Wednesday, March 1, 2017

by CHLOE Brings Vegan Comforts to Boston Seaport

by CHLOE, a New York-based casual vegan restaurant, finally opened a location in Boston. The first Boston location is in the Seaport district while a second store in Fenway is on the way. I attended their opening preview, sampling a lot of vegan dishes and desserts. I am surprised to say, I really enjoyed these vegan dishes! And you should all know I'm a carnivore by now.

They have pastas and salads, of course, but also other classic comfort food items that somehow tasted really good even as a vegan version.
by CHLOE
For example, the "mac n cheese". The "cheese" is a sweet potato cashew vegan cheese, and the mac n cheese was topped with crispy shiitake "bacon"
by CHLOE
The Guac Burger is quite popular, and I can see. It's made with a black bean-quinoa-sweet potato patty and topped with corn salsa, guacamole, onion, tortilla strips, chipotle aioli on a whole grain bun. It was very flavorful!
by CHLOE
by CHLOE location in Seaport also has Boston-only specials, like the "lobster roll".

Monday, February 27, 2017

LA Times Food Bowl: A Month-long Festival Around Sustainability, Food Waste, and Hunger

May is going to be a good month for Los Angeles food lovers. The LA Times is launching a month-long food festival in Los Angeles, dubbed the LA Times Food Bowl. The event is inviting restaurants, bars, and other venues all over the city to participate. The festival anticipates to have hundreds of events throughout the city, showcasing LA's culinary diversity while promoting awareness about food waste and hunger.

photo credit: Jennifer Johnson
Some special events have been lined up, featuring international guest chefs Massimo Bottura from Italy, Fergus Hendersom from UK, Magnus Nilsson from Sweden, and Rosio Sanchez from Denmark.
The central event of the Food Bowl will be the Night Market, which will be held on five consecutive nights in Grand Park on May 10-14. The Night Market will feature 50 food booths and themed bars.

Restaurants, bars, hotels, etc are invited to hold a special event at their venue and can register their event for the month-long FOOD BOWL by March 1 via this link.
They can also submit an application to participate at the Night Market via this link.

For the rest of us who are not in the industry, stay tuned for the full event lineup and details on the Night Market!

Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Butcher, The Baker, The Cappuccino Maker (West Hollywood, CA)

by guest blogger @btsunoda of Discovering LA

The Butcher, The Baker, The Cappuccino Maker takes it name from the famous nursery rhyme (the Butcher, The Baker, and the Candlestick Maker in the nursery rhyme Rub-a-dub-dub). They cleverly substitute candlestick maker with cappuccino maker and it works quite well for their concept. They opened a few weeks ago and I recently paid them a visit.
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BBCM is located in the iconic Sunset West Plaza. This is a popular destination visited by the locals due to the chic shops and outdoor cafes. People in the know take advantage of the free parking available behind each business.

The intent behind The Butcher, The Baker, The Cappuccino Maker is one of community. Breakfast was central to their strategy and so they created a bakery as the foundation. Not wanting to be breakfast-only, they designed their menu to incorporate their seasonal farm to table cuisine for lunch and dinner.

The appearance is one of a classy European cafe. 
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The use of marble is extensive; the counter top for the bar is a large block of marble and even the plates are made of marble. The outside is landscaped with beautiful 100 year-old olive trees and there are quite a few tables available for al fresco dining.

The kitchen is led by the duo of Executive Chefs Ren Nisenbaum (formerly of Jaleo, Washington, D.C. and Morimoto and Jean Georges in NYC) and Craig Hopson (formerly of Le Cirque, Picholine and Beautique in NYC) and features seasonal local farm-fresh ingredients.

Consistent with their European bakery foundation, they use the French galette for some of their dishes. I tried two of their galetes: the Beef Short Rib with cherries, arugula and boursin was tasty. The use of cherries blended extremely well with the beef short ribs.  IMG_2855
I especially enjoyed the Galette of Bacalhau. The flavors of mushrooms, jalapeƱos and a sunny side up egg worked extremely well with the salted dried cod.
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Other highlights from my visit:
Chestnut Pappardelle - The rich taste of duck and mushrooms permeated the pasta noodles and transformed the pasta to a nice savory taste.
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