Showing posts with label chicken liver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicken liver. Show all posts

Monday, December 9, 2013

Tiki Cocktails by the Beach at Larry's in Venice

Larry's was already a popular destination in Venice Beach for food and beer, but they have recently gotten a full liquor license as well and launched a tiki-focused cocktail menu.

Pina colada gets an upgrade with a red wine float in #Delicious (rum, coconut cream, lemon, pineapple, red wine - $12). Yes, the hashtag is meant to be there.

IMG_0490
It's on the sweeter side but I'm still a fan of pina coladas after all, and a lot of people would love this drink. The red wine adds more complexity. For something a little less sweet, I really enjoyed the Sun Poison (gin, falernum, passionfruit, lime, orgeat, orange bitters - $12)
Tiki Cocktail
Falernum any day

The bar food menu is worth a look, as well. If you don't mind offals, get the Bacon wrapped chicken liver skewers, yakitori sauce ($6)
IMG_0497

Friday, March 29, 2013

Where to Eat for Palm Springs Restaurant Week: Catalan (Rancho Mirage, CA)

Catalan in Rancho Mirage opened in 2012 by father and son Mark and Drew Davis. Drew had worked in New York and moved to Los Angeles to be a private chef to Steven Spielberg before finally deciding to open a restaurant in the Palm Springs area. Catalan is a Mediterranean restaurant, emphasizing on Italian and Spanish influences.

For Palm Springs Restaurant Week, Catalan is offering a $38 menu that has not been determined and will probably change between the 2 weeks of May 31-June 16, in line with their policy to use local, seasonal products. We tried a lot of great dishes during our media visit, though, and you can probably expect the same for the prix fixe menu.

The entire table loved the Chicken liver flatbread, caramelized onions, roasted pears, smoked mozzarella ($17)

IMG_4315
I mean, you eat chicken liver with bread anyway right? So why not put it on top and bake it together, add on some roasted pears and caramelized onions as "condiments"? So good.

More chicken liver? Why not! Especially when they're fried, like these Buttermilk crispy chicken livers, manchego polenta, wild mushroom port reduction, herbs ($15)
IMG_4319
I wondered if the typical Palm Springs audience is adventurous enough for chicken liver but either way I'm glad the chef isn't shying away from it.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Fun with Americana Nostalgia at Towne (Downtown LA)

It isn't often I walk into a new restaurant with no expectation and come out wowed. That happened recently to me at the new Towne in downtown LA. I didn't know much about it coming into the media tasting other than that they make their own twinkies, but left pretty impressed. Towne is a large elegant restaurant in the WaterMarke Tower in the South Park district of downtown LA. The bar to the left and the pastry case near the entrance is Bottega Louie-esque, without the high ceilings and the loudness (at least so far).

IMG_0469

The warm pretzel bread, complimentary for the table, served with mustard butter made a great first impression.
IMG_0474

We started with some appetizers including the Kanpachi Tacos, avocado, hijiki, aji amarillo, creme fraiche ($12)
IMG_0478
While you can't see if at first glance, the crispy shells were filled with chunks of fresh kanpachi.

The head barman here is Jason Bran, who has designed a cocktail menu ranging from little twists of some classics to some fun, completely out-there cocktails. More on that later, as we first started on the tamer side with Eastern Mule: Russian Standard Vodka, lime, house 5-spice ginger beer ($13).
IMG_0475

The hint of the spices were subtle but unmistakable.

Another nice refreshing classic: Genesis Collins with Beefeater 24 gin, grapefruit, honey, soda, "invisible touch" ($13) - not sure what the invisible touch was..
IMG_0477


Chicken Liver Popcorn, yogurt, zatar ($11)
IMG_0488
If you like chicken liver and pates, you would certainly love these deep fried goodness (one of the other bloggers at the table just could not stop eating them)!
On the other hand, if you don't like the taste of liver, avoid this. Just because they're deep fried doesn't mean they've lost that liver taste!


Gourmet Pigs   © 2008. Template Recipes by Emporium Digital

TOP