Thanksgiving 2011

Food, wonderful food. It was the second helping of sausage stuffing that got to me, and I remember thinking driving over in the car what's the problem? Why does everyone worry about how much food they are going to eat? Right. Wrong! I'm eating, I'm enjoying and just a little bit more of this, a little bit more of that, then 3 desserts, creme freish, and chocolate chips cookies, which I baked. Oh, bliss, obsession, pure sugar love, oh turkey blonk and cover cooch, let's eat some more today. Can't go to the mall, too crowded. Can't go to the movies, too crowded, let's eat instead. Oh joy.

Food as Art - Eat it, Enjoy it, Confess the next day.

It is Angelini Osteria, again.


I know, I know, there are so many other places to eat in Los Angeles, so many worthy rooms like Campanile, which I love and go to regularly, Mozza, excellent, Marino on Melrose, still great value, fab food & big leather banquettes, very old world.  There is JAR and CRAFT and Drago and Matteo and it is wonderful to sample the delights the city has to offer. 


However, 


time after time I find myself right back at Angelini, especially for lunch when it is not as crowded, and tucking into a chop salad, or the heavenly lasagna, or the warm sliced swordfish with pistachios and baratta. Did I spell that right? Who cares? It's GINO ANGELINI and the magic he works. I took the New Yorkers there during their visit and their response was "I could eat here every night." http://www.angeliniosteria.com/vivalosteria.html







Here it is: "Harvey's Guss" Grilled Bistecca alla Fiorentina "for Two" Finished in the Wood Oven. 


Eat it, enjoy it, confess the next day. 

Food as Art, Providence

Spaghetti with Sea Urchin

I don't know how long I can go on like this. It's so good, and it's so rich,
and this one is sooooo good
and sooooo expensive,
but worth it.
They deliver, the taste is sublime.

Providence on Melrose.

Boulevard heaven

Boulevard

It isn't a hamburger, it is an experience. Go to Boulevard, sit at the counter, have the best burger on a brioche bun of your life.

Enough said. http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/main.html

San Francisco Ferry Building Farmer's market

pork sandwich at farmer's market rotisserie

oysters at ferry building fish market

Ok, it's Saturday morning. How to begin? Walk to the ferry building, get a cup of blue bottle coffee, and wander through the stalls, past the Massa Almonds, past Sciabia olive oil, past Ghandi to the very back to PRIMAVERA and have their chiliquilles. I think that is how you spell it. The BEST scrambled eggs with avocado, salsa, chips. I ate it so fast I did not get a photo.
Watch the sailboats drift back and forth under the bay bridge. Admire how the locals  juggle their purchases with trolleys that have multiple spots for hanging bags on either side. (BRING BAGS) listen to jazz floating out of the saxophone nearby.
Then gather yourself up to buy little gems lettuce, the sweetest carrots on earth, lavender, apples, goat cheese, tomatoes, the flowers! eggs, chicken, fresh fish, it's all there.
If you need kitchen equipment, go to Sur La Table, if you need books, the Book Stall is there, if you need a taste of France, there is Miette for darling pastries. Of course there is Heath Ceramics, and Cowgirl Creamery, and Hog Island Oyster Co., and the Wine Merchant, and the Slanted Door, and a google of other things you need to experience....the drummer outside on the plaza, the stalls selling jewelry and funky hats across the street, and of course the trolley home with all the heavy bags. 

Food - San Francisco

Eating in San Francisco is a joy. From the Saturday morning Ferry Building farmer's market to all the speciality stores such as Bi-Rite Market in the Mission, which fortunately is in the same block as Tartine Bakery where people line up around the corner 45 minutes before the country bread comes out of the ovens at 5 p.m.

Lunch at 54 Mint where the best Italian food is also reasonably priced, I mean $18.00 for a two course lunch of cream of broccoli soup & the ribbons pictured below. 

Heaven, absolute heaven.

Ferry Building

Sciabia Olive Oil

Tartine Country Bread

54 Mint Fettucine with mushrooms

Food as ART, Campanile Restaurant

 Campanile, still as good as it gets.
Located in a sunlit Italian-style building built for Charlie Chaplin in the 1920's, it is a Hollywood landmark. Chef Mark Peel is right there watching over things, creating remarkable and innovative dishes. The lights are on and he is home.
From the bibb lettuce salad to the prime rib, which of course I cannot eat because the cholesterol is waaaaaay out there, so I eat the sauteed trenne with bolognese sauce & peacock kale & shaved parmesan. A bottle of red wine, of course. Dessert? Flourless chocolate cake, can't eat that either, but I do, I have to live. Ok, so when I die and go to the heaven that is MY heaven, I want to go to Claridge's, and eat the food that is from Campanile......AND Gino, and sleep on Anichini linens, and read the great fiction of the world, beginning with Proust, makes sense, I'm in bed, and it's MY heaven. Turner Classic Movies has to be on the flat screen with Bette Davis or Humphrey Bogart which I watch in my pegnoir set. Ah, heaven.

Dining: Edinburgh

Ok, we bumped around Edinburgh on Wednesday, had lunch at Martin Wishart in Leith, down by the water, and what a lunch, oh what a lunch, so delcious, so other worldly, it's all so downhill after that. Could be anywhere in the world, and here it is in Edinburgh for us to indulge ourselves. My lunch was celeriac and saffron veloute with confit of organic salmon, (pictured) teamed with 2008 Pouilly Fume, J Pabiot, Loire Valley, France then steamed seabream on a bed of julienne of glazed vegetables, straw potato, warm vinaigrette, along with a 2006 Cotes de Provence, Rimauresq Cru Classe, France. I'm drunk by this time and of course I have to eat dessert, which I usually don't, but here, you must so I choose mango souffle with exotic fruit sorbet.

What do you say to a rainbow? A hurricane? The way the stars shine in the sky? How does one express the delicate nature of the flavors, the professional behavior of the very young adult wait staff? Superb, sublime, heaven.

kellie easter eggs for sale

Imagine, driving up the hill to get your eggs, taking what you need, and depositing your money in an honesty box. That's the way to shop at Kellie Castle, Fife Scotland, and the drive back down the hill gives a spectacular view of Bass Rock, the Firth of Forth and the Isle of May.

What a gorgeous place Scotland is.

Beef dinner tonight.