Summer is Over

This entry is long overdue especially since school has already started and I’ll be writing about what happened this past summer. I guess I should start out with what I’ve baked! I mentioned in my last entry about making cream puffs—which were probably my favorite goodies to bake this summer—and in addition to the cream puffs I also got to make lemon bars (personally requested by my coworkers during my last week at my internship with MovieMaker Magazine). I’ve made lemon bars before but I wasn’t fully satisfied with the recipe I used. Although everything tasted and looked fine, the lemon bars had an eggy smell (weird, I know). So this time around I took out one egg (using three instead of four) and juiced an extra lemon. I also added lemon zest into my crust for extra lemony goodness. I was afraid I over-killed the bars with lemons, but all my friends and coworkers dug them and I couldn’t stop at just one helping of these bars.

I also was feeling super nostalgic this summer and wanted to fly back to London ASAP. Sadly, no flying for me for a while, so I had to bring London to LA. I made English scones! I bought Double Devon Cream (sadly you can’t get clotted cream in the States—which has 4% more fat than Double Devon and is much more creamy) from World Market (also known as Cost Plus) and generously spread the cream on my scone and added strawberry jam on top. And of course I had to have a pot of tea with it! The recipe I used required me to convert measurements from grams into cups (many countries actually use grams instead of cup measurement—the US just likes to be a rebel and use its own measurement… i.e. inches, feet and Fahrenheit), but it wasn’t that hard thanks to good ol’ Google.

This summer I also got the privilege to dig into some tasty restaurant food. When I was driving down to San Diego, I stopped by to visit my friend in Long Beach and we had Moroccan food at a restaurant called, “Asha.” Pretty tasty. It actually reminded me a lot of Lebanese  food and made me miss Comptoir Libanais in London. My friend and I shared the Baba Ghanouj for appetizer and I had Kafta with Roasted Tomatoes for my entrée. Baba Ghanouj is made of eggplant, garlic, lemon juice, and tahini. It reminds me of humus, but has much more delicate and subtle taste. The appetizer comes with pita bread that you dip into the Baba Ghanouj. As for my entrée, I kind of chose it based on the fact that it had a pouched egg. I don’t know what it is about pouched eggs that I find so enticing. Maybe it’s because I haven’t mastered it yet. It’s a lot harder to cook than it looks. I remember when I was younger I was afraid to eat pouched eggs and because it seemed raw and runny like snot. Now, I think it’s wonderfully creamy and delicate (cooked and seasoned well of course). The Kafta was delicious and had this sour taste to it that I love. I've realized, as I’ve grown older I have learned to appreciate sour-tasting food like olive and artichokes.

Moving on, I went to Olvera Street with some people from my church and we had taquitos at Cielito Lindo. I’m not a huge taquito fan, but what made their taquitos the bomb was their green avocado sauce. It’s very subtle, so you don’t really notice the sauce until it’s gone and you realize that the dish was so good because of that green sauce. We also went to Mr. Churro and had churros filled with various sweet goodies. Mine was filled with condensed milk while some of my friends had custard, caramel and apple jam. If it wasn’t for the $15 parking, I would consider going to Olvera Street much more often.

I got to go to a tea tasting at Chado with my friend Cristin (who’s been on this blog once or twice) in Pasadena a couple weeks back. She bought a Living Social deal and we got to learn about and try various teas. On top of that, we had scones and got to bring some tea home (all part of the package deal). I think the total came out to be around $24 and it was originally somewhere around $75. I’ve been to Chado before so I wasn’t really surprised that they serve great food and tea, but their prices can get a little steep. I enjoyed the tea tasting experience and I thought it was fun learning about tea history. I would have had a better time if there weren’t loud obnoxious people sitting next to me (“Ugh… I need sugar and milk with this”—it’s a tea tasting for goodness sake! Show some respect for the tea) but that’s not the restaurant’s fault.

And lastly, I want to talk to you about Street Food Cinema. I saved the best for last! I found out about Street Food Cinema from Simon Pegg’s tweet because they were having a double feature—Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz—in honor of World’s End. Luckily, they were having this event at Exposition Park, near USC. On top of having a fun outdoor movie showing, there was going to be a band playing and a whole bunch of food trucks! And did I mention this was only $10? I couldn’t miss it. I love events that bring the community together and I honestly don’t feel like LA has many of these kind of events. Something like this would definitely happen in London all the time though. I didn’t get there that early before the screening, and there were a LOT of people, but I managed to snag a pretty good spot near the front. I also bought some hot wings at CJ’s Wings, which were so-so (it came with a slice of bread, which I thought was a bit weird, but it may be a Southern thing). Nevertheless, it was fun and I’m glad I wasn’t there alone (Cristin to the rescue!). Next time though, I will bring a sweater and not wear shorts. It may be summer, but it does get colder at night. 

And so ends my summer of food adventures. I realize that this past summer will be my last summer of being a kind of a kid. There’s more gravity of responsibilities lying ahead and I’m a bit anxious, but also extremely excited. We’ll see where God takes me and how He’ll use me this year. I probably will go out and eat and bake this school year (who am I kidding? I will definitely bake! I’ve already made more scones and some cookies today for tomorrow’s afternoon tea I’m having with my study abroad friends), but I must admit my focus will be more concentrated on theatre and applying to conservatories this year so I probably won’t blog as much as I use to. Good bye for now!

*Oh, and y’all haven’t heard the song, “Summer is Over” by John McLaughlin ft. Sarah Bareilles, GET ON IT!