The Long Wait is Over… Ludo Bites is Back

It’s been three very long months since my last dinner at Ludo Bites and another month to go until my next one. Since my first dinner at Ludo Bites I’ve pretty much become obsessed with the food. Not exaggerating, but it’s the best food I have ever had. Don’t know how to explain it but never before have I had food that I obsess about for days and weeks after. If I could, I would have dinner at Ludo Bites every single day.

And now it’s back, for 13 magical days in December. The minute I found out — from following Chef Ludo and his wonderful wife Krissy on Twitter — I went online and made two reservations. When I decided to look at my calendar and see when I could snag a third reservation they were no longer taking reservation requests.

Good Bye Cable

Saturday I was suffering from a temporary case of insanity, hangover from few too many vodka drinks and an anti-oxidant rich pomegranate margarita, and upset stomach from bacon-wrapped hot dog for dessert devoured at 3 am. That’s the only reason I can explain why I decided to go through with canceling cable. I called Time Warner and explained to the nice lady that I have decided to cancel my cable. She seemed surprised, since I had a pretty good deal. For about $45 bucks I had basic cable package with a lot of channels I didn’t watch, Showtime, and DVR. I spend more than that on sushi for lunch. She thought I was nuts for canceling. But, I was motivated to cancel my cable and end my addiction to hours and hours of mindless TV.

And the Nobel Hope Prize Goes To…

President Obama!

That’s right. Nine months in the office, no real accomplishments, still fighting two wars, and he gets a Nobel Peace Prize. Wow. This must have been a very slow year for the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Were there no other available candidates in the peace pool? Did someone at the Nobel committee get the words “hope “and “peace” confused?

7 Reasons I’m NOT Calling You Back

Despite the recent pouring men season, with so many phone calls from so many area codes, I’ve had very little interest in returning these phone calls. So, if any guy wants to know why a girl is not calling him back, here are some reasons…

Reason #7: I was intoxicated when I gave you my phone number. Here’s the deal, if I gave you my number when I was really drunk 1) chances are we were at a bar and the likelihood of anything long-term developing from a bar hookup is slim to non and 2) chances are I wouldn’t have given you my number had I been sober. Had I been sober I probably wouldn’t have been making out with you either. But I was, and I did and now I’m sober and I won’t return your phone call.

Empty Meat Market

I’m a big fan of meat and all I want is some prime quality meat. After many years of tasting meat, I have developed a certain palate. I can tell when a select piece of meat is trying to pass itself off as prime. I know how I like my meat. I like my meat tender, and young, and full of texture. I like it with marbling and full of flavor. What I don’t like is meat that’s coarse, lacks the marbling, doesn’t have flavor, but tries to dress itself up with enough seasoning to pass off as prime. Lately, I feel like I’m in a meat market and all the prime cuts are gone and all that are left are some select pieces, with barely enough marbling to satisfy me.

Saturday Night

After spending half the day in Disneyland on Saturday, I was feeling an urgent need to spend some time around adults. I ended up at a friend’s BBQ in Downtown, where it was mostly a new crowd, a lot of people who I don’t know.

My friend who was having a BBQ had a whole bunch of friends visiting him from DC-area. The male to female ratio at this party was about 10:1, totally in my favor, except that out of all the guys at the party, there were only couple that I found attractive. One was someone I had already had a drunken make-out session with (a long time ago) and another guy was one of his DC-area friends visiting. Let’s call him DC-dude.

So after the BBQ, and after watching the USC-Ohio St game, everyone decides to go out to a club in Hollywood, which has the highest concentration of the “LA” clubs, the ones that get the most celebs and paparazzi. One of the guys in the group, a DC guy living in LA – let’s call him Zen – has the hookup at Bardot and can get everyone in. Zen and his wife Nam are two of my new favorite people. Very hot and stylish and both really awesome dancers. Anyway… getting a a group of 10+ guys in at Bardot at a last minute on a Saturday night is a small miracle, since 1) Bardot is high up in the LA nightclub pecking order and 2) it’s impossible for a group of 10+ guys to go to a club without the appropriate number of girls in the group. And there were only 3 girls in this group, too low for a group of 10 guys. On the other hand, one of the advantages of being a woman is that the same nightclub rules don’t apply. I can pretty much go anywhere, guest list or no guest list. My rule is, “God did not give me a vagina to stand in lines.” And I live with this rule. If you’re nice to bouncers, and look decent, you can get into any club… if you have a vagina.

You Said You Were Different

You promised you weren’t like the others. That you were different. To give you a chance. You said you’d keep your promises. I didn’t believe at first. I’d heard this before. But you said you were different. Not like the others. And you said this over and over again. I even have evidence… I can play replay. And eventually I started to believe. I started to like you. Little by little you won me over.

And now you’re breaking my heart. Like the other politicians. I voted for you because you made me believe in change.

I’m getting more of the same… just in a different package.

A Fawntastic Wedding

About 8 months ago, December 15 to be exact,  I got a picture message of a nice, big sparkling diamond ring from Fawn. Matt, a Houston conservative with a heart of gold, yet some misguided positions in religion and politics, had proposed to Fawn, a Chicago liberal. And 8 months later, in bridesmaid gear, I got to witness the union of Fawn and Matt.

The wedding was Fawntastic. Fawn looked gorgeous.  This of course was not a big surprise, since Fawn is already gorgeous, and smart, and really funny. But she was wearing a stunning dress, which took 300 young seamstresses working 24-7 for 8 months to create… with all the intricate beading and all. Pictures to follow…

And here are just some of the things I did (or did not do) out of my love for Fawn, who is truly one of the most amazing people I know …

In Love… with Ludo Bites

About a month or so ago, I was watching Top Chef Masters — which I’m undecided about — and this particular episode featured Ludo Lefebvre as one of the competing master chefs. I’d heard his name before (because I love to read restaurant reviews), I just never realized how young, and hot, he is. So after seeing the episode, I had a dream about Ludo’s food. I must have been hungry because I can’t remember the last time I was dreaming about food.

After I had my dream, I shared this with the world (Facebook) and my BFF Laura told me that Chef Ludo is currently featuring his Ludo Bites concept at Bread Bar. He and his crew go to a restaurant that only serves breakfast and lunch and take over the dinner service. He’s featuring Ludo Bites at Bread Bar until Aug. 22.  So Laura and I decided to have one of our monthly dinner dates at Ludo Bites.  And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Ludo’s food since then…

Here’s the deal, when a chef is that hot, he doesn’t even need to know how to cook. He could serve burnt toast and he’d have customers return. But, in addition to being even more handsome in person, Chef Ludo’s food was incredible. Laura and I don’t agree on much — we’ve been arguing about politics since our first poli sci class in college — but we both couldn’t stop gushing about the food. I’ve been to Ludo Bites twice in two weeks and can’t stop thinking about it. Now I’m trying to squeeze in one more trip to Ludo Bites between now and August 17. (I’ll be going on a diet from Aug. 18-28 until Fawn’s wedding.)

So here are some of the dishes I’ve had during my two visits to Ludo Bites

• chorizo, cantaloupe, cornichon
• green bean salad, peach, coconut, apple, horseradish & lemongrass
• heirloom tomato salad, red onions, feta mousse, olive powder
• bacon tart, almond, cinnamon, brown butter chantilly
• lobster medallions, honey-sherry vinegar vinaigrette, daikon, rosemary
• foie gras black croque-monsieur, ham, cherry, amaretto (my absolute favorite!)
• creamy polenta, cantal cheese, oxtail beef, black truffle
• creme fraiche panna cotta, caramel, caviar (made me get over my hatred of caviar*)
• chocolate cup cake, foie gras chantilly, candied bacon-almonds, maple syrup
• organic strawberry, wasabi-marcaspone, pistachio parfait

My second trip to Ludo Bites was with my friend Melissa (former roommate), who even tried the politically incorrect – yet heavenly – foie gras. So, now I’m obsessed. I need to have Ludo’s food every day, yet I know it’s not feasible due to economic and dietary restrictions. I mean I would happily eat 2,000+ calories of Ludo’s food for dinner every day, but I live in LA where it’s criminal to be over size 6. And sadly, I can’t afford to eat this every day. Maybe I should start dating more and now, I’ll tell my dates to take me to Ludo instead of sushi.

So I’m just throwing this out in the universe… “Looking for smart, attractive, sarcastic, over 5′10, fit, politically incorrect… male preferred, who will take me to Ludo Bites on our first date, and learn how to make the foie gras croque monseur in an effort to capture my heart.”

War of the Words… on Facebook

I’m sarcastic. I know this and my friends know this. And I know that sometimes sarcasm can get lost in cyberspace, but most of the time my sarcasm is obvious especially to my friends. Most of my friends are also sarcastic so this rarely becomes an issue.

Today, one of my good friends posted a status update on Facebook. It read something like “I’ve been stuck on the 101 for 2 1/2 hours. Live sucks.” To which I respond “Live? Do you mean life? Can’t you pay attention to spelling while driving?” Funny right? To which my friend responds “Eliza, don’t be a bitch.” Well, I have an issue with someone calling me a bitch. Sometimes this word can be used in a funny way. Sometimes it’s used to imply someone is assertive. And let’s face it, a lot of women are called bitch for having traits that are viewed as positive attributes in men — assertive, competitive, outspoken.