Chedi Thai Bistro, La Jolla

There is no denying that the new Asian trend is Vietnamese, but for years now Thai cuisine has surpassed Chinese food as a choice for westerners. Part of the reason for Thai’s popularity - in addition to its taste and healthfulness - is its accessibility. Thai food is user friendly.

First, there’s the fact that for the most part, the Thai gave up on chopsticks in favor of forks; no one has to feel a fool about asking for one.

There’s also the foods’ names: Thai cuisine is a series of dishes whose nomenclature is comprised of already existing American syllables - pad, see, ew, tom, yum.

Then there’s starter dishes; culinary gateways. For beginners there’s the spicy basil and the pad thai. But with time and courage, everyone finds their way to the panangs, the crying tigers, coconut soups.

In that way, Thai cuisine is the Cost Plus World Market of Asian dining: It’s perceived as stylish and exotic without the fear of culture shock, mystery, or potential for illness oftentimes blindly associated with global fare.

Chedi Thai Bistro in La Jolla is such an experience.



Purists will tell you its cuisine is not traditional, but in this case, Chedi downplays tradition is favor of modernity: Thai staples with creative twists and quality proteins, such as Chilean sea bass and Angus beef. Catering to La Jolla’s Pearl Street clientele, Chedi’s decor in streamlined, colorful, tasteful, but comfortable to be in.



Two of its soups on menu include the shrimp lemongrass soup (6), replete with the customary taste of kaffir lime leaves, but amped up with grape tomatoes and wild mushrooms, and the sour beef tamarind consomme(5): a clean tasting and gently spicy clear beef broth seasoned with dried chilis and tamarind leaves served with generous strips of tender beef.

Chedi’s green papaya salad (7), another Thai staple, is refined with crisp, almost raw long beans. Only moderately spicy, this salad is a refreshing palate cleanser.



Chedi’s panang with angus beef (13), is rich and creamy curry, tastefully drizzled with streaks of coconut milk. The dish’s angus beef was obediently tender.
As far as curry goes, Chedi’s texture was just right - not too thick, nor too runny.



Chedi Thai’s dishes are comparable to Taste of Thai’s cuisine, but just slightly more artfully seasoned and presented. You’ll find Chedi’s service to be super brisk and considerably attentive.



Chedi Thai Bistro
737 Pearl Street #110
CA 92037
(858) 551-8424

chedithaibistro.com/

CIY: When life gives you kale, make Chila-kale-les!

Kale is one of those greens that everyone wants to eat for all of its health benefits. A dark and bitter leaf, it’s a great addition to meat and soup dishes, but serving it solo can be a culinary challenge. Sure, you can bake it. And while it will be both healthy and tasty, it won’t feel like the hearty eating kale was born to be. Or you can soup or sauté it, but kale soon goes soggy and limp. It seems then, that kale’s only weakness, really, is texture.

So how in the world does one resolve this issue the Mexican way? Make chila-kale-es.

Of course, chilaquiles is Mexican dish comprised of tortilla chips soaked in enchilada sauce topped with cheese and sometimes eggs. While it’s a dish that is sometimes served soggy, toothsomely crisp tortillas make it great eating. And an even greater host for kale.

Chila-Kale-les
(total cooking and prep time: 20 minutes)

Ingredients (serves 2)
1 bunch of kale
2 corn tortillas
2 oz. of pancetta
1 tbs. of minced garlic
2 oz. of chipotle sauce
2 tbs. of olive oil
sprinkle of cotija or parmesan cheese

1.Wash kale. Remove leaves from stems.
2. In a tablespoon of olive oil and a medium heated pan, begin to cook pancetta.
3. Slice tortillas into 1/4 inch strips.Then, pan fry along with pancetta.
4. Remove from pan and set aside on napkin for draining. Add a tablespoon of minced garlic to bacon fat.


5. Toss kale into garlic and oil, sauté for 2-3 minutes. It should begin to wither.
6. Add in 2 oz. of chipotle sauce and 1 oz of water to dilute spiciness.



7. Cover and sauté over medium heat , stirring occasionally, until water and sauce mixture thickens - this should take another three minutes.
8. Add bacon and fried tortilla strips, and continue to cook until tortillas have crisped to taste. This should take another 3-4 minutes.



9. Serve and enjoy. Top with parmesan or cotija cheese.


Like enchiladas, you’ll find this dish more tangy than spicy - a good counteraction to kale’s bitterness. No salt was added to the dish as the pancetta offered as much salt as it did texture. And with only two ounces of bacon, and lightly pan fried tortillas, it’s still relatively healthy and restrained Mexican-inspired eating.

Soup's On: Joan Munson’s Sweet White Corn Soup With Poblano Puree

When the body is hungry, it longs for food.
When the body is cold, it longs for warmth.
When it is both, there is soup.

Winter months are made for making soup. Corn, however, is a summer crop. But as I was rifling through stacks of yet-to-be read magazines, this recipe from a July issue, no less, of Real Simple sounded both easy and ready to venture into the complex. After all, poblano puree?

Here are the ingredients as prescribed with real world substitutions and commentary in bold:

Joan Munson’s Sweet White Corn Soup With Poblano Puree
Ingredients
1 poblano pepper
2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (Eh, had an excess of margarine. Deal with it, onion.)
1 small onion, chopped
5 cups fresh white corn kernels (from about 10 ears) (Seriously? Ears were an arm and a leg. Instead, I bought three ears and a 1lb. bag of frozen white corn)
kosher salt and black pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream (Where in the world does one find this? Everyone on the Internet is also looking for this. Heavy whipping cream, it is.)
cilantro leaves, for serving



Steps to redemption:

1. In a broiler/toaster oven, broil the pepper for ten minutes, turning every three minutes to ensure even charring.
Because the recipe yields only just enough puree for the soup, I’d be inclined to broil two peppers next time. Wrap in a paper towel and let it cool. Then use the towel to peel the pepper. Cut it into segments and remove the seeds and stem.

2. In a blender, puree the pepper and two tablespoons of chicken stock. Set aside (keep it at room temperature for serving) and clean the blender.



3. Meanwhile, melt the butter,or margarine, in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until transparent, stir to avoid browning. Cook for eight minutes.

4. Add the corn, the remaining 2½ cups of chicken broth, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the corn is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

To atone for using frozen corn, I seared the three fresh ears on a griddle, in hopes of blackening them enough to give the soup a more smoky flavor.



5. In the blender, puree the soup until smooth. Add water for desired texture and consistency. I added 2.5 tablespoons. As with most soups, work in batches, if necessary.



6. Serve with a drizzle of the heavy (whipping) cream and the poblano puree; garnish with a cilantro sprig.

In spite of my frugal attempts to diminish all good flavor from this recipe, the soup proved surprisingly rich and smoky. The charring ensured an added dimension to the corn’s tastes, and after a few swirls the soup takes on creamy and slightly spicy aftertaste. With a preparation time of just under 40 minutes, it’s effortless gourmet.



Online version of the article:
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/sweet-white-corn-soup-poblano-puree-00000000036007/index.html

Los Angeles: Brunch at Salt's Cure

While some save calories and creativity for dinner, it’s long been established that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is an expression that is more than a nutritionist’s cliche: Breakfast happens when the day just begins, when distractions and frustrations are fewer. Breakfast is the meal that comes after the longest stretch without eating; therefore, providing the greatest comfort and relief.

Some of us go to bed settling ourselves in to dream about what we will have for breakfast the following morning.

If you’re lucky, you may just dream about a place like Salt’s Cure.

Like many of the other places in West Hollywood, Salt’s Cure is a meat market. Literally.

Doubling as a butcher shop and restaurant, SC specializes in both fine cuts of meat and new American cuisine in an environment more becoming of Portland or Seattle.
Streamlined and modern in design and small in size, SC’s open kitchen is lined with bar seating and a compressed series of tables and chair. Elbow room is at a premium, ambience casual and relaxed.



While the menu changes daily, SC’s limited breakfast menu appears to have merely seasonal shifts in fruit and protein acquisitions.

For brunch, SC’s citrus roll is a generous cascading mound of spongy bread, baked with superfluous bits of fruit and glazed in a sharp tasting orange syrup.
A trio of oatmeal griddle cakes are topped with powdered sugar and flanked by a dollop of maple butter. These cakes feel healthful and are served thin and crisped at the edges.



Penchants for protein are satisfied by SC’s comfort combination, the 2X2X2: A platter of two eggs, bacon, and sausage, accompanied by heirloom tomatoes, applesauce and a rustic biscuit.

Over easy eggs are beautifully cooked and coddled to a thick but smaller shape. Sausage patties are also rustically formed into little juicy mounds of well-seasoned beef. SC’s bacon is a thick cut, also toothsomely prepared.



It is understandable that most often, for breakfast, we stay home - bacon and eggs can be easily had there, but a breakfast experience at Salt’s Cure makes dinner worth skipping if you can only eat out once.



Salt’s Cure
7494 Santa Monica Boulevard
West Hollywood
CA
(323) 850-7258
www.saltscure.com

Palm Springs: King's Highway at the Ace Hotel

The Ace Hotel’s Palm Springs outpost singlehandedly deplumed the area of some of its pink flamingo kitsch. With it, arrived just a little bit of edginess, in its urban outfitter-esque celebration of independent Americana at an accessible price.



Some of that edge is served in the hotel’s restaurant, a refurbished diner designed to be the hipster’s Denny’s.
A harmonious hodgepodge of refurbished furniture makes for dining as easygoing as the Fleet Foxes album reverberating through the air.

Breakfast is affordable and light. King’s chilaquiles (9) are served with the usual medley of scrambled eggs, homemade corn tortilla chips, and salsa ranchera. It’s a great dish that avoids being soggy.

Like all progressive restaurants, King’s remixes American staples . Here, French toast (8) is done with coconut bread and toasted coconut shavings. Served with maple syrup, it’s fine breakfast fare.



For lunch, the amigo brisket burger (10.75), served with fries and a choice of cheeses, makes for good, heavy eating. Buns are bakery soft, the fries, crisp. King’s crab cakes are super-light fare - far too tiny - and served with a black bean salsa.



Price-wise, the King’s dinner choices take a leap into restaurant rates. The ribeye steak & frites (26.50) is a massive grass–fed hunk of beef topped with chimichurri sauce. Served with fries, the steak is overly seasoned, but clearly enough for two.

The pan seared tilapia (16.50) is served in simple form on a bed of turmeric couscous flavored in a sherry braised vinaigrette. King’s fish dish, a more modest serving, is well-seasoned, but far from the most moist piece of fish you’ll ever taste.



King’s Highway is understated eating done well. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner,The Ace Hotel’s relaxed sentiment makes all meals feel like breakfast.

King’s Highway at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club
701 East Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA

(760) 325-9900
http://www.acehotel.com/palmsprings/dining

Palm Springs: Breakfast at the Riviera's Circa 59

As far as weekend retreats go, deserts are the most fulfilling. Their limitations, both cultural and culinary, are an ironic pleasure; little choice leads to little distraction. And without the stress of big city attractions, innumerable restaurants, and crawling traffic, Palm Springs is the lazy man’s paradise.



PS’s Riviera Hotel serves as the proper backdrop for such listlessness. Its metropolitan whimsy is like hanging out at a West Elm store with the Rat Pack.

This clean, modern, and relaxed aesthetic is home to Circa 59.



While its online breakfast menu boasts a more extensive offering, on-site, breakfast was a mere half-dozen menu options.

Against a backdrop of red and black textured wallpaper and downtempo music, Circa 59 is elegantly chic, but well-lit by a poolside patio.
Breakfast items are typical morning fare with a touch of modernity.

Circa’s French toast (12) is a salted brioche topped with a walnut date chutney, served with a side of cinnamon butter. As far as French toast goes, this one’s not overly sweet nor too soggy.



Here, eggs benedict are interpreted in the form of a focaccia loaf bottom topped with house cured pork. Poached eggs are slathered in a roasted tomato Hollandaise sauce that is then sprinkled with crispy prosciutto. While the bread proved a bit on the dry side, it made for a perfect yolk soak.



Huevos rancheros also receive reinvention as tortillas are extra crispy and filled like a pita with chorizo and served with avocado and salsa verde.
Circa 59’s breakfast sandwich is two slices of grilled sourdough filled with grilled ham and bacon, topped with cheddar cheese and a fried egg. It is accompanied by country potatoes.

While the sandwich was tasty, it broke no ground in terms of breakfast sandwiches. The huevos rancheros, however, were toothsome and light.

A weekend’s worth of breakfasts at Circa 59 is enough to assert that service is spotty and slow for menu ordering, but that it makes for good light eating. A breakfast buffet is also available.



Riviera Hotel - Circa 59
1600 N. Indian Canyon Dr
Palm Springs, CA 92262
(760) 327-8311
http://www.psriviera.com/Circa59_Restaurant_Palm_Springs.aspx