Red, White, and Blue Sangria

With temperatures hovering above 90 degrees for most of the week, I really wasn't in the mood for cooking, much less baking. I debated whether to make something to bring to Johannes' third birthday party, and while blogging the Red (Lingonberry), White (Brie), and Blue(berry) Puff Pastry Mini Tarts I made the previous year, got me thinking about what else I could with patriotic colors. I'd have to run to the store for strawberries and blueberries though and was feeling decidedly lazy. Plus, the party was in the early afternoon; too early to start drinking perhaps? It was just as well I came empty-handed as my cousin ordered quite the Armenian spread.

I couldn't get the thought of a red, white, and blue sangria out of my head so afterward, I stopped at the store to get the needed strawberries and blueberries. My neighbors invited me to a barbecue later that day and a pitcher of sangria was just right for sipping beside the pool.

Of course, you're not limited to strawberries for the red, watermelon or raspberries would work too. I used a pear and an apple for the white. And there's really few other readily available substitutes for blueberries, but if you can get your hands on some huckleberries or salal berries or Oregon grapes, those would work too.

Jaleo by Jose Andres ($45 Prix Fixe Menu) - The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas - Las Vegas

After snapping photos, it was time to get our grub on. I was huuungry!

After dining at Jaleo by Jose Andres in Washington, D.C. last fall, afternoon tea at Tres by Jose Andres earlier this year, and most recently at Bazaar by Jose Andres, the latter two at the SLS Hotel Beverly Hills, I was rapidly becoming a Jose Andres groupie.

Spanish Radicchio Salad with Manchego Olive Vinaigrette

I loved the Radicchio Salad with Green Olive Toast and a Manchego Vinaigrette at Toro Bravo - Portland - Oregon so much that I had to try re-creating it at home. But, at $14 for the ingredients, this was definitely one of the most expensive salads I've ever made so it's not something I'd make often. Although, the Manchego cheese and the jar of olives were used for several other recipes, and still have some left, so there is that in its favor.

I found a small wedge of Manchego cheese at Fresh and Easy for about $4. If you can't find any where you are, I'd suggest substituting with fresh Parmesan cheese. The Manchego tasted very mild, and I don't feel it was as crucial to the recipe as were the radicchio or olives. Instead of cocktail olives, I splurged on a $5 jar of Italian Castelvetrano whole green olives, which looked less salty and fresher, the type that seemed to be in Toro Bravo's version. You can find radicchio for $2 a head sometimes at Fresh and Easy, otherwise, it was a whopping $8 a pound at the regular grocery store. Radicchio leaves aren't as heavy or compact as cabbage so hopefully it won't cost you that much.

Once you've splurged on all those ingredients, and made a basic vinaigrette, the contrasts of the slightly bitter radicchio leaves with the saltiness of the olives makes this a simple, but flavorful salad.

Toro Bravo - Portland - Oregon

While having our third round of cocktails at The Secret Society - Portland, Dylan's phone rang, signaling that our table at Toro Bravo was ready.


Tapas in Portland! OK, I know I've been away too long, or just left good old PDX way too young because the thought of a yummy tapas bar in Portland was just too exciting.

Tres by Jose Andres (Afternoon Tea) (SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills) - Los Angeles (Mid-City West)

After my brother stopped by with my adorable little niece, I was off to meet my childhood friend for afternoon tea at Tres by Jose Andres at the SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills.


Tres is to the right of the main entrance of the hotel and is separate from Andres' more well-known restaurant, The Bazaar. Upon seeing the bookcases in the outside entrance, I knew I would already be charmed.

Viva Madrid - Claremont

A few months after my dad's friend's daughter visited, she was back again. I was working late that night and wasn't free to meet up with her until around 9 p.m. There weren't that many places open late in the Inland Valley, but I remembered Viva Madrid in Claremont, a tapas bar I had been wanting to try for a while after seeing its flaming drink on a television newsmagazine show.

It's a little hidden. See the sign above on the street. Then walk down this alley.

Paella Valenciana (Spanish Valencian Pan Rice)

It's a thank you paella. Well, technically it's paella Valenciana, but it was made as a gesture of appreciation. Unlike seafood paella, the Valencian version is land-based so there's chicken, sausage, snails (supposedly the garden variety, but I had big sea snails on hand for Vietnamese snail noodle soup), artichokes, green beans, butter beans, and peas.

And of course, all cooked together in a pan of saffron rice.

As I was saying, I injured my foot earlier this month. I stepped on something in my kitchen, and you know how you place one foot on top of the other to dislodge it? Well, without looking to see what it was, that's what I did. All of a sudden, I felt something wet, looked down, and saw a big pool of black. I stupidly stared as it got bigger and bigger, wondering how I spilled soy sauce, when I realized that I had cut myself with a jagged piece of glass. I had recently broken a jar and apparently missed a piece in the clean-up. And in attempting to dislodge it from the the bottom of one foot, I had jabbed the glass deeply into the top of the other foot.

Luckily, I had just washed my kitchen towels so I wadded up a dishcloth to staunch the blood. It soaked up fast! So I folded up another dishcloth for padding, then rolled a third to tie into a makeshift tourniquet. That seemed to do the trick and the blood stopped gushing out.

I hobbled over to my living room and sat there with my foot elevated on the arm of the sofa. A few minutes after I sat down, my youngest aunt knocked on my door with my youngest Argentinian girl cousin. Oh, was she in town visiting, I asked? Nope. She and her husband had enough of Michigan's cold winters and decided to move to SoCal two months ago. Huh?! Sooo random!

After my aunt and cousin left, I messaged Tony of SinoSoul because freak accident + unexpected visitors = randomly weird evening. Instead, he freaked out himself, so he and the missus left the movie theater, and promptly appeared on my door step with hydrogen peroxide, antibiotic cream, and butterfly bandages.

Awww. With friends like that, obviously I needed to thank them with something special.

Baked Goat Cheese on Pesto and Tomato Sauce

One of the restaurants I used to frequent in Chicago was Cafe Iberico. The waits were long, sometimes horrendously so, but that was because the tapas were generously-sized and mostly priced between $3 to $5.

The restaurant had a small plate of queso de cabra (Spanish baked goat cheese with fresh tomato basil sauce). The dish only had a few slices of goat cheese though so I've adapted this version to bake the whole goat cheese log. Plenty enough for a party.

I didn't have time to have this with pesto and tomato sauce, so just pesto had to do, but you can certainly add it if you wish. I had blogged the recipe before, but it was added after my recipe for Insalata Caprese (Italian Basil, Mozzarella, and Tomato Salad) so I decided to give the baked goat cheese its own post.

Sangria with White Wine

I found this lovely pitcher at the thrift store when I was in Portland visiting my folks. Loved the silver filigree design. Only $2.95!

On a later visit, I saw it with a cap and on a pedestal that looked like it would hold a tea light. Anyone know what these pitchers are used for? Just to keep your coffee hot? Mulled wine perhaps? I was tempted to buy another, but I already had this one and just use it for juices and sangria.

Not that anyone really needs a recipe for sangria...

But hey, it's Regional Recipes time and we're celebrating Spain!

I'll let you in on a little secret though. My red wine sangria and my white wine sangria? The same thing! Bwahaha. I'm so lazy. The only variation is the color of wine and what fruit I have on hand.

Chickpeas with Sausage, Raisins, and Walnuts

On the same day I had planned to make my Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew), I also saw BB of Eat. Drink. Think. post about his trip to La Boqueria, a marketplace in Barcelona, Spain and the chickpea dish he ate each day from Pinotxo. I love chickpeas so discovering a new preparation for them was good enough for me. But BB's post also involved a chance encounter with... Well, I won't spoil it for you by telling his story. So you'll just have to visit his blog to get the story and to see pictures of the market.

Suffice it to say, the chickpea dish lingered in his memory and BB gave a bottle of St. Innocent pinot noir as a bribe in order to get the recipe.

Sangria with Red Wine

Where did summer go?

I feel like I need to crank out all my summer seasonal postings before the weather turns cold.

I rarely drink alcohol, but one day in late July I was positively fiending for sangria. I have no idea why. I just had to have some cold, sweet, rich red wine and munch on some wine-soaked fruit. The hot weather forced it on me. It was too hot to cook. Too hot to do much of anything but drink cold, flavorful fruity wine.

So that's what I did.

Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish Potato Omelet)

Because of the lackluster tortilla de patatas (Spanish potato omelet) that I got from Cobras & Matadors the other night, I woke up with an urge to make my own. A Spanish tortilla is what we think of as a frittata so it should be thick, with layers of potatoes. While some versions I've eaten feature potato chunks, I think slices would look much nicer.



But instead of the usual onions, I decided the leeks from my garden would be perfect.

Cobras & Matadors - Los Angeles (Los Feliz) (Closed)

Last week on a lazy Friday, my childhood friend called to see if I wanted to go to a wine bar. No food though, she just wanted to drink.

Now, if you've been reading this blog long enough, you know my preferred method of socializing is through food. My friend is an exercise fiend and often skips eating to work out. Why walk when you can run is her motto. She's also done just about every martial art activity. It's a good thing we've known each other forever and have other things in common because ya'll know I'd rather eat than run. We're from the same village in Vietnam, grew up together in Oregon, both lived in the Bay Area at one point, and are now in SoCal. But while I would opt for a nice leisurely meal to catch up, she would rather linger over glasses of wine.

Naturally, that led to settling on tapas for dinner. If you're unfamiliar with tapas, it's basically Spanish bar snacks. I've heard that in Spain, the cold snacks would be pre-prepared, and the hot snacks will often be cooked literally at the bar. I can't vouch for that as my only time in Spain was on Ibiza and I spent that week mainly buzzed on vodka and Red Bull, dancing until dawn, flirting with a certain red-headed Scotsman, covered up to my waist in foam parties, except for an overnight spontaneous ferry ride to Barcelona and back with only a change of clothes in our purses. *cough* Ah, umm, no, no, this isn't a story about topless bars. Tapas. Tapas bars. :P

Sigh. I'm so old now. Reminiscing about my youth...

Anyway, as I was saying, my friend took me to Cobras & Matadors in Los Feliz because it was in walking distance from her apartment. We got there around 8 p.m., but without a reservation, was relegated to the outside patio. That was fine with me as it was a nice warm evening. Seated next to the window, I could gaze inside at the restaurant's wall of red books and red hanging lamps. I kinda felt like "The Little Match Girl," except it wasn't snowing and I'm obviously not starving.

Already at our table was a small bowl of black and green olives and cinnamon almonds. No, I didn't eat the garlic or chili peppers.

I ordered a glass of sangria, of course. $5. Lookit. It was only slightly bigger than my tea light holder. It tasted very watered down to me. No fruit! And hey, how 'bout serving it in a wine glass? :( Good thing I didn't get a pitcher of this. My friend drank a few glasses of syrah, and I had a nice white wine after this one. Our wines were eek! $10 a glass.

Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with walnuts and goat cheese for $9. Sweet, salty, crispy, soft. All the flavors came together really well.

The tortilla de patatas for $7. Despite what people think a tortilla is, a Spanish tortilla is an omelet. I was expecting something about an inch thick with lots of layers of potatoes. This was just literally a potato omelet and not frittata-like as a Spanish tortilla is supposed to be. Tasty, but disappointing in the presentation.

Crab cakes with chipotle aioli. Very, very good. Chock full of crab meat. $12.

All in all, the tapas were very good, and the prices are typical of most tapas bars. Except, that you see, every tapas bar I go to still doesn't match up to Cafe Iberico in Chicago, where most dishes are between $3-$5 and the portions are substantially bigger. And it's just a much more lively atmosphere, even though there are hellishly long waits on weekends. I know, I know, Cafe Iberico is 2,000 miles away. But a girl can still pine for her long ago love, can't she?

Anyway, Cobras & Matadors is a nice low-key place if you want to just chill with friends over drinks and snacks. Service was very good. The busboy noticed our table was wobbly and immediately folded up a napkin to put underneath the leg. I know it's not fair, but I think I've just become too accustomed to dining at cheap San Gabriel Valley Chinese restaurants because I keep thinking the $60 price of dinner could have bought me a whole multi-course meal. Yes, yes, I know, alcohol is expensive and that's where half the bill went but still...

Afterward, since it was a nice night out and we weren't quite ready to go home, we opted to try out Scoops - Los Angeles, the gelateria that's been getting rave reviews. We drove up right as they were about to close the front door. The rest of the story can be read on that post.
 
August 5, 2009 Update: This location of Cobras and Matadors is now closed.

Cobras & Matadors
4655 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-669-3922
Sunday - Thursday 6 p.m. - 11 p.m.
Friday - Saturday 6 p.m. - midnight