Corkage

Wednesdays Weakness…

For those of you who know me, you know I have a weakness for the gourmet food trucks that roam throughout the Los Angeles area.  I freely admit I love food, and one of my favorite regions is Greece.  So I was very excited when I checked my iPhone to discover Louks To Go was just down the street from where we work, on Ventura Boulevard, in front of the Guitar Center. They have been on my list of ‘must try’ food trucks for a while now.  Since Wednesdays are the night I usually find it the hardest to motivate myself to cook, I was very glad my husband humored me by stopping there on our way to pick up our daughter tonight.

Here’s what we decided on:

2 Falafel Gyros sans onions ($5 each)
1 Order of Original French Fries ($2, for our daughter)
1 Order of Feta and Honey French Fries ($4)
1 Order of Nutella Louks (short for Loukoumades, a Greek donut) ($4)

Now, somehow the order only came to $17.  Either I’m missing a combo deal or they were just REALLY nice and gave us a discount.  Either way, I’m blissfully full and still fantasizing about those Feta and Honey fries.  They were like sex in your mouth, but sweeter.  The sweetness of the Greek honey mixed with the tanginess of the feta blended together with the deliciously fresh fries to create an amazing harmony of flavor unequaled thus far in all my culinary explorations.  This just solidifies my belief that honey makes everything better.  Excuse me while I drool a little.

The gyros were gigantic as well.  I’m talking 12 inches long and at least 4 inches wide.  A word to the wise, split them!  I’m completely blown away with how big these were for only $5.  The falafels inside were generous, flavorful and moist, lots of feta cheese, cucumbers, tzatziki, tomatoes and a small garnish of lettuce.  I only managed to finish half of mine, although that may be because I was too  busy scarfing down those amazing feta and honey fries.

Let’s not forget the Nutella Loukoumades we got for dessert.  Now, at $4, I was expecting maybe 4 pieces to show up in my bag.  Yeah.  Try about 10.  Louks, you had me at Nutella, you’ve kept me with gigantic portions for a great price, friendly service and amazingly delicious food.  It’s not really stalking if you post your locations on Twitter, is it?

An Apology, Part One…

 …this Apology goes out to…

The Saturday Night Supper Club
Ricotta Gnocchi sauteed in butter
Buttermilk Pudding
Uno Malbec 2008
Genesis Meritage 2007…and… 

…Not posting in a timely manner…

Geez, I get an epic fail for posting over the last few days.  I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.  Let’s start with:  The Saturday Night Supper Club:

Appetizer: Sliced Brown Tomatoes, topped with Basil Olive Oil, Garlic Infused Salt, and fresh mozzorella
Main Course:  Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi with diced brown tomatoes in olive oil
Dessert: Buttermilk Pudding topped with Farmer’s Market Sage Blossom Honey

I had a blast making the Ricotta Gnocchi from Food52.com.  This awesome recipe calls for an entire pound of homemade ricotta.  It also calls for over 2 cups of flour, but I found I didn’t even use a half a cup to make the dough come together.  I just got down and dirty, got my hands in there and kneaded the heck out of it.  The dough came together in no time.  This was an awesome recipe and the most successful Gnocchi I have ever made.  They were little pillows of deliciousness.  Not heavy, like your typical doughy potato Gnocchi, and much more satisfying.  I would recommend this recipe to everyone.  It was quick and easy to put together.

For dessert, I made Buttermilk Pudding.  What is this?  Buttermilk Pudding?  How does that work?  Check out the recipe here.  I have a lot of leftover buttermilk from making ricotta last week, and while searching for recipes to use up all the leftover, I discovered this gem of a recipe.  Quick and easy to whip up, it chilled in the fridge while I finished off the Ricotta Gnocchi and we ate, while sipping Uno Malbec 2008.  An apology to this Malbec, which had an amazing bottle design and was an easy drinking wine, but unfortunately, due to the time lapse, I just don’t remember the finer tasting points of this wine.  Looks like I’ll be making a trip to Trader Joe’s in the near future to pick up another bottle and give it the review it deserves.

But what about the buttermilk pudding, you ask?  Well, sweet delicious buttery vanilla in a cup would be the what.  I can’t believe how fast that pudding was eagerly devoured by everyone.  I topped this cup of yumminess with honey I picked up from the NEW Sherman Oaks Farmer’s Market and the folks at Pacifica, pure virgin honey.  All of their honey is smooth and delicious.  The combination of the sweet buttery pudding with the floral honey was a perfect balance.  

After dinner, we cracked open a bottle of Genesis Meritage 2007 to enjoy while watching Torchwood and nibbling on some Gruyere and water crackers.  Yet again, I will have to open another bottle of this Genesis Malbec to give it the review it deserves.  I do remember that it was a fruit forward red with a hint of sweetness, and it was a hustle buy at Trader Joe’s last week.  What’s a hustle buy?  A much more expensive with that Trader Joe’s has managed to obtain for an absurdly low price.  So, we settled in for some late night viewing of BBC SciFi and enjoyed our yummy wine and cheese.  Overall, yet another successful Saturday Night Supper Club.

Next up:  The Apology, Part Two - Tuscan Poached Eggs, Blueberry-Lemon Buttermilk Scones, Orin Swift’s Abstract 2009.  Tune in soon, for part deux.