In my continued effort to improve site navigation I’ve introduced a new page to index all my writing posts, sorted by topic. You can also find it in the “Writing” menu at the top of the site or by clicking on the gold “Writing” icon on the righthand sidebar.
As an added bonus, the page includes a blurb of my new novel, Untimed, check it out.
Location: 1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd, CA 90291. (310) 250-1429
Date: August 6 & 14, 2011
Cuisine: New Californian
Rating: Great food, annoying service!
I hadn’t been to Gjelina (despite it being a favorite) in a few months but I headed back there for two brunches only a week apart, one with my son and the other with my brother and cousin.
The all important Cappuccino. They make a good one as attested by the nice micro-foam. I’m not a fan of those coffee with a pile of foam on top versions.
“Moroccan Baked Eggs with Merguez, Chili, Tomato Sauce, Cilantro & Spiced Yogurt.” This was REALLY tasty. The sausage was awesome, as was the sauce and yogurt combo. It had a pretty genuine Moroccan flavor profile.
My son wanted eggs. He didn’t even touch them though. Toddlers!
“Crispy Sunny Eggs with Prosciutto, Romesco, Arugula & Lemon.” This was also very good, and very similar (except for the ham) to my special Breakfast Eggs.
“Pizza Margherita.” A very nice version of the classic. Rich tomatoey sauce, lots of basil.
My son ate most of this, although he complained about the “green stuff” and made me remove it.
“Duck Sausage, Nameko Mushroom, Garlic & Mozzarella.” The sausage was fantastic, and the overall pizza was very smokey with an interesting chewy mushroom texture. I liked it a lot, but you certainly have to be a shroom person.
“Peach crumble with Crème Fraiche.” I like my crumbles more crumbly.
“Butterscotch Pot de Crème with Salted Caramel w/ Crème Fraiche.” This is just incredible as always. I could eat like 10 of them. Bad me. Bad me.
Overall, the food at Gjelina is fantastic as always, but I need to snark about the service, and I’m not the first. Apparently the owner/managers even like to hire staff with attitude! Boo hiss! The first time, I asked to get some eggs that on the menu had strips of bacon on top with the bacon on the side (or gone). I was told (very rudely) that I could remove the bacon myself. In this day and age of people with dietary restrictions this just isn’t acceptable. I can understand not building totally custom dishes, but trivial omissions? Give me a break.
On the second trip we ordered some vegetables which didn’t come (the waiter read them back to us too). Plus similar with an ice tea even after asking about three times. Eventually, after the waiter went AWOL we found him and brought up both. He didn’t even apologize. 10 minutes after that he brought the ice tea and said he’d take it off the bill. Ooh ah, $4 ice tea for free (it’s all profit anyway). We mentioned something to the manager. He didn’t apologize either, just nodded his head. Then finally, about 5 minutes after that he snuck back and apologized, like it had been eating at him and he felt he needed to. There was no offer of a freebee or anything. My brother asked him point blank about that and he took a dessert off the tab.
I go for the food, but they do need to lose a bit of the ‘tude.
Restaurant: N/Naka [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 3455 S. Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. 310.836.6252
Date: August 13, 2011
Rating: Awesome
I first went to the amazing Omakase only N/Naka just three weeks ago, but seeing my review, my Foodie Club partner EP desperately wanted to go again. So we did. Now bear in mind that this lovely restaurant has only a set menu (they offer it in two sizes, plus vegetarian) but the talented young chef Ms. Niki Nakayama concocted a whole new menu (just three weeks later!) without a single repeat — and it was even better!
We start off our wines with a light Spanish white. Parker 90. “A candidate for top Albarino of my Spanish tastings, the 2005 Bodegas Don Olegario is medium gold with honey and apricot aromas and flavors. On the palate the wine is viscous with enough acidity to hold things together. Very Condrieu-like at about half the price.”
Saki zuke
(a pairing of something common and something unique)
Chef’s garden eggplant puree, scottish smoked salmon, osetra caviar
Crème fraiche, chives
This opening course had a wonderful silky mouthfeel and tasted of smoked eggplant, a bit like baba ganush.
Zensai
(Main seasonal ingredient presented as an appetizer)
Japan ayu, pacific lobster roll, nanohana, daikon and kanpachi, lotus
Root kinpira
Zooming in, the Japanese Ayu. This is a smelt relative known as sweetfish. It was crispy and grilled. Alongside are cubes of watermelon and aged balsamic. The combo was lovely.
This is the lobster roll. Kind of like a piece of uber california maki.
A bit of diakon with either eel or kanpachi inside, not 100% sure. The little tomato is from chef Niki’s garden (as are many things in the meal).
Nanohana, a kind of broccoli rabe.
Lotus root kippira. Slightly sweet with a bit of crunch.
This is an alternative form of the dish for my wife who doesn’t eat shellfish or meat. You can see the lobster is replaced with a bit of seared Toro! N/Naka requires that you specify which menu and dietary restrictions a few days in advance, but they are very adept at customizing the menu.
Now stepping up to this killer California Chardonnay, Parker 95! This one is from EP’s cellar. “The Chardonnay Belle Cote is always a more exotic wine. There are 2,200 cases of the 2005 Chardonnay Belle Cote, a wine with undeniable notes of crushed stones, white peach, orange, nectarine, and quince. Medium to full-bodied, with zesty acidity, stunning minerality, and a firm structure, this is a gorgeous, French-styled Chardonnay that should drink nicely for up to a decade.”
Modern zukuri
(modern interpretation of sashimi)
Japan bonito, marinated onions, ponzu, myoga, shiso, shiso air, ginger
A lovely bit of bonito. And not only do I love shiso, but I get to try it as “air!” Although the real shiso had a bit more flavor punch than the airy form.
Fantastic containers add to the fun.
Owan “still water”
Black cod and shiitake, green tea soba, nameko mushrooms, dashi broth
This is one of those mild, but lovely, Japanese soups. With a vaguely sweet, soft mushroomy fishy taste. Very pleasant and soothing.
Sake- shichida, sago japan. This is an ultra-ultra rare sake I had the previous time and it blew away the entire table (except for the 6 year-old who was left out!) One of the best sakes I’ve ever had. Each grain of rice is hand shaved before brewing!
Otsukuri
(Traditional Sashimi )
Big eye otoro, shima aji , sea bream, santa barbara sweet shrimp,
Kumamoto oyster
Zoom into the bucket, where you can see the shima aji , sea bream, santa barbara sweet shrimp.
And then over here, past the hand ground wasabi, to the Big eye otoro and Kumamoto oyster. The Toro (o-toro is the most premium Toro) was absolutely amazing.
An alternative basket my wife received. She has hamachi belly and scottish salmon instead of the shellfish.
To pair with the upcoming lobster, this Parker 90 white from Alto Adige in Northern Italy. “The 2008 Muller Thurgau literally sparkles on the palate with well-articulated aromas and flavors that come together with notable harmony. The finish is subtle and nuanced in its suggestions of mint, flowers, lime and passion fruit. This polished white also happens to be a terrific value. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2012.”
Yakimono
Pacific lobster, maitake, enringi, tamale sauce
This was a wonderful dish, and the pairing (recommended by the sommelier) with the crisp white was delightful.
My wife had to tough it out with this fish alternative, topped with a bit of dynamite.
Another lovely container, opening to reveal:
Mushimono
Unagi and gobo chawanmushi, frozen foie gras torchon powder
On the left a traditional Japanese custard with mushrooms. On the right frozen foie gras powder! This second item was sprinkled into the custard to add killer meaty umph! Really nice interplay of textures and fats.
Shiizakana
(Not bound by tradition, the chef’s choice dish to be paired with wine)
Abalone pasta, pickeled cod roe, abalone liver sauce
I had this pasta on my previous visit, but knowing this, Chef Niki gave me a different one! (below) Still, this one was amazing (or so I remember and so the rest of the party said).
Chef’s garden kabocha ravioli with truffles, brown butter sage, manchego
My wife received this dish, perfectly in sync with her taste. It was gone in about a millisecond.
Spaghetti with uni, ikura, poached eggs, seaweed, truffle
I got this, which was also delicious, tasting strongly of uni and the briny bright tone and texture of the ikura — two sushis often paired together and two of my favorites. Yum. This kind of interesting east/west fusion is very unusual, and brilliant.
As we move into the meatier portion of the menu, this 94 point Burgundy. “The Chevillon 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Vaucrains projects an amazing sense of deep, dark concentration. Latakia tobacco; peat; rushed stone; roasted red meats; soy; and ripe, fresh blackberry inform the nose and absolutely stain the palate. The tannins here are as ultra-fine as they are formidable, and the tug on my salivary glands as relentless as are the finishing flavors. If this doesn’t leave you reaching for a napkin or your lips fluttering, probably no wine will. The energy and salinity here render a wine that you feel as if you must strain through your teeth nonetheless fleet-of-foot, enticing, and invigorating.”
Niku
Snake river farms kobe beef ishiyaki
Plus butter cubes and sisho peppers.
Then out comes a little hot rock.
You drop the butter on top, then the meat and cook to your taste. Like a mini version of Totoraku.
The non-meat substitute is baked miso cod, always a favorite.
Sunomono
Marinated halibut fin, cucumbers, ruby red grapefruit
Yuzu omoi, yuzu blend sake
The bright marinated flavors and the sweet/sour sake go perfectly together.
Shokuji One & Two
(Rice dish- sushi)
Jeju island hirame, o-toro
Aji (mackerel), hamachi belly.
Aji (mackerel) on the left. Not sure what’s on the right.
Mirugai, shinkomaki, miso hamachi, sesame butter chazuke.
And the other two of above, but I’m not sure which is which :-). live scallops on the left.
R.L. Buller Calliope Rare Muscat. Yum Yum! Parker 100! “Giving aromas of dark brown sugar, black strap molasses, licorice and preserved walnuts, the deeply brown colored NV Calliope Rare Muscat is again incredibly sweet and viscous with a good amount of acid to balance and is decadently rich and nutty / spicy in the very long finish. All these vintage blended fortified wines are bottled to drink now and though are stable enough to hold, they are not designed to improve with cellaring.”
Shokuji
(Rice dish)
A fish with a miso sauce on rice with seaweed.
It’s traditional to end the savories in Japan with a “rice dish.” On the left we have a very traditional bit of salmon like fish, rice, and nori. Refreshing and stomach settling. On the right were two pickles cut roll pieces. I loved these. I’m a huge Japanese pickles fan and really enjoy the crunchy vinegar thing.
Dessert
Chocolate tiramisu, ruby red grapefruit and passion fruit gelee, fruits
These were all extremely tasty. The grapefruit thing in the middle was particularly intense with a lovely gummy texture.
EP and his wife brought his young daughter with them and she got a special “kids omakase” which was very cool.
An assortment of rolls, including toro cut roll!
Ikura (salmon eggs), sweet shrimp, and bonito sushi.
Some of the best looking tempura I’ve ever seen.
Yellowtail belly sashimi. That was one lucky girl!
N/Naka really is a very special place. Both meals I had here were spectacular (here for the first). This second was, if possible, slightly better too, which was always wonderful because often one finds a slight bloom to come off a place on repeat meals. This was very much avoided by the completely new menu, which only three weeks apart was impressive. The quality of ingredients, preparation, and presentation here is pretty stunning.
Try it!
This is an old Crash Bandicoot 20 questions that used to be on Naughty Dog‘s site a long time ago. I’ve gotten a lot of messages looking for them, so I dug them up, but I haven’t done any editing except for trivial formatting. They are served up “as is.” Additionally, the links in here are ancient and might not work.
| 1) Q: | Are you all insane? |
| A: | Technically…yes. |
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| 2) Q: | Help! I’m stuck in Crash! Can you give me some help? |
| A: | No. But GameSpot has a full walkthrough of Crash 2 online. Game Informer Online also has good ones for Crash 1, 2, and Warped. Or you can pony up a few more shekels and buy the hint guides to Crash 1 and Crash 2 from Dimension Publishing, or the strategy guides to Crash Bandicoot: Warped and CTR (Crash Team Racing) from Prima. They are the only ones with pictures of Crash on the cover. Don’t be taken in by one of the unofficial hack jobs out there, though. They all have errors. (ed. note: Links to sites mentioned above were removed because they are no longer active… sorry, that’s the web for ya.) |
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| 3) Q: | In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, what times are needed to earn each relic? |
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| 4) Q: | (a) What is a Bandicoot? (b) Why is Crash a Bandicoot? (c) Why is he named “Crash?” |
| A: | (a) Crash is a Perameles gunnii, of the order POLYPROTODONTA, family Peramelidae, commonly known as the Eastern Barred Bandicoot. He is a marsupial, which means that he is born with a built in fanny pack. They live in Tasmania, a small island south of Australia, as well as on the Australian mainland. The Parameles gunnii is, on average, 320mm from head to rump, and has a 80mm tail. They weigh about 950g. Crash’s family, on the other hand, tend to be about a meter tall, orange, walk on their hind legs, and wear big shoes. They have, therefore, earned a good living in the Parameles gunnii circus sideshow spinning real fast and the like.(b)Because both of his parents were.(c) Because that is the name his parents gave him. |
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| 5) Q: | We want toys and stuff. When will we get them? |
| A: | Where have you been? A toy company named Resaurus recently released their second series of Crash Bandicoot posable action figures! They made the Duke Nukem and Quake toys, so you know they are good. Other stuff is in the works as well. Check ’em out! |
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| 6) Q: | (a) Why did you choose to make Crash Bandicoot for the PlayStation? (b) Are there plans to port any of the Crash games, or make original Crash games for other systems? |
| A: | (a) Picking a game system, or “platform”, at the beginning of a project is like picking horses before a horse race. It is more of an art than a science. When we began Crash 1, the only 32 bit systems available were the 3DO and the Atari Jagauar. There were rumors about the coming PlayStation game console and the Sega Saturn, and distant rumblings about the N64. It was easy to toss the 3DO and Jaguar, neither had the power. And the fact that the N64 wasn’t going to have a CD ROM drive made it ineligible. In the end, we chose the PlayStation game console because it had the best mix of power and storage. Based on its worldwide sales, game players have picked the PlayStaton game console as well. Looks like we picked the winning horse!(b) Until recently, PlayStation has been the only system capable of handling the sophisticated graphics and gameplay of the Crash Bandicoot games. The Saturn doesn’t have the power. N64 cartridges cannot hold the data. Also, Crash likes the PlayStation. Naughty Dog has no idea what Crash’s future holds. We do not control his destiny. You’ll have to ask him.CTR (Crash Team Racing) is our last game working with Crash (and our last title for the first generation PlayStation). Naughty Dog’s future lies with completely new characters on PlayStation 2. |
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| 7) Q: | What are Naughty Dog’s favorite games? |
| A: | We wish the following games had never come out. They have killed our productivity:Goldeneye(N64)Gran Turismo(PlayStation)Command & Conquer(PlayStation & PC)Tekken 3 (PlayStation) Mario Kart 64 (N64) Spyro (PlayStation) Point Blank (PlayStation) Beatmania (PlayStation) Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation) Banjo & Kazooie (N64) |
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| 8 ) Q: | What other developers do you respect? |
| A: | We don’t sleep well because we know that Rare, Miyamoto san, the Gran Turismo team, and the Gex 2 team are out there. So we’ve hired the lead programmer and lead designers from the Gex 2 team (Dan Arey, Daniel Chan, Evan Wells.) They don’t frighten us anymore. Miyamoto san, on the other hand, keeps turning our offers down! |
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| 9) Q: | Does Dr. Neo Cortex use Rogaine? |
| A: | Yes, but only on the sides of his head. |
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| 10) Q: | (a) What is it like to work at Naughty Dog? (b) Are you hiring? (c) What is it like to work with Sony? |
| A: | (a)We don’t know. Nobody here considers what we do to be work.(b) Check our job opportunities page.(c) We don’t know. The people we interact with at Sony are so good that we don’t have to work at it. Seriously, we just make the game, they take care of the rest. |
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| 11) Q: | Naughty Dog created the first software z-buffer for the PlayStation. How did you do it? |
| A: | Greg coded it. We don’t know how it works. It just does. |
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| 12) Q: | Where do the Naughty Dog artists come up with their ideas? |
| A: | The Naughty Dog artists are so used to Crash’s world now that it doesn’t seem like designing, so much as just making 3D models of a world that already exists. Still, there is a lot of exploration on paper, as well as on the computer before the final locations and characters exist. Take a look in our Art Gallery for some samples. |
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| 13) Q: | (a) How many polygons is Crash? (b) How many frames of animation does he have? (c) How do you animate him? |
| A: | (a)532 triangles.(b) In Crash 2, Crash had over 9000 individual frames of animation @ 30 frames per second. In Warped, Crash had around 30,000 frames! We believe this to be more than any other console game character. If we are wrong, e-mail usand we will change this answer.(c) We attach motion capture equipment to Crash and ask him to do the moves we need for the game. |
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| 14) Q: | What is your favorite food? |
| A: | The artists like sushi and Chinese, as well as Mexican. The programmers are on the “flat diet”. We lock them in their room until they finish a project and only give them whatever food fits under the door. Pizza – yes. Pancakes – Yes. Hamburgers – Yes, one layer at a time. Chicken – Yes, but it tastes horrible after all of the shoving. They are very thristy. |
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| 15) Q: | Crash doesn’t have any graphic violence. Are you against graphic violence? |
| A: | No, and if you ask us that question another #$@! time we’ll kick your @#X* and rip your !@% off! Crash doesn’t need violence. It’s that simple. |
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| 16) Q: | How do I become a video game programmer? |
| A: | All of the Naughty Dog programmers started programming when they were very young. They all had computers at home, and they would all spend a good deal of time in the basement doing what was called “hacking”. Some of them took computer-related courses in High School, but at that time you didn’t need to know that much about computers to teach the computer lab teacher a thing or three. Andy got a post graduate degree in Artificial Intelligence, but one of the biggest arguments in Artificial Intelligence is whether or not it even exists. All the Naughty Dog programmers work very hard, keep long hours, and have the ability to say things that make you confused. |
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| 17) Q: | What percentage of the PlayStation’s power are you using for each Crash game? |
| A: | All of it. 110 volts. Exactly what is in your wall socket. But there is a lot more that we can do with the 110 volts in the future. Look for the next PlayStation games we work on to look better and better. |
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| 18) Q: | Is Crash related to the Tasmanian Devil? |
| A: | The Tasmanian Devil refuses to do blood tests, so we may never know. |
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| 19) Q: | What kind of shoes does Crash Bandicoot wear? |
| A: | Big red ones. Though if Nike would like to sponsor Crash and start a line of shoes like “Air Jordans” called “Spin Crashes,” we are open to offers. |
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| 20) Q: | Are there only twenty questions? |
| A: | Yes, so far. |
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| 21) Q: | I thought there were only 20 questions. Why is there a 21? |
| A: | Because Naughty Dog is firmly AGAINST antidisestablishmentarianism. Go look it up. |
The Making Crash series: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
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    My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed |
Restaurant: Takao [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Location: 11656 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 207-8636
Date: August 6, 2011
Rating: 9/10 creative “new style” sushi
I’ve already covered Takao in some detail HERE and then separately here, here, and here, but we went back (we go often) and I built another “custom omakase” trying some different things. The full menu and some information on the history of the place can be found through the first link.
As you can see comparing this to the other Takao meals, you my dear readers, come first, as I ordered completely differently for your vicarious enjoyment.
After my spectacular N/Naka Kaiseki meal and its really good sakes I decided to up my sake game. This is the cheapest of the “shaved rice” sakes on the menu at Takao. It was good, not as good as the two amazing ones at N/Naka (Takao has half a dozen “better” ones too), but good.
The chefs at work. Takao himself was cutting for me tonight.
Scallop sashimi. I do love my japanese scallops. There was sea salt to dip them in too.
Toro tartar with caviar. I just can’t resist.
Spanish Mackerel chopped with scallions. Very tasty!
Squid, two ways. On the left normal. And on the right I’m not sure, but it there was a sour (and I mean sour) plum sauce (above left) to dip it in. Same sauce as I had the other day at Kiriko.
Mysterious grilled bit of sea creature. Soft and chewy, not bad.
Grilled Alaskan king crab legs. A sprig of pickled ginger.
On the left Uni (sea urchin) and on the right Ikura (salmon roe).
Fresh water eel with the sweet BBQ sauce.
And then a winter mushroom miso to finish.
I’m always reading books on writing and storytelling. In fact, I read three this week. One of them was Save the Cat by the late Blake Snyder. This post isn’t a review per se of that book, but more some mental ramblings on issues it raised.
First an observation about the nature of “advice” books and the possible career of sceenwriter. Mr. Snyder was (he unfortunately died suddenly recently) a noted screenwriter, having sold over a dozen major spec scripts, at least two for over a million dollars each. He worked on roughly 100 screenplays in some capacity. Yet, only two of these have even been made into movies.
Eeek gads! If this is success as a screenwriter it has to be creatively bankrupt. Unlike novels, screenplays aren’t a medium themselves. In fact, I find them boring as shit. They’re just a weird but essential initial sketch of a film. Now don’t think I consider them unimportant. A production can easily ruin a great script, but it’s exceedingly rare to take a bad one and make a good movie out of it. They’re certainly the single most important element of any film. Great screenwriters add immeasurably to a film. Look at the different between Empire Strikes Back and Phantom Menace. Personally I think it was Lawrence Kasdan or some other writer who was NOT George Lucas.
In any case, having almost none of your creative work see the light of day has to be depressing. I’m also guessing that in recent years Mr. Snyder made more money selling his books/lectures/advice ABOUT writing screenplays than in actually writing the things. Hehe.
Cover of Wedding Crashers
But that was what I intended to write about. Save the Cat is essentially a book about making your story (screenplay) correspond fairly rigidly to the classic Hollywood three act structure. It even goes so far as to break (every) film into roughly a dozen beats and assign exact page numbers in which they should occur. For example: “theme stated” (page 5) or “catalyst” (page 12). All of this can be found on his website.
Now there is some real merit to this structure and it’s certainly very useful and entertaining to be able to breakdown movies like this. In fact, if you want a giggle go to this page where you will find a breakdown of the guilty-pleasure comedy The Wedding Crashers. It’s highly amusing to see a film this silly (but admittedly funny) stripped down to include a Hegelian thesis/antithesis/synthesis dialectic. And I do admit if you are trying to write and sell high concept comedies in today’s marketing executive driven world, this whole formula has to be the way to go.
But I wonder how useful it is to try and fit EVERY story into this exact mould. You could say actually that Save the Cat represents a thesis: yes all movies should follow this fixed structure. The antithesis of course is that interesting ones, the example he uses is Memento, should not. Now Mr. Snyder’s conclusion is literally “Fuck Momento!” (actual quote from the book). But I think that Christopher Nolan is laughing to the bank — just not on that film! — he had to remake it using dreams inside of memory loss.
I myself am thinking that a synthesis is in order. A new universe blending both perspectives. The classic structure does encapsulate A LOT of solid lessons about audience expectations for story telling. Perhaps one should use it more as a toolbox or set of guidelines.
This is specifically relevant in my new novel, Untimed. It does to a large extent follow the classic structure (although certain not with such rigid page number demarkations). But there are questions. I have two ideas in the book that could be considered thesis and antithesis, but their advocates are far more muddled than formula would require. Do I restructure and state each in a more obvious way? Likewise, as is typical with me, my ending does not neatly wrap up all questions, villians, and the like. There is climax, but it’s messy. I like ambiguity, and I have gone to great length to construct a world order sufficiently complex that not all mystery is to be solved in one book. Doing so leads to the standard Hollywood sequel problem, where the followups are just more of the same but missing the best part: the discovery inherent in beginnings. If you haven’t answered all the questions, there is still more to learn.
But a squeaky voice in the back of my head wonders: do I need a more Hollywood ending?
Food for thought.
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Restaurant: Via Alloro
Location: 301 N. Canon Drive – Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Phone: 310.275.2900
Date: August 5, 2011
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Very nice
The Drago brothers have an ever expanding little empire going in Beverly Hills. This includes Il Pastaio, Enoteco Drago, Piccolo Paradiso, and Il Buco. Plus several others on the westside, the valley, downtown etc. I’ve reviewed Celestino Drago’s flagship Drago and I’ve been to most, all are very good.
Via Alloro is new, managed by brothers Giacomino and Tanino, and only two blocks from Il Pastaio. We decided to grab a quick lunch there and check it out.
Lots of good choices on this menu. The PDF.
Excellent bread as at all Drago restaurants.
A slightly different take on fried zucchini flowers. Stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella. Then served over a light tomato sauce.
“Vitello Tonnao. Chillded veal in tuna sauce, with parmesan and capers.” This was damn good, with the very tasty zesty salty sauce really bringing out the flavor of the meat.
Lots of great pastas here — no surprise. “Homemade ravioli filled with sweet corn, served with truffle fondue.” Hard to beat that.
And “Saliccie al forno. baked sausage with mama Drago’s stew.” This is a very Southern Italian dish and I have to say it’s the best Italian sausage I’ve even had. Incredibly succulent, with fennel, and a very bright and zesty “gravy.”
Expresso to recover!
Off to a great start on the latest BH Drago Italian. I’ll have to come back for a more extensive dinner.
These are answers (of mine) to a series of interview questions from Russian game site www.crash–bandicoot.ru. They’re a major Russian Crash fan site, hence the bad pun in my title. If you happen to speak Russian, they’ve it here.
The questions are in bold, and my answers in normal.
Image via Wikipedia
There was the soundtrack of Komodo Bros. boss on the CB1 CD. Does it mean you planned to bring this boss to the first game? What the fight was like and why have you dropped this idea?
Time. We ran out of time, plus we already had six bosses. They ended up in Crash 2. The Crash 1 battle plan was about 30% larger than the game we shipped – which was plenty big enough – as we planned too much. Everything extra ended up in Crash 2. But we didn’t actually make it during the Crash 1 development, we realized before then that there was too much in the plan and shelved it for later. It takes much less time to write on paper, “cool snow level where crash can slide around on the ice” than it does to design, model, and program said level.
Why the cut levels from CB1 beta like Cavern, Cliff and Waterfall haven’t reached its finish point in the final version of the game? According to the video they were well developed.
These were two early levels. The Cliff and Waterfall are the same level (jungle1). The cave was (cave2). These were the first two levels we built in Spring 1995, and they just didn’t work. The designs were too open, showing too many polygons and not channeling the player well enough for proper gameplay. If the space was so big that Crash could just walk around the enemies it wasn’t very fun.
There is the screenshot on crashmania where you can see the fruit similiar to pineapple instead of wumpa. Is it right and was it planned to add different fruits to the game?
Originally (for over a year in development) we had an elaborate fruit currency for pickups. Different fruit were worth different “points.” The only problem with this was that we only had so much texture memory and so each fruit got very little, and didn’t look that great. We eventually decided to spent all that memory on one fruit (the Wumpa fruit) and make it look really good. We rendered it out rotating and stored all the angles. Doing the fruit in actual 3D wasn’t feasible because fruit are round (hence lots of polygons) and we wanted to have many of them on screen.
What the bosses’ heads of Pinstripe, Koala Kong and Papu were for in the bonus rounds in the early version of the game?
We experimented with different “bonus head” currencies. I can’t remember which. In the end Tawna, Cortex, and Brio won out.
What the famous platform with plants from the level Air Crash (CB2) was for? Lots of players used to think it could take you to some secret place however there was the published video where Crash stayed on the platform and nothing happened.
That is just a video of some uncompleted area in some unfinished version of the game (say for a tradeshow). It was under construction and was never intended to be seen. Under construction levels can display any kind of whacky behavior.
Image via Wikipedia
Why Nitros Oxide wasn’t brought to playable characters in CTR?
We only had room for so many, and the consensus (particularly of the Japanese) was that the cute characters were better choices (like the polar bear cub).
Is it true that there was a secret character called Hippo in the beta of CTR? Why weren’t all the characters from original trilogy included? It’d been nice to see Koala Kong and Nitrus Brio there.
Time and space. Each character was a lot of work and took up a lot of memory. I don’t remember the hippo though.
Why did you choose Mutato Muzika as the music composer to the all games of Crash Bandicoot?
We auditioned a number of composers to give us sample music for the game. Theirs was the coolest. And we were in a hurry J. But it worked out great!
Why CB1 takes all space on CD while CB takes only 1/3 of disk space? It’d be nice to see CB2 on mini-CD.
There is a huge fake file on the CB1 CD (the data.wad) which the game doesn’t care about. The file is full of random numbers and it was there to fill out the disk. The reason for this was twofold. First of all, the outside of the CD is faster, so by putting the useless file on the inside the game would be pushed to the outside. Second, we thought that pirates would be irritated by and less likely to download a 650meg game than a 150meg game. Less pirate copies is a good thing when you make games for a living.
Why have you deleted your official site of Crash Bandicoot on www.naughtydog.com? I’d like to read 20 questions and answers for Crash Bandicoot one more time.
I don’t control or influence www.naughtydog.com in any way, and haven’t since 2004.
What do you think about the bug which allows player to take the red gem in CB2 in an alternative way, not through the secret warproom?
I don’t 🙂 But it’s just a bug. In 1996 it would have pissed me off (mildly), now I shrug and smile.
Why do Brio and Cortex quarrel so that Brio looks for the way of destroying Cortex Spaceship in CB2?
Brio turned out to be surprisingly sympathetic (because Cortex picks on him) so we thought it would be amusing to develop that a bit. The Crash series, however, is not exactly The English Patient in terms of character depth.
It is very interesting what was planned to develop and what plans of that came true in CB2 and CB3?
For Crash 1 we had this huge three-part Island and all sorts of ideas for different areas and levels. Crash 2 was to a large extent those that didn’t make it in the first game plus lots of extra cool ideas we had. There was more time for new mechanics like the surf board, zero-G, sliding on the ice, etc. For Crash 3 we needed something a bit different and came up with the time travel idea (mine!). But truth is that we all loved that idea, and both Jason and I adore time travel. My second novel is about time travel! So the idea naturally led to putting in favorite times and places as levels for Crash 3.
Have you ever regretted of selling the rights of Crash Bandicoot franchise to another company? If there was a chance would you like to return on developing this franchise?
It made sense at the time, but I love Crash. Of all my creations it’s still my favorite and it’s sad to see him drop to his current lows. As Jason puts it, like discovering that your sweet High School girlfriend is now a street walker in Atlantic City.
Why did you call your company just “Naughty Dog”?
We liked dogs. Plus Jason was always drawing these cool cartoon characters (in the mid 80s) and one of them was “The Naughty Dog” a studly 80s shades wearing dog who always got the chicks. So he became the mascot and source of the name.
Why Crash Bandicoot and Jak franchises are so similiar? I mean it includes the way of games (1, 2, 3 and racing). The first game of Jak is very similiar to CB1, the attack of Jak is like Crash’s one, we are destroying the crates and so more. Dammit, you can also see the Plant from CB1 in the beginning of the game?
The same people made them. Sometimes you like your own ideas 🙂 Certainly there is plenty new stuff in Jak.
Why have you developed Action-Adventure but not the platformer on PS3 as it lacks of them? I have read your Making of Crash Bandicoot series where you have said Naughty Dog was always looking for the opportunity ways, don’t you think the nice platformer could worth it?
I myself didn’t really do much PS3 development. I left Naughty Dog when Uncharted 1 was in its infancy. But market wise there seemed to be less support for pure platforming. It was seen as old fashioned.
What are you interested in besides the video games?
Lots of stuff. Look at my blog http:all-things-andy-gavin.com. Food, history, travel, writing, fiction of all sorts, technology. I’m very much a fantasy geek in the broad sense of the word.
What is your favorite game?
World of Warcraft. Even though I “quit” (again) after six years. Told you I’m a fantasy geek.
According to Facebook you like classic music. What are your favorite compositions?
I like a lot of music. In pure classical everything from Mozart to Stravinsky. But I listen to a wide variety of things, from weird folk music to industrial techno.
Have you ever been to Russia or the countries of post-Soviet Union. If yes did you like them? If no then are you going to visit them some time?
The closest I’ve been is Budapest and Prague. I’d love to visit many places in the former USSR. St. Petersburg is high on my list because I have a palace and museum fetish and I must see the baroque palaces there. Jason’s been to Moscow too – and I’d love to go there myself.
How do you think if Crash Bandicoot is relevant nowadays?
Current (or recent) Crash games are not relevant, but the character is. The response I get from my blog proves this. People still love the character, his world, and the games. I’m sure if they got an opportunity to play good Crash games in an updated format — millions would.
Any wishes to the users of Bandicoot Internet Zone?
I’d like to thank all the fans. It’s always been so gratifying how much people enjoyed visiting and playing our whacky cartoon universe. We brought it to life because it was just this super silly place that we thought would be a fun to inhabit (even if virtually), and it’s so great that millions and millions of players agreed and had a blast there!
The index of all Crash posts is here.
The Making Crash series: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]
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My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed |
Title: Conan the Barbarian
Director/Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Actor), James Earl Jones (Actor)
Genre: Drama
Watched: August 3, 2011 (and before)
Summary: Still one of the great fantasy films
In honor of the upcoming remake of this classic, the release of the blu-ray, and the political demise of its star, I decided to rewatch this for like the 10th time — I think the last time was in 1997.
During the long long dark ages of fantasy filmmaking, before the wonder that is Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, or the epic new HBO Game of Thrones, we fantasy fans had to be content with a sorry set of films indeed. Above the pathetic likes of Willow and Krull, the 1982 Dino De Laurentiis epic starring the pre-Terminator Mr. Universe was high art indeed. In fact, it’s pretty much hands down the best High Fantasy film prior to LOTR.
It’s fascinating to see how it’s aged. Pretty well.
Technically, the blu-ray isn’t radically better than the DVD in the picture quality department, although it looks good. There is some film grain from the era, and the movie has a lot of contrast which strains my plasma (I need to get an LCD or good new projector). The sound needed a major new restoration it didn’t get, it was pretty terrible. Which is a shame given the spectacular score. Nevertheless, none of this takes much away from the film.
This movie has blood, guts, and tits, snakes, swords, cannibals, wizards and all that long before HBO. Gotta love it. The period head-banger stylings of everyone, particularly the bad guys are great fun.
I love this trio of baddies. Check out heavy metal guitarist Nigel Tufnel on the right. Love him. And James Earl Jones is fantastic as cruel neo-hippy-killer Thulsa Doom. “Steel is week, flesh is strong!”
This movie feels big. It uses wide open location shots in Andalusia Spain to good effect, big sets, and crazy costumes. It’s just plain unabashed. Sure the dialog is laughably cheesy and the script ham-handed. Transitions are abrupt and there is little to no character development. But there are great lines like “time enough for the earth in the grave” and Atilla the Hun’s stolen quote, “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.” All good stuff.
What’s also very interesting is the forgotten style of epic storytelling, which has more in common with Lawrence of Arabia than it does with modern action crap like Transformers. This film has long Easy Rider style travel scenes with just the thunderous score and more interestingly, several almost ballet like giant action numbers with an operatic orchestral quality. These scenes, notably the raid on the Conan’s village, the assault on Set’s tower (awesome!), and the war-painted invasion of the cannibal Mountain of Power (more awesome!), have virtually no dialog. They have muted sound effects, but predominantly the mood is set with the booming orchestra and the intricately choreographed action, swaying as it does to the hypnotic score.
Really good stuff.
Peter Jackson knows his fantasy films, because he borrowed heavily from this in his own epic. Think the Black Riders at the Bree ferry, or the long descent to the bridge of Khazad-dûm. All favorite scenes of mine.
Michael Bey, eat your heart out!
Restaurant: Shamshiri Grill
Location: 1712 Westwood Blvd. Los Angeles, Ca 90024 (310) 474-1410
Date: July 31, 2011
Cuisine: Persian
Rating: One of my favorite Iranian restaurants
Shamshiri is one of my favorite Iranian restaurants on the westside — and we certainly have an embarrassment of riches in this flavorful cuisine.
It’s located on Westwood Blvd right in the heart of Westwood.
I forgot to photo the bread, but in traditional person manner it’s accompanied by butter, radish, mint, and onions.
This is an appetizer combo platter: “A Family Size platter of Dolmeh, Baba Ganoush, Mast o’khiar, Humus and Falafel.” ALl good.
The regular “greek style” salad that is often an option with many dishes.
Parker gives this interesting Italian 92 points. “The 2008 Ramitello, a blend of 80% Montepulciano and 20% Aglianico, boasts fabulous clarity and freshness, with layers of vibrant dark cherries and plums that meld together with notable grace. Smoke, tar, menthol and licorice develop in the glass, giving the wine even more dimensions of expression. This is a terrific effort from Di Majo Norante. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2013.”
I ordered a side of yogurt with cucumber (and nuts and raisons). I’m obsessed with these yogurt sauces, I just love them, especially with grilled meats.
This is a vegan falafel wrap with humus.
“FRESH FILLET OF SALMON KABOB. Mesquite grilled Salmon Fillet (Atlantic Premium).” With french fries. I doubt this is very traditional, but it is pretty good.
Same goes with this Persian Pizza my son enjoyed.
Most dishes come with an obscene amount of good fluffy Persian rice.
This is one of my favorite Iranian dishes. “FESENJAN. Sweet-n-tart Walnut puree in Pomegranate Sauce
and your choice to Add Chicken, Lamb Shank or Veal.” In this case chicken. It’s superb here. The sauce is rich and simutaneously nutty, spiced (but not spicy), sweet, and tangy.
“GHORMEH SABZI. Fresh green Herbs, sautéed and stewed with Kidney Beans, dried lime and your choice to Add Chicken, Lamb Shank, or Veal.” Another great stew, eaten over rice.
“BAMIEH. Stew of Okra with Onions, Potatoes and Mushrooms in a Saffron tomato sauce. Served with your choice to Add Chicken, Lamb Shank, or Veal.” And another
And Shamshiri has a selection of fantastic kabobs. I particularly love the ground beef and lamb. They have these special chickens too that must be the size of Labradors because there are chicken breasts that are like 15″ long!
All and all, good stuff.
My original theme, Quentin, was getting a little long in the tooth and didn’t support custom menus, post formats, and the like, although it was attractive. So I switched to the brand new Quintus which is an updated version. This has necessitated a somewhat inadvertent new look. I played with the CSS a bit to customize it, but my patience for this is limited. The new theme is wider, which is cool, but some elements don’t look as good to me like the comments.
Be sure to check out the new top menu (below the old-school paper). You can click on the top levels and get inline filtering of the post categories, or find in the drop downs various indices and popular posts.
Let me know what you think. Here’s what the old one looked like:
Restaurant: Villetta
Location: 246 26th Street. Santa Monica, CA 90402. 310-394-8455
Date: July 30 & Nov 18, 2011
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Very good, but prices are steep
One of the great mysteries of the culinary universe is how Brentwood in general, and San Vicente in particular, is able to support so many Italian restaurants. Every time someplace closes and resets it comes back Italian! The only other option in the entire town are 3 Japanese and a couple chains (CPK and Cheesecake — but you all know I don’t eat chains).
This gorgeous 1920s space used to be Chez Mimi, an old school French place that my wife and I used to eat at quite a bit.
It’s still very cute with a little bar inside.
A quaint dining room.
And most importantly a lovely patio. I had been trying for about three weeks to get into this new place but it was always booked on opentable.com, so we just showed up at 6:15 and had no trouble getting a “bar seat” in the patio.
They give you to start faggioli (Tuscan white beans) mashed with garlic and salt, and drizzled in olive oil. For such a simple thing, it’s surprisingly delicious. You can see the old school version here in florence about half way down the post.
The bread, two types.
The wine list was a bit odd. Three quarters New World. Which for an Italian restaurant is strange. They also had no half bottles (boo hiss) so I had to get glasses, which is expensive. The pours were generous though. This is a decent Amarone (but $25 a glass!).
And a Pinot Grigio from the Venato. I’d never drink Ca wine with Italian when there are so many great wines from the boot.
The menu.
“Villetta ‘Caprese’ with heirloom tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, basil pesto and grilled bread.” Villetta claims to be farmer’s market driven, and you can see that here in this lovely caprese. Very high quality ingredients.
Same goes with the “burrata, prosciutto, cherry tomatoes and bruschetta.” These were good enough tomatoes that I was able to put aside my nightshade aversion and eat half of them. Nice prosciutto too, probably from parma.
“ravioli with zucchini and chive blossoms and sweet corn.” Also very nice homemade pasta. Very straight up but delicious butter-sage sauce. Note though that this is the large ($25) portion.
On a different night, a very similar pasta filled with slightly different vegetables as was more appropriate to the season (late autumn).
“Mezze maniche with hot and sweet sausage, peas, tomato, and cream.” This is basically a sausage ragu. The pasta was very al dente (good) and the sauce was pretty wonderful.
“Santa Barbara spot prawns with salad of borlotti beans, mizuna and orange citronette.” These were pretty darn delicious. Even the beans underneath were incredibly good with garlic and olive oil. Again this is the large ($50!) portion. You can see the Ligurian version of this same dish here.
“Grilled Sonoma lamb leg with fresh flageolet beans and eggplant caponata.” The meat itself was pretty spectacular and cooked perfectly.
I had to order this red from Campagnia to go with it too.
A little free watermelon sorbet to cleanse the palette.
And on a different night it was orange sorbet, much like a granite or Italian ice.
The dessert menu.
“Chocolate chip cookie sundae with vanilla and chocolate gelato, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.” This was delicious. I don’t think the ice cream was actually gelato though — but it was good. I’d put good money on it coming from Sweet Rose Creamery across the street as it had the same kind of consistency.
Overall, the food at Villetta was first rate. Really good actually, and the service was very friendly too (not super fast, but warm). The prices however are high. They also have what looks to be some really good pizza, as they have a full wood fired pizza oven and a chef from Napoli, but we didn’t try it. So I’d put this in the same category with Capo, Georgio Baldi, and Vincente of excellent but overpriced westside Italian.
Click here to see more Italian than you can shake a stick at.
Restaurant: Ozumo
Location: 395 Santa Monica Place Santa Monica, CA 90401 T: 424.214.5130
Date: July 15, 2011
Cuisine: Modern Japanese / Sushi
Rating: Good
I’ve been slowly working my way through the new Santa Monica Place Mall dining scene. Which surprisingly, isn’t bad. Not brilliant either, but not bad. They’ve populated the mall with six or so small chain corporate places (restaurant groups of 2-4 restaurants each). These are never quite as good as sole (and chef owned) establishments, but they are better than big chains — barf! So far I’ve reviewed Xino, Zengo, and La Sandia. Now it’s time for the Japanese, Ozumo.
The interior space is large.
With multiple parts and a real sushi bar.
The dinner menu can be found here.
We ordered this decent (but not exactly on the level of this) cold sake. They did have a lot of expensive sakes on the menu, so some of them might be amazing.
“Kinoko Miso Soup. Nameko, shiitake and enoki mushrooms in a rustic Koji miso soup with negi.” A nice miso variant. I liked all the mushroom action.
“Hanabi. Slices of hamachi and avocado drizzled with a warm ginger and jalapeño ponzu sauce.” This is their interpretation of the classic Nobu dish. Everyone has it now. This version was a tad overdone, throwing in a few more elements and disguising the fish. But at the same time it was tasty and nothing clashed.
“Special heirloom tomato salad.”
Toro sashimi. I’m trying to low carb it so I’ve been doing more sashimi. This was good toro, but it reinforced my conclusion that this Rolls Royce of fish does better as sushi than as sashimi. Somehow it’s fat content needs the rice as a foil.
“Yiya Yakko. Chilled silken tofu, fresh ginger, negi and tamari shoyu.”
Here are the traditional sauces. The tofu itself was perfect. And truth is this is exactly how I’ve gotten it in Japan. The problem is that the straight up soy sauce is a little bland for the tofu. This is a flaw in the classic dish, not the restaurant. The deadly hot Korean version I had recently at Moko was tastier — and vastly more nose shattering.
Some various sashimi. Salmon, scallop, albacore. This was all good, although not ‘amazing,’ I’d say 8/10 on the fish meter.
“Yamabuki. Fresh uni, shimeji and shiitake mushrooms in a healthy Genmai brown rice risotto.” This made me suspend my “low carbing” for a dish. I would have liked more uni (sea urchin) as there are only two tiny pieces. The risotto itself was very good. It tasted more “healthy” and brown rice than a classic Italian version, which would have been slightly yummier. But it did have great texture, particularly with the mushrooms. Overall a very pleasant dish.
Here is the other bar, which is ‘first come first serve.’ These mall places are huge though, and as of yet there is no problem getting into any of them even at prime time.
They even have some cool outside seating, although not as nice as Xino or Zengo’s patios which are fantastic.
Overall, Ozumo is good. I’d probably rate it 7/10. The food was quite good. The service, like all the mall places, needs some work. I think they hire too many young inexperienced servers. The food’s not as good as many of LA’s other top sushi joints, but it’s solid (remember I’m a serious sushi snob), and considerably better (and cheaper) than over trendified mediocre fish joints like Katsuya Brentwood or Sushi Roku. As far as the mall goes, it’s in the league with Xino and Zengo, and certainly better than La Sandia.
Title: Storm Front
Author: Jim Butcher
Genre: Paranormal Noir
Length: 384 pages, 87,100 words
Read: July 5-7, 2011
Summary: Fun read, decent noir redux.
This novel has the amusing premise of taking the straight up traditional noir detective novel, like The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep, and giving it a modern paranormal spin. Now it isn’t the first book to do this, Laurell K. Hamilton‘s Anita Blake series is more or less on this model, but Butcher clearly read his source material.
It begins with the detective (ahem… wizard) in his office, and the case initiated by the lip chewing lady. Lets first address the success of this book as a piece of entertainment, then we’ll get into it’s loyalty to it’s sources. The book works. It’s a very fun read, catches you early on with the voice, and moves along at a good clip. I’d have sworn it was 250 pages and not 384. It has it’s flaws, but it’s fundamentally a good piece of entertainment. Compare to the somewhat similar Dead Witch Walking which I started recently but stopped halfway.
The voice is fun. Hardboiled, but not nearly as much as Dashiell Hammett‘s masterpiece upon which it seems loosely modeled. Harry Dresden (the wizard/detective protagonist) is observant and engaging, but he lets you know through interior monologue what he thinks about the situation. True hard boiled only implies or tells just a little. They remain much more oblique in terms of the character’s inner life, despite being first person. Now given that there’s a lot of magic and supernature creatures in Storm Front, being upfront probably helped the clarity. Even if it did occasionally leave me with a tiny feeling of too much TELL. The prose is pretty witty too — again not Hammett witty — but good, and very clear.
The characters varied from excellent (Harry, Bob, the mob boss) to just fine. The villain was kind of weak. Actually more than kind of weak. Fairly cardboard. Morgan (the memory of the White Wizard’s council who watches our hero) was a paper thin twerp too. The plot had plenty of good elements, and moved like lightning, although at times it felt contrived to keep Harry in maximum jeopardy. There seemed no reason he shouldn’t have trusted his police partner a bit more, as the only thing doing so would have cost him is a lot of worry and a whole lot of bruises.
The magic system and supernatural creatures were good too. Handled with a deft brevity as this book has plenty of creatures: vampires, fairies, wizards, etc. but they didn’t bother me — and I’m picky here. Although only the amusing little fairy stood out. A lot (like the vampire) were used jump because. The feel of many elements, like the potions and the fairies, was a bit tongue and cheek, but fit.
True to it’s noir roots, the book is pretty dark, with grisly murders and (off screen) sex. But by being supernatural, and more importantly campy, it looses that black edged moral ambiguity that the best classic noir had, making it just a fun read, free of any real comment on the human condition.
Location: 465 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048. 310.246.5555
Date: July 31, 2011
Cuisine: Modern Brunch
Rating: Fantastique
I follow José Andrés on twitter, and I was reading (and crying) about the final meal at elBulli, so when the restaurant selection for brunch with friends came up, the SLS came to mind.
Enter the whacky world of Trés at the SLS.
Inside is the same kind of bizarre Philippe Starck space as at Bazaar. High tables on one side.
Comfortable lounging on the other.
The brunch menu is here. There are buffet, ala carte, and “experience” options. We went for the experience which is the buffet + an entree + a mimosa for only $10 more (the mimosa alone is $16).
The buffet is endless, but i’ll begin with breads and pastries.
And more.
And condiments for such.
And the table des fruits.
Melons.
Various fruit juice “waters.” These are lighter than regular juice. There were about six exotic types.
If you are so inclined, you can add them to these glasses of fruit for a blend of fruit and juice.
And these spectacular yogurts with fruit.
Cereal if you are boring.
The the vege station. Prep glasses for gazpacho.
A zoom of one. You add the gazpacho yourself, and there are other condiments.
The gazpacho.
Salad plates and condiments.
Pull back for the big picture.
Then the meat and cheese station.
Pig, pig, and more pig. Hams and salamis.
Jamon del Iberico!
Some more fruits.
Spanish cheeses.
And more.
And rolls and condiments. To the rights are jams and butters.
Inside are mini steam buns (more on that later).
Amazing smoked salmon and caviars and accompaniments.
Creme fraiche, chives, onions, quail eggs, two types of caviar (including the real stuff).
The salmon was amazing.
And roast beef.
Then some desserts.
And more.
And an extensive assortment of petite fours from the pasticerie. Passion fruit pate des fruits on top, bon bons, cookies.
Our meals came with mimosas. This is the classic. The alcohol is cava (Spanish champagne).
Or the even yummier grapefruit mimosa.
A close up of a bit of caesar salad. Very tasty.
The gazpacho was amazing. Just totally amazing. I had three helpings as did several others.
A plate of goodies. You can see the caviars (and meats).
I made a couple of these custom steam buns. Wow!
Fried potatoes.
An omelet with mushrooms and zucchini blossoms.
360 degree eggs, toasted brioche, hollandaise air, and Jamon Serrano. This was one of the better eggs benedict I’ve had — and I’ve had a lot.
The salmon version.
Grilled cheese.
Fries — always yummy.
This Greek yogurt with fruit (this one had apricots) were so incredibly delicious! Sweet though.
Then some desserts, which are more or less highlights of the Bazaar’s desserts. These are mango and cream.
“Hot chocolate mouse, three layers,” mini version.
Classic Spanish flan.
Some of the whacky decorations.
more
and more.
Even the bar nuts are cool.
And this crazy zesty lemonade, which served nicely as an aperitif.
Overall this was a fantastic brunch. Different than your typical one, but fantastique for sure. It holds up in every way to the quality level of the various José Andrés offerings at the SLS!
Click here to see more LA dining, or reviews of The Bazaar and Saam (also at the SLS).
The entrance again, behind us is the parking zoo. And it’s a serious zoo.
Location: 14160 Palaway Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292 310.439.3033
Date: July 28 & 30, 2011
Cuisine: Modern
Rating: Interesting, but a little all over the place
My brother and I were out for our weekly lunch adventure and after Gjelina had a 45 minute wait we made our way to Vu, which I had tried a couple months ago for dinner.
Vu does live up to its name, sporting a nice patio with an excellent view of the marina.
I was a little surprised to find the lunch menu, PDF here, a bit “more conventional” than the modern tapas centric dinner menu.
Bread.
“Grilled Polenta: Asparagus, tomato, pickled red onion, aged balsamic.”
“Green Curry Soup: Mussels, coconut boba, micro cilantro.” This was quite good. Fairly spicy, coconuty, definably rich. The mussels, boba, and pork lumps inside were like little prizes to hunt for.
“Seared King Cole Duck Breast Salad: mixed greens, goat cheese, dried cherries, chocolate-spiced cashews, red wine vinaigrette.” This was pretty tasty, the duck was good, and the various elements. But the mix was overall a little weird. I’m pretty sure there was sisho in the greens, as they had that distinct flavor. Now I like sisho, but the overall flavor profile of the dish was a little helter-skelter.
“Blue Crab Cakes: charred tomato, orange, brioche bread crumbs, pickled red onion, mache, mustard ice cream.” These crab-cakes were way over fried, and inside they were stuffed with tarragon. So much so that they tasted like tarragon cakes. This wasn’t ideal, masking the crab flavor (as did the heavy fry). No where near in the league of the crab-cakes from Houstons or Capo.
I also popped down to Vu two days after this with my toddler from some brunch as we were already in the Marina.
The brunch menu can be found here.
Pancakes. Pretty conventional. I think the syrup was vanilla syrup, which was tasty.
My son likes a mix in with strawberries.
“Lobster Omelette: asparagus, shaved fennel, niman ranch pork belly, pommery hollandaise, home fries.” This wasn’t bad at all, but the overall flavor profile was again a little weird. The sour mustard clashed a bit with the sweetness of the pork and lobster.
Some VERY good fries, with a cumin based seasoning on them.
And some fantastic Neiman ranch bacon. Really really good bacon.
Overall Vu is trying interesting stuff, but the chef is too wild with his palette. I’m all for crazy and interesting combinations and new modern techniques — really all over them — but they need to be employed with care. Dishes still have to work together harmoniously, which isn’t really going on here.
Click here to see the previous review of Vu.
My post showing Game of Throne’s transparent CGI was wildly successful (over 25,000 views on my site alone). Apparently its been popular across the web at large because the SFX company released another video of even more.
Particularly interesting is how many of the weapon strike shots (getting stabbed, speared, shot etc) are all added in with CGI. Traditionally this was just done with quick cuts, trick weapons, and fake blood. Now, evidently, it’s cheaper (and better looking) to just have the actors pantomime the response and fill in the weapon and gore. All those latex horror effects guys must be out of jobs!
This is a very effective means of conveying what they’ve done, and also shows you how weird the rough cut of the show must look without the visual effects. And, also tells you why they need six months after wrapping filming to get the show out!
You can check out the first video here, or
my reviews of each episode of Season 1 of Game of Thrones (the HBO series):
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9, 10]
Read my review of A Dance With Dragons.
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My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed |
Restaurant: Kiriko Sushi [1, 2]
Location: 11301 Olympic Blvd #102, West Los Angeles, CA 90064. TELL (310) 478-7769
Date: July 8 & 21, Sept 21, 2011
Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi
Rating: Very nice!
At our giant Go Sushi love-fest one of my Foodie Club members suggested I check out this Sawtelle sushi joint. He said it was great. Twist my arm! So I finagled a business lunch there (didn’t have to twist the other arms very hard either).
The unassuming storefront on the corner of Olympic and Sawtelle, right next to the Yakatori place.
This first time we ordered a light Omakase, almost all sashimi with a little sushi.
The classic Japanese salad with the yummy textured dressing. I forgot either of my real cameras and had to make due with the iPhone 4 (sorry). It really doesn’t do too bad a job if you have adequate light and turn off the flash. That little LED has a range of about 12 inches and isn’t good for much.
Miso soup, the usual sort. They had about four kinds on the menu though.
Amberjack on the left, and halibut on the right with a gelatinous but yummy “sauce.”
From left to right: albacore with garlic chips, baby red snapper, and mackerel with onion and similar. All very good and excellent preparation.
On the left, kanpachi (young yellowtail), taco (octopus), and on the right Japanese scallops with pesto. I hate eating octopus because it’s such a smart animal, but these were some of the most tender and succulent bits of cephalopod I’ve yet had. THe scallop was also fantastic, with the light pesto adding a unique flavor without marring the subtle sea taste.
Left to right: Sock-eye salmon (light sauce), seared albacore, and golden eye snapper. The snapper almost tasted like lobster or something.
On the left: Big eye tuna and yellowtail, in the middle sea bream with salt and on the right homemade smoked salmon. All were great, but the bream and the salmon really stood out.
Sushi, left to right: Tuna, yellowtail, sea bream (with salt), and homemade salmon. This plate was served at the same time as the similar sashimi plate above.
Blue crab handroll. Overstuffed and on par with the Sasabune ones.
I went back two weeks later and ordered a more elaborate sashimi omakase, which is mixed in here with a simpler sushi/sashimi one. This time I had the medium camera so the pictures are better.
Some couple million year-old sea salt rocks on the counter.
The chef at work.
The salad.
Regular miso.
Red miso, which is saltier and richer.
Octopus, salmon wrapped mango with caviar, and on the right boiled eel with plum sauce. The eel was interesting. It didn’t have much flavor (being boiled) but the sauce was very tart, tasting intensely of sour Japanese plum (which it was).
The same thing but with an oyster instead of the octopus.
A sashimi plate, left to right. Wild kanpachi (young yellowtail) with pesto, gel, and jalepeno. Albacore with garlic chips, abalone sea salt. Halibut with ponzu gel. These gels (slightly sweet, interesting texture) are something unique to Kirko (in my experience).
A sushi plate. Crab handroll, BBQ eel, salmon, yellowtail and halibut.
A sashimi plate that I forgot to photo until after I had eaten several items. We have starting in the lower left and heading clockwise. Tai (Red snapper) with sea salt. Chu-toro. Santa Barbara spot prawn, live head and raw body (eaten). Japanese scallop with pesto.
The head was so alive it was still moving. Click this image for a video.
Then he came back fried. Most certainly dead this time.
A sashimi plate of four kinds of salmon. Left to right: Sock eye smoked. Sock eye fresh. King salmon smoked. King salmon fresh. All good.
Japanese scallop sushi, with a bit of salt and yuzu.
More sashimi. Squid with spicy cod roe. Seared Japanese Mackerel. Seam bream with yuzu.
This is another “sushi and sashimi” lunch omakase.
Soup and salad.
Seared snapper, monk fish liver with jelly, and halibut.
Albacore, seared and raw. Amberjack, wild yellowtail with jelly in front and sea bream in back right.
Salmon sashimi.
Bluefin tuna, wild yellowtail, sea bream, and salmon sushis.
Scallop and Uni (sea urchin) sushi.
A top grade blue crab hand-roll.
Overall, I was very impressed with Kiriko. Not only was the fish fantastic but they had very nice modern presentation and were doing some interesting stuff with the fish without going all weird and California. I’d put it in that grade of 9/10 LA sushi, which is saying a lot as our sushi is so fantastic.
Click here to see more LA Sushi posts.
Restaurant: Moko
Location: 9540 Culver Blvd. Culver City, Ca. (310) 838-3131
Date: July 9, 2011
Rating: Very tasty — Spicy!
Moko is a newly opened Korean bar/restaurant serving very modernized variants using a Korean palette of flavors. This is to Korean as Red Medicine is to Vietnamese.
The pleasant but industrial space in the heart of Culver City’s bustling downtown.
The have the BBQ in the table, and there is an extensive section of the menu for ordering meats and vegetables to cook here — we didn’t do that on this visit.
An amuse of three “salads.” Left to right: “Watermelon Namul with tasted almonds chile, shiso and ginger,” followed by “Kong Maul, mixed sporuts with spring onions sesame and soy,” and on the right “Market Radish Namul, sweet ginger and pineapple mint.”
“Spicy Smash, Tequila Silver, lime juice, agave & cucumber, Thai basil, serrano.” This is one of those spicy specialty cocktails that has popped up all over the place lately. It was good, with a long serrano burn.
“Tai Snapper, asian pear jus and pickled ginger.” Sweet and lovely.
“Big Eye Tuna, yuzu, soy, and blood orange.” Also a really good presentation of the fish with complex flavor profiles.
“Sesame Duck Confit, sweet lettuces and mango with ginger aioli and chipotle jang wrapped in jjin bahng.” This was amazingly tasty. The smokey duck, the sweet fruit, and the tang of some pickles paired perfectly — and there was all sorts of texture going on.
“Green Chili Pork Sausage, pineapple and butter lettuces with ssam jang wrapped in jjin bahang.” Also great. The sausage thing tasted amazing.
“Asian Pear and Kholrabi Salad, pea shoots and perilla with mustard vinaigrette.” Pretty spicy!
“Heirloom tomatos, green beans, soy ginger vinaigrette.”
“Silken Tofu, ginger dashi broth.” Wasabi in the sauce was incredibly hot. Hotter even than atomic horseradish. My nose hurt for an hour. Each bite made me sneeze. I finished it all.
“Kimchi eggplat dumplings, mushrooms and silken tofu with pine-nut mustard dipping sauce.” Very tasty too, and not too spicy.
“Wagyu Beef Roseu Pyeonchae, truffle scented seared beef carpaccio with asian pear and arugula salad.” This was one of the blander dishes. The meat was succulent, but I felt the dish could use a little more zing.
“Pan Friend Duck and Foie Gras dumplings with sour cherry dipping sauce.” Incredible potstickers. Some of the best I’ve even had — foie gras! The sauce was really good too.
“Soju Cured Salmon, crisp potato pancakes with pickled onions and ginger cream.” Sort of a giant potato latke with salmon and creme fraiche. Pretty tasty.
Moko certainly had strong flavors, and I for the most part loved them. A lot of dishes were quite spicy, more than I would have expected (and I have a pretty high tolerance). So several hours later I’m still feeling the burn.
Check out some other modernized Asians like Red Medicine or Xino.
Restaurant: Continental Airlines
Location: Somewhere above the Atlantic
Date: June 30, 2011
Cuisine: Inedible
Rating: Barftastic
So after an epic four weeks of eating in Italy — where the worst meal was merely mediocre — we boarded the first of our planes for home, specifically the Milan to Newark flight on Continental. And so, our final meal of the trip:
A lovely 2011 Ginger Ale, Seagrams.
Bread with softener and additives, served with pastic wrap.
A fine salad of wilted iceberg lettuces.
Soaked in packaged milk and emmulsifiers, it becomes… slightly more edible — and sadly the best item on the menu.
Chicken Parmesan with scalloped potatoes, mushy peas, and nitrate sausage. This was actually a kid’s meal (served to my son). As it was considerably more edible than mine (below) I picked at it.
Dry frozen rock hard chicken “breast” with teeth breaking noodles, soggy asparagus and canned tomato sauce.
Seriously Continental (and sadly they aren’t alone, really all the American airlines are just as bad) you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. This stuff is completely pathetic and was actually literaly inedible. You would have had to pay me more than $100 to try a second bite of that rock hard chicken. It’s not just a matter of cost, it’s a matter of giving a shit about all aspects of the product you offer. I think airline executives ought to be required to eat coach airline meals 100% of the time while on the job! That’d shake things up fast.
