ocshooter's Profile
How do you keep track of all the places you want to try?
I am a pretty avid Yelper as well as a a member here, and Yelp has a function that allows you to bookmark a site for future reference.
Which Two Cuisines for the Rest of your Life?
Definitely. There is a huge variety in meat and shellfish, and plenty of healthy options with fruits and veggies.
1st Wedding Anniversary - Dinner in OC
I really love Tabu. It is a small place on the way to S. Laguna. Food is excellent, service is good, and the place is dressed up in kind of a South Pacific/Indonesian feel. It is where I went for my 1st.
Probably the best combo of food and view is the Studio at the Montage Resort, but it comes at a very steep price.
Marche Moderne is a great choice for food, but I just can't get past the fast you are walking through South Coast Plaza to get there. At least with Charlie Palmer's you get a separate entrance and don't have to walk through the mall. MM may be lovely and romantic inside, but the walk in and out would kill the mood for me.
If you want to spend a little less than these, you might consider cocktails at sunset on the Rooftop lounge and then dinner at K'ya in Laguna.
1st Wedding Anniversary - Dinner in OC
I think they are closed for dinner Sun and Mon. I was considering them for my anniversary as well.
Kobe beef, once again
Well, they are wrong on the bottom of the article about Champagne. The US never signed the treaty restricting the term Champagne to sparking wine from the Champagne region, so many US wineries use that term as well, though generally on lower end products.
Visiting Laguna Beach for a week - need recommendations
I don't even look at the menus any more. I get the carne asada tacos and a (ok, 2 or 3) Marcos Mexican margaritas (top shelf, fresh lime). The tacos, with rice and beans and one margarita comes out to about $25 with tax and tip. Now, I am more often in the Spectrum location, but I can get the same on PCH.
Visiting Laguna Beach for a week - need recommendations
I ate at Sol's once. It was good, but the prices were out of this world for what you got. The tacos seem reasonably priced until they arrive. They look like something off the kid's menu.
Which Two Cuisines for the Rest of your Life?
I think for Middle America it would be Italian and whatever cuisine hamburgers fit into.
For me, it would be Mexican and Japanese. Just don't ask me to pick one only style of either of these cuisines.
40th birthday party at home -- menu suggestions needed!
I was not thinking that it all had to be done in one shot. Food for 100 is going to take time and space, no matter what equipment you have.
Dieting during work travel
That is tough. Personally, If I were trying to watch what I ate, I would rather have 1/2 a sandwich, scape off the mayo, and have an apple with it than taking the filling out and tossing the bread.
Meeting relatives in Orange- restaurants nearb y?
Haven, as mentioned, is a good gastro pub in downtown Orange. Right in that area is Gabbi's an upscale Mexican, Francoli, a good Italian, and the Filling Station, a basic by hearty breakfast/lunch spot. Kimmie's Coffee cup is right next door to Haven for breakfast fare as well, but I liked the Filling Station better.
There are probably about 20 options right around the Orange Circle, ranging from basic to high end.
There are lots of Mexican places right around intersection of Chapman and Tustin. For Japanese, I would head out of Orange over to Tustin. Honda-Ya is great pub style Japanese food (with sushi, but that is not what they are known for). Tommy's sushi in Tustin is one of my go-to mid level sushi places. Wasabi in Tustin is much better, but also much more expensive. Wasa at the Irvine Marketplace is another mid-level place I frequent often. Taco Rosa in that area is a mid-upscale Mexican option.
For Vietnamese, you want to head over to Garden Grove, not a bad drive. Brodard is probably the most well known of the Vietnamese places. They also have Broudard Chateau, more expensive, nicer inside, and more focused on French-Vietnamese. Trieu Chau is a hole in the wall with excellent food. I would point you toward more options, but I always get taken by my Vietnamese friends and don't recall where we went.
If you like Street food, you can try to find some of the food trucks in the area. Southern California is really ground zero for them, embracing the concept of specialty trucks. They will congregate in one area so everyone can pick out the truck that suits their taste, or sample a few of them. Just bring something to sit on, since there will be little to no seating available at most meet-ups.
Visiting Laguna Beach for a week - need recommendations
I do warn people that I am in the minority on Javier's.
But what place would you recommend for good carne asada tacos and a premium margarita? Let me add that I am not a huge fan of Taco Rosa's margaritas.
Dieting during work travel
If WW is working for you, I am not going to try and talk you away from it, but the simple fact of weight loss is that you need to burn more calories than you consume. The WW system is great for limiting the input part, but you can also bump up the output portion if you can't keep the input part restricted.
Take a long walk, jog, use the hotel gym, pack some powerbands and work out in your room...
Cooking for the Week
Have you considered a crock pot. Prep the night before, put it in the pot in the morning, and let it cook all day, and you come home to a fresh, hot meal. Plus, left-overs for lunch during the week. With dinner and lunch, you are looking at 10 meals a day just for the work week. Assuming you have no issues with left overs, you still want about 6 different hot meal options. 4 unique dinners, 1 night of left-overs, 3 lunches of left overs, and 2 days of sandwiches. That is the type of rotation I would look at, because this way if you redo some of the items the next week, they will not get boring.
For the crock pot, I would do stews, curries and roasts, probably 2 items a week. I like pastas, so I would definitely do a noodle casserole or a lasagna every week. Simple pastas are easy, so just doing one for dinner is not going to be a time killer. You can roast a large chicken on the weekend and use the left overs for a salad, pasta dish, or sandwiches. I really like tri-tip, and it cooks fairly easily, so I would do one at some point during the week and use the left overs for tacos for dinner and sandwiches or a salad for lunch.
Personally, with 5 days of work, I would not want to take 1 of the 2 days I have off every week and spend it working to make food, that by the end of the week I may not be all that enthusiastic about in the first place. Cooking simpler meals 3-4 nights a week would be my preference.
40th birthday party at home -- menu suggestions needed!
With 100 you are going to need more that just a tri-tip. Assuming that manning the grill is something he really wants to do, I would do about 30 pounds of tri-tip a couple of large salmon filets, and another protien option that is in his wheelhouse. Maybe some turkey quarters, maybe something pork.
Visiting Laguna Beach for a week - need recommendations
I am one of the few OC regulars who defends the place here on CH. I think in part it suffers because it is not longer the unique, funky, hole in the wall in Laguna that it used to be. For $20, I doubt I could find a better carne asada taco/margarita combo around. The rest of the menu holds limited appeal for me though.
best cut of steak? (from former non-meat eater)
There are two ways to judge fat, the thick white strips on the outside, and the thin white trips inside the cut. The ones outside are easy to trim away. The ones inside (marbling) is what gives the cut the flavor. A good filet has little marbling, so it will be lean, but I don't care for the flavor. A cut like a New York or a rib eye will have more marbling, so there is a lot more flavor in my opinion.
I don't worry too much about the fat content of the marbling as long as you trim the bigger chunks off the outside. A little fat is not going to hurt you. The key is portion size, 4-6 ounces. That is a lot easier with a filet, which can still be cut thick at that size, than other cuts which will be a lot thinner at that weight.
40th birthday party at home -- menu suggestions needed!
If he is talking about doing the grilling, then he probably enjoys it. Instead of individual burgers and dogs, get him to do a tri-tip or other large cut, so he can get the bbq mojo going but isn't going to be over the grill all day. Cook it, slice it, and then everyone makes sandwiches.
Visiting Laguna Beach for a week - need recommendations
Las Brisas has good food, but it is not really traditional Mexican.
Javier's is not well regarded here, but I enjoy it. I get the carne asada tacos, which are made with a nice cut of beef, and they have good premium margaritas, my favorite being the Marcos Mexican. The coastal one is very busy and populated with more plastic that you see in a weekend marathon of the Real Housewives of OC.
Inland, in Irvine and Costa Mesa, is Taco Rosa, a mid-level upscale Cal-Mex. There are plenty of autentic Mexican joints in Santa Ana, Tustin and Orange. Search for Das Ubergeek (http://www.chow.com/profile/10811) and look for his recommendations for hole in the wall places to search out.
Burrell's in Santa Ana is definitely as down home as you are going to get. There is not a whole lot else in the area because there is not a large population that has settled the area. Up in LA, you have areas like Torrence, Crenshaw and the ones mentioned above which are going to give you a lot more options for real Southern BBQ.
If you want other recommendations in the area, there are always a few recent posts that will give you a list of places to try out.
dad need recipes
I saw this on another web site and thought it looked good. It might be more than 5 minutes of prep time, but not too bad.
Cook a pound of ziti.
While cooking, brown whatever ground meat you like and simmer with a jar of pasta sauce.
Place the ziti in a casserole dish so that they are all lined up standing on end, so you can look down on all the open tubes.
Pour the meat/sauce combo over the noodles so that the ziti will fill with the sauce.
Bake for 30 minutes or so.
You could do the same think without the meat and add cheese over the top to get a nice crust. Depends on if you prefer meat or cheese with the pasta.
Lasagna is also very easy to make if you buy the sauce.
Cook lasagna noodles and then place a layer on the bottom of a baking dish
Cover with sauce, then ricotta cheese and then an Italian cheese blend. You can add mushrooms, peppers or any other veggies you like as well. Do a second layer just like it, and then cover with one more level of noodles, more sauce and more of the cheese blend. Bake for 30 minutes or so.
The do sell no bake lasagna noodles, where you add them uncooked and the sauce ends up softening them, but I don't know if you can buy a Kosher brand of these.
I did this same recipe substituting matzo for the noodles during passover and it came out great.
Standard Hotel downtown -- is it worth eating at?
I have never eaten in the restaurant, but the bar food was only so-so. The bar itself, specifically the rooftop bar, is fantastic. One of my favorite spots for a drink in LA. The building is not too tall, so it is nestled among the taller surrounding buildings. The transition from day to night out there is especially nice.
Tiramisu -- Anyone try Fabio V's chocolate no bake version?
I don't know about the rest of you, but I like my tiramisu a little runny. When It is too cake-like, with nice perfect cuts standing tall, it does not feel like the right consistency. The best ones I have had, outside the home or home made, oozed just a bit and had a nice, pudding-like consistency.
Durian <-- King of Fruits!
I love durian. I was introduced to it by a Thai ex-gf. One time I was in a Vietnamese boba shop and ordered a durian shake. The guy wanted to confirm that I actually knew what it was before he served me one.
Sugar Replacement
For me, almost all the sugar substitutes have an odd taste, so I would never substitute with something like Splenda. I would suggest trying the various brands to taste raw, to see what is the best tasting to your palate. Other options, as noted, are honey or molasses. There are also some other alternatives such as agave syrup. A friend I know makes muffins sweetened with fruit juices and not additional sugars.
Friday Dinner near Chapman University
I like Haven but it is pretty noisy and very crowded. It is a gstropub. Gabbi's is upscale Mexican. Around the corner from Gabbi's is Avilas, which is more straight forward Cal/mex, and less expensive.
Another option is Francoli Gourmet right on the Circle. Pretty decent Italian. It should be easy to fit in your budget.
Looking for a restaurant in LA/OC area for small ceremony & dinner 20 people for $30-$40
Las Brisas is nice. I have a friend who got married under the Gazebo adjacent to the restaurant and then we went to Las Brisas for brunch. Later in the day they held a beach party for a larger group of friends/acquaintances, since they were on a budget for the actual wedding.
Mexican appetizer or main dish for party?
Enchiladas would be my suggestions as well
Mix some chicken or beef with either red or green salsa, add some cheese, roll into corn tortillas and line in a baking dish. More sauce over the top and more cheese over the top. Bake to melt the cheese. Bring with sides of guac and sour cream, top with olive slices, jalapeno slices, and/or cilantro if so desired.
Another simple option would be a fajita platter (Tex-Mex in reality, but who is counting?).
On a grill pan cook cubed skirt steak (I prefer a better cut, but you can really use anything, some markets will even ave it already marinated), onions, and red and green peppers. I like my fairly simple with a liberal squeeze of lime, but you can use other 'fajita' seasoning as well. After cooking, add cilantro over the top. Let people make into their own tacos with corn tortillas, some chunky salsa, and guac.
Looking for a restaurant in LA/OC area for small ceremony & dinner 20 people for $30-$40
I have not been to the Santa Monica location, but Cafe Bizou will definitely fit the price range, and they only charge a pittance for corkage. The Pasadena location is in a nice building if you don't care for the looks of the Santa Monica spot.
In Laguna Beach, there is the Sundried Tomato Cafe. They have an upstairs outdoor patio that should work well for 20 or so. Food costs should be in the right price range, but I would guess that they will want you to buy wine from them.
My favorite view in Laguna Beach is the Rooftop Bar at the La Casa del Camino Hotel. I have not eaten upstairs at the lounge, but downstairs is K'ya, which gets good reviews. You might be able to have drinks and apps upstairs and then move to the restaurant.
One more option for OC is the Beachcomber Cafe at Crystal Cove State Beach. It is literally on the beach, with a nice patio.
Do people really drink a 4-ounce cup of coffee?
I have a Nespresso machine at home and usually have a cup of coffee from 2 pods set to espresso size. So if that is 2oz, then I drink a 4oz cup of coffee.
