Ba Le Sandwiches
Grabbed a couple of banh mi and supplies to make banh mi for later in the week.
Boulangerie
Mom made bo kho for us and we ran out of bread. Need the carbs to sop up the tomato-y broth.
The line at Cococane was ridiculous so I skipped it. Should have ordered ahead or online.
Ben Ngu
It was odd to be inside a restaurant with indoor dining. But it is the OC and Ben Ngu has a huge dining room. There were only a handful of folks eating. I ordered banh bot loc la (there’s a 25 minute wait for this dish now), banh beo, and banh canh tom cua.
I decided to do some algebra today when I snagged the Kismet collab pie from La Morra with a bang bang at Kismet Rotisserie.
Quarter Chicken Plate
It has been a few months since I last had Kismet Rotisserie and I’d been craving it recently, so I was happy to make an excuse to pick it up. First off, the wedge salad is way better than it has any right to be. It’s hands down one of my favorite salads—it’s an incredibly simple mix of crisp lettuce, radish, parsley, and a chuggable poppyseed dressing. The roast chicken is solid all around: by the time I got it unpacked it had cooled off a bit, needed a bit of reheating, and was only slightly juicy still. That said, it’s a healthy portion and the skin was nice and crisp. The accompanying pickles and hummus are also a bit underrated compared with those found elsewhere, so don’t miss them.
La Morra x Kismet “pumpkin spiced” kabocha squash, Moroccan olive, and feta pie
This came a bit out of nowhere and it wasn’t until La Morra put out a last call that I decided to pull the trigger and pick this frozen pizza up. I’m a huge fan of feta on pizza but a bit meh on olives, and didn’t know if I wanted another forced “pumpkin spice” thing in my life. But hey, I’m happy that this pie was very much intentional and thought through. It was much creamier than I had anticipated, with a layer of ricotta cheese beneath the squash that gave each bite a welcome richness. The earthiness of the “pumpkin spiced” kabocha squash played nicely with the briney olives and salty feta, so I’d call it a success overall. Though I did level it up by dumping leftover chili oil and toum from my chicken plate all over it.
Chirashi mania for me this weekend, with takeout visits to Sushi Kaneyoshi (Little Tokyo) and Shin Sushi (Encino). We are truly blessed to have such great eats available “to go” during these times…
Yoshi-san’s Aburi Bara Chirashi features seared / grilled neta, and the whole box is just plain frickin’ delicious. The saba bozushi supplement was superb as well.
Take-san at Shin Sushi now offers a wonderful tofu mousse dessert with kuromitsu and mint. His usual offerings (Omakase Box, Deluxe Bara Chirashi with fisherman ebi miso soup) are excellent, as usual…
Got some really good birria de res at Pepe’s Red Tacos! Thanks @TheCookie for the rec from what feels like years ago now. Got a variety of tacos - dorados, suaves, and quesatacos. There was a ton of flavor, prob more spicy than La Unica if not as meaty. The only knock was some of the meat was dry, but not a big deal. Their homemade salsas are all great, especially their aceite, which was like a slightly sweeter version of La Unica’s.
Overall, I liked it more than LA Birria and a LOT better than Teddy’s!
Parents 50th anniversary at The Ranch. The place was pretty much packed. Almost every table taken on the patio and inside booths on Sunday at 6pm.
Steaks and salads here are the best. 4 of us ordered the Delminico prime dry aged NY strip on the bone. It’s a beast of a steak but tender, with a little funky and perfectly pink throughout.
Enjoyed all of the salads and the fig burrata toast. They have their own farm and like the seasonal specials. The ceaser salad dressing was on the lemony side.
I think the sides are the weakest element here. Creamed spinach, creamed corn and healthy version of green bean casserole were all fine. Some of the fries were incredibly salty.
They forgot one of our steaks so it came out ~15 late. They poured us 2 free glasses of wine and comped our desserts. The waiter and manager was very apologetic. Not a big deal and happy they took care of some items. The pecan pie and Milky Way are good desserts. But man we were full. Everybody took home the bone and some steaks.
disappointing takeout. the chicken had crispy skin but was way overcooked and dry, could barely chew through the white meat. the scallops were tiny and colorless and looked nothing like the excellent scallops I had before. and at $25 for 5 tiny scallops the qpr wasn’t there either.
there was also a very unpleasant burning oil smell that filled the dining room when I picked up, don’t know what was going on there.
maybe I need to try their thai taco tuesdays or alleyway dining, but right now I’m not seeing what all the influ-grammer hype is all about.
From the IG pics I thought this place was going to be the next big Thai restaurant to hit the scene…(actually they been around but kinda reinvent themselves via Son)
