Lido Deck & a mini foodbloggies reunion by the sea

LA & OC Foodie asked if I wanted to join a dinner in Newport Beach on a weeknight. Eh ... kinda far ... but then he said that the space used to be Blanca, which was where I first met him along with other bloggers for a Foodbuzz-hosted dinner.

inomthings and RumDood are coming also, he said, both of them I also met for the first time at Blanca. Oh! It's like a mini foodbuzz reunion at the exact same spot (though different restaurant now). We were also joined by Hey Hey Scenesters and e*starLA.

That Blanca space is now Lido Deck, a new restaurant helmed by Chef Don Schoenburg, formerly of Leatherby's Cafe and Tradition by Pascal (which I remembered reading a good review by LA&OC Foodie).

Though the space is right by the water and there are plenty of outdoor, water-side seating, as luck would have it, it was raining and freezing that night, thus we were seated inside one of their dining areas.

We started with a Charcuterie platter, all made in house: rabbit rillette, duck & olive, pork & parsley terrine.
Cheese: Humboldt Fog, 18-month dry aged Gouda, Spanish blue cheese (made from goat, cow & sheep), hard Tres Leches cheese from Northern Spain. Accompanied by honeycomb from Santa Monica Farmers Market.
I liked duck & olive terrine but my favorite was hands down the rabbit rillette. As for the cheese, I particularly liked the hard Tres Leches, especially with the honeycomb.
The platter was paired with a crisp 2008 Round Hills California Chardonnay.

New Zealand calamari, english cucumbers, black jewel heirloom cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives.
The squid was meaty, chewy, and firm. The black tomatoes may look funny and unnerving at first but it was actually firm and crisp and had a lot of juices. This was a nice and light dish to cleanse the richness of the charcuterie platter.

Next, to warm ourselves up in the chilly and wet night: Tomato soup w/ fennel, gruyere & brioche. Served with a little grilled cheese sandwich

Spicy shrimp w/ mango sorbet and mango gastrique
The shrimp were rubbed with Chile, pepper, and cayenne. The idea for this dish was for a beer-friendly dish, which it certainly was. It was on the spicy side for me though (working on it, I promise), but the others seemed to like it.

We then move on to the "main entrees" (not that we're not already getting full! :P ).
Cinnamon rub pork tenderloin w/ ratatouille, sweet corn polenta, with red mole.
The pork was well prepared, very tender and goes well with the sweet, flavorful mole.

Scallop, bacon, white truffle foam. Braised escarole.
The scallop is nicely seared and the bacon is a pretty tender and fatty slab. This is a revved up rendition of "bacon-wrapped-scallop" that is a tad decadent. Luckily the braised escarole helped balance it out.

Braised rabbit roulade, asparagus, chanterelle, celery root puree, white truffle foam.
The roulade was a rabbit tenderloin stuffed with mushroom salad (it had a nice fatty skin too). My only complaint was that the celery root puree was too cold. The white truffle foam shows up again here, but in both dishes I feel that the flavors of the rest of the dish overpowered the truffle foam, making it perhaps unnecessary.

We had another game meat entree in order: Venison, honey glazed, red wine reduction, root cauliflower puree, cippolinis.
We were so full at this point that we couldn't finish it. The venison was so good though, tender and pink in the center and just a bit gamey, the way I like it. I was sad to see them take away the uneaten pieces, but I couldn't fit any more.

We all shared a plate of four desserts, made by pastry chef/wife Christi Carter.
1) Medjool date cake, 2) Brioche french toast w/ brown sugar, braised pineapples, bananas.
3) Chocolate cake, 4)Sorbets: Strawberry, poached peach, lemon mango.
The date cake, dubbed "crack cake" by inomthings, was easily the table favorite.

I also really liked the Brioche French Toast, especially the addition of the braised pineapples.
The slight tartness from the pineapples really helped cut the richness of the french toast and made this exceed your usual french toast.

Don & Christi came out after dinner to chat with us and shared a bit of their story. They're both so friendly and are such an adorable couple.
Apparently if dining next to the water is not romantic enough for you, you can get a three course dinner from Don on a gondola!

While not all the dishes worked 100% for me, it was a solid meal throughout. This husband and wife team is a deserving star of the OC dining scene and I'm glad to see what they are bringing with their new restaurant. Waterfront dining with house made charcuterie, game meat, and decadent, addictive desserts? Maybe the OC isn't so bad after all ...

The Lido Deck
3420 Via Oporto Suite 101
Newport Beach, CA 92663
(949) 673-9500
www.thelidodeckrestaurant.com


Disclaimer: This meal was hosted.

Xanh Bistro: A Dessert Stop for the Slightly Adventurous

I've gone to Xanh Bistro almost everytime I'm down in the area, thanks to Wandering Chopsticks taking me and inomthings here. That said, I've never had any of their savory food. At all. It's always been a dessert stop for us.

The dessert menu is small yet offers an interesting, asian take on the "classics." Some of them just involves an unsurprising flavor infusion such as the coconut crème brulée, or a chocolate molten cake served with ginger ice cream.
The coconut crème brulée, albeit the simplest, has now turned out to be our favorite.
The molten cake is also good and goes well with the ginger ice cream, but the shot of sweet hibiscus "tea" that comes with it doesn't complement the dish and was too sweet and wholly unnecessary.

On the more interesting and unexpected side was a sticky rice dessert topped with mocha mousse and spicy chocolate sauce.
This dessert had quite an interesting texture which I enjoyed. The chewy sticky rice with the light mocha mousse worked better than I expected.

Go a step beyond people's comfort zone and you can get their Durian "Parfait" (I put that in quotation mark because it really isn't in any way "parfait"). The strong durian aroma is definitely there, though not all that "bad"/overwhelming. If you're unitiated, I advise you to avoid this dessert. If you love durian, then definitely go for it.
A bit of cake is topped with a light and airy durian mousse, served with passionfruit sauce on the bottom. The dominant flavor and aroma is of course the durian though. You've been warned.

The best part of eating dessert there?
Any of them can be enjoyed with a cup of hot lemongrass tea. Distinctly fragrant and warming, it's the best accompaniment to these desserts.





Xanh Bistro
16161 Brookhurst St
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 531-2030
www.xanhbistro.com

South Coast Plaza Food Extravaganza II: Charlie Palmer & Marche Moderne + Giveaway!

The South Coast Plaza Food Blogger event was well on its way with a great meal at Hamamori and a salt/olive oil/wine tasting at Michael Chiarello's NapaStyle. Now we continue on to Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's for dinner (of course there's another meal that night, don't be silly).
We were first taken to their wine room downstairs, where they showed us their eWineList, supposedly the world's first electronic wine list where the sorting option easily makes all of their $17-$8100 bottles browsable.

Twice a month Charlie Palmer also holds "50 for 50" where 50 wines by the bottle go on sale for 50% off at their Next Vintage wine shop!

They brought down a selection of cocktails from their menu and I opted for the Blood Orange Mojito, which was refreshing and pretty light.
I tried Pleasure Palate's tamarind drink also, but it was too strong for our tastes. After the cocktails, we went to the dining room and had our dinner.

We start with brandade croquettes, followed by three-cheese risotto cake with chorizo aioli (pictured below).
The brandade croquettes were unmemorable, but the risotto cake was quite an interesting dish, the creamy, cheesy risotto is encased in a crispy shell.

Mussels with saffron aioli
Plump and fresh mussels soaked in creamy cheese was a hit at the table.
Next we had Kobe Beef Sliders with a tray of fries.
That's a pretty thick piece of meat there, but open your mouth wide enough and it would still fit. The meat was flavorful and moist, though the burger as a whole was a bit on the dry side. The fries that came with this was quite good though.

Burrata cheese with oven roasted tomatoes and arugula pesto.
This might've been my favorite dish from this meal, even if it seems so simple. But we all know how great a simple dish can be with quality ingredients, and this is the case here.

Seared oven roasted marrow with golden raisins and red onion marmalade.
Decidedly a lot of people's favorite and definitely a heavy duty dish. Even with the golden raisins cutting the fattiness, even a spoonful felt like my arteries are clogging. It's worth it though.

"Ham & Eggs" - tuna ham with truffled eggs.
Tuna ham? Yep, with the looks and smell of prosciutto, this tuna ham from Spain could easily deceive you. On top of truffled eggs this was excellent. I can have this for breakfast any weekend

Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's
3333 Bristol St
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 352-2525

At the end of the night we went away with goodie bags. But lucky you, I'm sharing :) Yep, there's a giveaway in this post! Just go to the end of the post to find out more.

Naturally, the night does not end there. We haven't even had dessert! For dessert we were then escorted to Marché Moderne, a restaurant headed by chefs Florent and Amelia Marneau that I knew was a favorite among many OC bloggers. These are what we had for dessert:

1. Pecan & banana mousse tart with caramel - a lovely mousse with a thin crumbly shell. Be careful when picking this up though, the shell can barely hold the heavy mousse filling.
2. Raspberry with meringue
3. Warm beignet with orange creme anglaise - my favorite, for sure. The warm beignet is moist and fluffy, and the creme anglaise has a great fragrance to it.
4. Green tea & apricot macarons- airy and lightly sweet. These macarons aren't as chewy as others I'm used to, but they are delectable nonetheless. Perfect with my cup of mint tea.

I was pretty happy with my dessert experience here, and can't wait to go back for a full meal one of these days.

Marché Moderne
3333 Bristol St
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 434-7900



Read E*starLA's report here.

Disclosure: In case it wasn't clear, our meal was indeed comped by South Coast Plaza. And I'm getting these posts out like mad cos even though SCP isn't paying me to blog, they are 'rewarding' those who finish posting fast enough (w/in 72 hours) with a $100 gift certificate.
Oh, and I got a goodie bag from SCP containing a cookie, an access card to the VIP Hospitality suite, tomato sauce, smthg from Kiehl's, etc. I also got a goodie bag from Charlie Palmer w/ a bottle of wine, a wine opener, and a $25 gift certificate.

You're probably hating me right about now, I got to eat all these for free just because I have a stupid blog?
Don't fret, I'm sharing some with you! Yes, you. Well, only one of you, actually.

I will be sending off a $25 gift certificate to Charlie Palmer to one lucky winner!
To win this gc, just comment below with your name, a way to contact you, and tell me 1)if you've eaten at South Coast Plaza and if you have, 2) your favorite South Coast Plaza eatery. Comment before next Sunday 10/11 (midnight). I'll pseudo-randomly pick a winner on Monday. Good luck!

South Coast Plaza Food Extravaganza Part I: Hamamori & NapaStyle

These days what i had considered "mall food" has been taken to the next level, with the likes of Breadbar in Century City Mall and others. Among these, South Coast Plaza probably has unparalleled food options in Southern California, housing some of the most highly regarded restaurants in Orange County. Being LA-based, I haven't explored OC much, so when an invite to a blogger event at South Coast Plaza came along, I took this opportunity to get to know the South Coast Plaza restaurants.

Their PR person had apparently organized quite a night for all of us bloggers and writers.

The first day of our visit started out at Hamamori, a chic sushi restaurant on the 3rd floor of the West Wing.
We were greeted by James Hamamori behind the sushi bar, the owner/chef who also own Wasa in Irvine and Newport Beach.

We started with seared albacore with crispy fried onions, vinegar soy sauce

Next is a duo of vegetable appetizers: Shiitake Fries with creme fraiche, and Asparagus Tempura with Japanese rice crackers.

A series of special nigiris followed suit. The first two became the favorite of most of us. They are Hokkaido scallop with Himalayan pink salt, shiso, lemon, and Osetra Caviar, and Hamachi with Himalayan pink salt, lemon, and Japanese chili paste.

They were both very fresh and the seasoning and garnish was not overpowering but quite enhanced the flavor of the fish.

The last of the nigiri was Freshwater Eel with Foie Gras, finished with orange zest.

May I remind you guys at this point that I've been out of town for a while and have not had foie gras for ... oh, I don't know, a loong time. Anyway, I'm justifying why this dish excited me so much and I mindlessly ate my piece without taking a photo! Luckily Pleasure Palate let me snap a photo of hers. The foie gras just melted in my mouth and added this delicious creaminess on top of the sweet eel. So good.

The next dish was a fun hands-on experience of cooking Oregon Kobe shortrib on a hot lava rock from Mt Fuji!

The lava rock was super hot and cooked the thin short rib slices within seconds.
The tender meat slices were served with three types of sauces: steak sauce, apple sesame, and sea salt with chili pepper.


Hamamori
3333 Bear St, Level 3
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 850-0880



After our starter meal, we continued on with an interesting tasting at Michael Chiarello's store, Napa Style.

Here we were divided into two groups that started with different tastings. My group started with the salt tasting.
These are salts that chef Chiarello himself likes to use in his cooking like the popular Gray Salt, Truffle Salt, and even Jurassic Salt - possibly the oldest salt there is, found covered under volcanic ash in Utah.

Next we move on to the olive oil tasting. We had a couple of very interesting olive oil here.
One was an olive oil that somehow had the fragrance of banana ... somehow. A bit strange.
We also tried some Blood Orange Olive Oil - had a nice zesty fragrance and would probably be very good tossed with some salad. We got a goodie bag after and I received the Meyer Lemon olive oil - still yet to try it.

Our last tasting was the wines from Chiarello's vineyard.
Chef Chiarello named his five wines after his children and his wife. These are the wines we tried:

1. Giana ($39), a 2005 Zinfandel named after his youngest daughter. This had a spicy nose and taste, though the aftertaste is surprisingly short considering how strong the wine tasted. Quite a nice wine and pairs nicely with food.
2. Felicia ($49), 2007 Old Vine Zinfandel named after his 2nd daughter. These vines are from 98-year old root stocks that are all farmed dry. One of my favorites out of the tasting, full boodied with a nice fruity taste.
3. Roux ($45), 2006 Old Vine Petite Syrah. This is a smoother and more balanced wine that the previous. It had a subtler nose and a smoother fruity taste.
4. Bambino ($49), 2007 Cabernet named after his little boy (Aidan). A sweet wine that has a bit of spicyness to it. I liked this one quite a bit too.
5. Eileen ($69 but a $55 special is currently running), a 2006 Cabernet named after his wife. This wine has a sweet nose and is smooth and full bodied.

NapaStyle
3333 Bear St, Level 2


Disclosure: In the spirit of the FTC guidelines, although SCP is not paying us bloggers to blog about this event, they are incentivizing us for blogging early by offering a $100 SCP gift card to those who blog within 72 hours. Will I make it? I have 2 more posts to go and 24 hours, so we'll see ..

Hits and Misses:OC's Sushi Murasaki

Usually I'm at a loss on where to eat in Orange County, and wouldn't even consider sushi. I mean, LA sushi is soo good and I was skeptical of OC sushi. Nonetheless, my friend convinced me a while ago to try out Sushi Murasaki, which had rave reviews (this is a backpost from long, long time ago).

The place was practically empty at lunch and we sat at the sushi bar in front of the owner.
We started off with some cucumber sunomono, then started ordering our sushi.
We started with some hamachi and the chef suggested some hamachi belly also (which obviously we took!)
The fish was pretty fresh, and the hamachi belly melts in your mouth. I was pleasantly surprised.

We also got some kanpachi
I thought he had put a little too much rice for my taste, but again, the fish was good and fresh.
I don't know how it would be when his apprentice is making it, but we had a great experience with the owner as the sushi chef.

There was a list of specials of cooked items, so we tried a couple of them. First we got the seafood croquette.
Pretty big croquette, and the filling and the crunchiness is great, but I wanted more seafood - or more flavorful seafood. Still, not bad, Iwould eat it again.

We also got some Black Cod with Wild Mushrooms and Daikon
This was ... meh ... bland. The fish is overcooked and tough, the sauce and the wild mushrooms added nothing. A waste of a cod, really.

My final impression was that this place has good sushi - good quality fish and all, but the cooked dishes were all ... meh, not worth it. I would recommend going to this place, but for the sushi only, although their fish choices are limited compared to a lot of LA places. But there's no need to get the cooked dishes - in fact, please don't (except the croquette).

Sushi Murasaki
2901 W MacArthur Blvd
Ste 108
Santa Ana, CA 92704
(714) 241-1000
www.sushi-murasaki.com

Eat Lots A Fish!

Lately I have been driving down to Orange County way too many times to appease a friend of mine who keeps complaining about me never visiting (I don't know why she says that, I visit ALL the time ..)
But at any rate, being stuck in OC where I think there's always not that much to do, we have to keep coming up with potential good places to eat.

Recently, my friend suggested the Crab Cooker (with their motto Eat Lots A Fish!), either the one in Newport Beach or the restaurant in Tustin. I didn't need any additional reason to cut my driving time if at all possible, so I obviously picked Tustin. So, this review is only of the Crab Cooker Restaurant and I don't know how representative it will be of the Newport Beach location.

We came in with high expectation since apparently this place had raving reviews and supposed to have best crab cakes.

The Crab Cooker Restaurant is tacky in a charming way. The outside is painted all red, and the inside is decorated with various ocean-related knick knacks.

We started with the famous Maryland crab cakes ($9 for 2)
The crab cakes were good, but they weren't anything special. I guess they were cheaper than if we had gone to an upscale seafood restaurant? Anyway, the taste was good, but it wasn't as chock full of crabs as we would have preferred.

We ordered that day's special appetizer: Sweet Spotted Shrimp.

In my opinion, fresh seafood is best when prepared very simply :)
This was followed by some King Crabs
They look very fresh and delicious, don't they? :) They were.

For our main meal we ordered the Australian Lobster, Crab Cooker style.
The lobster was a little chewy, but fresh and tasty nonetheless. The sauce was pretty good, but I think I still prefer it the plain and simple way. (Or steamed with ginger, garlic, and scallions the Chinese way :P )

All in all, I think the main reason I posted this review is because the pictures turned out so well. The seafood they had was definitely fresh and good, but I don't think it's worth driving down from Pasadena just for that. If you happen to live/find yourself in the Tustin area though, and can't seem to find a good place to go to, I would definitely recommend the Crab Cooker.

The Crab Cooker
17260 E. 17th Street
Tustin, CA
(714) 573-1077
www.crabcooker.com