Sunday, August 17, 2003
Long live the Pope’s Pillow
Okay, admit it. When Da Vinci’s changed ownership a few months ago, you were worried that the Pope’s Pillow would disappear like your favorite products sometime do at Trader Joe’s. Not so. New owner, Alberto Gallo, and chef Carlo Bruno have every intention of keeping the beloved towering dessert on the menu. Both hail most recently from Michigan where Gallo was a customer at Café Bruno before he convinced Bruno to flee the brutal winters for Tucson’s temperate climes.
Bruno cooks Sicilian/New York style with signature dishes osso buco and chicken braciola. Chef Bruno has been in the restaurant biz for 35 years with stints at Sardi’s, Orsini’s, and was responsible for opening all the Palm Restaurants from New York to San Francisco. He brings an Italian bite of the Big Apple to the Old Pueblo.
Located at 3535 E. Fort Lowell Road, 520-881-0947.
Okay, admit it. When Da Vinci’s changed ownership a few months ago, you were worried that the Pope’s Pillow would disappear like your favorite products sometime do at Trader Joe’s. Not so. New owner, Alberto Gallo, and chef Carlo Bruno have every intention of keeping the beloved towering dessert on the menu. Both hail most recently from Michigan where Gallo was a customer at Café Bruno before he convinced Bruno to flee the brutal winters for Tucson’s temperate climes.
Bruno cooks Sicilian/New York style with signature dishes osso buco and chicken braciola. Chef Bruno has been in the restaurant biz for 35 years with stints at Sardi’s, Orsini’s, and was responsible for opening all the Palm Restaurants from New York to San Francisco. He brings an Italian bite of the Big Apple to the Old Pueblo.
Located at 3535 E. Fort Lowell Road, 520-881-0947.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Body Sushi
No, that’s not a typo. Body sushi is the latest craze in the L.A. catering scene. Say you have a fetish for sushi and want to do something different. If you’re from Iowa, sushi is different enough but heck this is L.A. Chef Gary Arabia of Global Cuisine Catering offers a human mannequin as your serving “dish”. Picture this -- if you will -- a very lean, young Asian woman wearing exotic flowers on her massive breasts, a minimal g-string and banana leaves laden strategically placed across her body and up and down her arms and legs with sushi on top.
In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Arabia said that he conceived this presentation for his Hollywood clients who want something different but the situation has to be just right because he doesn’t want the body sushi experience to turn into a food orgy. The possibilities are endless for a wide array of finger foods, just desserts, and appetizers.
Picture the poor receptacle lying there so still. What if she has to burp, fart, laugh, or go to the bathroom? What if she is so bored by the dinner conversation that she falls asleep and has a nightmare? Arabia uses his model tables for three hours and that’s a long time to lay prone balancing food on your body.
If you cannot picture this, check out www.globalcuisinecatering.com . Today a receptacle and tomorrow this model will probably be the next Bond Girl co-starring with an aged male actor who’s twice her age.
No, that’s not a typo. Body sushi is the latest craze in the L.A. catering scene. Say you have a fetish for sushi and want to do something different. If you’re from Iowa, sushi is different enough but heck this is L.A. Chef Gary Arabia of Global Cuisine Catering offers a human mannequin as your serving “dish”. Picture this -- if you will -- a very lean, young Asian woman wearing exotic flowers on her massive breasts, a minimal g-string and banana leaves laden strategically placed across her body and up and down her arms and legs with sushi on top.
In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Arabia said that he conceived this presentation for his Hollywood clients who want something different but the situation has to be just right because he doesn’t want the body sushi experience to turn into a food orgy. The possibilities are endless for a wide array of finger foods, just desserts, and appetizers.
Picture the poor receptacle lying there so still. What if she has to burp, fart, laugh, or go to the bathroom? What if she is so bored by the dinner conversation that she falls asleep and has a nightmare? Arabia uses his model tables for three hours and that’s a long time to lay prone balancing food on your body.
If you cannot picture this, check out www.globalcuisinecatering.com . Today a receptacle and tomorrow this model will probably be the next Bond Girl co-starring with an aged male actor who’s twice her age.
Saturday, August 09, 2003
LA Food Show
Manhattan Village Mall
Manhattan Beach, CA
The LA Food Show is a spin-off of the hugely successful California Pizza Kitchen chain. What I like about CPK is its trademark yellow/black/white crispness and the tasty trademarked chopped salads and BBQ chicken pizzas. You do know that CPK invented the hugely successful BBQ chicken pizza, didn’t you? But can the LA Food Show be equally successful?
The dramatic space blends Pacific Rim zen with industrial strength open kitchen and exposed pipes. Gutsy red – an appetite stimulator and energy booster – reigns as the most prominent color. Built-in televisions abound tuned in to ESPN and FoodTV even in the restrooms.
What’s on the menu? A bit of this and that perhaps simulating what’s popular in the LA food culture. There’s a tribute to Roscoe’s House of Waffles with a huge plate of waffles, fried chicken, and gravy. The cowboy steak salad (a favorite from the Cadillac Café) overflowed with greens and things and a hunking piece of still sizzling steak.
We were quite disappointed in the Poke Martini. Although on paper it sounds divine, the martini glass is not the correct serving vessel. Rare ahi tuna, shrimp, and scallops, and a bit of shredded cabbage and avocado bits were placed into a martini glass and then doused with what was supposed to be Pacific Rim vinaigrette. The concept again sounds refreshing and appealing but the vinaigrette lay lifeless at the bottom and by trying to mix it up to meld the flavors with the ingredients upset the entire presentation as there was no room for mixing; so much for presentation. Alas, the dressing of sorts was tasteless. It needed a good jolt of ginger or more intensity overall.
I liked the pulled pork sandwich but the sauce was a tad sweeter than necessary. It was served with quite decent fries. Our favorite item was the chile relleno wontons, a complexity of flavors and textures.
Portions tend to be supersized except for the appetizers. Desserts seemed uninspiring so we passed. Their house specialty lemonade tasted like water. I asked the waiter to replace it with iced tea and he said, “Oh, it’s not sweet enough for you?” I reiterated that it was tasted like water and had no taste at all. If I closed my eyes, I would be hard pressed to know it was lemonade. When we got the bill, the drinks were removed which I guess is a nice gesture considering that iced teas are $1.95.
Is the LA Food Show going to be successful in Miami and Chicago? Hmm, that’s too soon to tell because first they have to buoy their success in good old L.A.
Manhattan Village Mall
Manhattan Beach, CA
The LA Food Show is a spin-off of the hugely successful California Pizza Kitchen chain. What I like about CPK is its trademark yellow/black/white crispness and the tasty trademarked chopped salads and BBQ chicken pizzas. You do know that CPK invented the hugely successful BBQ chicken pizza, didn’t you? But can the LA Food Show be equally successful?
The dramatic space blends Pacific Rim zen with industrial strength open kitchen and exposed pipes. Gutsy red – an appetite stimulator and energy booster – reigns as the most prominent color. Built-in televisions abound tuned in to ESPN and FoodTV even in the restrooms.
What’s on the menu? A bit of this and that perhaps simulating what’s popular in the LA food culture. There’s a tribute to Roscoe’s House of Waffles with a huge plate of waffles, fried chicken, and gravy. The cowboy steak salad (a favorite from the Cadillac Café) overflowed with greens and things and a hunking piece of still sizzling steak.
We were quite disappointed in the Poke Martini. Although on paper it sounds divine, the martini glass is not the correct serving vessel. Rare ahi tuna, shrimp, and scallops, and a bit of shredded cabbage and avocado bits were placed into a martini glass and then doused with what was supposed to be Pacific Rim vinaigrette. The concept again sounds refreshing and appealing but the vinaigrette lay lifeless at the bottom and by trying to mix it up to meld the flavors with the ingredients upset the entire presentation as there was no room for mixing; so much for presentation. Alas, the dressing of sorts was tasteless. It needed a good jolt of ginger or more intensity overall.
I liked the pulled pork sandwich but the sauce was a tad sweeter than necessary. It was served with quite decent fries. Our favorite item was the chile relleno wontons, a complexity of flavors and textures.
Portions tend to be supersized except for the appetizers. Desserts seemed uninspiring so we passed. Their house specialty lemonade tasted like water. I asked the waiter to replace it with iced tea and he said, “Oh, it’s not sweet enough for you?” I reiterated that it was tasted like water and had no taste at all. If I closed my eyes, I would be hard pressed to know it was lemonade. When we got the bill, the drinks were removed which I guess is a nice gesture considering that iced teas are $1.95.
Is the LA Food Show going to be successful in Miami and Chicago? Hmm, that’s too soon to tell because first they have to buoy their success in good old L.A.
