Set Food and Friendly Foodies.

Two cool food related things happened the last couple of weeks. First, I worked on the set of The Closer recently. It's a TNT show starring Kyra Swedgwick (Kevin Bacon's wife). One of the cool things about working on a production is all the craft service and catered food that is served. Craft service basically contains all the little snacks, chips, candies and drinks that will keep people and mouths happy all day long. It's when we break for lunch that's the fun part. I think I mentioned before that production catering can sometimes be a hit or miss. Well, this one was definitely a hit!

Starting from the top going clock-wise: 

 Chicken Casserole with French onions, French Fries, Walnut Salad, Cous Cous and a coupls slices of grilled steak. 

I loved the walnut salad. There's something about the dressing that made it so delicious. I was near the end of the line, so I was bummed to see it was nearly gone. Luckily, the caterers brought out a fresh batch. Sweet!! I just wish I had gotten more. I'm going to try to recreate it if I can. Fries were perfectly cooked. No greasy oily residue. I loved the cous cous, too.  The steak was good. It just sucked trying to cut it with plastic utensils. 

 

For dessert, a large lemon tart. Sooo good!!! I didn't mind finishing my plate as I was up on my feet for 95% of the shoot anyway, so I burnt off the calories. Haha... Plus, when there's good food you have a happy cast and crew.

Next. Last Sunday (Aug 30), I had a wonderful opportunity to meet a few of the awesome foodies here in LA for a simple happy hour gathering. Who does happy hour on a weekend? Well, this restaurant does from 5 till closing every night.

The place was Chaya Brasserie in Beverly Hills. It a nice cozy place with locations in Venice, Downtown LA and San Francisco as well. Nice ambiance and service was pretty good. When I arrived, there were already several people there. I immediately knew which group was mine. Those who were there Chrystal and Amir from The Duo Dishes, Diana from Diana Takes a Bite, Esi at Dishing up Delights,  Michael from South Bay Foodies, and Sam the Punky Chef.  From the expression on their faces, they knew I was one of them. Soon after, Kirby from Kirby Von Scrumptious and Liz from Yo Soy! also arrived. There were few appetizers ordered as we all mostly chatted most of the evening. Of course with this gathering being a "Happy Hour," cocktails and a couple of beers were served, too. 

 

Arare Calamari: Fried puffed rice coated squid with a sweet chili miso vinaigrette 

That's Sam artistically holding the calamari in the chopsticks. It was interesing as this wasn't your ordinary battered calamari. It was coated with puffed rice, so when you bit into it you got a soft and crunchy textures at the same time. A slight salty taste to the puffed rice, too. There were also some mini cheese burger sliders with garlic and parsley flecked French fries that were ordered. I nibbled a couple of the fries from Esi. They were pretty good, too. Well, I do love my garlic.

 

Vegetarian Caterpillar Roll, Spicy Tuna, California Roll and Crunchy Spicy Shrimp Roll

One cool things of the night was when the chef sent out a platter of sushi for all of us to try. That was a nice gesture of him. I love sushi, so this was an instant winner with me. I'm definitely coming back to give their regular dining menu a try.  There were some great conversations all around the table ranging from a variety of topics.  I wish there were more time to chat with every one of them, but with it being a Sunday night, the dread Monday was slowly and surely creeping up towards us. That meant back to work, school, etc.

As we ended night and took a nice group picture outside the restaurant before saying out goodbyes and heading off to our respective cars. Diana and Esi had left a little earlier, so they weren't in the picture, but they were there in spirit.  A nice little way to commemorate a lovely evening. Hopefully, we can have another little meet-up soon. Maybe this would be a nice little monthly thing. Anyway, it was a great way to bring that weekend to a close. 

 L-R: Kirby, Sam, Me (kneeling), Chrystal, Amir, Michael and Liz

Chaya Brasserie
8741 Alden Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90048
http://www.thechaya.com