burger night in San Marino

You know what was fun last week?  Burger night at Julienne, a short distance from Van's house, down in San Marino.  A Thursday night for the three of us, none of us having to cook.  We do get takeaway from Julienne sometimes (last night, in fact, for me and Van), but they aren't usually open for dinner, so a dinner there is a rare thing.  So rare I don't think I've ever done it before!

We'll head back next week for another of their special summer dinners, but last week it was burgers and Bordeaux night.  A little wine, a salad to start,

the burger

with some pretty good chips alongside,

a cobbler for dessert. 

We sat outside, the last table to be seated, and had an unhurried time of it.  Ahhhhh.  Just so nice to have an easy dinner.

last meal in Argentina

Last proper meal in Argentina, that is.  We noshed in the airport lounge before the flight north,

but that barely counts.  No, the last meal was a lunch at Invernadero at the National Library.

Oh yes, the National Library.  No, I didn't pick the place.  Chris did (and hooray for seeing Canadian friends at the end of the South American vacation!),

knowing that a librarian like me would appreciate the location.  In fact, he and Frank are kind of regulars there when they have their extended stays in Buenos Aires, which is cool.  Still, I was tickled to get to see the library.

From the outside, that is.  It was closed on that Monday, something about some renovations or something.  I'm not quite sure.  No matter.  It's a fascinatingly Brutalist structure. 

I do wonder how it looks inside, but I was glad to get photos of the exterior.

As for lunch, it was fun.  I hadn't seen the guys since March of 2020, right before the pandemic overwhelmed us all.  Conrad hadn't seen them in longer.  I had a smoked salmon salad that was more or less a version of a salade nicoise. 

I also had a gin and tonic that had a coconut and pineapple side to it. 

Not a pina colada, more the essence or aroma as well as dried pineapple slices for a garnish.

It rained on the walk to the restaurant, a nice break from the 98 degree heat the day before.  We walked back to the hotel, retrieved our luggage, waited for the hired car, and made it to the airport well in time for our flight.

And with that last meal, more or less, our first vacation in South America was done!

We need to go back and bring Van with us.

but what about the food part of this blog, Peter?

The first word in the title of this blog is "food".  Anyone who has looked at it before, stumbles upon it now, or heck, knows me in person will understand that I love food.  Genuinely.  I once had a friend who would not so kindly tease me by calling me a food snob (note the past tense in describing that friendship!), but no, I am not that.  Yes, I eat fast food.  Yes, I eat snacks.  No, I don't need gourmet food, haute cuisine.  All I ask is that food be prepared well, or that it simply hit the sweet tooth (and salty tooth, if that's such a thing) that I have.

So let's bring food (and drink) back to this blog and talk about dining in the desert.

I've commented on this to Conrad and van a few times, and to Courtney and Robert this past weekend:  Palm Springs, for such a tourist destination, strikes me as not living up to its potential in terms of dining.  I'm being unfair - I've hardly tried many restaurants despite having been down that way perhaps 30 times in the past three years.  It's not a large city either - 50,000, perhaps?  String it along with all the other Coachella Valley communities (including Rancho Mirage), and there are multiple hundreds of thousands of residents and thousands more visitors.  And yet, despite that, I've largely only had good food (and some mediocre food) and seldom great or really interesting food.

I have had good drinks, though!

I'm not going to plumb many years of photos from desert dining.  Instead, let me spotlight a few recent forays.

Van's birthday falls close to US Thanksgiving each year, so this year his friends Jennifer and Sanders joined the three of us at Bar Cecil for dinner.  It's a newer restaurant in the city, and wow, has it been popular.  Tough to pin down reservations to the point where it's dropped off our radar (and yes, we tried a walk-in once, to be met with a suggestion that maybe in a couple of hours).  But for Van's birthday, I scored a late table.

I like Bar Cecil.  I like the vibe, I think the bar program is great.  I like the food.  I don't LOVE the food, but I always find things to enjoy.  I mean, come on:  deviled eggs! 

We shared those, but I could have eaten many.  The smoked fish rillettes made for a tasty appetizer as well. 

Choosing an entree left me a little less interested, though.  I ended up with a steak frites plate, and it was fine. 

Will I recommend the restaurant?  Yes!  Will I go back?  Yes!  I simply may choose a different main course.

The three of us were down in the desert a couple of weeks later, getting things ready for Christmas since Conrad and I had plans to see his family briefly before the holiday.  Van had wanted to get us to Truss & Twine, so we arrived at opening and secured some good seats at the bar. 

Ah, I love sitting at bars, watching the bartenders at work, asking them questions when I can.  I recall that the food menu was very simple and tasty enough, but I recall better the Fallen Angel, a cocktail that was so odd sounding (tequila, lime, and... creme de menthe!). 

I followed that with the Brandy Crusta, which was good (and sticky), but made me wish I had had a second Fallen Angel.

Conrad and I flew into Palm Springs on Christmas Eve in time for Van and Marie to pick us up and take us to brunch at Boozehounds.  I love it - a dog-friendly restaurant.  We've dined there once before, and I was happy to go back.  My mood?  The Spam bibimbap breakfast bowl. 

See?  Spam!  Not a food snob at all (bring on Spam musubi any time I go to Hawaii).  That was a welcome meal.

On New Year's Eve, we made sure to avoid an evening dinner out, but we did get out of the house and headed into Palm Springs again (and you know, we do dine in Rancho Mirage regularly, but also sometimes in Palm Desert).  Brunch in the city again, this time at Gigi's.  You know, I know I had something breakfast-y to eat, but what stuck with me was avocado margarita. 

Smooth and richer in taste thanks to the avocado wash.  I need to try fat-washing cocktails at home sometime.

Back into Palm Springs this past Sunday night.  Workshop Kitchen is a restaurant I have visited and recommended many times in the past, but in recent years (and I am sure the pandemic has not helped), I've had varying, inconsistent experiences with the place.  The menu used to be bigger, and I've found the food and presentations have not been quite as refined as in the past.  The last time I had gone there was in December 2021 when we took Marie, and wow, was it a disappointment.  That was due mostly to the service, wherein the server made us feel as though he was doing us a favour by coming by our table from time to time.  It soured us on the place tremendously, so I was a little nervous about going back with Courtney and Robert.

Happily, this time we had a server I not just recognized from before but was happy to see.  She is someone I had known to make great and honest recommendations in the past, and this time was no different.  A sigh of relief that at least that part of the night would go well.  The food was good, too.  We shared some small plates - fried pierogis,

a burrata and persimmon plate,

shaved Brussels sprouts. 

I was sorry that they had run out of the bread service.  I did not get a picture of the duck fried rice.  I would say that the pierogis were my favourite of the batch.  None stood out as especially awesome, but all were quite fine.  I liked my duck breast as well. 

I did sort of think to myself that the plate was meager when it was set down, but then, I finished dinner (we had dessert and a nightcap at home) satisfied and not overstuffed.  Besides which, the purees and sauces on the plate complemented each other nicely, and the meat was cooked properly - I too often have duck breast that is tough and chewy or with the fat not rendered out very well.

A long entry.  And think back on it.  Good, nice, decent.  No raves, except perhaps for cocktails.  Palm Springs and desert dining has a lot to offer (and I sometimes think the best dining is found in hotels).  Heck, some time I need to blog about Wally's and how much I love its old school vibe and absolutely love love love that they have liver (yes, I enjoy liver).  But the city, the area, is not really the culinary destination that I think it should be.  I never hear people in the LA area who visit the desert ever talk about the food, their meals, the restaurants to visit.  I really wish that it were the case that they did.

Sunday dinner with Marie

It's nice to have an opportunity to have dinner just with my sister, Marie, once in a while. A week ago she and I sat at the bar at the back of Campagnolo, just the two of us. Dissecting family politics. Talking wedding and real estate. Being the brother and sister that we can be when no one's watching. Sharing a good BC white wine, sharing two different pizzas,
sharing a couple of salads,
sharing some cheese. A very good evening in our favourite neighbourhood joint. Ah yes, it would have been good to have Conrad there, too, but every once in a while, it's a treat to reduce things down to the two of us who've known each other the almost-41 years I've been alive.

chilled dinner

Temperatures well into the 90s? Look, I love Chicago and all, but this is stupid. It's not yet the middle of June. Honestly? Bring on the winter weather - I can just pile on a nice thick sweater.

Jeepers!

I did not want to cook tonight, but I had some vegetables and fruit to use, and I dislike wasting them. I stopped at Whole Foods for a few more items, then came home and put this simple meal together:



Shrimp, barely poached, cooled, chopped. Toss them with chopped mango and red onion and red pepper and cilantro and jalapeno. Add lime juice, salt, and pepper. Let sit in the fridge while enjoying a bit of rose wine. Plate atop a bit of arugula, take photos, then toss it together to make a juice, messy salad. A nice chilled meal for a warm evening.

It was either that or pick up sushi again for a second night in a row!

halibut, Wednesday night

Wednesday night I pulled a recipe, dimly recalled, from the dusty recesses of my mind. Not quite remembered right, I later realized, but it was tasty enough.

I had made a black bean stew on Sunday as a quick vegetarian dinner for after swim practice on Monday, and the leftovers were still haunting our fridge. Some of these reheated became the sauce and side for the plate. One part easily done.

The recipe I was trying to recall involved a tortilla crust for frying fish. I had it in my mind as tortilla chips, however, and the crumb was a bit drier going on for that. Not a bad swap out, mind you. A bunch of store-bought chips (Frontera brand, of course!), some chopped garlic, chopped cilantro, and salt all in a food processor, and in short time I had a crumb coating. Salty, garlicky, savoury, an elusive corn flavour underpinning it all.

I dredged two pieces of halibut in flour then milk, then pressed on the crumbs. These when into a pan with oil heated already for a nice browning on each side. I put a lid on part of the time, too, so that the steaming action could better cook the fish itself. It all turned out cooked through but fork tender.

I set out a simple romaine salad with it, and Conrad and I opened a bottle of a Pinot Noir. In the midst of two weeks wherein he will be gone a lot with work travel, we grabbed ourselves a tasty little meal midweek and enjoyed each other's company immensely.

cleanse, day 5

Backtracking a quick moment (is there a non-quick moment? I suppose there is when I start rambling), I should note that cleanse day 3 was a benefit dinner at Yoshi's that I may yet blog. I behaved as best I could. Cleanse day 4 was leftover eggplant and green pea curry - for lunch and dinner. On to Friday!

Cool, grey, wet outside, and the notion of soup was most appealing. I'd made the Greek lentil soup recipe from the Rebar cookbook. Ah, Rebar - I miss Victoria.

Anyway, it's a fairly easy soup to make and carries a nice little punch of chile flake and some zing from lemon zest and juice. The asparagus was unnecessary, and in hindsight I think it detracts from the purity of the bowl. On the other hand, I really do love asparagus, and I thought it a nice way to add extra green to the meal.

Conrad and I sat in the kitchen enjoying our bowls along with a simple salad and some fresh berries. Out of season, I know, and they tasted it - especially the blueberries. Ah well.

Tomorrow night I will make us some fish!

good airplane food

I'm a firm believer in credit where credit is due. I have been known to send written letters to restaurants, thank you cards even, when I've had an exceptional experience. All too often, I fear, we gripe about the bad incidents and spread word of them. Any of you done that? Hands up? If so, then step back and think whether you have done the reverse.

We all like appreciation.

That in mind, let me tell you that United Airlines gave me a meal on Saturday that I would have been happy with in a restaurant (albeit plated differently). No, really. Oh, the salad was salad - simple, green, fine. The mai tais?
Tasty to me, but Conrad - ever a stickler after so many work trips to Hawai'i - was less enthused (though we agree that the ones at the Four Seasons Manele Bay poolside bar were just not good). Dessert? A warm chocolate chip cookie. Yum, though not setting the culinary world afire (on the other hand, I have friends who are cookie fiends and who would have wanted nothing more than that soft warm delight).

Ah, but the entree. The entree. Hold on, what was it? Not trying to be funny here. I can tell you that there was salmon, artichoke, tomatoes, potatoes. The sauce had cremini mushroom (in small enough doses that I actually liked having them there). The fish was terrific - cooked through, not medium at all, but moist throughout and flaking apart nicely. No, it's the sauce that eludes us. Sweet, almost candylike, which, I know, sounds dire. But this teetered on the edge of too sweet, flirted with it, and pulled back. Maddening, maddeningly good. Marsala? Not vanilla, I don't think. What was it?

I let the flight attendant know that it genuinely was one of the best dishes I've ever had on an airplane (and I've actually had a few good ones), and she was delighted to hear that. I'll fill out a United survey, too, just so they know.

The snack later in the flight? Much simpler: toasted turkey and cheese sandwich. And even that was good. Two for two United? Nicely done, and with thanks for giving me no reason at all to moan and groan about airline food. A vacation started quite well.

scallops/martinis

Good gosh but it's humid out. The sort of humidity that is visible, a haze on the horizon. No, I know, it could be worse, but it does make for a slightly sticky feeling sitting out on the balcony.

We have a good dinner out here, and now we're each on our laptops, catching up on fun things. Blogging for me, other geekery for Conrad. Don't look at me that way - he just got a new laptop and is having fun installing and configuring and such. I geek out similarly when I get a new machine.

At any rate, we're having a fine, easy night. It's been a good, productive day all in all. Life is good. What else is good? Seared scallops drizzled with a bit of white truffle oil, seasoned with pepper and Haida Gwaii salt (flavoured with dried mushrooms) from Edible BC. Plate it with salad fixings and throw in a martini each, courtesy of Conrad.



Yes, I have a good life, indeed...

two meals in

Between recent (and current) travel and dining out while in Chicago, we're not getting much chance to cook and dine in. That's not a bad thing - it's nice not to be too overheated in the apartment from the cooking. Summer has been a real summer this year in Chicago, unlike last year.

This past Monday and Tuesday I got myself back into the kitchen for a bit, however, and managed to cobble together two very similar meals. Side dishes were the same: a bit of salad (tossed with balsamic vinegar, white truffle oil, salt and pepper), and a bit of corn on the cob (the Swiss chard of summer 2010).

The main part varied (as did the beverage - martinis one night, white wine the next). Coho salmon on the Monday, simply pan fried. Pork tenderloin the next night, seared and then roasted in a hot toaster oven (yes, we've done our duty at converting the straights).

And for two consecutive nights, we sat out on the balcony and enjoyed a quiet evening there. Some berries macerated with chopped fresh lavender leaves, some yogurt, some Icelandic chocolate,
and we were well and truly content.