Ling

I went to Sweets and Savoury yesterday but we were too late to get the croissants! They were sold out by around 10:30a.m. We shared a lemon bar, a slice of coffeecake, and a sandwich (they're made at 11a.m.), juice, and coffee. The lemon bar and the coffeecake were both good, but not something I think I would go out of the way for again because--and I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging here--these are things I can easily make at home. There wasn't really anything that set them apart from good quality, home-baked goods. The other offerings of the morning included a banana cupcake with cream cheese frosting and caramelized bananas, a strawberry mousse tart with sweet pastry crust, slices of bread pudding, and a type of muffin. The sandwich had asparagus, blue cheese, and roasted red pepper. The bread is baked in-house, and was comparable in quality to something I imagine a competent home baker could make with a decent recipe. I thought the bread was OK, but nowhere close to the stuff at the the good bread bakeries in Seattle. It was pretty spongy and dense, and the flavour was a bit bland. I hope my post doesn't come across as too negative--I do love the homey feel of the place. It is a quiet and friendly space, and I enjoyed flipping through the cookbooks while sharing breakfast. It's a wonderful little neighbourhood nook.

Awesome party! Was the Plaisir Sucre difficult to do?

A few years ago, I ordered a dish from a restaurant because one of the ingredients listed was "heirloom tomatoes". (I forget what the dish was...probably some sort of salad.) Anyway, I got really excited because I had been reading about heirloom tomatoes online and recently watched some sort of FoodTV show where they featured heirloom tomatoes, and had never tasted them before. I was, by this time, familiar with quite a few of the heirloom varieties...how they're grown, what they look like, etc. So I get my salad, and lo and behold it came with slivers of out-of-season, mealy, flavourless, pinkish tomatoes. I was a bit upset, and managed to shyly sputter, "I-I-thought the salad came with heirloom tomatoes?" to the waiter, to which he dead-pans, "There are a few types of heirloom tomatoes." Now I didn't quite know what he meant by that (he was probably suggesting that the tomatoes on my plate were some sort of heirloom variety that I didn't know about) but I didn't know what to do. Obviously, I couldn't have been 100% sure about the variety, but they tasted and looked exactly like the regular old field tomatoes you get at Safeway. Anyway, there wasn't much I could do after what the waiter said. What would you have done?

How did you like your meal at Fifth Floor?

I love reading online menus, and not only the menus for restaurants that I might go to in the future, but also the menus of the better restaurants around the world that I'll likely never get a chance to visit. I read them to get a sense of which ingredients might work well together, and try to "taste" the dish in my mind. When choosing on a restaurant, I will more likely go if I've already read their menu and the dishes sound interesting to me. At the restaurant, I will order whatever I feel like regardless of the price (well, within reason...) so that's not something I pay much attention to when I'm looking at the website.

Look! I made a real breakfast! No brownies here... Buttermilk biscuits (recipe from Epicurious) served with butter and blackcurrant jam (not shown), fried eggs with runny yolks and pepper/fleur de sel, strawberries

Here are the chocolates from LA Burdicks I got last week. They are long gone...*sniff sniff* (the box of chocolates had 2 layers...the flavours were all different)

Those mini tarts are too cute! BTW, they look like mini quiche pans, if I'm not mistaken--the quiche pans are taller than the tart pans, but not as tall as the brioche ones. I use the same quiche pans (but mine are larger in diameter) for my tarts!

I've eaten there a few times while shopping. I don't particularly care for the meatballs too much--the texture is a bit too smooth for me, like pureed meat bound together with lots of filler. The Daim cake is OK.

^For you, anything!

^If you decide to try my recipe, foodie3, you might want to lower the amount of sugar a bit. The 2 cups of sugar is a bit less than most recipes when you take into account the amount of unsweetened chocolate, but I usually use 1 3/4 cups of sugar myself. I wrote down 2 cups of sugar in the recipe as I sometimes prefer desserts a bit less sweet than most people. Just thought I'd mention that. (And miladyinsanity--do you add an extra 2 ounces of unsweetened or bittersweet to your batter?)

I'm glad you like that place too. My parents actually prefer Parker Place Meats, but I love the roast belly HK BBQ Master, personally. Sweet...great tip! Guess what I had for dinner last night...roast pork belly, roast duck (from Parker Place), rice, soup, watercress soup (also made with the extra pounds of seasoned, roast ribs my parents got from Parker Place), and steamed cuttlefish (my mom made that).

yeah...but you know I'm up for it.

^You know what, I asked my friend the same thing when he gave me the recipe. I was like are you SURE the recipe says 30 GRAMS?!! Not 300 grams? And he said he was sure. The recipe doesn't really make sense to me either, but I thought I'd post it and see if you all thought the same...hmmm...

Love the picture of the spot prawns! That's one of my favourite dishes ever. Where did you guys buy the char siew and the Peking duck from?

Done! Providence is booked!

Ahh...another vote for Providence. Thanks! The cocktails you mentioned in your Providence post sound great.

BTW, the restaurant choices were gleaned from CitySearch...although rjwong just directed me to the Providence thread and I must say I'm really impressed! Thanks, molto e, for the Boule recommendation. I've seen their signature blue boxes in food blogs and didn't know they were in LA. What would you recommend there?

Wow...thanks for the pictures. Providence looks great. I only have time for one dinner in LA, and this might be it.

I'll be in LA for a day, and we've already decided on Filipe's for lunch. We've narrowed down our dinner choices to three, but would love some feedback or other recommendations. The three restaurants we're considering are: Melisse Ortolan Table 8 We're open to any type of cuisine, and I think we're both adventurous eaters. No dietary restrictions. Any recent reports on these three places? Also, if I may stick this bit of OT request in here--if we have time, I would love to visit a traditional French bakery. I've read about Sweet Lady Jane Bakery but from the website, it seems like their offerings are more American (carrot cakes, chocolate-vanilla cheesecakes, etc.) Any suggestions about where to go for a good pastries made with top-quality ingredients?

I've seen the episode (the first and only one I've seen, btw) where they're trying to construct a cake shaped to look like their beloved beater of a car. They decide to put that cake-car on some sort of rudimentary machine they build, so it'll move up and down as if on hydraulics. What's the point? The cake-car was hideous, and I can't imagine a group of people in their late 20s (?) being amused by this ugly, moving cake!

I had a lot of fun at the luau...the suckling pig and the pulled pork were the highlights, of course, but all of the food was sooo good. I was on my second plate of pulled pork before hhlodesign even took his first bite! I especially liked the coconut shrimp and the crackling. Mmmm... And wow, I look so tall in that picture!

^Thanks for the link. I've read that the choux is covered in a sort of pie crust...I'll try and experiment. The puffs when baked look like regular choux puffs to me though. (You're so lucky to be living right by Tartine, btw! Eat an almond croissant for me!!)

I got the recipe for "sou pei" (the pastry used in Chinese egg tarts) from my friend's gf's dad, who works at a Chinese bakery. Here's the recipe: Part 1: lard 30g cake flour 20 g Part 2: .5 g lard .5 g sugar 15 mL water 24 g cake flour 1 egg Mix Part 1. Mix Part 2. Put Part 2 on Part 1, and refrigerate overnight. The next day, roll and fold 4x. On the first, second, and third roll, fold the pastry into thirds each time before rolling it out again. On the last roll, fold the pastry into 4 sections, then put it in the fridge until it's firm. Then roll it out and use it to line your tart shells. There are no instructions for baking, but I assume blind baking and then adding the custard would work best.

I went to a luau party today! I made a coconut cream cake (coconut cream filling recipe based loosely on the Peninsula Grill cake) with lemon buttermilk layers, lemon cream cheese frosting, mango gelee, and brittle pieces. Also had a slice of cassava cake, some gingerbread, and a cream puff at the party. When I got home, I had a bowl of the leftover coconut cream filling...I made extra today, just so I could have more even though the cake is gone!