Posted by Adam Kuban, August 27, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Sure, it's a rundown of the best rotisserie bird joints in Los Angeles, but everyone can benefit from the tips this article lays out on what to look for in a spinning chicken.
Golden Chicken Rule No. 3: Go at peak hours. Be there when the place is operating at full tilt even if you are not planning to eat your chicken right then. Don't go at 3 in the afternoon to find two lonely birds circling the chicken Ferris wheel probably since 11 a.m.
You won't catch me clucking about this advice.
Related: I Like to ______ With Leftover Rotisserie Chicken
It's easy to get local produce at this renown San Francisco market, "But now, shoppers ... can buy wheat berries from the Eatwell Farm stand and either grind it into flour themselves in the stand's small mill or ask one of the farm stand helpers to do it for them. The whole wheat flour, from a hard red winter wheat, works well in pancakes as well as bread recipes, says Nigel Walker."
Posted by Erin Zimmer, August 26, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Mayor Gregory Manning in Clayton, California is losing major credibility with kids right now. According to ABC News, he doesn't think two young ladies, three-year old Katie Lewis and her eleven-year old sister Sabrina Lewis, should manage a street corner produce stand where they once sold surplus crops like zucchini and melon from their family's garden. When the police recently showed up, they shuttered the stand for violating zoning and traffic laws, only because of one complaint to the mayor's office.
"They may start out with a little card table selling a couple of things, but who's to say what else they have," warned Manning, who fears for a raucous future involving eggs and chicken sales. In response, Sabrina has authored a petition, which is fast receiving neighborhood support. She is a hero for little entrepreneurs and lemonade stands everywhere. Or are you siding with the mayor?
Posted by Jen Maiser, August 21, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Many of us in the Bay Area are unusually obsessed with food and freely admit it. Still, the extent of our obsession can even take me by surprise.
The Thursday morning San Rafael farmers' market in Marin County is a joy. Relatively mellow and full of the area's best farmers, it's a very pleasant experience. Plus, odds are good that you'll run into a well-known chef or two purchasing fruits and vegetables for their restaurants.
Back to the Bay Area food obsession. While tasting stone fruits at the Kashiwase Farm booth recently, trying to find my favorite nectarine, a nearby four-year old walked up with his mother. "Mom, remember last week I liked the Flavor Kings the best," he reminded her. I had to laugh. Is the level of our obsession so great that kids not only know about pluots, but can identify their favorite varietal? To me, it's a refreshing scene—I'd much rather the four-year olds identify fruit varietals than the Jonas Brothers.
Cherry Tomatoes in Action
As you've been reading in other Market Scene reports, tomatoes are showing up at farmers' markets all over the country—it's no different in the Bay Area.
Over the past few years, I've avoided cherry tomatoes. So ubiquitous and overly sweet, they are usually inferior to the more acidic, complex heirloom tomatoes. But this season, I find myself returning to cherry tomatoes, inspired by creative uses at local restaurants.
Continue reading »
Posted by Erin Zimmer, August 21, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Earlier this week, we told you about a supposed $8 Blossom Bluff Nectarine on the dessert menu at San Francisco's Zuni Cafe. Ridiculous surcharge for a single piece of fruit, right? A Zuni Cafe representative chimed in to clear up the misunderstanding: It should be $4.50. "The only $8.00 item on the menu was a pot de crème." Ridiculous still, but maybe less ridiculous? We will keep you updated with other NectarineGate details as they come through the wires. [via Eater SF]
Posted by Erin Zimmer, August 20, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Armed robbers have been on the loose in Oakland this summer, targeting restaurants primarily around the Lake Merritt, Oakland Hills, and San Antonio neighborhoods. But Monday night, a robbery occurred in the upscale Rockridge district, marking the first instance in this area. At least two men wearing masks and hooded sweatshirts robbed Pasta Pomodoro at 5500 College Avenue, about ten minutes before closing. Nobody was hurt.
Completely unrelated, the crime wave also struck the four-star restaurant La Folie in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood. Thieves went straight for the safe, stealing the entire box and its contents. Unlike the Oakland robberies, this one happened after hours when no staffers or diners were inside the restaurant.
Previously
Oakland Restaurants Hit by More Takeover Robberies
Restaurant Heists in Oakland and Emeryville, California, Continue
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 19, 2008 at 1:00 PM
As enticing as the $8 Blossom Bluff Nectarine dessert at San Francisco's Zuni Cafe may sound, be aware that all you'll get is a whole nectarine on a plate. Celeste at Chowhound describes the dish: "A plate came out, with exactly what they ordered - just a plain nectarine rolling around on the plate. ..It seems like a joke but is not." But there's a bonus—the peach comes with a steak knife! [via Eater SF]
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 13, 2008 at 6:30 PM
From left: Alice Waters, Tony Gulisano, Charles Phan, Thomas Keller, Paula LeDuc. Photographs from the San Francisco Chronicle
Michael Bauer, the San Francisco Chronicle's food critic, kicks off an informative series in today's paper:
Many national dining trends have their roots here, and it's where dedicated food lovers and chefs from around the country come to play and get inspired. Great cooks are everywhere - at a neighborhood bar, in a modest storefront restaurant and at haute cuisine white-tablecloth venues. But the Bay Area's visionary chefs are more than great cooks; they are people who have made Northern California an epicurean epicenter. Today and in the next two Food sections, I'll profile 20 of these innovators who have helped change the way we eat.
Today: Alice Waters, Tony Gulisano, Paula LeDuc, Thomas Keller, Cindy Pawlcyn, Craig Stoll, Emily Luchetti, Charles Phan, Jeremy Fox, and Gerald Hirigoyen. Gulisano, LeDuc and Fox are probably least known outside the Bay Area.
"Profile" is reaching a bit. Each of the ten chefs above gets a single hefty paragraph of copy. The piece originally appeared in the print version, which might explain the brevity. Still, it's nice to see who Bauer deems important and influential enough to name-check. Five more visionaries will appear next week and the week after.
Posted by Sarah Wolf, August 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Unfortunate Oakland restaurants are experiencing this year's second rash of takeover-style robberies. The area was hit with a string of heists in April, and a hold-up on Wednesday night at Eastlake's King of King Restaurant marked the area's tenth armed robbery in the last two weeks. According to local radio station KTVU, police remain unsure whether the various incidents are linked.
Posted by Leah Greenstein, August 4, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Golden Jubilee tomatoes.
The Hollywood Farmers' Market (at Ivar Avenue & Selma Avenue; map) looked like a gem show yesterday with hues of ruby, garnet, and citrine spilling across most farmers' tables. It's August and tomatoes are finally here, and their sweet, fruity, meaty perfume will spin you around like a child on a merry-go-round. Your mind surges with the possibilities: heirloom tomato tarts, gazpacho, caprese salads, tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and salt, tomatoes out of hand, tomatoes with ricotta and fresh herbs on crostini. Fortunately this bounty will continue unabated through September.
According to produce guru Russ Parsons, "scientists who study flavor chemistry have identified more than four hundred compounds that go into the taste of a ripe tomato. And more than thirty of those are regarded as essential." That means food scientists are still nowhere near artificially duplicating delicious tomatoey flavor (yippee!). Unfortunately most mega-mart tomatoes are picked long before they are actually ripe, then exposed to ethylene gas to change their color, which results in tomatoes that look ripe and taste like, well, nothing.
Heirloom Tomatoes
Biting into a fully ripe, heirloom variety tomato is like a religious experience. And the organically grown heirloom varieties—like those grown by Tutti Frutti Farms in Santa Barbara County, with romantic names like Cherokee Purple, Marvel Stripe, Golden Jubilee, Brandywine and Black Crimson—outshine their Roma, beefsteak, and grape brethren in sweetness, acidity balance, and subtle flavor undertones.
Continue reading »
Posted by Leah Greenstein, July 30, 2008 at 5:00 PM
An array of gelato flavors at Gail Silverton's Gelato Bar. Photo courtesy of Ryan Forbes
We're over the Fro-Yo Wars. The real soldiers in the battle for frozen dessert affections make ice cream with real butterfat, not some mamby pamby imitation with ingredients you need a chemistry degree to pronounce.
With so many ice cream eating days here in sunny SoCal, it's no surprise that Los Angeles has some of the country's best ice cream shops—mixing unique, often unusual flavors. Start drooling after the jump.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 25, 2008 at 12:15 PM
Boing Boing TV takes us into the factory of San Francisco-based chocolate manufacturing company TCHO. Founder Timothy Childs, former space shuttle technologist, shows us how Space Shuttle tape, a RONCO turkey oven, and stone grinders are used in the Research and Development lab, and how computer vision techniques are reducing labor. Also, learn about the science behind the crystallization of chocolate. Watch the video after the jump.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 25, 2008 at 8:45 AM
I'm writing this from a hotel room in San Francisco, where my wife and I are wrapping up a six-day working vacation that included stops in Portland, Oregon; Bolinas, California; and San Francisco. Yesterday you read about my visit to the awesome Apizza Scholls in Portland. In the coming days I'll be sharing the results of my nonstop food forays in Portland, which included stops at the extraordinary Portland Farmers Market; a fantastic brunch at a catering company's kitchen that opens its doors on Sunday for breakfast; a visit to a very fine sausage-maker in the shadows of my brother's alma mater, Reed College; an early morning visit to a rock-and-roll doughnut emporium; and what might have been the most exciting restaurant meal I have had in years.
I ate all this in 36 hours in Portland. My two days in San Francisco have been even more food-packed. Portland and San Francisco, we have a problem. When I am food-exploring in places I don't often get to or I'm visiting for the first time, I launch into a manic, headlong dash to gluttonous, life-shortening oblivion.
Continue reading »
Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 25, 2008 at 7:30 AM
Morning, serious eaters. It's Friday, so we say treat yourself to a fried dough tire. Pastry chef and blogger Shuna Fish Lydon of the blog Eggbeater recently did at San Francisco's Dynamo Doughnuts, which just opened Tuesday. Lydon is a lover of all walks of doughnut life—"even if they were the wallflower kind or still wore high-waters in college."
Have you ever met fried dough you didn't like? Dynamo Doughnuts: 2760 24th Street, San Francisco CA 94110 (map); 415-920-1978
Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 24, 2008 at 7:30 AM
Pretzels, strawberries, and bananas do their share of bathing in chocolate, but bacon? These indulgent strips are a new item at Marini's Candies in Santa Cruz, California, brought to our attention by Serious Eater Fast Food Critic. Do we consider this pushing bacon's limits? Or accentuating its beauty?
Yet another sign that bacon is taking over the world.
Posted by Hannah Howard, July 23, 2008 at 8:15 PM
We are plagued by water hang-ups: bottled water obsessing, bottled water loathing, and recently, fees for filtered tap water. Eater SF reports that Millennium Restaurant in Nob Hill will soon charge guests a buck for water filtered through a nifty Natura carbon and UV filter.
In case you're wondering where that dollar is going, Millennium Restaurant explains that it's for fancy filters, visits from water filter technicians, and the UV lightbulb maintenance.
When you spend twenty bucks on beautiful restaurant scallops, only a fraction of that money actually goes to the food cost. There's labor, rent, and that classy plate on which your scallops lie. Not to mention last week's emergency dishwasher repair, the air conditioning, and the linen service that delivers napkins to the restaurant. (But you don't need to hear all that; the bill will suffice.)
This charge applies the same philosophy; but is it fair for water? Should Millennium Restaurant just eat the cost? Er, drink.
Posted by Robyn Lee, July 22, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Photograph from Daily Feed
Boccalone Salumeria in San Francisco makes their proscuitto cotto with provolone panini out of an inverted baguette, allowing the tender inner part of the bread to get crisp and creating "more textural interest with its chewy crust melded to the melted cheese." Like I needed even more reason to want to eat a sandwich filled with thinly sliced pork and molten cheese. [via Eater SF]
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Posted by Jen Maiser, July 21, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Because a majority of my food comes from the farmers market, I am often tied to the schedule of farmers markets around the Bay Area. I missed my home market twice in a row due to scheduling conflicts in recent weeks, but I made up for it by visiting the brand-new Divisadero Farmers Market and the Napa Farmers Market. I was in Napa for the unbelievably great Taste3 Conference and snuck out between speakers to visit the small, but extremely friendly and adequate, downtown market.
Cruising the markets, I noticed a proliferation of plum and apricot-like stone fruits: pluots, plumcots, apriums, plums, and apricots. It wasn't until I came home and perused the Internet that I figured out the differences. Pluots and plumcots are the same—a hybrid mix of a plum and an apricot—but the pluot is a trademarked version of a plumcot. They tend to resemble plums more than apricots and are usually sweeter than traditional plums. Apriums are a hybrid between plums and apricots that are more like apricots than plums. For a more specific history of plumcots, pluots, and apriums, check out this article from SFist.
Continue reading »
Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 17, 2008 at 3:00 PM
In honor of the hot dog's holiest day, July 4, we gave you a regional rundown of hot dog styles. But, gasp, we missed one: The Colombian Hot Dog, "an odd, semitropical wiener sandwich whose toppings include ham and pineapple," according to L.A. Weekly writer Jonathan Gold.
Found regularly in Miami, the sweet-sour dog also lives in Queens at "sandwich stands" under the elevated 7-line tracks, according to Gold. To clarify, Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine wrote about these three years ago, and they're from Los Chuzos y Algo Mas (Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights). But Gold is more focused on the Los Angeles version found at a Colombian-owned yogurt shop called Tutti Frutti: "a Hebrew National hot dog tucked with ham and mozzarella cheese into a bun with raw onion, spackled with crushed pineapple, sprinkled with crushed potato chips and finished with a three-squeeze-bottle lattice of catsup, mustard and mayonnaise."
Wowee. Anything "spackled" with crushed pineapple gets our attention. 950 East Colorado Boulevard, No. 105, Pasadena CA; (map); 626-793-3662; tuttifruttila.com [via Eater LA]
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Posted by Leah Greenstein, July 10, 2008 at 8:25 AM
We figured there'd be some Angelenos eager enough to get their hands on an iPhone 3G when it comes out tomorrow morning that they'd be waiting in line in front of the Apple Store to do so. We asked L.A. contributor Leah Greenstein for a rundown on serious eats near three Apple Stores here.
Apple Store, The Grove
The Original Farmers' Market: If waiting for your iPhone 3G at the Grove's Apple Store is starting to feel a bit like waiting for Godot, head on over here to refuel. Besides farm stands, where you can grab a piece of fruit, you can also grab tasty tacos from ¡Loteria! or a savory crepe from The French Crepe Company or even a po'boy with spicy Cajun-style shrimp that pop in your mouth from The Gumbo Pot. 6333 West Third Street, Los Angeles CA 90036 (map); The Original Farmers' Market
Apple Store, Third Street Promenade
Real Food Daily: The cool ocean breezes at Santa Monica's "Third Street" will distract your line cohorts as you dash over to RFD, where the food is organic, vegan, and amazingly good. Get the fresh juice, lentil walnut paté and any of the delicious wraps. (I love the Caesar with blackened tempeh and avocado). 514 Santa Monica Boulevard, Santa Monica CA 90401 (map); 310-451-7544; Real Food Daily
Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery: Use the cell phone you're about to replace to call and order the Godmother from Bay Cities for pickup. This amazing sandwich has Genoa salami, mortadella, coppacola, ham, prosciutto and provolone. It's not exactly healthy, but your garlicky breath may help you get to the front of the line faster. 1517 Lincoln Boulevard, Santa Monica CA 90401 (map); 310-396-8279; Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery
Jack n' Jill's: Somewhere between the super-healthiness of Real Food Daily and the carnivorous indulgence of Bay Cities are the tasty soups and salads at Jack n' Jill's. Take the Mandarin basil salad with grilled chicken with you if the weather is warm. If it's overcast, try the old-fashioned mac and cheese made from scratch with real cheddar. 510 Santa Monica Boulevard, Santa Monica CA 90401 (map); 310-656-1601; eatatjacknjills.com
Apple Store, Century City
Breadbar: The tastiest of options in Century City has to be Breadbar. Unfortunately, chef Noriyuki Sugie's Japanese-Spanish creations aren't for take-out, but regular menu items are. Try the fleur de sel baguette with emmenthal cheese, or grab a loaf of fresh bread and artisanal June Taylor jam and make a few friends in line. 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90067 (map); 310-277-3770; breadbar.net
Ummba Grill:Take turns tossing back caipirinhas while grabbing organic Brazilian churrascaria to go at Ummba Grill. Their express lunch includes hormone-free beef tenderloin or bacon-wrapped free-range chicken for only $8.95. The price might even leave a few extra bucks in your pocket to buy that sleek iPhone cover you were eying. 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90067 (map); 310-552-2014; ummbagrill.com
More iPhone Eats in ...
New York
Philadelphia
D.C. Metro Area
Chicago
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Serious Eats Mobile
Now's a good time to mention that you can view this guide on Serious Eats Mobile: m.seriouseats.com. And because Serious Eats Mobile supports commenting, you can supply live eats intel from the field, from whatever device you're about to upgrade out of. It's as easy as thumb-thumb-thumb-Post a comment!
Posted by Leah Greenstein, July 7, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Corn from Underwood Family Farms
Weaving your way through the crowd at the Hollywood Farmers' Market most Sundays takes an athlete's focus and precision. It's hard to pull your gaze away from the teeming piles of Santa Rosa plums, citrine-colored nectarines, and beckoning un-husked corn that line Ivar and Selma Avenues long enough to watch where you're going. And watch you must—the traffic is like a pedestrian version of the 405 at rush hour, complete with Mercedes-like strollers and impatient drivers. Started 17 years ago by Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles (SEE-LA) the Hollywood Farmers' Market has grown from 25 stalls to include approximately 90 farmers, as well as artisans and food vendors. SEE-LA also operates smaller markets in the city including ones in Echo Park and Atwater Village.
The Fruits (and Vegetables) of Summer at the Hollywood Farmers' Market
Santa Rosa plums.
Summer is raging full-throttle here, unfettered by clouds (or cooling breezes, unfortunately) with the mercury holding in 90s, which makes the refreshing array of fruits particularly appealing. The peaches, nectarines, pluots, apricots, and plums that had just begun to hit the stands when I wrote in the beginning of June are now ubiquitous. Yellow and red raspberries like those available from Nipomo's Pudwill Farms are sweet and tart and perfect out of hand, on yogurt or in any number of summer desserts. The blueberries from Underwood Family Farms in Somis are firm and flavorful. Cathy Dominguez, who was working the stall today, also mentioned that blueberry lovers can pick their own Pacific Blues out in Somis for a couple more weeks.
Continue reading »
Posted by Erin Zimmer, June 27, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Even if Bakesale Betty in Oakland, California, didn't have such an amazing fried chicken sandwich, the place would still be insanely likable. The ironing boards in lieu of tables outside, the free cookies that somehow end up in your bag, the simple menu scribed onto white butcher paper, the scary long line that moves so fast, the owner Alison Barakat (who most customers just call Betty) and her color-rotating wig, oftentimes blue.
But then they have to serve a delicious, football-sized fried chicken sandwich, and move from likable to obsessively lovable. Almost as satisfying as the actual eating of this sandwich is watching the rushed yet scientifically precise assembly line of fried chicken sandwich-makers behind the glass.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, June 25, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Brazil Fresh Squeeze Cafe's veggie sandwich features five vegetables in every bite—if you can get your whole mouth around it, that is.
Like novels, sandwiches get bragging rights when they are so thick, they make you stop and think, "wow, that might take you a while, but I bet it's good." At Berkeley's Brazil Fresh Squeeze Café, the veggie sandwich is four-inches thick, and that's only after squeezing it to clear the roof of your mouth.
Homemade nutty, fluffy grain bread (an inch per slice) smashes together fresh ricotta, diced carrots, folded-over romaine leaves, corn kernels, tomato slices, and green olives—the martini kind with pimento centers, but somehow it works here. With all the vegetarians in Berkeley, it's nice to see something that can hold them over in the way only a big hunk of meat could.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, June 19, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Los Angeles residents can get their freshly roasted coffee fix at the recently opened Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea. How do you know it's good? The head of research and development at Intelligentsia, Kyle Glanville, won the 2008 US Barista Championship, if that means anything. Just watching this video tour of their coffee bean stash and roasting process may not be enough to keep you alert, but coffee lovers may drool a little. Check out the video after the jump.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 12, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Josef Centeno's signature dish at Lot 1 in on Sunset Boulevard in L.A. looks like something I could get down with. "It looks like a gyro, has the feel of pizza, you eat it like a taco," he says. 1533 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90026 (map); 213-481-8400 Video of the global hybrid, after the jump.
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Posted by Leah Greenstein, June 9, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Blackberry sorbet made with blackberries from Burkart Organics.
For a former New Yorker there's a lot to get used to about Southern California life. For the first eight years I lived here I felt like a winter kale wilting in the summer sun. It took leaving and moving all over the country before I figured out that there's something truly special about Southern California. Rest assured it's not Lindsay Lohan.
While to most people California is a postcard of beaches and palms trees, much of the Golden State is actually farmland, a fact that is reflected by the more than 50 certified farmers' markets in Los Angeles County alone. Perhaps the most famous of these markets is the one held on Wednesdays in downtown Santa Monica, where you can spot the city's top chefs picking through dandelion greens and squash blossoms.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 29, 2008 at 11:30 AM
You may know about community-supported agriculture (CSA) dedicated to providing locally grown produce, but how about locally raised meat? San Francisco Chronicle reports on the meat CSAs of the Bay Area that provide households with "monthly boxes of steaks, stew meat, pork loins, lamb chops, whole chickens and sometimes goat, all raised by Northern California farmers and ranchers, mainly on grass." If you're interested in joining a meat CSA, you can sign up through these websites:
Posted by Robyn Lee, May 28, 2008 at 10:30 AM
If you live in San Francisco and love cupcakes, make sure to attend Cupcake Camp this Sunday at Citizen Space. You can bring in homemade cupcakes, buy them at a bakery, or just eat them. There will also be a competition to determine which cupcakes are the best. Check out more details at Upcoming.org and prepare yourself for an afternoon of cupcake gorging and sugar comas.
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The La Flor de Suhayo truck in East L.A. was the first to get fined under a new L.A. County law that prohibits vendor trucks from parking or for more than 30 minutes in a residential area or 60 minutes in a nonresidential one. This law blows; our corazons go out to the truck's owners.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 15, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Photographs of Mozza taken by Kathryn Yu
Patric Kuh is the restaurant critic for Los Angeles Magazine and the author of The Last Days of Haute Cuisine: The Coming of Age of American Restaurants
. He's also one of the most thoughtful food writers I know, so I knew we would get a unique perspective on dining experiences in Los Angeles when I caught up with him a couple of days ago on the phone.
"What I look for when I eat in Los Angeles is an authentic LA experience, not a New York experience, not a Las Vegas experience. There's a certain kind of laid-back luxury that LA has perfected, that would seem forced and out of place in New York or some other place."
"I know it sounds kind of weird, but the fantastic produce grown in California year-round plays a significant role in the restaurant-going experience in Los Angeles. Because we have such great produce, I'm particularly interested in what a chef is trying to express or say through the produce he or she uses. Every chef knows the farmers and the farmers' markets inside and out, so really it's what they do with that produce that counts."
"As far as whole notion of restaurants as theater is concerned, the restaurant world in Los Angeles is one big theatrical experience, but it's not about star-spotting. The real Angeleno would not deign to notice a star, we're not going to craning our neck at the stars."
"Contrary to what many people might think, we're not health obsessed weenies. We eat lots of cheese and beef and ice cream when we go out to eat, so I would say the flavors derived from fat figure heavily into our restaurant experience. Finally, amateurishness and pretension bother Los Angelenos. This really is a company town (the company is Hollywood), so we don't like amateurish productions masquerading as restaurants"
"If the sommelier is a stuffed shirt with a windsor knot it's not going to work here because the guy ordering the 61 La Tour is wearing a t-shirt and jeans."
After the jump, some of Kuh's quintessential Los Angeles dining experiences.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, May 8, 2008 at 11:45 AM
A dish from the French Laundry
Having been a restaurant critic for many, many years the San Francisco Chronicle's Michael Bauer has had the pleasure of experiencing great restaurants all over northern California, the country, and the world for that matter. Having eaten with him many times I can tell you that Michael loves fried chicken as much as he loves white truffles and caviar.
He told me that as a restaurant critic it's very hard to go to a restaurant and just experience it the way a regular diner would. "You experience things a little differently as a critic. To help me judge a restaurant I separate its main components; food, ambiance, service, wine list and service, so my perspective is slightly skewed. Then I weave the various components together in the course of three visits. Usually, one of the three visits I try to experience it as a regular diner would." For more on how Michael goes about his work, check out his How to Evaluate a Restaurant section on his Between Meals blog.
His San Francisco and Napa Valley restaurant experience picks had mostly surprises and one obvious choice:
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 5, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Bill Addison sampled nearly 300 tacos and 100 burritos in an incredibly cool ten week-long quest for the best that the Bay Area offers. Do click through to his story because and admire with me the meticulous and thorough way he went about this Pancho Villian–sized task. I also admire his intestinal fortitude (literally). His favorite was the relatively unheralded Sancho's in Redwood City. Here's what Addison had to say about it:
Burritos and tacos are everything they should be at this diminutive storefront with expansion plans. Each element zings with freshness and quality. The bonus of well-made fish tacos, a rarity in the Bay Area, makes this a must-try. Super burrito: $6.55, Regular taco: $1.25
Sancho's
3205 Oak Knoll, Redwood City CA 94062 (near Canyon Road; map); 650-364-8226
Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, Julie Besonen hips us to a couple of Santa Barbara taquerias that sound awesome, including El Bajío for its "sensational seafood soups, fresh moles and well-seasoned, slow-roasted meats," and Los Arroyos, "famous for warm, freshly cut chips and creamy guacamole heaped in a molcajete."
Posted by Erin Zimmer, May 1, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Date Shake sign at Hadley Fruit Orchards. Photograph from kthread on Flickr
California is a date mecca, especially in the southern half near Palm Springs. The prune-resembling pellets are packed with natural sugars, which makes them a great—yet shocking to outsiders—ingredient for milkshakes. The goal is to achieve a paste-like texture with minimal chunks and top it with a shake of nutmeg.
When I recently mentioned this to a New Yorker friend, she responded, "Wait, milkshakes you drink on a date?" I mean, that's possible. But in the Coachella Valley and Inland Empire regions of California, where date farms are abundant, it's the default shake flavor over vanilla or chocolate. Here are some favorite date shake spots.
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Posted by Raphael, April 27, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Reason.tv host Drew Carey takes a look at the illegal bacon hot dog trade in downtown Los Angeles. Selling bacon dogs without county-approved equipment can result in fines and jail time for vendors, creating an illicit black-market trade by unlicensed vendors. Video after the jump.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, April 23, 2008 at 3:30 PM
When it comes to living an environmentally friendly lifestyle, the consumption of spirits & cocktails is a definite bump in the road. But as Jonathan Miles wrote in last Sunday’s New York Times, there are a few bars and bartenders who are trying to step lightly when wielding the cocktail shaker.
Miles covered Bar 44 in Manhattan, which is trying to reduce its environmental impact by using regional ingredients for some drinks, including a micro-distilled gin made from organic ingredients in Philadelphia. But Bar 44 isn’t alone; in San Francisco there’s Elixir, certified green by the city and serving drinks made with organic spirits and mixers in energy-efficient surroundings. And like Bar 44 and Elixir, many establishments, especially on the West Coast, are sourcing fruits and herbs for their cocktails from local farms.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, April 23, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Photograph from entitee on Flickr
One of my favorite parts of doing a sandwich column is that now all my family members send me photos of ridiculous sandwiches from all around the country. Take this one, for example, which my brother in law sent me from Sacramento. The Squeeze Burger with Cheese Skirt, as it is widely known in and around California's capital, is clearly a feat of modern engineering. And while the actual burger that is hidden underneath there (somewhere) is not necessarily anything to write home about, this sandwich has many other secrets that make it quite the serious sandwich.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, April 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Los Angeles District-1 County Supervisor Gloria Molina is not on great terms with her cilantro-loving community right now—they've rallied against her proposed elimination of taco trucks. New rules require mobile taquerias to actually be mobile, moving at least every hour, or else they'll run the risk of a $1,000 fine and six-month jail sentence. No more walking up to the same street corner to sniff the same meaty smoke clouds. Your friendly carne asada dealer might be a few blocks away. Why all the hate for a vehicle hawking folded maize pockets of deliciousness?
We asked Taco Bandini of the popular L.A.-based blog The Great Taco Hunt, who has been documenting and scoring taco experiences on his five-point scale since 2005, for his opinion on the street food mood swings.
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Posted by Raphael, April 18, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Everybody be cool.
Dining out in the San Francisco Bay Area may have gotten a little more expensive: The blog SFist clues us in on a recent rash of East Bay restaurant "takeover"-style robberies—eight in the past couple of weeks. The most recent robbery in Emeryville follows a similar pattern: "[o]ne of the suspects revealed a black semi-automatic handgun and demanded money from both employees and customers" [cbs5.com]. Prize quote from SFist: "Be careful, Chez Panisse denizens!" [via Eater SF]
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 17, 2008 at 3:50 PM
The L.A. Times details the genesis of some of Southern California's favorite Hong Kong–style coffee shops, places that serve a mish-mash of dishes: "escargot, Russian borscht, Spam-topped noodle soup, German-style pork knuckle, French toast, Chinese chow fun and a panoply of Italian-style pastas re-imagined for Asian palates."
Seems these hotspots took a long and winding march to the L.A. area. First, Russians fled to Shanghai after the Bolsheviks came to power. There, they set up cafes, which had a nice go of it till '49, when the Communists took over. They scurried to Hong Kong, where the mix of HK residents, mainland Chinese, and British spawned a unique type of establishment, one that gave many Hong Kong residents their first taste of Western food while at the same time taking on aspects of the Chinese culture at large. And then, of course, they made the jump across the Pacific. A guide to Hong Kong–style coffee shops in SoCal.
Related: The Comfort Food of Hong Kong [IHT]
Does the name Rosscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in Chicago sound a little too similar to that of the long established Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles in Los Angeles? Just a tad, perhaps. Besides the extra "s," other similarities include their logo designs and names of their menu items. The Chicago Tribune says that the original Roscoe's is sueing the Chicago imitator and gives some of the history behind the chicken and waffle restaurant.
Los Angeles Times Magazine profiles the history and continuing popularity of Philippe the Original, the nearly 100-year old L.A. institution best known for serving French dip sandwiches.
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 4, 2008 at 3:45 PM
No babies were harmed in the recovery of this burrito. [via photobasement]
Posted by Leslie Pave, March 31, 2008 at 3:15 PM
A typical way to describe kombucha is to say it’s fermented mushroom tea. So when faced with a choice of a well made cappuccino or fermented mushroom tea, that voice inside your head may scream, "double cap extra foam." But Uzbekistan-born Lev Kilun will let you sample his house made kombucha on-tap while you wait for your organic espresso drink at Café Lyon in the Rockridge district of Oakland, California. Before your double cap is done brewing, you might wish you ordered the kombucha instead.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, March 20, 2008 at 5:30 PM
In December, we brought you a Serious Eats Fish Taco crawl, but played special favoritism to Orange County. Commenters squealed when San Diego got no love. Herewith, a second chapter of the crawl, focusing on the San Diego county. This one especially goes out to observant Catholics, looking for more than just the local parish's fish fry on tomorrow's last Lenten Friday.
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 13, 2008 at 2:15 PM
When food critic Michael Bauer awarded four stars in the San Francisco Chronicle to the eponymous Michael Mina, many readers took offense at the very notion of eating in, enjoying, and writing about such a restaurant in these troubled times.
Bauer aptly explained why he feels it's important to write about four-star restaurants now. I am not a fan of over-the-top decadent dining, but from Bauer's review I would hardly call Michael Mina an obscenely extravagant restaurant. In fact, Bauer's review made me want to jump on a plane and eat at Michael Mina tonight.
Related: Does the World Need More Fancy-Pants French Restaurants?
San Franciscans, get Funk N Chunk to cater your next backyard barbecue and not only will you have bourbon coffee pulled pork, stuffed Niman Ranch steaks, fresh local oysters, corn-on-the-cob, and more to stuff your belly with, but also an endless stream of hip-hop funk from live DJs to help ease the digestion. A funk-less barbecue would just be wrong. [via SFoodie]
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 10, 2008 at 7:15 PM
This video really made my day. Improv Everywhere, which stages synchronized outbursts of surrealist performance art, recently organized a musical in the food court of a Los Angeles shopping mall:
We used wireless microphones to amplify the vocal performances and mix them together with the music through the mall’s PA system. We filmed the mission with hidden cameras, mostly behind two-way mirrors. Apart from our performers, no one in the food court was aware of what was happening.
Link: Food Court Musical
"Is San Francisco ready to embrace technique-based cooking?" the blog Gastronomie asks. "Ours has long been a culture of ingredient-driven food, and with good reason—just stop in at any farmers' market and you can see why. But in that process, we've effectively denied our restaurant kitchens the opportunity to develop and cultivate the use of creative techniques, styles, and flavors."
Posted by Erin Zimmer, February 29, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Can fro-yo dialogue ever exist without a reference to Pinkberry anymore? There's more to swirly creaminess than the controversial Korean chain, especially in the fro-yo motherland of So-Cali.
Here are my five top fro-yo shops without a Pinkberry in sight.
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Posted by Emily Stone, February 20, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Photograph courtesy of Peter Costantinidis
With about a dozen banquette seats sandwiched between flame-red walls, and with just as many hot chocolate flavors (American-style dark chocolate, Venezuelan chile spice, coconut curry, Chinese five-spice, passion fruit, raspberry, citrus, peanut butter, hazelnut, mint, mocha, and espresso), the new Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolate shop is open for business in San Francisco's Hayes Valley. Christopher Elbow flew in from his home base in Kansas City, Missouri, to open the doors just nine days before Valentine's Day, with a lineup featuring his signature Peanut Praline with Pop Rocks bon bon and a special-edition Absinthe Ganache candy, named for the restaurant across the street.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, February 19, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Scattered near Southern Cali college campuses like UCI and UCLA, Asian-style bubble teahouses stay open late, serving the student community. They go through boxes of extra-fat straws, wide enough to fit tapioca balls or "boba" as it's often called, about the size of marbles. Stab their fluorescent-colored straws into cellophane-wrapped plastic cups which is filled with traditional flavors (green or black milk tea) or fruitier options (lychee, honeydew, mango).
Gummy and gelatinous, the tapioca boba bubbles sitting at the bottom of each cup symbolize a cultural staple for young Asians in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and all over California. For only about two bucks, the drink (hot or cold) is just as important as the scene—brightly-lit with comfy couches, usually blasting techno music. It’s the coffee shop alternative, with fat straws involved.
Here's a round-up of favorite boba hangouts in Southern Cali.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, December 28, 2007 at 2:15 PM
When in Rome, eat spaghetti, and when in SoCal, inhale the fish tacos. Outsiders may find the beachside tradition gross or confusing, but it’s home between two corn tortillas for locals. Staple components include: diced green cabbage, grilled or breaded white fish (usually Mahi Mahi) and fresh pico de gallo salsa. Within a five-mile radius of my childhood home, covering such beach towns as Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Niguel, the fish taco mecca rests. Whether kitschy Mexican restaurant or mini-mall taco chain, the drill is the same. Wrap 'em with foil and love.
Check out the SoCal stops and superlatives below, each with a unique twist on the fishy mainstay. For the record, this is the first "fish taco" mention on Serious Eats. We're making history, kids!
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There's now anecdotal evidence from at least one restaurant in San Francisco that reducing corkage fees (the charge a restaurant applies when you bring your own wine in) benefits not only diners but restaurateurs. Frank Klein at Fish & Farm charges $5 instead of the average $20 and has reported that about 40 percent of the tables taking advantage of the new policy also buy a bottle from the restaurant. Plus, they're bringing in some really interesting wines, Klein says.
Posted by Zach Brooks, December 19, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Photograph from c(h)ristine on Flickr
With the New Year approaching, there is the possibility of the chance that maybe I would perhaps consider having an inkling to make a resolution to eat better. With that (50/50 at best) chance of "improving" my diet looming, it's time to stuff my face with not so healthy things, just in case I decide to abstain after January 1st.
In my book of guilty pleasures, the number one at the top of the list, has got to be fried chicken—and what better way to enjoy it then in sandwich form, served out of a bakery in Oakland, by a former cook from the birthplace of California cuisine.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, November 14, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Who doesn't know what a burrito is? Taco, of course. Quesadilla? No problema. Torta? Well, they don't have those at Taco Bell! Even if you are familiar with the Mexican Sandwich that is the torta, (not to be confused with the Spanish egg "torta") you probably don't know the torta. Why? Because no two are alike, and every region/state/restaurant/bodega has their own version. Meat or no meat? Sliced avocado or guacamole? Black beans or refried beans? The permutations are endless, and you'd be hard pressed to the find the "perfect" torta. That is, until you try the version from La Casita Chilanga, a tiny torta specialist on Middlefield Rd., the "Little Mexico" of Silicon Valley.
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