Seeking Food - By Ketojinic

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, you grow up knowing about certain places and they become mainstays. There is less competition since the population is so small and little communities form to help each other out and their businesses. For example, the Korean community in Santa Cruz is so tight-knit that it's easy to identify them based on which church they go to and if they don't go to church, which church they are affiliated with (where most of their friends and family attend). This idea stretches to other types of communities of people who live in Santa Cruz. On our last day in Bolivia, we went to our church to say goodbye to our community and an unexpected trip to eat duck was devised by a few family friends. " ¿ Quieres comer pato?" - "Do you want to eat duck?" exclaimed Mrs. Yoon.  We were about to head out to Cotoca, a neighboring city so we turned her down. Have you ever tried turning down an adamant Korean lady? Needless to say, five minutes later we...

(Clockwise from top left: Shrimp Toast, Lobster roll, Fried Oyster sandwich) (Left to Right: Chicken Sandwich, Fish and Chips) Son of a Gun! I love Animal (Vinny and Jon's first outpost in LA) and when I heard Son of a Gun, their Seafood-centric new joint opened, I knew I had to pay a visit. Since they're open for lunch now and miraculously, the lines are still not long yet, we decided to go before more people would hear about it. The three of us walked in a little earlier than LA lunch time, around 12pm sharp. We were able to get the communal table but you can make reservations ahead of time for the tables if you need your own space.  The decor was fabulous and the vibe was chill. My kind of place. The food is seafood centric but definitely the kind that goes better with beer since a lot of the food is fried. We ordered the shrimp toast, the lobster roll, the fried oyster sandwich, the chicken sandwich, and the fish and chips. They were all so fried and fatty...

It took me nearly ten years to see Bolivia again. In my mind, I built up Bolivia to be this magical place where not only my childhood took place, but a place untouched by the evilness of industrialization, mass production, and globalization. (Lomas de Arena: Sand Dunes, Santa Cruz, Bolivia) Of course, a lot of things have changed. (La Paz, Bolivia) When I lived in Bolivia, I barely left my city, Santa Cruz. The cuisine of the altiplano (or the high altitude regions) is pretty different from the cuisine of the lowlands. La Paz, the capital, is dry, cold in the shade, hot in the sun, and you're basically living amongst the clouds. People here eat a lot more quinoa than they do in Santa Cruz. Most of the quinoa comes from the altiplano because quinoa is hardy and it can grow in high altitudes. The andes are the perfect place for quinoa to grow. During our trip to La Paz and the Salar de Uyuni, we had a lot of quinoa soup and cooked quinoa instead of rice. ...

I've never been to Portland, OR but I've read enough food blogs to know that there is a lively food and beer scene. So when my hubz tells me he's always wanted to go to Portland and books our trip there as a winter getaway, I get schoolgirl giddy. This time, I leave everything up to my hubz so I don't have to plan a thing. I don't research food blogs or read restaurant reviews. I just sit back and relax as my hubz creates an itinerary for our winter getaway. He deftly calls on his foodie friends who have been there before and through all the recommendations, we have a food and hiking plan. Portland is a beautiful city. Lively, even when it's soggy. I get a lot of mileage out of my yellow rain boots as we walk the downtown streets. It's great to take a break from driving everywhere in LA. We decide to check out Higgins, based on a few friends' recommendations. Located on the corner of Broadway and Jefferson in Down...

It's what always happens. I have a whole bunch of film-related projects to finish and I get distracted looking up recipes online. It's getting chilly these days so I'm in a soup-y kind of mood. Last week, I made a slow-cooker turkey chili that's been the go to meal when we're too busy to sit down and eat. The hubz and I have very different eating schedules and he is so food-challenged that if I don't make these one pot meals for the week, he'll just end up eating white rice with dried, shredded pork (Vietnamese dish) that sits in the fridge. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just so boring. I guess it's better than eating cereal for dinner. Anyway, on twitter, SkinnyJinny posted this picture of his curry cashew butternut squash soup with coconut yogurt that he made using Sensual Foodie's recipe and I KNEW I had to make a batch, or at least a rendition of it. I call this the "Nutty Asian Butternut Squash Soup" because in ...

This year I got to go to the first annual LA Food and Wine Festival held at LA Live as a freelance producer for KCET Food. I covered the Red Carpet, HEAT (LA's spiciest after party), Grand Tasting 1, Rick Bayless Demonstration, and Grand Tasting 2. Check out the KCET Food version on their website . At least for now, it's on their front page!  Thanks KCET Food for letting me go and eat like a pig for a few days, interview chefs, connect with other food lovers, and be a part of something huge that I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of with my lowly film school student budget. The video on here is the song I initially chose for the event to capture the energy of a celebration for a first annual event of this magnitude. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, I had to change it. My favorite food part of the food festival was, Roy Choi's subtle jerk chicken, David LeFevre's meatballs (no pics, just in video) and:   Ray Garcia's bacon wrapped b...