Border Grill's churro tots

First Nutella poundcake and then salted caramel bars and now churro tots! All nommy brilliance, I tell you! I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica where the Border Grill Truck parks ever Friday at lunchtime.

I was just gonna get a couple of tacos to bring back to my desk but then the churro tot sign complete with food pornographic photo caught my eye. “Dulce de leche infused churros, cinnamon sugar, whipped cream.” Oh dear lord. Must. Have.

Funny enough, @HotPinkManolos — blogger, foodie and on-site manager for the truck — was on hand and comped my tots order. So nice! I would have blogged about this anyway because my peeps need to know about this cinnamony, fried bite of heaven.

I swear, I almost cried. And you know what that means: I was sooo happy.

Now these tots doesn’t really have the breadiness of a churro; more of a creamy center. But they do have that familiar fried crisp exterior and all that cinnamon.

I offered some to my boyfriend, thinking he wouldn’t want it, especially the tots covered in melted whipped cream. But after the first bite he was eager to take another and even dipped it in the whipped cream. Now, if he likes it — he’s a picky eater and not the sweet tooth that I am — then you now it’s some good stuff.

Such a nice treat for a Friday. And $3.50 for the six tots. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can carry these around in my pocket, though.

For an even better, food pornographic photo of the tots, check out LAist’s post.

Click here for the Border Grill Truck schedule.

Twitter: @bordergrill

Drago Centro's Token Irishman cocktail.

Since I don’t celebrate alcoholidays and will most likely be hiding out at home during St. Patrick’s Day next Wednesday, I thought it would be interesting to find out if some of my fave L.A. mixologists/bars were planning any special cocktails to celebrate the Irish holiday. I emailed Damian, Joe, Steve, Pablo, Marcos and Vincenzo. And then? Crickets.

I had to email them again and even then only Steve and Vincenzo responded to say that they had nothing for me. Oh well. At least I could count on my PR friends to send me info on what L.A. restaurants are doing for the holiday in terms of green beer alternatives. Check out my LA Weekly Squid Ink post here. It also includes a couple of recipes if you opt for celebrating at home.

Sure, there’s that nerdy-awesome Star Warz Burlesque show on Saturday and Morton’s Steakhouse’s even nerdier celebration of Pi Day on Sunday with $3.14 slices of key lime pie but if you were looking for non-nerd things to fill out your weekend (not that there’s anything wrong with being a nerd) I present to you the following.

Friday, March 12

Macallan Tasting Note Project
This project will be launched to coincide with the kickoff of SXSW in Austin tomorrow but thanks to Twitter, scotch drinkers and Macallan lovers can still participate for their chance to win a private tasting with a Macallan ambassador and up to 10 of their closest friends Through Tuesday, March 16, tweet what you taste about #Macallan12 and #Macallan15. Just apply those hashtags and you’re good

Saturday, March 13

Free Brow Threading at Fred Segal Santa Monica
code.ai will be offering free eyebrow threading to beauty mavens via celebrity brow threader Marco Ochoa. He did my brows at a previous code.ai event and really does beautiful albeit pain-free work. Pick up some free samples and code.ai brow booster applications while you’re there.

• 12-5pm. Fred Segal Santa Monica, 500 Broadway, Santa Monica (map).

Sunday, March 14

14th Annual Susan G. Komen LA County Race for the Cure 5K
Have a fun run around Dodger Stadium while raising money for an important cause: to support breast cancer research.  You can just do the run or you can do the run and work to raise money for the cause as well. Create your own team of friends. Hooray for boobies!

• 8am. Dodger Stadium, 1000 Elysian Park, Avenue, Los Angeles (map).

St. Patrick’s Day Festival 2010
Celebrate the biggest alcoholiday early before all the crazies are let loose next Wednesday. Looks like this Hollywood festival benefitting Children’s Tumor Foundation is the way to go what with a huge selection of not very Irish craft beer, spirits and food — New Belgium Brewing Company, Ventura Limoncello Company, Pig N’ Whistle.

• 2-7pm. $100. Taglyan Complex, 1201 Vine Street, Hollywood (map).

Free Drinks & Food at Hudson House’s One-Year Anniversary Party
Toast my fave Redondo Beach bar’s one year of existence with free Hudson Ales, Blood Orange Chinaco tequila cocktails and bar bites! A local DJ will be spinning and guests will get a chance to win Hudson House apparel. Ooh! I can add it to my bar t-shirt collection!

• 4pm-close. Hudson House, 514 N Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach (map). (310) 798-9183.

Oversalted gnocchi. Return it or deal with it?

You’re at a nice restaurant and discover that your entree is not up to snuff. Maybe it’s missing the goat cheese that was listed in its description on the menu, maybe it’s supposed to be a hot dish and it arrives cold. Do you a) complain to the server and ask the kitchen to remake it or b) keep quiet and power through it?

As my foodie friends can attest, once you get in the habit of dining out a lot, you develop standards and then it just gets hard to suffer through a bad meal. We gotta say something. I’m not saying to complain just because you ended up ordering something you didn’t like, but rather if the dish is basically inedible.

“But what if the kitchen spits in my food because I complain?” you ask. I know, there was a time when I feared that, too, but then realized that the kitchen does not take these things personally and if you handle the situation right then chances are your redone dish will remain spittle free.

Mercantile refrigerated cases.

I found this out with blogger friends Esther, Lindsay and Maya at our dinner at The Mercantile in Hollywood. We were using of our Blackboard Eats code to score the $20 three-course prix fixe dinner.

Our first course, the endive salad with dates, watercress, smoked almonds and warm goat cheese was divine. Even though it was pretty salty it was balanced with the sweetness of the dates, the tang of the goat cheese, and the freshness of the endive and watercress.

However, our next course of gnocchi with mushrooms, peas and parmesan didn’t fair as well with all the salt. Since there was nothing to balance out that very pucker-inducing seasoning, each bite just got more and more salty. I could feel kidney stones developing, heh. “Maybe they want us to drink more wine,” I joked. But the girls weren’t having it. Finally Esther flagged down the server. We calmly and very nicely explained how we thought the dish was unusually salty. “It tastes like it has potential to be good but the salt just ruins it,” we pleaded our case to her.

She listened carefully with nary a trace of attitude or defensiveness and then asked if she could take one of our dishes, since we had all four ordered the gnocchi, and have the chef sample it. After a short while she came back to tell us that Executive Chef Kris Morningstar said he’d redo our dishes. So nice!

Well, turned out he didn’t after all but the “managing chef” did. “Now it seems like he undersalted it,” Lindsay said. I was about to agree because it seemed so after tasting the really salty gnocchi, but then I continued to pop the delicate pillows of gnocchi in my mouth and savor the mushrooms. No, it was much better. You could actually taste everything now. In the salad that saltiness was fine but here it had nothing to play with. There was no sauce in this dish, no greens.

Caramel corn and vanilla bourbon ice cream.

After scarfing down our entree we were relieved that we took a stand instead of just silently suffering through the meal and perhaps complaining about it in a blog later.

Bonus was that apparently Mercantile was so sorry that we were initially unhappy with our meal that they only charged us for two of our prix fixe dinners. Of course they didn’t have to do that but it was so nice that they did.

I used the extra money I saved to purchase an extra scoop of ice cream ($3) for dessert and a pint of vanilla bourbon ice cream ($7) to go, which by the way was sooo bourbony and delicious that I felt like I was cheating on my booze fast.

So what do you do when you’re not happy with your meal? Here are some tips. If you’ve got some of your own, feel free to voice them in the comments:

1) Don’t eat more than a quarter of your dish before you complain to the server. If you eat over that amount, you’re already committed to that dish. Let the server know asap that something’s wrong with your dish.

2) Be nice to your server, it’s not their fault after all. Tell them in a very calm and nonaccusatory way why you are not happy with your meal. The more specific you are the better since they will be able to address your issues more easily.

3) Do not act like you’re entitled to anything more than your dish getting redone. Don’t ask for a free dessert or a comped meal. If you don’t like your dish and they offer to redo it, that’s pretty fair.

4) Thank your server for taking care of this matter for you.

5) Be patient waiting for your dish, part II. If you want it done right, waiting for it is a small price to pay.

Now, we were lucky that our server at The Mercantile was very accommodating and friendly. Really great customer service in this instance. At other restaurants, that might not always be the case unfortunately.

At Capitol City in Hollywood when I had sent back a cocktail because it had more St. Germaine than Maker’s, my server came back with a drink that simply had a shot of Maker’s added which completely ruined the drink. But all one can do is be diplomatic. And if you still get bad service, i.e. the server is rude or refuses to remove the item from the bill even when the issue isn’t fixed, reflect that in the tip.

For more suggestions, check out this handy “foodie flick” about “How To Send Food Back at a Restaurant” on Slashfood.

The Mercantile
6600 West Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, California 90028 (map)
(323) 962-8202

I'm so thirsty.

For Lent, I decided to give up booze. Now, I’m not religious or anything, I just figured it would be cool to see if I can actually give up my most favorite thing (next to gummy bears, salted caramel, dark chocolate and bacon) for 40 days. That, and I felt like my liver could use the break.

It’s only 40-something days, right?

I started on February 17 and since this isn’t really for Lent, my booze fast will end on April 1 (see countdown clock on the right) when I’m considering doing up a happy hour somewhere to celebrate cuz I’m going to want to. Perhaps Copa d’Oro? Maybe Bar Food? I’ll keep you posted.

So 21 days into it and I’ve managed to survive Radio Room, post-race celebration (my Lemons team’s third victory) and an absinthe party at First & Hope with nary a drink. I’ve had dreams of drinking and have suffered bouts of dry mouth but I will stick to this fast dammit!

In the meantime, I’m compiling a list of things I like to drink as soon as it’s April 1. Sigh. I’m so thirsty.

1. Maker’s Manhattan

2. Sazerac

3. Eleven Madison’s Dukes Martini (in NYC)

4. 8 oz. Requiem Espresso Stout Float

5. Milkshake Madness at BLD

6. Rickhouse’s Kentucky Buck (in San Francisco)

7. Ice cream with bourbon at the Mercantile

8. Sam Adams’ Utopias

This list will no doubt continue to grow as the days progress.

And if you think this blog will be booze free, you’re wrong. I’ll still post drinking events and such but I won’t review cocktails unless I can get a taste tester to do it in my place. And I’ll definitely review options for those who don’t drink, like tasty mocktails. FYI, ginger beer is definitely the most satisfying way to go. It’s heartier and more flavorful than cola or gingerale. Anyway, at least my friends are happy cuz now they have a designated driver.

UPDATE: I moved my end-of-booze-fast date to March 28 since I got invited to a scotch lunch that I just can’t turn down. I don’t feel too guilty about it since 1) this was supposed to be Lent lite where I was going to allow myself some alcohol anyway and 2) I had originally said I’d end this on the 29th (actual 40 days) and then pushed it to April to round it out.