Rules Restaurant

Our first evening in London was an enjoyable and successful dinner.  A friend of ours, Marie who lives in Manchester came over to join us for dinner. In fact she came to spend the next 3 days with us. Another friend of my brother,  Myra ended up joining us when she found out we were thinking of going to Rules Restaurant.  The restaurant  was first established in 1798 They have a long standing reputation of very good food.

Marie had a craving for salmon so she did order the Darne of Salmon with mussels & garam Marsala and cream sauce. She asked Daniel if she could order rice, something that was not on the menu. He willingly suggested he would have the chef make some for her. Now, that's service.  Myrna had the Pig's cheeks which she loved. Sandi ordered her Halibut with mushroom duxelle, salsify, port and red wine sauce. Gary and I ordered the Daube of Beef with creamed potato, lardons and carrots. The meat was so tender that we didn't have use for our knives. The sauce was fantastic. Everyone kept making sounds of approval (leave that to your imagination).

We decided to share 2 desserts: one was the Tarte a Tatin and the other was a Chocolate souffle. All 5 of us partook in devouring of these 2 desserts.

Rules Restaurant is on 35 Maiden Lane in London.  One has to make a stop here when visiting London. You will be glad you did as we all were.

Ocean Prime

Ocean Prime opened late last year in Beverly Hills.  It's location is the old El Torito on Wilshire and Camden.  I read about it a couple of months ago and the food sounded promising and the ambiance was inviting.

They have a nice bar; actually 2 bars on each side of the building. One has an outdoor area that faces Wilshire Blvd. They have an impressive display of their wine collection and inside is an equally impressive dining room.

Seafood and Steak seemed to be their specialty. They have a raw bar with oysters, crab, shrimps as well as an array of sushi. Since my friend was not fond of oysters, we settled for the White Truffle Caviar Deviled Eggs and the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with sweet corn cream. Our server, Shawniqua informed us that she would ask the kitchen to make little crab cakes instead of 1 large one so it would be easier for us to share. I liked her attitude! She was thinking of the customer and it was obvious she aimed to please unlike some establishments wherein the servers are trained to take your order and answers your questions and everything stops there.  We also thought we would split a Caesar salad with anchovies.

The deviled eggs were creamy and smooth; best deviled eggs I have had. The crab cakes were delicious with the sweet corn cream.  I loved the Caesar salad with large pieces of anchovies. The anchovies were not too salty; it reminded me of the anchovies from the Cinque Terre region in Italy where the anchovies didn't really taste like regular anchovies; they were mellower and just wonderful.

For our entree, we split the  King Salmon with lobster, gnocchi & peas and a Filet Mignon with Bearnaise sauce.  Instead of a side of vegetables, I went for it and ordered the Loaded Sea Salt Baked Potato. The salmon was nice and fresh but I preferred the Filet cooked perfectly with the ever so lovely Bearnaise. The picture of the baked potato below speaks for itself! (wonderful)

Dessert was a the 10 layer Carrot Cake with pineapple syrup. This was unlike any carrot cake I have had. It even had coconut which I normally do not care for. I must admit it was delicious.

I didn't leave without saying hello to my old friend Stephen Cook, an English chap (just have to say that since I'll be leaving for London soon) who is the general manager of Ocean Prime and who came from Bouchon and managed the Thomas Keller restaurant group.

Ocean Prime started in Columbus, Ohio in 2006 and has expanded to numerous locations: Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Orlando, Philadelphia, Tampa and one scheduled to open in New York soon.

Smash Burger

My hairdresser, Jody alerted me about this burger joint in Redondo Beach. She said they were good; not outstanding but good. She had the Classic Smash.  Sandi and I at the last minute wanted to go for burgers last night, so I got excited, (I know, it takes little to excite me these days) and told her we should try Smash Burger.

Again, we thought it to be a good idea to order 2 burgers to split in case one is not good, we would still have a good half.  The L.A. Burger caught our eyes. Crispy wonton, fried egg, cilantro, cucumber, ginger dressing, lettuce & tomato on a black & white sesame seed bun. The other was a Truffle mushroom Swiss, truffle mayo, sauteed crimini mushrooms and aged Swiss on an egg bun. The cashier volunteered splitting both in half. Wow, I liked her attitude and enthusiasm. She should be promoted! We also ordered the Smashfries which are French fries tossed in rosemary, olive oil and garlic.

The burgers came and our server asked what sauces we would like. I ordered ranch to go with some ketchup for our fries and aioli sauce just because.... We had the L.A. burger first. We couldn't believe how good it was. This was in fact better than just good. The big crunchy wonton was great. The fried egg was well done so it didn't ooze out as you bit into the burger but you could definitely taste the egg that went well with the rest of the ingredients. The Truffle Mushroom burger was also good but compared to L.A. one, I would skip that and go for the L.A. Burger. The fries were very tasty dipped in the ranch ketchup dressing. I found a good use for the aioli . It enhanced my burger which made me enjoy it even more.

I cannot believe that our friend Cindy has not mentioned Smash Burger to us especially since she lives around the corner. If she hasn't been there, then she is forgiven and now she will know what she has been missing.

Smash Burger has several locations: Buena Park, Culver City, Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, Thousand Oaks and Monrovia. The one in Redondo Beach is located in a shopping center in the corner of Pacific Coast Hwy. and Beryl in Redondo Beach, California.

Barbecue Ribs Southern Style

Aaron had a bunch of us over for dinner. He wanted us to try his barbecue ribs and fried okra. The only time I had okra was at Bouchon in Beverly Hills and it was not good.
He breaded and fried the okra and served it as appetizers. Sandi served some cheese and made a ham spread from left over ham which was quite good. The okra was delicious and addicting. My only complain was they were so small. He informed me that the smaller the okra, the tastier it was; indeed he was right.

The barbecue ribs were not bad at all. I had a few of them....o.k. I had more than a few! With that, Sandi had made macaroni and cheese using her sharp Vermont cheddar, Gruyere and Parmesan cheese. The creaminess went well with the ribs together with the New England baked beans. Thinking that might not be enough food, there was Chinese chicken salad, corn on the cob and of course; corn bread.

Needless to say, we all enjoyed the wonderful dinner and the light dessert which was a parfait. Lemon pound cake with fresh raspberries (very healthy), vanilla ice cream topped with lots of hot fudge.

The best part was the Master Okra and Barbecue Rib chef also did the dishes.

Ginza Grill

Ginza Grill is at the new food court now known as the patio cafes in the Del Amo mall in Torrance California.  Three of us were shopping last week and we ended up having dinner there.

Service was slow. I sampled the teriyaki chicken and thought it was too salty. We ordered the Spicy Beef Teriyaki which comes with your choice of rice, noodles or both. The Crispy Sesame Shrimp with a sweet and sour sauce looked delicious. While we waited for our order, we shared the Edamame, served warm with sea salt. That was good!  Both entrees were exceptionally good. I was impressed with the tenderness of the steak and the crispiness of the shrimp without too much breading. It was perfect and was even more enjoyable for the price of $7.95. The beef was $7.45.

I tried to call Ginza Grill numerous times the following days after our visit since I wanted to learn more about the shrimps. I called at different times and no one ever answered the phone. I later dug up my receipt and there was a different phone number on it. Every time I dialled the number, a man would answer and as soon as I asked if this was the Ginza Grill, he abruptly said: "Wrong number." I later looked at yelp and I found the same comments. I don't know what this all means but while they are still in business, do try the 2 items as they are really quite good for the price.

Ginza Grill is at 21712 Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance, California at the Del Amo Mall.

Lobstermania

Sandi and I both got Live Lobsters in the mail the other day. I have no problem cooking lobsters as I anesthetize them first before dunking them in the boiling water. Since she got 2 and I got 2, we thought we would combine them and have them for dinner. I was lucky enough to be busy as I had to take my husband for minor surgery. Sandi had to cook the lobsters on her own.
She consulted her son for a very good recipe. She did get ambitious and wanted to make a stuffing for the handsome lobsters.

Early afternoon, I got a text which read: "Yuk, Yuk, Yuk, I will never eat lobsters again". I had just gotten home and called her immediately. She was severely traumatized when she had to clean and take all the guts and green stuff off to the point that she really did not want to have any part of Mr. Lobster. Since she had already stuffed the lobsters ready to be baked at my house, I thought the least I could do is get her something else. I bought a couple of Filet Mignon's which I marinated and cooked for her. The lobsters were big and the stuffing looked wonderful.

When we got them out of the oven, we stood around and just admired them and tried to decide what to do next. Sandi became the surgeon once again. She managed to do O.R.I.F. (open reduction internal fixation). The person next to her, my husband was her previous patient.

We ate the tail first which was delicious but boy was it a chore. We cracked, and swore and cracked and swore.  Aaron sat next to me and I thank God for that as he had more experience and offered to do the rest of  the cracking. I have to to tell you that pieces were flying all over.

Though we all thought the lobsters were delicious, it was unanimous that we all would rather pay the $$$ to go to a restaurant and have it all ready to eat! This is now the second item I will not cook again, the first being prime rib. (Lawry's would be the place for that). It was just to stressful and I could not totally enjoy the dining experience.

Dessert was a store bought fudge chocolate cake. That was totally stress free.

Tnt's Aloha Cafe

I've been to this place only once many years ago even though it is in the same parking lot where I have my nails done. I think I was not adventurous enough then so I just had regular bacon and eggs.

My friend and I ended up here by default. We were going to the Crepe place but they only had seats outside and it was a very cold afternoon so we walked passed the Mongolian Beef restaurant and landed at the Aloha Cafe.

It was almost 2:00 p.m. and the place was still very busy and full. We had to wait 5 minutes to be seated. After looking at the menu, we decided to order 2 plates to split. We got the TnT's Own Style Portuguese Sausage & Eggs and the Spam (yes....spam) & Eggs. Both plates came with a choice of rice and potatoes. We opted for the steamed white rice.

When the food came, Sandi immediately did the divisions as we were both starving. I only remembered to take pictures after we had already split everything. Now we understand why this place has been around a long time and why there is always a crowd of people. Nothing gourmet about anything. It is no nonsense comfort food which will remind you of home. Home for me was the Philippines. We used to eat spam dipped in eggs and then fried. Hawaiians love their spam as well. Sandi too remembered having fried spam as a kid growing up in Vermont; they either just sliced it off from the can and made it into sandwiches with mustard or sometimes fried. So I guess, spam was and is an international comfort food. The Portuguese sausage was made into patties and they were a bit spicy so it went well with the steamed rice.

We did enjoy our brunch at the Aloha Cafe. They are located at the Village Center, 24034 Vista Montana in Torrance, California. They are open everyday except Mondays. On the weekends, they open at 7:00 a.m.