Dim Sum Carts, Liquid Nitrogen, and Canned Cocktails at The Church Key

The Church Key brought the "dim sum cart" concept to Sunset Blvd, except instead of the classic grouchy dim sum ladies pushing their metal carts, the servers at Church Key are dressed in PanAm stewardess outfit pushing airline carts (one said PanAm while another cart said Delta). Various small plates, canned cocktails, and liquid nitrogen cocktail otter pops can be found on these carts.

Just like at dim sum, they stamp your card with the dishes or cocktail you received. Unlike Chinese dim sum, the restaurant is large, spacious, and sexy.

You won't find Chinese dim sum here, though. Instead, look for one of our favorite dishes of the night: Crispy pork belly, gojuchang glaze, cashew butter, radish, sesame ($14)

Word of warning: this was a bit spicy, but I love the crispiness! Everyone raved about the pig's ear cheetos but unfortunately I didn't get to try them as they were sold out.

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Fondue by the Pool at Après at The W Hotel in Westwood

It's getting cold out. Cold enough for fondue, even. But you're still an Angeleno at heart so you're going to want your fondue by the pool. Well, you can at Après at The W Hotel in Westwood. Not après ski, but après skinny dip?

Available at the poolside cabanas (but they'll serve it inside or at the bar if you ask nicely) are cheese and chocolate fondues, s'mores, and special cocktails.
There are three choices for the cheese fondue ($16 for 2), including the Miss Swiss which is the traditional gruyere cheese with sherry and garlic, Dive bar made with cheddar, IPA, and bacon, and Jako-Dip made with goat cheese, white wine, and pumpkin puree.

My favorite is still the traditional Swiss style, but the pumpkin one is fun to try as well. They come with bread and vegetables as usual but also some cured meats.

The chocolate fondue also comes in three choices and served with strawberries, dried pineapples, marshmallows, Oreos, and graham crackers.

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Langer's #19 is Chowzter's Tastiest Fast Feast in North America!

I had been recruited by a new website and app called Chowzter to curate the best of Los Angeles "fast feasts" - the dishes that are not from a chain or fine dining restaurant. I've been contributing items to their list which can be found here (although some of those still remain from the old list!)

Anyway, Chowzter recently held an award for North America's Tastiest Fast Feast in San Francisco, and I had nominated some of LA's finest including Langer's #19 pastrami sandwich and Tsujita's tsukemen! At the end of the night the winners were announced .... and Langer's took home #1!! That's right, New York, LA's pastrami is numero uno. They even made a nifty video for it. You can see the full list of winners here.

Chowzter's trophy for Langer's

You can see my post of Langer's #19 here. So, anyway, I found out I wasn't supposed to keep that nifty trophy but give it to the restaurant instead :p
I went over to the deli last week to hand over the trophy to Norm Langer himself and his family. Such an honor to meet them!

The new trophy will replace the golf balls on top of the cash register. The daughter couldn't wait to get rid of those golf balls :)

Of course, since I was there I had to get some lunch. #19 may still be my favorite but I wanted to try something new and went with #6: pastrami and chopped liver on rye bread.

The chopped liver is creamy and doesn't taste too much like offal. It's a nice accompaniment for the pastrami. Psst, they also have a secret off-menu item right now ... pastrami chili cheese fries!