Last Sunday my friend and I decided to host an Oscar’s Red Carpet Viewing Party.  And thanks to my friends at Dove we were able to put on a festive show for a few of our girlfriends.

Dove provided the idea, funds for us to create a bangin’ spread, and a couple of goodies for our guests to take home – who could resist a reason to get the girls together, right? 

First up, the menu.  Since the Oscar’s on television would be an entire afternoon and evening event, we invited everyone to come over at their leisure and watch the arrivals with us and then stay for dinner.

With that, we put together a platter of vegetables and pita chips to dip in a spinach dip that I made for appetizers. If you’ve never tried Trader Joe’s Multi Grain Pita Chips, I’m telling you, you gotta try ‘em!

For dinner, we made a London Broil over garlic smashed potatoes.  For sides, I made individual ramekins of mac and cheese, roasted aparagus, and a spring salad.

Ah, let’s not forget the flowing champagne!

My friend did an amazing job with the table settings.  As a part sponsor of our party favors, Milani Cosmetics sent us makeup colors inspired by what they predicted the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress would be wearing on the red carpet.  We took face charts with the look on them as place settings.

Dove also sent us Oscar ballots and we used those as napkin holders – aren’t they adorable? 

If you ever need an easy and elegant idea for a centerpiece, pull together a couple of small bowl-shaped vases and fill them with colored rose petals (choose any color to match your theme!) and place a small round candle in the center to create an inexpensive, yet pretty table top.

We had a great time on Sunday and want to give a huge shout-out to Dove Visibly Smooth (more on this bangin’ new deodorant soon!) and Milani Cosmetics for sponsoring a totally fab party!

The event was hosted with gift cards, jewelry for gift bags and product samples furnished by Dove with additional products furnished by Milani.

The Boyfriend came down to visit last weekend and every time he comes, we love to go to Quan Hy Restaurant to enjoy a couple of our favorite Vietnamese dishes. (Mind you, this was on Saturday before I decided to commit to my Jenny diet!)

Quan Hy is situated on Bolsa Avenue, right in the heart of Little Saigon in Westminster, CA and specializes in cuisine from the Hue region of Vietnam (central Vietnam).  One of these is the Boyfriend’s favorite spicy beef noodle soup called Bun Bo Hue.

Although it looks like it’s tomato-based due to the red coloring, the broth for Bun Bo Hue is made of shimmering beef bones for a really long time with chilis and lemongrass.

This noodle soup is served with thick rice noodles, slices of beef, pieces of fancy pork (or cha lua), as well as a pig’s knuckle.  On the side are bean sprouts, cabbage, and lime wedges to add more textures and flavors.  This dish is traditionally served with a side of shrimp paste that you mix into the soup, but we usually skip that.

I always love to get this bowl of Hieu Tieu.  It’s not a noodle soup but rather a dry, clear noodle dish that comes with a sauces to mix in for flavor and a small bowl of soup broth on the side.  It’s topped with tons of charbroiled shrimp and generous slices of pork over a bed of greens – although I’m not sure what these greens are called in English.

This popular noodle dish can be found at most Vietnamese restaurants, served either dry like this, or as a traditional noodle soup with the broth mixed in.  However the quality of the proteins and the amount of veggies you get in this bowl surpass any other I’ve tried.  It’s so yummy and good for you too!

But I think the real reason why we come to Quan Hy to eat is the appetizer – a fresh platter of Banh Beo.

Banh Beo are steamed rice cakes topped with bits of shrimp and crispy shallots and you eat them with a little bit of nuoc cham (fish sauce).  They are so deliciously good!

I also love coming to Quan Hy on the weeks when I eat vegetarian.  A lot of their dishes, including their signature Banh Beo, come in a meatless option so I don’t feel like I’m limited when I go out.

Have you been to Quan Hy?  I think it’s going to be a couple of months before I get to go back since I’m on the Jenny diet.  But boy do I crave me some little steamed rice cakes right now! 

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A couple of weekends ago, the Boyfriend and I dined at Fleur de Lys in San Francisco.  I had been wanting to go there for some time, but for some reason, we just never made it.

But after watching Chef Hubert Keller on Top Chef and then watching him almost win Top Chef Masters last year, we finally put it at the top of our must-dine list.  Four courses, a couple hundred dollars, and one cute French man later, I’m happy to say that we can now cross Fleur de Lys off our list.

Walking into the restaurant off Sutter and Taylor streets (by the way, we drive by all the time and NEVER realized it was there!), it seemed a bit crowded and overwhelming with three hostesses and a tiny bar where a couple more folks were standing around.

Thankfully we were promptly whisked away to our table in the corner where it was much more quaint.  Although I sometimes like to people watch at restaurants, tonight we just wanted a quiet evening and our spot by the wall was perfectly cozy.

At Fleur de Lys, you can choose from 3, 4, or 5 courses – appetizer, seafood, meat, dessert, and cheese – choosing anything you want off the menu.  This makes it much nicer than a traditional prix fixe where you can only choose from a select few.

We opted for the 4-course menu.  As we waited for our appetizers, we were presented with an amuse bouche – a cauliflower salad with pine nuts in the spoon and a pumpkin curry soup in the cup.

I wasn’t a complete fan of the soup but the cauliflower salad was such a bright spoonful, it got me really excited for the rest of the meal!

Next came appetizers – I had the chilled dungeness crab salad accompanied by a lobster cream with caviar in the spoon and beets over goat cheese at the top of the plate.  When this came out, it was so beautiful, like art on a plate, I almost didn’t want to eat it.  But I did, and it was soooo good!

The Boyfriend had what was listed on the menu as a salmon souffle.  I thought it was going to be an actual souffle in a ramekin.  Instead it was a whole piece of salmon – still delicious nonetheless.  But wouldn’t it have been cool if it was a souffle?

Next came the seafood courses.  I ordered a salmon dish for the first time ever!  My piece of salmon was potato and parmesan encrusted over a bed of broccolini and came with a porcini flan (rich but not as flavorful as I thought it would be).  Overall, a yummy dish that’s definitely changed my mind about ordering salmon in the future.

The boyfriend had the hawaiian swordfish with a side of saffron soup.  The dish looked amazing, and the flavors were good for the most part.  But alas, his piece of fish was a little overdone.

I also usually don’t order filet mignon at restaurants either – I’m a ribeye kinda gal.  But anything that comes with lobster and mac and cheese, I’m all for!

I have to say, this dish wasn’t the complete package for me.  While my perfectly cooked, perfectly tender, and perfectly flavorful piece of filet was probably the best I’d ever had, the mac and cheese was a total flop.  Not creamy at all, and reminded me of a flatter version of Kraft’s mac and cheese in a box – sorry Chef Hubert!!

For the Boyfriend’s meat course, he went with the suggestion of the server – the venison chop with chorizo.  This wasn’t his favorite dish.  To me, it tasted fine but totally lackluster and the chorizo didn’t seem to fit.  The plating was a little old school, too, with the orange puree that looked like a carrot.

Finally dessert.  Again at the suggestion of the server I choose the golden apple tart with a chocolate creme brulee.  I don’t usually indulge in desserts so I look forward to eating out because that’s the only time I give myself a sweet treat.  The chocolate creme brulee was sweet indeed, but the tart was far from a treat.

My idea of an apple tart is warm with a soft crust that just melts in your mouth.  This tart crust was dry, almost like a shortbread cookie, and the filling tasted of apple, but on the plain side – where’s the cinnamon?

On the other hand, the boyfriend’s dessert was playful and really fun to eat.  The FleurBurger is a sweet play on Chef Keller’s signature burgers!

The brioche bun features a fudge patty and the lettuce and tomatoes are actually slices of kiwi and… another fruit that I can’t recall.  The “burger” is accompanied by a banana milkshake and pieces of fennel ice cream as french fries!  I couldn’t taste the fennel, but the ice cream is nice with the rich burger.  The Boyfriend is a complete fan of banana milkshakes and enjoyed this one very much!

Overall, I wouldn’t say that the meal was a home run.  It started out strong with a few misses here and there.  I might say that I’d visit again, but only to hopefully run into Chef Hubert Keller again outside of his restaurant as we were leaving.

He was very sweet, shaking our hands and asking us if we enjoyed our meal.  He also graciously agreed to a photo with us, even after I confessed to him that I was a groupie – ha!  The truth is, we love watching him on TV and wouldn’t mind visiting another one of his restaurants again in the future.

Have you dined at Fleur de Lys in San Francisco or Las Vegas?  He’s also got the Burger Bar that I think we’ll try next time!  Hope to see you there Chef Hubert!!

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Right now, Little Saigon in Orange County is bustling with outdoor markets and stands selling stuff and getting ready for the Lunar New Year this Sunday.

Last weekend, the boyfriend came down to visit me and after dim sum we decided to walk the streets of Bolsa and in to the Asian Mall parking lot (Phuoc Loc Tho) to check out the outdoor market selling items especially for Tết (Chinese New Year in Vietnamese).

There’s tons of red and gold items from home decorations, red envelopes “lucky” money, small boxes of firecrackers (the legal kind, of course) and tons of plants and flowers.

Of course, I am always drawn to the food and found my way to the fruit stand relatively quickly!

When I visited Vietnam with my mom for the first time in 1991, I ate these rambutan fruit (or chom chom in Vietnamese) for the very first time.  They ended up being my favorite fruit to eat the entire summer I was there!

The soft, prickly outer skin reveals a white fruit inside that’s juicy and sweet.  Just seeing these again reminded me of that amazing summer I spent as a kid getting to know some of my family members I had never met before!

At first I thought these were those stinky durian fruits but it turns out it’s a jack fruit! Much, much yummier in my opinion.  And look how big it is!

After you split it open, you can pick out the little pieces of jack fruit and eat it fresh or make delicious dessert treats with them.

I’m so excited it’s finally Friday!  Will you be celebrating the Lunar New Year this Sunday?  Or is one holiday, Valentine’s Day, enough for you

I’ll be in San Francisco celebrating both!

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