Join Southbay's Food & Wine Editor Bonnie Graves on her various epicurean adventures...
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01/06/12Setting GoalsMy cute hubby and I spend each New Year’s Day at the Four Seasons, accompanied by some good Champagne and an old black journal we’ve been sharing for about ten years now. Each year, we look back at our previous goals and have a good laugh and toast to resolutions – it’s the making and sharing of them that matters more than the fulfillment at times. In the food, wine and healthy living categories, we’ve got a few noble goals that I think are worth sharing: 1) Kick the Can. My love affair with Diet Coke is a tawdry one that began when I was just a teenager scooping ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s on the Jersey Shore. It seemed smarter to drink some soda than indulge in Cherry Garcia and I... |
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04/11/11Welcome to Palate: Los AngelesWelcome to Palate: Los Angeles – your local source for all the things that make life in the City of Angels, well, palatable. As the Food & Wine Editor for Westside, Southbay, Ventura Blvd and West Hollywood magazines, I get paid to scout, sniff, snack and swirl my way around greater Los Angeles and it’s my pleasure to share some insiders’ intel with you along the way. From the fishing boat captain I just met who tells me he’ll be selling dockside at the Farmers Market on the Malibu Pier this spring to a tour of Terranea’s impressive and prodigious resort gardens down in Palos Verdes, we hope to offer you some glimpses into what makes local life so wonderful here. (Hint: you don’t need a Star Map or a golden... |
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04/11/11Produce Markets Getting More Esoteric?Is it just me or has the produce at the markets been getting more and more esoteric? I am all for cooking up whatever is in season, provided I can figure out a way to cook it up. I confess that I am really not too sure what to do with crosnes or with purslane for that matter. Fortunately, a friend gifted me with the excellent Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Cookbook by Amelia Saltsman, a book which has subsequently become a staple in my kitchen. Her simple approach to seasonal cooking allows the flavors of unique produce to shine without overpowering the skills of a home chef. I can tell you from years of working with chefs in restaurants, though, that there is one universal rule to making any odd veggie taste good: sautée in copious amounts... |
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04/11/11Move Over Cosmo!The cosmo is so very over, as the SATC 2 sequel aptly illustrated for us. Ouch. Move over pink and sweet, the new news in cocktails is green and herbal. By “green,” I mean both in liquor and in mixers; bartenders (as I still insist on calling them, apologies to all those “bar chefs” and “mixologists” out there) increasingly are using herbal ingredients in addition to sustainably made spirits, or at least those that try to mix inebriation with social justice. Products like TRU vodka and VEEV Açai liquer claim to be better both for the environment and for your bloodstream. The green theme continues with savory elements like basil and rosemary increasingly nudging out citrus and other fruits in cocktail menus all over... |
