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Archive for November 2014

House Party from Laos

Nov29

My Hedonist gang are back to Jake and Elisabeth’s house, this time for some home cooked Laotian cuisine.


Elisabeth and Jake were very generous to host us at their lovely 20s Hacienda.


This setting!


René-Henri Coutier Champagne Brut Millésimé Clos d’Ambonnay. 95 points.


2007 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros. Burghound 92-95. Here too there is a very subtle influence of wood that frames ripe yet elegant and impressively pure aromas of citrus, spice hints, tidal pool and oyster shell notes, all of which are picked up by the highly complex and deep big-bodied flavors that are incredibly intense and quite unusually for Bougros, possess ‘hot knife through butter’ cut and delineation. An atypically elegant effort for the appellation.


2010 Philippe Colin Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Chaumées. IWC 91. Bright lemon-yellow. Closed but pure aromas of orange, leather, white flowers and wet stone, with a whiff of frangipani. Quite tight and backward, with a strong acid spine energizing the wine but keeping its fruit and floral flavors under wraps today. Tougher today than the Saint-Aubin Le Charmois, but really echoes on the aftertaste.


We start off with cheese.


Pate.


Salami (two types).


More cheese.


Crackers.


And Bread.

Our Laotian chef, Davonee Sou.


And our bonus kinder-chef.

From my cellar: 1997 Daniel Bocquenet Echezeaux. IWC 91. Saturated ruby-red. Discreet aromas of raspberry, white pepper and crushed stone. Juicy, vibrant and fine, with lively inner-mouth flavors. A very penetrating style of Echezeaux, cool and precise. Finishes with lots of tongue-dusting tannins and excellent length. These wines all began with an extended cold maceration and were aged in new barrels; they will be bottled without fining or filtration in March.


2006 Consilience Pinot Noir Solomon Hills Vineyard. 89 points. Easy to drink, good fruit nose and taste.


2012 Zorah Areni Karasi. 93 points. Wow, didn’t expect this from an Armenian wine! Lots of fresh red fruits and fun drinking. Long fruity finish that coats the tongue.


1999 Argiano Brunello di Montalcino. IWC 88. Full medium-deep red. Musky aromas of plum, gunpowder and coffee. Supple on entry, then dense but a bit unforthcoming in the middle palate, offering hints of minerals and meat but limited real sweetness. Finishes with fairly ripe but slightly dry tannins.


2001 Allegrini Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. AG 93. The estate’s 2001 Amarone is simply fabulous. Layers of floral, mineral-infused dark fruit emerge from the glass as the wine opens up. This is an impeccable, brilliant wine that beautifully reconciles elements of ripeness and freshness in a full-bodied style that will reward cellaring. The 2001Amarone is gorgeous today, but readers who prefer more tertiary notes will want to wait a few years as the fruit is still quite fresh.


2007 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée. IWC 94. Opaque ruby. The highly perfumed nose offers an exotic array of red and dark berries, spicecake and potpourri, with hints of smoky herbs and olive adding complexity. Juicy and fresh for a wine that’s over 15% alcohol, offering sweet raspberry and cherry flavors framed by silky tannins. Very suave and open-knit today, with excellent finishing clarity and smoky persistence.


2004 Torbreck Shiraz Woodcutter’s. IWC 90. Medium ruby. Pungent, spicy aromas of cassis, dark cherry, licorice, espresso, violet and almost medicinal cracked pepper; a very pure expression of the variety. Firm, juicy flavors of black cherry, anise, dill, basil and rose petal. Finishes with velvety, slightly bitter tannins. This practically screams syrah.


2008 Château Coutinel Fronton Quintessence.


2006 Alban Vineyards Syrah Reva Alban Estate Vineyard. IWC 94+. Glass-staining purple. Blackberry, boysenberry and licorice pastille on the nose, with mounting spice and floral notes and a strong wallop of cracked pepper. Deeply pitched black and blue fruit flavors expand with air and pick up strong spicecake and candied flower notes, along with velvety tannins. More backward than the Lorraine today, and showing a darker profile. The finish completely stains the palate and lingers with intense floral and spicy persistence. This is still a baby.


2007 Saxum Bone Rock James Berry Vineyard. IWC 96. Inky purple. A sexy, intensely perfumed bouquet of blackberry, boysenberry, Moroccan spices and violet, with a seductive incense quality that gains strength with air. Lush and creamy on the palate, offering deep black and blue fruit flavors and exotic floral character. Reaches every corner of the palate and finishes with outstanding clarity and powerful floral nuances.


2005 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Ten. IWC 93. Deep red. Exotically perfumed nose offers a wild array of dark berry, cherry, incense and floral scents. Spicy red and dark berry flavors are refreshingly bitter but became sweeter with air, gaining a white pepper and baking spice character. Really stains the palate, finishing with outstanding cling and length. I was looking for oakiness but didn’t find it. Curran noted that she’s as meticulous as possible with her winemaking, leaving as little as possible to chance. As she put it: “Spontaneity isn’t a good idea when you’re making red expensive wine.”



2011 Orin Swift Abstract. 90 points. Very nice nose of briary blackberries, plum jam, powdered sugar, mulberries, raspberry jam, caramel, forest floor, mint, black tea, smoke, and a whiff of alcohol. Plum compote, licorice, mulberries, caramel, cherry compote, tart cherries, spice, and earth on the palate. Decent acidity, nice underlying tannins, and medium-long finish. Unfortunately, the alcohol pokes out a bit for me, which detracts from its enjoyment.


2000 Alesia Syrah.


2012 Chakana Cabernet Sauvignon Maipe Reserve.


Hand made papaya salad.


“Barely any spice at all” had a good kick to it.


Tossing the sticky rice.


Raw spring rolls.


Frying really means frying.


And the crispy brown result.

These veggies, along with rice noodles, went into the upcoming soup.


Here is the curry soup on the stove.


Curry noodle soup, the national dish of Laos. Quite excellent.


Sticky rice.


Beef with chilies (served over the rice).


My plate.


1976 Château Doisy-Védrines. 90 points. Orange gold colour. Nose has a bit of orange but mostly barley sugar . Still good levels of sweetness but it has lost some. Aggressive Botrytis and a mix of orange and light barley sugar flavours. Fully mature, in fact I prefer Sauternes with less maturity than this but certainly still some life here.


Pecan pie.


Pumpkin pie.


My plate again. Thanksgiving a few days early!

A little hookah action after dinner

Overall, this was another awesome evening. The wines were solid, the atmosphere and the company fantastic, and the food was flavorful and delicious. What more can you ask for in an evening?

Discover more crazy Hedonists adventures on my Hedonist page or

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Beijing Tasty House
  2. Birthday Party, Hedonist Style
  3. Dinner Party – It all starts with Cheese
  4. Shin Beijing Cubed
  5. All Things Akbar
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: hedonists, Laos

Ghosts of ThanksGavins Past

Nov26

A retrospective look at more than a decade of ThanksGavin turkey plates…

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Related posts:

  1. Ghosts of ThanksGavins Past
  2. Ghosts of Thanksgivings Past
  3. Ghost of Thanksgivings Past
  4. ThanksGavin 2010 Reprise
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: ThanksGavin

Truffles at Saam – I am

Nov24

Restaurant: Saam [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 465 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048. 310.246.5555

Date: November 20, 2014

Cuisine: Spanish influenced Molecular Gastronomy

Rating: Truffley goodness

_

I’m a bit of a Jose Andres groupie as not only have I been three times to Saam, at least 10 to The Bazaar (REVIEW HERE), but also to brunch at Trés, and even to é by José Andrés (twice) and Jaleo in Vegas and several places in Washington D.C.

For those who don’t know, José Andrés is perhaps America’s leading practitioner of  my favorite culinary style: Spanish Molecular Gastronomy. This school of cooking, a radical interpretation of the preparation of food, was begun at El Bulli outside of Barcellona. Andrés cooked and studied there with master chef Ferran Adrià. I first encountered Andrés’s cooking in Washington DC at Cafe Atlantico, and its own restaurant within a restaurant, Minibar.

I’ve eaten molecular a number of times in Spain, for example at Calima and La Terraza. The Bazaar and Saam brought molecular style to LA.

Saam is the “secret” prix fixe only room within the Bazaar, open Thurs-Sat.

For years I’ve wanted to catch the limited run truffle dinner, and I finally got a chance.


Always a little theatrical, the menu comes in it’s own special envelope.


Voila, a little minimalist, which is going to make writing up the dishes a challenge!


Our table of four had its own pair of white truffles for shaving!

Burg fiends that Erick and I are, we brought out a pair of oldies. First, celebrating its 50th birthday:

1964 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. Burghound 92. A very fresh and bright nose of spice, earth and an interesting herbal component leads to round, full and intense flavors that still possess a touch of classic Clos de Vougeot austerity on the long finish. This is an excellent wine that still displays a youthful dimension. While there is no reason to hold this further, it can be held without concern.

agavin: plenty of fruit still. Meadows was right about the herbal component. Almost musty. Certainly not corked, but a forest floor kind of thing. A very pretty wine.


Coco Loco. This signature “cocktail” is coconut cream, truffles, and rum and vodka. Definitely dessert like and pretty much like coconut gelato. Quite yummy, although don’t try to mix with red wine.


Truffle butter.


And truffle cone. You smear some butter in the cone and enjoy.


In case you got butter on your fingers there are these lavender scented wipes.


Truffle Tree. Actually a bread stick with truffle and some kind of flavored paste? Delicious.


Gougere. Puff pastries filled with liquid cheese (yum!) and topped with truffle.


Nasturtium Canape. A flower stuffed with something.


Corte Parmesan. Crisps with soft parmesan and apricot jelly or something.


Nori. Truffle blobs on crispy nori.


Rosemary springs, which feature in the next dish.


Young Potatoes. You skewer a potato with the rosemary and eat. They are covered with butter cream and you guessed it… truffles.


Light and shadow. Truffle razorback clams on the right with truffle air on the left.


Vegetarian version in mushrooms.


Hokkaido. An interesting savory of Hokkaido uni, caviar, dashi jelly and the like. Very briny and delicious.


With truffles of course.


And the no uni version.


Porcini Carpaccio. Hazelnuts and other good bits and a vinegary sauce.


Truffled up.


5 Star Breakfast. One of my favorite dishes. The egg was runny but had been sphereized. There were mushrooms and some kind of cheesy cream.


1966 Maison Roche de Bellene Volnay 1er Cru Santenots Collection Bellenum. 92 points. Young looking colour. Slightly green nose. Darker, supple fruit profile. Something oddly young and refreshing about it! Seems like it’s had a lot of plastic surgery!


Cavatelli. Funny chocolate pasta with iberico ham broth, some actual ham, and some creamy stuff, and truffles. Yummy and very firm.


Look who showed up, Jose Andres!


Non alcoholic Passionfruit martini.


Black Bass. Freeze dried squid ink.


Chuleton. Special Spanish T-bone steak with jus, truffles, little sphereized gnocchi and the like.


A vegetarian risotto.


Fideos. Cheese, cheese cotton candy, and truffle nitro frozen “noodles”!


Florentine. Praline, pistachio, and some kind of sorbet.


Blonde on Blonde. Various butterscotchy stuff. Quite yummy.


Chestnut Honey Truffle. Haha. Get it?


Exotic Caramel of passion fruit. Peanut Macaron. Bergamot & Domori.


A little chocolate bar as a “parting gift.”

Overall, Saam serves up a tremendous meal, full of creative whimsy, and even if the individual dishes are sometimes a bit “fluffly” it really works. There was a nice solid truffle factor to all the dishes, but it wasn’t quite as overwhelming as at my monster Bistro LQ truffle experience.

For a previous Saam meal, click here.

For a meal and The Bazaar proper, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Son of Saam – Actually more Bazaar
  2. Saam I am again
  3. Saam – José Andrés Squared
  4. Trés – Lunch Fantastique
  5. Back to the Bazaar
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Foodie Club, José Andrés, Saam, The Bazaar, Truffle, White Truffles

Is that a Pistola in your pocket?

Nov21

Restaurant: Pistola [1, 2]

Location: 8022 W 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048. 323.951.9800

Date: November 18, 2014

Cuisine: Italian Steakhouse

Rating: Tasty good

_

It’s time for Ron’s birthday, Hedonist style. Last year — and I can’t believe the year has passed so fast — we hit up BOA for awesome steaks and crab. This year we try out the brand new Pistola, an Italian Steakhouse concept by the team that brought us Gusto. It’s taken over the old AOC space but transformed it completely.


The birthday boy.


The menu. We actually had the chef bring up appetizers, pasta, and dessert, with everyone ordering their entrees.


2004 Le Brun-Servenay Champagne Brut Grand Cru Millésime.


Insalata Mista.


Pistola “Chopped”.

1999 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Echezeaux. 94 agavin. This Ech was drinking fabulously tonight. I’ve found a lot of 99s closed and waiting, but this more forward style was in perfect form.


Steak tartar. Good meat, but didn’t have enough bite for me. Needed more pepper?


2005 Domaine d’Ardhuy Clos Vougeot. Burghound 92-95. This too displays a touch of wood spice that highlights the backward and still very tight and inexpressive nose that reveals only traces of black fruit and an intense earthiness that continue onto the hugely powerful, intense and full-bodied flavors that are muscled, taut and almost tense on the enormously long finish. This is old school burgundy with the hallmark finishing austerity fashioned in a ‘take no prisoners’ style that will please purists and the patient. Don’t even think about opening this for at least a decade and it will require close to two to really be at its peak.

agavin: I’ve never heard of this producer, although CV has a lot of them. It was obviously a great wine, but despite the 9 years wasn’t even close to ready (although still enjoyable).


Meatballs. On a bed of ricotta. Awesome. These were similar to the similarly awesome ones at Gusto.


Philippe Pacalet Corton-Charlemagne (recent vintage). This was young, although it began to open as the evening progressed.


Fried Calamari.


1999 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. Burghound 90. Honeysuckle, peach and white flower aromas blend beautifully into fine, elegant, beautifully integrated flavors and a subtle mineral note that continues into the long finish. Surprisingly, this has better acidity than the Folatières and is clearly better balanced. Grand cru quality here in the same open, accessible style of the all of these 99s.

agavin: drinking great! No premox at all.


Oysters on the half shell.


2005 Soldera (Az. Agr. Case Basse) Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. AG 93. A tense, brilliant wine, the 2005 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva stands out for its gorgeous length and impeccable balance. Next to the surrounding vintages, the 2005 is a bit compact, but it nevertheless possesses terrific cut and precision, if not quite the pure seductive powers of the very best years.


Linguine con le Vongole. Pretty classic.


2001 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova. IWC 96. Medium-deep bright ruby. Beautiful, profound nose of sweet ripe cherry, pipe tobacco, almond and raspberry jam. Ripe, suave and juicy, with sweet flavors similar to the aromas, this is an absolutely seamless wine with lively harmonious acidity on a suave, never-ending finish. Though extremely concentrated, this is a uniquely refined Brunello with wonderfully suave smooth, classy tannins.

agavin: must be aged in French oak barrels because this is just massively oaky for a Brunello (which is usually aged in big Slovenian casks). Looked it up, apparently 600L casks, which is small for Brunello.


Squid Ink Agnolotti. Awesome stuff with a nice sweetness.


2006 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova. AG 95. The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova is an explosive, heady wine endowed with considerable richness in its dark wild cherries, licorice, tobacco, herbs and cedar. This generous, exuberant Brunello shows awesome depth and richness in a style that captures the warmth of the southern reaches of Montalcino. The Tenuta Nuova dazzles with its stunning depth, textural polish and captivating, sensual personality. A round, inviting finish has the last say in this majestic Brunello. The 2006 is easily the best vintage I have tasted of the Tenuta Nuova. The harvest took place between September 29 and October 7. Maceration and fermentation lasted 25 days, after which the wine was racked into 600-liter barrels for 36 months.


Penne All’Amatriciana. Arguably the best Amatriciana I’ve had. Lots of great porky zing.


From my cellar: 1995 Paitin di Pasquero-Elia Barbaresco Sorì Paitin. IWC 91. Medium red, some amber at the rim. Plum, cherry and enticing smoky, toasty oak on the nose. Smoky, sweet and velvety, with insinuating flavor. Has firm backbone and finishes with some oak tannins but avoids dryness. Rather Pommard-like in its solidity.


Veal Chop Alla Parmigiana. Wow, I’m not a big straight steak fan so this really saved the course for me.


2007 Elio Grasso Barolo Riserva Rüncot. AG 96. The flagship 2007 Barolo Riserva Runcot is remarkably fresh for the year. Sweet, perfumed and sensual, the 2007 wraps around the palate with stunning depth and sheer radiance. Layers of expressive red fruit, flowers, spices and mint all come to life as the wine opens up. The Runcot captures the best qualities of the year; deep fruit, expressive aromatics and wonderful nuance, all in a soft, supple wine that should enjoy a long drinking window. I can’t wait to see how the 2007 ages. Today it is seamless and utterly impeccable from the very first taste. This is without question one of the great 2007s. Grasso gave the 2007 40 days on the skins, followed by 45 months in 100% new French oak barrels, all of which the wine handles with grace to burn.

agavin: good wine, but WAY WAY too young for Barolo.


Dry-Aged Tomahawk. Paleo.


And from above so you get the full picture.


2008 Tenuta Guado al Tasso (Antinori) Bolgheri Superiore. AG 95. The 2008 Guado al Tasso is once again fabulous. In fact, it may be Tuscany’s most improved wine over the last few years. Firm, vibrant tannins support expressive layers of dark fruit, plums, cherries, sage, espresso and mocha. The wine shows fabulous detail and nuance in a translucent, totally seductive style, with tons of focus, drive and verve. It is a striking wine that will be a joy to follow over the coming years. Guado al Tasso is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc.


Dry Aged Delmonico.

2007 Peter Michael Les Pavots. Parker 97. The 2007 Les Pavots, a Bordeaux varietal blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot, is brilliant. Its opaque purple color is accompanied by gorgeously complex aromas of melted chocolate, espresso roast, blackberries, and cassis. Full-bodied with a superb texture, a subtle note of oak, and fabulous concentration, it is more reminiscent of a Right Bank Bordeaux than one expects with this much Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. A thirty-year wine, its impeccable balance and the sweetness of its tannins make it accessible already.


NY Strip.


2002 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon Backus Vineyard. Parker 96+. The 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Backus Vineyard is a massive, youthful blockbuster with an opaque purple color as well as firm tannins (despite the general openness and ripeness of the 2002 Napa Cabernets). Almost overly rich, it has a long evolution ahead of it given its firm tannins and off-the-charts concentration and extract. One has to admire this cuvee for its extraordinary structure and multidimensional personality, but at present, even with airing, the primary aromas of new oak, loamy soil, graphite, incense and black fruits are all one can expect. In the mouth, the wine remains brutally tannic, but there is enough stuffing to easily balance out the wine’s structure. It is a young, possibly great wine for the ages, and I would not hesitate to put my money where my mouth is. This 2002 should be absolutely amazing in 25-30 years.


I dunno, I’m not good at spotting steak cuts.


2000 Domaine de la Mordoree Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de la Reine des Bois. Parker 97. A wine that always does it for me, the 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de La Reine des Bois is open for business and has a sexy, voluptuous texture to go with classic Mordoree spice, licorice, graphite and black cherry and currant-styled fruit. Beautifully complex, full-bodied and with brilliant purity of fruit, drink it over the coming 3-5 years.

agavin: great Syrah.


Lamb chops.


Dover Sole Piccata.


Mediterranean Orata.


Caramelized Romanesco. With a bit of heat and a little vinegary tang, very nice.


Roasted Fingerling Potatoes.


Creamy Polenta. Mild.


Braised Tuscan Kale.


Crispy Tuscan Fries. Not sure what is Tuscan here.


Funghi Misti.


2001 Union des Coopérativs Vinicoles de Samos Samos Nectar. 93 points. Good stuff. Nectar is appropriate.


Traditional Italian Cookie Plate.


Tartufo.


Cannoli. My fave.


Green Apple Crostata.


Tortino (aka Chocolate cake).

Overall, Pistola was really solid. We all thought some of the apps and the pastas were a bit better than the meats and sides (although I enjoyed my chop), but it was a very tasty meal. They treated us like kings too. Room is very pretty but a little loud with a bar feel (some love that, some don’t). If I were them, my biggest suggestion foodwise would just be to add some more decadent sides like a “gorgonzola gnocchi” and the like. Not really Italian, but then again, I’ve never actually seen a steakhouse in Italy. Not that Italians, particularly Tuscans don’t love steak, but the steakhouse format is an American thing — which is fine.

Super fun evening though and a great way to celebrate Ron’s birthday. Great wines, company, food and fun.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Related posts:

  1. Gusto Italiano
  2. Memorial Day Pig
  3. Never Say Too Much
  4. Steak in the Blind
  5. Big and Bold on the Beach
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: hedonists, Italian cuisine, Pistola, Steak, Wine

Furies of Calderon

Nov19

Furies_Of_CalderonTitle: Furies of Calderon

Author: Jim Butcher

Genre: High Fantasy

Length: 516 pages

Read: November 3-6, 2014

Summary: Solid escapist fantasy that delivers on the fun

_

Apparently, Jim Butcher started this novel (and series) after being dared to write about Roman Legions and Pokemon. It’s clear from Butcher’s writing that he has a sense of humor, but in running with that “premise,” he certainly brought the story in a direction designed not to give his agent and editor seizures. The Roman element pretty much ends at some Latinate names, sandals, and officers called Centurions. The “Pokemon” manifests itself as a thoughtful but conventional elemental based magic system.

Furies is normal third person past with a number of specific points of view laced through a medium sized cast. The characters vary, include both genders, a kid, and even a villain (who is reasonable enough in his thought processes that his side, while not exactly sympathetic, makes sense). The prose is that kind of deft, workmanlike style that feels like it isn’t a style. It’s not artsy, but it never gets in the way either — nor is it overwritten. There is less humor and casualness here than in The Dresden Files, but it’s still there, giving this a lightish tone for High Fantasy. Not comic, but informal in a way foreign to heavier traditional fantasy authors like Martin, Jordan, or Sanderson. Nor does the book have the edge found in recent entries like Weeks or Abercrombie. To me, it feels like 90s fantasy: generally safe.

But this novel works, and works well. Kind of A- on every front. No real weaknesses. Perhaps the worldbuilding itself is a little thin, but the characters are good (not Abercrombie’s Glotka good, but good) — and certainly likable. The pacing is fast. The action solid. The magic system quite good, falling into the “hard style” of magic where the rules are fairly well defined. Mystery isn’t central here. Nor is a sense of great wonder. But boy do the characters manage to get themselves into a constant series of predicaments. And just as they do, the point of view changes, forcing us to read along furiously (haha) to find out what happens.

So is this great literature? No. Does it redefine the general? No. But it’s really solid escapist fantasy that delivers on the fun. I already downloaded the sequel.

Find more fantasy reviews here.

Related posts:

  1. The Rules of Magic
  2. Book Review: The Way of Kings
  3. Inside Game of Thrones
  4. Maximum Weird – Perdido Street Station
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Books
Tagged as: Fantasy, Furies of Calderon, Jim Butcher, Pokemon, The Dresden Files

Ultimate New Bay Lunch

Nov17

Restaurant: New Bay Seafood [1, 2]

Location: 203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. (626) 872-6677

Date: November 24, 2014

Cuisine: Cantonese / Chiu Chow Chinese

Rating: Really on point!

_

New Bay Seafood is a fairly elaborate (big with multiple private rooms) Hong Kong and Chiu Chow palace that took over the late Sham Tseng space in 2013. This is my second trip, for a massive Sauvages win luncheon.


The front is classic SGV.


The interior is typical of Inland Empire Chinese restaurants. We had a private room (there are several).


2011 Hatzidakis Winery Aidani Assyrtiko. 90 points. Great wine. Minerals. Big. Balanced. Complex. Overall very interesting.


On the table to start were the traditional peanuts.


From my cellar: 2011 Veyder-Malberg Grüner Veltliner Weitenberg. 91 points. Minerality and a kind of peppery herbal spice. A very good full bodied food white.


Fried squid. Chinese calamari. Light and not too greasy.


2011 Domaine Jacques Carillon Puligny-Montrachet. Burghound 89. I had a chance to retry this a year later and it hasn’t changed much from the first review as an expressive nose of floral, citrus and pear scents leads to vibrant and beautifully well-detailed flavors that display really lovely precision. The mid-palate offers solid volume and fine depth as well as impressive length on the saline-inflected finish. This moderately forward and classy effort is a lovely villages.


Fried oysters. I don’t usually love my oysters fried, but these were lovely. And a fabulous pairing with the gruner.


2001 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. AG 92. Pepe’s awesome 2001 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is a great introduction to this producer’s wines. Richly colored, it offers an aromatic nose and layers of vibrant, sweet dark fruit that open in the glass, revealing a wine of outstanding purity that is full of life and energy. At once delicate and structured, it is one of the highlights of the afternoon. It should also be another long-lived wine from this estate and I imagine that its aging potential is decades.


Squab. Super tasty little gamey birds.


From my cellar: 1999 Mastroberardino Taurasi Radici Riserva. AG 92. The 1999 Taurasi Radici Riserva comes across as surprisingly simple. In 1999 the maceration time was only 15 days and the wine seems to lack the depth and concentration of the best years. Ash, game, spices and dark fruit come together nicely in this accessible, understated Taurasi Radici Riserva. Today, the 1999 looks to be a relatively early drinking vintage.


In case you’re into sucking bird brain.


2008 Château de la Maltroye Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Romanée. Burghound 93. Discreet oak notes don’t compromise the expressiveness of the white peach and subtly exotic fruit aromas that introduce concentrated, naturally sweet and textured medium plus weight flavors that possess excellent complexity and fine intensity. This is certainly very pretty and unusually fine as well as slightly more mineral-driven than the typical example of La Romanée. In a word, terrific.


Garlic Santa Barbara Prawn. These almost lobster like shrimp were cooked so well the entire shell was edible. Mine had row too and it was scrumptious.


2009 Aubert Chardonnay Larry Hyde & Sons. AG 95. The 2009 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard comes across as rich, round and layered. Dried apricots, peaches, flowers and tangerine are some of the notes that flow from this sumptuous, well-spoken Chardonnay. The wine turns more and more delicate with time in the glass. I loved it. This is a great showing from Mark Aubert.


2005 Aubert Chardonnay Reuling Vineyard. IWC 95. Pale green-tinged color. Aromas and flavors of dried pineapple, grapefruit, nutmeg and minerals. Hugely rich and dense, with a compellingly pliant, silky texture and great fullness and volume. As rich and chewy as this is, there is no sign of phenolic character on the back end. Subtle vanilla and smoke notes from the oak add complexity.


House special lobster. This version of the lobster was amazing. The sauce had quite a bit of black pepper and scallions in it. Lots of flavor and very tender.


1998 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle. Parker 90. This estate’s flagship wine, Hermitage La Chapelle, merits its world-renowned reputation. The outstanding, elegant 1998 Hermitage La Chapelle’s dark plum/purple color is followed by scents of new saddle leather, black currants, blackberries, and underbrush. In the mouth, the wine reveals sweet tannin, medium to full body, excellent depth, and an intriguing smokiness.


Shaking beef. This Vietnamese inspired beef with pepper dish was great with the red wine.


1990 Domaine de Beaurenard Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Boisrenard. Parker 95. This wine saw a small amount of aging in new oak cask, resulting in a more international style when released. Still youthful, the dense ruby/purple-colored 1990 exhibits a classy nose of black fruits, spice box, vanillin, and kirsch liqueur. Full-bodied and pure, with a subtle touch of oak, this fleshy, stylized, yet authoritatively flavorful, rich Chateauneuf du Pape has reached its plateau of maturity, where it should remain for 7-8 years.


Clams in garlic. Delicious.


1998 Domaine Jean Deydier Les Clefs d’Or Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 88. The dark ruby-colored 1998 is dense, with mineral, pepper, and garrigue, but seemed muted when I tasted it. It displayed all the characteristics of a wine that had just been bottled, so I suspect there is more to it. The wine offered a garrigue/spicy-scented nose, medium to full body, obvious notes of kirsch liqueur intermixed with crushed stones and a pleasant earthiness, admirable layers of flavor, and moderate tannin. It requires several years of cellaring before consumption.


Fried pork chop. More or less like the Taiwanese version.


2003 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee. Parker 98. Starting with the 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reserve, this wine showed spectacularly on release, closed down for a few years, and has now emerged, at close to full maturity, and is straight-up fabulous. Out of the entire tasting, it remained my favorite. Giving up gorgeous blackberry, currants, garrigue, pepper and beef blood, it hits the palate with a massive, full-bodied texture that carries layers of sweet fruit, awesome concentration and blockbuster length. Tasting like the essence of both this estate and the terroir, it’s an incredible wine that I’m happy to taste/drink anytime. It will continue to evolve gracefully, but I see no reason to delay gratification.


Kung pao chicken. Tasty, but  on the mild side compared to authentic KPC.


2000 Alban Vineyards Syrah Reva Alban Estate Vineyard. Parker 94. The saturated blue/purple-colored 2000 Syrah Reva Vineyard exhibits a slightly reduced nose, but with aeration of 60-90 minutes, glorious notes of blackberries, asphalt, singed leather, and wood emerge. Medium to full-bodied and moderately tannic, this young, unevolved, but promising 2000 will be at its finest between 2004-2015.


Greens and garlic. Colon sweeper!


2002 JC Cellars Syrah Haley’s Reserve Rockpile Vineyard. Parker 94. The blockbuster 2002 Syrah Rockpile Vineyard Haley’s Reserve (from a red soil vineyard planted at 2,000 feet) boasts a gorgeous perfume of boysenberries, blueberries, blackberries, lavender, toast, and licorice. Full-bodied, with a voluptuous texture in addition to dry tannins lurking behind the extravagant fruit and concentration, this terrific Syrah should hit its prime in 1-2 years, and last for a decade.


Special olive pork ribs. These small bits of pork rib were fried and seasoned to perfection. Really tasty. Not sure what was olive about them.


2002 Domaine Huet Vouvray Demi-Sec. 90 points.


Almond soufflé. Not exactly  a true souffle, under the pastry is a kind of warm almond soup with ginko nuts in it.


2002 Raymond-Lafon. Parker 90-92. I suspect most readers will find it hard to get excited about the 2002 vintage for the sweet wines of Barsac and Sauternes after what appears to be a prodigious 2001. However, 2002 is a very fine year for this region, possibly superior to any of the vintages between 2000 and 1991. The wines possess plenty of botrytis, but neither the impressive definition nor supreme elegance of the 2001s. This is a sweet, full-bodied, fat, concentrated, intense effort that was showing well in September, 2003.


Creme brule. Not your usual Chinese dessert, but good all the same.


Tapioca. Fruity.

The co-owner. They were incredibly nice, friendly, and with fabulous service.

Overall, New Bay Seafood was really good. Being Southern Chinese, it’s not the most exotic of the Chinese sub-regions (foodwise, since so much American Chinese is Cantonese derived) but their execution is really very very good. Every dish was tasty and more than half of them fabulous. If you want an approachable entree into the wonderful world of San Gabriel Valley Chinese, you can’t go wrong with New Bay. And, besides, the owner treated us like kings. They served the dishes one by one, hung out, and we’re generally fabulous.


Afterward, we walked next door to the awesome Sabu Dessert and get some light fluffy “snow.” If you haven’t tried Taiwanese style snow, you are really missing out. This one above was pineapple snow, passionfruit sauce, with almond jelly, and boba (on the bottom). Yum!

For more crazy Hedonist meals.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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  4. Ultimate Pizza – New Years
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By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, New Bay Seafood, Sauvages

Empress Pavilion – Age without Grace

Nov14

Restaurant: Empress Pavilion

Location: 988 N Hill St #201, Los Angeles, CA 90012. (213) 617-9898

Date: November 5, 2014

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: Like 20 years ago

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For decades, Empress Pavilion has been a Grande Dame of LAs Chinatown scene, offering up Cantonese and Cantonese American fare (and dimsum).


Chinatown kitsch.


With the eastward movement of the Chinese population into the SGV (San Gabriel Valley), the whole Chinatown has fallen on hard times. Empress even closed. But now it’s back.


Despite a reboot, the decor, while bright clean and new, looks like… well… 1982. Notice the carts. EP still uses the old cart system for dimsum.


Har Gow. Felt warmed over and pasty.


Shrimp Rice Noodle. Okay, but certainly lackluster.


Shumai. Tasted a bit like packaged  frozen shumai.


Chicken feet. Mushy.


Shrimp and scallop. Not too bad.


Shrimp and onion. Also half decent.


Shrimp and vegetable. One of the best of the dumplings.


Chicken potstickers. Bland and greasy.


Crispy chow mein with shrimp. Not bad, and one of the better dishes, but no where near as good as Elite.


BBQ Pork. Decent, but slightly odd sweet and sour flavor.


XLB. Decent.


Taro. Crispy and filled with that bland taro paste.


Lotus wrapped sticky rice.


One of the better dishes, but not fabulous.


Custard buns. Probably the best dish. Nice flakey texture and filled with eggy sweet stuff. Quite solid.


Passionfruit slush with almond jelly. I went next door and got some sugar.

Overall, Empress Pavilion, well sucked. It was nowhere NEAR as good as even the second tier SGV dimsum houses, and probably slightly worse than the Brentwood place I sometimes go to. This shows up the weakness of the “cart system.” Food tasted warmed over and stale compared to the steamed to order system used at all the good SGV places. It’s worth the extra 5-10 minutes drive!

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!


Check out that decor!


Even the path to the bathroom is bling!

Related posts:

  1. Sea Harbor Dim Sum
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  4. Lunasia Dim Sum
  5. Dim Sum is Shanghai #1
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, dimsum, Empress Pavilion, hedonists

The Maze Runner

Nov12

The_Maze_Runner_coverTitle: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Genre: YA Adventure

Length: 386 pages

Read: October 21-30, 2014

Summary: fun but flawed

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Frankly, I picked up The Maze Runner because it was made into a “major motion picture” — academic interest (visa via Untimed kicked in). It was a fun enough little adventure, an easy read, but boy… flaws.

First, there are the good things (and there aren’t many):

  1. The premise is intriguing. Cool “setup.”
  2. The pace is fast.
  3. There is a good amount of sci-fi mystery (even if kinda botched at the end). There are a lot of “rules” to the world building, which I like.
  4. Because this is a male author, he’s not sentimental.
  5. It’s better than Twilight.

Then there is the bad:

  1. The writing is lousy. The prose is clunky. Dashner LOVES to repeat words awkwardly, and despite being short, the book is terribly really definitely overwritten.
  2. Tell city. Not so much show. Even dialogue is often “told.” For an action book, the actual “action” or combat is barely choreographed. Instead it’s told in a hand-wavy way.
  3. Oh, the actual dialogue is often ridiculously stilted. There is the silly (but perhaps clever) way the author has replaced all the swear words with equivalent “slang” like fuck -> shuck.  shit -> clunk.  etc. This way he can have boys swearing left and right and keep his “PG” (MG?) style. The young audience curators can be fussy about profanity.
  4. The characters are marginally developed. For example, the main “girl” is in a coma until about 80% and then has barely any personality or dialogue. Nobody is very interesting or different. The characters don’t really act like real people a good bit of the time. They have no complexity.
  5. There is no action (and marginal chemistry) between Thomas and Theresa (and, who names a cute girl Theresa? That’s a nun name).
  6. The protagonist is too perfect and pretty much great at everything. His POV loves to point out the obvious.
  7. The mystery is all mysterious. But major things like “The Maze” aren’t well explored. Then near the end a whole bunch of answers are just dumped in and everything shifts negating the setup. There are a lot of good and interesting elements, but they aren’t well explored.
  8. The puzzles are lame.
  9. We, the readers, are told how to feel. The emotional situation is there, but the emotion not really warranted.

Reading it, I often felt like rolling my eyes. But I did manage to finish, and toy with the idea of reading the sequel. Probably mostly because the Sci-fi is okay. Considerably better than most dystopian drivel (like this one). I think the author actually read some Sci-fi. And he’s a guy. I’m generalizing, but female authors are usually better at character and male authors at world building. Big generalization. More like a 40/60 kinda thing.

I’m betting the movie is better than the book — which is a rarity.

For more book reviews, click here.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwwbhhjQ9Xk]

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By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Books
Tagged as: Dystopia, James Dashner, Science Fiction, The Maze Runner

Waterloo & City – British Invasion

Nov10

Restaurant: Waterloo & City [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 12517 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90066  310.391.4222

Date: November 7, 2011

Cuisine: Gastropub

Rating: Really tasty!

_

Back a couple of years ago I went to Waterloo & City a number of times. For whatever reason it’s dropped off my radar, even though I liked it a lot, but Ron, one of my fellow Hedonists organized a dinner there, providing an excellent opportunity to get back.


A view of the bar. This is a pretty big place.


NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. IWC 93. Light yellow-gold. Highly aromatic bouquet of fresh tangerine, candied fig, pear skin and ginger, plus a smoky mineral overtone. Tangy, precise and concentrated, offering a complex blend of citrus and orchard fruit and floral flavors underscored by chalky minerality. Juicy, tightly focused, youthfully angular Champagne, with nervy acidity adding cut to the long, sappy finish. I can see why some long-time Krug fans might be perplexed by this bottling but I think that it will be a really outstanding bottle with another five-plus years of cellaring.


Our special menu for tonight. Unfortunately, while all the dishes look great, it’s a “choose one of” menu so we each only get four course. Now, this ended up being WAY more than enough food, but I find with a ton of wine (and like tonight, a ton of great wine), more small courses is always better.


2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Puligny-Montrachet Le Trézin. Burghound 88-91. Surprisingly, given how cool and elevated this terroir is, there is a trace of exotic fruit present here as well with its notes of dried peach, apricot and honeysuckle. There is fine richness to the stony middle weight flavors that are bigger than is typical, all wrapped in an exuberantly energetic, mouth coating, delicious and complex finish. A fine villages that should be approachable young if desired.

agavin: nice elegant acid bomb, very much in the PYCM house style.


In the front, Chicken Liver mousse, sweet potato jam, toast, pickles. This is some fabulous chicken liver, particularly with the sweet jam.


2004 Bouchard Aîné et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. 92 points. Lemony nose. Gives a sense of extremely concentrated but unyielding fruits, lemons,apples – and minerals. A long intense aftertaste. With no experience with aged white burgundy but having read a lot about them, I think I can sense what this would have become with age. We had another bottle of this about a year ago and it was much lighter and ready to go. Wondering about the first bottle caused this one to be opened and checked out. I’m going to assume our remaining two are like this one, hope to not read about premox issues – and let them age for many years and we’ll then experience a great white burgundy.

agavin: our bottle was a bit premoxed, but still pleasant.


From my cellar: 2004 Henri Boillot Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 95. Perhaps the most backward and reserved wine to this point as the nose reveals only hints of white flower and green fruit aromas that are framed in a subtle touch of pain grillé but the flavors explode on the palate as there is a chewy texture to them yet there is ample minerality present, particularly for Bâtard. This too is blessed with abundant dry extract and a finish that won’t quit but for all of the size and weight, this is impeccably balanced. This has that “wow” factor and in terms of style, it’s almost like a muscular Chevalier.


Duck & Walnut Country Pate, orange Apricot Marmelade. Also good stuff, pretty typical French country (not a bad thing at all) and great with Burgundy.


1997 Joseph Drouhin Romanée St. Vivant. 93 points. Garnet color, with light bricking on the rim. Red fruits on the nose, with some spice as well. The red fruits are also present on the palate. Long finish. Very good given the vintage and kept very well.


Baby wedge salad, blue cheese, tomato, bacon, buttermilk ranch.


From my cellar: 1997 Maison Roche de Bellene Chambertin Collection Bellenum. 93 points. Delicious, with a distinctive gevery grand cru terrior.


Caesar salad, 63 deg egg, dried prosciutto, anchovies. Deconstructed Caesar.


1997 Hospices de Beaune Mazis-Chambertin Cuvée Madeleine Collignon. 90 points. Dry ferns and moss with earthy forest berries; a bit underwhelming and restrained but charming.


Fig & Burrata Salad, fig pesto, coppa ham, ciabatta. Really yummy.


2002 Thibault Liger-Belair Richebourg. Burghound 92. An attractively spicy nose features aromas of both red and blue pinot fruit, anise and sandalwood that also suffuse the delicious, round and fleshy middle weight flavors that possess good detail and precision on the moderately long, focused and still relatively tight finish. At only 8 years of age, it’s clear that this is still very much of a youngster though it is not forbidding as an hour’s worth of aeration renders it at least approachable. There is good underlying material and this should make for a lovely wine in time.


Salmon Poke, gooseberry salsa, sesame crackers.


1985 La Mission Haut Brion. Parker 92. As this wine sat in the glass aerating, I began having some doubts about whether it merited a low-90s point score. I think it does, but the fact that it deteriorated more quickly than some of its siblings (even those from more challenging vintages) gave me pause. Nevertheless, I have to assume that most people will decant all of these wines (as I did) and consume them within an hour of opening. On that basis, this 1985 is clearly a low-90 point wine. The problem is that for the most part, 1985 does not have that extra level of concentration possessed by the great vintages. However, it offers a softness to go along with the fragility of the wines as most 1985s, including this La Mission-Haut-Brion, are fully mature. A dark plum/garnet color reveals a pinkish lightening at the edge, and the bouquet reveals plenty of smoke, camphor, charcoal, graphite, sweet kirsch and blacker fruit aromas intermixed with meaty, sauteed mushroom, cedar and spicy notes. The lovely aromatics are followed by flavors that do not quite match the intensity of the bouquet, a sign of a fully mature wine. This medium-bodied effort has plenty of glycerin, low acidity and not a trace of tannin. While not terribly generous, it is a soft, round, charming, delicious, very good La Mission, but not a great one.


Beef Wellington, bacon wrapped asparagus, onion marmalade, red wine.


1998 Leoville-Poyferre. Parker 88. The dark ruby-colored, medium-bodied 1998 offers aromas of underbrush, black currants, cherries, minerals, and vanillin. While sweet, rich, and stylish, it lacks the depth necessary to merit an outstanding score.

agavin: our bottle was a bit corked.


Sea bass, almonds, porcini, brown butter.


2000 Lynch Bages. Parker 97. Beginning to open magnificently, the still dense purple-colored 2000 reveals a blossoming bouquet of blackberries, cassis, graphite and pen ink. Full-bodied with velvety tannins that have resolved themselves beautifully over the last eleven years, this wine is still an adolescent, but it exhibits admirable purity, texture, mouthfeel and power combined with elegance. One of the all-time great examples of Lynch Bages, the 2000 is just beginning to drink well yet promises to last for another 20-25+ years.


With the seabass comes corn succotash, but it looks more like a pasta!


2005 Lafite-Rothschild. Parker 96-98. While the 2005 is another brilliantly classic Lafite Rothschild, for my taste, it comes in slightly behind their extraordinarily opulent 2003 as well as the dramatically powerful 2000. A blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Merlot, the 2005 boasts a dark ruby/purple color in addition to that exceptional Lafite perfume of graphite, spring flowers, crushed rocks, and sweet black cherry and black currant fruit that exudes class and nobility. The wine is medium-bodied with extremely high levels of tannin in addition to sensational purity, length, and overall harmony. However, it is exceptionally backward, and even more tannic than either the 1995 or 1996.


Colorado lamb pot roast, cauliflower goat cheese gratin, lamb sauce. Good stuff. Rich!


Truffle fries!

2002 Peter Lehmann Shiraz Stonewell. Parker 92. The 2002 Stonewell Shiraz was barrel fermented and aged in new French and American oak hogsheads. The fruit was sourced from several of the Barossa’s top addresses. It offers up aromas of toasty oak, spice box (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg), asphalt, blueberry, and blackberry liqueur. This is followed by a structured, tightly wound wine in which black fruits and chocolate make an appearance. It will benefit from another 8-10 years in the cellar and should drink well through 2027.


Regular fries with sauces.


Brussel sprouts with bacon. Bacon makes everything better!


Broccoli rab.

2007 Roberto Voerzio Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata Torriglione. AG 96. The 2007 Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata/Torriglione is one of the more reserved wines in this line-up. Stylistically it is a touch leaner and more focused than the rest of Voerzio’s 2007s. Fragrant dark cherries, minerals, mint, pine and spices emerge gracefully from the Rocche. The finish is long, polished and exceptionally elegant, even if the Rocche doesn’t quite reach the level of the finest wines here.


Tortolini with truffles and burrata. We added this extra dish… well because we’re hedonists.


2002 Iniskillin. 90 points. Unusual but very tasty sparkling ice wine.


Banana chocolate cream pie, chocolate chip ice cream.


Sticky Toffee Pudding, salted caramel, vanilla ice cream. This is as good a STP as you get (and that’s darn good).

Overall, a great night with some really top notch wines and tasty wine-friendly food. Sadly, and despite being busy, I read in the food news that Waterloo & City is closing at the end of the year to make room for a new concept. Sigh. The trendy restaurant scene moves on, an unstoppable juggernaut.

For another recent gastropub visit, check out Ford’s Filling Station.

One shirt to rule them all!

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By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: gastro pub, hedonists, Waterloo & City

Blizzard Bits

Nov07

Blizzard today announced a new franchise, Overwatch. Not only does it look cool, and very Blizzard, but it looks like an interesting take on the FPS. Sort of combining FPS with League of Legends style characters/classes. And perhaps business model? This is an all PVP team play shooter. Probably no “campaign” in the traditional 1 player shooter sense.

The game play is in the above second video. Truth is, the real gameplay looks far cooler than the cartoon-style cinematic. It’s this stuff, and the implied highly differentiated character/classes that gets me excited. I’m just not that into running around in a traditional FPS and grabbing a collection of bigger and bigger guns.

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In other news, there is a new Hearthstone expansion, Goblins vs. Gnomes. Well fine, but I’m kinda mostly over Hearthstone. And, BTW, trying really hard to NOT play Warlords of Draenor. We will see if I can hold out. I did pass Paragon 400 in Diablo 3 though. Oh, there’s also a third Starcraft II, Legacy of the Void. Never really got into Starcraft. Too hardcore for me.

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By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Games
Tagged as: Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, BlizzCon, Diablo III, Overwatch, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

Shiki Times Three

Nov07

Restaurant: Shiki Beverly Hills [1, 2]

Location: 410 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. 310-888-0036

Date: August 26, October 30, 2014, and January 10, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Some of the best sushi I’ve had in a while!

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Shiki Beverly Hills recently replaced Enoteco Drago in the primo Canon Dr space right in the heart of Beverly Hills. It features extremely Japanese seasonal ingredient focused kaiseki and sushi. The space is elegant and modern, really not that different than it was as Drago.


Chef Shigenori Fujimoto was at Matsuhisa from 94-04 and brings with him both a traditionalist and “new style” sushi vibe. My friend Liz, who has impeccable taste, first brought me when she arranged a Sage Society dinner here. This post represents three similar Omakase blended together (two lunches and one dinner), so there are slightly more non-sushi courses represented than you might eat in one meal. Slight, given how large our meals were!



2012 Borgo del Tiglio (Nicola Manferrari) Collio Friulano Ronco della Chiesa. 92 points. A very nice, very dry friulano. A clean crispy cool weather Italian white that paired perfectly with sushi.


Chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) with ikura (salmon egg) and uni (sea urchin). Dashi. A wonderful blend of some textures and briny flavors.


Parfait of seaweed and various soft sea stuff. A very delicate flavor with unusual textures.

Kamamoto oysters prepared three ways, with a sort of mignonette, caviar, and uni!


Pepper and halibut salad. Fresh farmer’s market peppers.

Eggplant and Tai salad. Seared snapper with egg plant, dashi, and mushrooms. Really Japanese and delicious.


Halibut sashimi with truffles. Pickled tomato. Really a fabulous savory combination. The tomato is great too, and because it’s heavily marinated, it doesn’t bother me like a raw tomato.


2000 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte. Burghound 95. While discreet, there is a trace of wood that sits atop the ever-so-mildly exotic fruit and wonderfully layered aromas that are still admirably fresh even though they now display some mature notes. The exceptionally rich and overtly muscular flavors are quite forward though powerful as a still firm and prominent acid spine keeps everything in perfect balance on the magnificently persistent finish. This is classy juice that is knocking on the door of its prime drinkability.

agavin: This one started off so deep yellow, and with so much creme brulee on the nose that I thought it was premoxed, although drinking pleasant enough right now, but over the next 30 minutes or so it came into balance and opened up into an absolutely lovely Chevy. I don’t think it will last, so I wouldn’t hold them for too many years. I’ve open 4 bottles of it this year. 3 have been like this one, and 1 was so premoxed we could barely drink it. None have been pale and fresh/crisp. Now this is 14-15 year old white Burg, but I opened a 1991 Sauzet Chevy for New Years that tasted years younger! So the whole thing has me wondering where the large number of wines made in the new style that come off like this are going. I’m guessing we need to drink them!


Wild yellowtail sashimi with jalopeno. A variant on the now classic Matsuhisa dish.


Salmon with truffle sashimi. Another great.

Slow cooked fish, uni paste, and Japanese pickles.


Giant clam. Wasabi, dashi, seaweed. This was all about the texture. The big chunks of clam had a wonderful crunch.


Oysters. With a slightly sour pink suspension.


The next dish came in one of those cute tea pot/bowls.


Shrimp, mushroom, ginko soup. Inside is a broth with various seafood and vegetables.


This one had a slightly spicy suspension (you can see the chili flakes) and a strong acidity (you squeeze in the Japanese lime) and drink. Then pick out the seafood.


1995 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. 93 points. 1995 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. Like old cherries and truffles.

agavin: I love this vineyard, in part because it’s mild and elegant and quite a lot like Musigny (which it is adjacent to, being one of the best locations in Clos Vougeot). It paired perfectly with the beef below.


Wagyu sirloin and filet mignon, with vegetables. The meat melted in your mouth.


And daikon as accompaniment.


Fresh pickled ginger. Shiki pickles his own whole ginger roots! Super flavorful and stomach settling. I gnawed through two.


2000 Etienne Sauzet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Intense honeysuckle, fresh sliced peach and pear notes with flavors that are not quite as robust and powerful as the Combettes yet finer and more complex. This delivers exciting intensity and a degree of persistence that borders on the astonishing. The Combettes is perhaps grander but this is finer – it’s simply a question of preference, not quality.

agavin: Our bottle started off extremely closed. Paler and clearly younger (less premoxed) than the 2000 Chevalier above. After about 30-40 minutes it opened up into a lovely mature Grand Cru, gaining both the mineral and the floral weight.


Goldeneye snapper. Salt,  yuzu, and a bit of kick.


Japanese Barracuda. The best piece of this fish I’ve had.


A different seared Japanese fish that is only eaten in winter (for its high fat content). Really rich and delicious.


Jumbo clam with shiso. More texture, but fabulous.


O toro. As wonder a piece of sushi as one could hope for.


Wild Baby yellowtail. Wow!


Wild Spanish Mackerel (Aji). No fishiness at all.


Japanese gizzard shad (kohada). Also fabulous.


Orange clam. Soft (for clam).


2007 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Vergelesses Blanc. Burghound 90. As would reasonably be expected, there is just more here in every dimension with a more complex and more elegant nose that is layered and very fresh and this refinement continues onto the nicely concentrated middle weight flavors that display evident minerality on the sappy, intense and mouth coating finish that lingers and lingers. This is a terrific Savigny blanc and recommended.

agavin: This is a nice young Chardonnay that is drinking terrifically.


Sweet shrimp (Ama-ebi). Yum.


On one of the days the shrimp came with row! Even better.


And the heads of course can come back fried, or as Liz likes it above, grilled. Grilled really tastes incredible with a good shrimp like  this. You suck out the guts and brain basically (worth it!).


Or miso soup is an option with the head.


King mackerel. Not at all like Aji, but delicious.


Japanese squid (ika). With just the right firmness.


Hokkaido sea urchin (uni). Yum!


Santa Barbara Uni. Delicious.


New Zealand Sea Trout (salmon relative). Fabulous.


Halibut fin with salt and yuzu and pepper. This has a wonderful texture and chew, with some richness. Fin is a rare bit because there isn’t much usable meat in there.


Halibut fin with slightly sweet soy. Another take on the same meat. Both were good but I slightly prefer the first one.


Salmon eggs (ikura). No fishiness.

Anago (sea eel). With salt and wasabi.


Tuna (maguro). Also like toro.


A second wand of ginger.


Hokkaido scallop (Hotate). Just fabulous.


Red snapper (tai) with shiso. Yum!


Clam miso.


A toro and citrus peel handroll. Divine.


Yellowtail handroll.


Orange clam cut roll. Nice crunch.


Classic tuna roll. Not spicy!

Plum and shiso handroll. Incredibly traditional and with a sour “minty” taste.


Check out the inside with the plum paste.


Yuzu ice cream.

t

Panna cotta with fruit. Small and lovely.


Traditional mochi, saba sauce, and ice cream.


Wow. LA has lots of great Japanese, and I have good sushi all the time, but this was particularly awesome. Really the sushi itself was as good as it gets. Very traditional style too, which is my favorite. I love the acid washed Nozawa style too, but hand sauced traditional like this is my favorite.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

Taco yaki?

 

Related posts:

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By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Burgundy, Japanese cuisine, Liz Lee, Sage Society, Sashimi, Shigenori Fujimoto, Shiki Sushi, Sushi

Beijing Tasty House

Nov05

Restaurant: Beijing Tasty House

Location: 172 E Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 573-3062

Date: November 2, 2014 & February 8, 2015 & October 15, 2017 & December 3, 2017 & March 11 & April 1, 2018

Cuisine: Beijing Chinese

Rating: Tasty – very Tasty!

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The bounty of Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley. They open all the time in almost every type of regional Chinese cuisine. Beijing Tasty House fits in the inclusive style of the capital, which sucks in cuisine not only from right around it but from central and western areas like Szechuan.

This report is a composite of many meals. Sometimes I feel it better illustrates a restaurant’s character to do it this way.


The relatively modern interior. I have to point out the SGV special cove ceilings and the mismatched curtains.

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There are two private rooms behind those screens. Twice with larger groups we’ve used them — both of them!
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One of the private rooms on 3/11/18.

2002 Delamotte Champagne Blanc de Blancs Millésimé. IWC 92. Pale yellow-gold. Fresh citrus and orchard fruit aromas are complicated by notes of gingerbread, white flowers and sweet butter. Toasty lees and mineral qualities gain power with air, adding depth to the wine’s gently sweet pear, honey and tangerine flavors. At once rich and lively, finishing with excellent clarity and alluring mineral and floral character. This Champagne, which I’ve tasted from three different disgorgements now, is proving that it’s built for the long haul.


Crunchy cucumbers with pork. This is a traditional cord starter. Unfortunately, in 2014 ours came near the end of the meal and that just didn’t work. They were also a bit mushy. We had this again on 10/15/17 and it was very good, crunchy.


NV Schramsberg Vineyards Mirabelle Brut Rose. 89 points. Soft aromas of apple, pear, citrus, cherry, mushroom, yeast. On the palate, more pronounced citrus – mainly grapefruit – and strawberry. Nicely tart, and a touch saline. Not very deep or complex, but tasty and refreshing.


Spicy Cold Noodles (Dan Dan Mein). Pretty much a classic Szechuan version of the dish. There is sesame and bean paste, chili oil, and cold noodles.


(2) NV Moët & Chandon Champagne Nectar Imperial Rosé. IWC 87. Orange-pink with a vigorous mousse Creamy orange, cherry and strawberry preserves on the nose. Rich and velvety, with sweet tangerine and red berry flavors carrying through the finish. This would be nice with blue cheeses.

A (2) indicates this was a wine at the second dinner.


Stirred up it was quite delicious. Not super spicy, but with a bit of nuttiness. Beijing Tasty House was extremely reasonable and a dish like this was only $4.99. We liked this so much it was a repeat the second time around.


2012 Ojai Sauvignon Blanc McGinley. IWC 91. Light, bright yellow. Musky aromas of yellow apple, grapefruit pith and candied ginger. Sappy, focused and mineral-driven; at once rich and lively, with gentle floral lift to its sappy orchard and citrus fruit flavors. The floral note gains volume with air, adding vibrancy to a dry, gripping, linear finish.


Hot and Sour Noodles. These spicy noodles had a mild numbing quality from the Szechuan peppercorn and a pleasant heat. Lots of vinegar too. Had this in 14, 15, and on 10/15/17. Great every time. Very nice balance, not super hot.


You can see the noodles themselves are glass noodles. This was a fabulous dish and another repeat. The second time we kept the sauce to eat over rice (and all sorts of things).

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Knife cut noodles with lamb (10/15/17). Another great noodle dish. Much more “savory” and enhanced by adding some chili oil.
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Noodle with Green Beans (3/11/18). Looks like old school noodles but actually darn tasty.
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Sliced Potato (3/11/18). A good version of this dish, particularly dipped in the sour chili sauce above.
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Spicy Sliced Potato (4/1/18). Slight variant — even more flavor. I really liked these.

2012 Gilbert Picq & ses Fils Chablis Dessus La Carriere. IWC 92. Bright pale yellow. Aromas of mango, pineapple, crystallized lemon peel and crushed rock; still a touch reduced. Dense, chewy and rich, with citrus zest and iodiney mineral flavors that stimulate the taste buds. Finishes tactile and long, with strong salty minerality. Sexy and elegant. Picq sends a good quantity of this wine to the U.S. and recommends serving it with volaille blanc or grilled sea bass.


(2) 2011 Deux Montille Meursault Les Casses-Têtes. Burghound 89-91. Strong reduction renders the nose completely unreadable. There is excellent volume and a strong minerality to the delicious, vibrant and appealingly textured medium-bodied flavors that possess a saline character on the clean, dry, persistent and impeccably well-balanced finish. This is a fine villages that is worth considering.


Lamb buns. The lamb meat was nice, but the buns were dense. Really dense. In the end, most of us ate out the meat or went open face.
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Boiled lamb with chili sauce (10/15/17). Hideous but awesome dish. The lamb was super tender and had tons of great lamb flavor. Plus that chili sauce always notches everything up.

(2) 2009 Marcassin Chardonnay Three Sisters Vineyard. 93 points. Awesome wine. Burgundian style, like a grand cru. Great minerality, with lemon, apple, and brioche taste. Superbly long finish for a white wine. Beautifully extracted with everything in balance. Very restrained acid.

agavin: Very restrained acid is what I call flabby! A rich wine, but not enough backbone.


Cumin Lamb. The classic hot sizzling cumin lamb. Full of strong savory flavors.
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Sizzling cumin beef (4/1/18). Pretty much the same dish but with beef.

2010 Henri Boillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Mouchère. IWC 95+. Bright pale yellow. Soil-driven aromas of grapefruit, fresh dill and flinty minerality. Dense and brisk on entry, with outstanding grand cru intensity to the lemon and crushed stone flavors. Conveys a strong impression of silex . This boasts the sappiness of the best 2010s and finishes with outstanding stony, citric persistence. Like a slap in the face today, this wine demands at least several years of bottle aging, at which point it may merit an even higher score.


(2) 2010 Domaine Bechtold Gewurztraminer Engelberg. 91 points. Off-dry and very tropical. Ripe pineapple, Indian-like spices, slight smokiness and an orange marmalade note that makes me think there was some degree of botrytis in this. The palate reflects the nose very well, with a huge pineapple note, lychee and exotic spiciness. It is quite full bodied, with a slightly cloying quality, and initially I didn’t know if it has the acidity or minerality to fully hold up. Needs some time to open up, but a really good wine.

Peking Duck (2014). What would a Beijing place be without Peking Duck? This was an okay version of the classic. The meat was good, but the skin wasn’t quite as crispy as I like.
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And a slightly different presentation in 2017.


The usual pancakes.


Hoisin, green onions, etc. The sauce was good here, thick, maybe homemade, although a touch plummy.
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Duck in the pancake ready to go!
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Duck soup (12/3/17). I’m not a super big fan of duck soup, but this was a good one. Lots of rich bone flavor here and nice tofu.

2009 Domaine Huet Vouvray Moelleux Clos du Bourg. 91 points. Medium sweetness, with lots of apple and apricot. Long finish, just a hint of petrol as it aged. Had with strawberry shortcake and then by itself.


From my cellar: (2) 1998 Nikolaihof Riesling Federspiel Steinriesler. 92 points. Deeper yellow golden hues; white flower, honey, beeswax, stone, apple, grain; richer body, stone, weight, lemon, solid mid palate, spicy finish, higher alcohol, very focused.


(2) 2012 Peter Lauer Riesling Barrel X. 89 points. Apricot on the nose and in the mouth. Nice acidity.


Spicy Garlic Eggplant. Most people agreed that this was one of the best eggplant dishes they’ve ever had. It had an awesome garlicky flavor.
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Eggplant in Garlic Sauce (3/11/18). I think a slight variant on the above.

Cabbage with bacon. A nice traditional cabbage dish. Not quite as good as the Beijing Restaurant version, and the bacon was a touch soggy, but good nonetheless.
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Cabbage dynamite (10/15/17). Another cabbage variant. A little bit of heat. Nice crunch and flavors. I actually like these cabbage dishes a lot.

2005 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese. IWC 90. Pale yellow. Rich aromas of lichee, lemon oil and pine.Luscious yet piquant tropical fruit flavors accented by smoke. In spite of the wine’s substantial depth, subtle acidity brings spice and finesse to the finish.


(2) 2012 Georg Albrecht Schneider Riesling.


(2) More Riesling.


Coconut Shrimp (earlier and 10/15/17). Why they named this dish “coconut shrimp” is beyond me because there was A) no coconut and B) it’s exactly like everyone else’s “walnut shrimp.” But it was a tasty version with large moist shrimp — lots of mayo!

Also good enough to order three times.
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Shrimp with Sweet and Pungent sauce (3/11/18). A tangier variant of the fried, sauced, shrimp. Quite excellent.
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Lobster with garlic and ginger (4/1/18). Solid!

2003 Carl Schmitt-Wagner Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Auslese. 89 points. Deeply pitched and complex on the nose, quite forward, offering notes of pineapple custard, mint, allspice, and baked lemon. Medium to full bodied on the palate, there’s a lot of richness here, but the overall feel is one of lightness. A beautiful sweet-sour balance provides interest, but this lacks depth of flavor on the palate.


(2) 2012 Charles Baur Riesling Eichberg.


Cumin Lamb Skewers. Classic fatty meat grilled and smothered in strong cumin flavor.


2005 Aubert Pinot Noir Reuling Vineyard. I’m actually going to post 3 reviews of this wine to illustrate reviewer difference of opinion. It should be noted that Robert Parker has a shit palette for pinot noir 🙂

Parker 95. The 2005 Pinot Noir Reuling Vineyard reminds me of a top DRC Richebourg. Of course, this is made from the famed Calera clone of Pinot Noir, which was suitcased in from one of the most renowned vineyards in Burgundy. The wine exhibits that beautiful sweet black currant, flowery nose, with sweet black raspberry and very ripe cherry notes intermixed with spring flowers and some spice from the wood. A wine of considerable opulence, complexity, and tremendously savory, expansive texture, this wine should drink beautifully for at least a decade.

IWC 93+. Deep ruby-red. Deeply pitched aromas of blackberry, smoked meat and underbrush. Dense and thick but with lovely energy to its complex, deep, soil-inflected flavors of dark fruits, smoked meat and black tea. This is about much more than just fruit. Finishes with substantial but essentially gentle tannins. Interestingly, the Vosne-Romanee clones used for the UV have produced an essence of California pinot in ’05, while these Calera clones have yielded a wine in a more Burgundian style.

Burghound 83. A cough syrup and menthol nose leads to moderately vibrant big-bodied flavors that culminate in an edgy, bitter, unbalanced and hot finish. While there is plenty of structure, I would not age it as the alcohol already dominates and aging will only exacerbate that quality.

More Crazy variance. Allen Meadows hates this stuff.

(2) 2007 Aubert Pinot Noir UV Vineyard.

IWC 93. Good deep red. Aromas of black cherry, black tea and a spicy hint of chocolate. Tactile and dense but with a light touch considering its 15.8% alcohol, showing lovely lift to its dark berry, spice and saline soil tones. There’s a brooding quality to this pinot’s dark fruit flavors, but its pliant texture and early sweetness and personality should give it more immediate appeal than the Rueling bottling. Finishes with ripe tannins, a slight suggestion of warmth and sneaky length.

Burghound 78. This is extremely ripe though not to the point where there is no pinot character remaining but unfortunately, the palate impression of the impressively scaled flavors and finish is both edgy and hot. While I generally refrain from discussing the motivations behind any given style, this is sufficiently extreme that one at least wonders what the point is as there would appear to be other varieties better suited for this purpose?


Steamed Lamb Dumplings (earlier and 10/15/17). From that western thick skin style of dumpling, but still tasty. Similar to at JYTH. nice flavor.

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Pork dumplings (10/15/17). Look the same, but a much more mild flavor. Nice pork centers.


From my cellar: 1999 Domaine de L’Arlot Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Clos des Forêts St. Georges. Burghound 89. More serious than the ’99 Clos de l’Arlot though not quite as ripe with color that is almost black as is the fruit with crushed herbs and intense minerality, succulent flavors and excellent pinot character. There are sizeable tannins that are completely wrapped in velvety fruit and this displays a slightly sweet finish. This is really very fine and fresh and while this is not a truly dense wine, it has filled out better on the mid-palate than I originally predicted. It will also need a bit more time as well to really arrive at its prime drinking window.



Lamb Bone Hot Pot. Don’t know the exact dish name. This interesting and tasty broth had a bitt of Szechuan peppercorn, cumin flavors, and a whole bunch of other unidentified herbs. All spice? Star Anise? It was sizzling hot with big boney chunks of lamb. After you left them to cool, they were pretty tasty. The sauce was great over rice.


Our second time around this dish was MUCH better. First of all, it had more peppers and the bones had a lot more meat on them. Second, they gave us this sesame sauce. We weren’t sure what to do with it, but it turned out that when stirred into the lamb broth it was amazing, almost like a Thai curry.
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Bullfrog hot pot (10/15/17). Tons of mala and heat. Lots of peppers.

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The frog tasted great although, as usual, it was boney and there wasn’t that much actual frog.

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Hot and Spicy Mixed Hot Pot
(3/11/18). This had everything in it, from tripe to beef, to tofu, to spam, to pork blood. It was rather excellent too. Great sauce.

(2) 2007 Siduri Pinot Noir Clos Pepe Vineyard. Burghound 90. A very subtle touch of wood frames beautifully complex and moderately ripe dark plum, cherry and intense violet that is also picked up by the attractively fresh, generous, round, forward and delicious flavors that possess good underlying energy on the sappy and lingering finish that has a lovely inner mouth perfume. About the only nit here is a trace of warmth but to the wine’s credit, it’s subtle.


Meat balls. Not sure if these were pork or beef. They were just so so. Fine, but I wouldn’t order them again.

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Shredded pork with preserved mustard greens and soy beans (3/11/18). Wonderful new dish. Salty with a lot of umami.

2001 Domaine Michel Gaunoux Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Épenots. Burghound 93. Warm nose, pungent, leathery and clay. Touch of brown on the miniscus. Excellent concentration here. Sweet fruit on the palate, the acidity is present but mild but becomes more pronounced on the finish. More strict, not exuberant – graceful but will the future show more fruit or acid?


From my cellar: 1991 Camille Giroud Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. 90 points.

Beijing Chick Wings. Cumin rubbed super hot grilled chicken wings! Very yummy.


Domaine Jaeger-Defaix Rully 1er Cru Clos de Chapître. 89 points. Ripe and attractively fresh red currant aromas combines with hints of earth, spice and wood nuances. The spice character continues onto the mildly rustic middle weight flavors that exude a pretty touch of minerality that adds lift to the delicious and complex finish where the wood telegraphed by the nose resurfaces. This will most appeal to those who enjoy evident, if not generous, oak influence with their burgundy.


(2) 2007 Louis Latour Corton Domaine Latour. Burghound 87-90. Light ruby. An interesting if not overly complex nose of red and black cherry with earth nuances make for a less than dramatic introduction to the round, easy, forward and supple flavors that are also on the light side though the finish tightens up enough to suggest that cellar time is definitely needed. Moreover, the finish offers much better depth than can be found on the nose. In sum, this isn’t a bad wine so much as it’s not very typical by the standards of what one expects from a classic Corton.


Salt and Pepper Shrimp. Emphasis on the peppers! But it actually wasn’t very hot if you pulled out a shrimp. Nice tasty crustaceans.
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Chicken bones with chilies (10/15/17). The aromatic dish with really tasty boney bits of chicken.
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Diced chicken with chilies (12/3/17). A slight variant on the above, but with more meaty chunks and less bone.


2005 Pandora Seymour’s Vineyard.


Pork Roll. This giant burrito was like a massive pork sausage Stromboli. Tasted great but heavy as can be! Hard to finish a slice.


(2) 2007 Domaine Pavelot (Jean-Marc et Hugues) Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru La Dominode. Burghound 92. Here the nose is every bit as complex as that of the Gravains with its pure and ripe aromas of plum, earth, stone and spice hints that introduce intensely earthy medium-bodied flavors that are textured and refined but powerful, all wrapped in a finish that displays a hint of animale on the slightly more structured finish that seems to go on and on. This offers a qualitative choice as it is less elegant than the Gravains but more powerful and perhaps a hair more persistent as well. Either way, both are terrific.


Kung Pao chicken. A nice rendition of the classic. Not super spicy but very tasty.
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Beef with black pepper sauce (10/15/17). Pretty mild in flavor. I liked it, as did some others, but others thought it was one of the weaker dishes.

1998 Fox Creek JSM. IWC 90. Bright, deep ruby. Spicy, lively aromas of cassis, bitter chocolate and mint. Supple, intensely flavored and nicely focused; sappy berry and spice flavors are nicely framed by harmonious acids. Dense and concentrated. Youthfully firm finish features fine tannins and very good length.


Sweet and sour fish (earlier and 10/15/17). Who can taste the fish under all that fry and sweet and sour sauce? Still tasted good.1A0A4570
In 10/15/17 was really awesome with a super crispy outside. You can see the improvement!


(2) 2013 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Clark & Telephone Vineyard. 88 points. This is the whackiest pinot I’ve ever tasted. The color was deeper purple than our deep purple Cab and it tasted like vanilla oak wrapped around a tiny little berry. This is a pinot vinified like a Carlisle Zin!


Fresh fish with cumin and chilies. This fish (buried under all that chili) was fairly simply cooked with a lot of cumin. It was quite nice, if boney and hard to get at.

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Fish with two chilies (10/15/17). Awesome fish smothered in 2 different tangy chili sauces.


2004 Mitolo Shiraz McLaren Vale. 95 points.


Fried rice (earlier and 10/15/17). With a bit of everything in it.

The second time around we ate with either the red noodle sauce or the lamb sauce.


2001 Celler Del Pont Priorat Lo Givot. 91 points. Purple/ruby in color. The nose has raisins, black raspberries and a smoked quality. Soft texture. Dark and deep on the palate. Black raspberries. It got a bit funky on the finish, but that seemed to blow off. I don’t believe I ever had this, but I really enjoyed it. Got better as the night went on despite its age.


Pork Fried Dumplings. Greasier and perhaps tastier than the steamed ones.


2004 Outpost Petite Sirah The Other. RJ 92. Quite tannic, but not in a way that’s unpleasant. Concentrated and fruitily tasty with nice PS notes. A real pleasant surprise, this one, given others’ notes. The nose is light, but the mouth is great, and the length is substantially dense and decently long. Nice rd and black fruit notes, good depth, nice feel. Have I mentioned that I like this wine?


Pig Intestine Stew with Tofu. Various bits of tempeh, pig stomach, pig intestine. Yuck. I don’t know why Yarom likes to order this kind of offal. Just giving him s**t. Even a few of the organ lovers who dared try it declared it a “bad dish.”


2012 Yaso Toro. 87 points. Rather simple cherry cool aid. Inexpensive though and a pleasant enough weekday wine.


Hand cut noodles with pork. A weird sweet and sour flavor, with fairly typical, almost Panda Express ingredients. The pork was tasty though and the noodles had a nice texture.

We ended up getting it both times by accident. I wouldn’t have.


Sweet and sour spareribs. Yummy sweet fatty nuggets.


(2) 2006 d’Arenberg Cabernet Sauvignon The Coppermine Road. IWC 92. Opaque ruby. Powerful cassis and blueberry aromas are complicated by lavender and pungent herbs. Fleshy, palate-staining dark berry flavors are enlivened by juicy acidity. Gentle tannins add grip but don’t get in the way of the lush, creamy fruit. Very impressive cabernet, with the sweetness to drink on the young side but the depth and balance to reward patience.


Ma Po Tofu. A tolerable but not particularly great version of this dish. Some spice, but a lot of oil. Still I enjoyed it, because I adore Ma Po, but it could have been better.

(2) 2011 Double Diamond (Schrader) Cabernet Sauvignon Bomber X. 89 points. Big & bold, lots of fruit and a little tannin. This wine could wait awhile.


Omelet. Pretty much what it looks like. A nice fluffy omelet with green onions.


Candied Sweet potato. Very sticky. Very hot. Tasty.
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Made by me (Sweet Milk Gelato) on 3/11/18: Fior Di Philly – Philadelphia Cream Cheese base, with Graham Cracker and Strawberry Topping mix ins!
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Made by me (Sweet Milk Gelato) on 4/1/18, left to right:

Best Vegan Chocolate Gelato Ever – Thai coconut milk & cream base with 100% Valrhona chocolate!

Mangle Berry Sorbetto – Mango and Blackberry sorbetto with a touch of Aperol

Coconut Rum Lime Sorbetto – Thai coconut milk base with dark vanilla rum and lime juice.

Overall, I thought this was a great meal and exceedingly reasonable. We ordered about 8 peking ducks, maybe more, and it was still only $42 a person with tax and a huge tip. We could have eaten a massive meal for $30. But I’m all for the overkill. Yarom did a good job ordering (except for the pig guts) and we had some great stuff in all sorts of categories. I like this style of Chinese cooking as it emphasizes flavor. It’s not straight Szechuan, but has many Szechuan dishes, and all sorts of other good stuff too. Not your typical Chinese American. Most dishes were very well executed. The noodles were fabulous. Some of the cumin stuff. The eggplant. Even the goopy sweet and sour fish was great.

The second time around we didn’t order Peking Duck but had even more dishes and it was only $31 all in, so the duck definitely runs up the price. I liked this place the first time, and even more the second. Maybe they’re getting into a groove, or maybe we also ordered better. Some dishes like the Lamb Hot Pot improved considerably.

The third time they were out of duck (sigh) but we ordered up a stone of more unusual dishes, total of $47 (and only because we were only 6 people and over ordered) and most of them were amazing. Some repeat dishes really improved. This place has gotten very very good and it has a huge menu with a lot of great variants.

A fun night! And if I was going to take a group of friends to the SGV for a “bargain dinner” this would be a great place, as is Beijing Restaurant. Unlike a pure Szechuan place there are dishes for the spice hater. The good Cantonese Banquet houses are great for first timers too, but they are more established and much more expensive with their emphasis on crab, lobster, and other expensive ingredients.


Then down the street for Foot Massage! ($15 an hour!) Earlier AND 10/15/17. Alibaba has very good staff but they don’t spend enough time on the feet (I guess you can ask).


And to the boba tea house for…
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Soothing rose tea (10/15/17).

Giant mango shaved ice with strawberries, ice cream, sweetened condensed milk and almond jelly.
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Another mango shave ice (10/15/17) with honey boba, vanilla and mango ice cream, and almond jelly. So yummy!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Wines from 10/15/17:
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Related posts:

  1. Hedonists go to Beijing
  2. Shin Beijing Again
  3. Shin Beijing Cubed
  4. Tasty Duck Will Bring You Luck
  5. Tasty Duck Lives up to its Name
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beijing Tasty House, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, san Gabriel valley, Szechuan

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Nov03

91QidfpRuaL1Title: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Author: Patrick Rothfuss

Genre: High Fantasy

Length: 35,000 words, 160 (sparse) pages

Read: October 28-19, 2014

Summary: Unique.

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The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear are Patrick Rothfuss’ excellent “normal” high fantasy novels. The brand new Slow Regard is a novella set in the same world, featuring a minor character (Auri, the fey girl at the University). This intriguing little book sits completely aside from the main series of novels. But it should not be read on its own.

Properly, Slow Regard feels like a short story. A long one, but Rothfuss is a verbose writer. Or perhaps it’s a poem. It lacks most of the things that stories (particularly novels) normally have. In Rothfuss’ own words there is no: conflict, dialogue, or action. It has one character. It’s very beautifully written. This isn’t much of a surprise, as Rothfuss is one of fantasy’s most artful prosesmiths. Basically, this is an exploration of Point of View, specifically Auri’s more than a little schizophrenic/OCD POV. It captures that masterfully, being simultaneously beautiful and heart-wrenching. Rothfuss deftly slips us into her strange world view. Pretty much he wrote it for himself, but some of us will enjoy it as well.

Does it work? Mostly. As a portrait of madness? yes. As entertainment? the prose carried me through about 3/4 of the way. I started to falter at the 10-15 page “soap making adventure.” Ultimately I liked it. The story has an ethereal quality that is rare and delicate. But would I if I wasn’t a writer and fond of technique? I’m not sure. It’s not so long that one can’t power through.

I would have liked to see a little more (some) fantasy. As written, Auri’s worldview could be entirely psychological. There is one dark hint that something bad happened to her at some point — but I’m not sure. I would have liked to learn a little more about the world and the “lore.” We don’t. We learn about the basement and the vast collection of empty rooms and small trinkets that Auri “cares for.”

You’ll have to judge for yourself if Slow Regard is for you. If you loved Rothfuss’ other books (as I did) and also have a fondness for arty “plot-light” creatives like David Lynch or Terry Gilliam (as I do) you’ll probably love it. If you require something to actually happen in your stories… well, maybe not.

Find more fantasy reviews here.

Related posts:

  1. The Wise Man’s Fear
  2. The Name of the Wind
  3. The Alchemist – Fantasy Snack
  4. The Lost Gate
  5. Words of Radiance
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Books
Tagged as: Fantasy, Patrick Rothfuss, The Slow Regard of Silent Things
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