Thursday, June 10, 2010

Giveaway: Wine Competition Swag Bag + Tickets to LA County Fair

I was recently invited to preview/taste the winning wines of the 71st Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition, selected from 3,165 wines by 75 judges. Alas, I can't attend the preview because I'm out of town, but they generously offered a gift bag for me to give away to one lucky reader!

The gift bag, valued at $75, will include:

  • A variety of spirits and olive oil samples from this year's competition.
  • A pair of tickets to the L.A. County Fair
  • Vouchers to the wine-tasting seminars at this year's Fair.

Before you enter, make sure you can attend the L.A. County Fair!





You can get up to 2 entries. Here's how to enter:
1. Leave a comment with your contact information below.
2. Tweet: "Win a gift bag($75 value) from LA Int'l Wine Competition via @gourmetpigs! Enter here: http://bit.ly/afgZxL "
Once you tweet, leave me a separate comment telling me you did so (easier for me to count the entries this way).


Once you win, I will contact you for your mailing address and they will mail you your gift bag.

You have until midnight on Thursday, June 17 to enter. Good luck!

~~~~~~~~~~

Also, the LA International Wine & Spirits Competition is also holding a fundraiser, Wine & Cars Under the Stars, where for the first time the public can taste the winning wines. Taking place on June 19, tickets for this event are $100 each and benefit The Learning Centers at Fairplex, which offers educational programming for the community.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Spring Menu at Fleming's Steakhouse

The semi-new L.A. Live next to the Staples Center and Nokia Theatre has certainly livened up downtown LA with its multitude restaurant offerings. One of these restaurants is Fleming's Steakhouse, which recently launched its Spring menu. They held a tasting of their new menu items for a few media/bloggers, but since I couldn't make it, they generously invited me to come at another time. I brought a friend of mine from college in the hopes that feeding him steak might render him more inclined to help me move again if need be, even after the previous moving fiasco with the super-heavy-bed-that-won't-fit-in-the-elevator.

But I digress.

The dimly lit dining room is reminiscent of an old school steakhouse, complete with white vs black napkins (though I was surprised when the server asked which one I wanted, as opposed to looking at what I'm wearing and giving me the one I needed).

Housemade rosemary bread with black pepper butter and chardonnay-infused feta cheese.
Nice herb flavor on the bread, served warm. The black pepper butter was smooth and had a nice kick. I really liked the special feta cheese.

I've never been to a Fleming's before and so I never knew about "Fleming's 100", their list of 100 wines available by the glass, about 30 of which are under $10 per glass. I got a glass of the 2007 Louis Jadot Pinot Noir ($13)

The Chef Partner, Calvin Holladay, came out to greet us and I decided to let him send out whatever he wanted me to try from the new menu offerings.

We started with some Lump Crab Louis Wraps (butter lettuce, avocado, bacon, chives, egg, tomatoes)
This reminds me of a the Chinese lettuce wraps but with BLT + generous lumps of fresh crab. They used fresh quality ingredients including the sweet juicy tomatoes. Can't go wrong. This was probably my favorite of the night.

Roasted Mushroom Ravioli (portobello & shiitake mushrooms, porcini butter sauce)
I also quite liked the pasta. Al dente ravioli filled with earthy and flavorful mushrooms topped with a rich buttery sauce made for a bite to savor. While they don't make the pastas in house, Fleming's worked directly with the producer to develop the pasta they felt was just right for the dish.

Tillamook Bay Petrale Sole (crab beignets, lemon butter sauce)
Lightly breaded and fried, the sole was meaty and topped with Jalapenos and red peppers for extra kick and their crunch helped cut the richness of the dish. The crab and corn beignets were well spiced although after eating a whole one I felt they could be more moist.

Peppercorn Steak (prime NY steak, crushed white & black peppercorns, "F17" sauce)
The peppercorn crust made for a great flavor kick without being overwhelmingly peppery. Even though the steak is a bit overcooked (I ordered it medium rare) and thus tougher than what I normally like, I could easily finish my half because it was flavorful.

Our entrees came with two sides:
Roasted Baby Carrots (golden raisins, toasted almonds)
Let it be known that my friend hates cooked carrots, but for some reason he tried these (perhaps feeling that he should since I'm reviewing it) and loved it. Maybe loved is too strong a word, but he did indeed say it's the best cooked carrot he's ever had and that he can actually eat them and enjoy them.

On my part, the carrots were tender yet not overcooked and still crisp and the golden raisins added a nice extra sweetness.

Sauteed Haricot Vert (French green beans, shiitake mushrooms, porcini essence)
A simple dish of green beans elevated by the umami-ful garnish.

I knew that the friend that I took here was a huge cheesecake fan, so when the waiter said that their cheesecakes are the best, I decided to order it for us.
New York style cheesecake with blueberry sauce.
Light and fluffy, this cheesecake is not overwhelmingly sweet as some cheesecakes can be. The richness and slight tanginess of the cheesecake are complemented well by the blueberry sauce.

I forgot to write down the prices but appetizers were around $15-20 and the steak was around $30-35.

I have to say as far as chain steakhouses go, Fleming's pleasantly surprised me. Of course, because they had invited me they probably paid extra attention to the food they served that night, but it seemed that they did not slack off in choosing good ingredients, especially the produce the appetizers and side dishes. Being a steakhouse, their steak did not disappoint either with both the natural flavor from the meat and their spices and sauce. Next time I'll have to make sure to get it a bit more rare and it should be just right.


Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
800 W Olympic Blvd Ste 113
Los Angeles, CA 90015
(213) 745-9911
www.flemingssteakhouse.com
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar on Urbanspoon
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse in Los Angeles on Fooddigger

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Cookie Party at BakeLAB + Secret Tips for a Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

When a former Clementine and Providence/La Mill pastry chef opens a bakery ... Well, you can be sure she'll make some good stuff. But Kristin Feuer, a Le Cordon Bleu graduate, goes beyond. With painstaking experimentation, Kristin at BakeLAB has perfected cookies.

Timed perfectly on National Chocolate Chip Cookie day, BakeLAB held a cookie party for some media and bloggers. All girls. It's a dessert party, mister.

Kristin Feuer (right) and her partner Jill (left)

I meant to just eat a little bit of cookies, I really did. But then ... they were unexpectedly good. I mean, ridiculously good.

From the iced oatmeal cookies that are like an upscale Mother's cookie...

... to the best ginger molasses cookies I've ever had.
It's the moistness of the inside of the cookie, juxtaposed with the nice sugar crackle on the outer layer. It's that chewiness, that nice gingery fragrance.

Of course, it won't be a proper Nat'l Chocolate Chip Cookie Day without chocolate chip cookies.
Kristin has perfected these chocolate chip cookies. Kristin demonstrated to us how to make them, giving us secret tips along the way and the science behind them. These are things you and I never think about while baking a cookie, but Kristin has spend all her time doing just that. This is a BakeLAB after all! (More on these tips later!)

Ultimately, it was the Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie that everyone raved about. Peanut Butter Sandwich? Yes, she makes it with a dollop of cookie dough, topped with peanut butter, and topped that again with cookie dough. Sandwich, see?
Now it's chewy cookie dough, creamy peanut butter center, and that nice sugar crackle crust. Oh, my ...

Bakelab also sells cupcakes, cakes, etc, all decorated with Kristin's cool artistic sensibilities -- their awesome science-themed shirts and aprons can attest to this.
I didn't get to try any of their cupcake/cake, but considering their amazing cookies, these are probably pretty good as well. I am inclined to order their Shark Attack! cupcake that's decorated with a sharkfin-shaped fondant ...

After we stuffed ourselves with these little morsels, Kristin and Jill took us to their kitchen/"lab" and gave us a little demo to make the perfect cookies.
You don't need a special recipe of list of ingredients to make way better cookies than you've ever made before. She made chocolate chip cookies using the basic recipes you can find on the back of any mass-produced chocolate chip packages.
The key is the little things Kristin had discovered after countless experimentations. Luckily, you don't have to go through the same effort and trials as she shared these amazing tips with us:
  1. Don't cream the butter & sugar any longer than 1 1/2 minutes. Too much air from overcreaming=a flat cookie.
  2. Beat the dough for a quick "one, two" count just beyond the point when the flour is incorporated. You'll make a little more gluten for plumper cookies.
  3. Chilling the dough overnight allows subtle nutty and toffee flavors to develop.
  4. Bake cookies from frozen dough; cookies will be much rounder.
  5. Pull cookies from the oven when there is still a pale circle in the middle of the cookie.


You can order BakeLAB's treats online at www.bakelab.com or www.foordoro.com or call (310) 330-9055. Cookies are $2 each with a minimum order of a dozen.

You can also find them at Yummy.com (in Playa Vista, Santa Monica, West Hollywood), Oaks Gourmet in Franklin Village, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

Oh, they're also holding a series of classes in the summer from cookie baking to decorating to S'mores! http://tinyurl.com/gotclass

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