Friday Quickies #41: End of 2008 Edition

Jollof Rice from my most daring foodventure of the year...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or other solstice-related holiday), for any of you that went out (or ordered take-in) that day (or next week during New Year's) -- it's definitely worthwhile to give an extra thanks to those who served you; they're giving up their holidays and times spent with family and friends so that you can have that experience. Having made that little PSA, here's some food related thoughts for today's quickie:

Whatcha doing on New Year's Eve? Yes, many places will be offering a lot of prix-fixe menus (though comparatively less extravagant given current times) and a few other foodbloggers already have posted on interesting New Year Eve's festivities. For the sake of not re-inventing the wheel, I'll point you guys to Caroline on Crack and FoodGPS's wonderful coverage of what's going down on the 31st, with prices going from free to infinity (at least it seems like it). Of course, there's the lowdown from the likes of Opentable and LA.com too. As for me, I'll either be at a house party crafting and mixing a few more (hopefully) delicious cocktails -- or some low-key dining out, such as previewing Rivera with a few sample courses and drinks, or maybe Fraiche's $65 four-course prix-fixe with rabbit tortelli and monkfish francaise, perhaps even dive down to the O.C. for Marche Moderne's special a la carte menu with selections like New Zealand scallops and bacon vinaigrette and noisette of venison, pear and butternut squash.

Beginnings and Endings for Bloggers - speaking of one year ending and another one about to start, the same also goes for a few foodbloggers. First off, Man Bites World finally concluded his epicurean experiment, having ran out of countries to taste after Day 102 (and that's after he included some debatables such as Macau and Tibet.) Following his posts over three months definitely open my eyes and tastebuds to the variety of foods available in L.A. and O.C. and made me realized just how big a cultural culinary soup pot we are (I hesitate using the term melting pot since that just presumes all the cultures melt into one, where as with soup analogy I feel that it's more of a two-way exchange between the individual ingredients/countries and the final product/overall food landscape, but I digress...) And in the news of beginnings, foodbloggers Oishii Eats and Eat, Drink and be Merry tied the knot! Cheers to them and good wishes for many wonderful years of good eats (and everything else...) to come. Their love story is a sweet one indeed.

And a little late, but I'm finally squeezing in my splurge meal of 2008 ... at Spago! Granted, the only reservation I can get is a early 5:45 p.m. tomorrow, but at least that gives me time to possibly check out a bar or two afterwards to gather my thoughts and organize my notes on what will hopefully be a very delicious meal. But in the meantime, hope you all, like me, had a year of wonderful foodventures and here's to another year's worth!