Yum Yum Give Me Some

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

2012-03-02T19:11:00.002-08:00

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
Dr. Seuss

I love, love, love Dr. Seuss!

In honor of Ted Geisel's birthday, my friend Shelly Goldstein pays homage with a story she's written about gay marriage. She's wicked clever and one of the most talented people I know.

At the end of the day Dr. Seuss is about love for all, all the time, and I think he would have enjoyed Shelly's story (remember the Sneetches? Dr. Seuss very eloquently illustrated the downside of exclusionary politics).

Happy Birthday Dr. S!

YXTA!

2012-02-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Southern California my love for Mexican food started at a really early age. My mom used to substitute teach on Fridays so we would go out to dinner every Friday night and the usual spot was El Toro - a door in a wall that opened into a dark restaurant filled with red booths topped with candles in little mesh sweaters, over which my brother and I would weld massive structures out of the cocktail straws while inhaling tortilla chips. My dad would be inhaling the bowl of spicy carrots and chilis that they brought to him non-stop. My mom would enjoy her margarita.

Friday night was something I really looked forward to, not only because we were going to get weld straws and eat chips, but because it was fun to hang out as a family.

These days I love going to eat Mexican food with friends and while I have my favorite places, I am always looking out for something new.

Recently my friend Stephanie turned me on YXTA! - pronounced eeks-tah, the caps and the exclamation point are mine - they're actually much more lower case about it all.

After First Friday we went over to Yxta for a late dinner and found it completely full. Note to self make a reservation when going back on the weekend. It's a beautiful space with high ceilings, concrete floors and rustic wooden tables that give it a feeling of airiness combined with warmth. The music is good, rock en espanol and the light fixtures are rad.

We had to wait for some tables to turn so we ordered Jamaica margaritas and lurked around the long communal high table next to the bar. We had just slid into some seats there when our table came up so off we went. Our server was the most patient and lovely man, all four of us are "on the side" orderers, not substitutions so much as the desire to have options. I ordered the taco dorado appetizer (mashed potato taco - mmmmmm), ceviche and a cup of Pozole because they had it.

I have this thing for Posole. It's a stew/soup made with pork and chili and hominy, topped with cabbage and sometime avocado and crema. It's hard to find on the menu because it's one of those long, slow cooking kind of dishes that your grandmother would make on Sundays. In fact, the only other place I've ever found Pozole is La Super Rica in Santa Barbara and they only have it on Sundays. I have driven there solely to eat the Pozole.

So now I've found a place where I can get Pozole everyday. Stephanie, who hails from New Mexico says it's some of the best that she's had and I do not disagree. The first visit I ordered Carnitas Estilo Michoacan, slow cooked pork with guacamole and home made tortillas.......along with Posole. It was delicious and such a large portion that I had it for lunch the next day. The entree portion are large here, it would be fun to split stuff and try lots of items. I will probably stick to the specialties of the house rather than going for the tacos and enchiladas because, my sense is that they do them very well.

I'm sad to say that I don't really remember much about the ceviche or the taco dorado because the Jamaica margarita came and I got a tipsy fast, most likely because we were eating at 9:00pm and my stomach had been empty - except for 1/2 a Makers Mark ice cream sandwich, since noon. And because I'm a light weight who rarely drinks liquor.

Ahhhh, the Jamaica margarita. If you've never had Jamaica, or Hibiscus Flower juice, you really should try it. I first had it down in Mazatlan many years ago. It was 90 degrees outside with 95% humidity and there was a little shop that served cups the size of Big Gulps filled with shaved ice and the juice of your choice. My friend who lived down there advised that I try the Jamaica because it was refreshing and not too sweet. He was so right. So now imagine this ruby colored, very refreshing sort of floral berry tasting beverage (high in vitamin C and antioxidants) added to tequila and ice and garnished with a lime.

Yes! Best sip ever! I can only imagine how good that will taste when it's warm outside.

Turns out I never even took a bite of the Pozole on Friday night, but it came home with me and made a wonderful breakfast.

I'm going back next week and I promise not to get drunk and to pay attention to other food besides the Pozole, but seriously that Pozole and the margarita are worth the trip downtown. Although I cannot honestly speak to the food, I can say the the experience is a fun one to be shared with friends and family on a Friday night.

yxta
601 S. Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90021

xo,
S

Cool and completely delicious

2012-02-09T17:10:00.000-08:00

I mentioned the food trucks that were lined up in front of the museum for First Friday, but there is one that I adore and that would be the Coolhaus Ice Cream Truck.

How much do I love this truck? There was a french fry truck parked right next to it and after some perusing I decided to have an ice cream sandwich for dinner.

This is not your mama's ice cream sandwich.

First you choose your cookie. Your not too sweet, and just right soft cookie. You can have Red Velvet, Oatmeal, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip or a Vegan Carrot Cake cookie.

Next you choose your ice cream. Sounds easy enough, but with flavors like Brown Butter & Candied Bacon, Flourless Chocolate Cake, Sea Salt Caramel and Makers Mark Manhattan Cocktail I was standing there for a while. The sweetie pie guy manning the truck that night was nice enough to give us some samples and I really wanted to eat everything in every possible combo, but settled on the Manhattan Makers Mark Cocktail on a dark chocolate cookie. *They have great stuff for the traditionalists too - Tahitian Vanilla anyone?

It was heaven.

Thank God he also gave me a little paper boat to catch the drips, so I could make sure I got every single bit, and not get it all over myself.

This was such a delicious experience I wanted to go back and have a couple more, but we were going to dinner after the museum and that's a whole 'nother post.

Coolhaus has a brick and mortar location that opened in Culver City in November of 2011. You can go to their website, eatcoolhaus.com to connect on Twitter and Facebook and get all the updates on their doin's. They also have trucks in New York, Austin and Miami so you can get your fix on both coasts and in the middle.

That is deliciously cool!

Coolhaus
8588 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA

Friday Night

2012-02-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

Beginning in January and running through June of each new year, the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles hosts an event called First Friday. I love going for a number of reasons, mostly because I love this museum and getting to be in there at night is so much fun! I love the gems, the discovery center - where you can touch things and not be asked to leave, the massive bird exhibit, the insects! I also love that this event is done in conjunction with USC, so there are always amazing and informative speakers.

This past Friday I headed out to the museum, inching my way through suck ass Friday night traffic (The lecture starts at 6:30 and it takes me over an hour to drive the six miles - this is how much I like First Friday) to hear Dr. Amy Parish discuss Darwinism and Feminism in the captive bonobo population that she has been studying for the last 20 years.

What you may be asking yourself is a bonobo? Bonobos are one of the two species comprising the Chimpanzee genus (I just copied that from her bio - I don't normally talk like that). In my own words, bonobos more slender versions of chimps. After hearing Dr. Parish speak I can also tell you that bonobos societies are run by the ladies and everyone has a lot of sexy time. Girl on girl, boy on girl, boy on boy and all of this sexy time is about who has the food and who wants it. There's a lot of masturbating going on with these guys as well. They are pretty much non-violent. The connection is pretty obvious to me. What's interesting about bonobos is that, unlike Chimps (and humans) they are not a patriarchal society where everything revolves around the males and violence against females is tolerated. No, with the bonobos the females are boss by virtue of the close bonds that non-kinship females form with each other. The females can, and do band together to dominate and control the males.

There is no abuse against females. If a male steps out of line the females get together and shut that shit down.

It's hard not to imagine what would happen in human societies if the same thing were true and certainly underscores the years of bondage that women have endured under patriarchy. I believe that in someplace in the prehistoric part of the brain, men know that if the women got together, and had each others backs things would change.

If you extend the bonobos model, on a positive note for the boys, they would probably get more sex.

These lectures are always given in the North American Mammal hall, lined with dioramas, and they are always packed so if this sounds like something you'd like to do buy your tickets ($12 for admission only, $18 for admission + concert) buy your tickets early and on line.

Next month the topic will be, "Why Pluto Had to Die" and the guy who killed Pluto, Dr. Mike Brown will be there.

If you go be sure to check out the new dinosaur wing - it's pretty awesome. There are now food trucks out front in addition to the food that they serve in the Great African Hall and as always there is music and dancing and all kinds of people.

I love LA!

Natural History Museum
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007
213-763-DINO

I Wish I May

2012-01-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

When I was a little girl my mother told me that the best way to pick a gift for someone was to get them something that you liked. I was 7 and I picked out these plastic, spiked high heels the color of coca cola in a glass over ice, held up to the sun. There were flecks of gold glitter in them and gold elastic straps that went across the toes and the the arch of your foot. They made a scraping tapping sound when you walked in them. They looked like something Barbie would wear and I loved them.

Which is why I sobbed all the way to my friend's birthday party - I loved them so much I did not want to give them to her and I couldn't believe that my mother was forcing me to part with them. And why didn't anyone ever pick those shoes out for me on my birthday?

Not so long ago one of my friends attended her sister's bridal shower and she made the comment, "I wish I could register somewhere for all the stuff I want."

I laughed at her then because she loves pressents like a 7 year old at their birthday party, but I also happened to agree with her.

I love presents that I pick out for myself, but how to let people know exactly what those things are?

Especially since I've had more than one Christmas where it appeared that my father's wife had cleaned out her junk drawer, wrapped up the detritus found there and called it Joyeaux Noel.

I know, I know, it's the thought that counts, but seriously button covers? It was 2002.

Call me an ungrateful bitch, but the reality is that I would rather have someone make a charitable donation in my name than give me stuff I don't want or need. I have enough stuff. Every time I dust I put more of that stuff in a box for the Goodwill because, well, I don't want to dust anymore than I have to...

This is why, even though I am not a huge fan of Amazon.com because of what it's doing to small local business, I AM a huge fan of the Amazon.com Wish List feature.

Whenever I think of something that I actually want like really awesome stainless steel measuring cups that cost almost $30, and that I am too cheap to buy for myself, I go on Amazon and add it to the wish list.

So when my birthday or Christmas rolls around and people ask me what I want I can point them there, to my personal gift registry. And when I get one of those things as a gift I am thrilled because, well, I don't always remember what I put on my wish list, but large and small, it's all stuff that I could use.

Or thought I could at some point - it's important to revisit the wish list every once in a while and remove some stuff like the book Cowboys Are My Weakness, that I added in 2003. I'm totally through that phase. That may be why I got button covers...

Anyway, if you don't have a wish list you should go make one and the next time someone asks you what you'd like - tell them where you're registered.

You'll be glad you did and so will your friends.

Popping Good - Wolf in Sheeps Clothing

2012-01-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

The pop up restaurant is one of my favorite places to eat. This could be because there is that sense of fleetingness, like this small window will be the only time that you will get to eat Ludo's Paris soup at Ludobites 4.0 (or was that 5.0), or Neal Fraser's Braised Pork with the slow cooked egg and corn velout at Test Kitchen.

Like a love affair with a stranger that you can't get enough of in a foreign locale, you know it's not going to last or even be repeated, which makes the memory so special.

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing popped up in Venice in early December and I finally got over there to try it last week and I'm so pleased to say that it did not disappoint. This dining adventure is led by Brian Dunsmoor (Axe) and Kris Tominaga (Joe's) who are putting out market driven, rustic and sensual food. I say sensual because the whole time I just wanted to eat with my hands and lick my plate.

But it was my first time there so I controlled myself so I would be able to come back again and again.

They don't take reservations except for parties over 6 which is fine with me, I just make sure I arrive before 7pm and there's almost always a table. The space is very cool - concrete floors, skim coated walls, warm, indirect lighting. We sat under a large photo of Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Trigger. It kind of reminded me of a lovely art gallery with tables and food and good music.

And good wine - art galleries never have wine this good.

I would have ordered everything on the menu but there were only two of us so we started with some pickled vegetables - I LOVED the cucumbers, but didn't try any of the others because I'm not so much into pickled anything.

Next we had the smoked trout with toast and avocado. This was delicious. If they had those little jars of smoked trout to go I would have taken two. It was so good I had to restrain myself from wiping the jar with my finger. It was great with the toast, but the avocado made it very rich.

The kale salad was so very good. I know kale is the hip and healthy green of the moment, but I don't really like it. That said I think an 8 year old would scarf this salad down. It's got apples and sweet dates which have a lovely party with the vinaigrette and every mouthful was delicious.

We each tried a baked oyster which I loved and my friend did not, but I grew up eating oysters rockefeller and he grew up in Israel not eating them. I thought this version of cooked oyster with cream and greens was super, though very rich. Don't think I would eat more than one or two because between the avocado on the toast and this I was starting to get really full.

We waffled back and forth between the scallops and the lamb and finally decided on the latter and yes, it's a petite plate, but I could not have eaten it by myself. The lamb was sliced and perfectly cooked - or rather cooked exactly the way I like it. Very pink. It's served over a toasted barley with a lamb ragout and topped with a divine gremolata. Again, if they had the barley and lamb ragout in to go containers in a fridge up front, I would be stocking up.

Although we were full, we ordered the chocolate maple pecan dessert and it was decadent and sticky and I should have stopped at one bite, but I didn't and that's okay - if you're going to gorge it should be on something like this.

I asked if they would be sticking around for spring because they are rocking the seasonal ingredients in such a great way and one of the owners told me that he thought they might get to hang out for 6 more months.

Yay!

I will be going back and trying the raclette and the pork belly as well as revisiting the smoked trout and the kale salad.

A couple of notes on the food service. Servers are delightful, every last one of them. The food came out a bit fast but that didn't seem to be about turning the table, moreso that the food is best eaten as it comes up and the kitchen was not in the weeds at all. My sense is that had we ordered as we went that would have been okay and next time that's what I will do. This would be a really fun place to go with a group so you could order everything they have and try it all.

Everyone who works here is terrific - all from Venice, all with restaurant experience - creating the kind of place they would like to eat at - and they are doing it really well.

Keeping the Vampires at Bay: A Review of A Garlic Press

2012-01-26T08:04:00.000-08:00

OXO garlic press (image from Pottery Barn)

Kitchen gadgets are personal in the sense that not everyone thinks the gadget you must have is worth a damn. This is how I felt about the garlic press, something that Susie, and many others I know, talk about as if it were a microplane (something I cannot live without, and something that purees garlic, too!). My feeling was this: if I can puree a clove of garlic with my microplane, or with my favorite 7" Santoku knife in probably less time than it takes you to peel the garlic, press it and then clean that thing, what is the point of having one more item cluttering up my tiny kitchen drawer? Plus, I felt that presses wasted part of each clove that was inevitably left behind when the pressing was done.

The only flaw in my conclusion was that I'd never used a garlic press, so I was basically speaking out of my ass. That changed a few weeks ago when I was buying a gift in Crate and Barrel and happened to walk past the display of garlic presses. The lovely one pictured above caught my eye, so I picked it up. It had a nice heft, and was certainly pretty to look at, but $19.95 to do what I could do with two tools I already owned...why would I need this thing?

Still, I don't like running my mouth if I don't know that of which I speak, so I bought it, if only to prove myself right.

So, was I?

Well, I will say this for it: that thing squishes a clove of garlic zippity doo-da fast! Perfect, pureed garlic in just one manly squeeze, and yes, faster than I could do it with my knife or microplane. BUT, I still find myself using my knife whenever garlic is involved, because I smash my garlic with my knife's flat side to peel it, I cut the little hard stem end off and, because my farmer's market no longer has any garlic, the garlic I've been buying at the grocery store has that bitter green sprout in the middle so I have to take that out, all before I can properly press each clove. And, I just can't throw away the flat little slice of leftover garlic that the press won't press through, so I find myself chopping that up, too. As for cleaning, although this press has those nubs that push up the remaining bits of garlic from the holes, you do still have to manually pick the garlic from it, and it IS one more thing to wash. Also, it's a bit bulky for my tiny NYC kitchen drawers.

That said, I'm using it and I have used it every single time I have needed garlic since the day I bought it, and that's pretty much every day, as I am a garlic fiend.

Do I need a garlic press? No. Would I cry if my garlic press disappeared? Probably not. Do I curse it when I can't open the kitchen drawer because it has become stuck inside with its bulk? Yes. But why the hell do I think it's so much fun to squish garlic in it? No idea. I'm not sorry I bought it. Rating: A-

In short

2012-01-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

I received this in an e-mail from my dad this morning.

Director, Sir Ridley Scott launched a global film making contest for aspiring directors.
It's titled "Tell It Your Way."
There were over 600 entries.
The film could be no longer than three minutes, contain only 6 lines of narrative, and it had to be a compelling story.

The winner was "Porcelain Unicorn" from American director Keegan Wilcox.
It's a story of the lifetimes of two people who are totally opposite, yet, very much the same - all told in less than three minutes. You can understand why it won.

The Porcelain Unicorn...

A friend of mine, David Mills, an amazing writer and journalist, once told me that very often the most powerful stories are told with the fewest words.

These three minutes certainly prove that point.

Congratulations Keegan Wilcox!

Jonatha Brooke: As the maniac, the saint, the sinner, the drinker, the thinker, the queer.

2012-01-20T07:03:00.000-08:00

The awesome view from my seat in the Allen Room. @Allison Tyler

Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of experiencing Jonatha Brooke perform her tribute to Woody Guthrie in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday. It was incredible to hear his poignant (sometimes humorous, sometimes sexy, always perfect) lyrics set to her original music, and even more so to listen in a venue showcasing my city as its backdrop.

It would have been hard to take my eyes from that soaring view, if not for the delicious elixir that is Jonatha's voice...ripe with emotion, clear and smooth as good bourbon, a taste of honey, a hint of vixen and a whole lot of heart. She captivated her audience, and me. Why the hell this woman isn't at the top of the charts makes no sense.

If you've never heard her music before, I suggest you pick up The Works, which is Jonatha's 2008 album, the celebration and culmination of her research and love of Woody Guthrie, that was the basis for Wednesday's concert. Keb' Mo' (another of my favorites) duets with her on "All You Gotta Do Is Touch Me". Yum.

Read more about the concert here. You can download Jonatha's beautiful (and tear-inducing) rendition of This Land Is Your Land from iTunes for .99.

OXO

Allison

Love thy neighbor

2012-01-18T18:22:00.000-08:00

I grew up in the era of Romper Room, Captain Kangaroo, Sheriff John, Hobo Kelly and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. I remember watching those shows in the early morning and at lunch time - Sheriff John's red light/green light game caused milk to spurt out my brother's nose on more than one occasion, which I still think is hilarious. The games and the activities we performed with the little kids who got to be on the shows were all exercises in learning disguised as a good time. I remember wanting so badly for Hobo Kelly to have left presents under my bed, and for Sheriff John to sing "Put Another Candle on Your Birthday Cake," especially for me.

I loved Mr. Rogers most of all because he was the kindest man I knew. He was really interested in what I thought and because of that many of the neighbors who actually lived near me would find themselves visiting with my 8 year old self.

As I've mentioned before, the neighborhood I grew up in was one of those subdivisions built in the early 60s, very much like the one on "The Wonder Years". All of the moms would send their kids out to play because other than the Helms Bread man who got busted for selling marijuana out of his Woody station wagon/bakery truck, our streets were crime free.

This was great except that I didn't always want to play outside with the kids. Sometimes I wanted to have grown up conversations about my life and the things I thought were important, like what book I was reading or the Vietnam war (my parents were progressive and anti so those discussions were happening all around me). So while the other kids were playing Capture the Flag and Colored Eggs I would go visiting, hanging out in kitchens with my friend's moms, drinking iced tea and talking to them while they cleaned, or sometimes, if I was lucky we would play cards.

I fully expected that they would welcome my company and enjoy our conversations and I'm sure some of them did. Looking back I do believe that my mornings with Mr. Rogers definitely influenced my feeling that I was important and what I had to say was valuable. (It was also because my parents were always interested in talking to me, but they had to be, I was their kid and I liked to chat.)

Mr. Rogers was an all around cool guy and a hero to all the kids who got to grow up with him. Check out this video of him testifying before the U.S. Senate. It's inspiring!

I still love you Mr. Rogers, thanks for caring!

SLP

Mandala, A Musical Palindrome

2012-01-17T14:35:00.000-08:00

Fascinating and beautiful. Just watch. And listen.

Thank you, Daniel Starr-Tambor.

OXO

Allison

I Hate To Clean

2012-01-16T07:56:00.000-08:00

Image from Mrs. Meyer's

I love to cook, but it's no secret that I hate to clean. I'd love to hire a cleaning person but, because I'm insane, I'd feel the need to clean before she arrived in order to prevent her from thinking I'm a slob, thereby negating the purpose of hiring her in the first place.

However, I do love to wash dishes, and one of the reasons dish-washing is so pleasant to me (beyond the soothing feeling of hot water on my hands, and being able to look out my kitchen window at the birds in the trees and the neighbors in their living rooms) is the luscious scent of my Mrs. Meyer's Geranium dish soap, which to me smells particularly like Rose Geranium instead of plain old Geranium.

Image from The Organic Authority

And, speaking of Rose Geranium, if you're lucky enough to grow your own Rose Geranium, you must try this Rose Geranium Sangria. It is divine!

Beyond the scent of this yummy dish soap are the facts that it biodegrades, is friendly to our planet, gets dishes squeaky clean, cuts grease like a dream, and is very cost-efficient, as a little goes a long, long way.

I use nearly every product in the Geranium line, and they do what they say they'll do, all while intoxicating me with their essential-oil-based scent.

I have to admit I tried the Lemon Verbana (a scent I usually like) dish soap when my grocery store was out of the Geranium, and I hated it. My fiance loved it though, so he took it home with him. Fragrance is a very personal thing, and I am loyal to Mrs. Meyer's Geranium.

OXO

Allison

Getting close to the locals

2012-01-10T18:49:00.000-08:00

When I saw this I thought a couple of things:

How come there are sidewalks in the rainforest? I know it's a National park, but I'm not used to parks where bands of gorillas roam around. The article below talks about how these gorillas are habituated to humans, but still...

How did this man not pee his pants?

Wild Gorillas Groom U.S. Tourist in Uganda

I have long wanted to go to Africa. It's on my bucket list for sure.

It takes my breath away to see the animals so closely, to see them interacting with a human being so gently. I was not breathing as I watched this because, even though I knew it did not go horribly wrong it sure could have.

Can you imagine? You're walking around in the rainforest park and you decide to take a load off and rest for a second by the side of the trail and the next thing you know there is a family of gorillas coming to hang out with you!

I love how Papa Gorilla is so protective, but if that big dude had decided he wasn't into the pale monkey that his kids were playing with it could have been horrifying. Kudos for keeping your shit together.

I'm not sure how I feel about building sidewalks in the jungle and having people be this close to wild animals - but no matter - what an amazing experience John had! His blog about his adventures in Africa is good reading and the pictures are stunning. Some of the photos brought tears to my eyes - the faces of these animals are just amazing and the pictures of the babies brought back memories of a book we had when I was a kid by Jane Goodall (a personal hero). I used to sit for hours looking at the pictures and reading the stories of Fifi and David Graybeard, the wild chimpanzees she lived with.

And you gotta watch this video:

For me Africa is the adventure of a lifetime - but I think that I would most likely wet my pants if I got up that close and personal with these locals.
SLP

Beautiful Cookery

2012-01-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

Penguin's Great Foods Series, image @Washington Post

The days are cold here in New York City (except when they're not and we're having a weird 50-degree-day in January that makes me fear for our planet, but I digress...), and little makes me happier than hunkering down at home with something delicious to eat and something delicious to read.

Food is my favorite thing to read about, and I read and re-read my two favorite books - MFK Fisher's The Art of Eating (relation to food obvious) and Joseph Mitchell's Up In The Old Hotel (relation to food less obvious, but the way he wrote about it whenever it is mentioned in this tome, proves he loved food as much as I do). Both books feel like old friends, and I've worn out more copies of each than I can recall.

Two book series recently helping me get through this winter, which will both most likely meet the same fate as Ms. Fisher's and Mr. Mitchell's, are Penguin's Great Food series and The Canal House cookbooks.

Great Food is a series of lovely paperback reprint versions of volumes of classic food writing and cookery. You can see all the titles in the series here. The covers were designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith and the books are so beautiful you'll covet them just for their looks, but they are such yummy reads you'll be happily bending those spines in no time.

The Canal House, Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, image @NJ Monthly

My obsession with the seven-volume (currently), self-published Canal House Cookbooks stems not just from their being gorgeous and interesting reads, full of recipes you'll want to cook (and the recipes work!), but also because I'm obsessed with Lambertville, New Jersey, where The Canal House resides, and want to live there myself. Long-time friends Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton write and cook together on a daily basis there and, lordy, am I envious! They sometimes post playlists, and their blog makes me drool.

A volume from either of these two food series would make a lovely gift, and the entire set of each series, or both series if you're particularly flush, would probably make your favorite food-loving friend your bitch for quite some time, or at least get you a good home-cooked meal or two. I already own both series, so you'll just have to ask me nicely for something to eat. I'll certainly say yes

OXO

Allison

Aunt Carol Is Badass!

2012-01-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh, how I love Aunt Carol!

Tea For One

2012-01-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

Image of Octavia Tea's Japanese Teapot from their website

A number of years ago, Susie gifted me with this sweet, plump lilac teapot that I have used nearly every single day since she gave it to me.

The teapot has a fine mesh strainer inside that never lets even one leaf of tea into your cup. The lid keeps things hot while the tea is brewing. And it's just so damned cute. It makes a ritual of getting something hot to drink.

Since I've had to reform my caffeine-addicted ways, and I've yet to find a decaf English Breakfast tea that tastes anything like English Breakfast tea (if you know of one, let me know!), I now use my little teapot daily to brew a delicious caffeine-free, coffee-like hot beverage by Tecchino. My favorite variety is the Java, but I recommend ordering a sample pack and finding your own favorite, they are all delicious.

(Although the product is certified gluten-free, I do as they advise and put a paper coffee filter into my teapot's filter as the 'coffee' brews. For those of you who care about being gluten-free, you can read about this here, but I have NEVER had a problem with Teechino and I drink it every day.)

I love simple, well-designed products that make my life nicer, and rituals that make me pay more attention to what I'm doing instead of just rushing through my day like I'm trying to get rid of it. Thank you, Susie!

OXO

Allison

Mark the day

2012-01-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, January 4th 2012

As we got in the car and headed to lunch Meg said to me, "this place is so good you will mark the day in your calendar that you first ate at benley."

She was not kidding.

I'd gone to Long Beach to drop off some stuff for work so I called Meg, another BFF who loves to eat and hang out and listen to music. When we are very old ladies I guarantee that we will still be doing exactly that.

It was very last minute, but thankfully she was free for lunch and was excited to turn me on to this "great Vietnamese place".

That's one of the best things about a friend you've been snacking with for a very long time. When they say it's good, you don't even question, you just get in the car and say take me there.

We drove east on Wardlow, past El Dorado Park Estates - the Edward Scissor hands meets Happy Days - development where I grew up, and turned into a small shopping center anchored on the corner by Huff's Hut (not to be mistaken with Hoff's) where I used to chug Cherry Cokes after riding my bike all the way there.

It's only 2 city blocks from where I lived but when you're 7 things like that are much more of a big adventure.

This is the most eastern tip of Long Beach, rubbing up against the OC, snuggled between Los Alamitos, Cypress and Hawaiian Gardens.

As we pulled into the parking lot I was having flash backs of the day my sting ray bike with the sparkly purple banana seat was stolen because I had forgotten to lock it in my rush to get to the Cherry Coke.

I would soon have a much better memory to replace that with.

When we arrived at 12:30 the place was packed. It's a small, narrow space with tables on each side of narrow center aisle. The vibe is modern and clean and the waitress is a very friendly, cheerful and pretty red head.

It was about 80 degrees outside - that's January in Southern California - so I didn't feel like eating Pho, although they have a lunch special where you get a "taste" of Pho and half a sandwich. The taste is what I consider a normal sized bowl, but the regular Pho bowls are Papa Bear sized, so I guess it's all relative.

We ordered the spicy green beans, the cabbage and chicken salad with shallots and some veggie spring rolls. It was so good I ate it all before I even thought about taking a picture of it. Sigh. I really wish you could have seen it. We ate off the appetizer menu so the portions were smaller, but even sharing we were still full.

But we had room for dessert and when the lovely waitress offered us a taste of the roasted banana bread pudding we happily accepted. Meg ordered this amazing coffee which has chicory in it and comes with sweetened condensed milk on the side.

It was all very decadent and wonderful and I did mark the day in my calendar so I could write about it here.

Thanks Meg! You were right.

This was very yummy food that I will drive back to Long Beach to eat again and again.

benley: Vietnamese Kitchen
8191 E. Wardlow Rd.
Long Beach, CA 90808
562-596-8130

SLP