Category Archives: DINING

March 11, 2014 · 12:54 am

Farmer and the cook/Ojai and Tallyrand/Burbank

beautiful downtown ojaiThese two restaurants could not be more different but we enjoyed both. Farmer and the Cook is a vegetarian hippie dippie outpost in Ojai, a laid back town about 1.5 hours northwest of LA where we had a hip version of huevos rancheros. At the Tallyrand restaurant, a 1959 institution in Burbank, we had a fresh roasted turkey sandwich slathered with yellow gravy, served with all the fixins — mashed potatoes, dressing and homemade cranberry sauce.

On Saturday night! we had very good takeout from Seoul Korean BBQ in downtown Burbank. Needless to say, we are sad to be leaving LA and our adorable 21 month old niece, my brother and sister in law. On yet another glorious day — sun, breeze, blah, blah, blah —  we walked over to the Rancheros neighborhood where people actually board horses in their backyards (and ride down city streets to nearby Griffith Park) and found a perfect playground where my niece quickly mastered the toddler slide!

20140309-151616.jpg

20140310-200434.jpg

Leave a comment

Filed under California, DINING, Los Angeles

Tagged as , , , ,

February 22, 2014 · 11:14 pm

Blue Tomato Kitchen in West Des Moines

Blue Tomato Kitchen

Tried out Blue Tomato Kitchen, a casual Italian restaurant operated by Baru 66’s french chef David Baruthio. It opened in  January a former coffee shop in what I guess is West Des Moine’s Valley Junction. It was hopping on a Friday night and we found one open table. Service was swift and we were in and out in an hour or so (although not in any particular rush.) The food was fine  – didn’t bowl us over. We had a thin crust pizza with anchovies (on my side at least, my husband doesn’t like them) olives, chilis, tomatoes. Good. Salty. Light. And spaghetti bolognese which didn’t have the long-cooked meat flavor of my version – more tomato-ey. Good enough.  We also shared a little piece of lemon ricotta cheese cake topped with gooey dark cherry sauce. Good too. We’ll give it another go and nice to have as an easy option.

Leave a comment

Filed under Des Moines, DINING

Tagged as ,

February 20, 2014 · 4:13 am

good burger at NorthPoint one the Milwaukee Airport

I was sad to learn that usinger’s, the famous sausage maker, no longer has an outpost in the Milwaukee airport but I had a very good burger with cheddar cheese and grilled onions at NorthPoint in the main terminal. I could see the cook flipping the burgers on a grill through a window by my table. good frozen custard too. Best of all my flight left ahead of time. Only wish it was a direct flight to Des Moines, which used to be available a few years ago. Now you have to take two puddle jumpers, via Minneapolis.

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Milwaukee

Tagged as ,

February 16, 2014 · 6:00 am

Taking the el from midway/Kendall college dinner/joes stone crab/Joffrey ballet…Chicago!

Whirlwind trip to Chicago but well worth it. got to see some of my favorite people, my aunt, my son, my sister and niece. Got a dose of big city culture and crowds– a fantastic contemporary program danced by the Joffrey Ballet, a stroll along Michigan avenue! shopping in Eataly? some good food too including dinner at Kendall college, where the food was prepared and served by the students who go to hospitality and culinary school there. (Pretty good food, okay service but the kids are trying their best!). We also had a nice lunch at Joes stone crab which I haven’t been to since I was in ninth grade and in Miami beach(not south beach back then) with my grandma Betty. had a fabulous crab Louis salad that was even better than the one I make (must remember deviled eggs using the sauce Louis, hearts of palm, avocado, greens) and yes, sublime key lime pie. Onto Milwaukee tomorrow on the train, hoping to beat a snowstorm here also,there will probably be one in Milwaukee. Ahhh winter in the Midwest.
Ps flew into midway on southwest and took the el to my aunt’s. Piece of cake. Orange line to Roosevelt then red line north to Clark/division.

Leave a comment

Filed under Chicago, dance, DINING

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 9, 2014 · 4:38 pm

When in LA – maybe visit Chef Roy Choi’s Kogi or Pot

About KogiChef Roy Choi made a big splash on this season’s “Top Chef” by being remarkably candid and foul-mouthed about how much he did not like the food the poor frazzled chefs had cooked up for him. Padma looked aghast. But apparently HIS food is worth a try so maybe we will give it a go when we’re visiting my brother in LA next month. Maybe he’ll prove to me that Korean food is worth all the hype. Our options appear to be Kogi, kogi website which the NYTimes travel section dubbed “the city’s hottest food truck, selling his now classic Korean taco” and Pot,  “a veritable Korean market, at the Line hotel in Los Angeles’s Koreatown.”

The Pot website lists only drinks (“only” isn’t quite the right word since the menu sports four pages of drinks!) but the Line Hotel plugs the food….

POT – COMING SOON

KOREATOWN AND KOREAN FOOD THROUGH THE EYES OF AN AMERICAN WITH KOREAN BLOOD. HOT POTS, BLOOD SOUPS, FRENETIC ENERGY, BBQ. IT’S THE LATE NIGHTS ON THE STREETS, IT’S A JOYOUS CELEBRATION OF LIFE. MOST OF ALL, IT’S GOOD TIMES AND GOOD FOOD IN THE HOOD.

WWW.EATATPOT.COM

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Los Angeles

Tagged as , , , , , ,

January 29, 2014 · 2:41 am

New Des Moines Art Center Restaurant

Des Moines Art Center
Des Moines Art Center.jpg
Established 1948

Finally got a chance to check out the new restaurant at the Des Moines Art Center operated by the chef from Baru 66 – it remains a lovely place to dine, even on a cold winter Sunday. The food was good although I wasn’t bowled over.  The best entree was a special – a thick juicy hamburger topped with greens, a fried egg and prosciutto (I think.) My “artisan lettuce salad” had lots of fresh greens, with walnuts, croutons and yes, prosciutto (detect a theme?) which was good but it was underdressed and not much value for $11. My tomato bisque (for $3) was not as creamy, hot or substantially portioned as I’d hoped but good flavor and chopped texture. We also tried the La Quercia Melt , a toasted sandwich with prosciutto (La Quercia is the name of the award-winning, Iowa-produced prosciutto), brie, sweet mustard   and the presentation was pretty stark – small sandwich on white plate for $13 – but my niece seemed to enjoy.

Leave a comment

Filed under Des Moines, DINING

Tagged as , ,

December 28, 2013 · 1:59 am

Tale of 3 restaurants: tres amigos/dodge city; saigon/wichita; & story./prairie village

The “El Capitan” cattle drive monument, Dodge City

Our dinner tonight at story., an upscale new American cuisine restaurant, in a fancy shopping area in the Kansas City suburb of Prairie Village could not have differed more from dinner last night at Tres Amigos, on Wyatt Earp Blvd. in Dodge City. But both were good in their own way. story. Has a clean dramatic decor with dimly lit white walls and large pieces of understated contemporary art. I had a beautifully prepared and presented piece of red snapper, with a slightly crispy crust but light and moist inside, atop a bed of sautéed spinach, salty bits of pancetta and a light lemon wine sauce. another stand out was the braised short rib with gnocchi and onion rings. best of all was the company, a favorite uncle who lives in Kansas City.

Tres Amigos is a much humbler place with somewhat ordinary Mexican fare but it easily accommodated our party of nine on a holiday weekday. Today in Wichita we stopped at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant Saigon, which was even busier than usual. but as usual, the service was brisk and the food (#45, bun with charbroiled pork and egg roll!) was fresh and tasty. Discovered the shrimp chips this time and they are much better than the ones I try to make at home. We also stopped at our favorite middle eastern restaurant in Wichita , N&J market, to pick up some hummus and pitta chips to take home.

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Dodge City, Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas misc

Tagged as , , ,

December 24, 2013 · 7:00 pm

Oklahoma joes thumbs up

We are breezing down two lane highway 156 towards Ellsworth Kansas on ChristMas eve. Nary another car or soul in sight. The fields are snowy, the sky is a sunless white-grey, the temperature is up to 25, who hoo! Better than the frigid sunny 9 degree weather that greeted us this morning in the icy parking lot of the Baymont Inn in Lawrence (where I slept fitfully on a too soft mattress.)

Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ was indeed in a gas station in Kansas City, Ks, which added to its street cred and quirky charm. (Pix below) The ribs and brisket were, as reported, excellent. On a Mpnday night, the line to order at the counter was long but moved fairly quickly and everyone was in a cheerful, pre-holiday mood. The ribs were meaty and moist, well seasoned, good sauce on the sweet side, akin to Gates. Also had good sides …spicy coleslaw, beans with chunks of beef in them, seasoned fries. We will be back!

This morning we had an excellent breakfast at Milton’s in Lawrence, stopped to get some goodies at the bakery Wheatfield’s (surprisingly delicious rugelah, a rustic rosemary bread, pecan raisin bread) then hit interstate 70 west. man this road is empty (although behind us somewhere are our kids in another car). This annual road trip to Wright, Kansas, this time of year, always feels like we are driving to the end of the earth.

The sky has just turned hazy and we are not sure if there is fog or blowing snow ahead.

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas misc, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

December 22, 2013 · 9:02 pm

Big Step – trying out a new BBQ join in Kansas City! Oklahoma Joe’s

HomeScreen_8-21g short bottom.jpgAfter considerable family debate, we have decided to try out a new BBQ joint tomorrow in Kansas City during our annual Christmas drive to western Kansas. This is a big deal since the debate for years has been solely between Gates and Bryant’s – with Gates usually winning.

Not that we aren’t happy with Gates, but we’ve been hearing considerable buzz about Oklahoma Joe’s which contrary to the name was actually started by two Kansas City champion amateur bbq-ers. The Oklahoma name comes from their initial partnership with the owner of something called Oklahoma Joe’s Smoker Company (the owner’s first/middle name was “Joe Don”…classic) and their decision to open their first bbq join in 1996 in Stillwater Oklahoma, home of Oklahoma State University and not incidentally, where my stepdaughter spent her early childhood. Apparently the second Oklahoma Joe’s opened soon after beside a gas station in Kansas City. The first one closed, and additional Oklahoma Joe’s restaurants opened in Kansas City. (I guess by then it was too late to call them “Kansas City Joe’s.) Stillwater seems to have an affinity for restaurants that include the name Joe’s — the only other restaurant I remember there was called Eskimo Joe’s, which opened in 1975 and vowed to serve the coldest beer in Stillwater. Hence the name.

Here’s more about Oklahoma Joe’s below. Wish us luck!

Oklahoma Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que has earned local, regional, national, and even international attention for the quality of its barbecue and the uniqueness of its original gas station location.

Oklahoma Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que has earned local, regional, national, and even international attention for the quality of its barbecue and the uniqueness of its original gas station location. It has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Denver Post, The Chicago Sun-Times, Vanity Fair, numerous airline magazines, local magazines, and The Kansas City Star.  

Oklahoma Joe’s has also been featured on local and national television programs, including Anthony Bourdain’s “A Cook’s Tour” and “No Reservations”, the Travel Channel’s “Man vs. Food”, among many others.

In 2009, Anthony Bourdain named Oklahoma Joe’s as one of “Thirteen Places to Eat Before You Die” in an article for Men’s Health magazine.

Oklahoma Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que has been the Zagat #1 Rated barbecue restaurant in Kansas City every year since 2004. Zagat also named Joe’s famous sandwich, the Z-Man, the Best Sandwich in Kansas in its “50 States, 50 Sandwiches List”. In 2013, The Daily Meal website and USA Today both named Oklahoma Joe’s Kansas City’s ribs “America’s Best Ribs”.

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Kansas City, Oklahoma

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

December 16, 2013 · 1:11 am

Hubbard street dance, Andy’s Thai kitchen, eataly, Chicago

We are unexpectedly encountering snow on our return home from Chicago but it didn’t start until we were west of Davenport and so far it hasn’t been as bad as our outbound trip Friday night. Right now, at 6:43 pm about 10 miles east of Iowa city the flurries have stopped. But we don’t know what lies ahead.

Before this I was going to write that our Chicago trip had been worth the sometimes harrowing drive. Easy for me to say since I am not the driver. Still, we had a really good albeit brief visit to Chicago. Hubbard street’s Saturday night performance of “One thousand pieces” was among the best I have seen during decades as a Hubbard street fan. The dancing, choreography, staging was superb and there were some “firsts” for this dance fan, notably the dancers performing on the equivalent of a giant slip n’ slide, with the water adding all kinds of interesting effects, from the sound of the water splashing to the sight of the water on the darkish stage with white clouds of drifting white smoke/dry ice, to the added challenge for the dancers of executing challenging moves on a slippery surface. The second act of the piece began with a solemn line of 20 some dancers staring out into the dark theater, then executing one twitchy move after another in unison. that gave us in the audience a lot to watch and ponder. I was also pleasantly surprised be the Phillip Glass score which was less monotonously repetitive and more stirringly melodic than expected. I do think they could have turned the lights on just a little – I’m not the only viewer who got a bit sleepy…

      Earlier in the day we had yet another excellent meal at Andy’s Thai kitchen in Lakeview. The crispy basil pork belly, yum. We tried a few different dishes and they were well done. The panang had excellent quality chicken and eggplant well cooked and a not too heavy, well seasoned sauce.

Before the ballet, we braved the crowds at the new Eataly that just opened on Ohio Street just west of Michigan Avenue (next to Room and Board, one of my favorite furniture stores. Eataly Chicago seemed brighter and less chaotic than its cousin in New York City. It was a perfect place to get a light bite before the ballet. We decided on a plate of well picked Italian cheeses served with some
Candied fruit, figs in balsamic, honey and olive oil. We were swiftly served and our plucky Midwestern server made sure we were on our way when need be to make our show on tome.

Now back to now-snowy interstate 80. (postscript: we made it home safely – and slowly…)

20131215-210253.jpg

Leave a comment

Filed under Chicago, dance, DINING

Tagged as , , , ,