Posts Tagged ‘Los Angeles’

In late June I found myself in L.A. for the weekend, all alone on the Sunset Strip. The first night I was there I decided I needed to go have a great dinner by myself.  Take my time, relax, really enjoy the meal and enjoy some “me” time.  I didn’t want to go far because it was dark and I had never been to L.A. before and I’d be on foot.  I decided BLT steak, just up the strip from my hotel would be perfect! BLT restaurants are part owned by executive chef Laurent Tourondel, the title of his restaurants “BLT” stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel.  They have BLT Steak, BLT Burger, BLT Fish, BLT Prime, BLT Market, BLT Bar & Grill, Fish Shack, and Nonna.  I have also been to BLT Burger inside the Mirage resort, in Las Vegas,  and it was really really great.  Juicy burgers, sweet potato fries, hand made milkshakes..can’t go wrong there as well.

Even though Open Table didn’t seem to have any reservations left for the evening, I figured there’s always room at the bar for a party of one.  I went pretty early, about 7:30pm and the restaurant was almost entirely empty.  I bellied up to the bar, ordered a dirty martini and my relaxing delicious evening had begun.  The bartenders there were awesome, fun to talk to and totally let me park there for 3 hours while I tried a little bit of everything and watched the restaurant fill up and come to life.

half eaten popover

Of course, first thing’s first.  If you are at BLT Steak, you need to start your meal with a delicious, airy yet rich popover with butter and sea salt.  They are complimentary and simply delicious.  They even include the cutest little recipe card on the plate so you can attempt to make your own at home.  I will include this near the end of the post.  I haven’t made my own yet, but I can’t wait to try.

Next, the chef de cuisine, Brian Moyers sent out an array of small bites for me try.  Marinaded olives, beautiful charcuterie, grilled cheese bites, and chicken livers were all delicious with the chicken livers and charcuterie being my favorite.  Growing up amongst a family of butchers may have swayed my picks, but their pate was so delicious and simple, pretty much just ground livers with a very light seasoning.  It was so delicious smeared on a piece of the warm popover.  The charcuterie was also very elementary, but the meat was superb and the dry salami was my favorite.  It has the  perfect texture and bitterness to it.

yummy chicken livers

a little taste of their charcuterie

 Next came my most favorite dish of the evening, their mussels.  Not sure if this item is on their menu any longer, but, when I was there it was on their dinner menu as well as their Happy Hour menu.  These mussels were steamed perfectly in a delicious savory broth that had bits of the holy trinity (onions, celery, and bell pepper) as well as thin slices of chorizo sausage.  This dish changed me for all other mussel dishes I will ever have.  Since my trip to BLT Steak L.A., I have had mussels twice and they don’t even come close to being as good as these mussels were.  I hope if I stop in at BLT Steak Scottsdale, they may have them as well, one can only dream.

no words to describe how good these were

After all of this delicious food I was getting full, but I couldn’t give up yet, as I really wanted to try their lamb.  Since I wasn’t sure when I’d have the money or the chance to return to BLT…I was going big or going home!! After taking a break and sipping on a cocktail for awhile, Iordered the Rack of Lamb ($40.0) medium rare and under recommendation of my bartender paired it with the red wine sauce.   This lamb was out of control good.  Perfectly cooked, easy to cut, melted in my mouth and served with a whole bulb of roasted garlic! Did they know that garlic is one of my favorite foods? I don’t know, but all I had to do was gently squeeze the garlic out of it’s skin and smear it on the lamb, pour on a little red wine sauce and viola!  It was so perfect.

whoa, what a rack!

Already planning a trip back to BLT Steak, this time at the Scottsdale location for my husbands birthday in January.  BLT Steak L.A. was just fantastic.  Amazing food, kind and friendly service, and a beautiful atmosphere.  They also have a great location on the Sunset Strip, you can’t miss it.  Remember, Monday thru Friday they have a fabulous $5.0 Happy Hour from 5pm-7pm.  I highly suggest you stop in on your next trip to Los Angeles.  Tell them the Food Tramp sent you

BLT Popovers

makes 12

Ingredients

4 Cups Milk, Warmed
8 Eggs
4 cups flour
1 1/2 heaping tbsp salt
2 1/4 cups grated gruyere cheese
Popover Pan

Directions

Makes 12. Place the popover pan in the oven. Heat oven and pan to 350 deg. Gently warm the milk over low heat and set aside. Whisk the eggs until frothy and slowly whisk in the milk (so as not to cook the eggs). Set the mixture aside. Sift the flour with the salt. Slowly add the dry mixture to the eggs and combine until mostly smooth. Once combined remove the popover pan from the oven and spray with non stick vegetable spray. Fill each popover cup 3/4 full and top each with 2 1/2 cups of gruyere cheese. bake at 350 deg for 50 minutes, rotating pan half a turn after 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

This June I was invited by Dole Foods to be a part of a cookoff  in Los Angeles. An all expenses paid trip to L.A. in one of the coolest hotels around, a rental car, and spending money…how could I say no??  Five recipe finalists battled it out to get their recipes on the back of Dole products and win $1000.o0! Five food bloggers were invited to cook alongside and help the recipe finalists.  I was beyond excited to be invited by Dole to participate in this event.

this is legit!

After the official greeting from Dole employees as well as celebrity chef, Ben Ford, we were paired off and got to cooking.  Of course I was ecstatic when I got paired with Laura who had the bacon wrapped scallops…gotta love cookin up some bacon!  The five dishes to battle for the big win were: pineapple glazed bacon wrapped scallops with pineapple macadamia nut quinoa, ginger mandarin orange rice with cashew tofu, orange and avocado crowed black Thai grilled chicken thighs, turkey and pineapple infused stuffed peppers, and mandarin chicken burger. 

This was my favorite, thought she would win for sure!

The winning dish!

these were yummy!!

the cilantro mayo was awesome on this burger

After careful contemplation by Iron Chef competitor and famed chef,  Ben Ford, a winner was chosen; Janice Elder and her chicken thighs took the prize!!  Next on the agenda was cosuming the copious amounts of food we had prepared.  However, eating the meal came about two hours after the food was completed so everything was cold

Dole in the house!

Besides the five competing dishes, each team also made a side dish if you will, to add to our dinner.  Laura and I made an “angel lush” cake and boy was it delicious! I’ll be posting the recipe later on in this post.  Since I’ve been home from this trip I have already made it twice for my family because they love it so much. 

This was the first annual cook-off for Dole.  I found it super fun, entertaining, interesting, educational and I couldn’t have been happier to be a part of it.  If there is any constructive criticism I could give it would be one simple suggestion; have the event next year in a larger space so the dining area can be already set up.  That way food can be eaten when it is still hot or even somewhat warm.  I was super excited to try all of the dishes, which were all hot entrees, but having them cold, two hours later was a little disappointing to the taste buds.  However, even despite the cold food, this event was a major hit and I know we all had a great day together with Dole and Ben Ford!

Angel Lush Cake

1 angel food cake (I recommend the sour cream angel food cake found at Kroger/Fry’s/Ralph stores)

1- 3.4 oz package of instant vanilla pudding

1- can Dole crushed pineapple

1 cup cool whip

Mix dry pudding mix and can of pineapple (undrained) together.  Do not add milk to the pudding, simply use the dry powder.  Carefully fold in the cool whip.  Cut your angel food cake into three layers and add pineapple mixture between each layer.  Refrigerate.

Just wanted to give my readers a heads up on next month, which is going to be the busiest month for me in a LONG time.  First of all, I’m super excited to say that my hot husband and I will be taking our toddlers to Disneyland for the first time in early June!! We are all so excited (okay, well maybe not the husband so much) I’ve been doing tons of planning and making them cute Disney shirts and other things for the trip.  It should be tons of fun!!

After I get back from that I have a couple weeks to get back into the swing of things, then I am off again for a weekend to Los Angeles for the Dole California Cook-Off . The amazing people at Dole have invited me, along with four other food bloggers,  including a fellow Phoenix food blogger JustinEats .  At this cook off there will be five finalists that will compete to have their recipe take first place and be placed on tons of Dole canned fruit or juice labels.  The winner will also take home $1000.00, not too shabby!   Each of us food bloggers will be paired off with a finalist and we will help them prepare thier winning recipe.  Then, hunky-hotty son of Harrison Ford, chef  Ben Ford, will judge the recipes and pick a winner!! Can’t say that i’m not a little excited to meet him and pick his foodie brain.

I’ve never been to L.A. before, besides the airport, so I am excited to go and since I’m broke, even more excited that Dole is hooking us up with everything we need…rental car, spending money in all!  I’m going to take lots of pics and bring back the dish on some great places to eat in L.A.  I have a feeling some Kogi BBQ truck and taco truck chasing may also be in order!