Crepes And Corks

Wednesday, May 13

Paris

Hi all! This past April after studying for what was probably the most challenging and important exam of my career, I traveled to France to meet my family and celebrate my mother's 50th birthday. We ate, drank and shopped our way through Paris. It was an amazing celebration and I included some highlights below. I hope you all enjoy it!

Waffles from Yummy & Guilt Free

Celebrating Mom's Birthday

Montmartre

Drinks at Buddha Bar

Amazing Hake Fish with Butter Caper Sauce

Seafood Platter at Le Petit Commerce

Louvre at Night

We enjoyed a family dinner at the beautiful and always trendy Hotel Costes. I love the vibrant atmosphere here and the high quality of food made it clear why Costes has been a popular Paris hot spot for so long.

Spicy Lobster Pasta

Although it is hard to choose from the multitude of sweets in France, one of my favorite places is an Algerian patisserie called Bague de Kenza. They have a few locations in Paris filled with beautiful sweets made with a variety of nuts and honey.

Although Paris is a massive shopping capital, my favorite part of their biggest department store, Galeries Lafayette, is their food section. You can shop for a variety of teas, spices, meats, fruits, and endless treats. There are also several restaurants within the food shops that are always a great choice for a lunch break while shopping!

Saturday, February 21

Bottega Americano - a new San Diego gem

I planned a last minute trip back to San Diego for Valentine's weekend to catch up with family and friends. My sister wanted to try one of the newest restaurants in town, Bottega Americano. A new Italian hotspot on the outskirts of downtown, Bottega Americano had my eyes intrigued and my mouth watering from start to finish. The open space has a uniquely modern vibe with a rustic touch. We sat at the chef's table, which is a hightop bar looking into the pizza prep area next to the woodfired oven. Each corner of the restaurant had a different specialty - one area for fresh pasta, one for fresh fish, another for cheese and charcuterie with a huge chalkboard menu above it, etc. As an appetizer, we ordered the octopus with braised bacon, frisee, fingerling potatoes, cipollini onions and romesco. We split a pasta and a pizza for our main course. Our pasta was with braised octopus, basil, lobster stock and radicchio. We chose the pistachio pesto pizza with taleggio cheese, mozarella, pears and truffle honey. The pizza was heavenly and sweet. I watched them make this pizza in front of us - everything from the chunks of cheese to the thick truffle honey was scrumptious. I can't wait to go back to Bottega with a big group so we can sit at one of their large family style tables and try even more of their tasty selections.

Chef's Table

A glass of rosé

Chalkboard above the charcuterie & family style dining

Bar

Unique decor

Fresh pasta drying

Octopus appetizer

Pesto pizza

Pasta

Tuesday, December 30

NYC - Del Posto

Our dinner at Del Posto was one I was really looking forward to leading up to the trip to NYC. Having Celiac Disease, it is difficult to find good pasta that is gluten free. Del Posto has a huge variety of pasta dishes, of which they can make every single dish as gluten free. A gluten free foodie's heaven if you ask me... The whole experience was wonderful. The restaurant was grand, the wait staff incredibly friendly, and the dishes superb. My purses even got their own stool at our table. Our treatment was close to perfect at Del Posto! I can't wait to go back and taste our items on their delicious menu.

Lamb Neck Sausage Orecchiette with Carrots

Chestnut Ravioli with Porcini Ragu and Black Truffle Butter

Rare Salmon with Celery Root and Black Trumpets

Coconut Ice Cream and Warm Dates

Melanzane e Cioccolato alla Napoletana

Accompaniments with Dessert

Massive wine glass!

And here are some fun pictures of me and the family in NYC :-)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and you all ring in 2015 in the presence of loved ones. See you all next year! Thank you again for all the love and support you give me, it is greatly appreciated!

Sunday, December 28

NYC - Momofuku

On Saturday night we went to Bar Boulud. One of Daniel Boulud's more casual restaurants, the menu is really unique and fun. My favorite dish was a seafood salad appetizer, which I unfortunately didn't get a picture of. They offer a Frenchie burger with black angus beef, pork belly confit and short ribs which was a little dry but still tasty nonetheless. The restaurant also has an extensive wine selection. To get to the restrooms you have to walk downstairs and through the entire wine gallery which was nice to see and is included below. My brother Alex's birthday was the week before so we made sure to celebrate that as a family as well.

For brunch Sunday we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Momofuku Ssam Bar. If you like duck, there aren't enough good things I can say about their duck. They only take reservations for larger parties who want to order a whole duck but it is entirely worth it. The duck is stuffed with pork sausage, marinated and roasted. They slice it for you and serve it over greens, rice and chive pancakes. It comes with a few sauces, of which the hoisin sauce is my favorite. You get a choice of a few sides. I loved the fried brussel sprouts with xo sauce, sour cream and puffed rice. They also had a wonderful apple kimchi with maple lebne, and fresh country ham with an amazing sauce that they call "red eye gravy". While we were devouring the duck, they made a delicious broth from the left over duck juices and orange zest. I think we all voted this to be our favorite meal of our trip. If anyone gets the chance to go, I hope you love it just as much as we did and let me know what you think!