• home
  • press
  • bio
  • appearances
  • partners
  • contact leslie
  • subscribe
lesliedurso.com
  • recipes
  • the pantry
  • wellness
  • eco style
  • celebrations
  • gluten free
  • adventures

Archive for adventures – Page 4

Restaurant Review: Momed, Beverly Hills, CA


By Leslie · Comments (5) · August 31st, 2011

There is a stretch of street in Beverly Hills that I just adore!  It's not the typical street you think of when you think of Beverly Hills, it's the more local side of it.  It's South Beverly Drive.  South of Wilshire you'll find quaint restaurants, fun shops and jewelry stores to drool over.  No, the Hollywood Tour buses don't go down this way, so you don't really have to worry about all those photo-taking tourists.  Down here it's the professionals grabbing lunch and the locals relaxing in one of the many outdoor restaurants.  It was on this street I grabbed an early dinner with two great friends.  Always in the know, my friend Jenn suggested this new Mediterranean cafe Momed.  My friend Briana was smart enough to have her phone with her and snagged these pictures of dinner for us. :)

Screen shot 2011-08-31 at 8.40.08 AM

Momed stands for modern Mediterranean and that's exactly what you'll get here.  The decor makes you feel like you are in some uber cool European cafe with glass cases full or delightful salads and desserts.  And the food, well, we'll get to that in a second.  There is plenty of indoor seating, but come on it's LA, if it's not raining, opt to sit outside on the patio to take in the energy from the street. 

The menu is super eclectic gathering dishes from Jerusalem to Athens to Marrakech to Istanbul and delivering all of them with fresh, organic, and seasonal ingredients.

Ok alright already… the food!  We ordered a bunch of small plates to share.  I'll start with my personal favorite the muhammara which is a dip originally found in Syria but very popular in Turkish cuisine as well:

0momed2Muhammara is not only fun to say, but Momed's version is delicious!  It's made from roasted red peppers, walnuts and pomegranate.  

Another favorite was the avocado hummus!  

0momed3Not your typical hummus and pita.  First of all the pita is to die for and second adding avocado to hummus gives it this smooth velvety texture which is just fabulous.  And the best way to eat your avocado hummus is with a little muhammara on top!

We also got some seasonal salads that are not on the permanent menu.  The corn and israeli couscous salad was fab.

0momed4and Briana and Jenn really enjoyed the beets over arugula.

Momed1We also had the lentil salad which was good, but of course we scarfed it before we could even get a photo :(  For dessert, we tried the baklava trio.

0momed5Now, I'm a tough judge when it comes to baklava because as you probably know by now, I'm totally obsessed with Bakluvit baklava.  So Momed's didn't even come close to theirs, but the idea of a cashew baklava was a good idea.

UPDATE: Momed is now serving bakluvit baklava!!! 

Overall, definitely check this place out.  I suggest going for a late lunch/early dinner.  Grab a table outside, invite some friends to join you and order a bunch of shared plates, a glass (or bottle) of wine and skip the dessert.  Your waistline doesn't need it anyway :) And enjoy!

Momed 

233 South Beverly Drive

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

310.270.4444

Lesliesarnasig

Comments (5)
Categories : adventures, Restaurant Reviews Los Angeles

Restaurant Review: Cabbage Patch, Los Angeles


By Leslie · Comments (2) · June 28th, 2011

Last night I had time to grab a quick celebratory bite with my good friend Fiona Gubelmann.  What were we celebrating you ask?  The success of her new show Wilfred on FX.  Definitely check it out this Thursday!  We headed over to Cabbage Patch, one of our favorite spots on Beverly Dr.  I LOVE this place!  It prides itself in using only the freshest and humanely grown ingredients.  They do serve meat here, but the menu has a huge selection of vegan and vegetarian food.  We ended up ordering a bunch of stuff to share:

They always have the best vegan puree soups!  Last night's special was tomato.  It was packed with flavor and served with two little toasts.

IMG_6193A couple musts on the menu are my two favorite sides: cabbage patch slaw and yam wedges!  The cabbage patch slaw is so light and refreshing!  It has cilantro, peanuts and is dressed in a yummy honey mustard dressing.

IMG_6186These yam wedges are simply OUTSTANDING!  They are baked (not fried!) and served with this delicious harissa ketchup.  Oh my gosh, I could eat these all day everyday! 

IMG_6189Next was the pan seared organic tofu bowl.  Yum yum yum!  The tofu here is so tasty!  You have to try it!

0cabbagepatchCabbage Patch has 3 locations in Beverly Hills, Playa Vista and Downtown.  For more information check out their website.  

Lesliesarnasig

Comments (2)
Categories : adventures, Restaurant Reviews Los Angeles

Restaurant Review: Fig and Olive, Los Angeles, CA


By Leslie · Comments (3) · June 8th, 2011

There are few restaurants that I get downright giddy about when I read about their opening and Fig and Olive was one of them.  Widely established as a fabulous restaurant choice in New York, Fig and Olive settled into a cozy spot on Melrose Place.  The space that once housed the clubs/restaurants Republic and Bliss has been transformed into a culinary wonderland that will transport you to a European city far from La Cienega Blvd.  With all my traveling recently, last night was the first chance I had to experience the restaurant.  Going with someone who loves eating as much as I do is always key, so this was a fabulous excuse to double date with my good friend Jenny the Dessert Darling.  

What they've been able to do with the space is remarkable.  Check out the pictures I pulled from their website:

Melrose_place-e1299090855338-1Their cocktail list is so creative and mouthwatering!  With fresh herbs and fruits used I wanted to try everything!  Don't worry, I didn't, but what I had definitely made me want to make reservations right then and there to come back.  I started with the Rossellini made with passion fruit vodka and a blood orange puree.  Yummy!

Photo-2Each meal starts with a little olive oil tasting with fresh baked focaccia ! (helooo!)

Photo-1All three were delicious, though I preferred the two on the ends.

Now of course there was beautiful light when we arrived, but it got dark very quickly so the photos of dinner and dessert were not as stellar as I would have liked, but here is what I had:

I started with the gazpacho de andalucia which is vegan and delicious!  Loads of flavor packed into a rock glass served with crunchy crostini.  There was a little kick of spice to the soup with played well with the fresh sliced sweet grape tomatoes found in the bottom of the glass.

For an entree I chose the  penne funghi tartufo which was made vegan by omitting the cheese.  The perfectly al dente pasta was tossed with mixed mushrooms, scallions and is said to be drizzled with white truffle oil.  Honestly, I would loved to have tasted the truffle a little more, but overall a very successful dish that I would order again.

Seeing as how we were eating with the Dessert Darling, we couldn't help but order 3 of the desserts for a little tasting : )  We were told the best dessert on the menu was the tropeizinne, so we had to order that along with the warm chocolate souffle and the chocolate pot de creme.  

The tropeizinne was a fresh brioche sliced in half with mascarpone inside with meyer lemon glazed strawberries.  The presentation was beautiful, but I have to say, good, but in no way the best thing on the menu.  The brioche was fresh and very tasty.  The mascarpone a little bland, but the strawberries were delicious.

The chocolate pot de creme, again, was very average… It did come with these fabulous little crunchy praline financiers which I wish there were more of!

And then there was the warm chocolate souffle.  This is what they should be advertising as the best dessert on the menu!  It was short for a souffle, almost resembling a lava cake, but the taste was rich and fabulous!  If you are going to get one dessert, opt for the souffle.

Fig and Olive

8494 Melrose Place

Los Angeles, CA 90069

telephone: (310) 360 9100

Lesliesarnasig

http://swf.ifood.tv/flvPlayList.swf

Powered by: ifood.tv
Comments (3)
Categories : adventures, Restaurant Reviews Los Angeles

Our Second Anniversary at The Ace in Palm Springs


By Leslie · Comments (2) · June 6th, 2011

Seeing as how I did a recap of our first anniversary at Bacara here, I thought I'd share the second as well : )

We love traveling with the pups, so we're always on the lookout for cool places that will let us bring them.  My girlfriend Autumn had her birthday party at The Ace Hotel last year and we had such a great time, we thought we'd do it again.  

0ace1The Ace Hotel in Palm Springs is a real throw back (in a completely fun way!).  The rooms are decorated really cool and since we were bringing the dogs we opted for a room with a "front yard" which included a fireplace, lounge couch, table and a rocking chair.  

Patio_w_fireplace-1Pepe and Carson really enjoyed hanging around out there:

0ace7

The hotel has two pools and even a little dog run for the pups.  The weather was perfect!

0ace9The morning before we left we stopped into the restaurant at the hotel for a little breakfast.  The restaurant used to be a Denny's that they remodeled and made into the uber chic King's Highway Roadside Diner.  I opted for the ricotta hotcakes with maple crunch butter and bananas.

0ace8Ummm, yummm!  They were huge, but delicious!

The Ace is really a gem and is full of so many hidden delights!  I would definitely recommend this place for it's super cool pool scene, it's fabulous food, and it's insightful comforts.  Palm Springs is 2 hours from Los Angeles, but feels like a world away!

The Ace Hotel

701 East Palm Canyon Drive

Palm Springs, CA 92264

Phone: (760) 325-9900 

Lesliesarnasig

http://swf.ifood.tv/flvPlayList.swf

Powered by: ifood.tv
Comments (2)
Categories : adventures, Fun Stuff

Restaurant Review: Fido, Nahsville, Tennessee


By Leslie · Comments (1) · May 24th, 2011

While dropping my little sister off at school in Nashville, I wanted to reconnect with one of my oldest friends.  Shannon and I met in kindergarden and have remained friends ever since.  She suggested we go to this fun coffee shop and restaurant right down the street from Vanderbilt University called Fido.  It was pretty adorable and had great food : )  

When you look at the menu as a vegetarian one thing sticks out immediately: all the veggie dishes are marked with a little green dog paw and there are a lot of them!  I would say more than half the menu is vegetarian!  What a treat!

We ordered a few of the "nibbles" to share.  When you order at the counter instead of a number to stick on your table, they give you one of these super cute dog cards with info about him or her.

0fidos1Now they didn't have the "amazing fries" which I hear are ah-mazing, so we ordered the sweet potato fries and added the amazing fries dipping sauce:

0fidos2Very good.  Though not technically fries.  These tasted like they were roasted in the oven, but none the less, very yummy.  I didn't really care for the horseradish sauce that it comes with, perhaps because I just don't care for horseradish in general, but the "amazing sauce" was just that, amazing!

Here are the grilled corncakes with salsa and poblano sauce:

0fidos4Pretty good.  The corncake dipped in the "salsa" was my favorite combo.

0fidos3When I asked the guy taking our order in front what his favorite "nibble" was, he immediately said the hummus plate.  I always love a good hummus plate so we added it to the order.  Now maybe it's because I'm from Los Angeles and have hummus all the time or because I make my own, but I found this hummus fairly average… Mind you, I have not done a taste test of other hummus' around here, so maybe this is the best in Nashville.  The crisp veggies and warm pita worked as nice dippers. 

I give Fido's an overall high rating.  Cute place, good food, great location.  I can't wait to come back to visit to try out other menu items that sounded fabulous such as the entire breakfast menu, the homemade veggie burger and the eggplant tower.  Check out their entire menu here.

Fido

1812 21st Ave. South

Nashville, TN 37212

615-777-FIDO (3436)

Lesliesarnasig

Comments (1)
Categories : adventures, Restaurant Reviews: Nashville, Tennessee

Restaurant Review: Merchant's, Nashville, Tennessee


By Leslie · Comments (2) · May 18th, 2011

This is my first time to Nashville and I must say I have a bit of a crush… I know it's a little premature since I just got here tonight, but I really like it here!  The people, the energy, the music and the food are so fantastic!  

00merchants1
We ventured out onto Broadway street tonight (home of all the honky tonk bars!) and stumbled into Merchant's.  It looked nice inside and the place was packed! (always an indicator of good food!)  The restaurant is darling!  It has an "up/down" theme because there is a nicer (fancier) restaurant upstairs and a more casual bar and restaurant downstairs.  We opted for down because that's where the crowd was. : )  The restaurant opened in 1892 and has lots of charm!  A beautiful old bar, a cute patio, gorgeous hardwood floors and quaint white marble tables are a few of the gems this place holds.  

The Tennessee Mojito (made with peach rum!) caught my eye on the drink menu, so that's what I had to have.

00merchants2It was very very good!  Almost too good.  I have got to try making these with peach rum next time at home.

Depending on how vegetarian you are there are a few options for dinner.  I opted for the Market Vegetables which were corn, okra, green beans, squash, potatoes, tomatoes and a tomato balsamic jam.  The jam was out of this world and the vegetables were all very fresh (no canned or frozen veggies here!).

00merchants3And let's face it, I'm never one to turn down dessert. : )  We had the Chocolate Torte.

00merchants4Honestly the torte was ok, but the housemade ice cream on top was to die for!  Super yummy!  They have a rootbeer float on the dessert menu and I almost wish I had tried that or just a bowl full of this delicious ice cream!

This place gets a thumbs up from me!  

Merchant's

401 Broadway

Nashville, Tennessee 37203

(615) 254-1892

Lesliesarnasig

PS if anyone else has some great restaurant recs for Nashville, I'd love to hear them!  Feel free to email me  : )

Comments (2)
Categories : adventures, Restaurant Reviews: Nashville, Tennessee

Restaurant Review: Mozelle's, Winston-Salem, North Carolina


By Leslie · Comments (1) · May 17th, 2011

I'm in Winston-Salem, NC for my little sisters college graduation.  I love it here!  It's so beautiful!  We're having a great time and this is one of the cutest little restaurants ever!  Mozelle's has great decor and a great little patio.  Every chair had the comfiest lime green blankets draped over them incase you got cold : )  

Picture 1Now we are in the South so there is not going to be too much vegetarian food at any restaurants.  Mozelle's offers a vegetable plate that consists of three sides.  Warning: lots of the vegetable sides are not vegetarian (they love cooking stuff in bacon in this town).  But I did have the mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus and carrots:

0000mozNow if you are curious about what that dish is behind mine, it's my sisters lobster sloppy joe's.  Yeah, they have all sorts of charming southern meat dishes here.  

For dessert we ordered the molten lava chocolate cake.  So yummy, by the time I got the camera out this is what was left:

00000moz1As you can see it was pretty good : )

So if you happen to be in town and you are in the mood for an adorable Southern cafe, make sure to stop by!

Mozelle's Fresh Southern Bistro, 
a downtown Winston-Salem restaurant
878 West Fourth Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27101

phone  336.703.5400

Lesliesarnasig

Comments (1)
Categories : adventures, Restaurant Reviews: Winston-Salem, NC

Restaurant Review: Breeze, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico


By Leslie · Comments (0) · May 10th, 2011

On our last day in Cabo, we decided to explore how the other half live by heading over to The One and Only Palmilla resort for lunch.  Holy Cow!  One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been!  The website pictures do not do this place justice.  Breeze is one of the more casual restaurants at the resort and we ate outside overlooking the waves crashing on the rocks below.

Picture 1
I had the chopped vegetable salad:

00001
It was ridiculously good.  Light refreshing and exactly the kind of thing you want to eat outside on a warm day.  And the portion was perfect.  Nice and big : )  The menu has a few vegetarian options but consists most of casual mexican seafood dishes, but also has plenty of salads and sandwiches.  My friends had the fish tacos and said they were out of this world.  Now checking out how the other half lives does cost you… this is definitely a splurge kinda place, but what an amazing time you’ll have there.  While we were waiting for our taxi, we were even brought fresh fruit popsicles!

Great way to end a fabulous trip!

Comments (0)
Categories : adventures, Restaurant Reviews: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Restaurant Review: Esquina, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico


By Leslie · Comments (0) · May 6th, 2011

I assumed it would be very challenging for me to eat in Cabo as a vegetarian.  Let's face it, it's challenging in a lot of foreign countries.  Shoot, I packed an entire suitcase full of food when we went to China!  So I was pleasantly surprised when we found this incredible gourmet restaurant in downtown Cabo.  The ambiance at Esquina was spectacular!  The patio was gorgeous and there was a fabulous band playing live music.  The menu had lots of traditional Italian fare including wood fired pizzas.

0001rest

00000

I started with just the Market Greens Salad which was the freshest tasting arugula I've ever had with an array of fresh and crunchy vegetables like carrots, cherry tomatoes, yellow squash and tomatillo.

0002restThere really wasn't a vegetarian entree on the menu so they made me this homemade tagliatelli pasta dish with tomato sauce and left the tuna off for me.  It was spectacular!  Uber fresh and light; perfect for the warm evening.

0003restLoved this place!  Kinda want to go back every night, but I know I've got to keep exploring : )

Esquina

Bahia Hotel & Beach Club
Av. El Pescador s/n
Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur
CP 23410, Mexico 

6a012876272fb6970c014e87ef6fc4970d-800wi

 

Comments (0)
Categories : adventures, Restaurant Reviews: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico


By Leslie · Comments (0) · May 5th, 2011

We have just arrived in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!  We are down here for a wedding this weekend.  I have never been here before and I'm so glad we came a little early because it's gorgeous!  There are so many amazing restaurants in Cabo, I can't wait to explore and share! In the mean time, here are some pictures from the property we are staying on.  It's right next door to Sammy Hagar's (Van Halen lead singer) house, maybe we'll see him!

0000cabo3I mean come on, right?!  

0000cabo2This place is gorgeous!

000cabo1

0000cabo4You cannot take a bad picture of this place!  I can't wait to explore town and see what kind of culinary adventures I can find : ) I'll keep you posted!

6a012876272fb6970c014e87ef6fc4970d-800wi

Comments (0)
Categories : adventures, Misc.
« Previous Page
Next Page »

connect

search

subscribe to my newsletter

join my mailing list
* indicates required
Close

On Twitter

  • Please help out fellow #vegan & friend @mikezigomanis raise awareness and $ for the @alzassociation A GREAT cause! https://t.co/I9SDUqf2Th
  • So much fun at #vegappetit #hsus with @FionaGubelmann :) http://t.co/ejq8DvXwtr
  • Maya's awesome words of wisdom! http://t.co/sM3CzTbG1C via @pinterest
  • Have my big #vegan burger book photo shoot tomorrow!! Hope you are hungry @FionaGubelmann @RunTaniaRun @BrianaLane @brianleahyphoto :)
  • @FionaGubelmann for you I can ;)

categories

Leslie Durso
Copyright © 2013 All Rights Reserved
iThemes Builder by iThemes
Powered by WordPress