Crudo Finds a Home at Culina in Beverly Hills

Let's face it, I love raw seafood. Even after watching The Cove, I still went to Culina to try their crudo (but I have been avoiding tuna more, and definitely am not planning on eating whales or dolphins). While I managed to indulge in crudo heaven at Marea in NYC, in LA this dish is still relatively hard to find. I was bummed when the now-shuttered Blanca in Newport Beach stopped serving crudo.

Luckily, the new restaurant at The Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, Culina, moves in to fill the gap.

The place is large and swank, of course, being Four Seasons and all. Dimly lit, dark leather chairs, the whole lot, with an almost equally large outdoor dining area.

They also have a crudo bar where you can watch them slicing your raw fishies a la a sushi bar.


To start: breadsticks and olives.

By the way, the olive oil here is supposed to be so good that they sell it by the bottle in case you want to take it home.

I wanted a glass of wine and asked the sommelier what would work best with the crudo I'm ordering. She recommended the 2007 Vermentino (Tuscany), which did work well for some, though not all, the crudo.

I can't go to Culina and not have the crudo. Unable to make up my mind, I just ordered the Crudo Sampler: three choices, $22.
My three choices:
Salmone - loch duart salmon. caper salt. blood orange.
Ricci Di Mare – Sea Urchin, Lemon, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Yellowtail, Star Anise Oil, Orange Sea Salt
I liked the acidity and sweetness that the blood orange lent to the fatty salmon. The olive oil added another layer of richness to the sea urchin. The yellowtail was prepared simply which worked even better, focusing on the wonderful flavor and texture of the yellowtail itself.

Another crudo order: Aragosta (lobster. pink peppercorns. grapefruit & chive oil. $13)
It's amazing how food changes texture between its raw and cooked state.

Polipo Harissa – Baby Octopus, Harrisa, Ceci Beans ($14)
This was easily my favorite dish besides the crudos. The harissa gave the little tender octopus a wonderful flavor. I would definitely order this again.

Ravioli (sweet corn packets. mascarpone. sage brown butter, $18)
Stuff anything with sweet corn and I will eat it. This was made even a tad bit sweeter with the brown butter coating. We enjoyed this dish quite a bit, although $18 for 4 corn raviolis did not seem as good a deal as the previous $14 octopus.

Gnocchi Di Patate, Lobster Knuckles, Pea Shoots, Black Truffle
I found this way too "mushy" for me - I felt like I was eating mashed potatoes. It was meant to have that texture, however, and my dining companion enjoyed it, so it may just be a matter of personal taste.

We also ordered pappardelle with lamb ragu, which was good albeit a bit salty.

A couple of mignardises to end the night.

The strength of my Culina meal was definitely the seafood, both the crudo and the polipo harissa. The pastas were more hit and miss, and even the hits weren't as high as other Italian restaurants around town. But there's nothing wrong with a restaurant with a specialized strength. I know where to go for crudo in LA, and that's enough for me.


Culina at Four Seasons Beverly Hills
300 S Doheny Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(310) 273-2222
www.culinarestaurant.com

Luksusowa Vodka Seminar & Tasting: Can You Taste the Difference?

"Vodka is colorless, odorless, tasteless." I pretty much believed that too, so when an invitation to a vodka seminar and tasting set up by Luksusowa vodka came along, I was intrigued. Will I really be able to taste the difference between different vodkas? I wanted to see.

The vodka seminar is appropriately held at at Nic's Martini Lounge, a shrine to vodka in Beverly Hills and the home of the "vodbox" where you can enjoy their extensive vodka collection in a private chilled room while wearing their stash of fur coats.

Luksusowa Vodka. Photo courtesy of Shelley Buck

The seminar portion started with the history of vodka. Believed to originate from Poland (the first written evidence is a 1405 Polish manuscript), potato vodka became more popular in the 18th century because it is believed to be superior although the filtration method is more difficult. Charcoal filtration was started in Russia and is now believed to be the best method. (Luksusowa is supposed to be the highest rated potato vodka in the world, with a score of 94 from the Beverage Tasting Inst.).

The World War II destroyed the economy in Poland and Russia and many distilleries came to be sold to independent owners.

Vodka originally wasn't very popular in the US and they had to market it as the "white whiskey". It was apparently all thanks to Smirnoff that really popularized "vodka" and made it what it is here today. In 1975 Smirnoff outsold American whiskey.

Leading the tasting was the owner of Nic's himself, Larry Nicola a.k.a. "The Vodkateur."

On each table were a variety of items/nibbles meant to represent the more common flavor profiles of vodka (I was hungry and thought they were apps so I'd been eating them. Oops!).
Anyway, there were rye bread, potato chips, sour cream (acidity), pop corn (representing butteriness of some vodka), dark and white chocolate chunks (bitterness), and "licorice."
The British bartender Charles Vexenat who was making our cocktails was talking about these flavors, and he was looking for the licorice - which here came in the form of Red Vines. "That's licorice? Why is it red???". Beats me, Charles ...

We sniffed and sipped six different vodkas at room temperature (since chilling it often masks the underlying nose and flavor - this way you can more easily tell the differences).
Some of the vodkas we tasted you are probably already very familiar with:

1. Smirnoff (beet root, Russia). Nose: licorice. Pretty harsh going down, and tasted like licorice too. Maybe it's trauma but I still don't like it ...
   
2. Svedka (wheat, Sweden). This smells more subtle and also tasted creamier, smoother.
3. SKYY (wheat, USA). Odorless, tasted clean. Pretty much tasteless but went down pretty smoothly.
   
4. Sobieski (rye, Poland). Smells slightly sweet. Had a nice flavor profile but harsh.
5. Finlandia (barley, Finland - obviously). I was surprised that it does actually taste like barley. This had a full bodied flavor.
6. Luksusowa (potato, Poland). Smells ... like water, really. Clean, without a harsh finish. Definitely the best of the bunch, and I'm not saying that because they're sponsoring this event.

Charles Vexenat, author of Mixellany's Annotated Bariana: A Practical Compendium of All American and British Drinks and a London-based bartender, was behind the bar making cocktails for us.
The first cocktail I tried (left) was made with vodka, OJ, fig jam and lime juice. A sweet cocktail, but not cloyingly so. It's actually pretty good and balanced. The other drink was made with strawberry and basil. Less sweet with more depth.

After we finished the tasting, Nic's provided some appetizers, all of which were supposed to complement vodka. You'd notice ingredients like rye and potato over and over again and if you're lucky, caviar.
A nicely crispy roasted potato with sauerkraut and kielbasa sausage, "vodka salmon" on rye bread, potato latke topped with apple compote and caviar - and can't remember exactly what the last one was.

Vodka definitely gets a bad rap among my cocktailian/bar-regulars friends, but this ended up being a pretty cool seminar and taught me that I knew so little about vodka and I can't just dismiss it without learning more. I learnt a lot of about the history of vodka and I was surprised at how distinct the different vodkas tasted. Among the six, Luksusowa was definitely the crowd favorite and I was pleasantly surprised at the prices I found online, but I really need to have Larry guide me through more different vodkas in the vodbox.

Celebrity Chef-Studded Dinner at Sashi!

Chef Makoto Okuwa at Sashi is no stranger to the ever popular Iron Chef show, but although he's had years in the show under Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, Thursday July 8 marks his first appearance as the lead chef and challenger.

He's pulling all the stops to celebrate, too, and that's where you can come in.
That night, he will bring in Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and Top Chef champion Michael Voltaggio, plus chef Noriyuki Sugie (Ironnori/Breadbar), chef Sonny Sweetman (Exec chef of Wolfgang Puck), and chef Waylynn Lucas (Exec pastry chef of Patina). The six of them will prepare 1 hors d'oeuvres and 1 dish each.
Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served at 5 pm, and the six course dinner + Iron Chef America viewing will start at 7 pm. Of course, all the rockstar chefs will be mingling with guests in the dining room.
And that's why you'll pay the $120 price tag.

Call (310) 545-0400 to RSVP.