Sammy's Woodfired Pizza

So last week I met up with an old friend for lunch and catching up, and after hemming and hawing over where to go, one mention of Sammy's Woodfired Pizza and it was decided.

Becca and I enjoying our friendship.

Sammy's started in San Diego in 1989, but I wasn't privy to their delicious food until 2001 when I went to the downtown location with my friend Josh for dinner. I had forgotten about Sammy's until recently when my mom and I went to meet some old family friends there for lunch where I serendipitously found myself staring at their new revamped menu which included gourmet salads and an extensive tapas list.

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza
Various Locations in
Southern California and Las Vegas

Rebecca and I started off with some of those awesome tapas. We ordered the Lebni Mediterranean Cheese with grilled herbed flat bread, and an order of their Hummus, which came with the same bread.

Lebni Mediterranean Cheese with grilled herbed flat bread.

The cheese is sometimes a bit too much if you've never had it. It's almost like a cross between sour cream and cream cheese, as it's soft and a bit tangy. They have really good hummus, pretty smooth and not too garlicy.

Nomming on tasty cheese.

The best part of these, is that they are so big you will have more than enough for leftovers to take home for later. I had my left overs with my salad later that night with dinner. I just threw the flat bread into the toaster oven to warm and crisp up those edges again and it was perfect.

Hummus with grilled herbed flat bread.

I got a half order of their Chinese Chicken Salad. It's made with cabbage and bok choy and it's got lots of veggies and mandarin orange slices. Their dressing is light and flavorful and they order half and full sizes for sharing. The half salad is large enough for lunch or dinner, and I even had extra left over.

Chinese Chicken Salad.

Bec went with the Thai Chicken Pizza. It comes topped with Thai Chicken, Julienne veggies, peanuts, lime juice and a spicy Thai peanut sauce. I'm pretty much a purist with pizza, and I am not too keen on these fancy "gourmet pizzas", but I tried a slice of this and it wasn't too bad.

Thai Chicken Pizza.

Becca's friend is a waitress here and she gave us a free Messy Sundae since Becca told her I was going to blog and review the restaurant. It's not just a clever name.

Messy Sundae.

This big ol' Messy Sundae was pretty much the end all to be all of the meal and frankly we didn't think we could get through it until we dug in.

I can haz a messy sundae?

The monster is topped to the hilt with fudge, caramel , whipped cream and walnuts.

Bec and I dig in and indulge.

We ate a lot of whipped cream and toppings before we hit ice cream, but Bec is expecting and is due in May and the baby really enjoyed the sundae. You can create you own Origami Messy Sundae here.

Most Sammy's locations are in San Diego, with a few in the Los Angeles Area and a bunch in Las Vegas.

Gaby's!!!

I was up in LA this weekend for work and some hang out time with my friends Jordan and Shaun. They met me on the Westside and let me choose the restaurant this time, so I didn't have much choice but to pick Gaby's Mediterranean in Culver City.

Three years ago, I discovered this shining little gem while looking for a place to cater my 25th birthday party. We showed up, ordered one of this and that, and sat in food heaven for a few hours. So I feel like I have an obligation to share my find with everyone I meet.

Gaby's has 3 locations on the Westside, but the Culver City one is my favorite. Parking totally sucks, but they have a great outdoor covered dining patio.

We started off with some pita, and zaatar. I've tried to make my own zaatar, and it didn't turn out so well, so if anyone has a recipe for it, let me know!!


The boys ordered "Mountain Dew" but instead got "Mango Juice". I suppose the term "lost in translation" is fitting here.

Anyway! I've tried a lot of hummus in my life. I'm a bit of a hummus freak, if you will. I even attempted making my own, which wasn't nearly as good as this lil puppy.



Gaby's hummus is so amazing that we had to order two. Seriously. After we ran out of pita bread, Jordan was eating it with a fork, which kinda grossed me out, but it really is that good.

While we waited for our food, we ordered an Apple Hookah. We are HUGE Hookah freaks, and I usually don't smoke hookah unless I am with the boys. The fact that they had hookah made both Jordan and Shaun VERY happy.



For all those hookah lovers out there, the apple hookah had a nice sweet flavor, and a spicy tang at the end with almost a licorice aftertaste. It almost tasted like I was smoking absinthe!

I ordered my favorite thing, Lemon Chicken and I substituted a Greek Salad for the house salad.



Personally, it had a bit too much feta cheese for my liking, but after I picked most of it out, it was really yummy. They have a great Greek dressing.



The Lemon Chicken was a total cheat on my whole "eating healthier" thing, but OMG isn't this so worth it?! The chicken was uber tender and the rice is so yummy with the sauce on it. I didn't inhale too much of that sauce so I still think I am pretty ok.

Shaun got the beef kabobs, with rice and house salad.



And Jordan got the Salmon kabobs with rice and house salad.



Everyone pretty much finished their plates. We sat around for about another hour finishing the hookah, paid the check and headed home. We were all stuffed and the whole meal, drinks, hookah AND tip was only around $25 each. I love that Gaby's has such great filling meals but not too much out of pocket.

Tzatziki!

I've been asked by a few what exactly tzatiki is. It's basically a sauce made from yogurt, lemons, garlic and cucumber and, albeit time consuming, it's surprisingly easy to make at home!

This recipe is my tweaked version of the one from the blog Fields of Cake, and Other Good Stuff. I'll take you through it step by step with pictures. Don't worry.

First you need the basics.

32 ounce tub of plain yogurt, I used low fat,but whole or fat free would also work.
1 English cucumber; shredded
1/2 tsp lemon zest
juice from one lemon
5 garlic cloves
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dill weed
1 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper

Start with the yogurt. I knew I wasn't going to be in the need of 32 oz of tzatiki, so I halved it. It was enough for dinner, plus leftover, plus extra. It's great to dip pita chips into.

In a strainer lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter, propped over a clean bowl, strain yogurt. This way you can get rid of any excess liquids. I strained mine for 2 hours, but you can do it overnight in the fridge.



Instantly it should start to drain. I lost about a 3/4 of a cup of liquid over the course of 2 hours.



Next you are going to want to prepare your cucumber. English cucumbers work best because they don't really have seeds. You can usually find them in your market. If you can't grab a regular one and de-seed it. Peel the skin off.



Next you want to shred your cucumber. I used a food processor becuase its much easier and it helped me get rid of any extra juice. If you don't have a food processor, you can grate it with a cheese grater and then squeeze off the liquids in a paper towel.



Once you've removed the liquids, you are going to just quickly run a sharp knife thru it to make sure its thoroughly chopped.



Transfer the drained yogurt into a bowl and add the cucumbers to it.



Next comes the lemon zest and juice. If you don't have a lemon zester, you can once again use the rough side of a cheese grater or even the edge of a knife. Zest about 1/4 a tsp off the rind and mix it in. Juice the lemon. I recommend using a separate bowl so you don't get any seeds into the sauce.



Press 5 cloves of garlic and add that into the mix as well. I like to press the garlic because it really releases the oils and flavor, but not everyone owns a presser, so if you are one of those people, buy one!! To hold you off until then, smash garlic under a knives blade with the palm of your hand (like below) and mince.



Add the rest of the spices into the yogurt and mix well. Allow the flavor to develop for at least 20 minutes. It should look something like this when done.



It keeps for a few days in the fridge and is wonderful on pita, lamb, burgers, and the shwarma recipe as well.

Greek Salad

Not many salads really turn my head. Especially not Greek salads, but I decided to cook dinner tonight and really do it up Greek Style, and what goes better with Greek food, then Greek Salad?

The recipe is super easy, yummy, and decently healthy. This is what you need;



Lettuce, chopped. I used Hearts of Romaine and a head of Iceberg, but you can use whatever types of lettuce you like best. Make sure that you use a lettuce knife when doing a chop salad, or rip it with your hands so it doesn't brown.



Tomatoes, sliced/diced/whole depending on the type you use. I used grape tomatoes cuz they are sweet and delicious and I halved them down the center. Cherry tomatoes will also work and are small enough, like grapes to slice in half or use whole. If you're going to use a larger tomato, I suggest dicing them into bite sizes.

Cucumbers, peeled, and cut into bite size pieces. If you prefer you can half it lengthwise and remove the seeds, or use an English cucumber. I don't mind the seeds, so I just left those puppies in.



Olives, of the Greek or Mediterranean variety. They usually can be found in the deli section of the grocery, or even in the olive section. I chose a green and kalamata mix.

Throw it all into a bowl in that order and it should look something like this...




Next you need to make a dressing, this is where it really sets itself apart from other crappy salads. It's a slightly modified version of a recipe I saw on For The Love of Cooking.





* 6 tablespoons olive oil
* Juice of 1 lemon
* 2 garlic cloves, pressed
* 3 tsp red wine vinegar
* Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
* 1/2 tsp dried oregano

Whisk it all together until it's creamy and then pour over the salad, top with some feta cheese, and toss. Voila!



I made this for my very picky father who actually finished his whole plate and asked if there were seconds. Then he proceeded to tell me that he needs this recipe. So I think it's a homerun!