Peninsula Grill - Charleston, SC

Like many first-time visitors to this restaurant, my family and I came to Peninsula Grill with dreams of enjoying a heavenly slice of coconut cake, with the preceding part of the meal before dessert almost rendered a formality. =) Little did I know that this restaurant had much, much more to offer than just a one-note dessert dish, as we enjoyed many delectable and beautifully presented dishes which almost ended up overshadowing the original reason we came!

Before I get to the dishes, I would like to offer a small observation about the atmosphere of the restaurant: although we all enjoyed the food very much, and the service was impeccable, I found the interior design and atmosphere to be, well, a little bit stuffy. I suppose other people might call it refined, but the main dining area was one large room, and lacked a bit of the warmth and intimacy that I've enjoyed at many other high-end restaurants. But the rest of my experience at Peninsula Grill was excellent, so onto the food!

One of the standout appetizers we ordered: sauteed veal sweetbreads, with a butterbean and and shiitake ravioli and grilled shiitake mushrooms.

Chef Robert Carter is a master at cooking meats, to put it succinctly. =) Both the duck dish (above), and the lamb dish (below), were cooked perfectly - tender and succulent. I ordered the duck, one of my favorite dishes to order: it was a pan roasted duck breast in a reduced port wine sauce, served with a spinach flan and a duck confit spring roll.

Our second main plate was the benne crusted New Zealand rack of lamb, served with wild mushroom potatoes, asparagus, and coconut mint pesto. The mint pesto match perfectly with the mild lamb - I've had lamb from New Zealand at another restaurant in Orange County, and although both shared a certain mild sweetness, the flavor and texture of the lamb dish here was excellent, quite possibly one of the best lamb dishes I've had so far. Not only that, but the portions of lamb were quite generous, and I also enjoyed the non-traditional presentation of the lamb, spread out in a fan individually on the dish.

We also ordered the peach glazed grilled gulf shrimp, served with sweet corn risotto and a green onion horseradish hush puppies. Although I was initially intrigued by the idea of a "high-class" hush puppy, the flavor was not as exciting or interesting as I imagined it to be, and the shrimp dish in general was probably the weakest of the main courses we ordered.

For dessert, we of course ordered Peninsula Grill's famous "Ultimate Coconut Cake". An impressive ten alternating layers of coconut anglaise and cake made this dessert stand literally head and shoulders above every other coconut cake I've ever had.

Because we are a dessert-eating family, we ordered two other desserts in addition to the coconut cake to share: a selection of their homemade ice creams (sorry, I don't recall the flavors), with "just-baked" cookies in the above photo, and below, a banana panna cotta pudding, encased in a milk chocolate ganache, served with a homemade vanilla wafer and caramel sauce. The panna cotta pudding was a beautifully presented dessert - the photo is a little fuzzy and definitely does not do the dessert justice - the presentation was so impeccable that I almost felt bad eating it, and the flavor was delicious also.

Aria - Atlanta, GA

On our first trip to Atlanta, we decided to go to Aria, a restaurant in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. I was expecting a good meal, but as I soon discovered, there are many delectable food offerings here, including one of the most well-prepared and delicious pieces of foie gras that I have eaten so far in my life, without a doubt. =) As a short back story, just a little while ago, I discovered photos I took from Aria and another restaurant while we were on a trip to Atlanta a long while back (a year or so back - I thought I lost the photos, but was happy to find them on a camera we don't usually use). Atlanta is actually the first big metropolitan city we traveled to while in the South, and we were quite happy to discover a wonderful restaurant like Aria on our first trip here. Onto the food!

Because we were in Georgia, it seemed only appropriate to start off the meal with a peach drink, in this case, a peach martini. It was lightly sweet and refreshing, with a piece of fresh peach on top.

We started off with a beet salad with goat cheese and arugula. (Apologies for the dark photos, I wasn't using my regular camera, and it didn't have a low light setting). The goat cheese was relatively mild, which I enjoyed, and the beets were very fresh. Delicious!

As a second appetizer, we ordered a foie gras dish with cherry compote. What was served to us was quite possibly the most delicious piece of foie gras I've ever had. Why? For starters, the serving size was excellent - sometimes, a restaurant serves pieces (sometimes slivers) of foie gras that are just too small to fully enjoy the flavor of foie gras. At Aria, they offer a healthy serving, which I appreciate a lot. Second, the foie gras was fresh - from a local farm in Georgia. Third, the foie gras was cooked perfectly, seared with just sea salt and fresh pepper. Fourth, it was paired very simply, with a little bit of cherry, which was a perfect pairing with the foie gras, because it was only slightly sweet, and the residual tartness matched well with the rich, full-bodied, deep flavor of the foie gras.

We enjoyed the foie gras so much that we ordered a second plate. Cholesterol busting? Yes, definitely. But it was completely worth it - this was a foie gras dish to end all foie gras dishes. Ok, that last bit was hyperbole, but I can say it was the best I've had so far in my life, and that is after eating at pretty good restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Las Vegas, and New York (pre-blog and post-blog).

As one of our main courses, we ordered the duck, paired with more seasonal cherries. Just like the foie gras dish, this was a generous, and much appreciated, larger serving of duck. =)

As our second main course, we ordered lamb prepared two ways: a slow cooked braised shoulder, and a rack of lamb. Both main courses we ordered - the duck and the lamb - were prepared very well and tasted delicious.

For dessert, one of my favorites - a simple sorbet. They offered four flavors - passion fruit, lemon, peach, and strawberry, on top of a meringue. It was also creatively presented - I liked the architectural whimsy - it was much more visually interesting than sorbet set out flat in a bowl or dish.

Our second dessert - a semolina pudding, served with fresh blueberries, raspberries, and vanilla ice cream.

Overall, our food experience at Aria was wonderful, and if I was closer to Atlanta, I would definitely be going there a lot more regularly. =)

My Doughboys Addiction - Back Again!!!

Doughboys is back, Doughboys is back!!!! http://www.doughboyscafe.com/. One of my favorite places to eat at in all of Los Angeles was closed in 2007, but it is open again in 2010, and everyone that lives in Southern California are the better for it. =). They have a new renovated exterior and interior, and, they now have an online ordering option! https://doughboyscafe.gimmegrub.com/. Even though I'm on the East Coast right now, I am tempted to order something online and fly back to Los Angeles just to eat there today at lunch =). Seriously. Do you think they would deliver to South Carolina? =).

In case you've never had the chance to go to Doughboys, you have to go and eat there at least once - they have the best red velvet cake in the city (Oprah once anointed the red velvet cake here as the best she's ever had west of the Mississippi), I think their breakfast offerings are one of the tastiest in Los Angeles, and their sandwiches, salads, and soups are truly top notch (bread is freshly baked and fresh) and delicious. Please go and support this wonderful location, this is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles, and I never want to see them close ever again.

I will obviously be back to Doughboys when I go back to Los Angeles, but until I can update this post again, and because the photos are at least helpful in showing how good the food at Doughboys is, below are some photos from my previous posts (Note: all the photos are of dishes are still offered on the Doughboys menu, I just checked, so the photos should be accurate. The posts also have more commentary on the food, just in case you need more info):

The warm portebello mushroom and pancetta salad.

S.O.S. - a breakfast dish, grilled asiago bread and home fries, topped with homemade beef and two steamed eggs - looks kind of unappetizing, but it tastes good, and even better as a leftover, as strange as it sounds. And yes, it does stand for something, look at my previous post if you're really interested.

The pan bagnat: Doughboy's fresh sourdough bread filled with a salad nicoise (tuna, artichoke, green beans, tomato, red onion, olives, capers, peppers, hard boiled egg, and pesto).

A "sandwich" (if you could call it that), called "The Monster" - one of my favorites, it tastes great, although it is really messy: a big, round piece of grilled foccacia (looks like a fat tortilla), topped with melted emanthal cheese, grilled onions, mushrooms, and roast beef, served hot, and open faced (it looks like a pizza and you eat it like a big taco). It comes with some shredded lettuce, diced tomato, and horseradish sauce

And the piece de resistance: tons of photos of their red velvet cake, truly delicious, sweet, moist, yummy cream cheese frosting - this is the best red velvet cake I've ever had, even after wandering around the South for awhile now.

This cake is sooo good, it deserves more than one photo...=)

And a closeup - it is prepared so well, and so moist, that you can easily see it in this photo!

Eat up! And please enjoy Doughboys as much as I will be!

Good meals at Kate Mantilini's

Kate Mantilini is one of my standby favorites when I am around the Beverly Hills area. It is a restaurant that offers traditional American diner food (and also trendier foods, like seared ahi, although I think their other food is much better). However, unlike your regular ol' American diner, the quality of the ingredients are top notch, and the setting is a lot nicer too (lots of booths, clean minimalist decor).

The restaurant's sign is lit up at night, although you can always see it when you are driving on Wilshire even in the daytime. Fortunately, it isn't right in the Rodeo Drive area; otherwise, I have a feeling that they would be paying a lot more rent money.

We first started coming to Kate Mantilini's for their chicken pot pie, supposedly one of the best in Los Angeles. It seems to be only offered on the weekends though. It is quite delicious; the crust of the pie is light and flaky, and the pot pie is filled with lots of peas, mushrooms, carrots, and chicken, and fresh rosemary and other herbs are added in.

I am a sucker for simple rotisserie chicken dishes, and this is no exception. They prepare it especially well here, it is juicy with a lot of garlic. Yum. And also tasty bistro-style french fries. I usually order this or their hanger steak, both prepared very well.

This dessert is one of our favorites in Los Angeles. It is a simple fruit cobbler, but they get the texture and sweetness of the dessert just right. It has just the right amount of crunchiness in the cobbler itself, and they add cinnamon into the sauce and the ice cream to add a nice counterpart to the fruit.

I love Doughboys!!!!!!!!!

I was previously sad because one of my favorite places in L.A. closed, but now it's open again!!!! =). The original post is below...

Originally, my first food post was going to be about the Napa trip Jen and I went on, but now, I think it would be more appropriate to make my first post about my new favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, Doughboys.

We have been planning to go there for a while, but we finally had the chance to go on Match Day, March 15th. And yes, it was a great celebration meal....onto the food!

O.J. and an Arnold Palmer

The waiter took our drink orders first...I was planning to order breakfast, so I ordered some fresh orange juice and Jen ordered an Arnold Palmer.

Orange juice, freshly squeezed, and just a bit tart.

Jen ordered a Warm Portebello and Pancetta salad.

It was a very good salad - lots of contrast in both texture and flavor, with crunchy pancetta bits, warm cooked mushrooms, potatoes, pine nuts, and the salad greens.

What made it an excellent salad in my book was the bread that can be seen all around the salad; it reminded me of a chinese bread, probably because of the scallions on top of the bread. It was soft and chewy, yum!

Here's the dish I ordered, an egg dish named S.O.S.

Alright, before I start, yes, I am going to acknowledge that it looks like crap. Literally. But you can't judge all food by its looks - I refuse to discriminate on the basis of a food's appearance, because I am an equally opportunity eater.

It was the description of the dish on the menu that intrigued me - "S.O.S.: our update of an old army/navy classic ("shit on a shingle" if you don't have a dad that was in the service) and a favorite with the stuff, ours starts with grilled asiago bread, home fries, and is topped with a really flavorful rich creamed beef mixture, then 2 steamed eggs."

With a description like that, wouldn't you want to try it? Ok, maybe not...nevertheless, it was pretty good, but a very heavy and filling dish. I only finished half, and took the rest home. Let me just say that it tasted awesome as a leftover dish, even better than when I ate it fresh. Final score on this dish: Looks = 0, taste= 7, reheat value =10!


Now onto dessert, so good that it deserves three separate photos:

Red velvet cake...

Rated by Oprah as one of the best red velvet cakes in the United States...

And it was mind-blowingly good. The cake had great texture and the frosting had a cream cheese base, but it was very mild and sweet. The perfect red velvet cake in Los Angeles. *drool*