Quick trip to Vegas
Bardot
More truffle fries cuz addictive
Spago (Caesars)
Lupo
Yamadaya
Egg getting better
ST Patisserie “exotic” serious addictive too
Eggslut
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Found a fishmonger at the Cerritos Farmers Market.
Fresh shrimp and scallops the size of my hand, Thai snapper, and a free sample of cold-smoked salmon.
Pan-seared the Thai snapper and scallops. Garlic prawns. Zucchini noodle stir-fry. Fast, fresh, and delicious.
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Had an incredible dinner at Ham Ji Park. Hadn’t been in years, and now I’m wondering what the hell I was thinking. The ribs are so freaking good, and the squid noodles–yes please. This place rocks.
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Sunday champagne brunch at Taps in Brea. While it’s been quite some time since I’ve been here, it hasn’t changed too much. More egg offerings from the kitchen now including seafood omelettes, chilequiles, and breakfast burritos. The bananas Foster is no longer served hot over ice cream anymore…it’s now cold and served with a Belgian waffle and ice cream. I miss it served hot, and I got freshly fried mini doughnuts to dip in the caramel rum sauce…now that was almost good enough to make up for the fact that the Bananas Foster was cold. I miss the extensive charcuterie and cheese offerings…and you have to order the smoked salmon from the kitchen now. Today’s Blue Point oysters weren’t shucked well, as they were still stuck to the shell…but they’ve developed a lovely little nuoc cham for it in place of mignonette. The ceviche and craving station remain winners to me. Service was excellent as always…mimosas topped off without requests and plates quickly cleared away. Not a bad way to spend a morning with a friend.
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Yesterday:
Lunch at Superba in El Segundo. Burger medium rare. It was VERY good. Not a big beef-y taste, but the texture was wonderful. Good fries, too. Kale toast and croque madame were fine but not outstanding (I’ve been spoiled by Huckleberry; their croque monsieur/madame is indistinguishable). Dinner at Guisados in WeHo. The fish taco is perfectly prepared (very tender). I wish the bistek and chuleta weren’t so… wet.
This morning:
Croissant from Amandine. 
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Last weekend:
Hannosuke - tempura and cold soba combo. The soba was gummy and a bit flavorless. The tempura was mostly okay, except the nori (seaweed) was clogged with oil.
This weekend:
LocoL - veggie burger, veggie nuggets, tofu and veggie stew, collard greens, and iced coffee. Tasty fast food with great vegetarian options. The smoky and vinegary collard greens were the standout for me.
Myung In Dumplings (S-Mart location in Torrance) - steamed vegetable dumplings. There were four elegantly pleated, softball-sized dumplings to an order for $8. They were nicely pillowy with a subtle mixture of julienned cabbage, carrots, egg, glass noodles, and green onions.
India Spiceland (Torrance) - vegetarian combo with two curries, rice, naan, and soup for $5.99. It’s a teeny-tiny mom and pop grocery store, filled to the rafters with groceries, but there’s also a take-out counter. I have bought groceries here previously, but always had a hunch that their food was good. Everything was light and flavorful, which was welcome after having fast food at LocoL yesterday. It wasn’t fancy, but was modest, comforting home cooking. My favorite was the soup, which was akin to a watery, but nicely spiced sambar with a slaw (carrots, cabbage, jalapenos, and cucumbers) and samosa skin chips (i.e. the Indian version of wonton strips). I was very satisfied by the contrasting textures of the soup. The owners, an older Indian couple, are very charming and managed to upsell me on a samosa, which was quite good. The naan was not homemade, but was a griddled Pillsbury version. I will definitely try the masala dosa (crepe filled with spiced potatoes), vada (savory donuts), and idli (steamed rice/lentil cakes) next time I’m in the neighborhood.
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Friday - Salt Air - such an underrated gem
Saturday - Yazawa - this place will be impossible to get into when the superlative reviews start flowing. It is pure Meat Magic. Every bite is a little bit(e) of Heaven.
Chateaubriand
Sunday - Connie & Ted’s
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have they started increasing their prices yet?
two of my favorite things @ Farmers Market!! Our office just polished off a box of Littlejohn’s toffee that we didn’t give out to one of our clients for the holidays (gotta buy an extra one for ourselves!!!). Love Magee’s corn beef.
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Magee’s is an under appreciated treasure of corned beef.
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if you enjoy Taps brunch, you ought to try the smoked meats brunch at Lillie’s Q as well. For me, that food is much more my speed than the fancy continental brunch at Taps.
Did a quick Boyle Hts/East LA burrito/flour tortilla throw-down:
La Azteca’s famed (for hipsters) chile relleno:
Vs La Molendera’s chicken mole poblano:
One (with its famed house-made flour tortillas) was still ennnh, and one was still amazing.
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Is that the huckleberry from Side Car? We had many many of their donuts brought in for a meeting last week and the purple was my favorite.
@TonyC I didn’t even know Lillie Q did brunch. Will have to give that a shot one day. Thanks!
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That chile relleno looks divine…
Perhaps you prefer it to remain hidden, but I don’t suppose you have any pictures, or commentary, or even just a loose rundown of what you ate that lead to your opinion? I’ve always heard it’s very mediocre, ok if you’re completely burnt out on everywhere else in the area, and feeling lazy, but otherwise avoidable; the menu has never piqued my interest, so a countervailing report would be splendid.
I went to Bestia on Saturday night, but mostly drank bone marrow egg nog, and strange Eastern European wine. A friend and I did polish off a whole branzino, and some of their new beet pasta with smoked duck however. The beet pasta was fashioned into quite thick sheets which allowed the beet in the dough to actually reveal a subtle earthiness, but for me, the splendidly supple, yet chewy texture was the best part. The smoked duck was very tender, smokey, and just a tad saccharine, perfect bits of astringency from the greens as well. I thought this was much better than the mushroom and stinging nettles pasta I had more recently, as the sauce clung to the pasta much better.
Whole branzino is not really something I order often, but my friend is super into fish, and often finds restaurant preparations of it lacking, and he was enthralled enough that he happily ate the eyes out of the thing. Usual display of excellence in cooking basically.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA80KcDE0At/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA80U2qE0A3/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
I managed to arrive in time to acquire a Lodge Bread pizza as well, never week they are going to do a sauerkraut pizza. I hope they get more and more encouragement to do weirder and weirder pizzas. They are big fans of funky cheeses, so I hope to see more experimentation. Some people were complaining they would’ve preferred mozzarella, but there are a ton of places to get that in this city, I would rather have a pizza with epoisses. The crust, so charred, tart, and earthy is already so markedly different from anything else in this city that experimentation seems more appropriate to me, but alas, I’m just one person.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA8kpgXk0HY/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
I found out one of my favorite coffee spots, Balconi Coffee makes fresh biscuits on Sundays now by chance yesterday. I had one well into the night post-Lodge Bread Pizza Night, but it was still soft, buttery, and loaded with lovely white cheddar.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA8z53BE0Ac/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
I’d been planning on stopping by Gjusta, but they’re shut down for a while remodeling some stuff it turns out, so went to Love & Salt instead, which I feel deserves its own thread.
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Is it better than Langer’s? ie., is it worth the parking + schlep to the OFM.
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