LA Favorites: A-Frame

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A few weeks ago, J and I made our way back to California for a family visit. (Boy, had I taken that weather for granted!) There were a few places we knew we needed to go back to. In-n-Out, of course. Maybe our favorite breakfast spot. And definitely A-Frame.

Located in our old ‘hood in the Mar Vista/Culver City/Venice-ish area, A-Frame was the last restaurant we ate at together before heading East. And it was frickin’ amazing.

For a while now I’ve been a huge fan of Roy Choi, who is the mastermind behind A-Frame, along with his other establishments Chego (another fave!) and Sunny Spot (a must-try next time I’m in LA!) Most importantly, he started off with the Kogi truck, which started the food truck revolution that so many of us are familiar with today. With a talent that combines his Korean background with Mexican influences of his hometown of Los Angeles, Roy Choi has created a unique and groundbreaking cuisine– no pretentious frou frou food, just Damn. Good. Food. A-Frame serves self-professed modern picnic food, meant to be eaten with your fingers and shared. And, to me at least, it doesn’t get any better than that.
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(Clockwise from top left) “Kitchen Fries” of different varieties of potatoes with kimchi sour cream, baby back ribs glazed with hoisin-chili sauce, dessert (more on that below), and sesame leaf wrapped shrimp tempura with a shoyu (soy sauce) dip.

The dessert– well, that deserves a standing ovation. This is the BEST dessert I have ever been served in a restaurant, and as you may have guessed, I have eaten a lot of desserts. It’s called “Chu-Don’t-Know-Mang”, because until you’ve tried it, chu really don’t know, mang. Churros– fried and made out of POUND CAKE, for goodness’ sake– are rolled in cinnamon, and served with malted chocolate milk and vanilla ice cream. Your eyes will roll back in your head. Yes. It’s that good.

A-Frame (Mar Vista/Culver City area)
12565 Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90066
http://aframela.com/new/

The Perfect Bite: Caramel Shortbread Squares

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Let’s just say this post has been a long time coming; this is definitely a favorite in my immense arsenal of dessert recipes. If there’s one thing to make when you want to impress, perhaps before asking for a big favor, it’s these irresistible bites of thick and gooey caramel sandwiched between buttery, crumbly shortbread and velvety chocolate. I like to use dark chocolate to help balance out the sweetness of the caramel, and if you’re feelin’ fancy, a sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top won’t hurt one bit.

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Find the recipe for caramel shortbread squares here. Enjoy!

Chicago Favorites: Sun Wah BBQ

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Middle of winter. 14 degrees outside.

The solution? Dinner out with family– hot tea, steaming bowls of soup, and Peking duck.
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Be sure to have the Beijing Duck Feast, which I believe isn’t even on the menu but everyone orders it. They bring out a plump, juicy roasted duck and carve it tableside, then serve it with steamed bao, pickled daikon, and hoisin sauce. The duck itself is delicious, but once you eat it with all the other ingredients, you’ll be dreaming about it for days. Once carved up, the duck carcass goes back into the kitchen to make broth with wintermelon, as well as fried rice (pictured below), which are soon brought back out to your table.

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Other goodies include (from top left) the aforementioned duck fried rice, fish with ginger and green onions, Chinese broccoli, and a combination BBQ plate.

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Corn egg drop soup and fried fish balls –tender fish with a perfectly crisp, slightly sweet crust– are also definitely some of my favorites.

Sun Wah BBQ (Uptown/Argyle)
5039 N Broadway St
Chicago, IL 60640
http://www.sunwahbbq.com

Apple Pancake

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I grew up eating apple pancake, which is essentially the apple version of a Dutch Baby– it was a special breakfast treat my family would order from a local restaurant every now and then. This is no ordinary pancake (I think I may have sworn off typical pancakes altogether), and you’ll see why when you taste it in all its warm, apple-y custard glory.

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Find the recipe for THE apple pancake here. I like to add a little more sugar to the batter and top each serving with powdered sugar. :) Enjoy!

Clementine Posset

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Every winter, I look forward to buying crates and crates of clementines. Sweet, juicy, seedless, easy to peel… what more can you ask for in a citrus fruit? As delicious as they are on their own, I wanted to do something else with the bowl of clementines sitting in my kitchen. And then I remembered I had a recipe for a clementine posset lost amongst the hundreds of “need to try!!” recipes I had bookmarked.

What’s a posset, you say?

I don’t know either.

Apparently, it’s a hot drink originating from Britain, made with milk curdled with wine or ale. These days, you’ll find it more commonly describing a dessert similar to pudding. Clementine pudding!!

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Find the recipe for clementine posset here. Enjoy!

It’s Cookie Time!!

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Why sure, the first week of January is the perfect time for cookies, right? You certainly want more cookies after gorging yourself on sweets during the holidays, right? …..Right?

Okay, I’ll be honest, I spent about a week straight in the kitchen during Christmastime and while I took photos, didn’t quite have the time to blog. So feel free to save the recipe for these peppermint bark cookies for next holiday season, or whip them up anytime this year– who says that chocolate and peppermint (layered on shortbread and drizzled with white chocolate!) is only for the holidays? Not me.

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Find the recipe for chocolate peppermint bark cookies here. Enjoy!

A New Year

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Happy New Year!!

I hope you all have an amazing, inspiring, and uplifting year. I’m usually not one for making New Year’s resolutions (I do year-round resolving whenever I see fit), but I think this year I could use a list. Here are a few of mine:

-Read more books
-Get back into yoga (after I moved, I’ve become terribly out of practice)
-Get out of the house more and explore!
-Spend more time with friends and family
-Go to bed earlier
-Figure out what I want out of my professional life
-Take more photos, and blog more!!

What about you, do you have any resolutions you’d like to share? Is there anything you’d like to see more of here on my blog? Feel free to let me know!

Chicago Favorites: Christkindlmarket

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Every year during the holidays, when you’re walking in downtown Chicago and approaching Daley Plaza, the smell of hot pretzels, spices, and cinnamon wafts in the air– it’s Christkindlmarket time!

One of the greatest things about Chicago is its celebration of the many, many cultures that are present here. From Greektown to Chinatown, to Little Italy to the Polish Triangle and everything (and every country) in between, there is a wealth of ethnic neighborhoods to explore. Every holiday season, the Christkindlmarket, a traditional German holiday market, sets up shop right in the heart of the city. Here you’ll find hand-blown ornaments, cuckoo clocks, beer steins, and other gifts galore. And, most importantly of course, you will find food. Check out the vendors selling marzipan, strudel, nuts, and chocolate, sink your teeth into wienerschnitzel piled with onions and tangy mustard, hot potato pancakes topped with sour cream and applesauce, and finish it all off with some hot chocolate or gluehwein (German hot spiced wine) to keep you warm. Frohe Weihnachten!!

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Thanksgiving Morning

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Happy Thanksgiving to all!! I wanted to share a quick photo of some gorgeous Thanksgiving morning light, unedited, straight out of the camera… just one of the many, many things I’m thankful for. :)

The recipe for these moist and soft cakey pumpkin cookies can be found here. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Sunday Supper: Sweet Potato Hash (and a new look!)

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As you may have noticed, Sweet Falcon has undergone a bit of a makeover. I’ve been wanting to change things up for a while now and figured I might as well dive in and see what happens. It’s still a work in progress, but hopefully you like it and find it a little more user-friendly! (And fellow bloggers, check out this post to find some beautifully designed social media icons.)

And now for the good stuff– a long-awaited Sunday Supper post! It’s obvious I have a bit of a love affair with the fall season, and the vegetables that come with it are a big part of my infatuation. Okay, and I also have an affinity for eating breakfast for dinner, but I think this dish works beautifully for any meal. Sweet potatoes, caramelized onions, sausage, eggs, AND plenty of garlic and fresh rosemary make for one wonderfully hearty and satisfying supper. Or breakfast. Or lunch.

Find the recipe here, courtesy of The Kitchn. Enjoy!