An Amazing Discovery About Quesadillas

Queso (cheese) + Tortilla (tortilla) = Quesadilla (deliciously cheesy snack wrapped in a tortilla).

It’s word play!  In Spanish!

I don’t know if I should be proud for figuring out a portmanteau in a language I don’t really speak, or ashamed that it took me 26 years of eating Mexican food to come to this realization…

Resoluting 2010 Edition

Last year I resolved to eat healthier foods (for both me and the environment), work on this website more, and (as per the last decade) to floss more.  I think I have finally mastered the flossing!  Resolutions really do work! Scratch that one off the list.  I did okay with the website — still have some empty sections but I did blog on a fairly regular basis… It just gets put low on the priority list with all of my other commitments.  Again, I did alright with the eating healthier thing, but I didn’t always live up to the only-one-meal-with meat thing.  Think I’ll keep that one on this year’s list:

1) Healthy Eating:

Only one meal a day with meat, and eat beef a maximum of once a week (hoping to cut down my environmental footprint.)  Lots of fruits and veggies!

2) Go to the Dentist:

I finally mastered the flossing… now to face the scary truth of what sort of shape my teeth are in after a long hiatus in my regular checkups.  Think there’s any hope I’m still cavity free? I’m so glad my Christmas money is going to go towards such exciting things…

3) Learn from my Mistakes

I think this one’s pretty self explanatory. I don’t know what the solutions are to everything, but hopefully I can find them.

4) Finish my first novel!

Well, at least a good first draft.

Restaurant Review: JiRaffe in Santa Monica

My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dono were in town this weekend and were kind enough to take me and my two cousins, Kevin and Dan, out to an amazing dinner at JiRaffe, which is at 5th and Santa Monica Blvd, just off the Promenade in Santa Monica.

First Courses (shared between all at the table):

• Roasted Beet Salad (Caramelized walnuts, dried bing cherries, goat cheese cream, banyuls-ginger vinaigrette) - I don’t love beets, but this was good! It came as a pretty sort of jello-looking cylinder in the center of a well designed plate. It was topped by the goat cream cheese and the other ingredients were artfully piled around the circumference. The beets themselves were surprisingly sweet, and melted in your mouth when paired with the creamy and slightly salty goat cheese. Of the three appetizers, this was definitely the prettiest to look at.
• Roasted Pear Salad (Mixed greens, hazelnuts, fourme d’ambert cheese, roasted pears, sherry-hazelnut vinaigrette) - This salad sounded really delicious on the menu, and it was the dish that I chose. As such, when it arrived and was good overall, I was not surprised. But I was also not blown away by its innovation. The cheese was by far the best part of the dish. It was the perfect taste and texture - a little crumbly and soft (though not too soft), and just pungent enough (fourme d’ambert is a type of blue) to contrast perfectly with the sweet sweet pears. I would order this again because I like this kind of salad, but it’s nothing to blow your culinary socks off.
• Lobster Ravioli (A daily special; just what it sounds like with some sort of red sauce on top) - Again, like with the beets, I don’t really eat seafood. Like ever. I just don’t enjoy the taste. That being said, by the time the appetizers had arrived I’d already had two cocktails and a half glass of wine, so I was in a slightly more adventurous gastronomic mood than usual, so I figured I had to try at least a bite of everything. I was pleasantly surprised! The seafood taste wasn’t overwhelming, and the pasta and sauce were very good. Not sure if I would have eaten a whole serving by myself, but I actually enjoyed my ravioli! (Does ravioli refer to both the singular and plural?) If you’re even slightly more of a seafood person than I am, you will definitely like this dish!

Entrée:

• 10 oz. Prime NY Bistro Steak (Potato puree, roasted cherry tomatoes, sautéed fennel, roasted shitake mushroom, white wine veal reduction) - In the last few years I’ve started ordering steak a lot when I go out to fancy meals. I rarely cook red meat for myself, so I guess I sort of see it as a special treat on these occasions! I was not disappointed by the steak at JiRaffe! I ordered it medium and it came out perfectly - not too bloody, but still pink enough to be tender and retain the taste. It was stacked on top of the potato puree, which was to die for! So smooth and buttery. Mmm… it just melted in your mouth. The sauce was the perfect compliment - adding that nice flavor and acidity without overwhelming the natural flavors of the meat. I even ventured (now another glass of wine in) to try the tomatoes! (I don’t generally like raw tomatoes - something about the texture bothers me - and though slightly roasted, these little buggers were not as cooked as I generally like my half-fruit/half-vegetables.) They were decent - juicy and flavorful - but I didn’t finish them all because I still got that weird slimy seedy texture that icks me out. The only downside to this dish was the mound of onions they slapped on the plate. They weren’t mixed with anything and didn’t have any particular flavor. Again, personal preference, I don’t love onions. (This review makes it sound like I’m really picky. I’m totally not, onions, tomatoes, and seafood are really the only three hang ups I have and they all happened to be involved in this meal!) I tried a few with bites of my steak and potatoes, but they didn’t add anything to the flavor or meal (also, it seemed strange that they were so copious on the plate but not mentioned at all in the menu’s description!) Overall, I highly recommend this dish!
• I didn’t try any of the other entrées, but people in our party got the Caramelized Pork Chop (Long grain wild rice, smoked bacon, spiced apple chutney, aged cider sauce) and the special Seafood Risotto (A variety of seafood and shellfish mixed into a risotto!) and they all enjoyed their meals - the two people who got the pork chops were especially complementary.

Dessert (shared between all at the table):

• Warm Chocolate Truffle Cake (With vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce) - Each of the cousins picked a dessert for the table to share. This was my selection, mostly because I adore raspberries, especially when paired with chocolate. The presentation of this dish was really fun - it came with a mini chocolate replica of the Eiffel tower stuck into the ice cream, and the cake was perfectly round and delicious looking. Taste-wise, it was good (can you go wrong with chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, and raspberries?) but not great. The raspberry sauce was very mild and so didn’t add quite enough tart to the sweetness of the cake. If I make it to JiRaffe again I will probably select something else to end the night.
  
• Brownie Cappuccino Cheesecake (Cappuccino cheesecake with brownie on the bottom) - Again, good, but not the absolute best I’ve ever had. I’m a HUGE cheesecake fan, and I think this one was just a little too cappuccino-y and not enough cheesecake-y for my well developed cheesecake palate (I ate an entire cheesecake by myself at age 2. I think I know what I’m talking about.) I’m not sure I ever made it to the brownie at the bottom. It was all very very rich.
• Duo of Crème Brulee (Tahitian vanilla and manjari chocolate served with vanilla hazelnut and chocolate pecan biscotti) - If I ever get the chance to go back to JiRaffe, I think this is the dessert I will get. You get two smaller crème brulees in their own separate dishes. The chocolate one is very rich (I’ve never had chocolate crème brulee before!) and the vanilla is just amazing… the perfect combination of the crisp outer shell and soft and creamy interior. It was topped with raspberries, which added the perfect tartness when paired with a bite of the vanilla!

Drinks:

• Blood Orange Cosmopolitan - I asked the waiter for an interesting cocktail recommendation and he did not steer me wrong! Seriously, this is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted - almost no bitter alcoholly taste, but not too sweet like some fruity cocktails. Amazing Amazing Amazing.
• 2006 Stags’ Leap Petite Sirah - Kathy chose this and I quite enjoyed it. I’m still learning about wines, so I’m not sure I can give a particularly eloquent review, but I will say if I can ever afford to purchase a bottle again, I will. And a quick shout out to Jeremy’s Drync Wine App for the iPhone, without which I would never remember what I drank where, nor what I thought about the things I did get the chance to drink!

If it weren’t midnight I’d come up with a wittier way to say that this section is the conclusion:

JiRaffe is one of the top 5 places I’ve eaten in LA since I’ve moved here. There wasn’t any part of the meal that disappointed me. Now, if only I had more benevolant relatives who wanted to fly in for the weekend and treat me to meals I can’t afford on my own…!