A Konnyaku Tasting at INN ANN (Japan House LA)

INN ANN was the Japanese restaurant run by Japan House at Hollywood and Highland with acclaimed sushi chef Mori Onodera. INN ANN closed on December 31 to be reconfigured into a culinary incubator of sorts, so that reminded me to catch up on my posts ... A while back (because I'm so behind) I attended a special lunch featuring konjac or konnyaku.

Konnyaku is a chewy "cake" made from konjac yam. It has a texture like gelatin and has made a name in the Western world for being a zero-calorie food. The lunch gathered three chefs from the LA area to showcase the different ways konnyaku can be prepared.

We started with a Konjac and mushroom shabu shabu from INN ANN's chef Mori Onodera.

We started with the shabu shabu to showcase the konnyaku in its pure form.

Next up: "Spring tidal pool" with uni and coastal herbs from Joseph Geiskopf (he was at Triniti at the time) with konnyaku and vegetables.

This was a beautiful bowl, both in appearance and taste. The broth was flavorful yet clean.

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Relentless Brewing Brings Sour Beers, Pub Grub and Eagle Rock's First Distillery

Relentless Brewing as a brewery has been open in Temecula for a few years now, and they're known for their sour beers. Now, they've opened a pub in Eagle Rock and completed it with a distillery. The spirits are still in the works (with vodka coming out earliest, of course), but in the meantime the locals are already coming for the beers and casual food.

Relentless Brewing in Eagle Rock offers more than just their own beers, they carry a pretty extensive lineup from other craft breweries from California. I ended up trying their own Farm of the Rising Sun, a farmhouse ale.


The kitchen serves up pub grub, from appetizers to salads and burgers / sandwiches.
We started with (a large portion of) Smokey Poutine (french fries topped with a smokey bacon beef and beer gravy, white cheddar cheese curds, crispy bacon, pickled jalapenos and chives - $10)

I liked the fries here, the seasoning and texture reminds me of curly fries.

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Tasting Hakkaisan Sake at Faith and Flower

A while back I went to a dinner at Faith and Flower hosted by Hakkaisan sake to try their lineup. Hakkaisan is a brewery in Niigata Prefecture, at the bottom of Mount Hakkaisan, a sacred mountain with a name that means "eight peaked mountain".

We started with the Hakkaisan "AWA" sparkling sake. Awa means "bubbles" in Japanese, and the sparkling sake here is produced using secondary fermentation in the bottle, similar to the traditional champagne method. It's a very clean tasting sparkling sake, with just a touch of sweetness.


For the Awa, they paired with a silken tofu mousse, fresh wasabi and miyoga ginger, bonito dashi

We loved the texture of this tofu mousse.

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