Mae Tings
LAX-C haul. Thai fish sauce, thai oyster sauce, and mortar pestle.
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Toku Unagi & Sushi (West Hollywood)
Had a celebratory dinner with friends. The restaurant was pretty empty when we walked in, but picked up as the evening wore on.
Service is excellent. The team is attentive and I didn’t even know they had taken my order until it arrived at the table. One of our friends said they wished we had something like this in the southeastern suburbs…it was a fun evening.
Slightly seared scallops, uni, seaweed
Bluefin tuna carpaccio
Crispy toast - uni or bluefin, snow crab, caviar
Ohitsu matsu - best unagi I have ever eaten. The crisp edges of the skin where the sauce caramelizes it is significant. Rice was also super fragrant.
Not pictured: Toku Treasure (smaller version of Providence’s “ugly” bunch), blistered shishitos, some vegetables, and maybe couple of other things I can’t remember. Grabbed a bottle of sake, too…it’s on the regular menu and paired well with the items we ordered.
Edit: Menu no longer claims that unagi is fresh.
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They have a great price on pork belly! If your into that sort of thing
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HA! We ended up were in Chinatown today as well after a mishap lead to no Tokyo Fried Chicken after The Marvels…. sigh!. So instead hubs wanted Katsu Sando. I tried their new Chicken tenders.
The sauces where great, but the chicken tenders seemed to be somehow pounded and were not seasoned at all. The Waffle fries were the best part of this.
ANYWAY, I thought maybe it was me misremembering as well. But on our recent trip to Howlin Pasadena, I also noted that the chicken was not as crisp as I remembered. Like the batter got thinner.
For many dumb reasons I have yet to try Daybird. It’s something I hope to remedy sooner rather than later! Will report back.
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New North OC bakery. Now I don’t need to go to LA for good croissants. Bag of Cakes in Fullerton has the best we’ve had in this area. Different than Cream Pan. Really enjoyed the shatter and buttery layers. The pistachio cruffin was great with coffee. Nice pistachio cream without being overly sweet.
If you get there too early some of their pastries aren’t ready. I’d wait until 8-8:30 for the full selection.
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Didn’t ask but will the next time I go. Korean baker.
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Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep temple in Chino Hills. $81 for all this food. My sister said the food here is great. Anybody else been? The wait was around 1 hour at 10am Sunday morning.
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No major loss. My experience at TFC was fairly middlin’…
Lou, the French on the Block (Burbank) -
Oh, how I’ve missed this place. With it being open only F - Su and me not being in the neighborhood at all those days, I hadn’t been here in a very long time.
I used to visit at least once a week for their tuna pan bagnat. It is probably the best tuna sandwich I’ve ever had. I had to wait an extra 10 minutes on Friday for it and it was worth every second. Since it was made fresh for me, the baguette still retained a crispness that disappears as the sandwich sits in the fridge.
Also grabbed croissants, pain au chocolate, and almond croissants. The pain au chocolate was still warm when we got the box, so it was immediately consumed. My companion loved it.
A quick warm up in the toaster oven at 200 and I knocked down a regular one. It really is a tremendous pastry. I’ve had one for breakfast each day since.
The shop is as busy as ever. Chef Lou himself was out front hanging out with patrons, as his staff was busting out orders. The back is filled with folks now…I’m not entirely sure how they fit that many folks in that tiny kitchen, but there were pastries coming out in droves. We even saw proofed croissants roll past us and into the kitchen. Chef Lou must have commercial kitchen privileges elsewhere to help with the volume now.
I dropped off some croissants with my parents and found that my Mom had eaten a regular and an almond croissant for dinner.
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86 Red Tape Event by IHCLA
Great cause and a really nice event. Not crowded, plenty of food and drinks. The raffle for prizes was very interesting, each ticket goes into a bag for one prize so you could choose your prize rather than many draws where everyone goes in the same pot for all the prizes. Better odds to win a prize you put a ticket in for and incentivizes more ticket purchases if multiple prizes look appealing, pretty smart IMO.
Highlight for me was the fried blue prawn with curry from Anajak and seeing Justin win a dinner for 2 at N/Naka with one of his raffle tickets. Looks like most places were just doing dishes from their regular menu.
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Also enjoyed Justin’s dish the best though a small complaint is that a lot of places started running out of food earlier than expected. I arrived a hour later and got the last full shrimp dish.
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Is this an annually recurring event?
Harriet’s cheesecake.
- Banana pudding
- Praline the one cheesecake to end them all
so good
Luck gai cafe
- Hainan and fried chicken, Thai style!
Maxwell Chicken Rice
- Pretty weak and pricy
And… Happy Nov!!!
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Hello, lover…
Okay, this isn’t chow-ish, but Gelson’s at the West Edge development in West LA is open. So now I can get my $9.49 ($7.99 if you don’t add avocado!!!) 1/2 sandwich + 2 sides (≤$14.99) any day I want!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA.
I love ambient lighting, so I really liked the escalators leading up to the store (the parking is a bit of a maze). Decor is, uh… flamboyant. Like a déclassé Eataly mates w/ a tiki bar. The huge screen w/ the pic of the salad is actually a monitor (many monitors, actually).
W/ the Gelson’s, I wonder if the Bundy/Olympic area is now the most convenient grocery shopping area in the universe (TJ’s, Ralphs, and Gelson’s are basically all in a straight line separated by only a few blocks).
And there’s a Walgreens, Ace Hardware, and an Expo stop. People who live in the immediate area (not quite me) are super lucky.
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The Valley has a similar row with TJ’s, Ralphs, Whole Foods, and Pavilions lined up on Ventura and Hazeltine. Actually the Gelson’s on Van Nuys is close as well.
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Long Beach-Seal Beach border has TJ’s, Gelsons, Whole Foods, and Ralph’s I think
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A few days in Washington, DC.
Dinner at Kaliwa
I wanted to like Kaliwa but they had “no desserts today” (last Friday), which was wild.
Side of bok choy, probably best thing of the night. Cook on it was fantastic.
Gochujang wings
Bicol Express, pork belly was pretty good.
Coffee/Pastry at Tatte Bakery and Cafe
I don’t know why this place is so successful and popular, the pastries were so stale. Coffee was okay.
Dinner at minibar
Been a bucket list place for a while! Mostly great cooking. Nothing was a miss, but nothing was mind blowingly memorable either.
Welcome bite with cristal caviar
Welcome cocktail with matcha and GOLD FLAKES
Tempura shirako (!!)
I forgot the name of this NA cocktail but boy it had more GOLD FLAKES. I wanted to like this drink but I kept having the ice ball smash gold flakes onto my upper lip.
A4 wagyu with truffle supplement, honestly just okay. Hella truffle though.
Donut with donut ice cream, top tier dessert for real.
Dinner at Sushi Nakazawa
Shirako with GOLD FLAKES, lol just stop it, I don’t need a pity gold flake decoration.
Monaka with caviar and toro
Sundae with uni, ikura, caviar and shrimp
Custom Nenohi, Kaede hon-gasumi steel
Brunches at Unconventional Diner
French dip poutine, with some pity green onions
Side of hashbrowns, loved these tbh.
Fried chicken and waffle, with some pity green onions. it was just alright. Chicken needed salt.
Sweet potato shakshouka, curry base. Not bad but I was searching for some acidity to break up the dish.
Loaded breakfast biscuits, a hot mess with pity green onions.
“Omakase” at Cranes
I wasn’t so sure what to expect from Cranes. We had made the reservation before the 2023 guide came out and honestly, I can see why they lost their star. This place had so many misses, oh man.
Fish on a chip
Ramen, presentation was embarrassing.
Squid, it was overcooked (even visible from the photo lol) and had too many components.
Ham, plating was like straight outta culinary school, come on man.
Chef’s Table Dinner at Albi
Honestly Albi was the rebound I needed after Cranes. Team is crushing it. A top 5 2023 meal for me, for sure.
Pita, legit fantastic.
Foie gras with baklava
View from the Chef’s Table. You’re pretty close and it’s a fun experience.
Brown butter knafeh
of note: NO gold flakes or pity green onions at Albi.
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are they still serving cold nigiri at nakazawa?
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