Allez Cuisine: May 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Cuisine in California

My affair with cuisine in California for one month.

Original Baby Ribs from Tony Roma Universal Studio Hollywood. Melt-in-mouth tender, and absolutely delicious.

My tasty-looking Pancakes and Breakfast Sampler at Ihop.

My delicious beef burger from In-N-Out Burger.

My crispy Fish and Fries from Santa Monica Pier.

Last but not least is the original KFC fried chicken. Full of Flavour, moist, and absolutely delicious. =P

And more coming out. ;)

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Best Fried Chicken on this Planet

23 March 2011, Les Sisters Southern Kitchen

Traditional Cajun cuisine was originated from Southern France. The British migrated to US and bring this cuisines to the French-Speaking Acadian who lived in Canada and then to Louisiana, USA. The people used the local ingredients, and integrated other style of cuisines together and fuse them to modern Creole cuisine. Both Cajun and Creole cuisines are considered as Southern Cuisine in USA. One well-known "chef" that specialized in this type of cuisine is the Masterchef US winner, Miss Whitney Miller, also known as Pastry Princess. I always follow her blog and she is very talented. She will be a great chef.

Les Sisters Southern Kitchen is amazing. It is located at the small town in California, Chatsworth. This restaurant served fantastic Cajun and Creole Cuisine. According to Zagat Survey, the scoring for food is 25 and that is quite high. I assume this restaurant served cuisine that deserved such score.

I am always looking forward what I would be dined in the unfamiliar country and cuisine. After my work and training, I had my good friend, GPS with me to take me to the restaurant. As what Zagat Survey describes, the decor of the restaurant was a bit run down. The wall was full of certificates, awards and newspapers cuttings about Les Sisters Southern Kitchen. I was getting more excited for my first Cajun cuisine and hope the restaurant did justice to the cuisine

First my starters were Garden Salad and Fried Shrimps. The Garden Salad was fresh, colourful, vibrant and appetizing. My fried shrimps were crispy on the outside, tender and well seasoned in the inside. The oil absorption paper absorbed the oil from the shrimps, I ate them with the special chili sauce and the shrimps were appetizing as well.

Mine entrees were Chicken Jambalaya and Southern Fried Chicken. First the Chicken Jambalaya looked vibrant, spicy and delicious. This dish was well seasoned overall. The rice was cook perfectly, I was able to separate the rice grain by grain. Asian rice are usually stick and meshed, this was due to different of type of rice used by two regions. The chicken was tender, spicy, appetizing, juicy and delicious.

The Southern Fried Chicken was absolutely delicious. The chicken is tender and moist. This was because the chicken was marinated in buttermilk for several hours and then seasoned with salt and pepper and then coated with flour. The fried chicken was perfectly seasoned. I personally think that this is the most delicious fried chicken in the world. This fried chicken is even better than those in KFC. I will definitely return to Les Sister Southern Kitchen and order this dish again

The service was good, attentive and friendly. The price of food was very reasonable with huge serving.

The address is 21818 Devonshire St, Chatsworth CA 91311

Tel:(818) 998-0755

Friday, May 6, 2011

The Ultimate Cheesecake Factory on this Planet

19 March 2011, The Cheesecake Factory

If my memory serves me right, my favourite Scottish gourment mentions if I have the opportunity to go to US, I should go to The Cheesecake Factory for a meal. I did not heard him properly and I thought it is a cafe selling coffee and cheese cake.

After training I decided to go there for cheese cake and cappuccino. To my astonishment, The Cheesecake Factory turned out to be a full service restaurant. My first impression outside the building was: it was a fine dining restaurant. My second impression in the restaurant was: the restaurant is a great place for a meal with family. The decoration was cosy, great and attentives service from the waitresses and Maitre-ds. The serving was big for an Asian glutton and it was quite affordable. It costs about USD 30-40 for a good meal.

The Zagat Survey gave The Cheesecake Factory 19 for food. I wonder how accurate the score is. This restaurant always filled with diners most of the time, the food must be great and absolutely delicious. I "sacrificed" myself to witness how accurate Zagat Survey was.

First impression of the menu: a lot of variety of food I could choose from. I thought the best way to read the menu was with a cup of cappuccino and slices of complimentary roti (bread in malay). Every description of the food in the menu looked absolutely delicious and this was definitely not easy for me to choose my starter, entree and dessert. Finally I decided to have Fried Calamari as starter, Filet Mignon Petite as entree and Red Velvet as dessert. The three dishes I ordered were also among the popular food in The Cheesecake Factory, according to my lovely waitress.

The fried calamari (squid) was crispy, not greasy (due to the oil absorbing paper). It was definitely cook perfectly and well seasoned. It was tender with a bit of resistance from the squid. It was tasty with the two sauces, tomatoes and mayonnaise.

Filet Mignon was the most expensive, tender and absolutely delicious meat cut in the beef. It is refereed as tenderloin commonly. It was well seasoned, prefectly seared and very tender. It was absolutely delicious. =) I did not need any side dish to enjoy this steak.

The Red Velvet cheesecake was tasty. The flavour of the cheese was not overpowering the chocolate and yet complement to the flavour of the chocolate. Very very tasty in fact. Definitely a prefect way to end my dinner.

A week later, I returned back to The Cheesecake Factory for my journey of cuisine. This time I ordered Mini Crab Cakes as starter, Steak Diane as entree and The Original Cheesecake as my dessert.

Mini Crab Cakes were well seasoned and tasty. They were always taste delicious with mayonnaise or drips of lemon juice. The only thing I complained so far was the serving was small.

Steak Diane consisted of the filet mignon medallions with sauce from the seasoned juice from the pan that seared the medallions and then flambé with brandy. The steak was served with mesh potato. The dish was absolutely delicious and well seasoned. The only thing I complained that I asked for a rare steak, the cook gave me the medium steak. At the end the steak was return and I was given the correct steak. Great service.

The Original Cheesecake was absolutely delicious and savory. Again a perfect way to end my dining experience in The Cheesecake Factory. After my dinner, I ordered another The Original to enjoy it in my room. ;)