind me not to neglect me blog, as I might have been doing for a while. But, the good news is that I'll have some exiting new posts about the trip I've just come back from on the East Coast.

Enjoy this new season of the Watermelon Radish

All terms and conditions apply!

Bye!

Ray's and Stark Bar

Last night, after a Power Surge birthday Party, my parents picked me up and we went to LACMA. When we got there we were standing at the ticket booth, and this girl walks over and stands at the booth next to us. She asks the guy inside, "Hey I hear you guys have an art exhibit going on right now." The guy looked a little stunned and replied in a very funny voice, " Well Ma'am, this being an art museum, we have many art exhibitions going on here." That was the highlight of my night, and I'm still laughing! We were going to the Modern California Living gallery, I thought it would be really fun because I love old furniture. When we got in the first thing we saw was a RAD, I mean totally AWESOME old school, metal airstream clipper. I looked at the inside from the open doors and my dad gave me a little bit of history on the subject. He said, "See that? That is the dining room table, and at night you fold the table down and the couch comes out to make one bed. Then in the middle there is the kitchen, and on the other side, in a little alcove is the other bed. I was in love, the trailer as beautiful, I want one for Christmas! We walked through the gallery and my dad told me all about the Eames, they found a way to bend plywood and we have one of their chairs in our house. There were also really old swimsuits, dresses and hats. We walked through, occasionally pointing out that we loved something or wanted it in our house. There was a plywood leg splint for the war and I looked at my mom and said, "I think that's what I need." Although, I'm fine with my brace! In another room there were different types of jewelry, one was a necklace that had writing on it that said something like,'As long as we breathe air and man can see...life creates us.' There was also a REALLY old white car that belonged to Dick Van Dyke. Then there was a recreation of the Eames living room, it was really awesome, but you couldn't go inside. I also saw little television box that had a thing you could put on your ear to hear an old commercial. It was for the 1959 barbie doll and it kept going on and on about the barbie look. At the gift shop there were old barbies for sale but I didn't get one, I really wanted an old toy called Push-Up Preston, which I ended up getting for Hanukah. It sounds weird, but get this, it was a toy who did push-ups when you wound it up! After going to the gallery, we went to dinner in a small place called Ray's and Stark Bar. It was still in the museum so I didn't have to walk very far. When we sat down the first thing I noticed was, 'there isn't a table setting'. But the host, pulled out a little drawer in the table. In it was our napkin and our cutlery, it was so cool! My parents decided to get the tasting menu, while I got two appetizers. The chef prepared a small taste for the table, it was dried meat with tomatoes and walnut puree. I didn't really taste anything other than the walnut puree though. The first thing that my parents got was Squid Ink Pasta, with a large piece of actual squid on the top. They loved it and asked me if I would like a taste. I was NOT going to try this pasta, not going to encourage people to keep hunting and killing squids. I asked for ONE, SINGLE, noodle. I had it sitting on my plate, all eyes were on me, I twirled it on my fork and raised it to my mouth. Before I knew what I was ding I shoved it into my mouth and sloshed it down with some water. The pasta tasted like lemons and Jalapenos too. I can't say I liked it, but it was an experience.

Then my parents got some Salmon with apples, it was really good and when you put it with the apples it tasted sweet and sour. At the same time my Cinderella Squash pasta came to the table. It was beautiful, I would order it just to see the presentation. The top was covered with a thin and tangy foam, there were large Oyster Mushrooms on the sides, and leaves of Arugula. The pasta itself was SO, SO, SO, SO, SO, SO, SO good. It was sweet since the squash was in the center, but when mixed with the lettuce and the mushrooms it was like a full meal. It was also very rich so I could only eat a few bites, and that was a half order!

It was so good! Next came a Duck Dish. It was a little too well seasoned for my mom, and I didn't eat the Foi Gras. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE DUCK SAUSAGE! If I could eat it for breakfast I would, it was like a mix between regular sausage and bacon. Then I had Boar Pasta, it was really amazing, the shape of the pasta was an elongated tube filled with boar ragu. It was my favorite dish of the meal

. Next came a gourmet breakfast, it was an egg that looked like the foam you put on top of coffee, and there were truffles grated on the top. It was full of Ham and bacon, too. I tried it..but I NEVER eat truffle and it ruined my apatite. There's something about truffles, maybe its the smell, or maybe I don't like them because my mom doesn't like truffle OIL.

So, I was really full and tired so I was playing a game on my mom's phone and was absorbed in it when their steak came. I, of course was to full to eat another bite but they ate it, and my parents didn't even seem to like it because they were full too.
It was time for dessert, my favorite!! My mom got Hazelnut and chocolate ice cream on a chocolate cake, but I don't really like chocolate. The hazelnut tasted like Nutella, and the chocolate tasted very strong. My dad got ice cream with a ginger cake, that was too sour for me. The ice ream was coconut flavored, and even though I've never eaten coconut, I have been getting into a coconut craze! Coconut bath oils, ice cream, milk/water!
The only dessert that I could eat was the Oreo, but better. They were gourmet chocolate cookies with vanilla icing wedged in between. The chocolate cookies on top were more like Oreo Cakes, because they were cake like but soft, they melted in my mouth. The icing was creamy and tasted like smashed ice cream.

Bye!

Watermelon Radish

Lukshon

My moms friend from college came to visit us, her name is Joy. We wanted to go somewhere special, so we decided to go to Lukshon. I had wanted to go to this restaurant last week, but my dad wasn't feeling well so we didn't go. When we got there we could see outdoor planters filled with rocks, with fire burning on them. When we got inside we all sat down at a booth and looked at the menu. Each of which was conveniently labeled either;

EAT, DRINK or BAR.
I looked at the eat and drink menus. For a drink I ordered the "Fresh and Tasty" Ginger ale. Our appetizer was the Hawaiian Butter Fish with pickled WATERMELON RADISHES!!!!! I didn't eat the fish because it was a bit too fishy for me, but everyone else thought it tasted just fine. The watermelon radishes on the side were amazing and I ate most of them! Then we ordered the Duck Popiah, which was super good. The outside was like a thin layer of dough, and on the inside there were crunchy pickled Jicama slices. The best part of this Duck Popiah was the actual duck inside, it had the consistency of pulled pork and was very flavorful and juicy that may have been the hoisen chile sauce. Next we ordered Chinese Eggplant, these were like crunchy little french fries except they had this red curry sauce on them that was amazingly good. The sauce on the eggplant was spicy and if these thing were french fires it would be the ketchup.

Then we got the special Brussel Sprouts which were cooked hot on the inside, were crunchy on the outside, and had little sesame seeds on them. Those Brussle Sprouts were to DIE for!

For the main course we ordered a whole Seabass, and I do mean whole. The fish came complete with its head and tail. It was smothered in spicy sauce (black bean ghee) with a substance that was most likely KIM CHI. I did not touch that fish because I always get the bones in whole fish and I didn't feel like choking on a bone. But it must have been great because there was nothing left but bones when the adults were done with it. Then we had this red rice, which I think was called the Bhutanese Red Rice, it was really good and I ate a lot of that. It was kind of crunchy and had egg and tasted like it had a little sea food in there. Finally, we had the thing that I wanted the most.....THE DANDAN NOODLES! These were not spicy at all, but the adults at the table thought they were! I ate two bowls of it and then was to full to eat any more. These noodles had pork in a spicy sauce that was not unlike pasta sauce.

Finally dessert, three things, a mini carrot cake that was really flavorful and had some coconut sorbet on the side that gave it a freshness that it needed. A chocolate blend with coffee chips and vanilla ice cream, this was OK because I don't really like chocolate. The last dessert was my favorite, it was a mango puree that tasted like a smoothie! I reccomend this restaurant, it is really wonderful and happening!

Watermelon Radish