Brooklyn cow sighting

It's been a while since I've noted our peculiar American habit of using figures of animals to advertising the consumption of that very animal's flesh - but I've been saving this one since spring. This cow is in front of a hamburger joint in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Poor thing. No grass to munch on.

A Pie a Week - Sweet corn pie

I am really in love with this pie crust recipe from chef Gordon Hammersly, so I've used it several times. Each time it has been perfect.

This past weekend, I tried another pie from Ken Haedrich's book "Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie" . This was a recipe for Sweet Corn Pie.

We all love corn on the cob. When corn is grown, as it matures the sugars present in the kernels mature into starch. Traditionally, corn is harvested when mature, so its kernels can be used for feeding animals or grinding into flour. But when it's young, its tender kernels are sweet to the taste, and can be eaten right off the cob.

Supersweet corn is a relatively recent development where a recessive mutation in the genes inhibit the conversion of sugars to starch. So the kernels stay sweet long enough for the ears to be harvested and sent to market so we can have delicious, sweet corn on the cob.

Our farmers' markets are full of corn now, so why not have fun with it?

I made a tart shell and blind-baked it. Then I made a custardy corn filling.

The recipe was for a large 9.5" traditional pie, but I had a smaller French tart pan, so I reduced the quantities. I didn't exactly halve it, but I tweaked it.


First, I cut the kernels off the fresh ears of corn. You could do this with frozen corn, but I think fresh corn has a wonderful taste. I ended up with just under two cups of corn.

Put half the corn in a food processor, along with 1/2 cup cream and 3/4 cup sugar. Process until chopped up but not pureed.

The recipe called for 4 egg yolks and 2 egg whites. I hate it when they do that!!! What are you supposed to do with the extra whites?


We get eggs now from our neighbor, whose backyard chickens supply nice large brown eggs, and small little green eggs. So I used 4 small green eggs, separated. The yolks went in with the corn mixture, and the whites went into the mixer bowl to be whipped.

After processing the corn, the cream and the sugar with the egg yolks, poured the mixture into a bowl and added the rest of the corn and another1/2 cup of cream. Then I grated some fresh nutmeg into the mix. You could add some vanilla, if you liked, too.

The egg whites were whipped until they formed soft peaks. Then they were folded into the corn mixture, gently. Once combined, the mix was poured into the pre-baked pie shell, and baked in a 350 degree oven.

Fifty minutes later, it came out, nicely browned and firm.

Like this.

Sweet corn pie. A nice, tasty treat for the summer.

Stormy Day at the Beach

Click to "embiggen"

How many of you have the responsibility of supervising others at work?

At my beach assignment, I am in an advisory role, but I have been asked to intervene in a situation involving supervising staff.

Employees A and B share an office. The quarters are too close, and the room is loud, and it is difficult for each person to talk on the phone. Both employees have to talk on the phone a lot. Employee A is a salesperson - she has to be up-beat, positive, and "sell" the product. Employee B delivers the sale - her job includes enforcing rules, delivering bad news, and managing customer expectations.

Employee B has been on staff for a long time, and endured the company's worst, most stressful times. She's tired and she feels unappreciated. Employee A is new and fresh, a go-getter.

Employee A has confided in me about how hard it is to deal with Employee B's negative attitude. Employee B has confided in me about how her job is impacted by the miss-steps of upper management - consistent with my own observations, and also noted by Employee A.

There's been a recent altercation between Employees A and B. A closed a sale that B was to carry out. B's response to the customer didn't meet expectations, and the customer hounded A about it. A pushed B to be more active. In response, B exhibited what Employee A described as bad attitude.

I am not the supervisor, but in my role, I've been asked to assist.

The easy fix - and one that has already been suggested, is to separate Employees A and B physically. Their jobs require privacy, and the work environment is counterproductive. We have the space (thank goodness!) and we can easily move them into separate work stations. Upper management has long resisted this, for some odd reason, but this conflict has motivated them to give a go-ahead. Again, thank goodness!

But what about the underlying conflict? How can that be solved? Will the new work arrangements heal the irritation, or is there more to be done? What would you do to heal a potential rift between employees?

Jitlada - a restaurant to visit

Did you know that Los Angeles has the largest Thai population in the world outside of Thailand? "Thai Town" is the name for a neighborhood centered along Hollywood Boulevard between Western and Normandie Avenues.

The neighborhood began in the 1960s after the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 made it easier for immigrants from Asian to come to the US, but it really began to boom in the 1980s after the end of the Vietnam War and an economic crisis in Thailand.

A giant hot dog at a closed food stand on Western and Hollywood marks the entry to Thai Town

I remember my first experience at a Thai restaurant, back in the '80s. By 1990, every city and every college town in the U.S. had at least one Thai restaurant serving pad thai noodles with peanuts, and chunks of chicken breast in a coconut-milk curry over rice.

Here in Los Angeles, Jitlada was just another joint in a strip mall in Hollywood. But in 2007, a Chicago visitor and Thai food enthusiast picked up a take-out menu in his hotel lobby and saw - after the usual mee krob and pad se ew offerings, a small notice printed in Thai touting the "best southern Thai cuisine."

He headed over to the restaurant and introduced himself. The ownership had recently turned over to chef Suthiporn Sungkamee and his sister Srintip (known as "Jazz"). The food was amazing. The Chicago man sat down with the owners and translated the "off menu" - that is, the menu written in Thai that isn't offered to American diners. He posted about it at a food forum, which ended up at Chowhound, and suddenly Jitlada became a destination for L.A. 'hounds - and for Pulitzer-prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold. Gourmet Magazine did a story about it that you can read HERE.

You can read the reviews at various L.A. food bloggers....here and here and here

Or you can join [The Man I Love] and me for a trip to Thai Town and lunch at Jitlada.



We parked on Hollywood Boulevard near the big neon signed Thailand Plaza. This two story building houses a supermarket, a DVD store, and a store selling clothes and sundries on the ground floor, and a large restaurant on the second floor. It was a large, empty restaurant the afternoon we went.

Outside the building, facing the sidewalk, is a large and colorful shrine to the Thai Buddha, mirrored and festooned with garlands.

We went into the supermarket and browsed, looking at all the packets and jars of curry pastes, the great selection of fresh seafood, the assortment of colorful Thai dolls and buddha figures.

Jitlada is on Sunset Boulevard, a block south, so we walked, passing stucco apartment buildings and old '20s houses beneath the wide-spreading branches of mature shade trees.


The restaurant is in a strip mall, and exhibits the ethnic and functional diversity typical of L.A. strip malls. Here, an herbalist and a video store plus another Thai restaurant share the strip mall with an Armenian restaurant - and with what's said to be the best Southern Thai restaurant in America.

There are two dining rooms side by side at Jitlada - we were seated in the second one, at a table just below the bar. The decor isn't fancy. There's a large Thai wood carving on one wall, and the tableclothes are colorfully printed Thai calico, but other than lots of framed reviews, there's not much ornament. Colorful modern pendants hang over most of the tables, but our table was graced with a '70s style fake stained glass lampshade that said "Michelob" on it.


The menu is vast. The first six pages are divided into courses like appetizer and salad, and offer the usual Thai dishes. Beyond that, though, is a densely typed list in black and white, arranged by protein type (fish, chicken, seafood, lamb, etc.) with the Thai names of the dishes followed by brief descriptions. Although I didn't count them, there are said to be over 300 dishes listed.

A small list of popular dishes was displayed in a small plastic stand on table. This, along with the printed reviews under the table's glass cover, served as a guide for ordering.

Thai meals are intended to be a balance of all tastes and flavors - hot (spicy), sour, salty, sweet and bitter. Dishes are meant to be shared with the whole table - it's not polite to order one dish just for yourself. Rice is an important part of every Thai meal.
Meals usually include an assortment of dishes - something stir-fried, something in a curry sauce, a salad, something very spicy, and something cool and sweet. Southern Thai food is notable for its emphasis on fresh herbs and spices, like turmeric; an abundance of fresh fruits, and vegetables, and a variety of seafood. The south of Thailand is a land bridge between the Asian continent and Malaysia - a place where Indian, Chinese, Thai and Malay cultures mixed and mingled. Many southern Thais are Muslim, so southern Thai food often relies on lamb and beef.

At Jitlada, the chef cooks with ingredients grown fresh in the owners' garden - fresh chiles, lemongrass, herbs and limes. The recipes come from his home region and from his own family.


Our first shared dish was a meat stir-fry known as Crying Tiger. You could choose beef or pork - we chose pork, which was a wonderful choice. Morsels of tender marinated pork were served with a dish of sauce on the side. This sauce - a lime-chile concoction, brimming with chile seeds - was promoted by the Food Network as one of the best hot and spicy foods around. And hot it was - I cautiously dabbed my pork into tiny teaspoon-sized pools, and ate rice after each delicious bite. [The Man I Love] was more adventurous. He wrapped some pork in the lettuce leaves and dunked it right into the sauce.

We shared a large bottle of Singha Thai beer, and glasses of lemon-scented water to keep our mouths cool.


Our second dish was something I'd read about and was also featured on the little card - a salad of fried morning glory and shrimp. Here, "morning glory" refers to Ipomeoa aquatica, an Asian vegetable also known as water spinach, Chinese watercress, or swamp cabbage. It's also called kangkung, rau muong or pak boong, in Malay, Vietnamese, and Thai - and is common in Southeast Asian cuisine.

In this salad, it was battered and fried until crispy, then tossed with slivered red onions, bits of cooked shrimp, and herbs in a bright, sweet and pungent dressing. It was amazingly delicious, and the texture of the fried greens was out of this world. There was a tingle to it, but it wasn't hot and spicy like the previous dish.


[The Man I Love] chose the third dish based on a recommendation from a food blog. This was fried chicken drumsticks, served with papaya salad and sticky rice. Normally I don't care for chicken drumsticks, but these were fascinating. They were deep-fried to a fare-thee-well, dry, almost like jerky, yet wonderfully crispy and delicious to gnaw off the bone. They were served with a sweet-sour red sauce, and with a bowl of one of my favorite things, green papaya salad. The salad had fresh green beans and lots of plump cashews. There were crispy bits strewn over the platter - they were crunchy and spicy. I'm not sure what they were, but it was all marvelous.

Now that I read more about the place, I realize how much more there is to try! New Zealand mussels. Rice salad. Something called Jungle Curry. Crabmeat claws with mango salad. Crispy fried catfish. It all makes the mouth water. We'll have to go back soon.

The Bard on the Beach

Shakespeare Santa Monica presents "The Merchant of Venice" at the Beach! Performances are sponsored by the City of Santa Monica, and attendance is free!!

Here on the verandah of the restored Marion Davies Guest House, the foppish Prince of Aragon tries to choose the right casket to win the hand of Portia - and discovers he's chosen a portrait of a fool - a mirror!

The company presents the plays of Shakespeare in eclectic, accessible environments. Tonight, if you're in town, catch a production of "Love's Labours Lost" performed in Santa Monica's Reed Park, Tennis Court #1. Suggested donation is $20.

For other beach cultural events throughout the year, click Here.

Pink Saturday - The Explorer

I'm too late for Pink Saturday - but today I saw this little girl at the beach. Her mom and dad are walking on the sand just to the right of the frame, but she was fiercely independent and taking off on her own, exploring the beach, heading for the water.

Good for her.

Greek style Los Angeles

This weekend we had guests for dinner. [The Man I Love] cooked a leg of lamb over the Weber, marinating it Greek-style in oregano, lemon and olive oil, and slow-cooking it over indirect heat. The rest of our menu had a Greek flavor, with olives, stuffed grape leaves and taramasalata served as appetizers.

We get these from C & K Importing Company, also called Papa Christos, located in the Los Angeles neighborhood called, rather fantastically, the Byzantine-Latino Quarter. Although the neighborhood was home to Greek immigrants as early as 1908 this name was coined relatively recently. Current residents are primarily immigrants from Central America, but the neighborhood is graced with St. Sophia's Greek Orthodox church, built in 1952 by movie executive Charles Skouras.

Because this neighborhood is home to many old 19th century Queen Anne style houses, I like to think the "Byzantine" adjective also refers to the fantastical turrets and shingled domes featured in some of these house, neglected and re-purposed as they are.

The name "Byzantine-Latino Quarter" first appeared in 1997 after residents and local businesses got together to help battle grafitti, crime and gang violence. It was officially designated as such by the state assembly. A giant mural on the side of a large building at the corner of Pico and Normandie shows two angels in flight with the words: "We are each of us angels with one wing. We can only fly embracing each other." Atop the building a large sign proclaims the name.

The diverse and eclectic nature of the neighborhood is perfectly reflected in the patrons and employees at Papa Christos.


Typically, you park behind the store at the valet stand. Not that this is a swanky joint, but it gets so busy sometimes they need to stack-park. We usually enter through the back door, which takes you through a storage room into the main store.

Papa Christos is a market as well as a restaurant, so the first thing you see is the long deli-counter, full of sliced meats, cheeses, and prepared foods. There's a wide assortment of olives, pickles and other preserved foods. You can choose from several different types of feta cheese. There are hot cooked foods, too; lamb and chicken and casseroles. There's another case that holds pastries and cookies.


The market shelves hold Greek and European imported foods, like jams and preserves, pasta, pickles, olive oil - lots of different kinds of olive oil. Coffee. Herbs. Spices. There are freezer cases with bread and pastries. There's also a fine assortment of Greek wine.

But hold up - don't go shopping now. We're going to eat first!

Just off to the side of the deli case, the line to order food starts. The menu is displayed on the board above the counter, with brightly colored flyers advertising specials. You order what you wish and pay, and they give you a number. Let them know where you want to sit - do you want to sit in the restaurant or outside on the patio?


The restaurant is a large echoing room, concrete-floored and set with rows of tables covered in blue-checked cloths. It's often crowded, with large families seated together after church. The walls are hung with scenic pictures of Greece and with strings of twinkle lights. On Thursday nights, they throw a party - the Big Fat Greek Dinner. For $24 (includes tax and tip) you get a full dinner, with wine tastings, appetizers, salads and desserts. They even have belly-dancers to entertain you!

Not so on a bright Saturday afternoon, our recent visit. Most weekend afternoons there's live music, a guitarist or traditional musician playing acoustic music while folks enjoy a gyro plate or felafel sandwich.

If the weather's fine, we prefer the patio. You have to exit the front door and walk a few steps east on Pico, then go back in through the gate. Here, in a little spot carved out of the parking lot, you can dine outside, beneath market umbrellas. There are potted roses and a fence covered in bougainvillea to screen you from the traffic.


The food's fantastic! Here's a lamb and feta cheese sandwich I had on one visit.

Another time, [The Man I Love] ordered shrimp cooked in tomato sauce with feta and olives.

While enjoying a meal with a glass of retsina, you can hear the murmured conversation of the other diners. A large group of older ladies, their voices twanging with East Coast accents, shared lunch. A family with a little girl sat further down, speaking in Spanish. A couple of film-industry guys over there. Back by the door, two restaurant staff took their break. Although Papa Christos still presides over the deli, the staff is quite diverse - many of the workers are Ethiopian or Somali. The Chinese-American woman who'd taken our order was taking lunch, eating with chopsticks.

Outside the fence, the Catholic church across the street rang its bells. As the traffic passed on Pico, you could hear snatches of music from cars - rap and Latino pop. A palatera went by, bells clanging.

Wow, what a good meal.

Now it's time to shop!

Where the Mountains meet the Sea

Click to "embiggen"

Santa Monica Beach. It's here that the coast of Los Angeles, Santa Monica Bay, curves to the west after a steep, straight shot northwest from the Palos Verde peninsula. The Santa Monica Mountains, one of the few transverse mountain ranges in North America, rear up their rocky flanks above Hollywood and Bel Air and Brentwood, march west and force the coast to take a turn to the left, before petering out into the Pacific Ocean.

The seal of the City of Santa Monica shows this curving coast, along with a quite attractive mermaid and a legend proclaiming "Populus Felix in Urbe Felici", or "a happy people in a happy city." Interestingly, the coast shown in the seal is not part of the City; the city limits end just about at the point where the beach takes its left turn.

Funny how Santa Monica uses non-city topography as its emblem. The mountains and beaches beyond are part of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, and the place I live, the unincorporated L.A. County community of Topanga.

If you look at the photo, my house is probably just on the backside of the ridge that's above the orange lifeguard shack.

It's been said that "Topanga" comes from a word the native Tongva people used that meant "where the mountains meet the sea." Other linguists have disputed that, saying it might just mean "a place above."

No matter. When I stand on the beach and look at those mountains where my house is, with the sky above and the curving coast, I know this is a place where "the mountains meet the sea."

Weekly Jack

For those of you who've missed him lately, here's your Weekly Jack.

Each morning, Jack and I take our walk. Jack's always on the look-out for neighborhood friends. Who will he meet today?

One of his friends is Cooper, from down the road. Cooper likes to take his own morning walk.

Jack adores Cooper, and when he sees him, he perks up. His ears go forward and he watches. Cooper takes his own sweet time, roaming back and forth to sniff everything on the road.

But when they finally meet up, Jack bounces and invites Cooper to play. They're like two teenagers, chest-bumping and tusseling, before

Cooper suddenly plays it cool, breaks off and just walks away.

Won't you play with me some more?

This has been your Weekly Jack.