I wish I could cook the books.
Umami Burger – 2.21.10 – I Concede. Umami Wins.
I’ll admit – the first time I went to Umami, I played it off like it was nothing special because I didn’t want to give into the hype of the place.
“How’s Umami Burger?”
*shrug*
“It’s okay.”
But after today, I cannot deny that Umami Burger makes a damn good burger. Behold, the Spanish burger:
(*cue the angels and harps*)
It may not look like anything special but this juicy lamb patty smeared with saffron aioli and some kind of purple sauce, topped with roasted bell peppers and baby arugula and sandwiched between two fluffy white buns is an explosion of flavor.
The patty wasn’t dry at all, which is a feat considering it was made of lamb. There was some sweet and spicy action going on with the bell peppers and the peppery arugula. And finally, that purple sauce? I have no idea what it is but I’m thinking that’s Umami’s secret ingredient (because I can’t figure what else is making this burger so addicting!).
8 hours later and I’m still craving this baby. So good.
Umami Burger
4655 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Petrossian – 2.7.10 – Waking Up to Caviar and Truffles
After that first meal at Petrossian, I had to go back…So I did. Immediately.
A little over one week after my dineLA-cum-7 course tasting menu, I was already back in the restaurant, sitting by the same window, scanning the same menu and wondering what to order for my second time around.
The circumstances for this meal were different than the last: I was here for a light brunch with a friend and wanted to try the one or two dishes I missed the last time around. Overwhelmed by the menu, I had the opportunity of asking Ben for his opinion:
“What do you think about the caviar pizza?”
“It’s good!”
“I was thinking about the croque madame too.”
“That’d be great for brunch.”
“Well…what about the foie gras salad? Linden (The Gastronomnom) says it’s even better than your Napoleon tartare.”
“Oh, did he? You should get it then.”
Wow. That was helpful.
My dining companion was just as useless, but agreed to split whatever dishes I decided to order. So, after much inner debate, I finally settled on the foie gras salad and the caviar pizza, with an order of the truffle mac and cheese instead of the croque madame. (There’s no way I could turn down the mac and cheese!)
Once again, Ben surprised us with an order of the blinis to start. They were still as delicious as I remembered (a memory of which was still fresh in my mind at that point).
The foie salad was brought out next – a slice of a foie gras terrine placed atop a bed of haricot vert and walnuts.
(“You should get it”, he says. And so I did.)
The fresh green beans were a welcome start to my sunny Sunday morning, and I loved the crunch of the walnuts hidden in the pile. The rich foie terrine smeared over toast points was that day’s butter and toast.
After touting Petrossian’s mac and cheese throughout my conversation, it finally arrived – picture perfect as always. Again, each bite was heaven, with the bacon flavor a bit stronger this time around. Although I adore this dish, I’ve decided that it’s best enjoyed at dinner; it’s just too hearty for a morning brunch.
The caviar pizza, on the other hand, was the ideal dish for such an occasion.
The combination of ingredients is surprising. The menu may have described it as a pizza with creme fraiche, red onions, chives, capers and caviar, however, it fails to include the finely minced hard-boiled eggs (which are key, as I soon discovered). The eggs add smoothness, the onions add sweetness and, of course, the caviar and capers add that final punch of salt.
I ended my meal with the strawberry panna cotta and the pistachio creme brulee. I favored the panna cotta before, I favored it again.
Now that I’ve eaten all the favorites at Petrossian, you may think I’d be satisfied for a while. Not quite – my friend can attest that, during our converastion, I was frequently distracted by the dishes ordered by the patrons outside (you know, the more standard brunch fare like the hand sliced smoked salmon, the 321 salad or my foregone croque madame). I may have been enviously eying them then, but I’ll try them myself soon enough.
Petrossian Paris Boutique & Cafe
321 N Robertson Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90048
LA Street Food Fest – 2.13.10 – Part II: Icing on the Cake
Read Part I of my adventures at the LA Street Food Fest here.
(Now for a more objective view of the 2010 LA Street Food Fest.)
Like I said in my prior post, I already considered the day a success after getting my LFC and figured everything else would be icing on the cake. In this case, the icing was deliciously sweet because I had a complete and utter BLAST at this event!
The best way to get around food festivals such as this one is to use the tactic my friends like to call “divide and conquer”: Get a group of people, everyone take a different truck, order 2-3x more than you normally would, then meet back at a specific location and divvy up the goods. Yes, you’ll still get stuck in a line but it’s only one 2-hour line rather than four 2-hour lines and you get at least twice the amount of food.
Based on our “divide and conquer” technique, I was able to taste the following trucks and try their respective goodies:
- Frysmith: kimchi fries, rajas fries, foie gras fries, chili cheese fries
- Dogzilla: karai furikake dog, yakisoba dog, dogzilla dog
- Qzilla: smoked brisket, pulled pork, ribs, Texas toast, smack and cheese
- Mama Koh’s Chicken: chicken wings
- Fishlips: tuna, eel, shrimp, yellowtail
- Buttermilk: red velvet chocolate chip pancake bites.
- Coolhaus: chocolate chip cookie, brown butter candied bacon ice cream
- Del’s Lemonade: frozen lemonade
As you can see, “divide and conquer” works pretty well (to say the least).
Although I had a great time and filled myself up on truck food, I knew pretty early on (i.e. immediately after I got my order of LFC and watched the line grow exponentially in the next 5 minutes) that there was going to be some kind of backlash on “teh internetz” about this event. With the amount of people pouring through the gate, the lines were bound to be long and most people, like me, hate waiting in lines. I also knew that quite a number of people would probably be unaccustomed to food festivals and expect to stroll in at 3PM and get food immediately (which is obviously NOT the case).
Huge crowds + long lines = disgruntled people who will complain.
I knew it was going to get even uglier when I caught news that they were closing down the general admission line due to overcapacity inside. (As someone who was on the inside, I can vouch – it was crowded already.) The next news to hit was that there were delays in the trucks because of health inspections. Both would affect the public’s view of the event and, again, would cause people to complain. (I can already see negativity bubbling in the comments on other people’s blogs and on Yelp.)
Here’s the way I see it:
Yes, it sucks that people had to wait outside for hours and still weren’t allowed in.
Yes, it sucks that people had to wait inside for hours and didn’t get very much food.
I’m not going to lie – it totally sucks.
But think about it from another perspective: This is the first food festival in LA of this size. Name another festival that comes close to reaching the number of people in attendance at the Food Fest today – What, the Tofu festival? BBQ festival? KBBQ festival? I would argue that the LA Street Food Fest is a first for this city. Considering this is its first year, that the turnout was 50-100% larger than anticipated, and given the hiccups caused by the fire marshal and the health inspector and whomever else, I would say the LA Street Food Fest did pretty damn well for itself.
Nothing works perfectly the first time around; it’s only with time and hard lessons that things get better. And I honestly believe that the next time around (and there will be another time around), the event will be bigger and better. I mean, if, in its first year, the LA Street Food Fest has already converted me into a food festival supporter (which is a big deal in and of itself), who knows what else it is capable of?
LA Street Food Fest – 2.13.10 – Part I: Operation LFC
I haven’t been to very many food festivals in my lifetime…Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve only been to one other. But I learned one VERY important lesson from the Korean BBQ Festival of August 2009:
If you show up late, you WILL wait in line.
Now, if you know anything about me, you’ll know – I’m an impatient girl. I absolutely abhor waiting in lines. And since food festivals equal lines and food trucks equal lines, I had pretty much decided I wasn’t going to go to the 2010 LA Street Food Festival.
…That was, until I heard about Chef Ludo and his LFC (i.e. Ludo Fried Chicken) truck. Once news broke about Ludo, I started to plan – I was going to show up at the crack of dawn (more like 45 minutes before the gates opened) and I was going to go to Ludo’s truck. If I got myself an order of LFC, I would consider the day a success and leave with no remorse. Everything else would be icing on the cake.
So, this morning, I left the house at 10AM with my $10 presale fan ticket in hand and drove the 15 minutes to DTLA. (Note: Presale is a must, especially when you don’t know how general admission is going to look. In this case, it was an extra $5 well spent.) I paid my $5 for parking (the lot was pretty empty at that time), found the side entrance (for fan ticket holders only) and waited. And waited. And waited. But once those gates opened and they checked my name off the list, I RAN. I knew that, with every step, was five people I would beat in line. Lucky for me, Krissy, Ludo’s wife, had posted a picture of Ludo’s beautiful truck on Twitter that morning. I knew EXACTLY what I was looking for: a bright red truck with the coq on it.
(The holy grail.)
I think I was one of the first dozen people in line. No real wait, the chicken was already fried and the trade-off of money for chicken was almost instantaneous.
(Operation LFC: A SUCCESS!)
I found a seat at a nearby table, watching the line quadruple before my eyes. I bit into the chicken and the aromatic flavor of the rosemary filled my mouth. Each piece of chicken was succulent and moist and absolutely perfect. I dunked the chicken, the breading, anything I could get my hands on into the tangy piquillos sauce.
An hour in and the day was already a success. It could only get better…
Read Part II of my adventures at the LA Street Food Fest here.
Petrossian – 1.29.10 – Full of <3s and Truffle Mac & Cheese
(Picture taken by Austin of Living to Eat.)
Yes, it’s true – I *heart* Chef Ben Bailly. Not quite love – it’s going to take another serving or two of his famous black truffle mac and cheese for me to get to that level – but definitely *heart*. I fall into *heart* rather quickly; I just can’t help myself.
Take Petrossian for example – I’ve been *heart*ing it for a while now, ever since the words “truffle mac and cheese” fell upon my ears. Thus, when this current Winter 2010 DineLA Restaurant Week came rolling around, I knew – If I only had one restaurant to go to this season, it would be Petrossian.
(…Anticipation…)
After hearing so much about it, it was surprisingly to walk into Petrossian for the first time. It was this little unassuming spot on the corner of Robertson and Rosewood, without a single valet umbrella in sight. (I got lucky and found myself a free meter on the street.) Their dining room is clean and simplistic – a combination of mirror and glass and black and white. While I first made myself comfortable there, I soon overhead the bustle of the kitchen behind the wall and relocated myself to the boutique where I could catch a glimpse of the kitchen. You can’t tell when peeking in from the outside but Petrossian’s kitchen is very small; it’s amazing Chef Ben can produce such wondrous dishes from a single stove. (Yes, a single stove. Four burners – That’s it!)
Now, onto the food…Oh, THE FOOD.
Although I went for DineLA, their regular menu was so tempting I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with only three dishes. Thus, my three course DineLA prix fixe of shrimp papillotte, pork belly and pistachio creme brulee soon became a five course meal, with the addition of the napoleon tartare and truffle mac and cheese both ordered a la carte. Little would I know, this five course would later turn into a seven course, with the blinis and mushroom cappuccino delivered compliments of the chef. By the end of the meal, I was holding my stomach in a mix of pain and pure bliss. (So much food! Need more space!)
The night began with the trio of blinis topped with trout roe, salmon roe and caviar. I usually have roe prepared Japanese style over rice, so tasting a more traditional preparation was a nice change of pace. I particularly enjoyed the salty caviar against the creme fraiche, although the salmon and trout roes were also fantastic.
The next course was the first of the DineLA three – the shrimp “papillotte” with passion fruit and chili ginger sauce. Traditionally, to be cooked “en papillotte” means a protein (typically fish) is wrapped in parchment paper and cooked to lock in the moisture. The shrimp were not quite cooked en papillotte; instead of wrapped in parchment paper, they were wrapped in thin wonton skins and fried. When tasted with the tangy passion fruit ginger sauce, one could see a slight Asian influence in the dish.
Just as the two light starters perked my appetite, then came THE DISH: Chef Ben’s famous truffle mac and cheese.
When I had mentioned I was going to Petrossian, one dish was shouted from the heavens with foodies rallying like it was the next coming – the truffle mac and cheese. Chewy orrechiette pasta, smothered in cream, black truffles and bacon…The aroma alone made my mouth water. While the description may sound heavy, it was perfectly balanced and not at all overwhelming. The flavor caused my eyes to roll into the back of my head in delight with every bite. Absolutely amazing.
If there was a dish that could have followed up the truffle mac and cheese without disappointment, it would be the napoleon tartare. Raw steak with a layer of caviar streaked through the center – there is nothing more luxurious than that. Seasoned by Chef Ben himself, I could have eaten the whole thing with a fork – no crostinis necessary. (They have a version of the Napoleon tartare without caviar but seriously people – why would you NOT add caviar?!)
After the tartare came the mushroom cappuccino. It was a complex soup that tasted like a field of mushrooms – deep and earthy, each sip felt like it was warming my soul. The chestnuts hidden at the bottom of the cup added some texture and a bit of sweetness to that final sip.
Our last savory dish of the night was the DineLA pork belly, a glorious slab larger than the palm of my hand. Its delicious fat glistened in the candlelight, each bite melted in my mouth. Petrossian’s pork belly could arguably be the best piece of pork belly I’ve had in my life.
Finally, I arrived at dessert. By this time, I had already reached foodie delirium and only allowed myself a couple tastes of each dessert. Flavor-wise, the pistachio creme brulee was the most unique, with the roasted pistachios giving off almost a green tea/matcha taste. (Chef Ben seemed surprised by this comment – there were only pistachios in the brulee, no tricks!) I personally favored the panna cotta with strawberry jam; it was light ending to a large meal and my gorged self really couldn’t handle anything more than that.
So now you see why I say I *heart* both Chef Ben Bailly and Petrossian; the thought of this meal still causes my heart to beat faster. Now to go again to see if this is just *heart* or love… (If this is how I’m kicking off 2010, the rest of the year has some damn high expectations to live up to!)
Petrossian Paris Boutique & Cafe
321 N Robertson Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90048
EVENT: Sidewalk Party at Mozza2Go – 2.6.10, 12:30PM
Are you or one of your friends a member of Blackboard Eats?
Do you have a 30% off discount code for Mozza2Go?
Do you realize that code expires on Feb. 6th?
Thus, SIDEWALK PARTY! (We can’t eat in Mozza – thus the 2Go part – but we can party it up outside with our pizzas!)
Join us on Saturday, Feb. 6th outside Mozza2Go. Sitting around on the sidewalk, chatting with friends, chomping down on some damn good pizza…can you think of anything better?
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- PLEASE ORDER BY PHONE BEFORE YOU SHOW UP. That way, you’re not waiting around for an hour for food.
- If you would like to attend but don’t have a code, please comment below - I’ll do my best to find you a code to share.
- Try to carpool. Knowing that area, parking will be a pain.
- It’s scheduled to rain on Saturday – Remember to bring an umbrella! (I’ll be there, rain or shine!)
See you all there!
(Btw, if you have a Blackboard Eats code you’re not using and would like to donate it to our party, please comment!)
———-
UPDATE: So I received a message from someone from Blackboard Eats encouraging us to go to Mozza2Go but to eat elsewhere out of respect for Mozza’s neighbors (which I understand). Thus, does anyone have any suggestions on where to take this delicious food to eat?
Max Brenner / Syrup Desserts – 12.11.09 / 1.23.10 – East vs. West Waffles
When I went to NYC in December, I had the opportunity of going to a wondrous place called “Max Brenner”. Walking through the doors was like walking through a curtain of chocolate – you were immediately greeted with the smell of it and its warm embrace. I remember loving Max Brenner’s carefree, sugar-loving establishment and wishing that something like this existed in LA.
Little did I know, there already was.
Stumbling upon Syrup Desserts was like walking into LA’s adult version of Max Brenner. Not quite Candyland, this was the more sophisticated version for those who enjoyed a good french press with their sugary delights. You may not drown in chocolate at Syrup Desserts, but you can definitely appease your sweet tooth here.
Now comes the question: Which one is better? I can’t say for certain, but I do know this: They both make a mean berry waffle.
Max Brenner
“It’s so simple. All you have to do is just really love chocolate!”
If Max Brenner were the Willy Wonka of NYC, I would be the girl who got stuck in a tube because I was drinking too much chocolate out of the river. (Yes, the short little rotund one.)
Max Brenner is just a happy-go-lucky kind of place. Open until 2AM, it’s perfect for a midnight snack or, in my case, a warm cup of hot chocolate on a cold New York night. They’ve got half a dozen varieties of hot chocolate on their menu, each made with your choice of either dark, milk or white chocolate. I personally recommend the dark Mexican hot chocolate – the spiciness in that cup kicked the cold right out of me!
After hungrily eyeing the neighboring table’s Tutti Frutti waffles for five minutes straight, I figured I should order a plate of my own. The waffles themselves were a bit dry but the mountains of strawberries compensated for it. The berries were ripe and sweet and had just a hint of citrus to punch things up a bit. The vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup were eaten separately – There was no need to load that waffle up any more than it already was, it was great as is.
Max Brenner
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Syrup Desserts
If parking downtown wasn’t such a pain, you’d find me at Syrup Desserts every weekend, fork full of waffle in one hand, coffee in the other and a lonely laptop sitting in front of me. (Hey, I only have two hands!) Any establishment that serves both LAMill and Intelligencia coffee already gets an “A” in my book. Add some of the best waffles I’ve had in recent memory and you’ve earned yourself that extra plus.
Syrup Desserts serves three types of waffles: Fancy waffles (that, for the life of me, I can’t remember what makes them so fancy), Belgian waffle and liege waffles. Again, with the help of Wikipedia, I shall define my food. Liege waffles are:
“a richer, denser, sweeter, and chewier waffle. Invented by the chef of the prince-bishop of Liège in the 18th century as an adaptation of brioche bread dough, it features chunks of pearl sugar, which caramelizes on the outside of the waffle when baked.”
In other words, it’s pure deliciousness.
(Side tangent: My food photo skills are slowly getting better! YAY!)
As mentioned, the waffles are noticeably chewier than your typical Belgian waffle but I personally like the consistency. I was surprised to find blueberries baked inside my waffle; they were a welcome addition and didn’t soggy the waffle at all.
As for the accompanying blackberry jasmine ice cream, I could eat vats of the stuff. Although my dining companion Austin thought they had overseeped the blackberry jasmine tea, I loved the bold blackberry flavor and the heavy tea aftertaste.
I can already tell Syrup Desserts is soon going to be one of my regular late night stops. The last time I was there, I noticed they have a Mexican hot chocolate on their menu too – if it’s as good as Max Brenner’s, I’ll never leave.
Syrup Desserts
611 S Spring St
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Auditor’s Eats – 1.2010 – I DON’T DO TAX.
20 consecutive working days, 200 billable hours and many, many more unbillable hours later, I am officially DONE with the first sign-off of the 2010 busy season!
FREEEEDOOOOOMMM!!
For those unfamiliar with the wonderful world of public accounting, here’s a little background:
- Busy season is the bane of an auditor’s existence. We work like hell for the months between January and March (mine typically runs into April, lucky me) and, when I say we work like hell, I mean work equals life. Come in at 9AM, leave at midnight – thus is our busy season life.
- Please do not mention tax season around me, I don’t do tax. We are busy because public companies release their financial statements as of 12/31 (i.e. year-end) and we’re the ones making sure those numbers are correct. The day these financials are released is known as “sign-off” (i.e. the day the firm signs off saying everything’s okay).
- Lastly, and most importantly, because we work 15 hours a day, the firm has to feed us. I mean, we’re working an extra 7 hours a day but we don’t get paid overtime? They better feed us. (Oh, thus is the salaried life.)
…Which brings us to Auditor’s Eats.
I thought it would be funny to take pictures of what I eat at work and see what crosses my desk during the course of a busy season. In better times, we would be ordering in for every meal – lunch, snacks, and dinner – but it’s a recession now and we only get dinners nowadays. Not that I’m complaining – dinner is the most anticipated moment of the day. It’s the time when we can put down our green pens and just relax for a good half-hour before diving headfirst back into our piles of paper.
So here goes the first ever Auditor’s Eats. There will be many more coming soon – trust me, busy season ain’t over yet.
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Hatchi with Marcel Vigneron – 12.17.09 – I’m a Froupie
froupie
/’fru pi/ [froo-pee]
- noun informal
1. an ardent fan of a chef or of a particular style of cooking
2. a food groupie
I don’t quite know when but, at some point, I think I’ve turned into a Marcel Vigneron froupie. Whenever I hear the name “Marcel”, part of me wants to squeal like a teenage girl at the premiere of a Twilight flick.
Maybe it’s his engaging on-screen personality that makes my heart skip a beat or his iconic Wolverine-like hair that makes me melt? …No – it’s his food that brings out my inner froupie.
(“OMGAhhhhh!!! It’s MARCEL!”)
I was very excited for the December Hatchi event at Breadbar as this was my first chance to taste dishes by Marcel and Marcel alone (i.e. sans José Andrés, at the Bazaar). I was also hoping he’d bust out the molecular gastronomy and he did not disappoint – spherifications, foams and liquid nitrogen, we got it all.
To begin, his amuse bouche was a simplistic spherification of pomegranate juice with a single blueberry tucked inside.
His first course (my favorite course of the night) was a fantastic hamachi sashimi. The composition of the dish – the fresh fish, the citrus of kumquats, the sweetness of the momo chan (i.e. little green baby peaches), the texture of seaweed – was thoughtful; each bite was enjoyable.
The second course was a dayboat scallop, sitting atop cauliflower couscous and seaweed. The molecular portion of this dish wasn’t blatantly apparent until I overheard him explaining the dish to the diners next to me: the puree on the plate (the pink, purple and yellow) are all the same. In order for him to obtain the different colors, an acid is added to the mixture that causes the colors to bloom from purple to pink.
The third course was a tad confusing to me, only because I seemed to enjoy the avocado wrapped mango more than the langoustine ravioli. The ravioli, on its own, was reminiscent of har gao that had been steamed in a dim sum cart for a tad too long; however, when tasted with the avocado and mango, it picked up a little bit of flavor and life. (Note: I was happy to see a foam make an appearance on the menu – What is a meal with Marcel without foam?!)
The fourth course was another simple, clean dish – a miso honey black cod sitting in broth. Although I had just come off of a seafood high at Le Bernardin the Saturday prior, I still thoroughly enjoyed the buttery texture of the cod and the lightness of the broth.
The fifth course was a salad with bacon and a breaded egg. Not bad, but nothing impressive.
The fifth course may have fallen a bit flat, but the sixth course was a surprising tender rack of lamb with a deconstructed tzatziki. My piece of lamb was a tad too fatty for my preferences but what meat I was able to scrounge off the bone was succulent and delicious.
The seventh course, a gigantic chunk of short rib, was daunting in size (I just can’t eat that much anymore!). I didn’t eat the entire piece but the bit I did devour was also very tender. The three types of corn (e.g. the baby corn, the pureed corn and the popped corn) were fun and did exactly as described – they added texture to the dish, keeping you interested as you made your way through the mountain of meat.
Marcel’s last course was a green chartreuse souffle. I tried the green chartreuse in one of the cocktails for the night – the herbaceous flavor was a bit strong for my taste. However, the flavor mellowed out in the souffle, making it a nice ending to the meal.
———-
I almost made it through the entire night without any froupie tendencies but I caved in last minute – I may not have screamed his name across the Breadbar dining room but (as you can see above) I got a picture with Marcel in the end.
I’m such a froupie.
Breadbar – HATCHI
10250 Santa Monica Boulevard
Century City, CA 90067
LudoBites 3.0 at Royal/T Countdown!
It dawned on me today that my ressie at LudoBites is this Thursday.
…Wait, did you hear me? THIS THURSDAY.
Now four days may not seem like a long time but I’m an impatient girl. A very impatient girl. Thus, I will be counting down every minute/hour/day until I get to go back. (I’m also going to post up this pic of us at the last LudoBites with Chef Ludo Lefebvre himself – just ’cause I think it’s cool.)
CAN’T WAIT!
(Side note: A big thanks to Linden of The Gastronomnom for setting this up!)
