Food

Located on the ground floor of a magnificently designed new building on Melrose Avenue, Umeda Restaurant opened its doors earlier this year. Across the street from Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza and Chi Spacca, Umeda is on the north side of Melrose, on the corner of Citrus, just west of Highland. Omeda quietly opened with little fanfare but luckily some friends told me about it. Umeda Restaurant is named after its chef, Takuya Umeda. Takuya Umeda began his career in Sapporo, Japan and worked with chef Nobu Matsuhisa at Nobu London between 1997 to 2003. Umeda then came to work at Nobu's Matsuhisa in Bevelry Hills until 2017, when he opened his own restaurant. In the front of the house is the friendly and charming Joseph Mansour who also worked at Matsuhisa for almost a decade. 
28 November, 2017
Anything you think about chocolate will be changed after trying Peluso Chocolate from Sicily. This special chocolate is not just about eating chocolate, it is about eating a story. And Peluso Chocolate is the Please The Palate pick of the week. Peluso chocolate is called chocolate "made in the cold." This recipe was created in 1746 in the southern city of Modica in Sicily and has been made the same way ever since. The cocoa seeds are ground and mixed with sugar. Those are the only two ingredients! There is no butter or oil or milk added. The processing is done at a low temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. By processing it at a low temperature, the healing properties of the cocoa are maintained (they are typically lost when the temperatures reach more than 104 degrees). The healing properties of cocoa are tannins, which have antioxidants and blood pressure regulators. That means that this chocolate has benefits for cardiovascular health, antibacterial protection and safeguards against viral diseases. Flavanoids (which offer protection against tumors) ensure better liver function and help strengthen immune defenses to fight free radicals.
25 November, 2017
With only one night in Chicago, and a rainy one at that, I hopped into a taxi to the neighborhood of Logan Square to enjoy dinner and drinks at Chiya Chai, recently named Best Indian Restaurant in Chicago by Chicago Reader. A fan of Indian food, I was looking forward to a comfort meal and got so much more. Chiya Chai is owned by brothers Swadesh and Saujanya Shrestha who grew up in the midst of the world of tea in Kathmandu, Nepal. Their family are Nepalese tea farmers and their father was one of the first exporters of Nepalese tea to the United States. Swadesh Shrestha recalled growing up in the foothills of the Nepalese Himalayas and loved going to his grandfather's tea shop where he would sit quietly sipping a cup of milky chai as he watched the comings and goings of the village. The brothers, along with Swadesh's wife Rajee, who is also from Kathmandu, opened a restaurant in Minneapolis and ten years later, in August of 2016, opened Chiya Chai in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago.  
21 November, 2017
Do you know what döner is? You know what gyros and shawarma are, right?  Well, döner kebab is from Turkey and is the ancestor of these two dishes. The seasoned meat is cooked on a vertical rotisserie on inverted cones that are slowly turning and roasting the meat in its own juices. And where can you find döner in Los Angeles? At Spireworks.

Spireworks is a fast casual restaurant concept with two locations in Los Angeles -  in Westwood and in Eagle Rock.

16 November, 2017

This story originally appeared in ATOD. Calistoga is a diamond in the rough, a charming little rustic town located in the northern part of the Napa Valley....

14 November, 2017
Chios Mastiha is a natural, aromatic translucent resin produced from the mastic tree, a large shrub, which only grows on the Island of Chios in the southern part of the Greek Islands. With a sweet smell and a pine-like flavor, mastiha also has many health benefits. And, mastiha is the Please The Palate pick of the week. I first tried mastiha when I went to Greece. Having a small glass of mastiha liqueur, instead of ouzo, is very common as a digestive after a nice meal. And if you buy a pack of gum in the airport or at a local pharmacy, you will find mastiha gum. The word "mastic" comes from the Greek word "mastichein" which means "to gnash the teeth." Mastiha has been scientifically proven to have beneficial properties and is antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant. It is good for healing wounds and for skin regeneration. It can be a digestive and used in oral hygiene such as toothpaste. Mastiha comes in different forms: crystal, powder, capsules, oil and gum and it also comes in a liqueur.
28 October, 2017
Soft, hard, fresh, aged, delicate, stinky....there are so many different kinds of cheeses from France. This week I got to taste a delicious selection of French cheeses at an event hosted by the French Dairy Board called "Fall in Love with Formage" and that is what I did. Hence, French cheeses are the Please The Palate pick of the week! With more than 1200 different French cheeses, many names which are hard to pronounce,  are accessible, affordable and delicious. The cheeses presented at the event came from the The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills which is one of my favorite stores to go to. Here are a few favorites: Brie Le Chatelain - A soft, bloomy-rind cow's milk cheese from the pastures of the Vosges Mountain region of France. This creamy, smooth brie was even better on top of a thick piece of fresh bread and a touch of olive oil on top.
21 October, 2017
This story originally appeared in California Winery Advisor. When we go wine tasting, so much of what we remember are the experiential tastings. A walk in the vineyard, a barrel tasting, one-on-one with the winemaker and food and wine pairings are all experiences that one will recall once they get home. I found two memorable wine tasting experiences in Santa Barbara that took food and wine pairing to another level. Cheese is the most common wine pairing at a winery. There are also pairings with tapas and chocolates, as well as with molecular gastronomy spoon bites in which an entire meal is deconstructed and then reconstructed into one bite that mimics the dish. I once found a pairing with snack foods. The common theme with most wine and food pairings is that the wine is paired with savory bites. But the key with wine and food pairing is to have fun and try different things to see what will work. So, if you have a sweet tooth, here are two fun wine tasting Santa Barbara experiences - with cookies and cupcakes.
19 October, 2017
When I was first invited to check out Geezer's Public House in Woodland Hills, being an American, I thought it was odd that a bar was the name of a cranky old man. But the word Geezer has a different meaning in British culture. Geezer's is a public house, or a pub, which is a popular social drinking establishment in Britain. As posted outside the restrooms at Geezer's, a geezer is a "descriptive word in the UK used to define a man's characteristics. A geezer will be found usually outside a pub with a pint in his hand on match day. They commonly like football, scrapping, beer, tea, tits, and Barry White." Basically, a geezer in British terms is a "guy" or a "bloke" or a "dude".
12 October, 2017
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