ot

stopped by ot today as cam was leaving.

had 2 coffee sodas as cam doesn't like soda water. not that great. definitely not as good as when craig is making them. didn't taste that strongly of coffee. the soda was flat. a bummer. didn't eat but heather had a sandwich that she absolutely loved. will have to get specifics on it.

lgo

3 pizzas (mushroom, roasted corn, avocado). mj baguette & multigrain. d'affinois & french goat cheese. cranberries & figs. cheeseburger & great fries. sangiovese. lemonade. spanish latte, lattes, americano, espresso/condensed milk.

4 gelatos: lemon, canteloupe, cortina (almonds & lingonberries) & apple cider

mandala tea room

veg...

crumpets

nachos

tempeh wraps

ziti

vermicelli

masalla

chocolate truffles

mint iced tea

pale ale beer

eidelweiss

salad w/peanut dressing; miso dressing

very nice & accomodating

fiesta burrito

again. 2 beef taco combo.

lgo

another solid lgo effort. man why can't i order something different. i was going to order a burger for marina & steal half of it but they don't start burging until 4 pm. it was before that. ok so heather did the sonoma salad which she absolutely loved. i had a bite and it was great. i know that it had lots of goat cheese in it which was ruling. something like orange poppy dresisng??? marina got saddled with a turkey, avocado & tomato sandwich on 9 grain bread. also quite solid. i, of course, went with the croque madame (with egg) which once again ruled. added a few dashes of their excellent sea salt which enhanced it.

i did a spanish latte & heather did a nonfat, decaf, honey latte and marina did a chocolate milk. all great as usual.

since heather's been cupcaking, we were thinking of passing but then broke down & tammie coed. we each got a peanut butter & jelly cupcake. as we absolutely loved this one the other time we tried it, we were expecting greatness. unfortunately it wasn't to be. the cupcakes were pretty dry - maybe they'd been in the cooler for a couple days? she also switched the jelly from grape jelly to a strawberry (i think) one. she also moved the jelly from a thin layer across the top (between the cake & the frosting) to a glob in the bottom of the cake. it was too easy to not get a well mixed bite - and i think that was what made it so exceptional the first time....the sweet of the jelly & the saltiness of the peanut butter. also tried the cupcake in components. the peanut butter is definitely only in the frosting. the cake is vanilla cake. quite a bummer actually.

we were also looking to arlechinno but marina couldn't behave & we had to stand tough. was a major bummer as they had banana which is one of her favorites. was also a bummer for me since i didn't get one either!

as always though, we were happy with lgo & i'm sure we'll be back soon - especially as heather is addicted and i can't get her to try anywhere else at the moment.

inza

after my gym we were racing to head home as we had to do marina's birthday party preparations & get back there. we were hungry though and heather had her coffee jones rolling.

we decided to stop at inza & get some empanadas. heather got her soy decaf latte & said it was excellent. i got a blended carmel, mocha which was also excellent. rather than just being an ice cream sweet desert, it had a strong flavor of very good coffee. marina's chocolate soy milk was also great. got to remember to ask for that with a dash of raspberry syrup which as we learned at coffee rush goes very, very well.

for lunch marina had a ham sandwich which was very nice. i had a rice & beef empanada, a beef & potato empanada & a chicken empanada. all were excellent & i could have doubled up. heather got a rice & beef empanada & 2 sweet corn & mozzarella cakes. she didn't know they were sweet corn & wasn't thrilled with them. i thought they were great though & polished them off.

we were happy with everything overall & will be happy to return. the folks there were also super nice. i'm a fan.

fiesta burrito

i was at a client right next door so i had to fiesta for lunch. i'd never been inside so i gave it a whirl.

up until this point, fiesta had only been a better version of the drunk drive through a la los betos. we have pretty much written los betos off as we've too often got chunk fat meat in our orders of green chile, red chile, etc. since we're always sober now when we eat, just can't do it. i also think that even if hammered, we'd know & would come to the same conclusion.

well we'd gone through the drive through several times and been happy with our food each time. i've gone from chimi to regularly getting the deep fried beef tacos. they pretty much rule. well i went inside and to my major surprise, this wasn't a nasty scary dive. it was actually very nice & clean inside with a killer salsa bar.

my tacos, as usual, were ruling and my horchata was great. i would be happy to go in there anytime. and i will!

ok the boss is giving me the high sign. bed time now. i will try to finish this post soon.

los

first visit to los. didn't know what to expect. heard it was the top thai restaurant in the us. man was i not let down.

the first thing was finding it. it's in a nasty dingy strip mall. nothing to look at. i found it, went in & there was a line of 8 to 10 people. told me that for 1, i was looking at a 2 hour wait. i decided to make a reservation for the following night & jetted off to try rosemary's (which was good but i would to to los over it any day).

so back the next day by myself. this in and of itself is a bummer - only for the reason that you cannot order more dishes and try more food.

this is what i had:

daily special - softshell crab salad - it was sweet, salty, spicy. man it was good. this is one of my favorite things i've ever eaten. it had pieces of deep fried softshell crab, bean sprouts, green apple, peanuts, cilantro, jullienne carrots, jullienne red bell peppers, cashews, some thai chilis and a dressing - maybe just lemon juice? oh so good.

then i had the entree daily special - prawns with garlic pepper salt. this was awesome but not a dish for 1 person. it was a huge dish of deep fried prawns that had been butterflied but the shells left attached. on one side, you'd have this beautiful deep fried shrimp meat and then on the other, the deep fried shrimp shell that was like a killer crispy crunch who knows what. it was just too much deep fried for 1 person though. i did finish the huge platter and enjoyed it but it was too much. i later tried the prawns ocha and this is the ticket as it has some salad a bit like the softshell crab salad that cuts the deep fry.

had 2 killer thai iced teas.

and then i finished with the best sticky rice and mango of my life. it made my next cyclo sticky rice & mango just feel feeble. has toasted mung bean on top which is a great touch. the rice is just perfect. i could eat vats of this. i later found out that you can also get it with coconut ice cream or when mango is not in season, that is the default. that is not to be passed. the coconut ice cream is incredible - perfect partner for the incredible sticky rice. very good mango is just very good mango to me. the other 2 were unbeatable.

rosemary's

rosemary's

cupcakes at hilton village

stopped by cupcakes again. this time with heather, marina & sienna.

had a party animal myself. h had the blondie - vanilla cake with vanilla madagascar frosting. marina had the vegan lemon one.

country glazed ham

chicken roasted red pepper sandwich with basil cream sauce
original ham
lemonade
mango iced tea

aj's

dangerous. so many things i wanted to eat.

coffee rush

soy decaf latte
white mocha
raz ma taz - soy choc raspberry
mango passion fruit italian soda

china king

roast pork
pork belly
salt & pepper pork
xo clams
chow fun
house chow mein
duck
fried chicken
beans & beef

barnes & noble

iced white mocha

zinc bistro

onion soup

oysters

scallops

prime flatiron steak & chips

crepe

salmon

mussles

burger

famous suns for suns game 6 : (

steve vetoed us (probably because of the girls) so we didn't get to go to the shack for suns/spurs game 6. missed out on the excellent baked wings, good chicken fingers, good pizza and everything else. steve, the suns lack of a championship is on you.

instead we were banished to famous sam's in scottsdale. it was a bad night all the way around. of course the suns lost. the food was nasty as well. ordered 2 orders of potato skins and they were nasty. no sour cream to top them with. the cheese was already congealed. i had half of one and i think the rest of the 2 orders went uneaten. also ordered chipotle chicken rolls. better than the potato skins but still shy of decent. i did grab a chicken finger and an onion ring off a big appetizer platter which were decent but i find famous sam's sorely lacking. just feels dirty there too.

thought about ordering a pulled pork sandwich but threw in the towel and went hungry. won't be sad if i never go there again.

andreoli again

did andreoli's for lunch. was good but i think they're still experiencing growing pains. they were out of calamari and they served up the fries & leeks without the dipping sauce. giovanni said he hadn't had time to make it yet.

we did the proscuitto panini, side of zuchinni cooked in olive oil, garlic & pepper, fries & leeks, the special - filet mignon sliced think sauteed in oil with arugula, marina's roasted pork panini which turned out to be too peppered for her and a couple limonattas & a big bottle of water.

came out kind of pricey and i know it can be pretty affordable if you do it right. think we just have to stay away from the specials. they're always $15 or $16 bucks.

not as lovely as our first visit but it was a busy friday noon lunch - still good though.

vanilla with butterscotch buttercream

heather is on her vegan cupcakes kick now (for me and marina's enjoyment). tonight she tried a vanilla cake recipe and did a butterscotch buttercream. they were killer. she's using the vegan cupcakes take over the world book. jen & stu tried then and said the cake was better than tammie coe's! i thought it was killer but if she's striving for perfection, might take a lash at getting it a bit moister. she does have a special secret tip she picked up from watching a bobby flay cupcake throwdown so we'll see how it goes.

so far, vegan cupcake trial 1 - 5 stars

aj's is dangerous

heather sent me to aj's to get some butterscotch extract - we are having a cupcake revolution at our house (vegan too for marina). so i went there to spend maybe $5????

ended up leaving almost $60 short. finally got to try simply bread (baguette and wheat though we haven't broken into the wheat bread yet). loved their baguette though. at that with d'affoinis and a sheep's milk cheese that i mistakenly picked up thinking it was humboldt fog. it was still really good. took a look at the dried cranberries to go along with the bread and cheese but couldn't pull the trigger as they were $7 and huge. probably should have though.

also picked up a wedge of parmigiano reggiano (my first) and a wedge of mizithra cheese (for the mizithra cheese & browned butter recipe - OSF).

also picked up a lime extract and a mint extract for further cupcake exporation.

also did 4 truffles (2 double latte, 1 black & white & 1 chocolate decadence). haven't dug into those yet but eager to.

i think that was it... oh to be rich. i could probably spend a couple grand in there on a shopping trip if i tried. too dangerous.

pita jungle takeout

we had pj brought into the office yesterday. i really think that pj is going to take over the world. good food. cheap. everybody loves it. i need a lot of money to buy into this business before it becomes a nationwide chain. that's right! i'm calling it today 5/17/07. pj is going to be a huge multi-million dollar national chain.

of course i had the hummus with chicken (and pine nuts). man i love that dish....even though we did find out they use store bought pita. we ordered a bunch of pita so they gave us a couple bags worth (can't remember the name of the manufacturer). of course i killed my lunch and also had ample helpings of a hummus combo that someone was nice enough to order.

sabuddy's

stopped by sabuddy's today. was my first visit. as i'd heard the hummus & the falafel were great, i went for the falafel dinner at $5.99. included 4 falafel balls, hummus, salad and 2 pitas. was definitely enough to satisfy. i thought it was great as well. it's a nice space as well. the owner was also walking around and talking with folks (lots of hugging going on) and seemed very nice. heard that the chicken shwarma is their specialty so i think i'm going to give that a try. i know they just reducded their prices so maybe i'll add a couple falafel balls for $.39 a piece. can't beat that, right? lemonade was respectable as well.

goldman's

walked over to goldman's yesterday for lunch. they had split pea so i did the 1/2 sandwich and soup. the split pea was great as always. for my 1/2 sandwich, i got pastrami on kaiser roll. last time i was there i asked how lean they were & they said they could do anything lean. didn't mention that today & got a lot more fat on my pastrami. didn't enjoy it as much. also ordered a side of fries as last time i went, i thought they were killer (a coworker ordered them). still thought they were great. i was also looking to try a knish. last time they had a ground meat one & i was looking for that but alas, no meat. settled on a potato knish. it was decent but not that flavorful imo. would wait until i see a meat knish. man it was expensive though. it's always expensive. with what i mentioned, add a fountain drink and i was over $20 for one person.

sakana

did a lunch meeting at sakana. colleagues did the sakana lunch, the sashimi lunch and i went for the chicken cutlet. everything was good as usual. lots of respectable food for a good value. how can you not like that.

shanghai palace

stopped by sp on the way home to get some chow fun for marina (and some sticky rice with mango). had never been inside before. it's nice. kind of like a noodles ranch vibe but smaller. not quite as funky as noodles ranch either. the other thing that jumped out was... man were they packed!!! the place was full and there were about 6 people waiting for take out orders. a good sign, i'd say. marina loved her chow fun (which heather finished) and the sticky rice too.

mother's day brunch - doubletree

did the standard doubletree mother's day brunch. we've been doing it every year for several years except for the last one - we ended up at the james hotel in the restaurant that is now asia de cuba.

it was very cool that mum was out here from oz for mother's day. we had the whole crew. us, jen/stu/syd/cam, missy/jr/soph/aleah, mom.

doubletree is no longer doing brunch in the restaurant. it was in a huge ballroom.

the selection of food was decent. the excecution was decent. nothing exceptional. nothing horrifyingly terrible.

some of the stuff i had: bacon, marinated steak, fried eggs, mac & cheese (from the kids table), chicken finger (from the kids table), an excellent danish, some very decent proscuitto, brie, cheddar cheese, a taste of 3 weak pates, decent prime rib, mediocre ham, coffee, oj, etc.

they did have a piano and someone playing contemporary hits (or at least 70's & 80's). the girls were crazy & loud but at least we were all together & it was fun.

i think the family is happy enough with it. was about $50 including tax & tip. i'd almost rather splurge the extra cash & head to the phonecian or the marquesa just to upgrade the food a bit.

pops on a roll

dad decided to have a lash at the side street deep fried pork chops. of course they were awesome. sliced them a bit thinner and had a thinner crust on them but they were totally excellent. i filled up on them before we even got to the beer battered chicken or dinner. that happened to be salt & pepper shrimp, sauteed broccoli and rice. superyum.

here's the recipe pops went off of and a little blurb about the place: http://starbulletin.com/1999/08/25/features/story1.html

jewel of the crown; ot drinks

after my gym, we were trying to find a place to go. pischke's (wait was too long), arcadia farms (only reservations - it is mother's day weekend after all), az88 (not open for lunch), orange table (another 45 minute wait). we ended up heading to jewel of the crown by default as it was right there.

it was really, really good. i have no idea why it has been so long since we've last visited. started with lamb samosas and vegetable pakoras for marina & syd. man the lamb samosas were good, expecially with the tamarind dip. marina & syd are lucky i only ate my share & didn't swipe theirs. also downed several pakoras with the excellent tamarind dip.

for lunch, we went with the chicken tikka masala & chicken korma (to try & ward off the wind for heather & sienna). both were yummy. i ate way, way too much basmanti rice, masala, korma, garlic naan. everything was great but i lost control and ended up unreasonably full. also had several good lemonades.

i'll be happy to head back there anytime!

we did of course stop at orange table for an excellent coffee soda (with vanilla & cream) and a soy decaf latte (our standards) to go. man i love that place.

andreoli's redux

swung back by today as well and split the salumi panino and the filet mignon panino with mozzarella. both were great! happy to reorder either! downed a limonatta with it

i don't think i'll be able to od on andreoli's and expect that it will be often repeated in the weekly rotation. andreoli's is definitely cool. lots of good stuff to try on the menu.

saw an order of the calamari appetizer and it smelled awesome. wasn't deep fried but looked as if it were fried in oil. definitely want to try that.

can't believe i forgot the french fries, leeks & aoli! doh!

nos drink

saw a very cool energy drink today and had to buy it.

it was basically another standard energy drink but the thing that made it stand out was it's excellent packaging. it was designed to look like a canister of nos (nitrous oxide - used to power the fast & the furious type cars). i thought it was a hilarious idea as it's serving the same purpose but just for humans. it looks like a blue canister with a twist valve.

you can see it here: http://www.drinknos.com/

and then you can see the nos canisters here: http://www.holley.com/index.asp?division=nos

the funny thing was that it tasted awesome. it's a passionfruit drink. loved it!

cupcakes at hilton village

Tried the new Cupcakes shop today in Hilton Village. Had the vanilla cake with the vanilla buttercream. Don't have a menu and haven't been able to find a website for them and I can't remember the exact details. Great cupcake. Rich but I didn't feel like I was going to die instantenously from artery hardening after it as I sometimes do with Tammie Coe's. Also finished the party animal (similar flavor with sprinkles & some other unidentified flavors) for a colleague who it was too sweet for and then I felt like I was going to die. Great cupcake too. Brought some home & tonight tried a vegan lemon cupcake which was quite good and a bite of a chocolate peanut butter one. Also very good. My sister had a chocolate one and she liked the cake part better than Tammie Coe's. That's pretty high praise in my book.

The place looks very similar to Lu Lu's cupcakes (http://www.luluscupcakes.com/) on Miller & McDowell and the style of cupcakes also appears very similar. They also have the same "no transfat" signage as Lu Lu's does. I actually asked if they were related or if the place was totally independent. I'd almost guess they were part of a franchise by the similarity. Nope.

They do have some quite interesting flavors as well. One in particular, "the cosmopolitan", sounded really interesting with I think a lime/coconut/vodka description but that was a Tuesday/Saturday flavor if I remember correctly. Really wish I had a menu or a website.

One thing that I found remarkable was that the cupcakes are $3.25 ea with quantity discounts (more than the typical $2.50 of Tammie Coe or Lu Lu's). While I sometimes OD on the amount of frosting on TC's Ooey Gooey and the coconut one, I have no idea what would justify the additional .$75 per cupcake. $2.50 already seems like a lot to me, though I can't help ordering a few every LGO visit. I know that the coming Sprinkles (Camelback & Scottsdale) also sells their cupcakes for $3.25 each so maybe that's where that came from.

I also have to mention that over the past couple weeks, we had some great Tammie Coe flavors that were new to us that we really loved. We had a vanilla cake with butterscotch frosting that was awesome (also had a bit thinner frosting layer which seemed to work perfectly). Then last weekend, we had a peanut butter & jelly cupcake that was also killer. Again a bit thinner frosting layer that worked perfectly.

While I've only had the basics at Lu Lu's (Blonde Bombshell - vanilla buttercream on vanilla cake and Tantrum Tamer - chocolate buttercream on vanilla cake), my preference would be...

#1: Tammie Coe's
#2: tie between Lu Lu's and Cupcakes.

I'm sure we will go back to Cupcakes on occasion but I will likely begrudge that $3.25 per cupcake each time. And I actually saw that Lu Lu's cupcakes are individually $2.95 or 4 for $10. Tammie Coe's seem like a bargain now! : )

Having seen a Food Network Bobby Flay Throwdown tonight on cupcakes against Autie Em's in SoCal, I'm really looking to try a red velvet cupcake which Sprinkle's has in their everyday lineup (http://www.sprinklescupcakes.com/flavors.html).

country glazed ham

original ham sandwich

chicken roasted red pepper sandwich


fries ok.

goldman's

pastrami in kaiser, matzo ball soup

reuben.

killer fries.

pita jungle arcadia & lgo

hummus trio

hummus, pine nuts & grilled chicken

garlic dip


lgo decaf honey latte, spanish latte, tammie coe peanut butter & jelly cupcakes

carolina's north

machaca taco combo
chorizo combo
beef chimi w/guac & sc
beef chimi w/guac
hard taco
2 butter tortillas
dozen tortillas to go
chips

tottie's shanghai palace

fried rice
pad thai
panang
thai stir fry
chow fun
spring rolls
sticky rice with mango

andreoli's

on chowhound, saw a recommendation for an interesting italian grocery store/deli by molto.

went there yesterday and really enjoyed it. cool place with a lot of character. reminds me a bit of defalco's on scottsdale just north of oak which we love as well. seems a bit more relaxed though.

for this visit, we just tested the food off the menu. there was 4 of us plus our 2 year old. we did a variety of sandwiches & antipasto to share.

btw no pasta special today though. there was a filet special at about $18 so i didn't listen too closely as that seemed a bit much for lunch.

sandwiches:

panino in porchetta (roasted pork, garlic, fennel, black pepper) - ordered this for our dairy allergic daughter. it was great. came on a baguette (which btw is). comes with a side salad that was well liked by everyone.

panino del tirolo (smoked proscuitto spec, pesto, tomatoes and rucola) - i really liked this sandwich. great flavors, great bread. would definitely order again.

panino bocca di rosa (eggplant, mozzarella, tomato sauce and parmigiano) - this was also awesome. great flavors. definitely would order again.

schiacciata du belin (focaccia with tuna and pecorino) - i actually wasn't a huge fan of this as i'm not a focaccia guy but the others in my party really, really liked it. simple but they said the pecorino really made it stand out.

antipasto:

potatine e porri fritti con salsina ghiotta (french fries & leeks with aoli) - of course we had to try these after molto's recommendation. they were great. i forgot to order them extra crispy as directed and in my opinion, they would benefit from that. will definitely be a staple but will also be asking for extra crispy.

arancini alla catonese (rice stuffed with bolognase and peas, breaded and deep fried) - these were great. hadn't seen these since cool delis in australia. i just love this whole idea and would be happy to see them do multiple versions with different stuffings. i love risotto, and how can you not love breading & deep frying...just makes everything better. i could see 5 or 6 different versions of this...would be very happy to!

other:

we also did a few bottles of limonata, chinotto, a latte e menta (a milk drink with mint syrup - which we had cold - that was very refreshing and nice) and a few lattes (respectable). we did get a few of the flower shaped almond cookies (raspberry filled, apricot filled? and marzipan filled) and they were killer.

note:

i did speak with giovanni afterwards and he indicated that he flies fresh fish in on the weekends (fridays & saturdays). some recent ones have been cuttlefish from san francisco (i think i saw referred to in a cuttlefish with black ink risotto) and baby octopus from greece. we will definitely be happy to come back and try the specials out.

one other thing that was a standout to me is that for a not very large menu, i could easily pick out 10 - 15 other sandwiches/salada/antipasto that i definitely want to try. for that size of a menu, this seems like a lot of interesting selections to me. i can get stuck in the "order the same thing" rut too easily but i don't think that would be the case here.