Carrot cake ice cream

Yes you read that correctly. This recipe is courtesy of the LA Times and David Lebovitz. And it's REALLY good! Lebovitz lives in Paris and I'm assuming he's the same guy who wrote "The Perfect Scoop" ice cream recipe book (as well as a few other food books). My carrots took longer to cook down than the 20 to 30 minutes specified in the recipe. Also, I substituted chopped up dried cranberries because I couldn't find currants and I had the cranberries. Aside from taking time to prep the mix-ins, this is a really easy recipe, and if you like cream cheese, it really is good.

Doodles

My friend Annette has started an interesting website to collect people's doodles. She's already got a few amazing ones. Check out the site, and if you're a doodler, send yours in to her! And remember, doodling's good for you. Apparently it helps your brain stay alert and improves memory when you're bored.

Palate Food + Wine

This little restaurant/wine bar is smack dab in the middle of a row of car dealerships. You drive down the street and wonder, there's a restaurant, here? And then there it is. The chef, Octavio Becerra (that's his arm, to the right), has the coolest tattoo-it's a knife, full size! We were a group of six, and one of the party knew the chef. The wait service was excellent. Our server was clearly a foodie. It's a nice thing to find in LA. We started with a plate of cured meats and little pickled things. I skipped the pickled things (yuck) but the cured meats were nice. The restaurant makes their own butter and cures some of the meat in-house. For main courses, our server suggested we could order up a bunch of stuff and share, so that's what we did. The menu features seasonal produce and so changes pretty frequently, to match the available veggies. We had a spring pea soup which was amazingly good. A ravioli dish was very tasty. Main courses were a duck, pork belly, beef cheeks and scallops. Everything was exceptionally well done. The pork belly wasn't quite as good as some I've had but the duck was perfectly done. To finish, we had a cheese plate with a nice variety. My favourite was a triple creme brie like cheese. Wines were suggested to go with all of this, starting with a nice Prosecco, proceeding to a wonderfully smooth white Burgundy and finishing with a mellow red Burgundy. This was a terrific way to share good food and drink, and leave feeling completely satisfied yet not overly stuffed or drunk.

Annenberg Space for Photography

I went to visit this newly opened photography museum today with Yuki. It was, appropriately, a spectacularly gorgeous LA day. I trust all the local photogs were out taking shots of the city and surrounding mountains while the air is clear and the sky is deep blue. This is a small museum housed in the Century Park complex. The current exhibit features 11 LA based photographers, including a few from the LA Times. I particularly enjoyed the Times photographers' work because of the story telling qualities they provide. The other photographers included architectural, celebrity and art specialists. The space includes a kitchen which is interesting. I wonder what the plan is for that? The admission is free, which is nice. Photos can be displayed as usual (framed and hung on walls) or through a video display. There are also 2 touch screen tables (like big iPhones) which you can play with to view the photos, although I didn't think that was particularly useful. The curators of future shows should put some thought into controlling the reflections on the photos and screens.