Santa Monica CA: Pacific Dining Car

My friends Larry and Jim joined me for a wonderful evening at Pacific Dining Car in Santa Monica. I stumbled upon the original PDC in downtown LA many years ago and have always enjoyed both the food and the traditional steakhouse atmosphere. The Santa Monica version upholds the tradition. I found the service inside the restaurant to be very gracious; unfortunately the valet parking attendant was not at all helpful.

This is my ribeye steak. Although tasty, I wish that it had a bit more char on it. I believe that we carnivores should enjoy our meat-eating experiences and a bit of character on the surface of the steak is part of the enjoyment. We also ordered creamed spinach, a steakhouse favorite of mine that was very well executed. My personal highlight was the onion rings, which were delicately cut and coated with a very crispy crust.

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Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...

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Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

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