Tableau Vivante

Managed to squeak back into the bento habit this week. Funny what vacations and holidays do to the diet - not. Not terribly proud of this lunch’s looks, but it’s might tasty. Rainier cherries (pitted and halved for eating ease), cucumber slices, blueberries, little Juliet tomatoes, and two teriyaki chicken spring rolls filled with rice, cilantro, arugula, and yes, teriyaki chicken ala Noh of Hawaii. Nommity nom!

Tip! Spring roll wrappers don’t need soaking in water - single biggest failing I’ve seen when people try to make them. Wet paper towels (or clean, food safe towels if you’re not into disposables, though they tend to stick to the wrappers) well and layer them on a plate with the spring roll rice wrapper discs (plate, paper towel, disc, paper towel, disc, paper towel, disc, paper towel, etc.) In about 5-10 minutes, your wrappers will be ready to roll and not so thin and soggy that they fall apart on contact.

As night fell on the 8th evening of our trip, my wife and I made our way through the retro neon turnstyles of Disney’s MGM Studios into a carefully reconstructed facsimile of a bygone Tinsel Town.

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There were many great dining experiences while we were wandering around Sonoma. But there was one that truly stuck out – a hidden gem of a place, off the main streets and mentioned only in passing here and there. “It’s the kind of restaurant that shouldn’t work,” said one article. The chef changes the menu regularly according to what’s available and what he feels like serving. He melds together things off the mainstream palate, or things we wish we had thought of, or things we had thought of but only dared to consume in the privacy of our own homes, shrouded by guilt. The restaurant I speak of is Saint Rose in Sebastapol. And I’d have them move to Pasadena tomorrow if I thought we could handle the truth.

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I have some back posting to do about Sonoma. But I don’t want to get too behind on the season. If you’ve been paying attention to my twittering, you knew that on Saturday morning, instead of roaming the Pasadena market in the wee hours of the morning, I was planted firmly in a seat at the Springbok Bar in Van Nuys for a breakfast broadcast of rugby’s Heineken Cup. I was surrounded by the angry an jubilant United Nations of rugby fandom, all while consuming South African Boer sausage, bacon, eggs, roasted tomato, and toast. JJ is an ardent rugby fan, so Saturday morning was all for him. I’d have to settle for the Sunday market in Hollywood. Darn.

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It’s almost impossible for me to travel and not visit the local markets. Local markets are a sort of community microscope, giving you the quick and dirty essentials you need to get the feel of the local culture. The only problem I faced in visiting the Sonoma/Napa markets was choosing which ones to go to. I had five days, two of which would be mostly travel days. Since we were staying in Santa Rosa, we hit the Saturday farmers’ market.

We apparently brought some of the searing SoCal heat with us on this trip. It was bright and hot out, but it didn’t keep people away. (more…)

Having a great time in Sonoma. So great that I don’t have the inclination to do proper posts. Two pictures that best sum up how my trip has been?

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We departed LA yesterday morning for The North. Our intentions? To escape the usual heat and mayhem of May, to enjoy the time off JJ has between Spring and Summer classes, and did I mention the heat? It was going to be 100 in Pasadena on Thursday. Surely SF and our final destination, Sonoma, would be a weather paradise…

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Day #8 at the Festival was to begin my tour of the Mediterranean…and some of Florida’s signature unpredictable weather.

Having just come from the Far East, my figurative arrival at the sparkling blue-green waters of the Mediterranean Sea was by way of the shores of Turkey.

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Today’s lunch with some quail eggs and summer savory as well as some fresh mozzarella cheese and basil from the garden. Click through for details.

This past weekend, I grabbed my friend A and zipped over Gardena way for some mad bento action. The Marukai Forum on Artesia was our target. A wanted to expand her bento options a bit. Me, I was looking for something new, something cheap, and a few bits for my new travel kitchen (which I’ll discuss later). If you haven’t been to this location of Marukai, just do it. Maybe bento is not your thing. Fine. They also have Mexican Coke, Noh Hawaiian spice mixes (I’m particularly fond of their teriyaki burger mix), every possible variety of Spam and Pocky known to man, a seafood market that would make a fisherman blink in disbelief, and on and on. We, however, went for this…

Would you believe in the end even this wasn’t enough? No. We even went down the street to Normandie where there’s a Marukai 98 Cent store. That’s where I picked up the sweet little bento box bag pictured above, along with a few other necessary lunch bits.

It was a breezy day and A and I still had plenty of energy left. We could smell the ocean in the wind, so we followed it.

Manhattan Beach was surprisingly empty. Blissfully empty. Peacefully empty. Everything looked like silver. We dug our toes in the sand for a bit and didn’t even think about bento. I don’t even think that we thought about food. We just took a few shots then put the cameras down and soaked it all in.  Because despite what I preach here - it’s not all about the food.

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at some new rolling techniques for the lunches. I snagged this tutorial from a link off The Delicious Life (Thanks, Sarah!).  Not bad for a first try, though I need to get in some practice.  the square ‘roll’ is unwieldy.  It’s also the Return of the Edamame.  Simple Friday lunchage.  Click through for details.