Orange County Food Blog

desserttruck.com

Please, please, PLEASE come to OC, Dessert Truck!

​Nancy Luna (the Fast Food Maven) is someone whose writing I admire, and she scoops absolutely everything about fast food in OC. I know that when the Buttermilk Truck or the Grilled Cheese Truck or any of the other, suddenly-fashionable higher-end food trucks come to OC, she will know about it before they even tweet it, and so I was glad to see a post about more food trucks coming to OC, because it probably means she has insider information.

I read through the post (and Nancy, you're a food truck tease) and am excited by what I read, but the comments! The comments made me cringe.

You'd think I'd have learned by now never, ever, ever to read comments on any story at all on the Register's website. There has to be some kind of OC corollary to Godwin's Law, whereby the chance of someone ranting, usually completely off-topic, about illegal immigrants increases exponentially with the length of the comment thread.

The comments on Nancy's post weren't as xenophobic as normal for the Register, but they still made me cringe. They contain nearly all the stereotypical, misinformed objections to food trucks. Read on, dear readers, as I tackle the big ones in turn:

​I had to share this recent story with my fellow science geeks out there.  It's all about stuff you never knew to ask about food in NASA's space shuttle. 

According to the article, here are some fun tidbits:

- "Salt and pepper are available but only in a liquid form because astronauts can't sprinkle salt and pepper on their food in space - it would simply float away."

- "In 2007, an astronaut was trying to make a pretend sushi meal with bag-packaged salmon and accidentally squirted a blob of spicy wasabi into the air. After a lengthy cleanup, the wasabi was exiled to a cargo bay."

And the most hilarious of all:

- "...taco sauce had become carefully guarded currency.  Astronaut Sid Gutierrez once said space shuttle crews always take spicy accouterments like taco sauce to make food taste better. The taco sauce, he said, also could be used for barter. "If it was your turn to say, clean the latrine, you could trade for two packets of taco sauce," he said."

Read THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE. 

 

Edwin Goei

​While walking through the produce section of Ralphs at Irvine's Woodbury neighborhood the other night, we were stopped cold in our tracks. This is what we saw. Rambutan.

At first I didn't believe my eyes. But as I refocused my vision on the familiar fur on the golf ball-sized fruit, it confirmed it. These were, indeed, rambutan! But they were not well, my friends. These looked like rambutan corpses. Dead, hard, brown mummies of the fruit I ate and loved as a child, and it was sad.

Unless I'm mistaken and these were some weird variety that looked like they're the zombie version of the fruit or even dried rambutans (which I've never heard of), I am flabbergasted that Ralphs would even stock them. Who's going to buy these? Do they know what they're selling? And do they know that it's rotten?

​If you've ever dieted, you probably know these numbers: 2,000 for women; 2,500 for men.

These are the immutable numbers of calories the government says you should eat per day to maintain a healthy weight.

Well, the British government apparently got it all wrong and will be adjusting their suggested daily calorie intake to allow for 2,400 calories a day for women and 2,900 calories a day for men, the equivalent (as the Daily Mail states) of about an extra cheeseburger a day. They say this is because they've got more accurate statistics about the activity level of the average Briton.

Because, you know, if there's one single problem these days with overall health in developed nations, it's that people simply don't eat enough food. An extra cheeseburger a day will make everyone in Britain lean and wiry, won't it?

Can you hear us over there, British people? DON'T DO IT.

Jones Soda Co.

​Maybe you're trying to take those first steps into veganism.

Maybe you know a vegetarian who's just had dental surgery.

Or maybe you just want to play a really, really, cruel trick on someone.

It doesn't matter, because Jones Soda is here for you with this year's Thanksgiving offering: Tofurky™ and Gravy soda. That's right, the people who brought you the original Turkey and Gravy soda (in 2003), Mashed Potato and Butter soda (in 2004) and Brussels Sprout soda (in 2005) have teamed up to bring you a cruelty-free, sugar-free Thanksgiving quaff. If you're interested, it is only available online.

Now perhaps the PETA people will stand down from their vigil outside the Jones Soda offices in Seattle.

Photo Courtesy Travel Channel

​I don't like where this is going.

Scripps Network Interactive Inc., owner of the Food Network, which has slowly but noticeably descended into semi-homemade mediocrity, bought a controlling stake in the Travel Channel last week.

For Anthony Bourdain's sake, I hope that the "controlling" part doesn't mean what it sounds like. Bourdain, as people know, jumped the Food Network ship for creative reasons, to put it mildly, taking his food travel show concept to Travel Channel, where it became the critically acclaimed and Emmy-winning No Reservations.

Dallas Observer

​Robert Wilonsky at our sister publication, the Dallas Observer, broke the news today that 7-Eleven will be selling private-label wine in their stores starting next week.

That's right, folks. No longer will you have to suffer the slings and arrows of shops run by true oenophiles, like Hi-Time or the Wine Exchange. Instead, you can hop over to your local 7-Eleven and pick up a bottle of Yosemite Road brand table wine for just $3.99.

(In Québec, wine purchased from a convenience store, or dépanneur, is ironically called "cuvée dépanneur." Now we've got "Château Sept-Onze.")

Funny, one wonders if any other chains of stores in the area sell house brand wine for cheap prices, say $2 a bottle.

While there are way more 7-Elevens than Trader Joe's, it's likely that 7-Eleven's wine sales will collapse with a big plonk... but this would make an intriguing Dueling Dishes post, wouldn't it?

The next time you find yourself in this dilemma, remember this: All you need is a wall and a somewhat sturdy shoe. And maybe some drunkass friends cheering you on en Français. Allez, allez!

Edwin Goei

​

I'm always monitoring Chowhound for the latest food grumblings. A recent thread reports on lamentable news involving the possible change of one of Disneyland's beloved staples: the corn dog.

It started with a chowhound (a poster named ReelMike84) suspecting that something has changed with the Little Red Wagon's signature product. "It was smaller then [sic] usual, and dare I say, tasted different," he wrote.

The suspicion is later confirmed by a reply by another poster named cem3340 who allegedly got info from a Little Red Wagon worker that they have allegedly switched from an 8 inch all-beef wiener to a 6 inch chicken-and-beef mix. Cost and nutritive value was cited as alleged reasons.

Both myself and Eddie Lin have written on the virtues of this corn dog, and if this story is true, to hear that they're mucking around with what was previously perfect is disheartening. What's next? Slowing down Big Thunder so that your hair doesn't get mussed up?

​

Hot off the announcement that Top Chef Masters is going to be getting a second season, Bravo is developing ANOTHER spin-off. What is it? Take the original Top Chef recipe, add a pinch of Ace of Cakes, maybe a few telegenic hotties that look like Jennifer Aniston and BAM! (with apologies to Emeril), you get Top Chef: Just Desserts, which is a delicious pun, I admit.

The new show, of course, will feature pastry chefs, and is now holding auditions. Desserts, as you know, has never been the strong suit of any of cheftestants thus far. Foams yes; meringues, not so much.

I should've seen this coming. After all Bravo is owned by NBC Universal, who's all about franchising (ahem, overextending) its hits. Think of Law & Order and the children it begat. Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I made that last one up, but still.

I predict the same thing with Top Chef.

Top Chef: Just Desserts is just for, um, starters.

Secretly, I'm looking forward to the day they ask back the losers (you know those cheftestants who got the boot first) for a spin-off entitled Top Chef: Just Bring Me The Check.

Good bánh mì choice for the Iowans; for everyone else, try Bánh Mì Cho Cu or Ba Le...

​
I hadn't been to Lee's Sandwiches in years, but ended up there last week after giving a lecture at UC Irvine. I gasped at the $2.75 price for a bánh mì, but still enjoyed the xa xiu selection, even if the baguette was a bit too hard. I also bought that green Vietnamese waffle made with some type of coconut-spiked green batter, and a pineapple sinh to (smoothie) that gave me too many brain freezes to count but was nevertheless delish.

But I left Lee's a bit peeved. On the counter was an open box of of some type of butterscotch candies with the Lee's Sandwiches logo on their wrapper. I assumed they were samples but asked the cashier if they were free. "No!" she said, in the dismissive manner only an undergrad can. "Can I buy just one to try them?" I asked.

Dumb question. She started to furiously sort through the box, trying to determine how much one would cost, huffing and puffing. "Fine--don't worry about it," I told her.

Nearly every restaurant, bakery, or candy store I've visited counts as samples any open boxes they might display on the counter. Lee's obviously doesn't have to follow everyone else, but is their name-brand candy really that legendary that no one needs to bother with a sample before buying a box?

Edwin Goei

​See the sign above? Add this to the redundant redundancy files (see what I did there?).

99 cent breakfast "weekdays starting at 9:30 am & weekends at 9:30 am!" it says. Not "everyday starting at 9:30 am", but "weekdays starting at 9:30 am & weekends at 9:30 am!" It's just as redundant as my repeating the redundancy...and using the word "redundant" for the fifth time in two paragraphs.

But wait. Is there a method to the madness? There's an exclamation after the last part. Perhaps the 99 cent breakfast is more exciting on weekends? Hence the need for the exclamation point and why it must be set apart from the regular, ho-hum, weekday breakfast?

Photo Courtesy of French 75

​Korean tacos are one thing. But French tacos? C'mon! Don't we have enough reasons to make fun of the French already?

"Le Taco Tuesday": That's what the folks at Culinary Adventures' French 75 are dubbing their latest promotion. With this development, I think, we're finally seeing the honest-to-goodness living incarnation of the term gabacho taco.

​Fair is fair, folks. A couple of weeks ago, I blasted the Orange County Register's "Best of Orange County" for the horrible selections readers picked as the best representation of a culinary category (Peppino's as best Italian! Subway as best Sandwich! Daphne's as best Greek!). Our Best of OC issue is out this week, with Edwin and I taking responsibility for virtually all the picks. But one part that we completely wipe our hands of is our Reader's Poll, and I'll repeat the same point I made with the Reg readers: WTF?

Gentle readers: are you marginally better than the Reg's collection of coffin-dodgers and Mexican-bashers? Javier's as the BEST FOOKIN' RESTAURANT?!?! If you want to snatch some siliconed hag, perhaps. Panama Joe's as best Mexican restaurant? ¿Qué chingada 'tan tomando? Best late-night dining being Denny's? Not even Norm's? Have my years of reviewing restaurants taught ustedes NOTHING? And Chipotle has the best burrito in OC the way I'm a CCIR supporter. And guess what? Both Weekly and Reg readers picked P.F. Chang's as best Chinese restaurant. I might as well take over Yvette Cabrera's job.

Best dessert at Cheesecake Factory? Kill me.

Edwin Goei

​If you've picked up the latest edition of The Weekly -- which is, by the way, our annual, and might I say, awesome Best of OC Issue (okay, I'm done with the shameless plug) -- you might have noticed my review of May Garden's secret menu in the usual Food section.

During a chat with head honcho Ted Kissell, he asked me, "Don't many/most Chinese restaurants have two menus, the Americanized one and the Chinese one?"

I told him that, actually, I'm not sure. But for the most part, no.

Jonathan Ho

​It seems like it's a frozen yogurt chain's rite of passage. It happened with Pinkberry, as you may remember. And now, it's happening with Yogurtland.

An L.A. law firm has announced via this press release that they have filed a class action lawsuit against the chain and "on behalf of all purchasers of a certain so-called 'frozen yogurt' product made and/or marketed by Yogurtland International, LLC ("Yogurtland")" 

Keith May

​Kogi's still going strong. This after countless knockoffs have taken to the road and naysayers have taken to the comment boards. Seriously, it seems that the number of vehement objections to their popularity is directly proportional to their popularity.

These days, it seems fashionable to be a Kogi hater (let's see how many I attract with this post).

Regardless, don't think that any of it will make the lines shorter.

But if your frustration with Kogi is that line, here's a tip: I wait until close to the end of the shift before I attempt a rendezvous. And if they've run out of food, or the line's still prohibitive, I come back the next time they're in town, which, by the way, is this weekend.

Photo Courtesy Travel Channel

​During the SPAM musubi segment of what I would've expected to be the most innocuous part on the Hawaii episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, the bald and doughy Travel Channel personality admitted something that threw me in for a loop: He can't stand SPAM.

This again, I need not remind you, is the same man who has put in his mouth (among other objects) fermented shark, wriggling tree slugs, and the still-beating heart of a frog. How is it possible then that the host with the indiscriminate palate was defeated by SPAM -- that lowly, but delicious canned-meat product I consider an everyday dietary staple?

I usually don't care for lolcats, but this one...

​For 16 years, the Orange County Register's annual Best of Orange County has mystified county eaters with this simple question: are the paper's readers really that stupid and tasteless to continue calling the Olive Garden the best place in Orange County for Italian food?

The answer this year: they're getting better, because the Olive Garden merely ranked number two. The somewhat edible Peppino's chain, according to the Reg, is the best Italian restaurant in Orange County.

Hoo boy.

The restaurant choices for the Best Of span the breadth, depth, and everything else of Orange County dining in being ultimately clueless about it, and always stands as a damning condemnation of how out of touch with the present Reg readers are. Best brunch? El Torito. Best business lunch? Nothing against Knowlwood, but it's hardly the best place to talk shop. Best subway shop: Subway. Best coffee--Starbucks? Sundried Tomato Cafe as third-best new restaurant in Orange County? Ruth's Chris as best steakhouse? Best Chinese--P.F. Chang's? Really? A chain created by some guy from Phoenix? Best Greek is Daphne's? Blech.

And where the hell are the ethnic restaurants, the places that make this damn terrain livable?

I'll stop torturing the intellect of ustedes gentle SaFII readers and cease from listing any more "winners." But the Reg's Best of Orange County didn't fuck it all up.

​Do I care if a famous actor likes the salmon teriyaki I'm tucking into? No, I couldn't give a toss, but if it helps to increase sales, then fine, go ahead, advertise the fact that Blake Lively always orders it when she comes here.

So there I was, at the fantastic Tri-Village the other night, deciding what to eat, when my eye was drawn to item No. 100, Beef Noodle Soup. Nothing special about that, you might think.

But then I read the line underneath it: 'Jackie Chan's favorite Beef Noodle Soup.'

Edwin Goei

​The last time I checked in on the progress of Valhalla Table at The Camp in Costa Mesa was back in July. Now that summer's just about over, I went to check again. And the only update I have for you? They've put up the sign. It's a nice sign, to be sure. But it's obvious that things aren't moving as fast as I would've hoped.

Edwin Goei

If you can judge what a city has been missing by the volume of a response, you'd have to conclude that by the crowds lining up at the newly opened Kula Sushi, Irvine should've had a revolving sushi bar a long time ago.

My friends and I tried to get a few seats last Friday night, but it required at least an hour's wait -- too long on an empty stomach.

But crowds are not always a measure of future success, just an indication that initial excitement on something that is new. For instance, have you noticed how easy it is to get a table at Tokyo Table these days? It's a cinch. But then, 85 Degrees C is still as popular as ever. I guess that means Irvine's also always needed a really, really good bakery.

After their cholesterol level, the secret a food critic most zealously guards is their identity. Everyone knows the stories of writers from big newspapers wearing wigs, making reservations under fake names or using company-issued credit cards under a pseudonym. We at the Weekly also value our anonymity, which is why we keep Lesley and Edwin pampered somewhere in the Caribbean, parachuting them into our fair county whenever we see fit. No one knows how they look with the exception of loved ones and a few lucky souls.

Well, that's all about to change. I met up with Edwin today at Alebrije's to give him the OC Press Club award we both won for our food issue last year. We ate tacos acorazados, which he'll no doubt review on his personal blog, Monster Munching, where he writes under the pseudonym Elmo Monster. Since the Press Club gave us only one award, I insisted he keep it with the condition we take a picture together. For your viewing pleasure, folks, a moron with King Edwin the Monster after the jump:

Edwin Goei

​There's been some recent news in the food truck craze hitting LA -- the trend that everyone knows started with a little something called Kogi.

Davis: Culinary godfather of SanTana?

​My one vice in life is buying books related to Orange County, and our fair land's numerous social organizations have gathered and published their recipes over the years. The oldest cookbook in my collection is one compiled by the Ebell Society of the Santa Ana Valley located in SanTana. It dates from the 1920s and has hilarious recipes for tamale pies, jellied this, and other culinary relics.

But the most telling recipe included is for Jeff Davis pie--as in Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Now, why would a club of good, God-fearing women in Southern California include a food named for the leader of traitors? Because SanTana was filled with advocates for the Stars & Bars, honey child! As I've documented before, SanTana is the type of city that didn't blink when its United Daughters of Confederacy chapter dedicated a tree outside the Bowers Museum to the savior of the man who founded the Ku Klux Klan, a place with authors who knowingly hide the Klukker past of its founding fathers, where neighborhoods hold segregated Halloweens and display "Tara" on wrought-iron gates with little shame, whose captains of industry strung up a Mexican and faced no charges. The author of the first history of SanTana's Ebell Society was the wife of Victor Montgomery, personal scout to the founder of the Klan. Know Nothings always attack wabs for their allegiance to Mexico, but why don't you ever see the same criticism leveled at those who expressed pride in the nation's greatest batch of homegrown terrorists?

This is going to sound strange, but I actually had this as a germ of an idea once: take fast food, present it as though it were nouvelle cuisine, and bask in the irony.  But besides the fact that I was too lazy to go through with it, I don't have the creativity that Eric from FancyFastFood.com has got or gone through the lengths that he has to produce the food on his blog, which is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating blogs since ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com.

​Two episodes into the latest season of Top Chef, and most of the chefs have already established personalities and tics that will only grow and annoy as the season progresses. I appreciated the stab for marriage equality by the lesbian from Seattle in Episode 2, but really: are we to believe she would pass up a catering opportunity for breeders in the future?

But that wasn't the most offensive part of this young season. Twice already, separate contestants have prepared ceviches that impressed the judges (and forgive me for blanking on names, but both were women). Problem is, they pronounced the Latin American seafood staple in a way I've never heard anyone say it: by dropping the e at the end so it sounds like cevich.

Culinary Adventures

​In keeping with theme of everything old is new again (remember this post about Savannah at the Beach becoming Chimayo again?), it was announced last week that Culinary Adventures, that restaurant empire that once had four French 75's in its repertoire, has bought the once independent 75 Laguna Beach, which was previously French 75 up until six months ago.

Confused?

Well it's simple really, the same menu that Chef Mitch Gillan developed as an independent still applies (for now), but now with a new Culinary Adventures pricing plan called Roaring 20s, where four items (the halibut, the chicken, the shellfish, and the filet mignon) get discounted to hover around the $20-$29 mark.

This reviewer was there on the first day of the change-over. Look for a full review in next week's print edition.

​If you recall, Savannah was David Wilhelm's last ditch effort to save his floundering Culinary Adventures.  It's what he turned Chat Noir in Costa Mesa into, thinking that good ol' American food was the way to bring customers back.  

Enjoying a bite at George's Thai Bistro in Santa Ana last night, my friend and I were subjected (and I mean subjected) to a soundtrack that can only have been 'Now That's What I Call Suicide'.

From appetizer to dessert, each slow depressing song was a) American and b) from the 1970s. Each of those things on its own wouldn't be a problem, but, when combined, they excluded the likes of "Days Of Our Lives" by Queen and "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton. They're both truly weepy, of course, but at least they're not, to use that hideous term, "power ballads".

In the time we were there, the set list looked like this:

"Loving You", Minnie Riperton

"Dance with Me", Orleans

"Sister Golden Hair", America

"Send in the Clowns", Judy Collins

"Lost Without Your Love", Bread

"All By Myself", Eric Carmen

All it needed was Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" and I swear I'd have asked for some razor blades. Or at least some counseling. As enjoyable as the food was, it's hard not to weep in your tom yam gai when hearing such lyrics as "Livin' alone/I think of all the friends I've known/But when I dial the telephone/Nobody's home".

Come on, people, after a hard day at work, we want something lighthearted. Aqua's "Barbie Girl", perhaps? Or, dare I say it, Black Lace's "Agadoo?" (I do apologize for this link but I hope at least it'll make you smile).