Fire-roasted tomatoes with burrata and black mint pesto. Fire-roasted sweet potato, honey and serrano chili sauce. Both from the Picca menu by Ricardo Zarate.

Los Angeles’ biggest and most epic food festival, the L.A. Street Food Fest’s Summer Tasting Event, pops back up at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on July 16. This year’s event will feature a curated selection of street-inspired food from all kinds of vendors, including gourmet food trucks, old-school carts and stands, celebrity chefs, and restaurants, serving up everything from tacos to ice cream sandwiches. You’ll taste favorites from the Naan Stop, Grilled Cheese and Flying Pig trucks, Starry Kitchen and Guelaguetza restaurants, Food & Wine‘s Best New Chef Ricardo Zarate of Mo-Chica and Picca fame (who is creating something special just for this festival), and many, many more. There will also be a group of Baja chefs, including Javier Plascencia and Diego Hernandez, who will be cooking together for the first time. This feat was accomplished by none other than L.A.’s most-knowledgeable Mexican food aficionado, Bill Esparza of Street Gourmet L.A. There will also be ice cream, cocktails, beer and a special tequila tasting tent. It’s too much to list; here’s a list of L.A. Street Food Fest’s participants.

Naan Stop truck's samosa, which will be served at the L.A. Street Food Fest

Festival vendor Beachy Cream's Ginger Wipe Out with candied ginger ice cream and molasses spice cookie (left), Key Lime Cowabunga with key lime ice cream and coconut oatmeal cookie.

A portion of every ticket sold will benefit a local cause. This year it’s the Downtown Womens Center, which works to end homelessness among women.

To avoid long lines and overall craziness that has plagued the festival in the past, this year’s event is only offering a set amount of tickets. All tickets will be sold on a pre-sale basis only; tickets will not be available to purchase at the door. A $60 ticket gets you everything — food, drinks, cocktails, beer, music and parking.

For those of your concerned about Carmageddon, AKA the complete shutdown of the 405 freeway from late July 15 to early July 18, the Street Food Fest folks have come up with a whole staycation plan, with a free shuttle to the Gold Line, bicycle parking and hotel deals.

Wall Paper cocktail

Staten Island cocktail

It’s easy to pass up while driving along Fair Oaks Avenue, but The Raymond is one Pasadena restaurant that you wouldn’t want to miss. Sure, it’s been around for nearly 35 years, but with a recent makeover and the new 1886 Bar, The Raymond is new again while maintaining its old-school feel.

We were recently invited to dinner at The Raymond, which was originally established as a hotel in 1886. The hotel is long gone — a victim of the Great Depression — and the current incarnation of the restaurant is located in the property’s former caretaker cottage. The interior is kind of like eating in your mother’s house: it’s intimate and homey. But it’s also sophisticated enough to make you remember you went there to dine, not do your laundry.

We started off with a couple of cocktails from the bar, which had some consulting help from esteemed mixologists Marcos Tello and Aidan Demarest. So it’s no wonder that they were pretty darn good. The Wall Paper, a mixture of Sagatiba cachaca, vanilla syrup and jalepeño, was pleasantly spicy while not being overly sweet. The Staten Island is an interesting combination of Bols Genever Dutch-style gin, Galliano herbal liqueur and Amaro Ramazzotti herbal liqueur (yes, we had to look these up). The cocktail, while strong, was well-balanced, leaving us wanting more Staten Island–definitely not something we’d say every day.

On to the food. Chef Tim Guiltinan offers a varied menu, though the seafood at The Raymond is a solid choice. We started the meal with the daily sashimi plate, which in our case was yellowtail, and the scallops served in a lobster and sweet corn bisque and topped with a corn salsa of sorts, not the pickled chantrelles that the menu indicated. No matter; the scallops were perfectly cooked, and the corn complemented them nicely.

Yellowtail sashimi

Scallops

For the main course, we sampled the roasted chicken with bacon-roasted Brussels sprouts and roasted potatoes served in chicken jus, as well as the prime New York steak with sweet cippolini puree, roasted root vegetables and the “flavor of bacon.” Yes, the “flavor of bacon.” Not sure what that means, but the steak tasted like steak, so go figure. Both the chicken and steak were good, but neither really stood out as a must-have dish. Our leftover chicken was really good the next day, though.

Roasted chicken

New York steak

Dessert is where the meal fell apart a bit. While the deconstructed presentation of the previous courses was tolerable, it was just superfluous here, especially in the tangerine curd dish. More importantly, the flavors in this dish weren’t cohesive. The tangerine “curd” was more panna cotta than curd, and the flavor was way too subtle. Then there was the parsnip pudding, smoked espresso mousse, pistachio sable and cream cheese ice cream. Scratching your head yet? We did, too. The trio of sorbets and ice creams made more sense to us — even the celery-and-apple and sweet potato flavors, which we loved.

Tangerine curd

Trio of sorbets and ice creams

All in all, we enjoyed our meal and would definitely go back to try more from the 1886 Bar’s menu, including its own food offerings, which include Kentucky-fried quail, crispy pork belly and grilled Japanese octopus.

Note: This was originally posted on LAist. I apologize for the less-than-stellar photos; these were taken with a new camera before I learned how to set the white balance, and I had trouble editing the yellow out. This shouldn’t be a problem going forward. This meal was hosted.

My favorite dish of the night was actually a non-traditional one. The watermelon salad with arugula, watermelon, feta cheese, figs, mint and a mint vinaigrette was refreshing and all kinds of delicious. My only complaint was the large watermelon cubes, which made it a bit hard to eat, but the combination of the juicy fruit with the other juicy fruit of figs, along with the saltiness of the feta and spiciness of the arugula, made me overlook that. This is a must-order salad.

Watermelon salad

I also enjoyed the calamari mini tacos topped with kimchi and a spicy aioli. They were kind of hard to eat — I ended up abandoning the taco vessel and eating the contents with a fork — but they were tasty nonetheless. As our server said, this is definitely not date-night food!

Calamari taco

The topokki fried rice cakes, which are a traditional Korean dish, are served at CHAM with sauteed with bell peppers, broccoli and button mushrooms tossed in a sweet and spicy red chili sauce. While this version wasn’t as spicy as I’m used to, my friend liked this dish a lot, so I would deem it a good intro-to-Korean-food dish.

Topokki

Bibimbap is one of my favorite Korean meals, and CHAM’s sizzling hot bibimbap with brown rice, veggies and beef bulgogi was pretty darn good. It was even served in a cast-iron dish, which made the rice nice and crispy on the bottom. That’s key for this dish! The portion is huge, too, which makes its $10 price tag more palatable.

Bibimbap

Next time I’m in Pasadena, I would definitely stop by CHAM again. The service was prompt and friendly, too.

Note: This meal was hosted.

And keep an eye out for the Cart For A Cause food truck, which launches Tuesday in Beverly Hills at United Talent Agency from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. with chef Nobu Matsuhisa dishing up $10 meals. The truck will run once a week with a different celebrity chef, starting with Matsuhisa and continuing with the likes of Walter Manzke, Susan Feniger, Sal Marino, Eric Greenspan, Josef Centeno, Jean Francois Meteigner, and Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook. All proceeds go to support St. Vincent’s Meals on Wheels, so not only do you get a gourmet meal at a bargain price, you’re helping out others in need. Follow the cart on Twitter at @CartForACause for times and locations.

Correction: Chef Alex Becker from Nobu will actually be the one serving up the food truck meals, not Matsuhisa himself. Apologies for the confusion.

Pork belly slider at Petrossian

Petrossian: This West Hollywood restaurant and market is offering a special six-course prix fixe menu and a champagne and caviar toast in two seatings, one at 6:00 p.m. and another at 9:00 p.m. The first seating, at $95 per person, will feature blinis, hand-sliced smoked salmon, foie gras terrine, seared scallops, prime beef filet mignon and vanilla panna cotta. The second seating, at $125 per person, will feature the same menu except a traditional caviar presentation with 12 grams of domestic, sustainable Transmontanus caviar will be served in place of the blinis.

Vertical Wine Bistro: This Pasadena eatery and wine bar is offering two dinner seatings for New Year’s Eve. The first seating at 6:00 p.m. will feature the regular dining menu, and the 8:00 p.m. seating will be a five-course prix fixe meal, including a cheese course and dessert, for $65 per person. There’s also the option of basic wine pairings for another $65 per person or deluxe wine pairings for $125 per person by wine expert David Haskell. After dinner there will be a party in the restaurant’s bar and lounge area from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. for $20 at the door and $35 to reserve a seat in the bar and lounge.

Dakota Chop House: The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Dakota Chop House is hosting dinner, as well as a live band, dancing, midnight countdown and champagne toast. There will be two seatings, one from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. that will feature a three-course meal for $75 per person including braised young artichoke salad, osso bucco and spumoni millefoglie, and a second one from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. for $125 per person including veal cheek ravioli, rabbit and taglitelle with lamb ragu.

Further reading: e*starLA has a great list of New Year’s Eve dinners, too.

XT Patisserie displaying its wares

Last weekend, I attended the Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon, a totally insane event filled with all kinds of chocolate products that basically turned the Pasadena Conference Center into a crack house for chocoholics. You think I’m exaggerating? I was hip checked at one point by an overzealous chocolate grabber, pushing me out of contention for a piece of something or other, which at this point, is mostly a blur. But some chocolate stood out more to me than others, so here were my favorites.

First of all, I attended the event as a panelist, which meant I was charged with voting for the best in a number of categories, including best dark chocolate, best milk chocolate, best chocolate bar, best flavored chocolate, best truffle, etc. So I had to taste as much as I physically could without throwing up. I did the best I could, but admittedly I didn’t taste everything because the sugar and caffeine got to me, and I had to fight people who had paid up to $25 to taste to get samples (more on this later).

Anyway, there were some really good tasting and creative chocolates at the salon. My favorite was Marti Chocolatt‘s chevre bon bon, with goat cheese, some kind of herb (rosemary, maybe?), dark and white chocolate. It was heavenly and like nothing I had ever tasted before. The buko pandan, or young coconut, chocolate was good, too. I tried to find out how much they were charging, but it was madness with all the people trying to fight their way in to the samples, so I gave up. Looks like a 4 piece box goes for $9 online. Ouch!

Marti Chocolatt's chevre bon bon

My second favorite chocolate was The Tea Room‘s green earl grey tea dark chocolate bar. The tea flavors are just present enough to make the dark chocolate seem smoother. The Tea Room’s black masala chai milk chocolate bar was good, too, but I prefer dark chocolate in general. Since they were selling two bars for $5, my friend and I got a couple of the green earl grey to take home.

The Tea Room's tea-infused chocolate bars

I also liked Sterling Confections‘ truffle bar, which are huge triangular logs of truffle that come in all kinds of flavors. I tasted the pineapple ginger macadamia nut truffle and the banana honey caramel truffle, and I liked both a lot. It’s just really indulgent to imagine having a whole log of the stuff, though I imagine they would make good party food since they’re cool-looking, too.

Sterling Confections' truffle bars

XT Patisserie was a big hit at the salon, and the cinnamon chocolate I tasted had a nice kick to it. My friend liked XT’s ginger chocolate, too. XT definitely had some of the prettiest goodies at the salon.

XT Patisserie sweets

Clarine’s Florentines were one of my favorites, too, even though it wasn’t traditional chocolate. But the sliced almonds on bittersweet chocolate were really satisfying, so you couldn’t really go wrong here.

Clarine's Florentines

There was much, much more, including a bon bon from Choclatique that tasted just like a root beer float and a milk chocolate bar with bacon, sea salt and “popping candy” from Christopher Michael Chocolatier, which I didn’t taste because the line was ridiculous.

Choclatique (root beer bon bon at lower left)

So back to having the fight attendees for samples: Having to compete with those who had actually paid to attend the event is no way to judge anything. The event would be better served if panelists were given their own table and samples were brought to them, ensuring that everything was tasted and got a fair shot at winning an award (here’s the complete list of winners). That’s my two cents.

Obsessed with chocolate? Can’t get enough? Well you’re in luck because the folks with the Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon, a chocolate show featuring tastings, demonstrations and even wine tastings, have given me a pair of tickets to the salon to give away to one of you! The event will be held at the Pasadena Convention Center on Sunday, Oct. 11, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Once you get in, you’ll have access to unlimited tastings and demos, and if you like something, you can purchase it, of course. Here’s a list of some of the companies you can expect to see:

• Valerie Confections
• Amano Artisan Chocolate
• Mignon Chocolate
• The TeaRoom Chocolate Truffles
• Marti Chocolatt
• Jade Chocolates
• William Dean Chocolates
• Sterling Confections
• Alter Eco Fair Trade
• Helen Grace Chocolates

…and many more!

Here’s what you need to do:

Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite kind of chocolate candy before midnight on Oct. 1 (that makes the deadline 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30).  Make sure to leave some kind of contact information, too. I’ll choose a winner at random the morning of Oct. 1.

Hope to see you there!

[Video from TasteTV]

Farmers Market. From Rosebud_03 (flickr).

Ever wondered about the inner workings of some of your favorite restaurants in the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax or along West Third Street? If you take a walking food tour with Melting Pot Food Tours, owners and guides Lisa and Diane Scalia will give you the low down. And now the ladies have expanded their walking tour business into Old Pasadena.

I took the Farmers Market/West Third Street tour back in October, and I had a great time. I had been to the Farmers Market many times before (and since), but I never knew the stories behind some of the decades-old food stands. Some of the places we visited and sampled from included Bob’s Coffee & Doughnuts, Pampas Grill, Littlejohn’s English Toffee House and Mr. Marcel Gourmet Market. With the Farmers Market celebrating its 75th anniversary this year (Taste of Farmers Market is tonight, folks!), this tour would be a great way to get to know this L.A. institution better. From there, we walked over to the boutiques on West Third Street and visited all kinds of places, including Little Next Door (where we had some fantastic macaroons), Joan’s on Third and Chado Tea Room. Cook’s Library used to be on the tour, but since its closing, Kiss My Bundt has taken its place. Infinitely yummier in terms of instant gratification!

And now the Scalia sisters (super nice, by the way!) have taken their unique tour to the streets of Old Pasadena, with stops at Tortas Mexico, Bar Celona, Aux Delices Bakery and Cafe, Bird Pick Tea & Herb, Tibet Nepal House, Tutti Gelati and Mignon Chocolate. If this one is anything like the original version, you’ll leave full of food and new-found knowledge. And through the end of July, the Old Pasadena tour is $39 instead of the usual $49, which includes tastings at 9 eateries (11 on the Farmers Market/West Third tour) and a bottle of water to wash it all down. Lisa and Diane will even give you bus tokens to get you back to you car.

Farmers Market/West Third Street tour runs every Friday and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Old Pasadena tour runs every Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Both tours cost $49, except for Pasadena’s, which is $39 through the end of July (use discount code “Rose709″ when ordering on zerve.com).

Daybreaker egg-white omlette

Well, an abbreviated version of its weekend brunch menu, at least. Starting Monday, June 15, at 7:00 a.m. LGO debuts its “Commuter Breakfast” featuring the Daybreaker egg-white omlette, Commuter sandwich, house-made English muffins, and organic oatmeal, among other brekkie items. Unfortunately, as this is a commuter, i.e., quick, breakfast, LGO’s eggs Benedict and lemon ricotta pancakes aren’t on the menu during the week. But those English muffins are pretty darn good, and you can even buy a pack to take to work with you. What may be the best part is nothing on the menu (save for the six-pack of English muffins) costs more than $6.

Market counter at La Grande Orange Santa Monica

After a Macallan scotch tasting at the Viceroy last night (set up by e*starla and attended by Caroline on Crack, LAist’s Julie Wolfson and LA-OC-Foodie – but more on that later), we headed over to La Grande Orange’s newest outpost in Santa Monica for dinner.

The good: The entrance is decorated with pots of homegrown herbs – nice touch. The market counter and wine display upon entering have a simple, clean presentation. This new location serves sushi, and the rainbow roll was excellent (go with the aioli dip, not the soy – too salty). The sweet potato roll, something I hadn’t seen before, was decent, though it was really just tempura-battered and fried sweet potato with avocado. The service was prompt and friendly. And when our server charged us for the wrong dessert item, she ended up comping it.

The bad: I wasn’t impressed with the food. Granted, it was opening night. I know it takes a while for restaurants to get it right. But after being impressed with LGO Pasadena’s food, I had high hopes. I ordered the turkey and vegetable meatloaf, which was a little bland, and came with broccolini. I thought surely it would be accompanied by mashed potatoes, or something of the sort. My fellow diners and I noticed some items were missing from the menu, too: deviled eggs, olive oil cake, and the pizza that has been touted as the Next Big Thing for LGO. The restaurant’s rep says Santa Monica is still tweaking its menu, so I guess we’ll see what ultimately ends up on it.

Of course, this isn’t a full review since the place just opened. All in all, I’d go back. I still have faith that it’ll be as good as the Pasadena location.