El Lay--Hoo Ray

By Mike Osborne

For the next few months I'll be blogging about food from Los Angeles. I sort of lucked into a reprieve from the bitter New York winter and have found myself living in la-la land.

I'm at the point in my schooling where a five-month externship is required. Most of my classmates are slaving away in ritzy restaurants or resort hotels in places like NYC, Boston, San Francisco, Napa, Florida, or Vail, but I was after something a little different. I wanted to get closer to the world of publishing, so after a great deal of effort and waiting, I got a slot at the Los Angeles Times Food Section working as a recipe tester.

The Times tests about 600 recipes each year, many of which find themselves in print and on the web site. Our job is to obtain reader requested recipes from a variety of sources, adapt the recipes for home use, and then rigorously and exactingly test and correct until we're sure the recipes will yield consistent results. It's a very different way of cooking than anything I've done before. There's no room for approximation, and it is almost scientific in scope. The work is interesting and will be good practice for cookbooks I plan to write post-graduation.

My living conditions are ideal. I'm in a small tri-plex bungalow in the heart of the arts district of North Hollywood. It's a neighborhood you can easily walk. Most folks think of LA as a great big freeway, and it is, but the NoHo district is definitely pedestrian friendly.

I have visited several of the Farmers' Markets that abound here. They're big, vibrant, well established, and people really support them. It's very encouraging to see and equally great to participate. Citrus is in right now, and I've been getting some beautiful organically grown Meyer lemons. I'm thinking of doing some renegade recipe testing on my own.

Meyer lemons are all over the place in California, but you rarely get a chance to buy them in Texas. They're something of a lemon-orange hybrid--less acidic and slightly sweeter than typical lemons. The skin is thinner and has a slight orange hue. I really like them, so here's what I'm thinking....

Come up with a recipe for a Meyer-garita. Now, Margaritas are among my favorite martini style cocktails, so this one would be a lemony twist on that established classic theme: 2-parts good quality white or silver tequila, 1-part top-shelf triple sec, 1-part Mexican lime juice. Of course, there's the obligatory salted rim of the glass. I'm considering the following changes; instead of Cointreau or Grand Marnier, use Limoncello (preferably made with Meyer lemons), and freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice. I also think a combination of coarse salt and Muscavado sugar would be nice on the rim. A candied strip of lemon peel would be an attractive garnish. Shake over ice cubes and strain into a frozen martini glass. Sounds yum to me.

What do you think? Any crazy cocktail recipes up the sleeve of your chef jacket? Share the hair of the dog.
As we say in the bidness, "Chow."

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