Pasjoli at the bar for something more casual might be fun.
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Good choice food wise but logistically that can be quite a distance from Pasjoli to The Royal…
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I might do a burger and martini at the bar at Baltaire.
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Zhengyalov Hatz
W: the new chicken shawarma sandwich is only “fine” in my book. I prefer the original menu stuff.
P: I like the restaurant.
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Minduelle Buena Park. Korean homestyle cooking at its finest. Only 9 tables. Better get there early if you want to beat the church crowd on Sunday.
Fried pollack crisped up then topped with a spicy gochujang sauce. Delicious
Spicy raw marinated crab. Emphasis on the spicy. Ask for gloves.
Grilled pork with ssam on the side and sujebi. Lots of veggies and the ssamjang is perfect.
Forgot to take a picture of the Cheonggukjang. The spicier stinkier version of doenjang jigae. This is a house speciality.
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La Talpa again.
Shrimp al mojo de ajo (before and after). Ohimgod, these ladies know how to make a sauce. So f*cking delicious. I could put that sauce over just about anything and be very satisfied.
Blossom in Santa Monica. Originally ordered the mi trung thit kho, but they were out. Ordered the com chien tom ga instead. Is this normally served w/ a salad? The greens seemed kind of random but the fish sauce dressing helped it to “fit in” w/ the rest of the dish. Delicious (great wok hei).
Partner had the bun rieu. He doesn’t like the boiled tomatoes that sometimes show up Asian soups, but I thought Blossom’s were rather sublime (perfect skinned, seasoned, and comforting).
Egg rolls were fine. Am I supposed to wrap the rolls in the greens?
Tu Madre in Brentwood. Many thanks to @Loaxley. At $2.50 per taco (minus the pastrami one), you cannot complain. And the pastrami was actually quite tasty (if very messy). You can be sophisticated and get some wine at Thatcher’s next door. We instead went to Whole Foods…
… where I finally found Marou!!! Good grief, it was difficult. I had to look on the internet at the store’s stock. This was in the cheese section!!! (which, to be fair, also had the gourmet baking chocolates; the “regular” baking chocolate was elsewhere).
I’ve only tried 70%. Very fruity, not to bitter, and wonderfully smooth. Thanks, @js76wisco.
Northern Cafe has a new location? Not sure if this is related to the Monterey Park outpost?
Sign outside said soft opening. I thought it was very tasty (didn’t try the fried noodles, though) and service is quite polite. My father thought his lamb noodle soup was a bit heavy on the white pepper.
Is a fried egg on dan dan noodles an en vogue thing? I’ve never seen that b/f…
Menu mentions slightly lower “membership” prices; I have no idea what that means.
Father also mentioned that the name in Mandarin for the cafe is “Lanzhou Noodles.” Is that actually the case?
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The Pie Room by Curtis Stone (Beverly Hills)… No Sergio sighting, but I most definitely got what I came for (to go).
Damsot LA (Ktown) is damn tasty! Abalone dolsot bibimbap is a Huge Bite!
This will likely be my last visit to the Atwater location of Morihiro before he moves the shop to Elysian Park. Mori-san’s counter serves one of the most dependably great meals in Los Angeles. My new friend from DC will concur - she flew out to LA for this thing! Per Mori-san, the Atwater shop will close around the end of April, in case anyone wants to get in one last hurrah there…
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Is it dol sot like with crispy rice? I saw on their menu they use some kind of pressure cooker for at least the rice… so I was wondering if it is the stone bowl…
Yes. Wrap egg rolls with all the accoutrements and dip in nuoc cham.
Salad greens tend to go with bun/vermicelli bowls and maybe…maybe a com tam/broken rice meal. Never a fried rice plate…that’s strange.
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AFAIK it’s hot bowl rice with a twist. When it was brought to my table, the server told me take all the food out of the super hot bowl, and put it in an empty ambient temperature bowl (also provided). There will be crusty rice (socarrat) left over at the edges of the hot bowl. Then, you pour hot barley tea (again, provided) into that hot bowl to immerse the crust, and cover. As it soaks, you enjoy eating the food in the ambient temperature bowl, then only afterwards will you uncover the (now-lukewarm) tea-soaked socarrat, and you enjoy that.
Phew. It’s great though…
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I believe Damsot’s bowls are sotbap, not dolsot(bap), because the cooking bowls are metal while dolsot refers to a stone pot. A very minor distinction. The cooking surface still creates that scorched rice nurungji and sungnyung “soup” when liquid’s poured in. I’ve not been a fan of nurungji / sungnyung’s lukewarm temperature, though I can see how the dish might be a comforting end. I do prefer boricha to just warm water that some restaurants pour in, but in any event I think it’s supposed to be quite a mild dish anyway (and maybe started more as a practice to not waste anything than it was about flavor?). My first experience with nurungji was at Family (?) BBQ in Koreatown and I just really didn’t get it…but the sikhye was a delightful end (and maybe sikhye has some potential in a cocktail, maybe sparkling with maekgeolli?). But anyway, abalone rice pot sounds good.
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Thanks for the clarification. That is why I asked, the pictures I have seen have all looked like they use a metal bowl.
I am not Korean, although I was a long time regular at Jeon Ju up until their closing. My reason for loving the crispy rice is a pure texture thing. I love mixing the regular rice with bites of crispy rice. I had seen other places do the broth method (As well as seeing crispy rice sold at H-Mart to make the crispy rice soup) and that would be a not be what I am looking for.
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Apparently even some electronic rice cookers now have a setting for okoge (Japanese) or nurungji (Korean) to scorch the rice a little bit. I haven’t looked for it, but scorched rice is a nostalgic thing it seems. Yes, I think that nurungji can be created by sotbap as at Damsot, it doesn’t have to be dolsot specifically.
I guess you could ignore Damsot’s instructions and forego making this sungnyung soup. Just let the rice sit for a bit then mix it all together.
FWIW I haven’t been to Damsot yet but am looking forward to trying it out some time.
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Thanks for the details!
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Quick Chinatown run, just a beautiful day to be out and about. Bookstore browsing at Now Serving, then a cortado at Endorffeine followed by LaSorted (maybe the most crave-able pizza I’ve had in a while)
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Otafuku (Gardena)
Lunch with a friend and I finally convinced her to try something new out of our regular South Bay rotation of Japanese restaurants.
I have been looking forward to going to Otafuku for quite some time. Because who wouldn’t want to choose between 3 levels of buckwheat levels for soba?
Leisurely lunches means we order whatever we want regardless of how many of us are at the table so we got both salads, dashimaki, cold tofu, roasted ginkgo nuts, and soba.
Loved it. This was the lightest and satisfying meal. Each dish was thoughtfully prepared and executed well. We didn’t feel overtly stuffed afterwards…and I needed to portion control to ensure I had space for Felix later. My friend kicks herself for not agreeing to come here sooner.
Stopped by Nagomi Cake House for dessert…to go.
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The gingko nuts are so good.
Next time, got to do the cold seiro soba!
Every time I come here, I am more convinced I look forward most to the soba-yu
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how does nanbankan compare to otafuku? or kinjiro? let’s assume it’s a schlep for me to go to any of them. is there a reason to go to nanbankan over otafuku or kinjiro? (Acknowledging, of course, that nanbankan is mainly yakitori)