Cafe Grill, Fountain Valley CA

I found out about Café Grill because the food critics from OC Register raved about it and wanted to try it for myself.  I have to say that my feelings are a little more mixed than I like them to be.  Don’t let the scrumptious looking pictures fool you, there were some really high points and are worth checking out and then were some dishes that had great potential but fell short.

  

Butternut squash ravioli:  It does not help that this was served first because this set the bar high.  You can just tell the the ravioli was assembled that day simply because the ravioli did not look perfect and that the squash and the ravioli itself tasted so fresh.  It comes topped with a balsamic sauce, chives and tarragon and everything went together so well.

Potato pancakes:  Unfortunately this was one of those that fell flat.  I don’t know if it was because I was there at 2 in the afternoon and was getting the last of the servings, but that shouldn’t be an excuse.  You could tell that these were not freshly fried and had been sitting under a warmer.  You know that dry potato texture you get when fries have been sitting out a little too long.  Yeah, kind of like that.  Plus I found the flavor lacking, I had to add quite a bit of salt.

Wild Boar Sausage sandwich:  Back to our high point, this also contained grilled onions and whole grain mustard.  Everything about this sandwich was very good and especially the sausage itself packed so much flavor with a perfect amount of grilled char to go with it.  Unfortunately this was not my lunch so I only had a couple, but man I wished I had ordered this.

  

Parsnip Soup:  I found this interesting because I’ve never had parsnip before and have nothing to compare it to.  I would not rate this bad, just interesting.  The best way I can describe it is a cross between and turnip and a potato soup.

Chicken and Brie sandwich: I don’t have brie often on a sandwich but I liked how it went with the chicken and plus it was nice to have a sandwich with a cheese I’m not used to having on there.  Unfortunately the chicken was bland and lacking in flavor once again.  If it would have had more seasoning, even maybe a splash of lemon, I would have liked this more.  Plus the mayo was very stingy.  Being generous on the mayo could have helped this out too.

Chocolate Profiteroles: Basically cream puffs covered in chocolate sauce.  I’m so glad I ordered this because this did help make up for other blahs.  It seemed like the chocolate sauce was a dark chocolate because it had that slight bitterness, which was great because I love dark chocolate.  I think it was good to make the chocolate dark because the sweetness of the cream needed to be contrasted with that tiny bit of bitterness from the chocolate.  Whatever the chef did here, did an excellent job.  If there weren’t other people in the restaurant, I would have gladly licked the sauce off the plate.

Rating: 3.5/5 Forks

Cost: $$, about $20-25 per person.

I would have rated this place higher had I happen to only ordered the things that were great.  However, I did have to rate it lower than I would have liked to because it’s always a goal of mine to try a new place and sample as many dishes as possible, which was what I did.  As I said, the high points were very high but unfortunately 2/5 dishes fell short which made me bring the score down.  The dishes that were done well are worth checking out.

Dining In with Dessert First: Hawaiian Bread Pudding

So what do you do when you’ve bought a Costco pack of King’s Hawaiian rolls and realized you actually don’t need 100 rolls for your ham sandwiches and are in the process of turning rock hard… bread pudding!


8-10 stale Hawaiian rolls
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 eggs beaten
1 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon: cinnamon and vanilla extract
Pinch of nutmeg
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Break Hawaiian rolls in to pieces into a loaf pan.  Drizzle melted butter over bread and sprinkle chocolate chips.  Mix eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg in a bowl and beat well until sugar dissolves.  Pour egg mixture over bread and allow to soak for a few minutes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.
ENJOY

Slaters 50/50, Anaheim Hills CA

Now what does the 50/50 stand for in Slater’s 50/50 you ask?  Why I’ll tell you. It’s burger patties that are 50% ground beef and 50% ground bacon.  You heard me, 50% BACON!  You might say, now that’s just wrong, but that’s what makes it even more exciting.  Come prepared with an appetite, because you will definitely need it.  You can order burgers here two ways, either try one of their signature burgers or create your own off of the “design it” menu.  The Design it menu consists of seven different burger patties, including veggie and turkey, in three sizes and your choice of over 60 different toppings.  Unfortunately we didn’t go for appetizers as we knew that we wouldn’t be able to handle it if we weren’t starving.  This visit, we went the signature route and wanted try what they are known for first.

This is the Flamin’ Hot burger with a spicy beef patty, pepper jack cheese, fried onion strings, chipotle mayo, and a roasted green chili.  The burger is a 50/50 patty at 2/3 lbs AFTER cooking.  I personally, can tolerate it if more heat were added, but it still has a kick that even the more capsaicin (the active ingredient in peppers) sensitive ones can handle.  I really love the flavor the roasted green chili adds, because it made the burger feel more organic, although it probably isn’t.  Quite frankly I don’t know why I haven’t seen more burger places add roasted chilies on their burgers but they should.

The burger that Slater’s is best known for besides the 50/50 patty itself, the peanut butter and jelly burger on a  1/3 lb. 50/50 patty topped with bacon.  Oh yes my friend, you read this right.  I was so happy I did my internet research because it paid off.  As odd as it sounds, the salty and sweet flavors are very complimentary.  The salty and sweet comes from the the bacon and jelly obviously, and the rich and creaminess of the peanut butter help bring everything together.  The two boys sitting with me thought I was crazy when I ordered this but I assure you, I converted them into believers.  My only regret is that I didn’t order this with a glass of milk. 

Rating: 5/5 Napkins

Budget: $-$$, Can be as inexpensive as under $10 if you just stick to a burger, and believe me you’ll be satisfied, to up to $20 if you get appetizers and/or how complex you want your “design it” burger to be.

www.slaters5050.com

Boiling Crab, Garden Grove CA

First, to the person who introduced me to possibly the death of me, thanks JO JO! :)   Dedicated to shellfish ranging from oysters, crab, craw fish, and lobster, I’ve had a loved one willing to risk his shellfish allergies for the sake of awesomeness.  Not that I’m saying you should do it if you’re risking anaphylactic shock, but you would be dying in the best seasonings butter can hold.  The way it works is that you have your choices of shellfish, then you select your seasonings: Rajun Cajun, lemon pepper, garlic butter, or the whole She-Bang (a combination of all three).  Then you select your degree of spiciness.  For first timers, go with mild because it does pack a good sized kick. Lastly, do yourself a favor and and just order the whole She-bang.  After you’ve ordered, they throw everything in a bag and serve it to you just like that, and you eat right out of the bag.  Your table cloth is butcher paper and you’ll get a bib.  Your only utensils are your hands and a crab cracker.  So get down and dirty and don’t get a manicure until after.

Here is the fried shrimp and cajun fries basket.  Everything was seasoned well  and the shrimp was not overdone and chewy at all.  It does the job, but this is not what you came for.

Now we’re talking, king crab legs!  Cooked perfectly and even better when you take out the meat and throw back into the whole She-bang.  I can hardly describe how flavorful the whole She-bang butter sauce is.  You really taste all the different seasonings and I love that they throw in big chunks of garlic because the garlic  absorbs all that flavor.  I could even eat the garlic by itself.

A pound of shrimp with an order of corn and red potatoes.  Yes, you will have to work for your food but the rewards make it worth it.  I recommend de-shelling at least half of your shrimp first and then throwing it back in the sauce so it intensifies the flavor.  Also, the great thing about the corn and potatoes is that the sauce and the seasonings get in every nook and cranny, making the veggies just as addicting as the meat.
Rating: 5/5 Lipitors
Budget: $$, probably spending about $20-30 per person.
Tips:  1) Don’t wear your pristine clothes and have a Tide Pen ready.  If you don’t realize until hours later that you’re full of butter spots, get Soil Love from Stater Bros. as a pre-treatment before you throw it the washer.
2) Take your left over sauce home and smother it on veggies, especially mashed potatoes.
3) Be prepared, your bowels are probably not used to this much grease and butter.  I’ll let you figure out the rest.  But I’ve never let anything like that deter me as long as I’m not suffering the symptoms of dehydration :)

Dining In: Dinner is served with sauce

Unfortunately, loving food is not always economical.  Also, my skills as a chef at home are not very complex and quite frankly it’s difficult to take the time to cook dinner.  So after some experimenting and searching on the internet, I have a few dinner suggestions that help the wallet and the clock.  I didn’t intend for everything to have sauce on top but it just happened that way.

 

Peppercorn Steak sauce: comes in a dried mix packet and can be found in most grocery stores.  All you have to do is season any steak with salt and pepper, then cook to your preference and pour the sauce on top.  Here, I used rib eye cooked medium.  The sauce is thick in consistency and is nice and rich from the butter you add.  It’s a nice change from regular steak sauce, not that I mind steak sauce at all but its good if you want to mix it up.  It’s also great over potatoes.

 
In a separate meal, I roasted yams and red onion inspired by “Roasted Vegetables” recipe by Saundra on allrecipes.com.  The original has more veggies that you can use but I stuck with two because that’s all that I had on hand at home.  I peeled and cubed one large yam and sliced up one red onion.  The sauce is 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic, 1/2 tablespoon of dried thyme and 1 tablespoon dried rosemary.  Pour the sauce over the veggies in a mixing bowl and mix by hand.  The lay the veggies over a baking sheet and bake for about 30 mins or until fork tender in 475 degrees.  Lastly, salt and pepper to taste. 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roasted-Vegetables/Detail.aspx

For my main, I used McCormick’s Garlic, Herb and Wine marinate on chicken.  Like the peppercorn sauce, it comes in a dried mix packet.  After you mix up the marinade, I put aside a couple tablespoons so that I can top the chicken with a little extra.  The directions calls for the meat to marinade for only 15 mins, but I did it for two hours to give the chicken more flavor.  This marinate has a lot of great flavor and you can really taste the wine component even though it was dehydrated at one point.
Tip: sear both sides of the chicken on high heat for three minutes each and then bake in the oven at 350 degrees until it reaches an internal temp of 170.


This is one my favorite dinners to make at home, “Heavenly Halibut” by chellebell on allrecipes.com. I have made this at least a dozen times, I actually don’t cook that often, so for me that is a lot.  The sauce is a mayo, parmesan cheese, green onion sauce that goes over the halibut.  The mayo gives it its creamy richness and the parmesan gives the cheesy salty bite.   The only tip I have is to double the recipe so that you have plenty of extra for broccoli, which goes perfectly.  I’ve also tried the sauce on carrots.  Let me spare you the time by saying don’t do it!  With the broccoli, first I steam it, then season it with salt and pepper.  Then I place the broccoli under the broiler and pour the sauce on top so that it melts.  I really do think you can make a broccoli gratin with the same sauce, although I haven’t tried it yet.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Heavenly-Halibut/Detail.aspx