With the recent hot weather hitting the Bay Area, it’s almost instinctively that you crave something to relieve you from the heat. What better way to get your mind off the sun than a scoop of ice cream? Ice cream has always been my go to form of relief to cool off when temperatures begin to soar. But, even with summer winding down to the end of the season, you still can enjoy ice cream all year round.
Recently, I was fortunate to try a few samples of a few flavors of ice cream and sorbet from Rumba Desserts. This California based company focuses on capturing the flavors of Peru by using exotic Peruvian fruits, making their product unique and intriguing at the same time. How about a Purple Corn sorbet for being special? Rumba’s Citron Morado Sorbet is just one of their unique flavors that combines an Organic Peruvian Purple Corn infusion with Lisbon Lemon and Tahitian Lime Juice. It’s an uncommon flavor combination, yet it’s refreshingly exciting to your taste buds.
What really impressed me with Rumba’s products was how much flavor bursts through. Since Rumba Desserts uses all natural ingredients, you can expect their ice cream and sorbets to taste just like real fruit. The instant I tried the Mango Sorbet, I felt as if I was eating a real mango. It was far from tasting all artificial and sugar loaded. The taste of mango was there and you knew it.
A Scoop of Lucuma Ice Cream
The real highlight for me was sampling the Lucuma Ice Cream. Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit that has the characteristics of having a maple-caramel like taste. In ice cream form, this flavor was just pure bliss. It was amazingly silky, and the flavors truly reminded me of a caramel ice cream, only this time, the flavor was coming from the Lucuma fruit. It’s on my list of recommended flavors to try.
You can find Rumba Desserts at various specialty grocery stores around the Bay Area by following this link. There are also several tasting sessions going around, giving you the chance to sample some of Rumba Desserts’ ice cream and sorbets. For more information about Rumba Desserts and to see if a tasting is near you, you can contact them at info@rumbadesserts.com.
La Cocina’s Second Annual San Francisco Street Food Festival concluded yesterday bringing on food loving crowds from all over the Bay Area. I had the chance to attend again this year. Although during last year’s event I did experience a few setbacks – limited space for the crowds of event goers that arrived, long lines, and vendors running out of food – I still tried to make the most of it and overall had a good time. Despite what had happened last year, I thought that having an event like this would help spread the awareness of smaller food entrepreneurs. It was good for the city and for the community.
This year’s event aimed to avoid the problems of last year’s event by providing more food vendors and space to accommodate all of the crowds, while still remaining true to the same concept of bringing together street food vendors and restaurants to celebrate their passion for food. Just a quick stroll down Folsom Street, I could already tell that this time around, things would go much more smoothly. By having more vendors and space at the event did help spread out the crowds so that the lines for food wouldn’t be so long. Below are some of the sights of yesterday’s event and what I was able to sample:
Pork Sisig Tacos from Hapa SF
Melon, Duck Prosciutto, and Lardo Salad from Flour + Water
Pork Sausage with Butter Bean Salad from Flour + Water
Curtis Kimball of @cremebruleecart armed with his torch
Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée from @cremebruleecart
Chef Mourad of Aziza busy on the Grill
Fried Chicken with Harissa from Aziza
Electrolux, Kelly Ripa, and Foodbuzz have partnered up to support awareness for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF). The OCRF’s mission is to fund research to find an early detection for ovarian cancer and to find a cure.
About Ovarian Cancer:
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women. The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,650 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. in 2008 and about 15,520 women will die from the disease. It is an insidious disease that can strike without warning or cause.
To support the awareness for the OCRF even more, Foodbuzz is donating $50 for every post about Banana Splits with the Top 9 Takeover. With the Top 9 Takeover, Foodbuzz will be showcasing 9 blog posts that feature the same theme. We wanted to support the cause, so we decided to join in.
To get into the spirit of summer, we decided to come up with a Filipino style banana split. Instead of regular bananas, we used Saba Bananas that have been wrapped in egg roll wrappers and then fried. These little fried banana rolls are called Turon in Filipino cuisine. The classic Filipino Turon adds in jackfruit to enhance the sweetness of the bananas. We opted to use Nutella Spread instead of jackfruit in our recipe, for that hint of chocolate.
Ingredients
Egg Roll Wrappers
Saba Bananas
Nutella Spread
Water
Brown Sugar
Vegetable Oil
Ice Cream of Your Choice
Steps
First, divide the bananas in half, and slice them again, sort of into long strips. Next, begin wrapping the bananas in the egg roll wrappers.
Spread a little bit of Nutella inside the egg roll wrapper before placing a slice of banana inside. The inspiration to use the Nutella in our Turon comes from having Turon from Patio Filipino in San Bruno, where they use chocolate in their version. Take a slice of the banana and coat it in some brown sugar, place it inside of the wrapper, and roll.
Seal wrapped bananas with a touch of water so that they don’t open up when you fry them.
In a large skillet over medium high heat, fry the wrapped bananas until they are golden brown on both sides. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Remove them from the skillet and place them on a plate with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
Keeping in with theme of the Filipino Banana Split, we paired the Turon with a scoop of Ube – purple yam and Mango Ice cream. Both of these can be found at your local Asian Market.
Just drizzle on some melted Nutella spread and sprinkle some nuts of your choice to top it off. And there you have it. Our twist on an American classic, summertime favorite…
If you too feel like joining in to support awareness for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, you can build your own banana split on Kelly Ripa’s website. For every virtual banana split submitted, Electrolux will donate $1 to the OCRF.
Las Vegas… Home to world class casino resorts and fine dining restaurants. No wonder this city is crowned the city of entertainment. There’s something for everybody here. Sure, you could spend your time throwing down money on gambling or spend your cash shopping in Vegas, but I wanted to make sure I was going to eat good while I was here.
Although I wanted to support my local California Chefs like Michael Mina, Hubert Keller, and Thomas Keller by dining at their Las Vegas restaurants, I knew that I could just visit their restaurants close to my home. I wanted to explore a little more. But, with so many restaurants to choose from, how was I going to make my decision?
I read about Joël Robuchon’s restaurant, L’Atelier, and how they offered an open kitchen so that you could watch your meal being prepared. That feature of the restaurant instantly drew me in. And yes, knowing that Joël Robuchon was named Chef of the century did influence me in a way, but I was intrigued to see how his philosophy on food would be seen with the way his team would prepare my meal.
Housed inside the MGM Grand Casino, you will find Joël Robuchon’s restaurants, L’Atelier and Joël Robuchon. Just a few steps away from the gaming floor, you are transported to a restaurant where your visual senses are in for a ride. When you are seated inside L’Atelier, the first thing you will notice is the open kitchen with Robuchon’s cooks busily working.
Las Vegas may be home to some amazing shows, and you can definitely list L’Atelier as a show to behold. L’Atelier offers counter seating, where you can watch cooks plating and preparing your meal just a few feet from where you sit. At one instance, my eyes were glued to the head chef as he prepared a ribeye. You could see him carefully using his turner to scoop up the juices to baste the ribeye as it was cooking. He finally finished the dish by melting a piece of butter onto the stove and letting those flavors set into the steak.
Two Chef’s tasting menus are available, but when we visited, we opted to order à la carte. It would’ve been nice to explore a tasting menu, but the dishes that we wanted to try were not offered on them. L’Atelier also offers a menu of small tasting portions which gives you that ability and feeling of building your own tasting menu for yourself, or you can enjoy those dishes as appetizers.
A selection of bread – from croissants to small baguettes
Amuse-bouche of Grapefruit gelée, Apple, all topped with Avocado and Cilantro
Appetizer – Foie Gras Ravioli served in Chicken Broth, topped with Thai Basil and Cream
The soup was topped with cream that was optional, served table side. The small pillows of ravioli bursted with flavor when you went in for a spoonful.
Free Range Quail Stuffed with Foie Gras, served with Truffled Mashed Potatoes
The quail was perfectly tender and moist, with the foie gras adding more richness to all of the succulent flavors. The truffled mashed potatoes were so fluffy and buttery. I could say that they were the best mashed potatoes that I’ve ever tasted.
John Dory with Baby Octopus, served with Fava Beans, Artichokes, and Black Olives
The sauce that accompanied the fish was slightly sweet and tart, paired well with the earthy fava beans, artichokes, and salty olives. All of the flavors seemed to absorb right into the flakey and delicate texture of the John Dory.
Soufflé served with Pistachio Ice Cream
What better way to end a French dinner, than with a classic French dessert? As an added touch, the Pistachio Ice Cream was served table side, with our server placing a spoonful of ice cream that melted down the center of the soufflé. The soufflé was light, with a sweet finish coming from the ice cream.
Throughout the entire evening I couldn’t help myself from not looking up and watching other diners’ meals being prepared. It was fascinating to witness how some of the dishes were executed. Dining at L’Atelier might just be worth a visit if you want to enjoy that feeling of being inside the kitchen at one of Joël Robuchon’s restaurants.
Here’s a video taken at our dinner:
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
Inside the MGM Grand Casino
3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
Visit L’Atelier’s Website
