Beware the Bon Bread!

Much more dangerous that is seems.

Quick story of the day.

I stopped by Resnick's Grocery in the Downtown Las Vegas area on my way back to the office to pick up some snacks to munch on at my desk since my late-morning caffeine rampage was starting to wear off. The main reason why I ventured into this teeny-tiny, upscale bodega-type of place was for one reason: Bon Breads. Bon Breads usually only sells their product at various farmer's markets around town, but apparently they have made a regular home out of Resnick's Grocery. According to the guy at the "counter" (it was really more of a computer desk), they deliver every Tuesday and Thursday usually, and considering it was a Friday and their shelves were nearly empty? I was surely in luck. 

Now I have a soft spot for bread. I love well made bread that you can tell is made by someone who cares just by the way of squeezing the crust a little to see just how much crunchy, soft yumminess you'll get. My stop at Resnick's got me the White Chocolate Batard, which was also the only thing left they had in stock. My coworker made mention of some amazing Bon Bread loaf that she ended up eating in one sitting, but I didn't put much thought into it until I bit into mine. It was A-MAZING. 

In fact, it was so amazing that I started eating it while idly crunching some numbers at my computer. I looked down and lo and behold... poof! I had crunched on more than half of the loaf! WHICH WAS NOW IN MY TUMMY!! 

What's left of my amazing disappearing bread loaf.

I am so thankful that they only had single batards instead double sized batards I usually procure at the farmer's market. Otherwise the already insanely dense food baby in my stomach would have probably been much bigger. And let me tell you, working out at the gym with a food baby in your stomach is NO FUN. For who, exactly? I'll leave that for you to figure out.

Adventures in Late Night Fridge Digging

Quick thought (between prepping my office for a move, and applying to premed programs)...

Picking through the leftovers in my refrigerator and found the following:

Sinigang (filipino sour soup), baked sweet purple potatoes, giant roasted turkey leg..?

Took a piece of beef, some beef marrow and cabbage from the soup, threw in a piece of the potato and voila! Sour, sweet, meaty, savory, fatty yumminess. The turkey leg remained largely untouched. Maybe next time, turkey leg. Maybe next time.

I didn't take a photo, but I will post this for now. I'm so jealous of my dog.

Yeah, Sammie's got the life.

Cold, won't you go away...

The past few days have been really hectic for whatever reasons I somehow can't figure out, so I need a few days to regain some sanity and better health. However, this past weekend was a food-filled one so I will post a few photos so I feel less lazy about myself in the upkeep of this blog. Go me!

Homemade kimchee FTW!

Food pr0n...?

Molto bene, amici!

Molto Farmers Market has been seeing some licensing trouble lately that has caused them to move to a temporary spot in an empty parking lot. But that hasn't stopped them from providing farm-fresh produce to community foodies, cooks, and chefs. I haven't seen a lot of the usual vendors since their temporary relocation, so I hope once the market moves back into their regular facility they'll all come back and I can restock my kitchen with dates, pistachios, and locally roasted coffee beans.

Over the years, farmers markets have been slowly creeping up around town. I know one doesn't expect a desert oasis like Vegas to have a huge farmers market scene, but it surprisingly is a lot larger than most people know. It may not be as large or bustling as somewhere like, say, the San Francisco or Orange County areas, but the trend is starting to take root and is even becoming more sustainable year-round. To name a few, there's Las Vegas Farmers Market--which as multiple locations and days of operation during the week, Fresh52 Farmers and Artisan Market--Sundays 8:30am to 2:00pm in Silverado Ranch, and Molto Farmers Market (aka Bet on the Farm)--Thursdays 11:00am to 1:00pm inside Mario Batali's dry-aging facility on 7485 S. Dean Martin Dr., Ste. 106.

I love cooking with farmers market produce because it kind of becomes a game of "what can I make with this?" and really lets you get creative with the ingredients you have on hand. For instance, the other day I bought some really gorgeous, ruby red tomatoes at Molto and when I cut into them, I saw that they perfectly red from inside to skin. We don't normally buy all our produce from the farmer's market because my family is challenged with feeding--at minimum--one ravenously hungry 17 year old boy who literally has a wrestler's-sized appetite and cares more about quantity than quality, so we usually get our produce in bulk whenever convenient. I was content with eating the tomatoes with just a bit of sea salt, but my parents wanted to try it differently. 

So I made a caprese salad with some of the basil we also purchased at Molto, adding mozzarella pieces and drizzling some olive oil over everything. And I saw that we had leftover Peruvian purple potatoes from last week's trip to Molto, and even though I didn't know what else to do with them, I boiled them til tender and cut them up and threw them in the leftover olive oil, basil, and tomato juices from the caprese salad. 

I don't normally get do an experimental, play-it-by-ear meal at home because of my brother's eating schedule, so it was a treat to be able to do whatever I wanted with these veggies. Since spring is coming up soon,  I think it'll be a good time to maybe take a drive down the Southern California and see what their local produce has to offer. 

More farmers market goodness after the jump...

Fuku me? Fuku you!

I'm not sure how hip the gourmet food truck movement in other parts of the country, but here in Las Vegas they seem to be the hot new thing in dining.  However, food trucks are not a new idea. They've re-invented the take on old taco trucks, lunch wagons, and street carts and turned them into something that takes you away from what you would expect from a "roach coach". When I brought my mom to Fukuburger awhile ago, she said that she and my dad did a similar thing back in the 80s in Hawaii with their Filipino restaurant, where they would bring around a lunch wagon to feed office workers. Of course now social media plays such a huge role in the gourmet food truck scene, making it more like a game or a secret club, which can be half the fun when it comes to trying these food trucks. Other times, the food is just really damn good or happens to be in your neighborhood.

Now, (to my hypochondriac mother's dismay) I love street food. I'm more of a walk-down-a-street-and-buy-dinner-by-the-end-of-the-block kinda girl, rather than a wine-and-dine-me kind of girl. Don't get me wrong, I like to get all prettied up and pretend to be super fancy every once in awhile, but street food embodies my favorite approach to food: from the ground up. What I mean by this is best expressed by Anthony Bourdain, who pretty much gave me an enlightened moment in food philosophy while randomly watching his Shanghai episode of No Reservations late one night on Netflix:

"I've always felt that the true measure of the greatness of a culture is exemplified by what it's poorest--and most rural--people cook. Food that tastes good, because it has to be good. How to make the tough, the bland, the humble into something truly special. This is where, throughout history and across the globe, cooks are made."

Growing up, I learned how to cook by scanning everything in my refrigerator and using whatever I could find to make something edible. I measured everything by eye, never made the same thing twice, and never opened up a cookbook. It was only after I started watching cooking shows that I learned how to use basic things like measuring and portioning to make everything I cooked better or easily translatable to others or to another culture. 

The idea behind gourmet food trucks is basically street food with a theme on a larger mobilized scale. And I'm a fan. From observing the growth of the food truck scene here in Vegas, I must say that it far exceeds the expectations of your run-of-the-mill lunch wagon. For example, Fukuburger has formed an of underground culture around it's food and truck that melds music, dance, art, cars, and even tattoos by partnering up with local businesses and putting on parties/parking lot get togethers. This may sound like a rambunctious, asking-for-trouble type of thing, but it really isn't. Colin Fukunaga, the owner and "front of house" guy, is always quick to remind his customers to keep it respectful and lawful. The latest one was when someone stole an iPhone from Cityfied Clothing Store, and Colin tweeted photos of the thief caught on camera offering for them to bring it back before going to the police. The response from the community was audible in RTs and replies, and even though the thief and his friends chickened out in the end, it proved a lot of things in the power of building this kind of community around your business. It allows your customers to feel invested in it too, and that, in my opinion, is far more valuable than any kind of PR or marketing can buy. 

Plus it helps that their food is amazing, and their specials make me want to ditch my diet all the time. I usually hate mac salad (Hawaiian style macaroni salad) because I was overexposed to it as a kid, and most places in Vegas don't make it right, but Fukubuger mac salad? TO DIE FOR. (It has da yellow-kine furikake!! Hardcore.)

Amazing mac salad and Buta Burger!

More pics!!!

Ono! Fo' real?!?!

So Vegas will be getting some 70-degree weather this weekend, which makes me think that it'll be a nice time to stop by my new favorite shave ice place, Snow Ono Shave Ice!!

Marianne, the owner and operator of this mobile Hawaiian shave ice bus (yes, bus, not truck) is not only very passionate about what she serves, but about food in general. Her twitter is full of posts about food from other food trucks, farmers markets, and especially about anything Hawaiian. As someone who is originally from the islands, and who retains some of the basic cultural values, I'd say that when I made my first visit to Marianne, it was like talking to one of my cousins in Hawaii.

Marianne with my "upside-down pineapple cake" shave ice.

No joke, da kine? Yeah, my pidgin may be rusty, but my appreciation for Polynesian culture and food is not. Visiting SnowOno only made me yearn for those burning hot days of summer here in Vegas, even though I know in the summer I'll be wishing for the bitterly cold days of the winter. The menu for SnowOno is extensive, to say the least, and may be a bit overwhelming for those with decision-making issues, or for those who are not familiar with Hawaiian shave ice. My advice? Just ask her what her favorite combinations are and build off of her ideas. 

This isn't your normal slushy/crushed ice and super-sweet syrupy dessert. Hawaiian shave ice is different for it's soft water and shaving techniques, which only complement the syrup flavor combinations. But what makes SnowOno soooo dang ono (ono=good, yummy) are the additions she offers to the flavor combinations. Azuki beans? Wedding cake ice cream? CONDENSED MILK?! It's like everything I love in halo-halo and more, but minus the weird stuff my mom likes to put in and no sticky mess in my kitchen.

Melty, upside-down pineapple cakey goodness. With azuki beans.

Snow Ono makes a weekly appearance at the Fresh 52 Farmer's Market down in Silverado Ranch on Sundays, so once warmer weather comes around I, too, will probably be making regular stops Sunday mornings for my shave ice fix. For now, I'll be content with staring at my photos and drooling.

Warning: Do NOT attempt to drive with shave ice in hand.

Pizza pizza!

Naked City Pizza's new fry menu has me on a quest to self-destruct my diet plan.

As someone who grew up not understanding why all my white friends in my class were appalled at the fact that my family not only ate fish for breakfast, but ate them with their heads still on, American cuisine--new and old--has only recently become a part of my everyday diet. Pizza, being the American classic it has evolved into, was never something I went bat shit, fanboy nuts about. Honestly, I never saw the appeal. Bread, red sauce, and cheese? Big whoop. Even after working at a pizzeria one summer my appreciation did not grow, but in fact became more jaded by the slightly-misogynistic family I worked for.

Anyway, my real appreciation for pizza did not come about until I tried Naked City Pizza. Owner Chris Palmeri's menu alone was enough to do a double-take. A Guinea's Pie with white sauce, meatballs, spinach, AND ricotta? Be still, my heart! Not only does this place make pizzas magical for me, but they have sandwiches (hot and cold) with a garlic mayo from the now defunct Naked City Sandwich Shop, the best calamari I've had since my last visit to San Francisco, and some of the best wings in town. Located inside Moondoggies Bar, this little pizza kitchen somehow manages to embody at least five of my personal vices, making it the single most difficult challenge to my health this year. Well, maybe them and Fukuburger... But that's a whole 'nother post!

The Guinea's Pie (which I usually modify to add red sauce, garlic, and basil)

More poorly-lit iPhone pictures to make you salivate after the jump...

Firstly...

I've been contemplating about this blog for a long while now, and it's finally time to get off my ass and put my thoughts somewhere. To those that may read this, I offer a warning: This is in no means a serious record of my life, my journey through food, nor anything else with a clear objective or mission statement. In this blog, you will find posts about the following: food, sarcasm and irony, and the weird things you observe when you people watch. I like to keep it simple. I like to eat. I like new things. And I love surprises. Anything further than that, you're going to have to buy me a drink first. Or a meal.

Also, I love photos. I'm a poorly-executed, once-amateur photographer that has clearly lost her way, and usually forgets to photograph the food she eats until it's already half-gone. I take way too many photos with my phone, and most definitely will be using this blog to dispose of them.

Lastly, the new year has meant serious dieting for me, which means memorable meals have been touch and go lately. I know. It's a work in progress to have my cake and eat it too. However, I will leave you with one thing that has been thoroughly ingrained in my dreams. Homemade chocolate-chip, waffle ice cream sandwiches from The Lunch Box.