Food: November 2009 Archives

                            

Glamour was the order of the evening at Bouchon's opening event Monday night. After ascending the staircase, we were greeted by servers offering champagne near a caviar station with caviar quenelle and whipped cream cheese-topped bagel crisps surrounding the biggest ice volleyball in the world. Gliding down the elegant hallway, we came across a full bar on the right serving Bouchon's signature drink of Grey Goose vodka, Lillet Blanc, and Brizard Peche with an Orange Baton/Lemon Twist. A raw bar around the corner was shucking oysters at lightning speed.

With three storefronts open (and fourth in Santa Monica soon), Umami Burger is taking its popular food to the streets. Its purpose is three-fold, however, according to Eater LA. With delays in opening the Santa Monica location at Fred Segal, the truck will park there as a temporary restaurant. This is expected to happen soon. The popular restaurant is frequently asked to do catering gigs and a catering truck makes it easier. With the Twittering mobile food craze in its height, why not join on in on the fun?!?!

              

This past Sunday afternoon the Japanese Restaurant Association hosted the 10th annual Japanese Food Festival at the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens in Little Tokyo. The event was a big draw for Japanese food and drink enthusiasts, and offered unlimited sushi,

       

There's a new multi-faceted food destination now open in Hollywood. The Mercantile comes from the business mind of relocated New Yorker George Abou-Daoud (Bowery, Mission Cantina and Delancey), who describes the restaurant as "equal parts gourmet marketplace, daytime café and nighttime wine bar." In the kitchen is Chef Kris Morningstar, most recently of DTLA's Casa, who helped the modern Mexican eatery get on its feet before announcing an amicable split calculated to prep him for his new gig in Hollywood.

Terry Wunder of The Wunder Blog sent us this video story of 6 Angelenos and 6 LA Food Trucks. They chat with the truck operators and talk shop, and, of course, eat. Featured in the video are a mix of the "old guard" and newbies in the mobile food world: Barbie's Q, Lomo Arigato, The Flying Pig Truck, Coolhaus, Little Spoon Desserts, and KogiBBQ.

            

I get asked more often than I can handle for recommendations for where to eat in Los Angeles. And it's a hard question to answer because there are not only a staggering number of excellent options, but also it's so often a matter of personal taste and finding the right spot for the right occasion. For the past four or five years, however, if you ask me what my favorite special occasion restaurant in Los Angeles is (not counting the epic $500 sushi of Urasawa, mind you) I will without hesitation say The Water Grill.

                     

This Saturday, crowds and culinarians flocked to the Westfield Topanga Shopping Center to take part in the 1st Annual KCRW "Good Food" Pie Contest. Deep inside the mall was the event's center stage, where the 123 entered pies sat on long tables as a panel of judges comprised of local food writers, bakers, chefs, and gourmands took on the daunting task of tasting and evaluating every single one (not an easy job if you're a little hungover, eh Chef Stefan Richter?). Host Evan Kleiman kept the judges and crowd in check, presiding over this well-received event that served as a sort of culmination of her own months-long personal pie endeavor, the Pie-a-Day Project, as logged on the Good Food Blog.

                                   

Last Sunday the backlot of CBS Radford Studios in Studio City was filled with some of the biggest names...in food. The 23rd Annual Great Chefs of LA was indeed the promised food and drink filled afternoon of music, swag bags, and auctions, all to benefit the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California. Hosted by comedian and TV star George Lopez, the event drew some celebs (so we hear!) from entertainment and lots of food talent (so we ate!).

What's more American than apple pie? Or pumpkin, pecan, chocolate-peanut butter truffle, key lime, lemon meringue, and razzleberry? Hundreds of Los Angeles-area pie bakers and lovers are due to convene today from 2-4 p.m. at the Westfield Topanga Shopping Center for the first ever KCRW Pie Contest, hosted by the station's "Good Food" guru and life-long pie enthusiast Evan Kleiman. Over 140 participants with pies in four different categories are vying for top tasting honors, and the public is invited to head over to Canoga Park to witness the pie-mania (and even nab some bites). So as DeepEndDining's Eddie Lin, one of the many celebrated judges who'll be partaking in the slices, says: "Let's get ready to crumble!"

As the Downtown Art Walk grew in popularity over the past year, so did unrelated activities like a large craft show and, of course, food trucks. Well, it looks like Main Street, which has turned into food truck alley on the second Thursday of the month, will remain empty of some trucks.

We find ourselves up to our ears in chicken, pork, flank steak and what-have-you entree recipes, but it seems that once we pick a protein, the side dishes are always an issue. A good side really makes the meal, but if your hands are already dirty in marinades and gourmet sauces, something simple with a few ingredients but still knock-your-socks-off tasty is what's called for. Below is a recipe that fits the bill, and best of all, goes well with just about any main course. (Even a calzone omelette.) Another plus, red skin potatoes are budget friendly. We bought ours at the Atwater Village Farmers' Market for a whopping $2 a pound.

Who is Selig? The young European immigrant was called Seelegs (Sea Legs?), Felix, Skeezix, and Cecil by fellow studio employees who had difficulty pronouncing or remembering Selig Burrows’ name. Later showing respect for his increasing age and position he became ‘Mr. Cecil’.

Los Angeles gets a lot of crap for the cuisines in which we don’t specialize. (I label such shittalkers: enemies.) Do we have an amazing pizzeria on every corner? Ha. Good one. Can you find amazing Chinese food in Hollywood? Again, nope. You’ll have to venture east. Does our selection of Indian food rival that of Mumbai (don’t say Bombay?) Again, not exactly. (Stop all the whiny questions please!)

       

It was a happening party at Track 16 last weekend, but most of the attention was surrounding the Dosa Truck parked outside. Thanks to their menu of samosas, masala fries, and their main attraction, filled dosa "wraps" at reasonable prices, there was a constant buzz around the truck.

       

Last week Angelenos by the hundreds went to the "Celebrate the Macallan" at Vibiana. These scotch drinkers jumped at the chance to sample some single malt and learn about the history, traditions, and origins of one of Scotland's finest.

Well, it's not a full-on holiday meal, but a pretty sweet tasting is going for a cheap ten bucks over at the locally-sourced, from farm-to-table themed restaurant, Akasha in Culver City. For two Saturdays, the restaurant will feature different menus for the price. On Saturday, there will be desserts and hors d'oeuvres like Pear and Cranberry Tart with Cinnamon Crumble, Bacon-Cheddar Biscuits, Wild Planet Tuna with Housemade Bread & Butter Pickles and Pomegranate-Jalapeno Jelly.

          

For past week or so, the people behind the Buttermilk Truck have been sneaking around town, previewing its food to whoever came upon it. Although the truck officially debuts Wednesday evening with its late-night menu (think fried chicken and waffles and the Buttermilk Brick--hash browns, eggs over easy, buttermilk biscuit and a housemade chorizo gravy), the truck arrived for a not-so-secret sneak peek of its morning menu at yesterday's Silver Lake Art Craw event at Barnsdall Art Park.

              

Zeke's Smokehouses in Montrose and West Hollywood are offering an amaaaazing deal (imagine me waving my arms around like in a Crazy Eddie commercial right now)! For only 9.95 you can choose 2 meats and 2 sides! It doesn't sound too different from your usual Southern "Meat and Three" dish, but the amount of food on the plate is unbelievable. Enough for me and my dog, Spot! (cue the tiger) Come on down and see us!

If we're talking nosh, there's no item perhaps more quintessential than pastrami on rye. The one pictured above hailed from a plate served up at Langer's, a deli that has been a longtime favorite of locals, but has now been praised for offering up the best of its kind in the whole country. The accolade comes from writer David Sax, whose pursuit of the pastrami--and other deli delights--was profiled recently in the LA Times.

If you're excited about Thomas Keller's return but can't get any reservations, there is an alternative. TK's new cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home, is now available. Although his previous books (The French Laundry Cookbook, Bouchon, Under Pressure) were notoriously difficult and demanding, this one is being billed as "the long-awaited cookbook for the home chef (that happens to have a blowtorch lying around)." If you can overlook the occasional five hour soffrito, most of the recipes are quick and easy to make (like his chocolate chip cookies). As mentioned in the LA Times, Ad Hoc at Home is a great primer on cooking.

On a stretch of Pico where you’re likely to find spicy Caribbean food, or the caloric effort that is Oki-Dog, one might not expect tacos. That's why Sky’s Gourmet Tacos is a great fit. They serve up what they call: "Mexican food with a splash of soul".

Michelin star collector Thomas Keller has been causing a stir with the opening of Bouchon in Beverly Hills, an expansion of the Bouchon Bakeries in Yountville, Las Vegas, and New York City. Bouchon Beverly Hills is slated to open on November 18, 2009 in the Beverly Hills Gardens building located on Cañon Drive. The opening chef is Rory Herrmann, who previously headed up the kitchen at Per Se.

Here in Los Angeles there is a valued relationship between the food on our plates and the ground from which it comes. From weekly stops at favorite farmers' markets to digging in at a local community garden, the bounty of the land and its role in our eating lives has a profound meaning for many Angelenos, and Americans. Local Chefs are eager to share how they use the market to influence their menu, like Grace and BLD's Neal Fraser and Ford Filling Station's Ben Ford, while some, like Border Grill and Ciudad's Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger have partnered with the LAUSD to help reinforce the importance of garden-based learning and to be conscious of what we eat. The politics of eating has become a local focal point, thanks to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's championing a Food Policy Task Force this summer as we celebrated 30 years of farmers' markets in L.A.

This will likely be one of the hottest reservation scrambles of the coming weeks: As hinted earlier by Gayot.com (scroll down), Chef Ludovic Lefebvre will be popping up in December for a limited engagement of LudoBites (LAist Review) at Culver City's Royal/T.

              

Evan Kleiman's love of pie began when she was a little girl. A native Angeleno, the Angeli Caffe Chef/Owner and KCRW Good Food host grew up in Silver Lake, and remembers her family getting their baked treats from Sarno's bakery. It was a family tradition to get one of the bakery's rum cakes to celebrate a birthday, however Kleiman soon yearned to branch out. "At some point in my early childhood I started requesting a pie for my birthday," she explains. "And in spite of the fact that my birthday is in July I requested an apple pie." Her request soon led to her having hands-on kitchen time and a long-running tradition: "I went from requesting them to making them," she adds. "Now I still have a birthday pie every summer but I have berry or peach."

Jaden Hair is a food blogger, television personality, and photographer. She writes for Steamy Kitchen, TLC, and just came out with a new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough for Tonight's Dinner . Jaden grew up in Los Angeles and has since become a regular guest on Daytime NBC and a writer for the Tampa Tribune in Florida, where she lives with her family. She recently made an appearance on the Today Show to talk about how to make Korean-style burgers and Kimchi Fried Rice.