Foodie Shares: Your Answer to a Rainy Day

It's raining in Los Angeles. It's BEEN raining for two days straight. I know we're in a drought. I know this is a good thing... but I'm out of groceries and I don't want to go outside. What's a Girl on Food to do? 

Try the new app Foodie Shares! This app that brings fresh homecookin' to your front door.    

Here's how the Foodie Shares app works: 

Make sure you have the correct address listed for delivery. 

Scroll through dishes. 

What I love about Foodie Shares is that the Chefs are rated by past customers.  I found 5 star Chef DelishBento in my area who was available to cook her signature dish and have it delivered to me.

You can pick up the food if you want and there's no additional charge. But if you're lazy like me and want delivered there is a small delivery charge.  

Enter the PROMOCODE: girlsonfood to get 50% off you first order

The food is delivered in a colorful and reusable bag along with proper utensils. 

Pictured: Taiwanese Chicken Cutlet Bento by DelishBento

I ordered the Taiwanese Chicken Cutlet Bento. I was amazed at how crispy the chicken stayed through the delivery process. The spices that DelishBento used were so good. The shoyu egg was a pleasant surprise and the pickled veggies were great too.  Dee-lish. 

For now, Foodie Shares is only available on the Westside in LA, but that could change soon.

Tapas!

I found this gem before an exciting evening of competitive skeeball.  Located in Murray Hill, it's a stylish pleasant discovery.

VinoTapa

201 East 31st Street

New York, NY

10016

(212) 725-8466

http://www.vinotapa.com

I was there during their happy hour which had an amazing selection of cheaply priced drinks.  Note, they have happy hour daily which some restaurants opt to not do on the weekend.  Always a winning choice.

Daily from 5pm-8pm this is sure to make anyone happy

My friends had the sangria and I opted for the standard red wine which was a nice rich flavor.  Normally, during happy hour you're handed a disgusting house wine and this wasn't the case.  They have a great outdoor seating area which is spaced out so I didn't feel like I was a centimeter away from the next diner.  The waitress was pleasant and didn't hover.  On a beautiful day it was a little piece of heaven.

We shared some marinated olives and brussel sprouts.  The brussel sprouts were marinated in honey and mustard which was a sup rising combination which I might have to make at home.

Tapa's, flatbread, and wine oh my!

My friend ordered the flatbread with dates, honey, and mozzarella.  Blending the savory and sweet it looked delightful.  She gave it rave reviews all around.

Flatbread with dates, honey, and mozzarella

Brussels you won't be forced to eat

I highly recommend stopping by this off the beaten path wine bar.  If it's a gorgeous day out-side and you're hankering for a chat sesh with the ladies or even going on a date this is a perfect spot.  Just make sure to get there before 6pm when all of the seats are taken.  

Earl Grey Syrup and Secret Garden Sour

Lately I have become infatuated with Earl Grey tea, I began drinking it and it inevitably has ended up in my cocktails. Indeed I have a number of Earl Grey infusions in my fridge at the moment. I wanted to share with you a simple to make Earl Grey syrup and a cocktail recipe to use it in.

Earl Grey Syrup

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 cup white sugar 
• 1 teaspoon loose leaf or 1 tea bag Earl Grey

Place the  tea in the warm water and leave for an hour to steep. Keep in mind that if you decide to use loose leaf tea you will need a fine mesh strainer. Once steeped, put tea in a sauce pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Add the sugar, lower to a simmer, stir until sugar is dissolved. You can stop here, but if you like a thicker syrup as I do continue to stir it over a low-medium heat until it thickens to the right consistency. Once you are happy with the syrup take it off the heat and let it cool before removing the tea and transferring it into an airtight container. I found these awesome glass bottles at a dollar store and capped it with a bottle spout.

I like to use the syrup in cocktails of course but I also recommend trying it in lemonade or sparkling water for a refreshing treat.

Secret Garden Sour

• 1.5 oz London Dry Gin
• 1 oz Earl Grey Syrup
• 1oz Lemon Juice
• 1 egg white (optional but it gives the drink it's texture and the beautiful foam top)
• Scrappy's Lavender Bitters
• Lavender or other fresh herb for garnish

I love a good sour and this one plays refreshingly with gin's herbal notes. I encourage you to make it with the egg white, but if you prefer it can be made without. I prepped my glass with ice to chill it, a coupe is lovely but a martini glass works as well. Add your gin, syrup, lemon, and egg to your cocktail shaker without ice. Shaking the ingredients without ice is called a "dry shake" and helps to break up and "beat" the egg white. Dry shake can take a lot of muscle but failing to do it well will give you weird glops of egg white in your cocktail. To help I'll share a little trick I have, take the spring off of an extra Hawthorn strainer and put it in the shaker with the ingredients. The spring acts as a whisk as you shake. I also recommend wrapping a towel around the seal on your shaker as you dry shake to help catch anything that escapes. The seal does not keep as well when you don't have ice in the tin.

After you've done the dry shake, open your tin, it should have a rich, white, frothy foam as my picture. Remove the spring and add your ice. Shake well, about 8 times, the tin should look frosty on the outside.

Dump the ice from your chilled cocktail glass and use the strainer you did not take apart (or you can quickly reconstruct the first one) and strain it into the glass. Finish with 3 drop of the lavender bitters and a sprig of lavender as garnish. To finish mine with a nice little pattern I dragged a toothpick through my bitters drops in a circular motion.

This cocktail may sound daunting but once you've mastered the dry shake it will be easy as pie! Try it out with pisco or vodka instead of gin for a slightly different flavor!

Asian Cabbage Salad - A Happy Surprise!

It's mid-afternoon and I'm starting to get hungry. At first I thought I hadn't eaten lunch...but I had. Sigh. So I'm looking around my fridge for something as low-cal as possible - as an actress, I have to keep my weight to what I say it is on my resume - not an easy task past 40.

And there it was: leftover Asian Cabbage Salad from last week! Bonus - it was still good!!! Now I can survive until dinner.

It's super fast to make, yummy, and gets you over that hunger hump.

ASIAN CABBAGE SALAD – makes a little over 4 cups

• 4 cups cabbage, shredded (any kind of cabbage will do)
• 1/2 cup scallions, sliced
• 8 oz can pineapple rings, drained & sliced
• 2 T sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 T sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 tsp dried ginger
• 2½ T sesame oil
• 2½ T rice vinegar
• 3-4 T slivered almonds, toasted

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, scallions, pineapple, and sesame seeds.

In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, salt, ginger, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. Pour over cabbage mixture.

Toss in almonds at serving time.

To Dovetail Or Not To Dovetail

Sunday was a day when many wandered out onto the streets of NYC with decked out bouquets of flowers in order to pay homage to the woman that made their entire lives possible: mom.  There's nothing more a mom likes than a good brunch except for maybe a chacki or her stories and thankfully there was a flea market right next door.  I decided to take my mother to the swanky spot Dovetail located on the lip of The Museum of Natural History. The white tablecloths and long stemmed lilly's blended together to foster the perfect one part elegance, two parts schmancy pants.

 Dovetail

103 West 77th Street

New York, NY

10024
(212) 362-3800
dovetailnyc.com

Dovetail created a specified pre-fix Mother's Day Brunch that ran $68 per person but worth the end result.  It began with a box of donuts that had been especially prepared in a to go box for the day.  It served a light, fluffy, unexpected treat.  I opted to close the box and suggest my mother take it home to enjoy later so we could take full advantage of the three course explosion of flavor that was to follow.

Freshly made donuts that only a mother could love.

After the mimosas were ordered our plates of canapés arrived.  A trio of truffled arancini, cured salmon tea sandwich, and a yogurt parfait were the perfect spoonful of flavor.  The yogurt parfait was a delicious compliment of honey, and yogurt.  The salmon tea sandwich had a fantastic smokey taste which made me wish that there was a larger version I could have had as my entree.

Trio of canapés 

The main dish that we chose was a lobster omelette.  I have to say that I wasn't necessarily pleased with this choice and wish I had gone with the dry aged hamburger with white cheddar and garlic steak fries. The omelette was light and fluffy but I could barely taste the lobster which came out in chunks.  The cypriot potatoes or shall I say in a more pedestrian way (home fries) were delectable and actually the highlight of the meal.

Lobster omelette

The fennel incorporated in the dish was refreshing however, overall it was on the lower end of my to eat omelette lists.  My top choice would be a dive diner that I happened upon in Salem, Massachusetts that was pure magic, no pun intended.

The final act was three desserts which included a coconut-almond sponge cake, lemon cream profiterpies, and chocolate-cherry whoopie pie.  I think it can all be summed up with my mothers explanation of "these are like the Top Chef portions".  The coconut-almond sponge cake stuck out most but none of the tastes were quite satisfying enough to leave their culinary mark.

Baby Dessert

Overall, Dovetail is a classy ambiance that is not a must eat.  For an elegant evening out or an afternoon  it fits the bill perfectly.  

Status Kuo in Mar Vista

Venice is going through swift gentrification. It sucks. I have nothing against big business, but when you're raising rents so high it kicks out long running family owned businesses, that's just not ok. Some of the small businesses I love (like La Fiesta Brava on Rose Ave) are being forced out and are being replaced with the same types of restaurants by the same types of owners. We're losing variety. 

My boyfriend and I have been exploring other parts of the Westside, in case we need to escape. I hopped on the Cover app and found a spot called Status Kuo. If you haven't checked out the Cover app yet, get on it. Girls on Food readers get $10 off their first purchase, follow the instructions here: http://share.covr.me/#girlsonfood. I have discovered so many spots in LA on it and I can't wait to use it in NYC, San Francisco and Salt Lake City.

Status Kuo is located in Mar Vista, which is an up and coming neighborhood in LA. For years, Mar Vista has been thought of as a suburb and less of a hot spot with business potential, but that's changing. The intersection of Venice Blvd and Grandview Ave is where the magic is happening. I'm okay with this small make-over because it doesn't kick out small business, it attracts more of it. The AMF Mar Vista Lanes have turned into Bowlero Mar Vista, revamping the outdated 80's style into a lively 10's bowling alley. This intersection also features a great used bookstore, a longtime running costume shop, hip coffeeshops and even a locally owned soap shop. Venice Blvd and Grandview Ave also happens to be home to my favorite farmer's market, see review here.  

 Status Kuo 

3809 Grand View Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90066

(310) 574-7610

eatstatuskuo.com

Status Kuo has a what I consider to a be a classically appealing esthetic. It feels clean with it's white walls, light wooden tables and benches. I adore the farm animal art, it brings a Portland feel to it. I love restaurants with an open kitchen, as it keeps the staff on their toes. I also get a kick out of hearing the random kitchen noises, it makes me feel like I'm a part of the team. 

Our server promptly told us about the specials and got our drinks going. I do wish there was more variety in the beverage options, since they don't have a beer and wine list, but that could change. It's still a relatively new spot. I checked into the Cover app, which was great because I could come and go as I pleased. No waiting around for the bill. 

Pictured: Taiwanese Sunday Gravy

The Brunch menu is an eclectic mix of American dishes with flair from other countries. I asked the server what the most popular pasta dish was and she suggested the Taiwanese Sunday Gravy. The house-made pasta swims in a curious broth with braised pork, mushrooms, pickled mustard greens and a chili sauce. The broth tastes like it was soy sauce with shallots and possibly clove or cinnamon.  I'm honestly not 100% sure what herbs/spices were used for the broth but it was so good I had to order a side of toast to soak it up. The toast came out with a yuzu butter that added an unexpected citrus twist to the flavoring.  This is easily one of the best pasta dishes on the Westside. 

  

Pictured: Rotisserie Pork with Grits

When we were first seated, my boyfriend couldn't help but gawk at this dish the table next to us got. He told the server "I'll have what she's having". It was the Rotisserie Pork with Grits. The cheesy grits are topped with braised kale, crispy skinned porchetta and a sunny side up egg. The porchetta was a lot leaner than most of what I've had in the past, which is great, cause I don't do well with overly fatty swine.  Nothing survived from my boyfriend's chow session. It was so good I only got one bite in before he devoured the rest of it. 

If you're in Mar Vista and you want a "stick to your ribs" type meal, this is the place to be. I will be back here for sure to try the other items and I will post more soon. Don't forget to download the Cover app to get $10 off your first meal from Girls on Food.  

LOW-CAL CHOCOLATE DELIGHTS - Swim Suit Season approved!

Hey, everyone, I'm  Bonnie, the new Girl in town.  I'm here to encourage & teach you how to make food FROM SCRATCH!  "Why bother?" you ask. Because you'll save a ton of money AND eat healthier.  That's why.

So Mother's Day is fast approaching (Note to my kids: it's THIS Sunday!). We moms love homemade gifts and we love chocolate. Do you see where I'm going?

I have a yummy chocolate cookie recipe that's low-cal and easy.

Okay - deep breath.  You can do this!

LOW-CAL CHOCOLATE DELIGHTS – I made 43 cookies

• 2 egg whites
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 tsp vanilla
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

Beat egg whites just until they become stiff (when the peak that forms when you lift up the spatula doesn’t collapse). With beaters going, add in sugar a tablespoon at a time. Whites will become glossy.

Scrap the batter clinging to the beaters into the bowl. Pour in the chocolate and vanilla, and gently fold everything together using a large spoon. It’s okay if it’s a little streaky – they look pretty that way.

Preheat oven to 350º Fahrenheit.

Spoon batter onto greased or nonstick cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cookies set 2 minutes on hot sheet before transferring them to a wire rack. Store in airtight container.