Taste With The Eyes

Ideas for Personalizing Mother’s Day

I’m thrilled to be a contributing columnist for our local paper Random Lengths News, which covers the Harbor Area of Los Angeles, where I write about food and entertaining.The following is the column I wrote for Mother’s Day.

Personalizing Mother’s Day

It’s no secret that Mother’s Day is the busiest day of the year for U.S. restaurants. Take mom out for a nice meal, give her the day off from cooking and cleaning, what a treat! But if you would like to make the day festive and personal, try these tips for “Making Mother’s Day Special” starting her day by fixing breakfast or brunch. And {hint} you can still take her out for dinner!

Prepare a fresh and easy brunch that is on the healthier side. The menu includes a light egg & cheese strata, fresh fruit parfait, with juice, and coffee or tea. The strata provides a delightful savory element, while the parfait adds a sweet note.

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Molecular Mignardise: Chocolate & Olive Oil Powder

Molecular Mignardise

Hand-Broken 85% Cacao Dark Bitter Chocolate
Olive Oil Powder, Olive Oil, Raw Cacao Nibs, Fleur de Sel

One last little sweet bite to seal the deal, to say goodnight to a grand meal that is now only a memory. The French have a name for these bites: mignardises. Usually tiny but elaborate, often consisting of many types or flavors, like pâtes de fruits and miniature macarons.

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Swiss Chard Falafel Burger

Swiss Chard Falafel Burger
Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado, Hummus
On a Toasted Ciabatta Roll

Besides the obvious, BLT stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel. This French Chef and his restaurant empire were my inspiration for our monthly Cooking Club challenge to build a sandwich around three ingredients that start with the letters…BLT, other than bacon, lettuce, and tomato.

I did attempt to follow the challenge rules, but my combinations of B, L, and T foods were uninspiring. And I simply cannot share something here on Taste With The Eyes that I don’t consider fabulous in one way or another. So I turned to a cookbook on my shelf BLT Bistro Laurent Tourondel for help. The Chef melds classic French bistro fare with the American steakhouse style. He poetically reinterprets the dishes in an uncomplicated manner with flavor and flair.

The idea for my reinterpreted BLT sandwich comes from a different source however, an item on his menu at restaurant BLT Burger in Las Vegas, called a Veggie Falafel. I had no idea what ingredients were in his falafel, but it was wonderfully green! With lettuce, tomato, avocado, and hummus. So, here I present my version…a Swiss Chard Falafel Burger.

Now, why go through all the trouble to make a superior vegetarian burger then add bacon to the sandwich? Why indeed. Vegetarian friends will love this swiss chard falafel burger, and why not add bacon for my carnivorous friends who believe bacon makes everything better. Which one are you?

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Un-boring Oatmeal

Oatmeal Topped with Non-Fat Greek Yogurt
Toasted Quinoa, Dried Blueberries, Sunflower Seeds, Blue Agave Nectar

Would you rather eat farm fresh poached eggs and thick smoky bacon? Me too. But part of my heart-healthy regimen includes oatmeal for breakfast several times a week. And that gets boring. Quite. Boring. In looking for healthy ways to jazz it up, I put together this combination of toppings – tangy yogurt, toasty quinoa, nutty sunflower seeds, intense wild berries, and mildly sweet blue agave nectar. It was a delightful way start to the day.

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A Smoky Old-School Korean Bar (in LA)

I don’t pretend to be an expert on the Korean pub scene, in fact I’ve only been to this one. But here, my older brother Bill and I were transported to what I imagine to be a secret hideaway in a back alley somewhere in Seoul. He served in the military in Korea and was happy to accompany me as I reviewed a dozen restaurants for a Korean restaurant publication. We began our experience at Dan Sung Sa with a complimentary seaweed soup, perhaps served for drinking stamina? And positively addictive shoestring potatoes curiously sprinkled with sugar.

We were warned that Dan Sung Sa is not easy to find. It has no exterior signage in English, adding to the mystery and charm.

Dan Sung Sa
3317 W. 6th St.
Koreatown, Los Angeles, CA

This is a bar. Trippy, authentic, hip, smoky. We loved it. Definitely not a fine dining establishment by any means. If you are looking for a place to imbibe and experience what could be Seoul’s cultural underbelly, this is the place. We drank Hite and soju, we ate esoteric ahn-joo. The service fit the atmosphere, the music was perfect. By the way – it was smoky…and not just from the grill.

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