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Archive for Riesling

Loosen at Spago

Jan08

Restaurant: Spago [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Location: 176 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 385-0880

Date: November 20, 2019

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Still great

_

As you can see from the links above I’ve done a lot of wine dinners at Spago — and for good reason because with the right person planning they do a spectacular job. Tonight’s was organized and hosted by Liz Lee of Sage Society and she is the best wine dinner organizer in the city. It features wines by Dr Loosen and the Dr himself, Ernst Loosen. This is my second Sage/Loosen dinner, the first being several years ago at Republique.

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Spago has been an LA institution for over 30 years!

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We are in this side private room again — been there for a lot of dinners.
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2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. 90 points. A powerful Champagne, large scaled and luxurious, prominent yeast, buttered multigrain toast, preserved and grilled lemon, golden apple, chalk dust, grainy texture, firm acid backbone, didn’t last long enough for it to unfurl a bit; delicious.

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Tomato & Goat Cheese Arancini. Ricey cheese balls.
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New Potatoes, Creme Fraiche, Caviar. A bit too potatoey.
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Parmesan Cheese “Marshmallow”, Olive oil. Neat marshmallow texture — tastes like Parm and Olive Oil.
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Have a few glasses!
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Wines chilling.
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Our hostess, Liz Lee of Sage Society.
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Ernst Loosen of Dr. Loosen — generations of Riesling.
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Chef Wolfgang Puck greets Ernst in German.
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Our special menu for the night.
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Bread to fill up on.
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2016 Dr. Loosen Graacher Domprobst Riesling Großes Gewächs. VM 90-91. Tasted in late July 2017 and slated for bottling around the end of September, this delivers a brash amalgam of chewy, seed-tinged apple and zesty grapefruit. The palate is firm and substantial, the finish blazingly bright and mouthwateringly salt-tinged – a Grosses Gewächs conveying real energy as well as refreshment.
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2016 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Alte Reben Großes Gewächs.
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2016 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. VM 91-92. Tasted in late July 2017 and slated for late September bottling, this delivers a fascinating combination of coolness and incisiveness by way of greenhouse-like scents of foliage and flowers, seedy kiwi, zesty lime and cress. Glycerol-rich but with underlying firmness, the palate is not at all weighed down by its 12.5% alcohol. This finishes with penetrating, refreshingly juicy persistence and admirable animation, salinity and impingements of cress and crushed offering saliva-inducement and invigoration.
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Crudo of Japanese Red Snapper, Osetra Caviar, Lemon, Olive Oil. Nice bright lemon / olive flavors.
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2014 Dr. Loosen Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. VM 90. Pungent lemon and grapefruit peel with a dusty crushed stone overlay in the nose lead into a firm, brightly juicy but also sizzlingly piquant palate performance. Full in feel and impressively gripping, this brings along considerable apple and citrus seed bitterness that I don’t envisage moderating with bottle age. The result is one of those many GGs that are more formidable than fun.
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2014 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Alte Reben Großes Gewächs.
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2014 Dr. Loosen Bernkasteler Lay Riesling Großes Gewächs. Alte Reben Reserve. VM 90. A site-typical mélange of apple and cherry displays satisfying juiciness and fullness without heaviness. Basil and cress add a sense of coolness and cherry pit lends invigorating piquancy to the seriously sustained, slate-lined finish. This texturally polished performance avoids austerity or overt bitterness and may well reveal further nuances with time in bottle.
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Maine Lobster “salad”. Vanilla vinaigrette, sorrel. Huge chunk of perfectly cooked lobster — although the strong vanilla was a touch sweet and distracting.
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A non lobster version for the shellfish adverse.
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2013 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben Reserve. VM 93. Bottled soon after the 2015 harvest, this leads with intriguingly mossy and stony scents along with narcissus-like, musky floral perfume and a vaguely spirituous intimation of site-typical apple and vanilla. The silken-textured palate delivers enough primary apple and lemon juiciness to refresh, while the long finish reprises the mossy, stony notes familiar from the nose and adds invigorating black tea smokiness as well as mouthwatering, maritime mineral salts. There is still a subtle, efficacious spritz here, incidentally, so evidently CO2 did not dissipate significantly during the wine’s two years in cask, and the effect adds to an overall impression of dynamism and finesse.
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2013 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben Reserve. VM 92. Fresh lime, basil, strawberry eau de vie and wet stone introduce a satiny palate satisfyingly juicy in its evocation of fresh strawberry and cooling in its green herbal aspect. Hints of cress and lime zest lend incisive, zesty invigoration to a lingering, mouthwateringly saline finish. The corresponding Wehlener is more intriguingly nuanced but this Würzgarten is more winsome. I suspect that both will outlast their “regular” Grosses Gewächs counterparts, which were not nearly as interesting, charming or indeed juicy and mouthwatering when I last tasted them soon after their mid-2014 bottling.
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2013 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben Reserve. VM 89. As with the corresponding 2011 and 2012 – but more emphatically – I find this Prälat reserve less convincing than its two siblings. The pungency and piquancy of kumquat on the nose as well as on a substantial and subtly oily palate, when reinforced by underlying nuttiness, generate a sense of opacity and borderline bitterness at odds with the refreshment and transparency to mineral nuances displayed by the corresponding Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Ürziger Würzgarten. That having been noted, this bottling’s austerity is certainly coupled with impressive sheer persistence and smoky, stony intrigue. It’s too early to hazard a guess as to whether Prälat is inherently less amenable to longer élevage, or perhaps even whether it simply needs more than two years. But Loosen has additional Grosses Gewächs material still in cask to test the latter hypothesis.
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Austrian Cheese “Knodel” Dumplings, white truffle. Delicate poofy cheese balls with butter and truffle. Lovely.
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2015 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett Alte Reben Reserve. VM 90. Lily and heliotrope garland cidery apple on the enticing nose, while the palate impression is snappy, tart-edged, and even a bit spare. I like the tang, invigoration and refreshment of the finish, though, which predictably features fresh lime and apple over a bed of wet stone. As with the corresponding Lay, it could be that screwcap closure is playing a significant role here.
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2015 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese Alte Reben Reserve. VM 91. Fresh strawberry and lime laced with cress offer a bracing aromatic and palate impression, and bright, infectious juiciness carries into an invigoratingly zesty and mouthwateringly salt-tinged finish. As befits Riesling of Mosel origins, wet stone runs like a cantus firmus through this entire delightful performance, whose supportive sweetness knows when to back off in the interest of clarity and refreshment.
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2008 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Alte Reben Reserve.
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Loup de Mer En Croute. Scallop Mousseline, Sauce Beurre Blanc.
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A delicious and very rich fish dish with the pastry and the buttery sauce. Now here is a whitefish I can get down with!
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A simpler version with no pastry and no scallop.
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2005 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Kabinett. VM 89+. Pale yellow. Stately aromas of quince, honeysuckle and nut oil.With its rich papaya fruit and subdued minerality, this is the most aristocratic of these ’05 kabinetts and the one that is most clearly a spatlese in character. At the same time, it’s the most closed and in need of patience.
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2011 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Kabinett. 90 points. Superb Riesling with lots of tropical fruit. Creamy texture and great acid who balance well with the fruit. If you like the style you like the wine. Works wonderfully on its own as well.
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2017 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Kabinett.
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Slow Roasted Pork. Cardamon, star anis, savory glaze.
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Rich almost “bbq” style pork.
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Eggplant instead.
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Savory Consommé.
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A different version.
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1983 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese.
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1989 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. A rounded style, complete. Very nice though.
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1997 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese. VM 93. Strawberry chiffon nose. Again, a rather delicate, easy wine, but there is extract underneath, plus a distinct note of slate.

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2002 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese Goldkapsel Auction.

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Kaiserschmarren. Basically super fluffy pancake with strawberry sauce. I was blown away by how delicious this dish was. The strawberries were super intense and the cake ultra fluffy.
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1976 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel.
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1985 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 95 points. One of the best bottles from this old stash of rising I bought about ten years ago. The wine was harmonious, complex and very long. It offered s prism of golden orchard fruit, mineral and savory notes.
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1993 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel.
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2011 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Lange Goldkapsel Auction. 97 points.
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1959 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Lange Goldkapsel.
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Cheese Course. Brabander Gouda, Robbiolo Bosino, Manchego 1605.
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And some cheese / cherry toast — very Austrian.
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And a special birthday layered pastry and creme!

This was just an epic procession of epic riesling. So many wines! 25 distinct wines, ranging from 1959 to 2016 and from bone dry to ultra sweet. Most of these were special Alte Reben Reserves or Goldkapsels, all very rare. A stunning tour-de-force of this under-appreciated grape.

Food, as usual for a Sage Society dinner, was perfectly paired. Spago really does a good job at these special dinners when care is taken with the menu — and service was perfect as always. I enjoyed the slightly German/Austrian vibe to some of the dishes. We had labeled glasses for every wine — which is always the best way.

Great night!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. The Doctor is In
  2. Veuve Clicquot at Spago
  3. Foodie Club at Spago
  4. Family Spago
  5. Krug at Spago
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Dr Loosen, Ernst Loosen, Liz Lee, Riesling, Sage Society, Spago, Wolfgang Puck

Alsace at the Cal Club

Nov07

Restaurant: Private Club

Location: Somewhere in California

Date: October 26, 2016

Cuisine: American

Rating: Fun

_

I end up at the California Club all the time for wine dinners, but tonight was a special treat as I was invited by Liz Lee of Sage Society to join the Alsatian group and Anne Trimbach (of Trimbach wines).

The Cal Club is a true California institution, left nameless, a private bastion of the old California.

They don’t make them like they used to!

Tonight’s special menu. The chef is Alsatian and so he “cooked it up.”

Tonight I forgot (didn’t really get the chance) to photo the wines. So you will just have to imagine what all those great bottles of Trimbach looked like.

 Giant dinner party!

Northern Halibut, Poached oysters in butter.
 Roast Shelton Farms Turkey, Confit leg , chestnut & cabbage dressing. Thanksgiving comes early this year!

Roast Rack of lamb, spinach, carrots and salsifis.

Warm Vermont cheese oma, poached pear.

On the far left Anne Trimbach, then to the right chef Jean-Marc Weber.

The different colors. I’m not sure I had a Trimbach pinot noir before this.

Traditional Peach Haeberlin. Probably my favorite dish of the night — but I do have a sweet tooth.
 Cookies.

All and all a fun evening. The venue was great. The service was great. This kitchen handles an enormous volume, yet these dishes were all really nice, and many fabulous. They aren’t the most modern looking, but they tasted really great and were fabulously paired with the wines.

The star of the show was of course charming Anne Trimbach, who is back on the road evangelizing her family wines after having brought a new (human) Trimbach into the world — congratulations Anne!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Hanoi – Club Opera
  2. Mastro’s Ocean Club Malibu
  3. Riviera Country Club – Gluttony with a View
  4. California Dreaming
  5. Trimbach Republique
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Alsace, Anne Trimbach, California Club, DTLA, Jean-Marc Weber, Riesling, Sage Society, Trimbach, Wine

Little Sheep Hot Pot

Oct21

Restaurant: Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot

Location: 140 W Valley Blvd #213, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 307-1901

Date: October 18, 2015

Cuisine: Mongolian Hot Pot

Rating: Middling quality hot pot

_

Hot Pot is an ever popular style of Northern Chinese / Mongolian food. Basically a pot of boiling broth is used tableside to cook various foods.

Little Sheep is a small chain, the name refers to the prevalence of lamb in Mongolian cooking. Fortunately it’s not, “Little Marmot,” as the squirrel-like rodent is common on the Mongolian steppes and has been known to end up on the cook fire.

The interior is fairly modern.

The menu, somewhere in the middle of our markup process. You have to understand that you basically order plates of stuff, which you add to your hot pot.

Little Sheep does have a sauce bar. It’s not nearly as extensive as the one at Hai di Lao, particularly as the left and right halves are the same, but it’s still more than sufficient to make a great sauce.


These are my sauces. On the left is a richer sesame paste one, on the right a lighter ponzu style.

There are two broth types here, “plain” and “spicy.” This is spicy, which isn’t actually that spicy unless you eat the chilies — but good luck avoiding them all!

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


Supreme lamb shoulder.


Premium Lamb leg.


Supreme angus beef.

USDA Choice rib eye.


Beef of an indeterminate nature.

Pork belly. Look at all that fat.

Free range chicken. Surprisingly good, for chicken.

2009 Aubert Pinot Noir UV Vineyard. VM 93. The 2009 Pinot Noir UV Vineyard once again shows the richness and heft of the clay-rich soils in this site. This is an especially dense Pinot, even by Aubert’s standards, that needs another year or so in bottle to start shedding some of its baby fat. Despite the wine’s richness, there is more than enough underlying minerality to give the wine a sense of proportion and harmony.

Lamb meat balls.

Beef meat balls.

Pork meat balls.

Luncheon meat. A.k.a. spam. Delicious.

Pork sausages. Little wieners.

From my cellar: 2004 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. #1; COLOR-nice golden; NOSE-burnt BMX tires meets peaches, apricots & pears; spritzy; TASTE-beautiful bluestone; gorgeous dried Apricots; viscous & oily; gorgeous peach juice; very polished; great, great wine; very delicate; nice floral aspects; subtle cactus juice & on the finish; a concoction of Cantaloupe & dandelion dancing on the back-end; very complex; great balance of acidity & fruit; great structure; absolute elegance at it’s finest; DS-92; GV-92.

Scallops. Total fail here, these were not fresh.

Shrimp. These were fine.

Calamari (squid).

Crab legs. Got a bit mushy in the pot.

Fried fish cakes. Pretty tasty, with an interesting chewy texture.

2010 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Meursault Les Narvaux. Burghound 89-91. An elegant, pure and cool nose of white flower and citrus leads to minerally and well-concentrated middle weight flavors that possess a racy, intense and well-balanced finish. This dry and relatively forward effort should offer 2 to 3 years of upside development if desired.

Miscellaneous vegetable plate.

Miscellaneous mushroom plate.

Soft tofu. I love it, but hard to get out of the pot.

Hot Pot Dumplings. Chewy, tasty. Not sure what if anything was actually inside.

Udon noodles. Again hard to get out of the pot.

Fresh egg noodles. I loved these. Mixed with the sauce they made one of those tangy/spicy Chinese noodle dishes.

Glass noodles. Also great.

Chinese donut. Not actually sweet at all, but with a very nice crunch.

Mongolian bread. Hot from the oven and nice. Who says Chinese don’t make bread?

Mongolian beef pie. This one was delicious. We had a second that was a bit overdone and wasn’t so great.

2010 Copain P2. 89 points. Neither red, white nor rose. Slight tannins from red give body and structure while the pinot gris gives a fragrant juciness that allows it to go with so many modern foods, especially on a warm day with a slight chill.

Lamb dumplings. A little weak.

Pork dumplings. Same. Just kinda soft without too much flavor.

Lamb skewers. With the usual cumin.

Beef skewers.

Chicken skewers.

At the end, the cooling sauce is starting to congeal.

Overall, Little Sheep is a decent hot pot place. The broth was good, the sauces good, and many of the ingredients like the meat and breads quite good. The seafood was fairly lousy, and the dumplings weak. They also don’t have a ton of broth choices and you have to share the pot with about 4-5 people.

Now I’d place it about Hot Pot Hot Pot (with a 8+ person per pot and no sauce bar), but below Hai di Lao. However both of the first two have a bit more variety of non hot pot ingredients than Hai di Lao.

After, we wandered downstairs in this monster Maxi-mall (which also includes Spicy City) and checked out this bakery.

A couple of us got this layered Crepe Cake. It’s just crepes and custard, chilled. Mild, sweet, milky and delicious — like a sort of crepey tres leches cake.

Another mild cakey thing.

And they also have various teas and slushies. On the left a milk tea, on the right a mango slushie.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Related posts:

  1. Pecorino – No Sheep is Safe
  2. Hot Pot Hot Pot
  3. Happy Table – New Bay is Old Bay
  4. Heavy Noodling at JTYH
  5. New Bay Seafood
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bake Code, Bakery, Chinese cuisine, Dessert, hedonists, hot pot, lamb, Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot, Mongolian cuisine, Riesling, Wine

Cassia – Vietnamese Reinterpreted

Jul10

Restaurant: Cassia

Location: 1314 7th St, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 393-6699

Date: July 7 & November 10, 2015, July 7, August 26, and October 3, 2016 and January 28, 2020

Cuisine: French Vietnamese Brasserie

Rating: really tasty

_

My friend Liz Lee of Sage Society organized this July excursion to the brand new French Vietnamese Bistro from Chef Bryant Ng and the group that brought us the excellent Sweet Rose, Rustic Canyon, and Milo & Olive.

Also, merged in, are photos from dishes we ordered at an impromptu Hedonist dinner in November.

Ng made himself famous the other year with Spice Table Downtown, now I’m happy to have him Westside.

The space is oddly located on 7th street (never been to a restaurant there before despite 21 years in Santa Monica) but its large, light and airy.

Check out those high ceilings.
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A specialty cocktail. Mango Mezcal Fizz. Mango infused mezcal, Brovo dry vermouth, passionfruit, lime, egg white.


The creative menu. This is not your usual brasserie. I mean, it feels like one, but the dishes are so Vietnamese inspired. I ate my way through Vietnam last year, and the ingredients feel very authentic. The presentation is all new.
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The menu January 2020 — a few dishes have changed.

Liz as usual orchestrated our wine brings, in this case Champy, Riesling and the like.

From my cellar: 1990 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut La Grande Dame. VM 96. Rich, multidimensional, highly aromatic nose of pear, red berries, apple, honey, toast and spice. Extremely rich and concentrated, with its medium to full body leavened by bright citrus notes and compelling minerality. Great inner-mouth aromas. Conveys an impression of powerful yet remarkably fine raw materials. The spicy finish offers exceptional persistence and richness.

agavin: our bottle was a bit oxidized and tired. sigh.
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Kaya Toast. Coconut jam, butter, slow cooked egg. This is listed under appetizers, but really tasted like a dessert. It was pretty awesome though, with the flavors of sweet coconut French toast.

Jellyfish Salad. Shredded organic chicken, crispy rice, green leaf, sesame-bacon dressing. Delicious, with the jellyfish adding a nice crunch/chew.

2004 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Rosé. VM 94+. Relative to many other recent vintages, the 2004 Dom Pérignon Rosé comes across as quite delicate, feminine and graceful. Floral notes are woven throughout, adding to a very appealing and attractive sense of lift. It will be interesting to see if the 2004 puts on weight in bottle. At the moment, the 2004 is a bit understated, but I will not be surprised if at some point it takes off given the extremely positive way in which the 2004 blanc has developed over the last few years.

agavin: This was not tired at all!

Cucumber Salad Watercress, grilled avocado, charred tomatoes, clay oven bread croutons. A fine salad, although not mind boggling.

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Green Papaya Salad. Watercress, purslane, spiced walnuts. Not bad, but not as “Vietnamese” as we expected.
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Masumoto Farms Nectarine Salad. Bibb lettuce, herbs.
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Vietnamese Caesar Salad. Anchovy croutons, dried figs, herbs, red onion, white anchovies.

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Raw spicy scallops. A very small dish, with a bit of corn, dried shrimp, ham, onion and mint for flavor and crunch. Tasty, and despite the white look, not too mayo-ish, but hard to get onto the spoon.

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Grilled Chicken Wings. Cucumbers, sweet chile sauce. Not bad at all. Nice tangy salty spicy sauce. I actually liked the cucumbers soaked in it.

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Vietnamese “Sunbathing” Prawns. Fresno chiles, garlic, Vietnamese hot sauce — very hot actually.


2013 Zardetto Prosecco Zeta. Pairs great with food. A very simple wine, but its simple fruit allows it to go with anything.
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CHARCUTERIE PLATTER. Salted Pork with Grilled Bread, Sichuan Lamb Ham, Singaporean Grilled Candied Pork, Vietnamese Meatloaf, Smoked Red Sausage, Cabbage Relish.

The Singaporean Grilled Candied Pork had a substantial heat and was sweet and delicious. The Sichuan Lamb Ham was a bit like Spanish ham. The smoked sausage was great, and I particularly loved the rich meatiness of the “meatloaf” — not unlike dumpling filling. The cabbage relish added to the softer ones as well, plus the herbs. Mixing the herbs and pickles with the meat in the same bite was quiet lovely.
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Smoked Salmon Dip. Pickled shallots, horseradish, grilled country bread. Nice kick from the horseradish and an interesting mix of textural elements between the soft spread and crunchy bread. I really liked this dish.

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Chopped Escargot. Lemongrass butter, herbs.

Spread on the pizza-like bread this was staggeringly good. It might have been the dish of the night.

Vietnamese Pâté. Pickled chiles. A similar presentation. Looks a little like barf.

But it tasted great. Super rich and meaty. I’m a big pate fan and this didn’t disappoint. I liked the added crunch of the pickles.
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Fried Cauliflower w/ fish sauce. So fried they were like fried shrimp.
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Cold Sesame Noodles. Young soybeans, cucumbers, crushed walnuts. Spicy with blue crab. I had to try this because I make my own Dan Dan Mein. This had some spice, but none of the savory complexity of my version.


1997 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Weissenkirchen Ried Klaus. agavin 93. Herbal and complex, delicious.

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Spicy Wontons. Cod, shrimp, country ham, napa cabbage, roasted chile oil. These had some heat, not unlike Numb Taste Wontons, but with a bit of a fishy tone.

2001 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Trocken Zwerithaler. agavin 90. More oxidized than the 1997, this had an unusual cilantro/basil finish!

Chino Valley Egg Custard. Sea urchin roe, braised mushrooms. Very soft egg custard was extremely pleasant, although the sea urchin just didn’t stand out like one might hope.

2001 Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach Steinberger Riesling Kabinett Goldkapsel. agavin 91. Medium sweet. Quiet nice.

Cereal Scallops. Hazelnuts, chiles. These were super tender and reminded me of Eastern Shore fried scallops from my childhood.

1996 Domaine Touchais Coteaux du Layon Réserve de nos Vignobles. agavin 94. Super sweet and delicious.
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Coconut lemongrass curry. I don’t remember what was in here, but it was an awesome creamy coconut and lemongrass curry with a bit of spicy heat. Pretty similar to the amazing snail curry I’ve had at Phong Dinh.

Pig tail. Special order. Looks at that disgusting thing and all the fat.

I tried carving off some of the meat and not much fat and wrapping it with the herbs. The first bite was piggy, but the finish was actually quiet nice. Erick gnawed on the bone!

1998 M. Chapoutier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Barbe Rac. 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. Drink it between now and 2020.

agavin: Nice and grapey. Young, but drinking great right now.

Vietnamese Pot Au Feu. Creekstone farms short rib stew, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, bone marrow, grilled bread, two sauces.

We had five people and it was a few too many to really split this. The broth was very nice, and quiet interesting when doped with the sauces — but I didn’t get much and it was hard to experiment.

Grilled Lobster. Shallots, Asian basil, pistachio butter (Half or Whole).

The meat itself had a wonderful grilled basil flavor. Hard to split five ways though.

Whole Singaporean. White Pepper Crab. Same splitting problem with the crab, and there wasn’t much meat on this Dungeness. But the sauce was great with a real potent white pepper kick. I love pepper crab. None beat the ones I had in Singapore.

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Black Cod. Anchovy broth, Chinese romaine, lychee relish, herb salad.
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Beef Rendang. Beef cheek curry, jasmine rice, sambal, kaffir lime, peanuts. This had some heat to it, but was a spectacularly delicious curry dish. That rich red/meat/nutty curry over rice and the interplay of soft and crunchy textures. Yum!

Grilled Spicy Lamb Breast. Sichuan peppercorn, cumin, sambal, jasmine rice, sesame sauce. This was a nice dish, fairly Indian in vibe. There was that loose lovely Indian rice, which although labeled as jasmine in the description sure seemed like Basmati. Then the juicy bits of pork and a bit of heat. Nice stuff.

Grilled Chinese Broccoli. Caramelized fish sauce. Pretty good for straight up veggies.

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Grilled Dwelley Farms Corn. Scallion-coriander butter. Sort of like Mexican street corn!

Charcuterie Fried Rice. Chinese bacon, lap cheong, salt pork, salted fish, lettuce. Really tasty fried rice. Loved the sweet Chinese sausage.

Grilled Pork Belly Vermicelli. Thin rice noodles, oysters, pickled kohlrabi & carrots, herbs, green leaf, peanuts.

Again a hard dish to split five ways as that little bowl of meat/broth didn’t stretch far enough. It was delicious and Pho-like with the noodles and herbs.

Here is the combined soup, which was quite excellent.
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Smoked Beef Short Ribs. Spicy Chinese BBQ sauce, pickled Chinese cabbage, Bibb lettuce, herbs.

Laksa. Rice noodles, spicy coconut-seafood soup. Basically udon noodles in a red curry broth. I liked the dish, as I love red curry. Others complained that the curry flavor was a touch mild and “short” and it was (although there is some considerable heat). This doesn’t have the depth of a great red curry like at Jitlada. Still, I enjoyed it. It’s just been “toned down” for the Santa Monica crowd.
IMG_5911

Wok-tossed Yard beans & avocado. Preserved turnips, ginger, chili oil. Interesting contrast between the crunchy yard beans and the soft avocado. Not bad at all for a string bean dish.

The dessert menu.

Chocolate Banana Tart. Banana chips, candied walnuts, vanilla whipped cream. The weakest of the five desserts. A little sweet and not enough chocolate flavor.

Blackberry, Cherry Napoleon. Green tea Bavarian cream. This was great and refreshing with bright berry flavors.

Deep fried Paris-Brest. Housemade lemongrass ice cream, candied lemon. That lemongrass ice cream was awesome. The whole vibe was key lime pie like. Really refreshing.

Summer Fruit Floating Islands. Passion fruit creme anglaise, poached peaches, Santa Rosa plums, Pudwill raspberries & fresh mint. And this was amazing with a rich creamy passionfruit flavor.

Vietnamese Coffee Pudding. Coconut shortbread. Plus I loved this “pudding,” which is more like a pot-a-creme. The coffee cream thing worked just as well as a dessert.
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Coconut ice cream balls.

Overall, commenting after my first visit, I’m really psyched to see this new addition to the long subdued Santa Monica restaurant scene. I love Vietnamese food and while this isn’t strictly Vietnamese, but more like Vietnamese, Chinese, Singaporean fusion with a very modern brasserie sensibility. Fairly unique and really quiet fun and excellent. I hope they evolve and refine and aren’t forced to backpedal to pander to the local tastes. There is some tendency in Santa Monica toward just that. For example, all of the more interesting (and not really that bold) new mall places of a couple years ago have shuttered and been replaced by a Cheesecake Factory. Cry.

And readdressing my opinion a few months later in November, Cassia has continued to come on strong. It was mobbed on a cold Tuesday November night, the food was perhaps a touch more consistent, and service was good. It was extremely friendly, although pacing was a little uneven (but not enough to be a problem). Since it’s busy, the menu hasn’t backpedalled — because people seem to be responding well. Sure it’s a little “white-a-fied”, but it’s it’s still great to have it here on the Westside.

And reassessing again July of 2016, the food has tightened up even further. The menu may have changed a dish or two, but it’s still aggressive (a good thing), but the execution has tuned up even further. These dishes were on fire, offering some really serious and interesting flavor that hits its own unique spot between traditional and California Vietnamese.

Returning in January 2020, the food continued to be excellent. My favorite dishes were still great. I’m reminded that Cassia is still quite spicy — which I like — but surprisingly so for a mainstream restaurant. Service itself was pretty good but their wine service is a little wonky, or at least my unusual perception of wine service. They seem to have the dreaded (and totally inane) “two bottle limit” now. Sucks. Stupid. Counterproductive to making money and good customer service. I’ve ranted about it many times before like here. And they didn’t want me to open the wines myself, saying their ABC license didn’t allow it. That’s a new one, and I’m pretty sure totally false. Even if vaguely true, probably has never been enforced. I’ve certainly opened 1000s of bottles in restaurants.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or compare to some Vietnamese Vietnamese (in Vietnam).

Some wines from the 1/28/20 dinner:

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7U1A6523

Related posts:

  1. Phong Dinh – Hedonists go Vietnamese
  2. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  3. Coconut Curried Snails?
  4. Hedonists at Dahab
  5. Hedonists at Jitlada
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bryant Ng, Cassia, Dessert, Foodie Club, gruner, hedonists, Riesling, Sage Society, Vietnamese cuisine, Wine

Happy Table – New Bay is Old Bay

May29

Restaurant: Happy Table

Location: 203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. (626) 872-6677

Date: May 22, 2015

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Solid

_

Six weeks ago we said a sad farewell to New Bay Seafood, which was one of the premier high end Cantonese places in the SGV.

In it’s place, as risen Happy Table, a new Chinese establishment…

With a diffuse menu of vaguely North Central slant. Not exactly Szechuan it has Szechuan dishes. Inside the place is identical, even the pictures of food on the walls are the same from the old menu.

2004 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. This tasting only serves to highlight just how great the 2004 Dom Pérignon is. A wine that has totally blossomed in bottle, the 2004 is firing on all cylinders right now. Rich, ample and beautifully nuanced, the 2006 has it all; expressive aromatics, deep fruit and more than enough structure to age well for decades. I have been tasting the 2004 since before it was released and it just keeps getting better and better. Today, it is stunning. It is amazing to consider that in 2004, yields were the largest ever recorded in Champagne.

Various cold appetizers like this spicy beef jerky. I liked it a lot.

Or this great Kimchee. Obviously some northern influence.

Smoked fish. A few bones didn’t detract from the excellent flavor.

Marinated pepper. These green peppers had some heat — and were delicious.

Pickled root vegetable. Which one, I don’t know, but they were tasty.

NV Franck Bonville Champagne Brut Rosé Grand Cru. 90 points. Lovely pink color. The nose shows fruity aromas of strawberry, raspberry, mineral, flowers and cream. This is medium bodied on the palate with a distinctly fruity touch. There is good structure and finesse on display here, and the finish is long. Delicious.

Pork ear with chili sauce. I never met a pig ear I liked. The slimy rubbery texture and lack of flavor… ug.

2006 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons. Burghound 91. The nose reflects only modest aromatic development on the notably ripe, spicy and intensely floral nose that introduces strikingly intense and sappy flavors that are supple and textured yet the finish tightens up very quickly and possess a lovely sense of underlying tension on the palate staining finish. This is impressively long and possesses good if not truly class Chablis character. To my taste this is nearing the front edge of its peak drinkability though it will be capable of holding here for years to come.

agavin: drinking great!

Shrimp, smoked fish, and squid. Straight up but fine.

2013 Zardetto Prosecco di Conegliano Superiore Spumante Dry Z. 92 points. Very nice slightly sweet Prosecco, went great with slightly spicy dishes.

Hot and sour soup. The classic. The texture and flavor of this soup were nice, although it was oddly dilute, slightly mild in flavor.

2012 Franz Gojer – Glögglhof Kerner Karneid. 91 points. Nice herby wine.

Three flavor dumplings. The northern steamed kind. Whatever the three flavors were, they included pork and were pretty good.

From my cellar: 2003 Weingut Graben-Gritsch Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Schön. 89 points. nose of lychee pineapple lemon, creamy lemon and peach on the palate. Bright acidity medium finish.

Cumin lamb. Not super spicy and of medium cumin level. Pretty tasty.

2008 Domaine Huet Vouvray Moelleux 1ère Trie Clos du Bourg. JP 92. Pale golden yellow. Rich aromas of candied quince, white truffle and lemon oil mingle with a faint hint of spicy botrytis. The intense depth of rich pit fruit and glazed honey is well framed by the wine’s elegant chalky minerality. The herbal element to this wine’s depth is typical of this unusual vintage.

Szechuan eggplant. Always a winner, this was a dish bursting with flavor.

Dönnhoff Felsenberg Riesling Spätlese. Corked 🙁

Sautéed shredded pork. Reasonably tasty.

2004 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain. VM 88+. Bright golden-yellow. Singular nose combines lemon, smoke and iodine, plus a saline, peaty note that Humbrecht, a single-malt scotch aficionado, assured me was Skye or Orkney and not Islay. Big, round, broad and glyceral, with superrripe nutty, earthy flavors, moderate sweetness and fairly strong acidity. Slight mushroom note. Finishes with suggestions of macadamia and Brazil nut. “An extreme style,” Humbrecht admits. For soil hounds, this will be one to follow.

Ma Po Tofu. One of my favorite dishes in general this was an okay version with a medium amount of numbing Szechuan peppercorn. Over rice it was quite nice and I ate more than my share.

Spicy fried chicken. The aromatic type. This was an okay, but not great version of this dish. A little too fried maybe?

Scallion pancake. These were okay, the second bread below was better.

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

Mu Chai Whole Lamb. People loved this. It was a tad fatty for me, but had a nice deep lamby flavor.

Steamed cod. A little over cooked.

1997 Silverado Hill Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon. I don’t try this kind of stuff, particularly with Chinese.

Stir fry lobster. The fried part was typical, a bit over-fried and fine, but not spectacular. Certainly not nearly as good as at New Bay.

The meat in the center was undercooked and mushy with no flavor. Fairly disgusting actually.

Sweet bread. This pancake-cum-pita Chinese bread was fresh baked and delicious. There was a slight sweetness to it.

2009 Carlisle Petite Sirah Palisades Vineyard. VM 93. Glass-staining purple. Intense, exotically perfumed bouquet of blueberry, boysenberry, incense, black pepper and cola. Lush, expansive and surprisingly lively on the palate, offering sweet dark fruit flavors and firming but velvety tannins. Finishes with outstanding clarity and cling, repeating the boysenberry and violet notes.

Crystal Shrimp. Mild and fine.

Chung King Style hot pot. Every possible thing (including pig intestine, fish filets, beef) in a spicy chili oil sauce. This was fairly solid and a very typical Szechuan dish.

1998 d’Arenberg Cabernet Sauvignon The Coppermine Road. 91 points. Robust cab though showing its age. Had a bit of a brown hue and a ton of sediment.

Ox tail with Wolfberry. Inedible tail tendons with berries. I don’t know what one was supposed to do with this pile of cartilage.

Spicy dry pot chicken. Very boney, but a nice flavor and the potatoes in the sauce were good.

Bone in!

Overall Happy Table serves up decent but not great fare. I’m not even sure what region it really is, but the Northern and Szechuan dishes were pretty good (although I’ve had better). The Seafood and more Cantonese dishes were so-so. The place was empty too, and at 7:30 on a Friday night. But the service was great. We had a big private room with two tables (same room we ate in as New Bay). They were very attentive and served things up at a nice place, so I’ll give them an A+ for effort.

It’s different than New Bay, but doesn’t offer up the same level of super high end Cantonese at all, so the former will be missed as there are a good number of these mixed places.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

They are still located next to the best shaved ice place though.

Related posts:

  1. Heavy Noodling at JTYH
  2. Feasting Lunasia
  3. New Bay Seafood
  4. At the Roman Table
  5. Where in the world is Yanbian?
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Happy Table, hedonists, New Bay, Riesling, Wine

The Doctor is In

May20

Restaurant: Republique [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

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

Date: May 12, 2015

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

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

_

OMG, Republique again! This time for another special wine dinner, hosted by Sage Society and featuring Ernst Loosen of Weingut Dr Loosen, one of the world’s premier riesling producers.

The main interior is nearly church-like. It’s been all opened up and looks great, but it’s big, tall, and covered in hard surfaces. That means loud! We just had our appetizers here, before moving to the quieter private room upstairs.


On the left is Ernst Loosen, owner of the winery and on the right our hostess, Liz Lee of Sage society.

Flight 0: Champagne


NV Guillaume Sergent Champagne Les Prés Dieu. 90 points. Very nice, young bright acid bomb of a champagne.

Potato chips, mashed potato, caviar. The chip was super rich. Really the mashed potatoe tasted like butter! The caviar was a bit overwhelmed, but certainly delightful.

Smoked hamachi croquettes. With pickled radish. Like a fancy modern version of the classic Spanish cod croquettes.

NV Doyard Champagne Cuvée Vendémiaire Brut. VM 89. The NV Brut Cuvée Vendémiaire is a beautiful wine that shows lovely complexity in its aromas and flavors, suggesting a period of extended aging on the lees and/or a relatively high percentage of reserve wines in the blend. The Cuvée Vendémiaire shows plenty of Chardonnay character and a refined, subtle mousse that is a result of the lower-atmosphere vinification. The Vendémiaire is made from parcels in Vertus, Avize, Cramant, Oger and Le Mesnil.

Tuna tartar crostini. Avocado mousse.

Upstairs is much quieter and more intimate.


Tonight’s special menu. As usual it was designed/produced by chef Walter and Liz Lee.

Before we get into the Riesling itself, it’s worth looking at the chunks of Mosel that Ernst brought. From the bottom to the top, gray slate, red slate, and red volcanic stone. Different vineyards we tasted tonight have different compositions of these stony soils.

Flight 1:

This flight, and its 3 wines, all come from the same vineyard, same year, same juice. The only difference is the juice was placed into three separate barrels and aged on its lees for 12, 24, and 36 months respectively. They are all dry.

2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs. 90 points. Gorgeous nose. Probably the best nose of the three as it was fruitier and more open. Mineral, fresh nose; great acid, more mineral.


2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs Reserve. 92 points. A little more closed at first but with poise and balance. Drinking very nicely.


2011 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs “Hommage”. 90-94 points. This smells and tastes like a wine that needs more time, but hints of additional complexity. Maybe even some grapefruit. Really nice and unique.

Vichyssoise. Oyster, uni. A delicious slurry of green with briny orange lumps.

Flight 2:

A trio of 2013 dry rieslings from different terriors, all made in the same basic style.

2013 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 90 points. This had the best nose, but was the softest, perhaps most elegant, and subtle of the flight.

2013 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. To my taste this had more zing.

2013 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. Extremely similar to the Ürziger Würzgarten.

Dutch White asparagus. Morel mushroom, meyer lemon sabayon. A pretty classic version of the in-season delicacy. The sauce was so buttery good, we had to order bread to sop it up. An amazing pairing.

Flight 3:

A pair of 2011 dry rieslings from the same vineyard, Erdener Prälat, which many regard as the greatest of Mosel Valley Grand Crus. The only difference is the reserve was aged in barrel for 24 instead of 12 months.

2013 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben. 92 points. Very nice.

2011 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Großes Gewächs Alte Reben Reserve. 94 points. The extra time in the barrel clearly works because the reserve is just better on all fronts. There is more balance, more power, and a clear feel of longer aging potential. Again, this is from a wine that is essentially identical except for the time in barrel.

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn. Bonito, yuzu, shitatke mushroom, brown butter. Scrumptiously soft and sweat with more of that crazy good butter sauce. Head sucking good.

Flight 4:

Now we move up to sweet and back in time, with a trio of Spatlese.

1989 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Light yellow in color, this wine smells and tastes very fresh with a great mixture of youngish fruit ( singed peaches and citrus ) along with some aged characteristics of smoke and a little petrol. Medium bodied with a long finish, this wine seems to be at it’s peak now.

1973 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese. 89 points. Maybe I’m not totally used to old Riesling, but this was certainly mature. Sous bois. Fresh though. Weird complex notes. Certainly in great shape for its age.

2002 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese Auction. 93 points. I loved the fresh sweetness of this bottling.

Cook ranch pork chop. polenta, stone fruits, brown butter sauce. Walter dropped the curry and lentils (on the menu) at the last minute. This undoubtedly paired better. Perhaps an unusual wine/food melding, but a phenomenal one. Very tender meat, nicely sweetened up by the fruit.

Flight 5:

Now getting into the old sweet stuff, but not yet the mega sweet.

1971 Christoffel-Berres Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 93 points. Here I thought the increased sweetness offset the oxidation of aging in a more harmonious way. Really quite nice and rounded.

1966 Christoffel-Berres Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 89 points. This wine might be a little flawed, or just 49 years old!

Sweet potato agnolotti. Foie gras, applewood-smocked bacon. Wow! As if the agnolotti wasn’t amazing, through in bacon, and if that wasn’t enough, a huge chunk of foie!

Flight 6:

And our final flight is the mysterious and massive long Goldkapsel, with 100% shriveled raisiny fruit!

2004 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese long Goldkapsel Auction. 96 points. Like liquid candy. Fabulous power and depth.

1999 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Lange Goldkapsel Auction. 95 points. Most people liked the 2004 better, but I kind of loved the 1999 because it had a real long zingy finish.

Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese. Fruit bread. Local honeycomb. A nice might blue cheesy that offset the intense sweetness of the wines nicely.

Again Liz organizes a great dinner. The wines were first class. I hadn’t known exactly what to expect, but these were some of the best rieslings I’ve had — and I love riesling. Lots of variety and complexity and there is a consistent harmony to the Loosen wines. Lovely stuff. Plus, Ernst was highly informative and engaging, and I felt I learned quite a bit about the different processes and decisions employed at the winery — where they make a fairly bewildering array of wines from each vineyard (all with long German names, of course).

Walter really does his best work at these custom dinners. First of all, you get new dishes. Second, he really tunes them up to the wines at a superlative level. It isn’t easy to make an entire multi course meal that pairs with Riesling, but the Walter/Liz team rose to the occasion again!

As usual, Taylor did an amazing job with the wine service.

An overall fabulous afternoon.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Trimbach Republique
  2. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Dr Loosen, République, Riesling, Sage Society, Wine

Trimbach Republique

Oct31

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

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

Date: October 28, 2014

Cuisine: Modern Bistro French

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

_

Back to Republique again? Well, it seems in 2014 half the serious wine events are here. Possibly it’s because Sommelier Taylor Parsons is so good. In any case, tonight’s tasting is a serious vertical exploration of Trimbach Close St Hune, one of the world’s most rarefied dry Rieslings. This dinner was organized by Sage Society (and Sage’s founder, Liz Lee) for Sage Society clients. Not only did we enjoy 16 vintages of CSH, but Anne Trimbach, ambassador from the winemaker joined us.


The building is an interesting fusion of pre-war factory…


The main interior is nearly church-like. It’s been all opened up and looks great, but it’s big, tall, and covered in hard surfaces. That means loud!

Tonight our dinner was in the private room upstairs, but our appetizers began on a little table in the upstairs hall.


NV Jacquart Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru “Mesnil Expérience. 92 points. Light pale color, micro beading. Nose is acute and clean, showing very pleasant saline, schist and lemony/citrus tones. Touch of browned toast as well. Mouth feel is excellent and integrated. On the palate very defined citrus, lemon, grey stone, green apple and hard wood, some secondary weight on the back palate indicating good structure. Mouthwatering in nature, with great acid elements. An excellent value, worth seeking out.


Tart. Nueske’s Bacon. Carmelized onion, gruyere. Addictively sweet and salty.


NV Jacquart Champagne Brut Rosé Experience. 89 points. Pleasant rose champagne with strawberry aromas. It has a vibrant acidity which gives it a good refreshing quality.


Gioia Burrata Crostini. Green kadota & black mission figs, speck, some purple leaf. Burrata and cured meat is always a winner.


Tonight’s special menu (mostly listing the wines). We also had an 1992 CSH.


Anne Trimbach, ambassador for the Trimbach family presided over our dinner, offering comments on each of the wines.


We begin with Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile, which is a blend of two Grand Cru vineyards.

2007 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile. IWC 91+. Good pale color. Rather austere on the nose, hinting at underripe pineapple, crushed stone and menthol. Dense, ripe and dry, with terrific sappiness giving a tactile quality to the dusty flavors of pineapple, grapefruit, lime, spices and stone. There’s something subtly full about this broad, very long riesling. Here, too, the acidity is nearly eight grams, and the residual sugar less than one gram. Still an infant.

agavin: acid bomb!


1997 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile. IWC 93+. Subdued but deep aromas of white flowers and lime. Dry (just three grams per liter r.s.), deep and impressively structured. Slow to evolve but already long on personality. Very densely packed and deep. This should develop in bottle for many years. Very long, adamantly dry finish. Jean Trimbach considers this a great vintage for the Frédéric Emile, perhaps in the class of the ’83.

agavin: the best pairing with the food (of the flight). First bottle was corked, we opened a second and it was great.


1990 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile. 94+ points. Elegant, almost rubbery nose with very delicate and nice fruit aromas. This is actually complex with tender yellow fruit, dried, elegant herbs, and pure citrus fruit. Perfect development. A palate loaded with mineral and grinded stones. Elegant and pure. Absolute balance and a tremendous grip. The acidity and finish goes on and on. Medium-fullish body.

agavin: more Boytritus and my favorite by itself.


Hamachi crudo. Oysters. Oyster gelle. Singapore curry oil. This actually paired very well. You wouldn’t think so, but it did. All three main elements (hamachi, oysters, and curry) were present and in balance.


With this flight we start up the endless progression of Clos St Hune.

2007 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 94+. Very pale, clear color. Extremely unevolved aromas of quinine, mint, lime, white flowers and white truffle. Dense and exhilarating, with an oily texture and piquant lime and mineral flavors that saturate the palate. Wonderfully pure and stony riesling, but still a baby. Today this is all about grip. The r.s. here is just 1.7 grams per liter, according to Pierre Trimbach, who compares this wine to the superb 2001 Clos Ste. Hune.


2005 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 93+. Subtle aromas of lime skin, peche de vigne and wet stone, with complicating notes of vanilla and mint. Denser and richer than the Frederic Emile, and a step up in concentration; shows a more glyceral texture to its peach and spice flavors. Round, mouthfilling and horizontal. Finishes dry, broad and very long, with a bracing edge of acidity. This and the Fred were picked in mid-October, and “not too late,” notes Pierre Trimbach, who is certain that these wines will shut down soon.

agavin: good, but in a slightly awkward stage.


2004 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 95. Pale, bright yellow. Ripe pineapple, liquid stone and exotic honey on the nose, with a spicy lift that suggests an oak influence this wine does not possess. On entry, this is sweeter and creamier than the Frederic Emile, but it livens up quickly in the middle, showing powerful minerality and sharply delineated flavors of liquid stone, pineapple and citrus peel. Still, this conveys a distinctly glyceral impression that suggests more sweetness than its 5 grams of residual sugar, no doubt a function of the 20% or so botrytized berries (in contrast to the Frederic Emile, which included no botrytis). Communicates an impression of power with elegance, finishing minerally and long but not austere. Pierre Trimbach compared this wine to the estate’s great 1990. This is already showing more Rosacker terroir than riesling character. About 9,000 bottles were made from 1.5 hectares of vines.

agavin: best of the flight right now


John Dory. Leeks. Potato moussaline. Leek and CSH butter sauce. Caviar. The fish was a little dry but the potatoes and sauce were scrumptious. All that butter balanced beautifully with the acid in the wine.


2001 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 92+. Pale color. Musky aromas of lime and powdered stone, complicated by spring flowers and a hint of marzipan. Densely packed and slightly sweet but with lively acidity framing and lifting the citrus, floral and mineral flavors. A note of baked bread gives this wine plenty of appeal today, but this still-young ’01 has the framework and grip to reward another decade of bottle aging.


2000 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 95+. Wonderfully pure, high-pitched nose melds quinine, pineapple, crushed stone, orange zest, violet and lavender; smells like a current release. Densely packed and very rich, with seamless flavors of crushed wet stone, lichee and grapefruit complicated by notes of baked bread and honey. This is very much like licking a rock, and yet there are complicating hints of tropical fruits here too. Wonderfully classy, pure wine with a tactile, classy, very subtle and long finish. Still a baby, and compellingly vibrant for a wine from the 2000 vintage. The driest wine in this vertical tasting, at just 1.3 grams per liter of residual sugar.

agavin: my favorite of the flight


1999 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 91+. Very pure, subtle aromas of grapefruit, minerals, lemon. Then rather unyielding on the palate, with an almost Chablis-like pepper and grapefruit pith austerity dominating today. Finishes with strong mounting acidity and lingering notes of lime and licorice. Lighter than the 2000 but perhaps more expressive today. Extremely dry at just 1.9 grams per liter r.s. Will this gain in richness with more time in bottle?

agavin: I found this too powerful/acidic.


Chicken. Chicken consume and chicken meat laced with foie gras. Diced vegetables. The broth was amazing, but by itself and in pairing. Who knew simple chicken broth could be so good. The meat itself was nice too.


Sommelier Taylor Parsons carries not a decanter of old dessert wine — but chicken broth!

Taylor does an amazing job. There were backups to every bottle (thanks Liz!). They were opened at the same time, checked. We had (identical) glasses for every pour! Each labeled with the wine and vintage. He poured himself, flawlessly and elegantly working an event pour around the table. Really, this is as good a wine service as I’ve ever seen.


1998 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 92+. Very complex nose melds lime, mint, powdered stone, licorice and a light petrol note. Dense, rich, chewy and firm; supple and ripe but solidly structured for aging. Finishes very long and minerally. Loads of potential. (But the ’97 Clos Ste. Hune, a wine of compelling minerality, is even richer and more layered; I’ll stick with my original score of 94(+?) for the earlier wine, which I retasted in May alongside the ’98.)

agavin: our bottle might have had a little premox


1996 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 95+. Full yellow-gold, deep for its age. Nose began with very ripe suggestions of honeycomb, toffee, maple syrup–even a suggestion of nut skin. Would inexperienced tasters have written this off as prematurely oxidized without giving it a chance to blossom with air? Ten minutes in the glass brought much more vibrant aromas of peach, Christmas spices and orange oil, and an impression of powerful acidity (ten grams per liter, if I recall correctly from my first tasting of this wine from bottle at Trimbach). Densely packed and brisk in the mouth, with lovely sweetness of stone fruit flavors complicated by minerals and a chewy saline quality. This dry, bracing wine began with a slight sour edge but the strong acidity harmonized with air. In the recorked bottle 72 hours later, the wine hummed with citrus and stone fruit flavors and showed no oxidative notes.


1995 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 94+. Bright yellow-gold. Powerful aromas of pineapple, peach, ginger, crushed stone, botanical herbs and lemongrass, with a hint of earthiness quickly blowing off. Moderately sweet on entry, then primary and imploded in the mid-palate, thanks to bracing acidity and a mineral-driven saline quality. Tactile, palate-staining finish displays outstanding grip and length. A brilliant bottle of 1995, but others have shown clear signs of premature oxidation.


1992 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 93. Highly complex, musky nose offers smoky, stony minerality, honey, mocha, mushroom and saline and grassy nuances. Rich and seamless, with an impression of sweetness to its grapefruit and pineapple flavors, but the wine’s fruity acidity gives it shape and life. This very supple Clos Ste. Hune is perfect right now.


Pumpkin Angolotti. Shaved Gouda. Butter sauce. Delicious sweet soft pasta pillows. Again the butter totally worked with the wine. I could have eaten three plates of theses.


Chef Walter Manzke introduced each dish.


1988 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 93+. Good pale, bright yellow. Subdued but very pure aromas of grapefruit and orange peel and crushed stone. Then bracing and remarkably youthful in the mouth, offering highly complex flavors of peach, tarragon, licorice, herbal tea and dried flowers. Wonderfully nuanced and true to its site, and yet this uncompromisingly dry riesling comes across as extremely young today. Blind, I would have guessed this to be no more than ten years old.

agavin: my  favorites of the flight and one of my favorites of the night


1986 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. JK 93. had a great nose. There was this dollop of what I would call pungent, mature Riesling . the dried grapefruit along with yellow citrus fruits, a healthy and appealing streak of wood, minerals and tang. The pinch in the nose was super sexy, and the palate was big with youthful acidity, although the flavor profile was on the sour side. Elaine said, ‘it tastes like grapefruit that was picked from the tree too soon,’ and she was also bothered by its ‘stemminess’ as its wood flavors were more pronounced. The wine was still quite layered with the longest acidity of the three by far. It needed a lot more time and started to come around more and more; we ran out of time before it did in the end, and Frans wisely noted that ‘in twenty years, the 1986 will still be here.’


1985 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 94+. Pale bright yellow. Aromas of peach, grapefruit and pineapple, along with a sake-like saline quality. Compellingly youthful and juicy on the palate, with petrol and crushed stone notes lifted by mint and grapefruit zest. I’ve seen reports of advanced bottles of this vintage, but my bottle was pale in color and had plenty of positive evolution ahead of it. Impressively long and brisk on the aftertaste.


Chanterelle mushroom “outmeal.” Hazelnuts. Chef Manzke basically cooked oats in risotto style, slowly cooking them so the starch is drawn out to make them rich and gooey. Oh, there was also probably a ton of butter in there.


1979 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. 94 points. Nice yellow that doesn’t reveal too much age. Delicious nose of motor oil, smoked fruit and intense minerality. In the mouth this is fat yet well-defined with good underlying acidity and the same delicious notes as the nose (the motor oil gradually blows off).


1976 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. 94 points. Pretty awesome.


1973 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. IWC 95. Full bright gold. Subdued but not at all tired on the nose, opening slowly to reveal notes of peach syrup, musky pineapple, botanical herbs, coffee, mocha and truffle. Fat, sweet and seamless on first sip, then hugely rich but quite dry in the middle, showing more crushed stone and saline extract than fruit at this point. The chewy finish displays terrific lift and verve, thanks to strong acidity. Nearly 40 years old and still full of life.


Crispy Pork Belly. Cabbage and truffles. One rich cut of fatty pork with a nice crispy skin.

2004 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre. IWC 89+. Subtle but precise nose hints at cured meats, ginger and cinnamon. Sweet, spicy and concentrated, with penetrating cinnamon flavor and noteworthy inner-palate energy. Finishes with a youthful austerity. Not at all overly perfumed. This firmly built gewurztraminer would be perfect with many Asian cuisines.

agavin: too dry for my taste (in a dessert wine) but a good pairing.


1990 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre. 93-96 points. Honeyed nose with baked apple, cucumber peel, fresh herbs, floral notes and warm spices. Nicely dried and balanced palate with rich and pure fruit expression of pear to greenish banana. Honey, spices and liquorice. Good length finish with a bitter bite. Finely aged wine with still many years left.


Pineapple Pana Cotta. Berry sorbet. A stunning and fresh dessert. The pana cotta alone was worth the price of admission.

I’ve now been to Republique 6-7 times and the restaurant is at its best in the private room with a special tasting dinner. Walter really cooked his butt off for this one, carefully pairing each course to the wines. Downstairs, the room is very loud and there are some timing and pacing problems. We had none of these. Each course was brought by an army of 6-7 waiters and dropped elegantly in front of us. All the wine glasses had individual labels for each wine, etc.

Plus, there was the Clos St Hune itself. I have only had a few of these before, but in tasting so many in sequence the unique character of the vineyard (and winemaking) was very evident. Every single bottle was underlined by a strong — no intense — acidic backbone. But incredibly, as this white wine gain in years, past 10, then 20, then 30, toward 40, the fruit, minerality, and acid came together into better balance. Really good stuff, and very food friendly (particularly with butter!).

Sage Society knows how to put on one heck of a dinner!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Clos Ste. Hune, Liz Lee, République, Riesling, Sage Society, Taylor Parsons, Trimbach, Walter Manzke

Heavy Noodling at JTYH

Sep22

Restaurant: JTYH Heavy Noodle II

Location: 9425 Valley Blvd. Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 442-8999

Date: September 17, 2014

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Tasty

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The SGV has every kind of Chinese food. JTYH specializes in homemade noodles and dumplings. For those of you not in the “noodle know” knife cut noodles are made by shaving a block of raw dough directly into boiling water with a sharp knife.


Heavy Noodle, lol. The sequel to Heavy Metal the Movie?


The decor rivals Crustacean and The Bazaar. Not. But the food is tasty and the prices astounding.


Uh oh, Yarom is ordering. Expect pig ears!



The menu.


1998 J. Rochioli Chardonnay South River Vineyard. Oxidized, and certainly not getting any better, but with an enjoyable custard vibe.


Pig ear w/ spicy oil. I told you so. This is two pig ear dishes in 4 days. I’m not a fan.


2012 Caspari – Kappel Enkircher Ellergrub Riesling Spätlese feinherb “Alte Reben”. Sort of half dry with a lot of asphalt.


Cold cucumber. Chinese pickles. These are fine.


2005 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. 93 points. Nice and sweet and nectar-like.


Smoked Chicken. You would not believe this is chicken. Tastes like ham!


From my cellar: 2001 Ulrich Langguth Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Quite ripe – more Auslese in style – with a typical Mosel flavor profile. Enjoyable, and a good value for an ’01 Spatlese.


Celery. Yep.

2010 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Lime juice, orange, apricot and apple. The sweetness of the pure fruit does show but it is cut through by very good acidity and it finishes very cleanly.


Beef roll. This “burrito” of vegetables and cured (pastrami-like) beef is pretty awesome.


From my cellar: 2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers. IWC 92. Ruby-red. Highly aromatic nose combines dark berries, Cuban tobacco, smoke and game. Sweet, lush and fat, especially in the context of this vineyard, showing more texture than definition today following the racking. Best now on the very long, subtle finish, which features suave, sweet tannins and excellent firming acidity.


Boiled dumpling: pork w/ napa or leek. I’m not sure which dumpling Yarom ordered, but these had a tad more vegetable than I would have liked. Still, I ate three.


2009 Flying Goat Cellars Pinot Noir Rio Vista Vineyard. 91 points.


Shredded potato. This is a common central Chinese dish. Pretty darn yummy actually, particularly dipped i a bit of dumpling sauce.


2003 Flowers Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. 91 points. Holding well with good fruit and good balance still. Nice red cherry fruit roll-up, compote strawberry and vanilla. Secondary flavor of toasted walnuts and almonds. Nice smooth wine, would drink now.


Szechuan Style Beef (I think). Some tasty beef in a red chili sauce with just a bit of spicy numbing peppercorn.


1997 Arrowood Syrah Saralee’s Vineyard. IWC 90. Ruby-red. Complex, musky aromas of raspberry, game, mint, nuts and woodsmoke. Ripe, layered and deep, with a pleasing pliancy and enticing flavors of raspberry, cola and smoky oak. Finishes with fine tannins and a persistent, subtle flavor of tangy raspberry.


Spicy Lamb Ribs. We’d be all set for passover, because this was more like lamb bone and chilies. It was tasty, but there was merely a hint of meat on them thar ribs.


2004 Saxum Syrah James Berry Vineyard Bone Rock. Parker 93-98. Made from a blend of 85% Syrah, 12% Grenache, and 3% Mourvedre, there are 500 cases of the 2004 Bone Rock James Berry Vineyard. It possesses a saturated ruby/purple color along with tight, restrained aromatics of blackberries, blueberries, and flowers, good acidity, fleshy, full-bodied flavors, and fine elegance, delicacy, and finesse … rare for a wine of this size and intensity. It will drink well for 10-12 years.


Corn. Chinese succotash!


2003 Pax Cellars Syrah Walker Vine Hill. Parker 94-96. The inky/purple-tinged 2003 Syrah Walker Vine Hill is a 552-case cuvee produced from a 12-year old vineyard planted on a southern slope in sandy goldridge soils. One of the estate’s silkiest, most opulent efforts, it is a stunning, enormously concentrated 2003 that tips the scales at 15.2% alcohol. Nearly 100% stems were utilized during its fermentation. A saturated purple color is accompanied by a massive blast of blackberries, cassis, and white flowers in this full-throttle, super-concentrated effort. There is a meaty-like richness in the mouth, as if one were chewing the wine rather than drinking it. Enjoy this impressive Syrah during its first decade of life.


Fried Pork Dumplings. These were the real deal. The filling was great and meaty. The covering was THICK!


2004 Dumol Syrah Jack Robert’s Run. Parker 95. The terrific, dense purple-colored 2004 Syrah Jack Robert’s Run is a 200-case cuvee that spent 18 months in French oak. Notes of melted tar, roasted peppers, meat juices, blackberries, and cassis emerge from this full-bodied, rich, flavor-filled, intense effort. Enjoy it over the next 10 years.


Hand-made noodles with preserved meat. Basically like pasta fresca with vegetables and sweet salami. Fabulously yummy though.


2006 Pride Mountain Vineyards Merlot. Parker 86. There are 5,000 cases of the 2006 Merlot, a blend of Sonoma and Napa fruit that includes 12% Cabernet Sauvignon. Its dark ruby/purple color is followed by subtle aromas of road tar, mocha, and sweet cherries, medium body, and austere, aggressive tannins that attenuate the finish. Drink this 2006 sooner rather than later as I do not believe the fruit is sufficient to hold up to the structure.

agavin: not sure we opened this, but it was on the table.


Dan Dan Noodle. You still it up. There was chili oil at the bottom. This is a pretty classic rendition. Quite nice with a little bit of heat.


Bok choy. Standard Chinese vegetable.


1997 René Renou Bonnezeaux Cuvée Zenith. 92 points. Opened and served immediately. Dark yellow to gold color in the glass, clear hue throughout. Nose of apricots, honey and a bit of tangerine. Dash of honey on the palate up front followed by a bit of lychee. Pretty light and somewhat nimble on the palate. Medium acidity, light to medium body. Drink over the short term, maybe the medium term.


Spicy Shrimp. Similar prep to the “ribs.” You ate the shells and that was fine, they were cooked down to a nice sweet crunchy state. A bit of peppercorn in here too. Very nice.


Shrimp fried rice. Classic.


2005 Domaine Huet Vouvray Moelleux 1ère Trie Clos du Bourg. VC 97. Light golden yellow color; almond, green apple, lanolin, white pepper, wet wool nose; rich, structured, deep, ripe apple, peach, mineral, almond, tart pear palate; long finish.


Cumin lamb. Here’s where all the meat went! These chunks were succulent and tender.


Beef fried noodle. More noodles, but again “hand-made” and again very good.

Food was extremely tasty at JTYH, and extremely reasonable. The feast was $28 a person with a huge tip. We didn’t actually get the “knife cut” noodles though (even though ordered) instead getting three types of the “hand-made” (which are more like a handmade spaghetti). I would have liked to try their knife cut, which are thicker and shorter (probably the same dough). I’ll just have to come back.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

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By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Auslese, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, JTYH Heavy Noodle II, knife cut noodle, Riesling, SGV, Spätlese, Valley Boulevard

Chili Crab Craze – Starry Kitchen

Aug04

Restaurant: Starry Kitchen

Location: 943 N Broadway, Los Angeles, Ca, 90012. 213-814-1123

Date: July 31, 2014

Cuisine: Singaporean

Rating: Great fun

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Tonight the Hedonists take over Starry Kitchen, a strange sort of vaguely Singaporean / Pan Asian pop up that has gained notoriety in recent years. This was one of these zoo style events with 25 people, a giant table, and around 30+ wines! I don’t think I even photographed them all as it was too chaotic. I have tried to organize them into coherent flights below, but it was anything but at the actual event. Just a free for all. However, there was so much wine that it wasn’t a problem getting any particular bottle. Most took a while to run out. Plus this sort of cuisine goes best (really only) with whites, particularly slightly sweet ones (like Riesling). But this never stops the fans of giant reds — they drink them regardless. Cava. 2002 Delamotte Champagne Blanc de Blancs Millésimé. Burghound 91. A relatively high-toned nose of green apple, baker’s yeast, floral and citrus peel hints precedes the distinctly effervescent, even slightly foamy flavors that possess good depth on the bone dry finish. This is clearly still on its way up as the focused finish is still compact and while this is certainly refreshing and there is enough depth present to make for an interesting drink, it will be better in due course. In sum, there is good development potential and will especially please those who prefer very dry vintage Champagne. 1998 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé. IWC 91. Light gold color. Intensely smoky on the nose, with rich nutty and floral aromas of molasses cookie and gingerbread along with a wild fresh herb quality and a whiff of blood orange. The spicy character repeats on the palate, which shows ripe citrus, mineral and apple flavors. Finishes complex and long, with excellent concentration and impressive focus. Tofu balls with puffed rice and sriracha aioli. Interesting outer crunch with inner softness. I’ve no idea what the green is about. 2011 Arkenstone Sauvignon Blanc. 93 points web. 1998 E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane. IWC 92. Spicy aromas of peach syrup, citrus skin and menthol. Rich, sweet and lush, with superb depth of flavor and extract. Seems both livelier and more structured than the normale, not to mention longer on the back end. Lots of gras here. agavin: grapefruit peel! 2006 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese. 96 points. Peach and pineapple with grapefruit and slate. Plenty of ripeness as opposite to outright sweetness on the palate and it retains a feeling of being light on its feet. There is also a sweet and sour element going on which I liked. At a stage in between youth and having development but still enjoyable now. 2003 Joh. Jos. Prüm Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. There was definitely spritz present, and lots of it. The nose was not giving much. My husband smelled petroleum right away. I thought the nose was strange, but agreed with him that it was petroleum. Then, very slight aromas of honey, peaches, baked dough, and floral came through underneath. On the palate, the wine was rather sweet with taste of honey & fruits. Rather one dimensional, lacks in complexity. Medium finish. This wine is made to pair with food IMHO. I find it more pleasurable to drink this wine with food than without because of the sweetness, and it especially pairs great with spicy dishes. 2002 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese. IWC 90. Smoke and brown spice notes on the nose, mingled with strawberry jam. Delicate and airy in the mouth, yet superbly rich in spice and inner-mouth florality. Salty, spicy and not particularly sweet in its long, wafting finish. 1996 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain. 91 points. Golden color. Exotic fruit aromas. Velvety texture. Fullbodied and big. Some residual sugar. A lovely, balanced and well drinking wine. Shrimp and pork chili oil wonton. Shredded potatoes. Spicy, and clearly a variant of the schezuan “numb taste wonton.” Not nearly as hot though. 2010 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 93. A wonderfully elegant and highly expressive nose consists of white flower, oyster shell and iodine aromas that are very much in keeping with the powerful yet refined broad-scaled flavors that possess both excellent volume and concentration, all wrapped in an explosive and gorgeously long finish. The combination of punch and civility is most beguiling. 2002 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Burghound 93. It’s interesting but this is much more feminine and rounder in style than the Le Charlemagne with its distinctly masculine character. This is not as powerful but it’s more elegant with precise, delineated and pure flavors that also enjoy ample amounts of dry extract and awe-inspiring length. agavin: A little premoxed, but drinking nicely. 2012 Gilbert Picq Chablis 1er Cru Vosgros. Burghound 90-92. A beautifully well-layered nose features notes of mineral reduction, green fruit and ocean breeze nuances. There is impressive scale to the concentrated and powerful medium weight flavors that are both intense saline and mineral-inflected on the mouth coating and lingering finish. As is usually the case this is less refined than the Vaucoupin but there’s better underlying material. agavin: drinking really flat right now 2009 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clavoillon. Burghound 91. This is notably riper than the Blagny and the nose plays right on the edge of a certain exoticism as the mostly yellow orchard fruit aromas hint at the presence of mango and papaya. The very rich, round and mouth coating flavors exude plenty of dry extract that buffers the moderately firm acid spine on the lightly mineral-driven and persistent finish. Overall this is really quite pretty and about the only nit is the presence of the barest hint of finishing bitterness that my score assumes will dissipate with a few years of bottle age. agavin: drinking great. Some reduction (which I like). Chinese mustard greens with pancetta. As good as greens get — because bacon makes everything better. 2000 Les Cailloux (Lucien et André Brunel) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Centenaire. Parker 96. The heady 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Centenaire is more evolved than either the 2001 or 1998. Extremely full-bodied, with low acidity, and a knock-out bouquet of blackberry and cherry jam intermixed with licorice, pepper, and dried Provencal herbs, this sexy, voluptuous, enormously concentrated 2000 possesses a huge, silky, seamless finish. Drink this irresistible effort now and over the next 12-15 years. 2008 François Villard St. Joseph Reflet. 90 points. Fantastic nose. Big pepper with lots of violets and herbs. Lovely balanced even palate. Perfect finishing tannin. Lengthy. Just a terrific wine all around. Pork belly fried rice. Really, how could you go wrong with this? From my cellar: 1993 Domaine Robert Arnoux / Arnoux-Lachaux Echezeaux. Burghound 91. Black spicy fruit trimmed by a deft touch of oak leads to substantially scaled, rich, intense flavors of impressive depth and the elegant breed of a fine Echézeaux is obvious, especially on the exceptionally long finish. I very much like this as it’s both beautifully balanced and offers solid concentration and cellar potential. agavin: tasted much better than the nose. Maybe a tiny bit of brett, but drinking well. 2002 Kistler Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. 89 points. Drinking decently. Muted cherry and strawberry, slight bricking. 2011 La Bastide Blanche Bandol. 85 points. Dark red color. Tobacco, dirt, black cherry, meat on nose. On palate, full body but nice acidity provides balance. Cherry, sour cherry, garrigue on palate. Medium+ finish. Malaysian chicken curry. A very nice medium hot curry. Chicken fell right off the bone. And it went great on top of the fried rice. 2007 Domaine Grand Veneur Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes. Parker 98+. The newest special cuvee (introduced in 2006) is the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes (50% Grenache, 40% Mourvedre, and 10% Syrah). Made from 50- to 100+-year-old vines and aged 18 months in small oak barrels, it is potentially one of the longest lived wines of the vintage. This exquisite, dense purple-colored effort reveals intense but restrained notes of cassis, kirsch, lavender, licorice, and graphite. A wine of great intensity as well as remarkable finesse and elegance, is a full-bodied Chateauneuf that will require plenty of patience. Give it 3-4 years of bottle age, and drink it over the following 25-30. 2009 Bibi Graetz Testamatta. Parker 90. The 2009 Testamatta possesses remarkable depth and power along with tons of textural elegance. There is plenty of Sangiovese character in the dusty red cherries, flowers, licorice and tobacco. The wine’s color and forward bouquet suggest it is on a relatively fast path of evolution. Saffron fish wraps. In there is a interesting mixture of pickles, saffron coated fish, onions, and white rice noodles. Here is the wrap stuff. And the final product. 2010 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Vino da Tavola. Parker 97+. Now to a superstar of Italian enology: The 2010 Flaccianello della Pieve will take your breath away. This is a seriously beautiful Sangiovese-based wine with the kind of intensity and aromatic purity you only experience every 1,000 wines or so. There’s a lot to say here. First, the wine’s beautiful appearance shows dark garnet colors with highlights of ruby and purple gemstone. The bouquet delivers a steady and seductive evolution with dark cherry, chocolate, spice, tobacco and sweet almond all seamlessly balanced one against the other. Its texture and inner fabric is rich, velvety and firm. There’s a brilliant spot of acidity that hits you at the back of the mouth and helps the wine from feeling too heavy or dense. In fact, outstanding elegance is what ultimately sets it apart. The temptation to drink it now is huge, but those still young tannins definitely need a few more years to unwind. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2035. Rice, egg, ground hamburger. Mixed up, it actually has a burger like vibe because of the meat and the pickles. But very tasty. 2006 Gemstone Proprietary Red Wine. Parker 93. The superb 2006 Gemstone Proprietary Red  (an 890-case blend of 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Petit Verdot) is from the cooler Oakville / Yountville sector of Napa. It exhibits a dense ruby/purple color as well as a beautiful bouquet of subtle new oak interwoven with black currants, smoke, licorice, and a hint of spring flowers. The wine is full-bodied, with excellent density, admirable balance, and fine purity, a hallmark of this estate. It should drink nicely for two decades. Pork belly clay pot. 2002 Pax Syrah Lauterbach Hill. IWC 92. Saturated ruby. Cooler, high-pitched aromas of black raspberry, blackberry, cassis and mint. Juicy and lively; less lush than the Vine Hill bottling as the wine is more dominated by its firm tannic spine (this was vinified with a high percentage of whole clusters.) Densely packed but tightly wound, with lively notes of licorice and minerals. Whereas most of the Pax 2002s offer considerable immediate appeal, this wine really needs two or three years of cellaring. Garlic noodles. And we really do mean GARLIC. There could not have been more garlic flavor. 2008 Cayuse Grenache God Only Knows Armada Vineyard. Parker 94. Baron’s 2008 Grenache Armada Vineyard God Only Knows displays delectable scents and luscious palate presence of lightly-cooked strawberry and plum laced with nut oils and shadowed by plum and herb distillates. Seamlessly polished, almost velvety and glycerol-rich as well as sweetly ripe, this, nonetheless, projects a torrent of primary fruit juiciness along with levity and energy. Saliva-inducing salinity along with piquant fruit pit, and iodine accents add riveting counterpoint to a finish of prodigious length that manages to simultaneously sooth and stimulate. I would expect this to reward attention for at least another decade. 1993 Opus One Proprietary Red Wine. parker 93. Deep garnet-brick colour. Fragrant aromas of dried cranberries, prunes, cinnamon and cumin giving way to subtler earthy notes of leather and tar. A lot of discernable fruit remains on the palate framed by crisp acidity and a medium level of grainy tannins. Very long, layered finish. Drink now to 2018. Tasted April 2009. And the main event: Chili crab. The crab is drowned in the chili sauce, which has much of the meat. Those balls are fried bread puffs. They each weigh about 1/3 of a pound (not kidding). Heavy stuff but perfect for dipping. I haven’t had Chili Crab too many times, but this was very close to what I had in Singapore. The crab itself was much smaller here (there we had these huge Sri Lankan crabs). Also amazing on the fried rice (not the most attractive, but tastes great). 2009 Rieussec. Parker 97. The team at Chateau Rieussec have conjured a stellar wine in 2009. There is a little reduction at first that fortunately blows away, revealing thickly layered scents of honey, Danish pastry and quince that appear to gain vigor with every passing sip. The palate is stunning: very viscous in the mouth with tangy grapefruit, honey and white peach. It is still primal, but the acidity is perfectly judged and there is a life-affirming sense of precision and tension towards the finish. Exceptional. Drink now-2045. Churros. A bit oily, and again, mysteriously green. Another awesome evening. Good food, if a little eclectic, and a zoo of enjoyable (if not entirely food friendly) wines. But just great company and hence a whole lot of fun.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Picking at the crab

Rarrrr!

Related posts:

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  2. Hunan Chili Madness
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  4. Raw Crab Guts are Yummy
  5. Where in the world is Yanbian?
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Champagne, Chili Crab, crab, hedonists, Los Angeles, Riesling, Spätlese, Starry Kitchen, Wine

New Bay Seafood

Jan22

Restaurant: New Bay Seafood [1, 2]

Location: 203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. (626) 872-6677

Date: January 20, 2014

Cuisine: Cantonese / Chiu Chow Chinese

Rating: Really on point!

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New Bay Seafood is a fairly elaborate (big with multiple private rooms) Hong Kong and Chiu Chow palace that took over the late Sham Tseng space in 2013.


The interior is typical of Inland Empire Chinese restaurants. We had a private room (there are several).


On the table to start were the traditional peanuts.


And some marinated pickles.


2006 Schafer-Frohlich Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spatlese. Parker 92. The Frohlichs- 2006 Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spatlese came from significantly botrytized grapes and was yeasted to assure a reliable fermentation. Licorice, honey, black currant, and pineapple dominate the nose and palate, where an almost buttery texture and high residual sugar do not prevent juiciness and vivacity, thanks in part to the acidity having gone ever higher here than in the Felseneck. Irresistibly luscious, subtly honeyed and saline, smoky, and tingling mineral in its finish, this, too, should be a long (15+ year) keeper, although Frohlich is convinced that the Felsenberg will have an edge in complexity thanks to the effect of spontaneous fermentation.


This roast BBQ pork was tremendous. It’s that red skinned variety that I used to get growing up in Cantonese dimsum houses, but was tender, not too fatty, and delicious.


Next up was a roast BBQ duck served with a sweet orange colored sauce. No one does duck as well as the Chinese and this was a delectable example.


From my cellar: 1994 Bollig-Lehnert Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Auslese. 92 points. The sweetness had pleasantly faded, but it had extremely nice petrol notes.


We called this the cheese lobster, because there is actually a bit of cheese mixed in with all that fry. And, yeah, it’s pretty darned fried, but it was really tasty. The lobster itself was succulent and not over done and it was easy to access big chunks of it.


2003 Louis Latour Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 92. This too is quite aromatically expressive and while this is no model of finesse either, both the aromatic and flavor profiles possess stunning complexity and in contrast to most big, sappy and muscular white, this manages to retain an unusually fine sense of balance and delivers a palate staining finish. It’s dramatic but there’s substance behind the size and weight.

Our bottle was a little closed and tired, although it opened as the evening progressed.


Some of our party had dietary restrictions and they asked for this steamed tilapia with pepper. They seemed to love it, although for me, the whole thing sort of ignores the point of Chinese food.


House special lobster. This version of the lobster was even better. The sauce had quite a bit of black pepper and scallions in it. Lots of flavor and very tender.


From my cellar: 1995 Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques. 94 points. Smells of creamy blue and black fruit, and earth. It’s powerful on the palate, the fruit tastes young, and deep. There are layers to the palate that reveal bramble, minerals, and a seemingly weightless power. Finishes with a tarry, meaty, wild side. Excellent wine that is beginning to show.


Chinese chicken salad. Haha. I have no idea how authentic this is, but the flavor profile was actually more Vietnamese (which really isn’t that far from Chiu Chow). There was a sweet/savory thing, a little bit of zing, and cilantro.


Salt and pepper shrimp. Nice tender version of this too with a lot of salty garlic flavor.


2006 Marcassin Pinot Noir Three Sisters Vineyard. Parker 94+. The 2006 Pinot Noirs that are just being released include the 2006 Pinot Noir Three Sisters Vineyard. While it has closed down since I tasted it last year, it does reveal a dark plum/ruby color as well as a smoky bouquet of Asian plum sauce, soy, forest floor and sweet black cherries. Like many Marcassin Pinots, it possesses a Morey St.-Denis-like character. The Three Sisters cuvee will benefit from another 1-2 years of bottle age and drink well for a decade or more.

In my opinion, this was a nice new world pinot, but as usual, too oaked and young. I’m certainly not drinking 1re cru Burgundy (which would be the analog here) from ’06, more like the late 90s.


Roast BBQ chicken. I’m not that much of a chicken fan, but this was a darn tasty one. The meat was moist and perfectly cooked.


Chiu Chow crab. Super tasty again, and sleeping on a bed of giant garlic cloves. The owner warned us that this baby might gift us with a bit of a surprise in the middle of the night — in the form of excess gas! LOL.


Sautéed greens (pea tendrils?). A top flight version of the Southern Chinese style greens. Lots of garlicky goodness.


2001 Noon Shiraz Reserve. Parker 99. The 2001 Shiraz Reserve is a riveting example of what is so exciting about old vine Shiraz. Produced from a 35-40-year old McLaren Vale vineyard, it possesses amazing aromatics, purity, texture, and richness. This 2001, which tips the scales at a lofty 15.8% alcohol, is intense and full-bodied as well as remarkably elegant for a wine of such mass and intensity. Its impenetrable inky/black/purple color is accompanied by explosive aromatics, and is bursting with deep, rich, well-balanced flavors revealing seamlessly integrated wood, alcohol, acidity, and tannin. Profoundly deep, rich, and intense, it will hit its peak in 3-4 years, and should last for 15+. This is truly compelling old vine Shiraz!


Eggplant with pork. A slightly spicy eggplant with bamboo shoots and pork. Really really tasty and I love that kind of stringy sweet pork.


Sweet and sour pork. Sort of the real version of those Panda Express fried pork balls in red sauce. Quite good as this dish goes.


Fried fish. Tender salty fish and chips without the chips — Chinese style.


Shrimp over crispy noodles. I love this kind of mild dish. The white sauce soaks into the noodles and makes for a sort of comfort food.

Overall, New Bay Seafood was really good. Being Southern Chinese, it’s not the most exotic of the Chinese sub-regions (foodwise, since so much American Chinese is Cantonese derived) but their execution is really very very good. Every dish was tasty and more than half of them fabulous. If you want an approachable entree into the wonderful world of San Gabriel Valley Chinese, you can’t go wrong with New Bay. And, besides, the owner treated us like kings. They served the dishes one by one, hung out, and we’re generally fabulous.


Afterward, we walked next door to the awesome Sabu Dessert and get some light fluffy “snow.” If you haven’t tried Taiwanese style snow, you are really missing out. This one above was coconut snow, passionfruit sauce, with egg pudding, almond jelly, and blackberries. Yum!


Someone else’s slightly different snow.

For more crazy Hedonist meals.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Rocking the SGV shirt!

Related posts:

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  5. Sometimes You Want to Get Crabs
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Alhambra California, Burgundy, Chinese cuisine, crab, hedonists, Lobster, New Bay Seafood, Riesling, san Gabriel valley, Wine

Where in the world is Yanbian?

May30

Restaurant: Yanbian Restaurant

Location: 4251 W 3rd St. Los Angeles, CA 90004. (213) 383-5959

Date: May 21, 2013

Cuisine: Yanbian Chinese

Rating: Great food, incredible deal!

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Until a few weeks ago I hadn’t heard of Yanbian, an autonomous prefecture in the borderlands between China and Korea. But like any place, it has its own regional cuisine, and LA, being rich in Asian culture has at least one restaurant specializing in the area. My Hedonist group has been here several times, but this is my first visit.


This Koreatown hole-in-the-wall might not look like much, but the food is excellent and they did a great job handling our oversized party.


Champagne to start.


Twice cooked pork. I’ve had the meat part of this dish numerous times at Chinese, but never coupled with these “spring roll” like sides. It was all very tasty.


2010 Karthauserhof Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Riesling. Parker 88. Honeysuckle, lime, and honeydew melon scent and generously inform the palate of Tyrell’s 2010 Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Riesling Spatlese, which however suffers from some of the same sense of opacity and diffusion as the corresponding Kabinett. A surprisingly soothing, glycerin-rich, and honeyed palate impression leads to a finish that would benefit from a bit more sheer juiciness and less overt sweetness, though there is just enough citrus to serve for some refreshment. Perhaps time will bring further complexity and clarity. I am more inclined to credit this with some serious bottle potential – surely at least a dozen years – than I am most of the wines that preceded it in the present Karthauserhof line-up.

I also brought a bottle of:

2011 Joh Jos Prum Riesling Kabinett Wehlener Sonnenuhr. Parker 93. Prum’s 2011 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett is a tad higher in residual sugar and correspondingly lower in alcohol than its immediate stable mates, but as one would expect from this great site, if anything the taste impression is drier. A ravishing nose of heliotrope and honeysuckle, Normandy cider and wet stone establishes the common themes for a palate performance that unites delicacy, juiciness and creaminess to an uncanny degree that only a few of the best Mosel vineyards and their prime caretakers can capture. Mouthwateringly lingering and compelling of the next sip, this rarified illustration of Mosel Kabinett virtue will reward you over the next quarter century.


No restaurant with Korean influences would be without the Kimchee!


And this other spicy vegetable.


2011 Chateau Ste. Michelle & Dr. Loosen Riesling Eroica. IWC 88. Pale yellow-straw. Sexy aromas of nectarine, ginger and nutmeg. Moderately sweet but not at all cloying, with nectarine, apple, pear and brown spice flavors complicated by a saline quality and perked up by white flowers and CO2. Not particularly gripping and very easy to drink. Finishes just off-dry, with a menthol nuance and a suggestion of crab apple that brought my score down.


And these greens.


And marinated bean sprouts.


2010 Patrick Piuze Chablis Fourchaume. Parker 90. Layers of dried pears, crushed flowers and licorice, all supported by fine, nuanced veins of minerality, emerge from the 2010 Chablis Fourchaume. This is a relatively approachable 2010 to drink over the next few years.


Fried duck. Really fried duck — but delicious, with a light “beer batter” style fry.


From my cellar: 1996 Domaine Joseph Drouhin Charmes Chambertin. Parker 92. This medium-to-dark ruby-colored wine has a fine nose of deeply ripe blackberry and cassis. On the palate, this well-concentrated, thick, complex, and harmonious wine is replete with loads of black cherries and spices. It has extremely ripe and supple tannins in its long finish.


Potstickers. These are typical Chinese dumplings, but with a particularly thick doughy shell. Maybe a little doughy for my taste.


The tasty spicy sauce for the dumplings.


And competing (not entirely successfully) with the grandeur of Burgundy is:

2009 Beaulieu Pinot Noir Reserve. Parker 89. The 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve Carneros is a bold, juicy wine bursting with candied red berries, flowers and mint. It comes across as fairly forward and quite fat. The 2009 is best suited to near-term drinking.


Walnut shrimp. With their light fluffy fry and a nice hint of mustard in the sauce these were some great walnut shrimp.


1988 D’Issan. Parker doesn’t like this wine, but it was a pleasant older Bordeaux.


Pork with quail egg. It doesn’t look like much but this was a great dish with soft pork and a nice flavor. The white balls are hard boiled quail eggs.


2007 Château Trocard. 88 points.


Spicy fried chicken. This is one of those dry Hunan/Szechuan style dishes.


2009 Jarvis Tomei Syrah Coloma “Meatgrinder”. 92 points. Cherry, cedar and floral notes on the nose. Very smooth and easy to drink, mouth-watering blackberry, violets, vanilla with a coffee finish.


Rice with eggplant and mushrooms. The consistency of the rice was very sticky, with a mellow comfort food vibe going on. Very pleasant.


2005 Mollydooker Enchanted Path. 93 points. Very surprised with how rich and pleasant this was, especially compared with my experience with Carnival of Love from the same vintage which runs toward heat and alcohol. In contrast, the enchanted path last night was showing a seamless combination of blue and red fruit and the creamy texturethat others have mentioned. Lovely stuff that could be appreciated by anyone who likes good wine.


Mountain potatoes and eggplant.


2000 Greenock Creek Shiraz Alices. Parker 90. Fashioned from low yields of 1.27 tons of fruit per acre, the 2000 Shiraz Alice’s is 100% Shiraz aged in American oak for 28 months prior to being bottled unfiltered. A strong effort for the vintage, it exhibits a deep ruby/purple color in addition to a sweet nose of blackberries, pepper, and licorice, medium body, and a fine finish.


Spicy pork. See those peppers? They are real Szechuan peppers and they left the mouth and face numb!


The pork was hiding underneath but was great — when the numbness allowed tasting it!


2003 Pax Cellars Syrah Lauterbach Hill. Parker 94. The 2003 Syrah Lauderbach Hill, from a vineyard farmed by Lee Martinelli, was cropped at two tons of fruit per acre, and spent time in 100% French oak, of which 40% was new. No shy Syrah at 15.9% alcohol, it exhibits great intensity as well as a tremendously sweet bouquet of crushed rocks, creme de cassis, blackberries, and flowers. A full-bodied, opulent, exotic effort, it should drink well for a decade or more.


Egg with tomatoes. Slightly sweet, a kind of Chinese omelet.

Overall, Yanbian was great fun, great food, and all of the above was $20 a person! Including tax and a 35% tip! Wow!

More crazy Hedonist adventures or
LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

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  3. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
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  5. Hunan Chili Madness
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: China, Chinese cui, hedonists, Korean cuisine, Mosel, Rice, Riesling, Wine, Yanbian, Yanbian Restaurant

Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka

Apr11

Restaurant: Hoy-Ka Thai Noodle

Location: 5401 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027

Date: April 8, 2013

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Really tasty!

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This Hollywood Thai is in a sketchy neighborhood, but the reasonable price and excellent food more than make up for it. Plus, they have no liquor license and let us bring our own wine with no corkage. Always a plus!

Hedonist regular Penny, who is Thai, did the ordering, which didn’t hurt either.


2009 Jacques Bavard Bourgogne-Aligoté. Chardonnay gets the bulk of the white Burgundy attention. Aligote is a pleasant diversion, a simple wine that nevertheless has multiple layers to savor. The nose is flinty and faintly fruity, with a slight citrus note accented with a bit of peppery spiciness. Noticeably acidic up front, but that sharpness is quickly balanced out with a bit of honeysuckle and just a little bit of creaminess in the finish. Pleasant enough to drink on its own, but this really is at its best as a table wine to complement food. There is a good amount of sapidity (salty flavors).


The Western Sausage served with fresh vegetables: garlic, peanuts, ginger, and cabbage. Very tasty sausage and the garlic was intensely strong.


2011 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett. Aromas of passion fruit and nut oil. The creamy tropical fruits flavors are light, well-balanced and elegant. Certainly fun to drink. IWC 88.


Fried fish balls served with spicy sweet sauce. Interesting chewy texture too.


2011 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. Elegant aromas of Bing cherry, apple blossom and roasted pine nuts. Sweet and delicate but nonetheless creamy on the palate, with sweet herbs and a touch of vanilla. Lemon curd and slate animate a compelling finish. IWC 90.

Very very nice.


Pork jerky. Deep fried sun dried, marinated pork, served with spicy house sauce.


Chicken larb. Ground chicken with lime juice, onion, ground chili & rice powder.


2002 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Central Coast. Sweet herb and forest floor scents jump from the glass of the dark plum/ruby-tinged 2002 Pinot Noir Coastline Vineyard. Broodingly backward, rich, dense, and promising, its masculine, tannic, stacked and packed personality suggests 2-3 years of bottle age will be beneficial. Parker 91.

Not bad for a new world pinot. Still some oak — too much.


Yum Woosen. Silver noodle with ground pork, shrimp and vegetables seasoned with spicy lemon dressing.

A bit sweet and very very tasty.


Papaya salad. Shredded green papaya, green beans, tomatoes, and dried shrimps, crispy pork, seasoned with lime juice and chili.

A great papaya salad.


2008 Terredora di Paolo Aglianico Campania IGT. The estate’s 2008 Aglianico is a gem of a wine. Wild cherries, dark raspberries, spices, leather and licorice come together beautifully in this medium-bodied red. Floral notes waft out from the glass on the finish. There is nothing fussy here, just a flat out delicious bottle of unoaked Aglianico readers are sure to enjoy. Even better, this is a terrific value. Parker 90.

While not a bad Aglianico, the flavor profile was really off for Thai.


Hoy Ka Noodle. A noodle with ground pork, BBQ pork, pork meatballs, pork loaf and liver.

This soup was superb, one of the best I’ve ever had. Just really good and addictive, with a good bit of heat.


Hoy Ka Noodle. A noodle with ground chicken, sliced chicken, and fish balls.


Noodles with pork in a liver and pigs blood broth! Also super tasty, and much heartier, than the above soups. I liked the first a bit more, but you’d never know this was pig’s blood!


Red curry in coconut milk, sweet basil, bamboo shoots and fresh chili. A great version of the classic.


This Pozzan Merlot was a decent wine, but the big bold flavor profile was stunningly wrong for the food.


Pad See Eiw. Stir fried noodle with Chinese broccoli, egg, black soy sauce, and beef. Yum!


2005 Saxum Booker Vineyard. A blend of 92% Syrah and 8% Grenache, the 2005 Booker Vineyard is the debut vintage of this 400-case cuvee produced from a hillside vineyard situated on the west side of Highway 101. It exhibits plenty of crushed rock, sweet black fruit, and underbrush/forest floor characteristics along with sweet tannin and a structured, muscular personality similar to a northern Rhone. Big and powerful yet precise and well-delineated, it should drink nicely for 10-15 years. The bottled 2005s are all performing well. Parker 94.

This wine was SO BIG that it smashed right through the spice and actually worked!


Crispy Pork Ka Prao. Stir friend crispy pork with chili, basil, green beans, and house special sauce. Like bacon Ka Prao!


Ka Prao pork. Stir fried ground pork with basil, chili, and green beans. Also very tasty with some real heat.


Fried rice with pineapple, shrimp, chicken, and curry. The dominant flavor is yellow curry. Nice finishing dish.

Overall, this place has a great kitchen, and almost every dish was really well executed. The first pork soup in particular was amazing and it’s too bad they’re so far (about 45 minutes) from my house, or it would make an awesome lunch by itself.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

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  2. Hawaiian Noodle Bar
  3. Hedonists Cook the Goose
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  5. Hedonists at La Paella
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Fritz Haag, hedonists, Hoy-Ka, Joh. Jos. Prüm, noodles, Pinot noir, pork, Riesling, Thai, Thai cuisine, Thia food, Williams Selyem Winery, Wine

Hunan Chili Madness

Dec26

Restaurant: Hunan Chili King

Location: 534 E Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776

Date: December 23, 2012 & August 9, 2015 & September 1, 2017 & August 19, 2018 & June 13, 2021 & February 26, 2023

Cuisine: Hunan Chinese

Rating: Great, spicy, cheap

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Way back in the day, Hunan Chili King was only the SECOND time I went to the SGV for Chinese food with the Hedonists! And twice in one week, I was invited to head back east into the San Gabriel Valley for some more Chinese (my earlier adventure can be found here).

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This time we tackled the hot and spicy cuisine of the Chinese heartland, the Hunan province.


Here is just a sampling of the pickled chillies and vegetables they make here for use in this smokey, earthy, inferno hot style of Chinese cooking.

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The menu on June 13, 2021.

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Cold Cucumber Salad. Really great cucumber salad variant enchanced with garlic, chili and cilantro. This was cool and crunchy with quite a bit of heat and a ton of flavor.


Hunan style cold cucumber salad with marinated cucumber, Wood Ear/Black Fungus, shredded Broccoli stems, Cilantro, and chilies (everything has chilies). This was really tasty, and one of the least spicy dishes. The marinate lent it a slight cool quality.

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Preserved Eggs, Eggplant, Pepper. This is mashed up before being eaten. Quite nice with excellent garlicky flavor eggplant. I would have liked a little more preserved egg to add even more of that umami flavor.


Hunan spicy chicken. This roast then chopped chicken was served cold. Super tasty and enjoyable, except, perhaps, for that oh so Chinese need to chew around all the bone bits.

This particular dinner was sort of 25% hedonist in that it had some members of my hedonist wine club. There were a lot less bottles than at a full fledged event, and because of the spicy food we went mostly with sweet whites like:

From my cellar: Incorporating fruit principally from Wehlener Nonnenberg, Graacher Himmelreich, and Bernkasteler Johannisbrunnchen, the generic Prum 2011 Riesling Kabinett displays an archetypal Mosel Riesling nose of fresh apple, lemon, and clover allied to faintly cheesy, leesy youthful “stink”; and comes to the palate bright and zippy, with hints of wet stone, and prominent cyanic piquancy of apple pit invigoratingly extending its mouthwateringly juicy, if tart and relatively simple finish.


Lobster head, tofu, meat, and noodle soup. Really yummy, with noodles underneath the broth. After the chillies and the heat of the soup my head was really sweating.

Fried lobster with chilies. A superb lobster preparation, like a spicy version of Lobster Causeway Style.


From my cellar: A fine combination of textural creaminess with refreshment and lift characterizes the Weins-Prum 2009 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese, which combines lusciously ripe, fresh pear and apple with vanilla and marzipan and finishes with both soothing and stimulating length. This impeccably-balanced, textbook example of its site and style ought to retain its allure for at least two decades.


Flavor intestine. Not my favorite conceptually.


Hunan steamed fish head. This is a Hunan classic. The fish is very soft and full of all sorts of weird cartilage texture.

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Fish Filet with Hot Sauce. Easier (and maybe tastier) to eat than the head. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

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Braised Whole Fish. I wanted the classic fish head but was convinced to go for a whole fish instead. I’m not sure what kind of fish they used. It was very tender with a sort of earthy tone and maybe a flavor that just hinted of “old bay.” Quite unusual and delicious.


Sautéed frog. Tasty, lots of bone bits. The Christmas theme to all the food isn’t seasonal, it’s just all the chillies!


A chardonnay someone else brought.


Shredded squid with bamboo shoot. Tasty.


Sautéed whole “crystal prawns,” Hunan style. These were great and an expensive specialty shrimp.

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Sauteed Spicy Shrimp. Wonderful juicy whole shrimp with chilis, crunchy green beans, and a lovely “softer” flavored Hunan sauce. Despite having that same Hunan “Christmas” (green and red) look, it did taste different than the other dishes.

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Hunan chicken (8/19/18). Chicken in a similar mix of red and green peppers. Very tasty.

To go with the meat we step up the intensity a bit.

Parker 91-93, “The extraordinary 2007 Cotes du Rhone-Villages Rasteau offers up aromas of chocolate, black cherries, dusty, loamy soil, scorched earth, garrigue, and spice. This full-bodied, powerfully concentrated, meaty, expansive, substantial wine should age well for a decade.”

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Chiliking Crispy Egg. Many people had never had this dish. I’ve actually made it. These eggs, sometimes called “dragon eggs” are deep fried (without a breading) and then wokked. It was very spicy with the classic hunan garlic, ginger, and pickled chili combo. Absolutely delicious.


Chicken with potato. Also very good with a nice soft texture and mercifully no bones.

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Sauteed Chicken Feet with Peppers. Yarom wanted this of course, subbing out a more “regular” chicken dish. It had the totally typical HCK flavor profile but given that chicken feet are sort of a useless “protein” was kinda neither here nor there.

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House Special Stew Duck. Braised duck really, long cooked in a complex broth that whose spices included star anise and black cardamon. Very moist and soft with a nice complex flavor. I really enjoyed because of the “brown spice” vibe.


Cumin beef with snow peas. Some though the beef itself was too tough, but it did have a lot of flavor.


Cumin lamb. A nice version of this classic dish.

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Braised fatty pork with mountain yam and preserved vegetables (9/1/17). Super tender and really interesting complex pickled flavor.

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Steamed Pork with Taro (2023 version). This is the super fatty pork belly and it’s usually served this way (with thinly sliced chunks of taro) or with salty preserved vegetables. This was a nice version, very soft and the taro added a bit of firmness and of course some starchy counter to the fat.

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Sauteed Pig Kidney with Pepper. I don’t normally order kidney but newcommer Erin wanted this dish. It turned out to be one of the best kidney’s I’ve had — not that I have it that often. They did a fabulous job removing the “offtaste pissy” that is the kidney halmark and instead it was a nicely chewy and deeply flavored meat with a slight variation on the HCK classic blend. Delicious actually.

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Preserved Pork with Radish (2023). This turned out to be one of my favorites. The pork is incredidibly smoky (and fatty) and leant a smoky pork fat taste to the entire dish. But the crunchy “radish” (was it really a radish) was some kind of preserved vegetable and I absolutely loved it. I ate all of it out of the dish. It felt very fiberous and satisfying. Loved both the texture and the smoke flavor.
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Snails with preserved vegetables (8/19/18). This dish was amazing! Sure it’s an “advanced” dish, and incredibly spicy. Hottest dish we had that night by far. Super deep potent heap. The combo of the chewy snails and the unusual pickled green beans (with their crunch) was stunning.

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Sauteed Snails with Preserved Vegetable (2023 edition). I’ve long loved this dish at HCK and some previous incarnations have been painfully hot. This was hotter than most of the dishes but not crazy hot. Besides the usual pickled chilies, garlic, and ginger, it had nice crunchy radish and a lot of these preserved green beans. The snail itself was just snail meat and has a clam-like chew. Very different texture and flavor than most people are used to and very enjoyable.

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Sautéed long beans with Pork. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

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Sautéed cauliflower. Had a very nice crunch. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

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Sautéed Cauliflower (when back in a real vessel in 2023). Really nice crunchy and slightly spicy cauliflower.

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Sautéed Bean Curd with Leek. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

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Special fish in brown chili sauce. Looks almost like a sweet and sour but it was salty and spicy.


Extra chilies, just in case. Fire in the hole!


Chicken fried rice. Really yummy and served nicely to cool stuff off at the end.


Fried banana and fried pumpkin. Really hot (temperature and yummy). Sometimes called “toffee banana” or similar.

But wait, you thought we were done? Let’s start all over with an entirely different array of pepper dishes 2.5 years later (August 2015):

Pickled turnip or potato and peanuts.

One of the few repeats: Hunan style cold cucumber salad with marinated cucumber, Wood Ear/Black Fungus, shredded Broccoli stems, Cilantro, and chilies (everything has chilies). A welcome relief to the heat.

Skewered frog legs with chilis (15 and 9/1/17). Delicious. Really delicious, but lots of little bones. The “sauce” is crunchy chili garlic.

Hunan chicken. The “classic” combo of red, green, and orange with boney bits of chicken. Flavor was fabulous though.

Hunan bacon. Slices of cured pork belly — delicious smoky bacon — with peppers!

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Chili-King Crispy Pork Fat. Like little mini chicharrónes. Great texture. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.


Giant Hunan fish head. Again.

Hunan frog. More frog, which brings up one of the better quotes of the night, “How many frogs had to die for this dinner?”

Glass noodles with garlic and gizzards. Sounds scary, but this was a delicious dish with a good bit of Szechuan peppercorn heat.

Hunan hotwings. Not much meat, but a lot of taste.

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House Special Duck. Came a bit cold so we had to send it back for some more heating. Tasty, but a touch off-putting. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

House special lamb (12? 15, and 9/1/17). A repeat, but a good one. This is one of the better cumin lambs I’ve had. I like how the cilantro is used as a green, almost like a salad.

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Braised Lamb (2023). This had more cilantro than the other red and green dishes. Soft lamb meat with some cumin flavor.

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Beef with celery. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

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Sautéed Beef with Celery (2023 real plate version). The beef itself wasn’t the star of this very nice dish but the amazing crunchy celery. I just kept eating all the celery out of here after everyone else was done.


Cabbage. I loved this, particularly with the sauce from some of the other dishes. Really nice crunchy texture.

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Braised eggplant with garlic (15 and 9/1/17 and 8/19/18). A delicious eggplant with the texture I like, soft but not slimly. Great flavor to the sauce with lots of garlic. Very nice version of this spicy dish. The Hunan version of eggplant. A bit less chili oil than the Szechuan version (which I guess is usually fish flavored eggplant). There was a version with 1000 year-old eggs that would have been even better.


Pork belly and tofu. Thick fatty pork belly and bag like tofu. Not everyone liked the soft mushy type of bean curd — but I loved it.

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Mapo Tofu. A bit of numbing, no obvious meat. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.


Crab. A little hard to get into, but the body meat on the end could be eaten like a lolipop and had a delightful flavor.

Egg fried rice. Straightforward but cut the heat.

Shredded potato. Nice crunch. I loved this covered in the eggplant sauce.

Lobster. More peppers! Actually we didn’t have this dish, but I saw it and had to photo it.

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Glass noodles with ground pork (8/19/18). Tasty dish with nice textural contrast between the crumbly meat and silky noodles.

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Beef in chili sauce. Sort of a Szechuan dish, but the Hunan variant.
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Noodle soup with fish balls, mushrooms, and meats of an indeterminate nature.
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Spicy pickled eggs (8/19/18). Interesting. Event eggs can get the Hunan treatment! Quite good actually.
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Scrambled eggs with peppers (8/19/18). Usually in China this dish is with tomatoes. Hunan people can’t resist the pepper.

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Cauliflower (8/19/18). Very nice. Not really spicy.


Vegetable buns. Interesting source green flavor, but nice.

Sweet egg drop soup. A sweet soup with goji berries and balls of tapioca. Not bad, for a weird sweet soup.

Sweet bean buns. Chinese desserts. Know them. Don’t love them.
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A variant on a house favorite: Triple Milk Chocolate Cloud (8/19/18) – the base made with Valrhona 40% Jivara Chocolate (usually I use 63%) and then layered with Dark Chocolate Creamcheese Ganache and Belgian Chocolate Thins (3 flavors, for triple on triple action) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato.

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And some house made butterscotch in case the above wasn’t rich enough.
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Together it’s amazing.
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Grapefruit Aperol Tarragon Sorbetto (6/13/21) — Cold pressed Fresh Grapefruit juice from my garden, Aperol and fresh Tarragon! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Unique and bracing — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #grapefruit #aperol #tarragon

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My son’s bday favorite — Quad Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache, chopped Oreos, and Nestle’s Buncha Crunch! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #oreos #ganache #icing #Nestle #crunch

Citron au Courant Sorbetto – Fresh squeezed Lemons blended with French Currants (Cassis) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #lemon #cassis #currents #lemonade #citron

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Here is the smoked pork “at the ready.”

This was an awesome pair of meals and very different than your typical Cantonese American. Traffic isn’t bad on Sunday night, but during the week it took me almost two hours to get to this area. Hunan Chili King isn’t where I’d take Chinese food novices. EVERYTHING is spicy. In fact, a few people obviously didn’t read the warnings on the meetup because they couldn’t handle the heat. Someone said of the heat, “I feel like I’m going into menopause.”

The flavors and proteins are a bit weird by American standards. But this is my favorite SGV Hunan so far, and I really like it for the variety compared to some other regional cuisines. At the restaurant itself you have to take some care to end up with different flavors, as there are a lot of dishes with the “usual” tri-color pepper melange (tasty as it is). But great stuff.

And as usual, we even went next door afterward and got a Chinese massage for $15 an hour! Just the perfect thing to work out the hedonistic over-indulgence!

Adding in a note based on 6/13/21, Hunan Chili King was (as of then) still operating in a half “take out” mode with very few people in the restaurant, and using only takeout containers and styrofoam plates with plastic silverware. The kitchen seemed about 90% back up to snuff, but the disposable plating really reduces the enjoyment (and appeal).

Speaking in 2023: The owners can be seen here behind the counter. We’ve been coming to HCK for over a decade, in fact it was the SECOND SGV Chinese place I ever went with Yarom back in December of 2012. They suffered a bit during the pandemic with a period of serving only on plastic take out containers with styrofoam and plastic wares — something that always ruins the food, but they’ve come back to be as good as ever. I don’t know of any other currently operating full Hunan Restaurants as I think both Hunan Mao and Hunan Restaurant are out of business. So HCK is both unique and delicious. You gotta love it spicy though as everything has those pickled chilis.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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On our August 2015 visit, Totoraku chef and sometime Hedonist joined us. He was not prepared for the heat!

Related posts:

  1. Chili Addiction – The Heartstopper
  2. Margarita Madness – The Mix
  3. Margarita Madness – Mother’s Day
  4. Middle Madness
  5. Hedonists Cook the Goose
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chili pepper, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, Hunan, Hunan Chili King, Kabinett, Mosel Riesling, Riesling, san Gabriel valley, Wine tasting descriptors

Hedonists Cook the Goose

Dec19

Restaurant: Sham Tseng BBQ

Location: 203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. 626-289-4858

Date: December 17, 2012

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Awesome goose!

_

It’s time for the next Hedonist adventure, this time out into the San Gabriel Valley for some really serious Cantonese.


The interior is typical of Inland Empire Chinese restaurants.


We had a private room and (for a Chinese restaurant) excellent service.


The menu. Haha. You can find one in English here.


Parker 90. “This 100% Semillon made from relatively young vines in the Haut-Brion vineyard is crisp, steely, with plenty of grapefruit, lemon zest, and white currants in a medium-bodied, fresh, lively style.” Very youthful for a 15 year-old white, it had plenty of mineralogy and floral components.


These peppers were on the table in case things grew too bland.


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.


c

A bonus wine from my cellar, “Incorporating fruit principally from Wehlener Nonnenberg, Graacher Himmelreich, and Bernkasteler Johannisbrunnchen, the generic Prum 2010 Riesling Kabinett displays an archetypal Mosel Riesling nose of fresh apple, lemon, and clover allied to faintly cheesy, leesy youthful “stink”; and comes to the palate bright and zippy, with hints of wet stone, and prominent cyanic piquancy of apple pit invigoratingly extending its mouthwateringly juicy, if tart and relatively simple finish.”


And another lovely Riesling, this one with more age and sweetness. As I’ve said before, Riesling pairs very nicely with Asian food.


Sliced suckling pig. The layer of fat notwithstanding, this was some delectable stuff. It had the plum based duck sauce on the side too which I love.


Another white, in the Sancerre style more or less.


A vegetarian dish combining mixed Chinese vegetables and this kind of spongy stuff I’ve had lots of times but have no idea what it is. It’s one of those textural Asian ingredients that is a bit weird to the American palette.


Some more whites.


Crispy roast goose with sweet sauce. This stuff was awesome, like Peking duck, minus the pancakes, but even darker and richer. It went perfectly with the sweet sauce too.


Parker 92, “The 2002 Pinot Noir Kistler Vineyard offers wonderful sweet raspberry and cherry fruit with a hint of framboise, a deep plum/ruby/purple color, medium body, and good vibrancy in a medium to full-bodied, feminine style.”

Not bad for a new world pinot, and in the Burgundy style. Of course it’s no Burgundy.


Parker 91-93, “Following the brilliant success of Kistler’s 2007s, Steve Kistler and his sidekick, Mark Bixler, deserve kudos for what they have achieved in the more challenging 2008 vintage. This is the first vintage in which 100% of the fermentations were indigenous, and, fortunately, all their Sonoma Coast vineyards were far enough south that they were not tainted by any of the smoke from the ferocious fires that spread through Mendocino. The 2008s appear to be slightly more fruit-forward, with a touch less minerality than the 2007s.”


Duck tongue in spicy oil. These looked disgusting. The idea is repulsive, but hey, they tasted pretty damn good. Sweet and very fried.


The last of the new world pinots.


Soy sauce crispy quail. Also very good, although there is that high bone to meat ratio that is always the case with small birds.


From my cellar, the first of the “real” pinots. Burghound 95, “A perfumed, complex and mostly still primary nose offers up earthy red berry fruit, underbrush and a touch of animale that can also be found on the generous and quite fleshy flavors that possess excellent volume as well as buckets of dry extract that almost render the firm and ripe tannins invisible on the massively long finish. Wow, this is a stunner of a wine with still plenty of upside potential remaining.”


Shredded potato with dried chili. It is what it is.


This Burg was my favorite wine of the night and, alas, I didn’t bring it. It had mellowed into that wonderful brick colored secondary flavor vibe that older Burgundy gets. Lovely.


Green Mustard greens with garlic in supreme broth.


From my cellar. This puppy was still a bit closed and the fruit was hiding. Nice, but it should have been better.


Deep Fried Crispy Intestine with Fruit Nectar. Okay, this stuff LOOKS nasty. It tasted so fried that you couldn’t really tell what it was. I’m still feeling a little queazy.


Another grand cru. Parker 91-93, “The Bocquenet 2005 Echezeaux – from high up in the Rouges du Bas section, adjoining Les Beaux Monts – exhibits abundant, nose- and palate-filling black fruits, prominent sweet spiciness, formidable though fine tannins, and a long, sweet, smoky, very lightly cooked and caramelized finish that is sumptuous even with the tannins. It will take years for them to round out, but some progress may well be made in tank prior to bottling.”


Goose intestine stir fried with green onions.


Parker 93, “Based on the strength of his 1994s, proprietor Roman Bratasiuk was named one of my “Wine Producers of the Year” in issue #108. His skill in turning old head-pruned vines into majestic wines of extraordinary richness and purity has been confirmed with the release of the 1995s. These wines are massive and rich as well as extraordinarily well-balanced and pure. I have never tasted an Australian Merlot that was more concentrated than Penfold’s Grange, a Shiraz-based wine. Clarendon Hills’ 1995 Merlot (250 cases available for America) is an opaque purple-colored wine with a knock-out nose of raspberry liqueur, chocolate, smoke, and spice. The wine is enormously extracted with a density and texture reminiscent of pre-1976 vintages of Petrus. Sumptuous, and almost over the top in its richness and density, this unctuously thick, full-bodied wine is fabulous to smell, taste, and consume. This is great stuff! As youthful as this Merlot is, I have no doubt it will last for 15 or more years. These are amazing wines.”


Crispy tofu with 3 ingredient. This stuff was pretty good. Very soft and fluffy, like tofu marshmallows.


Parker 90,”The 1999 Altagracia, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon cuvee from estate vineyards, is the debut vintage. The wine is medium to full-bodied, with low acidity, and plump, sweet, pure, black currant fruit intermixed with mineral and licorice notes. This delicious Cabernet is on a faster revolutionary track than its more profound sibling, the celebrated Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.”


Crispy fried frogs. They tasted like fry but had all sorts of little bones inside.


Parker 91, “Smoke, cedar, tobacco and earthiness are among the nuances that come to life in the estate’s 1999 Barbera d’Asti Vigna del Noce. Some of the primary fruit has melted away, resulting in a highly complex, engaging Barbera that is very rewarding to drink now.”


Honey BBQ Ribs with Black pepper. Good stuff. Another of my favorite dishes. A tad chewy, but very tasty (and fried).


Parker 93, “This is unquestionably a profound Grand-Puy-Lacoste, but it is excruciatingly backward. It reveals an essence of creme de cassis character which sets it apart from other Pauillacs. The wine is displaying plenty of tannin, huge body, and sweet black currant fruit intermixed with minerals and subtle oak. Massive, extremely structured, and with 25-30 or more years of longevity, this immensely-styled Grand-Puy-Lacoste will require 7-8 years of patience, perhaps longer. A superb, classic Pauillac.”


Goose webs (feet) in brown sauce. Ick!


Another new world red I don’t know much about.


Crispy fried fish. Good, and again, very fried.


One of those Rhone style new non-AOC French wines. Not unlike their Spanish counterparts, these are big, bold, grapey beasts.


Sweet and sour pork. Also really tasty, because of all that fry. There were little bones and gristle bits in here, so you kind of gnaw pleasantly on them.


A big, bold classic Saint-Joseph. A bit rustic, but full of flavor.

Black cod with Ginger, Green Onion & Dry Bean Stick.



This was way, way too young, but it is a raison/grape monster and actually fairly enjoyable. Imagine mixing Welches Grape Concentrate with a 1/4 the water you should.

Parker 94, “The 2009 Bone Rock is a round, enticing red laced with sweet, succulent dark cherries, plums, flowers and spices. It shows remarkable intensity and fabulous balance. Bone Rock is made from the first blocks planted in the James Berry vineyard and is predominantly Syrah, while the James Berry Vineyard (the wine) is Grenache focused. In 2009 the blend was 57% Syrah, 31% Mourvedre and 12% Grenache. The Syrah component was vinified with 100% stems and saw a maceration lasting 50 days. The wine was aged in 60% new oak. Smith bottled the 2009 in May 2011, earlier than the norm (around 30 months), as he wanted to preserve the freshness he had in the tannins.”


Red cod with soy sauce and green onion. Another fish. I think half of this one was actually our fried fish! Pretty typical Chinese whole fish in this prep.


Mango pudding. These were tasty little mango cups. There was some sweetened condensed milk on the side too one could add on top. A nice finish.

Overall, this was fabulous fun, food, and wine. There were a number of really outstanding dishes (like the goose, roast pig, etc) and everything was well executed — even if a few were a little squirmy for my taste (intestines!). Things were very fried, but that’s this cuisine. I actually like many other regional cuisines in China better than Cantonese. Szechuan for example, but that didn’t stop this from being a wonderful meal.

Umm, that goose was so good!

For more crazy Hedonist and Foodie Club meals.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Yes, he’s chomping down on a goose foot!

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
  2. Totoraku – Hedonists Beef Up
  3. Hedonists at Jitlada
  4. Hedonists at La Paella
  5. Hedonists at Dahab
By: agavin
Comments (10)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Barbecue, bbq, Chinese cuisine, Foodie Club, Goose, hedonists, Riesling, Roast Goose, Sham Tseng, suckling pig, Wine tasting descriptors

Hedonists at Jitlada

Dec07

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4]

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

Date: December 4, 2012

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

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After a three week break, it’s time for the Hedonists to ride again. Actually, they rode several times without me, but who’s counting?

This time we venture out to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong with Chef Tui in the kitchen. The menu can be found here.

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce.


Parker 94, “The 2002 Chardonnay Martinelli Road Vineyard has a striking minerality with notes of gravel and hot rocks, a steely backbone, huge body, leesy flavors with good acidity, tremendous ripeness, and a singular terroir character. If California were making a Meursault-Perrieres, this might be an example of that style of site-specific wine.”

By most people’s taste this wine was over-the-hill. I personally, didn’t mind it, but I’m used to drinking old white Burgundy’s. It had mellowed into a caramel-coconut kind of vibe.


Much younger and full of crisp acidity. Parker 94+ “Cool, inward and impeccably layered from start to finish, the 2010 Chablis Montee de Tonnerre impresses for its fabulous sense of balance and poise. Slate, crushed rocks, lime and white flowers are woven together in a fabric of unusual class and elegance. All the elements fuse together impeccably here. This is a gorgeous Chablis, but it will require patience. Today the 2010 is quite reticent, but the pedigree is evident.”

Coco Mango Salad. Green mangoes with fresh shrimp, and dry shredded coconut topped with cashews. Yummy, a bit of sweetness, and a coconut flavor that went very well with the older Chardonnay.

A very nice Kabinett with citrus notes and a good bit of richness and complexity.

As we begin a flight of three Rieslings it’s worth mentioning the red/write debate. About half our compatriots aren’t really white wine fans, and prefer to move on to reds. I myself like a harmonious wine/food pairing and find that reds, particularly big reds, clash badly with Asian food. Spicy Thai is even more extreme, as sweeter Riesling is a tremendous pairing to counter the bracing heat. I’ve noticed that those of us who prefer the soft mouth feel grapes (Pinot, Nebbiolo) over the much brazen grapes (Cabernet, Merlot) fall on my side of the divide.


Crispy Papaya Salad. Deep fried peppers, served with tomatoes, green beans, ground peanuts, and our house spicy lime juice sauce with added fresh shrimp. Also very sweet – and delicious.


The aromatically expressive 2000 Riesling bursts with spicy pears. This oily-textured, medium-bodied wine is feminine, refined, and has outstanding balance. It is armed with great depth. This apricot and apple-flavored wine has a long, pure finish.


Mussel soup. Very tasty broth (and mussels). An initial lack of bowls put a slight crimp in the experience :-).


Parker 90-92, “The Burgundian 2003 Pinot Noir Kistler Vineyard shows a low pH style with high acidity, crisp, red currant, cranberry notes with a hint of rose petal and strawberry. It is Burgundian, medium-bodied, pure, and impressive.”

This pinot went as well with the Thai as any red does, at least until the heavy spice kicked in. I enjoyed it, as it could have passed for a half-decent premier cru Burg, which is rare of new world Pinots. They just don’t do it for me, usually being pale shadows of their Burgundian fellows.


Honey duck. This was pretty awesome, and we should have ordered more. The skin was crispy and sweet, the meat succulent.


Parker 2009, “The 2009 Pinot Noir Pastorale Vineyard is all about focus and length. The Pastorale doesn’t quite have the richness of the Quarter Moon, nor the suppleness of the straight Pinot, but it nevertheless impresses for its fabulous overall balance. Bright acidity provides a lively counter to the wine’s highly expressive dark cherries, plums, licorice, mint, tar and sweet herbs.”


Three Flavored Fish. Whole fried seabass flavored with spicy, sweet and lime sauce. This was darn yummy, sweet and spicy both (you can see all those Thai chilies resting on top).


Just so you can get a look at the size. We killed two of these babies!


From my cellar: Parker 96, “The 2000 Riesling Rangen de Thann Clos St.-Urbain reveals awesome aromatic depth to its botrytis, apricot, mineral, and quince-scented nose. This medium to full-bodied wine is hugely concentrated, densely packed with smoke-infused white fruits, and has exceptional balance. A profound effort, it is complex and displays an awe-inspiring finish.”

Now this is a Riesling (and perfect with the spicy dishes). It would have been nice to have an ice bucket!


Jungle curry. Exotic thai curry with god knows what in it. This stuff was HOT and pretty fabulous.


Parker 90, “This outstanding Syrah is realistically priced given its impeccably high quality and character. The opaque ruby/purple-colored 2001 Syrah Napa exhibits a big, full-bodied, smoky bouquet of roasted meats, licorice, black currants, and pepper. Supple-textured and layered, with well-integrated toasty oak in addition to a rich, spicy, concentrated finish, this powerful (15.1% alcohol) red is both voluptuous and silky.”


Spicy chicken. Turmeric-seasoned chicken. Wow was this hot. It had a really great flavor too, but made one reach for the rice, and more rice, and sweet wine, and start wiping the sweat off the top of one’s head!


Parker 95, “An explosion of blueberry liqueur, black raspberries, and exotic floral scents soars from the glass of the spectacular inky/purple-colored 2002 Syrah Alder Springs Vineyard, a vineyard that is proving to be a tremendous source for many different varietals. Although this cuvee possesses 14.9% alcohol, it is well-concealed by the wine’s full body, awesome richness, great purity, and tremendous sense of fruit as well as place. There is a remarkable vigor and intensity, yet it does not taste over the top or heavy.”


Dungeness Crab in Curry Sauce. Crab meat, shrimp & peas sauteed in a red curry paste. This wasn’t AS hot. It was a little hard to get at the succulent grab meat, but the curry was explosively good too. Compare to the Singaporean classic.


Parker 95+, “The 2004 Syrah Piggott Range (from 40-year-old vines) requires 3-4 years of cellaring. This is a powerful, intense Syrah meant for true connoisseurs who have cold cellars as well as enough patience to wait it out. A perfume of crushed rocks, acacia flowers, blackberries, roasted coffee, pepper, spice, bacon fat, and a subtle touch of eucalyptus is followed by a deep, rich, full-bodied wine.”

These are great Syrah’s but the heat of the food swamps them out.


Lamb Curry. Tender lamb in a mild curry with potatoes and carrots. Really yummy. Really yummy.


Dynamite beef. Oh boy, too bad I was “wafer thin mint” full when this came out. In serious physical pain from all the chillies and the amount of food I’d had. This stuff was like pure red pepper beef. Look at all those pepper seeds!


Cool crabs!


Wash down the dynamite with a big swig of sweet wine!


This 2001 Tokaji Aszu (Hungarian dessert wine made in the style of Sauternes) was a great finish. This wine was really drinking nicely.


Papaya fried rice. The owner whipped this up to try and cool us off. It was a sweet carby mixture.


Mango sticky rice with coconut ice cream. Awesome dessert, even though I was so full, I shoved three helpings down the gullet. This was as good a sticky rice as I’ve had.

Jitlada was hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. All the flavors are great, the meats succulent, and boy is it hot. You could order sweet, or you could order hot, or both. I’ve had hotter food (I’m thinking of a certain Szechuan restaurant in China), but you certainly don’t WANT it hotter than this. And I’m a guy that puts Haberneos in my guacamole.

One of our number summed up the evening as “eating like Pharaohs,” which is about right. Just way way too much food, and no small dose of other good stuff.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Foodie Club meals.

Penny from Lotus of Siam on the left, Yarom in the center, and Jazz (Jitlada’s owner) on the right

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
  2. Hedonists at Dahab
  3. Hedonists at La Paella
  4. Hedonists at STK
  5. Totoraku – Hedonists Beef Up
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: curry, hedonists, Jitlada, Pinot noir, Riesling, Thai, Wine

Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab

Nov19

Restaurant: The Boiling Crab

Location: 3377 Wilshire Blvd. Ste 115, Los Angeles, CA 90010

Date: November 15, 2012

Cuisine: Cajun Seafood

Rating: Negative frills, but really tasty

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Good food doesn’t always have to be fancy. My most recent Hedonist adventure was to The Boiling Crab, the Korea-Town outpost of a cajun seafood joint.


The place is located in a built up K-Town food oriented minimall.


And, boy, is it popular. This was a random Thursday and the wait was over an hour. I’ve heard that on weekends it can be 2-4!


Hedonists events require that everyone bring a bottle of wine. I brought three! Just in case. On this particular night, we had eleven people, but only a few wine drinkers. Boiling Crab doesn’t even serve wine, so I’ve learned to bring my own glasses (Riedel restaurant grade) in my rolling wine carrier. The wines are shoved in the back along with some icepacks (whites) and a bunch of cork screws and the like.


Le menu. Simple, and pretty much all market price. The market price was damn reasonable too, for example, just $17/lb for main lobster and $8/lb for blue crab!


And this is because TBC does not spend any money on extras. There are no plates. No glasses. No utensils. Food is served in plastic bags. Yes, that’s right, plastic bags. I’ve never even seen this before!

Given that this place serves seafood covered in spice, butter, and garlic, two of us brought good German Rieslings.

Parker 93, “The complex 2003 Riesling Auslese Erdener Treppchen boasts a nose of honeysuckle blossoms. Medium-bodied, supple, and silky-textured, it exhibits an expressive flavor profile composed of red fruits, pears, and spices. In addition, this luscious, pure wine possesses a long, fruit-filled finish.”

This one had a little age and a hint of classic Riesling petrol.


TBC is bib worthy. In fact, it’s the messiest restaurant I can remember eating at.


This is Dungeness Crab with Sha-Bang sauce (cajun, lemon pepper, and garlic butter). It comes just like that, crab in a bag with sauce. No utensils, you just reach in and crab the hot crab.


Then you pull it apart with your hands. They throw a couple lousy nut crackers on the table. Again, no forks. No plates! But it was delicious!


We also had a bag of king crab legs. Here’s one that escaped.


From my cellar: Parker 96, “After a performance like this for a Spatlese, the warning was hardly necessary! Donnhoff’s 2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Spatlese offers a riot of herbal aromas reminiscent of but far more intense and diverse than that of the corresponding Grosses Gewachs, and here, too, accompanied by grapefruit and passion fruit in a manner that calls to mind Sauvignon. Horehound, licorice, sage, mint, black tea, nut oils, candied grapefruit rind, and crushed stone inform a silken-textured palate. As with the corresponding Brucke, there is a remarkable interactivity on display, and a depth of mineral and animal savor that goes beyond crustacean shell reduction or veal demi-glace, leaving me salivating helplessly.”

This was my Riesling, and it was considerably sweeter than the first one. In my opinion, both paired fantastically with the spicy garlic seafood.


Some really yummy cajun sausage. It didn’t even come by itself but was “in the bag” (literally) with the shrimp.


Here are the shrimp (and some refuse). Again, bag of shrimp. You have to reach in and grab them. By the time you do, your entire hand is coated to the wrist with spicy garlic butter!


Parker 93, “David Powell consistently excels with The Steading, an 8,000 case blend of Grenache, Mourvedre, and Shiraz. Aged 22 months in 300 liter hogsheads (foudres), it represents Australia’s version of Chateauneuf du Pape. The 2002 The Steading’s big, spicy, earthy nose reveals notions of cherry liqueur, licorice, pepper, dried Provencal herbs, raspberries, and leather. Ripe, medium to full-bodied, chewy, and heady, it is best drunk during its first 7-8 years of life, although it will last a lot longer.”

This was a nice wine, but I thought it clashed pretty badly with the food. Really any red would.


Cajun fried catfish over cajun fries. Pretty delectable, hot as Bejesus, and had a nice earthy catfish taste. Eaten with your hands, of course.


Some of the shrimp on the table. The cost savings here is passed onto the consumer: you have to de-head and de-leg and de-vein your own shrimp. They were, however, awesome, and probably even better than the crab. The sauce was literally finger licking good.


And we also had a bag of corn. It was a little mushy, but very sweet and I loved it with the salty garlic sauce.

Sweet potato fries.


Parker 94, “The 2009 Chateauneuf du Pape is dominated by Grenache with major amounts of Mourvedre, Syrah and other authorized varietals. Its dense ruby/plum color is followed by aromas of smoked meats, roasted Provencal herbs, a gamy character and lots of kirsch, black currant and blue fruits. Rich and full-bodied, it is softer than most young vintages of Vieux Donjon tend to be.”

Very nice, smooth wine, but too strong for the food.


We ordered up a lobster. $42 for a 2.5 pounder!


Quite the fellow, and delicious.


Here is his tail, sitting in a bloody pool of cajun juice.


And a bit of repulsive leftovers. We had to periodically venture forth, grab some plastic bags from the counter, and then return and sweet this crap away. It’s very self serve.


But I doubt they’ve ever had a party that brings 4-5 of their own wine glasses each!

Despite the mess, this place was pretty fantastic. And what a deal, $39 all in for each person (including tax and tip). The above was food for five too! You’re paying entirely for the seafood, and nothing extra. I don’t mind the atmosphere or mess (it is what it is), but I wish there wasn’t such a long line :-). I guess nothing is too good to be true.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Foodie Club meals.

At The Boiling Crab, even girls get their hands dirty (this is some random adjacent table).

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists at Dahab
  2. Tidewater Crab
  3. Hedonists at La Paella
  4. Totoraku – Hedonists Beef Up
  5. Hedonists at STK
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Boiling Crab, Cajun, Chateauneuf du Pape, corn, crab, Donnhoff, Foodie Club, hedonists, Lobster, Los Angeles, Riesling, Sausage, Seafood, shrimp, Spätlese, Wine, Wine tasting descriptors

A Taste of Taos

Nov16

Recently, a friend invited me over to his house for a chef dinner featuring Southwestern American Cuisine. Of course, I brought the wine.


The chef in question was Chris Maher (above). Christopher recently owned and directed Momentitos de la VIDA, a fine dining establishment in Taos, New Mexico. He functioned as the executive chef and received excellent reviews since opening the doors in 1999 through selling it in 2006. Gourmet and Bon Appetit have both named VIDA as “one of the most notable restaurants in the Southwest” and Maher earned the prestigious AAA Four Diamond Award six consecutive years in a row from 2000 – 2006. In 2005, he was invited to cook at the prestigious James Beard House in New York, New York, to a sold out event. Chris currently heads Cooking Studio TAOS – a teaching and food consortium – where people are encouraged to play with their food!


Progress in the kitchen.


For the pre-dinner loitering period. Parker 95, “This saturated and dark colored wine, with its extraordinarily spicy nose of sweet red and black fruits, sent me soaring. This massive, intense, broad-shouldered, masculine, structured, and chewy wine is crammed with super-ripe, rich, and layered blackberries, cassis, licorice, earth, and Asian spices. As if that were not enough, its dense fruit comes roaring back after expectoration, lingering on the palate for nearly a minute. This is an extraordinary Clos Vougeot!”


Chips and two kinds of homemade bean dips. On the left, “Tuscan white bean spread” and on the right “Black bean dip.” Both had just a little heat.

Because there is a lot of chile in Southwestern Cuisine, I brought a pair of rieslings. This one is close to dry.

Parker 92, “The detail, refinement, and lift that characterize the best of 2007 were reason enough, Rebholz said, for him to essay some residually sweet Riesling, otherwise, I’d rather leave that to the Mosel vintners. The 7.5% alcohol of his 2007 Riesling Spatlese Vom Buntsandstein indeed puts one in mind of the Mosel, as well as on notice that this will be wine of delicacy and very high residual sugar. It is also impressively endowed with ripe quince and wafting lily and gardenia perfume, and manages to keep its sweetness balanced so as not to tip into sheer confection, but instead to exhibit seamless purity and nectar-like lusciousness. It should be worth watching for a dozen or more years, and in fact I would personally not even care to revisit it for 6-8 years.”


Green Chile Stew with potatoes and chicken. This was a very flavorful dish with a strong gentle heat. It paired very nicely with the rieslings, particularly the one below.

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


Frisee & Green salad, cilantro jalepeno vinaigrette.

For reds, I had to bring something up to this much spice.

2008 Camerlengo “Antelio” Aglianico del Vulture Basilicata. An extraordinary rendition of this ancient grape that constantly evolves organically in the glass with unfiltered language. The flavors dance across meaty and inky depths, almost Mouvedre here, reminds me of an older Bandol I had the other night, but with more suede.


Poblano Farsi Rellenos stuffed with beef, potato, and cheese. Not your typical relleno, it was relatively light. The red sauce underneath was quite delicious with a good bit of heat.


Parker 96, “The 1998 Chateauneuf du Pape is the greatest effort produced since Beaucastel’s 1989 and 1990. It reveals more accessibility, no doubt because the final blend included more Grenache than normal. Its dense purple color is followed by sweet aromas of blackberries, licorice, new saddle leather, and earth. There is superb concentration, full body, low acidity, and high tannin, but it is surprisingly drinkable for such a young Beaucastel.”


Chris’s Biscochitos, vanilla ice cream with a chocolate, chile sauce. Simple, but delicious, with a bit of cinnamon chile going on.

Overall, a delicious an enjoyable evening!

Related posts:

  1. Food as Art: Chanukah in Style
  2. CR8 – Savage Romanticism
  3. Loving Lukshon
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By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chris Maher, Dessert, Dinner, Donnhoff, Riesling, Southwestern Cuisine, Taos, Wine, Wine tasting descriptors

Hedonists at Dahab

Nov09

Restaurant: Cafe Dahab

Location: 1640 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, Ca, 90025

Date: November 6, 2012 & September 21, 2015

Cuisine: Egyptian

Rating: Tasty!

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Just a mere three days after the Hedonists tore up Totoraku, we return to this nearby casual Egyptian cafe and Hookah bar: Dahab.

This was a decidedly more casual affair, although the basic rules are the same. Each person needs to come with at least one great bottle of wine. Standards aren’t as high as for a stellar meat dinner like Toto, but there was still some great stuff. And this drew a crowd of over 20!

The Dahab menu can be found here.


This is a third of the table. It was a crazy warm November night and we sat outside, filling the entire patio. There were so many of us that Yarom (our fearless organizer) had to float chairless! There also wasn’t even close to enough space on the table and the restaurant doesn’t even own wine glasses. Good thing I brought 8 Riedels of my own and several others did as well.


We started with this champagne brought by white and bubbly maestro Ron. 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.


Olives and pickled radishes.


Parker 95, “This year there is also only one Willi Haag wine with the name 2006 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Auslese, athough for the record this carries the A.P. #6. It mingles white peach, vanilla, honey, and nut oils in a wine of uncanny refinement, delicacy and palate-saturating richness, representing a classic example of the magic in the Burgerslay section of the Juffer, whence Marcus’s father drew some of the greatest (if too-little appreciated) Middle Mosel wines of the ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s. Juicy melon and white peach and kinetic citrus are beautifully folded into a creamy, vanilla-tinged envelope, then burst forth in a lusciously long finish with a distinct note of slate stone. It’s impossible not to compare this Auslese with the great 1975, and I believe it to be the masterpiece of Marcus Haag’s career thus far. If you are lucky enough to latch on to bottles of this incredible value – and I have seen them floating around at prices far lower than the already low suggested retail price noted above – treasure them and if possible wait 8-10 years before opening. There exist more than enough wonderful 2006 Mosel Auslesen you can enjoy younger. This one may well be worth following for 30 or more years.”


Warm pita bread.

A dry styled Oregon Riesling and “The opaque blue/black/purple-colored Noon Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is even more impressive from bottle than it was from barrel. This is a great effort displaying first-growth quality. It boasts a stunningly pure nose of creme de cassis, cedar, licorice, smoke, and vanilla. As it sits in the glass, notions of chocolate also emerge. This full-bodied Cabernet builds incrementally in the mouth. The finish lasts for 45 seconds. A magnificent example, its seamlessness and concentration are profound.”


Another third of the table.


An awesome shaved rice sake with that soft anise thing that I love from great sake.


Things are just starting to get going.


Ron, always good for great white Burgundy, brought this 2008 Dom Dublere Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 92, “Here too mild wood sets off extremely fresh aromas of pear, green apple and wet stone the latter of which is also reflected by the vibrant and overtly muscular broad-scaled flavors that possess impressive drive and length. Interestingly, this is not as complex as the Chaumées though it’s longer.”


I actually convinced my lovely wife to join us this time. She’s a sucker for the vege plate (below).


I brought this older Grand Cru Mazy-Chambertin (1996). It also had a funky nose that blew off, but this bottle wasn’t nearly as good as the other 3-4 I’ve opened recently of the exact same wine. Pity, those previous bottles were fantastic.


Parker 91-93, “The 2007 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast displays plenty of raspberry and floral notes, has a deep ruby/purple color, nicely integrated wood, medium to full body, and a spicy finish. Drink it over the next decade.”


Lana was generous to donate this Parker 100 blockbuster, “The 1998 Cote Rotie La Landonne is a perfect wine … at least for my palate. Its saturated black/purple color is accompanied by an extraordinary nose of smoke, incense, tapenade, creosote, blackberry, and currant aromas. It is densely packed with blackberry, truffle, chocolate, and leather-like flavors. The wine possesses high tannin, but perfect harmony, impeccable balance, and gorgeous integration of acidity, alcohol, and tannin. It is a tour de force in winemaking.”


From my cellar. Parker 95, “The profound 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de Mon Aieul (85% Grenache and the rest equal parts Syrah, Mourvedre, and Cinsault) tips the scales at 15% alcohol. From an old vineyard and cropped at 15 hectoliters per hectare, and aged only in foudre, it boasts a dense purple color in addition to an exquisite nose of violets, minerals, blueberries and blackberries. Pure and concentrated, but atypically tannic, it requires considerable aging as it is one of the vintage’s more backward, broodingly powerful efforts.”


Big assembled feast plates of various vegetarian mezze. In the center, grape leaves  stuffed with rice, chopped tomato, parsley and special seasonings. The white stuff is lebnah, Middle eastern style yogurt mixed with mint, red pepper & topped with olive oil. Then clockwise are falafel: ground fava beans and vegetables with special seasonings. Next hummus: ground garbanzo beans with garlic, lemon juice and special seasonings. Then foul: pureed fava beans with garlic, tomatoes, onions and special seasonings. And last, babagannouj: eggplant dip with tahina sauce and special seasonings.


This alternate version has in the 7 o’clock position, yogurt salad: yogurt with chopped cucumber, mint and garlic.

Below then are detail pictures of most of the mezze:


Tabouleh. Chopped parsley, onion, and tomato mixed with lemon and special seasonings.


hummus: ground garbanzo beans with garlic, lemon juice and special seasonings.

lebnah, Middle eastern style yogurt mixed with mint, red pepper & topped with olive oil. I love this stuff, particularly with the meat.


babagannouj: eggplant dip with tahina sauce and special seasonings.

foul: pureed fava beans with garlic, tomatoes, onions and special seasonings.

Gibna bel tamatim: feta cheese and chopped tomato mixed with olive oil and special seasonings.


Parker 97, “The 2006 Broken Stones (63% Syrah, 24% Grenache, and 13% Mourvedre) blew me away. An inky/purple color and a dazzling, explosive bouquet of black raspberries, camphor, cassis, forest floor, and spring flowers are followed by a rich, elegant wine offering laser-like precision as well as a striking minerality. It is a powerful yet graceful effort.”

The other side of the bottle.


Parker 89, “The 2008 Ventillo 71 is named after the address of the old winery and is 100% Tempranillo. It has a soft, leather-infused nose with strawberry, mint and a touch of orange blossom. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and ample freshness. There is a core of wild strawberry and red cherry fruit, finely integrated oak and a composed, elegant finish. This is a commendable Rioja.”


Fattoush salad. Romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, onions, and suemock topped with pita chips.


Another salad, more classic middle eastern.


Cole slaw like salad.

Falafels. Chickpea paste fried with tahini sauce.


Meat pies. Falaffel filled with a meat patty. Delicious.

Kobehbah. Beef and pine-nuts covered in burgur wheat and fried. Hot and delicious.


Parker 90-92+, “Aged completely in demi-muids, the 2008 Syrah Halcon is a tannic, young, promising effort that may merit an even higher score next year if it puts on the weight and flesh that the 2007s did in barrel. At present, it reveals abundant blue and black fruits intertwined with hints of forest flora and spice. While not as powerful as the 2007s, it exhibits lots of minerality and structure.”


Shrimp kabob: 10 pieces of shrimp grilled to perfection served with rice and green salad.


Parker 87, “Soft, ripe, and fruity, with big, smoky, charred berry-like scents intermixed with tobacco and plum aromas.”


A line of trouble makers.


Parker 94, “A spectacular offering, the 1998 Command Shiraz (which spent 3 years in French and American oak) is the type of wine that is impossible to duplicate outside of selected Barossa and McLaren Vale vineyard sites. An opaque purple color is followed by spectacular aromas of toasty oak, camphor, blackberry liqueur, and asphalt. It is humongous in the mouth, decadently rich, and luxuriously fruited, with a viscous texture as well as a 40-second finish. Low acidity and ripe tannin add to the succulent impression.”


Grilled squab. Yum.

Liver. Quiet good, tender and with a lot of flavor.


Peppers, tahini, and garlic paste (for chicken, yum!).


On the left the 2004 Kosta Browne Russian River Pinot.

On the right, Parker 95, “Chapoutier makes no bones about the fact that he prefers his 1996 Cote Roties to his 1995s. Wealthy readers with access to Chapoutier’s wines will have fun determining whether the 1995 or 1996 Cote Rotie La Mordoree is the superior wine. Both are terrific examples of Cote Rotie with 20-25 years of evolution. Chapoutier prefers the 1996. The 1995 is a superb wine, but I am not sure the 1996 isn’t a point or two better. Both wines possess intensely-saturated black/purple colors, and smoky, black raspberry, coffee, and chocolate-scented noses with black olives thrown in for complexity. The 1996 may have greater length, but that is splitting hairs at this level of quality. Both are medium to full-bodied, rich, extraordinary examples of Cote Rotie that possess power as well as finesse. Both will require cellaring to reveal their personalities. I suspect the 1995 needs 4-5 years of cellaring.”

Getting the buzz on.


Bamia: okra.


Robin brought this 1994 Heitz (regular) and it was drinking very well, youthful even, full of tasty tannins.


A big meat plate! We have shrimp, chicken, shish kabob (felit mignon), and kofta (ground beef and lamb mixed with onions and parsley).


An Amarone (I can’t read the details unfortunately).


Another view of the meat.


Rice pilaf.


French fries.


Parker 91-93, “The extraordinary 2007 Cotes du Rhone-Villages Rasteau offers up aromas of chocolate, black cherries, dusty, loamy soil, scorched earth, garrigue, and spice. This full-bodied, powerfully concentrated, meaty, expansive, substantial wine should age well for a decade.”


Koshari: traditional vegetarian dish (lentils, brown rice and pasta served with a spicy tomato sauce & topped with fried onions).


Parker 89, “The 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon (545 cases) reveals evolved fruitcake, cedary, tobacco, roasted herb, and cassis aromas, as well as rich, concentrated flavors. It is impressively rich, with an herb-tinged, black currant personality, medium to full body, sweet but noticeable tannin, and excellent purity, all framed by toasty new oak. The wine gives every indication of being ready to drink with another 2-3 years of cellaring.”


Yarom playing the hookah!


Parker 88, “The evolved, medium gold color of the 1990 is prematurely advanced, raising questions about future longevity. It possesses plenty of intensity, and an unctuous, thick, juicy style, but high alcohol and coarseness kept my rating down. There is bitterness as well as fiery alcohol in the finish. The wine does not offer much delineation, so cellaring should prove beneficial as it does have admirable levels of extract. Suduiraut can make powerful, rich wines that are often rustic and excessively alcoholic and hot when young. I am told they become more civilized with age, and certainly older, classic Suduiraut vintages have proven that to be true. I feel this estate’s propensity to produce a luxury cuvee (Cuvee Madame) in vintages such as 1989 tends to have a negative impact on the regular cuvee.”


Various traditional desserts. The gooey white toped one at 1-2 o’clock was particularly awesome.


Another plate of traditional sweets, including rice pudding in the middle.


In case the Hookah isn’t enough.


Little baked donut ball like pastries.


Rice pudding.


It was actually a birthday pudding!


The donut balls coated in Nutella. Certainly two good things are even better.

A coconut dessert.

This was another fun evening. Super casual and more than a little crazy. Dahab is a tasty little restaurant  serving delicious Egyptian food, but they aren’t really set up for either 20+ parties or wine nuts like us. They did manage with the food, and we managed the wine. It was cozy, but made extra fun by the warm evening and outside setting.

For more crazy Foodie Club dining, click here.



On September 21, 2015, we went again. I integrated the food pictures above, but the wines from that second visit are here:














Related posts:

  1. Hedonists at La Paella
  2. Totoraku – Hedonists Beef Up
  3. Hedonists at STK
  4. Hedonism at Esso
  5. Peace in the Middle East? – Mezze
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Billecart-Salmon, Cafe Dahab, Cafe Dehab, Dahab, Dehab, Dessert, Egypt, Egyptian Food, Foodie Club, hedonists, Hookah, kabob, Los Angeles, Middle Eastern, Mosel, Restaurants and Bars, Riesling, Wine

Food as Art – CR8: Purotekuta

Apr28

Restaurant: CR8 by Roberto Cortez [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: LA

Date: April 25, 2012

Cuisine: Modern Art

Rating: Storybook

_

About a year ago I came across online a chef named Roberto Cortez who hosts periodic themed modernist dinners. Looking at Roberto’s work (visible on his blog) it was instantly obvious that his visual style and presentation were out of this world. They exhibit a standout playfulness and creativity well in advance of even top restaurants. On March 5 I went to his Dark Illuminated Forest and experienced one of the best meals I’ve ever had.

So I was extremely excited to find another invite to a new concept in my inbox this April. The current event/meal is called Purotekuta and you can see the thematic poster to the right.

This time, all the founding Foodie Club partners were available and we set off in mass for the event.

As a prelude, Roberto sent us the above gorgeous East/West fusion “story” in the mail. This contains a bit of Sci-Fi Manga style story set in future Spain. We will see later how this unfolds into a meal.

We gather in the outdoor space to enjoy a homemade cocktail.

Roberto whips them up. Below he explains the ingredients, be sure to listen in order to appreciate all the elements that go into this.

He calls this the kama sutra. At the core it’s mango (like a mango lassi).

The finished product has a delicious mouthfeel.

Above are the ingredients for tonight’s menu along with some of my wine notes.

And Roberto whips it all up in this tiny kitchen.

Roberto did me the favor of sending me the list of rough ingredients for each dish in tonight’s meal so that I could do a proper wine pairing. This is something I rarely have the opportunity to do because it requires a pretty big table. Tonight is elven people and so I figured we could handle almost one bottle per course. I doubled up the wine on one of the nine and settled on eight bottles. The two dessert wines are half bottles. This left three whites, three reds, and two dessert wines. Many drinkers prefer reds but Roberto uses a lot of complex and Asian flavors in his cooking that favored whites and reds with more finesse. I tried to mirror the dishes spiritually by choosing unusual varietals with local and offbeat qualities, avoiding anything international in style (although all are European).

We then move into the interior of the gallery and our dinner space. It’s been completely custom decorated for the event including two mural-sized paintings illustrating the dinner story.

Above Roberto explains the unique story concept for tonight’s dinner. Each course has a story card we must read. I apologize for the terrible video quality of this and later explanations by Roberto. The room was nearly lightless. In any case, it’s the audio that matters.

The first card.

And the first wine. All wines were selected by me from my cellar to match individual dishes.

“The king of Sancerres: a gorgeously, complete triumph from Jean-Max’s oldest vines. These deep roots provide concentration, structure and power. A combination of stainless steel and aging in large oak barrels combines vim with elegance. The VV is round and full-bodied with hints of crystalline honey and fresh mint.”

Roberto explains the first dish.

“Enchanted Paella. Saffron Bomba rice cream, dehydrated tomato confit, red pepper pudding, pea puree-shoots, crunchy chorizo, fire roasted shrimp/mussel consomee, soccarat crisp.”

Roberto loves to play with traditional dishes, mixing them up into entirely new forms and textures. This did in fact taste like a shrimp paella. Texturally, the saffron cream in the consomee was reminiscent of  the garlic aioli often served with boulibase.

A semi-close up of one of the wall murals.

The second story card.

And second wine:

Robert Parker 95. “The 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape blanc is even better. Meriting the same rating as I gave it last year, it is a delicious, beautifully textured, light gold-colored white revealing plenty of white peach, apricot, nectarine, and honeysuckle notes as well as a distinctive florality and minerality. More honeyed and fuller-bodied than its 2008 counterpart, it should drink beautifully for 7-8 years, then go into an oxidative state. It is somewhat of a gamble as to what will happen thereafter. Beaucastel’s limited production luxury cuvee first produced in 1986 is their 100% Roussanne Vieilles Vignes offering. Fifty percent is barrel-fermented in one-year-old barrels, but no new oak is utilized.”

“Emperior’s Uni. Avocado tartare, uni sabayon, frozen jalapeno, shinseiki pear gelee, Blis sake cure steelhead caviar, pickled grapes, lime leaf, chive oil.”

You wouldn’t think all those things would go together, but they do!

The third card.

Because of the white asparagus I chose this gorgeous Mosel valley riesling, located just an hour or two from the heart of white asparagus country. Wine often has an affinity to the nearby agricultural products.

“The Weins-Prum 2009 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese smells of dried apples and white raisin accompanied by wafting honeysuckle and heliotrope perfume; comes to the palate creamy and with remarkable lift, delicacy, and purity; and finishes with an unctuous sense of botrytis ennoblement allied to a remarkable degree of residual refreshment and even an uncanny hint of Mosel-typical wet stone. As Bert Selbach points out, in the 1990s, he would have bottled material of this sort as a gold capsule Auslese. He picked this beauty in the last week of October, about which decision he notes “here we had probably barely 20% botrytis. I’m not a fan of letting the grapes hang too long and letting too much botrytis develop. I maintain that an Auslese has to retain Spiel.” Try playing around with this one for the next 35 years or so.”

“Spring White. White asparagus textures, mint, dungeness crab, grapefruit curd, dill sponge.”

Late April and early may is white asparagus season. It’s also traditional in Holland and Germany to make them into a soup. The crab provided perfect sweetness and the foam, although texturally odd, paired nicely as well.

The table is actually a giant door and the we have a sword!

The fourth card.

This dish wins in terms of presentation.

“The Seed. 64C egg expression, toasted seed merinque, thai basil velote, buttermilk.”

Essentially this is a sous-vide poached egg. The toasted seed merinque was really yummy and could be dipped in the egg.

But key was to pour in this basil puree (basically pesto). I’ve always liked egg and pesto. At home I often sunnyside up eggs, sprinkle parmesan on them, and add pesto (and Tabasco). I love the mix of Tabasco and pesto.

The fifth card.

I paired this wine because of its foresty mushroom vibe.

“The 2004 Boca Il Rosso delle Donne shimmers on the palate with layers of fruit, mineral, and herbs. Stylistically the 2004 is a much more expansive, generous wine than the 2005, with layers of fruit that radiate with notable energy through to the mineral-laced finish. This fresh, vibrant and impeccably pure wine is a jewel. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2024.

The reds of Northern Piedmont remain insiders’ wines, but the finest bottles from these tiny appellations merit considerable attention. I came away very impressed with the wines I tasted from Conti. I also sampled a number of older vintages, the best of which are reviewed here. All of these wines are 70% Nebbiolo, 20% Vespolina and 10% Uva Rara, the traditional blend in these parts.”

“Trapped Funghi. Morels, sesame praline, spring alliums, mushroom sabayon, cardamon, homemade coffee oil, ginger.” The sabayon was to die for in this dish. We craved bread to mop it up.

The sixth card.

Parker 93. “One of the three batches that will be blended to make up d ‘Angerville’s 2005 Volnay Champans was still in malo, so I base my assessment on the other two. Scented with cherry and cassis, flowers and fungus, smoke and chalk dust, this displays richness and depth, fine tannins and emerging silkiness, and a youthfully firm but long finish loaded with savory subtleties. Just give it 6-8 years before revisiting. (The outstanding d’Angerville 2004s were also very late to finish malo, and the Champans is especially memorable for its vivid sauteed champignons, alluring ginger spice, marrowy richness, and flattering mouth feel, indeed comparable in quality though lacking the developmental potential of this 2005.”

“Glacial Brine. Halibut confit, white miso champagne risotto, fennel, gellied ham.” This was a pretty incredible fish dish. The miso was very sweet, almost mango like. Then the ham jelly just added an awesome bit of hamminess to the whole thing.

The seventh card.

Parker 93. “The estate’s top of the line 2001 Amarone Classico Riserva Sergio Zenato is superb. A blend of Corvina, Rondinella and Sangiovese, it reveals expressive aromatics followed by a compelling array of raisins, tar, chocolate and sweet fruit. It, too, comes across as powerful and brawny in style, but it is also a much more complete, rich wine than the 2003 Amarone tasted alongside it. This beautiful Amarone offers terrific length and a long, resonating finish. It spent three years in large oak barrels. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2011.”

“El Itimo. Black vinegar Iberico Carrilleras, wheatberry, foie gras emulsion, beet puree, brussel sprouts, maple consomee.” This was pretty awesome too. The texture was more like beef short ribs than pork.

Roberto filling us in on what’s coming.

The eighth card.

Parker 99! “The unreleased 1994 Tokay-Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal (Selection de Grains Nobles) Trie Speciale is the sweetest and densest wine Olivier Humbrecht has ever fashioned. It has 540 grams of residual sugar per liter and 12 grams of acid. As Humbrecht noted, “it makes no noise when poured into a glass, it is completely silent!” He has not yet presented it for certification as an SGN, which is why that moniker is in parentheses. Needless to say, this puree of fruit-flavored syrup sets new standards in power, concentration, and length.”

A shotglass of this unctuous nectar.

“Dragon Flower. Lychee tapioca, mascarpone elderflower ice cream, compressed liquid strawberry.” This doesn’t look like much but it was wonderful. Soft and refreshing with fantastic subtle flavors.

The ninth and final card.

Parker 94. “The 2003 Sagrantino di Montefalco Passito tastes just like the harvested grapes prior to fermentation. Deceptively understated at first glance, the wine offers up a compelling array of dark plums, prunes and spices, with a long, elegant finish and lingering notes of perfumed fruit that reappear on the close. Bea’s Sagrantino di Montefalco Passito is one of Italy’s great dessert wines, and the 2003 is a splendid vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2019.”

“Phantom Porcelana. Amedei Porcelana (55C), banana, herb salad, oak wood ice cream, roasted malt, red wine, olive oil, tonka bean.” This is some kind of special uber single vineyard chocolate. It was pretty incredible. I’m not much of a banana fan (bad banana whiskey experiment in college) but even that worked for me. The “wood” ice cream was very subtle but added a nice whipped cream-like thing to the intense chocolate.

Overall, this was a spectacular dining experience. I wasn’t quite as wowed as I was during my first Roberto meal, Dark Illuminated Forest, as there is always a novelty factor with first time things. But on all levels the results tonight were truly outstanding. The most similar (non-Roberto) meal I’ve had was this one at 2-star Calima in Spain — but this overall experience took everything to the next level. This is the most complex and ambitious “meal” I’ve yet had. It combines location, music, story, food, and even my wine pairings.

The man is like a Toscanini of food. It’s mind-boggling. Every single dish worked. Some were a bit better of course, but all were great. They show technical virtuosity, but more importantly, they show his incredible talent for predicting the nature of sensory experience. Like a Mozart symphony, the notes were all harmonious. Really, Food as Art.

Roberto details this meal on his own blog.

Check out more of my grand Foodie Club meals.

Related posts:

  1. Food as Art: Dark Illuminated Forest
  2. Food as Art: Chanukah in Style
  3. Son of Saam – Actually more Bazaar
  4. Bistro LQ – 27 Courses of Trufflumpagus
  5. Food as Art: Ludobites 7.0
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Auslese, Chateauneuf du Pape, CR8, Foodie Club, Jean-Max, Purotekuta, Riesling, Roberto, Roberto Cortez, Roussanne, Wine tasting descriptors

Red Medicine – Elfin Feast

Feb11

Restaurant: Red Medicine [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 8400 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, Ca. 90211. 323-651-6500.

Date: February 6, 2012

Cuisine: Elfin Fantasy Food

Summary: A feast for for Elrond’s table

_

For some reason it took me a year to get back to Red Medicine, even though I very much enjoyed my previous visits. Anyway, as it’s the new year and my partner in Foodie crime Erick is back in town, and having a birthday, we made it 2012’s first official Foodie Club meeting.


The frontage.

The easier to read version


And the new menu. Things look vaguely similar, but most of the dishes have changed up since last time.


Red Medicine technically has a $35 dollar corkage (except no corkage on Fri and Sat), but they nicely allowed us their original policy of waiving a corkage for every bottle of their wine we bought. This ended up being 2 and 2, theirs being this excellent JJ Prum Kabinett (a fav of mine). Parker 91: “Extremely bright in aroma as well as palate impression, the Prums’ 2008 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Kabinett is dominated by lemon and grapefruit, with village typical cherry and cassis manifesting themselves as an invigorating chew of fruit skin that is delightfully complimented by estate-typical impingement of CO2. Lush yet light, this finishes with not only blazing brightness but a cress-like pungency and strikingly intense salinity and suggestions of wet stone, making your palate stand to attention, wide awake! Plan on following it for a couple of decades, although, unlike many Joh. Jos. Prum wines, I find it (and many of the estate’s 2008s) downright irresistible already.”


“FOIE GRAS / mousse, tete de cochon, beet, kohlrabi, chicory, croissant.” First, let’s not some of the unique elements of this cuisine, what we came to call “dollop and dust” was just as present as last year. But this time the vegetal/natural/flower thing is out of control. Every seemed like that crazy forest elemental from Hellboy 2 had snuck into the kitchen.  This one has difficult to get all the flavors in one bite. What I had was good, but I had the feeling that if I had gotten a more substantive chunk it would have been better (we were splitting 5 ways and it was difficult).


“AMBERJACK / red seaweed, buttermilk, lotus root, tapioca, succulents.” The flowers overwhelmed the fish a bit, but it was tasty. And the dish looks like a Christmas crown for a fairy!


“WINTER PEAS / yuzu, soymilk-yogurt, trout roe, purple cabbage, coconut.” More dust. As instructed, we mixed this up and it then looked kinda like a pea pasta. It was actually really good that way.


“RABBIT / five flavor berry, pandan custard, roots, tubers, black currant, sesame leaf.” There are 2-3 rabbit loins hidden under the foliage. Again very tasty, but hard to get all the elements in the mouth, particularly with they very long and fluffy leaves.


“DUNGENESS CRAB / passion fruit, brown butter, black garlic, vietnamese crepe, hearts of palm.” Besides being wrapped in another fairy wreath, this is one giant ravioli but it was darn good.  Really good. I just wish I had more than one bite.


“HEIRLOOM BLACK CARROTS / guava, winter kale, dulse, young walnut, tamarind.” Legolas, sir, have you seen the Ent? He was last observed heading into the kitchen! Seriously, while this dish was actually very tasty it looks like the forest floor!


“WILD STRIPED BASS / charred mustard leaf, boiled peanuts, wild garlic, burnt onion syrup.” Is there a striped bass in there under all those flowers?


Indeed, there is!


“CHARRED LEEKS / taro “vichyssoise”, parsley root, chinese celery, vietnamese herb.” And here we have the wild garden of doctor Suess!


“HEIRLOOM RICE PORRIDGE / egg yolk, hazelnuts, ginseng, echire butter + SANTA BARBARA RED UNI.” This frightened me slightly, looking as it does a lot like congee (Chinese rice porridge). But we stirred it up and it turned out to taste incredible, like a fantastic creamy uni risotto!


After two bottles of the Kabinet, we decided to go red (the Auslese on the left we had later for dessert) with the meat. Parker gives this lesser known Bordeaux 91 points. “A fully mature, elegant 1990 with an exceptionally flowery, berry, white chocolate, and smoky oak-scented nose, this fleshy, mid-weight La Lagune exhibits a velvety texture and no hard edges. It is an endearing wine that needs to be drunk over the next 5-6 years.”

Then the riesling: Parker 93-94. “A Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese offers an impressive combination of white raisin-studded apple jelly, mango, caramel, honey, and vanilla in a creamy textural context, with a remarkable, parallel, and somehow perfectly-integrated sense of fresh apple and pear juiciness that guarantees a finish of genuine refreshment, enhanced by near-weightless buoyancy. This is quite thrilling to savor even now, but deserves at least a dozen years’ cellaring and is likely to perform well three decades or more hence.”


Then the meats. “LAMB / glazed in tamarind, hibiscus onion, swiss chard, salted plum.” Tasty!


“WAGYU BEEF / creme fraiche, garlic chive, cashew, lovage, charred cucumber.” Some tasty beef, although not as fatty as one might expect. The creme went very nicely, although again I felt like a rabbit with all those big leaves sticking out of my mouth.


“PORK / caramelized black vinegar, goji berry, spring onion, dried almond.” Underneath this little forrest of green was one of the tastiest dishes of the night, some delectable pork!


“BEEF TARTARE / water lettuce, water chestnut, nuoc leo, chlorophyll, peanu.” This is the first real “repeat” from the menu a year ago, although it’s gone to seed — but it still tastes fantastic.


Shrimp chips to go with the tartare. One puts some steak on a shrimp chip, adds some dust and eats. It’s a pretty wonderful flavor combo.


“MAITAKE MUSHROOMS / cauliflower, snake beans, bacon x.o., walnut.” Sauron’s curse! Someone stole Elrond’s crown! But seriously this was a difficult dish to cut as the wreath of beans snaked around. But it was worth it as it was surprisingly tasty. Perhaps because of the bacon.


The dessert menu.


“COCONUT BAVAROIS / coffee, condensed milk, thai basil, peanut croquant.” This was the most successful dessert — wonderful in fact. The peanut, chocolate, coconut cream thing was pretty amazing.


“BITTER CHOCOLATE / kecap manis, oats, parsnip, brown butter, soy milk sorbet.” Dust and dollops! But this was also very good.


“RHUBARB / mahlab cremeux, hibiscus, gentian, lemongrass meringue.” And so was the rhubarb, although the texture is very fluffy and airy.


“PEAR / wild anise, cream, raw chestnut, mead syrup infused with pear skins.” Where’s it hiding? Inside this natural fortress?


Quick, break down the walls to find… white stuff and pear.


One of the dominant flavors here was anise. It was all pretty good, although probably the weakest of the four.

Overall, I was pretty surprised to find out how far the chef’s cuisine had evolved (see the older meals), and in such an unexpected vegetal direction. Lords of the forest, this was some unique stuff. The flavors were a bit more understated and far less Vietnamese than a year ago. Ultimately odder, but certainly more unique. Still, although every dish was successful in some way, and many were fantastic. They just pursue a unique visual and textural vision. Despite basically ordering the entire menu it was pretty light too.

All in all, unique and playful, but we could have used a little more light in the forest, it was so dark we could hardly appreciate the masterpieces. On a technical note this was the first night that I used my Canon 5D Mark II with a little table top tripod. I found that I still needed to use the flash otherwise (the restaurant being VERY dark) I needed like a 3s shutter time. The tripod was a tad awkward and I’m glad it was only us foodies at the table, but the pictures did turn out very well. I ended up gong full manual and stopping down to about 7, setting a 1/15 (quarter second) exposure and just relying on the flash to fill.

For more LA food reviews, see here.

Related posts:

  1. Red Medicine the Relapse
  2. Red Medicine is the Cure
  3. New Year’s Feast
  4. Joe’s Restaurant – California Classic
  5. Son of Saam – Actually more Bazaar
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills California, California, Dessert, Elrond, Foodie Club, Kabinett, Riesling
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