Sorry you didn’t win the ticket! But we went down there today and agree… these Donuts are something special… Love that they have several savory options too!
I have to ask… where did you get your Yuzu tree?! I think I killed my Mini Cherry tree and now have a pot availability… LOL!!
–Dommy!
If I lived closer I would totally grab one of these. Bourbon and burgers are a great combo.
$18 for a burger, drink and goodie bag seems very reasonable.
Catching up on the rest of the month here with a little BBR.
Burmese Please
Tea Leaf Salad
There was only one pop-up from Chef Nicely this month, so I was really jonesing for some of that sweet sweet fermented tea leaf action.
Bar Ama
Brussel Sprouts with Cherry Tomatoes
With Baco Mercat gone, I’m so happy that Chef Centeno is carrying over some of the dishes and flavors from that restaurant to the still humming Bar Ama. While it’s not the caesar brussel sprout dish that caused me to fall in love with Chef Centeno’s cooking in the first place, these fried brussel sprouts are reminiscent of many of the flavors that made it into other dishes at Baco—fenugreek, pickled onion, a bit of cheese, and a variety of fresh herbs.
Tex Mex Corn
The proper ratio of any street style Mexican corn is 1:1 corn to butter. Here Chef Cento makes it 1 part corn, 1 part butter, 1 part cheese, and it is absolutely glorious.
Tartine Silver Lake
Persian Herb Omelette
Kuku Sabzi is up there among my personal favorite egg dishes, and while I normally see much more herbs making up the dish, I really dug the version here at Tartine. It was piping hot when I picked it up and paired with the yogurt and basically butter fried bread it was a highly satisfying meal.
Tiger and the Horse
Chef’s Choice Chirashi
The Tiger and Horse has just gone on hiatus for a little bit, so I jumped at the opportunity to get one last order of chirashi in. The variety of fish was expertly cut and presented with charred salmon belly and freshly fried eggplant tempura. The Tiger and the Horse has quietly been churning out some of my favorite chirashi bowls of the pandemic era.
Mizlala West Adams
Crispy Broccoli
Nutritional value is inversely proportional to taste.
Brussel Sprouts
I have a deep love for brussel sprouts and Mizlala’s charred and fried version is one of my favorites in the city.
Zooies
Carrot Cake Cookie
In the midst of batch 3 research I stumbled on the carrot cake cookie. It’s exactly as described—your typical carrot cake flavors and elements pressed into cookie form. So there are chunks of walnut and raisin alongside slim shavings of carrot and a nice dollop of cream cheese frosting. It has the same hallmark quality of Zooie’s chocolate chip cookies, chewy, gooey, and confident.
Keepers
Mochi doughnuts
These are smaller than the ones you’ll find at Modo Hawaii, so the exterior is a bit crisper on the exterior to the extent of almost being crunchy. That said, they’re all still very chewy and quite packed with sweetness. At 6 for $6, it would be hard not to put them away quickly because they’re a pretty good snacking size. At the time, they had 4 flavors: Strawberry, Matcha, Chocolate, and Glazed
It counts if it’s postmarked in October right?
Fat n Flour choco chess pie
Curry hand pie
Hayato bento
Pasjoli Hadn’t been here in a while, so it was good to revisit; everything was delicious! FYI - all takeout is fully heated except the Sunday suppers, which are “par” cooked
Quiche
Ragout d’oignons (aka the onion tart)
Boeuf en Croute (aka beef wellington)
Couple items from Kim Chuy in Far East Plaza, including some fried shrimp cakes and the steamed chive buns
Thien Huong (also in Far East Plaza) does a pretty serviceable banh cuon
Laroolou Fat n Flour rightfully gets a ton of plaudits, but these pies are quite decadent and tasty
Salted Earl Grey pie
Peanut butter S’mores pie
Amboy Classic Double cheeseburger - really nicely laced and juicy, plus the fries (not shown) were amazing - tasted like a fancier version of OG McD’s fries (thanks for the tip @PorkyBelly)
Needle char siu
Fried rice - dang, this was good! Usually each of the ingredients (especially the protein) get homogenized, but not in this case; the whole worked as a great dish, but you got a pop of flavor and texture from every bite of each ingredient
Jimmy Sugishita bentos (that’s seiko gani in the bottom left)
It really depends on who you ask. 
But great pics!
Crooked Gaff Kitchen (Whittier) -
Oysters + Pliny the Elder
My first Pliny and it was delicious. I enjoyed how lovely it smelled and how well it paired with the oysters…kushii, kumamoto, kumiai, and Laguna Bay. I found I did not enjoy the Laguna Bay oysters…bitter aftertaste and minerally…I had to use the mignonette sauce to help.
Also had the fish & chips while catching the first few minutes of Beetlejuice.
Clearman’s Steak N Stein (Pico Rivera) -
Cocktails and steak! Not a bad way to spend Halloween. We didn’t want to be wallowing home all night…our chowpups were close to being phased out of doing any activity and this year’s suggestion helped speed the process along. So we decided to enjoy some fun things in our neighborhood.
Worth noting that each place is really respecting distancing and county ordinances. It was also a quiet night as each place was never close to being busy even with distancing and reduced outdoor capacity.
Hi Dommy! Sorry for the late reply. I received my yuzu tree as a gift. I believe the person who gave me the tree got it from a nursery in the Montebello area. Sorry I couldn’t be more specific. What I do know, though, is that my yuzu tree is a graft.
Looks great. What’s in the middle of the hummus?
What?! I 
chicken croquettes!
I believe it’s just cooked chickpeas mixed with some zuug and tahini
I’ve only seen it once, but hopefully they bring it back again!
i believe those were extra from the family style food festival, hopefully they do it again.
Duplicate. 
Yum?
Ohmigod, I’m so behind in posting. We’ll see if I peter out toward the end of the pics…
Did we know that Night + Market does fried chicken???
Didn’t realize that Needle opens at 3PM, and we were hungry and in the area (and there around 2PM), so we got this. Not bad at all. There are long slivers of jalapeño. I needed more sauce or condiments (can’t recall if it had a bit of mayo in it?) b/c, while the chicken itself wasn’t try, the sandwich as a whole was a bit on the parched, and I could’ve some more lime in w/ the papaya salad.
Square One had apparently been closed and it now re-opened.
Didn’t realize salmon benedict (one of my fav dishes) is now weekend-only (was there on a weekday). You now enter through the patio, order at a counter, and the food is brought to your table. The patio has all-new furniture (incl renovated restrooms), and the tables are very nicely spaced and all have VERY big umbrellas. Cashier also does not allow customers to touch the tablet (EXCELLENT!). This was my first outdoor dining during the pandemic, and I felt relatively comfortable eating there (although I don’t think I’ll be doing outdoor dining until the numbers go down). Food is as good as it ever was, and I’m so glad that their opened. Blurry pic is of avocado toast (that had gorgeous watermelon radishes).
Had Melisse x Citrin for a special occasion toward the end of the month. Forgot to take a pic of the menu, so here it is from their FB page.
F*ck that was delicious. Basil brioche (not pictured) didn’t taste much of basil, although the brioche part itself was great. Honeynut squash velouté came in a TINY plastic container and didn’t look that interesting; it was DELICIOUS and rich. Lobster bolognese was so good that I was literally trying to lick the container. I still kind of dream about it. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a toasted barley sauce; I imagine it’d be kind of boring, but this had intense unami flavor. Only miss of the whole thing was that the short rib was either very intense… or surprisingly over-salted (and I like salt). 
I think all whipped cream should contain yuzu. 
Partner thought it was all so good that he had wished we had ordered 2 portions. I thought 1 portion was just barely enough.
Finally tried the burger at Charcoal’s walk up. Burger was fine, but the steak fries get a special shout out.
I normally detest thicker cut fries, but these are done correctly. Slightly crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Not overly starchy.
If you’d made it this far, you get to see me in a Halloween costume:
Those feet!!!
