Day Drinking at Hollywood On Tap

I like beer. It's frothy. But I only really like specific beers. Mostly in the Belgian style, like Hoegaarden and Blue Moon. I'm a fan of the Trappist ales like Chimay, too. But I what I truly love are the superduper sour red ales. If it tastes like carbonated vinegar, I'm probably in love with it.

What I don't like is bitter, hoppy beer. It leaves my mouth feeling like it's covered in moss. Or carpet. In other words, not good.

And these days, most "craft" beers are exactly that: really bitter, hoppy beers. I don't understand the appeal, but I'm just one person. To each his own.

All that to say that when my buddy Rob had an extra ticket to the Hollywood On Tap craft beer fest held on Paramount Studio's "Streets of New York," I figured I'd tag along.

I don't think I've ever seen Rob drink beer (he's the Whisky Guy, after all), so this was going to be interesting. I'd also just cleared my entire weekend of all the responsible things I should have been doing, so why not waste the day drinking instead?

I knew there wasn't going to be much of a selection catering to my tastes, but I was willing to try something new. While Rob concentrated on the stouts (beers that taste like tree bark to me), I sought out anything claiming to be red ales.

There were but a mere handful.

The first stop was the Abita Brewing Company out of Louisiana. I was intrigued by their Pecan Harvest Ale simply because it wasn't the traditional fall pumpkin offering. You could smell and taste the subtle roasted pecans, which was nice. It completely deviated from my hunt for the sour reds but what the hell, right?

It was, of course, a bit too bitter for me. Sigh.

Next up was the Sacramento-based Ruhstaller, which has an interesting history. The California Red Ale was also too bitter for my taste, but it came with a delightful story.

In a bit of serendipitous planning on the event organizers' part, in the booth just next door was the local Monkish Brewing Company beers. This is where I found a winner. The Red Table was still a bit hoppy, but closest of all to what I wanted. And paired with a pink peppercorn, it was quite, dare I say, yummy.

This was the only booth we stopped at that paired their beers with a food product, so I really appreciated that. I'm a dummy for not also indulging in a taste of their Feminist, which came with some dried hibiscus flowers.

This misstep simply guarantees that I'll head down to Torrance for this and the rest of Monkish's frosty beverages. Yay for local breweries!

Now, let's talk food, lest this become a drinking blog (Girl + Quaff?). Two weeks in a row of concentrating solely on alcohol is making me sound like a drunk. I'm not.

Really.

There were a number of food trucks at the festival, none of which I'd ever tried. We settled on Germany's Famous Bratwurst. Rob, being of German descent, had the traditional bratwurst with sauerkraut and German potato salad. I, being of spicy descent, opted for the currywurst with garlic fries. Served with curry-laden ketchup it was so damn good.

So.
Damn.
Good.

If you're in the LA area, and have a hankering for German sausage, find this truck. It will make your tastebuds happy. They seem to concentrate on downtown and the Valley, but it's probably worth the trek.

On a weekend, anyway.

When you don't feel like being responsible either.

And then get yourself a local beer. They go so well together.

Dulce de Jicama

The same day I tested the Mexican chocolate cookies, I tested a recipe courtesy of The Sweet Life.  Vianney has spent more time in Mexico than I have, and I was excited to taste this dish I’d never even heard of.

The only way I’ve ever eaten jicama is raw, cut into sticks and sprinkled with chile for pico de gallo. I really like it this way, so I was intrigued by the sweet turn.

Jicamas are ugly on the outside. They look like dirty roots. But you know what your mother said about judging books by their covers. They’re similar to potatoes in firmness, but blander in taste. They actually don’t have much flavor at all, which is why you often see them with the chile! Or with lime juice (or both).

Apparently my sweet tooth is of a Mexican variety, given I made this and the chocolate cookies at the same time. But I really liked this recipe. It's simple, as cooking should be. And I love Vianney's stories. Of course, I had to make modifications, because when do I ever take the easy route? I couldn't find unsweetened coconut, so that's where it started.

The orange juice took far longer to boil off than Vianney’s recipe stated. Maybe she boiled at a higher level of heat. I was being overly cautious, not wanting to burn this. And since I was using sweetened coconut, I simply left out the sugar…though it still came out tremendously sweet. This is something you eat in small quantities, like a tiny bit on ice cream.

The G+F taste testers were all on board. Luckily none of them hate coconut, like some people who confound me. I love coconut! Especially the fresh coconuts we’d have in Mexico when I visited as a child. The street vendors had huge green ones they chopped open with machetes and then stuck a straw in for your slurping delight. Such good memories of visiting family.

Maybe next time, we’ll all indulge in this dulce!

Original recipe over at The Sweet Life.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Summer has finally arrived in California. One day it was freezing cold (as in there's still snow on the ground in some spots), the next it was in the 80s and now everyone is complaining and cranking up the AC.

We're fickle, spoiled creatures.

But just because it's a scorching summer and I don't have artificially cold air in my home (I live by an ocean, naturally cold air!), doesn't mean I won't turn on the oven and roast poor defenseless vegetables. Because roasted vegetables are so much yummier than raw ones (especially cauliflower, regular and Roman).

So it was without even a second thought that when Erika Kerekes posted her oven-roasted cherry tomatoes recipe on Facebook, that I walked right into my kitchen and followed her directions. Luckily I had just picked up 2 baskets of grape tomatoes.

First I laid them all out on a pan, and rubbed them lovingly with olive oil and Adobo seasoning. They enjoyed it.

Then I roasted them till they shriveled up into little tomato raisins.

They liked that too.

Like Erika will tell you, "they get redder, softer, juicier." And sweeter. I've put them in every single salad I've had this week (and I eat one for lunch every day), the spaghetti I made last night, and even stood over the pan above and just ate them straight out of the oven. Until I burned my tongue and managed to hold off for a while, till they cooled an edible temperature.

Throw them in a jar and dare yourself not to eat them all at once.

Erika's recipe can be found here. Though I would recommend doing this early in the morning or late in the evening, especially if you don't live by an ocean.

Wordless Wednesday: Macadamia Nut Brittle with Hawaiian Sea Salt Courtesy of Adventures with Nancy Rose

Wordless Wednesday: Blackberry Scones Courtesy of FBLA's Adventures in the Kitchen

Wordless Wednesday: Chocolate Cake Courtesy of FBLA's Small Pleasures Catering

Truffled Egg Salad

This Cheese Fast thing is getting ridiculous. I feel like the universe is mocking me. The other day I drove past a NEW grilled cheese truck right next to the office.

Not fair!!

So I've turned to my other food love: truffles. Not those chocolate things, since I don't have much a sweet tooth, but the supremely expensive subterranean delights from distant lands. The easiest way to experience them without going broke is either truffle salt or truffle oil. And thanks to dear food blogger friend Erika Kerekes, from whom I borrow lots of recipes, today I had BOTH!

So decadent.

Surfas has teeny tiny bottles of both white and black truffle oil for only $12. For 2 ounces. Yup, 2 teeny tiny ounces. But compared to paying $300 per pound of the actual mushrooms, it's a steal. And the Spice Station has salt for $10 an ounce (only 1/3 the price of saffron!). I've had both the oils and salt in the pantry forever, so this was just waiting for me to hard boil some eggs.

(Thankfully my random allergy to eggs has disappeared. Yay!)

I used white truffle oil because that's the type of salt I had and figured they would pair well. The black truffle oil is a bit more earthy, and I like it in green salads. This would taste just as deliciously with the black truffle oil, I'm sure. They're both excellent.

And since I was cooking for just one person, I cut the recipe significantly. I was out of my typical mayo substitute (Greek yogurt), so I went without. It was still creamy and delicious. I also mashed this together in my mini chopper because I love that thing, though you could do as Erika suggests and simply mash them with a potato masher. But I like to save my elbow grease for tennis and/or sipping scotch.

Not necessarily in that order.

print recipe

Truffled Egg Salad

Adapted from In Erika's Kitchen. This is quick, delicious, and just a tad decadent. Use a mini chopper to whirl it together quickly and with minimal elbow grease.

Ingredients
4 eggs, hard boiled
1 tablespoon white truffle oil
1/8 teaspoon white truffle salt
1-2 tablespoons sour cream

Instructions

1. Peel the eggs and crumble them into the bowl of the mini chopper.

2. Add the sour cream, salt, oil, and blend away.

3. If the consistency isn't creamy enough, add more sour cream a little at a time.

Spread on crackers, in tortillas, or simply eat straight out of the bowl. Don't try to control yourself, you will lose that battle.

Yield: approx 1.5 cups

Sweet Smoked Paprika Chicken

Picture courtesy of Erika Kerekes,
LA Cooking Examiner

To continue on our theme of Red Food Week, I finally took a picture of Erika Kerekes' Broiled Boneless Chicken Thighs with Garlic Salt and Smoked Paprika before eating it.

I've made this dish only about a billion times. The reason is that there are all of 3 steps, so it's foolproof and perfect for a) lazy nights, b) late nights, or c) "I ain't got time for this" nights. And also days.

Seriously, 3 steps:
1. Coat chicken with paprika and garlic salt.
2. Broil for 7 minutes on each side.
3. Eat.

See? Easy.

Okay, so they come out more orange than red. But paprika is red, so there.

Erika recommends using smoked paprika, which is "available at Surfas and, now, at Costco, much to the delight of Los Angeles chefs everywhere." Surfas, which is a place I do love, can be pricey and I never have the patience for Costco, but I did have regular boring paprika and a sweet smoked paprika thanks to an overindulgent shopping trip at the lovely Silverlake outpost Spice Station (they also sell truffle salt for $10 per ounce, which is COMPLETELY worth it [and the indulgent part of the shopping trip]!).

Sweet smoked paprika is wonderful on the chicken. The thighs remain juicy even after 14 minutes in broil mode. And they come out sweet, and smokey, and plain ol' delicious.

Since most of my a) lazy nights, b) late nights, or c) "I ain't got time for this" nights (and days) usually also mean dinner for one, this recipe scales down nicely too. Take one chicken thigh, coat it with salt and paprika, broil, and done. Make 2 and you have lunch the next day.

Erika also recommends using more salt than you think you need. If you're on a reduced-salt diet, you can go easy on it, but she does make the point that you'll still be ingesting less sodium than a typical restaurant dish. Tonight I used a 3:1 paprika to salt ratio and it was fine.

The modified recipe:

Sweet Smoked Paprika Chicken
yields 1 serving

1 boneless skinless chicken thigh
2 tablespoons garlic salt
1 tablespoon each regular paprika and sweet smoked paprika

1. Preheat the broiler to high and place an oven rack 4 inches below the flame. (If you put the rack right under the flame, the chicken will burn before it cooks through.)

2. Line a baking sheet with foil and lay the chicken thighs out flat. Sprinkle each side generously with the garlic salt and paprika. (The measurements above are merely guidelines, use more as needed, and don't skimp on the salt!)

3. Broil the chicken about 7 minutes on each side, until the thighs are cooked through and have developed a nice crust (or as I like to put it, a yummy black char). Serve with some veggies or rice and eat immediately.

Thanks to Erika for providing us with a easy meal!

Girl+Fire Turns 1 With A Top 5

Today is the day marked in all the Girl+Fire calendars as the day this site was born!

It's been a lovely year of experimentation in the kitchen, learning the ins and outs of food photography (an ongoing process), how to style food, and getting to hob nob with some of the coolest food bloggers in Los Angeles, the FBLA.

I'd like to thank all the readers and Facebook fans for your support, and hope to give you more and more good stuff!

To start, how about a retrospective? Here are the Top 5 Moments in G+F First Year:

5. Surviving the first Chopped-Inspired Dinner. Luckily the gathered friends and family made it easy. And we now have a running joke about Kevin Bacon and shrimp shakes (see the video here).

4. Learning the very simple art of canning! This was so much fun, and completely cured me of my fear canning. Which then led to my next favorite blogger moment...

3. Making sweet and spicy poblano jam. What happens when you add blueberries to jalapeños and poblano peppers? DELICIOSITY. It's a new word. I loved this jam so much, it's one of the few G+F recipes you'll see on both the blog and the calendar.

2. Meeting Chef Aarón Sanchez on my mom's birthday. He is such an incredibly nice guy, and we had the greatest time that evening.

1. The absolute highlight of the year, however, was being voted top pizza among the gathered food bloggers at Rosti Tuscan Kitchen last April. Getting to meet everyone who's blogs I'd been lurking on, and then having them pick my pizza was mind blowing.

There are, of course, plenty of other memorable moments. Finally getting to meet Oakley at the OC Foodie Fest AND learning her bacon scotch recipe—which was later featured on BaconScotch.com!!—are just two of the many.

Thank you all again. It's been hectic, heartbreaking, and wonderful all rolled into one!

Rosti Tuscan Kitchen Pizza Challenge

The bloggers,
picture courtesy of Rosti Tuscan Kitchen

Last week a few of LA's food bloggers were invited to Rosti Tuscan Kitchen to create something new for their Pizza of the Week menu feature. The guest list was intimidating; a bunch of people whose blogs I adore and then little ol' me:

• Erika Kerekes of In Erika's Kitchen
• Kim and Barry of Rustic Garden Bistro
• Pamela of My Man's Belly
• Gaby Dalkin of What's Gaby Cooking
• Lucy Lean of Ladles & Jellyspoons (with her daughter Minty) 
• Greg Henry of Sippity Sup
• Lynne Hemer of Cook & Be Merry
• Cheryl D. Lee of Black Girl Chef's Whites 

Some of these bloggers are real chefs, not just novice food enthusiasts like me. And up for grabs was the bragging rights of having your pizza featured on Rosti's menu for the first week in October plus free pizza for an entire year. Surely the pros had this, right?

All the fixings

We were each given a disc of pre-rolled dough and the ingredients were laid out on a long table for us to mix and match. Among the offerings were mozzarella, pesto, bell peppers, smoked gouda, hazelnuts, meatballs, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and my new favorite: caramelized onions. We could also use anything else they might have in the kitchen, so I opted for pancetta. Like bacon, pancetta makes everything better.

Greg, gloved and ready 
to make pizza

The intimidating crowd of food experts were actually really cool, down to earth, welcoming people. I got to sit right across the table from Greg, whose baby artichokes recipe was one of my recent experiments. We grabbed our ingredients and went to work on our naked pizza dough.

Some of the pizzas made were absolutely beautiful. While I just threw mine together and made it look like a standard pie, most everyone else took the time to make art.

Kim shows off her beautiful pie

Then it was time to taste and judge. Given my dietary concerns, I was very careful to eat the least amount of crust possible but still get the full flavor of each slice. They were all delicious in different ways. Erika made a paste out of figs and goat cheese for hers. Kim used the anchovies and balsamic to make an interesting sauce. Lynne topped hers with shrimp. There was a lot of joking around the table and many compliments to each pizza.

Finally the votes were tallied and the winner was announced. In third place was Lucy's with butternut squash, gorgonzola, and sage. Greg came in second with his onions fried in balsamic vinegar creation. And the person to get a year's worth of free pizza with a pesto and honey balsamic combo was...me! I couldn't believe it. Apparently I produced a crowd favorite:

The Balsamic Pesto Pie, photo courtesy of Erika Kerekes

Many thanks to Rosti Tuscan Kitchen for inviting us all to play with their menu and to my fellow pizza-making comrades for voting my pizza numero uno. (Bad pun.) It was a fun afternoon!

The pizza will be on the menu the first week in October. I'll post the recipe in the days leading up to that. For now, become a fan/like Rosti's Facebook page and check out more pictures from this event.

Food Truck Madness at the OC Foodie Fest 2010

The LA food trucks are now as ubiquitous as the palm trees and fake-tanned celebrities. A quick check on Twitter will give you the details for any given lunch or happy hour (or just follow @FoodTruckLA for all the updates). Being the food lover that I am, I've been on a mission to try as many of them as possible.

Food trucks have even spawned their own food festivals. In the last month both Los Angeles and Long Beach have hosted their own, and this weekend it was Orange County's turn.

I'd had to miss the two local events, so when the chance came up to volunteer for OC Foodie Fest, I jumped at it. In the process I was able to hit two separate goals of trying at least one new truck and FINALLY meeting the crazily talented OakMonster of Hmm...Food...Good.

Oakley and I have "known" each other for the better part of a year. We have several real-life friends in common, follow each other on Twitter, and are connected on Facebook. We also worked less than half a mile apart and yet had NEVER been able to meet up. Until this past Saturday when we were paired together at check-in, where for four hours we helped scan very hungry and very enthusiastic food truck fans (like the boy above).

After our shift we got to roam around the event. It had been difficult to stand at check-in and watch the lines grow exponentially, knowing that we'd have slim to no chance of getting to experience some of the favorites. Most of the well-known trucks were there, including some of the crew from The Great Food Truck Race: Nom Nom Truck, Crepes Bonaparte and Nana Queen's Puddin' & Wings. The lines for these trucks in particular were beyond all limits of patience. Imagine Disneyland on the busiest day without a fast pass.

We decided to divide and conquer, setting our sights on two trucks we'd never tried and that had relatively short lines. Oakley took the OC-based Barcelona on the Go and I opted for LA's recently introduced Yatta Truck. How can you resist deep-fried cheeseburger rolls?

From the BOTG truck we ordered a fig and manchego salad (no picture) the chicken empanada (right) and a Spanish quesadilla (below).

The salad was absolutely forgettable. So much so that I forgot to take a picture of it. The empanada was not unlike ones my mom and I have made at home. Though not fried to a crisp like Argentinian turnovers, the filling was a bit greasy and under-seasoned. Disappointing. And since it was undoubtedly made of some sort of wheat based flour, I wasn't going to risk a reaction on it.

The quesadilla was interesting. Instead of just being filled with cheese, it was accompanied by a thick layer of potato and onion, and topped with a chipotle aioli. It wasn't bad. Different from the Mexican version I eat on a near-daily basis, but not bad.

The Yatta Truck was a bit more exciting. There are five standard rolls to choose from, all inexpensive: $3.50 to $3.75 for four pieces, $6.50 to $7 for the super-sized eight pieces. You can also create your own roll by choosing up to four of twelve ingredients. I opted for the Poki ([right] tuna over a standard California roll—which I usually despise, but the tuna made it delicious), the Sweet Aloha (deep fried teriyaki beef and pineapple) and the aforementioned All-American cheeseburger roll (a deep fried cheeseburger).

The All-American (left) is on top next to the ketchup, Sweet Aloha is covered in yummy sauces. Oakley and I agreed that the fried cheeseburger needed to be paired with beer. But we were too worn out to walk to the beer garden and stand in a long line. In fact, after gorging ourselves on all those carbs, the food coma started to set in.

There were so many other trucks I wanted to try, especially those that never go beyond the Orange Curtain into LA like Louk's To Go. But the lines were either much too long or, as in LudoBites' case, they closed up early. Plus, after standing in the sun checking in over 3,000 people over the course of four hours, we were positively drained. 

(My pictures were taken with my iPhone, but Oakley busted out her Nikon DSLR and shot what I'm sure are much more beautiful pictures. Follow her blog for more details.)

The organizers did a fantastic job of creating buzz about the event. I was getting multiple updates daily via both Facebook and Twitter as new sponsors and trucks signed up. On the day of, all 8500 tickets had already been sold. Though there were plenty of first run mishaps, I applaud them for putting together a wonderful fundraising campaign, gathering great sponsors and entertainment, and best of all, highlighting gluten-free options! The map we handed out at the entrance had all this info listed. Brilliant.

Good job OC Foodie Fest!

Cork Bath Mat

One of the many things that goes oh so well with food is alcohol. You can cook with it, drink it while you cook, drink it after you cook, drink it when you're not cooking. Really, the possibilities are endless!

We, meaning me, here at G+F love our wine. Any wine really. Red, white, sweet, dry. I'm open to all.

Wine's slightly more socially acceptable than our, meaning my, other alcoholic vice, whiskey, which hearkens back to a time when such spirits were prohibited.

My family also loves the wine. We have a standing weekly wine & cheese night where we try out new varieties of both. There's a running list of yeas and nays somewhere. And a LOT of discarded corks. So finding Wine Harlots's Put a Cork In It series was a bit of kismet.

And now I really want to make this bath mat.

We are now saving corks.

Twitter, Foodies & Fun

I like Twitter a lot. I get all kinds of great info about photography, event planning, and, of course, ideas for kitchen experiments from it.

At some point, I connected with Melo, a funny and vibrant tweeter who is committed to eating 5 full servings of fruits and vegetables every day. I asked her how she managed this, since this lifestyle would severely cut into my egg roll obsession.

What, you didn't know I like egg rolls? Okay yeah, I admit it. Jack in the Box has great fried egg rolls. Yes, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm probably going to die of a heart attack because of this habit. But I am not ashamed!

One of these days I'll learn to make them myself. Till then, thank god for Jack in the Box. Nom nom nom.

So back to the point: instead of tweeting me back an answer, Melo wrote me an entire blog post. It's awesome. She is, in fact, enabling my obsession. Which I appreciate.

All kidding aside, I didn't know this was a movement. The whole reason behind my kitchen experimentation was to become more conscious of what I put in my mouth, so I can totally get behind this. With that, I'd like to thank Melo for turning me on to something new. In your honor, I ate a cutie, watermelon, half an apple, some fennel, and carrots today. Almost 5 full servings. Aren't you proud?

I know you are.