Author Archive for agavin – Page 74

Dream a Little Dream

Feb10

The e-book versions of The Darkening Dream will be on sale for only 99 cents this week through at least Friday February 14th! Take the plunge, it’s certainly a great deal. And if anything celebrates Valentines right, it’s a little succubus on psychopath action (villains, of course).

Buy it on Amazon!

Tweet, share, like, follow, blog and grab a copy of my book.

Plus, if you don’t like to read and only want to listen, there is always the new audiobook version.

Listen to a free sample if you like:

Or buy the Audiobook at:

Amazon, Audible, or iTunes

Also, on the publishing front, The Audiobook version of Untimed is almost done, and I just wrapped up the 5th or 6th (and hopefully “final”) draft of the screenplay. Plus, 175+ pages of notes into my secret new novel.

About The Darkening Dream

As the Nineteenth Century gives way to the Twentieth, modern science and steel girders leave little room for the supernatural. But in dark corners the old forces still gather. God, demon, and sorcerer alike plot to regain what was theirs in Andy Gavin’s chilling debut, The Darkening Dream.

1913, Salem, Massachusetts – Sarah Engelmann’s life is full of friends, books, and avoiding the pressure to choose a husband, until an ominous vision and the haunting call of an otherworldly trumpet shake her. When she stumbles across a gruesome corpse, she fears that her vision was more of a premonition. And when she sees the murdered boy moving through the crowd at an amusement park, Sarah is thrust into a dark battle she does not understand.

With the help of Alex, a Greek immigrant who knows a startling amount about the undead, Sarah sets out to uncover the truth. Their quest takes them to Salem’s brutal factory workrooms, on a clandestine maritime mission, and down into their foe’s nightmarish crypt. But they aren’t prepared for the terrifying backlash that brings the fight back to their own homes and families. Can Alex’s elderly, vampire-hunting grandfather and Sarah’s own rabbi father help protect them? And what do Sarah’s darkening visions reveal?

No less than the Archangel Gabriel’s Horn, destined to announce the End of Days, is at stake, and the forces banded to recover it include a 900 year-old vampire, a trio of disgruntled Egyptian gods, and a demon-loving Puritan minister. At the center of this swirling conflict is Sarah, who must fight a millennia-old battle against unspeakable forces, knowing the ultimate prize might be herself.

“Gorgeously creepy, strangely humorous, and sincerely terrifying” — Publishers Weekly
“Wonderfully twisted sense of humor” and
“A vampire novel with actual bite” — Kirkus Reviews
“Steampunk Lovecraftian Horror by way of Joss Whedon”

Buy Sample Characters Reviews Reviewer Info

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By: agavin
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Golden Oldie – The Legend of Zelda

Feb07
The original cover

The original cover

In this case it’s literally a golden oldie, as the cartridge was gold (at least the earliest ones). And I still have that yellowing piece of plastic in my “cart box” but I didn’t actually need it this time (I sold my NES years ago anyway). This time, I booted the classic up on OpenEmu, an awesome new mac 8 and 16 bit emulator with masterly emulations of all the great 80s and early 90s systems (Gameboy, NES, SNES, Genesis, etc). Hey, and it’s fair use, because I did keep that cartridge (along with my other favorites).

For good reason, as The Legend of Zelda is one of the all time greats. A classic console game. A classic RPG. First in a legendary (haha) series and really one of the best games of all time, particularly when you place it into its context in the history of video games. Oh, and this time, I played it with my 5 year-old son. He mostly consulted from the arm of the chair (as the game is pretty hard), but he did love it, begging to play it day-in and day-out.

First a note on the emulation: Pretty much pitch perfect. I plugged a PS3 joypad into the Mac and the game looked, felt, and sounded exactly as it always did. The joypad controls are basically the same as a NES pad (except you don’t get that awful thumb burn the sharp plastic on the original led to). This is essential as emulated games require the right kind of controller. Console and arcade games are programmed for specific controllers —  I should know, having shipped 9 of them! — and they just don’t play right unless the hardware/software pairing is nearly exact. The emulator also allows you to save your state, which isn’t necessary with Zelda, as it has a battery backup (also emulated), but certainly helps with other games.

The original gold NES cart

The original gold NES cart

So how was it? Surprisingly, hardly dated at all. Fantasy is my favorite genre, hell, I convinced my dad to buy the computer so I could write a D&D magnum opus. And early games like Wizardry, Alkabeth, and Ultima I, were among my computer favorites. Adventure (the original Atari 2600 cart game) was another old favorite and is the clear progenitor to Zelda. This notion of video game pedigree has long been of interest to me. Like any other human art, games borrow from those who came before. And there’s nothing wrong with this. To claim that Zelda is any less a work of genius because it shares elements with earlier fantasy games is pure hogwash. The good ones integrate and add to the oeuvre. We will call the Adventure/Zelda school, which also includes arcade game Venture and who knows how many others, the action RPG.

The Zelda "stats screen" was extensive for the time

The Zelda “stats screen” was extensive for the time

Zelda doesn’t have character stats or experience like Ultima and Wizardry (which borrow more heavily from D&D), but it does have a fantasy setting an an upgradable character. In fact, one of Zelda’s cooler features is its large number of items/powerups. You can up Link’s  hit points (hearts), collect three swords, 2-3 shields, and a bevy of rings, bows, magic wands, and other magic items. I would argue that even a modern action dungeon crawler like Diablo III is a clear Zelda descendant.

art_thelegendofzelda_overworldmap

The monstrous outside world

What Zelda does have is a big outside world, nine (x2 sorta) sprawling dungeons, a host of enemies, lots of secrets, and a tough but addictive joypad-based action gameplay. The map is positively gimongous‎ by the standards of 1986. And this is many ways in which the gap between Adventure and Zelda is huge. Not only are there a lot of screens, but they actually look like something (Adventure‘s graphics are notoriously simplistic). The above map is comprised of 16×8 screens, each a bit different. The dungeons and various secret entrances and caves are tucked all over the place.

A typical outside screen, complete with enemies and cave

A typical outside screen, complete with enemies and cave

Wandering the outside takes up a good amount of time, with Link traversing between various dungeons and hunting for secrets. The outdoor enemies are tough at the start of the game, but easy enough once Link has powered up with the Blue Ring, Magic Shield, and some sort of distance weapon (the magic wand being one of the better ones). This brings me to one of Zelda’s design quirks. As the game progresses you increase the number of hearts (hit points), but when you die you always reset to three filled hearts. This necessitates visiting either a fairy or farming the monsters for hearts to reach full heath (often needed to get through a dungeon). And even odder by today’s standards, is the fact that only at full health can you fire the “beam sword” (launch your sword across the screen). This effectively makes the game “harder” when you’ve been hit, which goes against modern game design, but was typical of the more hardcore spirit of yesteryear. In fact, this whole setup isn’t so different from the typical arcade one in which you power up a life (typical in shooters like R-Type or even pseudo action RPG / platformer Ghouls and Ghosts). Zelda can be fairly unforgiving. The dpad control is a bit squirrelly, and the slightest bump against a foe or his flickery projectiles can cost you a heart (and your precious beam sword). It rewards patience and keeping your distance. Enemies randomly drop various gems (rupees), hearts, fairies, bombs, and the like. As my son put it, they can be “mean and stingy” (meaning that the RNG can really make or break you).

Fairy, how I love thee

Fairy, how I love thee

This also brings me to one of Zelda’s more peculiar design decisions. The world is littered with difficult to locate “secrets.” These stairs, caves, and the like are hidden behind indistinguishable spots all over the world that need to be bombed or “flamed” open. Inside are various powerups, vendors, quest items, and even dungeons. How the hell any “real” player (unaided) is supposed to find these? I have no idea. Today, in the age of the internet, one just uses a handy guide like this one. But in the 80s? We had to rely on Nintendo Power Magazine! This was one of Ninetendo’s dirty marketing tricks back then. Pretty much, to play these games, you had to have the right issue of Nintendo Power (with its dedicated hint guides). They used to sell millions of issues a month! I also read that  producer and all around genius Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to create a game in which players had to “communicate and collaborate.” Well, I guess he did.

A typical dungeon room

A typical dungeon room. Features: top door locked until all monsters are dead, left door locked with key, right wall busted open with bomb, boomerang hurling enemies

The dungeons are where most of the real difficulty is. Dying here brings you back to the start, but you keep anything you have acquired. Bombed out walls stay bombed, but monsters often/sometimes respawn. The problem is, you  have to chose between slogging through another try with three hearts or heading out into the world to farm hearts, which will result in full respawns inside the dungeon. Later in the game judicious purchases of healing food and help here. Enemy difficulty is highly variable and while it does progress as you move through the game, it isn’t linear. Certain nasties like the Darknuts (can only be hit from behind/side) and the ghosts are far harder than others. The Like-Likes are positively mean, as they can steal your shield. Different rooms have different combinations and some can be quite frustrating (lots of Darknuts at the same time as fireball spitters!). Each dungeon has 1-2 magic items to acquire plus a compass and a map (which help fill in that screen in the upper left). At the end is a final boss, another heart container, and part of the “Triforce” (which although triangular, contains 8 pieces, so perhaps “Octforce” would have been a better name).

This hydra boss is typical

This hydra boss is typical

Each dungeon has a boss at the end. Each is seemingly difficult but usually possesses a “weakness” that while not always obvious, makes them fairly trivial. Some are vulnerable at different times or to different weapons (usually found in their own dungeon). This hydra guy above is more technique based, you have to strike each head 2-4 times (without getting hit by the fireballs). The earlier heads will “spin off” and attack you (just dodge them). Killing the last head will slay it. Basically, it’s all about the dodge and strike. Some bosses return in later dungeons as “sub bosses” with slightly different traits.

This about sums up the plot

This about sums up the plot

The game is light on plot: reassemble the Triforce, rescue the Princess Zelda, and save Hyrule. Better barely no plot than a dumb one that rubs itself in your face! Some of the messages along the way include bonus misspellings courtesy of their translation from the Japanese. Oh so fun!

All in all, Zelda remains intensely playable. While it might be a fairly frustrating at times, it’s never so hard that putting it aside for a couple hours doesn’t lead to immediate progress on returning. This is a pretty big game with a ton of variety, and it’s all packed into 128kb!! Yeah, that’s right, about the size of one highly compressed small internet jpeg ! Code, music, art, everything. And it was a big cart at the time, costing around $90-100 1986 dollars! Now it’s about the size of the average email in my inbox. There is even a “second quest” in which you can replay the game with a slightly different layout and higher difficulty.

Awesome game and a seminal mark in the history of the fantasy RPG. Even WOW owes a debt to Zelda.

My 5 year-old son Alex would like to offer his own review (typed completely verbatim):

When you play Legend of Zelda you go to a first dungeon, a second dungeon, a third dungeon, a fourth dungeon, a fifth dungeon, a sixth dungeon, a seventh dungeon, an eighth dungeon, a ninth dungeon and then you win the game. You might run into big bosses and scary Darknuts and ghosts and bats and blobs and bombs. And sometimes you can bomb a secret a door and collect keys and gems and hearts. Watch out to get no hearts or you start all over again. But after you finish the whole game on the nine dungeons you unlock the queen (Princess Zelda). And you won the game!

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By: agavin
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Old School Cool

Feb03

Restaurant: The Dal Rae

Location: 9023 E Washington Blvd, Pico Rivera, CA 90660. (562) 949-2444

Date: February 1, 2014

Cuisine: American

Rating: Excellent and extremely old school

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With the success of our High End Burgundy and High End Bordeaux themed dinners, we Hedonists are experimenting with more ideas. Tonight all the wines are requried to be 99 and 100 point (in some major publication). The setting is The Dal Rae, which is a massively old school mid century classic out in the middle of outer Mongolia (Pico Rivera). I’d never been to Pico Rivera, probably never even heard of it. I still barely know where it is after going — just somewhere in the inland empire.


The place is like a blast out of the 50s. Sinatra could have (or probably did) hang here.


Our big private table.


The menu. Probably hasn’t changed much in 50 years! There are a few nods to the late 20th century, like “Ahi Sashimi on toast.”


2002 Vilmart et Cie Coeur de Cuvee. Parker 94. The 2002 Brut Coeur de Cuvee is absolutely stunning. This young, towering Champagne bursts from the glass with layers of mineral-infused fruit, showing fabulous intensity and purity from start to finish. Hints of tropical, opulent fruit are very nicely tempered by the wine’s underlying structure. Think Montrachet with bubbles. The Coeur de Cuvee is made from 50 year old vines in Les Blanches Voies Hautes. The blend is 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. Dosage is 8 grams per liter.

Nice champagne.


Pickles on the table. The cucumber has a nice lightly pickled quality.


Bread.


From my cellar: 1996 Chapoutier Ermitage Cuvee de l’Oree. Parker 99-100. It is no secret that I adore Chapoutier’s luxury cuvee of white Hermitage called Cuvee L’Oree. Made from 90-year old vines and microscopic yields of 10-12 hectoliters per hectare, this wine flirts with perfection. It is a compelling white Hermitage. Made from 100% Marsanne, it is as rich and multidimensional as the fullest, most massive Montrachet money can buy. It is unctuously textured, yet extraordinarily and beautifully balanced. I suspect it will drink well early in life, and then shut down for a few years. It should last for 4-5 decades. The 1996 possesses some of the most amazing glycerin levels I have ever seen in a dry white wine. In short, this wine must be tasted to be believed.

This is the second time I’ve failed to be impressed with this wine. I’ve had the bottles since release too. Maybe it’s just was Marsanne tastes like, and it was a perfectly nice wine (if a little on the oxidized side), but 100 points? The 1993 Pierre Morey Batard-Montrachet I had the night before totally blew it out of the water.

Crab Cakes (2) . . . Chili, Cilantro Cream Sauce. Lots of good lump blue crab in here, and as such, a surprisingly good crab cake (and I grew up partially in the Maryland Eastern shore).


2008 Marcassin Chardonnay Marcassin Vineyard. Parker 100. Utterly perfect, the 2008 Chardonnay Marcassin Estate is a dead-ringer for the 2007, but slightly richer and longer, as hard as that may be to believe. This extraordinary effort is unquestionably the “Chardonnay of the Vintage.” In fact, it may be the “Chardonnay of the Decade.” Brioche, nectarine, citrus and orange blossom notes intermixed with a liqueur of rocks, great acid, phenomenal concentration and staggering length result in a sublime Chardonnay that should drink well for 15+ years.

Parker clearly knows nothing about great Chardonnay. This was a pleasant wine, and good for an American one, and it was intensely floral. But it was also totally lacking any backbone and acidic structure.

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail (5) . . .  Our Own Spicy Cocktail Sauce. Classic and strait-forward.


2008 Native9 Pinot Noir Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard. Parker 91. This is a nicely layered, full-bodied, and textured Pinot Noir, with a dark plum color and a sweet nose of white chocolate, black cherries, pomegranate, fresh mushrooms, and earth. Complex, deep, and layered, this is an impressive Pinot Noir to drink over the next 3-4 years.

This was a bonus bottle. Parker knows even less about Pinot, because this tasted like oak with a bitter unpleasant finish. Ick. Give me a half decent village from Burgundy.

Fried Rock Shrimp . . . Hot Sweet and Sour Sauce. Sort of like what you’d get if Panda Express did popcorn shrimp — but quite tasty nonetheless (although not even slightly spicy).

Teriyaki Tidbits (4) . . . Filet Mignon with Ortega Chile and Monterey Jack Cheese. A little odd and not my thing.


From my cellar: 1986 Leoville-Las Cases. Parker 100. The late Michel Delon always thought that this was the greatest vintage he had produced. We often tasted it side by side with the 1982, because I always preferred the latter vintage. Of course, the two vintages are quite different in style, with the 1986 a monument to classicism, with great tannin, extraordinary delineation, and a huge, full-bodied nose of sweet, ripe cassis fruit intermixed with vanilla, melon, fruitcake, and a multitude of spices. The wine has always been phenomenally concentrated, yet wonderfully fresh and vigorous. The wine still seems young, yet it is hard to believe it is not close to full maturity. It is a great example of Leoville Las Cases, and another compelling reason to take a serious look at the top Cabernet Sauvignon-based Medocs of 1986.

Slick, smooth and mature, this was my second favorite red of the night, but still, I was disappointed. It was an excellent Bordeaux, but it didn’t sing or really have any magic going. The 1982 Lafite I opened in December was vastly better, as the 1985 Margaux I split with one of my best friends over Thanksgiving. The cheapy glass glass didn’t help. I should have put it in one of my Riedels.

Escargots Bourguignonne (6) . . . A French Classic, garlic butter, herbs.


2006 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Vino da Tavola. Parker 97. The 2006 Flaccianello della Pieve is monumental, as it has been since the very beginning. Smoke, black cherries, plums, incense, licorice and tar are some of the many notes that burst from the glass in this powerful wine. The 2006 has fruit and structure to burn. It is going to be an absolutely fabulous wine to follow over the coming years, but patience is key. A huge, explosive finish rounds things out in style.

This gets a 99 from Wine Spectator, so it sneaks in (barely). Still, it was probably my favorite red (along with the 86 Leoville) as it had some character and depth.

Oysters Rockefeller . . . Chopped Bacon, Spinach, Pernod, Parmesanand Hollandaise Sauce. Can we say heavy?


Even more old school, lots of lemon wedges.


A few of the wines.


Garlic bred. Could have used a little more garlic punch.


2001 Abreu Cabernet Sauvignon Madrona Ranch. Parker 97-100. While I am not surprised that the 2001 Thorevilos turned out to be perfect, the 2001 Madrona Ranch was more of an eye-opener in that it has become even more extraordinary than I predicted eight years ago. A prodigious wine, with complex notes of subtle barbecue smoke intermixed with blueberry pie, black currant liqueur, acacia flowers, lead pencil shavings, and sweet foresty floor notes, this wine builds incrementally with layer upon layer of fruit, glycerin and concentration. The finish goes well past a minute, and the wine is full-bodied and deep, with wonderfully sweet tannin. It is still an adolescent in terms of its total evolution, but it is irresistible simply because of the flawless nature of the wine and incredible perfume and flavor intensity. Simply amazing! Both of these wines are adolescents, and probably won’t peak for another 5-8 years and keep for 30-40.

I can’t really comment on this assault of new world red individually. Most of them don’t stand out in my memory. All were fairly pleasant (other than 1 that was corked) but they just don’t do it for me.

Hearts of Romaine . . . With Avocado, Maui Onion, Candied Walnuts, Grated Bleu Cheese, Vinaigrette. This one is missing the avocado (I missed the better photo).


2009 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard. Parker 96. Also incredibly concentrated, with burly structure and a mountain of tannin, the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard (99% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Merlot) delivers a seriously intense array of blackberry and kirsch-styled fruit, licorice, charcoal and spice box on both the nose and palate. Aged for 22 months in 100% new French oak and a big, broad shouldered, full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon, it possesses a rocking mid-palate and fabulous length on the finish. Really showing the power of its Red Mountain terroir, it needs 4-5 years of bottle age to become civilized and will have decades of evolution.

Mixed Greens or Wedge of Iceberg . . . Choice of Dressing: 1,000 Island, Ranch, French, House, Bleu Cheese, Marinara, or Old Fashioned Grated Bleu Cheese.

I didn’t try this, but I’ve seen better wedges. Actually, I think CPK has a better wedge. Certainly Bouchon does.


2001 Verite La Muse. Parker 100. 2001 was the first truly great vintage for Jess Jackson and Pierre Seillan, and that is evidenced by the utterly perfect 2001 La Muse, a blend of 87% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Malbec. Over three-fourths of it came from the Alexander Mountain estate of Jess Jackson, and the rest from Chalk Hill, Knights Valley, and a tiny bit from Bennett Valley. This dense purple-colored effort exhibits notes of licorice, creme de cassis, plum sauce, violets and truffles. Full-bodied with magnificent density, overall equilibrium, stunning purity, sweet but abundant tannin and a fabulous finish, this profound wine remains a baby at age ten. Give it another 5-6 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 35-40+ years. It is very French in style even though one could argue that this level of concentration can only be achieved by a handful of wines from Pomerol and St.-Emilion.

Well, this was bigger, that was for sure.


2008 Verite Le Desir. Parker 100. The fruit for this blend of 61% Cabernet Franc, 31% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec came from Chalk Hill (58%) and Alexander Valley (42%). Pierre Seillan believes the Chalk Hill fruit provides a truffle-like character and the Alexander Valley gives minerality, structure, tannin and intensity. The 2008 will be fascinating to taste next to the 2007 over the next 30+ years. Sweet mulberry, blueberry and blackberry fruit intermixed with notions of black truffles, damp earth and forest floor emerge from this beauty of stunning intensity, purity and texture. The alcohol is 14.4% and the relatively elevated pH is 3.76.

Monster!

Baby Mixed Greens with Fried Goat Cheese . . . Raspberry Vinaigrette.

Like the salad grandmother made, or one of those bags at the supermarket.

Dal Rae Caesar Salad . . . Prepared Table Side, A Classic.


Before tossing.


During.


And the actual Cesar. This was a good Cesar, way butter than most of the bland ones, but it wasn’t up to the standards of Boa’s.


Fixings for baked potatoes. Fat!


2010 Dominus Proprietary Red Wine. Parker 100. Composed of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot, the stunning, full-bodied 2010 Dominus boasts an exceptional perfume of hoisin sauce, licorice, underbrush, forest floor, plums, black currants and jammy cherries intertwined with hints of cedar, baking spices and oak. Full-bodied and voluptuously textured, the 2010 is on a slightly faster evolutionary track than the 2009 (somewhat of an anomaly for these two vintages). This exquisite as well as prodigious 2010 can be drunk young, but it should age effortlessly for 20-25 years. Bravo!

Like a young Bordeaux. A VERY VERY young Bordeaux. Still, pretty good.

Dal Rae Famous Pepper Steak. Large Filet Mignon (14 oz).

I had one of these (along with my lobster tail). It was tasty, although the peppers had enough umph to pretty much drown out the meat and did wake me up at 2 in the morning.

Dal Rae Famous Pepper Steak. Prime New York (16 oz) .


2002 Torbreck Run Rig. Parker 99. The 2002 Run Rig (97% Shiraz and 3% Viognier aged in 100% new French oak) represents the essence of old vine Barossa fruit. Extraordinarily opulent and rich, but playing it closer to the vest than the 2001, it gets my nod as one of the most remarkable wines made in either the Southern or Northern Hemisphere. An inky/purple color is accompanied by a sumptuous bouquet of apricots, honeysuckle, black raspberries, blackberries, licorice, and a hint of roasted meats. The wood has been soaked up by the wine’s extraordinary concentration. Fashioned from four sectors of Barossa (Maranaga, Koonunga Hill, Moppa, and Greenock), it spent 30 months in primarily new oak, and was bottled without fining or filtration. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2020+.


Duck à l’ Orange being prepared tableside.


Flaming sauce! (one of several tonight)

Duck à l’ Orange . . . Crisp Half Duck, Orange Liquor Flamed, Rice Pilaf.


2005 Alban Vineyards Syrah Lorraine Vineyard. Parker 100. An absolutely monumental wine is the 2005 Syrah Lorraine Vineyard. The finest Syrah John Alban has yet produced, its inky/ruby/purple hue is accompanied by gorgeously sweet aromas of flowers, blueberries, black raspberries, blackberries, and subtle hints of smoky oak, bacon fat, and licorice. In the mouth, the wine is seamlessly constructed with fabulous fruit, brilliant concentration, and virtually perfect balance. Moreover, the finish lingers on the palate for over 60 seconds. It should drink beautifully for 15 or more years.

Prime Dry Aged Tomahawk Ribeye (38oz)… Onion Staws. An amazing steak for those who are hungry.

This picture doesn’t even do justice to this massive steak. It was fully 20-24″ long from the end of the meat to the other end of the bone!


2001 Marquis Philips Shiraz Integrity. Parker 97-99. Deep garnet-brick in color, the 2001 Integrity reveals evolved aromas of black fruit, dried mulberries, prunes, sandalwood, leather and tobacco with some nuances of oolong tea and anise. Ripe, rich and seductive, it has a lively acid line, medium levels of fine tannins and a long finish with layers of kirsch and cherry syrup flavors lingering.

One of the two was also mildly corked, but I can’t remember which.

Double Cut Lamb Chops . . . Herb Crusted with Thyme, Burgundy Garlic Sauce
The Finest Large Eye Colorado Chops.


2002 Marquis Philips Shiraz Integrity. Parker 94-99. Deep garnet-brick colored, the 2002 Integrity is a 100% Shiraz that displays evolved leather and tobacco notes intermingled with some meaty and gamey aromas and nuances of coffee, olives and underbrush. Full bodied, it has a coffee flavors in the mouth, medium levels of velvety tannins, and a medium-high acid backbone. It finishes long with notes of eucalyptus showing through. It is drinking now.

Large Veal Chop . . . Bone in With Morel Mushroom Sauce.

Have a few calories?

Filet Mignon. Large Cut (14 oz) .


2007 Hundred Acre Vineyard Ark. Parker 100. A perfect wine, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Ark Vineyard (1,300 – 1,400 cases) from Howell Mountain is one of the great efforts from this high elevation terroir. It offers notes of burning embers, black raspberries, blueberries and flowers, a full-bodied opulence, wonderful intensity, but the wine is not weighty or overripe. Fleshy and voluptuous with terrific floral notes, it should drink well for 15-20 years.

No cheating here. This was the best of the big new worlds. Pretty massive though.

Filet Mignon Petite Cut (10 oz) .

Chilean Seabass Alla Ben . . . Mild White Fish, Our Signature Preparation.


Drawn butter.


A lobster tail added a little seafoody goodness.


Tomatoes.


Garlic mashers. Not bad, but I wish I’d ordered some mac & cheese.


Creamed Corn au gratin.


Sauteed Spinach with Olive Oil and Garlic.


Sautéed Wild Mushrooms.


Yarom with Loren, the owner.


2001 Chateau d’Yquem. Parker 100. There are 10,000 cases of this perfect sweet white Bordeaux. The 2001 Yquem reveals a hint of green in its light gold color. While somewhat reticent aromatically, with airing, it offers up honeyed tropical fruit, orange marmalade, pineapple, sweet creme brulee, and buttered nut-like scents. In the mouth, it is full-bodied with gorgeously refreshing acidity as well as massive concentration and unctuosity. Everything is uplifted and given laser-like focus by refreshing acidity. This large-scaled, youthful Yquem appears set to take its place among the most legendary vintages of the past, and will age effortlessly for 75+ years. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2100+.

Pretty fabulous, even if not in it’s most expressive period. Seriously balanced and nuanced.


More tableside, desserts, including banana flambe.


Look at all that butter.


And sugar.


And it even flames!


Poured over vanilla ice cream.


A nice young Maderia.

Grand Marnier Supreme . . . Chocolate ice cream, raspberry sherbet hand whipped with Grand Marnier. A bit too much Grand Marnier flavor for me.

Overall, this was a fun night. The service at The Dal Rae was pretty over the top. With all the table side stuff and everything. At times we had a veritable army delivering, sometimes 6-8 people. There were about 5 waitresses and although they were clearly not experienced with our level of wine, they tried really hard, doing a pretty good job rounding up glasses and pouring around — even if a lot of the glasses were cheap heavy ones that don’t do 100 pointers any service (they only had limited good ones). Everyone was super friendly and it’s a tough task managing a big table like this, so I’d give them 10/10 for service.

The food is great for what it is, American classic, and it’s fun to see all that old tableside and flaming stuff. It’s not so much my taste (and I should have ordered seafood but I wanted to try the pepper steak because it’s “their thing”). Really, I like my cuisine far more modern (like this!). Still, food like this is almost a lost art and a different “genre”: call it 50s-60s high American done right.

I was a little disappointed in our wines. It’s just a preference thing, but 99-100 points or not, these New World wines just don’t do it for me. I’d take a decent 91-93 Burghound premier cru any day over most of these giant extracted reds. And to hold them up as wine perfection and compare them to the likes of the 1995 Rousseau Clos de Beze I had a couple of weeks ago? It just ain’t even close — but like art, architecture, music, sports teams, or even pretty girls, there are a lot of tastes out there! A modification that might work in the future would be “99 or 100 points, 1999 or older” or better yet, “99 or 100 points, from Europe” (or even better “1999 or older AND from Europe!” 🙂

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Yarom with his 86oz tomahawk! Good thing this isn’t the Great Outdoors

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By: agavin
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XLB – Soup Dumplings!

Jan31

Restaurant: Roc

Location: 2049 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 235-2089

Date: January 24, 2014

Cuisine: Taiwanese Chinese

Rating: Awesome XLB

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Among lovers of Chinese food the Xia Long Bao, or XLB for short, is a particular favorite. These little thin skinned dumplings stuffed with (usually) pork and a hot broth are quite delicious. So when a friend told me than one of the managers from Din Tai Fung (an SGV Taiwanese XLB palace) had opened a place on the Westside I waited all of about 24 hours before trying it.


Sleek space is nothing to write home about, but that’s not why we came.

Here is the menu. The top left corner in the red are all variants on the XLB.


Dumplings need their sauces. Here soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, and ginger are available at all times.


Scallion pancake with ginger soy dipping sauce. Fried and tasty.


Beef roll. Cucumbers, green onions & cilantro. These monster burritos were filled with sweet BBQ beef and quite delicious.


Garlic dungeness crab fried rice. garlic, egg, & green onions. This was a fabulous fried rice. There were real chunks of sweet dungeness crab in here, making it a bit like certain rice dishes I would get in Japan.


Shrimp and pork spicy dumplings. I expected a more traditional wonton in chili oil (the Schezuan classic often called “numb taste wonton.”) These were more like potstickers with sirachi. Not my favorite dish of the day, although certainly fine.


Pan-fried dumplings, Shrimp and pork. These are the more fried, less spicy version of above. They were superior, pretty much classed fried potstickers.


Crispy balls. I can’t even remember what was inside.


Steamed bun. Same pork center, thicker coating.


Lobster & pork XLB. An interesting blend of the traditional savory pork with a bit of lobster sweetness.


Lobster, crab & fish XLB. Much more seafoody, with a sweet and briny taste.


Classic pork XLB. There is a reason these are classic. All the XLB were scrumptious, but these in particular are amazing.


You load one of these babies on a spoon and add some sauce (usually through a small hole). This helps cool down the boiling broth inside. Then pop in your mouth for an explosion of flavor. Don’t ever bite them, you’ll just make a mess — rookie mistake.


Pepper beef. Cubed filet mignon, red onions & bell peppers. The beef was tasty, but this is a pretty straight up, almost American Chinese style dish.


Pork chop. Great with the fried rice.


Shrimp and peppers. Light shrimp with shisito peppers.


Kale. Greens.


Chinese mustard greens sautéed with ginger. I think they mean steamed with ginger, because these were close to just steamed greens. They are what they are, but being a fat is flavor man, they didn’t do it for me.

Baby bok choy. Sauteed with garlic & shitake mushrooms. Better than the Chinese greens for sure, these had some actual flavor.

Overall, the XLB (all 3) and the fried rice made this meal. I want to try some of the other things on the menu, and next time I will, but my brother and I polished off all this just the two of us — that’s 15 dumplings each! I’d be perfectly happy to come in myself and order some rice and a steamer (or two) of XLB. Yum yum!

The menu is a little smaller than Din Tai Fung. The dumplings were just as good, but I miss a few of the other dishes at DTF: like the noodles, hot & sour, and chili wontons — but Roc is about 40 minutes closer, right in my hood, so I’ll be going a lot!

For more LA dining reviews click here

or, for my index of Chinese Food, here.

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By: agavin
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Serious Szechuan

Jan29

Restaurant: Cui Hua Lou [1, 2, 3]

Location: 920 E Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91755. 626-288-2218

Date: January 26, 2014

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Chinese food is incredible regional, and we are blessed in SoCal with a lot of very specific restaurants (mostly in the San Gabriel Valley). My Hedonist group has returned to this little known spicy Szechuan in the corner of an undiscovered Monterey Park strip mall. We love Szechuan for its spicy/smoky flavors. This is a cuisine that packs a real punch and is one of my favorites in China.


The storefront, as usual, isn’t much to look at.


A menu with fairly literal translations.


And the usual minimalist decor.


From my cellar: 2001 Ulrich Langguth Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese. 90 points. Quite ripe – more Auslese in style – with a typical Mosel flavor profile. Enjoyable, and a good value for an ’01 Spatlese.

This warrants opening what I might call the “great foodie wine pairing debate” as I find people at my dinners fall into two camps: the “a good wine is a good wine” camp and the “food and wine complement” crew (of which I’m the later). Chinese in general, and Szechuan in particular, is a tricky match as it’s full of vinegar, soy and fermented flavors, and bracing heat. I happen to think Riesling generally pairs well with Chinese, but spicy foot demands a certain sweetness — the more spice the more sugar. However, those in the first group often “don’t like sweet wines.” Interestingly, I’ve noticed that my camp tends to line up with the Burgundy drinkers and the first group with the fans of massive (over) extracted wines.


Bean curd tofu with scallion. Soft silken tofu with scallions and salt (MSG?). Being a lover of this kind of tofu I very much enjoyed this dish — although it was a little salty.


Cucumber with Jelly Fish. Not bad for jellyfish. The cucumber had a nice marinated crunch.


2003 Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spätlese. 89-94 points. Beautiful, lush Mosel Riesling. Light straw-brilliant in the glass. Nose of an integrated bouquet of stone, ripe pineapple, mandarin orange, young leather (fleshiness), and light metallic petrol (light). The attack is not tart: it has enough acid to be propped up, but not an awful lot more. A little fatness to the palate even. Yet, it seems a balanced, delicious wine that is in a good spot. Yum, yum. Nice length too. Thumbs up!


BBQ Mushroom. Lots of cumin, chewy mushrooms, and some gradual but significant heat. Pretty delicious.


Beef Tendon in Xiang Ziang style. Lots of cumin. The idea of tendon is a little disturbing, and this has an unusual (for westerners) texture, like a root vegetable (almost), but more chewy. Still, it’s pretty good considering.


BBQ Lamb. Others might call this cumin lamb. A bit dry, but very flavorful.


2009 Bodegas Vinicola Real Rioja Vina Los Valles Crianza. 86 points. Nothing really wrong with this value Rioja (at the price point), except it’s a total fail as far as pairing with Szechuan cuisine. It would be nice at a Madrid Tapas joint.


Potato with Chili. Looks and tastes a bit like al dente noodles. A nice subtle flavor too.


Stewed Lamb in Casserole. This is one of the house special dishes. It comes like this and then heats to a boiling (and spicy) temp.


Below the mutton (the meat is incredibly tender, although on the bone) is a seething pit of chili sauce, cabbage, soft tofu, and glass noodles.


The sauce has an incredible flavor with a good bit of numbing Szechuan peppercorn. It’s incredibly delicious and unique to Szechuan cooking.


2003 Tenuta San Guido Bolgheri Sassicaia Sassicaia. IWC 93. 80% cabernet sauvignon and 20% cabernet franc) Dark ruby-red. Appealing smoky, minerally aromas of red cherry, blackcurrant and plum, with a hint of truffle. Quite suave on entry, then smooth and fine-grained, with good mineral lift to the decidedly sweet red fruit flavors. This broad, rich and supple wine boasts tremendous length and silky-sweet tannins. A great Sassicaia that falls roughly between the ’88 and the ’85 in style at the similar stage of development, although I’m not sure the new vintage will attain the heights reached by those earlier wines.

This was a gorgeous wine… between courses… because as soon as that Szechuan heat kicked in, particularly the numbing effect of the peppercorn, all the fruit was stripped out  left only tannins on the palette. Now the pacing of the meal allowed me to enjoy it, just not exactly with the food.


BBQ Chicken Heart. This is a lot of chicken hearts. They taste like chewy liver. I could have done without.


Chung King twice cooked pork. Very tender and flavorful, and not as spicy as most of the dishes here.


Tilapia with Bean Sauce. Not my favorite this time around. The fish might have been a hair overcooked and the goopy gelatinous bean sauce is a hair off-putting.


1997 Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi Vineyard. Rhone Report 96. Immediately identifiable as syrah, the nose was bursting with blueberries, blackberries, and a hint of eucalyptus. The blue and black berries continue on the palate, adding a little bit of leather/tobacco on the mildly tannic, medium to long finish.

The bigger is better camp loved this wine. It’s not really my cup of tea though, and certainly not with Chinese. With some lamb chops, sure. And we had lots of lamb, but it was covered in cumin and Szechuan pepper!


Scallion Noodles. A boring version of the noodles (those black things are charred scallions) for the vegetarians.


Kung Pao Shrimp. As good a version of the classic as you can find.


Szechuan style bean curd. This is known as Mapo Doufu. It is a combination of tofu (bean curd) set in a spicy chili- and bean-based sauce, typically a thin, oily, and bright red suspension, and often cooked with fermented black beans and minced meat, usually pork or beef. Ma stands for “mazi” (Pinyin: mázi Traditional Chinese 麻子) which means a person disfigured by pockmarks or leprosy, the latter is also called 痲 má or 麻風 máfēng. Po (Chinese 婆) translates as “old woman, grandmother, crone”. Hence, Ma Po is an old woman whose face was pockmarked. It is thus sometimes translated as “Pockmarked-Face Lady’s Tofu”.

It’s one of my favorite dishes and features a wonderful texture, bright taste, and a searing numbing heat.


2002 Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi Vineyard. IWC 92. Red berries, Grand Marnier, Thai basil, geranium, eucalyptus, bitter lime, quinine and resiny oak on the nose. Then thick and dense but penetrating in the mouth, with primary raspberry and strawberry flavors complicated by an exotic apricot note and framed by lively acids. A fascinating, firmly built wine that showed a compelling sweetness as it opened in the glass. Finishes with very sweet tannins and impressive persistence. My score is intended for the initiated: you know who you are.

Same big wine, but younger, and from a somewhat inferior year.


Fried corn. Slightly sweet and could have almost passed for a dessert (certainly in Chinese terms). It blended great on the plate with other items like the above tofu, adding a bit of crunch, salt, and sweetness.


Dan Dan Noodles.


You mix it up. One of the biggest challenge is getting only part of the noodles and an even distribution of the chopped meat at the bottom. Clearly, when Marco Polo brought noodles back to Italy this became the seed for Bolognese sauce, as aside from this being quite spicy, there is a definite similarity. This particular version wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, and doesn’t have the nutty sesame quality the dish sometimes does, but it was certainly enjoyable.


2009 Domaine des Sabines. 90 points. Ruby color with just a slight tinge of blue remaining, surprisingly almost opaque. Nose has peat moss, dirt, wild mushrooms, roasted coffee beans. A hint of licorice with savory notes, plus some dried tobacco. Something sweet here too on the nose – perhaps a touch of bret? On the palate – black cherry, blackberry, roasted or grilled plums. Truly though, this wine is all about the earthy notes and the wood – roasted espresso, caramel, hazelnut, dried leaves and a bit of burnt toast. A minerally, gravel note pops up on the finish too. Chewy mid-palate texture. Tannins are moderate for Bordeaux, and nicely ripe. I know it is 2009, but for LdP, the density is impressive. Medium body. Give it an hour of air and the tight tannins round out and shows off a lovely soft supple quality. Heat shows up a bit on the finish, weight of fruit almost carries it off. I can see this wine with slow roasted braised beef short ribs and caramelized onions. Or a wild mushroom risotto – thinking chantrelles.

About 10 years too young.


Chung King Spicy chicken? I’m not sure which dish this was, but there are little DEEP fried and very dry chicken nuggets in there dry-tossed with long red peppers. It was actually quite tasty.


Hot braised eggplant with garlic sauce. Awesome garlicky flavor, with some significant heat (of both sorts).


Boiled beef and fish. Along with the Mapo tofu, this was my favorite dish of the night. The “broth” is very similar to the lamb casserole and features a tremendous heat born of both red chilies and Szechwan peppercorn. The meat and the fish were both tender and full of flavor. Really quite wonderful (if intense).


BBQ Garlic. Another fabulous dish. Now, eating a whole skewer of this might get one kicked out of bed, but it’s worth it!


Boiled peanuts. These are cold and a bit slimey. I have read that eating lots of boiled peanuts (instead of roasted) avoids peanut allergies for some reason. The roasted ones taste better, but there is nothing really wrong with these.


Kung Pao Chicken. Pretty much the same as the shrimp, but a wonderful version of this Chinese American classic that has real heat and puts PF Changs to shame.


Our table was so overloaded with dishes that we had to stack them!

In conclusion, Cui Hua Lou, while apparently totally undiscovered, offers up some fabulous traditional Szechuan fare. For this second visit we went crazy overboard and ordered up about 50% more food than we needed, still this feast, including tax and tip, only set us back $31 a person! If you like spicy, you should try this place. Just don’t tell too many people!

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

We had about 18 people in our party alone!

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By: agavin
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Ultimate Akbar

Jan27

Restaurant: Akbar [1, 2, 3]

Location: 2627 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, Ca 90403. 310-586-7469

Date: January 23, 2014

Cuisine: Indian

Rating: Bold and balanced flavors

ANY CHARACTER HERE

It’s time for my my Hedonist group to return to LA’s best Indian restaurant, Akbar (Santa Monica branch). Too many Indian places focus on low cost buffets of very over cooked food, but Akbar cooks everything to order — even baking their own Naan when you place the order. They are more focused on the cuisine of the Punjab (Northern India), with very good curries and kormas. You can get anything from extremely mild to blow the top of your head off. Once I had the “pepper lamb” on 5 (max heat) and my scalp sweat for hours.

This was one of those really crazy evenings where we took over half the place with 25 people and even more wines! Yarom brought Chef Avi a bunch of his hand shot meats to add into the mix.

The Menu can be found here, although the chef designed our feast directly.


From my cellar: 2000 Chave Hermitage Blanc. Parker 95. A 1,000-case blend of 80% Marsanne and 20% Roussanne, the profound 2000 Hermitage blanc boasts a terrific perfume of honeysuckle, white flowers, peaches, citrus, and minerals. Displaying an unctuous texture along with tremendous glycerin, richness, and depth, it will undoubtedly close down after a few years in the bottle, but for now, it is a spectacularly rich, multidimensional white Hermitage to drink young, then forget about for 5-10 years, after which it will last for 15-20 years.

Good stuff, although it took a few minutes to open. Better drinking right now than my higher rated 96 Chapoutier Blanc I brought to Boa to match with the crab.


1989 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune Vendanges Tardives. View from the cellar 96. Complex nose of honey, apricot and light kerosene, peach and orange rind. Full of flavour but there is a wonderful delicacy to the palate. Brilliant acidity that extends and lifts the fruit to another level. A superb stage between youth and maturity. Mesmerizing.

Sweet apricots and really delicious (if you like sweet wines like I do).


Fresh baked Naan, the delicious flat bread cooked in the Tandoor. They make several variants, this one being stuffed with herbs and a light cheese — delicious!


2011 Sine Qua Non The Moment. Parker 95. Starting off the tasting and a prodigious, unctuous white, the 2011 The Moment checks in as a blend of 57% Roussanne, 19% Petit Manseng, 17% Chardonnay and 7% Viognier that spent 16 months in a combination of concrete, new and used barrels, and stainless steel. Offering up notions of marzipan, citrus oil flowers, marmalade and spiced apricots, it flows onto the palate with full-bodied richness and depth that-s balanced by beautiful underlying freshness and clarity. While I would lean towards drinking bottles over the coming 2-3 years, these can absolutely age, and have upwards of 10-15+ years of longevity. Drink now-2017+.

I bet you haven’t seen this, Sine Qua Non pseudo Rhone-style white! It was somewhat similar to the Chave (Roussane) but more open, floral, and less complex.


The chutney’s and pickles. The green one is mint, the yellow-ish coconut, the one with corn spicy-pickled vegetables (yum! and oh, so gut burning) and the back corner a tangy one.


2005 Domaine Y. Clerget Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens. 93 points. Our only Burgundy (with the meal), Michael brought this to prove, “who says you can’t drink big 2005s.” Well he was right. The first few minutes were structured and closed, but it opened up nicely in the glass into a pinot with enough muscle to combat some (but not all) of the spice in the food.


Lamb samosas. Deep fried and…


1989 La Conseillante. Parker 96. Somewhat similar to the 1990, but slightly more structured, with more noticeable tannin and a meatier style, this is still a very perfumed, exotic, expansive, sensationally concentrated wine that should age effortlessly for another 10-15 years. In that sense, it might actually outlast the 1990, but what a pair these two wines make. The wine has a dark garnet/ruby color and fabulous aromatics of black raspberries, kirsch, licorice, and copious amounts of toasted new oak. Relatively full-bodied for a La Conseillante, with great purity, sweet tannin, but noticeable structure and muscle, this is a relatively large-scaled La Conseillante that has always been one of the top wines of the vintage.

Most people loved this wine, and to my taste it was very Bordeaux, with a nice nose. It was silky smooth, with a lot going on in all aspects (nose, attack, mid palette, finish). Tons of lead pencil. There was a little bit much of that Merlot bitter thing going on during the finish for my taste — but very hedonistic!


…stuffed with peas and ground lamb. The insides were scrumptious, just packed with lamby flavor.


2003 Bois de Boursan Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee des Felix. Parker 95. The 2003 Domaine Bois de Boursan Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee des Felix is superb. Showing a mature, yet still lively and fruit-driven profile of sweet currants, saddle leather, truffle, and garrigue, it stays beautifully rich and seductive on the palate, with layers of sweet fruit, no hard edges and a great finish. Certainly a ripe vintage, yet everything is perfectly proportioned, the tannins are sweet and it is a joy to drink. A blend of 65% Grenache and the balance a mix of Mourvedre and Syrah, from 90-year-old vines, it held up beautifully with air and is a raging success in the vintage. It can be consumed now or over the coming 5-8 years or more.

An extremely enjoyable Chateauneuf that had the stuffing for the food.


Tandoori grilled Chilean Sea Bass marinated in herbs. Tender and flavorful!


1985 Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage la Chapelle. Parker 91. A saturated dark plum/garnet color with amber at the edge is followed by an attractive smoky, underbrush, and truffle-scented wine with coffee, smoke, cedar, and jammy cassis/plum-like fruit. As the wine sits in the glass, notes of Chinese black tea, pepper, and soy emerge. There is surprising tannin and austerity in the finish, but the aromatics and attack were convincingly rich and intense.

I agree with Parker here. This was a smooth wine, still in fine shape, but a little flabby in the middle/finish. Still, extremely enjoyable.


House specialty lamb chops. Awesomely marinated and coated in cumin. Wow, these were some tasty chops. Too bad they were so small.


From my cellar: 1990 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 96. Beaucastel made a great Chateauneuf du Pape in 1990. In stylistic terms, it is completely different from the profound 1989. The color is opaque black/ruby/purple. The perfume of smoked meats, coffee, hickory, Asian spices, and black raspberries is sensational. While concentrated, full-bodied, and extremely rich, the wine displays slightly harder tannin, higher acidity, and comes across as a more muscular, less opulent example than the 1989. It is a profound wine, but I would rate it inferior to the 1989 and 1981, yet easily equivalent to the 1983 and 1985. Both Francois and Jean-Pierre Perrin compare their 1990 to the renowned 1967, and both prefer it to their 1989 – high praise!

When I first opened this there was enough funk on the nose that I was worried about cork, but it blew off in a couple of minutes leaving a very lovely, spicy, complex wine in the glass.


A dish of fresh vegetables with a light sauce. Peas, corn, mushrooms, celery, potato.


2004 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 95. The 2004 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape has turned out to be one of the finest wines of the vintage, tipping the scales at just over 15% alcohol and actually coming a few tenths of a degree within the 2003 and 2005 in terms of power and alcoholic degrees. The wine displays gorgeously sweet black raspberries, kirsch liqueur, and resiny, loamy soil notes. Medium to full-bodied, this blend of 65% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah, and the rest some of the other red varietals that are permitted, is performing beautifully and is certainly one of the vintage’s superstars. The wine is full-bodied, powerful, rich, and as accessible as the 2003, but slightly fresher and not as muscular and thick. Nevertheless, this is a top effort from the father and son team of Paul and Vincent Avril. This wine can be drunk now but can be cellared for 15-20 years.

Also a lot of fun. A little closed at first (still in that phase), but it too because to crack open.


A really yummy cauliflower in a saffron sauce.


2008 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection. Parker 94. The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection is the first example of this cuvee to include Merlot (about 14%) in the blend. The Merlot component has given the wine a cocoa/chocolate nuance to its black currant, licorice-infused fruit. The tannins are velvety soft and the wine is beautifully textured and full-bodied. It is ideal for drinking now and over the next 15 years.

Tasted like Cal Cab.


Akbari Biryani. Bits of lamb, chicken, and shrimp cooked with the rice.


2008 Vineyard 29 Zinfandel Aida. Parker 93. The 2008 Zinfandel Aida Vineyard Estate comes from a vineyard made famous in the early formative years of nearby Turley Cellars. A fascinating blend of 82% Zinfandel, 10% Petite Sirah and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, it boasts a dark plum/purple color as well as a big kiss of mountain berries intermixed with garrigue, lavender, pepper and spice. Elegant yet powerful with a terrific texture, it is a sensational Zinfandel to drink over the next 7-8 years.


The first of several dishes made from Yarom’s kills: deer sausage. This was the same sausage that we had a few weeks earlier at Phong Dinh, but here cooked with onions and cilantro.


1999 Outpost Zinfandel Howell Mountain. Parker 90. An impressive offering, this 1999 Zinfandel exhibits aromas of blueberries, raspberries, minerals, and flowers. The complex aromatics are followed by deep, pure, medium to full-bodied flavors gently infused with high quality toasty oak. Drink this pure, well-balanced effort over the next 6-8 years.

I’m not normally a Zin fan, but the spicy quality here went nicely with the food.


A little curry on the plate. Not the loveliest sight, but it did taste damn good.


Rarely seen 1985 Kistler Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley. Parker 86. This tough-textured, solidly made, muscular Cabernet Sauvignon still exhibits an impressive, nearly opaque, garnet/ruby/purple color, and a reticent bouquet that opens to reveal spicy oak and vague red and black fruits aromas. Tannic, astringent, and hard, with a rough finish, my instincts suggest there is not enough fruit and extract to balance out the wine’s tough tannin and acidity.


A second tandoori fish, this time haddock. This one was smokier in flavor.


2011 Mollydooker Carnival of Love. Parker 93+. Very deep green-purple in color, the 2011 Carnival of Love flaunts a very expressive and fragrant nose with floral notes, roses and potpourri intermingled with toasty black cherries, creme de cassis, chocolate, pepper and accents of cinnamon and cloves. Rich, ripe and full-bodied, this concentrated, single-vineyard 100% Shiraz retains crisp acid, has low to medium levels of soft silky tannins before finishing very harmoniously and long.

The big palette crew loved this wine. Still way too extracted and young for my taste.


I popped back in the kitchen to catch them working the tandoori.


The result, tandoori duck. Lots and lots of flavor as usual.


2010 Purple Angel. This is a Chilean Carmenere.


And more of Yarom’s dear, this time saddle meat spiced and seared. It was tough. Real tough, and this bothered some, but the flavor was delicious: gamey, with pepper and herbs. So I treated it like venison chewing gum and enjoyed.


1999 Delheim Shiraz Vera Cruz Estate. IWC 90. Bright, deep ruby-red. Superripe, exotic, Graves-y aromas of burning tobacco, smoke and road tar. Urgent, superconcentrated wine with a powerful saline quality and a chewy, dense texture buffered by strong acidity. A fascinating if somewhat extreme expression of syrah, with a strong element of baking road tar. Finishes with very suave, building tannins and superb persistence. A retaste of a wine sampled a year ago, and developing splendidly.

I rarely drink South African wines, and when I do, I’m not usually impressed. This, however, while thin, did have an interesting smokey thing going on, almost like an Aglianico. It went well with the food too.


Some of Yarom’s wild boar. This was more tender, but the  flavor wasn’t as spectacular.


2006 Cayuse Syrah en Cerise. Parker 97 . The 2006 Syrah En Cerise Vineyard is a glass-coating opaque purple color. On the nose liquid asphalt, bacon fat, olives, and garrigue-like aromas offer much to contemplate. Intense, balanced, and totally succulent, it boasts a finish that just won’t quit. It delivers impressive immediate gratification but those who can wait for 5-7 years will be well rewarded.


Plain white bismati (Indian) rice.


2002 Lancaster Estate Meritage. Too many wines, didn’t try it.


The coco lamb, one of my favorites when I come here alone. Tender chunks of lamb are drenched in this incredibly heavy, incredibly flavorful curry laced with coconut. Awesome! It’s pretty hot too.


2004 Colgin IX Syrah Estate. Parker 96. Aubert demonstrates a superb know-how with Syrah. These wines are macerated for 35-45 days, and given frequent pump-overs as well as punch-downs. They are aged completely in French oak. The floral-filled 2004 IX Syrah Estate (486 cases) offers super-pure blue and blackberries intermixed with hints of new saddle leather and meat. High but sweet tannins, powerful flavors, and an overall sense of poise characterize this stunning effort.


And the classic: Chicken Tikka Masala. I asked the chef why his is so much better than the vast number of others I’ve tried, being so creamy and aromatic. Apparently, there is a careful balance of timing to avoid burning the cream and converting too much of it into butter, so as to retain the sweet proteins in balance to the acidic tomatoes. However he does it, the results are fabulous.


This is about 1/3 of the table!


1986 Raymond-Lafon. Parker 92. It is hard to believe the 1986 will eclipse the great 1983, but the differences in the two wines are negligible. I do not believe the 1986 makes quite the impact on the palate that the huge, massive 1983 does, but there is a great deal of botrytis, and a profound, penetrating fragrance of cooked pineapple, vanillin, toast, and honeyed peaches. The wine is streamlined, yet also lusciously rich and full-bodied, with crisp, zesty acidity, and a creamy, intense finish.

Enjoyable, but past its prime.


1999 Guiraud. Parker 90. Tasted as part of a vertical held at the chateau. There is a sense of conservatism to the Guiraud 1999, but it still retains attractive scents of dried honey, marmalade and a touch of chlorine. The palate is actually better than the nose, with a lovely seam of acidity and effervescent marmalade and quince-tinged fruit that is very precise toward the long finish. The ’99 should be looked back on as a success in an oft-forgotten vintage.


Kulfi, a kind of ice cream with raisons and nuts. Very delicate and nutty.


1995 Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos Mézes Maly. This has whoppingly high (67 grams per liter) dry extract, around a percent more alcohol and correspondingly less residual sugar than its ’95 stablemates. Blueberry, blue plum and honey in the nose, with a faint whiff of burnt sugar. Blueberry, honey, apricot jam and diverse flowers in the mouth. Another case of elegance and delicacy of personality and clear, rarefied flavors, in the context of a wine that is in fact extraordinarily dense and viscous. Terrific length. 2 stars.

By far the best of tonight’s dessert wines.

Kheer. Indian rice pudding. This is always one of my favorites. This particular pudding is very subtle and almond flavored. Some have a stronger cardamon and cinnamon tone.


The chaos!

Akbar has long been my favorite LA Indian, and this meal was probably my best yet there. The balance of items was great — and very plentiful — and the flavors incredibly bright and spot on. That filet tikka masala. Wow. The brothers Kapoor (below) are also wonderful hosts. All in all an exceedingly fun evening.

After dinner, me and Michael, along with a few others, snuck across the street and cracked this Burgundy from my bag, guaranteeing my hangover. 🙂

From my cellar: 1996 Maison Roche de Bellene Chambolle-Musigny VV Collection Bellenum. 93 points. This village wine could easily go on for many years to come. There were a lot of bright red fruits and an almost searing acidity. It’s young and kinda lip smackingly tart. A few more years might round that out.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Brothers and owners, the Kapoors. On the right chef Avi and on the left Atul.

Related posts:

  1. All Things Akbar
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  4. Ultimate Pizza – The Birthday
  5. Ultimate Pizza – New Years
By: agavin
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Riding the Dragon

Jan24

I’ve created a new index to celebrate the bounty of Chinese food fair Los Angeles has to offer…

FIND IT HERE

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Related posts:

  1. Food as Art: Pearl Dragon
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By: agavin
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New Bay Seafood

Jan22

Restaurant: New Bay Seafood [1, 2]

Location: 203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. (626) 872-6677

Date: January 20, 2014

Cuisine: Cantonese / Chiu Chow Chinese

Rating: Really on point!

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New Bay Seafood is a fairly elaborate (big with multiple private rooms) Hong Kong and Chiu Chow palace that took over the late Sham Tseng space in 2013.


The interior is typical of Inland Empire Chinese restaurants. We had a private room (there are several).


On the table to start were the traditional peanuts.


And some marinated pickles.


2006 Schafer-Frohlich Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spatlese. Parker 92. The Frohlichs- 2006 Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spatlese came from significantly botrytized grapes and was yeasted to assure a reliable fermentation. Licorice, honey, black currant, and pineapple dominate the nose and palate, where an almost buttery texture and high residual sugar do not prevent juiciness and vivacity, thanks in part to the acidity having gone ever higher here than in the Felseneck. Irresistibly luscious, subtly honeyed and saline, smoky, and tingling mineral in its finish, this, too, should be a long (15+ year) keeper, although Frohlich is convinced that the Felsenberg will have an edge in complexity thanks to the effect of spontaneous fermentation.


This roast BBQ pork was tremendous. It’s that red skinned variety that I used to get growing up in Cantonese dimsum houses, but was tender, not too fatty, and delicious.


Next up was a roast BBQ duck served with a sweet orange colored sauce. No one does duck as well as the Chinese and this was a delectable example.


From my cellar: 1994 Bollig-Lehnert Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Auslese. 92 points. The sweetness had pleasantly faded, but it had extremely nice petrol notes.


We called this the cheese lobster, because there is actually a bit of cheese mixed in with all that fry. And, yeah, it’s pretty darned fried, but it was really tasty. The lobster itself was succulent and not over done and it was easy to access big chunks of it.


2003 Louis Latour Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 92. This too is quite aromatically expressive and while this is no model of finesse either, both the aromatic and flavor profiles possess stunning complexity and in contrast to most big, sappy and muscular white, this manages to retain an unusually fine sense of balance and delivers a palate staining finish. It’s dramatic but there’s substance behind the size and weight.

Our bottle was a little closed and tired, although it opened as the evening progressed.


Some of our party had dietary restrictions and they asked for this steamed tilapia with pepper. They seemed to love it, although for me, the whole thing sort of ignores the point of Chinese food.


House special lobster. This version of the lobster was even better. The sauce had quite a bit of black pepper and scallions in it. Lots of flavor and very tender.


From my cellar: 1995 Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques. 94 points. Smells of creamy blue and black fruit, and earth. It’s powerful on the palate, the fruit tastes young, and deep. There are layers to the palate that reveal bramble, minerals, and a seemingly weightless power. Finishes with a tarry, meaty, wild side. Excellent wine that is beginning to show.


Chinese chicken salad. Haha. I have no idea how authentic this is, but the flavor profile was actually more Vietnamese (which really isn’t that far from Chiu Chow). There was a sweet/savory thing, a little bit of zing, and cilantro.


Salt and pepper shrimp. Nice tender version of this too with a lot of salty garlic flavor.


2006 Marcassin Pinot Noir Three Sisters Vineyard. Parker 94+. The 2006 Pinot Noirs that are just being released include the 2006 Pinot Noir Three Sisters Vineyard. While it has closed down since I tasted it last year, it does reveal a dark plum/ruby color as well as a smoky bouquet of Asian plum sauce, soy, forest floor and sweet black cherries. Like many Marcassin Pinots, it possesses a Morey St.-Denis-like character. The Three Sisters cuvee will benefit from another 1-2 years of bottle age and drink well for a decade or more.

In my opinion, this was a nice new world pinot, but as usual, too oaked and young. I’m certainly not drinking 1re cru Burgundy (which would be the analog here) from ’06, more like the late 90s.


Roast BBQ chicken. I’m not that much of a chicken fan, but this was a darn tasty one. The meat was moist and perfectly cooked.


Chiu Chow crab. Super tasty again, and sleeping on a bed of giant garlic cloves. The owner warned us that this baby might gift us with a bit of a surprise in the middle of the night — in the form of excess gas! LOL.


Sautéed greens (pea tendrils?). A top flight version of the Southern Chinese style greens. Lots of garlicky goodness.


2001 Noon Shiraz Reserve. Parker 99. The 2001 Shiraz Reserve is a riveting example of what is so exciting about old vine Shiraz. Produced from a 35-40-year old McLaren Vale vineyard, it possesses amazing aromatics, purity, texture, and richness. This 2001, which tips the scales at a lofty 15.8% alcohol, is intense and full-bodied as well as remarkably elegant for a wine of such mass and intensity. Its impenetrable inky/black/purple color is accompanied by explosive aromatics, and is bursting with deep, rich, well-balanced flavors revealing seamlessly integrated wood, alcohol, acidity, and tannin. Profoundly deep, rich, and intense, it will hit its peak in 3-4 years, and should last for 15+. This is truly compelling old vine Shiraz!


Eggplant with pork. A slightly spicy eggplant with bamboo shoots and pork. Really really tasty and I love that kind of stringy sweet pork.


Sweet and sour pork. Sort of the real version of those Panda Express fried pork balls in red sauce. Quite good as this dish goes.


Fried fish. Tender salty fish and chips without the chips — Chinese style.


Shrimp over crispy noodles. I love this kind of mild dish. The white sauce soaks into the noodles and makes for a sort of comfort food.

Overall, New Bay Seafood was really good. Being Southern Chinese, it’s not the most exotic of the Chinese sub-regions (foodwise, since so much American Chinese is Cantonese derived) but their execution is really very very good. Every dish was tasty and more than half of them fabulous. If you want an approachable entree into the wonderful world of San Gabriel Valley Chinese, you can’t go wrong with New Bay. And, besides, the owner treated us like kings. They served the dishes one by one, hung out, and we’re generally fabulous.


Afterward, we walked next door to the awesome Sabu Dessert and get some light fluffy “snow.” If you haven’t tried Taiwanese style snow, you are really missing out. This one above was coconut snow, passionfruit sauce, with egg pudding, almond jelly, and blackberries. Yum!


Someone else’s slightly different snow.

For more crazy Hedonist meals.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Rocking the SGV shirt!

Related posts:

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  4. Hunan Chili Madness
  5. Sometimes You Want to Get Crabs
By: agavin
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Cheesy Pork Cutlet

Jan20

Restaurant: Kimukatsu

Location: 2121 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angels, CA 90025. 310-477-1129

Date: January 13 and October 20, 2014

Cuisine: Japanese Pork Cutlet

Rating: Tasty fry

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One of the first things I noticed spending a lot of time in Japan was that restaurants specialized. I mean, really specialized. Some served sushi. Some served BBQ eel. Some tempura. Some Udon. And, of course, some served Tonkatsu, or deep fried pork cutlet. This is traditional accompanied by cabbage and its own special sauce.





The menu.


Condiments like sauces and salad dressing.


Unlimited cabbage and a tangy vinaigrette, surprisingly tasty (plus, traditional).

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Taco Yaki. Translates more or less as “Octopus fried yummy”. This was literally the first food I had in Japan. Fresh off the plane 25 years ago I got some on the street — and burned my mouth badly with the 212 degree temp. This wasn’t as hot, but it tasted pretty much the same!


Red miso soup.


Rice in a cute little bucket.


Traditional Japanese pickles, which you eat with the rice. I love these guys actually.


The cute little pork cutlet. Check out that fuzzy fry.

I ordered the “cheesy cutlet”. Layers of folded pork with a bit of cheesy goodness in the center. The meat is unusually folded, and therefore lighter and fluffier. I’ve had this a bunch in Japan and it’s generally much denser and more chewy.


Here is a bit with the tangy (tamarind based?) tonkatsu sauce, which cuts the fat.


Curry Tonkatsu. The fried pork cutlet is on rice, but surrounded by an island of rich Japanese curry and accompanied by crunchy pickles and miso soup. This was one of the best curry rices I’ve had not only was the cutlet fabulous, but the curry was perfectly done and smooth and the pickles extra lovely.


Yuzu sorbet hit the spot — and it was free with a Facebook like, certainly no hardship.

This is a nice little spot, focused, as is typical in Japan, but certainly serving up top flight Tonkatsu in a way both traditional and souped up.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Thanksgiving – Pork Insanity
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  3. Food as Art – Sushi Sushi
  4. Takao Two
  5. Takao Top Omakase
By: agavin
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Eastern Promises – Azeen’s Afghani

Jan17

Restaurant: Azeen’s Afghani [1, 2, 3]

Location: 110 East Union Street, Pasadena, Ca, 911103. 626-683-3310

Date: January 15, 2014

Cuisine: Afghan

Rating: Awesome again!

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Another week and another Hedonist dinner. We braved 2.25 hours in traffic to take on Azeen’s Afghani in Pasadena, dominating the restaurant as usual with a giant table. Pictures of the room are available at a previous meal here.


We aren’t the only ones who love Azeen’s.


The menu. This place is amazing AND will not break the bank.


From my cellar: 1994 Robert Ampeau & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. 91 points. A nice mature white Burgundy.


A meat turnover.


2003 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 89. Somewhat curiously for a 2003, this actually displays plenty of that classic Chablis mineral reduction nuance on the otherwise ripe nose. There is good richness and plenty of volume to the medium-bodied flavors that possess reasonably good depth and length plus better cut than one would expect in the context of the vintage. An excellent 2003 though it almost is superfluous to say that this is hardly a classic Chablis. Still, given the extremes of the vintage, this retains enough Chablis character to be convincing.


This green chimichuri-like chili sauce is a classic of Afghan cuisine. It goes with everything.


Mantu. Steamed dumplings filled with chopped beef, onions and herbs topped with yogurt and sautéed Mixed vegetables. These have been a favorite of mine for 30 years!


From my cellar: 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.


Aushak. Leek and scallion filled dumplings, topped with yogurt and meat sauce, sprinkled with mint.


1999 Faiveley Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 93. Big, spicy and intense aromas are presently framed by more oak than this wine usually displays young yet there is such impressive density of both fruit and flavors that it should absorb it over the next couple of years. That niggle noted, this is very classy juice with terrific complexity, breed and excellent length. As such, while this should drink relatively early for a Clos de Bèze, the balance and overall harmony are such that I suspect this will live for a long time.


Pakawra-e-badenjan. Batter dipped, sautéed slices of eggplant topped with yogurt and meat sauce.


2000 Le Carillon de l’Angélus. 89-90 points. Great classic bordeaux nose of fruit, some funk, earth, and light cedar. Medium body. The great red and black fruits dominated the earth initially, and over 1.5 hrs the red fruits came to dominate, the earth dissipated and minerality dominated the mid palate. Finish was short to medium.


Aush. Vegetable, noodle and yogurt soup sprinkled with dill topped with meat sauce. Aush has many of the same ingredients as some of the other dishes, but the soup factor really  works. Great stuff.


1999 Cullen Wines Diana Madeline. Parker 88. The proprietary red wine blend, the 1999 Diana Madeline, is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Franc (95%). Its dark ruby/purple color is followed by sweet aromas of red currants, cedar, plums, earth, and spice. Stylish, elegant, and European in its orientation, it should drink well for a decade. By Australian standards, it is a measured, restrained red wine.


The simple salad with yogurt dressing and zatar.


1997 Phoenix Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. IWC 91. Bright ruby-red. Pungent nose combines blackberry, cocoa powder, dried rose, mint and meat. A juicy, intense fruit bomb on the palate, with urgent, thoroughly ripe blackberry flavor complicated by notes of leather, game and cinnamon. Finishes with lush tannins and excellent grip and length. The first wine I’ve seen from this new producer, and very impressive.


On the left, Kabob-e-gousfand. Tender cubes of lamb. On the right, Kabob-e-murgh. Tender chunks of breast of chicken. And also some beef kabob.


1995 Vineyard 29 Cabernet Sauvignon Grace Family Vineyard. IWC 86-88. Superripe, sappy nose combines blackcurrant, chocolate and brown spices. Sweet, supple and chewy on the palate; already displays expressive inner-mouth aromatics. A fairly big wine, finishing with excellent length and thoroughly buffered tannins. Faint notes of roast coffee and game on the aftertaste.


Challaw. Seasoned rice.


1999 Joseph Phelps Vin du Mistral Syrah. Parker 87-89. Phelps’ Syrah, which originates from vineyard holdings in Yountville, is aged primarily in French oak, of which 20% is new. The 1999 Vin du Mistral Syrah should turn out to be impressive. A dense saturated ruby/purple color is followed by a blackberry/cassis-scented bouquet, medium to full body, adequate acidity, and soft tannin. It is a wine to drink during its first 6-7 years of life.


A special beef meatball and lentil stew. Delicious over rice and clearly in the family of dishes shared with Persian cuisine.


2010 Rhys Syrah Horseshoe Vineyard. IWC 94. Glass-staining purple. Powerful, smoke-accented aromas of black and blue fruit preserves, olive and licorice, with a spicy topnote. Shows textbook syrah character and intense blueberry and cassis flavors lifted by tangy acidity. Finishes smoky, sweet and very long, with smooth tannins lending shape and gentle grip.

Our bottle smelled corked.


This special is seasoned rice with succulent chunks of lamb (not visible) topped with raisons and carrots. Really lovely sweet and savory combo.


2009 Koehler Syrah Santa Ynez Valley.


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2004 Torbreck Descendant. Parker 98. The 2004 Descendant, an old oak-aged blend of 92% Shiraz and 8% Viognier from a 12-year old vineyard, offers up notes of blackberries, ink, sweet truffles, and acacia flowers. There are 1,000 cases of this full-bodied, intense, rich blockbuster. It will drink well for 10-15 years.


Kadu. Sautéed butternut squash topped with yogurt and meat sauce. Incredibly succulent.


1999 Azienda Bricco Rocche (Ceretto) Barolo Bricco Rocche. IWC 93. Medium red. Complex, ripe aromas of cherry, plum, marzipan, dried rose, earth and peppery spices. Big, lush and expansive but adamantly dry. A very full, layered Barolo with lovely vinosity and balance. Finishes with lush, very fine but strong tannins and insinuating, impressively persistent flavor. Possesses more than enough material to handle the 100% new barriques A superb bottle. According to Alessandro, this cuvee is Ceretto’s most complete Barolo, typically combining the character of the Brunate and Prapo.


Sabsi. Sautéed spinach cooked with onions and garlic.


The flat bread goes great dipped in the green sauce – or the Aush!


An interesting dessert wine that was pleasant and apricoty.


Firnee. A light pudding with almonds and pistachios served chilled. Yum, yum! This was creamy and saturated with rose water, which I love.


2003 Coutet. Parker 89-96. Ex-chateau bottle tasted blind in Sauternes. This bottle of Coutet ’03 was showing slight reduction on the geranium-scented nose, although it seems to sort that out and offer lanolin and melted wax aromas with time. The palate is viscous and quite spicy on the entry – dried honey, marjoram, white pepper and quince, whilst the finish offers an attractive oxidative note. Coutet’s limestone soils mean it thrives on acidity and race, but in 2003 I think the heat of the summer just knocked this great Barsac sideways.


Baghlava. Thin layers of pastry with walnuts and pistachios, syrup soaked. Somehow this batch was so much better than previous times. In fact, these were some of best I’ve had.

This was another amazing Hedonist blow out. The food is so tasty here. Afghan is a really delectable cuisine. Middle eastern with a hint of China, Persia, and India. It’s not spicy but is packed with flavor. Growing up, we used to frequently enjoy this cuisine in the Washington suburbs. You can check that out here.

The service at Azeen’s is fantastic. Abdul really makes you feel welcome. And Azeen’s is probably the best kitchen execution I’ve experienced in an Afghan restaurant I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s better than 99% of the places in Kabul. In fact, my cousin is stationed in Kabul, and he says he never gets any decent food (which is partially because he’s barely allowed off base).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for Hedonist extravaganzas.


Related posts:

  1. No Drone in the Zone – Azeen’s Afghani
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  3. Hedonists in Vegas – Lotus of Siam
  4. All Things Akbar
  5. Hedonists at Jitlada
By: agavin
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Reference Pasta – Cacio e Pepe

Jan15

I’m pretty much a pasta fiend, particularly good homemade pasta, so an evening home with my son afforded a good opportunity to try out my pasta cooking chops on this ultimate reference pasta — cacio e pepe. Literarily, it just means “cheese & pepper” and it’s an extremely basic pasta from Rome that showcases its extremely few ingredients. In Gavin tradition, like my ultimate pizza or my uber tiramisu, I try to do it to the highest standard of quality.


That starts with a good pasta. Cacio e pepe is traditionally done with spaghetti or a similar thick long pasta. This pici, is a thick hand rolled pasta, like fat spaghetti. This one is homemade (not by me) out of durum semolina and has a fantastic bite and coarse surface perfect for saucing.

This is a 22 minute to al dente pasta! Wow. I used a pinch of applewood smoked salt in the water to lend a slight smokiness to it.


Some other supplementary ingredients. More on the egg late, but you need a little fat. The most traditional would be pancetta, but staying dairy olive oil or butter work fine. Romans would usually use the pork or olive oil. In the grinder is very fresh, very strong black peppercorns. This awesome grinder makes a very coarse grind. It’s extremely important to have coarse ground bitey pepper. This pasta is about cheese and pepper — so none of that weak sauce pepper with no flavor.


The don’t call it “cheese and pepper” for nothing.


My son and I grated the cheese as the pasta cooked. Only real, fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano will do. Check out the cute little olive wood grater box I bought last time I was in Tuscany.


And the signature cheese: Cacio de Roma (Roman Cheese). This is a sharp, salty, medium firm, creamy sheepmilk cheese. You could use generic pecorino, but it’s not really creamy enough. This is the right cheese.


Drain the pasta and keep some water (I just plucked it out with tongs and dropped it into the strainer). Even at 22 minutes it was seriously al dente, very thick, with a nice weightiness to it. Don’t rinse it. You want that starch.


Now here is the secret to proper pasta that Americans forget. You have to make the sauce in a pan and throw the cooked pasta into it. Before adding the noodles, I melted some fat (butter this time), then toasted some pepper in it for a minute or so, then added a bit of the pasta water and boiled it. This creates a butter/starch base. In went the pasta.


And then most of the cheese (about 3/4 a cup of ground Parmesan and 1/3 a cup of Cacio). You toss it all around for a minute or so to melt the cheese into the sauce and coat the noodles.


To finish it, I ground in a bunch more pepper and threw in an egg yolk. A tasty Carbonara I had a month ago gave me this idea. It’s not strictly traditional to the Cacio e Pepe, but it does add a nice richness. I stirred that in too.


And voila, one heart stopping bowl of simple pasta. This was pretty spectacular. Very weighty, with a richness to the eggy cheese, and a good bite from the pepper. Adult mac & cheese done right.

For more food write-ups, click here.

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By: agavin
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Game of Thrones Season 4 Trailer

Jan12

It begins, the Game of Thrones season 4 trailer (January 12, 2014) is here and it looks pretty badass as usual.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZY43QSx3Fk]

All our favorites are pictured, although with some (like Theon), we can only guess what parts of which book they’ll be borrowing from. And some new characters too, like Oberyn the Red Viper (who’s crazy dancing combat style looks pretty awesome). If you know the books there are a lot of spoilers, but I guess viewers either do or don’t. They are borrowing a bit from the madman style too, where you mostly see who’s talking and not who to.

Can’t wait, as GOT season is my favorite season.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2ZNaLQD60Y#t=0]

And this second Season 4 Trailer was released 2/16!

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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]

game-of-thrones-season-4-trailer

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Trailer
  2. Game of Thrones – Season 2 – First Look
  3. Game of Thrones – Season 3 Goodies
  4. Game of Thrones – Price for our Sins
  5. Game of Thrones – The More You Love
By: agavin
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Vive la République

Jan10

Restaurant: Republique [1, 2]

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

Date: January 7, 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 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 6 people! (Good thing I never drive to wine dinners)


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


And classic LA vibe. This outside fountain is a remnant of the old space, as there used to be a bunch of them.


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.


The front appears to be a kind of takeout(?) pastry and raw bar. The presentation was top notch.


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.


1985 Krug. Parker 96 points. The freshest bottling I’ve had of the 85 Krug yet. It tastes so young, in the sense that there isn’t that heavy toast/oxidative character, but just all this vibrant acidity and bright lemon fruit. Really freaking delicious right now.


1979 Louis Roederer Cristal. Parker 96. The 1979 Cristal remains one of my favorite vintages of this Champagne. This bottle is fully resolved, with pretty suggestions of honey, cinnamon, smoke, ash, menthol, hazelnuts and dried apricots. The bouquet remains deeply expressive and melds seamlessly into a succulent, expansive palate. Although the wine is mature, the mousse retains surprising elegance and finesse with a velvet-like softness. This bottle is an original disgorgement from around 1985/1986 and saw 13-14 grams of dosage. 25% of the wine was aged in oak.


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.


2008 Domaine Michel Lafarge Beaune 1er Cru Les Aigrots Blanc. Burghound 88-90. A less expressive and somewhat somber nose of dried flowers, wet stone and orange peel gives way to supple and detailed flavors that are also admirably pure and transparent culminate in an intensely minerality finish of good if not stunning length.


Escargots en Croûte. garlic, parsley

Like a mini pot pie containing a classic butter and garlic coated snail! Yum.


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

The eggs substantially cut the briny quality of the uni. The taste was great, but I had two textural/physical problems with it. One, the bread was very toasted and hard to bite through, and so cut the mouth. Two, the compression caused the egg to squirt out and drop all over the place.


Warm Baguette with Normandy Butter. A completely first rate piece of bread. Utterly classic and unadorned.


1989 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Meursault Pré de Manche. 94 points. Real treat to try this wine, only 248 btls made! The wine was initially tight knit until about 30 minutes in the glass. After some time it opened up to a nose of nuttiness and ripe apples. On the palate it was alive and vibrant filled with acidity and lean fruit. It wasn’t the most expansive wine on the palate but it had a lively energy that made it an enjoyable drink.


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.


Forest Mushroom tart. Comte, wild arugula. Lately, French restaurants (and some others) have been serving up these “tarts” as an excuse to basically serve pizza. I’m not complaining, as this was like a really nice cheesy earthy ultra thin bit of yummy.


Smoked Columbia River Sturgeon. Fingerling potato salad, baby beats, horseradish. This dish felt intensely Northern European (Dutch? Norwegian?) It had that dill, fish, potato, mayo thing going on. And it was white. Scandinavians love white food. However, it wasn’t mushy at all, with a nice firmness to all the components.


1950 Berberana Rioja Gran Reserva. Just enough corked to be annoying. Otherwise, lots of young fruit. I wonder if this bottle was re-conditioned. A little too youthful.


1964 Gomez Cruzado Rioja Gran Reserva Honorable. RJon Wine 92. Bricked medium dark red violet color; mature, tobacco, cigar box, cedar, dried black fruit, honeyed nose; mature, dried cherry, dried currant, tart black fruit palate with medium acidity; should go 7-8 years; medium-plus finish.

Our bottle was very young and red fruit.


Wild Atlantic Black Bass. Black trumpet mushrooms, potato gnocchi, brown butter, lemon. A nice classic whitefish in butter sauce. It was cooked perfectly. This is a very brasserie dish and was as good a take as I’ve had.


Spaghetti  Rustichella. Dungeness crab. This dish was pretty Neapolitan in spirit. The pasta was perfectly al dente and the sauce a simple garlic, olive oil, white wine? It retained both the sweetness and sea quality of the crab with a bit of heat from the cayenne (which is also Southern Italian). No dairy, as it should be. One of my favorites.


Wood Oven Brussels Sproats. Frisee, applewood-smoked bacon, soft egg. This is like deja vu, as this dish would have been right at home at Playground where I went 10 days before. Can we get more LA Zeitgeist than brussels, pork, and sous vide egg? Still, it was darn tasty. No complaints. Like most other dishes here there is a real precision to the execution.


From my cellar: 1978 Remoissenet Père et Fils Richebourg. 89-90 points. This is a controversial wine. It had a little funk that blew off and, I thought, a very expressive berry nose. There was a lot of red fruit and forest floor with good spice. Some didn’t like it. I happen to drink (and like) my Burgundy old, so I thought it was delightful if not as well made as a few of the other red Burgs tonight. It’s certainly not over the hill, merely not a perfectly balanced wine.


1988 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée St. Vivant. Burghound 92. The perfumed nose has now gone almost completely secondary with hints of sous bois adding nuance to the classic spice box character of a fine RSV. I particularly like the purity of expression (yet no lack of power) which combined with the outstanding length make this an excellent effort that should continue to hold at this level for a number of years.

I liked this a lot, and it had that searing acidity typical of the 88 vintage, but there was plenty of fruit and finish.


1998 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. IWC 91-94. Just two barrels made. Deeper ruby. More complex, sweeter aromas of blackberry, minerals, flowers and smoke. Firm, highly concentrated and very fresh, with terrific gras and volume partly hidden today by firm structure. The ripe tannins coat the entire palate on the very long finish.

This was still a baby, with a bit of oak, not fully resolved, but old enough to have lost that woody harshness I don’t like in young structured wines. Quite excellent. Lots of Vosne spice.


Liberty Duck Breast. Braised taiwanese cabbage, spatzle, whole grain mustard sauce. Another first rate adaption of a classic. Does anything get more French than duck breast and cabbage with mustard sauce? Well, baguettes, steak frittes, and poulet rosti, but we had those too.


Berkshire Pork Belly. Escarole, fuji apple, bacon, cider-peppercorn sauce. This was fabulous too, and not that fatty (which was great). This puppy was probably cooked in the sous vide and finished with some flame. It was awesome.


1995 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 94. Superbly spice aromas just explode from the glass leads to wonderfully concentrated flavors of impressive depth and simply incredible balance for such a big, structured, powerful wine. The length though is what separates this wine from the “merely” great and it just goes on and on. The material here is so good that it would not surprise me if this eventually merits an even higher score as this is a most impressive effort and it has the rare gift of presence, something very few wines have even at the highest levels. In sum, this is killer juice.

Thanks Liz for this bottle, which was pretty clearly WOTN. Rousseau is just so good. It was young, but not a baby and just so so so good.


1995 Emmanuel Rouget Echezeaux. Burghound 91. Remarkably supple and forward with elegant red fruits framed by traces of earth and a touch of oak followed by sweet, sappy, modulated, round flavors that offer excellent detail and fine length and the slight astringency that this displayed for years has finally rounded out. For my taste, this has arrived at its peak and while there is certainly no rush to drink up, neither is there any reason to hold for further upside development. Multiple, and consistent, notes.


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.


I don’t know if this was the Prime Strip Loin or the Prime Dry-Aged Cote de Boeuf, I suspect the latter. It was a fatty beefy perfectly cooked bit of cow.


Frittes of course. Just as I like them (crispy).


2011 Domaine Leflaive Mâcon-Verzé. 88 points. A bit of bitterness and some other flaws but frankly it’s nice drinking tipple, esp for the price. It’s clean and crisp at a cool temp.


Freshed baked goodies.


Cherry tart. Griottines, pistachio ice cream. Classic.


Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake. Milk eau de vie. Good stuff, although I could have easily tried a bunch more desserts (yes I’m a glutton).


And a selection of cheeses, always good with so much wine. However, at this point I was pretty drunk and more worried about getting too drunk than I would have liked. Basically we had too much good stuff.

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.

I’ll certainly be back.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Phong Dinh – Hedonists go Vietnamese
  2. JiRaffe Burgundy Blowout!
  3. Burgundy at Bouchon – Faiveley
  4. Playful Playground
  5. Pig Ear is Here – Taberna Arros y Vi
By: agavin
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Mysterious Secrets of Uber

Jan08

I’m more than a little fascinated by Uber (the ride sharing company). I use them 4-6 times a week (mostly to avoid driving to my overzealous wine dinners) and am always quizzing the drivers about their experiences. The most interesting thing about the whole business is the new pattern by which they took an existing fragmented, over-regulated, monopolistic industry that has a medium barrier of entry and centralized the matchmaking part of it while decentralizing and dropping the barrier of entry for the actual labor (to encourage grown of their central profit taking).

This is really a form of new capitalism in extreme. A kind of meta-capitalism. Uber makes a profit by encouraging the capitalism of its non-employee ad-hoc work force (the drivers), operating with low overhead (given the amount of work being done), and skimming the profits. Brilliant! I think the old employee-company model is doomed for a lot of job types and this sort of flexible ad-hoc work is the new future.

While I’m on my soapbox, all the more reason why our American concept of typing healthcare and other benefits to employment is totally moronic.

Anyway, that’s not exactly the topic of this article. I know someone investigating buying a car with possible UberX driving in mind, and both they and I went online to find out what kind of cars could be used with the service.

And I came up blank.

For some completely incomprehensible reason, Uber does not list this basic information on their website. They go to great lengths to encourage new drivers — vitally need them to improve the customer experience — yet their FAQ leaves out this rather obvious and no-reason-why-it-should-be-secret information. Even an hour of web searching failed to turn it up. And I’m no slouch at Google. I had to pretend to be interested in driving myself, sign up, then send Uber an email asking. After which they rapidly sent me the info.

Why hide it? Bizarre. Anyway, I’m going to publish it here in case someone else is searching. Please double check the information yourself if you are planning on buying a car. They probably update/change it periodically and I cannot warranty it in any way.

Acceptable Cars for UberX as of January 3, 2014:

  • Toyota Prius/Camry/Avalon/Rav4/Highlander
  • Scion xA/xB
  • Hyundai Sonata
  • Nissan Maxima/Altima/Leaf
  • Kia Optima/Sorento/Cadenza/Forte
  • Honda Accord/Insight/Civic
  • Ford Fusion/Edge
  • Volkswagen Passat/Jetta/CC
  • Mercedes C/E/ML class
  • BMW 3 series/5 series/X3/X5
  • Lexus ES/IS/GS/RX
  • Audi A6/A8

All UberX acceptable vehicles must be 2006+ and in excellent condition. Every vehicle is subject to inspection and approval.

Acceptable Cars for UberBlack as of January 5, 2014:

  • 2012+ Lincoln MKT or MKX
  • 2008+ Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7-Series, Lexus LS460
  • 2008+ Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon Denali, Lincoln Navigator
  • 2008+ Range Rover, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Maybach, Bentley

All vehicles must be in excellent condition, black on black, and are subject to inspection and approval.

uberX

By: agavin
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Hearthstone Beta Review

Jan06

I’m no stranger to Trading Card strategy games, having played Magic: The Gathering way back in 1993 (and fairly heavily through 1995 or 96). In recent years, lacking an enthusiastic series of human opponents, I  periodically tried my hand at their latest computer incarnations. Most recently, this was IOS Magic 2013. This game was okay, but the designers felt too beholden to the specifics of the card game and not confident enough to invest in changes that would streamline the digital experience. Also, I’ve long felt that nearly all MTG expansion packs have strayed from their classic D&D flavored roots into that sort of bizarre out-there-and-too-cool-for-school style of western fantasy (all that dimensional and  plane waker stuff).

To prove my old school cred, I dug up 20 year old box of magic cards, including beta dual manas, and a 1996 calendar!

To prove my old school cred, I dug up 20 year old box of magic cards, including beta dual manas, and a 1996 calendar!

Which brings us to Blizzard’s entry into this underdeveloped genre: Hearthstone. Basically, the Irvine powerhouse has taken the MTG formula, reskinned it with Warcraft characters, and streamlined it for online play. And while this may sound merely evolutionary — and it is — in typical Blizzard fashion, when they do something, they do it well.

Hearthstone is great fun and the gameplay itself extremely well balanced (considering its beta state) and fast and furious for a card game.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdXl3QtutQI]

For those of you not familiar with this sort of game, it represents a “duel” between two fantasy characters. Each player constructs (or uses an off the shelf) deck of cards out of the pool of cards they own. Hearthstone’s decks are 30 cards, no more than two of any one type. You draw from this (shuffled) deck representing spells, abilities, and creatures to play them against your opponent as best you can. Generally cards require certain resources (mana) be spent to play, limiting the combinations you can cast in a given turn.

The biggest Hearthstone gameplay innovation (and I haven’t played enough Trading Card Duel games to know if it’s even a real innovation) is assigning decks a distinct class. In MTG, your deck design balances the flavor of mana versus the cost needs of various cards.  I.e. it’s possible to “dual class” (or even triple class), but the odds of ending up with mismatched land and spell/creature cards becomes greater. In Hearthstone, you select one of the original nine Warcraft classes (Warrior, Rogue, Warlock, Mage, Druid, Shaman, Paladin, Priest, and Hunter — Deathknight and Monk being left for a future patch). Your deck must be constructed from cards specific to that class or the Neutral cards. This is quite clever as by giving each class unique mechanics found only in their specific cards, particular gameplay styles are created. Each class also has a unique 2 mana hero ability which can be used once per turn without consuming a card. This serves to both differential them and prevent the “nothing to do because I don’t have a usable card” problem. In Hearthstone, mana capacity notches up one turn at a time (unless affected by special cards). I.e. first turn you have one mana available, next turn two, and so on. This helps measure out the phase and progression of the game, being like a less frustrating version of playing your MTG lands.

A typical game board

A typical game board

The original World of Warcraft classes transition to this new medium impressively. For flavor, the art is very similar, cards are almost invariably named after WOW spells and creatures, and many are even accompanied by sound effects or voice snippets lifted right out of the MMO (Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!) . To a longtime WOW player like myself (9 years!), this is all pretty effective. I’ve played most WOW classes (all but Hunter and Shaman) and I’ve done enough PVP and raided exhaustively. For me,all the class abilities have a certain iconic quality. Add the fact that Blizzard based the mechanics of the individual classes around similar WOW abilities to color me impressed. For example, mage specific cards include: Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missles, Fireball, Polymorph, Cone of Cold, Flamestrike, Frost Nova, Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Mirror Image, Blizzard, Pyroblast, Mana Wyrm, Water Elemental, and Ice Block — all of which are fairly faithful to their WOW roots. And they world as a cohesive play feel and strategy that makes the transition into the card duel.

Being fully computerized, and not relying on mechanics that work with physical cards, Hearthstone is able to support more complex AOE and card modification. Spells can strike all or groups of cards for certain, random, or variable damage — and work in combination with modifiers like shield, stealth (can’t be attacked), taunt (must attack first), or enrage (extra abilities for damaged minions). Some of these mechanics, while possible on paper, would be tedious and slow to manage (annoying counters anyone?). The game doesn’t exactly push the hardware limits of a modern PC/Mac, but it features the typical slick Blizzard interface. Actions are fast, with satisfying sounds and effects. Plus they queue up nicely in a way that allows for rapid play out of multiple moves. This is in sharp contrast to a game like Magic 2013 which drags out each move with awkward and slow animations. Hearthstone lets you just go bang bang bang in a far more satisfying manner.

$1.50 to $2.00 for just 5 virtual cards!

$1.50 to $2.00 for just 5 virtual cards!

I suspect Blizzard is also (as usual) going to make a lot of money with Hearthstone. Not only is it fun, and technically free to play, but seamlessly integrated with Battlenet and your attached credit card. Basically, to add anything but the basic cards to your pool of available cards, you have to either be very good, very patient, or spend some money on packs of cards. These cost $1.50-$2 for a pack of 5! And there is no guarantee you’ll get cards you want. Although you can disenchant extra or undesired cards for dust and use them to craft any specific card. Getting substantial dust pretty much only comes from buying packs, so this mostly allows the player who spends $50+ a way to fill in for bad luck (thank God!). Certainly for $50-100 one could get the cards for any ONE deck one wanted (the cost is mostly in getting lucky or enough dust for the 1-3 legendaries many serious decks want).

Warlock class specific cards. You face Jaraxxus, Eredar lord of the Burning Legion!

Warlock class specific cards. You face Jaraxxus, Eredar lord of the Burning Legion!

There are a variety of modes and tricks to keep you coming back. Classes level up (giving you extra cards and bonuses). There are daily quests (you can have up to 3) that earn extra gold (which can be spent on cards or the Arena) and there is practice, normal, and ranked play modes. Possibly most interesting is the creative Arena mode. You have to pay (with dollars or gold) to enter, then you semi-randomly build a new deck, and play until you lose three times. The more wins in this time, the bigger the reward in gold, dust, and cards. The Arena seems currently, even for a sucky player, to be a slightly better value gold/dollars to cards, as it costs $1.50 and you seem to earn at least one pack. However, it does take an hour or two (you don’t have to play all at once). I’ve only done it twice, as I find playing with it’s fairly random decks a little frustrating compared to my carefully crafted normal mode ones.

Finally, you can always play with your Battle net friends, which will be cool once we get out of closed beta and more of mine try out the game. All in all, now that my main in WOW is ilevel 558 and I’d basically have to run Heroic raids for upgrades (almost), and given the fact that Hearthstone can be played in 5-10 minute chunks, I’m having a blast with it. If I feel motivated, I might even write up my experiences with the three late game strategies I’ve been working: Warlock, Mage Ice Control, and Pally Utility Control (sadly, as I’m a Lock in WOW, my Mage deck is doing much better).

WOW Endgame series: Vanilla, Burning Crusade, Lich King, Cataclysm, and Pandaria.
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Related posts:

  1. Diablo 3 – Beta Preview
  2. WOW Endgames – Cataclysm
  3. WOW Endgames – Burning Crusade
  4. Expansion of the WOW Factor
  5. The Last of Us – My Review
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Coconut Curried Snails?

Jan03

Restaurant: Phong Dinh [1, 2]

Location: 107 E Valley blvd, San Gabriel, Ca, 91776. (626) 307-8868

Date: December 29, 2013

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Excellent!

_

My Hedonist club hit up Phong Dinh earlier in the year, but they moved to a new location — albeit in a nearby San Gabriel Valley spot. This authentic Vietnamese continues to serve up interesting stuff — plus they’re happy to take some of Yarom’s “do it yourself” meats, like both boar and deer he shot recently.


NV Taittinger Champagne Brut. 88 points. It is exactly as it is advertised and as I expected; nice, average champagne at this price range. Nothing special, but more so, nothing harsh like cheaper champagne.


Shrimp and pork papaya salad.


2011 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. IWC 90. Elegant aromas of Bing cherry, apple blossom and roasted pine nuts. Sweet and delicate but nonetheless creamy on the palate, with sweet herbs and a touch of vanilla. Lemon curd and slate animate a compelling finish.


This was about 8 years over the hill. Undrinkable vinegar.


Baked catfish.


Fish sauce. Tasty and salty.


And these rice paper “pancakes” that are softened in hot water. Not pictured are two kinds of fish sauce and thin rice noodles (you can see them below).


There are various condiments. Mint and basil.


Veggies.


Rice noodles.

You put all this together with the fish as you like and do your best to roll into a pancake. It’s scrumptious, absolutely delicious, but messy.


1998 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Heimbourg. IWC 91-93. Reticent but perfumed aromas of cured meat and grapefruit. Pure, bright and very intensely flavored, with vibrant acidity giving the wine great snap. A hint of lichee in the mouth. Very firm and long on the finish. Very elegant, rich gewürztraminer.


Snails in coconut curry. This spicy coconut curry cream sauce was amazing. You had to suck the meat out of the snails, which was cool, and there was plenty of sauce to drip over rice or noodles.

This time, the sauce was a little thiner than last time (and although it tasted about the same, the thicker was a little better). The snails themselves were pretty awesome.


From my cellar: 1972 Domaine Drouhin-Laroze Bonnes Mares. 88 points. It’s actually surprising that this is drinkable at all, but I’ve had 4 bottles like this one. The nose is barnyard, but it tastes pretty decent, with a good amount of remaining fruit and lots of acid. Actually quite pleasant.


Roast goat. This scrumptious dish was a bit chewy, but boy did it have a ton of flavor. The goat had this char broiled and spiced thing that was spectacular.


2007 Alysian Wines (Gary Farrell) Pinot Noir Floodgate Vineyard West Block. 92 points. Still a medium ruby color. I last tasted this wine about 15 months ago. Each time I get something additional in the aroma. This time I got flowers (mostly roses), raspberry, black cherry, some blackberry, RRV cola, violets, leather and more noticeable vanillin (but not overbearing). As the wine opened, it seemed as if there was something anise-like in the background. Similar flavors, along with touches of chocolate. Rich, intense and full bodied fruit. Excellent balance and structure. A long and extended finish.


Yarom’s poor deer.

On it’s way to…


Deer sausage, Vietnamese style. Salty and tasty.


2001 Cottonwood Canyon Chardonnay. 90 points. Very Burgundian in style — nice.


Chinese broccoli.


From my cellar: 1990 Faiveley Latricières-Chambertin. 91 points. A bit of brett/funk on the nose and palate. Immediately, quite open and giving, even lush, for a Faiveley! Plenty of depth to the black fruit.


Crispy squab. Very tasty, almost sweet.


2010 Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. 86 points. Dark cherry red color; appealing, tart black cherry, violets, light blueberry, tar nose; tasty, complex, tight, tart black cherry, black raspberry, cranberry palate with integrating oak and medium acidity.


Monster prawn. These enormous, almost lobster-size, prawns were delicious. That plate is about 20 inches wide!


2012 sta rita hills pinot. One of those over oaked modern pinots. Not my taste.


BBQ pigeon. Done up more or less Peking duck style.


1998 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. IWC 89 points. Ruby-red. Redcurrant, lead pencil, nuts and fresh herbs on the nose. Supple, ripe and sweet, with lovely texture and suave tannins for the vintage. Still, the licorice and herbal flavors are not as expressive as usual for this cuvee.


Crab in fermented sauce. This was a controversial dish. It was pretty fishy, as this very fermented (bean?) sauce had a lot of fish sauce in it. I happened to love it, as did many others. Those with more Americanized tastes, not as much.


2003 Romano Dal Forno Valpolicella Superiore. Parker 92. The 2003 Valpolicella Superiore comes across as shockingly primary for a five-year old wine. Masses of jammy dark fruit flow onto the palate in a concentrated, generous style. The firm tannins are those of the torrid 2003 vintage, yet this broad-shouldered, expansive wine has more than enough fruit to provide balance. Notes of chocolate, leather, coffee and sweet spices gradually emerge with air, yet this remains a backward, unyielding wine at the moment. As with the 2004, this wine needs serious bottle age, or eight to ten hours of air for those adventurous enough to take it for a test drive now.


2000 Bond Matriarch. Parker 89. Those lots deemed not quite up to the standards of the Melbury, Vecina, and St. Eden labels are blended together to form Bond’s second wine, The Matriarch. This is a second wine in name only. The 2000 The Matriarch exhibits notes of dried Provencal herbs, roasted espresso, truffles, tar, meat, berries, and black currants. While attractive, it has less flavor dimension and volume than its younger sibling.


Boar curry, made with Yarom’s boar. This had a cumin and turmeric thing going on and was delicious, even better than last time. The boar was a little tough, but full of flavor.


Sesame crisps to go with the goat.


2006 Hermann Donnhoff Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese. Parker 99. Donnhoff’s 2006 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese introduces a caramelization of fruit and a roasted richness that represent a more obvious expression of botrytis, yet the springs of acidity are incredibly tightly-wound as well and there is absolutely no sense of heaviness. One can taste the effect of botrytis that was being constantly ventilated in the best portions of this great site, concentrating all components, including acidity, while juicy berries also still abounded. The fruitcake metaphor is overused and fails to capture the appropriate sense of levity, fluidity, and elegance. Suffice it to say that dried fruits, toasted nuts, citrus rind, honey, white raisin, baking spices, spiritous fruit essences, and singed, caramelized notes all abound, and that the less prosaic layers of this masterpiece – for lack of better words, the meat and mineral dimensions – are only revealed for now to the limited degree that time in the glass permits. The finish finds me licking my lips clean of mysteriously savory, salty residues. Voluminous and dense yet refined and elegant; baroque yet constructed like one of the great pyramids; viscously rich yet dynamic, this will stand – perhaps for half a century – as a monument to its vintner, site and vintage.


Coconut gelatin dessert (purple) and coffee flavored of same (brown). Cool and refreshing.

Overall, another epic Hedonist Asian adventure. Good food, great prices, fun wines, and a whole lot of us. What more could you ask for?

More crazy Hedonist adventures or
LA dining reviews click here.

Experimenting with the rice pancakes

Related posts:

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  3. Hedonists at La Paella
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By: agavin
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Playful Playground

Dec30

Restaurant: Playground [1, 2]

Location: 220 East 4th Street. Santa Ana, CA 92701. Phone: (714) 560-4444

Date: June 9, 2013

Cuisine: Modern American Tapas

Rating: Amazing experience!

_

I ubered all the way down to Santa Ana (1.5 hours) to join some of my Burghound friends for some great eats and an obscene amount of great Burgundy.


The restaurant is located in a fairly low rent mall in Santa Anna.


Chef Jason Quinn has created this very LA zeitgeist restaurant oddly tucked in low end Santa Ana. It’s mobbed, fairly reasonable, and serves up creative tasty, fatty, modern American tapas. There is also a secret Invitation Only 2.0 room in the back, which I’ve visited before. One of the many pluses of this remote destination is free corkage!


The current menu.


Krug Champagne Rose. Burghound 94. A wonderfully fresh and exuberant nose of crushed berries, pure raspberry and background hints of yeast leads to crisp, intense and gorgeously precise flavors that etch themselves onto the palate, all wrapped in a deep and layered finish that seems to go on without end. This is a great example of the genre and one that will age well for at least another decade yet because of the admirable concentration, it can be approached now as well with pleasure. I personally would be inclined to wait a few years but it’s not complete infanticide even now.


Shaved ???, Country Line Baby Greens, Poached Cranberry, Spiced Sherry Vinaigrette, Candied Pecans.

The ??? was of course: foie gras. This was a great salad, with a nice mesh between the fatty foie and the sweetness of the berries and pecans and the acidic dressing.


2008 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 91-93. Here the nose offers yet another step up in refinement with an almost delicate nose of acacia blossom, citrus and wet stone that leads to linear and precise flavors of crystalline purity, all wrapped in a long, dry, serious and explosive finish that displays a penetrating minerality. A classic Perrières.


Pan Roasted Wild Mushrooms, Charred Scallion Puree, Aerated Garlic Milk, Masago, Slow Egg.

The slow egg is a sous vide egg (they love the sous vide here).


You mix it all up like so. It makes a rich earthy mushroom dish.


2009 Bouchard Aîné et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93-96. A cool, fresh and densely fruited nose of crushed citrus, green apple and mineral reduction gives way to seriously concentrated and overtly muscular flavors that possess a suave and silky mouth feel yet do not lack for an underlying reserve of power. This isn’t as fine as the Montrachet but it’s even longer, at least at present with a chewy character that provides evidence of the massive levels of extract. Even so, don’t buy this with the intention of drinking it young as it will require plenty of cellar time, at least if you want to see its full potential realized.

A baby from Magnum, although it had been open for hours.


Grilled Quail, Parmesan Polenta, Caramelized Cipollini, Frisse.

The quail was perfectly cooked, but too salty. The polenta was gorgeous. Overall, it was a quite tasty dish, but bordering on salt lick territory.


1986 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 92. Clean, pure and still quite tight on the nose with medium weight, intense, beautifully delineated flavors that simply ooze minerality. This isn’t especially dense but it is extremely pretty and finishes with outstanding length. Tasted twice with consistent notes.

Still very young and rich.


Hamachi Aguachile, Tomatillo Water, Avocado, Radish, Tortilla, Cilantro.

This was the weakest dish tonight. The fish was a little fishy and the overall tone was slightly bitter (maybe the radish?).


2001 Maison Leroy Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 88. Noticeable secondary aromas infused with honey and exotic notes lead to remarkably dense, full, rich and powerful flavors that carry the classic minerality of a fine Perrières that continues onto the solidly persistent finish. This will clearly be capable of aging for many years but I have concerns that the nose will turn tertiary and I would be drinking it sooner than later to enjoy the freshness of the fruit.

I don’t know what Meadows was thinking, as this was a gorgeously rich MP.


Wagyu Ribeeye Tartare, Soy & Egg Emulsion, Shallot, Chive, Masago.

You can see reoccurring ingredients here. The egg. The Masago. Regardless, this was a very tasty tartar.


2006 Coche-Dury Meursault. Burghound 89. An expressive and attractively layered nose of citrus, yellow orchard fruits and a hint of roasted nuts trimmed in a note of subtle wood toast that is also picked up by the rich, full and generous flavors that possess a seductively textured and balanced finish that delivers fine intensity and impressive persistence for a villages level wine. Recommended.

Very reduced, but gorgeous.


Hillary’s Pappardelle, Pork & San Marzano Tomato Sugo, Caramelized Onion, Pecorino.

He loves that Caramelized Onion (and relatives). This was a nice pasta. There was a real acidic bite to the porky ragu.


2009 Domaine Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques Vieille Vigne. Burghound 93. This storied terroir often produces one of the most elegant and sophisticated of all the 26 Gevrey 1ers with the gorgeously refined red berry fruit and floral nose suffused by an almost pungent minerality that continues onto the supple, fresh and vibrant medium-bodied flavors that possess excellent concentration and a stunning, even explosive if firmly structured finish. This is an intense wine of harmony and drive with everything it needs for a long life.

Opened criminally young, there was lots of fruit, and tons of unresolved oak. Not pleasant at this stage to my taste.


Uncle Lou’s Fried Chicken.

Awesome. Perfectly cooked, this chicken was soaked in a slightly spicy vinegar. Kind of like upscale hot wings they had a juicy tang.


1995 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin. Burghound 87. Pretty and very elegant fruit trimmed with noticeable earth but the flavors are surprisingly light and simply and don’t display the typical Charmess richness either. This is by no means flawed but its curiously indifferent. As there is good structure and decent balance, my score and drinking range offer the benefit of the doubt.

I thought it was corked. So did other. Some thought it was just 95 Dujac Charmes. Either way it was funky and bitter.


Jidori Khao Soi, Crispy Shallots, Red Onion, Roasted Peanuts, Cilantro Stems, Chile Oil, Lime, Bean Sprouts, Pickled Cabbage, Crispy Noodles.


These are the condiments for the curry soup. You can add them to taste. The soup was delicious, particularly given that I LOVE LOVE red curries. It could have used more noodles, or at least a spoon and some white rice. We had to pass it around but there wasn’t a single spoon on the table so all that curry went to waste.


From my cellar: 2000 Domaine Denis Bachelet Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 91. Knockout aromas of kirsch and red fruit frame medium weight flavors brimming with sap and the finish is all silk and lace. This is supremely elegant and worth a special search to find if you love vibrant, super elegant Burgundy. Absolutely brilliant for the vintage and while this will repay limited aging, it is approachable now.

Still young, but by far the best and most balanced of tonight’s red Burgundies.


Tails & Trotters Pork Short Ribs, Baby Carrots, Country Line Baby Turnips & Chard, Pork Jus.

Normally, I don’t go in for the whole Gregor Clegane pig feet thing, but these sweet and fatty niblets of pig were pretty amazing.


2006 Domaine Denis Bachelet Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 91-94. Despite being harvested first, this is clearly the ripest wine in the range where the wonderfully dense fruit is highlighted by a background touch of wood that continues onto the refined, pure and concentrated flavors that are supported by dense but fine tannins and flat out terrific length. This is a lovely wine in every respect and while not exactly understated, everything does seem to be in perfect proportion.

Very nice, but still way too young.


Wagyu Outside Skirt Steak, Sauce Bearnaise, Blumenthal Potatoes.

Good, albeit rich (like everything here). He loves that frisee.


1994 Dominus Estate Napanook Vineyard. IWC 97. Saturated deep red-ruby. Knockout nose combines currant, Cuban tobacco, earth, tar, bacon fat, cedar, leather and game; conveys an impression of totally ripe, almost roasted fruit. Lush and sweet; already offers extraordinary inner-mouth flavor and great depth. One of those rare wines that too big for the mouth. Finishes with great velvety texture and magical persistence. Mouthdusting, building tannins coat the entire palate.

Very very Bordeaux-like. A smoke bomb.


Maple Glazed Pork Chop.


Talk about a slab of meat. It tasted like sweet ham.


“Bacon & Eggs” Mazemen Ramen, House Bacon, Slow Egg, Garlic Chips, Fancy Nori, Beautiful Soy, Yuzu Koshu.

There’s that bacon, slow egg, and garlic again. You mix this sucker up and it tastes like deeply smoked bacon noodles. Really really yummy.


Curd & Cookies, Blood Orange, Poppyseed Shortbread, Whip.

A nice lemony custard.


Tea Team, Meyer Lemon Cake, Matcha Milk Crumb, White Chocolate.

Sweet and pleasant.


Black Mission Fig Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Oh yeah! I ate most of it.


Dark Chocolate Pistachio Tart, Pistachio Semifredo.

Like some kind of Baccio type Southern Italian ice cream dessert. Very chocolatey.

Overall, another great night. Wine-wise, our whites were far better than our reds, which were in general way too young (and one was corked). Pretty much all the whites were fabulous, particularly after being open 2-3 hours.

As to the food: Playground is incredibly tasty. Very Gastropub, as he emphasizes fat and flavor. Sure, things are very modern, playful, and experimental, which leads to some goofs, plus the chef is obsessed with certain ingredients. But overall it’s very reasonable and really fun and yummy. Oh yeah, and they don’t charge any corkage!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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  5. JiRaffe Burgundy Blowout!
By: agavin
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Graffiato Italian Tapas

Dec27

Restaurant: Graffiato

Location: 707 6th St NW. Washington DC 20001. 202-289-3600

Date: December 2, 2013

Cuisine: Italian Tapas

Rating: Good stuff

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The whole tapas or small plates things has slowly been insinuating itself into the contemporary restaurant scene and Graffiato is a Washington D.C. take on doing it up for Italian. I happen to love small plates, as I’ve become a jaded mega-diner who thinks that 5 courses is just getting started.


Gray December afternoon in D.C.


The menu. Paper of course.


The obligatory modernist open ceilinged and open kitchened interior.

Smoked Beets. sheep’s milk ricotta, pickled orange.

Brussels Sprouts. pancetta, maple yogurt. This had unusual sweet and savory flavors (like bacon with syrup). As a fan of that, I really enjoyed it.

Burrata. meyer lemon, caviar, bottarga. This was tasty, but a waste of burrata’s lovely creamy texture as it was partially cooked. Burrata is best raw.


Toast for the burrata.

Potato Gnocchi. pork ragu, whipped ricotta, crispy rosemary. A nice ragu with a pleasant flavor and interesting texture (curiosity of the whip and the rosemary).

Ricotta Cavatelli. lamb ragu, chili, feta, mint, pistachio. Similar to the gnocchi, but with a pleasant larval chew.

Chinatown Ribs. pear slaw, carrot, ginger. Not very Italian, but very good.

Pizza dough with “pepperoni” sauce. Sure enough, the sauce tasted like… pepperoni pizza!

American Pie. tomato, mozzarella, basil.

White House.mozzarella, taleggio, ricotta, prosciutto, black pepper honey. This was a great pizza. Again, I love those sweet/salty things and this had a nice vibe going between the ham and the honey.

Hobbit. castelrosso cheese, wild mushrooms, lardo, crispy rosemary.

Porky’s Revenge. sopressata, pepperoni, sausage, tomato, mozzarella.

Zeppole. salted toffee. Nothing wrong with donut like stuff, but the sauce, which wasn’t so different from cannoli filling, was great.

Overall, while not strictly and authentically Italian, Graffiato was extremely enjoyable. I loved being able to taste so many flavors and the plates were mostly on-point, bright and yummy.

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

 

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By: agavin
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Never Say Too Much

Dec25

Restaurant: Michael’s on Naples [1, 2]

Location: 5620 E 2nd St. Long Beach, CA 90803. (562) 439-7080

Date: December 23, 2013

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: A top LA Italian

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After Michael’s on Naples made this year’s Zagat list as #2 best restaurant in all Los Angeles, it seemed fitting to organize a proper Hedonist outing. I co-organized this one with our fearless leader Yarom, myself, coordinating and designing the menu. So many things sounded good that I came up with a 15 course extravaganza. Well, lots of people thought it looked like too much food (and they were right), so I trimmed it back… slightly. The resulting Hedonistic Italian blowout ended up (with some alternates) as a total feast of great wine and food.


We were set up in this lovely private room. For a table of 15, this was about as perfect as it gets. Not too loud, space to move around and arrange the wines, and a square table that allowed for much better conversation than a long skinny deal.


1998 Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame. Parker 90. The house’s 1998 La Grande Dame reveals notable clarity and precision. This focused, poised wine emerges from the glass with well-articulated flowers, pears, smoke, crisp apples and minerals in a medium-bodied style. The wine appears to have enough freshness and sheer depth to support another decade or so of aging. La Grand Dame represents a significant step up from the estate’s other wines. In 1998 La Grande Dame is 64% Pinot Noir (Ay, Verzenay, Verzy, Ambonnay and Bouzy) and 36% Chardonnay (Avize, Oger, Mesnil-sur-Oger).


An amuse of mushroom stuffed with sage breadcrumbs and cheese, with a bit of spicy oil.


From my cellar: 2012 Giovanni Almondo Roero Arneis Vigne Sparse. 94 points. Spicy, stony, light body but plenty of flavor and an elegant finish. A nice change from fruity Chards and Rieslings.

Il Piatto di Salumi con Pane e Olive. Selected traditional Italian cold cuts served with grilled garlic ciabatta, parmesan and marinated olives.

Not all salami is created equal, and this was some of the good stuff!


Here is the aforementioned ciabatta.


From my cellar: 2006 Azienda Agricola Il Mosnel Terre di Franciacorta Curtefranca Bianco. 90 points. Rich with a tiny hint of oxidation. Quite lovely.

Tonno Crudo. Yellowtail and Ahi crudo with olive oil, sea salt, and Meyer lemon confit.

This was one of the blander dishes. Nothing wrong with it, and the salt was nice, it just was what it was.


1982 Vietti Dolcetto D’alba. 94 points. Dolcetto is normally consumed young and casually, but for some insane reason, this 30+ year old example was drinking fabulously. It tasted like an old (and good) Bordeaux, complex, smooth, and fairly round and well balanced.

Salsiccia E Polenta. Grilled house made fennel sausage with baked polenta and Amatriciana sauce.

This classic southern Italian dish packed a wallop of flavor and a little bit of kick.


1970 La Gaffeliere. Parker 86. This has always been one of the best La Gaffelieres produced during the sixties and seventies. The wine is still relatively rich and elegant, with a bouquet of smoky, plummy fruit. In the mouth, the wine is round, with a silky texture, and a lush, medium-bodied finish. It has been fully mature for well over a decade, but has lost none of its fruit or charm. Anticipated maturity: Now-may be in decline.

Vongole E Cozze In Brodetto. Manila clams and mussels with spicy tomato broth and grilled crostini.

The broth was the best part, garlicky, with a little heat.


1997 Tenuta Greppo (Biondi-Santi) Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. 95+ points. The wine makers called this a “100 year wine”. Medium dark color, orange rim. Outstanding nose. Cherry, strawberry. So long, so complex, it will make you cry.

Barbabietole E Caprino. Heirloom beets with goat cheese mousee, farro, hazlenut brittle, and frisee.


1997 Castelgiocondo (Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi) Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Ripe al Convento. 94 points. Saturated, deep red. Sexy black raspberry, tar and smoky, nutty oak on the very ripe nose, with a hint of black walnut. Sweet, superripe and high-toned, with exotic dried fruit character to go with the raspberry and nut flavors. Dense and intense, but my enthusiasm was diminished by a somewhat odd and intrusive vegetal element. Finishes a tad dry, but the tannins show the sweetness of the vintage.

Speck e Buffala Pizza. Grllled pizza with speck, buffala mozzarella and roasted tomatoes.

This was a yummy pseudo pizza.


From my cellar: 2007 Podere Il Cocco Brunello di Montalcino. 95 points. A rare and young Brunello from my friend Giacomo at Podere il Cocco. Brunello di Montalcino was born on the slopes of Poggio Cocco takes its name from the former landowner and leader Cocco Salimbeni (1413). The vineyards, in the center of the production area of ​​Brunello, have a favorable exposure to the south-east, and have fought to the north and south winds that facilitate a microclimate against the proliferation of harmful diseases for grapes. The method of processing biological uses only organic elements, bio and natural products. Fungicides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers are banned Coconut.

Taleggio e Funghi. Grilled flat bread with forest mushrooms and Tallegio cheese.


From my cellar: 1990 Angelo Gaja Barbaresco. Parker 95. The 1990 Barbaresco emerges from the glass with an exotic array of tar, smoke, licorice and grilled herbs. There is wonderful intensity to the fruit and plenty of structure. The tannins are still a touch young and the wine is only now beginning to enter the early part of what looks to be a long drinking window! The 1990 Barbaresco is rounder and softer than the 1989, with perhaps just a touch less aromatic complexity and inner perfume, although that is splitting hairs at this level. The finish is long, intense and deeply satisfying. This is a marvelous bottle of Barbaresco.

Bucatini All’ Aragosta. Fresh, thick spaghetti with half poached lobster in saffron cream sauce.

A mild but very enjoyable pasta. The light saffron cream accented the perfectly al dente pasta and the sweet lobster.


1990 Alfredo Prunotto Barolo Cannubi. Parker 93. Prunotto has followed the gorgeous 1989 Barolos with three superlative performances in 1990. The 1990 Barolo Cannubi is a titanic example of Barolo, with immense structure, massive richness, tremendous length, and a huge, ripe nose of spicy fruitcake, cedar, and red and black fruits. Its sweet innercore of fruit is something to behold. The wine needs at least 3-4 years of cellaring and should last for 25 years.

Our bottle was sadly corked.

Michael’s Pasta. Thick cut spaghetti pasta with plum tomatoes sautéed with garlic, onions and basil.


From my cellar: 1996 Roagna Barbaresco Paje. 91 points. Some rose notes with cherry, tea herbs, and a savory element.


A non-dairy hybrid with the tomato sauce and the lobster.


From my cellar: 2004 San Giusto a Rentennano La Ricolma IGT. Parker 95. The 2004 Ricolma (100% Merlot) possesses stunning aromatics and layers of blackberry liqueur, minerals, chocolate and sweet toasted oak. Vibrant and shimmering on the palate, it shows plenty of Tuscan structure to support the fruit, with phenomenal length and ripe, sweet tannins to round out the finish. It is another stunning wine from San Giusto a Rentennano. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2024.

Agnolotti Di Manzo. House-made pasta stuffed with braised short rib, veal sauce, horseradish and sage bread crumbs.

Yum!


1994 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Ornellaia. Parker 89. The 1994 Ornellaia is a decidedly small-scaled, mid-weight effort with attractive, fragrant aromatics and delicate notes of tobacco and spices that add a measure of nuance to the fruit. While the 1994 lacks the complexity of the finest vintages, it nevertheless possesses lovely overall balance and harmony. The 1994 Ornellaia is 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc that spent 15 months in French oak, a third of which was new.

We happend to love our bottle.

Agnolotti Di Zucca. House made pasta stuffed with kobacha squash, sage bread crumbs and balsamic reduction.


1998 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Ornellaia. Parker 93. Made in a relatively structured style for the normally succulent Ornellaia, the dense saturated ruby/purple-colored 1998 offers up aromas of pain grille, spice, smoke, black fruits, and graphite. Full-bodied, concentrated, exceptionally pure, and long, it will be at its finest between 2005-2018. Very impressive, but it requires patience.

Branzino. Whole grilled Mediterranean sea bass with artichokes, potatoes and Taggiasche olives.


2000 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Ornellaia. Parker 93. The 2000 Ornellaia is a pretty, well-balanced offering with good concentration and complexity. The 2000 lacks some of the visceral thrill of top vintages, but it is an excellent choice for near-term drinking. In 2000 Ornellaia is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. The wine spent 18 months in French oak (70% new) and was lightly fined prior to being bottled.

Cervo al Forno. Broken Arrow ranch venison , quince pureé, kale, and forest mushrooms.

Perfectly cooked and tender.


1999 Tedeschi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. 91 points. Nice showing. Ripe red berry fruit. In fact quite clean and modern. Lots of lovely spice adding complexity. Nose is reminiscent of rum Christmas cake with juicy sweet cherry liqueur. Alcohol is evident on the nose and plate (15% on label). Still firmly tannic and white sweet on entry it’s drying on the finish. Quite enjoyable!

Ossobuco Di Maiale. Braised pork shank with saffron risotto and pistachio gremolata.

Delicious and classic combo.


1971 Melini Chianti Classico Granaio. Old, but still kicking!


Some people got so excited by all this food and wine that they helped themselves to a little sugar — before dessert!

We’ve had this Vin Santo from Santorini (Greece) before.

Crostat Alle Ciliege con Gelato. Chocolate and hazelnut tart with salted caramel gelato and Bing cherry preserve.

Cannoli Con Gelato Alla Vaniglia. Crispy cannoli shells filled with Ricotta impastata gelato, candied fruit and Valrhona chocolate.

These were tasty, but I still prefer a really well done CLASSIC Cannoli best. These ones from the Philly Italian market are about as close as you can get without going to Sicily (and I recommend both wholeheartedly).


1985 Coutet. Parker 84. The problem with so many 1985 Barsac/Sauternes is that they come across as monolithic and one-dimensional, particularly when compared with years where there is a great deal more botrytis, such as 1986 and 1988. Nevertheless, for those readers who like to drink these wines as an aperitif, 1985 is the type of vintage where the wines can be drunk early in the meal. The 1985 is fresh, with plenty of fruit, but lacking the complexity one normally associates with this chateau.

Ciambelle Dolci. Italian doughnuts served with orange glaze.

These lovely pastries tasted a bit like Fruit Loops, a fact noted by a number of us!

Cremino Di Zucca. Pumpkin mousse with salted caramel and cream with gingerbread.

Very nice “holiday” flavored pot-a-creme. Tasted like pumpkin pie.

A good time was had by all!

Overall, Michaels we had a really great meal. The food was spot on with almost every dish being awesome (a few were merely good). We had epic volumes of great Italian wine and some seriously fun company! The restaurant did a fantastic job hosting us. We got 5-6 glasses a person, and then when the array of them on the table left them no room for family style plating they dynamically shifted to individual plating. They handled one alternate menu (prearranged) slickly and even adapted another on the fly. Bravo!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or more Hedonistic adventures here!

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By: agavin
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Newport Special Seafood

Dec23

Restaurant: Newport Seafood

Location: 518 W Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776-1073. (626) 289-5998

Date: December 19, 2013 and January 24 & September 11, 2016 and May 22, 2022 (and many other times between)

Cuisine: Cambodian Chinese

Rating: I used to like it, but now I’m jaded and think it’s perhaps the most overrated place in the SGV

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Many people consider Newport Seafood one of the best Chinese restaurants in SoCal. Essentially, it’s Southern Chinese, with some Cambodian and Vietnamese influences (the owners are Cambodian). I’ve been a couple of times, but this post is a composite of a December ’13 and a January ’16 meal (click those links for the specific by night pictures and wines) and another September ’16 meal. The wines below are all from the ’13 meal as the latter time there wasn’t anything particularly exciting except for a pile of leftovers I brought from an epic dinner the night before. People somehow think that giant New World Syrah goes with Chinese food — not! Except for a dish or two, total wine pairing fail. This cuisine would be best served by Burgs (both colors), dry Riesling, Gruner, and the like.


This is a big place, and moderately “fancy” as San Gabriel Chinese joints go. Even on a Thursday night, it was mobbed, and people were waiting for a good long while. The weekend is crazy busy.

No Newport visit is complete without shots of the ladies with the giant crustaceans.

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The menu 5/22/22.

Boiled peanuts. Helpful in avoiding peanut allergies.

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Cold spicy cucumbers. A nice version of this Szechuan classic.

Chinese savory cruller. I’ve always liked these puffy donut-like (without the sugar) breads.

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Sea Cucumber Salad. Actually pretty good if you don’t mind the gummy texture.

Vietnamese shrimp salad. Those strong vinegar/sugar flavors and the peanuts are very Vietnamese. The standard lettuce, a little less so. Really, a lousy salad — pretty much ruined by the generic lettuce.

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Cold duck. I thought we ordered “crispy duck” — this wasn’t — but it wasn’t bad either.

Green chicken. This was pretty good for straight up boiled/steamed whole chicken. Unusual chili paste too, which I now recognize as fairly typical Cambodian.

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Basically a pork larb with some curry and heat and Thai basil. Pretty good. A touch of funk too (fish sauce or shrimp paste).


Many of the waiting guests amused themselves with the “wildlife,” like this toddler (conveniently in the picture for scale). We’ll get back to this big ugly crustacean, as he was part of our dinner.


As were these red fish (red cod? rock fish?).


Tricia got the honor of grabbing the crab!


2006 Sine Qua Non Autrement Dit. 90 points. Very nice blueberry/strawberry nose. not hot on the nose. really nice full palate and mouthfeel with a nice mix of red and blue fruits, and integrated earthiness. did not noticably detect any heat or wood on this. certainly a bigger and different type of rose, but this bottle was nicely restrained and seemed in good balance tonight.


Newport Special Crab. Our entire giant crab was steamed in a mild and pleasant sauce the emphasized the sweet and delicate flavor of the VERY fresh crab. In fact, he was alive and kicking in Tricia’s hands about 15 minutes prior. This was perfectly cooked and moist.


2005 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc. Parker 96. The 2005 Hermitage blanc is an amazing effort that defines the classic style of white Hermitage. It offers hints of marzipan, roasted hazelnuts, quince, licorice, honeysuckle, citrus oil, and wet stones. It is a superbly concentrated and powerful wine. It should drink well for 30+ years.


Westlake Soup. It was mild and pleasant with a lot of various stuff in it. A splash of vinegar jazzed it up.

Crab and asparagus soup. Very mild and pleasant. Not that much crab but a lot of white asparagus.


2000 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard. Parker 91. The 2000 Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard is a rich, full-bodied, textured, powerful, smoky effort that tastes like a Meursault premier cru on steroids. It possesses ample layers, excellent underlying acidity for balance, and plenty of leesy, hazelnut, and tropical fruit notes.


Newport Special Lobster. In a delicious green onion, garlic, and slightly spicy sauce. The sauce was amazing. The lobster was perhaps a tiny bit overcooked, but was great. It’s mostly about the sauce.
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Giant steamed prawns. These were too much plain crustacean for my taste. Lots of work to pry out the meat, and it was just steamed shrimp. I think of them as giant steamed sea bugs.

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Salt and pepper crab. Interesting. Like a fossilized salty crab. The meat itself was tasty, but I preferred the sauced version below.
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Curry crab. Crab drowned in a super yummy Singapore curry sauce. Awesome!


2011 Wagner-Stempel Riesling Trocken. Parker 89. Fresh apple and lime garlanded with narcissus, apple blossom and basil characterize the aromatic and palate performance of Wagner-Stempel’s 2011 Riesling trocken, whose combination of caressingly silken texture with bright, infectiously juicy citricity displays the family resemblance to its Scheurebe counterpart. At 12.5% alcohol, this manages to convey a sense of buoyancy through its delightful, apple pip- and herb-tinged finish. Look for it to prove deliciously versatile over the next 2-3 years. There is now, incidentally, just a single large bottling of generic Riesling at this address and it is 100% estate-bottled.


Shrimp with walnut. This was one of the best versions of this classic slightly fried and slightly sweet dish I’ve had in a while.


2007 Hermann Donnhoff Riesling Spatlese Niederhauser Hermannshohle. Parker 96. Gardenia, peony, and resinous herbs in the nose of Donnhoff’s 2007 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Spatlese give way to a palpably extract-rich palate of vibratory intensity, suffused with stony, saline, and tactile suggestions of mineral matter, yet at the same time rich orchard fruits. If the Krotenpfuhl was painted with water colors, the medium here is definitely oil, exhibiting both dynamic and intricate brush work as well as dense layering. This masterpiece – picked simultaneously with the corresponding Grosses Gewachs – was only beginning to show its depth in the spring and needed almost six months in bottle to really shine forth. Take as long as fate permits you to savor this; I can’t imagine it disappointing a quarter century or more from now.


Steamed Whole Fish. With soy, ginger, etc. Delicate and lovely, although not a ton of meat. Too “clean” for my taste.


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.


Sole Fish with Salt and Pepper? In any case, some VERY fried fish nuggets. It tasted a tad oily.

Sweet and sour fish filets. I liked these better than the dry salt and pepper version. Soft, fried, and vaguely sweet.

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Fish Filet with Basil. These were super tender and succulent and a bit fried. Incredible savory (MSG) flavor. LOTS of msg. Definitely one of their best fried fish dishes.


2008 DuMOL Pinot Noir Aidan. Parker 93. The 2008 Pinot Noirs are led by The 2008 Pinot Noir Aidan, which is made from the modern Dijon clones of 115 and 777. Yields in 2008 were a minuscule 1.75 tons of fruit per acre, hence production is down considerably. Aromas of forest floor, plum sauce, black currants, blueberries and a complex rose petal-like character emerge from this dark ruby-colored 2008. With medium to full body and good acidity, this beauty can be drunk over the next 10-12 years.


Sizzling Beef. Had lots of flavor. But these days I find this kind of dish boring.

Vietnamese Beef Stew. Yummy stuff. Very soft fatty meat, tons of flavor, and odd asian textures. Great over rice. Very interesting slightly curry and fish sauce flavor. Meat had a lot of tendon. I liked it a lot as it was intresting.


2001 St. Francis Anthem. 90 points. Nice blend with some earthy tones.


Beef Loc Lac (French Style). Kind of like Chinese Salsbury steak. Lots of flavor, but mostly one tasted the sauce.


Our private room.


Sauteed Peasprout. A nice garlicky vegetable. Kind of like a broom for the intestines.

Another mysterious green, or maybe just different looking peasprouts.
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Green beans with pork. Classic dish. These were slippery fellows and hard to scoop up. Delicious with nice crunchy beans but oh so salty (lots of MSG).

1997 Turley Wine Cellars Petite Syrah Hayne Vineyard. Parker 96-98. I do not believe I have ever tasted a more concentrated, essence-like wine than Turley’s 1997 Petite Syrah Hayne Vineyard. Made from 55-year old vines that yielded only 9.8 tons of fruit for five acres, this opaque black-colored wine is the biggest, richest, most concentrated, tannic wine I have ever tasted. It will need at least a decade to shed some of its ferocious tannin, and will undoubtedly last for 40-50 years. Even more remarkable is its purity and overall equilibrium. Despite its Godzilla-like size, this is an astonishingly concentrated, gorgeously made wine. I have never, ever, seen a wine like this!


Kung Pao Pork Chop. It wasn’t very spicy, and it was seriously double fried, but it was darn tasty.
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Sweet and sour pork chop. Tasty, but certainly not tender!
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Fried Pork Chop with Salt and Pepper. Very salty and fried, but delicious.

Crispy duck. Sixth months later, we get the duck. This was a fairly contentious dish, some thought it dry. I kinda liked it once you soaked a meaty piece in the sauce.

2002 Sean Thackrey Orion Syrah. Parker 96-100. A riveting example of Syrah is the 2002 Orion. It boasts a black/purple color with more mint and blackberry notes intermixed with exotic floral characteristics. With great intensity, full body, multiple dimensions, and superb purity as well as length, this blockbuster is incredibly well-balanced/harmonious. It should drink reasonably well young, yet keep for 12-15 years.

Parker sure (over) loves these new world syrahs.


Fried Noodle with Chicken. I happen to love these thin fried noodles drenched in the white Chinese sauce.
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Fried noodle with seafood. More or less the same great taste.

Vegetable fried rice. Not as exciting as the meat version, but certainly good.

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Pork fried rice. A nice tasty rice.

A rare photo of me.


Shrimp with Garlic Sauce? This was mildly spicy with a lot of flavor.


Lana and Tricia duel.


Oranges for dessert.

We brought in these cakes for a birthday.

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Mascarpone with Strawberry and Oat Milk Matcha Almond.

Overall, honestly it’s tough to review Newport Seafood. When I first came here in 2013, I was only a year or so into my frequent SGV journeys and I loved it — more or less in the way that I have always loved all Chinese food. Hell, I even used to like PF Changs and Panda Express. But now, several hundred real Chinese meals later, I feel that Newport is just oddly overrated. It’s like the expensive gateway drug to the SGV. Sure it’s enjoyable. They have good dishes. Even some great dishes (nothing wrong with the lobster at all other than the price). But little is interesting, it’s way overpriced, and they lean very heavily on the “flavor” (MSG). I’m not a monster fan of this Chinese Cambodian hybrid style either. It’s 90% Chinese, but fairly close to Chaozhou style.  Still, I like either Tai Sui (Cambodian) or Seafood Palace (Chaozhou) MUCH better. And I also like straight Cantonese a lot more (of which there are many better examples) and particularly Sichuan or any kind of regional Chinese.

So no, I’m just not really impressed with Newport at this point.

Or check out Newport’s Beverly Hills location.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!
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Some more wines from September 11, 2016:

Related posts:

  1. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village
  2. Food as Art: Ping Pong
  3. Birthday Party, Hedonist Style
  4. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
  5. Tasty Duck Lives up to its Name
By: agavin
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