Image
  • Writing
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • About my Novels & Writing
    • All Writing Posts
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Scrivener – Writer’s Word Processor
    • iPad for Writers
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Books
    • Book Review Index
    • Favorite Fantasy Novels
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Short Story: Harvard Divinity
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • About the Book
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Games
    • My Video Game Career
    • Post Archive by Series
    • All Games Posts Inline
    • Making Crash Bandicoot
    • Crash 15th Anniversary Memories
    • World of Warcraft Endgames
    • Getting a Job Designing Video Games
    • Getting a Job Programming Video Games
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Movies
    • Movie Review Index
  • Television
    • TV Review Index
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • A Game of Thrones
  • Food
    • Food Review Index
    • Foodie Club
    • Hedonists
    • LA Sushi Index
    • Chinese Food Index
    • LA Peking Duck Guide
    • Eating Italy
    • Eating France
    • Eating Spain
    • Eating Türkiye
    • Eating Dutch
    • Eating Croatia
    • Eating Vietnam
    • Eating Australia
    • Eating Israel
    • Ultimate Pizza
    • ThanksGavin
    • Margarita Mix
    • Foodie Photography
    • Burgundy Vintage Chart
  • Other
    • All Posts, Magazine Style
    • Archive of all Posts
    • Fiction
    • Technology
    • History
    • Anything Else
  • Gallery
  • Bio
  • About
    • About me
    • About my Writing
    • About my Video Games
    • Ask Me Anything
  • Contact

Archive for Olive oil

Reference Pasta – Cacio e Pepe

Jan15

I’m pretty much a pasta fiend, particularly good homemade pasta, so an evening home with my son afforded a good opportunity to try out my pasta cooking chops on this ultimate reference pasta — cacio e pepe. Literarily, it just means “cheese & pepper” and it’s an extremely basic pasta from Rome that showcases its extremely few ingredients. In Gavin tradition, like my ultimate pizza or my uber tiramisu, I try to do it to the highest standard of quality.


That starts with a good pasta. Cacio e pepe is traditionally done with spaghetti or a similar thick long pasta. This pici, is a thick hand rolled pasta, like fat spaghetti. This one is homemade (not by me) out of durum semolina and has a fantastic bite and coarse surface perfect for saucing.

This is a 22 minute to al dente pasta! Wow. I used a pinch of applewood smoked salt in the water to lend a slight smokiness to it.


Some other supplementary ingredients. More on the egg late, but you need a little fat. The most traditional would be pancetta, but staying dairy olive oil or butter work fine. Romans would usually use the pork or olive oil. In the grinder is very fresh, very strong black peppercorns. This awesome grinder makes a very coarse grind. It’s extremely important to have coarse ground bitey pepper. This pasta is about cheese and pepper — so none of that weak sauce pepper with no flavor.


The don’t call it “cheese and pepper” for nothing.


My son and I grated the cheese as the pasta cooked. Only real, fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano will do. Check out the cute little olive wood grater box I bought last time I was in Tuscany.


And the signature cheese: Cacio de Roma (Roman Cheese). This is a sharp, salty, medium firm, creamy sheepmilk cheese. You could use generic pecorino, but it’s not really creamy enough. This is the right cheese.


Drain the pasta and keep some water (I just plucked it out with tongs and dropped it into the strainer). Even at 22 minutes it was seriously al dente, very thick, with a nice weightiness to it. Don’t rinse it. You want that starch.


Now here is the secret to proper pasta that Americans forget. You have to make the sauce in a pan and throw the cooked pasta into it. Before adding the noodles, I melted some fat (butter this time), then toasted some pepper in it for a minute or so, then added a bit of the pasta water and boiled it. This creates a butter/starch base. In went the pasta.


And then most of the cheese (about 3/4 a cup of ground Parmesan and 1/3 a cup of Cacio). You toss it all around for a minute or so to melt the cheese into the sauce and coat the noodles.


To finish it, I ground in a bunch more pepper and threw in an egg yolk. A tasty Carbonara I had a month ago gave me this idea. It’s not strictly traditional to the Cacio e Pepe, but it does add a nice richness. I stirred that in too.


And voila, one heart stopping bowl of simple pasta. This was pretty spectacular. Very weighty, with a richness to the eggy cheese, and a good bite from the pepper. Adult mac & cheese done right.

For more food write-ups, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Hostaria del Piccolo – Pizza + Pasta
  2. Quick Eats: Andy’s Spanish Eggs
  3. The “Reform Kosher” for Passover Tuna Melt
  4. Eating Bologna – Trattoria Leonida
  5. Ultimate Pizza – The Toppings
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Al dente, Black pepper, Cacio de Roma, Cacio e Pepe, Cooking, italian, Olive oil, pasta, Recipe, Rome

More Hedonism at La Paella

Jun11

Restaurant: La Paella

Location: 476 South San Vicente Boulevard. Los Angeles, CA 90048. (323) 951-0745

Date: June 1, 2013

Cuisine: Spanish

Rating: Really tasty traditional Spanish

_

Since spending a month in Spain in 2010, I’ve been addicted to Spanish cooking, so when the Hedonists decided to return to this Hollywood staple I jumped on board for another evening packed with great wine and great food.


NV Billecart-Salmon Rose. Parker 90. The NV Brut Rose is a pretty, gracious wine. Freshly cut roses, red berries and spices take shape nicely in the glass as the wine shows off its understated, timeless personality. Billecart-Salmon’s NV Brut Rose is a reliably tasty wine.


Bread with olive tapenade and garlic butter.


“Patatas Bravas. Fried potatoes tossed with spicy tomato sauce.” In Spain, these would usually be coated in a spicy mayo. I liked these better, as the sauce was more like that used on hot wings and had a nice spicy vinegar tang.


“Boquerones en Vinagre.” Marinated small silvery fish fillets.


“Pulpo a la Gallega. Cooked octopus served with olive oil and paprika.” Incredibly tender!


2004 Bouchard Aîné et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. Burgound 93. I have not had this since cask and the bottle in question had a tattered label though no apparent seepage. As such, it’s difficult to know whether this bottle was indeed representative as it seemed relatively supple and forward, indeed more or less ready to drink. To be sure, there was no obvious secondary nuances in evidence and still good freshness to the rich, intense and vibrant flavors brimming with minerality on the impressively long finish. Impeccably stored bottles might need another few years to arrive at their peak but absent this bottle being an aberration, I don’t think that opening one today would be infanticide.


“Gambas al Ajillo.” Shrimp sauteed with garlic and chili pod.


“Pan con Tomate.” A country bread slice spread with tomato, garlic and olive oil.


“Espinacas con Piñones y Pasas.” Spinach sauteed with pine nuts and raisins.


2011 Emilio Rojo Ribeiro. 90 points. Weighty. Good acidity. Complex. Citrus, pear, minerality.


“Ensaladilla Rusa.” Tuna, potato and mayonnaise salad. The funny thing is calling this a salad.


“Tortilla Española. A wedge of a traditionally Spanish potato and onion omelette.”


A choice of condiments of the gazpacho.


“Gazpacho Andaluz. Tomato, garlic, bread, cucumber, celery, pepper, olive oil.” A nice gazpacho. I’m rather the gazpacho whore and I make it myself using Jose Andres’ recipe (modified by me). This one was tasty, but was a little thin textured for my taste.


1978 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial. IWC 93. Medium red with an amber rim. Highly complex bouquet of fresh and dried red fruits, cherry skin, pipe tobacco, smoky minerals, cigar box and potpourri. Sweet strawberry and cherry flavors stain the palate but are strikingly lithe. Cured tobacco and candied rose flavors emerge with aeration, and the fruit takes a darker turn toward cherry. The tannins have been completely absorbed, allowing the wine’s almost decadent sweetness to come through. Expensive, yes, but this would offer newly minted wine lovers an insight into the personality of aged wine from a great region and a very good vintage for the same price as many newly released Napa or Bordeaux wines.


Sautéed peppers, yum!

“Champiñones con Chorizo.” Mushrooms with Spanish red sausage.


“Jamón Serrano.” I wasn’t sure which Spanish ham this was. It was certainly good with the garlic spread!


From my cellar: 1978 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Viña Real Gran Reserva. 95 points. Pretty tight at the onset and only started to get going after an hour or so. It definitely would’ve benefited from decanting. Heavy swirling and the passage of time eventually saw fresh dark cherry flavors and aromas come up with a bit of beef blood, old wood and spice. Nicely balanced with solid acid levels. It would absolutely benefit from more time in the cellar, though it’s certainly tasty now, but, again, decant.


“Paella Fideuà.” Shrimp, mussels, calamari, clams, etc. cooked with saffron and “fideo” noodles.


“Arròs Négre. Cuttlefish, calamari, baby shrimp and mussels cooked with rice and squid’s ink.” Oh I love me the black rice!


Together on the plate.


1995 R. López de Heredia Rioja Rosado Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia. 90-94 points. An alluring leather, dried orange peel and strawberry leaf scented bouquet that blossoms beautifully in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine, elegant tannins. It is both precise and exquisitely defined with hints of cured meat and leather towards the graceful finish.


“Paella de Verduras.” Rice cooked with saffron and assorted vegetables.


1999 Peter Lehmann Shiraz Stonewell. 91 points.


Oxtail over mashed potatoes.


From my cellar: 2008 Pingus Flor de Pingus. Parker 96. The 2008 Flor de Pingus had been in bottle for 2 weeks when I tasted it. It offers up an enticing nose of smoke, Asian spices, incense, espresso, black cherry, and blackberry. On the palate it displays outstanding volume, intensity, and balance. Rich, dense, and succulent.


“Chuletas de Cordero al Romero.” Lamb chops grilled with rosemary and served with vegetables. Apparently in Spain, potatoes classify as “vegetables” :-).


1999 Château Guiraud. IWC 90. Pale yellow-gold. Lower-toned aromas of orange zest, herbs, spices, earth and vanillin oak. Textured, rich and sweetly oaky, with notes of vanilla and creme caramel Showing plenty of personality today. Ripe and rich for young Guiraud. Big but essentially gentle, with an impressive, slow-building finish.


The dessert spread.


“Pera al Vino. Pear cooked with red wine.”


“Mousse de Chocolate. Chocolate mousse.” One of the best chocolate mousses I can remember.


“Flan de Naranja.” Creme caramel with a light touch of fresh orange.


“Crema Catalana. Custard topped with caramelized sugar done to order.”


“Arroz con Leche.” Rice cooked with milk, lemon, cinnamon – served cold.

I love Spanish cooking, and La Paella has a really nice traditional kitchen. It reminds me of Botin in Madrid at the opposite end of the Spanish culinary spectrum from modernist Calima and the ElBuli school. Personally, I love both and I need to head back to La Paella to sample even more of their menu. Some of my favorites are Gambas Pil Pil, Anchovies en Boccerones, seafood paella, and, of course, the flan.

More crazy Hedonist adventures or
LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists at La Paella
  2. Hedonism at Esso
  3. Hedonism in the Desert – Azeen’s Afghani
  4. Quick Eats – Bar Pinxto
  5. Epic Hedonism at Totoraku
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Fish and Seafood, hedonists, La Paella, Olive oil, Paella, Spain, Spanish Food

Il Grano – Only 19 courses?

Dec14

Restaurant: Il Grano [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 11359 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.477.7886

Date: October 27, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Modern Italian to die for

_

After my stellar birthday meal at Il Grano, and with the closing of Drago, Il Grano has become one of my favorite westside Italians. Last Saturday, what started off as a “quick Saturday dinner” turned into another epic feast.


The sleek interior space.

2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva
From my cellar, Parker 93, “The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, from vines in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, is gorgeous, layered and elegant in its violets, tar, licorice and cherries. The finish is long and impeccable, but this is a somewhat ethereal style, with aromas and flavors that are already a touch forward relative to most 2004 Riservas. Ideally the wine is best enjoyed within the next decade.”

Bread at Il Grano
Bread here is very good.

Amuses
A small amuse, albacore tartar on the left, fried mozzarella ball with tomato on the right.

Gazpacho
Sal loves a good Gazpacho (as do I). This is the garnishes.

Gazpacho
Then with the soup itself.

Italian Crudo
Il Grano is also famous for its sushi-like crudos. Right to left: toro with melon caviar. Albacore. Red snapper with blood orange caviar. Hokkaido scallop with olive dust. The white stuff on the plate is frozen olive oil and each fish has its own little sauce.

Wagyu Tartar
Tartar of Wagyu beef with fresh black truffles. A very nice early blend.

Wagyu Carpaccio
A second take on fatty beeef: Wagyu carpaccio with parmesan and olive oil. Good stuff, although I might prefer my beef carpaccio leaner.

Beet Salad
Roasted beet salad with braeburn apple, mixed greens, and goat cheese.

peppers and anchovies
Fire roasted peppers and anchovies. Red torpedo onion, san marzano tomatoes. Yum. This is really a Spanish dish, but it’s one of my favorites.

polenta with lamb ragu
Soft polenta with lamb ragu. This is Northern Italian and a classic rich meat and starch pairing, sort of an Italian take on a super-spud filled with chili. Much better though with a lovely velvety texture.

Zuppa zucchine
Zuppa zucchine. Dairy free & vegan costolata Italian zucchini soup, burrata-zucchini crisp.

Fiori di zucca
Fiori di zucca. A huge squash blossom stuffed with ricotta and marjoram. Which, epically, makes the last appetizer!

Maccheroncini with spiny lobster and black truffle
Maccheroncini with spiny lobster and black truffle! Pacific spiny lobster, cauliflower, shaved black truffle. This was some seriously good stuff.

spaghetti ai funghi
And the pasta flight continues with spaghetti ai funghi. Spaghetti, mousserons & chanterelle mushrooms, pancetta, mushroom stock.

Mezzalua
And Mezzalua, duck ravioli with yet more black truffle! So a trio of awesome earthy mushroom pastas. Duck confit filled ravioli, porcini mushroom sauce, shaved black truffle.

Albacore tuna
Albacore tuna with micro greens.

lamb tenderloin
A lamb special. Sliced lamb tenderloin, perfectly done (or not, as the case is), soft potatoes and reduction. On the right is a crostini coupled with a lamb heart and onion mix that tasted like awesome chicken liver.

Walnut and maple gelato
Walnut and maple gelato.

Apple tart
Apple tart.

Pear tart
Pear tart, which with its soft cinnamon pear-sauce vibe is more to my taste.

Triple chocolate cake
Triple chocolate cake. Chocolate gelato, and three types of chocolate (milk, dark, white).

If you like higher end Italian cooking (and who doesn’t?) you should absolutely rush over here. Make sure you get a tasting menu. I don’t think appetizer and entree selected off the regular menu would do the place the justice it deserves. I’m sure the dishes would be great, but this cuisine is about more than just two notes. I’m not sure why Il Grano isn’t always mobbed, as folks flock to overpriced mid-quality trattorias. I guess people are just clueless.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or experience my gluttonous month-long journey through Northern Italy.

Sal treats his tomatoes like family

The wine list is top notch, with a real depth in Burgundy

Related posts:

  1. Il Grano part 2
  2. Tomato Night at Il Grano
  3. Il Grano Birthday
  4. Bistro LQ – 27 Courses of Trufflumpagus
  5. Fraiche Santa Monica
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Brunello di Montalcino, Dessert, Gazpacho, Il Grano, Italian cuisine, Modern Italian, Molecular Cooking, Molecular Gastronomy, Olive oil, Reserve wine, Sal Marino, Santa Monica California, Wagyū

Summer of Gazpacho

Oct12

Lately I’ve become more and more obsessed with gazpacho, southern Spain’s cold vegetable soup. This dish had its origin in Ancient Rome where (minus the tomatoes, which are a new world fruit) it served as a kind of vinegar, salt, stale bread porridge for the army. Ancient army food was notoriously nasty and served only the most practical of functions. In this case, some calories and salt replacement in the hot Iberian sun. Nowadays, it’s basically a liquid salad and a whole lot better.


The trio of classic gazpacho from Andalusia is cucumber…


Sweet peppers…


And tomato. In this case I use fresh late summer heirlooms. This is an ingredient driven dish and so it pays to use the best.


I love me some garlic — and so do the Spanish.


A bit of red onion.


And this time I’m experimenting with throwing in a Jalepeno.


Then, because this is a salad, you need olive oil and vinegar to taste. You MUST use Spanish ingredients for the proper effect. Fine Spanish olive oil from Andalusia and Vinagre de Jerez (sherry vinegar) are the only acceptable condiments. Plus throw in a little salt (and pepper) if you so desire.


Then I pack everything into the Blendtec bucket.


One of the best things about the incredible Blendtec is that it can handle ANYTHING. It’s like the Bas-o-matic.


In about 45 seconds the above is rendered into this.


Chill and serve. Yum. (the black stuff is fresh pepper). This is my “for home snacking” prep and I don’t bother with the presentation.

At a dinner party I have dressed the bowl with cucumber, onions, tomatoes, chives, and olive oil fried bread and then poured the soup in.


Something more like this.

Jose Andres presents it like this at The Bazaar.

Recipe doesn’t really matter so much here, you can pretty much wing it, but if you feel the need, you can use Jose’s recipe. Adjust anything for taste. It’s important to chill the soup well, but it keeps in the fridge for 2-3 days. My little experiment with the Jalepeno worked, but I don’t really think the burn is an improvement. I prefer the garlic and vinegar tang, so next time it stays out.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Eats: Andy’s Spanish Eggs
  2. Friday Night Heights – Shabbat Dinner
  3. Breakfasts of Champions
  4. Quick Eats: Panini at Home
  5. Ultimate Pizza – The Sauce
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Ancient Rome, Andalusia, Blendtec, Gazpacho, Jalapeño, Olive oil, Spain, Tomato

Hedonism at Esso

Sep10

Restaurant: Esso Mediterranean Bistro [1, 2]

Location: 17933 Ventura Blvd. Encino, CA 91316. 818-514-6201

Date: September 6, 2012

Cuisine: Syrian

Rating: Really delicious and authentic flavors

_

What do you get when you mix 25 people, 30+ bottles of blockbuster wine, and over 20 courses of homemade Syrian food?

Pure hedonism. And a hangover. Despite the later, what follows is another epic food and wine event. The venue is Esso Mediterranean Bistro, which is a hole in the wall in an Encino minimall right next door to my Kosher butcher. I’d never been here before but they serve up first rate Syrian fare and offer an selection of unusual dishes. The menu is here but the online menu doesn’t have all the interesting stuff.


It was quite the table. The compressed perspective of the lens doesn’t do the scale any justice.


Parker 92. “The NV Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Cuvee de Reserve is a gorgeous wine that captures the essence of Chardonnay in the Cote des Blancs. Pure, wiry and wonderfully expressive, the Cuvee de Reserve flows gracefully with layers of varietal fruit from start to finish. This shows superb clarity, depth and polish, particularly at the NV level. The current release is 65% 2007 and 35% reserve wines from a solera cuvee that contains 15 vintages. Roughly 2/3rds of the fruit comes from Mesnil, while the rest is from Cramant, Avize, Oger and Chouilly.”


“Hummos. Chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice and spices. Topped with extra virgin olive oil and parsley.” This was some great hummos, and very fresh. But I still like Sunnin’s a little better because of the lemony garlic tang.


“Pita bread,” of course.


The 1985 Chateau Thieuley Blanc. You wouldn’t think a 27 year-old white Bordeaux would even be drinkable, but this was very good: a stoney minerality and a surprising amount of remaining fruit.


“Moutebbel (Baba Ghannouj). Roasted eggplant mixed with sesame sauce, garlic, and lemon juice. Topped with extra virgin olive oil.” A very fine example, with pleasant smokey flavors.


Parker 95. “The Donnhoff 2005 Norheimer Dellchen Riesling Spatlese trocken is expressively, diversely, and hauntingly floral, featuring as well inflections of citrus rind, peppermint and lavender. On the palate, this is pure, opulently rich, serene, free of any roughness, a glycerin-rich, slick pool of orchard fruits underlain by citrus, with hints of cherry pit and peach kernel and an ineffable sense of mineral matter. A long, bitter-sweet, persistently floral finish enhances the uncanny sense of weightlessness in this amazing wine. It confirms Donnhoff’s observation that his 2006s “have density yet also charm” and seem slim, despite their richness and regardless of what their analyses might lead one to believe. “I knew already twenty years ago that Dellchen had this in it. But now, the competition has gotten very tough for Hermannshohle,” he says laughing, but in complete seriousness. I would plan to follow this for up to 15 years.”


“Mohammera. A spicy mix of walnuts, bread crumbs, paprika, pepper paste, and pomegranate juice.” I love mohammera, and have even made it. This particular one was quite spicy with a really nice zing. It made an amazing pairing with the Donnhoff Riesling above (and none of the other wines, haha).


The party rocks on.


Parker 92, “This dark-colored wine has a nose reminiscent of stony blackberries, brambleberries, and smoke. This rich, powerful, expansive, pasty, and concentrated wine offers loads of cassis and black cherries in its flavor profile.” Despite Parker’s faint praise, this wine was drinking spectacularly. It had mellowed out into the beginning of that Burgundy mature phase.


“Stuffed Grape Leaves. Grape leaves stuffed with calrose rice, walnuts, onions, and spices.” I love these in general, and these specifically were particularly delicious.


Parker 91, “The Jadot 2005 Charmes-Chambertin epitomizes the dark, almost somber side of the vintage, which seems somewhat out of character for this site. A bitter side to black cherry fruit and low-toned meatiness characterize both the nose and palate, with a firm chalkiness and tactile notes of pungent brown spice informing a bitter-sweet and rather austere finish. But there is no denying the sheer intensity or length on display , and one would have to revisit only after 3-5 years, I suspect, to see whether more complexity and finesse had developed. This represents a blend of wine from three different sources, and possibly they have simply been reluctant to cohabitate.”


“Moujetderreh. Lentil with bulghur and sauteed onions.” I’ve never had this dish, and it was amazing. The pleasant soft texture combined with a really lovely flavor.


“The 2008 Pinot Noir (made from a Calera clone) exhibits a dark ruby hue as well as notes of plums, blueberries, brioche, flowers, raspberries, and pomegranate. Medium-bodied, fresh, and lively, it should drink nicely for a decade.”


“Tabouleh. Parsley, tomatoes, onions, bulghur (cracked wheat), mint, lemon juice, and extra virgin olive oil.” From the parsley oriented school of Tabouleh.



Parker 96, “All five of Turley’s 2008 Petite Syrahs (they do not spell it “Sirah”) are extraordinary, and I could probably write the same tasting notes for each. My favorites include the Hayne Vineyard and Library Vineyard, followed by the Pesenti Vineyard, which shows more chalky graphite characteristics. They all possess huge aromas of blackberries, blueberries, and ink, massive fruit concentration, enormous body, and a lot less alcohol than the Zinfandels (a character of this varietal). Readers who purchase any of these cuvees should forget them for 10 years, and drink them over the following 25-30 years. They will handsomely repay the investment in patience.”


“Hmmm. is that raw liver on the table?”



Parker 93, “This outstanding Tuscan producer has been exceptionally consistent over the last decade, so it is not surprising that the 1990s performed brilliantly. I recently had the 1985 Sammarco, largely because a subscriber had written to say it was falling apart. From my cellar, the wine remains remarkably youthful. Revealing no amber color, it offered a sensational nose of lead pencil, cassis, and new oak, as well as a gorgeously rich, powerful palate.”

Now we begin to dig deeply into the Rhone with a trio of Beaucastels and a number of other goodies.

1995 Les Cailloux. Parker 94-96, “1995 was a powerful vintage for Brunel. The Cuvee Centenaire remains a young, promising wine offering notes of licorice, cedar, vanilla, and sweet black currant/cherry fruit presented in a full-bodied, virile style.”

2001 Beaucastel. Parker 96, “Beaucastel has been on a terrific qualitative roll over the last four vintages, and the 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape (which Francois Perrin feels is similar to the 1990, although I don’t see that as of yet) is a 15,000-case blend of 30% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise, and the balance split among the other permitted varietals of the appellation. This inky/ruby/purple-colored cuvee offers a classic Beaucastel bouquet of new saddle leather, cigar smoke, roasted herbs, black truffles, underbrush, and blackberry as well as cherry fruit. It is a superb, earthy expression of this Mourvedre-dominated cuvee. Full-bodied and powerful, it will undoubtedly close down over the next several years, not to re-emerge for 7-8 years.”

2005 Beaucastel. Parker 93-95, “Medium to deep garnet colour. Aromas of dark cherries, raspberry compote, cardamom, black truffles and a touch of star anise. The palate is full bodied, richly fruited with medium to high acidity and a medium+ level of grainy, slightly chewy tannins. Concentrated with a good compliment of structure to hold it up. Long peppery finish.”


2008 Beaucastel. Parker 90-94, “The 2008 Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape is one of the few outstanding wines produced in this vintage. More evolved than Beaucastel’s wines tend to be, it reveals a healthy dark plum/ruby color, notes of licorice, meat juices, smoked game, black currants and garrigue, medium to full body, silky tannins, good freshness, surprising depth for the vintage and a long finish.”


“Kebbe Nayye. Fine minced raw beef, cracked wheat, onions, parsley and spices. Topped with extra virgin olive oil.” A very unusual dish. This is a kind of steak tartar. Soft and slimy in texture, it was very mild in flavor.


Parker 94-96, “Chapoutier’s 1998 Barbe Rac is close to full maturity. It exhibits an abundance of Provencal herbs intermixed with new saddle leather, kirsch, framboise, and spice box. The intoxicatingly heady, complex aromatics are followed by a full-bodied, lush, succulent style of wine with a relatively high alcohol/glycerin content and loads of fruit. This wine is drinking terrifically well after going through an awkward stage about two to three years ago.”


“Kibbe Balls (5 pieces). Lean beef balls mixed with bulghur (cracked wheat), stuffed with ground beef, and onions.” Meat torpedo, and not the Spinal Tap version. These were amazing.


John really puts the effort into opening…


“The 2012 Dasani.” Just kidding.

The 1983 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle!

Parker doesn’t love it, and the attack was a little weak, but it was still a lovely wine. “Although impressive early in life, it has taken on less than positive characteristics. The dark garnet color revealed substantial amber at the watery edge. The aromatics revealed scents of ground beef, coffee, cedar, dried herbs, tobacco, and damp earth. The wine was noticeably astringent, medium to full-bodied, harsh, and forbiddingly backward and austere.”


“Ras Naanah. sautéed meat with lemon, mint, garlic.” This stuff was amazing, one of my favorite dishes (and I loved most of them). This is essentially like spiced hamburger and it has a bit of sumac juice on it which really livened it up.


“Peat and black tea smokiness along with nutty piquancy in the nose of Baudrys’ 2007 Chinon La Croix Boissee lead to a palate with blackberry and Maine blueberry fruit matrix and an invigorating crunch of their seeds that allies itself beautifully to the aforementioned smokiness and pungency as well as to shrimp shell reduction on a firm but polished palate and a long, vivacious, saliva-inducing finish. This is a wine of rarified complexity, beautiful now but worth following for another several years.”


“Stuffed eggplant. Sprinkled with parsley and walnuts. Stuffed with ground beef, rice and spices.” Perfectly done, they basically melted apart.


The hedonistic life has its perks!


Parker 95-96, “Deep garnet-purple in color, the Old Bastard Shiraz reveals aromas of spice, blackberries and black cherry compote with a gentle undercurrent of underbrush, dusty earth, game, spice cake and smoked bacon. Full bodied, rich and opulent in the mouth, it has an abundance of savory / earthy flavors with a good backbone of lively acid and medium to firm velvety tannins, finishing long.”

“Shekh Meghsy. Squash stuffed with ground beef. Topped with fresh tomato and served with rice and yogurt.” These were also spectacular, even if they do look a tad like dog turds.


Inside was this delicious ground meat mixture.


“This estate’s second wine, the 1996 Pavillon du Chateau Margaux, may turn out to be one of the most delicious examples the property has made. The wine is forward, sexy, round, and generous, with gobs of black fruit and a subtle dosage of new oak.”


“Raw sheep liver with spices.” My least favorite dish. Essentially someone called the Haruspex and then ran off with the tools of his trade. The liver was actually very flesh, and I do love it generally, just not necessarily bleeding on the plate.


“1975 Round Hill Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon.”


“Moussakaa.” Always one of my favorites, although this one looks like French onion soup!


But inside are some of the classic elements: spiced meat and eggplant. Very good, although I prefer it Greek style with the Béchamel. Love me my Béchamel.


Parker 97, “The 1990 Barolo Pajana is the first wine Clerico produced from this vineyard. It is also one of the most positive surprises in my recent tastings of the vintage. In 1990 Clerico made this Barolo using only the old portions of the vineyard, and that may be the reason the wine has aged so beautifully. Richer, rounder and softer than the Ciabot Mentin Ginestra, the 1990 Pajana is just superb in a sumptuous, enveloping expression of ripe, dark fruit. Tobacco, cedar, sweet spices, roasted coffee beans and plums are just some of the nuances that emerge from this full-bodied, intense Barolo. Clerico’s 1990 Barolo Pajana is a gem!”

Still young and bracingly tannic!


“BBQ Quail.” Really tasty, although perhaps a tad overcooked.


Parker 96+, “The 2005 Syrah Obsidian Vineyard is from Knight’s Valley. This is steep hillside vineyard stuff with a dense, dark purple color, a phenomenally rich nose of brioche, acacia flowers, blackberry, and blueberry jam intermixed with some white chocolate and perhaps hints of fig and truffle. The wine is spicy, full-bodied, incredibly opulent, and thick, even unctuously textured, with great purity and richness. Moreover, the glycerin and viscosity cover up some huge tannins. This is an amazingly big, thick wine, but it still cascades over the palate like a waterfall.”


“Frog legs Aleppo style.” Yum. If you can ignore the amphibian factor (ribbit!) Kermit tasted great. Like a fish chicken blend, incredibly juicy, and with lots of garlic.


Ribbit!

“One of the vintage’s most profound wines, the 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de Mon Aieul has a dense purple color as well as a glorious nose of blackberries, licorice, smoke, and some roasted meats and dried herbs. Amazingly opulent, even voluptuous, with extraordinary purity, a huge tactile impression on the palate, but not heavy by any means, this is a stunning Chateauneuf du Pape from ancient vines made with 95% Grenache and the rest Cinsault and Syrah. Production is about 8,000 bottles, and the wine is bottled after spending its entire life in epoxy-lined tanks, so what one gets is the essence of the three separate terroirs it comes from – Les Serres, Guigasse, and La Crau.”


“Liver Kebab.” Basically they grilled up our raw chunks. Also not my favorite as it was pretty chewy.


Parker 100! “There are 1,800 cases of the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee du Mon Aieul (100% tank-aged Grenache). It represents an awesome naked/virginal expression of Grenache from three vineyard parcels planted in sand, clay, and limestone soils. After tasting this wine on five separate occasions, I can state with certainty, it has the most saturated color of any Mon Aieul produced to date. Moreover, its perfume of blueberry liqueur, black raspberries, licorice, roasted meat juices, and lavender is incredible. Full-bodied power, a multilayered mouthfeel, tremendous purity, and awesome concentration put this wine in a class by itself.”


“Ourfa Kebab. Grilled Italian eggplant between chucks of ground beef.” These were amazing. You pick off the smoky skin and eat the beef with the eggplant mush. Delicious!


I’m being watched.


“1982 Schlofs-Bauer Ice Wine Pinot Gris.” Mature, amber, and fantastic.


“Ashta. cream pistachio syrup.” I could have eaten about six of these. So up my dessert alley. I love soft creamy things (don’t take that the wrong way). There was some rose water in here too which I adore.


Parker 94, “The 2010 Corton-Charlemagne is pure class and elegance. Soft, floral notes meld into nuanced, finessed pears and apples in this feminine, gracious Corton-Charlemagne. Deceptively medium in body, the wine nevertheless possesses gorgeous depth, richness and power. A closing blast of fruit informs the pointed, vibrant finish. This is a gorgeous wine with plenty of promise. The Corton-Charlemagne is made from a blend of Pernand-Vergelesses and Ladoix fruit, approximately two-thirds and one-third respectively.”


“Baklavah.” A mix of different pastries. These were fine, but aren’t my favorite type. I like them drenched in honey and flavored with rose water!


“Fresh watermelon.” Really good watermelon too. Very sweet.

Overall, just amazing. I’ll have to hit this place up sometime for lunch and/or drag my brother-in-law and family (who live like two blocks away) over there. A totally epic combination of food, wine, and people.

For more crazy Foodie Club meals, click.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Hedonism at Saddle Peak Lodge
  2. Memorial Day Pig
  3. Hedonists at STK
  4. ThanksGavin 2011 – The Main Event
  5. Fraiche – Ultimo Wine Dinner
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Dessert, Eggplant, Encino Los Angeles, Esso, Esso Mediterranean Bistro, Foodie Club, hedonists, Hummus, liver, Olive oil, Pita, Restaurants and Bars, Syria, Syrian Food, Ventura Boulevard, Wine

Obika Mozzarella Bar – Mall Good

Jun06

Restaurant: Obika Mozzarella Bar

Location: 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Upper Level, Los Angeles, CA 90067

Date: March 3, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: It’s in a mall, but it’s actually pretty darn good

_

The day I took my Italian Wine Specialization exam a bunch of us went to lunch. I passed the test, but I didn’t know it then so was both stressed and in serious pain from my recently broken wrist.


One of the instructors, Diego (he’s not pictured, above is Stefano), took us to Obika Mozzarella bar in the Century City mall. I usually loathe mall restaurants, and I detest the parking at CC for sure, but this place turned out to be a surprise.


The inside is clean and modern, fairly small.


People brought wine. Big surprise! I wasn’t in the know before hand so didn’t have a chance to divest myself of some of my oversupply. These were all Italian, of course, and generally fall into the camp of really good terrior focused inexpensive wines. A few of these whites were really interesting. “The San Vincenzo is a fat, generous white with plenty of ripe apricots and peaches. The soft, caressing style flows through to the long, pretty finish.” It blew away your boring Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio.


This one is from Basilcata, a province in the insole of Italy I didn’t even know about before taking my class, but have recently become very fond of.


We began the meal with traditional meats and cheeses. Above is salami, proscuiotto, and mortadella di Bologna.


And the cheese, left to right, Burrata from Apulia, Buffalo Mozzarella from Campania, and smoked Mozzarella.


My plate. Good stuff. I love me some proscuiotto wrapped mozzarella (which I often had in Napoli), but truth be told, Burrata is best.


This Alto-Aldige white is pretty much in the Austrian style, but perhaps with a bit more Italian flair.


Because straight up mozzarella isn’t enough, we had both kinds fried with some fried artichokes as well. The smoked in particular was very yummy.


And this salad, a salmon, mozzarella, avocado, arugala salad. You’d NEVER see this in Italy, but it was surprisingly delicious.


You wouldn’t really see this either, burrata with beets, pine nuts, spinach, and balsamic dressing. It was great too, and you do find variants of these combinations all over LA. It’s typical that we American’s reinvent with Italian ingredients but without regard to their traditional pairings and forms.


A vegetable pizza. The crust was good. I would have liked to taste the sausage pizza, but such was not to be.


Diego was very excited for this buttery Risotto Milanese. Just straight saffron, good rice, butter, and cheese. Very rice and tasty.


Primitivo is also a rarely seen wine here in the states. It’s a relative of Zinfandel (the red, not the white), and has an incredibly fruity/spicy lushness. Very typical of Apulia, on the heel of Italy.


And finally, this Barbera D’Alba. “The Barbera d’Alba Superiore offers up dark cherries, flowers and licorice. The Superiore has a little bit more mid-palate juiciness and presence than the straight Barbera, but remains very much a classically built wine. I especially like the plush finish for its sheer sexiness.”


Out front they show off the meats. Only a few compared to some places in Emilia-Romagna which are graced with about 20 pigs worth.


And tubs of mozzarella (smoked).


And “plain.”

We didn’t really try and entrees. This was a “light lunch” and the meat, cheese, and simple risotto were more tuned to show off the wines, but if you’re catching a movie in Century City you could do far far worse than catching a bite here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Eats: Pizzeria Mozza
  2. Quick Eats: Divino
  3. Sfixio – Strong out of the gate
  4. In between Pizza, there is Burrata
  5. Ozumo – Japan invades the Mall
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Apulia, Buffalo mozzarella, Burrata, Italian cuisine, Italian Food, Italy, Los Angeles, Mozzarella, Obika, Obika Mozzarella Bar, Olive oil, Wine

Friday Night Heights – Shabbat Dinner

Sep06

On Friday, September 2, we hosted a small Shabbat dinner party. This was a non-dairy (meat) kosher meal, which can be well done if you care (and most kosher restaurants don’t). As usual with our events everything was homemade. Almost all produce came from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market.


For appetizers we served fruits and nuts. There was also some homemade humus and eggplant dip (that one of our guests generously brought), but I forgot to snap a photo.


Wine is one area where we go normal. Kosher wines are uniformly awful. Hideous. Wretched.

Parker gives this silky Rosso 90. “The 2009 Rosso di Montalcino is totally beautiful and elegant in its expressive bouquet, silky fruit and understated, harmonious personality. This is a wonderful, impeccable Rosso from Le Potazzine. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2017.” I’d rate it perhaps 91-92, with a little boost for understated style.


And the sweet option. Parker 91. “Donnhoff‘s 2009 Oberhauser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett – ultra-delicate at only 9% alcohol and with considerably more overt sweetness than its Krotenpfuhl counterpart – is scented with buddleia, white peach, toasted almond, and a fusil note of crushed stone, and offers subtle creaminess, lusciously juicy refreshment, and minerally interactive persistence. This illustrates slate as a sort of sounding board as well as support structure for fruit such as one also encounters in the best residually sweet Mosel Rieslings. Donnhoff routinely expresses acute awareness of a duty to make something truly special out of the cooler ‘wrong-side-of-the-river’ Oberhauser vineyards that until the latter part of his father’s era constituted almost the entirety of his family’s acreage. That duty has here once again been deliciously discharged.”


What would Shabbat be without Challah. Raison Challah to be exact.

After going to Spain last year I’ve been on a bit of a Gazpacho kick, despite my general aversion to raw tomatoes (which I’ve been overcoming). And then about 5-6 weeks ago we went to Jose Andres’ Tres for brunch where they have a wonderful Gazpacho bar. So afterward I dug up his recipe on the internet and we tried it.

When I get into cooking certain dishes I like to perfect them. I’ve been working on this with my Ultimate Pizzas, my Spanish Eggs, and my Margaritas. This is our second stab at Gazpacho. It tasted great the first time but the texture was too chunky, so in this instance we whipped the living bleep out of it in the ever-reliable Blendtec. This batch is made with heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers from the SMFM and premium Spanish extra-virgin olive oil.


But first the garnish. This is a bowl prepped. The basic approach is to do this, and then to ladle in the soup itself table side, then dress it with a bit of premium Spanish olive oil. This garnish is croutons, cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, spring onions, and chives.


The olive oil is on the left. On the right are homemade croutons. These are rustic bread fried (by hand) in olive oil and garlic, and seasoned with a bit of parsley.


Some of the gorgeous tomatoes used as garnish. Other cool looking ones are in the soup itself.


Chopped chives.


I’m kicking myself, but I forgot to photo a finished bowl with the soup. This one is three-quarters eaten 🙁 It was darn good though.


For the main course we made a homemade Morrocan Basteeya. This is prior to baking. This is a savory pie of chicken and spices, slightly sweet.


Out of the oven.


You can see into it here.


One of our guests brought this lovely salad.


We also made this baked Israeli-style eggplant, with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers (all from the SMFM too).


Here it is baked.


And my mother’s amazing fruit crumble. This one had SMFM peaches, blackberries, and apples. With a sweet crust and pecan topping. Due to the fact that my mother was on the other side of the country, and the written recipe a tad cryptic, the crust turned out a bit “different” than her more crumbly variant.


Still, it tasted great after baking!


And some farmer’s market fruit to finish.

For more home cooked meals look at the bottom of the food page.

Related posts:

  1. Fraiche – Ultimo Wine Dinner
  2. Dinner and Drinks at Tavern
  3. Dinner Party – It all starts with Cheese
  4. Eating Tuscany – Villa Dinner
  5. Ultimate Pizza – New Years
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Blendtec, Cooking, Dessert, Dinner, Donnhoff, Food, Friday Night, Gazpacho, Home, Judaism, Kashrut, Kosher, Olive oil, Shabbat, Wine

Villetta – More Italian in Brentwood?

Aug10

Restaurant: Villetta

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

Date: July 30 & Nov 18, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Very good, but prices are steep

_

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


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


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


A quaint dining room.


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


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


The bread, two types.


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


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


The menu.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


A little free watermelon sorbet to cleanse the palette.


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


The dessert menu.

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

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

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

Or more LA restaurants.

Related posts:

  1. Piccolo – A little Italian
  2. Locanda Portofino – In the Neighborhood
  3. Fraiche Santa Monica
  4. Quick Eats: Brentwood
  5. Fraiche take on Franco-Italian
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Amarone, Brentwood, Buffalo mozzarella, California, Dessert, Insalata Caprese, Italian cuisine, Los Angeles, New World, Olive oil, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Restaurants and Bars, San Vicente, Santa Monica California, Villetta

Eating Santa Margherita – Antonios

Jul30

Restaurant: Antonios

Location: Santa Margherita, Italy

Date: June 27, 2011

Cuisine: Ligurian

Rating: Best we had in Liguria

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I did my best at internet research to pick this restaurant in the heart of “downtown” Santa Margherita. It was #2 on TripAdvisor. Now this is a review source that I take with a block of salt, but in reading the reviews I got the feeling I’d like the place — and I was right.


You can see a hint of the quaint little garden inside. Like the rest of Liguria it was a little steamy, even late at night (the weather was 88 degrees and 100% humidity, shades of my youth in Virginia).


The “pre-bread” which look like donut balls but tasted salty — and delicious. After all, they were fried.


The regular bread.

We started with a romantic glass of “special cocktail,” which was probably more or less a Kir Royale.


A special appetizer of raw seafood. Two types of prawn, tuna tartar, and some yellowtail like lighter fish. It was all delicious and exceedingly fresh.


Another nice local white.


This was a marvelous example of a very traditional ligurian pasta. Cheese inside, with “salsa con le noci” which is a pesto of walnuts, milk, butter, flour and pepper. Totally delicious.


An unusual “seafood lasagna.” This was a fairly typical lasagna with a kind of lobster/shrimp ragu. Also wonderful.


Branzino Genovese. Fresh local sea-bass baked with a thin scallop of potatoes.


This was a fairly simple meal, and only for two (so less photos) but the food was pretty impeccable, showing a light seafoody Italian with just a hint of modernity. All very much to my taste. Bravo.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Santa Margherita – La Paranza
  2. Eating Santa Margherita – Hotel Miramare
  3. Eating Santa Margherita – Miramare Breakfast
  4. Eating Poggibonsi – Babette
  5. Eating Montalcino – Le Potazzine
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Antonios, Cinque Terre, Cooking, eating-italy, fish, Italian cuisine, Italy, Liguria, Olive oil, pasta, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Santa Margherita Ligure, TripAdvisor, Virginia

Eating Santa Margherita – La Paranza

Jul27

Restaurant: La Paranza

Location: Santa Margherita, Italy

Date: June 26, 2011

Cuisine: Ligurian

Rating: Straightforward

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This restaurant was around the corner from the hotel, had a typical menu, and appeared very crowded at lunch. So we gave it a try for dinner.


Santa Margherita is really two towns joined at the hip. This is in the center of the western half of the town, which is far smaller than the eastern.


Normal enough inside.


A variety of breads. Some of these have cheese inside.


An amuse in the form of a sheet of fried cheese. Really, who can beat fried cheese?


The endless menu.


This was a very nice (and cheap) light local white. All local wines in Liguria fit the light, cheap, and white descriptors.


Salmone affumicato (smoked salmon). It’s always served with butter in Italy. Go figure.


Tagliata of tuna. I.e. seared tuna with some vegetables.


Antipasto di mare. Mixed seafood appetizer. Smoked salmon on toast. A bit of marinated white anchovies. Some other kind of marinated local fish and a mixed marinated salad of squid, octopus, and shrimps.


Spaghetti pomodoro.


Gnocchi Genovese. This is one of the 2-3 most typical pesto preparations. Pesto in Liguria (where it comes from) is fabulous, but a little different than in the states. It’s milder, but really emphasizes the basil and olive oil. These were nice fluffy gnocchi.


Troffie Genovese. This is THE most typical and traditional form of the dish. Little twists of fresh pasta in pesto with a few green beans and a little bit of sliced potato.


Fritto misto. Various lightly fried shrimps, squids, and mysterious shellfish.


The ubiquitous mixed salad.


Profiteroles. These were stuffed with custard.


Tiramisu.


A few “free” biscuits with the bill.


The bill. Here largely for the restaurant’s address etc.


Each lady got a rose as a parting gift. This kind of stuff is very Italian — if a little touristy.

La Paranza was a good place. Traditional, reasonable, and tasty. But it’s a little staid and straight up, so there are better restaurants in town as you will see in upcoming posts.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Santa Margherita – Hotel Miramare
  2. Eating Santa Margherita – Miramare Breakfast
  3. Eating Florence – Nove IX
  4. Eating Poggibonsi – Babette
  5. Eating Montalcino – Le Potazzine
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cinque Terre, Dessert, eating-italy, Italian cuisine, Italy, La Paranza, Liguria, Olive oil, pasta, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Santa Margherita, Santa Margherita Ligure, smoked salmon

Eating Certaldo – Il Castello Certaldo

Jul23

Restaurant: Il Castello Certaldo

Location: Celtaldo, Italy

Date: June 24, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan

Rating: Nice view, ok food

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Ah, the last meal in Tuscany! (except for breakfast) We took a couple hours to visit the cute little town of Certaldo. The old town is up on a hill and you ascend by funicular. The town was great, but there weren’t a lot of restaurant options. We chose the most likely looking.


At the end of the main drag.


And the dining terrace turned out to have this rather lovely view.


And pretty courtyard.


The menu.


Olive oil and vinegar.


House wine, white.

And red. Both decent, very cheap.


Local meats, including the big one which is a special local salami with saffron in it.


Bresaola with pecorino and arugula.


Marinated mushrooms and artichoke hearts.


The now familiar panzanella. Last time you’ll see it though as we’re leaving Tuscany.


A risotto with vegetables, peculiar in being slightly soupy, but supposedly decent.


A truffle risotto soup (haha, just a soupy risotto). Tasted good though.


Local pasta in pomodoro sauce.


Spaghetti alla carbonara. Not bad, although perhaps not as eggy cheesy as it could have been.


Ravioli with cheese, butter, and sage. Those that ate this felt the ravioli might have been packaged.


THe same ravioli, but with a truffle sauce. They were fine.


Roasted potatoes.


Pork fillet in balsamic sauce.


Saltimbocc alla romana. Veal with ham and sage. Pretty tasty actually, but salty.


And a bit of gelato to finish.

This was a decent meal. The patio location — which we had entirely to ourselves — was absolutely world class. The food was good. Not great by any meals, but decently executed. The company, though, was as good as the view, so all was good.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bresaola, Celtaldo, Chianti, eating-italy, Food, Il Castello Certaldo, Italian cuisine, Italy, Olive oil, pasta, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Toscana, Tuscany

Eating Florence – Caffe Pitti

Jul20

Restaurant: Caffe Pitti

Location: Florence, Italy

Date: June 21, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan

Rating: Touristy location, very good food

ANY CHARACTER HERE

On our second day in Florence we came out of the Pitti Palace starved and thirsty.


One of our guide books directed us to a spot just across the street from this grand piazza, which is a location always fraught with peril for “over touristy” restaurants. This one surprised. Yeah they had an all English menu, but the food was very good. Plus there was a special truffle menu that had some delicious items (one of which, sadly, I forgot to photo /cry).


The menu.


Prosciutto and melon.


Tuna salad.


Caprese.


Special caprese, with burrata instead of regular mozzarella.


Panzanella, bread, tomatoes, olive oil.

There was also a bresola with parmesan and white fresh truffles that I forgot to photo — but it was incredible.


Penne pesto.


Simple risotto with fresh truffles. This was fabulous too.


Spaghetti pomodoro.

French fries for the kids.

A very tasty little lunch, proving that random (or semi-random) picks can work fairly often in Italy.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Florence – La Cantinetta Antinori
  2. Eating Florence – Nove IX
  3. Quick Eats: Caffe Delfini
  4. Eating Colle di Val d’Elsa – Dietro Le Quinte
  5. Eating Poggibonsi – Babette
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bresaola, caffe pitti, eating-italy, Florence, Food, Insalata Caprese, Italian cuisine, Italy, Mozzarella, Olive oil, Palazzo Pitti, Panzanella, Ponte Vecchio, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Tuna salad

Eating Montalcino – Le Potazzine

Jul19

Restaurant: Ristorante Le Potazzine

Location: Montalcino, Italy

Date: June 20, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan

Rating: Tasty traditional

ANY CHARACTER HERE

We took a most excellent wine tasting tour of Montalcino (the home of the one and only Brunello). This was led by a top flight young guide named Matteo Perinti, who took us to a pair of top flight small wineries (but more on that itself later). In between we stopped at Montalcino the home base for Brunello.


Montalcino is one of Tuscany‘s long list of ugly locales — just kidding. It’s a gorgeous mediaeval village — with a LOT of wine for sale.


We went to the restaurant owned by the Le Potoazzine vineyard, which was one that we visited. Not only was their wine incredible, but they run a nice restaurant.


For lunch we actually had their IGT Tuscan, slightly down the curve than this amazing Rosso Di Montalcino, but I didn’t get a photo. If you can find the above wine in the states do — it was incredibly seductive.


Tuscan Prosciutto.


And a wider selection of local cured meats.


Panzenella, the very traditional “salad” of stale bread crumbs, onions, tomatos, and fresh olive oil.


Bruschetta with tomato, basil, and olive oil. Tuscan’s have no fear of serving bread too many ways.


Minestrone soup.


Gnocchi done the simple way, with cream, butter, and cheese.


Risotto Brunello. Very fitting, and very tasty.


Local wide pasta fresca with vegetables.

This was a nice little lunch place. Certainly nothing radical about the cooking but every dish was delicious.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Florence – La Cantinetta Antinori
  2. Eating Siena – Trattoria Pepei
  3. Eating Colle di Val d’Elsa – Dietro Le Quinte
  4. Eating Monteriggioni – Il Pozzo
  5. Eating Tuscany – Villa Breakfast
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Brunello di Montalcino, Bruschetta, Cooking, eating-italy, Gnocchi, Italian cuisine, Italy, Le Potazzine, Montalcino, Olive oil, Prosciutto, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad, Toscana, Toscana (wine), Tuscany

Eating Poggibonsi – Babette

Jul18

Restaurant: Ristorante Babette

Location: Poggibonsi, Italy

Date: June 19, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan Seafood

Rating: Great food, great value

ANY CHARACTER HERE

After our self selection failure on Saturday, we got another restaurant recommend from our host (the owner of our villa). He sent us to this casual but very good seafood restaurant in Poggibonsi.


As usual there is a nice outside dining space.


And a gigantic menu.


This being all seafood we got both a prosecco.


And a local white from San Gimiangano. This is one of those joints where the wine is like E10. I like this light quaffable, almost Greek-style, white.


Caprese.


One of my friends and I ordered this “assorted fish appetizer, min 2 people” which was E10 a person, it came with this and EVERY dish until the pastas! An amazing assortment. This one was “Tuna with balsamic dressing.”


Marinated white anchovies and onions.


Crostini with white I think is a fish row mayo.


Marinated Salmon with red peppercorns.


What I think are winkles, or little sea snails, in a delicious garlicky sauce.


Octopus pulp. Also garlicky.


Muscles.

Scallops stuffed with a kind of pesto scallop paste.

Some tasty but undetermined shellfish “stew.” Wow, that’s a lot for two people and E20 total.


Home made pasta with a kind of tomato pesto.


White Risotto with mixed seafood. This was good, and unusual in that usually seafood risottos have some tomato in them.


Risotto with squid.


Strozzapreti with Fish ragu. This was highly unusual (for me) and really good. It was essentially a ragu made using shellfish instead of ham. It was very salty, with a significantly briny taste, but very tasty. The al dente shells were a fantastic foil.


Pizza Margherita.


Mixed fried fish. Lightly fried and delicious.


Branzino, simply grilled and filleted at the table.


A very very typical fish preperaration all over the Medditeranian, but done very well here.

The final presentation of the fish.

Not only was this restaurant a bit different, being all seafood, and very good, but it was an incredible deal. The bill was less than E20 a person and we had an incredible amount of food.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Poggibonsi – Osteria da Camillo
  2. Eating Milano Marittima – Al Caminetto
  3. Eating Monteriggioni – Il Pozzo
  4. Eating Milano Marittima – Lo Sporting
  5. Eating Cervia – Locanda dei Salinari
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Babette, Chianti, Cooking, eating-italy, Fish and Seafood, Italian cuisine, Italy, Olive oil, pasta, Pizza, Poggibonsi, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, San Gimignano, Seafood

Fraiche – Ultimo Wine Dinner

Jul14

Restaurant: Fraiche Santa Monica

Location: 312 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401. Phone : 310.451.7482

Date: July 13, 2011

Cuisine: Cal French Italian

Rating: Epic!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Last weekend I was eating at one of my favorite local spots, Sam’s by the Beach and chatting with the owner, Sam. He mentioned that he was co-hosting an epic wine dinner at Fraiche in Santa Monica and that he had two available spots. As soon as he sent me the food & wine menu (below) I called up my Foodie Club partner in crime and we jumped on it. You’ll see why in a second.


Of course the food looks great, but the wines! While anyone who pays attention to the wines I bring will have noticed that I almost never drink from the New World — I am willing to make exceptions when no less than eight Parker 100 pointers are involved!

The event was held in Fraiche Santa Monica’s lovely back room (shown here on another occasion in its normal configuration).


For us it was arranged with a single table.


And an extensive staging area for the wines.


Here’s Sam, supervising.


Along with our other hosts: Amir Ohebsion president of the combined Fraiche operation on the right, and Mazen Mustafa their brand new Executive Chef on the left. Believe it or not he started on Monday (this dinner had been planned for some time) and had to leap into the fire first thing.


As a little amuse we had some classic bruschetta (I’ve had just a tad of that lately, like here), with marinated tomatoes, garlic, and mozzarella. The marinate was enough for me to handle the tomatoes and I enjoyed the crisp brightness of the flavors.


A little olive oil and balsamic on the table. There was bread too of course, but I forgot to photo.

So we begin with the wines. All of the wines at this dinner came from The Redd Collection, who was also co-hosting. Click their link for an inventory of their wines.

1985 Dom Perignon, Parker 96. A mature champagne in perfect shape. “Fresh and lively, with remarkable intensity, fruit, and perfume. An example of how effortlessly some vintages of Dom Perignon can age.”


1990 Salon Le Mesnil. I found it brighter and fruiter than the Dom. Wine Spectator 97. “Brilliant stuff. Vinous, with a patina of nutty maturity offset by a citrus and honeysuckle-tinged freshness, all embraced by a taut silky structure. The best is the finish, a kaleidoscope of biscuit, fig and walnut that goes on and on.”


Accompanying the champagnes we have a trio of fishes. “Santa Barbara Sea Urchin with American caviar and pea puree.” Yum yum. Some really great Uni, showcased perfectly. Notice the Uni/Caviar combo which Go uses so often at Go Sushi.


“Yellow Fin Tuna Tartare with Russian Caviar.” The flavors here were really bright and delicious. One of the best tuna tartars I’ve had. Similar to Sam’s usual tartar, but without the “secret ingredient.”


“Kampachi Sashimi, watercress, and black truffle.” Nothing wrong here!


2007 Peter Michael Point Rouge Chardonnay. The finish on this went on and on. Certainly the best non-white-burgundy Chardonnay I’ve had. Parker 98. “The 2007 Chardonnay Point Rouge (280 cases) has moved out of the restrained state it was in a year ago, and now exhibits splendidly intense, nearly over-the-top levels of honeyed tropical fruits, hazelnut, almond paste, quince, and peach liqueur. Full-bodied, thick, and rich yet braced by considerable acidity, this is a remarkable tour de force in Chardonnay that should age for a decade or more.”


2006 Marcassin Estate Chardonnay. Very very good, just not quite so good as the Peter Michael. Parker 96+. “As for the 2006 Chardonnay Marcassin Estate, it is a more mineral-dominated wine displaying a liqueur of crushed rocks/wet stones, pears, and subtle smoky, honeysuckle, quince, and citrus oil notes. It also possesses exceptional length and richness as well as a full-bodied mouthfeel. Given the history of the vintage and the challenging conditions for Chardonnay, I would suspect these wines will evolve quickly by Marcassin’s standards, meaning they are probably best drunk in their first decade of life.”


“Bouillabaisse — modern.” Here we have some fish, muscles, clams, corn etc, but we have them reinterpreted in a light broth instead of in the classic tomato and garlic broth. The newer style showcased the freshness of the fish to a T.


1937 Chateau Caillou Sauternes-Barsac. This bottle was a gift from Frank Sinatra to a local collector! It was almost almond/rose colored, sweet but not unctuous. Probably a tiny bit past its prime, but still delicious, particularly with the foie below.


“Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras, grilled Nectarine, Aged Balsamic.” Pretty much straight foie, but fabulous. There was a bit of nectarine puree, and the fat of the duck paired perfectly with that and the Sauternes. The Nectarine was stuffed with pistachios and was amazing!

Now on to the reds. We start with a trio of Rhone style blockbusters.

2008 Sine Qua Non Grenache “The Line.” This was the lightest of the three, but still having that thick front of the tongue quality that most Rhones have. Parker 96-98+. “The 2008 Not Yet Named Grenache will be aged in barrel for around 20 months as opposed to the extended time the 2007 experienced. Composed of 87.5% Grenache, 11 % Syrah, and 1.5% Viognier, it initially appears to play it tight to the vest, but I think that’s part of 2008’s vintage character. Many vineyards had significant frost issues in 2008, and those who waited to harvest fared better. Manfred Krankl did not finish picking until the end of November, which no doubt explains the extraordinary purity, richness, and aromatic and flavor complexity found in this wine. Although slightly more muted aromatically than his other Grenache cuvees, when the wine hits the palate, there is tremendous density and power as well as an inner core of steely richness, and a flavor profile and length that build incrementally. It is not the sort of wine you pick up and are wowed by. But the more you think about it, as well as the longer it sits in your mouth, the more nuances and aspects emerge. This should be another superb example of Grenache from the New world’s number one practitioner of that varietal.”


2007 Sine Qua Non Next of Kyn Syrah “Cumulus.” This was my favorite, the brightest and closest to a great Hermitage. Parker 94-96. “The debut release from the new home vineyard on the steep hillsides of Ventura is the 2007 Next of Kyn Syrah Cumulus Vineyard. Composed of 96.5% Syrah and 3.5% Viognier, it sees only 20% new oak in its upbringing. From a six-acre parcel of vines, it may be sold under a different label than Sine Qua Non. Krankl had not made up his mind at the time of writing. In any event, it is a very impressive debut release that should be bottled after 25 months of barrel aging. Sweet notes of creme de cassis, camphor, acacia flowers, licorice, pepper, and meat are followed by a wine with fabulous intensity and purity, a full-bodied texture, and a long finish. Unfortunately, only 125 cases were produced … from six acres!”

From here on down, it’s all 100s baby!

2007 Saxum Syrah “James Berry VYD.” Parker prefers this, which was delicious, and utterly massive — in need of a bit more cellaring. Parker 100! “Utter perfection, and one of the most profound Rhone Ranger wines I have ever tasted is the 2007 James Berry Vineyard Proprietary Red, a blend of 41% Grenache, 31% Mourvedre, and 28% Syrah (15.8% alcohol). It would be an amazing wine to insert in a tasting of the most profound 2007 Chateauneuf du Papes. As with many prodigious wines, the extraordinary freshness, purity, equilibrium, and singularity of this effort is breathtaking. Its dense purple color is accompanied by an extraordinary, incredibly pure, all enveloping, intense, sweet nose of black raspberries, kirsch, spring flowers, spice box, and pepper. Full-bodied with not a hard edge to be found, it is stunningly concentrated with unreal purity, a voluptuous texture, and remarkable freshness for a wine of such power, depth, and concentration. This 2007 will be approachable young, although I would not be surprised to see it close down given the relatively elevated proportion of Mourvedre, and it should drink well for 12-15 years.”


General Manager Vito hard at work on setting up the reds. Doing this many pours is actually hard work!


The Rhone styles and the sauternes on the table.


“Duck breast and turnips,” pretty close to straight up. This was a lovely piece of duck, cooked (or not) to perfection. It didn’t need more, as it the wines paired perfectly.

And we begin a trio of perfect Cab based Californians. They were all so good, and I was getting drunk enough, that this round blended into just a prodigious ode to Cabernet.

2007 Scarecrow. Parker 100! “Scarecrow’s inky/purple-colored 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is a prodigious effort. It reveals a liqueur of crushed rocks intermixed with a smorgasbord of spring flower, blueberry, creme de cassis, and assorted blue, black, and red fruit characteristics. It also possesses extraordinary concentration, but what sets it apart is the fragrant aromatics combined with uncommon purity and elegance for such a full-bodied, massively concentrated wine. Its perfect balance suggests it can be drunk at a relatively young age, but it should easily evolve over 30-35 years. Congratulations to all involved!”


2002 Shafer Hillside Select. Parker 100! “One of the world’s most extraordinary Cabernet Sauvignons is the 1,800-2,400-case offering of Shafer’s Hillside Select. It was a treat to re-taste the utterly perfect 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. A dark purple color is accompanied by a gorgeously powerful nose of pure creme de cassis, pain grille, flowers, licorice, and spice box. Full-bodied with multiple dimensions, superb purity, layers of fruit, and a blockbuster finish, it is an amazing offering. This wine should drink well young yet evolve for 2-3 decades.”


2007 Sloan Estate. Parker 100! “The 2007 Sloan, now in bottle, has lived up to the extraordinary quality it exhibited from barrel. A world-class, perfumed nose of charcoal, espresso roast, white chocolate, black currants, sweet plums, Asian soy and a Grave-like scorched earth aroma soars from the glass of this dense purple-colored wine. Full-bodied and seamlessly constructed with a multidimensional mouthfeel as well as a phenomenal finish, this 2007 carries considerable tannin, but at present it is concealed by the wine’s luxurious levels of fruit, glycerin and intensity. This spectacular 2007 should drink well for 25-30+ years.”


“Seared Wagyu Couloote Steak, served with fried baby broccoli.” This meat was fantastic, just perfectly soft and juicy. The broccoli was amazing, like little popcorn.


But this beef jus that went with it was the real stunner. Amazingly rich. Everything of course went perfectly with the perfect Cabs.

And now we have the Cab blends, and even more blockbuster trio.

2007 Screaming Eagle. Parker 100! “The most profound Screaming Eagle since the 2002 and 1997, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon (an 800-case blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc) offers up a prodigiously pure, complex nose of cassis, spring flowers, licorice and black currants, the latter component being so intense and lingering that it makes this cuvee stand apart from other Napa Valley wines. Full-bodied in the mouth, like a ballerina on her toes, this wine glides gracefully across the palate with a cascade of purity, equilibrium and compelling complexity. Extraordinary balance and elegance combined with power make for an utterly stunning wine that should drink well for two decades or more. Even though the estate is being reconstituted and a new winery built, this wine still came from the old sector of the vineyard (15.5 acres) that was used by the previous proprietor, Jean Phillips.”


2002 Harlan Estate. My personal favorite of the group. Not only massive, but just so bright and fruity! Parker 100! “Very deep garnet-black colour with a purple rim. The nose is still a little closed giving notes of blackberry, black cherries, dark chocolate, tobacco, cigar boxes and cinnamon. The palate displays faultless structure and balance: very finely grained, firm tannins, medium to high acid and incredible intensity. Perhaps paradoxically, this wine is at once rich and full bodied yet exquisitely elegant. Although taut, it is already irresistibly tempting to drink. Epic finish with lingering flavours of Chinese dried plums, truffles, and an interesting iron/stony nuance. Drink 2009 – 2030+. Tasted November 2008.”


1997 Harlan Estate. Parker 100! “The 1997 Harlan Estate is one of the greatest Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines I have ever tasted. A blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the rest Merlot and Cabernet Franc, this enormously-endowed, profoundly rich wine must be tasted to be believed. Opaque purple-colored, it boasts spectacular, soaring aromatics of vanilla, minerals, coffee, blackberries, licorice, and cassis. In the mouth, layer after layer unfold powerfully yet gently. Acidity, tannin, and alcohol are well-balanced by the wine’s unreal richness and singular personality. The finish exceeds one minute. Anticipated maturity: 2001-2030.”


To go with this trio of stunners we have “Grilled Venison Chops, shaved black truffles, mushrooms, and a squash puree.” Not quite as amazing as the beef (that was REALLY amazing), but great too.


Just a small sampling of the glasses on the table. Unlike some, I was keeping up with mine and only had the Cab blends. But some folk were starting to worry, “Oh my God, if I don’t finish all these perfect wines Dionysian Maenads will flay the skin from my flesh!”


Passion fruit sorbet as pre-dessert. I love passion fruit, and this was one of the best passion fruit sorbets I’ve had. I spent about fifteen minutes eating it incredibly slowly by shaving off just a sliver on the spoon, then adding to the mouth-mix an alternating trip of perfect wines. It was actually, IMHO, the best pairing of the night.


R.L. Buller Calliope Rare Muscat. Yum Yum! Parker 100! “Giving aromas of dark brown sugar, black strap molasses, licorice and preserved walnuts, the deeply brown colored NV Calliope Rare Muscat is again incredibly sweet and viscous with a good amount of acid to balance and is decadently rich and nutty / spicy in the very long finish. All these vintage blended fortified wines are bottled to drink now and though are stable enough to hold, they are not designed to improve with cellaring.”


This was about as good as “Chocolate Lava cake with vanilla Ice Cream” gets. The extra elements added a little texture, but the inside of the cake had that perfect runny chocolatly goodness. It of course went perfectly (getting a lot of use out of that word tonight) with both the Cab blends and the Muscat.


Good to the last scrape.


The full line up!

This was some rather serious dining, and some even more serious drinking! Really an embarrassment of riches. I was very impressed with the cooking. It betrayed both hints of Sam’s signature (and awesome) palette, and a bold kind of styling and presentation that I am guessing comes from our budding new Chef Mustafa (who has cooked in many great kitchens before this too). The dishes pretty much concentrated on fantastic ingredients and bold but not over-layered flavors, which showcased perfectly (there it is again!) the epic wines.

Click here for some tamer meals at regular Fraiche Santa Monica or Culver City or:

here to see more Foodie Club posts.

Related posts:

  1. Fraiche Santa Monica
  2. Dinner and Drinks at Tavern
  3. Fraiche take on Franco-Italian
  4. Upstairs 2 – Modern Tapas, Lots of Wine
  5. Bistro LQ – 27 Courses of Trufflumpagus
By: agavin
Comments (9)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beverages, California, Chef, Dessert, Food, Foodie Club, Fraiche, Fraiche Santa Monica, French wine, harlan, Los Angeles, New World, Olive oil, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sam's by the Beach, Santa Monica California, screaming eagle, venison, Wine

Eating Florence – Nove IX

Jul12

Restaurant: Nove IX

Location: Florence, Italy

Date: June 17, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Tuscan

Rating: Tasty!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Our Florentine friend brought us to this attractive new place on the banks of the Arno river as the sun was making it’s way into that great tunnel in the west.


It’s actually about three blocks to the left of this, past the Ponte Vecchio. Nove IX is more typical of a city like Florence than most of the Tuscan restaurants we have been eating at in that it’s a bit more modernized, trendy. Still, the cuisine is solidly rooted in the local countryside.


The menu.

The have their own olive oil.


This 90 point Chianti Rufina is readily available in the Florence area. “The 2007 Chianti Rufina Riserva shows the open, opulent personality that makes this vintage so alluring. Ripe, silky tannins frame a core of red fruits, flowers and spices, all of which come together with unsual grace. Though medium in body, there is wonderful generosity to the fruit, not to mention fabulous overall balance. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2015.”


This is a tartar of beef with parmesan.


And on a more modern note, a tartar of tuna with avocado and tomato.


And one of white fish (perhaps even yellowtail) with citrus and a light frise-type salad. Certainly showing those Matsuhisa type influences.


The Nove IX take on the mixed salad.


Risotto with spigola (sea bass), lemon, and Florentine zucchine.


Spaghettini with pesto of zucchini flowers.


Paccheri (wide pasta) with tomatos, mozzarella and fried eggplant.


Shellfish ravioli in creme of zucchine sauce.


Trofie alla genovese. Traditional twisted little pasta with pesto (basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan, and pine-nuts) as well as a bit of sliced potato and green beans. This was the best pesto I had until we got to Liguria (where pesto comes from).


Chopped chicken with green beans and balsamic sauce. Not so far off from a chinese dish!

Nothing at all wrong with Nove IX. The food was great, and it was a welcome change to see a little bit more updated menu without compromising at all on quality.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Florence – La Cantinetta Antinori
  2. Eating Tuscany – Villa Dinner
  3. Eating Gaiole – Lo Sfizio di Bianchi
  4. Eating Castellina – Albergaccio di Castellina
  5. Eating Staggia – Pozzo dei Desideri
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Arno, Chianti, eating-italy, Florence, Italian cuisine, Italy, Olive oil, pasta, Ponte Vecchio, Tomato, Toscana, Tuscany, Wine

Eating Florence – La Cantinetta Antinori

Jul10

Restaurant: La Cantinetta Antinori

Location: Florence, Italy

Date: June 17, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Tuscan

Rating: Slick and tasty

ANY CHARACTER HERE

On our first trip to Florence (we went thrice) we met up with an Italian friend and her family and they brought us to the Antinori wine empire’s casual enoteca, where they combine slick modernized Tuscan food with a large selection of excellent wines.


The lovely room in Palazzo Antinori.


A nice light quafable mineral laced white. We went through about half a bottle a person at lunch!


The menu. Sorry the meat courses are out of focus.


Assorted bruschetta, Tuscan standard.


Insalta Caprese.  Tomato and buffalo mozzarella. Basil and olive oil.


Panzanella. Traditional Tuscan salad of soaked stale bread, tomato, basil, onions, olive oil.


The ubiquitous Insalta Misto.


Taglierini agli scampi freschi. Thin noodles with tomato, basil, garlic and you guessed it, a giant crayfish creature.


Fagioli. Tuscan fava beans and olive oil.


Sea bass, capers, sun dried tomatos, potatoes.


Pounded veal in mushroom sauce.


Filetto di manzo. Beef filet and potatoes.


Almond semifreddo with caramel. This is SO up my dessert alley. Creamy and sweet. Oh yes. Oh yes.


Expresso, to counter the copious amount of wine I consumed.

This was a nice place. Not radical, not staid. Fitting of a hot spot in Florence, it’s basically traditional Tuscan fare with 10% modernization. Given the quality of the ingredients and the base cuisine, this is more than enough for a great meal.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Staggia – Pozzo dei Desideri
  2. Eating Gaiole – Lo Sfizio di Bianchi
  3. Eating Monteriggioni – Il Pozzo
  4. Eating Castellina – Albergaccio di Castellina
  5. Eating Colle di Val d’Elsa – Dietro Le Quinte
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Antinori, Bruschetta, Chianti, Dessert, eating-italy, Florence, Food, Insalata Caprese, Italian cuisine, Italy, La Cantinetta Antinori, Olive oil, Panzanella, pasta, Pasta e fagioli, Tomato, Travel and Tourism, Tuscany, Wine

Eating Bologna – Trattoria Leonida

Jun15

Restaurant: Trattoria Leonida

Location: Bologna, Italy

Date: June 7, 2011

Cuisine: Bolognese

Rating: Big menu, great food

ANY CHARACTER HERE

We continue our sojourn across Emilia-Romagna. It was a rainy day in Bologna, and we stopped for lunch in this Trattoria in the old town, just east of the pair of leaning towers. It was selected by the intuitive method, glancing inside to see if it felt right.


All sorts of antipasti are stored in a number of display cases and on some tables at the front.


And a bit of roast rabbit on a plate with potatoes!


The tables at the front.

A delicious course of marinated salmon carpacio with olive oil and red peppercorns.


A ricotta and fig torte, declared to be very tasty.


Classic Tagliatelle Bolognese!


Parpadelle with boar ragu. This was an amazing pasta.


Stricchetti with sausage and peas in a pink sauce. Very tasty, although when ordering it I expected a white sauce.


Roast rabbit (taken from the plate above) in a balsamic sauce.


Turkey in balsamic sauce.


The condiments for the salad.

The usual mixed salad.

This pasta must have been awful!


And to wake up, some more expresso.

This random pick turned out extremely well. The food was fantastic, and the other customers only local businessmen.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Modena – Osteria del Pozzo
  2. Eating Parma – Cocchi Ristorante
  3. Eating Modena – Osteria Francescana
  4. Locanda Portofino – In the Neighborhood
  5. Eating Modena – Real Fini Breakfast
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bologna, Cooking, eating-italy, Italian cuisine, Italy, Olive oil, pasta, Rabbit, Tattoria Leonida, turkey, United States

Locanda Portofino – In the Neighborhood

May30

Restaurant: Locanda Portofino

Location: 1110 Montana Ave. Santa Monica, Ca 90403. 310-394-2070

Date: May 20, 2011

Cuisine: Northern Italian

Summary: Tasty neighborhood Italian

ANY CHARACTER HERE

For whatever reason Los Angeles has a lot of Italian restaurants. There’s a lot of competition and innovation, and as far as I can tell we’re about tied with NY as the best town in the US for this wonderful (and justifiably popular) cuisine. This also means that there is a total and ridiculous excess of neighborhood Italians. I’ll try any of them once, but I pretty much never go to 75% of them a second time. There are just too many good ones to eat some ho-hum boxed pasta. In any case, Locanda Portofino is one of the good ones.


The menu.


I’m very partial to Amarone. They’re pretty much all drinkable (and grapey).


“Ceasar salad.”


“Bresaola con rucola. Thinly sliced cured beef with virgin olive oil, lemon, rucola and shaved parmigiano.” A very nice rendition of this classic.


“Penne vodka. Penne with light cream tomato sauce, shallots and vodka.”


“Tagliatelle alla boscaiola con salsicce. Green and white egg tagliatelle in a light cream sauce with pancetta, ground sausage, mushrooms and green peas.” I love love this pasta. It’s not far off from al carbonara either, but isn’t eggy in the same way. I love the combo of the peas, the two types of pig, and the peas. No wonder my cardiologist gives me a hard time.

Pretty much anything on the menu here is well done, but this was just Friday date night and so there are only a couple pics. Still, if you live on the Westside, forget those chain Italians, or the lame kitchen “red sauces” and go to Locanda Portofino, Delfini, Palmeri, Osteria Latini or the like. Or if you want higher end: Capo or Drago.

Related posts:

  1. Fraiche Santa Monica
  2. Quick Eats: Caffe Delfini
  3. Palmeri again
  4. Sotto – Sicily con Sardo
  5. Piccolo – A little Italian
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Amarone, California, Italian cuisine, Locanda Portofino, Los Angeles, Montana, Olive oil, pasta, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad, Santa Monica California, side dishes, United States, vegetarian

Matsuhisa – The Private Room

May08

Restaurant: Matsuhisa [1, 2]

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

Date: May 6, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Fusion

Rating: As good as it’s always been!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

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


The original storefront.


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

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


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


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

One of the private kitchen chefs working on the appetizers.


Grilling up some conch!


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


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


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


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


A second version of the plate.


Lobster cerviche.


Tai (red snapper) sashimi, new style.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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


A version where everything is cooked.


The “normal” plate for those who eat everything.


Chu-toro (medium tuna belly). Perfect!


Kanpachi (young yellowtail). Like butter.


Orange giant clam.


Uni (sea urchin).


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


The pretty laquer soup container.


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


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


Taco (octopus). Very tender.


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


Kohada (gizzard shard).


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Even the urinal is cool.


The main room.


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

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

For a previous meal at Matsuhisa, see here.

Related posts:

  1. Matsuhisa – Where it all started
  2. Food as Art – Takao
  3. Food as Art – Sushi Sushi
  4. Takao Two
  5. Sushi Sushi Sushi
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beverly Hills California, California, Dessert, fish, Fusion cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Japanese Peruvian, Los Angeles, Matsuhisa, Nobu, Nobu Matsuhisa, Olive oil, Omakase, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sashimi, side dishes, Sushi, vegetarian
Older Posts »
Watch the Trailer or

Buy it Online!

Buy it Online!

96 of 100 tickets!

Find Andy at:

Follow Me on Pinterest

Subscribe by email:

More posts on:



Complete Archives

Categories

  • Contests (7)
  • Fiction (404)
    • Books (113)
    • Movies (77)
    • Television (123)
    • Writing (115)
      • Darkening Dream (62)
      • Untimed (37)
  • Food (1,767)
  • Games (101)
  • History (13)
  • Technology (21)
  • Uncategorized (16)

Recent Posts

  • Si Mon!
  • Tomato Wednesday!
  • Happy Hibi
  • Eating Naples – Palazzo Petrucci
  • Eating San Foca – Aura
  • Eating Otranto – ArborVitae
  • Eating Lecce – Gimmi
  • Eating Lecce – Varius
  • Eating Lecce – Duo
  • Eating Lecce – Doppiozero

Favorite Posts

  • I, Author
  • My Novels
  • The Darkening Dream
  • Sample Chapters
  • Untimed
  • Making Crash Bandicoot
  • My Gaming Career
  • Getting a job designing video games
  • Getting a job programming video games
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • A Game of Thrones
  • 27 Courses of Truffles
  • Ultimate Pizza
  • Eating Italy
  • LA Sushi
  • Foodie Club

Archives

  • May 2025 (6)
  • April 2025 (4)
  • February 2025 (5)
  • January 2025 (3)
  • December 2024 (13)
  • November 2024 (14)
  • October 2024 (14)
  • September 2024 (15)
  • August 2024 (13)
  • July 2024 (15)
  • June 2024 (14)
  • May 2024 (15)
  • April 2024 (13)
  • March 2024 (9)
  • February 2024 (7)
  • January 2024 (9)
  • December 2023 (8)
  • November 2023 (14)
  • October 2023 (13)
  • September 2023 (9)
  • August 2023 (15)
  • July 2023 (13)
  • June 2023 (14)
  • May 2023 (15)
  • April 2023 (14)
  • March 2023 (12)
  • February 2023 (11)
  • January 2023 (14)
  • December 2022 (11)
  • November 2022 (13)
  • October 2022 (14)
  • September 2022 (14)
  • August 2022 (12)
  • July 2022 (9)
  • June 2022 (6)
  • May 2022 (8)
  • April 2022 (5)
  • March 2022 (4)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • January 2022 (8)
  • December 2021 (6)
  • November 2021 (6)
  • October 2021 (8)
  • September 2021 (4)
  • August 2021 (5)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (11)
  • March 2020 (15)
  • February 2020 (13)
  • January 2020 (14)
  • December 2019 (13)
  • November 2019 (12)
  • October 2019 (14)
  • September 2019 (14)
  • August 2019 (13)
  • July 2019 (13)
  • June 2019 (14)
  • May 2019 (13)
  • April 2019 (10)
  • March 2019 (10)
  • February 2019 (11)
  • January 2019 (13)
  • December 2018 (14)
  • November 2018 (11)
  • October 2018 (15)
  • September 2018 (15)
  • August 2018 (15)
  • July 2018 (11)
  • June 2018 (14)
  • May 2018 (13)
  • April 2018 (13)
  • March 2018 (17)
  • February 2018 (12)
  • January 2018 (15)
  • December 2017 (15)
  • November 2017 (13)
  • October 2017 (16)
  • September 2017 (16)
  • August 2017 (16)
  • July 2017 (11)
  • June 2017 (13)
  • May 2017 (6)
  • March 2017 (3)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (7)
  • December 2016 (14)
  • November 2016 (11)
  • October 2016 (11)
  • September 2016 (12)
  • August 2016 (15)
  • July 2016 (13)
  • June 2016 (13)
  • May 2016 (13)
  • April 2016 (12)
  • March 2016 (13)
  • February 2016 (12)
  • January 2016 (13)
  • December 2015 (14)
  • November 2015 (14)
  • October 2015 (13)
  • September 2015 (13)
  • August 2015 (18)
  • July 2015 (16)
  • June 2015 (13)
  • May 2015 (13)
  • April 2015 (14)
  • March 2015 (15)
  • February 2015 (13)
  • January 2015 (13)
  • December 2014 (14)
  • November 2014 (13)
  • October 2014 (13)
  • September 2014 (12)
  • August 2014 (15)
  • July 2014 (13)
  • June 2014 (13)
  • May 2014 (14)
  • April 2014 (14)
  • March 2014 (10)
  • February 2014 (11)
  • January 2014 (13)
  • December 2013 (14)
  • November 2013 (13)
  • October 2013 (14)
  • September 2013 (12)
  • August 2013 (14)
  • July 2013 (10)
  • June 2013 (14)
  • May 2013 (14)
  • April 2013 (14)
  • March 2013 (15)
  • February 2013 (14)
  • January 2013 (13)
  • December 2012 (14)
  • November 2012 (16)
  • October 2012 (13)
  • September 2012 (14)
  • August 2012 (16)
  • July 2012 (12)
  • June 2012 (16)
  • May 2012 (21)
  • April 2012 (18)
  • March 2012 (20)
  • February 2012 (23)
  • January 2012 (31)
  • December 2011 (35)
  • November 2011 (33)
  • October 2011 (32)
  • September 2011 (29)
  • August 2011 (35)
  • July 2011 (33)
  • June 2011 (25)
  • May 2011 (31)
  • April 2011 (30)
  • March 2011 (34)
  • February 2011 (31)
  • January 2011 (33)
  • December 2010 (33)
  • November 2010 (39)
  • October 2010 (26)
All Things Andy Gavin
Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved
Programmed by Andy Gavin