This house-made charred tomato salsa is served, as usual, with tortilla chips. It's spicy, smokey, savory, and a lady friend of mine claimed that it had some sweetness. I've been enjoying this tasty and smooth salsa for years, but only now did it occur to me to feature it on my blog.
Location: El Jefe, Saguaro Hotel, 1800 E Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, California. Date: February 16, 2024.
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When I asked her, Nina claimed she couldn't remember all the ingredients in her tzatziki. “Too many ingredients,” she said, but she did disclose that it was yoghurt based and not made with sour cream like the cheaters do. It's served with pita bread wedges and cucumber slices, and it's garnished with olive oil and a chopped herb that I think was mint. It's on the salty side, but when you eat it with the cucumber, it's actually perfect. My sister was with me, and she doesn't usually like tzatziki sauce, but she declared that this one was the most delicious she's ever had, and she actually meant that it was delicious.
Location: Nina's, 555 S Sunrise Way, Palm Springs, California. Date: February 3, 2024. These were four half slices of toasted Italian bread with whole slices of tomato (not chopped tomato as usual). The tomato slices were topped with pesto, grated parmesan cheese, and freshly ground black pepper. My sister said, “It's perfect,” and she always judges Italian restaurants by this one dish. I have to admit that this was one of the best I've had.
Location: Dattilo, 2288 E Florida Avenue, Hemet, California. Date: January 27, 2024. This was a large whole cooked artichoke, minus the choke, of course, stuffed with crab meat, Italian bread crumbs, garlic, and cheese. I'm assuming that the cheese was grated Parmesan and that the cheese and garlic were part of the delicious Italian bread crumb stuffing. There wasn't much crab meat, but at least it was real crab. Some of the artichoke leaves were edible, as was the heart, of course, and I was surprised at the strong artichoke flavor. I usually cook smaller artichokes, and they seem to have a milder flavor. My artichoke came with two different sauces, a dark oily one and a tangy mayo. It was served with an undressed slaw of white cabbage, red cabbage, and carrot. I didn't have much of an appetite yesterday, but I ate the whole thing.
Location: Ruben & Ozzy's Oyster Bar and Grill, 241 E Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs, California. Date: December 9, 2023. On her birthdays, my sister has the tradition of finding a Greek restaurant that serves flaming saganaki, which is a dish made from one of numerous Greek cheeses. In Greece, they melt a slab of cheese in a small saucepan and serve it with fresh lemon juice and pita bread. In the United States, they started flaming it tableside with some sort of alcohol before squeezing on the lemon juice. The place we went to yesterday did a fine flaming job, and there was plenty of spent alcohol and lemon juice to sop up with the pita bread. Saganaki is one of our favorite Greek appetizers.
Location: Koutouki, 73675 Highway 111, Palm Desert, California. Date: November 22, 2023. This meatball appetizer came with two homemade veal and beef meatballs covered with marinara sauce and grated parmesan cheese. The meatballs were made using Nana's 75-year-old recipe. The marinara sauce was tangy, and the meatballs were moist, light, and fluffy. Both my sister and I agreed that these were some of the best meatballs we'd ever had. Go Nana!
Location: Haus of Pizza, 72795 California 111, G-2, Palm Desert, California. Date: October 7, 2023. These are homemade Indian cheese fritters in chickpea batter that are fried in oil. There were four fritters that came with a tamarind sauce that was sweet and sour, and I also ordered a side of sweet mango chutney which was great with the fritters. The fritters were mostly cheese with a fairly thin layer of batter. While not the best appetizer I've had, it was interesting and loaded with easy to eat protein.
Location: It's Taste of India, 13104 Palm Drive, Desert Hot Springs, California. Date: August 26, 2023. These Thai appetizers were Fried Tofu and Veggie Rolls. The tofu was fried until crispy on the outside, and the pieces were served with sweet and sour sauce that had crunchy peanut bits in it. The Veggie Rolls were the star of this show. They were stuffed with crispy cabbage, wood ear mushroom, and chewy glass noodles. The spring roll wrap was super crunchy. The sauce was a simple sweet and sour. These were Thai street food, and I enjoyed them both and made a meal out of them.
Location: Uncle Chai Thailand Street Food, 69930 Hwy 111, Suite 122, Rancho Mirage, California. Date: July 15, 2023. These were center cut tenderloin medallions served on top of Veracruz white rice (which was slightly sticky rice with fresh corn kernels in it). The beef medallions had been glazed with tamarind, and the dish was served on a chile de arbol crema sauce that was savory, spicy, and creamy. The meat, which was cooked to a perfect medium rare, was garnished with what the menu called mango relish; I would call it mango slaw with thinly sliced red onion and green bell pepper. The chef came out to talk with me, and I asked him where the sugar cane came in. The answer I got was that the meat was cooked on sugar cane and/or the sugar cane had been used in the sauce; either way, it was not in the dish itself. I didn't mind the absence of the sugar cane because the dish was so delicious. The three medallions on rice made for a full lunch for me, but since it was on the appetizer menu, I can easily see it as a wonderful appetizer for three.
Location: Sol Agave, 262 S Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, California. Date: June 22, 2023. How this classic New Orleans dish has evaded my blog for so long is a mystery, but yesterday my friend Ann took me to an oyster bar and asked if I would share a plate of oysters rockefeller with her, and I was delighted to say yes. These are oysters that have been baked on the half shell in creamy mornay sauce with a green topping, in my case spinach and parmesan cheese. The spinach still had texture, which I appreciated, and a squeeze of lemon for acid was perfect. When it came to taste, I found these shells to be more about the topping than the oyster itself, but who can argue with perfectly cooked spinach and real parmesan cheese? These oysters were savory and cheesy. I enjoyed the oysters with an Estrella Damm, a beer I became familiar with in Barcelona, Spain, where it's made. This was the first time I saw it on a menu in the United States.
Location: Ruben & Ozzy's, 241 E Taquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs, California. Date: June 2, 2023. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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