Lemonade

We stopped off at Lemonade after stopping at Urbanic (very pretty stationary, by the way.)  This place caught our eye...

Salted caramel macaron.  Nice and chewy on the inside.  I ate half and saved the rest for later...not too much later, I couldn't resist, haha.  

Wanted to get their signature drink (after all, the place IS named Lemonade...) This was blueberry lemonade.  A bit pricey but very delicious.  I would definitely get this as my beverage again...the tart of the blueberry and lemonade are very harmonious, and the sweetness of the berry comes through at the end.  

Owen's dessert, a pot de creme - chocolate.  Super rich. 

Owen's arnold palmer drink.  Refreshing. 

Owen's sandwich - turkey, with nice panini grill marks.  Nice light salad side. 

I got their ridiculous pot roast panini sandwich, with mac and cheese on the INSIDE of the sandwich.  On the side, a cauliflower soup.  Everything was so good, but very filling.  

Twain's restaurant

Note:  I wrote this circa 2009, and it was sitting in my drafts for ages.  I'll post this but I don't know what it's like now, or if they have changed their food or policies.  Please bear this in mind when reading this.  Thanks!  

Late night eats at Twain’s – back when I had the night shift with Louisa, I had looked up this place Twains on restaurant.com, I had wanted to use a gift certificate to try out a new place to eat that managed to still be open late. Twain’s wasn’t too hard to find, the place itself was very retro and had an awesome old atmosphere and seating – the cash register was of special interest, as it was super old, and had those big mechanical buttons…so fun.

The place started getting more crowded as the night went on, and it really looked like only 3 people were manning the whole place – one cook, one waiter/cashier/host, one busboy. They did what they could but with all the people starting to stream in and sit on the patio, they were swamped.

This is what we got:

Louisa’s salad that was instantly delivered to the table after ordering, I’m guessing pre-made. Iceberg lettuce, huge chunk of cucumber, dinky croutons, ranch salad– pretty standard diner fare.

My usual order of an Arnold palmer – note the ice chunks. I have a weird appeal for the mini ice chunks, I think mainly because they usually give you so much of it and it turns your drink super cold. Love that.

Louisa’s roast beef dinner, glistening and covered in brown gravy. Really, it’s a marvel of diner food, this is what diner food should look like. She was pretty mediocre on the meat itself, and picked through the vegetables, but she absolutely adored the mashed potatoes. She had said that she was willing to revisit Twain’s just for a whole plate of mashed potatoes and gravy. That’s a serious endorsement.

Garlic bread came with Louisa’s dinner. She ate it. I don’t think there was anything much else to it.

My dinner – well, here’s some wheat toast, buttered. Not much to say about that, I like toast, this was toast….

And here’s the rest of my dinner – or rather, breakfast for dinner – Corned beef hash, with poached eggs, and hash browns. Yep, it’s a trip down carbohydrate street, but I think a good measure for how good a breakfast place is, is how they do their corned beef hash plate. This wasn’t a bad version – Poached eggs were very good, runny in the middle and mixed with the corned beef well, the corned beef itself was a little too salty, but nicely offset by egg yolk and toast. The hash browns were not my favorite– I like the grated potato style and not…well, I guess you can say these potatoes were flaked? They had a decent amount of crispiness and griddle time, definitely edible, but hash browns are not the thing to get here, for me.

Dessert, I wanted to try their dessert after reading about some of it online. Totally a mistake on both our parts.

When we asked our waiter about the available pies, I wasn’t really jazzed at the flavors, so I got a carrot cake slice, not bad, but I really was too full to eat much of it. I ate about a quarter of it before giving up. I feel bad for wasting it.

The travesty which was Louisa’s peach pie slice was unforgivable. The only edible thing was the crust, and even that wasn’t very good. Not flaky enough. The filling of the pie was so disgusting that I think it was a crime against pie. The peach slices were held completely suspended in place by a stiff glutinous substance, I guess it was supposed to be the syrupy sweetener, but it was plain gross. Never, ever again on dessert.

Also, the ending of the meal was further ruined when we tried to use the 25 dollar gift certificate, and the waiter insisted that we could not use it yet, as the computer system mistakenly let us buy the certificate.  So, no 25 dollars off.  

That was upsetting.  But maybe we can use it later?
Twain's Restaurant
12905 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, CA 91604
Neighborhood: Studio City

Truxton's American Bistro

I hadn't seen Brook in awhile, and met up with her for lunch one weekday. Since I had never tried it, I wanted to give Truxton's Bistro a shot (last time I had tried to eat there, it was completely bogged down with a party, and we never even got to be seated - no one ever showed up at the front - a huge negative, there always should be someone greeting, right?) I decided to give the place another chance, after all, there were a lot of people there, that's at least a good sign right?

Scanning the menu, I noted that a lot of the menu items were pretty pricey, but I was still willing to try, if anything to check out the quality. Of course, my usual drink order...

A nice frosty arnold palmer, very welcome on that hot day.

Brook got a meatball(?) pizza, I think it was meatball anyways. The other toppings included red bell pepper, onion and a slight dusting of parsley. The pizza crust was impressive, very thin but still managed to keep all the toppings secure and didn't bend under the weight of itself when picking up a piece. Brook only ate like, a quarter of this, and saved the rest, it was rather big.

I got a turkey club sandwich, with sweet potato fries. I think I got this mainly because this would be Owen's order of choice if we were to go again, and I wanted to gauge how good his order would be, plus I wanted to bring half of this home for him, as he was sick that day (yes, he's sick a lot...a lot of headaches :( ) I remember enjoying the sweet potatoes a lot, as they were crispy, well seasoned and the perfect fry size. The sandwich itself was made of fresh carved turkey breast, a pleasant surprise (I dislike the water packed stuff but have come to terms with it when served this at restaurants, Owen DETESTS water packed turkey and will completely reject a sandwich if it contains it), good mixed baby greens and tomato, with bacon, but I could be wrong as this was awhile ago. This was a very decent sandwich, however, very pricey (I think it was around 12-13 for the sandwich, and an extra dollar or two for the upgrade to sweet potato fries.)

The atmosphere was nice and very busy, I'm sure a neighborhood restaurant is very welcome around these parts, in terms of variety (oddly, there are 3 Mexican restaurants within spitting distance of each other around here...). The price point is a bit high for my taste, but I can see myself coming here once and awhile.

UPDATE: I went here again with Owen and my parents this past week, to get some breakfast. I had gotten a breakfast burrito, with chicken sausage, scrambled eggs, pico de gallo and cheese. My side dish was fresh fruit (I had a choice of potatoes but went with fruit.) Owen got their french toast, my parents got scrambled eggs and toast, and bacon, and snacked off each others' and my plate. The food was pretty good, the fruit was very sweet and my mom really liked my breakfast burrito. However, one thing was driving me nuts - there was this annoying loud squeaky noise whenever the servers went through the door to the kitchen, which was very often. I know it was a little thing but it bothered my experience enough to ask the server to fix the squeak, which didn't happen during the busy morning rush. I hope they fix it by the time I go back next time.

Truxton's American Bistro
8611 Truxton Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90045-3910
(310) 417-8789
www.truxtonsmaericanbistro.com

Portos Bakery and Cafe

Louisa hadn't tried Porto's before and that was a crying shame, so we headed there one day to experience the magic (well, by the way people talk about this place, it's practically epic). A HUGE line was winding around for the bakery section, luckily, we were going to the cafe line which was a lot shorter. The prices were quite cheap for sandwiches and their signature items, I am not sure about each of the cake prices but I think I paid around 25 dollars for everything...here goes...

I got this pretty little chocolate cake with mousse inside for Owen. I think it looked prettier than it tasted, but Owen liked it fine- it's chocolate, after all, and a dark chocolate, at that.

One of the things Porto's is famous for - their cheese rolls. They're really affordable, and really tasty. They're what I want cheese danishes to taste like - flaky, the cheese is not too sweet or heavy, and airy bites of sugar coated pastry. So good as a breakfast or anytime snack.

The second thing that Portos is famous for - their potato balls. These breadcrumb coated balls are pretty dang addicting...I'd liken them to mini portable shepherd's pies....

Here's a shot of the insides. Meaty meat mixture, surrounded in mashed potato, with a fried coating. I think this is the American answer to the Chinese dumpling.

And this is my sandwich, a turkey on a croissant sandwich. It came with plantain chips, a fun twist on the usual potato chip that would usually come with a sandwich, but I still prefer potato chips. These plantain chips had a nice satisfying crunch, though, and a faint taste of plantain, I think when you cut plantains this thin then fry them, you lose most of that flavor that goes along with it. The turkey croissant-wich was great, freshly baked croissant and yummy turkey is pretty much awesome. Also, at a price around 4 dollars, it was a nice change from the usual 9 dollar or more sandwiches I've come to begrudgingly pay for at other restaurants.

I'd definitely go again to sample some more of their baked goods - I had an unpictured mango mousse, which was very tasty and refreshing, with good mango flavor. It reminded me of mango pudding from Chinese restaurants, with more tartness, which I enjoyed. I'll be back again!

Porto's Bakery and Cafe
3614 W Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505
www.portosbakery.com

Ciao Christina

Ciao Christina is a small little restaurant, just recently reopened after a long refurbishment, within walking distance of work, so Louisa and I decided to give it a try. We had heard that they had great gelato, and the gelato case is what instantly drew my eyes when I walked in. After a quick review of what flavors they had, I decided on:

A scoop of hazelnut and a scoop of pistachio. I actually am not usually a pistachio flavor kinda gal, but this was an excellent pistachio gelato, although I think the real pistachios were quite stale and I had wished they had excluded them. The hazelnut was a rich nutty flavor, it was a good accompaniment to the pistachio. I ate this pretty quick - isn't gelato best eaten fairly quickly, before it gets soupy?

The rest of our dinner (yes, we had dessert first while waiting for our "to-go" order, sometimes, dessert first is a necessity) was unearthed when we arrived back at work, and what a pretty sight it was...

This was Louisa's chicken parm sandwich (sorry for the blurriness). The bread was thick, and possibly could have been made in house, it was so good. The chicken had a nice breading to it, and held up its' crispness against the tomato sauce. There were even some olive slices in the sandwich. The potato chips were a real treat - they were freshly fried! Not out of a bag! Extra crispy crunchy, and really fun to eat. (I ended up ordering this the next time I went!)

I had decided on a chicken sausage stromboli (they also have calzones, but strombolis have mozzarella cheese on the inside, instead of ricotta, and for me, it was not a ricotta kinda day.), which was freshly made by request, and it showed. First off, this thing was huge - like, football sized. The bread was really great, not too much chew, not too hard of a crust. I neglected to take a picture of the insides, but the chicken sausage was where all the flavor was, and the cheese held it all together.

This also came with my stromboli - tomato sauce. This was excellent sauce - great to dip pieces of the stromboli in, I was almost eating this as if it was tomato soup. Louisa gave her approval, as an Italian - she mentioned it was "good gravy" (I guess tomato sauce is known as gravy in her family?)


Louisa also had gotten a cannoli to go, as her snack/dessert for later. I should have gotten one too, but I figured my stromboli was going to kick my ass (which it did.) I tried a bit of the creamy ricotta insides...sweet, tangy but mild, with bits of chocolate chips and dried fruit in the filling. I should have gotten one.

The proximity of this place pretty much assures the fact I will return, but I am also pleased it has great food, although I admit it is a little pricey (cept the gelato, which is a steal at 3 dollars for their biggest cup.) I will have to try their pizza next time.

Ciao Christina
4201 W. Olive Ave.
Burbank, CA 91505
(818) 563-2426
http://www.ciaocristina.com/

Vegas getaway

A mini trip to Vegas! Literally, we went here just to go to a room, sleep all day, and then sleep some more. Is that weird? A vacation to sleep? Considering we live behind a car lot, and a really busy street, I don’t really get to experience pure silence very often, and better yet, air conditioning on a hot day. A hotel provides all these things, and I found a great deal to stay at Caesar’s Palace, so we booked a few days here.

We got off our flight extremely early (well, extremely early, relative to me and Owen) – our flight was annoyingly scheduled for 7 in the morning or something – by the time we rolled into Payard Patisserie, we were ready for a good meal to start us off on a better foot for the rest of our mini-break.

The seating is very interesting here – the cook is in the middle, where he makes everything to order, and the patrons are all seated around him in a circular design. It’s a very different kind of setup, but I found it was fascinating watching the cook make everything, (picking up some cooking tips, hah.) Our waiter was very good, very attentive but not too bothersome. We both ordered a glass of orange juice to start.



I really liked this juice! It tasted fresh squeezed, I think Owen mentioned it was the “best fresh squeezed orange juice he’s had”. It was a really tall glass, as well…I guess in Vegas, go big or go home, right?



Owen and I decided to get two plates, and halfway through, to switch and share. He ordered the French toast with Berry compote. This was amazing, this dish managed to be rich, yet light at the same time. The berries were my favorite kinds – raspberry, blueberry and blackberry, in their own juices, were not sweetened, so it didn’t feel like a over-sugared mess we usually get for something like this. This dish was overall NOT sweet, which I actually loved! And I USUALLY hate French toast, (weird hang-up, I know.), but I liked this a lot – the bread was almost custardy in the middle, the whipped cream was really freshly whipped cream, and not just sugary junk. If there was ever a perfect French toast plate, this would be it for me.



I ordered a croque madame – a ham and swiss sandwich, toasted, topped with béchamel sauce and a sunny side up egg. The plate was rounded out with a stuffed tomato, and mixed baby greens with a vinaigrette. I only had half of this and secretly wished I could have eaten the whole thing, heh. Again, the richness was not too rich, balanced by the tartness of the vinaigrette on the greens, and the tomato, and the bechamel was not globbed on, like other places I've had this before - this was almost toasted into the sandwich already, so it was more a flavorful crunch on the outside of the bread. Excellent meal, and we will definitely be back.

We also picked up some croissants - Owen got a chocolate croissant, and I got a regular plain one. I didn't take a picture of these, but I SWEAR they were some of the best croissants I've ever eaten.

A bit later, while Owen was asleep (I had napped earlier, as I slept much less than him the night before), I went off on my own and walked around the Caesar's Palace gambling area on my own. I was pretty hungry (this was around dinnertime, and I didn't eat since around 10am at Payard), so I grabbed something at the food court. This is what I got...



A Lobster roll with fries. Uh...well, I guess I can't say that my expectations were extremely high, but the bread was extremely burnt, which was a shame because it was a nice amount of buttered brioche. The lobster itself..a cold mash of seafood tasting stuff, but lobster meat was definitely lacking. I don't know if it WAS actually lobster, but...what should I expect from a food court, right? The fries were addicting, but I made an effort to only eat a few, because I knew Owen would be hungry later that night. I also got an iced tea, which was not pictured. I got a lot of mileage out of that iced tea, as you could refill your drinks from the soft serve machine yourself, so during the whole of our stay, I would go back to refill the drink with the same cup...awesome!

After a few games of Monopoly Penny Slots (ahhh, so mindless, those slot machines), a bit of shopping (the Forum shops are MASSIVE!), I went back to check on Owen, who I think, could have slept the whole night if I hadn't had walked back in the room. At that point, it was pretty late, but I knew there was a 24 hour restaurant at Caesar's, and I had gotten a 20 dollar food coupon for the cafe, because I had signed up for their rewards club (might as well, it's free, right?)

At the Augustus Cafe, I felt like it took forever to get our food...a lot of waiting, and then everything came at once. We weren't in a hurry but it really took an abnormal amount of time to get what we ordered.



First off, onion rings. These were really tasty, actually - beer battered, thick, dusted with parmesan cheese, and two dipping sauces (red pepper aioli and ranch). Addicting, and a huge amount of them, we wanted to finish these off because we couldn't save them for later.



Whenever there's a club sandwich available on the menu, Owen will almost always order it. This was pretty standard, oddly with the addition of roast beef, but they were heavy on the bacon (awesome!). These fries were very fresh, oddly better than the other fries with the other sandwich (which came later than this one.) We saved half of this sandwich for later, which was happily devoured by us in our hotel room the next morning.



I had a hankering for french onion soup, which made this an onion heavy meal. This was mouthwatering when they set it down - melty gruyere cheese, on top of a french bread piece, with savory beef broth, and tons of carmelized onions. A huge amount of soup, again, Vegas does not skimp on quantity. I made an extra effort to finish this because there's no way to save this soup for later.



Last thing we ordered (we definitely ordered too much) was a prime rib dip sandwich, which was piled high with quality beef, a little saucer of au-jus, and fries. Oddly, these fries were not the seasoned ones, pretty much the same fries from the food court that I had had earlier. We only managed a quarter of this sandwich, and saved the rest.

We had a few other meals in Vegas but it had been places we had been to before (Bouchon, although it was a dinner instead of the brunch we usually have, I remember sharing a roasted chicken, mixed green salad and creme brulee, all delicious of course). It was a pretty successful trip, I'd say, aside from the horrible early plane flights. Of course, another trip to Vegas will be in the future, so stay tuned!


Payard Patisserie, Caesar's Palace Food Court, Augustus Cafe, all at:
Caesar's Palace
E Flamingo Rd & Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Bouchon is at Venetian Hotel
Spring Mountain Rd & Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Andrew's Cheese Shop

Daphne had introduced me to this place, insisting I HAD to check it out. And I'm sure glad she did. When we opened the door, a strong pungent smell wafted in our faces. Andrew, the owner, is an extremely patient and experienced cheese connoisseur, and basically, we would ask him for suggestions, which he would happily give, once we told him what kind of cheese we were looking for. I usually ask for "runny" and "strong" cheese, and every suggestion he's given has been spot on delicious. Samples are key to cheese, when I'm at a supermarket, I never know what a cheese is going to taste like when it's wrapped and packaged in a noisy open case refrigerator. Andrew, on the other hand, insists on samples. I'm in heaven. I love cheese.

Now that I've been back a couple of times, I've got a nice little collection of photos from this place. I usually get a sandwich...

This is the first one I've had, the turkey sandwich. I don't know what cheese is in it, but it's nice and sharp, and it's a hard cheese. The bread is a drier, yielding bread, good as a background accompaniment but not the star of the show. The turkey was a little thicker cut than I like, a bit reminiscent of water packed turkey that I avoid, but still good and turkey-ish. The cheese was definitely the best part, great bite to it.

On this occasion I got a bit of the cheese Picolo...a very soft creamy cheese that had the texture of a dry goat cheese, but the taste of a creme fraiche. Mmm.

Every cheese comes with an informational card to remind me what I got for next time. So thoughtful!

The next time I went, I got this awesome smoked salmon sandwich, which is amazing. The capers add a great briny surprise with every bite, the creme fraiche cheese is the perfect pairing with the smoked salmon, the red bell pepper adds the balance of freshness that the sandwich needs. Definitely try this one.

I went with Daphne this past time, and got some Mini flatbreads, on a whim, to go with the cheese I got. They were a bit expensive - 5 dollars for this small package, but they were crispy, savory, and the perfect accompaniment to...

...the small, SMALL wedge of Stinking Bishop that I got! This is not a cheese for the weary, it's definitely stinky, super soft...Daphne mentioned it tasted like a "wet brush". I found it really interesting and tasty on my tongue, but my fingers smelled of Stinking Bishop for the rest of the day...ugh. I would STILL get this again next time, hah.

Another smoked salmon sandwich, this time, there was pesto smear on it! That was like, taking this sandwich to the next LEVEL!

Daphne got the Italian sandwich, a mix of cold cuts, and a strong sharp cheese. I like the arugala greenery, added a nice peppery taste to the sandwich, a great contrast. I might try this next time if they happen to run out of smoked salmon (which they do!)

Hank's Root Beer...this is some seriously good root beer. Andrew swears by it, and I trust his opinion completely. Deep flavors, not very fizzy, less of a "bite" than I'm used to, but more of a rolling sweetness on the tongue. Only enjoy when it's frosty cold.

And Daphne's drink, Curiousity cola. Totally not the usual kind of cola, it was almost like a thick fizzy brew, I tasted much more ginger in this than cola. I love the design of this bottle...I'd probably buy it more for that than anything else.

Andrew's Cheese shop is a must visit...I think Andrew himself is a great guy, he does what he loves to do (share his love of cheeses to the world), and the shop is just a testament to his love of food and cheese.

Andrew's Cheese Shop (look for the big sign - 'This place stinks!")
728 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403-1404
(310) 393-3308
andrewscheese.com

Huckleberry Cafe

Huckleberry was white hot when I went to visit it, it had only been open for a week or two, and the lines were insane. Daphne and I still braved the lines and managed to barely snag a table (un-bussed, messy). The queue to order was massive, but I was excitedly checking out their menu, written on huge chalkboards stationed high above the cashier. We ordered, and I also got a few things to go.

I love their logo. Cute and simple.


Water here is not just water, it's refrigerated filtered water, in individual bottles with fun cork style tops. Water here is also serve yourself, so drink up!

Daphne got a caramelized banana creme mini pie. So deliciously good, I know this now because I got this myself on another visit...the crust was perfect, the whipped cream freshly whipped and luscious, banana slices on top of rich banana pudding, on top of caramel sauce. Get this, you won't be sorry.


A insane chocolate croissant, that I got for Owen, to go. The chocolate was oozing out of it, super great quality, he noted one of the top 5 chocolate croissants he's had, and that's saying a lot (he loves his chocolate croissants.)


My treat for later, a ham and gruyere croissant, I love my savory snacks, and this was exactly what I wanted - a flaky pastry salty cheesy kinda snack. Not exactly great for me but a real treat.


And here's what I ate right out of the box when I sat down - a chocolate elcair. Pretty tasty, the custard tasted just right, and the chocolate was dark and creamy. This was pretty much gone in a few bites - I was really hungry! We had to wait a long while for our sandwiches, a server finally came by with our sandwiches after locating our number on our table...


My sandwich - the turkey meatball, that came with a fresh side salad of greenery, lightly coated in salad oil. I liked my sandwich ok but the bread was overwhelming, a lot of bread for not a ton of meatball. The tomatoes were great quality, added a nice tartness to the sandwich, but I found myself tiring of the taste of the meatball - I think they needed a bit more salt. I loved the salad, and left most of the bread.


Daphne's roast beef sandwich fared much better, lots of thinly sliced roast beef (I think, roasted in house), a good strong mustard spread, just a pretty lookin' and good tasting sandwich all around. I think I'll get this next time.

I've been back once, since, just to pick up some baked goods. I love the feel of this place and hopefully the rush has died down a bit during lunch hours, and they have gotten a few things more organized. I'll definitely be back to try that roast beef.

Huckleberry Cafe
1014 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA
huckleberrycafe.com