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Petrified Peppone

Jun22

Restaurant: Peppone Restaurant

Location: 11628 Barrington Ct, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 476-7379

Date: November 11, 2022

Cuisine: 1970s Italian American

Rating: Saucy!

Jeffrey was clamoring for months to visit Peppone in Brentwood for Old School Italian eats.

I, myself, hadn’t been in 15 or 20 years!

Not that the interior changed. It hasn’t changed since disco was king! This place opened in around 1971 and looks it. All the hot girls were there too (later) — just the girls who were hot in the 70s!

At the bar.

The petrified menu.

From my cellar: 2012 Borgo del Tiglio (Nicola Manferrari) Collio Studio di Bianco. 95 points. Borgo del Tiglio’s flagship 2012 Studio di Bianco is the most precise, sculpted wine in the range. Lemon peel, white flowers and crushed rocks are some of the nuances that take shape in a wine that deftly balances the richness and tension. As is often the case, I expect the Studio will need a few years in bottle to truly open up and show the full breadth of its personality. (Drink between 2017-2027)

Cheesy Garlic Bread with Marinara Sauce. I didn’t try these (avoiding the carbs) but people said they were pretty good. But they do start off tonight’s “sauce” theme, even if it’s a dipping sauce in that EVERY dish served was covered in a sauce.

From my cellar: 2018 Azienda Agricola Valentini Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. VM 92. Bright pink. Minerals, fava beans, pomegranate and violet on the bright nose. Then very harmonious in its acid-fruit-tannin profile, with lively balanced acidity nicely extending the flavors similar to the aromas on the long back end. Strikes me as a rather refined, sneakily concentrated Cerasuolo. (Drink between 2019-2025)

Jumbo Artichokes Venetian. Not only is this pretty hideous (and decidedly messy) but it was probably the worst artichoke I remember having. The sauce was just vaguely salty and the artichoke itself was very thick and heavy and it was difficult to scrape any meat off of the leaves. This is an easy dish and can be delicious steamed with butter, garlic, and a bit of salt — don’t complicate it.

Baked Zucchini Blossoms. Ugly as hell, but actually fairly tasty. The overall texture was much like an omelet as the blossoms were smashed flat and slightly soggy. A fairly tasty brown sauce of some sort was sort of drizzled over it.

Escargots. Another looker! Passible, but these shelled snails were drowned in this mysterious brown sauce. Straight French-style garlic butter escargot are much better.

Scampi Vesuvio. Nicely cooked shelled shrimp were soaked in the vesuvio sauce which seams to be butter, lemon juice, and some seafood “juice.”

From my cellar: 1965 Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva. VM 97. Garnet-tinged red. Aromas of raspberry, red cherry, dried flowers, licorice and smoky spices complicated by white pepper and herbs. Suave on entry, then sweet but gripping in the middle, with harmonious acidity giving terrific definition and lift to the multifaceted flavors of red berries, minerals, iron and spices. A wonderfully creamy, almost fleshy Chianti with utterly silky tannins. Offers amazing vibrancy while saturating the entire palate without conveying any impression of weight on the extremely long finish. A great wine from a vintage that received mixed reviews at the time, with some producers liking it a lot, and others much less so. The general consensus, though is that it was inferior to both 1964 and 1966.

Would have been home on the original opening list!

Pasta Trio with Rigatoni with Italian Sausage, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Lobster Ravioli. Three “classic” pastas. The good one was the Rigatoni which was quite al dente and had a nice Italian American Sausage sauce. The Fettuccine was mushy and just tasted like cream. The Ravioli sauce tasted mostly like salt with almost no lobster shell (aka bisque) taste.

From my cellar: 2002 Romano Dal Forno Valpolicella Superiore Vigneto di Monte Lodoletta. VM 94. Dal Forno’s 2002 Valpolicella is a massively endowed effort revealing backward dark fruit, new leather, spices, herbs, roasted coffee beans and toasted oak on an imposing, tannic frame. Made in a super-concentrated style – even by Dal Forno’s standards – it will require several years of cellaring for the tannins to soften somewhat, although it is hard to imagine that will ever completely happen. Beginning with the 2002 vintage Dal Forno’s Valpolicella is made from 100% dried fruit, whereas in previous vintages the wine had been made only partially with dried fruit. (Drink between 2013-2017)

Sweetbreads Pompei, Sandabs in Padella, and Chicken Livers Flambee. These were all actually pretty good. The Sandabs were fabulous, albiet coated in another of those salty old fashioned sauces, but they were very delicate and moist (drowned). The Sweetbreads were also good, but hard to tell under the sauce. The Liver was my least favorite but it was still solid for liver of this sort as it was soft and not chewy or heavy.

From the ancient list: 1989 Gaja Barbaresco Costa Russi. VM 97. The 1989 Barbaresco Costa Russi is a thrilling wine that literally takes my breath away – and that comes from someone who usually isn’t the hugest fan of this particular wine. In 1989 the Costa Russi offers a touch more roundness and spiciness than the Barbaresco. The fruit here is super-luxurious and silky, while the tannins possess remarkable polish. The finish remains firm and full of life. Even 20 years ago Angelo Gaja and Guido Rivella were making wines most producers would kill for today. Simply put this is a magical bottle; I only wish I owned it. Wow. (Drink between 2013-2030)

Sausages Pizzaiola. This seemed more like sausages and peppers. But regardless the sausage itself was great, classic Italian America with a nice bit of fennel. Sauce worked well making it like a good street Sausage and Peppers. The old fashioned veggies lol. Steamed with maybe a bit of butter. Drowned in the sauce they were actually fine as they were still reasonably crunchy — but so old fashioned!

Vitello Saltimbocca. Hard to find the veal under all that sauce, and it was salty, but it was also tender and pretty delicious.

Lamb Osso Buco with Gnocchi. I usually expect Osso Buco to be vertical with more fat and collogen and this is more reminiscient as a cut to a Middle Eastern lamb shank, but the meat was delicious. The Gnocchi were a bit chewy, not the light fluffy ones that are best.

Sautéed Mushrooms. Ugly delicious for sure! Looks like a bowl of dog food, but these mushrooms, nearly invisible under the thick salty brown sauce were quite delicious. Certainly it was all about the salty mushroom (and maybe beef) sauce.

Yar! Ghostly skeletal praline pirates are marauding — Pecan Pirate Praline Gelato — An eggy Texas Pecan base layered with my creepy skull-shaped New Orleans style Vanilla Bourbon Pecan Pralines and Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Pumpkins — 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 #vanilla #bourbon #pecan #praline #candy #halloween #spooky

We were joined tonight by the lovely and vivacious Lisa of LisaEatsLA. Plus her boyfriend.

Overall, the room at Peppone is gorgeous. The clientele consists of 1968 California Girls dolled up and ready to party — in 2022. The waiters have all probably worked here for decades and they were great. Very nice, very knowledgeable, efficient. Our meal did take mysteriously long. They kinda did that thing where they ignored us a bit until the bulk of the crowd (which had seated before us, even though we at at 7pm) thinned out.
Food was better than I thought, but OMG the hideous plating and all that sauce. Literally every single dish is drowned in a barely identifiable heavy sauce. The driest dish was the Garlic Bread (which also included a sauce). And it’s just poured over. And it’s all so 1970s. I love sauce but this was a bit much. And we aren’t talking a precise french Beurre Blanc or even a peerless Marinara but these heavy sloppy butter based “brownish” sauces. Plus the antiquated veggies. However, must dishes were pretty tasty in a salty buttery way. Pastas were weak. We didn’t try dessert.

They do have a pretty well priced big wine list. It’s poorly spelled and only sometimes includes vintages but we did manage to find a fantastic 1989 Gaja Russi for $349 (which is probably about retail).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brentwood, BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, Italian cuisine, Lisa Eats, Peppone, Sauce, Wine

Lots more Longo

Jun16

Several more really epic Longo meals have been rolled into this mega post.

Check it all out here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese Food, crab, duck, Lobster, Longo, Seafood, Wine

Mr. T doesn’t Pity the Fool that drinks Pierre Peters

Jun14

Restaurant: Mr. T [1, 2]

Location: 953 N Sycamore Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (310) 953-4934

Date: November 3, 2022

Cuisine: Modern French Bistro

Rating: Really tasty — and awesome Champagne

This was the first Sage Society wine dinner “post pandemic” and it was great to get back to this impeccable series that Liz Lee puts on where she showcases the wines of a particular wine maker, with great food, and the wine maker themselves.

Mr.T is a contemporary French cuisine inspired by upscale street food dishes featuring fresh ingredients and masterful preparation by our head Chef Alisa Vannah. Indulge in unique flavors using local ingredients to create an authentic dining experience. Mr.T carries a variety of handcrafted cocktails and a uniquely selected wine list offering a tasteful array of wines from some of the greatest producers in the world. We look forward to serving you!

“For Mr. T’s Los Angeles location, Guedj and Miyazaki have tapped Chi Spacca, Tsubaki, and République alum Alisa Vannah to head up the kitchen. Vannah, a Los Angeles native, trained with Miyazaki in Paris and collaborated with him on several dishes that will only appear on the Los Angeles menu, such as a riff on a chicken pot pie made with caramelized onion and tare chicken jus, as well as a big eye tuna crudo inspired by Vannah’s trips to Redondo Beach with her family as a kid.”

The have a cute “patio.”

A sleek modern interior.

Spotless open kitchen.

And this really cool “recording industry” themed private room.

Champagne at the ready.

Rodolphe Péters took over the reins of this venerable estate in the southern Côte des Blancs in 2008, becoming the fourth generation to lead since the estate was founded in 1919, under the name Camille Péters. Today, Rodolphe holds 18 hectares of vineyards, predominantly in the grand cru of Les Mesnil-sur-Oger. Péters owns small holdings in several other grand crus (Oger, Avize and Cramant) but Les Mesnil-sur-Oger is where 45 of the 63 parcels he farms are located.

The menu was totally custom and only thematically linked to the normal Mr T. menu — which I will show at some future meals/posts.

Table setting.

NV Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée de Réserve. JG 91. Blanc de Blancs Brut NV (Mesnil-sur-Oger)) The current release of Rodolphe Péters’ “Cuvée de Réserve” Blanc de Blancs is from the base year of 2018. It includes reserve wines in the blend all the way back to 1988! Seventy-five percent of the vins clairs go through malo for this bottling, with the wines raised in a combination of stainless steel, cask and concrete. It was disgorged in December of 2021 after aging sur latte two years. The bouquet is deep and refined, wafting from the glass in a mix of apple, pear, fresh almond, brioche, chalky soil tones and a topnote of white flowers. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and still quite youthful, with a good spine of acidity, fine depth at the core, good mineral drive, pinpoint bubbles and a long, still fairly brisk and promising finish. I love the expressiveness of this wine on the nose, but it is lagging behind on the palate and could do with a year or two in the cellar to blossom more properly from behind its acids and start to drink with generosity. It is going to be a lovely non-vintage bottling of Blanc de Blancs. (Drink between 2024-2040)

NOTE: the magnum is actually a different cuvee, in this case with all 2017 vintage wine.

Potato Pancake with Creme Fraiche and Caviar. Great pancake with a lot of onion and flavor. Very high quality caviar. Super delicious version of “carbs + creme + caviar.”

Skikoku Oyster with Salmon Roe and Micro Greens. Very nice deliciate small oyster.

NV Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée de Réserve. A 750ml for comparison.

2017 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Réserve Oubliée Blanc de Blancs. 93 points.

NV Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru L’Etonnant Monsieur Victor MK14.

Scallops with tomato, cucumber, and lime. This was a stunning dish. The raw scallops were amazingly tender, the tomatoes very sweet, and the cucumber/pickle bits crunchy. But it was the sauce below, which was slightly thick and had this cucumber lime vibe going that was frankly amazing. We all drank the sauce. Very refreshing summer dish (in November).

NV Fleur de Miraval Champagne ER2.

NV Fleur de Miraval Champagne ER3.

Chawanmushi egg custard with Santa Barbara Uni and summer vegetables. Certainly the best Chawanmushi I’ve had at a non Japanese resteraunt. Very light and lovely with a nice textural interplay between the soft custard and the crunchy vegetables.

2012 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Montjolys. VM 96. Here in its first release, the 2012 Blanc de Blancs Cuvée Spéciale Les Montjolys takes all of Pierre Péters signatures and gives them an extra kick of intensity that comes from the higher percentage of clay and generally heavier soils in this parcel, which sits just below Les Chétillons. Ample and explosive, with tremendous backing energy, the Montjolys has so much going on. Orange marmalade, spice, butter, hazelnut and lemon confit are front and center. More than anything else, the Les Montjolys possesses tons of breadth and resonance, not to mention considerable character. The Péters family owns three hectares across seven parcels in Montjolys, that form the backbone of the Cuvée de Réserve. This is the first release of pure Montjolys from Pierre Péters, and it is fabulous. Dosage is 3.5 grams per liter. Disgorged: November, 2018. (Drink between 2022-2037)

2013 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Montjolys. VM 98. As good as the Chétillons is in 2013, the 2013 Brut Blanc de Blancs Cuvée Spéciale Les Montjolys is even better. In fact, it is the single most impressive Champagne I have ever tasted from Rodolphe Péters. Deep, rich and pliant, the 2013 possesses tremendous depth to play off the searing, bright acids of this late ripening harvest. Light tropical accents add gorgeous nuance to a core of apricot, marzipan and lemon confit. Next to the Chétillons, the Montjolys is richer and creamier. It will be a matter of personal preference as to which wine readers prefer. The Chétillons is taut and focused, while the Montjolys is broader and more vinous. In two separate tastings, I slightly preferred the Montjolys. Both are moving, profound Champagnes. Dosage is 3.5-4.5 grams per liter. Disgorged: March, 2020. (Drink between 2023-2038)

2014 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Montjolys. VM 94+. The 2014 Brut Cuvée Spéciale Montjolys shows just how compelling this vintage is. It offers a gorgeous mix of energy from this late-ripening year along with the natural radiance of this site. Lemon confit, white pepper, apricot, white flowers and chamomile are all finely delineated throughout. There is a bit of youthful austerity, though, so I would cellar the 2014 for at least a year or two. (Drink between 2024-2035)

Salmon Wellington. Really spectacular pastry, perfectly moist salmon, savory mushroom layer, and lovely Salmon Roe accented Beurre Blanc. Perfect version of this dish.

2004 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons.

2007 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons.

2015 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons.

Liberty Duck breast with mushroom. A classic French duck prep with that heavy (but not crispy) skin. It was cooked perfectly medium rare but had no funk. The darker paste was a lovely mushroom paste and the nutty mushroom on the left was extremely dense and chewy, but also really fabulous. A bit more Beurre Blanc drew it all together. Great duck dish.

Cheeses. Rich Brillat-Savarin, Comte, and Tomme de Savoie.

Bread for the cheese.

My notes.

Some of the lineup.

This was a fabulous dinner.

First of all, the food was off the charts good. I was really impressed and have been back twice since to sample the normal menu (which is also very good). This is French modern bistro style, very fresh and crispy. Really tasty.

The wines were of course epic. I ended up buying quite a bit more (and I’ve been to previous Pierre Peters dinners and own quite a bit). Really high quality grower champ. I particularly love the Montjolys, very sexy.

As always, Liz Lee of Sage Society puts on an impeccable event.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bistro, Champagne, French Cuisine, Liz Lee, Mr. T, Pierre Peters, Rodolphe Péters, Sage Society, Wine

Aussie at Locanda Veneta

Jun12

Restaurant: Locanda Veneta [1, 2, 3]

Location: 8638 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048. (310) 274-1893

Date: November 3, 2022

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: fun night w/ retro 90s Italian

I’m not historically a big fan of Locanda Veneta. It’s okay, and the owner is super nice, and execution on the food quite good, but the meal is always the same (maybe that’s Yarom’s ordering) and it’s very 90’s. I like a more modern style of Italian, frankly. This feels similar to Toscana or other good but slightly dated places. And we always end up eating steak — which just doesn’t feel that Italian — although actually it is in Tuscany — but I hate that kind of steak.

Anyway, I decided after many years of rejection to try it out again. This is also right at the start of my new low carb diet but they did very graciously offer substitutes for the pasta.

The location is Los Angeles classic, Locanda Veneta, a Beverly Hills Italian with several decades of history. Above, Chef Andre in the kitchen.

Our big outside table — which is great in nice weather.

From my cellar: 2011 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. 94 points.

2006 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 98. We started with the 2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne, which is every bit as racy and seductive as it has always been. It’s a great, great vintage for Comtes. (Drink between 2022-2046)

2008 Drappier Champagne Grande Sendrée Submarine Edition. 96 points.

The menu.

Ron bonus: 2018 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots. VM 94. The 2018 Chablis Bougros Côte de Bouguerots Grand Cru is well-defined on the nose. Quite stony and terse at first, it opens with orange rind and crushed pebble scents. The palate is well balanced with fine acidity, tight and energetic with a zesty, minerally finish. This meliorates in the glass, ending up quite nuanced and tensile. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2018 white tasting. (Drink between 2024-2040)

Bread with a “pesto” of parsley, olive oil, lemon juice etc.

Insalata San Remo. Mixed Greens served with Avocados, Tomatoes, Hearts of Palm, Zucchini, and Pine-Nuts tossed in our House Vinaigrette. Not a bad salad but certainly not great with wine either.

Penne Pomodoro.

From my cellar, and WOTN (haha but true): 2011 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 95. As was the case from a bottle in 750 ml tasted in 2019 (see herein), a still strikingly fresh, elegant, airy and cool nose features aromas of wisps of acacia blossom, lemon rind, mineral reduction, green apple and a lingering hint of wood influence. The sleek, pure and stony medium weight flavors exude palpable underlying tension before culminating in a vibrant, driving, intense and impeccably well-balanced finish that goes on and on. This is textbook Perrières that for my taste is still on the way up, and particularly so in magnum format, and I would suggest allowing it another 5 to 8 years of cellar time. With that said, it wouldn’t be a crime to open one now – just be sure to allow for some air time. Impressive. (Drink starting 2028)

“Beluga” Sturgeon Caviar (1lb.) Sturgeon Roe (Imported Real Fine Black Caviar) served with Fresh Made Blini, Chopped Egg Yolks, Spanish Red Onion and Crème Fraiche.

Fresh Made Blini, Chopped Egg Yolks, Spanish Red Onion and Crème Fraiche.

A slight odd course, but delicious (and salty). Always a little amusing when there are 2 white courses (salad and caviar) and a whole lotta giant red.

2001 Penfolds Grange. VM 94. Inky violet with a bright rim. Explosive and utterly captivating on the nose, offering a range of aromas that encompasses red and darker berries, flowers, cigar box, minerals and sexy oak spices. Quite broad on the palate, and packing a real punch to its flavors of cassis, boysenberry, candied plum, bitter chocolate and fruitcake. Serious, harmonious tannins give plenty of structural support. This expands and grows even sweeter with aeration, finishing with outstanding persistence. Oak spices add sex appeal. A superb Grange.

1999 Penfolds Grange. VM 91+. Full ruby-red. Sexy aromas of raspberry, cola, root beer and coconut. Thick, dense and concentrated, with exotic, slightly candied dark fruit, caramel, toasted coconut and mineral flavors nicely shaped by firm acids. Shows strong fruit and a major dose of oak on the powerful, backward finish. This can’t quite match the 1998 for sheer depth of fruit, but it’s built to age.

1993 Penfolds Grange. 93 points. Slightly chemical nose, then herbs, anis. With time better and purerx On the palate much better, high toned red fruit, lots of ripe dark fruit, minerality, herbs, minty notes, again anis and spices. Very complex and layered. Highly precise. No faulty notes. Round but still very powerful but so round and sexy.

1990 Penfolds Grange. 94 points. Excellent 33-year old Grange – mid-neck level and perfect cork. The nose was fantastic and very complex with aromas of cedar, exotic wood, incense, dark cherries, leather and another “je-ne-sais-quoi”. The palate was excellent, but not as impressive. Balanced and very long. Still has the tannic structure and the stuffing to last 5-10 years, but will it improve? I don’t think so. Enjoy now.

Risotto al Tartufo Nero or Blanco. Carnaroli” Rice simmered with a Shaved “Alba’s” Fresh Black Winter or White Truffles. Very tasty and rich.

Antelope Carpaccio with arugula and truffles. The less carby variant.

2000 Chris Ringland Shiraz Dry Grown Barossa Ranges.

2003 Chris Ringland Shiraz Dry Grown Barossa Ranges.

1989 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace.

1991 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace.

“Tomahawk” di Manzo. USDA Prime Beef “Tomahawk” charbroiled to perfection, rubbed with Kosher Sea Salt, Black Pepper and our Secret Fresh Spices. We had several of these steaks at various levels of doneness (rare to well done). LOTS of beef. It was quite salted but the ones on the more rare side were delicious.

Roasted Rosemary Garlic New Potatoes. Great potatoes but I only had one because of carb avoidance.

Sautéed Baby Asparagus. Solid.

Sautéed Baby Carrots.

Branzino with “no fry” Eggplant Parmigiana. This was an unusual branzino, not quite as light as the classic greak/italian prep, but very tasty. The eggplant was fabulous and tomato sauce forward.

1986 Penfolds Grange. 95 points.

1982 Penfolds Grange. JG 95. The 1982 Penfolds Grange Hermitage has always been an impressive bottle, and since its debut in the second half of the 1980s, this has been a head-turner of a vintage for this great wine. Despite its fairly early appeal (where there was more than enough beautiful fruit that one had no trouble drinking it with great pleasure and just ignoring its fair chassis of tannin), this was always a wine meant to age gracefully and it has done so in no uncertain terms. Today, the bouquet is deep and complex, offering up a moderately jammy blend of cassis, black raspberries, coffee, meaty tones, menthol, dried berries, a touch of leather, new oak and a good base of soil. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with fine focus and grip, a plush core of fruit and impressive length and grip on the meltingly tannic and well-balanced finish. This is a classic vintage of Grange and has decades of life still ahead of it, but is fully into its apogee. (Drink between 2017-2050)

1981 Penfolds Grange. 93 points.

“New York” Steak di Manzo. USDA Prime Beef “Tomahawk” charbroiled to perfection, rubbed with Kosher Sea Salt, Black Pepper and our Secret Fresh Spices. There were a lot of these steaks too — just tons of meat.

Almond Amaretto Fudge Gelato — Amaretto Zabaglione (egg yolk, amaretto, and sugar custard) Sicilian Almond gelato base with a swirl of house-made Valrhona Cream Cheese Fudge Icing — 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 #almond #amaretto #icing #chocolate

Apple Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream and Caramel. Delicious.

Panna Cotta. Italian vanilla custard served on a strawberry coulis. Lovely and soft.

Wines tonight.

The gang.

The kitchen.

Overall this was a fun evening. I’ll bring apart commentary into different areas.

Service: The restaurant did a great job managing a group of our size. They were on top of things for the most part and extremely nice and accommodating. Whoever helped pick the menu for white wines did a good job pairing out all those red tomato sauce dishes.

Food: The food was good. Some dishes were excellent like pastas. Some were just nice. It all feels a little 90s Italian-American (which it is), but isn’t fully contemporary or fully Italian. But it’s good. Plating is very 90s.

Wine: Grange is always good, but I always feel weird not drinking Italian at Italian restaurants. These wines are monsters, BTW, even at 30-40 years of age. No point in cracking them at <25 years.

Anyway though, a very fun evening.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Gelato, hedonists, Locanda Veneta, Steak, Wine

Sauvages Crustacean

Jun08

Restaurant: Crustacean Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 468 N Bedford Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 205-8990

Date: October 28, 2022

Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion

Rating: Awesome as always

Crustacean is one of our regular haunts and features a great patio in these “outside is better” days. Tonight’s meal was a Sauvages wine lunch, with a Red Burgundy theme.

We’ve had a couple awesome meals here in the last couple of years.

Lots of champagne to start.

We are situated in their patio room as usual.

The ladies have a spot nearby.

Cocktail “hour.”

Our menu.

And wine list. Look how organized they are!

2005 Domaine Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin. VM 92-95. Good ruby-red. Sappy, liqueur-like aromas of griotte cherry and black raspberry. Wonderfully intense and concentrated, with a nearly confectionery sweetness to its explosive fruit flavors. Like the Cuvee des Alouettes, this comes across as a bit high-toned and will require careful attention during its final months of elevage But offers great potential.

2005 Camille Giroud Latricières-Chambertin. VM 92-95. A subtle dash of oak influence highlights the equally dense dark berry fruit nose of surpassing elegance and refinement that complements perfectly the texture and very Gevrey medium full flavors that in contrast to the nose seem less refined than usual. Indeed, this is a powerful Latricières that at present anyway seems to under emphasize the underlying minerality so typical of this cru though the finish is long, velvety and mouth coating. A qualitative choice though the respective characters are very different. (Drink starting 2018)

2007 Joseph Drouhin Griotte-Chambertin. VM 92. Medium red with a palish rim. Enticing aromas of crushed red fruits perked up by pepper, spices and herbs; more evidence of stems here. Then densely packed and juicy, with a suave, smooth texture and enticing inner-mouth perfume. A peppery note adds to the vibrancy of this sappy grand cru. Finishes with fine-grained tannins and considerable class.

2003 Domaine Maume Mazis-Chambertin. BH 93. An absolutely gorgeous nose of black fruit, anise, violet and cassis coupled with a smoked meat and wild herb notes introduce big, intense and explosive flavors that are sappy and seductive. There is a deeply buried but steely tannic spine that will take its time resolving but I’d like to see this wine at age 15 or so. This is really a stunner as it’s very fresh for the vintage and absolutely one to buy. (Drink starting 2011)

Tuna Cigars. Instant Smoke, Feuille de Brick, Avocado Silk, Vidalia Onion, Tobiko Caviar. Lovely little “cigar.” It actually tastes somewhat cigar-like with the “smoke” and after that fades out is more reminiscient of the Spago tuna cone. The tobiko is more textural and doesn’t have the richness of a real (sturgeon) caviar.

2003 Dominique Laurent Charmes-Chambertin. VM 91-94. Deep red. Floral aromas of red cherry, red licorice, spices, mocha and iron. Sweet on entry, then precise, perfumed and sharply delineated in the mid-palate, with juicy, harmonious acidity. Lifted by violet and rose notes. Finishes very pure and long, with nicely integrated, rather gentle tannins. Classic Charmes. (A separate cuvee of Mazoyeres seemed very ripe and was in an oxidative phase.)

2001 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes. BH 96. One of the finest wines of the vintage, this is simply a spectacular effort that has captured every bit of the potential it originally displayed in cask. Restrained and backward nose of a fantastically complex mix of blackberries, spice, cedar, soy, anise and dried herbs followed by full-bodied, multi-layered flavors of amazing length. Opulent and lavish yet all remains exquisitely balanced and this is astonishingly precise. A real stunner of a wine that is as classy and graceful as they come. As good and classy as the ’02 if not quite as structured. (Drink starting 2016)

1999 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays. BH 94. I was quite surprised to find just how open for business this was in magnum format as I expected something far more reserved but such was not the case. A beautiful and highly expressive nose of ripe black cherry, earth and the hallmark red pinot fruit is followed by medium weight yet concentrated flavors of bacon, smoke and sappy pinot extract that are given lift and verve by the intense minerality and outstanding length. This has added a good deal of weight and seems more powerful than before yet it remains very stylish and classy with excellent potential though like the same wine in 750 ml (see herein), this is so well balanced and harmonious that it could easily be drunk now with pleasure. That said, unless you are lucky enough to have this in quantity, I would counsel cellaring it for another 5 to 10 years. In a word, terrific. (Drink starting 2014)

2002 Louis Jadot Bonnes Mares. VM 95. Ruby-red. Flamboyantly rich aromas of blackberry, minerals and chocolate. Fat, rich and powerful; compellingly sweet and dense but with terrific thrust as well. Superripe flavors of chocolate and black plum. Finishes very long and powerful, with big but thoroughly ripe tannins. Offers great potential.

Kagoshima A5 Wagyu Tartare. Rau Rum Chimichurri, Quail Egg, L’Amuse Golda, Sesame Rice Cracker. Great beef tartare. Tons of flavor, umami from the cheese, and the rice cracker was nice and light.

Roasted Bone Marrow. Escargot Brunois, Garlic Baguette, Rau Ram. This is the best bone marrow I’ve had. There was a lot more of the actual “meat” (aka fat) and it was bulked up with the far tastier garlic snail mixture. Normal bone marrow is just a scraping of tasteless fat but by pair that with the savory escargot and balanced with a bit of lime it was just way better.

1998 Joseph Drouhin Grands-Echezeaux. VM 91. Deep red. Wild aromas of medicinal cherry, mint and coffee; subtle and fine. Full, sweet and silky but very unevolved and dominated today by its structure. A moderately ripe wine that’s not especially sweet or expressive but shows excellent backbone and freshness. Finishes with slightly tough tannins. But very backward and hard to judge today.

1999 Remoissenet Père et Fils Grands-Echezeaux. 98 points. Wow! An extraordinary wine! Gorgeous lush fruit, just the right amount of barnyard, complex notes of earth, leather, and ripe fruits. Perfectly balanced, a BIG wine with loads of structure and a finish that just won’t quit. If you can find this wine, mortgage the house and buy it! It’s drinking incredibly well now, but still has years of life in it.

1989 Mongeard-Mugneret Echezeaux.

1999 Château Latour Grand Vin. VM 92. The 1999 Latour is a vintage that I have not encountered for four or five years. It has a pH of 3.80 and a yield of 38hl/ha, representing 58% of the total crop. Interestingly, this includes 14% vin de presse compared to the 9 to 10% used nowadays. It has a classic Latour bouquet of blackberry, pencil box and undergrowth aromas, quite strict and conservative in style, and fairly intense but not firing on all cylinders; orange zest aromas evolve gradually. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and nicely detailed, offering blackberry, black truffle, pencil shavings and a touch of spice toward the finish, which shows more grip and density than the 1989 Latour tasted alongside, probably because of that pressed wine. This is beginning to reach its drinking plateau, although judging by this showing it will give another two decades of drinking pleasure. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the estate. (Drink between 2019-2039)

Pork Belly Salad. Black Mission Fig, Lemongrass, Yuzu Vinaigrette, Butter Lettuce, Point Reyes Blue Cheese Snow, Hazelnut. Some people didn’t like this salad but I did. It was very light and bright, a bit like a punchier version of a lardon and frissee salad. The pork belly was bacon smokey and nicely pervaded the dish.

Mongolian Lamb. Char-Grilled, Market Vegetables, Twice Cooked Potatoes. Very tender, sweet, and tasty. Still basically a lamb chop.

1996 Louis Jadot Chambertin. VM 92-95. Rather delicate aromas of crystallized berries, smoke and sandalwood. Velvety and very sweet in the mouth, with pungent oak spice and a firm mineral underpinning. Ripe acids are in harmony with the wine. Great concentration. No hard edges.

1996 Louis Jadot Chapelle-Chambertin. VM 93+. Saturated red-ruby. Fabulously complex, thoroughly ripe aromas of black raspberry, animal fur, mocha and chocolate, plus a distinct hint of surmaturite. Thick, creamy and very concentrated on the palate, and already quite expressive. Has a complicating herbal note that complements the wine sweetness. Finishes very long, with silky tannins and a hint of marzipan.

1995 Claude Dugat Griotte-Chambertin. VM 96. Deep ruby. Fabulously complex but extremely primary aromas of black raspberry, orange zest, smoke and black pepper; even higher-pitched and finer than the Charmes. This and the Charmes offer just the slightest hint of the animal complexity to come with development in bottle. Dense and pristine in the mouth; conveys a black peppery note of sheer extract. At least as long as the Charmes but suaver, finer. Amazing juice.

1996 Domaine Perrot-Minot Mazoyères-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes. VM 92+. Excellent red-ruby color. Knockout aromas of smoky black raspberry, black cherry, coffee and roasted oak. Thick, sappy and sweet, with powerful cherry and raspberry fruit. Dense but given shape by strong acidity. Long, firm, sweetly tannic finish.

AN’s Famous Garlic Roasted Dungeness Crab with AN’s Famous Garlic Noodles. This was a special personal version of the crab and noodles. I remember when I first came here that you had to pay an extra few dollars for them to crack it! But now that’s included if you like. We didn’t have to crack it at all. The meat was delicious and so were the noodles.

Himalayan Saltblock Steak. Prime all-Natural Rib Eye, Horseradish Crema. Meat.

Bloody Apple Pie Gelato — A Tahitian Vanilla Custard base layered with my house-made cinnamon bourbon apple pie filling, house-made Vanilla Caramel Blood, and house-made Grave Soil Charcoal Graham Crackers (GF) — 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 #applepie #apple #cinnamon #caramel #GrahamCracker #halloween

Yar! Ghostly skeletal praline pirates are marauding — Pecan Pirate Praline Gelato — An eggy Texas Pecan base layered with my creepy skull-shaped New Orleans style Vanilla Bourbon Pecan Pralines and Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Pumpkins — 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 #vanilla #bourbon #pecan #praline #candy #halloween #spooky

Vino.

The ladies table in full swing.

Us gents.

Overall, this was an awesome lunch. Boy did the Ans treat us right and we had an incredible menu, amazing service, and great wines. They turned out to be home run unique dishes that really knocked it out of the park.

Wines were great too.

Discussing the food analytically. Very good, and most dishes varied from good to great. The Vietnamese influence is far more subtle, less heavy handed, then at most newer fusion places like Little Sister / LXSO or the more contemporary small plates style Khong Ten. Definitely more roughly 2000 in formal fine dining style — which I don’t mind at all. In some ways it feels like a millennium event fine dining place with Vietnamese — and to a lesser extent Thai and Chinese — notes. It’s a pretty fancy place, and priced accordingly — but particularly during these last two dinners have really knocked it out of the park.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: An Family, BYOG, Crustacean, Gelato, Red Burgundy, Sauvages, Vietnamese cuisine, Vietnamese Fusion, Wine

Kato DTLA

Jun02

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

Location: 777 S Alameda St Building 1, Suite 114, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 797-5770

Date: October 13, 2022

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Even better, but too far

In late 2021 Kato, a longstanding modern Asian omakase/kaiseki in Santa Monica shut up shop and moved downtown to a larger, far more glamorous space. Erick and I were bummed because there are so few unique places on the westside — and well the Row is FAR!

The nominal excuse for tonight’s dinner was the rare appearance of Reisa back in LA, so Eve organized this dinner. She’s an investor (and caviar supplier) for Kato.

Kato is right around the corner from Hayato.

The interior is sleek.

We had this nice large sized table.

Most of the gang.

The minimalist menu (not much in the way of descriptors).

I think we bought this off the list. Despite Eve being very tight with Kato, no one senior was in and she had forgotten to arrange something with regard to the corkage — and they have that idiotic 2 bottle limit. What sense does it make that a 2 person table and an 8 person table can open the same number of wines? The Kato list is decent, but it’s young, small, and pretty marked up. Plus we just have way too much wine to be buying off LA lists. After a while they forgot about us and our wine hijinks and we manged well enough.
Chicken Liver, genmaicha, date. Super yummy “liver macaron” style bite.

Sweet Shrimp, seaweed, shaoxing wine. Very interesting blend of flavors being part Japanese and part Chinese. The Shaoxing wine is very distinct.

Scallop, soy preserves, doubanjiang. Yummy little scallop tart with nice textures and a bit of heat to finish.

More champgane.

Sea urchin, Iberico ham, brown butter. Basically a puff pastry/donut hole stuffed with uni and wrapped in ham.

2017 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs. Probably. Loosen has so many cuvees it was hard to tell which dry Ürziger Würzgarten this was. I picked it off the list.

Black throat sea perch, Tomato and tomato water jelly, shiso. Awesome dish with very pleasant tomato flavors and a bright acidity. I don’t even like (raw) tomatoes and I loved it.

Caviar, dungeness crab, garlic. This is more or less a Kato classic and I’ve had it a bunch of times but it’s still creamy and delicious.

Milk bread. Awesome sweet and fluffy bread. Addictive in fact.

Normandy style butter. Bread was even better with this nice butter.

From my cellar: 2009 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. Subtle wood sets off aromas of flowers, oyster shell and tidal pool that complement perfectly the racy, pure and strikingly well-detailed medium plus weight flavors that brim with minerality on the delicious, mouth coating and impressively long finish. This beautifully vibrant and concentrated effort should drink well young and age well too plus it’s more classic in style than many wines from this vintage. (Drink starting 2016)

Tilefish, fish fragrant sauce, Szechuan peppercorn. This is like that French seabass dish with the crispy scales but with a sticky numbing sauce!

1985 Faiveley Latricières-Chambertin. BH 92. Some bricking. The nose is a complex mixture of Gevrey earth, spice, game, underbrush and an evident nose of minerality followed by powerful, intense and still moderately structured flavors with plenty of punch and length. The finish is still firm though by no means hard and while this is certainly approachable now, I would give it 45 minutes or so of air. Note: another recent bottle was similar in character but did not possess the same degree of freshness and in particular, the finish seemed somewhat light and diffuse.

Duck, menegi, duck sausage. Great duck. Super tender, a bit sweet and delicious. The spring rolls off to the side with the sausage were even better.

1999 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. VM 96. Good dark red. Seriously rich, deep aromas of black cherry, currant, tobacco, chocolate and sexy soil tones, plus a whiff of leather that adds complexity. Wonderfully rich, deep, tactile Volnay with a remarkably chewy texture and outstanding dimension to its flavors of strawberry, redcurrant, mocha, tobacco and cocoa powder. The salty, monumental finish features huge, mouthcoating tannins and outstanding rising length. This very complete wine boasts uncanny depth of flavor, particularly in light of the vintage’s healthy yields. By far the best bottle of this wine that I have tasted to date. (13.45% alcohol; September 24 harvest; 41 h/h; 3.37 pH) (Drink between 2019-2039)

A5 Wagyu, beef tendon, sour Chinese mustard. Super tender and rich. Quite nice.

2011 Jean-Claude Boisset Echezeaux. BH91. A ripe, spicy and violet-inflected nose of primarily plum and cassis gives way to opulent, rich and pliant medium-bodied flavors that possess very good depth on the attractively well-balanced finish where a touch of wood can be discerned. In much the same fashion as several other wines in the range this isn’t a great 2011 but it manages to avoid any shortcomings of the vintage and indeed about the only nit is a slight touch of warmth. Note that this could easily be enjoyed now if desired though it should also be capable of rewarding up to a decade of cellar time. (Drink starting 2018)
Freshwater eel, rice, cucumber. More or less like a Japanese rice, but without that Japanese flavor.

Cucumber with a bit of Szechuan peppercorn. I really liked the pickles and was munching them for a while.

Off the list grappa.

Passionfruit, buttermilk, guava. I love passionfruit and I love custard, so this “pot ‘o creme” with passionfruit was an easy sell.

Creme Puff, salted egg. Fine.

Hazelnut, caramelized white chocolate. Like a sweet spaghetti with a white chocolate meatball hiding inside.

Double Mint Oreo — Base made with Fresh Spring Mint infused milk and then laced with Crushed Mint Oreo Thins and Chopped Valrhona 70% Chocolate! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — lovely strong mint flavor and color is all natural — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #mint #valrhona #chocolate #oreo ///// Triple Chocolate Cruch Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Nestlé 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 #creamcheese #ganache #icing #NestléCrunch

Eve brought several tubs of bonus Astrea Caviar! Yummy!

Take home gift.

Almond sesame “cookies.”

Emotional damage!

The wine lineup.

Food at Kato is better than ever. It’s just as cryptic, but there are perhaps slightly more courses and a few of them are slightly larger. The net effect is that it’s not completely necessary anymore to go for second dinner. Back in Santa Monica, even with all the supplements, it always required something else. Now it’s a full meal, and surprising and delicious at that. But it’s also a trek to downtown. And that whole wine thing dragged out what was like a 8:30pm start into a 9:30pm start and we got home at about 2am.

Still, awesome and unique food, and highly worth checking out if you haven’t been.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Astrea Caviar, BYOG, Eve, Foodie Club, Gelato, Kato, Reisa, Taiwanese Cuisine, Wine

Back to the Borgese’s

May30

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

Location: Santa Monica

Date: October 11, 2022

Cuisine: Italian influenced gourmet home cooking

Rating: Awesome

Dinner at the Borgese’s is a special house dinner in Santa Monica cooked by the stunning pro-level home chef Borgese couple. Tonight’s dinner follows hot on the heels of a Billecart dinner I did here a few weeks before. It’s so close that the Halloween decorations were even more opulent.

The Borgese’s LOVE Halloween and so their house was already decorated for the spook season in epic style!

The dynamic Borgese team consists of Rocco, his lovely wife (and the main kitchen chef), and his daughter (helping out with service).

Plus all this incredible wood fired oven set up.The wine lineup. Not too shabby.

NV Moussé Fils Champagne l’Or d’Eugène Blanc de Noirs Brut.

Tonight’s menu.

From my cellar: 2005 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. JG 95+. The 2005 Comtes de Champagne is a stunning young wine. The bouquet is deep, pure and youthfully complex, as it offers up a very classy blend of pear, delicious apple, fresh almond, incipient notes of crème patissière, chalky minerality, brioche and just a whisper of vanillin oak in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and rock solid at the core, with exquisite balance, refined mousse, crisp acids and simply superb length and grip on the seamless, youthful and oh, so promising finish. The style of the 2005 vintage gives this some early accessibility that was not evident with the more tightly-knit 2004 out of the blocks, but this wine has the structure to also age long and very, very gracefully. It has been a year since I last tasted this wine and it has started to show more precision to go along with its early generosity and is a classic in the making. My gut feeling today is that it will be superior to the 1989 version, to which I compared it to a year ago. Brilliant wine. (Drink between 2015-2045)

Ricciola Sashimi Cucchiai. Yellowtail Sashimi Spoons.

2018 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots. VM 94. The 2018 Chablis Bougros Côte de Bouguerots Grand Cru is well-defined on the nose. Quite stony and terse at first, it opens with orange rind and crushed pebble scents. The palate is well balanced with fine acidity, tight and energetic with a zesty, minerally finish. This meliorates in the glass, ending up quite nuanced and tensile. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2018 white tasting. (Drink between 2024-2040)

From my cellar: 2005 Mongeard-Mugneret Grands-Echezeaux. JG 96+. The 2005 Grands Echézeaux from Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret is going to be a great, great wine, but it is still a puppy and needs at least another decade in the cellar. The bouquet is young, but stunning, as it soars from the glass in a blaze of red plums, red and black cherries, a hint of blood orange, a gorgeously complex base of soil, cocoa powder, gamebirds, woodsmoke and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still quite primary , with great depth of sappy fruit at the core, seamless, ripe tannins, outstanding soil signature and a very, very long, tangy and laser-like finish. This is an utterly brilliant bottle in the making. (Drink between 2025-2100)

Cozze con Guanciale. Mussels with Pork Cheek. The sauce on this mussel dish was essentially like a all’amatriciana except that it was also saturated with mussel-juice. Pretty awesome actually, particularly the crispy little guanciale chunks.

1989 Château Latour Grand Vin. JG 95. The 1989 vintage of Château Latour was not considered a great year for this superb property, which was purported to have started a mini-slump after the release of the brilliant 1982 vintage at the estate. However, though I did not buy this wine on release (believing the critics of the time and their assessment of its relative inferiority), on the couple of occasions where I have been lucky enough to drink it again in recent times, it has been clear that this wine was underrated at the outset and really is an excellent vintage of Latour. The most recent bottle was getting close to full bloom, but not quite there yet, offering up a deep and complex bouquet of cassis, sweet dark berries, cigar ash, Latour’s classic gravelly, dark soil signature, cedary oak and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and plenty deep at the core, with firm, well-integrated tannins, excellent mineral drive, very good acids for the vintage and a very long, balanced and complex finish. This is getting close to really drinking well as it closes in on its thirtieth birthday, but it is an old school Latour and will still be an even better drink at age forty than it is today. (Drink between 2018-2085)

1990 Château Latour Grand Vin. VM 98. Tasting the 1990 Latour is like running into a long-lost friend. Still dark, deep and spectacularly flamboyant, the 1990 possesses remarkable textural richness from the very first taste. Time in the glass brings out a whole range of pencil shaving, dark fruit, chocolate, licorice and spice flavors, but more than anything else, the 1990 is a wine of pure and total voluptuousness. While I never think of wine as a competition, the 1990 is quite a bit more complex, layered and intriguing than the 1982 served alongside it at the same charity dinner. Its longevity will ultimately be determined by the quality of the cork and storage conditions, as the wine has several decades of truly exceptional drinking still to offer. In a word: magnificent! (Drink between 2019-2039)

1995 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque. VM 96. Griotte and kirsch complicated by roast coffee, smoke, mocha and a whiff of game; complex and ineffable. Lush, sweet and very intensely flavored; sappy cherry flavor complicated by a peppery quality. Seems a bit higher in acidity than Guigal’s ’95 La Mouline, and the tannins are distinctly firmer. Again, quite explosive on the aftertaste.

Pasta Fresca di Tonna. A fresh spaghetti with tuna and olives. This lent it a slightly “Spaghetti alla puttanesca” vibe, although not as pungent as that dish. Quite delicious and perfectly textured.

1996 Château Haut-Brion. JG 94. The 1996 Haut Brion is less hermetically sealed than the 1998, and is beginning to hint a bit at its secondary layers of aromatic complexity, though it still remains a very young wine. The bouquet is deep and classic, as it jumps from the glass in a mélange of black cherries, dark berries, Cuban tobacco, incipient notes of the black truffles to come, and a fine base of Graves earth. I assume that the 1996 saw the same amount of new oak as the 1998, but there is little sign of the wood at the present time. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and very intense, with a quite powerful profile for Haut Brion. The wine is rock solid at the core and very tannic, though the tannins are ripe and well-integrated into the wine. The finish is very, very long and soil-driven, and this will clearly be one of the most powerful vintages of Haut Brion to emerge since the 1959. It will be superb, but one will require plenty of patience. (Drink between 2025-2075)

1996 Château Latour Grand Vin. VM 94. The 1996 Latour is a wine that I often find overrated and did not achieve everything that might have been possible in this favourable growing season. That said, this might well be the best of around two dozen bottles I have encountered over the years. As usual, the 1996 is decidedly austere at first, standoffish, looks down its nose at you. Yet it coalesces with time and develops engaging cedar-scented black fruit tinged with pencil box and a touch of iris with time. The palate (again) is a little muted at first but it soon found its voice and evolved very fine tannin allied with a crisp line of acidity. It is not quite as demonstrative as it was even just a couple of years ago, gained some detail and perhaps it will continue to meliorate. Very fine, very fine indeed – but not a patch of say, the Château Margaux or perhaps even Léoville Las Cases. Tasted at the International Business & Wine Latour dinner at Ten Trinity. (Drink between 2018-2040)

1997 Château Mouton Rothschild. VM 90-91. Very good red-ruby color. Currant, cassis, roasted nuts, gunsmoke, chocolate and a note of surmaturite Fat, sweet and expansive, but with sound underlying structure. Lowish acids and a confit note (due at least partly to passerillage, or drying of the grapes by the wind and sun) contribute to the wine almost voluptuous texture.

Quaglie Ripiene. Stuffed Quail. Stuffed with sausage (and some veggies) on a bed of polenta. We’ve had this several times before and it’s a fabulous dish.

1998 Penfolds Grange. VM 97. Very deep red-ruby. Smoky, deeply concentrated fruit bomb of a nose: blackberry, dark plum, cassis; creamy vanilla and lightly toasty coconutty oak; and ethereal background notes of white pepper, smoked meats, musky spices, tar and licorice. Profoundly concentrated but velvety-smooth and seamless; impressively muscular and thickly coated with oak, and bound by drying, astringent tannins. Without question the most concentrated Grange of all time, utterly steeped in blackberry flavors; a real show pony. It’s also the most alcoholic Grange ever made, and at a declared 14.5% does taste warm and spirity – the first Grange to do so. It also ventures to some degree into the realm of currant and prune. No doubt a brilliant wine, but only time will tell if, with its elevated alcohol and its superripe flavors, this 1998 version ranks with the very best Grange vintages.

1999 Penfolds Grange. VM 91+. Full ruby-red. Sexy aromas of raspberry, cola, root beer and coconut. Thick, dense and concentrated, with exotic, slightly candied dark fruit, caramel, toasted coconut and mineral flavors nicely shaped by firm acids. Shows strong fruit and a major dose of oak on the powerful, backward finish. This can’t quite match the 1998 for sheer depth of fruit, but it’s built to age.

2003 Penfolds Grange. VM 93. Inky purple. Seductively perfumed nose offers cassis, blueberry, cherry-cola, violet and dried fig scents, with a suave undercurrent of smoky minerals. Deep, finely etched cherry and dark berry flavors are complicated by mocha and candied licorice, becoming riper with air. Cured meat and black cardamom notes arrive with air, adding further interest. Full, fleshy and sweet on the impressively long finish, which is nicely braced by dusty tannins. This is more energetic than most wines from this vintage.

Risotto a Costine. Short Rib Risotto. Chef Jen made a 2 day short rib ragu and then it was integrated into this fresh risotto. Yum, now that’s my kind of risotto! Actually I love most good risottos but this one is particularly great.

2005 Sine Qua Non Grenache Atlantis Fe2O3~2a, b & c. VM 100. The 2005 Grenache Atlantis Fe203-2a has been absolutely thrilling both times I have tasted it within the last year. A huge, vertical wine, Atlantis graces the palate with deep, voluptuous red fruit, crushed rocks, smoke, tobacco and mint. Even with all of its intensity and explosiveness, the wine remains light on its feet, with great balance and class to burn. The inclusion of whole clusters adds gorgeous lift and perfume, especially on the finish. At nearly ten years of age, the 2005 Grenache Atlantis is in a perfect spot right now and should continue to drink well for another 5-10 years, perhaps longer. (Drink between 2014-2024)

2013 Sine Qua Non Grenache Jusqu’à l’os Eleven Confessions Vineyard. VM 96+. A darker, more potent side of Grenache comes through in the 2013 Grenache Jusqu’a’ l’Os. This powerhouse wine is nowhere near ready to drink. Swaths of tannin enshroud a core of plum, dark fruit in this muscular, brooding Grenache from Sine Qua Non. Readers will have to be patient. The 2013 is 79% Grenache, 18% Syrah and 3% Petite Sirah, all from Eleven Confessions, done with 89% whole clusters. (Drink between 2023-2033)

Braciola di Vitella Ripiena. Stuffed Veal Chop. Perfectly cooked and super juicy. The white meat was similar to a great pork chop, but milder. It was stuffed with provolone, prosciutto, and tomatoe.

With veggies.

You can see the stuffing here.

Funghi. Wood fire grilled 3 mushroom medley.

Melanzane. Grilled eggplant.

The return of the polenta, this time with the shortrib ragu on top — insanely good.

Hazelnut Hojicha Gelato – Nocciola (hazelnut) base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste and infused with Ceremonial Hojicha Roasted Green Tea — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #matcha #Hojicha #GreenTea #hazelnut #Piedmont

Chocolate Nutter Butter Gelato – a base made from 100% Valrhona Chocolate and South American Peanuts layered with chopped “Nutter-Butter” cookies — 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 #chocolate #valrhona #peanuts #PeanutButter #reeses #NutterButter #cookies

The wine lineup.

The gang.

The lovely ladies of the house.

Overall, this was another amazing dinner, and the Borgese’s just keep amping up the quality.

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

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

Wines have crept up in “biggness” here — and I don’t mean their caliber (which is fine) but too many big reds. This food has a bit of a ramp and there were two seafood dishes and then a quail, so we could have ramped through Champs, 2 flights of whites, and then red Burgundy before getting to a few bigger wines. Not everything needs to be gigantic — or SQN (at least there were only 2).

This meal was a slew of Rocco staples, like the quail, but it also featured the unique veal chop.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: bbq, Bordeaux, BYOG, Dinner at the Borgese's, Gelato, Grange, Grill, Italian Cusine, Lala, Wine

Big at Bistro Na

May26

Restaurant: Bistro Na’s [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9055 E Las Tunas Dr #105, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-1999

Date: October 9, 2022 and January 7, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Upscale Chinese, solid kitchen

Chinese Restaurants in the SGV are slowly going more upscale in a way that’s different than the Cantonese palaces of Monterey Park of yesterday. I’ve been here several times before, even celebrating a birthday, but Jeffrey wanted to go, and we figured we’d check it out post pandemic (10/9/22) and then not long after Arnie wanted to try it too, so we went back (1/7/23).

And one of the latest is Bistro Na’s located on Las Tunas near this cool:

Teapot fountain!

The interior is very elegant Chinese, almost traditional but in a new way typical in China today. Ornate wood carvings, lanterns and antique music instruments abound. Technically it bills itself as “Imperial Cuisine”. Maybe there is some of that, but it’s also a bit of Chinese greatest hits. Still, it’s a different cuisine than nearly every other place in the SGV with more ornate plating.

The menu is a hardcover thick paged photo tome!

We reserved the private room again. You basically HAVE to do this at Na if you want a great experience. The regular area is just too cramped and restrictive. Food somehow seems better in here too. But they have annoying policies with the regular room. It has a minimum, which isn’t THAT high, so it’s okay, EXCEPT for the fact that you can only reserve at either 5 or 7:30pm and you only get 2 hours. So if you want a different time, say 6:30pm, you need to PAY for both blocks!

In contrast on 1/7/23 about 10 of us were smushed into this booth out in the main dining room as that was the largest table they had. Yarom hovered as usual.
The menu. A lot of dishes at Na are bland so Jeffrey and I spent hours in advance plotting the best things to order.

Chili Tofu Skin Salad (10/9/22). Very nice texture and a little bit of heat.

Na’s Spicy Chicken (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). The classic Sichuan cold dish. Super tasty with a nice balance of salt, tang, and heat. Some numbing as well. Very tender chicken.

Celtuce Jellyfish Salad (10/9/22). A combo dish of smashed cucumbers and jellyfish. Now while it’s expensive ($42!) it was a fabulous jellyfish (and cucumber) dish with a great tangy/sweet soy.

Jellyfish Salad (1/7/23). Not bad, although not much jellyfish — and it replaces the now discountined Jellyfish with Cucumbers (above) that was amazing. Poor direction to go in.

Chef Su’s Pork Feet Jelly (1/7/23). Kind of bland, although the pork meat part was okay.

Smoked Pork Ribs (1/7/23). Bleh. Kind of like lame ribs at a lamb American BBQ joint.

Beijing Zhajian Noodles (10/9/22). They are served all mixed up. It’s very mild but plesant. The meat and mushrooms add some heartiness. The bean sauce is subdued.

Mixed up.

Alaskan King Crab Typhoon Style (10/9/22). Spectacular version using the crab body. Shell was cooked down to be very tender and the crispy garlic was awesome.

Alaskan King Crab Legs, Steamed. Simple but delicious.

Alaskan King Crab Egg Custard. Pleasant texture and mild flavor.

Crispy Shrimp (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). This is Na’s signature dish and for a reason. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and the shells completely candied and edible. Delicious, if a touch sweet. They remind me somehow of cicadas escaping their shells.

3-4 lb Lobster “Typhoon Style” (1/7/23). Lobster itself was a little over cooked and the Typhoon was oddly soggy without the crisp and stong garlic flavor. A bit meh.

2.5lb Turbo steamed with Ginger and Soy (1/7/23). Okay but a bit bland. Nowhere near as good as the Chang’An version.

Braised Abalone and Sea Cucumber (10/9/21). Pleasant brown sauce. This dish is all about the texture. The Sea Cucumber had a nice mouth feel.

Black Pepper Lamb Chops (1/7/23). We asked for rare and got medium plus. Okay, but a bit too overcooked. These also replace the crispy lamb which was great.

Na’s Braised Pork Belly (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). Great version of this classic Shanghai dish. The pork was super succulent and the sweet brown sauce had a nice depth of star anise.

Crispy Pigeon (10/9/22). Fine, but actually one of the weaker dishes tonight as these were slightly dry.

Stir Fried Angus Beef with Garlic (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). Really interesting. The beef itself was tender and good, even if the piece size felt a little bit thick, but the real killer was the crispy candied chilies. These were incredible! Actually fairly spicy.

Braised Brisket with Quail Egg (1/7/23). Kind of sweet and savory, more or less a beef stew. Not bad though.

Stir Fried Pea Sprouts with Mushrooms (1/7/23). Excellently cooked. Could have used a touch more salt (or “flavor”) but otherwise nice.

Chili Pork with Cauliflower (10/9/22). Very tasty vegetable with nice crunch and a good porky flavor.

Stir Fried Cabbage with Dried Shrimp (10/9/22). The dried shrimp give this version of the dish a quite significant pungency. Weirdly they removed it from the menu by our return in January!

Fried Mixed Mushrooms with Rice Cracker Bites (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). OMG these were like potato-stick crack. They felt “hollow”, crispy, and coated in an almost candied shell. So good!

Shrimp Fried Rice with Bonito (10/9/22). Nice complex fried rice with a distinct bonito flake flavor.

Pan Fried Beef Buns (10/9/22). Very nicely flavored beef and chive filling. Pretty temperature hot at the start and could have used a little vinegar/dumpling sauce to balance the hot fat.

Fruit (10/9/22). I guess you only get this in the private room!

Key Lime Pie Gelato — base is a key lime egg custard, layered with house-made Graham Cracker and covered with house-made Torched Meringue — 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 #KeyLime #lime #custard #meringue #GrahamCracker #cookie

The emotional damage!

Overall, a complicated place (for the SGV) to review.

Service on 10/9/22 was good, better than before. They brought us wine glasses (not great ones, but they have them). We handled the wine service. There was a good amount of plate changing. Took a while to get going even though we had the pre-ordered menu. They seat all the private rooms in two seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm so all 5 of them were sitting at once (not to mention the limited time thing and the minimums). That doesn’t make it easy on the server. All in all it’s excellent service for SGV Chinese.

On 1/7/23 service was fine, but a bit different as we were smushed in outside. I was also annoyed with them because they had removed several of their best dishes from the menu and replaced them with even blander alternatives.

Food is interesting. Beautiful plating. Not the most flavor forward of the Chinese cuisines. Pretty good if you order very very carefully, but also expensive in a relative fashion. Ended up over $200 a person all in with a good tip because of the King Crab. If you go to a Top Island or the like you can get that much cheaper too. Still a novel and fun experience. Gorgeous room.

While a bit pricey for the SGV, the atmosphere is lovely and the plating much more elegant. Some dishes were excellent, some just pretty good, and some outright bland. I’m not really sure what regionality of Chinese it is. Sort of Beijing/Shanghai maybe? They say “Imperial.” It does feel very contemporary Chinese and is certainly not aimed at white folk. I have a general problem here with their “under-seasoning.” A lot of dishes just seem too sweet or too bland. On Oct 9, 2022 meal we ordered really carefully and leaned toward their more spicy (not actually spicy) dishes. This helped a great deal. On 1/7/23 the meal was considerably inferior. We weren’t in the private room and the “crowd” I was with wanted to order some of their meatier dishes that just fall a bit flat.

Hangry Rider made this excellent video summary of our 10/9/22 meal.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bistro Na, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Foodie Club, Gelato, hedonists, Private Room, SGV, Wine

Borgese’s go Bille Boo

May14

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

Location: Santa Monica

Date: September 30, 2022

Cuisine: Italian influenced gourmet home cooking

Rating: Awesome

Dinner at the Borgese’s is a special house dinner in Santa Monica cooked by the stunning pro-level home chef Borgese couple. Tonight’s dinner is a “Double Team” as it’s not only at Rocco’s, but is a Billecart-Salmon winemaker dinner hosted by Liz Lee of Sage Society. This is actually the second Billecart dinner I’ve been to, the previous being at Republique some years back.

Billecart-Salmon is a highly respected Champagne house that was founded in 1818 in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France, by Nicolas François Billecart and his wife Elisabeth Salmon. Over the course of two centuries, the family-owned and managed company has stayed true to its roots, maintaining its dedication to quality and tradition. Billecart-Salmon is famous for its refined and elegant style, characterized by its finesse, complexity, and consistency. The house has achieved worldwide acclaim for its remarkable Brut Rosé, but also produces a variety of other styles, including Brut Reserve, Brut Sous Bois, and various vintage and cuvée champagnes. Through its commitment to excellence, Billecart-Salmon has secured its reputation as one of the most prestigious brands in the Champagne region.

The Borgese’s LOVE Halloween and so their house was already decorated for the spook season in epic style!

The dynamic Borgese team consists of Rocco, his lovely wife (and the main kitchen chef), and his daughter (helping out with service).

Plus all this incredible wood fired oven set up.The wine lineup. Not too shabby.

Our lovely patio table.

Tonight’s menu and wine list.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve. JG 92. Drinking very well when opened this past spring. The excellent nose wafts from the glass in a mélange of apple, peach, warm bread, a touch of ginger, a lovely base of soil and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bdoied, complex and still rock solid at the core, with fine mousse, bright acids and lovely length and grip on the wide open, complex and classy finish.

Fresh Oysters with Caviar.

Caviar on Toasted Brioche with Bordier Butter. You can really taste the great and distinctive butter.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Nature. 90 points. Rich for the style. Lemon tinges, biscuit, mild but not without intensity .

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs. JG 92+. The non-vintage Blanc de Blancs is not a large production item for Billecart-Salmon, and one does not cross paths with it regularly. The current release is all 2007 vintage and was aged nearly five years on the lees prior to disgorgement. Billecart produces their Blanc de Blancs bottlings from fruit sourced in only three villages in the Côte des Blancs- Chouilly, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Cramant. The new release offers up a deep and lovely aromatic blend of pear, apple, stony minerality, bread dough, a hint of the pastry cream to come with bottle age and orange zest. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and very elegant, with a lovely core of fruit, refined mousse and excellent length and grip on the well-balanced, youthful and classy finish. This is a very fine bottle of Blanc de Blancs that will only improve as it blossoms a bit more structurally with further bottle age. (Drink between 2013-2025)

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Sous Bois. VM 92. Bright yellow. Pungent orchard fruit and lemon curd scents are complemented by suggestions of vanilla, anise and smoky minerals. Toasty and silky in texture, offering juicy pear and tangerine flavors plus a deeper suggestion of candied fig on the back half. Closes sappy, focused and long, with repeating smokiness and strong mineral cut.

Hokaido Scallops with Caviar. Maybe could have used a bit of lemon/lime/yuzu juice.

2009 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Millésimé. VM 93. The 2009 Vintage is another stellar wine in this range from Billecart-Salmon. This is the first time the Vintage includes Meunier in the blend. That approach has worked out so well here. Resonant and generous, the 2009 is so expressive today. The low dosage of two grams per liter is expertly judged. The 2009 is rich, but not heavy, while offering all of the natural generosity of the year. (Originally published in May 2021) (Drink between 2022-2034)

2008 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Louis Salmon Brut Blanc de Blancs. VM 95. The 2008 Brut Blanc de Blancs Louis Salmon (formerly the vintage Blanc de Blancs) and named after the maison’s first cellar master, is fabulous. Rich and ample, the 2008 is beautifully resonant in the glass. It offers up an enticing mélange of lemon confit, marzipan, dried flowers and spice. It’s a terrific 2008, especially for readers looking for a relatively affordable option to some of the super high-flyers in this celebrated vintage. The blend is 40% Chouilly, 33% Cramant, 20% Mesnil and 7% Avize, done 1/3rd in oak and 2/3rds in steel. Dosage is 7 grams per liter. Disgorged: October, 2020. (Drink between 2024-2038)

Grilled Spot Prawns with Caviar. Great dish. Chewed it up at the expense of my flesh like Daryl Hannah in Splash. With the caviar two kinds of eggs! Nice char flavor.

2007 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François. VM 97. The 2007 Brut Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is positively stellar. Elegant, polished and sophisticated, the 2007 dazzles with effusive aromatics and gorgeous balance. It”s not an obvious wine, though, but rather a Champagne built for long, patient cellaring. The 2007 is 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay taken from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Ambonnay, Verzenay and Verzy for the Pinots and Chouilly, Avize, Cramant and Mesnil for the Chardonnays. In other words, as good as it gets for villages. The wine was done mostly in tank with about 15% of the lots vinified in oak. Dosage is 6 grams per liter. (Originally published in May 2021) (Drink between 2027-2047)

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 96. The 2002 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is outrageously beautiful. The ripeness of the Chardonnay is front and center in a Champagne that delivers the goods, big-time. An infusion of apricot, orange peel, crème brûlée, chamomile, hazelnut and honey give the 2002 its racy, exotic personality. I enjoy it most with bottle age, but the 2002 is undeniably beautiful right now. The 2002 is a stunning NFB. The blend is 60% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne and 40% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, done partially in oak (20%). Dosage is 4 grams per liter. (Drink between 2020-2030)

1996 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 96. Fabulous nose combines lemon, orange zest, quinine and steely minerality with suggestions of toffee and brown spices. Wonderfully precise and vivid on the palate, delivering an impression of outstanding concentration and grip with a light touch. Extremely fine-grained Champagne with strong but integrated acidity. As young as this is, it’s harmonious from the outset. The building finish is pristine, chewy and extremely long. (Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York NY

Crab and Caviar Linguine. Very light and salty (and delicious) pasta.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. We started with a demi-bouteille of Billecart-Salmon Rosé: a safe option, but it does the job, even though I would say that a full bottle is better. (Drink between 2018-2025)

2008 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon. VM 97+. The 2008 Brut Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon explodes from the glass with a mesmerizing array of aromas, flavors and textures. Blood orange, cinnamon, mint and dried flowers. The 2008 is incredibly young, but it is also incredibly tempting. Patience will be rewarded. In the meantime, readers might enjoy adding a few bottles of the stellar 2007 to their cellars, as the nervy, taut 2008 needs time. The 2008 is 55% Pinot Noir (from Aÿ, Verzy, Verzenay and Mareuil) and 45% Chardonnay (from Chouilly, Avize and Cramant), with 9% still wine from Mareuil. It is the first vintage that includes a portion of wines (17%) done in barrel and the first vintage in which the magnums were aged on the cork rather than on crown seal. Dosage is 7 grams per liter. (Originally published in May 2021) (Drink between 2028-2043)

Branzino and Clams. Perfectly cooked juicy branzino and lovely clam flavor. The broth was fabulous (could have used some bread for it) and there was a distinct parsely flavor.

2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Les Clos Saint-Hilaire. VM 98. The 2006 Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is fabulous. In this radiant year, the Clos Saint-Hilaire has a touch more mid-palate sweetness and generosity, but that’s a good thing, as it balances some of the more austere leanings that can make young vintages hard to appreciate upon release. Apricot, lemon confit, ginger, graphite, spice and crushed rocks are strands in a gorgeous, captivating tapestry that dazzles right out of the gate. The precision here is just mind-blowing. Billecart’s 2006 Clos Saint-Hilaire is a very special Champagne, that much is very clear. (Drink between 2024-2036)

Fried Rosemary Quail. Perfect “fried chicken”. Super savory and delicious with a great crispy texture.

Roast carrots.

Roast eggplant.

Cheeses (all Italian). The truffle one was particularly tangy and delicious.

Truffle cheese.

The wine lineup.

Overall, this was an amazing dinner, and the Borgese’s just keep amping up the quality.

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

Wines were, as you can, pretty darn impressive! Billecart is a fabulous champagne house with both great whites and reds. I buy a range of their wines all the time as they have both reasonable NVs and fabulous Tete de Cuvees — in both colors.

This meal has a different skew, being customized for Champagne, so there was more seafood and no big steaks — this is fine with me, I’ve had plenty of steaks. They did a wonderful job with the grilled prawns too. The quail is a classic of theirs but never grows old.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Billecart-Salmon, BYOG, Gelato, hedonists, Italian Cusine, Liz Lee, Rocco Borgese, Sage Society, Santa Monica, Steak, Tomohawk, Wine

Bring out the Animal

May12

Restaurant: Animal

Location: 435 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036. (323) 782-9225

Date: September 29, 2022

Cuisine: Modern American

Rating: Tasty

I’ve been meaning to try Animal for years and somehow never have — until now.

Space is narrow and fairly spartan.

The menu with my markups.

A Jura white.

prawns, roasted garlic, chili lime sauce. Nice juicy shrimp with a very distinct wood fire taste.

chicken liver toast. Tastes like chicken liver on toast. A bit of grainy quality. Pleasant.

sugar snap peas, ponzu, green garlic, sesame. Very fresh and delicious “salad.” There was a bit of mint in here. Quite lovely.

From my cellar: 2001 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. JG 94+. The 2001 vintage is one of the recent favorites of Signor Pepe, and he is convinced that this will be a classic in the fullness of time. The bouquet is still quite primary in its blend of dark berries, black cherries, Cuban cigars, a bit of cherry pits, dark soil, botanicals and a nice touch of nutskin in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite a powerful young vintage of the Pepe Montepulciano, with a rock solid core of fruit, lovely, nascent complexity, chewy tannins and excellent length and grip on the focused and still quite youthful finish. Today, the fine 2003 accessible, but with sufficient bottle age, the 2001 is going to be a reference point vintage of this great wine. (Drink between 2020-2050)

crispy pig ear, red chili, lime, market egg. This was mixed up to eat. Tasted like crispy bacon and eggs. Hands down the best pig ear I’ve had. Delicious.

Mixed up.

double corn anson mills cheese grits, tomatillo, crèma. Very creamy with a sharp tomatillo flavor. Quite pleasant.

piri piri chicken wing, aioli. Small and a bit boney but very juicy with that wood char flavor.

Some grilled bread for dipping.

2011 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Château d’Ampuis. VM 93. Vivid ruby. Spicy red fruits, incense, violet and botanical herbs on the flamboyantly perfumed nose. Vibrant, mineral-tinged black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors show impressive depth and vivacity and a seamless texture. Juicy, precise and appealingly sweet on the youthfully tannic, incisive finish, with the berry and floral notes echoing. The blend of fruit intensity and tension here is quite suave. (Drink between 2016-2033)

barbeque pork belly sandwich, slaw. Tasted like a Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich. Absolutely delicious. Rich and the slaw really helped make the dish by cutting the fat.

This was a great little “slider.”

dolma fried rice, chicken confit, tzatziki. Not that crispy, but did actually taste like a dolma. Enjoyable and interesting.

roasted bone marrow, chimichurri. The best bone marrow I’ve had. Very thick and succulent and the chimichurri added some zesty flavor.

duck confit, heirloom beans, collard greens, porchetta spice, fennel. Salty but spectacular. Lots of meaty duck notes.

sweetbreads, spinach, hen of the woods, caper brown butter. Not the biggest sweatbread fan.

tempura soft shell crab, green curry, coconut caramel. The crab itself was beautifully fried and delicious. The curry didn’t actually taste fully curry-like. I think it would have been better with a more punchy Thai-style curry.

creme brûlée gelato. A little boring by itself but incredible with the toffee pudding.

sticky toffee pudding, boysenberry sorbet, creme fraiche cream. Delicious. Tasted like sticky toffee pudding. Not sure the sorbet added much, but the rest was awesome.

tres leches, strawberry. Absolutely fabulous tres leches. Moist and creamy and the slightly candied strawberries totally took it to the next level.

Fun little night at Animal. We were pretty late, but it wasn’t crowded at all on this random weekday night. Such is the fickle life cycle of LA restaurants. I was not super impressed by the atmosphere. It felt like the standard kind of 3′ wide city retail space just kind of turned into a restaurant.

Food was very good though. However, somehow it isn’t the type of thing I crave and I kinda feel like I’ve “been there done that.” Hmmm. But many of the dishes were quite good. Maybe just not crowd pleaser style exactly. But that pork belly sandwich, that I could crave.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Animal, Foodie Club, Wine

Mother Wolf – Carb Coma

May10

Restaurant: Mother Wolf

Location: 1545 Wilcox Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 410-6060

Date: September 27, 2022

Cuisine: Roman-style Italian

Rating: Really good, really salty, total carb bomb

Mother Wolf was one of LA’s most anticipated 2022 openings, being the first “post Felix” restaurant from pasta master Evan Funke.

Chef Evan Funke is a highly respected and accomplished chef in the culinary industry. He is known for his passion and expertise in Italian cuisine, particularly pasta-making. Funke has worked in some of the most renowned kitchens in the United States, including Spago and Rustic Canyon in Los Angeles. He also trained under Italian pasta masters in Italy, which sparked his love for traditional Italian cooking techniques. Funke is also the founder of the popular Los Angeles-based restaurant, Felix Trattoria, which has received numerous accolades and recognition for its exceptional pasta dishes. In addition to his work in the restaurant industry, Funke is also an author, having published his first cookbook, “American Sfoglino: A Master Class in Handmade Pasta,” in 2019. He is widely regarded as one of the top pasta makers in the world, and his dedication to preserving the traditional techniques of Italian cooking has made him a beloved figure in the culinary community.

Mother Wolf is “Roman” themed — not ancient Roman, despite the obvious Romulus and Remus logo — but reflecting the food of the city. Most specifically his own take on those foods, particularly the pasta.

The interior is huge and gorgeous. It’s located right next door to Mes Ami (RIP) and part of the same management group.

The menu.

2004 Dom Pérignon Champagne P2. VM 97. The 2004 Dom Pérignon P2 is precise and wonderfully refined, just like the first release. There’s a hint of reduction from extended time on the cork as well as a feeling of effusiveness that is so appealing. Readers will find a super-classic DP. Dried flowers, brioche, apricot preserves, sage, mint and chamomile are seamless in the glass. The 2004 can be enjoyed now or cellared for another decade plus. Some editions of the P2 series have been pretty austere in the early going; the 2004 is not among them. (Drink between 2022-2034)

PIZZA ROSSA. salsa di pomodoro, sea salt, olive oil. Gift from the kitchen. Nice texture and char taste to the dough. Chewy. Great for being such a simple pizza (I like them more complex).

SUPPLI AL TELEFONO. risotto croquette, guanciale, pomodoro, mozzarella di bufala, pecorino romano DOP. Classic Roman risotto balls (supplì). Cheesy center. Very temperature hot. Suppli are like the pizza flavored arancini. Basically a tomato soaked risotto and some melting mozzarella. It’s battered with egg and deep fried.

From my cellar: 2020 Capichera Bianco Capichera VT Isola dei Nuraghi IGT. Awesome high salinity Vermentino that I bought at the winery in Sardinia.

FIORI DI ZUCCA. squash blossoms, ricotta romana DOP, parmigiano reggiano. Very nicely fried and soft ricotta inside. Like many dishes at MF, this is a Felix transplant.

RUCHETTA. wild arugula, parmigiano reggiano, lemon, black pepper. Bracing and refreshing salad, perfect with all the fat and carbs.

2019 Paolo Cali Vittoria Mandragola. We bought this off the wine list at the Somm’s recommendation and I LOVED it — bought a case on my phone while we sat there.

LA MORTAZZA. mortadella di bologna, ricotta fresca, pistacchio di bronte, agrumato. A pizza version of a bologne sandwhich? Really good mortadella actually with a lot of nice very fresh ricotta. TONS of crust.

GAMBERI IN SALSA VERDE. blue prawns, green garlic salsa verde. Head sucking good. Salsa brightened things up. These are pretty much a Felix thing too.

SALSICCIA PIZZA. mozzarella di bufala, salsiccia, sweet peppers, spring onion, pomodoro, origano selvatico. This was pretty much my perfect classic sausage pizza. Great char and chew to the dough. Soft and chewy in the middle. Really liked the sausage and cheese offset along with the classic oregano vibe. Like a fancy version of those New Jersey pizzas.

SPAGHETTI CON BOTTARGA. aglio, olio, bottarga di muggine. Simple but perfectly al dente and with good botarga flavor.

1954 Marchesi di Barolo Barolo.

TONNARELLI CACIO E PEPE. pecorino romano DOP, black pepper. This probably would have been very good if we hadn’t also had the gricia (which was stunning and had that extra porky flavor). Pretty heavy but very al dente.

SPAGHETTONE ALLA GRICIA. guanciale, black pepper, pecorino romano DOP. One rarely sees this fourth pillar of the Roman pizza quartet and this version was absolutely perfect. Such seductive porky flavor! Insanely good pasta.

MEZZI RIGATONI ALLA CARBONARA. guanciale, egg, black pepper, pecorino romano DOP. Unusual pasta type but very “creamy” and incredibly rich. I liked it a lot but it was making me very full.

From my cellar: 2004 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Madonna del Piano. VM 95+. The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Madonna del Piano is powerful, deeply colored and still carrying a considerable amount of tannic heft for a twelve year old wine. Dark cherry, plum, smoke, tobacco, scorched earth and licorice give the wine much of its distinctive virile personality. The Madonna del Piano is one of the bigger, brawnier 2004s readers will come across. As such, it needs to be served alongside similarly rich, hearty cuisines. (Drink between 2016-2026)

RIGATONCINI ALLA VACCINARA. oxtail ragu, guanciale, peperoncino, pecorino romano DOP. Solid meaty rigatoni.

PUTTANESCA. sugo di pomodoro, pomodorini, acciughe, green and black olives, basil. This wasn’t Puta enough. It was solid, and perfectly cooked, but I couldn’t really taste the anchovy. I wanted to be bowled over by the pungency.

ARROSTICINI. new zealand lamb belly, insalata di cipollina, lemon. Interestingly middle eastern. The mint “salad” was really good for offsetting the fat.

The dessert menu.

TORTA DI CIOCCOLATO. letterpress chocolate, arancia candita, gelato di pistacchio. Lovely rich tart and I really liked the candied orange and pistachio.

MARITOZZO ROMANO. monterrey strawberries, crema chantilly. Like a nice donut with strawberries and cream. Hard not to like as it was very soft and fresh.

Our wines.

Overall, this was a great meal. It was heavy though. It didn’t seem like it exactly, but I slept terribly. Everything tasted great, but it was extremely well seasoned (aka salty) and between the massive carb overload and the salt it really through my system out of whack. But of course I have no one but myself to blame as I did the ordering. And do notice that with four people I ordered three pizzas (actually one was on the house) and six pastas! That’s half a pizza and 1.5 pastas each, not to mention the other stuff. But really I probably ate about 2.5 pastas myself. haha.

And Mother Wolf, like Felix before it, is all about the pasta. They were darn good, particularly the carbonara and the gricia. I was almost tempted to order all 9, but I had to draw the line somewhere. They make good pizza here too, very good, but not totally mind blowing. The pasta is better. And they do have all 4 of the sacred 4 Roman pastas: cacio e pepe, amatriciana, gricia, and carbonara. They are all Southern Italian. The appetizers and mains are fine, but more forgettable, and not even totally regional.

Too bad MF is so far from me and reservations are so hard to get. Six months later you can get them, but only for 9:45pm. lol. And it’s a big restaurant. I guess Los Angelenos don’t mind $25-30 rustic pastas if they are good enough! I don’t.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cacio e Pepe, Carbonara, Evan Funke, Foodie Club, Gricia, Italian cuisine, Jeridan, Mother Wolf, pasta, Pizza, Wine

What’s All the Fuss About?

May06

Restaurant: Anajak Thai

Location: 14704 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403. (818) 501-4201

Date: September 22, 2022

Cuisine: Elevated American Thai

Rating: Tasty, but kinda boring

Anajak has a LOT of buzz about it. It’s a Thai place on Ventura in the valley and it’s one of the hardest reservations in the city to get — go figure. They offer “three modes” of dining. Normal, which I’m covering here, a weird Thai fusion taco Tuesday (haven’t tried) and a Thai Omakase (optional) on weekends that I want to try (but haven’t yet).

They are unusual as Thai places go in that they have a LOT of wine for sale. And a lot of it isn’t really a good Thai pairing either. It’s not fancy wine and it’s sitting out all over the restaurant. I’m sure this has added to their buzz.

We sat outside on the street/patio at two large tables. The menu isn’t huge by Thai standards and we ordered almost every dish.

Papaya Salad, thai chilies, peanuts, dried shrimp. Fine but not very exciting papaya salad. Not quite zingy or spicy enough. No detectable funk.

Crispy Garden Rolls. These were nice and crispy. Sauce was basically sweet with only a slight tang. But overall pretty tasty.

Laab Tot, northern-style pork meatballs. Basically fried larb balls. The sauce was sweet. These were the best of the apps. Quite yummy. Hard to go wrong with a fried meat ball though.

Chicken Satay. Pretty boring straight up chicken skewers. Well cooked and juicy, but not a ton of flavor on them. The sauce was overly sweet but certainly very peanuty. The little marinated salad was not nearly vinegary enough.

Southern-Thai Fried Chicken. This was a really good dish. Very juicy and crispy. Maybe slightly undersalted but extremely good.

Transparent Sea Shrimp, pong gari curry. The fry on these shrimp was that kind of rich egg yolk fry that has a slightly grainy texture. The sauce was an interesting curry with a slight liver vibe. Pretty good.

Pork ribs, pineapple-glaze. These were okay. A bit sweet, but actually slightly better than the version we had at Jitlada 2 days before (which was Jitlada’s worst dish).

BBQ Pork Collar, coriander molasses, soy, sesame. Not super strong flavored, but with a bit of grill or char. Pretty good.

Haw Mok, steamed fish curry custard. I loved the soft texture on this dish. It had some mystery vegetables inside and a mild but lovely curry flavor. Basically curry flan? I actually really enjoyed. Might even have been my favorite dish. Most other people found the texture weird but I love odd textures.

The fish curry/custard texture should be more apparent in this photo.

Green Curry, shrimp & eggplant. I’m not sure I found any eggplant. The shrimp were nice and plump. The green curry itself was tasty but extremely mild. There was almost no heat and very little fish sauce taste. Clean and smooth with not too much in it.

Panang Curry, chicken. There wasn’t much in this either, just some chicken and the red bell pepper garnishes. I did love the curry sauce itself. It had a great creamy coconut red curry flavor. Very smooth. Not spicy at all and not super complex, but almost what I was going for in my red coconut curry gelato.

Massaman Brisket Curry. Nice to have some real meat but the curry itself was basically satay peanut sauce. It was pleasant but so peanuty and sweet. A real Massaman curry is more a red curry / peanut blend and should have some heat. This was all sweet.

Prik King Green Beans. These were good, albiet not spicy at all.

Drunken Noodles with Shrimp. Not bad. The shrimp was nice and the noodle texture good. I would have liked a more pronounced Thai basil flavor — didn’t really get one.

Pad Siew with Chicken. Very similar to the drunken noodles. Not sure I could really tell the difference.

Spicy Fried Rice with Fried Egg. It wasn’t spicy but it was fried.

Mango Sticky Rice. Quite nice. Not as good as Jitlada’s as it didn’t have either the coconut flavored sweetened condensed milk or the coconut ice cream but the mango was nice and ripe and the sticky rice a great complement.

Overall, as someone who goes to a LOT of Thai, I don’t really get Anajak. I’d like to try the Omakase because that looks interesting and different, but the regular menu is like well done kinda boring Thai food. The ingredient quality is high and it’s very clean and neat — and very “smooth” (they blend it) but it’s just not all that balanced. The dishes are too sweet, there is virtually no heat (I like spicy), no funky fish sauce or shrimp paste taste, and basically none of the interesting Thai vegetables.

As far as I can tell it’s just a higher quality better version of your default “Thai American” place. Does that, the hipper setting, and the wine lying around make it more accessible to Valley goers and Thai food newbies? Yeah. But does it make it taste as good? No. Frankly most of the Thai Tour places are better and more interesting. And I’ve been to numerous Valley staple Thai places that I like better, even one like Lum Ka Naad. Yeah, they are a bit rougher around the edges, but again, more flavor.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Anajak Thai, curry, hedonists, SFV, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour, Wine

Fallen (Haige) Star

Apr29

Restaurant: Haige Star / Tianfu Cuisine [ CLOSED ]

Location: 18438 Colima Rd Unit 105, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 820-9638

Date: September 18, 2022

Cuisine: Sichuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome

This amazing (and now sadly closed) Sichuan joint in Rowland Heights has an amusing tale.

So, sometime in the spring of 2022, Jeffrey and Yarom went here went I was out of town. Of course this annoyed me to no end because so many times I’m dragged to repeat Cantonese or Hong Kong places and certain parties complain about the difficulty of recruiting for spicy Chinese (my favorite obviously) — and then they go on one of the rare weekends when I have a conflict. Anyway, it was “clearly” labeled “Haige Star Boulevard” at this time, and while the hardcore crew loved it, many of the newbies that Yarom unwisely dragged here wouldn’t touch anything. With this description in mind I was eager to go again, and so was Jeffrey.

Now this time, 9/18/22 when I returned it had a different name. On Yelp it seemed like it had a skewer hot pot phase at some point, which wasn’t the case tonight. Jeffrey’s memory is so bad he couldn’t remember if it was exactly the same either. It was certainly Sichuan and certainly great. Unfortunately when we tried to return on 1/22/23 for a third visit they were totally boarded up and closed. We heard through the rumor mill that the owner had passed away, which is very sad for his family and a great loss for us lovers of Sichuan cuisine.

The interior is basic.

We had the place mostly to ourselves and this great table in the back.

Oh boy. I hope you read Chinese because none of us did. The staff didn’t speak any English either. None. Basically zero. Fortunately between google translate and my knowledge of Sichuan dishes I was able to order successfully.

Smashed Cucumbers. Very good version. Nicely smashed, lots of garlic, and a tasty “flavor” sauce.

Been Jelly Noodles. Nice version too. Not super spicy, but some good mala and an interesting smokey quality. Very good “noodle” texture.

Century Egg with Chilies. I haven’t had this exact century egg variation (aka without tofu) but these were really good with a great savory flavor without being mega-salty.

Cured Sausage. Very fatty, dry, and with a great slightly funky flavor.

Cold Dry Spicy Beef. Beef jerky like texture with a fabulous deep layered spicy sauce. The sauce was incredible with the sausage as well.

Couples sliced Beef/Offal. Dry pastrami like poached beef with chili sauce, Chinese celery, and peanuts. Lovely, although not quite as good as Gu Yi’s.

Tea Smoked Duck. Moist and juicy with a ton of smokey flavor. Fabulous duck.

Boiled “Meats” in Chili Oil. Includes liver (very mild and succulent), spam (delicious), tripe, and pig intenstine (funky). Good spicy/mala sauce.

Spicy Bamboo Shoots with Peanuts and Cilantro. Spectactular texture and flavor.

Twice Cooked Pork. Nice version of this dish. Not obscenely salty.

Dan Dan Mein.

Mixed up. This was enjoyable, but wasn’t very hot or nutty. It was more a broth with a bit of chili and some meat. It was helped by adding a bit of the crack peanuts.

Crack Peanuts. A bit sweet and salty with some kind of “spice” flavorant. Totally addictive.

Double Mint Oreo — Base made with Fresh Spring Mint infused milk and then laced with Crushed Mint Oreo Thins and Chopped Valrhona 70% Chocolate! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — lovely strong mint flavor and color is all natural — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #mint #valrhona #chocolate #oreo

Chocolate Butterfinger Crunch Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Peanutbutter Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Butterfingers! — 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 #creamcheese #ganache #icing #peanut #butterfinger

Overall, the experience here was super fun. Our ordering was helped about 2/3 through by a nice couple where the guy spoke both English and the Chengdu dialect of Chinese. He recommended a few dishes — but I’m proud that I picked 75% of these out with my “skillz.”

It was incredibly delicious, some of the best Sichuan I’ve had in America and actually on par with places I visited in Chengdu. This place is/was fairly rustic, but the balance of the dishes was spectacular. Just the right combinations of textures and different flavors (aka spice, sour, salty etc). This type of food is actually all about balance. Jeffrey and I went into mourning when we found out they closed because we had been plotting a return here for months. Sigh.

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For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Gelato, Haige Star, Rowland Heights, SGV, Sichuan Cuisine, spicy, Tianfu Cuisine, Wine

Chi Spacca – The Return

Apr24

Restaurant: Chi Spacca [1, 2, 3]

Location: 6610 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 297-1133

Date: September 13, 2022

Cuisine: Italian Steakhouse

Rating: Rich but delicious, a carnivore’s paradise

The little Mozza empire on Melrose now includes the Pizzeria, the Osteria, Chi Spacca, and Mozza 2 go. They do a great job with all their restaurants but their annoying corkage policy (2 bottles per table!) has limited my ability to attend. I only go to this sort of place with my wine groups (my wife being a near vegetarian) and so the limits make it near impossible. But anyway they do have a good (if pricey) Italian wine list and so it’s workable with 3 people, but no more.

Jeffrey loves this place — it’s one of his favorites in the city in any genre — and so he “muscled” us into this dinner (twist my arm!).

The small room.

The smoky in the room grill.

The menu.

Jeffrey is obsessed with sitting at the bar. It’s a front row seat to the grilling action, but it is warm, smoky, and “linear” in that having more than 3 people here means you can barely talk. In general I prefer tables.

From the list: Floral and mineral at the same time.

FOCACCIA DI RECCO. stracchino, extra virgin olive oil. Very salty but super delicious. Extremely hot. Crispy, but not as crispy as Jeffrey remembers.

PICKLED PEPPERS & ANCHOVY. Peppers stuffed with anchovy. Salty but delicious.

WARM ROASTED SQUASH BLOSSOMS. Tomato vinaigrette, basil. These could have been better. They were fine, but muted. I did like using the tomato sauce on the focaccia however.

SALANOVA LETTUCE. fines herbes, lemon vinaigrette. Salted, but a lovely fresh salad with nice hits of dill. I might have liked even better with a bracing more acidic (and less salty) take.

GRILLED OCTOPUS. pureed and fried ceci. Good, but the double chickpea stuff wrecked my gut.

From my cellar: Spectacular. Nose, middle, and finish. Lots of fruit.

GRILLED LAMB SAUSAGE. Peppers, onion, calabrian chile. Really nice char on the sausage and a bit of heat. The salad offset the fat a bit, but it was, you guessed it, a bit too salty.

Big! But round.

BEEF & BONE MARROW PIE. beef cheek, cippolini, funghi. Rich and delicious. Crust is really rich and there is that dark meat pie thing.

Look at all that meat!

PORCINI RUBBED SHORT RIBS. scallion, salsa verde. More or less Korean-style short ribs (except for the salsa verde). Maybe a touch chewy.

GRILLED SPROUTING CAULIFLOWER. bagna cauda, crushed lemon. Jeffrey didn’t like these, but I thought they were fine. I liked the butter thing, the char, and the crunch.

SPACCA ONION RINGS. garlic aioli. Absolutely great onion rings. Pretty much perfect. Flakey fry.

garlic aioli. This was good. And useful for jazing up other dishes besides the rings.

MILK ROASTED PORK LOIN. fennel pollen, crispy sage. Nice flavor but so fatty.

GRILLED MAITAKE MUSHROOMS. garlic, mint, lemon. Nice and smokey.

PEPPER STEAK. bacon, scallion, peppercorn, chive. Way, way too salty.

BUTTERSCOTCH BUDINO. caramel, Maldon sea salt, rosemary pinenut cookies. Close to a perfect dessert.

BANANA CREAM SLAB. cocoa nib and caramel jam. I ate around the banana itself enjoying the cream and crust.

Our wines.

On the grill.

Resting meats.

Overall, I thought the food at Chi Spacca was quite awesome, if not exactly authentically Italian. Certainly more to my taste than any normal steakhouse. They should import some pastas over from Mozza though :-). We really went to town tonight as all that food was for just 3 people! It was salty though. Extremely salty. And rich, of course.

Service was great too, and the atmosphere fun. My only complaint is with the bottle limit. The corkage is fine. But the 2 bottle hard limit, apparently strictly enforced, is quiet annoying. It totally breaks down for wine dinners. Their list has interesting Italians, but the wines are too young so it’s very difficult to order reds. Plus I just resent having to buy off wine lists altogether (beyond the occasional white or rose). If they priced a fixed $30-50 markup, and had my kind of wines, it would be fine, but they always use a multiplicative markup. I’m not paying $400-600 for a $200 bottle!

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chi Spacca, Dessert, Foodie Club, Meat, Mozza, Steak, Wine

Indian, The Tavern – Confusion

Apr22

Restaurant: Indian, The Tavern

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

Date: September 11, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Solid, if odd

It’s hard to describe this particular SGV restaurant.

From the outside it looks like most of them.

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

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

Not so PC!

Shrimp Egg Roll. Very hot and crispy, moist interior. The sweet sauce was also a bit spicy which was kinda nice.

Grilled Taiwanese Sausage. Sweet and salty sausage, always great.

Scallop in “lobster sauce” (egg white). Surprisingly good.

Sliced pork belly w/ minced Garlic. Dark garlic sauce on the side. Not bad but not the best dish of the night.

Salty dark garlic sauce.

French Steak medium rare on rare side. Best “Chinese” steak I’ve had. Pretty much a regular steak, medium rare with black pepper.

Tea Smoked Duck. Very nice. Smokey and pretty moist.

Preserved pork belly w/ garlic sprouts. Great dish. Smokey pork with leaks and garlic coated in all that smokey pork fat.

Lobster with XO sauce. Weakest dish of the night perhaps? Slightly over-cooked but still enjoyable.

Smashed Cucumbers. Out of order but a great version of this dish. Lots of garlic flavor.

Fish filet in green vine pepper soup. A bit of numbing flavor but not that hot or numbing. I’ve had better versions of this dish but it was still decent.

Stir Fried Double Fried Eggs W. Napa Cabbage. Excellent cabbage with that awesome greasy/salty flavor.

Tofu with house sauce. Very nice tofu with a lovely deep ginger flavored brown sauce.

Shrimp and Taiwanese Sausage Fried Rice. Excellent fried rice.

Vanilla White Gelato — a very simple and elegant Tahitian Vanilla Bean White Base (no egg) — 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 #vanilla

Cinnamon Caramel Sauce.

Overall, the place was surprisingly excellent. There were long gaps between dishes (particularly at the beginning) and the order was kind of Chinese random, but the dish quality was very good. There were some slightly weird dishes too, but they tasted good, so nothing to complain about. I’m not exactly sure what region of China the kitchen represents. And then there is the unique and peculiar “decor.” Certainly interesting.

Jennifer had a bit of an accident during her recent trip to tour the Chernobyl basement.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, Indian Tavern, SGV, Wine

Causita just ’cause

Apr16

Restaurant: Causita [ CLOSED ]

Location: 3709 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026.

Date: September 8, 2022

Cuisine: Peruvian

Rating: Tasty, but issues — and out of biz

I’ve really enjoyed a long string of Ricardo Zarate restaurants, all the way back to Picca and Paiche etc. Others followed like a stint at SOS, Rosaline and Pikoh. Sadly, while the food is always really good, they do not last long. Not exactly sure why. But the Foodie Club and I were excited to try Causita, his latest in Silverlake. The past proved true of the present and it closed not too long after we went (despite very tasty food).

Located in that busy stretch of Sunset in Silverlake — hate that area because it’s just so far from my house and a real pain to park in. Maybe I’m also jealous that trendy new places open here where they are super inconvenient.

Interior is modern.

Initial champagne. We had to negotiate with them to allow any kind of corkage at all. They did yield fortunately.

The menu.

kanpachi & uni tiradito. yellow tail, coconut leche de tigre, rocoto pitaya dressing. The white sauce was basically coconut milk with lime juice and chili. Incredibly zingy almost pucker inducing, but good.

chocolatas clams. chalaca style, charapita, leche de tigre, apple criolla. The chocolate bit is just because of the color of the clam shell (milk chocolate brown). The cerviche style mix inside was also super acid forward. Pucker up baby!

Mostly we brought Spanish wine.

summer gazpacho. heirloom tomato, peach, aji limo. Almost like a salsa. Very good though with a touch of sweetness. Super refreshing.

bluefin otoro. tamari, fresh wasabi, leche de tigre, black truffle. I didn’t like this as much as I expected to. It was good, but maybe a bit too much truffle flavor. At least it was decent truffle though, not rancid.

charred snap pea. charred jalapeno oil, labneh, mint, garlic chip. Very nice with a bit of creaminess and a great snap (bite) to the peas.

lobster dumpling. charred jalapeno oil, ceviche aioli. Strong flavor from the squid ink actually. Inside was a tiny bit dry.

Always a great Spanish red.

Pan con Chicharron. Crispy Pork, sweet potato, salsa criollo. Like a pork belly slider. Bread was nice for mopping up sauce on other dishes. I enjoyed this “burger.”

lamb ragu. fromage blanc dumpling, szechuan peppercorn. Soft with a nice meaty and creamy texture. Quite nice.

octopus. octopus, goat cheese-chorizo mousse, gotija olive, ceviche aioli. The peppers had great flavors and the octopus was very crispy.

Grilled Artichoke Hearts. avocado mousse, jalapeno, popped quinoa, charapita glaze. The texture and flavor of the artichoke was great.

udon noodles. shiitake, peruvian pesto, wasabi tobiko, roasted onion jus. Pesto flavor was awesome. Noodles were thick, and maybe a touch soft, and there was a very “leafy” basil quality offset nicely by the cheese. Overall a fabulous dish.

Oh, and a Bordeaux slipped in.

crispy rice. seared steak tartare, egg, parmesan sauce. Interesting and I liked it.

The egg and soy and beef tartare was mixed in. The parmesan sauce (which was a bit punchy) was left on the side.

Mixed up.

Lomo Saltado. Steak Filet. Onion Confit. Potato Petals. Fine, but less interesting.

The dessert menu.

Churros Bomboncito. Caramel, berry sauce. These were great with caramel centers. And on the left, Tres Leches Sorbettto, which really tasted like Uni Leche Sorbetto.

The damage wasn’t so bad.

Food was actually great at Causita, some of Ricardo’s best since Paiche. It was very bright. Not every dish was perfect, and there were relatively few things that were incredibly memorable, but it was very tasty — and zesty. Corkage issues were a bit of a thing. Somehow his restaurants never last. There also seems to be a curse on this strip of Silverlake. New things open constantly, but they shuffle and close rapidly too.

Because we were right next door we decided to try out Pine and Crane for second dinner as I have been wanting to for years.

For more Italian dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Causita, Double Dinner, Foodie Club, Peruvian cuisine, Ricardo M. Zarate, Ricardo Zarate, Silverlake, Wine

Providence Chef’s Table 2022

Mar23

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

Location: 5955 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 460-4170

Date: August 16, 2022

Cuisine: Cal French

Rating: Best meal I’ve had at Providence

I usually make it to Providence about once a year, and so we return with the Foodie Club for another Chef’s table dinner in the little back room.

The space used to be Patina in the 90s.

While the colors are different, Providence still looks a lot like Patina to me — as the layout is basically the same.

This is the view from the chef’s special tasting room — adjacent to the kitchen in it’s own little nook.

The Chef’s table has its own little room by the kitchen.

Le menu.

1982 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. Both 1982 Champagnes are utterly spellbinding. It is amazing to taste these wines at 30 years of age and see that their signatures are all very much intact. Of course, the magnum format is so ideal for Champagne. The 1982 Krug Vintage is warm, toasty and totally expressive, with gorgeous exotic orange peel and white truffle overtones. This is one of my very favorite Krug vintages. Although fully mature, the 1982 is going to continue to develop at a glacial pace. The 1982 Dom Pérignon is just a little more focused and vibrant in style. Here it is the wine’s salivating minerality that really sings. It, too, is quite youthful and vibrant for its age. What a flight.

1990 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. BH 95. This is a wine that I know extremely well from 750 ml and it’s one that is beginning to tire though I hasten to point out that it’s still enjoyable and just beginning to show signs of fatigue. However there are no such concerns with the same wine from magnum that remains magnificently fresh and while it’s clear that the aromas are mature, that’s not at all the same thing as describing the yeasty and baked apple suffused nose as tiring. There is equally good depth and vibrancy to the beautifully delineated flavors that are supported by a fine and firm mousse that allows the texture of a well-aged Dom to be easily appreciated. For my taste this has arrived at its peak though note well that it should easily be capable of effortlessly holding for years to come. (Drink starting 2015)

Showing off the Australian Winter Black Truffles.

House cured king salmon with horseradish cream, dill, and pickled red onion on a rye toast. This was an incredible bite. It had great textures between the soft but stretchy fish and the crispy cracker. And the flavor was much like a Wolfgang Puck “Jewish Pizza.”

Hiramasa with rhubarb and avocado. This had the appearence of a crystaline tart. The falvor was mild and fruity with really interesting textures.

Super fatty Wagyu Tartare with oyster aioli and lime puree all nestled in a minature tart. Very rich but balanced by the punchy notes of the aioli. The softness of the beef was equally contrasted with the crispy/flaky tart.

A warm lobster mousse with a disc of Austrailian Winter Black Truffle a sliver of chive, and a palette shapped cracker. Another great bite!

MACADAMIA, golden kaluga caviar, caramelized shallot, nori. Very rich and mellow.

SASHIMI, heirloom tomato, shiso. The tomato made me wince a bit (raw tomato hater) but the combo was delicious. Everyone has these strong Japanese influences these days.

SALT-ROASTED SANTA BARBARA SPOT PRAWNS, rosemary, lemon, extra-virgin olive oil. Superbly cooked (and salty) prawn with a bit of roe as seasoning.

Gratuitous zoom.

2014 Jean-Claude Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Ruchottes. BH 93. The wood treatment isn’t shy, indeed today it fights somewhat with the otherwise cool and very pretty floral, pear, apple and soft petrol nuances. There is fine density to the sleek, sophisticated and utterly delicious medium-bodied flavors that possess good punch while offering excellent length on the balanced finish where the only nit is an unexpected touch of warmth. It’s sufficiently slight however and I suspect few readers would find it off-putting and with age, it may actually become less noticeable. Ramonet rarely misses with this wine and they certainly didn’t in 2014 though I would point out that this is going to need time in bottle to develop further depth. (Drink starting 2024)

From my cellar: 1985 Nicolas Potel Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. BH 91. A very fresh yet mature nose of citrus, white flower and lightly toasted nut aromas combines with round and vibrant middle weight flavors that possess a seductive and rich mouth feel, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish. This is really a lovely effort with complexity and ample finishing punch and is a wine that will continue to hold well if not improve. (Drink between 2007-2009)

Supplement of UNI EGG, sea urchin, champagne beurre blanc, brioche croutons. This is a Providence classic and for good reason. Absolutely delicious.

Cheesy Omelette with Austrailian Winter Black Truffles. Nice fluffy texture to the eggs.

NORWEGIAN KING CRAB. dwelley farms sweet corn, fermented radish. This was a stunningly good dish. Very moist bit of giant king crab.

Red fife sourdough. Great chewy bread. Particularly good with the butter.

Normandy Butter.

HOKKAIDO SEA SCALLOP, chanterelle, toro de oro pepper. Lovely scallop and I liked the texture on the mushrooms.

2008 Gaja Langhe Chardonnay Gaia & Rey. VM 91. One of the very few Italian Chardonnays that can be considered world class. The 2008 vintage, famous for very classic Barolos, has also delivered a taut, varietally accurate white that is more Chablis than Meursault in its definition, with a laser beam of mineral-inflected green banana and vanilla tones. It matched heavenly with the cotechino, by the way, and it didn’t overpower the delicate, heavenly soft carne cruda that followed my amuse-bouches.

agavin: Jeffrey swore by this Italian Chard — I wasn’t that impressed.

GOLDEN EYE SNAPPER (Kinmedai) with GEODUCK in Beurre Blanc. Fabulous fish prep. The snapper was perfectly cooked and classic with the butter sauce and the geoduck had a good bit of awesome chew.

Fresh Porcinis.

PORCINI RISOTTO, Sierra Porcini, Black Truffle. Extremely buttery in the best way.

From my cellar: 2003 Gros Frère et Sœur Grands-Echezeaux. BH 92. This too is very toasty but the spicy black fruit nose manages to transcend the wood and complements powerful, dense, borderline massive flavors of superb depth, all wrapped in dusty, firm and ripe tannins. This is a big wine and while it’s no model of elegance, one has to admire the muscle and sheer concentration. This will take its time coming around. (Drink starting 2011)

CALIFORNIA KING SALMON, black truffle, pommes allumettes, pickled ramp. Soft and delicate “rare” salmon.

LIBERTY FARMS DUCK BREAST, poached fig, fig compote, fig leaf oil. Classic and perfectly cooked. The fried confit thing on the right was of course the best.

Black Truffle Brie, rodolphe le meunier brie, black truffle, salty herb salad. The brie was very nice but I particularly liked the bright salad. Sadly the grand cheese cart is a covid casualty 🙁

Aged Comte Cheese with fresh shaved black truffles. Nice grainy texture to the cheese.

Crispy bread for the cheese.

MANGO, MINT, THAI BASIL, mango sorbet dusted with Espelette pepper, dried mango, and mango nectar. Bright and refreshing.

HOUSE-MADE HAWAIIAN CHOCOLATE, banana, barley, okinawan black sugar. Chocolate ganache inside a flourless chocolate cake with chocolate merignue, rum raisins, banana, a cacao tuile and barley gelato. Fortuantly I couldn’t detect the banana. The ice cream had nice texture. It’s probably from a pacojet.

Cacao husk tea. Bitter. There was a syrup which helped.

Peaches poached in rosé wine with lemon verbena and thyme. Like a fancy awesome version of canned peaches.

Mignardises. chocolate ganache bonbons, vanilla caramel tarts, chocolate panels with pistachio. My favorite was the caramel tart which was much like the awesome caramel tarts I found recently in Paris.

Macarons.

Jellies.

The wines. I don’t think we opened the Rhone. Can’t remember.

Granola “take home gift.”

This was probably the best Providence meal I’ve ever had, maybe even better than the one last year in the main dining room (which did have better white burg). They had just recently reopened post-lockdown and had clearly spent the time well retooling the menu. Service was exceptional as well which was very nice, particularly in contrast with so many “middle end” places that are short staffed right now. We had a ton of food tonight too with a lot of variation and many memorable dishes. The Chef’s Table is the best as it’s cozy, quiet, and we can get up to our antics (including flash photography) without interruption.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chef's Table, Foodie Club, Hollywood, Providence, Truffle, Wine

OOToro Double

Mar21

Restaurant: OOToro [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

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

Date: August 13, 2022

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi (with slight nod to China)

Rating: Ends of the earth, but very good

Chef Kaz of Totoraku, an occasional hedonist, sent us far east to this Sushi restaurant in 2016 and it was such a fun time that we had to return again for a sixth visit — it’s now become a twice a year thing. This is my second return since the pandemic — although some in the group went once in the middle for a meal that was supposedly not quite up to snuff. Because a bunch of us have engaged in a special Sushi Series this fall (tasting all the best LA sushi places) I figured I’d include OOToro in the mix.

And by far east I mean REALLY REALLY far east — to Walnut California. 40+ miles from my house. 20 miles past Alhambra (which most people consider to far to drive for food). It took an hour and twenty minutes on a Saturday night!

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

Here is the private room — the only way to go.

Edamame.

Mango, Avocado, Hairy crab, Some kind of Jelly (ponzu?). This was a new dish, and quite refreshing. Many in the party loved it. I thought the mango and crab bit was a touch too sweet, but was pretty good.

On the right Octopus with Caviar and Yuzu. On the left Scallop with Uni. The yuzu part was great. This was a lovely dish, although they don’t use the best quality caviar here and there is an overreliance on uni.

White fish tempura. The name sounded like “pea soup.” The tempura was dusted with wasabi salt which is traditional. Nice, but slightly dull tempura.

Abalone, jellyfish, shrimp tempura (wrapped in potato), sea snail and “katsuloco” (the yellow sponge). The abalone was great for that creature. The jellyfish was a bit bland. The shrimp great, the snail nice, and the sponge a fishy spongey texture I really enjoyed.

Sashimi of toro, ikura, uni, and a white fish. A bit of rice was hidden underneath. This was a lovely (and rich) dish.

Oysters 3 ways: with black tobiko, ikura, and uni.

Wagyu toast with caviar and balsamic. This used a “truffle oil caviar” that was kind of gross. Otherwise it would have been a nice dish but the truffle oil only detracted.

The stain!

Kumadai and another snapper with yuzu and wasabi. Lovely bright fish.

Kama-toro. The ultra rich tuna collar. Always an awesome bite.

Seared Ruby Snapper. Very sauced and lovely.

Crab, Red Snapper, Truffle Oil Caviar and Yuzu miso sauce. The dish was nice except for that truffle oil in the caviar which was a minor negative. It basically should never be used.

Kimchi uni noodles. Great. Kinda spicy.

Ron’s “non spicy” creamy version.

A5 Wagyu. Simple but delicious.

Clam miso. Lovely.

Green Tea Cheesecake. Very straightforward, basically just cheesecake with matcha powder in it.

I jazzed ours up with my own private stock of Valrhona 70% and house-made Hazelnut Brittle.

The room.

This group of “kids” (20s) were celebrating a birthday and we toasted them with some extra Krug.

Wines for tonight:

Overall, OOToro — while always good — showed again that the private room is really the way to go. This was a great meal and much more subtle and sophisticated than some of the front room fare. Really great stuff — although we should have gotten the largest omakase for max variety. Tonight I felt was the weakest OOToro in a while — although it was still very good — but somehow there were a few dishes that I didn’t love. Maybe it was the truffle caviar. Maybe it was the fact that I had a massive Longo Dim Sum Lunch only a few hours before.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Also, after dinner, instead of the surprisingly fun Courtyard Marriott view parking lot, we ended up at this terrible picnic table at some even cheaper dive hotel Ron was staying at. Kinda dingy and depressing. Never again.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Champagne, hedonists, Japanese cuisine, Omakase, ootoro, SGV, Sushi, Wine

Fred loves N/Naka

Mar16

Restaurant: N/Naka [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Location: 3455 S. Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. 310.836.6252

Date: August 12, 2022

Cuisine: Modern Kaiseki

Rating: Awesome

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The Foodie Club returned to N/Naka (again) with the (brief) return of remote member Fred. This meal is part 1 of a 3 big wine meals in 24 hour extravaganza. Woah!

The busy street corner on National.

The empty interior.
Our table — before we got to it.

Tonight’s menu.

Welcome drink. Sake mixed with juices.

Sakizuke. Hokkaido Scallop, oyster aioli, fermented asparagus gelee, scallop roe “dust”, beets, carrots, caviar, sunchoke chips.

The sunchoke chip is presented a minute after. I accidentally stuck it on “backward” so as to not maximize the sunflower and leaf motif they intended.

Zensai.

Tomato Okra Salad.

Abalone, uni, tosazu gelee, shiso.

Unagi, duck liver terrine. This had that PB&J quality that certain foie terrine creations do.

Watermelon lime “mojito”.

Shisito, minced wagyu. Very savory.

Corn, squash, yuzu ponzu, thai basil.

Homemade tofu, edamame, ginger soy. Very mild.

Modern Zukuri. Summer Tuna, pickled fennel, yamaimo, uni shoyu.

Uni shoyu for dipping. The instructions were to take some fish, a bit of pickled fennel and dip it. This was quite good. The Yamaimo yam was a bit slimy.

Owan. Shiromi, eggplant, junsai, hasu imo, ume. Very mild dashi-type soup.

Otsukuri. Traditional Sashimi. Ocean trout (looks like salmon), toro, and a white fish.

Yakimono. Binchotan Roasted Unagi, sudachi butter vinaigrette, yuzu pepper, lotus root “kabayaki.” This was actually quite “spicy” with the hefty amount of yuzu-combined pepper. This gave it an almost green coconut curry-like vibe.

Mushimono. Kegani, California Box Crab, egg (tamago), sakura mochi rice, dashi ankake.

Shiizakana. Spaghetti, abalone, pickled cod rod, truffles. The classic N/Naka pasta, double size. Awesome as always, but still small (even doubled).

Niku. A5 Miyazaki Wagyu Beef, arugula, baby corn, roasted peach, citrus fern, onion crumble. Very melt in your mouth beef.

Sunomono. Cucumber, grapes, tomato, shiso cucumber ice. Shot of yuzu juice.

While it tasted like sunomono, the ice gave it a very interesting texture and temperature factor.

Shokuji. Traditional Sushi.

Miso soup.

Blue Crab Handroll (as bonus to “fill us up”).

Mizumono. Watermelon Lime Sorbet, compressed watermelon. Very watermelony.

Peach Panna Cotta, peach sorbet, nata de coco, red beans, shiratama, anmitsu. Had that mild, soft, and sweet thing like a Filipino dessert.

Hojicha Latte Gelato – Ceremonial Hojicha Roasted Green Tea base, topped with 70% Valrhona and house-made Hazelnut Brittle — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #matcha #Hojicha #GreenTea

Matcha.

Passionfruit yellow bean paste “candy“.

Take home blueberry muffin and tea. Muffin was very gooey and mild — not my taste.

Old Grand Cuvee.

2000 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets. BH 93. Awesome and bright. This has now peaked and is drinking beautifully with a fully mature nose of honeysuckle, peach, apricot and very subtle spice notes that can also be found on the enveloping flavors that possess a wonderfully seductive mouth feel and ample dry extract that both completely buffers the still firm acid spine and coats the palate on the long, lingering and strikingly perfumed if ever-so-slightly warm finish. One character that Coche seems to consistently be able to achieve is how his wines are at once generous yet retain a fine sense of focus and precision and this wine certainly displays this. Lovely stuff that is perfect now. Tasted thrice with consistent notes. (Drink starting 2016)

agavin: Nice nose even.

From my cellar: 2001 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets. VM 90. High-pitched, high-toned aromas of peach and minerals. Quite dry following the Rougeots, with less texture and pliancy. This is very closed today (my sample from barrel a year ago was far more accessible and giving), but does not seem to have the depth of the Rougeots. Perhaps a bit rigid. This needs at least a few years in the bottle.

A touch closed and “bitter” at first, but opened up to become lovely.

1990 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 93. An utterly beguiling nose of smoke, minerals and crushed herbs leads to big, muscular, rich and gorgeously nuanced palate staining flavors that offer huge length and real power plus class and breed to burn. I have had wonderful luck with this wine and while it is now fully mature and, it must be said, no longer what it used to be, it should still continue to drink well for another 5 to 10 years, perhaps even a bit longer.

Amazing!

1992 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 98. The 1992 Meursault Les Perrières 1er Cru from Coche-Dury is a brilliant wine – period. It has a refulgent silvery hue that belies its age. The aromatics are perhaps more Puligny-like than Meursault in style: taut at first with subtle melted butter and yellow flower aromas. It is blessed with astonishing delineation and returning to my glass after 90 minutes…wow…popcorn, roasted almond, beeswax, linseed, certainly more Meursault-like in character. The palate is crisp, fresh and tensile at first, with wonderful salinity. This just gets the taste-buds going and there is tangible mineralité. Like the aromatics, it becomes more Meursault-like with aeration, gaining complexity with rondeur, hazelnut and smoke towards the mercurial finish. This is utterly sublime. Two bottles tasted at Tour d’Argent with consistent notes. (Drink between 2018-2035)

Also very fresh and nice.

2000 Domaine G. Roumier / Christophe Roumier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses. VM 90+. Good medium red. Complex, very floral aromas of strawberry, cinnamon and rose petal. Sweet but also juicy and precise, with the strong floral character following through on the palate. A precise, perfumed wine with lovely cut but no shortage of texture. Stylish, flavorful and quite long.

Some great juice tonight!

Chef Niki comes out to say hi.

Fred and his lovely fiancé (now wife) Maria.

The setting is elegant, minimalist, and very Japanese. N/Naka really is a very special place. All the meals I had here were spectacular. Plus we even did an amazing all foie gras meal here once. The place keeps getting better and better. This is thrice wonderful because often one finds a slight bloom to come off a place on repeat meals. At N/Naka everything is seasonal and constantly rotating.

Coming back to N/Naka after the pandemic I thought they were really firing on all cylinders. This was the best meal I’ve had there since the incredible Foie meal. I think her sushi has gone from “okay” to “great” and with regard to other dishes she has toned down a bit of the “theatrics” slightly but really upped the flavor balance and intensity. There weren’t some of the more interactive dishes of years past, like cooking your own item on hot stones, but the cooking was even more on point.

Service is also spectacular, highlighted all the more by the extremely low understaffed standard currently found in LA.

Click here to other LA Japanese restaurants.

Or other Foodie Club extravaganzas.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, coche, Foodie Club, Fred, Gelato, N/Naka, Niki Nakayama, White Burgundy, Wine

Major Major Major

Mar13

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

Location: 1725 Naud St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (323) 545-4880

Date: August 4, 2022

Cuisine: Korean Fusion

Rating: Big dishes amazing

It’s with gigantic expectation that NY restaurateur David Chang opened his first LA outpost last year and since then it’s become a regular foodie and wine destination among my friends. Tonight is my fifth visit, and my second time with the Hedonists.

Looking on the map, I was pretty skeptical of the weird between Chinatown and Dodger’s Stadium location — a totally annoying spot for me to get to during traffic! Two brutal hours!

The area is extremely warehousey, much like the “Arts District” but even newer. This particular time, dropping off at night, we joked about our life expectancy.

The have a sort of hipster city built down here out of old warehouses.

With lots of bespoke graffiti.

And Majordomo, of course.

Which has a pretty big enclosed and outside space (which we ate in this third time). Have to say, the outside space was actually preferable. Less crowded and quieter.

As you can see.

Inside is one of those cavernous loud warehouse spaces.

High naked ceilings. Don’t come here when it’s raining! They also have the currently hip bathroom setup with the coed shared sinks exposed out in the main room. Not my thing. What if you want to clean up in private?

But we setup outside on the patio at a large table.

The current menu.

From my cellar: 2007 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 96. Taittinger’s 2007 Comtes de Champagne will be nearly impossible to resist upon release. Soaring aromatics, mid-weight structure and soft contours give the 2007 its alluring personality. Lemon oil, white flowers, mint, chamomile and green pear add brightness and freshness throughout, with a persistent, clean finish that makes it impossible to resist a second taste. Today, the 2007 comes across as a slightly more open version of the 2004, with freshness that makes that wine so appealing, and a touch of textural richness that recalls the 2002. Although the 2007 does not have the explosive energy or verticality of the profound 2006, it will drink better earlier. The 2007 has been positively brilliant on the three occasions I have tasted it so far. (Drink between 2018-2047)

Kanpachi – kombu, wasabi, lemon. This had a very nice, very zesty whallop of flavor.

Somewhat annoyingly, the wine “theme” at this dinner turned into SQN. I just don’t get this stuff as all the reds taste the same (overwhelmingly big). The whites and pinot are ok.

2006 Sine Qua Non The Hoodoo Man. VM 94. Sine Qua Non’s 2006 White Wine The Hoodoo Man is insanely beautiful. Remarkably fresh for a nine year old white, the 2006 The Hoodoo Man will change readers’ perceptions about what California white wines are and can be. A rich mélange of apricot, peach, honey and exotic white flowers graces the palate as this voluptuous, intense, yet remarkably vibrant wine shows off its utterly compelling personality. Slightly reductive, the 2006 needs a good bit of air. Today, the 2006 shows no signs whatsoever of fading. It should continue to drink well for another 5-10 years. The Hoodoo Man can only be called an absolute triumph in viticulture and winemaking. Time and again, I thought I had mixed up my glasses and that this was 2013 White Wine Résisté. The Hoodoo Man is 39% Roussanne, 31% Viognier and 30% Chardonnay; 75% from John Alban’s vineyard and 25% from Eleven Confessions. The wine was aged in 58% new oak, the rest 1-2 year-old barrels and a dollop of stainless steel. (Drink between 2015-2020)

Tuna special with lettuce wrap, tuna tartare, habanero, and rice crisps. Quite delicious and slightly different take on the tuna tartare. Good texture and quite a bit of heat actually.

Wrap in progress.

2008 Sine Qua Non Kolibri. VM 93. Deep yellow-gold. Ripe pit and exotic fruits on the nose, with complicating notes of honey, sweet butter and green almond. Becomes more floral with air, picking up suggestions of jasmine and chamomile. Lush but focused, with a spine of acidity adding structure and carrying through a very long, sappy and gently sweet finish. Krankl said that he’d serve this with a rich shellfish dish.

Benton’s Country Ham.

Cave Aged Butter & Caviar.

Bing bread. This pita-like bread is spread as desired with the ordered condiments (in our case the hame, butter, and caviar).

Combined the lot of them Jose Andres style.

Stuffed Peppers – benton’s sack sausage, buttermilk ranch. Very crispy, but delicious with the ranch sauce.

Little Gem Salad – anchovy, miso, smoked trout roe. Not your typical salad. Far saltier than most, but delicious.

From my cellar: 2008 Domaine Denis Bachelet Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes. BH 91-94. A very ripe plum and floral nose also reflects notes of warm earth and minerality that slides into very fresh, rich, round and forward medium plus weight flavors that are quite generous, even fleshy yet there is good delineation on the serious, delicious, powerful and persistent finish that is supported by fine tannins. This is a lovely wine of distinction balance and harmony that is built to age over the next decade or so as the underlying material is superb. (Drink starting 2018)

WOTN, of course.

2003 Sine Qua Non Pinot Noir Omega. VM 91. Dark red.Deep, very ripe aromas of blackberry and chocolatey torrefaction. Large-scaled and deep, with the blackberry, black cherry and black raspberry flavors carrying a strong load of chocolate, not to mention 15.5% alcohol. Finishes impressively broad and uncompromisingly dry, with very good length and decent grip. A big fellow.

Macaroni & Chickpea – miso, black pepper. The texture isn’t typically Italian (a bit softer with a bit more sauce) but this did have a lovely cacio e pepe flavor.

Spicy Fusilli – pork jowl, kimchi, garlic. This was a bit polarizing. Very saucy and with a good amount of heat. Some people didn’t like it but I enjoyed the quite piggy tone, the crunchy pork jowl, and the moderate spice. Wine killer for sure though.

Shrimp Crispy Rice – Thai chili, corn, sun gold tomatoes. Disc of crispy rice that is then mixed up with all that stuff.

All mixed up it was delicious.

Grilled Gai Lan – xo sauce, mint. A jazzed up take on a classic veggie.

2016 Sine Qua Non Grenache Dirt Vernacular. VM 98. Sine Qua Non’s 2016 Grenache The Vernacular is a classic Sine Qua Non wine. Rich, powerful and aromatically deep, the 2016 has so much to offer. A rush of sweet dark cherry, plum, mocha, licorice, lavender and spice builds in an opulent, flamboyant wine that hits all the right notes. Mourvèdre, Touriga Nacional and Petite Sirah add striking sepia tones throughout. This is a stunning showing. (Drink between 2022-2031)

2013 Sine Qua Non Grenache ♀. VM 96+. Huge tannins wrap around a core of voluptuous fruit in the 2013 Grenache Female. Dark-fleshed fruit, graphite, spices, savory herbs and lavender are some of the signatures. Today, the 2013 is quite imposing and shut down, so readers will have to be patient. The blend is 78% Grenache, 19% Syrah and 3% Mourvèdre, done with 88% whole clusters, which is high for Sine Qua Non. (Drink between 2017-2028)

2010 Sine Qua Non Syrah Stockholm Syndrome Eleven Confessions Vineyard. VM 97.5. Lavender, violets, smoke, menthol and new leather are some of the many notes that inform the 2010 Syrah Stockholm Syndrome. A huge, seamless wine, the 2010 boasts magnificent richness and a totally voluptuous personality. The powerful finish dazzles with its combination of fruit, acidity and minerality. (Drink between 2016-2025)

2007 Sine Qua Non Syrah Labels. VM 94. Opaque purple. Sexy, expansive aromas of blackberry, kirsch, potpourri, sandalwood and black pepper. Sweet and rich, but juicy, with superb floral lift to the flavors of bitter cherry, dark berries and fruity pepper. A real essence of syrah: this is all dark berries, flowers and spice, but no game, with plenty of fruit to support the oak (64% new) element. Harmonious, ripe acidity and velvety tannins give shape to a long, sweet finish.

2004 Sine Qua Non Syrah Poker Face. VM 96. The 2004 Syrah Poker Face remains deep, inky and powerful, even at eleven years of age. A host of black cherry, chocolate, licorice and smoke meld together in this dark, voluptuous Syrah. As good as the 2004 is, it’s also quite clear just how far Sine Qua Non has come since the Poker Face was made. The blend is 96% Syrah, with drops of Mourvèdre and Viognier. Vineyard sources are 33% Eleven Confessions, 27% White Hawk, 22% Alban, 16% Bien Nacido and 3% Alta Mesa. (Drink between 2015-2022)

Grilled Wagyu Zabuton – maitake, koji, egg yolk.

The sauce and yolk were to be mixed, then one was supposed to dip the meat in the sauce. Not a bad dish, but not the best of the night by any means. Certainly our weakest main.

Crispy Potatoes – garlic, chili, lemon mayo. These were awesome. The potatoes were incredibly crispy and coated in a very “Buffalo Wing” style sauce. The sea of lemon mayo was extremely ranch-like and so the overall vibe was like a much better, much crispier, “Buffalo Wing” kind of thing.

Smoked Half Bo Ssam – ssam, condiments, rice.

Comes with white rice.

Greens and lettuce.

Hoisin and pickles. You make a lettuce wrap (I didn’t use the rice). Some argued that the pork was a little dry, but I didn’t think so if you loaded enough moist pickles etc in there. Very rich and satisfying.

Whole Plate Short Rib with Beef Rice – ssam, condiments, beef rice.

Various condiments for the beef. Pickles, spicy Korean chili paste etc

The huge short rib.

Our server sets to work carving the rib.

Most of it is arrayed in a flower pattern.

Then the ribs themselves are added on. Overall this is scrumptious meat, particularly when wrapped in lettuce with all the condiments. Like a great BBQ Brisket.

This is the special beef rice that comes a bit later. It’s delicious but we were crazy full.

2013 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet Domaine. BH 93. Here the wood treatment is well-integrated though not invisible as it combines with elegant, pure and cool aromas of white orchard fruit, acacia blossom and plenty of citrus character. There is good size, weight and punch to the delicious, tangy and energetic middle weight plus flavors that offer a lovely sense of precision and excellent length. While this classy and stylish effort should reward at least a decade of bottle age it should also be approachable after only 6 to 8. (Drink starting 2023)

Almond Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Toasted Sicilian Almond Cream and chopped Classic Toblerone! — 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 #creamcheese #ganache #icing #almond #Toblerone

Overall, we had a great time at Majordomo. You do need a decent sized party for the awesome large dishes and you need to preorder. Tonight we had 8, which is perfect as the big dishes easily go around 8 ways and the smaller ones you can order two of.

The service and wine service were both spectacular. I was really surprised as these loud hipster places often don’t have good wine service but we were really taken care of and this added a lot to the evening. We had a great (large) table in the back corner of the patio and a huge unused table next to it for our gear, wines, etc. They were super attentive. Really unusually good service for this level.

The larger pre-order dishes like the rib and pork and chicken are amazing and insane. We planned on also getting the chicken, but we were so stuffed we had to cancel it. Tonight the food seemed the best yet, even if we did have a lot of (delicious) carbs. Pastas and the fried rice were amazing too. Really liking everything about Majordomo other than the distance to get there — well and maybe how I felt trying to sleep later after all that fat, salt, and massive red wine.

I’ll make an interesting observation about the SQNs in this kind of dinner format. Despite the massive wines and massive ratings, we had about 40% of each of the big reds left at the end of the night. My Champagne, my Red Burg, the SQN pinot, and the Chevalier (opened at the end too!) were the only bottles that were empty — and quickly at that. The massive reds are just so punishingly rich — not to mention completely interchangeable — that I just poured a couple at random and sipped lightly.

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