The Unvegan » Palm Desert

Le Dinner at Le Basil

The Unvegan — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:00:11 +0000

Le Pad See You

In the hotbed of food culture known as Palm Desert, California, we went off to dinner with my aunt and uncle, who were craving some Thai food. After some extensive searching using the newfangled interwebs, we found a place called Le Basil. Rather than being confined to Thai food, Le Basil expanded to another area of Southeast Asia and integrated Vietnamese food into their menu. Although this only covered 2 of the 11 sovereign nations of Southeast Asia, it was enough for Le Basil’s menu to claim Southeast Asian cuisine (come on, where’s the balut?).

Although I adhere strongly to my unvegan ideals, for the sake of togetherness and trying multiple things, I am sometimes willing to allow vegetables to make contact with my food. Le Basil was one of these places as my girlfriend and I decided to split two dishes. One of these was called the Le Basil Beef Massaman Curry (14.95) and the other was Pad See You (12.95). The curry was made with coconut milk, tamarind, potatoes, onions and roasted peanuts and although I would have ordered without onions, I knew they were necessary to keep said girlfriend happy. As for the Pad See You, this rice noodle dish was stir-fried with meat, egg, broccoli and a sweet soy sauce. We chose chicken as our meat and once again I would have ordered without broccoli, but opted not to for the sake of girlfriend happiness.

The noodles came out first and aside from the broccoli looked awesome. Fortunately the broccoli was in huge, gas-inducing stalks that were easy to avoid. The noodles themselves were deliciously wide and thin, yet easy to pick up for eating. I am no expert on Pad See You, so I am not exactly qualified to compare those of Le Basil to any others, but I found them to be damn good. The sweet soy sauce melded perfectly with the egg and chicken to create a unique blend of flavors that is definitely a nice break from the more typical Pad Thai.

Le Curry

As for the Massaman Curry, I was disturbed to find that in addition to onions, Le Basil had managed to sneak some red pepper into the curry. But once again, I saw that both the pepper and onions were easily avoided. Have I ever mentioned how awesome coconut milk is? I’m not sure that I have, but really it is awesome. I have yet to find a dish that coconut milk degrades. I’m pretty sure I would eat it on a burger if I could find a place to serve it. With the Massaman Curry, it was no different. The coconut milk provided a delicious balance to the spicy curry and made the cubes of beef taste just great. And of course, the peanuts were a nice touch.

Le Basil was a great little “Southeast Asian” restaurant in Palm Desert that I would definitely head back to. My only issue (had I been paying) would have been the price. In the grand scheme of food, 13-15 bucks isn’t a ton of money for a plate, but some of the best Thai food I’ve eaten has cost me less than 10 bucks. Again, it is a small complaint, because you don’t exactly expect good ethnic food in the desert of palm, but a complaint nonetheless. Either way, it is some good food and worth checking out for any lover of noodles or curry who happens to find their self in Palm Desert.

Steak Night at Outback

The Unvegan — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:00:45 +0000

Steak heaven.

Since there appears to be no Outback Steakhouse in LA (seriously LA?!), the last time I was in Palm Desert I managed to convince my grandparents to take me to Outback. Of course, I have had Outback in the past, but not since I’ve been writing my glorious meat blog. I’ve never had a bad experience at Outback and I hoped this one would be no different.

The place was set up just like any other Outback and although there was a short wait, we were seated soon and ready to order some beef. Of the delicious-sounding steaks, the Outback Special looked especially tasty. This special cut of steak, that I think is a sirloin, comes in 7 or 9 ounce cuts. It also comes with a choice of two sides. I went with the larger of the cuts and then decided to load up on carbs for my sides. I chose both the garlic mashed potatoes and the dressed baked potato. I’m sure this meal was an accurate reflection of the typical Australian diet.

Better late than never.

Soon enough, my food was ready. Although the mashed potatoes were absent at first, the waitress soon brought them out to join the rest of my meat and potatoes. The steak looked just as delicious as I remembered and I salivated as I cut it open. It was cooked to a perfect medium and was longing to be in my mouth. When I ate, it was just as I remembered. This cut isn’t nearly as tender as a filet, but sometimes it’s nice when a steak needs a couple bites before swallowing. I’m not saying it was chewy, but it was just as I wanted it to be. The seasoning on the steak was nice, but could’ve used a bit less salt. Nonetheless, this steak definitely hit the spot.

The sides were a pretty good complement to the steak although the skin of the baked potato added to the excessive sodium intake. I avoided the skin and tore apart the potato from the inside. The mashed potatoes were just as good as the baked potato, but without the need to deal with extra salt on the skin.

Although not a fancy place, Outback Steakhouse delivers a very reliable and modestly priced steak. The fancy steakhouses can be nice every once in a while, but places like Outback that stick to the meat-and-potatoes roots are always welcome for my meals.

Memories of the Elephant Bar

The Unvegan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:00:31 +0000

Made with real elephant. Wait. No.

As a child of 13, I went to the Elephant Bar in Palm Desert and loved the perpetually moving straw fans on the ceiling. Of course, that was all it took for me to like a restaurant at the age of 13. Now things are a little different. Those fans still cater to my easily distracted mind, but my taste buds require something more. A quick look at the menu made me feel like the Elephant Bar was suffering from mild schizophrenia. While most of the menu was filled with American fare, for some reason a whole page was devoted to Asian stir-fry-esque meals. This threw me off and made me feel like this place wasn’t made for Asian food. I flipped back to the American comfort zone and found what I wanted.

This was their Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger. It came with the usual unsightly veggies I have come to expect from a burger, so I ordered it without. I noticed that another burger on the menu came with a spicy ketchup, so I asked if they could put that on the burger and they said they could. The waiter also informed me that although this ketchup was good, it did not belong with fries. I listened, but it did pique my curiosity.

When the burger was ready, the spicy ketchup came on the side. My curiosity got the best of me and I tried a fry in it. He was right, it was no good. The combination wasn’t exactly bad, but the fries were simply better in regular ketchup. This was cool with me, so I tested out the burger with it. It was pretty good and basic. It had come cooked medium well, which I usually wouldn’t have gotten. The burger was a little overdone and lost out on some flavor because of it. The bun was actually quite good and well-toasted, which made me think about all the fancy burger buns that restaurants try to toss at you, while a bun like Elephant Bar’s does a great job.

Ultimately, the Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger did a pretty good job. I didn’t expect the burger to be very good, but the spicy ketchup certainly helped the thing out. I wouldn’t call this burger ultimate, but it was certainly adequate and helped me realize that the Elephant Bar isn’t just some gimmicky restaurant with fans on the ceiling.

A Wholesome Breakfast at Palms Cafe

The Unvegan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:43:04 +0000

Looks good enough to eat.

While visiting my grandparents in Rancho Mirage, they took me to a great little breakfast place called Palms Cafe in Palm Desert. Knowing my grandparents would never lead me astray, I was pretty excited.

We took a seat outside and perused the menu. As most cafes go, they had a pretty good collection of food, but I sought out my favorite breakfast food, the omelet. Since I don’t think I had ever seen turkey offered in an omelet before, I ordered one with turkey and cheese. I also got some bacon on the side.

It came out pretty quickly and was one of the most interesting omelets I’ve ever seen. It almost looked like a breakfast burrito aside from the yellowish color the eggs produced. Inside, it was still similar to a burrito, with the ingredients kind of tossed in instead of cooked into the egg. This was actually pretty nice and a unique way of making an omelet. The turkey was good, although a bit salty and in chunks, rather than slices, which was also a nice change.

The best part, though, was the bacon. It was thick-cut and really crispy. It was so thick, actually, that it didn’t curl up like bacon seems to do when it gets really crispy.

I would definitely recommend the Palms Cafe for anyone looking for a good breakfast in Palms Springs. It offers a nice twist on the norm, but delivers it pretty well.

The Desert Willow

The Unvegan — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:40:56 +0000

Why is there green stuff on the top left?

On the beautiful grounds of the Desert Willow golf course, there lies a happy little restaurant with an awesome view. The only thing that gets in the way of the view is the actual golf course.

The menu looked pretty good and I had a hard time choosing, before finally settling on the Turkey, Bacon and Avocado melt. I ordered mine without the “vine ripe tomatoes.” It’s like they couldn’t think of a good way to describe the tomatoes, so they wanted to make the customer feel as if being ripe from the vines would make the tomatoes taste slightly better than terrible.

Unfortunately, when my sandwich came, they neglected I found that the plate had been tainted with a pickle and pepperoncinis. The pickle juice had already made it to my sandwich and begun the soaking process. I tried to salvage as much as I could, and in doing so had to remove large portions of the bread. When I finally reworked the sandwich to my edible specifications, I found the correct ingredients tasted quite good. It is just such a shame that they were so violated by the vegetable invaders.