Friday, September 6, 2013

Pedalers Fork (Calabasas, CA): Where Bikers Meet Food and Cocktails

Pedalers Fork in Calabasas is where a restaurant meets a bike shop, opened by two good friends who combined their respective passions (one loves food, one loves biking). It's a bit of a drive but I finally managed to come here on my way to taking my mom to the outlet mall. The restaurant is spacious, with high ceilings and more seats on the second floor. On a good day, head outside to sit next to the creek and watch people get to work on the bike shop - you'll get the feeling this is what California is all about.

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View of the bike shop
 It was early in the day but since the cocktails here were designed by Marcos Tello and Aidan Demarest so I had to try one. Or a few.
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IMG_6127 The menu's probably changed by now (I know, I'm slow!), but I enjoyed the Second Gear (rye, coffee infused Punt e Mes, Maraschino, and coffee bean float) and Rye Hummingbird Down (Chartreuse, rye, honey and lemon). It's a solid cocktail menu - probably the best one in the Calabasas area - you can hardly go wrong.

My mom and aunt don't eat much, so we decided to share two dishes and a dessert between the three of us.
Seared Albacore Tuna sandwich with avocado, chili vinaigrette, savoy cabbage, cucumber kimchi, rainbow carrot ($15). I chose the mixed greens as a side.
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They give you a pretty thick cut of tuna. The cucumber kimchi is not very spicy or pungent but added a nice flavor regardless.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Eating Around LA County Fair

The annual LA County Fair started this past weekend at the Fairplex in Pomona and will go on until September 29. Yes, there's petting zoo (and milking demonstration), Esmeralda's Traveling Circus, magic show, safari show, sharks, and all that, but you know I'm all about the food. As usual, there are tons of fun food around. Fair food!

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Chicken Charlie's always has some fun items. This year's includes Krispy Kreme Burger or Sloppy Joe (two mini glazed donuts with either a burger patty or sloppy joe in the middle), deep fried Twinkies, bacon wrapped pickles ...
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Deep fried twinkie
There's also a deep fried Dodger Dog although I didn't try this. Where's the chicken in Chicken Charlie, you ask? They do have chicken kebabs which looked pretty good, but everyone's here for the deep fried creations.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Recipe: Evan Kleiman's Chicken Pot Pie With Duck-Butter Dough

Remember when I took that pie making class with Evan Kleiman and Sherry Yard as a fundraiser for KCRW? Well, here's Evan's amazing chicken pot pie recipe. I get hungry thinking about this pie!

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The first part is, of course, the pie dough. Evan uses part butter and part duck fat for her chicken pot pie dough. Love ...

Evan Kleiman's Duck-Butter Dough
Ingredients:
12 oz flour
pinch of salt
5 oz high fat butter (Plugra, Kerrygold) cut into 5 pieces, chilled
3 oz rendered duck fat, pulled into 3 pieces, chilled
4 to 5 oz ice cold water

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Toss the butter and duck fat lumps around until they are coated with flour. Use a pastry cutter or your fingers to mix the fats and flour together until you have a mixture with uneven crumbles, some as big as almonds and some as small as peas.
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Add the water a tablespoon at a time, fluffing up the mixture after each addition with a fork. Once you can create a clump by squeezing the dough in your fist it has enough water. Don't worry if it's a little shaggy, as long as it sticks together.

Divide the dough in half and form into flat discs.
Dump the crumbly mixture onto your work surface and bring the mass together by first pushing it away from you with the heel of your hand then gathering it up with a bench scraper. Repeat if necessary. Here's a video of Evan's instructions on rolling the dough:


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