California Eats: Pie Hole

 

 

I have found the world's best pie crust. I realize that's a hefty statement to begin a post, but I'm dead serious about that. There are dessert enthusiasts who are self-proclaimed "pie people." You know the type. They forgo the cupcake treat for the slice of apple crumble, insist that you put candles on their birthday pie, and tell you everything that needs to be known about Olallieberry pie. I don't know if I'd call myself a pie person, but I'm definitely a pie crust person. Buttery flaky, graham cracker crunchy, or oreo cookie crumbly, I'm all about it 'bout it. The filling is just the icing on the...pie.

 

 

Pie Hole has it all right; the crust and the pie filling. That might not sound like something special, but pie golly it is.

 

The Place: Downtown Los Angeles has all the good eats and this place is no exception to that rule. Pie Hole is a bit tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Located in the Arts District, this pie joint is surrounded by trendy Lofts and condo developments, a mish mosh of up and coming eateries, and cute boutiques that sell things you want but don't need. (I also saw one of the winners from America's Next Top Model in one of those boutiques. I was star struck but had to play it cool because I was in LA afterall.)

 

The inside is as simple and rustic as it gets with bare walls and clean uncomplicated furniture that would make any IKEA designer happy. (I'm not sure if my decoration lingo is up to par here, but whatever.) Their storefront is lined with a few tables for you and a friend to enjoy an afternoon snack. I also need to give props to the man at the cashier as well as the young guy who served my pie. They were both super friendly and warm. It's nice to have your pie served with a witty joke or two. I dig it.

 

The Menu:

 

Their menu includes Sweet, Savory, Whoppie, and Crostata pies. You can even order a whole pie a day in advanced! Note. To. Self. On the other side, you have iced coffees, teas, and even creative sips like Thin Mint Lattes. Say WHAT?

 

I love how the menu is written on butcher paper with a sharpie pen. No fancy calligraphy here. This tells me one thing and that's Menu Change ups. I can just tell that this place uses fresh ingredients and fruits and veggies that are in season, hence the change ups. I appreciate that. They are also creative as hell and they are constantly coming up with new and inventive flavors like Thai Iced Tea pie! 

 

The Eats:

 

 

 

I ordered the Maple Custard Pie and an Iced Coffee. As I type this, my mouth is watering and my heart is aching for more. This pie was insanely good. Like, eyes roll to the back of your head, good. My slice was almost like a crème brulee with a thin sweet, dark maple layer on top. Every bite was thick and satisfying. And the crust....Oh Lord, the crust... it was flaky, buttery, and laden with the love of a real deal pastry chef. Trust me, any foodie will tell you that the love of the food IS an ingredient and Pie Hole has love written all over it. I have never tasted a crust this buttery before. You can't get this kind of flakiness from a store bought crust. It's perfection.

 

 

My husband got the Mexican Chocolate pie and it was definitely mexican chocolatey. It was creamy and rich and had that mmmmm quality that warms your tummy. Maybe it was the cinnamon or that love I was talking about earlier. Who knows. This one had a crumbly type crust that was just as good, but I can't speak much about this since I was having a full blown foodgasm over my Maple Custard Pie.

 

Maybe I am a pie person now.  My birthday is this month and I'm even having crazy ideas of replacing my Oreo ice cream cake with this beaut. I don't know much about Olallieberry pie but I just spoke it great detail about flaky crusts. Pie Hole has definitely converted me. Pie Hole, if you're reading this, thank you for your simple and delicious pies. My birthday is on the 18th in case you'd like to send me one.

 

 

California Eats: Le Pain Quotidien

I'm back at it. I'm back on my quest to find good eats in California and to prove to a certain New Yorker that it ain't that hard. I haven't written a California Eats post in quite a while, but I assure you I've been giving my taste buds a good workout. During my pregnancy and even before baby bump, I ate at some pretty noteworthy places. To start it off, I give you the restaurant where I discovered Speculoos.


The Place: Nestled in the village square of Claremont, this casual french bakery serves more than just your run-of-the-mill croissants and baguettes. Sure, that's what my stomach was expecting walking into a place like this, but I was more than pleased with the selection they have here. Whatever you order, you can enjoy your meal inside, which is rustically decorated with wood from floor to ceiling, or outside, al fresco as the french do.

The Menu: I came with a friend who highly recommended their Tartines. I've never had one before so I was game. The first thought that came to my mind when reading their menu was fresh. Their meals include locally grown and organic ingredients which is not hard to find in Southern California. There is an assortment of egg, chicken, veggie, and even a few meat dishes, something to please everyone. Of course, you can't forget the bread. Almost everything is served with a hearty slice of delicious homemade bread. "Le Pain Quotidien"  itself means "daily bread." Bread everyday? Yes, please!

The Eats: I started off with a lemonade iced tea that is sweetened with raw organic agave nectar. It was perfectly tart and refreshing. I ordered the Roast Beef Tartine and the presentation did not disappoint. The tartine is an open faced sandwich which, in my opinion, needs to be eye catching. My friend ordered the Mushroom Kale Frittata which looked delicious as well.

My tartine was perfect. The bread was firm with a deliciously crunchy crust. Perfect ratio of roast beef to mozzarella, drizzled with fresh vinegarette and tomatoes. It was completely satisfying.

And then there's this...

My first encounter with the spread that rivals Nutella. I'll keep this post about the restaurant and not this heavenly treat. The best thing about it all is that Le Pain Quotidien serves this as a condiment along with butter for your side of bread. They just bring it to you like it's a normal thing to do.

I'm a sucker for anything French, but to add a daily slice of handmade bread with a JAR of Speculoos to freely spread as you please....oh...OIU OIU! If this is how the french do it... I'm flying there tomorrow.

Ok, maybe not. Thank God for places like this.

California Eats: Amara Chocolate & Coffee

One of the most romantic places that I have ever been to has to be Amara in Pasadena. My Husband and I stumbled upon this place through Yelp when we were searching for a spot to end the night. We wanted something sweet. When its Yelp reviews mentioned authentic Spanish churros, we knew we hit gold.

The Place: This quaint little storefront is a hidden gem. We walked through the crowded streets, down a bar filled alley way, and made our way to the backside of Old Town Pasadena. It was late and most of the neighboring stores were closed, leaving most of the hustle and bustle to the main streets. Lucky for us, there were no people in the tiny shop that night. However, even if there were, it looks as though this place has a capacity of 20 people MAX. The small chocolate shop is perfect for snuggling and close elbow to elbow conversation. Cue the soft lighting and Spanish music and you got yourself the perfect date place.

The Menu: Variety isn't necessary in a place like this. A few choices of chocolate drinks and truffles and a decision of how many churros you can handle is all it takes. There are a few exotic coffees you can try, but really, this place is known for its chocolate.

The Eats: Churros and chocolate. Need I say more? I could leave it at that, really I could, but I'll go on. I consider myself a Churro fanatic, never leaving an amusement park or fair without covering my lips with cinnamon sugar. Oh, the joy. But, this is the real thing. Piping hot dough with long grooves nestling the cinnamon and sugar, a perfect vehicle for the Venezuelan dipping chocolate. I could eat either one by itself, but they are a perfect combination in your mouth. We also ordered a Venezuelan Hot Chocolate because we couldn't resist the smell when we walked in.

The man behind the counter was so nice. Since we were his last customers of the night, he gave us free champagne truffles. They packed a punch and Hubby and I both agreed that the alcohol was the star of that show.

My husband and I couldn't get enough of their churros and hot chocolate everything. We sat together at a tiny table and fed each other bites of Spanish treats and chocolate kisses. When you go to place where the atmosphere is just as sweet as the chocolate dipped churros, you know you found a great dessert spot. 



So We Meet Again, Mr. Celery.

Today my tastebuds went for a ride. Some parts of the ride were fun and exciting, orgasmic if you will. Others were throw-up all over your shirt fun but minus the fun. The new year makes me want to try new things and now I understand that some of those things are not nice.

I started my morning off with a bang bang and by that I mean I nearly shot and killed my tastebuds and colon. I tried The Glowing Green Smoothie from The Beauty Detox Solution book.

Now, I really like this book and I feel like it has some awesome pointers and factiods. Plus, Kimberly is gorgeous and certainly has that "glow" to her. She is purdy. I would like whatever she's having. Hence, me attempting her smoothie recipe. I'm already hooked on Green Monsters so I figured this shouldn't be that bad.

Got to use my new blender. YIPEE!

 Project Wifey Wife- The Savory?
The Glowing Green Smoothie

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups water
1 head organic romaine lettuce, chopped
handful or two of organic spinach
2-4 stalks of celery
1 organic apple, chopped
1 organic pear, chopped
1 organic banana
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Handful of ice for easy drinking

1. Blend into a smooth consistency

The Verdict?

If you remember my post about my food foes then you know that celery is at the tip top of that list. I hate it. I hoped that by mixing it in with the other ingredients that racid taste would just be overpowered so I can drink it and be a happy healthy bear. I hate being wrong. All I could taste was the celery and I even cheated and put just 2...small stalks! **If you like celery then you will have no problem with this. I'm sure it's good to someone who is friends with Mr. Celery.

I wanted to like it, I really did. I even put it in a fancy glass to make me feel all important and crap. Nope, my taste buds were not havin' it. Regardless, I forced my body and my mind into submission and forced down one glass . It turns out that I'm not forceful enough because I only drank a little more than half. But, let me  tell you, ::whisper voice:: just that little bit helped my stomach clear some gunk if your know what I mean. poop.

And, the celery taste lasted well into the afternoon and lingered into my burps. GROSS!

But then...HEAVEN! I went to a French cafe (California Eats post coming soon!) and had this with french bread. It makes me want to cry it's so damn good.

This was made from the tears of angels. I know it! My friend Jen and I thought this was a nutbutter of some sort but later discovered that it's crushed cookies and honey butter. HOLY MOLY! Think Biscoff Cookie. I was in another world when this was in my mouth. I want to marry this and have all the Speculoos babies....Duggar style.

But, sad sad sad news. When I went to purchase this jar of magic, the evil lady at the counter told me that they are all SOLD OUT! I should've known.
"Kind Lady, when will your next shipment arrive?"
"We only order it at Christmas and when it's out, we don't order anymore."

Foodie...Heart....Crushed.

If you can find this for me I will give you $1,000,000 cash money...or $10.95, which ever my bank account allows. Please. I will be your best friend.

Weekend Recap. No lie.

Ok, so I lie. This didn't technically happen over this weekend, it happened last Thursday. However, my weekend was sub par so I'm passing this off as something that happened this weekend. Is that ok with you, reader?

Some sad news first, my Nikon DIED! Ok, ok, I exaggerate... It's super broken. It's making the cool camera noise but not taking any pictures. I tried to look inside (and secretly wanted there to be a dinosaur bird in there drawing my pictures...you know... like the Flinstones? No? Just me?) But, to my disappointment, merely looking at the thing doesn't solve the problem. Woe is me.


Via Pinterest

Btw, I LOVE PINTEREST! Anyone else on it and totally obsessed?

So anyway, back to my amazing weekend. I went on a little trip to Downtown LA for their monthly Art Walk and Food Truck Festival with Hubby, his brother, and his cousins. It happens every 2nd Thursday of the month, which means I have the rest of the month to workout enough to make room for the eats. Brilliant, no?

I don't know that I could ever live in the city.. maybe if I were a single lady with 3 best friends whose names were Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha, but other than that, I would not survive. It sure is beautiful though.

While we were waiting in the horrible city traffic, I snapped some pictures of the beautiful buildings.

The food truck festival wasn't as big as it use to be. Last time we went, a baby was killed when a driver was trying to parallel park and accidentally hit the gas and jumped the curb. To divert some of the traffic, they took many of the trucks away. Such a sad story about the baby.

Nevertheless, we managed to find some delicious treats!

I opted for an amazing Grilled Cheese Truck!

Last time we went, we tried the original Grilled Cheese truck and it was a huge disappointment. Sorry to burst your bubble. I have to say that this truck was much better.

I had a Granny Style Karl B. Marx. It was SOOOOO cheesy and good. It was one of those sammies where you pull it from your mouth and a string of beautiful cheddar cheese oozes out. The bread was cooked to a perfectly buttery crisp. It was TO DIE FOR!

I also hit up the Boba Truck.

Remember, I had this OBSESSION with boba in college... this took me back to simpler days.

This was more than filling... and fulfilling.

After we fed our bellies, we tried to culture ourselves with some Art... Sometimes I just don't get it.



I guess this is what you call, live art. This "exhibit" was pretty much people dressed up as Hippos throwing plastic bags around the room. I is confused.

I did LOVE this... Facebook statuses typed on a typewritter. Genuis.


"I would like to get to know you"

Food was great. Art was great. A totally bang-a-rang weekend!

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Drooling Over Spitz

I think I found my new favorite place to eat in Downtown LA. This has to be the  BEST place I've eaten in a looooong time. This place made my eyes roll to the back of my head while I had a delicious food-gasm.

The Place: Spitz is a hip European Style quick service restaurant located in Little Tokyo. To me it was half trendy bar, that had a good variety of beer on tap, and half little eatery that serves LEGIT Mediterranean style food. I loved the feel right away. 

To be completely honest, whenever I travel to Downtown LA, the fact that I'm a plain Jane nerdy pants girl comes out like crazy. I feel so insecure because there is nothing "hip" or cool about me. I beg Hubby to take me to Urban Outfitters for new clothes beforehand, but he always shuts that idea down.  However, I didn't feel like that at Spitz. The people here didn't give off that "I'm a hipster and you're not" vibe.

The insecure nerd in me liked that very much.

Can I point out that AWESOME light fixture that was hanging at the center of this place? That my foodies, is a Gyro Spit! Beautiful art is what I call it. Since hubby is the quintessential man and is obsessed with meat, I think I will buy this for our living room...you know... just for him. I'm such a good wife like that.

 

 

The Menu: I appreciate any eatery that has it's combos down to a science. This menu was exactly that! The fact that they offer such amazing combos tells me that there aren't money hungry douchebags that work behind the scenes. I imagine that they are heavenly angels with a gift of food, spreading joy all around the world. I love you, angels.

I also like the fact that there aren't a million things on the menu. Don't forget that those places that offer too much can never get anything perfect...instead everything is mediocre. Since Spitz doesn't do that, the things that they do make, are sheer perfection.

As you can see, LA seems to agree with me. They coined this place "Best Cheap Eats". If you've ever been to LA there are many many cheap eats, so to be named THE BEST is really saying somethin'!

The Eats: With all this good food around, it was bound to happen. In mine and hubby's game of "Mine is better than yours" he beat me out cold. I mean, don't get me wrong, we both had things that made us shiver in delight, but his....should win a gold medal or something.

I decided to try to be healthy and opted for the Falafalite Wrap Combo with Tzatziki and chili sauce with a side of fried pita strips and hummus. Because nothing says healthy liked fried pita strips right?

 

 

It was DIVINE. So flavorful and refreshing. Great combo of crunch, smoothness, freshness, and Oh My Goshness. I dream about those pita strips and they are begging me to make sweet sweet food love to them! They were crispity strips of perfection that were only made better with their hummus.

Hubby knew what to get because he has the convenience of going on his lunch break sometimes (although he says it's packed like sardines in there at that time). He ordered the The Classic (Beef & Lamb) Combo Zesty style (zesty feta and pepperoncinis) and....

the item that single handedly beat my meal....

Street Cart Fries!!! Let me just tell you so you know what I say is TRUE... "French Fries topped with tons of garlic aioli, feta cheese, diced onions, green pepper, tomato, kalamata olives, pepperoncinis, and chili sauce."

People, people!! Get out your bucket lists, this will need to be on there. This is genius-osity at its best!

Since hubby is such an amazing man, he let me have half of his meal. And me, being such a great wife, traded half of my meal, too. Secret to a happy marriage #1- it's all about give and take.

Overall: This place is a must if you're ever in LA. I know that I will beg the hubs to bring me here...maybe tomorrow? These chefs know what they're doing. The flavors combine perfectly to make your mouth appreciate every ingredient of love that was put into your combo. Even though this is a quick-serve restaurant, you can tell that they make each combo to order. They can't make these things ahead of time!! I give this place an A+.

GO to this place!! Like, NOW!

Part II: Stuffing My Face in Solvang

Contrary to popular belief, I did not go to Europe for the weekend. Unfortunately, I do not live the life of a rich person. It's ok... I am rich in love, life, and food. ::cue the strings:: I traveled 3 1/2 hours North to Solvang, California and I STUFFED my mouth hole with sweets of all kinds, meats of all kinds, and I threw in some vegetables  for good measure. Here are just a few things we did up in this little Danish town.

We arrived at our Hotel on Friday night. It was very simple and IKEA-ish, with a dash of a Hostel sort of feel. Sure, I wanted to slap myself for not booking a hotel, say, with amenities and a room a bit bigger so that doo-doo smells wouldn't attack the WHOLE hotel room when someone is in the toilet room, or a place that offers more than two pillows. But hey, it was decent enough for showering, sleeping, and other bed activities.

The best part of the hotel was that it came with complementary bikes...

We rode them with pride around the town, showing off our Danish filled guts.

And the other great thing about our Hotel was that it was a matter of steps to the best eatery in Solvang. That's not just my opinion, that's a FACT! Look it up on Wikipedia in about an hour.

Their Danish pancakes were LEGENDARY!! The service was impeccable, the line was out the door, the place was clean, and the bacon was thick as fruit leather. If those aren't true stamps to a good place, I don't know what to tell you.

After we ate the best meals of our lives, we moseyed on over to spend about a good hour in this odd spot.

This store reminded me of my childhood in Germany. I had a wonderful nostalgic feeling and I didn't want to leave. Good thing Hubby kept himself busy by finding the only pair of Boobie Stein glasses in the store.

And, the lady at the counter thought we were billionaires and kept trying to sell us one of these $500 clocks. She should've looked at our Hamlet Inn bikes.

The rest of the trip consisted of food... because that was my main goal after all...to gain a ridiculous amount of weight in my buttocks area.

    

 

I ate real food, too.

 Day two, we rode our bikes again. Do you think a few hours pedaling cancels out all this food?

Don't worry, I was in fact wearing shorts under my dress. I don't know how the Danes feel about Hello Kitty Chonies and I wasn't about to find out.

Back to the eats...

Chipmunk Cheeks courtesy of all the sweets....glorious glorious sweets. 

And lastly, I searched for my childhood fav, Weinershnizel. It was sadly a disappointment. Not as good as I remembered it. The little fat girl inside me wept. 

While in my food depression, Hubby enjoyed his AMAZING Chicken Fried Steak.

I gave him puppy dog eyes the WHOLE meal and all he gave me was a measly 4 bites! Can you believe that? And he vowed to be with me through good times and bad.... pshhh.... lies. (Love you, Hubs!)

It was the best birthday I've had all year. wait... yeah... best one.

• How was your weekend?