Kato - Extended Tasting Menu

Not familiar with Ryan’s work. Do you happen to know if the wine list be full of old world new oak barrel loving domaines or can we expect some smaller producers who might be trying to farm and bottle with minimal sulfer?

It’ll be a good mix. Not sure how much “natural” wine there will be. I know the first bottle they sold was an aged Jura, so that’d scratch your itch.

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He drops a lot of natty wine names in this interview:

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I’ll vouch for Ryan. Knowledgeable and friendly. I first met him at NoMad.

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review forthcomething…

astrea kaluga caviar, dungeness crab, koji, squashini, milk bread
:heart: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :heart:

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opening night at the new kato space with the ftc crew (@rlw, @butteredwaffles, and @Bagel). Lots of “sparrows” (the notorious BHG, mei lin) and IG “peacocks” in the the house.

the following ratings are sponsored by @rlw

spiced amazake with koji, kokuto, and ginger
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

torn bluefin, caramelized onion
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

coal-seared japanese sea bream, black vinegar
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

santa barbara uni donut, iberico ham, brown butter
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

astrea kaluga caviar, dungeness crab, koji, squashini, milk bread, garlic
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

the garden - a snapshot of aaron’s farm, taiwanese seasame
:roll_eyes:

egg custard, kelp vinegar, chinese chives
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

local black cod, soured napa and chinese mustard, celtuce
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes:
rice for scale

miyazaki a5 striploin, beef tendon, maitake, potato
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

meiwa kumquat bingsoo, vanilla anglaise, citrus & meyer lemon syrup
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

jujube, scorched rice cream, muscovado tuile, castella cake
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

mignardies - coconut pandan bon bon, raspberry lychee pate de fruits, rose caramel candy
:roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

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Left hungry or no? Bang bang necessary?

What is / are squashini?

I find all those “confused face” emoji disorienting.

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I like the idea of the eyeroll mouth-gasm emojis, but I don’t think there’s a good emoji match.

Maybe a :stars:!

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https://www.girlndug.com/products/squashini®

is that what that emoji is supposed to represent? i found those confused emoji disorienting too. i think @rlw and @PorkyBelly should just collab and do a Mark Weins face gif and use that instead.

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it’s the trademarked @rlw eye roll scoring system

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"I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ " Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’”

“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

:yum:

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Seems like even I might have left this one hungry…if not hangry: so much fuss for so little. Just my opinion based on4 or 5 visits to Pico (obvi), not the new place.

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It doesn’t look like much food. But…it’s all so pretty. I’m loving just looking at the photos!

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Actually I’ll come to Kato’s defense here…

My dinner last night at Kato ROW DTLA was perfect in its portioning (something I was specifically keen to observe, as of course this issue has come up in past meals at old Kato). I felt ZERO hunger pangs after finishing the meal, and was happily sated. Especially the milk bread, the rice, the A5 wagyu: They were not insubstantial courses, size-wise (or taste-wise).

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I’ve never been to Kato but aware of past criticisms of portioning. TBH, I was surprised when I looked at @PorkyBelly’s pics b/c it seemed to me to be a “respectable” amount of food.

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Me dipping milk bread in caviar:

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I was okay, I wasn’t hungry but I wasn’t really full either.

I would have been even more okay if they let us order more of the delicious milk bread, but they only had enough for one service.

after-dinner fat + flour cookie

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note, i noticed each table gets the same amount of bread. so depending on your party size you can have anywhere between a whole loaf for yourself or just a quarter.

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