Author Archive for agavin – Page 57

Yamakase Yummy

Dec21

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: December 17, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Best yet!

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My Foodie Club Yamakase meal last May was so good, we just had to go back before the year was out.

Again we had the whole place, but it’s a new place, having moved a little closer to my house into a space that is perhaps twice as large. Now that’s still small, but they have about 4-5 feet behind you instead of 18 inches and there is a section beyond the 11-12 person sushi bar with a couple of tables. No one else was there besides our 12, so we just used those tables for wine staging.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé. A nice youthful vintage Champy.

Homemade sesame tofu, Momotaro tomato, and uni. A “typical” Yamakase uni/tofu dish. Great interplay of textures and flavors.

From my cellar: 1990 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet. 94 points. Superb rich butterscotch nose. Medium gold in color. Not oxidized. Classic batard richness and oiliness. Still some fruit but the oak becames more prominent with time.

Abalone with eel sauce. The crunchy chewy mollusk simply served and delicious.

From my cellar: 1995 Pierre Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 89 points. This was a nice Perrieres, showing round yellow fruit and slight florals, although it could have used a bit more acidity. I’ve had 3 bottles of this before, and this was the weakest yet.

Persimmon butter sandwich. This is an odd one, but delicious. The orange stripes are dried persimmon which has been hung to dry for months. This is a traditional Japanese New Year preparation and very highly prized. The lighter stripe is frozen high end butter! Almost like a little petite four.

1996 Verget Corton-Charlemagne. VM 91+. Extremely reticent aromas of Granny Smith apple and white chocolate. Vibrant and powerful, but hermetically sealed today. All sinewy structure, with a blazing mineral character and a slightly hard green edge. I’m a bit less confident about the future of this wine than I was a year ago. But certainly true to its terroir.

Lobster, baby peach, scallop, seaweed. I loved the sweet/tangy sauce too. Very lovely.

2002 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. Brilliant and ultra fine aromas of green apples and limestone lead to almost Chablis-like intensity and razor-sharp, incredibly delineated, chiseled flavors that offer superb texture and an almost chewy finish. This is quite different from many examples of 2002 Corton-Charlemagne as this more of a world class gymnast than a weight lifter as it’s sleek, silky and taut plus the delineation is like a hot knife through butter. In short, this is reference standard Corton-Charlemagne and highly recommended.

Oyster, uni, quail egg, caviar. One of these super Yamakase spoons of crazy umami-rich ingredients.

2005 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Burghound 94. A strikingly complex nose of green apple fruit, pear and a distinct floral note complements perfectly the hugely powerful flavors brimming with dry extract and built on a base of solid minerality. This is a borderline massive wine that is textured, concentrated and sleekly muscled yet it remains precise, pure and balanced with positively huge length. A very impressive wine that could actually surprise to the upside as the underlying material here is as good as any 2005 Corton-Charlemagne.

Cod sperm sack. Oh yeah, looks like a miniature brain. Filled with creamy cod sperm goodness. This was just steamed and served with a light ponzu. If you can get over the look and idea of it, it was delicious.

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Pale, bright color. A quintessence of Corton-Charlemagne dirt on the nose: stone fruits, lemon, iodine, ginger, minerals and mint, all complicated by a musky, leesy note that reminded me of a Coche-Dury wine. Then compellingly dense and penetrating in the mouth, with captivating, soil-driven flavors of raw pineapple, white peach, white flowers and crushed rock; a sulfidey complexity and a saline element add to the wine’s spectacular subtle complexity. Hardly a blockbuster but conveys an impression of great solidity. This remarkably precise wine coats the palate with dusty stone and leaves behind a suggestion of honey. My sample at Bouchard in early June was painfully young and closed though obviously outstanding, but this bottle, tasted in New York in August, was spectacular. (Incidentally, my following notes on the Chevalier-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte and Montrachet were from bottles tasted at Bouchard-also quite backward at the time-and I would expect my scores to prove to be conservative.)

Glass fish wrapped in shiso leaf, with shiso flowers and a light tangy sauce. I’ve never had the shiso flowers, which carried a light shiso flavor. I love shiso.

1995 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. An extremely fresh anise-infused nose features the classic ripe honeysuckle and subtle spiced citrus aromas that continue onto the very rich, generous and lightly mineral suffused medium-bodied flavors that coat the palate with dry extract on the impressively long finish. This is lovely and displays no botrytis notes and for my taste, this could benefit from another year or two of cellar time and then drink well for at least another decade in this format.

Frozen toro and blue crab on toast. This toast and rich toro/crab combo is so good. Like a super high end version of a tuna sandwich.

Yama-san working with his beef.

1969 Remoissenet Père et Fils Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts. 93 points. Step up in finesse and elegance on the palate (not always associated with Malconsorts). This remains powerfully tannic but it is ripe although tannins are a touch rustic on the finish. Overall this has terrific full flavour and is in outstanding condition.

Sliced seared beef with ponzu and chives. A very light delicious beef carpaccio.

2003 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 90-2. Very pale, green-tinged color. Pure, reticent nose hints at cold steel and lime. Dense, sweet and vibrant, with enticingflavors of white peach, minerals and spring flowers. Finishes bright and very long, with an almost tannic impression of power.

Truffle, crab, quail egg, uni parfait. Classic Yamakase greatness.

2004 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. Racy, silky and vibrant in the glass, the 2004 Dom Pérignon is all about energy. Here the flavors are bright and delineated throughout, with veins of acidity and minerality that give the wine its sense of drive. Mint, rosemary and yellow-fleshed fruits linger on the finish with the classic DP reductive overtones that are such a signature. Once again, the 2004 Dom Pérignon truly shines. The 2004 Dom Pérignon is a wine to treasure over the next thirty or so years.

Hokkaido scallops with Japanese roe and olive oil and yuzu. The sauce elements worked together like a dressing and then combined with the soft scallop and the slightly chewy umami of the roe into an amazing concoction.

The olive oil was from Eisele vinyard! Yeah, like the WOTN the previous week at the California dinner.

Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. Burghound 94. Medium rosé hue. A cool, restrained and highly complex nose that is not especially fruity displays a moderate yeast character along with slightly exotic aromas of mandarin orange and Asian tea, all wrapped in an enveloping array of beguiling rose petal scents. There is very good richness with a relatively firm supporting mousse that adds to the impression of richness to the superbly complex and highly textured flavors, indeed one could aptly describe this as more wine that Champagne. As such this is indeed a sumptuous Krug rosé that is difficult to resist already though it should reward extended keeping if desired.

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

1999 Sine Qua Non Tarantella. VM 92. Slightly hazy pale gold color. Captivating, soil-inflected, but rather restrained nose combines gunflint, nuts, smoke and stone. Then wonderfully aromatic, rich and vibrant in the mouth, with intense yellow fruits and musky, leesy and mineral nuances. Thick but utterly succulent thanks to lively, perfectly integrated acids. Long, palate-saturating finish. Potentially Manfred Krankl’s best dry white wine since his 1995 The Bride.

Yellowfin or some similar fish lightly flash boiled and then served with a lovely vinegar based sauce. The fish was melt in your mouth.

2004 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos (magnum). Burghound 95. This too is ultra pure and fine with its nose of wet stone, white flower, sea water and iodine that precedes delicious, full, detailed and impeccably well balanced flavors that are tight but long with a laser-like sense of focus and coherency. This too finishes with noticeable austerity yet there is real freshness and presence, indeed vibrancy here. The ’04 Le Clos will require at least 5 to 7 years to really begin to open up but once it does, it should drink well for 15. A stunner of a wine and one of the stars of the vintage that will be a long distance runner.

agavin: sadly, this bottle was corked 🙁

Yama slices truffle cheese.

Foie gras, toro, quail egg, truffle cheese, blue crab. Wow! This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious. You wouldn’t think it works, but it’s amazing.

From my cellar: 2006 Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. AG 94. Mint, white flowers, pastry and yellow orchard fruit meld together in Krug’s NV Grande Cuvée. This is one of the very best versions of the Grande Cuvée I can remember tasting in recent years. The impression of total silkiness on the palate is classic Krug. Even though this release is exceptional today, I would be tempted to cellar a few wines for the future, as the best Grand Cuvées age effortlessly. This release is based on 2006 and includes wines from 11 vintages going back to 1990.

King crab, steamed. Simple steamed fresh crab.

Ron generously brought: 2000 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux. Burghound 91-93. Wonderfully aromatic with essence of pinot fruit plus racy and rich flavors, slightly oaky flavors that have abundant material underlying the cool, reserved edge. Complex, long, fine and seamless with a sweet backend that builds in volume. Very impressive for the vintage and this too delivers buckets of marvelously intense sappy extract.

agavin: drinking great, with a real lovely power.

Erick brought: 1991 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin. 92 points. Quite nice for the vintage.

The chef is working on his ramen broth. Notice the noodle bowls ready for filling.

Ultimate ramen bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Underneath are the ramen noodles. There was crab, beef, oyster, and who knows what else in here. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good.

From my cellar: 1982 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. Burghound 88. Superb nose of dried rose petals trimmed in minerals and damp earth follow by middle weight, slightly thinning flavors that display excellent complexity and frankly more structure than the mid-palate sap can adequately buffer on the finish. That said, this receives its marks for the sheer breadth of flavors and the clean, pure character. This is a first rate effort in what was a very difficult vintage.

agavin: 94 points. I thought this was drinking great.
Yama-san cutting the kobe beef.

This is real Kobe, from Kobe. It comes with a certificate of authenticity that includes the cow’s nose print and stats. Yeah, the actual animal.

Kobe beef with truffle pepper sauce. Melt in your mouth with a bit of pepper kick.

Real wasabi being ground for the sushi.

2001 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 92. Yellow fruits, smoky oak and a suggestion of truffley earth on the nose. Rich, ripe and smooth, with fruit-driven flavors of white plum and wet stone. Almost deceptively accessible today, as this has softer acidity and a bit less volume and grip than the 2002. Oaky on the finish, but boasts lovely fruit.

2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 93. More noticeable wood spice than in the prior wine combines with wonderfully pure green fruit and white pear aromas underscored by intensely stony notes, leading to ripe, chiseled, vibrant, wonderfully precise flavors that offer excellent definition. This really coats the palate and the finish lingers for several minutes. I like the punch here yet the intensity is delivered in an ultra refined, classy and pure style.

Dr Dave brought: 2008 Etienne Sauzet Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 96.  notably more elegant, cooler and more reserved nose of white flower, green apple and ample minerality complements to perfection the silky-textured, pure and stylish medium weight plus flavors that possess excellent volume but also wonderful detail and punch while culminating in an intensely mineral finish of superb intensity while remaining a study in purity and refinement. This is one of those ‘wow’ wines that amazes through transparency and delicacy rather than brute force. Still, don’t be fooled by the finesse as the intensity is such that a deep breath is required after sampling this.

agavin: I’d agree with the 96, this was a VERY sexy Chevy.

Blue fin sushi. Bordering over to chu-toro. Just a lovely bit of sushi.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Sea bass. To die for.

2002 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 94. An expressive, elegant and pure nose of spice, white flower and green fruit aromas are followed by dense, big, rich and explosive full-bodied flavors that are blessed with abundant dry extract and a finish that won’t quit. Not withstanding all of the size and weight, this is impeccably balanced and overall, this continues to display that “wow” factor. Note that like many ’02s at this point, the ’02 Bâtard could certainly be drunk with pleasure but for my taste, I would suggest a few more years in the cellar first. Consistent notes.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Big, rich and muscular yet this offers excellent definition with explosive fruit trimmed in obvious anise notes and luxuriant, sappy, dense flavors of uncommon depth and complexity. The finish is rather linear presently yet offers wave after wave of mouthwatering extract, all beautifully framed by more than sufficient buffering acidity. A Bâtard worthy of the name and a great success for the vintage.

From my cellar: 1999 Domaine Jacques Prieur Montrachet. Burghound 93. Young Montrachet can often be quite austere yet this is forward and flashy with expressive aromas of oak spice, orchard fruits and a background note of acacia blossoms followed by large scaled, relatively dense flavors of remarkable complexity and a fine minerality that continues on into the intense and remarkably powerful finish. A very impressive effort.

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

Chu toro. Lethal.

2005 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 95. Here the nose is completely different with pungent and almost aggressively intense green apple aromas infused with an underlying sense of wet stone that is in keeping with the character of the pure, chiseled and fantastically intense full-bodied and muscular flavors that possess serious punch and verve on the equally explosive and very fresh finish. This also has that ‘wow’ sensation because of the beautiful sense of tension that is like a tightly coiled spring. Terrific.

2008 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 95. An almost completely inexpressive but relatively high-toned nose of lemon rind, acacia blossom, ripe peach and apricot gives way to almost painfully intense full-bodied and overtly muscular flavors that offer exceptional richness on the magnificently long, mouth coating and palate staining finish that is wrapped around a very firm core of ripe acidity. Chez Pernot, I typically prefer the Bienvenues but as good as it is, and it is very good, in 2008 I give the nod to the Bâtard, if only by a nose, no pun intended.

Handroll ingredients.

Uber handroll. Uni, king crab, toro, shiso. You’ve never had a handroll quite like this powerhouse!

Emil brought: Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year Old Family Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 45.2%. 95 points. This was a great Bourbon and Emil was very generous because these are selling for a lot of money. Perhaps, however, a big glass of this at the end of a meal, after 27 bottles of wine split by 11 people wasn’t such a wise move as my hangover was pretty epic too.

A bit of berry sorbet. Dessert is not a big deal at Yamakase.

27 bottles of wine (well 26, with one being a magnum). 12 people (but 11 real drinkers). Plus a 750 of Bourbon. That 2.34 bottles of wine alone per person. Woah! Great stuff tonight too. Only the 2004 Rav was seriously flawed. We had lots of great whites. The awesome Krug Rose, and the few reds we did open (Yamakase being a white focused cuisine) were stunning. Really great stuff.

Plus, food-wise, this was one of my best meals this year — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. A total blow out and Yama’s cuisine keeps gaining in strength and power. Really quite incomparable.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “ramen” are just to die for.

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

A gift from Kaz at Totoraku. haha

Related posts:

  1. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  2. Yamakase Return
  3. Yamakase – Burghound Bday
  4. Sushi Sushi = Yummy Yummy
  5. Raw Crab Guts are Yummy
By: agavin
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Huolala Hot

Dec18

Restaurant: Huolala

Location: 206 S Garfield Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 573-8289

Date: November 19 & December 1, 2015

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome heat

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Oh Szechuan cuisine, how I love thee.

My online searches for new places led me to the well reviewed Huolala, so Sebastian and I decided to give it a try.
The Monterey Park interior is pretty much the typical no frills, food on the wall type.

The menu is full of Szechuan goodies.

And they have the cold appetizer bar.

Of course we had to order Dan Dan Mein, the classic.

This was a solid version. The noodles themselves were excellent. It was a bit wet and soupy, with not quite enough nut paste or meat for my taste, but the flavor was good with some numbing heat.

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Hot and spicy glass noodles. Not the best of this dish I’ve ever had, but lots of nice tangy hot flavor.

Eggplant with garlic. This is always a tasty dish, but this particular implementation was a 10. Nice soft, hot eggplant, and a tremendous garlic kick. Yum!

Sautéed lamb with hot pepper. 2-3 times fried lamb chunks with peppers, Szechuan peppercorns, and puffed rice. The lamb was full of flavor and fairly tender. The crispy rice was interesting, particularly as it soaked up the aromatic flavor of the surrounds (and the chili oil). Great stuff.

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Dry Braised Yellow Fish. Never had this prep, with spicy peppers, garlic, and slices of Chinese sausage!

Kung Pao tofu. I’m not sure I’ve had my King Pao with tofu. These were great chunks of fried soft tofu, tossed with peanuts and chilis. Rather excellent actually.

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Mao Po tofu. A top top notch version of the classic. Great soft texture and a rich spicy meaty sauce. Not too salty too (which is a good thing).
As this was just a pair of quick lunches, we only sampled a few dishes, but everything was really top notch in terms of flavor and ingredient quality, so we will have to come back and broaden out. Stay tuned!

Afterward, to cool down, we had to head to Salju Dessert and picked up this guava snow with passionfruit, kiwis, strawberries, and almond jelly.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Chengdu Taste – Power of the Peppercorn
  2. Spicy City!
  3. Spice Up Your Life Szechuan Style
  4. Hip Hot
  5. Serious Szechuan
By: agavin
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Republique of Old Nebiolio

Dec16

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

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

Date: December 16, 2015

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

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

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OMG, Republique again! This time with the Babykillers group for some serious old Nebiolio. Gaja and Giacosa, 1990s, 1982s and older!

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1996 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé. VM 93. Musky, pungent, leesy nose hints at spice, fresh hay, chlorophyll, toast and Sancerre-like gaminess. Very rich and full, with superb concentration and density and a solid dosage Crushed stone and lime skin flavors carry through on the tactile, gripping, almost dusty finish. This struck me as distinctly Krug-like, as in Krug Clos de Mesnil, but then this chardonnay specialist is also located in Le Mesnil. A superb example of the ’96 vintage, offering an uncanny combination of sheer material and stylishness.

They had dug into a charcuterie plate before I arrived and these pates were about all that was left of it.

It’s also worth noting that tonight we ordered off the menu family style, while normally I’m upstairs in the private room with a set dinner. So this fare is (menu and season allowing) exactly what you can get just walking in.

It might be an old B dinner, but you still have to have some Chard.

2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. Burghound 91-93. A spicy, cool and airy nose of slightly exotic white orchard fruit, acacia blossom and Asian tea nuances leads to rich and palate coating medium-bodied flavors as there is plenty of dry extract that adds a real sense of volume to the mid-palate. There is really lovely intensity and detail to the lemony and bone dry finish that is presently notably austere. This beauty will also require extended cellaring.

2012 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. Burghound 90-93. Strong reduction. The mouth feel here is slightly finer than that of the Charmes with a bit more minerality as well to the relatively broad-shouldered flavors that are shaped and supported by a firm acid spine on the impressively long finish. This is more refined but not quite as complex though both wines are lovely and worth your consideration.

Escargots en Croûte. garlic, parsley. These are an awesome updated take on the classic snail prep. The snail is underneath, with all that garlic goodness. You can basically use the delicious puff to soak up the sauce.

Charcoal-Grilled Mediterranean Octopus. asian pear, pomegranate, cabbage, pistachio, chile, lime. This looks like a chickenless Chinese salad. It tastes vaguely Vietnamese. And while pretty good, the octopus is hardly to be seen.

Gruyère & Potato Beignets. tarragon, mustard aïoli. Curtsey of the house! Super gooey and cheesy inside. Yum!

1961 Gaja Barbaresco. Agavin 93. Really in great shape. Still tons of fruit and it opened up with classic Barbaresco nose.

1978 Gaja Barbaresco. Agavin 86. We had 2 bottles of this. The first was cloudy, and had a weird nose at first, but opened up and wasn’t bad.

The second bottle. Agavin 78. Was corked and pretty nasty.

Pappardelle. Italian white truffles (minimum three grams – price per gram).

With shaved truffles. This was a nice buttery mild pasta. The truffles this year are a bit flat (not Republique’s fault). The pasta was perfectly cooked.

Cavatelli. black trumpet, chanterelle & porcini mushrooms, parmesan. An awesome pasta. Light, bright, with a nice textural bite.

Green Fettuccine with crab and uni. Not your ideal Barbaresco pairing, but actually the uni was very mild in this dish and it worked well. Very tasty pasta too.

New Bedford Sea Scallops. baby root vegetable slaw, red flame grapes, capers, verjus, brown butter.

1982 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco. agavin 88. We called this the “classico” or “villages”. It was a little weird at first, not funky, but off kilter, then opened up really nicely and balanced. It never got nearly as good as the single vineyard, but it was nice. Very tannic though, as all the 82s were.

1982 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Rocche Falleto. 92 points. Very tannic also, but much more expressive and complex than the classico.

1982 Gaja Barbaresco Sorì Tildìn. 94 points. The 1982 Barbaresco Sorì Tildìn, on the other hand, was awesome. It revealed superb depth in its core of generous fruit, with superb concentration as well as balance. It was a memorable wine in every way. In the late 1970s and 1980s Gaja often waited to harvest until very late in the growing season in order to achieve the ripeness he was looking for. 1982 was the last vintage made with this method as subsequent vintages brought warmer weather than had previously been the case.

Mary’s Organic Rotisserie Chicken. fingerling potatoes, black kale, mustard, chiles, chicken jus. Good chicken. The sauce/kale was amazing. The only problem was that we waited exactly 56 minutes from our last pasta until this came 🙂  Republique was slammed, and totally full even on a Tuesday, and their kitchen does it right, but takes a while.

Cassoulet. white beans, pork belly, duck confit, sausage. Great stuff. Full of all sort of rich goodies and a really tasty bean sauce.

1990 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto di Serralunga d’Alba. 96 points. WOTN. Just an awesome, young, complex Barolo. Massive still, but really nice long flavors. All Barolo nose.

From my cellar: 1990 Gaja Barbaresco Sorì Tildìn. VM 97. The 1990 Barbaresco Sorì Tildìn opens with a wonderfully expressive, floral bouquet that leads to a finely-knot core of ripe red fruits, sweet tobacco and spices. Here the warmth and generosity of the vintage offer superb balance and fleshiness to the wine’s sculpted, well-articulated aromas and flavors. The wine’s overall sense of harmony is spectacular. agavin 95. So big, purple, brooding. Still tons of tannin but tons of powerhouse fruit. Not yet as integrated as the Giacosa. This puppy needs at least 5, maybe more years.

Sliced steak. A solid good steak.

Frites. Double fried. Awesome.

And some hollandaise or whatever.

Apple & Blackberry Tart. vanilla ice cream. I almost never have dessert here for a variety of reasons. Wine dinners with only cheese. Or like tonight, they take so long. So I just had Taylor bring this. It was a very nice tart.

Overall, a super fun evening.

Food was super delicious. It did take forever. It often does downstairs. You just have to be prepared for it. The kitchen is very on point though. Every dish was hot, fresh, and as it should be.

As usual Taylor did an amazing job with the wine service. We had new glasses for each flight. He decanted and opened with his usual expertise. Awesome.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Trimbach Republique
  2. Sauvage Republique
  3. Republique of Vosne
  4. Third Republique
  5. Vive la République
By: agavin
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Otium Oppulence

Dec14

Restaurant: Otium

Location:222 S Hope St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Date: December 12, 2015

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Meaty goodness

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When I got the invite for this dinner I knew I had to attend immediately. Martine’s Wines, at Otium, showcasing Flannery Beef. A sort of Holy Trinity.
Let’s take them one by one.

Chef Tim Hollingsworth and restaurateur Bill Chait have combined in Otium to create one of 2015’s most anticipated restaurant openings.

The stylish DTLA location is right next to the Disney Concert Hall and Patina. Otium’s concept is very much 2015. The loud hard surfaces, no tablecloths, paper menus, elegant but superficially informal style, emphasis on shared plates. All typical of new trendy eateries. I have no problem with most of these trends, except the noise. Otium is about 80-90% of the volume of Republique, which is still too loud.

But the space does look good. Here is our private “room”. More an area, an attractive one too and it worked quite well — except for the noise. Service was fabulous. You can see the wine glasses arrayed in front and they were individually labeled for each wine. I love not having to reuse stems. That way you can go back to and savor previous flights.

Chef Timothy Hollingsworth (above) cooked at the French Laundry for five years — that’s pretty enough said. As you’ll see, his food has not only very contemporary plating, but very bright ingredient driven flavors with deft pairings.

Our special menu for the night.

A pair of passing apps. Hamachi. Nori, Avocado, Sweet & Sour Tomatoes. This had a real citrus zing in the mix, lending an addictive brightness and making for a fabulous pairing with the Champagne.
Arancini. Typical Roman fried rice balls. These were nice and moist in the center, with great texture.

Greg Castells is our host, and as president of Martine’s Wines he brings some serious wine power into the room. The founder, Martine herself also joined us, and they brought bottles of rare wines in stunning condition. Martine’s imports some of France’s top artisanal producers. These include crazy great Burgundy like Leroy and Jayer and insane Rhones like Rayas.

1998 Saint-Chamant Champagne Cuvée Royále (magnum). 93 points. Nice strong acidity. A very nice classic Champagne.

Scallop tart with caviar, sea urchin, and truffle. Wow. First off the crust was to-die-for flakey. Then the rich pairing of soft umami flavors from the scallop (raw), caviar, and uni. Almost like a Yamakase dish (except the pastry). Great start. And a great pairing with the Champy.

1996 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Meursault Les Narvaux. Burgound 90. Slight petroleum notes make for an odd nose but the middle weight, pure and delineated flavors are blessed with great sève and impressive concentration. The finish delivers excellent cut, definition and exceptional length. In sum, this is a lovely and altogether stunning wine for its level. Note: another recent bottle was very underwhelming as it was somewhat flat and without the lift and vivacity displayed by the bottle reviewed above.

agavin: 94 points. Meadows is so stingy if he gave this a 90. Lovely, lovely nutty mature flavor.

2002 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Meursault Les Narvaux. Tanzer 92+. Pale yellow. Perfumed nose combines minerals, flint, smoke and a roasted nuance. Superconcentrated yet downright elegant, with strongly mineral flavors of lemon and liquid stone. Finishes with superb length and lemony cut.

agavin: 96 points. A real stunner. Still some reduction and searing long, beautiful acidity.

Risotto with hazelnut, brown butter and truffle.
Add truffle.
Add brown butter.

This dish was insane. The rice was cooked down to that perfect creamy (congee-like) consistency. Nice cheesy quality. Then the rich butter and truffle factor, and even the delicate hazelnut crunch. Amazing pairing too with the whites.

1964 Maison Leroy Grands-Echezeaux. AG 94.  Leroy’s 1964 Grands-Echézeaux was simply phenomenal. A model of clarity and precision, it flowed with sensations of red cherries, spices and mint, showing remarkable poise as well as freshness.

agavin 97: My WOTN (and a close call with the 02 Narvaux). Tons of delineated fruit, precise, with a lovely balance on the palette.
1991 Domaine Leroy Clos Vougeot. Burghound 92. This has always been a very impressive wine and one that I have watched evolve since the wine’s release. It has developed an interesting floral element to go with the regal, still entirely fresh fruit and earth notes and it remains completely primary on the nose, indeed even brooding. The flavors are big, rich and powerful and offer outstanding complexity and while the tannins are just beginning to soften, this remains a youngster with a bright future. This should offer an exceptionally wide drinking window and for perfectly stored bottles, it needs another ten years to really be at its peak. Multiple, and consistent, notes.

agavin: 90 points. Deeper colored. This has a bit of that strong Burgundy flavor that MZ declared as “horse”. I taste it all the time and it isn’t our favorite. This note marred an otherwise excellent wine.

Here begins the Flannery Beef meats, this one actually being pork. Bryan Flannery was there with us and his passion for bringing the best meat to the table really stood out, both personally and in the flesh itself 🙂

Pork Callote. Squash, bok chow, coffee, papitas. This was an amazing bit of pork. Very seasonal too. Four of us polished off this huge plate in about 15 seconds.

1999 Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux. Burghound 94. It seems that this has barely budged since it was bottled and at this point, the 750 ml note remains accurate though I found a bit less wood influence here than I did in the smaller format version: An expressive, ripe and elegant nose of Vosne style spice, moderate oak and a mix of earth, minerals and violets leads to rich, round and impressively precise flavors that deliver serious punch and excellent depth. I very much like the overall sense of harmony and fine balance here. This should age well and Jayer lovers will definitely be pleased. Note that in this format the ’99 Cros will age for decades and it will require at least 20 years for this to be at its best.

agavin. 94 points. Superbly balanced, but brooding, young, and a bit closed.
2001 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux. Burghound 91. Explosive aromas of Vosne spice, fresh earth, soy and candied plum soar from the glass and the Cros does a better job of integrating the moderately toasty oak notes. It is also much more concentrated and one can literally smell the density as the powerful, complex, intense yet defined flavors offer impressive depth and persistence. This is really lovely if not incredible juice by the standards of this wine.

agavin: 95 points. This was much more open with an amazing searing finish. Great young Burg.
Flannery Beef Callote. So rich it was almost like Wagyu. Cooked perfectly too. A real heart stopper and delicious.

Flannery Beef brisket. Served on this little Totoraku-style grill. Dense and delicious.

Zoom in for some beefy goodness.

Potatoes, roasted and mashed, black truffle, greens. Totally opulent with the truffles. This whole course hit me like a tasty ton of bricks. Plenty of calories!

1989 Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape (magnum). Parker 97-98. A wine that continues to catch up to the 1990 (and probably has greater longevity) is the 1989. A dense-colored Rayas, but not as thick-looking as the 1990, this dark ruby-colored wine exhibits plenty of roasted herb notes intermixed with scents of tobacco, sweet creme de cassis, and kirsch. Full-bodied, highly-extracted, powerful, and tannic (resembling 1995 more than 1990), it is shedding its cloak of tannin and beginning to approach full maturity.

agavin: almost young!

1996 Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape (magnum). Parker 89-91. This lighter-styled wine appears diluted in terms of color, but it possesses surprising quantities of sweet black cherry fruit intermixed with hints of resin, licorice, and tobacco. It is a medium to full-bodied Chateauneuf with far more flavor and intensity than its light-ish colors suggest. The wine requires consumption over the next 5-8 years.

Lamb loin. Pine nuts, pole beans, tomato, yogurt. This huge rich dish (and we had one of these each!) featured some seriously delicious lamb, and an almost risotto made of pine nuts. The yogurt really brightened it up too, and in combination with the flavors gave the whole thing a bit of a middle eastern vibe.

Salad. This might look a little like a classic Italian American salad, but it had bold herby tones.

Check out the cheese plate!

Pyrenees de Brebis. Persimmon, beet, truffle honey. Very stylish and tasty.

1937 Château Gilette Crème de Tête. 93 points. Pristine condition, even given its age. The nose is so expressive – apricot, orange rind, bees wax, creme brûlée. Wow. Outstanding mouth feel, and length to burn. Tremendous.

Banana Cream Grand Macaron. Various caky and puffy bits in a giant macaron.

1970 Niepoort Porto Vintage. 94 points. Unbelievable bottle! So ridiculously dark. Coffee nose. Very young and dense. Seems surprisingly primary. Still some unresolved tannins. Long finish. With more time, there is an appealing confectionery aspect that emerges. I have had other bottles of this wine and they were more than ready to drink (and actually quite average). This particular bottle needs at least 10 more years of bottle age. Superb!

Chocolate Torte. Persimmon, Olive Sable, EVO Jam. Tasty little nuggets of chocolate.

In the middle is Elizabeth Huettinger, the Otium wine director and on the right Martine. The staff did an incredible job!

Overall this was another incredible evening.

The food was pretty awesome. The scallops and risotto incredible, and the then the assault of amazing meats. My favorites of those were the pork, the wagyu-like steak, and the lamb. There was so much food I couldn’t even finish my lamb. It must have been thousands of calories of meat.

The wines too were out of this world. I was slightly let down by the Clos Parantoux, only because they were great rather than absolutely mind blowing. But the 64 Grands-Ech and the 02 Narvaux were absolutely amazing — and there wasn’t one “bad” one in the bunch, the “worst” of the lot being the 91 Clos Vougeot — and it was still a nice wine. But even the most illustrious roster has to have a ranking.

I’ll be back to Otium both for more wine dinners I’m sure, and to try the menu under more typical circumstances. The overall balance of the normal menu is less meat heavy. Meat there is, but there is also quite a bit of seafood.

Thanks again to Martine’s wines and Otium for putting together such a wonderful event.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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California Dreaming

Dec11

Restaurant: Private Club

Location: Somewhere in California

Date: December 9, 2015

Cuisine: American

Rating: Awesome

_

After the Foodie Club met for our epic Truffle Dinner, we hit on the idea of a dinner exploring old California wines. We’re not talking the last 20 years of high alcohol monster wines, but the classic post war California. So this drink covers 1954 to 1998!

And what better location than a true California institution, left nameless, a private bastion of the old California.

They don’t make them like they used to!

And we had a custom menu and this awesome private room.

With plenty of space to work out our wine situation. Check out that ice bucket in the back!

1988 Schramsberg Vineyards Blanc de Noirs Late Disgorged (magnum). 93 points. A beautiful etched 3L bottle, which we opened at R&D’s caroling party. Beautiful golden robe with a persistent mousse. Notes of roasted notes, caramel apple, fresh pear and hazelnuts. Fine bead with flavors of cherry, hazelnut, sautéed apple and pear with a subtle hint of honey and vanilla cream on the finish. Lovely. This actually needed some time in the glass to open and express itself.

And a detail on the label.

2014 Wente Bros Vineyards Pinot Chardonnay. 85 points. None of us know what a “pinot chardonnay” actually was. Presumably, and by taste, there was plenty or all Chardonnay. This 60 year old white was pretty much gone, but it did have a sherry-like quality that was kinda interesting with the foie.

1970 Inglenook White Pinot. 89 points. We aren’t sure what was in this either, but plenty of Chard. It was pretty good too and surprisingly drinkable for a 45 year old Chard. I’ve had 15 year old Cal Chards in worse shape!

From my cellar: 1990 Fabien Coche-Bouillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières. 93 points. Unmistakable and typical white burgundy notes of mineral, stone fruit, and saline. Very light in color and what appeared to be a new cork in the bottle. I would guess that these might have been topped off with the latest vintage prior to being released. This definitely showed remarkable freshness for a wine of 25 years of age. In a word, delicious.

agavin: I didn’t have any old Cal Chard, so I brought some old Chard. But positively young compared to the previous two. Nutty and nice white Burg.

Foie Gras with mango. Port ginger sauce. Really nice seared foie, with a very good sweet sauce and lovely mushy mango pairing. Worked well with these old chards.

1975 ZD Wines Pinot Noir. 91 points. Very young and fresh!

1982 Calera Pinot Noir Reed Vineyard. 86 points. Slightly musty, but in pretty good shape and quite enjoyable.

1969 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon. Our bottle was cloudy and undrinkable.

1974 Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon Vintage Selection North Coast. 88 points. Lovely midpalate lift and silky smooth texture. Palate is tertiary. David says full of dill and American oak, can tell it’s not French. Racines.

Scottish salmon. White beans, fume rouge. Another great sauce. This chef is awesome with the sausome.

1976 Burgess Petite Sirah Harvest of the Napa Valley. 91 points. Bright and young!

1974 Freemark Abbey Petite Sirah York Creek. 90 points. 41 years old and still has a tannic punch to it! Brambly, tobacco aromas, reminiscent of rasberries and blackberries. On the palate gently stewed blackberries, red fruits, mineral and a bit of a tannic kicker. This magnificent wine screamed for red meat accompaniment; alas, I had truffled eggs.

1974 Conn Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Family Vineyard. 96 points. Still quite dark in the glass with minimal bricking at the margin. Big and almost brooding, dense mixed black fruit; full mid palate; medium acidity almost keeps up with the fruit; some tannins on the finish; might have guessed that this was a 10 year old petite syrah.

agavin: everyone agreed with was WOTN, a real stunner

1989 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard. 93 points. Highly perfumed bouquet of ripe fruit, flowers, and terroir. Indeed, the sexiest bouquet of the eight wines. Generous mouthfeel, considerable substance, quality finish. In a great place, and though it has several years of life left there is no reason to wait.

Smoked quail and porcini mushroom risotto. Another awesome sauce.

1983 Grace Family Cabernet Sauvignon. 93 points. This was the first vintage with the Dick Grace label, 3.5 years in Limousin Oak barrels, typical Grace nose, rich fruit and terrific bottle bouquet plus hints of more wood than the older wines, concentrated medium fruit plus lots of mouth coating tannins in the mouth, finish is long but average flavors when compared to the other wines tonight.
1984 Grace Family Cabernet Sauvignon. 92 points. Drinking very well for an older Cailfornia. I was under the impression Napa Cabs won’t age so well. This wine has changed my perception. Good levels of fruit, soft mellow tannins and a nose so aromatic of dried rasins. Great wine.
1984 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 90. This wine has consistently been a crowd pleaser, with its impressive dark color, rich, jammy, cedary, licorice, chocolatey, cassis, and olive-like aromas and flavors, and full-bodied, unctuously-textured style. It is a big, chewy, flashy, oaky style of Cabernet. Although fully mature, there are no signs of decline.
1987 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. Parker 98. Chateau Montelena has made so many sensational Cabernets that it seems almost impossible to believe that their 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate could be even more profound than any of the exceptional wines made previously at this property. The black/purple color, the extraordinary bouquet of rich cassis, violets, and licorice, the massive extraction of flavors, sensational depth, super ripeness, and a length that must last over a minute, suggest to me that this is easily the most concentrated and potentially longest-lived Cabernet Sauvignon that Chateau Montelena has ever made. The extract level is incredible, yet the balance is there. Anticipated maturity: 1997-2025.

Roast duck. Red wine and figs. Great duck. Great sauce. Perfect pairing.

1994 Mount Veeder Winery Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 88. Mount Veeder’s 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon is a sleeper. The wine displays loads of creamy, vanilla, pain grille notes in the nose, to go along with ripe black currants intermixed with truffles and licorice. The tannin is sweet, the wine gives a nice tactile impression on the palate (medium to full-bodied and chewy), and the finish includes gobs of pure black cherry and black currant fruit. This is a delicious, up-front 1994 Cabernet that can be drunk now as well as over the next 10-12 years.

1993 Dalla Valle Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. Parker 94-96. Of all the extraordinary wines emanating from California in recent years, one of the most remarkable achievements must be the two cuvees of Cabernet Sauvignon made by Naoka and Gustav Dalla Valle, with the capable assistance of consulting winemaker, Heidi Barrett. Dalla Valle’s Cabernet Sauvignon is a pure, unbridled expression of this varietal at its most powerful and concentrated. The proprietary red wine, named after the owners’ daughter, Maya, is usually a blend of equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc (the greatest Cabernet Franc I have tasted in the New World). These are wines of immense stature and richness. It seems nearly impossible that one could pack so much intensity and flavor into a wine without either the wine or the tannin coming across as heavy-handed. Since 1990, all of the Maya offerings have possessed extremely well-integrated tannin and acidity.
1993 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Franc Bosché Vineyard. 92 points. Very ready to drink now…window is closing. Very smooth and mildly velvet (velour?) mouth feel. Dark purple to almost brownish color with very little clear spectrum at the edges. Plum with a little hit of apricot and vanilla.
From my cellar: 1998 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard. 91 points. Brown-red. Roses, eucalyptus, flowers on the nose. Very powerful, yet in perfect balance. Tannins and acidity for the long haul. Nice fruit, lots of savory, complexity. This is a deep wine, and I wish I hadn’t just a sip in the tasting room. A wine to be studied and savored.

agavin: Oldest Cal wine in my cellar. lol.

Wagyu hanger steak. Truffle lingonberrie sauce. Truly great hanger steak. Super tender and meaty, fabulous sauce.

1987 Heitz Cellar Chardonnay. Fairly oxidized, but still drinkable.
1978 Joseph Phelps Johannisberg Riesling Selected Late Harvest. 92 points.  It was sweet on the pallete like thin caramel syrup, a dark burnt golden hue in color. Smelled sugary & fresh & delicious. TBA brown in color.

Charles Krug Moscato di Caneli. Not even in cellar tracker. Medium sweet and old. Pleasant.

Selection of domestic cheeses. All three were very nice.

Petit fours. A few random bits of sweet.

All and all a stunning evening. The venue was great. The service was great. Food really exceeded expectations. This kitchen handles an enormous volume, yet these dishes were all really nice, and many fabulous. They aren’t the most modern looking, but they tasted really great and were fabulously paired with the wines.

Speaking of, some very impressive juice considering the age. That Chards and pinots from 40+ years were even drinkable is amazing. But many were very good. And a few of the cabs were just fabulous. I don’t really think these newer high alcohol style California wines being produced today will last like this. These cabs were made to taste like Bordeaux, and to last like Bordeaux. For the most part, they seem to. Now that isn’t to say that every wine in this tasting was young, fresh, and blemish free. These are old wines, and one accepts some fickleness. But they preformed well. More then well, great.

Overall awesome.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or check out more crazy Foodie Club dinners.

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By: agavin
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ThanksGavin 2015 – Salty Saturday

Dec09

Part of the tradition for the ThanksGavin weekend of gluttony is a Saturday deli brunch. As we celebrate in Philadelphia, we have access to all sorts of great deli and the like.

After several nights of wine drinking, Saturday brunch is all soft stuff.

Below are all the items used to assemble one’s custom bagel sandwich.

Olives.

Capers.

Butter.

Regular (Philadelphia) cream cheese.

Chive cream cheese.

Swiss and munster cheese.

Cucumbers and Motomara tomatoes.

Onions.

Lox. This nova lox was soft, delicious, and not all that salty. We really can’t get lox this good in California.

Chunky whitefish salad. Love it!

Pickled herring. I like this sweet fishy stuff, although it isn’t to everyone’s taste.

Bagels and bread.

Matt whipped up two frittatas, a spinach on the left and a smoked poblano pepper and goat cheese on the right.

Pancakes for the kids.

On the left, our host Matt is brewing cappuccino in the kitchen.

For more ThanksGavin dining, click here.

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ThanksGavin 2015 – Fat Friday

Dec07

As if Thanksgiving itself wasn’t enough, the ThanksGavin food marathon traditionally includes Fat Friday, another feast hosted by one of my cousins.


This year, like last year, my cousin Matt and his wife Andrea hosted.

Matt is not only a great cook, but he does double duty as bar tender. I, meanwhile, handle Sommelier duties.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. Burghound 92. Ripe and extremely opulent intense citrus fruit and white flowers coupled with medium weight flavors dripping with minerality and enough fat to buffer the bracing acidity. There is a subtle underlying complexity and this is remarkably intense, assertive and precise yet there is excellent power and depth as well.

My parents picked this cheese up last month in Portugal. It was a medium gooey, very tasty, pungent cow cheese with a bit of the strength of goat.

My father brought: 2013 Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc. 88 points. Strong grapefruit.

Marinated pickles. As the dinner has a bit of a Korean theme, Matt picked up some artisanal banchan from a place that specializes only in kimchee.

Spicy radish.

Pickled greens.

Kimchee. The classic cabbage version.

Pickled spicy peppers.

From my cellar: 2002 Gros Frère et Sœur Grands-Echezeaux. Burghound 92. While not really intrusive, the oak treatment is still visible on the otherwise expressive nose of spice, earth and black fruit aromas that are still completely primary in character. The big-bodied and muscular flavors are not particularly elegant though there is good size and weight to them, all wrapped in a reasonably long finish where wood tannins can also be discerned on the mouth coating backend. In sum, this is a good Grands Ech.

For the less carnivorous, Italian tuna, hard boiled egg.

And parsley sauce.

Which can be assembled into Nicoise sandwiches.

My father brought: 2007 Cellole Chianti Classico.

Itsuki helps prep the next dish.

Various ingredients.

Sesame sauce (for noodles below). I tuned up the recipe by increasing the sour component (i.e. vinegar) to make it more in keeping with Chinese balance.

Chinese egg noodles.

Sesame noodles. A homemade version of the sesame peanut noodles. This dish is derived somewhat from Dan Dan Mein, one of my favorite dishes. It was quite nice, with a good nutty flavor and a little zing.

From my cellar: 2005 Celler Vall Llach Priorat Vall Llach. 93 points. Quite dark red in color, like black cherry. Nose with subtle notes of plum, camphor, and dark berries. Big flavors of blackberry and spice. Drinking great.

The main event is pork shoulder, shown roasting here.

Midway.

Then finished. It was coated in the most awesome crunchy sweet and salty crust.

And being carved.

Pulled Korean BBQ pork shoulder. One of the best pulled porks I’ve ever had — and I’ve had my share.

Crusty pork. The edge of the meat, with more intense flavor.

Green onion and seasonings to add to the pork. It was used to top the pork inside a lettuce wrap and with a Korean inspired sauce. Ridiculously tremendously delicious.

My father brought: 2012 Celler de Capçanes Montsant Mas Donís Barrica (Old Vines). VM 90. Bright purple. Expressive aromas of dark berries, cracked pepper and violet, with a smoky overtone. Pliant black and blue fruit flavors pick up a licorice nuance with air and show very good, mineral-driven intensity. Finishes with strong stony cut, the licorice and floral notes repeating.

Greens drying.

A bok-choy side.

my father brought: 2010 Clarendelle. 88 points. Red fruit and some slight secondary Bordeaux aromas, tobacco, leather. The ripe red fruit dominates, red raspberry, stewed strawberry. The tannin is soft and round. Velvety mouthfeel. Good initial bouquet but not a particularly long finish. Merlot shows through but with some added subtle features from the Cabs. 82% Merlot, 16% Cab. Sauv., 2% Cab. Franc. Drink over the next 3-5 years.

Rice.

My plate. You can (vaguely) make out the pork wrap in the lower left.

The dessert wines return!

From my cellar: 1983 Bodegas Toro Albala Don PX Gran Reserva. 96 points. Nutty, fig and raisins on the nose, rich and huge depth on palate with figs, raisin and rich expansive tartness that fills the palate. Enormously long finish, 5 minutes of caramel and spice. Outstanding. So good.

My father bought in Portugal: Quinta do Vallado Porto 20 Year Old Tawny. 93 points. high notes of fig, vanilla, caramel and oak and a touch of bright grape. great color. smooth and not heavy with alcohol burn.

Bob made this awesome Derby Pie. A pecan pie with chocolate and walnuts!

And Itsuki whipped up another batch of Grandma’s brownies.

The pumpkin pie return too.

And I literally whipped up some fresh whipped cream, because all the above really needed it.

Plus my mother baked this chocolate chip chocolate icing cake.
And lest the kids feel left out, Matt made these fresh homemade ice cream and melted marshmallow sandwiches!

All and all another staggeringly good dinner, and probably the best Fat Friday yet.

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ThanksGavin 2015

Dec04

It’s that time of year again, time to loosen your belt buckle and sit down for the annual ThanksGavin!

Let me first introduce the chefs, above. On the left my mom and on the right her sister. They’ve been putting together this feast for decades.

Rising Chef Matt (my cousin) cooks a lot too. One of these days he’s going to inherent the feast. But right now he hosts Friday night.

My father brought the sparkler: NV Casa Vinicola Botter Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Santi Nello. 88 points. Peach, mineral, dry, small bubbles, hint of sweetness, but not overly so. Great value.

From my cellar: 2000 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 95 points. Razor sharp aromas of wet rocks, earth and white fruits meld into flavors that are crystalline in their precision, purity and transparency. Understated, discreet and fine yet this is painfully intense with buckets of minerality. Quite backward presently but this is a genuinely breathtaking wine that defines class. In two words, absolutely brilliant and consistent notes.

agavin: wow! This is what makes Burgundy so great. Like liquid creme brûlée. Chardonnay from anywhere else just cries itself to sleep.

Olives. Appetizers aren’t the focus of this meal, but we have a few.

And homemade olive tapenade.

Good stuff with the toasts.

First a sneak peak at the main spread. Then on to the dinner wines.

From my cellar: 1997 Maison Roche de Bellene Clos de la Roche Collection Bellenum. 93 points. Quite excellent. Rich, penetrating red fruit up front followed by layers of earth, spice, sous bois and perhaps some violets or lavender. The tannins on the longish finish are still abit on the chalky side but this is displaying lots of subtle depth and complexity without being at all heavy handed. There’s just a little bricking on the edge.

agavin: great stuff. Good thing I have more.

From my cellar: 1970 Bodegas Olarra Rioja Cerro Anon Gran Reserva. 92 points. showed beautifully. orange peel, sweet spices, balsamic. Still youthful and full of fruit.

From my cellar: 1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. 95 points. I was buying this when I first started collecting wine 20 years ago, I buy it now. Great showing for a bottle in perfect shape. Stinky Mouvedre nose with leather, animal, tree bark and a touch of sweaty saddle. In the mouth, close to fully resolved with spice, tannic tree bark and sweet raspberry fruit, along with a spicy intensity that has huge length and presence but still feels light on its feet. Is this at its peak (for taster who appreciate aged Beaucastel). The wine is in a more structured, “masculine” style than the 1989 or the 1985 – this is more about structure and clarity of expression in a rustic and gamey style. Exceptional.

My father brought: 2011 Quinta da Fronteira Douro Selecção do Enólogo. 89 points. Very enticing nose with lots of lovely red fruit character. On the palate it is initially quite soft, a melding of Valpolicella and Pinot Noir, elegant red fruit and cinnamon but a sound structure to it as well. After a bit of time in the glass, some dark fruit character emerges, and the acidity and tannin become more prominent alongside increased fruit concentration, all of which contribute to the wine really gaining character, much less timid and reserved, much more enjoyable on both intellectual and hedonistic levels.

Bread, in case stuffing isn’t enough.

New this year is this carrot dish. Lovely to look at too.

And also new were Brussels sprouts. Cheese and bacon could be added at will. I willed.

And some savory beans.

Plus fairly usual beets, always good.

A faro salad.

And butternut squash with black pepper.

Cranberry chutney. A choice of two variants on the cranberry theme. My favorite is the spicy chutney (above) which is smooth and slightly spicy.

Cranberry relish. More rough in texture.

And the birds themselves.

Carved turkey. Oh so moist, nicely dressed by the ladies, BBQed to perfection by my father and uncle.

Stuffing of course.

And gravy.

Here is my dad’s plate, giant turkey leg and all.

And mine.

My uncle digs into his own bird.

Dessert wines!

From my cellar: 1983 Bodegas Toro Albala Don PX Gran Reserva. 96 points. Nutty, fig and raisins on the nose, rich and huge depth on palate with figs, raisin and rich expansive tartness that fills the palate. Enormously long finish, 5 minutes of caramel and spice. Outstanding. So good.

My father bought in Portugal: Quinta do Vallado Porto 20 Year Old Tawny. 93 points. high notes of fig, vanilla, caramel and oak and a touch of bright grape. great color. smooth and not heavy with alcohol burn.

To go with all that sugary alcohol, the dessert spread.

Grandmom’s special parve brownies.

Chocolate and chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

My mom’s famous pecan pie. Incredibly gooey in the center.

And cousin Matt’s butternut squash “pumpkin” pie. Nicely spiced.

Chocolate dipped meringues.
And my personal plate.

Too much of a good thing!

This was another spectacular homemade ThanksGavin dinner as usual, quite possibly the best yet. Really, they just keep getting better (and clearly more sleep inducing).

For more ThanksGavin meals, click here.

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By: agavin
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Game of Thrones Season 6 Teaser

Dec03

The first Season 6 teaser is here!

Doesn’t really show anything new, in that it’s all clips from Seasons 1-5 wrapped up in Bran’s ability to see the past (and presumably the future). Like the poster (below), it certainly implies that Jon Snow is important — and therefore presumably will return in some fashion. The R+L=J theory and the shear number of hints about it in the writing leads me to believe there is no way he’s just plain dead. That would leave too many dangling threads. My money is on the Red Lady bringing him back.

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My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jon-Snow_CNNPH

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By: agavin
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ThanksGavin 2015 – Uzbekistan?

Dec02

Restaurant: Chaikhana Uzbekistan

Location: 12012 Bustleton Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19116. (215) 671-1990

Date: November 24, 2015 & November 21, 2017

Cuisine: Uzbeki

Rating: Tasty fun

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It’s tradition on the day before ThanksGavin, for us Gavins to go somewhere ethnic.

This year, we ended up at a new place, and a new cuisine (or sub cuisine) for me: Chaikhana Uzbekistan. Seems fitting this year too because I’ve been reading about the Mongol conquest — and well, Uzbekistan was on the menu. But tonight we are the beneficiaries of this crossroads of the world.

My father brought this sparkler. NV Casa Vinicola Botter Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Santi Nello. 88 points. Peach, mineral, dry, small bubbles, hint of sweetness, but not overly so. Great value.

Salad with preserved meat, olives, and cheese. Nice salad actually. Sort of like a Greek salad, but with bits of pastrami.

Salad in the back. A more normal middle eastern salad. Also in the front, those shot glasses of yogurt and tomato “sauce.” These could be drizzled over just about anything to add to the flavor — and they really did. This is a bit similar to Afghan places.

From my cellar: 2013 Christophe et Fils Chablis. 92 points. Limpid color. More orange fruit than the Petit Chablis. Slightly leaner and lighter than that wine, but similar outstanding acidity and limestone. Excellent.
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Tomato salad.

An eggplant salad. Nice, with good smoked flavor.

Uzbeki bread. Nice and hot and puffy.

From my cellar: 2009 Weingut Knoll Riesling Smaragd Dürnsteiner Kellerberg. 92 points. Medium green-yellow. Seductive aromas of ripe peach, subtle blossom honey and mandarin orange. Becomes more exotic in the mouth, adding papaya and lime to the mix. Sweet peach and papaya fruit is lifted by extraordinarily elegant lemony acidity. Finishes with palate-staining fruit and intense wet rock minerality. Wonderful to drink now, but should be even better between 2014 and 2024.

Herring and potatoes. Marinated cut herring in front. Like some saba sashimi — with potatoes!

Potato dumplings. Very soft succulent gnocchi like things.

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Chicken dumplings. Don’t look like much, but were very tasty.
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Bread with spinach and cheese. Sort of Uzbeki spanakopita.

From my cellar: 1993 Pierre Damoy Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. 93 points. Elegant, extremely pure and spicy with austere black fruit notes and understated, powerful, densely concentrated and superbly well focused flavors that deliver superb mid-palate punch and terrific finishing complexity. This has always been impressive, even since release and it continues to develop well. It can be approached now but it will certainly be better in a few years. That said, it’s so close to its peak that there would be very little left on the table to open a bottle now. Multiple, and consistent, notes.

Rice with lamb. One of these typical pilaf dishes found in central Asia, and north India, and China (as fried rice). Delicious.

Turnovers. Meat and cheese and spinach. The Flat one is the cheese. Both were good, and the meat one was a serious bomb, but quite delicious with the yogurt and tomato.
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Kabob. Beef or lamb and ground beef. I really liked the ground beef kabob (kobideh or similar), even if it looked like a big turd. Delicious.

Meat stew.

Potatoes. Like home made potato chips. Excellent.

Cheese pie. This was crazy gooey with a melted form of fresh cheese and a light flakey dough.

Check out the cheese pull!

Chicken kabob.
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Lamb rib, lamb, and beef kabobs.

Salmon kabob. From those Oxus river salmon.
2011 Torremoron Ribera del Duero. VM 89. Bright ruby. Perfumed, expressive bouquet of black and blue fruits and candied rose. Ripe and generous on the palate, offering fleshy cherry and blackberry flavors and a touch of black pepper. Dusty tannins add grip to the sweet, nicely persistent finish.

Manti. Why exactly these came at the end is anyone’s guess, but these giant dumplings, clearly influenced by China, were stuffed with a chewy meat and onions. Tasty, but I prefer the Afghan version.


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Honey cake and baklava. Not the syrup covered Middle Eastern kind, but more dry.

Tea with sugar and candied fruit.

Lights from the front of Chaikhana Uzbekistan “coat” the adjacent building.

I’d never had Uzbeki food before, and while it’s certainly closely related to Afghan and Russian, but has its own unique personality. The place was fun too. Very lively and there was even a young guy at a nearby table (see below) playing traditional songs on a guitar. Clearly a place mostly visited by Russians and Uzbeki.

Food was quite good too. Perhaps leaning a bit on the heavy meats and pastry, and I would have liked to try the Borscht and some other dishes too, but everything we had was pretty good. Enormous amount too. We took home bags and bags of it, and the bill was very very reasonable.

Great fun.

For more Philly dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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Eating Philly – Tiffin

Nov30

Restaurant: Tiffin Indian Cuisine

Location: 8080 Old York Rd, Elkins Park, PA 19027. (215) 635-9205

Date: November 23, 2015

Cuisine: Indian

Rating: solid Indian

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Our annual ThanksGavin trip always begins with a big Wednesday night dinner out in Philly, but this year we were out a day early so there was a Tuesday bonus.

Tiffin is a local (to Elkins Park) Indian restaurant.

The usual kind of casual decor.

From my cellar: 2004 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. 93 points. Again, sulphur evident on the nose, although with plenty of bright and acidic fruit beneath. It is delicate, clean, minerally and has tingly acids. Then it seems softer, more gentle, not so much substance, with lots of bright character. Good potential.

Chutney and sauces are included which is nice.

Cauliflower with a coconut sauce. Very nice.

Fried fish. Like fish and chips with black pepper.
Samosas. Certainly a decent version of this classic.

A light creamy curry with potato balls (not unlike matzah balls in texture).

Saag. Creamed Indian spinach.

Chickpeas with a mild curry.

Shrimp curry. Again the slightly sweet goopy curry.

Tilapia with tomatoes and onions. One of the few without the smooth curry treatment.

2009 Bodegas Domeco de Jarauta Rioja Solar de Castro Vendimia Seleccionada. 89 points. Very healthy bright red, cherry and chocolate on the nose, great balance of concentrated but not overpowering fruit, tannins with good structure, giving it a long finish. Very yummy, great wine.

Chicken Tikka Masala. Dark meat. A credible version of this dish, but from the smooth and sweet school of Indian curries. Akbar’s is so much richer and more flavorful.

Chicken Tikka Masala. White meat.

Lamb in a coconut curry sauce. Again the sauce is very sweet with the spice blend being fairly mild and blended into the rich sauce.

Chicken Tikka. My uncle goes nuts over this “BBQ chicken.”

Bismatti rice.

Naan, plain and garlic.
Galub jamun. Perfectly nice syrup soaked cheese/dough balls.

Overall, Tiffin was a good meal, and decent Indian. All the curries have that smooth, creamy, and sweet thing going on, which is common enough at Indian restaurants. They were pretty good too, this wasn’t like the tomato sauce boring Indian. But it was also just too sweet, without the intensity of “spice” (and I don’t mean heat) that better places have. Now, I’m sure a good bit of that is catering to the Americans, but still. The smooth, sweet, creamy thing made all the curries run together, even though their colors and flavor profiles technically varied.

Still, I fully enjoyed it.

For more Philly dining reviews click here.

Or check out the full ThanksGavin feasting series.

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By: agavin
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Pho Time – Nong La

Nov27

Restaurant: Nong La

Location: 2055 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 268-1881

Date: November 13, 2015

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Tasty

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Nong La is a Vietnamese cafe located right next to Tsujita Artisan Ramen, home of the porkiest ramen around.

It’s always busy, so I figured I’d give it a try.

The inside is “cute” (aka small).

The lunch menu.

Goi Cuon Spring Rolls. Rice paper rolls with pork, shrimp, rice vermicelli, lettuce and fresh herbs. Served with peanut sauce.

Very herby from those greens. Moderately filling too.
Bun Bo Hue. Fragrant lemongrass spicy beef soup with vermicelli noodles, pork patty and beef shank, topped with white onions, green onions and cilantro.

What was not obvious about this soup was how much kick it had. The broth had a great flavor, and I love heat, but until I got the chili distributed evenly it burned right down my windpipe.

It came with the usual Vietnamese side of herbs.

And various sauces. In case it didn’t have enough kick to start, you could spice it up. Or go the other way as I did with the dark plum sauce. I love this stuff. Love it with Peking duck. Love it here. I particularly like getting globs of it in the spoon with broth and the meat.

One quick meal at Nong La isn’t enough to really get a good sense of it, and I’m certainly going to try a Banh Mi sometime soon. The soup was definitely tasty. I did get a big of an MSG/salt hangover for the rest of the day. Not sure if it was the soup itself or the third of a bottle of the plum sauce I consumed!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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Ghosts of ThanksGavins Past

Nov25

A retrospective look at more than a decade of ThanksGavin turkey plates…

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Elite – King Crab Custard

Nov23

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

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

Date: November 21, 2015

Cuisine: Cantonese Banquet

Rating: Elite!

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Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places, but less well known is how great a Cantonese banquet place it is.

But Charlie chose it as the site for his legendary birthday feast, not only because of how good the food is (and it is good), but because they have a nice private room, great service, and are very Burgundy friendly.

They actually have a couple private rooms, but this time we had the small one, although it was certainly big enough for the 10 of us.

NV Jacques Selosse Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut V.O. 2006 disgorgment. VM 95. The NV V.O. (Version Originale) presents slightly darker, more burnished tonalities of Chardonnay. Almond, marzipan, dried rose petals, spices and anise blossom in an ample, generous Champagne built on volume, but supported by insistent veins of minerality. Hints of trademark Selosse oxidation make the V.O. a bit more eccentric, especially for readers who might not be familiar with these Champagnes. V.O. emerges from parcels in Avize, Cramant and Oger, all Grand Cru villages. The vintages are 2006, 2005 and 2004. This bottle was disgorged on October 15, 2013 and bottled with no dosage.

agavin: delicious. Super rich and tasted more like a 90s Champ.

Peanuts on the table is a Chinese staple.

2001 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. Burghound 93. This is a big step up in power and weight with a gorgeously complex nose of minerals, white flowers and minerals that leads to pure, muscular, fantastically detailed and precise flavors just oozing with sappy extract. This is quite concentrated and there is a certain regal classiness that separates this from all of the prior wines plus the length and vibrancy are simply incredible. This will require a few years of bottle age to completely integrate as the finish is very firm and quite dry for an ’01 but all of the requisite material is here for this to evolve into a superb Les Clos.

agavin: a little closed and reductive at first, but opened up into a green apple monster.
Suckling pig. We preordered this little fellow. He’s kinda sad, but he sure tasted great. Really just a fabulous bit of pork and cracklings. The sweet sauce on the side is great too.

After we ate all the easy bits they took away the pig face and limbs and chopped them up for sort of a “piglet: the return” dish. A little too boney and nasty for me.

Charlie brought: 1995 Coche-Dury Puligny-Montrachet Les Enseignères. Burghound 88. Golden color though with no hints of browning. As one would reasonably expect, the nose has now gone completely secondary fruit though there is no sous bois or undue exotic notes in evidence and introduces flavors that are classic Puligny in style with their understated, delineated and pure character and clear minerality that shapes and defines the mid-palate plus a crisp, intense and fine finish for a wine of this level. This has always been a somewhat lean effort for a ’95 and it remains that way and to my taste, should be drunk up over the next few years as the acidity may begin to dominate the finish if held for much longer. To be clear, there is no danger of this falling over the edge, just that the balance may become compromised in time.

agavin: our bottle was a bit oxidized. Old enough not to be premoxed, but heading downslope. Still, it had a lovely complexity and brulee.

We also went all out tonight and got the giant crab! Here he is alive!

From my cellar: 1996 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Chevalières. Burghound 91. Coche always seems to be able to coax another dimension out of his array of villages level vineyards and the Chvalières is no exception with its completely mature nose of hazelnut, orchard fruit and hint of reduction that doesn’t carry over to the precise and mineral-driven middle weight flavors that offer a fine sense of focus and energy on the punchy and lingering finish. This is lovely juice that has arrived at its apogee but should remain here for at least another decade.

agavin: Charlie opened a bottle of this exact wine at his birthday 2 years ago and I immediately bought some. Expensive, but a total stunner then and now. Reductive, with a staggering nose and real depth. Most in the room agreed it was one of the two best whites of the night.

And in his first prep: Garlic fried ginger crab. Leg sucking yummy.

2002 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 94. A supremely elegant nose of white flower and limestone notes are followed by sweet, pungently mineral and ultra precise middle weight flavors that offer simply incredible focus with an almost painfully intense, stunningly long finish. This\nhas just now arrived on the front edge of its peak drinkability though some may prefer a few more years in the cellar first. In sum, this is really lovely juice that should age gracefully for several decades.

agavin: a young monster, but fabulous.

But nothing compared to prep 2: Garlic steamed crab. This was incredible. Just plain 15 minute old crab steamed with garlic. Oh so good.

2008 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 96. Here the nose is notably tighter and more reserved with aromas of citrus blossom and zest, spice, smoke, fennel and hints of acacia that introduce big, muscular and wonderfully complex broad-scaled flavors that culminate in a long, focused and explosive finish of breathtaking length and intensity. This should reward at least a decade in the cellar and drink well for a similar period thereafter. This too is terrific and very Bâtard and like the Combettes, the ’08 version is one of the very best young examples from Leflaive that I have ever seen.

agavin: The group joked that this was premoxed. But no, it was nice, young and fresh but dominated by reduction and will almost certainly be even better in a few years.

And version 3: King Crab Head Custard. This crab gave great head. The custard was amazing, soft and tofu-like with bits of crab mixed in. About as perfect a white Burgundy pairing as exists.

Fred brought: 1996 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. Burghound 94. Ultra pure and refined white flower and hazelnut notes introduce crisp, delineated and wonderfully refined, linear and nuanced middle weight flavors that culminate in a bright, racy and extended finish. This is incredibly youthful at 9 years of age and should age for 25 years. A great, great ’96 of uncommon elegance for Charmes.

agavin: another stunner. Got better and better through the night too.

Then garlic fried lobster. A truly great lobster prep. Crunchy, salty, and oh so garlicky.

Amanda brought: 1996 Domaine Ramonet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. BH? In its youth and up to 2003 or so, this was a brilliant wine and one of the best examples of Bienvenues that I have ever tasted chez Ramonet with an almost painful intensity and superb cut and detail. However, the last 4 bottles that I have tried, and from multiple sources have all displayed unacceptable levels of oxidation and were essentially undrinkable. It’s not clear whether good bottles exist or not but my luck with it has not been good.

agavin: well, our experience jives with Meadows because this was super oxed. 🙁

Another super special. Winter melon soup. Served fresh in the winter melon!

This doesn’t necessarily look like much, but it was an amazing mild soup. I had 2-3 bowls of it. Delicate lovely broth, and all sorts of bits of goodness in there. More like one of those traditional Japanese soups. There was pork, chicken, seafood bits, crab from our crab of course, mushrooms, and this fibrous soft yummy thing that might have been melon. Hard to say.

Amanda brought: 1969 Camille Giroud Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers. 93 points. A late release from the domaine. This was showing quintessential Nuits, with a simply massive dose of rustic earth on the nose and palate. The mushroom note was also quite prominent, though I think it’s more reasonable to chalk that up to its age. This was showing amazingly fresh for its age thanks to some bright acids. I’d never be able to call this as an almost-50-year-old wine blind. The ripe and prominent fruit makes this taste a lot younger than it is.

agavin: very fresh for its age. Browned out in the glass after about an hour.

String beans with sausage. A richer version of the usual prep.

1996 Domaine Robert Arnoux / Arnoux-Lachaux Romanée St. Vivant. VM 94. Deep red-ruby. Knockout nose combines raspberry, violet, coffee, licorice, spice and smoky oak. Superb richness and volume without excessive weight. Thick for a ’96, but kept bright by tangy Oriental spices and a lively floral nuance. Extremely long on the aftertaste, with noble tannins. Classy juice.

agavin: good stuff. Very much in the house style.

Roast squab. Succulent little birds, heads and all.

Erick brought: 1990 Domaine Dujac Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes. Burghound 92. A beautiful and now fully mature, complex and pure red berry fruit nose that has taken on secondary nuances is trimmed in noticeable oak that continues onto the supple, rich and still fresh middle weight flavors that offer excellent detail and plenty of finishing vibrancy. This is carrying a bit more oak than I personally like but there is no question that this is a quality ’90 that delivers a high quality drinking experience and should continue to do so for another decade, perhaps longer.

agavin: very nice, but at a sufficient level of maturity (bricking) that I’d drink up.

French style beef. Good with the reds.

2005 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. Burghound 96. The magnificently pure and airy essence of notably ripe dark pinot fruit, cassis and menthol remains reserved and cool with its exceptionally rich, classy, sweet and vibrant mineral-driven and large-scaled flavors that are shaped by powerful if buried tannins. While magnificently long, this stunning Ducster is completely shut down at present and it would be a vinous crime to open one at this very early point in its development as the ’05 is built for the very long haul, indeed 20 years may be too soon. In my view, the ’05 Ducster is destined to take its place alongside the greatest vintages of the past, and while the words “best ever” are presumptuous in a wine with such a distinguished history, the mere fact that it has the potential to be among the very best ever is praise enough.

agavin: we decanted for a while. Even so, while there was tons of fruit, there was so much tannin that it needs AT LEAST another ten years.

Pea greens. Not the pea tendrils, but the older version of the same. With garlic of course.

1994 Vega Sicilia Unico. Parker 96-98. 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.

agavin: We decanted, very nice.

Dried scallop fried rice. Salty with a lot of umami.

1983 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. Parker 90-94. A stunning wine, Pichon-Lalande’s 1983 has been gorgeous to drink for a number of years. It is one of the finest 1983s, especially for a northern Medoc. The color remains a dark ruby/purple, with slight lightening at the edge. The knock-out nose of roasted herbs, sweet, jammy black currants, and pain grille is followed by a full-bodied, gorgeously concentrated and well-proportioned wine with low acidity, plenty of glycerin, and a savory, highly extracted, fleshy mouthfeel. This has always been one of the stars of the vintage. Anticipated maturity: Now-2008.

agavin: in really great shape and lovely

Seafood chow mein. I love these crispy noodles.

The sauce soaks into them and softens them up. Oh so good.

1991 Domaine Bertheau (Pierre et François) Bonnes Mares. Burghound 87. Bricking now though still showing a bit of elegant cherry/berry fruit influence on the nose leading to slightly sweet, somewhat light flavors that offer good complexity but not much density. There is good complexity and overall, this is pretty rather than profound and performs more like a good but not special premier cru rather than a big grand cru like Bonnes Mares. In short, this is perfectly good but frankly a bit disappointing for a wine at this level.

agavin: a third bottle left over from the night before.

Dessert buns. These fluffy buns are shaped like peaches, which have traditional happy symbolism in China. They had a bit of sweet paste inside. Perfectly nice (for Chinese desserts).

Another awesome Chinese feast. A lot of these dishes were stunning, like the pig and all the crab dishes. The private room was great and we had a stunning lineup of (mostly) Burgundy. Only one wine had any serious issues (the 96 Ramonet) and this dinner showed the power of high quality producer Burgundy — particularly in context of a dinner without too many big reds (only really the Unico and older Bordeaux). I feel that Burgundy shows off by far at dinners where it dominates (although it can mix fine with Champy). You can’t easily go back and forth between the big extracted wines and the more subtle Burgundy.

Fu really knows how to celebrate!

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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Quick Eats – Mondo Taco

Nov20

Restaurant: Mondo Taco

Location: 2200 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90404. (310) 310-8922

Date: October 20 & November 30, 2015

Cuisine: Nuevo Taco

Rating: Tasty

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There seems to be a bit of a new trend to apply “Californication” to just about any food type. By this I mean the process that transformed the humble Pizza 30 years ago into the now passe “California Pizza.”

Mondo Taco is one of several places trying this on the taco. Nothing wrong with that, as the taco is just a form of open faced sandwich. The shopfront is located right next to the Naughty Dog office (which I no longer work at), but is certainly a busy lunch zone.

Decor is cute and cozy.

The menu.

They have nice unlimited refills on drinks, so I hooked myself up with some pineapple juice.


Taj Mahal. Coconut shrimp, curry sauce, diced red bell pepper. This was one of my favorites. It had bright fresh tastes and packed a good dose of flavor. Plus I liked the crunch of the fried shrimp.

Thailicious. Grilled chicken, chipotle peanut sauce, cilantro, onions. This was actually my least favorite, even though I expected to like it. The flavors were too muddled, with the peanut being too muted by the chipotle. I think it would be better with a sauce closer to Thai classic peanut sauce.

El Greco. Grilled lamb, tzatzikki, diced tomato. In the middle. Certainly tasty, and much like the gyro it is modeled on.


A special: Southern Decadence. Super delicious. Fried chicken, bacon, a kind of ranch dressing, and some kind of sweet dressing. Full of fat and flavor.
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Car-Neato. Pulled pork, salsa verde, cilantro. This was fine for what it was, but not my favorite.
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Tokyo Shrimp. Tempura shrimp, avocado, spicy mayo. The combo worked, but was a tad mild for my taste.
Overall, these were promising. This isn’t the usual laser-focused Asian fare I lunch at, or even single cuisine fusion, but a sort of “anything can become a taco.” Still, I’ll go back and try some more.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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Yamashiro – Castle on the Hill

Nov18

Restaurant: Yamashiro

Location: 1999 N Sycamore Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90068. (323) 466-5125

Date: October 24, 2015

Cuisine: New Japanese

Rating: Great location, acceptable food

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I’ve been meaning to check out Yamashiro for years, as the iconic building is just too cool.

I play with our son and another family at the nearby Pantages provided the opportunity.

This crazy crazy hilltop Japanese castle was actually built in 1914! Look at it lurking above the Magic Castle in this old photo. It was built by Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer, brothers from a large, wealthy family of dry goods importers based in New York. Usually together, they travelled the world for Bear Mill Manufacturing Co. and other business concerns, which included importing “oriental goods” for the American market. Along the way, they became fascinated with Asian silks and antiques, and amassed a collection of artifacts said to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 1912, the middle-aged bachelors purchased 12-acres on the crest of a large Hollywood hill from developer H.J. Whitley. On it, they began constructing an Asian-style estate designed by NYC architect Franklin Smalls. It was said they had been planning its construction for twenty years. Why they chose unfamiliar Los Angeles as the place to build it remained a mystery.

There are epic (for LA) gardens as well and a fabulous view of the city.

2013 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Montagny 1er Cru Les Burnins. 90 points. A very Nice and complete wine. Quite ripe but with good aciditu. Medium bodied , quite a pleaser. Still a bit young, but i’ll drink these in the first two years anyway.

Farmers market salad. Field greens and market vegetables, avocado, goat cheese, roasted garlic croutons, shiso-champagne vinaigrette.

Wakame seaweed salad. cucumber, carrot, sesame rice wine vinaigrette.

Kurobuta pork carnitas. scallion-risotto cake, hoisin reduction, honey-mustard. Not bad, but could have had more flavor.

Spicy seafood hot pot. shrimp, scallop, new zealand mussel, shitake mushrooms, snow peas, glass noodles. Not a lot of flavor. I have the feeling these things have been “toned down” for the tourist crowd.

Seafood tempura. Shrimp, scallop, cod, sake-ponzu dipping sauce, yuzu chili cream sauce. Pretty straight up tempura.

Crisscut fries with dipping sauces. Sambai ketchup and yuzu-shiso ranch. Nice crunch to the fries.

Shoyu glazed black cod. sautéed mustard greens, maitake mushrooms, wasabi mashed potatoes, soy daikon sauce. A little bland.

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Pistachio salmon. coriander-sesame crust, miso-ponzu vinaigrette, pistachio-citrus relish.

Truffle hamachi. White truffle-infused ponzu, teardrop tomato-garlic confit, micro arugula. Basically hamachi with ponzu — and fine at that — but not really any taste of truffle to be found.

Salmon sushi.

Sushi plate. Albacore, tuna, hamachi, salmon roe, sweet shrimp, uni, scallop, eel. Mid rate sushi. Not bad, but the albacore was fishy.

Chocolate sorbet. Grainy and strong.

Graham cracker cookie-dough ice cream. Pretty good.

More sorbets.

And more, including a nice mango-lime.

Molten chocolate cake. Ginger ice cream, plum anglaise.

S’mores fudge browner. Warm brownie, house-made marshmallow, graham cracker cookie dough ice cream, milk chocolate sauce. Pretty good. Just the week before I had a real campfire s’more (while camping with my cub scout son). This was a decent approximation of the classic.

Overall, Yamashiro was amazing ambiance. Service was great too. They were extremely accommodating of our kids and special orders, even with the place being incredibly busy. Food is just middling. It’s not embarrassing, or bad, just sort of “tourist sushi”, slightly worse than than the Ilk of Katana and Katsuya and the like.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. East Meets West – Maru Sushi
  2. Kiriko Days – a la Carte
  3. Food as Art: Sasabune
  4. Matsuhisa – Where it all started
  5. Uh no, Takao again!
By: agavin
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Ocean Star isn’t such a star

Nov16

Restaurant: Ocean Star Restaurant

Location: 145 N Atlantic Blvd #201-203, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 308-2128

Date: October 6, 2015

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Mediocre cart dim sum

_

I go out to the San Gabriel Valley all the time, and I figured that I ought to give one of the old school cart dim sum places another try.

Ocean Star has been around forever. In fact, I think I ate there sometime in the 90s.

The place was mobbed, and it wasn’t the youngest demographic in the world. The lobby too had that over-the-top SGV 90s decor. Look at that chandelier, the marble, the cove lighting.

Same thing goes int he enormous and chaotic hall.

Chicken soup with scallop wonton. Ok, basically one giant wonton.

Shrimp rice noodle. One of the better dishes. The usual sweet sauce.

Shu mai. Not the best shu mai by any means, but certainly edible.

Har gow. Just so so. Not bad, but a little “stale.”

Lotus wrapped sticky rice.

Mushy and not very good tasty.

BBQ pork. This was pretty tasty. Sweet and fatty.

They had those crazy crispy cruller rice noodle things on the cart. Didn’t try them though.

The food was lackluster. They had a large variety — if you managed to hail the right cart — but almost everything I tasted was a bit flat. Almost freezer burned. Really, for being out in the SGV, this is no better than The Palace in Brentwood. More options perhaps. The food quality might even have been a bit worse.

Service was kind of typical. They were nice, but I couldn’t manage to get either mustard or ice water. I did get tea and the check. It also took a while for the carts to come to me and when they did, I kept getting the lame carts, like the congee one, or the vegetables, or the tripe. It took a real while before I got the actual good stuff.

Prices are cheap. So if you like to pay less for worse, and join the crazy crowd of seniors, Ocean Star is your place. I’ll go to Elite or King Hua.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Ocean Avenue Seafood
  2. Mastro’s Ocean Club Malibu
  3. Epic Ocean Party 2015
  4. Christmas is for Dim Sum
  5. Say Hi to Shi Hai
By: agavin
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More thoughts on Cassia

Nov13

The Hedonists and I return for an intimate core dinner to reevaluate this Santa Monica fusion newcomer…

Full details here.

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Related posts:

  1. Cassia – Vietnamese Reinterpreted
  2. Thoughts on TV: Lost vs The Love Boat
  3. Return to Milo & Olive
By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Boston Lobster

Nov11

Restaurant: Boston Lobster

Location: 727 E Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 288-4388

Date: November 9, 2015

Cuisine: Cantonese etc

Rating: Great Chinese

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A perennial San Gabriel favorite is Newport Seafood, a large, crowded, high end Cantonese (with a bit of Southeast Asian) joint. Well, at some point a group of employees from there split off and opened their own “spin off” restaurant, Boston Lobster.

Boston Lobster isn’t as large or built out as Newport, but it does offer up very similar fare in a great location with much less of a wait.

2005 Alain Thienot Champagne Brut. VM 90. Bright yellow. Fresh orange and pear aromas are complicated by chamomile, honey, herbs and fresh porcini. Sappy and expansive on the palate, offering intense orchard fruit flavors braced by gentle acidity. A smoky, leesy nuance lingers on the long, supple finish. Drinking well now and showing good complexity.

Peanuts and cashews on the table.

Crunch, spicy cucumbers. A typical cold starter.

From my cellar: 2005 Morey-Blanc Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 94. More evident wood with hints of spice and vanilla frames the green fruit and spiced apple aromas and a trace of it can also be found on the full-bore, rich and intense big-bodied flavors blessed with excellent concentration and muscle, all wrapped in a minerally, delicious and serious finish of superb length.

The house special lobster with noodles. This is basically a lightly garlic fried lobster and it was as awesome as this rather excellent dish gets. There was lots of easily accessible big chunks of meat and the crispy garlic bits were amazing.

Under the big guy was a big pile of noodles to soak up the garlicky sauce. Yum!

Arnie brought: 2009 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Southing. VM 91. Sea Smoke’s 2009 Pinot Noir Southing is gorgeous. It possesses striking textural depth and finesse. Juicy dark cherries, licorice, spices and flowers take shape beautifully as the wine fleshes out in the glass. The finish turns a bit fleeting as floral elements become more pronounced, but this is still a very pretty, nuanced Pinot.

agavin: not bad for a new world pinot. Relatively mellow and unoaked (which is a good thing)

Special order duck. We asked them if there was duck on the menu, and they said only by special order. We hadn’t, so we left it at that. Well, apparently special can be really fast because on of the Boston Lobster guys ran out somewhere and came back with this delicious roast duck. It was huge, meaty, and very tender and juicy. We have no idea where it came from.

2007 Dönnhoff Kreuznacher Krötenpfuhl Riesling Spätlese. JG 92. A solid middle sweet Riesling.

Crab in curry sauce. The crab itself was tasty, although slightly hard to get at the meat. The sauce though was amazing. Just a tiny bit spicy, with a sort of Singaporean curry vibe, it was incredible over rice. We almost licked the plate clean.

2012 Château de Puligny-Montrachet Chassagne-Montrachet. BH 87-89. Here too the sulfur addition is sufficiently strong to dominate the underlying fruit. The middle weight flavors also possess good volume and concentration though not quite the same degree of complexity though I like the clean mouth feel on the mildly austere finale.

agavin: Tasted mostly like reduction at this stage.

Fried sea trout with garlic sweet and sour. This is the front half of the fish (the back half is below). The sauce smelled rather funky with a strong fish sauce smell, but it tasted great. Tons of good garlicky flavor. They love garlic here, and so do I.

The tail was much more boring, steamed with ginger.

2011 Bodegas Muga Rioja Reserva Unfiltered. agavin 86. Too young and barnyardy.

Sizzling hot plate beef. Tasty, but a touch chewy.

Yarom brought: 1970 Pierre Damoy Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. agavin 75. As much as I’d love to like a 45 year old Beze, this one was cloudy, brown, and about 80% of the way toward making a nice salad dressing. It did, however, still have a characteristic Beze terroir signature.

Kung pao chicken. Not spicy like the real Szechuan version, but very tasty none-the-less.

Shrimp with garlic sauce. More garlic. Yes!

2012 Justin Vineyards & Winery Justification. VM 90. Glass-staining ruby. Complex, seductively perfumed aromas of cherry, cassis, pipe tobacco and potpourri, along with a smoky topnote. Juicy, spicy and penetrating, showing very good clarity to its dark berry, bitter cherry and floral pastille flavors. The intense, clinging, smoke-tinged finish shows a hint of floral pastilles and suave, slow-building tannins.

Fried pork chops. And even more garlic. These were hot, fatty, boneless, and super delicious. So garlicky good.

Seafood chow mein. There wasn’t that much seafood but once the sauce soaked through the crispy noodles it was awesome.

Yam leaves. Apparently this is a typical Malaysian home dish: yam leaves sautéed with garlic (surprise!). They were a rather nice colon sweeper.

Mixed fried rice. A nice example.

Warren brought: 2001 Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey. VM 93. Pale yellow-gold. Orange peel, quince, honey and sexy oak tones of vanilla and spice. Chewy and powerful in the mouth, with highly concentrated flavors of creme caramel, honey and exotic spices. Finishes very long, honeyed and powerful, not to mention flamboyantly aromatic.

agavin: I don’t think this bottle was well stored. It was alcoholic on the palette, and certainly advanced, but kind of hit the spot at the time.

Seasonal pumpkin soup for dessert. A sweet soup with big nutty tapioca balls. Not bad for a Chinese dessert.

I was skeptical going into dinner because I tend to prefer more northern or central Chinese (Szechuan yum!) but Boston Lobster turned out to be really tasty. This is “comfortable” Chinese fare, there aren’t any pig intestines boiled in chili oil on the menu, but there is a lot of flavor and a very good value. With all this, and a giant tip, it came to $46 a person.

Service was awesome too, particularly by the standards of the SGV. They were super nice, very attentive, bringing water and napkins (gasp!), changing plates, and they even went out and found the duck. How cool is that?

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. The Lobster claws at the pier
  2. Happy Table – New Bay is Old Bay
  3. New Bay Seafood
  4. Cantonese Pig Out!
  5. Palace of Pepper
By: agavin
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Theatrical Terroni

Nov09

Restaurant: Terroni [1, 2]

Location: 802 S Spring St. Los Angeles, CA 90015. 323-954-0300

Date: October 4, 2015

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Solid Italian

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Terroni is a small chain (5 restaurants) of high end Italians out of Toronto. They have two locations now in LA, Beverly Hills and Downtown.

The Downtown location is situated in a stunning early 20th century space with great vaulted ceilings.

From my cellar: 2007 Podere Il Cocco Brunello di Montalcino. 94 points. Great young Brunello. It needs a few more years as it’s intense and hot.

Barbabietole. arugula, beet, goat cheese, pistachios, balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil.

Nizzarda. arugula, Italian tuna, potatoes, eggs, red onions, tomatoes black olives, green beans, anchovy, white wine vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil.

Prosciutto d’Anatra e Burrata. duck prosciutto, burrata, fresh spinach and extra-virgin olive oil.

Kids spaghetti.

Kids penne.

Cavatelli alla Norma. cavatelli in a light tomato sauce with deep fried eggplant, aged ricotta, basil and garlic.

Gluten free pasta.

Spaghetti al Limone. spaghetti with spinach, onions, capers, shavings of parmigiano with lemon and extra-virgin olive oil.

Pasta Norcina. Spaghetti with ground sausage, Pecorino, black truffles. The oddity here, is that the “real” (Italian) version of this Umbrian dish is LOADED with cream and cheese. It’s basically a cream sauce (and delicious). This lighter version was tasty, but it isn’t real Norcina.

Pizza C’t Mang. white pizza with mozzarella, gorgonzola, fresh pears, walnuts, speck (smoked prosciutto) and honey. Delicious pizza with that sweet and salty thing I love.

Zabaione and pear gelato. My gelato is way better. This Zabaione was just a eggy vanilla. No citrus or marsala that I could detect. Weak!

Chocolate gelato. Also not the greatest gelato. You couldn’t taste the milkiness. I think they used too much cacao powder so there wasn’t enough cocoa butter.

Nutella fritters and hazelnut gelato. These were good though, and the hazelnut gelato the best of the bunch.

Crema Catalana. Classic.

Overall this was a totally solid Italian meal. Trying to be “more Italian” than most, but not quite getting all the way there. Still, most dishes were quiet good. Bear in mind that I’m a serious Italian snob :-).

Service was solid, although there seemed to be a few too many rules about modifications (which is corporate I’m sure).

Oh, and they are open through (i.e. they don’t close between lunch and dinner). That can be convenient sometimes, and it was here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Tony Terroni
  2. Quick Eats: Divino
  3. Eating Milano Marittima – Lo Sporting
  4. Sicilian Style – Drago
  5. Palmeri again
By: agavin
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