Country Family Cafe in Anaheim: Decent Chilaquiles for Breakfast

I'm going to feature the eats from OC every day of the week -- the good, the bad and the ugly. Today's entry: Country Family Cafe in Anaheim. It's close enough to the hotel area but also far enough that it's not a zoo, as in tourist trap.

We wanted a low-key diner-type place for breakfast-y goodies and this place hit the spot. The vegetable omelet was just above average but the clincher was the chilaquiles.

Crispy tortilla chips topped with tomato sauce with cheese paired with scrambled eggs and perfectly browned potatoes and refried beans. I liked that the potatoes weren't oversalted.

I cleaned up my plate nicely.

Just don't expect the coffee to be any good, or the juice, for that matter. Ok, they could have used a better salsa too but let's look at the bright side.

Food+Lab in WeHo: Good For a Ham Gruyere Omelet + Latte-Kind of Brunch

I've always driven by Food+Lab, a cafe in West Hollywood that I finally visited and gave it my thumbs up.

Sure, it had its downsides, like mixing freshly squeezed orange juice with concentrate, which shouldn't be done. It offered many different kinds of juices, but the bad experience with the OJ didn't make me want to try the pomegranate or other good-sounding ones. But overall, it was a respectable breakfast/brunch spot with decent coffee and omelets.

We got the omelet with avocado, fresh cheese and another one with ham and gruyere cheese. The ham -- and there were layers and layers of it, to my delight -- was very good and took me back to Paris (maybe it was because it was called Paris Ham and I became a victim to marketing), or at least those really cool complimentary breakfast buffets they have at European hotels where they have all sorts of yummy cold cuts displayed next to the cheeses.

But I digress. So the ham was good but I was surprised to see slices of gruyere cheese in my omelet, which for $10 should really be shredded rather than be layered like the ham. So there wasn't much stringiness to the cheese -- in fact, the layers got lumped and stuck and made it clunky to eat.

As much as the flavors melded well, I prefer the ingredients to be incorporated into the omelet batter rather than have a cooked omelet as a pocket for the ham and cheese. Ok, I'm getting picky but again, it's these small things that make an omelet a great omelet.

I did like that it came with a green salad, although I wouldn't have minded having the option of hash browns or home fries. The omelet came with two sad slices of bread, one like a sourdough and another walnut raisin. They were both good but should be heated when served.

Coffee was good -- it came in what could only be described as a bowl. Here's your bowl of latte...

Good vibe and decor, with a nice outdoor patio that I hope to visit on warmer days. Parking lot in the back and it also sells packed ham and ready-made food to go. Ah, I may try some of its picnic fare for the Bowl this summer. Looked promising.

Silver Lakers -- it has a location in your hood too.

Cooking: A High-Fiber and Delish Alternative to Bagel + Lox

I love having lox for breakfast but I'm sometimes deterred by the denseness and heavy carbs of the bagel it usually comes with. While I love me a great bagel (with everything on it, of course), I like to switch things up once in a while and use wheat toast or lavash bread (Armenian flat bread) to similar effect.

A while ago, I ran into an hors d'oeuvres recipe for a lavash roll that only added cream cheese, arugula and pickled ginger (the kind served at sushi joints). I served it at parties and it was a huge crowd pleaser for the creamy and tangy flavor combinations that sounds gross but was really good. Somewhere along the way, my sister improvised by adding smoked salmon to the mix. A natural extension, right?

And so the alternative lox sandwich was born. I was elated to find that the whole wheat lavash bread I got had a whopping 18g of dietary fiber!

They're so easy to make, taste great and are a great start to a long day of work or outdoor activities. I went a step further and experimented with a bunch of different combinations, adding red leaf lettuce, perilla leaves, avocado, cucumbers and pickled sliced jalapenos (basically anything I had in my fridge). Or if you don't  have much, just cream cheese and salmon works (pictured left).

To make (or assemble, really), cut a large piece of lavash bread off, spread cream cheese in a rectangular area (I used low-fat that tasted just as good), place whatever ingredients you have, smoked salmon (I used wild Alaskan sockeye salmon -- thank you Costco!), pickled ginger, avocado, cucumber and jalapenos and roll it up. Then slice them into once-inch rolls and enjoy! I had mine with an over-easy egg, which went well. Then again, I could have a fried egg with anything and it'd taste good.

Cooking: Egg and Bread are All You Need for a Tres Bon Breakfast

I had the best soft-boiled egg when I went to Paris a few years ago. The cafe served it with baguette, cut into finger-thin pieces, toasted and with a generous spread of butter over them. I cracked the egg and dipped the bread into the oozing yolk. That stuck in my mind and I've been trying to recreate it ever since.

Of course, baguette and butter that good are hard to come by. I've experimented with different kinds of bread, butter and even tried it with olive oil. It takes me back every time.


I recently craved a simple breakfast that doesn't involve chopping any vegetables or anything too elaborate. So I soft-boiled the eggs -- it's important to submerge the eggs (I cooked two), lower the heat once the water reaches a boiling point and boil for another 3-5 minutes max. If you leave it for any longer than that, it won't have the oozy consistency that lets you dip your bread. If you like super oozy, do 3 minutes, if you like some oozy, do 5.

I also drizzled the bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar instead of butter and it tasted great. A "cafe creme" would have been the perfect accompaniment to this breakfast, although I just had diluted grapefruit juice.

Enjoy!

Brunch Roundup: Best and Worst Pancakes in West LA

I usually don't like to go out for breakfast or brunch but circumstances have "forced" me to eat out on these occasions and as a result, I've sampled seven places famous and not.

Here's my rundown:


BEST FRENCH TOAST
Although I can't say I've tried all joints offering French toast, I can safely say that Amandine Cafe on Wilshire serves up a pretty good one. It's two slices of what tasted and looked like brioche bread, well-toasted on the outside and soft on the inside, and you can top it with your fruit of choice (I chose bananas once and strawberries another time). The cappuccino was also good. I would skip the omelet and stick with what it does best. The plain and chocolate croissants weren't bad but not as good as in Bread Bar.

The space is a bit cramped but it has its own parking lot so that's always a draw. I haven't tried the sweets but I'm sure they do a decent job of those.

BEST BREAKFAST SAUSAGE
I liked Bread and Porridge's sausage that are locally made gourmet sausages that come in seven varieties. Being a spice fiend, I, of course, chose spicy Portuguese and it didn't disappoint. Besides being a good sausage to begin with, the sausage was grilled to perfection, complete with beautiful grill marks. As I bit into it, I tasted the smokiness from the grill and the juiciness from the inside exploded with spicy and salty flavors.

The nice thing about this place was that it didn't look like the kind of place that would but accompanied with our order came a small bowl of black beans and another bowl of pico de gallo -- that wonderful fresh salsa! Unexpected but a very pleasant surprise that definitely complemented the food very nicely.

The other stuff, on the other hand, were nothing to write home about, including its supposedly famous corn bread, which was bland and dry, and its pancakes, which were mediocre.

BEST PANCAKES
Speaking of which, I'm not even a huge pancake person but I have to give it up for John O' Groats close to Westside Pavillion for making the lightest and fluffiest buttermilk pancakes this side of town. Its biscuits aren't bad either, but its ethereal pancakes will lift up your spirits, no doubt.

BEST EXOTIC BREAKFAST/BRUNCH SPOT
Ok, maybe the corn-based arepas from Venezuela aren't that exotic. But when you're not in the mood for the same ol' same ol', head over to Coupa Cafe in Beverly Hills for some hearty Venezuelan fare.

There is a special breakfast arepa that comes with scrambled eggs, gouda cheese and bacon. Not your thing? An item called perico has an arepa with scrambled eggs, peppers, onions and tomatoes. The latter, according to the menu, is allegedly a favorite dish of the new big-haired conductor at the Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel, who's Venezuelan.

It's worth trying their other non-breakfast-y items like empanada, which is deep fried corn dough filled with anything from ground beef, chicken to "fresh young shark," which I haven't tried.


The pabellon, filled with shredded beef, black beans, sweet fried plantains and queso paisa (stringy white cheese), was delicious. I also liked the sauces it came with, some infused with cilantro, parsley and some kick. Gotta love kick.

The Venezuelan coffee was not too shabby either. It also has outdoor seating, which makes for good people watching, if that's your thing. On one lazy Sunday a while back, I saw a sunglasses-wearing Julianne Moore walking by. So LA...

BEST BRUNCH BUFFET
If you don't really know what to eat but want something healthy and good, go for a drive to Malibu and get thee to Inn of the Seventh Ray.

It's run by a bunch of new age hippies who appreciate solidly-made food. I usually don't like buffets unless it's Indian food, but this one had a variety of interesting salads, grilled vegetables and flavorful sauces that came with grilled fish. I didn't mind the steamed crab legs that I made sure to grab enough of. Another perk is the beautiful outdoor surrounding. You're smack in the middle of nature. It's also romantic if you need an unusual date spot. The ocean-side drive there filled with greenery is also spectacular. I felt transported out of the urban craziness and into the serene nature.

Now for the duds --places that get a lot of raves for certain specialties but did nothing for me. Wouldn't return to any of them.

Most overrated pancakes, fried chicken and waffles: Pann's Restaurant (Dry chicken, flat pancakes and waffles and hash browns that were drowning in bad-quality butter.)

Most overrated (and overpriced) pastries: Huckleberry (I love Rustic Canyon, as you may recall my recent post raving about its burger that just may rival my all-time favorite one at Houston's. But the brunch items were bland and weak.)

Worst overall brunch experience: Jack n Jill (That this place has lines despite poor food and mediocre service is a clear indication of a dearth of good brunch places in Santa Monica. So unremarkable.)

Euro Pane: Best Croissant it is Not

I admit I had high expectations for Europane, the venerable bakery in Pasadena whose chocolate croissants sell out so quickly I haven't yet sunk my teeth into one. Maybe I should defer my review until then, but I have to say, if the chocolate croissants are anything like its regular croissants that I have tried, I haven't been impressed. Breadbar has a far superior croissant. It wasn't as flaky or buttery and just didn't do the trick. Europane's quiche was no contest to Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, which is as delicious as it is decadent. The macademia nut tart was too hard and not seasoned right. Its sandwiches sounded good on paper -- roast beef with horseradish sauce on cranberry walnut bread. The bread was fantastic -- fresh and flavorful. The sandwich? Not so much. Meat was hard to bite into because of all these connective tissues and it was a bit bland. Still, Europane seems to be doing something right to expand to an Old Town location that's decidedly bigger. I just need more flavor that lives up to its hype.

Anisette: Where's the Chorizo?

The first time I went to Anisette a few months ago, the much-hyped brasserie by the beach in Santa Monica served mediocre food and to say that the service was slow and inefficient is an understatement. Was the brasserie so authentic as to offer French service too? What a downer.



This time around, however, it seemed like they had gotten their act together compared to when they had just opened. Service was not fantastic like at The Bazaar, but at least moderately timely. The food (I only went for brunch so can't speak for lunch or dinner) was good, if not spare in its portions. I'm no fan of the massive all-American breakfasts, but to have only 4 slivers of very thinly sliced (Spanish) chorizo just doesn't cut it for this carnivore. The poached eggs on a bed of polenta with chorizo and red pepper coulis were an interesting mix of flavors and textures. The oozing egg yolks that popped as you mixed it with the polenta made the polenta creamier with a bit of saltiness. The chorizo added crunchiness as well as a much-needed saltiness and slight spiciness to the mix -- I just wished they were heftier or there were more of them! Once I quickly ran out of my slivers, I used the pepper coulis as a salsa equivalent to flavor the polenta and eggs. I liked it but my only recommendation would be to add more kick to the coulis so it adds more flavor. After all, isn't that what a relish should do?

Oh, and I take issue with the fact that bread doesn't come with the dishes. The breads are indeed very good, as all brasserie breads should be. Its croissants are very good -- buttery, crunchy and soft at the same time as you tear away layers of the beauty. The Eggs Benedict were nothing to write home about. They were ok but not as good as the polenta eggs.

My favorite part of the restaurant is its true Brasserie-like look and feel, straight out of Paris or SoHo (a-la-Balthazar). I may return for the lunch or dinner menu but not anytime soon. When I want a smaller-portioned breakfast/brunch with good bread, I'll return.

The French folks in the table next to us seemed to dislike the service with a passion and couldn't stop complaining to themselves and to the waiter about how the bread was over-toasted and the coffee wasn't right. "Mais il est con!" the old lady kept saying about the waiter.

Anisette
(310) 395-3200
225 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Beretta Overshadows Bar Tartine in SF

I've always believed that L.A. is a better eating city than San Francisco (I know I'll be flamed for this) but there are definitely some things you just can't get here, like an incredibly juicy Hot Link from Top Dog, the wonderfully cheesy and tomato-ey Chicago-style deep dish pizzas from Zachary's Pizza in Berkeley or the sumptuous quiches, bread puddings and crunchy breads at Tartine Bakery. So naturally, I headed straight for the oldies and also made some new discoveries along the way at Beretta.


Before I even go into new discoveries, let's take a moment to appreciate the classics, so perfect that you can't help but return over and over again -- even if it means standing in line in cramped quarters. Yes, that's the downside and the charm of Tartine bakery. It's a quaint little place where lines begin forming early even on weekdays. The quiches are incredibly hearty, creamy, perfectly salty with a crunchy top. There's something in that dairy (creme fraiche) the bakery uses. I think this is a case of excellent ingredients combined to produce the most exquisite breakfast, brunch, snack, whatever. I'm not even a big quiche person but no matter. I can't get enough! Then there are the plain and chocolate croissants and amazingly delicious bread pudding. I've tried the banana and apple bread puddings and I like the banana one better but they're both solid. I got greedy and brought one chocolate croissant to L.A. and can I say, that following morning's breakfast in my car was one of the best I've had in a while? Warm croissant with coffee for the road...Traffic? What traffic?

Finding a new gem is almost as satisfying as the tried and true and thanks to my foodie hosts, I did just that at Beretta. As much as I like the deep-dish pizzas, I am more particular to thin-crusted ones that aren't as heavy. I initiallly didn't think I'd like the combination of potato, rosemary, radicchio and crescenza that much but behold the first photo on top. Isn't that a beauty? We substituted gorgonzola on the menu with the creamy crescenza cheese I don't I was familiar. Apparently it had been recommended by a food critic and she was right on. The razor-thin slices of fingerling potatoes with the rosemary and grilled radicchio (which I usually find too bitter raw) all mixed with the buttery texture of the crescenza cheese were fabulous.

The cannellini beans and pancetta with pepper bruschette was also the right combination of salty and creamy with a bit of a bite. A note to self was to cook more with cannellini beans, especially in mashed form, since they're good for you and tasted so good here. Another revelation was the porcini mushroom risotto with barbera (red Italian wine grape variety). Everything about it was right -- the deep mushroom flavor, the creamy texture and the al-dente rice pellets, dyed a light burgundy from the barbera with a touch of grape flavor. It was so comforting, much like jjuk, Chinese or Korean porridge, only its flavors were stronger.

One thing that was off, however, was the margherita with burrata pizza. This is my favorite kind of pizza and my pizza-meter, if you will, since everyone has it on the menu and mastering this most basic pizza would pretty much be a vote of confidence for everything else. Complicated California-style pizzas a-la-Wolfgang Puck? No, thank you. Although the crust was great and the burrata was creamy like buttah, this margherita had too much tomato sauce that it overpowered everything. The crust and burrata reminded me of the margherita I had at Pizzeria Mozza, which was very good albeit overpriced.

A slight disappointment was Tartine Bakery's offshoot, Bar Tartine, which served mediocre food with inefficient and somewhat snooty service. We had many things with long and fancy names like cauliflower soup with meyer lemon, piment d’espelette and cilantro pistou; truffled grill cheese with king trumpet mushrooms, thyme, red onion and small salad; Liberty farm duck confit panini with blood orange marmalade, mizuna and shoestring fries; open face pork belly sandwich with avocado, egg salad, pickled jalapeno and shoestring fries and polenta hash with braised brisket, celery sofrito, parsley and fried eggs.

I lament to say that the best thing about the restaurant was the bread -- fresh and sturdy peasant bread with a great crust and moist interior. Much better than La Brea bakery and on par with Acme or Balthazar's bread in NYC. The duck confit panini was completely overpowered by the blood orange marmalade, which was a very bad match -- stuck out like a sore thumb. The open faced pork belly sandwich was ok but a royal pain to eat (open faced sandwiches simply should not exist). The polenta hash with braised brisket was probably the best dish by a small margin. I think the fried eggs did it for me. Like Anthony Bourdain said in a recent episode, "is there anything that doesn't taste better with an addition of a gratuitous egg?"










The soup looked beautiful and tasted decent but a bit thin and not as deeply flavored as it could have been. The shoestring fries were virtually cold, my biggest pet peeve being served lukewarm food that's been sitting underneath the lamp. They tasted kind of stale too. Unacceptable. The grilled cheese sandwich was good but not transporting. Next time I'm in town, I'll probably skip Bar Tartine (maybe give it a second chance for dinner) and go for the crusty pizzas at Beretta and dessert (or breakfast or brunch) at Tartine Bakery.

Beretta
1199 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 695-1199

Bar Tartine
561 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 487-1600

Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 487-2600

Eating Healthy at a Westwood Greasy Spoon

I'm on a roll with comfort food. Next up, we head to our trusty ol' brunch destination, the no-frills, 50's-themed greasy spoon where portions are decidedly huge and atmosphere student-friendly: Headlines Diner & Press Club, aka. Headlines. Unless you're a truck-driver or a college student with a voracious appetite and sky-high metabolism, one order of the omelet should be enough to feed two.

My favorite omelet is the healthy omelet, which isn't that healthy save for the fact that it has vegetables. It also has optional cheese that I gladly opt for.



I like that a host of chopped green bell peppers, zucchini, onions, tomatoes and avocados are fully integrated into the omelet with the cheese holding everything together. Too often I have encountered omelets where the egg is separate from the filling like a pocket and everything falls out when I lift to eat it. Believe it or not, it's pretty rare to see such well-integrated omelets, even in fancy establishments.

The omelet comes with a choice of toast or English muffin and hash browns or fruit. I usually get the wheat toast and hash browns (I can only do so much healthy). It's hard to resist the tempting pile of potatoes stacked on the griddle in the open kitchen, in plain view of customers sitting on the counter nursing their coffee. The hash browns aren't exactly the thinly-shredded-and-cooked-to-brown-perfection kind I am partial to, but they still have some brown bits and more importantly, are hearty.



If you're not a butter and jam person, extract chunks of the avocado from the omelet and spread them on your crunchy wheat toast and sprinkle with some salt. It's healthier (yes, it's a theme) and so much more flavorful! In Chile, people spread palta, or avocado, on bread all the time, not to mention hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.

I have tried other omelets but this one is my favorite. I have also tried the breakfast burrito, which come in two's and are appropriate if you're desperate but inappropriate if you're heading to East LA or Orange County, where you can get a better one for a fraction of the price.



One thing I didn't have this day but highly recommend are the classic diner fare -- curly fries. It's spicy, crispy and plentiful. What's not to like? My companions were also seduced by the inviting look of the fries on somebody else's plate. While you're at it, you may as well try the fish and chips, which are surprisingly good. Sure, Headlines is no Irish pub. But it's decent. I wouldn't get the burger, however, which was not that different from Fatburger across the street.

It gets crowded on weekends, so come before 11am and you'll be ok. I can't speak for its coffee, but I always order Naked Juice OJ, which is good enough for me. So visit your friendly neighborhood diner, sit on the counter and devour that massive omelet. Occasionally, you'll sit next to hung over kids or extremely loud kids, but they're generally innocuous. Besides, it's owned by Koreans so we support the peeps and it's run by the super-efficient and friendly Mendez brothers, who have worked there for years and love soccer.