Food Comma

Some Thoughts on "Lady Chinky Eyes"

2012-01-12T10:23:00.000-08:00

“Lady chinky eyes” blew up last weekend, and it might be old news at this point, but I wanted to take some time to reflect on it. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, an employee of a Papa Johns pizza joint in Manhattan was fired after she’d used the offensive phrase on a receipt to describe a customer and a picture of it “went viral” on Twitter. It happened just a month after another fast-food restaurant, Chick-fil-A, fired a cashier for naming two Asian college students “Ching” and “Chong” on their receipts.

Honestly, I’m not sure I’d have given the matter more than an indignant retweet, but a friend whose intelligence I respect expressed sympathy for the boss’s point of view, which was that the employee could learn more from a conversation about racial sensitivity than from being fired. So I read and reread the boss's response to the incident in Saturday’s article on Gothamist.

First of all, I buy that the boss is a thoughtful mentor type. In fact, I did a little research and learned that Ronald Johnson, the Papa Johns operating partner quoted in the piece, is a widely admired finance whiz who reportedly grew up poor in New York City and whose success story has been featured by Crain’s New York Business and Entrepreneur, among others. To his credit, he expressed disappointment and outrage at the incident right off the bat. So let me take up his other remarks:

He said the female cashier was a “16-year-old urban youth who listens to this nonsense all day on TV and radio”—he said the incident reflected a larger disconnect in modern youth culture. . . . “When I googled the phrase, all these songs came up.”

I can’t help but wonder why he had to Google it. Was he unfamiliar with the expression? Anyway, to appreciate what he meant, I also Googled The Phrase. Of course, most of what comes up now are blog posts and news articles about the incident. But I did manage to find a whopping four examples of songs containing The Phrase in my admittedly cursory search. The first was an insipid ditty by a husband-and-wife Vietnamese pop duo, and I think it’s safe to say that particular tune hasn’t permeated the consciousness of urban youth in New York. The other three were by hip-hop artists, only one of whom I’d ever even heard of: Nicki Minaj. Her song “Cuchi Shop,” from almost four years ago, depicts a brothel madam who asks what kind of prostitute a client is looking for: “What you need, thick thighs and some chinky eyes?” Now there’s a true reflection of modern youth culture. Any teenager who’s ever perused a whorehouse menu could tell you that, or something.

“These kids bring their baggage into the store with them. I dont know if I should fire her." Johnson said it's normal practice for cashiers to identify customers with phrases like "lady with blue shirt" or "man with Yankees cap."

Obviously he understands that The Phrase isn’t comparable to the color of a shirt or a baseball team’s hat; what he meant is that this misguided teen is most likely unaware of its derogatory nature and was using it simply as a descriptive device. So where would he draw the line? There are equally or, some might argue, even more racially offensive terms one could substitute for The Phrase, which I won’t bother to articulate. But let’s take inflammatory language out of it altogether: What about identifying a customer as “fat guy” or “big tits”? (Chow has a summary of similar instances of offensive language used on receipts, racial and otherwise, here). Obviously, there need to be policies in place, regardless of whether the description is an intentional insult or merely an unfortunate choice of words.

"I bet I'll talk to her and she wont know why this is offensive. She needs to know, and she will know. If I fire her, two years from now, she won't even remember why she got fired. If I sit her down and talk to her, I can help her. You still need a certain decorum and level of professionalism [at minimum wage jobs], and that may help her more in the long run."

This is the real heart of the argument and, I suspect, the basis for why my friend found the boss a sympathetic figure: He’s like Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver, and the cashier is Lou Diamond Phillips. She just needs someone who believes in her! And that is a nice thought. So, okay then—with a little patience and a little guidance, she could win Employee of the Month someday. "A negative times a negative equals a positive." (That's a line from the movie.) After all, despite the public outcry, the “victim” in this case wasn’t substantively wronged. She wasn’t refused service. She wasn’t charged an arbitrary fee. She wasn’t made to eat her mediocre pizza in a separate, but equal, section of the restaurant. Assuming this was a truly isolated event and doesn’t reflect a pattern of hostility, it would be alarmist at best to claim that she suffered real, live, racial discrimination.

But regardless of the boss’s good intent, to allow this incident to slide, even if only to give the young employee a chance for sensitivity to be trained into her, would be tantamount to racism—an institutional condoning of the use of a racial slur by a company representative. Firing the cashier and offering a corporate apology was the appropriate response and the minimum outcome that could be tolerated by a conscientious consumer. And by the way, he’s dead wrong about the alternative; I’m pretty sure she is going to remember why she got fired. And so will all her coworkers and everyone else who’s heard about it.

Here’s the thing: An action as crude as typing a disparaging remark on a fast-food receipt is a relatively minor transgression. It’s appalling, but at least such behavior can be identified, disciplined, rooted out. Personally, what I’m far more disturbed by, what’s much more insidious, are the subtler forms of maltreatment that occur every day in “real” restaurants, including ones that are respected for their supposedly superior quality and service. Being made to wait an hour after a scheduled reservation while parties who arrived later are seated; getting stuck by the bathroom, next to a swinging door, or way in the back in a dark spot where you can’t even see your meal; being left to sit without food or drink while others are seated, served, and settled up—these are some of the indignities I’ve endured, however seemingly slight. I won’t name names, but I’m talking about some well-regarded places. Zagat-rated places.

First World problems? Sure. But another reason I’ve been hesitant to vocalize my suspicions is, well, I can’t possibly be being treated differently, can I. This is the 21st century, in a cosmopolitan city where people of Asian descent make up more than 11% of the population. Double digits! I accept that not every experience can be optimal. We can’t all be seated at the best table; hosts and servers alike get overwhelmed; some patrons might have a special relationship with the establishment that affords them special attention.

And even if I receive service that’s doesn’t seem quite as good as it could or should be, race isn’t necessarily the issue. Maybe I’m not dressed well enough, or maybe I’m simply not assertive enough. Or there’s always the chance that these things happen inadvertently, randomly, purely incidentally. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. And keep telling myself. Because the truth is it happens a lot.

The Camp Kitchen

2011-09-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

One of my absolute favorite pastimes as a kid was what I called "Lost in the Woods." The sparse patch of trees behind our suburban Maryland house was, in my imagination, the deep wilderness, where my friends and I built shoddy shelters out of branches and subsisted on the nectar of wild honeysuckles that grew back there or, more often, on the leftover Halloween candy we’d conveniently stuffed into our pockets beforehand.

Though I didn’t turn into a backpacking nut—far from it—I’ve loved the camping trips I’ve taken since then, the most recent being a solo cross-country excursion almost exactly a decade ago. Even so, my campsite cooking experience barely extends past boiling water for coffee in the morning. And assuming Mr. Comma would never be up for roughing it, I donated all my camp gear when we moved to our new house last year.

Of course, now that I’ve been proven wrong and we’re about to go on a (car) camping adventure, we’re starting from square one. This time, I’m determined to put our new camp stove to real use, so I’ve assembled a makeshift mobile kitchen comprising what I think are the bare essentials:

Pot, skillet, and lid that fits both
Knife set and cutting board
Wooden spoon, spatula, tongs
Mixing bowl
Kettle
French press
Tableware, utensils
Can opener
Corkscrew
Dish towel

This all fits into a record crate–sized bin, with room to spare. Am I missing anything?

The Bundaberg Mystery

2011-08-29T13:09:00.001-07:00

black bean and vegetable soup, bundaberg ginger beer, a photo by calamity_hane on Flickr.

At 432 views and counting, this snapshot of a cup of soup and a bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer taken at Little Flower Candy Company in Pasadena is my current most-viewed food photo on Flickr—followed closely by my other pictures that feature this refreshing, nonalcoholic beverage from Australia. But I'm unable to identify where all the traffic's coming from. According to Flickr, the referrer(s) to this photo is "unknown." I've even made a direct appeal to viewers to clue me in, but no dice. Is there a secret cult of Bundaberg enthusiasts out there who spend their free time looking at bottle porn and won't admit it?

What's the Buzz? HenriettaHaus Coffee Roasters

2010-12-13T16:04:00.001-08:00

HenriettaHaus display at the Oakland County Farmers Market, Michigan

Some people’s idea of a fresh cup of coffee is being first in line at Starbucks. How about roasting the coffee beans yourself in your own home? That’s what Amy Duncan started doing several years ago using an ordinary stovetop popcorn popper.

One mean coffee bean roasting machine

Today, this 2-kg Ambex commercial roaster is a more sophisticated means to produce the beans for HenriettaHaus Coffee Roasters, Amy's brand-new Wyandotte, Michigan-based business. But quality is still the top priority, and each small batch gets all the care and personal attention as those first roasts on her kitchen stove. Food Comma got to see the process up close in a private demonstration of the Henriettahaus Coffee Roasters works during a recent visit to Mr. Comma's home state.

(Click to enlarge)

1. The Ambex is fired up. 2. A small batch of raw, organic coffee beans is carefully measured out. 3. Once the roaster reaches the proper temperature, the beans are fed in. 4. Periodically through the roasting process, Amy checks for color and aroma. 5. When ready, the batch is cooled and given a final inspection for any beans that have not achieved a perfect roast. 6. The freshly roasted coffee beans are ready to be weighed and packaged.

Each bag is hand stamped and labeled with the coffee's country of origin and date of roast

HenriettaHaus is just beginning to hit the market in the Detroit area, where it can be purchased at the Burton Theater in Cass Corridor, at the Oakland County Farmers Market in Waterford Township, and via direct, personal delivery around Detroit, Ann Arbor, and environs. But even outside Michigan, this handcrafted, small-batch coffee can be shipped right to your door, whole beans or ground. Makes an excellent stocking stuffer! Send an email to orders@henriettahauscoffee.com for all the details.

Read Food Comma's previous interview with Amy about her inspiration for HenriettaHaus and how she got started.

Bauer Pottery Holiday Sale

2010-12-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

Fave local blog/daily read The Eastsider has a nice post about northeast LA's historic potteries, focusing on Bauer Pottery Company, established in the 1880s in Kentucky and relocated to Los Angeles in the early 1900s. Bauer's iconic Ring-Ware line, introduced in 1932, flourished during the arts and crafts movement with its vivid colors and often-imitated design.

Bauer and Russel Wright ceramics

Though Bauer's original operation shut down in the 1960s, the trademark was revived in 1998 with the aim of reproducing the pottery's classic wares. Today, the Bauer Pottery Company's showroom resides off of San Fernando Road at the edge of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, coincidentally where founder J.A. Bauer is buried, just a few miles from the historic studio.

And it just so happens that Bauer is having a holiday sale on seconds and clearance items. Food Comma visited last weekend and scored some great deals on gifts and even a little present or two for myself.

Bauer butter dish

A couple years ago I'd been close to getting the vintage version of this butter dish for $80, but just couldn't justify the expense (which Mr. Comma was going to spring for as a birthday present). Good thing I held out: we scored this one at the sale—same great looks, same color—for about $30. What will Mr. Comma buy me with the money he saved?

Incidentally, Bauer also produces the American Modern line of ceramics from Russel Wright, subject of my last post.

Bauer Pottery Holiday Sale, Dec. 11-12
3051 Rosslyn Street
Los Angeles, CA 90065
9am to 5pm
(818) 500-0666

Love at First Wright

2010-11-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

Probably my favorite thing in the kitchen right now: this Russel Wright sauce boat, found at the PCC flea market over the weekend. Its fusion of design, function, and craftsmanship makes it a perfect object. (Sorry about the title of the post, but terrible puns like that are why I get paid the big bucks.)

Warren Zevon's Favorite Burrito

2010-11-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

Check out this excerpt from Wonderland, a 1977 Dutch documentary about the LA singer-songwriter scene featuring Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Linda Ronstadt (then-girlfriend of governor-elect Jerry Brown, also governor at the time). In the clip, Zevon pays a visit to Echo Park’s own Burrito King, back when the neighborhood was considered, according to his own lyrics, “the outskirts of town.” Here, he also calls Burrito King’s cuisine “some of the finest Mexican American food in Southern California.” Perhaps that was true 3+ decades ago, but the last burrito I ate from there gave me a horrible stomachache. Maybe I just didn't order right; Zevon recommends the machaca burrito.

Remarkably, the corner of Sunset and Alvarado nowadays appears pretty similar to the way it did then, creepy American Apparel billboard notwithstanding. Burrito King continues to shares the strip mall with a liquor store and a cleaners, though names and precise locations may be different, and Pizza Buono still anchors the southwestern corner. Even Sunset Auto Spa seems to be just a more modern iteration of the business that stood there before. But it’s a bit sad to see, in the clip, the big old houses around the corner from the carwash, knowing that they’d be demolished and replaced by a bunch of ugly lofts.

Mystery Mushroom?

2010-11-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

I guess this would fall under the "comma" part of Food Comma, being that I'm not entirely sure this thing is organic matter, let alone edible. I discovered this alien life (?) form as I was pulling weeds in the front yard. At first glance, I pegged it as a big mushroom, about 2 inches in diameter; on closer inspection, I noticed part of the purplish top layer appeared to be peeled off, revealing a gelatinous-looking core. A fallen bird egg? It seemed way too big, and anyway there are no nests nearby that I know of.

Digging the thing out with a stick, I felt a slight resistance that, say, some decaying rubber ball discarded in the dirt might lack. But then its tapered and somewhat pleated bottom end suggested a sort of balloon, and the way the thing feels both firm and squishy reminds me of, like, a silicone implant. Yeah: creepy. I showed it to Mr. Comma, who immediately remarked on its resemblance to a puffball, a mushroom-like fungus. I left it outside overnight and apparently none of the various Eagle Rock wildlife (squirrels, possums, raccoons, skunks, birds, cats, lost dogs) so much as took a sniff at it, as far as I could tell. I know the next step is to cut it open, but I'm a little scared . . .

Happy Hallowe'en

2010-10-31T20:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry, everyone. They beat you to this killer culinary costume.

Easy Cheese food truck, Halloween 2010

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto

2010-10-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

Of the more than 2,200 meals I’ve photographed, this simple dinner I made a couple months ago—chicken breast stuffed with homemade pesto, with linguine and French green beans—is for some reason my most-viewed food picture of the past three years. I don’t have a recipe per se, but the basic preparation for two servings is as follows.

Preheat oven to 350.

Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of two boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Using a carving or other long slender knife, pierce the center of one end and make a lengthwise incision into each breast, forming a pocket, taking care not to cut all the way through. Stuff a big spoonful or two of pesto into each pocket (recipe follows, or use store-bought pesto).

In a heavy, ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, swirl a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, then brown the chicken skin side (if there were skin) down for a few minutes. Turn the breasts over and place skillet in the oven. Bake until cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the linguine the usual way, drain, and toss with a tablespoon of softened butter per serving. Sauté the green beans in a bit of olive oil and minced garlic. When the chicken is done, let it rest for a couple minutes, then slice each breast crosswise into four pieces. Serve over pasta and green beans, with a little extra pesto spooned on top and sprinkled with grated Parmegiano Reggiano.

To make pesto, whiz together in a food processor or blender the washed leaves from a big bunch of fresh basil (a few cups), ¼ cup grated Parmegiano Reggiano, a handful of toasted pine nuts, and a couple cloves of chopped garlic. While the machine is running, slowly pour in a good glug of extra virgin olive oil and blend until the mixture is smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Eating the Eastern Sierras

2010-10-21T14:00:00.001-07:00

Mr. Comma and I have been road tripping up the 395 to Mammoth Lakes annually for the past 6 years to celebrate my birthday in early October. It’s the perfect time of year to visit if you like crisp autumn weather, trees with shimmering yellow and orange leaves, and none of the crowds of summer or winter.

The Stove, in Mammoth's "old town" area

Even without the seasonal hordes, there’s almost always a bit of a wait for breakfast or lunch at the Stove, a Mammoth Lakes institution. Fortunately, tables at this cozy eatery tend to turn over fairly quickly, what with all the great outdoors waiting to be had. I think the Stove is the one place where we’ve eaten at some point every single year we’ve come to town. Hearty and homey, it’s pure mountain comfort food.

Many meals at the Stove (click to enlarge)

Convict Lake

Just a few miles south of Mammoth is stunning, crystal-clear Convict Lake, cut deep into the Sherwin Range at the foot of Mount Morrison. The Restaurant at Convict Lake has a reputation as one of the best (and most expensive) fine dining establishments in the area—we’d indulged in a decadent birthday dinner of beef Wellington and seared duck here a couple of years ago—but little did we know that the adjacent lounge serves casual pub grub that’s delicious and cheap. After a glorious afternoon boating on the lake, Mr. Comma and I tucked into a bowl of bartender/chef Tim’s chili for a mere $5. Homemade with pinto beans, chunks of tri-tip steak, tomato, and a blend of spices, and garnished with grated cheddar and crunchy slivers of fried onion, this simple and satisfying meal was one of our favorites of the trip. (Tim knows how to pour a drink, too.)

Tim's tri-tip chili at the Restaurant at Convict Lake's lounge

A good pour

No mountain food round-up would be complete without mention of the Whoa Nellie Deli. Perhaps most famous for being located inside a Mobil gas mart, near the eastern edge of Yosemite National Park, the modest kitchen dishes out gourmet fish tacos, lobster taquitos, wild buffalo meatloaf, and more, all with a view of Mono Lake. The prices are a bit higher than at your average walk-up counter (entrees run from $11.95 to $19.50), but the unique setting makes the Whoa Nellie Deli worth checking out.

The Whoa Nellie Deli at the Tioga Gas Mart (click to enlarge)

Finally, one of our essential stops on the way out is Pie in the Sky Café at the Rock Creek Lakes Resort, about 9 miles up an aspen-lined road snaking through the Inyo National Forest. Hikers, bikers, campers, fishers, and nature photographers all converge at a tiny, 6-stool counter tucked in the corner of the rustic resort’s general store to feast on a selection of half a dozen or so piping hot pies baked from scratch every morning. Come too early and some of the pies aren’t ready yet; come too late and they’re all gone. On our most recent visit, we savored a slice each of lemon cream and Mom’s apple, and a fellow customer let us sample a bite of her cheddar pear pie—an unlikely combination but one of the cafe’s most popular. We were lucky to catch Pie in the Sky open on its last day of business before closing for the season.

Pie in the Sky Café (click to enlarge)

I'm already looking forward to next year.

Market Research: Seafood City

2010-09-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

Since its original store opened in San Diego 20 years ago,
Seafood City has expanded to 20 locations throughout California as well as in Las Vegas and Seattle. It’s essentially an ethnic supermarket chain, touting the “at home" experience—that is, if you call the Philippines your homeland. And since Filipinos make up the highest proportion of all immigrants living in Eagle Rock, the neighborhood is a prime spot.

Kabalikat, roughly, is Tagalog for "partner"

Seafood City opened 4 years ago in the Westfield Shoppingtown Eagle Rock Plaza, aka the Ghetto Target Mall. Its placement inside the mall is itself noteworthy. Is it an Asian thing? The Koreatown Galleria also houses a supermarket, on the bottom floor, but if I’m recalling correctly, the Galleria Market doesn't open directly onto the main part of the shopping center. Come to think of it, the Target sells groceries too, making it a grocery store inside a big-box store inside a mall. Anyway, Seafood City’s location is very convenient if you also need to join the army, pick up a coaxial cable at Radio Shack, or purchase a burial plot from Forest Lawn—all possible within Eagle Rock Plaza.

Clockwise from top left: whole parrotfish and red snapper; dried fish; beef blood, commonly used in blood sausages and savory stews; Manila-style hotdogs.

Needless to say, the market’s main attraction is its seafood. Dozens of varieties of fresh seafood are displayed atop open, ice-filled trays—whole salmon, trout, anchovies, catfish, parrotfish, mullet, you name it, plus shrimp, clams, crabs, squid, and so on. You select and bag the fish yourself, which you can have cleaned and even fried while you wait, or you can choose from a selection of already cut fillets or steaks from the case. There’s also a wide range of frozen fish, dried fish, and fish snacks. But if fish isn't your thing, the store offers all the usual proteins, and some unusual ones, like pig snouts.

There's much more to Seafood City than seafood and random pig parts. The produce section is stocked with all kinds of fruits and vegetables both common and exotic, especially those used in Filipino and other Asian cooking. Pet peeve: They sell garlic only by the five-pack. Why?

Left side: chayote, duck eggs. Right side: banana blossoms, long beans, Chinese eggplant.

The popularity of Spam among Asians is fairly well known, but I was not aware of the sheer breadth of Spam alternatives out there.

It seems the preferred container for crackers is the plastic tub. Note FITA's resemblance to RITZ. Also, the Magic Flakes logo and packaging give it an unappetizing, laundry detergent-like quality.

What I got: a couple of catfish steaks, oxtail, coconut milk, fresh cilantro, an avocado, two lemons and a lime, a yellow onion, green beans, Chinese broccoli, scallions, bananas, guava juice, frozen shumai, and a six-pack of beer. Total, including the beer: $35.79.

Not pictured: three bananas

Incidentally, Red Horse is made by San Miguel, which I had always assumed was a Mexican brewery. In fact, it's Filipino!

Market Research: Super A Foods

2010-09-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

Food Comma headquarters recently relocated to Eagle Rock, and as such, I’m on the hunt for a new local grocery store. Granted, the Vons is a mere three blocks away, but for various reasons, I’ve decided to try to check out as many of the markets in the neighborhood as possible. Consider this the first installment of a regular feature called Market Research.

Clockwise from top left: time to shop, the Asian aisle, groovy font, econo-size menudo

Super A Foods, which bills itself as a family-owned-and-operated full-service grocery store, is a regional chain with 13 locations in the greater LA metro area. The Eagle Rock outlet is a total throwback to the supermarkets of my youth, with its 1970s color palette (think brown, orange, avocado green), groovy fonts, and seagull and sailboat décor.

I like seeing how different stores cater to the local demographic. There doesn’t seem to be a huge demand for organic produce among Super A's patrons; on the other hand, you can find a good selection of Mexican cheese and crema.

I never saw cactus fruit at the Los Feliz Albertson’s.

Cactus fruit, Bosc pears, mangoes

Super A also offers bulk lard, if that’s what you're into.

I picked up just a few items for the rest of the week’s meals: a ribeye steak, some ground turkey, bacon, a bag of Mexican sandwich rolls, a grapefruit, a lime, a few roma tomatoes, romaine lettuce, watercress, and a frozen pizza and ramen noodles for the inevitable lazy nights when I don’t feel like cooking. The damage came to $31.84.

Of course, that excludes the bottle of Maker’s Mark for $18.99, which I spotted just as I was leaving. And for a deal like that, I’ll definitely go back to Super A.

Feasting at the Fair

2010-08-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Carnival rides. Pig races. Weird Al Yankovic. These were all highlights of Food Comma's trip to the OC Super Fair this summer, but we all know the real star of the show is the food. Where else but at the fair can you indulge in all the crap you'd never normally eat—while it's also deep fried and/or on a stick?

We made sure to arrive hungry, but despite my growling stomach, the Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich did not look appetizing. As you might gather from its name, the sandwich features a fried, processed chicken patty plunked into a sliced, glazed, jelly-filled Krispy Kreme donut.

Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich

On the other hand, the beef sundae held a lot of promise: a cupful of mashed potatoes underneath a pile of smoked pulled beef slathered with barbecue sauce and topped with a grape tomato. The problem was that the potatoes tasted distinctly of the instant variety, chalky and bland. But I'm looking forward to experimenting with the sundae idea at home.

Beef sundae

Next up, the deep-fried White Castle. Since there's already a bun, the additional fried batter around the burger really just makes the whole thing way too doughy. Disappointing.

Deep-fried White Castle

It wasn't edible, but the hand-sewn fabric cheeseburger, winner of the Blue Award, whatever that is, in the crafts competition's junior fiber arts category, was cute. It even had fabric potato chips and watermelon on the side.

Award-winning cheeseburger

We ended our junk food journey with a repeat treat from last year, the Huell Howser from Pink's. Are there two hot dogs in it because Huell repeats everything his interviewees say?

The Huell Howser

Alas, the OC Super Fair has already packed up for the year, but the 2010 LA County Fair is just around the corner, with, I'm certain, many of the same gut-busting delectables. As the fair's website says, "undue the top button on your pants and dive in."

Let's Meat: The 2nd Annual Korean BBQ Cook-Off

2010-08-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

Signage on the street was minimal, but visitors needed only follow the great cloud of smoke rising over Wilshire, and the mouth-watering scent of charred beef and pork, to find the 2nd annual Korean BBQ Cook-Off this weekend in Los Angeles.

Clockwise from top left: galbi sausage with kimchi on a brioche bun (Seoul Sausage Company), traditional bulgogi (Soowon Galbi); cheeseburger (Kalbi Burger); spicy pork ribs (Ham Ji Park); LA galbi (BDC Tofu House)

Any repeat attendee could tell that the contest’s organizers learned a lot from last year. With a bigger venue, printed vendor maps, voucher system for meals and drinks, and plenty of port-a-pots, this time around the cook-off evidently resolved the overcrowding, inspection delays, and food shortage issues of the inaugural event.

Waiting in line for Ham Ji Park

Food Comma also learned something from last year. Upon arrival, my companions and I purchased several vouchers and then fanned out, each getting in a different line so we could reconvene with a variety of dishes to share. The longest lines by far were for Kalbi Burger and Ham Ji Park, whose customers waited for up to 45 minutes. Lines for some other restaurants, like Soowon Galbi and O Dae San, were only a few people deep.

Judges Jonathan Gold, Ludo Lefebvre, and Sandra Oh

Again, we skipped the Choco-Pie eating contest, and missed the soju mix-off, but were sure to catch the awards ceremony featuring Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Gold, rock star chef of the moment Ludo Lefebvre, actress Sandra Oh, and councilmember Herb Wesson. Park's BBQ, a franchise of a Korea-based restaurant, took top honors and was also deemed the fave of Chef Ludo, who said he found inspiration at the cook-off for next week's LudoBites menu.

The winner

More pics from the Korean BBQ Cook-Off:

Jonathan Gold greeted fans after the cook-off

Photo op with Hite Man

Chef Ludo declared his passion for kimchi

Brews You Can Use

2010-03-24T18:07:00.000-07:00

Bros at the Bruery

It may be hidden in the back corner of an Orange County industrial park, but the Bruery is at the forefront of a craft beer movement in Southern California. The 3-year-old family-run microbrewery specializes in Belgian-style beers, which I admit I know next to nothing about. I can say, however, that the tasting room at the Bruery is an excellent destination for a weekend afternoon or evening. A recent visit witnessed a couple dozen merry makers indulging in $5 glasses (12 oz.) or $18 flights of 5 samples of the establishment's foamy specialties, some aged in bourbon or wine barrels to impart a complex character. Word is that the company is expanding, with approved plans for a "craft brew cafe" in Old Town Placentia. I leave the brew review to Food Comma’s resident ale expert, NLS.

Growler of Humulus XPA

While this is billed as an “Xtra Pale Ale,” it doesn't have the extreme bitterness of other pale ales I've had. This is mellower and, as it turns out, has a much lower alcohol content. That said, when I say that the Humulus XPA is mellower, I certainly wouldn't say it's mellow. Anyone who loves pale ales is into a slightly extreme taste, but I really do think the bitterness can be pushed too far. This, however, is right at that sweet spot. Another special thing about it is that it encourages a bit of beer tourism. Yep, only at its birthplace, the Bruery in Placentia, California, can one taste this winner. For those who like souvenirs, you can spend $20 for a “growler” of the XPA that you can take home. Any of you unaware of what that is, like I was, just imagine a vessel like one a toothless hillbilly would drink moonshine out of and you're just about there. In addition, you can take your empty jug back and get it filled up for only $10. When you get it home and are ready to drink, you also might want a hand pouring the growler if you're not a body builder. By the way, the Bruery does have a handful of other brews—the proprietor of this blog and I tried one other, Orchard White, which had notes of uh . . . ground pork? Not such a good thing. Maybe we could have used a palate cleanser after the XPA, as the Orchard White seems to be a highly regarded beer. But we enjoyed the casual and friendly atmosphere. –NLS

99 barrels of beer on the wall...

The Bruery tasting room
715 Dunn Way
Placentia, CA 92870
Friday 4–10
Saturday 4–10
Sunday 12–6

Dining on the Rails

2010-01-06T09:54:00.001-08:00

This Christmas, Mr. Comma and I traveled from LA to Michigan, where he grew up, to spend the holidays with his family. For adventure’s sake, we decided to take the train, and because the trip is roughly 48 hours each way, we splurged on a sleeping cabin. The cost was exorbitant, but we figured it was worth it for the added comfort and private space; plus, it included meals, which I was predictably very curious about.

Dining car between meals

The dining car is not the classy, linen-tablecloth-and-fine-china luxury it evidently used to be. The decor was more like a Denny’s spruced up to look “modern”: curvy table edges and stainless steel accents and such. However, the menu graphics are well designed, evoking the streamlined elegance of rail travel’s golden age.

Menu

The first thing you should know about dining on the rails is that it’s “community seating,” meaning unless you’re already a group of 4, you’ll be sharing a table with strangers. I’m not a big fan of this practice, but I admit it did give us a chance to meet some interesting people.

For instance, our first dinner companion turned out to be a Michigan native; I’ll call him Barry. A somewhat serious middle-aged guy with a graying mullet and the deep, grizzled voice of a lifelong smoker, he and Mr. Comma bonded over their home state the way all Michiganders seem to. The lakes, the U.P., the “seasons,” et cetera. We were looking forward to seeing some snow, but it was sort of poetic the way Barry described how winter in the Midwest made him feel depressed after the fallen leaves had left the trees so bare and stark. The next morning, we ran into him outside during a stop in Albuquerque, where we chitchatted about this and that, like how he was finally able to get a cigarette break, and how badly Mr. Comma and I had slept our first night on the train, possibly because we’d tried to both squeeze into the lower bunk. Barry, on the other hand, told us he’d slept on the upper bunk and that he slept better than he does at home, even though the mattress was so thin, and he’s slept on some pretty thin mattresses, because he’s spent time in prison. I kind of wanted to ask what for, but I was also afraid to ask in case it was rape.

Clockwise from top left: New York strip steak; herb roasted half chicken; cheeseburger on a dinner roll; salad with Granny Smith apples, walnuts, and blue cheese

Then of course there's the food itself. Some was pretty good, some was not, but in general, at least it was a few notches above airplane fare. Here are just a few tips for a more rewarding railfood experience:

1. Get the steak. Our porter revealed to us that it’s the only thing that’s cooked to order. According to him, everything else is premade and simply reheated on board. I didn’t actually verify that, but judging from the dry, cardboard-like chicken I had the first night, I believed it.

2. Reserve an early seating. The dining car steward comes around to make reservations, that is, he or she is supposed to. On our outbound journey, Janine took our dinner reservation the first night but, for the remainder of the trip, sounded quite drunk every time she made an announcement over the PA. She would slur, “ThisisJanineinthediningcarthere’llbenoreservationsinsteadit’llbefirstcomefirstserve.” But if you do have the option, try to eat earlier rather than later because things tend to run out. One dinner, we weren’t able to get red wine, only white. At lunch another time, not only was Mr. Comma’s bacon cheeseburger served without the bacon, but it also came sans bun.

3. Wake up early. I chose poorly at the one breakfast service we managed to get up in time for (the quesadilla special, which was ice cold in the center), but Mr. Comma’s French toast was fine and it definitely beat the crappy microwave fare from the cafe car.

Quesadilla and bacon, French toast and pork sausage

4. Bring your own booze. At $13 for a half bottle, the wine served in the dining car (not included with the inclusive meal, of course) may not be marked up as much as at a restaurant, but it still feels like a rip-off. If you do bring a bottle aboard, you can consume it only in your own room, but you can also order your meal to be delivered there, which as an added benefit gives you a break from having that same old conversation in the dining car (“Is this your first time on the train?” etc.).

The holiday turkey special with stuffing and gravy: processed and oversalted but tasty in a TV dinner kind of way

Soup Season

2009-12-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving on a Bun, fresh fruit

Now that Thanksgiving is long over, you don’t have to feel like you’re cheating if you order the Thanksgiving on a Bun ($8.75) from the Village Bakery and Cafe in Atwater Village. Of course, now that Thanksgiving is over, the Thanksgiving on a Bun is probably the last thing you’d want. But the casual eatery—recently opened in the former LA Bread space by one of the founders of Auntie Em’s—has plenty else to offer.

Basket of bread with raspberry butter

Aside from its full breakfast and lunch menu, the restaurant has a bakery case crammed with housemade cakes, cookies, scones, muffins, and other treats. Having more of a savory than a sweet tooth, Mr. Comma and I opted for the lemon-rosemary-almond-olive oil cake ($5) on a recent visit. Not only is the name itself a mouthful, but you really can taste every one of those flavors in each bite. Is that a good thing? We weren’t entirely convinced but look forward to sampling other selections.

Baked goods (left), lemon-rosemary-almond-olive oil cake (right)

Compared with the roast beef sandwich, which was stacked high with tender meat, cheese, grilled onions, and greens on thin-sliced sourdough, the chicken salad sandwich ($8.25), made with organic apples and toasted pecans, seemed a bit skimpy. The soup of the day, however, roasted red pepper and tomato bisque ($5), was so good that I ordered an extra bowl to take home (though I’m inclined to nitpick that traditionally a bisque is made with shellfish).

Roast beef sandwich, side salad

Chicken salad sandwich, roasted red pepper and tomato bisque

It also inspired me to tweak a recipe I thought I’d already perfected over the past 15 years, a tomato soup with dill. I’d always made mine with red bell peppers but never thought to roast them first. Turned out so great I’m happy to share my recipe here. A twist on a classic mirepoix (equal parts chopped carrots, celery, and onion), the roasted peppers and fresh zucchini in the base lend a smoky complexity to this comforting and delicious soup. This recipe makes a good 8 or so bowls, so invite friends over, or keep the leftovers to yourself.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Tomato Soup with Dill

2 red bell peppers
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 zucchinis, chopped
1 28-oz can crushed Italian plum tomatoes
1 and 1/2 quarts vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup sour cream
Several sprigs fresh dill, finely chopped

Roast the peppers over a medium-high flame (or in a preheated 425-degree oven), turning occasionally, until they are nicely charred (but not incinerated) on all sides (this could take 5-10 minutes per side). Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap or enclose in a paper bag 10-15 minutes, until cool enough to handle. Peel skin from peppers and cut open to remove seeds. Coarsely chop into 1/2-inch pieces.

Heat butter and olive oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Sautée garlic for a few seconds; then add onion, zucchini, and red bell pepper. Stirring often, cook the vegetables for a couple minutes. Add crushed tomatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool about 45 minutes. In a blender, puree the mixture in batches to a smooth consistency. (At this point, the soup can be refrigerated for later use.)

Prior to serving, gently reheat. Add sour cream and, using a whisk, stir in until it’s fully incorporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (The canned tomatoes and broth will already have supplied plenty of salt so you shouldn't need to add much, if any.) Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with a big pinch of dill.

1. Prep. 2. Cooking. 3. Post-puree. 4. Finished product.

Booze, Clues, and Food

2009-09-30T17:20:00.001-07:00

Could the eighth time be the charm? Agave Tequila House y Cantina is the eighth restaurant in as many years to open, or reinvent itself, at 1745 N. Vermont Avenue that I can think of. In the heart of Los Feliz, the restaurant/bar's locale should be ideal, yet I swear it’s cursed....

Honestly I might’ve been hesitant to check this place out, but was drawn here by Booze Clues, a monthly trivia night I’ve been competing in since its debut a couple of years ago. The pub quiz has had multiple homes, and Agave is the latest. Considering that its stock of more than 200 tequilas is the selling point of the place, I would’ve liked to try a tequila flight. But since I didn’t want to divide my attention between tequila tastings and trivia questions, I decided to save it for another evening. Instead, Mr. Comma and I both had the house margarita ($6), which was drinkable enough if nothing to gush about.

From the food menu (clockwise from top left), the chicken wings with chipotle barbecue sauce ($9) sounded great, tasted okay; couldn’t really detect the chipotle. Jalapenos rellenos ($5) were spicy and flavorful. They weren’t battered and fried like typical chiles rellenos, but it worked as bar food. These two appetizers were actually filling enough to satisfy both Nathan and me as far as our hunger went, so that was a pretty good deal. Other members of our trivia team ordered the Mexican flatbread, essentially nachos in pizza form, and beef skewers with rice and beans. I think they ran between $9 and $11.

Our team tied for 3rd place this month. Our pattern is usually this: a middling showing at halftime (the first two rounds are current events/general knowledge and a changing “specialty” round), followed by a pretty strong surge in the visual and audio rounds, our strengths. In fact, a few quizzes back, my founding teammate Jen (who blogs at Epicurean Quest) and I were thrilled to find a visual round composed of celebrity chefs. Most of them were easy, but even we got stuck on a couple. Would you have beaten us?

Name that celebrity chef (click to enlarge)

Hecho en Eagle Rock

2009-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Normally it takes at least like a year before I try out a new restaurant. It isn’t because I’m waiting for hype to die down or kinks to be worked out; I’m just slow. So it was unusual for me to be compelled to check out CaCao Mexicatessen so soon after it opened (which was a couple months ago), but following a glowing review from Octopus Grigori, chronicler of all things Eagle Rock, Mr. Comma and I went. Twice! As the name suggests, the family-run establishment, in a cozy storefront on Colorado Blvd., is a Mexican eatery and deli. In addition to homemade salsas and guacamole, Mexican cheeses, and agua fresca, the shop stocks imported chocolate and specialty items like agave nectar and offers a wide selection of coffee and espresso drinks.

CaCao Mexicatessen, Eagle Rock (click to enlarge)

On our two trips I sampled some tacos, all served on CaCao’s handmade corn tortillas: (top right) cochinita pibil (pork roasted with achiote and citrus, $2.75), calabacitas (zucchini, corn, and cotija cheese, $2.55), and (bottom right) chicken ($2.65). I found the first a bit dry, but I’ve been spoiled by the divine cochinita pibil at Yuca’s in Los Feliz. The chicken tasted pretty good, even though it wasn’t grilled, contrary to the menu description, and was a little gristly. Of the three—and it surprises me to report this—I liked my vegetarian taco the best. It was full of bright flavor and was perfectly complemented by the fresh salsa verde. Mr. Comma thoroughly enjoyed his colossal carne asada burrito (bottom left, $7.95), which was so big he couldn’t finish, even with my help.

I also tried an iced latte de miel de agave ($3.45 single/$3.70 double), sort of a poor man's Iced Angeleno with half the espresso and double the agave nectar. Delicious. Friendly service and a casual but homey atmosphere are also big pluses. We’ll be repeat customers.

CaCao Mexicatessen
1576 Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041
Note: Closed Mondays
www.cacaodeli.com

Eggs Over Freezy

2009-09-25T16:18:00.001-07:00

This is what happens when your eggs get pushed back to the coldest part of the refrigerator:

It's like an egg slushie.

A Fiery Harvest

2009-09-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

With the whole city covered in a thick blanket of smoke, the so-called Station Fire has pretty much consumed my thoughts along with all the vegetation in the San Gabriels. But I've been worried about another Southern California wildfire, too, in Oak Glen. The hamlet nestled in the San Bernardino Mountains 60 miles east of Los Angeles is famous for its apple orchards, and right around now is when harvest season begins.

Apple orchard in Oak Glen

Every fall, tourists and local families alike flock to the farms dotting Oak Glen Road to pick their own apples, pumpkins, and berries. Gorgeous mountain scenery, crystal blue skies, and the promise of homemade apple tarte tatin made the day trip to Oak Glen one of our favorites of last year. I had just been thinking about planning another outing when news of the blaze broke.

Riley's at Los Rios Rancho

Luckily, it sounds like firefighters have made good progress on the Oak Glen Fire, and no people, animals, structures, or farms have been harmed.

A fine specimen

Life on the Farm(Ville)

2009-08-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

I tried to grow strawberries initially; my first plants withered away before I even realized the berries were ripe. But with some effort, I’ve since successfully cultivated soybeans, squash, eggplant, artichokes, and even a variety of fruit trees. Did I attack the square foot gardening craze with a vengeance? Nope. The entirety of my gardening experience has been within the pretend land of FarmVille.

In this "simulation game," you plow land, plant seeds, wait for stuff to grow, then harvest and sell your produce to earn money to buy more seeds, livestock, and—if you can afford it—a barn. You don’t learn anything about what it takes to actually grow food or run a farm, except that your crops will die if you don’t tend to them regularly, like a Tamagotchi. I wonder what happens to your chickens if you don’t collect their eggs soon enough? Sounds like an interesting experiment! (Also, it’s really strange collecting eggs or milking a cow with a scythe, which seems to be the only method available.)

Since I never played—much less got addicted to—any of those alter-egotistical games like the Sims or Second Life, FarmVille has been my introduction to inhabiting a virtual persona (well, aside from my Wii Mii). But unlike those other games (or so I assume), FarmVille is rather solitary. You’re encouraged to become neighbors with other players, and you can visit their farms, but at the moment, you never actually encounter anyone else. Your interaction with your farmer friends is limited to posting a sign on their land for them to read later, or leaving messages on your own farm. I suppose instead of socializing, you could look at it as a kind of personality test, comparing one farmer’s approach to his or her homestead with another’s.

I’ve been on the farm for maybe 2 or 3 weeks. Here’s my modest little plot:

As you can see, I’m sort of an easygoing farmer. Once I gained enough cash and “experience points” for the privilege, one of my priorities was to acquire a rest tent, shaded by banana and passionfruit trees, with a couple of hay bales for my visitors to sit on and relax while watching my wheat grow. My animals have plenty of room to wander freely. The duck and the bunny have become inseparable, and since there’s no one to talk to on my farm, I’ve adopted a goat as my pet.

This is my friend Adam’s farm:

He’s only been cultivating his land for a couple of weeks longer than I have, but look how serious his operation is. Not only is it huge, but it’s also super orderly, well diversified, and efficiently laid out for maximum output. He’s an agronerd.

FarmVille’s developer has been accused of ripping off not only the concept but also the graphic design from an earlier established game called Farm Town, and a Google Images search certainly confirms the two look more or less identical. I’ve never checked out Farm Town, but I gather its advantage is that players have the opportunity to mingle with one another at the local saloon.

It would be nice for my avatar to be able to shoot the shit with my farming buddies over a drink someday. But at the moment, I’m finding the whole experience rather Zen. I don’t claim to get the point of playing. It isn’t clear what the endgame is or whether there is one. Just like life.

Korean BBQ = Sex?

2009-08-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Three of the contenders in the first annual Korean BBQ Cook-Off

The size of Los Angeles’s Korean population is second only to Korea itself, so it’s kind of astonishing that there’s never been a Korean barbecue food festival here before this weekend. But considering the popularity of this particular cuisine, it isn’t surprising at all that the event drew nearly twice the expected crowd of 5,000 to the heart of K-Town.

In fact, held in the parking lot of some slick condo complex and featuring fewer than 10 restaurants, the Korean BBQ Cook-Off was far too small to accommodate the demand. My companions and I arrived just after 4 p.m. to find that a few of the food stalls had already run out of meat, even though the event was scheduled to last another few hours.

Long lines

I would’ve loved to taste-test a variety of barbecue; ideally, each person in our group would have gotten in a different line and ordered one meal to share so that we could all sample at least or three or four different recipes. But the long waits (30 minutes to an hour) combined with the will-they-or-won’t-they-run-out dilemma prompted us to just get in the shortest line we could find and fill up there while we had the chance. At least we weren’t disappointed by what we got. Ham Ji Park’s spicy pork spareribs were succulent, smoky, and tender with just a hint of heat. I wasn’t familiar with the restaurant before, but I’ll definitely be eating there in the future.

Ham Ji Park's spicy pork ribs

Our later arrival also meant we missed both the Choco-Pie eating contest, which is fine since I find competitive eating absolutely repulsive, and the demonstration of Korean barbecue marinating, which I can totally do with my eyes closed anyway. I did want to be sure to catch the actual cook-off, judged by a panel of culinary celebrities including Evan Kleiman, host of KCRW’s Good Food, and LA Times columnist Russ Parsons. But clearly the rock star of the bunch was Pulitzer Prize–winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who remarked, “Like sex, even bad Korean barbecue is pretty damn good.”

Judges' table (Jonathan Gold's face obscured)

Gold has written extensively about LA’s various Asian cuisines, including a compendium of Koreatown’s top 40 restaurants, which is why it was so embarrassing when one of the emcees asked him a totally lame question that began something like, “So I was reading on your bio that you’ve tried a lot of ethnic food.” CRINGE. “This probably isn’t your first time eating Korean barbecue,” she continued, “but how is it different from other ethnic food you’ve eaten?” Gold was perfectly gracious about it, of course, steering away from obvious comparisons and instead pointing out that even though he’s visited something like 160 Korean restaurants, it’s only a fraction of what’s out there, and there’s so much more to Korean cuisine than just barbecue.

The grand prize winner was Moo Dae Po, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t translate to anything but Moo Depot, wherein “moo” represents beef. The win is enough of an endorsement for me to want to try the place, but considering Koreatown’s barbecue abundance, I hope in the future there are more than six entrants.

Adam is interviewed for Korean television

We had a great time at the cook-off but I gotta say it wasn’t especially well organized or executed. In fact we learned that the health inspector didn’t even give the OK to start serving food until an hour and half after the gates opened. But hey, it was the first-ever such event, so hopefully the kinks will be worked out for next year.

Brunch at Little Dom's

2009-08-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

Scrambled eggs bruschetta

Little Dom's scrambled eggs bruschetta ($10), served on a grilled baguette with a dollop of pesto, roasted roma tomato, and lightly dressed baby greens, was delicious and a perfect portion. I should've asked for a steak knife, though; it was a bitch to cut through and too messy to simply pick up with my hands.

Housemade granola and yogurt

This was Nathan's. Whenever he orders granola at a restaurant (which is rare, but not unheard of), the server invariably thinks it's for me. Anyway, I didn't try this. It's granola and yogurt ($8). What more can I say?

Grilled Italian sausage

The grilled sausage ($5) is housemade at Little Dom's, so I was looking forward to sampling it. But WOW was it salty. Completely overpowered by salt. Like almost inedibly so, but Nathan managed to finish it.

Fried potatoes

These fried potatoes ($4) looked to be whole slices of potato, maybe boiled first and then gently smashed onto a frying surface, flavored with garlic and a good squeeze of lemon. At least that's how I'm going to try to replicate them at home.

Sad Chicken

2009-08-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I ordered delivery from Jitlada, one of my (and Jonathan Gold's) favorite Thai Town restaurants. But something in the green curry apparently turns the chicken blue. Granted, Jitlada specializes in southern-style dry curry, which doesn't use coconut milk, so maybe it's just that typical green curry isn't its forte. Next time I'm there I'll have to remember to ask whether they add food coloring to the dish. And no, I didn't eat it. I'm sure whatever was making the chicken that color was harmless, but I'm afraid blue food is just unappetizing, spinal benefits or not.

Green curry, blue chicken

Naturalmind on My Mind

2009-07-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

So what is Naturalmind? Is it, as many in the neighborhood expect, an organic grocery store? Recent attempts at confirming what’s going on at the corner of Griffith Park and Sunset have failed to turn up much, being that the building is still virtually empty.

Dismantling of the facade revealed that prior to the cavernous Video Market, which I always suspected was some kind of front, the building housed a tae kwon do studio. Then the whole structure was painted green, apparently heralding the new business, but oddly, now it’s covered in plywood.

Naturalmind, May 2009; previous tenants include a video store and a tae kwon do studio

Naturalmind, July 2009

When the “For Lease” signs first appeared on the Video Market last fall, I begged my friend Sam from Bi-Rite in San Francisco to open an LA outpost there. (Truthfully I’d been trying to make that happen ever since I moved to Los Angeles in 2001, but finally I had the perfect location for him.) I even encouraged my friend Adam, who’s been in the organic produce business for 10+ years, to start up his own venture. Neither of them bit.

With plenty of space and even a parking lot, the site is a natural (no pun intended) for a neighborhood grocer. There’s already a popular farmers market held just outside its front door, but of course both its hours (Saturday mornings) and its variety are limited; you need to shop elsewhere if meat, cheese, and a bottle of wine are also on your list.

But then why would a grocery store call itself Naturalmind instead of, say, Natural Foods? What I'm afraid of is that rather than something that a wide swath of the neighborhood could really benefit from, we’re going to get a crappy vitamin shop, useless hemp-clothing emporium, or lame yoga studio. What would you like to see there?

*UPDATE 8/3: It is so much worse than I feared: Naturalmind is going to be a BEAUTY SALON. Ugh. This actually makes me angry.

Happy Hour: The Desert Rose

2009-07-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

It’s got a huge patio. And a full bar. And it’s close to home. Sounds inviting, right? Basically, it’s the hideous giant stained glass rose, the centerpiece of the restaurant’s decor, that always turned me off—and, apparently, many others around the neighborhood—from trying this place since it opened on Hillhurst a year ago. But I’d heard from a friend that there were decent happy hour specials, so on a recent Friday afternoon, Nathan and I and a couple friends decided to avert our eyes and focus on the other stuff.

Our companions opted for mojitos ($5). Fans of vanilla-flavored liquor might be intrigued by the vanilla mango mojito. I’m not one of those fans, though, and personally thought it tasted like Captain Morgan’s sweat with a splash of patchouli oil.

I ordered a John Daly ($4), which our server explained was an Arnold Palmer with whiskey. It sounded refreshing on a hot day, but either the iced tea or the lemonade tasted like it came from a box. Also, when I looked it up on the interweb later, the recipes all called for vodka, not whiskey, so either the server flubbed or the bar makes a weird version. I guess it didn’t matter since I really couldn’t detect any alcohol in it anyway, so I switched to my usual, Maker’s Mark neat. At $9 a pop, it basically subsidized the discounted beer: $3 for pints of Fat Tire, Stella Artois, or Peroni—now that’s a good deal.

For food, we went with (clockwise from top left) fish and chips ($5), garlic Parmesan fries ($3), a couple falafel sliders ($1.50 each), and the pita pinwheels with hummus and tomatoes ($3). These were good enough if unspectacular, with the exception of the falafel, which was flavorless and dry, like it’d been sitting around for a few days. Also, what’s with calling any old miniature-sized burger a “slider” (in this case, not even a burger)? GIve it a rest already.

In short, I guess it’d be worth going back for the cheap pints and sunshine. Happy hour is between 4 and 6 Monday through Friday.

Foamy Friday

2009-07-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

It's mid-July and for some lucky folks, that means a weeklong vacation to Hawaii. But if the islands are a little out of reach, consider a faster and cheaper jaunt to Island Brewing Company instead. The family-run microbrewery is just steps from the state beach in the charming coastal town of Carpinteria, a mere hour and a half from LA by car. Perfect for a day trip—with a designated driver, of course. Or you could even take Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner.

Island Brewing Company, Carpinteria, CA. Clockwise from top left: a private tour of the brewing works; some labels, each of which is applied to a bottle by hand; beer flight; a selection of cold brews to take back home.

Fair Fare

2009-07-13T10:56:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was the kickoff of the OC Super Fair in Costa Mesa. The main draw for me was Duran Duran, and while most people's reaction might be shock, bemusement, or even pity that the former Fab Five were playing a county fair, keep in mind that the concerts are held in the 8,500-seat Pacific Amphitheater, which easily sold out.

But since this is a food blog, let me turn my attention to an added highlight of the fair: the zucchini weenie. It's essentially a corn dog, but the dog is inside of a hollowed-out zucchini. As my friend Hannah put it, the zucchini is like a condom for the wiener! With mustard and hot sauce, it was actually quite tasty.

The zucchini weenie

Later on, Nathan spotted a Pink's stand and to our pleasant surprise, the pared-down menu included its special named after Huell Howser, one of my all-time heroes. It's two hot dogs in one bun with chili, cheese, mustard, and onions. All I can say is, "Wow... That's amazing!"

The Huell Howser from Pink's

Kick Out the Jam

2009-06-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

Had a bowl of strawberries in the fridge that were probably a day away from getting dumped in the garbage. But as my dad always says, “to waste is a sin.” So I decided to make jam, with a kick.

Strawberry-Chipotle Jam
about a quart of strawberries, hulled, quartered, and mashed with a potato masher
1/2 cup sugar
juice of 1 lemon
zest from 1 orange
a pinch or two ground chipotle, to taste

Combine first four ingredients in a heavy skillet and bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir in chipotle and let cool. Store in a glass jar.

But wait, that’s not all. This tart, sweet, and spicy spread also inspired a late-night snack—a grilled turkey wrap with strawberry-chipotle jam and blue cheese. Nathan likened it to a savory Pop Tart, which sounds like a great idea to me!

Hoppy Hour

2009-06-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why it's called India Pale Ale? Say what you will about the evils of colonialism, but it’s thanks to the British empire that we have IPA, created out of demand on the part of colonial troops stationed in the subcontinent during the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s thought that the flavor and aroma of the extra hops, along with its elevated alcohol content, gave IPA the fortification it needed to withstand the long voyage between London and Bombay without spoiling.

Since I’m not much of a beer drinker myself, Food Comma enlisted resident ale expert NLS to taste-test a few IPAs for this week’s drinks feature.

LAGUNITAS IPA
Lagunitas Brewing Company
Petaluma, CA
$8.99 per six-pack at Big Mac’s, Silver Lake

This is my go-to beer, hands down, the workhorse IPA that I so crave. Back in ’93–’99 when I was in Michigan, I would by default buy Labatt’s. Something I knew I would like, no experimentation necessary. In 2009 this has become my Labatt’s: nuthin’ fancy, dependable, steadfast, and true. Tonight, the night belongs to Lagunitas IPA. Ahhhhhh... –NLS

RUINATION IPA
Stone Brewing Company
Escondido, CA
$13.99 per six-pack at Cap ’n’ Cork, Los Feliz

According to the liner notes on the back (do beers have liner notes?), Stone Ruination IPA not only has 100+ IBUs, which stands for International Bitterness Units, but also will render any food or drink thereafter bland, in effect “ruining” your ability to settle for lesser drinks. A few sips into my first one, I wasn’t sure if this was so much of a good thing. The hops content seemed a little too extreme, way too bitter—and typically I like bitter. Must come back to and try again. Hey, I thought Lagunitas was extreme the first time I tried it. –NLS

THE SHIPYARD IPA
Shipyard Brewing Company
Portland, ME
$8.99 per six-pack at Cap ’n’ Cork, Los Feliz

Interested in trying an IPA from the East Coast, I was happy to find this IPA at the Cap. Now I’m not sure to blame the Cap or their distributor or if I have been the victim of psych-mology. Just prior to popping the bottle I notice one of those “freshness date” things. Well, the thing said “Best enjoyed by December 07.” Uh-oh. My first impression: soap and tea. Not ideal. Next time will remind myself to check for dust on the bottle. –NLS

TV Dinner

2009-06-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

Though Top Chef Masters might sound like a head-to-head battle between the former finalists of all the previous Top Chef seasons, this spinoff instead pits some of the country’s most renowned chefs against each other in the familiar “quickfire” and elimination challenges for the benefit of the charity of the winning chef's choice. The first episode aired this week, and according to Twitter, it was the highest rated debut of any series that has ever premiered at 10 p.m. on a Wednesday on the Bravo network. Way to go.

The level of experience and professionalism of the chefs might preclude the trash talking and petty dramas that help make the regular series so fun to watch, but it was definitely refreshing to see these contestants behaving maturely, dealing in a respectful manner with the critiques of Girl Scouts and the difficulties of cooking in dorm room toaster ovens, instead of whining like little bitches. But the whole rating system with the stars—from 1 to 5, including 1/2 stars, like in a restaurant review, for a possible 20 stars after averaging the scores from the quickfire challenge and then adding the ratings of the three judges after the elimination challenge—is cumbersome, clearly. Who wants to do math while they’re watching TV?

Dinner on the table

Anyway, being that my brother Daniel hosted the season finale of Top Chef last February, it was my turn to have him over for the Top Chef Masters premiere. And not to be outdone by his fabulous Indian feast, I cooked up a Southeast Asian spread featuring Thai grilled chicken with hot and sweet dipping sauce, a Yunnanese take on mapo tofu flavored with ground pork and chile oil, and a chile-spiced cucumber salad.

All the recipes were from Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (not to be confused with Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet by Top Chef’s own Padma Lakshmi).

A cookbook for the coffee table

Measuring nearly 2 feet across when open and weighing over 5 pounds, it’s really more a coffee table book than a practical everyday cooking guide. But the recipes, each of which includes a tidbit about its specific region or an anecdote about the dish, are superbly written and easy to follow. Just look at the results.

Grilled chicken with hot and sweet dipping sauce

The best part, of course, is the leftovers. Nathan decided to skip the salad for his lunch the next day, so I used the spicy cucumbers in a banh mi–inspired baguette sandwich.

Leftovers two ways

Here are recipes for some of the above dishes, from Hot Sour Salty Sweet:

LUSCIOUS CHILE-OIL TOFU

1 Tbs peanut or vegetable oil
3 scallions, trimmed, smashed flat with the side of a cleaver, cut lengthwise into strips, and then cut crosswise into 1-inch lengths
1/4 cup (about 2 oz) ground pork
4 blocks fresh tofu (about 1 1/2 lbs), cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 to 3 Tbs Hot Chile Oil (recipe follows, or store-bought)
1 tsp salt, plus a pinch
1/8 tsp freshly ground Sichuan pepper, or more to taste*
1 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1 Tbs water

Place all the ingredients near your stovetop. Heat a wok over high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat, then toss in the scallions, reduce the heat to medium-high, and stir-fry briefly. Add the pork and stir-fry, breaking up any clumps with your spatula, until it has all changed color, about 1 minute. Pour off any water that has drained out of the tofu cubes and add the tofu, chile oil, salt, and pepper to the wok. Raise the heat, turn the ingredients gently to mix well, and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir the cornstarch paste, add to the wok, stir to blend, and cook for another 20 to 30 seconds until the sauce thickens.
Turn out on to a plate or into a shallow bowl. Serve hot or at room temperature, to accompany rice or noodles.
Serves 3 to 4 with rice and one or more other dishes

*I don't have Sichuan pepper so I used freshly ground black pepper.

HOT CHILE OIL

1/2 cup peanut or vegetable oil
3 Tbs dried red chile flakes

Heat the oil in a wok or skillet. As soon as it starts to smoke, toss in the chile flakes, taking care not to splash yourself, and remove from the heat. Let stand until completely cool, then transfer to a clean dry glass jar and store in a cool place. If you wish, in several days you can strain out the chiles and store them separately or discard them, leaving you with just a gleaming orange hot oil.
Makes about 1/2 cup oil

GRILLED CHICKEN WITH HOT AND SWEET DIPPING SAUCE

Marinade
2 Tbs Pepper-Coriander Root Flavor Paste (recipe follows)
2 to 3 Tbs Thai fish sauce

3 pounds chicken breasts or breasts and legs, chopped into 10 to 12 pieces

Accompaniment
Hot and Sweet Dipping Sauce (recipe follows)

Place the coriander root paste in a large bowl and stir in the fish sauce. Place the chicken pieces in the marinade and turn to coat well. Let stand, covered, at room temperature for about 1 hour or in the refrigerator for as long as 3 hours.
Heat a grill or preheat the broiler. If using a grill, place the chicken pieces 4 to 5 inches from the flame, bone side down, and grill until the bottom side is starting to brown, about 6 to 8 minutes. Then, turn over and cook until golden brown on the other side and the juices run clear when the meat is pierced.
If using a broiler, put the chicken pieces in a lightly oiled broiling pan, bone side up, place 4 to 6 inches from the broiler element, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the chicken is starting to brown. Turn the pieces over and broil for another 8 minutes, or until the juices run clear.
Transfer the chicken pieces to a platter and serve with the dipping sauce and plenty of sticky rice.
Serves 6 as part of a rice meal

PEPPERCORN-CORIANDER ROOT FLAVOR PASTE

2 tsp black peppercorns
5 to 6 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped (about 2 Tbs)
3 Tbs coarsely chopped coriander roots*
Pinch of salt
1 tsp Thai fish sauce

Place the peppercorns in a mortar with the garlic and pound to a paste. Add the coriander roots and salt and pound to a paste. This will take 5 to 10 minutes; if you have a small blender or other food grinder that can produce a smooth paste, use it instead. Stir in the fish sauce. Store in a well-sealed glass jar; this keeps for 4 days.
Makes 2 to 3 Tbs paste

*I don't know where to find coriander with the roots still attached, so I just used coarsely chopped stems.

HOT AND SWEET DIPPING SAUCE

1/2 cup rice or cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 to 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp dried red pepper flakes

Place the vinegar in a small nonreactive saucepan and heat to a boil. Add the sugar, stirring until it has completely dissolved, then lower the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, using a mortar and pestle or a bowl and the back of a spoon, pound or mash the garlic and salt to a smooth paste. Stir in the pepper flakes and blend well. Remove the vinegar mixture from the heat and stir in the garlic paste. Let cool to room temperature. Store sealed in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Makes about 1/2 cup sauce

Raw Fish Feast

2009-05-24T02:19:00.000-07:00

Choked with traffic and illuminated by bright neon signs and beachfront fireworks, downtown Sokcho isn’t the quaint fishing village that my father remembered from his youth. But at the harbor of this town on the northeast coast of South Korea, local purveyors still hawk ultrafresh seafood from the day’s catch directly to hungry customers, including myself during a recent family trip. Clockwise from top left, here’s how it works:

(click to enlarge)

1. There are maybe a dozen or so fishmongers to choose from, all very aggressively competing for your business. Each stall seems more or less identical to the next, though, so it becomes an eenie-meenie-miney-moe situation.

2. Select your fish, which, by the way, are all alive. We had the fishmonger pick out a variety that included sea urchin, Dad’s favorite.

3. A group of rubber glove–clad, knife-wielding ladies takes your basket of live fish and they very quickly and methodically gut, scale, and cut them up into bite-sized strips. For an extra fee, they'll make pretty sashimi slices, but we went the economy route.

4. Your platter of the freshest seafood ever is ready to eat. Upstairs, scores of families crowd long communal tables, wrapping pieces of fish daubed with spicy red pepper paste in lettuce or sesame leaves and washing it down with chilled soju and Hite beers.

We were also sure to order ojingo soondae, a specialty of the region. Soondae means “sausage,” but instead of using pig intestines as casings, ojingo soondae is made from cleaned squid, stuffed with meat, rice, and vegetables, which is then steamed and sliced. In this case, it looks like the slices of stuffed squid were also briefly fried, giving them extra delicious flavor and texture. It was one of the tastiest dishes we sampled during the entire trip. In fact, I’m on a quest to find a restaurant in Koreatown (or anywhere in the LA area) that serves a good version of it, so let me know if you have a tip.

Ojingo soondae (squid sausage)

L'Heure Heureuse

2009-04-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

Mini vodka martini, icy cold

Massachusetts was the first state to do it, and one by one, others have followed suit. Of course, I’m talking about the ban on happy hour. Since 1984, more than 20 states have tagged along on the trend of abolishing two-for-one drink specials, free or reduced-price appetizers with which to enjoy those drinks, and all the good times that go with tipping back a few in the company of friends and coworkers during those magical hours between punching out and tucking into dinner.

Fortunately, California is no lemming, and on a recent Friday after work, some good friends Nathan and I hadn't seen in a little while suggested meeting up at Figaro. Modeled after a Parisian bistro and occupying prime sidewalk real estate on Vermont Ave., the Los Feliz restaurant is a favorite of the see-and-be-seen set of the near-eastside. In fact that's probably why it had been years since we were last there. But In This Economy^TM, who are we to pass up those happy hour specials?

Selections from Figaro's happy hour menu

Pictured above, clockwise from top left, are (in French, of course) pommes frites ($3), croquettes de crabe ($6), and moules gratinee aux fromage ($6), all roughly half of what they cost during dinner service. Cocktail discounts include $4 "mini" martinis, $3 beers, and $5 glasses of wine. So Nathan and I managed to get our drink on and fill our stomachs for about $30. Happy hour at Figaro lasts only from 5 to 7, so when the end is nigh, do the smart thing:

Make that a double

By the way, I hope to start featuring different happy hours on Food Comma on a semiregular basis. Any suggestions?

Cups of Fate

2009-04-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

Found these Heath Ceramics teacups near Merced on a recent road trip to the Bay Area. We exited the highway in search of coffee and just happened to catch sight of a Salvation Army. I actually didn't even want to stop because I was anxious to get to our destination already, but Nathan's insistence paid off. Somewhere along the line they'd apparently been separated from the matching saucers, but really, who needs a saucer? Now if only we had someplace to put them.

Shrimp Mac and Cheese

2009-04-09T14:43:00.001-07:00

When I'm getting down to the end of our groceries, mac and cheese is an old standby since I always have some kind of pasta in the cupboard and some kind of cheese in the fridge. But I’m one of those people who feels like if there’s no meat in my meal, I haven’t really eaten. Frozen shrimp and bacon to the rescue!

I could have used different pasta or cheese or added fresh herbs if I’d had any, but the following “recipe” is precisely how I made this dish with the materials I had on hand. That said, it’s also imprecise because I tend to eyeball ingredients rather than measure them out.

15-20 medium shrimp (thawed if frozen), peeled, deveined, and roughly chopped
1/2 lb or so elbow macaroni
2 strips bacon
1 big clove of garlic, minced
1/4 small red onion, minced
small chunk of butter
spoonful of flour
a good glug of brandy
1/2 cup or so of chicken broth
a shot or two of half and half
a big handful of shredded cheddar cheese
a small handful of grated Parmigiano Reggiano
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Boil macaroni the usual way and drain.

Meanwhile, in a 12-inch heavy skillet, cook bacon over medium heat, turning a few times, until crisp and then drain on paper towels, leaving rendered grease in the pan.

Add garlic and onion to skillet and sautee over medium-high heat until garlic is fragrant and onion softened, just a minute or two. Add butter and swirl around until melted, then add flour and stir constantly until fully incorporated. Add brandy and chicken broth, let it come to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low and simmer until reduced a bit, 10 minutes or so. Stir in half and half and turn off heat. Mix in cheddar cheese and add salt and pepper to taste; then add raw shrimp (it'll cook in the oven).

Add macaroni to pan and stir everything together. Pour mixture into a buttered casserole and top evenly with Parmigiano Reggiano. Bake for 30 minutes or so, until top is golden and crusty. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Chop or crumble the cooked bacon, sprinkle it over the top, and serve.

Objet Orange Part Deux

2009-04-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here's one of my finds during a recent road trip through Arizona.

It's a Descoware enameled cast iron skillet with lid. In flame, of course, with trademark grey enamel interior.

This Is Why I'm Fat

2009-03-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

While Nathan’s parents were visiting from Michigan, the four of us took a weekend jaunt down to lovely Laguna Beach. When we got back, as always, we watched a slideshow of all the pictures we took, and it struck me how much fried food we’d consumed in the past 3 days. Of course, none of it even begins to compare with the disgustingness (deliciousness?) of anything featured on This Is Why You’re Fat, but I think I’ll be laying off the grease for a while.

Well, I might make an exception for the rice balls at Little Dom’s (upper left). These baseball-sized palate pleasers were made from risotto cooked in mushroom broth, mixed with creamy burrata cheese, breaded and deep-fried and dusted with Parmesan. I could have them with a salad...

The remaining pictures are, clockwise, crab cakes, fried zucchini, fried wontons with pork and shrimp, fried calamari, and chicken empanadas.

Coffee Talk

2009-03-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

A week after dominating the 2009 United States Barista Championship with four of the top five spots (including no. 1), Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea is near completion of its second California location, in Venice. This will be no ordinary coffeehouse. Introducing a new model for caffeine purveyance that’s being hailed as “groundbreaking,” the new shop will forgo a counter and instead will be outfitted with separate pods where your own personal barista will advise you individually about what kind of “coffee experience” you seek and suggest pairings. The café will even offer flights, or “cuppings,” a sampling of several different varietals similar to that provided in the tasting room at a vineyard, a trend that’s already caught on elsewhere.

Being open to new epicurean experiences of all stripes, I’m partly intrigued by the concept. But mostly I find it kind of absurd. I mean, do people really want to engage in a one-on-one coffee consultation every morning? Maybe they should’ve asked this guy before they went ahead:

Mr. Advice Man, Intelligentsia Silver Lake

I very rarely indulge in Intelligentsia anymore. For a period of about a week after the Chicago-based company opened its first West Coast outpost in Silver Lake, I went almost every day for its Iced Angeleno, a heavenly chilled concoction of four (4!) shots of espresso and milk, sweetened with agave nectar (sounds weird, tastes amazing). The thing is, they were 4 bucks a pop back then—now $5—and you don’t have to be Asian to calculate how many dollars were quickly being subtracted from my wallet. Since then, it’s been strictly a special-occasion treat—even before in this economy became a cliché.

So I was thrilled when a package arrived in the mail from HenriettaHaus Coffee Roasters, based in Wyandotte, Michigan. Small-batch, hand-roasted coffee beans delivered straight to my door? Now that's groundbreaking. The beans therein had been roasted to a milk-chocolate hue and produced a brew that was nicely mellow. HenriettaHaus proprieter Amy Duncan started experimenting with home roasting a few years ago as a simple DIY project. Now she’s preparing to launch the venture as a true mom-and-pop roastery and coffeehouse with help from her husband, Jeremy. Amy recently answered some questions about starting HenriettaHaus (named after a thrift store painting that hangs in the couple’s home) and the small-batch roasting process.

HenriettaHaus logo designed by Jeremy Duncan

What inspired you to roast your own coffee?
I was having a birthday dinner at a really good Ethiopian restaurant in Windsor and we had the Ethiopian coffee ceremony where they bring out incense to the table and then come back and wave coffee that they’re roasting under your nose and then come back again with the brewed coffee in the clay pot. Anyway, I love coffee and I was sitting there and when they waved the roasting coffee under my nose I was totally inspired to roast my own!

How did you get started?
I received a Whirley Pop stovetop popcorn popper and some green coffee from my mother-in-law as a birthday gift along with some basic directions from the Web site she ordered them from and that was it.

Where are your beans from?
Directly, they come from sweetmarias.com, an amazing company dedicated to the home coffee roaster. Right now I’m drinking beans from a small co-op in Chiapas, Mexico, that I roasted 4 days ago. I have some green coffees from Hawaii, Sumatra, Brazil, Peru, and Guatemala waiting to be roasted. I don’t have any African coffees right now. I love to roast coffees from all different coffee growing regions because they all have their own unique characteristics. I’ve been roasting single-origin coffees but I’m starting to experiment with blending.

What is the roasting process? How long does it take?
I moved on from the Whirley Pop a few years ago because I wanted to be able to roast larger quantities. I was then using a stainless steel drum on a rotisserie in a barbecue grill that was dedicated to coffee only, but living in Michigan makes it hard to roast outside year-round so right now I’m using an indoor rotisserie that somebody modified for coffee roasting. They added an extra heating element and an exhaust fan and made a stainless steel drum for the beans. I just heat it up, put in the beans, and watch, listen, and smell. I did a 3-pound batch a few days ago for 27 minutes, which is not ideal. It should take about half that time but this is what I’m dealing with right now. This is also a big motivation to get my roastery going because I’ll be getting a better roaster!

What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered in transitioning into a commercial/retail business?
I don’t know if there’s enough space on the Internet to answer that question! The first challenge I think is writing the business plan for the bankers and getting a loan. Next is finding the right spot to open shop. Then you have to deal with the inspectors and city officials and health department and everybody else that wants to reach into your pocket. These are all challenges that can be conquered. I think my biggest personal challenge is patience. All I want to do is roast coffee and make people go “mmmm”!

Gold's Records

2009-03-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

Normally I find KCRW relentlessly uninteresting, but it came to my attention that this week Jonathan Gold was featured on the station’s “guest DJ project” hosted by Garth Trinidad. Gold, who writes for the LA Weekly and Gourmet, is the first food critic ever to win the Pulitzer Prize. The guy’s knowledge of the Los Angeles food scene encompasses everything from decadent Michelin-starred restaurants to divey bowling alley coffee shops, not to mention his fluency in the limitless diversity of the region’s ethnic cuisines. But before becoming the country’s most-lauded restaurant reviewer, Gold actually wrote about music, including the first major piece on NWA back in 1989. For his guest spot on KCRW, he brought records (or maybe MP3s) by Dr. Dre, the Germs, Funkadelic, Louis Armstrong, and John Dowland. Deep. The annoying thing is that they play only a portion of the songs, and they talk over them, too.

Incidentally, this Sunday in West Hollywood, Jonathan Gold will be hosting the Gold Standard, a tasting of 30 restaurants hand-picked by the Gold himself. The event is sold out, but my brother was smart enough to get a discounted ticket weeks ago; hopefully he’ll remember to take pictures.

Jonathan Gold's Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles (St. Martin's Press, 2000)

Creative Kimchi

2009-03-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

I don’t know if Koreans have a national dish, but if we do, it must be kimchi. Dating back several thousand years, the salted and spiced cabbage (or, in other variations, cucumber or radish) originated as a way to stretch out the shelf life of perishable ingredients usually grown in one's own yard. In lieu of refrigeration technology, it would be buried in vessels underground and naturally fermented in its brine, resulting in the pungent, sour, and piquant dish so ubiquitous on Korean tables.

In my family, we ate kimchi every single evening with dinner, and a favorite daytime snack was simply kimchi stacked between two pieces of white bread with the crusts cut off. I’ve since stretched beyond kimchi sandwiches and lately have been experimenting with it in a variety of ways.

1. Kimchi burger. In this version I mixed ground pork with chopped kimchi and a little bit of soy sauce to make the patties. On top are sliced red onion and some wilted spinach flavored with sesame oil and garlic.
2. Pepperoni and kimchi pizza. It was one of those lazy nights when I just took a frozen store-bought pie, slapped some kimchi on top, and stuck it in the oven.
3. Black bean, pork, and kimchi tacos. This was inspired by Kogi and some leftovers I had in the fridge.
4. Roast pork tenderloin stuffed with kale and kimchi. Today’s LA Times Food section has a feature on using kitchen string to tie roasts and such. I’ll do it when it’s essential, like with a roulade, but I usually don’t have the patience or, let’s face it, the gastronomic integrity for it. For this tenderloin I just made an incision lengthwise through the middle with my carving knife.

5. Kimchi-stuffed pork roast. This is similar to number 4, but with a center-cut loin instead of tenderloin and just kimchi. I’ve actually been practicing variations on this for a while; this one turned out pretty well in terms of kimchi-to-meat proportions.
6. Steak and kimchi quesadillas. I used leftovers from the Korean BBQ–marinated sirloin steak I'd made the night before.
7. Shepherd’s pie. Here's another great vehicle for leftovers. I made this with the remnants from number 5, including the wasabi mashed potatoes that went with it.
8. Roast chicken stuffed with kimchi. For this I inserted kimchi just beneath the skin but I really couldn’t taste it much; next time I’ll use more.

Objet Orange

2009-03-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

This makes me happy.

1960s tea kettle, found in Torrance, California

Top Chef Shocker

2009-02-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hosea? Really?? If Carla was the dark horse of Top Chef, Hosea was the beige one: good enough, I suppose, but in a boring sort of way. Seriously, did anyone see that coming? Anyway, the real highlight for me, of course, was the return of Marcel Vignerone, the rapping molecular gastronome with the Wolverine coiffure from Season 2. Incidentally, Marcel is sous chef at The Bazaar at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, which got a 4-star review last week. Someday...

Another highlight of last night’s finale brought to you by the Glad family of products was actually being invited for dinner by my brother, who used to invite himself over for dinner at our house every Wednesday until he moved into his newly renovated home about a year ago. In honor of both Padma and this week's Oscar wins for Slumdog Millionaire, Daniel cooked up an Indian feast of chicken korma, eggplant curry, channa masala, and brown basmati rice. The only thing he cheated on was the naan, bought frozen from Trader Blows, I mean, Joe’s. Everything was delicious.

Here’s Daniel’s easy eggplant curry recipe:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cut a large eggplant in half lengthwise and rub the cut sides with some salt. Brush a pan with olive oil, put the halves cut side down, and roast the eggplant for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, mince a medium onion and sautée with garlic, turmeric, coriander, cumin, and salt.
Once the eggplant is done, scoop the flesh out from the skin and put in a blender or food processor.
Blend with the onion mixture and a chopped tomato.
Voila.

Catch of the Day

2009-02-24T13:30:00.001-08:00

Handmade ceramic pitcher, found at Goodwill in Victorville, California

Booze Traveler

2009-02-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Photo by Hane C. Lee

If there’s anything I enjoy as much as food, it’s booze, in particular, bourbon. Originating in the 1800s in what is now Kentucky, bourbon was declared by the U.S. Congress in 1964 a “distinctive product of the United States”—the same way Scotch whiskey is distinctive of Scotland or champagne is distinctive of Champagne, France. Not only does it have to be made from at least 51% corn and aged for at least 2 years in new, charred oak barrels (which gives the liquor its unique taste and lovely amber color), but it also has to be distilled within these United States to be classified as bourbon, making it about the most American spirit you can sip.

While bourbon is now made commercially in a dozen different states from New York to Colorado, to gain a true appreciation for our nation’s spiritual heritage, Kentucky is the place to be. And if you ever get the chance to tour bourbon country, an essential first stop is the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History in Bardstown, bourbon capital of the world.

Glencoe Distillery personnel

Getz was a Chicago businessman who cofounded Barton Brands, a whiskey broker, after the end of Prohibition in 1933. The following decade, Barton bought the Tom Moore distillery in Bardstown, and Getz started amassing historic whiskey artifacts and memorabilia. Originally housed in his own office at the distillery, his collection was donated by his wife to Bardstown to establish the museum after his death in 1983. The museum now resides at Spaulding Hall, built circa 1826 as a college and seminary and subsequently used as a Civil War hospital, an orphanage, and a boys’ prep school.

This poster is Prohibition propaganda, but to me, the graphic looks like "Sad World + Booze = Happy World."

Even during the dark days of Prohibition, there were ways around the law. These labels specify that the contents within were to be used for medicinal purposes only.

The medical marijuana of its time

I'm not sure how long this was on the market:

For the exceptionally lazy bartender

This has nothing to do with booze, but Spalding Hall also houses the Bardstown Historical Museum. Check out this Civil War–era front page:

Editing nerds like me will note the hyphen and period!

Eyes on the Pies

2009-02-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

Way back in mid-2007, bloggers started buzzing about New York’s Two Boots setting up an outpost in Echo Park adjacent to indie-rock emporium the Echo. With fond memories of the pizzeria from when I was a poor postcollegian bumming around NYC, I looked forward to having another option for a good slice. The amazing Vito’s was long gone (though it had reopened much farther west, on La Cienega), and Il Capriccio had just debuted its pizza offshoot a few months previous to wildly divergent reviews. Of the old standbys, Palermo was passable, but Nicky D’s was pricey and overrated, while Hard Times had become Truly Crappy Times.

More than a year and a half later, Two Boots has finally opened. But in the meantime, so has Garage, Andiamo, Tomato Pie, Lucifer’s, and Cruzer. Pizza Buona, a mere 2 blocks away from Two Boots, is a 50-year-old institution with a loyal clientele. Clearly there’s a glut of pizza joints in the Silverlake–Los Feliz–Echo Park environs now, so the timing seemed unfortunate.

It turns out Two Boots was worth the wait. Inspired by the “two boots” of Italy and Louisiana, the petite parlor enlivens traditional New York pizza with innovative concoctions named after pop cultural icons, like The Big Lebowski’s the Dude (Cajun smoked pork, ground beef, cheddar, and mozzarella) and Andy Kaufmann’s infamous alter ego, the Tony Clifton (wild mushrooms, sweet red pepper pesto, Vidalia onions, and mozzarella).

The BIrd

On a recent evening I settled on the Bird, a white pie topped with spicy Buffalo wings, blue cheese dressing, jalapenos, and a shower of scallions. With a perfectly textured thin cornmeal crust, assertive flavors, and a powerful kick, this slice was outstanding. As a comparison, Tomato Pie’s Hot Wing pizza, which combines similar ingredients, is really skimpy on the toppings and relatively bland.

Selection of slices

Some other pizzas my companions tried were, clockwise from top left, the Larry Tate (a white pie with spinach, plum tomatoes, and fresh garlic), the Mr. Pink (marinated chicken, plum tomatoes, fresh garlic, and mozzarella), the Earth Mother (vegetarian on a Sicilian crust; this one apparently has a Bette Midler tie-in, but I don’t know why), and the Cleopatra Jones (sweet Italian sausage, roasted peppers, onions, and mozzarella). All were very well received.

Photo by Hane C. Lee

Aside from the food, it’s really nice to see that after removing the ugly metal siding that had been added in the name of, I don’t know, modernization, they’ve restored the original brick facade and stone arch, framing a pretty patchwork of stained glass. Inside, the colorful vintage glass globe light fixtures, vibrant mural, and jukebox stocked with funk 45s and ’60s and ’70s pop and soul singles make dining in just as appealing as ordering out.

Fried Chicken, Two Ways

2009-02-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

Last week, fried chicken enthusiasts from Kentucky to Korea were riveted by the announcement that KFC’s top-secret recipe had been safely restored to an upgraded, high-tech vault at its Louisville headquarters. But buried way down at the very end of the Associated Press report—and altogether omitted from most others—was the news that Colonel Sanders’ iconic chain will be unveiling a grilled chicken product.

The Louisville Courier-Journal pounced on the real story in today’s Business section, calling the planned April addition of Kentucky Grilled Chicken to the menu “the biggest piece of the brand’s turnaround plan.” What would the Colonel think?? The company’s aim is to woo women and health-conscious consumers, who might not relish the thought of genetically engineered poultry cooked in a vat of boiling oil. The thing is, just because I fall under both those categories doesn't mean I'm averse to fried chicken, and in yesterday’s case, I enjoyed it twice in one day.

First was brunch at Larkin’s in Eagle Rock. Housed in a restored Craftsman and decorated with antique photographs, mismatched chairs, and tables made from salvaged wooden doors, it feels like it could be the cozy dining room of the chef’s home. Larkin’s Country Style brunch pairs two pieces of fried chicken with buttermilk biscuits and homemade gravy. The drumstick and thigh had a flawlessly crisp crust without a hint of greasiness and were perfectly juicy on the inside. The biscuits were slightly too dense, but the creamy, subtly spicy gravy was addictive—I think I could've eaten a whole bowl of it with a spoon.

Larkin's Country Style

For dinner, we headed to bustling Sawtelle Blvd. in West LA to try GR Eats, the culinary companion to Giant Robot’s magazine and store-galleries. The decor is clean and modern, with walls graced by stunning Ai Yamaguchi paintings on wood. GR Eats' take on fried chicken, served with steamed rice and vegetables, consists of a generous portion of two thighs dipped in a sweet but light teriyaki sauce, resulting in a less crunchy skin but still satisfying flavor.

Teriyaki fried chicken at GR Eats

I admit I haven’t consumed KFC in decades, so it would be unfair to make comparisons. But with alternatives like these, I doubt I will anytime soon.

In Praise of Eggs Benedict

2009-02-12T14:11:00.001-08:00

Last night’s Top Chef elimination challenge paired each of five remaining contestants with a “last meal” requested by a multigenerational panel of the culinary world’s elite. Nine-Lives Leah drew Wylie Dusfresne, whose gastronomic molecules craved eggs Benedict. Once again, Leah, like, sucked ass on the challenge, but this time she was finally axed for it. Whatever.

Like Wylie, I, too, could probably eat eggs Benedict every day, but after a three-day stretch in which I did exactly that, I realized that if I kept it up, it very likely would be my last meal. Below are some examples of the classic brunch dish, traditionally composed of a toasted English muffin topped with Canadian bacon and silky poached eggs, smothered in rich, tangy hollandaise. (Click image to enlarge.)

Photos by Hane C. Lee

Clockwise from top left:
Madame Matisse, Silverlake. I have no idea what made the hollandaise that atomic color.
Home Restaurant, Silverlake. Thoroughly mediocre. What made the meal memorable was that it was accompanied by possibly the worst service ever.
Proof on Main, Louisville, Kentucky. Their version uses Kentucky grit cakes and country ham.
Alabama Hills Cafe, Lone Pine. Hearty fare at a favorite stop between LA and Mammoth.
Paula’s Pancake House, Solvang. Very popular joint in Southern California's Danish Disneyland.
Colonial Kitchen, San Marino. Old-school family restaurant with reliable food and warm staff.

Is Kogi the new Pinkberry?

2009-02-11T13:40:00.001-08:00

photo by Hane C. Lee

Is Kogi the new Pinkberry?

1. Run by Koreans
2. Cultish following
3. Multiplying like Nadya Suleman’s offspring
4. Just a matter of time before the backlash sets in?

Just three months after its "soft launch" comes the news that Korean BBQ taco phenomenon Kogi is not only adding a third truck but also setting up shop in the Alibi in Culver City (and perhaps in one or more of Cedd Moses’s downtown LA bars). Though the brilliant concept of combining smoky and succulent Korean BBQ with the finger foodiness of tacos seems perfectly suited to a bar menu, isn't half the appeal—and uniqueness—the fact that it's served out of a truck?

Signs of a backlash are already creeping in. Just last week PR honcho Alice Shin posted a lengthy entry to the Kogi blog responding to apparent customer criticism about hours-long lines, running out of food, high prices, and (most deservedly) her inexpLicabLe propensity for using capitaL Ls in aLL her correspondence. There have also been complaints from local restaurants that say the truck’s proximity is hurting their usual business. Other establishments are irate that hoards of taco tweeters are hogging their parking lots. Shin’s advice to Kogi patrons? “Park in a residential area!!” Sure way to win lots of new fans in any neighborhood.

photo by Hane C. Lee