Sunday Supper and an Old Fashioned at Lucques

3 PM Sunday and we decided on Lucques Sunday Supper for dinner. The $45 3-course prix fixe Sunday suppers at Lucques have been constantly popular and booked. Luckily they can still accommodate us at 6:30 PM.

We were initially seated at a small table inside but after requesting a patio table, they kindly moved us outside.
The bread was served with butter, sea salt, and almonds and olives.I quite enjoyed the almonds and olives (they were under the almonds). I've never thought to pair them together but they go well.

I debated whether or not I should drink tonight ... but since they really reccommended this drinks, I got the Lucques Old Fashioned: Maker's Mark with muddled amarena cherry, blood orange and housemade tangerine bitters
A strong drink. A better bourbon would've made this that much better, but Maker's Mark isn't bad ... The muddled cherries and blood oranges made this a tad sweeter than a classic old fashioned.

Our meal started with a salad: blood orange and arugula with parmesan, dates and crushed almonds
A light and refreshing salad. The blood oranges were so good! The dates were also really sweet and delicious - by themselves. I'm not sure about putting them together in this salad though. I ended up eating them separately.

Slow-roasted lamb sirloin with roasted carrots, dandelion, chickpea puree and tapenade
An incredibly tender lamb sirloin and very flavorful already even without the tapenade etc. With the tapenade and chickpea puree this dish is quite heavy but luckily the dandelion leaves help cut the richness. Overall a very well prepared dish!

The other entree option was: Tasmanian salmon with english peas, fingerlings, meyer lemon and chive creme fraiche
This was also good, the salmon was moist and the skin was nicely crisped. The sourness from the meyer lemons balanced the dish quite well.

For dessert: hazelnut brown butter cake with coffee ice cream and bittersweet chocolate sauce
This dessert was simple and good. Nothing mind blowing or special, but good nonetheless. the cake could've been a bit more moist.

A satisfying meal in a relaxing patio with great music (Cat Power!). I don't know why I haven't been back here for years til now. The well-thought out preparation and and the focus on in-season ingredients make the food here more than just 'solid'. While it isn't a meal to Wow you with in-your-face creativity, it's definitely an extremely satisfying, relaxing meal to end your Sunday.

Lucques
8474 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(323) 655-6277
lucques.com

NYC: The Dessert Truck

Gourmet desserts on wheels. Warm sweets to grab-n-go on the streets of cold New York in November.

I read about the dessert truck on LA&OC Foodie's blog, and as it turns out, my hotel in NYC was 4 blocks away from their afternoon stop! Score!

Walking down 55th Street, I quickly saw the truck as I approached their location: 55th and Lexington. Whee!
Although their daily menu is small, it's quite sufficient and changes regularly, and all dessert items are easily priced at $5 with the exception of the warm molten chocolate cake at $6.

Since I'll be walking around, I wanted something easy to eat with my hands, so i got the warm brioche doughnuts (vanilla cream center, cinnamon sugar) - $5
Warm, fluffy, sweet creamy center. These are some tasty donuts to come off a truck!

Hot chocolate (Valrhona and Guittard chocolates) - $5
Rich and pretty dark and intense. The hot chocolate is better than what you can get at most restaurants in LA. I only wished it had kept the heat better against the blistering NYC wind :< style="font-weight: bold;">

Dessert Truck
M-F, 12-3PM E. 55th St, corner of Lexington
M-Sun, 6PM-12AM St. Mark's Pl (8th St) and 3rd
http://www.desserttruck.com/

Huckleberry: Pastry Gastroerotica

You wait in line for 5-10 minutes along the pastry case to place your order, staring at all the pastries. How can you not buy pastries? Staring at these:
And these:

I came in for brunch. I came out stuffed, carrying leftovers and a box of pastries to go. ("You know you want me," they were saying!)

Putting off eating the pastries, I chowed down on the Green Eggs & Ham (La Quercia Prosciutto, housemade english muffin - $12.00)
Poached eggs. Pesto sauce. Prosciutto. Arugula. A combination that I'll never turn down anywhere. Nicely poached eggs, good prosciutto. Pesto sauce was also great, flavorful but not overwhelming. English muffins were nicely toasted, except that the bottom became too hard to cut easily with a regular knife and so some were left on the table. I can eat this any day and be happy.

My friend had the Niman Ranch beef stew, which was a special that day, served with some baguette.
Hearty, and delicious! the beef was moist and tender and full of flavor. The stew was a little salty but eating it with the baguette (which was also great by itself) was just perfect.

Portions here are quite generous, I certainly came out full.

Back home, I munched on some pastries, including this Kouign Amann ($1.50)
Crispy, flakey, moist and nicely dusted with cinnamon & sugar. It wasn't too sticky nor too sweet. A great little treat. Now I just need my tea and I'm set.

The donut was also quite good. It was right in the middle in terms of dense vs. fluffy.
These pastries aren't anything 'fancy' but they are all made very well with high quality ingredients. They're also not cheap but you sure get what you pay for (although, no, I haven't been able to get myself to buy the $8.50 crostata. Can't pass that "What? $8 for pastry?" barrier). I haven't had a single disappointing thing. Yet. But again, ain't cheap (the cooked food, in comparison, was actually relatively inexpensive).

Huckleberry Cafe
1014 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 451-1322
www.huckleberrycafe.com