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Tin Time – Saltie Girl

Aug01

Restaurant: Saltie Girl

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

Date: November 9, 2023

Cuisine: Seafood

Rating: Quite different with all that conserva

This was a Erick and I duo foodie night.

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

The menu.

The have a whole book of conserva.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bread for the tins.

Cockles in brine. Very succulent and delicious.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beurre blanc sauce.

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

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

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

Matsumoto Maxsumoto

Jun05

Restaurant: Matsumoto

Location: 8385 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048. 323) 653-0470

Date: May 10, 2019

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Very good, and interesting, but expensive

Erick, Larry, and I kept hearing through the rumor mill that Matsumoto in Beverly Hills had one of the best Japanese Omakases in town so of course the Foodie Club had to saddle up and go.

They are located on Beverly in a busy strip mall — like most other good LA Sushi joints. The “Beverly Hills” location is more like West Hollywood.

It’s non-assuming for sure.

The interior is pretty typical Japanese restaurant.

We had prearranged this giant special menu! It was so long, they refused to start dinner later than 6:30!

From my cellar: 2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon. VM 94+. The 2006 Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon is powerful, intense and also classically austere in its make up. Crushed flowers, mint, red berries and cranberries are all finely sketched. The 2006 finishes with striking mineral-driven precision, and while it doesn’t have the opulence or exuberance of the 2002, it is still a very pretty and appealing Champagne. The Elisabeth Salmon is 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay, with about 8% still Pinot Noir. Dosage is 6 grams per liter.

1995 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 94. The 1995 Krug is gorgeous. I chose it because one of my guests loves Krug and I thought the 1995 would have the right amount of complexity to pair beautifully with the smokiness in Saison’s caviar. Although the 1995 Krug is not a truly epic wine, it is in a sweet spot right now. (Drink between 2018-2023)

Appetizer plate:

Uguisu Tofu (back left). Sugar snap pea tofu.

Hotaru Ika Sumiso (lower right). Cooked firefly Squid (seasonal) with miso vinegar.

Nasu Agebitashi (back right). Eggplant cooked in sweet soy and dashi.

Wagyu Miso Zuke Negi Maki (left). White green onions wrapped with miso marinated wagyu beef.

Hotate Ebi Satsuma Age (front). Light fried fish cake made of scallop and shrimp.

Ama Ebi Ceviche (center). Diced Sweet Shrimp with home-made yuzu salsa.

From my cellar: 1993 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 92. A fully mature and expressive nose of elegant secondary fruit and floral aromas introduces intensely mineral-driven, pure and beautifully well-detailed middle weight flavors that possess excellent depth and fine length. This is drinking perfectly now and should continue to do so without effort for at least another decade. Tasted only once recently.

2015 Bret Brothers Viré-Clessé La Verchère. VM 88. Pale, bright straw-yellow. Ripe peach, orange zest and passion fruit on the nose, with a touch of leesy complexity. More exotic than the Les Crays but less harmonious today, showing a more glyceral texture, then surprising acidity. The stone fruit flavors convey very good depth, plus a slight mineral edge.

Soup (Suimono). Hama Sui. Cherry stone clam in clear soup.

Kim brought this great unfiltered sake.

Sashimi (Otsukuri). Hon maguro (blue fin tuna), shima aji (striped jack), aji (Japanese grunt), sakura masu (wild cherry salmon), hotate (scallop).

Notice the fin beneath the fish.
Grilled (Yakimono). Hokke Matsumae Yaki. Grilled atka macherel marinated with kelp (overnight).

Fried (Agemono). Chi-ayu tempura & Soramame Kakiage. Deep fried young sweetfish w/ Sansho Pepper sea salt & depp fried fava beans with sea salt.

Side Dish (Naka-Zara). Kani Miso Cheese Koura Yaki. Hairy crab innards (mixed with crab meat, egg & scallions) grilled with cheese in the shell. This was a unique prep of crab guts — awesome and slightly like a Japanese crabby tuna melt.

Uni Flight. Three kinds of uni. I think all Japanese.

1987 Cellier des Samsons Fleurie!

Small Dish (kobachi). Mushi awabi. Tender cooked abalone with okra.

1978 Joseph Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Grèves. BH 89. Mostly bricked through. The expressive and attractively layered nose is composed of full-on sous bois, earth and herbal tea scents. I very much like the complexity to the well-delineated and punch middle weight flavors that exhibit a subtle minerality on the linear finish that displays an acid-tang that is enough to mildly dry the finish. This is pretty and very ’78 in character though the balance isn’t quite perfect. Drink up.

We added a wagyu sushi flight.

Pretty bowl for:

Steamed (mushimono). Kinki and kabu nibitashi. Rockfish steamed with sake and turnip cooked in light soy and dashi.

And because that giant menu wasn’t enough we added some more meat — I think this was duck.

Then the sushi (shokuji) started to come:

Sumi ika (squid) and kegani (hairy crab).
Nodoguro (seared black throat perch) and toro (supreme toro).

Kuruma ebi (prawn).

Hokkaido uni (sea urchin).

Plus we wanted MORE. A final flight of sashimi!

2005 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Häuserer. VM 90. Pale straw-gold color. Aromas of orange liqueur, white flowers and minerals. Vibrant and clean, with ginger and nutmeg spice notes contributing energy to the peachy fruit. I find this brighter and more precise than the Clos Windsbuhl. It’s sweeter but also livelier, thanks to a juicy sugar/acid balance.

Bessert (mizugashi). Baked sweet potato cake and fruits.

Overall, Matsumoto was really good and we had an epic meal — their super sized omakase + a bunch of extras. Certainly we were full. The courses were all extremely well prepared, but it is a very pricey place and leans toward a highly traditional Japanese taste tonality that isn’t that splashy. Newer style places like ootoro are more flashy and crave-worthy — and Hayato, which is also very traditional, is somehow more refined and modern at the same time. So Matsumoto ends up being a lot of money and very good, but you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere. Certainly glad I tried it though.

1959 Franchino Marco Gattinara Lo Spanna. Old, old Gattinara (which is like baraolo, being a Nebbiolo, but made up in the far north of the Piedmont).

Afterward, we stopped by Kim’s resteraunt, Khong Ten and kept drinking — combining with the sake to make me very slugging in the morning.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Burgundy, Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, kanimiso, Matsumoto, sake, Sashimi, Sushi, tempura, West Hollywood, Wine

n10 with the Gang

Jun27

Restaurant: n10 restaurant

Location:8436 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA, CA 90048. (310) 924-2011

Date: May 21, 2018

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great pastas and hospitality

I’ve been doing a lot of Foodie Club dinners the last couple of months because they have the best overall balance between food, wine, company etc and are smaller and more intimate.

Larry has been friends for a while with the owner of the brand new n10 and so he set this one up.

It’s a new Italian place on 3rd Street, right next to the now defunct/moved Gusto. They have a large (and nice) patio.

The interior is big too with a top notch build out. At first we had the private room but an uppity chick coming for her birthday dinner threw a tantrum on the owner and we moved out to the patio — which was in many ways nicer because it was quiet and we had it all to ourselves.

The menu.

And an insert.

Erick brought: 1996 Bruno Paillard Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 94. The 1996 Brut Blanc de Blancs is a rich, explosive wine that bursts onto the palate with a blast of ripe fruit. Generous notes of toasted oak, flowers and nuts follow, but everything is woven together in a fabric of unsual brilliance. The oak remains quite prominent and borderline intrusive but stylistically everything works. The wine comes together in the glass, where it also gains additional weight and fills out nicely. This is a powerful, heady and totally opulent Champagne that calls for food. In the right context it is sure to be extraordinary. At the risk of offending the Champenoise, the 1996 Brut Blanc de Blancs seems to scream for a poached egg generously topped with white Alba truffles!

CHARCUTERIE. Prosciutto di Parma aged 24 months / prosciutto Toscano aged 20 months / finocchiona salami / speck /
nduja / bresaola / mortadella / spicy coppa / chicken liver pate / served with gnocco fritto.

Puffy Emilia-Romagna style breads.

Another view with the wine bucket.

And a different bread type, plus Grissini.

Seb is obsessed with this wine: 2014 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest. VM 94+. Bright, pale yellow. Lovely perfumed lift to the aromas and flavors of lemon zest, grapefruit and white flowers. Tactile and dense but very closed on the palate, combining a sexy sweetness for the year with powerful salinity and superb depth. Most impressive today on the energetic, slowly mounting, palate-staining finish, which leaves the retronasal passage quivering. Premier cru Chablis from the region’s left bank does not get much better than this.

TUNA TARTARE. capers, agrumato, espelette pepper, preserved lemon.

CARNE CRUDA. grass fed beef, whole grain mustard, lemon juice, cured egg yolk. Very nice tartar with the cured egg yolk.

And bread for both tartars.

BURRATA. pea sprouts, fennel, preserved lemon, olio verde. Imported from Italy.

From my cellar: 2007 Venica & Venica Malvasia Collio. Great northern Italian white.

PIZZA TARTUFATA. burrata, squash blossoms, black truffle. Nice pizza.

Now we get into my favorites, the pastas:

PACCHERI. Maine lobster, crustacean broth, stracciatella, pomodorini, basil pesto.

SPAGHETTI CHITARRA. Sea urchin, grey mullet, botarga, lemon zest. Another great one.

From my cellar: 1997 Gaja Barbaresco. 95 points. Good full ruby-red. Superripe aromas of black raspberry, coffee, mint and oak, plus an exotic smoky note of torrefaction. Less complex than the ’98 but very concentrated, with surprising acidity giving the wine lovely vinosity. Strong note of dark chocolate in the mouth. Finishes long and juicy, with building tannins.

BOMBOLOTTI SUGO TOSCANO. tomato, guanciale, soffritto onions, dry aged pecorino. First rate with a great bite and nice porky flavor.

RISOTTO. porcini, zucchini, red wine braised chicken oysters. Interesting.

GNOCCHI NORCINA. Sausage, porcini mushrooms, black truffle. I love Norcina and this was a fairly faithful version.

2000 Château Montrose. VM 94. Full red-ruby. Roasted, smoky aromas of blackberry, blueberry and licorice. Plush, dense and large-scaled; expands impressively in the mouth. Chocolatey-ripe but kept fresh by nicely integrated acidity. Offers lovely sweetness without going over the top. Finishes with big, dusty, horizontal tannins and lovely aromatic persistence. Offers extraordinary texture and depth of flavor for a wine with just 12.8% alcohol.

BONE-IN RIBEYE. cipolini onions, red wine sauce, rosemary roasted potatoes.

Larry brought a Mollydooker Shiraz Velvet Glove but I forgot to get a photo of the year!

COSTOLETTE D’AGNELLO. Australian lamb chops, shishito peppers, marinated cabbage, aged balsamic.

RAPINI. garlic, olive oil, chili. Like a Chinese green (almost).

CARCIOFI. roasted artichokes, guanciale, Calabrian chili. These were nice.

Our very generous host brought this Barolo out for us on the house! 1999 Gomba Boschetti Barolo Sori Boschetti

Here is the owner with Larry. Next we go into dessert overload!

SEMIFREDDO. dark, milk and white chocolate, amaretti cookies, blackberries. I love semifreddo.

With the chocolate sauce.

CREPE CAKE. poppy seeds, pastry cream, strawberries.

TIRAMISU. lady fingers, espresso, mascarpone mousse. This was a good “real” tiramisu — not as good as mine, of course, but good.

I can’t remember exactly what this was, but coconut I think.

Some nice gelatti, not made in house though, and not nearly as good as mine, but still solid.

Pistachio Gelato. A bit mild, but nice texture.

Caramel Gelato.

Chocolate Gelato.

Stracciatella Gelato.

Raspberry Sorbetto.

Oh, and some Sassicaia grappa to finish — took a couple layers off my gut! Not really a grappa fan.

But this was a great night and a lot of fun. Really good food, particularly the pastas, apps, pizzas and desserts (I rarely love the mains at Italian) and amazing service and hospitality!

For more LA dining reviews click here.