Champagne French Bakery Cafe - Costa Mesa, CA : New Tomato Mozzarella Tart

Saw a photo of this at the front of the store and had to try it. It's Champagne Bakery's new Tomato Mozzarella Tart. FYI their photo and my photo do not look alike. Theirs looks much better of course.

Tomato Mozzarella Tart with Spring Salad

The tart consists of sun dried tomato pesto, basil, mozzarella, and tomato on a puff pastry.  It comes with either a potato salad or spring salad. I did not particularly like the dressing for the spring salad mix. Perhaps next time I can ask for a different dressing. The tart's flavor is good. Not too salty. Their pastries are generally good and this crust's flavor was good too. It can be a bit buttery but that's how you make pastries flaky I guess. The only drawback is that fresh tomatoes can dampen your crust due to it's water content. One side of the crust was still crunchy but the other end was soggy. It's understandable with a fresh tomato though. Kind of like a pizza on a puff pastry and the flavors are still good. If you like pizza and puff pastries perhaps you will like this.

Champagne French Bakery Cafe
http://www.champagnebakery.com/home/
Location this was eaten at:
South Coast Plaza (right at the bridge Bridge of Gardens in front of Macy's, there's another one inside the mall in front of Borders)
3333 Bear Street #2505
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-427-0808

Gardening Update - Basil, Spinach, Lettuce

It's been a couple of weeks since the update of my container garden. Here's how it's growing...

Basil at 5 weeks after sprouting

Haven't been looking at the basil as much and *bam*...it's much bigger. I can almost pluck the leaves to eat...but it hasn't grown much in height...just width. Seems the purple one in the middle is much slower.

Baby Spinach

First set of spinach...heard these were easy to grow. The package said to plant the seed 1/2 inch into the soil...but I read somewhere that you don't have to do that and sometimes it doesn't sprout if you put it in 1/2 inch. So I did as this website suggested and just scratched a little in the dirt and slightly covered it up. It worked just fine...all three seeds came out (at different times though).

Baby Mesclun Lettuce

These are meant to be scattered cuz the seeds are really small...but I spread some of them apart as much as I could...I'm gonna try to grow these to maturity instead of eating baby Mesclun lettuce. Here the reddish colored ones grow slower too. Hmm....purple basil grow slower...red lettuce grows slower...I didn't realize the colored greens are slower growers. Learning something new everyday.

The trouble I'm having with my new container gardening is lack of sunlight. My patio faces northeast so I only get morning - early noon sunlight. I can get a maximum of maybe a little over 6 hours of sun right now...it is almost summer solstice so the sun is almost at its highest in the sky. A month after that it will whittle to 5 hours...and then less. It's still growing....but seems slower. I guess we'll see what happens when the sunlight decreases.

Kula Revolving Sushi Bar - Irvine, CA : What's a Vegetarian to Eat?

Revolving sushi....that can't be good...right? Well the ones in other countries are great! The food is fresh and it's fun to look at the food motoring by. I've only been to one other sushi train in the US and it wasn't so good as the food wasn't really a good quality. However, Kula Sushi is good! During mealtimes there are tons of people waiting outside. Just write your name on the sign in sheet when you enter and wait for your name to be called. Maybe because it's so busy...so the turnover of food is quick and the quality seems fresher. Everything is $2 except udon noodles, tempura, and alcohol.

Interior view from booth/table

View from the sushi bar

The sushi bar is just at the entrance. The tables/booths are further inside. It's not a huge restaurant in any sense but because food is right there...the time it takes to eat is shorter.

Tamago (Egg)

Inari

From the train I usually grab the tamago (sweet egg) and inari. I don't know why the egg has no seaweed around it. Maybe because the seaweed gets soft after a while. The inari is a seasoned tofu pocket with rice stuffed inside. It's kind of sweet.

Assorted Hand Rolls

Hand rolls are not on the sushi train. You order these from the waiter. Each one is also $2. These are fresh...so eat them right away or the nori (seaweed) may get slightly soft. The left side is The Meat-eater rolls and the right is vegetable rolls. They also have plain avocado or plain cucumber but I like the assorted veggies.

Veggie Hand Roll

The veggie hand roll includes avocado, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, rice, and sesame seeds. (That's what I can see from the picture.) They try to use organic veggies, and the quality of veggies is good...always looks pretty fresh.

Red Bean Mochi

They also have assorted desserts on the train. Fried sesame balls, candied yams, this other type of mochi and this red bean mochi. I don't like mochi but I like red bean...so I got this anyway. They also have ice-cream you can order. Mmmm...ice-cream. For the quality of the food and the price...this is a great value. Every time I go to other sushi places I think I can eat at Kula for less...and it tastes just as good.

I classified this as semi-healthy because of the white rice. If only there was brown rice mochi and brown rice sushi. I make brown rice sushi for myself at home. Ok health food places out there...get cracking! (I know Whole Foods makes brown rice sushi in case anyone wanted them pre-made.)

Kula Revolving Sushi Bar

http://www.kura-corpo.co.jp/us/

2700 Alton Parkway, Suite 133

Irvine, CA 92606

(949) 553-0747

11AM - 11PM

Marmalade Cafe - Tustin, CA : Egg White Frittata with Fresh Garden Vegetable

This was the first time I've been back to Marmalade Cafe in a while. The one in Calabasas, as I recall, was pretty good...so I wanted to try this one out. Let me start out by saying our service was not so good. I kept looking over at the next table and wishing that the girl over there was our server instead of the extremely slow guy that obviously didn't want to be there. =(

Egg White Frittata with Fresh Garden Vegetable

Included in the frittata are julienne carrots, zucchini, squash, peas, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, red onions, and basil. It comes with their Marmalade potatoes and choice of toast. I got an English muffin but didn't eat it. Now looking at this meal I thought it'd be rather healthy, but in actuality it's rather greasy. The potatoes were greasy and the eggs were greasy. I was rather disappointed. The food I had at the Calabasas Marmalade Cafe was pretty good. So it's either that the food in Tustin is not as good and/or my tastes have changed. Sadly I do not wish to go back to try anything else. But remember, this is just my opinion and tastes. Perhaps you do not think the way I do and will really enjoy the food.

Marmalade Cafe

http://www.marmaladecafe.com/home/

The location this was eaten at:

Park Ave

2667 Park Ave

Tustin, CA 92782

714-566-0100

Hours:

Sun - Thurs 8AM - 9:30PM

Fri - Sat 8AM - 10PM

Gone Sailing at OCC School of Sailing and Seamanship

Lack of blogging this week is due to the fact that I've not been in front of a computer. I've gone sailing! Taking a beginner class at the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship. I have no water experience whatsoever...(you just need basic swimming skills)...so this is all brand new to me. Learning a whole new language (cuz everything has a name and it's not what you think it is) on a Lido 14 dinghy...so you can possibly capsize your boat and and....oh so much new information to digest. Being beginners we pretty much don't know what we're doing and we make tons of mistakes. That's what these classes and instructors are for. If you don't make a mistake the instructor can't help you get better. Anyway the instructor is laid back and calm...even when you keep messing up his voice remains calm. The first day you get to go sail a boat if it's not too windy. They take the time to make sure conditions are appropriate for beginners. Safety is important to them of course. So far this school has been great, the instructors are pretty chill, the people at the front desk are friendly...they seem to love to sail and want you to have a good time while learning and gaining experience sailing around the harbor. So if you're in the area...or even if you're not I highly recommend OCC School of Sailing if you want to learn to sail.

OCC School of Sailling and Seamanship

http://www.occsailing.com/

1801 W. Coast Highway

Newport Beach, CA 92663

(949) 645-9412

Ayame Shabu Shabu Hot Pot - Irvine, CA

Ayame Shabu Shabu used to be Ayame Sushi in the Orchard Hills area of Irvine. It's the sister restaurant to Zipangu at The Lab / Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa, CA. Decided to go try this place out as we heard it was not too bad. There is a vegetable hot pot option for vegetarians. They also have spring salad, edamame, and tofu appetizers too...but I didn't get those. The hot pot alone fills you up. If you are still hungry and want to add additional ingredients you can order them separately. They also have sushi too if you want to order some. Each person gets their own individual pot so you don't have to worry about sharing with meat eaters.

Veggies Only

Started throwing stuff in the pot before I realized I didn't take a picture of the plate full of food they bring you. Already threw in the mushrooms, tofu, Japanese pumpkin, and carrots.

Veggie Plate

The plate is full of napa cabbage, green cabbage, baby bok choy, broccoli, tofu, mushrooms, carrots, Japanese pumpkin, and a couple of rice cakes. This picture is missing the stuff I already threw in the pot. The greens were all fresh and clean. I like the bamboo plate they put the food on.

Dipping Setup

There is sesame sauce on the far left and ponzu (citrus) sauce to the right. I chose brown rice over white of course. The brown rice was good. Some places the brown rice is either too dry or too soggy. This was just right. You can see a couple of cubes of tofu ready for dipping and eating.

Simmering Hot Pot

My veggie pot is simmering and ready to be eaten. This is how you get fresh food right off the stove. Use the wooden ladle to spoon out your goodies, dip, and enjoy. Careful...it is super hot!

My Setup

This is how my little area was sort of set up. Eating on the left, uncooked veggies on the right, hot pot a bit further away on the top portion of the picture. You can't complain about the food because you flavor it as strongly or as lightly as you like it. So the other things I look for are the quality of the ingredients they provide and it was all very good. Boiling your food makes this meal healthy and light.

Assorted Mochi Ice Cream

Now comes the not so healthy part....mochi ice cream for dessert! The green color is green tea flavor, the yellow is mango, the pink is strawberry, and the white is vanilla. They were all very tasty but oh so tiny. The picture makes it look bigger than it actually is. Or perhaps just having two bites makes you want  more so you think it's tastier?

If you are in the area and want to check this place out it's:

Ayame Shabu Shabu Hot Pot

at Orchard Hills Village Center

3923 Portola Parkway

Irvine, CA 92620

714-544-2800

Basil Update - 3 Weeks After Sprouting

So the second set of leaves look like tiny basil leaves. There's also a new sprout in the middle. That's where I stuck the seeds that didn't initially sprout. I guess some of them take a bit longer or a slightly different environment. Go figure.

Basil 3 weeks after sprouting

Current height

The package says to thin them out to 6"-12" apart when it reaches approximately 2" tall. Got a little bit to go...it's hardly an inch tall. They're coming along.

The Veggie Grill - Irvine, CA : Thai Chickin' Salad & Chipotle BBQ & Sweetheart Fries

This place is vegan...I think (or is it vegetarian?). I'm not sure but either way I can eat at this place all the time.  It's kind of like Native Foods....just different flavors. Both places are very healthy and have very fresh ingredients. These are my top two vegetarian places to eat at.

Thai Chickin' Salad

The Thai Chikin' Salad includes their "Chillin' Chickin'", romaine, red & green cabbage, roasted corn salsa, green onion, mandarin oranges, toasted sesame seeds, cilantro, and wontons. It usually comes with spicy Thai dressing, but I switched it out with their ginger papaya vinaigrette (cuz you know...me no likie spicy). All their salads also have quinoa in it. And for those of you who don't know (cuz I didn't for the longest time)....it's pronounced "keen-wa". The salad was really good!

Chipotle BBQ Wrap-style with Sweetheart Fries

The Chipotle BBQ is normally a burger on a wheat bun but you can make it wrap-style or kale-style (on a bed of kale). It was The Meat-eater's choice to make his meal wrap-style and to substitute the cabbage slaw or chili side with Sweetheart Fries.

Chipotle BBQ close-up

The Chipotle BBQ includes BBQ sauce marinated shredded veggie-steak, chipotle ranch, caramelized onion, lettuce, and tomato.

Sweetheart Fries

Sweet potato fries are my favorite. I like them better than French fries. I like French fries too though cuz all fried foods seem to taste pretty darn good...but I've really cut down on my fried foods and only eat it once in a while. All that grease doesn't seem to sit too well in my tummy and if I eat too many I will feel sick. But I did have a few of these yummy Sweetheart fries. So I highly recommend this place. Incredibly (or not) The Meat-eater liked his meal too! So veggie eaters and meat eaters can come try this out. The flavors are good!

The Veggie Grill

http://www.veggiegrill.com/

Location this was eaten at:

Irvine Spectrum Center

81 Fortune Drive

Irvine, CA 92618

949-727-9900

Old Vine Cafe - Costa Mesa, CA : Vegetarian Omelet

The Camp is located diagonally across the street from The Lab "The Anti Mall" in Costa Mesa, California. At The Camp is this little restaurant called Old Vine Cafe. It's like a cozy cafe in Europe with a few tables and chairs placed very closely together. Being that size, there can be a wait before you get seated. Just write your name down and they'll call you when there's something available.

Vegetarian Omelet

The vegetarian omelette included zucchini, eggplant, shitake mushrooms, manchego, queso fresco pecorino,and basil pesto. It came with a side salad and cinnamon roll. So manchego (I just looked this up cuz I'm not that good of a cheese person) is cheese made in the La Mancha region of Spain from the milk of the Manchego breed of sheep. Pecorino is also a cheese from sheep's milk...but it is a hard Italian cheese. Not sure what queso fresco mean. I didn't ask...I was just hungry. Either being hungry made the food taste good or the good tasting food made the food taste good. The salad is healthy and omelette is semi-healthy cuz it can be greasy. I'm not fond of cinnamon rolls so can't say that I really liked it (it's not healthy either)...but everything else was good! I highly recommend this place and The Meat-eater does too.

Old Vine Cafe

http://www.oldvinecafe.com

2937 Bristol St. Suite A-102

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

714-545-1411

Inspiration for Gardening

Saw this on PBS the other day and thought...it is possible to grow veggies in the city! Simple living and self sufficiency sound really good to me. The approximate size of their farm is 4000 square feet. Incredible!



I'm just taking baby steps. I don't believe I can live without my electric blender and other goodies...but the gardening is a good first step. Don't even have a yard...so trying some container gardening. The solar panels and bio-diesel car looks like a great idea too...eventually.

Visit the Urban Homestead at http://urbanhomestead.org/

A Watched Basil Never Grows...(or so it seems)

I can kill almost any plant. I have a "brown" thumb but am trying to learn how to "garden." My goal is to learn to "garden" so that I can have the freshest food possible...and also so you know where your food is actually coming from. That's the best kind of food to eat, is it not? Well, right now I'm just trying to grow some basil since it's one of the easiest things to grow out here. I think I've improved over the years by killing less plants. =)  So anyway I sprouted the basil from seeds. Out of 6 seeds, 3 sprouts came about...because I killed the other 3 when I touched/moved them. Oops!

They're alive! Basil sprouts. (19 days ago)

As you can see there are three other little sprouts in the back. Well, that purple one in the far left eventually died. =(

Getting a little bigger. (1 week ago)

Yay...I can see the second set of leaves coming in. Woohoo! Took long enough.

2nd set of leaves getting bigger. (2 days ago or two weeks since sprouting)

So after a little over two weeks there are three survivors. I keep looking at it every day and it doesn't seem to be growing very fast (to me). Learning patience. I want to eat fresh basil with tomatoes and mozzarella already! =) Fingers crossed, it's looking good.

Chomp Chomp Nation : Tofu Satay Skewers

Went to the Orange County Great Park's Farmer's Market last Sunday. If you can't find it...look for the big orange balloon. It's kind of hard to miss. =)

Look for the big orange balloon

I had read that there were many good tasting food trucks over there so I thought I'd check it out. There were vegetarian options at many of the trucks...but I decided to try the Chomp Chomp Nation More Than Singapore food truck. A lot of the picnic tables were taken so we just walked further away and sat on the grass. Bring a blanket if you wanna sit on the grass...it can be like a picnic. The trees were newly planted so didn't provide a lot of shade. It'll be a nice area when the trees grow up. There's also a fruit and vegetable garden next to the Farmer's Market that you can take a stroll through. You can grow almost anything in this wonderful SoCal weather.

Hibiscus Rose Tea with Lychee Jelly and Tofu Satay Skewers

The Hibiscus Rose Tea was pretty good. I liked it better than the meal. The Singapore Satay Skewers can be made with different meats but I chose the firm organic tofu of course. It came with their Tiger Slaw, Rice Cubes, and Satay Peanut Sauce.

Tofu Skewer over the Tiger Slaw

The tofu skewers themselves were pretty plain. The Tiger Slaw also wasn't too flavorful. I did like that the slaw was light and not strong in flavor. The Satay Peanut Sauce was good but a bit spicy for me because I am afraid of spicy food. It's probably just right for most people. If there were more peanut sauce then I think that would balance out the lack of flavor in the tofu. So a bit more sauce please! Oh I totally forgot about the rice cubes. Well, they're just rice squished into the shape of a cube...and I'm not into white rice...so...they're...kind of...eh.

The Meat-eater ate somewhere else so don't know if the meat dishes are better here. They may be?

Chomp Chomp Nation
http://www.chompchompnation.com/