The Good Air Grill -UPDATED-

I came back to this restaurant last week and I am just updating this post with two new dishes (the original post is right below this new rating).

All in all, a wonderful experience and two fantastic dishes. Highly recommended.


Veal Braised With A Malbec Sauce, Mirepoix, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. The Special of the Evening. Tender, moist, cooked to perfection, and I wish it had been my plate! My friend Chef offered to give me the dish and I sadly declined! Please try it. They know how it's done.


Merluza Gorgonzola. Filet de Merluza With A White Wine, Butter, and Gorgonzola Sauce. Served with a side of Mashed Potatoes. Merluza is the main fish they consume in the beautiful country of Argentina. I loved this dish. It felt just slightly heavy on my stomach, but overall it was a decent meal and I enjoyed it. Everything paired well together.


Tarta de Manzana. Sweet, satisfying, and all mine! Just a light and perfect dessert to enjoy after a good meal.

My rating is still 4 1/2 hearts. Give it a go! You won't be disappointed. Oh and one thing I forgot to mention before in the previous entry on this restaurant. Everyone who works there has the Spanish accent and I love how it makes me feel like I am in a restaurant in Buenos Aires!

1/24/10


I decided to go Argentine-style and checked out the Buenos Aires Grill ~ Argentinian BBQ in Northridge, CA.

Here are the highlights:






Chimichurri Sauce. I don't remember if I mentioned this before previously with my Argentina travels: (Recap of Argentina), but if not, I'll just say it...CHIMICHURRI is my all-time favorite sauce! Seriously, it can't get any better than that!


Empanada de Carne. $1.80 Beef, Onions, and Mozzarella. Excellent of course, but honestly I think the best empanadas are in Argentina. I don't think this one was better than the ones I had over there. But if you have yet to go to Argentina (which I recommend that you do, refer back up to my Recap of Argentina, mentioned above), you would love the empanadas here.


Caprese Salad. $6.49 Tomato, Buffalo Mozzarella, Basil, and Balsamic Vinaigrette. I don't think there is any combination that is more close to perfection than Caprese.


Milanesa de Carne. $13.99 Thin breaded Top Sirloin Steak with (what was supposed to be) Provenzal Garlic and Parsley Fries. I enjoyed that it wasn't as oily as the one I had on my last day in Buenos Aires, but again, it just wasn't better than the ones I had in Argentina. Nevertheless, it was good here and I recommend.

Eunice ended up getting the Baby Spinach Salad and Sauteed Vegetables. She's doing something for a friend of the family and can't eat meat until Tuesday, so after Tuesday, we will be back or find another Argentinian BBQ place and indulge in some good meat!

Dessert~ I looked at the menu and decided I wanted the Tarte de Manzana but made the decision to hold off on dessert this time around. The dessert menu includes the Argentine sweet - dulce de leche - and is included in all the desserts on the menu.


The waiter knew how much we love Chimichurri so he surprised us with some to take to-go!

I just love the interior of Buenos Aires Grill. Very spacious. Walls are decorated with pictures of the city. The restaurant made me want to go and buy a plane ticket and fly back to Argentina!



La Boca! My favorite part of Buenos Aires; the tango dancers, the colorful houses painted by the Italian immigrants, the vibrant atmosphere--definitely spend some time in San Telmo!

For those who aren't familiar with the different cuts of a cow.


How Argentina does it. And they do it damn good! I recommend trying out all their different asado street carts. Makes the traveler's stomach very happy.


I give Buenos Aires Grill 4 1/2 hearts: ♥♥♥♥1/2. The only reason why it wasn't 5 hearts is because I could have gotten all of this in Argentina for a little over a half of the amount of money I spent here. That and I feel like nothing here compares to eating all of this out of the country! But I still say check it out, you'll love it!

Cupcakes Delight

I can cook and bake wonderfully but when it comes to decorating, well, I was only given the sports gene, not the artistic/creative gene! So I decided, for fun, to take a cupcake decorating class in hopes of finding out what I can and cannot do and working on that. The class was taught by one of the Pastry Chefs at the Playboy Mansion, so right off the bat I knew this would be a good class to take. Obviously if she wasn't good, she wouldn't be working at a place like that.

I'll provide all the information I gained in the class as well as pictures of the instructor with her cupcakes and the steps I took to make my own. I hope everything I post here is helpful in some way. The class was pretty fast paced and grabbed as much info as I could in the time limit we had.

I found on my own that this is something I know I'd like to work on, but more of a hobby for myself to do on the side. I also have the huge urge to buy all cake decorating tools and turning my kitchen upside down! :) I'm also considering taking a 3-D Cookie class to step up the everyday cookie. Oh the things I do that easily excite me!

Cupcake Useful Tips In The Kitchen

♥ Cake is best when served at room temperature
♥ When coloring frosting, use gel or paste, not liquid in order to not get a watery frosting consistency
♥ Use an ice cream scoop so each cupcake is the same size
♥ To obtain perfectly flat cupcakes, bake at 340 degrees F
♥ Fill cupcake tins half full
♥ Do not hold the frosting-filled bags unless working with it in order to keep it thick and not heated through body heat
♥ Don't make Buttercream Frosting on a hot day; for the day, our Chef used shortening. On a hot day, the butter will just easily melt and be hard to work with
♥ To stuff a cupcake: use an apple corer, stick the cream into the cupcake by using a pastry tip or cut off the top with a paring knife
♥ Fondant: Gelatin, Glycerine, and Powdered Sugar. If it hardens, microwave for 10 seconds. If too hard, just throw away
♥ Marzipan: Almond and sugar confection used in desserts, cake decorating, and can be shaped as part of cake decorating

Getting Started.


Have your pastry bag folded over and fill with the frosting. Unfold the bag, as shown below, when filled with frosting.



Instructor demonstrating the inside-to-outside technique. Below she demonstrates the outside-to-inside technique of decorating a cupcake.



Demonstrating one way of stuffing a cupcake by injecting the pastry tip into the cupcake.


Making "grass".



Working with Fondant.


Making my favorite flower, the sunflower.

Her finished cupcakes:





YUM is all I have to say!

My Cupcakes. Practice will make perfect.



First cupcake is the outside-to-inside method and the second one is the inside-to-outside technique. Like I said, all practice work. I'll get better eventually. :)


Complete with cute red and pink hearts. ♥


Sunflower.





Butterfly and Two Ladybugs in a Lovely Spring Garden.




Finding Nemo. You know it!


Pretty in Pink Flower.

The last three cupcakes were somewhat rushed through due to our time limit and me spending SO much time with the other cupcakes (You can't rush good work in the kitchen!) that I kind of just played with the frostings and made random decorations.





And lastly, I played a little and added a happy :) face to one of the plain decorated cupcakes. I wanted to do the regular happy face with the black eyes and mouth but needed five more minutes to be able to do that.



This class has truly inspired me and made me confident enough to know that I don't need the "creative" gene to decorate a cupcake. It just takes practice. And I'm happy that my good friend Eunice will now trust me to bake and decorate her bridal shower cake later on in the future!