L & E Oyster Bar: Silver Lake gets its oysters

Apparently the people of Silver Lake have spoken, and they've asked for...oysters? It's hard to say if an oyster bar was exactly what was needed in the former Domenico's and Michelangelo spot, but judging from the crowds of the first few nights, it was a popular choice. Dustin Lancaster and Matt Kaner of buzzing Los Feliz wine bar Bar Covell have transplanted their approachable wine and beer list and unfussy approach to L & E Oyster Bar, a casual spot with a tightly edited, oyster-centric menu. Oysters come from nearby (Carlsbad, Baja) or far away (Washington, Virgina) and they run around $2.50-$3 each or $28 a dozen. They're fresh as can be, served with cocktail sauce, mignonette, fresh grated horseradish and lemon, and go down well with a crisp muscadet.
Oysters are available raw, steamed, grilled, fried and fried in a sandwich. Other shellfish include steamed mussels and clam chowder, while the bivalve-averse can choose from a skirt steak sandwich ($18), blackened catfish plate ($16), salads or Cajun shrimp pie.
The Bar Covell guys transformed the space quickly, adding a long bar down one side of the small room, about 10 tables inside with a few wine racks and lighted signs spelling out the provenance of the oysters. Industrial chic lighting fixtures and a few nautical knick knacks complete the quickie makeover. Like the restaurants before L & E, the patio is a desirable spot, but now the bar also offers extra seating.
So L & E stands for...Lox and eggs, in a nod to the possibility of brunch in the future? Lancaster and Eastside? Left coast and East coast? Up to you to decide.

 L & E Oyster Bar

1637 Silver Lake Blvd
(323) 660-2255

Tijuana trolley to Manhattan: The New Yorker on Javier Plascencia

In this week's New Yorker, Dana Goodyear profiles Javier Plascencia, the Tijuana chef who is a vital figure in bringing respect and reason to dining in Baja California. Goodyear made numerous trips to Baja to research the profile called The Missionary: A Food Renaissance in Baja, one of them with our October blogger trip (in which Dave Lieberman and Javier Cabral make anonymous cameos, while Bill Esparza gets a few shout-outs). It's a fascinating read (I especially liked the details about Plascencia's youthful experiments with earrings and eyeliner.)
I'm sure the savvy will find a way to read it for free, but why not buy a copy of the New Yorker, and actually help support the company that was able to let Goodyear pursue the story in several thousand words?

Eating wild L.A.: Foraging with Transitional Gastronomy

Toyon berries are vaguely cherry-tasting and can be made into jam or put in baked goods

Even before Noma restaurant and foraging TV shows were in vogue, I've wanted to find out what's edible along local trails. I didn't think I could figure it out by myself, so I was happy to be invited to try a Foraging Foodies class with Transitional Gastronomy. 

Mia, left, tosses chickweed salad while Pascal points out wild pickles

Mia Wasilevich is the foodie part -- she finds ways to make wild foods taste great, while Pascal Baudar is the foraging part -- the Belgian native grew up learning wild foods while rambling in the forest, but he's lived in L.A. for years and knows our foodshed well, especially desert plants. We met up up in La Canada's Hahamongna Park, known to generations of Tom Sawyer campers as home of the one-eyed monster tunnel, but also home to a veritable salad bowl of easily-accessible edibles. Easy, that is, if you have some guidance -- don't be fooled by poison hemlock, which looks surprisingly similar to carrot tops escaped from a vegetable patch. 

Pascal touches nettles without gloves, but you shouldn't

Pascale showed a group of about eight of us (GourmetPigs was there too) how to find and distinguish chickweed, a rampant weed salad green with a grassy taste; stinging nettles, a trendy ingredient at top restaurants that are easily found for free (bring gloves!), toyon berries and wild sage. Many wild plants are also useful natural remedies, of course, and he pointed out black nightshade, a good remedy for the stinging nettles (oh yeah, it turns out deadly nightshade isn't actually deadly, and the berries can be made into ketchup!) and horehound, which can be made into cough-soothing candies. 

Pickled yucca shoots and radish pods

We gathered bags of chickweed, nettles and fragrant sagebrush and white sage, and returned to the picnic area, where Mia was cooking up acorn burgers on a bed of nettle puree, served with chickweed salad with toyon berry dressing, pickled acorns, radish pods, black walnuts and yucca shoots and mugwort and nettle beer. Once nettles are cooked, the stingers completely disappear and they make a vivid emerald puree that can be used like pesto or spinach. The acorn burgers had a chestnut-like sweetness and starchiness and were delicious and filling. Mia and Pascal gathered the fat acorns in the Angeles Forest (not the skinny ones you get at lower elevations) and boiled them several times to remove the bitterness. The tangy beer was much tastier than I had expected, since it's made with just nettles and yeast (maybe a little sugar?) -- no malt or hops. 
Classes in foraging and cooking are offered most Saturdays for $65, while Pascal offers other workshops like Beer with Wild Plants and Basic Trapping (great if you want to catch your own rabbit or quail!) through his Urban Outdoor Skills. Hopefully I'll never need to survive on chickweed and gophers, but it's a good feeling to know what might make a nice snack while others hike right past it and then buy arugula at the store.

Golden Road Brewing: Yes, we can!

giant pretzel is the thing for beer; kale rolls (left) are...kind of vegan-ey

Golden Road Brewing has come together in an amazingly short time compared to most things in L.A., and Sunday was both the grand opening of the pub eating area and the beer's availability in cans. Just seven months after the brewery was first announced, the owners of Tony's Darts Away and Mohawk Bend are brewing around a dozen beers, offering growlers to take home, cooking up a full menu of vegan and omnivore dishes and canning two varieties of beer which will soon be available at Whole Foods around L.A.
 
The first two canned brews (in generous pint cans) are Golden Road Hefeweizen and Point the Way IPA, both versatile beers that are solid representations of their styles. The cans sell for about $3.29 each or around $11.99 a six pack, and the Hefeweizen has a screen print of Los Feliz's Shakespeare Bridge for true local flavor.

The Hefeweizen was a little light for my taste despite subtle notes of lemon and orange, but perfect for most Hefe lovers. However, we also tried the El Hefe Anejo on tap at the brewery, a Hefeweizen style brewed in tequila barrels, that was one of most flavorful of the type I've tried. The Point the Way is a nicely-balanced IPA with a moderate 5.2% alcohol that won't clobber you over the head with bitterness.
 

 Several other Golden Road beers are available on tap, including Rye on the Palate, Get Up Offa That Brown and Lost Its Way IPA. Like their sister establishment Mohawk Bend, the menu offers plenty of vegan dishes alongside meatier choices, like the beef and pancetta meatballs with cornbread, above. A coconut noodle-cabbage salad has roughage for days, and sides like bean salad or miso crabby salad offer a nice fresh counterpart to heartier fare like burgers, a pulled pork sandwich braised in Hefe or a Sloppy Joseph sandwich with stout-braised short ribs. Vegetarian dishes include vegan meatballs, vegan banh mi, a chickpea sandwich or portabello mushroom Philly sandwich. Because the fryers are kept for vegan items, there's no fish 'n chips at the moment.
With plenty of room on the spacious covered patio or inside the cavernous warehouse of a pub, Golden Road is sure to be a festive gathering place despite its neither Atwater-nor Glendale location (it's across from the Glendale Home Depot, on the other side of the railroad tracks.) Each time a train goes by, everyone raises a glass, welcoming the passengers bound for Santa Barbara and beyond.
Golden Road is open every day from 11 am to 11 pm.
5430 San Fernando Rd.
(213) 542-6039

Gastronomico: Get on the bus to Los Feliz

Gastronomico's cured salmon sandwich

The Gastrobus was one of the earlier stabs a mobile gourmet food, though I never got to try it. As with several other food trucks, the Gastrobus has morphed into a brick and mortar spot called Gastronomico. Tucked in the corner of the same Hillhurst Ave. mini-mall that houses the Drawing Room bar (open at 6 a.m.!), Gastronomico is a handy spot for a neighborhood lunch or supper, with homemade bread for sandwiches and a fine selection of salads and homey soups. The cafe takes its birthplace in a bus possibly a little too seriously, with chrome walls, yellow and black walls and highway signs on the wall. Cute, but seems more like what you'd expect in a hot dog place instead of gourmet sandwiches. (Love the Yelper who called it "an industrious aesthetic.")

Order at the counter of the bus-themed cafe

Anyway, the sandwiches are legit. Cured salmon paired up in a lush way with avocado on a ciabatta bun, and my friend had a Groupon so it wasn't quite as painful to pay $10 for a sandwich. She got the salad sampler, with Brussels sprouts, squash and cauliflower, but felt there could be a few more options for vegetarians on the menu. Sandwiches include Ecuadorian pulled pork ($7.50), grilled cheese, specials like a squid po-boy and an organic turkey burger. A few mains include braised shortribs ($14), free-range roast chicken, crispy pork belly with yams ($11) and fried organic eggs with sauteed greens.

salad sampler makes a light lunch

Lots of sides can be combined for a meal or added to a main course: crispy Yukon gold potatoes, roasted beets, brown rice and kale.
A chance to try desserts like ricotta donut holes with blackberry coulis or banana chocolate upside-down cake sound like they'd make another visit to this slighty odd but sincere spot worthwhile.
Gastronomico
1802 Hillhurst Ave.
323-660-8800

Ramen Jinya: Wilshire's noodle nirvana

basic bowl of porky ramen bliss

Us mid-Wilshire office workers were suffering along with Baja Fresh and Callendar's for a long time before the food trucks arrived. They brought welcome diversity to office lunches, though not much in the way of seating or healthy food. If you're looking for burgers or beer, the Counter is certainly a viable option, but the arrival of Ramen Jinya on Wilshire just east of La Brea is definitely an exciting development. An offshoot of the Ventura Blvd. ramen destination, which itself sprang from a Japanese company, the Jinya restaurants are dedicated to high-quality ingredients with extra flourishes that layer on the flavor in a most satisfying way.

A small but sleek space

The Miracle Mile location is a narrow mini-mall space that formerly housed a dubious outpost of New Meiji. Ramen Jinya is is huge improvement over the musty sushi and flaccid tempura of the former tenant, and it's some of the best ramen in L.A. at the moment. The original Shoyu Tonkotsu ramen, at $8.55, is a murky, pork-infused broth of significant deliciousness. Spinach, seaweed, and tender slices of pork blissfully co-exist with thin or thick ramen noodles that are then topped with fried onion strands for an extra hit of umami. Served in a lovely ceramic bowl at a not-too-steaming temperature, it makes a hearty lunch for one person -- really, you won't want to share, but if you're ordering other items, it might be possible.

Garlic and 'red hot' chili oil layer on the flavor

For $10.55, special bowls add more ingredients like chili oil, or add extra ingredients -- everything from corn to butter -- for around $1 each. There's vegetarian versions, and chicken ramen is often available as a special but isn't yet in the regular rotation. Also on the menu: are potstickers, cold noodles and seaweed salad. Finally, a breath of fresh, pork-scented air on Wilshire Blvd.
Ramen Jinya
5174 Wilshire Blvd.
323-549-0188

Pat's not-too-sweet, not-too-expensive kinda healthy best granola

Homemade cherry/cranberry/walnut granola

(inspired by David Leibovitz and Nigella Lawson)
A few months ago I suddenly started craving really good granola, the kind that's usually $8 for a small bag and a zillion calories. I hadn't made my own granola since the Campanile recipe was popular for years, but I remembered it was usually expensive to assemble all the ingredients and so rich it was tempting to eat the whole recipe as a snack, leaving nothing for breakfast.
I started with David Leibovitz's recipe, which is in turn inspired by Nigella Lawson, and simplified it a bit. The key is applesauce or pear sauce, which provides sweetness and adds crunch. Unlike Mark Bittman's recipe, there's a bit of fat, which I feel is necessary to make it crunchy and carry the flavor, though less than Campanile's version.
From there I decided that 3 cups of almonds would probably add more calories than I need, plus they're expensive. So I use a half cup of walnuts, but really you can use whatever you want. I don't use the sesame seeds at all, I don't think it suffers without them. I also cut out the rice syrup, because there's already enough honey and brown sugar, and I'm sure it's costly as well. I add a quarter cup of ground flax seeds to make it a bit healthier, and some dried fruit. I use a half cup of dried cranberries and a half cup of dried cherries, but chopped dried apricots are also great, and Nigella prefers raisins.
David uses two tablespoons of vegetable oil. This time I used three tablespoons of coconut oil, which in one of those confusing nutritional switcheroos, is now considered more healthful than canola oil instead of less. I think it strikes a good balance of not too costly, a little addictive but not too, and relatively healthy. It's great mixed with plain Greek yogurt or Go Lean cereal and soy milk. You could also whip some up quickly for Christmas presents.

Here's my tweaks to David's recipe:

Pat's Not-too expensive, Not-too-sweet Kinda Healthy Best Granola

5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (get it in bulk at Whole Foods or in the bag at Trader Joe's)
1/2 to 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or almonds
1 cup sunflower seeds (Whole Foods bulk bins)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds (available at TJ's)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (use more or less depending on your sweet tolerance)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce or pear sauce (available in single serve cups at Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup honey
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil (coconut oil, now available inexpensively at TJ's, makes it even better.)
1 cup chopped dried cranberries, cherries, apricots and/or raisins)
Preheat the oven to 300F.
1. In a  large bowl, mix together oats, nuts, sunflower seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
2. In a small saucepan, warm the fruit puree with the honey and oil.
3. Mix the fruit mixture into the dry ingredients until thoroughly dispersed, then divide and spread the mixture evenly on two baking sheets. (If you have ones with sides, often called jelly-roll pans, use them.)
4. Bake the granola for about 45 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the granola is deep golden brown.
5. Remove from oven, add chopped dried fruits, then cool completely. Try not to eat it all the first day.

Pa-Ord Noodle: Fiery and friendly Thai tastes

Chinese broccoli and crispy pork

Pa-Ord Noodle at lunchtime has to be one of the friendliest restaurants I've eaten at in a long time. After I awkwardly attempted to order my boat noodles "pet ma," which I thought meant "sort of" spicy, a table of four young women giggled at my pitiful attempt and insisted I stick with what the server described as "medium." They taught me the word for medium, which I've now forgotten, but it turned out to be the right call as Pa-Ord's medium was just about right -- almost as spicy as I wanted, though a bit more than Kathy preferred. Then an older Thai couple started talking to us about Bangkok, since a large photo on the wall pictures the floating market with Pa-Ord's owner Lawan Bhanduram working on one of the boats.
Bhanduram previously ran Ord Noodle on Hollywood Blvd., which like nearby Sapp was known for its boat noodles.

Boat noodles

I ate Thai food for several decades before attempting boat noodles, scared off by ingredients like beef blood, tripe, liver, and mysterious rubbery beef balls. When I finally tried the murkily delicious broth a few years ago, I was quickly won over by the combination of flavors like star anise, five spice powder and kaffir lime melding with strips of beef, chiles and noodles. (For a great recipe and description of the soup, see this post from Eat Drink + Be Merry). It turns out there's nothing scary about boat noodles, though I didn't actually eat the bits of liver that helped give a nice funk to the broth. At Pa-Ord, there's a choice of four types of noodles for the soups: egg noodles, wide rice noodles, thin rice noodles and even thinner rice noodles. There's also Tom-Yum soup with noodles, duck noodle soup and several other types like seafood soup and pork offal soup. The stir-fried noodle dishes like drunken noodles are fairly standard -- Pa-Ord's strength is mostly in the soups, though the papaya salad comes recommended.
But don't forget your vegetables. Fortunately, at Pa-Ord, the Chinese broccoli comes topped with hefty hunks of impossibly crispy pork skin. Hopefully you will not have just come from a cholesterol test at Kaiser down the street, and you will be able to carefully savor how well each cube's fatty crunch plays off the slightly bitter, somewhat spicy greens.

Pa-Ord Noodle
5301 Sunset Blvd #8
Hollywood
(323) 461-3945

Artisan House: Downtown's new multi-purpose room

produce, snacks and jam are available in the marketplace

With the massive popularity of Bottega Louie, it was inevitable that someone else would try a multi-purpose spot for Downtown residents and visitors to shop, drink, snack, dine and of course snarf macarons. So next door to Cole's, Artisan House has risen at the corner of Sixth and Main with a similar mission but look and menu all its own. Artisan House co-founder Raphael Javaheri is in the textile business and has never owned a restaurant, though he's a big foodie happy to share his favorite sushi haunts. The Pacific Electric lofts building has a historically appropriate antique-y vibe that echoes the Bradbury building with tall banks of windows, lots of brick and ironwork and recycled wood floors and bar. On one side is a deli-market with a full menu of sandwiches and salads, and a few baked goods like Paulette Macarons. Like L'Epicerie in Culver City, the gourmet market has a small produce area, a good selection of beers, artisanal sodas, wines and liquors, and a selected smattering of cheeses, snacks and staples. Javaheri says the market will soon carry Artisan House-branded olive oils and other handmade products, and he wants to work with local and sustainable purveyors as much as possible.
 
On the other side is a full bar and restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner (the bar is conveniently open from 11:30 am to 2 am every day). The opening party aps of Sicilian tuna tartare, smoked salmon and spicy fried shrimp with aoili were mighty tasty, but a verdict on the full menu will have to wait for a full meal. Chef Jason Ryczek plans California-Mediterranean farmer's market-inspired dishes like flatbreads, beet salad, grilled romaine, albacore confit sandwiches and house-made duck prosciutto.
 
It's a super-competitive block for mixology -- La Perla, the Varnish, Cole's and the Association are just steps away. So former Bazaar bartender Elden McFeron III promises molecular-style cocktails, while beer taps at the opening included Maudite, Anchor Steam, Stella, Racer 5, Chimay and a couple others. With its all-day offerings, Artisan House is sure to attract a wide mix of Downtowners.
Artisan House
600 S. Main St.
Los Angeles

213-622-6333

Short Order: A first taste

Everyone's heading to Farmer's Market to see what Mozza's Nancy Silverton, Bill Chait and the late Amy Pressman have done to wow the city's burger enthusiasts  So for now, an early lunch at Short Order is the best way to avoid the fledgling burger destination's inevitable early service glitches.

Arriving at noon on Friday, we had our choice of tables and found a cozy corner upstairs opposite the bar. Short Order's decor is as adorable as can be, with Eames barstools, Danish modern chairs, vintage kitchen utensils, tiny tabletop thyme pails and filament lights hitting just about every possible design note at once. Servers in perky striped Ts complete the picture.
I had a hard time choosing between the Frisee lardon raft -- a burger topped with frisee, egg and lardons; or the pork burger with rapini or turkey burger with sage cheddar. Since I had recently eaten at Gott's Roadside in Napa, I tried Ida's Original Burger ($11) for purposes of comparison. While Gott's serves a fine, non-grass fed Apple Pan-type burger for $8, Short Order's grass-fed model, with cheddar, pickles and tomato, was far more indulgent with a pillowy bun and deep beefy taste. Creamy secret sauce on both pieces of the bun makes it a little too messy, but the flavor is inarguably terrific.

Our table's other orders weren't quite as successful: One friend's lamb burger (above) could have used more seasonings to mellow the overly-assertive Sonoma ground lamb -- neither of us enjoyed the one-note flavor despite its feta topping. Another friend's grilled cheese looked extremely greasy; like other "gourmet" grilled cheese sandwiches it was nearly deep-fried, ruining the subtle balance between bread, cheese and frying that the sandwich requires.
So far at least, it seems the beef models are the way to go, but we barely grazed the menu which also features pies, malts, signature "Short Order Spuds." Coming in January is a brunch menu featuring a Benedict Burger and Breakfast Cobb Salad.

Despite the early hour, it was my day off and I couldn't pass up one of Julian Cox's superb cocktails, made with Buffalo Trace bourbon, lemon and pomegranate agrodulce. It was small but delicious and we immediately decided that cocktails and fries would have to become a regular thing. Downstairs, the seating is more exposed to the sun and only the more basic burgers are available, so upstairs is the way to go if you want cocktails or lamb or pork burgers.
The Verdict: I rarely eat burgers, so the chance to have a good grass-fed one is worth $11 to me, and all Short Order's ingredients are top flight. But order a $17 tuna burger, Spuds ($4) with truffle salt ($2 extra) and a $12 cocktail, and Short Order turns out to be one pricey lunch for a casual spot. With the bar open until 1 a.m. on weekends, it's a shot in the arm for Farmer's Market, which generally closes down much earlier.
Short Order
Farmer's Market (6333 W. 3rd St., Stall #110
(323) 761-7970