Preview Lunch at Obikà Mozzarella Bar

How much love does Los Angeles have for mozzarella?
First there was Mozzarella Mondays at Jar. Then there was mozzarella tastings and bar at Osteria Mozza. Now welcome Obikà, a mozzarella-centric new restaurant in the Westfield Century City mall.

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October Food Events

October is going to be a pretty crazy month filled with not only Restaurant Week but all kinds of food and wine events. That's not even counting all the Oktoberfest goings-on. Hope you're ready!

Saturday, Oct 2. Santa Monica Food and Wine Festival
Sample food from various Santa Monica restaurants all in one place accompanied by some wine. The website is not too clear on how the "food vouchers" work but if it's anything like Taste of Santa Monica I visited 2 years ago, it is technically all you can eat but you have to get stamps from all the restaurants before you can go back for more from a particular vendor.
11:30 AM-7 PM. Barker Hangar. 3021 Airport Avenue #203, Santa Monica, CA.
Tickets are $40 or $65 for VIP.

Sunday, Oct 3 marks the start of DineLA Restaurant Week, which goes on from Oct3-8, and Oct 10-15. The restaurants are divided into three tiers where three course lunches will run $16/$22/$28 and dinners run for $26/$34/$44.
Check out their site for a list of restaurants and don't forget to register your American Express card so you can get $20 cashback when you dine out 3x.

Wednesday, Oct 6. Choctoberfest
LearnAboutWine bring together chocolates from Valrhona and Marche Noir Foods with wines from Spain, Paso Robles to Malibu and beer from The Bruery and more.
7-9 PM. The Grove.
Tickets are $80 at the door or $39 advance purchase (or get it for $35 from Goldstar).

Thursday, Oct 7. Macy's Culinary Council with Takashi Yagihashi
Watch a cooking demo by Chef Takashi Yagihashi, who won the James Beard Award for Best Chef in 2003. Chef Yagihashi opened Okada at the Wynn Las Vegas and now has his namesake restaurant, Takashi, in Chicago.
6:30 PM. Macy's Pasadena (Furniture Dept). 401 S Lake Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101.
Suggested $5 donation to benefit the LA Regional Food Bank. Seating limited to first 200.

Saturday, Oct 9.

History of the Green Fairy, Absinthe
Culinary Historians of SoCal will present Ted Breaux speaking about the history of absinthe. Ted Breaux is Founder and President of Jade Liqueurs, LLC.
10:30 AM. Mark Taper Auditorium, Downtown Central Library. 630 W 5th St.
Free. Reception with themed refreshments will follow at 11:30 AM.

Pasadena Wine Festival
General admission tickets get you inside the Arboretum plus a tram tour where you can sample food from food trucks or buy food from purchase, taste wine for $1, and listen to music. A Deluxe Pass includes tastings of all the wines in the main tasting area.
2-10 PM. Los Angeles County Arboretum. 301 N Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007.
General admission tickets are $28 and Deluxe Passes are $55.

Riboli Family's Winemaker Dinner
This four-course wine-paired dinner is offered once a year and hosted by Anthony Riboli. The menu lists marinated albacore salad with avocado and ginger, grilled five spice marinated quail and bacon fried rice with orange hoi sin sauce, and herb roasted veal strip loin with sautéed porcini mushrooms and baby turnips. Eight wines from the Riboli Family Library will be tasted throughout dinner.
6-9 PM. San Antonio Winery. 737 Lamar St., Los Angeles, CA.
$78 per person. Call (323) 330- 8771 or reserve online.

Sunday, Oct 10.

L. A. Beer Float Showdown
This year the LA Beer Float Showdown returns twice as big. Four teams (Boneyard Bistro, Simmzy's, Tony's Darts Away, and Ladyface Alehouse) will battle their beer floats to benefit Share Our Strength. The Manila Machine and Mandoline Grill trucks will be in attendance to serve your savories.
5:30 PM. Verdugo Bar. 3408 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles 90065.
$25 in advance or $30 at the door.

L. A. Chocolate Salon
This is the event that would put your love of chocolate to the test, with over 35 chocolatiers, confectioners, wineries. How much chocolate can you eat in a few hours? Even when it leaves you feeling chocolated out by the end, you'd want to come back year after year for Amano Artisan Chocolate, Essential Chocolate Desserts, Ococoa Chocoveda, Moonstruck Chocolate and much much more. Here's last year's report.
11am-5pm. The Pasadena Center. 300 Green St, Pasadena, CA
$20 advance purchase, $25 at the door.

Dionicess VII
Gev Kavanchyan and Randy Clemens bring you the 7th Dionicess where food and beer come together. This time, beer from Dogfish Head will be paired with food from Chef Eric Greenspand at The Foundry.
1 PM. The Foundry on Melrose. 7465 Melrose Ave Los Angeles CA 90046
$79 all inclusive.

Savor the Season
This annual event benefits Break the Cycle, a national organization to end teen dating violence. With food and wine to sample all around, the event will feature NINETHIRTY, RH Restaurant+Bar, Reservoir, STREET, Jer-ne, Saltistry, VeeV, DRY Soda. Here's a post from the 2008 event.
6:30-9:30 PM. Global Cuisine by Gary Arabia at The Lot Studios. 1041 N Formosa Ave, West Hollywood, CA 90046.
Tickets are $100 and can be purchased online or by calling (310) 286-3383.

Saturday, Oct 16. 2nd Annual Taste of Italy
Taste of Italy benefits the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles and features Angeleno's
Italian restaurants like Claro's, Il Fornaio, and Porta Via, Ventura Limoncello, Gelato Bar, and Italian wines sponsored by San Antonio Winery,
4-9 PM. 424 N Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. General admission ticket is $35 (8 tastes of food, 8 tastes of beverage) and VIP is $75 (unlimited tastes). Contact (213)485-8432 or marianna@italianhall.org

Sunday, Oct 17. 2nd Annual LA Beer Week Beer Festival
This festival will cap off LA Beer Week with a bang. Admission will get you unlimited 4oz tasting from over 70 breweries. To soak it all up, there will be food trucks, Mignon Chocolates and Portola Coffee Roaster to keep you awake.
12-4 PM. Union Station.
Tickets are $40 and limited, so get it early.

Saturday-Sunday, Oct 23-24. Artisanal LA

The ladies who brought you the LA Street Food Fest now bring you Artisanal LA, where over 100 local artisans will exhibit their sustainable, handmade edibles. There will also be demos from some great chefs including Chef Ben Bailly of Petrossian Caviar and Chef James Overbaugh from the Peninsula. Attend workshops all the way from pickling to how to deal with a whole hog. There's also a Craft Beer Panel on Sunday and craft beer and spirit tastings are included in your admission ticket.
11am-6pm. The Cooper Design Space Penthouse. 860 S Los Angeles St, Los Angeles, CA. $10 advance purchase or $15 at the door. Partial proceeds benefit LAUSD Edible School Garden Programs.


Sunday, Oct 24. Los Angeles Magazine's The Food Event
This annual event at the beautiful 1000-acre Saddlerock Ranch is always one of my favorites. Sample food from some of the best restaurants in LA like Eva Restaurant, Mo-Chica, Palate, The Foundry, gelato from Bulgarini, and cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. Taste some wine from Malibu, Paso Robles, and beyond. Watch cooking demos and competitions from celebrity chefs. This year's chef lineup includes Marcel Vigneron from Bar210, Laurent Quenioux from Bistro LQ, Mark Gold from Eva Restaurant, and Susan Feniger from STREET. Here's my coverage from last year's event.
1-4 PM. Saddlerock Ranch. 31727 Mulholland Highway Malibu, CA 90265. Tickets are $95 ($100 if including subscription to LA Mag) advance or $110 at the door.



Disclosure: As thanks for posting about the cooking demo with Takashi Yagahashi, Macy's and Everywhere is sending me a $25 Macy's gift card.

Nyotaimori, or "Naked Sushi." You've Been Warned.

WARNING: This post should be rated ... at least PG-13. NC-17 maybe.
If the thought of eating sushi off an almost-naked woman offends you, I'd suggest you stop reading this.
Oh, and of course: NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
I'd like to say I did it out of journalistic duty, but in the end it was mainly because I was curious.
(And maybe this is a good time to point out that I'm a girl, so you don't get the wrong ideas about my intention :p )

I had read about nyotaimori (a.k.a naked sushi, a.k.a body sushi) before, then again on Deep End Dining's post about it at Hadaka Sushi (now closed).

The thought of it is definitely wrong. Can one objectify women even more than using a woman's naked (well, almost naked) as a plate?

Still, when a certain friend asked if I'd like to go try it, I was curious enough to say yes.
No restaurant I know of is offering nyotaimori, so the event offered at something called the Asianmodelpalooza (for unknown asian models to break into the biz, from what I can gather. That biz.) seemed to be a rare chance.
Apparently though, it was provided by ... let's say a very specialized catering company, simply named Naked Sushi Entertainment. Subtle.
The person in charge said that you can actually get these services starting from $65/ person depending on the menu, the model you chose, and um, how nude you want her to be. Anyway ...

Sushi served on banana leaves on an almost naked girl (she was wearing a g-string).
Earlier I wondered if we were allowed to talk to her, but she (I believe her stage name was Akira Lane) was actually quite talkative and lively. That made me feel better since she seemed less of an object.
Getting close-up shots of the food was rather dangerous, though...

Food porn takes on a new meaning.

The sushi itself was surprisingly not bad. It was better than I had expected although I wasn't expecting much at all. Yes, a lot of rolls here and it's no Mori.
It's sushi that you can expect at a standard sushi restaurant and I actually enjoyed the spicy hamachi roll. The sushi was provided by Queee Sushi in Chinatown, although of course, at these events the sushi isn't made right there on-site, so it isn't as fresh as sitting at a sushi bar.
But, really, does anyone expect this to be about the food?

Now I can at least say "been there, done that."
OK, stop staring.

If this is your thing, now you know where to get it (I'd imagine it'd make a great bachelor's party.)
Me, I'm bracing myself, waiting for my mom to read this and call and scold me, for people I've offended to leave hate comments, etc etc.