Hardly Wait-ing

Last week was graduation week in the city of Irvine, meaning thousands of families and friends converged upon the OC in all its splendor. But regardless of the location, graduation means two things:

1. Hotel reservations are impossible (and also somewhat prohibitively expensive).
2. Restaurant reservations are in short supply.

Knowing this, I made both my dinner reservations about three weeks prior to graduation week.

Saturday brought my brother and I to Roy's Newport Beach location, a hip and modern place where Hawaiian fusion supreme reigns supreme. We arrived at about 7:20 for our 7:30 reservation, but tonight was unlike any other night I had been.

There was a party of 13 in the private dining room, and slews of large parties of families with their graduating children. So much so that a crowded bottleneck assembled at the host stand and into the bar. After waiting about 20 minutes in the bar and looking at the menu, we still had not been called. We went back to the host stand to check on the progress, and they said we were second in the queue.

For those of you new to formal dining, this practice is wholly unacceptable, especially if the restaurant doesn't acknowledge wrongdoing and offer some kind of remedy (and had this been done to a reviewer, it's suicide_. But it's hard to communicate to the staff that they've entered this realm where they need to give you something in exchange for your patience. It has been my experience that if you can show a mild degree of impatience and frustration on your face, they get the message.

Thankfully, the staff at Roy's did. They reassured we would be seated and once so, we would be given some complimentary appetizers. Surely enough, an order of pot stickers and an order of Schezwan fried calamari were immediately rushed to our table after we were seated.

I had the steamed Opakapaka, knowing it is a special kind of fish in island cuisine, but was somewhat ignorant of the fact that give our location, the fish was probably not going to be fresh. As a result, its distinctive taste was not present in the dish. However, most of the other elements of the meal were solid, from the appetizers and my brother's Coconut-crusted halibut.

(And as questionable as it sounds, we skipped dessert, deferring to see what the establishment in my next entry had to offer)

In the end, no matter what the circumstances, it is key to remember that as a paying customer, one has certain rights in a fine dining establishment. The staff trains year after year to meet the requests of the customers in the effort to establish the restaurant as an elite dining location. Tonight, the staff at Roy's did a good job of fixing a bad situation, but could also benefit by making sure that this does not happen in the future, so as not to lose on offering complimentary dishes to angry customers.

Coming up next, the tail-end of the graduation week recap, featuring Michael Mina's Stonehill Tavern in Dana Point.

The Master Returns to LA (?)

So the dear foodies at EATER LA recently reported with some inside intel that Thomas Keller, the master behind The French Laundry, Per Se, and Bouchon is planning a return to the LA dining scene. The report mentions that the LA outfit will be like Bouchon (Keller's much less expensive but still delicious bistro), with some small adaptations to the scene.

My first thought was, "Is LA ready for Keller?" People by and large come to Napa just to drink and eat with purpose, meaning those who usually eat at Keller's establishments have well developed palates and an affinity and knowledge of good food. In a way, the audience Keller cooks for is a self-selecting one.

The way dining seems to me to work in LA is that everybody's looking for the next hot place. Where are the celebs eating? Is a Food Network star opening an outfit in town? (those in the know are familiar with the fact that Keller is not exactly the most media savvy chef there is). So I really wonder if Southland diners are really ready for a Per Se or French Laundry, with its nine-course, three-hour meals. A restaurant like Bouchon is a little easier for eaters around here to put their hands on.

The first Bouchon I ate at was the one in the Venitian in Las Vegas. While I enjoyed the food immensely, I was somewhat perturbed by the couple sitting next to me, which consisted of a 35-year old man and his comely, shapely female companion, who I imagine he took to the restaurant just to impress her. He had no interest in the specials, scoffed at the waiter, and didn't take interest in any of the creative stuff on the menu, and, seemingly turned off by his ignorance, his date asked ME to describe my dessert of warm chocolate bouchons. Now, sharing the joy of Keller's food with the other patrons is a trademark of Thomas' restaurants, but doing so at the expense of this woman's knucklehead date is just pathetic.

Some I'm hoping this LA outfit won't have such diners, and that the Southland's foodies will come to appreciate what makes Bouchon's Yountville outfit the neighborhood favorite it is, with local residents filing in each week and weekend for a satisfying yet simple meal. My advice to you dear diners is that the exuberant experiences provided by The French Laundry and Per Se are only best appreciated if one is well eaten in the simple yet elegant aspects of haute cuisine. In this respect, Bouchon is a great place to start.

Attack of the Desserts!

Food is never fun unless you can share it, so here's a culinary assault on my dear classmates at school. Where we'll strike next, and what will we serve? You never know!

Follow Up to to the "Will Whatever's in your cart" post

Hey food fans,

Hope you all had a great memorial day weekend. Something happened to me today that I just had to write about right away.

So I'm going to class today with a plate of Emily's "Black and White Brownies" that I made over the weekend. They're the first dessert I learned how to bake from the book. As I get out of the elevator, a woman who had to be in her late thirties or early forties was walking in and almost ran into me. She says "Oops" as she gets out of the way as I say "Excuse me." But then her eyes find their way to my plate of brownies, to which she then responds with an exotic "Ooooohhhhh!"

So maybe I have found an alternative chick magnet to a dog or a baby.

Oh, by the way, I was announcing a baseball game over the weekend when the same young lady I mentioned in the shopping cart post walked by my booth. Our eyes met and she flashed a smile at me. I blushed. But then again, I had just had one of those brownies, so I was pretty amped up to begin with.

How to cheat on your ribs

Okay, enough about desserts for now. Since Memorial Day is coming up, a BBQ post.

Sometimes, we’re so hungry that we eat so fast without a thought to how something was made. Granted, we all need to eat, and there just those days when you need something fast to fuel up.

Last summer, a review on espn.com rated the best stadium food in baseball. Omitted from the list was the Dodger Dog, much to the dismay of Dodger fans. The review explained its omission, stating that the dog was hastily prepared and had been cooked via boiling rather than grilling.

Within a couple of months, the word “Grilled” appeared next to every mention of the Dodger Dog inside Dodger stadium.

Back ribs can be prepared in a similar way as well. Purists and aficionados insist that the slow cooking, smoking, and indirect heat methods used to cook most ribs are sacred and not to be tampered with. The same people would not even dare use a gas grill. Many an amateur griller makes the mistake of cooking the ribs on the grill from the start, resulting in a burnt outside and an undercooked inside.

However, this recipe from Bon Apetit reveals another way to prepare back ribs that ensures the tender, falling-off-the-bone doneness of smoked ribs without the six-hour wait. This recipe can be duplicated with the more common pork back ribs. To the people I’ve served it to, they don’t know the difference.

Here’s hoping your guests don’t either.

I love LIME, especially spelled backwards (hint hint)

It's really hot these days down in the OC, and what better way to great an Orange County heatwave than with. . .LIME!

Key lime pie to be exact.

Okay, when I first heard about Key Lime Pie, I really wasn't impressed. I mean, how good can a pie made out of LIME taste? I already know how to make good lemon squares, so how could this be so much different?

Well, turns out that this pie is great after a hot and muggy day. Its citrus tart and tang mesh well with a ginger cookie crust and whipped cream on top. Our dear eaters in Florida (I know of at least ONE Floridian who reads this blog) swear by the pie and are somewhat particular about how it should be made. I don't have a lot of fruit desserts in my arsenal, but this one is a great addition for the warm months ahead.

So I thus present to you dear eaters my Key Lime Pie, with the hopes that it just might be able to cool down my rampant spring fever (yeah, that kind=).

Learn how to make it HERE

Will whatever's in your cart help you get to her heart?

A couple of years ago, Wal-Mart had a "singles night" promotion, where if you were single and looking, you could attach a pink ribbon to your cart while you went shopping to indicate your status. It was immensely popular in foreign countries, but didn't quite fly in the U.S. I think Jim Rome addressed it on his radio show, indicating that having to go to Wal-Mart to meet your future spouse "was clearly a sign your life has not gone as planned."

I mention this because I was at the local Trader Joe's today when I saw a beautiful young woman waiting for her friend near the check-out line. I thought about going up and saying hello or something or other, but I began to worry about the items in my basket. Every now and then, one of the check-out girls asks me what I'm shopping for after they look at what I'm buying. Naturally, I think this a great opportunity to score some points.

Today, my basket contained a box of Clif Bars, a bunch of basil (for pesto, see previous post), a pack of Chicken Andouille Sausage, Frozen vegetable eggrolls and frozen chicken eggrolls. Not a terribly boring spread, but not an impressive one either (like the one I had a couple of weeks ago when I was shopping for a dinner party). Not thinking much of my basket, I walked by and attempted to flash a smile.

So what does what's in your grocery store cart say about you to a potential mate? Had I been shopping for a bunch of ingredients for pastries and desserts, I might've had a little more confidence and something to talk about. Had I had a cart full of frozen pizza, I might've just kept on walking since the contents of my cart would easily scream "douchebag."

Which reminds me, I just got my copy of Classic Stars Desserts, which you can buy in our webstore. Maybe I should start planning a dessert party sometime soon. Stay tuned.