Foodie Club :: All Things Andy Gavin

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Foodie KinKan

Nov29

Location: 771 N Virgil Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029. (323) 421-3771

Date: May 24, 2024

Cuisine: Japanese / Thai inflected Fusion

Rating: I’m not sure I’ve had Japanese / Thai like this before…

Erick paved the way with this very interesting Thai / Japanese tasting menu place.

On the sketchy street in Silverlake.

Cute little space but surprisingly empty.

Complementary sake.

DASHI MARINATED IKURA ON NORI TARTLET (left) and Thai larb – dry-aged chutoro almond tartlet (right).

hotaru Iika skewer (firefly squid) with sweetened Thai seafood sauce.

UNI MARTINI WITH ONSEN TAMAGO AND DASHI BROTH.

HAMACHI CRUDO with special seafood sauce.

UME BLOSSOM SOMEN with mango ika, shirasu, fish curry.

SAZAE (JAPANESE SEA SNAIL) FISH BROTH MISO-TOM YUM SOUP and special pink pasta.

SAKE STEAMED LIVE HAIRY CRAB, CAVIAR.

BANGLADESH PRAWN. mentaiko pasta with sesame & chili-garlic sauce.

BINCHOTAN OLIVE-FED A5 WAGYU BEEF (double portion).

Lychee gel and granite.

A really fun meal with interesting Thai/Japanese omakase, great flavors, great wines, and awesome company.

Superb.

A bit more oxidative but lovely.

Intense, fresh, sweet tarts and good weight.

Kind of massive but drinking well.

Lovely, but young.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foodie Club, Japanese / Thai, KinKan LA, Wine

Vespertine 2.0

Nov19

Restaurant: Vespertine [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 3599 Hayden Ave, Culver City, CA 90232. (323) 320-4023

Date: April 19, 2024

Cuisine: Jordan merges back in Meteora ideas

Rating: Expensive, but flavors are better than old Vespertine

Vespertine is a very unusual confluence of all sorts of artsy weirdness. It’s helmed by Jordan Kahn formerly of Red Medicine and currently of Destroyer across the street. I’ve generally been fond of Jordan’s unique culinary style. Post-pandemic he opened Meteora and has now (finally) reopened Vespertine proper.

Above is the building where the restaurant is located
After a lengthy 4+ year “break” Vespertine is back as Vespertine 2.0. The first floor looks about the same.

A slightly sweet Birch water. Very mild.

Supplements.

The menu.

We went for the rather excellent expensive wine pairing because the BYOB policy is pretty bad — one bottle.

Wild Scallop. Passionfruit, aji amarillo. Very strong high acid sour passionfruit cut through the richness of the scallop nicely.

Spring. Peas, wild onion. The description doesn’t quite reveal even a fraction of the contents, taste, or texture of this flower garden. I think some kind of almond cream stuck it to the bowl.

Deep Ocean. Sweet prawn, quince. Very bright intriguing “broth” taste. Hard to place.

Obsidian Mirror. Smoked mussel, plum. Very soft moussy texture and great flavors. Sweet and briney.

The Deep Seven. Ula’ula koae, red papaya. Some kind of ultrarare deep sea fish.

Coturnix Quail. Heather, sacred pepper. The first of several quail dishes, this was super succulent with the rich “beurre blanc – esque” sauce.

Quail Liver. Pickled forest leaves. A quail dolmade? Very smokey.

Porridge Bread. Heirloom peel corn oats. The fried bread was used to wipe up the liver spread (and flowers).

Fried bread.

Cody, the Somm at this other table.

Aged Dairy Calf. Yeast fudge, magnolia. Succulent, rare, veal. Almost felt like cubes of med rare pork chop.

T

Red Earth. Pumpkin, strawberry. Super smokey baked/roasted yam. Very very Jordan dish.

After the savory we moved back downstairs for dessert.

Jordan said this was Rasmus Munk — if so he gained A LOT of wait.

The tea menu.

T

Temple Mist. Light green tea.

Lamb Fat Pancake. Caramelized maple, woodruff. A sort of fatty beneit / fat glazed donut with a maple cream. Pretty delicious, if slightly oddly meaty.

Special dessert of Uni, old PX, and some other stuff. Oddly, this totally worked.

Icy Birch. Milk jam, tiger nut. Very Jordan. Super cool and mild. Almost like plain ice.

Layers. Black raspberry, tonka bean. This was an amazing dessert. Nice texture with crunch, softness, and chew. But super delicious. I ate half of Erick’s too, despite the sugar.

cherimoya. Very interesting complex fruit flavors, the usual odd texture.

Amazing meal — but eek! Overall the food was some of the best Jordan has ever done. It was less sweet and cloying, totally weird and unique, but consistently delicious. Quantity of savory was a bit low. Service was excellent, especially Cody’s wine service. His high end wine tasting is a fabulous pairing over very nice wines — and this is tough food to pair. There was a somewhat anoying 1:15 stall between the last savory and the desserts. I was getting pretty antsy.

And we weren’t even that full so we stopped at a taco shake for some authentic $2 street tacos! At the opposite price point.

Seething meats all set for the chopping.

Chop, chop!

El Pastor.

Micro tortillas.

Basic street tacos. El pastor, chorizo, and brisket.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foodie Club, Jordan Kahn, Second Dinner, Tacos, Vespertine, Wine, Wine pairing

Game Night at STK

Nov12

Restaurant: STK Westwood

Location: 930 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024. (310) 659-3535

Date: April 12 & Oct 26, 2024

Cuisine: Steak house

Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian

Erick put together this game guy dinner at the Westwood STK. This is similar too, but different location than the older Hollywood location.

The menu.

Bread with blu cheese butter.

Tuna Tartare. hass avocado – taro chips – soy-honey emulsion.

Maple & Bourbon Nueske’s Bacon. apple cabbage slaw – pickled mustard seeds.

Crispy Calamari. basil – shishito peppers – roasted garlic & lime aioli – asian chili sauce.

Baby Gem Caesar. parmigiano reggiano – lemon black pepper emulsion – herb crouton.

Filet with mushrooms and pepper sauce.

Porterhouse with flavored butters.

Filet with au poivre sauce.

Dry-Aged Delmonico oscar style.

Filet with caramelized onions and au poivre.

Dry aged ribeye with onions and butter.

Flaming!

Maybe a NY.

Sauces.

Asparagus.

Corn pudding.

Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes.

Mashers “fully loaded”.

Creamed spinach.

Confit Mushrooms. bacon – cheese.

Mushrooms.

Bag O’ Donuts. cinnamon sugar – dulce de leche – raspberry – chocolate. and an Apple Pie. cinnamon crumble – maple crème fraiche

Fun night. Very heavy!

Food here is pretty good. Service is friendly but “confused.” On a second visit in October 2024 they kept bringing things way late and forgetting dishes. They have the typical problem as of late where you rarely see the server, only the runners who do not respond to requests, merely deliver.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Food, Foodie Club, Game Night, Steak, Steak House, STK, Wine

Yangban Society

Nov10

Restaurant: Yangban

Location: 712 S Santa Fe Ave Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 866-1987

Date: April 11, 2024

Cuisine: Korean Deli Fusion?

Rating: Really tasty!

I’ve wanted to try this well reviewed Korean and “Deli?” Fusion for a long time.

Yangban, the genre-defying Korean American culinary ‘conversation’, which opened in Los Angeles’ Arts District, re-opens after a transformative interior overhaul of the space, revealing an evolution of the highly acclaimed restaurant. Now featuring a full-service dining room and updated food and beverage programs, the concept remains at its core a Modern-Korean American restaurant as told through the lens of husband-and-wife chefs Katianna and John Hong.

Yangban is down near Bestia. In the Arts District.

The complex menu of small dishes.

Large and attractive (if dark) interior.

Golden Hokkaido Scallop Toast. Hokkaido scallop, brown butter, YANGBAN makgeolli, cherry tomato, golden sauce, cured egg yolk. Very crunchy toast with a delicious — and rich — dynamite-style scallop goo.

Wagyu Stuffed Perilla Leaf. vermicelli, beef fat tare, cotija. Crunchy!

Acorn Beignet. caramelized onion, gruyere, Benton’s ham.

Pretty yummy.

Blue Crab Tostada. gochujang, perilla, red leaf lettuce, creme fraiche. Very bright flavors and great textures.

Squashini Jeon. whipped creme fraiche, trout roe. Soft and vaguely Jewish in flavor.

Banchan. selection of side dishes highlighting local produce.

Brokaw Avocado & Shinko Pear. hot mustard, California almonds, toasted ggim, yeast.

YANGBAN Kimchi. Kae Sung Market, habanero, roasted sesame oil.

Honey Glazed Carrots. whipped yogurt, fresh date, walnut oil, herbs. Sweet and crunchy.

Grilled Cucumber. celery, YANGBAN chili oil, toasted cumin, meyer lemon juice.

Steamed Broccoli. yuzu, chicken skin furikake.

Green Tea Leaf Salad. gem lettuce, green cabbage, buchu, seasoned spinach, cucumber, tomato, snap peas, edamame, herbs and seeds, nokcha-lemon vinaigrette. Looked a bit deconstructed.

But tasted quite nice with a bright vinegrette.

Tteok. king trumpet and shimeji mushrooms, doenjang cream, preserved black truffle. Basically tasted like clam chowder. Super creamy. Super rich. And interesting deep chew from the rich cakes.

Matzoh Ball Mandu. stuffed with Grandma Sindy’s matzoh ball, chicken broth, shmaltz. I liked the texture but the shmaltz factor was a bit strong — too chickeny.

YANGBAN Wings. cucumber and Korean radish pickles, kimchi hot sauce, black rice. Amazing wings. Super sweet and crunchy. Great with the hot sauce.

The wings were served with the pickles and hot sauce.

Pickles. I love pickles.

Hot sauce.

Steamed Black Cod. pea shoots and flowers, chive, yuja, ginger, brown butter, onion soubise. Soft and buttery.

Grilled King’s Cut Short Rib. potato puree, grilled king trumpet and shiitakes, galbi jus, toasted breadcrumb, horseradish, chive. Meat was great. Very sweet.

YANGBAN Cheesecake. coconut biscuit and brown butter crust, coconut cream, local cherry jam. Amazing cherry cheesecake. Totally addictive.

Sesame cookies.

Overall the food here is great. Really interesting meld of flavors. Very bright and tasty. A lot of sugar though. Portions are small. This whole meal was two of us — and we had doubles of many dishes — and the kitchen closed before we got full! But highly recomended.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foodie Club, Korean Fusion, Yangban, Yangban Society

Shin Sen Gumi Skewer Night

Oct28

Restaurant: Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori & Chanko Gardena

Location: 18517 S Western Ave, Gardena, CA 90248. (310) 715-1588

Date: March 17, 2024

Cuisine: Japanese Yakitori & Chanko

Rating: Surprisingly excellent

Joe wanted to “derail” Chinese Sunday with some Japanese, so we headed down to this Gardena Shin-Set-Gumi which is Yakitori instead of ramen.

This is the “chanko” room of the shin sen gumi yakitori where you can actually make a reservation.

Wines.

Cheese “eggrolls” — ok.

Mushroom salad. Just ok too.

Fried oysters. Pretty good.

Agadashi tofu. I always enjoy this dish.

Chicken hearts. yum.

Pork with shiso. Shiso always makes everything great.

Chicken meat balls.

Bacon asparagus and bacon-wrapped scallops. Crispy and delicious.

Beef and some bacon-wrapped something.

Crispy chicken bits.

Delicious tongue.

Another chicken something.

Okra.

Scallops.

More bacon wrapped scallops.

Beef and bacon wrapped tomatoes.

BBQ chicken.

Crispy chicken tails — awesome!

Another chicken bit.

Wings!

More bacon wrapped scallops.

Garlic.

Delicious sausage and mustard. One of my favorites.

This was our “chanko” which in this case was steamed pork and other stuff. Quite delicious with sauce.

Steamed up.

Here is the other stuff.

Steamy!

Coconut Lime Rum Sorbet.

A deal!

A very fun evening with surprisingly delicious yakitori — since we ordered things extra crispy. Apps aren’t that great but the skewers are.

Shunji in the house!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chanko, Foodie Club, Gardena, Gelato, Shin Sen Gumi, Wine, Yakitori

Endless New Year

Oct08

Restaurant: Indian, The Tavern [1, 2]

Location: 633 S San Gabriel Blvd #105, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 287-0688

Date: February 10, 2024

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Longest Chinese meal ever!

It’s hard to describe this particular SGV restaurant. But Andrea organized this special Chinese New Year’s banquet.

From the outside it looks like most of them.

But then inside it has this weird western saloon theme. Presumably it was some kind of “Indian bar” back in the 50s. The decor has partially stuck, but the menu is almost all Chinese.

We had this rustic table in the “party room.”

Not so PC!

We had the whole room.

Fried Stinky Tofu. Smelled bad, tasted like baby poop!

Crunchy spicy cabbage — good for removing the poop taste.

發財好市 Prosperous Market. Oysters with Black Moss, pork, and cabbage.

Incredibly interesting textures and great flavor — although not a looker in this format.

黃金仙子 Golden Fairies. Whole U-10 Scallops with Egg White Sauce and Fish Roe.

Very tasty.

海皇豆腐羹 Health and Longevity. Assorted Seafood and Bean Curd Soup. This was so good I had 3 bowls. Awesome!

年年有餘 More Than Enough Year After Year. Steamed Whole Live Fish.

Very tasty but a lot of bones.

Signature Prawns and Corn Kernels with Preserved Duck Egg Yolks. The crunchy corn was awesome.

Paul rapped — quite excellently.

包羅萬有 Ocean Treasures Discovered. Braised Gourmet Seafood (Abalone, Sea Cucumber, Fish Maw, Sundried Scallops…)

Icky looking again, but great flavors and textures.

飛龍在天 Dragon Above the Cloud. Lobster and Yee-Fu Noodles with Ginger and Scallions.

Delicious and tender.

金雞報喜 Chicken Bringing Good News. Authentic Fried Chicken. Very juicy and delicious.

Traditional Tea Smoked Duck. Smoky.

寶盆生花 Pearls in Treasure Pot. Mini Stuffed Gluten Balls in Light Peanut Paste (Desert).

Probably the best Chinese dessert soup I’ve had — actually quite delicious — like liquid peanut butter.

Lovechild, Pecan Praline, and Cremino Siciliano.

Crepe cakes!

The wines.

Overall, the place was surprisingly excellent. And they did these really interesting dishes. However, the timing was glacial to say the least. This meal was OVER 7 HOURS LONG! And Chinese food is usually super fast. There were two different 60-90 minute gaps between dishes. Twice I just went over to an empty booth, lay down and took an hour long nap!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese New Year, Foodie Club, Gelato, Indian Tavern, Lunar New Year, SGV, Wine

A Different Duck House

Sep11

Restaurant: Duck House [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 501 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 284-3227

Date: January 7, 2024

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Good duck

Duck House is a staple SGV restaurant for my gang. The food is good, it’s on the closer side, and the owner is incredibly nice. I’ve even housed a birthday dinner here. But this is my personal first return after the pandemic.

This was a slightly different Duck House crew, a bit more open to exotic ordering.

Gift from the house – chili bamboo shoots. I’ve had this dish, but these were marinated/fermented with salt and something and had this delightful crunch and woody smell and taste. Quite strong on the woody so not eveyone liked it.

Cold jellyfish. Nicely crunchy thick jellyfish “noodles.” Some, but not overwelming vinegar.

Crack Chicken. As always this cold chicken with the mildly creamy, spicy, numbing sauce is amazing. It’s all about the sauce which I got to go.

Fried fishcake and roe balls. Interesting, a bit like some of the ones that are offered with hot pot. Pretty tasty though.

Corn and Shrimp Bird’s Nest. The nest is just a fried noodle of sorts. This was actually a very plesant dish with all that corn in white supreme sauce.

Chinese greens with Egg and Crab Meat sauce. One of those goopy yellow sauces but quite pleasant.

Sea Cucumber and Abalone. More a lot of mushroom. There wasn’t that much of the rare chewy sea creatures but the unctuous mushrooms sauce was kinda delicious.

Peking Duck.

Condiments.

Pancake.

Scallion Lamb. Very tender and not gamey at all.

String beans. Duck House makes a great (and slightly sweet) version of this dish.

Crispy Deep Fried Cumin Duck Tails. Super salty, fatty, and delicious.

Noodles with scallions and beef. Worth the carbs.

Shanghai Style Red Sauce Pork. Super fatty but tasty.

Sweet Bean pancake. Yup, odd Chinese desserts.

Egg and Sesame Ball Soup. This was one of the better versions of this oddball (bada bing) sweet soup.

This was probably my favorite Duck House meal — in no small part because of the better ordering. Service was absolutely first rate as always. So fun as always and I’d definitely say that Duck House is a great SGV gateway drug place for those who need to baby into the more extreme and different stuff.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese Food, Duck House, Foodie Club, Peking Duck, SGV, Wine

Raving about Miyagi

Sep01

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

Location: 150 S Barrington Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (323) 382-5635

Date: December 15, 2023

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Top Shelf Omakase Sushi

Great sushi is always a good excuse to pull out the beloved Champagnes and White Burgundies. Tonight’s Foodie Club theme was Raveneau.

The unassuming storefront on the largely ignored side street that is S Barrington Ave.

The space is small but attractive (these are pre covid pics).

This is chef focused serious sushi, and so we pre-ordered the largest omakase possible — Erick even egged them on to a larger than offered menu. This picture is also pre-covid, post there is a plexiglass barrier across the bar and no bar seating.

Chef Shinichi Miyagi says about himself on his website:

Born in Osaka, the art of sushi mesmerized the chef at an early age and decided to devote his life as a “Decchi” (apprentice) under Master Higuchi at the age of 16. He opened his first “Kappo” (traditional style of cooking in front of a crowd) restaurant at the age of 25, and moved to LA at 29, working in numerous well known Sushi restaurants in West LA, Beverly Hills, and San Diego.

Through managing a Sushi restaurant in Manhattan Beach (i-naba), now in present day, he found an opportunity to try his skills as an executive chef in Brentwood/Los Angeles. The chefs many years of experience in choosing the freshest fish, will surprise even the most sophisticated pallets of this beautiful city.

His methods and techniques in preparation follows the traditional Japanese style, bringing out the true flavors of the fish. The chef also prepares two styles of rice, AKAZU SHARI (Red vinegar sushi rice), and SHIROZU SHARI (White vinegar rice). The SHARI (Sushi rice) will alternate depending on the fish being prepared, and we hope you enjoy the eclectic flavors of the different vinegars being used.Sushi Miyagi is exactly the kind of sushi place I like best — all omakase and very traditional. This is some seriously good fish. Mostly just straight nigiri and a bit of spectacular sashimi and a handful of cooked dishes. This is really really good and instantly catapulted into the top westside sushi joints. Very friendly too. Intimate as well. Sushi at this level is all about the chef and Shinichi Miyagi is very talented.

Appetizer plate with oyster and caviar (left), sea squirt (top), monkfish liver (front), Japanese conche (right), and fried river crab (back right).

Sashimi plate with two whitefish and smoked bonito.

Shirako (cod fish sperm sacks), boiled, with ponzu. This is my favorite prep.

Fried oyster and clam with mustard sauce.

Sekogani (female snow crab). Super succulent with that deep crab flavor and lots of roe.

Snapper.

Hokkaido scallop.

Shimaji. Stripped jack.

White fish with liver. Quite interesting.

Lightly seared fish.

Salmon.

Can’t remember.

Awesome maguro.

Toro.

Sardine or mackerel, oily and marinated.

Clam.

Seared Baby barracuda.

Snapper with truffle.

Hokkaido uni.

Seared A5 beef sushi (awesome).

Dashi with noodles.

Crab hand roll.

Truffle ice cream.

Tea.

The gang.

Sushi Miyagi is exactly the kind of sushi place I like best — all omakase and very traditional. This is some seriously good fish. Mostly just straight nigiri and a bit of spectacular sashimi and a handful of cooked dishes. This is really really good and instantly catapulted into the top westside sushi joints. Very friendly too. Intimate as well. Sushi at this level is all about the chef and Shinichi Miyagi is very talented.

Not for the sushi neophytes and roll lovers, but fabulous for those of us who really enjoy great fish being showcased in a straightforward and delicious manner.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brentwood, Chablis, Foodie Club, ravenau, Sushi

Emperor Yamamoto

Aug30

Restaurant: 鮨やまもと / Sushi Yamamoto

Location: N Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Date: December 14, 2023

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: One of the best meals of the year

And so we come to the Foodie Club’s epic End of Year Blowout!

At one of LA’s most elite sushi spots, up stairs on Rodeo in the old Ginza Sushiko spot.

The sushi bar

Our special menu.

Ginger. I had about 10 of these.

Kichiji-rock fish in dashi. Mild and delicious. Super soft and tender.

Astrea caviar of course.

Kyoto fresh bean curd with caviar. Very grassy soy flavor. Texture like very fresh burrata.

Kinmedai-goldeneye snapper sashimi. The peppery yuzu-kosho was awesome.

Tri of tunas.

Taka’s chu-toro.

Taka’s o-otoro.

Taka’s maguro in a tiny handroll.

Benny’s shrimp.

Buri (wild yellow tail).

Saba (mackerel).

Hokkigai (surf clam)

Sekogani (female snow crab) with crab sauce. Super succulent with that deep crab flavor and lots of roe. The soft silky sauce really took it up a level too.

Hokkaido uni (sea urchin).

Astrea Caviar Toro roll.

House-made buckwheat soba noodles.

Shrimp soba (hot). Perfect soba with that awesome slightly soggy perfect tempura shrimp.

Cold soba with caviar. Also great, but I preferred the hot.

Unagi (fresh water eel). Super soft.

Tamago (sweet egg).

A tro of birthday cakes!

Satsuma Tangerine Ice Cream. Very mild.

A tro of Sweet Milk Gelato (Choco-mole, Orange Old Fashioned, and Bakewell Tart).

Basque Cheesecake with Caviar and Stawberry Cake.

Tea.

Uh. Wow! Pretty incredible evening, although I got home at 1am!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, BYOG, Caviar, crab, Eve, Foodie Club, Fu, Gelato, Japanese Sushi, Sushi, Wine, Yamamoto

An Array of Goodness

Aug24

Restaurant: Array36 – 36宴

Location: 5449 Rosemead Blvd, Temple City, CA 91776. (626) 866-0623

Date: December 2, 2023 and May 5 & July 21, 2024

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Great new “high end” Chinese

I was eager to find out about Array 36, another new “high end” Chinese resteraunt in the SGV — most similar to Orange County’s Chang’an.

We booked a private room for 14 and pre-ordered a number of dishes. I did the menu planning.

The service was very nice, although they did make us wait about 30 minutes while the previous occupants of our room finished up.

Pressed Japanese yuzu-infused jellyfish head. Very tasty with nice texture. Of course the jellyfish itself has next to no flavor, but the slightly sweet sauce was great.

roasted chili sauce century egg with avocado. Very nice, if unconventional, century egg dish. I do love century egg.

Century Egg with Sea Cucumber. Very interesting blend of the soft and bitey and the chewy textures. A bit of kick and tons of umami. Really quite good. They changed this up as it used to have avocado. This was arguably better.

sichuan style spicy and numbing chicken. A very solid version of this with one of those addictive spicy sauces. Chicken itself was nice and juicy.

36 feast smoked pine pork. These tiny morsels tasted like Shanghai smoked fish, just pork.

Pork Neck with Japanese Yam. Kind of like spam with pineapple!

Bovon brought another tin of caviar!

hand-made crab golden noodles. I love crab roe and I love noodles so I had to try these.

They were actually very pleasant but a little bland — nothing a huge dollop of caviar didn’t fix!

House special shrimp. They were out of scallops so we got these sweet crispy shrimp.

I “fish egged” mine up but it was very nice. Extremly crispy and mildly sweet.

Shanghai crab stewed with its roe and tofu in a clay pot. I love this dish and it didn’t dissapoint. Super soft. I ate a mess. With caviar too.

Typhoon style lobster. The lobster itself was very well cooked. The garlic had a bit too much bread crumbs in it, but was still delicious.

6lb lobster with ginger and scallions. Excellent version of the wet lobster prep.

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall Soup. Several people insisted on this dish and it was incredible! This was the abalone version and was full of so many weird seafoods cooked down into a super intense seafood demiglace. It had incredible silky texture and density. Marvelous.

The version in 2024 was like a consommé. It had all the chewy seafood bits, but not the unctuous thick demiglace texture that it had in Dec 2023.

Braised cold abalone. Chewy!

Shanghai smoked fish. Very nice crispy version of the fish.

Grouper steamed with soy sauce and ginger. Very nice fish. Lots of bones. Great sauce flavor. Some people LOVE this dish. I like the flavor, but the bone factor always leaves me a bit disintered in engaging with it fully.

Pickled chilis and spicy bean sauce.

Shanghainese sautéed eel. I really loved these garlicky sweet rich eels.

northeastern-style marinated beef. Very tender and a bit sweet.

Grandmother’s pork belly. Extremely fatty and juicy. Great version of this Shanghai dish.

Super rich Shanghai Pork with Quail Eggs. Great version of this very fatty dish.

Finally, about an hour late, our Peking duck arrived. They do it like Chang’an.

Lighting it on fire with Baiju.

Then carved tableside.

Just the skin. It was good, but not quite as crispy as it should have been.

Meat itself was delicious and juicy.

Some of the meat was smoked.

This added more (smoky) flavor, of course.

Super thin pancakes, but they had a little clumping issue.

Oodles of caviar for the duck.

The condiments were solid. But overall the Peking Duck was a bit of a disappointment. It was good in the way that any real Peking duck is, but the skin could have been crispier. Part of the problem was also that both ducks came WAY at the end of the meal. We didn’t want them instantly at the start, but I had asked for them at 8pm and they came at more like 9:20 — and we were very full.

The May 2024 version of the duck was excellent, first rate really. Moist with crispy skin.

hand pulled cabbage. Delicious dish as always.

Seared string beans. Very nice sear and good flavor.

Garlic greens. Very well done, but a little on the “boring” side. Always good to have some greens but I like the cabbage.

Stone pot fried rice.

yangzhou egg fried rice. Very nice fried rice.

shanghai shepherd’s purse and pork dumplings. These XLB were super juicy, delicious, and had some kind of seafood, maybe even more crab roe.

Spicy XLB. Shells were ok and these were juicy, but they had quite a better — numbing and white — kick. I kind of liked them but many didn’t.

shanghai pan-fried buns. They looked a bit soggy but the pork was great.

The pan fried pork dumplings were better in May 2024, this time with a great pork filling.

Duck #2. We asked for it crispier. They flammed it longer, but it just ended up tasting a bit more “burnt.”

We also asked for the bones and got tons of meaty bones.

Baked papaya dessert. Sweet and kind of tasteless.

Variant on — Sultan’s Delight — Iranian Saffron and Sicilian Pistachio Base, with Rose-Water Turkish Delight — Saffron from the Istanbul Spice Bazaar — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #saffron #pistachio #TurkishDelight #Türkiye

Baileys Irish Gream Gelato — Stabilized 13% Bailys Irish Cream recipe, with a touch of seasonal coloring! — I have trouble resisting these once a year flavors — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #expresso #whiskey #baileys #StPatricksDay #cream #green

St Agur, Fig, Walnut Gelato.

Awesome Armenian pistachio cake.

Dec 2024: This was an awesome meal. Array 36 is one of the best Chinese “fancy” places I’ve been to in California. It’s not quite as polished as Chang’an, but it does have a varried menu. The general style leans toward the Shanghai region, although they have some other dishes. Chang’an is a little Xi’an inflenced and has a few more spicy dishes. Many dishes here were excellent, but fell slightly short of Shanghai Tang level execution. But there were lots of interesting and delicious dishes.
May 2024: Really great night. First rate in every way. The food at Array has stepped up, particularly the duck. The Buddha soup went from best to one of the worst dishes but everything else really improved. Service was great and the room cosy but prefect. They did rush the food a bit. Not that the overall length of the meal was too fast, but too many things came at once in a number of waves. But it’s really hard not to have that happen at Chinese unless you also want to gamble that you won’t have long waits. And we had A LOT of food. Jeff really helped set things up nicely. I would have ordered a couple more interesting things and left off the regular greens, shrimp, and the fish. But others LOVED the fish so they were crowd pleasers. Overall, a totally banger night.

July 2024: Another great night. Private room again and a slightly smaller (in terms of food) dinner with very successful but tighter ordering. Again the duck was fabulous. They also finally had the awesome river shrimp in stock. Even the pig’s ear was great.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Array 36, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Foodie Club, Gelato, SGV

Tin Time – Saltie Girl

Aug01

Restaurant: Saltie Girl

Location: 8615 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069. (310) 734-7296

Date: November 9, 2023

Cuisine: Seafood

Rating: Quite different with all that conserva

This was a Erick and I duo foodie night.

Salty Girl in West Hollywood offers a cozy yet vibrant dining experience, merging a relaxed atmosphere with sophisticated seafood dishes. This eatery stands out with its emphasis on fresh, high-quality ingredients, showcasing a range of oceanic delights from rich, buttery lobster rolls to expertly shucked oysters. The menu, thoughtfully curated, features inventive yet comforting options like clam chowder fries and tuna crudo. The interior’s rustic charm, accented by nautical decor, complements the laid-back but polished service, making it an ideal spot for both casual dinners and special occasions. Salty Girl’s commitment to flavor and freshness leaves a memorable impression, ensuring it’s a must-visit for seafood enthusiasts.

The menu.

The have a whole book of conserva.

Chilled Florida Stone Crab Claws. Tasty, but expensive at $42 a claw and hard to get out of those thick shells.

TORCHED SALMON BELLY. avocado / apple / cucumber / miso glaze. Very rich and satisfying with a subjective sweetness.

WARM SPICY KING CRAB ROLL. avocado / soy paper / ponzu. Mild and pleasant.

SANTA BARBARA UNI TOAST. tomato jam / mangalica ham / quail egg. Good mix of briny and salty flavors.

CHARRED OCTOPUS. coco beans / chorizo / piquillo peppers / fingerling potato chips. Really really tender. Not chewy in the slightest.

Our selection of tins. They have the largest seafood tin list in the country!

served with trio of salts / crunchy butter / pickled piparra peppers / piquillo pepper jam / french bread. I liked all the accompaniments — other than the salt which I didn’t try (didn’t need MORE salt).

Bread for the tins.

Cockles in brine. Very succulent and delicious.

SPICED SARDINES IN OLIVE OIL. Porthos / Portugal / 4.4oz. Nice sardines, but fairly straightforward.

HAKE CHEEKS IN OLIVE OIL. Alalunga / Spain / 4.72oz. Delicious and tender.

SMOKED EEL. Gulf of Maine Conservas / New Hampshire / 6oz. Great smoky flavor. Pretty salty.

GRILLED VENTRESCA (TUNA BELLY). Güeyu Mar / Spain / 5.29oz. We were hoping for richer. This was excellent tuna, but nothing that exciting.

SALTIE GIRL LOBSTER ROLL. served warm. house made salt & vinegar potato chips. Quite nice lobster roll.

FRENCH DOVER SOLE. lemon / capers / butter / parsley. Fish was perfectly cooked so it had a great texture. Beurre blanc was silky rich. The only problem was the sauce was a touch salty without enough compensating lemon.

Beurre blanc sauce.

Overall, an interesting place ina very cute space. Service was good. It was loud and crowded and there was a lot of seafood on this menu. It was salty and not exactly cheap. But I’d come again at some point. Unfortuantly they do have a 2 bottle limit although a reasonable enough $40 corkage.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: conserva, fish, Foodie Club, Seafood, West Hollywood, Wine

Yes to Yess

Jul28

Restaurant: Yess

Location: 2001 E 7th St, Los Angeles, CA 90021.

Date: October 25, 2023

Cuisine: Modern Japanese

Rating: Good, but restrained

From a bright orange sashimi food truck to a haven for smoky wood-grilled dishes, this Arts District spot from lauded London chef Junya Yamasaki fits right in with the buzzing neighborhood. Order something from the ever-changing menu, grab a drink, and then expect to order at least another round.

Modern build out of this warehouse, although my photos suck.

The small menu.

Fresh Water Kimchi with Market Vegetables and Fruits. Very mild flavor. Joe loved these. I prefer a much more vinegar forward pickle flavor as these were very pleasant, but subtle.

Boiled Peanuts. Surprisingly excellent.

Bluefin “Akami Zuke” with Mustard-Pickled Eggplant and Wasabina. Clean straight up tuna with a nice zesty mustard.

Halibut Fritters with Fresh Peppers, Spring Onion, and Ponzu. Delicious fried fish with this strong, and pretty spicy, topping.

Monk’s “Chirashi-Sushi.” This autumn vegetarian version of a chirashi bowl was actually incredible. It was sweet, with varied textures, a smokey autumn vibe, and some subtle vinegar.

Grilled Fig and Cacao Miso Soup. Gorgeous winter style miso with a bit of sweetness.

Tuna Tartar with Soy Cured Egg Yolk and Mixed Vegetable Crisps. Awesome “toro” tartare with great soft texture and extreme richness.

Grilled Miso Black Cod and New Season Turnips.

Grilled Pork Collar. Grilled Peads and Barnetts Pork Collar with Ripe Peppers and Cannellini Bean Mash. Tasty.

Grilled Lamb Loin Chop with Spinach, Mint, Beet Chips and Apple Salad. The lamb itself was nice, but the really great part was that herby salad. Loved the mint etc.

Grilled Beef and Matsutake Mushroom. Stemple Creek Strip Loin and Matsutake Mushroom with Roasted Bone Marrow and Soy Egg Yolk. A pretty “healthy” portion of very solid steak and gorgeous mushrooms. It played nicely with the soy egg and when topped with bone marrow.

Soy Egg Yolk.

Peering at the bone marrow. Erick blew his out and a huge snot globblet of marrow fat landed on his plate!

Hanging with the chef.

This was a very interesting meal. Very different take on modernizing Japanese cuisine in a lovely build out — located in a sketchy DTLA location.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: DTLA, Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, Wine, Yess

Final Kinn

Jul24

Restaurant: Kinn [1, 2, 3]

Location: 3905 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 291-0888

Date: October 19, 2023

Cuisine: Korean Fusion

Rating: Really tasty & a great deal

After Erick and I had such a great “Round 1” of our double dinner at Kinn and then a “real” Foodie Club dinner (seen here), we decided to come back for a third epic meal — sadly, it closed very soon after this particular feast which is a real shame as it was fabulous and innovative.

Not so crowded this time around :-(.

Kimbap. Cured and seared escalar, Bugak shell, Shari, Myoga, Wasabi, Scallion paste, Perilla leaf. Delicious. The soft meaty fish played off the interesting flavors in the base.

Oyster. Marinated Santa spot prawn, Uni, Oyster, Smoked trout roe, Hanaho, Lime zest. Excellent jazzed up oyster.

Abalone. Steamed abalone, Squid ink, Potato sauce, Chive sauce. The Kinn classic.

Tomato Salad. Perilla sorbet, Tomato, Burrata, Basil oil. I was hoping this would return — it’s not exactly the same — but for the second time the Perilla sorbet was incredible!

Crispy Octopus. Octopus, Potato, Gochujang SC, Parsley, Chervil, Tarragon, Compressed Radish. A new format was perhaps even better. So crispy and so tender.

Dry Aged Beef, Flannery beef, Market vegetables, Dashi, Dipping sauce. Tasted like shabu shabu. I drank the whole broth.

Soup of Delicacies. Chicken soup with xiao xing, Dried sea cucumber, Matsutake & Lion’s mane mushroom, Egg custard with salted shrimp, Deer tendon. Basically a fancy Korean ingredient Chawanmushi — delicious.

Caviar Noodle. Handmade noodles, Oyster cream, Lime zest, Flower, Astrea Caviar. This was good, but a bit blander than most of the dishes (it is a carb).

N’duja mandoo, N’duja filling, Scallop, Brown butter. Bunch of intense dumpling flavor — awesome.

Carabinero & Tilefish. Crispy tilefish, Charcoal grilled shrimp, Spinach puree, Brandy Sauce. Lovely.

Stuffed quail. Mushroom cream sauce. Incredible dish. The quail was super crispy, yet juicy, and the creamy sauce was incredible.

Mussel rice. Rice cooked in mussel stock, Saffron, Tomato, Pickled onion. Very much like a great paella-risotto hybrid. It wasn’t crispy, but it had awesome flavor.

Perfect iced grapes.

Corn. Shaved corn ice, Cheese foam, Green Tea powder. A very soft and subtle dessert.

Bonus of foie gras terrine.

Caviar.

And, as we sat for 2 hours chatting with the chef, a Flannery steak!

Really incredible meal.

The chef.

Kinn was awesome. Not only was it intimate and the chef extremely friendly and interesting, but these were big bold flavors and quite novel. The cooking techniques are heavily “modern French” or “modern European” (some dishes like the Octopus are pretty Spanish) but a lot of Korean ingredients and flavors have been melded in. It’s simultaneously comforting and novel.

This larger dinner was more “filling” and we certainly didn’t need second dinner. Great stuff and great wines.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Foodie Club, Kinn, Korean Fusion, Wine

Kinjiro Return

Jul18

Restaurant: Kinjiro [1, 2]

Location: 424 E 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012. (213) 229-8200

Date: October 9, 2023

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Good modern Japanese comfort food

I last went here about a decade ago with the Babykillers — and before that to BOS in this same spot. BOS was good, but kinda extreme, being an offal restaurant. The owners then rebooted the space as Kinjiro, a modern Izakaya (bar with food), which has proved very popular.

It looks pretty much the same as it did before, with slight superficial alterations.

Once upon a time, a boy named Ninomiya Kinjiro rose from humble origins and became one of the most beloved statesmen in Japan, bringing food and joy to the people during hard times via agricultural reform.
We, Nomiya (“Tavern”) KINJIRO, strive to carry on our namesake’s mission and bring happiness to our customers via good food & drink.

Overall, Kinjiro really is one of the best Izakaya (food-wise) that I know of in town. Too bad it’s all the way downtown, as that’s further away than I usually like to drive for izakaya, as we have many on the westside. But this food is elevated just enough and execution really execellent.

Our marked up menu.

Uni, Ikura, Scallop & Blue Crab. The dashi on the side was thick and incredibly flavorful. It could be poured over for a pour “umami infusion.” Great textures and quite lovely.

Close up.

Seared Kanpachi (Amberjack) with Spicy Ponzu. Fish was pleasant but I prefer straight raw to seared. The spicy daikon had a bit of a kick.

Cured Mackerel “Saba Kobujime” Sashimi. Very pleasant oilyness to the fish.

Assorted “Nukazuke” Pickles. The Takuan (yellow) was the best. The others had a great crunch but mild acidity (I like a stronger pickle).

Kibinago Sardine Tempura. Nice little fried baitfish with two salts.

Agedashi Fried Tofu with Organic Mushrooms Ankake Sauce. OMG this is the best tofu. Super silky interior, a bit of crunchy fry around it, and that goopy dashi (similar to the thick dashi in the first dish) with lovely mushrooms.

Closer view.

Spanish Octopus with Japanese Peppercorn Aioli. Nice texture, good acidity, and I even enjoyed the tomatoes.

An aoili and a macha salt for the octopus.

Thick-cut Beef Tongue with Yuzu Negi. Very thick and meaty with a nice zingy/spicy sauce (the yuzu negi, which is what one sees over-piled on AYCE sushi trying to look “cool”).

Bone Marrow Dengaku. Pretty tasty with quite a bit of sweet soy baked in.

King Salmon Collar & Belly “Yuan-yaki”. Like super rich teriyaki salmon.

Simmered Japanese Red Snapper Head. Very nice steamed fish meat.

Beef Tendon, Tongue Miso Stew. I was a bit disappointed with this dish. Tasty, but pretty chewy.

Uni Risotto. Nice and creamy. Excellent.

Beef Tongue Curry Rice. OMG again. This might have been one of the best beef curries I’ve had. Perfect Japanese curry flavor. Could have used more of the iconic red pickles.

Speaking of pickles…

American Wagyu Sukiyaki-Don (Simmered Beef over Rice, Poached Egg).

Mashed together this was delicious and tasted just like… sukiyaki!

Grilled American Wagyu Boneless Short Rib over Rice. Basically like those Korean short ribs (slightly sweet with char flavor) over rice. Delicious!

Sake Kasu Crème Brulee. Quite nice and silky.

Black Sesame Mousse. Really great soft texture with a deliciate black sesame flavor.

Overall, an amazingly fun night. Great company. Great wines. And some really tasty comfort food that paired very well.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Foodie Club, Izakaya, Japanese cuisine, Kinjiro

Bistro 1968 at Night

Jul11

Restaurant: Bistro 1968 [1, 2]

Location: 402 S San Gabriel Blvd Ste A, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 766-1968

Date: January 4, 2024

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: One of the current best

Bistro 1968 opened with considerable fanfare (for the SGV) at the tail end of 2022. It serves up a large but focused menu of Cantonese dim sum and unusually is not two restaurants in one like most of the Cantonese places. Instead they have the same (dim sum focused) menu for both lunch and dinner.

This visit involves a Foodie Club Sunday Chinese dinner with combined dim sum and other.

The underground parking lot here sucks. Upper level was full and the lower level had this mechanical gated “resident only tow zone” that was poorly labeled and easy to get trapped in.

Escaping the parking lot involved this endless corridor.

Peanuts and Candied Walnuts.

The menu.

They have moderately fancy tea service.

Chili paste and mustard.

Egg Tofu with Abalone Sauce. I love this soft silky tofu. Although we got it more or less twice.

Seafood Dumpling with pumpkin.

Shrimp Har-gow.

Seaweed and Shrimp Paste Cake.

Chili Oil.

XO Sauce.

Pork & Shrimp Siu-Mai.

Selections.

Shrimp Rice Noodle.

Supreme Beef Balls.

Jumbo Sticky Rice Wrap.

Seafood Chow-mein w/ Crispy Noodle. Solid version of the classic with nice noodles and sily seafood.

Pan Fried Seme Cicoria w/ Duck Meat. This “orzo” with bits of duck was awesome. Very much like a fried rice.

Barbecued Iberian Pork w/ Honey. Too lean and too sweet, so while it had good flavor it was a bit chewy.

Egg Tofu with Mushrooms and Vegetables. Delicious dish. This is my kind of “veggie.”

Peking Duck. This was a rather lame Pseudo Peking Duck. Kinda dry and the cleavered style of Cantonese roast duck with the buns.

No cucumbers but there were scallions.

They served both the more “real” hoisin and the standard thin Cantonese type that usually goes with PPD.

Poached Tofu Skin w/ Pork Bone Broth.. Soup was a pork bone broth and pretty delicious. Rest of the dish was meh.

Pan Fried Mix Mushrooms with Egg White. Kinda boring dry version of this dish. It was much better at Colette.

Curry Rice with Baked Eel. The eel was really good. The curry rice was a touch dry and very much that English yellow curry.

Poached Watercress with Fish Ball. Bland this time around.

Strawberry Jam Gelato — an awesome dairy Strawberry base swirled with Strawberry Jam — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — sugar time! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #strawberry #jam

To the right was an Almond Zab blend. It was pretty old. Tasted great but had some ice cystal formation. Could easily have been almost 2 years old from the label.

Flavorless sweat bean puffs.

Mango “soup” was actually pretty good.

Overall, Bistro 1968 was interesting at night. It was a Sunday night and deserted. The kitchen didn’t feel particularly on point but the dim sum was still great and most of the dishes very enjoyable. They seem to be floundering, as more recently (early summer 2024) they have switched to $20/pp AYCE dim sum — which will doom them. No way they make money on that.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Bistro 1968, BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, Wine

Baar Baar

Jun25

Restaurant: Baar Baar

Location: 705 W 9th St, Los Angeles, CA 90015. (213) 266-8989

Date: August 9, 2023

Cuisine: Modern Indian

Rating: Very tasty

Erick and I haven’t seen each other in 2 months because we were both traveling (him longer than me). So when he got back we went out just the two of us to try this new downtown modern Indian located in the old Faith and Flower space.

Attractive modern space.

The menu.

Cauliflower 65. Carrot Pachadi, peanut theca, pickled kumquat, curry leaf. This is a Portugese influenced dish and was quite tasty.

Tuna Bhel. Passion Fruit Rassam, avocado, curry leaf oil, kappa chips. I really enjoyed this cumin forward, slightly sweet, slightly spicy take on the tuna tartare.

Wild Shrimp Ghee Roast. Byadgi Chili, Fennel, Pao bread. Very nice grilled prawn with a spicy butter.

Pao Bread. Looks like Hawaiian bread, but not sweet at all.

Lamb Keema Hyderabadi. Potato mousse, green peas, masala pao. Sort of the Indian Sheppard’s pie. Delicious spiced ground beef under the whipped potatos. Tasted like Indian-style Texas chili.

Here is the meat in view.

Pork Belly. Pomegranate BBQ, stone fruit, sping onion, masala cracklings. A bit sweet and full of flavor.

Chicken Malai Tikka. Amul Cheese Fondue, walnut khurchan, crispy garlic. Creamy and rich. Pretty mild.

Kashmiri Duck (Birria) Taco. Chilantro, red onion, cheddar, pickled radish. These tasted more like Mexican tacos actually, but were delicious with that very greasy, meat forward taco flavor.

“Consomme” for the tacos. Dipping this notched them up even further. Great dish.

Lamb Chop Burrah Kebab. Pickled red onion, hemp seeds chutney, red onion. Pretty delicious with the onions and the mint sauce.

Mint sauce.

Baar Baar Butter Chicken. Red pepper makhani, fenugreek. Very mild and super creamy this was a fabulous chicken curry. A nice char flavor as well. Really great.

Lamb Shank Roast. Nijari gravy, fresh ginger, mint, cilantro, rose. Like a sort of lamb curry osso bucco. Pretty tasty but not as good as the butter chicken.

Cheese & Jalapeno Naan. Cheesy and delicious.

Garlic Naan. Good, but not as good as the cheesy one.

The dessert menu.

Mango Ghewar. Malai kulfi, mascarpone mousse, mango jelly, pistachio. This was the winner. Super delicious, cool, refreshing mango.

Coconut Payasam Cassatta. Rhubarb compote, tender coconut granita. Subtle flavors. A bit like a coconut cheesecake with hints of rhubarb ice.

Really delicious new restaurant. Indian flavors but modern treatment. Super delicious. Very refined. It’ll be interesting to see what the masses think of Baar Baar. I happen to love strong Indian flavors and this was some of the best stuff I’ve had.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Baar Baar, Foodie Club, Indian cuisine

Roccos Redux

Jun21

Restaurant: Dinner at the Borgese’s [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]

Location: Santa Monica

Date: August 2, 2023

Cuisine: Italian influenced gourmet home cooking

Rating: Awesome

Dinner at the Borgese’s is a special house dinner in Santa Monica cooked by the stunning pro-level home chef Borgese couple. Tonight’s dinner was another Hedonist dinner featuring whole lamb.

Lovely night out on the patio.

The menu.

Bistecca chilling out.

Rocco in the kitchen.

The dead and dying shrimp section (they had just been split open).

Amuse of burrata and prosciutto.

Amuse of caviar, creme fraiche, and blinis.

Carpaccio di Tonno. Tuna Carpaccio. Super salted — in a good way — the sea salted offset the olive oil nicely.

Bronzino alle Vongole. Bronzino with Clams in Cherry Tomatoes. Interesting take on things. Quite nice though. Drank the entire (delicious) broth.

Risotto ai Calamari. Calamari Risotto. Salty and delicious. Way better than the risotto I had the night before at Mistral.

Cozze con Guanciale. Mussels with Pork Cheek. Who doesn’t think that Guanciale makes everything better?

Pasta di Granchio. Crab Pasta. A very matured, incredibly savory, tomato and probably anchovy etc based crab sauce. Delicious with great texture.

Pasta di Granchio. Crab Pasta. A very matured, incredibly savory, tomato and probably anchovy etc based crab sauce. Delicious with great texture.

Bistecca alla Florentina. Wood-fired Florentine Steak. This was one of the better Rocco steaks. Medium rare and with a salty crust.

Verdure Grigliate. Roasted vegetables. In this case little baby potatoes.

Verdure Grigliate. Roasted vegetables. In this case rapini.

My partial plate.

Back from Türkiye with a new flavor — Sultan’s Delight — Iranian Saffron base with house-made Pistachio Cremino, Chopped Pistachios, and Rose-Water Pistachio Turkish Delight — many ingredients from the Istanbul Spice Bazaar — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #saffron #pistachio #cremino #TurkishDelight #Türkiye

Strawberry Margarita Sorbetto! — like a frozen cocktail — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Strawberries from Avignon, blended with fresh lime, Reposado Tequila and Cointreau –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #strawberry #Margarita #cocktail #Tequila #Cointreau

Bowled up.

The wines.

Another amazing meal at Roccos. I think I might prefer the seafood (or mostly seafood) dinners.

Very fun night with an awesome (and typical) crew and great great wines. Food was really fabulous as always, and there was tons, although I’ve had Rocco’s meals where I liked the mains more. Tonight’s standouts were the clams, quail, and pasta.

First of all, the Borgese hospitality was awesome, the house lovely, and the food absolutely incredible. One of the best “home cooked” meals I’ve had. Maybe ever if you restrict it to chefs cooking in their own home kitchen. Just amazing. Every dish was great. Rustic but extremely delicious style. Superb homemade pastas.

Service was handled by the youngest Borgese (teen daughter) and was better than most restaurant staff. Super friendly and you can tell they do this a lot.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, Rocco Borgese, Roccos, Wine

Republique Latour

May30

Restaurant: Republique [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]

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

Date: July 12, 2023

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

Rating: Nice (loud) space, tasty hip food, great service

I haven’t been back to Republique in a while, but this special Latour dinner was a great excuse!

Still doing great even years later.

We are, of course, in the private room. Way better than downstairs at this very loud but very good restaurant.

The menu.

The trio of amuses.

They came on these little trays.

BLUEFIN TUNA TOAST. kaluga caviar, smoked tomato. Nice smokey taste, almost like there was some lard in there.

TAYLOR KUMAMOTO OYSTER. champagne granité, kaluga caviar.

KALUGA CAVIAR. potato chip. This is a republique classic.

Lovely and quite fresh for its age.

Sadly lightly corked.

KANPACHI CRUDO. weiser farms melon, cherry tomato, lemon cucumber, coconut thai curry, peanuts, basil. Great. Very “Thai” with a strong coconut flavor and great textures.

The infamous bread and butter. So addictive. Knocked me right off the no carb wagon.

WILD PORCINI MUSHROOM SOUP. maine lobster, black truffle. A very nice creamy soup with big chunks of lobster.

CHARCOAL-GRILLED SANTA BARBARA PRAWNS. jus de tête, sauce vin jaune. Great char on the shrimp plus a nice bite and potent sweetness. Tons of acidity in the “shell based” sauce.

Walter visits.

DOVER SOLE À LA MEUNIÈRE. potato gnocchi, sauce matelotte. Fabulous soft fish. I do really like sole done in this classic way. The sauce had a lot of acidity too.

PORCINI TARTE FINE. eggplant, brown butter. Very crispy. The tart base, while it looks like a pizza, was a laminated buttery dough. The combo of the hazelnuts really took it up a notch too.

MEZZE MANICHE. morel mushroom, black truffle. Perfectly al dente with nice bite and a great cheesy truffle vibe.

WOLFE RANCH QUAIL. anson mills polenta, chanterelle mushrooms. The quail was extremely nice and the jus even better!

MIYAZAKI WAYGU. potato mousseline, black truffle. So rich and delicious. Almost too rich for me and that’s saying a lot!

Cheese plate. We had so much wine we needed a bit of cheese.

TIRAMISU. harry’s berries strawberry, white chocolate sabayon. The only thing tiramisu about this was the layers with cream, as it was essentially just a strawberries and cream parfait. But woah was it good. Super fresh and intense berries and a wonderful sweet creamy sabayon.

Lotsta wine!

Another incredible dinner. Even though this was more or less the “default” private room tasting menu, Republique hit it out of the park. Wines were amazing too. haha.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bordeaux, Foodie Club, latour, République

Northern Cafe Temple City

Jan26

Restaurant: Northern Cafe

Location: 9608 Las Tunas Dr, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-5288

Date: May 5 & July 23, 2023

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Great private room experience

Normal Northern Cafe is a solid but casual fast casual spot but…

Northern Cafe in Temple City sure is a bit different than the ones in Century City or West LA as we shall see in this special dinner organized by Eve and another I put together myself.

The normal dining room is fairly normal NC.

But they have 5 private rooms, a smaller one being shown here.

We set up in this larger one.

It’s pretty big.

It even has a bit of a lounge area, perfect for organizing our wines.

I think this is the “regular” menu.

And this epic tome is the special menu!

Spicy Cucumbers. Nice garlicky cucumber salad.

Cold Flavored Pork Head. Very chewy texture that was offputting to some with a lovely, but highly porcine, flavor.

Up first came this big installment of Geoduck sashimi. This is the body meat and it was served on ice with Astrea Caviar that Eve brought. Turns out geoduck is excellent with caviar! And this was some very fine geoduck with a very clean mild sea flavor and a nice chewy texture.

It was served with soy sauce and (faux) wasabi.

We had pre-ordered several large live lobsters and the tails were served as sashimi. Probably the best “Chinese” lobster sashimi I’ve had. Quite lovely and subtle.

Eve also brought her own King Crab! They sell it on the menu, but she BYOCed.

King Crab Salty Egg Yolk. The crab might have been a touch overcooked in this prep but the yolk batter, which is not normally my favorite, was quite good as it wasn’t too salty or too pasty.

Bamboo Shoot with Shredded Pork. I loved this dish. It was a pretty classic brown sauce, but very tasty, and the crunchy bamboo was delightful with that bit of porky flavor (classic Chinese velveted slivered pork).

Pork Spareribs with Garlic. Chewy, salty, and very tasty.

Pork and Scallion Pancake. This is a kind of classic Beijing meat pie with a filling that is probably the same as standard dumpling filling: pork, ginger, green onions. They were super greasy, but great.

House Special Smoked Duck. It was served with a bit of hoisin and some Northern style pancakes. The meat was really flavorful, but VERY salty, almost to the Smithfield ham level. Speaking of that, because it was salted, smoked, and cured, it tasted not unlike ham — just ducky ham.

This are the flaky pancakes for the duck.

Next they brought out this lovely Cloisonné hot pot.

This is the basic broth, but Eve ordered it as “mushroom chicken” and so…

They added a mess of mushrooms and…

Some raw chicken.

This mix was allowed to boil for 20-30 minutes (covered).

Here is the result.

First we were served cups. The broth was incredible, with a very deep woodsy and comforting chicken and mushroom flavor. The short boil had extracted a lot of flavor.

For extra things to add to our hot pot we kept it fairly simple, enjoying the legs of our crab. Boiled for 20-30 seconds they were incredibly sweet and succulent.

These lobster “bits” were chopped up and reason to be tossed into the pot.

Also some tofu.

And greens. We kept drinking this broth (with the stuff) throughout the evening as it was delicious.

As was this incredible delicious of live Grouper.

The grouper meat cooked in a bout 30 seconds and was subtle and delicious.

Rib Eye and Lamb Shoulder to boil in the pot. These meats, alone of what we had tonight, is better (IMHO) with the spicy broth served at various Sichuan hot pots.

Some extra fish was also fried up “salt and pepper” style — aka MSG style.

Clams with Basil. This is the classic Chiuchow dish that’s a bit Vietnamese/Cambodian. Some nice basil flavor and a good number of succulent clams. I enjoyed this, even if the clam meat was a bit evasive.

Sauteed Cabbage. I always love this classic and it didn’t dissapoint. This was a simple rendition with a lot of garlic and oil, but cooked perfectly. It didn’t have either the ham (and its nice lardy flavor) or dried shrimp or chilis that some versions of the dish have, so it wasn’t the most flavorful I’ve ever had, but the crunchy texture on the oily cabbage was lovely.

French Chopped Beef with snowflake. Chunks of filet with black bepper sauce. I don’t generally love this dish as I consider it a bit boring, but this one had a real black pepper kick which in combination with the onions was quite enjoyable.

The geoduck neck came back fried. Quite nice, but not nearly as delightful a fry as the Longo version.

Eve also brought not one but two Turbot!

Turbo steamed with ginger, garlic, spring onions, and soy. This fish is best done this way, simply, so that the soft mild flesh and generous cartilage can be enjoyed “as is.”

Crab Custard. This is the third dish from our King Crab.

The custard was a bit stiff, and while still delicious, didn’t have that silken texture I really love.

Yang Chow (or everything) fried rice. Absolutely awesome fried rice with big whole shrimp and chunks of fried pork.

Walnut Shrimp. Fu ordered this guilty pleasure classic, joking that it was for the white guys, but this was a first rate example. The shrimp were succulent and the fry nice and crispy, perfectly offset by the sweet mayo and walnuts.

Fried fish with green batter. This is a Hangzhou dish. There green tea is added to the batter. I’m not sure it was tea here or some other variant, but it was a nice tempura-style deep fried fish. Right out of the frier too as it was very hot and juicy.

House Special Smoked Duck. Very salty, but very good. With that smokey cured pastrami-like flavor. Lots of “flavor.”

Pea Tendrils with Garlic. Great version of this basic dish.

MaPo Tofu. Not a bad version at all. Some Ma and a bit of meat.

Beef & Scallion Roll. Awesome version of this with some hoisin and cilantro. Quite lovely.

Boiled dumplings. Probably pork. Delicious for sure. I didn’t (finally) manage to get some black vinegar for them. Really I like a proper dumpling sauce, but vinegar will do.
XLB. Solid versions.

Scallion pancake. Bready, but really tasty — particularly with some black vinegar.

Inside.

Pan fried dumplings. I’m not sure if this was the same filling. It was late, but they were also good. Skin was a little thick on these, not like the amazing You Kitchen variants, but like all decent dumplings they were hot and delicious.

Nocciola Crunch Gelato — Nocciola (hazelnut) base made with egg yolk and Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste mixed with Nestle’s Buncha Crunch — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — new higher fat base formulation — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #hazelnut #nocciola #Chocolate #Nestle #crunch

Hojicha Latte NSA Gelato – Ceremonial Hojicha Roasted Green Tea base with No Sugar Added (Allulose) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #matcha #Hojicha #GreenTea #Allulose #NSA

Cannoli and Baklava’s Evil American Lovechild — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Base crafted from Galbani Whole Milk Ricotta and Sicilian Toasted Noto Romano Almond Paste with a touch of the sugar subbed out for Sicilian Honey. Mixed in is Malibu Honey, California Pistachios, and house-made Gluten Free Honey Graham Crackers (almond flour and so good you can’t tell them from the wheat flour version)! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #ricotta #almond #RicottaCheese #cheese #Sicily #honey #GrahamCracker #pistachio

Cap’N Crunch Gelato – Smooth Peanut Base with house-made White Chocolate Coated Crunch Berries! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #cereal #CrunchBerry #CapNCrunch

Fu makes off with a bit of booty for the family.

Meal 1 (May 2023), was a super fun night. Awesome wines — and only one red thank Dionysus (given the food). Company was amazing too and the food really stood out. I enjoyed this slightly northern twist and they seem to have an excellent and very flexible Chinese kitchen and great private rooms. Who would have thought at a Northern Cafe? Service was super friendly and excellent too. We did get too many dishes too fast because no one gave them the “one at a time” instructions and fast is the Chinese default. Still, an awesome time and awesome food. That broth was really amazing!

Meal 2 (July 2023).

For more dining reviews click here.

Just a bit of great wine!

And some fire water.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Babykillers, BYOG, Caviar, Chinese cuisine, Foodie, Foodie Club, Gelato, geoduck, hot pot, Seafood, SGV, Wine

In the Mood for Moodaepo?

Oct12

Restaurant: Moodaepo

Location: 3014 7th St, Los Angeles, CA. (213) 381-9990

Date: February 28, 2023

Cuisine: Korean BBQ

Rating: Actual place is just a AYCE joint

Okay — this was a strange dinner. Originally, Jeffrey, Erick, and I were supposed to go to Teleferic — but in classic Jeffrey fashion he jumped the gun, went a few days earlier, then wanted to do a big gang bang instead in order to make a show for his Instagram buddy — so we ended up going with Bovon to Moodaepo.

Now, normally, Moodaepo is just a big chaotic KTown AYCE KBBQ joint. I never go to that sort of place as I’m not price sensitive and you just have an odd format and lower quality in service of a perceived lower price. It also misaligns the resteraunt incentives in a way that I really dislike.

Others obviously don’t feel that way, because the place was packed.

The typical multi-tier AYCE format. Not relevant for us because Bovon brought most of the proteins — including ones that weren’t on the menu. So this was sort of BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat) as well as BYOG and BYOB.

Banchan bar. This wasn’t for customer’s directly, but the staff were using it to refill banchan dishes.

Kimchee, macaroni, etc.

Fish cakes (my favorite), glass noodles, bean sprouts.

Potato salad.

Veggies for the grill and spicy miso sauce.

A different (slightly sweet) spicy sauce, salt, and yummy sweetened spicy soy.

Rice wrappers and pickled daikon.

Salad. Neither my most or least favorite Korean salad. Just ok.

The wine was as gang bang as the food.

Caviar bump!

Bovon going all Salt Bae.

Too much filming. I may take pictures but I kinda loath video at dinners. Gets in the way of being a hedonist.

White rice. duh!

Fresh scallops marinated in tumeric sauce. Delicious, particularly when lightly cooked.

Scallop with its own caviar bump.

Sliced prime rib.

Cooked up thinnly.

A4 Short rib. Much more fat and flavor.

Garlic sizzling in sesame oil. The beef was great “cooked” in this!

More meat!

Rip cap and porterhouse.

Juicy!

Giant bone marrow!

First cooked on the grill, but when that was going too slow…

into the oven it went. We scraped this out, some people on rice, me myself on rib cap!

Posers. hehe.

Tomahawk!

So juicy. The sizzling rip cap parts of this were some of the best steak I’ve had.

A5 slices.

Very juicy.

Elk Tenderloin. Lean and flavorful.

On the grill.

One of my earliest Signature Flavors —Tiramisu Gelato — The base is a highly technical Zabaione of Egg Yolk, Fresh Mascarpone Cheese, and Sweet Marsala with Fresh Brewed Espresso. It’s dusted with Valrhona Cocoa powder and layered with house-made Vanilla Rum Espresso syrup-soaked Lady Fingers — the final result is totally Tiramisu — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Tiramisu #Espresso #coffee #chocolate #Marsala #Zabaione #Eggyolk #Rum #Mascarpone

Overall, a very crazy big “mass market” AYCE KBBQ with a huge crowd of the young and the hungry (or at least plus size). But we took over a huge triple table and Bovon (who supplies to the owners) brought all his own premiem proteins, none of which are actually on the menu. I think as to actual restaurant food we only had the banchan/sauces etc and the sliced Prime Rib. This was a fun (if chaotic) and tasty meal, but it’s not really reflective of Moodaepo on a normal night.

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