Author Archive for agavin – Page 68

Endless Republique

Jul25

Restaurant: Republique [1, 2, 3, 4]

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

Date: June 18, 2014

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

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

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Republique is certainly one of LA’s most anticipated recent openings. Taking over the gorgeous old Campanile space, this replacement is helmed by Walter Manzke and Margarita Manzke (of Church & State and Milo & Olive).

Some it seems more and more of my wine dinners are ending up here (probably in no small part due to their first rate wine program). Tonight brings my regular Hedonist group out on the town, this time organized by Larry (Yarom usually does the honors).


The building is an interesting fusion of pre-war factory…


The main interior is nearly church-like. It’s been all opened up and looks great, but it’s big, tall, and covered in hard surfaces. That means loud!

Tonight our dinner was in the private room upstairs, but our appetizers began on a little table in the midst of this chaos. I understand the desire to provide a change of venue, but given the pandemonium downstairs, squeezing a cocktail hour for twelve into the narrow entrance to the restaurant is a bit of a stretch.


Cattier Champagne Brut Premier Cru Chigny-lès-Roses.


Oysters on the half-shell. What can you say about these? They were very fresh.


And the sauces were traditional and good.


2004 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne. Parker 96. It’s fascinating to taste the 2004 Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne after the 2002, something I have been able to do on a few occasions. The 2004 is all about minerality, precision and tension. It doesn’t have the sheer richness or power of the 2002, but it makes up for that with its crystalline purity and sheer energy. Bright hints of lemon oil, white flowers and crushed rocks are layered into the pointed, vibrant finish.

Eggs on Toast. santa barbara uni, soft-scrambled eggs.

The eggs substantially cut the briny quality of the uni. Although this dish looks the same as the previous times I’ve had it, they seem to have improved it. The toast is thinner (it was a problem biting through it before) and the ratios seem adjusted in favor of the uni which helps the balance.


Our menu for tonight. We kept changing the wines on them and they kept reprinting the menu in realtime. It was impressive. I should also note that every wine had its own glass and they were all stickered with the wine and vintage! Really excellent wine service.


2004 Domaine Michel Niellon Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 94. Discreet notes of pain grillé, fennel, dried flowers and apricot aromas introduce rich, full and imposingly powerful full-bodied flavors that are mouth coating, palate staining and hugely long. Like many examples of Bâtard in 2004, this is more elegant than it usually is and while it can’t match the supremely refined Chevalier in this regard, it comes much closer than it usually does. A knockout and worth a special search.


2005 Domaine Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 94. A very deft touch of wood frames the understated and backward nose of white flower and pear aromas that lead to mineral-infused and stunningly intense and precise medium full flavors that culminate in a hugely long yet focused and explosive finish. As one would expect, this scintillates with minerality and this liquid stone quality defines the character of this wine from start to finish. In a word, harmonious. Note that patience will be required.


2007 Domaine Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 95. This is a study in elegance as the positively stunning nose displays breathtaking purity of expression with incredibly complex and airy white flower and ripe green fruit aromas that precede beautifully balanced, harmonious and chiseled, indeed even crystalline middle weight flavors that possess outstanding length and knockout depth. This is class in a glass with terrific vibrancy and the palate staining finish is almost painfully intense and about the only nit is a trace of warmth though this is as much due to the superb transparency as the actual level of alcohol. If you can find it, buy it.


2007 Etienne Sauzet Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 96. As with the Bâtard, there is a discreet hint of post-bottling SO2 that is just noticeable – decant. A classic, and radiant, Chevalier nose offers perhaps the purest fruit in the range with a mix of upper and middle register acacia blossom and fresh lemon aromas that are seductively enveloping before sliding seamlessly into strikingly detailed, stony and almost Chablis-like flavors carrying a similar sense of salinity and this is like rolling tiny pebbles around in the mouth, all wrapped in a palate-etching finish of spectacular length. This is breath-taking stuff and the focus and linearity are superb. This should age well for years. Textbook Chevalier.


2010 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Burghound 95. A gorgeously elegant if highly restrained nose of citrus, acacia blossom and pungent wet stone aromas trimmed in just enough wood to notice is stunning. Not surprisingly, the medium-bodied flavors are much finer than those of the Bâtard or Corton-Charlemagne though not quite as big or powerful. The strikingly intense, lingering and impeccably well-balanced finish radiates minerality and the overall sense of harmony is flat out superb. A knockout, even by the incredible standards of this wine.


Live Santa Barbara Spot Prawn. Chanterelle mushrooms. This was a simple dish, but the sweet freshness of the prawn, the rich buttery sauce, and the almost uni-like mushrooms blended perfectly. Really rather excellent.

It also paired fabulously with all our great Chardonnay. However, we had  wine to food ratio problem at the start of the meal as these first courses were light, and separated by a lot of time while we had an enormous lineup of 5 white Burgundies per course!


2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. I have not had this since cask and the bottle in question had a tattered label though no apparent seepage. As such, it’s difficult to know whether this bottle was indeed representative as it seemed relatively supple and forward, indeed more or less ready to drink. To be sure, there was no obvious secondary nuances in evidence and still good freshness to the rich, intense and vibrant flavors brimming with minerality on the impressively long finish.


2004 Domaine Jean-Marc Morey Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 92. A riper nose that is an interesting combination of citrus, peach, peach and slightly exotic aromas that precede rich, full and powerful flavors that are presently quite focused on the linear and reserved finish. This will need a few years in bottle to really settle down and harmonize as it’s on the awkward side today.


2006 Henri Boillot Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 96. This too is relatively restrained with a pretty but reluctant white flower and spice box nose that slides gracefully into fresh, super intense and tautly muscled full-bodied flavors brimming with dry extract that confers a distinctly textured quality onto the powerful and chewy finish. This is a big Bâtard yet for all its size and weight, everything is harnessed and focused as the length just goes on and on with no sense of top heaviness. One of the more impressive examples of Bâtard that I have ever seen because it rarely ascends to territory normally reserved for the likes of Montrachet and Chevalier or the occasional Charlemagne.


1988 Jacques Prieur Montrachet. 93 points. Initial notes of oxidation faded and developed into a wonderful mature powerhouse.


Dover Sole a la meuniere. Classic, but executed as well as any example of this ever has been. The sole was cooked perfectly and the sauce was a truly yummy butter fest. Which begged for:


Baguette with butter from Normandy. This is serious milk fat! Many at our table voted it the best “course” of the evening!


From my cellar: 1970 Domaine Drouhin-Laroze Bonnes Mares. 94 points. While not perfect, a gorgeous dried roses nose, led to a round body of berry-like fruit, and a lovely meaty tertiary finish.


2002 Louis Jadot Bonnes Mares. Burghound 94. Always one of Jadot’s best wines and the ’02 is no exception with a deft touch of oak highlighting the remarkably elegant, intense, rich and forward red and black fruit nose that is decidedly less austere than usual merging seamlessly into full-bodied, robust, well structured flavors that feature impressive depth and this finishes with absolutely knockout length. There is a subtle touch of oak on the finish but the underlying material is so good that it shouldn’t be an issue with a few more years of bottle age. In short, this is extremely impressive but will require ample patience.


2008 Rhys Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains. 93 points. Served blind. This was as good, and as Burgundian, as any New World pinot I’ve had. It almost seemed like a Vosne Romanee 1re cru. And it was young.


Australian Black Winter Truffle Risotto. Acquerello Carnaroli. A pretty classic soft butter take on truffle risotto. Mild but delicious.


1996 Faiveley Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 86. Earthy, intense and serious aromas lead to somewhat lean and tough flavors underpinned by solidly structured, only moderately ripe tannins framed by a touch more acidity than the fat can completely buffer. In short, while this is not technically flawed, it is disappointing by the usually high standards of a Faiveley grand cru.


1998 Domaine Robert Groffier Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 92. Unlike a number of Groffier wines of this era, the nose is not dominated by char or excessively toasty oak and the now maturing fruit is allowed to show through freely. While there are hints of secondary fruit development, the nose remains largely fresh and bright with touches of Gevrey style earth and animale notes that are picked up by the delicious, round and relatively forward medium-bodied flavors that offer excellent complexity and fine if not truly exceptional length. This is not an especially big Bèze but it is balanced and is aging beautifully. More importantly, the tannins do not dominate the finish and with air.


Liberty Duck. Torte au gibier. Duck breast on the right, on the left a pastry filled with French Country Pate (scrambled duck innards). Gross as it seems this treat was utterly divine. Just so meaty and good. Also a great red Burgundy pairing for what it’s worth.


1982 Leoville-Las Cases. Parker 95-100. I have had perfect bottles of this cuvee, but, perplexingly, the bottles from my cellar tend to be broodingly backward and require plenty of coaxing. This huge wine is, in many ways, just as massive as Leoville Barton, but it possesses a greater degree of elegance as well as unreal concentration. Classic lead pencil, cassis, kirsch, cedar, and spice characteristics are abundant in both the nose and full-bodied flavors. The tannins are still there, and, at least from my cellar, this 1982 does not appear to have changed much in the last 10-12 years.


2006 Sine Qua Non Raven Series (Syrah). Parker 96-99. The 2006 Raven Series Syrah, a blend of 93% Syrah, 5% Grenache, and 2% Viognier that spends just under two years in French oak. Offering a dense purple color, gorgeous fruit, and a sweet perfume of graphite, blackberries, blueberries, charcoal, licorice, tar, and new oak, it is a dense, full-bodied, well-endowed, beautifully layered, pure Syrah that should drink well for 10-15 years.

agavin: I must say as enjoyable as these big New World’s get.


45-day dry-aged prime ‘steak frites.” Ha. More like Wagyu than normal steak this was a great piece of meat. But even better was:


The frites. About as good as fries ever get.


With Bernnaise too, although they were better straight up or in the steak jus.


1961 Château Climens. 93 points. Deep amber color. pineapple and caramel. some acidity on the finish. still very much alive.


Somehow I never get a real dessert here at Republique (and they look great). Instead we had this simple chunk of blue cheese. Nothing wrong with that, I adore blue cheese, but I also could have done with something sweet.


Michael Z felt the need for MORE WINE, so we got this young pup off the list.

2011 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru. Burghound 89-91. Here the nose is more deeply pitched with an attractive layering effect to the dark berry fruit aromas that enjoy added breadth from the presence of plum, violet and soft earth nuances. There is the same fine sense of underlying tension and detail to the medium-bodied flavors that possess a silky mouth feel before culminating in an overtly mineral-driven, dusty, linear and persistent finish. If this slightly muscular effort can add a bit more depth in bottle it should merit the upper end of my projected range.

agavin: surprisingly fresh and drinkable at the moment. Lots of berry.


Our Sommelier for evening, Taylor Parsons. As I mentioned before he and his team managed the wine assault flawlessly. Individual labeled glasses for every wine! They got the flights poured out rapidly. We did not want for wine!


Chef Walkter Manzke took a break from the kitchen madness for a quick visit.

Overall, Republique is a first rate place. It updates the classic French fare in a way that is contemporary without being ultra modern. And the whole everything here is so painfully (and I don’t mean in a bad way) contemporary. It just couldn’t be more “in” with the current dining trends. Not that I actually have a problem with that — in fact, my only problems with the restaurant was the volume (almost too loud for conversation) and a seeming total lack of large square or circular tables (I eat out in large groups and hate long skinny tables for more than 6). Most importantly, not only are these fresh takes on the classics, but the cooking is really on point. Even only being three months old this kitchen is executing very well.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Republique of Jadot
  2. Third Republique
  3. Vive la République
  4. Burgundy at Providence
  5. Valentino – 2006 White Burgundy
By: agavin
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Mosaic of Food – Byzantine Cuisine

Jul23

Once a year, the Getty Villa, Los Angeles’ leading (and only?) antiquities museum puts on an event celebrating historical food culture. For me, these are at a nexus of my interests, being (surprise!) such a foodie as well as a history buff.


This year’s event showcases the food of Byzantium. Sadly, most Americans are barley aware of this empire that (off and on) ruled half the western world for 1100 years, and is in itself the 3rd of 4 phases of the 2,500 year old Roman Empire (combining Republican, Roman Imperial, Byzantine, and Ottoman phases). But that’s history. What about the food?

Food scholar Andrew Dalby has a new book on the topic, Tastes of Byzantium, and before the meal he spoke for an hour on the topic. Essentially, Byzantine food is a mid point between the complex sweet / salty / herbed Roman cuisine and modern Greek and Turkish (i.e. Mediterranean) food. A few years ago I went to a similar event on Roman food too where he talked.


The dinner is located in the central courtyard of the lovely Getty Villa main building, a reconstruction based on the famous Villa di Papyri near Naples.

And the meal was accompanied by lovely Byzantine secular music, of which you can hear a sample.



The special menu.


This pomegranate juice was delicious. I had about 5 glasses (sugar rush!). I suspect, however, that the original historical variant was probably less sweet, or even if sweetened, wouldn’t have been with one of our modern easy dissolving versions (they probably used simple syrup). It might have been honey in the old days, which is very different.

Paropsides

Appetizers include figs, walnuts, and these incredibly delicious marinated green olives stuffed with honey, vinegar, and thyme.


Kalamata olives. Having just recently returned from Greece (and Kalamata), I can say that Kalamata olives are the best black olives I’ve ever had.


Multigrain bread with olive oil from Costa Navarino.


Grilled Eggplant with shaved bottarga and lemon vincotto. Coriander, parsley, oregano, and olive oil. The sweet, salty, herby notes here are distinctly Roman — but they are also representative of elements of both modern Greek food and of certain Italian dishes, particularly in rural areas.


Our wine selections are modern Greek. This white was typically quafiable and a good pairing.

Prodeipnio

Scallop and Caviar. Seafood foam of cream and egg whites, fish sauce, dill, fennel, minted pea puree, and crispy shallot.

This was a nice dish. Somehow it felt modern. I have to assume that even if the basic dish is ancient, the plating is highly modern. Individual plating entered Western Europe from Russia in the early 19th century, so I’m betting that Byzantine food was served (even at the Imperial level) from an elaborate central arrangement on the table. Still the tastes may be fairly authentic. Byzantine food apparently continued in the Greek and Roman tradition of liberal use of Garum, only loosing this important condiment with the Ottoman Conquest (1453). Garum is a salty/fishy sauce made from  fermented fish innards that was used to add salt and umami to dishes for at least 2,000 years.

 

 


This Greek red reminded me of an Aglianico.

Deipnon


Cumin and Fennel rubbed lamb chop and loin. Oinogaros (fish sauce, dill, coriander, thyme, red wine, honey, costus). Garnished with pickled cabbage and leeks.

Pallekaria. Chickpeas, black-eyed beans, and fava beans with fresh parsley, dill, onion, and lemon.

This was a fabulous dish, and very interesting. The lamb was very tasty with a nice herby note (I have to assume they toned down the fish component of the Oinogaros for the modern palette). The salad was very unusual and lovely. It had a vinegary, herby quality and seemed to settle the stomach.

Epidorpio


Rice pudding with whipped cream and honey. Sugared almonds, cherries, and candied citron.

I don’t know how authentic this one was, but it was a fabulous rice pudding (of which I’m a fan). The nuts and candied fruit added both texture and sweetness, plus a sort of Sicilian vibe that was vaguely reminiscent of a good cannoli. This is probably not unrealistic as Sicilian cuisine is one of the more traditional Italian zones and had many of the same influences as medieval Greece (Greek, Roman, Crusader, Arab).

All in all, this was a very interesting evening. Not necessarily as hedonistic as many of my dinners, but both tasty and highly intellectually interesting. The authentic past is lost, an elusive reality that shimmers all about us, but remains only in glimpses. I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to bring even a part of it into blurry focus.

Related posts:

  1. At the Roman Table
  2. The New Cal Cuisine: Rustic Canyon
  3. Food as Art: The Bazaar
  4. Food as Art: Dark Illuminated Forest
  5. CUR-ATE – Alexander the Great
By: agavin
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Eastern Promises – Crabs of Yesteryear

Jul21

Restaurant: The Masthead

Location: 104 West Pier Street. Oxford, MD 21654. ph: 410-226-5171

Date: May 25, 2014

Cuisine: American Seafood

Rating: Great view and great crabs

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In the late 70s and early 80s our family ate routinely (on summer weekends) at one of the three restaurants in Oxford Maryland known as “Pier Street” (after its address).


This crab oriented seafood establishment features primarily outside dining on the water and in those days crab men would bring up bushels of live blue crabs to the attached dock where they were transferred immediately to the boilers for conversion into “hardshells.”


The name has changed, but the outside dining remains virtually unchanged, featuring long picnic tables, a great view, and a lovely breeze.


The current menu.


Maryland vegetable crab soup. Not quite as good as at Hollys, but still good.


Chicken salad.


House salad with fried cornbread. lol.


Softshell sandwich. A deep fried blue crab on a bun!


Fish and chips.


A dozen blue crab hardshells. These are spiced with “old bay” and steamed. As this is still May, the crabs are tiny and expensive, but they are delicious!


The Masthead isn’t and never was a fancy establishment.


Tools for crab eating: mallets, more old bay, vinegar.


And this is where the crabs (and other shellfish) are steamed. I seem to remember the boilers were much bigger in the “old days.”


Tasty feller.


The pier ain’t what it used to be either. Some storm wiped it out and they never replaced it.

The Masthead might not be fine dining, but it does have great ambiance and still features some of the freshest versions of one of the world’s greatest crab!

For more Washington dining reviews click here.


Related posts:

  1. Eastern Promises – Holly’s
  2. Eastern Promises – Brightwell
  3. Eastern Promises – BBQ Joint
  4. Eastern Promises – Azeen’s Afghani
  5. Sometimes You Want to Get Crabs
By: agavin
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The Republic of Thieves

Jul19

2890090Title: The Republic of Thieves

Author: Scott Lynch

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Length: 609 pages

Read: June 23-30, 2014

Summary: a bit weaker

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Most of the good things about books 1 and 2 of the Gentleman Bastards are also true of The Republic of Thieves. The latest installment serves up good fun, great characters, and all that. Lynch again moves the setting, this time to the city of the Magi, Locke’s bitter enemies from book 1. It brings into the foreground Locke’s mysterious and absent former lover/rival. Again the story is told both in the present and in flashback.

The two timelines don’t fit together entirely harmoniously. The present focuses on a contest/rivalry between Locke and Sabetha (his former lover) while the backstory details their childhood relationship and a long episode where the Gentleman Bastards crime gang played Elizabethan Actors for a summer. Partly, this addition feels gratuitous, like the pirate episode in Red Seas Under Red Skies, and certainly it exists because Lynch read a lot about this period and wanted to include it. It’s also (IMHO) the best part of the novel. We get to see a few of our favorite dead bastards alive and well (the twins) and (briefly) Chains. Plus, it’s just a fun romp and a bit of a caper.

And that’s sort of the problem with the main story. The back and forth with Sabetha was great, but the “caper” wasn’t really a caper. Both rivals are chosen by the Magi to run two sides of a strange election process — which is entirely trumped up and serves as a human proxy for the nearly all-powerful Magi. It just never felt very real, urgent or exciting.

Still,  it’s an enjoyable book, and if you enjoyed the other two, read it. But The Republic of Thieves is a notch below its predecessors, perhaps 4 stars instead of 5.

But the epilogue was interesting!

For more book reviews, click here.

the_lies_of_locke_lamora_by_akru-d5wd823

Related posts:

  1. Serene Republic of Quippy Thievies
  2. Yar Maties – Pirate Fantasy!
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By: agavin
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Yar Maties – Pirate Fantasy!

Jul17

887877Title: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Author: Scott Lynch

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Length: 786 pages

Read: June 5-22, 2014

Summary: Possibly best of the series

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The first book in this series, The Lies of Locke Lamora, was one of the better novels I read last year. Red Seas picks up right after and avoids Sophomore Slump by switching up the scenario and the location fairly substantially. Our heroes have left their Venice-like hometown of Camorr and venture off to a new city (Tal Verrar) and a new (and even more elaborate) scam with even bigger stakes.

The first third of the novel is Oceans Eleven in the Renaissance, and it’s real good fun. The world is enormously detailed and Scott Lynch is very sharp with the dialog. He has come into his own in this second book, as it’s wittier than ever. There is a very slight overwriting to the style, but you get used to it quickly and the huge novel flies along. The dynamic between Locke and his partner/friend Jean is fabulous and they are very well drawn characters.

This is aided enormously by a series of flashbacks. In the first novel, which also crossed two timelines, it was a little confusing which was which. This time around, Lynch has clearly labeled the flashback chapters. Because the novel begins essentially in the middle of the current heist, these are used to fill in the setup and the complex relationship between the two men. Walking a delicate line, Lynch has to maintain his suspense by NOT telling us how exactly the heist is actually going to work. We are tolled out bits and pieces until the very end.

Then about a third of the way in we take a hard tack to starboard and enter a high seas pirate tale. The entire middle act is shipboard and has less to do (directly) with the heist of the . At first I was like woah, but hell, I like pirates and this was good fun. Somewhere in Lynch’s brain there exists a different novel, about half the length, without the whole pirate part. You can tell this was self indulgent, that he really researched period nautical life and wanted to really use it. From a structural sense, the pirate thing isn’t even necessary, but because this world and its characters are so rich, and it was so fun, I think it’s a net win.

Hell the whole act of reading a fantasy novel is escapist, who cares if it’s too long as it’s a great read — which Red Seas absolutely and definitely is. A pure pleasure and a work of delightful fantasy. Plus, so strong are it’s characters, that it actually has a good bit to say on the nature of friendship.

Oh, and if you really like pirate fantasy two other favorites of mine over the years are On Stranger Tides and Wyvern.

For more book reviews, click here.

Red-Seas-Big

Related posts:

  1. Serene Republic of Quippy Thievies
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  5. The Lost Gate
By: agavin
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Eastern Promises – BBQ Joint

Jul15

Restaurant: BBQ Joint

Location: 216 East Dover Street, Suite 201. Easton, MD 21601. 410-690-3641

Date: May 24, 2014

Cuisine: BBQ

Rating: Some of the best BBQ I’ve had

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The Eastern Shore of Maryland is usually considered a seafood zone, being known for its awesome blue crab, but local residents don’t turn their nose at any Southern American favorites.


Located in quaint old Easton.


The menu.


The house made sauces (mostly a choice of sweet or spicy).


Sawdust floors.


Some sides, like applesauce, mac & cheese, and cornbread.


A pulled chicken sandwich and collard greens.


Salad. I like the “paper” plate.


This side plate has a roll and slaw.


Part of our BBQ sampler. featuring ribs (wet), BBQ chicken, chopped beef brisket, and pulled pork.


A pulled pork sandwich (front right). The pulled pork is a Carolina style. In the back are ribs “dry” and in the front baked beans (with pork of course).

The BBQ joint is as described, pretty straight up BBQ, but wow, was it tasty. This was some darn good smoked meat!

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eastern Promises – Brightwell
  2. Eastern Promises – Holly’s
  3. Eastern Promises – Azeen’s Afghani
  4. Fogo de Chao – Beef!
  5. Western Smoke House Meats
By: agavin
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Eastern Promises – Brightwell

Jul11

Restaurant: Brightwell

Location: 206 North Washington St. Easton Md. 410-819-3838

Date: May 23, 2014

Cuisine: American

Rating: Tasty Gastro-comfort, hint of Spanish

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The Eastern Shore of Maryland is home to all sorts of great seafood, particularly the famous blue crab. And it’s a place that time seems to have left untouched… well almost.


There is an aura of gentrification and the infiltration of national trends, in this case the “brasserie” concept. Restaurants are all moving down the formality scale and lately, after the whole “osteria” thing peaked, it’s back to French — not fancy French but Gaulic comfort food.

Le menu.


Back porch lemonade. A tasty concoction of vodka, lemonade, and I think a bit of cranberry thrown in.


Black and tan.

Some other cocktail.


Cream of crab soup. The other typical version, what vegetable crab is to Manhattan, this is to New England.


Beet salad. Rocket, burcheron, sherry vinaigrette.


Caesar salad.


Grilled Sausage. Potatoes Vinaigrette, smoked tomato, pickled mustard seeds. Very Catalan and quite tasty.


Jamon Iberico. Spanish Ham, manchego, almonds, grapes, frisee, balsamic. Yum.


Crispy Vietnamese Spring Rolls. Chili sauce. Tasty enough, but not terribly like Vietnamese spring rolls.


Spaghetti, pomodoro sauce, and cheese.


Grilled Duroc Pork chop. Brussels sprouts.


Grilled whole trout.


Wood-fire grilled rib-eye. House-made fries.


Mussels & Frites. Red curry. Spicy chili, cilantro, scallion, candied ginger. There was some serious heat hear — and salt.


Chocolate ice cream.

Brightwell was solid. Not mind blowing in any way, but the food was bright and tasty. The infusion of Spanish influence livened up the otherwise tedious bistro/brasserie factor.

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eastern Promises – Holly’s
  2. Eastern Promises – Azeen’s Afghani
  3. Eating Hanoi – Club Opera
  4. Eating Hanoi – Madame Hien
  5. Eating Saigon – Hoa Tuc
By: agavin
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Eastern Promises – Holly’s

Jul08

Restaurant: Holly’s

Location: 108 Jackson Creek Rd Grasonville, MD 21638. (410) 827-8711

Date: May 23, 2014

Cuisine: American

Rating: Solid modern Gastro-comfort

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My family has been stopping at Holly’s (a greasy spoon a few minutes east of the Bay Bridge) for almost 40 years.


This establishment is old school Americana at its best. Nothing has really changed here since the 70s, and probably for 20 or so years before that.


Classic decor. As a kid they even had one of those “Have a Coke and have a smile” machines that was a top opening cooler! Served bottles of course.

The menu is pretty classic too.


But it does have Eastern Shore specialities like Crab and Vegetable soup. This Eastern Shore variant on Manhattan Clam Chowder (blue crab instead of clams) is delicious, sweeter, and altogether amazing.


Tuna sandwich.


Catfish sandwich. They don’t skimp on the portions.


Pancakes.


And one of their specialties, straight up friend chicken. No chocolate. No waffles. No tempura batter. Just homemade American fried chicken. And it’s still great.


Another regional specialty, the crab cake sandwich. Filled with blue crab!

It’s nice that some things, especially simple good things, don’t change. As much as I’m a food modernist, I can also really appreciate well cooked classics, sort of the culinary version of folk music.

Oh, and they have crazy good pies too, including the famous apple “dumpling.” Plus, the prices are crazy cheap. Adding a fried chicken breast to anything costs $2.59!

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eastern Promises – Azeen’s Afghani
  2. Tidewater Crab
  3. Quick Eats: Coastal Flats
By: agavin
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Banana Split Redefined

Jul06

Restaurant: Central by Michael Richard

Location: 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004 (202) 626-0015

Date: May 22, 2014

Cuisine: American

Rating: Solid modern Gastro-comfort

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Michael Richard used to be an LA chef, and I went a couple of times to his Citrus years ago, but quite some time ago he moved to my hometown of Washington DC. Central represents him following the national trend of “bistrofication” or the general movement of fancy restaurants down the formality curve.


The fancy Pennsylvania Ave frontage.


The interior is more sleek and with a more expensive build out than most gastropubs.




The menu is a hybrid between French and American comfort food, all updated a bit with modern sensibilities.

Gougeres. I.e. French cheese puffs. These had a perfect fluffy lightness to them.


Roasted beets, arugula & warm goat cheese.


Side salad.

Fish and chips. The green (cilantro?) aioli was bright and tasty.


Crabcake. Washington area staple, and never too bad.


Fried chicken. In the background brussels sprouts and bacon. The chicken was boneless and breaded like a Japanese Tonkatsu cutlet!


Banana Split. Certainly the best Banana split I’ve ever seen. Slightly deconstructed (ice cream on the side). The ice cream was homemade.


Flourless chocolate cake.


Michel’s Chocolate Mousse. Deep and chocolately, with those fun crunchy things.

This was a tasty place. The savories were good but it was really the desserts that stood out.

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Split Croatia – Boban
  2. Split Croatia – Konoba Nevera
  3. Split Croatia – Kadena
  4. The Counter
  5. A-Frame – Ultimate Picnic Food
By: agavin
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Eight Legs at Il Grano

Jul04

Restaurant: Il Grano [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Location: 11359 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.477.7886

Date: June 16, 2014

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Modern Italian to die for

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After my stellar birthday meal at Il Grano, and with the closing of Drago, Il Grano has become one of my favorite westside Italians. You can tell by the number of reviews (up to 8!) I also frequently bring out of town guests here, like tonight.


The sleek interior space.

We didn’t order off the menu but instead asked Chef Sal Marino to make us a 9 course tasting menu. He through in a couple of bonuses!


From my cellar: 1990 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 93. A truly wonderful nose of simply knockout complexity features notes of yeast and baked bread along with now fully mature aromas of a variety of floral notes and spice hints that gives way to mineral-suffused, round, intense and detailed medium full flavors that also offer outstanding depth on the sappy and mouth coating finish. This is drinking perfectly now and I wouldn’t hesitate to open one anytime as there is no further upside to be had. A beautiful effort of real style and grace.


Spoons of Tuna Tartar  as an amuse.


Crudo. Chef Sal Marino is famous for his crudo. From left to right: big eye tuna/toro, yellowtail, snapper, Hokkaido scallop with cherry, and octopus.


Arugula and porcini salad. With parmesan.


Arugula, endive, and salmon salad.


Burrata and grilled peach. A lovely summer combination.


Pizza Del Re. white truffle crema, fontina, shaved white truffle. Yum!


Beef tartar with olive oil and caper. I love beef tartar. This one was good, but perhaps a bit too much of the caper.


From my cellar: 1995 Elia Pasquero Barbaresco Sori Paitin. Parker 90. A terrific 1995, this complex, fully mature, multidimensional Barbaresco is a beautiful wine. The color is deep ruby with some lightening at the edge. The knock-out nose consists of cherry liqueur intertwined with aromas of tobacco, wood fire, dried herbs, and roasted meat. Deep and lush, with no hard edges, a plump, succulent texture, medium to full body, and layers of glycerin and sweet, jammy fruit, this hedonistic, seductive Barbaresco.


There were two large parties tonight, one of Japanese gentlemen diving through a 21 course tasting menu. One was this giant stewed octopus done Southern Italian style. This big boy was cooked for a long time.


Here the chef is snipping off bits.


Octopus. My slice of tentacle. It was chewy, but fully of great flavor.


Lobster risotto. I love a good risotto and this definitely qualified!


Cheese  ravioli. Not your everyday version, but a lovely homemade variant.


Spaghetti funghi. Mousserons, chanterelle mushrooms, mushroom stock. A very smokey flavor.


Spaghetti Octopoda. The octopus juice and bits were used to make a delicious briny pasta.


Wild salmon with pea puree, kale, and asparagus. Very soft and delicate.


Halibut crusted with squid ink with farmer’s market cauliflower.


Anatra. duck breast, caramelized maui onions, greens, pomegranate reduction, candied fig.


Apricot crumble. Warm, soft, and very apricot. Delicious.

If you like higher end Italian cooking (and who doesn’t?) you should absolutely rush over here. Make sure you get a tasting menu. I don’t think appetizer and entree selected off the regular menu would do the place the justice it deserves. I’m sure the dishes would be great, but this cuisine is about more than just two notes. I’m not sure why Il Grano isn’t always mobbed, as folks flock to overpriced mid-quality trattorias. I guess people are just clueless.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or experience my gluttonous month-long journey through Northern Italy.

Sal treats his tomatoes like family

The wine list is top notch, with a real depth in Burgundy

Related posts:

  1. Il Grano part 2
  2. Tomato Night at Il Grano
  3. Il Grano – Only 19 courses?
  4. Il Grano Birthday
  5. Il Grano – Buon Anno
By: agavin
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Third Republique

Jul01

Restaurant: Republique [1, 2, 3]

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

Date: May 13, 2014

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

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

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Republique is certainly one of LA’s most anticipated recent openings. Taking over the gorgeous old Campanile space, this replacement is helmed by Walter Manzke and Margarita Manzke (of Church & State and Milo & Olive). As you’ll see, while the core cuisine marries Brasserie with neo-tapas, this is a place that draws intensely on the current (2013-14) trends. LA Zeitgeist for sure.

On this particular night, I  was invited again by Liz Lee of The Sage Society. She’s a friend of mine, wine dealer, and overall awesome foodie. She sure organizes an amazing evening. This one was mostly top flight Burgundy, and 13-14 bottles for 7 people! (Good thing I never drive to wine dinners)


The building is an interesting fusion of pre-war factory…


The main interior is nearly church-like. It’s been all opened up and looks great, but it’s big, tall, and covered in hard surfaces. That means loud!


The bar is packed and setup with all those fancy little fixings that are the hallmark of the fancy mixologist style of expensive yummy weak drink making. Being a wine guy, I don’t much care.


Along with the hard (read loud) surfaces, open kitchen, mixologist and the like, our obligatory aged wood communal tables are graced with this paper menu.


As we sit we are offered some yummy bread sticks (a.k.a. grissini). The bakery here is clearly first rate, although there was nowhere to really put them and half of mine ended up tumbling to the floor.


Our Sommelier for evening, Taylor Parsons. Unlike my mostly more chaotic Hedonist Dinners, he opened and poured the wine properly in flights, and even ordered up food to match.


NV Pierre Gerbais Champagne L’Originale. 90 points. Pinot Blanc, single vineyard planted 1904. Lovely purity, floral note of camomile, some mineral notes, freshly cut fennel and dill Strong mineral notes and back bone, floral, fennel, clay, pear, yellow plums with long finish.


Mixed oysters on the half-shell.


Asparagus and pepper tempura.

Warm Baguette with Normandy Butter. A completely first rate piece of bread. Utterly classic and unadorned. The taste reminds one of France.


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Chips & Dip. Scottish king salmon tartare, cucumber, mint, yogurt, crispy pork rinds.


For vegetarians there were potato crisps.


And the tastier chicarones.



2009 Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve. 88 points. No formal note. This had a reasonably complex, smoky peach nose, with a hint of orange rind, was full bodied and plump on the palate, reasonably attractive stone fruit with creamy notes and low acidity. Paired fabulously with the pasta below.


English pea Agnolotti. Fresh blanched peas. Really a great pasta.


1996 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Burghound 91. Moderate but still very fresh secondary notes that reflect nuances of bee’s wax and the first hints of sous bois lead to intense, vibrant and mineral-driven flavors infused with ample citrus, all wrapped by a firm, edgy and pure finish. While this has plenty of legs left, it has arrived at its peak though as noted, it should be capable of holding for another two decades. From another bottle affected by a touch of premature oxidation – The color is a more advanced gold than I expected and certainly more so than the bottle of ’96 Blanchots tasted a few days earlier. The nose reveals a trace of oxidation and while it’s by no means enough to kill the enjoyment of the wine, it does detract as well as give one pause as to how this will evolve over the next few years. The flavors are classic Valmur with its incredibly precise and mineral-laden, moderately austere flavors and laser-like focus. As is the case with so many ’96s, the nose is out in front of the structure and while I certainly liked this wine, it’s not clear that this is going to reward further cellaring.


Live Santa Barbara Spot Prawns. Romanesco cauliflower, brown butter, lemon capers, almonds.


1990 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. This is one of those whites from the ’90 vintage that is trapped in a time capsule as it remains unusually youthful for a 20 year old wine even if no longer young as the nose displays the first hints of sous bois along with dried flower and citrus aromas. The delicious and highly mineral-infused middle weight flavors are racy, intense and beautifully delineated before culminating in a lingering and pure finish. This is in extraordinary condition if well-stored and should continue to drink well for years to come. In a word, impressive.


Hamachi Crudo. Pineapple, fresno chili, cilantro.


From my cellar: 1996 Maison Leroy Meursault 1er Cru. Burghound 92. This is still very fresh with only the initial hints of development to the airy white flower and hazelnut aromas that give way to rich, pure and gorgeously precise flavors that culminate in a mineral-infused and impressively linear finish that lasts in the mouth for several minutes. A stunner of wine that is still improving.

agavin: I was disappointed, nothing too obvious wrong with it, just too closed and reserved.


From my cellar: 1996 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet. Burghound 96. Classic white burg aromas of immense breadwith and depth with white flower notes, minerals and knockout complexity. This is a big, rich yet delineated wine that has near perfect balance. In short, this is flat out superb with an intensity, complexity, depth and stony minerality that is something special to behold. The length lasts for minutes and for my taste, this has finally arrived at its full maturity though there is certainly no rush to drink up as it should maintain this level for years. Consistent notes.

agavin: sadly, and I cry as I write this, the wine was heavily premoxed (oxidized) and not really drinkable. The finish had promise. 🙁


Fresh white Asparagus and black truffle butter sauce. Just in season and fabulous.


From my cellar: 1990 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 93. A truly wonderful nose of simply knockout complexity features notes of yeast and baked bread along with now fully mature aromas of a variety of floral notes and spice hints that gives way to mineral-suffused round intense and detailed medium full flavors that also offer outstanding depth on the sappy and mouth coating finish. This is drinking perfectly now. A beautiful effort of real style and grace.

agavin: a third fail for me tonight. This bottle was pretty oxidized. I’ve opened around 20 of this wine (all from the same source) and about 2/3 of them are fabulous, but a few are kinda oxidized.


Black Stripped bass with a butter sauce and vegetable puree. Perfectly crispy.


1993 Domaine Leroy Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Narbantons. 93 points. Mme Bize-Leroy makes the best wines in the world. At least this was my hypotheses when we drank this wine. Domaine Leroy is superior to DRC and her wines are as a consequent also more expensive. When she dies, the prises will soar and eventually exede Henri Jayer’s. This Sauvigny is perfectly mature now, with smooth concentrated red fruits. My guess was an Echezeaux from the 90ies. More or less everything she does is of Grand Cru quality.


1996 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Ruchottes-Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes. Burghound 90. The nose on the ’96 Clos des Ruchottes is stunningly elegant with really dazzling purity of fruit and leads to relatively supple though barely medium weight flavors underpinned by moderate structure and healthy acidity. As it usually is, this is quite earthy and I suspect it will come around over the mid-term as the tannins are completely ripe and integrated. I would give this 3 or 4 more years of cellar time and then probably drink up whether or not the tannins are fully resolved as the lack of full phenolic maturity suggests that the acidity may come to dominate the finish.

agavin: great, but retained a surprising amount of oak/spice.


Mary’s Organic Rotisserie Chicken. Red russian kale, roasted fingerling potatoes. The rotating spit was right in front of me and all night I watched a procession of these tasting fowl orbiting. Just classic roast chicken en jus but absolutely perfectly cooked. All good.


1988 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. Burghound 92. Still quite reserved on the nose but the flavor profile is dense, rich and wonderfully complex with terrific length. As with the Boudots, the buffering extract is more than sufficient to envelope the substantial tannins though there is a touch of finishing astringency.

agavin: a lovely mature burg.


Liberty Duck Breast. Cherries and Brussels sprouts.


1970 Louis Latour Romanée St. Vivant Les Quatre Journaux. agavin 94. Stellar wine. All that I love in old Burgs. Lots of fruit, acidity and long berry finish.


A selection of cheeses. Always good with so much wine.


Pistachio and Strawberry ice cream. Refreshing.

Overall, Republique is a first rate place. It updates the classic French fare in a way that is contemporary without being ultra modern. And the whole everything here is so painfully (and I don’t mean in a bad way) contemporary. It just couldn’t be more “in” with the current dining trends. Not that I actually have a problem with that — in fact, my only problems with the restaurant was the volume (almost too loud for conversation) and a seeming total lack of large square or circular tables (I eat out in large groups and hate long skinny tables for more than 6). Most importantly, not only are these fresh takes on the classics, but the cooking is really on point. Even only being three months old this kitchen is executing very well.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

 

Related posts:

  1. Republique of Jadot
  2. Vive la République
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  4. Valentino – 2004 Red Burgundy
  5. Melisse Madness
By: agavin
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Sea Harbor Dim Sum

Jun29

Restaurant: Sea Harbor Seafood Restaurant

Location: 3939 Rosemead Blvd. Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 288-3939

Date: June 11, 2014 & January 2, 2015 & May 17, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: In the top 5 SGV Dim Sum

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This is a compilation of both a birthday trip my brother and I made to Sea Harbor Dim Sum, the latest in our crusade to visit all the best Dim Sum joints in the San Gabriel Valley, and a in force 20 person assault on the place later with my hedonist group.


I think Sea Harbor has been around for a long time and is one of the mainstays.


The interior is pretty typical.
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On 5/17/21, not long after the lockdowns, they were also serving outside on the patio.






One of these nice color photo menus. The paper “checklist” you order with is only in Chinese, but we just use the numbers. This is made to order dim sum, which is much fresher than the cart style.


The sauce plate (like everything else, on request).


Paul Bara Champagne Grand Cru Brut Grand Rosé. AG 92. The Brut Rosé Grand Cru is bold, richly textured wine that literally bursts from the glass with impressive concentration. This shows gorgeous inner perfume yet remains a decidedly extroverted, singular wine. The weight of the Pinot comes through in spades. Readers who want to understand why the Grand Cru vineyards of Bouzy are so famous for Pinot and Rosé should start here.


Cucumber with garlic and spicy sauce.


Jellyfish with GongCai. Apparently the green stuff is “tribute vegetable.” I thought it was bits of asparagus or something. Jellyfish was good.


2013 Liquid Farm Chardonnay White Hill. 93 points. No real sign of oak although it is fermented in mostly neutral oak with a bit of stainless steal. Wonderfully balanced, I want oysters with my next bottle! Great alternative to so many oaky Cali chards out there.


Chicken feet with Angelica in Meat Broth.


Spareribs in black bean sauce. Hideous, but they taste great.


From my cellar: 2012 Tenute Sella Coste della Sesia Majoli. 90 points. Deep red in the glass. This is a rosé with some weight, quite different from some of the nimble, mineral driven rosés from France. Dominant cherry tones, with a touch of Luden’s cherry drop. Clean finish. Potentially this could stand up to a more medium bodied dish, outside of the typical realm for other rosés. This is an unusual bottle, not often encountered – I’ve never seen Tenute Sella rosé for sale, anywhere.


Har Gow. A top version of the classic.


Siu Mai. Pork and shrimp dumpling. Also classic. These are the “normal” (non jumbo size) and tasted great.

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Siu Mai with Truffle. I think the truffle is actually a negative.


196x August E. Anheuser Riesling Spätlese Kreuznacher. 78 points. Fallen in cork. A color light like muddy oily rainwater, but surprisingly still sweet and vaguely drinkable.


Bean curd skin roll with seafood. These always look ugly, and they have a funny texture, but I tend to like them.


Ginger chicken & pork bun. These are stuffed with a meat ball that has a very pronounced ginger flavor. Interesting and quite good.


1979 Morandell Grüner Veltliner Trockenbeerenauslese Ruster. 98 points. Not totally sure of the year, certainly from the 70s, but this amber bit of syrup knocked our socks off. Spectacular nectar.


Fish roe with scallop dumpling. A very elegant seafood dumpling.


Steamed shrimp paste with corn and pea dumpling. The two of us were split on this fellow. I liked them, as they had a dense texture and a nice corn/pea taste. My brother wasn’t a fan.


2002 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Kabinett. 89 points. Delicate scents of fresh strawberry, lemon, honey and vanilla. Bright and tingling in the mouth, with the sensation of fresh strawberries right down to their tiny whiskers. Quite refreshing yet adamantly slatey in the finish.


Pork, peanut & celery dumpling. Interesting. A little mild, with steamed peanuts.


Juicy pork bun (XLB). A nice version of this most awesome food.


2011 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. IWC 90. Elegant aromas of cherry, acacia blossom and pine nut. Succulent and creamy on the palate, tinged with nuances of herbs, nuts and vanilla. With fine balance, this spatlese finishes with an underlying sense of slate.


France style baked BBQ pork bun. I have no idea what is “France style” about these, but they had a delightful, light, and crispy outside (slightly sweet) and were filled with a yummy sweet BBQ pork mix flavored with cilantro. Very unusual and very good.


Thai Style Tofu with Chicken Broth. Awesome soft fried tofu with a sweet and tangy sauce.


2009 A.J. Adam Hofberg Riesling Kabinett. IWC 90. Delicate aromas of peach, candied lemon and nut oil. Glossy and quite full-bodied but elegant, this riesling tastes crisp and pure. The clean finish features lime and discreet slate. A textbook kabinett and one of the finest of the vintage.


Beef ball in superior soup. These reconstituted beef balls had a spongey texture that I liked, and a very nice beefy flavor.


Deep fried pork dumpling. Tasty, but as usual for this type, too little filling.


2012 Domaine Bruno Clavelier Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Brulees Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 91-93. A strikingly complex nose features notes of Vosne spice, black cherry, plum and sandalwood. There is first-rate intensity and verve to the beautifully well-detailed medium weight flavors that display plenty of minerality and dry extract on the firm and austere finish that delivers marvelous length. This is also an exercise in harmony allied with finesse.

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Ginger Chicken & Pork Bun.
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Classic steamed pork bun.


Pan grilled spinach pork bun.


Never seen this one before, but it was pleasant.


Chinese Broccoli with Oyster  Sauce.


2008 Rhys Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard. Burghound 92. An attractively layered and fresh ripe red berry fruit and overtly floral nose offers excellent complexity that continues onto the rich but elegantly rendered medium-bodied flavors that possess a seductive texture and perfect balance on the lingering finish. This should age extremely well as everything is in perfect proportion.


Sautéed sichuan runner beans with minced pork. A decent version of this classic. The beans were crunchy and the pork tasty, but it was hard to get on the chopsticks!


Steamed rice noodle with BBQ pork (aka “pork slime”). Almost certainly the best pork slime I’ve had — and I’ve had a lot.

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Steamed rice noodle with shrimp.


2006 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Precious Mountain. Burghound 90. The nose possesses very impressive aromatic complexity with a lovely mix of both red and blue berry fruit notes, spice hints and a gentle touch of wood toast that does not continue onto the supple, round and vibrant flavors that display good mid-palate density on the slightly dry and tangy finish that does not really detract significantly from the overall sense of balance. We’ll see how this turns out but it appears to have the dry extract to round out the finish in time.


Crystal noodle with fresh shrimp. The shrimp were tasty. This dish was fine, although not outstanding. The noodles had this worm-like slippery quality.

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Sticky rice wrapped with lotus leaf. An okay (but not spectacular) version of this. The rice additives could have used more flavor.

Sticky rice with preserved meats. Awesome salty and complex flavor.


Fried rice with dry scallop and egg white. A nice salty rice.


2013 Opolo Vineyards Zinfandel Mountain Zinfandel.


Assorted seafood fried crispy noodle. I love this dish, and this version didn’t disappoint. It was probably a 8 to Elite’s 9, but still great.


Deep fried durian puff. Not for everyone, but interesting all the same. Inside, lots of durian with the texture of rotten banana and the flavor of… petrol? Seriously long and complex finish. Weird!


Steamed Preserved Salty Egg Yolk Bun.


A house specialty. Eggy goodness inside. More sweet and sticky than salty. Mostly. Very tasty.

Overall, Sea Harbor was very satisfying, but perhaps a tiny notch below some of the others we have been trying recently like Elite or King Hua. Except for a couple stellar dishes like the pork slime or france style bun are so good, it makes you wonder. Certainly this place is great and you can’t lose.

An update from May of 2021 shows that Sea Harbor, even post pandemic, still has a top notch dim sum kitchen. The interior is in a bit of disarray, and they were out of a few things, but the food quality was still excellent.

They also might have laid on the MSG because I got an outsized dim sum coma that lasted for hours. Granted, dim sum always gives me a head buzz, but this was a little more than usual.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Dim Sum is Shanghai #1
  2. Lunasia Dim Sum
  3. Elite Dim Sum
  4. More Awesome Dimsum – King Hua
  5. More Modern Dim Sum
By: agavin
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Untimed, Unheard no More

Jun25

Seventeen months in the making, the Untimed audiobook is finally ready!

The complete unabridged book is available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes for MP3 download to your phone or ipod. It’s narrated by producer Steven Barnett.

A bit about the production

ACX_Logo

I started way back in January 2013, and like most Independent authors considering an audiobook edition, decided to use Amazon’s ACX service. This is a marketplace for connecting authors with voice and production talent as well as an automated mechanism for delivering the finished books to the big online markets (Audible, Amazon, and iTunes). This makes it  easy to post descriptions of what your looking for and a section of the book to read. I listed both The Darkening Dream and Untimed. Lo and behold, over the next couple of weeks a pile of auditions started to come in.

Untimed  is a tricky novel from a recording standpoint. Like all my books it features a lot of accents. The two most important characters are Charlie, a modern 15 year-old boy from Philadelphia, and Yvaine a 16 year-old girl from 16-18th century Scotland. It’s also a first person narrative, so it needed to be read in Charlie’s voice. Therefore, I wanted to cast a man who sounded fifteen, but also could pull off a passable falsetto. Steven Barnett’s audition was the one that fit the bill. He sounded young, and he proved great with accents.

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Steven Barnett in the studio

It important to prepare detailed notes on all your characters. Untimed doesn’t have the biggest cast, but the characters are from all over the world (and time!) with varied accents and histories. Given my lean prose style and my use of whitespace to delineate dialog instead of extensive tagging (see below), the voices needed to be distinct enough for the listener to distinguish who is talking. After Steven studied my character sheets and we discussed them on the phone, we created a number of voice tests for the major parts. I listened and then gave feedback. This is a broad pattern that continues through the process. Prep -> Record -> Listen -> Feedback -> Repeat.

As I’ve experimented in many mediums: video games, novels, screenplays, and now audiobooks, it’s worth noting some of the differences. The physical placement on the page (as dictated by white space) is useful in novels. I separate dialog spoken by different people on different lines, and I make sure to place tags (he said, she said) and beats (small action queues like “Yvaine shifted in place” or “Donnie smirked” in the same paragraph as the speaker’s dialog. In an audiobook, you can’t hear the white space, but differences in voicing can make up for who is speaking. Still, you lose this spatial grouping. The tags also stand out more when spoken, as the eye tends to ignore them.

Another thing I hadn’t thought about is how long it actually takes to listen repeatedly to an entire novel. Untimed is over ten hours and every few weeks I’d get an hour or two of recordings, need to listen — usually twice (paying attention!) — and write up notes. And my side of the work was a lot easier than Steven’s. I can only imagine how long it took to record multiple takes, audition them, edit, then proof.

A final thing I decided to do was to add sound effects (sfx) to Untimed for the time travel aspects. I wanted the mysterious Tick-Tocks to have a creepy otherworld quality, so I thought to underscore them with an antique ticking noise. They never talk, but they do CHIME. In the books, I just write it like that, but having Steven read out the word “chime” sounded lame, so I replaced it with the sound of a deep resonant clock tower. Likewise, to help sell the mechanics of the time holes and the frequent (and complex) travel, I engineered unique sounds. This harkened back to my days as “assistant” sound engineer on Crash Bandicoot (I process and installed all the sounds that the real engineer, Mike Gollom, made for me). I found a source of royalty free sfx and combined and pitch shifted various ones until I got what I wanted. For example, the Tock ticking is a layered sample combining 4-5 different clocks and watches to reach suitable complexity.

Then, as the months rolled by, chapter by chapter, the book came together brilliantly. I’ve listened to it 2-3 times — although not all together at once. I’m curious at the psychological effect, but after reading various drafts countless times and a couple listens, I’ll leave that to you guys!

Listen to a free sample if you like:

Or buy the Audiobook at:

Amazon, Audible, or iTunes

Buy Sample Characters Reviews Reviewer Info

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Related posts:

  1. Dream a Little Dream
  2. Hark, I hear The Darkening Dream
  3. Untimed for sale at B&N and iTunes
  4. Untimed officially for Sale!
  5. Untimed – $1.99 this week!
By: agavin
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Lunasia Dim Sum

Jun23

Restaurant: Lunasia [1, 2, 3]

Location: 500 West Main Street Suite A, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 308-3222

Date: April 29, 2014

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Excellent

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My brother and I continue our epic quest to sample all the top San Gabriel Valley dim sum restaurants. I’ve actually been to Lunasia before, for a big Cantonese Banquet, but this is my first trip here for dim sum (which is really their specialty).




Pictures are helpful, even for a dim sum veteran.


Jumbo shrimp har gow. As good a version as I’ve had.


Jumbo pork siu mai. Perhaps more succulent and tender than many.


Spinach shrimp dumplings. I’d swear these also had scallops in them. Interesting (and tasty). A different mealier texture to the skin.


Baked chicken bun. Full of meat and flavor, probably a bit better than at King Hua.


BBQ pork buns. Excellent rendition. Shanghai #1 might have the best of these.


Pork dumplings. This is the sticky fried mochi variety. They are slightly sweeter and have a wonderful texture.


Shrimp rice noodles. Great sauce and a nice version of this dish too.


Crispy Shrimp Roll. These have a lovely light crunchy texture. They came with a mayo! But I thought they went better with the sweet duck sauce.


Shanghai pork dumplings (XLB). The inside of these favorites (and we got 3 tins) were filled with really solid little pork balls. They tasted great, but Elite’s were certainly better (with a lighter thinner skin).


Hong Kong Roasted Duck. Tasty, but a little boney.


Duck sauce for the duck.


Sticky rice wrap. The classic lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice.


Here is the inside. I know it’s not the loveliest, but it was good.


Pan-fried vermicelli Singapore Style. My brother and I got this dish as kids — and it’s still just as good.


Egg yolk buns. Like Chinese Cadbury Eggs!


Sweet yolk inside! Kinda different, and very sweet.


Macao Egg Custard. This version was a little eggy.

Overall, another fabulous dim sum place. It’s hard to say which is best among Shanghai #1, Elite, King Hua, and this, as each has certain dishes they do better. Really just an embarrassment of riches.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Feasting Lunasia
  2. Din Tai Fung Dumpling House
  3. Dim Sum is Shanghai #1
  4. More Modern Dim Sum
  5. Christmas is for Dim Sum
By: agavin
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More Awesome Dimsum – King Hua

Jun21

Restaurant: King Hua

Location: 2000 W Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 282-8833

Date: April 14, May 15, and August 2, 2014

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: Maybe the best yet in town

_

My brother and I continue our epic quest to find the best dimsum in Southern California. King Hua was one of our top picks so I also brought my Hedonist friends by. This post combines several meals for an epic review of the cuisine. Wines are from the August 2 Hedonist lunch.




The menu (with photos!)

2002 Delamotte Champagne Blanc de Blancs Millésimé. Burghound 91. A relatively high-toned nose of green apple, baker’s yeast, floral and citrus peel hints precedes the distinctly effervescent, even slightly foamy flavors that possess good depth on the bone dry finish. This is clearly still on its way up as the focused finish is still compact and while this is certainly refreshing and there is enough depth present to make for an interesting drink, it will be better in due course. In sum, there is good development potential and will especially please those who prefer very dry vintage Champagne.


BBQ pork. I like this kind with the sweet soy sauce.


Roast chicken. Moist and succulent.


Jelly fish. Crunchy texture and a bit of a kick. What isn’t to love. Check out the jiggle below.

[youtube http://youtu.be/esxmqs0adz0]


Chicken salad bun. One might wonder what’s in here exactly:


Chopped up chicken and stuff. Tasted good though. The outside was sweet.


From my cellar: 2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Saint-Aubin 1er Cru en Remilly Cuvée Nicholas et Mathis. 93 points. I’ve been drinking a lot of this wine. Really fabulous young 1re cru. Lots of acid and strong vanilla notes.


Baked BBQ pork pastry. Pretty much flaky bun stuffed with sweet BBQ pork!


Steamed shrimp and scallop dumpling.


Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf.


Poached mustard green. Good thing Foodie Club co-founder Erick’s wife was there to order a vegetable.

2012 Gilbert Picq Chablis 1er Cru Vosgros. Burghound 90-92. A beautifully well-layered nose features notes of mineral reduction, green fruit and ocean breeze nuances. There is impressive scale to the concentrated and powerful medium weight flavors that are both intense saline and mineral-inflected on the mouth coating and lingering finish. As is usually the case this is less refined than the Vaucoupin but there’s better underlying material.


Shrimp and Pork Dumpling (Shu Mai). Erick’s 4th grade daughter dubbed these “meat popsicle” (she eats them impaled on a chopstick).


Chicken feet in black bean sauce.


Pork dumpling supreme. With a title like that, who could refuse. Both the dumplings and the broth were delicious.


Here is a bowl of it.


Pan Grilled Pork Bun w/ dried scallop.


Mixed filling in here.

2004 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese. IWC 89. Apricot, lemon oil and a hint of flint on the nose. The succulent tropical fruit flavors are nicely balanced and framed by mineral salts. More appealing than complex on the finish, but makes for excellent drinking.


Shrimp dumpling (har gow). Excellent classic.


Steamed dumplings with pork, peanuts, and veggies. Yummy.


Another dumpling, not sure what was inside, but it was good.


Steamed dumplings with chestnut and shrimp. Really awesome, with a nice crunch.


Steamed shrimp and pea tips dumplings.

Lobster and shrimp dumpling. Really tasty.


Pork & Shrimp dumpling in broth. Very tasty, but hard to split.


Interesting seafood and mushroom inside.

2003 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 90 points. Apricot preserves, gardenia, quince and honey in the nose. On the palate, quince and honey are accented by brown spices. Fat and creamy but buoyant and elegant. Long and refined on the finish, with its high residual sugar admirably buffered.


Steamed pork dumpling (XLB). Add vinegar and happily burn one’s mouth. These are the bomb, although perhaps the ones at elite are a hair better.


Deep fried durian puff. Hmmm.


Steamed Chinese sausage bun. Like Chinese pig in a blanket.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Awesome classic.


Shrimp rice noodles. Good version.


Rice Crepes with Steamed Spareribs. This was different than I expected. The meat is pretty hideous, and quite fatty, but boy, did it taste good. Really succulent. The rice crepes rolled this way feel a bit thick, and not as soft and pleasant as the enchilada style.


Deep fried shrimp roll w/ seaweed. Pretty awesome, like a fried shrimp California roll.

1976 Hugel et Fils Gewurztraminer Vendange Tardive. 94 points. A testament to what a great vintage 1976 was for the top alsacians. This wine has kept all the fruit flavours but is now no longer sweet, more off dry. Super complex and just perfectly balanced. Really hard to put the glass down as the fantastic nose lures you back. Notes of honey, nuts and exotic fruit.


Deep fried pork dumpling. Delicious almost sweet interior with a chewy outside.


Here you can see the porky inside.


Sticky rice on lotus leaf with shrimp and XO sauce. Pretty awesome actually.


Bean curd with vegetables. Delicious.


Fried tofu. Hot, soft, and tasty.


Deep fried tofu in abalone sauce. I like the sauce. This was a bit heavier, but tasty.


Deep fried dumplings with shrimp. Sort of an amazing shrimp empanada!

1996 Champalou Vouvray Trie de Vendange. 93 points. Rich gold and really nice.


Fish balls in curry sauce. The squid-like things are noodles. The sauce was very strong.


Fried Noodle & Vermicelli with XO sauce. An excellent version of this Singaporean classic.


Fried Spareribs. Really, really amazing. Gross looking, yeah, but tasted oh so good. The fried balls on the left were some kind of fried custard. Bizarre but yummy.


Roast pork belly with jellyfish. Odd combo, but the jellyfish are good and the pork nice and moist.


Mango pudding. Weird thick texture, but very mild and refreshing.


Coconut and almond jelly. I like this stuff, kind of like cookies and cream jello.


Custard egg tart. Yum again.


King hua coconut roll. Like a sweet roll stuffed with coconut custard. Awesome.

I have to say, King Hua was awesome, even by the competitive standards of the SGV. I’ve tried lots of good places, but on average, this might be one of the best so far. There is real variety here, and everything is very fresh. If you like dimsum, don’t fear the drive. What we have in LA proper just can’t compare.

For more LA Chinese food reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. XLB – Soup Dumplings!
  2. Din Tai Fung Dumpling House
  3. Dim Sum is Shanghai #1
  4. Christmas is for Dim Sum
  5. Elite Dim Sum
By: agavin
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Lucky Ducky

Jun19

Restaurant: Beijing Duck House

Location: 6420 Rosemead Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91775. (626) 286-5508

Date: June 14, 2014

Cuisine: Beijing Chinese

Rating: Tasty stuff

_

This is my third time this week out to the SGV for scrumptious Chinese. My mother apparently ate a lot of Chinese when she was pregnant with me (true) and I’ve loved it ever since I was a kid.


Tonight’s entry is Beijing Duck House which is funny enough, a Beijing style restaurant specializing in… you guessed it… Peking Duck!


The room is typical enough.


2002 Delamotte Champagne Blanc de Blancs Millésimé. IWC 92. Pale yellow-gold. Fresh citrus and orchard fruit aromas are complicated by notes of gingerbread, white flowers and sweet butter. Toasty lees and mineral qualities gain power with air, adding depth to the wine’s gently sweet pear, honey and tangerine flavors. At once rich and lively, finishing with excellent clarity and alluring mineral and floral character. This Champagne, which I’ve tasted from three different disgorgements now, is proving that it’s built for the long haul.


Marinated cucumbers, mushrooms, and boiled peanuts. This dish had an almost Vietnamese flavor too it with the slightly sweet sauce and the strong cilantro notes. Yummy.


Beef tendon. A cold dish, the tendon was chewy and the meat parts some kind of cured beef. The beef was delicious and there was a good bit of heat to the dish, plus the cilantro.


1999 Forey Père et Fils Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Gaudichots. Burghound 88. Less expressive and open than the ’99 Les St. Georges without the forbidding firmness of the Petits Monts. This still has plenty of the pinot baby fat and the substantial tannins are completely wrapped though there is sufficient structure to permit this to improve for a decade. Pure, long and pretty.

agavin: needs a little more time to open.


The duck comes up early. Our professional carver gets to work.


Beijing Duck. The meat itself served with the pancakes in the background.


And the condiments: spring onion, cucumber, jicama/radish, and the plum sauce.


All elements are combined into the pancake. Delicious and greasy as always!


2009 Maison Roche de Bellene Savigny-lès-Beaune Vieilles Vignes. BH 86-89. Here the nose is bursting with Savigny-style earth on the ripe and pretty red pinot fruit nose that introduces nicely rich, round and fleshy middle weight flavors that are also admirably delicious and while there is a touch of rusticity to the supporting tannins, the overall impression is a straightforward wine that should drink well relatively early.

agavin: surprisingly drinkable for being so young.


Duck second way. Bits of duck meat and vegetables in lettuce wrap.


Add a little plum sauce and one is good to go. PF Changs eat your heart out.


2005 Longoria Pinot Noir Fe Ciega Vineyard. Burghound 92. A really lovely nose of beautifully complex and deeply pitched red berry fruit complements the rich and ripe medium full flavors that display a fine sense of restraint and underlying reserve as well as a gamy hint, all wrapped in a moderately structured finish and fine balance. This will clearly be capable of mid-term aging and as I say, this is indeed ripe but it’s the restraint and focus that really sets it apart from the typical pinot. Recommended.


Duck Soup. This is the third way. Boney bits of duck (with meat) are cooked up in a duck version of chicken soup.


It looks normal enough in the bowl. And it basically tastes like slightly rich chicken soup.


A neighboring table featured all sorts of unusual goodies so I took a few shots.


Like duck feet and wings!


1999 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee. Parker 92. A powerful, concentrated 1999 Chateauneuf du Papes was produced at Chateau Pegau. The dense ruby/purple-colored 1999 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee boasts a powerful bouquet of pepper, garrigue, black fruits, and earth. Full-bodied and expansive, with sweet tannin giving it a more open-knit, accessible style than most young vintages of Pegau, this is a wine to drink while waiting for the 1998 and 1995 to become fully mature. Like all of this estate’s red wines, it was bottled with neither fining nor filtration.

agavin: This had a barnyard  quality. It went well with the lamb below, but got to me after a bit.


Cumin lamb. Skewers of tasty lamb loaded with cumin.


2004 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Riesling Clos Hauserer. Parker 87. The many insufficiently attentive wine aficionados who can be heard lamenting a supposed absence chez Zind-Humbrecht of dry wine should have their mouths rinsed out repeatedly with the 2004 Riesling Clos Hauserer! (And, by the say, it is the Humbrechts, not I, who have re-introduced the Umlaut.) Mint, boxwood and lime zest on the nose suggest a Sauvignon. Firm acidity, peach pit bitterness, adamantly chalky minerality, and almost explosive acidity in the mouth make for a brash and relatively spare impression, despite palpable thickness of extract and sense of amplitude. Humbrecht imagines that if he planted Riesling in the Goldert, this is the sort of wine it would become. These grapes were very ripe – “turning blue- in fact, he says – but the deeper the roots go into the mother chalk (and these vines now average thirty years of age) the longer, he claims, the wine requires to unclench, even in a less acid-retentive vintage than this. Plan not to even revisit this wine for two or three years.

agavin: disappointingly austere


Dumplings. Standard Beijing dumplings with vinegar. Shanghai XLB are better, but these are certainly tasty too.


1994 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Heimbourg Vendange Tardive. RJ Wine 95. I love extremely young ZH wines for their youthful vigor. As they age, some gets a bit to heavy and cloying showing a hint of alcohol. Also the beauty of a great desert wine is the airy/cotton candy like palate. This was an exceptional showing. Nicely focused nose displaying yellow peach, dry mango, apricot and sweeten ice tea. Lovely airy palate. The wine remains quite fresh and precise despite the dense fruit a la D’Yquem. Lovely showing.
I highly recommend.

agavin: awesome!


Corn. The sauce here had some added sugar and I found it too sweet. Otherwise, it was basically succotash.


BBQ Pork. Can anyone say bacon? I picked off most of the fat/skin later but the meat was sweet and super tasty.


2007 Nikolaihof Riesling Reserve Steiner Hund. RJ Wine 93. So serene, delicate and understated; this is a wine that really needs time and air to show its best. It’s utterly compelling though with an amazing purity to the fresh fruit flavours, greener herbal and leafy accents and a base of pure stone beneath the fruit.


Sweet and sour fried fish. Super awesome version of this typical dish.


1994 Grgich Hills Zinfandel Sonoma County. 92 points. Dark fruit, prunes. Very lively.


Spicy eggplant. In a delicious garlic sauce.


1995 L’Ecole No. 41 Merlot Seven Hills Vineyard. 91 points. Immediately greeted by the rich unbelievably ripe cassis perfume which sets you up for a fruit bomb, but instead the wine was very poised and restrained on the palate. Tannins are fully integrated at this stage which rewards with a velvet mouthfeel. High quality fruit here which showcases the brilliance of Seven Hills. These should be drank now. For me I’m beginning to understand L’Ecole now because they are shy, backwards and sometimes austere in youth as they reward so much with age.


Pig’s feet. Not my favorite.


Mixed fried rice. Simple and delicious.


Cabbage and glass noodles. This Chinese hot coleslaw is rather delicious.


Frog hot pot. Probably close to the Wuman dry hot pot, this had a bit of heat. It was fine, but not the best dish of the night.

Overall, another highly enjoyable Chinese meal. The duck was on par with Tasty Duck and the other dishes were arguably better. I like the Beijing style and some of these dishes were fabulous. Perhaps Beijing Restaurant is a little better within this style, but then again, there is the duck!

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Related posts:

  1. Shin Beijing Cubed
  2. Birthday Party, Hedonist Style
  3. Hedonists go to Beijing
  4. Shin Beijing Again
  5. Hedonists at Shanghailander
By: agavin
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Melisse Madness

Jun17

Restaurant: Melisse [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Location: 1104 Wilshire Blvd.Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 395-0881

Date: June 12, 2014

Cuisine: California French

Rating: Awesome in all ways

_

It’s always a challenge to come up with a new spot for my birthday dinner. I tried a couple new places and after struggling with annoying policies and restrictions came back to proven slam dunk Melisse. They have the private room. They have the food. They can handle all the wines effortlessly.

I brought a lot of good stuff and so did my friends.


Liz set the tone with this mag of 1995 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Brut. IWC 93. Medium straw, with a powerful mousse. Dense and earthy on the nose, with strong toasty and buttery tones layered on ripe apple and pear fruit. This is both very ’95 in a positive sense and very Pol Roger. Fat and round in the mouth, with extravagant flavors of buttered toast, ripe orange and poached pear, complemented by subtle notes of cinnamon and mace. A lush, velvety Champagne that completely fills the mouth with flavor and creamy texture. This would go wonderfully with absolutely anything-or on its own.


Oh, and then this 1988 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Brut. IWC 94. Classic, subtly complex Champagne aromas of toast, toffee, citrus peel, and yeasty fresh apple. Rich, full and ripe, with great depth of flavor and truly insinuating intensity. Complex notes of butterscotch and toasted nuts. Ripe, harmonious acids give this remarkably smooth wine excellent backbone for further aging. Extremely long. I rated this wine 93(+?) a year ago, and it has certainly delivered on its early promise. A pinnacle of the ’88 vintage.


Tomato two ways. Usually the initial amuse at Melisse is grapes, but this time, it’s tomatoes, both goat cheese and pistachio crusted and sphereized.


The white Burgundy flight!


1979 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Chassagne-Montrachet. 85 points. The wine has seen better days, and had strong notes of sherry. But it wasn’t totally without virtue. As it sat in the glass for an hour or two it rounded out a bit.


1989 Bouchard Père et Fils Montrachet. 93 points. Soft and with classic Montrachet terrior this was a really delicious example of fully mature great white burg.


From my cellar: 1993 Maison Roche de Bellene Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières Collection Bellenum. 90 points. Other than the 79 this was the least complex of our whites, but it was still very MP and quite delicious.


Naked Cowboy Oyster. Apricot Lane Avocado, lemon cucumber, meyer lemon granite. A truly delicious and bright flavored oyster prep. The granite in particular was lovely, standing in for a squirt of lemon.


And a version with no oyster.

Have a few white burgs!


Egg Caviar. Soft Poached Egg, Lemon creme fraiche, american Osetra. Delicious as always. As Larry commented, “I could have eaten 3-4.”


The amazing Melisse bread, including bacon bread!


And really really rich butter.


Wild Japanese Snapper. Wild radish pods, cilantro and apple milk. Soft and bright flavored again.


Sweet Pea Veloute. Whipped Black Truffle. This is the inside of the soup.


And with the soup itself.


From my cellar: 1998 Jacques Prieur Montrachet. Burghound 92. Quite closed and borderline austere on the nose with reticent aromas of fresh cut citrus followed by powerful, almost painfully intense flavors. This is completely unevolved and quite angular just now though it stops short of actually being hard. However, there is terrific sève and such solid underlying material that this should mature into a marvelous Montrachet but it will require a few years before the steel backbone softens.

agavin: 96 points. Outstanding, and oh so Monty.


From my cellar: 2000 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet. IWC 92. Complex, subtly perfumed aromas of apple, pear, minerals and nutmeg. Dry, steely and penetrating, with brisk acidity giving the wine an almost painful firmness today. Extremely closed, even dry-edged, but very long on the back end.

agavin: 93-94 really grew and grew in the glass with serious grand cru complexity.


2001 Coche-Dury Meursault. Burghound 90. Relatively deep golden. A pretty and fully mature nose of really lovely complexity, especially for a villages level wine, dissolves into intense, round and utterly delicious medium-bodied flavors that offer exceptionally good Meursault character and an abundance of minerality on the long finish. This still vibrant effort continues to pack plenty of flavor authority and one that has arrived at its peak of maturity. I would suggest drinking this up over the next 5 to 7 years or so as there is no additional upside development potential. In sum, this is a simply terrific wine for its level. Tasted twice with consistent notes.

agavin: 96 points. Meadows never gives these village Coche’s their due. Pretty much the whole table found this to be the best white Burg of the night. A lot of reduction and a long finish really sold it.


Forbidden Fruit. Apricot and Date. This is not the fatty liver of a water fowl. Definitely not.


Wagyu Beef Tartare. Black Olives, capers, cornichon and smoked tomato. Here one smeared some meat on a crisp, and then added some of the aioli-like orange stuff. Delicious!


We began to run low on white so Liz opened this! 2011 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. Burghound 93. This is also highly perfumed with a pronounced floral component dominating the other aromas that are composed of citrus, seaweed, iodine and mineral reduction while leaving no doubt that this could be nothing other than Chablis. There is excellent size, weight and muscle to the overtly powerful and well-concentrated flavors that exude a fine minerality on the extract rich finish. This explosive effort is almost aggressively saline and should improve for up to a decade in bottle.


Santa Barbara Spot Prawn. Fava beans, morel mushrooms, young garlic.


And with a bit of “jus.” Delicious!


The red Burgundy line up.


From my cellar: 1969 Maison Roche de Bellene Volnay 1er Cru Santenots Collection Bellenum. 86 points. Interesting but the fruit was pretty faded and it had this vegetal menthol red pepper taste that wasn’t very pleasant. Bummer. The 66 I had of same was awesome.

From my cellar: 1983 Domaine Clair-Daü Bonnes Mares. John Kapon 94. The 1983 Clair Dau Bonnes Mares was excellent, and another solid 1983, which I have been enjoying here and there over the past couple years. Black licorice dominated initially, opening up into nutty, Burgundian fruit. The flavors were also licorice, and the wine was fleshy and tasty with a nice finish, in a good spot and a good showing for this oft forgotten vintage in Burgundy.

agavin: This was my third bottle of this wine, and while it was still good, it didn’t have nearly as much fruit as the others.


Lobster Bolognese. Perfect, just so small!


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From my cellar: 1985 Joseph Drouhin Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots. Burghound 91.  Pale ruby but not yet bricking. A lovely and expressive mix of now mostly secondary aromas yet with traces of primary and still fresh fruit, spice and subtle earth aromas that are very Vosne in basic character. The sweet, rich and still quite precise middle weight flavors offer a mouth coating and culminate in a still somewhat firm finish that suggests ample minerality just below the surface. This is an impeccably balanced and understated wine that is classic Drouhin and classic ’85 that is drinking perfectly now and should continue to do so for another decade, perhaps a bit longer.

agavin: 90 points. This wine had a touch of funk or unbalance to it, but was still very vosne and quite enjoyable.


From my cellar: 1990 Georges Lignier et Fils Clos de la Roche. Burghound 88. A pretty cherry-fruit infused nose that is still relatively fresh leads to rich and vibrant medium full flavors that are bit edge and tannic on the now slightly astringent finish. While the mildly rustic tannins are not resolved, I would be drinking this anyway as it risks drying out with extended bottle age. No other recent notes.

agavin: 93 points. Lots of fruit, fully mature, delicious.


Oregon Porcini. Asparagus, young garlic and parsley


And with a bit of green foam.


Sockeye salmon. with mushrooms and beure blanc.


Stonington Maine Halibut. Courgettes and Lemon basil.


1994 Domaine Jean Gros Richebourg. 92 points. Nice.


1996 Bouchard Père et Fils La Romanée. Burghound 93. Medium ruby color. Fresh and still entirely primary, elegantly perfumed violet and black fruit aromas introduce round, sweet, brilliantly delineated middle weight flavors of considerable breed and class deliver a racy, long and stunningly pure finish. The basic character here is interesting as the strikingly seductive nose is wonderfully expressive yet the flavors, and especially the finish, are somewhat somber and reserved though notably less so than they used to be when I last tasted this four years ago. While with 60 minutes or so of aeration this can be enjoyed now, it’s clear that several more years of cellar time is in order first. Tasted thrice with consistent notes.

agavin: 94 points. Deeper colored than the other red burgs and really fab.


Aged liberty duck. The meat had that gamey aged quality and was delicious.


With the serious meats, a few “beefier” reds.


1990 Lafite-Rothschild. Parker 96-97. Medium garnet-brick colour. Earthy, Provence herb seasoned aromas of warm cassis and stewed plum with nuances of smoked duck, cracked black pepper and dark soy. The palate leads with structure – medium to high, finely grained tannins and medium to high acid. Plenty of complex fruit to flesh out the mid-palate with a long, layered finish.


1982 Leoville-Las Cases. Parker 100! Still stubbornly backward, yet beginning to budge from its pre-adolescent stage, this dense, murky ruby/purple-colored wine offers up notes of graphite, sweet caramel, black cherry jam, cassis, and minerals. The nose takes some coaxing, and the decanting of 2-4 hours prior to service is highly recommended. For such a low acid wine, it is huge, well-delineated, extremely concentrated, and surprisingly fresh. Perhaps because I lean more toward the hedonistic view of wine than the late Michel Delon, I have always preferred this to the 1986, but the truth is that any lover of classic Medoc should have both vintages in their cellar. This wine has monstrous levels of glycerin, extract, and density, but still seems very youthful, and tastes more like a 7 to 8-year-old Bordeaux than one that is past its twentieth birthday. A monumental effort.


1982 Penfolds Grange. Parker 97. The 1982 is another superb example of that. One of the jammiest, most precocious Granges when it was released, it has never gone through a closed stage and continues to drink beautifully. A full-bodied, opulent Grange, it reveals an inky/purple color to the rim as well as a beautiful nose of crushed blueberries, blackberries, smoke, toast, roasted herbs, and road tar. This dense, plush, expansive, seamless, seductive 1982 has not changed much since I had it nearly a decade ago.

agavin: awesome!


Prime beef rib eye cap. Young leeks and Chanterelle mushrooms.


With the jus.


Egg, grains, and beans.


Ron felt we needed some more white Burg, so he pulled out this 2000 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 90. Interesting notes of fennel, green Chablis fruit and straw introduce medium weight, slightly austere, understated, precise flavors that deliver plenty of complexity and length but lack the same density as the 2001 Montée. To be sure, this is an excellent wine and Raveneau may have been a bit too modest in his comments about the vintage as this is really lovely if not genuinely incredible.


Tartiflette. Reblochon, smoked bacon, and potato. A delicious bacon version of potatoes Lyonnaise. Sort of.


And Stewart really wanted to open his Champagne! 1985 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. JK 96. A quick glass of 1985 Krug got me ready for the trip back home. Full of vitamins, spice and intense game, this fresh and perfect bottle of 1985 was great with a spicy and long finish, still young!


Strawberry. Balsamic, Sheep’s yogurt, graham cracker, and black pepper. Sharp and delicious!


Ron brought this crazy 115 year old port that came in a cool box.


Here’s the bottle.


And the port. Check out the viscosity. Like motor oil! But delicious.


Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate. Soufflé, mouse, and tarte.


A different chocolate dessert.


White Nectarine. Boysenberry, ginger, and vanilla. Like a miniature fruit ala mode.


Petite Fours. Gels, peaches, chocolates.


Cookies, macarons, cannelles.


Most (but not all) of the wines!

All in all, a rather amazing birthday. An embarrassment of great wines, company, and food!

Melisse has two Michelin stars, and it deserves every ounce of them. The service is amazing too. The setting is not as fully formal as some French three-stars, or the service quite so orchestrated (that level is more amusement than actually pleasant), and there are no zany carts for teas and sugars, but the food and creativity demonstrate Melisse’s deserved position as one of America’s top kitchens. I ‘ve gone several times a year for a decade and it keeps getting better and better!

For another Melisse meal, click here.

Or for other Foodie Club meals, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Mostly Montrachet at Melisse
  2. More Michelin at Melisse
  3. Mercado Madness
  4. Burghounds at Melisse
  5. Big Bottle Madness at Kali Dining
By: agavin
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Game of Thrones – Episode 40

Jun15

gameofthronesseasonreleasedate-1396104840n4k8gGame of Thrones

Genre: The Children

Watched: Episode 40 – June 15, 2014

Title: The Watchers on the Wall

Summary: Great ep, sad to be done for the year

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This episode has a lot to wrap up. Pretty much every story line is in flux and it would make sense to visit them all and close out (or at least position) their position. I’ll break them down thread by thread for convenience.

Jon and the wall – picking up where last week ended, Jon wanders out through the field of corpses (including the giant being picked apart by crows). He wanders into the woods and surrenders in front of Mance’s tent without even being searched. They have a fairly civil discussion about his loyalty and Ygritte, and even toast to her and other dead companions. Mance wants to pass through the wall. Also, in variation from the books we never see Mance’s wife or child. Jon is contemplating making a suicidal bid at Mance when–

Stannis’ army appears out of nowhere, a giant sweep of cavalry. Where he actually got all these troops we may never know, but he pretty much lays waste. Stannis and Davos show and take Mance captive.

Later, Maester Aemon says the prayers for the dead Black Brothers and they burn the bodies. Stannis and family watch on, and so does Melisandre, peering at Jon through the flames. After, Jon goes and talks to Tormund. He doesn’t threaten him but asks if he wants to say anything over his bodies. They talk of Ygritte which leads to Jon taking her body north of the wall and burning it.

His name was Mak the Mighty

His name was Mak the Mighty

Bran – and crew trudge through a Blizzard. Jojen isn’t doing well but then Bran sees the tree. It is an impressive sight sunlit, red leaves the only growth in the forbidding Icelandic landscape. They approach and animated skeletons burst through the snow and attack them. That’s new! (at least by my reckoning). This results in a tense but slightly Sinbad battle in which Bran possesses Hodor again for some half-giant on skelly pummeling and Meera tries to defend Jojen. But the poor boy is stabbed by a wayward skeletal hand and the gang is saved by a fireball tossing little girl (apparently a Child of the Forest). They rush into the cave minus Jojen. I appreciate throwing in a little more action, but I have slightly mixed feelings about the scene (and particularly the fireballs). Inside, it’s covered with roots and bones, and is almost as creepy as that other HBO 2014 finale that included a rooty lair (True Detective). There, hidden in the roots is the three-eyed crow / root guy. Certainly he is related to  The Green Man (a celtic mythological rendering). I’m not sure I felt he was “grown into the tree” enough, but the final exchange was good: “You’ll never walk again, but you will fly.”

Watch out for hidden skeletons!

Watch out for hidden skeletons!

Dany – Concluding her season of doing very little, Dany is in her throne room holding audiences. One old slave tutor wants to go back to being a slave, then a peasant comes in with a charred little corpse and claims Drogon lit up his kid like a torch. Dany discusses with her advisors and then lures the two smaller dragons (Drogon being missing, off on a joy flight) into the catacombs and chains up her wayward reptilian children. The catacombs, by the way, for those of us well versed in ancient buildings, are easily recognizable as the basement of Diocletian’s Palace in Split Croatia. Normally, this is full of tourist vendors, but they clearly emptied it out for the shoot. This is a cool place, and one of the better preserved structures from (late) antiquity.

 

Poor babies

Poor babies

King’s Landing – The Mountain lays dying, victim of not only a good stab or two by Oberyn but of “Manticore blood,” a horrible poisoning. Grand Maester Pycell pronounces him a goner, but Qyburn is all too happy to “experiment” with “cures” on Cersei’s behalf. I think Cersei allowed this in the books, but I can’t remember if it came to fruition (and Qyburn has some kind of Gregor Frankenstein monster).

Cersei is feeling the man of the hour, because she takes on Tywin over the issue of her marriage to Loras. When he insists, she threatens to tell the world about her incestuous relationship with Jaime. It’s not even clear if he believes (her or the incest), but he is certainly shaken. Charles Dance is fabulous as always and the hidden shake in his hand is great.

Next, Cersei and Jaime argue of Tyrion and she kisses him, claiming to chose “him.” They sleep together on the table in the Kingsguard meeting hall.

Jaime may have accepted Cersei’s illicit love, but he isn’t buying her judgement of their brother, because he lets Tyrion out of his cell, offering him a way out to Varys and a ship. But after a heartfelt goodbye, Tyrion is drawn away from escape and up the secret passage to the tower of the hand. There he finds Shae in his former (and now his father’s) bed. She goes for a knife and he ends up strangling her. As usual, Peter nails it, and the expression on his face and his postmortem apology is perfect. This scene always bothered me in the books. Here they manage to make Tyrion’s role in it perfectly in character and reasonable. He is caught with something unexpected, and reacts out of passion and in self defense. Now what I don’t and never did understand was Tywin’s role here. Shae maybe, feeling betrayed and out of options would sleep with Tyrion’s father. Maybe. But Tywin? He just doesn’t seem the whore type. And, to sleep with Tyrion’s whore? The idea would just gross him out.

Anyway, Tyrion grabs a crossbow and heads to the privy. There is Tywin apparently having skipped his Konsyl (because he’s in the bathroom a long time). Tywin as usual, tries to talk the situation down, but when he uses the “whore” word a second time, Tyrion puts a crossbow quarrel in him. Then another. Returning to the door, he finds Varys, who seals him into a crate and loads him on a cargo ship. In the background, bells toll out for Tywin’s death.

Brienne and Pod – loose their horses as they near the Eerie then come across Arya practicing with Needle. This is a new development from the books. They ask after the location of the Bloody Gate then when the Hound shows up, and Pod recognizes him, Brienne puts it together and recognizes Arya. Verbal sparring between Brienne and the Hound leads to a real battle. The dialog about “safety” is priceless. I think the Hound is actually trying to do what he thinks is right (protect Arya). This is a tough fight, and well matched. First with swords, then when Brienne gets the better of him, with fists and teeth and rocks. Eventually, the Hound takes a dive off the cliff. But Arya is nowhere to be found, and Breinne and Pod wander off looking for her.

Hound, we shall miss thee

Hound, we shall miss thee

Arya – hiding, goes down to the Hound. He’s funny (in his houdy way) as always. “Killed by a woman.” And to Arya at the idea of her going off alone, “You won’t last a day.” “I’ll last longer than you,” she retorts. Great stuff. He asks her to kill him. Tries to incite her to anger to do it, then begs. In the end, she takes his money and wanders off, leaving him to die.

Arya, having drummed up a horse? Rides up to a costal town where they make salt. She asks the Bravosi accented captain of a ship for passage to the Wall. He isn’t going there, only to Bravos, and has no time for her. Then she pulls out Jaqen H’ghar’s coin and says the magic words “Valar morghulis” (All Men Must Die). This buys her a cabin and passage. She is last seen sailing out to sea.

Valar morghulis

Valar morghulis

All in all, a great episode, with a lot going on. The writers took their time with the stories they had, and this has relatively few cuts and a lot of extended time in one or another view point. We do miss out on a few, like Sansa, who’s wrap up occurred in Episode 38. Other characters like Theon or Margaery are just left wherever they were last visited. Like in the book we never really get the scoop on how/why Stannis came to the wall. There are also a lot of changes from the books. The whole bit with the skeletons was slightly over the top. The new fight between Briene and the Hound makes sense. His book death is sort of senseless and her journeys seemingly pointless. This draws them together in a structurally more coherent way that is typical of TV (where avoiding new characters is a major concern — paper characters are much cheaper than actors). As usual, the body count was high among regulars: The Hound, Tywin, Jojen.

It’s been a great season. The problem from season 1 of “too small” has been fixed by production efficiencies and bigger budgets. The rushing problem of season 2 by the division of book 3 into two seasons. If I had any complaint, and it’s minor, it would be that structural issues between the threads have led to somewhat uneven emotional pacing. A major example would be the season long wait between Jon and Ygritte’s “breakup” and her death. But these are challenges brought forth by the source material and logistic considerations. Now the question is can the show runners make sense of the incoherence of book 4 and 5 and by reordering and welding them together make season 5 better than A Feast of Crows?

Oh, and what happened to Lady Stoneheart?

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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]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 35
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 31
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 29
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 34
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
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Hedonists at Shanghailander

Jun12

Restaurant: Shanghailander Palace [1, 2]

Location: 1695 South Azusa Ave. Hacienda Heights, CA 91745. 626-839-7777

Date: June 7, 2014 and December 9, 2018 and July 25 & September 11, 2021

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Excellent – best Shanghai food I’ve had in the US

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Hedonist trips to the SGV and its requisite Chinese adventures are among my favorite dinners. Shanghailander specializes in Shanghai style cuisine (obviously). On the downside, it’s far — in Azusa — almost 40 miles from my house! But it’s so good it’s really worth a once a year visit. Unfortunately, it was 4.5 years between my first two, but I’ve been back a number of times since.


The atmosphere may not be the fanciest, but these big communal dinners are great fun.


2005 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese. IWC 90. Pale yellow. Rich aromas of lichee, lemon oil and pine.Luscious yet piquant tropical fruit flavors accented by smoke. In spite of the wine’s substantial depth, subtle acidity brings spice and finesse to the finish.

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Peanuts (12/9/18) to start.

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Real Chinese always begins with cold appetizers. Smoked fish (2014 & 12/9/18) is a classic Shanghai dish. Sort of like sweet crunchy fish chicken mcnuggets.


Marinated radish. A little sweet with a delightful crunch.
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A different kind of slightly sweet marinated vegetable.

Cold chicken (2014).

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Hainan Chicken (12/9/18). I think this was different than the above cold chicken from 2014. It was perfectly cooked and came with a garlic sauce.

Lamb in jelly. Tastes better than it sounds.

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A slightly different “meat jelly” on 12/9/18.


Marinated lima beans.


Shanghai style bran curd. Love this stuff. It has a sweet taste and spongy texture. It’s made from bran or wheat gluten or something.


Dates. Never had dates in a Chinese restaurant before.
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Greens with a peanut sauce. Not the most exciting.

Spinach. Kind of like spinach or broccoli soup — but not a soup.


Three cup chicken. Basically chicken with soy sauce — but boy, it was delicious. The sauce was sweetened and thickened perfectly.


2000 Mestre-Michelot Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. 91 points. Lots of reduction (which I like).

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Sautéed shrimp (2014 and 12/9/18). Simple but tasty. I’ve had this dish dozens of times at many Shanghai restaurants and this was for sure one of the best versions I’ve had in the US.

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Fried fish with herbs (12/9/18). Lovely fried fish actually.

1984 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. 95 points. This is a great wine (good location in the vineyard and top winemakers) from a very off year — and it’s 29 year-old pinot noir. But somehow (and I’ve had 3 bottles) it’s still in great shape. Really quite lovely with a complex tar and cherry thing going on. I happen to find it fabulous.


Shanghai style braised pork in brown sauce. A huge hock of pig that falls off the bone. This is about as good as roast pork gets.

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Grandmother’s BBQ pork belly (12/9/18). Perfect version of this rich, sweet Shanghai dish. Amazingly tender.

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Meatballs stuffed with egg (12/9/18). Very unusual dish (here, typical in Shanghai). A kind of fried meat ball with a gooey duck egg yolk INSIDE!


Crab with rice cakes and ginger sauce. This was also delicious. We ordered two and I couldn’t resist the soft chewy rice cakes in that sauce.

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Crab in a salty yolk sauce.


Tofu soup. Basically chicken broth with tofu and a bit of ham. Actually very tasty.

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Sea cucumber with shrimp roe (2014 & 12/9/18). Sea cucumber, the white stuff was roe, shrimp and fish. Weird soft textures but very pleasant. Not exactly a looker, but quite tasty.


West-like style whole fish.
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Squirrel Fish. Similar fish, but deep fried and in the super thick, super sweet and tangy sauce.

2009 Anderson Oaks Pinot Noir. 90 points. They weren’t kidding about the oak.


Tasty frogs. Bull frog Schezuan style in chili oil and peppers. Had some heat.

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Shanghai steamed dumplings (XLB) (2014 & 12/9/18). Always one of my favorites. The dough was great, the meat needed a hair more flavor, but I still ate about 6.

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Shanghailander pan fried buns (2014 & 12/9/18). A fried version of same. So hot they were hard to eat, but oh so tasty.


2003 Bennett Lane Cabernet Sauvignon Primus Reserve.


Shanghai duck (2014). Like Peking duck but… well not quite as good.

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Same dish 12/9/18. Prep was more elaborate and I think it was better.
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Here on 2 plates.

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Stir fried duck (2014 & 12/9/18). Delicious.
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Three cup chicken. They have a perfect version here, even if this isn’t my favorite dish.

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Cumin lamb with pancakes (12/9/18). Different and quite nice in the pancake.

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French style beef. This gets order too often (not by me!)


Vegetables. Some kind of greens, mushrooms, and bamboo.

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Stir-fried green beans.

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Spicy eggplant with garlic and fish sauce (12/9/18). Fish sauce is just the name of this kind of sauce. This was a great version. Nice soft texture and TONS of garlicky flavor.

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Eggplant in sweet soy sauce. A very different take on eggplant.


1997 Greenock Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. 93 points. Pretty dark purple color, showing some sign of age towards the rim. Very expressive nose of dark fruits (black currant/cassis, blackberries and blueberries), some elderflower berries, a touch of green bell peppers, some cedar wood and some sweet spices. Hits the palate with a full body, medium-low silky tannins and medium (to medium-low) acidity. There is tons of dark fruit on the palate, cassis and some sweet spices again. This is a pretty massive wine with good length. There is a touch of heat, but it’s not really disturbing since the fruit is very generous. Not the most complex wine, but powerful, balanced and totally mature now. It’s drinking really beautifully.

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Glass noodles with egg (12/9/18). Very pleasant.
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Pepper rib eye with lettuce (12/9/18). Fine, but not my favorite. Not as typically Chinese somehow either.


Shanghai style eel in pot. This was delicious. Soft and rich in a savory slightly sweet sauce. I tried to order it on 12/9/18 and our (very nice) waitress kept dodging the order under the theory that we white folk wouldn’t like it!

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Oftentimes a soup comes right before dessert, in this case a cabbage and pork meatball soup.
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The meatball was amazing and thee broth was tasty.
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Shanghai Noodles. Wokked with soy sauce.

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The the Chinese desserts like these deep fried red beep spring rolls (12/9/18). Chewy in texture.


Fresh fruit.


Sesame ball in wine soup. This is one of those odd sweet Chinese “soups.”


You can see the boba-like sesame balls. They were squishy and had a pleasant sesame taste. All very sweet and mild.

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The first of many large batch holiday flavors — Peppermint Gelato (12/9/18) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — peppermint candy base laced with peppermint bark! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #peppermint #candy #holiday #winter
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A new variant on an old flavor — Cold Pressed Expresso Gelato (12/9/18) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — cold pressed expresso base (usually I hot brew it) with Valrhona Dulcey Stracciatella! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #expresso #Dulcey #Valrhona #Stracciatella #ColdPressed #ColdPressedCoffee #coffee
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Grapefruit Aperol Tarragon Sorbetto (9/11/21) — Cold pressed Fresh Grapefruit juice from my garden, Aperol and fresh Tarragon! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Unique and bracing — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #grapefruit #aperol #tarragon
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Coconut Cream Pie Gelato (9/11/21) — Coconut dairy custard base, house-made GF Graham Crackers, and house-made Coconut Caramel — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #coconut #caramel #grahamCrackers #cookies
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Yarom and the owner on 12/9/18.

All in all, our 2014 was a fabulous Chinese banquet. Perhaps it is slightly better even than the similar Shanghai #1 Seafood village. The drive is killer though, as it’s 15 miles PAST our usual SGV haunts.

On our 12/9/18 return the meal was insanely good. Almost every dish was on point and many were unusual. Food was really really good. Service was great too but this was certainly the best Shanghai style food I’ve had outside of China — and this is just a couple months after my most recent visit to Shanghai and incredible means like Shanghai Tang. Shanghailander has an Arcadia branch too and we will also have to try that — although it’s not clear if that’s really closer as it’s so far north off the 10.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Some members of our party posing in front right before foot massage — 2014.

Wines from the 12/9/18 dinner:7U1A2538
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Related posts:

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By: agavin
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Naughty Dog at E3

Jun10

What would E3 be without a Naughty Dog trailer?

Oh, and there’s another one too, The Last of Us remastered!

Uncharted-4-A-Thief-s-End-Gets-Confirmed-for-2015-New-Trailer-Released

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By: agavin
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