This Week's Appetizing News - Think Green in Delicious Ways!

This week's post comes right on time for St Patrick's Day, so let me start by wishing everyone the Happy Luck of the Irish and reminding you to wear something - or better - to eat something green, on Wednesday!

If you're stumped as to what that ought to be, may I gently suggest some homemade cupcakes topped with either green icing, deco-sugar, or candies?! Try one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes morphed into cupcakes that have a simple chocolate-mint twist, at the end of this post.

If you'd rather have someone else do the baking, our favorite Cake Maestra Chrysta Wilson is busy as usual and at your service at Kiss My Bundt Bakery. This week (even perhaps all month; all cakes are available to order) she'll have specialty cakes that range from "Green Velvet" (which we hope to sample on Wednesday's tour!) to Bailey's Irish Cream to pound cake drizzled with a fantastic Irish Whiskey glaze ... and that probably is just the beginning; she never ceases to amaze us. Become their fan on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to be in-the-know this week and at all times!

Now is the perfect time to chat up the "green" restaurant owned by Jesse James (husband of Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock). In Long Beach, next to his world-famous West Coast Choppers motorcycle store, sits Cisco Burger. I am always on a great burger hunt (she writes, as swimsuit season approaches ...) and I can't wait to check this one out. There is lots to love about them besides their simple handcrafted/homemade menu items that are "wallet friendly", and made with farm-fresh and local ingredients. Their hybrid delivery car brings goods home from their mostly solar-powered facilities, they participate in local recycling, and all packaging containers are biodegradable paper products. There is no drive-thru at this "old world hamburger stand with a modern eco-friendly philosophy", but surely enough allure to call a crowd to their breakfast and lunch tables, 7 days a week!

And speaking of allure, sweeten the day of your favorite loved one(s) with this recipe, and enjoy the good luck that will inevitably yield!

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder (make sure date on bottom of can is in the future!)
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup strong, brewed coffee or espresso - warm is best
12 unwrapped Andes thin Creme de Menthe pieces
Chocolate-Mint icing + Green sprinkle sugar or green candies to decorate

Preheat oven to 350F, and prepare 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or coat with cooking spray. Sift first 6 ingredients into large mixing bowl. Whisk oil, vanilla, egg, and milk until smooth, in medium bowl. Stir moist ingredients into dry ingredients, with wooden spoon (hand mixer not necessary) until just combined. Add coffee and stir until blended well; do not overmix. Gently spoon batter into muffin cups, distributing evenly. Tuck one Andes mint into each cupcake. Bake for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in a center cupcake comes out clean. Let cool completely before topping with Chocolate-Mint Icing. Yields 12 cupcakes.

Chocolate-Mint Icing
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure peppermint extract
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted with 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Combine butter and extracts until smooth. Gradually add cocoa-sugar and stir until thick and creamy. Adjust flavor with more sugar or extract(s). Frost cupcakes as desired, decorate with green sugar or candies to serve favorite leprechauns. (3 green M&Ms placed together yield a sweet a 3-leaf clover!)

Wishing you and yours the best of fun, love, and luck around the table this week!

Until next time, I remain,

Diane Scalia
Your Tour Maestra

This Week's Appetizing News - Hope you're Hungry!

We hope you all enjoyed our March e-newsletter, which is posted now on our Facebook Fan page in case you missed it.

This week's post is a little delayed but, that is no accident ... I like to believe that delays are good and our having discovered a brand-new dining gem is what this one yielded today. So! Without further ado, let's get right in to this week's ...

We recommend ...

Sophy’s Cambodian and Thai Cuisine, Long Beach
Eyes-roll-back-in-your-head delicious! Sophy came here as a young refugee from Cambodia and finally has her own exquisite and spacious haven, where she proudly serves over 100 fresh, authentic menu items. I tried (and loved) the Asian crepes (Banh Cheo; pictured in photo), and Fried Eggplant with Ground Pork. Tons of vegetarian and wheat/gluten-free selections (crepes, wraps, and noodles made of rice flour). Heads up: entrance at back parking lot! Open 9am - 10pm, 7 days.

TODAY's GEM: Canteen Burger Bar and Grill, Redondo Beach
Trish, our fabulous Melting Pot Food Tours leader and I, so couldn't wait to devour our burgers dressed with fig-balsamic aioli, arugula, and a Parmesan crisp 'slice' ... that we, mmm, don't have a photo to show you (same for the fries, sorry) but, we promise that they were beyond fantastic!! We collectively, definitely recommend you run, not walk, to this brand-new pearl near Riviera Village in deep south Redondo. Their site is only their menu at the moment, but note that non-carnivores might really enjoy their vegetarian falafel burger. Half-price burgers through tonight (11 March) to celebrate their grand opening!

Holy Cow Indian Express, West 3rd Street near LaCienega, LA
This little sister restaurant of the former Surya on 3rd Street is some of our favorite Indian in town. Brothers Sheel and Neel take tremendous pride in their fresh and innovative offerings. Here we love the Paprichat (like Indian nachos) and the chicken tikka masala, which will have you looking for either more fabulous naan to mop up the last of its sauce or, a straw to just slurp it up! Free parking while dining. Open at 11:30am weekdays, at 3pm on weekends. 8474 W. 3rd Street, LA 90048 323.852.8900

In other news, the annual Spring Wine Fest event is taking place in the upper dining deck of the LA Farmers Market next Saturday, March 20 from 1-4pm. $30 ($25 for paid reservations by March 17th) is quite the fair ticket price for tastings of 40 wines and wine cocktails, plus gourmet cheeses from Monsieur Marcel. Quite possibly the main event will be samples from Chef Steven Brown's brand-new "small plates" menu at Ulysses Voyage restaurant, which promise to be spectacular.

Please remember that this Saturday is the night to change your clocks before sleeping! We spring forward Sunday at 2am, and have an extra hour of daylight to look forward to that evening and from now on!

That will do it for this week, food fans ... next week I promise a very special "St Patty's Day" Salute to GREEN issue, including the perfect cupcake recipe to sweeten your favorite leprechaun's tooth!

Wishing you and yours a fabulous week of dining well, especially at the table with those you love!

Til next time, I remain ...

Diane Scalia
Your Tour Maestra

This Week's Appetizing News: Celeb Regular at the Market

Happy Post-Valentines Day-Mardi Gras-Chinese New Year everybody! We hope your weekend was grand, however you celebrated. This has been quite the eventful month so far!

Since we boast regular celebrity sightings on our tours, we are just a little excited to report that actor George Segal (photo here) has been a new Monday-Saturday "regular" at the "Hollywood Table" of the East Patio at the Original Farmers Market, where our tastings commence on our LA tour. Today I was in the patio and noticed that this group of men, most of whom wear fedoras or berets (including Mr. Segal) begin to gather right around 9am, and enjoy coffee and usually lively conversation, with laughter. Our group this morning enjoyed Bob's Coffee and Doughnuts just to the side of their table. Mr. Segal was a big favorite of Lisa's and mine in his role at Jack Gallo on "Just Shoot Me" some years ago. Mind you, we haven't had the guts to go introduce ourselves and tell him so ... yet ...

We have dined pretty well lately, and have a couple of hits to report for this week's ~

"We recommend ..."
Britt's BBQ, El Segundo - Lisa especially recommends the baby-back ribs and suggests that the mac-and-chili is a don't-miss!
Kassava Caribbean, West 3rd Street (just across from Cedars-Sinai Hospital) - I recommend the fried chicken with jerk sauce, roti, and Jamaican patties and then making 10 or 12 or 20 subsequent visits to try everything else on the menu. Today they were out of their French Caribbean cupcakes due to a large order for the hospital, so I didn't get to try them. (I do not like when that happens.)

And finally, if you like the idea of coming on our LA tour soon, you will love this news! Ferrara Chocolate has generously offered us samples of their Belgian Milk Chocolate Bars, as gifts to our LA tour guests for the next few weeks at least. We have tasted them (just to see if you would like them, of course!), and we think they are going to be very well-received! Available at Ralph's and Walgreen's stores now, we welcome you to try them out if you want to enjoy some of the best-quality chocolate this side of the continent!

I will leave you with that tempting thought, and wish you a week filled with all things delicious, especially at the table with those you love!

Until next time, on behalf of Lisa, I remain your faithful ...

Diane Scalia
Tour Maestra
Melting Pot Food Tours

... from our Melting Pot: Guacomole with a New Orleans Twist

In This Week's Appetizing News, we wish to offer our humble congratulations to the New Orleans Saints, for their Super Bowl XLIV victory last Sunday!

Now, let's consider that ...

• their prestigious championship deserves an honorary recipe,
• last Friday was - surprise! - World Nutella Day,
• Di is working on a new concept for us called "French Fridays",
• next Tuesday is Mardi Gras (New Orleans is so busy this month!) and,
• we love our French tour merchants and, our fans in France (hence the baguettes)!
  

With great pride and joy, Di offers her New Orleans-inspired guacamole recipe. It was originally developed for the Chilean Avocado Board, in 2004 for the Sugar Bowl game. Served with toasted baguette slices, admittedly it seems quite strange and unusual ... until you get a taste and, can't stop eating it! Try it for a Mardi Gras celebration or anytime you have occasion for boasting a fantastic new appetizer!

PS: Click here if you want to take the guacamole to whole other French level ...

New Orleans-style Guacamole
3 large, ripe avocados, peeled, seeded, cut in chunks
2 tsp Tabasco sauce, or to taste
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar or, orange juice
2 tsp hot-and-sweet mustard
2 cups cooked (peeled, deveined, tails removed) shrimp, chopped coarsely
1/2 large sweet white onion, diced
Sugar-Pepper, for seasoning and garnishing dip:
2 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp red cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 tsp sugar

Toasted French baguette slices, for serving

Mash avocado chunks in large bowl. In separate bowl, whisk next four ingredients until smooth. Gently stir into mashed avocado and blend well; add shrimp and onion. Prepare Sugar-Pepper by mixing salt, black pepper, red pepper, and sugar. Add gradually to taste, to avocado mixture, adjust seasoning, reserving some sugar-pepper for topping guacamole if desired. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish as desired. Enjoy as spread for baguette slices. Yields 6-8 servings.

Or, if you just prefer someone else do the food and you practice being a guest, you might really love this weekend's LA Street Food Fest. Take your Valentine, your Mardi Gras date, your Chinese New Year of the Tiger buddy, or maybe even someone who doesn't have to work or study on President's Day Monday! Enjoy a full-on food-frenzy extravaganza offered by LA's most popular catering and gourmet trucks, all in one location. Goodwill is part of the deal, so feel good about toasting the LA Food Bank at one of the beer and wine bars!

Just enjoy! On behalf of my lovely siser Lisa, you are wished delicious hours around the table this week, especially with those you love! Happy Valentines Day, Chinese New Year, and Presidents Day!

Until next time, I remain,
Diane Scalia
Your Tour (and Blog) Maestra

New Home: This Week's Appetizing News from our Melting Pot!

Happy Groundhog Day! Punxsutawney Phil (shown in photo, left; courtesy of Fox news) apparently saw his shadow this morning, so it looks like we've got a little winter left. Perhaps look at the bright side - more fabulous winter meals for the next six weeks at least!

Meanwhile, here at Melting Pot Food Tours, as we continue to stretch and grow and move toward more fun and success, we're gently mixing a few things up - for the greater good! To jazz up our new Facebook fan page, we've decided to post a blog story and newsbites about what is delicious each week, usually on Tuesdays. This blog post will take the place of our former weekly messages to members' inboxes.

We will also continue emailing our monthly "Appetizing News" newsletter, so we'd love you to kindly sign up for our mailing list if you haven't already!

This week we're simply going to introduce a new feature we'll be presenting regularly. "We recommend ..." will acquaint you with places we've discovered - or maybe have loved for a long time - that we consider hidden treasures for great dining in and around town (other than those which are current tour stops)!

We would love to hear from you about your favorite independently-owned places as well! Let's do our part to give these best-kept secrets more exposure and keep them thriving! Here's a few to start us up.

We recommend ...

Playa Blanca - Peruvian cuisine, moderately priced, incredibly delicious! Owned and operated by family, in El Segundo. Lunch and dinner.

Antigua Bread Bakery and Cafe - Fresh, wonderful Guatemalan with a Euro twist, i.e., enjoy croissants and/or chilaquiles for breakfast...lunch...dinner! In Highland Park with a new location opening soon in West Alhambra on Huntington Drive. Their new site is forthcoming but locations are listed on current page.

TART - Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, just across from the Original LA Farmers Market at the Farmer's Daughter boutique hotel. Considered "Southern Chic", its classy comfort food is so very good! Di's particular weakness is their homemade biscuits for breakfast ...

Where have you eaten lately that you think ought to top our don't-miss list? Please let us know! Tell us a little about what you enjoyed, the price levels, and where/how we can learn more about the place. Post your comments on our wall or here on the blog. Thank you!

We hope you've enjoyed this post, and please know how very much we appreciate your becoming a fan on our new page! Please tell your family, friends, Romans, countrymen, people you don't like (kidding about that last suggestion) about our fan page if you'd like, we'd love to continue to grow with your support!

Enjoy a delicious week, especially with those you love around the table! We'll see you here next Tuesday. Until then, we send ...

Warmest regards,

Lisa and Diane Scalia
Your Melting Pot Tour hosts

Chocolate Chip with a Peppermint Twist

Let me first say, humbly, that this year's Cookie Parade has been a huge hit. I am just so touched that so many of our tour merchants, partners, and friends loved the gifts we offered last week, with such joyful passion. Several requests were made for more cookies, please, as in, encore! More than one suggestion was made to have our own cookie shop. Wouldn't that be nice??

All of this hoopla has actually made me quite introspective, and filled with joy, to think about how really, really happy people are to receive cookies. I would just love to share, that whether you ever make any of my recipes or not, just know that the offering the gift of homemade cookies is almost powerful enough to make people (especially doubters) believe that we do in fact live in a kind, loving, and benevolent Universe. I just love being an agent of that.

My sisters and I were on the phone to each other yesterday, comparing baking notes from our respective kitchens. Lisa finally got on board which is why that call wasn't made until Dec 20; she has finally come out under from the heaps of work in her office. We anxiously await the first taste of her signature spritz cookies. Suz and I never really wanted that job, I think the spritz cookies have always only been on Lisa's list.

Before I get to one recipe which has made a big splash on my own hit list this month, I appreciate your allowing me to reminisce about some of the most special cookies we grew up with. They came from across the street, from our neighbor Mary Mendes. She has since passed away, for many years now but, I know that we can all still remember her special paper plate of homemade cookies that we received every year as a family. The tag always said "from Mary Mendes", as if we might confuse which Mary made the best cookies on Cordova Street.

Mary was like the neighborhood grandma. She called all 5 of us, and all the other neighborhood children, her "little chickadees". Right up until the time she passed away, in her 90s, she would still recall how she took care of all of us at one time or another. Her husband died when she was 59, and she learned to drive their classic 1965 mustang with my mom as her instructor. The day she passed her driving test, my father made her a cocktail to celebrate and she giggled with excitement. She was an absolute darling, and this Christmas my thoughts keep returning to her memory.

The 'return' of my cookies seem to be having the same impact on my gift recipients, as her cookies had on my family. I am so touched that bakery owners and gourmet chefs and shopkeepers are thrilled beyond measure to receive my homemade cookies, when we all know LA's best products are right at their fingertips 7 days a week. Growing up, we made batch after batch of homemade cookies and, to receive those from "Mary Mendes" was still like receiving a bountiful treasure chest each Christmas. We especially loved that the cookies were usually the same varieties each year. What an incredible gift she offered ... it was like you could taste the love in every bite of her simple, beautifully crafted cookies.

I feel like her spirit nudged me this month to add some peppermint to my chocolate chip cookies. Her chocolate chip cookies (the BEST) always seemed to pick up the flavor of something peppermint on the plate. This year, I added a chopped peppermint bark bar from Trader Joe's, (which is made with both white and dark chocolate I believe) to the dough. It makes a fantastic cookie! If you can't find this bar, peppermint bark is seasonally available at many stores, including Cost Plus, Crate&Barrel, Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table, and maybe even grocery stores right now.

My chocolate chip cookie recipe is basically the original Toll House one, the first recipe I ever learned with my mom. I gently recommend using the best vanilla extract you can find, pure butter, and even cage-free or organic eggs to yield the absolute, most delicious cookies.

If those high-grade ingredients are not handy, adding a healthy dose of loving feelings while you mix and bake the dough, will suffice. I love listening to my favorite music while I bake. I do everything by hand without an electric mixer so I can focus on how yummy the dough looks. I really think, if you take the time to have all of your senses engaged - sight, sound, touch, smell, taste (the last two can kick in even before baking) - your cookies can't help but be spectacular.

Please, try it and let me know!

Chocolate Chip Cookies with a Peppermint Twist

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup flour, sifted with 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt)
12 oz (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Trader Joe's Peppermint Bark Bar, chopped or, 1/2 cup chopped peppermint bark

Preheat oven to 375F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream butter and sugars, blending well before adding eggs and vanilla, combine well. Add dry ingredients and combine well. Stir in chocolate chips and peppermint bark.

Drop by teaspoonful, two inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned on edges. Cool on wire racks, store in airtight container.

Yields 50-60 cookies.

Spicy Ginger Snaps

Welcome to post 2 of my promised Holiday baking series of recipes, and the lore that goes with.

These spicy ginger snaps have lots of stories associated with them, not the least of which is about them resonating with a beautiful Italian cousin of ours. Linda loves to eat them when we are all very full at the end of our mom's annual Christmas Open House, because "they're ginger, they settle your stomach, right?"

Yes, Linda, I have promised her. Especially if you eat 2 or 5 or 10 of them!

The original recipe is from the Dahlia Lounge in Seattle, Chef Tom Douglas's first success story in the Pacific Northwest. It was in Fine Cooking magazine, alongside a Pineapple Sorbet recipe. More on the pairing of sorbet with these in a minute ... for now let me just say, YES, for that concept. This recipe was clipped and has been resting in my Christmas cookie file for many years. Each December it is the first to come out. I love the freshly grated ginger in these (I use more than the original recipe), and have added fresh nutmeg because I love it and, nutmeg makes people happy.

Please know that of course, they are delicious the other 11 months of the year as well. They were on the esteemed menu in October of 2002 when my friend Jan and I were committed to "red food" during the LA Angels' run toward the World Series. We believed that if we lit red candles and ate red food each time we were together to watch a postseason game, the gods of baseball would be pleased and, favor the Angels. We ate these cookies alongside (red) Cabernet Sorbet (an incredibly delicious idea and pairing, by the way) during the American League Championship series. The Yankees went home. The Angels went on to play in their first World Series ever and, they won.

The ginger snaps' next claim-to-baseball-fame was in June 2005. It was Derek Lowe's birthday, he was pitching that night, and it was the first time we catered sushi for the LA Dodgers in their clubhouse. He asked us to please not serve him too much of the sushi because he either had, or would get, an upset stomach. I made him a plate of cookies that the guys put by his locker with a Happy Birthday note on a yellow post-it that they had handy. I wrote, "the ginger snaps will settle your stomach". (I learned that from my cousin Linda.) The plate of cookies got a mention in the LA Times the next morning. I still have the clipping!

Later on in life, they became the favorite of one of my beautiful Roman friends, Riccardo. Our friend Bruno was living in LA at the time, and was off to New York to spend New Year's with our friends from Rome, by way of Colorado for Christmas. Bruno and I had breakfast at Philippe's the Saturday before Christmas. (Little sidebar advice here: Take a Roman to Philippe's some time; it's tremendous fun!) I gave Bruno about 6 or 8 containers of homemade cookies to share with Francesca, Diego, and Riccardo in New York. He promised me they'd stay fresh in the Colorado cold. I learned later, that Riccardo's favorites were these ginger snaps when the cookies came out every morning with their espresso. When I visited them in Roma the following spring, I had every intention of baking them while I was there - I'd even brought my own nutmeg grater - but never got the chance to do that. But I was consoled to meet Diego for the first time, and be introduced to him accordingly:

"Remember those cookies in New York? This is THAT Diane!"

It gives me great joy and pleasure to share this recipe. My wish for you, is that they garner new, delicious fame each time they come out of your kitchen. Don't forget to mix in the love!

Riccardo's Favorite Spicy Ginger Snaps
12 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 cubes), softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Cinnamon sugar, for dipping before baking

Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg, molasses, ginger, combine well. Sift dry ingredients and add gradually, stirring until a smooth mixture results. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Using about 1 Tbsp dough, roll into balls; roll each ball in cinnamon sugar. Place about 2" apart on baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool completely and store in airtight container. Yields about 4 dozen cookies; recipe is easily doubled in direct proportion.