Orange County Food Blog

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Grace Le

Soon to be the world's largest beer.

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Courtesy of BeTheCause.org

Volunteer cheerfully serving his own vegan creation

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October saw the last (for now) in a series of inspiring experiments in altruism and mostly meatless dining. Operating under the motto "Living is Giving," Seva Cafe hosted a meaningful dining experience each Sunday from January through October after hours at Zephyr Cafe in downtown Long Beach.

​The Crow Bar and Kitchen in Corona Del Mar has reinterpreted s'mores, a staple of any campfire, by taking the graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate, and creating a sundae. The Crow Bar's S'mores Sundae, our Dessert of the Week, has all of the essential ingredients, but chef Scott Brandon has amped things up. Made with toasted marshmallow semifreddo (a semi-frozen gelato and whipped cream mixture), homemade graham crackers, Belgian chocolate sauce, and Maldon sea salt, this is not your average sundae.

The graham crackers have a strong brown sugar flavor that is both unexpected and welcome. The texture and deep aromas of the Belgian chocolate sauce make it by far the best part of this dessert. The first bite of the semifreddo tasted exactly like a toasted marshmallow found on a s'more. The one quibble? The semifreddo was not so "semi," just a whole lot of "freddo." Delicious though it was, a crowbar (had to...) could have come in handy breaking down the "marshmallow" component of this dessert.

Despite the not-so-semifreddo of the S'mores Sundae, The Crow Bar is living up to its gastropub format by providing high-end food alongside an extensive beer list. With a dessert menu that includes such items as "Not Just A Ding Dong" and "Irish Car 'Bombe,'" the tastiest dessert of them all is the one without the clever moniker.

Dave Lieberman

​Remember two weeks ago, when I posted mockingly about 7-Eleven's move into the ultra-budget wine world? I made a snarky comment about not doing one's research about specialty retailers that might also have a decent chunk of the market share for really, really cheap wine, and I threw in some gratuitous French-Canadian slang, namely, cuvée dépanneur ("convenience store blend").

Well, it's time to put my money, or rather the Weekly's money, where my mouth is. For this week's Dueling Dishes segment, I went out and bought two bottles of 7-Eleven's new Yosemite Road wine ($3.99 each) and two bottles of Trader Joe's Charles Shaw wine, better known as "Two Buck Chuck" because it costs $2.00 a bottle.

Faced with a selection of various types of what the French would call vin de table or vin ordinaire, I picked Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Edwin Goei

​As most Weekly readers know, Native Foods occupies a yurt at The Camp in Costa Mesa, one of the first stores to debut at the alternative mall. But Native Foods was actually started 15 years ago in Palm Springs by its founder, Tanya Petrovna, who's authored two cookbooks on the subject of vegan cookery (on sale at all locations).

Now they've expanded and this new Tustin store, which replaces Go Roma, makes three Orange County locations where you can eat vegan food with such clever monikers such as the "BL Tease".

CLICK HERE for the Tustin store's menu, which I scanned from a hard copy since their website is a bit wonky at the moment and hasn't quite been updated with it.

Photo Courtesy of Ruby's

​Ah, Ruby's. What pier would be complete without you?

For 27 years it's been at the Balboa Pier and since then it's occupied many others. To celebrate this milestone, all Ruby's (including and especially the original) will be selling their RubyBurger and fries at a "retro price" of $2.70 only on Monday, December 7, 2009, from 11:30 a.m. to closing.

Ah, Ruby's. Even better with a discount.

The hard-skinned, knobby squashes of fall and winter can be a bit confusing to shop for. A variety of names--the exotic-sounding delicata and kabocha, the more tame and familiar butternut and acorn--different colors and various molted patterns make it seem like cooking each variety might be as different and particular as their appearances. Not to say that there aren't differences in taste, but these winter squashes are largely interchangeable in recipes. The important to thing to consider though is ripeness when picking out a squash, a factor that is easy to over look when facing these sometimes bludgeon-like vegetables. The tell-tale sign of a ripe squash is a well-developed ground spot, the name given to the small bumps--easily mistaken for imperfections--that form on the bottom side of a squash from sitting on the ground long enough to fully mature. So the perfectly smooth squash, with no knobby "blemishes" on one side is in fact the unripe squash.

cpt_obvious/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Squash season coincides with the decidedly less delicious decorative gourd season, which McSweeny's can give you a tip or two on for taking advantage of.

 

Dal Urad

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