Cheeky's redeems Palm Springs dining

The dearth of decent desert eating isn't just travel article cliche, it's mostly true -- at least until the arrival last year of Cheeky's, Palm Springs' answer to L.A.'s Square One Dining. Ironically, Cheeky's sprang up on the same block as Jake's Ready-to-eat, which when it opened two years ago was one of the few other places that truly seems to exist in this century rather than the last. Cheeky's is owned by Tara Lazar, a 32-year old former stock trader, and it rated a glowing profile in the Washington Post the day I was there. I was immediately excited by breakfast choices like a flight of four different kinds of bacon, a pumpernickel waffle with smoked salmon or housemade chorizo and eggs. My corn pancakes were huge and fluffy, studded with fresh corn kernels -- a little different from cornmeal pancakes I was expecting, but delicious and served with an adorable maple syrup house tin. I returned for lunch the next day to try some of the unusual sandwich ideas -- persimmon, prosciutto and brie was one -- and chose duck breast with caramelized plums, shallots and mozzarella. Like the pancakes, it might have sounded a tiny bit better on paper than in the execution, but it's hard to fault a place that's trying this hard in the middle of a food desert.
They've just planted herbs next to the patio, which sports pink bowls for doggie diners, and they're putting in a community garden. There's also plans for a pizza annex and wine bar, and why not? At brunch, you can have a mimosa or a bloody mary, while Fat Tire ale and Thomas Kemper rootbeer are on tap.
Cheeky's is only open for breakfast and lunch, and it's closed Tuesdays.
Cheeky's
622 N. Palm Canyon Dr.
Palm Springs
760-327-7595

Vietnam Restaurant: Leafy greens meet surf 'n turf

Even with just a tiny chill in the air last week, I was thinking about soups of the Asian variety. Hot and sour soup was playing a tune in my head, but the haunting melody of a good pho was also teasing me until I could stand it no more and drove to Vietnam Restaurant. Vietnam is one of three restaurants on Las Tunas in San Gabriel owned by various members of the same family. Golden Deli was the first, always a classic, and often quite crowded. Vietnam House is less crowded and serves an ample seven courses of beef, but for some reason I got a blinding headache after I ate there so I'm not that into going back.
Vietnam Restaurant is the third and my favorite of the three. It's not fancy, but various stringed instruments on the wall provide a stab at decor, and the staff is happy to explain how various dishes should be eaten.After we ordered, huge plates of greenery and vegetables started arriving, along with a pile of hard, translucent discs that look like plastic coasters or 45 records. When our surf 'n turf -- charbroiled beef and charbroiled shrimp arrived -- the server explained how to dip the discs of rice paper into the bowl of hot water, then wrap shrimp or beef, pickled vegetables and greens up in a nice package. The spring rolls came with a great variety of fresh herbs, including perilla, cilantro, ngo gai (sawtooth), laksa and basil.Cha gio in a combo with shredded pork and vermicelli, and plenty of greenery

I usually get beef pho, but we decided to try the pho ga dac biet (special chicken pho), with a well-flavored broth and pieces of everything but the cluck floating around. This is one place where even the chicken has plenty of flavor. Even after throwing bean sprouts and herbs in the pho, there was still a huge pile of greenery left on the table. We kept dipping the rice paper wrappers in water, adding herbs and chili sauce, and rolling them up with pickled carrots and daikon until every shred of beef and shrimp was gone. We'll definitely return to Vietnam Restaurant, and I swear, next time I will get the pickle lemonade.
Vietnam Restaurant
340 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel
(626) 281-5577

Free cookies at Atwater's Village Bakery Sunday!

I'm in Palm Springs, but if I were in L.A. I'd definitely want to try a polenta/raspberry cookie from the Village Bakery & Cafe in Atwater, across from India Sweets & Spices.
They're free, but you must use the password "chupacabra" to get one. Hope I get to try one when I return!
Village Bakery & Cafe is at 3119 Los Feliz Blvd.

Tangier Korean BBQ opens in Los Feliz; Town & Country closes; Cube opens Downtown

UrbanDaddy has all the info and a not-surprisingly dubious tone announcing the opening of Tangier Korean BBQ of Tokyo in Los Feliz. Wait, let's get this straight -- the formerly Moroccan-themed nightclub Tangier has kept its name, but turned into a Korean BBQ restaurant which is actually from Tokyo? Whatever, there's a robot and sake in the bar, and it's not like there's anywhere else to get Korean barbecue in Los Feliz.
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What's going on at Town & Country Bakery on Sunset? It's "closed for remodeling" and has been sold, but no word yet of what's going in there. It can only be an improvement, since I never ran into too many fans of Town & Country.
A few doors down at 3819 Sunset, the Spice Station is "opening soon," selling salts, peppers and spices from around the world.
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CubeLA is branching out from La Brea and will open its Downtown housewares and gourmet items factory Cube Marketplace one Saturday a week starting Feb. 13, 2010. Shoppers for imported linens, table accessories and garden ware will be treated to Prosecco and Cube pastries, and the space will also host cooking classes and gardening classes from Marta Teegan of Homegrown Los Angeles. The space is at 545 S. Central and will be open Feb. 13, March 13, April 17, May 15 and June 12 from 10 am-4 pm.

Tony C blogs at L.A.'s newest food blog

Tony Chen, the opinionated blogger behind the Sinosoul, "food blogging with a vengeance" blog is going a little milder with a new paid gig as L.A. food blogger at AOL's new Tripvine site. Despite all the cutbacks this week at AOL, they're simultaneously pursuing the content biz with a new web of city-centric sites. EatingLA's good friend and frequent eating partner Kathy McDonald writes the L.A. hotels blog, while Joshua Glazer handles nightlife. Who says foodblogging doesn't pay?

Frysmith preview tonight in Eagle Rock/Los Feliz

We stopped by the Frysmith truck last night for a taste of the long-awaited fries from Erik Cho and his wife Brooke Howell. Erik learned the frying trade first at his mother's knee, working in her hamburger joints, and then at tony bistros like Berkeley's Cafe Rouge, where he perfected his technique. Inspired by his love of good fries, he's launching the Frysmith truck this week with the grand opening (free cookies!) Friday night in Venice.For now, Erik's menu is pretty tightly controlled. All fries are served in main dish portions, topped with proteins like pork belly with kimchi, rajas with steak, sweet potato fries with barbecued chicken or vegan chili. He doesn't serve fries a la carte, and like Father's Office, he doesn't serve ketchup -- at least not until he perfects his own recipe.
He's definitely got the frying technique down, and the fries (cooked in canola oil) were perfectly cooked, with just enough crispy brown bits at the bottom of the tray. The Kimchi with pork belly topping would make a hefty late-night snack with a good beer. Pairings of sodas like honey-blood orange or Cheerwine are suggested with each variety.The truck has one final tryout run tonight in Eagle Rock and then at the Bigfoot before tomorrow's grand opening; follow them on Twitter to find out where to find Frysmith.

Top Chef #11: Culinary Olympics: Keller in da house

Jennifer's poached salmon, shrimp flan with truffles and celery root with shitake mushrooms. Padma agrees it was the most intriguing visually.

There are very few smiles left in the kitchen stadium -- oh wait, that's a different show. Anyway, as the show gets underway, the mood is tense and just a little nasty, as Michael Voltaggio looks ready to throw Jennifer under the bus, sniffing, "There's not a whole lot left for her to do." Later, he snipes, "The food Kevin makes is what I make on my day off."
Still looking miserable, Jennifer explains that maybe she had become unfocused.
Judge for the Quickfire challenge is Gavin Kaysen, who competed in the Bocuse d'Or competition, which is also the them of the show.
It's turducken time on the Quickfire, where the chefs are asked to stuff a protein in a protein in a protein.
Eli has a clever idea to make a Scotch egg; Bryan incorporates caul fat wrapped around his lamb tenderloin and Kevin once again reverts to his Southern roots with too-dry fried catfish. Michael kinds cops out with a terrine instead, and gets smacked by Kaysen for not following directions.
The winner: "Welcome back," Padma smirks to Jennifer, who'd thought she lost her mojo. Her calamari stuffed with salmon and scallops looks simple, but it was cooked properly and impressed the judges. Either that, or they need to keep Jennifer on to add a little female-male tension right up to the end. Her prize is an extra half hour worktime on the elimination challenge.
Elimination round: The chefs will recreate a Bocuse d'Or competition with a protein (either lamb or salmon) and two garnishes served on a giant oval mirror. Thomas Keller is one of the judges, a perfect tie-in with the opening of Bouchon Bistro Beverly Hills today.
When Kevin asks for sous-vide cooking advice, Brian is in awe of his nerve, and implies that Michael might not have been as helpful. Is it the truth, or just an effort to sabotage his brother?
Wha' happened? Pretty much all the Bocuse d'Or dishes are failures on some level.
As usual, Michael's food looks fancy but lacks taste --judge Traci DesJardins agrees that the flavors don't go together.
Random observation: Jennifer helps out the others because she has extra time, but I feel like the men wouldn't do that. Butch up, Jennifer!
While the dehydrated garlic chips on Bryan's dish impressed Keller, his lamb and Eli's too were both undercooked and tough. Yuck.
I'd eat that: Eli's side dish of ras el hanout and carrot puree sounds like a winner.
The winner: Kevin! He says $30,000 is almost what he makes in a year, but will his cooking be complex enough to compete in the Bocuse d'Or? His dish was almost too simple, but it was the only one that was actually cooked correctly.
The loser: I knew it had to be Eli, who left globby pieces of fat in his lamb sausage. They need to keep the brothers to keep the competition going, and Jennifer provides a marginally female contrast to the brothers, so it had to be Eli. I'm kind of sorry to see the little troll go, he's actually tearfully snorfaling.
Did you think Eli was the obvious choice?

Next week: The chefs leave Las Vegas to cook on the Napa wine train.
Foodie vocab lesson:
Crepinette: a flat sausage wrapped in caul fat
Ras el hanout: A Moroccan spice mixture made of cinnamon, ground chilis, cumin, etc.

Nancy Silverton's burger stand at Farmer's Market: more from Merrill

If you're going to have someone sneak up on you from behind while cutting up baguettes at Bouchon, hopefully it will be Merrill Shindler, charming critic and man about town who writes Shindler's Dish for Zagat.
Shindler got some time with Amy Pressman, who is partnering with Nancy Silverton for the Market Burger stand coming to the old Du-Par's bakery at Farmer's Market next summer, talking about what to expect at the stand. It's definitely getting to be time for some new blood at the market -- make that beefy, grass-fed blood.

Speaking of Farmer's Market, here's some great vintage postcards posted by Ellen Bloom at the L.A. is my Beat blog.

And the winner is...Erica!

Thanks so much to the dozens of EatingLA readers who entered to win Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc cookbook. Who says nobody cooks anymore? The demand for this was huge! Congrats to Erica, who was the first to submit the correct answers:

1) The French Laundry was originally: Before it was a restaurant, and even before it was a laundry, it was a saloon.

2) The original owners of the French Laundry restaurant, Sally and Don Schmitt, relocated to the Philo Apple Farm in the tiny hamlet of Philo in Mendocino County. Philo is near Boonville, where residents improvised a quasi-language in the early 1900s called Boontling.

Bouchon Bistro Beverly Hills: Scenes from a delicious opening evening

The produce storage closet is ready for Wednesday's opening.

Did Beverly Hills need a lavish new brasserie complete with bar a huitres, a bread room and an entire pastry kitchen? Sure, why not? Overlooking the French-style gardens of the still-new Montage Hotel, Bouchon actually looks like it belongs on Canon Drive across from Spago and Mastros despite being shiny and new. Tonight's opening party (a follow-up to last week's chefs party) drew bloggers, writers, a motley assortment of celebs including Star Jones, Jay Leno, Larry King and Pierce Brosnan and lots of laquered and lifted BevHills ladies and gents. Guests got full run of the spacious, gleaming kitchen and pastry and bread areas as well as the large bar, dining room and balcony. Here's a few of the areas we checked out.

Mini BLTs with pork belly and pesto were extremely satisfying.

Sebastian Rouxel, originally from Nantes, is executive pastry chef for all of Thomas Keller's restaurants. He's been in Beverly Hills for a week prepping the opening of Bouchon. He says Americans are mad for macarons.

Prepping the cheese service. Red Hawk was rather pungent, but Fourme d'Ambert was luscious.

Hot hors d'oeuvres including mini croque monsieurs, BLTs, squash soup cups, lamb toasts and short ribs were served in the main kitchen.

The gift bag included a mix and silicone baking pans for the signature chocolate bouchons.

The full menu is now available on Bouchon's website. I'm glad I've got a reservation for my birthday next month!
Tomorrow, I'll announce the winner of Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc cookbook.