Mini Food Cart Crawl: Nong's Khao Man Gai and The People's Pig (Portland, OR)

On my second trip to Portland, a food cart visit was a must, and why not try what is perhaps the most famous of them all: Hainanese chicken and rice at Nong's Khao Man Gai ($6.75)

The order I shared with e*starLA was breast meat. It was tender, but not incredibly special. Instead, the garlicky sauce is really what it's all about! Douse the meat and rice with plenty of it (extra sauce goes for $1).

I don't normally like chicken breast that much, though, and I should've been wiser and ordered like Eat Recklessly did. She asked for dark meat and said yes to the crispy skin! Her plate was 10x better than mine was. I am definitely asking for dark meat and getting the skin next time around.

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The Roof on Wilshire: New Year's Day Brunch Is Never a Good Deal

One of my pet peeves is when I sit down at a bar for the first time and the bartender asks what they can get for me without giving me the menu. "Uh, the menu, please" is typically my response. This one takes it a bit further. As he handed me the menu, he says that they have specialty cocktails but they can make me whatever I wanted, like Jack n Coke ... Right. Either he thinks I'm a Jack kind of girl or that's all he knows how to make, but either way it did not seem promising.

I had chosen The Roof on Wilshire for New Year's Day brunch partly because I remembered reading good things about their hot cocktail menu. Granted, Caroline's review was from winter the year before, but I was hoping maybe they'd kept at least some of them - or the quality - for a year. I didn't see any hot drinks listed, though, so I asked the bartender. Apparently the page with the hot drinks list was missing from the menu I had, so he said he'd get me one. Ten minutes later he asked what I wanted to order. "Um, the hot drinks list?"
"Oh, yeah!"

This happened two more times. Luckily I had plenty of time waiting for my party of ten friends who are always late.

Finally, I got the "hot drinks list" which only consisted of a hot toddy and some kahlua whipped cream concoction. That was what I waited 20 minutes to read? Huh. I finally settled on a jalapeno-mezcal cocktail. Not bad, quite spicy.

Finally my table is ready and my friends arrived. The New Year's brunch deal here was a "3-course" meal for around $25 if I remember correctly.
The first course listed some bread and pastry selection, but as I tried placing an order for a croissant, they said they're just bringing a "bread basket" to the table. The "basket" turned out to be this plate. Not bad, but ... the same plate that they brought for the 10 of us they brought to tables of 4. There's also only one croissant and one bacon cheddar biscuit. Which meant I didn't get any. I asked them for more croissant about half a dozen times, which were always answered with "I'll bring them right out" but never appeared.

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Suzanne Goin's SAG Awards Menu + Slow-Roasted Salmon with Green Rice Recipe

Suzanne Goin is one of the most established chefs in Los Angeles with the long-standing Lucques and AOC and the newer Tavern and The Hungry Cat, so it should come as no surprise that Lucques Catering was chosen to cater the Screen Actors Guild Awards for the 4th year in a row.

The 19th SAG Awards will take place on Sunday, January 27 at the Shrine Exposition Center. Goin will prepare three dishes on the same plate composed of: Roasted beets and blood oranges with feta and black olives, Slow-roasted salmon with green rice, labneh, capers and nasturtiums, and Beef tenderloin with fingerlings, arugula, and horseradish cream.

The vegan option has the feta removed from the beet salad and the other two dishes replaced by Cauliflower couscous with pomegranate salsa and Farro with kale, young broccoli, currants and pine nuts.

The food will be served with Champagne Taittinger and wines from Gallo.

The slow-roasted salmon was my favorite of all the dishes, with incredible texture and that amazing green rice, so I am sharing her recipe here!

Slow Roasted Salmon with Green Rice, Labneh, Capers and Nasturtium

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