Alpine Village Market

If you like anything German as far as food goes, you most likely will find it at the Alpine Village Market in Torrance.

My favorite sausage that I get for either 4th of July or Labor Day is the Weisswurst. This is made with veal and pork. When cooked on the grill served with your favorite mustard, there is nothing like it.  Many other sausages are sold along with the deli meats including their famous Black Forest Ham. In the Deli section, they sell ready made sauerkraut, meat salad, herring salads etc. There's just so much to see.

My friend and I went this morning to pick up my order.  Of course, I did not leave with just the sausage. My friend and I were there for about 40 minutes browsing and investigating.  They have a large variety of mustards made in Germany. Lots of chocolates from Germany, Switzerland, and Poland. If you like marzipan, they have the best ones from Niederegger but since this is the real thing, you will pay the price. It's quite expensive.  Different jams and jellies you don't see in your neighborhood supermarket are on display.

They have a bakery but I could never get excited with their pastries except the Princess cake which is made with marzipan. It's not the best but it's good enough.
The German rolls (brotchen) and French rolls are much better than their pastries.

Alpine Village Market is located at 833 W. Torrance Blvd. in Torrance, California.
Their hours are Monday to Friday 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday & Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Sea Salt Butterscotch

Trader Joe's has done it again! I was in there today to get a few things for my husband and while waiting in line, something caught my attention. The words Sea Salt and a picture of chocolate caramels. 

I couldn't wait till after dinner so I went ahead and ripped the bag and popped one in my mouth. These chocolate covered balls are soft and creamy inside and "enrobed" in dark chocolate which offsets the caramel sweetness. The sea salt also helps offset the sweetness. 

You know how they say dark chocolate is good for you; well these chocolates are dark and another good thing is it has 1 gram of fiber! Hey, that's better than no fiber at all. You also know that fiber is good for you, so next time you're at Trader Joe's, pick up a bag. I think you'll like them too.

Bowtie Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Amy and Nako did it again....they gave me a bunch of fresh tomatoes; too many for just salads so I knew I had to make some spaghetti sauce. Tomatoes and fresh basil from the plant Cindy gave me. When I went outside to cut some basil, I noticed that the plant was comatose.  Someone neglected to give it some water. I immediately did CPR and watered it....waited about an hour. I am happy to report, it made a full recovery.

I started out sauteing some shallots, garlic and leeks in a little butter and lots of olive oil.  I then added the chopped basil ( a bunch ), about 10 tomatoes (peeled and chopped).  I seasoned the sauce with coarse sea salt and pepper. After tasting the sauce, I thought it was a bit too sour so I poured some Mirin sauce. I overdid it that it got to be too sweet. I went to my disorganized pantry and looked for something I could add to take away the sweetness. My eyes settled on a can of olives. I ended up adding the whole can of chopped olives.  I was still not happy with the outcome so I got some rice wine vinegar and poured some in and decided to add chili flakes.  It was tasting better at this point but I wanted it to be less sweet and more salty. I opened the refrigerator and saw my tub of feta cheese. Things are always better with feta, don't you think?  That just about did it!

The result was a very good tomato sauce; a bit salty, sweet, and spicy.  Sandi was willing to sacrifice and go off her diet just to please me. What a friend indeed.

I had some left over which I delivered to my tomato supplier, the Nakasatos.

Mar'sel at the Terrenea Resort

I got another deal at Travelzoo for a 4-course dinner at Mar'sel for 2 people including wine (total of $30) at $99.00.

We enjoyed our last dinner there except for the service. We had a server who was not interested in service. See last blog:
http://solittlethyme.blogspot.com/2012/01/marsel.html

Like I stated in the past, I was still interested in coming back for the good food. I had spoken to the manager before and he asked me to make sure to let him know when I was ready to come back. He no longer is employed there. Oh well, I guess managers are like restaurants, they come and go.

The ambiance is great. You are right by the ocean and most people prefer to sit outside though we opted for inside; safe from birds. We were greeted by a nice waiter named Jeffrey. I informed him that we had a voucher from Travelzoo so he enthusiastically got us the special menu; no attitude. Though there really should not have any as they automatically add the 18% tip on the original amount which was $194.00.

Before anything else, they came with some nice bread which they called English muffin. It was not your traditional muffin. It looked more like a biscuit but the texture was of regular bread. They served this with a creamy butter and some sea salt. I figured the best way to devour this muffin was to take some of the salt and sprinkle it directly on the butter, break a piece of the warm bread and slather the salted butter on the bread and enjoy.  This may have been the best experience of the evening!

They brought out our first course which was a cheese & charcuterie board. We enjoyed the Spanish cheese, salami and ciabatta toast.  I forgot to ask which brand  of whole grain mustard they used as it was so good. The housemade pickled vegetables were too sour for both of us.

For appetizer, Sandi ordered the Chicken Liver with housemade preserves with ciabatta toast. I don't eat liver but she insisted I try. Taste change so I figured maybe this time I would like it. She got a small scoop of liver with lots of preserves and put it on a piece of toast.  As I put it in my mouth, I tasted the wonderful preserves, and I thought, hhmmm...this liver ain't that bad.....then all of a sudden I tasted the liver. Oh my God! I prayed that I could get rid of the taste with a sip of wine and water. I eventually did. After this experience, Sandi informed me that the liver was not good. She described it as tasting like baby food; nasty baby food.

My appetizer was much,much,much better! It was a Slow Braised Idaho Pork Cheek.
I really couldn't care less where the pork was from.....well....I guess I do.  This was served with wild mushroom barley "risotto' with soft cooked egg and black truffle butter. I enjoyed the tender pork and the barley risotto which tasted like a very aldente pasta.

Four entrée, we both chose the Balsamic Barbecued Idaho Pork Chop. It was served with grilled peaches, mustard greens and crushed marcona almonds.  By the time we got our entrée, we were both getting full. We ate 1/2 our pork chops and took the other 1/2 home.

Dessert was a a disappointment. The Roasted Nut "Tart" was a soft caramel, spiced chocolate, sea salt vanilla cookie. The so called tart was  not a tart. This should have been called a mousse. The spiced chocolate was too spicy and the caramel was all over the nuts which was fine but somehow,it just didn't work.

Mar'sel will have to improve on their desserts because the last time we were there, we were not impressed with their selections either.  I have had really good desserts in the past but that was a long time ago.

The restaurant was quite busy on a Wednesday evening. The new manager helped the staff in serving food. He was dressed in a suit looking professional but not once did he come to our table (before it got busy), nor did he make eye contact with one of us.
I saw him interact with a larger group though.  Sandi mentioned that she had read and observed that 2 women dining, normally don't get much attention. I have never noticed that till last night. I will have to pay attention to that from now on.

Bacon + Chocolate?

I have always enjoyed this dark chocolate but haven't had it in a long time until recently,  a friend gave me a bar of Mo's Dark Bar by Vosges. See previous link on what this Chocolatier, Katrina is all about:
http://solittlethyme.blogspot.com/2012/05/vosges-haut-chocolat.html

This Dark Bar is 62% dark chocolate with hickory smoked uncured bacon with smoked salt.  This is a dark chocolate delight and if you like bacon, you are in for a treat. In my opinion, this is the best chocolate bacon ever. The bitterness of real dark quality chocolate with the smoked bacon is a marriage made in heaven. If that's not enough, when you bite into the chocolate, you chew on bits of salt to offset the bitterness of the chocolate.

I quote you Katrina's instructions for eating this chocolate:  "Breath.... engage your 5 senses, close your eyes and inhale deeply. Be in the present moment, notice the color of the chocolate, the glossy shine. Rub your thumb over the chocolate bar to release the aromas of hickory smoked uncured bacon flirting with dark chocolate. Snap off just a tine piece and place it in your mouth, let the lust of salt and sweet coat your tongue."

With that in mind, how can you resist not going to store to try some now.  I buy mine at World Market (Cost Plus). Mind you, they are not cheap. They are about $7.00 but well worth it.

Sandi's Impromptu Dinner

The other day, Sandi asked me if I would like to have dinner at her house as she had some tuna that she defrosted.  What am I to say; can't hurt her feelings.

We started out with a salad that looked vibrant; this would have gotten any vegetarian ecstatic. My friend Mertz had just given me a bottle of dressing she wanted me to try. It was Galeos low fat world's best Miso sesame seed. We both liked it; a bit sweet and it didn't taste "diet" at all which is a good thing.

She had baked and later broiled the tuna which she generously sprinkled some Cajun spice. She tried a piece and felt it needed something to complement the spiciness. She poured some passion fruit (the ones you mix for drinks) and that was all it needed to taste really good. For veggies, she served a variety; baby carrots, Brussels sprouts, beets and pecans baked in maple syrup.

For dessert, we had honey vanilla yogurt and vanilla almond granola with frozen mixed berries. That's probably why I liked it since I enjoy sweetened fruit much better than fresh. I know......I'm odd that way.

The impromptu dinner was such a treat and right after dessert we were off to a "Nightclub Two Step" dance class to burn off the calories.

Lawry's Portfolio Wine Tasting

Lawry's sent out invitations via email on their Portfolio Wine Tasting Event which took place on August 14, 2013. What caught my eye were the great wineries participating. Duckhorn, Cakebread, Stags Leap, Clos du Val, Franciscan to name a few. The price for the wine tasting with hors d' oeuvres was a reasonable price of $48 which included tax and tip.

I got my friend Cindy to go with me. This tasting was to start at 6 p.m. We got there at 5:30 p.m. in time to coat our tummies with their delicious meat balls and potato chips in their parlor.

Promptly at 6:00 p.m. we checked in and strolled into one of their private rooms next to the bar. They had nice size wine glasses all lined up and tables with the different wineries with a few samples of their wine. I must tell you that all of them were good, some better than others and a few that were outstanding. I was upset that one of my favorite, Duckhorn was not there. The representative apparently did not show up.
Cindy and I have never heard of Nickel and Nickel Kelham Vineyard which showcased their Cabernet. We liked that a lot. We also had a taste from Frank Family, that was excellent. I asked how much a bottle cost. The answer was $150. There was another one we thought was also excellent and that was $85.   After several tastings we were getting confused;  It would have been a good idea to take notes. That would have been very hard to do as you had a glass of wine in one hand and a plate of food on the other.

Let me tell you about the food. The had hors d' oeuvres galore. A long table filled with cold cuts, delicious cheeses, fondue, grapes that were baked with balsamic vinegar and grape seed oil (unusual but delicious), roasted vegetables and wonderful figs! Aside from these, they had servers passing mini tomatoes stuffed with polenta, melon with prosciutto and something with shrimp on top (can't remember what the something was)
Cindy and I were enjoying ourselves too much.  I dumped some of my wine in the bucket in order to try as many wines I could. Cindy could not part with one drop as she didn't want to "waste" it.

We ended up taking our plates to the bar and sat there so we could enjoy our food. There were guests waiting for tables for dinner so I wasn't sure if we would be allowed to sit at the bar.  It turned out, that a few people from the wine tasting had the same thing in mind.  My suggestion for Lawry's next time they have this affair is to have some tables in the room so people can sit down. Another suggestion is....it would be a  good idea if the wine representatives have cards with the name of the wine and some information. Most of them just recited the name and description of the wine as if anyone would remember everything. If they had cards or flyers, it would have been easy to make notes. Lawry's did have a list of Wines available for purchase but some of the ones we tried were not on the list.

This was a fun evening and highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys wine. I asked one of the servers if  Miss Duke was around. She said: "Yes, I'll send her over."
In a few minutes, Miss Duke make her entrance. We acted like 2 high school girls that haven't seen each other since spring break. She's my favorite server and always make it a point to request her. She is such a riot!