Giveaway: Pinkberry Swirlygram Gift Card, for Your Valentine

Now you can send the Pinkberry-lover in your life a special Valentine's delivery. From Feb 11-14, Pinkberry will hand deliver their famous frozen yogurt with toppings, gift card, or a take-home container of fro-yo complete with special V-day wrapping, balloons, and a note.
Candygram? It's Swirlygram.
All you have to do is go to a Pinkberry store and place your order (delivery is available within a certain radius of each store). You can also order online here, but that one doesn't come with balloons.

To get you going, Pinkberry is giving away a $10 Swirlygram gift card!

$10 is good for one Cupid's Swirl (prices include delivery), or pay the difference for anything else. I recommend the Blood Orange Pinkberry topped with blood orange slices.

I thought about making you tell me who you're sending it to, but I don't want to embarass people, so all you have to do is leave a comment with your contact info below.

Contest will end at NOON on Tuesday Feb 8th, leaving plenty of time for the gift card to be mailed to you.

Table20 Celebrates LA's Best Bartenders

My personal opinions aside, Table20's contest on LA's Best Bartenders certainly brought some of the city's best together at downtown's Elevate Lounge with some mighty rum punches.

The night had started slow and since I overestimated traffic, I arrived 30 minutes early (in LA? Impossible!). I ended up waiting at Takami and had one of their $4 bar snacks, calamari with rice krispies crust. Not a bad portion for $4.

Since the bartenders were still preparing their punch, we first had to wait outside the lounge, but the management graciously provided a drink ticket for the bar at Takami.

Sure, some of my other favorites were missing from the contest, like Julian Cox and Pablo Moix, but 5-6 glasses of punch are enough for a night. I say 5-6 because there were supposed to be 6, but The Edison's Joe Brooke went MIA that night.

A special shoutout to the only female finalist, Dee Ann Quinones from STREET, The Parlour Room, and Philippe Chow.

My favorite drink of the night ended up being Cole's bartender Max Diaz's Red Sparrow Punch.

I might have been biased towards this cider-like hot drink as it was raining outside, but it was definitely a great drink regardless!
For this punch Max Diaz combined the Don Q Anejo rum (one of the sponsors) with apple cider, cabernet sauvignon, green chartreuse, and a "secret syrup" that, alas, shall remain a mystery.

At the end of the night, Matt Biancanello was crowned Best Bartender in LA. The skills of Matt Biancanello are already well known in the city from his creative concoctions at the Library Bar such as the Shiitake Manhattan and Arugula Gimlet. Congratulations to Matt, all the other finalists, and the other great bartenders of Los Angeles!

Giveaway: Your Own Home Pasta Machine!

I was recently approached to hold a giveaway by someone from CSN Stores, which operates over 200 online stores including those selling tableware and kitchenware from microwaves and eco-friendly fridges and cookware sets to Rachael Ray Cookware -- I don't watch her but someone gave my her fondue set for Christmas. Some people have told me her products are actually pretty good, and they do look cute.

They asked me to choose something for the giveaway, and here was my pick (and I hope you guys like it):

CucinaPro Imperia Home Pasta Machine S150, which has a 6" wide roller and spaghetti and fettucine cutter ~TA DA!
You know you want to eat fresh, handmade pasta for dinner at home. Forget those dried, pre-packaged stuff.

So, how to win your very own pasta machine? You just have to promise to make me some pasta once a month for the rest of your life.
Nah, I kid, I kid~ (but I won't refuse if you offer).

It's the usual deal + a teeny bit more:
Leave a comment below with your contact info and tell me what would be the first dish you'll try to cook with your new pasta machine!

Easy enough, no? You have until midnight of next Tuesday, January 26th (PST).

Good luck to all!

Anniversaries, Giveaways, Fat, and Pungentness

My one year blogiversary is coming up! Is that a real word or did I just make it up?
Anyways, I decided to do not one, but TWO special things to celebrate!! (celebrating is just an excuse, I just want to do it)
I need your input and I'm turning this into my one-year-anniversary-blog-giveaway-contest.

So the background: I am planning: 1) a foie gras crawl, and 2) a durian crawl.
Am I kidding? Am I /ever/ kidding? I am totally serious. Not on the same day of course.
Well, maybe.

So here's what I've come up with for #1) foie gras w/ eggplant at Orris, and foie gras with mac&cheese and black truffles at Chaya Brasserie. What other particular foie gras dish should I include? The rule is that it has to be on their regular menu - otherwise the whole plan will go down the drain!

For #2) durian smoothie from Simpang Asia, sticky rice with durian --> where?
Fresh durian from the Ranch 99 in SGV area. Any other durian foodstuff and where can I get them?

So
THE RULES:
You guys post what dish I should get for either #1 or #2 and where.
Post your suggestions in the comments section and include your email address so I can contact the winner.
You have until the date of my first post - Oct 23rd.

THE PRIZE: Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations DVD