French macarons are not as easy to find at bakeries as chewy, coconut macaroons are. While I am a big fan of a good coconut macaroon, I like finding a place that sells great macarons even more because I encounter it so much less frequently. One place in Los Angeles that sells great macarons – and lots of them – is Bottega Louie in downtown LA. Bottega Louie is a beautiful French bistro and gourmet market that has a great bakery section and a huge selection of macarons – amongst other goodies.
These were picked up by a friend of mine who had lunch there and was thoughtful enough to bring them home for me. Crisp, perfectly smooth exteriors gave way to the meringue cookies’ chewy centers and a great variety of flavors. There was a cream and brown speckled macaron that was chai flavored, with a chocolate ganache filling. The purple macaron was passion fruit flavored with a curd-like filling. Red was raspberry and orange was, of course, orange. The passion fruit was a standout, as was the chocolate macaron with a salted caramel filling. The flavors were fresh, tasty and matched the bright colors of the macaron shells in their intensity. I could have eaten a whole box full of them, but a small sampling left me wanting more – and planning a trip downtown to get some soon!
On June 11th, I was lucky enough to be invited to an event at Dodger Stadium here in Los Angeles hosted by the California Table Grape Commission. Tyler Florence is working with the California Table Grape Commission, as well as with other organizations, in an initiative that promotes healthy eating at ballparks across the country, including the homes of the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants, since ballparks are not typically noted for their healthy fare. I attented with several other bloggers, including In Erika’s Kitchen, Created by Diane and La Fuji Mama, and we got to eat lots of good food, watch the game and meet up with Tyler himself!
The event was a blast. It was great to have a chance to meet up with everyone – it’s always nice to match a face with a blog when you’re meeting bloggers – and chat. The suite where the event was held was amazing, with great views down the first base line of the ball field. Not that you needed to sit out on the deck to watch the game, when there were a half-dozen TV screens inside so that you didn’t miss a moment of the action while you ate or visited with people.
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Pink’s Hot Dogs is a Los Angeles institution. It has been here in the City of Angeles for more than 70 years – and in the exact same location all that time. It started out as a simple hot dog cart and gradually built up into its current counter-service design. The place is open late and it is almost always packed, with a line running down the sidewalk of hungry fans looking for a hot dog fix. They have all kinds of toppings for their hot dogs, from simple chili dogs to double dogs (two in a bun) piled with a ridiculous amount of toppings and named after celebrities who are loyal fans. The thing that makes their hot dogs special is not the long line or the toppings, but the dogs themselves. They are custom made for Pink’s, so you won’t find them anywhere else, and are exceptionally tasty as-is.
I stopped in the other night when the line was not too long for a hot dog fix and snapped a few shots of the delicious dogs I tried. There are a couple of sizes of dogs available at Pink’s, but all are pretty large. These four hot dogs filled up an entire standard lunch tray!
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This week (and this upcoming week of Jan 31- Feb 5) was restaurant week in Los Angeles. This means that some of the restaurants around the city are participating in an event called DineLA where they offer special, three-course set menus at a special price. I took advantage of this to take in a lunch at Spago. The restaurant was lovely, the food was delicious, but I have to say that the highlight of the meal was meeting Wolfgang Puck himself. He made the rounds of the dining room and patio several times, shaking hands with guests and even sitting down a few times to chat. I think that I was the first to break out a camera, but I was certainly not the only one in the restaurant who wanted to capture the moment and many cameras popped out as he posed with diners. I was a little flustered (perhaps the food blogger’s equivalent of being slightly starstruck), but found him to be nothing by incredibly friendly. Also, for the record, I think that he looks much younger in person than he does in photos and on TV. Lest you think that he was only making a show, he also went back to the kitchen (my table shared a glass wall with the kitchen) to work on the food.
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I rarely mention restaurants – unless I’m dining out of the country – but this week I had a lunch that was so foodie-oriented, I can’t resist writing about it. It was a coffee-pairing lunch hosted by Starbucks at Lucques, a restaurant in Los Angeles. The lunch was held at the end of Coffee College, a day long seminar that Starbucks hosted (and was generous enough to invite me to) that discussed everything from how coffee is grown and harvested, to how the beans are roasted and cupped (tasted, essentially) to try bring out their fullest flavor. Lunch was dedicated to seeing how different flavors in food brought out, or paired with, different flavors of coffee from different regions of the world.
The first course was a yellow tomato soup with pesto, parmesan and opal basil. The coffee pairing was with Kenya and Costa Rica La Candela coffees. The Kenya was known to have citrus notes, but turned out to be overpowered by the coffee. The Costa Rica, on the other hand, had a very bright flavor that was similar to the acidity of the tomatoes and turned out to complement the soup, drawing out peppery notes and just making it taste more flavorful. You wouldn’t necessarily expect a cup of coffee to have such an impact on a dish – especially a soup – so it was surprising, in addition to being tasty.
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