Snack Mountain Blog

So my big brother got married last weekend in Central Park. It was such a beautiful wedding. Here’s another shot from the ceremony.

I got my hair done by my amazing NYC hairdresser Anne at Twigs Salon in the East Village.

My trip to New York has been extended for personal reasons that I think I am going to share with you in the next week or so.

The eating fest has continued over the past few weeks I’ve been here and I’ve been devouring gluten-filled delicacies. The brunch after the wedding was at the Standard so after we went for a walk on the Highline where I got an amazing pretzel from Sigmund Pretzel shop!

Next up, on Monday, we went to the Meatball Shop (not pictured) and afterwards stopped by Russ and Daughters to get some amazing smoked salmon and bagels. The store is so well maintained and visually inspiring. I wanted to eat everything in the store! Give this girl some smoked fish!!!

Here’s a shot of my delicious bagel.

I also finally got to go to Eataly which is my Mom’s favorite place in the world. We ate at the pizzeria and I totally forgot to take a picture! Then, this past weekend, my cousins from Long Island came to visit and we went to Bareburger where I ate a Bison burger! I honestly don’t remember the last time I ate a burger and I gotta say, it was pretty damn good.

Well, until next time, I hope you eat some good food!

So I had a pretty stressful week and am now in New York to prep for my big bro’s wedding this weekend. To comfort myself, yesterday my Mom had the most indulgent and delicious lunch ever. We went to Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote which is a chain of restaurants from London and France that my family used to go to on trips to Paris. They opened up a New York location about 4 years ago in midtown. There is no menu and all they serve is Steak and French Fries! You just tell them how you want it cooked and they bring you as much as you want. I have been eating a bit more meat lately for health reasons and knew that this would be the ultimate place to fill that craving. Before the steak they bring out a delicious romaine salad with the most amazing mustardy dressing ever. And guess what? I broke my no-wheat diet and ate baguette. It was heavenly. Next to pizza, baguettes are my true glutenous obsession and I truly savored every crusty bite.

And don’t think I walked out of there without dessert. We usually order the profiteroles but I saw this tower of deliciousness come out of the kitchen and had to try it.

It’s a tower of merengues, hazelnut, and vanilla ice cream drowning in the best hot fudge you’ll ever have. I’m still savoring it 24 hours later. Another long time neighborhood favorite near my parents house is Madhur Jaffrey‘s Dawat which has become the go to place for my first night in New York. Their food is such high quality and consistent flavor. We got take out last night and I just ate some leftovers for lunch.

I always have new ideas on how I want to redesign the blog. Or new kinds of stories, recipes, features I want to write about. But for the next little while, I think I am going to focus on enjoying amazing food. There is so much out there to be enjoyed.

But I will leave you with two links to articles from the New York Times. The first is from Martha Rose Shulman who I admire for her delicious, simple recipes. In this story she addresses the arsenic in rice issue which I found very honest and informative. I had read about this issue with regards to my favorite rice company Lundberg a few months ago and was happy to read a follow up piece. I basically live off their rice cakes and eat their rice all the time so was glad to hear that rice grown in California has a lower risk of high arsenic levels. The other article is from today’s Dining section where my hero/idol Mark Bittman introduces a new column he will be writing called The Flexitarian.

Stay tuned for my next delicious meal…

As you probably know I am currently addicted to SQIRL nut butter. So I thought I’d try my hand at making some. I saw this recipe and it sounded oh so good! I subsituted the walnuts for almonds because I’m just an almond junkie. So I roasted the hazelnuts, almonds and shaved coconuts for about 10 minutes.

Then I “skinned” the hazelnuts because their skins can be bitter.

Then I threw them all into my glorious food processor that does not get enough love.

I then processed them for about 10 minutes and eureka: they turn into this!

Ok, now major disclaimer. I don’t think it came out that well. Perhaps I didn’t process it long enough because the texture is a bit dry. And I think I added a little too much salt. Or maybe the hazelnuts weren’t the highest quality (I don’t trust Trader Joe’s). Or maybe I should have used more almonds. I buy amazing  almonds from the farmers market but I will need I definitely want to experiment more. I saw some recipes that used oil so maybe I could throw some coconut oil in there! Regardless, if you want to try your hand at it here’s the recipe!

1 cup raw almonds

2 cups raw hazelnuts

1/2 cup shaved coconuts

1/4 teaspoon pink himalayan salt

Roast almonds, hazelnuts, and coconuts at 350F for 10 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes. Then shell hazelnuts by rubbing them inside clean dishtowel. Add all ingredients to food processor. Process for 10-15 minutes while scraping down the sides as necessary.

Let me know how yours turns out! Cheers!

So yesterday I stopped by the Pygmy Hippo Shoppe with my friend Samantha. What a great shop! It’s super tiny but chock-full of amazingness. It brought back memories of my days as a retail buyer! The owner, Emi, is hilarious! Here I am posing with some of my purchases.

I picked up some vintage cookbooks, zines and stationery!

The four zines on top are called Babymeat by Jeshaka and are so freaking good! She makes plush pizza dolls too! A kindred spirit for sure! Emi told me that she thinks the Pink Panther cookbook is a one-off because she searched online for others with no luck! It will fit in swimmingly with my ever-growing obscure vintage cookbook collection. The “Greetings From Los Angeles” card is by this amazing Etsy seller Betty Turbo! Emi told me that the artist had never been to L.A. so Emi sent her reference images and she put it all together in this amazing greeting card! I’m gonna send it to my Mom because she’s amazing and I miss her. Finally, the “Good Things to Eat” cookbook is a 1943 cookbook made by Arm and Hammer Baking Soda! I made a lil animated GIF so you can see both the front and back cover up close!

Tomorrow I am taking a gardening class in Venice! More updates soon!

Omg! So I knew that fermentation could be dangerous but my fears mostly revolved around eating something that would make me sick or kill me. I knew that explosions were possible but had not yet experienced one! In the morning yesterday I was working at my desk and I heard glass break and felt the impact. Immediately assuming that someone had thrown something into my kitchen window, I was confused to find nothing broken. I then checked every window in my house. Nothing. So I assumed that it was the men working on the house next door but was not fully satisfied because I had felt the impact. So, later on in the day, I remembered that I wanted to transfer my 2nd fermenting bottles of kombucha into the fridge and discovered the source of the glass shattering sound and impact! A bottle had exploded!! I usually “burb” the bottles every day by opening the locks and releasing the pressure but maybe forgot to do it on Tuesday. Crazytown! I will now be more cautious!!

In other fermentation news, on Tuesday night in the food preservation class I learned how to make sauerkraut in a safer and more effective way! I bought one of Chef Ernest Miller’s airlock jars and I can’t wait to try it out! Check out my new batch we made in class!

The pink liquid at the top is leftover fermented brine from Chef Miller’s home batch. It’s so pretty. Looks like a Sauerkraut Kir Royale…mmmm……I wanna try one of those! Haha. Chef also brought in his own sauerkraut which was unbelievably delicious. But what really blew my mind was his DEHYDRATED sauerkraut. It was like 25 times better than any kale chip you’ve ever had and I predict this invention of his will be the next food craze! I wanna go buy a dehydrator immediately and start making my own. There’s a whole class on food dehydration coming up! I can’t wait!!!

I was feeling kind of tired in class but the minute I started eating his sauerkraut I felt so alert and I couldn’t stop snacking on it! He also brought in his fermented jalapeños which I didn’t try but I’m sure were amazing!

Finally, I’ll leave you with a pretty food picture! This week I’ve been taking a break from smoothies and enjoying granola with almond milk and fruit. Oh, California, you are so lovely!

Hello world. So I’m still tracking down the cause of my pain. I don’t really want to share more details but I’ll say that I feel compassion for anyone out there who has chronic pain. Being in pain has made me incredibly tired so I’ve tried to comfort myself with various methods. An obvious approach is FOOD so I made one of Ashley Neese‘s chia breakfast bowls! I really enjoy her blog and website! I didn’t have all of the ingredients but I improvised and it was soooo delicious!

Also, over the weekend we checked out the monthly Bauer Pottery Warehouse Sale which was so inspiring.

I was a little bummed that the prices were a bit high per item but it’s a high quality product and I’m happy to support them.

I bought two medium sized bowls and a pot for my Peace Lily plant named Tunafish.

To continue on the comfort track, we tried out LYFE Kitchen in Culver City and I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I ordered gluten-free margarita pizza and it tasted like my childhood. It was my first gluten-free pizza experience and it really hit the spot.

Speaking of gluten-free. This weekend I also had the best gluten-free sliced bread EVER by Canyon Bakehouse. Pretty unbelievable stuff. So, until you next hear from me I’ll probably be sitting in a corner eating gluten-free bread with a heating pad on my belly. Hahahaha.

So I’ve had bit of a crazy week with this ongoing mysterious health issue that involves a great deal of physical pain. I’m hanging in as best as I can until it’s resolved. Apologies if my posts are less frequent or somewhat brief. Despite the pain, I tried my best to have a fun weekend for my brother’s bachelor party. On Saturday we went to shoot clay discs! It was pretty fun yet I felt kinda weird shooting a gun because I support gun control and don’t want to promote the use of guns. But I was in the bachelor weekend spirit with all of my “brothers.” I actually shot the first four out of five discs!!!

We went back to Hinoki and the Bird for dinner on Saturday and everyone loved it! I applauded when the kale salad arrived and the waiter laughed at me. Hahahaha. Then, my bro organized a party at their bungalow at the Chateau Marmont which I had never been to! Check out this amazing Hello Kitty piñata!

At the party where I found the Mountain candy and used the letter cookies to spell out my namesake. Pretty cool, huh? My bro is in town until tomorrow and this morning we stopped by the amazing house of interior designer Tony Duquette because our friend is having his post-wedding brunch there next month. It was one of the craziest houses I’ve ever been to!

This rug is genius!!!

And all over the house were these lamps with painted faces on them!!!

The outdoor area was filled with plants and crazy animal sculptures. My fave were these massive snails!!

Finally, if you can believe it, we went to lunch at SQIRL today and I didn’t take a single picture. Hahaha.