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Eating Boston – Loyal Nine

Nov24

Location: 660 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02141. (617) 945-2576

Date: October 20, 2017

Cuisine: Modern Colonial

Rating: Really good kitchen and very interesting

My Boston friends chose this extremely interesting farm to table place — modern — but focused on colonial Massachusetts ingredients. At Loyal Nine, their focus is on direct relationships with farmers and artisans. They show a dedication to ethically sourced coffees and teas, and in our restaurant with a true focus on New England culinary traditions.

The space is the typical new hard surfaces, paper menu kind of thing.

We opted for the “supper” (i.e. shared tasting menu).

I had this very bretty cider.

And interesting cocktails.

Some even non-alcoholic.

Ma Oysters and Me Oysters. Dressed with anise hyssop vinegar and smoked porter vinegar. Nice vinegary punch.

Salt-rubbed cucumbers. Egg custard, horseradish vinaigrette. A bit like Chinese cucumbers but with this almost cheese-like custard.

Mashed soldier beans, radish, clams or mussels. Interesting.

Grilled surf clam. Broccoli, parsley broth. Really awesome flavors and texture. Nice and chewy/crunchy with any almost ham-like quality. Fabulous dish.

Sourdough bread with scallion cheese and whipped solider beans. I liked the cheese.

Hand rolled sallet, cider vin, kohlrabi, aged goat cheese. Like a rolled salad spring roll. It was covered in dressing too. Tasted just like a nice salad. It was weird eating a dressed lettuce with your hands though.

Roasted russet apple, cured pork belly, fresh cheese & herbs. Very nice take on pork and apple. Lots of good smokey flavor.

Fried clams, whole belly with piccalilli aioli. Awesome fried clams. Cornbread fry was super nice and crunchy.

Poached ri squid. Shisito peppers, sunchokes. Very tender.

Crispy steel cut oats, garden turnips, spinach, garlic. Nice flavor — particularly for pure veggies.

Pan roasted duck breast, glazed golden ball turnips, mustard greens. Very rare and tender duck. Smoked almost like pastrami. Very nice.

A kind of chocolate bread pudding with expresso ice cream.

Covered in chocolate syrup.
Then house made butterscotch.

Plus some toppings. This was an awesome dessert. Any kind of cake/pudding with butterscotch — always awesome. Pretty much like a sticky toffee pudding.
Mint tea to finish.

Overall, this was some really fabulous and very distinct cooking. The technics and style seemed pretty modern but the ingredients and combos also extremely Massachusetts. Kudos for really mixing it up.

For more Boston dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Boston, Cambridge, cider, Clams, Colonial Food, eating-boston, Farmer's Market, Loyal Nine

Eating Boston – Shaking Crab

Nov22

Restaurant: Shaking Crab

Location: 203 Adams St, Newton, MA 02458. (617) 795-1630

Date: October 19, 2017

Cuisine: Korean Cajun

Rating: Solid and spicy

During my Boston visit some of my friends took me to Shaking Crab, a “cajun” seafood joint. Interestingly, it’s EXACTLY like the LA area Boiling Crab.

The menu.

My MIT friends.

Onion rings.

Salty shisito peppers. This batch wasn’t very hot.

A sort of long island ice tea kind of thing with Bourbon.

The meat of the meal is all served in plastic bags. Seafood soaked in garlicky chili sauce. You can chose from 4 sauces and various heat levels.

This was Dungeness Crab. A bit hard to break into.

Lobster tails. Hard to get out.

“Blue Crab” and cajun sausage. Max spicy. It wasn’t that spicy, the sausage was small, and I’m pretty sure that isn’t blue crab. Still, it was pretty tasty (shells and all).Shrimp and clams. Really liked the clams. The shrimp tasted good but were a touch annoying to peel. We paid extra for no heads – worth.

This place is tasty, and reasonable (for all that seafood). But it is a mess. They give you bibs, gloves, etc. And the staff was very helpful. He helped crab the crab and shuck some stuff. Still it’s messy. One of my favorite parts was the garlicky slurry with the Dungeness Crab. It tasted just like XO sauce.

For more Boston dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Boston, Cajun, crab, eating-boston, Korean cuisine, Shaking Crab

Eating Boston – The Helmand

Nov20

Restaurant: The Helmand

Location: 143 First St, Cambridge, MA 02142. (617) 492-4646

Date: October 18, 2017

Cuisine: Afghan

Rating: I miss real Afghan like this

During my quick trip back to Boston I had a night by myself in Cambridge. Google turned up a well reviewed Afghan place and since our LA “go to” Afghan went out of business (sigh) I had to try it out.

Over not far from the Science Museum.

The menu.

A cute and classic interior.

They bake their own bread in a tandoor-like oven.

Afghan bread. Fresh out of the oven.

Left to right: yogurt, tomato based sweet chili sauce, mint sauce, and butter.

I put them all on the bread. I love the combo of these 3 sauces.

Because I was alone I ordered a bunch of appetizers.

Aush. Homemade noodle soup served with beef sauce and mint yogurt. Underneath were noodles and beans. I didn’t know about the beans. Good stuff. Very tangy with nice herby notes.

Bowlawni. Brick oven baked twin pastry shells, one filled with pumpkin the other filled with spiced potatoes. garnished with yogurt and mint. The yogurt is basically lebneh (love it) with that thick texture. These were surprisingly great. Thin crispy bread with savory stuffing, not unlike a flat samosa.

Mantwo. Homemade pastry shells filled with onions and beef. served on yogurt and topped with carrots, yellow split peas and beef sauce. I asked for no split peas.

But I added the sauces on top. Great dumplings. The Mongols brought these to Afghanistan but they have a uniquely central Asian flavor profile.

Aushak. Afghan ravioli filled with leeks and scallions, served on yogurt-mint topped with ground beef sauce. Flatter dumplings. Similar sauces. A bit more meat in the sauce. Great texture and bright tomato/yogurt flavors.

Sheerberaing. Rice pudding, served with pistachio and cardamom. Pretty much exactly the kind of rice pudding I was looking for. Very firm (I hate it too runny) with that pistachio and cardamom (and maybe a hint of rose water) flavor.

Overall, I didn’t have that many dishes but what I had was excellent. I saw all these nice kabobs and stews going to other tables too — but with only one person the huge portions would have been too much for me. Service was very nice and attentive too. Clearly a well run family restaurant.

For more Boston dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Afghan Cuisine, Boston, Cambridge, eating-boston, muntoo, The Helmand

Pizza at Pizzana

Nov17

Restaurant: Pizzana

Location: 11712 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 481-7108

Date: October 9 & 24 and November 16, 2017 plus January 20 & February 26 & September 1, 2018

Cuisine: Neo-Neapolitan pizza

Rating: very good pizza for LA

Brentwood’s former Osteria Lantini location has been rebooted as Pizzana. Candace and Charles Nelson, the couple who brought you Sprinkles Cupcakes, are opening a pizza restaurant called Pizzana in Brentwood on Friday. Chef Daniele Uditi, who is from Naples, is making Neo-Neapolitan-style pies using 48-hour fermented dough.

Right on San Vicente.

Looks like Osteria L, just repainted and no customer accessible upstairs.

Very crowded all the time because it got great reviews.

The menu. Lots of pizzas which is nice.

Pizza oven.

Caesar salad (10/24/17). Crunchy fried capers. Nice texture and good flavors. Not as potently bright as I like a (great) caesar — and this didn’t seem to have anchovy — but fine.

Carulina Salad (1/20/18). Baby butter lettuce, crispy prosciutto crudo, charred corn, parmigiano oregano dressing. Nice salad with a lively texture, good crunch, and nice flavor.

Cavoletto di Bruxelles (9/1/18). Shaved brussels sprout, lolla rossa, apple, toasted pistachio, caramelized shallot vinaigrette.

Carciofi Arrostiti (2/26/18). Charred articoke heart, fried baby artichoke, toasted pine nut, parmigiano, lemon olive oil. Very crispy and salty tasty.

Pate di Fegatini (10/9/17). Housemade chicken liver pate, san marzano jam, wood fired bread. This is about as good as chicken liver gets. Pretty darn good.

Instagram shot!

Kid’s cheese pizza (1/20/18). Basic, same size, but it’s nice that they make a kid’s version.

Pizza Margherita (10/9/17). San marzano dop, fior di latte, parmigiano, basil.

Pizza Corbarina (10/9/17). San marzano dop, squash blossom, burrata, cherry tomato, gremolata. Very bright flavors. Nice cool burrata. The gemolata (like a chimi churri) had lots of lemon juice in it.

Pizza Carnivoro (10/9/17). San marzano dop, fior di latte, spicy soppressata, fennel sausage, prosciutto cotto, parmigiano, basil. Like a spicy artisan version of the Little Cesars “Meatser Meatser”! But a really nice pie. I like it meated up like this.

Zoom!

Uovo pizza (1/20/18). Fior di latte, cherry tomato, prosciutto crudo, bacon jam, arugula, egg. I really liked this pizza with it’s very bright acidic flavors and sweet/savory bacon jam. Photo isn’t as good though because it was shot on an iPhone instead of the real camera.

Pizza Amatriciana (10/24/17). Housemade amatriciana sauce, fior di latte, cripsy prosciutto crudo, red onion, shaved parmigiano. Nice crunchy ham and a good approximation of amatriciana, but I would have maybe liked more of a Guanciale porkier vibe. Pizzana is good, but a little pulled toward mainstream and so they don’t really feature those more Italian funkier flavors — like that pork jowl.

Pizza Pignatiello (11/16/17). Neapolitan Sunday Gravy, fior di latte, parmigiano crema, basil. The “gravy” is a tomato based Bolognese like sauce, very rich and savory – as good a beef/pork gravy as you will find. There are chunks of short rib here too and two types of cheese to brighten it up. Very good pizza, less acid than the other ones I had here, but a good hearty rich beefy taste. Very much like some kind of beef cannel or something in Southern Italy.

Carbonara Pizza (9/1/18). Fior di latte, carbonara sauce, pancetta, parmigiano, activated charcoal bread crumb. Very nice meat and cheese pizza with a good eggy quality. Tasted a lot like a carbonara, although I could have lived without the charcoal.

Vanilla gelato and chocolate sauce.

Overall, I need to go back. I liked the dough, very stiff and chewy. I liked that there are a lot of different pies. I have to try more to get a real verdict. Certainly now there with Milo and Olive as the best dedicated westside pizza joints.

After four visits I like the pizza a lot. Good variety and great dough. Service can be a little dicier. On visit four it took 15 minutes for anyone to come to our table (and a good 5 after I asked) and then several tables that sat long after us got their food first. It was quite noticeable (other tables were sympathetic) and I mentioned it and the server just said sorry — she should have comped the ice cream or something. Still, if the food is good I’ll keep going back.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Brentwood, Pizza, Pizzana

Mary’s Birthday at Mama Lion

Nov15

Restaurant: Mama Lion

Location: 601 S Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90005. (213) 377-5277

Date: October 12, 2017

Cuisine: Fusion

Rating: Half night club, but great food

Mary’s birthday brings a gang of us to Michael Hung’s Mama Lion for some awesome eats and lots of big wine…

Koreatown’s recent modern dining renaissance has officially reached its second phase, with the brand new Mama Lion. These are big, bold statement pieces for the neighborhood, incorporating Korean flavors and Continental fare into one seriously striking package — and this one’s got master chef Michael Hung behind the helm.

The special menu for tonight.

Mama Lion is as much a bar and supper-club as it is a restaurant — although he food is great.

It was quiet at first then got super crowded later at night.

On the left is Michael Hung, our excellent chef.

Chevy takes his flighting seriously.

2006 Dom Perignon Champagne. VM 97. The 2006 Dom Pérignon is a beautifully balanced, harmonious Dom Pérignon that strikes an incredibly appealing stylistic middle ground. Rich, voluptuous and creamy, the 2006 shows off fabulous intensity in a style that brings together the ripeness of 2002 with the greater sense of verve and overall freshness that is such a signature of the 2004. Bass notes and a feeling of phenolic grip on the finish recall the 2003, as the Pinot Noir is particularly expressive today. After an irregular summer that saw elevated temperatures in July followed by cooler, damp conditions in August, more favorable weather returned in September, pushing maturation ahead and leading to a long, protracted harvest. The 2006 falls into the family of riper, more voluptuous Dom Pérignons, but without veering into the level of opulence seen in vintages such as 2002.

From my cellar: 2011 Veyder-Malberg Riesling Bruck. 91 points. At first very “Veltliener” like, honey, white pepper and lots of herbs on the nose. The herbs stayed over the time of the evening but the honey transformed into more citrus components. On the palate I miss the last tick of acidity, nevertheless very mineral & long.

2009 Martinelli Chardonnay Charles Ranch. 90 points. Nice mouth filling Sonoma chard. Tasty without being too distinctive. No reason to wait, I can’t imagine an up side.

Heirloom tomato and burrata cheese on sourdough toast, herb salad. Very bright flavors.

Truffled white bean hummus, warn flat bread, hrebs and extra virgin olive oil. Hummus bugs my stomach but it was worth it for this various which had a high lemon/acid and herby hit.

Plancha seared gulf shrimp, anchovy butter, french bread croutons. One of my favorite dishes. Shrimp were cooked to perfection. Very much like a gambas pil pil — but on toast.

From my cellar: 1998 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays. VM 92. Good bright red-ruby color. Knockout nose combines cherry, raspberry, redcurrant, underbrush, licorice, flowers and earth. Penetrating and quite fine; offers a three-dimensional texture but is not really showing its underlying fat today. Intriguing note of cinnamon in the mouth. Finishes very long and complex, with dusty tannins and compelling sweetness. This should be superb with eight to ten years of bottle aging.

2011 Maison Ilan Mazoyères-Chambertin. 92 points. Pop and pour. Nice aromatics. Good acidity and balance. This actually exceeded my expectations which were pretty low given the history of the winery.

2005 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Laurence. VM 94. Deep red. Scents of raspberry, cherry, herbs and dried flowers, plus a hint of black olive. Juicy, finely etched red fruit and anise flavors become spicier with air and pick up a note of white pepper. Finishes with outstanding clarity and impressive thrust, echoing the sweet red fruit notes. Paul Feraud emphasized that the objective in making this wine has always been to provide a bottle that’s ready to drink on release.

Crispy avocado samosa, smoked chili ranch dressing. Like southwestern spring rolls.

Seared Foie Gras, rhubarb conserve, grilled brioche, watercress. Fatty greatness!

My photo didn’t turn out so I had to use someone else’s.

2012 Château Pavie Decesse. VM 94. Radiant and sexy in the glass, the 2012 Pavie-Decesse is the most gracious of the three top wines in Gérard Perse’s lineup. Dark red cherry, plum, smoke, menthol and licorice are some of the notes that fused together in this beautifully focused, layered wine. Hints of violet and lavender add the closing shades of nuance. Silky tannins give the Pavie-Decesse plenty of early appeal, but there is also more than enough depth for the 2012 to drink well for a number of years. The 2012 is 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, from vines that are 50 years old on average.

2005 Château Pontet-Canet. VM 95. Good full ruby-red. Complex, enticing aromas of black raspberry, licorice, minerals, bitter chocolate, lead pencil and pungent cedar; just this side of exotic. Wonderfully silky, sweet and thick, with a powerful minerality framing the currant, graphite and spice flavors. This boasts superb inner-mouth energy and great length, with the full, ripe tannins totally enrobed by the wine’s mid-palate richness. (My sample of the 2006 was old and tired, so I’ll wait until next year to report on the finished wine; this was a star in the early going.)

2006 Château Pontet-Canet. VM 94. Saturated medium ruby. Inky cassis, black raspberry, graphite and pungent minerality on the very ripe nose. Dense, rich and silky, with a brooding inky minerality and an almost liqueur-like dark fruit sweetness leavened by a savory peppery element. This very ripe, deep and concentrated wine boasts wonderful lushness without any undue weight thanks to its sheer energy. Like its neighbor Mouton-Rothschild, Pontet-Canet’s 2006 conveys a powerful impression of soil character. Finishes with serious dusty tannins and superb lingering sweetness. Should be long-lived.

Fresh bucatini pasta, Italian pork sausage, leeks, slow cooked egg. Along with the shrimp one of my favorites. The egg melting into it really made it lovely.

Butter poached ocean trout, fennel, and fingerling potatoes, miso butter sauce. Not bad but one of the weaker dishes. Very very soft.

2007 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova. VM 92. Medium red. Very rich aromas of plum, mocha, dried flowers, underbrush and leather, along with a liqueur-like suggestion of marc de Chateauneuf. Supple, plush and highly concentrated, with superripe fruit flavors slightly leavened by harmonious acidity. A distinctly viscous, fruit-driven wine that could use a bit more class and definition but will please fans of outsized Brunello. Finishes with a bit of youthful aggressiveness.
2015 Ipso Facto Syrah.

Fortunate Son Cabernet Sauvignon. If a wine wants to be written about, it can stick the vintage on the bottle.
2003 Merus Cabernet Sauvignon. VM 92. Deep ruby-red. Aromas of cassis, black cherry, sweet butter and loam. Sweet, lush and sappy, with black cherry and graphite flavors offering very good definition and lift. Offers compelling sweetness and an almost liqueur-like ripeness, but this is more than simply a fruit bomb. Finishes with substantial ripe, broad tannins. “The 2002 version is more muscular and long-aging but the 2003 is flashier,” notes Herold.
2013 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red. VM 94. A real knock-out, the 2013 Proprietary Red is just as impressive from bottle as it was from barrel. A wine of tension, energy and opulence, the 2013 has all the signatures of the vintage in spades. Red cherry jam, smoke, licorice, spices and white pepper are some of the notes that meld into the super-expressive, delineated finish. The 2013 is the first vintage of the Proprietary Red that is more than 50% estate, while the rest of fruit was sourced from Stagecoach and Rancho Chimiles.

Pan roasted duck breast, ragout of braised duck cabbage, young vegetables. Nice duck and LOTS of it.

10 oz. prime 28 day dry-aged New York Steak.

Salad of young brassicas.

Cacio e pepe. Not peppery enough and served this way more like a mac than a proper pasta.

Smothered tater tots, shortrib chili, aged cheddar cheese.

2002 Pride Mountain Vineyards Reserve Claret. VM 94. Good deep ruby. Knockout nose combines currant, cedar, licorice and tobacco. Large-scaled, thick and rich, with compelling density and sweetness. This has superb depth and an intriguing minerality. Finishes with horizontal tannins and superb vinosity and persistence.

Warm humbodlt fog goat cheese. Salty goodness.

Dark chocolate pots de creme.

Sweet cream panna cotta. I don’t know what was in this other than strawberries, but it had a weird flavor (maybe in the “ice”) and was amazing. By weird i mean something like St Germain. Herbal, or floral. Really unique and nice.

Apricot souffle.

After I have poured in the apricot sauce.

Just a few wines.

Rub the Sebby head for good luck.

Overall a total blast with the gang (half pictured) here, great food, and way too much wine.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: birthday, fusion, Korea-town, Mama Lion, Michael Hung

Dirty Dumplings

Nov13

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

Location: 700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-9998

Date: October 8, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Elite!

Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places and so the Dirty Dozen is heading there on this lovely (hot) Sunday afternoon for a blind tasting of “great French white wines that are not champagne or Burgundy.”

We have the private room, of course.

We even had a satellite (non drinking) table.

2011 Michel Gonet Champagne Grand Cru Le Mesnil sur Oger Blanc de blancs. 90 points. huge mousse with lots of persistent fine bubbles. sweet nose of sweet rolls and perfume flowers. youthful, fresh, acidic palate. flavors of pistachio, lime, and mineral. long finish. needs to rest a couple of years but should be good as it puts on weight.

Jennifer brought: NV Ruinart Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 92. Pale yellow. Complex, high-pitched aromas of orange zest, lemon pith, iodine, smoky minerals, anise and jasmine. Sappy and tactile on the palate, offering impressive volume to its ripe citrus and orchard fruit flavors accented by smoke and minerals. Finishes tangy and long, with lingering smokiness and an echo of anise.

XO sauce. Umami goodness.

Flight 1:

Warren brought: 2005 Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Buisson Renard. 92 points. Un nez évolué, complexe, avec des nuances de sucre d’orge. Viennent ensuite les arômes de fruit de la passion, avec du poivre blanc. Un vin d’une superbe complexité aromatique, qui m’évoquait un cru chablisien avec de l’âge.

Arnie brought: 2014 Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex. 94 points. Think I killed a baby here.
Decanted the wine for a small hour, but the acidity was still very high and harsh. Not what I remember from a Silex. Think it is better to wait a few years before tasting this wine. Next appointment with this wine in 2020 😉

Albert brought: 2001 Château de Fieuzal Blanc. 90 points. Light straw gold colour. Nose is warm straw and a bit of cow poo then fresh peach and white apricot. Palate is thick, oily and unctuous without being at all cloying…..peach stone, confit peach, fresh almonds, fresh honeycomb.Heady, resonant and reverberant.

Pork Shui-Mai. Also great versions of the classic.

Tofu wrap. Mostly vegetables wrapped in bean curd. Hot and soft and delicious.

Chicken feet in house sauce. Not my thing, but some like it.

Spicy jellyfish. I like this stuff, but not everyone at the table is a fan.

Har Gow (Crystal shrimp). Excellent versions of the standard.

Flight 2:

Yarom brought: 1997 Château Laville Haut-Brion Blanc. VM 89. Complex, expressive aromas of lemon, honey, ginger, quinine, butterscotch and fresh herbs, plus a waxy suggestion of semillon. Supple and ripe, with moderate depth of flavor and good citric cut. Seems a bit stunted by the August ’98 bottling. Finishes with good but not outstanding length.

Ron brought: 2002 Lur-Saluces “Y”. 92 points. Positive surprise. Thought it would have been way past maturity, but this was quite a beautiful bottle. Nicely developed tertiary aromas, soft acidity. A little bit too warm on the finish dominated by the alcohol (14,5%). But a nice and very interesting bottle.

From my cellar: 2009 Château Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc. Parker 98. Smith-Haut-Lafitte hit a home run with their red Pessac-Leognan and came very close to perfection with their dry white Graves. Possibly the best dry white the estate has produced since the proprietors, the Cathiards, acquired the property in 1990, this wine exhibits a sensational fragrance of buttered citrus, honeyed melons and a touch of grapefruit, lemon zest and orange rind. It also displays grapefruit on the attack and mid-palate as well as real opulence, terrific acidity and length. Drink it over the next 15-20 years. Astonishing!

Elite BBQ Pork Bun. Like a jelly donut, just filled instead with porky goodness!

Shanghai Style Steamed Bun. We love XLB, and these particular examples were awesome. 4 tins disappeared in like 4 minutes.

Dumpling. This one had peanuts and some other seafood bits inside.

Golden Corn BBQ Pork Rice Noodle. Historically in our family we called these “slime.” This was some excellent slime.

Scallop Dumpling. This was one of the best scallop dumplings I’ve had. There are all sorts of trefy goodies in there.

Flight 3:

Larry brought: 2011 E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane. VM 93. Pale gold. Nectarine, pear and lemon curd on the nose, with complicating vanilla and mineral qualities gaining strength with air. Broad and fleshy but impressively focused, offering juicy orchard fruit flavors and a bitter note of citrus pith. Precise, dry and nervy on the strikingly long, penetrating finish, with its sexy honeysuckle and ginger notes.

Brian brought: 2012 E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane. VM 93. Bright yellow. Assertive aromas of nectarine, violet and smoky minerals, with a gingery nuance adding lift. Broad and silky on the palate, offering densely packed orchard and pit fruit flavors that become spicier with air. The mineral note comes back strong on the finish, which lingers with excellent tenacity and building smokiness.

Fried Meat Stuff Dumpling. With a title like that, I had to order. This was the chewy fried rice coating with sweet ground meat paste inside. Kinda delicious except it was fairly hollow (not enough filling).

Layered beancurd. Only my second time having this flaky beancurd layer cake. All texture but it was really great.

Dumpling. Mystery inside with meat and peanuts.

Baked BBQ pork dumpling. Little flakey. pastry triangles stuffed with the usual red BBQ pork.

Pea tendrils and garlic. Colon sweeper.

Baked chicken bun. Delicious slightly sweet crunchy exterior top filled with chopped seasoned chicken meat.

Fried shrimp ball with almond. This is the usual shrimp cake but coated in almond. It really added a nice texture. Quite fun.

Flight 4:

Avi brought: 2003 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc De L’Orée. VM 93. Exotic aromas of candied peach, menthol, tea and spices. Supersweet, ripe and complex, with suggestions of lemon verbena and garrigue At once exotic and powerful, with firm structure and little obvious heat showing today. Finishes extremely long and shapely, with exotic suggestions of oriental spices. Serve this with spicy Asian dishes, Mazoyer suggests, adding that this wine should be drunk soon or laid down for 15 years.

David P brought: 2012 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes. VM 94. Vivid yellow. An explosively perfumed bouquet evokes ripe melon, nectarine and mango, and powerful mineral and floral elements add vivacity and lift. Broad, sappy and deeply concentrated, offering intense orchard fruit and pit fruit flavors that stain the palate while showing surprising vivacity. Strikes a deft balance between richness and finesse, picking up ginger and honey flourishes on the back half. Clings with outstanding energy and persistence on the finish, leaving sappy pear nectar and floral notes behind.

Arnie brought: 2005 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. 90 points. This was terrific. Floral on opening, then loads of stone fruit with a hint of spice and pineapple, great depth and a long finish. Best bottle of three I purchased; showing signs of age and depth.

Elite fried rice. A bit of everything.

House Roasted Duck. The duck does not suck. In fact, it was great. There was that usual authentic Chinese bone factor, but the taste was first rate.

Seafood chow mein. Excellent, always one of my favorites.

Lobster noodles. The lobster itself was good in one of those light white Chinese sauces, but the noodles are soggy.

Too full for dessert but we had dessert wine.

Ron bonus: 2001 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain. VM 93. Bright deep yellow. Smoky camphor, peach and a hint of honeyed pineapple on the showy nose. Enters the mouth fresh, lively and precise, then turns slightly austere, showing noteworthy tannic bite to its orchard fruit and sweet spice flavors. A touch of marmaladey botrytis adds complexity on the lingering, ripe, rich finish. In 2001, high-quality botrytis targeted the Pinot Gris, so that a Sélection de Grains Nobles was produced with the grapes from the vines nearest to the river Thur; it was the grapes from Zind-Humbrecht’s other wines in the Clos that were used to produce the bottling I describe here. Check out these numbers: only 13.6% alcohol, 30 g/l residual sugar, and 6.1 g/l total acidity. Utterly irresistible right now; in fact, I don’t think there is much to gain by holding onto it any longer. I remember first tasting this wine when it was released, and it struck me then as uncharacteristically ready to drink from the outset, but the wine’s iodiney minerality is starting to take center stage from the fruit elements. In 2001, a cold and rainy September had many producers anxious, but the warmest October on record to that point ensured a clean, glitch-free harvest. “This was a rare year in which we were out harvesting in tee shirts, thanks to 28°C days in October,” Olivier Humbrecht reminisced. And at 36 hectoliters per hectare, 2001 was also a very generous year for production by the standards of the Clos.

The cheat sheet.

My notes.

The votes.

Another awesome Chinese feast. Jennifer did all the wine organization (thanks Jenn!). I ordered the food and too much of it, so much that we didn’t have room for a dessert course.

This whole thing was <= $50 including paying for the winner AND a huge tip. Food was very fresh and on point. A large percentage of my fiends who go to dimsum think it’s the best in the SGV. I personally agree, with next best being King Hua. Certainly Elite, King Hua, and Lunasia are also at the top, but slightly below and there is a tier even slightly below that including Sea Harbor, World Seafood, Grand Harbor. Wines were pretty good. I liked the Viognier and some of the other areas besides the Rhone better. Not a fan of those heavy Rhone whites.

One of the best Dirty Dozen meals I’ve been too — I like these Chinese lunch ones best — because I love Chinese food.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

Other Hedonist festivities.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, colon sweeper, Dim sum, dimsum, Dirty Dozen, Elite, Elite Restaurant, French wine, hedonists, Wine

Let’s Go Again

Nov10

Restaurant: Go’s Mart [1, 2, 3]

Location: 22330 Sherman Way, Canoga Park, CA 91303 818.704.1459

Date: October 5, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: One of LA’s best sushi places!

After a long break, it’s back to the unassuming Canoga Park sushi temple that is Go’s Mart. You can check out the Foodie Club mega tasting meal I had previously.

Go’s has been serving up modern style amazing sushi in this almost unlabeled spot for over twenty years.

Inside is almost less glamorous, with just a few tables and a little sushi bar — plus some bad orange paint.

The tables.

Go himself and his assistant Oscar.

The meal was a long one — almost 4 hours for lunch – so I drank A LOT of this excellent green tea.

Fresh ground wasabi and ginger.

Toro and spinach. Maybe not exactly, but it was hard to tell. Nice start.

Sashimi plate.

Monkfish liver with shiso.

Whole crispy baby crab with sea salt, just pop in your mouth and crunch.

Matsutake mushrooms and halibut roe. With that deep earthy flavor that certain Japanese foods have.

Grilled/baked Spanish mackerel with a bit of smoked salmon and onion. The mackerel had that lovely pickled taste.

Whitefish plate. Left to right, Kampachi, triggerfish, butterfish, and kelp halibut. All slightly different preps of salt, yuzu, shiso, etc.

Tuna plate. O-toro, chopped chu toro with caviar, and blue fin toro with garlic.

Oddities on the wall.

Shellfish plate.

Santa Barbara uni.

Seared sweet shrimp with caviar.

King crab.

Golden Japanese scallop.

And the shrimp head returns deep fried. Ate the whole thing.

Silver plate. Seared belt fish, Japanese sardine, Mackerel.

Clam plate. Abalone, giant clam, and octopus.
Toro takuan handroll. Nice bits of radish crunch.

Smoked Ocean Trout and Sock Eye Salmon. As good as salmon gets!

Haha.

A second piece of sardine.

Another handroll.

And gelato by me: Caramel Cappuccino – a salted caramel with expresso in the mix layered with expresso bean whipped cream. In the back is a little Basil Lime Gelato – milk infused with lime and basil from my garden.

Various fresh fruit drizzled in sweetened condensed milk. Very fresh and bright.

Go-san continues to impress with some really scrumptious sushi. He has his own take on the art and not only is the fish impeccable but the flavor combos very refined and interesting. Go has been doing this kind of elaborate stuff forever too, long before the ponzu laden rise of Sugarfish and the like.

It was crowded today though and while quality was incredible, given that Go made every piece for everyone the lunch took almost 4 hours!

For more LA Sushi, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, Go's Mart, lunch, Sushi

Hatchet Hall Hedonism

Nov08

Restaurant: Hatchet Hall [1, 2]

Location: 12517 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066. (310) 391-4222

Date: October 3, 2017

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Interesting flavors and presentation

Hatchet Hall took over the “old” Waterloo & City space in Culver City over a year ago. I’ve been before but with a small family group — this time I went with some of my more hardcore wine friends.

The logo hangs over the street in cryptic glory.

The frontage.

Inside they have this whacky new game and “period” decor. If you can see in the back there is an “old south” private room.

They have a great patio too and even a bar like space in the back (not pictured).

The current menu.

Bonus from me: NV Demière-Ansiot Champagne Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs. BH 93. A beautifully yeasty nose reflects notes of apple, pear, white flowers and a hint of citrus peel. The vibrant middle weight flavors possess a positively gorgeous texture, indeed the mid-palate is almost creamy, while offering excellent depth and length on the dry but not austere finale. For my taste this is drinking perfectly now and I very much like both the style and the quality.

Fennel, pear, endive, bleu cheese, pecan, parsley. A variant on that typical “white” waldorfy blue cheese salad.

Watercress, anchovy dressing, fried shallots, parmesan. I liked this one a bit better, it was bright and mildly bitter.

Corn bread, cheddar, shishito, cultured butter, honey sea salt. Dish of the Night, this unctuous corn bread had a bit of a green kick from the shishito pepper.

Amanda brought: 2004 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc De L’Orée. VM 94. Light yellow. A huge, room-filling bouquet includes suggestions of peach, apricot, mango, floral honey, marzipan and dried flowers. Deep in sweet orchard, pit and exotic fruit flavors, with a lush, creamy texture and a late note of tangy minerals. For a wine with such flavor impact and volume this is really elegant. The finish is powerful and sweet, with outstanding persistence.

agavin: sadly pretty oxidized

Octopus, runner beans, treviso, lemon aioli, salsa verde. Decent octopus, except for all that bean — not a bean fan.

Body of the octopus!

Scallops, figs, almonds, brown butter, date vinegar, thyme. This dish continues a trend of light colored soft stuff underneath everything. If you keep looking for it, you’ll see it repeat. There was very much a sweet and savory / soft and crunchy thing going on here. Very much another theme in the Hatchet Hall repertoire.

Erick brought: 1990 Joseph Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches Rouge. JG 92+. The 1990 Clos des Mouches red is still quite young, but it is beginning to blossom a bit and show much of the character that will make it a superb example of this wine when it is fully mature. The bouquet is a bit wild and brambly at the moment, with scents of baked plums, black cherries, venison, vinesmoke, bitter chocolate, herb tones, earth and a framing of toasty oak. On the palate the wine is quite full-bodied for a Beaune, with excellent focus and balance, a thick core of fruit, and fine length and grip on the moderately tannic finish. This wine has been quite closed for the last few years, but is now beginning to emerge from its period of hibernation. It could prove to be a reference point vintage for the Clos des Mouches, depending on how much of its youthful purity returns to the fold.

Chicken livers, onion jam, grilled bread, pickles, apple vinegar. Pretty good, but very chicken livery.

Chop steak, fried oysters, mustard frill, horseradish. This is a “classic” of the house, but I’m not sure I loved it. A little dry, and the fried oysters were a weird match.

From my cellar: 1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. JG 92+. The 1990 Château Beaucastel is a lovely wine and is just about ready for primetime drinking, but will continue to improve over the coming five or six years and then cruise along for decades from that point forward. The bouquet offers up a fine blend of dried raspberries and red currants, roasted game, incipient autumnal tones (fallen leaves) and a potpourri of spice tones in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and a touch leathery in personality, with a good core, melting tannins and fine length and grip on the complex finish. Having had the good fortune to drink several older vintages of Beaucastel at peak maturity, my gut instinct with the 1990 would be to let it rest in the cellar for just a few more years and allow the last layer of aromatic complexity to emerge here, though it must be said that the wine is really lovely on the palate right now.

agavin: this bottle was a little on the bretty side

Collard greens, pork broth, pepper vinegar, chicken cracklin. Collard greens.

Charred turnips, apple, greens, bacon vinaigrette, pecan. The bacon vinaigrette was great.

Carrots, labneh, honey benne seed, cilantro. Nice carrots too — note the soft white stuff (labneh) underneath!

Beef fat potatoes, roasted garlic aioli, salsa verde. Solid taters.

Yarom brought: 1993 Abreu Cabernet Sauvignon Madrona Ranch. 89 points. This was a sub-par bottle, unfortunately. Slightly disappointing. Less complex, not too much fruit.

Dave brought: 1991 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. VM 97. What a thrill it is to drink Montelena’s 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine that takes hold of all the sense and never lets up. Imposing and intense, the 1991 is simply riveting. The flavors are dark, intense and savory, but it is the wine’s silkiness that stands out above all else. Well-stored bottles will continue to drink beautifully for another decade-plus.

Amanda brought: 1997 Pride Mountain Vineyards Reserve Claret. VM 91+. Full dark ruby. Sappy, bright aromas of blackberry, cassis and violet. Powerfully structured, dense and tightly wrapped. The new oak component contributes to the wine’s impressive tannic clout. Still, this wine’s superb intensity and persistence suggests that the fruit will remain when the tannins begin to soften.

Lamb chops, bagna cauda, anchovy. These were great. Lots of good garlic yum.

The Chris Ringlands return after having spent a WEEK in Yarom’s fridge. Amazingly, they were still in decent shape, particularly the 2001 which was both good and while not as balanced as the previous week, still had tons of fruit! A monster!

Emil brought: 2011 Bryant Family Vineyard Bettina. VM 92+. The 2011 Bettina is a bit closed in on itself. Dark red cherry, plum, licorice, smoke and tobacco emerge over time. Today the 2011 is a bit compact, which is not surprising considering the vintage. With time in the glass, the 2011 starts to find its typical explosive, dark personality, but today some slightly angular contours remain. The blend is 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot.

Mushroom crusted pork chop, smoked lard, thyme. I didn’t like the pork at all. Very “piggy” and soft and flaccid. Some others at the table liked it though.

Chicken schnitzel, smoked bacon, mountain tomato gravy, thyme. Awesome dish. Like chicken parm without the parm. The red tomato sauce was great.

The dessert menu.

Hummingbird cake. Pecan praline, figs in bourbon syrup, creme fraiche whip. Hmmm.

Warm apple crisp. Brown butter oat crumble, salted caramel, vanilla bean ice cream. This was my favorite. An excellent crumble.

Bittersweet chocolate pudding, cocoa nib crunch, cardamon coffee glace.

Overall, Hatchet Hall had some really great flavors going on. The plating and presentation were solid, and the melding of North African/Middle Eastern flavors into the modern American was quite on point. Lots of flavor and interesting. Also fascinating how the Middle Eastern thing is downplayed in everything but the actual flavors.

Service was good tonight. They were quite nice.

Our wines were mostly quite good although we could have used a white or two (that wasn’t flawed).

Because this was across the street the professional gelatician in me just had to try it out.

Various flavors, similar kind of selection to what I do.

Peanut butter and jelly and key lime pie.

Billionaire brownie and brown sugar bourbon.

The ice cream had good flavor but was way too cold and crumbly. (good) Gelato is always better!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Foodie Club, Hatchet Hall, hedonists, Wine

Shaanxi Garden

Nov06

Restaurant: Shaanxi Garden

Location: 529 E Valley Blvd #178a, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 787-5555

Date: October 1, 2017 & January 12, 2018 & February 19, 2019

Cuisine: Shaanxi Chinese

Rating: Really good (and interesting) stuff

I love heading off to “unusual” (i.e. not Cantonese) Chinese food. We’ve been to Western Chinese before but it’s not the most typical in that it specializes in knife cut noodles and the like from the region near the old Tang capital of Xian.

The mini-mall frontage.

Shaanxi is in the mini-mall next to the Anhui place we ate at recently (which is how we found it). The interior is very typical. Sadly the Anhui place is closed now.

Some of the gang.

Seaweed salad (2/19/19). Rather excellent actually, with a nice tangy quality.

Cabbage. I enjoy this lightly stir fried cabbage and this version was no exception.

Cabbage with dried shrimp (1/12/18 and 2/19/19). A slightly funkier version — also great.

Wontons in chili oil (1/12/18 and 2/19/19). A nice version of this dish. Lots of flavor. Really excellent.

Bean curd with chili oil (10/17 and 2//19/19). Nice dish actually and interesting thin tofu texture.

Pork bun (first visit and 2/19/19). Sweet BBQ pork in a bread bun.

Tangy pork bun (1/12/18 and 2/19/19). With a more vinegar based sauce.

Beef and tendon and tripe with chili oil (10/17 and 2/19/19). Really tasty pastrami-like beef with garlic and lots of very hot mala chili. I ate a ton of this.

Chicken noodle big plate (10/17). Giant bowl of chicken in brown sauce with potatoes and knife cut noodles.

Check out those noodles!

Potatoes (10/17). This dish has a slight vinegary note and a little bit of heat. With a bit of extra sauce it has a great texture and is delicious.

Pork with chilies and noodles (10/17).

This was very similar to some Vietnamese dishes, particularly the signature Hoi An dish Cao Lou.

Fish filets in chili sauce (first visit and 2/19/19). A solid rendition of this Szechuan classic. No numb taste and very oily though.

This oil was so hot that touching it gave me a second degree burn!

Lamb dumplings in sweet and sour soup (10/17 and 2/19/19). Very unusual, sourish broth, rich lamb dumplings.

Eggplant (10/17 and 2/19/19). A bit like the Szechuan version of this dish. Tasty and not as hot though.

Fried chicken with chilies (10/17). Very eggy batter. Good though.

Pork belly coated in rice flour (2/19/19). Another classic Szechuan dish. Good too, but a slimy texture that put off some people (I, being adopted Chinese, like it).

Sebastian keeps thinking that hole-in-the-wall Chinese places adhere to typical American resteraunt memes. So he thought he was ordering Yellowtail. But alas:

Yellow Croaker (2/19/19). Delicious whole little fish in tangy sauce with all the bones, eyes, jaws etc!

Szechuan style clams (2/19/19). This is a typical Szechuan dish and was actually quite good here with lots of flavor and easily accessible clam meat. It wasn’t as spicy as the OG version, but it was excellent.

Beef with ripped bread (10/17). A kind of noodle / bread ripped into little pieces and mixed with a spicy meat sauce. I guess like a Western “ragu.” Really loved it. Very filling though.

Garlic (pickled).

Lamb with ripped bread (1/12/18). The even more classic version — delicious — with pickled garlic.

The lamb with ripped bread on a different day (2/19/19). Maybe even a slightly different dish.

Spicy beef with chilies and onions (10/17). Green pepper fun.

Beef with bamboo shoots (1/12/18 and 2/19/19). Excellent!

Beef noodles (10/17). Another fun noodle dish.

Lamb noodles (2/19/19). Because you really have to love knife cut noodles.

Epic noodle pull! It must be one giant noodle.

Cumin lamb skewers (10/17 and 2/19/19). Pretty much the usual.

I brought gelato (10/17) from home. Three flavors: Zabaione, cappuccino caramel, and lime basil.

The 2/19/19 gelato:

Strawberry Basil Hendrick’s Sorbetto – Strawberry and Hendrick’s Gin Sorbetto laced with Fresh Basil. Strawberries from Avignon — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #sorbetto #strawberry #basil #Hendricks #Gin #cocktail

Butterscotch Butterscotch Caramel Popcorn Gelato – I made my rediculously decadant homemade butterscotch, crafted a gelato from it, layered it in, and added caramel popcornjust because I could! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #butterscotch #vanilla #popcorn #CaramelCorn #sauce #sweet!

Salty Peanut Fudge Reese’s Gelato -Salty Chunky Peanut Base with homemade Valrhona Chocolate Fudge Ribbon and mini Reese’s Peanutbutter Cups! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #peanut #salty #reeses #peanutbuttercup #fudge #Valrhona

Overall, another great SGV find. Some really yummy and different western Chinese!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Wines from the 10/1/17 evening:

2/19/19 wines:

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, SGV, Shaanxi Garden

Chance Meating

Nov03

Restaurant: Meat on Ocean

Location: 1501 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 773-3366

Date: September 26, 2017

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: Solid fare, good service

Meat on Ocean replaces the old i. Cugini on Ocean Ave. That storied Italian place was around for 20+ years (I even went on an early date there with my wife). It was (and still is) owned by the Watergrill group but has rebooted as a mid/high-end steakhouse. Tonight is a special small informal dinner featuring GIANT and RARE Australian Shiraz.

They have opened up the patio space which is great to see as this is one of the most appealing outside strips in the city, almost reminiscent of Miami’s South Beach.

The build out was extensive and looks great.

And it continues inside.

One of their “things” is that they age their own beef and make the cuts in the morning. To that effect they have this serious aging room.

Check out the old cow.

The menu.

The festivities begin with our old favorite, courtesy of Ron: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. VM 94. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse.

Tasty milk buns.

A round of oysters. Meat is owned and operated by the Watergrill group so the seafood comes from there.

From my cellar: 2010 Domaine Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. VM 94. Knockout perfume of soft citrus fruits, menthol, wet stone and white truffle. Densely packed, saline and seamless; deceptively approachable today owing to its sheer richness and depth of flavor and its very long, sweet aftertaste. But this utterly primary wine has the stuffing for aging. Boillot recommends drinking it in the next year or so or holding it for seven or eight years; he’s convinced the wine will be totally closed in two years.

Maryland Blue Crab Cocktail. Crushed avocado, roasted tomatoes, lemon mayo. The saltines (and very few at that) are in interesting touch. The meat itself was very good, if a bit mayo-infused.

Wild Jump Mexican Shrimp. Good shrimp but pretty much what you expect looking at it.

Duck Rillettes. Fig jam and goat cheese. A great pate, particularly with both the jam and cheese.

From my cellar (I didn’t have big Aussies): 1998 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes. VM 95. Bright red-ruby. Brilliant aromas of strawberry, raspberry, cherry and bitter chocolate. Wonderfully intense, sharply delineated flavors of red berries, spices and mint; a wine of great density and verve, not to mention powerful structure for long life. A rare combination of silky texture and lightness of touch. Fabulous back end features utterly suave tannins and resounding, vibrant fruit.

agavin: spectacular

Charcuterie plate with Chorizo soria, mortadella, prosciutto di parma, lomo and speck. Plus various pickles and mustards etc.

Crunchy Iceberg Wedge. Bacon and blue cheese dressing. A decent wedge. Nice strong creamy dressing and a virtual slab bacon.

We asked for and received some bonus blue cheese.

Little gem. Grilled per, avocado, buttermilk dressing. Some might call this overdressed.

Baby romaine caesar. grana padano and house crutons. Ron didn’t like this at all. They aren’t using real Parmagiano, instead a grana (similar type of cheese from a slightly different region).

The parade of super rare Chris Ringland Shiraz begins.

1998 Chris Ringland Shiraz. VM 96+. Saturated purple-ruby to the rim. Perfumed, exotic aromas of darkest berries, graphite, sandalwood, mace, nutmeg and roasted herbs. A wine of incredible verve and spicy intensity; like a fruit essence today, with literally painful concentration. Conveys a saline impression of pure extract. A remarkable combination of sweetness and vibrancy. Palate-staining finish features great persistence and snap. Already brilliant but capable of a long and glorious evolution in bottle. Alas, there are only four barrels of this elixir.

Parker 100. The Chris Ringland (formerly known as Three Rivers Shiraz), which is aged 42 months in 100% new French oak, and is rarely racked until bottling, represents an extraordinary expression of Barossa Shiraz. The perfect 1998, made from a single, 88-year-old vineyard cropped at one ton of fruit per acre, soaked up its wood component as if it is not even present. It boasts a sumptuous texture, great delineation, and a huge fragrance of bacon fat, blackberry liqueur, creme de cassis, toast, espresso roast, and hints of chocolate as well as pepper. Full-bodied yet remarkably well-delineated and fresh, this stunning wine is still a baby, but it promises to evolve for two decades or more.

More fancy boxes.

1999 Chris Ringland Shiraz. Parker 98. The Chris Ringland (formerly known as Three Rivers Shiraz), is aged 42 months in 100% new French oak, and is rarely racked until bottling, represents an extraordinary expression of Barossa Shiraz. The intense 1999, released in 2004, demonstrates that this vintage is somewhat underrated after all the hype over 1998. From a vineyard planted in 1910, its inky/purple color is accompanied by aromas of lavender, lard, smoke, licorice, blackberries, cassis, espresso roast, chocolate, and pepper. Full-bodied, slightly less voluminous than the perfect 1998, with an unctuous texture, sweet tannin, and a 70+ second finish, this magnificent, still young Shiraz should be accessible in 3-5 years, and last for two decades.

And more

2000 Chris Ringland (formerly Three Rivers) Shiraz. Parker 97. It is clearly the Barossa wine of the vintage, and has put on considerable weight since it was bottled. This stunning cuvee, which used to be known as the Three Rivers Shiraz, was aged 33 months in new French 300 liter hogsheads. A beautiful bouquet of crushed rocks, white flowers, blueberries, blackberries, incense, and subtle pain grille is followed by a rich, full-bodied red revealing supple tannin as well as tremendous texture and richness, and more depth and intensity than it did last year. By Chris Ringland’s standards, it is quite approachable, and should age beautifully for 10-15 years.

Packed in straw.

2001 Chris Ringland (formerly Three Rivers) Shiraz. Parker 100. The monumental 2001 Shiraz, from a 91-year old vineyard, spent 43 months in new French 300-liter hogsheads. The result is a compelling wine of great richness, flavor breadth, and length. An inky/blue/purple color is accompanied by extraordinary scents of flowers, blackberries, blueberries, and cassis as well as hints of espresso roast, truffles, roasted meats, and incense. This sexy, beautifully balanced, loaded Shiraz should keep for three decades or more.

agavin: an absolute monster, so big that a WEEK LATER we tried a bit of it left over (and in Yarom’s fridge) and it was still great! (although not as integrated). The alcohol is almost 17%.

Larry brought: 2006 Torbreck The Laird. Parker 99. Deep garnet colored, the 2006 The Laird offers a multi-faceted nose of ripe black berries, blueberry preserves and kirsch aromas with an underlying perfume of baking spices, lavender, cinnamon stick and cloves plus some savory / earthy nuances, including bacon, black tea, tobacco and forest floor. The palate is full bodied and densely packed with fruit, savory and earth flavors while supported by a firm level of very fine-grained tannins and refreshing acidity. It finishes very long and while already incredibly complex, promises a lot more to come. Consider drinking it 2014 to 2026+.

Specially selected cut of aged (30 or 45 day, not sure) Bone-in Ribeye.

Some sauces.

Full rack of sugar cured Baby Back Pork Ribs. Great ribs actually.

Grilled Maitake Mushroom. Balsamic soy glaze and shaved parmesan. To help mobilize things.

Colorado rack of lamb. Very salty and seasoned but absolutely delicious.

House made French Fries.

Moo.

Some info on the cow.

The dessert menu.

2000 Árvay János Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos. 93 points. Wow! This is (finally) really coming into its own. Big juicy apricot & marmelade notes supported by strong acidity that manages to balance the sweetness Outstanding dessert wine!

1998 Müller-Catoir Mußbacher Eselshaut Riesling Eiswein. 92 points. I had expected just a touch more from this Müller-Catoir Eiswein, but the wine’s more powerfully built personality seems to have taken just a bit of elegance and vibrancy out of the customary Eiswein equation. This is still a very good bottle by any stretch of the imagination, but I simply was hoping for a bit more. The bouquet is a powerful blend of pineapple, sweet grapefruit, papaya, Pfalz soil tones and a bit of straw in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and impeccably balanced in its muscular style, with brisk acids and fine length and grip on the finish. The wine at age eleven is complex, well-balanced and drinking well, and others may find this a hair better than I did, but for my palate, a bit more elegance and refinement would have been nice additions.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sundae. Peanut butter ice cream. Fresh raspberries. Good stuff. Reminds me of my even better peanut butter and jelly gelato.

Pistachio Creme Brulee. Bitter chocolate, candied pistachios.

Rotisserie Pineapple. Vanilla and red chili caramel, sweet cream ice cream.

Overall, a very nice dinner. Food was very solid. Not super innovative for a steakhouse like Alexander’s or anything, but quite good. Wines were AMAZING and I don’t even like giant extracted wines (but these were just over the top good). Service was fabulous. No corkage at Meat and they really took great care of us.

Yarom with the manager, Veronica!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beef, Chris Ringland, Dessert, hedonists, lamb, Meat, Meat on Ocean, Wine

Dialogue with an Epilogue

Nov01

Restaurant: Dialogue

Location: 1315 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

Date: September 28, 2017

Cuisine: Modernist

Rating: Tasty, but small portions and attitude

Dialogue is a new restaurant in the old Naughty Dog building on the 3rd St Promenade. It’s helmed by Dave Beran, formerly of Next and Alinea! It’s very small and solid only by ticket.

It’s on the second floor behind a hidden door in what I suspect is the hood space for the Wolfgang Puck Express (which I used to eat at 10 times a week in the NDI days).

The space is attractive, modern, and tiny. Tables are very close to each other. There is a small bar and a few tables, maybe 20 seats total.

Here is chef Dave Beran (in the middle). There is just a single tasting menu, no choice. Options of wine pairings and a $75 a bottle (gulp) corkage.

Tonight’s menu.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 96. Leflaive’s 2001 Bâtard-Montrachet (magnum) was intensely sweet, layered and pure. It was pure magic.

agavin: fabulous wine in perfect shape.

Springtime for Sean. Well, that’s all the description they gave me. A “salad” with caviar and some nutty foie paste? It was pretty good but kinda deconstructed in texture.

NOTE: By the way, NO FLASH allowed here. I hate that because my pictures really suffer, but I can understand not wanting the tiny dining room flashing all evening.

Roasted banana tea, browned butter, peanut. An interesting shot.

Blackberry thermidor, short rib, bone marrow. Very small, interesting textures.

Fennel, white peach, and rice vinegar. Microscopic. I don’t think I loved this dish. Gooey sauce was good though.

Larry brought: 2009 Remoissenet Père et Fils Montrachet Le Montrachet. VM 96. The 2009 Le Montrachet, from a parcel on the Chassagne side, is fabulous. Layers of exotic, tropical fruit flow effortlessly from this broad-shouldered, kaleidoscopic wine. There is plenty of freshness in the glass to support the fruit in this magical, captivating wine. I especially like the way this turns delicate, subtle and refined on the finish.

agavin: our bottle was advanced. Drinkable, but pretty deep golden with sherry notes.

Dragonfruit, scented with roses from early spring. This 0.75″ cube of dragonfruit was ridiculous and didn’t even have much flavor.

King crab, popcorn, orchid, earl grey tea. This was interesting. It really tasted of popcorn (not so much of crab) and had that interesting blend of dehydrated crumble and gooey texture. Pretty good actually.

Burnt lettuce that thinks it’s a peanut. No idea where that description fits in. Can’t even remember what it was.

96 hour koji plum, fresh yuba, thai basil. One of my favorite dishes. Very interesting flavors, very Thai in tone, but not in texture. The yuba is a soy milk skim I used to call “skum in a bucket” but I have always liked it. A very soft tofu skin.

Erick brought: 1995 Domaine A.-F. Gros Richebourg. VM 94. Deep red-ruby. Reticent but very ripe aromas of red and black fruits, licorice, truffle and smoke. Fat, suave and multilayered; less immediately sweet than the huge Clos Vougeot but more refined. A complete wine, with an uncanny harmony of components. Finishes with extremely fine tannins that coat the entire mouth. Totally different in shape from the Clos Vougeot: some tasters may prefer that wine for its sheer size and sweetness, but this is superb Richebourg.

agavin: very nice!

Squab, thai long peppercorn creme fraiche, begonia.

Bitter chocolate, cherry, preserved sakura. I have a friend named Sakura (I think it’s a kind of flower).

The sobering of rhubarb. This was actually a gold colored rhubarb fruit rollup. Tasted like sour cherry fruit rollup.

Choy sum, strawberry nahm prik, cashew. Like a mini salad.

Pork belly, nasturtium, strawberry sambal. I liked this dish. Interesting textures.

These are 2 of the wine tasting wines. I didn’t like them, too many herbal notes. Many of the tasting wines are blended with stuff like fruit juice and vinegar too. I can see how they might pair, but they aren’t really that enjoyable even to a wine geek (at least from these 2).

Black cod, yuzu kosho-beurre blanc, sea grape. Not bad but tiny fish dish.

Anthony or Larry brought: 1994 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque. RP 96-98. The great glories of this house are its Cote Roties, of which there are now five separate offerings. The single-vineyard 1994s were singing loudly when I saw them in July. All of them scored significantly higher than they did during the two previous years, which is not unusual as Guigal’s upbringing (elevage) of the wines results in better examples in the bottle than in cask. All three wines flirt with a perfect score. At this tasting, they reminded me of Guigal’s 1982s – opulent, sumptuously-textured, forward, rich, precocious, flattering wines that will drink well throughout their lives. The exotic 1994 Cote Rotie La Turque exhibits a dense purple color, and a fabulously-scented nose of licorice, Asian spices, truffles, minerals, and gobs of black fruits. Full-bodied, with great richness, a multi-layered personality, and an exotic, overripe character, this is a sensational, chocolatey, rich wine with more tannin than La Mouline.

Anthony or Larry brought: 1995 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque. RP 100. One of the treats when tasting through the profound Côte Rôties made by Marcel Guigal was the opportunity to taste all of the bottled 1995’s. Reviewed in previous issues, they are even better from bottle than they were during their upbringing (a characteristic of many Guigal wines). The 1995 Côte Rôtie la Turque is the stuff of legends and is every bit as compelling as readers might expect. This single vineyard wine will have at least 2 decades of longevity.

Everything is burnt. Not my favorite either. Tiny too.

The next dish came on a weird candle holder multi-tier “plate.”

French onion soup, rosemary aroma. Pretty good, did basically taste like a French Onion Soup tako-yaki.

Sebastian brought: 2006 Colgin IX Estate. VM 95. Bright ruby-red. Exhilarating nose of wild berries, wild sage, bay laurel and flowers. Wonderfully dense and sweet, but with an extraordinary light touch to the black fruit, floral and spice flavors. A terrific core of ripe acidity gives the wine outstanding inner-mouth lift and extends the finish, which builds inexorably. The tannins are firm but fine-grained. The best vintage to date for the winery’s estate vineyard overlooking Lake Hennessey, which was planted in 2000. In fact, this is extraordinary for five-year-old vines.

Memories of a tomato salad. Yeah. Texture of jellyfish.

Whipped Persimmon, lemon shortbread, hibiscus sugar. Interesting.

Ages of seedling farms apples, miso caramel. This was a nice dish.

An autumn morning.

A carrot pulled from the snow. It wasn’t cold. A candied something. Not that memorable.

Overall, Dialogue was “interesting.” Let me break it down.

Setting: Nice enough. A little cramped, but big kudos for being so close to my house and brave for opening a tasting menu restaurant on the 3rd st Promenade!

Food: Taste was all over the place from just “hmmm” to quite good. Per dish portion size was too small. They don’t need to be huge, but these were so small they left little memory of the taste. Textures were very interesting but sometimes the dishes felt a bit discombobulated. Overall food quantity was WAY too small. We had to go to second dinner (you shall see).

Service: Chef himself was nice. The Somm had quite an attitude. They rushed us out. There are 2 seatings, which I can understand from a business perspective, but they pretty much threw us out at the end even though we were still working on our wines. That just isn’t fine dining.

Wine Policy / Service: Limited wine list. Expensive ($175) weird pairings. $75 a bottle corkage. The corkage is a little high but at least they don’t have per table limits — a retarded policy I have lambasted before. This would all be okay if the Somm hadn’t made us feel like he was doing us a favor by allowing corkage. He was very stingy with glasses, complaining that they were going to run out even though we could see them on the shelf. If it’s really a problem they need more stems. We only had 2 each when he was complaining and $75 X 6 bottles really deserves more than 2 stems.

If they change their menu frequently I’ll try it one more time, but I think right now it would be best for couple or something. It really isn’t setup very well for wine dinners.

So being hungry we walked down to Capo!

The room was packed even at 9 something.

Steaks on the grill.

Unlike the Dialogue Somm this one was very friendly and the list is huge. I asked the Somm for a reasonable and older village wine and got this nice bottle.

2000 Domaine Ghislaine Barthod / Barthod-Noëllat Chambolle-Musigny. BH 88. Beautifully pure Chambolle fruit with good harmony. This too is quite supple and not especially complex but it is extremely elegant and fine. Essence of pinot character. Give this 3 to 4 years in the cellar and drink it over the next 3 to 4.

Bread.
Seb got sea bass because he was being “good” — or maybe because sea bass sounds like Sebastian :-).

Carbonara.

Ragu.
Buccatini with lamb ragu. My favorite!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Corkage, Dave Beran, Dialogue, Foodie Club, Wine

Blood & Guts

Oct30

Halloween and today’s Sony announcements bring us more The Last of Us part II tease:

Definitely going for some seriously disturbing Walking Dead style violence. Although the clinician in me must make the observation that if you were hung twice by the neck by your body weight and you did manage to survive, you’d almost certainly have a crushed trachea for your trouble.

Any which way – can’t wait!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Games

Tagged as: Naughty Dog, The Last of Us, The Last of Us part II, Trailer, Video game

The Butcher’s Daughter

Oct30

Restaurant: The Butcher’s Daughter

Location: 1205 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291. (310) 981-3004

Date: September 20, 2017

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Rating: Good for being vegetarian

Abbot Kinney is one of the bastions of hipness, and The Butcher’s Daughter is so “tres LA.” It’s a sort of spiritual successor to the Newsroom, filled with vegetarian food and a 70% female crowd.

They pay a lot of rent, of course.

Hipster baked goods.

The attractive shabby-chic meets garden decor.

Demographics are as expected.

The menu.

Surfer’s Breakfast. Breakfast burrito, farm eggs, avocado, black bean mole, new potatoes, green salsa, sour cream. Obligatory breakfast burrito. Not my thing, and like a lot of vegetarian food guaranteed to produce bloating.

Vietnamese Bahn Mi. Seared cauliflower, mushroom pate, pickled vegetables, classic baguette, cilantro, harissa mayo. Got this figuring it would have more flavor than most. Sandwich was pretty good, strong strong vinegar flavors. The “pate” didn’t have too much in the way of taste though.

Pad Thai. Handmade rice noodles, thai basil, pea shoots, peanuts, tamari thai, scrambled egg, cucumber-carrot salad. Not bad for being vegetarian. Very “bright” (sour) from the probable tamarind. Not as complex as a real pad thai (with the shrimp and fish sauce), but fine.

Overall, the Butcher’s Daughter is an attractive place with good energy. Eating here did feel like, and they got about as much flavor as you can imagine from it, but still not as much as in the fully leaded versions. The menu focuses on juices, smoothies, and vegetarian “imitations” of more meated LA dishes. There is also the bloating factor all these vegetables subbing as meat lead too, but hey, it does feel lighter.

We went down the street for some Blue Bottle. Achem, Nestle coffee.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Abbot Kinney Blvd, The Butcher's Daughter, Vegetarianism, Venice

SGV Nights – Seafood Palace

Oct27

Restaurant: Seafood Palace

Location: 684 W Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 289-0088

Date: September 24, 2017, July 14, 2019, and October 24, 2021

Cuisine: Chaozhou Chinese

Rating: One of LA’s best (and most authentic) Chaozhou places

My Hedonist group has been coming here for years, same location, same food, different name – formerly Seafood Village.

It’s actually in the mini-mall with Sham Tsem and the “hooker motel secret room” (see the post I linked in this sentence). Mysteriously, even thought he “construction” period transforming Seafood Village into Seafood Palace was like a year there is no apparent update. It’s still the same over-lit drop ceiling “palace” as before.

Pickled onions and boiled peanuts on the table.

Jellyfish (7/14/19 and 10/24/21). Nice crunchy texture.

Sliced cold pig’s feet (7/14/19). A bit gelatinous, but surprisingly delicious. Better sliced like this than whole!

Special order turtle soup. Since we had turtle soup at World Seafood Yarom has been determined to try it again.

The broth is delicate and savory, with an almost tea-like taste.

And all the crud that made the broth is as follows: bits of turtle, turtle fat, chicken feet, ginger, organs, god only knows. We actually picked at this repulsive looking plate and the meat was quite tasty.

We also selected two large lobsters.

Chaozhou style duck (2017 and 7/14/19 and 10/24/21). Sort of like the duck version of Hainan chicken.

A vinegar sweet sauce for the duck.

Roast pigeon (2017 and 7/14/19 and 10/24/21). Tasty little fellows.

Causeway style shrimp (7/14/19). Whole prawns crusted in garlic. Super delicious and so well cooked they could be munched whole.

This is what most people come here for, the house special Chiu Chow Style Crab (Dungeness) – (2017 and 7/14/19 and 10/24/21). This is basically battered crab, fried with chilies and lots of garlic. I’ve also heard this called “Causeway Style.” Good stuff with lots of flavor. You end up sucking out the meat or just chewing on through.

House special garlic lobster. Not causeway style, but very tasty.

Roast pork (2017 and 7/14/19 and 10/24/21). Cured like a pastrami and very flavorful — also quite fatty as you would expect.

Scallion omelet (2017 and 7/14/19 and 10/24/21). Eggs and green onions.

Special fried fish (2017 and 7/14/19 and 10/24/21). Lots of garlic flavor. Simple, but extremely tasty.

Mutton curry. Very strong flavored (but delicious) meat in a nice mild curry sauce.

Bean curd with duck in Chui Chow brown sauce (10/24/21).

Oxtail and lilly bulb with brown sauce (10/24/21). Star anise and black cardamon.

Lettuce Cup Chicken (7/14/19). Yeah, PF Chang’s didn’t invent it wholesale!

The lettuce cups and hoisin sauce.

Frog with chives (10/24/21). Delicious.

Chilies with ground pork (2017 and 7/14/19 and 10/24/21). I’ve never seen Jalepenos per se in China, but they do have lots of peppers. Regardless, this was a fabulous dish as the pork was cooked in a great black bean sauce and the combination of the mild heat and the slightly sweet meat was wonderful.

Special Chiu Chow Style “lettuce” (2017 and 7/14/19). Evidently a classic. It head a bit of a porky taste so there must have been something in there with the veggies. Not bad.

Rice porridge soup (7/14/19). A sort of congee-like concoction.

Special glass noodles with meat (earlier and 10/24/21).

Salty garlic fried rice. Excellent fried rice with a salty fishy taste.

White guy shrimp (aka walnut shrimp). Very heavy mayo’d version.

Scallion beef (7/14/19). Slightly different, very succulent.

Cumin lamb or beef. Really tasty full flavored nuggets. Pretty tender too.

Sweet and source pork nibblets (10/24/21).

Sweet and sour pork ribs (7/14/19). Someone ordered the sauce on the side. Salty crunchy pork slabs (with some bone) with the sweet sticky stuff.

Chili sauce.

As usual now-a-days I brought some home made gelati from Sweet Milk, my private gelato label. Green Apple Moscato Sorbetto.

Rosemary Chocolate Gelato. Valrhona chocolate and milk infused with rosemary from my own garden.

The 7/14/19 gelati:

Chocolate Peanut Pretzel Gelato — testing a new 80% chocolate fondant base made with Valrhona and Callebaut Chocolates — then layered that with a house made salty peanut pretzel ganache — you can’t see the base, it’s under the ganache — 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 #peanut #chocolate #valrhona #Callebaut #ganache #pretzel

Testing out two variants on a theme, first one: Bellini Sorbetto! — French White Peaches and Prosecco — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — I love the Pozzetti (round tubs), but I do need to figure out how to decorate the small batches in an attractive way — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #Bellini #peach #Prosecco

Testing out two variants on a theme, second one: Dark Mimosa Sorbetto! — Blood Orange and Valencia Orange juice mixed with Prosecco — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — I love the Pozzetti (round tubs), but I do need to figure out how to decorate the small batches in an attractive way — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #Mimosa #orange #bloodorange #Prosecco

The 10/24/21 gelati:

Strawberries & Mascar-Creamy Gelato — A base infused with Mascarpone Cheese then blended with house-made Strawberry Curd — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato — my vain attempts to pipe a pretty decoration on top were uttery foiled by timing –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #cheesecake #mascarpone #cheese #strawberry #cream

Overall, Seafood Palace is just like Seafood Village and there is nothing wrong with that because it’s still great. Last time we had a few “more interesting” dishes and in 2017 there was a LOT of fried. Still, awesome meal!

Back again on 7/14/19 I thought execution was even better. This is probably my favorite Chaozhou place — a bit like Cantonese but not exactly the same, slightly more “unusual”. Lots of garlic!

Our return visit on 10/24/21 was also spectacular. Just a really great place.

It’s not really worth writing up the “motley cru” of wines that come to Chinese, so I’ll just list the photos here.

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, Chaozhou Chinese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Gelato, hedonists, Lobster, san Gabriel valley, seafood palace, SGV, Sweet Milk, turtle soup, Wine

Family République

Oct25

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

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

Date: September 16, 2017

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

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

This is my 11th time writing up Republique! Woah. My parents were in town and turns out they had never been, so we headed on over for a dinner nominally celebrating my awesome dad’s 75th birthday!

Busy and loud as always!

Le menu.

From my cellar: NV Savart Champagne Bulle de Rosé. 92 points. Light pink/salmon color; nose has some strawberry fruit, clean, a bit limited; palate is full bodied, wonderful mousse, plenty of red fruit with strawberry and raspberry, tart grapefruit citrus from start to finish, slight brioche, nice density throughout but also medium-plus acidity that gives it crispness and freshness; medium to medium-long finish. The palate is really strong here with an awesome balance of richness, fruit, grapefruit tartness, and fresh acidity throughout that keeps it exciting and fresh. One of the most enjoyable and complex NV Rose Champagnes that I’ve had, and one of the best priced too. If the nose opens up a bit more, this will be killer, but for now still wonderful. Seems like it may change over a few years in the cellar too. 92+
30 minutes air: After warming from fridge temp, the nose is a bit more aromatic with clearer strawberry fruit, now a slight chalkiness (a bit denser than just minerality).

The bread and Normandy butter is always amazing.

Kampachi Crudo. Green thai curry, watermelon, basil, peanuts. Really nice interesting flavors. Love the combination. Very “Thai.”

Spanish Bluefin Tuna Toast. Avocado, yuzu, smoked sesame seeds, sun gold tomatoes.

Heirloom Tomatoes, cucumber, tenerelli farms peaches, santa barbara pistachios. Can we say seasonal California cuisine?

From my cellar: 1993 Domaine Robert Chevillon Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Saint Georges. VC 95. The 1993 Chevillon Les St. Georges is as fine a bottle of young Nuits as I have ever had the pleasure to taste, as it again seems to take the best of both the Cailles and Vaucrains and roll them into a whole that is more than a sum of its parts. The nose is deep, refined and regal, soaring from the glass in a mélange of black cherries, plums, violets, nutty tones, herbs, intense minerality, and woodsmoke. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, complete and youthfully complex, with a sappy core of fruit, brilliant acidity, great focus, and a very, very long finish of modest tannins and soil-driven flavors. This is a remarkable young wine that towers above many examples of the vintage that wear the grand cru label.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras. Steel-cut oats, applewood-smoked bacon, black mission figs, maple gastrique. Not sure what I thought about the oats but the foie and figs were perfect.

Charcuterie Board. Terrine, dry cures, pickles. I’ve had this a lot of times at wine events here, but it’s solid. Love the pates.

Simple pasta for my son. He liked it so much he ordered a second one!

Spinach Cavatelli. Wild mushrooms. Love the bitey texture and butter sauce. The pastas here are some of the best in the city. Better than 98% of all the Italian restaurants.

Sweet Corn Agnolotti. Chanterelle mushrooms. To die for. Absolutely incredible little pillows of sweetness.

Bucatini alla Carbonara. Pancetta, parmesan. Also buttery goodness!

From my cellar: 2001 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. RJ 95. Bricking dark red violet color; ginger cake, pepper, garrigue nose; silky textured, pepper, very tart black fruit palate; long finish

Red wine-braised beef short rib. Braised kale, roasted carrots, fingerling potatoes, applewood-smoked bacon.

Cauliflower. Sweet potato, pomegranate, goat cheese, arugula, dukkah.

Mary’s organic roasted chicken. Summer corn, cherry tomatoes, basil. Getting full. They changed up the veggies for the season.

Les desserts.

Chocolate ice cream. Good flavor but still that hard ice cream texture — gelato is better!

Salted caramel chocolate cake. Like chocolate cake with caramel on top.

Plum crisp. vanilla ice cream. My dad’s style. This is, by the way, in about 20 République meals one of the first times I’ve had normal dessert here!

My Dad and I.

I haven’t just “eaten” here in a while — normally I’m at a private function — and I was impressed by how on point all the food was. Service was great too. There wasn’t that thing that sometimes happens at République where a 1 hour gap develops between dishes. The place is buzzing! Both with customers and staff and is humming along like a well oiled machine (this was a Saturday night). There is a reason why it’s one of the most popular major restaurants in the city.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: birthday, Family, French Cuisine, République, Walter Manzke

Kato

Oct23

Restaurant: Kato

Location: 11925 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (424) 535-3041

Date: September 15, 2017

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Really interesting and different

It’s hard to describe Kato. Located in one of the ubiquitous Santa Monica Blvd mini-malls it serves a sort of modern Asian omakase/kaiseki.

Fit in there with the Mexican places, the cheap sushi, the massage joints.

The decor is minimalist but attractive. The crowd is young and predominantly Asian.

There are only 2 choices, $55 and $80 tasting menus. We went for the larger of course which includes beef and the foie gras and an extra dessert.

Cheap, minimalist, but attractive wares.

There is NO LIQUOR LICENSE, not even a 41 (beer/wine) so it’s tea only.

Stuffed shisito peppers. There was something sweet and savory inside. It was delicious actually, with just the right amount of salt.

Hamachi, cucumber, scallion, black squid sauce. Bright flavors, mixture of textures, some crunch. Very interesting — and attractive.

I love to make abstract squid ink art.

Cold Noodle. Apparently vaguely inspired by a Korean dish. Very thin white cold noodles in an almost clear vinegar sugar broth with bits of clam and greens. Bright and light. Quite lovely actually and very different.

Octopus, Doubanjiang. Crispy fried octopus with spicy sauce and some greens.Quite “crispy” and more than a little kick.

Ocean trout, ikura. Very soft, nearly rare ocean trout (aka salmon) with a light ponzu/dashi like sauce and a crispy bit of skin (or was it skin)? Regardless a nice fish dish.

Wagyu beef, ramp, seaweed. The seaweed was crispy fried. There was some ginger-like stuff on the meat. Also tasty and interesting.

Foie, strawberry, milk bread.

Basically a foie / strawberry uncrustable “peanut-butter” sandwich. Delicious and the light fluffy quality of the milk bread balanced nicely with the sweet/rich innards.

Buttermilk & yuzu. Very fresh and light citrus crumble.

Strawberry semifreddo and cream. Absolutely delicious. Great cold texture and intense strawberry flavor on the pink part, nice sweet cream on the rest.

Wasabi, matcha, lime. Interesting. Wasabi ice cream! And it tasted like it. A sort of tangy caramel below. Very different.

Corn & Hojicha. Fluffy bun of corn with corn filling. Tasted like corn bun.

Ginger gels.

Overall, a very interesting and different meal. Very light, bright flavors and the whole thing tasted great but left one feeling not in the least “bombed out” which is actually kinda nice. Extremely modern too and straight up ready for instagram!

Service was good. I’d like to see them get a liquor license and allow corkage. The manager told us they were working on it but there were zoning issues. I know all about those!

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Japanese, Kato, Omakase, Santa Monica, Taiwanese Cuisine

Kula Revolving Sushi Bar

Oct20

Restaurant: Kula

Location: 2130 Sawtelle Blvd #111, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 597-4490

Date: September 7, 2017

Cuisine: Revolving Sushi

Rating: Great deal

This revolving sushi place over in the older, taller mini-mall on Sawtelle has long been on my list to try — despite being a sushi snob — just because it’s so popular.

I went this time because it was 11:30 and figured there wouldn’t be much of a line, but it had already filled up!

They have most of the regular sushi items.

For those of you not familiar with “revolving sushi” much of the food floats around the restaurant on a conveyor belt. You can pull a plate out from any of those domes at any time.

Or also browse through the entire menu on your own personal ipad and order ala carte — it will be made rapidly and scooted too you on a separate semi-automated conveyor deck!

All the plates are a staggeringly low $2.50 (yeah and for 2 sushi pieces!) They don’t even have to count them because each seat has its own individual plate “disposal” slot that counts for you.

Salmon sushi.
Seared salmon sushi with Japanese mayo.

Albacore sushi.

Mackerel.

Red Snapper with yuzu pepper.

Toro. This one comes with only one piece, but it’s still just $2.50. Down the street at Tsujita Sushi, they are $15 each!

Garlic tuna steak.

Tuna Yukhoe. Battleship tuna with egg. Never actually had this before — at least in this format. Maybe I’ve had it with raw egg.

Negitoro (chopped toro).

Eel.

Scallop.

Salmon belly.

Spicy scallop handroll. Special order. Didn’t like the sauce at all.

Sweet shrimp. This was one of the few that just wasn’t good. It was way too fishy and I only ate half of one piece.

Tamago (egg omelet). Boring packed tamago, but certainly edible.

My over the top one person lunch count.

Still, even going nuts the bill didn’t exactly break the bank for sushi!

Special orders come on the upper conveyor. It’s very cool to watch.

This wasn’t good sushi. Just a bit better than supermarket — although at least it’s been made in the last few minutes and not sitting for hours. Plus, if you want you could order everything ala cart and it would be fresh made. That’s not to say the fish would be super fresh. It’s fine, but a bit fishy and so best to stay away from aggressive items like sweet shrimp. Still, some of it wasn’t too bad and at $1.25 a piece ($2.50 for every plate) it’s staggeringly cheap.

Plus the format was very interesting with the individual ipads, the conveyor delivery, the plate counter and all that. Don’t try to come here with a bunch of people though because it’s super crowded.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

More LA sushi reviews here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Kula, Revolving Sushi, Sawtelle Blvd, Sushi

Sauvage Estrella

Oct18

Restaurant: Estrella

Location: 8800 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069. (310) 652-6613

Date: September 9, 2017

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Mirko is an awesome chef

Sauvages lunches are always fun and this time we head off to:

Estrella, a former hollywood hip spot that now hosts one of our favorite Italian chefs, Mirko Paderno formerly of Culina, Officine, and Oliverio.

We had the cute private room in the back all to ourselves

Chef Mirko Paderno on the right.

From my cellar: 2014 Montenidoli Vernaccia di San Gimignano Fiore. 90 points. Sweet and sour white fruits, good acidity here and nice persistence. Very likable and food-friendly, but also able to stand on it’s own.

The menu.

The main wines were all Barolo and Barbaresco.

1995 Azienda Bricco Rocche (Ceretto) Barolo Bricco Rocche. VM 91+. Similar red color. Very expressive, very Barolo aromas of cherry, tar and chestnut. Sweet and densely packed but very firm and stubbornly backward; with aeration, this showed complex, fresh flavors of cherry, raspberry and smoke. The strong tannins are nicely integrated. A rather powerful ’95 that should show more personality with four or five years of additional bottle aging.

1996 Albino Rocca Barbaresco Vigneto Brich Ronchi. VM 94+. Even deeper red ruby color. Pungently spicy, penetrating aromas of rose petal, violet and red berries. Thick, intensely flavored and sharply delineated, with strong acidity and plenty of buffering extract. This has superb material and outstanding grip and persistence. Firm tannins are in perfect balance with the wine fruit. Wow! This is aged in all new barriques, but I never would have guessed it.

1997 Azienda Bricco Asili (Ceretto) Barbaresco Bricco Asili. VM 91+. Medium red. Subdued but pure aromas of sappy redcurrant, cherry, dried flowers, leather and mint; the most complex of these ’97 Barbarescos. Suave and rich but impressively unevolved for a ’97 Barbaresco. Firm acids contribute to the impression of solid structure. Finishes firm and persistent.

From my cellar: 1999 Roagna Barbaresco Crichët Pajé. JG 93. The 1999 Crichet Pajè is a superb bottle of young Barbaresco, with the inherent elegance of this superb vintage working very nicely with the “nobly rustic” style of the wines at this epoch at Roagna. The bouquet is deep, pure and complex, wafting from the glass in a blend of cherries, orange zest, cigar smoke, a superb base of soil, nutskins, fresh oregano and a dollop of road tar in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and beautifully balanced, with a sappy core, outstanding soil signature, ripe tannins and excellent length and grip on the tangy and focused finish. High class juice that is still in need of several years in the cellar to reach its apogee

Cauliflower Torino, castelmagno cheese founduta, summer truffle. Pretty much the Mirko signature dish. Always delicious. Creamy, cheesy, with that truffle goodness.

1988 Elio Altare Barolo Vigneto Arborina. VM 94. The 1988 Barolo Vigneto Arborina stands out for its forward, decidedly fruit-driven style. Soft, pliant and super-expressive, the 1988 is wonderfully expressive today. Hints of leather, smoke, tobacco, cedar and crushed flowers add nuance on the finish. The 1988 saw just four days on the skins and was the last Barolo aged partly in cask. Even today, the 1988 retains gorgeous freshness and delineation.

1997 Azienda Bricco Rocche (Ceretto) Barolo Bricco Rocche. VM 92+. Medium red, orange at the rim. Cool, highly aromatic nose of redcurrant, dried rose, clove, cinnamon, chocolate and loam. Highly concentrated and rich in the mouth; flavors of chocolate, marzipan and amaretto show an almost liqueur-like sweetness. Big but ripe tannins coat all the surfaces of the palate. Very impressive.

Polenta Taragna, duck prosciutto, butter and sage. Rough polenta with a that butter and sage flavor. Very rustic dish, but nice.

1989 Giovanni Corino Barolo Vigna Giachini. VM 91. Corino’s 1989 Barolo Vigna Giachini offers up cedar, mushrooms and a host of mostly mature aromas and flavors on a delicate, elegant frame. The tannins remain a touch firm, but there doesn’t appear to be much upside in holding bottles too much longer.

1997 Giovanni Corino Barolo Vigna Giachini. VM 92. Good full red. Fresh, spicy aromas of cherry, camphor, licorice and dried flowers. Fat, sweet and pliant; a step up in complexity and concentration from the Arborina. Finishes very long, with lush, fine tannins. A very successful, thoroughly ripe ’97 Barolo.

Pennoni all’amatriciana, guanciale, red onion, san marzano, pecorino. Nicely al dente, and tons of bacon fat flavor. Not was integrated or smooth as the Felix version though.

1996 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis. VM 96+. The 1996, one of the estate’s best, takes things to another level. It shows an outrageous, well-delineated nose of fresh roses, minerals and menthol followed waves of dark fruit and licorice flavors that are just beginning to show the signs of early maturity, with exceptional freshness, length, and harmony. This opens beautifully in the glass, taking on an almost Burgundian elegance. A wine to marvel over. It is hard to resist this now, but it will be even better in another 3-5 years, and age gracefully for another decade, and probably more.

1996 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto di Serralunga d’Alba. VM 94+. Medium red. Musky, complex aromas of black raspberry, licorice and lead pencil. Large-scaled but penetrating; tangy raspberry flavors are given great precision by the wine firm spine of acidity. Almost painfully young today. Finishes with explosive, very persistent flavors and firm but thoroughly buffered tannins. A bit dominated by its powerful structure today, but this wine really blossomed with aeration.

Black summer truffle risotto, chenterelle mushrooms, parmigiano reggiano. Gorgeous risotto. Mirko really knows how to get the perfect texture.

1998 Domenico Clerico Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra. VM 92. Domenico Clerico’s 1998 Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra is one of the most full-throttle wines of the vintage. Still deeply-colored, this authoritative wine possesses tons of mineral-infused dark fruit intermingled with French oak and menthol. This remains one of the most tannic and firm wines of the vintage. My impression is that the fruit will fade before the tannins melt away. Still, this is a beautiful wine Barolo to enjoy over the next few years, although it is not a wine for the timid.

2001 Domenico Clerico Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra. VM 95. Clerico’s 2001 Ciabot Mentin Ginestra was one of the first Barolos that really captivated my attention and for me it remains this producer’s most representative wine. It is a superb achievement and one of the highlights of the vintage.

Roasted squab, eggplant caponata, soft potatoes, natural jus. Stuart who organized this dinner loves game bird!

From my cellar as a bonus: 2008 Ferrando Carema White Label (Etichetta Bianca). VM 92. The 2008 Carema Etichetta Bianca wafts from the glass with sweet dried cherries, tobacco, sweet herbs and crushed flowers. A mid-weight, delicate wine, the 2008 is quite typical of these hillside vineyards. In 2008 the acidity is a bit on the high side, which readers should keep in mind when considering food pairings. This is a gorgeous wine from Ferrando.

Chocolate Mousse Cake, mixed berries.

Grapefruit aperol sorbetto by moi — I brought this one.

Cafe.

Cryptic notes.

Cute details in the room.

I opened this “bonus” wine: 1997 Maison Roche de Bellene Chambertin Collection Bellenum. 91 points. Seemed a bit uninteresting at first, but after about 5 hours of air, this was really singing. Very perfumed, elegant nose, with loads of soft red fruit, spice notes, and a touch of secondary. Great acidity on the palate, beautiful silky tannins on the finish.

These Sauvages events are always great fun and the wines were spectacular, particularly supported by Mirko’s sophisticated Northern Italian cooking. This is his fourth location in recent years but wherever he goes, there the cooking is!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Estrella, Italian Cusine, Mirko Paderno, Sauvages

Opening Day at Killer Noodle

Oct16

Restaurant: Killer Noodle

Location: 2030 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025

Date: October 16, 23, 26 & 29, 2017 + about 15 other times!

Cuisine: Japanese Dan Dan Noodles

Rating: Tasty but highly specific

Tsujita is the king of Sawtelle ramen with three existing store fronts on the street, the original, annex, and their high end sushi joint.

Yesterday/today they just opened their newest venture in the old Bachi Burger space. Killer Noodle specializes in Tantanmen which is the sort of milder more approachable Japanese “adaption” of Chinese Dan Dan Mien. I love the original Chinese version and even make it myself.

All the Japanese vendors leave these flower arrangements to celebrate your opening.

They are quite lovely but a few of them are rotting in the former Ramen Roll space as I type — I’m not bitter, no no.

The outside menu. Yesterday Killer Noodle was giving away free bowls but today is the first (normal?) day and it was mostly full at 12:30-1ish but not quite. People probably don’t totally know it’s open yet but no crushing mob.

The interior is spacious and much more upscale from the other two noodle shops.

Attractive for sure and lots of space between tables. Small bar too.

Tasty looking spices make up the decoration behind the bar.

You can pick your spice level. I tried #3 normal. It wasn’t really spicy at all by my standards.

The simple focused menu. Don’t bring anyone here that doesn’t want spicy pork noodles — nothing else on the menu!

Because of the threat of spice I ordered this Japanese Yogu drink. Went well with the tan tan actually. Very Japanese. They have Asahi draft and that’s about it too. Tsujita is VERY minimalist.

Long after opening (second half of 2018) they added some buns like this spicy pork bun to the menu as cheap appetizers. I detested the slice of tomato and the slightly sweet, slightly spicy bun just didn’t do it for me. Stick to the noodles.
Side of Char sui pork. Same as at Tsujita LA, and just as good. They make a nice fatty pork. You stuff this in the noodles (below).

Shabu Shabu Pork. Boiled pork with green onions and a bit of soy and chili sauce. Nowhere near as good as the char sui — go for that instead.

Poached egg. What the Japanese call an Onsen style egg (boiled at low temp) rather than a proper marinated ramen egg (with gooey center). This is a very soft half cooked egg. Still good though. You crack it in your dish.

Now for the main events:

Tokyo style Tantanmen, wet. Here is the “signature” version, wet. The wet version uses thinner ramen noodles.

With pork and egg added. The Tokyo also has some sesame in it, but as far as I can tell no Szechuan broad beans, five spice, or pickled mustard greens like a real Dan Dan. The broth base is a mix of chicken stock and tonkotsu stock. Presumably the same or similar as a regular Tsujita ramen. It’s mildly spicy with the chili oil, very garlicky, and has a mild sesame taste. It was very tasty, and again much closer to a “spicy ramen” than a real dan dan. But that’s what tan tan is.

Tokyo style dry. This is a 10/26/17 level 5 with extra egg and pork. Tokyo is a touch nuttier, a touch less mala by default, but certainly not very different. So far, this is my favorite variant (and I’ve tried all the dry versions).

Mixed up. This is what you actually eat.

Downtown Style Tantamen, dry. The dry variant they claim is closer to the Chinese original, although I’m not sure I agree. This downtown one has cayenne and Szechuan peppercorn. It wasn’t very hot or particularly numbing at level 3. It was very tasty though. Tons of garlic. Ground pork. Definitely a more Japanese blend than a real Chinese one. This version doesn’t have the sesame (or at least not nearly as much). At a level 5 this packs a very potent chili wallop.

Fully dressed and ready to mix (photo from 10/23/17). This is actually a killer level 4 and you can see the increased Szechuan peppercorn dust on it.

The stirred up (but messy) dry style. Not totally dry obviously as the flavor is in the sauce. They use the same (as far as I can tell) thick Tsukemen noodles for the dry version.

The final flavor is “original style“, here shown “dry” level 3. “Original” here apparently means “novel” not the most “typical” tantanmen.

With the requisite $1.50 egg.

And all mixed up. This is BY FAR the most different of the 3. It’s got a sort of green/black pepper flavor and while it has plenty of heat is much more subtle and much less flavorful. Nice texture with the bean sprouts and tofu too. They give you lemon to add acid. Tasty and interesting, and almost “cooling” between bites of my level 5 “downtown”. But I wouldn’t crave it nearly as much.
Pork over rice bowl. This is tiny. It’s not a meal but an “extra”. You mix it up, but it has sour cream in there too along with chili sauce and ground pork. Makes for a weird mix.

Mapo ball. Why it’s called a ball, I have no idea. But the mapo is actually an excellent take on the Chinese classic. Not exactly totally Chinese, but super delicious with some real mala heat.

Overall, I’ll be back (many times) as this was a very tasty spicy ramen. I had the wet version the first time (Tokyo) and the dry version (Downtown) the second and a dry (Tokyo) the third and a dry (Downtown) and dry (Original) the fourth. To break down the styles: Tokyo is my favorite and has far more sesame nut flavor. Downtown is more straight chili, mala, and vinegar. Original has it’s unique bright green/black pepper flavors but is much more subdued flavor-wise and feels far less rich.

The thicker noodles are better and because of that I like the “dry.” But I found out you can order the thick noodles in a wet so I have to try that too.

I think Killer Noodle does an excellent job with Tantanmen — being the derived milder Japanese version of Dan Dan. That’s pretty much all they offer, even if there are a couple versions. It would be a weird place to bring a group because not EVERYONE wants a spicy ramen variant. But when you do, totally worth coming.

The first time I got a 3 heat level and that was relatively mild. The second a 4 and that was a big step up heat wise and had me sweating although it wasn’t tough to eat. I tried a 5 (on two different days) also and that was very hot. Certainly I could eat it, but I was really sweating. I’ve had the 6 twice too and it’s fabulous, but has “consequences.” 4 is probably the sweet spot going forward for most people although occasionally I feel like a 5 or 6. Definitely on my regular rotation for now – I go most weeks!

This isn’t for everyone, but if you like a LOT of flavor and spice, Killer Noodle is fabulous.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Because of the heat we were bad and wet across the street to B-Sweet.

Glazed donut stuffed with taro (Ume) ice cream. Sweet and delicious.Glazed donut bread pudding with cream-cheese sauce and ice cream. Oh yeah, sweet!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: B-Sweet, Dan Dan Mein, Dessert, Killer Noodle, noodles, spicy, Tantanmen, Tsujita LA

Foodies at Tsujita Sushi

Oct16

Restaurant: Sushi Tsujita [1, 2]

Location: 2006 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.231.1177

Date: August 30, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Classic Fish

A couple core members of my Foodie Club who all like White Burgundy and Champagne enjoy periodically doing great sushi with the aforementioned wines. This time Tsujita Sushi came up as it’s great and easy to book (I think it’s secretly a loss leader for their noodle chain).

Sushi Tsujita specializes in traditional sushi preparations that involve a lot of subtle salting, curing, and marinating.

The interior has been jazzed up since its previous engagement as Orris.

This is just a small event with Foodie co-chair Erick and regular Fred. But we brought good stuff, just opened it all, shared with the chef, and chowed down.

Fred brought: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 164eme. JG 95. The 164th Edition of Krug “Grande Cuvée is absolutely brilliant and one of the best iterations of this iconic wine that I have ever had the pleasure to taste. This is not surprising, as it is from the base year of 2008, though the team at Krug utilized reserve wines all the way back to 1990 in this version. The final cépages is forty-eight percent pinot noir, thirty-five percent chardonnay and seventeen percent pinot meunier, with the wine spending eight years in the Krug cellars sur latte. The beautiful bouquet wafts from the glass in a blend of apple, white peach, fresh-baked bread, very complex soil tones, white flowers, incipient smokiness and just a hint of the caraway seed to come with bottle age. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and seamlessly balanced, with a great core, utterly refined mousse, superb focus and grip and a very, very long, complex and zesty finish. The vibrancy of the exceptional base year of 2008 is very much in evidence here and this is destined to be one of the all-time great Grande Cuvées.

From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Brut Rosé. JG 90+. As I noted in the past, the Drappier Brut Rosé is one hundred percent pinot noir from the estate’s own Aube vineyards and is produced by the saignée method, so that its lovely cherry color is from skin contact, rather than by adding a bit of still red wine to the blend. The cuvée is aged two and a half years sur latte prior to disgorgement and has a dosage of 7.5 grams per liter. The current release in the market is really pretty and stylish on the nose, offering up a vibrantly complex mix of strawberries, a touch of blood orange, chalky soil tones, rye toast, woodsmoke and a hint of clove in the upper register. On the palate the wine is brisk, full-bodied and focused, with a good core, frothy mousse, lovely minerality and a long, nascently complex and still quite tightly-knit and youthful finish. I was surprised how youthful the structure still was here, given how open the nose is at the present time, but it is certainly approachable today and should really blossom with a year or two in the cellar.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 95. Even though the 2001 Chevalier-Montrachet is five years younger than the 1996, it comes across as a bit more forward, evolved and open-knit, but that is not at all a bad thing, as the 2001 is more enjoyable to drink now. Layers of creamy, tropical-inflected fruit flesh out effortlessly in the glass. Scents of marzipan, chamomile, apricot, lemon oil and light, floral-infused honey all add further shades of nuance. Wonderfully complete and seductive, the 2001 Chevalier is a great choice for drinking today, although I would not push my luck too far beyond another handful of years at most.

Fred brought: 2004 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 94. As one would reasonably expect, this is more elegant with a stunningly pure nose of white flower, citrus, orange peel, acacia blossom and the barest hint of wood spice that seamlessly introduces refined, complex and beautifully defined flavors that are tightly wound and impressively vibrant, particularly on the powerfully long and chiseled finish that cuts like a knife. This will be a long distance runner and will require plenty of patience.

Erick generously brought: 1996 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Auxey-Duresses Les Boutonniers. 96 points. Amazing! Fred writes: Well hot damn if this didn’t run circles around the 01 Levlaive Chevalier Montrachet and 04 PYCM Chevalier Montrachet tonight. This was in impeccable balance between the acid and fruit. A much more precise wine than either Chevy tonight. My WOTN easily.

For food, we ordered the larger omakase (with more cooked dishes) and then added on pretty much every nigiri we didn’t get in the omakase.

House made tofu, vegetables, and truffle.

Smoked duck noodle soup.

With the light, delicious, dashi-based broth.

Super smoked toro.

Reveal the fish and bathe in the sumptuous smokey smell.

Really tasty bit of fish. Intense fat and smokiness.

Sashimi plate.

Ebi with truffle, some delicious tuna, and some other white fishes.

Toro tartar with caviar. The Matsuhisa classic.

Cool containers.

Eggy tofu ball?

Seared garlic wagyu — more or less tepenyaki.

I eat about 4 bowls of ginger.

Special Japanese snapper with yuzu.

Golden eye snapper.

Blue fin tuna.

Santa Barbara sweet ebi (shrimp).

The head, including roe, fried up.

Ikura (salmon eggs) and uni (sea urchin).

Squid with a bit of char taste and yuzu.

Ocean perch.

Black throat sea perch.

Amberjack yellowtail.

House smoked copper river king salmon.

O-Toro (super fatty tuna belly).

Seared scallop “roll”.
Miso soup.

Tamago (egg) with sea eel.

Marinated big eye tuna.

Sardine. I like the marinated ones.

Yellowtail belly.

Shiro ebi icy shrimp.

Toro tartar.

And a peach sorbet.

Plus a cleanser of sweetened yuzu juice.

Not only is Tsujita pretty spectacular, but for high end sushi the price isn’t too bad — i.e. it’s expensive but you get a lot relatively. I enjoyed the variety of fish and particularly the highly marinated ones. The cooked apps are very good too with a lot of flavor without heaviness. They emphasize fish and other proteins too avoiding that “veggie + dashi” thing you sometimes get with Kaiseki dishes.

Also, it should be noted that they have great lunch bowls — I go all the time.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.