A breezy day by the beach…

On Tuesday I headed over to Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach. My beautiful bride Elizabeth and her mom Vickie were not impressed with their tasting a few months ago. Side story ~ the hotel was trying something a little different ~ inviting all the couples and their family  for a group tasting. In a way it allowed the couples to see what can be achieve at the hotel (lighting, table set up, station displays, etc), but it was a little lacking on the one-on-one attention I think every couples need. I’m happy to say, Portofino will be offering something a little more intimate in the future.

During our meeting, the entree was prepare by the request of the catering manager to alleviate any concerns Elizabeth and Vickie might have. And it was delicious! Chicken linguine with shrimp, squash, mini cucumber, and asparagus. Perfect for a couple that didn’t want different entree selections but do want variety in their dish.

Next up, Mary of Ava’s Garden presented the sample centerpiece. It was gorgeous! Roses, hydrangea , Queen Ann’s lace atop a rectangular vase with black ribbon and a shiny crystal buckle.  

Here’s a close up of the flowers. Elizabeth decided to go more pink ~ shades of bubble gum pink and less white and green. I think it’s going to be gorgeous with the amber lighting around the room.

And here’s a close up of the black ribbons and damask votive Elizabeth and Vickie made. I think it’s fabulous ~ modern elegant with a flirty twist. 

I can’t wait to see everything come together on their big day! 

Tasting at the Intercontinental Los Angeles

One word to describe the food at this hotel ~ SPECTACULAR! I had the pleasure of attending a food tasting at the Intercontinental Los Angeles – Century City. We had a variety of food choices and I came out of the meeting with a full tummy and a very satisfied palate.

First off the appetizers:
This is the vegetable strudel with baby spinach, ratatouille, chive, herb, ricotta in beef jus. Very delicate and flaky and perfect to start the evening with.

I’m not a big fan of ravioli, unless it’s really good ravioli. This butternut squash fit that bill. The skin wasn’t too thick and the sweetness of the butternut was a surprise. Included in the dish was toasted pine nut and fried sage. Such an aromatic dish…

We tried two salads but the dishes was devoured prior to me getting a chance to take a photo. The catering manager presented a second dish since the first dish was a little flat (still taste wonderful though). This is the arugula greens, feta cheese, pine nuts, and lemon vinaigrette (I think you can tell now I LOVE pine nuts).

Now on to the Entrees:
First up, brioche & cranberry stuffed chicken. This dish was amazing! The meat was moist and the cranberries were a burst of flavor with every bite.

Also very yummy, chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto.

Filet mignon with roasted beef state tomatoes.

Pan seared filet mignon with Japanese pumpkin ravioli. Nothing against the filet, but the other dishes out shined this wedding staple.

On to the fish…
White wine poached Chilean sea bass with braised artichoke.

Saving the best for last, herb crusted halibut with polenta cake. Hands down, no comparison. This was the BEST dish. And look at the display, doesn’t it just make your tummy grumble?

I hope you enjoy this food post. I for one am sure looking forward to this wedding!

Saturday Dress Shopping & Birthday Dinner

It’s official! My dear friend is getting marry next year. Mr. Friday (his nickname since their date night is always Friday) proposed. The poor guy just had back surgery and really wanted to make the moment special as I’m sure it was. I’m excited to be helping my friend since weddings are what I do best. =)

I think most brides would agree, trying on dresses is one of the most fun aspect of wedding planning. You make appointments at luxury salons, the sales consultant help dress you, and you coming out looking like a million bucks! Our first stop Saturday, Monique L’huillier.

I waited for my friend to change as I enjoyed the fresh flowers and chamomile tea with spices.

This was her favorite from the store..Camelot (same dress Kevin Costner’s wife wore).

Initially we were going to Barney’s New York, but they canceled since they are currently renovating the bridal salon. So instead we stopped in at Renee Strauss without an appointment. The staff was extremely friendly but we didn’t really see anything we liked.

Last stop was Saks Fifth Avenue. She fell in love with this gown ~ simple yet elegant.

After a day of dress shopping, we had a drink at W Hotel before dinner. The hotel is a little small for her 250 people wedding but we enjoyed sitting outside by the pool.

We had dinner at the Little Door Restaurant. Dinner was to celebrate an early birthday for the same friend since I will be leaving for China and she will be heading to Hong Kong.

We started with a bottle of Pinot Noir and the Assorted Mediterranean Appetizers.

I had the Grilled Filet Mignon with Green Peppercorn and Bone Marrow Sauce.

Lemon Roasted Organic Chicken Breast with Baby Artichokes, Garlic and Oregano

Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Sel, Herbs, and Cracked Black Pepper

Duo of Duck with Pomegranate and Candied Walnuts

Someone had the Pistachio Crusted New Zealand Snapper with Couscous (I didn’t get a bite or a picture). Use your imagination. =P

We ended the dinner with some champagne and the birthday cake from The Little Next Door ~ Raspberry vanilla cake.

And here is the happy couple. Lucky Mr. Friday. Now hurry up and chose a date!

Wine & Food

Adding to my post about signature drinks is a post about wine. First off, let me confess: I love my glass of wine but I am no expert. What I do know is everyone is different, thus my favorite wine might not be your cup of tea (or should I say ‘your glass of wine’). Most people insist on sticking to red wine for red meat and white wine for seafood or white meat. I don’t agree (might also be because I’m bias towards reds)! A light pinot noir might go well with your chicken or a smokier fish dish. Choosing the wine for your wedding is yet another way to personalize your wedding. Take a chance and buy a few different wines (5 cent sale going on at BevMo) and determine what you like. If you really have no idea where to start, here’s a great website about wine pairings. Pick a few wine from the suggestions and have your own wine tasting night!

What’s your signature drink?

One way to reduce the headaches of open bar is to limit the different types of drinks. Most commonly done is to have wine, beer and signature drink(s). It’s a great way to personalize and save a few bucks ~ best of both worlds! Create a cute bar menu listing the Bride’s favorite drink and the Groom’s favorite drink. Or a lot of brides create the ‘Something Old ~ like a classic martini, Something Borrowed ~ pink cadillac, Something Blue ~ blue hawaiian, Something New ~ lychee martini’menu. Or come up with your own twist! Here’s a great link to find recipes or your signature drink!

Birthday food…review

Prior to burger, we went to Ocean Ave Restaurant for their happy hour oysters! Very yumalicious!

Here’s the extensive menu

The menu was dated so I took a pic…reminds me of how wedding photog do this on the wedding day

I had the Happy Hour Rogue on tap

Happy Hour oyster are only $1.50 each! Amazing!

Canadian Bay Shrimp Cocktail

Honey looking very content

On to Father’s Office for our burger

It was way too dark but I wouldn’t give up. This is our sweet potato fries in a little shopping cart – it even rolls!

The burger was a good as they say – caramelized onions, gruyere cheese, arugula on toasted french toast. The meat was extremely smokey and paired with the cream cucumber dip that comes with, it has a kick to it. (Disclaimer: not my picture, it was way too dark, I stole the pic from the web)

Picture of the left over, I think we had one too many oysters.

Wednesday before hubs’ birthday, a couple of girlfriends and I went out to celebrate a belated birthday for a friend. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in Old Town Pasadena.

I love sitting outside ~ especially on a cold but sunny day.

The bread they provide is so yummy. It’s more like garlic bread, hot out of the oven. You have to be careful not to overindulge since you still have appetizers, entree, and dessert to go.

Clams with grapefruits ~ never had warm grapefruits

Grilled calamari

Red curry paella

Seafood penne

Roasted lamb and baby spinach ~ I LOVE pine nuts

And I’m very sorry there’s no picture of the dessert. We ate it before I got a chance to take pictures. We had warm bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and panna cotta with mango syrup. YUM. Oh and I forgot to mention, their red sangria is pretty good too.

And after my own dinner party, I joined the boys at Taiwanese beer house called Indian Cafe. I really shouldn’t have gone since the boys were taking hubs out. But how could I refuse free beer? So forgive me for spoiling your plans (NOT)!

Here are a couple pictures of hubster’s friend’s new puppy Pita. She’s a beagle and only 5 months old ~very very affectionate and adorable! I love how she barks (sounds like a fog horn).

And that was our day. Filled with food and friends. =)

2nd Anniversary festivities

Like I mentioned before, I really wanted something low key (saving up the dough for our trip in Nov). I gave hubs very specific instructions on buying a ‘cotton’ gift. He thought he was so smart and paying attention to things that I talk about (BIG surprise). We watched Oprah just the other day about Vera Wang’s new line Simply Vera. I mentioned some of the tops would be really appropriate for wedding coordination. So dear boy that he is, went and tackle the crowd at Kohl’s. There wasn’t much left (or so he says) but he was able to grab a white top (size 14, he said it’ll look good big, un huh). I have to give him credit though, just by him listening to me was gift enough. =) Here’s a picture of the top.

Well…for hubs’ present. I kind of cheated. I know we weren’t suppose to get anything extravagant and I really don’t think my gift is that extravagant. But the funny part was I wanted him to think it was something else. So I placed cotton boxers in the tie box. He opened the box and started laughing, saying I wasn’t kidding when I said nothing extravagant. And as he was pulling aside the boxers, the ties were wrapped in tissue at the bottom. He continued to giggle and open the tissue, fully expecting more boxers, and there they were. Two ties for our 2nd year anniversary (and since the ties were probably silk, I HAD to get cotton boxers to qualify). I love the patter on the Charvet tie and can you see the little butterflies on the Ferragamo? And of course they’re P I N K!

Here are the ties in the tie box without the tissue. Hubs was also thrown off when he first saw the box. I love how I tricked him into thinking 1) I cheated because of the fancy box 2) no I didn’t when he saw the boxers 3) I kind of did when he finally saw the ties.

I placed the boxers on top to hide it

Missing one boxer, yes he’s already using his ‘gift’

And as I’m taking pictures, my baby had to nose around. Here he is with his BIG nose. Isn’t he cute?!

And as promise, here are some pictures of our 2nd anniversary dinner. We went to my favorite restaurant (that happens to be just down the street from us) Bistro K. We didn’t realize but they just changed owners. The menu is much smaller and I’m sorry to say, the entree wasn’t as good. I’m kind of sad one of my favorite french bistro is no longer the same. Boo.

For appetizer we ordered the foie gras with peaches. It was big thick juicy slice of foie gras. Since hubs isn’t a big fan, I ate almost the whole thing all by myself. =)

Then we had the escargot, which was very garlicky and buttery. Yum.

For our entrees, I had the duck with lentils. Duck was okay, the lentils was good. But how can you cook lentils wrong?

Hubs had the lamb chops with couscous. The lamb was good but the couscous was mushy and not very flavorful.

And not like before where dessert is usually order with the entrees (since it takes a good hour to prepare). Under new management, they brought out a display platter. We settled for the tiramisu. It’s different, not much cream and more like cookie. I wouldn’t say I like it better than the traditional type.

Bistro K is right next to the Fremont Centre Theatre. You meet an assortment of characters while you dine out in the patio. One time as I was dining with some coworkers, a man offered to recite a poem for us. Not to be rude, we agreed. When he started the first verse of The Highwayman, I snickered and watched my coworkers not knowing they were in for a 20min poem! The man was good though. He performed the poem and not just recited. However, when he offered to do another one (Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe), we thanked him nicely but refused.

All in all it was a wonderful day. Hubs was especially sweet. After dinner we took our babies out for a nice long walk. I had to work off the bottle of wine I polished off during dinner somehow.

Need a basket

What a busy, busy week. I have a wedding right around the corner, a bride getting nervous because her wedding’s next month, and another out of town bride flying in for vendor meetings. No time to post. Well…maybe just a short post. =)

I usually make a gift basket to leave in the wedding suite. I’ll fill it with snacks in case the couple’s hungry after a long night. Or if they’re leaving on their honeymoon, I’ll include treats to eat on the plane. Most of the time I try to put things they like: something to drink such as wine, champagne, sparkling sodas, usually some sort of sweets like chocolate, cookies or crackers, and nuts. But for the first time, I purchased the basket from Bristol Farms. I knew I didn’t have time. It’s a nice basket and I hope the couple enjoys it.

Here it is: pistachio, vanilla root beer, cherry limeade soda, gummy bears, jelly beans, cheese and crackers.

And since I saw flowers…couldn’t resist taking a few pictures.
Pin cushions…aren’t they adorable?!


Vibrant colors

And as always, we headed for food. I tried Phoenix restaurant when it first came out and I thought it was okay. Then I see it ‘springing up’ everywhere and had no idea why. Hubs and I were heading for some Taiwanese icee but saw all the people in Phoenix so we thought we’ll give it another try. And it was GOOD!

Fresh fruit and small tapioca drink

My jasmine jelly…with chinese herbs. Yummy and pretty!

Wonton noodle

Curry flavor stir fry noodle

And lucky me, I have a Phoenix restaurant right across the street from work.