California Eats Part 2: Passionfish, Peppers, Sprouts

Wow, I can't believe how long it's taken me to start writing this post. Summer vacation was loooong ago, but I still want to share the rest of my CA food stories.

For the first time in I don't know how many years I tried a new restaurant in Pacific Grove, called Passionfish. I had read about it and wanted to try it because they serve sustainable seafood. It was quite difficult to choose from their menu as many of the dishes sounded enticing. But finally I decided on an heirloom tomato, watermelon, feta and arugula salad with mint-lime dressing as an appetizer. This is a combination of ingredients I had long been wanting to try and it was delicious!

For my main I decided on poached Monterey Bay spot prawns with linguini cauliflower-bacon custard and lemon butter although I was warned that it was going to be messy! It was indeed messy as I had to de-shell my prawns, but they were very good and the linguini custard was very comfort-food like. I didn't really care for the small orange eggs hanging off the prawns. Hope they weren't a delicacy because I couldn't get myself to finish them!

For dessert I had the raspberry peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It was good, but not great. The dough part was a little dry and I prefer a bit juicier and sweeter.

We did also have a chance to visit my long time favorite restaurant Peppers in Pacific Grove. As always I got full on their darned tortilla chips before dinner arrived but I was still able to enjoy my portabello mushrooms with roasted red pepper sauce and the usual Mexican side dishes.

On our way from Monterey to Yosemite we stopped in Merced to finally have our share of In-n-Out burgers, my so far favorite fast food burgers. I ordered my usual animal style cheeseburger and animal style fries. Mmmhmmm! Those items aren't actually on the menu. You have to be an insider to know about them. I don't feel like an In-n-Out insider but I'm glad I know about these secret menu items. Animal style means fried versus raw onions paired with a lovely sauce.

Last but not least I have one recommendation for a place in South Lake Tahoe. It's called Sprouts. It's a charming cafe right on 50. I tried the Mexican Vulcano salad and the quesadilla. The food was nice and fresh and pretty healthy and it tasted good.

California Eats Part 1: Ella's in SF and Hot Italian in Sac

I was so excited about the prospect to be able to eat California food again after having had to go without it for a year. Many of the places we went to on our two week trip were places I had heard or read about. The first one was Ella's in San Francisco. We went there the morning after arriving at the SFO airport the night before. It was pretty packed but we were able to get a spot at the bar, which turned out to be cool because we could watch the cooks put together meals in what seemed like nanoseconds. Lucky enough it was Sunday so we got the brunch menu, which has heartier items on it than the regular breakfast menu. I decided on the huevos rancheros despite the tantalizing menu item "fresh baked sticky bun" because I was craving Mexican food. It was quite delicious, but the portion was so big I couldn't finish it all.

In Sacramento we met up with a good friend of mine and went to try out a fairly new restaurant by the name of Hot Italian. We sat outside in their nice patio (see pic above). The Hot Italian specializes in pizza. Funny, now that I think of it, I don't remember seeing any "hot Italians" or any Italians whatsoever. Maybe they were in the kitchen. We tried the Trulli (figs, caramelized onions, gorgonzola dolce, arugula, and balsamic vinegar plus added prosciutto) and the Stella (prosciutto parma, mozzarella, crescenza cheese, mushroom medley plus added egg). Out of the two, the Trulli was my favorite, although both were good. I was surprised that I liked the egg on the pizza as I always shy away from meals that have an egg on top as it seems quite unnecessary to just plop an egg on a perfectly good dish. My only complaint about the pizza were that the toppings were quite sparse and my teeth were craving more to bite into.

We also tried two salads, the Canalis (mixed spring salad, genoa albacore tuna, cannellini beans, taggiasche olives, red onion, pecorino romano) and the Campioni (heirloom tomatoes and fior di latte cheese with butter lettuce, radicchio and arugula), the Canalis was clearly the winner as it had much more flavor.

La Fonda Cocina Mexicana in Basel

Mexican food in Europe -- it doesn't really work. I've tried it a few times, but it never got close to the Mexican food I'm used to from California, which, obviously, isn't the real Mexican food, but it's what I know and love.

My prayers for finding good Mexican food here in Switzerland were finally heard when my coworker and I went to lunch at La Fonda about two weeks ago. I ordered a vegetable enchilada and my coworker ordered a tuna fish wrap with salad. I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite delicious and all the ingredients were very fresh. The flavors were pretty authentic as well. I will definitely go back. But first I will get to enjoy Californian Mexican food on my upcoming trip!!

Eating Our Way Through Vienna

I had been wanting to visit Vienna ever since I read a newspaper article about it 2 or 3 years ago. I had already been to Vienna when I was a little kid, but who honestly remembers anything from those trips your parents took you on when you were little?

So last month we finally headed off to Vienna for a couple of days. In preparation for the trip I read up on restaurants and, most importantly, coffee houses. Below are my favorite.

First stop on the trip: Demel. In 2006 I first visited Demel in Salzburg and loved it. The hot chocolate was so rich and the whipped cream that topped it so dense and delicious. Due to the summer weather the hot chocolate would not be an option this time, so I had to try something else. I started off with the house-made sausages served with mustard and horseradish (called "Kren" in Austria--the Austrians love their horseradish). Then I moved on to the Annatorte, which is a layer cake filled with truffle cream with a hint of orange liquor and enrobed in chocolate nougat. This cake was very good, but the nougat perhaps a little too much. Along with the Annatorte I tried the Einspänner, which is a double espresso topped with loads of whipped cream. It was very good and we never found an Einspänner at any other coffee house that tasted as good as Demel's. Because of this and the many good sweets Demel has to offer we ended up going to Demel several times. On one occassion I got the Fächertorte (Fächer is German for fan). It's a cake that consists of four layers: poppyseed, walnut, apple and plum. I got the cake to go and it weighed a ton (after eating it I also felt like a ton!). It's worth trying but I don't think it would ever be my favorite as there are too many different flavors in it.

On our first evening we checked out the restaurant Glacis Beisl. I had read about it in my guidebook and since it was near our hotel we decided to give it a try. I had chanterelle goulash with dumplings (in German: Eierschwammerlgulasch mit Serviettenknödel). The goulash wasn't exactly what I expected. It was more goulash-like than I thought it would be, meaning it had the same spices and seasonings (lots of paprika) as regular (meat-containing) goulash and for some reason I expected a milder, creamier version, but it was very good nontheless. We ended up going there again on our last night. That night I had fried chicken salad (in German: Backhendlsalat), which was salad with pieces of fried chicken on top. At first I thought, what a strange combination, but it turned out to be quite good. The salad consisted of lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes and yummy purple broad beans, and was topped with dressing that had pumpkin seed oil in it, a traditional Austrian staple.

Of course we had to make a trip to Hotel Sacher to try the original Sachertorte. As with many foods labelled "original" there is some controversy as to who actually makes the original Sachertorte, but I won't go into that. Fact is, the Sachertorte at Hotel Sacher tastes very, very good!

In that one article on Vienna that I read a couple of years ago there was mention of the restaurantÖsterreicher im MAK. The review was quite good so we went there for dinner one of the nights. Although there were many delicious things on the menu we both decided that we should try the Wiener Schnitzel (Wiener means Viennese in German; Schnitzel is breaded meat--in this case breaded veal) as we hadn't yet had one. It was accompanied by a salad made of lamb's lettuce and potatoes. Both Schnitzel and salad were very tasty. Often Schnitzel is made with meat that eventually turns into chewing gum and meat-flavored chewing gum is not exactly my favorite... But this meat was tender and juicy and the breading had a perfect crispiness and was not too greasy. Fortunately the plate was big enough to cover most of the placemat which was a picture of a nipple, not the most appetizing thing to be looking at when waiting for food (the MAK is the Museum of Applied Arts, so the placemat can be traced back to some art project).

On our last day I just had to go to Fruth, a patisserie near the Naschmarkt, Vienna's most famous outdoor market. We had passed Fruth on our way to Schloss Belvedere on a previous day and judging by the display of sweets in the window I knew the place had to be good. The shop is very cute inside with additional goodies in the cabinets. Unfortunately, there is no place to sit down so you either have to get something to go or stand at the little counter on the side of the shop, which is what we ended up doing. It was so hard to decide what to get but I finally decided on the coconut raspberry muffin as it was something I had never had before. It tasted quite good and you could tell that the ingredients were of high quality, but maybe the muffin should have sat out at room temp for a little bit first as it was on the cool side. Next time I will definitely get something with chocolate!

Tagine of Lamb and Bell Pepper Purée

Lately I've been in the mood to try new recipes. During the week I usually don't take the time, but on the weekends I like to cook something more elaborate. Last weekend I was in the mood for lamb. So I got out my cookbook "Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon" by Claudia Roden and looked at different lamb recipes. I finally decided on tagine of lamb with dates and almonds (although I left out the almonds because I was too lazy to fry them). The lamb turned out wonderfully thanks to the long cooking and the blend of spices. For side dishes I made regular couscous and bell pepper purée and zucchini purée and baby plum tomatoes (the last two also from the above-mentioned cookbook). The bell pepper purée is definitely on my favorites list now. It would also be delicious in a cheese sandwich. Mmmm. I must try that next time! Unfortunately the zucchini recipe didn't turn out so well. It was quite watery. So I will only give the recipes for the lamb and bell pepper purée.

Tagine of Lamb with Dates and Almonds

Serves 6 to 8

3 pounds boned shoulder or neck fillet of lamb (my supermarket didn't have either, so I used lamb gigot)

1/2 stick (4 tblsp.) butter or 1/2 c sunflower oil (I gave in to my nutritionist's mind and used the oil)

2 onions, finely chopped

1/2 teasp. saffron threads

1/2 teasp. ground ginger

salt and plenty of black pepper

1 cinnamon stick

1-2 tblsp. clear honey (optional, but I used it and would definitely recommend it)

1 teasp. ground cinnamon

1 3/4 c dates, pitted

To garnish: 1/2 c blanched almonds; 3 tblsp. sesame seeds (optional)

Trim any excess fat from the lamb and cut into 6 or 8 pieces. Heat the butter or 3 tablespoons oil in a large pan, put in the meat, and brown it lightly all over. Take out the meat, put in the onions and cook, stirring, until they begin to color. Stir in the saffron and ginger and return the meat to the pan. Add salt and pepper and the cinnamon stick. Cover with water and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the meat is very tender, turning the pieces occasionally.

Take out two pieces of meat in order to make room in the pan, stir in the honey, if using, and the ground cinnamon and more pepper (it needs plenty to counterbalance the sweetness). Move the meat around so the honey and cinnamon is spread around and then return the two pieces of meat. Cook until the sauce is reduced, turning the meat over as you do. Add the dates and cook 5 to 10 min more.

Fry the almonds in the remaining tablespoon of oil until lightly golden. Leave whole or coarsely chop, and sprinkle over the meat when serving, adding lightly toasted sesame seeds, if you like.

Bell Pepper Purée

Serves 6 to 8

6 red bell peppers

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 to 5 tblsp. vinegar or the juice of 1 1/2 lemon

pinch of ground chili pepper

1 teasp. ground cumin

4 tblsp. extra virgin olive oil

salt

2 tblsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 tblsp. chopped cilantro

peel of 1/2 preserved lemon, chopped (left this out--I have no idea where to buy preserved lemons and I'm not about to make them myself!)

Place the peppers on a sheet of foil on an oven tray under a preheated broiler, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches from the broiler. Turn them until their skins are black and blistered all over. Alternatively -- and more easily -- roast them in the hottest oven for about 30 min, or until they are soft and their skins blistered and blackened, turning them once after 15 minutes.

To loosen the skins further, put them in a strong plastic bag, twist it shut, and leave for 10 to 15 min. Another old way that has the same effect is to put them in a pan with a tight-fitting lid for the same length of time. When the peppers are cool enough to handle,speel them, and remove and discard the stems and seeds.

Blend the peppera to a purée in the food processor with the garlic, vinegar or lemon juice, chili, cumin, olive oil, and a little salt to taste.

Put the purée into a serving bowl and mix in the chopped parsley, cilantro, and preserved lemon peel.