Eating Italian At Eatalian Cafe, Gardena.

"It's called what?!" I asked my coworker at lunch one day.

"Eatalian."

"Wait, what's it called?"

"Eatalian. Like Eat. Talian."

"Hmm. OK."

My coworker had just told me about some new Italian joint in Gardena that had been featured in the LA Times Food Section's "The Find." But I couldn't get past the name. It sounded like something you'd name a mediocre-at-best restaurant in a business park. A name you'd surely find written in the Vivaldi or Mistral fonts. A place that served soggy spaghetti with watery marinara. So it was hard for me to take Eatalian seriously at first.

But I found myself in the South Bay one day and remembered that I now had an alternative to the usual Asian places I frequent in that area. I found Eatalian not in the form of a cheesy cafe in a business park, but as a former warehouse located in the industrial dregs of Gardena. The light, airy interior is a cross between Italian cafe and something you'd expect to find in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory teeming with Oompa Loompas: windowed, sterile production rooms filled with gleaming machinery for baked goods, gelato, pizza and--probably the most impressive of the bunch though not operational yet--cheese.

At the center of all the quick action is usually Eatalian owner Antonio Pellini manning the pizza making: stretching dough, laying toppings and working the brick oven all while helping to serve tables and talking to nosey food bloggers taking pictures of restaurant owners making pizza behind the counter. The ultimate multitasker.

I hate to say that I think that Eatalian's minimalist and sterile presence rubbed off on our pizza, however. I don't usually care for the word "rustic" when it comes to describing food, but by golly, I want my wood-fired pizzas to be rustic. I want crackly crusts whose edges are spattered with charred dough bubbles. I want to be reminded of embers and bricks and cottages and cabins. As you can probably guess, our Pizman pizza lacked some of these rustic qualities: its crust was not nearly as crispy as I would have liked it--a little limp in the center, in fact--and missing so many of those broken brown air pockets that I love on a thin crust pizza. Fortunately, our pizza was able to redeem itself in the flavor and topping department. Speck, pancetta, mozzarella, bleu cheese and porcinis were well proportioned; the bleu cheese was really the essential ingredient here, rounding out any saltiness from the meats with that funky bleu cheese flavor we all know and love.

I did, however, really enjoy our pesto gnocchi. The perky and pillowy nubs of dough dressed in the dark olive-green oil were simplicity at its best.

And then we got the gelato sandwich which wasn't your typical ice cream sandwich-type-sandwich made with wafers or cookies but rather, more like a real sandwich-type-sandwich on an Italian sweet roll. The thing was as big as a burger. Honestly, I could have done without the roll as my housemade nutella gelato on its own was just divine, and because it was a bit heavy after a complete meal. Had it been snack time instead of lunchtime, though, the entire sandwich would have been perfect.


OK so maybe our pizza was a bit of a miss, but I still enjoyed our overall experience at Eatalian. The gnocchi and gelato were delicious, and the staff was gracious and friendly, so I'll certainly forgive them for our lackluster pizza crust. Forgiving the Bradley Hand ITC font they use for their menus, on the other hand, I'm not so sure. But I would still definitely return.

Eatalian Cafe
15500 S. Broadway St.
Gardena, CA 90248
310.532.8880
www.eataliancafe.com

I OD'ed On Cute--Three Apples: An Exhibition Celebrating 35 Years Of Hello Kitty at Royal/T Cafe, Culver City

Leave it to my childhood homegirl Hello Kitty to throw a birthday party of epic proportions.

She's 35 this year folks, and instead of spending a low-profile, quiet evening at home like I did on my 35th birthday, she's going all out with a three-week-long birthday party at Royal/T Café called "Three Apples: An Exhibition Celebrating 35 Years Of Hello Kitty" in which she celebrates 35 years of being cute, fabulous, a style and pop culture icon, and most of all, a good friend to all us girls whose childhood and adolescent years were defined by orange-scented erasers, stamp sets, stationery, and plush toys all bearing none other than Ms. Kitty herself.
Yes, Royal/T's café still had its normal cosplay cafe menu of coffee, tea, sandwiches and snacks, and its waitresses dressed up in those ridiculously cute brown and white maid uniforms, but for this special occasion, they stepped it up a notch with a special Hello Kitty themed menu. I just had to have the Hello Kitty's Kawaii High Tea which included a pot of tea, two tramezzini complete with Hello Kitty grill marks, smoked salmon and spicy tuna canapé, a couple of mini cupcakes donning (*eek*) Hello Kitty rings, a mini brownie and green tea cake, and topped with my favorite...a Hello Kitty sugar cookie! It wasn't exactly a bargain at $25, and not haute cuisine by any means, but so worth all the girly giggles it gave me. Individual Hello Kitty themed food items such as the tramezzini and Hello Kitty shaped pancakes and waffles are also available and just as kawaii.

My husband wanted to order something more manly--as in a burger off the café's normal menu--but he still ate off my tea set. He was too embarrassed to show his face eating the cutesy sandwiches.

Nor did he find it amusing when I asked him to try on one of my Hello Kitty rings.

After we ate, it was time to celebrate some more by exploring the Hello Kitty art and artifacts exhibits at Royal/T. Everything was so freaking adorable that I OD'ed on all the cuteness, died and went to Hello Kitty heaven.

All the artwork was absofreakinglutely insane, and ranged from morbid to fabulous (a la Lady Gaga)

And I wished I could take all the Hello Kitty stuff displayed throughout the gallery home with me.

Look, they even have a Hello Kitty apartment! Every girl needs one of these!

But my absolute favorite part of the exhibition was seeing a ton of vintage Hello Kitty merchandise from the 70's and 80's that I either used to own or remember seeing as a kid. Those were the good old days.

Happy 35th Birthday to my old friend. You haven't aged one bit, and are still as cute as ever. Thanks for all the good times and good memories, and here's to many more happy years to come. Peace and love!

Three Apples is running daily from 10 am to 10 pm at Royal/T Café until November 15th. Please visit my SmugMug album for more photos of my visit to Three Apples!

Three Apples: An Exhibition Celebrating 35 Years of Hello Kitty
(at Royal/T Café)
8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 559-6300
www.royal-t.org
www.sanrio.com/threeapples

Catching Up With Oishii Eats At Golden State Café

Damn you, flu, for making me miss Jeni of Oishii Eats' and Dylan of Eat, Drink & Be Merry's wedding celebration! Of all the weekends that my husband's and my immune systems decide to get freaky, it just had to be that weekend. Damn you to pieces.

Having been busy with growing a human being and with a crazy job that had me driving to and from the West 626 and Anaheim every day, it had been almost a year since I last saw the match-made-in-food-blogging-heaven. I was really looking forward to seeing the two of them because they're just such a fun couple who appreciate each other, their family and friends, and their endeavors with a commitment and enthusiasm that is unparalleled. But the other reason I was looking forward to seeing them has a slightly selfish reason to it.

Basically, Jeni and Dylan represent an aspect of my life that I've been itching to reconnect with.

2006 was the year my life took a major beating when my Dad passed away. But it was also a year of great change for me not only in dealing with my own pain of losing my Dad but also in helping my family cope, getting married and starting a new job. I went on quite an emotional and physical roller coaster ride that year, but I managed...largely in part by blogging. Because it gave me an outlet with which to mentally escape--even if for just a few minutes each day--my food blog saved my sanity.

2006 was also the year that was, in my mind, the Golden Age of So-Cal Food Blogging. Not because the food blogs at that time were any better than the ones that have sprung up since then--that's not what I'm saying. It was, rather, a time when there weren't as many of us around, and a time when food blogs were just starting to get noticed by the general public. It was still a novelty for restaurants to see diners pull out their cameras and take photos of what would in a few minutes be digested. I met Jeni and Dylan at a food blogger meetup at Musha Torrance in 2006, coincidentally, on the same night that they met each other. It was awesome to finally have a face to associate with some of their earlier posts that I remember reading: Jeni tag-teaming on a post with her ALL-CAPS slinging mom about the Wat Thai Temple, and Dylan teaching his neighbor how to cook a date-worthy meal. As the months went by and my own posting began to fizzle out and eventually grind to a screeching halt because of increasing work and family commitments, I watched Jeni and Dylan grow, both as a couple and as bloggers. I watched their blogs evolve into the noteworthy sites that they are today with accounts of their tasty travels, beautiful photographs, and educational information that any food lover would appreciate.

They have both told me at one time or another that I was an inspiration to them to start blogging, but now that I am writing again, I am looking to them for mine. We've all come a long way since 2006--alot of the bloggers from that golden year now have husbands, wives, children, more children, new jobs, new homes, you name it. I'm hoping that 2009, despite all the crap that's going on with the economy today, will be a renaissance of all things good from 2006, foodblogosphere-wise: The Rebirth of Slick, The Rebirth of Cool. I, myself, having started to write again, have already seen how it's helped me cope with all the recent changes in my life.

"Hey, let's hook up soon," I wrote in an email to Jeni recently, "It's been too long...I miss you, and I need some inspiration!"

So that's how we ended up at the newly opened Golden State Cafe one late Friday afternoon. The husbands were still at work, but that was fine 'cause that way we got to rant away about all the things that they do and do not do that bug the crap out of us. (Sorry, Isaac and Dylan...we still love you though.)

In a neighborhood that's already an eclectic mix of everything from Jewish delis to art galleries to turntable shops, Golden State Cafe joins the club by showcasing what owners Jason Bernstein and James Starr believe to be some of the best food and drink that our golden state has to offer. In this small but airy industrial space you can get dogs from Let's Be Frank, gelato from Scoops, beer from Craftsman Brewery, and root beer on tap from Virgil's, amongst a slew of other locally sourced goodies.

Jeni and I, feeling particularly snackish, opted for their burger--made with Harris Ranch beef, and topped with farmhouse cheddar, brown sugar bacon and arugula all on a brioche bun--and their Mild Italian sausage--grilled and topped with a choice of two toppings, which for us were the sauerkraut and garlic aioli. The not-too-heavy portions and flavors were fine for two girlfriends who wanted to chill and do lots of catching up. The inclusive sides that we chose--fries with hazelnut romesco, and a lemony Persian cucumber salad--were perfect for picking at while not only talking about the latest goings-on in our lives, but also snapping away with our DSLR's at our plates of food and the restaurant itself. Having a meal with someone else who understands why it's important to take a few seconds to style your food is inspiration at its best.

Had we gone to the Golden State any later that day, catching up and chilling would have been a little more difficult as I hear the place gets packed at night. But this new café has me interested enough to come back and try some of their other offerings like their salami sandwich or grilled vegetable sandwich as well as to explore some of their beer selections.

I'm so glad that I finally got to catch up with the so very kawaii girl that I first saw giving a thumbs up to some taco truck on Mulholland. And I couldn't be happier that you found true love with the guy whose post about a 12:30 am after-work snack at West LA's New Japan first caught my attention. I have a feeling that 2009 is going to be a good year for our So-Cal food blogosphere. Thanks for the inspiration, you two, and all the best in life and love.

(I think this post had more sap than the Sequoia Forest!)

Golden State Cafe
426 N. Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 782-8331
http://thegoldenstatecafe.com

When One "O" Is Better Than Two: Euro Pane, Pasadena

Pasadena's Euro Pane has been on my must-try list of eateries for God-knows-how-long but has been bumped towards the bottom for the same God-knows-how-long. It wasn't until a recent jonesin' for French macarons that I bumped Sumi Chang's Colorado-Blvd-east-of-Old-Town bakery and café to the top.

Not to be confused with macaroons, those lumpy coconutty cookie thingies that are all too often left behind on the office cookie platter, French macarons (with one "o") are a completely different species. I first discovered these lovely little domes at Kristy Choo's Jin Patisserie and at Michelle Myers' Boule and have been craving the light airy texture of flavored almond meringue, luscious ganache or cream filling and adorable, sherbety colors ever since.

Europane's macarons are not as dainty as your typical macaron, which usually measures a little larger than a golf ball. Rather, they're as big around as a tennis ball, an attribute which at first made me wonder if any quality would be skimped for quantity. Their delicate meringue crust gave way with a slight chewiness, each bite containing a bit of cream. My absolute favorite flavor was the salt caramel whose subtle sweetness was enhanced by grains of sea salt. The pistachio and hazelnut flavored macarons weren't as delicious as the salt caramel but were still good, while the raspberry flavor was just *meh* in my opinion.

Not only does Euro Pane make a mean macaron, but their other baked goods such as croissants, caneles, tarts, bread pudding and cookies are also worth the trip. And don't forget about their sandwiches either. Their open faced egg-salad sandwich is like none I've ever had before where slightly-on-the-soft-boiled-side eggs mingles with arugula on a slice of crusty rosemary-currant bread. As an added bonus, you get one of their yummy sugar-sprinkled butter cookies on the side...score!


Euro Pane
950 E. Colorado Blvd, ste 107
Pasadena, CA 91106
(626) 577-1828