Seasons 52, Now Serving Delicious Low Calorie Food at Westfield CenturyCity

When you want something healthy but still tastes good while shopping at the Westfield Century City, head over to the newly opened Seasons 52. Everything on the menu is under 500 calories and they use no butter and no fryer. They also have one hundred wines on their list, 62 of them available by the glass.

I was recently invited to a preview tasting in one of their private dining rooms.

Our visit started on the patio with a glass of Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Sainte Anne, a small grower champagne, and a lemon verbena mojito.

So the verbena used in the mojito, along with a bunch of other herbs used in different dishes come from plants grown on site. There are some herbs on the side of the patios and there is a small "Chef's Garden" room near the entrance, and you can peer in through the glass door as the chefs harvest the herbs throughout the day.

There's a large patio area and it was surprisingly quiet for being next to Santa Monica Blvd.

We started with a crispy Chipotle shrimp flatbread with roasted poblano, grilled pineapple and feta cheese

Then we went into the dining room for our tasting. For an amuse bouche, we had dungeness crab and Haas avocado, pico de gallo, finger lime. This was paired with Aveleda Vinho Verde, Portugal 2011

I think this was my first time having finger lime, which was very tart, but all the components worked well together. The vinho verde is made with half a dozen native Portuguese varieties and is crisp and clean.

Next is a course I've had at the Costa Mesa Seasons 52:
Organic salmon on cedar plank, lemongrass skewered sea scallop, farmers market vegetables

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Learning to Make Okonomiyaki! (Recipe)

No, I'm not talking about going to Gaja and putting the batter on the grill, but actually making okonomiyaki from scratch! It's one of the many classes that Yoko Issasi teaches in her Japanese Foodstory class. Each of her small group class takes place in a small studio downtown, around a large wooden table that she outfitted herself.

OKONOMIYAKI RECIPE
First, you have to make the flour mix, which is:
1 cup or 4 oz of weak flour, can be substituted by cake flour
1 cup dashi stock, and ..

1/2 cup yamaimo (slimy yam)

If you've never had yamaimo .. it's a yam like you've never had. When you grate the yam, you will get a bowl of slimy stuff!

In a large bowl, put weak (or cake) flour with dashi stock. Whisk well until smooth, then add grated yamaimo and mix well.

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Foie Gras Fantasy Comes True at Mistral Kitchen (Seattle, WA)

It was our last night in Seattle, and it dawned on me that I had not had foie gras while eating my way in another state! I suddenly started craving it and convinced everyone else to go eat foie with me. Our Seattleite friend suggested Mistral Kitchen. Seeing they had seared foie gras on the menu and the fact that it was nearby we decided on it.

We originally just wanted to come here for some foie and drinks and ordered some Seared Foie Gras to share ($19)

We haven't had it in so long and the seared foie was so good! We also had to get the Foie Gras Torchon, black mission fig balsamic compote ($15)

We were pretty hungry by this point and since both the foie gras dishes were really good, we decided to eat dinner here after all. At this point I was going to order the lamb loin. We were sitting at the bar and I joked to the bartender that it would be awesome if they could put the seared foie on the lamb. Our bartender said that sure we can! They make dreams come true here!

Woah. So we customized our own dish.

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