Author Archive for agavin – Page 46

OG Monterey Park – Dean Sin World

Jan22

Restaurant: Dean Sin World

Location: 306 N Garfield Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 571-0636

Date: December 8, 2017

Cuisine: Chinese Bakery

Rating: So OG

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One of my friends wanted some Chinese pastries to take home for an event later in the evening so we got a referral to a “takeout pastry place.” Little did we know it would be the most old school spot imaginable.

Check out this frontage. It can’t even decide if it’s Tastito or Dean Sin World. And what the hell is a Dean Sin? And why is it a world? They get a B, which is impressive given the kitchen. Apparently though “dean sin” is Mandarin for dim sum.

Anyway, inside barely looks like a store. But it’s actually a restaurant (with two 2 tops)!

The menu is on the white board.

Various “pies” lay about.

We got some of everything. There was red bean, pork, crab and stuff. Sesame bun. Who knows what else. The pork was good but DENSE. The crab and stuff was strange but kinda good.

The nice owner was proud to show off the (scary) kitchen. There were vats of pink goo (I think red bean paste) on the floor. The health department doesn’t let you keep pots of food on the floor (because of vermin), but I don’t think Dean Sin cares.

Buns in the oven.

Out in the main room a fridge of mystery.

And why is this in the dining room? What is it? Costco table. Cool ceiling panel!

An experience to be sure. Apparently they make real hot food here too if you order it. I’m not sure I’m brave enough.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Dim Sum – World Seafood
  2. Park’s Finest BBQ
  3. Where in the world is Yanbian?
  4. Book Review: A World Undone
  5. Medieval Land Fun-Time World
By: agavin
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Chang’s Garden

Jan19

Restaurant: Chang’s Garden

Location: 627 W Duarte Rd. Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 445-0707

Date: December 8, 2017

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Solid place

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Friday lunch is the perfect excuse to head out to the SGV for Chinese — actually being alive is a perfect excuse for Chinese food!

My friend George has a list of top regional restaurants in the SGV and this one came up, so we decided to try.

Typical SGV interior from years ago.

Takeout counter. And look, they even have wine!

The usual large menu.

Lunch comes with free hot and sour soup. The typical (yummy) kind.

Lotus wrapped pork spareribs.

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

Long Jing shrimp. Delicate shrimp with famous green tea. They had a nice green tea flavor.

Three ingredient lo-mein. The server pushed this on us. It was fine, but nothing special.

XLB (pork soup dumplings). Delicious!
 West Lake Style Fish. A whole fish in a goopy sweet and sour sauce. Delicious, although tons of bones.

This was a nice place and all the dishes except for the lomein were great (noodles were just fine). I think this place is actually Zhejiang Cuisine (i.e. the Hangzhou lake district south of Shanghai).

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Yunnan Garden
  2. Shaanxi Garden
  3. Moon House
  4. J&J – Crab XLB
  5. In the Magic Garden
By: agavin
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Burgundy Doma

Jan17

Restaurant: Doma [1, 2, 3]

Location: 362 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 277-7346

Date: December 6, 2017

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Ok food, big “formal” space

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The Dirty Dozen is a sub group of the Hedonists that does themed blind tasting meals a couple times a year.

Tonight’s was again at Doma, a newish (2012) Beverly Hills Italian very much in a 90s (high end) vibe. The theme — again oddly for Italian — is Red Burgundy. And even more oddly, Doma is “closed” for dinner, but a skeleton crew came in and cooked our dinner. The manager pretty much served us. lol. He’s nice, and I’ve known him for 20 years (back at Valentino), but the place is on life support.

The Doma interior is large, formal, very white tablecloth and so different than more hip Italians like Bestia.

The white wines tonight were not blind and were served before dinner proper.

Random mediocre magnum left over from a previous dinner.

The champagne and white wines tonight were not blind and were served before dinner proper.

From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 89. Dark orange-pink. Exotically perfumed scents of raspberry, pungent herbs, candied rose and smoky minerals. Fleshy and supple in texture, showing a floral accent to its red berry compote and tangerine flavors. Lush and broad but lively too, finishing with a hint of spiciness and good floral persistence.

Ron brought: 2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 94. The 2011 Chablis Montee de Tonnerre is all about grace. A gentle hint of spice leads to dried pears, crushed flowers, red berries and licorice. Constantly changing in the glass, the 2011 is a marvel to behold. Suggestions of smoke, graphite and licorice add layers of nuance in a magical wine loaded with class and personality. Best of all, the 2011 is relatively approachable by Raveneau standards, which means reader won’t have to wait long at all to experience the magic of one of the great sites in Chablis.

From my cellar: 1985 Nicolas Potel Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. BH 91. A very fresh yet mature nose of citrus, white flower and lightly toasted nut aromas combines with round and vibrant middle weight flavors that possess a seductive and rich mouth feel, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish. This is really a lovely effort with complexity and ample finishing punch and is a wine that will continue to hold well if not improve.

agavin: drinking great for its age!

Erick brought: 1996 Pierre de Crillon Meursault 1er Cru Charmes 1er. 93 points. The wine…dark and ox-looking apple juice…BUT no ox in sight…it’s totally fresh and alive! Rich and ripe fruit of apples, apricot, peaches…round and buttery with honey and roasted nuts, yet stands to attention with that powerful 96 lemon and grapefruit acidity. Has some intriguing flavors of cigar ash, antique wax, grilled pineapple with a drizzle lavender honey and spritzed with Champagne vinegar. Some crushed stones and chalk, but not any flint strike which I like. Very creamy and buttery fat, cut with citrus, then a big spice kick finish. I like this wine! The terroir is evident and true. Ex-cellar is the bomb!

Brian/Jen brought: 2014 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Puligny-Montrachet Le Trézin. BH 88-91. A discreet, even shy nose offers up attractively fresh and ultra-pure notes of citrus, pear and a hint of acacia blossom. There is excellent delineation to the intense and clean middle weight flavors that possess good verve and plenty of minerality on the solidly persistent if only moderately complex finish.

Arnie brought: 2009 Louis Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. VM 95. The 2009 Chambertin-Clos de Bèze is unusually open and seductive. It flows with extraordinary finesse and pure elegance. White floral notes, cassis and spices wrap around the palate, adding tons of nuance. The firm tannins don’t quite allow the fruit to be fully expressive, but all that is needed here is time. Waves of flavor build to the huge, dazzling finish. This is a fabulous showing from Jadot.

Yarom brought: 2013 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. BH 91. A woody but spicy and unusually elegant nose offers up notes of both red and dark currant, earth and a hint of humus. There is a very suave, lush and round mouth feel to the delicious middle weight flavors that possess a good sense of verve on the impressively long and ever-so-mildly austere finish. There is better integration of the wood treatment though I underscore that it is hardly invisible.

agavin: nice but about 15 years too young.

Cotsen brought: 2014 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes. BH 95. Once again the nose has mostly absorbed its wood treatment on the ultra-spicy, ripe and attractively fresh nose of black cherry, earth, underbrush and soft floral aromas. There is flat out incredible density to the extract rich and imposingly-scaled flavors that completely coat the palate with sap before culminating in a velvety yet superbly intense finish that seems to just go on and on. Once again though note well that plenty of patience is going to be required before this incredible beauty of a Charmes is ready to roll. This is seriously impressive.

agavin: 10 years before its most optimistic drink date

Eggplant involtini. Eggplant with a zesty sauce and lots of cheese. This was actually my favorite dish of the night.

Mark brought: 1995 Domaine Robert Groffier Bonnes Mares. VM 93. Black raspberry, violet and herbs on the nose. Thick, brooding and very intensely flavored; has a mellow flavor of woodsmoke. Large-scaled and multilayered. Finishes with ripe, chewy tannins. A terrific example of the ’95 vintage at its best.

agavin: sadly corked

Erick brought: 1999 Bouchard Père et Fils Bonnes Mares. VM 91-94. Saturated ruby-red. Wild, musky aromas of black raspberry, mocha, cocoa powder, minerals, smoky oak and a light vegetal complexity. Highly concentrated and powerfully structured; bright but very unevolved. Major tannins are buffered by the wine strong material. Finishes impressively long and bright, with terrific grip.

From my cellar: 1998 Mongeard-Mugneret Richebourg. 95 points. WOTN, rich and young with a lot of oak still on it.

Octopus with split pea sauce. Slimy, chewy, vaguely fishy and didn’t pair at all with anything, not wine or peas. ick!

John brought: 1990 Comte Armand Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux. VM 90. Benjamin Leroux poured the powerful 1990 Comte Armand Clos des Epeneaux from magnum. Still deeply colored, it was youthful and structured, with tons of fruit and terrific harmony.

Ron brought: 1996 Louis Jadot Clos de la Roche. VM 88-90. Blueberry, violet, mocha, smoke, herbs and earth on the nose. Pliant in the mouth, with the mocha and earth flavors repeating. Denser and more vibrant than the Clos Saint-Denis. But shows very good rather than outstanding length.

Albert brought: 2000 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche. VM 91+. Deep medium red. Cool, complex aromas of raspberry, cherry, tar, minerals and roasted herbs; subtle hints of mulch and vegetables. Structured but youthfully closed today. Best today on the tannic finish, which features a late explosion of fruits, minerals and herbs.

agavin: very slight corking

Stuffed quail. Looked repulsive, like a little body builder, but tasted pretty decent.
Parpadelle with ragu. Not sure what kind. Pretty decent.

Robin brought: 2005 Mongeard-Mugneret Clos Vougeot. BH 91-93. Somewhat curiously, this is more aromatically elegant with subtle toast aromas serving to highlight the spicy red and black fruit mix nuanced by hints of earth and smoke that can also be found on the delicious yet entirely serious big bodied yet textured and relatively refined flavors, all wrapped in a finish that is both powerful and impressively long.

agavin: #2 winner, it was a MM kinda night

Brian brought: 2005 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot. VM 92. Good full, deep red-ruby. Superripe aromas of black cherry and blueberry, complicated by torrefaction notes of licorice, coffee and mocha. Superconcentrated, lush and sweet; chewy, layered and mouthfilling without coming across as heavy. In comparison to the young 2006, this has nicely integrated its stems, not to mention its licorice, fresh herb and bitter chocolate components. Finishes with superb length.

Larry brought: 2009 Joseph Drouhin Grands-Echezeaux. BH 95. A ripe yet airy and fresh nose speaks of spice and pure plum aromas that display background hints of cassis and floral aromas that are followed by intense, powerful and broad-shouldered flavors that possess superb depth of material and knockout complexity on the hugely long finish. This is very serious juice that is most impressive.

Steak with pheasant liver risotto. The steak was solid but the risotto was pretty yucky. Just tasted like chicken liver and was so heavy. Almost no one finished it.

Fries were fine.

Mark brought: 1985 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage. Light colour, pale and bright, fresh and a bit hot, cherry stones and almonds, off-dry, light body, hint of citrus, green apple on the finish, good length. A particular style, not unattractive, but lacks gravitas.

Berries on a kind of custard. This was probably the second best dish and was refreshing and decent.

The lineup

Cryptic notes and scores.

Wines were solid for the Dirty Dozen and being that I won I got a free meal!. Only one or two corked and a whole mess that were great.

Food was pretty lousy. A couple decent dishes and some really icky ones. Big point deduction for icky dishes like that octopus and the liver risotto. They treat us very well but service was awkward because there was only one regular server. Took a while for each dish to get to all 12 of us.

All in all, I don’t really want to go back to Doma, it’s totally on life support.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Related posts:

  1. Dirty Dozen at Doma
  2. Burgundy at Providence
  3. 2005 Burgundy at Water Grill
  4. JiRaffe Burgundy Blowout!
  5. Valentino – 2004 Red Burgundy
By: agavin
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Quick Eats – Flaming Pot

Jan15

Restaurant: Flaming Pot

Location: 2222 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064

Date: December 1, 2017

Cuisine: Taiwanese Hot Pot

Rating: Simple

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In the SGV both “medium end” and cheap hot pots are plentiful and mobbed. My favorite of the higher end ones in Hai di Lao, and it and similar level are cheap enough that I never have seen fit to go to Boiling Pot or the other super crowded cheap ones.

But a Taiwanese variant has opened on Sawtelle right next to Popcorn Chicken (same owners).

The interior is about $20k above nothing much.

Extremely minimalist space, and I don’t even think they have a hood.

The menu is simple. A few fixed hot pots with some minimal options.

Ice tea. Seems to default sweetened. Ick.

Spicy Flaming Pot. Packaged noodles, beef, fish balls, tofu, pig intestine. Doesn’t look that spicy either. Unlike the more elaborate hot pot where you cook yourself this is just a pot you heat up and heat. It’s actually easier, but takes a bit of the fun out of it.

Curry Pot. Pork, veggies, corn, imitation crab, fish balls, mushrooms. The curry flavor was very mild. Just some curry powder really. It didn’t taste bad.

Boiled lamb slices. They did add some flavor and protein to the pot. But aren’t exactly high quality.

Rice.
Rice noodles. Turn into super thin glass noodles.

Overall, very mediocre. I might come back if desperate. It’s not bad. And it’s fairly cheap (although mysteriously more than ramen). Service was TERRIBLE. They were very confused young Chinese kids. Nice enough. Unless you love hot pot and are really don’t want to drive, not too much reason to frequent.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Eats – Popcorn Chicken
  2. Quick Eats: Chan Dara
  3. Quick Eats – Sushi Burrito
  4. Quick Eats – Venice Ramen
  5. Quick Eats: Tofu Ya
By: agavin
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Bistro LQ – Truffles 2017

Jan12

Restaurant: Laurent Quenioux [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: Near Pasadena

Date: November 30, 2017

Cuisine: Modern French

Rating: Truffles!

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Six and a half years ago Foodie Club co-organizer Erick and I put together one of our more legendary dinners, the Bistro LQ Trufflumpagus. And then two years we did it again! Now yet again, but with a slightly more dish oriented, less truffle emphasis.

Chef Laurent Quenioux grew up in Sologne, France, where he developed a passion for food. As a young boy, Quenioux and his father would hunt duck, partridge, and rabbit. Then, he and his mother would prepare her favorite recipes in the kitchen. Eventually, Quenioux left home to embark on an apprenticeship where he trained in some of Europe’s finest kitchens. Quenioux spent time at Maxim’s, Bistro De Paris and La Ciboulette in Paris, before moving on to Negresco in Nice and LaBonne Auberge in Antibe.

In the early 1980s, Quenioux made a move to the United States with a team from L‘Oasis at La Napoule to open The Regency Club in Los Angeles. In 1985, he introduced the celebrated and award-winning 7th Street Bistro in downtown Los Angeles. In the early 2000s, Quenioux debuted the cozy Bistro K in Pasadena and in 2009, Bistro LQ in Beverly Hills. At Bistro LQ, Quenioux set new standards for cuisine in Southern California with his Farmer’s Market-driven kitchen and an emphasis on value and fun.

We are back at Quenioux’s house, but this time inside in the dining room.

Tonight’s special menu. Slightly fewer dishes than our last 2 visits, but more emphasis on each dish.
From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Rosé Brut Nature Dosage Zero. VM 90. Pale orange. Mineral-accented red berries and citrus fruits on the nose, complemented by hints of candied rose and white pepper. Stony and precise, offering lively strawberry and orange zest flavors that expand slowly with air. Closes spicy, stony and tight, with very good clarity and floral persistence.

A little toasted bread and some flavored butters. Breads by “Bread Lounge”. Butter from Bordier Brittany France.

One of LQ’s assistants introduces the courses.

1993 Ruinart Champagne Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs. VM 94. Among the wines of the 1990s, I especially liked the 1993 Dom Ruinart, which was beautiful, especially considering this was an original disgorgement. Layers of honeyed fruit, licorice and mint were woven together in a captivating fabric. We also caught this wine at near peak, as it was firing on all cylinders. What a beautiful wine.

1979 Drappier Champagne Carte d’Or Brut. VM 92.  Pale copper color. Mature, enticing aromas of meal, toffee, brioche and melted butter. Creamy, toasty and soft on the palate; completely resolved and best suited for near-term drinking. Lacks real grip and verve but offers lovely ripeness and good depth of flavor.

Chanterelles. Chanterelles Crudo, Santa Barbara Uni, Yuzu ranch dressing, wild hare gelee, arugula, Alba white truffle.

2005 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montmains. VM 92. Pale, bright yellow. Broad aromas of citrus fruits, butter, toasted bread and minerals. Rich, ripe and nicely concentrated, with sexy stone fruit flavors nicely framed by harmonious acidity. Full and pliant but not at all heavy thanks to its lingering aftertaste of dusty minerality. A superb showing today.

2002 Peter Michael Chardonnay Point Rouge. VM 95+. Hints of superripe fruit along with lemon and coconut on the very reticent nose. Huge, sappy and solid; again, this has the body and deep core of fruit of a Burgundy grand cru. Superripe pineapple flavor is brightened by solid, harmonious acidity. Shows extraordinary expansion on the back half, finishing with exotic pineapple flavor and great persistence. “We had so many great barrels to choose from,” noted Morlet, who eventually selected just 11. The wine represents four different barrel types; 10 of the 11 barrels were new.

2008 Villa Mt. Eden Chardonnay Grand Réserve. 91 points. solid Californian Chardonnay, full of fruit, spices, soft tannins, long aftertaste

Caviar. Cannabis Santa Barbara Petit Gris Snails Raviolis. Caviar de Sologne, Alba White Truffle Nage. The snails inside had apparently been fed on cannabis. Any which way it was an amazing dish.

From my cellar: 1988 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. JG 94. The 1988 Corton-Charlemagne from Bonneau du Martray is a superb example of the vintage and it remains at its pinnacle of peak maturity as it closes in on its thirtieth birthday. The bouquet delivers a superb, complex blend of apple, pear, a touch of fresh nutmeg, chalky soil tones, beeswax and a discreet base of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and absolutely à point, with a fine core of fruit, superb soil signature, bright acids and a very long, complex and utterly refined finish. Great juice with decades of life still to come.

2010 Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Palish bright yellow. Tight, vibrant nose offers white peach, pineapple, nut oils and brown spices. Juicy and sweet but kept under wraps today by powerful acidity. Still, this remarkably intense wine does not come across as austere owing the full ripeness of the fruit. Wonderfully classy Corton-Charlemagne with a penetrating, dusty, extremely long finish. This held up brilliantly in the recorked bottle. I suspect this wine will shut down in the next couple years.

Live Diver Scallops. Truffle Chawan Mushi, diver scallop, lardo, enoki, shiso buds. Under the scallop was a light Asian-style egg custard. The lardo added that extra punch of flavor. Great dish.

From my cellar: 2004 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 92-94. This is aromatically quite reserved with only trace amount of wood influence visible on the white flower and spiced pear suffused nose that carries into the rich, robust and powerful flavors that possess real size, weight and punch and this too displays a wonderful sense of purity and finishing linearity plus there is more minerality than one usually sees in the typical Bâtard.

From my cellar: 2006 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 90. A very ripe nose of honeysuckle and citrus blossom is trimmed in a very discreet touch of brioche that precedes rich, full, intense and less elegant flavors than I’m used to seeing but there is ample volume, dry extract and mid-palate fat that culminate in a better balanced and longer finish.

Spiny Lobster. Braised endive, jamon iberico de bellota, Alba white truffle soubise, spiny lobster. The lobster was great and the jamon wrapped thing delicious — but very salty.

From my cellar: 1994 R. López de Heredia Rioja Blanco Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia. 91 points. Right out of the gate, got ripe, sweet yellow fruits on the nose along with plenty of wood and vanilla, some wax and oxidation notes. With time got some honey but more white flowers. After three hours all wood and oxidation notes was long gone, and nose seemed overall more muted. Quite fresh and smooth in the mouth. Foremost sweet, yellow fruits, a bit more dry fruits and some spices towards the finish. Pretty good concentration, though somewhat hollow on the mid palate. Medium ++ lenght. I was on 92p early on, later more a solid 91. Should have no trouble taking time in the cellar. That should do only good. At least 5-6 years.

2006 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc De L’Orée. VM 94. Deep gold. Remarkably pure peach, apricot, citrus honey and hazelnut aromas pack a huge punch, with lime and dusty minerality adding verve. Equally rich on the palate, with the pit fruit and honey qualities repeating and a whack of bitter quinine adding focus. Poses richness and weight against vivacity, finishing with superb clarity and clinging sweetness. Can’t get this off the palate.

Wild Turbot. Squid ink tuille, pea greens, truffle sabayon, chioggia beets, fennel. I’m not normally a white fish fan but this was a superb dish. One of 2-3 best of the night. The truffle butter sabayon was killer.

1995 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl. 90 points. Complex aromas of papaya, pink grapefruit, banana, nutmeg, and rubber. Off-dry, but by no means sweet. Rather austere, really, with acidity and bitterness at the fore. This wine has excellent balance and power, though the flavor profile isn’t immediately delicious. The kind of a wine a sommelier would like more than an everyday wine drinker.

Foie Gras. Truffle celery root, cauliflower, quince risotto, seared foie gras, cacao nibs. My dish of the night. Incredible foie and the cauliflower “risotto” was incredible.

agavin: unfortunately badly corked.

From my cellar: 1995 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui. BH 91. Nice complex, still primary nose and refined, almost silky, very rich flavors with an edgy, slightly tannic finish. This offers better balance than the ’95 Richebourg as the fruit/concentration/tannin balance is superior. This is still very young and should continue to improve though it can be approached now with the right food.

1996 Louis Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. VM 94+. Bright red-ruby. Incredible nose combines blackberry, black raspberry, fraise des bois, gingerbread, mocha, soy sauce, cocoa powder, iris and sealing wax. Like liquid silk on entry, with extraordinary sweetness, but extremely vibrant and youthful. Then toughens up in the middle palate. Like the Chapelle, this has been concentrated by a rather substantial saignee, but this does not have quite the early balance of that wine. Very backward but explosively long on the finish, with firm tannins covering the entire mouth. Should be very long-lived, and among the wines of the vintage.

Wild Goose. Date cumin puree, persimmon chips, huckleberry infusion, crosnes, peppercorn.

1994 Guigal. Cote Rotie la Turque. RP 96-98. 1994 appears to be another great vintage for Guigal’s La Turque. It is already amazingly sexy, with a sweet, creamy texture, a dark ruby/purple color, fabulous ripeness, and a layered inner core of sweet juice packed with extract, glycerin, and flavor. It should drink well young and keep for 12-15 years. Last tasted 6/96.

Bellota Loin Cassoulet, iberico de Bellota loin, Tarbais beans, Toulouse sausage, “Cassoulet Style.” Another standout dish. Really awesome pork and beans stew.

The chef himself, Laurent Quenioux.

1994 Bodegas Alejandro Fernández Ribera del Duero Janus Gran Reserva Pesquera. 93 points. 23 years old and it has plenty of fruit and tannic grip. Cherry, cedar and tobacco, lots of ripe cherry. Beautiful from attack to finish, nice long finish and a nice acidity.

Coturnix Quail. Fresh Quail from Vermont light fried. Braised cipollini, spicy Tokyo turnips pico de gallo, sweet onion jus & liver emulsion.

With the liver sauce.
1994 Vega Sicilia. Único. RP 98. The 1994 Unico is a blend of 80% Tinto Fino, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot (presumably 2% is unknown varieties) that was picked from September 28. It is very intense with notes of raspberry, wild strawberry and mulberry with sensational minerality and vigor. There is a Margaux-like florality to the 1994 that blossom with aeration. The palate is rounded and supple on the entry with great weight and backbone. There is real substance here, similar to the 1996. It expands in the mouth with ravishing notes of blackberry, strawberry, citrus lemon, orange peel and a touch of cedar. There is enormous weight on the finish, a behemoth of a Unico. This is very potent, but it still requires several years in bottle. 96,280 bottles produced. Drink 2019-2040.
1989 Vega Sicilia. Único. RP 93-98. The 1989 Unico, a blend of 80% Tinto Fino and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon picked early from 30th September, has a gorgeous, minty bouquet with blackberry, a touch of blueberry, crushed violets and a little strawberry jam. It blossoms with aeration in the glass. The palate is smooth and rounded on the entry: caressing and voluminous in the mouth. The fruit is very pure with notes of strawberry, Tiptree raspberry jam, marmalade and quince. It has great weight towards the finish with orange cordial and a hint of mango. However, it does not have the tension or focus of the 1994 or the 1996. 105,860 bottles produced. Drink now-2035.

Rib Eye Cap. SRF Rib Eye Cap Served Rare. Alba White Truffle mash potatoes, porcini ragu, passion fruit.

2000 Château d’Yquem. RJ 93. Medium golden color; botrytis, ripe apricot, baked pear nose; intense, concentrated, silky textured, baked apple, baked apricot, lemon cream, honey palate with medium acidity; long finish

Vacherin & Cheese course.

Some little intermezzo.

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

Baba. Geranium griotte sirup, pistachio mascarpone creme fraiche, chocolate ganache. Awesome chocolate nut flavor.

Apple Gratin hazelnut praline rose. Red kuri ice cream, muscadine grapes. A nice modernized tart.
 Overall, this was just a stunning meal on all levels and one of the best of the year.

The atmosphere was great. A nice private room — truly private and actually quiet (except for us). LQ’s team provided great service (we mostly did the wine service but we are used to that). Walker was busy posing as sommelier. Wines were very good. I prefer these full arrangement of wines where we have a broad range of types across the meal.

And the food was just stellar. The foie, the the custard, the ravioli, the turbot, and the cassoulet were all standouts and amazing. I’ll remember them for years!


For more LA Foodie Club dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Day of the Truffles
  2. Bistro LQ – 27 Courses of Trufflumpagus
  3. Truffles at Saam – I am
  4. ThanksGavin 2017
  5. Republique 2017
By: agavin
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Fancy Feast – Bistro Na

Jan10

Restaurant: Bistro Na

Location: 9055 E Las Tunas Dr #105, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-1999

Date: November 29, 2017 & March 3, 2018

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Upscale Chinese, solid kitchen

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Chinese Restaurants in the SGV are slowly going more upscale in a way that’s different than the Cantonese palaces of Monterey Park of yesterday.

And one of the latest is Bistro Na’s located on Las Tunas near this cool:

Teapot fountain!

The interior is very elegant Chinese, almost traditional but in a new way typical in China today. Ornate wood carvings, lanterns and antique music instruments abound.

The menu is a hardcover thick paged photo tome!

Here I am with it.

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

Pork trotter jelly. Yes, a vinegary jelly of pig’s feet. Actually pretty tasty.

Spicy marinated pork (3/4/18). Not really spicy but very delicious cold marinated pork. A bit pastrami-like.

Traditional Beijing Noodles (3/4/18). Served with noodles, radish/soy bean/cucumber and the sauce. You mix it all together. Lovely complex flavor. Not super strong or anything, but very nice.

Smoked pork ribs. Very nice soft roast ribs. Very aromatic.

From my cellar: 2014 Domaine Sylvain Pataille Bourgogne Blanc Chardonnay Rose.

Crispy shrimp. You can eat the shells.

Grandmother’s pork belly. The super fatty red pork belly. A nice version.

Lobster in salty egg batter. This very salty egg-yolk batter is usually used for shrimp. Here it was lobster. Pretty good, although rich and salty.

Lobster steamed with garlic (3/4/18). Having learned from the salty lobster we went with this simple steamed with garlic version — over thin egg noodles. Great. Really nice sweet preparation.

House special scallops (3/4/18). Usually I’m not a fan of the brown sauce but this was a great one, with some sugar, but complemented nicely with the tender scallops.

Spicy Fried Whole Fish (3/4/18). Very tasty Szechuan style fish. The sauce was very similar to the Ma Po (below) and also had that slightly bitter tinge.

Chevy brought: 2015 Tablas Creek Côtes de Tablas. VM 90-92. Inky ruby. Ripe cherry, floral pastilles, black pepper and allspice on the perfumed nose. Densely packed, sweet and focused in the mouth, offering intense dark berry and bitter cherry flavors that slowly become sweeter with aeration. Shows very good energy and strong lift on the clinging, spicy finish, which is framed by youthfully chewy tannins.

Lamb chops in pepper sauce. Nice, although certainly not traditional. Even the onions were good.

Scallion pancakes. Very doughty, which I didn’t like because it was bland. A Chinese friend who is there said they were nicely home style though.

Beef pies. These I liked a lot. Very hot and full of juice. We had a couple incidents with them spraying out and splattering on others!

Chevy brought: 2013 O’Shaughnessy Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain. VM 95+. Deep, inky and powerful, the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a classic wine endowed with tons of regional character and personality to burn. The inclusion of all seven Bordeaux varieties in the blend adds layers of nuance and complexity. Hints of game, smoke, licorice and dark spices add nuance to a somber, brooding Cabernet Sauvignon that is going to need at least a few years to fully open up.
Kung Pao Chicken (3/4/18). A slightly unusual variant with candied walnuts. But had a really nice and interesting balance of hot, sour, sweet, and numbing. Slightly different, but excellent.


Beef in chili sauce. The classic Szechuan dish. There was some mala and a lot of garlic. Not a bad version of the dish for a non-Szechuan restaurant. It didn’t have the depth of flavor a great one has though.

Crispy Lamb (3/4/18). Tender lamb with a very flakey but thick crispy fry. Super delicious. This dish was a 10.

Chinese Mustard Greens. The usual Chinese green prep, but with mushrooms and a slightly less usual green. Nice and crunchy.

Broccoli and pork shoulder (3/4/18). Fabulous vegetable dish with nice crunchy texture and good porky flavor.

Cabbage. I always like these cabbage dishes.

Fried tofu. Very interesting texture. I liked it.

Ma Po Tofu (3/4/18). Good amount of heat and mala (numbing). A touch bitter, maybe becuse of the particular Szechuan peppercorn or maybe because of the chili oil. Tofu was a touch firmer and less silken than I like. Still good though.

Purple Rice (3/4/18). Numerous Prince jokes ensued, but we had to take the purple rice because mysteriously, and amazingly, they we “out” of white rice — how is a Chinese restaurant out of white rice? It was 9:30ish and they had turned off the rice cookers to clean them.

Shrimp fried rice. Nice.

Cheese fish. It was a kind of cheese jelly/custard with a mild caramel sauce. The overall effect was very mild. Not even super sweet but not a lot of flavor. Nice texture though and looked cool.

Free fruit.
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On 3/4/18, I brought 3 flavors of Sweet Milk Gelato that I made as well. Gelato al Cioccolato di Modica – This weekend’s treat heads to the deep south (Sicily) for some ultra local/traditional fun. A medium super smooth chocolate base with chunks of of Modica Chocolate (a classic crumbly Sicilian chocolate made in the old style).
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And I had a bit left of:

Turmeric Latte Gelato – milk base steeped in turmeric with a touch of cinnamon, cardamon, and ginger! And yep, that yellow is all natural.

Blueberry Cheesecake Gelato – a cheesecake base with French blueberries layered with graham cracker crumble and topped with house-made blueberry coulis.

The gang poses in the room on 11/29/17. We finished the place out since Chinese rarely stay past 8:30. Look at the table carefully as it’s small for a Chinese round table and they consider it 6-8 people but it’s barely 6 for us.


Our 3/4/18 table. They consider this 8-10 people. We were a little tight with 7.


It didn’t include space for all the wine baggage either!
Overall, a nice place. The allowed corkage and service was very pleasant — however it was a touch confused as is often the case at Chinese places. They had all these managers and the like but couldn’t quite coordinate. But they were extremely nice!

Food was good. A tiny bit pricey for the SGV, but the atmosphere was lovely and the plating much more elegant. Some dishes were excellent and some just pretty good. I’m not really sure what regionality of Chinese it is. Sort of Beijing/Shanghai maybe? It does feel very contemporary Chinese and is certainly not aimed at white folk.

On the second visit the food was even better — really very good — and slightly different than many SGV places. There was a brief wait at the beginning, and they don’t have large enough tables except in the private rooms (booked). However, service was excellent and very attentive. They modified dishes a bit, gave us 7 pieces of things that were 6 by default, and were accommodating to our pacing needs. I really like Bistro Na and will return again.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

A few of the wines from the 3/4/18 dinner:

Related posts:

  1. SGV Nights – Seafood Palace
  2. Petros Greek Feast
  3. Shaanxi Garden
  4. Friday Night Feast 2014
  5. Red Medicine – Elfin Feast
By: agavin
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Foodie Club at Spago

Jan08

Restaurant: Spago [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 176 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 385-0880

Date: November 28, 2017

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Impressive

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December is always busy with dinners and we even have two separate Foodie Club events this week.

The first one is to old LA mainstay Spago for a special dinner arranged by Vahan — who has been coming here regularly since the 80s!

Our menu.

We sat out in the lovely (and busy) courtyard. It was loud, but cool.

We had a huge spacious table in the back by the funky fireplace.

1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. BH 97. A distinctly reticent but elegant nose with a purity of expression that is truly impressive to experience as it’s relatively high-toned and while the yeast comes up with air, it’s relatively muted at presence, combining with intense, precise and superbly detailed and complex flavors that culminate in an explosive and wonderfully long finish. This may very well rival the sublime ’90 in time even if it’s not quite as concentrated. This is still a baby so there is absolutely no rush whatsoever.

2005 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne. VM 94. Bright yellow. Vibrant pear and melon aromas are complicated by suggestions of ginger, brioche and smoky minerals. Dry, smoky and precise, offering intense orchard and pit fruit flavors that gain weight with aeration. A dusty mineral quality adds focus and lift to the long, penetrating, floral finish. There’s a Burgundian thing going on here that’s quite intriguing.

Dinner at Spago almost always includes amuses, and the first is the classic:

Spicy Tuna Tartare, Sesame-Miso Tuille Cone. I’ve had it a million times but it’s still great. The counter play between the crunchy-sweet cone and the soft-spicy interior.

Pork belly macaron. Pretty amazing bit of sweet-fatty in a dessert-like presentation. Great textures too.

Jewish pizza. Smoked salmon with creme fraiche and ikura (salmon roe). I love this too. I even make it at home.

Foie gras and strawberry. Another yummy sweet-fatty bite.

Because of Vahan we got a special kitchen tour.

Pizza oven.

Even the storage.

Have some tuille cones.

Or a plate of veal off the regular menu.

Chefs at work plating.

We had a bite in the kitchen. Crab and uni and flowers in a crispy/chewy sesame ball.

1995 Robert Ampeau & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. BH 91. Medium golden color. While fully mature this remains quite fresh with lovely complexity on the honeysuckle and dried fruit compote nose. The depth reflected by the nose is also present on the utterly delicious middle weight flavors that possess a very rounded and attractively textured mouth feel before culminating in a palate coating, balanced and lingering finish. Like most ’95s today there is no reason not to drink up though at the same time neither is there any need to rush through your remaining stocks.

1995 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. BH 94. Wonderfully complex and now fully mature aromas of pure white fruits and green Chablis notes are followed by superbly intense and beautifully defined medium-full flavors that just ooze minerality and offer superb length. This is not nearly as heavy as many ’95 Chablis and there is real grace and class here. A drop dead gorgeous wine. Note that I have recently had an lightly oxidized bottle that was at least drinkable if not nearly as good as what I describe above.

Diver Scallop Sashimi. Santa Barbara Uni, Keluga Caviar, Sudachi. A nice soft and tasty dish with complex briney flavors.

Bread. Awesome crispy seed breads.

Sweet carrot hummus with lebneh. Loved this stuff because of it’s sweet and tangy pairing.

1987 Louis Jadot Montrachet. Still in good shape!

2001 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 94+. Pure, reserved aromas of apple, powdered stone, white flowers and nutmeg. Juicy and very intense, with impressive purity and structure for the vintage. Explosive, almost painfully long finish. This extremely youthful, fresh wine should develop in bottle for 10 to 15 years. A more intellectual style this year than the Cabotte.

Handmade Agnolotti. Kabocha squash, pine nuts, amaretti, white truffles. Amazing pasta in butter sauce. The truffles really added too, but my favorite element was the sweet/spiced quality of the Ameretti cooks — traditional in the Verona/Mantua area with pumpkin (in this case squash).

1991 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. BH 94. Another fine success in what was generally a difficult vintage in the Côte de Beaune (though a very good to excellent one in the Côte de Nuits). The color is still vibrant with only the barest of lightening at the rim. A gorgeously complex, admirably fresh and remarkably dense nose that is, somewhat oddly at this age, trimmed in a discreet touch of wood and displays a wide range of secondary aromatics. The flavor profile is quite similar with that rare and utterly seductive impression of sweetness that great Burgundies often display and derives not from sugar but rather from the superb sappy extract; there is also a lovely plumy character to the mineral-driven and palate coating finish. This is wonderfully rich while displaying real volume in the mouth, yet it remains gracefully balanced and finishes with knockout length. A brilliant and big-bodied Ducster that is more a wine of impressive power than finesse. And for those lucky enough to own a bottle or two, it should continue to hold effortlessly for several more decades.

From my cellar: 1995 Dominique Laurent Clos Vougeot. 93 points. Initial reticence and a considerable amount of sediment, then a rather elemental, pheremonal nose of redcurrant, black tea and incense. On the palate a very bright juicy acidity underlying an attractive body. With roast duck and lots of air, this became richer and juicier, the noticeable acidity cutting the duck fat and rendering the whole quite delicious. The wine had a charming rusticity to it, with a slightly old fashioned brutishness to it. Not for those afraid of acidity, but this has a really bright future. Thoroughly enjoyed and ran out too quickly!

2001 Faiveley Echezeaux. BH 91-93. This too offers astonishingly elegant and pure black fruit aromas and intense, sweet, spicy full-bodied flavors that build and build into a finish that simply doesn’t quit. While this doesn’t quite have the finesse and precision of the Combe d’Orveau, it offers even more power and muscle in a perfectly balanced, stylish and harmonious package. This is a beautiful, seductive effort.

Crispy Scaled Black Bass. Main Lobster, Spanish Octopus Bolognese. Nice rich sauce and good lobster. I find the crispy scales on this type of bass a little creepy though.
Liberty Duck Breast. Poached Persimmon, beet-parsnip Puree, Caramelized Salsify. Nice bit of duck.

1964 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Riserva. JG 90. I had a less than stellar bottle of this wine in January of this year, but a bottle tasted six months before that was quite lovely, so I have to assume that the most recent example was simply a bottle of poor provenance. The last pristine example of the ’64 Borgogno Barolo Riserva offered up a complex and fully mature nose of cherries, camphor, forest floor, tar, anise and a bit of bonfire in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and tarry, with lovely complexity, good focus and still a bit of untamed tannin to resolve perking up the long finish. Like many of the Borgognos from this era, this is not the most elegant rendition of Barolo, but it is deep, complex and has matured nicely into a wine that offers up the blossoming of bottle age and is a good example of the vintage.

1968 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Riserva. 90 points. Again a rare treat to sample another well kept wine from decades past. Light brick in the glass, with some opacity. Enchanting nose of leather and sous-bois. On the palate, I am in agreement with previous notes commenting on the similarity with Burgundy of the same era. Balanced acids, mature fruit, earth, and leather. Add another star to the already fabulous lineup this afternoon.

1970 Faustino Rioja I Gran Reserva. 92 points. Aged to perfection, rather bright acidity and lift for its age, fully resolved tannin, notes of leather dominate the nose. Paired amazing with our finishing dishes. What an experience.

Grilled American Wagyu New York Steak. Root Vegetable gratin, sauce bordelaise.
With the Root Vegetable Gratin added to the plate. Rice stuff (and I had two helpings).

1996 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron. VM 90. Good full ruby-red. Roasted plum, leather and smoked nuts on the nose. Silky and layered in the mouth. Sweet and suave, with a complicating mineral quality. Suggests solid extract but ultimately a wine of very good rather than outstanding intensity. Finishes with fine tannins and persistent, slow-building flavor. Fleshier and more pliant than the ’98.

1988 Château Mouton Rothschild. JK 90.

1990 Château Lagrange (St. Julien). VM 93. Good deep, full ruby. Explosive, rather wild aromas of dark fruits, leather, animal fur and chocolate. Fat, lush and silky, with a seamless texture and a deep sweetness. This offers terrific volume and finishes very smooth and very long, with utterly suave tannins, notes of leather and game, and a suggestion of surmaturite According to Ducasse, 1990 witnessed cooler September nights than ’89 and thus offered “better conditions for producing great wine. ” A superb showing.

agavin: I used to drink this wine on dates in the 1997-98 time frame. lol

Chef’s Selection of Assorted Cheeses. Manchester, L’Amuse Signature Gouda, Blackstone, Shopshire Blue, Blueberry honey, date walnut cake, fall fruit compote. Really nice little cheese spread.

And great bread to go with it.

Espresso.

Overall, another fabulous dinner. Service was first rate, particularly with Vahan being almost Spago family. Wolfgang spent some time at our table too. I always forget how great the food is at Spago too, and how much they keep updating it to keep it fresh and relevant. The place may still have the format of an 80s/90s fine dining place, but the build out, cuisine, and all that keeps evolving and staying relevant. It’s a big pricey, but it is very very good. We also had tons to eat and I was almost painfully full.

Wine lineup was interesting, varied, and almost all were great. 1-2 flawed wines, but that’s to be expected and we had no shortage — we never do!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or just Foodie Club meals.

Related posts:

  1. Sauvage Spago
  2. Spago – 2005 White Burg part 1!
  3. Krug at Spago
  4. Mastro’s Ocean Club Malibu
  5. Marino Ristorante
By: agavin
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Salty Saturday 2017

Jan05

Salty Saturday is the traditional family bagel and lox brunch we do on the Saturday after ThanksGavin.

For the last couple of years it’s been hosted at my cousin Matt’s house.

In his sunny dining room.

Across the way is the kids table.

And a look at the spread.

Some leftover cheeses from the night before.

Bagel cheeses, like the all important Muenster – let’s hope it’s not feeling rebellious.

Cream cheeses, red onion, and capers.

Condiments.

sliced hard boiled egg.

Philadelphia lox is way better on average than LA lox — except Wexler’s.

Whitefish salad, my particular favorite salt bomb.

Whitefish without the mayo.

Heartburn central: pickled herring. And a bit of fruit to finish.

I also tried a strategy of combatting the salt buzz with a triple shot of espresso, seemed to work.

See here for more ThanksGavin posts.

Related posts:

  1. ThanksGavin 2011 – Salty Saturday
  2. Salty Saturday
  3. ThanksGavin 2015 – Salty Saturday
  4. Salty Saturday 2014
  5. Saturday is for Salt
By: agavin
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Fatty Friday 2017

Jan03

It’s tradition at ThanksGavin (the 4 day feasting our family engages in each November) for one of my cousins to host the Friday Night dinner, which is like thanksgiving night all over again (but with different food). This year, Matt and his wife Andrea handled BOTH nights!

From my cellar: 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. This release is based on the 2005 vintage and was disgorged in winter 2012/2013.

Fatty Friday usually has a big cheese spread, and tonight’s was dragged back a few days beforehand from Paris by my father. It included the cultured butter-like Mont D’Or.

And another view.

From my cellar: 2007 Domaine Henri Boillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Mouchère. BH 94. Though very little time has passed since I reviewed this gorgeous effort in Issue 35, particularly in this larger format, nothing makes me question my initial review as the ’07 Mouchère is a knock-out: An almost invisible touch of wood influence allows the elegant, ripe and ultra pure aromas of citrus blossom, spice and orchard fruit to have center stage while the focused, textured and almost painfully intense flavors culminate in a bone dry, silky and seriously long finish. In sum, this is a stunning wine of real class and grace where the balance is so good that it could be drunk now with pleasure, even from magnum though it will certainly repay longer-term aging if desired.

Tonight’s spread.

Turnip, I think.

Salad from the previous night.

Beets from the previous night.

Leftover stuffing.

Cranberry relish.

Cranberry sauce.

Stuffed squash.

And the inside view.

From my cellar: 1996 Faiveley Corton-Clos des Cortons Faiveley. VM 94. Deep ruby color. Multidimensional aromas of violet, coffee, dried rose, clove, rare steak and seductive oak. Huge and tactile; really implodes in the mouth today. Extremely deep and lush, with the sheer sweetness to buffer its considerable acids and tannins. Oaky. Finishes extremely long, with very fine, tooth-coating tannins. With aeration, some of the baby fat melted away, and the wine’s powerful structure was manifest. Headspinning, old-style Burgundy, and very impressive. One to buy and cellar.

Matt poses with his slow cooked pork shoulder.

Slow cooked pork shoulder.

Crispy skin, tender juicy meat inside.

The plate.

The desserts were mostly repeated from Thanksgiving itself, but there were Kosher rice crispy treats (have to use kosher marshmallows).

Related posts:

  1. ThanksGavin 2017
  2. Friday Night Feast 2014
  3. ThanksGavin 2015 – Fat Friday
  4. Friday Night Lights
  5. Republique 2017
By: agavin
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Eating Maryland – Tidewater Grille

Jan01

Restaurant: Tidewater Grille [1, 2]

Location: 300 Franklin St, Havre De Grace, MD 21078. (410) 939-3313

Date: November 22, 2017 & November 21, 2018

Cuisine: Coastal American

Rating: Fun spot on the shore

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When our family drives from Washington to Philadelphia, which is generally part of the ThanksGavin tradition, we often stop at this old school Eastern Shore seafood place in Havre de Grace.

It sits right on the river, right by the train bridge.

The menu.
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Even in the winter, it’s a pretty nice view.

A lot of seating is on the porch.
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Maryland Crab soup is a must. Slightly spicy tomato broth with vegetables and crab. Think minestrone with crab.

Cream of crab soup. It’s more fatty cousin is clam chowder, but with crab instead.

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And kids love spaghetti.

Veggie sandwich with cheese.

Fried local fish with tartar sauce.
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The fried fish sandwich.

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And the all important crab cake sandwich, one of the great American sandwiches. Available here with slaw, potato chips, etc.

This is a simple place, but it serves up some good road stop lunch — certainly way better than McDonalds!

For more local dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Tidewater Crab
  2. Eastern Promises – Holly’s
  3. Quick Eats: Houstons
  4. Blue Plate Oysterette
  5. Ocean Avenue Seafood
By: agavin
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ThanksGavin 2017

Dec29

This year, after a brief California hiatus, ThanksGavin returned to Philadelphia — but to a new house (about a mile away). My cousin Matt and his wife Andrea picked up the baton from the elder generation.

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

Andrea melted cheese on these potato chips in the oven — awesome.

More rose champagne.

Rush Creek Reserve. I just had this Vaucheron-like cheese a couple nights before at the brand new Hearth & Hound.

The first turkey, done on a charcoal webber was a bit “crispy” on the outside, although perfect inside.

The second, cooked in a big green egg, was more even toned.

The spread.

Some of my dad’s white burg.

From my cellar: 1995 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui. VM 92. Deep red-ruby. Extravagantly rich aromas of blackcurrant, pepper, smoke and tar. Large-scaled, deep and very sweet; explosively fruity and impressively tactile. Chewy tannins are buried under a wave of finishing fruit. A knockout Clos Vougeot truly worthy of its grand cru status.

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

From my cellar: 1996 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. VM 94+. Bright medium ruby. Deep, superripe aromas of dark berries, black cherry and bitter chocolate; slightly exotic crystallized fruit aspect. Dense, sweet and wonderfully rich; a lovely combination of palate-caressing chocolatey fruit and firm underlying structure. Finishes with excellent grip and great palate-saturating sweetness. Another outstanding 1996 Medoc wine in the making. Drink 2010 through 2030.

Fresh bread.

Toppings.

The endive and radish and beet salad.

Beets.

Roasted slightly bitter veggies, including turnips.

Scalloped mashed potatoes. Pretty awesome with lots of butter and cream.

Sweet potatoes. More starch!

Green bean casserole with béchamel and crispy onions. Who says veggies can’t be delicious (if you smother them in fat)?

Cranberry sauce mould.

Cranberry chutney with cayenne. My favorite, as it’s zesty.

Cranberry relish.

The turkey, which looks a bit like a Chinese Roast Goose.

Delicious stuffing.

Rich gravy.

Another view.

My plate this year.

From my cellar: 2015 Jacques Perritaz Cidrerie du Vulcain Apple Transparente

The homemade dessert spread.

Matt’s homemade nut and marshmallow fudge.

Mom’s vegan pecan pie — amazing.

Bob’s custard pie. Almost savory, perfect texture, a bit like a giant Macau tart.

Matt’s pumpkin pie.

Matt’s pecan pie. A richer butter crust and very sweet.

Grandmom’s (recipe) brownies.

Grandmom’s (recipe) blondies.

I tried to be moderate.

Overall, the best ThanksGavin food yet! It usually is, as the standards keep going up and up!

Related posts:

  1. ThanksGavin 2012
  2. ThanksGavin 2011 – The Main Event
  3. ThanksGavin 2014
  4. ThanksGavin 2015
  5. ThanksGavin 2013
By: agavin
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Eating Washington – Kapnos

Dec27

Restaurant: Kapnos Taverna

Location: 4000 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22203. (703) 243-4400

Date: November 21, 2017

Cuisine: Greek

Rating: Some dishes good, some dishes less so

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Kapnos is a small chain (2?) with one located on the Virginia and one the Maryland side of Washington D.C.

It’s kinda new upscale Greek.

From my cellar: 1999 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 94. Raveneau’s 1999 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre is in a marvelous spot right now. Petrol, smoke, slate, apricot pit and wild flowers are some of the many notes that grace the palate in an utterly vivid, vibrant Chablis endowed with magnificent purity and pedigree. At fifteen years of age, the 1999 Montée de Tonnerre still has a lot to say. What a beautiful wine!

On yelp people raved about the Shellfish Tower (shown here in large).

The spiced shrimp were good and the oysters nice.

I was less enamored with these weird complicated clam bits.

And actually found the king crab here fishy, frozen tasting, and a bit gross.

The tower overall was a bit disappointing and when downhill as you climbed the tiers.

Trio of dips: Hummus, tzatziki, and melitzanosalata (smoky eggplant, roasted peppers, walnuts, feta). Pretty solid.

Nice flatbread.

Spanakopita (pastry with cheese and spinach). A little amusing by itself on a plate — at a normal Greek place you’d get 3-5 of them per order.

heirloom beets. whipped goat cheese, ruby streaks, pumpkin seed crumble.

Hamachi crudo. tarragon labne, grilled grapes, pine nuts. Only Greek inflected, but tasty.

From my cellar: 1997 Maison Roche de Bellene Clos de la Roche Collection Bellenum. 92 points. Dark in color and loaded with dark fruit. Holding up well. Brambly/herbacious midpalate after a decant.

Out comes this giant lamb shoulder.

Check it out in comparison to my Dad!
Whole lamb shoulder. tabbouleh, cucumber, sumac. A touch over cooked, but very tender and full of flavor. There was tzatziki on the side which is totally necessary.

Overall, Kapnos was okay, but they had issues. The Shellfish Tower was “flawed” and service was friendly but very uneven and slow. They took FOREVER to bring wine glasses and take our order, assuming that we wanted to just hang and chat — but it’s best to check as we had a child. Plus when he did take the order he took a few items from half the table and then just left for 15 minutes. He was nice, but you need to deal with the table. They did try to make (reasonably) good on it later.

During peak time it was quite buzzy.

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Washington – Oyamel
  2. Eating San Sebastian – Borda Berri
  3. Eating San Sebastian – Zeruko
  4. Eating NY – Cosme
  5. Eating Rome – La Pergola
By: agavin
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Eating Washington – Oyamel

Dec25

Restaurant: Oyamel

Location: 11712 San Vicente Blvd.Brentwood, CA 90049 310.826.9222

Date: November 21, 2017 & November 20, 2018

Cuisine: New Mexican

Rating: José Andrés is a stud

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I try to hit a new José Andrés place every-time I’m back in Washington and this time it’s:

His New Mexican joint.

Funky bright decor.

Guacamole station. lol.


The menu.

Classic mojito. Somehow they were out of sugar cane!

New style mojito with foam. Tasty, but went quick.

Chips and salsa. Classic, but I like the roasted salsa and the chips were light and freshly fried.

After seeing the guacamole station how could we refuse?

Freshly made to order, with green tomatillo, serrano chile, crumbled queso fresco and a basket of fresh tortilla chips

Queso fundido con tequila. Melted Chihuahua cheese flambéed with tequila and served with fresh hand-made tortillas. Yummy and gooey.
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Cheese quesadilla for my son (11/20/18).

Ceviche verde. Striped bass marinated in lime juice with avocado and tomatillo. VERY zesty.

Ceviche de atún Pacífico. Ahi tuna with Maggi-lime marinade, scallions, avocado, toasted pecans, fresno chiles and crispy amaranth.

Ensalada de palmitos. Fresh Hamakua Farms hearts of palm, orange, radish, chayote, peanuts with a tamarind dressing. Nice flavors.

Ensalada de Alex-César Cardini. The classic Caesar salad of Romaine lettuce, anchovies, Parmesan cheese, a soft boiled egg and house-made croutons.

Pescado Baja California Taco. Crispy masa tempura-battered mahi-mahi with shredded cabbage, house made chile de arbol mayonnaise, Mexican crema and a salsa Mexicana of tomato, onion and cilantro. A little bit of heat.
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Yucatan style bit barbecued pork taco with pickled red onion and Mexican sour orange (11/20/18).

Camarones a la parilla. Grilled wild caught Gulf Coast white shrimp with sautéed squash, red chile, epazote and avocado. Like Mexican gambas pil pil.

Albóndigas enchipotladas con queso doble crema. Meatballs in chipotle sauce with crumbled ‘double cream’ cheese and cilantro.

Black beans stuffed with cheese.

Tamal de mole Poblano. Shredded chicken tamal with a mole Poblano sauce of almonds, chiles and a touch of chocolate, topped with Mexican crema, sesame seeds and onion.
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Costillas de res con salsa huitlacoche (11/20/18). Local dry-aged beef ribs in ancho and arbol chile rub, mesquite smoked with salsa huitlacoche.

Like all of Jose’s places this was fun and full of zesty flavors. So beats out our local modern Mexican Tallulahs. Wish we had one nearby.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. San Fran – Nopalito
  2. Mexican Swanky – Red O
  3. Eating NY – Cosme
  4. Not so Glorious
  5. La Sandia
By: agavin
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Lincoln Seafood Restaurant

Dec22

Restaurant: Lincoln Seafood Restaurant

Location: Lincoln Plaza Hotel, 123 S Lincoln Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755. Phone number (626) 571-0018

Date: November 19, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Very good

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I’m always up for a new SGV Chinese restaurant and even more so when it’s a dinner organized by Tony Lau — a friend of mine who really knows how to get the best out of Cantonese restaurants.

From my cellar: 2015 Jacques Perritaz Cidrerie du Vulcain Apple Transparente. Very nice fresh 4.5% alcohol French cider.

The habitual peanuts.

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.

Steamed crab. Pretty much straight up but delicious fresh crab.

Vinegar/garlic sauce for the crab.

2009 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Cote de Bouguerots. BH 95. This is a big step up in refinement, particularly aromatically with an abundance of oyster shell and tidal pool nuances that add breadth to the white flower, citrus and Chablis-style green fruit. The rich, powerful and mouth coating flavors possess real drive but also beautiful detail on the intensely mineral-driven finish that possesses outstanding length. This is really quite dry, at least within the context of the 2009 vintage. In a word, terrific.

Whole crispy salt and pepper prawns. With roe, and cooked perfectly so that you could eat the shell too.

2014 Veyder-Malberg Grüner Veltliner Maischegarung Hochrain.

The heads of the prawns return with chilis. Not as good as the bodies, but great still.

From my cellar: 1995 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui. AG 92.  Deep red-ruby. Extravagantly rich aromas of blackcurrant, pepper, smoke and tar. Large-scaled, deep and very sweet; explosively fruity and impressively tactile. Chewy tannins are buried under a wave of finishing fruit. A knockout Clos Vougeot truly worthy of its grand cru status.

Whole suckling pig. A great version of the cantonese classic. Super crispy skin, awesome meat.

Azienda Bricco Asili (Ceretto) Barbaresco Bricco Asili. Great wine, can’t remember the year.

French style beef. Also a classic, but very nice. Lots of flavor and very tender.

2006 Marcassin Pinot Noir Three Sisters Vineyard. BH 76. An advanced and overtly funky nose of strong reduction is nuanced by that same bothersome note of melted vinyl that I seem to consistently find with the Marcassin wines. On the plus side, the round, supple and impressively-scaled flavors possess very solid mid-palate concentration yet the finish is edgy, short, bitter and noticeably warm. Bottom line: Given the description, suffice it to say that this wine is singularly unpersuasive. Caveat emptor.

agavin: our bottle was better than that.

Roast goose. Like peking duck — only goose! Dark and rich.

And served with the hoisin and green onions.

And the squishy buns.

1997 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl. VM 89+. Very unforthcoming nose hints at lime blossom, spearmint and citrus oil. Structured and quite dry in the mouth; distinctly austere for a riesling from this vintage. Combines just 4 g/l r.s. with 8.5 g/l acidity, the highest of these ’97 rieslings. Will go petrolly with bottle age. This plot, which ripens slowly and stubbornly retains acidity, was the last of Humbrecht riesling vineyards to be harvested in ’97.

100 flower chicken. Now this was a new dish and absolutely spectacular — as Yarom puts it, an 11. Prawn meat and the chicken were spread into a patty and pan fried with crispy skin on top. Totally boneless with a dimsum like taste. Amazing!

2006 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection. 92 points.

2012 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino. VM 91. Bright red with a pale rim. Sweet spices, red cherry and camphor are immediately obvious on the nose, while an herbal note clears wth aeration. The red cherry note repeats on the palate, where it’s complicated by hints of tobacco and sweet chocolate. Long and vibrant but very suave, this really improved in the glqss so decant about four hours ahead at least (in fact, Giacomo Neri told me he believes this would have tasted better eight hours after opening, and even more so if tasted the next day). Lovely brunello.

Greens. Not my favorite greens. Very stalky with a slightly bitter taste.

 

1999 M. Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie. 92 points. Very nicely put together Cote-Rotie. Nose showed meat and some leather along with sweet morello cherry, blueberry and violets.

Secret soup.

Turtle stew! This one was thicker and richer than the last 2 we had. You can see the thick turtle meat and there was a lot of garlic and some crunchy vegetable (lotus?).

Mixed up.

They also brought it with these crispy pan fried noodles.

You poured over the noodles. Amazing!

Soup in the bowl (in case you missed it).

Weird Chinese Tapioca dessert.

And I brought strawberry gelato and white chocolate gelato with milk chocolate stripes.

Overall, I was actually surprised given the dated look of the place (in an ancient Monterey Park hotel) how great the food was. Tony Lau really knows how to get the best dishes out of places and they also really treated us great. I’d certainly go back as this was a great Cantonese meal from a kitchen that is on point.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. SGV Nights – Seafood Palace
  2. New Bay Seafood
  3. Top Island Seafood
  4. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village
  5. Newport Special Seafood
By: agavin
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Tasting Kitchen

Dec20

Restaurant: Tasting Kitchen

Location: 1633 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291 (310) 392-6644

Date: November 14, 2017 & February 19, 2018

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Fun place, good food, great service

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Years ago I used to read about all sorts of popup dinners with great chefs at Tasting Kitchen on Abbot Kinney. I never went because I’m just not that into mobilizing rapidly for popups (unless someone else organizes and invites me).

But Tasting Kitchen eventually turned into a restaurant of its own — albeit the concept that led to the name is totally different. Tonight core members of the Foodie Club descend on it to work our special kind of over-the-top magic.

It’s an attractive space with an “outside”.

A nice inside.

And a loft.

Which is where we set up shop. The place was rocking.

The menu.

From my cellar: 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.
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Bread & Butter. Delicious, but extra money.

Kitchen selection of antipasti. Toasts, a couple kinds of ham and salami. Pate. Rilletes of duck. Pecorino and burrata with persimmons. A big plate too and delicious.

From my cellar: 2007 Pierre Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93+. Pale, bright yellow. Knockout nose combines underripe pineapple, crushed stone and a flinty nuance. Big, rich and voluminous, but with lovely penetration and purity to the pineapple and crushed stone flavors. Wonderfully sweet, tactile wine with outstanding density and breadth for the year. This very long, scented wine remained on my palate for minutes. From very old virused vines in a spot that’s protected from wind by walls on three sides, notes Morey. But the yield in 2007 was still a solid 45 hectoliters per hectare. Wonderfully powerful, youthful Meursault that should reward a decade of aging.

Mussels Portuguese style. Great version of this classic tomato garlic mussels dish. The mussels themselves were really plump and juicy.

Ron brought: 2014 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Vergers Clos Saint-Marc. VM 94+. Bright, light yellow. Pure tension on the nose, with aromas of blood orange and citrus zest dominating. Boasts outstanding fruit intensity and crunchiness, with a vibrant white peach flavor complicated by a suggestion of grilled pips. Utterly seamless wine but with outstanding inner-mouth lift from brisk, noble acidity (4.5 grams per liter, according to Pillot) without any herbacity. This adamantly primary, intensely juicy premier cru builds dramatically on its peacock’s tail of a finish. Stunning potential here.

Burrata, butternut, pepitas, pomegranate. No one told us that the antipasti already came with this, so we had two helpings — which was okay because I love burrata.
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Baby beets, citrus, pistachio (2/19/18). Pretty typical.

Warm olives with orange zest. Our pasta was taking forever and so they brought us these olives. They were actually excellent, some great olives, very soft and warm and the orange zest and olive oil really brought them up.

Erick brought: 1990 Maison Leroy Maranges. 89 points. I had high hopes because it was Leroy but it was a little tight and astringent with the fruit in hiding. Not oxidized or old tasting at all. After some time it did open up a bit and became better.

Agnolotti with beef tendon and maitake mushroom. Super salty but absolutely awesome reduction sauce and really nice pasta texture.

Riso alla pilota with prosciutto and fagioli. The beans wrecked me later. Meanwhile it was a bit like fried rice with pork and beans. Fairly mild in flavor and the “worst” of the pastas even though it wasn’t bad.

Malagliati alla boscaiola. Not what I expected at all, as usually boscaiola has cream and peas but really great. Thick sheets of chewy pasta with a nice rich buttery sauce and incredible savory hammy chunks.

Bucatini all’amatriciana. Not totally typical in flavor, mild on the porkiness, but really bright and delicious.
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Spaghetti, lobster, pomodor, pilacca (2/19/18). Nice.
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Gigli, lamb sausage, rapini, lemon (2/19/18). I would have liked more sausage.

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Corzetti, pancetta, peas, egg yolk (2/19/18). Nice pasta and gorgeous coin shapes.

Larry brought: 2002 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline. VM 90. smells downright Burgundian. Silky, sweet and mineral-driven red fruit flavors offer impressive energy and focus, with just a suggestion of tannin on the back end. I find this really elegant today.

agavin: we decanted and after it had a bit of time opened up into an awesome wine.

Salt roasted branzino. chanterelle, oregano, pine-nut. Very nice super moist seabass.

Short rib, brasato al barolo, celery root, chestnut, gremolata. Meaty and solid.
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Spinach, pinenuts, roasted garlic (2/19/18). Almost like a Chinese veggie.
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French fries (2/19/18) — excellent ones too.

The dessert menu.

The staff was very nice and brought us glasses of this!

The glass.

Chocolate caramel tart. Mint anglaise, salted caramel gelato. Yummy stuff and very attractive.
Hazelnut cream cake. Mascarpone, hazelnut gelato. This was even better. Just delicious.
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Crostata, cinnamon, apple, vanilla whip (2/19/18). With the candle for my brother’s birthday.

Overall, we had a great time at Tasting Kitchen. There were a few quirks. First the bad (much overcome by the good). The kitchen was very backed up (they were mobbed) and the food took a LONG time. The bench seat I was on looked comfortable but my butt was going numb and I had to keep standing.

But now for the many plusses. The servers were incredibly nice, helpful, and attentive. Really very good service. They made up for the kitchen slowness. The place, as I mentioned, was very busy and had a great atmosphere full of attractive looking people. Nice build out too. Hostess was nice as well (not always the case at every place by any means). They were very generous/flexible on the corkage.

The food was quite good. It’s not a super extensive menu, nor is it seemingly highly innovative, but the flavors were very bright and most of the dishes excellent, and the lesser ones fine. They “secretly” have a lot of very good pasta here — particularly for it not being an Italian restaurant. Location is great on the super busy ultra-hip high rent Abbot Kinney. I’ll definitely come back.

Came back for my brother’s birthday 2/19/18. Food was just as strong. We were downstairs which was darker and louder.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Factoring Factory Kitchen
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  5. Saint Martha Modern
By: agavin
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Why Walnut? — OOToro

Dec18

Restaurant: OOToro [1, 2, 3]

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

Date: November 11, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi (with slight nod to China)

Rating: Ends of the earth, but very good

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

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

T T
T T

The menu.

This time we had the private room.

Which even has its own sushi chef!

From my cellar: 2000 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 96. A wonderfully layered and nuanced nose features an intense yeasty character to the maturing fruit that displays interesting phenolic characters, in particular petrol, along with aromas of apple, pear and soft citrus hints. In contrast to the nascent maturity expressed by the nose the flavor profile is still tight and backward with a genuinely gorgeous texture, all wrapped in a strikingly persistent and highly complex finish. For my taste the 2000 Brut is at an inflection point as the nose does offer enough maturity so that it’s really quite pretty whereas the palate impression is substantially younger. As such it really just depends on how you prefer your Champagne because I suspect that the nose will be very mature by the time the still very youthful flavors attain their majority. For my taste preferences it would be no vinous crime to begin enjoying this now but be aware that this will age for a very long time. The best approach is probably to buy 6, or even 12, bottles and enjoy them over a longer period of time.

Cod sperm sacks in ponzu with spicy daikon. Looks like brain, has a slimy texture, and you slurp it all down in one go. Pretty awesome actually — even if it tasted mostly of ponzu.

Ginger.

Right to left (as most descriptions will be): Kawahagi with seaweed salt. On the left the same fish with yuzu juice and Himalayan salt. Very mild and light.

From my cellar: 2014 Domaine Sylvain Pataille Bourgogne Blanc Chardonnay Rose. This lovely and floral wine is made from a different clone of the Chardonnay grape called “Chardonnay Rose.” Very unusual and delicious.

Amuses. Right to left. Seared abalone, sea snail, potato salad with tobiko, and persimmon and butter layer cake. All very good for what they are.

Sashimi (photo wasn’t mine which is why it’s blurry). Front to back: Shima Aji, chu toro, o toro. Delicious cuts of fish and really nice house ground wasabi.

2014 La Chablisienne Chablis 1er Cru Mont de Milieu. BH 93. This is notably ripe though the nose stops just short of expressing exotic fruit aromas and I particularly like the plethora of Chablis characters present on the pear and citrus scents. There is excellent richness, volume and density to the full-bodied flavors that possess plenty of minerality on the powerful lemon-inflected finale that is both persistent and quite dry. Very fine quality here.

Live lobster sashimi. It was still wiggling.

There was a bit of pepper on there too and some yuzu or lime.

From my cellar: 1994 R. López de Heredia Rioja Blanco Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia. 95 points. Aromas of nuts, hay, wood and minerals. Smooth texture. Deep, intense and concentrated.

Steamed abalone with sake. Very soft and tender for abalone. Briney but nice.

Kumamoto oysters with two types of caviar and with daikon. Lovely little oysters.

On the left, golden eye snapper sushi and on the right red snapper sushi. Citrus zing.

Yarom posing with the main chef.

Ruby snapper seared. An awesome piece of fish!

2013 Sine Qua Non …And An Eight Track. 92 points. Very nice hefty rose. Seared o toro with takuan. Underneath the fish is a bit of crunchy pickled daikon. Really great interplay of different textures, flavors, and temperature.

Toro with foie gras and mountain potatoes and leeks! Now that is a lot of goodness.

Uni and toro with avocado and…

Shaved black truffle!

Hokkaido hairy crab legs and guts. I love kani miso (crab guts).

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

agavin: I actually liked this as new world pinots go.

Sliced A5 wagyu for the next dish.

The chef presents the documents.

Wagyu/lobster shabu shabu! You dip the wagyu into here to cook it (delicious) and

Then dip in the sauces. As a bonus the broth becomes incredibly delicious with the beef fat.

Arnie brought: 2011 Aubert Pinot Noir CIX Estate Vineyard. VM 91. The 2011 Pinot Noir CIX Vineyard is gorgeous. Dark red cherries, flowers, mint and licorice all come together nicely. A pointed, beautifully articulated wine, the 2011 impresses for its focus, length and nuance. Like its Chardonnay sibling, the CIX Pinot lacks a little of mid-palate stuffing that will likely come with further vine age. Today, the CIX is a bit tight, but I imagine it will always remain energetic and vibrant in style.

Lobster and seafood tempura. First rate tempura.

Blue fin tuna sushi.

Chu toro sushi.

O Toro sushi. All 3 amazing.

Purple yam (ume) dessert with edamame (soy bean) sauce. Sounds weird. Colors are odd, but it was surprisingly delicious for a Japanese dessert!

Overall, OOToro — while always good — really upped its game tonight. This was by far the best meal we have had here and much more subtle and sophisticated than some of the previous fare. Really great stuff.

But that drive! It was so far that most of the party booked a nearby Marriot and turned it into a bunch of meals, massages, and other decadences. I drove home to my lovely wife.

To sober up we went to a cafe nearby, as the 85 degrees was closed 🙁

Got some delicious warm cookies.

And lemon pound cake.

And an iced latte.

 

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Related posts:

  1. Cheeks & Things – OOToro
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  3. Japanese in China – Izakaya Akatora
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  5. Sumo Bowl Yamakase
By: agavin
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Jazz Jitlada

Dec15

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: November 9, 2017

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

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Tonight’s outing is a Hedonist return to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong, and just last month her brother, partner, and chef tragically passed away. We came to pay our respects (and enjoy some excellent Thai cooking).

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce. The menu can be found here.

2010 Domaine Louis Michel Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. Here the components of the nose are similar to those of the Fourchaume yet here it is notably more floral. There is impressive complexity to the dense, rich and concentrated flavors that offer plenty of oyster shell and iodine hints on the balanced and stunningly persistent bone dry finish. This is really lovely juice and well worth your attention.

Papaya salad. Solid, but not as yummy as the fried one below.

2013 Domaine Michelot Meursault Sous La Velle. VM 90. Ripe yellow peach aroma shows an almost syrupy aspect. Suave and silky in texture, with fruit-driven flavors of peach and orange. The crop level here was “almost normal” in 2013, noted Mestre. This is very good. (Incidentally, the Bourgogne here, which is entirely from vines in Meursault, is dry, savory and classic, even if it’s more Chardonnay than Meursault.)

Crispy Morning Glory Salad. This salad of shrimp and fried morning glory is just plain glorious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Basically tempura flowers and it’s really the tangy, slightly sweet sauce/dressing that really makes it. Very similar to many of the salads I had in Vietnam.

2006 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Felsentürmchen Spätlese. JG 94. To my knowledge the first time that Helmut Dönnhoff bottled this section of the Felsenberg on its own was in 2001, when this upper section of the vineyard supplied the auction Spätlese from the vintage. The 2006 will again be a magical bottle, as the wine offers up very primary nose of lavender, a huge base of stony soil tones, white cherries, oranges, petrol, iris blooms and an exotic spice note redolent of turmeric. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, pure, minerally and very racy, with more solid than liquid at the core, great cut and structure, and a blazingly long, palate-staining finish. A brilliant Spätlese! (Drink between 2012-2035)

Pepper pork belly. Really tasty chewy pork belly bits with super yummy spicy sauce.

2007 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese. VM 93+. Tantalizing aromas of papaya, sweet herbs and incense. Discreet but intense black cherry fruit rises from the mid-palate, accompanied by brilliant acidity. Animated and finely spiced, with a deep, long finish. I may be underrating this.

Coco lotus soup. This was a mild red coconut curry soup with chicken. It was amazing! Really fabulous curry flavor. Tons of tamarind giving it a really balanced sour tone.

2006 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. JG 93. To my palate the auction Auslese from the Sonnenuhr was a significant step up from the Spätlese, and this was indeed a delightful wine in the making. The classy nose demonstrated a sophisticated glazing of botrytis, as it jumped from the glass in a blend of apple, pear, bee pollen, slate, incipient notes of petrol and spring flowers. On the palate the wine is medium-full, complex and beautifully glazed with botrytis, with a lovely, glossy attack, a fine core of fruit, and a very long, crisp and ethereal finish.

Flambe Prawns. Grilled giant prawns topped with our house curry sauce. These are amazing. The sweet curry sauce is just full of curry flavor goodness.

2011 Ovid Syrah.

2015 Robert Mondavi Winery Pinot Noir Pommard Clone. Yuck! Didn’t taste like pinot.

Jazz burger. A big beef patty covered in onions, peppers, and dressing. The flavors were fabulous.

White rice in the tin of mysterious lightness.

Red Duck Curry. Not spicy but incredibly delicious.

2004 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Selbach is such an elegant house, consistently producing kabinetten and spatlesen that are light, airy and elegant. This spatlese showed some of the reserve of the 2004 vintage, with less expressive fruit. The wine was nonetheless balanced, with a significant honey/honeydew/orange zest and general citrus overlay. While the wine has some development left, I did not find enough expression of more complex flavors at this stage to rate it higher.

Yellow pork curry. Saffron or turmeric taste. Again mild and delicious.

From my cellar: 2008 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Heimbourg Sélection de Grains Nobles. VM 98. Medium gold. Utterly captivating nose melds bitter orange peel, apricot, wildflower honey and minerals. Thick, tactile and extremely young, with powerful acidity giving it a slightly disjointed character initially. For all its huge density, there’s great cut to the flavors of apricot, honey and flowers, with the wine’s powerful sweetness leavened by a savory element. Finishes with palate-staining fruit, outstanding energy and uncanny persistence. This came together brilliantly with aeration, maintaining great refinement and a sensation of weightlessness. Will go on for decades.

Jungle curry with lamb. Exotic thai curry with god knows what in it. This stuff was HOT and pretty fabulous. The heat was insane. Slow burn, such that you started in on it and thought it would be fine, but then building to a head-sweating mind-altering gut-burning sear. Took me 6-8 hours to recover from a relatively small portion!

1988 Marcel Deiss Gewurztraminer Altenberg de Bergheim Sélection de Grains Nobles. 92 points. Popped and poured, with cork crumbling and the wine poured in to a decanter. I think the air this ended up getting was most helpful. Beautiful sweet (but not overly so) stone fruits and spice on the nose. And an initial sweetness in the mouth that morphs in to a somewhat surprisingly much drier mid-palate. Complex with a good, but not as lingering finish as the very best Deiss SGNs can show.

Larb. Ground pork with spices, fish sauce, etc. Pretty hot too and salty/vinegary. Not my absolute favorite Jitlada dish.

Turmeric fried rice with chicken wings. Interesting!

Pad See Yew with chicken. Rich noodles, sweet and mild. I could barely taste anything after the jungle curry.

I love Jitlada, and it’s hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. Tonight’s meal was one of the best we had, despite the absence of the chef in the kitchen 🙁  We had only 7-8 people, which is about the max you can have here. Once we had way too many people and and some late comers that botched the whole progression.

Tonight we ordered very well. Every dish was very good, most great. We had a pretty nice progression. Sure, there are favorites we missed, the menu is vast, but it was a great meal. Jazz hung out with us for a chunk of it and helped us order. The kitchen was really on point too with some dishes that have a little variability all coming down on the awesome side tonight.

Not super spicy either, only the jungle curry busting the 5 or 6 line (it was an 11, even on the weighted Jitlada scale of blistering heat).

All in all, if you like Thai food and live (or visit) in LA you must try Jitlada.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

Related posts:

  1. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
  2. Jitlada Overkill
  3. Jitlada – 9 is Nice
  4. Hedonists at Jitlada
  5. Renu Nakorn
By: agavin
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Chicken Crawl – Savoy Kitchen

Dec13

Restaurant: Savoy Kitchen

Location: 138 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. Phone number (626) 308-9535

Date: November 04, 2017

Cuisine: Hainan Chicken

Rating: Decent curry

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Occasionally those of us Hedonists who are really serious about our Chinese food do a food crawl of some sort. Today’s was 5 stops, all for Hainan Chicken Rice. This is a traditional dish of Hainan Provence in southern China and is one of the national dishes of Singapore. Poached at low temp with garlic and ginger. The broth is supposed to be used to cook the rice. It is served with a variety of sauces.

This is part 5. The full set is: [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5]

Savoy is a corner on the main drag of Valley Blvd right in Alhambra, close to dozens of places I’ve eaten at.

The menu.

Hainan Chicken of course. This was my least favorite chicken. It was pretty straight up. Soy, ginger, and spicy sauce. The rice was totally normal white rice — fail!

“famous” beef curry. It wasn’t bad. Typical Indonesian brown curry with potatoes and beef. Here is a closer aproximation of the garlic rice.

This was my least favorite place, or at least my least favorite Hainan Chicken. The menu was really odd, Hong Kong cafe style in that it has curry, chicken, lots of sloppy looking weird pasta, and pizza! Woah.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Chicken Crawl – Dong Nguyen
  2. Chicken Crawl – Red Chicken
  3. Chicken Crawl – Tasty Food
  4. Chicken Crawl – Side Chick
  5. Duck House – Crawl part 4
By: agavin
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Chicken Crawl – Dong Nguyen

Dec11

Restaurant: Dong Nguyen

Location: 1433 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 300-8618

Date: November 04, 2017

Cuisine: Hainan Chicken

Rating: Good sauce

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Occasionally those of us Hedonists who are really serious about our Chinese food do a food crawl of some sort. Today’s was 5 stops, all for Hainan Chicken Rice. This is a traditional dish of Hainan Provence in southern China and is one of the national dishes of Singapore. Poached at low temp with garlic and ginger. The broth is supposed to be used to cook the rice. It is served with a variety of sauces.

This is part 4. The full set is: [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5]

Somewhere, somewhen, someone decided to build a mall in the SGV and decorate it with Old West meets New Orleans style! Then it was occupied entirely by Asian businesses.

Yeah, even the tower.

Now there is a tough name to say.

The inside is “casual.”

With an intriguing east/west blend of decor. Notice those 19th century French portraits.

House soup. Everyone gets one. It was very mild and basically spinach soup or something but was actually surprisingly good.

Hainan Chicken. Dark meat. Rice was just regular rice as far as I could tell. The sauce, which can only be described as garlic fish sweet and sour sauce was delicious. Best sauce maybe of the day. The closest rival was at Red Chicken.

They also have a good sized mixed Chinese and Vietnamese menu. We didn’t try any of it though.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Chicken Crawl – Side Chick
  2. Chicken Crawl – Red Chicken
  3. Chicken Crawl – Tasty Food
  4. Duck House – Crawl part 4
  5. Broiling Pit is the Pits – Crawl part 3
By: agavin
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Vega Sicilia – Hearth and Hound

Dec10

Restaurant: Hearth & Hound

Location: 6530 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 320-4022

Date: November 18, 2017

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Amazing wine and really good food

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Liz Lee at Sage Society organizes some of the most amazing wine maker dinners and this night of Vega Sicilia is no exception.

The dinner took place at Hearth and Hound which is opening in the old Cat & Fiddle space in Hollywood — but it wasn’t even open yet. Still, the chef and crew beta tested (superbly) on us.

There is a gorgeous patio here that I failed to photograph well.

We have a few stems for the night — one for each wine and all individually labeled.

The inside has been completely redone.

Everyone is jumping on the “Asador” (wood fire grill) bandwagon these days.

Lamb legs spinning in front of the fire.

Octopus legs.

Mushrooms ready to cook.

And other prep.
Including cauliflower.

Tonight’s special menu.

All the wines are from Vega Sicilia except for this intro Champagne (they don’t make champ).

NV Petit & Bajan Champagne Grand Cru Ambrosie Brut.

Parmesan Beignet. Chickpea flower I think, as I was told they were gluten free.
Whipped Cod Toast. This was my favorite amuse. A nice briney quality.

Shigoku Oyster. Garlic.

We were situated in the private room — of course we had the whole restaurant so that didn’t matter tonight. The room was fairly open though and connected to the kitchen and as such the white noise drone of the hood was fairly loud.

Liz stands and presents our honored guests.

Pablo Álvarez, owner of Spain’s greatest estate, Vega Sicilia.

On the right is Taylor Parsons, former wine director at Republique and a friend of Liz. He coordinated the wine service for the evening. Behind him is some of Liz’s staff and the restaurant managers. Apparently Make D of the Beastie Boys helps with the wine list too! Whacky.

Brit April Bloomfield of New York’s the Spotted Pig is a partner and helms the kitchen here at Hearth & Hound. She is partnered with Ken Friedman.

2012 Bodegas Pintia Toro Pintia. VM 93. Bright violet. Suave oak-spiced black and blue fruit, pipe tobacco and floral pastille aromas are complicated by mocha and vanilla flourishes. Plush and broad on the palate, offering sweet cassis and blackberry flavors that tighten up slowly on the back half. Rich yet surprisingly energetic in style, finishing sweet, sappy and impressively long; youthful tannins add framework and grip.

agavin: very fresh and fruity. 300k bottles made. Tinto del toro (which is a kind of tempranillo). Mixed American and French oak for 10 months.

2013 Bodegas y Viñedos Alión Ribera del Duero. JG 91. I routinely bought a case of Alion for my cellar each vintage for the first several years after Vega Sicilia started this project, but as the years rolled by, I somehow lost track of this wine and was delighted when the team at Vega sent the new vintage in my box of samples. The 2013 Alion is comprised entirely of tempranillo and raised in new French wood. The wine is ripe at 14.5 percent octane, but also refined and beautifully balanced. The bouquet offers up a classy blend of black cherries, plums, cocoa powder, cigar wrapper, a fine base of soil and smoky, nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and nicely transparent in profile, with a good core, fine focus and grip, ripe tannins and good length and grip on the well-balanced finish. This wine is beautifully made in its style, with the new wood very well done and the ripeness level managed with dexterity.

agavin: French oak for 12-14 months.

2012 Bodegas y Viñedos Alión Ribera del Duero. VM 93. Opaque ruby. An explosively perfumed bouquet evokes ripe dark berries, violet, licorice, pipe tobacco and toasty oak, and a suave mineral flourish adds vivacity. Sweet, seamless and broad on the palate, offering powerful cassis, cherry-vanilla and floral pastille flavors that become livelier and more spicy as the wine opens up. Distinctly rich but graceful as well, showing zero excess fat and no rough edges. Closes impressively long and sappy, with sneaky tannins adding gentle grip. This bodega, which is owned by the Vega Sicilia group, has been on a serious quality roll in recent vintages.

Wood-Roasted Cauliflower. Marinated with romesco. Very Spanish, and in some ways very much influenced by the asador style. Crisp and yet lightly pickled it was quite delicious. Very bright flavors.

2012 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 93. Opaque ruby. Primary dark berry and cherry scents are complemented by suggestions of vanilla, coconut, cured tobacco and cedary oak and accented by a suave floral topnote. Sappy, concentrated and expansive in the mouth, offering sweet black raspberry, cherry-vanilla and candied licorice flavors that are supported by a spine of juicy acidity. Unfolds slowly with air, picking up a spicy quality that carries through the very long, gently tannic finish, which echoes the cherry and coconut notes. Hands off this one for at least a few more years.

2011 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 94. Inky ruby. Sexy, high-pitched dark berry and floral pastille aromas are complemented by suggestions of oak spices and smoky minerals. Shows a surprisingly light touch on the palate, offering sharply focused blackberry, bitter cherry, licorice candy and floral pastille flavors that deepen and become sweeter with air. Harmonious tannins add grip to the extremely long, sappy finish, which leaves behind notes of dark berry preserves and candied lavender.

2010 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 95. Opaque ruby. Powerful, deeply pitched red and dark berry preserve, incense and floral pastille scents are enlivened by an intense mineral quality. Concentrated yet strikingly vibrant and focused on the palate, showing bitter cherry, black raspberry and vanilla flavors that spread out with air while maintaining urgency. An extremely long, sweet, penetrating finish features velvety, harmonious tannins that provide gentle grip to the wine’s sappy berry fruit and candied lavender qualities. This stunning wine was aged for 18 months in new oak, half of it American and half of it French. I can’t recall a better version of this bottling at this stage of its development and I hesitate to apply an arbitrary drinking window here as I’m sure that it will outlive me.

2009 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 94. Opaque ruby. Spice- and mineral-accented aromas of dark berries, cherry pit and potpourri, with a toasty topnote. Minerally, incisive and sweet on the palate, offering smoky cherry and blackcurrant flavors complicated by vanilla, mocha and licorice. Shows impressive power and vivacity on the youthfully tannic finish, with the smoke and spice notes strongly repeating.

Grilled octopus with puree and basil oil. Super tender. Very nice tentacle.

2008 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 94. Vega Sicilia’s 2008 Tinto Valbuena 5 Anos is compelling. A young, intense wine, the 2008 is going to need significant time to fully come together, but it boasts superb depth, persistence and a total sense of harmony. Hints of cedar, tobacco and sweet spices wrap around an intense core of dark fruit.

agavin: these “older” Valbuenas have more Merlot and Malbec in them.

2007 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 93. Ruby-red. Aromas of dried cherry, raspberry, vanilla, mocha and Cuban tobacco, with smoke and potpourri accents. Supple and expansive, offering sweet, spice-accented red and dark berry and floral pastille flavors that stain the palate. Dusty tannins add shape and grip to the very long, smooth, penetrating finish. I find this wine quite approachable now but it has the balance to age. Not the weightiest Valbuena but very impressive for the vintage.

2006 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5°. VM 94. Deep ruby. Heady, exotic bouquet evokes candied cherry, cassis, sassafras, vanilla and potpourri, plus a smoky overtone. Sappy and expansive but energetic, offering sweet cherry and floral pastille flavors lifted by spice and mineral notes. Gains sweetness with air and finishes with superb clarity and spicy persistence. This benefits enormously from aeration but really should be stashed away for at least another five years.

Seared duck breast with pumpkin. Rather delicious and gamey.

2008 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 96. Opaque ruby. Powerful, expansive aromas of cherry liqueur, cassis, pipe tobacco, incense and pungent flowers show outstanding clarity and pick up a smoky mineral quality with air. Stains the palate with concentrated dark berry, bitter cherry and rose pastille flavors that are complicated by notes of mocha, cola and Indian spices. Distinctly generous in style but there’s outstanding energy here as well. The gently tannic, dark-fruit-dominated finish emphatically echoes the spice and floral notes and lingers with striking persistence. Production for this bottling was cut by over half in this challenging vintage and the result shows what can happen when severe selection is applied in the vineyard and cellar. Speaking of tough years, the 2002 version of this iconic wine, from a vintage that has been ignored at best and vilified at worst, is drinking beautifully right now. In fact, it appears to have just entered its drinking window: its fruit is still a bit on the youthful side while its tannins have begun to recede. Like this 2008, it’s a textbook example of what great vineyards, diligent farming and serious winemaking can accomplish under difficult circumstances.

agavin: Unico is released very late, only in good years, and is 85% tinto (Tempranillo) and some Cabernet.

2007 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 93. Vivid ruby-red. Spice- and mineral-accented redcurrant, cherry, cured tobacco and candied rose on the highly perfumed nose. A juicy, sharply focused midweight offering lively red fruit and floral pastille flavors and earthy suggestions of chewing tobacco and succulent herbs. In a graceful, energetic style (due to the cool vintage, no doubt), with strong finishing cut, resonating floral character and velvety tannins coming in late to add shape and grip. A successful wine for the vintage, no question.

2005 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 97. Saturated ruby. Explosively perfumed aromas of fresh ripe red fruits, floral oils, pipe tobacco and incense take on sexy vanilla and woodsmoke nuances as the wine opens up. Densely packed yet shockingly lithe on the palate, offering intense cherry liqueur, red currant and spicecake flavors given spine by a core of juicy acidity. Shows superb energy and clarity, finishing sweet, smoky and extremely long; velvety tannins add gentle grip.

2003 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 95. Inky ruby. Highly aromatic scents of ripe cherry and dark berries, singed plum, cured tobacco and succulent herbs, with a vanilla undertone. Sweet, expansive and powerful, offering intense black and blue fruit flavors with smoke and floral accents. Rich and full but surprisingly lively, with excellent finishing thrust and sweet, harmonious tannins adding grip. Shows the ripeness of the vintage to good effect; this is a somewhat approachable and exotic Unico, especially with some air, but it has the concentration to age slowly.

2002 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 92. Bright ruby. Smoky, floral-accented aromas of redcurrant, cherry pit and plum, with a peppery topnote. Sweet and open-knit, offering musky red fruit and floral pastille flavors and notes of mocha and succulent herbs. Shows very good depth and power for the vintage, finishing smooth, sweet and long. Not the greatest Vega by any means but highly successful for 2002, and you can actually enjoy it right now.

Dry aged beef ribeye. Definitely could taste the age. Nice mushrooms with it too.

The glasses keep adding up.

And the piece de resistance: lamb.

Plus potatoes bravos.

The whole team worked to assemble this dish.

NV Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único Reserva Especial 2003, 2004, 2006 (2017 Release). VM 96. Vivid ruby-red. Ripe cherry, dark berries, cigar box, vanilla bean and incense on the deeply perfumed, expansive nose. Shows impressive weight and breadth on the palate, offering sappy blackberry, candied cherry and spicecake flavors complicated by hints of rose pastille, vanilla and licorice. The smooth, strikingly long finish shows a seamless quality and repeating floral and dark berry notes that build as the wine opens up. While this wine has plenty going on right now, I’ve no doubt that it will enjoy a long, positive evolution as well.

agavin: next to the “regular” unicos you can taste how much more powerful and broad the blended reservas are — they are amazing.

NV Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único Reserva Especial 1994, 1995, 2000 (2014 Release). 95 points. Extremely concentrated with aromas of leather, blackberry, vanilla, butter. One of the best oaked young wines iv’e tasted. Outstanding quality with high potential for agening, 95p at least, higher score for the future.

NV Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único Reserva Especial 1994, 1999, 2000 (2013 Release). 95 points. Nose of plumbs, chocolate, vanilla and tobacco. Rich complex palate. Lovely.

NV Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único Reserva Especial 1991, 1994, 1999 (2012 Release). 93 points. Savory nose of umami, freshly plucked seaweed, and a beguiling mix of coffee bean, dark spices and blackberry juice. Medium toward full-bodied at first, this adds weight but also elegance with each successive glass, thanks to abundant acidity and seamlessly layered fruits. A joy to drink now, with great upside as well. Ideally, I would/will try again in 5 years, if possible. Still scratching my head at just how approachable this is today, yet with obvious structure for the long run as well.

Lamb leg a la Ficelle. Potatoes bravos. Apparently Ficelle is wood fire cooked while spinning. Super delicious lump of lamb. There was a lot left over and I could have eaten 3 of these.

1982 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 98. Even better than the 1990, the 1982 Unico is simply one of the very best wines I have tasted in some time. Powerful, fleshy and full of energy, the 1982 Unico is another wine that is almost overwhelmingly beautiful. A striking mélange of savory herbs, smoke and tobacco add complexity, but the 1982 is about the total package. And the 1982 has it all going on. In a word: Magnificent.

agavin: our bottle unfortunately wasn’t drinking at its best. It wasn’t bad or anything, but just a little flat.

1970 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. VM 94. The 1970 is the most subtle of these Unicos, although I have tasted fresher examples. Delicate and perfumed throughout, the 1970 is laced with the essence of crushed flowers, tobacco, dried cherries and mint.

agavin: our bottle was amazing. Fresh, young, tight even, but massively powerful and delicious.

Ossau-Iraty cheese and roll.

2007 Oremus Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos. 94 points. The bouquet was deep and rich with notes of ripe peach, mango, plum, dried flowers and hints sweet herbs. On the palate a velvety wave of textures was offset by stunning acidity, ripe tropical fruits, sweet inner florals and spiced apple. It finished unbelievably long with a contrast of rich textures, tart citrus and zesty acidity.

agavin: tons of acidity and hence really delicious

Rush Creek Reserve cheese. Not too far off from a vaucheron. Like cultured butter.

My cryptic notes.

The wine lineup.

Taylor tastes all the bottles and puts out a glass of each for the staff.

The final glass count.
 They didn’t use this for our meal, but they have the same Carpigiani batch freezer (for making gelato/ice cream) that I have in my basement for my experiments on Sweet Milk.

Overall, the food was great. I’m not sure what’s on the menu normally, as this was a very Spanish inflected meal — which worked perfectly with all that Vega Sicilia, of course. And the wines were amazing, particularly the Reserva’s.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Sauvages Rioja at the Bazaar
  2. SOS – Smoke Oil Salt
  3. Mercado Madness
  4. Barrel & Ashes – BBQ Go Big
  5. Saint Joseph at Maison G
By: agavin
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