The reviews are in...

New review from the LA Times on the Royce... "Fine Dining is Back!"
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/10/food/la-fo-0310-review-royce-20110310

Chateau Marmont

No longer at the Chateau... It was a fun bit of time there and will definitely be remembered.

There's a monkey in my drink

Providence

Wow. There are times when I get taken away. Transported? No. I never left my seat. Glued to it. Transfixed. Well, not entirely true, but I did have a really wonderful experience. My friend Mollie texted me out of the blue yesterday to see if I wanted to have a dinner adventure. You never really know what that will entail with Mollie- Could be Ghetto tacos, or Ethiopian Gelato, or Afghani Froyo. After a brief discussion, we decided on one of the three, Two Michelin Star restos in LA, Providence. I'd never eaten there, and have been really wanting to go for a long time. Free corkage Monday nights made it a necessity. Mollie brought a Champagne Rose, and a Slutty Australian Viognier. We went with the Champagne. And I brought an '02 Meursault-Charmes "Les Dessus" from Antonin Guyon. Both of 'em, STUNNING. The Champagne was light on it's feet, but substantial, and the Meusault was an inspiration, a learning experience. The Guyon was almost restrained at first, not showing too much on the intro, even a bit coy, but then, wow did it open up on the finish, maybe one of the best White Burg finishes I've ever experienced.

Mollie and I both did the tasting menu, in fact, we did one five course menu, and one full tasting menu, which overlapped perfectly. Really have to hand it to these guys, the service was perfect from start to finish, and I have to definitely put this down as the best restaurant experience I've had in LA to date...


providence market menu

kanpachi (kagoshima, japan) *
crispy rice crackers, cilantro blossoms, soy crème fraîche
txakolina, talai berri 2008

santa barbara sea urchin
champagne beurre blanc, fines herbes
(add american caviar, $20 supplemental)
crémant de bourgogne “blanc de blancs,” domaine parigot & richard m.v.

bobby’s block island sea scallop *
japanese eggplant, rhubarb, cashews, reduction of vadouvan and jurançon
riesling kabinett, kaseler nies’chen, erben von beulwitz 2007

wild halibut (sitka, alaska) *
summer squash, black olive, dried apricot, basil
chardonnay, the pinnacles, michaud 2002

wild king salmon (skeena river, b.c.)
french breakfast radish, kumquats, asparagus
rosé “albemarle,” kluge estate 2009

marcho farms veal tenderloin (franconia, pa) *
bacon, almond, english peas, maitake mushrooms
pinot noir, sangiacomo vineyard, vergari 2007

market cheeses
welschriesling beerenauslese, rosenhof 2006

melon soup
strawberries, lime granita

yuzu curd, meringue *
blackberry sorbet, jasmine
moscato d’asti “riveto,” dante rivetti 2009

Dagueneau

As it happens with wine, there are winemakers, rockstars even, who captivate us grape juice nerds, and create followings. Such is most definitely the friggin' case with Monsieur Dagueneau, who, as rockstars will, passed before his time. Didier, was definitely a game-changer, and one who helped us otherwise occupied Americans, catch a glimpse of what the Loire Valley has to offer. I've found, and no, I won't divulge, a lovely resto in LA that is offering Dagueneau's '04 Silex, on the wine list for roughly $65. IMPOSSIBLE! You can't find it retail for under $120, and any resto that still had it should be charging $200 AT LEAST! But no, these guys have it, and yes, I've tried it there. The Wine Director, Frenchman of course, brought the bottle to the table, and checked in, to make sure we knew what we were getting, (Here's where I love the French) I can't help but think, that if we weren't familiar with Dagueneau, that he would have steered us towards a less expensive, and available, bottle. It was almost, as if, he needed to be sure, we were worthy of the cork pulling to take place. But, yes, I assured him, I was familiar with Dider, and I was most expectantly hoping, and drooling, for the opportunity. He seemed at peace, especially, when I offered him to join us in a taste of the nectar. And wow. WOW! Yeah, it's true, I get overtaken with labels sometimes, and yeah, maybe I wouldn't have jumped up and down if tasted blind, BUT, knowing what it was, asking to have it decanted, and checking out the floral nuances as it opened- EXCELLENCE! Find it if you can, But I'm going to drink the place dry before I let on!

Food Trucks

So, there are a couple of things at play here. First, there's the food truck craze that's been sweeping the Nation for the past year and a half or so, which is, admittedly, the reason for the post, right? NO, WRONG. It's not about the craze and the hype, it's about the food. Yeah, maybe there's all sorts of comradery on line, and girls in short skirts, and celebrities and whatnot...


but who really cares about that? It doesn't really get me my spicy chicken taco any faster, now does it? So anyway, there's the original Kogi truck which has a twitter feed and hour long lines, while people go chasing after it all over LA like their favorite coke dealer-


And then there's BullKogi, the impostor, or new kid on the block, depending on how you view it. The marketing behind all this is not so much genius, as it is perfectly timed, for all the bullshit hipster hype of the current Mega-Generation. I say Mega-Generation because it occurs to me, that there aren't generations lately so much as an amorphous glob of unmarried, unchilded, afterschool 20, 30, and yes, even 40 somethings, that drag around LA looking for inexpensive, cool things to do. (Not that I really have any problem with that as a plan, mind you). But so anyway, back to what was, mildly, a point, I got to try BullKogi today since I categorically refuse to track down some food truck, drive 20 minutes or more to get there and then stand on line for an hour or more. In the immortal, yet timely, words of my father, "Fuck that bullshit, leave it for the morons from Queens".
So, TA-DA, Bullkogi it is. One chicken, one beef, and one pork taco later, I have to report, a solid, "Pretty Good" I'd go back, but I wouldn't stand on any line. The Yamashiro tacos at their Thursday Evening Farm Stand though, now those I'd stand in line for...


Of Course, when it comes to food trucks I need to try, first in line is Lucky J's Chicken and Waffles. This guy's been blowing up all over the Austin scene, even making network morning TV shows. Most important, Lucky J is my High School Buddy from Brooklyn, and I still need to get one of his awesome T-Shirts...

My New Toaster

Hold on to your hats, kids, it's about to get krazy up in here. After much deliberation and dissappointment, (The toaster oven which I wanted was unavailable) I decided to get the old traditional push down toaster, because, really, if I need an oven, I'll just use the oven, right? I mean, c'mon now.

I don't want to unneccessarily withhold the pay off here simply for dramatic reasons, so I'll go ahead and tell you what you've been dying to know, I got the Black and Decker two slice toaster.


Gave it a test run with nothing in it, just to cook off whatever residual factory junk, lead paint, and Chinese Dry Wall may be hiding in the thing- oh, that's right, good old Black and Decker, now proudly made in the People's Republic of China; and then woo-hoo, threw in a bagel, (Being able to fit a bagel has been an integral part in my decision making process for toasters) and boo, fail, apparently setting 4 ain't enough, even though I pressed the special bagel button, which manages a sort of top brown function, even though the bagels are vertical (Modern science). So, being the patient, intuitive, and capable man I am, I did another round at setting 4, and am proud to share with you the following results. The next step is to find a place in LA with even remotely acceptable bagels. I'm open to suggestions.

Hand roll party with Eric and Kumi.

Hand roll party with Eric and Kumi in Santa Monica, and first stop was Nijiya. I begged to come along so I could pick up the inner secret arts of sourcing good supplies and the best ingredients. Eric, my 6'3" red-headed buddy from San Diego, and his Fiance, Kumi, of Chiba, Japan, led me through the store, explaining the difference in grades of rice and nori, and how to find good fish. And then, I got a special Lychee soda with a little glass ball you push down into the drink which is a special treat for the Japanese kids at carnivals...


Always the most awesome hosts, these guys treated me to their favorite Sake, not even available in the US. I believe the translation was something like, Hatchi Shui San, or 8 Ocean Mountain, or Mr 8 Ocean- as San, or mountain, is also, our equivalent of Mister, you know, like Daniel-San... Hopefully Eric will send me some of the pictures of the meal and of Kumi preparing our magnificent feast, because it was AWESOME!

Rustic Canyon

Anybody who has a problem with this place, clearly didn't have the experience we just did last night. Or maybe they just suck. (That's the reviewer, not Rustic Canyon which kicks some quite serious ass). My friends Eric and Kumi suggested we go there, and I'm glad they did.

First of all, and I say first, because this is my greatest love, they have a SERIOUS wine list, with tons of fairly priced wines, so if you don't get a bottle for the table, you're missing out. We started with an '05 single vineyard Premier Cru Red Burg from Maranges for $55! (Click on the photo above for a closer look at Maranges and the particular vineyard, "La Fussiere", it's up in the dark red part, which are the p-cru vineyards) That's less than $15 a glass! You could easily drop that on any range of so-so Cali crap at ANY place in Santa Monica, so to be able to find what we did, and '05 no less, I consider that a nice score.

We sat at the bar with any extremely attentive, knowledgeable, and friendly guy whose name I've forgotten, but he did a great job. And when I had some overly wine geeky questions for him, rather than bullshit me, he got somebody who could answer my questions. MORE points for the team.
Onto the food: We had :

Crispy Polenta which was really pretty fuckin awesome. I got it because of the other raves here on yelp, and YUP, dopeness. Beautiful mushrooms and a sunny side up egg with some grated parmigiano-reggiano. Order this.

Kumi wanted:

The burger which I was going to pass on because, there are so many good burgers in LA, and I didn't want my new crush to fail to stack up, but no, the burger rocked too. I won't go as far as Eric and Kumi who feel it was the best burger they've had in LA, only because I can't splash all over EVERYTHING this place does, I mean, Damn, I already gave them five stars...

Next, we had:

The Chicken, which was, yeah, I'm going to say it, the best Chicken I've had while here in LA, maybe rivaled only by the prep I had in NYC at Gramercy Tavern. It was juicy and flavorful, really bursting with excellence, and cooked JUST RIGHT. Like secretly cooked just right, with a magic meat thermometer that tells you, pull it out now, cause it's not done yet, but I know you chef, and the extra 45 seconds you'll take to finish chopping will make this just regular done, and I want it awesome, so come over here right now, and get this bird out! It's true, they have magic meat thermometers at this place.

Finally, we had the Lamb Meat Balls, which, were the weakest link, being, MERELY (and notice how I stress MERELY) very good. Not the heights of awesome that the rest of the meal was, but not enough to detract. A little bit of Imperfection that heightened the love of everything else- like the faintest whisper of yellow green in the bruises on a stripper's leg at Jumbo's Clown Room. Somehow, you can infer she slipped while dancing on the roof of some unwilling taxi in last week's Lakers' riot. Those heels are slippery, who could fail to treat that little imperfection with a bit of understanding? Not me, I tell you, not me...

California Bears

Went for a walk around the Hollywood Resevoir and when we got to the dam and walked over it, I noticed from peeking over the side that there were these really great busts of Bears. Sooo, being the kinda guy I am, I hopped the nearest fence and went down to have a closer look..

My Mom is such a rascal

Remember the time she grabbed a can of Ultra Flat Black from Nix, and scrawled this message to us all? So funny.

Where is this?

I know I've seen this sculpture before, and I've always loved it. But I'm drawing a blank... I think I've seen it in Boston, somewhere along the Charles. Anybody know?

Wine and Lamborghinis

Wine tasting at the Lamborghini show room today. First time I had the chance to sit in one. You know, in all honesty, I think I'm just more of an 03 Subaru guy, which just reminds how lucky and grateful I am, since that's what I've got...
Then onto Michael Mina's XIV for a lovely German tasting. All right before heading of to work to run around for five hours...

The New Pad

A near 360 degree view of the great room. Not huge, but the price is right, and I'm home. Feels so good to have my space. I feel like I've been crashing for the last 2 and a half years.

Tokudo

Headed up to the Monastery to be there while Ducharme, Blackwell, and Kevin took tokudo ( Head shaving, and receiving of the bowl and the robes) becoming Zen Buddhist Monks.