Flavors of Aloha Cookbook Release Party at Tommy Bahama

Tommy Bahama Island Grille 

854 Avocado 

Newport Beach, CA 92660

Now that we have settled back into our normal routine after all the wedding shenanigans that we had to endure the last year, we both made a vow to eat at home more often. Just this week we ate at home two times, which almost doubles the amount of home-cooked meals that we have made since we moved in together a year and a half ago. Yes, we eat out a lot.

It makes sense that we would want to cook more at home now though. Thanks to family and friends, we have all new cooking utensils, a new set of fantastic pots and pans, new dishes, silverware, and new appliances to use. The only thing we were missing was a really great cookbook. Now thanks to the great folks at Tommy Bahama, and world-renowned, cookbook author, Rick Rodgers, we are now in possession of a great cookbook, "Flavors of Aloha". If you love the food at Tommy Bahama Island Grille or the food of Hawaii, then this book is a must for you.

We were recently treated to a few of the 100 recipes that are included in this first in a series of Cooking with Tommy Bahama cookbooks. Many of these recipes are served at one of the thirteen Tommy Bahama restaurants located throughout the country, so you can make some of your restaurant favorites right in your home. Cookbook author, Rick Rodgers uses clear and concise step-by-step directions that will have novice cooks like myself, basking in the glow of friends and family. The cookbook is also photographed beautifully and transports you across the Pacific for the short time that you are preparing your meal. Let's take a look at what Tommy Bahama had in store for us this evening.

As we were ushered to the back patio of the restaurant for cocktails, we were lei'd with beautiful flowers around our neck, and presented with arguably the most iconic cocktail from Hawaii, the Mai Tai. Now with the help of Flavors of Aloha, you can entertain at home with this classic beverage, which can be found on page 167. A little rum, along with other potent potables, and you will be whisked away to that tropical beach of your dreams as you sip this cocktail. Very relaxing.

Probably the first recipe I'm going to tackle out of this cookbook will be this one, the Sweet Maui Onion, and Bacon Dip. Way better than those dry packets you get at the supermarket, this dip had a great depth of flavor, which was rounded out by bacon, and that can never be wrong, right? This dip was served with root chips, which were good, but I'm going to go old school and use good old Ruffles potato chips when I make this. I already can't wait to attempt this one.

If you've been to Tommy Bahama Island Grille, and not had their World Famous Coconut Shrimp, you have truly missed out on one of the best items on the menu. A lighter-than-usual breaded shrimp is served with a sweet papaya-mango chutney, which goes great with the brininess of the shrimp. Great crunch to this one, and then the sweetness of the chutney hits you. This might be the first thing we make using the new deep fryer that we received for our wedding.

Please excuse my poor hand modeling in these shots, but don't let that distract you from this wonderful Ahi Tuna Poke. Poke has definitely become way more mainstream within the last few years, and this was a very good version. There was just enough going on here, so it did not distract from the natural flavor of the ahi. This very fresh cubed tuna was made even more special with the addition of an excellent avocado wasabi cream, which added a nice dynamic to this unique presentation, which was served in a sesame cone.

Here's a different take on your standard wings. These Roasted Korean Chicken Wings don't look like anything you can get at Hooters, and they tasted way better as well. What these wings lacked in spiciness, they made up for in flavor. A nice mix of ginger, garlic, and honey washed over each bite in waves. Very nicely done.

And the hits just kept on coming. This Coconut and Curry Marinated Pork Satay was absolutely delicious, and hard to resist since I knew we had a full-on meal coming our way. Char-grilled and then finished with a very well-made peanut sauce. I limited myself to only three of these but could have made an entire meal of them.

There was a chef demo going on near the back of the patio, which I missed, due to me talking way too much to my food friends. I was lucky enough to get a quick shot of the end result of the demo item, Spam Musubi. A factoid I learned while reading the Flavors of Aloha cookbook is that Hawaiians eat 5 and a half cans of Spam a year on average, many of which are used this way. I'm not much of a Spam lover, but eating it this way was not too bad.

After what seemed like an endless assortment of appetizers, we were ushered into the restaurant for dinner. Here we started with a Green Papaya and Chilled Shrimp Salad. Julienned veggies were tossed with cilantro, peanuts, and fresh lime. After all of those appetizers, I really appreciated the lightness of this salad.

The main course was up next, and much to my delight, it was both fish and red meat, which I always feel is like hitting the lotto. The better of the two on this night was the Kona Coffee Crusted Skirt Steak. Big-time flavors on this one. You could actually taste a hint of coffee in this well-made rub, and the steak was cooked to a wonderful medium rare. Then the generous serving of steak was topped with heirloom tomato relish, for a great finish. Very tasty. The Ginger Glazed Wild King Salmon was also good but was a little overshadowed by the steak for me. This salmon also had a lot of things working here, a hoisin sauce, fresh ginger, and sesame seeds. The seafood lovers around us were pretty content with this presentation.

Side items in the Flavors of Aloha cookbook definitely starred in their own right. We had four of them on this night. The one that was the most buzzed about was the Wasabi and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. These had that special wasabi flavor, but without that burn hole in your stomach heat, you would expect from wasabi. I'm always partial to mushrooms, and these Drunken Mushrooms were on point. Made drunken by the addition of sake, I counted at least three different kinds of mushrooms here, but there could have been more. The Chili and Lemon Broccolini added a big pop of green to our plates, as well as a boost of citrus. I'm no fan of kimchi, so I was a little hesitant to put too much of the Cabbage and Daikon Kimchi on my plate, but from what I had, it was pretty good, but I'm still not a kimchi guy.

Dessert is always special at Tommy Bahama, and one of the main reasons for this is because of their famous Pina Colada Cake. The lightness of this cake and the excellent island flavors are a great finish to any meal, and now that the recipe is included in the Flavors of Aloha Cookbook, you can enjoy this cake at home whenever you want. Which may get me in some trouble. Vanilla cake, with dark rum, diced pineapple, white chocolate mousse, and toasted coconut will even have coconut haters liking this cake. A wonderful end to our evening at Tommy Bahama.

When we left Tommy Bahama we were presented with the Flavors of Aloha Cookbook, and I have to say that I am pretty impressed, and more importantly, inspired to use this cookbook. It is written very well, not only with the directions, but with little tidbits about Hawaii, and the food from there. No, we will not stop going out to restaurants, like Tommy Bahama Island Grille, but since we have an all-new kitchen, we will definitely make use of this cookbook with all of these great recipes.

We would like to thank everyone that made this night possible for us. First, we would like to thank everyone at Tommy Bahama for hosting such a great event. It was a pleasure meeting Rob Goldberg, Executive Vice President of Tommy Bahama, and getting a chance to learn the process of how the cookbook came about, and talk little sports with him as well. We also would like to thank the Director of Culinary Operations at Tommy Bahama, Don Donley, and his team in the kitchen, who brought all of these wonderful recipes to life on our plates. Great work guys. Lastly, we definitely have to thank the author of Flavors of Aloha, the wonderful Rick Rodgers, who without him, we would not all be here on this night. He's worked on and authored way too many cookbooks to mention here, he's a much-in-demand teacher of cooking classes, has been featured on many TV shows, and was such a great guy, that he didn't mind answering annoying questions from a restaurant blogger from Orange County. Thanks for everything Rick.

If you would like to get your hands on the Flavors of Aloha cookbook, you can buy it by following this link, http://www.tommybahama.com/TBG/Home/PRD_TH33001/Flavors+of+Aloha+Cookbook.jsp

Also, do not forget to think about heading to Tommy Bahama Island Grille for some great food. More information can be found here: http://www.tommybahama.com/TBG/Stores_Restaurants/Newport_Beach.jsp

Finally a Reunion Worth Going To

Reunion Kitchen and Drink

5775 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road

Anaheim, CA 92807

It was that time of year again, one of the two times that I trudge my way up to Yorba Linda to get my teeth cleaned, and fit in a lunch with my mom. I always enjoy these outings because it gives me someone on one time with my mom, and also because it gives me a chance to try a restaurant up in North OC that's usually been on our list for a long time. This trip we had the chance to cross Reunion Kitchen and Bar off of our restaurant bucket list.

Reunion has gotten a lot of positive press from Orange Coast Magazine, and I have seen many of my North OC friends posting pictures of their experiences at this Anaheim Hills hot spot. Reunion comes to us from Scott McIntosh, whose pedigree includes stints at Claim Jumper, French 75, and Nick's. The menu here can be described as American comfort food, with only one item over the $25 mark, (the filet mignon goes for $37). There's only one menu for both lunch and dinner, and the portion sizes are reported to be very generous.

I met my mom here on a Thursday, just before noon. The lunch rush started with a trickle, but then it exploded, with people filling up the restaurant and the patio out front. This spot used to be home to Rick Mead's Canyon Restaurant, and before that, when I was in high school it was a Sizzler.

My high school self would not recognize this space now though. Lots of woods dominate here, and some yellow walls liven up the place. The prevailing feeling of this restaurant was kind of like the Ranch in Anaheim, but without a dance floor, and a little less stuffy. A good many of the seating areas are booths, which is always nice. I came here hungry, so I was definitely keyed up to experience the cuisine at Reunion.

Of course, I did a little research online before coming here, and these Cajun Tater Tots ($8) made quite an impression on a lot of people, so of course, we needed to start with them. I was pretty impressed with these. They weren't greasy, fried nicely, and the sour cream sauce paired up well. I also enjoyed the serving size here, more than enough for my mom and I to share while waiting for our entrees to arrive. A great start.

My mom has been craving a BLT, and they just happened to have one on the menu at Reunion. Their version is called the Awesome BLT ($14), and my mom added avocado to this to make even more awesome. All of the usual suspects are included here; applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, salt, and pepper, all on a Parmesan grilled sourdough. This was very good sized for my mom, who actually took half of this home to my dad. The bread did a great job of keeping things together, while there was plenty of bacon included in this. My only complaint would have been that there was way too much lettuce on this and not enough mayo for my taste. Still one of the better BLT's we have had though.

Even though I was going to be sitting in a dentist's chair in a few hours, I could not resist having a big lunch. This Barbecue Glazed Meatloaf ($17) filled the bill perfectly. This classic meatloaf was wrapped in bacon, and sauced with a sweet, but not overpowering barbecue sauce. The BBQ sauce complimented the tender meatloaf wonderfully. Definitely not your mother's meatloaf. This came served with grilled vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, and garlic cheese toast. American comfort food at its best. The vegetables were grilled nicely, with a lot of flavors. The mashed potatoes were just left lumpy enough to add some texture, but the gravy kind of got lost here. The cheese toast was probably the weakest link on the plate, but with such a big portion size, the last thing you need is more carbs.

If there's one dessert on a menu that I can't refuse, it's Warm Butter Cake ($8). I had a feeling that this version would be as great as Scott McIntosh's last place of employment, Nick's. I was correct in my assumption. For those of you that have never had this dessert before, I would describe it as a Twinkie on steroids. Soft, rich yellow cake is topped with vanilla ice cream, and served alongside a couple of berries and whipped cream and a smear of raspberry sauce. The perfect bite for me involves the ice cream, the cake, and the raspberry sauce. So good. You must save room for this dessert when eating at Reunion. A great end to a wonderful meal.

I was pretty pleased with everything we had at Reunion Kitchen and Drink. It's easy to see why all of my North OC friends have been raving about this place in their Facebook and Twitter posts. The food here is really good, and reminiscent of the great food at Claim Jumper, back when they used to be good. With ten sandwiches and ten entrees to choose from, I look forward to trying more of their menu in the near future. I'm looking at you turkey pot pie and bacon avocado cheddar burger. The service matched the comfortable ambiance here. Our server was very steady and answered all of our questions. Reunion was so good, I almost am looking forward to going back to the dentist in another six months.

Out of five cowboy hats, (because Reunion Tower is located in Dallas, and people there sometimes wear cowboy hats), five being best to zero being worst, Reunion Kitchen and Drink gets 3.5 cowboy hats.

For more information about Reunion Kitchen and Drink, go to their website here: http://reunionkitchen.net/

Will This Be Hello or Goodbye to Ciao Pasta?

Ciao Pasta 

31661 Camino Capistrano 

San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

The city of San Juan Capistrano is not usually a city you would think of when you want Italian food, but a quick Yelp search yields the same amount of Italian restaurants, as Mexican joints. Not something I would have expected.

We have been craving Italian for awhile now, so we checked out Ciao Pasta, which is across the street from the Mission on Camino Capistrano. We walked in on a recent Saturday night, and were seated right away. Their website suggests having a reservation on weekend nights, but our experience would seem to indicate that it's not needed. Most patrons opt to eat on the much more lively patio in the front of the restaurant. We chose to sit inside, and were placed with a good view of the kitchen, which I always kind of enjoy.

The dining room at Ciao Pasta is very comfortable and spacious. Tables are not right on top of each other, and the lack of other customers really lead to a private dining encounter. Tiled floor, soft rock, and muted lighting really added to the relaxed atmosphere here too. The menu is Southern Italian focused, and reads like almost every Italian menu across the county. Starters, salads, meat and seafood dishes, a few pizzas, and pasta dishes are all well represented here. We made our selections, settled back, and enjoyed each others company while I watched the inner workings of the kitchen area. Let's see what came out of there for us.

As is the usual routine in Italian restaurants, we were started off with a bread basket. The bread here is pretty standard focaccia. It was soft, and freshly baked. It was served alongside an olive dip, which really would appeal to olive lovers. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of olives, so I only had a little bit of this. Katie enjoyed it though.

One of my favorite things about dining in Italian restaurants is that for the most part, salads are included with the meal. That was the case here at Ciao Pasta as well. This Dinner Salad was made up of romaine lettuce, red cabbage, shredded carrots, a generous dusting of parmesan cheese, and an Italian vinaigrette. A very basic salad, which had plenty of dressing on it, which I like. The grated parm was a nice touch here too.

Let's start with Katie's meal first, the Halibut Mediterraneo ($29.95). This oven baked halibut came crusted with olives, capers, and parmesan, and was then topped with olive oil, garlic, cherry tomatoes, and served over spinach. Katie really enjoyed this plate. The breading was not overly heavy, the halibut was fresh and flaky, and the sauce really added some subtle flavor here. She'd definitely get this again.

I had mixed feelings about my selection, the Paccherri Porro E Salsiccia ($17.95). The first few bites of this wide tuned pasta, with leeks, spicy ground sausage, and a cream sauce were pretty good, but then it became kind of boring. I'm not really a big fan of the wide tube pasta, as it does not allow the sauce to cling to it. The sausage here was not spicy at all. This plate was only saved when I ordered a Side of Meatballs ($3.95), and used the red sauce to doctor up my own kind of pink sauce. The added meat helped make my dinner way more enjoyable. Good, tender meatballs here.

Dessert was still an option for me, since I was not quite at capacity food-wise. I gave their Chocolate Souffle ($8.50) a try. They topped their souffle with vanilla ice cream, which can never be a bad thing. I liked this, but was not in love with it. I really think the ice cream was there to distract from the below average souffle. Not that it was awful, but we've had much better.

From reading above, I think you know the way I am leaning towards Ciao Pasta. Nothing we had was totally awful, but this is a very average Italian restaurant in my opinion. Yes, it could have just been our choices that we made on this night, but the prices were also a little out of whack here. The serving size of Katie's fish did not warrant a thirty dollar price tag, and mine should have been a few dollars less than the $24 I had to pay for the meal and the meatballs to make it a more interesting dish. I'm sure the prices are a result of this high traffic area right across from the mission, but I'm not going to help pay their rent by eating average cuisine. Service was good though, and since this restaurant has such a nice patio out front, this might be more of a spot to grab a drink and some appetizers, rather than getting a full meal.

Out of five peppers, (because the largest California pepper tree in the US, once resided at the mission across the street until 2005), five being best to zero being worst, Ciao Pasta gets 2.5 peppers. Maybe they can use these peppers to bring some life to some of their dishes.

For more information about Ciao Pasta, go to their website here: http://www.ciaopasta.net/

Hanging at Hollingshead's Before Hockey

Hollingshead's

368 Main Street

Orange, CA 92868

Around this time every year I get more and more excited. The dreaded holidays are long past, I'd usually say that the weather is getting warmer, but it never gets cold here, and the hockey season is ending, and then the real games begin, playoff games. A great time of year.

We split our season tickets three ways, so that's 15 different dinner options before games. Most of the time we are running a little behind, because Katie gets out of work late, or there's traffic. On those game days we usually just drive through somewhere and eat in the parking lot. On this afternoon however, Katie was off of work, and we decided to try a new place, Hollingshead's.

Hollingshead's is definitely not new though. They have been in this spot for a long while, and before that they were on Tustin Avenue, also in the city of Orange. All together they have been in business since 1963. That's a long time. They were well ahead of the curve when it came to serving a wide variety of beers, like a lot of places these days. They offer up 500 different bottled beers, along with 22 beers on tap. They specialize in hard to find German, Belgian, and American micro-beers.

What has brought us here tonight though is their sandwich counter. I believe it was in one of their Best of OC issues, that the OC Weekly had one of Hollingshead's sandwiches listed as best in OC, and I jotted it down.  We arrived here to a packed house on a recent Friday night at 5. We were greeted by the very personable owner and proprietor, Ken. After some small talk about his beloved Packers and the Ducks, we got down to the business of ordering sandwiches.

Their sandwich menu is divided into four tiers, going from basic sandwiches, to more complex ones. Single sandwiches start at $5.99 and go up to $8.99, while they also offer double versions from $10.99 to $16.99. Since I was going to be having two sandwiches, I would be staying away from their doubles. We grabbed a seat out front and waited for our sandwiches to be ready. After about a ten minute wait, this is what came out to our table.

Katie was immediately captivated by this Demon Sandwich ($5.99) which was near the top of the menu, so I don't even believe that she took a look at the other sandwiches on there. This one came with pastrami, turkey, Swiss, mayo, mustard, lettuce, and tomato. It usually comes on a roll, but Katie requested that it come on rye. She liked this sandwich, but kind of felt she needed to order a double the next time she comes here. She called this a working man's kind of sandwich. Not a fancy sandwich, but still solid. She also tried out the Deviled Eggs ($1.49), which she was very pleased with. She really enjoyed the touch of mustard that elevated these above regular deviled eggs.

I started things off with the first sandwich that I had written down on my list, the Beef and Blue ($7.99). I heard about this sandwich long ago from my very good friend Ryan, who listed this as one of the best sandwiches he has had. It came on sourdough, with roast beef, blue cheese, mayo, and lettuce. This was a very good sandwich, but the blue cheese really overpowered near the end. Big time flavor though. It might have been made better with a little extra mayo, but at least this way the roast beef stood out a little more. I also got a Half Pint of Potato Salad ($2.49) to go along with my two sandwiches. Ken told me that this was his mothers recipe, and they did her proud with this one. Very creamy, the potatoes were fork tender, and they limited the amount of mustard in this version, which combined to make this a great potato salad. A throwback to the potato salad of yesteryear, where they don't try to do too much with it.

The other sandwich I had written down was the Great Scott ($8.99). This is the one that made the OC Weekly. It came with smoked turkey, Swiss cheese, bacon, avocado, mayo, honey mustard, lettuce, and onion, on squaw bread. This different take on a turkey club was pretty good as well, but was a little on the bland side compared to the beef and blue. The meats here are sliced fresh, but I'd like a little heavier hand when adding the condiments. Looking at the bread, I did not think it would be able to handle the contents of the sandwich, but it did an admirable job.

Even though I had two sandwiches, and the potato salad, I could not resist one of their Double Fudge Brownies ($1.19) that was sitting by the register. I'm glad I followed my gut by getting one of these. This brownie was very good. Great texture, very fresh, and a chocolate lovers dream. I almost went back in to get another one, but we were already running a little late to the Duck's game, so that will have to wait for next time.

Yes, there will be a next time that we come back to Hollingshead's. I'm interested to see the double versions of these sandwiches on upcoming visits here, but for this trip the singles were fine. Having the single versions enabled me to try two sandwiches on this night. With a menu of 30 plus sandwiches on it, I look forward to finding my favorite ones here. We were greeted right away by Ken, who made us feel like long time customers in this cozy spot behind the Duke's, at Main and Culver. Sometimes these kind of places tend to be a little cliquey, but that was not the case at Hollingshead's. We really appreciate the warm welcome Ken. Now on to the best time of the year for us, the hockey playoffs.

Out of five drive-in theaters, (because the drive-in was invented by Richard Hollingshead in Camden, New Jersey in 1933), five being best to zero being worst, Hollingshead's gets 3 drive-in theaters.

For more information about Hollingshead's, go to their website here: http://www.hollingsheadsdeli.com/index.html