#65 - A.O.C.

The first restaurant I'll be writing about that opened well before I moved to LA (opened in 2002) and that's been on my radar/list since I moved into town (2009) but I didn't make it here until starting this JGold 101 challenge. So thanks, Jonathan!

I really enjoyed A.O.C. For many reasons, but one in particular was that it lacked pretension. Our server Alex started off by asking if we wanted sparkling water or "LA's finest" I really liked that he made the regular free water sound fancy and normal. Throughout the entire meal he was great about coming at just the right moment, not ever interrupting us, and being overall delightful and funny.

The inside to (covered) outside transition is really beautiful, with tables of two sitting in the open doors. Fireplace burning next to running old-style fountain, vines growing on the walls. Good vibes abound.

Oh, and the food is fantastic!  All sharing style. We did one DineLA menu which was four courses and added on a few other dishes. I would come back here for sure. Loved everything!

Three cheese plate. I let our server choose the cheeses. Top is a goat cheese which was very sweet and delicious. Middle cheese was a VERY stank sheep's milk cheese, but it grows on you and pairs really well with the dried apricot. The bottom cheese was a triple cream brie, super buttery.

Chicory focaccia. Was tasty, the only problem being that the chicory should be cut up into smaller bites so this dish would be easier to eat.

Black (squid ink) rice with squid. Much tastier than I imagined. I'm generally not a huge paella fan nor do I usually like squid ink. BUT this dish was made perfectly - not too salty - and the squid wasn't fishy. I barely noticed any flavor from the aioli though.

Seabees with beets. So many different kinds of beets, this dish was beautifully plated. The seabass had some of the best crisp to the skin and flakiness from the flesh that I have ever experienced. Fantastic flavor and probably my favorite dish of the night. I sort of wish we'd each ordered one since it was a very small fillet and we shared it.

The cauliflower was sauteed and quite oily - but I loved it!

Ahh, dessert. It was a toss-up between the chocolate torte and the butterscotch pot de creme. I now wish we'd had both (possible if each of us would have ordered from the DineLA menu instead of only one of us. But, we are trying for low sugar intake this year, so just one dessert is fine. The cake was super dense and a bit too much once I had finished off the coffee cream, hazelnut praline, and caramel. But those bites which had all of the elements were beyond pleasurable!

#9 - Mozzaplex

I probably haven't been to Osteria Mozza since 2012. I think what originally brought me was something I saw on Food Network, which I used to watch religiously when I had cable. Now, not so much.

Anyway, it was delicious and I actually think about the food and ambiance of Mozza quite a lot. Not sure why I haven't made it back in so long, but I'm probably due a visit.

Not to miss:

Anything from the mozzarella bar

Ricotta & Egg Raviolo

Pappardelle

Bambolini

Also, I swear when I went before, they also served pizza in the Osteria Mozza? But maybe I've also been to Pizzeria Mozza on separate occasions. I can't remember what I got, but trust me when I say you can't go wrong.

#55 - Sotto

I'll admit, the first I had heard of Sotto was when I began sorting through everything on Jonathan Gold's 101 List. It's a cute little underground space on Pico, near Beverly. I really enjoyed the space and I was happy to kick off DineLA week with a delicious and thoughtful dinner here.

These restaurants are all about the marinated olives. I'm not complaining! These were marinated in lemon and I think parsley. Very tasty.

House smoked trout spread with grilled bread and house made pickled onion and baby carrots. This was delicious but I felt too much for an appetizer. Danny and I halted this and the carrots below and we were both stuffed by the time the main course came.

The roasted carrots might have been my favorite dish of the evening. They were perfectly roasted so as to be sweet and caramelized on the outside without being mushy inside. They were topped with a light sauce made of super thinly sliced red chili, walnut, and thyme. Totally delicious.

The rigatoni with mushroom and chestnut ragu. So tasty! Nothing more needs to be said.

The Branzino! One of the most delicious and definitely the most interesting branzino I've ever had. The skin was so light and crispy while the flesh was juicy and flaky. It was served over a flavorful bed of fregola sarda (kinda like Israeli couscous), fennel, raisins, pinenuts, and saffron.

Finally, a light dessert to end the meal. This was not exactly what I expected by a "cake" BUT I really enjoyed it. Parsnip, date, and hazelnut cake with Meyer lemon glaze.

#11 - Rustic Canyon

For a restaurant basically just down the street from me, it took me long enough to make it here. It's actually quite a small place, with easy to obtain open bar seating, even on a Friday night at prime time. But luckily I made a reservation. Same day too... so despite this being one of those kinda annoying places that requires everyone in your party to be present before they will seat you, it worked out in my favor with some help from the very kind hostess.

Now on to the food!

I will say while delicious, it's a bit expensive for what it is. It's all meant to be eaten family style, but at a minimum $17 for one small dish, this is a bit unattainable for most budgets. So you likely won't be stuffed unless you drop a pretty penny. But I don't personally have a problem with that!

Some really tasty, herbaceous olives and that delicious Milo & Olive Bread to start

Rapini Malfatti. Did not know what this was until looking it up after my friend ordered it. Turns out it is a dumpling-esque ricotta pasta that was said to have been created in Napa, though there is some dispute. It was really tasty. Looked kinda like a tortellini.

Grist & Toll Polenta. I thought it was a bit too rosemary-forward, but otherwise I enjoyed the texture and other flavors going on.

The black cod.

100% the best thing on the menu, hands down. (at least of the items I tried...And the item I had been eyeing on the menu days leading up to my reservation!) Toasted squash seed spaetzle with delicata squash, brown butter, and sage. I am now dying to learn how to make spaetzle and try my best to recreate this. It was superb. All of my guests thought so and I think they should have waited to try this dish until they had finished off their own, so as not to be disappointed.

#17 - Bestia

When I first heard of Bestia back in 2012, I knew I had to get a reservation for Danny's birthday because he loves Italian food and I had been depriving him of it, as I hadn't yet discovered good Italian food. It took a lot to secure the reservation, but I got it. We were both pleasantly surprised at our first meal and went there countless times after. It's currently been a year or two since we've been back, as we no longer live in the neighborhood, but I'm sure we will return soon!

Food items not to miss:

Genevieve's Little Gems salad
Farro Salad
Burrata Salad
Any of the pizzas
Casarecce al Pomodoro
Agnolotti all'Agnello - Danny eats this every time and thinks it is the best thing in the world
Whole Branzino
Chocolate Budino Tart - I get this without fail every time

#47 - SQIRL

Before ever stepping foot inside the small, Silver Lake adjacent cafe, I already knew everything about it. I could almost taste the dishes, basically had the menu memorized, and should have already attempted some of the recipes on my own, since I own Jessica Koslow's book. But alas, I'm sad to say that it took me until the first week of 2018 to have my first bite of SQIRL's toast.

After my visit around 9 am on Saturday, January 6th, I began wishing I too was an East Sider, living close enough that SQIRL could be "my place" that I could be friends with Jessica and all the other cooks in the kitchen. I imagine myself strolling in there multiple times a week, sometimes just for a drink (and ok, probably a biscuit with jam), waving to the busboy; the girl working behind the counter cheerfully greeting me by name - but never assuming she knows what I want, because I never get the same order twice.

But that's not my life. Yet. This year is about getting as far through Jonathan Gold's 101 list, so it's unlikely I'll return to SQIRL as often as I dream. But enough about my silly dreams, here's what I ate.

For my drink, I would normally go for the house coffee, but I felt compelled to ask the guy taking my order what he recommended to drink. He said his go-to is the almond cappuccino. "A cappuccino?!" I thought to myself before immediately agreeing with him that I would take one. Of course they make their own almond milk. And of course this cute little drink was delicious. The top was more foamy than I'd before encountered in an almond milk latte. Danny went with the coffee which they fill into a small cup and little glass carafe. It's cute and the coffee is solid. Definitely worth an order, and also goes perfect with the famed Ricotta Toast, below.

I'm glad we decided not to order a third dish. This toast is a beast! Yes, it's big, but it's also rich. The light creaminess of the ricotta is equally balanced by the sweetness and acidity in the Blackberry Meyer Lemon jam and the Brioche toast is perfectly buttered and toasted so as to add the salt that's required to balance it all out while maintaining the perfect level of sweetness you might expect from a brioche. Jessica Koslow really shows off her knowledge of Salt, Fat, Acid, & Heat. (Shout out to the book by Samin Rosnat that I'm currently reading!)

Ah, the Sorrel Rice Bowl with avocado. I loved everything about this. It was incredibly complex, with ingredients ranging from the Sorrel (where the heck can you find that stuff anyway?!) to the lacto-fermented hot sauce (what does that mean?!) The egg was poached to perfection, I am at a loss for words to further describe how this dish makes me feel. I need this in my life at least once a week. SQIRL, until we meet again.

#7 - Trois Mec

This is the meal that started me on this journey of trying to make it through Jonathan Gold's 101 List, thus it will be the first post in this series.

If you don't know who Chef Ludo Lefevbre is, read his wikipedia. Or better yet, go back and watch him on Top Chef. He's a riot. He's also become somewhat of an LA institution. With multiple restaurants under his tutelage and more on the way, he's spearheaded the Los Angeles Modern Fine Dining Movement.
I hadn't been to any of his locations until I came across his 2 Chef's in Conversation Series. I was smitten over the reviews of Chef Enrique Olverez so I knew I had to get tickets to that. When the time came, I wasn't fast enough, but luckily they had just released notice that Chef Martha Ortiz was going to be doing a night, and I was able to score tickets to that.

Enough of the words. Take a look at the photos in order of this menu. Two dishes were made with vegetables to accommodate my pescetarian diet.

My taco was made with potatoes in place of pork.

That small piece of cabbage in the center? The single best bite of this whole meal!

My mole was made of celery root in lieu of duck. 

San Diego Weekend

The first time I ever went to San Diego was a turning point in my life.  I was a 6 year old little girl from Doniphan, Missouri and I immediately declared that I would live in California when I was grown up.  My Aunt and cousin's houses were like something out of a movie: big, just miles from the beach, with their own community pools!!!  There was fresh fruit galore, the food we ate was like nothing else I had ever had, I tried Chinese food for the first time as well as Sunchips (in 1996 Sunchips were the healthy alternative to regular chips) I was in heaven.  I knew that the day to day life of San Diegians was like a vacation and I wanted to be part of that lifestyle.

This past weekend we went back to where all of my dreams began.  I finally got to experience Kahn's Salk Institute, we drank absinth for the second time from the same restaurant where we tried it the first time 4 years ago, Currant American Brasserie, and we got to experience everything with Napoleon, because San Diego is the most dog-friendly city on the planet.

The Food and The Dog Friendliness:

Currant was great for happy hour.  We happened to be there on a Friday, so we also took advantage of the $8 Lucid Absinth Friday deal (normally $15)  We could barely get it down.  Why is absinth so gross?  It's like licorice, but worse.  Ah, but I just love the process.  The waitress lights the sugar cube on fire.  The sugar cube is cradled above the absinth and when the flame goes out you begin slowly dripping ice water over the sugar until it has completely dissolved into the liquid below, turning the once green drink into a cloudy white.  Oh Chemistry.  We also munched on the garlic and chive tots which came overflowing in a giant bowl with two scrumptious dipping sauces: chive buttermilk ranch, habanero ketchup.  All for the happy hour price of $4.75.  After all that, we still had quite some time before our dinner reservation, so I ordered the house red wine which came to me in a large glass with enough wine for two people.  Best. happy. hour. ever.  But, the greatest part of all?  Napoleon was welcome to join us on the patio.  That's right LA, ON the patio, not tied up outside the patio on the sidewalk next  to our table, but at our table, on the nice patio.  The waitress brought him water.  Take note LA restaurants, you will have happier customers if you would allow this more.  (Earlier in the day we had a quick lunch at a random Thai place in the Gaslamp District and they allowed this as well.)

For dinner we went to Salvatore's Cucina Italiana.  The maitre de was very pleased to have us and promptly took us to our corner window seat.  We saw that if you checked in on yelp, you got a free glass of Prosecco, so that was our plan! (Danny even got the app just for this reason)  Before we got the chance to do so, the manager greeted us and asked how found out about the establishment to which we replied "yelp."  Then he told us he was going to bring us each a glass of Prosecco because "we love our yelpers!"  The bread, balsamic, and olive oil were all amazing, probably the best white bread I've ever had.  I ordered a salad and Danny a spinach ricotta ravioli, both were delicious and filling, but you know we had to leave room for dessert!  I had the tiramisu, he had the creme brûlée.  Best creme brûlée ever.  Really really good tiramisu.  Oh, did I forget to mention that they filled up our glasses with Prosecco again, on the house?  Love this place forever.

The hotel:

We stayed at the Westin Gaslamp and I normally would stay at the W, but this time they were being dicks and said we would have to pay $25 extra a night and a one time $100 cleaning fee for Napoleon to join us.  That is bs and they should take a lesson from their sister (another starwood hotel) the Westin, who does not charge you a thing for your little one to stay with you.  They also provide a dog bed (as if Napoleon would ever sleep there) and food and water bowls.  They only ask that you not leave your dog alone in the room and you will have to pay if you do that and your dog disturbs others.  Napoleon is an angel, we had no such problems, therefore: free dog stay!  The "heavenly bed" at the Westin makes me want to throw my mattress out the window.  I seriously can't sleep well since we've returned.  Luckily you can buy everything they use to make the "heavenly bed" online, for a pretty penny.  Oh well, I suppose I will have to continue to sleep terribly until I return to the Westin.

More Dog-Friendliness:

There are many dog beaches in San Diego, compared to the one I know of in Los Angeles, plus maybe one other in Malibu?  Come on LA, step up your game!  We took Napoleon to a really popular and huge one called Ocean Beach Dog Beach and he loved it!  It was overcast, June Gloom never ceases to amaze me at how it knows it is June 1st...  Napoleon enjoyed frolicking in the sand and didn't just stand by Danny and I the entire time, which is what he always does at a regular dog park. I think this guy was made to be at the beach.

San Diego, you are a great get-away.  Could I live there?  Maybe, but realisitically I don't think there is much in the way of jobs and things to do like there is in Los Angeles, but you are beautiful and I love you still the same.

BIG news for cupcake and coffee fans

I was hanging out downtown today, waiting for Napoleon to be groomed at pussy and pooch, the overly elite pet spot downtown.  He now smells like blueberries because they spray him with blueberry dog cologne...

Before: dirty face, overgrown, smelled kinda of like a dog

After: clean, fresh, smells like blueberries

Anyway, as I was waiting for him to be ready, I ran into the Big Man himself, Chip Brown, owner and creator of Big Man Bakes cupcake shop(s).  I told him I love his cupcakes (true story, they are delish) He told me that they will now be opening at 8 every morning, serving Handsome Coffee.  Um, ok!  That sounds awesome, but wait, there's more: This week if you buy a coffee, either size, you get a free mini cupcake.  Maybe one day after yoga I will wander over that way and be bad with an old school or a black & white with a coffee.

I ordered Big Man Bakes mini's for Danny's surprise party that I threw him in March.  All the flavors are great and I highly recommend giving the cupcakes a try.  Frosted and Sprinkles are still my favorites, but his come in a close third.

While I'm on the topic of treats, let's talk yogurtland.  I always get  Taro with kit kat bits and mochi. Always.  However, this summer they are doing this thing where they have "scoured the globe" to find new flavors.  This flavor quest has brought some really awful flavors, such as the sticky toffee pudding, creme brûlée, and the spiced chai, all of which I tried samples of and all of which taste nothing like what their actual counterparts should.  Therefore, I was a bit apprehensive when trying the Mexican Hot Chocolate flavor last night.  Big surprise, it was delicious!  I actually mixed it up and did half Taro, half Mexican Hot Chocolate, plus the kit kat and the mochi, of course.  I hope that Mexican Hot Chocolate is a flavor that sticks around at my local yogurtland.

flirting with veganism

I cook vegan a majority of the time since I don't do dairy milk and adding cheese just adds calories.  The main thing keeping me from turning full time vegan has always been the eggs.  I love me some eggs!  Not that I eat eggs everyday, though I probably could, but what is brunch without eggs florentine? a quiche? an omelet? a scramble?  So after watching Vegucated after Christmas break, already starting off 2013 with a vegan diet, just for the health benefits, I freaked out.  I couldn't eat eggs anymore unless I knew the farm they came from.  I won't go into the gory details here, suffice it to say that just because it says "organic, free-range, blah blah blah" doesn't mean you can trust it.  It's really about the terrible things that happen immediately after the hatching of the chicks which will someday produce those eggs.

So...was that enough to keep me vegan forever?  I really really thought so, and I was doing so well, but my busy life at SCI-Arc got the best of me.  You really have to have the time or the money to be vegan, I know others will argue, but for me it is true.  As soon as I have the time: easy!  I'm cooking vegan every day, no problem, I may miss my eggs, but it's totally fine.  If I were rich, I could be vegan during school, I would just eat at RFD, Sage, Native Foods, and shop at Whole Foods.  It would be fine and I could do it.  But when you don't have the time or the money, you do the best that you can, for me that is continuing to be a part time vegan.

Here's a raw vegan dish that I made the other night with some golden beets that I accidentally bought at the farmers market.  This dish is labeled as "ravioli" but let's be honest, raw foodies only do things like this to make it seem like they are eating something other than raw vegetables.  This is NOT ravioli.  In fact, I don't recommend cutting the beets into squares as shown, unless you want to take a pretty picture.  Just slice them into matchsticks and throw it together as the salad that it is.

Golden Beet Salad with Olive-Basil Tapenade
Adapted from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients:

2-3 Golden Beets, thinly sliced on a mandolin, then cut into squares (or like I said, matchsticks)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 T orange zest (don't grate off half of your knuckle like I did!)

1 c arugula

tapenade:

1 c pitted kalamata olives

1/2 c fresh parsley leaves

1/4 c fresh basil leaves

2 T capers, drained

1 T extra virgin olive oil

1 t red pepper flakes (omit or use less if you don't like spicy food)

Preparation:

1. toss beets in oil and orange zest, set aside

2. combine all tapenade ingredients in food processor until well blended but still chunky

3. put together the beets and tapenade atop the arugula

4. squeeze fresh orange juice on top

5. enjoy!

my very architectural summer

My summer break is nearly over and I haven't blogged at all, shame on me.  It has really been a great summer, and while I have done a lot of interesting things (more to come), most have been more architecturally related than I had originally anticipated.

INTERNSHIP: Belzberg Architects

PROS:  

• The best office I've ever worked in. Everyone is really friendly and awesome, the boss (Hagy Belzberg) is smart, talented, and kind.
• We sometimes ate lunch on the beach.  Working on Main Street in Santa Monica, there is never a problem finding a good place to grab lunch or after work drinks.
• They are really busy and the work is great.  Perhaps you have heard of the Museum of the Holocaust?  If you've picked up an Interior Design magazine in the past two years you have probably seen their work at Club Nokia, the Kona Residence in Hawaii, or the Stone Residence in Toronto.  While highly known for their residential work, Belzberg is stepping into the civic realm and I think they will be a firm to watch in the upcoming years. 

LA Museum of the Holocaust, courtesy BA website

The Conga Room at Club Nokia, LA Live, courtesy BA website

Kona Residence, Hawaii, courtesy BA website

CONS:  

• The commute from downtown to Santa Monica every morning, but worse, the commute back in the evening.  One Friday I began to cry angry tears when after 45 minutes I had yet to make it East of the 405 :(
• They are in an interim office that is not very nice, but they have a new office next to Urth (SM) that will be underway shortly.

WHAT I WORKED ON:  

• A facade and slight interior renovation of a commercial building in Westwood Village, which should be underway within the next year.  This will be the first time I have worked so single-handedly on something and will actually get to see it manifest.  Very exciting!
• The preliminary schematics and programming for a library renovation at a cancer research campus North of Los Angeles.  Super fun, tons of line drawings and diagrams, loved it!

I also scored a second part time job that began in June...

RESEARCH ASSISTANT:  Getty funded SCI-Arc Exhibition, working with Todd Gannon, Ewan Branda, and Andrew Zago

PROS: 

• I will continue to work on this until the exhibition opens in next spring.
• It pays a fair wage.
• I pretty much pick my hours.
• It has been really fun looking back in the history of architecture and researching a show that I knew nothing about, now feeling that I know everything about it.
• Getting to sit down and chat with Thom Mayne, Frank Dimster, Craig Hodgetts, and Robert Mangurian.

Thanks to my bestie, Scotty Carroll, I have immersed myself in architectural reading where I would normally have read girly beachy novels and magazines all summer.

WHAT I'VE READ:

"Collage City" Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter
"The Architecture of the City" Aldo Rossi
"Invisible Cities" Italo Calvino
"Los Angeles: the Architecture of Four Ecologies" Reyner Banham
Log 21, 23, 24, 25
"Toward An Architecture" Le Corbusier- a re-read for me, but a much needed one
"The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture" Pier Vittorio Aureli
"House of Leaves" Mark Z. Danielewski- though fiction and not academically architectural, still a good "architectural" read, specifically the way it is written.

And that's how I spent my summer vacation :)  Next up: GREECE!!!

Vinoteque on melrose

It's been quite some time since I've posted a review. I'm also sorry for lack of any posts this semester. It's so hard! After my mid-review and move to little Tokyo in 10 days I promise to post a billion belated things.

Way back in November I purchased a Living Social deal for Vinoteque on Melrose. Tonight I finally used it and it was worth every penny!!

Vinoteque is a tapas place on melrose just east of fairfax, right next to The Foundry. We sat in their large open courtyard area warmed on the chilly February evening by the numerous gas heaters (love you LA). I, of course, had already cruised the menu online so I knew what I wanted. It's tapas so you order a bunch and the dishes come out when ready.

First up was the beet salad. A nice serving of fresh beets, houlami cheese, tangerine wedges, baby arugula and balsamic. Very yum. It was my first time trying houlami and I enjoyed it, though my complaint would be more cheese on this beet heavy plate

Danny had the angus beef sliders which come with two burgers cooked however you desire topped with an onion jam, blue cheese, some sort of flavored mayo and arugula. He placed this number one on his list of the night.

Next up was the tomato tart. A crispy, flaky French tart filled with tomato purée topped with halved sweet heirloom cherry tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, mixed greens, ricotta and balsamic. It was good.

The last savory dish was the best by far: warm goat cheese honey Napoleon. It was so freaking good. Two layers of crunchy honey discs with chèvre and honey in between over greens topped with a sweet onion slaw. Omg, I could eat five of these.

The food was so good I forgot to mention the wine. I had a glass, a hefty glass. I'm still coming down off my buzz. I can't recall the name of it right now. It was Spanish, $11 a glass and mild.

Now for the grande finale: stuffed churros and coffee. If you go here and don't get this for dessert we are no longer friends. This was the best dessert ever! Little 2" churros coated in sugar and cinnamon, stuffed with a variety of yummy things like caramel and cream, served with a scoop of cafe au lait ice cream and berries. So freaking delicious!

shattered: the coolest thing to happen to nail polish

lavender under white shattered

I have no idea how I came across this last night, but I knew I had to have it ASAP.  Thanks to my grandma who always gets me JcPenny gift cards for every holiday, I found myself in the JcPenny salon asking "where is your OPI shattered?!?"  It was not out in plain view and the women I had spoke with on the phone a few hours before TOLD me that had it.

They had it, it was locked up.  They keep this stuff locked up because it is that awesome!

There are only a few colors to choose from right now, but the possibilities are almost endless with the combinations.  You just put regular nail polish on, the usual 2 coats or whatever (they say it works BEST when used with OPI color underneath, but it's probably no different with another brand.  I haven't tried it, but I feel like nail polish is all the same...)  Then, after the bottom color dries you brush on the shattered and watch it do its thang.  You can try brushing it different directions and changing the thickness of which you apply it for different effects.  I like the way it looks when applied diagonally.

I can't wait for 4th of July, it's gonna be all red, white, and blue shattered all over my nails!

hot pink under turquoise shattered