I love food that is hearty and comforting, stews, slow braises, and meat sauce anything just to name a few. When I go out to Italian restaurants, I have to force myself from ordering the ragu or bolognese. I can’t help but gravitate to it because I know it’s probably gonna be solid with no…
Tag: italian
Drago Centro
I dunno who started the tradition of the “First Paycheck Dinner” in my family. Somehow it went from, “Oh, gee whiz a nice dinner on your tab? How nice!” to “Dude, where’s my ‘first pay check dinner’? I’m waiting…I’m waiting!!” I can’t even remember what dinners I was treated to by Smooth Obturator and Triple F. I remember…
Oxtail Ragu
Sometimes, I am limited to cooking certain things because ingredients are either prohibitively expensive or not conveniently obtainable. I would say this about duck, rack of lamb, and some seafoods. Surprisingly, one of the Asian supermarkets here has oxtails, which I guess is no surprise since Asians do use oxtails. Granted when the Asian markets…
DOC
Big Spoon has been raving about DOC for sometime, so finally there was an occasion to celebrate. I took Dumpling Man here for his birthday. We were quite surprised by the “quaint” or “humble” design of the restaurant, which feels more like you’re eating in someone’s house. Walking into the restaurant puts you immediately in…
Bottega
Michael Chiarello has made quite a name for himself by being one of the 3 finalists in the first season of Top Chef Masters. Let’s be honest, the first season was the only season worth mentioning. Subsequent seasons have been pretty lackluster. Anyways, I was pretty impressed with Chef Chiarello’s mastery of Italian cuisine, so…
Ricotta Gnochi with Sausage and Fennel
Making your own pasta looks so easy. Mix some flour, water, eggs, etc and roll out the dough and presto! I’ve been wanting to try it but I haven’t gotten around to it. Instead, I’ve tried making my own ricotta gnocchi, also known as gnudi, which apparently means “naked.” I guess these are supposed to…
Batali’s Basic Tomato Sauce
Who knew making your own tomato sauce could be so easy and tasty! When I bought Mario Batali’s cookbook, Molto Italiano, I was excited to get down and dirty with some of his recipes. But first, I’d have to make my own sauce. I was surprised at how such few basic ingredients could make a subtle…
Roman Style Chicken
So after a couple days of eating rice, I got a little tired. I wanted to mix things up and try out an Italian recipe from Giada De Laurentiis, who is turning out to be my favorite and most reliable Food Network chefs. I’ve found her recipes to be pretty simple and tasty to boot. …
Bencotto
Since we were staying in the Gaslamp district of Downtown San Diego, we decided to check out Little Italy, which was fairly close by. Who doesn’t like pasta?! Fiori di Zucca Ripieni lightly fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta and smoked mozarella I’ve never actually tried zucchini blossoms before, but who knew a flower could be…
Osteria Mozza
Behold! One of the BEST restaurants in LA! My first trip to Osteria Mozza was a mindblowing experience, but my camera and my inexperienced skills resulted in some pretty mediocre pictures. This time around, I came prepared with the H.o.P. and an SLR camera in tow, courtesy of Running Man, of course. Osteria Mozza is…
Cube Cafe & Marketplace
So it was my birthday a few weeks back and I wanted to celebrate with a week-long festival of eating. If you know me, you know that I don’t like to dine in large groups with a few exceptions of course (Korean bbq, potlucks, etc). So I celebrated my birthday with separate groups of friends…
Osteria Mamma
There are just too many Osterias in town. From Mozza, La Buca, Angelini, and Mamma, it’s quite difficult to keep them all straight. The common theme for all these restaurants stems from the meaning of “osteria” which “in Italian literally means a place where the owner ‘hosts’ people, or an Italian-style eating establishment, similar to…
Overworked. Underfed. 