Spending Bastille Day at Taix French Restaurant (Los Angeles, CA)

by guest blogger Bryan Tsunoda (discovering LA)

I look forward to eating out on the holidays of other countries because it is an opportunity to experience something new. For that reason, I enjoy eating out on the French National holiday of Bastille Day.

I was happy to learn that Taix was featuring bouillabaisse as their special that day. Given a choice or proteins, I veer towards seafood and within that food group, I prefer shellfish. Therefore, bouillabaisse satisfies that craving.

Visiting Taix is like taking a trip backwards in time. Driving into their lot, you are warmly greeted by a valet. Entering the restaurant, you walk down a dimly lit hallway. To your right is the bar and straight ahead is the maitre d' station. Inside the dining room are large comfy booths and frosted glass for privacy.

On Bastille Day, the male employees wore red felt berets. My server, however, was female and she wore a ribbon with the French national colors around her neck.

The Tour de France was taking place in France and Taix featured specials each race day. Even the highlighted wines were from areas near each stop on the tour. Also taking place through Friday is Dine LA and Taix is one of the participating restaurants.

When you sit down in one of their plush booths, you receive fresh sourdough bread and crudité. I ordered Claudia’s beet salad from the Dine LA menu and the special that day, bouillabaisse.

The beet salad was nicely plated. I like that the ingredients were chilled, the butter lettuce was crisp, the oranges were juicy, and the garlic vinaigrette complemented the beet salad.

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Tapas Tasting at Toro, a Boston Mainstay

I have long wanted to try Toro. This tapas bar from duo Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette has been around for many years (since 2005), but there's still always a long wait every night since they don't take reservations, even after they've opened other locations in New York and Bangkok. I finally went to try it when I saw a Gilt City voucher for it. The voucher for a tasting menu wasn't cheap at $100 but it was 8 courses including wine pairing, but the best part is that it allows you to make a reservation! If you've never used Gilt City, you can save $25 off your first order with my invite link.

The tapas tasting started with a Tortilla Espanola (egg, onion, potato, nettle, aioli). A nice rendition of the traditional Spanish dish. The ratio between egg and potato is just right.

Uni Bocadillo (pressed uni sandwich, miso butter, pickled mustard seeds)

This is similar to the uni sandwich at Coppa. Of course, I'm always happy to get uni on a tasting menu.

Since my friend is kosher, we got different third courses - I wanted at least one porky dish. I got the Jamon Blanco (Toast with lardo, marinated Jonah crab, black garlic, crispy shallots and avocado)

While this wasn't what I had in mind when I wanted a "pork" dish, I enjoyed the toast regardless.

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5 TV Shows That Are Suprisingly Filled with Food Porn

You don't have to watch food reality TV or food shows to be enticed by food porn on the screen. In fact, there are quite a few TV series that don't revolve around food yet is surprisingly filled with some amazing scenes foodies would gawk at and salivate over. A lot of these shows are available for free or on demand to stream if you have Verizon Fios account (even if they're not, you'll still want Fios' near-gigabit internet speed so you can stream seamlessly!). Now that summer is here, it's a great time to check out theses shows, if you haven't yet. Just be sure your fridge is stocked when you do.


Hannibal

OK, so this show has beautifully shot and amazing looking food scenes, thanks to the supervising of Chef Jose Andres. Hannibal is a food connoisseur and a great cook, but of course, each food scene is a bit unnerving, especially when Hannibal is cooking a meat dish. Could it be human meat? Knowing Hannibal, probably! That's why Gillian Anderson's character will only eat oysters - though I think lobster would be fine too ;) Still, even with the underlying unease, the cooking and dining scenes in this show are some of the best out there.

Master of None

credit: Popsugar

Aziz Ansari's character Dev takes an impromptu weekend trip to Nashville and was late catching his flight home to go get BBQ. He lies to his parents and skips out on prayers to go binge out on more BBQ at Smorgasburg. He's basically just eating around Italy in the beginning of the second season, because "eating in Italy is my favorite thing!" Hats off to Aziz for somehow getting a dinner at Osteria Francescana in the show and making it a business expense.

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