Nice to Meet You, Charlie Palmer

On Saturday I went to South Coast plaza in Costa Mesa, killing two birds with one stone: 1)visiting Kat in OC who's been complaining that I don't visit :P and 2) trying out the 4 courses for $40 deals at the Charlie Palmer's at Bloomingdale's. This post is kindof late for those who want to try out the deal, since tonight is the last night ... but I thought it was still a good intro to Charlie Palmer's.

They had an eye-shaped window that looks into the kitchen. It was pretty cool to see them at work, and one guy even posed for a picture!
We were seated in the room next to their wine collection, and it was a darker room than the main dining room with brown leather chairs instead of white. I personally liked the brighter room, but it's no big deal ...

Besides the waiter/waitress, one of the sommeliers came by and introduced himself, which I thought was nice (we haven't ordered wine or anything).

So the 4 for $40 meal started with: Tasmanian salmon tartare with passion fruit-lavender, watermelon radish
I really liked the passionfruit-based sauce, both the sweetness and sourness worked well with the salmon and it was also interesting, and the masago on top gave the whole thing a nice kick.

Next is the Roasted Corn Soup with Chanterelle mushroom Ravioli:I think this was my favorite of the night. And I'm not just saying that because I'm in love with corn (or am I?). The soup was flavorful, but not too salty like I was afraid of, and the combination with the chanterelle mushroom ravioli worked very well.

Kat's friend also ordered the Kobe beef burger sliders from the lounge menu. There were 3 mini burgers so she gave each of us one (thanks!)

The burger was pretty standard - the meat was very very juicy, which I liked, but at the same time was a bit 'rough'.


For the entree I got: Pan roasted sea scallops, with sunchokes, sugar snap peas, herb jus
The scallops were pretty big, tender and juicy. The sauce I thought was just okay though, and if it wasn't for the interesting vegetables it would've been a rather boring dish.

Kat's friend ordered the Prosciutto crusted pork tenderloin with salsify, black mission figs
I tried a bite of the tenderloin, and it was pretty good. It was not overcooked so the meat is tender and juicy. I actually liked this better than my scallops ..


The chocolate molten cake for the dessert was not bad. It was not anything special either. Without the ice cream it's a little too rich and sweet. But then again, a rich chocolate molten cake is good.





Instead of petit fours, they gave us 'beignets'. They were tasty, but I think they're more like donut holes. Good donut holes.









All in all I'd say the 4 for $40 was a good deal. As for the restaurant itself, it has solid food, ambiance, and service. It's pretty 'standard' high-end restaurant with all the right components, good for business meetings, taking guests, etc, but not one I would make as a "destination."

Charlie Palmer's at Bloomingdale's
3333 S Bristol St
Costa Mesa,, CA 92626
Phone: (714) 352-2525

Help me find my love!

While in Peru I met a tall, dark and handsome man.
Cold, and slightly sweet, full bodied, and absolutely smooth - not to mention rich.
But, alas, now I am back in LA just pining away.
So, someone help me find him again! My beloved Cusquena Negra ... is it anywhere in LA?
If anyone knows where I can go, we won't forget your kindness ...

Corn Pizza, Twice Over.

Zelo was recommended by a friend of mine as "the best pizza in town" so obviously I had to check it out. I suggested it to a group of friends when we were meeting up - funny, we seemed to have pizza everytime we meet up ...

What's so unique about Zelo is their cornmeal crust, and their signature pizza is their Corn pizza:
This consisted of the cornmeal crust+white corn+marinated onions+mozzarela+chives. Being a corn lover, this pizza was totally awesome! The cornmeal crust is definitely different, and unlike regular dough, actually has flavor and (when done right) enhances the whole pizza.

You can order by the slice ($3.50), half ($10.00), or a whole pizza ($18.00). They're normally cut up into six slices but since there were four of us, the workers were nice enough to cut them into fours for us :) extra points for service ;)

Below is the the corn pizza and the mushroom pizza (from the specials):
The corn, like I said, was *amazing*. The mushroom pizza was also good. The basil and sundried tomatoes were a really nice touch, but it still can't compare to the corn one.

We also got another of the specials, the spinach pesto. It's apparently very popular so it shows up on the specials a lot.
I think pesto makes everything that much better, so naturally I like this one a lot! They put a lot of pesto sauce. Spinach, pesto, and basil? How can you go wrong? The corn is still our favorite though (A friend of mine told the waiter that he should've told us to just order the corn pizza and nothing else :P But I'm glad I got the spinach pesto too!).

We ordered three slices for each person, which ended up being A LOT, since the cornmeal crust made the pizza very dense and very, very filling.


Zelo

328 E. Foothill Blvd

Arcadia, CA 91006

www.zelo.us

Finally, a bit of yumminess on the Promenade

There was never much on Third Street Promenade as far as food goes. A couple of edible choices here and there, but no "destination" places. In fact, I haven't been back to 3rd street promenade in a couple of years. But when Anisette Brasserie opened its doors a few weeks ago, that all changed.

We were seated on the second floor, where we got a nice view of the the first floor.
Our waiter was young and seemed to be new at the job - there were awkward moments when he was taking our orders etc. But he was really nice so, oh well, on to the food.

The hostess recommended the peas gazpacho, so I ordered it.There's a touch of mint that really made the soup that much better, but I realized I'm still not that big on gazpacho. Trying to eat this whole bowl was too much for me.

I actually ordered the croque madame, but they brought me the croque monsieur instead :/
The waiter apologized and then brought an egg on the side. He was a cute frenchie so I guess I'll forgive him ...
Here's the gruyere-cheese-goodness:
Delicious - and better with the egg! That melted gruyere cheese on top of the bread really made my day. It came with the "chef's fries" which I thought were just like regular fries. I was never big on fries though so I'm not one to judge ...

Someone else got the brasserie burger, cooked medium rare.
Avocado, tomatoes, ... and brie! Who would've thought of putting brie in a burger? Awesome! The bread was great and -of course- I loved the cheese :D
Overall a really good burger ... hm I think I still like the Grace burger with truffle cheese... I'm gonna have to do a double take on this one!

Desserts were $8 and based on what we got that seemed a little steep. I don't remember what this one was called - but it's the one with strawberries and lavender ice cream (when they put up their menu online I'll let u know what it is ...):A bit too much whipped cream and meringue for me personally. I really liked the lavender ice cream, though.

We also got the chocolate mousse:
Now this was a delicious chocolate mousse! And the toast was also a nice touch. It seemed a bit like eating toast with nutella (which, who can argue, is awesome? ;> )

Thanks to Anisette, I've been to the Promenade twice in the last two weeks. That's more than I've gone in the year before that! :D
Since it's new and has a nice atmosphere, and plenty more dishes to try out (such as the Feuillete of Scrambled Eggs with White Crab Claw Meat that's supposed to be *amazing*), I'll be back some more and recommending it to people.

Anisette Brasserie
225 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA
(310) 395-3200

Pizzeria Mozza: Pizzas and Hypes

With all the hype surrounding pizzeria mozza, I got curious and decided to walk in and try it one night. I called the day before and couldn't get reservations, but there was only two of us and we got seated at the bar immediately. Lucky :)

As with other hip restaurants, the place is loud and it's hard to hold conversations unless you're sitting right next to each other so the bar actually ended up working out just fine.

We placed our order and waited. It took a while to get served - we were starving so it might have seemed longer than it really was. We saw a bunch of salad dishes going by and they all looked really great. Too bad we didn't order any this time around but next time we definitely have to try one.

We got the mussels for appetizer:
I really liked the bread and the broth, but I didn't really dig the yellow sauce. It was a slightly spicy mustard-based sauce and I thought it overwhelmed the mussels! I would've been much happier with just the mussels and that yummy broth :(
I've definitely had better mussels elsewhere.

For our first pizza we had: Prosciutto Di Parma, Rucola, Tomato & Mozzarella
It was definitely good prosciutto, and the rucola is a great touch. Personally though I'd like more tomato and cheese. You might say that that's just because I'm used to the normal pizza and want something similar, but I still think that this pizza is a little bit on the dry side. But again, though, the prosciutto is definitely good.

The dough is good and as you can see their crust rose more than normal pizza crusts and is "puffier" which is also a plus. It's not as dense and filling.

On average the pizzas are $15 and each one is little more than an individual serving. In our mind this was definitely expensive for pizza, although it is better than most (but is it a better deal than, say, Zelo?).

For the second pizza we got: Wild Spinach, Finocchiona & Cacio Di Roma
The spinach was crispy and there was a little spicy kick to it. Overall it was closer than a "normal" pizza, although with much better cheese and dough. The prosciutto was tastier and more interesting.

I also saw them making this one pizza and put a raw egg right in the middle:
I didn't remember from the menu which pizza this could be, but it looked really interesting - I'll have to find it and try it next time.

All in all I thought the pizzas were pretty good. I wouldn't mind coming back, although it is expensive at $15 per pizza. On the other hand, it wasn't so spectacular that I would be craving to come back anytime soon ...
I do want to try those huge salads that looked really yummy, though.

Pizzeria Mozza
641 N Highland Ave
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 297-0101

Omurice! Finally!

Not too long ago I was running around town trying to find a decent omu-rice. For those of you who don't know, omu-rice is a japan-ized western dish consisting of a chicken fried rice (in ketchup sauce) wrapped in an omelette. Typically it is then garnished with more ketchup, but I've been searching for a place that serves it with demi glace sauce instead.

Why? It's all because of this dorama I watched a couple years ago. The first minute of this video says it all.

At any rate, I went to multiple Mitsuwa food courts with no luck. Tried an omelette spaghetti at Spoon House, and so on. But it's just not the same. A fellow Chowhounder told me that Blue Marlin had good seafood omurice. Hmm ... seafood omurice was not exactly what I was looking for, but eventually I went there anyway.

And what did I find??

The original omurice, with demi glace sauce!!! It was not the perfect omurice - the chicken pieces were scarce and rather big, and I would have liked the eggs to not be so well done (I want the omelette to 'melt down' when I cut it ... like in the last minute of the video!) - but otherwise it was everything I wanted!

Blue Marlin uses free range eggs which really enhanced the flavor of the omurices they served (yes, I am convinced free range eggs are tastier, and that it shows in these omurice dishes). And they have various, creative omurice dishes, such as the seafood omurice:

The inside of the omurice is the same as the original - ketchup chicken fried rice. Eating that with cream sauce may seem weird but the whole dish actually worked very well and was delish~

They also have omurice napolitano, etc which I have not tried. Again, it was not perfect but the omurice at Blue Marlin is really pretty good. The service sucks - I asked for a refill for my tea three times and still did not get any until after I paid my bill - but I would still come back whenever I get that craving for an omurice ...

Blue Marlin
2121 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025-6200
Phone: (310) 445-2522

Makeover for East Colorado?

The part of Colorado Blvd east of Lake is considerably boring compared to the Old Town area west of it, but relatively recently a new neighborhood favorite has popped up.

Daisy Mint is a small, cute Thai restaurant that may seem out of place among the neighboring mattress stores, etc. The inside of the restaurant is decorated somewhat eclectically. A dark (but gorgeous) painting of sumo wrestlers, mirrors, and empty picture frames and bird cages - which some thought to be rather creepy, but cute and quaint nonetheless.Compared to its typical Thai restaurant counterparts, Daisy Mint's menu is relatively limited. It only fills up one sheet of paper, front and back, but includes salads, soups, noodles, curries, and a small variety of other dishes. However, they also lean on the healthier side and use better quality ingredients.

Daisy Mint also offers selection of teas - some more uncommon than others. On my first visit I ordered the roasted nuts tea.

I'm not really sure what it is exactly, but it looks and tastes like almond+sesame milk to me ... plus perhaps other types of nuts. It tastes pretty bland, actually.

I've been there twice and on both visits forgot my regular camera :( since I usually just run off there from school while starving. So you'll have to bear with my phone camera instead.

I got the green curry the first time. The taste was not as 'bold' than your typical curry dish, but very comforting. I love the eggplants.

The next time around I ordered the 'Daisy Noodles'. The only thing missing from this dish (for me) is some meat ...
It is glass noddles in red curry sauce served with lettuce (salad lettuce), bean sprouts, and peanuts. It is an interesting combination and I like the slightly spicy curry sauce.

Thought I have yet to find a dish that blows my mind here, I like the quaintness of the place and thought that the food was good and rather creative. I'm sure I will be back many many times (walking tiredly from school)!

Daisy Mint
1218 E Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA
(626) 792-2999‎

I haven't been slacking (that much)!

It may seem like I have been lurking for over 2 weeks ... but I really haven't! (not that I was /that/ productive either though)

So go check out my other blog, the Traveling Gourmet Pig
I'll be somewhat regularly updating this with my food adventures in Peru in the next couple of weeks :)

Serving Up Kamado and More

I haven't been back to Torafuku in a while, but when I did a few days ago I wondered why. Torafuku serves some good solid food! I guess their dishes are not something you normally crave for ... and I've been into trying new things. But we wanted tofu one night and I wasn't up for spicy soon tofu, so we went back to Torafuku. I'm glad we did!

We started with the seaweed salad. This was a good starter, with some nice texture from the seaweed.

Torafuku serves their own homemade tofu and we've always loved it. It has an amazingly smooth texture.
This time we also got one of my favorite standards: grilled eggplant with miso.
They had the kin me dai (japanese big eye fish) sashimi. I was surprised to see this on the menu, I never thought of Torafuku as a place that would have 'rare' fishes. I've never had this before so I had to get it. They served each slice with a thin slice of lemon.
I thought this was really good and the fish was fresh. I also liked the lemon touch, although I also liked it without it. The fish was slightly chewier than say, salmon or hamachi, but otherwise had similar texture. More like halibut, perhaps?

Torafuku also prides themselves on serving free range chicken and eggs. We got the free range eggs tamagoyaki, which was excellent! It had more color and flavor than normal tamago.
We also got the grilled free range chicken thigh.
It was a very, very juicy chicken! Without all the excess fat too. And served with yuzu, which was a very nice touch.

I got the salmon touban yaki, which is their kamado rice with salmon and an egg - served on a sizzling hot plate. The server will bring it and mix it for you on your table.
Then they top it with seaweed and salmon roe.

For dessert, get the mango kuzu! It is mango mousse served with cream.

It is my favorite dessert there, but then again I am /very/ partial to mangoes.
















We also got the custard pudding (flan). I am also partial to flan ;) This was a good one, though I've had better.
I had forgotten how good the food at Torafuku is. I will definitely be back for more pretty soon.

Torafuku
10914 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 470-0014‎

Westwood's Ultimate Comfort Food

There are a few places in our lives that we wouldn't dare think about the possibility of them closing or changing owners. They may not necessarily be the best restaurants in the world, but they are those we've grown up with and can't live without. For me, Apple Pan is one of those places.

Apple Pan is an old burger/pie joint on Pico in Westwood, and is manned by grumpy old men - that you love anyway no matter how grumpy they are - and other workers that run around slicing cheese on site, etc. They are open until midnight and as the night gets later, the more crowded it gets. Usually there is a line of people waiting for seats next to the windows.

I must admit I have not been back to Apple Pan for a while, but when I drove by the place one Monday - forgetting that they are closed on Mondays- and seeing the lights off, I panicked. Could it be ... Apple Pan closed down? No! Impossible! Fortunately Kat reminded me that they're just always closed on Mondays. Phew. After that episode I was determined to go back soon. I mean, what if they really are closing down?

So I went back. And got my standard - in fact, I've never ordered anything else there - the Hickoryburger with cheese. The hickoryburger is smoked and served with their own bbq sauce.
All their ingredients are fresh and good quality. People ask what the best burger in LA is, but that's really not quite fair ... I can say this much- this is the best burger under $10 :) (it's $6.50 so not cheap, actually)

Someone got the southern baked ham and cheese sandwich - this is the first time I've seen it since everyone normally orders burgers. But they make their own ham, and just like the cheese, slice it on site.
It is otherwise just standard sandwich with mayo, cheese, ham and lettuce so it tastes pretty bland. But you can still taste the fresh lean ham.

A former neighbor of mine who first took me here described the banana cream pie as "heavenly." Indeed it is a darn good pie! I know a couple people that complained that there's too much banana and not enough cream, but I love this pie nonetheless. I have yet to find a better banana cream pie in LA.
With all the health and diet rage these days, it's getting hard to find someone to drag to Apple Pan, but whenever I can - I would go back, and always with the hope that the grumpy old men behind the counter won't get sick, and that they would never close.

Apple Pan
10801 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064-2105
(310) 475-3585

Returning to the Old: Campanile

Campanile is a big old restaurant that was very popular next to La Brea Bakery. Even now they seem to be doing good business and I went to try it out for brunch one day.
I was surprised at how big the restaurant is, and I really like the decor inside. The middle section is decorated to make it seem like you are sitting outside on a street in Europe. As you make your way to the bathrooms though you see how old the place is - the carpet on the stairways and the hallways upstairs is not very well-kept.

The service I thought was terrible. We were in a corner and our waiter kept just passing us by - even when we kept raising our hands to ask for more water etc. The busboy would actually come by and give us what we want quickly - but he was very curt :< The poached egg was great. The brisket was also good, tender, but I thought the broth was too salty, which made it a little hard to finish.

Apple Crisp, with oat and brown sugar streusel
This apple crisp was excellent. The sauteed apple was done just right and not too sweet. The oat and brown sugar streusel had a great crunchyness and texture.

All in all I thought the food was good, and the dessert excellent. But with the bad service and how far it is from where I live, I don't think I would come that often ... I do like stopping by at the La Brea Bakery on the way out though, to get my cherry chocolate bread and my cheeses :)

Campanile
624 S La Brea Av
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Good Eats Under $5: Golden Deli

I'm starting a series of posts of cheap eats in LA. These will be good meals for under $5 (not including tax and tips - hey this is LA!).

First post is the Golden Deli Vietnamese restaurant in San Gabriel! I come here a lot since Caltech is pretty close. The standard dish I get is the 'bun thit nuong':Rice noodles with bbq pork, served with fish paste in the small bowl (just dump it all into your noodle bowl!). $4.75
****UPDATE! The current price is now $5.25 :( ****

They are really generous with their portions and also how much meat they give, especially considering the price! I guess it is not that uncommon being in the San Gabriel area :)
There usually is always a line, but if you're only a party of two you get seated pretty quickly.

I also got a cherimoya drink, which was $1.75. If you get a drink your meal won't be under $5 anymore though :P
Golden Deli

815 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel, CA