I Can't Believe It's Not Good Italian

A few weeks ago some friends and I had dinner at Cafe Roma in Beverly Hills. The facade is undergoing some kind of construction so it looks a bit ghetto, but once you're inside it's a lovely little restaurant. The servers, hosts & hostess all have the charming Italian accent, although some of their accents are more genuine than others...Anyway, whenever I've been there they've been very friendly. Sometimes a bit slow, but very friendly and accommodating.

The food quality is not consistent. This most recent visit was more satisfying, but the visit prior to that left a bad taste in my mouth. This time we had the beef carpaccio, seafood risotto and steak. All were quite yummy. We must have gotten the good chef that night since he knew that medium rare means medium rare. Surprisingly, the margherita pizza was a disappointment. How can an Italian restaurant mess up pizza?? Perhaps they need to change the chef at the pizza station, no?

During dinner, we spotted Fabio...I know it's Beverly Hills but it was just such an odd celebrity sighting (and I use celebrity loosely. Sorry, Fabio.). In the dim, warm lighting of Cafe Roma, Fabio looked quite handsome. He's a lot taller than I thought. He was riding solo, surprisingly. The host, hostess and several waiters greeted him as family and chatted with him. Had I been brave enough I woulda invited myself over to his table and asked him to ask Cafe Roma to get better chefs. Maybe next time...

Monkeying Around

Recently I adopted a kitten from the local shelter. They told me she was three months, but in fact, my vet said she's more like six weeks. She didn't eat much for the first couple of days and I started to wonder if this was going to work out. So not only was she tiny, she was quite skinny. Several people have commented that she looked like a lemur so...we'll call her Monkey Girl.

The shelter gave me a small bag of the food that they said she had been eating. She didn't really care for it. So after two days of barely eating anything, I decided to make her some fresh chicken soup with carrots and peas. Monkey Girl loved it. She also loved milk, lactose free milk. Then I got her some Iams kitten canned and dry food and she began gaining weight.

Now one of her favorite foods is bacon...which she waits for in the morning. Also, now I'm forced to keep her on a feeding schedule instead of leaving her food out all day long...cuz just like her piggy mama, Monkey Girl is an overeater.

Tastey Jesus

Something I heard this morning added more meaning to Oh My Sweet Baby Jesus!

The story soundbyte is filed under Entrepreneurship at marketplace.org. But I find this article title much funnier German Churches Find Chocolate Jesus Tasteless.

First of all, Chocolate Jesus would be mighty tastey, unless it was white chocolate -which isn't chocolate at all. I wish people would stop calling it chocolate.

Secondly, lighten up, German churches. The idea is freakin funny, even if Frank Oynhausen didn't mean for it to be. It'd be really funny if Oynhausen made baby Jesus chocolates...

I bet Jesus thinks it's funny.

Hop Woo Restaurant SUCKS ASS

I take back every good thing I ever said about Hop Woo. They were rude to me & my friend. They overcharged us & wouldn't admit it. Most of all, they were rude to Mama Piggy.

NEVER will I go back there.

I'd gladly go the extra mile to MPV, which is now Blue Ocean.

Chubby Chased 5

Round Table Pizza has a "Gourmet" Veggie pizza on their menu. Description of the pizza, copied from their site: Artichoke hearts, zucchini, spinach, white mushrooms, Roma tomatoes, red & green onions, Italian herb seasoning, and lots of chopped garlic. Baked with a blend of 3 cheeses on our Creamy Garlic Sauce. I put gourmet in quotes cuz I'm guessing they consider it gourmet just because of artichoke hearts, zucchini & spinach?

Don't get me wrong, it's a good tasting pizza, it's just that Round Table is a bit skimpy with the ingredients. Sometimes I add more artichoke hearts & zucchini when I get home. Also, wait til you get a coupon. The coupon price is much easier to swallow.

So...once when I went to pick up my large Gourmet Veggie, an extra large Mexican guy walked in ahead of me. Unfortunately, the Round Table employee wasn't behind the counter so Chubby Chaser took the opportunity to talk to me.

Chubby Chaser: (makes no effort to hide that he's checking me out) Hey.

Fat Girl: (look in his general direction, but make no eye contact) Hi.

Chubby Chaser: How are you?

Fat Girl: Fine. Thanks.

Chubby Chaser: They're kinda slow.

Fat Girl: Hm? Oh. Ya.

Chubby Chaser: So, are you eating here?

Fat Girl: Nope. Picking up.

Chubby Chaser: Too bad. I coulda used some company.

Fat Girl: (blank stare. as if I would keep him company)

Thankfully, Round Table employee finally appeared behind the counter & took Chubby Chaser's order. I was doubly thankful that he quickly said, "Next customer, please."

I presented my coupon & Round Table employee said he could take two more dollars off the coupon price. Score! That was karma paying me back for putting up with Chubby Chaser.

If I got a discount every time I went to Round Table, I may not be opposed to being Chubby Chased. I know, I'm such a pizza whore.

Trader Joe's Treasures

Zucchini is one of my favorite veggies and Trader Joe's sells a two pound pack for $2.79. A pretty good deal compared to other grocery stores. I've been grilling them this summer but they keep falling through the grate, even when I use my expandable grill basket. I feel a great sense of loss whenever a nice chunck of zucchini falls down to the flame. So now I just soften them in the pan with some olive oil and it's just as good, and I don't have to worry about losing any of my zucchini.

The store bought ranch dressings aren't very satisfying with my zucchini so I decided to make my own. I came across a ranch dressing recipe on Food Network's site & tweaked it a bit. It was a hit. Here's my tweaked recipe, if you care to make some:

1 clove garlic
1 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons minced dill

1 shallot, trimmed and finely chopped

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

Mash the garlic to a paste with the side of a chef's knife. In a medium bowl, whisk together the garlic, mayonnaise, buttermilk, dill, shallot and vinegar. If the sauce is very thick, thin the dressing with a couple tablespoons more of the buttermilk. Use immediately or store covered, in the refrigerator, for up to 3 days.

Not only does Trader Joe's have great food deals, it also has great beauty deals. If you like sugar scrubs, Trader Joe's has a great Tangerine Sugar Scrub that beats all those expensive brand names out there. You get a nice 18 oz tub for just $5.99!

Going Bananas

Sigh. In the middle of another two weeks of no carb hell. The first few days were difficult since I've been eating whatever my piggy tummy desired. I craved carbs so much that I was eating mac & cheese in my dream. I had little resolve after I woke up from that dream.

I was going to be in the Glendale area that day and I remembered a little Peruvian place Brother took me to a while ago. It was perfect. I haven't had Peruvian in a while and I can get my carb fix with them yummy plantains!

Mamita did not disappoint. I ordered the saltado de pollo con vegetales, except I forgot to say "con vegetales". If I had, it woulda been stir fried chunks of chicken, zucchini, mushrooms and tomatoes. But I got the regular saltado de pollo, which was also good, except that it was more carbs than I planned on. Saltado de pollo is stir fried chunks of chicken, tomatoes, red onion & fries. I don't care for soggy fries, but since these fries soak up the delicious sauce I had to eat them. Most of them. And of course there's the fluffy rice that comes with the dish.

The plantains, were soft and nicely caramelized on the outside. They give you a decent amount for $4. Half of them were gone by the time I got back to the office. It was a sad moment when I came to the last piece. Well, at least I made a good choice when I decided to cheat on my no carb diet. I'm already planning on going back to get two orders of plantains when I'm off the diet.