A quick pho trip turned into a lavish meal of whole baked catfish. We just couldn't help ourselves once we saw it on the menu. The whole catfish (around $30-35 depending on the size) came topped with garlic and scallions, the aroma carries to the edge of the table. This is perhaps the tour de force of Vietnam House's menu.
Watch out for Cham Korean Bistro's new menu items or you'll end up like me: an addict. Yes, I'm addicted to their new Sesame Kabocha Squash Chips ($5)
I've found it. The best gelateria in LA, Grom. Yes, it's a "chain" (from Italy) but this is no Piccomolo.
Grom opened in Torino in 2003 to great success and expanded to shops abroad starting from New York City in 2007. Now it has finally come to LA in a shopping center in Malibu.
The LA Street Food Fest is returning to The Rose Bowl this summer on July 16! Like last year, this festival will feature more than 80 food vendors from food trucks, carts, restaurants, and celebrity chefs.
While last year's event was better than the first, they're trying to make it even better this year crowd-wise by having three limited attendance sessions, capped at 1500 attendees, that promise to treat everyone like VIPs with less lines and crowds. The three sessions are all geared towards different crowds (there's a family picnic event, and there's also a 21+ "date night").
General admission tickets to each event are $60 and you can also get a family pack for you, your SO, and your kid(s).The tickets will cover all the food and drinks including the ice cream lounge, booze (there's a tequila tent) for the 21+ event, and more.
A portion of the proceeds this year will go to the will go to the Downtown Women’s Center, which provides "permanent supportive housing and a safe and healthy community fostering dignity, respect, and personal stability, and to advocate ending homelessness for women."
If you're still thinking, here are some highlights from last year:
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| mini cemita from Pal Cabron |
Some of you would love the bacon cheddar biscuit with maple butter, or caramelized pork jowl, or skirt steak with a bold chimichurri sauce. Some would prefer delicately steamed fish, served atop boiled bok choy and a subtle sauce, or a light appetizer of couscous mixed the tartness of pomegranates and crunchy marcona almonds. Whichever camp you're in, M. B. Post will satisfy.
Start with a choice of three carbs, each paired with its own spread. Our favorite was the bacon cheddar buttermilk biscuit with maple butter ($5), but we also enjoyed both the fleur de sel pretzel with horseradish mustard ($4) and grilled naan flatbread with harissa yogurt ($4).
Their craft cocktails are $12 each and they have interesting variations on popular classic and tiki drinks. I particularly enjoyed the Avila's Heir (margarita with corralejo reposado, serrano, mandarin, yuzu) and Sun Also Rises (Blood and Sand with Compass Box "Oak Cross", rhubarb, blood orange). I had ordered My Landing Strip (aviation with Hendricks, creme de violet, candied orange) but I thought it had too much creme de violet for my taste.To raise money for the earthquake relief efforts in Japan, Wandering Chopsticks led a North to South Vietnamese tour in Little Saigon. I joined her and her readers who had each donated $50 to specific charities for the first parts of the tour. We started at Vien Dong in Garden Grove for Northern Vietnamese food.
While waiting for WC's other readers to arrive, we ordered some Cha Gio (Vietnamese Spring/Egg Rolls). The cha gio here is made with rice paper, which is both crispy yet maintains some chewiness when fried. This is the traditional wrapper used in Vietnam.
Being a long and late day, I had to get some Ca Phe Sua Da. They brought it out in a mini coffee press laying on top of a cup of condensed milk. It wasn't until then that I realize just how much condensed milk is in this drink! No wonder it's so tasty...
When BoHo moved to their new location on Hollywood and Highland, they also placed a new chef in charge and revamped their menu. I remembered enjoying the oyster po' boy sliders and their desserts in my visit to the old location, but this new incarnation apparently holds a nice surprise from the current executive chef Wesley Pumphrey (previously a sous chef at the first BoHo and had worked at The Bazaar before that).
I had missed their opening event, but they invited me for a tasting of their menu. The restaurant is tucked behind The Grill and had maintained the same bohemian look as the previous location. After chatting with the general manager, we decided they should just send out what they think are the highlights of the menu.
Our first dish was perhaps my favorite:
Veal sweetbreads, gorgonzola bread pudding, red wine demi-glace ($14)
I don't think most people run into this problem but somehow we find ourselves spending $50-70 for two when we go eat Indian food. He likes variety, he says, so we order 4-5 dishes, plus rice and mango lassi. Well, I've found a solution at Bawarchi Indian Kitchen.
For $9, you get your choice of plain or garlic naan or tawa roti (wheat), saffron basmati rice or pilau rice, and three dishes. It also comes with salad and raita/yogurt.
Four chefs in LA are competing to create the ultimate Hawaiian style pupu, and you can determine the winner and win a trip to Hawaii!
Domenico DeMarco opened Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn in 1964 and has been manning the oven ever since, personally crafting your pies to order, sprinkling the basil and drizzling olive oil for that perfect thin crust pizza. He's 74 now and still the only one responsible for your pizzas.
Saturday-Sunday, June 11-12
LA Wine Fest
LA Wine Fest returns for its 6th year. On top of tasting hundreds of wines (included with your ticket), restaurants and food trucks, there will be wine and scotch seminars/tastings. Most of them are $20 but Robert Mondavi Wines is hosting a series of FREE seminars and tastings, so be sure to check those out!
Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave, Hollywood, CA 90038.
Saturday, June 11
"Exceptional Zinfandel": Zinfandel Tasting Class
Ian Blackburn from Learn About Wine will guide you through California's zinfandels in this workshop, including a big selection of wines from Turley.
3-5pm
Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90013
$59 advance tickets (2 for $100) or $95 at the door.
Sunday, June 12
Taste of the Nation LA
This mega food/charity event is back, featuring tons of restaurants and more, including a peek at Waylynn Lucas' new Fonuts and Michael Voltaggio's new Ink restaurant, Ray's and Stark Bar, and much much more. There will also be live auction, where you can bid on Voltaggio cooking at your home.
100% of ticket sales supports Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger.
1-4pm
Media Park, 9070 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA
$150 VIP ticket, $125 general admission
The newly opened City Tavern in Culver City may be known for having self-serve taps on the tables, but that is certainly not what they are all about. With more than 20 craft beers on tap, I'm glad they serve taster-size portions. Telegrahp, Lost Abbey, Eagle Rock Brewery, and many more. My friend and I shared tasters along the way, "pairing" them with our food with the help of our knowledgeable waitress.
The dinner started strong with some fresh Carlsbad Luna Oysters with vodka mignonette and fresh horseradish ($15)
The Capital Grille in Beverly Hills has offered to host a happy hour for my readers, in promotion of their new happy hour bar menu. For those who join me during this event, The Capital Grille will provide free passed bar food including their lobster and crab burgers, mini tenderloin sandwiches, and lobster salad sandwiches (usually $6 during happy hour). The drinks (wine, beer, signature cocktails including Hemingway Daiquiri) will be $6.
The event will be on Tuesday June 14, from 5-7 pm. We will be partying it upstairs on their Terrace. Additionally, you can drop in your business card to win a $100 gift certificate!
Besides pies, a maple bacon donut, and Bunk sandwiches, all I wanted in Portland were cocktails. Wandering Chopsticks and I met up with one of her readers for a night out starting from happy hour at Clyde Common. Our second stop was Teardrop Lounge in the Pearl District. Highly recommended by my cocktailian friends, Teardrop Lounge makes their own bitters, uses fresh and seasonal fruits that include local (Oregonian) specialties like marionberry liqueur.
They call their housemade bitters "tinctures" and there is an amazing selection of them. Do you see the Thai Chili and Jalapeno ones?
The phrase "farm-to-table" is everywhere, but Chef Ray Garcia from FIG at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica brings the table to the farm, quite literally.
So much to drink, so little time. Wandering Chopsticks and I decided to jam pack it all in one day. After a morning of wine tastings, we went to Clyde Common for some happy hour cocktails and food.
The bar at Clyde Common is headed by Jeff Morgenthaler, a famous and prolific bartender/cocktail writer, and comes recommended by many of my cocktail-loving friends. Alas, he was in California the day I was there. To absorb all the wines we had (before we start over with cocktails), we ordered some food from the happy hour menu (the happy hour is M-F 3-6pm, and they also have late night happy hours).
Being the cheap Asians that we are, we couldn't NOT order from the happy hour menu, both food and drinks. WC wanted the Fried chickpeas ($3)
What better way to explore one area's food than a walking tour with an expert, tasting 4-5 places all in one go? Six Taste Tours, started by two USC alums, aim to do just that with their tours in various regions in LA, including Thai Town, Little Tokyo, Arcadia, and more. Each area's tour is guided by an expert in that particular area/cuisine. I was invited to go on the Santa Monica tour recently with their guide, Therese.
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| Godmother sandwich, with on ocean view. |
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| Our guide, Therese |
Other than the baked goods, Therese told us that Rockenwagner has a great Austrian coffee. We tasted some and it was indeed pretty smooth.
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| Local Vegetable Crudites |
Colony Collapse Disorder. That's what they are calling the mysterious disappearance of honey bees all over. No one know why this is happening for sure, but the consequences are quite clear. It's not just about the honey. Honeybees are needed to pollinate vegetable and fruit plants around the world. No honeybees= no apples and peaches. The documentary Vanishing of the Bees, scheduled to release on June 7th, attempts to delve into this mystery and how we can all help protect the bees.
The documentary is directed by George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, and narrated by Ellen Page (the star of JUNO). They interview beekeepers, scientists, and food and environmental experts. It was much more informative than I had expected, explaining precisely what Colony Collapse Disorder is and what scientists and others think might be the cause.
Bunk Sandwiches was on the top of my to-do list for Portland. Raves from my friends, Mario Batali's declaration that Tommy Habetz is one of the world's top contemporary chefs (Tommy worked under Batali and Bobby Flay before opening Bunk), appearing in New York Times, and many more. Anyway, I made Wandering Chopsticks drive me there with high expectations.
We waited about 20 minutes in line in the rain. It looks like at other times the lines can be much longer. The music store next door even had a sign up stating that you can't stand in front of the music store for Bunk.
We ordered the much lauded Pork Belly Cubano with ham, swiss, mustard, and pickles ($8)
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