Alan Greeley, owner and chef of Golden Truffle in Costa Mesa, can make you laugh over his stories, almost cry over his unique food and wonder how soon you can get back to this restaurant.
He’s always up to something on the cutting edge. This month, Alan’s indulging us with one of his occasional cooking classes, which always are highly educational and tremendously amusing.
This gathering of master chef and students has the provocative title of Not Your Average Cooking Class and is set to address food and wine pairings suitable for springtime.
The class is scheduled for April 28 at 11 a.m. at the restaurant.
During the three hours you spend with Alan, hors d’oeuvres will be served, menu items will be demonstrated, repartee will keep things lively and lunch with matching wines will be served.
The cost of the class and lunch is $75, excluding tax and gratuity.
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Golden Truffle’s Greeley: teaches menu that goes beyond standards of the various cooking schools |
Space is limited, so a quick call for your reservation is advised.
The one thing I personally can guarantee is that you will learn a menu that won’t be one of the standards of the various cooking schools and classes scattered about. It will be something you can repeat at home without a sous chef at your side.
You will gain a real understanding of the ingredients and how they work together and how the dishes ultimately are matched into the perfect pairing with wines.
I know all this because I’ve been down this road with Alan and have learned more from him than anyone about inspired cooking and dining and matching wines with food flavors.
Golden Truffle is known for its global cuisine, a lot of which is infused with hints of the Caribbean.
Lunch and dinner specials cut a wide swath beyond the enticing menus. They reflect Alan’s at-the-moment creativity and passion culled from whatever ingredients look fantastic from his purveyors day by day.
Lunch is served Tuesday through Friday. Dinner is served on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. This allows the restaurant to be used for private functions on the other days and evenings.
Alan also pursues the catering part of his food adventures along the way.
I confess to using the restaurant a couple of times a year for an Alan-style food party among friends. I just tell him to create to his heart’s desire, tell us how much we need to pay and then a whole group of us shows up.
This place constitutes dining on a gourmet level with a sense of humor. Alan has a finely tuned kind of kitchen genius that, after all these years of knowing him and this restaurant, I still cannot fully define.
The Golden Truffle wine list is one of the most interesting in Orange County. It is studded with cult and boutique wines and a good selection of highly touted ones from around the world,at absolutely pleasing prices. There’s always a new adventure in my glass.
The restaurant’s look combines the vibes of the Caribbean with a nod to French bistro sensuality.
One dining room would be happy at the beachfront.
The other would be content with French-accented waiters.
The third, with its walls holding much of the wine, makes winos,from winemakers to the merely curious wine drinker,happy.
Do not forget to reserve your space for the cooking class. Golden Truffle: 1767 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa. (949) 645-9858.
Fresh Seafood in Little Saigon
When you are willing to give up atmosphere for really tasty fresh shellfish (selected live from tanks) at reasonable prices, Little Saigon beckons with a place that has a misleading name, Newport Seafood.
This is not a place of chic surroundings or professionally-attired staff. It sits at the corner of a nondescript strip mall. The two outside walls all are glass and you peer into a space where plain tables are surrounded by likewise simple chairs.
But the tables all are in use and the food looks terrific. Service is good and efficient.
The only eye candy here is the seafood tanks in which lobsters, crab and prawns swim about. They form the back wall of the restaurant and separate dining area from kitchen.
You also cannot miss the large sign beside the tanks that says, “Lobster, $16.95 a pound,” the current price. Crab and prawns, also fresh from the tanks, are advertised at decent prices.
This shellfish is what everyone talks about. But, in fairness, the large menu also covers a lot more territory and lots of categories of Chinese and/or Vietnamese food. What we’ve tried throughout the menu has been very pleasing.
We too begin our meals with shellfish. Lobster just has to come first, which they offer in five ways: cooked with ginger and green onion, salt and pepper, black bean sauce, simply steamed or in their Newport Special Lobster Sauce.
I barely can vouch for a favorite, but the combination of mild Chinese spices that perfumes the Newport Special has a little edge.
When we were there recently with our intrepid dining friends, Dr. Stan and Jovie Rosenblatt, the restaurant only had four- and five-pound lobsters in the tank. We decided on a four-pounder.
Experience has told us that the larger crustaceans are as tender and sweet as their smaller buddies. It helps that the blazing hot woks mean only a few minutes of cooking, leaving behind the melded flavors you’ve chosen and the moist flesh that has not been on the heat a moment too long.
Lobster and crab are chopped into manageable pieces, shell on, before cooking , easier to eat. Crab can be ordered with the same sauces as lobster and with additional ones incorporating curry, tamarind or vegetables.
Shrimp selections go even further by allowing all of these already discussed flavors and then suggesting beyond that crispy shrimp with mayonnaise (superb), Hawaiian style with pineapple, Thai satay style, spicy kung pao or with cashews, bean curd or garlic tossed in the wok with the prawns.
Clams, oysters and scallops (mostly in the $10 range) and half a dozen preparations of abalone ($35) allow us to enjoy these ordinarily expensive treats with an afterglow of satisfaction at what we’ve just devoured without using the whole month’s dining out budget.
Getting away from things with a shell, I highly recommend beginning any meal with one of their 15 soups.
Tilapia with lemongrass soup ranks high on my flavor scale, along with the hot and sour soup with seafood and the braised crab with asparagus.
Vietnamese cuisine makes use of the French influence on their culture. The Beef Loc Lac is one of their signature dishes.
Another fine version is the beef stir-fried with sweet pea sprouts. We are so used to eating the snow peas, but their leafy plant structure is an important vegetable too to all Asians. This combines the best of the French and Asian worlds in one dish.
Of many poultry choices, go with the crispy duck or the chicken with basil. All of these dishes fall in the $7.95 to $11.95 range.
Vegetarians and those of us who just like good vegetables along with our other protein will find lots of comfort in the nice selection of vegetable plates. I am a nut for the eggplant with garlic sauce, Chinese broccoli (gai lan) with oyster sauce and those delicate pea sprouts.
As for our meal with our dining partners, the four of us could not finish the soup, hefty lobster, the French beef dish, rice and saut & #233;ed pea sprouts we ordered.
It all came to a grand total of less than $33 per person, and that was with a 20% tip.
You will notice a sign at the register that says “cash only.” The restaurant prefers it that way. But if you happen to appear without cash, a credit card is accepted.
When you are in a casual mood but still want a good meal, this will do nicely. Newport Seafood is open for lunch and dinner. It is at 4411 W. First St. (at Newhope Street), Santa Ana. (714) 531-5146.
