Archive for May 2015

Happy Table – New Bay is Old Bay

May29

Restaurant: Happy Table

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

Date: May 22, 2015

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Solid

_

Six weeks ago we said a sad farewell to New Bay Seafood, which was one of the premier high end Cantonese places in the SGV.

In it’s place, as risen Happy Table, a new Chinese establishment…

With a diffuse menu of vaguely North Central slant. Not exactly Szechuan it has Szechuan dishes. Inside the place is identical, even the pictures of food on the walls are the same from the old menu.

2004 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. This tasting only serves to highlight just how great the 2004 Dom Pérignon is. A wine that has totally blossomed in bottle, the 2004 is firing on all cylinders right now. Rich, ample and beautifully nuanced, the 2006 has it all; expressive aromatics, deep fruit and more than enough structure to age well for decades. I have been tasting the 2004 since before it was released and it just keeps getting better and better. Today, it is stunning. It is amazing to consider that in 2004, yields were the largest ever recorded in Champagne.

Various cold appetizers like this spicy beef jerky. I liked it a lot.

Or this great Kimchee. Obviously some northern influence.

Smoked fish. A few bones didn’t detract from the excellent flavor.

Marinated pepper. These green peppers had some heat — and were delicious.

Pickled root vegetable. Which one, I don’t know, but they were tasty.

NV Franck Bonville Champagne Brut Rosé Grand Cru. 90 points. Lovely pink color. The nose shows fruity aromas of strawberry, raspberry, mineral, flowers and cream. This is medium bodied on the palate with a distinctly fruity touch. There is good structure and finesse on display here, and the finish is long. Delicious.

Pork ear with chili sauce. I never met a pig ear I liked. The slimy rubbery texture and lack of flavor… ug.

2006 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons. Burghound 91. The nose reflects only modest aromatic development on the notably ripe, spicy and intensely floral nose that introduces strikingly intense and sappy flavors that are supple and textured yet the finish tightens up very quickly and possess a lovely sense of underlying tension on the palate staining finish. This is impressively long and possesses good if not truly class Chablis character. To my taste this is nearing the front edge of its peak drinkability though it will be capable of holding here for years to come.

agavin: drinking great!

Shrimp, smoked fish, and squid. Straight up but fine.

2013 Zardetto Prosecco di Conegliano Superiore Spumante Dry Z. 92 points. Very nice slightly sweet Prosecco, went great with slightly spicy dishes.

Hot and sour soup. The classic. The texture and flavor of this soup were nice, although it was oddly dilute, slightly mild in flavor.

2012 Franz Gojer – Glögglhof Kerner Karneid. 91 points. Nice herby wine.

Three flavor dumplings. The northern steamed kind. Whatever the three flavors were, they included pork and were pretty good.

From my cellar: 2003 Weingut Graben-Gritsch Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Schön. 89 points. nose of lychee pineapple lemon, creamy lemon and peach on the palate. Bright acidity medium finish.

Cumin lamb. Not super spicy and of medium cumin level. Pretty tasty.

2008 Domaine Huet Vouvray Moelleux 1ère Trie Clos du Bourg. JP 92. Pale golden yellow. Rich aromas of candied quince, white truffle and lemon oil mingle with a faint hint of spicy botrytis. The intense depth of rich pit fruit and glazed honey is well framed by the wine’s elegant chalky minerality. The herbal element to this wine’s depth is typical of this unusual vintage.

Szechuan eggplant. Always a winner, this was a dish bursting with flavor.

Dönnhoff Felsenberg Riesling Spätlese. Corked 🙁

Sautéed shredded pork. Reasonably tasty.

2004 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain. VM 88+. Bright golden-yellow. Singular nose combines lemon, smoke and iodine, plus a saline, peaty note that Humbrecht, a single-malt scotch aficionado, assured me was Skye or Orkney and not Islay. Big, round, broad and glyceral, with superrripe nutty, earthy flavors, moderate sweetness and fairly strong acidity. Slight mushroom note. Finishes with suggestions of macadamia and Brazil nut. “An extreme style,” Humbrecht admits. For soil hounds, this will be one to follow.

Ma Po Tofu. One of my favorite dishes in general this was an okay version with a medium amount of numbing Szechuan peppercorn. Over rice it was quite nice and I ate more than my share.

Spicy fried chicken. The aromatic type. This was an okay, but not great version of this dish. A little too fried maybe?

Scallion pancake. These were okay, the second bread below was better.

2009 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Ten. VM 89. One of the Sea Smoke flagships, the 2009 Pinot Noir Ten impresses for its depth and sheer power. Layers of flavor flow through to the huge, dramatic finish in a full-bodied, intense Pinot. Once the intensity of the fruit fades, there is not much development in the glass, which results in an overall impression of one dimensionality. The Ten is one of Sea Smoke’s flagships. It is made from all ten Pinot clones planted on the property. While a solid effort, I expected more from this offering, which also happens to be the wine through which I discovered Sea Smoke years ago.

Mu Chai Whole Lamb. People loved this. It was a tad fatty for me, but had a nice deep lamby flavor.

Steamed cod. A little over cooked.

1997 Silverado Hill Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon. I don’t try this kind of stuff, particularly with Chinese.

Stir fry lobster. The fried part was typical, a bit over-fried and fine, but not spectacular. Certainly not nearly as good as at New Bay.

The meat in the center was undercooked and mushy with no flavor. Fairly disgusting actually.

Sweet bread. This pancake-cum-pita Chinese bread was fresh baked and delicious. There was a slight sweetness to it.

2009 Carlisle Petite Sirah Palisades Vineyard. VM 93. Glass-staining purple. Intense, exotically perfumed bouquet of blueberry, boysenberry, incense, black pepper and cola. Lush, expansive and surprisingly lively on the palate, offering sweet dark fruit flavors and firming but velvety tannins. Finishes with outstanding clarity and cling, repeating the boysenberry and violet notes.

Crystal Shrimp. Mild and fine.

Chung King Style hot pot. Every possible thing (including pig intestine, fish filets, beef) in a spicy chili oil sauce. This was fairly solid and a very typical Szechuan dish.

1998 d’Arenberg Cabernet Sauvignon The Coppermine Road. 91 points. Robust cab though showing its age. Had a bit of a brown hue and a ton of sediment.

Ox tail with Wolfberry. Inedible tail tendons with berries. I don’t know what one was supposed to do with this pile of cartilage.

Spicy dry pot chicken. Very boney, but a nice flavor and the potatoes in the sauce were good.

Bone in!

Overall Happy Table serves up decent but not great fare. I’m not even sure what region it really is, but the Northern and Szechuan dishes were pretty good (although I’ve had better). The Seafood and more Cantonese dishes were so-so. The place was empty too, and at 7:30 on a Friday night. But the service was great. We had a big private room with two tables (same room we ate in as New Bay). They were very attentive and served things up at a nice place, so I’ll give them an A+ for effort.

It’s different than New Bay, but doesn’t offer up the same level of super high end Cantonese at all, so the former will be missed as there are a good number of these mixed places.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

They are still located next to the best shaved ice place though.

Related posts:

  1. Heavy Noodling at JTYH
  2. Feasting Lunasia
  3. New Bay Seafood
  4. At the Roman Table
  5. Where in the world is Yanbian?
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , , , , ,

Goat Herding at Tar & Roses

May27

Restaurant: Tar & Roses [1, 2, 3]

Location: 602 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 587-0700

Date: May 19, 2015

Cuisine: American Tapas

Rating: The goat itself was good

_

Tar & Roses is a relatively new American tapas-style place in Santa Monica, loosely in the vein of Rustic Canyon or Gjelina. Despite the relative crowding of this market, it’s an extremely popular addition.

The Chef & Owner is Andrew Kirschner, a Santa Monica-native who grew up in a family with a strong appreciation for travel, food and wine, Chef Andrew Kirschner initiated his cooking education at the age of fifteen with a summer job in the kitchen of a local restaurant. Like many great chefs, his culinary journey started as a job, but quickly turned into a passion. After Kirschner became the sous chef for Chadwick in Beverly Hills, and then a chef/partner at the popular neighborhood spot Table 8 in West Hollywood, where he met and bonded with his Tar & Roses sous chef, Jacob Wildman.

One of our Hedonist founders is a part owner, and he secured us a big table for the special goat dinner.


The space is airy and pleasant.


Albiet a little loud.

Okay, and before we get into the food and wine like me discuss the menu. In order to get the “goat” you have to order the “goat dinner” with all its “accompaniments.” That is fine, but technically they don’t allow you to order anything else with it! And the dinner was totally insufficient in terms of course numbers (it’s a reasonable amount of food, but not balanced) for our wine consumption. We had to beg them to sell us some extra courses, to which they reluctantly agreed. The goat dinner is just 3 courses: salad, goat, and dessert.


2005 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons. VM 93. The 2005 Brut Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons from Pierre Peters is beautifully open and expressive, which is quite unusual in young Chetillons. That is good news for those who want to catch a glimpse of one of Champagne’s most exciting wines. This is about as good as it gets in what turned out to be a very challenging vintage in Champagne.

From my cellar: 1999 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 91. Big, powerful and rich aromatics of honey, oak spice and limestone merging into intense, medium weight flavors and a penetrating, relatively fine finish. While not especially big or complex by the standards of classic Bâtard, it is quite intense with beautifully textured, luxuriant, almost opulent flavors.

agavin 94: Our bottle was drinking fabulously tonight. Fresh, but mature, and in a perfect rounded spot. Wine wine of the night for sure.

Charred gem lettuce/ dates / pancetta / gorgonzola / balsamic. We all hated this salad. It was warm, which I don’t liked, limp, and had very little flavor. Even the bacon didn’t save it. Two other tables we talked to had the same reaction.


2004 Sine Qua Non The Rejuvenators. VM 93. Pale yellow-straw color. Aromas of apricot nectar, nuts, exotic herbs and dried fruits. Dense, rich and oily, but with plenty of verve for a wine with such volume. Dominant flavors of apricot and peach nectar, complicated by talc and minerals. Wonderfully consistent, ripe, thick wine from start to palate-staining finish.

agavin 92: Very interesting and complex Rhone style white.

This is the first of the four extra courses we squeezed in between the salad and the main course.

Softshell crab. A very nice lightly battered take on the thin shelled crustacean. One of the two very good appetizers.

From my cellar: 1993 Domaine Bruno Clair Vosne-Romanée Champs Perdrix. agavin 88. I was a bit disappointed. This wine wasn’t fully balanced, with a bit of an earthy/bretty tone, although it had lots of bright red fruits still.

lamb tartar / banana raita / grilled naan / za’atar. Okay, but lacked a bit of umph.

1988 Camille Giroud Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots. Burghound 90. This too is very fresh, in fact fresher than the Clos de Vougeot with a beguiling mix of spice and secondary aromas that lead to big, intense, firmly structured flavors that have plenty of sweet pinot sap to buffer the solid tannins. This is quite long, in fact the longest of these bottled wines and delivers unmistakable Vosne character. It remains a creature of its vintage and the finish is austere and masculine in style but there is plenty of volume and flavor authority. This will live for years.

agavin 93: Drinking very nice. Balanced without that austerity a lot of 88s have.

oxtail dumplings / san bai su / chili / green onion. These were great and we ordered an extra round (1 per person). Very succulent and full of flavor.

1982 Château Brane-Cantenac. VM 85. Full red-ruby. Slightly funky aromas of baked plum, cedar, meat and leather. Rich and layered in the mouth, with exotic, slightly candied red fruit and leather flavors. Finishes a bit hard-edged and green.

agavin 90: drinking pretty well right now, I wouldn’t hold though.

1998 Tertre Rôteboeuf. VM 94. Deep, bright ruby. Wild, highly nuanced nose combines black cherry, raspberry, roast coffee, smoked meat, exotic spices and pepper notes. Incredibly sweet and rich in the mouth; creamy, confectionery fruit caresses the palate. Finishes with lush, completely ripe tannins and explosive fruit flavors. One of the superstars of the vintage; a wine that will give pleasure early and age well.

agavin: seriously Bordy

1989 Château Palmer. Parker 96. One of the superstars of the vintage, Palmer’s 1989 retains a dark plum/purple color with some pink and a hint of amber creeping in at the rim. A big nose of charcoal, white flowers (acacia?), licorice, plums, and black currants comes from the glass of this elegant, medium to full-bodied, very concentrated, seamlessly made wine. Gorgeous and seemingly fully mature yet brilliantly balanced, this wine may well turn out to be a modern-day clone of the glorious 1953.

agavin: drinking well enough, young if anything.

braised lamb belly / minted apple chutney. Lot bad, but not standout either.

2002 Clarendon Hills Astralis (Shiraz). Parker 99. The 2002 Syrah Astralis Vineyard rivals the greatest wines Roman Bratasiuk has made in his 15-year career. This compelling, black/blue-hued offering from 75-year-old Syrah vines tastes like blood of the vine. An extraordinary perfume of flowers, creme de cassis, blackberries, roasted meat, new saddle leather, and earth is followed by a wine with sweet tannin, sensational concentration, full body, an unctuous texture, and a full-throttle, tannic finish. Yet it reveals unbelievable elegance and finesse. Too many Euro-centric elitists argue that Australian wines are too rich and over the top, but all of these offerings have been made by someone with great talent and vision who takes the extraordinary ripeness and purity of fruit available from these old vine vineyards and crafts them into wines that are quite European in style … just richer and denser. The 2002 Astralis is a tour de force. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2025+.

agavin: vanilla grape juice and hot hot hot.

2006 Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. Parker 92-97. The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select, which was just released, is a stunningly rich effort displaying notes of licorice, cassis, camphor and subtle toast along with a full-bodied, powerful texture and richness. Very pure with surprisingly sweet tannins for a 2006, it’s long finish lasts over 40 seconds. It should drink well for 25+ years.

2007 Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. Parker 100. One of the perfect wines from Shafer is the 2007 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. Think it over – in the first decade of the 21st century, Shafer scored three perfect scores and two 99s – that’s about as high a praise as I can give any producer in the world. Opaque purple in color, the 2007 has a stunning nose of sweet crème de cassis, black cherries, licorice, and toasty oak, a multilayered, full-throttle personality, and a texture that builds and builds. Great purity, fabulous fruit intensity and a richness without heaviness characterize this massive, prodigious effort from Shafer. It’s still very young, despite this vintage, which seems to be maturing precociously. I don’t believe this wine will hit its stride for at least another 5-10 years and drink well for at least 2-3 decades.

agavin: brooding monster fruit bomb

2001 Abreu Cabernet Sauvignon Madrona Ranch. Parker 100. While I am not surprised that the 2001 Thorevilos turned out to be perfect, the 2001 Madrona Ranch was more of an eye-opener in that it has become even more extraordinary than I predicted eight years ago. A prodigious wine, with complex notes of subtle barbecue smoke intermixed with blueberry pie, black currant liqueur, acacia flowers, lead pencil shavings, and sweet foresty floor notes, this wine builds incrementally with layer upon layer of fruit, glycerin and concentration. The finish goes well past a minute, and the wine is full-bodied and deep, with wonderfully sweet tannin. It is still an adolescent in terms of its total evolution, but it is irresistible simply because of the flawless nature of the wine and incredible perfume and flavor intensity. Simply amazing! Both of these wines are adolescents, and probably won’t peak for another 5-8 years and keep for 30-40.

agavin: This was an awesome monster. Certainly BWOTN (big wine of the night), although I actually found the 88 vosne more drinkable (my taste).

Roasted goat. This was hands down the best goat meat I’ve ever had! Soft, juicy, tender, and full of flavor. Like a good roast lamb, but not as “spicy” (in that lamb way). This is a special advance order. Apparently, the goat is prepped with Moroccan spices and then slow cooked overnight using Controlled Vapor Technology, before being transferred to the wood burning oven.

This isn’t tired and chewy like so many goats.

Cous cous with pine-nuts and vegetables. It is what it is.

Sauces (presumably for the goat): banana raita. Would have been far better as NOT BANANA raita.

Romesco / Harissa (aren’t they really almost the same thing?). This was the best of the lot.

Tomatoes. Personal yuck.

Carrots with yogurt tzatziki and currents. Really tasty combo with a bit of a Moroccan flair to it. Not bad, but not super exciting either.

Bones!

Tar bar. Hazelnuts / Salted Caramel Ice Cream. Yum!

Strawberry ricotta crostata / honeycomb ice cream. Very tasty.

Overall, this was an okay meal. The food was uneven, with certain dishes being very good (goat, crab, pasta) and some being mediocre, and the salad lousy. Service was not great, particularly given that we were a big party containing an owner. It took some pushing to get extra dishes, and when we asked for fries or potatoes later in the meal they “were out of them.” Potatoes being a rather basic kitchen ingredient, we were a little suspicious. We also had a number of fights over the heaters on the patio (which were numerous and turned up to broil). They just didn’t want to turn them off.

We can’t help but have the feeling that Tar & Roses is coasting on its momentum and success. Restaurants should never grow complacent — far far too much competition.

The wines were good though!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more crazy Hedonist meals, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Tar & Roses got your Goat?
  2. Memorial Day Pig
  3. Tar & Roses
  4. Big and Bold on the Beach
  5. Tai Sui – Froggy Goats
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , ,

Game of Thrones – Episode 47

May25

season-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 47 – May 24, 2015

Title: The Gift

Summary: In motion

ANY CHARACTER HERE

NOTE: SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING. This review/discussion contains tons of spoilers about the episode and even ones crossing over from the books. It’s really my free-for-all musing given all the information at my disposal.

First off, I wanted to put forth my perspective on the flack that’s been flying around the internet with regard to the demon in the room at the end of last week’s episode: namely, Sansa’s rape. Regardless as to whether it was a necessary plot point or not, the objections to this scene feel to me like a bunch of pseudo-feminist posturing. True: rape is a horrible thing. But when you place this particular event in the context of the show’s characters and narrative it’s also a complex thing — and besides, why can’t shows show horrible things? GOT doesn’t try to paint the act as a righteous one! First of all, Sansa CHOSE to be in this situation. Now, that doesn’t mean she deserves it, but she chose to go North with Littlefinger. She chose again (and the show paused on that choice) to say the words when marrying Ramsay. She knew full well that she was absolutely definitely certainly without a doubt going to have to sleep with the foul creep that night. She didn’t know she’d have an audience, but she chose to take one for team Stark for her own (more sympathetic) purposes. Second, and in the context of the “historical/cultural” period, there is no such thing as rape inside the confines of a marriage bed. This is incredibly important. I’m not defending this, but it was (and still is) a pervasive way of thinking. In the late middle ages (and that includes Westeros) there really wasn’t any other way of thinking to be had. Marriage was an economic transaction and women and their sexual availability were on the balance sheet. Period. Pointing that out, in contrast to our more “enlightened” modern perspective, is interesting and useful. Everyone should know where we have come from and how far we still have to go. Anyway, I don’t think anyone is confused about the fact that Ramsay is a sadistic, evil, bastard in both the literal and figurative sense. That’s why he’s a VILLAIN. We all hope Sansa gets him up on that red cross herself.

The Wall – GOT sure loves a good departure scene. Jon packs up his men and horses, and trots Tormund out. Thorne and Oly give him the stink eye. Jon, plays the adult and even gives Thorne command. His one fan is Sam, who gives him a jiggly hug and some obsidian daggers (could come in handy if things get creepy).

Jon-Snow-in-The-Gift-Official-HBO

Even when leaving, Jon gets in a good brood

Meanwhile, Maester Aemon is lying on his death. Sam and Gilly attend, and he compares Gilly’s baby to Egg (who grew up to be the mad king Aegon — get it). Gilly knows he is dying but Sam lingers on a long river in Egypt. But he fades anyway. This might be Westeros’ first natural death. Some have been deserves, some sudden, some slow, many violet, but I can’t remember one from old age or natural disease. Anyway, Sam delivers the eulogy, which is well handled, and the crowd lights him up. How come he burns? Are all dragons immune to fire? Or just Dany? Or only when alive? Afterward, Thorne makes sure to remind Sam that he’s a bit short on friends. We book readers all know where this thread is going.

Next, Gilly is doing laundry when a couple (drunk?) black-shirts wander in and start up that lecherous prelude to bad stuff routine. Sam appears with a sword but is easily disarmed and takes a vicious kicking for it. The redouble their efforts to compromise Gilly’s virtual and Sam stands to courageously defend her (with what? he had a sword and that didn’t work for him). But Ghost materializes and chases the scum away. Nice to see Ghost but we have to wonder why he didn’t go with Jon. Also, for that matter, now that Jon is Lord Commander why haven’t we seen more of Ghost? Why doesn’t he have a nice wolf-bed in the Lord Commander’s office?

Sam-and-Gilly-in-The-Gift-Official-HBO

Sam finally gets lucky

Anyway, Gilly cleans up Sam later in his chambers. Their chemistry is good. They both don’t want the other to come to any harm. Gilly knows he means it and kisses him. Which leads to a highly clothed sex scene as she clambers on top of him for a little ride. I think she might find it a little suffocating the other way around. But truth is, in its way, this is a tender little scene. They really are alone. With Jon, Aemon, and their better friends gone, Sam is left with the thugs — and Gilly. But he’s going to have a hard time protecting her from the scum, so I wonder if they will head out to Old Town.

Stannis – Is taking his sweet time crossing from the Wall to Winterfell, and is now stuck in the snowstorm. Things are cold and grim — horses are dying. Davos councils retreat, but Stannis won’t have it. The Red Lady suggests she can fix the problem and ensure his victory if he just serves up Shireen as a nice BBQ. Stannis is not happy with that choice.

How many times can they argue

How many times can they argue

Dorne – Are somewhat pointless Southern episode continues with Jaime “imprisoned” in a fine room in the Watergardens. Hotah brings in his daughter/niece so she can prove to him that she really doesn’t want a rescue. The girl does a pretty good job of it and it’s a bit of a shock to poor Jaime, who had hoped to do the “right thing” by her. Now she’s all grown up and a petulant teen who he truly “doesn’t know.”

Jaime-and-Myrcella-Official-HBO

Not the reunion he was looking for

Bronn has less appealing accommodations down in the dungeons, but he does have a trio of attractive neighbors in the Sand Snakes, who he delights with his musical talents. One of them (I don’t bother keeping them straight), but the prettiest of the bunch, oddly decides to give him a through the bars lap dance. Why, I really have no idea. When he rises, it’s clear that the little dagger slice we saw last week — and in the previews — meant he was poisoned. And she tells him point blank. And gives him the antidote. All without him having to do anything or say very much. Why? Why poison him then cure him? Is he cured? Hmmm. Like many interactions that are written without much source material from GRRM it feels a bit hollow.

Dany – is getting on her own sexy time with Dario. In fact, this episode has a lot of that, with various levels of gentleness. Their in bed chemistry is fine, but he doesn’t actually do much from a plot perspective, just continue to offer hawkish suggestions like “round up all the masters and slaughter them.” Dany isn’t up for that style of ruling. Dario is also, not in the least surprisingly, jealous of Hizdahr zo Loraq (shades of Myranda, but different). Dany assures him she’ll keep putting out.

Meanwhile, both themes continue on when she accompanies Hizdahr to a trashy looking “lesser pit” to witness some good old gladiator action. More on this in a second, but let’s just say Dany isn’t a fan.

Daenerys-in-The-Gift-Official-HBO

What’s with the white this season?

Jorah and Tyrion – are marched in chains to some slave auction in front of a lovely CGI background. Jorah is bid up for a high price, and when it looks to Tyrion like he’ll be left behind, he does what he does best, and talks. He does manage to win himself a (cheaper) buyout and head on with — but learns his place with a bit of a slap. Not sure I totally bought this sequence, but okay.

Next, in the fighting pits, Jorah is arming up and we learn that leading up to the Superbowl, men fight in the playoffs at lesser pits for a spot in the big event — or die. Reminded me of Spartacus. Some other guys are chosen and have a bit of a lame fight in front of Dany (above). Jorah, down in the dugout, hears them calling her name and rushes out with a helmet over his head. He makes short work of the whole lot of them while Tyrion desperately tries to get out of his chains. A mystery guy helps him by chopping them in half. Why? There seems to be a bunch of why in this episode. Anyway, he runs out too just as Jorah is pulling of his helmet to show himself to Dany. That’s quite the surprise (gift) and she isn’t pleased, but he offers up Tyrion, he is all for some gift wrapping (as opposed to chains). He tells her his name…

This is all much faster than in the books, and further along too because Tyrion and Jorah really miss her as she “takes off” at the end of ADWD. That part is good as the miss was very frustrating. But I would have liked to see Tyrion in the dwarf troop! I guess we will have to wait until next week to find out how this plays out.

Dynamic Duo

Dynamic Duo

Winterfell – Theon brings a tray to Sansa’s room, unlocking the door (i.e. she’s locked inside). He finds her crying in her bed. She gets up and she’s tear stained and her arms are all bruised. Apparently, Ramsay has been abusing her by night and locking her up by day. A sad sight actually 🙁 I’m still a little confused why she isn’t trying to get more a handle on Whack-a-doodle’s twisted psyche, but it sure is a raw deal anywhichway. Sansa asks Theon to light a candle for her in the broken tower. She begs him, reminding him of who is was. It seems she reaches him a bit. Next he is out in the courtyard, looking at the tower. He heads that way… to Ramsay. This is one of those classic TV/movie fake outs like with the door to Buffalo Bill’s house in The Silence of the Lambs.

So this brings us to Sansa being brought to Ramsay on the wall of Winterfell. He does his usual pretend nice while the snow pours down on them. She does grab a corkscrew. He blabbers on for her and the audience’s benefit about the storm, about Stannis, about Jon as Lord Commander. Now she starts in a bit on his weaknesses by reminding him about his pregnant mother-in-law — which does bug him, but it isn’t enough because he’s all excited to show him his latest project: the nice old lady who was on her side, all flayed up. This is rather grisly (as it usually is with Ramsay). Sansa now REALLY understands what a pickle she is in with Lord Nut-job. Makes Joff look like a kitten. But while I do understand that Theon spilled the beans, I don’t understand how that lead to the lady. Sansa never mentioned the lady. She either should have, or Ramsay should have said: “I did a little digging around the castle” or whatever. Like many other bits in this episode, a little off in the writing.

This state of affairs is quite grim, and we can only hope that Brienne and/or Stannis busts in and Ramsay gets what he deserves — preferably from Sansa’s hand. She needs to take more agency though.

Not the husband she was looking for

Not the husband she was looking for

Olenna – not one to rest while her grandchildren are in prison, stomps into the Sept looking for the High Sparrow. She finds him quick, swabbing the floors. She pretends she doesn’t recognize him and then offers him gold. This is confusing. She’s no dunce, and while I can readily buy that Cersei doesn’t recognize his fanaticism, she should. He gives her more blah blah about everyone being judged under the Seven. She threatens the food. He threatens her soul. She stomps out and gets a note from someone…

Presumably… Littlefinger, who she next visits in his ruined brothel. She tries to use her leverage on him for Joff’s murder, and he offers information, apparently “another boy” just like he gave Cersei. This is all a little loose but I have to assume that means that he told Olyvar to spin his tale for the High Septon, which explains why he looked so un-tortured. I still don’t buy it totally. It also presumably means that he is telling Olenna about Lancel, which I also have problems with, but more on that in a second.

Olenna-Tyrell-in-The-Gift-Official-HBO

Plots with the best of them

Cersei – is “consoling” her son about his missing wife. This is yet more of what she’s done a lot of this season, playing the calm innocent while plotting up a storm. It’s just more boring than her confrontations of prior seasons with Tyrion, her father, Ned or Robert. Tommen has grown, he’s taller than her. And he’s in quite a frustrated uproar about his lack of power with regard to freeing his wife. Now what happened to the military forces he commands? I’ve read quite my share of military history, and while the church often gave monarchs a lot of trouble they rarely managed to imprison them. It feels a touch light. “Innocent cersei” offers to talk to the Sparrow on Marg’s behalf. Right.

All this playing the innocent is growing old

All this playing the innocent is growing old

So she hikes on down to the Sept and pays a visit to Marg in her dungeon. Not the loveliest conditions, as the girl is chained barefoot in a filthy pit. Worse by far than even Bronn’s cell. No naked ladies either. Cersei continues her acting — which is boring, I liked her

better with venom — but Marg is not fooled, nearly spits at her.

After, Cersei stops by the Septon in some stony chapel. He announces that Loras and Marg will be tried separately by seven septons (including him). He then launches into a long diatribe about his philosophy of simplicity by using the metaphor of the gilded church and the simple chapel. This part I actually liked a lot and I felt consistent with religious reformer. There is a consistent pattern where religion becomes entrenched with the establishment and power structure and new more “minimalist” sects urge reform. Martin Luther was one such. Jesus preaching against the temple establishment another. It’s a prevalent but important duality in religious thinking.

Just because he has no shoes doesn't mean he can't kick your ass

Just because he has no shoes doesn’t mean he can’t kick your ass

 

But then the Septon brings out the real surprise. He trots out Lancel, clearly he knows (presumably as agency of Olenna/Littlefinger) about at least her incest with Lancel himself, maybe the poisoning of the king, and possibly (but less likely) about the whole Jaime/Cersei thing. Uh oh for momma queen. She is grabbed by nuns and dragged off — threats or no — to her own homey little cell. This overall miscalculation I buy. She is so cynical and manipulating that she was unable to see the Septon for what he was all along — true to his word. (clip below)

All in all an episode with a lot going on, but with serious flaws. The Dorne part was a little better, Tyrion good as always, Gilly/Sam pretty good, Winterfell excellent, and Cersei’s stuff half decent. But I had all these “why” problems. There were just a whole bunch of happenings that felt more like D&B needed the characters to do something more than their motivations warranted, or just connective arcs they wanted to draw but didn’t have enough space to make entirely clear.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

HBO inside the episodes:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 45
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 46
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 38
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 28
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

Yamakase Return

May22

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: May 15, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Even better than last time!

_

I’ve been meaning to get back to Yamakase for forever (2 years) and finally got around to booking the whole place again (which is really the only way to go!). The Foodie Club easily jammed in here. Not that 11 seats are that much to fill for such a great place.

This is the kitchen. Well it’s also half the room.


Yamakase is the brainchild of chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto and video game executive Stan Liu. Here Yama-san scoops out some Japanese Uni. The restaurant is Omakase only, serving up a single seating of epic creative Japanese Kaiseki/sushi.

Those little white squiggles are some kind of seasonal baby fish. Accompanied by Hokkaido uni, some kind of homemade tofu, green onions, and I don’t know what else. This is typical of the Yama style, a mixture of richness and various sea-born textures. Very very umami.

This is the pescatarian (no shell fish version) with a special kelp.

Baby eels. Seasonal baby eels with caviar and a kind of slightly spicy mayo sauce. One baby sea creature not being enough, we have the eels, which are almost like mung bean noodles in consistency. This was bowl licking good.

Sea bass. Instead of the eels.

Uni and baby fish. The fish are wrapped in shiso and drizzled with a puree of avocado or asparagus or something like that. Delicious.

Abalone. The softest abalone I think I’ve ever had.

Perhaps Amberjack. Another replacement for the abalone.

Sashimi. This delicate fish was with a slightly tangy sauce. Amazing again.

Japanese scallop. With a light lemony sauce. Absolutely amazing.

A whitefish with a similar sauce.

Bluefin tuna, caviar, pine nuts. Some of the best chunks of tuna I’ve had.

Bonito. Again in a lovely vinegar based sauce. The fish was melt in your mouth.

Various marinated seafood. Scallop, two kinds of shrimp, and a pickled baby peach.

A version with no shellfish.

Oyster spoon. Kushi Oyster, quail egg, uni, caviar. This single taste shot is an amazing combination of umami flavors.

The chef chunks up some foie gras.

Eggplant and Foie. Foie gras, caviar, Japanese eggplant.

Toro rules. Chopped toro on eggplant.

Floored. Chopped toro, crab guts and meat, quail egg, and truffle cheese. Yeah, truffle cheese. This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious.

Various spoons of toro, cheese, and quail egg.

This hairy crab from Hokkaido was still alive when we arrived.

Yama sets to work on them after steaming.

Served up steamed, simple, but delicious.

Red mullet or snapper cooked up in foil with mushrooms. The fungus turned into a lovely broth.

Ultimate bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good.

A more classic fish-based dashi soup.

Toro “Sandwich”. A slab of frozen toro on top of uni on top of some toast. Wow.

Yama flames up some beef.

Yama slices the beef. True Kobe wagyu.

Wagyu with truffles. Simply cooked, with a bit of a soy based sauce. Wow.

Toro with truffles and sea salt. Wow. This was just amazing. Very salty though.

Blue fin tuna sushi. Mouth watering.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Sea bass. To die for.

Chu toro. Lethal.

O toro. Even better.

O toro with salt. Wow, wow wow. These might have been rich, but they were some of the best nigiri I’ve had in a long long time. Chef Yama spent a lot of time cutting and probably threw away 2/3 of the fish.

A dessert sorbet. Baby Japanese peach (in season) with yuzu and mint. Very light and refreshing.

This was one of my best meals in a long time — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. The restaurant is only 11 seats. This made for a really fun time. We were there from 7 to midnight too. A total blow out.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “stew” were some of the best dishes I’ve had in forever.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

The one and only (and very attentive) server

Related posts:

  1. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  2. Yamakase – Burghound Bday
  3. N/Naka – Farewell to Foie
  4. Shunji Super Omakase
  5. Go Sushi Goes To Lunch
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

The Doctor is In

May20

Restaurant: Republique [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Location: 624 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036. (310) 362-6115

Date: May 12, 2015

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

Rating: Nice (loud) space, tasty hip food, great service

_

OMG, Republique again! This time for another special wine dinner, hosted by Sage Society and featuring Ernst Loosen of Weingut Dr Loosen, one of the world’s premier riesling producers.

The main interior is nearly church-like. It’s been all opened up and looks great, but it’s big, tall, and covered in hard surfaces. That means loud! We just had our appetizers here, before moving to the quieter private room upstairs.


On the left is Ernst Loosen, owner of the winery and on the right our hostess, Liz Lee of Sage society.

Flight 0: Champagne


NV Guillaume Sergent Champagne Les Prés Dieu. 90 points. Very nice, young bright acid bomb of a champagne.

Potato chips, mashed potato, caviar. The chip was super rich. Really the mashed potatoe tasted like butter! The caviar was a bit overwhelmed, but certainly delightful.

Smoked hamachi croquettes. With pickled radish. Like a fancy modern version of the classic Spanish cod croquettes.

NV Doyard Champagne Cuvée Vendémiaire Brut. VM 89. The NV Brut Cuvée Vendémiaire is a beautiful wine that shows lovely complexity in its aromas and flavors, suggesting a period of extended aging on the lees and/or a relatively high percentage of reserve wines in the blend. The Cuvée Vendémiaire shows plenty of Chardonnay character and a refined, subtle mousse that is a result of the lower-atmosphere vinification. The Vendémiaire is made from parcels in Vertus, Avize, Cramant, Oger and Le Mesnil.

Tuna tartar crostini. Avocado mousse.

Upstairs is much quieter and more intimate.


Tonight’s special menu. As usual it was designed/produced by chef Walter and Liz Lee.

Before we get into the Riesling itself, it’s worth looking at the chunks of Mosel that Ernst brought. From the bottom to the top, gray slate, red slate, and red volcanic stone. Different vineyards we tasted tonight have different compositions of these stony soils.

Flight 1:

This flight, and its 3 wines, all come from the same vineyard, same year, same juice. The only difference is the juice was placed into three separate barrels and aged on its lees for 12, 24, and 36 months respectively. They are all dry.

2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs. 90 points. Gorgeous nose. Probably the best nose of the three as it was fruitier and more open. Mineral, fresh nose; great acid, more mineral.


2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs Reserve. 92 points. A little more closed at first but with poise and balance. Drinking very nicely.


2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs “Hommage”. 90-94 points. This smells and tastes like a wine that needs more time, but hints of additional complexity. Maybe even some grapefruit. Really nice and unique.

Vichyssoise. Oyster, uni. A delicious slurry of green with briny orange lumps.

Flight 2:

A trio of 2013 dry rieslings from different terriors, all made in the same basic style.

2013 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 90 points. This had the best nose, but was the softest, perhaps most elegant, and subtle of the flight.

2013 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. To my taste this had more zing.

2013 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. Extremely similar to the Ürziger Würzgarten.

Dutch White asparagus. Morel mushroom, meyer lemon sabayon. A pretty classic version of the in-season delicacy. The sauce was so buttery good, we had to order bread to sop it up. An amazing pairing.

Flight 3:

A pair of 2011 dry rieslings from the same vineyard, Erdener Prälat, which many regard as the greatest of Mosel Valley Grand Crus. The only difference is the reserve was aged in barrel for 24 instead of 12 months.

2013 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. Very nice.

2011 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben Reserve. 94 points. The extra time in the barrel clearly works because the reserve is just better on all fronts. There is more balance, more power, and a clear feel of longer aging potential. Again, this is from a wine that is essentially identical except for the time in barrel.

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn. Bonito, yuzu, shitatke mushroom, brown butter. Scrumptiously soft and sweat with more of that crazy good butter sauce. Head sucking good.

Flight 4:

Now we move up to sweet and back in time, with a trio of Spatlese.

1989 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Light yellow in color, this wine smells and tastes very fresh with a great mixture of youngish fruit ( singed peaches and citrus ) along with some aged characteristics of smoke and a little petrol. Medium bodied with a long finish, this wine seems to be at it’s peak now.

1973 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese. 89 points. Maybe I’m not totally used to old Riesling, but this was certainly mature. Sous bois. Fresh though. Weird complex notes. Certainly in great shape for its age.

2002 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese Auction. 93 points. I loved the fresh sweetness of this bottling.

Cook ranch pork chop. polenta, stone fruits, brown butter sauce. Walter dropped the curry and lentils (on the menu) at the last minute. This undoubtedly paired better. Perhaps an unusual wine/food melding, but a phenomenal one. Very tender meat, nicely sweetened up by the fruit.

Flight 5:

Now getting into the old sweet stuff, but not yet the mega sweet.

1971 Christoffel-Berres Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 93 points. Here I thought the increased sweetness offset the oxidation of aging in a more harmonious way. Really quite nice and rounded.

1966 Christoffel-Berres Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 89 points. This wine might be a little flawed, or just 49 years old!

Sweet potato agnolotti. Foie gras, applewood-smocked bacon. Wow! As if the agnolotti wasn’t amazing, through in bacon, and if that wasn’t enough, a huge chunk of foie!

Flight 6:

And our final flight is the mysterious and massive long Goldkapsel, with 100% shriveled raisiny fruit!

2004 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese long Goldkapsel Auction. 96 points. Like liquid candy. Fabulous power and depth.

1999 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Lange Goldkapsel Auction. 95 points. Most people liked the 2004 better, but I kind of loved the 1999 because it had a real long zingy finish.

Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese. Fruit bread. Local honeycomb. A nice might blue cheesy that offset the intense sweetness of the wines nicely.

Again Liz organizes a great dinner. The wines were first class. I hadn’t known exactly what to expect, but these were some of the best rieslings I’ve had — and I love riesling. Lots of variety and complexity and there is a consistent harmony to the Loosen wines. Lovely stuff. Plus, Ernst was highly informative and engaging, and I felt I learned quite a bit about the different processes and decisions employed at the winery — where they make a fairly bewildering array of wines from each vineyard (all with long German names, of course).

Walter really does his best work at these custom dinners. First of all, you get new dishes. Second, he really tunes them up to the wines at a superlative level. It isn’t easy to make an entire multi course meal that pairs with Riesling, but the Walter/Liz team rose to the occasion again!

As usual, Taylor did an amazing job with the wine service.

An overall fabulous afternoon.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Trimbach Republique
  2. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , , , ,

Game of Thrones – Episode 46

May17

season-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 46 – May 17, 2015

Title: Unbowed Unbent Unbroken

Summary: Mostly great

ANY CHARACTER HERE

First off, this week I was watching the titles and realized that the little symbols next to the cast names are the houses. How I never noticed that before I will never know, having watched every episode 2-4 times. Goes to show. There are even made up symbols of the writers and producers.

NOTE: SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING. This review/discussion contains tons of spoilers about the episode and even ones crossing over from the books. It’s really my free-for-all musing given all the information at my disposal.

Arya – We open we house fave in the house (of Black and White). She’s washing a body, but we presume some time has gone by because Arya looks different. Her hair is longer, more girlish, she wears new clothes (after years!). She wonders what they do with the bodies, a thought conveyed by images (the slightly ajar door). When she goes for it, the door is slammed shut by the blonde acolyte. They argue, Arya is impatient. She asks how the other girl got here, and she tells a story of having poisoned her stepmother. But is it true?

Next, Arya is awoken in the middle of the night by Jaqen H’ghar and questioned. Who is she? She tells her story with carefully inserted lies. At each lie, he knows and whips her. But when she gets to the Hound, she lies to herself. Thinks she hated him. An interesting and painful testing.

Later, she is scrubbing the floors upstairs again and a man brings in a sick little girl. He has been trying to heal her, but she suffers continually. Arya goes and tells her a convincing story of how she was healed and serves her the water. Dr. Kevorkian junior. Jaqen having looked on, continues to spy on her while she then cleans the body downstairs. He leaves the door to the next level open and Arya follows him down the same flight of stairs as above to the next giant chamber, this one held up by enormous columns filled with death masks (presumably of everyone serviced by the house). It has me wondering, when Jaqen collected deaths outside on his travels, do those faces end up there. Also gives meaning to the term “many faced god.” NOTE: according to GRRM these are actually the skinned literal faces of the dead, and they magically pull them over their own — I guess they carry around a pouch of “options”.

A boy very much likes Jaqen, and particularly when he intones,”A girl is not ready to become no one, but she is ready to become someone else.”

Overall, an effective and slightly creepy yet serious advancement of Arya’s story. I have to assume next week she’ll be out selling seafood and presumably murdering Meryn Trant.

Arya-and-Jaqen

A girl has leveled up

Jorah and Tyrion – Are washing up waterside. They haven’t come to any villages yet and Ty complains about his diet of berries (and presumably lack of wine). Jorah apparently never asked why Ty is here, but they get into it and the sordid tale of Patercide and Tywin sleeping with Shae is slipped out. Ty mentions that at least Jorah had a good dad (because he new him), and then Jorah learns that dad is dead (Ty didn’t know he didn’t know). What he get here is one superlative bit of speechless acting on the part of Jorah, who’s look says it all. Some nice moments between the two.

Jorah-and-Tyrion-Official-HBO

Hard not to like this bromance

Later, as they saunter past some lovely Croatian cliffs, they discuss belief and Jorah confesses to also being a non-believer until he say Dragon’s born in flame. He doesn’t get into his super crush on Dany, but who blames him. They discuss the Targaryens until Jorah notices that same ship (the one pictured below with me — it’s a rental in Dubrovnik). Pirates instantly ambush them.

img_2239

Jorah and Ty aren’t the only one to spot that pirate ship

Poor Jorah seems to take the brunt of the interrogation, as these Summer Islanders use his face as a punching bag. But he at least will fetch a press. The conclude Ty is only good for his “special parts,” but in typical Tyrion fashion he uses his best asset (his tongue) and talks his way into slavery instead — even upgrading it to sell Jorah as a fearsome warrior fit for the fighting pits of Meeren. Classy escort right to where they are going.

Littlefinger – Enters Kings Landing only to be confronted by brother Lancel and schooled on the new boring no-fun order of things. Which does ellicit the awesome, “We both peddle fantasies, Brother Lancel.” But by the time he reaches Cersei he is well informed as usual on the whole situation. They trade barbs about incest and lady Lysa, but then get to the point. Cersei wants to know if he will fight for “the king” and he tells her what she wants to hear — then “spills the beans” about Sansa and the Boltons, leaving out only his own role. She goes ballistic and after he suggests various solutions he knows full well she doesn’t have the power to use (like Uncle Kevan or Jamie) he suggests his knights of the vale can pick up the pieces — if he is named Warden of the North. Of course he also probably has in mind picking up Sansa too. But clearly Littlefinger always serves only Littlefinger, and his naked ambition is there for us to see.

petyr-baelish-game-thrones

Dr. Evil is back!

Tyrells – Nice view of Dubrovnik/Kings Landing as Lady Olenna’s coach (which is one of those old, almost Roman style wheelhouses) rolls up. The Queen of Thorns wastes no time catching up with Margaery and the Loras situation. Thinking she has things in hand she braces Cersei. Things don’t go as smoothly or as amusingly as they did with Tywin. This season the dour Cersei hasn’t been a very amusing foil. She just blames things on the Faith, trying to play it down as a minor inquest. Olenna, oddly enough, is stymied. Where is the master manipulator that took out the diabolical Joffrey?

Game-of-Thrones-Preview-Unbowed-Unbent-Unbroken-VIDEO

The queen of thorns isn’t prickly enough this episode

Later, we are in the inquest itself, with the High Septon/Sparrow interrogating the chief Tyrell Pillowbiter (Olenna’s words, not mine — at least she didn’t call him a feather spitter). Everyone important is there, including Tommen and Queen Marg. Loras denies the charges. The queen is called and denied the charges (and I know where this is going), oh Cersei you dog you. Then they roll in Olyvar or whatever Littlefinger’s brothel manager’s name is and he contradicts both their stories — with the Dorne-shaped birthmark as evidence. Marg is arrested for lying to the church.

I was not a big fan of this whole sequence. Being a student of church/religious history I think they could have handled it better. First of all, at the very least Olyvar shouldn’t have looked so spiffy and happy to spill the beans. In those real situations, a witness like him was dragged in from a filthy prison and a bit of hard handling from the rack. This would have lent more weight to it, been more plausible. I thought this was effective in the Tudors when Marg’s (did I say that, I meant Anne Boleyn) was put on trial for infidelity. The musician’s “confession” (pulled out of him on the rack) was used as creepy evidence there. Even at his execution he couldn’t walk, joints pulled out of the sockets you know. Plus, GOT never sells the full religious take over of Kings Landing effectively — although I admit it would be a costly and difficult thing to sell in a short amount of screen time.

game-of-thrones-02

Uh oh, pillowbiting AND purgery

Dorne – Finally, after a couple bits of foreplay we get to the main event in Dorne, but the foreplay was pretty rushed and so is the coupling. First, Doran Jr (Trystane) and Myrcella are having a heart to heart. He wants to ask his father about marrying her right away. She asks him if it’s because they are betrothed and he kisses her all hot and heavy — apparently they are supposed to be a love match. They are a cute couple if nothing else.

Nell-Tiger-Free_Toby-Sebastian-photo-Macall-B.-Polay-HBO

The cute couple

Doran and Hotah look on, and Doran tells Hotah to watch out for them, all too timely given the events that are coming. Why they call his guandao-like thing an axe is beyond me.

Meanwhile, Jaime and Bronn, dressed as Dornish warriors are riding all hot and heavy up to the Watergardens. Their jokes are good as usual. Jaime: “I like to improvise” Bronn: “That explains the golden hand.”

Seems the triple timing thing is dead on. Ellaria Sand is with the Sand Snakes in the basement swearing some battle oaths. The snakes then sneak out into the Gardens and this is intercut with Jaime/Bronn in the very same gardens — obviously Andalusia. Jaime catches up with Myrcella and Trystane considering if they want to sneak from first to second base and he tries to get her to come with. He’s surprised when she isn’t interested and things go sideways as Bronn knocks out the Prince and the Sand Snakes whip into the scene.

The ensuing 3 on 2 whip/sword/knife/spear fight is okay, but feels a bit unrealistic. Why doesn’t Bronn just slice that whip? In any case, one snake almost gets away with Myrcella only to have Hotah show up and arrest everyone. Even Ellaria, as we see a half scene later.

I wasn’t thrilled with this whole sequence either, and it and the Kings Landing stuff is definitely the weakest in the episode. Drone, despite the marketing build up, hasn’t turned out to be that exciting. It wasn’t in the books either, but I was hoping that Jaime and Bronn would spice it up.

Areo-Hotah-Official-HBO

Don’t mess with the big guy

Winterfell – brings us to new fave Sansa in her room. Myranda comes to “draw her bath,” supposedly sent by Ramsay, but it doesn’t really seem that way. While washing out Sansa’s dark hair die for her wedding night she gets all psycho (no wonder she and Ramsay are so close) and talks about Ramsay’s other girlfriends and their sad ends. Sansa isn’t fooled by all this, and taking a page from Tyrion/Littlefinger turns it around asking how long she (Myranda) has been in love with Ramsay. She puts on a good show, and after the other girl leaves lets it all out in private.

And she does look splendid in her white wedding dress with furry shoulders when Theon/Reek (actually cleaned up for a change) comes to get her. She shows him no kindness but follows him out to the Godswood. This is a smaller, northern wedding, more like Robb’s. It looks lovely though in the snow with the lanterns. Theon announces her and Roose Ramsay, and they exchange words. Theon even names himself, in which it’s not totally sure if that was planned/allowed. Sansa hesitates to “take her groom” but eventually does.

The bridal chamber is nicely decked in candles and furs. Let’s hope it wasn’t by Myranda or there might be some dog shit in the bed. Ramsay gets all creepy as usual. First he talks about being honest with each other, grills her on her virginity, then orders Theon to stay and watch (which is borrowed from, but much milder than in the books). Next he orders her to strip, and Sansa plays along. It would also be in character for her to stick up for herself a little more here, but she submits pretty meekly. But still, here she is knowingly taking one for team Stark (on which she thinks she is the only player). It’s pretty sad and hard to listen too as Ramsay just takes her. Everyone else is pretty much crying.

Man three is not the charmer

Man three is not the charmer

All in all a great episode, but not entirely perfect. The Arya, Jorah/Ty, and Sansa sections (which make up 2/3) are great. Kings Landing was so-so. I had higher hopes for the return of the Queen (of Thorns). Dorne was a decided disappointment and the Wall and Dany had the week off. I do want to see what Sansa is going to do in her new situation and how the whole Stannis army thing shakes out!

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

HBO’s inside the episode:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 37
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 35
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 31
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

Homestyle Korean Double Dinner

May15

Restaurant: Seong Buk Dong

Location: 3303 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 738-8977

Date: May 7, 2015

Cuisine: Korean

Rating: Super flavors

_

My friend Liz Lee of Sage Society wanted to take a bunch of us out to her favorite homestyle Korean restaurant, but they don’t allow alcohol, so we decided to do a “double dinner” with a part 1 at Republique (including wine) and a part 2 at Seong Buk Dong.

We sat near the Republique bar, early in the evening.

I just had to show off their Normandy butter.

Tonight’s menu.

Liz, being Liz, whipped out a bottle of P2! (Dom Perignon’s high end cuvee). Check out the fancy box.

1998 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon P2. VM 95. Pale gold. Intense, mineral-tinged citrus and orchard fruit aromas, with a suave jasmine nuance adding complexity. Smoky and penetrating on the palate, offering vibrant orange, anise and toasted brioche flavors and a touch of poached pear. Shows outstanding clarity and power on the mineral-driven finish, which clings with remarkable tenacity and resonating florality. This late-release bottling was formerly called Oenotheque; P2 stands for Plenitude Two.

agavin: Fresh, bright, and delicious. Got better and better in the glass.

Oysters, 3 types.


Bread and normandy butter.


2000 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 97. Very pale color. Extraordinary nose reminded me of a great riesling from schist soil: pineapple, wet stone, iodine, spring flowers, even a hint of petrol. Compellingly rich and ripe but extremely dry, with great breadth and depth of flavor. Coats the palate with liquid stone. Builds slowly and goes on and on; all minerals and white flowers today, not yet fruity at all. A wine of great precision and suavity, but with its richness and sweetness it comes across as less sharp than the Forest. I couldn’t get this wine out of my head on my drive to Paris the next day and on the flight home: is that long, or what?

agavin: fine, but not as good as the 2002


Tempura. Green beans, zucchini flowers, sweet onions, fresno chilies, basil aioli. Some great tempura, amplified by the pesto-like aioli. The zucchini and chilies were particularly good.


2002 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 96+. Very ripe but unforthcoming aromas of wet stone, honey and oatmeal. Extremely primary on the palate, with bracing grapefruit and mineral flavors and superb vibrancy. This offers great sweetness and breadth without any impression of weight. Finishes with explosive citrus and mineral flavors and great finesse. Wonderfully refreshing wine that’s the perfect antidote to dry mouth. Like the young 2003, the finish of this wine seems to come in waves.

agavin: awesome depth and complexity.

Crispy Soft Shell Crab. Just pure fried crab — awesome!


From my cellar: 1995 Pierre Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 92 points agavin. Fresh, young, still some reduction. Meursault richness, very nice.

Charcoal grilled Atlantic Calamari and razor clams. Very fresh.

Chips and Dip. Crispy pork rinds…

Ora king salmon crudo, cucumber, yogurt. Really good stuff. I particularly liked the dill.


1991 Domaine Groffier Bonnes Mares. agavin 90. No nose, but a nice palette.

Grass-fed beef tartare. tarragon aioli, pickled red onion, potato chips.


1996 Domaine Leroy Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots. VM 92-94. Excellent deep ruby-red color. Subdued but vibrant aromas of cassis, blackberry and violet. Superb sweetness and flavor intensity; penetrating flavor of spicy blackberry. Lovely acidity gives the wine juiciness and great cut. Very persistent and fine on the finish. Has fruit of steel. Great Nuits-Saint-Georges premier cru.

agavin: Really nice with a sexy nose and that classic Leroy style. Lots of depth.

Charcuterie. All sorts of amazing pates. Pickled vegetables. Spiced persimmons which were to die for, cured duck, and salami.

Duck Liver mousse — amazing and some other kind of potted meat.

Duck filled agnolotti in brown butter sauce. Amazing pasta. Rich too, no surprise.


The wine lineup.

We ubered over to K-Town to visit this slice of Korea.

Looks the part inside.


The menu.

Barley tea.

Banchan.

Delicious Kimchi.

Pickled spiced green.

Pickled spiced green.

Egg custard with greens.

Chewy sweet beans.

Marinated bean sprouts.

Seaweed.

White rice, necessary to sop up the spicy sauce.

Godeungeo Jorim. Braised Mackerel in a spicy soy sauce mixture with white radish and kimchi. Amazing sauce and very tender fish. I particularly loved the daikon radish.

Galbi Jjim. Braised Beef Short Ribs. trimmed of (some) fat, seasoned in a sweet soy sauce & braised until tender. So tender, this was some of the best “beef stew” I’ve ever had.

Jaeyuk Bokum / Kimchi Bokum. A stir fry of sour kimchi, fatty pork, & green onion. Amazing dish. The pork was full of flavor and the kimchi sauce was awesome and balanced. This is actually relatively similar to the twice cooked pork we had the previous night at Lucky Noodle King, but about 10x better.

Samgyre Tang. Ginseng Chicken Soup. Tender whole young chicken stuffed w/ ginseng, jujubes, sweet rice and whole garlic cloves & simmered until tender. Homestyle Korean chicken soup, which is much like any chicken soup. A bit mild for my taste, but certainly very tender.

Jogi Gui. Grilled yellow croaker. Classic grilled fish.

Haemul Pajeon. Seafood and green onion pancake. Tender young green onion steams folded into a flour batter with squid, clam meat, and oysters. Pan fried.

The all important pancake sauce.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Totoraku Double Meat Madness
  2. Fraiche – Ultimo Wine Dinner
  3. Friday Night Heights – Shabbat Dinner
  4. Sam’s by the Beach – Mom’s Annual Dinner
  5. Eating Tuscany – Villa Dinner
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

Lucky Noodle King is the Dan Dan Emperor

May13

Restaurant: Lucky Noodle King

Location: 534 E Valley Blvd #10, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 573-5668

Date: March 11 & May 6, 2015

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Amazing Dan Dan

_

I had a craving for Chinese noodles so strong I drove 60 miles round trip by myself for them! Well, not just for any noodles, but for what Jonathan Gold describes as “the best Dan Dan in LA.”


Located in the same mini-mall as Hunan Chili King, the location isn’t much to look at.


Although I find this kind of “authentic” SGV homey and comfortable. Oh, and see those dishes on the wall? That’s about a quarter of the “decorations.” We ordered by saying, “bring us the wall.” (i.e. every pictured dish)!

Everyone gets this starter, spicy pickled cabbage with peanuts. You might say, ick, but it was actually delicious. There was Szechuan peppercorn in there and it had this delight interplay of crunch and numbing spice.



NV Camille Savès Champagne Brut Grand Cru Rosé. Burghound 93. Savès typically makes a relatively deeply colored rosé by the standards of the genre and this latest version is no exception. The cool and distinctly pinot nose also reflects notes of various red berry fruit aromas though notes of yeast are discernible. The delicious, intense and very crisp flavors are underpinned by a fine effervescence that is perfect for the mouth feel of a rosé that is actually much more vinous than most examples, in particular because there is a wonderfully savory quality to the long finish that practically begs for another sip. Lovely stuff that could be enjoyed now or aged, though it is so good presently that I doubt that a case would make it much past a year or so in my cellar


Pork potstickers. Fairly typical versions.

2003 Joh. Jos. Prüm Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spätlese. 90 points. Some spritz in the initial glass — nose of honey and peach with some sulfur. very nice palate — medium acidity — not quite enough, but almost there. honeydew melon with a sprinkle of sugar, other melon flavors, tropical fruit, peach, and red apple. i really liked the taste of this, even if the nose wasn’t anything special. shortish finish leaves you wanting another sip — at 8% alcohol.

Numb taste wontons. Nice soft pork wontons coated in…

Chili oil. There was some Szechuan peppercorn action here.

2007 Reinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese. JG 93. 85 grams per liter residual sugar. Haart reports that the grapes were picked two weeks after the Kabinett and showed higher-than-average must weight. Fine petrol and mineral aromas open into a dazzling purity of concentrated stone fruit and green-gage plum, with notes of earth and mushroom appearing on the long, refined finish.

Beef, beef tendons, tofu. This cold dish was dominated by chile and cilantro.

Stir fried shredded pork with dried bean curd. I thought I’d like this dish, and I was right. A slightly sweet savory pork with that stiff tofu, night textural counter point. Even the crunch of the celery and the chew of the greens went nicely.

2003 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Auslese. 90 points. The best parcel of Schlossberg was harvested November 19 in a single pass as an experiment in block picking, which was standard practice until recent times. “We gambled and we were lucky,” says Selbach. The varied condition of the bunches-“without any skimming or homogenization,” in the winemaker’s words-is directly mirrored in the wine’s complexity, with fresh tropical fruit and citrus notes; spiced, baked and dried orchard fruits; and honey-drenched, ennobled white raisins all taking a turn in the spotlight. That said, the overall impression, without lacking elegance, is certainly fatter and softer than the norm here this year, which may of course say as much about the lateness of the picking as it does about its comprehensiveness. The texture is also uniquely doughy, with a lovely, subtle chewiness. Potential 2 stars.

Pork intestine with pickled pepper. A spicy mix of pig guts and whatnot. The sauce was pretty good and the chitlins had this earthy flavor — not my thing.

From my cellar: 2000 Trimbach Pinot Gris Sélection de Grains Nobles. VM 93-95. Bright medium gold. Superripe aromas of apricot jam, exotic spices, honey and tobacco; just misses the clarity of the best SGN bottlings from this producer. Very dense but not hugely unctuous thanks to firm, perfectly integrated acidity. Sappy, vibrant and very long on the aftertaste.

Ma-Po Tofu. I always order this when I can. This was a nice version. Not the best I’ve ever had, but darn good. I could just have used a bit more numbing (like Chengdu — well, that’s more than a bit more numbing). And there was a good amount of SMG (probably), or at least salt. But it got my head sweating a bit.

Dan dan noodles. This is what the trip was all about. Soft noodles, lots of meat, peanuts, some peanut or sesame goop, mustard, green onions, and chili oil.


You mix it up into this incredibly savory porridge of meat, spice, and carbs. It’s super addictive, tasting just ok on the first bite and getting better and better as you work through the bowl.

Noodles with meat soy sauce. Sort of Szechuan spaghetti Bolognese. Not spicy, but rich and tasty.

Mixed up.

ChongQing sour & Spicy cold noodles. These classic mung bean noodles are covered in a tangy spicy sauce with both chile and numbing heat. Yum.

2011 Domaine Joseph Roty Marsannay. Burghound 87. A mildly toasty nose of red currant and dark pinot fruit gives way to energetic and quite fresh middle weight flavors that possess acceptably good depth on the moderately long, clean, cool and balanced finish where a bit of oak toast surfaces. This is both slightly rustic and austere though there is very solid length.

ChongQuing Spicy Chicken. Very fried chicken with aromatic peppers. This was some fabulous fried chicken — very fried — with a nice delicate pepper flavor.

Have some peppers!

2009 Gaston & Pierre Ravaut Ladoix 1er Cru Les Basses Mourotttes. I’ve never even heard of this appelation — or if I did I forgot it.

Cumin lamb. The traditional wet form of this dish. Hot with a lot of cumin.

Stir fried pork belly with vegetables. Bacon and greens?

2011 Cameron Pinot Noir Arley’s Leap. 90 points. Clear, light ruby color. Bold spice elements (tobacco, black pepper, oregano, pickled peppers) accenting the bright cranberry and red plum fruit, hints of light roast coffee. Bright acid makes this refreshing to drink, fine-grain tannins help as well. The red plum, cranberry and red cherry fruit is crunchy and fresh, gliding across the palate. This wine has a whole lot of pickling spices and mineral notes working for it, and it’s hitting all the right spots. Cool, clean, complex yet elegant. Ready to drink now but the stuffing for some near-term aging is here. From the highest vines in the Abbey Ridge Vineyard, this is a stunner for my palate.

Not sure what meat this was, beef or pork. It had a lot of flavor though and was fairly mild.

Crazy flavor in savory spiced eel. I admit, I wanted to order this dish — but I regretted it. Not only was it spicy and VERY oily, but it had this fishy flavor that made me nervous.

2009 Alban Vineyards Syrah Reva Alban Estate Vineyard. VM 93-97. Inky purple. Alban’s 2009 Syrah Reva is drop-dead gorgeous. Sumptuous, layered and absolutely impeccable, the 2009 boasts stunning depth and richness but it is never overdone or excessively heavy. Today, the aromas and flavors remain intensely primary, so readers will have to be patient. Still, the Reva is simply thrilling, pretty much as it always has been from barrel. As compelling as Alban’s higher-end Syrahs are, in 2009 I prefer the Reva, as it is the most polished, impeccable and balanced wine in the range. It will be interesting to follow the development of these wines over the next few years.

Twice cooked pork. This was some tough old pig. Very “gamey” and not in a great way.

Fish filet w/ spicy sauce. The sauce was excellent with a lot of numbing peppercorn.

Braised Beef noodles. Like a Pho basically. Quite nice.

Tomato & Fried egg noodles. Different, and not bad at all.

Contrary to internet complaints, the service was excellent. But for me, the single lady was extremely nice and friendly — and the food came out fast and hot. They were extremely on top of it (by SGV standards).

Lucky Noodle King is a homestyle place, and some of the dishes are great. Most of the noodle dishes (particularly the Dan Dan), the fried chicken, etc. Some of the dishes were fine, like the cumin beef, or the Ma Po tofu. However, their meat quality isn’t the highest, so there was a gamey factor with a bunch of dishes and they are heavy handed with the chili oil. Not that I mind the spice, but the ill feeling after Szechuan is directly related to the amount of chili oil consumed.

For most dishes, Spicy City and several other places are a bit better.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Lucky Ducky
  2. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  3. More Awesome Dimsum – King Hua
  4. Chengdu Taste – Power of the Peppercorn
  5. Serious Szechuan
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,

Game of Thrones – Episode 45

May10

season-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 45 – May 10, 2015

Title: Kill the Boy

Summary: Awesome episode

ANY CHARACTER HERE

First off, this is one of those medium focus episodes, which are my favorites. By medium I mean that it covers a limited number of threads, but not just one (like Blackwater). I like these episodes that have some different threads to cut between, but enough time to lavish on more detail. Those that cover more than 3-4 threads tend to feel rushed.

NOTE: SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING. This review/discussion contains tons of spoilers about the episode and even ones crossing over from the books. It’s really my free-for-all musing given all the information at my disposal.

Dany – Because we ended with Dany, we might as well start with her as the episode does. Or to be specific, with Missandei watching over an recovering Gray Worm — he breathes, so as we suspected, he is alive. Not so much luck for Barristan who is lying in state in the pyramid with Dany and Dario looking on. Hizdahr zo Loraq approaches. Dario suggests they retreat to the pyramid and lay waste to the rest of the city. Dany is the retreat type and has her men round up the leaders of all the noble families — including Hizdahr.

Down in the basement (of Diocletian’s Palace), she has the unsullied drive the nobles toward the two dragons that wait in the dark. One is push forward, roasted, torn in half, and makes a nice two course reptilian feast. Dany is in her “calm, cold, and pensive” mode, which I quite like, and she lets the others off easier with a bit of incarceration.

Three days later, Gray Worm wakes up, and Missandei is still there. He learns about Barristan and announces to her that he failed his comrade. Of course, being in love with him, and him being totally outnumbered and having survived, she isn’t in the slightest bit mad at him. He admits that he was ashamed that at the last minute he was afraid — of not seeing her again. She kisses him, thinking fondly of the smooth patch between his legs.

game-of-thrones-sons-of-the-harpy

Curtain call for one of these two

But as this is a good day for Missandei, she next visits with Dany who seeks her advice. Dany is open and receptive, and Miss tactfully points out that Dany sometimes takes her advisor’s council, and sometimes has to do it her own way. Which is quite apropos as Dany has another of her unorthodox solutions in mind. She heads down to Hizdahr’s cell and tells him she will reopen the pits and — this is way more exciting — marry him. Of course, in true GOT fashion she makes a nice joke of it. He, for his part, having assumed he was about to die is only concerned with cleaning up his linen tighty whities.

I might as well discuss here the elephant in the room. In the books, Barristan continues on living, has his own POV chapters in fact. And here the producers have decided to snip him out of the story. His thread was pretty boring in ADWD anyway, and this episode’s Dany section is the best she has been in a long long time, so power to them.

Jon and the Wall – Sam is reading about Dany (apropos) to Aemon, and he is bothered by his last living relative being out there alone in Meereen. Jon comes in to speak to the Maester, announcing he needs advice on something crucial. Aemon, ever wise and ever cheeky (he is a 100 year old Targaryen Maester with cold bones) tells him to do what he thinks best. But more poetically, like “kill the boy and let the man be born.”

100 year old man in the cold

100 year old man in the cold

So Jon has a little chat with Tormund where he asks him to go fetch all the Freefolk and bring them back to be let through the wall to settle. He makes a pretty convincing argument. Hey, who wants to end up as body part art? But even unchained, Tormund wants Jon to go with him to Hardhome. Jon promisses to talk to Stannis about borrowing the fleet.

Now, Jon has the unenviable job of telling his men — who of course think he is crazy. Befriend the enemy? I love how Stannis corrects one mans bad grammar too. The whole “we have to live with them or fight them as part of the army of the dead” makes reasonable sense, but it’s hard for people to give up on their hate. This is personalized in the form of Oly, the kid who killed Ygritte (grrr)  and lost his family to the Thenns. Since Oly is Jon’s steward, he get a glimpse into his hatred.

Gilly and Sam talk about the library and we have more nice bonding between the two of them. Sam points out that the Citadel has the largest library, and we are given a hint of its role training Maesters, which might mean that Sam, Gilly, and Aemon are headed that way after-all. Plus Gilly’s insecurity and Sam’s kind handling of it are quite nice. Stannis comes in and asks about the White Walkers and how Sam killed them, concluding that Sam should keep reading. This nicely shows Stannis’ pragmatic side.

We will miss them at the wall

We will miss them at the wall — oh, and can we say GRAYSCALE?

Then the king goes to talk to Davos to tell him its time they marched and he’s taking the queen and princess, so we cut to the next morning as they saddle up. Sam and Gilly watch and Davos chats with Shireen while the queen frowns (she doesn’t do much of anything else). Stannis and Jon have a few moments of mutual respect and wish each other well, then Red Lady in tow, a nice big column of CGI forces marches out.

Winterfell – Pod and Brienne spy on the castle from a nearby inn. Pod halfheartedly tries to convince her to turn aside, but Brienne is determined to support Sansa. A servant comes in and she questions him about the Starks, taking the risk of asking him to get Sansa a message. This is characteristic of her, like when she mentioned her mission to Hotpie.

Exciting things are afoot

Exciting things are afoot

Next, Ramsay admires his whore Myranda by the window. She’s quite thin, pretty, and very naked. The girl has some guts, as she expected to marry Ramsay before the whole Bolton thing and says as much. Ramsay is interestingly honest when he says “I meant it, but then I was a Snow and now I’m a Bolton.” Plus, she’s the Kennel Master’s daughter. He warns her about her jealousy and she has the good sense not to push it so far she ends up minus a few attractive body parts. He takes her by the window.

Sansa is in her room when a servant enters and passes her what might sort of be Brienne’s message — at least she is supposed to light a candle in the broken tower if she needs help. She wanders out into the yard and checks it out, it’s the tower where Bran fell, just with more  snow. Myranda approaches. She’s clever and has a pair on her (more than Reek anyway) in that she plays nice, apologizes for Cat’s death, and takes Sansa to see a “surprise” in the kennels. At the end. Sansa, against possible better judgement walks past the snarling beasts to find Reek/Theon at the end. She recognizes him and he only says, “you shouldn’t be here.”

Later, Reek is serving Ramsay when he clearly has something to say. It takes a moment and then he is out with the Sansa bit. Ramsay toys with him for a moment and forgives him.

Most awkward dinner EVER!

Most awkward dinner EVER!

This brings us to one of the oddest great scenes in GOT history. The Bolton/Stark dinner theater. Ramsay pours Sansa some wine, and his fat Stepmother’s. There is a comment about how it must be strange for Sansa, and she comments back that the place is home, only the people are strange. Reek comes in to serve and Ramsay plays the whole thing off as punishment for his “murder” of Bran and Rickon, even makes Reek apologize. This is one weird dinner. When it can’t get any weirder, he even suggests Reek give away the bride. Ramsay is a brilliant actor, but the character and the actor playing the character. Bolton however isn’t so amused and pulls the rug out from under his son by noting that his fat wife is pregnant — perhaps with another son.

Most awkward dinner ever!

Father/son bonding, Bolton style

In private, the two Bolton’s spar. Ramsay “wonders” how dad could “find it” on a girl that fat and Bolton is just straight up displeased with him. But he tells a grim Bolton-style story of how he killed the miller and raped the miller’s wife, then she showed up with the baby — only to comment on how he recognized the boy as his son — as he does now. Well, sure is true, Ramsay sure has a lot of the dad in him. Then Bolton, no dummy talks about Stannis and their defense of the north and Ramsay rises to the occasional again to offer his help.

Tyrion, thou are’t so amusing

Tyrion and Jorah – sail along in amusing contrast. “Long sullen silences and the occasional punch in the face: the Mormont Way.” Haha. Ty thinks better of it and apologizes — and asks for wine. But Jorah is more concerned looking ahead, and so Ty turns to see the myst (seems appropriate to spell it that way) and… dum dum… the ruins of Old Valyria, which is clearly the fantasy stand in for the Roman Empire. Apparently Jorah thinks this will make an excellent shortcut. It does look pretty, with giant Vietnamese/Cambodian style ruins, aqueducts, jungle, and mist (I meant myst). This is an awesome scene, gorgeous and moody with Ty reciting a poem telling of the Doom and Jorah finishing it. A nice bonding moment for two men who actually have a bit in common. Then Drogon flaps on by overhead taking it up to the next level. The camera lingers on him, and his appearance means different things for the two men. He’s huge, and perhaps reminds Jorah of all he has lost. And for Ty, well, he maybe didn’t even totally believe in dragons.

Too cool for school

Too cool for school

Then a handful of stonemen hop on into the boat. I knew there was way too much setup about stonemen, grayscale, and them being sent to Old Valyria to be a coincidence. Nice fight really, with the added zombie-style need to avoid touching them. Then Ty goes into the water, bound.

He wakes with Jorah on the beach. They seem to have lost their boat. No matter, too resourceful men like them can surely steal another one. But Jorah secretly checks his wrist and we see he’s sporting a small patch of grayscale. uh oh!

Jon Broods

Kill the boy!

All in all, a fabulous episode. Even without Arya for the second week in a row, all four threads were fabulous. The lackluster Dany storyline got a much needed stab in the gut and the ho hum north a bit of chilly change. But the Winterfell and Tyrion/Jorah threads were as good as it gets for this show — which is pretty darn good. Those whack job family moments in Winterfell, wow, and Old Valyria with Drogon flying overhead. What more could a fantasy junky want?

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Official HBO inside the episode:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 38
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 43
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 25
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

Shin Sen Gumi – Ramen Revolution

May08

Restaurant: Shin Sen Gumi

Location: 1601 Sawtelle Blvd. #101 Los Angeles, CA 90025 Tel：424-208-3293

Date: March 6, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese Ramen

Rating: Solid Hakata Ramen w/ lots of options

_

Ramen is just taking over in east Santa Monica (now officially Sawtelle Japantown). There are 6-9 places within a mile, the majority of which even specialize in Hakata ramen (the porky southern variety).



Shin Sen Gumi has an unassuming front.


But a busy and decent sized interior with both tables and counter.




Half order of Gyoza. These are the smallest potstickers I’ve ever seen. You can’t tell from the photo, but they are about 1.5 inches long! Get a full order. They were fairly tasty though.


Fried squid. Quiet good leg calamari.


Garlic Shrimp. Also very good. Pretty much like the Spanish Gambas pil pil.


Full Hakata Ramen. This own was “strong”.


A few additions for the ramen. From the upper left, clockwise, curry paste, garlic chips, cloud ear mushrooms, poached egg.


Pig ear on the left and more pork belly slices on the right.


My ramen after additions.

Overall, this was solid ramen, and there were a lot of options both as tapas, some other entrees, and tons of possible condiments. I dumped that curry ball in and after mixing it made the whole thing taste like Singapore curry noodles.

Still, I like the slightly modern flavor of Tatsu better and the pork in a bowl of Tsujita.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Ramen is all the Rage
  2. Tatsu – Ramen with a Soul
  3. Tsujita LA – Artisan Noodles
  4. Shin Beijing Cubed
  5. Shin Beijing Again
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , , ,

Babykiller Birthday

May06

Like many of us, my friend Matthew likes to celebrate his birthday with Burgundy. In this case, a free-for-all house party with lots of it. NOTE: this group doesn’t have real name, but I call them the Babykillers because they’re mostly younger than me, and because of a tendency to open great wines young (like 2010 DRC!). But hey, after who knows how long in the decanter those young DRCs were pretty awesome.

The birthday boy.

It should be noted that this dinner, like many Babykiller birthdays before it, has an unusual format. Food is casual, and all the when is just popped and self serve with small pours. There are 1.5-2 bottles per person, so there is no huge rush. Even the 1990 Dujac took 2 hours to be finished.

1988 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. 95 points. howed beautifully, but not as well as the last bottle. The wine is light golden honey coloured, with fine mousse and effervescence that’s still alive, although fading. Notes of toasted brioche, hazelnuts and dried fruit on the nose. On the palate the wine is smooth, rich and long, with good, muted fruit and great balance and decent effervescence. Drinking at its peak now.

1999 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 95. The 1999 Salon, tasted from magnum, is the first wine in which fresh, primary fruit flavors are replaced by more mature notes. Lemon oil, light honey and chamomile flesh out in a radiant, expressive Champagne loaded with class. Here it is the wine’s texture and breadth that impress above all else. The 1999 is a fabulous transition to the older wines in this tasting, as it is both youthful and complex.

From my cellar: 1995 Pierre Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 93 points. Quite refined nose and palate with subtle nose of flowers, green fruit and brioche. Fresh and not even slightly premoxed.

1996 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets. Burghound 91. Exquisite nose of hazelnut and ripe melon with flavors that are not particularly dense but very fine, tight and beautifully detailed with plenty of minerality and outstanding acid/fruit balance. Even though this is young vine fruit, it shows excellent intensity on the long finish.

1999 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Auxey-Duresses Les Clous. 94 points. This seems to be a mix between the roundness of a Meursault (buttery flavor, texture on the palate) and the minerality of a Puligny (fresh, citrusy scents, length on palate). This one is a knockout, that clearly rivals the grands crus, let it be Chevalier/Batard and the likes. But for a fraction of the price. A knock-out effort by Mme Bize!

2002 Bouchard Aîné et Fils Montrachet. 95 points. A real stunner. We decanted and it had a knockout power.

2004 Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils Montrachet Le Montrachet. 93 points. The aromas are softer and lighter than the ’05, with some slight green notes. Soft palate entry, with a creamy, chunky texture, without quite the complexity of the ’05. Still very rich, offering nice lemon notes coupled with some good minerality. Nice blossoming finish, which really opens up beautifully, and surprisingly considering the palate. Lovely puckering notes linger, but they are particularly graceful. Nice tartness. Really wonderful on the finish.

Lucky to be having more Amiot Monty!


Various cheeses. I always forget how great a pairing cheese and White Burgundy is.

Antipasta.

Caprese.

Panna.

Arugula salad.


2001 Bernard Dugat-Py Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Petite Chapelle. Burghound 92. Riper red fruit nose and with excellent finesse and purity of expression as the intense, understated, precise and detailed flavors display outstanding length. I very much like this as it’s harmonious, subtle and dazzlingly pretty.

2010 Finca Allende Rioja Martires. 91 points. Holy oak, vanilla, alcohol batman. Served blind. Thought it was high octane california chardonnay. Yowsers. No me gusta.

From my cellar: 1997 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Romanée St. Vivant. 94 points. Drinking great. Very RSV, round and expressive. Hedonistic.

1997 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. VM 93. Deep red-ruby. Precise, floral aromas of red fruits, flowers and minerals; less superripe and perhaps more vineyard-specific than the Boudots. High-pitched, fine and light on its feet. Really impressively delineated and lively. Fruity but with firm underlying backbone. Firmly tannic, pure aftertaste.

1990 Domaine Dujac Echezeaux. Burghound 91. A beautiful and fully mature nose of dark berry fruit, spice and earth with just the initial hints of sous bois leads to round, rich, powerful and still moderately structured medium full flavors underpinned by still firm but softening tannins and excellent length. This is still quite well balanced and displays none of the “fruit/tannin” separation that so many ’90s do today and as such, the ’90 Ech should drink well over the next 20+ years.

agavin 96: a knock out and clear WOTN.

1986 Michel Bonnefond Ruchottes-Chambertin. 88 points. Short.

2006 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée St. Vivant. VM 95. The 2006 Romanée-St. Vivant is backed up by firm veins of mouthwatering salinity and acidity. The characteristic Romanée-St. Vivant perfumed bouquet is very much in evidence, while there is a sense of energy and pure drive that distinguishes it from the Échézeaux. The RSV can be drunk today, but knowing how these wines age, patience will be rewarded as 2006 still isn’t showing all of its cards.

2010 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Echezeaux. Burghound 94. Exuberant and ripe spicy purple fruit also exhibits distinct floral and warm earth nuances that go on to suffuse the rich and finely detailed medium-bodied flavors that possess excellent underlying tension before terminating in a focused, intense and gorgeously long finish. This is pure silk and lace but the really impressive aspect of this wine is just how much depth it has. A sublime knockout, particularly by the usual standards of this wine.

2006 Domaine Denis Bachelet Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 94. Despite being harvested first, this is clearly the ripest wine in the range where the wonderfully dense fruit is highlighted by a background touch of wood that continues onto the refined, pure and concentrated flavors that are supported by dense but fine tannins and flat out terrific length. This is a lovely wine in every respect and while not exactly understated, everything does seem to be in perfect proportion.

agavin: tighter than a witches tit!

Spaghetti with seafood.

Spaghetti al carbonara.

Baked ziti. I haven’t seen that in a while!


My plate.


195x R. López de Heredia Rioja Viña Tondonia. Can’t read the year, but it was good. Very dirty, in that good Rioja way.


1960 Fonseca Porto Vintage. 91 points.


Beard Papa cream puffs, both chocolate and vanilla.

Cookies.

More cookies.


The damage.

Overall another night of great fun and fabulous wines.

Related posts:

  1. BOA Birthday Blitz
  2. Birthday Party, Hedonist Style
  3. Il Grano Birthday
  4. Pistola with a Bang
  5. Sauvage Republique
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , , , , , ,

Game of Thrones – Episode 44

May01

season-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 44 – May 3, 2015

Title: The Sons of the Harpy

Summary: Solid transitional episode

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Last week was a great episode and so this one has big footsteps to follow in.

NOTE: SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING. This review/discussion contains tons of spoilers about the episode and even ones crossing over from the books. It’s really my free-for-all musing given all the information at my disposal.

Tyrion – Jorah steals a boat by clobbering a fisherman and tossing the half man in like a sack of potatoes. Later, they are sailing along, and a gagged Tyrion makes annoying noises until Jorah the rags out of his mouth. Even gagged Tyrion is funny. And amusing as always, ungagged Tyrion complains that he “can’t sleep without wine.” Tyrion is at first under the impression that Jorah is taking her back to Cersei, but realizing they are going the wrong way, clues in that by “queen” she meant Dany. Tyrion then shows off his wit by observing nuances of Jorah’s outfit, figuring out who he is and his motivations to a tee. He’s so delightfully annoying that Jorah knocks him into unconsciousness.

Jorah_captura_a_Tyrion_HBO

Not too tight!

Jaime and Bronn – are also sailing, but on a much larger ship. They pass a green island which a sailor identifies as the Sapphire Isle, a nod to his use of said location in season 3 to help Brienne avoid a rape. Bronn quizzes Jaime on why they are taking a merchant vessel. On his “niece” (Bronn being quite suspicious about the royal parentage). There is some character development as they discuss how they’d like to die, with Bronn opting to die old and rich and surrounded by kids and Jaime in the “arms of the woman he loves.” Well, that isn’t going so well.

As they row ashore Bronn is also concerned that the captain knew who they are, and as it turns out after a slithering breakfast the next morning a foursome of Dornish soldiers show up. They try to talk their way past but they need to do what they do best — or at least Bronn does best, as Jaime barely managed to handle one of the raiders, and that one with a clever move involving his golden hand. It’s a solid fight livened up by some trademark dialog.

One, if he's slow

One, if he’s slow

Sand Snakes – Episode 4 of the season, and finally we meet the infamous “sand snakes” (Oberyn’s daughters). Ellaria Sand is visiting the trio of snake-clad brunettes. I loved her last season, but this is the second time this season she’s all venom (haha). I don’t love the casting for the Sand Snakes. They come off as goofy and trying to hard to be woman warriors (unlike many of the others on the show, like Brienne or Yara). They do have that previously mentioned ship captain buried in the sand up to his neck, head covered in scorpions (ick!). They know all about Jaime’s arrival and have plenty of reason to speculate on why. Ellaria, continuing as the hawk wants to start a war by killing Princess Marcella — and certainly doesn’t want her erstwhile father/uncle interfering. The snakes are up for some violence.

Girly girls playing at being warriors

Girly girls playing at being warriors

Cersei – is meeting with the smaller council. Mace announces that the iron bank has placed a margin call on a tenth of their debt. Cersei wants to send him to Bravos with (uh oh) Ser Meryn Trant. Probably mostly to get him out of the way and weaken Margaery’s power base. Although maybe he’ll have a run in with “nobody” — or they just want to use their cool Iron Bank set again. Pycelle then even jokes about the smaller council.

Next, the dowager queen entertains the High Sparrow, who apparently got mysteriously promoted to High Septon, something which was clear in the books but unclear here. At least the old one seems to have survived — in the black cells. His birdiness doesn’t drink wine. In a crazy bid presumably to control him through favors (although this is very unclear in the show) she offers to revive the Knights Militant, the special Templar-like military order of the church. And she refers to someone living in particularly gross sin…

Next, Sparrows smash beer kegs and break wine bottles. They storm around town busting up all the fun stuff. I’ve never been a big fan of these type “mob” scenes without a main actor on screen. These are intercut with Lancel getting a new “wheel of the seven” sigil carved in his forehead with a knife. I can still hardly recognize him. Then the Sparrows are raiding Littlefinger’s ever popular brothel — which gets pretty boy Olyvar beaten up. Some gay guy is pulled out and killed. Then Lancel storms in on Loras Tyrell (not in the brothel) and arrests him.

Uh, Marg dear, can I at least get a little...

Uh, Marg, can I at least get a little…

Margaery storms into Tommen furious about her brother and demands the king get him free. A confused Tommen goes to Cersei who is all plausible deniability, but she does send him to the High Sparrow. Alas, our wimpy kid king is stymied by the guards on the steps to the Sept. Seems the High Sparrow is praying and he doesn’t want to use violence to bust in. He slinks away. I know he’s just a boy, but he could have offered to join the Sparrow in prayer, or to wait. Instead, momma’s boy that he is, he creeps back to Marg. She scolds him and gives him the cold shoulder, saying she needs to be with her family. Poor boy, he’s going to get blue balls.

Sansa – Our time in the (non wall) north is much reduced this week with just a single scene with Sansa in the Winterfell Crypt. She stands in the very spot used for Episode 1 lighting candles to her late aunt. Littlefinger joins her for some manipulations. He talks of Lyanna and the tourney at Harrenhal where Rhaegar Targareyn chose her over his wife — leading of course to Ned and Robert’s rebellion and the whole (previous) civil war. We are reminded that he kidnapped and raped her after, which leads me to wondering if they are doing longterm setup for Jon Snow’s parentage (NOTE: highly speculative spoiler thought). As much reminding the viewer as Sansa, Littlefinger tells her that he is off to Kingslanding to play Cersei’s lapdog but that Stannis is on his way with an army — and that he will likely name her Wardeness of the North if he gets the chance. Sansa is concerned what she does if that doesn’t happen, and ever pragmatic, warns her she must win over Ramsay. That could be more difficult than either of them realize (woof woof!). This leads me to wondering how much Littlefinger really knows about Ramsay — and I’m inclined to believe this is one of the rare cases where he is under-informed (as he himself said last episode). Dark Sansa herself seems resigned and ready for the task. Oh, and Peter can’t leave without giving her another wee kiss. I do suspect that he actually has some feelings for her — or what passes for feelings where Littlefinger is concerned.

Loving Dark Sansa

Loving Dark Sansa

Jon/Stannis the wall – King and Queen stick-in-the-mud are watching Jon Snow in the fighting yard. The queen continues to bash her own daughter but the Red Lady approaches and praises the girl. Melisandre and Stannis remind us that they’re heading to Wintefell soon — and the Lady asks if she’s going this time (which she is). Lady might be creepy, but she is a good luck charm.

In his office, Jon is signing papers with Sam. Requests for more men to local lords — including Roose Bolton. Jon pauses, but eventually signs it, as he is resigned to his path as a man of the Night’s Watch. Then Sam and the Red Lady swap places and she wastes no time telling him she wants him to come south with her and popping her breasts out of her dress. She’s obviously sniffing out his kingly blood (another hint like above with the Rhaegar stories) and horning in on his powerful seed. This isn’t the first time (remember Stannis and Gendry?). Clearly she’d love to work some mojo. Jon resists heroically, although he does cop a feel. He admits he still loves Ygritte. And even more on the way out she says “you know nothing Jon Snow.” Sigh. Where’s the alternate reality porn episode with Jon and Ygritte stuck in the cave?

Than we have a peculiar little scene where Shireen pops in on her father (people are forever entering the room in this show) and asks if he is ashamed of her. He tells a little story which proves clearly otherwise, which is a rare warm and touchy moment for someone described as having all the personality of a lobster.

Surprisingly, Shireen brings out the best in King Lobster

Surprisingly, Shireen brings out the best in King Lobster

Dany – finishes out the episode. This is at least the second time the title has nothing to do with the internal balance. The queen and Barristan hang out on the balcony of her pyramid. The view is great but he’s grown kinda tedious. He tells her about Rhaegar (second Rhaegar story of the episode, and we have to wonder why). In this story we learn that the late prince liked to sing for change in the streets of king’s landing. Meanwhile, Dario comes to get her, as the Meerenish nobles are downstairs in the throne room. That noble son, Hisgar or whoever is pleading again to let the fighting pits be opened.

Cut to a bunch of masked Sons of the Harpy killing what are probably Second Sons. Then Unsullied trotting through halls (in Split Croatia). These Unsullied sure do a lot of jogging. They are ambushed and one is revealed to be Grey Worm. He fights well but is outnumbered. Barristan, who happened to be on a convenient walk (setup before), runs into the fray at the sound of trouble. In the end, he and Gray Worm take out a huge mass of Harpies, but are badly wounded in the process.

I’m just not feeling it with these Dany scenes this season — but they had the same effect when I was reading ADWD, so not so surprising.

The view was the best part

The view was the best part

All in all, a very solid episode. Not as exciting as last week, and with less threads, but it had some good stuff. Too little Tyrion, but what we got was good. Too many crowd scenes (Sparrows, Harpies, Unsullied) but we did get some great Jaime/Bronn banter and fighting. I was a little disappointed in the Sand Snakes — too cheesy, but Sansa’s “dark territory” story line continues to be highly intriguing.

The show is really upping the visual ante too. Nearly every locale, window, and hill shot gets some giant combined real and CGI view and they look totally gorgeous.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

HBO’s official inside videos for the episode:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 37
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 35
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: , , , , , , ,

Deep South – Mandovi Goan Cuisine

May01

Restaurant: Mandovi

Location: 150 S Sepulveda Blvd, El Segundo, CA 90245. (424) 220-7115

Date: April 23, 2015 & June 7, 2016

Cuisine: Goan Indian

Rating: Unusual and delicious Southern Indian flavors

_

A last minute Hedonist dinner provided the opportunity to check out Souther Indian cuisine, specifically that of Goa, a state in South West India on the Arabian Sea. It was controlled for many years by the Portuguese and its food represents a fusion of Portuguese and Indian influences.

The restaurant is located just past LAX in El Segundo.
1A0A6230
The room is crowded for lunch buffet.


The menu.

Papadum. On the table to start with tamarind and mint chutney.
1A0A6241
t

2012 Weingut Robert Weil Tradition Rheingau. 93 points. Minerality and applies and through a trifle of kerosene emerging. Mouth in good harmony acidity, spritzy ness and fruit. Lovely.

Mandovi Ferry Kheema Potato Chops (Goan). Mandovi river side snack stuffed ground lamb meat potato cakes. Like a potato patty stuffed with ground lamb. We made something like this on Passover!

2013 Von Hövel Oberemmeler Hütte Riesling Spätlese. MWF 92. Nice medium sweet Spatlese.

Mandovi Shrimp Peri Peri. Shrimp sauteed in a spicy Portuguese-inspired garlic and red chili sauce. Delicious and full of flavor.

From my cellar: 2000 Erben von Beulwitz Kaseler Nies’chen Riesling Auslese. 95 points. Really fabulous balanced and mature Auslese. Very sweet of course, but with a strong underlying minerality.

Chicken 65. Universally known as spicy fried chicken bites in ginger and garlic. Vaguely Chinese in style, but the spices are all Indian.


2007 Double Diamond (Schrader) Cabernet Sauvignon Amber Knolls Vineyard. 91 points. Great Cali NC cab with plenty of fruit, both on the nose and palate. Nice complexity with balance between heat, tannins and acidity.

Mandovi Shrimp Okra Curry (Goan). Wonderful Portuguese-inspired delicacies, and tiger shrimp simmered in a mouth-watering coconut sauce with freshly ground spices.

Goan clam curry. Clams in a rich coconut curry broth. Delicious sauce.

Mandovi River Rava Fish Fry (Goan). Semolina crusted house spiced seasonal King Fish. Tasty but plagued by little bones.

2005 Andrew Murray Syrah Roasted Slope. VM 90. Ruby-red. Vibrantly perfumed and fresh on the nose, with raspberry and candied cherry aromas underscored by musky underbrush and baking spices. Clean and bright in the mouth, offering energetic red and dark berry flavors, silky tannins and building spiciness. Suave stuff, with impressive balance and clarity.

Gallina Chicken Cafreal (Goan). Goan mouth watering green and divine spiced grilled jerk Chicken. Amazingly tender and flavorful chicken coated in a green curry mix of various vegetables.

2006 Cielo Blackbird. Woodstock collection.

Lamb Vindaloo (Goan). Braised natural lamb in garlic, malt vinegar, and hot chili spices.

Goat Xacuti (Goan). Mouth-watering Goan specialty bone-in goat, cooked with sauteed ground spices and coconut.

2008 Salvalai Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. 89 points. Un amarone classique, avec des arômes de fruits noirs et de poussière. Saveur de terre avec un un peu de vanille.

Goan style pork curry. Sort of a pork ragu, and not my favorite dish of the night.
1A0A6243
Special traditional Crab Currey Xen Xen. The curry itself was a delicious southern coconut curry. The problem was the spiky crab shell that wasn’t cracked. Any attempts to get into the meat invariable ended in injury!
1A0A6248
House special Lamb Chops. Delicious heavily seasoned lamb.

Saffron Rice. Basmati rice, pot sealed, saffron aroma.

Goat Biryani. Authentic Awadhi bone on goat biryani, aromatic spices, basmati rice, and side raita.


Raita. Made of Yogurt , cucumber and Cilantro.

Garlic naan.

Goan Bibinca (Goan). Authentic Goan delight of multi-layared castor sugar and coconut milk. Sort of a cake like thing.

Gulab Jamun. Warm milk dumplings in rose-flavoured sugar syrup. Delicious cheese/dough balls. Oh, so sweet!

Almond Rice Kheer. Classic Indian rice pudding with hint of elaichi dry fruits and nuts. Too soupy.

Kesari Rasmalai. Soft poached homemade cheese dumplings in a saffron-flavoured sweeten reduced milk. Delicious sweet cheese. Like a Sicilian ricotta dessert.

Pista Orange Kulfi. Chef special signature, rich, creamy orange and pistachio-flavored ice cream served in an orange rind. These were amazing with a richness and a strong orange/mango flavor.

Overall, this was a great little meal full of unusual and delicious flavors. Chef Avi (above) of Akbar Cuisine of India (Northern Indian) gives it his seal of approval!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

I also came here in June of 2016 for lunch, where in addition to the menu they run a “classic” Indian buffet.
1A0A6231
Here is the main section, including all the usual hits.
1A0A6232
Tandori chicken, butter chicken (Chicken Tikka Masala), Chicken Curry.
1A0A6233
Fried fish, various vegetarian curries.
1A0A6234
Potato curry, string beans, rice, fried vegetables, crispy bread.
1A0A6235
The “salad” bar, with fruit, and the chutneys and raita.
1A0A6236
The buffet comes with naan.
1A0A6240
My plate.

Related posts:

  1. Yojie – Deep Boiled Noodles!
  2. Mosaic of Food – Byzantine Cuisine
  3. The New Cal Cuisine: Rustic Canyon
  4. Akbar – Curry not so Hurry
  5. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: , , , ,
Watch the Trailer or

Buy it Online!

Buy it Online!
96 of 100 tickets!

Find Andy at:

Follow Me on Pinterest

Subscribe by email:

More posts on:



Complete Archives

Categories

Favorite Posts

Archives

All Things Andy Gavin
Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved
Programmed by Andy Gavin