La Mar Cebicheria (New York)

The first time I visited La Mar in Lima, Peru, I fell in love. With ceviche, with causa, with Peruvian rice. We loved it so much we went back for a last meal before we left Peru. I was very excited when La Mar in San Francisco opened. Alas, I was disappointed - I think the service (and lack thereof) contributed to my bad impression (I received the wrong ceviche and when I told his waiter, his response was "ok". No apology and no correction was made).

I gave La Mar in the US another try with the New York location, where the kitchen is managed by executive chef Victoriano Lopez who was Gaston Acurio's right hand man for almost twenty years. Unlike the casual, outdoor Lima location, the New York La Mar is lavish and posh.

We started with the Cebiche tasting, pre-set to consist of three types: elegance, popular, and nikei cebiche) - $28

The "elegance" was a cebiche with warm water fluke, red onions, Peruvian corn, and yam in a "leche de tigre of five elements" - whatever the five elements are. The "popular" had salmon, shrimp, and Spanish day-boat octopus in a green leche de tigre with crispy calamari. The "nikei" is reminiscent of an ahi poke, made with yellowfin tuna, red onion, cucumber, daikon, avocado, and nori in a tamarind leche de tigre.

All three of the ceviches were very good, with all of us having different favorites (mine was the "popular"). On the other hand, for the price the portions were really small. Since there were four of us, it was definitely not enough and we had to get a full order. I wanted to try something different so we ordered the Limeno cebiche (fluke, Spanish day boat octopus, calamari, scallops, blue shrimp, in aji limo leche de tigre) - $19

The seafood used was really fresh and unlike many ceviches I had in LA where the leche de tigre is so tart, we even drank the ones here by the spoonfuls even when the fish was finished.

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Singapore Slinging at The Long Bar, Raffles Hotel (Singapore)

The Singapore Sling is now more than just the country's national drink. Most of the Singapore Slings served around town are made with mixers, and sometimes even from dispensers. Souvenir shops sell Singapore Sling mixers and even Singapore Sling flavored chocolates. The drink was first created by a Hainanese-Chinese bartender at the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, Ngiam Tong Boon - supposedly in 1915. A famous cocktail by a Chinese bartender! I never had the chance to come here when I visited Singapore with my family, so since I'm spending half the day solo, I decided that I'm due for it.

The historic Raffles Hotel is a beautiful space, a respite from the busy, noisy streets of Singapore.

You can take the elevator, escalator, or stairs up to the second floor, where the Long Bar is now located. The bar was busy at 4 in the afternoon, but even though the tables were full, the fans slowly waving on the ceilings gave it a relaxing atmosphere.

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Dog Haus Biergarten (Pasadena)

When one thinks of typical American food, perhaps what comes to mind are burgers and hot dogs. With "gourmet burger" places opening all over the country, hot dogs are trying to follow. Dog Haus in Pasadena has been pretty popular and gotten good reviews with its 1/4 lb all-beef dog on grilled King's Hawaiian bread, and they recently realized how much better dogs would be when paired with beer. Then, Dog Haus Biergarten was born.

The biergarten took over the space that was (for a short while) Point 08 - a larger space than one would expect from a hot dog place, complete with outdoor seating and full bar. I was invited to visit the biergarten, but I actually had never visited the original Dog Haus before, so of course I had to try make sure to try the dogs.

We ended up trying three dogs between two people.
Our favorite was actually the first dog my friend ordered: The Grand Slam (smoked bacon, egg, tater tots) - $5.95

The Grand Slam was indeed a grand slam. I mean, everything is just better with fried egg, bacon, and fried potatoes. I tried a bite of my friend's and didn't really want to give it back! As for the dogs, I liked the browned edges of the grilled bread. Fellow blogger Destination Eats said before that good hot dogs are all about the "snap", and I think the ones here had a nice one. Not that I'm a dog expert.

Probably encouraged by the previous success, my friend ordered another dog with eggs. This time it's a new addition to the menu, the Lumberjack with scrambled cheddar eggs, 2 strips of smoked pepper bacon, and maple syrup ($5.95)

This one pretty much tasted like breakfast to us. Pretty good, but we preferred the Grand Slam.

I wanted to try their new Old Town Dog with caramelized onions, sauteed spicy peppers, Haus chipotle mayo, and Cotija cheese ($5.95)

I should've known better than to order one with spicy chili peppers, but I love cotija cheese. Turns out, this dog was too spicy for me!

If you still need some small bites after a dog, they have burger sliders for $1.50 each, though the meat was pretty small and it lacks toppings. Well, what can you expect for $1.50? But I'd rather spend more and get a real burger or dog.

I do recommend getting the Tater tots ($1.95) though. I thought it was a pretty good price for a good portion of crispy taters.

The Biergarten, unlike the old Doghaus, has a full bar. Since I was there during a workday lunch, I decided to go with a soda. They offer some interesting bottled soda ($3 each). I got a Kutztown Birch Beer and my friend got a Vanilla Cream soda.

Dog Haus Biergarten seems to be a pretty good place to get an inexpensive meal in Old Town. I didn't get a chance to check out their beer list or cocktails. They kept the same mixologists as Point 08 which also meant they kept most of the cocktails on the old list, but soon I'll be there to check out their list of 20 beers.

Dog Haus Biergarten
93 E Green St
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 683-0808
www.doghausdogs.com/


Disclosure: this visit was hosted.

The Stanton Social (New York)

The lounge on the second floor of The Stanton Social turns into a hopping party at night. I don't usually go to these types of places for the food, but The Stanton Social was featured on Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate for their French Onion Soup Dumplings. French onion soup what? Yes, dumplings.

The kitchen at The Stanton Social is helmed by Executive Chef Neill Howell and Chef/Partner Chris Santos, and their menu definitely looks much more promising than other lounge-y types.

Of course, we had to try the French Onion Soup Dumplings ($12)

(sorry for the flash. It was impossible to take photos without it!)

The dumpling is covered with melted gruyere and topped with croutons. Bite the chewy dumplings and hot french onion soup will come spurting out. It's not "the best thing i ever ate" but it was pretty damn good and addictive. I'm also bookmarking Habeas Brulee's recipe for it. Who knows, perhaps one day I'll actually attempt to recreate it.

The cocktails ($13 each), while couldn't stand up to Milk and Honey's which were still fresh on my mind, were pretty good and interesting. The Blood Orange Jalapeño Margarita is made with jalapeño-infused Milagro Reposado, blood orange juice, fresh lime, and Cointreau. Even though vodka has a bad rap among cocktail enthusiasts these days, I still enjoyed the Basil-Lime Gimlet made with Belvedere Vodka, muddled basil, lemon syrup, and fresh lime (I'm curious if it'll be better with gin though).

The Stanton also features some locally distilled liquors. Try the Brooklyn Lemonade made with Brooklyn Gin, lemon syrup, lemon juice, muddled cucumber, and ginger beer.

OK, moving on to more of the food.

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Of Rice and Soba: "Common Grains", An Upcoming Delicious Education Program

Know what makes good food even better? Insight into the culture and what goes into its making. The upcoming Common Grains events will provide just that for Japanese grains, including Japanese rice and soba.

The Common Grains program will kick off with an onigiri making contest at the Japanese American National Museum’s annual Oshogatsu festival. The contest is part of the museum’s New Year celebration of the Year of the Dragon.
Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Sunday, Jan 8, 2012. 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Then, you can try delicious artisanal soba at the Common Grains Soba Pop-Up Restaurant and Sake Bar at BREADBAR Century City.
These aren't your run of the mill soba, but one made by artisan soba makers Sonoko Sakai and Mutsuko Soma. The soba is hand made using freshly stoned and milled buckwheat. I've participated in Sonoko's soba making class before, and trust me, her soba is nothing like you've ever had before (unless you've had them in Japan).
BREADBAR Century City, 10520 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90067. 
310.277.7770
Tuesday, Jan 10 – Thursday, Jan 19, 2012. 5-10 p.m.

After having her soba, you're going to want to make them yourselves. Well, you can attend the Common Grains Artisan Soba Demonstration and Tasting at Mitsuwa Marketplace, where guests will also have the opportunity to purchase fresh soba and homemade dipping sauces that can be prepared at home.
Mitsuwa Marketplace, 21515 S. Western Ave., Torrance, CA 90501
Thursday, January 26, 2012 – Sunday, January 29, 2012, demonstrations at 12 p.m. and 1 p.m.
No cost to attend the soba demonstration, $18 for fresh soba for two with homemade dipping sauces

There's also the Soba and Rice Workshops at Tortoise General Store
The workshops will showcase different preparations of rice and soba for guests to learn how to cook healthy, simple Japanese meals at home.
Tortoise General Store, 1208 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
The workshops will take place on multiple dates:
Saturday, Jan 21, 2012 / Sunday, Jan 22, 2012 / Saturday, Feb 18, 2012 / Sunday, Feb 19, 2012. 
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
COST: $65 pp for the two-hour workshops
RSVP to Tortoise General Store at 310.314.8448

2011's Most Memorable Meals, Dishes, and Desserts

Happy New Year!
This may be the 100th "best of 2011" lists you've seen by now. Well, here's my list of the most memorable experiences and tastes I had this past year! What's on your list? What do I need to try this year?

Most Memorable Meals:
1. FIG's Table-to-Farm dinner at McGrath Farms

2. The Aviary's Kitchen Table experience in Chicago

Most Memorable Dishes
1. Quesa Taco at Tacos Los Salceados (Tijuana, Mexico)

2. Bihun Bebek (Duck Noodle Soup) at Bihun Bebek Asie (Medan, Indonesia)

3. Peking Duck from WP24

4. Blue Corn Muffins from Playa - or are these considered desserts?

5. Squid ink pasta with uni and caviar from Petrossian (Beverly Hills)

Most Memorable Desserts
1. Buckwheat waffle at King's Row Gastropub (Pasadena)

2. Chocolate gelato at Grom (Malibu)

3. Banana cream pie at Random Order Coffeehouse (Portland, OR)

4. Coconut panna cotta with guava soup, caramelized pineapples at Scarpetta

5. Eating durian on the roadside with my family in Medan, Indonesia.

Smoked Crab at Rasane (Surabaya, Indonesia)

If there is one thing I have to eat when I come back to Indonesia, it'll be CRAB. Crab in spicy sauce, crab with salted eggs, or smoked crab. Whichever it is, I want it.
This time around, I went to try a new(ish) seafood place called Rasane, which is famous for their smoked crab (kepiting asap). Rasane in Indonesian means "the flavor" or "the taste".

As with most seafood places in Indonesia, they serve live seafood kept in tanks. Customers would go up to the tanks and pick out which crab, fish, lobster, etc they want to eat that night. Or you can just tell them how much you want and have them pick it out for you.

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Indonesia Street Eats: Soto Ayam Tidar (Surabaya)

There are few better ways to spend your time in Surabaya than eating your heart out at a street side dive late at night. When my cousins were visiting from Singapore, we did just that. A bowl of Soto Ayam (chicken turmeric soup) on the side of the road, wooden benches, old style glass soda bottles. Tropical heat with a side of night breeze mixed in with street fumes. This is Soto Ayam & STMJ Tidar, a street stall on a street called Tidar.

(STMJ refers to "susu telur madu jahe", which translate to "milk egg honey ginger". It's a traditional health drink).

Soto ayam is a chicken soup made with turmeric, ginger, curcuma, galangal, and more. At Soto Ayam Tidar, the soup is filled with chicken (ayam kampung, aka "village chicken" which is much more flavorful than the farmed kind) and you can choose between meat, skin, or offals, rice noodles, and egg. The best one to get at this place is the soft boiled egg but they were out that night. It's also served with rice either in the soup or on the side.

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Happy Holidays!

Since I'm on vacation in Indonesia this holiday season, I didn't have time to compile any Christmas/New Year's listings. Sorry about that, guys! But I'm sure other blogs had done a good job on that for you.

The Pig's on vacay!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Trotter's Protege Meets Chinese Bao at The Chairman Truck

Fine dining chefs jumping ship to sell casual, comfort food is not just a trend that started in the past year. Chef Hiro Nagahara, formerly chef de cuisine at Bar Charlie (Charlie Trotter) in Las Vegas worked with Mobi Munch to start The Chairman Truck in 2009, selling chinese steamed buns with unique, high end fillings like spiced duck confit in San Francisco.

(The Chairman was originally named The Chairman Bao, but then they got sued by Baohaus in NY since "chairman bao" was apparently the first item on their menu. Gotta admit, it's such a catchy name.)

Mobi Munch is actually an LA-based company, and when they outfitted The Chairman's second truck, they decided to hold a tasting for friends and media before sending it off to SF. The tasting was held at Mobi Munch headquarters in downtown LA, where I tried five of their offerings. The buns are usually $3.25 each for steamed bao ($6.75 for baked - not sure how big these are), $3.75 for duck confit and pork belly.

1st bao: Tender Pork Belly with Pickled Daikon

First, let's talk about the bao itself. The bao is made using a 40 year old yeast brought from China 20 years ago by  the SF truck operator, Curtis Lam's uncle who was the executive chef of Yank Sing. The warm bao was great, neither too thick nor too doughy.

The pork belly was tender, not overly fatty, and the crunchy, tart, pickled daikon was the perfect accompaniment to cut the richness. The daikon is, of course, pickled in-house ("in-truck"?)

The 2nd bao is a spinoff of korean spicy chicken: Spicy Red Sesame Chicken with pickled cucumber and carrots

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Fukuburger (Hollywood)

Fukuburger originally started as a food truck in Las Vegas and was apparently popular enough that they decided to open a brick and mortar in Hollywood. Fukuburger Hollywood now serves their burgers until 4 am!

I recently went to a tasting lunch with other media types. Instead of ordering, they were bringing out food periodically. I arrived later than a couple of other girls so I had missed out the one I wanted to try the most, the Tamago/Egg Burger. Some people said this was their favorite, too. Oh, well, I still got to try a lot of the other burgers.

The burgers are all $7, a pretty good price considering burger prices at various restaurants these days (especially in Hollywood!). I focused on trying the more interesting options, like this Kinoko/ "Mushroom" Burger - Fuku patty with grilled shiitake mushrooms, pickled red ginger, teriyaki, wasabi mayo

Fuku patty is just what they call their burger patty, which they use in all their burgers. I like the umami from the shiitake in this one, and the pickled red ginger helps refresh the palate so you can eat more.

Bacon lovers, get the Buta Burger with Fuku patty, applewood smoked bacon, cheese, pickled red onion, red ginger, Japanese BBQ sauce, wasabi mayo

This was the first burger I tried here and I definitely liked it. A fried egg would make this perfect.

For the non-beef eaters, there is the Chicken Katsu Burger with Panko encrusted chicken, cabbage, "crack sauce" and katsu sauce.

The chicken katsu was nice and crispy while keeping the meat moist.

What I enjoyed the most was actually an off-menu item, a breakfast special that the chef brought out! Fries are topped with bacon, onion rings, onions, and a runny egg!

They have fries, of course, but most people get the Jazz fries which topped with gravy and "crack sauce" (no, they wouldn't tell me what's in it)

They only have a beer and wine license, so aside from the decent beer list, you can expect things like sake or soju sangria and beer floats.

The decor is vibrant and fun with red walls and red tables and benches. A screen displays tweets about Fukuburger. You might want to avoid going to the bathroom here while drunk, though. The bathroom is lit red which was a little disconcerting to me ..

Go for: late night burgers (open til 4 am) at friendly prices.

Fukuburger
1634 N Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 464-3858
fukuburger.com


Disclosure: this meal was hosted

Indonesian Street Eats: Martabak Mesir (Egyptian Omelet)

Even when I was younger and couldn't eat spicy food at all I looked forward to going to the Padang restaurant, Rumah Makan Sederhana. Why? Because in front of it, they sell Martabak Mesir, a.k.a. Egyptian Omelet!

This martabak mesir is a typical dish of the Minang people in West Sumatra. Martabak itself is an Arabic word meaning "folded" and is a typical dish of Saudi Arabia, Brunei, and of course Indonesia and Malaysia. How this particular version came to have the name Mesir or Egyptian, I have no idea either.

Despite being attached to the restaurant, you still have to order your omelet at the little stand at the front.
The guy would spin and spin the skin until it stretched thin and big enough for the "omelet"

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Surabaya, Indonesia

My hometown and all the good food I miss!

Bebek Goreng Mon Mon (fried duck)
Citrus Lee Restaurant
Hana Sushi
J. Co (Donuts and Coffee Shop)
Kedai Sabindo
Kogyo BBQ (Korean-Mexican fusion, SUTOS)
Kue Leker food cart (in front of Ayam Penyet Bu Kris in Tenggilis)
Layar Seafood
Martabak Mesir (Egyptian Omelet, Rumah Sederhana)
Rasane Seafood (smoked crab)
Rawon Setan
Sari Nusantara (Padang cuisine)

Soto Ambengan
Soto Ayam Tidar

Thai Village


Upcoming:
Ikan Bakar Cianjur

The Churchill (West Hollywood)

The former space that was Minestraio has finally come alive again, giving the Orlando Hotel guests a place to dine in a completely revamped setting and the West Hollywood crowd another late night hangout. Some have been calling The Churchill, from the people that also brought us The Hudson, a "gastropub", but the kitchen headed by Executive Chef Spencer Johnston does not serve typical "gastropub" food and beverage director John Rankin has also created a cocktail-heavy program.

The Pike ($12) is made with sweet bell pepper muddled with basil, galangal syrup and lime juice, Cazadores Reposado tequila, mescal rinse.

The Revolver ($12) is an instant favorite, made with fire roasted pepper infused Herra Dura Blanco tequila, hibiscus reduction, agave nectar, lime, cassis, xocolatl mole shaken and served on the rocks with a jalapeno slice.

Not stopping there, we also tried the pumpkin infused rum which had quite a strong pumpkin aroma. The wine list also contains some interesting selections like Torrontes, a white wine from the high altitude regions of Argentina.

The charcuterie features La Quercia prosciutto and house-cured meats including a rabbit and pork pate, housemade blood sausage, and Housemade crostini.

Misty point kumamoto oysters

Chef Johnston regularly acquires produce from the Santa Monica Farmers Market and is a big fan of Windrose Farms. I, on the other hand, was a big fan of his Grilled Local Octopus salad, market beans, frisee, chorizo, sherry dressing ($15)

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