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San Fran – RN74

Mar12

Restaurant: RN74

Location: 301 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: 415.543.7474

Date: February 10, 2012

Cuisine: American

Rating: Good, but not spectacular

I really wanted to go to Michael Mina‘s front line restaurant but given the presence of my three year-old son his more casual bistro seemed a wiser choice.

The decor is casual, chic, and modern. This is part of the new wave of post recession more “pubby” fine dining.

Le menu.

“Cauliflower and sea urchin soup. Crispy-poached egg, fava beans, parsley root, tarragon.”

In French style, in soup is poured in table-side.

“Ahi Tuna Cru. Fallot mustard, french pickle relish, breakfast radishes, watercress.”

“Roasted beets. Hawaiian hearts of palm, winter citrus, savory almond brittle.”

“Cascade mountain artic char. Spatzle, black trumpet mushrooms, brussels sprouts, whole grain mustard.”

“brussels sprouts.”

“Grilled mediterranean sea bass. Steamed mussels, prawns, chickpea panisse, lobster-blood orange bouillabaisse.”

The sauce is added after. This is really a form of deconstructed bouillabaisse, not being a proper soup. Personally, I prefer le classique. This was fine but it tasted rather of “grill” and I prefer tomato and garlic!

Some pleasant complementary cookies. Almond cakey things.

Overall, this was a solid meal, but nothing blew me away. Execution was fine, and call me jaded (a word coming from the Norse for a broken-down old nag), but I was a little bored.

For more San Francisco dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: California, Cooking, Michael Mina, Restaurants and Bars, RN74, San Francisco

San Fran – Jardinere

Feb24

Restaurant: Jardinere

Location: 300 Grove St. San Francisco, CA 94102. (415) 861-5555

Date: February 9, 2012

Cuisine: California French

Rating: Solid flavors

We left the reservation aspect of our San Francisco trip to a bit late. S.F. diners, it seems, make their reservations early. Besides, we were traveling with my 3-year-old, so long involved tasting menus were not an option. Sigh. Coi even had availability. In any case, we ended up at this overpriced but tasty California French. Although not pictured, the dining room is lovely in one of those ornate between the wars styles.

“Pierre Gelin, Gevrey-Chambertin “Clos de Meixvelle” 2007.” This turned out to be an excellent example of young Burgundy. Bright notes of berries I soft round charm.

The menu changes frequently.

“Roasted Butternut Squash Soap, herb goat cheese, prosciutto and spiced pepitas.” The specific soup pictured did not include the ham.

“mushroom cappuccino.” One of our diners did not order the 1st course and received this as a free substitute.

“Venison Tartare, cara cara orange, celery root and mustard seed.” I’m totally becoming a Tartar addict.

“Carnaroli Risotto, Delta Asparagus, English Peas and Parmiggiano-Reggiano.”

“Liberty Farms Duck Breast, Savoy Cabbage, Preserved Kumquats and Farro.” Perfectly rare.

Homemade pasta with tomatoes for my son.

And the all-important cheese.

The dessert menu.

“Bonne Bouche Platter. Crème Brûlée, Opera Cake, Petite Tarts, Cookies, Fruit Jellies, Chocolate Truffles and Candies.” A bit of everything — and in a good way.

“Bearss Lime Cake. Coconut Crème, Margarita Sorbet and Salt Air.” Basically deconstructed piña colada.

Overall, this was a good meal. The price tag reflected the location near the theater and the ornate dining room. The food was not stunningly guard, but it was on point.

For more San Fran dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: California, Chocolate truffle, Crème Brûlée, Food, Gevrey-Chambertin, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area

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
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Posted in: Food

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

Palm Springs – Colony Palms Hotel

Jan16

Restaurant: Colony Palms Hotel

Location: 572 N. Indian Canyon Drive Palm Springs, CA 92262. 760.969.1801

Date: December 26-27, 2011

Cuisine: American

Rating: Solid cafe food

During the holiday break my wife, son, and I made a quick little visit to Palm Springs and I would be remiss as a food blogger in not chronically the culinary aspects of the journey. Foodwise, as in many other ways, this little desert oasis is a bit of a throwback.

The view from our hotel restaurant, which given the gorgeous 78 degree clear December weather was pretty darn fine.

Veggie burger with fries. Apparently, this was a very good example of the beast. The fries sure were good.

Cobb salad (I left out the tomatoes). I’ve had a lot of cobb salads. This was a 6/10 as they go.

At breakfast, French toast with creme anglais and apple soaked in calvados. This isn’t the prettiest dish but it sure tasted great. The creme was superb and the apples lent some addition cinnamony sweetness to the mix.

A berry smoothy.

And my scramble, with ham, bacon, caramelized onions, and goat cheese. Again, not a looker, but it tasted good.

As hotel restaurants go the Colony Palms one was solid. The food was tasty and the setting nice. It wasn’t anything to completely rave about, but on average at hotels you can do far far worse.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Breakfast, Brunch, California, Coachella Valley, Colony Palms Hotel, Dessert, Eggs, French Toast, Palm Springs, Palm Springs California, smothie

Uh no, Takao again!

Jan09

Restaurant: Takao [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 11656 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 207-8636

Date: December 10, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi

Rating: 9/10 creative “new style” sushi

I’ve already covered Takao in some detail HERE and then separately here, here, and here, but we went back (we go often). The full menu and some information on the history of the place can be found through the first link.

This particular meal is another take on the medium sized omakase, which is a very good deal (in a relative high-end sushi kind of way).

We started off with a lovely “shaved rice” style cold sake. I’ve become increasingly fond of this old-school premium form of sake.

A starter trio. Some crab in miso, fresh salmon sahimi with onions, and marinated ginko nuts.

Spanish mackerel salad with spinach. The fish was marinated and grilled and they formed a nice fresh contrast.

Scallop sashimi with a trio of sauces.

And fresh octopus sashimi with the same sauces for contrast.

Then some top grade toro sashimi. Like butter baby!

New style sashimi with warm olive oil, sasame, chives, ponzu, and sliced truffle.

King crab legs with a sweet vinaigrette.

Traditional Japanese egg custard with mushrooms and fish. Like creme brulee without the crust or the sugar and with fish!

Seared at the table beef (in a teriyaki-style sauce) cooked as you like it in a cast iron plate.

Eel tempura. Tasty, I think this was the first time I’ve had eel as tempura.

Classic miso soup.

A little sushi flight. Left to right. Toro, yellowtail, salmon, tai (red snapper), and tomago (sweet omelet).

And finally green tea creme brule for dessert.

Another intensely satisfying Japanese meal down the gullet. As you see, we keep going back to Takao and while the style remains the same, the ingredients mix it up substantially each time. Awesome place. More reviews here: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

For more LA area sushi, see here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: California, Dessert, Japanese cuisine, Los Angeles, Los Angeles metropolitan area, Omakase, sake, Sashimi, Sushi, Takao

A-Frame – Ultimate Picnic Food

Jan01

Restaurant: A-Frame

Location: 12565 Washington Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90066 – tel: 310-398-7700

Date: December 15, 2011 & February 28, 2012

Cuisine: Gastro Picnic

Rating: Really yummy

A-Frame’s building used to be an IHOP — hence it’s architecture and the name.

It has, however, been really revamped.

A nice Burgundy to begin.

The menu is fairly short. We ordered everything tapas style, regardless of the category.

“Heirloom pickles.” I like pickles, but perhaps better with rice al la certain Japanese dishes.

“Island Farmer’s Market Salad.” A nice pleasant salad with Asian notes.

“WAGYU BEEF TATAKI with sliced pearl onions, ginger, pickled jalapeño and shoyu vinaigrette.” This was a wonderful dish. Very tangy with great texture.

“BLUE CRAB CAKES with lemongrass creme fraiche, bibb lettuce, and perilla leaf.” These crabcakes were to be eaten “thai-style” wrapped in lettuce. They were quite good.

“CHARRED BABY OCTOPUS with carrot kochujang puree, bok choy, pickled vegetables and nori seaweed.” Another nice dish.

“SESAME LEAF WRAPPED SHRIMP TEMPURA with fresh cucumber, herbs and shoyu dipping sauce.” This had shiso (a Japanese mint relative), which pretty much means I adored it.

“CLAM CHOWDER with green curry, lemongrass, pancetta, coconut milk and toasted sourdough.” A really nice take on “clam chowder.” Essentially it tasted a lot like one of those creamy coconut milk/lemongrass thai soups, but with a nice bacon richness somewhat akin to a great New England chowder. Bravo!

“BABY BACK RIBS air-dried and hoisin-chili glazed.” These were some great ribs too, with a rich “Chinesy” taste and a good amount of vinegar.

“ROASTED LAMB with toasted sesame oil, shoyu and garlic served with fresh herb salad and salsa verde.” This dish was fine, but it didn’t have the flavor impact I was looking for.

“CRACKLIN BEER CAN CHICKEN with kimchi, century egg, salsa roja and verde.” Good fried chicken.

“Lamb Meatball Skewer.” These were nice ground lamb skewers, but they seemed a bit expensive for what they were.

“Pan Roasted Brussel Sprouts. with rice cakes, kimchi bacon puree and diced apples.” The bacon sold it.

“BANANA BACON CREAM PIE vanilla cream, caramel bananas, and bacon brittle.” I hate banana, but this was still good. The bacon sold it!

“THICK ASS ICE CREAM SANDWICHES with black pepper szechuan ice cream and salted chocolate cookie.” This was a wonderful ice cream sandwich. I loved the peppery ice cream.

“CHU-DON’T-KNOW-MANG pound cake cinnamon churros, with malted chocolate milk and vanilla ice cream.” And this was the complete winner in the dessert category. These were some of the best churros I’ve had, and that milkshake-like thing was awesome.

Happy times!

The chickens going around and around.

Overall, I was very pleased with A-Frame and will totally be back. This was a pair of VERY tasty meals with a unique take on fairly uncomplicated food. Essentially, it’s very contemporary without being avant garde, and fuses eclectic flavors from around the world with American comfort foods.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: AFrame, California, Clam chowder, Culver City, gastropub, Los Angeles, Public house, ribs, Santa Monica California

Jer-ne to the center of the Marina

Oct31

Restaurant: Jer-ne

Location: Ritz-Carlton. 4375 Admiralty Way. Marina del Rey, California 90292 USA. (310) 823-1700

Date: October 29, 2011

Cuisine: Californian

Rating: Solid

When the Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey renovated and opened its new restaurant in the early 2000s the naming committee was obviously inspired by Steve Martin‘s classic LA Story (and its 80s restaurant, lee-dee-oh — spelled l’idiot). In any case, the original Jer-ne actually served up top notch California Asian Fusion when it opened. Like most hotel restaurants, there has been chef turnover — who knows how many times in the last decade. I hadn’t been in a few years (except for the pretty amazing Sunday brunch) and when an old friend from High School Facebook IMed me that he was in town, we headed on over.

The menu is mean and lean, all streamlined modern Californian.

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.”

The Ritz always had good cheesy cracker things.

“caesar. organic romaine, santa barbara olives, tomatoes, crouton.”

“oyster. pacific oysters, crispy potato, spanish ham, sambuca hollandaise.” The sauces were really good, but the oysters had that bitter note that fried oysters often have. Every time I have them I’m reminded that I like my oysters raw.

“halibut. sautéed leek, double smoked bacon, corn, potato, clam chowder sauce.”

“salmon. green bean, glazed carrots, potato puree, parsley butter.”

“lamb. sirloin, heirloom tomato, organic ratatouille, tomato mustard chutney.” Some very tasty and relatively lean lamb. The sauce was one of those meaty jus reductions that I love.

The dessert menu.

“greek yogurt panna cotta. slow roasted market stonefruit, corn praline, thymje.”

“spiced peanut butter mousse. crunchy peanut butter chocolate, candied ginger ice cream, spicy caramelized honey.” This was a nice dessert. A good interplay between the fluffy peanut butter, crunch, and the ginger ice cream.

Overall the food at this new Jer-ne was good. It didn’t blow me away or anything, and it’s very different than it used to be 8 or so years ago (full of Japanese influenced dishes), but it was a very solid take on conservative but well executed the New American. Even the desserts show plating influences that are very contemporary — what I think of as geometric and dust — the use of cubes, spheres, and ovals in a sort of post war art kind of arrangement, often dusted with granular flavor components. Red Medicine’s desserts are typical examples, but I suspect it’s really a Ferran Adrià thing.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Admiralty, California, Dessert, fish, lamb, Marina del Rey, Marina del Rey California, Oyster, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Ritz-Carlton, Steve Martin, vegetarian

Echigo Sushi

Oct28

Restaurant: Echigo

Location: 12217 Santa Monica Blvd. Suite 201. Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 820-9787

Date: October 27, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Very good warm-rice style sushi

Back when my office was at the Watergarden in Santa Monica Echigo was one of my regular lunch haunts. The chef studied under Nozawa and is stylistically related to nearby Sasabune. They both follow the “warm rice” school of sushi (which I believe originates in Osaka prefecture. The rice is warmer and less sticky than Tokyo-style sushi. It tastes really good this way, but has some tendency to fall apart on the way to the mouth.

The lunch menu has two choices, the lunch special for $14 and the omakase. Below is the union (both) of each. The lunch special is by far the best deal (6-7 years ago it was even $9!).

Fresh ground wasabi and pickled ginger. These photos were taken on the iPhone 4S which does pretty well in good light. A few missed photos were purloined from the web.

Skipjack tuna with a bit of sauce.

Medium (chu) toro.

Hamachi (yellowtail).

Halibut, which itself doesn’t have much flavor, but the vinegary sauce does.

Tai (red snapper).

Scallop. One of my favorites.

Salmon with a bit of kelp and sesame.

Bonito, also delicious.

Albacore.

Kanpachi (young yellowtail). With a bright vinegary sauce.

Ono.

Shimaji (stripped jack).

Butterfish. This is an Echigo specialty. A firm fish with miso based sauce.

Uni (sea urchin).

And the now classic Nozawa blue crab hand roll (I ate two and could have had more).

Echigo is a hair below a few of the very top lunch LA sushi places (Sushi Sushi, Mori, Go, Kiriko etc), but it offers pretty good relative value, and on the absolute scale top sushi, far above the generic touristy sushi joint. Getting the Omakase at dinner at the sushi bar is an even higher caliber experience.

For more LA area sushi, see here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (5)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Alaskan king crab fishing, Asian, California, Echigo, Echigo Sushi, Hamachi, Japan, Japanese cuisine, Los Angeles, Omakase, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Rice, Salmon, Sushi, Tokyo

Saam – José Andrés Squared

Oct08

Restaurant: Saam [1, 2, 3]

Location: 465 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048. 310.246.5555

Date: October 1, 2011

Cuisine: Spanish influenced Molecular Gastronomy

Rating: Awesome, even better than The Bazaar.

I’m a bit of a Jose Andres groupie as not only have I been many times to the The Bazaar (REVIEW HERE), but also to brunch at Trés, and just last week to é by José Andrés and Jaleo in Vegas.

For those who don’t know, José Andrés is perhaps America’s leading practitioner of my favorite culinary style: Spanish Molecular Gastronomy. This school of cooking, a radical interpretation of the preparation of food, was begun at El Bulli outside of Barcellona. Andrés cooked and studied there with master chef Ferran Adrià. I first encountered Andrés’s cooking in Washington DC at Cafe Atlantico, and it’s own restaurant within a restaurant, Minibar.

I’ve eaten molecular a number of times in Spain, for example at Calima and La Terraza. The Bazaar and Saam brought molecular style to LA.

Saam is the “secret” prix fixe only room within the Bazaar, open Thurs-Sat.

This is the normal menu for the night. If you let them know they do however adapt very adeptly to dietary restrictions.

Tonight begins with a “Kaviar Kir Royale” which is a deconstructed cocktail consisting of cava.

And miniature “kaviar” (spheres of kir).

You can see them more clearly here, looking every bit like fish eggs. Basically it’s mostly cava, but at your whim you can bit into the little balls of flavor for bits of kir flavor blast.

Then “Lotus Root Chips” with anise powder, making them taste like licorice Pringles.

Then “Tuna Handroll 2009” which are crispy cones stuffed with very fresh tuna, a bit of wasabi, and a caviar ring in the middle. Nice mix of textures and flavors.

It came time to decide on the beverages. Above is the pairing menu ($100 a person). We didn’t opt for this but I’m sure it’s good. Being as we are talking beverages I’ll mention briefly the water trap. We were five people, and this is a long meal. We ordered bottled water. As usual with nice restaurants they just served it. And served it. Fine, but it added up to $180 of water! This was the only thing on the bill that offended me — but it was mighty offensive. $30-40 would have been sufficient tariff, but $36 a person for water?

We did order cocktails individually, which were both yummy and reasonable enough for such things. “Passion Fruit Up! Orange rum, passion fruit and ginger-laurel syrup, topped with passion fruit foam.” Yum!

“Oyster and Jamon.” A little spoonful of oyster with some ham powder and a crispy crouton. It tasted exactly like it sounds. Like intense oyster and a good dollop of HAM!

“Black Olives Ferran Adria.” Instructions on how to make these can be found here. The pureed juice of the olives is coated in a thin gel. They are colored black with squid ink. There is one green olive that is vegetarian. In general, the olives bursts easily in the mouth, exploding intense oliveness.

A signature “Nitro Caprina” which is the classic brazilian drink, frozen with liquid nitrogen. It tastes like a sherbet, with a highly unusual smooth texture, but it’s intensely potent (in terms of proof). Goes down all too easy.

“Jicama wrapped Guacamole.” Micro cilantro, corn chips. The vegetarian substitution for the ham.

Watermelon and tomato with a bit of a kick (some chili or another).

A traditional mojito. Even way back in the Cafe Atlantico days Andrés always served a great mojito.

“Jose’s Combination.” Jamón Ibérico de Bellota with a blob of real caviar. This ham is regarded as the best in Spain, and among the best in the world. They are fed on acorns. Salt on salt here. A very savory combination.

Deconstructed “patatas bravas.” In spain this is a common dish basically being roasted chopped potatoes with a cayenne mayo. This preserves the flavor, but changes up the texture into a little fried cigar. The inside was fluffy and soft. Quite tasty.

“Ottoman Carrot fritter.” Apricots, pistachio sauce. Vegetarian substitute for the chicken below. A deep fried ball of flavor, with a very exotic taste.

“Buffalo Wing.” Looks like fried chicken (and it is), but Wow. Boneless, with a dab of spicy sauce and a blue cheese aioli. An explosion of flavor.

“Not Your Everyday Caprese.” The mozzarella has been through the same sphere process as the olives above, then we have a peeled cherry tomato, tomato seeds, a bit of basil, sea salt, little crackers, and a very fine house made pesto genovese (with extra virgin olive oil). I’m not even a raw tomato fan and this is delectable. The pesto cheese combo really makes it. This pesto is as good as mine (recipe here).

I’m a big fan of priorat and so we chose this wine off the list. Besides the great food and crazy water prices Saam has an annoying high corkage ($50 and one bottle more or less!).

“White truffle risotto.” Instead of the normal Italian risotto rice it used a premium Spanish one, calasparra bomba, and extra virgin olive oil instead of butter. Very tasty.

A fantastic special risotto also using bomba rice, with a chunk of fresh santa barbara uni, some black garlic paste, and a bit of bbq eel. It was tremendously good.

“Crispy Nigiri.” A bit of red snapper on a blob of crispy Spanish rice.

“Chipirones en su Tinta.” More or less a classic Spanish dish, octopus in it’s own ink. Plus some squid ink chips. Very soft and tender meat, complemented by the sweetness of the ink.

A non-shellfish variant containing a bit of bbq fish.

“Banh Mi.” A brioche bun with wagyu beef, tofu, cilantro, pickles, pickled carrots, and a kind of mayo. Tasty tasty sandwich. A mix of soft and crunchy too, but the pickles give it a very distinct tang.

“Banh Mi, vegetarian.”

“Carrot gnocchi.” The broth had a vaguely thai curry flavor. The gnocchi are actually cylinders of sphereized carrots, so they burst in the mouth.

“Brussel sprouts, lemon puree, apricots, grapes, lemon air.” This was a big hit, the sprouts aren’t bitter at all, and have a light cabbage-like texture. The lemon air is the best part, adding a nice zing.

“Mirugai.” A bit of geoduck giant clam, radish, and a watercress puree. This wasn’t my favorite dish, being a bit “clammy.”

“Kurobuta Pork Belly.” Massively flavorful bacon chunk, with a spanish cheese infused turnip mouse and little carrots. Yum yum, heart stop heart stop.

Replacing the pork for the vegetarian was a pomegranate cous cous.

With a poured in broth.

“Philly Cheese Steak.” Air bread, cheddar, Wagyu beef. This is on the Bazaar menu, but it’s so damn good. The crispy bread is filled with liquid cheddar goodness.

“Hilly Cheese Steak.” Air bread, cheddar, mushrooms. The vegetarian version of above. Monkey man will get you!

For the dessert courses we ordered some classes of this fine cream sherry.

A very nice sherry, not quite as thick and syrupy as the PX by the same maker (which I love), but still very fine.

“Japanese Baby Peaches.” Burrata, hazelnuts, arugula.Really interesting. The peaches were so tart off the trees that they were soaked in simple syrup. Paired with the blobs of burrata (a favorite of mine), the nuts, and arugala it was pretty divine.

“Dragon’s breath popcorn.” The pre dessert. A gimmick, but neat.

Carmel corn “boiled” in liquid nitrogen.

Breath on a spoon.

It tastes like… carmel corn, but you can exhale it through your nose for a dragon-like effect.

Smaug, eat your scaly heart out.

They call this “saam buca.” It was apple balls with a nice soft creamy custard — good stuff.

“Chocolate rock.” A nitro frozen chocolate foam/mousse with some citrus foam. This was very reminiscent of the chocolate/cream pairings at é by José Andrés and Jaleo.

Chamomile tea.

The usual Bazaar “sexy little sweets,” a number of flavored chocolates (flat and in domes) and very good pate de fruits. One of the great things about the brunch at Trés is that they have an all you can eat tower of containing all of these!

A little chocolate hazelnut cube and the menu as a “parting gift.”

Overall, Saam is a tremendous meal, even if not every dish is successful (geoduck!). Since I was at cousin restaurant é by José Andrés a week before I can do a head to head comparison. Saam was slightly disadvantaged by the fact that perhaps 40-50% of the dishes hadn’t changed from my previous visit (making them less novel). I’d say that the food at é is perhaps 5% better, really quite close. The format in Vegas is, however, more fun and intimate. Getting to witness the plating and creation of each and every dish is really interesting.

And the $180 for water was really offensive. I really should have taken the manager to task on it. The stuff costs less than a dollar a bottle in bulk. Pure profit center. Otherwise the meal is fairly reasonable given the extremely high level of production. And it is very very good.

For a previous Saam meal, click here.

For a meal and The Bazaar proper, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bazaar, California, Dessert, El Bulli, Ferran Adrià, Jaleo, José Andrés, La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Saam, Spain, vegetarian

Ultimate Pizza – The Comeback

Oct06

After long hiatus, Ultimate Pizza is back (click the think for posts on the components). We’ve brewed up a new batch of dough, and called up some friends and family.

For those of you who don’t know, Ultimate Pizza is our super homemade pizza where we make everything from scratch. In the past I’ve written separate articles detailing elements such as the Dough, Sauce, Pesto, and Toppings.

Every dough batch is different. For more on making it, see here. After three days cold fermenting in the fridge this batch had a weird spiderwebby quality and was very sticky. But that wasn’t anything a little dusting of flour didn’t solve. And baked, it tasted great as always.

This 1997 Barolo served as a good opener, warming up the palette.

The first pizza on the block. Starts with basic totally fresh raw tomato sauce made with Santa Monica Farmer’s Market Marzano tomatoes and mozzarella.

Then some parmesan, basil.

Mushrooms.

Figs, marcona almonds.

And after baking. They aren’t always pretty, but they are good!

I “found” this 1966 Chateau Lafite-Rothchild in my cellar and figured it wasn’t getting any better.

Parker says: “Except for the 1966 and 1870 vintages of Lafite-Rothschild, these wines were poured on virgin territory on my palate. Isn’t it ironic that the most disappointing wine (forgetting the spoiled 1875 Lafite-Rothschild, which had frightful levels of volatile acidity) was the youngest wine, the 1966 Lafite. With a light to medium ruby/garnet color, this wine exhibited a classy, weedy, herbal, Cabernet-dominated nose, soft, washed-out flavors, and little body and length. It is also beginning to dry out. I suppose if one were to taste a 30-year old Cabernet from Monterey County, California, it might reveal similar characteristics. The 1966 Lafite-Rothschild has consistently been a major disappointment from what is an irregular, but very good vintage.”

But we had good luck with this bottle, and it was actually rather wonderful.

The next pizza. Fairly similar, but no sauce.

Finished with balsamic glaze.

Then a cheesier mushroom one.

Finished.

Then my special salmon pizza, which I do just with olive oil and rosemary (picked from the garden).

Then add a mixture of creme fraiche (detail on that here), dill, and chives, plus capers and onions.

And lox. Yum!

The 2004 il Cocco riserva. Only one barrel made!

Another fairly normal pizza, with figs and mushrooms.

My “famous” tikka masala pizza. Masala sauce instead of tomato. Corn, cilantro, goat cheese, mozzarella balls, morel mushrooms, almonds, scallions.

Cooked. This is an amazing (and strong flavored) pizza.

Mirella (one of our frequent pizza chefs) likes to make unique pizzas. This “Lebanese Pizza” began with her homemade muhammara sauce, which is a Lebanese sauce made from peppers, walnuts, olive oil and various other things. She baked it fairly simple.

Then added amazing fresh burrata on top and fresh mint. This was also fantastic.

Another tomato sauce based pizza, with parmesan, figs, goat cheese (a slightly aged chevre from an artisan California dairy), marcona almonds, scallions.

Baked.

And as the last pizza of the evening, my Formaggio Maximus. Olive oil, a little pesto. Fresh chanterelle and lobster mushrooms. Corn, figs, almonds, a little basil, and nearly every type of cheese I have: parmesan, mozzarella, pecorino, goat, and gorgonzola dulce.

Baked.

Then key to the FM is a big blog of burrata and an olive oil and balsamic drizzle.

Dessert time. A giant raspberry macaroon.

And a sinful red velvet, chocolate, and cream-cheese icing cake. Oh the suffering. The worst thing about this cake is that half was left over and I personally ate all of it over the next four days.

The next day for lunch we whipped up a few more pizzas. Here another variant of my tikka masala pizza.

On the stone.

And finished. I do so love this pizza.

Then a green pesto and salad pizza. The greens are arugala tossed with black pepper and fresh meyer lemon juice.

Baked.

Two buns in the oven.

An even greener pizza.

Which we left in about 1 minute too long.

And my special “tuna salad” pizza. Tomato sauce, fresh chunk Italian tuna, parmesan, pecorino, capers, red onions, and arugala salad.

Baked.

That sure was a good amount of pizza!

For more Ultimate Pizza posts, click here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Barolo, Bordeaux wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, California, Château Lafite Rothschild, Dessert, Dough, Lafite-Rothschild, Pizza, pizza sauce, San Marzano Tomato, Santa Monica California, ultimate_pizza, Wine

Joe’s Restaurant – California Classic

Sep19

Restaurant: Joe’s Restaurant

Location: 1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291

Date: September 16, 2011

Cuisine: California Farmer’s Market

Rating: Consistently good

I’ve been coming to Joe’s since 1995 or 1996 and they are approaching their 20th anniversary any day now. In a major metropolitan restaurant scene, that’s an eternity. Chef Joe Miller was an early proponent of the ingredient driven “farmer’s market style” of California cooking that is very popular right now. And despite the restaurant’s venerable age, the menu is continually rotating and the dishes remain fresh and relevant.

The Abbot Kinney frontage.

Quaint bar. Further inside is a little maze of little rooms and a lovely patio that is perfect for brunch.

The daily tasting menu, which is a pretty awesome value.

And the regular menu.

I brought this 2006 Brunello from my cellar. It’s not rated, but it is good, being from a tiny producer who makes only 3,000 bottles a year.

The back for the vintage.

Joe’s has good bread. Particularly the butter toasty thing.

Olive tappanade and butter.

“Heirloom tomato salad, smoked garlic tomato vinaigrette, young greens, seared bread.”

“Bocconcini di bufala mozzarella, smoked o’henry peaches, plums, sweet pea, purslane, almonds, olive oil.” This was a really yummy combo. The fruit was perfectly ripe, the mozzarella fantastic, and all in combination, particularly with the nuts and the purslane pesto-like stuff, it was really yummy.

“Hiramasa Crudo. Pickled plum, shishito, flowering coriander, pickled garlic vinaigrette.” Also wonderful. Hiramasa is just yellowtail, but this was some very good fish, and the vinaigrette had a powerful tang that contrasted nicely with the sweet and sour plums.

“New zealand red snapper filet with potato scales and wild rice. Salsify, red wine sauce.”

“Sonoma lamb sirloin, figs, chantarelle mushroms, wild rice soubise, english peas, huckleberry jus.” Also a wonderful dish. Like rack of lamb, but without the bone. Slow cooked in the sous-vide. The rich jus and vegetables complemented nicely.

The dessert menu.

“Vanilla buttermilk custard. Market berries, bittersweet chocolate, pistachios.” I light fun dessert, with a berries and cream vibe.

It’s been a little while since I was at Joe’s and I somehow expected it to be more staid. The food is just as contemporary and relevant as any other ingredient driven Califonian. It’s not fat focused like the Gastropubs, or avant garde, but it is really good. And setting it far above many wanna-be followers of this tradition, each dish expresses a really balanced interplay of elements.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: California, Cooking, Dessert, Farmer's Market, Fish and Seafood, Joe Miller, Joe's Restaurant, Los Angeles, Plum, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Restaurants and Bars, Venice, Venice Los Angeles

Mori Sushi – A Top Contender

Sep17

Restaurant: Mori Sushi [1, 2]

Location: 11500 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. 310.479.3939

Date: September 14, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi

Rating: Top sushi, but not cheap

In a town full of top grade sushi, Mori Sushi is consistently regarded as one of the best. It has it’s own particular style, somewhere between the Osaka school types like Sasabune and the classic Sushi Sushi.

The interior and sushi bar.

The following meal represents the “Omakase” the largest and most expensive ($170) of the chef’s options. Several truncated or more sushi centric variants are available. This is basically a series of hot dishes followed by flights of sushi.

Kohlrabi greens.

Housemade tofu, with homemade wasabi and soy. This is the soft silken tofu that I’ve had a number of times recently, like at Moko and Ozumo. This particular example was very nice and light.

Sashimi. Left to right: marinated sardines, abalone liver, baby abalone with yuzu/pepper sauce, shitake mushroom, pike eel jelly, marinated Japanese onion, and Japanese okra. The sardines were really good and sweet. The liver reach, like an ugly blob of chicken liver. The abalone tender. And the jelly like a cube of flavorless jello.

One of those subtle Japanese soups. Pike eel (the white stuff), yuzu (the green sliver), and Japanese eggplant.

Santa Barbara sweet shrimp (with the roe), red peppercorns, and in front: scallop, halibut, and octopus sashimi. All this is dressed “new style” with a bit of olive oil and pepper. The shrimp was very sweet and tasty.

Uni (sea urchin) tempura with salt. I forgot to photo it, but this photo is of the same dish at a different restaurant. It was nearly identical, and very good.

Halibut with kelp on the left. Seki buri (wild yellowtail) on the right. Both solid “normal” fishes of extremely high quality.

Big eye chu-toro on the left and blue-fun toro on the right. Yum!

Kohada (Shad gizzard) on the left, pickled in vinegar, and Spanish Mackerel on the right. Also very nice fish.

Grilled baby barracuda on the left with a really nice charred flavor and mirugai (geoduck jumbo clam) with miso sauce on the right.

An uni (sea urchin) duo. Santa Barbara on the left (sweeter), Hokkaido in the middle (very fine also) and very fresh Ikura (salmon roe) with yuzu zest on the right.

Tamago (sweet omelet) on the left and anago (sea eel) on the right, grilled, with a bit of BBQ sauce. The eel had strong grill flavors and less of the cloying (but yummy) sweet sauce than usual.

Toro cut roll. Soft and velvety.

A pair of homemade ice creams for dessert. This is sesame, which tasted it but was a bit gritty and not very creamy.

And ginger ice cream which was very soft and pleasant, like a french vanilla with a ginger kick.

Hojicha, roasted green tea to finish.

Overall, I found Mori Sushi to be top notch. But it’s not cheap (not in the least). The ingredients are top notch and you pay for it. It has a subtle restrained style. I slightly prefer Sushi Sushi with it’s larger pieces or Go Sushi with it’s more over the top flavors. It hands down beats out Sushi Zo in my opinion. Certainly Mori is in the top five or so places in town — and that’s saying a lot as LA is unquestionably the best place in America for sushi.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

Morihiro Onodera (old owner) in the palm shirt. Masanori Nagano left (new owner).

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

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
Comments (1)

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

Hostaria del Piccolo – Pizza + Pasta

Sep05

Restaurant: Hostaria del Piccolo

Location: 606 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401. P: 310-393-6633

Date: August 27, 2011 & May 6, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Good new casual Italian

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Hostaria del Piccolo is a casual new Italian with a rustic Pasta/Pizza emphasis from the people that brought us Piccolo (my review here).

It’s located in a chic modern space at the corner of 6th and Broadway three blocks behind the Santa Monica Promenade.

The interior has a modern rustic quality.

And they have a lovely patio, which given that it was 5pm on an 85 degree perfect California August day totally ruled.

Given the weather, I decided to take a cue from my Italian friends and order a glass of Lambrusco Frizzante. Sparkling grape juice with a kick, what more can you ask for in the heat?

Very nice thick and buttery grissini.

The menu. Secondi are not numerous in quantity, but they have a lot of pizzas and a number of tasty sounding pastas.

Valpolicella Ripasso is something I found in my Sommelier course on Italy. Ripasso means rested and this is basically baby Amarone.

“CANTALUPO tuscan melon and Bresaola.” Artfully arranged!

“MESCOLATA organic greens, roasted tomatoes, sliced almonds.”

“RICOTTINA seared fresh ricotta, seasonal mushrooms, vincotto.” This is a very Southern Italian dish and really, is pretty much identical to one I found in Apicus, the 1900 year old Roman cookbook. The sweetness of the vincotto (must) plays off against the creamy sweet cheese.

“FARRO organic farro, heirloom tomatoes, basil pesto, walnut, arugula.” Farro is also very common in ancient Roman food. This being a rustic Italian, we have more of those old school influences.

“COSTICINE roasted pork ribs, cannellini beans.” Pork and beans of this sort is classic Tuscan. This is basically like Italian babyback ribs.

Rigatoni pomodoro for the boy.

“PAPPARDELLE tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, mozzarella di bufala.”

“RIGATONI italian sausage, tomato-cream, peas, parmesan.” One of those meat, cheese, and pea pastas that I love so much.

“SALSICCIA tomato sauce, smoked mozzarella, sausage, bell peppers, Castelvetrano olives.” I actually ordered the FARCITA (which was a white prosciutto pizza) but he must have misheard me and anyway this was a tasty pizza. The sausage was very tender and flavorful. The crust was really yummy, and the whole thing not overly burnt like some wood oven pizzas are. If you want to see my Ultimate Homemade Pizza, click here.

A different sausage variant with broccoli, garlic, and fontina but no tomato sauce.

“QUATTRO PER tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, artichokes.”

“PARMIGIANA tomato sauce, breaded eggplant, basil, parmesan.” Looks like meat, but isn’t!

“AGNELLO Marinated and grilled New Zealand lamb chops, roasted garlic sauce.” Very nice tender straight up grilled lamb chops. Bone gnawing good.

The dessert menu. We were full and didn’t order any.

But they brought my 2.75 year-old this ice cream cone as a freebee and he was mighty pleased.

Overall, Hostaria del Piccolo is a very nice new contemporary Italian, with a heavy pizza/pasta focus. This is sure to make it a crowd pleaser. They could use to beef up the variety of anti-pasta and secondi a bit, but what I had was very nice.

Click here to see more LA dining posts.

The open kitchen inside.

Or for a legion of great eating in Italy itself, here.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bresaola, Broadway, Buffalo mozzarella, California, Dessert, Hostaria del Piccolo, Italian cuisine, Los Angeles, pasta, Piccolo, Pizza, Santa Monica California

Food as Art: Ludobites 7.0

Sep02

Restaurant: Ludobites 7.0 [1, 2]

Location: 227 East 9th St, Los Angeles, 90015

Date: August 31, 2011

Cuisine: Eclectic Modern

Rating: Very interesting (& tasty) array of flavors.

Last year my friends and I very much enjoyed Ludobites 6.0 (review here), one of LA’s most notable “popup” restaurants. So some of us Foodie Club members camped out on OpenTable.com to score ourselves a large party reservation. It took five of us hammering independently on the computer to get one in the approximately 70 seconds the entire run booked up. And it was nearly a month in. But score we did.

The walls are festooned with Ludo’s amusing cock & swine logo.

This year Ludobites is back at Gram & Papas. I guess they do it here because the restaurant doesn’t itself serve dinner. The space is small and casual.

One of the big advantages is that G&Ps does NOT have a liquor license. This means that my special BYOB “grape juice” was corkage free. Good think I brought a cork screw.

Very nice Burg from my cellar. Parker 93. “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.”

Le Menu. With eight people we ordered two of EVERY dish. Worked out just about right. There was a small issue of our sole vegetarian. Not a single dish on the menu is actually free of meat, and our request initially phased the kitchen. But they recovered quickly and offered to make veggie variants of a number of dishes which worked out excellently.

“Lavender Ginger Lemonade.” Non-alcoholic. I liked the strong ginger kick, but the lemonade was too sweet and not sour enough. I like my lemonade painfully sour and strong.

“Bouillabaise Milk Shake.” This tastes exactly like it sounds. Like a fish milkshake. Basically the same flavor profile as real Bouillabaise, but with milk. I can’t say it was my favorite dish. Probably least or second to least.

“Choucroute Tart Flambe.” This “tart” is really a pizza or flatbread. But it was fantastic. The ham/bacon on top was great, as was the cheesy creme fraiche and onion thing going on.

They also made us a vegetarian version which was very good.

Neiman Cabernet “Caldwell Vineyard” 2000. Parker doesn’t rate this, but it’s a top top notch cabernet, probably 94 points or so. The years and a lack of over oaking left it very smooth. I picked up this wine at the Redd Collection, a cool new tasting/wine dealer I met at the Food Club Ultimo Wine Dinner.

The chicken wings (below) came with surgical gloves to keep the hands clean!

“Burgundy Fried Chicken.” The real burgundy was finished, but the wings were very very tasty. Succulent and perfectly cooked with a sweet BBQ style sauce.

The remnants!

This is a custom vegetarian salad they made up.

“Squid, Black Ash, Chorizo.” The squid was nice and tender, and the orange “chorizo” sauce around the edge really tasty. I’m not sure I was super keen on the ash texture, but it was certainly a decent dish.

This spectacular Brunello (the 2006 il Cocco) is totally unavailable in America. I got it at the vineyard from the owner on my mega Italy 2011 trip. He makes 7,000 bottles of wine a year, perhaps 3,000 of Brunello, and does 100% of the work (fields and cellar) himself! Probably a 94-95 point wine.

Prawn ceviche, Aji Amarillo, Red Berries. This reminded me of a Red Medicine type dish. It had very interesting and strong flavors, with a lot of vinegar/lime.

“Salt Cod Panna Cotta, Whipped Fingerling Potato, Smoked Tapioca, Black Olive Bread.” This was an interesting dish. The cod itself was not dominant at all. It mostly seemed like a panna cotta, or even like one of those Japanese seafood egg custards like I got here at Takao (about a third of the way down). I liked the little tapioca balls too, and the bread added some nice texture, just needed a little more cod flavor.

“Oxtail Beef, Rainbow Carrots, Shallots, Green Salad.” This was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The beef was just amazing. And rest went really well too.

“Foe Gras, Corn and Coconuts.” Amazing and interesting dish. Another favorite of the evening. The foie was foie — and nothing wrong with that — but the corn coconut soup was awesome with it. Sweet like a corn soup, with the crunchy texture of popcorn, and with this coconut curry / lemongrass vibe on top. Wow!

My wife even got a vegetarian version, without the foie, which really was almost as good (good as the foie was).

“Pigs Head Compressed and Mimolette, Barbeque Gelee.” This sounds awful, but tasted just okay. Flavor wise thought it just tasted like some kind of meat sandwich with a really tangy mayo. The sweet sauce helped a bit. One of my other lessor dishes of the evening.

“Egg, Sea Urchin, Caviar, Champagne Beurre Blanc.” Really tasted a lot like scrambled eggs and caviar. Which was pretty darn good. The Uni (sea urchin) was present, but subtle. I could have done with more. But the egg and caviar thing is really good together, so I enjoyed it a lot.

This is no Uni version. The egg tasted stronger and saltier without the sweetness of the Uni, but it was still a very good dish.

“Plancha Tandoori Octopus, Yogurt, Cauliflower, Grapefruit.” The octopus itself was very tender with a nice tandoori flavor. The cauliflower texture was really interesting. I think the yogurt could have had more punch, or more of it, but still a nice dish.

“Duck, Cherry, Spicy Saucisse, Beets, Radish.” There are two meats in here. A sausage (which was really yummy) and a very nice rare duck breast. Both were excellent with the cherry sauce. The beet/radish thing seemed a little orthogonal, but it didn’t stop this from being terrific.

“Lamb cooked in fat Moroccan style Artichoke, Mint.” There was some serious fat on this lamb. Serious fat. But it tasted damn good with the cooked dates. That was the whole key to this dish for me, tender lamb with a sweet sauce.

The peeps, midway somewhere.

The meal took awhile and so we could have used an extra bottle of wine, but i only brought four. This dessert Riesling, the every reliable, Parker 97! “White peach preserves, luscious Persian melon, fresh red raspberry, cooling lime, green tea, iris and gentian are all projected on the nose of Donnhoff’s 2009 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese, then take on a fleshy, silken, yet svelte form that combines infectious juiciness, invigorating salinity, uncanny buoyancy, and vibratory interactive complexity, leaving my tongue tingling and my head buzzing. The depth of savor here is such that to speak of nut oils or of shrimp or lobster shell reduction merely points in the correct, otherwise ineffable general direction. “Creamy, dreamy, transparent” were the last words I could pronounce in the presence of this natural wonder that will certainly be capable of spreading joy for at least the next quarter century. “There was a tiny bit of perfectly dry botrytis here,” notes Donnhoff, “and to get much over 90 Oechsle you usually need that.” Needless to say, its presence has in no way precluded the utmost purity of fruit, clarity, or subtly electrical energy of which Riesling is capable in this amazing site. “I-m warning you, they’re not necessarily better,” said Helmut Donnhoff with a grin when serving me his two 2009 vintage Auslesen.”

Now our whacky “cheese course” the “Pick-Up Stick Cantal Cheese, Curry White Chocolate.” The cheese almost tasted like slivered apple.

“Lavendar Tropezienne Tart, Aloe Vera, Lychee.” This wonderful pastry reminded me of a giant lavender Macaron. I love certain kinds of exotic herbaceous flavors like rosewater and lavender and I love custard.

“Chocolate Cake, Chipotle Ice Cream, Orange.” Wow! This was a 10/10 dessert (and the lavender was like a 9/10!). The chocolate slab was great, you can tell just by looking at it, but that ice cream. It tasted like bacon! Really. The combo was incredible, and a bit spicy.

“Pistachio Brown Butter Cake, Marcaspone, Red Berries.” This was the weakest of the three desserts, but it was still very good, with a nice pistachio flavor. The Marcaspone could have used a little more kick or sweetness.

Overall, maybe it was a good thing coming into Ludobites 7.0 after a couple of weeks. Things were really on point with the food. Service, which very pleasant, really isn’t up to the food standards. There is no slick Michelin 2 (or 3) star type management of the table like at a place like Melisse, but the attitude was fine and there were no problems. Water service was sluggish and we had to self pour our “grape juice” into water glass type glasses. But actually I don’t mind self pour or opening my own wines. I could have used some more water 🙂

But the food was really standout. A large variety of very creative dishes, and some were fantastic, particularly the desserts. So bravo.

Click here for a review of last year’s Ludobites 6.0.

The Food Club extravaganzas.

Or all LA dining reviews.

Me, with the big macro-lens-and-flash rig.

Mirella gets her crazy on.

Swag! (not that I bought any)

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bouillabaise, California, cerviche, chicken wings, Cooking, Dessert, duck, Foodie Club, Los Angeles, Ludobites, Ludovic Lefebvre, Pizza, popup restaurant, pork, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, salt cod, Squid, vegetarian, Wine

Quick Eats – Wilshire

Aug24

Restaurant: Wilshire

Location: 2454 Wilshire Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90403-5823. (310) 586-1707

Date: July 23, 2011

Cuisine: New Californian

Rating: Solid

Wilshire is a New American in the heart of inland Santa Monica. They belong to the approachable ingredient driven California style popular in recent years (the older LA styles being “asian fusion” and “80s eclectic”).

The unassuming frontage (really sideage) conceals a rather extensive interior with a big bar space and a lovely outside patio. Their website has an up to to date menu.

“Art basil. kanon organic vodka, muddled grapes, basil, lime, ginger ale.” Pretty tasty.

A beet, burrata, and tomato salad with a bit of pesto and balsamic.

“Bacon and eggs. speck, housemade ricotta, poached egg, frisee.” This was a tasty combo, although the egg was just a touch underdone. This is a tricky balance as I like the yolk totally liquid but the white pretty well cooked.

“Scottish salmon. salsify, sprouting broccolini, king trumpet mushrooms, meyer lemon.”

“Braised shortrib. mascarpone polenta, swiss chard, romesco.” A classic short rib combo, as this kind of heavy meat is usually paired with a starch like mashed potatoes, polenta, or risotto. In this case it was the beef gravy that made the polenta, as it often does.

Part of the patio.

The patio bar.

One of the two interior rooms.

I haven’t sampled Wilshire in enough depth to form a really solid opinion. I like the patio area and the food I had was quite tasty, although it didn’t blow me away. Perhaps it seems just a tad too typical New Cal Cuisine. It’s also a hair over priced, but we certainly had a good meal here.

My index of LA Restaurants here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: California, Eggs, Food, Los Angeles, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salmon, Santa Monica California, Short Ribs, Wilshire, Wilshire Boulevard

Pleased by Picca

Aug23

Restaurant: Picca [1, 2]

Location: 9575 West Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Tel: 310 277 0133

Date: August 15, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Peruvian

Rating: Really interesting flavors

I was really excited to try this new Modern Peruvian. As best I can tell (having never been to Peru other than an airport stop in Lima) Peru has a really interesting culinary melange going on merging Spanish, traditional South American, and Japanese influences. I’ve heard that much of the wave of innovation in American Modern Japanese started by Nobu Matsuhisa (detailed look here) is really just Peruvian. In any case, on to the food.

This space is just above what used to be Test Kitchen last year and is now the excellent Sotto. The chef is Ricardo M. Zarate, a Lima native, and as far as I can tell, he rocks.

The menu. This is all served Tapas style, which you all know is my favorite.

Burgundy! Parker gives this 92, “Bachelet’s 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes – from 60- to 70-year-old vines both below the route nationale and north of Gevrey in Brochon – offers lovely black fruit aromas with hints of anise and mint. A truly palate-staining intensity of vividly-fresh, tart but ripe black cherry and blackberry is underlain by firm, fine tannins (not precluding an emerging silkiness of texture) and augmented by bitter-herbal and stony notes. Although palpably dense and abundantly tannic, this outstanding village wine still comes off as juicy, sleek, invigorating and refined. Put it away for at least 5-7 years.”

“jalea mixta. crispy mixed seafood, tartare sauce.” Some really good fried seafood. The tartare sauce was fantastic too.

“chicharron de pollo. marinated crispy chicken, salsa criolla, rocoto sauce.” Also good fry. Like uber chicken nuggets.

“tres leches de tigre. rocoto, aji amarillo, sea urchin shooters.” Three different gazpacho-like shooters. I had the Uni one. It was very limey/vinegary which I like.

“ceviche mixto. mixed seafood, sweet potato, choclo.” Mixed fresh seafood marinated. Those things on the right are the giant peruvian corn kernels. The fish was very fresh, particularly the shrimp. The marinate was tasty, but certainly had a very strong lime/vinegar thing going on.

On the left: “santa barbara prawns. lemon grass yuzu kosho pesto.” Very tender sweet prawns, with the sauce definitely adding.

On the right: “black cod. miso anticucho, crispy sweet potato.” Tasty too. The potato chips though were even better 🙂

Apparently in Peru sushi is done with these yellow blocks instead of rice and called causa sushi. The stuff looks like polenta but is actually a mash of yellow potato with some spices.

This is the “unagi. avocado, cucumber, eel sauce” and it’s pretty much your eel sushi. Of all these causas this was my favorite as the polenta is heavier and stronger flavored than rice and the eel held up to it best.

“scallops. mentaiko.” Certainly tasty, but it would have been better with rice.

“albacore. garlic chip, ceviche sauce.” My second favorite of this set.

“spicy yellow tail. spicy mayo, green onions, wasabi tobiko.” Also good, but the fourth potato bar was beginning to feel too heavy.

“arroz chaufa de mariscos. mixed seafood, peruvian fried rice, pickled radish.” This was a nice version of paella. Brighter and more citrusy (by far) than it’s Spanish cousin. The ingredients were very fresh.

“seco de pato. duck leg confit, black beer sauce, cilantro rice.” This was a slight disappointment. It was perfectly cooked, but given the volume level of the flavors of this meal it felt a little muted, particularly the rice.

“chicharron de costillas. crispy pork ribs crostini, sweet potato puree, feta cheese sauce, salsa criolla.” This however was pretty spectacular, one of the best pork sandwiches I’ve tried.

We finished the wine and decided to explore some of the awesome cocktails as “dessert beverages.” These drinks are by mixologist Julian Cox. The cocktail menu.

This was “chilcano de anis, lime juice, ginger syrup, anise syrup, pisco, soda, mint sprig, pernod.” It was pretty damn good, tasting like sweet mint licorice.

“Sabertooth. cachaca, muddled blueberries, apricot liquor, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, shaken, lime wheel & blueberry.” Pretty great too.

“Rhubarb Sidecar.” Cognac, pisco, fresh lemon juice, rhubarb gastrique, shake violentyly (and they mean it), garnished with spiced sugar.” Also great.

“Christopher Oaxacan. Single village mezcal, passion fruit, fresh lemon juice, orgeat, lavender bitters.” The super smokey (and very good) mezcal overwhelmed everything else. It basically tasted like mezcal with lime.

“Lemon tart.” This was a pretty amazing dessert. Light and airy, almost foamy, the intense lemoness paired nicely with the sweet pineapple stuff on the side.

I love even street cart churros but these were pretty supreme. The churros were stuffed with some kind of dulce de leche custard. It kept squirting out but was intensely good. The carob sauce was surprisingly amazing. I remember carob from the 1970s as the horrible chocolate bars that weren’t. This could have been caramel.

Picca was pretty fantastic. They didn’t hit every note perfectly, but it’s a fun (and loud space), the server was very very nice and enthusiastic about the food, and the flavors were bold and powerful, the ingredients first rate. What’s not to love? Unless you prefer crap like el Torito.

For more LA dining reviews, click here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: California, CAUSA SUSHI, CEVICHE, Cocktail, Dessert, Lima, Los Angeles, Nobu Matsuhisa, Paella, Peru, Picca, Ricardo M. Zarate, Ricardo Zarate, South America, Sushi

Gjelina Brunch

Aug19

Restaurant: Gjelina [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd, CA 90291. (310) 250-1429

Date: August 6 & 14, 2011

Cuisine: New Californian

Rating: Great food, annoying service!

I hadn’t been to Gjelina (despite it being a favorite) in a few months but I headed back there for two brunches only a week apart, one with my son and the other with my brother and cousin.

The all important Cappuccino. They make a good one as attested by the nice micro-foam. I’m not a fan of those coffee with a pile of foam on top versions.

“Moroccan Baked Eggs with Merguez, Chili, Tomato Sauce, Cilantro & Spiced Yogurt.” This was REALLY tasty. The sausage was awesome, as was the sauce and yogurt combo. It had a pretty genuine Moroccan flavor profile.

My son wanted eggs. He didn’t even touch them though. Toddlers!

“Crispy Sunny Eggs with Prosciutto, Romesco, Arugula & Lemon.” This was also very good, and very similar (except for the ham) to my special Breakfast Eggs.

“Pizza Margherita.” A very nice version of the classic. Rich tomatoey sauce, lots of basil.

My son ate most of this, although he complained about the “green stuff” and made me remove it.

“Duck Sausage, Nameko Mushroom, Garlic & Mozzarella.” The sausage was fantastic, and the overall pizza was very smokey with an interesting chewy mushroom texture. I liked it a lot, but you certainly have to be a shroom person.

“Peach crumble with Crème Fraiche.” I like my crumbles more crumbly.

“Butterscotch Pot de Crème with Salted Caramel w/ Crème Fraiche.” This is just incredible as always. I could eat like 10 of them. Bad me. Bad me.

Overall, the food at Gjelina is fantastic as always, but I need to snark about the service, and I’m not the first. Apparently the owner/managers even like to hire staff with attitude! Boo hiss! The first time, I asked to get some eggs that on the menu had strips of bacon on top with the bacon on the side (or gone). I was told (very rudely) that I could remove the bacon myself. In this day and age of people with dietary restrictions this just isn’t acceptable. I can understand not building totally custom dishes, but trivial omissions? Give me a break.

On the second trip we ordered some vegetables which didn’t come (the waiter read them back to us too). Plus similar with an ice tea even after asking about three times. Eventually, after the waiter went AWOL we found him and brought up both. He didn’t even apologize. 10 minutes after that he brought the ice tea and said he’d take it off the bill. Ooh ah, $4 ice tea for free (it’s all profit anyway). We mentioned something to the manager. He didn’t apologize either, just nodded his head. Then finally, about 5 minutes after that he snuck back and apologized, like it had been eating at him and he felt he needed to. There was no offer of a freebee or anything. My brother asked him point blank about that and he took a dessert off the tab.

I go for the food, but they do need to lose a bit of the ‘tude.

You can check out two other Gjelina reviews HERE and HERE.

Or my index of LA Restaurants.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Abbot Kinney Blvd, Breakfast, Brunch, California, Cooking, Dessert, Eggs, Fruit and Vegetable, gjelina, Merguez, Pizza, Prosciutto, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Romesco, Sausage, Tomato sauce, Venice

Takao Sushi Taking Off!

Aug16

Restaurant: Takao [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 11656 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 207-8636

Date: August 6, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi

Rating: 9/10 creative “new style” sushi

I’ve already covered Takao in some detail HERE and then separately here, here, and here, but we went back (we go often) and I built another “custom omakase” trying some different things. The full menu and some information on the history of the place can be found through the first link.

As you can see comparing this to the other Takao meals, you my dear readers, come first, as I ordered completely differently for your vicarious enjoyment.

After my spectacular N/Naka Kaiseki meal and its really good sakes I decided to up my sake game. This is the cheapest of the “shaved rice” sakes on the menu at Takao. It was good, not as good as the two amazing ones at N/Naka (Takao has half a dozen “better” ones too), but good.

The chefs at work. Takao himself was cutting for me tonight.

Scallop sashimi. I do love my japanese scallops. There was sea salt to dip them in too.

Toro tartar with caviar. I just can’t resist.

Spanish Mackerel chopped with scallions. Very tasty!

Squid, two ways. On the left normal. And on the right I’m not sure, but it there was a sour (and I mean sour) plum sauce (above left) to dip it in. Same sauce as I had the other day at Kiriko.

Mysterious grilled bit of sea creature. Soft and chewy, not bad.

Grilled Alaskan king crab legs. A sprig of pickled ginger.

On the left Uni (sea urchin) and on the right Ikura (salmon roe).

Fresh water eel with the sweet BBQ sauce.

And then a winter mushroom miso to finish.

For more LA area sushi, see here.

By: agavin
Comments (4)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Alaskan king crab fishing, Atlantic Spanish mackerel, Brentwood, California, Caviar, Fish and Seafood, Japanese cuisine, Kaiseki, Los Angeles, Omakase, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sea urchin, Sushi, Takao

Villetta – More Italian in Brentwood?

Aug10

Restaurant: Villetta

Location: 246 26th Street. Santa Monica, CA 90402. 310-394-8455

Date: July 30 & Nov 18, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Very good, but prices are steep

One of the great mysteries of the culinary universe is how Brentwood in general, and San Vicente in particular, is able to support so many Italian restaurants. Every time someplace closes and resets it comes back Italian! The only other option in the entire town are 3 Japanese and a couple chains (CPK and Cheesecake — but you all know I don’t eat chains).

This gorgeous 1920s space used to be Chez Mimi, an old school French place that my wife and I used to eat at quite a bit.

It’s still very cute with a little bar inside.

A quaint dining room.

And most importantly a lovely patio. I had been trying for about three weeks to get into this new place but it was always booked on opentable.com, so we just showed up at 6:15 and had no trouble getting a “bar seat” in the patio.

They give you to start faggioli (Tuscan white beans) mashed with garlic and salt, and drizzled in olive oil. For such a simple thing, it’s surprisingly delicious. You can see the old school version here in florence about half way down the post.

The bread, two types.

The wine list was a bit odd. Three quarters New World. Which for an Italian restaurant is strange. They also had no half bottles (boo hiss) so I had to get glasses, which is expensive. The pours were generous though. This is a decent Amarone (but $25 a glass!).

And a Pinot Grigio from the Venato. I’d never drink Ca wine with Italian when there are so many great wines from the boot.

The menu.

“Villetta ‘Caprese’ with heirloom tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, basil pesto and grilled bread.” Villetta claims to be farmer’s market driven, and you can see that here in this lovely caprese. Very high quality ingredients.

Same goes with the “burrata, prosciutto, cherry tomatoes and bruschetta.” These were good enough tomatoes that I was able to put aside my nightshade aversion and eat half of them. Nice prosciutto too, probably from parma.

“ravioli with zucchini and chive blossoms and sweet corn.” Also very nice homemade pasta. Very straight up but delicious butter-sage sauce. Note though that this is the large ($25) portion.

On a different night, a very similar pasta filled with slightly different vegetables as was more appropriate to the season (late autumn).

“Mezze maniche with hot and sweet sausage, peas, tomato, and cream.” This is basically a sausage ragu. The pasta was very al dente (good) and the sauce was pretty wonderful.

“Santa Barbara spot prawns with salad of borlotti beans, mizuna and orange citronette.” These were pretty darn delicious. Even the beans underneath were incredibly good with garlic and olive oil. Again this is the large ($50!) portion. You can see the Ligurian version of this same dish here.

“Grilled Sonoma lamb leg with fresh flageolet beans and eggplant caponata.” The meat itself was pretty spectacular and cooked perfectly.

I had to order this red from Campagnia to go with it too.

A little free watermelon sorbet to cleanse the palette.

And on a different night it was orange sorbet, much like a granite or Italian ice.

The dessert menu.

“Chocolate chip cookie sundae with vanilla and chocolate gelato, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.” This was delicious. I don’t think the ice cream was actually gelato though — but it was good. I’d put good money on it coming from Sweet Rose Creamery across the street as it had the same kind of consistency.

Overall, the food at Villetta was first rate. Really good actually, and the service was very friendly too (not super fast, but warm). The prices however are high. They also have what looks to be some really good pizza, as they have a full wood fired pizza oven and a chef from Napoli, but we didn’t try it. So I’d put this in the same category with Capo, Georgio Baldi, and Vincente of excellent but overpriced westside Italian.

Click here to see more Italian than you can shake a stick at.

Or more LA restaurants.