Adventures in Dining Out: True Food Kitchen, Newport Beach, CA

My sister was having an abnormally crappy week last week and she decided it would be a good idea to get away from her office for a bit and do something she wanted to do. Great idea, no? I think if you’re ever having a bad week at work it important to do things for yourself so you don’t let the work stuff ruin your attitude towards everything else. She suggested going to lunch and I was all for it because who doesn’t love getting lunch with their sister in the middle of the week?

We decided to try a new restaurant at Fashion Island, an outdoor mall near our offices, called True Food Kitchen. We’d attempted to have lunch here about a month ago, but the wait was crazy and we only had an hour. This time, we got there early enough and found a seat in the bar right away.

Source

According to their website, “At True Food Kitchen, we celebrate simplicity. We practice sustainability. We believe that simple, fresh, pure ingredients create the most memorable and satisfying meals. And while our healthy menu is packed with nutritious, good-for-you vegetables, whole grain and proteins, we never sacrifice flavor. You may not notice the difference. But it’s there.”

They also follow Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid™, which to be honest I’d never heard of before visiting their website. According to Dr. Weil: “Following an anti-inflammatory diet can help counteract the chronic inflammation that is a root cause of many serious diseases, including those that become more frequent as people age. It is a way of selecting and preparing foods based on science that can help people achieve and maintain optimum health over their lifetime.”

Plus, they have gluten free menu options – SCORE!

After examining the menu we decided on three things:

I ordered the Panang Curry…


The waitress smiled when I ordered this dish and told me it was her favorite. Don’t you just love that! I really love when a waitress (or waiter) will tell you what their favorite dish is where they work. Nothing bugs me more than when you ask what they would recommend and you get, “Well everything is really good.” Anyway, this was delicious. I don’t know how I’d forgotten how much I love coconut milk, but the combination of the coconut milk and curry was amazing. I ordered this again for lunch on Monday.

My sister ordered the Quinoa Tabbouleh salad…

Pretty, huh? This was our waitress’ other favorite dish and if I like beets it would probably be one of mine too. I had a few bites (even one with a bite of beet) and it was really tasty (minus the beet). The dressing was just the right amount of not too sweet.

We also ordered the tomato basil soup…


Well, my sister ordered the soup, but when it came there was so much food we decided to share it. Tomato soup is probably my favorite soup. My roommate in college and I would have it with grilled cheese all the time (hmmm, I wonder why I gained weight in college). Usually, I only like creamy tomato soups, but this was great without the cream. It was very fresh.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a Tweet from me earlier this week about a planter I want for my patio.


The planter is from the front of True Foods Kitchen. They have about 3 or 4 of these planters out front full of fresh herbs and a couple vegetables. I love the idea and in this context, not only do I think it is a great design addition, but a fun way to show kids what things look like before they are in our food :)

Summer Corn Chowder

Before the wedding I started subscribing to MANY cooking blogs on my Google Reader. So much, in fact, that the amount of recipes I'd starred greatly over shadowed those with wedding ideas. The Hubs and I could not wait to start cooking in our very own kitchen!

This past Sunday, after spending an hour in our newly discovered Smart & Final, we cooked a delicious meal. My contribution was from a Grilled Summer Corn Chowder recipe I found on A Year in the Kitchen. I LOVE corn and this just looked to tasty not to attempt. (As you can see I made a few tweaks to her already great recipe).

Grilled Summer Corn Chowder

1 tbsp. EVOO
1 yellow onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 yellow bell pepper, finely diced
2 large yukon gold potatoes, finely diced
2 carrots, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
1 tsp. chili powder
4 c. vegetable stock
4 ears of grilled corn, sliced off the cobb
Splash of cream (the Hubs is lactose intolerant so we used Almond Milk)
Scallions, thinly sliced

Heat in a soup pot over medium - EVOO, garlic, chili powder, onion, garlic, bell pepper, potatoes and carrots.
Season with salt and pepper, stir and cook for 10 minutes.
Add 2 c. vegetable stock, bring to a boil and cover.
Cook until vegetables are tender, about 5-10 more minutes.
Take half of vegetables (in the pot), half of corn and 1 c. reserved vegetable stock to a blender.
Puree until smooth and thick, add vegetable stock if necessary.
Add puree back to the pot with reserved vegetables.
Add cream, almost all the remaining corn, and more stock to reach desired consistency.
Bring to a simmer, ladle into a bowl, top with remaining corn and scallions.

For the corn I boiled/steamed the 4 ears of corn for 30 mins, then cut the corn of the cob and browned it in a pan with a little olive oil and garlic (because we love garlic). It was my way of getting grilled corn without having to heat up the Weber.

** I need to learn to take better pics of my food, and WHIPE the bowl! Jeeze Allison!