Bananas for Beating the Bruins

Friday was a big day for all of my besties on the Women's Varsity Tennis Team.  The women of troy defeated cross town rival, UCLA on their home courts to finish up their PAC12 tournament.  The killed them 6-1 and ended the tournament with a 10-0 record.  That's right, they're beastly.  Of course I went to the match to show my support.  I even brought my sign that I made for them!  I love cheering for Sabrina (my freshman roommate) and GuGu!  They are both amazing players to watch.  They've inspired me to want to play on the club tennis team next year.

My signs! 

As mentioned before, Gugu loves sweets.  She is also a big fan of pancakes.  Her favorite restaurant is Jacks N Joe, the "Breakfast All Day Kind of Place" right on Figueroa by campus.  When the owners and staff know you at the restaurant, you know you're a regular.  GuGu is usually joined by Michael Tang, a member of the boys tennis team, for their love of the most important meal of the day.

To celebrate her victory, I met both of them at Jacks N Joe early friday morning.  If you visit this restaurant Saturday or Sunday you can have a wait up to an hour and forty five minutes.  It's very popular with SC students.  It is also one of the top restaurant that comes up when you searching for breakfast on Yelp in DTLA.

Even though we showed up around 8:45 on a Friday, we still had a 30 min wait.  When we were finally seated at the counter, I noticed that a lot of the tables were actually empty.  The food is always delivered quite quickly, they must just have a really slow turnaround for the seating.  People like to talk a lot over their breakfast, and I think they are a little understaffed in waiters/busboys.

The second the waiter came over to ask for our drink orders, we already knew what we wanted.  Michael ordered the  Combo #1.  He is usually Gluten Free, but thought it would be ok to celebrate with some pancakes, just for GuGu's sake.  GuGu ordered The Pudgie Elvis.  A lot of the pancakes are named after the owner's dogs, but this one is dedicated to the King and his love for peanut butter.  She also asked for some chocolate chips to be sprinkled in the batter.  Who doesn't love the chocolate peanut butter combo?  I've had it before and I must say, it's pretty delicious.  Very rich and heavy, but if you're in the mood for peanut butter, it is definitely the way to go.

Jack's Banana Pancakes
3 pancakes with banana puree topped w/ fresh bananas, walnuts & powdered sugar.

I ordered Jack's Banana Pancakes, without the walnuts.  I've never tried this dish before, but was intrigued by the banana puree inside the cakes.  I must say that I really enjoyed them.  The puree adds some sweetness to the dish, making it not require much syrup.  I usually get the Chloe's Blues dish, with blueberry puree and sweet lemon butter, but I wanted to mix it up.

Besides the Pudgie Elvis, some of the favorite dishes on the menu are the "Fight On!" pancakes (containing bacon in the mix) and the 7 minutes in Heaven French Toast, sweet hawaiian bread covered in Nutella and fresh fruit.  I know a lot of the boys also like to order the Loaded Hash Browns (actually not on the menu).  Which is some potato mix with bacon, sausage, egg, and cheese (I believe?).

Michael, GuGu and I at the counter!

It's really nice having a good breakfast place close to campus.  Because we are mainly surrounded by fast food chain restaurants, Jacks N Joe is a fun and family owned nice establishment.  The service is always very friendly, especially because we are regulars.  I'd really like to try some breakfast/brunch places downtown, in Beverly Hills, and Hollywood, but Jacks N Joe is great for meeting up with school friends!

Hillstone and HIP

Although USC does not have a hospitality school, I am fortunate enough to be a member of HIP (The Hospitality Industry Project).  Because of diving, I have never really had enough time to go to any of the events.  Last year I attended one at the end of the year where a panel of event planners from the Los Angeles area came and talked to us about the industry and their professions.  I thought it was really interesting and could definitely identify myself with the personalities and characteristics that they carried as professionals.  Organized, committed, impatient, energetic, type a (yep, that's me).  But as you can tell from this blog, my true passion is for restaurants.  Today was very exciting for me, I basically decided that my ultimate goal is to either work in management of a restaurant, or own one myself. 

As part of the club, I submitted my resume to the head of HR at the Hillstone Restaurnat Group, and was selected with nine other members for an information session and tasting at the Houston’s location in Pasadena.  I felt extremely fortunate that I was able to be included in this exclusive event .  We were greeted by the head of HR and operations manager, who gave us a detailed overview of the company as a whole. and the main focus of their restaurants.  I love how they pride themselves on having the freshest ingredients delivered everyday, and how everything is made completely from scratch.  They only have one small freezer in the entire kitchen, but it carries the most important food group of all-ICE CREAM!  Of course I was the one to answer that question.  We were then given a tour of the dining area, kitchen, and garden outside.  They grow enough arugula and mint for the entire restaurant.  And I must say, the arugula had the most distinct taste to it.  It was almost spicy!  After learning about the internship opportunity (which I will definitely be applying for), we were seated for lunch.

Dole

Chicago Spinach Dip with
chips, salsa, and sour cream.

When the event said that we were getting a tasting, I assumed we would get to sample some of the dishes.  Surprisingly, they catered a full on lunch to us (all on the house)!  We were seated in the back booths, as the rest of the restaurant quickly filled with other friday lunch goers.  Our waiter was super friendly and seemed very enthusiastic about his job.  I asked him how long he had been working there and he said that he's been with Hillstone for 13 years, but serving at Houston's for 10.  I couldn't believe it! That really tells you something about how the company treats their employees. He then said that we might as well call him Grandpa (which I proceeded to do for the rest of the meal).  I usually just order water with my meals when I got out, because I like to keep to keep my palate clean when I am tasting food, but this one drink the waiter described was too delicious sounding to pass up.  It's called a Dole, half lemonade/half pomegranate juice.  The perfect combination of sweet and tart.  
Our waiter then brought us some appetizers to snack on while we pondered the menu.  We started with the spinach dip and chips and the grilled artichoke.  Mike, the co-president of the club loves the dip from previous dining experiences, and said we must include the salsa on the chips too.  I'm usually not a huge spinach dip person, just because how cheesy it is, but this was by far the best textured and tasty dip I've ever had.  It was not as heavy as the usual spinach-cheese concoction, which made it a better appetizer (instead of a complete tummy filler).  The grilled artichokes are delicious.  I've always been a fan of artichokes and dip because my mom makes them at home all the time.  She just roasts the whole thing, but at Houston's they are split up and almost charred.  Gives it a nice smokey taste, which I love.  I actually had this appetizer last time I was at Bandera in Westwood with my mom and two friends, Kate and GuGu.  I was really surprised when a lot of the other club members said they'd never had an artichoke before, and I had to explain to them how to eat it.

Salmon Mango Roll

Coconut Shrimp Roll & Grilled Arichoke

Hiramasa Roll

Here comes the sushi.  I am usually reluctant to order sushi in a non-japenese restaurant, but my mind was blown.  My all time favorite sushi restaurant is the original Katsuya in North Hollywood.  These rolls came pretty close.  We were served the
coconut shrimp roll, the Hiramasa Roll, and the Salmon Mango roll.   Unfortunately I couldn't try the Shrimp roll, but everyone said it was really interesting.  And I didn't go for the Salmon one because there was a lot of asparagus in it, which I am not a big fan of.  The Hiramasa roll, on the other hand, was mouth watering.  I believe it was a spicy tuna roll with yellowfin tuna on top.  Like the best sushi out there, it basically melted in your mouth.  I didn't want to fill up too much, because I had a feeling a lot more food was coming out. I stuck with two pieces along with tasting the other appetizers.
Then it came down to the toughest decision: what to order for our meal.  All throughout the info session, everyone was recommending several dishes and even walking through the kitchen, my nose was bombarded with delicious aromas.  For me, it was between the Famous French Dip and the Crispy Chicken Sandwich.  I took this opportunity to order more of a lunch type dish than an entree because I don't usually dine out midday.  I went with the Chicken Sandwich.  Tambi, the HR rep said it was new to the menu, and very popular.  With fries on the side, this sandwich blew Chick-fila out of the water.  Although it was ginormous, it wasn't too heavy.  The salad slaw on the onion bun was creamy, yet light and the chicken was lightly breaded and grilled to perfection.  The fries were very skinny, and although not my favorite fries ever (not crispy enough for me) they were a perfect compliment to the sandwich.  Of course I ate them all.  House made ketchup and a spiced sort of mayo were included, both great on the fries.  I was able to eat 2 out of the three slices, and got a box for the remaining.

Ding's Crispy Chicken Sandwich with fries.

 The whole meal Tambi kept checking up on us, and continued to recommend the harvest cheesecake. Even though we didn't say anything, everyone was definitely too full for dessert.  But being the best hosts ever, Grandpa proceeded to bring out all three desserts on the menu. Set in front of us was the Warm-Five Nut Brownie, Apple Walnut Cobbler, and Harvest Cheesecake.  All three were great.

Apple Walnut Cobbler

Warm-Five Nut Brownie Sundae

The brownie sundae was rich and creamy.  My favorite of the three was the Apple Walnut Cobbler, not a huge walnut fan, but the apple pie dessert always gets me.  Something about the sweetness with the tart and cinnamon, warmed up with ice cream on top.  Can't get much better than that.  It's like a match made  in heaven.  The Harvest Cheesecake interestingly wasn't made with pumpkin (it was a butternut squash).  Completely original and exotic! Was a great fall dessert and I definitely recommend it while they still have it on the menu (and everyone is still obsessed with pumpkin like desserts).   Overall I had an amazing time at the restaurant.  The tour and session with the two employees was very informative and I officially fell in love with the industry.  The food was amazing and I will definitely have to visit more of the Hillstone Restaurants soon! 

Harvest Cheesecake

                 

Gjelina with GuGu

GuGu and I before going out one night.

Guilana (GuGu) is one of my close friends on the tennis team.  This week she asked if I could give her a ride to Santa Monica for an appointment.  Luckily, midterm season was finally over, so tuesday quickly turned into an adventure.  After finishing up some of her business, near the Third Street Promenade, we decided to get dinner because traffic on the 10 was going to be horrible either way.  Although both of us weren't dressed to attend a 5 five star restaurant (SC workout gear), we were craving some quality food.  Actual Gjelina, was a little out of the price range for our casual tuesday night, but that didn't mean we couldn't enjoy some of the delicious food the iconic restaurant has to offer.
I have been to Gjelina before, once with my family and some friends for dinner.  Completely loved all of the small side dishes we shared with the table.  I believe I ordered a lamb dish for my entree, thinking it would taste somewhat like my mom's baby lamb chops (don't know what I was thinking).

Can see recipe here: http://gailsgalley.blogspot.com/2012/10/best-lil-lamb-chops.html  Although the dish was still delicious, it was a little bit to gamey tasting for me.  I will definitely have to go back and try again, which I am sure I will blog about in the future.  They did have some of the best apple pie I have ever tasted.  I'm pretty sure I ate more than half of my sister LuLu's dessert.
Gjelina Take Away is a restaurant I have visited many times.  With its easy access, somewhat quick service (when there's no line) and consistent delicious options, it is always my go-to on Abbott Kinney. For breakfast I had had the berry scones (moist, soft, but still filling) and lunch I have tried several of the side salads (much better and less oily than offered by Lemonade on campus).  I have also tried a blackened fish sandwich on brioche, that no longer seems to be on the menu, but it melted in my mouth.

GuGu and I were feeling some pizza, so we went with our gut instinct.  I ordered the Margherita Funghi (even though I'm not that huge of a mushroom fan, I love how veggies soak up all the flavors of the sauce on a pizza).  Gugu wanted the spinach pizza, but unfortunately they were out of it for the night, so she just went for the Margherita.

Margherita Funghi.  Three
types of mushrooms,
pomodoro sauce, basil,
mozzarella, sea salt, olive
oil, dried oregano.  

While we waited for our pies, Gugu and I discussed a future business plan. With her love of sweets (she probably has the biggest sweet tooth I have ever come across.  Mad props Gugu), she eventually wants to open up her own candy store or sweet shop of some sort.  As for naming it, she claims that she came up with GuGu's Candy Bar before Dylan Lauren, but I don't think that is going to fly.  Besides the naming factor, if I ever open my own restaurant, we talked about how we could combine venues and she could own the pastry shop or milkshake bar next door, which would also cater the deserts to my place.  We did think its was funny how "Gjelina" is basically a combination of our two names (Giuliana and Celia).  Maybe another inspiration?

My pizza was hot out of the wood burning oven.  And boy do I love that taste of thin burnt crust.  The mushrooms perfectly soaked up the spice of the pomodoro sauce and the just the right amount of mozzarella was placed on top (there should always be more sauce then cheese, can't stand Dominos).  I got a little excited and took a bite before I could get my camera out. Can't even really tell in the picture though.

I love sitting outside on the crates next to the restaurant on the side of the street.  Sitting under the leaf canopy and watching all the crowds walk past really gives a good illustration of the feel to Abbott Kinney.  After we finished our pizzas, in about 5 minutes, we started heading back to the car.  Even though Giuliana had made a bet with her roommate that she could resist sweets for a whole week, I convinced her otherwise.  Once we walked into N'ice cream, it really didn't take too much convincing.

Biscotti Gelato

N'ice cream is great because it is all organic homemade gelato and sorbet to with unique flavors.  Even though I love ice cream, gelato is better for you because it is made with more milk instead of just cream.  N'ice uses organic milk and their gelato is a little lighter than usual because they use all natural ingredients and less sugar.  Giuliana was quick to ask to sample several of the more chocolately flavors.  Her choice came down to chocolate hazelnut and hazelnut chip.  She said she went with the chip because the chocolate chips really added to the texture.  I wanted to try to the apple pie gelato, which was very fresh tasting, but after trying her flavors I was craving some chocolate too.  I ordered my usual flavor from there, the Biscotti.  Biscotti is actually one of my favorite cookies. I will never turn down a soft freshly baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but there is something about a classic tea cookie that always gets to me.  I love dunking them in hot chocolate, or my favorite tea (the Market Spice Cinnamon Orange from Pike Place Market).  The biscotti flavor of the gelato mirrors a chocolate chip biscotti dipped in hot chocolate and then frozen.  Still having that chewy taste.  I even found a chunk of a cookie in my cone (it was probably the highlight of the treat).

Overall GuGu and I had a great time on our tuesday night adventure.  Unfortunately we had to head back to campus by 8, me for accounting tutoring and she was meeting some friends to study.  We will definitely have to go on another sweet escapade soon.  (Possibly Sprinkles cupcakes again?)