I was in Portland, Oregon over the weekend for the JET Alumni Association Regional Technology Conference.  On Sunday, after the Conference ended, I went with LL to check out Portland’s much acclaimed Pok Pok Thai restaurant.   The restaurant is a bit off the beaten path, but definitely worth the trip.  It’s built to resemble  [...]

While I was in “Teherangeles” visiting the family last week, I went to check out Attari Sandwich Shop in Westwood (1388 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90024). We started with a Shirazi salad, a simple and refreshing chopped salad of tomato, cucumber, and onion.

Next course was Ash-e joe, a thick soup with lentils, black [...]

I checked out Kogi, the much-hyped Los Angeles Korean BBQ Taco truck when I was in town visiting the family last week.  We followed them on Twitter and drove out to Encino to wait in line for the Korean/Mexican fusion food cart.  They have multiple trucks that park at different locations in LA on different [...]

Elizabeth and I went to The Wine Trials 2010 book release party at Seppi’s on Wednesday night.  I was one of the blind tasters for the first edition of the book. The Wine Trials 2010 is a completely rewritten new edition that “recommends 150 wines under $15 that outscored $50-$150 wines in brown-bag blind [...]

I improvised this sweet potato gnocchi gratin for a night in with Elizabeth and Catherine.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of milk
1 teaspoon of herbes de Provence
1/4 teaspoon of pimentón (smoked Spanish paprika)
1 heaping tablespoon of white miso
1 half package of Neufchatel or cream cheese
2 handfuls of grated Gruyère
1 egg, beaten
Olive oil
1 onion, [...]