Migrant

Most of our dinner reservations were made with recommendations from The Annoyer who has been to Maui now 6 times. But Migrant was a place of my choosing based on Yelp and Top Chef. The chef/owner here is none other than winner of season 10, Sheldon Simeon, the surprise dark horse who shocked many by taking the title. The restaurant is located inside the Marriot hotel in Wailea. The feel of the restaurant is more contemporary than most of the other well established Maui eateries we tried on our trip. The menu is also more modern being family style/shared small plates. This is usually my preferred way to dine because it allows you to try more options with a larger party.

Chicharones

The complimentary chicharones we're a a very rich complimentary starter in place of your traditional bread. It came with a vinegared soy sauce. I didn't really like it. They were good on their own.

One thing you'll notice about our meals is the sheer number of plates we ordered for a group of 7. The Annoyer's brother, the formerly famous food blogger known as 3SB (you can check out his now defunct food blog here), has a severe case of FOMO. So he massively over orders for "fear of missing out" (for those not hip to the language of the Millenials), everywhere we went. Everything sounds "yummy" to him and/or elicits a "Ooo."

Braddah Carrots fresh burratta cheese, roasted heirloom carrots, big island honey, candied walnuts, carrot top pesto

The carrots came highly recommended by our waitress but I didn't see the appeal. I didn't think all the flavors of candied walnuts, burrata, pesto, and carrots went well together. Nothing bad here, just not my favorite.

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Uchi

Uchi

904 Westheimer Rd.

Houston, TX 77006

uchirestaurants.com

Yelp

Bair Hugger Deluxe made sure Uchi was the first dinner I had in Houston.  I guess it's a big deal here.  It is in Austin, where it was first opened up by Chef Tyson Cole.  He won Best Chef Southwest in 2011.  Uchi and its sister restaurant Uchiko might sound more familiar as the former kitchen of Top Chef season 9 winner Paul Qui.  He started there as an intern and over 7 years worked his way up to chef de cuisine.  Uchi can be thought of as a Nobu-esque restaurant.  Modern Japanese meets Asian fusion meets cool/upscale.  The place is super popular.  Bair Hugger makes it seem like restaurants of this caliber are few and far between.  He usually takes all out-of-towners here.

We got great seats at the bar.  I love sitting at the bar.  I love being a stone's throw from the action.  Sadly we didn't get to sit in front of this guy.  Only a bad ass can walk around with just one patch of hair on his head.  I believe he was the main sushi guy, cutting all the fish for sashimi/nigiri.  It's an interesting set up.  Each guy behind the bar mans a different station.  Our guy was actually just the roll guy.  There was another guy manning the yakitori type things.  There was another guy in the kitchen just making the Brussels sprouts.  

Sorbet
Refreshing, cool, not too sweet.  A pleasant way to start.

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A-Frame

After Roy Choi's big success with Kogi and Chego, A-Frame was his next attempt at bringing his style of Korean meets LA, street, soul, all the while keeping it real, to Angelenos.  I was supremely impressed at his offering during my first visit in 2010.  I had been back maybe 2 more times since then with each visit impressing me just a little bit less.  I've accepted that maybe I cannot be impressed by the same trick pony?  Maybe other Angelenos have been feeling similarly about A-Frame, possibly driving Roy Choi to change things up.  A-Frame made the recent change from "modern picnic" to "modern Hawaiian picnic."  The menu feels like they took some of the old menu items and reinvented it with a Hawaiian twist.  So of course I had to call up my Hawaiian buddy, Luau Bear, to get the low down on A-Frame's Hawaiian authenticity.  The other bears joined in of course, Panda Bear, Mani Bear, Buff Bear, and Farm Bear.

Big John Chili Rice Cakes beef chili, crispy korean rice cakes, white cheddar, sour cream, chive, pineapple

I don't remember there being chili on the previous menu, but this looked interesting enough.  It was pretty heavy between the hearty chili and the chewy rice cakes.  The cheese and sour cream didn't help offset the big load here.  It was tasty, but maybe had too much going on.

Poke Sampler
Shrimp, citrus, blood orange
Tuna, wasabi mayo, cucumbers, edamame
The tuna with wasabi mayo was also heavy and needed some restraint.  I'm not a fan of overly mayo-ed foods.  We all preferred the citrusy and lighter shrimp poke.

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Lemongrass Express

So I'm finally getting around to my Big Island vacation eats from the summer.  I didn't really plan on any specific places to hit up.  In fact, I did very little planning for the whole trip.  Thanks to Fat-Skinny-Fat-Less Fat and Dairy Queen, I just hopped along for the ride and kinda played the fooding by ear.  It's a pleasant surprise when you just stumble upon delicious gems.  I really feel Lemongrass Express was a fortuitous find.  It was close by.  It was well rated.  It was reasonably priced.  There was no wait.  I guess it helps when you eat at 3pm.  Maybe it was so delicious because we were all so frickin' hungry.  A day at the beach, snorkeling and boogie boarding can do that to you.  Of course, everyone (The Mexican Manchild, FxGf/FW, Fat-Skinny-Fat-Less Fat, Sleepy Snoozer, The Cat Whisperer, and Ho-Bag) kicked back and let me do the ordering.  The waiter was really helpful in guiding me to their most popular specialties.

Papaya Salad chili, garlic, lime

Ho-Bag and I were really starving for some fiber during our Hawaii trip.  I learned that Hawaiian food is rather unhealthy and unbalanced, heavy on the starch, protein, and oil.  This was bright and refreshing, just what I craved.  Not particularly special but necessary to balance out the lunch.

Thai Beef Salad sweet onion, pepper, cucumber, fresh herbs, lemongrass citrus vinaigrette
I just had to throw in another salad.  More brightness and crunch.

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Orsa & Winston

I was a bit puzzled walking into Orsa & Winston.  I had heard its Japanese-Italian, which seems like 2 completely disparate cuisines.  I couldn't imagine how they could merry harmoniously on a plate, let alone in my mouth, but the food this night certainly went far beyond my expectations.  There were definitely elements of Asian and European flavors going on here.  The food was unique and delicious.  The style of dining is omakase, so it's the chef's choice.  What you can choose is how many courses: 5, 8, or super omakase at 25!  We opted for the 8.

Amuse Bouche fennel panna cotta
These days, the amuse never really fits the definition of a "one bite" treat from the chef.  I'm not really bothered by that anymore because its just extra food anyways, and who am I to turn down extra food just because the portion size is too big??  I love panna cotta and one of my goals is to learn to make the perfect panna cotta, one that is just perfectly jiggly and most silky soft.  There were definitely some sweet savory flavors going on here.  A delightful first start.

Trout Crudo gingered cucumber gelee, radish, orange, creme fraiche

It looks like salmon huh?  It was both light and refreshing, yet rich and flavorful.  There were so many subtleties with the ingredients and flavor profiles.  One of the more distinctive and memorable crudos.

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Little Sister

It seems like a lot of chefs these days are incorporating Asian flavors into their cooking.  I guess this is one of the aspects comprising "New American" cuisine.  I guess Little Sister isn't so much "New American" as it is "Asian/Asian fusion", but its smack dab in the middle of one of the whitest parts of the South Bay, Manhattan Beach, so that makes it American enough.

Grilled Pork Spring Roll "Nem Nuong" red leaf lettuce, mint, carrot, cucumber, house sauce
The "peanut" sauce was pretty bland, so the fish sauce was more flavorful.  The rolls themselves were just OK.  I can definitely make better ones myself.  They were also a bit too loosely wrapped.  No doubt, a spring roll wrapping noob was in the back making these.

Singapore Chili Soft Shelled Crab Banh Mi spiced tomato relish, pickled garlic
My dining companions, Old Bear and his gf, had never tried soft shell crab before.  After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I jumped at the chance to order this.  It was really solid.  I highly recommend this one.  I think I'll leave it at that.

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Del Seoul

Almost all the Chicago restaurants I tried were recommended to me by various friends and family.  Del Seoul was a place I found on Yelp.  It looked pretty delicious and reminiscent of Kogi.  It was a bit far from our hotel but we cabbed it pretty easily.  Seriously, we spent so much in cab fare in the short 5 days we were in Chicago.  Buff Bear and Mega Man joined us once again for a casual lunch at this order-and-take-a-number type of joint.

Seoul Style Street Dumplings

Meh, pretty average.  I have better frozen store bought dumplings at home.

Kimchi Fries kimchi, onions, pork belly, scallions, melted cheddar and jack cheese, sour cream
Buff Bear was a big fan of these. While they were pretty tasty, they were kind of a gut buster.  Surprisingly, the cheese and kimchi went together and wasn't too overwhelming.  I could have skipped them though.

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Smallwares

Would you ever go to a restaurant that describes itself as "inauthentic"?  Well, we did and it was surprisingly delicious and true to its description, "inauthentic."  Smallwares is helmed by Johanna Ware, formerly of Momofuku Noodle Bar and Ssam Bar.  Having never been to Momofuku anything and only read about the food and tried recipes from the cookbook, I was eager to actually get closer to tasting the Momofuku influence.  The menu is divided into appetizers, small plates, and larger plates.  I'm actually beginning to like this new trend restaurants are taking towards small plate offerings meant for sharing.  It really gives you the chance to try more things in one sitting.


Fanny Bay Oysters fish sauce, cilantro, lime
These were some big oysters and the addition of fish sauce, slightly tempered with sugar and lime, really brought the Southeast Asian, if not Vietnamese flavors.  I could have eaten 6 of these, too bad 1 order = 1 oyster!

Scallop Sashimi den miso, shallot, puffed rice
My experience with raw scallop has been pretty hit or miss.  Sometimes it's a bit too slimy and other times it has a fresh fleshy sweetness.  This was definitely a hit.  The preparation reminded me of nasu dengaku, or miso glazed eggplant often times served at izakaya joints.  It was an ingenious creation.  I could have had the whole dish to myself.

The next dishes are good for sharing.

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MB Post

What do I consider "LA"?  I get irritated when people say they live in LA, when really they live in Sherman Oaks or Pasadena or Redondo Beach.  I've lived in LA my entire adult life up until now, and I really only consider LA to the area bordered by the 110, 10, 405, and maybe Sunset.  I'm a total snob, what can I say?  And truly truly truly, the real LA, the LA you see on TV is only the area of Vine up until La Cienega going east/west and Hollywood down to Wilshire going north/south.  That was my hood for the past 3 years, and only in that time did I feel the real action of LA's dining scene because that area is packed with some of LA's finest and most noteworthy establishments.  There, you'll find restaurants like The Bazaar, Grace, Hatfield's, Providence, Osteria and Pizzeria Mozza, Urasawa, Animal, Son of a Gun, AOC, and more recently Ink, just to name a few.  So once you leave this square, or even the larger LA I described, dining options that peak your culinary curiosity and find worthy of spending a little extra dime become slim.  That is until MB Post.

MB Post was recently opened by the former executive chef at Water Grill, which for all intents and purposes is your typical boring, albeit high end, high quality, American seafood restaurant.  Granted, I was only there for dine LA and my favorite thing of the night was dessert, I would still stand by my assessment.  Knowing that coming in, I was pretty surprised at how different, and particularly, how Asian-influenced MB Post turned out to be.  I don't know why Triple T and Smooth Obturator hadn't ventured here yet since they only live down the street from the place, but I guess it made for a funner experience since we all got to try it for the first time together.



Bacon Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuit maple butter
The biscuits came 2 to an order, so I sadly did not get my own.  Luckily Triple T doesn't eat for 2 like she should, so I still got plenty to try.  It was butter, bacony, and not too cheesy.  The butter was delicious and just a touch sweet.  It was good, don't get me wrong, but I wish I had those biscuits at Lucille's Smokehouse to devour right about now.

Jamon Serrano 12 month aged, redondo iglesias, assorted pickles
I sorta laughed at Smooth Obturator as he proceeded to tell me MB Post was known for its charcuterie. Pssh, the cured meats section of the menu only had 4 choices.  If you want to be bombarded with charcuterie, please come to Portland, namely Olympic Provisions.  It's on every menu, unless the specialty of the house is Beef Chow Fun or Pad Thai.  Anyways, I thought the jamon was just ok.  The assorted pickles didn't actually come with the ham; it was an additional order.  Man oh man were those pickles SOUR!  Like seriously my eyes were twitching and my tongue was writhing.

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Aviary

Like all the other Jews and Chinese people, we found ourselves looking for any open restaurant to celebrate Christmas Eve.  I originally was planning to make dinner, but Verde was orphaned for the holiday so we decided to make a night of it at Aviary.  This restaurant had the unfortunate luck of burning down shortly after its opening, but has reemerged like a phoenix from the ashes.  The menu certainly looked interesting, but a little too off beat to be appealing.  I'm glad Dumpling Man made the executive decision to eat here because it was DELICIOUS.

We started off with the most amazing bread and "butter."  I say "butter" because there was something else in here that made it ohh soo tasty, but too bad I don't remember what it was.  All I know is that I kept sopping it up with every teeny bit of bread.  Just go there and try it!


Spiced Duck Leg and Broth slow poached egg, daikon, dates, brioche persillade
This was another tasty dish.  The downside was that it was so tiny.  It probably could have been eaten in 3 bites so between Dumpling Man, Verde, and myself we pretty much only got a small niblin' each. The duck was tender, the egg yolk was runny and rich, the dates brought the sweetness, and the brioche added buttery crunch.  It was like a dish you've never had.


Oxtail Croquettes tomato jam
Have you ever had chinese beef stew?  Well this tasted like a bite of that with a slight crunch on the outside.  It was a neat take on a traditional dish.  Super small though!  I could have fit 3 in my mouth if I tried.

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WP24

You know that saying, "It's all about who you know"?  It's not just a statement for the job seekers, business whores, and budding actors/musicians/artists of this world.  For the last few years, I have been to some nice restaurants for FREE because I roll with King Arthur and his entourage.  It's a difficult status to attain, but I have managed to maintain a firm position within this "inner circle" of eaters and intellects (my euphemisms for gluttons and nerds).  Being an outsider, I feel that one has to prove one's worth to join The King's possy.  Of course, you better like to eat, and you better be damn amusing.  The King does not employ any jesters in his court for this very reason!

This was probably my last gratis dinner with The King and his crew, Teety, Soprano Man, and Chops (previously known as Ms. Chatty Cathy).  The Pouter had more important people to dine with that evening (who could be more important than The King?), and The Attending, let's just say we've gone our separate ways.  One for good and the other for evil.  Haha...jk?

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn Toast sweet ginger chili sauce
Compliments of the chef, this was the first of 2 amuse bouche to kick start the evening.  We were all sooo hungry by this point.  Shrimp and crispy!

Curried Seafood Turnover
These were sorta like seafood empanadas.  I didn't think they were as tasty as the shrimp toasts.  

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Lukshon

LA seems to be infected with "yellow fever" for Asian food, or some interpretation of it.  With WP24, A-Frame, Red Medicine, Aburiya Torinako, Spice Table, and now Lukshon, the LA scene is blowing up with all that is deliciously eastern in flavors and foods.



The restaurant is wonderfully sleek and modern.  The menu is not meant for vegetarians.  It's full of meat and seafood starting off with a selection of raw and hot small plates.  Since Soprano Man is adverse to anything uncooked, we stuck with mostly cooked appetizers.  Our waiter suggested 2-3 selections from the "big" or entree sized category and then we supplemented with some rice, noodles, and vegetable sides.  I think we, or rather I, did a good job at ordering for our group of 5.  We found our meal quite balanced and everyone was full, but not ripping at the seams, at the end of the night.

Shrimp Toast rock shrimp, cilantro, chilies, tiny croutons
I would say our table is full of critics as tough, if not tougher, than the judges of Top Chef.  Unfortunately, we are definitely lacking anyone as hot as Padma in a bikini.  As soon as these lovely fried balls arrived to our table, some declared that these were not in fact toasts.  Ball or toast, nothing would prevent any of us from shoving these into our hungry pie holes.  The Attending (aka Tofu) did not appreciate much shrimp-iness.  This is true, the balls did feel like loosely composed shrimp plus extra fillers.  I still enjoyed the crispiness, overall flavor, and spicy tangy dipping sauce and would still order them again.


Beef Tartare pickled cucumbers, chiles, onions, herbs, aromatic rice powder
This reminded of the flavors found in larb, which is a dish of ground chicken, herbs, lime, chili, fish sauce, and rice powder.  The seasoning was much more subtle and refined.  Each bite was perfectly composed.  Soprano Man really missed out on this one.

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Red Medicine

Red Medicine is a Vietnamese fusion restaurant that recently opened a few months ago.  It's probably more known for the drama generated by some controversial actions by the management rather than its food unfortunately.  It's ratings on Yelp are pretty dismal, mostly because of the drama.  I'm usually not a fan of fusion food, but some of bloggers were writing good things along with their appetizing pictures.  So, the H.o.P. made a night of it.

I've had a fair amount of "fancy foods" in my life.  Red Medicine really takes all that to a new level.  They go beyond fancy and border on esoteric.  That being the case, the food is still accessible to the common man's taste buds.  The common man's stomach may not appreciate the smaller portion sizes, which combined with the lighter fare, can make for one hungry hungry hippo. 

**SLR-quality photos courtesy of Running Man**

 

Brussels Sprouts caramelized shallots, fish sauce, vermouth

Wow, who is now a fan of brussel sprouts?  You can't really see the sprouts in this picture, but its safe to say that the chef made good use of fish sauce for these vegetables.  Salty, sweet, caramelized, crispy.  Everyone loved these little veggies.  Triple T even made a similar version at home from the Momofuku cookbook. 

 

Banh Mi foie gras, pate de champagne 

These were an elevated version of the flavors found in the typical Vietnamese sandwich.  The pickled veggies, cucumbers, cilantro, and chili were a given.  The foie and pate were luscious and rich additions sandwiched between some light crispy crackers.  One was not enough, but sadly one was all I got to have.  

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A-Frame

I'm not usually into to trying brand new restaurants.  I like to allow the reviews and word of mouth to build up before I go jump in.  My stomach space is precious real estate these days!  I can't be wasting it on some bad caloric investments.  But when it came to Roy Choi (Chef/owner of Kogi and Chego) and his newest venture, A-frame, which just opened a few days ago, I thought "This is a risk I'm willing to take!"  After reading Grubstreet's review outloud for Smooth Obturator and Triple T to hear, we decided it would be a good choice for a Sunday night.  Smooth Obturator is really particular about eating certain foods on certain days of the week after reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential.  I've learned to be wary of ordering mussels at less than reputable establishments because there is a good chance they are sitting in their own urine, and not to eat the "fish special" on Mondays.

We could smell delicious Asian aromas wafting from the restaurant as we approached, a mix of grilled/fried deliciousness with notes of tangy, sweet, savory, and spicy.  The hostess was super friendly and introduced me to Roy himself, at the nudging of my brother.  I got the whole "I'm a foodblogger" introduction.  Somehow that seems to change things a bit to chefs.  I think they understand the power of foodblogs.  We can make you or break you.  I probably can't because I only have 5 readers.  In any case, he seemed to relate to the name of my blog!!

I could regurgitate the concept summary from A-Frame's menu, but in short, A-Frame = MAN FOOD.  A-Frame = GRUBBIN'.

Kitchen Fries purple okinawan sweet potatoes, yam, korean sweet potato, kimchi sour cream, sea salt
Before I even got my introduction, Roy served us these, on the house!  It was pretty dark, and they honestly looked like ugly black logs.  Of course, they tasted just fine.  A mix of sweet potatoes but I really couldn't tell them all apart.  They lacked that additional battering on the exterior but still had a light crunch.  The kimchi sour cream was a nice departure from you're regular ketchup or mayo based dip.  The kimchi flavor was quite subtle.


Moooooo Kimchee cubed white radishes, pickled
We went pretty heavy on the proteins and only had these pickled radishes as our side dish/palate cleansers.  They were refreshing and perfectly pickled.  Smooth Obturator kept insisting there was some sort of herb or spice that added a different flavor.  Cinnamon?  Cloves?  Nutmeg?  I don't know.  I would have appreciated bigger pieces.  They were hard to fork or even scoop, so I was forced to use my fingers to pop them in my mouth.

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Kalbi Burger

To my lucky readers, we have another guest blogger!  Care Bear has so willingly offered her authorship for today's post about the very popular Kalbi Burger.

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Well hello everyone!  Let me introduce myself, I’m sometimes referred to as Care Bear but don’t let the name fool you, I could still be a lethal assassin like Nikta, my new TV show interest. Anyhoo, today I am honored to be a guest writer for Overworked’s blog (aka BO per WonTuan).

The target of the week: Kalbi Burger.

The top secret mission: To gather intel on this new Asian infused burger joint and to annihilate some burgers while we’re at it.

The elite undercover burger tasting agents (and yes, everyone will be bears): Overworked Bear, Hates Asian Food Bear, Panda and Little Bear, Bowtie Bear, Buff bear, Hawaiian bears consisting of Luau and Macadamia Nut Bear. Luau brought Farm Bear. And then there’s me and Token Bear. 

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