Dine Out this Holiday: Affordable Christmas Eve/Day Menus

We all know most restaurants jack up their prices on holidays, but that doesn't mean you can't dine out in style and still make it under budget. Here are a few options under $50. (PS. Eva's $39 family style dinner is the same price as their normal Sunday family dinners!)

Christmas Eve

Eva Restaurant. $39 Family-style dinner.
On the menu: Salted Prime Rib Roast, Whole Roasted Organic Chicken, Creamed Spinach, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Butterscotch Pudding.

7458 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036. T: (323)634-0700.

Nick + Stef's Steakhouse. $45 for 3 courses.
On the menu: Wild mushroom and mascarpone tortelloni, Roasted black cod with winter truffle sauce, and Bûche simplicity.
330 S Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071. T: (213)680-0330.

Christmas Day

Oliverio at the Avalon Hotel. $48 for 4 courses.
Choices include cauliflower souffle, veal ravioli with cheese and truffle fondue, roasted sea bass with cabbage and porcini, and cranberry parfait.
9400 W Olympic Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. T: (310) 277-5221.

La Cachette Bistro Switches to Tapas Menu for the New Year

La Cachette Bistro is switching to a French-Mediterranean tapas menu come the end of this month. In the meantime, though, you can start ordering items from the new menu as well as the current menu.

A couple of weeks ago, Chef Jean Francois Meteigner offered a tasting of about 10 items for $50 per person. I think I got a few extra dishes when I went, but since blogging about all of them would result in a very, very long post, I'll just give you the highlights (which were still almost all of them ...) to let you know what you can expect. A few were paired with wines chosen by their sommelier, who had to be on her feet since this was the first night Chef Meteigner served the new menu items. I'd say she did a good job, though!

Many of the current menu items make an appearance, just in smaller portions.
We started with the Foie gras terrine and duck rillete with fig jam. Paired with Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc, Baron de Rothschild Collection, Bordeaux, 2008.

Foie gras and fig, a match made in heaven.

Bacon wrapped dates

Sure, bacon-wrapped dates are everywhere now, but I like how the bacon here is particularly crispy. This was paired with a grenache that I had originally thought to be too young, but in fact paired very nicely with each decadent bite.

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All You Can Eat for $1?! Kopi Klotok (Secang, Central Java, Indonesia)

All you can eat for $1? Am I serious? It's less than $1 actually (Rp.8,500 to be exact). In the small towns of Indonesia, such things are still possible.
If you've never heard of the town Secang in Central Java, you're not the only one. I never heard of it either until this trip and even now it will just be that town we had to drive through to get to my mom's hometown (Magelang) from Semarang (the closest airport unaffected by the erupting Merapi volcano).

None of us were hungry after lunch but when we were told about the AYCE for Rp.8,500 at Kopi Klotok that's supposed to be good, all of us said "why not?" Turns out they had quite a few of traditional Javanese items even I haven't tried before, like this Buntil, made with coconut, anchovies, green chili, wrapped and steamed in papaya leaf.

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