sha in LA

R.I.P. Tofu Festival

Usually around this time of year I get giddy with excitement at the thought of attending the Tofu Festival which coincides with Nisei Week in Little Tokyo.  However it looks like the festival has run its course on the L.A. landscape.  The good people at the Little Tokyo Service Center have decided to call it quits after a stunning 12 year run.

I've attended the Tofu Festival for the past 4 years and always had a great time trying new and innovative dishes involving the loving little bean curd.  My least favorite part of the experience was walking around on hot asphalt and sweating profusely in the brutal August sun, but that never steered me, nor thousands of others, away.  However after last year's event, which had to find a new home due to construction in the parking lot they had previously held the festival, one could sense that the end was near.

To that end, I was going to share with everyone my beloved official recipe for Tofu Tostadas from the Church of Perfect Liberty but in looking for the recipe just now I realized that I lost it in the fire.  Very sad.  And a brief online search for it yielded nothing as well, so here it goes from memory and how I normally make them:

1 block of firm tofu
green pepper
yellow pepper
tomato
green onion
chopped cilantro
lime juice
minced fresh garlic
salt & pepper

Chop up veggies and put in a large bowl with the cilantro, lime juice, garlic and S&P.  Cube the tofu and add into the veggie mix.  Toss gently and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes for the flavors to absorb into the tofu.  Dish a heaping spoonful onto a hard tostada shell and enjoy!

Obviously you can alter this recipe to suit your tastes, so get creative and have some fun.

Me and my tofu bunny are now going to have a moment of silence for the Tofu Festival.

x

Banquette's Sunday Supper

Banquette, a quaint little cafe located near the corner of 4th & Main in Downtown, recently began hosting a Sunday Supper which consists of an “informal family style 3 course meal” for $15 per person.  I had the pleasure of attending one of these dinners back on June 22^nd and LOVED it.  Seating is at 7pm and diners are paired up intuitively with tables ranging in size from 2 – 6 people.  I made a single reservation and they sat me with Bert Green (and 4 others) after finding out that I was a blogger and we were most likely friends.  It’s a great way to meet fellow like minded individuals who enjoy great food in a great city!!

 

I ate every single bite of our delicious meal which consisted of the menu below:

 

Beet, Cucumber & Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese

Salmon with Fennel, Basil and Tomato

Summer String Beans with New Potatoes
Polenta Pound Cake with Berries

 

This Sunday they are having another Supper and I’d go again in a heartbeat if I didn’t already have Independent Shakespeare reservations for Henry IV at Barnsdall Park.

 

All the information you need, including the drink specials, is listed below.  You MUST RSVP if you are planning on attending as seating is very limited.  And if you can’t make it this week then keep an eye here as I will link future menus as they are offered.

 

x

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Hey Everyone,

This Sunday is on again for another Supper at Banquette.

And we have a special treat - our friend Luca Loffredo, former chef of
Prego in San Francisco and Cheebo here in LA is cooking!

We don't know how long we'll be doing these, so come, eat good food,
drink great wine and hang out with your neighbors on the Main St. Cote d'Azur!

Once again we invite you join us this Sunday, July 13
for an informal family style three course meal.

--------- Luca's Menu-----------

Frisee Salad with Potato, Olive and Tomato

Roasted Pork Loin in Lemon and Thyme

Caponata (Sicilian Eggplant Relish, so good with pork!)

Orzo Pasta with Summer Vegetables

Frozen Zabaglione with Marinated Balsamic Berries

-------------------------

$15 per person

We are offering this menu only

No meat substitutions - Pasta and Caponata are Vegetarian

Pitchers of sangria $12
Featured wine 10% off
Regular wine and beer available too!

Food served from 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Bar open till 10pm

Seating is limited.

RSVP at Banquette or call 213-626-2768 with your name and phone number
e-mail to [email protected]

Banquette Cafe
400 S. Main Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013
(at the corner of 4th and Main, next to Pete's)

 

seven grand again!

[photo by lordjulius]

I may get converted to whiskey/burbon/scotch sooner than expected if I keep up this Seven Grand stint I'm on these days....once a week for the past 3.

My Wednesday started with an email from a fellow swing dancer asking about restaurant recommendations in Downtown as he and his wife would be having dinner with a visiting dancer this evening and heading over to Seven Grand afterwards. I sent him a laundry list of ideas within the vicinity and he invited me to tag along. I jumped at the chance because more often than not I'm forced to decline due to various extenuating circumstances.

Upon sitting down at the bar I immediately went into "the usual" mode. Then I had a sip of a specialty drink that had a name that sounded like a lovely jazz singer from a previous era, and it was tasty....and it was made with one of those dark alcohols listed above. Upon a second perusal of the menu I noticed a specialty drink made with blackberries and burbon. On a whim I tried it, and it was deeeelish! And with that I'm temporarily converted, at least when it comes to whiskey bars named Seven Grand.

x

Colori Kitchen

In the newly created and ongoing saga of my life outside the theatre, I now present you with What I Did...on my first Friday of freedom.

I have been bugging Neon Boy and The Gentrifier about checking out Colori Kitchen for oh, I don't know, maybe 3 months. The one problem being that dinner hours for the restaurant are somewhat limited to nights when I have shows....Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Not so last night, so we decided to check it out.

We arrived just a smidge before 8pm and were able to get seated immediately, the place was packed but they were able to shove two tables together to accommodate us. That was nice. The restaurant is tucked into a little storefront along 8th just a few steps from the Golden Gopher. The interior is inviting with brick walls, dim lighting, an open kitchen and an atmosphere that is decidedly not Los Angeles. I kept feeling as if I were in another city, like San Francisco or Seattle.

We perused the menu, came up with our selections and then were promptly shot down when 2 of the requested items on the specials menu were already sold out. That was a bummer but ultimately a blip on the radar as everything else was incredibly delicious. For starters we all shared a bowl of Tortilla Soup that was "lick the bowl clean" amazing. Now mind you, prior to leaving for the restaurant Neon Boy asked if I had my camera, which I did, so we left his at home. Unbeknownst to me, my battery was in serious demise and the ONLY picture I was able to get of the evening was of the empty soup bowl:

So do you think we liked it? We used the bread to sop up any remaining soup. Yes, we liked it. A lot.

Next up was the main course. I had the salmon with veggies, perfectly grilled with a mustard seed sauce drizzled lightly on the fish. Neon Boy had pasta with tri-color cauliflower and The Gentrifier had some sort of salmon and pasta dish. I'd have taken pictures but I couldn't. I can tell you though that there was not a morsel of food on our plates when they were cleared from the table. And darn it, we all agreed that we would have to go back with a functioning camera sometime soon, real soon. We also agreed that it was just good cookin' at reasonable prices. Granted there's no alcoholic beverage service (however you can bring your own wine, free corkage) but dinner for the 3 of us with an appetizer AND dessert was under $50.

So with all the money we saved at Colori Kitchen we decided to have a nightcap at Seven Grand afterwards as our good friend George was one of the many behind the bar.

Overall it was a lovely evening that started with frantic phone calls from my theatre people as we were arriving at dinner and ended with a toast to good food and good friends at a whiskey bar.

x

Super Fat Tuesday Night in Downtown

Many thanks to LAist and Answer With Action for hosting a Super Fat Tuesday Election Night Party at Seven Grand last night. Neon Boy and I arrived shortly before 8pm knowing full well that we were too late to be one of the 1st 75 in attendance and eligible for the “first drink on us” aspect to the evening. That didn’t matter, we had already called ahead to the Los Angeles Pizza Company and would be shortly receiving the best pizza in town for all to ogle at. Much better than a free drink, right?

The place was lively to say the least, and I was quite thrilled to find a perch smack dab in the middle of it all. Numerous members and close associates of the 3BN were in attendance and we all had a chance to catch up with each other which was nice. I also introduced myself to the newly appointed editor of LAist, Zach Behrens, who seems like the most genuine and down to earth guy you could ever meet.

We weren’t able to stay for long as I had to meet up with a friend over at the newly renovated Eastern Columbia Lofts around 9:30. Neon Boy and The Gentrifier had yet to see the interior so we all walked over there together. An hour and a half later (most of that time was spent on the pool deck taking pictures) 2/3rds of us stopped by the Golden Gopher for a nightcap.

[the one picture deemed worthy enough for publishing from my camera]

Overall it was a rather tame evening by our usual standards. Maybe we’re getting old. Actually, according to my calendar it looks as if that statement is true…

x

p.s. would Super Fat be a Baby Fat on steriods?

as seen recently

one of these things is not like the other...

some random mail

Received in the mail a few days ago...

[imbibe magazine]

...is someone trying to tell me something?

x

eatin' 'gina

Numerous bloggers and regular folk from the 3BN were in attendance at Pastagina last Friday night for a taste test.

Angelenic enjoyed some 'gina and claimed it was finger lickin' good!

Trained Monkey agreed.

5th and Spring seemed to enjoy her Chicken Carbonara 'gina.

Central City East has a mouthful of....yeah, you get the idea.

I ate 3 different 'ginas due to a slight kitchen mishap. First receiving the Primavera, then receiving Celia's and finally getting the Chicken Mushroom that I had originally ordered. (I liked Celia's best).

Overall everyone agreed that I was better than we had expected. After having our fun with the jokes we got down to business and had a very productive meeting regarding various ongoing issues. And oddly enough, I was craving Pastagina on Saturday night....

x

A Taste of 'Gina

Ready or not, here we come. A slew of various people will be gathering at the newly opened Pastagina in Little Tokyo this coming Friday Rocktober 12th at 7pm for the official Taste of 'Gina.

And by no means is this an exclusive event, the invitation is open to all. Although I hear it's not a big place so it may get a little cramped...no mind though, we can eat it anywhere. We can eat it in a chair or we can eat it in the air, we can eat it in our car, we can eat it at the bar! There are a number of places to eat 'gina in Downtown!!!

x

reviews and previews

Y’all probably don’t want to hear about the rip roaring good times that were had at the LAX Marriott this past weekend at Camp Hollywood. The staying up late, the sleeping in, the lounging by the pool and having drinks brought to me by various sources, the dances, the socializing, the laughs and the drama of it all are boring stories for those not in the know. Suffice to say, we had fun.

Upcoming events on the horizon include a possible appearance at National Night Out on Tuesday and most definitely an appearance at the Tofu Festival in 2 Sundays where I will consume many a Tofu Tostada.

Other than that I’ll be spending 3 nights of the week at the theatre running lights and sound for a show that the LA Times, LA Weekly, Variety and Backstage West all found intriguing. Will you?

x