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Figs are in Season

Jan22

Restaurant: Fig

Location: 101 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, Ca 90401. 310-319-3111

Date: January 14, 2011

Rating: Solid!

It’s fairly impressive that the Santa Monica Fairmont invested in getting a REAL chef (Ray Garcia) and turned their in-house restaurant into a place that’s worth going to even if you don’t have any other reason to be in the hotel. I’ve written extensively about all the new LA Farmer’s Market driven restaurants, and this is a place in line with Gjelina (REVIEW 1, REVIEW 2), Rustic Canyon (REVIEW 1, REVIEW 2), or Tavern (REVIEW 1, REVIEW 2). You can’t really go wrong with any of them, although each has its own distinctive personality.

Bread is in the bag. It comes with this arugala butter. Even better than normal butter.

The menu. You can also find it online HERE, but they change it constantly based on the seasonal ingredients. Notice that they even tell you which produce is in season at the bottom.

The by the glass wine list.

I wanted something light and got a glass of this Husch Anderson valley Gurtz. It was ok, but reinforced my opinion that old world imitations of German whites don’t really compete.

For a fairly casual place, it’s nice to get an amuse. Mandrin orange with micro greens.

“Apple and Butter Lettuce, Pecans, Cabecou, Spring Herbs.”

This was a special. Shrimp ravioli (singular), with ginger, micro salad, and grapefruit. This was really good, but very different. The Ginger/Seafood/Citrus pairing was very nice and light, and went well with my wine.

“Pumpkin Tortellini Blue Hubbard Squash, Sage.” Other than being mysteriously overpriced at $28 this was a very nice dish, and my wife LOVES pumpkin Tortellini. Still, it wasn’t quite as good as the completely classic form from Verona/Mantua with the amaretto cookies and the simple butter and sage sauce.

“Meat Pie, Chanterelles, German Butterballs.” This was the ultimate “shepherd’s pie.”

Inside is braised waygu beef cheeks! Very tasty, rich meaty inside with a fluffy layer of mashers on top. My style of meat and potatoes.

The dessert menu, but we were too full.

The hotel has this very cool tree out front in the valet circle. Parking is free with validation, which is nice given that hotel parking (Peninsula, you know who you are) can sometimes be crazy expensive.

I like fig, and we’ve been 5-6 times. The atmosphere by the pool/garden is very nice too, particularly during the day. But the food is very good, and changes frequently, which I like. They have a lot of meats and cheeses too. Once I ordered the “Foie Gras and Chicken Liver Parfait, Fig Marmalade, Grilled Baguette,” but it was just too fatty EVEN FOR ME!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Quick Eats: La Serenata

Jan14

Restaurant: La Serenata

Location: 1416 Fourth Street Santa Monica, CA 90401. 310-656-7017

Date: Jan 8, 2011

Cuisine: Mexican

When I first started going 15-16 years ago, La Serenata was fairly eye opening — coming as I did from the world of tex-mex=Mexican. LA has so many different kinds of south of the border food. This place has always felt at least a little less Americanized and farther from street food. Plus, it’s right behind the promenade and perfect for a quick “before the movies” bite. The menu can be found here.

Cadillac Margarita, blended, no salt. Pretty good, although not in the same league as the ones I make myself at home. I take my home Margarita’s VERY serious, as seriously as I do my Ultimate Pizza. Any of the legions who have attended my 4th of July parties where I go through 7-10 gallons will attest! When it comes back in season I will blog in detail about my blend.

La Serenata always serves a soup with the meal. They vary by the day, but usually consist of some form of vegetable combined with cream and blended. This is mushroom. I’m partial myself to this kind of soup because cream is well… good.

The chipotle sauce. Can we say blood-red?

A round of the simple cheese only quesadillas. Popular with the two year-old set. And adults.

La Serenata offers several fishes every night, each of which can be paired with an assortment of half a dozen sauces. This is salmon in “La Salsa Serenata,” a cream and mushroom sauce.

Vegetables, beans, and homemade corn tortillas.

“Carne Deshebrada en chile Colorado,” shredded beef in a red chile sauce with onions and potatoes. You’d be hard pressed to find a more American dish — and I don’t mean the USA, I mean the continent. This is tasty stuff tucked into the tortillas.

The place has a festive “fake Mexican village” decor, but the food is very tasty, and doesn’t have that blah feel that too many generic Mexican places have. All very tasty. Plus, once you pound down three Cadilac Margaritas, you’d be hard pressed to tell.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Americanization, Colorado, Cook, Food, Los Angeles, Margarita, Mexican Food, Mexican Seafood, Mexico, mushroom soup, Restaurant, Sauce, side dishes, soup, United States, vegetarian

Quick Eats: Divino

Jan12

Restaurant: Divino

Location: 11714 Barrington CourtBrentwood, CA 310.472.0886

Date: Jan 07, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Summary: Solid value.

Divino is another of Brentwood’s seemingly endless supply of Italian eateries. I find this one in the upper middle of the pack. It’s pretty good, and very reasonably priced, but not brilliant. The menu can be found here.

I ordered this “super tuscan.” Very nice wine actually, grapey in the extreme. Parker gives it 92 points. “This is a superb set of releases and I can’t recommend the wines highly enough. The 2003 Testamatta (70% Sangiovese, 15% Colorino, 12% Canaiolo and 3% Moscato Nero Malvasia Nera) is a deeply concentrated, expressive wine packed with the essence of black cherries, licorice, smoke, minerals and underbrush. It is a surprisingly fresh, finessed and elegant wine for this vintage, even if it can’t quite match the sublime 2004. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2018.”

They have regular bread and this “pizza bread.” This is just pizza dough baked in the pizza oven with no toppings, and then drizzle with olive oil. I do this extensively myself at home during the course of Ultimate Pizza (see here for more).

“Mozzarella Divino. Slices of fresh mozzarella & roma tomato, with extra virgin oil and basil.”

Beet and burrata special. Yes, even after going through two whole tubs of Burrata at home this week (CLICK FOR DETAILS), I ordered this. Nice burrata prep. The cheese was in perfect soft ripeness, and went well with the beets.

A “free” intermezzo of tomato, goat cheese, and eggplant, with basil. This was tasty.

“Ravioli Zucchini. Freshly prepared pasta filled with ricotta cheese & spinach topped with fresh zucchini sauce.” These were perhaps a little mushy, I like my pasta a bit firmer.

Another special. Spaghetti with lobster. Very nice. There was a bit of celery in here that lent this a very slightly asian noodle salad flair.

We didn’t order desert, but they gave us for “free” these little Italian cookies. The only sugar was the… sugar. They would have gone well with expresso.

All in all Divino does a nice job for the money. They aren’t revolutionary, but the food is solid and reliable, and they are considerably way modern than some of the Italian joints that haven’t changed their decor (or menu) since the 60s.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burrata, Cook, Dessert, Food, Italian cuisine, Lobster, Mozzarella, Olive oil, pasta, Pizza, Ravioli, Restaurant, side dishes, vegetarian, Wine tasting descriptors, Zucchini

Ultimate Pizza in Review

Jan09

Since I have so many Ultimate Pizza posts I wanted to gather their links together into a single page. But I solemnly promise this is the last pizza post for a good while — at least until I prepare another batch of them!

In summary, every couple of months we make homemade pizzas. Like many things at my household, we take this to the extreme in a quest to reach the Ultimate level of quality. Hence Ultimate Pizza. This pizzas are really good (and a lot of work), and to do them justice required quite a number of articles. I broke them down on individual topics.

Ultimate Pizza – The Dough

Ultimate Pizza – The Pesto

Ultimate Pizza – The Sauce

Ultimate Pizza – The Toppings

Ultimate Pizza – New Years (pizza itself)

Ultimate Pizza – Day 2 (more pizza)

Ultimate Pizza – Day 3 (and even more)

Ultimate Pizza – The Birthday (the second coming)

Ultimate Pizza – The Comeback (the third coming)

Ultimate Pizza 2012

Ultimate Pizza – New Years 2012

Ultimate Pizza – New Years 2014

Between Ultimate Pizza there is Burrata

If you still want to see more food after this, check out the FOOD INDEX which links to all my food related posts.

Also I throw in here a survey of random pizza photos from past pizza nights:

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burrata, Cook, Food, Home, New Year, Olive oil, Pesto, Pizza, side dishes, Tomato sauce, ultimate_pizza, vegetarian

Ultimate Pizza – Day 2

Jan03

Here we are at the sixth Ultimate Pizza post. My neck is all knotted up from this much obsession. Earlier in the series were Dough, Pesto, Sauce, Toppings, and New Years Pizza.

Since we had a lot of dough balls, and tons of ingredients, why not get a couple meals out of it.

I wanted to do a “Jewish Pizza.” I’ve done it before, and I’ve refined the technique. First I mixed up the “sauce.” Pictured is dill, chives, and creme fraiche.

Creme cheese isn’t fresh enough, so creme fraiche! Mixed up here. I set this aside.

Then I rolled my pizza and glazed it in olive oil (single vineyard) and a little fresh rosemary from the yard. As my wife calls it: “Osiris pee rosemary.” (The dog does, after all, use the yard).

This bakes really quickly, just 4-5 minutes. With this pizza you bake it first. I tried putting the creme fraiche on before baking in a previous session. This worked MUCH better.

Add the creme.

Red onions and capers. As you would on a bagel.

Wild scottish smoked salmon! And more capers and onions. This was really really yummy.

My wife recreated her crowd pleasing margarita + corn, almonds, mushrooms, and figs.

Baked up nicely.

My Tikka Masala pizza worked so well on New Years that I tried it again. This time I took care to get it neater, and I left off the basil until the end. Tikka Masala sauce, ricotta, red onion, corn, little mozzarella balls.

In the oven.

Neater than last night.

Added the basil and a touch of olive oil. Just as good the second time.

PLEASE CONTINUE if you want to learn more about Burrata. Or, CLICK HERE for the final pizza post.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: chives, Cook, Cooking, Creme Fraiche, dill, Dough, Food, Lox, New Year, Olive oil, Onion, Pesto, Pizza, Red onion, smoked salmon, smoked salmon pizza, Tikka Masala, Tomato sauce, vegetarian

Ultimate Pizza – The Toppings

Jan01

When making Ultimate Pizza fresh ingredients are one of the most crucial elements. I already went over the preparation of the Dough, the Pesto, and the Sauce. Now I’ll cover the bulk of the shopping and for toppings.

I get most of my “fancy” condiments at Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery. This is a convient one-stop-shop spot for all sorts of Italian (and other) goodies.

I have never been in there when they aren’t mobbed. The deli counter wait alone is usually 30-45 minutes.

They make some darn good hoagies, and they have a bit of outside seating. Even though it’s December 31 the weather is gorgeous.

I had them make a “Jersey Style” Italian Hoagie. No mayo. No mustard. Just cold cuts, provolone, and oil and vinegar. Oh and don’t forget the onions, lettuce, pepper-chinos.

I went to the Gelsons for produce. Bay cities doesn’t really have produce.

The loot nestled in the trunk. This is pizza only for five!

Dairy. Next after the dough, and possibly the olive oil, nothing is so important as the dairy. Burrata, world’s greatest fresh cheese, fresh from the local creamery. Mozzarella (balled and blocks from shredding), Creme Fraiche, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Ricotta, Bay Cities House Blend (parm and pecorino grated), and Bucheron (very fancy goat cheese). I threw in some Egg Nog because of the season.

Some jarred and canned stuff. Anchovies (in vinegar and in oil), black truffle oil, Italian tuna, capers, roasted peppers, sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, tomatoes, various compotes, jams, corn (sometimes I’ll roast it fresh but I was too busy), and more.

Polenta to use as “pizza lube” (getting it off the stones and peels). Olive Oil (single vineyard), balsamic must (the Romans used this), honey, garlic, vinegars, onion marmelade, balsamic glaze, black mission figs, marcona almonds. I have white truffle oil too, but I forgot to stick it in the photo.

Produce. Five types of mushrooms, including morels and fresh chanterelles. Basil, Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, Chives, Dill, Sage, Cilantro, Mint, Arugala, crushed red pepper.

More produce. Italian squash. Red onion, avocado, lemons, meyer lemons, roma tomatos.

Every item needs to be prepped and put in a bowl or similar so it is accessible during the pizza making. Here is the basil. In total, this is a huge amount of work.