Backpost: Osteria Mozza and My Mozzarelas

This is a backpost from ... oh I don't know months ago. This was my trip to Osteria Mozza and after loading the photos I lost access to my desktop due to many reasons. But now here it is! See if I remember anything.

We made a reservation and got there right on time but the table wasn't ready anyway, so I had to wait at the bar for 10 minutes. Oh, well :/

First I ordered the mozzarela tasting appetizer since I am at Osteria Mozza after all!

Bufala, burrata, and fior di latte. This was waay too much cheese for 1 person (or 2 when one of us doesn't really like cheese). They also put lots of olive oil on it as you can see. I mean, it's yummy but seems a bit too fatty.

I couldn't really distinguish the tastes, but the textures definitely had noticeable differences. I liked the bufala a lot in the beginning but after eating a half of it, I found I liked the burrata's texture better.

We also split an order of gnocchi (this is a half):

The gnocchi was great and the sauce was tasty. It was supposed to be "wild boar ragu" though which was the reason I ordered it, but there was not much wild boar to it. Still tasty food though.

We also shared the Crisp Duck al mattone.

Impressive presentation, IMO :)
Duck was definitely crispy. Pretty juicy, flavorful. But ... a weeee bit too overcooked - just a wee bit dry ...

Now ... I'm so sorry but I don't remember what I had for dessert. Whatever it was it wasn't anything too special.


Overall I liked the food, although I would wait until the hype has gone down before coming back, so that 1)I can get reservation semi-last-minute and 2)I can eat in peace ...

Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
1.323.297.0100

Guest Chefs at The Exclusive Athenaeum!

We were just talking about the Athenaeum at the FoodDigger's hosted dinner last night ...
The Athenaeum is a private club at Caltech exclusive to Caltech/JPL/Huntington Library/Palomar Observatory affiliated people. So, as it happens, I'm a starving (yeah, right ...) grad student at Caltech and I've been paying my dues so I can stay a member!

Good food on campus - seems strange right?

So why am I suddenly posting about this? Because ... annually the Ath hosts a Guest Chefs Night, and the next one is coming up! Similar to the 5x5, each one of these chefs will be preparing a dish for the night:

• Chef Nigel Patrick Didcock (Granite Club, Ontario, Canada)
• Chef Christopher Eme (Ortolan, Los Angeles) (!!!!) -- there were rumors that he was joining the 5x5 but true or not, he is definitely joining the Ath Guest Chefs Night
  
• Chef Bruno Marcy (C...Is for Chocolate, Burbank and Sara J. Pastries & Cake, Canoga Park)
• Chef Craig Strong (The Dining Room at the Langham, Pasadena)
• Chef Kevin Isacsson (The Athenaeum, Pasadena)

The menu is not yet up, but this is all happening on Tuesday October 28, 2008.
The dinner is $100 per person, which includes wine!

The Ath is a private club so unfortunately only members can go ... but if you foodies want to go, let me know! I'll see what I can do (i.e. how many I can bring).

More Comfort Food - Curry House

Sawtelle is a popular destination and was my hang out place when I was at UCLA. I used to go eat at Curry House a lot (still do, somewhat) so I thought I should finally make a post about it. Good, cheap (relatively) comfort food that I crave when I'm feeling a bit under the weather.

They have (unfortunately) getting more and more crowded and during a weekday dinner there can be a 15-20 minute wait :( And they used to be my "fast" food go-to place too.

Besides curry, Curry House also serves spaghetti, gratin, and 'hamburger' (Japanese style - grilled ground meat) on a sizzling hot plate. My favorite item there though, is their curry pan! When fresh, the crispiness of the bread is amazing!

Some of the dishes come with soup and you can choose either miso soup or their corn potage. I always get the corn soup - I love it! I love corn, and their soup is semi-sweet and creamy. It's not an earth-shattering soup, very simple. I mainly love it because it's the kind of soup we used to sometimes have at home.

When I come here, I like to get pork katsu in some form or fashion (although sometimes I have to get the crab omelette curry too!). This time I ordered the pork katsu curry in the stone pot.
The food came in a sizzling hot stone pot and the server will ask if he should mix it up for you with the curry sauce.

Curry House also have an assortment of desserts, starting from the ever present parfaits to somethings a little different like tofu cheesecake, or, what we got that night, sweet potato cake:
Their desserts are not bad, a bit heavy on the whipped cream usually, but it's a better version that the kinds of stuff you normally expect from this type of place.

For everyday dining, Curry House is such a great place to have nearby! I'm sad now that at Caltech there's nothing remotely close to it :(


Curry House
2130 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: (310) 479-8477