As we come to the end of the year, I’d like to reflect on the new restaurants and old favorites that have filled my days and meals with joy. Here are a few of the restaurants that have kept my tummy happy in 2009.
Andrea at the Resort at Pelican Hill: This restaurant features magnificent surroundings inside a world-class resort, but with prices in the moderate range for food and wines that have kept us sighing with pleasure. So far, I’ve trekked almost four dozen people to dinner and all of them are with me in the awed category. When it comes to competing on the big stage, they are doing it with élan all around.
Beachcomber at Crystal Cove Beach: We love every meal there because it totally redefines beachside dining. Sit inside the little cottage room or on the extensive deck that is directly on the sand. It’s warm with all the heaters and the food is what I’d call casual haute cuisine with entrees well beyond beach food—even sandwiches have much panache.
Café TuTu Tango at The Block in Orange: I certainly like the surprised feedback from those I’ve directed to this Euro-Bohemian place. I know about the joyously interesting food, plated in tapas-style portions and drawn from dishes with international influence. With owners/heavy duty pros Jim Hall and Paul Kraft there every day, the whole experience is personalized.
Cucina Alessa Newport and Huntington Beach: These sister restaurants remind us that when the owner is the chef (this one’s steeped in the soul of Italy’s Napoli region), food is connected to a beloved culture. From carpaccio to pizza, cozze to lasagna and pastas to veal Marsala, these flavors are sleek but deep, leaving the satisfied patron dreaming of the food long after the meal is over.
K’Ya in Laguna: There are 27 eclectic, marvelous items on the lunch/dinner menu and none of them is priced at more than $10. Craig Connole is an award-winning chef who brings us items like salmon caramelized in a shoyu-orange glaze, lamb with white beans and a global assortment of intrigues. Honestly, the two of us can eat well for $30 total and there’s the added joy of small pours of wine that allow a variety of tastes at a minimum price.
Manhattan Steak and Seafood in Orange: Under new ownership, it has found its culinary footing and now makes it worth the drive on its own or a comfort if you are at nearby Children’s Hospital of Orange County or St. Joseph Hospital. The food is built on the farm-to-fork credo and includes not only the traditional sustainable fish and seafood, but some interesting wild game in this cooler season.
Marche Moderne at South Coast Plaza: The allure just never wears off. It is still the defining beautiful French brasserie experience of OC. For me, this lovely place is reminiscent of a legendary brasserie that I always visit on trips to Paris. And the food of husband/wife owners Florent Marneau (the chef) and Amelia Marneau (pastry chef) is as good as you will find in Paris. It all comes with a skimpy price for such a magnificent dining experience.
Mr. Stox in Anaheim: Reinforced its stature this past year with some stellar winery dinners (John Trefethen and other icons presented their wines on various evenings).
Royal Khyber at South Coast Plaza Village: The prix-fixe meals ($10 and $15 for two-course lunches and $20 and $25 for three-course dinners, pricing depending on entree selections) are downright delicious dining. Our palates keep singing with pleasure and the exotic and luxurious setting surely takes the stress away.
Sapphire Laguna in Laguna Beach: Small “spice” plates remind us that around the world dining right here at home can be very affordable, terrifically interesting and the ultimate in sharing a lot of flavors with friends. There are also full-fledged dishes that reel in the flavors of the places chef/owner Azmin Ghahreman has lived and worked. This is the best recycle of a memorable building in Laguna where prestigious past meets modern needs.
Shades at Huntington Beach’s Waterfront Hilton Resort: It has just been blowing our socks off. It’s dandy enough to be able to sit on the lovely terrace overlooking the ocean, or inside the main dining room with walls of windows, but the food of chef Jeff Littlefield is beautiful on the plate and enticing on the palate. Furthermore, the prices are well below what anyone would expect of a resort dining facility. We’ve done midday and evening meals and had their luscious Sunday Brunch lately.
Sundried Tomato American Bistro in Laguna, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano: We’re loving the refinement of the menu, the friendly atmosphere and the owner-in-residence care. With a lot of small plates with intense interest and American food served with a bit of extra flair and real relaxation, this trio of restaurants is doing just fine.
Scott’s in Costa Mesa: We talk about dining in San Francisco because that city has restaurants that define an area psyche as a whole. Well, you no longer have to go north to enjoy the experience, since Scott’s has brought the dignity of that dining city to us. The brand new decor shines in an uptown San Francisco way and chef Michael Doctulero’s food is quite amazing. Sophisticated but friendly and drop dead delicious are my keywords.
Christmas Shopping
If you’ve not yet finished up your holiday shopping, don’t stress out. Here are a few of my favorite things that I’ll be giving to special friends and family members. Feel free to follow my lead.
Govino unbreakable wine glasses from NapaStyle in the Home Furnishings Wing of South Coast Plaza. These look a bit like the stemless Riedel crystal wine glasses, but they are unbreakable and have a slight “give” to them. There’s a convenient thumb indent to make holding the glass even more agreeable. They are made from a food/
pharmaceutical safe polymer and do not distort the color or taste of the wine. We use ours a lot and any wine drinker would undoubtedly be happy to have them. They are $19 for four, but only $39 for twelve (that’s the online NapaStyle price). This store also has a wonderful range of salts from around the world and owner Michael Chiarello’s estate wines are on sale there right now. For those who travel to Napa, he owns Bottega restaurant there.
If you think you know something about olive oil or balsamic vinegars, you will discover just how much more there is to learn when you visit a marvelous shop On Balboa Island called Olive Oil & Beyond. It has rows and rows of extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars of varying tastes and intensities from around the globe. You can taste them before buying, and the staff is terrific in guiding you. One oil that has me in a dream state at the moment is the Summer Pear Ascalano. There is no better gift for a person who loves to cook. The shop is at 210 Marine Ave., across the street from the tiny, romantic Basilic restaurant, where you might want to pick up a gift certificate that will surely please any true foodie. Or have yourself a superb dinner of raclette (melted cheese to be scooped up with boiled potatoes and gherkins) and the very Swiss (and delicious) veal stew.
I have recently rediscovered the joy of reading some of Larousse Gastro-nomique. It’s one of the original culinary bibles and far too big to handle in a short time, but it’s such a grand reference book. I have the Jenifer Lang hardcover edition from 1988, almost 1,200 pages of still fascinating reading that a cook will find useful. It is available at bookstores at about $40.
From Giving to Giving Back
There are many fundraisers for wonderful causes throughout the year. I am taken with the volunteerism and community support that goes into each one. While many of them are built around local chefs cooking for the crowds, in one scenario it took a superstar named Tiger Woods to get superstar chefs here, as he’s done so for the past five years.
We attended the recent 5th annual Tiger Woods Block Party, which benefits his Tiger Woods Learning Center that works with at-risk youth. For the first of these events, restaurant guru and super chef Charlie Palmer flew in five years ago to cook. He was followed by Mario Batali, Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay. This year, Tim Love from Fort Worth, Texas dazzled us with his food. He’s owner/chef of Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, the legendary White Elephant Saloon dating from 1887, and a couple of Love Shack So7 eateries. You may have seen him this season on “Top Chef” and “Top Chef Masters.”
After a meal that featured Love’s down home, Texas-style look at American food, another big name—Sheryl Crow—beguiled the audience with a full-fledged musical performance.
So, what did we eat? Reception goodies included blue corn lobster hush puppies, king crab nachos with jalapeño and watercress butter, rabbit-rattlesnake sausage, mini Love burgers and white bean and chili caribe bruschetta.
Dinner consisted of a picture-perfect mosaic of roasted gold and red beets with crispy leeks as the first course. Like everyone, we’ve been served a lot of short ribs, but these were by far the best Patrick and I have ever had. He simply put those fork-tender chunks of deeply flavorful beef atop an absolutely scrumptious trio of braised beans with barely a tad of chili seasoning. The grilled camp bread and jalapeño cornbread were hand slappers (we all had to figuratively slap our hands to keep from filling up on that alone, as they also went above and beyond what anyone would expect from bread). Tuaca liqueur flavored the dessert flan and we nibbled on his Mexican wedding cookies and petit fours.
I managed to spend a few quiet minutes in the corner of the kitchen chatting with the chef. I found him to be the typical easy-going, mannered, engaging southerner, one of those who always has his western hat on. Having lived in Texas for a while in my youth, it was fun talking food and Texas culture with him. We even swapped tales about attire and my Stetson hat that was given to me by a restaurateur.
When I asked his philosophy and current direction in food, he said that simplicity is key to let the mainstay of a dish shine without an overabundance of fussiness.
