Showing posts with label los angeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label los angeles. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

LA Sushi and Chirashi Takeout Boxes - A Roundup

If you've been following me over on Instagram, you may have noticed how many sushi and chirashi I've been eating as takeout. I decided to do a roundup of all the ones I've eaten so far! Here's the list and my thoughts, arranged from the lowest priced to the highest. Of course, I haven't ordered ALL the sushi takeout in LA, so I'll be updating the list as I go. 


1. Kaisendon from Iki Ramen ($19.50)
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Even though the kaisendon at Iki Ramen has slightly increased in price from $18 to $19.50 it still the best deal around. They have some great quality fish, with fatty yellowtail, fresh scallops nicely topped with yuzu, blue crab, salmon, ikura and spicy tuna. It really hits the spot when you have a craving! For this fish quality, less than $20 is an amazing price.

2. Sushi Box ($28.95) and premium chirashi ($44.95) at Ootoro Sushi
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I wasn't sure where to put this on this price-ranked list since we got two boxes. A cheaper sushi box and a more expensive premium chirashi box. The sushi box was inexpensive and filling, but to get my favorite cuts I would have to go with the premium chirashi box, which also contains toro, amaebi topped with uni, and the fried head of the amaebi.

3. Nozawa Trust Me at Sugarfish ($38)
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Sugarfish has had a takeout box since pre-lockdown, so they've got the presentation and everything down already. Sugarfish may not be the most exciting on the list, but it hits the spot and a good value. Sugarfish is always consistent, so you know what you're in for. 

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Takeouts in LA: Wagyu Bento from IMA and Yazawa (Beverly Hills)

I meant to be blogging more when the lockdown happened, but well, it was hard to find motivation! But now I'd like to highlight some of my favorite takeouts that I've had over the past few months. I hope you guys are all getting takeout and supporting local restaurants when you can!

I've been ordering a lot of bento boxes, and two of my favorites came from sister restaurants IMA and Yazawa in Beverly Hills (the restaurants are right next to each other and pickup for takeout is at the same spot). Both of them are wagyu specialists that import their meat straight from Japan. Yazawa focuses on yakiniku while IMA does sukiyaki and shabu shabu. IMA is the only U.S. branch of Imafuku, which has a Michelin star in Japan.
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Tuesday, July 14, 2020

My Latest Snack Addiction: P.O.P. Candy Co Butter Crunch

It's been a while since I've blogged! How is everyone's quarantine going?
With so much time staying at home, I've been snacking more, of course, and I'm here to tell you about one of the sweet snacks that I've been kind of addicted to lately: the butter crunch from P.O.P. Candy Co in Santa Monica.
Pop candy co
So what is butter crunch anyway?
Butter crunch is kind of like a love child between a toffee and brittle.

According to their website, "Butter crunch is typically toffee that’s got crushed nuts on its chocolate coating." The basic ingredients is basically some sort of nuts, butter, and sugar (and maybe syrup or other special ingredients according to the flavor). The texture is quite different than toffee, though. It's crunchy but softer than regular toffee - not as hard to bite into and or as chewy /sticky, which is usually my issue with toffee. No such problem here. It's a crunchy, nutty sweet treat. Once I started I couldn't stop eating it.

The butter crunch from P.O.P. is handmade in small batches.
They have quite a few flavors with different nuts (no peanuts, though, so don't worry about peanut allergies) and it's hard to pick a favorite. The rosemary almond is interesting as the rosemary adds just a little bit of savoriness. The fire pistachio is pretty spicy thanks to the cayenne pepper! If you've never had any, the best thing to do is to get an assortment box like the one pictured above.
Pop candy co

P.O.P. Candy Co butter crunch is sold at various retail stores in Northern and Southern California, including a number of Whole Foods in the LA area, so give them a try, I think you'd like it!
You can also order online, they're doing free shipping for orders over $50.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Food Takeout / Delivery in LA That Gives Back

With so many people's livelihoods on the line during the pandemic and the closure of non-essential businesses, it's great to have our money go further to helping others. I have been trying to get takeout food from local businesses, but it's even better when my purchase also contributes to another cause. Here is the list of where you can get food in LA (takeout, delivery or by shipping) that also helps another cause.

Few for All
Few for All delivers handmade pasta, pasta sauces and cookie dough all over Los Angeles (they'll even deliver all the way to Woodland Hills with a minimum of $50 purchase). For each ITEM purchased, they'll also donate a pound of pasta to the LA Food Bank! Order through their instagram here.
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APL
Adam Perry Lang's APL Restaurant has joined forces with Jimmy Kimmel to launch a meal matching program. For every meal ordered for take-out or pick-up at APL, they will donate that same meal to St. Joseph's Center, a non-profit in Venice that supports the homeless and families in need.

Flavors from Afar
A new social enterprise in Little Ethiopia by The Tiyya Foundation, Flavors from Afar offers food from chefs who were former refugees and asylum seekers. For every meal purchased, they will donate a box of non-perishable food items to a low-income family in need. They're open Wednesday-Sunday and the meals rotate. Until May 17, the featured menu is Somali cuisine!


Vitalist High Frequency Food
Vitalist opened in West Hollywood in the middle of the pandemic, serving healthy plant-based food including juices, soups and salads. It's a good time to give them a try as $2 from every drink sale from now until June 15 goes to the Restaurant Workers' Community Foundation Covid 19 fund.
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Goldbelly
Goldbelly sends iconic food from all over the country to your door. Recently with the pandemic, they have started a city subscription box. With every subscription purchased, Goldbelly will send a box of food to a frontline worker.
Memphis ribs

Golden Marrow
Golden Marrow was a popular new vendor at the 626 Night Market and now they're doing an "at home" bone marrow kit. The best part is that all proceeds are going to the fundraising campaign Code Masks that are aiming to provide N95 masks to hospitals and fire departments in LA.


Lazy Dog Restaurant
Lazy Dog offers friends and family meals at their various locations (starting at $25 and serves 4-5 people). With each family meal purchased, Lazy Dog will donate to a local organization including hospitals.

Tiato
This isn't for the prepared food, but when you buy a bag of groceries of $35 or more from Tiato, they will donate 20% to the Food Bank. Included in the bag: 2 avocados, bushel of bananas, baguette, blueberries, butter, Caesar dressing, cherry tomatoes, 2 lemons, lettuce, oat milk, red onion, house-made aloe hand sanitizer and 2 rolls of toilet paper.

Friday, April 17, 2020

Cocktails and Argentinean Fare at Barcito (Downtown LA)

A while back I visited Barcito in downtown LA for the first time. It's an Argentinean restaurant serving tapas as well as salads and sandwiches. While you can't dine in there right now, they are still open for takeout and delivery.

A recap of my visit there: We had to start with some jamon and burrata, of course. They're served with some Bub and Grandma's bread.
Barcito LA

Spanish tortilla (egg, potato, onion, but they made it their own with the addition of arugula and cashew romesco)
Barcito LA

Friday, March 27, 2020

Winter Tasting Menu at Iki Ramen (Koreatown, LA)

Iki Ramen in Koreatown is one of the best new ramen spots in LA, but it's not just about the ramen. At the end of last year, they started doing a tasting menu which I have to be say is one of the better deals in town. Iki Ramen is still open for take-out during the pandemic shutdown, which I'll talk more about in a bit, but first I want to show you the tasting menu!

The tasting menu had gone through a couple of iterations as they refine what they want to do. The one I had was an 8-course tasting menu for $70.

We started with some Burrata and pickled tomatoes
Iki Ramen Winter Tasting
This dish is on their regular menu, and it's always a great one to order. Loved the refreshing tomatoes with the creamy burrata.

Trio of: salmon wasabi, takoyaki, uni ikura don
Iki Ramen Winter Tasting
I couldn't decide which of the three items I like best from this plate. Obviously I'm partial to uni but their takoyaki is really good too!

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Lonzo's is Culver City's Tiny Peruvian Gem

Since we all now have so much time in our hands from not going out, I figured it's time to catch up on all my blog posts. I decided to highlight places and meals you can go to once the pandemic is over, but also I wanted to highlight places that are still doing takeout/ delivery, so you can help support small businesses while the Safer At Home order is underway.

First up is Lonzo's, a small Peruvian eatery in Culver City. Lonzo's started as a little bakery 14 years ago by Jose and Miriam Ramirez, but their nephew Walther Adrianzen also started serving his Peruvian cooking that even won over the late and great Jonathan Gold. The food quality and presentation are rather unexpected given the small size of the eatery, but no wonder it is packed.
Lonzo’s
I was invited for a tasting, so we had smaller portions than a regular order. We started with grilled prawn causa with ground yellow aji pepper and lime juice.
Lonzo's
Wasn't expecting this fancy plating! The butterflied prawn was lightly grilled and served on top of yellow potato causa.

Adrianzen has his own signature dishes here now, not just traditional Peruvian dishes, including the Parmesan scallops (Peruvian diver scallops, aji amarillo butter, yuzu, ponzu, parmesan cheese)
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The parmesan scallops are reminiscent of a scallop dynamite with all the cheese and butter baked on top of the scallops.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Pulutan, A Filipino Happy Hour at Sari Sari Store (Downtown LA)

"Pulutan" refers to Filipino finger food that is typically eaten while drinking - basically Filipino bar snacks - and the name is perfect for Sari Sari Store's happy hour menu. Yep, Margarita Manzke's Filipino place inside Grand Central Market has a happy hour with $3 San Miguel beers on draft (San Miguel is a popular Filipino beer) and cheap (but delicious) bar snacks!

Here are what you can find on the pulutan menu:
BBQ pork belly skewers ($7)
Sari Sari Pulutan
The pork belly may be our favorite thing on the pulutan menu (it certainly was my mom's favorite). It was nicely caramelized yet so tender.
On the back there you can also see the Adobo Shishito Peppers, available for $5.

Pinoy BBQ ribs ($7)
Sari Sari Pulutan
The ribs are also a great one to order, and pretty generous for $7. The meat just falls off the bone and the BBQ sauce is nice and sweet.

Friday, February 14, 2020

Steak Flight with a View at Castaway in Burbank

I figured for Valentine's weekend, it's good to post about this restaurant with a view, right? Castaway in Burbank has quite the romantic setting, especially around sunset time.
Castaway Burbank
Castaway has been around for years but they had a major remodeling in 2018.

The cocktail menu was more interesting than what I had expected. I started with a Don Pedro Old Fashioned (Ilegal mezcal, spiced bourbon reduction, PX nectar - $15). It was a nice mezcal Old Fashioned, and look at that view!
Castaway Burbank
Castaway has hired Perry Pollaci as executive chef .Chef Pollaci previously worked with the Patina Group and at The Royce at the Langham in Pasadena.

I'm behind on blogging, so some of the menu has changed since the time I went but at the time I had some heirloom tomato and burrata with watermelon, yuzu, white balsamic, black pepper, mache, basil, chia seeds  ($17)
Castaway

Friday, January 24, 2020

Crustacean Beverly Hills, Beyond the Garlic Noodles

Even though I've been in LA for a while and have even had the An family's food at AnQi in Costa Mesa and even the famous garlic crab at the original Thanh Long in San Francisco, I actually have not made it to Crustacean until recently. Sure, I've had the garlic noodles at food festivals, but that's not quite the same.

Luckily, I was recently invited for a tasting menu so I made my way there for the first time. It was the middle of the week but the Beverly Hills restaurant was hopping. It was quite crowded both with dinner guests and people drinking at the bar (after-work drink crowd, I presume). There was a live music performance going on, which takes place on Wednesdays from 4-7pm.

Our tasting menu for two started with these tuna cigars, with quite the eye catching presentation. A cigar box was presented to us and smoke wafted out upon opening.
Crustacean
The tuna cigars were made of feuille de brick, tuna, avocado silk, Vidalia onion, and tobiko caviar.
Crustacean

The smoky presentation continued on with the cocktail I ordered, the Hightea Penicillin. The Penicillin traditionally consisted of scotch, ginger, honey, and lemon juice and here it's topped off with black tea and lavender cloud.
Crustacean

Monday, January 6, 2020

Bar Avalon Brings Cozy Wine Bar and Dinner Spot to Echo Park

Echo Park got a new wine bar back in October with Bar Avalon, which came by way of Revelator Coffee. This intimate spot offers interesting wines and a small but solid dinner menu.

The wines here are listed by order of latitude and the list offers both old world and new world wines. The sommelier is always on hand to tell you about their more interesting offerings like Unti Segromigno from Dry Creek Valley.

The menu is divided into four sections including small plates, little bites like deviled eggs, and bigger entrees. We tried the Plancha Blue prawns, n'duja, preserved lemons ($14). Can never go wrong with blue prawns!
Bar Avalon

Pork Rillette ($14) from the "tasty bits" section
Bar Avalon

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Tasting Hakkaisan Sake at Faith and Flower

A while back I went to a dinner at Faith and Flower hosted by Hakkaisan sake to try their lineup. Hakkaisan is a brewery in Niigata Prefecture, at the bottom of Mount Hakkaisan, a sacred mountain with a name that means "eight peaked mountain".
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We started with the Hakkaisan "AWA" sparkling sake. Awa means "bubbles" in Japanese, and the sparkling sake here is produced using secondary fermentation in the bottle, similar to the traditional champagne method. It's a very clean tasting sparkling sake, with just a touch of sweetness.
Hakkaisan at Faith and Flower

For the Awa, they paired with a silken tofu mousse, fresh wasabi and miyoga ginger, bonito dashi
Hakkaisan at Faith and Flower
We loved the texture of this tofu mousse.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

West End Roof Top Opens at The London West Hollywood

With our year-round perfect weather, LA can't have too many rooftop bars. Well, there's another one now, West End Roof Top at The London hotel in West Hollywood.
West End Roof Top
The West End is a pretty relaxing place to hang out and offers nice views of the city.
West End Roof Top
The rooftop bar has some frozen blended drinks and easy drinking cocktails. My favorite was the Churchill Goes Tiki (bourbon, pineapple juice, orange juice, orgeat, 1821 Japanese chili lime bitters, $17)
West End Roof Top

Friday, August 9, 2019

LA Food Events in August to Put on Your Radar

So I'm a few days late posting about upcoming August festivals (sorry) but summer is in full swing in LA and there are plenty of upcoming food events you should put on your radar!

August 11
Hitching Post 2 Pop-up at LA Wine
This famous Central Coast spot is popping up for one day only at LA Wine. They're bringing over their red oak-fired grill to LA to serve up at LA Wine's outdoor patio starting at 5pm until sold out.

HPost
Photo courtesy of Hitching Post

August 22-25
Los Angeles Food & Wine
This year's LA Food & Wine Festival has set up 14 different events over 4 days. Some of my favorite picks include the dinner at Magic Castle with Chef Jason Fullilove and Andre Bienvenu (from Joe's Stone Crab) if for no other reason than you get to go to the Magic Castle. Multiple guest chef dinners are scheduled including the Legends dinner with Nancy Silverton and Jeremiah Tower. For those who want to attend one of the walk-around tastings, there's a Burger Throwdown with Alvin Cailan, LA's Faves and Craves with Jet Tila, The Great Steakout with Curtis Stone and Brunch so Hard with Jeremiah Tower.
POG
Ma'am Sir will be serving this Hawaiian POG cocktail for their dinner collaboration with Chef Sheldon Simeon from Lineage (Maui)

August 25-27
Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo
This one is more for the industry folks. The expo's exhibitors include food products and beverages to new technology and everything you can think of that's related to restaurant operations. The expo also takes place at the same time and area as the Coffee Fest and Healthy Food Expo.

The Taste

August 30-September 1, 2019
LA Times’ The Taste
The Taste, put on by LA times, always takes place over Labor Day Weekend and this year is no exception. For three evenings on Friday-Sunday, head to the walk-around tastings complete with chef panels, wine seminars, cooking and mixology demonstrations. The participating chefs change each day from Badmaash, Meals by Genet, Otium to Redbird.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Baja California Food and Themed Cocktails at The Corner Door (Culver City)

This is bit of a late post, but a couple of months ago I revisited The Corner Door in Culver City, which is under the Umbrella Hospitality Group (Melrose Umbrella Company, LONO). I hadn't visited since Beau DuBois moved up north, but The Corner Door is still going strong under the direction of Liam Odien behind the bar and Executive chef David Lespron, who previously worked at various sbe establishments like Katsuya and Michael Mina's now-shuttered XIV.

The food at The Corner Door can be described as a Baja California menu. We started off with some fresh Shigoku oysters from Baja, served with "soft Aztec herbs" and citrus, $4 ea
Corner Door

For the cocktail, they're doing an Astrology themed menu. The menu is designed like an astrology chart with each drink for the twelve signs.
Being the clarified milk punch fan that I am, I started with Age of Aquarius (Real McCoy 3, Appleton rum, almond, aloe vera, clarified, glitter - $15)
The Corner Door
It's got quite the presentation with the blue glitter! On the sweeter side, but again, I like milk punch so ..

Chef Lespron is doing some beautiful tacos with handmade tortillas here. We got the Fish tacos (wild Japanese yellowtail tacos, you can get this fried or grilled - this grilled one was amazing. $13 for two, but ours was plated separately). Is this not the most beautifully plated taco you've seen?
Corner Door
The taco was actually really good, better than what I had expected, from the tortilla to the texture of the yellowtail and the flavors.

Monday, July 15, 2019

Delicious Little Tokyo Showcases the Neighborhood on July 19-20

This coming weekend on July 19-20, Go Little Tokyo will be showcasing the food and drink offerings (and beyond) of the neighborhood with Delicious Little Tokyo. There will be a variety of special workshops, demos, and tastings at different Little Tokyo businesses over the two days. Some of the events include:

A takoyaki making demo with Takoyaki Tanota, taking place on the Japanese Village Food Stage and is free to attend.
Delicious Little Tokyo

Friday, July 5, 2019

Cocktails and Izakaya Fare at HATCH Yakitori + Bar (Downtown LA)

I recently visited HATCH Yakitori + Bar, which is located inside the new retail and restaurant space in downtown LA, The Bloc. In addition to checking out this restaurant for the first time, it was also my first time visiting The Bloc, which is a pretty cool open-air plaza with more restaurants coming. The Bloc has pretty cheap parking up to 3 hours with validation, which is really nice for downtown! For 3 hours parking is $4 with validation. The parking alone would entice me to go back to HATCH, but let's get on with the food.

HATCH obviously serves yakitori, but they also have other izakaya style food and a seasonal specials menu. They had a seared wagyu nigiri special which I just had to get.
Hatch Yakitori
They seared it tableside and it was so good, our favorite of the night, for sure.
Hatch Yakitori
Among the other specials that was another luxurious item: Alaskan king crab legs!
Hatch Yakitori

Friday, June 21, 2019

Alice Eatery at 1 Hotel West Hollywood

The 1 Hotel West Hollywood is now open on Sunset Blvd, a rebrand of the previous Jeremy Hotel, and with it comes new restaurants! Alice Eatery is an all-day restaurant and marketplace concept run by The h.wood Group at the 1 Hotel.

The food and cocktails at Alice Eatery are from Chef Lord Maynard Llera and bar director Justin Campbell from The h.wood Group while the chef de cuisine overseeing the day to day operation is Broken Spanish alum, Geter Atienza.

The menu is French American. Since 1 Hotel is an eco-friendly luxury hotel brand, the restaurants of course also use locally-sourced, seasonal ingredients. During my recent visit I tried the Grilled calamari, cucumber, green apple, red bell pepper, green papaya ($17)
Alice Eatery
This was a nice appetizer on the lighter salad - basically a salad with grilled calamari which had a great texture.

On the heavier end of the appetizer is the Beef tartare with smoked egg yolk, violet mustard, tomato ($24)
Alice Eatery

Saturday, June 15, 2019

LQ Foodings Supper Club Still Serve Some of LA's Best French Food

Some of LA's best French food can be had at LQ Foodings, a supper club by Laurent Quenioux who owned Bistro LQ a few years ago in LA. He holds this multi-course supper club dinners at a private home in Highland Park or other locations throughout the city.

I haven't had LQ's food in a while but I regularly get the news about the supper club. I finally decided to go recently, swayed by the possibility of an uni sausage (which didn't happen as the menu changes all the time, but the dinner was still great!) and convinced estarLA to go with me. It's a six course menu for $74 (wine and cheese is extra and a 20% service charge is due at the night of the event), which is pretty good for a tasting menu in LA. We all sat at a large dining table, a communal dining experience filled with food lovers, both new and long-time fans of Laurent.

We went for the spring dinner series and started with a Wild troll salmon sausage, fennel pollen emulsion, English peas, Timut peppercorn meringue, fennel
Bistro LQ
A great, light start to the meal - I loved the texture of the salmon sausage.

Devil's Gulch Ranch rabbit "carnitas rillette" roll, yellow beet, apple vinegar gelee, arthicoke "a la grecque", black trumpet mushrooms
Bistro LQ
Yes, it's rabbit meat that's been braised "carnitas" style!

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Woon Kitchen: A Family Affair in Historic Filipinotown

Woon Kitchen recently opened in Historic Filipinotown (a.k.a. HiFi), adding another reason that HiFi is one of LA's latest food hotspots. Woon Kitchen started as a pop-up, building a loyal fan base by showcasing their mother's (Julie Fong, aka. Mama Fong) homestyle Chinese cooking around town. The new HiFi shop is small but cute and has some patio seating. There's a small but affordable menu plus a few specials, as well as beer and wine

To start: each table gets a bowl of peanuts roasted with sea moss (that apparently they get from a special dealer in SGV)
Woon
One of their best known dishes is the beef noodle, which is what they're known for from their pop-up days. It's a stir fried chewy noodles with marinated flank steak, bok choy and shiitake mushrooms ($11).
Woon
The stir fried noodles have a sweeter sauce and the texture of the noodles is nice and chewy, the beef slightly charred. For me, while I didn't eat these flavors exactly as a kid, the taste certainly reminds me of homeocoking.

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