The World of Scott Mindeaux

Crayons, Pickle Sandwiches and Tomatoes

It’s that time of year again. “Uncle Scott and you buy me some school supplies…” asks my niece. We were at Target and in their “Back-to-School” section. I caught the green and yellow of a familiar box from my childhood. I remember every time we went to the store that I wanted a new box of crayons. But not just any box of crayons. The 24 pack would not do and while the 48 count was impressive, the one I yearned for was the 64 pack. Not only did it have the most crayons but it had that little sharpener in the back when your crayons got dull. I don’t remember that we had the cool names that they have today like “Wild Strawberry” or “Purple Mountains Magesty”. While I don’t think the palette of colors has changed, I think they renamed some of the colors. But some of the old standbys are there like “Burnt Sienna” and “Goldenrod”. I bought a box for myself today and the kids today are more into the markers than the crayons. I couldn’t convince my niece to buy crayons for some odd reason. So the 64 count box of Crayola is MINE!

Earlier, my nieces “Jessica (4) and Toni-Lyn (11) wanted cheeseburgers. So rather than take them to McDonalds or Wendy’s I took them to Fuddruckers where at least I knew that the meat was ground that day and was fresh. I also knew that the ingredients were fresh and you pile them on your budget by yourself. However, Jessica refused to eat the meat in her cheeseburger. She asked for pickles on her burger. When she got back to the table, she took the bun off and started eating the slices of pickles that we placed on her burger. Over the next minute or two I watched her eat 5 slices. She wanted more. I went back to the fixings bar and got here another 6 pickle slices. She didn’t want the meat. So we took the patty off the bread, and placed the pickles on the bread and she had a pickle sandwich – it was hilarious! She is too cute!

So it is August now and tomatoes are at their best. I have been obsessed with yellow and red grape tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes from the Farmers’ Market. While I won’t bite into a beefsteak tomato, I will pop a grape tomato in my mouth. They are so sweet right now. Get out to your local farmers’ market and avail yourself of some of the best tomatoes of the season!

Oh, the sea bass picture you see above was a recipe that was published in the OC Register this past week! It’s a quick and easy dish and the tomatoes really make the fish shine! Visit http://foodfrenzy.ocregister.com/2011/07/30/weekly-roundup-sea-bass-and-tomatoes/44425/

My recipe is the last link at the bottom! Enjoy!

July Foodie Night – Lucca

Well tonight was July’s Foodie night out. My friends Tim and Brooke pick a moderately priced restaurant once a month and we treat ourselves to some great food, wine and dessert. This month, a group of fine restaurants around South Coast Plaza are running a 4 course meal for $40 – a steal for the price. We initally had picked Charlie Palmer’s new restaurant, but decided to try Savannah’s instead. Here is the initial menu. You’ll notice that there are only 3 courses listed. The real first course is an Amuse Boush that is selected by the Executive Chef.

Well it turns out that at 5:30, Brooke wasn’t feeling well and asked to bow out of Foodie Night. I went over to her desk to see if I could convince her to go, but she really looked tired. So Tim and I talked and decided that we didn’t want to experience Savannah without her.

Tim and I decided we were going to try dinner at a place that we have eaten at before for lunch. Lucca Cafe & Market is a restaurant located in Irvine in the Quail Hill Center. The executive chef prides himself as using locally grown ingredients from local farmers. Our experience at Lucca was wonderful when were there for lunch. We were excited for a nice dinner.

Tim and I got there and we were seated promptly. They have a unique dinner experience. You are greated with a series of dishes as you walk into the restaurant. They are antipasto dishes. The server tells us that they offer a “tapas” style dinner format and that all the dishes on the menu are tasting size portions. Tim and I decided that we are going to start with their suggestion of 7 different antipasta selections and augmented it with a mixed sampler of seafood and grilled meats.

We were escorted to the antipasto table and each of the items was described and we selected 7 items and they were “heated” and brought to our table. Our selection consisted of two tart shells, one filled with artichokes and goat cheese, the other with sun-dried tomatoes, eggplant, basil and cheese. Another selection was a stuffed zucchini and eggplant along with a grilled Portabello mushroom with tomatoes and crispy leeks. Everything was good. However, all the antipasto dishes were actually the ones on the display. Everything was pre-made and heated under the salamander. I wish they were all freshly prepared. Anything that had a “stuffing” of some-kind had that certain look that it was stuffed and put under a hot broiler. Very disappointing. Some items tasted salty while others weren’t.

The next two dishes are the seafood sampler and the mixed grill meats.  While we were still working on the antipasto, the seafood dish shows up. There is a grilled diver scallop in a Parmesan cup with a mushroom stuffing. Second we have a crabcake and third item was langostino. The scallop had good color and looked like it was grilled perfectly. However, it was just on the edge of becoming like rubber. It wasn’t, but another 30 seconds of heat and it would have been. My expectations of a Parmesan basket is one that is light and airy. This Parmesan crust tasted like it was made two days ago and sat in the fridge. It was thick and dense. I liked the filling. Next we come to the crabcake. It is literally topped with crispy leeks. Now the leeks tasted like it was fried two hours ago and sat in a bowl waiting to be expedited onto a plate. There was more crispy leeks that there was actual crab in the crabcake. The crabcake had no taste whatsoever. Careful inspection was a crab filled cake with little filler – but it lacked taste.  The third was the langostino and that was the most tasty item on that plate.

Our mixed grill plate arrive just as we were in the middle of our seafood plate. Our grilled meats consisted of grilled lamp, Kobe beef and chicken sausage. Let me start by saying that I’m not a big fan of chicken sausage. Bruce Aidell makes a wonderful chicken sausage, but its not the first thing I would choose. That said, I enjoyed the chicken sausage. There was a Dijon mustard sauce that accompanied the sausage, but it was just right, it didn’t overwhelm the sausage. My next taste was the Kobe beef. The beef was cooked at medium rare to medium and it was so tender – I LOVED it. So we both grabbed a piece of lamb and as I started to cut into my piece, I found myself applying a lot of pressure on my knife. Once I cut into it, it was well done and grey and it was a very dense piece of meat. I like my lamb medium rare. This lamb lacked any taste and it was so tough. Meanwhile, Tim was praising his lamb. He had a piece that was on the bone and from my vantage point, he had good caramelization on the outside and was medium rare inside. I pushed my piece of lamb aside and he tasted it and said it was not what he experienced on his lamb piece. There were two Kobe pieces left and a slice of chicken sausage left. He offered his Kobe piece to me to make up for the lamb. I love Kobe beef so I was happy.

After a brief “rest” our server asks if we are having dessert. Tim and I are mulling over the menu. Meanwhile, we both order coffee. The coffee was hot and fresh. Tim pointed out that his cup was fuller than mine, but he didn’t ask for cream, while I did. He said our waitstaff was attentive and intentionally left room for me to pour cream into my coffee. I think he was right. While my food experience tonite wasn’t the greatest, the waitstaff was attentive.

So, Tim and I decided on our desserts. Tim would choose a peach and Blackberry Cobbler, while I threw caution to the wind and went with the Raspberry, Chocolate, Mocha Menage a Trois. Why caution to the wind? I’m not a big fan of chocolate, but for some reason I was feeling it tonight. My plate had a flourless chocolate cake, raspberry sorbet with chocolate chips and a mocha mousse. Of the three, I really enjoyed the sorbet with the small chocolate chips. Biting into the sorbet with a surprise of crunch from the chocolate was wonderful. The flourless chocolate cake was very dense and had the feeling it was made a few days ago. The mousse was ok. Tim really enjoyed his cobbler, he finished his bowl, while I had some leftover cake on my plate.

So, all in all I had a great evening with a good friend. The company and conversation made the evening, not so much the food unfortunately. One thing that stood out, either it was too salty or lacked flavor.

I look forward to Foodie Night with Brooke in August!

RV: Old Vine Café

Tonight I had dinner with Tim and Brooke from work. The three of us decided that we would pick a restaurant each month and enjoy a good meal and each others company. Tonight’s choice was one I had seen some rumblings on local food blogs about the Old Vine Café located in “The Camp” in Costa Mesa.

Hidden away in this eco-friendly center is a gem of a restaurant. OVC used locally farm grown ingredients and customizes it’s menu based on seasonal availability.

I was not prepared for the experience. Taken by the experience, I forgot to take pictures of our opening dishes – so my apologies. But forget the pictures, just GO to the Old Vine Café!

FIRST COURSE

Crispy Blue: Certified Organic Greens, Crispy Proscuitto, Fried Onions & Maytag Blue Cheese Dressing

I’m not a big fan of Bleu Cheese, but the dressing wasn’t overwhelming and I enjoyed it. There were more exotic “greens” on the plate then your typical romaine and mesclun. The greens were crisp and surprisingly the crispy proscuitto wasn’t overly salty.

Tomatillo Shrimp Cocktail, with Julienned Jicama, Certified Organic Avocado, Diced Roma Tomatoes, Garnished with a Flour Tortilla Crisp

This was an interesting variation on Shrimp Cocktail. 4 decent sized shrimp “swam” in the sea of the tomatillo sauce, avocado and tomatoes. At first I thought the green sauce might have avocado pureed into it. I’m allergic to avocado. The shrimp tasted good, but felt the dish needed a little salt.  The jicama pieces gave good texture against the sauce.

SECOND COURSE

Hand Made Ravioli stuffed with Fresh Lump Crab, Mascarpone Cheese & Sauteed in a Fresh Chive Cream Sauce, Garnished with Pecorino Romano Cheese.

This was one of my favorite dishes of the night. A handmade single, large ravioli with fresh crab that didn’t get lost in the sauce. The sauce was perfect. If no one was around, I would have licked the plate clean!

Hand Made Ravioli  filled with Smoked Duck, Goat Cheese & Porcini Mushrooms Sauteed in Brown Butter with Sage

A good dish, but the duck was too smoky. So much smoke that I couldn’t tell it was duck, for all I knew it was chorizo. 

Porcini Mushroom Mac & Cheese: Macaroni, Porcini Mushrooms and a blend of Artisan Cheeses

I love mac and cheese. There wasn’t alot of pieces of mushroom in the dish as I had thought, but the flavor of the mushrooms was in the cheese.  Unfortunately, the cheese “broke” and separated, resulting in some gritiness. Tasted great though!

THIRD COURSE

Certified All Natural Pork Tenderloin Medallions, Fried Polenta Cake , Strawberry Peppercorn Sauce, Garnished with Fresh Strawberries

The pork tenderloin was cooked perfectly! Three medallions of perfect size with a wonderful, surprising sauce of Strawberry and peppercorn. So tender!

Petite Filet Mignon: Four Ounces of Niman All Natural Filet Mignon & Crispy Fried Onions with Bleu Des Basque Demi Cream Sauce

Perfectly cooked. Slicing into the filet it was just like butter. Putting it in my mouth, it melted! Again, bleu cheese isn’t my favorite, but the cream sauce was excellent!

Char Grilled Lamb Chops: Two All Natural Char Grilled Chops with Dried Blueberry Syrah Demi Glace, Garnished with Fried Leeks

We were still hungry and decided to order two more tasting plates.  The lamb chops were cooked to medium rare and that’s exactly how it should be cooked. The Blueberry-Syrah sauce inspires me to experiment with different fruit based sauces.  

Sauteed Sea Scallops: 3 Jumbo Scallops on a nest of Crispy Leeks finished with Tarragon Chardonnay Sauce

Tonight’s chef was on-mark all night long. The scallops were perfectly seared and the classic Tarragon Chardonnay sauce didn’t drown the flavor of the scallops. 

LAST COURSE

“La Crema Fritta” Flash Fried Pastry Cream Veneto Style, Garnished with Chocolate Espresso Sauce

Tres Leche Chocolate Cakes

We closed the evening with a solid tasting cup of coffee and two wonderful desserts. The La Crema Fritta was a surprise. The “Fritta” was crisp on the outside and the insides, just warm and creamy. An eye-opener for sure!

 

My compliments to Chef Mark McDonald and his brother Brandon. The Brother’s McDonald deserve applause for a wonderful meal.  Both of them had face presence in the dining room and very attentive to all the customers and timing the release of dishes.

The Old Vine Cafe is open for all three meals of the day and also offers wine and cheese tastings once a month. Take the time to find “The Camp” and enjoy a surprising, excellent meal. Hours later, I’m still enjoying the moment

Old Vine Café
2937 Bristol St. Suite A-102
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-545-1411

Pho Cafe: Echo Park

If you ever find yourself up in Echo Park or Silverlake, take some time to stop by the Pho Cafe off Sunset Blvd. This place is nondescript, doesn’t have any signage outside, but this place is wildly popular, especially among hipsters. It’s a small place, small menu, but the flavors are big.

The menu selection is basically, appetizers, drinks, Pho or Bun. Bun is the “cooler” alternative to Pho. All the ingredients you would find in Pho without the hot broth. Today I am joined by a new friend, Dino Moody, whom I met recently. This is one of his favorite places to eat.

Tonight, we both have the same thing. Dino opts for iced tea, while I have a soda.

We started off with the spring rolls. Char-broiled beef with shrimp and fresh vegetables wrapped in a delicate rice paper skin. The peanut sauce is tasty, with just the right amount of peanut taste and not “peanut buttery”. The beef in the roll is tender and little effort is needed when biting into the spring roll.

For our entree, we both have the Bun with the lemongrass beef.  The bowl arrives and has two fried egg rolls on top with a good sized portion of lemongrass beef on top of rice noodles (vermicelli). The beef is cooked just right so that each bite is like biting into butter. The egg rolls aren’t greasy and they “score” them with 2 notches in the rolls for easy handling with the chopsticks.

I will definitely be returning here, especially if I end up finding myself hanging out in Echo Park more often!

Thanks for hanging out tonite Dino. It was a welcome distraction from the waiting room at the hospital.

Pho Cafe
2841 Sunseet Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Tel. +1 213.413.0888

What a Great Non-Date Date!!

So on Monday, I decided to break protocol and head out for some dinner and drinks with Tim, a friend and co-worker.  We left work around 7:15 and we went up to the Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa, near South Coast Plaza on Bristol, and went to a Cuban restaurant called Habana. I’ve never been to the Anti-Mall. There was also a Japanese restaurant called Zipangu, which looked kewl, but we opted for tapas (small plates) at Habana.

Tim started with a glass of sangria while I had a black-cherry infused Mojito. We ordered several plates of this and that. The highlight of the night were mussels and clams steamed in a white wine broth with chorizo sausage. It was excellent! So excellent I told the server that some rice would make it so good to sop up some of the broth. She brought over some saffron rice and Tim and I were in heaven.

We sat out in the patio and it was so nice to just sit there with a friend and enjoy our evening. No pretense, no agenda, just good conversation. We agreed, no Ignite talk. It was an Ignite-Free zone. It has been a LONG time since I have enjoyed such an evening.

We went to a bar across the street (Tin Lizzie) and had a couple of drinks there. I continued my fun with Vodka Tonics with a twist of lime. The bartender, Karen, was fun to talk to and some people Tim met the week before were there too, Michelle and Sean. Tim played a round of pool with Sean while I got to know Michelle. There must have been only 20 people in the bar, but it was alot of fun.

Somewhere in the course of the rum and vodka, I also snuck in a shot of Petron.

Not a good idea.

It was getting late and we had to get home. I needed a little bit to get my bearing and head home. Tim talked me thru my waiting period and I eventually made it on the road home.

What a great evening.

Thanks Tim. Thanks for being a friend.

Date #3

Friday night was my third date with Doug. After stressing all day about where to go we finally decided to head to downtown Huntington Beach. I read a blog in the OC Register about a new restaurant called Izakaya Zero. Izakaya is a type of Japanese tavern that serves “little plates” of food with lots of sake and drinks. Think of it as Japanese Tapas!

Earlier in the day I had thought of taking Doug to LA and show him The Grove. He had not been there before and thought it would be nice to walk around and stop by the Apple Store (our favorite store!). Then I thought maybe Long Beach and then maybe stay local and go to the Spectrum (again, for the Apple store). Doug’s parents were visiting from Northern California on Saturday, so we thought to stay local!Doug picked me up and we drove up to Huntington Beach. He had just made a mix CD and listed to Britney’s Gimme More along with some other tunes.

We got to Izakaya Zero and it was crowded! Based on the blog entry on Thursday, it said they were suffering from nearby construction and the place was empty. This Friday night it was packed! Seems the review in the OC Register brought the patrons in. However, it seems that the surge in business may have been testing. This is probably the first time the staff was tested in a full house experience.
Doug and I decided to start with drinks. I ordered a club soda with a twist of lime and he ordered a Kirin. After our drinks arrived I decided to try the Yoku-jito and Japanes Mojito. Made with limes and mint, there was also a hint of ginger.

We ordered 4 plates to eat. First we ordered a Zero Roll and Huntington Beach roll. I can’t remember what was in the rolls but I have to tell you that it was some of the best rolls I have had in a LONG time. We both enjoyed it. In Doug’s words – it was amazing! In addition to the rolls, we ordered Albacore Tataki and a plate of Tempura. The tempura was perfect, not oily and the vegetables were crisp and flavorful. The Albacore Tataki is seared albacore topped with roasted herbs and vegetable sauce. A small pile of microgreens was served on top. I LUVED that dish.The over atmosphere was very trendy and contemporary. There was a good beat going on all night. Almost everyone in the place seems to be enjoying themselves and the vibe was good. Overall it was a good night, but the service was a bit slow. Our second roll didn’t arrive until 15 minutes after we finished eating the first three plates.

Score? 3.99 out of 5

After dinner we drove down PCH down to Newport. We parked on Balboa Blvd and walked down to the water. It was low tide and the waves were coming in softly. It was very peaceful, it was a bit cool and there was a nice breeze. We walked for a bit along the shore towards the Newport Pier. We stopped at a lifeguard station and climbed on up and sat on the station looking out to the water and listening to the water. It was so nice just sitting there with Doug. I put my arm around him and he pulled in close. (awwww….)

After some time at the water, we headed back towards home. I decided to show him where Fashion Island was and how to get back to Irvine the back way via the Newport Back Bay. When we got back, we hung out and did more cuddling. (more awww….)

Doug’s parents are visiting him for the first time since he moved to SoCal. They were flying in today at 11am and so Doug had to head home. I won’t see Doug until Monday night when we see each other for Episode 2 of Heroes.

I had a great time last nite and look forward to seeing him on Monday…