#Josef Centeno

[allwaysfull]

Bäco | Josef Centeno and Betty Hallock

[total-food-service]

James Beard Foundation To Host 2021 Taste America Series Presented By Capital One

James Beard Foundation To Host 2021 Taste America Series Presented By Capital One

Chefs from Ten Cities to Participate in Virtual Communal Dining Event on Sunday, March 21 to Eat, Celebrate Local Independent Restaurants, and Build Support for Industry Recovery The James Beard Foundation recently announced featured chefs, cities, and programming for its annual Taste America® event. The 2021 Taste America event presented by Capital One® will take place on Sunday, March 21 in…

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Amá A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen

by Josef Centeno and Betty Hallock

I miss Mexican food and do my best to make it here in Lebanon. I learned to make authentic tortillas from a woman in Saudi Arabia, learned to make salsa from a Mexican cookbook to serve to an embassy friend missing home and I have enjoyed reading and eating food from south of the border for years. I have more than one Mexican and Tex-Mex cookbook in my collection but NONE of them have the varied recipes using so many tasty ingredients as this one does. In fact, as I began reading I immediately wrote to my daughter (a foodie) to tell her about this book suggesting that she should see if she can find it. Sadly I won’t be able to find all of the ingredients where I live BUT I might be able to find substitutions and approximate the recipes. I certainly hope so. In addition to the recipes there is a great deal of family history that enriches this book. We learn of generations past that the author remembers fondly while sharing their recipes and history.

What I liked:

* The history of the author, his restaurants and family’s

* The ease of reading the recipes and feeling I could recreate the recipes if the ingredients were available

* The flavors that popped in my mind as I read through the book

* Being reminded of home and eating out decades ago in Los Angeles

* Seeing twists on recipes I make now or have made in the past using Centeno’s family seasonings and recipes

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I buy it for myself or others? Yes

Which recipes would I want to try first? Perhaps some of the salsas, desserts and mixed drinks and I have to say I am fascinated by the idea of using beer in cooking beans.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43522398-ama?ac=1&from_search=true

Description

Tex-Mex is diverse. B  ÁmaBar Áma finds inspiration from regional Mexican cuisine and beyond, with influences from the American South, Ger­many, Poland, and Morocco.

Tex- Mex isn't authentic. The only thing authentic about Tex-Mex is that it isn’t authentic: It evolves and adapts.

Tex-Mex is delicious. Think meaty stews, breakfast tacos, and tres leches cake. 

Home cooks will learn how to make them all—in addition to crunchy salads, slow-cooked meats, and fresh cocktails—in this collection of more than 100 recipes from San Antonio native and Los Angeles chef and restauranteur Josef Centeno. This cookbook is a hands-on winner for anyone who loves big flavors, casual parties, and firing up the grill.

[jaynezak]

Los Angeles Restaurant Standbys

Los Angeles Restaurant Standbys

Los Angeles Restaurant Standbys “In Los Angeles, everything is 100% organic, except the people.” Kris Kidd I’m a foodie and my first choice is to try a new restaurant. There are certain restaurants that I often return to because they are comfortable and consistently delicious. They are always crowded and fun. The list is in no particular order. Matsuhisa was opened in 1987 by Nobu Matsuhisa. …

[90smovies]

[acoffeeplease]

CAFÉ GLACÉ MEXICAIN

La dernière assiette a été débarrassée et vous avez envie d'un café, une boisson après le dîner avec juste ce qu'il faut de douceur pour équilibrer l'infusion capiteuse et robuste. 

"Une bonne boisson au café, c'est comme un bon parfum", déclare Vincenzo Marianella, Mixologue-Consultant au Mexique.

"L'arôme du café, de l'espresso ou des liqueurs devrait vous attirer avant même que vous ne preniez une gorgée, alors les saveurs peuvent s'ouvrir sur votre langue".

Pour fabriquer son "Mex-Ital Coffee Cooler", le chef exécutif d'Opus, Josef Centeno, associe l'espresso (ou un substitut de café fort) à la liqueur Patron XO Cafe, une liqueur de tequila infusée au café, et au Tuaca, une liqueur toscane à base de brandy avec des notes de vanille et d'agrumes. 

Patron XO Cafe est d'une saveur de 70% plus sèche et plus robuste que certaines liqueurs de café.

C'est une combinaison harmonieuse de la "Tequila Patrón Silver" avec le café fin le plus exquis et soigneusement sélectionné. Le résultat final est une tequila avec une saveur marquée de café et une douceur modérée.

"Le café est vraiment concentré dans la version tequila", explique Centeno

"Ce n'est pas aussi sucré que les liqueurs de café standard, il a donc une saveur de café pure et percutante." 

Pour réaliser ce cocktail...

Ingrédients

▪️Une généreuse cuillère à soupe de lait concentré

▪️ Une dose et demie de liqueur de Tequila Patron XO Cafe

▪️ Trois quarts de liqueur de Tuaca

▪️ Trois doses d'espresso à température ambiante ou une quantité égale de café à double concentration

▪️ Deux cuillères à soupe de crème fouettée légèrement sucrée

▪️ Une cuillère à café de cannelle

▪️ Une cuillère à café de sucre

Préparation

▪️ Dans un shaker, mélanger le lait condensé, les liqueurs et l'espresso ou le café

▪️ Ajouter de la glace dans un verre de huit doses et verser le mélange dessus

▪️ Garnir de crème fouettée, si désiré, et saupoudrer de cannelle et de sucre.

Et maintenant...

Bonne dégustation ! 🤎

[easyfoodnetwork]

How One Chef Is Feeding LA’s Hospital Workers, 100 Enchiladas at a Time

The idea of comfort food has become a cliche, but for those working the front lines at hospitals, a well-prepared meal makes all the difference

One afternoon in late March, the chef Josef Centeno made 100 enchiladas. First, he simmered 10 pounds of chicken thighs in an improvised Japanese-style curry made with chorizo spice, yuzu kosho, dried chile powder, and dashi, while on the side, he grilled bolting cauliflower from a local farm. Then he warmed corn tortillas in hot oil and became a one-man assembly line, filling them with the curry and laying them seam-side down on the full-sized sheet pan. Finally, a blanket of fontina and Tex-Mex cheese turned the enchiladas brown and crispy in the oven.

This motherlode of enchiladas was handed off to some friends who took them to a doctor at Cedars-Sinai. There were 61 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in Los Angeles County that day; the hospital had just set up a triage tent outside. “It’s gonna start getting bad I’m afraid,” Centeno texted me. The things he was hearing made him want to help, so he did the thing he knew how to do: cook.

Centeno was one of the first chefs in Los Angeles to close down entirely after the city ordered restaurants to shift to takeout and delivery only. While operating in takeout mode, he returned again and again to the question of the virus, and how easily it was spreading — it was safe for the people ordering, but less safe for the staff making their way to work every day. “I would feel terrible for the rest of my life if I was having people work, even though everyone wanted to work, if they went home and got their grandmother sick or son who has asthma sick,” he says. “I told everyone to file for unemployment [right then], because by [the following] week, it was going to be a shitshow.” Many of his employees were able to get unemployment, before, yes, everything became a shitshow. “Every day, we find out a little more, and it’s a little bit worse.”

The day after he decided to close, he gave away produce and extra cooked food to staff and friends, first from his restaurant Amacita in Culver City, and later from his four restaurants clustered in downtown Los Angeles around a corner he’d remade starting in 2011. Centeno was already cooking big batches of his ranchero chicken to give away, and when he heard about the doctors, nurses, and staff working endless shifts as they treated COVID patients and prepared for the oncoming wave, he wanted to provide food that could, even for a moment, transport hospital workers out of the crisis they were facing. “Restaurants have always been an escape, and that’s what I know how to do.”

After that first batch of enchiladas, Centeno started cooking by himself twice a week with a nonprofit called Dine11, one of the many charities that have popped up to feed hospital workers in Los Angeles. Dine11 was started by longtime friends and collaborators, actor Lola Glaudini and costume supervisor Brooke Thatawat, who had friends in the restaurant and hospital world and saw they both needed help.

Centeno’s prep work for a batch of meals designated for hospital workers

Unlike some of the bigger nonprofits, which are sending massive meal orders to the city’s best-known hospitals, Dine 11 doesn’t work with chains or big restaurateurs. Instead, its focus helps mom-and-pop restaurants and some smaller restaurant groups bring in enough money to survive the citywide shutdown, while sending food to the smaller hospitals in Los Angeles that are missing out on larger charities’ attentions. Dine11 uses the money it’s raised to place a takeout order at a small local restaurant, which boxes it up according to hospital safety protocols. The restaurant puts the food in the trunk of a volunteer driver, who takes it to the hospital. Then, the volunteer texts their contact at the hospital, who picks it up from the truck without any contact.

Glaudini says restaurants are finding Dine11 organically; she’s getting 20 to 30 emails a day from people who want to be involved. For many smaller restaurants, the kind run by families or people who would call themselves cooks, not chefs, closing down doesn’t feel like an option. Dine11 can’t keep them in business long term, but it can give them a lifeline of another week. And every restaurant Dine11 works with is required to adhere to safety standards (masks, gloves, frequent wiping down of containers and surfaces) that help keep workers safer, too.

Centeno cooks meals for Dine11 in between designing face masks for friends and family and custom-dyeing garments he’s selling to raise money to keep his workers on their health insurance. He uses donated vegetables from Thao Family Farms, his own dwindling stock of ingredients (like an order of eight 22-pound bags of rice he placed right before the pandemic hit), and whatever else he can get his hands on. He cooks alone, because he believes that’s the only safe option right now. “It’s been kind of Zen,” he says. “I’m just by myself, listening to music.” Centeno isn’t taking money from Dine11 for himself or to cover ingredients; the founders say he’s asked them to donate the money directly to the GoFundMe he set up for his employees. To cover the restaurants’ last payroll, Centeno dipped into his personal savings fund, which he is relying on as long as his restaurants remain closed.

For the takeout meals, Centeno is mixing Japanese and Tex-Mex flavors, which he says work surprisingly well together. A recent rice bowl came together like this: ground beef from the freezer, which he stewed with dashi to make a picadillo, plus mustard greens and kale from Thao Farms cooked with Peads & Barnetts bacon, served over brown rice. Centeno topped the bowls with shaved fennel and pistachio dry salsa. Even though he was working by himself, and not in the rush of service, he still has been running behind. “I did a lot better than the week before, when I was like an hour late.”

The idea of comfort food has become a cliche, but the emotional succor a well-prepared meal can offer is real, especially in times of true need. Medical workers need to eat, but what they really need is to feel supported, and that’s a role meals made with precision and creativity like Centeno’s can play. “Our responsibility as culinarians is to take care of people,” Centeno says.

Katy Kinsella is an emergency physician at Kaiser in Panorama City and a friend of Dine11’s co-founder Thatawat; her hospital has received several deliveries from Dine11. At the hospital, according to Kinsella, workers are anxiously waiting for the pandemic’s peak to hit in Los Angeles. Kinsella’s hospital is seeing COVID-19 patients on a daily basis, anywhere from four to 18 a day, many of whom come in very sick. “It can tax the lungs and they end up getting pneumonia; once they end up with a breathing tube, they don’t do well,” Kinsella says. “There’s no infectious disease that we’ve had here in the United States that’s felt anything like this. You can’t help but think, that could be me.” Friends at hospitals in New York and Detroit are completely overwhelmed. Kinsella worries for them, and for herself; she worries she might carry the virus home to her family. The food that comes from Dine11 fuels a long and harrowing shift, but its emotional impact is much more important. “It’s just nice to know that people care and recognize what we’re doing.”

The fear of what the pandemic might bring doesn’t stop Kinsella from showing up every day; she’s proud to do her job. What a meal prepared by a chef or local restaurant does is create a sense of normalcy — that care that Centeno wants to convey. “When we have to give people bad news, we feel it too. Having a meal and feeling the support of our community makes us feel like we’re not in it alone.”

Kinsella says she likes getting food from Dine11 because they’re building a model to support local restaurants, which she knows are hurting. “Food is my favorite thing in the world, and it’s weird to have all these restaurants closed,” she says. “We were trying to support local restaurants with takeout, but it’s not the same thing.” Glaudini and Thatawat believe that boosting the morale of health care workers is essential, but they know there are lots of groups out there feeding hospitals right now. They’re trying to focus on making sure the efforts help restaurants, too, whether that’s by partnering with places that are really in need or having delivery volunteers so the restaurants can keep all of the money, rather than giving a delivery service a cut. “We want to spend our money where the need is greatest,” Thatawat says. “And that’s the smaller businesses and local businesses that we love.”

Centeno does not know if the cooking is helping him cope with the collapse of his industry, but he does find meaning in feeding those who are putting their lives on the line. He knows he’s not alone in struggling right now — he sees it happening to every single one of his peers. Like a lot of other chefs who own a small enough number of restaurants where they occasionally still find themselves washing dishes or hopping on the line, he’s not used to standing still.

“I guess I’m in bulldozer mode,” he says. “Every day, I can’t believe the restaurant industry is gone; it’s vanished, and what is it going to come back as? I’m trying to figure out how to readjust, because the whole model has been turned upside down and put in the recycling machine. I worked 30 years and lost it all in 24 hours.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/34JRzQn https://ift.tt/3adfJ74

The idea of comfort food has become a cliche, but for those working the front lines at hospitals, a well-prepared meal makes all the difference

One afternoon in late March, the chef Josef Centeno made 100 enchiladas. First, he simmered 10 pounds of chicken thighs in an improvised Japanese-style curry made with chorizo spice, yuzu kosho, dried chile powder, and dashi, while on the side, he grilled bolting cauliflower from a local farm. Then he warmed corn tortillas in hot oil and became a one-man assembly line, filling them with the curry and laying them seam-side down on the full-sized sheet pan. Finally, a blanket of fontina and Tex-Mex cheese turned the enchiladas brown and crispy in the oven.

This motherlode of enchiladas was handed off to some friends who took them to a doctor at Cedars-Sinai. There were 61 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in Los Angeles County that day; the hospital had just set up a triage tent outside. “It’s gonna start getting bad I’m afraid,” Centeno texted me. The things he was hearing made him want to help, so he did the thing he knew how to do: cook.

Centeno was one of the first chefs in Los Angeles to close down entirely after the city ordered restaurants to shift to takeout and delivery only. While operating in takeout mode, he returned again and again to the question of the virus, and how easily it was spreading — it was safe for the people ordering, but less safe for the staff making their way to work every day. “I would feel terrible for the rest of my life if I was having people work, even though everyone wanted to work, if they went home and got their grandmother sick or son who has asthma sick,” he says. “I told everyone to file for unemployment [right then], because by [the following] week, it was going to be a shitshow.” Many of his employees were able to get unemployment, before, yes, everything became a shitshow. “Every day, we find out a little more, and it’s a little bit worse.”

The day after he decided to close, he gave away produce and extra cooked food to staff and friends, first from his restaurant Amacita in Culver City, and later from his four restaurants clustered in downtown Los Angeles around a corner he’d remade starting in 2011. Centeno was already cooking big batches of his ranchero chicken to give away, and when he heard about the doctors, nurses, and staff working endless shifts as they treated COVID patients and prepared for the oncoming wave, he wanted to provide food that could, even for a moment, transport hospital workers out of the crisis they were facing. “Restaurants have always been an escape, and that’s what I know how to do.”

After that first batch of enchiladas, Centeno started cooking by himself twice a week with a nonprofit called Dine11, one of the many charities that have popped up to feed hospital workers in Los Angeles. Dine11 was started by longtime friends and collaborators, actor Lola Glaudini and costume supervisor Brooke Thatawat, who had friends in the restaurant and hospital world and saw they both needed help.

Centeno’s prep work for a batch of meals designated for hospital workers

Unlike some of the bigger nonprofits, which are sending massive meal orders to the city’s best-known hospitals, Dine 11 doesn’t work with chains or big restaurateurs. Instead, its focus helps mom-and-pop restaurants and some smaller restaurant groups bring in enough money to survive the citywide shutdown, while sending food to the smaller hospitals in Los Angeles that are missing out on larger charities’ attentions. Dine11 uses the money it’s raised to place a takeout order at a small local restaurant, which boxes it up according to hospital safety protocols. The restaurant puts the food in the trunk of a volunteer driver, who takes it to the hospital. Then, the volunteer texts their contact at the hospital, who picks it up from the truck without any contact.

Glaudini says restaurants are finding Dine11 organically; she’s getting 20 to 30 emails a day from people who want to be involved. For many smaller restaurants, the kind run by families or people who would call themselves cooks, not chefs, closing down doesn’t feel like an option. Dine11 can’t keep them in business long term, but it can give them a lifeline of another week. And every restaurant Dine11 works with is required to adhere to safety standards (masks, gloves, frequent wiping down of containers and surfaces) that help keep workers safer, too.

Centeno cooks meals for Dine11 in between designing face masks for friends and family and custom-dyeing garments he’s selling to raise money to keep his workers on their health insurance. He uses donated vegetables from Thao Family Farms, his own dwindling stock of ingredients (like an order of eight 22-pound bags of rice he placed right before the pandemic hit), and whatever else he can get his hands on. He cooks alone, because he believes that’s the only safe option right now. “It’s been kind of Zen,” he says. “I’m just by myself, listening to music.” Centeno isn’t taking money from Dine11 for himself or to cover ingredients; the founders say he’s asked them to donate the money directly to the GoFundMe he set up for his employees. To cover the restaurants’ last payroll, Centeno dipped into his personal savings fund, which he is relying on as long as his restaurants remain closed.

For the takeout meals, Centeno is mixing Japanese and Tex-Mex flavors, which he says work surprisingly well together. A recent rice bowl came together like this: ground beef from the freezer, which he stewed with dashi to make a picadillo, plus mustard greens and kale from Thao Farms cooked with Peads & Barnetts bacon, served over brown rice. Centeno topped the bowls with shaved fennel and pistachio dry salsa. Even though he was working by himself, and not in the rush of service, he still has been running behind. “I did a lot better than the week before, when I was like an hour late.”

The idea of comfort food has become a cliche, but the emotional succor a well-prepared meal can offer is real, especially in times of true need. Medical workers need to eat, but what they really need is to feel supported, and that’s a role meals made with precision and creativity like Centeno’s can play. “Our responsibility as culinarians is to take care of people,” Centeno says.

Katy Kinsella is an emergency physician at Kaiser in Panorama City and a friend of Dine11’s co-founder Thatawat; her hospital has received several deliveries from Dine11. At the hospital, according to Kinsella, workers are anxiously waiting for the pandemic’s peak to hit in Los Angeles. Kinsella’s hospital is seeing COVID-19 patients on a daily basis, anywhere from four to 18 a day, many of whom come in very sick. “It can tax the lungs and they end up getting pneumonia; once they end up with a breathing tube, they don’t do well,” Kinsella says. “There’s no infectious disease that we’ve had here in the United States that’s felt anything like this. You can’t help but think, that could be me.” Friends at hospitals in New York and Detroit are completely overwhelmed. Kinsella worries for them, and for herself; she worries she might carry the virus home to her family. The food that comes from Dine11 fuels a long and harrowing shift, but its emotional impact is much more important. “It’s just nice to know that people care and recognize what we’re doing.”

The fear of what the pandemic might bring doesn’t stop Kinsella from showing up every day; she’s proud to do her job. What a meal prepared by a chef or local restaurant does is create a sense of normalcy — that care that Centeno wants to convey. “When we have to give people bad news, we feel it too. Having a meal and feeling the support of our community makes us feel like we’re not in it alone.”

Kinsella says she likes getting food from Dine11 because they’re building a model to support local restaurants, which she knows are hurting. “Food is my favorite thing in the world, and it’s weird to have all these restaurants closed,” she says. “We were trying to support local restaurants with takeout, but it’s not the same thing.” Glaudini and Thatawat believe that boosting the morale of health care workers is essential, but they know there are lots of groups out there feeding hospitals right now. They’re trying to focus on making sure the efforts help restaurants, too, whether that’s by partnering with places that are really in need or having delivery volunteers so the restaurants can keep all of the money, rather than giving a delivery service a cut. “We want to spend our money where the need is greatest,” Thatawat says. “And that’s the smaller businesses and local businesses that we love.”

Centeno does not know if the cooking is helping him cope with the collapse of his industry, but he does find meaning in feeding those who are putting their lives on the line. He knows he’s not alone in struggling right now — he sees it happening to every single one of his peers. Like a lot of other chefs who own a small enough number of restaurants where they occasionally still find themselves washing dishes or hopping on the line, he’s not used to standing still.

“I guess I’m in bulldozer mode,” he says. “Every day, I can’t believe the restaurant industry is gone; it’s vanished, and what is it going to come back as? I’m trying to figure out how to readjust, because the whole model has been turned upside down and put in the recycling machine. I worked 30 years and lost it all in 24 hours.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/34JRzQn via Blogger https://ift.tt/2VccsR4

[travelivery]

Los Angeles Times Food Bowl Returns with a Diverse Program

Los Angeles Times Food Bowl Returns with a Diverse Program

Los Angeles Times Food Bowl is proud to release the program schedule for 31 days of food celebrating L.A.’s amazing food and drink scene. Spanning the entire month of May, Food Bowl will feature over 200 events with many of the chefs and restaurants that have put Los Angeles on the map as one of the world’s great food cities alongside internationally renowned chefs in rare local appearances. Los…

[jenguerrero]

  Baco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles is an amazing foodie book for when you want to pull out all the stops to make incredible dishes.

I am absolutely in love with the Bäco Bread with Creamy Poblano Feta Dressing. The  smell of the fresh flatbreads baking fills the house and the dressing is lickable. A huge thanks to Chronicle Books for letting me share it with you! The picture is mine. The photographs in Bäco are beautiful.

My review with my pics and thoughts on all the dishes I tried is below the recipe.

Baco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles by Josef Centeno and Betty Hallock, photographs by Dylan James Ho and Jeni Afuso (Chronicle Books, 2017.)

Bäco Bread

Makes 10 flatbreads

1 ½ tsp active dry yeast 1 ½ tsp sugar 1 cup [240 ml] warm water 3 2/3 cups [440 g] flour, plus more for dusting 2 tsp salt 6 Tbsp [80 g] ghee, at room temperature 3 Tbsp plain yogurt Avocado or olive oil for cooking

Whisk together the yeast, sugar, and warm water in a small bowl. Set aside til foamy, about 10 minutes.

Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the ghee, yogurt, and yeast mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or by hand until thoroughly combined. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead until smooth and supple, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside til nearly doubled in volume, about 1 ½ hours.

Punch down the dough, turn it over onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead it again for a few minutes. Cut the dough into 10 pieces and roll each into a ball. With a rolling pin, roll out each ball into in 8-by-4-in [20-by-10-cm] oval, dusting with flour as needed.

Heat the oven to 300°F [150°C]. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large heavy bottomed frying pan over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering. Place one piece of dough in the pan, adjusting the heat as needed so that the bread is browned on the bottom and the top starts to bubble and puff, about 1 minute. Flip the bread and cook until the second side is browned, about 1 minute longer. The breads should be spotted with well-browned areas and still pliable.

Transfer to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you cook the remaining breads, adding more oil to the pan as needed. Serve warm.

Poblano-Feta Dip

Makes 1 ½ cups [280 g]

3 poblano chiles ½ tsp cumin seeds 1 cup [14 g] fresh cilantro leaves 1 cup [16 g] fresh mint leaves 1 cup [140 g] crumbled feta Grated zest and juice of ½ lemon 2 garlic cloves, peeled 1 Tbsp sherry vinegar ½ tsp salt 1 Tbsp to 1/3 cup [15 to 80 ml] water

One at a time, char the poblano chiles by placing them directly over the open flame or a gas stove or grill. Turn them with tongs as they are roasting, until the skins of the chiles are charred and blistered all over, 1 to 2 minutes on each side. While they’re hot, place them in a large sealable bag to steam for about 10 minutes. Don’t let the chiles steam for too long or they’ll start to turn brown. Remove the charred skin, rubbing it off gently with the back of a knife. Cut open one side of each chile and remove and discard the stems, seeds, and ribs. Set aside.

Toast the cumin seeds in a small, dry frying pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

Put the poblano chiles, cumin, cilantro, mint, feta, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, vinegar, and salt in a blender and purée on medium to high speed, adding water a tablespoon at a time, until smooth. Use just enough water to blend the mixture to the consistency of hummus. It shouldn’t be too liquidy. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Baco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles by Josef Centeno Edition: Hardcover

This is an ultra-fresh, vibrant, colorful, flavorful omnivorous book. The contrasts of flavor, texture, and color are phenomenal. His aesthetics are great. Everything we’ve tried has been delicious and interesting. The recipes aren’t terribly difficult, but I headed straight for my better grocer for some of the more special ingredients. He suggests substitutions for some that are more rare in the recipe headers.

The book itself is very artsy and gift quality. The photography’s beautiful and there are little design features like the top right corner of the pages are rounded, which I thought was just to look cool, but seem to make the pages easier to turn. Huh.

1) Sichuan Pepper Lamb Top Round with English Pea and Parsley Salad – p 246 & 38 and Sweet Potatoes with Aonori Marscapone Butter, Feta and Honey – p 188. All of the contrasting color is visually stunning and the flavors are just outstanding. The cut of lamb is not fatty at all, and the flavor crust on it is wonderful. This is the best sweet potato recipe I’ve ever tried. The aonori is just crushed up nori, so if you have nori sheets in your pantry, you can just run one through your spice grinder and you’ll be set. The lamb calls for 1 teaspoon of cubeb pepper. My grocer didn’t have it (Amazon does!), so after reading a description, I substituted ½ teaspoon each of allspice and peppercorns. It was delicious.

2) Tuscan Melon with Persian Cucumber Salad with Cacik – p 110 & 92. Fantastic sweet, earthy, and crisp salad. I only made ¼ of the cacik recipe, because that’s all that was needed under the salad, but it’s a little like a tzatziki with walnuts and raisins. It’s too delicious to not make ½ of the recipe. 3) Bäco Bread – p 176 and Roasted Golden Beets with Radishes, Cucumbers, Hazelnuts, and Creamy Poblano Feta Dressing – p 218, 22 & 80. These are the recipes from the cover, so I had to try those out. Wow! These are my favorite in the book. I can’t believe how easy it is to make flatbread at home, and they’re perfectly pillowy, and the smell of the fresh bread has everyone waiting at the table. The earthiness of the beets with the mellowed out pickled onions, the sharp breakfast radishes, the sweet crisp of the cukes, the pop from the dry-cured olives and feta, and the fresh herbs combine to make the most amazing salad. And that poblano feta dip is lickable! I made the chicken below with it. Perfect dinner.

4) Braised Chicken with Leeks, Tomatoes, Berbere, Thyme, and Yogurt – p 234. Lovely spicy chicken with leeks and tomatoes, braised in wine and stock. 5) Tuscan Kale with Crushed Fenugreek-Nigella Meatballs and Sherry Raisins – p 137 & 135. Delicious dinner, and there’s a full bunch of Tuscan kale on each plate. The miso is not mentioned in the meatball name, but that flavor is nice and pronounced. Nigella is sometimes called black cumin or charnushka, if you’re having trouble finding it. 6) Sauteed Peaches and Shishito Peppers with Goat Cheese, Cashews – p 221 & and Saffron Honey – p 33. Fantastic!

7) Baharat-Spiced Porcetta – p 258 & 35 with Chimichurri – p 84 and Red Endive and Blood Oranges with Blue Cheese, Dukkah, and Banyuls Vinaigrette with Hazelnut and Fennel Dukkah – p 104 and 48. Delicious! The whole house smells lovely from the slow roasting pork. The bitter greens and citrus salad offset the richness of the pork so nicely. My grocer doesn’t carry red endive, so I used regular, but you could use radicchio if you wanted to have the color pop like in the book.

8-10) Panko Crusted Shrimp with Chives and Mexican Sriracha – 148 with Jicama Salad with Mango, Fennel, Cucumber, Peanuts, Lime, and Fish Sauce Vinaigrette – p 147 & 71. Yum! Fresh, easy, tropical tasting dinner. I added a little mayo to the sriracha sauce. You only need 1/5 of the fish sauce vinaigrette recipe for this, so that’s all I made. This makes a ton of salad, so I tossed extra peanuts into the leftovers for lunch the next day. Nice.

11) Barley Porridge with Ginger and Sauteed Oranges – p 212 with Breakfast Dukkah – p 52. Wonderfully fragrant, tasty breakfast in less than a half hour.

Some others I have flagged to try: Snap Pea and Asian Pear Salad with Grapefruit, Burrata, & Hazelnuts – p 107 * Fennel, Kale, Shaved Cauliflower, and Apple with Creamy Dill Dressing and Bacon Bread Crumb Persillade – p 113, 95, 54 & 55 * Crudites with Walnut-Miso Bagna Cauda – p 114 & 56 * Blistered Green Beans with Fenugreek-Chipotle Tomato Sauce – p 116, 67 & 39 * Creamy Romesco Soup with Grapefruit, Nigella, and Fresh Horseradish – p 120 * Caesar Brussels Sprouts – p 125, 22 & 54 * Caramelized Cauliflower with Mint, Pine Nuts, Lime, and Yogurt – p 132 * Sauteed Broccolini with Mexican Sriracha and Queso Fresco – p 134 * Coffee-Rubbed Beef Carpaccio with Juniper Tarragon Vinaigrette and Crispy Shallots – p 157, 40 & 72 * Slow-Roasted Berbere-Cured Ocean Trout with Lemon Tempura and Citrus Olive Salad – p 166 and 163 * Fuyu Persimmon Salad with Grapes, Red Walnuts, and Sherry Vinegar – p 186 *Rutabaga and Pancetta with Lemon, Anchovy & Capers – p 190 * Eggplant with Avocado, Persian Cucumbers, Herbs, and Cipollini-Buttermilk Dressing – p 194 & 74 * Berbere Chicken and Creamy Pecorino Rice – p 196 * Imjadra with Cherries, Parsley, Sumac, Yogurt, and Fried Shallots – p 230 * Skirt Steak with Horseradish Yogurt and Beets bi Tahini – p 182

I’ll update this as I play in the book more.

#BäcoMercat

#JosefCenteno

#ChronicleBooks

  Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles by Josef Centeno and the most amazing recipe for Bäco Bread with Creamy Poblano Feta Dressing Baco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles is an amazing foodie book for when you want to pull out all the stops to make incredible dishes.

[luuurien]

Rain Recordings - Artificial Night

(Chamber Folk, Indie Rock, Indie Folk)

The transcontinental duo's debut album is an absolute wonder to behold, capturing the timelessness of fuzzy indie folk while pulling into a modern, internet age context. Stitched together across Sweden and the United States, Artificial Night is deeply affecting and unbelievably well-made.

☆☆☆☆½

Rain Recordings is a once in a lifetime band. As a duo, Josef Löfvendahl and Evren Centeno are a unique pair because of the distance between them, the former living in Sweden and the latter in the United States. It's the kind of group that could only exist in the internet age, able to communicate from afar and put music together through the accessibility of modern DAW's, and Rain Recordings the kind of band that could only bloom with their minds behind it. While a smidge overlong, Artificial Night is one absolutely sublime listen, capturing the timelessness of fuzzy indie folk in the footsteps Elliott Smith and The Microphones while pulling into a modern, internet age context, Artificial Night a dream come true for contemporary indie folk. While far apart, the two are deeply attuned to one another's musicianship and emotions, able to explore feelings of anxiety and despair alongside contentment and hope with full, complete trust in one another. It's knowing how close Löfvendahl and Centeno are as artists and how they bring it to life through Artificial Night that is nothing short of magical. Built off simple indie folk progression with delicate chamber embellishments with Centeno's trumpet and the occasional string arrangement, Artificial Night's relatively simple sound gives way for honest and raw storytelling that naturally breathes and moves as the duo do. Over the sensitive strumming of Blood Flow, they use the titular image to explore helplessness and acceptance, swelling analog synths and heavenly trumpet harmonies pressing down on your heart as they solemnly sing "I loosened my fingers / Go on and fly away," the simple imagery they employ throughout it letting you sponge up all the gorgeous instrumentation and surprisingly thick drumming from Centeno, and the rest of Artificial Night follows a similarly marvelous form while changing it in different ways to keep the album varied and chilling. The waltz of Father's Day slowly builds with gentle horns and fragile vocal harmonies, adding a light bounciness to one of the album's most devastating tracks, exploring grief and the ways we often sweep over it mentally so it won't cut too deep into us ("The holes where teeth are missing won't hurt forever / I'll be okay, I guess," they harmonize), and the Smith-ian I Don't Know When it's Coming relies on nothing more than guitar and piano to carry the two of them forward as its place right at the center of the album gives extra gravity to the mysterious nature of hope and how we cling onto it at all costs, the core of Artificial Night and one of its most devastating tracks. At sixteen songs - thirteen if you discount the three instrumentals - the somewhat bloated size of Artificial Night never gets in the way of how utterly sublime and beautifully written these songs are, Rain Recordings making all of them ones to be remembered. Recorded over a year and a half, from January 2021 to June of this year, Artificial Night's cozy and intimate sound is also due to the fact there wasn't all that much for anyone to do at the time except be inside, Rain Recordings given ample time to refine and perfect their sound without the usual stress that comes with the day to day. For a low-key indie folk album, these arrangements are golden, Löfvendahl's teary piano progression across the interlocking vocal tracks and horn/accordion arrangement for New Sun some of the most magical songcraft I've heard this year, and even when things are more stripped down, like on Phobia or Honey Whispering, the music still glows with lush instrumentation and gossamer vocal performances, sunlight soaking into the duo's skin and only deepening their melancholy with its warmth. It's got a uniform sound, and Rain Recordings rarely stray far from their campfire smoke-scented indie folk, but Artificial Night is so compelling because you can hear the environments they made the music in, the different files they shared and stitched together to bring these songs to life, and even knowing all that there's a cohesion and magic to it all that just cannot go unnoticed. Artificial Night, for as shy as it presents itself, is one marvelous record. Though it's not perfect, Rain Recordings come damn close to it, the spirit of their music pure and their musicianship impeccable as they deliver some of the best music you'll hear this year, no other way about it. It's charming indie folk decorated with gemstones and forest leaves, well-worn yet ornate and dazzlingly arranged, Artificial Night the kind of album that will undoubtedly become a cult classic in the coming years, the first steps of a duo so connected to one another that it's impossible to imagine a world where they didn't start making art together like this. Whether Rain Recordings explode from Artificial Night's success or lay deep within the forest, the album will always be one of 2022's gems, an unassuming album that you'll never forget the second that final note is played. They've got everything going for them right from the start, and Artificial Night is one brilliant way for Rain Recordings to introduce the world to themselves and the luminous magic Löfvendahl and Centeno craft together.

[teomuchtohandle]

My Current Read List For 2022

I've decided to list out the books I've read every 5 books. But, since this is my first time doing it and I'm already on 25, this is going to be a much longer list rofl

Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man by Steve Harvey - Not actually as sexist as I thought it was going to be. The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis - Billed as a murder mystery, but that doesn't come in until pretty late in the book. It was good though. 12 Bones Smokehouse by Bryan King - A lot of good recipes. I marked down the ones I liked. Grow Great Vegetables Tennessee by Ira Wallace - I liked the book, but the book itself was shoddily made. It fell apart after one reading. 13x9 by Delish - I really loved this book, and I've tried the everything bagel casserole since I read it. Very good!

25-Minute Dinners by Food Network - Nothing really stuck out to me about this one. 30-Minute Weight-Loss Cookbook by Mandy Enright - Again, nothing really stuck out. Weekday Weekend by Emma Chapman - I liked the idea of this one, to be more aware of what you eat during the weekdays but be looser on the weekends, but none of the recipes really stood out. Ana by Josef Centeno - I loved the stories behind the recipes, but the recipes themselves didn't excite me. You Are A Great And Powerful Wizard by Sage Liskey - This was a great mental health book, and I could see an older kid or teen getting a lot out of it.

The Wabi-Sabi Way by Mike Sturm - I misread Wabi-Sabi every. Single. Time. It came up in the book. Otherwise good. It was about how signs of aging should be considered beautiful, the same way old houses and such are. Unf*ck Your Worth by Faith Harper - You're going to see her name show up a LOT in the list. I really like her books. On Writing And Worldbuilding Vo. 1 by Timothy Hickson - He started out as a Youtuber who did a lot of videos on writing and such. His books are just as entertaining as his videos. Unf*ck Your Intimacy by Faith Harper - Also very good Unf*ck Your Brain by Faith Harper - Just assume all of her books are good rofl

Unf*ck You Boundaries by Faith Harper Unf*ck Your Anger by Faith Harper Unf*ck Your Adulting by Faith Harper Vladimir by Julia Jonas - It had a few incredibly disturbing scenes. I wish someone had warned me about them before I started reading. Eating To Extinction by Dan Saladino - Very interesting read!!!

A Cup Of Comfort For Writers by Colleen Sell - It was okay. It reminded me a lot of the Chicken Noodle Soup books I read as a kid. Archetypal Tarot - I liked this a lot. I found out what most of my cards were. Though, to be honest, I stopped doing the math towards the end of the book. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao - VERY GOOD. Highly recommend. I borrowed it from my library because I don't normally like sci-fi stuff and didn't want to spend money. I now own both a digital and hardcover copy. I played myself though. The next one doesn't come out until Spring of 2023. Hunger: A Memoir Of (My) Body by Roxane Gay - This is a story about her rape, her weight, and how her life spiraled because of these two aspects. I felt a lot of connection with her story, I saw a lot of my own in it. Back To The Garden by Mr. Digwell - Seth got me this book from his trip to London!!! Most of what's in it I can't use, due to the differences in climate, but I like the recipes and will definitely be trying some of them!

[atlantasoccernews-mktg]

Atlanta United FC ends friendly games in Guadalajara in twin defeat

Atlanta United FC ends friendly games in Guadalajara in twin defeat ATLANTA, GEORGIA---The dream of Atlanta United FC to end their last two friendly games against Mexican teams in Guadalajara on a good note has ended in a nightmare. On February 13, United FC fell to Chivas de Guadalajara and Tepatitlán FC at the Chivas facility, Chivas Verde Valle. According to reports, United FC fell to Chivas 3-0 in the first friendly, conceding a penalty kick, a goal on an errant ball in the box off a corner kick, and a shot in the second half. The starters for Atlanta United against Chivas were: Brad Guzan, Andrew Gutman, Miles Robinson, George Campbell, Ronald Hernández, Franco Ibarra, Ozzie Alonso, Matheus Rossetto, Thiago Almada, Luiz Araújo and Josef Martínez. United FC also lost to Tepatitlán FC in the second friendly 3-0. The starters for Atlanta United against Tepatitlán were: Bobby Shuttleworth, Caleb Wiley, Alex De John, Alan Franco, Aiden McFadden, Noah Cobb, Tyler Wolff, Amar Sejdić, Jackson Conway, Danny Centeno, and Dom Dwyer. On February 6, United FC beat Celaya FC 2-1 at Estadio Tres de Marzo, a stadium on the campus of Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara. 

[goldburgerla]

#TBT to the cheeseburger at the now defunct Ledlow. When Josef Centeno first opened this restaurant you could get it as triple, cooked through, and gloriously covered in cheese. They later changed the burger to a 6oz guy, which is this pic, and cut the restaurant in half, eventually closing it entirely and turning it into the incredibly good PYT. Rumor has it you can still get the cheeseburger for lunch, but I haven’t confirmed yet. I should tho, and I will. (at Ledlow)

[zn-travelocity]

7 of the Best Places to Eat at Los Angeles

7 of the Best Places to Eat at Los Angeles #eating #losangeles #restaurant

Places to Eat at Los Angeles; Packed with amazing foods, Los Angeles offers fresh meals for young people, creators and VIPs. In the event that you go to the town of Angels, remember to leave these seven restaurants from the Momondo area carefully chosen by hand. Bäco Mercat Have a bakery bakery at Bäco Mercat Chef Josef Centeno’s Bäco Mercat Café might periodically change the menu as combined…

[kzk101ntwrk]

L.A. Restaurants That Have Closed Amid the Pandemic, by Neighborhood

Local restaurants and bars are what give our neighborhoods their distinct character. As the months pass, we’re seeing numerous restaurants closed permanently, watching as the pandemic decimates the hospitality industry, and wondering what Los Angeles will look like when we get to the other side (whatever that ultimately means). This list is just a slice of the restaurants that have closed, and we will be continuing to add to this page often. Know of a closure in your neighborhood? Let us know here. Restaurants Closed Amid the Pandemic Downtown L.A. Plum Tree Inn After more than 40 years, Plum Tree Inn has shuttered. Chinatown was among the first of L.A.’s neighborhoods to see a dramatic drop in patronage, and those diners have yet to return. Bon Temps Less than a year after opening, Lincoln Carson’s soaring Arts District concept shuttered for good. It was the third restaurant to give it a go in the space in the span of just a few years, none of which were able to make it work for long. Bäco Mercat Credited with ushering in a new era in DTLA dining, Bäco Mercat, the Spanish-fusion by chef Josef Centeno, has permanently closed. Centeno’s restaurants Bar Ama, Orsa & Winston, and Amacita are still open. Broken Spanish Chef Ray Garcia’s popular modern Mexican restaurant has called it quits after five years. It won’t be the last you’ll see of Garcia; he’s launching a new take-away project called MILA. Broken Read the full article

[workmoneyfun]

Josef Centeno's restaurant Bäco Mercat closes permanently - Los Angeles Times https://t.co/w1AJGhYRXj, see more https://t.co/bK24CgeySm