The Wine Connoisseur: Sparkling Ruby Cuvee from South Coast Winery Temecula

This is a favorite of mine.  It's a sparkling wine from South Coast Winery; which is a really amazing winery. It's definitely different, considering that its a deep red, it's not too sweet but still a bit strong. It's absolutely perfect with a dark chocolate. I like to bite a small amount of Trader Joe's 72% Dark Chocolate, and sip a bit of the wine because it neutralizes the strong-ness of the wine. Definitely, perfect if you like a sweeter/fruity sparkling (champagne-like) wine. 

Check out more details HERE. It's won so many awards too (and it has a video on how to open the bottle) : )

 LINKSssss: 

Winery: South Coast Winery 

Wine: $22.00

 http://store.wineresort.com/cart/prod/Ruby-Cuvee__871785001168.aspx

Quick Eats: Multi-Grain Croissant's & Spinach Quiche from Trader Joe's

With my late obsession with Trader Joe's, I've discovered these super yummy Multi-Grain Croissants.  I feel like it's definitely healthier when you compare it to the traditional buttery croissants.  It comes individually wrapped and you just bake it.

(lol kinda burned it, but it's still amazing.)

mmmm, nice and layered

  
Next, the quiche.  If your craving a quiche it is totally worth it.  It's perfect for lunch, or even breakfast. Here I had it for breakfast, with my croissant (two of my favorite things). It's not as amazing as one made fresh from a bakery, but a super easy quick meal.

Quick Eats: ITALIAN Truffle Cheese - from Trader Joe's

This is my new favorite cheese and it's surprisingly not too expensive. It's about $6 from Trader Joe's and it has amazing truffle flavor with truffle bits in it.  I love to put it on my pizza and in pasta's.  It reminds me of a very amazing pizza from Vegas, in the Wynn hotel.

Definitely, worth the price if your into the flavor of truffles.
That it reminds me...I need to buy more. :)

 

The Wine Connoisseur: Moscato D'asti 2010 Lodali

Here is the beginning of a series of called "The Wine Connoisseur."  It will mainly consist of my attempts to interpret wines. I am not at all an expert but, hopefully this can I can increase my knowledge!! :D

Back to the important stuff:

Moscato D'asti 2010
Ladali

So far one of my favorite wines.  It's a white wine, and sparkling.
With a lower percentage than some other traditional wines; it's defiantly an easy drinking wine.
There is a fruity aspect to it, kinda like juice.

 

Ike's Place - San Francisco!!!

On our journey through San Francisco we made a stop at the acclaimed Ike's Place.  Without doing any previous foodie 'research' I went up the counter and asked, as any normal person would ask, what the most popular sandwich was.  So my sister and I split the Dutch Crunch with 'dirty sauce' and the Menage a Trois also with 'dirty sauce'. And I could see why this place is so amazing.  I have never tasted a sandwich quite like this, especially from a restaurant place. The details in the sandwich are soo apparent, every single thing in the sandwich definitely complimented each other.

        Dutch Crunch

The dutch crunch has a sweet savory flavor to it, and the dirty sauce brings it over the edge.  It was really amazing, it was almost like bbq sauce and buttery.  The sandwich was definitely super rich.  

  Menage a Trois

Definitely the healthier of the two but also amazing.  They put a lot of avocado, and roast beef.  Overall, the size of the sandwiches are huge and the bread is perfectly toasted. This place is such a staple, its a shame they don't have it in Southern Cali :( . But all is worth it in the end. :D

   

Watermelon Beer at 21st Amendment Brewery - San Francisco!!

If your a huge beer fan, 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco is definitely worth a try.  My sister and I went mid afternoon to try out 'Hell or High Watermelon' wheat beer.  It has to be, hands down, one of the best beer's I've tasted so far.  It smells so much of watermelon, it's crazy!
I'm not an expert with beer, but it was a lite beer and it wasn't too strong, however it smelled more of watermelon then it taste.  But, I was just obsessed with the fact that it was watermelon infused.
I believe it is a seasonal beer and they have several other types of beers with fun/interesting names that I really want to try out!                

http://21st-amendment.com/beer/hell-or-high-watermelon

Marnee Thai Restaurant!! - San Francisco!

In my recent trip to San Francisco, my sister and I made the rounds to as many 'foodie' places we get to.  For lunch we stopped by at Marnee Thai Restaurant!! They're famous for a award winning Pad Thai dish and I was so excited to try it!!  The location was relativity easy to find, and the cost wasn't too bad for lunch.

I got the tofu Pad Thai and my sister got the chicken Pad Thai.  They give you a generous portion, probably enough to feed two people with a moderate appetite.  But, when I took the first bite I could really see why this was a award winning dish.  I've tried A LOT of pad thai dishes all across Southern California, and it's probably one of my go-to dishes at any Thai restaurant.  But when I had this dish, it had a very distinct bump of flavor than the rest.  Other pad thai's are usually mono-tone; just between sweet and sour.  This however, jumped out at you.  The flavor was in every part of the dish, in every bite and EVEN in the noodles!

This place is def worth a try if your a thai food connoisseur!      

WoOo..noddle close up!

http://www.marneethaisf.com

2225 Irving Street

San Francisco, CA 94122

(415) 665-9500

SORTED - Pasta Carbonara dish!!

SORTED has become a weirdly addictive/obsession of mine lately and I've finally come around to making my first SORTED dish!!

I  converted the recipe into american measurements and also doubled the recipe so it would serve four.

1 Package of Dried Spaghetti
1 Package of Italian Pancetta (3 oz.)
1/2 Package of Smoked Bacon
4 Eggs
4 Egg Yolks
200ml of Cream (I used heavy whipping cream)
1 cup of Parmesan Cheese\
Black pepper (to taste!)
Texas Toast (lol definitely cheated! My oven doesn't work!)

PAN of choice:  Large pot, and small pan.

1.  Boil your pasta, 7-10 mins. Cook till al dente! Drain the pasta, then put it back in the same pot, and set aside for later.

2.  Dice the pancetta and bacon, and fry it up in the small pan until golden brown.  Adding bacon seems like a very american thing to do...but my family tends to like hearty proteins in their dinner.  Plus, YOU WILL NOT REGRET the addition on bacon (well, if you like bacon)!! But, buying pancetta in large amounts, can be a bit pricey and scarce.

 3.  Mix the eggs, egg yolk, cream, chesse, and alittle bit of black pepper!

 4.  Add the Pancetta/Bacon and the sauce to the awaiting Spaghetti and mix!

5. Toast up some Texas toast, and crumble the yummy crumbs all over!!

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT!!
(Leftovers are also the best!)

mmm..

I found it absolutely amazing!! I think I made it cheesy-er than it needs to be; but it totally reminds me of that famous dish from Yard House (Mac&Cheese'squared') without the truffle oil!! The bacon definitely gives it an intense hearty bacon flavor, whereas the Pancetta is much more complex and subtle.
 This is now a must have staple!!! 

{OPTIONAL: Give your dog Bacon!}

South Park Cake Pops!!

Our latest edition to our line of cake pops!!

Seen here:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/75242825/south-park-cake-pops-cake-balls-1-dozen

Bottega Louie! Why haven’t I visited you before?!?

We visit downtown L.A. from time to time, usually for shopping and getting supplies such as fabric, beads, and other things, for my sisters online etsy store.  And man ALL THESE YEARS we have never went to this restaurant!!  It's about 5 mins away from the fabric district on 7th and Grand, and truthfully there was a lot of hype on yelp but I avoided reading it, just to get a personal interpretation of it.  The biggest excitement for me was the portobello fries, and the French macarons/pastry section.

The interior definitely gets top marks.  They have very beautiful trimmed ceilings, leather chairs, and you can even see the pizza guy put your pizza in the oven.  Overall it’s very luxurious, and it does make it seem that you would pay a fortune for the meal but Bottega is honestly REALLY REASONABLE!  The menu has a dish for anyone’s budget.  Also the service was great!  Our waiter was the sweetest guy ever.  We loved this garlic ailoi sauce with the Portobello fries and he gave us another.  We felt very well taken care of. 

.Bread & butter given at the beginning

I mean it’s really how proper bread should be made, but it had a really hard crust.  The middle was perfect though, spongy with consistent flavor.  Not at all doughy or poorly made, but hey it was complementary.

Latte

This latte is very good.     And I’ve tried A LOT of lattes.

The espresso was not at all bitter, it had a very smooth taste.  The height of the foam and the thickness of it was perfect.  The latte was also at a perfect temperature, and they also give you a large amount.  The foam art was ehh, but you can’t really judge it by that.  Def worth a try if your into coffee.

Portobello fries!! This is how all fries should be!

Flat out: it’s 9 dollars.

It’s a bit overpriced, but I believe the richness compensates for the amount given.  However, it’s good for about two people though.  The batter, mann the batter. You would expect it to be greasy, but it’s not at all greasy.  The batter felt light and had a fair amount of flavor, the best part was they cut thick slices of the mushroom.  Make sure to get the aioli sauce.

Trenné $12

I got the Trenné.  It had perfect flavor.  It reminded me of a rich beef stew with the bits of rib eye, but the main character of the dish was the sauce and the pasta.  Don’t get this dish if you want a lot of meat.  At first the pasta looked kind of like french fries but it complemented it well.  It took up the sauce differently then would normal pasta, and it created this very interesting texture to the pasta.  There was strong flavor and I would go back for this anytime.

Fettuccine Belmondo $10

Fettuccine Belmondo is the dish my sister ordered.  A little disappointing.  Just because when you compare the both, the dishes are on completely different tangents.  It was very simplistic.  Not too much sauce, truthfully a little too plain for my taste.  We found if you add just a bit of salt it brings out a lot more flavor.  Very healthy though.

Pink Salt!

Very good salt!  It might just be the color (hehee)

Patisseries!!

I bought the Macarons (small box $9), and the Crème brûlée (about $3ish)

Open Macaron box

Bite!!

The patisseries are all the same, it’s all a bit overpriced.  I was kind of taken back when I couldn’t choose what flavors I wanted but it was okay…  The macarons did not have definite flavors.  Unlike Paulette Macarons where you can really taste the guava, or the lavendar,  Bottega Louie macarons  were very well made and had really great colors but it  didn’t have sharp flavors.. The Crème brûlée was very citrusy, not bad for the price, and it was a great one to try, but I wish I had tried a tart or something.

I feel like Bottega is going to be tradition whenever we visit downtown L.A,  even if parking is difficult and the wait is long with a huge crowd (fortunately we went on a weekday around 3 so we didn’t wait at all).  I just really want to try more dishes and see if they’re as good as the Trenné.

700 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017

www.bottegalouie.com

www.erikasjewels.etsy.com