Thank You Saveur

Saveur Magazine's recent issue focused on the great, famous and not so known, places to eat in LA. I've long thought that New York, Chicago or even San Francisco might have the edge on high -end Michelin starred, white table cloth type of restaurants (I'm not sure that's so true anymore) but LA has the greatest assortment of authentic ethnic eateries, unique flavors, and middle price family restaurants (American trattorias) in the country. One of our long beloved -- recently celebrating 25 years of hearty, rustic dishes and maybe the best rolls in town -- is Angeli Caffe, a place I like in spite of it's second f. Chef owner Evan Kleinman was local before it was a trend. Her food was "slow" well before there was an organization to celebrate it.

This simple lemon roast chicken is a popular menu regular and now, thanks to Saveur -- I've whipped it up at home.

I marinated a chicken cut up into 8 parts in 1/2 cup olive oil, 10 sliced cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, chopped pulp on one lemon (no peel or pith) and 1 hearty handful or dried oregano. Okay -- Chef Kleinman uses 1/2 cup of fresh rosemary (and I probably will next time) but it was raining and dark and our rosemary is at the far end of the garden (what's a good whine to go with chicken?) so I went a little more Greek than Italian for a minute. The chef marinates her chicken for an hour -- I was prepping dinner for the next night before I went to bed so I left the chicken to marinate in the fridge overnight and asked James to take it out to come to room temperature while he pre-heated the oven.

Just before baking I mixed in brussels sprouts I had trimmed and cut in half and some quartered new potatoes. I tossed everything -- including all of the marinade in a roasting pan and baked at 475º (turning over the chicken and vegetables halfway through) for 40 minutes until the skin was crisp and the vegetables tender.

Not fancy, not complicated. Just plain good. Slow food at home, in a hurry.