Snow Monster - Westminster (Little Saigon)

After dinner at Da Nang Com Tam Tran Qui Cap - Westminster (Little Saigon), my friend Ivan and I went across the street for dessert. Actually, I was heading toward TeaZone Lollicup - Westminster (Little Saigon) for their matcha green tea snow bubble when we spied this crowd from across the street.

Ah! So that's where Snow Monster is located! In February 2013, I received an email from someone from Snow Monster who mentioned that she was a fan of the blog "for many years now" and inviting me to try a "fairly new dessert called Taiwanese shaved snow."

"Fairly new"? Really? Because I first blogged about shaved snow back in 2007. She wasn't sure if I had "tried or heard about it." I think I have when I've blogged about shaved snow not once, but twice, thrice, and a fourth time.

Look, I don't expect everyone to remember every blog entry I've ever written, but I do clearly state on my contact page to use my searchbar before emailing me. Don't pretend to be a fan or try to sell your product as something I don't know about when I've blogged about it multiple times and years ago. A simple search before contacting me would have cleared that up. She offered a large shaved snow and a Belgian waffle sundae, and asked that if I had anything negative to say to tell them in person. And to blog within two weeks after my visit. Geez, I can buy my own shaved snow, thank you very much! Pet peeves aside, at least the Snow Monster name was now on my radar?

Anyway, I wasn't going to hold that minor annoyance against them, especially since shaved snow sounded like just the thing on a hot summer evening.

Au Coeur de Paris Patisserie & Boulangerie - Westminster (Little Saigon)

This story is a bit rambling, so bear with me. It starts several decades ago, when I was in high school and attended a weekend retreat sponsored by the Rotary Club. Our guest speaker was Bob Farrell, co-founder of Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour and Restaurants, who sold the chain and became a consultant and motivational speaker. He talked about customer service.

The story goes that a man, who wasn't dressed so finely, walked into a bank to cash a check. He asked the bank to validate his 50-cent parking ticket. The teller refused. He asked to speak to a manager. The manager backed up the teller and also refused to validate the customer's parking ticket. So he said he wanted to withdraw all his money and close out his account.

Sure. Because how much money could this scruffy customer possibly have?

The teller's face paled.

Apologies were rendered.

And refused.

The customer withdrew $1 million.

He promptly took his money and deposited it in the bank across the street.

Decades later, the story stayed with me. I thought it was just a story. Turns out, the story is true -- in October 1988, John Barrier, who made his money renovating houses, went into Old National Bank (now U.S. Bank) in Spokane, Wash. to cash a check and had his 50-cent parking validation refused. So he withrew $1 million. He took his money across the street to Seafirst Bank, who made it a point to treat Barrier well. But whether he had $1 or $1 million, was charging 50 cents for parking worth losing any customer? Farrell's pickle principle is about businesses doing what they can to make things right for the customer. Don't be so tight-fisted about the small stuff, that you lose loyal customers.

Now, my story is on a much, much smaller scale.

Moules Frites (Belgian Mussels with Fries)

While grocery shopping at 99 Ranch Market in Monterey Park, I saw fresh black mussels on sale for $2.99/lb, or $9.99 for 5 pounds. Remembering how much the niece loved eating mussels at Bistro De La Gare Restaurant & Wine Bar - South Pasadena, and because you know how much I love bivalves myself, I decided to go whole hog and buy the 5-lb bag.

While Googling to make sure I spelled the dish correctly, I found out that moules frites is actually Belgian. Huh! I always thought mussels with fries were French, and while they are quite popular in northern France and I've seen them on the menu in French restaurants, their origins are actually Belgian according to Wikipedia and Saveur. Learn something new every day.

They say to plan on about 1 pound of mussels per person. The 5-lb bag fed three adults and one mussel-loving toddler. Not bad for $10. As for the frites part of the recipe, you can fry your own, or cheat like I did, and stop off at McDonald's. :P

Lavender-Grilled Steak Fettuccine

A few days after my Easter barbecue, I wanted to try using my Saber Grill on my own since my brother and cousin had done all the grilling that day. I knew just the recipe I wanted to experiment with for my first time. Tony of SinoSoul dropped off some lettuce, cilantro, and lavender from his garden. I vaguely remembered coming across a recipe long, long ago for lavender-grilled steak. I don't remember any pictures accompanying the article so I don't know what it was supposed to look like, rather the writer focused more on waxing poetic about the aroma of lavender on the grill. Lavender in desserts I was used to, but paired with steak was something that never occurred to me before.

I tend to prefer French lavender for cooking, but I'm not one to turn down any type of free lavender. In the end, I think the muted fragrance of the Spanish lavender that I used nicely complemented the steak without overpowering it. I sliced the lavender-grilled steak and tossed it with some lavender fettuccine from Pappardelle's Pasta that lil' sis brought back for me from a trip to Seattle's Pike Place Market. I kept the pasta simple and just drizzled some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

If you don't have lavender fettuccine, obviously, just regular pasta will do. And if you don't have fresh lavender on hand, you can add dried lavender to the steak rub, or use herbes de Provence.

Bistro De La Gare Restaurant & Wine Bar - South Pasadena

Before my mom left town, my brother wanted to meet up for a family brunch at Bistro De La Gare Restaurant & Wine Bar in South Pasadena. So called because it's next to the gare ie. train station in French, the Mission Street Gold Line stop. The restaurant is nestled between Nicole's Gourmet Foods and a nursery so plenty of potted plants and trees abound. Very cute.

The interior, with its red walls and French posters, gave a very bistro-like feel.

French Filet Mignon with Red Wine Shallot Sauce

Doesn't the filet mignon look marvelous? It was the most tender steak I've ever had in my life. Seriously!

I jumped at the chance when one of my advertisers, Foodie Blogroll, offered samples of filet mignon and sea bass from Certified Steak and Seafood Company. U.S.D.A. Certified Prime Angus Beef. The filet mignon is certified in the top 1% of beef, center cut, slow aged, hand cut, and hand matched. It's touted to cut like butter, and even just handling it before cooking, the filet mignon was the softest beef I've ever touched. My only other experience with online frozen beef was with Omaha Steaks and it wasn't even anywhere close to the same quality as Certified Steak and Seafood Company's filet mignon. Nowhere close.

I was trying to remember if I've ever ordered filet mignon, and all I could remember was the filet Chateaubriand at Club 33, the secret restaurant inside Disneyland, which was nowhere near as tender. But the red wine sauce did remind me of a lovely meal of steak with red wine and shallot sauce I enjoyed at Pierre Victoire Restaurant in London. So I decided that was the perfect preparation for this filet mignon.

French Onion Soup

When I first learned how to make French Onion Soup about a decade ago, I used to make it at least a few times a year. The cookbook instructed me to cut the onions into whole rings, which can be a bit of a bother. Slicing the first half of the onion wasn't so bad, but the second half became unwieldy and difficult to cut thinly.

What a silly reason to stop making such a delicious soup.

Or even sillier was feeling like I had to slice onions exactly the way a cookbook told me.

So when I was craving the caramelized cheesy goodness, I decided to be daring and slice the onions in half before slicing them thinly. No more rings! Sure the soup won't look as pretty, but the smaller onion slices also meant it was easier to spoon.

Really, the key to a good French Onion Soup is patience. Patiently slice the onions thinly. Patiently wait for them to caramelize. It takes about 45 minutes, but it's so worth it. If you cheat and slice the onions thicker or add the broth before they've properly softened, it just won't taste the same. So just be patient, I promise it'll be worth it.

Fennel, Blood Orange, and Vinegared Onion Salad

To pair with my Italian Roast Chicken with Basil, Rosemary, and Thyme, I made few simple salads. I've made an Orange and Fennel Salad before, but I remembered that Corey of Tongue in Cheek had an Orange Onion Salad in which she marinated the onions with a bit of vinegar. Oh! Like Hanh Dam (Vietnamese Vinegared Onions)! I can definitely do that.

Surprisingly, blood oranges were still at the farmers' market even into summer, so I had to use them, but regular oranges should be just fine. The fennel though were really quite small, so I couldn't get nice big slices to make this salad look as pretty as I wanted. It still tasted great though so I'll have to do this again next year when fennel and blood oranges come into season again.

Cafe Bizou - Pasadena (Old Town)

When lil' sis told our brother that she was coming up to take me to "Phantom of the Opera" for my birthday, he wanted to take us out for dinner beforehand. He suggested choosing from the Pasadena restaurants that were participating in DineLA. I quickly scanned the lowest-priced tier and chose Cafe Bizou because it seemed to give us the best food options.

Three courses with steak and lobster for $26!

TC Donuts - Alhambra

The next morning, oldest nephew's childhood friend said he was craving some sweet pastries for breakfast so I suggested doughnuts, thinking that there would be Danishes or something like that at the shop. What we found was even better.

Patisserie Philippe Macarons - San Francisco From Gourmet Pigs

Last April, after a trip back from San Francisco, Gourmet Pigs brought me a present! A box of half a dozen macarons from Patisserie Philippe in San Francisco.

So pretty!

Quiche with Bacon, Fennel, Leeks, and Onions

So you rushed immediately to make the Pluot Apple Galette, what do you do with the other frozen pie crust?

This quiche with bacon, fennel, leeks, and onions was actually made in May 2009. Again, if you use pre-made dough, it's so much faster. It's just a matter of slicing the vegetables and beating in eggs, and then pouring it into the pie shell.

Pluot Apple Galette

I didn't really feel like cooking and didn't leave enough time before work to make something to bring to my oldest uncle's house for my ong noi's dam gio (Vietnamese paternal grandfather's death anniversary). But I had a bunch of dinosaur egg pluots in the fridge, one apple, and frozen pie crust.

A French galette with its freeform crust was perfect for a hurried dessert. I quickly heated the oven, sliced up about three pluots and my one apple, tossed in some sugar and cinnamon, layered the fruit slices on the pie crust, and popped it into the oven for about half an hour. I left the tart in the oven  and heated it up again when I got home from work before bringing it over to my uncle's house.

Sure you can make your own pie dough, and I have when I'm in the mood for it, but sometimes there just isn't time.

French Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Beef, Fennel, and Rice

I love fennel and happily eat it plain, in a salad, in a gratin, or in a quiche. But that's the bulb, and while I might toss in a few fennel fronds for appearances, the anise flavor is too strong to use much of them. So, the fennel fronds often end up chucked into the compost pile.

When I saw a stuffed cabbage recipe on Tongue in Cheek utilizing fennel fronds, I knew I had to try it. I added ground beef to my version, although I think keeping it vegetarian would be just fine since the tomato sauce and onions add plenty of flavor. Of course, I had to scale down the recipe because using six cups of olive oil and two pounds of rice seemed a bit much for one person. As it was, I still made a bunch of cabbage rolls and ended up freezing the filling to later liven up some vegetable soups.

I boiled these French Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Beef, Fennel, and Rice and ate them plain, but I think a light tomato sauce would work nicely too.

French Chicken with Mushrooms in Madeira Cream Sauce

I bought a small stewing chicken at the grocery store and was in the mood for a nice braise. Even though summer isn't necessarily the best time to be cooking anything at length on the stove. Ah, but at midnight, when the temperature has cooled and the world is silent, a comforting stew of French Chicken with Mushrooms in Madeira Cream Sauce served with mashed potatoes seemed just the thing.

This recipe is the cheaper version of chicken with morels from Ina Garten/the Barefoot Contessa, which I stumbled upon via Alicia of Posie Gets Cozy. I used a combination of portobello and crimini mushrooms, although if you can afford morels, by all means use them. I substituted a few dollops of sour cream for the creme fraiche, although yogurt would work too if you wanted to lighten up the recipe. Because let's face it, a recipe that calls for butter, cream, and creme fraiche is way too rich and heavy for me. A lightened up version was much better for my pocketbook and my tastebuds.

Fleur De Lys Patisserie - Monterey Park (Closed)

Lil' sis, our oldest nephew, and his childhood friend came into town recently to visit my brother's new baby. While I was having brunch at Mike and Anne's Restaurant | Bar - South Pasadena, lil' sis took them to Pho Filet Vietnamese Restaurant - South El Monte for breakfast, so they were still pretty full after our visit. Nephew's friend asked if I could take them out for dessert instead.

I finally noticed Fleur De Lys Patisserie had taken over the old hair salon or was it a realtor's office? The sign, cute awning, very French. And located in Monterey Park definitely made it a must-visit place for me.

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Basque Family-Style Dining at Centro Basco Restaurant - Chino

Long ago when I used to work in this area, I'd occasionally drive past Centro Basco Restaurant in Chino and wonder.



What did I know of the Basques?

Very little.

I met one when I was 15 and won a speech and essay contest from the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows United Nations Educational Pilgrimage for Youth, Inc. for a three-week cross-country bus trip from Oregon to the East Coast. From him, I learned about the Basque population in Eastern Oregon who came to work as sheepherders and that the Basque language, Euskera, was unlike any other.

In drawings that I've seen of the Indo-European language tree, where similar languages such as Spanish, Italian, and French would be shown as branching off from the main one such as Latin, Basque comes in as a random bird flying in from the horizon, unrelated to anything else.

And then there was the hunky Basque Nick, who won Delaney's heart in "Truly Madly Yours" by Rachel Gibson.

But, you probably want something a little more academic? In which case, I would defer to "The Basque History of the World" by Mark Kurlansky, but I'm only on page 62. So instead of trying to condense way too much history into too small of a space, I defer to Wikipedia's entry on the history of the Basque people and their entry on Basque-Americans.

I'm rather stuck on page 16. That's where Kurlansky discusses the Gateau Basque, a cake filled with cherry jam and/or pastry cream that originated in the Nivelle River valley, which includes the town of Itxassou, famous for its black cherries. Gateau Basque, I vow to make it one of these days.

Kurlansky also discusses the high numbers of Basques with O Rh negative blood, which can fatally poison a fetus who has positive blood, and may be a reason why the Basque population is not as high as it could be. According to Wikipedia, there are an estimated 18 million Basques world-wide, 57,793 Basque Americans, and 20,868 Basques in California.

Which brings us back to Centro Basco Restaurant in Chino, which opened in 1940 as a boarding house to serve the Basque sheepherders in the Chino Valley. Since 1970, the restaurant has been operated by the Berterretche family, whose hometown is St. Jean Pied de Port, France.

Certainly you could visit the restaurant at any time and sit in their normal dining room to try the French Basque dishes. But how much more fun is to sit at one of the communal tables and dine with others? Thanks to my advertiser, Foodbuzz's 24, 24, 24, I was able to treat Gourmet Pigs and Starchy Marie to the most charming dining experience we've had in a while.

Gratin with Fennel, Onion, and Sweet Potato

Another recipe that's been buried in the queue too long is a fennel, onion, and sweet potato gratin that I made back in October 2007. A gratin is a French dish of shallow vegetables baked in a cheese sauce and broiled until crisp on top.

I wanted to do a variation of the more popular potatoes au gratin by adding in the fennel and sweet potato. The licorice flavor of the fennel is vastly muted once it's baked, but it lends another flavor component to this dish. Making it is simple as it's mostly a matter of slicing all the vegetables and layering them before pouring on the milk and cheese to bake into creamy goodness.

LudoBites 3.0 at Royal/T (In Bed Together) - Culver City

Since I had such a great time when Gourmet Pigs took me to Ado Ristorante - Venice for my birthday, I wanted to take her out for a nice dinner for hers. As luck would have it, LudoBites 3.0 at Royal/T was extended for several weeks and I managed to snag a reservation. While LudoBites is really quite a bit more than I would spend on a meal, I was very curious about this pop-up restaurant that had been hyped so much, especially the way Ludo Lefebvre, who was on "Top Chef: Masters Seasons 1 and 2" in case you didn't know, is reported to combine unusual ingredients. Since reservations are nearly impossible to get, I didn't want to pass it up.


I experienced literally two bites of Ludo's food at Hello Kitty's 35th Birthday celebration in collaboration with the "In Bed Together" exhibit that would replace it, so this was all new to me.

Turkey Liver Pate

Normally, I toss out the liver when making my turkey for Thanksgiving. But this year, when I was about to do so, I saw how nice the liver looked. (Well, as nice as liver can look anyway.) And because I had baguettes on hand for my Crock Pot Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew), why not some pate to go with it?

Quick and simple recipe that yields about two ramekins. After all, how much pate do you really want anyway?