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Hills of Gold and Spice

Sep17

Hedonists aren’t confined only to restaurants. Tonight’s meal features home cooked Pakistani cuisine at the home of chef Noorani Burstein.

And what a home it is, perched over Benedict canyon in Beverly Hills. Tonight we ate outside, and given the usual Southern California September heat wave it was absolutely gorgeous.

From my cellar: 1994 Robert Ampeau & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. 91 points. Nicely aged white Burgundy with notes of butterscotch and citrus. It started promisingly, dissolving into a dry, pithy finish.

2005 Jomain Puligny-montrachet. A bit premoxed.

2012 Gilbert Picq & ses Fils Chablis. Burghound 87-89. There is a touch of mineral reduction to the cool and airy aromas of green fruit and iodine. The racy, intense and well-detailed middle weight flavors possess a discreet minerality on the lemon-infused and very dry finish. This should drink well early but also reward a few years of bottle age if desired.

Dokhra. Chickpea flour cake/Snacking bread with curry leaves and black mustard seed, fresh coconut and cilantro with a red hot chili sauce.

Eggplant Pakoras – Eggplant, Zucchini, dipped in a chickpea flour batter and lightly fried for crispness and flavor.

And onions similarly treated.

A variety of lovely chutneys. The tangy tamarind, spicy tomato, and cool cilantro coconut.

CHICKEN SAMOSAS with Tamarind Sauce Chutney.

BEEF KEBABS (Spicy ground beef patties) with Mint, Cilantro and Coconut Chutney.

As we finish the appetizers the sun sets.

And here is our chef, Noorani.

2007 Azelia Barolo Margheria. Parker 96. The 2007 Barolo Margheria was raised in cask and reveals a slightly more classic side of Nebbiolo. Sweet floral herbs, tobacco, geranium and wild flowers emerge from the bouquet. The firm yet well-integrated tannins frame a core of fruit loaded with Serralunga character, leading to a wiry, muscular finish. Hints of leather, licorice and iron linger in the glass. The Margheria is less immediate than the Bricco Fiasco at this stage, and it will require more patience, but it is every bit as compelling. Anticipated maturity: 2017-2027.

From my cellar: 2000 Les Cailloux (Lucien et André Brunel) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Centenaire. Parker 96. The heady 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Centenaire is more evolved than either the 2001 or 1998. Extremely full-bodied, with low acidity, and a knock-out bouquet of blackberry and cherry jam intermixed with licorice, pepper, and dried Provencal herbs, this sexy, voluptuous, enormously concentrated 2000 possesses a huge, silky, seamless finish. Drink this irresistible effort now and over the next 12-15 years.

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.

2001 D’Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz. Parker 98. Readers should be on the look out for the 2001 The Dead Arm Shiraz, one of the greatest examples of this cuvee. Its dense black/purple color is accompanied by celestial aromas of melted licorice, graphite, blackberries, cassis, incense, anise, and toasty oak. Fabulously concentrated, with great purity, an unctuous, viscous texture, and an amazingly long, 60-second plus finish, this fabulous baby will need 5-6 years of cellaring, and should drink well over the following 20-25 years.

Naan.

KARAHI CHICKEN: Boneless chicken cooked with tomatoes, cilantro, garlic and finished with dried fenugreek leaves.

BANANA RAITA – Spiced yogurt with sliced bananas, jalapenos and cilantro).

POTATOES with Turmeric and Black Mustard Seeds.

CHICKPEA SALAD with fresh Vegetable and a Tomato dressing.

SAAG PANEER – Spinach with fresh Indian cheese.

MUSHROOM CURRY. Dark and savory.

CORN RAITA. More like the classic.

Mutton Pulao. Under that layer of rice is a spicy layer of curried mutton. It was cooked for days to reach a superlative level of tender — and boy was it great. As Yarom says, “this dish was a 10!”

My plate, reminiscent of Thanksgiving plates!

An older tawny port.

Mango Lassi. The classic sweetened mango yogurt drink.

KHEER – Basmati Rice pudding. Also a 10!

SEVIYAN KHEER – Pakistani Vermicelli & Milk Pudding. Another great dessert!

Overall, a lovely evening!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, Chateauneuf du Pape, Chutney, hedonists, Indian cuisine, Noorani Burstein, Pakistani cuisine, Southern California, Tamarind

Sauvages at Oliverio

Aug01

Restaurant: Oliverio [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9400 W Olympic Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 407-7791

Date: July 25, 2014

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Awesome Food & Wine

The Sauvages are a group of serious Friday afternoon wine drinkers. Today’s event brings us to the Avalon Hotel’s poolside Italian: Oliverio for a special custom Barolo lunch.

The atmosphere is tres LA and top notch.

Opening up with a couple whites. This Italian was tasty, but I didn’t know it.

Marcassin Chardonnay Marcassin Vineyard. I didn’t catch the vintage, but it was a 100 point Parker wine. This is a pretty decent new world Chard, still, I don’t understand the ratings. It’s flabby, lacking the acidic backbone that makes a great white Burgundy so delicious. Instead you are just hit by straightforward richness.

1988 Fiorano (Boncompagni Ludovisi) Sémillon Vino da Tavola. A totally unusual, delicious, ancient bottle of Semillon from Italy.

Our custom Barolo menu.

Bread.

1997 Azienda Bricco Rocche (Ceretto) Barolo Prapò. IWC 90. Medium red-orange. Spicy aromas of redcurrant, clove, dried flowers and tobacco. Juicy, bright and delineated, with noteworthy shape and structure. Quite spicy at the core. Substantial firm tannins are very nicely buffered. Finishes with excellent persistence.

1998 Angelo Gaja Costa Russi. Parker 92. The dark ruby/purple-colored, supple-texture 1998 Costa Russi possesses sweet, jammy raspberry and cherry fruit, medium to full body, gorgeous glycerin, low acidity, and a lightly tannic finish. Although large-sized, it has good finesse as well as beautifully pure fruit.

1997 Roberto Voerzio Barolo Cerequio. Parker 92. The paradoxical 1997 Barolo Cerequio possesses exquisite purity as well as an open-knit bouquet, but restrained, tannic, forceful, backward flavors. Dense and rich, with the vintage’s thickness well-displayed.

1997 Cordero di Montezemolo Barolo Monfalletto. Parker 90-96. A well-respected La Morra producer, Codero’s 1997 Barolo Monfalletto is a soft, structured offering with muscular, earthy, licorice, and black cherry aromas as well as flavors. With airing, notes of chocolate, truffles, meat, and pepper emerge. Muscular and rustic, but substantial and rich on the palate, it requires several years of cellaring.

Mediterranean Seppia. Carmelized onion, fresh liver, black figs. An interesting combo that totally worked. The sweetness of the fig worked with the liver (probably actually foie gras) and the Seppia had a wonderful chew.

1996 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis. Parker 96. The 1996, one of the estate’s best, takes things to another level. It shows an outrageous, well-delineated nose of fresh roses, minerals and menthol followed waves of dark fruit and licorice flavors that are just beginning to show the signs of early maturity, with exceptional freshness, length, and harmony. This opens beautifully in the glass, taking on an almost Burgundian elegance. A wine to marvel over. It is hard to resist this now, but it will be even better in another 3-5 years, and age gracefully for another decade, and probably more. 96+ points/drink after 2008.

1997 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis. Parker 96. The 1997 is rich and alcoholic on the nose, displaying aromas of very sweet fruit with a slightly evolved character. It is super-rich and concentrated on the palate, offering intense sweet fruit and mineral flavors, but with notable balance for the vintage, closing with a final lingering note of sweetness. This is drinking well now and should last at least another ten years.

1996 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto. Parker 94-96. The saturated ruby/purple-colored 1996 Barolo Falletto exhibits an extraordinary nose of smoke, earth, white truffles, black fruits, licorice, and floral scents. Extremely massive, with layers of concentration, high tannin, a muscular personality, and a 40+ second finish, this classic, young Barolo will require patience. Why can’t I turn my body clock back twenty years?

1997 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto. Parker 93. Giacosa’s 1997 Barolo Falletto de Serralunga is an exquisite Barolo offering superb notes of tar, earth, truffles, licorice, minerals, and cherry/raspberry fruit. There is plenty of acidity as well as high tannin, but concentrated, chewy flavors. The wine is tight, dense, impressive, and surprisingly structured for a 1997.

Roasted Quail. Venetian style chicken liver, oyster mushrooms. The quail was delightful, as were the mushrooms. This liver was a bit stronger, more like my mom’s traditional liver and onions.

1998 Domenico Clerico Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra. Parker 93. Domenico Clerico’s 1998 Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra is one of the most full-throttle wines of the vintage. Still deeply-colored, this authoritative wine possesses tons of mineral-infused dark fruit intermingled with French oak and menthol. This remains one of the most tannic and firm wines of the vintage. My impression is that the fruit will fade before the tannins melt away. Still, this is a beautiful wine Barolo to enjoy over the next few years, although it is not a wine for the timid.

1997 Massolino Barolo Vigna Rionda. Parker 90. The sexy, layered, evolved 1997 Barolo Vigna Rionda was obviously produced from extremely ripe fruit as evidenced by the dark garnet/amber color, and sweet perfume of smoke, caramel, toffee, and espresso infused with black cherries, plums, and prunes. This multilayered, full-bodied offering exhibits a seamless personality with no hard edges.

1999 Massolino Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda. Parker 93. The 1999 Barolo Vigna Rionda has always been somewhat of an enigma. It is a big, structured Vigna Rionda with vibrant fruit, great length and powerful tannins. One of the casks was new in this vintage and the wine has always has a gloss of new oak, but over the years the oak has begun integrate and the wine has developed beautifully. I may have initially underestimated this wine.

From my cellar: 1996 Aldo Conterno Barolo Colonnello. Parker 90-93. The 1996 Barolo Colonnello is aromatic, offering scents of melted asphalt, cedar, tobacco, spice box, and assorted red and black fruits. Following a soft entry, the immense richness, fleshy, full-bodied power of this wine became apparent. The finish offers considerable tannic clout and power.

agavin: Sadly, this bottle was kinda turned, and particularly odd as I bought it from Aldo Conterno personally in 2000 and had it well cellared. It wasn’t totally gone, and the nose was fabulous, but the color was mostly brick and the fruit faded. We didn’t serve it.

Conchiglioni al forno. Stuffed with veal trippe, white bean sauce, pecorino cheese. A fabulous pasta. Nicely al dente, with a wonderful cheesy tomato sauce inside. I guess the trippe just added a touch of richness, as I didn’t detect the noxious texture.

2000 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino. Parker 97. Conterno’s 2000 Barolo Riserva Monfortino gives an impression of accessibility only because it is so open relative to some of the surrounding vintages of this great, legendary Barolo. The 2000 has tons of fruit backed up with considerable tannic heft. With time in the glass sweet, balsamic notes make an appearance, but this is one of the few 2000s that needs considerable cellaring to show all of its cards.

2000 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Cannubi (San Lorenzo) / Ravera. Parker 89-91. 2000 Barolo Cannubi (San Lorenzo)/ Ravera (from barrel)—A blend of 60% Cannubi (San Lorenzo sub-plot) and 40% Ravera fruit. Dark ruby in color, the Cannubi (San Lorenzo) /Ravera is delicate, perfumed and aromatic, with lots of cherry and spice flavors, although still very closed on the palate. The Brunate/LeCoste is the masculine wine, the Cannubi (SanLorezo)/Ravera the feminine wine.

2000 Angelo Gaja Sperss. Parker 94. From Magnum. Gaja’s 2000 Sperss is wonderfully open and radiant. Layers of dark fruit, grilled herbs, cassis and smoke saturate the palate in this powerful, stunningly beautiful Sperss. Gorgeous inner perfume and a long, intense finish round things out in style.

Australian Wagyu Tagliata. Parmigiano fondue, caviar, chanterelle mushrooms. A fabulous little bite of beef!

Dolce. Raspberry & apple crepes. This had an intense berry character, almost cherry like. Really ripe and tasty.

Overall, this was another knock out meal. The food was fantastic, even if we had no pasta! and was well paired with the might Baroli. Oliverio, its staff, and chef, took fantastic care of us.

LA dining reviews click here.

After we snuck down the street to a member’s house, where he generously opened a number of great bottles.

1996 Pride Mountain Vineyards Reserve Claret. Parker 95. The 1996 Reserve Claret is a blend of 63% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Petite Verdot (230 cases), it is a gorgeously balanced, super-concentrated yet hauntingly symmetrical wine with copious quantities of black fruits, spicy new oak, minerals, licorice, and roasted herbs. Full-bodied, with a cherry liqueur-like richness to its fruit, this wine has loads of glycerin, fabulous extract, and no hard edges. The velvety finish lasts for 40+ seconds. This is a spectacular wine that must be tasted to be believed.

1995 Clinet. Parker 96. Another extraordinary wine made in a backward vin de garde style, the 1995 Clinet represents the essence of Pomerol. The blackberry, cassis liqueur-like fruit of this wine is awesome. The color is saturated black/purple, and the wine extremely full-bodied and powerful with layers of glycerin-imbued fruit, massive richness, plenty of licorice, blackberry, and cassis flavors, full body, and a thick, unctuous texture. This is a dense, impressive offering from administrator Jean-Michel Arcaute.

1996 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain. Parker 96. The 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain possesses a black/blue/purple color, and a texture of unctuosity and thickness. Greatness is suggested by a wonderfully sweet mid-section, gorgeous purity, and this humongous wine’s overall symmetry. It also possesses sumptuous layers of concentration, remarkably sweet tannin, low acidity, and a 40+ second finish.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Avalon Hotel, Barolo, Beverly Hills California, Italian wine, Oliverio, Sauvages

Wolfgang Puck’s Cut – A cut above?

May05

Restaurant: Wolfgang Puck’s Cut

Location: 9500 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, California 90212. P: 310-276-8500

Date: April 12, 2012

Cuisine: Steak House

Rating: Great, but I think Mastro’s is slightly better at the over the top steak house thing

The Foodie Club rolled out on the town for the first time in a while (I was slowed up by my broken wrist) and it was founding member Simon’s birthday and he wanted to go to Cut.

Cut is located inside the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (think Pretty Woman) and is Wolfgang Puck’s take on redefining the American Steak House. In this, it succeeds very well. While it adheres to the Steak House basics: slabs of beef served plain on the plate, Cut upgrades things in a number of ways. But we’ll get to this in good time.

The modern kitchen turns stuff out in full view.

Puck himself was in attendance as well, he came by the table to admire my wines.

And self-help guru and modern Rasputin Tony Robbins was just a couple of tables over. Cut is definitely a place to be seen, and you can totally tell from the crowd.

Erick brought this Burgundy to start. “Displaying a bright, medium-to-dark ruby color as well as a cherry and ground white pepper-laced nose, this is a refined, thickly-textured, concentrated, and broad wine. It has outstanding depth of sweet cherry fruit, admirable structure, and a long, precise, and satiny finish. This gem has the requisite fruit, backbone, and concentration for extended cellaring. Projected maturity: 2002-2010.”

Out come the breadsticks. Given that this is passover, I had to abstain.

Which got even harder when the cheesy balls emerged. Simon and Erick snarfed the whole basket to save me.

Cut isn’t in any hurry. After about twenty minutes the menu showed. You can see that the center is a wide variety of “slabs of undercooked beef.” Also present are appetizers, sides, sauces and the like.

This is a presentation of some of the special “Kobe style” beef. The black ones are Japanese cattle, bred in America. The white ones are American cattle in a Kobe style. At the top is the American Kobe style filet mignon which Simon will later eat.

More temptation arrives in the form of a very delectable looking bread plate. The guys said it was great.

Then keeping with kosher tradition we have: “Maple Glazed Pork Belly, Asian Spices, Watercress, Persimmon, Sesame–Orange Dressing, Bosc Pear Compote.” Pretty fantastic actually. Like bacon in maple syrup.

Then the first in a trio of raw. “Big Eye Tuna Tartare, Wasabi Aioli, Ginger, Togarashi Crisps, Tosa Soy.” A nice take on the familiar dish.

As I’ve mentioned recently, I’m loving the steak tartare. “Prime Sirloin “Steak Tartare”, Herb Aioli, Mustard.” This was good, with sour dour (I didn’t eat it) and horseradish and various aioli on the side.

Plus a quail egg we dumped on top. It had a nice delicate flavor, but wasn’t as good as say this one I had in Chianti. Probably because it wasn’t from Chiana cattle!

And more raw beef, because I love it so. “Kobe Steak Sashimi, Spicy Radishes.” This was a wonderful dish too, although I liked the similar take at A-Frame a little better.

Now we pull out the big guns wine-wise. From my cellar. Parker gives this a 96 and it earned every point. “This fabulous, blockbuster has been totally unevolved since bottling, but at the Jaboulet tasting, it was beginning to reveal some of its formidable potential. A saturated opaque purple color is followed by aromas of cassis, minerals, and hot bricks/wood fire. Super-ripe and full-bodied, with a massive mid-section, teeth-staining extract, and mouth-searing tannin, it is a monster-sized La Chapelle. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2050.”

Now, coming to the main course. I’m not really a straight up steak man. I don’t enjoy plain beef. It’s too simple and I’m a more is more kind of guy. So I went for “Kobe Beef Short Ribs “Indian Spiced”, Curried Pumpkin Puree, Garam Masala, Slowly Cooked For Eight Hours.” Above is the curry like sauce.

Then they settle the succulent short ribs on top. This is beef my style. Not only is the meat itself rich and flavorful, but the sauce provides an intense medley of Indian spices. Love this.

For those going plain, they provide a bunch of “free” sauces like salt and three kinds of mustard. We also ordered a $2 thing of “Shallot-Red Wine Bordelaise” (not pictured) which was a really incredibly wine reduction sauce.

Simon’s “American Wagyu / Angus “Kobe Style” Beef From Snake River Farms, Idaho, Filet Mignon 6 Oz.” Looks beefy. You can see it raw above in the raw steak photo.

Erick settled on a classic “U.S.D.A. PRIME, Illinois Corn Fed, Aged 21 Days, Bone In Rib Eye Steak 20 Oz.” Now that’s a man’s piece of meat. I had some. It tasted great, smothered in Bordelaise!

“Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Smokey Bacon, Pearl Onions.” Pretty good, but Cut doesn’t have the full array of massively decadent sides like Mastro’s.

“Roasted Campania Artichokes, White Asparagus, Guanciale.” The white asparagus are a nod to Puck, Austrians love them. But it was the artichokes that dominated this pleasant dish.

“Cavatappi Pasta “Mac & Cheese,” Québec Cheddar.” This is a little richer, and it was good, but it didn’t totally match up to a Mastro’s “Gorgonzola mac & cheese!” or “king crab truffle gnocchi.”

Out comes the dessert menu.

“Dark Chocolate ‘Marquise’, Black Cherries, Chocolate Brioche, Red Wine Ice Cream.” This was good, rich, but a little chocolatey for my taste. The wine ice cream was very subdued.

“Valrhona Chocolate Soufflé, Whipped Creme Fraiche, Gianduja Chocolate Ice Cream.” Excellent classic Soufflé, if not quite as perfect as the one at Maison Giraud (I have photos of it, but haven’t written them up yet).

However, it did come with this superlative collection of sauces. Left to right, chocolate hazelnut ice cream (yum!), creme fraiche, and deep Gianduja chocolate sauce. All excellent.

“‘Baked Alaska’ Meyer Lemon Gelato & Blackberry Sorbet, Toasted Pistachios.” This was mine and it was good. Really good. The whole meyer lemon blackberry thing completely and totally worked. It was almost as good — and very similar to — the semifredo at Capo which is one of my all time favorites.

Then to finish, some little lemon and chocolate tarts. Both were excellent.

Overall, Cut is very very good, if a little expensive. It does succeed in taking the Steak House format and shaking it up a bit. Partly by offering unusual cuts of beef, partly by having newer more modern appetizers and sides. Execution is very good. Service is very good. It isn’t as over the top as Mastro’s. Not being focused on the pure beef, I can’t speak to the steak itself (both seem good to me). Mastro’s does, however, have a serious decadence factor — not that Cut is light. After coming out of Mastro’s my heart is usually palpitating. Perhaps that isn’t a good thing.

More Foodie Club extravaganzas here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (4)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills California, Beverly Wilshire Hotel, California, Cut, Dessert, Foodie Club, Kobe, Rodeo Drive, Steak, Wolfgang Puck

Red Medicine – Elfin Feast

Feb11

Restaurant: Red Medicine [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 8400 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, Ca. 90211. 323-651-6500.

Date: February 6, 2012

Cuisine: Elfin Fantasy Food

Summary: A feast for for Elrond’s table

For some reason it took me a year to get back to Red Medicine, even though I very much enjoyed my previous visits. Anyway, as it’s the new year and my partner in Foodie crime Erick is back in town, and having a birthday, we made it 2012’s first official Foodie Club meeting.

The frontage.

The easier to read version

And the new menu. Things look vaguely similar, but most of the dishes have changed up since last time.

Red Medicine technically has a $35 dollar corkage (except no corkage on Fri and Sat), but they nicely allowed us their original policy of waiving a corkage for every bottle of their wine we bought. This ended up being 2 and 2, theirs being this excellent JJ Prum Kabinett (a fav of mine). Parker 91: “Extremely bright in aroma as well as palate impression, the Prums’ 2008 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Kabinett is dominated by lemon and grapefruit, with village typical cherry and cassis manifesting themselves as an invigorating chew of fruit skin that is delightfully complimented by estate-typical impingement of CO2. Lush yet light, this finishes with not only blazing brightness but a cress-like pungency and strikingly intense salinity and suggestions of wet stone, making your palate stand to attention, wide awake! Plan on following it for a couple of decades, although, unlike many Joh. Jos. Prum wines, I find it (and many of the estate’s 2008s) downright irresistible already.”

“FOIE GRAS / mousse, tete de cochon, beet, kohlrabi, chicory, croissant.” First, let’s not some of the unique elements of this cuisine, what we came to call “dollop and dust” was just as present as last year. But this time the vegetal/natural/flower thing is out of control. Every seemed like that crazy forest elemental from Hellboy 2 had snuck into the kitchen. This one has difficult to get all the flavors in one bite. What I had was good, but I had the feeling that if I had gotten a more substantive chunk it would have been better (we were splitting 5 ways and it was difficult).

“AMBERJACK / red seaweed, buttermilk, lotus root, tapioca, succulents.” The flowers overwhelmed the fish a bit, but it was tasty. And the dish looks like a Christmas crown for a fairy!

“WINTER PEAS / yuzu, soymilk-yogurt, trout roe, purple cabbage, coconut.” More dust. As instructed, we mixed this up and it then looked kinda like a pea pasta. It was actually really good that way.

“RABBIT / five flavor berry, pandan custard, roots, tubers, black currant, sesame leaf.” There are 2-3 rabbit loins hidden under the foliage. Again very tasty, but hard to get all the elements in the mouth, particularly with they very long and fluffy leaves.

“DUNGENESS CRAB / passion fruit, brown butter, black garlic, vietnamese crepe, hearts of palm.” Besides being wrapped in another fairy wreath, this is one giant ravioli but it was darn good. Really good. I just wish I had more than one bite.

“HEIRLOOM BLACK CARROTS / guava, winter kale, dulse, young walnut, tamarind.” Legolas, sir, have you seen the Ent? He was last observed heading into the kitchen! Seriously, while this dish was actually very tasty it looks like the forest floor!

“WILD STRIPED BASS / charred mustard leaf, boiled peanuts, wild garlic, burnt onion syrup.” Is there a striped bass in there under all those flowers?

Indeed, there is!

“CHARRED LEEKS / taro “vichyssoise”, parsley root, chinese celery, vietnamese herb.” And here we have the wild garden of doctor Suess!

“HEIRLOOM RICE PORRIDGE / egg yolk, hazelnuts, ginseng, echire butter + SANTA BARBARA RED UNI.” This frightened me slightly, looking as it does a lot like congee (Chinese rice porridge). But we stirred it up and it turned out to taste incredible, like a fantastic creamy uni risotto!

After two bottles of the Kabinet, we decided to go red (the Auslese on the left we had later for dessert) with the meat. Parker gives this lesser known Bordeaux 91 points. “A fully mature, elegant 1990 with an exceptionally flowery, berry, white chocolate, and smoky oak-scented nose, this fleshy, mid-weight La Lagune exhibits a velvety texture and no hard edges. It is an endearing wine that needs to be drunk over the next 5-6 years.”

Then the riesling: Parker 93-94. “A Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese offers an impressive combination of white raisin-studded apple jelly, mango, caramel, honey, and vanilla in a creamy textural context, with a remarkable, parallel, and somehow perfectly-integrated sense of fresh apple and pear juiciness that guarantees a finish of genuine refreshment, enhanced by near-weightless buoyancy. This is quite thrilling to savor even now, but deserves at least a dozen years’ cellaring and is likely to perform well three decades or more hence.”

Then the meats. “LAMB / glazed in tamarind, hibiscus onion, swiss chard, salted plum.” Tasty!

“WAGYU BEEF / creme fraiche, garlic chive, cashew, lovage, charred cucumber.” Some tasty beef, although not as fatty as one might expect. The creme went very nicely, although again I felt like a rabbit with all those big leaves sticking out of my mouth.

“PORK / caramelized black vinegar, goji berry, spring onion, dried almond.” Underneath this little forrest of green was one of the tastiest dishes of the night, some delectable pork!

“BEEF TARTARE / water lettuce, water chestnut, nuoc leo, chlorophyll, peanu.” This is the first real “repeat” from the menu a year ago, although it’s gone to seed — but it still tastes fantastic.

Shrimp chips to go with the tartare. One puts some steak on a shrimp chip, adds some dust and eats. It’s a pretty wonderful flavor combo.

“MAITAKE MUSHROOMS / cauliflower, snake beans, bacon x.o., walnut.” Sauron’s curse! Someone stole Elrond’s crown! But seriously this was a difficult dish to cut as the wreath of beans snaked around. But it was worth it as it was surprisingly tasty. Perhaps because of the bacon.

The dessert menu.

“COCONUT BAVAROIS / coffee, condensed milk, thai basil, peanut croquant.” This was the most successful dessert — wonderful in fact. The peanut, chocolate, coconut cream thing was pretty amazing.

“BITTER CHOCOLATE / kecap manis, oats, parsnip, brown butter, soy milk sorbet.” Dust and dollops! But this was also very good.

“RHUBARB / mahlab cremeux, hibiscus, gentian, lemongrass meringue.” And so was the rhubarb, although the texture is very fluffy and airy.

“PEAR / wild anise, cream, raw chestnut, mead syrup infused with pear skins.” Where’s it hiding? Inside this natural fortress?

Quick, break down the walls to find… white stuff and pear.

One of the dominant flavors here was anise. It was all pretty good, although probably the weakest of the four.

Overall, I was pretty surprised to find out how far the chef’s cuisine had evolved (see the older meals), and in such an unexpected vegetal direction. Lords of the forest, this was some unique stuff. The flavors were a bit more understated and far less Vietnamese than a year ago. Ultimately odder, but certainly more unique. Still, although every dish was successful in some way, and many were fantastic. They just pursue a unique visual and textural vision. Despite basically ordering the entire menu it was pretty light too.

All in all, unique and playful, but we could have used a little more light in the forest, it was so dark we could hardly appreciate the masterpieces. On a technical note this was the first night that I used my Canon 5D Mark II with a little table top tripod. I found that I still needed to use the flash otherwise (the restaurant being VERY dark) I needed like a 3s shutter time. The tripod was a tad awkward and I’m glad it was only us foodies at the table, but the pictures did turn out very well. I ended up gong full manual and stopping down to about 7, setting a 1/15 (quarter second) exposure and just relying on the flash to fill.

For more LA food reviews, see here.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills California, California, Dessert, Elrond, Foodie Club, Kabinett, Riesling

Sfixio – Strong out of the gate

Nov20

Restaurant: Sfixio

Location: 9737 Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA.90210. 1 (310) 385-1800

Date: November 13, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Excellent new Italian

Sfixio is a brand new Italian in downtown Beverly Hills with a modern Tuscan slant. It’s owned and by a husband and wife pair: Chef Massimo Denaro in the kitchen and his wife managing the front.

The location has received a chic modern update too (it used to be Da Vinci for the last 30 years).

The brushed aluminum bar.

I brought this wine from the vineyard in Tuscany. Parker 93. “The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino is a beguiling wine laced with all sorts of black cherries, minerals, spices, licorice and menthol. All of the aromas and flavors are layered together through to the exquisite, refined finish. The 2006 shows a level of richness and density this bottling has lacked in some previous vintages. Today the tannins remain a touch austere, but another few years in bottle should do the trick. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2026.”

They had good bread, particularly the raison.

An extensive menu.

And a live jazz band (who were quite good)!

“Insalata di Spinaci (Fresh baby Spinach with Walnuts, soft Tuscan Pecorino cheese, pears olive oil and balsamic Vinaigrette Reduction).”

“Burrata con Pomodorini (Imported fresh Burrata caprese with organic heirlooms tomatoes).”

“Tartara di Branzino. Fresh wild Seabass from Greece Tartare dressed with a fresh grapefruit orange, lemon sauce, topped with tiny diced veggies.” Very nice, a bit like a cerviche.

“Pappardelle al Cinghiale (Homemade Pappardelle pasta with Braised wild boar in Chianti wine flavored with Juniper berries).” I had this dish all over Tuscany this year. This one was good, probably in the top 75% of those I had. Not as great as this one say, but very good.

“Crespelle alla Fiorentina (Homemade Crepes with Ricotta Cheese and Spinach topped with Tomato Sauce and Melted Reggiano Parmesan).”

“Branzino e Verdurine (Fresh Wild Seabass from Greece cooked on Flat Iron with sautee seasonal veggies).”

An osso buco special on mashed potatoes. Certainly an excellent meaty rendition of this dish. The meat was not only tender, but very flavorful.

The dessert menu.

“Tortino al cioccolato con Fragoline (Chocolate cake with strawberries).” Very very “dark” and chocolaty. A little too dark and dense for my taste, I prefer creamier and sweeter, but it was certainly well done.

Overall, Sfixio was very good. LA is full of Italian restaurants, and there wasn’t anything radical here, but this is certainly a chef operating at a high level, with a good palette, excellent ingredients, and really solid execution. So I recommend, and we’ll go again.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Comparison with real Tuscan joints here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills California, Brunello di Montalcino, Burrata, Dessert, italian, Italian cuisine, Italian Food, Italy, Los Angeles, osso buco, Restaraunt, Restaurant Review, Santa Monica Boulevard, Tuscany, vegetarian, Wine

Bouchon Beverly Hills

Oct17

Restaurant: Bouchon Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3]

Location: 235 NORTH CANON DRIVE | BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90210 | 310.271.9910

Date: October 15, 2011

Cuisine: French Bistro

Rating: Good, but expensive

In the last three-four years there’s been a bit of a French Food revival in Southern California, but the emphasis has been on Bistro fare. Of course this is consistent with the post-recession trend toward less formal restaurants anyway. Bouchon is the small-chain spawn for Thomas Keller, the highly acclaimed chef of The French Laundry.

Here is the brunch menu. My snapshot is still at the doctors (Canon service center) so this is a test run for the new iPhone4S camera. Better than its predecessor, but no match for either of my real cameras. The Photostream sync to the desktop is however, pretty sweet.

My obligatory cappuccino.

The Beverly Hills space is very pretty. Check out the bar (both raw and booze). Lobsters oversee the diners.

The elegant dining room has a very spacious, even Parisian feel.

The have good bread here, as well as amusements for the three-year-old set.

“Pain Perdu” (i.e. french toast). Brioche toast with macerated strawberries, creme Chantilly & vermont maple syrup. I’m slightly confused about the strawberries, as these sure looked and tasted like apple. But it was good nonetheless.

“Chicken & Waffles. roasted chicken on a bacon & chive waffle with Tahitian vanilla bean butter and sauce chasseur.” The chicken was a nice bit of roast chicken. If the waffles had bacon and chive in them, I couldn’t tell.

It came with the butter, the gravy, and good maple syrup. I ended up shredding the chicken, cutting the waffles, and adding syrup. It was good, but not quite Roscoes.

Downstairs is the much anticipated takeout bakery.

Not a huge space.

Serving various classic pastries and some salads and sandwiches.

Salads, sandwiches, macarons, cookies, etc.

The breakfast pastries, like croissant and coffee cake. The chocolate croissant was good. The coffee cake and banana nut muffin were a bit dry. Really I expected more. I’ll have to try a lemon tart at some point.

A closeup of the macarons. I had one (passionfruit) and while large, and pretty good, it wasn’t as good as the divine Paulette Macarons (reviewed here).

Good luck trying to read this blurry iPhone photo.

Overall, while Bouchon and bakery were fine, they are very expensive and failed to wow me. The chicken and waffles was $27! This is almost triple Roscoes! I would have forgiven the prices if the food were superlative, but it was just good. Sorry Mr. Keller, you’re rep sets a higher bar.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, Bistro, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, Brunch, Food, French Laundry, Los Angeles, Southern California, Thomas Keller, vegetarian

No Beef with Mastro’s

Sep21

Restaurant: Mastro’s

Location: 246 North Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, Ca 90210. 310-888-8782

Date: September 17, 2011

Cuisine: Steak House

Rating: My favorite LA Steak joint

America is full of steak houses at every level from Sizzler to Cut. But I haven’t found one that I like as much as Mastro’s. Granted I’m not a plain steak fan (I prefer my beef more like this, or tartar, or even Fogo). But Mastro’s gets the steak house think right.

The Cannon drive entrance, just a block north of Spago. Inside the place is a ZOO. Sure this was Saturday, 8:30pm on Emmy weekend in Beverly Hills. But this huge restaurant was packed to the gills, including both bars. These are a sure scene. It’s hard to tell the merely underdressed and over siliconed ladies from the pros.

Our table was right in front of the rat pack. It was much more crowded than in this photo.

The PDF of the menu can be found here.

We were celebrating the engagement of one of my oldest friends so I brought some big guns from my cellar. This wine was the first truly GREAT wine I ever bought (circa 1996). This is the second to last of two cases I once had. It has constantly and without fail scored 100 points from Robert Parker. You will find no better expression of Syrah.

“The 1991 Hermitage La Pavillon follows the pattern of the 1989 and 1990 – it is another perfect wine. The saturated black/purple color is followed by a compelling bouquet of spices, roasted meats, and black and red fruits. Enormously concentrated yet with brilliant focus and delineation to its awesomely-endowed personality, this extraordinary wine should age effortlessly for three plus decades. In a short period of time (Michel’s first vintage was 1989) Chapoutier‘s Hermitage Le Pavillon has become a wine of mythical proportions. Produced from extremely old vines, some dating from the mid nineteenth century, with yields averaging under 15 hectoliters per hectare, this is the richest, most concentrated and profound wine made in Hermitage. There are rarely more than 500 cases.”

Everything at Mastro’s is well done, and that includes the bread. I’m partial to the pretzel rolls myself.

Five of us ordered the seafood tower. The quality of the seafood here is impeccable and the only thing we had to complain about was that there wasn’t enough! Really for five we would have expected the two or three story version 🙂 Still there were amazing shrimp, lobsters, claws, king crab (didn’t taste frozen), and oysters.

One of the things that really makes the Mastro’s seafood tower are the sauces. We have cocktail, a spicy mustard, and the Atomic Horseradish. They use this particular magic brand (you can buy it here). The stuff is — pardon my French — fucking awesomely potent. I’ve taken to buying it myself for home. No other horseradish is this punishing. It has a nice flavor too. I particularly like it mixed in with the cocktail sauce. It can have you literally pounding the table in pain — ahem pleasure.

Beefsteak tomato and mozzarella. With pesto.

Since both I and my newly engaged friend were born in 1970, I grabbed from the cellar this puppy. Parker gives it a mere 95 points. Sure it isn’t quite the 1991 Le Pavillion, but it gets extra credit for age. “The 1970 Palmer is one of the great wines of the vintage. It exhibits a dark, opaque garnet color, and an emerging, fabulously complex, exotic nose of licorice, over-ripe plums and blackcurrants, soy, cedar, and minerals. Rich and concentrated, with medium to full body, a sweet inner-core of fruit, firm but silky tannin, and a long, rich finish, this remains a youthful, potentially superb Palmer. While approachable, it will keep through the first 10-15 years of the next century.

Here comes the beef!

Like most steak houses Mastro’s serves up the entrees bare (all the better to extract more cash from you). This is the New York Strip.

The bone in filet (12 ounce). This is my favorite cut of steak. It has both the filet tenderness and some extra flavor from the bone.

The straight petite (8 ounce) filet.

And the bone in filet, oscar style. Yes this was mine. Like King Robert, I’m trying to eat and drink my way to an early grave. “Oscar Style” means that it’s topped with asparagus, crab cakes and bearnaise sauce. Bearnaise sauce (French: Sauce béarnaise) is a sauce of clarified butter and egg yolks flavored with tarragon and shallots, with chervil and tarragon simmered in vinegar to make a reduction. Lean and mean baby!

Salmon steak. Looking lonely.

But it need not fear, the sides are here!

This is “Gorgonzola mac & cheese!” Oh so light, oh so yummy.

And even better, the evil “king crab truffle gnocchi.” Yes that’s right. Cream, cheese, truffles, crab, potato. What could be better?

In case you don’t get the idea, you have to see it up close. Oh so good.

Then the light “lobster mashers.” That orange stuff, that’s butter.

And for those not seeking an instant heart attack, the “sauteed spinach” (cooked in butter).

We continue to suffer on the wine front as well with this third gem from my cellar. Parker 96 points. “The 2008 Flor de Pingus offers up an enticing nose of smoke, Asian spices, incense, espresso, black cherry, and blackberry. On the palate it displays outstanding volume, intensity, and balance. Rich, dense, and succulent, it has enough structure to evolve for 4-5 years and will offer prime drinking from 2015 to 2028.”

So now we get to the desserts. This is “Mastro’s signature warm butter cake ala mode.” Basically a pound cake with an extra four sticks of butter or something. It’s really sweet and really good. Goes well with the magic whipped cream (see below).

Because of the incredible whipped cream here, we ordered up some fresh strawberries. Combine with below.

The photo is a little blown out, but Mastro’s has the most incredible whipped cream. You can just chow down on it my itself. Made fresh with really good cream and LOTS of sugar.

I couldn’t resist their key lime pie either. I LOVE key lime pie and they make a real good one. Plus it goes really well with the whipped cream.

Overall Mastro’s, while a zoo, and very expensive, is a spectacular steak house experience. You can really feel your heart palpitating as you roll out of here!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

The wines lined up in my cellar. I even brought a bottle of 1996 Dom P that I didn’t even open (not enough Champagne fans at the table). Another night.

By: agavin
Comments (8)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Atomic Horseradish, beef, Beverly Hills California, bone in filet, Chapoutier, Dessert, filet, Horseradish, Los Angeles, Mastros, oscar style, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Seafood, Steak, Steak House, Syrah, whipped cream, Wine

Beverly Hills Hotel – Polo Lounge

Sep12

Restaurant: Polo Lounge

Location: 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California 90210. 310-276-2251

Date: September 10, 2011

Cuisine: American

Rating: Good but pricey

My wife and I were married (10 years ago) at the Beverly Hills Hotel so it’s a tradition of ours to go back there once a year. We usually wander around and then eat at the Polo Lounge (even though the lounge itself had no part in the wedding, which was in the Crystal Ballroom).

This is an old school and iconic spot in Hollywood history. The hotel is still gorgeous too, having been heavily renovated by hot black oil cash from the Sultan of Brunei.

The patio.

Old school Hollywood style in the dining room.

And the bar.

The current lunch menu. Brunch is available only on Sunday.

What would a visit to the Polo Lounge be without a cocktail, in this case a mimosa.

They also have good bread. Same exact basket (basically) was served at our wedding LOL.

I’ve totally been on a gazpacho kick recently (made it at home here). This is “golden tomato gazpacho, garlic crostini, basil pepper relish.” Despite the yellow color it tasted classic. Very nice smooth refreshing summer texture and flavor.

“Pizza margarita.”

“Salmon burger, tomato salad, cucumber & yogurt, dill bun.”

The usual condiments, but stylishly presented.

“Lobster cobb salad, gem lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado, quail’s egg, tarragon.” Pretty much a great cobb, the only thing to complain about being the price. The juicy bacon cubes sold it.

Cappuccino to combat the coma.

Overall, the Polo Lounge has great lunch/brunch food in a stylish setting. Really the only disadvantage is the price, which is pretty punitive. But this is pretty much the usual high end hotel tax — making it a special occasion kind of thing.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, Beverly Hills Hotel, Brunch, California, Cobb Salad, Crystal Ballroom, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Pizza, Polo Lounge, Salad, vegetarian

More Drago – Via Alloro

Aug14

Restaurant: Via Alloro

Location: 301 N. Canon Drive – Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Phone: 310.275.2900

Date: August 5, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Very nice

The Drago brothers have an ever expanding little empire going in Beverly Hills. This includes Il Pastaio, Enoteco Drago, Piccolo Paradiso, and Il Buco. Plus several others on the westside, the valley, downtown etc. I’ve reviewed Celestino Drago’s flagship Drago and I’ve been to most, all are very good.

Via Alloro is new, managed by brothers Giacomino and Tanino, and only two blocks from Il Pastaio. We decided to grab a quick lunch there and check it out.

Lots of good choices on this menu. The PDF.

Excellent bread as at all Drago restaurants.

A slightly different take on fried zucchini flowers. Stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella. Then served over a light tomato sauce.

“Vitello Tonnao. Chillded veal in tuna sauce, with parmesan and capers.” This was damn good, with the very tasty zesty salty sauce really bringing out the flavor of the meat.

Lots of great pastas here — no surprise. “Homemade ravioli filled with sweet corn, served with truffle fondue.” Hard to beat that.

And “Saliccie al forno. baked sausage with mama Drago’s stew.” This is a very Southern Italian dish and I have to say it’s the best Italian sausage I’ve even had. Incredibly succulent, with fennel, and a very bright and zesty “gravy.”

Expresso to recover!

Off to a great start on the latest BH Drago Italian. I’ll have to come back for a more extensive dinner.

Click here to see Eating Italy posts.

Or for more LA Restaurants.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, Cooking, Drago, Giacomino Drago, Home, Italian cuisine, Italian sausage, Italy, Los Angeles, Pastaio, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Tanino Drago, Via Alloro

Sushi Sushi – Small Omakase

May17

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

Location: 326 1/2 Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 277-1165

Date: May 10, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Old school sushi – fantastic fish and presentation!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I had the sushi craving and went back again to my new favorite sushi place, Sushi Sushi. Since I have previous tried ala carte, the medium omakase and the giant omakase, I figured I’d give the small omakase a try for completeness. Here is the pictorial record.

We begin with a lovely little sashimi plate. Two items instead of three with the bigger omakases.

Spanish mackerel.

And a slightly different variation on the plate.

Seared bonito, with miso vinagrete (common to both plates). This was delicous, melt in your mouth. I enjoy the extra textural components of the various garnishes too.

Santa Barbara uni (sea urchin). It tops a pile of squid bits and includes pickles and wasabi. The combo is delicious, and all texture.

The rounds of regular sushi begins. Note that all the sushi here has been pre-applied with sauce, even when it’s just soy sauce. This red yummy is maguro (Blue fin tuna). This is some of the best tuna I’ve ever had, totally melts in the mouth.

Tai (Red Snapper), with a ponzu and shavings of the yuzu. This is a lighter fish, but I’m very partial to it.

O-toro, the top grade fatty toro. It melted in the mouse like butter. Always one of my (and everyone else’s) favorites.

“Buri yellowtail.” A special high end type of Hamachi.

This was a piece of scottish salmon. One of the best pieces of salmon I’ve ever had. Incredible!

Aji (Spanish Mackerel) on the left, with only the very slightest bit of fishy. Again, a great mackerel. Shimaji mackerel on the right.

On the left Ebi (sweet shrimp) and on the right Japanese scallop. Both wonderful.

Ikura (salmon roe). Perfectly fresh, with just the slightest hint of brine (good). Wonderfully taught, they explode in the mouth like little brine balls.

They say you should judge a sushi chef by his tamago (sweet omelet). By those standards Sushi Sushi rules.

Diced Toro handroll. This shiso leaf and shaved yuzu inside, which added texture, tang, and the exotic and wonderful flavor of the leaf.

U nagi (Fresh water eel). BBQ, with the sweet eel sauce. This was some damn fine eel, as good a piece as I’ve had.

Shirasu. Dried anchovies with plum and shiso. Very interesting and different tasty. Salty and sour.

These last two handrolls were extra, and not included in the Omakase. This one is Mentaiko, cpicy cod fish egg. This is a big slab of cod row, very salty and fishy.

King crab handroll, more approachable than the previous two.

After this extensive survey at Sushi Sushi, trying all three omakases, I’ve concluded that the medium one is the best deal hands down. It is only $15 more than this small one, and has numerous extra dishes. The grand one, while better than the medium (bigger) is only very very slightly different.

Check out more LA Sushi reviews here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, Hamachi, Japanese cuisine, Los Angeles, Omakase, Sashimi, Sea urchin, Sushi, Sushi Sushi

Matsuhisa – The Private Room

May08

Restaurant: Matsuhisa [1, 2]

Location: 129 N La Cienega Blvd Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 659-9639

Date: May 6, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Fusion

Rating: As good as it’s always been!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Some good friends were in town who had never tried Nobu Matsuhisa‘s particular blend of Japanese Peruvian Fusion. As popular as this has become in the last fifteen years, and how every derivative restaurant in America throws a few of his dishes on the menu, the original still rocks. I also scored a Friday night reservation in the coveted and private “Omakase only room,” where his cooking is showcased to the best effect.

The original storefront.

This aged 1st Cru white burgundy from my cellar was the very expression of mature chardonay.

As you can see from the color. This wine is ready, more than ready, as it might have been a tad better two years ago. Still it had a wonderful floral perfume to it.

The private room seats eight, and has it’s own sushi bar and kitchen.

“Seafood springroll with heirloom tomato and caviar.” This is the only repeat of the night, a Matsuhisa classic.Fry is always good, but it’s actually the combination with the spicy tomato chutney/salsa that really sells the dish.

One of the private kitchen chefs working on the appetizers.

Grilling up some conch!

Different members of our party got slightly different versions of this quartet of amuses.

“Seared salmon, new style.” That is with sesame, ponzu, and warm olive oil.

Kanpachi (young yellowtail) with a bit of red peper and ponzu on a radish.

Red snapper carpaccio, with chives, garlic, and vinegar.

A second version of the plate.

Lobster cerviche.

Tai (red snapper) sashimi, new style.

Yellowtail collar marinated in miso (a Nobu classic), baked, and then served with a bit of garlic and texture on letuce. You wrap it up and eat it like a soft taco.

Japanese baby conch, sauteed in garlic butter (escargot style).

The creepy crawly himself. Chewy and a little bitter, in a good way.

Burgundy goes very well with the Matsuhisa flavor profiles. The first time I ever went here, in 1996, I brought a Gros Frere Clos Vougeot. This 2005, Parker gives a 92. “The 2005 Clos Vougeot from Drouhin’s two parcels in that famous cru, is much more earthy and less fine-grained than the majority of their wines from this vintage, but it exhibits impressive concentration. A bone meal-like meld of mineral and meat dominates the nose and suffuses the palate along with black raspberry, plum and cherry fruit accepted by faintly bitter fruit pit notes. This is quite full and rich, but without being heavy; overtly tannic and chewy, but without being coarse. A promising more tart than sweet juiciness of black fruit mingles with roasted meat and stony, chalky minerality in the finish.”

Sashimi salad, with yellowtail, seared blue fin tuna, various dressings, and hearts of palm.

Par boiled Santa Barbara prawn with a tiny bit of salad (including hearts of palm). This was really yummy, even better than the cooked version we had last time. The meat is very sweet and succulent, delicious warm but essentially raw.

Sea bass on a bed of mushroom “risotto” with white truffles. The little spears are pickled ginger shoots.

“Fois gras, seabass, mushrooms, in a very rich reduction sauce.” Very meaty and tasty, the sauce was a pretty awesome blend of all three contributors of yum: salt, sweet, and fatty. The little red fruit is a pickled leeche.

Another very nice, red burgundy, this one (unlike the others) from the restaurant’s list. We drank more than I thought. 🙂

Grilled Toro, with enoki, aspargus, and other mushrooms.

American Kobe Beef with asparagus, garlic, and a spicy sauce and mustard. Really yummy (and rich) dish.

Each person gets a little sushi plate, there were a couple variants, this one has no shellfish.

A version where everything is cooked.

The “normal” plate for those who eat everything.

Chu-toro (medium tuna belly). Perfect!

Kanpachi (young yellowtail). Like butter.

Orange giant clam.

Uni (sea urchin).

Anago (sea eel), in the classic sweet BBQ sauce.

The pretty laquer soup container.

Inside is snapper soup. I haven’t had this one before, although it’s a classic mild Japanese fish broth with cilantro and scallions. The fish is soft mellow whitefish in this context.

My brother got a special surprise, the eye. The chef’s convinced him to try it. “Good for the sinews and joints.”

Taco (octopus). Very tender.

Japanese Sea Scallop sushi, with a bit of yuzu. Always one of my favorite sushis, and this didn’t disappoint.

Kohada (gizzard shard).

Baby squid, battleship style. They’re raw, but tossed in a kind of sweet miso-lemon dressing. Really tasty.

And we finally make it to desserts. Fruit tart with ginger ice cream. This was a total fan fave with the ladies.

Green tea tiramisu with chocolate gelato. Both were good, with the pastry having a nice creaminess and the ice cream a deep richness.

Butterscotch cream brulee with a citrus ice cream. Also really nice and creamy.

Coffee ice cream with chocolate crunch. This was great too, probably my favorite. The crunch added a really nice texture.

Shave ice. Below are a couple balls of vanilla ice cream (very good vanilla ice cream), red bean sauce, and very finely shaved ice.

Then green tea sauce (or maybe just tea) is poured over it. In the end, a very interesting (and Asian) mix of flavors and textures.

Even the urinal is cool.

The main room.

The chefs at work back in our private room/kitchen.

This was probably the best meal I’ve ever had at Matsuhisa, and I’ve had a LOT of great ones. Because I’m jaded now, and used to the cuisine, it wasn’t utterly mind blowing innovative like the first time I ever ate here. But the cooking is as good here as it ever was. Nobu (and his sucessor cooks) still really know their stuff.

For a previous meal at Matsuhisa, see here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, California, Dessert, fish, Fusion cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Japanese Peruvian, Los Angeles, Matsuhisa, Nobu, Nobu Matsuhisa, Olive oil, Omakase, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sashimi, side dishes, Sushi, vegetarian

Fogo de Chao – Beef!

Apr27

Restaurant: Fogo de Chao

Location: 133 North La Cienega Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90211-2206 (310) 289-7755

Date: April 21, 2011

Cuisine: Brazilian Grilled Meats

Rating: Meat meat meat!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I’m not normally a big fan of chains, but Fogo is one that works for me. It took the formula found is various independant Churrasquero restaurants and made it into a solid reliable festival of meat. And at lunch it offers tremendous value, particularly in comparison to a typical good American steak house. In case you’ve been living under a rock, this is a style of Brazilian BBQ where skewered meats are pulled fresh off the fire and carved at the table.

The fully carnivorous menu of meats. Fogo only offers two dining options. Salad bar, or salad bar + meat. Both are all you can eat.

The salad bar is extensive enough by itself, offering not only some token vegtables but a range of cheeses and cured meats.

Potato salad type salads.

Bacon!

Regular salad.

Dressings.

Cured meats and cheeses.

A giant full drum of real parmesan.

More salad.

I go sparingly in this department because I’m really here for the seared flesh.

The way things work at this kind of Brazilian BBQ is that the servers bring by the skewers of up to 15 different meats and cave them onto your plate. Fogo’s innovation here — and believe me it is a solid innovation — is this magic disk. Each person has one and you can flip it over. Above is the stop side.

And the go side. They key here is that you can control the awesome flow of meat onto your plate. Before the disk invention, you either got barraged or you were forgotten. Now, if you need a fifteen minute breather, no problem. Go red, then back again!

Beef sirloin. Delicious pure beef.

Prime rib eye. Fatty goodness! Actually, a bit too fatty for my taste, but many love it.

Chicken legs and pork sausages. They manage to make even chicken taste great, and the sausages are rich, hearty and delectable.

Here is all that, plus some pork rib, loaded on the plate. The rib on top, chicken and sausages on the left, sirloin on the bottom, the ultra fatty prime rib in the middle.

The pork BBQ ribs. This is one of my favorites.

Watch that soft piggy cut!

Filet minion. Lean and tender.

The garlic sirloin. This had an awesomely intense garlic beefyness to it.

Garlic sirloin on the left, filet on the right.

Lamb chops.

On the plate. Super tasty and tender. Sizzling hot.

Chicken breast (left) and filet (right) wrapped in bacon.

bacon truly does make everything better. They chicken might even have been tastier than the beef.

Picanha, one of the house specialties. A bit of prime sirloin seasoned with sea salt.

The bacon-wrapped filet, pork rib, and picanha (left to right). The last is a really tasty cut.

Fogo also throws a lot of sides on the table (included in the price). Cheesy mashed potatoes.

Fried polenta with parmesan.

Fried plantains. There is also cheese bread, but being passover, we didn’t take any and so I don’t have a photo.

The decor is sleek and modern, and they have a lot of hearty wines.

It’s easy to let your eyes exceed your stomach here. This refuse is just one person’s “leavings.” At lunch all this gluttony costs only $32.50, which is pretty impressive. You can easily make an entire day’s meal out of it!

For another take on excessive BBQ meats, see the Japanese Secret Beef joint.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: bbq, beef, Beverly Hills California, Cooking, Fogo de Chão, Grilled, Home, Meat, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad, salad bar, side dishes, vegetarian

Sotto – Sicily con Sardo

Apr18

Restaurant: Sotto [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9575 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035 310.277.0210

Date: April 16, 2011

Cuisine: Sicilian and Sardinian Italian

Rating: Bold flavors, off to a great start!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This new venture into the crowded LA Italian scene is a welcome change of pace. Sotto offers very reasonably priced regional Italian dishes (southern, with a Sicilian and Sardinian slant) with an unabashed traditionalism of a sort. There is no real effort on this menu to cater to the long standing American Italian palette, as influences as it is by late 19th century Southern Italian cooking. This is no red sauce (restaurant with red and white checkered table cloths and chianti bottles).

Located in the rising lower Beverly Hills district we had to fight through crowds leaving shul to descend into the packed, loud, and hard surfaced interior.

The short but very reasonable menu.

James Suckling gives this 2004 Poggio Il Castellare Brunello 94 points. “A decadent and ultra-rich red, with plum tart, prunes, cooked meat and berries. Full bodied, with soft and silky tannins and a long, flavorful finish. An aromatically beautiful wine. Best after 2012.”

“Pittule pugliese (vincotto, ricotta).” These little fritters tasted like supreme funnel cake, and were delicious with the fresh ricotta and vincotto (which is a sweet grape must). The amusing thing, for me, about this dish is that it’s pretty much straight out of Apicius, the 1800+ year-old cookbook. Delicious any way you cut it, but very filling.

“Blistered little gems (anchovy garlic pestata, breadcrumbs, pecorino moliterno.” An interesting salad with a smoky grilled flavor.

“Shaved beet and mixed chicory salad (wheatberries, lemon vinaigrette, fiore sardo).”

Olives. There was a little wait between the first and second courses and they brought us these complementary olives.

“Bruschetta lardo.” And this gratis charred bread spread with lard and fennel pollen. Very wood fired (not to mention rich taste). I was in danger of extreme over eating before the entrees even came.

“Maharrones de pungiu (sugo semplice, fiore sardo).” A wonderful homemade take on a simple tomato and cheese pasta. The choice of fiore sardo (a Sardinian cheese) gave it a slightly different tang.

“Casarecce (braised lamb ragu, egg, pecorino).” This was one damn fine pasta. The pasta itself had exactly the right texture and firmness of good homemade egg pasta. The ragu was nicely flavorful and meaty. Yum! I love great ragu. Some of my other favorites are here at Drago or at Capo.

“Pizza Marherita (tomato, mozzerella, basil, EVOO).” Your basic Marherita, but well done. These pizzas have a VERY wood fired taste going on, much like those from Gjelina, they are a little over-fired to my taste. The dough is good, but they taste very strongly of the grill (char, smoky flavors). When I do them on the stones in my hot gas grill (see my Ultimate Pizza) they showcase the dough and toppings a bit more.

“Pizza Salsiccia e friarieli (sausage, broccoli di ciccio, mozzarella, chillies).” A very nice meaty sausage paired with the bitter tones of the Italian brocoli. Interesting, and good.

“Bittersweet chocolate crostata, hazelnuts, salted rosemary caramel.” This looked amazing, and the texture was fantastic and very chocolaty. There was a slightly odd flavor tone in here, which might have been the rosemary. I’m not sure it added, although certainly I enjoyed it.

After 11 and the place is beginning to thin out a bit. I really enjoyed Sotto and it BOLD take on Italian. This is heady stuff, and the homemade pastas were totally amazing.

For a second review of Sotto, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Sushi Sushi Sushi

Apr01

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

Location: 326 1/2 Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 277-1165

Date: March 30, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Old school sushi – fantastic fish and presentation!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Sushi Sushi is fast becoming one of my preferred sushi places. I had actually intended to try out Sushi Zo, but they were closed for the week so I had to “settle” for this new favorite. We decided to try out the “large omakase” this time, as I had done both ala carte (HERE) and the medium one (HERE). It was great as expected, although not much different than the medium, which I think is a better value.

One of the chefs with the big slab of home ground real wasabi. This is one of many ways in which the men are separated from the boys. Accept no powdered green stuff.

Japanese bonito sashimi, lightly seared. Marinated seaweed and pickles. Soft and flavorful.

This device is used to shave the daikon radish into long paper-like strips.

Each of us got slightly different sashimi plates. This one is the “no sea urchin” version.

Ankimo (monkfish liver), with scallions and pickles in a ponzu. Perfectly fresh, with that rich creamy texture that it’s supposed to have, a hint of grainy, a hint of fishy, but very mild (no such thing as monkfish liver with NO taste of the sea — what would be the point of that?)

Raw Japanese scallops with salmon roe.

Saba Mackerel with miso paste.

The urchin plate, only the middle is different.

Two kinds of uni (sea urchin). Santa Barbara and Japanese. It tops a pile of squid bits and includes pickles and wasabi. The combo is delicious, and all texture.

Yuzu, Japanese citrus. Shavings or juice from this little fruit are added to a number of dishes. The chef keeps it sitting on the freezer pipes in the fish case so it’s easy to shave.

Tai (Red Snapper), with a ponzu and shavings of the yuzu. This is a lighter fish, but I’m very partial to it.

Chu-toro (medium grade fatty tuna belly). This is also melt in the mouth amazing.

Kampachi (young yellowtail). Like Himachi, but more tender.

The chu-toro was just a warmup for this o-toro, the even more fatty toro. It melted in the mouse like butter. Always one of my (and everyone else’s) favorites.

Some very specific kind of yellowtail, “vury yellowtail?” It was hard to remember the exact name. But it was darn good.

This was a piece of scottish salmon. One of the best pieces of salmon I’ve ever had. Incredible!

Aji (Spanish Mackerel), with only the very slightest bit of fishy. Again, a great mackerel. Somehow I missed the photo of it AGAIN!

Kohada (Japanese Herring) This was great herring, but is certainly a bit fishy — herring always is.

Saba mackerel, not as good as the Spanish one, but nothing to mock either. There is a bit of “batera” seaweed on top and some pepper.

A fiery new dish in the works.

Seared toro on the bottom, scottish salmon on top. Both delectable. They taste very different half cooked. Warm, fattier, with a bit fo char flavor.

Another round of sashimi. Sweet shrimp, Japanese scallop, giant clam, and taco (octopus). Are were prefect examples of the breed, and doused with a little bit of yuzu (just the fruit, not with the pepper) to test them up. The shrimp had a wasabi “ebi brain” sauce. This is really a mix of shrimp guys (liver). Sounds awful, but tastes good.

And it continues.

Ikura (salmon roe). Perfectly fresh, with just the slightest hint of brine (good). Wonderfully taught, they explode in the mouth like little brine balls.

They say you should judge a sushi chef by his tamago (sweet omelet). By those standards Sushi Sushi rules.

Kampachi cheek. This was marinated in one of those sweet broths I would frequently get in Japan. There was a bit of bone but the meat was incredibly soft (consistency like tuna fish?) and delectable. I really enjoyed the heavily marinated root vegetable. I don’t remember what these are, but I’d get them in Japan all the time.

Asari miso (clam broth miso soup). This is a very light miso, with a clam brothy quality. Not too salty, very nice.

Uni (sea urchin) sushi. I can’t get enough of this. It amazes me to think that even just a couple years ago (bear in mind that I have been eating sushi since 1978) I didn’t like the stuff.

Diced Toro handroll. This shiso leaf and shaved yuzu inside, which added texture, tang, and the exotic and wonderful flavor of the leaf.

U nagi (Fresh water eel). BBQ, with the sweet eel sauce. This was some damn fine eel, as good a piece as I’ve had.

The omakase included dessert, this concoction of fruit, green tea ice cream, green tea panna cotta, sweet bean sauce, and whipped cream. Oh yes, and with a “mens pocky” as garnish and corn flakes underneath. Pretty good, and all Japanese.

If you like sushi — and how doesn’t? — then you owe it to yourself to try Sushi Sushi. This is some seriously good fish.

CLICK HERE for a review of the Sushi Sushi medium omakase.

CLICK HERE for a review of Sushi Sushi ala carte.

Or here for the LA sushi page.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Asian, Beverly Hills California, Cooking, Dessert, Eel, Hamachi, Japanese cuisine, Omakase, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sashimi, Sea urchin, Sushi, Sushi Sushi, Tamago, Tuna, Uni, Wasabi, Yellowtail

Sushi Sushi = Yummy Yummy

Mar06

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

Location: 326 1/2 Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 277-1165

Date: March 1, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Old school sushi – fantastic fish and presentation!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

After discovering this place about a month ago I’ve been three times (previous REVIEW HERE). The craving keeps creeping into my mind. It’s old school sushi without all the distractions, just really good fish and rice (and a bit of other trappings). Last time we got the Omakase, so this time we ordered the basic lunch special (the reasonably priced — for sushi — 10 piece plus appetizer, cut roll, and soup). We then added a bit to it.

Aji (Spanish Mackerel) sashimi, with miso paste, seaweed, and some white kelp or rice noodle (not sure). The paste has a very strong tangy sweetness, and it marries nicely with te mackerel.

Lunch specials come with choice of miso. Normal Shiitake (not pictured), or nameko mushroom (above). I like the firm texture of these little button mushrooms.

Clam miso, saltier, more clam broth flavors.

Homemade real wasabi is a sign of a series sushi restaurant.

8 of the 10 pieces of the lunch special. Two came on a sidecar.

And here is the sidecar. On the left, Uni (sea urchin) and on the right Ikura (salmon egg roe). Both are specular versions of the type. The uni was sweet and soft, the eggs little perfect balls of sharp brine, no bitterness at all.

The sushi itself. Left to right. Maguro (blue fin tuna), Hamachi (yellow tail tuna), chu-toro (medium tuna belly), Tai (red snapper), Sweet Shrimp, and Shimaji (stripe jack). All were delicious. Sushi sushi for the most part puts the wasabi and the soy sauce on the pieces before serving them.

Chopped Toro (tuna belly) cut roll, then Tamago (sweet omelet), and Unagi (fresh water eel). Yum!

My brother doesn’t like uni, so he got Kani (fresh king crab) instead.

Some extra pieces we ordered. Left to right. Ika (squid) with shiso, o-toro (premium tuna belly), and raw Japanese scallop. Again all wonderful.

A Kani (king crab) handroll, with cucumber for crunch. Sushi sushi cuts the handrolls at the bottom to make a little flap of nori (seaweed) that covers the bottom. Small, but elegant, detail.

Baked salmon skin handroll. Always has a nice crunch.

Hamachi (yellowtail) handroll, another classic.

Afterward, walking back to our car, we ran into this temptation.

As always, I went for the coconut cream-cheese.

Not a bad version of the type. The top has the proper extreme sweetness, and there was a dab of whipped filling in the center, a bit like some hostess treat.

If you enjoyed this, make sure to check out the previous review, the next review, or some other good sushi like Sasabune, Nobu, Matsuhisa, Takao, or the incomparable Urwasawa.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Asian, Atlantic Spanish mackerel, Beverly Hills California, Caviar, crab, Food, Hamachi, Ikura, Japanese cuisine, Miso, Miso soup, Omakase, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sashimi, side dishes, Spanish Mackerel, Sushi, Sushi Sushi

Quick Eats: Momed

Mar03

Restaurant: Momed

Location: 233 S Beverly Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 270-4444

Date: January 31 & April 16, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Middle Eastern

Rating: Interesting, and tasty modernized Middle Eastern.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I met a friend here for lunch. I would have to say at it’s core this place is closest to Lebanese, but everything is very modernized for the contemporary Beverly Hills crowd. That being said, it all tasted really fresh and delicious.

The Menu can be found here.

A lot of the mezza/salads are on display. As you can see, they look pretty good.

We ordered a three “salad” plate with left to right.

1. Humammara, roasted red pepper, walnut and pomegranate. Really nice rich flavor here.

2. Spicy eggplant, oven roasted eggplant with tahini and Urfa chili. Not very spicy, but great texture.

3. Tzatziki, cucumber and yogurt dip. A fine example of the type, and I like the type.

Parsnip hummus with oven-roasted wild mushrooms. The parsnips gave this hummus the texture of very light and fluffy mashed potatoes. It was pretty darn awesome though, and nicely warm.

All these dips were really sold by this most excellent warm homemade pita. This was no “tear open the supermarket bag” pita. Soft, warm, chewy.

They call this a “pide” (traditional flatbread). Basically like a Naan crossed with a calzone or strombolli. This one is stuffed with “Ohanyan spicy soujuk sausage, red onions, piquillo peppers and akawi cheese.” I mention the strombolli because that is what this reminded me of: a really good fresh version of one of those pizza dough, pepperoni, and cheese rolls. The sausage leaked off a good amount of grease, but it was good.

The following was from a different day, April 16, 2011:

Another three salad plate, left to right:

1. Humammara, roasted red pepper, walnut and pomegranate. Really nice rich flavor here.

2. Avocado Hummus, like a cross between hummus and guacamole!

3. Tzatziki, cucumber and yogurt dip. A fine example of the type, and I like the type.

A different flatbread. Hallomi and akawi cheeses finished with Za’atar. Very nice and cheesy, with interesting and exotic flavors. Lighter than the sausage one for sure.

Yogurt-marinated chicken breast kababs with rice pilaf and marinated Persian cucumbers with chili and poppy seeds.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, Cooking, Eggplant, Fruit and Vegetable, Humammara, Hummus, Lebanese cuisine, Middle East, Momed, Naan, Pita, Red onion, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad, Şanlıurfa, side dishes, Tzatziki, vegetarian

Red Medicine the Relapse

Feb23

Restaurant: Red Medicine [1, 2, 3]

Location: 8400 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, Ca. 90211. 323-651-6500.

Date: February 19, 2011

Cuisine: Modernized Vietnamese

Summary: Really interesting food full of very bold flavors, and at very reasonable prices.

For my brother’s birthday we decided to head back to Red Medicine (first review HERE), the casual modernized Vietnamese place in mid-town. Tasty again! Even on a very rainy night it was hopping and we had to get a drink at the crowded bar to wait for our table.

The drink menu features a number of very interesting and extremely well executed specialty cocktails. Plus, these are very reasonably priced at $10. The PDF version is HERE.

“#18 Krome Vodka, Chili-Anise Shrub, Lime, Grapefruit, Peychaud’s Bitters, Basil(s), Ginger Beer. Shaken and rolled into a tall glass. Inspired by Scott Beattie’s ‘Irian Jaya’.” This was one yummy drink. The ingredients were all clearly very fresh, and you could taste each and every element. The sour of the grapefruit in the front, the basil in the middle, the bitters and ginger on the finish. I sucked it down in like 2 minutes.

The main menu. Slightly changed up from when we were here in December. The PDF version HERE. Everything is family style with approximately 3 savory dishes needed per adult.

And the wine-list, PDF HERE. They have a rather odd corkage policy. During the week it’s $25, but they will waive one corkage for each bottle you buy, which is very reasonable. Friday and Saturday, no corkage! I don’t like no corkage, but the list is very reasonable, with many fine sweetish whites (which I like and go with the food) in the $55 category.

Like this favorite of mine, Parker gives it 91. “Extremely bright in aroma as well as palate impression, the Prums’ 2008 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Kabinett is dominated by lemon and grapefruit, with village typical cherry and cassis manifesting themselves as an invigorating chew of fruit skin that is delightfully complimented by estate-typical impingement of CO2. Lush yet light, this finishes with not only blazing brightness but a cress-like pungency and strikingly intense salinity and suggestions of wet stone, making your palate stand to attention, wide awake! Plan on following it for a couple of decades, although, unlike many Joh. Jos. Prum wines, I find it (and many of the estate’s 2008s) downright irresistible already.”

“hokkaido scallop cured with lime sugar, green strawberries, coriander, wood sorrel.” This replaces the excellent “Fluke cured with lime” dish from last time. It wasn’t quite as good, but was still wonderful. The scallop was subtle and soft, the white radish crunchy and bitter, and my favorite part the “lime sugar” floating on the vinegar sauce.

“SOFT RICE PAPER / rock shrimp, jackfruit, black garlic, bean sprouts.” A varient on the typical soft spring roll. Nice textures, and the shrimp were good, but could have used a bit more flavor, or just some sweet and sour sauce.

“DUCK / 5-spice, charred frisee, chicory, tamarind syrup, grains of paradise.” A repeat, but worth it. This duck has a wonderful charred and sweet BBQ flavor, and it just falls apart. Really succulent.

“BANH MI / foie gras, pate de campagne.” Another irresistible repeat. The rich foie, the crunch of the pickles and crust, and the considerable heat of the seranno peppers all blend to perfection. Similar yet different from the other Banh Mi I had recently at Saam (REVIEW HERE).

“LAMB BELLY / hoisin, hibiscus-onion, sunflower seeds, salsify, lady apple.” A brand new dish, and a stunner. The dark stuff is the lamb, and the sunflower crusted stuff the salsify. There is a unique blend of flavors and textures here, but the lamb was the stand out. Crispy fried in hoisin it most closely resembled an awesome interpretation of crispy Schezuan beef.

“BEEF TARTARE / water lettuce, water chestnut, spicy herbs, nuoc leo, chlorophyll.” Another goodie. The meat and greens are placed on a shrimp chip. Fabulous interplay of texture and flavor.

“PORK / caramelized black vinegar and honey, prunes, sorrel, dried almond.” Again one of my favorites. This pork is like the perfect sweet BBQ. It just falls apart.

The dessert menu, PDF HERE. We ordered the two we didn’t have last time.

“RHUBARB / mahlab cremeux, hibiscus, gentian, aromatic willow.” This, I guess, is supposed to be a reinterpretation of a strawberry shortcake. The net effect to me was perhaps a bit more like cheesecake. It was very creamy and pleasant, with the rhubarb itself understated and adding only a subtle sourness to the dish. It certainly looks pretty too!

“LIME SABAYON / cucumber ice cream, cashew macaroons, white chocolate, jasmine.” This dish had strong taste resemblances to Key Lime Pie. Particularly if you got all the elements except for the cucumber ice-cream. This last was good, but through off the key lime thing. The butter colored disk below is the lime I think, and the macaroons had an awesome perfect chewy texture. Overall a really good dish.

Overall Red Medicine continued to impress. It offers really interesting and cutting edge food with bold and unique flavors at a very reasonable price point. I love the small dish only format. I’ve become so spoiled by that or long prix fixe meals that I can hardly eat at normal appetizer/entree restaurants anymore 🙂 If you haven’t been here, go!

To the Chefs and Owners, I thank you, and just hope that you keep mixing up the menu so it continues to offer variety and new flavors!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Food as Art – Sushi Sushi

Feb13

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

Location: 326 1/2 Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 277-1165

Date: February 11, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Old school sushi – fantastic fish and presentation!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Last week I ate at this new (to me) sushi place in Beverly Hills, the redundantly named, “Sushi Sushi.” It was great but I didn’t have my camera. So with a bit of arm twisting — not — I convinced my brother to head back for a repeat.

The storefront, on Beverly Dr just south of Wilshire.

A small subset of the sushi bar. “Sushi sushi” is a pretty old-school looking Japanese place inside. Small room, small tables, and a sushi bar of about 12-15 seats. We decided to get the middle Omakase and let the chef work his magic.

He started out with this sashimi plate!

Perfect Santa Barbara Uni (sea urchin) on a bed of soft Ika (squid). A bit of wasabi mixed with something, and some sauce (had a little citrus in it I think). Both fishes are sweet, with the uni being delectably so. The squid was very soft with that slightly pasty texture squid is supposed to have. While this is not a dish for the land-lubber, it was awesome!

Fresh raw Hama oysters, with a bit of soy vinaigrette. Yum too.

My brother isn’t so into the Uni, so he got sweet shrimp instead.

Blue fin tuna. The chef here “pre-sauces” the fish, so no soy sauce is needed. In this case it’s already been put on. I had this done a number of times in Japan, and at high end places here like Urwasawa (HERE FOR REVIEW). The tuna melted in the mouth. Sushi Sushi uses big pieces of fish and a small ball of rice too. The rice is traditional, not the warm rice favored by Sasabune (HERE FOR REVIEW).

Tai (Red Snapper), with a slightly citrusy sauce. This is a lighter fish, but I’m very partial to it.

After this we had another course pairing a piece of Chu-toro (medium grade fatty tuna belly) and a piece of Kampachi (young yellowtail). Tragically, somehow I forgot to photograph it. /cry /cry

The toro was soft and delicious, the kampachi firmer, but also very tasty, just not nearly as rich.

The chu-toro was just a warmup for this o-toro, the even more fatty toro. It melted in the mouse like butter. Always one of my (and everyone else’s) favorites.

Then there was a piece of scottish salmon which I also missed a photo of. Maybe I’m going crazy, maybe it was just the hangover from Saam the night before, I don’t know. In any case it was one of the best pieces of salmon I’ve ever had.

And another missed one, aji (Spanish Mackerel), with only the very slightest bit of fishy. Again, a great mackerel.

And a fourth miss. Kohada (Japanese Herring) I swear I photoed these, but they’re not on my camera. This was great herring, but is certainly a bit fishy — herring always is.

Saba mackerel, not as good as the Spanish one, but nothing to mock either.

Another sashimi course. Sweet shrimp, Japanese scallop, giant clam, and taco (octopus). Are were prefect examples of the breed, and doused with a little bit of yuzu (just the fruit, not with the pepper) to test them up.

My brother got albacore.

Asari miso (clam broth miso soup). This is a very light miso, with a clam brothy quality. Not too salty, very nice.

They say you should judge a sushi chef by his tamago (sweet omelet). By those standards Sushi Sushi rules.

Ikura (salmon roe). Perfectly fresh, with just the slightest hint of brine (good). Wonderfully taught, they explode in the mouth like little brine balls.

Uni (sea urchin) sushi. I can’t get enough of this. It amazes me to think that even just a couple years ago (bear in mind that I have been eating sushi since 1978) I didn’t like the stuff.

Seared Japanese scallop.

Diced Toro handroll. This had yellow pickles and shiso leaf inside, which added texture and the exotic and wonderful flavor of the leaf.

Unagi (Fresh water eel). BBQ, with the sweet eel sauce. This was some damn fine eel, as good a piece as I’ve had.

Our chef. I think he’s been working the knives for a while.

Sushi sushi is a new favorite place of mine. This place is GOOD! Not only because the fish is totally delectable, but because it offers that relative rarity now in LA, the “traditional sushi bar.” I like the warm rice Nozawa/Sasabune school and the modern Nobu school, but there is something satisfying about the original.

A second and third Sushi Sushi meal review can be found HERE and HERE.

Or for the LA sushi index, HERE.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Asian, Beverly Hills California, Cooking, Dessert, fish, Food, Japanese, Japanese cuisine, Monkfish, Omakase, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sashimi, Sushi, Sushi Sushi

Matsuhisa – Where it all started

Jan24

Restaurant: Matsuhisa [1, 2]

Location: 129 N La Cienega Blvd Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 659-9639

Date: January 23, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Fusion

Rating: As good as it’s always been!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

When I first ate at Matsuhisa 15 years ago it was a revelation. I’d been eating all this great traditional sushi for years and here was a totally new — even avant garde — take on the cuisine. Classic dishes like yellowtail with jalepeno have made there way onto countless less innovative menus. It’s been awhile since I’ve been here, and I felt the hankering to know if they still had the stuff.

Nobu, a Japanese native (obviously), came to LA by way of Peru. And this is apparently the real genesis of the “Nobu Style,” mixing traditional sushi with Peruvian flavors. Apparently it has a relationship even to Peruvian street food. I myself only spent an hour int he Lima airport, so I can’t testify to that.

A Matsuhisa classic, “Toro tartar with caviar and a miso ponzu.” I’ve always loved the combo of the rich fatty toro and the acidic punch of the sauce. This theme of adding acidity to the fish is a consistant one.

Very very nice burgundy. Not many reds go well with the soy notes of this cuisine, but Burgundy does. The softness of the pino — minus the overzealous oaking that new world pinos usually have, works. Parker gives it a 97. “Grilled spices, and sweet red fruits are found in the aromatics of the 2003 La Romanee. Full-bodied, fresh and rich, this intense wine exhibits exceptional depth of fruit, concentration, and purity. Loads of candied black cherries dominate its juicy, extroverted personality and copious solid (yet ripe) tannin make an appearance in its exceedingly long finish. This offering, a beautiful marriage of power and elegance, should be drunk between 2009 and 2020.”

“Seafood springroll with heirloom tomato and caviar.” Certainly a tasty spring roll, and a dish I’ve had here before. Still it tastes mostly like fry and tomato. Good fry.

Clockwise from the back left. Monkfish liver with a little chille, tuna with onion and cucumber salsa, young yellowtail with ponzu, and spicy tuna taco. All of these were tasty, but I particularly liked the rich monkfish liver and it’s combined vinegar/spice tang.

Japanese baby conch, monkfish liver with ponzu and chille, tuna with salsa, young yellowtail with ponzu.

The conch pulled from its happy little home, coated in butter and parsley. This has a bit of chew to it, and a bit of bitterness, but is actually very pleasant.

“Artichoke salad.”

“Sashimi salad,” japanese scallop, tuna, mackerel, daikon wrapped greens. All very fresh. The scallop was particularly good. I love raw japanese scallop. Cooking them is a crime. Nobu has very good dressings. In fact, he sells a line of them commercially!

“Seabass with a sweet sauce and mache and grilled pepper.”

Half giant santa barbara prawn with cilantro, ponzu, and mache. Good sweet prawn. Too bad it didn’t have a nice juicy row like they sometimes do.

Seared toro with soba noodles and miso sauce.

Kobe beef, farro, mushrooms, and chipolte chili sauce. This was a really tasty dish. The sauce had a bit of heat, and that smoked chili flavor, paired perfectly with the tender/rich meat and the grains.

Left to right. Tuna, yellowtail, salmon, red snapper, tamago (egg). Fresh wasabi and picked ginger.

Toro, squid, mackerel, kanpachi, sea eel. The sushi here still is totally first rate. Melt in your mouth first rate. And I liked the big hunks of fresh marinated ginger.

Miso soup. Classic.

The vintage Matsuhisa dessert, “bento box” of flour-less chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. It’s still a combo that works — even if it’s very overdone. They use a very high quality ice cream.

Banana bread pudding with vanilla ice creme and creme anglais. Even though I’m not much of a banana fan, this was really delicious.

“Green-tea tiramisu with chocolate ice cream.” This was my least favorite of the three, although certainly not “bad”‘ in any way.

Certainly Nobu has kept the quality level up. In an absolute sense things are as good as ever. One weird bit is that so many other places have copied the cuisine . Not that they do it better. Most don’t use the same quality of ingredients, or they overdo stuff, dumping too much spicy mayo or sweet sauce on everything. A perfect example of this is Sushi House Unico (REVIEW HERE). Like anything more or not always more. Not that Unico isn’t a perfectly tasty joint, but it isn’t in the same league as Matsuhisa. Takao (who used to work for Nobu) and the late Hump (memorial REVIEW HERE) are among the few places that have their own totally successful take on the style.

But something that has also nagged at me for years is this, given how innovative the whole cuisine was to begin with, how relatively little has changed. Does each great chef have only one break through? Is innovation of this sort only done by the young? Or is the novelty born of the fusion of Japanese and Peruvian flavors? Maybe we need to send Nobu on a world eating tour!

For a second review of Matsuhisa, in the private room, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, Cooking, Dessert, Fish and Seafood, Food, Japanese cuisine, Matsuhisa, Ponzu, Restaurant, reviews, Sauce, side dishes, Sushi, Tuna, vegetarian, Wine tasting descriptors

Red Medicine is the Cure

Dec25

Restaurant: Red Medicine [1, 2, 3]

Location: 8400 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, Ca. 90211. 323-651-6500.

Date: Dec 22, 2010

Cuisine: Modernized Vietnamese

Rating: Pretty awesome!

I’m a loyal reader of Kevin Eats and two weeks ago when he posted an opening night review of a new Vietnamese inspired restaurant named Red Medicine I instantly knew I had to go. Boy am I glad I did. I love good traditional Vietnamese for its intricate flavor palette (see my review here). This new place takes it to a new level, updating and modernizing. This is highly innovative stuff — at least when you consider the sea of Japanese and Italian clones that overwhelm our fair city.

Vietnamese is tough stuff to pair with red wine, but a Grand Cru Burgundy is soft and fruity enough to manage. Parker gives this one 93 points and says, “I loved the sweet cassis aromas of the 2002 Echezeaux as well as its powerful, intense, syrupy personality. Medium to full-bodied and gorgeously ripe, it bastes the palate with thick black fruit flavors. In addition, this wine reveals great depth and a lengthy, fruit-packed finish. Projected maturity: 2007-2017.”

The menu. This is all small dishes (the way I like it). We ordered 12 savories and 3 deserts for 4 people and that was about perfect.

“KELLEY’S MOM’S FARM EGG / brassicas, pickled rose hips, chili, fried garlic, boiled peanuts, lovage.” This dish typifies what the chef’s are doing here. It mixes all sorts of flavors, and a lot of fresh herbs, vegetables, and pickled vegetables. The peanuts were those large soft Asian ones and this egg was so soft it ended up in the dish like egg noodles. The overall flavor was salty and herby — and delicious. Plus HOT. Those red peppers were a bit of surprise, but a pleasant burn.

“fluke cured with lime leaf, radishes, charred cucumber, pine needle.” This was another very interesting flavor combo. Hot again (there are serrano peppers in there) and strong notes of basil and pickle. Delicious!

“BEEF / fermented soy bean, bacon XO, chinese eggplant, purple cabbage, celery stem, nuoc cham.” The beef and eggplant had an intense charred flavor, like filet minion BBQ or something. The purple cabbage paired with it like a kind of Asian variant on the cole slaw one might have with Southern BBQ. Wow.

“CHICKEN DUMPLINGS / caramelized sugar, pork fat, lemongrass, confitures.” The elements (chicken, mint, pickles, scallions, sauce) are combined on a lettuce leaf as shown below. I nabbed a healthy blast of the red stuff. Hot again!

Other than the heat, this wasn’t as strongly flavored as the other dishes (and I like strong). It was good, but not as good.

“kabocha, burnt onion, chinese sausage, chrysanthemum, creme fraiche.” This was basically BBQ squash with yoghurt and sweet BBQ sauce. It was really good.

“kohlrabi, tofu cream, grapefruit, fish sauce, lettuces, sunchokes.” This was my least favorite dish of the night. Again, not bad, not just not as exciting. It was cool and refreshing.

“BEEF TARTARE / mustard leaf, water chestnut, spicy herbs, nuoc leo, chlorophyll.” Under the green is the beef tartare. You shovel it on the garlic rice crackers. It was incredible. Not intense, but a lovely flavor.

My brother enjoys some of the squash.

“WILD STRIPED BASS / brown butter-soy milk, verbena, pomelo, raw chestnut, lettuce stems.” This very nicely cooked fish was bathing in this garlicky butter sauce. Nice too, but pretty rich.

“CRISPY SPRING ROLL / dungeness crab, calamansi, pea pods, fines herbs, chili.” Excellent varient on the crispy spring roll tradition. I liked the creamy bits of sauce.

Red Medicine has a very nice list of sweet whites, including many from Zind Humbrecht. They have a $25 corkage (normal enough), but if you buy a bottle they waive it totally. So I bought this nice riesling for $55 and essentially it cost me $5 (I saved 2 corkages). This is probably a 92-93 point Spatlese. Its apricot and pear sweetness did pair perfectly with the food.

“‘BANH MI’ / foie gras, pate de campagne.” Wow these were good. The fois meshed nicely with the bit of serrano, the pickles etc.

“PORK / caramelized black vinegar and honey, prunes, sorrel, dried almond.” This was a tremendous BBQ pork. The fluffy stuff is almond poppy seed puff rice. It mostly added texture and a vague nuttiness. The pork however was incredibly soft, the sauce almost mole like. The net affect was a pit like South Carolina pulled pork without the vinegar.

“DUCK / 5-spice, charred frisee, chicory, tamarind syrup, grains of paradise.” This duck was also awesome, like confit — or maybe it was confit.

The open kitchen. The place was packed too, even on a holiday Wednesday, after having been open a mere two weeks.

The pastry chef here is world class.

“COCONUT BAVAROIS / coffee, condensed milk, thai basil, peanut croquant, chicory.” This was fantastic. All sorts of interesting textures (check out those fish eye looking things), and a soft taste of coffee, a good dose of peanut butter — and basil!

“LEMONGRASS POTS DE CREME / sweet potato, orange blossom, red bull, bergamot.” Creme Brulee basically, but lemongrass! Unusualy, but excellent.

“BITTER CHOCOLATE / kecap manis, oats, pear, parsnip,brown butter.” This was also good, crunchy, drier — pretty.

I’m very excited about this place and its new flavors. I’ll head back soon. I hope, though, that they switch up the menu with great regularity. Not that what is there isn’t great, but it would seem a waste to stagnate this kind of creativity.

For a second meal at Red Medicine (different dishes for the most part), see HERE.