Monday, July 28, 2014
Gusto
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Sushi Sushi
The birthday festivities continued with my birthday at Sushi Sushi. Originally, Smooth Obturator wanted to go to Maude or Trois Mec, but was unable to snag a rezzie. No worries because Smooth Obturator fell back on his trusty Sushi Sushi. Let's be honest, LA is riddled with expensive sushi places. Smooth Obturator and Triple T have been to many of them, but Sushi Sushi is the stand out spot for them. It might be hard to take a place called Sushi Sushi seriously, but the sushi here is SERIOUS. For omakase, I was supremely stuffed. I'm not sure if it was because it was towards the end of the night and the chef was trying to clean house or all the beers he was drinking was causing him to be excessively generous.
Squid
I never had raw baby squid like this before. I guess squid has some innards and guts that area usually removed when you buy them in the store? I'm actually not totally sure, but something was different tasting about it and it felt like I was eating squid guts but it was so delicious! Not off or fishy tasting. It was also lightly dressed in some ponzu. Wow, I couldn't believe squid could taste this way.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Afters Ice Cream
I had to stare at this crap for 30 minutes while I waited in line. Let's just say the place doesn't win points for a sharp storefront and professional presentation. It also didn't help being surrounded by swarms of tweeters. God, I felt SO OLD!
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Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Angotei
Clean and refreshing. Probably shoulda started with this one.
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Sunday, July 6, 2014
Orsa & Winston
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.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Top Chef Shirley Chung Pop Up @ The Playground 2.0
I love Top Chef. I love watching the food, the drama, the judges and contestants talking smack. Unlike many of the other reality shows that churn out winners that don't amount to much after the ephemeral hoopla of the win passes through the minds of fans and viewers, many Top Chef winners have gone on to establish a strong presence in the culinary world, opening their own restaurants and garnering many awards. Shirley Chung did not win this last season of Top Chef, though many, including myself, thought she was a very strong contender and maybe should have won. She herself even admitted that she "messed up" in the finale, but overall she was very thankful for the experience on the show because it really helped her "find herself."
In any case, it set her down a path to opening her own restaurant in little ole Irvine, California called "Twenty Eight" (the age she started cooking). Why Irvine? I wouldn't really call this city an up and coming foodie town, so I'm just as confused as you. It would have been a good question to ask Shirley, but between showing up late (like 5-10 minutes, apparently the rest of the diners who were white and had at least 20-30 years+ on me, didn't get the memo about Asian time) and Shirley's effusive excitement, it was just a flurry of eating, snapping pictures, and trying to catch every word of her explanations and background stories for each dish.
For the whopping price of $200, we were offered a 9 course tasting menu paired with drinks and inclusive of tip. The hefty price tag might explain why the crowd was a bit more geriatric than one would expect for such a foodie event. Really, who could throw down that kinda change? Apparently Teety, myself, and 15 other old people! Soprano Man had to work, *tear face*
So we didn't get the prime seats in the middle of the counter, but we still got plenty of love and attention from Shirley and and Jason Quinn (far right, chef/owner of The Playground).
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Tongue & Cheek
Monday, June 2, 2014
Tupelo Junction
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Ramen Yamadaya
Kara-Age Chicken
The chicken wasn't old tasting fortunately. It was actually juicy, seasoned and fried well. Was it the best kara-age I've ever had? No, not really, but it hit the spot.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Havana 1957
Huevos con Vegetales 3 eggs any style, vegetables, onions, peppers, tomatoes, home fries
Someone's breakfast. Seemed fairly standard.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Yardbird Southern Table
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
OLA
To celebrate the end of her single days and the beginning of a wonderful married life, Bruin Bear and I planned a kick ass trip to Miami for our dearest friend Care Bear. Miami was Care Bear's choice, but the food picks were pretty much all mine. No surprise there right? It was a challenge to narrow down all the amazing dining options in Miami to just 3 square meals. But, I sort of thrive on solving tough first world problems. Our first meal was intended to be our fanciest meal for the weekend. All the gals, Care Bear especially, were dressed to kill for our first night out on this town, busting at the seams with beautiful people, or maybe just smokin' hot Latin men. Muy caliente! OW!
I would describe OLA as a modern Latin American take on the Miami food scene. The ceviches and empanadas seem to be obligatory choices, but really you could go anywhere from there and do no wrong. I will admit, my memory of this meal is a bit foggy because I was pre-gaming like Prohibition was making a comeback. So, the pictures and descriptors could certainly use some polish, but as Jamie Foxx said..."Blame it on the a a a a a a alcohol."
Short Rib Empanada black beer braised short rib, creamy habanero sauce, smoked orange rosemary marmalade
Tender beef, stuffed inside a flaky dough. The sauces definitely brought the needed moisture I find is always lacking in empanadas.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Black Hogg
Brussels Sprouts Hash twice cooked brussels, yukon golds, bacon vinaigrette, poached egg
It is a FACT. Every restaurant this side of 2008 has their version of brussels sprouts. These were pretty good. I liked the incorporation of the soft luscious potatoes. The bacon flavor was pretty subtle. I'm sure the brussels were fried, and so the yolk added only another layer of decadence.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Son of a Gun
Hamachi galbi vinaigrette, pink lady apple, radish sprout
We weren't that impressed by the raw stuff, but I did find the galbi vinaigrette to be quite memorable. Packed with umami goodness, I wished I could bottle the stuff up and pour it over everything.
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Monday, April 7, 2014
King Hua
Dim sum has to fall into the same category as sushi, for it's lack of varying descriptors. Also, while all sushi looks the same, all dim sum looks the same as well. As a result, dim sum isn't all that exciting to blog about, but I still do it because good dim sum deserves some attention. King Hua isn't the best, but it's pretty good. Maybe I don't know what the best is anymore, since my favorite place Sea Harbour Seafood has faltered in quality just a tad. LoMa-Linda recommended some new places for me to try since the prices and wait times are high at Sea Harbour. I agreed to try King Hua mostly because they serve milk buns, and I refuse to eat dim sum unless I can have my milk buns! This meal was a special occasion since The Gunner (who needs a new name) and Perpetually Underwhelmed were visiting me from Portland. I wanted to show them what was good about SoCal, and ain't nothing better here than the Asian food.
Siu Mai
Porky, juicy, plump.
Monday, March 31, 2014
B Patisserie
Though I have yet to try the wondrous deliciousness of the famed Cronut, I would argue that B Patisserie's Kouign-Amann (pronounced queen ahman) has to be some stiff West Coast competition. I don't know why I had never heard of this Kouign-Amann before. It is ridiculously amazing. Like any good bakery, B Patisserie serves an assortment of sinfully sweet and rich pastries.
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Friday, February 28, 2014
Range
I'm really beginning to appreciate the food scene in San Francisco more and more these days. It's definitely a much more refined food scene than LA. The restaurants seem more ingredient driven and have that "farm-to-table" thing going on. It's also a nice change of pace to come to San Francisco and let another foodie take the reigns. It's refreshing to be able to put your brain on hold and just show up somewhere someone tells you and have complete faith that the place is gonna be tasty. This is how I feel when I dine with The Pouter.
Mendocino Sea Urchin chilled soba noodles, seaweed, ginger, sesame seeds
Our romantic date started off with some appetizers. I LOVE uni but somehow I've never been impressed with any preparation of uni save for nigiri. I suppose the problem is that when uni is served in some other way besides nigiri, there's never enough of it and I always feel disatisfied. Here it looks like there's a lot of uni, but it's more like there's not a lot of the other stuff. It was a cool refreshing starter with light Japanese flavors.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Badmaash
Over the years, I've come to love braises and stews. In that same vein, I've come to appreciate the varying brown spicy mushiness of Indian food. I guess I just like food that doesn't require a lot of teeth to eat and enjoy. I love food for the senile and edentulous! I don't think I have a very refined palate when it comes to Indian food; it mostly all tastes pretty good to me. But Badmaash was recommended by Bruin Bear, and she's born and bred brown. Apparently, she knows the owners and really wanted me and some of our other friends to try this up and coming DTLA spot. It was a sort of reunion for Care Bear, Token Bear, Bruin Bear, Derm Bear and myself. The latter two had their husbands in tow too, Thai Bear, and ENT Bear respectively. Yeah, it was an all bear kinda night. We sorta ate like bears too!
Samosas traditional & butter chicken
Truthfully, I think I like the traditional potato samosas, but the meat one was good too.
This is one of the signature dishes. They are getting creative here combing a traditional Canadian favorite with Indian flavors. I commend their efforts, but it just fries topped with all those things.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Oumi Sasaya
The South Bay has its fair share of excellent Japanese restaurants. Triple T being the stereotypical Taiwanese Japan-o-phile, feels right at home here. Why do Taiwanese people love everything Japanese? I have no idea, but it's like they were brainwashed from the womb to worship anything and everything "made in Japan." If you're reading this, and you're a true Taiwanese at heart, then you know this is true! Anyways, I digress. This is a food blog here, so on to the food...
Cold Tofu
Oumi Sasaya is solid udon oriented joint, but we had to have some starters to kick things off. I think this was a standard amuse bouche for everyone. Nothing really spectacular here.
You can't wrong with wings.
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Sunday, January 26, 2014
Scratch Bar
I prefer my oysters raw, but this worked nicely.
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