AltaMed's 5th Annual East LA Meets Napa (Union Station) - Los Angeles (Downtown)

I had such a great time at AltaMed's 4th Annual East LA Meets Napa celebration at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles that I was overjoyed to receive my own invite the following year from Alexia at Double A Public Relations & Marketing. I got a +1 too and invited my friend Don since his birthday was coming up, but he couldn't make it. So I asked my childhood friend since she works downtown. She had a sore throat, a result of a too tight neck hold during Brazilian jiu jitsu class, and couldn't comfortably eat, but she didn't want to miss the opportunity after I raved about it so much.

East LA Meets Napa is seriously one of the best food and wine events I've attended. I love almost every food stall and it introduces me to so many great new Mexican dishes and restaurants in SoCal. All proceeds from the event also benefit AltaMed's programs to provide care for underserved areas of Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

After seeing Gourmet Pigs' pictures of the gorgeous Attilla the Flan's floral creations, I was determined to hunt some down for myself this year.

Fish Piccata

Sooo...

... this recipe has been sitting around since November 2009.

That's not too long of a wait, right? :P

Quick and easy dinner. Just lightly breaded fish, fried, then a lemony caper sauce. I used one of those $1 frozen tilapia fish packets from Albertson's for this, but if I were to do it now, I'd more likely use frozen basa filets that you can buy in bags of multiples. Otherwise, the recipe is pretty basic and very simple.

Italian Portobello Mushroom Pasta

If you love mushrooms as much as I do, sometimes you really don't need much else to enjoy them. A quick saute to soften the mushrooms with some chopped garlic and onions for flavor. Toss with plain pasta.

I used a few portobello mushrooms for this, although they're really just mature crimini mushrooms so you can use those instead if you'd like.

Now, the big question is, do you say portobello mushroom? Or portabella mushroom?