Thursday, November 13, 2008

Extravagant Lunch Omakase at Sushi Mori

Sushi omakase for lunch on a weekday. I probably shouldn't have done it - such an indulgence for a weekday lunch, don't you think? But too late now. I was meeting a good friend, Kat, and her sister who was coming straight from LAX that day and we decided to try out Sushi Mori.

Mori was marked with a fish sign on a small street corner of Pico and I had to loop around until I was kinda sure that was the right place. On a weekday lunch time they're fairly empty. I sat at the sushi bar and ordered omakase - but told the sushi chef (not Mori) that we would like mostly sushi - maybe just one kaiseki.

He started us off with some tofu and tomatoes in vinaigrette.A nice, light way to start off. The tofu was smooth and silky and the tomatoes were fresh and flavorful.

We had some soup with seafood
Pretty standard, too much soup for one person, in my opinion, and were antsy for the sushi, so we didn't finish this. I had this at Sasabune also and was never very keen about it. The one at Mori is better, but either way, I want to hurry and eat my sushi.

We also had a nice little platter with eggplants, beets, and a caviar gelee.
The eggplant with miso (yellow) was great, and the beets were flavorful. Everything was well prepared and we had a good variety of cooked appetizers this way.

We started with some red snapper marinated in seaweed
Really fresh, the subtle taste from the seaweed is amazing. Great first impression!

We then had some big eye toro
Again, very fresh. The big eye toro had a very smooth texture but it's not as oily and fatty. I personally prefer the fattier one but for those more health-conscious you might like this leaner big eye toro :P

Next is an interesting one I haven't had before: wild eel tail
So far I've only had unagi or anago, cooked with eel sauce, so this is new to me. A little fishy and chewy, but it has a nice flavor and texture.

Also had some japanese mackerel
Next is fresh octopus with yuzu chili
I was quite impressed by this one. I normally don't like octopus that much, but this one was delicious. Nice crunchy texture.

We also finally got some bluefin toro.
I think all three of us agreed that we like the bluefin better - it's oilier than the big eye, but hey, we're eating toro here, of course we want oil and fat :P
It's definitely very fresh, but it's not the best toro ever as far as the texture and taste though - although this preference of mine can't be very healthy for me ...

Another interesting piece we had that day was this baby barracuda:
It was seared and had a very nice seared flavor. The fish itself is a little fishy but it's very2 tender. First time I had this as sushi and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I finished the meal with some spanish mackerel
Again, very fresh fish, but the flavors are pretty subtle.

My friend and her sister had another dish, mirugai with yuzu chili
Didn't taste this so I won't say anything.

They served us some fresh fruits with azuki paste for dessert
Great fruits, although the mangoes weren't particularly ripe (then again I always compare mangoes to the South Asian mangoes, so ... ). Loved the azuki paste, a nice simple ending to the meal.

After tax and tips I came out of there for $102. Kind of a lot for a quickie lunch (less than 1 hour)! The sushi was definitely very fresh, no doubt about that, but it's definitely pricey. I think Sushi Zo is on par with Mori and for a bit cheaper, so I would be coming back to Zo more than Mori. That said, there's no denying the quality of fish at Mori. I don't think I can justify another $100 lunch anytime soon, but I'll come back one of these days!

Sushi Mori
11500 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064-1520
Phone: (310) 479-3939

Mori Sushi on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Mole and Margaritas: Loteria Grill

I finally tried the somewhat-new Loteria! Grill in Hollywood about a week ago. A completely different ambiance than its predecessor at the Farmer's Market, this Hollywood outpost has high ceilings and a nice looking bar.

The salsa and tortilla chips at Loteria are amazing, but as some have noticed, they're pretty stingy about it. A small portion for the 4 of us, we chowed it down in 5 minutes. We flagged down 4 waiters to ask for more, but their 'yes' never materialized into more chips and salsa. Finally we managed to flag down a busboy who graciously actually brought us more!

Tacos aren't cheap at $3.50 a piece if you want meat. I ordered two cochinita pibil tacos (slow roasted pork)
cochinita taco
No rice or beans were given - just two tacos at $3.50 each. The tacos were great, thought. The cochinita pibil was very flavorful, with a light spiciness. The meat was very tender.

For drinks I ordered a mango margarita (I believe this was $11).
mango margarita
A delicious margarita although the mango flavor was not that prominent. The only problem - bcs I ordered this the server didn't bother bringing me water ...
Loteria definitely has service issues :(

One friend ordered the chicken mole enchilada ($12).
mole enchilada
I tried a bite of this and absolutely, absolutely loved the mole sauce! The enchilada is also a better deal with more food, and rice and beans. Next time I will get this instead of tacos..

As I said, I absolutely loved the sweet and smooth mole that I ordered another taco - this time chicken mole (I just wanted more of that mole sauce!)
mole taco
The mole taco was great, and did the job of satisfying my craving.

A couple friends ordered the Michelada for a drink ($9), which is basically a bloody mary mix with cerveza.
michelada

We all really liked the food at Loteria, and I will definitely come back another time, if only for that mole. Again, though, service can be much improved ...

Loteria! Grill
6627 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-2500
http://www.loteriagrill.com/loteriahollywood

Loteria Grill on Urbanspoon

Monday, November 10, 2008

Great Chefs of LA. Great Food, Great Fun.

This year's Annual Great Chefs of Los Angeles was held in the CBS Studio Center. Tents were set up outdoors among the bungalows of the studio. It was such a nice day to walk around outdoors sampling food while gawking over the chefs like celebrities (I wasn't the only one, I swear!)

Food and drinks were everywhere. Andrew's Cheese Shop was offering five different cheeses with bread and quince paste.
andrewscheese

As far as drinks go, besides the numerous wineries, Sauza offered up margaritas, Courvoisier Cognac and Starbucks liqueurs, and Absolut LA was also there.
Non-alcoholic offerings from Izze sodas, Steaz for organic tea, water from Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, and POM pomegranate juice were also available. Dehydration was definitely not a problem here :)

Among the tastings there were (clockwise) cochinita pibil from Ciudad Catering, Ahi tuna (which will later be topped with caviar!) from Mark Kearney Group, a caramel apple with white chocolate from Melissa's World Variety Produce, kabocha squash agnolotti from BLVD 16.
foods1

Josie was also there serving some amazing gruyere quiche!

For La Terza, Chef Gino Angelini brought over his slicer and served up some prosciutto and salami parmiggiano!
Angelini

The Dragos were also there. Yes, all four of them, and many of their different restaurants have their own booth. I think they probably took up half of the booths ;)
Dragos
The Drago restaurant served wild boar with soft polenta and fig sauce (left). It was a bit cold already but we loved the combination! If only it was a bit warmer it might've been our favorite of the day. Another of the Drago restaurants (Tanino?) served smoked scallops with pomegratanes.

Other highlights from the events are the Pork Belly from Animal (the Two Dudes were there serving) and pork rib grilled cheese sandwich from 8 oz.
foods2
Both were delicious! The 8 oz sandwich is definitely going to bring me there for a real visit!

8 oz also had their bartender, Ryan, there, serving up some Pomegranate Sidecar and Orange Ginger cocktail! Strong and yummy.

Neal Fraser was there manning his booth for Grace and giving out dungeness crab salad with shiso on these cute little plastic spoons.
grace
I got seconds, and also got a picture with Neal (to distract him from me grabbing a second spoon!)

Fraiche had an amazing chocolate dessert that the girl there didn't really tell us the name of - but it was great and despite my bad first experience there during a company dinner, I may now give it a second try.

Indulging in food and drinks aside, let's not forget that this event is a fundraiser for the National Kidney Foundation of SoCal. The restaurants and sponsors not only have donated the food and drinks, they also donated some great items for both the silent and live auction!

I bid on the dinner for 4 at Grace and BLD but, alas, did not win :(
I also debated on a basket of Sauza, Plymouth, Cruzan rum, and Courvoiser but then wasn't sure if that was such a good idea after all :P At least not for my liver. And brain.

Some highlights of the live auction: A dinner for 20 cooked by chef Gino Angelini went for $5000. To top it off, a lady who originally lost this auction asked if he would do a second one for $5000 too! Gino said yes, and there you have it. Two dinners for 20 at your home for $5000 each! Go NKFSC!
4 people will get to spend 8 hours in the kitchen of Animal with Jon and Vinny, ending with a dinner and "all the wine you care to drink" (in the TwoDudes' own words) went for $1250.
A day with Chef Govind Armstrong from picking the produce all the way to dinner at Table 8 went for $1750.

One of these days I'll start making real money and can actually bid on these things ... Til then I will offer my small support on the silent auction items! Oh, and eat all the good food.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

I Want Me Tamales

This past weekend was the 4th Annual International Tamale Festival, held right by MacArthur Park/Mama's Hot Tamales in LA. The event was free and street parking wasn't too bad around the park.

The festival offered, besides tamales of course, various Mexican eats like Tortas, Platanos, and drinks like horchata and aguas frescas. I was obviously there for the tamales though. I had hopes for a blue corn tamale, but that didn't happen so I just got what I could.
Mama's International Tamales had some of the most interesting and varied offerings there. Pictured below are the beef adobo and the chicken mole tamales.Both were great! I really liked the beef adobo a lot, although it was pretty spicy. Drank 1/2 bottle of water but it was worth it. The chicken mole was not spicy at all but was also very good. I thought it was really messy as a tamale, but the taste of the corn tamale + mole sauce definitely worked.

Another interesting vendor was the White Girl Tamale Maker (aka La Guera Tamalera), which boasts authentic VeraCruz style (I don't know what that would be like, so I can't attest to that). Sounds weird? It also happens to be the only organic offering and also had very interesting sweet tamales creation.

Pictured below we had the chicken with green chile (left), and on the right was the fig-nana and also the ginger peach tamales.
The chicken w/ green chile was delicious and it might actually be my favorite of the day. Maybe. With a tastier corn, the tamale was also not that spicy, which suits me just fine since it was still very flavorful. The fig-nana and peach tamales were very sweet. They were tasty, but funny thing is that eating the peach tamale reminds me basically of peach cobbler of sorts.
These organic tamales were $5 each, compared to $3 tamales from everywhere else.

Overall a great lunch on a Saturday evening, followed by a short walk through the park (to the car). Will definitely return next year!

http://www.eastlosangeles.net/tamalefestival/

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

November Events

Sunday, Nov 9. 22nd Annual Great Chefs of LA. CBS Studio Center, Studio City. $150, benefitting the National Kidney Foundation of SoCal
Friday, Nov 14. 15th Annual Single Malt & Scotch Whiskey Extravaganza. The Loews Hotel, Santa Monica. $130 for non-members, buffet dinner and cigars included.
Monday, Nov 17-Friday, Nov 21. OpenTable's Appetite Stimulus Plan. Special 3-course prix fixe menus, all over LA. $24 Lunch, $35 Dinner.
Saturday, Nov 22. Taste the Magic. Think wine tasting + magic show! Hosted by LearnAboutWine at Brian Gillis' Magic Mansion, Redondo Beach. 6pm and 6.30 pm. $49/$69.

and then ... there's Thanksgiving. Some of the more affordable Thanksgiving dinner deals around town:
Thurs, Nov 27.
3-course dinner at La Terza, including roasted free range turkey. $40. 3 pm- 8 pm
Turkey dinner at Lawry's Prime Ribs. $29
Turkey dinner at Maison Akira in Pasadena. $57. 4.30-8 pm

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

XIV Create Your Own Tasting - It's a Learning Curve

Another late Monday night dinner, but I felt like this time god's on my side. The newly opened restaurant XIV is open Mondays until 11 pm, and blogger kevineats has already done a blow by blow review of every single thing on the menu. So I just have to go eat, right? :)

For a place that's been open for only a week, and on a Monday night, XIV is bustling busy. Everyone in there seems to be the clubbing type, of course, but hopefully it was dark enough that I somewhat blended in ...

XIV lets you create your own tasting menu and every dish is priced at $8, and as I learned later this means you should order carefully. The catch - each person on the table has to have the same dishes. In this regard, I like Sona's tasting menu where they give everyone a different dish - lets you try more dishes. Our server was extremely friendly and down to earth - loved her. But the dishes were coming practically in twos which I found weird... My risotto was getting cold as I was eating my salad.

Instead of bread, they serve some Naan with Feta Cheese, and as all have speculated, it's probably because of Michael Mina's middle eastern background.The naan was excellent and the combination with the feta cheese worked extremely well. Each person is given our own dish of naan, and yes, we finished it all.

Our tasting menu started with Foie Gras Terrine with Cranberry gelee on top, cardamom, greek yogurt, flatbread
Great foie gras terrine, and I loved the cranberry gelee on top - nice combination of flavor and texture there. The terrine was dense and smooth.

We also had some salad (not my idea, really *sigh*). The menu read: Heirloom Tomatoes, gem lettuce, avocado, bacon vinaigrette
As you can see, not much heirloom tomatoes there. Baiscally a tiny lettuce salad, for $8 ... Yeah I don't think so. There won't be a second time. The lettuce also wasn't particularly fresh.

I then moved on to a more satisfying "vegetable" dish: Black Truffle Risotto, sweet corn, castelmagno cheese
Great dish - creamy, aromatic. The sweet corn cuts the richness very nicely.

Black Cod, spaghetti squash, matsutake mushroom, foie gras dashi
My favorite dish of the night. The black cod is cooked very, very nicely. The texture is the best I've ever had on a black cod and the flavor is very delicate - amazing. The fish and the dashi goes together perfectly. The spaghetti squash added another layer of texture, and I thought everything worked very well together.

For the red meat we had the Roasted Venison, Onion, Brussel Sprouts, huckleberry
The veal was cooked nicely - medium rare and very tender and flavorful. I also loved the onion and brussel sprouts, although as kevin mentioned, seems superfluous.. The meat itself however, was good but not the best I've had. It wasn't as game-y as I would've liked. That aside, this is one of the better preparations out there.
Also, the portion is a bit on the small side - three small slices of meat. I guess it's only $8.

White Chocolate Cube, orange blossom cream, coriander, pistachio, sake
Drizzled with black sesame sauce. The cube looks like the XIV building itself. Crack it open and you'll find all the pistachio, orange blossom cream etc goodness inside. Also love the black sesame sauce - actually I'm completely biased, I love black sesame. My one and only complaint: I wish it wasn't white chocolate but dark chocolate. Again I'm completely biased here :)

Lemongrass custard, cola, buttermilk, sweet potato-yuzu mochi, saffron
I thought this dessert was tasty and interesting. The mochi was good but pretty sticky. Although I liked the taste of this dessert, it left my mouth feeling rich and sticky while I was hoping for something more refreshing. Overall I liked the cube better, but again, this one still tastes good.

XIV definitely knows how to prepare their food, meat and fish in particular, but the $8/dish can lead to a hit or miss so do order carefully (i.e. avoid cheap salads).
Oh and I forgot to mention - Valet parking is a ridiculous whopping $14.

XIV
8117 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 656-1414
http://www.sbe.com/xiv/

Hours: Sun-Wed 6pm-11pm
Thu-Sat 6pm-2am

XIV on Urbanspoon

Monday, November 3, 2008

24/7 Comfort Food

This was one of those late nights, with class ending at 9 pm on Mondays. Since half of LA closes on Mondays and half closes at 10 pm, 24/7 places like BCD Tofu House are lifesavers.
Although they have many branches, the Wilshire one is the most popular and I can only assume that there's a reason for it.

This late at night there's usually a short wait for a table - about 10 minutes. As with most Korean places, they bring out small plates of banchan. Kimchi, bean sprouts, and fish cakes are common fares, but BCS gets extra points for their fried corvina - whole small fish for each patron.In addition to soon tofu they also serve kalbi, bulgogi, bibimbap, all of which you can get as a combo with a smaller portion of soon tofu. I got the beef soon tofu- mild, of course, since I can't eat spicy.
Not really comparable to Beverly tofu, for one. The one here is rather ... bland, in comparison. They also give less tofu and meat, and of lower quality. But it's not bad. It's still comforting and filling. At 10 o'clock at night, it's very satisfying. I used to love BCD but not that I've gotten spoiled by Beverly it's harder to come back here unless the other one is already closed.

The kalbi is tender and flavorful.
The meat is sometimes a bit fatty, but overall a tasty dish.

Another thing that BCD Tofu gains extra points at is this: Their rice is served in a stone pot, and then they scoop out the slightly burnt rice from the edges and serve it with water.
This make a nice, soothing rice 'soup' that is just soo right after all that spiciness from the soon tofu.
BCD Tofu House will always remain on my radar, since it's really quite often I find myself looking for food late at night! 24-hour places hold a very special place in my heart :)

BCD Tofu House
3575 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 382-6677

Friday, October 31, 2008

WineMaking 102: The Press!

If you had tried making your own wine up to 101, then you should have a bucket of fermenting grape+grape juice. The juice is what you want, and you want lots of it without the solid stuff - grape skin, seed, etc. So, you press. You should press when the sugar level of your fermenting grape juice has gone down to basically zero.

The basic concept that wine presses operate under is the same as it was more than 1000 years ago. This one is an old and simple wine press, consisting of a cylinder to contain your grapes and a ratchet.
The liquid will escape through the gaps on the cyliner and down the spout.

So first you dump everything, juice, skin, and all, into the cylinder.
At this point you will capture all the liquids into buckets and pour them into gallon glass bottles to further ferment it for a few months before you bottle them.

Now that you have all the grape skin, seeds, etc, which still contains tons of delicious future-wine grape juices, you need to press the liquid out of them. We stack blocks of wood on top of the grapes - because of this the press will not work as well if you have too little stuff to work with.
The blocks need to reach high enough for the ratchet to press down on.
Swing the ratchet until it clicks and basically you do this back and forth until it clicks for many many times. Until you get all the grape juice out.

Again, you store your fermenting grape juice in big glass bottles. It is important to fill them up as much as you can. You will cover them, usually with plastic, to keep them airtight. If they're not full they will have too much air for the fermentation to work properly - and also may induce bacterial growth (= vinegar!).

So now that we were done with that part, on to the Feast! Our lunch: fried soft shell crab :D

Thursday, October 30, 2008

In for a Well-Crafted Meal, but Could be Better

I've been to, and liked, Craft in Dallas so I was pretty happy when Craft opened up in LA. I've actually gone there when they first opened but never took photos, so when we went there again it's my chance to blog!

We knew what we liked so we didn't get the tasting menu. Our meal started with a slightly spicy tartar amuse bouche.



I tried out their seared foie gras with mango and grapes.
The foie itself could be better, but I did like how the tartness of the mango cuts the fattiness of the foie.

We also got the quail with blueberries, which I had in Dallas and really liked.
I must say the one I had in Dallas was better, and I think it was due to the bird itself. These are a little on the small side (considering it's $16) and not as gamey and flavorful. I still like the preparation with the blueberries, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but having had a better version of it I was a bit disappointed.

For our main dish we got the Braised Beef short ribs with Root Vegetables
The short rib was tender and flavorful. I've had better short rib but this one is not bad at all. It's a nice, hearty 'comfort' dish.

And of course side dishes are important when you're ordering a la carte at Craft. Side portions are generous and they have a nice selection.
In case you haven't noticed yet, I love sweet corn.
The corn was sweet with a nice texture. They were also not too oily.

The other side dish we got was sweet potato, my companion's favorite.
Pretty good and creamy. I'm not a huge sweet potato fan, so I can't say much, but I still enjoyed it.

Now, the thing that really made an impression on me at Craft Dallas was their gelato sampler! The one here is more expensive! 3 gelato/sorbet sampler for $10 or 6 for $20! In Dallas we got 6 just for $12 *grumble* Granted the scoops are pretty big, but still ..
But we got the 6 anyway, which included chocolate, strawberry, concord grape, honey yogurt, and ... basil.
The basil was one of my favorite! Unique, but very refreshing and delicious. Honey yogurt is another highlight.

Instead of petit fours, we were served coffee cake and torrones, both delicious. I usually do not like torrone because they stick to my teeth but I enjoyed these ones.

Overall I enjoyed my experiences at Craft LA and I'll come back again - but I know it could better. Because Craft Dallas is, and cheaper too.


Craft Los Angeles
10100 Constellation Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90067

(310) 279-4180

Craft on Urbanspoon

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