December, 2010

American / Culinary Travel / Restaurants — No Comments
24
Dec 10

Reddi-Chick

The Counter at Reddi-Chick in Brentwood

Litterally a Hole in the Wall

I have been visiting the Brentwood Country Mart in West L.A. since I was a kid in the 1970′s.  Now that I have kids, I enjoy taking them back to visit, eating outside on picnic tables and star gazing (Hollywood Stars not celestial ones).

I have my favorite places, including Barney’s from the Bay Area for their burgers, and Frida’s mostly because I like the one in Beverly Hills so much. Now that I live out of town, I rarely get past one or the other to try anything else. In fact, it took the early closing of every other old standby in the place to get me to try Reddi-Chick, a roasted chicken and fried food place that serves ‘em up old school cafeteria style and has been doing a brisk business for years.

Chicken from Reddi-Chick

That is the Gold!

Reddi-Chick does not sell on its decor, or service but on its tasty chicken eaten around a central (fenced in for safety) fireplace.

Fire pit brentwood country mart

Its like Camping but Without the Tents and in West L.A.

I expected juicy, tender chicken and the bite I smuggled away from Mrs. P Chef was all that but I did not expect East Coast fried seafood (clam strips & scallops) just like you can get at the Jersey Shore. I’m not talking about the high end stuff like Day Boat Scallops seared just so, but about the clam shack stuff on the boardwalk across from the Atlantic, which also has it’s appeal.

Fried Clam Strips

Just as Good as Any East Coast Tourist Trap

Fried Scallops

At $7.64 the Scallops are a Deal.

The thing I really liked besides the boardwalk taste and the board walk feel of sitting on wooden picnic benches was the pricing. The clams were $5.37 and the scallops were $7.64 for a decent sized order in one of West L.A.’s toniest neighborhoods. It also did not hurt that we were in line behind Dennis Quaid of The Rookie and other wonderful movies on Christmas Eve, with the place almost to ourselves.

When we return, if my chick, Mrs. P Chef, suggests eating here again, I’ll be Reddi; even if it means missing out on Barney’s or Frida’s.

P Chef

 Reddi-Chick on Urbanspoon

Uncategorized — No Comments
14
Dec 10

Mac & Cheese Throwdown Tonight

Mac & Cheese Recipe for the Mac & Cheese Throwdown tonight at 5th & Wine to benefit the American Kidney Association

Time: 2 Hours

Yield: 4 Portions

Ingredients:

(2) Leeks, (white part only)

(1qt tsp) Caraway Seeds

(1pint) Cream

(2oz) Whole Butter

(1lb) Penne Pasta

(1 cup) Panko Bread Crumbs

(3 sprigs picked leaves) Oregano

(1qt tsp) dried porchini mushroom powder- optional

Tools

Cutting Board

Large Baking Pan

Box Grater

Serving Spoon

Chefs Knife

Sauce Pan

Frying Pan

Large Sauce Pan

Food Processor

Method

  • Gently Toast whole caraway seeds on low heat in the frying pan for 3 minutes
  • Grind the seeds finely in a food processor
  • Sweat the sliced leeks in whole butter until translucent
  • Add the caraway seeds to the leeks
  • Sweat both together for another minute
  • Now add your white wine, reduce until almost 2 oz of wine remains
  • Add the heavy cream to the reduced white wine and reduce the combination to  half it original volume
  • Now add the grated Gruyere cheese. Stir until all the cheese is completely melted
  • While the cream is reducing, boil the pasta to an Al dente firmness
  • After pasta is finished cooking, drain
  • Add sauce and toss until the pasta is covered
  • Place in container, top with a mixture of grated domestic or imported Gruyere cheese plus a 1/4th of parmesan cheese.
  • Return to the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until hardened

 

Topping Method

  • Melt whole butter
  • Add fresh oregano leaves
  • Sweat for 2 minutes
  • Add freshly grown black pepper
  • Add the panko and stir until the bread crumbs become light to a golden brown
  • When ready to plate, sprinkle bread crumbs over the Mac &’ Cheese when plated.
Equipment — No Comments
10
Dec 10

Its the Real Thing, a Really Cool Thing

A Friendly Looking Marketing Terminator Robot Soda Jerk from Coke

I think SK Chef will be giving me some heat for posting anything about a product like Coke(R), so luckily the new 106 flavor Coke (R) soda fountain machine exists. A cool drink would be welcome as I think of an excuse for why a processed drink (not even a food) is on our blog.

I have it. This is a post about cool food technology. No foods were shown, or consumed (as far as you know) in the making of this post. Keep your eyes peeled for the “Technology” in fast food places–errr in locations–in your area. I saw one near our office and found them to be kind of cool looking. 

P Chef

Smart Kitchen News — No Comments
7
Dec 10

Content Meeting

At Smart Kitchen, we have been working very hard to get our content loaded and organized on our web site so that we can open our Online Culinary School this month with a good portion of the almost 400 instructional cooking videos in our current curriculum loaded and available.

At this time we have 40% of our basic content up and are sharing it with a small number of beta testers. Getting feed back has been very positive with some good suggestions for minor fixes.

We have a window coming up where we can shoot some more content and were busily planning what subjects to cover. SK Chef & I headed over to Teaching Chef’s College, where he graciously had a post Thanksgiving Day Turkey Sandwich feast prepared to discuss content. I broke out the blogging kit and got some tape.

In the video, Teaching Chef, our primary chef instructor, outlines how he’d redo our pan frying video without too much focus on temperature control but then performs a few temperature control maneuvers himself while pan frying pork. Perhaps he was swayed? Stay tuned.

P Chef

Bloggers / Events / Girl Meats Fork / Historical Foods / Silence DoGood / Smart Kitchen News — 1 Comment
2
Dec 10

Girl Meats Fork

   Girl Meats Fork

I had the opportunity yesterday to visist with Susie Timm, of Girl Meats Fork. We’d known each other from business around the Scottsdale Airpark area the last few years. We’d done business with her  and she’d dined with us in our restaurants.

But sitting down together, the things you learn. It turns out she is one of the only female members of a Scottsdale Arizona based championship BBQ team; and hers is number one in the state for brisket, if I am not mistaken. She is also a sharp event organizer. For example, she is helping put on a Mac n Cheese Throw-Down December 12.14.10. There is one spot potentially open and a chance we could rope SK Chef and Smart Kitchen into competing. If we get in, I wanted Smart Kitchen to lead with the Thomas Jefferson Colonial Mac n Cheese that Silence DoGood of the Our Friend Ben blog wrote so well about but SK Chef has some twists of his own. We will keep you posted.