Technique, at Le Cordon Bleu

Eating someone's homework! Seriously though. Technique is the restaurant at the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, so the waiters and chefs are all students. An interesting experience, if you happen to be in the area.

We happen to come the day before their spring break, so the menu was pretty limited by this time. The appetizers were incredibly interesting. The first appetizer we tried consisted of some sort of chicken sausage with a chicken skin 'bacon' and frozen grapes (the cold was quite a surprise), and the second was a plate with two different types of pate. The pate tasted fine, but the idea of eating it out of a flower pot was rather unappealing to me. As for the main courses, everything was kind of... boring. Good, but boring. I got a cheeseburger with fries, which was delicious but not particularly exciting.

Service was terrible, but I guess they ARE still in the learning process. After we ate our appetizers, they gave our main courses to another table who came in after we did but happen to order the same thing. We were completely forgotten. We had to ask about our food, and the waitress got extremely confused. It took maybe about half an hour after our appetizers to get our main course. Blah.

Napoleon, not Neapolitan

So, as I had mentioned before, I'm not really a huge fan of sweets. I like them, but I don't normally go out of my way to acquire them. However, this all becomes a lie when it comes to the napoleon at Aux Delices in Pasadena, a tiny cafe that's barely noticeable on Colorado Blvd. If I could only eat one dessert for the rest of my life, this would be it. As one who appreciates fine napoleons, I've tasted them from all sorts of places, from chinese bakeries to the Laduree and Pierre Herme located in Paris (both of which are more notable for their macarons). However the one in Pasadena is, without compare, the best I've ever had. The pastry layers are beyond flaky, and the filling is the perfect combination of cream and custard without being too sweet. HEAVENLY.

Also whenever I talked about how much I loved napoleons, many of my friends would often go "oh, I've had that flavor of ice cream before too!". No guys, that's Neapolitan.

Photo by Yeang Shin.

Dine LA: Gordon Ramsay at the London

(Chicken fried sweetbreads and polenta)

(Short rib)

(Sticky toffee pudding with brown butter ice cream)

Decided to go out for Dine LA a little while ago, and was not disappointed. The sweetbreads had a wonderful texture to them, and worked well with the polenta. The short rib was a little greasy, but the side of beets and tomato helped with that.

While I'm not big on sweets, the dessert was one of the best I've ever had. My favorite aspect was the brown butter ice cream. Butter is such a great thing. I am not a healthy person.