The SLY Foodie

On Valentine's Day this year, I decided to bring the steakhouse home. For dinner, I made a bone-in ribeye steak with marsala cream sauce, served with roasted asparagus and fingerling potatoes. For dessert, I kept it simple with an oatmeal cookie. In my opinion, nothing says love more than a homemade oatmeal cookie fresh out of the oven. In fact, it is one of the things I would want my boys to remember about their childhood - that their mama made the best oatmeal cookies.

But I digress, back to dinner. The steaks were bought from our local grocery store. I seasoned one side with salt and pepper, then laid both steaks to rest in a scorching hot pan, seasoned side down. Then I seasoned the other side. The steaks cooked for about 5-6 minutes on each side, using medium heat, and it came out medium. Perfectly cooked, just the way we like it. Then I loosely covered the meat with some foil to let it rest and keep warm. Done.

The asparagus happened to look good and be on sale, so that was a no-brainer for my vegetable choice. I made a quick marinade of salt, pepper, minced garlic and olive oil, then poured it over the asparagus on a sheet pan. They were roasted at 400° for about 15 minutes. Done.

As for the starchy side dish, I saw a bag of fingerling potatoes at Trader Joe's that required the most work of all: poke a hole in the bag and nuke it for 5 minutes. I say that sarcastically, just in case. What I did after was add some butter and garlic in the pan I cooked the steaks with, sauté for about a minute, then tossed the cooked potatoes in. Done.

Last, I made the sauce by first cooking some crimini and shitake mushrooms in the same pan the steak and potatoes were cooked in, then deglazed with some marsala, let it reduce by half, then added heavy cream and let that reduce in half. Seasoned to taste, done.

To celebrate Valentines Day, my husband and I went to The Terrace for dinner. We figured that we liked our Dining Room experience last year, so there should also be good food there for less buck. Plus, Open Table offered us a bonus of 1,000 points to dine there, so it was a pretty good incentive.



Before our appetizers came, we were served with a bread basket, which featured the regular sourdough bread, along with a parmesan/asiago cheese cracker bread. It also came with butter and a sundried tomato tapenade. The tapenade was excellent - I would have finished it, but our dishes came.



For starters, my husband ordered the Seared Sea Scallops, which were two delectable scallops served atop sauteed wild mushrooms, which were on top a truffle celery root puree and veal jus. I only had a small bite, which in my opinion was excellent, but I am a sucker for perfectly cooked scallops. It was also combined with one of my favorite things: mushrooms. I wish I had taken the time to savor the celery root puree and the veal jus, but frankly, I was enjoying my appetizer much more. Judging by the way my husband practically licked his plate clean, I would say that it was a great way to start the meal.



I ordered the Slow Braised Short Rib, which was served with a Castroville artichoke and a micro green salad. Let me preface the negative comments by saying I've never had a microgreen salad or a fresh artichoke. In my opinion, the salad would have been great if it hadn't been over salted (which will be a recurring thing); the leaves were tender and had a very "verdant" taste, for lack of better descriptors. But the salt overpowered that verdant taste, and killed it for me. The artichoke was served with roasted winter vegetables, some carrot and parsnips. It was uneventful for me, because I don't know how a fresh artichoke is supposed to taste, nor do I know if it's cooked perfectly or not. Besides, I was eagerly looking forward to polishing off the star of the dish - the short rib. Words cannot describe how good that short rib was. So I won't.



For my entree, I chose the bone-in rib eye, which was served with spring vegetables and bearnaise sauce. The steak was cooked perfectly, slightly pink and was very juicy and flavorful. My only complaint is that it was slightly on the salty side. The vegetables comprised of zuchinni and red peppers, tossed with dried rosemary and maybe some thyme, very boring. It also came with some red potatoes with caramelized onions, also very boring in terms of flavor profile. The bearnaise sauce was good, not too much champagne vinegar, although I thought that it was a little on the thick side.



My husband ordered the John Dory, pan roasted and served on top of ratatouille and beurre blanc. Quite frankly, I was so enamored with the short rib, I didn't pay much attention to the fish. But I thought the ratatouille tasted like tomatoes, and the fish tasted fresh.

For sides, we chose the creamed spinach (because I love creamed spinach) and ham and black truffle macaroni and cheese (because we have never had black truffles before). First the spinach: it was nasty. It was oversalted to the extreme, as if someone forgot that it has already been seasoned, and proceeded to season it again. If the salt wasn't bad enough, the overpowering scent and taste of the nutmeg will get to you. It was an overwhelmingly disappointing side dish. Now the mac and cheese: it wasn't that much better. It tasted like processed cheese, although I'm pretty sure it was most likely a low-grade sharp cheddar. The sauce wasn't really velvety smooth like it should be on a mac and cheese; it was clumpy and it seemed like the dish was left sitting under a heat lamp for a while (which would make sense, considering we got these dishes very late into our entrees). As for the truffles, it was only so-so. Seeing as I don't have a basis for comparison, I really can't say whether it was good or bad.

For dessert, I had planned on ordering something off the menu that one of the waiters highly recommended when, lo and behold, our server brought us a complimentary dessert of Dominican organic chocolate souffle accompanied with a sauce. It was a very yummy souffle, although it didn't make me forget what I originally wanted: coconut risotto, caramelized pineapple, coconut sorbet with a guava coulis.

It was an overall pleasant dining experience, more so for my husband than me, however. He got a second glass of whiskey on the house. For me, it seemed like I reached the pinnacle with that braised short rib, and everything went downhill from there. Dessert seemed to bring it back up, although I still think that the coconut pineapple dessert would have brought it up higher.

Dolcissimo, which means "the sweetest" in Italian, recently opened in The Shoppes at Chino Hills as part of the recent cupcake craze. I hadn't planned on stopping by, but the storefront was very inviting; it had a cute and fun vibe to it. Okay, maybe the cupcakes beckoned me to enter as well. So, with anticipation I walked into the store and proceeded to get the Dolcissimo experience.

Modeled after cupcake giant Sprinkles, it offers many different daily cupcake variations such as Strawberry Shortcake, Red Velvet, Apple Pie, etc. However, unlike Sprinkles, Dolcissimo also offers other sweet treats such as baby cheesecakes, cannolis, and individual-portioned pies. Being an unofficial Red Velvet afficionado, I had to have a red velvet cupcake. I also ordered the Cloud 9 (a Madagascar Bourbon vanilla cupcake with blue buttercream frosting), a Snowball (chocolate cupcake with white frosting and shredded coconut) and the Cookies n' Cream cupcake.

I couldn't wait until dessert to try these cupcakes, after all, they were $3.25 each! So first the Cloud 9. I was slightly disappointed because the frosting was too sweet for my taste and the cupcake itself had a flour-like aftertaste, as if the flour was not cooked out. Plus, it was a little on the dry side. But I pressed on, trying the Red Velvet next. I was much happier because the cream cheese frosting, although generous, was not overpowering, and the cake was moist. In other words, it was yummy. Exactly what a red velvet cupcake should be. Although honestly, it still doesn't compare to Auntie Em's Red Velvet.

Unfortunately, I was way too full from dinner (I blame Jack in the Box) to try the other two flavors. If I had to form my conclusions now, I would say that Dolcissimo is definitely worth a second (or third) visit. I would suggest going on different days though, just to give the other cupcake flavors a chance. Just don't get the Cloud 9.
























Dolcissimo Bakeshop
13855 City Center Drive, #3010
Chino Hills, California 91709
(909) 591-3646
http://www.dolcissimobakeshop.com/