Taste of Santa Monica-6th Annual

Sunday, Sept 16 from 12 pm - 4 pm
Just saw an ad for the 6th Annual Taste of Santa Monica (held on the Santa Monica Pier). I probably won't be going here since ticket prices have risen drastically since the 1st annual one that I went to. Ticket prices are $40 per adult this year. When I first came here, I remember paying only $20 with a student id. The regular price for an adult ticket was $25. Unfortunately, student discount is no longer offered. They probably have more restaurants participating (many in Santa Monica) this year (about 40) than previous years. Each restaurant has its own booth and offers a sample of it's food. You can sample as many times as you want at whichever booth you like. I remember the I Cugini restaurant booth was very popular. There was always a huge line for the samples of raw oysters. No other food/booth at that time was memorable to me. $40 / person is pricey. I'm not sure if it's worth it. It really depends on what the restaurants will have as samples. How much can you really eat? I would rather buy myself a very nice brunch elsewhere.

Some restaurants participating this year:

The Lobster
El Cholo
Tengu
Ocean Avenue Seafood
Duke's of Malibu

America's Test Kitchen - Tasting Lab, Season 6

America's Test Kitchen Best of (season 6) :

Parmigiano Reggiano (avg $14/pound) much better than Parmesan Cheese ($8/pound). If you can't find Parmigiano Reggiano, DiGiorno parmesan cheese was recommended.

Bottled Barbeque Sauce
Texas Best Barbecue Sauce, Original Rib Style, $3 for 19 ounces
Bull’s Eye Original BBQ Sauce, $2 for 18 ounces

Bottled Italian Dressing
Good Seasons Italian All Natural Salad Dressing Mix ($2)- Includes cruet and 2 packets with dried seasonings
Kraft Seven Seas Viva Italian Dressing

Chocolate Chips
Guittard Classic Semi-Sweet Dark Chocolate Chips
Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks

Inexpensive steak
GOOD CUT FOR PAN-SEARING: Boneless Shell Sirloin Steak (ALTERNATE NAMES: Top butt, butt steak, top sirloin butt, top sirloin steak, center-cut roast)
GOOD CUT FOR PAN-SEARING: Flap Meat Steak (ALTERNATE NAMES: Top sirloin tips, beef sirloin tips, sirloin tip steak, sirloin flap meat for tips)
CUT BETTER FOR GRILLING: Flank Steak (ALTERNATE NAMES: Jiffy steak, London broil)
CUT BETTER FOR GRILLING: Skirt Steak (ALTERNATE NAMES: Philadelphia steak, fajitas meat)

Ketchup
Hunt's Ketchup, apparently tasters liked this brand better than heinz

Mayonnaise
Hellman's Real Mayonnaise(east cost name) /Best Food's (West Coast name)
Hellman's Light Mayonnaise better than other brands also.

White Sandwich Bread
Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White
Arnold Country Classics White

Supermarket Chicken Broth
Swanson Certified Organic

Cocoa
Droste cocoa

Dark Chocolate
Hershey's Special Dark
Ghirardelli Bittersweet

Canned Tomato Brands - Muir Glen, S&W, and Redpack

Trader Joe's Food

I shop at Trader Joe's for certain things (milk, eggs, cheese, niman ranch bacon, canned tomatoes, olive oil, tom's of maine toothpaste). I prefer to shop here because the prices are pretty competitive and it's easy to get in and out. I come at least once a week. Since it has a limited space, tj's discontinues and adds new items quite frequently. They have a lot of tj's brand items copied off of other selling items that sold well. I have to say that the only tj's brand item that I have tried and liked and continue to buy is the tj's white cheddar popcorn. Some of the frozen fruit is ok too. I have to say I have tried many of their items and not liked the taste.

Tj's chicken shu mai in the frozen section are absolutely awful and so is the included sauce. I just purchased 3 packages which I'll probably end up throwing away. I can't believe they're trying to sell that off as food. Gross.
Tj's chicken dumplings are slightly better tasting, but are still pretty awful. No wonder they discontinue a lot of items. Do they expect that these awful tasting foods to sell well? Customers probably try it once or twice and never buy it again.

Some of their different types of breads are questionable too.

Also, what happened to the La Brea Bakery Baguette bread ($1.89)? The last couple of times I went, I did not see the La Brea Bakery baguette. Finally, I saw a sign in front of the bread section saying that tj's had only changed the packaging for La Brea Bakery and Il Fornaio breads. So I purchased a bread that claimed to have been a La Brea Bakery baguette (there was no La Brea Bakery bread label on the packaging, just Trader Joe's). The item even showed "La Brea Bakery" bread on the receipt and was the same price. Could it be? No, it was not. It did not have the same texture or consistency, was more dense and did not taste as good. Was I missing something? I've been now buying it from Costco (2 La Brea bakery breads) for $3.29. Unfortunately, the nearest Costco location is not as convenient for me as Tj's.

Brooklyn Bagels in Los Angeles

Brooklyn Bagels - 2117 Beverly Blvd ( west of Alvarado) I think they are the Best bagels in Los Angeles. Soft and chewy on the inside and slighty crispy on the outside. I have been coming here for many, many years. Normal sized bagels here, not like Noah's which are humongous. I personally don't really like Noah's bagels that much anyway.

Tip - Monday Thru Friday from 3 to 5 pm, all bagels are half-priced (12 bagels, normally $7, are discounted half price to $3.50). These are bagels that were made that day, but not sold. Bagels last a long time once in the fridge, even longer when frozen.