hedonists :: All Things Andy Gavin

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Wines pictured below:

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Cui Hua Lou, hedonists, SGV, Szechuan cuisine, turtle, Wine

Valley High

Jun08

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

Location: 1569 Fairway Dr, Walnut, CA 91789. (909) 598-8299

Date: May 5, 2018

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi (with slight nod to China)

Rating: Ends of the earth, but very good

Chef Kaz of Totoraku, an occasional hedonist, sent us far east to this Sushi restaurant last year and it was such a fun time that we had to return again for a fourth visit.
And by far east I mean REALLY REALLY far east — to Walnut California. 40+ miles from my house. 20 miles past Alhambra (which most people consider to far to drive for food). It took an hour and twenty minutes on a Saturday night!

The slick looking location is in the heart of the affluent Chinese American San Gabriel Valley. But yes, it’s Japan, if perhaps catering to Chinese taste. This photo was shot at about 10pm after everyone else had left.

The menu.

For the second time we have the private room which is really the only way to go at oo-toro!

Ron brought: 2006 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne. VM 97.5. The 2006 Comtes de Champagne is striking, especially in the way it brings together elements of ripeness and freshness in a hypothetical blend of the 2002 and 2004. Smooth and creamy on the palate, the 2006 is all about texture. There is a real feeling of density and weight in the 2006, qualities I expect to see grow with time in the bottle. All the elements fall into place effortlessly. The 2006 has been nothing short of magnificent both times I have tasted it. Comtes de Champagne remains the single best value (in relative terms) in tête de cuvée Champagne. I suggest buying a case and following it over the next 20-30 years, which is exactly what I intend to do. There is little doubt the 2006 Comtes de Champagne is a magical Champagne in the making.

agavin: this wine is sick good, I just ordered another 12-pack.

From my cellar: 2004 Pol Roger Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 93. Light, bright orange. Intense, spice-accented aromas of candied orange, redcurrant and fresh flowers, with sneaky mineral and leesy notes. Supple and expansive, offering vibrant citrus fruit and red berry flavors with complicating notes of cinnamon and pear skin. Finishes silky and long, with resonating spiciness and excellent clarity.

Edamame.

Akayagara (red cornetfish), which is generally considered distinct from needlefish like sayori

Akayagara sashimi. Nice and light and delectable.

Various sashimi. The Santa Barbara spot prawn was so fresh the head was still squirming! There was oyster, clam, and scallop as well.

White fish flight. Right to left: Golden eye snapper, red snapper, sea bass, and halibut.

2010 Kapcsándy Family Winery Grand Vin Rosé State Lane Vineyard. VM 90. The 2010 Grand Vin Rose is all about texture. A refined, expressive wine, the 2010 stands out for its depth and pure volume. Tobacco, licorice, crushed flowers and spices are some of the many notes that flesh out on the inviting finish. The 2010 is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot.

Right to left: Shima aji, yellowtail, and kanpachi (wild yellowtail).

Yarom and the waitress.

Showing off the the tuna collar!

1998 Jean Boillot & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. VM 89-92. Pungent, bright aromas of lime, apple, nut skin and minerals. Spicy and penetrating; more withdrawn than, and not as rich as, the Clos de la Mouchere and Pucelles but still offers terrific sweetness and fat for the cru. Solidly structured and quite fine.

agavin: a little tired maybe

From my cellar: 1995 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 93 points. excellent.

Toro flight! Right to left: blue fin sushi, chu toro, o-toro. All melt in your mouth.

And the crazy good kami-toro (collar). The best toro ever.

2014 Domaine Dublère Chablis Grand Cru Bougros. BH 90-93. This too possesses ample Chablis character with its array of green fruit, tidal pool, citrus and wet stone notes. There is more size, weight and power to the big-bodied flavors that deliver excellent depth and length on the saline-inflected finale. This delicious effort is muscular but stops short of actually being rustic.

Scallops.

2007 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne. BH 93. A toasty, expressive and highly complex nose of pain grillé, green fruit and dried rose petal leads to rich, full, well-muscled and impressively intense full-bodied flavors that possess plenty of dry extract that really coats the mouth on the long and serious finish. This is very Corton-Charlemagne in character and one that should reward mid-term cellaring.

Fried monk fish.

1994 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl Vendange Tardive. 94 points. Excellent VT. Some bottle variation so far, depending on the bottle I would rate this anywhere from 89-94 out of the 4 tried so far, with 93 being a fair mean. Rich gold color, not too sweet, lots of lychee and nectarine on both nose and palate. Weaker bottles have a short finish, but better bottles have full finish. Popular even with those who aren’t familiar with Alsatian VT wines.

Yamakase-style mashup of toro, avocado, uni, and black truffle.

Foie gras and more on a spoon. Rich and delicious.

Fake pinot.

Doesn’t go with sushi.

A5 wagyu from Japan as sushi — amazing too.

The individual cow’s pedigree.

Spot prawn heads (from the sashimi) come back as both prawn miso soup.

And fried prawn head.

This was the last savory course in the medium sized omakase but some of us kept on ordering.

Seafood tempura. They really make a great mixed tempura here with lobster, eel, and more.

Seared toro. Yummy hot fat.

A second — pricey but amazing — wave of all four toro sushis.

2003 Sine Qua Non Chardonnay Mr. K The Noble Man. VM 95-96. Medium gold. Knockout nose offers pure botrytis aromas oforange oil, apricot, clove, marzipan, chocolate and mocha. Extraordinarily thick and honeyed but with bracing acids leavening the flavors of marzipan, coconut, brown sugar andorange rind. Higher-toned than the gewurztraminer, with a spirity suggestion of Gran Marnier. Krankl was about to bottle this. I have rarely tasted such thoroughly botrytized chardonnay. This was picked in three passes in late November. Check out these numbers: 321 grams per liter of sugar, 10.25 grams of acidity, and 10.1% alcohol.

Matcha green tea tiramisu. Nice texture.

Sweet Milk Gelato made by me.

The white one is Almond Ricotta Gelato – pure ricotta base with sliced almonds. Beneath that is Pistachio with pistachios from Bronte Sicily.

The chef came over at the end and tried some of our wines.

Ron also had an open bottle of 1931 Bodegas Toro Albala Don PX Convento Selección — keeps forever and is always amazing.

Overall, OOToro — while always good — showed for the second time that the private room is really the way to go. This was a great meal and much more subtle and sophisticated than some of the previous fare. Really great stuff — although we should have gotten the larger omakase as we were “corralled” into a smaller one and then ended up adding more stuff. The larger one (which I think we had the previous time) would have been more interesting.

After dinner we retreated up the hill to the Courtyard Marriot to drink above the valley. It was a balmy night and this was great fun reminding me of high school.

On the way we grabbed some pastries and salted caramel coffee’s at 85 degrees!

It’s great fun up here, but that drive! It was so far that most of the party slept at the Marriot and turned it into a bunch of meals, massages, and other decadences. I drove home to my lovely wife.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: hedonists, Japanese cuisine, ootoro, SGV, Sushi, toro, walnut california, Wine

Day of the Dumplings

May21

Restaurant: Long Xing Juicy Dumpling

Location: 140 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 307-1188

Date: April 14, 2018

Cuisine: Northern Chinese Dumplings

Rating: Great dumplings and tons of variety

As any loyal reader knows, the SGV is my favorite dining zone. It’s amazing how many Los Angelenos aren’t aware of the mecca for Chinese Food and culture. The SGV has a feel and style that is entirely unique, entirely Southern California, but very different and quite Chinese. Today we head out for a multi-stop lunch extravaganza. Many of the participants were doing a 48 hour “staycation” out here. I just went out for a couple hours.

Welcome to the Maxi-Mall. The California Mini-Mall’s GIANT SGV cousin.

Entering the 2 level maxi.

A view of part of it from upstairs.

Juicy Dumpling is upstairs. You could spend all day in this mall, there are so many restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, and massage places.

Juicy is home to the jumbo dumpling with a straw, which is a bit of a gimmick.

The big menu.

You order by sheet. I filled out 4 sheets for waves of orders in advance, as I am a pro Chinese Food orderer.

The nice but typical room.

Our big table.

And the glassed in dumpling workshop!

Just like the pasta room at Felix!

We had to sneak the wine under the table — literally.

Deep Fried Crispy Eel. I liked this dish a lot, but it was many people’s least favorite as it was oily, fishy, very crispy, and sweet. Unusual combos for “white folk.” An advanced dish.

As was Preserved Egg with Tofu. But the pros like Yarom and I agreed this was a great dish. Really interesting and fabulous combination of soft cool tofu with salty umami 1000 year-old egg and what’s probably taro powder. Sort of a salty/sweet and smooth/dry soft/firm poles of taste experience.

Smoked Fish. Sweet, crispy, dry/wet, and delicious. Like the Shanghai version.

House Spare Ribs. The delicious sweet red Chinese pork.

Cucumber. Lightly marinated with salt. Nice and crunchy.

XLB (xao lao bao). Also known as Juicy Pork Dumpling. Really nice version of the classic. Soft skin. Juicy. Good filling. Maybe not as good as a Din Tai Fun, but great still. We actually ordered two types — savory and sweet. Never had the sweet before. I kinda like it, although maybe not as much as the savory.

Pork and Crab Dumpling. Great version of the pork and crab, with delicate but pronounced flavors. I think better than the DTF version.

Fish Dumpling. Surprisingly excellent. Maybe even my favorite of the set.

Vegetable Dumpling.

Boiled Pork Dumplings. I love these homestyle variants.

Crispy Onion Pancake. Not the most exciting dish, but people wanted it.

Fried meat wonton. Very nice texture and flavor. Who doesn’t love dumplings.

Fried fish wonton. Again I was surprised how good the fish ones were.

Salt and Pepper Crispy Cake. Buttery dough stuffed with pork and rolled in sesames.

Rich but delicious.

House Golden Crispy Cake.

Fried chewy mochi with amazing pork. Too bad I was getting very full. I still ate a couple.

Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes. I always love these as they are hardly a vegetable, more like Chinese French Fries.

Stir Fried Bean Seedlings with Garlic. Not bad for greens.

Red Bean Puff Pastry. What passes for dessert in China — not bad actually, I like the texture.

Overall, I loved Juicy Dumpling and will certainly return. Sometimes I like this kind of northern more casual dumpling style over the more ornate Cantonese Dimsum. Just a different vibe. They also had a huge menu of other dishes.

Because we are hedonists, and despite being full, we had to go next door for “lunch 2.0” at Spicy City — just had to be done.

Lucky they have a red interior.

The dishes bar. Despite being super full, Yarom and I both ordered for a crazy over-eating-fest.

Cold dishes of soy beans and more pickled cucumbers.

And more cold dishes of smoked chicken and spicy pig ear.

Had to get some MaPo Tofu (pocked marked old lady face tofu). One of my favorite dishes and this version was at least a 9.

Best eaten over rice.

Then dan dan mein. Another of my favorite dishes. The spicy city version tastes great but is a little too soupy without as much nutty flavor as I like.

You mix it up.

This version has no pork — boring!

Tea Smoked Duck. Another great Szechuan dish. Like duck pastrami chunks.

Outside you can check out the size difference between a Hedonist and the typical youthful SGV denizen. And observe the whacky Chinese youth fashion. The photo doesn’t really do the outfits justice.

For part 3.0, had to get some Boba Tea.

Almond Milk Boba Tea. Good tea, but unfortunately hidden by the opaque glass.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Boba Tea, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, dumplings, hedonists, Maxi-Mall, Northern Chinese, SGV, Spicy City

Akbar Reborn

Apr20

Restaurant: Kapoor’s Akbar

Location: 701 W Cesar Estrada Chavez Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Date: March 13, 2018

Cuisine: Indian

Rating: Great, Fresh, Indian

I’ve been going to various Akbar Indian restaurants since 1997 and it has always been my favorite LA Indian restaurant.

Recently, chef, owner, and friend Avi Kapoor closed up his iconic Pasadena location and relocated to downtown. And as such, the new Kapoor’s Akbar is born.

It’s tucked just north of DTLA proper between the high rise zone and Chinatown.

Along comes this crazy Bollywood mural.

The kitchen.

And the giant table set for our my Hedonist group feast.

Spicy pickles, mint chutney, and the coconut based one.

Mango chutney.

Crazy good cheese naan!

New to the menu at this location, Lamb Sliders. Ground lamb & aromatic spices, onion, mint chutney.

Brussel Sprouts !?!

Poutine du Yarom. The big guy requested this one. Fries with curried lamb and fried egg! Good stuff, and certainly not on the vegan diet!

Tandoori Salmon. Wild salmon marinated in spices, garlic ginger.

Butternut Squash Soup. Roasted butternut squash, mild spices. Very creamy.

Tandoori Lamb Rib Chop. Spring tender lamb rib chops marinated in ginger. Incredibly soft and full of fabulous lightly spicy flavor!

Paneer Makhani. Paneer prepared in tomato butter sauce. Basically Chicken Tikka Masala without the chicken but with cheese!

Pork Vindaloo. Pork prepared in tangy tomato-based sauce with potatoes.

Crab Curry. Blue crab claw meat prepared in coconut, tamarind curry. This was a new dish, in what I think is a more Southern Indian style. It was delicious and very creamy.

Saffron Rice. Aromatic rice suffused with saffron.

Akbari Biryani. Curried lamb, chicken and shrimp cooked with rice in Moghul style. Clearly closely related to similar Persian dishes (hence the Moghul style).

Mango cheesecake and Gulab Jamun. The classic sweet dough/cheese balls in syrup.

By my special request a portion of rice pudding — love it!

The gang.

And the lineup.

This is one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve been to in the city. Too many Indian places focus on low cost buffets of very over cooked food, but Akbar cooks everything to order — even baking their own Naan when you place the order. They are focused on the cuisine of the Punjab (Northern India), with very good curries and kormas. You can get anything from extremely mild to blow the top of your head off if you ask — which is the way I like it. But most importantly the flavors are really balanced and fresh. Yum!

Tonight we tried out some new things, of which the Crab Curry was my favorite — I love curry.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

Too much of a wine zoo to bother writing them up, but most of the wines are pictured below:

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Akbar, Avi Kapoor, hedonists, Indian cuisine, Kapoor's Akbar, Wine

Midweek at Mizlala

Mar19

Restaurant: Mizlala

Location: 4515 Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 91403. (818) 783-6698

Date: February 22 & March 29, 2018

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Rating: Really bright and tasty

Several people told us that Mizlala in Sherman Oaks was really good, and so a small group of us Hedonists decided to give it a try.

The interior is cute and modern Middle Eastern.

The menu.

NV Christophe Mignon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 90. The Brut Rosé Pur Meunier is a rosé done with a blend of mostly Meunier vinified in white, off the skins, with the addition of still red Meunier for color and texture. Bright, red-tone fruit, tobacco and dried flowers give the wine striking aromatic depth to play off and contrast the fruit. The 6 grams of dosage feels just a touch sweet for this wine. Otherwise, the Pur Meunier is very nicely done. The current release is a blend of equal parts 2014 and 2013. Disgorged: February 2017. Dosage is 6 grams per liter.

Salatim. Four “salads” (3 pictured above).

With awesome house-made pita bread.

Eggplant babaganoush.

Lebane with Zaatar. I LOVE this stiff Middle Eastern yoghurt/cheese — so much that we ordered 3 plates of it for 5 people!

Creamy Beet salad. Also really good.

Spicy Moroccan carrots. Love these too.

From my cellar: 2011 Raul Pérez Rías Baixas Muti. 90 points. With shrimp diablo, rice and black beans. Saline, lime, mineral crispness. Very lithe mouthfeel. Would have liked to see if it would have evolved, but too many eager sippers for it to last that long.

Jerusalem Salad. Cucumber, tomato, freekeh, lemon vinaigrette.

Mushrooms (3/29/18). Dates, hazelnuts, fig balsamic, puffed rice.

Potato Latkes (3/29/18). Horseradish creme fraiche, apple sauce, pecorino.

Bourekas (3/29/18). Cheese, truffled mushroom, spinach and feta. Unusual takes on these fried pastries.

Flaming cheese!

Haloumi Saganaki (3/29/18). Orange, honey, walnut chimichurri. The fruit really added a lot of sweetness to this which made me think of Hawaiian Pizza. I prefer it more tangy.

Hummus with crispy artichokes (3/29/18). Gremolata, cured lemon emulsion, aleppo pepper.

Moroccan Fried Chicken. Really moist and crispy.

smoked paprika aioli, Spiced duck fat.

World’s Best Greek Salad. Campari tomato, persian cucumber, feta, kalamata olive, oregano.

Garlic shrimp. White wine, preserved lemon, butter bean puree. I always love these garlicky shrimp. Like the Spanish Gambas Pil Pil.

Greek Octopus. Smoked paprika, grilled potato, celery, lebaneh.

1993 Faiveley Echezeaux. 95 points. Deep ruby, dense but bright. A touch of VA initially but this blows off quite quickly to reveal dark red fruit and a hint of the autumnal. Somewhere between silk and velvet on the palate, very cosseting and very drink…

1995 Daniel Moine-Hudelot Chambolle-Musigny. 91 points.

1970 Bodegas Olarra Rioja Cerro Anon Gran Reserva. Awesome!

Lamb Tagine. Colorado lamb shoulder slow braised with apples, dried fruit and silan, topped with sesame, served with saffron rice.

Shortrib Tagine. Slow braised with picholine olives, san marzano tomato and fennel.

Lemon Saffron Chicken. Brined airline chicken breast grilled over coals accompanied by baby artichokes, green olives, cherry tomato, and saffron rice.

Moussaka. Lamb Bolognese, bechamel sauce, gruyere cheese.

Moussaka, when done right, is such an awesome dish.

2007 Hundred Acre Vineyard Shiraz Summer’s Block Ancient Way. VM 93. Inky purple. Superripe aromas of cassis, cherry preserves and dark chocolate, with complicating notes of licorice and mint. Densely packed and chewy, offering palate-coating black and blue fruit flavors that show serious depth and building sweetness. A hint of smoked meat comes up on the long, clinging finish, which is framed by broad, pliant tannins. I’m not exactly sure what I’d serve with this but it would definitely have to be part of a dead mammal and it would be roasted, braised or grilled.

1994 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. VM 92. Medium red. Aromatic nose combines plum, redcurrant and cedary spices. Very suave, fine-grained, plummy wine with captivating saline minerality. Lovely balance and subtle sweetness of fruit here, not to mention suave, ripe tannins. Finishes firm and clean, with terrific subtle length. À point but will hold for a while.

Branzino (3/29/18). Cauliflower cous cous, lebaneh, currants, pine nuts.

Kefta and chicken kabob.

Grilled Merguez Sausage. Yum!

Fillet Mignon Kabob, Skirt Steak, and Lamb Leg. Really good, very tender kabobs.

French Fries!

Chocolate nut crunch dessert (3/29/18). Can’t remember what exactly was in it, but it was quite good.

I brought some more of my house-made gelatti. Ube Gelato. I roasted the Japanese Purple Yams from scratch and made them into this Filipino classic for Erick’s birthday.

And in Filipino tradition, Macapuno Coconut Sport.

You top the Ube with the coconut.

And one of my most unique creations: Gorgonzola Fig Walnut Gelato – a gorgonzola dolce gelato base with fig jam and candied walnuts.

You can see the candied walnuts and fig jam streaked through it. This gelato turned out perfectly. Super creamy, with a very distinct real Gorgonzola Dulce texture. Several at the table thought it was one of my best.

Overall, Mizlala was really good. It’s very bright modern Israeli, Moroccan, Lebanese flavors, much in the Yotam Ottolenghi style. Some of the best Middle Eastern I’ve had in a while. The second time I went (3/29/18) the food was just as good but the service was annoying. The girl was very slow to take our order, over-worked (or busy elsewhere), and said she was going to spread out our food but brought the entire dinner, 8 items, appetizers and mains all within a 7 minute spread (looked at the photo timestamps to verify!). Not even 2 courses really but 2 trips from the back. I hate that. Made for a super rushed meal. She felt totally checked out.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Gelato, hedonists, Middle Eastern, Mizlala, Tapas, Wine

World Seafood is Elite

Mar16

Restaurant: World Seafood Restaurant [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1412 S Garfield Ave. Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 282-3888

Date: January 27, 2018

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Elite Dimsum

I last went to World Seafood almost 2 years ago for dim sum but recently one of the Elite managers, Derek, came over to World Seafood and brought with him one of the Elite chefs. Because of the new kitchen and management I’ve decided to write a new from scratch review.

Typical big Cantonese house outside.
Inside a touch of new color encircles the giant Chinese-style banquet hall.

They have a much bigger space than Elite and gave us an elaborate private room.

Pork Shui-Mai. Great versions of the classic.

Chicken feet in house sauce. Not my thing, but some like it.

Shanghai Style Steamed Bun. We love XLB, and these particular examples were awesome. Nice and delicate and easy to slurp out of the little tins.

Har Gow (Crystal shrimp). Excellent versions of the standard.

Special dumplings with meat, shrimp, and vegetables.

Scallop and shrimp dumplings.

Tofu wrap. Mostly vegetables and some pork? wrapped in bean curd. Hot and soft and delicious.

Sautéed pea tendrils with garlic. A nice version because lots of garlic.

Special shrimp. A lot of good flavor with peanuts and a bit of spice.

Baked chicken bun. Delicious slightly sweet crunchy exterior top filled with chopped seasoned chicken meat.

BBQ Pork Bun. Like a jelly donut, just filled instead with porky goodness!

Fried Meat Dumpling. This was the chewy fried rice coating with sweet ground meat paste inside. I’ve had better versions of these, the filling here was a bit boring.

Crab cream roll. Some bits of crab and maybe cream-cheese deep fried. Much like a crab rangoon. Mayo sauce. Pretty tasty if very fried.

Flakey baked pork bun. The buttery flakey batter around sweet BBQ pork. Really delicious.

Peking duck! We asked and he had — even at lunch! Very nice duck too.

Pan fried shrimp and scallion cake. I had these in Fuijian province. Really delicious and very greasy (in a good way).

Preserved meat crepe. Chewy and bland.

Green onion rice noodle. Bland.

Fried shrimp rice noodle. Excellent.

White boy shrimp (aka walnut shrimp). Nice version.

Macau pork. Pan fried roast pork. Tasty!

House special fried rice. Nice kitchen sink rice.

Seafood Chow Mein. Those crispy little noodles I love soaked in a seafood sauce. Great noodle dish.

Coconut buns. Delicious!

Milk buns with custard. Also good. They have a lot of interesting Chinese desserts here but we were full.
Plus I had brought my own homemade dessert: PeaNutella & Jelly Frenzy Gelato – Peanut Butter base layered with everyone’s mob crazy spread and strawberry jelly. Plus bonus peanut butter cookies!

Overall, World Seafood has now leapt into the top SGV dimsum houses. It’s very much like Elite (wonder why) and super yummy. Big menu of with all sorts of Cantonese treats. Their banquet is great too.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, hedonists, SGV, World Seafood, World Seafood Restaurant

Holy Roly

Feb12

Restaurant: Holy Roly

Location: 3450 W 6th St Suite 109A, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (323) 739-8828

Date: January 2, 2018

Cuisine: Rolled Ice Cream

Rating: Tasty, but still too cold

After a tasty Korean meal we wandered around the corner to try this rolled ice cream joint.

Rolled ice cream is really a Thai thing, but this place doesn’t really seem to have any particular ethnic slant. It does bill itself on its website as healthy and organic — all the while sporting fruit loops, Oreos, and marshmallows on top — go figure!

You pick your flavor.

There are specials.

Then they (slowly) take a cup of your flavor and pour it on the frozen surface.

They then manually (and slowly) do the job of a batch freezer by mushing the mix around.

Finally spreading it out so it can freeze nice and cold with little consistency or aeration.

Then they roll it up into ho-hos and decorate.

Deep Dark Chocolate. whipped cream, pocky stick, roasted marshmallow, fruity pebbles (apparently they ran out and decided on fruit loops or are confused), rainbow sprinkles (also out), chocolate syrup. If they think THAT is deep dark they should check out a REAL chocolate ice cream (gelato):

NOT HOLY ROLY, but Chocolate Fondant Honey Nougat Gelato made by Sweet Milk (me).

Back to our featured location: Coffee, Oreo. Whipped cream, pocky stick, roasted marshmallow (sense a theme?), mini oreo, chocolate syrup. Not bad, but like all these rolled ice creams looks better than it tastes because the temperature is so cold and the texture so dense.

So like all the rolled ice cream places Holy Roly is pretty good (because how bad can house made ice cream be?) and very attractive, but suffers from being too cold and too dense. Plus the format is VERY SLOW. If it were even moderately busy you’d really be waiting a while since it takes maybe 6-8 minutes of straight labor from an employee to prepare just one of these.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Dessert, hedonists, Holy Roly, Ice cream, Korea-town

Korean Kwicky

Feb05

Restaurant: Yangji Gamjatang

Location: 3470 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 388-1105

Date: January 2, 2018

Cuisine: Korean

Rating: Excellent neighborhood Korean

Only 24 hours after traveling halfway across the world (on my way back from holiday) some friends summoned me out to a quick meal in K-Town. We originally wanted to go to Sun Nong Dan but there was a huge line and they don’t allow so we went next door instead.

From my cellar: NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. Pale orange. High-pitched red berry, orange zest and jasmine aromas, with suave mineral and smoky lees notes adding complexity. Spicy and precise on the palate, showing very good punch to its strawberry and bitter cherry flavors. Opens up smoothly with air and picks up a bitter rhubarb quality that lingers onto the long, tightly focused finish. This bottling showed more brawny character than many past renditions of this cuvée, but with no lack of vivacity.

Menu on the wall.

And laminated. Lots of stews — but that’s Korean homestyle food :-).

David L brought: 2012 Deux Montille Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 91. Subtle aromas of apple and minerals. Restrained and fresh, showing lovely cut to its sexy floral and spice flavors. Finishes with a touch of phenolic bitterness that calls for some time in bottle, but this very attractive version of Preuses has the density of material to support it. I managed to leave this very successful wine out of my Chablis coverage in the last issue.

banchan (free appetizers).

Sauce for something.

Bean sprouts.

Spicy pickled stripes of some vegetable, or maybe squid. I liked ’em.

Cucumbers.

Kimchi.

Sweet bean curd.

Spicy pickled radish.

Marinated potato. Slightly sweet.

Baby asparagus and sausage.

Spinach fried dumplings. Very hot and crispy. Nice texture, but not super exciting.

From my cellar: 2002 Maison Leroy Bourgogne-Grand-Ordinaire. 93 points. Balanced and complex. Medium body. Very nice

Spicy beef stew. A bit less sweet than next door. Beef short ribs with potatoes and rice noodle tubes. Yummy!

Spicy pork sparerib stew. Same sauce (and everything else) except for having pork ribs. A bit more “savory” and spareribby than the beef.

Yarom brought: 2008 Bisceglia Aglianico del Vulture Gudarrà Riserva. 90 points. I thought this tasted like Aglianico. It’s from Basilcata down in the very south part of Italy. A nice volcanic wine.

Spicy noodles with lots of stuff. I think they describe it as “mixed thick cold noodle.” Basically the same stuff as bibimbap but noodles instead of rice.

It got a special “hand job” (with gloves).

Here it is mixed up. Not bad at all.

Kimchi pancake. I like the Korean seafood pancakes better. This one was a little bland.

Seb brought: 2015 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. 92 points. SO heavy and modern — tasted like grape juice with oak and vanilla extract.

Spicy sweet and sour chicken. Not spicy at all, and very sticky, but quite delicious.Ox bone soup with beef brisket and noodle. Very bland beef and noodle soup. Just collagen basically from cooked bones. Not my thing, but it’s “what it’s supposed to be” for this dish. I had to dump a bunch of spicy sauce in. Beef was pretty good though.

Overall, a nice casual Korean place with some variety on the menu (mostly soups and stews) and they were really really friendly. Plus they allowed wine.

Afterward we headed down the street for some rolled ice cream!

By: agavin
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Tagged as: beef, hedonists, Korea-town, Korean cuisine, Wine, Yangji

Alexanders II – Not so Kingly

Jan24

Restaurant: Alexander’s Steakhouse [1, 2]

Location: 111 N Los Robles Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101. (626) 486-1111

Date: December 13, 2017

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: Asian fusion & some of the best steakhouse I’ve had

The Foodie Club had an amazing meal at Alexander’s a few months ago, and many think it is the best steakhouse in the city, so the Hedonists braves the most hideous traffic to cross town on a weeknight to try it also.

Old Town Pasadena.

Here is the imposing entrance, right there next to the California Pizza Kitchen… lol.

Amuse of some polenta like thing with uni and caviar.

The winter menu.

Ron brought: 2010 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne. BH 91-94. Here the nose is dominated by reduction and sulfur at present and is thus unreadable. What can be assessed is that there is good detail, power, size and weight to the concentrated and mineral-driven broad-shouldered flavors that possess excellent length on the bone dry and overtly austere finish. This should be a classic Latour Corton-Charlemagne in time.

agavin: very young and tight, took awhile to open

HAMACHI SHOTS 3.0. dashi / avocado / fresno / ponzu / negi / arare. Very bright flavors and mixed textures.

Ron brought: 2004 Sine Qua Non Into the Dark. VM 95. Bright violet. Pungent raspberry and cassis on the nose, picking up sexy floral and mineral character with air. Silky, sharply focused red fruit preserve flavors offer excellent thrust but possess an airy, pinot-like personality, gaining weight and sweetness on the close. The balance and finesse of this wine are spectacular: how can it carry 16.1% alcohol so effortlessly?

TARTARE OF BEEF. marrow cream / smoked carrot / bleu cheese powder. Solid tartar.

Trish brought: 1997 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque. VM 92-95. Good red-ruby. Perfumed aromas of cassis, violet, lilac and brown spices. Lush and aromatic in the mouth; the combination of a bit more acidity than the Mouline and its mineral and gunflint elements gives this wine noteworthy elegance and firm shape. Tannins are quite fine.

agavin: unfortunately a corked bottle

FOIE PB&J. foie torchon / peanut butter / onion jam / grape baguette. Solid, but not nearly as good as the Foie implementation last time we came.

From my cellar: 1990 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron. Parker 98. The 1990 Pichon-Longueville Baron has always been one of my benchmark wines, one that never ceases to perform. Now at 27 years of age, it is clearly at its peak, and what a wondrous thing it is. Now showing some bricking on the rim, the bouquet is utterly sublime, with red berries, cedar, touches of graphite, crushed rose petals and incense. You just want to become enveloped by these aromas. The palate is perfectly balanced, perhaps not as structured as it once showed since the tannins have mellowed, but what you get is a Pauillac relishing its secondary phase, which is almost Burgundy-like in terms of mouthfeel. Suffused with tension, it gains weight in the mouth toward the slightly tart finish. It is a Pichon Baron that only knows how to give sophisticated drinking pleasure. I once wrote that Pichon Baron is better than many 1990 First Growth, and that is a statement I have no reason to change. Tasted April 2017.

YUBA WRAPPED PORK BELLY. shiso mustard / lemon-eucalyptus curd / pickled shallots. Interesting texture and quite nice, although I may have liked the previous time’s version of pork belly.

UNI TOAST. brioche / pork shoulder / five spice. Again they changed up a staple item, having brioche instead of egg this time.

ICEBERG SALAD. sweet sesame / bok choy / soft boiled egg / five spice / radish. Very asian variant, heavily dressed. It was nice but I prefer a really good traditional with the blue cheese and bacon.

The bread was amazing. The dark one was squid ink, then there was a cheese and a milk bread. Problem is they brought it in time for dessert!

Plus some fabulous butters, Strauss Creamery butter, bone marrow butter with honey, and a rendered beef tallow!

Arnie brought: 2004 Sloan. VM 94+. Bright, saturated ruby. Knockout nose combines black raspberry, dark plum, black cherry, violet, minerals, spices, soy sauce and brown spices. Lush, broad and rich, with a superripe blackberry flavor that remains this side of jammy. Thanks to its finesse of texture and juiciness, this ultimately comes across as less sweet and more classic than the superb 2002. Finishes with wonderfully suave, broad, building tannins that coat the teeth. The wine’s cabernet franc component contributes lift and spice on the aftertaste. This needs, and should reward, six to eight years of cellar time.

CRISPY PATA. pork shank / achara / vinegar soy / creamed taro. A whole crazy pig leg deep fried. Super crispy and succulent inside. Yum! Filipino style!

Yarom or Larry brought: 2003 Schrader Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon RBS Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard. VM 90+. Good ruby-red. Highly floral aromas of blueberry, licorice, menthol and violet. Sweet black raspberry and blackberry flavors are firmed by a slight edge of acidity and lifted by floral and mineral nuances. Still a bit youthfully tart on the finish and in need of bottle aging.

BONE-IN NEW YORK 18OZ. grilled meyer lemon / chive butter / chives. Pretty gamey.

Yarom or Larry brought: 2005 Schrader Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard. VM 96 points. Decanted about an hour. Served with grilled steaks. In a really good place now. Aromas of cherry, blackberry, currant, rose petals. Similar flavors leading to a long smooth finish. The tannins are silky smooth. Really well balanced. Starting to show some secondary character.

AURORA ANGUS RIBEYE CHOP 20OZ. illinois raised prime black angus / grilled lemon. Very “gristly”. Good flavor, but not tender.

BLUE LAKE BEANS. flash fried / garlic / sansyo. Awesome beans, like Szechuan green beans, but no pork. Reduced soy.

MACARONI AND CHEESE. five cheese mornay / truffle panko. One changed dish that was better than the previous version. Pretty normal Mac & Cheese, but very good.

KING CRAB FRIED RICE. lap xuong / egg white / chive. Really great fried rice last time and just “nice” this time, maybe a little under cooked.

Dessert menu.

Amuse of leechee ice. Very tasty.

GUAVA CHEESECAKE. tempura fried cheesecake / orange granita / candied shiso / guava sorbet. Kinda weird.
RED VELVET MINT. red velvet brownie / cranberry / mint cream cheese frosting / red velvet ice cream. Disappointing, very weak mint flavors.

Overall, a solid meal, but no where near as good as our previous visit. Many of the food items had the same protein/spot on menu but changed, and almost all for the worse. Things also just weren’t as on point and the steaks (probably we ordered poorly) were gamey (which was fine) but a bit tough.

Service was very friendly, but no where near as good as last time and they had significant pacing issues. The server was super nice, but maybe had too many tables and he couldn’t come by enough. We also had a very long gap between dishes for the first half of the meal. In their defense they had asked if we wanted it slow, but I had only meant one dish at a time, not 30 minutes between each. This was rectified. They also forgot some of the extras like the bread (until near the end), petite fours, etc.

Food was good, but it just didn’t blow us away this time. Maybe there was a different kitchen lead on duty?

Wines were great. Only major flaw was the corked Lala. A too many giant Napas too for my taste although they were great wines.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Alexander's, hedonists, Pasadena California, Steak, Steak House

Burgundy Doma

Jan17

Restaurant: Doma [1, 2, 3]

Location: 362 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 277-7346

Date: December 6, 2017

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Ok food, big “formal” space

The Dirty Dozen is a sub group of the Hedonists that does themed blind tasting meals a couple times a year.

Tonight’s was again at Doma, a newish (2012) Beverly Hills Italian very much in a 90s (high end) vibe. The theme — again oddly for Italian — is Red Burgundy. And even more oddly, Doma is “closed” for dinner, but a skeleton crew came in and cooked our dinner. The manager pretty much served us. lol. He’s nice, and I’ve known him for 20 years (back at Valentino), but the place is on life support.

The Doma interior is large, formal, very white tablecloth and so different than more hip Italians like Bestia.

The white wines tonight were not blind and were served before dinner proper.

Random mediocre magnum left over from a previous dinner.

The champagne and white wines tonight were not blind and were served before dinner proper.

From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 89. Dark orange-pink. Exotically perfumed scents of raspberry, pungent herbs, candied rose and smoky minerals. Fleshy and supple in texture, showing a floral accent to its red berry compote and tangerine flavors. Lush and broad but lively too, finishing with a hint of spiciness and good floral persistence.

Ron brought: 2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 94. The 2011 Chablis Montee de Tonnerre is all about grace. A gentle hint of spice leads to dried pears, crushed flowers, red berries and licorice. Constantly changing in the glass, the 2011 is a marvel to behold. Suggestions of smoke, graphite and licorice add layers of nuance in a magical wine loaded with class and personality. Best of all, the 2011 is relatively approachable by Raveneau standards, which means reader won’t have to wait long at all to experience the magic of one of the great sites in Chablis.

From my cellar: 1985 Nicolas Potel Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. BH 91. A very fresh yet mature nose of citrus, white flower and lightly toasted nut aromas combines with round and vibrant middle weight flavors that possess a seductive and rich mouth feel, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish. This is really a lovely effort with complexity and ample finishing punch and is a wine that will continue to hold well if not improve.

agavin: drinking great for its age!

Erick brought: 1996 Pierre de Crillon Meursault 1er Cru Charmes 1er. 93 points. The wine…dark and ox-looking apple juice…BUT no ox in sight…it’s totally fresh and alive! Rich and ripe fruit of apples, apricot, peaches…round and buttery with honey and roasted nuts, yet stands to attention with that powerful 96 lemon and grapefruit acidity. Has some intriguing flavors of cigar ash, antique wax, grilled pineapple with a drizzle lavender honey and spritzed with Champagne vinegar. Some crushed stones and chalk, but not any flint strike which I like. Very creamy and buttery fat, cut with citrus, then a big spice kick finish. I like this wine! The terroir is evident and true. Ex-cellar is the bomb!

Brian/Jen brought: 2014 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Puligny-Montrachet Le Trézin. BH 88-91. A discreet, even shy nose offers up attractively fresh and ultra-pure notes of citrus, pear and a hint of acacia blossom. There is excellent delineation to the intense and clean middle weight flavors that possess good verve and plenty of minerality on the solidly persistent if only moderately complex finish.

Arnie brought: 2009 Louis Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. VM 95. The 2009 Chambertin-Clos de Bèze is unusually open and seductive. It flows with extraordinary finesse and pure elegance. White floral notes, cassis and spices wrap around the palate, adding tons of nuance. The firm tannins don’t quite allow the fruit to be fully expressive, but all that is needed here is time. Waves of flavor build to the huge, dazzling finish. This is a fabulous showing from Jadot.

Yarom brought: 2013 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. BH 91. A woody but spicy and unusually elegant nose offers up notes of both red and dark currant, earth and a hint of humus. There is a very suave, lush and round mouth feel to the delicious middle weight flavors that possess a good sense of verve on the impressively long and ever-so-mildly austere finish. There is better integration of the wood treatment though I underscore that it is hardly invisible.

agavin: nice but about 15 years too young.

Cotsen brought: 2014 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes. BH 95. Once again the nose has mostly absorbed its wood treatment on the ultra-spicy, ripe and attractively fresh nose of black cherry, earth, underbrush and soft floral aromas. There is flat out incredible density to the extract rich and imposingly-scaled flavors that completely coat the palate with sap before culminating in a velvety yet superbly intense finish that seems to just go on and on. Once again though note well that plenty of patience is going to be required before this incredible beauty of a Charmes is ready to roll. This is seriously impressive.

agavin: 10 years before its most optimistic drink date

Eggplant involtini. Eggplant with a zesty sauce and lots of cheese. This was actually my favorite dish of the night.

Mark brought: 1995 Domaine Robert Groffier Bonnes Mares. VM 93. Black raspberry, violet and herbs on the nose. Thick, brooding and very intensely flavored; has a mellow flavor of woodsmoke. Large-scaled and multilayered. Finishes with ripe, chewy tannins. A terrific example of the ’95 vintage at its best.

agavin: sadly corked

Erick brought: 1999 Bouchard Père et Fils Bonnes Mares. VM 91-94. Saturated ruby-red. Wild, musky aromas of black raspberry, mocha, cocoa powder, minerals, smoky oak and a light vegetal complexity. Highly concentrated and powerfully structured; bright but very unevolved. Major tannins are buffered by the wine strong material. Finishes impressively long and bright, with terrific grip.

From my cellar: 1998 Mongeard-Mugneret Richebourg. 95 points. WOTN, rich and young with a lot of oak still on it.

Octopus with split pea sauce. Slimy, chewy, vaguely fishy and didn’t pair at all with anything, not wine or peas. ick!

John brought: 1990 Comte Armand Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux. VM 90. Benjamin Leroux poured the powerful 1990 Comte Armand Clos des Epeneaux from magnum. Still deeply colored, it was youthful and structured, with tons of fruit and terrific harmony.

Ron brought: 1996 Louis Jadot Clos de la Roche. VM 88-90. Blueberry, violet, mocha, smoke, herbs and earth on the nose. Pliant in the mouth, with the mocha and earth flavors repeating. Denser and more vibrant than the Clos Saint-Denis. But shows very good rather than outstanding length.

Albert brought: 2000 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche. VM 91+. Deep medium red. Cool, complex aromas of raspberry, cherry, tar, minerals and roasted herbs; subtle hints of mulch and vegetables. Structured but youthfully closed today. Best today on the tannic finish, which features a late explosion of fruits, minerals and herbs.

agavin: very slight corking

Stuffed quail. Looked repulsive, like a little body builder, but tasted pretty decent.
Parpadelle with ragu. Not sure what kind. Pretty decent.

Robin brought: 2005 Mongeard-Mugneret Clos Vougeot. BH 91-93. Somewhat curiously, this is more aromatically elegant with subtle toast aromas serving to highlight the spicy red and black fruit mix nuanced by hints of earth and smoke that can also be found on the delicious yet entirely serious big bodied yet textured and relatively refined flavors, all wrapped in a finish that is both powerful and impressively long.

agavin: #2 winner, it was a MM kinda night

Brian brought: 2005 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot. VM 92. Good full, deep red-ruby. Superripe aromas of black cherry and blueberry, complicated by torrefaction notes of licorice, coffee and mocha. Superconcentrated, lush and sweet; chewy, layered and mouthfilling without coming across as heavy. In comparison to the young 2006, this has nicely integrated its stems, not to mention its licorice, fresh herb and bitter chocolate components. Finishes with superb length.

Larry brought: 2009 Joseph Drouhin Grands-Echezeaux. BH 95. A ripe yet airy and fresh nose speaks of spice and pure plum aromas that display background hints of cassis and floral aromas that are followed by intense, powerful and broad-shouldered flavors that possess superb depth of material and knockout complexity on the hugely long finish. This is very serious juice that is most impressive.

Steak with pheasant liver risotto. The steak was solid but the risotto was pretty yucky. Just tasted like chicken liver and was so heavy. Almost no one finished it.

Fries were fine.

Mark brought: 1985 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage. Light colour, pale and bright, fresh and a bit hot, cherry stones and almonds, off-dry, light body, hint of citrus, green apple on the finish, good length. A particular style, not unattractive, but lacks gravitas.

Berries on a kind of custard. This was probably the second best dish and was refreshing and decent.

The lineup

Cryptic notes and scores.

Wines were solid for the Dirty Dozen and being that I won I got a free meal!. Only one or two corked and a whole mess that were great.

Food was pretty lousy. A couple decent dishes and some really icky ones. Big point deduction for icky dishes like that octopus and the liver risotto. They treat us very well but service was awkward because there was only one regular server. Took a while for each dish to get to all 12 of us.

All in all, I don’t really want to go back to Doma, it’s totally on life support.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Dirty Dozen, Doma, hedonists, Red Burgundy, Wine

Lincoln Seafood Restaurant

Dec22

Restaurant: Lincoln Seafood Restaurant

Location: Lincoln Plaza Hotel, 123 S Lincoln Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755. Phone number (626) 571-0018

Date: November 19, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Very good

I’m always up for a new SGV Chinese restaurant and even more so when it’s a dinner organized by Tony Lau — a friend of mine who really knows how to get the best out of Cantonese restaurants.

From my cellar: 2015 Jacques Perritaz Cidrerie du Vulcain Apple Transparente. Very nice fresh 4.5% alcohol French cider.

The habitual peanuts.

2011 Michel Gonet Champagne Grand Cru Le Mesnil sur Oger Blanc de blancs. 90 points. huge mousse with lots of persistent fine bubbles. sweet nose of sweet rolls and perfume flowers. youthful, fresh, acidic palate. flavors of pistachio, lime, and mineral. long finish. needs to rest a couple of years but should be good as it puts on weight.

Steamed crab. Pretty much straight up but delicious fresh crab.

Vinegar/garlic sauce for the crab.

2009 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Cote de Bouguerots. BH 95. This is a big step up in refinement, particularly aromatically with an abundance of oyster shell and tidal pool nuances that add breadth to the white flower, citrus and Chablis-style green fruit. The rich, powerful and mouth coating flavors possess real drive but also beautiful detail on the intensely mineral-driven finish that possesses outstanding length. This is really quite dry, at least within the context of the 2009 vintage. In a word, terrific.

Whole crispy salt and pepper prawns. With roe, and cooked perfectly so that you could eat the shell too.

2014 Veyder-Malberg Grüner Veltliner Maischegarung Hochrain.

The heads of the prawns return with chilis. Not as good as the bodies, but great still.

From my cellar: 1995 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui. AG 92. Deep red-ruby. Extravagantly rich aromas of blackcurrant, pepper, smoke and tar. Large-scaled, deep and very sweet; explosively fruity and impressively tactile. Chewy tannins are buried under a wave of finishing fruit. A knockout Clos Vougeot truly worthy of its grand cru status.

Whole suckling pig. A great version of the cantonese classic. Super crispy skin, awesome meat.

Azienda Bricco Asili (Ceretto) Barbaresco Bricco Asili. Great wine, can’t remember the year.

French style beef. Also a classic, but very nice. Lots of flavor and very tender.

2006 Marcassin Pinot Noir Three Sisters Vineyard. BH 76. An advanced and overtly funky nose of strong reduction is nuanced by that same bothersome note of melted vinyl that I seem to consistently find with the Marcassin wines. On the plus side, the round, supple and impressively-scaled flavors possess very solid mid-palate concentration yet the finish is edgy, short, bitter and noticeably warm. Bottom line: Given the description, suffice it to say that this wine is singularly unpersuasive. Caveat emptor.

agavin: our bottle was better than that.

Roast goose. Like peking duck — only goose! Dark and rich.

And served with the hoisin and green onions.

And the squishy buns.

1997 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl. VM 89+. Very unforthcoming nose hints at lime blossom, spearmint and citrus oil. Structured and quite dry in the mouth; distinctly austere for a riesling from this vintage. Combines just 4 g/l r.s. with 8.5 g/l acidity, the highest of these ’97 rieslings. Will go petrolly with bottle age. This plot, which ripens slowly and stubbornly retains acidity, was the last of Humbrecht riesling vineyards to be harvested in ’97.

100 flower chicken. Now this was a new dish and absolutely spectacular — as Yarom puts it, an 11. Prawn meat and the chicken were spread into a patty and pan fried with crispy skin on top. Totally boneless with a dimsum like taste. Amazing!

2006 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection. 92 points.

2012 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino. VM 91. Bright red with a pale rim. Sweet spices, red cherry and camphor are immediately obvious on the nose, while an herbal note clears wth aeration. The red cherry note repeats on the palate, where it’s complicated by hints of tobacco and sweet chocolate. Long and vibrant but very suave, this really improved in the glqss so decant about four hours ahead at least (in fact, Giacomo Neri told me he believes this would have tasted better eight hours after opening, and even more so if tasted the next day). Lovely brunello.

Greens. Not my favorite greens. Very stalky with a slightly bitter taste.

1999 M. Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie. 92 points. Very nicely put together Cote-Rotie. Nose showed meat and some leather along with sweet morello cherry, blueberry and violets.

Secret soup.

Turtle stew! This one was thicker and richer than the last 2 we had. You can see the thick turtle meat and there was a lot of garlic and some crunchy vegetable (lotus?).

Mixed up.

They also brought it with these crispy pan fried noodles.

You poured over the noodles. Amazing!

Soup in the bowl (in case you missed it).

Weird Chinese Tapioca dessert.

And I brought strawberry gelato and white chocolate gelato with milk chocolate stripes.

Overall, I was actually surprised given the dated look of the place (in an ancient Monterey Park hotel) how great the food was. Tony Lau really knows how to get the best dishes out of places and they also really treated us great. I’d certainly go back as this was a great Cantonese meal from a kitchen that is on point.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese Food, hedonists, Lincoln Garden, Monterey Park, SGV, Tony Lau, Wine

Why Walnut? — OOToro

Dec18

Restaurant: OOToro [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1569 Fairway Dr, Walnut, CA 91789. (909) 598-8299

Date: November 11, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi (with slight nod to China)

Rating: Ends of the earth, but very good

Chef Kaz of Totoraku, an occasional hedonist, sent us far east to this Sushi restaurant last year and it was such a fun time that we had to return again for a third visit.
And by far east I mean REALLY REALLY far east — to Walnut California. 40+ miles from my house. 20 miles past Alhambra (which most people consider to far to drive for food). It took an hour and twenty minutes on a Saturday night!

T	T
T	T

The menu.

This time we had the private room.

Which even has its own sushi chef!

From my cellar: 2000 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 96. A wonderfully layered and nuanced nose features an intense yeasty character to the maturing fruit that displays interesting phenolic characters, in particular petrol, along with aromas of apple, pear and soft citrus hints. In contrast to the nascent maturity expressed by the nose the flavor profile is still tight and backward with a genuinely gorgeous texture, all wrapped in a strikingly persistent and highly complex finish. For my taste the 2000 Brut is at an inflection point as the nose does offer enough maturity so that it’s really quite pretty whereas the palate impression is substantially younger. As such it really just depends on how you prefer your Champagne because I suspect that the nose will be very mature by the time the still very youthful flavors attain their majority. For my taste preferences it would be no vinous crime to begin enjoying this now but be aware that this will age for a very long time. The best approach is probably to buy 6, or even 12, bottles and enjoy them over a longer period of time.

Cod sperm sacks in ponzu with spicy daikon. Looks like brain, has a slimy texture, and you slurp it all down in one go. Pretty awesome actually — even if it tasted mostly of ponzu.

Ginger.

Right to left (as most descriptions will be): Kawahagi with seaweed salt. On the left the same fish with yuzu juice and Himalayan salt. Very mild and light.

From my cellar: 2014 Domaine Sylvain Pataille Bourgogne Blanc Chardonnay Rose. This lovely and floral wine is made from a different clone of the Chardonnay grape called “Chardonnay Rose.” Very unusual and delicious.

Amuses. Right to left. Seared abalone, sea snail, potato salad with tobiko, and persimmon and butter layer cake. All very good for what they are.

Sashimi (photo wasn’t mine which is why it’s blurry). Front to back: Shima Aji, chu toro, o toro. Delicious cuts of fish and really nice house ground wasabi.

2014 La Chablisienne Chablis 1er Cru Mont de Milieu. BH 93. This is notably ripe though the nose stops just short of expressing exotic fruit aromas and I particularly like the plethora of Chablis characters present on the pear and citrus scents. There is excellent richness, volume and density to the full-bodied flavors that possess plenty of minerality on the powerful lemon-inflected finale that is both persistent and quite dry. Very fine quality here.

Live lobster sashimi. It was still wiggling.

There was a bit of pepper on there too and some yuzu or lime.

From my cellar: 1994 R. López de Heredia Rioja Blanco Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia. 95 points. Aromas of nuts, hay, wood and minerals. Smooth texture. Deep, intense and concentrated.

Steamed abalone with sake. Very soft and tender for abalone. Briney but nice.

Kumamoto oysters with two types of caviar and with daikon. Lovely little oysters.

On the left, golden eye snapper sushi and on the right red snapper sushi. Citrus zing.

Yarom posing with the main chef.

Ruby snapper seared. An awesome piece of fish!

2013 Sine Qua Non …And An Eight Track. 92 points. Very nice hefty rose.Seared o toro with takuan. Underneath the fish is a bit of crunchy pickled daikon. Really great interplay of different textures, flavors, and temperature.

Toro with foie gras and mountain potatoes and leeks! Now that is a lot of goodness.

Uni and toro with avocado and…

Shaved black truffle!

Hokkaido hairy crab legs and guts. I love kani miso (crab guts).

Arnie brought: 2009 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Ten. VM 89. One of the Sea Smoke flagships, the 2009 Pinot Noir Ten impresses for its depth and sheer power. Layers of flavor flow through to the huge, dramatic finish in a full-bodied, intense Pinot. Once the intensity of the fruit fades, there is not much development in the glass, which results in an overall impression of one dimensionality. The Ten is one of Sea Smoke’s flagships. It is made from all ten Pinot clones planted on the property. While a solid effort, I expected more from this offering, which also happens to be the wine through which I discovered Sea Smoke years ago.

agavin: I actually liked this as new world pinots go.

Sliced A5 wagyu for the next dish.

The chef presents the documents.

Wagyu/lobster shabu shabu! You dip the wagyu into here to cook it (delicious) and

Then dip in the sauces. As a bonus the broth becomes incredibly delicious with the beef fat.

Arnie brought: 2011 Aubert Pinot Noir CIX Estate Vineyard. VM 91. The 2011 Pinot Noir CIX Vineyard is gorgeous. Dark red cherries, flowers, mint and licorice all come together nicely. A pointed, beautifully articulated wine, the 2011 impresses for its focus, length and nuance. Like its Chardonnay sibling, the CIX Pinot lacks a little of mid-palate stuffing that will likely come with further vine age. Today, the CIX is a bit tight, but I imagine it will always remain energetic and vibrant in style.

Lobster and seafood tempura. First rate tempura.

Blue fin tuna sushi.

Chu toro sushi.

O Toro sushi. All 3 amazing.

Purple yam (ume) dessert with edamame (soy bean) sauce. Sounds weird. Colors are odd, but it was surprisingly delicious for a Japanese dessert!

Overall, OOToro — while always good — really upped its game tonight. This was by far the best meal we have had here and much more subtle and sophisticated than some of the previous fare. Really great stuff.

But that drive! It was so far that most of the party booked a nearby Marriot and turned it into a bunch of meals, massages, and other decadences. I drove home to my lovely wife.

To sober up we went to a cafe nearby, as the 85 degrees was closed 🙁

Got some delicious warm cookies.

And lemon pound cake.

And an iced latte.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: hedonists, Japanese cuisine, ootoro, Sushi, Wine

Jazz Jitlada

Dec15

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

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: November 9, 2017

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

Tonight’s outing is a Hedonist return to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong, and just last month her brother, partner, and chef tragically passed away. We came to pay our respects (and enjoy some excellent Thai cooking).

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce. The menu can be found here.

2010 Domaine Louis Michel Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. Here the components of the nose are similar to those of the Fourchaume yet here it is notably more floral. There is impressive complexity to the dense, rich and concentrated flavors that offer plenty of oyster shell and iodine hints on the balanced and stunningly persistent bone dry finish. This is really lovely juice and well worth your attention.

Papaya salad. Solid, but not as yummy as the fried one below.

2013 Domaine Michelot Meursault Sous La Velle. VM 90. Ripe yellow peach aroma shows an almost syrupy aspect. Suave and silky in texture, with fruit-driven flavors of peach and orange. The crop level here was “almost normal” in 2013, noted Mestre. This is very good. (Incidentally, the Bourgogne here, which is entirely from vines in Meursault, is dry, savory and classic, even if it’s more Chardonnay than Meursault.)

Crispy Morning Glory Salad. This salad of shrimp and fried morning glory is just plain glorious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Basically tempura flowers and it’s really the tangy, slightly sweet sauce/dressing that really makes it. Very similar to many of the salads I had in Vietnam.

2006 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Felsentürmchen Spätlese. JG 94. To my knowledge the first time that Helmut Dönnhoff bottled this section of the Felsenberg on its own was in 2001, when this upper section of the vineyard supplied the auction Spätlese from the vintage. The 2006 will again be a magical bottle, as the wine offers up very primary nose of lavender, a huge base of stony soil tones, white cherries, oranges, petrol, iris blooms and an exotic spice note redolent of turmeric. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, pure, minerally and very racy, with more solid than liquid at the core, great cut and structure, and a blazingly long, palate-staining finish. A brilliant Spätlese! (Drink between 2012-2035)

Pepper pork belly. Really tasty chewy pork belly bits with super yummy spicy sauce.

2007 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese. VM 93+. Tantalizing aromas of papaya, sweet herbs and incense. Discreet but intense black cherry fruit rises from the mid-palate, accompanied by brilliant acidity. Animated and finely spiced, with a deep, long finish. I may be underrating this.

Coco lotus soup. This was a mild red coconut curry soup with chicken. It was amazing! Really fabulous curry flavor. Tons of tamarind giving it a really balanced sour tone.

2006 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. JG 93. To my palate the auction Auslese from the Sonnenuhr was a significant step up from the Spätlese, and this was indeed a delightful wine in the making. The classy nose demonstrated a sophisticated glazing of botrytis, as it jumped from the glass in a blend of apple, pear, bee pollen, slate, incipient notes of petrol and spring flowers. On the palate the wine is medium-full, complex and beautifully glazed with botrytis, with a lovely, glossy attack, a fine core of fruit, and a very long, crisp and ethereal finish.

Flambe Prawns. Grilled giant prawns topped with our house curry sauce. These are amazing. The sweet curry sauce is just full of curry flavor goodness.

2011 Ovid Syrah.

2015 Robert Mondavi Winery Pinot Noir Pommard Clone. Yuck! Didn’t taste like pinot.

Jazz burger. A big beef patty covered in onions, peppers, and dressing. The flavors were fabulous.

White rice in the tin of mysterious lightness.

Red Duck Curry. Not spicy but incredibly delicious.

2004 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Selbach is such an elegant house, consistently producing kabinetten and spatlesen that are light, airy and elegant. This spatlese showed some of the reserve of the 2004 vintage, with less expressive fruit. The wine was nonetheless balanced, with a significant honey/honeydew/orange zest and general citrus overlay. While the wine has some development left, I did not find enough expression of more complex flavors at this stage to rate it higher.

Yellow pork curry. Saffron or turmeric taste. Again mild and delicious.

From my cellar: 2008 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Heimbourg Sélection de Grains Nobles. VM 98. Medium gold. Utterly captivating nose melds bitter orange peel, apricot, wildflower honey and minerals. Thick, tactile and extremely young, with powerful acidity giving it a slightly disjointed character initially. For all its huge density, there’s great cut to the flavors of apricot, honey and flowers, with the wine’s powerful sweetness leavened by a savory element. Finishes with palate-staining fruit, outstanding energy and uncanny persistence. This came together brilliantly with aeration, maintaining great refinement and a sensation of weightlessness. Will go on for decades.

Jungle curry with lamb. Exotic thai curry with god knows what in it. This stuff was HOT and pretty fabulous. The heat was insane. Slow burn, such that you started in on it and thought it would be fine, but then building to a head-sweating mind-altering gut-burning sear. Took me 6-8 hours to recover from a relatively small portion!

1988 Marcel Deiss Gewurztraminer Altenberg de Bergheim Sélection de Grains Nobles. 92 points. Popped and poured, with cork crumbling and the wine poured in to a decanter. I think the air this ended up getting was most helpful. Beautiful sweet (but not overly so) stone fruits and spice on the nose. And an initial sweetness in the mouth that morphs in to a somewhat surprisingly much drier mid-palate. Complex with a good, but not as lingering finish as the very best Deiss SGNs can show.

Larb. Ground pork with spices, fish sauce, etc. Pretty hot too and salty/vinegary. Not my absolute favorite Jitlada dish.

Turmeric fried rice with chicken wings. Interesting!

Pad See Yew with chicken. Rich noodles, sweet and mild. I could barely taste anything after the jungle curry.

I love Jitlada, and it’s hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. Tonight’s meal was one of the best we had, despite the absence of the chef in the kitchen 🙁 We had only 7-8 people, which is about the max you can have here. Once we had way too many people and and some late comers that botched the whole progression.

Tonight we ordered very well. Every dish was very good, most great. We had a pretty nice progression. Sure, there are favorites we missed, the menu is vast, but it was a great meal. Jazz hung out with us for a chunk of it and helped us order. The kitchen was really on point too with some dishes that have a little variability all coming down on the awesome side tonight.

Not super spicy either, only the jungle curry busting the 5 or 6 line (it was an 11, even on the weighted Jitlada scale of blistering heat).

All in all, if you like Thai food and live (or visit) in LA you must try Jitlada.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: curry, hedonists, Jitlada, spicy, Thai cuisine, Wine

Chicken Crawl – Savoy Kitchen

Dec13

Restaurant: Savoy Kitchen

Location: 138 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. Phone number (626) 308-9535

Date: November 04, 2017

Cuisine: Hainan Chicken

Rating: Decent curry

Occasionally those of us Hedonists who are really serious about our Chinese food do a food crawl of some sort. Today’s was 5 stops, all for Hainan Chicken Rice. This is a traditional dish of Hainan Provence in southern China and is one of the national dishes of Singapore. Poached at low temp with garlic and ginger. The broth is supposed to be used to cook the rice. It is served with a variety of sauces.

This is part 5. The full set is: [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5]

Savoy is a corner on the main drag of Valley Blvd right in Alhambra, close to dozens of places I’ve eaten at.

The menu.

Hainan Chicken of course. This was my least favorite chicken. It was pretty straight up. Soy, ginger, and spicy sauce. The rice was totally normal white rice — fail!

“famous” beef curry. It wasn’t bad. Typical Indonesian brown curry with potatoes and beef. Here is a closer aproximation of the garlic rice.

This was my least favorite place, or at least my least favorite Hainan Chicken. The menu was really odd, Hong Kong cafe style in that it has curry, chicken, lots of sloppy looking weird pasta, and pizza! Woah.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Hainan Chicken, hedonists, Savoy Kitchen, SGV

Chicken Crawl – Dong Nguyen

Dec11

Restaurant: Dong Nguyen

Location: 1433 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 300-8618

Date: November 04, 2017

Cuisine: Hainan Chicken

Rating: Good sauce

This is part 4. The full set is: [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5]

Somewhere, somewhen, someone decided to build a mall in the SGV and decorate it with Old West meets New Orleans style! Then it was occupied entirely by Asian businesses.

Yeah, even the tower.

Now there is a tough name to say.

The inside is “casual.”

With an intriguing east/west blend of decor. Notice those 19th century French portraits.

House soup. Everyone gets one. It was very mild and basically spinach soup or something but was actually surprisingly good.

Hainan Chicken. Dark meat. Rice was just regular rice as far as I could tell. The sauce, which can only be described as garlic fish sweet and sour sauce was delicious. Best sauce maybe of the day. The closest rival was at Red Chicken.

They also have a good sized mixed Chinese and Vietnamese menu. We didn’t try any of it though.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Dong Nguyen, food crawl, Hainan Chicken, hedonists, SGV

Chicken Crawl – Tasty Food

Dec09

Restaurant: Tasty Food

Location: 8150 Garvey Ave, Ste 117C, Rosemead, CA 91770. Phone number (626) 569-1867

Date: November 04, 2017

Cuisine: Hainan Chicken

Rating: Very succulent

This is part 3. The full set is: [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5]

Inside this mall food court is another world.

A place straight out of early 80s Singapore or something. It’s incredibly “old school” and “value oriented.”
Tasty Food has a reputation for having great Hainan Chicken.

As a food mall kiosk, the menu hangs on the wall.

They also have both poached and friend.

Alas, they ran out of rice and wouldn’t serve us any chicken without it! So we had to move on with no chicken!!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, food crawl, Hainan Chicken, hedonists, Mall Food, SGV, Tasty Food

Chicken Crawl – Red Chicken

Dec08

Restaurant: Red Chicken

Location: 1001 E Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 872-0620

Date: November 04, 2017

Cuisine: Hainan Chicken

Rating: Fried chicken was amazing

This is part 2. The full set is: [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5]

Red Chicken is a Singapore/Thai place on Las Tunas.

Small and casual.

Limited menu, but a few things besides Hainan Chicken — plus it comes in 2 main varieties (fried and poached).

Hainan Chicken. The poached variety. A bit stronger than Side Chick, with milder broth. Might be dark meat. The rice wasn’t as good.

Fried chicken. This was incredible. Perfectly crispy delicious chicken strips. The tangy/spicy sauce was good too.

Here the straight spicy and a slightly sweet spicy one that was awesome.

Chicken curry. The noodles were just meh but the curry itself, while a touch sweet, was delicious and the flakey pita-like bread incredible in the curry.

Pad Thai omelet. Pad Thai under all that. We mixed it up and it was delicious.

Overall, Red Chicken had the most interesting food and the best non-Hainan food of our little crawl. It’s a limited place, but quite tasty.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, food crawl, Hainan Chicken, hedonists, Red Chicken, SGV

Chicken Crawl – Side Chick

Dec06

Restaurant: Side Chick

Location: 400 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 688-3879

Date: November 04, 2017

Cuisine: Hainan Chicken

Rating: Very succulent

This is part 1. The full set is: [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5]

I’ve been to the Santa Anita Westfield mall (on Baldwin) a couple times for Hai Di Lao, but didn’t notice the little food court area. This mall is incredibly Asian oriented (haha).

Googling Side Chick’s name taught me a new slang word, Side Chick, meaning the girlfriend on the side. Lol. But it’s also this kiosk restaurant.

They pretty much only have Hainan Chicken.

As you can see on the short menu.

Hainan Chicken. Side Chick uses mostly (all?) breast meat. The meat was the most tender, moist, and chickeny of all the places we went. I liked the rice too. There was soy sauce, spicy sauce, ginger sauce, and…

Chicken jus. Which made it even more moist. A whole lotta chicken flavor.

Boba tea from next door.

Side Chick is a one trick pony, and it’s in the mall which means the parking is spectacularly annoying. That being said, if you want a mild, moist, but very flavorful Hainan Chicken, it’s a good spot. Probably actually my favorite of the Hainan Chickens per se.