Supermarket Superstar Hits Lifetime TV With Creative Food

I'm a bit late but there's a new food competition: Supermarket Superstar on Lifetime TV! Have you started watching it?
Basically these are for folks who want to get their food products on supermarket shelves nationwide and each week has a theme (desserts, spreads, etc). They had a preview of the actual food that would be on the show a few weeks back, and I was impressed by the creativity of many of them! The show is now set for Thursdays at 10:30pm.

Each episode has a theme, like "snacks" or "sauces" or "baked goods". Here's what you should watch for (and what I'm rooting for):
Chimales from Dominic Lau, the guy behind Don Chow Taco Truck

Just like Don Chow, the concept is Mexican food meets Chinese. These are tamales spiced with Chinese five spice and stuffed with Kung Pao Chicken (complete with peanut toppings).

Fried chicken bao from Ben Vancleave, set for the episode of Snacks.

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Playing at Zengo's Test Kitchen

The term fusion has been thrown around for many years and the boundaries have been blurred. At Zengo in Santa Monica, they play around with a changing Test Kitchen menu, combining flavors from specific countries. I tried the Test Kitchen menu combining Hong Kong with San Juan, Puerto Rico flavors, which included items like Chicarron-plantain mofongo shumai, ground pork, chicharron, black vinegar, XO sauce

This was quite an interesting combination. The dumpling skin was nice and thin and while there were traditional Chinese flavors here, the mofongo was very distinctive.

The Adobo sweet n sour BBQ pork ribs were quite tender. They were served with papa rellena, bacon, Jack cheese, chayote slaw

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$45 4-Course Menu at Scarpetta, Every Day

Were you excited about Scarpetta's $45 DineLA menu? Are you bummed you missed it? If you answer yes to either of those, you might want to know that Scarpetta's had a $45 4-course prix fixe menu for a while now and is continuing it after DineLA.

I'll say it again: you can get a 4 course meal at Scarpetta for $45 any day.

All meals start with a bread basket that many consider to be the best in LA. Do try the Stromboli (they have a vegetarian version with broccolini which is equally delicious).

Now, on to the prix fixe menu. There are two options for each course, which will change seasonally. When I went last month the first course option included:

Tuscan Kale, red quinoa, medjool dates, and pecorino romano

It's hard to beat a well done kale salad, and this is definitely one of them.

The other options is a Braised Short Rib of Beef, vegetable, and farro risotto

It's certainly a heavier appetizer, but they were both good and will satisfy whichever mood you're in.

The second course is the pasta, or "Paste":
Spinach Pappardelle, housemade duck sausage ragu, morel mushrooms, and ramps

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