Food.

Whoo, it's been a long time since I posted!!! (As Tiffani and Lauren pointed out on Thursday ...)

Speaking of which, yes, we got together on Thursday for "A Taste of Seal Beach"!!

From the Long Beach Press Telegram:
Seal Beach event

"Taste of Seal Beach" will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the McGaugh Elementary School open house.

Area restaurants will donate menu items to benefit the school charity, Seeking Excellence in Education for our Kids, or Project SEEK, which gave $104,046 for the 2008-09 school year in February.

Tickets for Taste of Seal Beach are $10 for adults and $5 for children and will be available at the door of the McGaugh gym, 1698 Bolsa Ave.

Lauren emailed to ask if we'd be interested in attending, Little Miss Foodie that she is. It was nice to see them again, and I should have brought my camera, because I like to take pictures of get-togethers and sometimes forget to. And K is a CRACK-UP. "Meow." It would have been nice to take a picture of the food, as well.

I think it's amazing that the restaurants donated the food! How fun. The line was semi-long, but not too bad, and then they gave everyone a school lunch tray to fit everything on. We were going to go outside to sit and eat, till the little middle-school bouncer girls informed us that we could leave ONE TIME ONLY!!!! Hmm. So we went back into the gym, and just as we were about to claim 2 plastic garden chairs, they were snatched up. So we stood around a table and ate. I just wanted to clean the plate off so I could have room for every booth there!

There were a couple of standouts, fer shur, and places I will probably bring my family to if we get the chance. I went back to the list Lauren included in her email, since I wanted to remember what-all places were there.

320 Main - I can't remember!!! They were there, though. Maybe they were the place with the wraps? There was one place where I had a BBQ chicken in an avocado wrap. It was a bit soggy, but would probably be quite good hot and fresh.
Beachwood BBQ - pulled pork sandwich (some slaw on it, too, interesting) and root beer, which I declined.
Blackboard Bistro - I got a turkey, lettuce, and tomato on wheat with mayo. Maybe it was a turkey BLT, which I see on their menu.
Bogart's Coffee - iced vanilla latte, which was REALLY good. Yikes. Even better with some of Starbuck's half-and-half thrown in. I almost went back for the mocha just to try it out. I have cravings for iced coffee now, probably half due to McDonald's commercials on TV recently.
Cold Stone Creamery - at first I thought I missed it, then I realized that I DID see cups of ice cream and passed on them because I don't have much of a sweet tooth ... and I'm swimming in self-control, natch.
El Burrito Junior - stingy spoonful of spanish rice (like Rubio's), two tortilla chips, and a spoonful of watery salsa/juice/puree. Ha! Weirdos. I think they thought I was back for round #2 because apparently I look like a greedyguts. Or maybe they misinterpreted the meaning of my obviously-used tray and appearance at their station. I wasn't leaving till I tried everything!
Finbars - I BELIEVE this was the place with the freaking amazing pasta. It was simple, and basic, but really good. You KNOW food is good when it smells and tastes good after you've been eating for a half-hour already. :) It was multi-colored rotini with sundried tomatoes in an aglio e olio. Yum! They also had a meatball in marinara sauce, which was just okay. How is Finbar's Italian, though? Sounds Irish, like a Finnegan O'Malley and ...
Hennessey's - maybe it was a big Irish boycott, because I don't remember this place either.
Islands - they had chicken strips and caesar salad. Whee, the caesar salad was super good!! I saw ONE halved chicken strip in honey mustard sauce left when I got there, and asked for it, and chick tells me, "Sorry, we're out." WEIRDO! Maybe it was her dinner??? Then they cleaned up all the rest of the dozen cups that were set out with honey mustard and barbecue sauce. Heh.
Jamba Juice - I think they had smoothies with granola - mango or blueberry. I went with mango and it was just so-so.
Mahé Restaurant - tuna roll. It was okay. Kinda bland.
Marie Callender's - a very nice spinach salad with orzo, walnuts(?), and citrus dressing. I think this was also the place with tri-tip!
McDonald's - hamburgers and cheeseburgers, I think, and maybe coffee. Like I took up room in my stomach with Mc-Heavin'-Donald's. I already had dinner there 3 times last week with the 25¢ Chicken McNuggets!! Used to be 5/$1, though.
Naples Ribs - Louisiana Sausage Bites and BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad ... YUM!
O'Malley's - some dang spicy chili, yo. Were these "the most popular" items from each place? Because friggin' spicy Irish chili is not anything I would have ever considered. The guy was very nice, though!
Patti Bakes - cheesecake, man. Little mini cheesecakes in mini cupcake papers. I only tried the plain one. The guy next to me was raving about them and asking his wife, "Hey, hon, would these work if we got a bunch of these?" And he asks Miss Patti how much 100 would be, for some kind of party, I'm assuming, and she actually says she doesn't know, because she usually sells them in batches of a dozen. I'm like, does she need business, or does she not?? He's asking for 100 and you can't give him a price?? 12x8, man, come on!
Panda Palace - pretty sure they didn't come!
Pick Up Stix - pretty sure they didn't come either! What's with the Asian food no-shows.
Rubio's - maybe I got this place mixed up with El Burrito Jr. Oops.
Starbucks - like, duh. What else.
Taco Surf - a little taquito! I forget what was inside. Flesh, right, probably?
Tropical Juice - a pink berryish slush.
Walt's Wharf - seriously awesome clam chowder. Wow! It was one of the first things I tasted and one of my favorites, but then again, I am a full on seriously out of control clam chowder FREAK. I went and asked for seconds, which they had no problem giving me!
Woody's Diner - at this point, I have no clue, because this took way longer to type than I had anticipated. I kind of think they weren't there, though.
Yucatan Grill - there was a super yellow rice, and some ahredded beef, I think it was. He also had fried plantains as well as tortilla chips with salsa. I only tried the rice and beef. I looked up the site and apparently it's Mexican/Caribbean! That explains the plantains, I guess.
Z Pizza - I had the pepperoni. They also had cheese, and a mushroom onion, I think, as well as veggie wraps which looked a bit soggy.

Well, freak. So the Finbar's pasta dish was QUITE memorable. And pasta aglio e olio is very easy to make. I remember making it all the time in college, on the cheap. Soooooooo much garlic. One time one of my housemates (senior year) felt sorry for me watching, me eat only garlic, oil, and pasta, so she gave me a mini can of spaghetti sauce. It turned out nice, actually, and mixed better than I thought it would. Too much garlic = flatulence, though, so you gotta watch it.

So I was all inspired this week and decided that I was gonna make it for dinner. Then last night I passed by El Pollo Loco and I haven't been THERE for ages, so I had my usual chicken tostada salad (looooooooove it) with some $1 drumstick legs and CHURRRRRRRRRROS. SO. GOOD.

And I was brainstorming lunch today, and realized I have both clams AND half and half, along with half an onion in the fridge, so I could make a basic plain clam chowder ... AND the pasta ... and then I started craving some couscous.

Couscous. Seriously, if you haven't tried it, it is DA BOMB. So easy to cook, goes with everything, lovely consistency. My half-English auntie made it for dinner once when I stayed with them in England in 2006, otherwise I never would have tried it. She put some chicken and red peppers or sun-dried tomatoes in it, and I wanted to lick the pan. Didn't realize how easy it was to cook. Then I found some at Big Lots, and I was sooooold. It is yummy with mushrooms and shallots and peppery olive oil.

Anyhoo, I THOUGHT an aglio e olio recipe should be easy enough to find online, and then I remembered that I have the best pasta cookbook in the whole world:

I randomly got it a few years ago when I was browsing through Tuesday Morning (that store scares me now) and remember raaaaaaaving about it with the fellow kindergarten teachers ... once of whom is married to an Italian, so I don't know why she thinks she needs this book. I told her I'd get her a copy if I ever ran across one again, but I didn't.

I had only tried one recipe - the linguine/spaghetti alla vongole, and it was stunning. Seriously unbelievable. I did not realize how good easy, basic stuff could taste. My dad had gotten about a pound of fresh clams, I wanted to try a recipe, so I did, and the TECHNIQUE he used is what won me over. Never thought about undercooking pasta before draining it, then finishing cooking the pasta IN the pot WITH the clam broth. It made all the difference in the world!

Also: whee, butter.

I am happy to see that the reviews on Amazon are 5 *s across the board, with 21 reviews, and this blogger wrote about it too, on the other side of the world, and exactly a year ago!

So I referred to the trusty Hazan tome for a basic aglio e olio, the first recipe in the book. I remember reading it over before and not being SUPER impressed, because it looks so easy.

So I basically followed it, though usually I am an eyeballer and cook very informally - never use measuring cups or spoons or whatever, so I guess I cook a al Rachel Ray. I was also feeling very Rachel Ray because I neglected to throw the skins from the garlic and junk into the trash bag, but threw them in my "garbage bowl."

Garbage bowl. Seriously, I saw one of hers at Kohl's a few weeks back, and wanted to vomit. Her bowl LOOKS like it's made out of dried, crusty vomit. I thought it was the stupidest idea ever. And it's like, $20.

Feast your eyes:

I love the comments and reviews at Chowhound, and apparently some people really buy into this. Good gravy!

In terms of saving time, if one has a ridiculously enormous kitchen, I mean, maybe. I use the plastic bags from the grocery store, and always have. Dad taught me that. I have never ever purchased garbage bags, it's a ridiculous idea to buy things to throw away. I suppose it saves me a total of 5 minutes to throw stuff in a bowl instead of stuffing it in the garbage bag. My kitchen ain't big enough to justify that. And pukey salmon mottled plastic??? What was she thinking. I feel nausea just looking at it. I prefer my clear, gold-flecked $1 plastic bowl from Target (long live post-Christmas clearance!).

ANYWAY. I did the pasta, probably put too much olive oil in, but ... it was nice. Oil, and I had some leftover spring onion pasta in the pantry, and I broke out my brand new Oneida chopper since the thought of mincing all that garlic (5 large cloves, baby!) was daunting. It was so fast! But I made sure to rinse everything off right away since I wouldn't want everything all garlicky if that's the first thing I ever chopped.

That was all I had for lunch, I ended up not making any clam anything. Maybe for dinner, if I'm still hungry.

All this to say, I have discovered a truly GREAT kitchen secret with regards to chopping garlic.

I usually prefer to hand-mince it. Cut off the part where it is attached to the bulb (does that have a name??? I'd love to know), slice almond-shaped slivers, baby julienne, then cut across to a very fine mince. It's quite time-consuming. I tried a garlic press once, but maybe it was horrible because it basically just juiced them - maybe I need a sharper-bladed one?? I think I will make use of the chopper from now on, though the garlice gets so fine it sticks to the blades and retracts up into the body of the chopper and some goes to waste. Boo. And my neighbor swears by the jars of pre-minced garlic, but somehow that does not appeal to me.

And my dad always seemed to flatted the garlic before he cooked with it. He'd press on it with the flat of the all-purpose cleaver, just enough to break the skin but not crush the clove to pulp. I've seen this done with the bottom of a can, as well, but usually I use the heel of my hand. But that hurts sometimes.

Well, in the midst of my garlic prep, I realize HOW easy it is to actually peel garlic by just twisting the skin in opposite directions between the fingers.

This is like an epiphany for me. I wonder if/how many other people know this. It's what I'm going to do from now on!

Happy cooking!