I have been driving for over 30 years now and I have to say that I was unfortunate enough to have received my first speeding ticket last month. I should have been more careful but I had no idea that the police officer would have issued me a speeding ticket for going +8MPH over the speed limit.

Well the times have changed now. It looks like things are not as bad as I thought it would be. I am now able to attend an online traffic school course and upon my completion of the course I would be able to get this speeding ticket off my record.
I have to say that all of this was new to me but with some online research I was able to learn as much as I could about traffic schools and also found some savings with using Driversed.com coupons and trafficschool.com coupons which could end up taking an additional $3-$6 off from my online traffic school course.

Hopefully I have learned my lesson and the next time that I’m about to speed I would remember all the pain that a traffic ticket can cause and be more careful.

I love cooking with Wild fish as apposed to farm raised. Wild caught fish always has more flavor and a slightly firmer texture. This recipe uses Red Snapper caught from New Zealand. You can substitute any white fish you like.

For the olive salsa

• 1 cup green olives, pitted and sliced
• 1 cup chorizo sausage sliced into sticks
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes
• ½ cup of toasted almonds, sliced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil

For the leeks

• 2 stalks of large leeks cut into slices
• 2 teaspoons of olive oil
• ½ cup water
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the squid

• ½ pound baby squid cut into rounds
• Cornstarch as needed

For the fish

• 2 pounds of red snapper filet (4 pieces)
• Extra virgin olive oil

Pre- heat oven to 325. Spread olive oil on fish and season with salt and pepper, place on a baking sheet and place in oven for 10 minutes.

For the salsa mix all the ingredients and set aside in a bowl

Heat med sauté pan over med flame and cook leeks in olive oil until lightly browned on each side, then add water and seasoning and cook until water has evaporated.

Dredge the squid rings in the cornstarch and deep fry until crispy, season squid with salt directly after removing from the oil.

To plate, place the leeks in center of the plate and place the fish on top. Spoon olive and Chorizo salsa on top of the Snapper and top with the crispy squid.

Grub on!!!

Three months ago, Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton opened a small, cozy pizzeria in Los Angeles called Mozza. Located near the corner of Melrose Ave and Highland, this restaurant is the hardest reservation to get in town. I have had the pleasure of dining there twice and on both visits the food was exquisite.

Once you walk in you will notice right away that this is not your typical pizzeria. For one, Nancy Silverton (La brea Bakery) is behind the line finishing off the piping hot pizzas as they are pulled out of the wood burning oven. Some pizzas are finished with high quality extra virgin olive oil, some are finished with freshly cut herbs. Also they have what they call a “pizza bar”, which in my opinion is the best seat in the house. It is pretty much what it sounds like, a bar with 10 stools overlooking the pizza production, can’t beat it.

The menu consists of 4-5 anti pastas, 4-5 salads and a couple of sandwiches. But the star of the show is obviously the Pizza. They have about 10-12 variates to choose from, and they all sound great. On my two visits I tried 5 different pizzas.

A great pizza starts with the perfect crust, and Mario and Nancy definitely have the perfect crust. It has great balance as far as the thickness of the crust; not too thin, not too thick. Also the crispness of the outside crust is nicely offset with a slight chewiness on the inside.

Another vital element to a great pie is the toppings. What I really loved about the toppings here is the simplicity and the quality of ingredients. They are keeping the integrity of the crust by not overloading with toppings. You certainly wont find BBQ chicken as a topping here.

The classic margharita pizza is my personal favorite. It is simply topped with basic tomato sauce, sliced mozzarella and fresh basil that is snipped with scissors to finish.

I strongly suggest visiting Mozza soon, and the best time to get in is during the week, late lunch or early dinner. The good thing is they stay open between Lunch and Dinner.

So now when the New Yorkers come to town and start bragging about the pizza back home, you’ll know where to take them to shut em up…Grub on!!!

The parking in the area is limited. You could spend some time driving in the neighborhood hopping to find an open spot or you could do valet parking for around $8.00. Valet parking in los Angeles is becoming a norm these days.

In case you have been living in a cave for the last year, gourmet cupcakes have been one of the hottest trends in the food industry. I personally have experienced four different cupcake concepts myself, and they all pretty much have the same formula; soft and moist cake and a creamy rich flavorful frosting.

And then there is “My little cupcakes” on Ventura blvd, Studio City. As far as the quality I have to say they are not my favorite, but I do give them credit for appeal and originality. As you can see from my photos, you definitely have a lot going on your cupcake.

Clockwise starting from the top left, Cappacino cupcake was a little dry and boring. Chocolate marshmellow was a good idea in terms of flavors and textures but again like most of the cupcakes we had the cake part was a little dry. Lemon meringue misses the mark as well, it was topped with a meringue instead of a butter-cream frosting, and lets not kid ourselves, we are looking for some FAT when we eat cupcakes!

Now to the good part. The chocolate peanut butter cupcake was really impressive and so was the Red velvet.

The peanut butter cupcake was topped with a Reese’s peanut butter cup, peanut butter frosting, the crumb was a “moist” chocolate cake, I really enjoyed this one.

The Red velvet was definitely my favorite. Cream cheese frosting was rich, sweet and creamy. By the way, I find this to be true for most of the cupcake stores, the Red Velvet is usually the standout in terms of quality.

Thinking about all these cupcake stores popping up it really makes me wonder what food craze is next on the burner. Eclairs maybe?

Growing up I don’t remember Christmas ever coming early, which has taught me to be patient and stay true to the seasons when cooking. Rule of thumb for experiencing ripe heirloom tomatoes is to wait for summer, because we don’t want to waste our time or money on bland, hard, unripe tomatoes. Makes perfect sense right?

So a couple of days ago, my friend flew in from New Mexico to stay with us for a couple of days. Both of us being chefs, we made a trip to the L.A Farmers market, with the hopes of finding some exciting produce for that nights dinner.

About half way through the market we run into a huge array of heirloom tomatoes. We walked up to the table at first only to confirm in our minds that having heirloom tomatoes in February is not only silly but practically immoral. Now here is when it gets weird, the tomatoes were not just okay but in the words of Tony the tiger they were Grrrrreat!!! I was shocked to say the least, and so was my buddy. We ended up picking out 3 varieties along with some wild arugula.

When we got back to the kitchen we went straight to work on the tomatoes. Now when it comes to heirlooms you don’t want to fool around with them too much, or as I say use the KISS METHOD (keep it simple stupid). Ripe heirloom tomatoes have a great depth of flavor to them, a little sweet, a little sour, even a bit of saltiness, so you can say they are low maintenance when it comes to preparation.

My buddy diced the tomatoes in fairly large pieces and dressed them delicately with sea salt, lemon zest and extra virgin olive oil. The arugula was cut into chiffonade (thin slices), to top the salad along with a few shaving of parmesan and toasted bread. Needless to say it was phenomenal. Wow, so maybe Christmas will come early this year, or maybe it already did….Grub on!!!

I know I know, Thai curry sounds a little intimidating, but trust me it’s a breeze. As far as the Thai ingredients you can find those in the Asian food section in most grocery stores, so don’t sweat it. I happened to find some beautiful white shrimp from the local fish market, but you can easily substitute chicken, beef or just leave it vegetarian. If you do use chicken or beef cut them to a uniform size about 2 in long and 1 in thick, cook for 3 minutes after throwing the protein in.

Thai curry shrimp with avocado

For the curry base

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 red onion sliced thin
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced Yukon gold potatoes
• 2 tablespoons Thai curry paste
• 2 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
• 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

To finish

• 1 pound of medium size shrimp peeled and butterflied
• 1 cup coconut milk
• Juice of 2 limes
• 3 leaves chopped fresh basil
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 4 tablespoons toasted peanuts
• 1 avocado diced small

Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium suace pan, add the onions and cook for about 10 min or until caramelized, making sure not to burn the bottom of pan. Add garlic and ginger, cook for 2 minutes then add the rest of the curry base ingredients and simmer for 20 min.

To finish this curry add the coconut milk and lime juice, after 2 minutes add the shrimp and the fresh herbs, cook for an additional 3 minutes and turn off the heat.

At this point you can serve the curry as is or over steamed jasmine or basmati rice

When you’re ready to serve top with the avocado and peanuts and Grub on!!!

Okay, the picture will pretty much tell the story but I have to give you some inside info regarding this dish and the restaurant. Pan roasted pork chop with a Gruyere cheese sauce and scalloped potatoes. First of all the pork; perfectly cooked and dressed with a creamy rich Gruyere cheese sauce. The vegetable for the dish was just as incredible as the meat, scalloped potatoes, or in French, potatoes au gratin, yum. These were prepared in the traditional method, potatoes sliced thin and cooked in cream, salt, pepper and some nutmeg and topped with cheese and bread crumbs, wow-wow-wee-wah!!! Yes that means the dish was spectacular. A little bit of info about the restaurant, Malec bistrot a vins located in the 11th district of Paris. The restaurant was founded in the 30’s and still stands as a classic bistro. It is also a favorite of the local Parisians. I very highly recommend this place to anyone who wants a taste of how the locals eat.

Enjoy the photo…..Grub on!!!

Okay, I’m not talking about devils food cake and I’m not referring to strawberry cheesecake, I’m talking about fattened duck liver, otherwise know as Foie gras.

For those of you who are already familiar with Foie gras you can take a quick nap now. Foie gras, like I said, is the fattened livers of ducks, a product which the French helped make very famous but now is enjoyed all over the world including here in the States. Don’t worry I wont bore you with too much more info, so here is a short discription…As far as flavor imagine mild chicken liver combined with high quality butter and a touch of sweetness.And the texture depends on the preparation, could be smooth and silky when served chilled or custard like when served hot. I love it served either way.

So I’m currently finishing a 40 day juice fast and needless to say I’m doing a lot of day dreaming (and night dreaming) about food. Todays main course is, yup, you guessed it Foie gras, particularly a spectacular dish I enjoyed this summer while I was in Nice, France.The dish was a cold preparation called Foie gras terrine which means marinated and molded duck liver served chilled. It was accompanied with a yummy date and fig compote, orange-apricot marmalade and grilled baguette. It was just okay……….that was the pause……..NOT!!!!!!!. Are you kidding me, it was orgasmic.

So here’s a pic and please be bold and try some Foie gras the next time you see it on the menu…..Eat well, Raff

Day 27 here of my juice fast, it’s going well so far, I have about 10 more days to go. Anyway on to the good stuff, I told you guys yesterday about this whole food day dreaming thing but what I didn’t tell you guys is that I’m a Chef, no not a home chef or weekend chef, I mean all I want to do all day long is think, create, cook, eat and now write about food.

I am proud to say that I have been a professional Chef now for almost 10 years. So today I’m gonna talk about what I call the other red meat or other wise known as Lamb.

Lamb is widely used throughout the globe, Middle east, Europe, India and even here in USA. Almost all Lamb is farm-raised which pretty much means with the assistance of humans. The most highly prized Lamb is baby Spring Lamb, particularly from France, also called Parisian Lamb.I just so happened to be in Paris this Spring and had dinner at Restaurant Guy Savoy who was serving Parisian Spring Lamb. For those of you who have had Lamb in the past and found it to be gamie or harsh flavored, chances are the animal wasn’t young enough.

But anyway back to the dish I had; The Lamb was stuffed with a delicious black olive paste and was so tender and juicy you could slice it with a spoon, in the center there was a sweet red pepper roasted and stuffed with wild rice and more Lamb and the green leaves that you see are wild arugula which added a nice refreshing note to the dish. As for the round crispy looking balls, you will have to ask me for that info;TOP SECRET…HAHAHA!!

PS. This whole food writing thing is really starting to get addicting, I could see myself really getting into this, anyway check out my pic and go out and eat some Lamb……Grub on.