Chego

My friend and I went to check out this place last night. We were lucky and managed to miss the huge crowd that arrived after us. She ordered the buttered kimchi bowl while I went for the pork belly bowl. We also shared the Ooey Gooey fries and a shaved ice. 

My friend was pretty happy with her bowl, but I was disappointed with the pork belly. I don't mind that it was burnt on the edges (yummy caramelized flavor!), but the meat and fat were tough. Yes, I just wrote that the fat was tough. Isn't that kind of shocking? 

The rice was pretty sad and clumpy. I can't remember the last time I had clumpy rice. 

My favorite part of the bowl turned out to be the veggies--when I cook Chinese broccoli next time, I'm going to slice the stems into thin rounds, and I am biased towards anything involving kongxin cai.

Chego mishmashes tons of different flavors into one bowl. I like this idea of mixing Thai, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, etc., flavors into one bowl but an elegant hand is necessary. I can see that the point of these bowls is to blast spicy, sour, and savory flavors so to say it needs elegance is a bit awkward...I just mean that this still requires some kind of balance otherwise the taste just gets muddy. I can imagine this being even better. 

Anyway, so the concept is great, but looks like they need to work on consistency and execution. I'm not sure I would go here again for that reason. 

Lemonade

I met a friend for lunch at Lemonade today. Since I arrived before her, I spent some time watching people go through the cafeteria style line up. I had heard a lot about the braises and pot roasts so I was pretty surprised to see that everyone stuck with the salads. Was it because it was lunch time and braises would be too heavy? Most of the customers seem to be locals so perhaps it was a Venice residents' thing? I kind of started feeling guilty about not eating as much vegetables lately and I figured that I could not go wrong following everyone else, so when my friend arrived, I decided to go for the salads.

I decided to split a two-portion salad plate so that I could try four salads. They were all delicious! The first salad had spinach, figs, and blue cheese. I was a bit apprehensive about the figs in case they wouldn't be ripe enough, but the lady at the counter offered me a taste first and I found the figs to be heavy and sweet as they should be.

Then for the second I picked the braised red cabbage with goat cheese. The lady at the counter was very enthusiastic about this salad--she made sure I got two generous dollops of the cheese, which she thought made the salad--such that I was too embarrassed to ask her to go light on the cheese. The cheese was nice, though, to cut some of the tanginess of the cabbage.

The freshest of the batch was a quinoa, radish, and cucumber salad with a very light orange ginger vinaigrette. I'm often afraid of citrusy and fruity dressings because they tend to be too sweet but that was not the case here and the sweetness was balanced by the bitterness of the radish.

My favorite salad of the bunch was the beautiful watermelon radish, seared ahi tuna, and snap peas with sesame. I don't know who came up with this combination, but this is definitely one of the best salads I've ever had. I can't decide if I like this salad better than the 7 veggie salad at Bao, but it definitely wins the beauty contest. It's too bad I don't have a habit of photographing what I eat else you would be jealous. Ok, maybe not. I just checked the photos uploaded on yelp! and...it's not that photogenic after all. Anyway, I highly recommend it!

Lemonade
1661 Abbot Kinney Blvd (at Venice Blvd)
Los Angeles, CA 90291
310-452-6200
www.lemonadela.com

Tofu and Spicy Cabbage Salad Roll

Made another tasty thing today. I used Andrea Nguyen's recipe for a spicy cabbage salad with some substitutions (I used crushed red pepper since I didn't have any fresh chillies and omitted the carrots and herbs) and rough measurements. I wrapped it and some cubes of firm tofu into softened rice paper sheets to make several fresh and flavorful salad rolls. Will make a few more for tomorrow's lunch with the rest of the cabbage salad. Can't wait!

kimchi sandwich

I have to write about this sandwich because it is awesome. I had bought a jar for sale from 99 Ranch a few days before but I discovered shortly thereafter, to my great dismay, why it was on sale. MOLD. Now I know that can happen to kimchi. It looked so sad in the jar, too, and was strangely lacking in pungent smell (I would have though that the smell would be stronger and more sour...). Anyway, so I drove to Galleria Market in Koreatown to pick up a jar and various other goodies. When I got home, my focus was on the kimchi. How would I devour it?

Somehow I got the idea that I could put it in a sandwich because I wanted the kimchi incorporated into some form that was portable. I did an Internet search to see if anyone else had any bright ideas. I wanted something other than a grilled cheese kimchi sandwich since I'm lactose-intolerant, more interesting than the usual bbq meat partnership, but preferably without meat at all (yeah, I know, I can be picky), and more substantial than a filling in a rice ball. I found a few interesting examples. Perhaps the most interesting was the kimchi and peanut butter sandwich. When I first read the description, I thought, "gross!" But now that I've had my delicious sandwich I can see how it's possible.

This sandwich is based on a brief description of a sandwich consisting of boiled eggs, cucumbers and kimchi. I toasted two slices of Milton's whole wheat bread and spread one side of each with a thin layer of kewpie mayo (I'm sure regular mayo would be fine too). Then I chopped up some of the kimchi to spread over the red leaf lettuce and cucumber slices on the first slice of bread. I topped it with the second slice of bread. And ate it. It was so delicious and satisfying.

I can imagine adding some slices of fried tofu for some protein in this veggie sandwich. As I sat there munching happily, it occurred to me that it was no wonder kimchi worked. After all, what is kimchi if not a kind of pickle? So I guess if there's anyone out there who likes peanut butter and pickle sandwiches and likes kimchi too, you should try the switch. You might be pleasantly surprised. As for me, I'm going to make myself another of this kimchi sandwich tomorrow for lunch.

ADDENDUM: I'll bet this would be great as a Vietnamese style spring roll, too! Will have to try that next.

playing favorites...or not

I study art and architectural history so I'm often on the receiving end of the question "who is your favorite artist/architect?" I find this a very difficult question to answer because how do you decide on a favorite? For me this cannot be a spontaneous decision but one that I need to sit down and take some time to determine. Mmmm, but doesn't that mean if I have to decide, then whatever it is isn't my favorite? I want to say that my favorites change all the time and often depend on who/what I'm obsessing over at the time...but, unfortunately I am a pretty forgetful person even when it comes to obsessions. When it comes to my research, sometimes this makes me wonder if I do in fact like art and architecture enough to be studying it. On the other hand, the only favorite I can reliably answer to is my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and I can't say I want to study that (aside from the fact that I'm notoriously bad at analyzing literary devices and such). Perhaps this is my only favorite since it consistently gives me feelings of pleasure and titillation every time I read it? What I study is often not my favorite. The fact that I'm studying it, the insights I gain from studying it give me pleasure, but the object itself does not. I guess when I think of favorites, the thing itself has to please me.

hair out of place

If you read interior design magazines you know what I mean. The photographed spaces are impeccable. Impeccably clean and neat. Containing eye-dazzling furniture and decorations but empty of life. Is it possible that anyone actually inhabits these spaces?

I love the sneak peek feature over at designspongeonline, where homes of designers display that bit of whimsy that keep spaces from being too sterile. Yet even these can sometimes seem empty. But then I saw this neat profile of Roche Bobois at Apartment Therapy and was pretty impressed. Sure, there is still a sterile quality to the photos--hey, it's a high-end modern furniture catalog after all--but I love the little signs of life placed here and there. Have you ever seen children's toys left on a couch or strewn on the carpet? I'm not a fan of the matchy-matchy but I can see that coordinating the colors keeps the photos modern and classy rather than I-forgot-to-clean-my-house-for-the-photo-shoot. 

Taco Plus Torta

The first time I tried this place I was wholly unimpressed. Just like any other little restaurant serving somewhere between Mexican and American food except the rice was terrible. I had to wonder why there was a constant stream of people unlike the sad pizza/sandwich/donut place next door.

The second time I tried this place I was hungry and too lazy to go anywhere else. I slipped out of my pjs, which I'd been in all day typing away at my paper, into some acceptable outdoor clothes to walk down the block, and ordered myself a torta. I ordered it so I could avoid the rice. Haha. I did not regret it.

Oh, man, was this a delicious and well-put-together sandwich. The lettuce and tomatoes were nothing to write home about but they provided a crunchy and fresh pause from the creamy pinto beans and avocado and somewhat dry meat. The bread was the perfect balance of fluff and firm to keep from falling apart from the pinto beans scooped over each slice.

I enjoyed the torta so much that when my brother came to visit me a few days later I opted for it again. I tried the rice from my brother's plate and confirmed that I just don't like it. I think I'll just avoid it. The torta on the other hand might keep me from exploring the other items on the menu. Yum.

Taco Plus
1525 S Bundy
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Craft Los Angeles Review

I went with lowered expectations and was rewarded. The meal was not out-of-this-world-good or inspiring as the cost might suggest. This was the second most expensive meal I've ever had in my life and first place is very far-off since it involved an entirely new way of tasting. But the food at Craft was solid.

"regular" and pumpernickel bread and butter -- the bread is sliced in huge hunks, like slices of bundt cake. Tasty. For a long time I stopped spreading butter on the bread so I could conserve calories but at some point I decided that I wanted to taste the butter the restaurant offered. The butter served here had a nice creamy tang to it, almost like buttermilk.

The kitchen also sent out an amuse bouche of truffle cream filled gougere. It was not particularly interesting, but was a tasty one-pop bite. This was not popular at the table. I think someone said that the gougere tasted like a cheezit with a tone that meant that this was not a good thing. 

marinated octopus -- the marinade was delicious but the octopus didn't really taste like octopus; I can't decide if this is a good thing because this suggests an flaw in bringing out the pure taste of a food. One at our table suggested that it was more like ham in a good way. the tiny dice of potatoes were a surprising added delight.

chicory salad -- the pureed dates on the plate (was almost like apple butter in substance) did a lovely job marrying together the chicory, asian pear, and salty goat cheese.

At other restaurants the appetizers often outshine the mains, but that was not the case here.

roasted leg of lamb -- my friend has a "secret" recipe (even she uses the quotation marks) and the flavoring of this was reminiscent of that... but I can't remember now which flavors stood out to me the most. I ordered this because I wanted to know how American lamb compares to New Zealand lamb. American lamb definitely has less of the gamey flavor ever-present in New Zealand lamb.

braised kale and cranberry beans -- I love kale, so it was a foregone conclusion that I would like this, but the mouth-feel of the braising liquid stood out. It has this lovely velvety texture, like eating lusciously braised tendon, that made me lick my lips again and again. I just wanted to keep this taste on my tongue for as long as possible

pureed squash -- light, fluffy, tasty. not much else to say

market vegetables -- consisted of baby carrots and other vegetables I can't remember now. I can't remember now because of the brussel sprouts. No, the dish was not ruined by the little green gremlins. I don't know or care what they put into flavoring them, but they were seriously the best brussel sprouts I have ever tasted in my entire life.

I wonder if they made a mistake with dessert because we ate more dessert than dinner.

sticky toffee pudding -- really showing up everywhere. not as interesting as the one at Westside Tavern

ice creams -- light and creamy; texture was not rich but the taste was!

creme fraiche panna cotta with some-flavored shortbread and fermented fruit -- I disliked the shortbread. I have not idea what is meant by "fermented" but the fizzified fruit slices were delicious. The panna cotta tasted like sour cream. Wow, it was rich. The only way to continue eating this was to alternate with the chocolate dessert...

flourless chocolate cake (?) -- so intense that the only way to continue eating THAT was to alternate with the panna cotta.

Probably the best dessert of the night was the toasted lemon marshmallow the kitchen sent out at the end with the caramel popcorn and chocolate bark. At this point even my dessert stomach was full so I stopped at the lemon marshmallow and consumed nothing else after. It was really like a lemon meringue pie in a tiny bite. One dining companion declared it was by far the best part of the meal.

At the end of the meal we were also gifted with a banana muffin which I devoured the next morning. One of the better banana muffins I've consumed in my time.

So I was rewarded for lowering my expectations. Would I go back again? Probably not. I don't think I can lower my expectations twice and looking back at this meal, it was not so much solid but just delicious.