Amazing 5x5 at the Water Grill

After reading tangbro1's review of the 5x5 Collaborative dinner at Melisse, I decided I had to try at least one of the upcoming ones, so I made a reservation for the Water Grill dinner on August 31. The guest chef for this dinner was Giuseppe Tentori of Boka (Chicago). Portion of the proceeds goes to the SoCal chapter of the Special Olympics.

We started with some amuse bouche by David Lefevre (of Water Grill). No, these aren't all mine. There were three of us, so one of each :)From the right was daikon radish, then crab cakes, and ... foie gras!

My favorite part of this amuse bouche, was of course, the foie gras!
The foie gras was amazingly smooth and rich! It was soooo good! It was served with an apple gelee, and the sweetness complements the foie gras perfectly! It was a bite of heaven!
A nice dish. All the accompaniments cut the richness of the uni and complement itvery well. You really have to eat them all together to get that unique combination of flavors!

Big Eye Tuna with Petite Mache, jicama, watermelon, pineapple. Served with quail egg and black quinoa, shellfish emulsion
Giuseppe Tentori, Boka
This was a nice and refreshing dish, with the watermelon etc on top of the fish. The tuna slices were nice and thick and the fish was fresh.

It seemed to me that the big eye tuna dish would've worked better as an amuse bouche and then followed by the richer foie gras and uni dishes ... not that I would've traded the fact that Chef Lefevre wanted to give us foie gras and uni for anything in the world O:)

Pan Roasted Sea Scallops with American Caviar and Yukon Gold Potato
Michael Cimarusti, Providence
The sauce was myer lemon-based but it was not tart as I was expecting. The diced potatoes gave it a bit of crunchiness - it reminds me of eating kettle chips :)
Scallop was nice, big and juicy. I think the saltiness of the caviar really took the dish to the next level.

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn Risotto with Asparagus
Gino Angelini, Osteria Angelini
I love Angelini's style - just simple yet excellent. The prawn was amazingly fresh and tender. The risotto was al dente and flavorful without overpowering the prawn. When I get hungry one night, out of all of tonight's food, this would probably be the one that I crave for.

Roasted John Dory, Mushroom Tart, Chorizo-Torpedo Onion Marmalade, Red Wine Mushroom Jus
Josiah Citrin, Melisse
This dish was good and nicely presented. The John Dory was tender and flaky. Overall it would've been very good, but then ... it was a little on the cold side, like it's been sitting out for a while :( Such a bummer ... Also, the toast was no longer crispy/flaky - it had gotten soggy due to sitting under the mushrooms.

Hawaiian Mero with Kobe Oxtail and Red Wine Sauce
Walter Manzke
Mero is a type of bass. It was nice and tender but it was cooked in duck fat on top of being a bass, so it's a very rich piece of fish.

Also, from the left we have the kobe oxtail on top of potato, followed by bone marrow on top of a slice of carrot, then spinach on top of celery root (and then the mero itself).
As you can see, this was a very rich dish. I started eating it, and while it was very tasty I felt that it needed something to cut the richness, so I decided to order the wine that was supposed to be paired with this:
Demetria, Syrah, Santa Ynez Valley, California 2005
The wine had been previously decanted and the result is an outstanding, smooth red wine! In the end the glass came out to $15, but it truly did go very well with the dish and cut the richness for me.

Yogurt Parfait with White Nectarine Sorbet and Clementine Sauce
John Park, Water Grill
This was also served with pistachio cake and pitted bing cherries. The white nectarine sorbet was superb. The yogurt parfait was nice and tangy - it has the consistency of flan, except not as smooth (since it's yogurt). Goes well with the pistachio crumbs and the clementine sauce.

Next came a big platter of the petit fours, including churros, pistachio and chocolate macaroons, lychee and pear jelly, peanut butter and jelly in white chocolate, and chocolate ganache.
The churros were extra sweet since the ratio of sugar coating/dough is particularly large in this case.
My favorites were the chocolate macaroons and the chocolate ganache.

Although we were stuffed, there's still one more little thing to devour. A small malt ice cream dipped in chocolate with rice crackers.

Overall it was an amazing meal! Having these chefs cooking for you themselves instead of the chef de cuisines really made a big difference, I think!
All the dishes were very well prepared and well thought of. If you guys can make it to the next one at La Terza, I would recommend it :)

Also, I managed to take photos with the chefs after the meal, fun fun :P

Ode to the Griddle Gods

Late Friday night I was perusing Chowhound ... and Diana posted the menu to the Griddle Cafe, that boasts an amazing array of pancakes and french toasts, including (basically) an oreo pancake, apple streusel pancake, cheesecake pancake/french toast, pumpkin pancake, etc. My fate was sealed. The Griddle Cafe for brunch tomorrow! Luckily an old co-worker of mine that I hadn't seen in 3 years was in town and said she'd go with me!

We got there around noon and the place was crowded. We waited for about 20-30 minutes before finally getting seated.

I originally planned on getting their nutella-stuffed french toast, but then when we read the menu again we were really drawn to the "Devil's Daydream" french toast .... chocolate bread with bittersweet chocolate chips, topped with whipped cream. Mmmm ... After seeing the surreally large flapjacks on other people's tables we decided to just split one.

The food took a while to come - it looks like they have a pretty small kitchen and only a few kitchen stuff to manage all the customers they have in the packed restaurant.
So our french toast finally came:Now don't be fooled, these slices are huuge! It was definitely a very rich breakfast (or lunch?), full of chocolate! The bread itself actually was not too dense, which is good - otherwise I won't be able to handle it! It also has the right moistness and so does not require maple syrup or anything on top of it.

We could even barely finish our one slice each of this, but we both thought it was yummy!
So I had a rich dessert for lunch .... :P but it was the weekend!

Anyway, I definitely have to bring a group here next time! That way we can order more varieties and split them all!

The Griddle Cafe
7916 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 874-0377
http://www.thegriddlecafe.com/

Eme's Little Bunting

I have heard rave reviews about Ortolan, so I finally decided to give it a try. Ortolan's chef, Christopher Eme, probably has two claims to fame: 1)He was a chef at L'Orangerie and 2)he is married to actress Jeri Ryan.

We were there on a weekday for an 8 o'clock reservation and the restaurant is almost empty - only two other tables in the front dining room, which had these really nice white booths. After my dinner that night I was undecided about their service, and I'll tell you why...

We were seated immediately and were asked if we would like any wine or champagne. We don't really drink so we declined and just asked to tap water. It seems like after this we were ignored ... For about 15 minutes in such a practically empty place, we were not given any menu. After 15 minutes someone came by and asked if we were ready for order. "I'd like to see the menu" was, naturally, my only response. (I wanted to add "Uhm, helloooo???!" to that).

Anyway, after that, the menu came immediately. We ordered crispy langoustine and seared foie gras for appetizers. Maybe because these were big ticket items, maybe because the guy could see that I was *unhappy*, or maybe because I were taking photos of the food and they figured out I'm a blogger - whatever it was, the service from then on was impeccable.

The first amuse bouche were two types of soups (warm) served in test tubes with straws.

The orange one was a carrot soup - good (I don't like carrot soups ...).
The red one was a tomato soup, and I don't remember what the green foam was. This was delicious!

The second amuse bouche was different than most other places - a pretty big bowl of eggplant caviar, to share for the whole table.
I loved it. It was unique and delicious. The flavors worked very well together and it has a nice, rich, creamy texture. I also loved the presentation in the stacked bowls.

The crispy langoustine appetizer was supposed to be one of their signature dishes:
It was okay ... From a signature dish I was expecting flavors dancing around in my mouth, but that didn't really happen. It was good langoustine and all, but overall didn't really stand out in my mind. Three pieces of langoustine - $24 ... hmm, I didn't think it was worth it.

So moving on to my seared foie gras:
Now this is more like it!!! This wasn't on the menu but was suggested to me by the server when I told him I like foie gras but not terrine. The seared foie gras was served with cherries - a sweet combo! One of the better foie gras dishes I've had and my favorite dish of the night.

So the chef (Eme) comes out to each table to explain all the main entrees to everyone. I thought it was nice to maintain some personal interaction like that.

One of the entrees we got was the Cod with Paella:
I thought the paella was a bit bland for a paella and the sausages being on the side was rather hard to cut and thus to incorporate into each bite. The cod, on the other hand, was perfect. In other words, it was cooked perfectly and had just the right tenderness and flakiness. And by "right" I meant "ooh, I never knew this is how cod could really be!"
So, 100/100 points for the cod, but the dish in its entirety needs to be tied together better.

For my entree I got the Pork "Maine-et-Loire" three-way.
Interesting presentation. The best part of the dish is the pork confit hidden under the spaghetti carbonara. The bulk of the dish was the two pieces you see to the left. They are, unfortunately, a little dry :( I loved the spaghetti+pork confit and the stuffed bell pepper, but the rest was just okay ...

I got the "Lime Gelee, Coconut Emulsion" dessert because it sounded interesting.
I was kind of disappointed ... It wasn't really anything special and it was also pretty small.

We also got the chocolate tart (with raspberry and vanilla ice cream)
Much better! A rich and dark-chocolatey chocolate tart. The raspberries and the vanilla ice cream helped cut that richness perfectly. Yummy.

Oh, and I didn't take pictures, but one of the highlights of our meal was the chocolate truffles that they gave us at (near) the end (before the petit-fours)!! They brought a tray with jars of chocolate truffles with different flavors: coconut, lime, earl grey, praline .. mm what else...
Anyway, these chocolate truffles were very2 good. I didn't know how many we can have, so we just asked for two flavors each. They were so good that I asked them if I can buy some to take home!! After asking the pastry chef, they agreed. I chose the flavors I wanted and brought home a box of about 8-10 truffles. They charged me for an additional dessert, which was $12. It ended up being a great deal! Cheaper than, say, Chuao (or Leonida's, even?) and much better truffles!

Chef Eme held the door open for us as we left the restaurant! This made us leave the restaurant feeling happy and important and that the restaurant gives amazing service (but then I remembered their initial blunder - which left me undecided ... I guess overall they do give really good service).

Ortolan
8338 W. 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048.
(323) 653-3300
www.ortolanrestaurant.com