agavin

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Fiorita Centro

Dec06

Restaurant: Drago Centro [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 525 S Flower St, Los Angeles, CA 90071. (213) 228-8998

Date: October 29, 2019

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great high end Italian

Back to Drago Centro for “another” Brunnello dinner, featuring the wines of La Fiorita. Liz Lee of Sage Society kinda co-hosted, but this wasn’t a full on Sage dinner (hey, only 4 courses — Liz would have had 10!). But any trip to Drago is good anyway, as Celestino and I have been friends for 20 years!

Located on busy Flower in DTLA.

La Fiorita is a new and up and coming Brunello producer — more on it in a sec.

But first a bunch of us including Erick and Liz snacked on the patio with:

Arrancini “rice balls”.

Fried zucchini. About the only good zucchini is a fried zucchini!

Crab toasts.

Then we moved inside to this large central table.

A bit about the winemaker.

On the left is Natalie Oliveros, owner of La Fiorita. She’s a NY native with a love of wine and all things Italian. In the back is Chef Celestino Drago.

Photos are a bit rough tonight as I was evacuated from my home because of the California wildfires and had to use the cel phone camera!

2015 La Fiorita Brunello di Montalcino.

2014 La Fiorita Brunello di Montalcino. VM 89. Medium red. Clean, fresh aromas of cranberry cocktail and spicy herbs. Then spicy in the mouth too, with savory herbs and red cherry flavors offering good intensity. Starts very savory and broad, then nicely integrated acidity gives the wine a more buoyant and linear mouthfeel while providing good grip. Finishes long and clean. A much less fleshy, tactile and musky Brunello from La Fiorita than the wines typically made here over the past decade, and I have to say I like this style better. (Drink between 2020-2027)

agavin: drinking great right now

Tonight’s menu — short by my standards.

Australian A5 wagyu steak tartare, shallots, chives, parmesan cream, truffle tuile. Nice dish, but if it’s Australian, it’s not “really” A5 — at least not the way the Japanese do it. No way are the Aussies — as wonderful as they are — going to massage the cows like the obsessive Japanese.

2011 La Fiorita Brunello di Montalcino. 90 points. A bit more sour.

2008 La Fiorita Brunello di Montalcino. VM 88. Bright red-ruby. Subdued but precise aromas of strawberry, cassis and licorice. Nicely layered and rich, displaying an enticing sweetness to its red berry and red cherry flavors. Finishes a bit simple and only moderately persistent, but with fine-grained, pliant tannins and a strong note of violet. This attractive Brunello is ideal for early drinking.
Fresh fettucuni, shaved black truffle. Very nice simple pasta emphasizing the truffles.

2012 La Fiorita Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. VM 88. Good bright ruby-red. Aromas of blackberry and violet, plus a whiff of smoked meat. Big, deep and rich on entry, with black pepper and spice notes complicating savory dark berry and licorice flavors, but turns mountingly astringent in the middle and on the long, mouth-puckering finish. This broad, structured but ultimately only moderately complex wine could use a touch more grace and charm. (Drink between 2024-2029)

Braised ossobuco, broccolini, cipollini, creamy poleanta, salsa verde. Modern form factor on the ossobuco, and I actually prefer the classic messier one — particularly with a great risotto! Still this was good and one could scoop out the marrow!

NV Vigna Dorata Franciacorta Brut Saten. Nice inexpensive bubbly.

Chef’s selection of assorted cheeses.

The wine lineup.

Overall another fine evening at Drago Centro. The wines were great, Natalie Oliveros a lot of fun, and the food and company fabulous as well.

Still, as it was only 3 savory courses (plus our warm up) it was off to Korea Town for second dinner for us — Korean Army Stew!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brunello, Celestino Drago, Drago Centro, DTLA, Italian cuisine, Wine

White Glove Dining – Get Bbul

Dec04

Restaurant: Get Bbul BBQ

Location: 3189 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90006. (213) 380-7070

Date: October 21, 2019

Cuisine: Korean Seafood BBQ

Rating: First time and I liked it

On reading this, you must recognize that this is “Second Dinner.” After a special Krug Champagne dinner event — with 5 or so courses of modern cuisine — four of us just didn’t feel full enough so headed out to Korea Town to “snack.”

Never been to this kind of Korean Seafood BBQ so I was excited to try.

The interior — hoods as usual.

The menu. We ordered most of it of course.

This plate has seen some heat. Anyway, we ordered the works.

Various condiments for wrapped up one’s BBQ. Radishes, sauce, egg (both yolk and white), carrots, peppers, cabbage etc.

More fixings.

Leaves and oniony stuff.

Salad.

Soy and garlic.

Hot sauce. It is a Korean restaurant after all.

Coming off our Champagne tasting we decided to go with Solju / Beer shots. Sort of like a sake bomb. You fill a glass about 3/4 with beer.

Then drop a shot-glass of solju (Korean vodka) in to make sure it’s extra strong. Tastes great too!

Crispy fritters with mayo. Great drinking food.

Seafood pancake. This was a delicious one too.

Corn “pudding” with dynamite or whatever on top and baked.

Cold sliced pig foot salad. Yum (really was good).

Korean fluffy egg.

Our modest seafood plate arrives.

The BBQ is real coals.

Eel (left) and hagfish (right). Not sure I’ve had hagfish before. It looks like snack. Abalone was on the far right.

They cut up the chunks as it BBQs. Hagfish had a delightful chewy texture white the eel was nice and rich.

Dinner comes with special Korean Michael Jackson “white gloves” so that you don’t burn your hand while working the hot grill. They really helped actually.

Clams. When they open you eat them.

Spicy Soft Tofu Soup with Seafood. Delicious and a bit spicy.

Spicy noodle and tofu soup. Because when it’s time for second dinner, you need a second stew too!

Cheesy clams and scallops on the BBQ. The cheese melts into a yummy mess.

Some kind of conch or clam back there.

Giant oyster!

Grilled shrimp.

The four of us actually managed to eat most of this feast — pretty impressive after having this dinner right before!

I’d like to come back to Get Bbul a bit hungrier and get even more, but what I had was very good and quite interesting. I’ve never had this kind of grilled seafood with these exact trappings and it was quite interesting.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beer, Foodie Club, Get Bbul BBQ, Korea-town, Korean BBQ, Korean cuisine, Ktown, Seafood, Second Dinner, solju

House of Krug 2019

Dec02

Restaurant: House of Krug

Location: You wish you knew

Date: October 21, 2019

Cuisine: Modern

Rating: Great food, great champagnes

Sage Society organizes some of the best wine maker dinners around and they’ve done quite a number with everyone’s favorite Champagne house…

Krug! This one, organized as usual by Liz Lee, featured a rare appearance by Krug family scion Olivier Krug.

They really know how to do up a place.

Krug greats you as you enter (and everywhere).

The main room of the rented “House of Krug”.

Even the closets have been Krug-a-fied.

We start out with:

NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 167eme. JG 96. The new release of Krug Grande Cuvée “167eme Édition” is stellar. The wine is from the base year of 2011 and utterly transcends that vintage, but, of course, it includes nearly two hundred different wines in the blend, with the oldest reserves dating all the way back to the 1995 vintage. Fully forty-two percent of the cuvée this year is made up of reserve wines. The cépages for the 167eme Édition is forty-seven percent pinot noir, thirty-six percent chardonnay and seventeen percent pinot meunier. The wine shows its lovely preponderance of pinot noir on the nose, wafting from the glass in a beautifully complex blend of apple, white peach, a touch of patissière, very complex soil tones, caraway seed and a gently floral contribution in the upper register from the pinot meunier in the blend. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, complex and nicely broad-shouldered, with great depth at the core, refined mousse, bright, seamless acids and outstanding focus and grip on the very long, complex and beautifully balanced finish. This is simply outstanding and should age effortlessly for fifty to seventy-five years! (Drink between 2019-2090)

Scallop and caviar.

Caviar. The good stuff!

I can’t remember but they were really good.

“Chicken” liver truffles. Delicious.

The crowd gathers to begin the learning part of the evening.

The amazing Liz Lee starts off and introduces…

Olivier Krug!

Then we move into a side room to do a side by side tasting.

There is a place for everyone with their own Krug comparison placemats.

2006 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. 94 points. Seems to live in a league of its own. This is way too young and I’m sure we baby killed, but it was fun to get to try. So complex. Some annise, some coriander, some more herbal notes. It’s got a lot less toast than I usually associate with the house. Served in a burg glass which worked well for it. Very nice wine.

NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 162eme. 95 points. This is Jungian archetypal Krug. Rich and concentrated, with a balance of oxidative nutty tones and plenty of bright acidity-driven freshness. It’s really a complete package. These older GCs are really some of the best champagnes out there (I’m thinking of an older 2005 disgorgement that I drank recently, too).

Our special mats.

The kitchen.

And the dinner table.

Crowd gathering to sit.

The menu.

Nice place settings.

Caviar, crab gelee, braised onion, yuzu, parsley. This dish was light and airy as a fluffy cloud to “support” the caviar.

Housemade linguine, celeriac puree, leeks, lemon, truffle. Very light lemon truffle pasta. Quite lovely.

NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé Edition 23eme. VM 94. The NV Rosé 23ème Edition is wonderfully nuanced and layered, with lovely richness to play off a core of bright red berry fruit. Although not especially complex in this release, the Rosé offers lovely immediacy and tons of pure pleasure. Crushed berries, chalk, mint and white flowers are nicely softened in this super-expressive, beautifully persistent Rosé. A few more years in bottle will only help. The 23ème is a Champagne of pure and total pleasure. This release is based on 2011, with reserve wines back to 2000. (Drink between 2021-2041)

Grilled duck breast, foie emulsion, pomme mousseline, truffle. A nice rare piece of duck and perfect with the incomparable Krug rose.

Brie d’affinois, tomme brulee, leonora, Parmesan Reggiano.

Mignardises. I particularly liked the white iced (almond?) cake.

The chef (right with the hat) and one of the Krug organizers.

Overall, another amazing evening. Krug really does an incredible job setting the scene and this was a unique evening. Food was very good but not quite the number of courses that Foodie Club beast Erick and I are used to — we like at least 10-15 — so we had to go out with some new friends to Korea Town for “second dinner.” Really, any excuse for second dinner is a good excuse!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Champagne, Hollywood, Krug, Liz Lee, Olivier Krug, Sage Society

Tang Gong at Night

Nov29

Restaurant: Tang Gong [1, 2]

Location: 111 N Atlantic Blvd #350, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 888-5188

Date: October 20, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Very solid banquet Chinese

Our friend Derek has been the manager variously at Elite Seafood, World Seafood, and China Red. Tonight we return for one of those awesome Tony Lau special Cantonese feasts.

Now he’s helping open up Monterey Park newcomer, Tang Gong.

Tang Gong is upstairs in the Northwest Corner of the busy Garvey/Atlantic intersection.

In an era when the Cantonese Palaces are closing, it’s rare to have a new one opening up — including all the glitzy Hong Kong style trappings. These places cater (haha) to big Chinese weddings.

We had a nice single table private room with lots of space.

On the table to start, candied walnuts (yummy) and peanuts.

Conch with shrimp paste. Nice chew, crunch from the celery, and a bit of yummy “shrimpy” flavor from the paste.

Cantonese hot sauce and mustard.

Scallop covered in shrimp paste. One of these pan fried dishes that is related to a dimsum dish. A whole scallop covered in shrimp “macnugget” material.

Salt and pepper prawns. Super delicious huge prawns so deeply fried that you eat the whole thing shell and all.

Whole suckling pig. Awesome and porcine.

Yarom (right) and Tony Lau (left) with their bones.

Cantonese style Peking duck. Served with buns, hoisin, etc. Not as good as real Peking duck — as it’s not so crispy — but still delicious.

Roast chicken. Super moist. Some of the best chicken I’ve had in a long time.

Black pepper beef with asparagus. Always wine friendly, if a touch “boring.” Very tender.

Roast quail. Always excellent.

Garlicky Greens. Great, perfect for the colon.

Chard with egg and mushrooms. Now I’ve never had this Chinese vegetable dish before. It had a slightly sweet and sour (more sour) taste. I preferred the classic garlicky greens but this was certainly interesting.

Crispy egg noodles.

Beef topping for the noodles.

The noodles with the topping.

More noodles with beef and bean sprouts. Carby, but delicious.

Mochi-type balls with red bean (the dark ones) and custard (the light one). I LOVED the custard flavored ones. Really nice jelly consistency and rich custard inside.

Red bean and coconut jelly. Loved these too. I always like these weird smooth jiggly Chinese desserts. Some of my favorite Chinese desserts.

Nocciola Caramello Budino Gelato — Nocciola custard base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste, infused with house-made caramel (instead of sugar) then mixed with toffee and topped with Toffifay — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — so good it’s an instant signature flavor –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #hazelnut #nocciola #caramel #caramello #toffee #toffifay

Key Lime Pie Gelato – base is a key lime egg custard, layered with house-made frozen graham cracker and covered with house-made meringue — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #KeyLime #lime #custard #meringue #GrahamCracker #cookie

The manager Derek posing with Yarom.

Overall, very solid new place. Service (thanks Derek) was of course perfect. We loved the private room. Tony always does a great job of planning the menu and tonight was no exception. Lots of classics and lots of interesting new dishes. Highlights were the crispy prawn, chicken, duck (of course), pig, scallop with shrimp and more.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, duck, Gelato, hedionists, SGV, suckling pig, Tang Gong, Tony Lau

Seaweed Sushi

Nov27

Restaurant: Seaweed

Location: 3450 W 6th St Ste 107, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 674-7996

Date: October 17, 2019

Cuisine: Handrolls & Sushi

Rating: Good bang for the buck

Trust it to my Armenian friends to ferret out the one sushi bar in all of Korea Town owned by Armenians.

Anyway, located right near Sun Nong Dan, this is a newish small sushi place focusing on handrolls, like Kazunori, but also with some nigiri.

Very tight little space with one long sushi bar (and nothing else).

The menu.

Octopus shooter.

Lots of vinegar! Like your daily apple cider vinegar shot.

Spicy Tuna on Rice cakes. I’m a sushi purist, but Chevy ordered these. I feel that the chewy rice takes away from the fish.

Kanpachi. Cilantro, jalapeno, ponzu, yuzu. Pretty much the nobu sashimi dish reconverted to nigiri. Fish is good though.

Salmon. Black caviar, negi, sesame seeds. This combo works. The caviar adds brine to salmon’s natural sweetness.

Albacore. Ponzu, negi. Tasty.

Blue fin tuna.

Toro. Melt in your mouth.

Super Toro (what regular people call o-toro). Even more melt in your mouth.

Super Toro with caviar, truffles, and uni. This is a “bit much” but I do have to say it worked and was delicious.

Ikura (salmon egg). Certainly nice. Not the best marinated ikura I’ve ever had, but can’t go too wrong here.

Uni. Fresh wasabi. Santa Barbara Uni, very nice and creamy.

Blue crab handroll. Class goodness.

Our extremely nice chef du jour.

A free (from the owner) albacore sashimi. Crispy onion, ponzu, soy. A touch heavy handed but yummy.

Spicy Scallop handroll.

Spicy tuna handroll.

Spicy Lobster handroll.

Yellowtail handroll. WIth yuzu kosho and yuzu juice. Really nice very bright limey flavor.

Toro and Takuan handroll. Not on the menu but he had the ingredients so I had him make it up. Super delicious.

Free fruit.

Overall, Seaweed isn’t super purist Japanese sushi, but the rice is good and the fish great. The service is great and the sushi chefs really nice. So everything was very tasty — if a touch over-the-top — and the value is very good. At a top sushi place this could have easily been 2X or 3X more expensive. What we had was probably around $100-120 which isn’t bad at all considering all that toro, caviar, etc. I prefer my sushi more “Japanese” in style, but this totally delivers in a casual pure taste kinda way.

Afterward we went down the street for coffee.

Nice interior.

Some latte.

Cappuccino.

Chevy’s specialty coffee.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more sushi reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Japanese cuisine, Ktown, Seaweed, Sushi

Ima Had Too Much Meat

Nov25

Restaurant: IMA

Location: 9669 S Santa Monica Blvd #1, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 734-7829

Date: October 16, 2019

Cuisine: Japanese A5 Shabu-Shabu

Rating: Rich!

For tonight’s meal the minimum Foodie Club heads out to try something few others would dare…

$400 a person Shabu-Shabu!

This is IMA, sister restaurant to Yazawa, the super A5 Yakiniku joint in Beverly Hills. They use the same meat.

And have a similar (adjacent and with connecting doors) modern Japanese vibe.

The tables have little induction burners built in and stylish hoods.

The small menu is some shabu-shabu and sukiyaki variants. We of course ordered everything!

Erick brought: 1985 Château Rausan-Ségla. VM 91. The 1985 Rauzan-Ségla is a vintage that I have tasted several times from bottles I picked up cheaply some years ago. I was particularly effusive about the 1985 although, I feel that it has decayed a little since my last note in 2010. Soft red berry fruit, hedgerow, sage and mushrooms on the loose-knit nose, very typical for a 1985 though it is less intense nowadays. The palate is very savory in style with roasted chestnut and ferrous notes infusing the finish that has an appealing rounded texture. Maybe there are better bottles out there? In any case, don’t hesitate to crack one of these open. Tasted from a bottle from my personal cellar. (Drink between 2019-2027)

agavin: really nice bottle

From my cellar: 1997 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Pavillon. VM 94. Bright deep ruby. Blackberry, violet, tar, shoe polish and game on the nose, plus a light floral note; at once vibrant and surmuri. Superconcentrated, remarkably intense flavors of crystallized black cherry, cassis and licorice. An extremely persistent wine of noteworthy finesse, yet also one with a powerful structure for aging. One of the standouts of the vintage.

The appetizer flight that comes with the “Chef’s Special” set course.

Lobster with mushrooms and radish and soy sauce. Bright acid dressing. Very nice.

Hokkaido Uni Tofu with dashi jelly. White creamy quality.

Brussels sprouts with pepper and anchovies. Nice.

A5 Wagyu tartare and Russian Caviar. The caviar is Calvisius ars Italica Caviar. Delicious dish. Although I slightly miss the wasabi ponzu typical on the toro version at Nobu.

Beef Cheek stewed in Saikyo Miso, Topped with Parmesan Cheese. Rich fatty beef chew — like Japanese grandmother’s beef stew.

Grilled Beef Tongue and Vegetables. Thickest tongue I’ve ever had!

Salt and lemon for the tongue.

Toro with salt. Lightly seared. So good we ordered 2 (for the 2 of us).

Steamed Oyster Wrapped in Wagyu with Japanese Salsa. Kinda a bit odd.

The sukiyaki pan arrives.

Sukiyaki meat. Yazawa beef loin. With beef tallow for seasoning.

Sauces and tools.

Raw egg yolk for dipping.

They coat the cast iron pan with tallow then cook.

And dump in sukiyaki sauce (which is a sweet soy).

Here is the tallow and sauce deglazing.

Then you roll your barely cooked piece in the egg yolk — scrumptious. Soft velvety meat, sweet soy flavors, and the rich egg coating.

Broth for the shabu-shabu.

Dipping salt.

First meat (for the shabu): Beef Tongue.

She boiled it in the broth and served it next to the salt. You just eat it with a bit of salt. Super tender and delicious.

More meats, right to left: filet tenderloin, Ichibo, Shin-Shin, rib.

Sauces, a light dashi one and a sesame one.

Chopped mini-green onions for the sauce.

My sauce blend (lighter sauce) with some meat.

Mixing up the sesame sauce.

Veggies and tofu for the shabu (one side).

The other side with glass noodles and a carrot cow.

Pureed Corn Topped with Sea Urchin. I thought I’d love this, but too corn mushy. Cold too and a bit odd.

Noodles for the “ramen” that is coming from the broth.

Flavorant for the broth.

The ramen, brothed up, with noodles.

Special soup to finish, rice porridge.

Dessert time: Pannacotta with soy powder.

On the left, mixed fruit, on the right Passionfruit Sorbet.

Special roasted tea.

I don’t usually post the bill, but this one is useful for the discussion that follows.

Now I liked IMA a lot. The food was very good — delicious in fact — and this was the best/most elevated shabu-shabu I’ve had. And the sukiyaki even better. The meat is incredible (as it is at Yazawa). Service was awesome. Our server was incredibly nice and even helped us cook our food.

Wines were great too (pat ourselves on the back). Corkage isn’t outrageous (at least for the first 2 bottles).

But I wonder how they are going to do and who the market is for this. Only a small set of people (in America at least) even know what Shabu-Shabu is — and even less sukiyaki — and I doubt too many of them are looking for a $400/person shabu/sukiyaki experience! Some high end Asian customers will dig it for sure. I did. But the menu is very limited, so I wouldn’t come back particularly often.

So interesting.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: A5, Foodie Club, Ima, Japanese cuisine, Shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, Wagyū, Wine

Mao for Me

Nov22

Yet another meal with more Korean/Chinese goodies at KTown’s Feng Mao. Details here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Feng Mao, hedonists, Korean

Marcheing South Again

Nov20

Restaurant: Marche Modern [1, 2]

Location: 7862 Pacific Coast Hwy, Newport Beach, CA 92657. (714) 434-7900

Date: October 10, 2019

Cuisine: Modern French

Rating: Great food and service

This particular reunion of the Foodie Club: OC Edition has been in the making for months and follows the format of the previous dinner. Tonight’s them was loosely, coche vs. Domaine d’Auvenay (plus a “bit” of spectacular Champagne).

Due to group constraints, we had to meet deep in the OC at 6:00 — lots of traffic again. This time most of us didn’t do the double header (lunch + dinner) because we were so full last time (even me). Fred, however, is a beast and he met up with some other friends beforehand!

For our super duper elite Foodie Club OC dinner, we selected Marche Moderne — pretty much because it’s one of the best wine friendly restaurants in Orange County (which is a bit of a limited pool).

It’s high end modern French bistro.

Attractive modern decor.

Lots of sunset light.

Our special menu tonight.

Bread.

Butter.

Liz brought: 1969 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Oenothèque. Vinous 98. One of the highlights in this range, the 1969 Dom Pérignon Œnothèque (Disgorged 2006) is magnificent A stunning, vibrant Champagne, the 69 Œno hits all the right notes. Lemon peel, white flowers, crushed rocks, slate and smoke all soar out of the glass. A thin veil of reduction adds character without being overpowering or dominant. Vivid in color and totally crystalline, the 1969 dazzles at every turn. What a gorgeous wine it is. (Drink between 2017-2027)

Santa Barbara Sea Urchin. Grapefruit Gelee, Fresh Oregano, Radishes, Avocado, Kosho lime vinaigrette. The uni was great, but some of the elements here didn’t quite gelee (haha). Maybe the grapefruit? Maybe the avocado. A touch weird.

From my cellar: 1998 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets. VM 92. Fred says much higher. A shockingly elegant and pretty Coche open from the beginning. The delicious Coche signature is present and try as you may you cannot detect any vintage flaws. The more I drink Coche Caillerets the more I am convinced I like it better than the Genevrieres. A wonderful wine that was in the discussion for WOTN next to 92 Coche MP, 99 d’Auvenay Puligny En la Richarde, and 00 d’Auvenay Folatieres. An impressive showing.

Fluke Crudo & Faux Gras. Burnt Shallots Creme, Thinly Sliced Maui Hearts of Palm, Yuzu Confit Marmelade, Beurre Monte Matsutake. Again a slightly bizarre combo of poultry liver and fish.

Kent brought: 1992 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 98. Fred says: Darkest wine is the night next to the 98 Coche Caillerets, 99 d’Auvenay En la Richarde, and 00 d’Auvenay Folatieres. Also the most dense and ripe. The balance is there with the acidity and richness in play. There is fruit and rich honey notes but not leaning into botrytis. This continues to build throughout the entire 3 hours. Impressive power.

Egg & Caviar & Cured Scottish Ocean Trout. Kaluga Caviar, Sorrel, Beurre de Citron Confit. More uniform and successful than the previous two dishes. Hard to go too wrong with either egg and caviar or cured salmon and butter.

Fred brought: 1999 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Puligny-Montrachet en la Richarde. BH 91. Fred said: Given the comparisons to Chevalier Montrachet I was expecting power. Instead I got elegance and balance along with floral and mineral puligny character. This bottle is still young and needed 2-3 hours to slowly pick up weight and power. All the while it remains impeccably balanced, not unlike the 98 Coche Caillerets. I believe the best is yet to come and will try to wait another 5 years to open my next one. Lovely. Just lovely.

Sauteed Black Bass. Demi Jus de Bouillabaisse, Barigoule d’Artichaud, Calamari and Mussel, Olive, Basil Emulsion, Spicy Tomato Tartine. The Bouillabaisse “base” was nice. Fish maybe a touch dry.

Erick brought: 2000 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières. BH 95. Fred says: Wow. Now this has the power and weight of a Chevalier Montrachet. The most fruit forward of the bunch but supported by that d’Auvenay linearity. A massive and structured wine impressive richness and a hint hazelnut deliciousness. What a treat.

Civet de Homard & Dover Sole. Lobster in a Civet Style, Dover Sole, Gnudi, Chanterelle, Shallot Soubise.

With the sauce. Another slightly oddball mix. This didn’t do the lobster justice. Reduction was good though.
Premier Dessert. Rose & Lychee Sorbet, Eau d’ Hibiscus.

Close up! Nice refreshing sorbet. Texture isn’t as good as mine — of course.

Cheese — because it’s so great with wine. Nice cheeses too.

Strawberry & Pistachio Croustillant. Almond Butter Gateau, Citrus Mousseline, Pistache, Cassis Berry Sorbet. I love a good “Napoleon” although this was jazzed up a bit too much.

Because we didn’t just have 3 ice creams/sorbets from the restaurant, I brought 4 (never one to be outdone).

Nocciola Caramello Budino Gelato — Nocciola custard base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste, infused with house-made caramel (instead of sugar) then mixed with toffee and topped with Toffifay — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — so good it’s an instant signature flavor –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #hazelnut #nocciola #caramel #caramello #toffee #toffifay

Cinnamon Apple Pie Gelato — An intense cinnamon base layered with my house-made bourbon apple pie filling and house-made caramel — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #applepie #apple #cinnamon #caramel

Blood Orange Compari Sorbetto — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #bloodorange #orange #compari #cocktail #sorbet #sorbetto

Overall, an incredibly epic meal.

Service was first class. We did the wine service though, which is how we wanted it with these wines. Which, by the way, were all incredible. The MP was probably in the “weakest” drinking spot — but that’s like calling Michael Jordan short because he’s not as tall as Manute Bol. Haha. Fantastic and very lucky that we had no flaws.

Food was “interesting” this time. Not as uniformly successful. It was certainly well made and executed, but the combos were a bit odd. Last time they felt much more harmonious.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Coche Dury, d'Auvenay, Foodie Club, Gelato, Marche Moderne, Orange County, White Burgundy, Wine

Shandong Dumplings

Nov18

Restaurant: Shandong Dumplings

Location: 80 N Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena, CA 91103. (626) 578-9777

Date: October 8, 2019

Cuisine: Shandong Chinese

Rating: Great home-style dumplings

Another of these small lunch outings with Yarom and I, this time also joined by Tony L.

There aren’t a ton of Shandong specific places in LA.

And this one is in the heart of old town Pasadena.

The homey interior.

They make them here.

The menu.

Peanuts, celery, cucumbers, shredded potato. Cold appetizers.

Hot and sour soup. I love this old school classic.

Lamb with fennel dumplings. I adore this boiled kind and the lamb ones have a lot of flavor.

Dry shrimp with egg and leek dumplings. Yeah, they look the same, but they don’t taste the same.

Chicken and celery. Nice celery flavor.

Ginger and spiced cabbage juicy steamed dumplings. These were among my favorites, with very delicate skins.

Pan fried pork bun. Yum!

Pan fried pork dumplings. Pretty much the Shanghai style kind. A bit bready, but the crispy bottom is fun.

Fried chicken bones. Not to the American taste, but full of flavor.

Pork. Boney, but there was lots of meat here.

Overall, this is a tasty place. The dumplings were way better than the couple meat dishes we had, and were great for casual homestyle dumplings. I really do love all dumplings, particularly the boiled and “juicy” soup dumpling kinds.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: dumplings, lunch, Lunch Quest, Pasadena, Shandong Dumplings

O OOToro

Nov15

Restaurant: OOToro [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 1569 Fairway Dr, Walnut, CA 91789. (909) 598-8299

Date: October 5, 2019

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi (with slight nod to China)

Rating: Ends of the earth, but very good

Chef Kaz of Totoraku, an occasional hedonist, sent us far east to this Sushi restaurant in 2016 and it was such a fun time that we had to return again for a sixth visit — it’s now become a twice a year thing.
And by far east I mean REALLY REALLY far east — to Walnut California. 40+ miles from my house. 20 miles past Alhambra (which most people consider to far to drive for food). It took an hour and twenty minutes on a Saturday night!

The slick looking location is in the heart of the affluent Chinese American San Gabriel Valley. But yes, it’s Japan, if perhaps catering to Chinese taste. This photo was shot at about 10pm after everyone else had left.

Here is the private room — the only way to go.

Yarom brought this ancient Burg. 1953 Chanson Père & Fils Beaune 1er Cru Bressandes. It was cloudy and we all swore it had no chance, but it was actually quite nice (for about 30 minutes before dropping off).

Ron brought: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 167eme. VM 94+. Krug’s NV Grande Cuvée 167ème Edition is positively brilliant. Chef de Caves Eric Lebel and his team have always put tremendous emphasis on the craft of blending. Never has that discipline been more critical than here, with the 167, which is based on 2011, one of the most challenging harvests in Champagne in many years. Brisk and racy in the glass, the 167 is laced with a range of lemon peel, baked apple, brioche and floral notes. Readers should plan on giving the 167 at least a few years in bottle, as it is presently tightly wound and not at all expressive. The flavors are beautifully articulated. In many releases, the Grande Cuvée is richer and more overt. The 167, on the other hand, is airy, weightless and sublime. Most importantly, it is an unqualified success. This release is based on 2011, with reserve wines back to 1995. (Drink between 2021-2036)

Cod sperm with radish and ponzu. Looks like brain and has a soft squirmy texture — but tastes great.

1995 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 94. The 1995 Krug is gorgeous. I chose it because one of my guests loves Krug and I thought the 1995 would have the right amount of complexity to pair beautifully with the smokiness in Saison’s caviar. Although the 1995 Krug is not a truly epic wine, it is in a sweet spot right now. (Drink between 2018-2023)

Oyster with uni and ikura (salmon eggs).

Close up. Bright, briney, and delicious.

2002 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 97. Another highlight in this vertical, the 2002 Salon is also fascinating to taste after the 2004. Rich, opulent and intense, yet also very classic in the Salon house style, the 2002 possesses superb persistence and depth. The radiant vintage has softened the contours and given the wine fabulous depth to match its decidedly powerful personality. At the same time, the 2002 remains quite youthful. Next to the brighter and more finessed 2004, the 2002 offers more of a baritone-inflected expression of Chardonnay. (Drink between 2016-2036)

Sashimi. Aji (Japanese horse mackrel). Wild snapper. Uni wrapped in halibut with shiso.

Left to right: Baby peach, Japanese pepper, Abalone, Whitefish tempura, and Japanese cucumber with miso paste.

2012 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 93. There is a hint of menthol sitting atop pretty aromas of acacia blossom, spiced pear and white peach scents. The delicious, muscular and pure broad-shouldered and powerful flavors possess fine size and weight that continues onto the concentrated and impressively persistent if presently compact finish. Those who enjoy their white burgs young should note that while this is very promising there isn’t great complexity at this early stage so I would very much be inclined to allow this to age for at least 8 to 10 years first. (Drink starting 2020)

Uni, Ikura, and house made tofu. The uni ikura pairing is a classic.

2013 Hubert Lamy Puligny-Montrachet Les Tremblots Cuvée Haute Densité. BH 90-92. An expressive yet cool nose is composed by notes of essence of pear and citrus that are nuanced with hints of apple and spiced tea. There is outstanding density and vibrancy to the relatively powerful and mouth coating flavors that possess plenty of sappy dry extract, all wrapped in a delicious, balanced and impressively lingering finish. This is a terrific Puligny villages and worth a special search to find. (Drink starting 2020)

Johnny crab — not sure how you spell that — but a lovely crab salad nonetheless.

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 93+. Deep, bright aromas of pear, spring flowers and liquid stone. Penetrating and pure, with pear, citrus and stony flavors nicely framed by firm acidity. Still tight in the middle, but already conveys the precision of the vintage at its best. A real mouthful of wet stones on the very long finish.

Lobster sashimi, done 3 ways.

From my cellar: NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. BH 94. Medium rosé hue. A cool, restrained and highly complex nose that is not especially fruity displays a moderate yeast character along with slightly exotic aromas of mandarin orange and Asian tea, all wrapped in an enveloping array of beguiling rose petal scents. There is very good richness with a relatively firm supporting mousse that adds to the impression of richness to the superbly complex and highly textured flavors, indeed one could aptly describe this as more wine that Champagne. As such this is indeed a sumptuous Krug rosé that is difficult to resist already though it should reward extended keeping if desired. As I noted in the original 750 ml review, that while I am not always wowed by the Krug Rosé, this latest incarnation in magnum is strikingly good. (Drink starting 2020)

Roasted Blue fin tuna collar, kama-toro. This giant collar from a giant fish is one of the things that brought us back. The meat looked and felt like roasted lamb, but of course tasted more like tuna. It was very rich and solid and almost certainly the best cooked tuna I’ve ever had.

2009 Domaine Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 94. Here mild reduction doesn’t materially diminish the appeal of the more elegant if ever-so-slightly less complex aromas that feature notes of stone, lemon zest, acacia blossom and spiced pear. There is superb intensity and simply gorgeous detail to the mineral-driven and impeccably well-balanced flavors and explosive finale. Still, as good as this is and it is indeed exceptional, the superior complexity of the Bâtard gives it the barest of edges in 2009. (Drink starting 2015)

Clam and the other clam.

Seared toro, uni mousse, actual uni, takuan, and gold flakes. This is incredible, partially because of the different textures: soft, mushy, smooth, crunchy.

Tempura vegetables and cold soba. First time I’ve had soba here and it was delicious.

1989 Clos Vougeot.

Chu toro sushi.

Kama toro sushi.

Seared red snapper sushi. Charred finish was amazing.

Kama toro again, slightly different way.

Some Grange from a previous night.

A5 wagyu sukiyaki.

The certificate for the beef, including cow nose print.

Here is the finished sukiyaki which was wonderfully beefy, and a touch sweet. I love sukiyaki.

Lobster miso.

Red Current Cassis Sorbetto! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Currents from Avignon, blended with Creme de Cassis –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #RedCurrent #current #cassis

I just can’t get enough of this flavor and had to use it as an excuse to practice my Italian Merignue —Italian Lemon Cookie Meringue Pie — Limoncello Zabaione base with lemon cookie flavor mixed with Italian Lemon Creme Cookies and Sicilian Candied Lemon and topped with house-made toasted Meringue — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato) — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #lemon #LemonCookie #cookie #Sicily #Sorento #Limoncello #Meringue #LemonMeringuePie

Salted Caramel Peanut Gelato — House-made salted caramel and integrated Chunky Salty Peanut base mixed with Toffee Coated Peanuts and Dark Peanut Butter Cups — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #caramel #chocolate #peanut #SaltedCaramel #Toffee

Dandelion Dark Sorbetto — a super intense Dandelion Small Batch 70% Chocolate plus Valrhona 100% Cocoa plus Callebaut Cocoa Mass — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the best no milk straight chocolate I’ve yet made — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #Callebaut #chocolate #cocoa #sorbetto

Zoom!

The house dessert, Taro coconut ice cream. Not like mine!

Tonight’s wine lineup.

Overall, OOToro — while always good — showed for the third time that the private room is really the way to go. This was a great meal and much more subtle and sophisticated than some of the front room fare. Really great stuff — although we should have gotten the largest omakase for max variety, but even one down I was more than full (mostly because I ate so much roasted tuna).

As we often do, it was back to the Marriot parking lot for some valley-view drinking.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Champagne, ootoro, SGV, Sushi, walnut california, Wine

Billecart Republique

Nov13

Restaurant: Republique [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]

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

Date: October 4, 2019

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

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

This Sage Society dinner is like a return an old favorite as in the “old days” (a few years ago) they did most of their dinners here at Republique. Tonight is a special custom dinner featuring the wines of Champagne house Billecart-Salmon and a custom Walter Manzke menu designed by Walter and Sage Society chief Liz Lee. Additionally, Antoine Roland-Billecart is in the house to guide us through the epic wine tasting!

Still doing great even after 5 or so years.

We are, of course, in the private room. Way better than downstairs at this very loud but very good restaurant.

The somm for the evening gives some introductions…

The name speaks for itself.

Our starter wine was NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve. JG 92. This particular bottle of Brut Réserve had been in my cellar since 2008, and it has aged beautifully and was drinking very well when opened this past spring. The excellent nose wafts from the glass in a mélange of apple, peach, warm bread, a touch of ginger, a lovely base of soil and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bdoied, complex and still rock solid at the core, with fine mousse, bright acids and lovely length and grip on the wide open, complex and classy finish. This particular release of Brut Réserve had been particularly steely out of the blocks, which is why I tucked some away to see how it evolved with bottle age. Yet again, a pretty strong argument for treating non-vintage Brut bottlings like other fine wines and cellar them for some time before starting to drink them! (Drink between 2014-2025).

Our special menu tonight.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Extra Brut. JG 92+. Billecart-Salmon has been producing their Millésime bottlings as Extra Brut since the 2000 vintage. The 2006, which is comprised of a blend of seventy-five percent pinot noir and twenty-five percent chardonnay was twenty percent barrel fermented in this vintage, and received a very modest dosage of three grams per liter. The wine is very fine, offering up a bright and classy bouquet of baked peaches and apples, pain grillé, almonds, a touch of citrus peel, lovely minerality and a nice dollop of fresh-baked bread in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and rock solid at the core, with refined mousse, bright acids and fine length and grip on the wide open and classy finish. Fine juice, and like a lot of 2006s, it is already drinking very well indeed. (Drink between 2014-2035)

2007 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Extra Brut. 91 points. Fine bubbles, light yellow, this is pretty good, ultra elegant & finesse.

2008 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Extra Brut.

agavin: to my taste, the extra brut is a little “too brut”.

Caviar Flight.

Here paired with the champagne.

And the descriptions of the individual caviar.

Antoine Roland-Billecart of Billecart-Salmon gives an impassioned speech.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve. JG 92. This particular bottle of Brut Réserve had been in my cellar since 2008, and it has aged beautifully and was drinking very well when opened this past spring. The excellent nose wafts from the glass in a mélange of apple, peach, warm bread, a touch of ginger, a lovely base of soil and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bdoied, complex and still rock solid at the core, with fine mousse, bright acids and lovely length and grip on the wide open, complex and classy finish. This particular release of Brut Réserve had been particularly steely out of the blocks, which is why I tucked some away to see how it evolved with bottle age. Yet again, a pretty strong argument for treating non-vintage Brut bottlings like other fine wines and cellar them for some time before starting to drink them! (Drink between 2014-2025)

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Sous Bois. VM 92. Bright yellow. Pungent orchard fruit and lemon curd scents are complemented by suggestions of vanilla, anise and smoky minerals. Toasty and silky in texture, offering juicy pear and tangerine flavors plus a deeper suggestion of candied fig on the back half. Closes sappy, focused and long, with repeating smokiness and strong mineral cut.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Sous Bois (disgorged 2014). I loved this one.
Mushroom Tarte Flambe. Delicious. Crispy cracker like base covered in flame broiled cheese and mushrooms. Like an oversized passing hors d’oeuvre.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru. 92 points. Very good. Nice nose showing citrus and good richness, with some vanilla and a touch of pastry cream. On the palate, lovely acidity, fine mousse, more citrus and some chalk. Clean finish.

2007 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Louis Brut Blanc de Blancs. 94 points. Light straw, refined bubbles. Crisp, with lemon and lemon curd, some creaminess paired with a nice chalkiness. (Would be easy to drink all day).

2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Louis Brut Blanc de Blancs. 93 points. Incredible balance on this bubbly. Sweeter mature and ripe yellow fruit, creme brulee, nuttiness, yet also a lemon tart and herbal character. Quite impressed. Medium sized bubbles on the mouthfeel. This is a solid champers, rather youthful with a very long and large history ahead.

1999 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Louis Brut Blanc de Blancs. 97 points.

Spot Prawns (with roe). Perfectly cooked and juicy. Only problem was that I impaled the sensitive area under my tongue with a crispy leg and had to extract it from my flesh with my fingers! Still worth it!

Margarita’s Baguette and Normandy Butter. The reason many of us go to Republique, this is some serious temptation to the low carb diet!

2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. 93 points. Pinot Noir dominant flavors and aromas, as the house style dictates, but also showing a linear Chardonnay brightness. Very good now.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 94. The 2002 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart comes across as rich, powerful and opulent. This latest release of the 2002 was disgorged in July 2015 and finished with a Chardonnay-based liqueur whereas the previous release, disgorged in May 2014, was finished with a Pinot Noir-based liqueur. This is a distinctly vinous, almost shockingly raw, visceral Champagne from Billecart-Salmon. There is no shortage of volume or intensity, that is for sure. Stylistically, this year’s release inhabits a whole other world relative to last year’s release. Dosage is 4 grams per liter. (Drink between 2018-2042)

1999 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 93. Bright yellow-gold. An exotically perfumed bouquet evokes fresh pear, iodine, white flowers and toasted brioche, with gingery spice and mineral notes adding vibrancy. Rich and weighty but quite lithe and focused, offering sappy orchard and citrus fruit flavors and a chalky mineral nuance on the back half. Closes on a smoky note, with excellent focus and lingering floral character. L422345 16273.

Dover Sole.

Filleted with a cauliflower mash. This is a “simple” fish prep but in Walter’s very capable hands is scrumptious.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Les Clos Saint-Hilaire. 96 points. Great.

1999 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Les Clos Saint-Hilaire. VM 96. Billecart’s 1999 Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is exotic and beguiling. Constantly changing in the glass, the 1999 offers exquisite aromatics, silky and a real sense of underlying phenolic structure. Crushed rose petals, licorice, smoke, game and tobacco add nuance as the wine opens up. With time in the glass, the personality of these Pinot vines becomes more and more expressive. The 1999 was bottled with no dosage, but that would be impossible to ascertain in a blind tasting. (Drink between 2016-2024)

Pork Belly Caviar. This dish apparently won on some kind of cooking show that Walter was on. It was rich, rich beyond belief. A cube of fatty steamed pork bellow, butter, some kind of puree, more butter, and caviar. Woah! Delicious too but I had to sit quietly for a few minutes to let my arteries recover.

1996 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. BH 95. An absolutely sensational nose that is floral, spicy, yeasty and citrusy with exceptionally subtle hints of red berries that can also be found on the wonderfully fresh and still beautifully youthful flavors that are crisp, precise and layered. If there is a nit, the finish is perhaps not quite as long as one might hope for but as this ages and “relaxes”, the length will come. A potentially great wine and all it needs is a bit more time in bottle.

1998 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 94. The 1998 Cuveé Nicolas François Billecart (60% Pinot, 40% Chardonnay) is another beautiful wine. The aromas are especially captivating and highly suggestive of Pinot, but the Chardonnay seems to take center stage on the palate, where the fruit is highly expressive. Like the Bland de Blancs, the wine saw 50% malolactic fermentation and only 5% of the wine was aged in oak as the estate was in its early days of using oak and wisely chose a moderate approach. (Drink between 2013-2018)

1990 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Grande Cuvée. VM 95. Pale amber color. Extraordinary, ineffable nose of baked bread, oatmeal, toast, game, quinine, roasted nuts and ginger ale. Full-bodied, thick and utterly seamless, with superb, integrated acidity giving it great verve. Conveys a sensation of palate-gripping extract. Extremely long, slowly expanding finish throws off notes of pepper, ginger and nutmeg. Every time I returned to this wonderful Champagne I liked it more. (Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY)

agavin: this might have been my WOTN. Amazing bottle.

White Truffle Risotto. Simple and perfect. Stunning creamy risotto with real fresh in season white truffles.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. Pale orange. High-pitched red berry, orange zest and jasmine aromas, with suave mineral and smoky lees notes adding complexity. Spicy and precise on the palate, showing very good punch to its strawberry and bitter cherry flavors. Opens up smoothly with air and picks up a bitter rhubarb quality that lingers onto the long, tightly focused finish. This bottling showed more brawny character than many past renditions of this cuvée, but with no lack of vivacity.

2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon. VM 94+. The 2006 Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon is powerful, intense and also classically austere in its make up. Crushed flowers, mint, red berries and cranberries are all finely sketched. The 2006 finishes with striking mineral-driven precision, and while it doesn’t have the opulence or exuberance of the 2002, it is still a very pretty and appealing Champagne. The Elisabeth Salmon is 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay, with about 8% still Pinot Noir. Dosage is 6 grams per liter. (Drink between 2018-2031)

2007 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon. 92 points. Pink, slightly orange. Delicate bubbles. Hints of rose petal, and a touch of strawberry. Medium body, well balanced.

Chicken. That over simplifies the matter. There are mushrooms and reduction here. Delicious bird.

Cheese. The one course that was a let down. Actually rather lame — but we can forgive them after 7 perfect courses above.

My notes.

And the wine lineup.

Another amazing Sage Society dinner. Many of Sage’s wine maker dinners, all those that Liz puts together herself, are like this one, pulling out all the stops. This was a LOT of food — even for me — and the dishes were all custom for the wine and spectacular. And there was so much great champagne, really showing off both the house style and the very varied objectives of each cuvee. Quite educational too.

Too bad Erick handed me his cold that night (via the loaf of bread we shared) because I was sick the whole next week :-).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Antoine Roland-Billecart, Billecart-Salmon, Champagne, Liz Lee, pork, République, Sage Society, Walter Manzke, Wine, winemaker dinner

Feeling it with Felix

Nov11

After a two year absence I return to Felix not once but twice more in October 2019. Check out all the new pastas…

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: felix, Italian Cusine, pasta

A Fia Kinda Feeling

Nov08

Restaurant: Fia

Location: 2454 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90403. (310) 586-1707

Date: September 28 & December 26, 2019

Cuisine: New American / Italian

Rating: Great Atmosphere / Tasty

With my parents and some various other friends in town for the holiday weekend I needed a place where we could do a 10-12 person dinner — ideally in a private room.

Fia is in the same (gorgeous) space as the old Wilshire, just with a new (more Italian, but not totally) concept. They have inside, lovely patio, and a cool private room.

FIA, A DISTINCT DINING CONCEPT LED BY DECORATED CHEF BRENDAN COLLINS (BIRCH, WATERLOO & CITY, MELISSE), COMBINES CALIFORNIA PRODUCE WITH EUROPEAN TECHNIQUE TO CREATE A GLOBALLY INSPIRED, SEASONAL MENU.

I forgot to photograph the patio, but above is our room. Now I do have to say that they had a pretty hefty “room minimum” here, and it required a set menu. The set menus were tons of food and fairly reasonable for what they are, but the “room minimum” was considerably higher than the set menu X 12 (which is how much the room fit) — so they wanted you to order an obscene amount of alcohol. As I bring my own wine… this was a little tricky, and more on that later.

Our set menu. We modified it a little bit on the fly (actually in advance, but they had some staff changes and the mods were lost, but then restored on site). We also added some food, which was gratuitous, but we were way under the room min anyway.

From my cellar: 2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 94. The 2002 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart comes across as rich, powerful and opulent. This latest release of the 2002 was disgorged in July 2015 and finished with a Chardonnay-based liqueur whereas the previous release, disgorged in May 2014, was finished with a Pinot Noir-based liqueur. This is a distinctly vinous, almost shockingly raw, visceral Champagne from Billecart-Salmon. There is no shortage of volume or intensity, that is for sure. Stylistically, this year’s release inhabits a whole other world relative to last year’s release. Dosage is 4 grams per liter.

Hamachi, lime, chili, basil, radish. Very bright flavors, zesty, and a tiny bit spicy.

Hawaiian kanpachi, ginger, Calabrian chili, shallots. I liked this one best perhaps of the crudos because of the almost Thai (sweet and spicy and tangy) sauce.

Big eye tuna carpaccio, aqua pazza, avocado, black garlic. Good as well.

Heirloom cherry tomato, bocconcini, tomato consommé. Really nice “capresse” salad (in that it included tomatoes and mozzarella like cheese). The herbs and the vinegar tones brought it up a lot.

Bought from the list: 2017 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons. VM 90-92. The 2017 Chablis Vaillons 1er Cru comes from 3.6-hectares located mainly in the heart of the valley. It offers light pressed flower scents on the nose with hints of nettle and dandelion. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, crisp and taut with a precise finish that just needs to develop a little more power. Very fine.

Rock shrimp cakes, horseradish aioli, caviar. Fritters.

Pudwill farms black mission figs, candied walnuts, ricotta, grilled toast. Delicious fig and ricotta combo, heightened by the balsamic.

Slowly roasted Brussels Sprouts, black garlic aioli. Nicely done Brussels.

Cauliflower with raisons (12/26/19). Cauliflower is the new black, it’s everywhere.

Artisanal cheeses from home and abroad, dried fruit, walnuts, truffle honey.

Heirloom green leaf salad, calamansi fennel seed vinaigrette. Is what it is.

Chicken liver mousse, port gele, toast, cornichons.

A zone of the liver. Replaces the “off the menu” fois gras — sigh. Pretty nice though, with the port gele adding that sweet note to go with the liver.

Burrata, San Danielle prosciutto, seasonal fruit on a waffle. Pretty, and we had the ham on the side — would have looked better all combined. Nice flavors too.

Prosciutto on the side.

Seasonal vegetable salad, mushroom vinaigrette, soft herbs. Probably the most boring dish of the night, but I’m not a vegetable guy.

From my cellar: 2009 Domaine René Leclerc Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St. Jacques. BH 89-92. A somewhat curious nose of reduction with a background herbal character leads to fresh, vibrant and stony middle weight flavors that are supple and almost delicate on the clean, austere and linear finish. This clearly is quite backward and youthfully awkward today though there is no reason that it shouldn’t sort itself out in time.

House made cavatelli, black truffle, parmesan, brown butter.

And with the truffles. Delicious and rich pasta with a lot of heft.

Risotto cacio e pepe, 24 month old parmesan, tellicherry pepper. One of my favorites, like a cacio e pepe congee really. Lots of cheesy bitey rice.

Acorn Squash Risotto, Sunchokes, Toasted Seeds, Goat Cheese (12/26/19). Also very yummy. Rich.

Dungeness Crab Ravioli, Scallop, Ginger, Champagne Crab Sauce. (12/26/19). Very tasty.

Hand cut capellini, lobster bolognese, san marzano tomato. Solid take on this zesty lobster pasta.

Braised rabbit tortellini, dates, pistachio, sage. Interesting sweet, savory, and meaty stuffed pasta. Really lovely.

From my cellar: 2007 Domaine la Soumade Rasteau Cuvée Fleur de Confiance. 95 points. Black/purple color with a lifted nose of blackberries, currants, and toasted vanilla. The palate is dense and volatile with loads of alcohol (15%) keeping it buoyant and ripe. Flavors of black currant, black tea, suede leather, and bitter chocolate form the core. Finishes long and silky with hints of tobacco. Just a great effort from Domaine la Soumade. It’s well-balanced, delicious, and unique for the appellation. Produced in a modern-style. Drink now until 2022.

Lasagna, Beyond Meat Bolognese, spinach, almond béchamel. Not as good as I hoped — mostly because of the vegan thing.

Stuffed Manchester quail, fig, prosciutto, brioche. Nice little stuffed bird.

Baja style whole grilled Dorade Royale. Well grilled fish.

Creek Stone Farm prime filet mignon, horseradish butter.

Torch that butter.

And after. A rich and solid hunk of meat.

Black sesame cake, sesame crumble, mango sorbet. Interesting textures.

Lemon merignue, lemoncello granite. Loved the multiple takes on lemon — I love lemon.

Chef’s box of macarons. Texture was too hard and they didn’t have a strong enough flavor — not the greatest macarons — but macarons are hard.

Overall, we had a great time, tremendous amounts of food, and very good service. The private room was lovely. The whole restaurant is gorgeous. Really atmospheric tres-la patio.

Food was better than I expected, and I had heard good things. Very bright flavors and the pastas were great. Mains were a little less exciting, but still good. I rarely love mains at normal restaurants.

Set menu food price was pretty reasonable too, although menu prices are fairly steep. But you can see that portions are good sized. The base menu was a lot and with our additions an obscene amount.

My only issues were some policy quirks. I don’t like the room minimum being a lot higher than the food price. And I wasn’t old about it until weeks after I booked the space (and didn’t feel like finding a new one). Room min was $1500 (tax and tip don’t count either). The largest set dinner menu was $106 a person (which isn’t bad). But the room sits a max of 12. We had 11, with only 9 adults. Even at 12, that would be $1272 which leaves $225 of alcohol — or $18 a person. Hard perhaps when you have people who don’t drink, but maybe possible. With our count there was a $500 gap — which I had to make up by buying two bottles off the list. I hate buying bottles off the list as they are about 4X retail and I have 1000s of bottles. Wine lists like Fia have some nice wines, but they are way too young in general, and they have a much smaller selection than I do in my basement. They just can’t afford to stock a broad range of wine — and certainly not in my specific taste. No new restaurant can so I don’t blame them for this.

Which brings me to the other policy problem: the curse of the annoying 2 bottle per table corkage limit. They did allow me to open 3, but I just don’t get the 2 bottle limit thing. Insert rant here — and this is not unique to Fia at all, but I’ll just complain here again about it again — but it doesn’t make any sense, not from a service level and not financially. I know they want to make a certain amount of money from alcohol sales. Fine. Calculate the per cover (person) average profit on alcohol and set a corkage to around that number. Don’t limit the bottles. It also makes no sense that a table or 1 or 2 can open 2 bottles and a table of 11 can also open only 2 bottles. Make it one per person… but wait… that’s still stupid. Just don’t have a limit. Charge the correct corkage. NO BOTTLE LIMITS. This dinner ONLY worked with the corkage limit because I bought 2 bottles and because we had a bunch of lightweights (keeping the number I needed to bring down). The limits make it IMPOSSIBLE FOR WINE GROUPS TO EAT AT THE RESTAURANT. We bring specific wines. We bring 1+ bottles a person. Doesn’t work with limits. We come during low volume nights (weekdays) and we order huge amounts of food. At $35+ a person of corkage (pure profit, no cost of goods) I’m sure we would always be a way above average table in terms of profit. If it’s not, raise the corkage to $40 or whatever. The limit just excludes us. So now if I want to come back here with one of my wine groups, we either have to come with only 3 people (and finesse the limit), or we have to call up and argue the house policy with the manager/owner. Crazy. Wine groups keep restaurants alive after the initial buzz has died down.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Fia, Private Room, Santa Monica, Wine

Little Saigon Mini Crawl

Nov06

Restaurant: Brodard Restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 16105 Brookhurst St. Fountain Valley, CA 92708. Phone number (657) 247-4401

Date: September 26, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Solid

Crawls are usually a lot of fun, and after the super extensive Garden Grove / Westminster Vietnamese Food crawl we did a few months ago, my brother, parents, and went down south for a smaller (3 stop) version.

We started furthest south at Brodard.

Their interior is fairly modern.

Vietnamese menus can be very long, and this is no exception.

Roasted Duck Spring Rolls (Goi Cuon Vit). Tender roasted duck wrapped in rice paper with asparagus, scallions, cucumber, and cilantro served with plum sauce. Hoison (plum) sauce makes everything taste great.

Eggplant Tempura Rolls. Tempura eggplant, asparagus, cucumber, avocado, and cilantro wrapped in rice paper and served with soy vinaigrette. Not as good as the duck (or the pork we had last time).

Spicy Beef Salad (Goi Bo). Tender marinated beef wokked with Asian spices over lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions in spicy lemongrass vinaigrette. Delicious.

The check for reference.

Restaurant: Oc & Lau Restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 9892 Westminster Blvd Unit R, Garden Grove, CA 92844. (714) 583-8100

Date: September 29, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great

This crawl returned to Oc & Lau as well, but this time to location 2, which is tucked behind the Garlic & Chives.

The exterior of location 1, but today we went to 2.

Interior of location 2 — much bigger than 1.

Big menu.

Coconut Swirly Escargot (Oc Len Xao Dua). After ordering the wrong snails last time I got it right this time — with the conical Vietnamese kind and the slightly sweet curry sauce. This sauce is amazing.

You have to suck the meat out of these little cones.

Empty shells.

Fried quail (Chim Cut Rotti). Much like the Chinese style quail. Great!

Weird purple yam and sticky milk free dessert. Oddly addictive.

The check again.

Restaurant: Garlic and Chives [1, 2]

Location: 9892 Westminster Blvd #311, Garden Grove, CA 92844.: (714) 591-5196

Date: September 29, 2019

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great

Today we finish up at my favorite down here, Garlic and Chives.

The minimalist interior.

Slightly spicy edamame.

Grilled Turmeric Fish with Dill served on the skillet w/ vermicelli.

Vermicelli noodles and herbs served with turmeric fish. You wrap these up with the fish. Delicious and very much like we had a couple of times in Vietnam.

Baked Clams with Garlic & Chives. Or maybe Chili Garlic. Nice actually. Lots of flavor.

House Special Lobster. Sautéed in house special sauce with garlic, onion, jalapeños, on a bed of noodles. This was AWESOME. Tons and tons of flavor, particularly over the noodles. Way better than the Crustacean and probably 1/4 of the price.

Overall, a fun and very filling little adventure!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brodard, Garden Grove, Garlic and Chives, Oc & Lau, Orange County, Vietnamese cuisine, Westminster

Uni All The Way Down

Nov04

Restaurant: Miyabi Uni

Location: 1231 Cabrillo Ave Suite 101, Torrance, CA 90501. (424) 376-5135

Date: September 23, 2019

Cuisine: Japanese Uni

Rating: Delicious — Just make sure to take your gout medicine

Despite the possible health consequences of eating an entire meal of Uni (sea urchin) I’ve been dying to brace the brutal 405 traffic, head south, and try out…

Miyabi Uni. Yes, a Japanese restaurant so specialized almost everything on the menu contains uni!

Welcoming portals.

And a fairly spacious modern interior.

The uni extravaganza menu.

2004 Ruinart Champagne Dom Ruinart Brut Rosé. VM 95. A wine of exquisite beauty, the 2004 Dom Ruinart Brut Rosé has the pedigree to drink well for several decades. The 2004 is an especially vinous, textured Rosé. The berry, floral, spice and mineral-drenched flavors are finely sketched in this dramatic, strikingly beautiful Rosé from Ruinart.

2008 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. BH 93. A textbook Pucelles nose of honeysuckle and citrus is trimmed in a discreet application of oak and a trace of exotic fruit, neither of which continue over to the delicious, round and quite generous medium-bodied flavors that possess excellent depth on the focused and unusually powerful finish. There is an ample amount of underlying tension that adds relief to the otherwise densely concentrated dry exact. This is quite simply terrific and while there is good power, the ’08 Pucelles remains a wine of finesse.

agavin: our bottle was fairly advanced.

From my cellar: 2012 Paolo Bea Arboreus. 93 points. Unique take on the Trebbiano Spoletino variety, with powerful soil and mineral leading the way to a complex finish of orange oil, lemon-lime spritz, passion fruit and white peach. Constantly shifting in the glass, this is a wine for those looking outside the box. More seabed notes on the back end of this developing, unique wine; aeration/decant suggested. 2018-2024

agavin: best pairing with uni

Look at the color!

The uni fun begins!

Miyabi Oyster. Fresh Kumiai oyster from Baja California with uni, ikura, black roe, and tasazu jelly. The Miyagi oyster trifecta — because uni makes everything better. Very bright and briny. Delicious.

Miyabi Uni Shooter. Fresh sea urchin, quail egg yolk, and Tosazu finished with tobiko eggs. Richness personified. Requires a tolerance of “soft” textures, but for me it was delicious.

Uni Cream Croquette. Sea urchin cream croquettes served with sea urchin cream sauce. A fried gooey version. Good, but not as good as some of the more raw uni preps.

Uni Toro Wrap. Fresh tuna belly rolled around uni with yuzu kosho. Super awesome rich bites!

Seared US Kobe Beef Tataki with uni. Marinated kobe beef and uni.

Soy Milk Tofu with Uni. Homemade soy milk tofu served with sea urchin and sweet soy sauce. This was super mild, with jiggly tofu and little chunks of uni. Probably could have used more uni if we weren’t having a ton of it in other dishes.

Uzaku. Sliced grilled unagi (fresh water eel), cucumber, and seaweed served with soy sauce vinegar sauce and jelly. No uni at all! Our only dish without, but it was delicious. Rich eel and bright tangy flavors from the jelly.

Chilled Uni Chawan-mushi. Chilled steamed organic egg and uni custard served with ponzu sauce. Delicious custard.

Gratuitous zoom!

Uni Tamagoyaki. Japanese style organic egg omelette with sea urchin served with uni soy sauce.

Here it is cut and oozing uni. Scrumptious. The uni egg combo is a great one and this was a fabulous prep. Light fluffy egg and rich uni.

Super uni, toro, bluefin, ikura donburi bowl. Various sashimi over rice.

Miyabi Uni Original Pasta. Soy sauce, garlic butter, and red chili spaghetti topped with fresh sea urchin, shiso leaf, and crispy seaweed. This is closest to an Italian pasta as it had a strong garlic feel and a quality like an uni spaghetti vongole. Delicious!

Premium Uni Cream Pasta. Finest grade Hokkaido sea urchin and Santa Barbara sea urchin and truffle butter cream sauce with fresh fettuccine. Now this is the serious deal. So rich, so delicious, so uni.

It comes with Italian style bread for mopping up the sauce.

Uni Miso Soup. Because, why not?

The return of S’mores Gelato — Valrhona Chocolate base with house-made Graham Crackers and toasted kosher Marshmallow topping! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #chocolate #valrhona #s’more #marshmallow #GrahamCracker

Overall, this was a super fine meal and really delicious. Yeah, we walked away with our joints crunching and our fingers swollen from the salt, but we walked away happy. I thought I’d enjoy it — and I did. Every dish was tasty, but about half were super delicious, most anything with raw uni. Weakest was probably the croquette and the tataki — but they were still good.

Service was spectacular. This I didn’t expect. I mean Japanese service is usually very attentive, but the staff were ON IT too and super nice and accommodating.

Wine pairing here is “interesting” at best. My orange Italian wine worked out best. It’s an unusual wine, and doesn’t pair with everything, but it does do pretty well with uni. The White Burgundy was a bit oxidized, which normally would be a bummer, but turned out to work pretty well with the uni too. The rose champ was delicious, but probably the toughest pairing.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, Miyabi Uni, Torrance, Uni

Quick Eats – Colapasta

Oct31

Restaurant: Colapasta.

Location: 1241 5th St, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 310-8336

Date: September 18, 2019

Cuisine: Italian / Just pasta

Rating: Simple menu, but good pasta, very casual

There seems to be a bit of a trend to opening pasta restaurants in Santa Monica.

Colapasta is a super casual small menu artisanal pasta place by Stefano De Lorenzo the main chef from La Botte years ago. The place is brand new and the concept is very similar to Uovo on the other side of the Promenade. They both have very short lists of classic pasta and little else on the menu.

The decor is simple and the space is modest — not too unlike Ramen Roll. haha.

The menu. You can basically see that it’s mostly pasta. A salad or two as well. No liquor license yet but they have applied for a 41 (beer and wine).

Zuppa di Granoturco. Sweet Summer Corn Soup.

Bresola Arugula e Burrata. Sliced paper-thin Aged Beef, arugula, Burrata. This is pretty much a perfect “salad” for me as I love Burrata (and this is a good one, either from Italy or more likely from Stefano locally, but in the Italian style and very good). The burrata and cured meat combo is one of my favorites. Arugula helps push it down.

Bigoli Aglio Olio e Acciughe (Campania). Bigoli Pasta with Garlic, Oil, Anchoives. This is a simple pasta, but with that anchovy pasta it has a delightful garlicky umami.

Casunziei (Dolomiti). Half Moon shaped Red Beet Ravioli, Brown Butter, Poppy Seeds. This is one of the chef’s signatures. It’s very Po River Valley (Mantua, Verona etc). Sweet and rich, quite delicious.

Lasagna Classica al Ragu (Emilia). Classic Beef Ragu Lasagna. The basta was delicate and the ragu had great flavor. It just needed a Béchamel sauce to be perfect.

Pasta lurks in the fridge.

Overall, this was a pleasant and VERY quick little meal. The pasta is good. It’s not radical or terribly LA in style like Felix or anything — it’s very homestyle (Italy) Italian. Very simple. They are, however, inexpensive, and well executed. So if you have a need for a noodle fix and don’t want to break the bank, you could do well here. Probably slightly more my taste than Uovo. Not nearly as good or as much variety as Heroic Wine Bar down the street.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Colapasta, Date Night, pasta, Santa Monica

Down the White Rabbit Hole

Oct28

Restaurant: Vespertine / White Rabbit [1, 2]

Location: 3599 Hayden Ave, Culver City, CA 90232. (323) 320-4023

Date: September 17, 2019

Cuisine: Modern Nordic Art Food? Russian Haut Cuisine?

Rating: White Rabbit dishes were great, Vespertine ones weird

Vespertine is a very unusual confluence of all sorts of artsy weirdness. It’s helmed by Jordan Kahn formerly of Red Medicine and currently of Destroyer across the street. I’ve generally been fond of Jordan’s unique culinary style. Tonight’s dinner is a combo dinner with Jordan hosting Vladimir Mukhin the chef from Russia’s most renowned restaurant: White Rabbit.

First of all, we have the bizarre building which seemingly was built (like much of this section of Culver City) without purpose and is now is host to the restaurant — only! I had an office across the street for 2 years as well, back when I founded Flektor.

In the back yard, so to speak, is this gigantic steel cactus tower. Yes, everyone needs an expensive cactus tower.And there are kooky modern gardens.
This one we waited in at the beginning of the meal, and at the end for our final course (but more on that later).

As we waited here they had a Didgeridoo player. Yeah, weird.

Above the dining room is the entire kitchen floor. We didn’t (couldn’t?) hang out here long but it looked sweet (and immaculate).

The open roof deck (which feels like inside) is a sort of lounge floor where the meal began.

The four of us with Chef Vladimir Mukhin from White Rabbit!

In the lounge, the tree was prepopulated with crispy dried somethings.

Maybe pineapple crisps.

And dark hand towels.

A welcome cocktail of hibiscus and stuff.

Mysterious treats called coco lardo. I’m not sure if it was lardo, or “like” lardo. It did taste coconuty. I think those things inside were Linden buds.

Sunflower with caviar and pine-nuts. The pine-nuts are under the caviar. This was delicious — because it was good caviar.

Mackerel, Celery, Malt, I think. This was bright flavored but not brightly lit (except when I took this photo with the cel phone light).

Now we moved on down to the cool dining room, nearly temple-like in its silence — except for the spacey spa music and the sound of wooden spoons scraping on expensive stoneware plates.

I do have to say that tonight, probably because Chef Vladimir Mukhin was “in charge” of the floor, they were lax on the “rules” and didn’t give us trouble about tripods or using the cel phone as a light. I didn’t go all the way to using the big flash, but last time we were here when they enforced “no shutter sound”, “no flash”, “no light” and “no tripod” it was damn hard to take any half decent photos at all. Much better this time.

The napkins have their own box.

The wine pairing was mandatory. This sucks as I don’t love wine pairings and this was typical. A bunch of cheap, off the beaten path wines that are more weird than good.

2007 Dr Hermann, Erdener Treppchen “6” Kabinett Riesling. This was probably the wine I liked best of the pairings. It’s not expensive though, maybe $20.

I figured I’d photo the glasses this time.

The food menu.

Russian Black Salt. To prepare a black salt you mix in equal proportions rye flour and white salt of coarser or fine grinding. The mixture is wrapped in a linen cloth and scorched in a Russian wood burning stove for 8 hours, using exclusively dry birch wood.
Prawn, aged plum, bone marrow. The black salt was sprinkled on top. These were nice, sweet and tangy.

Hoto, Yamadanishiki Daiginjo, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

Sake!

Markovnik and Scallops.

You break through the crunchy top for the delicious “meat” underneath.

2018 Onward Wines, Malvasia Petillant Natural, Suisun Valley.

Slight spitz.

Courgette, char roe, chicken fat, spruce.

The was very good. Bit of a pickled herring vibe.

Black bread. You could use it to sop up the delicious sauce.

2011, Brokenwood, Semillon, Hunter Valley, Australia.

Golden.

Salted milk mushrooms, green tomato, herbs. This dish was by Jordan Kahn and was his only fully successful dish of the night. Salty, light, and crunchy it was an excellent vegetable dish.

2011 Chateau Carbonnieux, Bordeaux.

Bigger glass.

Baked Cabbage and Caviar. This symbolizes Russia, in this case “the poor” of Russia in that boiled (or baked) cabbage is one of the main staple foods.

But with champagne butter sauce it then represents the “rich” of Russia (aka the Caviar and Champagne). It was actually a stupendous dish. The cabbage had great texture and in the rich buttery champagne/caviar sauce was scrumptious.

I can’t actually read the label.

Blanco.

Experimental Pumpkin, Guava, Madrone Bark. Another Jordan Kahn dish. I didn’t like it at all. I don’t love pumpkin and this was vaguely sweet, cloying, and had that soft obnoxious pumpkin texture. I didn’t even finish it

2017 Seabold Cellars, “Olson” Chardonnay, Monterey, California.

Fake Chard.

Black cod, radish, tangerine. Lovely fish dish.

2014 Ojai, “White Hawk Vineyard” Syrah, Santa Barbara Country.

Poor man’s Hermitage.

Fibers, Bracken Fern, Sacred Pepper, Aromatic Carnanel. Another Jordan Dish — like old rope — the beef version. Very over cooked beef stew/rope? Not so great.

Green Salad. This was the only failing Vladimir dish and I have a feeling it was Jordan making him do it. Supposed to be a “dessert” it was a weird sweet salad. Kind of gross, salad with a sweet flavor.

2003 Quinta do Crasto, Vintage Port, Douro, Portugal.

In a mug.

Black Cap Berry, Meadowsweet. A Jordan dessert. Terrible. Just cloying with a weird root vegetable tone — not what you want in a dessert.

The wine lineup.

The attractive but perhaps impractical bar area on the ground floor was used for the penultimate course.

Birch Inner Barc, condensed milk. Not bad. Weird though and it had an augmented reality app that was supposed to do something. We couldn’t get it loaded though.

The post dinner “dessert” spread back out in the garden.

Caramelized Sunchoke Mushroom. These were tasty, pretty much like a “bearclaw” or “apple fritter.”

Sorrel Curd, Wintergreen. It was dipped in this “cream.” Under the red was a mild whipped cream like substance.

Berries.

Zoom on the berries.

A weird book.

Sea Buckthorn Pearls.

It’s possible this was the Sorrel Curd, Wintergreen – hard to know with these things.

Cups for the tea.

Douglas Fir Tea — Vespertine loves pine and resin notes.

Two scents, one designed by each chef — lol — you get to take these home.

Overall, this was a great experience and very interesting. Quirky though. The building was amazing and the staff was very friendly. And fortunately Jordan’s oodle of rules was much more lax tonight — although there were still some.

Everything was still scented like douglas fir or something. Smells like spa. Sounds like spa. Looks like art.

For something so visual and aesthetic, it was very difficult to photograph — or even see you food. Everything was hidden. Hidden by darkness. Hidden by shadowy deep containers. Hidden by flowers or leaves. You can see that my descriptions were vague as they give you no menu to remember them by.

The Vladimir dishes tonight were fabulous. All were great except for the sweet “salad.” The Jordan dishes were almost a complete bomb — only the “mushrooms” was good. The rest all had this cloying, sweet, root vegetable thing going that I didn’t like at all.

The meal was expensive though — yet ingredients were fairly plebeian for the most pair (excepting the caviar). The mandatory wine pairings sucked. Not worth the money and most of the wines weren’t that great. It’s some fairly hard food to pair — although the Vlad dishes easier than the Jordan ones. Those are almost impossible to pair.

So in conclusion, I’d love to try White Rabbit in Moscow, but the whole “chef team up meal” idea doesn’t seem to totally work. It should have just been White Rabbit food here in the Vespertine space.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Culver City, Foodie Club, Jordan Kahn, Vespertine, Vladimir Mukhin, White Rabbit, Wine, wine pairings

Moonlighting at Moon House

Oct26

Revisiting Moon House for a private room dinner. Click here for details.

Half Peking Duck

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese American, Chinese Food

Jiang Nan Spring

Oct25

Restaurant: Jiang Nan Spring

Location: 910 E Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 766-1688

Date: September 11 & November 3, 2019

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Very good, but probably not the best in the SGV

Yarom and I set out on another small party SGV adventure and chosen Jiang Nan Spring (which we hadn’t been too because of this review from the LA times which asked “Does Jiang Nan Spring have the SGV’s best Shanghainese food?”

After our reconnaissance lunch (9/11/19), we returned (11/3/19) for a big group dinner.

They have a newish storefront on Main in the heart of Alahambra.

Interior is clean and free of the usual wall menus, TV’s etc.

For our 11/3/19 dinner we dined in this private side room (2 tables). This made for one of those giant 2 table CF dinners — I do much prefer my Chinese dinners to keep to one table.

The menu.

Boiled peanuts on the table.

Shanghai Duck (9/11/19). This cold marinated duck is flavored a lot like pork.

Cold Drunken Chicken (11/3/19). Nice for this kind of cold bland chicken. It had some good flavor, very nice (if cold) texture, and was quite moist.

Cold Smoked Fish (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai style cold fried fish. Smokey flavor.

Pork belly slices in garlic chili oil (11/3/19). Very tasty pork as the spicy/garlic sauce was excellent.

Chili oil.

Scallion pancake (11/3/19). Fine for what it is, but I usually find this a boring dish.

XLB (11/3/19) pork soup dumplings. Decent version of the always fabulous pockets of steamed pork. Not amazing house-made versions like at Juicy Dumpling, but still good.

Beef Roll (11/3/19). Not usually my favorite dish either, but a pretty good version of it.

See the inside.

West Lake Beef Soup (9/11/19 and 11/3/19). A mild goopy soup with tofu and beef, it was actually delicious. I had several bowls. I’m not sure what was so good about it — certainly texture — but it was very addictive.

Spare Ribs in Lotus Leaf (9/11/19 and 11/3/19). I’ve only had this dish once before, at another West Lake / Shanghai style SGV place, Chang’s Garden.

Inside is a sticky-rice coated pork spare rib. Delicious. Succulent, and lotus flavored. Rich and delicious. Very soft.

Sautéed Shrimp (9/11/19). I asked them if they had the green tea version, and they said they did, but we got the more regular Shanghai version. The shrimp were super succulent and with the vinegar quite delicious. Still, I wanted to try the tea version again.

Shanghai Style Pork Hock (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai dish.

This was a controversial dish. Among those of us who love “real” Chinese food, we LOVED this dish. It was moist, fatty, jiggyly (yes), but had tons of fabulous porky flavor. The other table, with lots of lightweight Chinese eaters found it “too fatty.” Of course, it’s supposed to be fatty!

Peking Duck (11/3/19). Even though it’s not a Shanghai dish, they do offer peking duck. The meat itself was solid but not the best ever or anything. Good flavor, but the skin wasn’t the crispiest possible.

And with pancakes — which were good but a bit large.

Hoisin and green onions.

David L, as always, demanded the “bones” from the duck. Sometimes there is meat on the bones, not really here. But I won’t be critical, as that means it just went into other dishes.

Yarom gnaws on one anyway.

Vegetables, soy beans, and bean curd (11/3/19). Very interesting dish. Nice crunchy texture.

Salted Egg with Chinese Squash (9/11/19). Like Zucchini with salty egg. Ick. I didn’t like this dish at all. Yarom did, but I’m not a fan of this sort of vegetable.

Seaweed fried fish (11/3/19). Crispy moist “fish sticks.”

Walnut shrimp (11/3/19). The classic, tasty, but lots of mayo.

Fried Tofu & Ground Pork with hot sauce (9/11/19). Or maybe it was Hunan Tofu. Not sure. This was actually pretty hot. Not exactly MaPo or Szechuan in style, but quite good.

We special pre-ordered Beggar’s Chicken (11/3/19).

The chicken is inside this pastry and they wallop it open with the mallet!

Inside it’s very moist, with tender meat, sweet Shanghai-style sauce, chestnuts, and other fruits and vegetables. Very interesting, if a touch rich.

Shanghai Purple Rice. Starchy!

Chocolate Peppermint Gelato — Chocolate base made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and melted in peppermints, mixed with Mint Oreo Cookies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #oreos #peppermint #mint #ChocolateMint #MintOreos

Pistachio Lemon Cookie Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with a custom blend of two Pistacchio di Bronte DOGC sources to produce an intense pistachio base, with layers of Southern Italian Lemon Cookies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pistachio #sicily #nuts #LemonCookie

Overall, Jiang Nan Spring has a good kitchen and most dishes were really tasty. I think the chef (or the menu) leans toward Hangzhou (the old Southern Song capital just south of Shanghai). I don’t really agree with the Times — I think Shanghailander is slightly better, but this was certainly a very good place, in the top 3 LA Shanghai places I’ve tried no question.

Our big two table CF dinner was polarizing as all the people who like adventurous Chinese food (including myself, Yarom, and the AFF) all loved it and the people who like their Chinese more “American” found it a bit over some magic textural or fatty line. They can head back to PF Changs!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine, Yarom

Mr. Miyagi’s Sushi Bar

Oct23

Restaurant: Sushi Miyagi

Location: 150 S Barrington Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (323) 382-5635

Date: Sept 10 & October 1, 2019

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Top Shelf Omakase Sushi

Great sushi is always a good excuse to pull out the beloved Champagnes and White Burgundies.

And I was excited to hear that a new high end omakase sushi place had opened in Brentwood — in the conveniently located but anoying to park at junction of Barrington Ave and Place.

The space is small but attractive.

This is chef focused serious sushi, and so we pre-ordered the largest omakase possible — Erick even egged them on to a larger than offered menu.

Chef Shinichi Miyagi says about himself on his website:

Born in Osaka, the art of sushi mesmerized the chef at an early age and decided to devote his life as a “Decchi” (apprentice) under Master Higuchi at the age of 16. He opened his first “Kappo” (traditional style of cooking in front of a crowd) restaurant at the age of 25, and moved to LA at 29, working in numerous well known Sushi restaurants in West LA, Beverly Hills, and San Diego.

Through managing a Sushi restaurant in Manhattan Beach (i-naba), now in present day, he found an opportunity to try his skills as an executive chef in Brentwood/Los Angeles. The chefs many years of experience in choosing the freshest fish, will surprise even the most sophisticated pallets of this beautiful city.

His methods and techniques in preparation follows the traditional Japanese style, bringing out the true flavors of the fish. The chef also prepares two styles of rice, AKAZU SHARI (Red vinegar sushi rice), and SHIROZU SHARI (White vinegar rice). The SHARI (Sushi rice) will alternate depending on the fish being prepared, and we hope you enjoy the eclectic flavors of the different vinegars being used.

2017 Guillaume Selosse Champagne Ville-sur-Arce Largiller Extra Brut.

From my cellar: NV Jacques Selosse Champagne Rosé. VM 94. The NV Rosé is laced with the essence of crushed rocks, mint, chalk. white pepper and cranberry. Chiseled and vibrant in the glass, with tremendous energy, the Rosé is fabulous. This release is based on the V.O. blend of 2011, 2010 and 2009 vintages, with a touch (3-5%) still Pinot from Francis Egly, vintages 2011 and 2010. Disgorged November 7, 2018. (Drink between 2018-2026)

Marinated Sardines from Japan with dashi. Lovely soft delicate fish with the strong sardine oil flavors in perfect balance with the vinegary marinade.

Shigoku oyster from the pacific northwest. On the left with uni and on the right with caviar and yuzu. In the front is Japanese plum.

Buri with ponzu, daikon radish and green onion. Delicate and delicious sashimi.

On the left, monk fish liver. To the right, octopus (tako) with mozzarella, then tomato and on top seaweed from Okinawa with mountain yam. All scrumptious.

Toro tartar with caviar and wasabi ponzu. The nobu classic but perfectly executed.

Fresh king crab, grilled. Simply sweet crab meat.

2005 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières. VM 92. Complex, leesy aromas of stone fruits, flowers, smoke and nutty oak. Dense, suave and ripe, with nuanced, lightly sulfidey flavors of white fruits, flowers and nuts. Layered and quite long. This, too, has turned out very well.

Tai sushi.

King mackerel sushi.

2010 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. VM 95. The 2010 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 1er Cru is an absolute killer wine from the late Anne-Claude Leflaive. Lucid in the glass, it has a crystalline bouquet with crushed stone, a touch of oyster shell, Nashi pear and citrus peel. The terroir seems to just burst from the glass. The palate is cool, calm and collected. The acidity is nigh pitch perfect, the tension palpable from start to finish. This is a live-ware Les Pucelles: edgy and citrus fresh, yet utterly composed and befitting a wine that frankly is Grand Cru in all but name. Tasted at Fook Lam Moon in Hong Kong. (Drink between 2019-2035)

2010 Pierre Morey Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 92-95. Here too there are vestiges of the malolactic fermentation present. The palate impression though is completely different compared to that of the Perrières as the intense and overtly powerful flavors are substantially bigger and even more intense, indeed almost painfully so, before terminating in a citrusy, explosive and stunningly long finish. While this is certainly large-scaled it is not without a certain refinement and this should amply reward long-term cellaring, in fact it will require it as this will not, in all likelihood, drink well young. (Drink starting 2020)

Baby barracuda sushi.

Blue fin tuna sushi.

O-Toro sushi. The rich tuna belly never disappoints — at least not at a place this good.

Shima Aji (striped jack) sushi..

Black throat sushi.

Golden snapper sushi with truffle paste.

2008 Giuseppe Quintarelli Cabernet (Franc) Alzero. 94 points. This was great. Shared with me at a restaurant. Had an Italian feel for a Cabernet. Very red fruit driven, with some roses and balsamic. Closest other wine I’ve had to this was the 2007 Sassicaia, but this wine has more energy and elegance. A different take on Bordeaux blends then most Bordeaux and even less like most Super Tuscans or Napa Cabernet. Elegance, acidity, and polish. Drinking nicely now.

This bottle has an unusual story as we had all of the sushi bar but one seat and that last chair was occupied by an older gentleman in the music business. We got to talking during dinner and he was extremely nice. Turns out he doesn’t really drink wine anymore but was a collector and he went out to his car and brought back two bottles of this extremely are Giuseppe Quintarelli. Now I’m a GQ fan — I even use his olive oil in some of my creations — but I didn’t even know he makes a Cabernet. It was great though.

The gentleman also picked up a huge portion of our tab too — just because he was that kind of guy! Thank you!

A5 Wagyu, truffles, uni, Mizutaki mushrooms.

A Yama-like bite of quail egg, uni, and toro.

Ikura (salmon roe) sushi.

Uni sushi.

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Sardine sushi.

Torched butterfish sushi.

Seared Toro with shoyu koji. So rich it tasted like beef.

Fermented squid guts — I gotta say, I like these.

Toro handroll.

Green tea ice cream. Much denser and less creamy than my gelato.

I brought these though, homemade old-fashioned chocolate fudge — made by me.

The wine lineup.

And the people lineup.

Sushi Miyagi is exactly the kind of sushi place I like best — all omakase and very traditional. This is some seriously good fish. Mostly just straight nigiri and a bit of spectacular sashimi and a handful of cooked dishes. This is really really good and instantly catapulted into the top westside sushi joints. Very friendly too. Intimate as well. Sushi at this level is all about the chef and Shinichi Miyagi is very talented.

Not for the sushi neophytes and roll loves, but fabulous for those of us who really enjoy great fish being showcased in a straightforward and delicious manner.

I also came in here a few weeks later for a quick lunch. The lunch menu is very reasonable given the (exceptional) quality.

Lovely little salad with homemade onion vinegar dressing.

Miso soup, of course.