wild goodness + food party + little trees

Updates! I'm looking for a new apartment in an exciting neighborhood. Rededicating myself to Squid Ink and taking on new responsibilities at the Academy. Is it too early to say the bounce is back?

Food Party Hostess Thu Tran at Everything Is Festival Tomorrow

Wild Goodness Food X Film Series: Chicken Screen Tests + Scorsese Meatballs

And this one. To which I contributed a sweet little nugget of my origins story:

Squid Ink Food Writers' Most Reviled Childhood Dinners

Western Spaghetti

I'm embarrassed. This video made the internet rounds two years ago and yet I saw it for the first time this weekend. I'm sharing it here because it's wonderful and because I'm sure that somewhere there exists another person who has not seen it. I refuse to believe I'm the only person who doesn't troll the youtubes.

Cakes for my Betty Draper New England fantasy life

In my younger years I often wished that I had grown up on the east coast.  Somewhere in New England, my hair would be longer and thicker and my bangs more blunt.  I'd take tennis lessons of course, and crew.   Competitors would fear my level head and quiet power; my coach would have been an alternate for the '84 Olympic team in both sports.  My friends, Madison (Maddie), Bernice (Bertie), and Caroline would always dress in whites or pastels, which would never get dirty, even when picking berries.  On weekends, we'd head for the cape. 

At 25, I'm super proud to be a Californian.  I love soccer and brown skin and garlic.  If I were to get a tattoo, I'd get a California silhouette somewhere on my inner arm so that when I shook someone's hand he'd know what's up.  I still love the fantasy of New England mothers ironing white linen tablecloths, planning theme parties and icing cakes.  And this is why I'm thankful for the internet, and JCrew.

Both cakes via Poppytalk.  Top, inspired by Stella McCartney's spring collection, Apollina created Stella Cake (a Citrus Cake with Lemon Curd Filling and Orange Lemon Icing).  Bottom, a DIY tutorial from Strawberry Chic shows how to make frosting roses.

petite douche avec ton pilsner

I once had a boyfriend who told me that bar soap was unsanitary. But he was an extremist. We disagreed about a lot of things.

Read Lather with Lager: Give Him Beer Soap for Father's Day, my new post about soap made from beer on Squid Ink.

The one where Aaron gets a title and is quoted

Followers of Live and Active Cultures have gotten pretty accustomed to Emma's colossal presence on the LA blogosphere as one of Squid Ink's finest, but this time, it's yours truly who's making his own tiny-but-mighty foray into internet stardom. Yup, I just got one of my photos featured in LA Times' food and culture mag, Brand X, in an article about non-alcoholic summer drinks. The cafe where I work, Espresso Cielo, was featured because we serve some of the best iced coffee around and happen to use one of the coolest-looking ways to make it, Kyoto-style cold brew drip tower. Anyway, Brand X emailed the shop and asked us for pictures of it, which is, naturally, where I came in. And to boot, the piece also included a little something I said about what coffees make good cold brew coffee.

If there's one thing I've learned working in coffee, it's that coffee people are obsessed with two things: great tasting coffee (duh) and gadgets they use to make it. For me, the Kyoto process is both of these things, the perfect marriage of amazing taste and crazy-awesome-doohickeydom. Room temperature water drips through coarse coffee grounds over about ten hours. Every coffee, of course, tastes different, but the process tends to yield a really smooth, sweet, and bright cup. The best ones taste almost like fruit teas or pure cocoa. Plus, since there's no heat or pressure to break down caffeine molecules, it's a real kick in the pants. Really, it's the perfect drink for those long summer days of grab-ass at the beach. 

Also: weird to be referred to as "Barista Aaron Stein-Chester." Like, who is that guy?

cookieboy

Some hope to see their name in lights. I'd be happy with my face on a cookie.

These by Japanese textile designer turned baker, cookieboy.  Are they Conan O'Brian and Jay Leno? His work is usually less mysterious--birds and cameras and feathers and things--but his blog is in Japanese so we may never know.

photographic dinner at Akasha

Quinoa with asparagus, snap peas, corn, and tamari grilled tofu $12.  Don't judge me.


THE AKASHA crop organic cucumber vodka, pineapple & cucumber juice, martini style $11