Fishing with Cimarusti and Citrin, plus Battle Scorpionfish by Choisauce!

I found out $100 can get me on a boat and fishing with Chefs Michael Cimarusti (Providence) and Josiah Citrin (Melisse) (thanks to Diglounge's twitter update). Did I take it up? Hell yeah!
This fishing trip is organized by the quarterly magazine Edible LA.

The weekend after my big exam I took my new fedora hat and drove down to San Pedro, rented my fishing pole and got on the Monte Carlo boat.

Since it took about 40 minutes to go out to our fishing spot, naturally lunch is in order. Potluck style lunch by the chefs and Edible LA people included lots of cheese and crackers, some Valrhona choco chip cookies made by chef Cimarusti:

These awesome jalapeno cheddar scones from La Mill (and it's lah-mill, not L.A. Mill):

Also equally awesome, cupcakes from Lark's in Silverlake:
I loved the chocolate coconut cupcake in particular. These aren't too sweet or rich and are just perfect for me ... since now I can have two! :P
And then the fishing began! The first fish was actually caught by Citrin's son, pictured below with Cimarusti (and a sand dab)
I never realized how much work fishing is until I got my first catch. I mean, throwing it and waiting for the fish to bite is easy enough. But man reeling that fish up from the bottom of the sea is hard work!!

After my 3rd/4th fish my arm was really feeling it ...

But there it was, the reward!!! There it comes ....
What the ... I had no clue what it was. And man was it ugly! Apparently it was a scorpion fish - the scales are poisonous but they clipped all the scales for us before putting the fish in the bags.

Well, ugly or not, those babies are all I caught that day. All seven of them. Other people got sand dabs, groupers, eels .... but I guess the scorpion fish like me.

On the way back we lined up to get our fishies cleaned and filleted (or not). I got mine half and half since I can't decide what to do with them yet ...

So there I was with a bunch of scorpion fish, filleted and whole, in my canvas bag. I had no clue what to do with them, besides deep frying (cos deep fried anything is like, yum). Chef Josiah Citrin suggested deep frying them whole. OK, can do. Chef Michael Cimarusti said they were great for bouillabaise.
Yeah .... I wasn't about to make bouillabaise.

I wasn't about to eat 7 deep fried scorpion fish on my own either.

So I called the chef Choisauce to prepare these fish whichever way she liked :) Well, okay, so my first message just asked if she wanted fish for dinner ... but I think she understood that she would need to cook them haha. And thus Iron Chef Choisauce: Battle Scorpionfish began.

My kitchen being a pathetic kitchen with no seasoning, Choisauce's original Korean fish soup turned into a Cajun-seasoned fish soup, but she's such a good cook that it was delicious anyway!

Just take a look at the start of our feast:
The scorpion fish is a meaty fish, and here it's nicely accented with the garlic/lime broth.

Next up was the deep fried whole fish, served with Choisauce's special impromptu sauce.
(I helped fry the fish! See I cook after all ... not :P) Can't go wrong with deep fried fish, for sure.

Lastly, the fillets that we had were baked with lemon and tomato sauce and cheese.
Turns out scorpionfish is pretty good filleted and baked.
It's hard to say which one was our favorite since everything was so good. The baked fillets were easiest to eat so we cleaned that up. We also cleaned up the fried fish and the soup leftovers made a delicious lunch for me the next day.

Thank you Choisauce for the delicious, delicious meal!

Boiling Point: Gettin' Hot and Stinky

A not-so-well-timed post as summer is just settling in the air, but trust me that it was cold and rainy when I went to Boiling Point, and that it is oh-so-good during times like that.

And that there will be a line during those times.

I've done communal hot pots such as Mon Land, but Boiling Point was my first individual hot pot experience. Boiling Point serves Taiwanese hot pot and each hot pot is $9.99 for dinner or $8.99 including a drink for lunch - not bad at all since you get quite full by the end! You can choose between beef, lamb, seafood, etc, but what they are most famous for is their House Special Hot Pot.

What's in the House Special, you ask? Why, stinky tofu of course!
And pork, intestines, meat balls, quail eggs, enoki mushroom, cabbage, fish cake, hot dogs. You can choose between vermicelli or rice but I always go for the vermicelli. I ask for my broth to be 'mild' which is still a bit spicy but totally do-able for me.

The broth is spicy enough and you get the flavors from all the meats and vegetables soaking in it, but the flavor is not quite complete yet. No, not without Boiling Point's dipping sauces!

For me personally, nothing goes from the pot to my mouth before passing through this garlic soy sauce:
Others prefer the spicy bean sauce, or mix the two of them together. Since I can't handle spicy that well, I didn't go for the bean sauce.

Now. The stinky tofu. In my opinion, this one isn't all that stinky, really, but it does linger. Triangles of stinky tofu sit at the bottom, "seasoning" the broth. I'm not that crazy about eating the stinky tofu blocks themselves, actually, I found them rather bland (although yes, definitely still has the aroma, even if it isn't that strong). Why I like getting the House Special w the stinky tofu is actually the aroma it adds to the broth. The 'odor' is pretty mild but it stays, and probably not for everyone.

The fire for the individual pot is likely to stay on throughout the meal (you can ask them to turn it off) and is bound to keep you warm all night.

Can't wait until it gets cold again.

Boiling Point

153 W Garvey Ave

Monterey Park, CA
(626) 288-9876

Ado: The Ultimate Neighborhood Italian

While looking for a place to eat in Venice, I remember reading about Ado, a small new Italian eatery on Main St, the brain child of Paolo Cesaro (formerly of Via Veneto) and chef Antonio Mure (formerly of Locanda Veneta).

As I walked up to the two-story yellow building, my first thought was "How cute!!"

The first floor held the kitchen and one table (seats two). Everyone else is ushered upstairs to a dimly lit, cozy dining room.

The menu had a small but satisfying selection of antipasti, paste, and secondi. The homemade pastas caught my eye in particular.

We started out with Insalatina Tiepida di Carciofi, Granchio e Vin Cotto (Warm Baby Artichokes Hearth with Dungeness Crab Meat, Mache salad and Grape Must Reduction - $14)

A great light and clean start. The baby artichokes are sliced and mixed in with the dungeness crab meat - a great texture and flavor combination. Lightly doused with olive oil and vinaigrette, a great dish.

Tagliolini Rossi con Ragu di Quaglia in Fonduta di Taleggio (Home-made Red Beets Tagliolini pasta in a Marsala Quail Ragu served on a bed of Taleggio cheese fondue -$15)
Even the smell of it already made me so happy. Ahhh, cheese. Al dente beet pasta, savory quail ragu, and rich cheese fondue all mixed together. If this doesn't "hit the spot" I don't know what will. For me this is a must-get and a must-get-again dish.

Pappardelle al Coniglio, Porcini e Prugne (Home-made Pappardelle served with Rabbit Ragu, Porcini Mushrooms and Dried Prunes -$17)
A much more subtle dish than the previous, but again very well done. The pappardelle was again perfectly al dente, the flavor of the ragu was subtle but pervasive, and the sweetness of the dried prunes was quite a nice touch. My companion likes this dish better than the previous (if you're not a cheese-person, you will too)

Agnello domestico Ripieno al Pesto (Grilled Colorado Lamb Chop stuffed with Pesto and served with a Red Wine and Mustard Sauce - $32)
The lamb was very flavorful as it was stuffed with pesto. The meat was quite moist and tender, although the lamb did have quite a bit of fat.

There was no written dessert menu, but one of the two knowledgeable waiters will spill out what's in store for you. After much debate and tiramisu being out that night, I went with the recommended Pasteria (ricotta cheese cake) This was denser and richer than I had expected, perhaps a bit too rich with nothing to cut it. My companion said it was too rich -- my fault since I veto'ed the 3 chocolate mousse (white, milk, dark) for this one. Fine, we can get the mousse next time!

Semifreddo torrone (ice cream cake with hazelnut)
Also not what I had in mind for "ice cream cake" :P Think of it as a thick ice cream with chocolate chips and hazelnut bits. I liked this one better though, rich and sweet but not too thick.

Oh, those lucky Venice dwellers. If Ado was in my neighborhood, I'll definitely be there quite a bit. We had a great first impression (cute building, cozy space, great service, great food), so even though it isn't in my neighborhood, I'll still keep coming back.

Ado
796 Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90291
(310) 399-9010
www.adovenice.com