2009 Malibu Wine Classic for Childhelp®, Saturday, August 29th From 1pm to 4:30pm

Press Release fresh off the Glutster inbox (taken from site):

The Malibu Wine Classic showcases the Central Coast with the most highly regarded wineries from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, combined with top Malibu and Los Angeles area restaurants.

The tasting takes place in the courtyard setting of the Malibu Civic Center overlooking Santa Monica Bay, and benefits Childhelp, the largest non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention, education, advocacy and treatment of child abuse.

The ever-popular afternoon "Grand Tasting" featuring tasting portions from more than 60 top selected wineries and almost two dozen restaurants, will take place from 1pm-4pm, with public advance purchase tickets available for $79 per person. A portion of the purchase price ($50) is a tax-deductible charitable donation to Childhelp, a national children's charity.

Valet Parking is $8. Sorry, by law, no children or minors are permitted at the event. (participants are subject to change)

2009 Participating restaurants

Water Grill, BARREL Malibu, Monsieur Marcel, One Sunset/STK , Casa Escobar Malibu, Charlie's Malibu, Engaging Gourmet , Joe’s Pizza of Bleeker Street, The Four Seasons Hotel, Fortun Foods, Malibu ToffeeMichael's Restaurant, Claud and Company, Moonshadows, Paramount Foods, SaddlePeak Lodge, The Sunset, Beachcomber Cafe/Malibu Pier Club, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Luscious Organic Desserts, Spumoni, and many more!

Confirmed wineries for 2009

Griffin Family Vineyard, AJB, Alma Rosa, Anglim, Blair Fox, Brander, Bridlewood, Buttonwood, Calcareous, Cantara, Carr, Casa Dumetz, Cass, Ciello, Clesi, Clos Selene, Consilience, Cordon/Santa Maria Winery, Core, Curran, Demetria, Derby Wine Estates, DiBruno, Drake Wines, Dragonette, Fiddle Head, Foley, Gioia, , Herman Story, Hoyt, Jaffers, Jim Palmer's Malibu Vineyards, Kaena, Ken Brown, Kenneth Volk, Laetitia, L'Aventure, Linne Calodo, Lone Madrone, Lucas & Lewellen, Malibu Family Wines, Malibu Solstice, Malibu Vineyards, Martellotto Wines, Rancho Ventavo, Robert Hall, Rosenthal Malibu Estate, Old Creek Ranch Winery, Sanity, Sans Liege, Sextant, Sierra Madre, Scott Cellars, Silver, Stolpman, Strange Wines, Stafford, Summerland, Sweeney Canyon, Tablas Creek, Tantarra, Tercero, Terry Hoage Vineyards, The Malibu Vineyard, Vihuela Winery, Villa Creek, Vina Robles, Vino V Wines, Westerly

buy them tickets here!.

See you there!

Molecular Mixology and Chef Tastings This Thursday: Epicurean Umbrella

Press release fresh off the Glutster Inbox:

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

Los Angeles - Epicurean Umbrella (EU) announces that it will host a special night at the Mark venue to feature a collaborative tasting menu created by Chef Renieri Caceres, Chef Tomas Rivera and Chef Al Gordon, paired with the molecular mixology of San Francisco's Liquid Alchemy. Titled "Under One Umbrella," this event takes place on Thursday, August 27, 2009 from 7-10 pm at the Mark (http://themarkforevents.com), a premier event destination in Los Angeles, and the public canpurchase tickets online at epicureanumbrella.com the price of $52.00 per person for this 3-hour event with complimetary valet.

"During each hour of the Under One Umbrella event, each Chef will introduce a tasting
plate that reflects his personal execution style," states Jennyfer Rodgers, co-founder of Epicurean Umbrella. "Highlights of the menu include: truffle potato salad on crostini wrapped in Kobe beef; ahi tuna tartare 'nachos' with ponzu pico de gallo and spicy Asian aioli; and a signature burger bite. A gourmet potato chip, dessert and retro candy bar are also featured. In addition to having an artisanal wine bar, Liquid Alchemy of San Francisco will create 3 three molecular cocktails, one featuring cotton candy and liquid nitrogen."

A Northern California native, Renieri Caceres is currently Assistant Executive Chef of
Botero at Encore, Las Vegas. Chef Caceres is analumnus of Aqua at Bellagio, Tableau at
Wynn, Masa and Lark Creek Inn.

Chef Tomas Rivera co-founded the highly acclaimed event production group Salt of the
Earth (saltcatering.com). Salt of the Earth offers over 30 years of culinary and event
production experience. Such events include Maloof Entertainment's Post-Oscar Party, SAG
Awards' After-Party, Esquire House 360, and parties for People, Instyle, and Variety.

Los Angeles - basedEpicurean Umbrella (EU) is an event catering and culinary consulting
company founded by Chef Al Gordon and Jennyfer Rodgers to create extraordinary and unique food experiences. "Whether it is the company's private chefs tastings, cocktails after work or a celebrated occasion, EU creates the perfect mix of food and atmosphere,"adds Rodgers. After 10 years of collaborating via long distance, Gordon and Rodgers launched the company in July 2008. While classically trained in French cuisine, Gordon's cooking style is also influenced by global ingredients. Prior to founding EU, Chef Gordon worked in San Francisco and Las Vegas. He is an alumnus of One Market, Picasso at Bellagio, Nob Hill at MGM Grand, the Peninsula and Koi. Jennyfer Rodgers has a background in marketing and public relations, and specializes in both sweet and savory event menu consultation, production and execution. EU clients include Chateau Marmont, Casa del Mar, Shutters On The Beach and Raleigh Studios, among others.Music will be provided by DJ Derek(djderek.net) and event décor will be provided by Poko Event Productions.







For ticket info check out the official Website: Epicurean Umbrella.

see you there!

Super Smash Bros. & Super Cemitas This Friday! Who's Down?

To cohort my "Generation Y" expectations, I will admit that a good--but not ENTIRE--percent of my life has been eaten up by ye 'ol video games.

Starting as early as that cool as hell Duck Hunt Game for Nintendo, and coming to a bloody, expensive halt after the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game on the PS2...it is only now that a game has managed to grab a deft hold on my precious short attention spam: Super Smash Bros.

Its just something about the concept of duking it with the homiez with old favorite childhood characters such as Pikachu, Luigi and Kirby, that is so freaking fun...

Apparently, I'm not the only one to hold a dedicated liking to this game, a cult following has followed this franchise ever since the first one came out for the infamous, oblong-controlled Nintendo 64 system.

Which is why I have helped organize a tournament to take place this Friday at Cemitas Y Clayudas Pal Cabron at 5PM.

Who's down?

B.Y.O.C!

(Bring Your Own Controller!)

East L.A Drunk Punks on Real Chinese Food: Delicious Food Corner

"Oi! Oi! Oi!...East L.A Drunk Punks!"

Growing in up in the East L.A Punk scene will always be a part of me. Tight pants, being buzzed in a many backyard gigs with a halfway-gone 40 oz, ready for another swig--were my early teen years in a nutshell.

Most of the "O.G homiez" disappeared via having kids, overindulgence's to tweak or just plain "grew out it"...for those that look back and say punk was "only a phase".

There are only a rare few who practiced the punk life style responsively and are still alive to tell the tale...







The homie Josh Hernandez is one of those few dudes. Around since the Fall of 2002 when I was first introduced to the scene. Actually, responsible for my first ever sip: two full King Cobra 40'oz on a Tuesday (school night!) afternoon and a hungover-as-hell Wednesday morning. At a time, a fellow band mate and now, a close endeavored friend. Broken bottles, Boot Parties and tear gas...we've certainly survived through a lot together.

All my old friends know I do something with food, and still, to this day, trip out in my appearance on Bizarre Foods. Randomly going up to me asking "when are you going to cook me some fooood?!"





Thus, Josh bringing me to this new place across the street from his swim teaching gig he got, Delicious Food Corner, where he swore--had the "bomb'est" Sweet & Sour Pork ever, his favorite. A little befuddled at first due to the absence of that Americanized Chinese bright red sauce that's usual in most East L.A steam tray Chinese Food places, he was relieved when I told him...relax! This is how it is SUPPOSED to be.





No wonder he loved this place, the plate came out like a Hungry Man meal and had quite a friendly cost for someone who would rather buy more beer and eat chips rather than pay for a full meal. Generous with thick slices of balanced-sweet, tinged Pork loin, garlicky Ong Choy and two craftily medium fried, runny eggs on top of chewy steamed rice...no wonder!



The place was quite sprawling with regulars with a line out the door. Inside, people munched on snow-white crust-less, halved sandwiches stuffed with Macau-style Pork Chops and fried spicy-salted Chicken Wings; the place served Hong Kong Style snacks out of absolute nowhere!






Curry with Fried Fish Balls snapped at the bite and was drowned in that rich, broth based Chinese Curry sauce--intensive in the infamous Five Spice aromatics.

This time around we banged mugs not of cold, frosty brew but hot, steamy tea...cheers!






Delicious Food Corner
2327 S. Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA
(323) 726-0788
Closed Mondays daawg
91754

Part Time Food GPS: “Andaz”…I’m Home!

After missing out on this year's acclaimed "Blogger Prom", I was very much excited to get called in to duty for a set media dinner at the Andaz's reputable hotel restaurant: RH, manned by the French-trained Sebastien Archambault of Michelin Star fame.





To build anticipation for dinner, we were first introduced to the unique concept of the ritzy hotel, a brief tour of their "Corner Rooms" and stunning roof-top views.






Read the rest of my review here.

Durian Encounters: Tania Hernandes

Based on my long standing infatuation with the luscious, acquired flesh of the aromatic Durian fruit, I will be starting a new series of video segments labeled Durian Encounters, in which I will record people's first encounters with this "King of Fruits" as it is known as.

For any of those not in the exotic know, Durian is a dangerous-looking, hard shelled, spiky fruit with a particularly creamy, custard flesh within it. Since the first time I had it a couple of years ago, it has enticingly stank its way into my heart, eating it as much as I can afford since it is quite pricy due its exclusive Asian origin (Usually $3-$4 = $27 each average) a pound; smallest ones weighing around 5-6 lbs)





Actually illegal in its raw state in the U.S up until a couple of years ago, they finally allowed the Morn Thang variety from Thailand--the most common--to be imported and sold fresh rather than frozen.

The only Kryptonite to the Super--weird food---Man Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods by the way..

...definitely on my list of "Death Row" or "Desert Island" foods.

The lovely Tania Janice Hernandez of Alhambra High School:



Durian fruit is available in most Chinese Markets (Shun Fat, 99 Ranch) even in a couple of small markets in Chinatown, usually showed off in sidewalk.

To get just a feel for it (in a drink, cake, dessert etc.) most Vietnamese pho places will have it in shake form. Noodle Planet has it on top of sticky rice with Coconut! Swoon!

Might as well be a guest for my series while you're at it :)

Part-Time Food GPS: "The Glutster tackles Taste of dtownLA"

EXTRA, EXTRA!

Read all about it!







Oh yeah, definitely tackled something...

Whittier Blvd. East L.A [Unity] Event: Live-Blogging

Woke up today to alarming amounts of bass decibels, louder than the scariest of thunders, close to a Sonic Boom I am sure--as if Godzilla approached. Thumps penetrating deep, vibrating through everything, my apartments walls, glasses of water, thumps deep enough to feel pulsing through my epidermis, hell, even inner organs.



A commotion was happening outside, endless rows of priceless latino-powered Low-Riders lined up side by side, veteranos from all over East L.A walking nonchalantly along the strip, girls, food...the historic Whittier Blvd. festival right outside my house.







Male Latino dominated Low Rider culture, very common of old East L.A ex-gangbanging veterans; bornagains, dedicating all their money, time and and efforts to having the swankiest ride in town aka, as bragging rights. They form car cliques and ride around Whittier Blvd. occasionally--mostly on weekends--hitting switches for hydraulics and making sure they're bass thump won't shatter nearby windows.



In these Eastern, gang-territory separated wastelands, I will tell you firsthand, to see everyone united like this is truly a awestrucking spectacle.



Unique street food vendors come out exclusively for these seldom events, celebrating all latino cultured influences; grease of all backrounds--tacos, pupusas, fried plantains--united as well.

Much history has happened on this asphalt: Zoot-Suit Riots, Drive-By's and now...solidarity.

The City of East L.A has actually taken its first steps to become just that, their own seperate city and entity.


East Los born, bred, proud.