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Archive for Beard Papa

Tatsu – Ramen with a Soul

Feb18

Restaurant: Tatsu Ramen

Location: 2123 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 684-2889

Date: Fall, 2014

Cuisine: Japanese Ramen

Rating: Nice modernization

_

These days, Sawtelle is crawling with Ramen joints. From the uber specialized and rich Tsujita to the old school Daikokuya.


Tatsu does things a bit differently, with a sleek updated look and modernized take on the classics.


They even have ipad based ordering, down to minute customizations!


The modern interior.


Chashu bun. Sweet BBQ pork in a peking duck style bun with lettuce and green onion and mayo-like sauce. Really really tasty. Good stuff.


Chashu rice. More or less the same pork on rice.


Soul Ramen. Their signature ramen! Homemade Tonkotsu broth, black garlic oil and sweet umami sauce. Served with ground beef and a choice of pork, chicken or tofu.


Bold ramen. Their most popular ramen! Homemade Tonkotsu broth with 11 bold ingredients. Not for the timid! Served with seasoned soft-boiled egg & a choice of pork, chicken or tofu. A real tasty zesty sauce (not hot).


Red ramen. Homemade Tonkotsu broth spiked with our sweet and savory red sauce. Served with ground beef.


Ground beef. This extra side of ground beef showed off the flavors naked. Certainly a really tasty soft meat with a bit of a kick and a hint of sweetness.


Kurobuta Pork Chashu. The usual fatty pork.

All-natural Chicken Breast. The California alternative to fatty pork.


Seasoned Soft-Boiled Egg.


Garlic! There are whole garlic bulbs on the table.


And a press.


Plus nori strips and other seasonings.

Overall, I was impressed. Tatsu is a bit lighter than some ramens (Tsujita, here’s looking at you — even if the dipping ramen is to die for). But the flavors here are bold, fresh, and tasty. Good stuff, particularly if you are an old hat and want to jazz it up. Plus, if you had vegetarians or the like they can join you: Hippy Ramen + tofu!

For more LA dining reviews click here.


Some friendly folk at the communal table passed us this mysterious confection:


Green tea kitkat. Kinda pasty. Not nearly as good as the original (which isn’t that great).


So we had to clear the taste by heading across the street to Beard Papa for cream puffs, like this original with vanilla creme.


And this cookie shell with caramel creme. The caramel creme tasted exactly like butterscotch pudding.

Related posts:

  1. Ramen is all the Rage
  2. Tsujita LA – Artisan Noodles
  3. Quick Eats: Sunnin
  4. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  5. Hawaiian Noodle Bar
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beard Papa, Garlic, Japanese cuisine, kitkat, noodles, ramen, Sawtelle Boulevard, Tatsu Ramen, Tonkotsu

Crafty Little Lunch

Jun03

Restaurant: Craft

Location: 10100 Constellation Blvd. Century City, Ca. 90067. 310-279-4180

Date: May 26, 2011

Cuisine: Farmer’s Market California

Rating: Nice little power lunch

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I was meeting a friend in Century City at the Annenberg Space for Photography (which I hadn’t even known existed), and we decided to catch lunch at nearby Craft. I’ve eaten dinner a couple times here before and thought it a very good “New California” style restaurant using a sort of large American tapas style. I think they may have ditched this format (at least the lunch menu shows no evidence of it). This seems to happen a lot and really bums me out as I completely and utterly prefer the small-plates style to the appetizer/entree dinosaur.


The menu. We both went for the little $30 “power lunch.” Craft is right in the heart of Century City with all the lawyers and CAA, so it’s obviously a spot for those putting lunch on the expense account.


Bread.


“Wild Mache, pistachio & raisin.” Really great little salad. The greens had a nice peppery quality, complemented nicely by the light dressing and the sweetness of the raisins.


“Rabbit tortellini, pecorino & baby onion.” Very nice little pasta too, in that buttery tortellini school. Inside was some good solid chunks of rabbit meat. The sauce was basically butter, cream, pecorino and onion.


“Sea Bream, leeks, fennel & watermelon radish.” The sauce was on the side as my friend preferred.


The leeks, fennel & watermelon radish.


The dessert menu.


Expresso.


“Ricotta cheesecake, poached cherries.” A slightly new format of an old classic.

“Profiteroles, mint chip ice cream & chocolate.” This should have been delicious, but for some reason it was muted. The pastries were really good, like a Beard Papa cookie shell, but the ice cream, while creamy, didn’t taste enough like mint. Not like the powerful mint leaf flavor of say Sweet Rose Creamery. The chocolate too was a bit muted.

Overall, this was a nice little lunch. I’ll have to go back for dinner again, although if they totally abandoned the small plates I’m bummed.

Related posts:

  1. Dinner and Drinks at Tavern
  2. Ford’s Filling Station
  3. La Cachette Bistro part deux et trois
  4. Fraiche Santa Monica
  5. Waterloo & City
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beard Papa, California, Century City, Century City Los Angeles, Cooking, Craft, Craft Los Angeles, Dessert, Ice cream, lunch, pasta, Power Lunch, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad

More Modern Dim Sum

Apr04

Restaurant: Xino [1, 2]

Location: 395 Santa Monica Pl, Ste 308, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 755-6220

Date: April 1, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Dim sum

Rating: Ordered lighter this time for a delicious and reasonable meal.

 

Another gorgeous 78 degree LA day, with that perfect mix of warm and ocean moisture in the air. So we headed back to Xino, one of the new promenade restaurants with a huge roof deck and somewhat modernized Dim Sum. For my first review, click here. Our first time we had a few issues all of which we managed to avoid here. We had ordered too much food, as the individual dishes, despite being dirt cheap, are fairly large. There’s also a lot of fried stuff on the menu, so if you want a bit lighter, order carefully. Still, it’s all tasty.

Xino has a really nice deck. You can see the couch-style booths in the background too.

Again we ordered straight from the extremely reasonable Dim Sum menu. This is all Hong Kong style small plates. There are no carts, but it’s made to order. This time we made sure to specify in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that they needed to bring out the dishes slowly (last time they hit us with 11-12 simultaneously!). They brought them one at a time today and it was no problem.

Notice also that the fried section is much larger than the steamed section, and that the specialties are also mostly fried. They’re good, but you have to know what you’re getting. We tried to order only a couple fried things.

Condiments. Chinese mustard, hot sauce, and soy sauce behind.

“Shrimp Dumpling ‘Ha Gow‘ Shrimp, Bamboo sShoots, Rice Wrap.” Classic Cantonese dumplings. Good examples of the type.


“Shanghai Dumpling, Pork, Ginger, garlic, Vinegar & Ginger.” These are basically the classic soup dumplings, but very good examples of the type, and nicely served with the vinegar in the little cups so that they don’t break apart on the steamer. Wow!

“Crispy Chili Calamari, Jalapeno Vinaigrette.” These were seriously tasty. The fry was heavy, but deliciously and a bit sweet, as was the jalapeno sauce. In some ways almost like a desert, but yummy.

“Salt & Pepper Soft Shelled Crab, fresh chili, spring onion, toasted garlic.” This is Xino’s take on the classic (chinese) lightly friend shrimp. The traditional version has a bit less fry, but requires you to peel the shell to eat them. These have been pre-shelled which is nice. Certainly tasty, and good with both the mustard and the jalapeno sauce above.

“Shrimp & Chives potstickers, shrimp bamboo shoots, chives.” These were nice, a bit lighter than the classic pork potsticker (which they also make).

“Pork Siu Mai, Pork, Shrimp, Shitake, carrots, Egg Wrap.” Another typical dim sum dish, executed very well.

“Seafood Spinach Dumpling, shrimp, spinach, bamboo shoots, rice wrap.” These slightly green fellows are a little different. There was a lot of shrimp in there, but it did taste slightly fishy. Not bad, but the pairing with the spinach also was just slightly funny. Personally, I think these would be awesome with basil instead, or even a bit of pesto — but that’s modern me.

“Baked Pork Buns, sweet pork in glazed flaky baked bun.” These were a slightly new take on the classic that really worked. The sweet red BBQ pork inside was very typical, but what was different was the crispy light AND SWEET outer shell. It reminded me of a Beard Papa cookie shell!

This is a photo of the pastry cookie shell from Beard Papa, it wasn’t at Xino, but it was awfully similar to the pork bun! Still, the pork bun really worked. Sweet on sweet, with a nice interplay of crunch/flaky with the gooey meat.

“Lotus Leaf Wrapped Sticky Rice, ‘Lo Mai Gai’ egg, chinese sausage, dried shrimp.”

Examine the goodies inside. Good, although the more traditional Palace (review here) has a very slightly tastier version.

Not only is the food good, but look at the price! $47 (with tax) for all that food! I think Xino might be even cheaper than the traditional Dim Sum in the area!

For another Xino meal CLICK HERE.

For a review of traditional west side Dim Sum, CLICK HERE.

Related posts:

  1. Finally, Modern Dim sum in Santa Monica
  2. Parlez Vu Modern?
  3. Christmas is for Dim Sum
  4. Food as Art: Ping Pong
  5. Mall Eclectic – Zengo
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beard Papa, Brunch, Cantonese cuisine, Dim sum, dumpling, Har Gow, Hong Kong, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Santa Monica California, Santa Monica Place, shrimp, side dishes, vegetarian, xino
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