Foleydog's blog

Cheap Eats in the Valley

On the one hand, there's Providence with its devine $65 a plate truffle risotto. 

When I'm going a little downscale, I like to try cheap food in the Valley.  One new find this weekend is a new restaurant, Pupuseria del Valle at 431 S. Victory Blvd., in Burbank.  The owners (a brother and sister) have only been in operation a few months, but grew up with a restaurant background from El Salvador.  If you like a good pupusa -- it is definately the way to go.  Light, but delicious, and only a buck seventy-five each.

Also good this weekend was Pad Thai, and more at Krua Thai at 13130 Sherman Way in Noho.  Dinner for two was about 6 bucks.  Can't beat it.

Beets

I've eaten beets for the first time in thirty years. When I was three and in nursery school -- we had a hot lunch and snacks daily. It seemed, more often than not, we had beets for lunch. They were red and nasty. I didn't like them, their smell, their look, and I banned them from my diet. So, there I was browsing the produce section at Whole Foods and Adam suggests we try some beets. He's always liked them, he said, why not try them. I looked at him and said . . . beets, but I haven't eaten those in thirty years. He countered -- you eat anything, raw fish, caviar, snails, and any number of things most people would turn their nose up at . . . so I bought them. Beets are not the cook's friend. They take forever to cook, stain everything worse than grape juice, and frankly don't taste that good. They have a certain earthy flavor, I don't think I'll ever grow to appreciate. A week later, I tried them again, with dried cherries and cranberries. The berries were good -- my kitchen smelled like roasted beets -- bad. It was an experiment, and I think I'll leave the beets alone. Adam will have to get his beet fix somewhere else. I'm going to cook my current favorite until we're tired of that -- turnips.

I scream for ice cream

I can't remember the last time I had ice cream. Being lactose intolerant and strongly believing that cow's milk is for cows has kept me away. But I had a little twinge of a memory of going to Carvel ice cream and getting a mix of vanilla ice cream and orange sherbert. So, I thought, here I am getting dog food -- in a regular grocery store -- maybe I should take a little walk down the ice cream aisle. I can't tell you how shoked I was. $6.19 at Ralph's for a half gallon (excuse me 1.75 quarts) of Breyer's ice cream? What the heck. And when did we go from a half gallon to a little less than a half gallon. You should have seen me trying to remember whether there were four quarts in a gallon and whether ice cream used to come in half gallon and pint containers instead of containers measured in bizarre quarts and ounce measurements. Well, I couldn't justify the cost of the ice-cream. So, I got a banana to go with my dog food and left it to those other folks.

Can we eat? -- Unpublished Essay

This evening, I'm reviewing my writing samples for something suitable for yet another job interview. You all know the job I really want -- can they just hire me already? But, as always, I digress. Here's an essay I submitted for publication -- it was never published. The most astounding fact, the obesity rate in the United States has doubled since 1997 when I wrote this. Can we eat? Honestly, I’m tired of people staring at my plate. Being a woman and eating in front of others is nothing if not difficult. Last weekend, as I ate breakfast at a family gathering, I was disheartened and embarrassed to see all the women at our table watching my sister-in-law eat. Of the six women at the table, she was the heaviest, but she’s not obese. I don’t know whether this makes other women feel bad or good, but she had more female eyes riveted on her and her plate of food than Tom Cruise. We were spending the weekend at a Catskills’ resort and had all ordered a traditionally Jewish breakfast. We had bagels, cream cheese, lox, whitefish and other cultural favorites. As the men piled heaping servings of food on their plates, the women hesitated. We all just sipped our juice until I broke the unspoken barrier and reached for food. Then we each took a bagel and a small pat of cream cheese. My sister-in-law, however, ate her bagel with plenty of cheese, lox, and whitefish. Even so, her breakfast still paled next to that of our male companions. I think women should enjoy eating, but when eating out with friends and family, it’s almost impossible. It has become a contest to see who can order the smallest and blandest dinner and then leave the most on her plate. In college, I ate with the same women every night. Our dinner changed from plates of chicken, potatoes, and dessert — to spare meals where one friend would eat no more than an apple, only to be done under by another who nursed a half-cup of cottage cheese, and yet another who settled for plain yogurt. By then, I knew it was time to break away. Instead of food, wine, and laughter, I watched the thin women among my family and friends order pasta without sauce or vegetables or butter, while the heavy women ordered hearty lasagne or fettuccine Alfredo much to the ususal horror of every other woman at the table. If the heavy women order salad, the other diners smile on them as if to say, “C’mon, you must eat more than that,” then encourage them to have dessert. If a thin woman orders real food, others look on in amazement at how she maintains her “girlish” figure. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of once ordering a large duck platter at dinner, eating the whole thing, and having someone actually say to me, “I can’t believe you ate the whole meal!” It seems that eating, or at least the sight of a woman eating has become a crime. I know we live in a weight and diet conscious society. But if 30% of Americans are obese and dieting is a multibillion dollar industry, table-side policing isn’t working. Rather than a deprivation/binge lifestyle, I think the women among my family and friends should enjoy food and enjoy each other. I’d like to sit at a restaurant or a dinner table and laugh over good food and wine rather than have a fat gram play-by-play, and have my calories counted for me. I wish I could invite women over for dinner and have them eat more than one chicken wing without proclaiming they’re full. I would like to talk about baking breads or cakes without my friends announcing ways to cut the fat grams in the process. Every food was not meant to have a low-fat substitute, and people aren’t programmed to eat cake every day. The next time I attend a family dinner, I want the women to shun their “food police” roles, keep their eyes off each other’s plates, and enjoy the pleasure of each other’s company.

Dinner Tonight

Ah, dinner tonight . . . Fresh spaetzle, baked with chopped ham and grueyere. The key lime cheesecake looks good. It has a little surprise: the graham cracker crust -- spiked with a little tequila.

What's for Dinner

It's wonderful to have the kitchen back. Nothing's 100% done yet, but it's getting there . . . Shabu, Shabu tonight. Dessert: Low-fat chocolate souffle with creme anglaise. This week's challenge. A key lime cheesecake.

Convenience Foods

Well, I thought life with no kitchen would be reminiscent of college . . . stale saltine crackers, instant hot chocolate . . . . But the world of instant food has changed. If you are what you eat, I thought I'd wake up one morning metamorphosized into a plastic container in a waxy cardboard box. Things are better. For that matter, college is probably far easier than when I attended -- Trader Joe's, Microwaves, Internet access . . . . These days you can get almost anything frozen homemade tamales, Indian curries, even a Boston cream pie. The second best convenience food innovation -- fresh packaged salads -- and not just iceberg either. They have great lettuce, nuts, cheese, and come with their own dressing. Though I know convenience foods have been generated to create a bigger profit margin for the stores -- these foods can have a place in the well stocked kitchen. Following the advice of Adam's barber -- we're also trying those 70s style Hungry Man dinners and Stouffer's Lean Cuisine -- what I grew up calling TV dinners. Unfortunately these high-fat, high sodium 'foods' hardly resemble the foods of their origin. Traditional supermarkets are really falling down in this department. The specialty markets are turning out pretty good products with ingredients I recognize. Life with no kitchen is turning out to be easier, cheaper, and more fun than I thought. I wonder how I'll feel when we have the kitchen back.

High School eating schedule

I have the oddest habit that I can not break. I eat on a high school schedule. Early breakfast, or none at all. No lunch, dinner at three o’clock, and a late night snack. I’ve tried, without much success, to eat at the times everyone else eats, a regular six, twelve, six schedule. But, after trying to stuff food in at the regular hour and feeling fat and bloaty – I’m not fighting my body anymore. It’s three o’clock now, my stomach is growling, and it’s getting last night’s sausage and olive spaghetti. It’s funny – most people talk about being on a school schedule . . . getting excited about work in September . . . slowing down during the holidays. To me, especially with the same weather all year round, every month seems the same as the last – but the daily food schedule, I can’t beat it.

Dinner Tonight

White spinach and mushroom lasagna.

Food Fancies

I'll admit it, I go through food phases -- times where I eat one thing to the exclusion of many others. Right now, my favorite is kimchi fried rice. I buy it at the mall, I make it at home. For some reason, right now, it's the perfect food. Other food phases have inclulded hot dogs: I ate them for an entire summer and will never enjoy them again. Pancakes: I can whip up perfect pancakes in about five minutes. They're just divine. Waffles: Those were great, but required whipped egg whites so it didn't last long. Bagels with honey roasted turkey breast and reduced sodium munster cheese. I could go on, but I'll spare you. I have no idea what spawns these phases, or why they burn themselves out -- but given the vast diversity of food in L.A., the next one should be interesting.