Taste test: King's Palace

Eating L.A. had the privilege of dining with several folks from the L.A. Chowhound group , including Chowhound's own L.A. editor, Thi, last week at King's Palace in San Gabriel. Thi, an ebullient philosophy grad student with a world-class appetite, was recently profiled in Los Angeles magazine. I appreciated his advice to my dilemma of ordering in unusual restaurants
with friends who want to order only the usual suspects -- I think it was "Tell them to shut up." or maybe "Leave them at home." Here's one of Thi's Chowhound posts about King's Palace: "King's Palace, the Shanghai/Taiwanese place -- Unlike Green Village, which is very much of the funky, dunky, country school, King's Palace is all pure, hard lines - the clam and ginger soup tastes of fresh clam, and fresh ginger, and NOTHING ELSE. But boy, goddamn, does it taste of clam."
The Shanghai/Taiwanese style food was a little subtle for my taste -- I'm a fiend for Szechwan and also enjoyed the bold, earthy flavors at the more traditionally Shanghai style Green Village. But it's always fun to go with a group of adventurous eaters, and I was glad Thi arrived just in time to insist we get the winter melon with crab roe. Not only was it an alien-colored dish of celadon and coral, it had a pleasantly mild fishiness amid two textures of slimy. Everyone else raved about the garlic crab -- I must be taste-challenged or something, because I'm afraid I
didn't get it. The minced garlic all clings to the shell, and then you take the crab out of the shell and eat it, so no garlic actually touches the meat. But he was right about the ginger clam soup, it was very light and bracing. Because we also ordered the a whole steamed fish, Peking duck and the pork pump, at $25, it was the most expensive Chinese meal I've had in the San Gabriel Valley. Still, it's great to get to know various regions of Chinese cooking and see how many styles there are.
King's Palace
250 W. Valley Blvd.
San Gabriel
(626) 282-9566

King's Palace waitress carves the pork pump.

Crab roe and winter melon on left, pea shoots on right.

Rika, Rika

It sounds like the cry of an elegant bird, which is a good description for the type of women who will be decorating barstools at the new Rika in the Sunset Millenium complex. The complex was jumping Tuesday night as Fox TV stars huddled in the rain for a party at Central and food and restaurant people feted the opening of Rika. Tracy Griffith (sister of actress Melanie Griffith, if anyone cares), is one of the sushi chefs, with the title of "modern sushi chef." Griffith is the author of Sushi American Style which features creations such as BLT rolls, but last night's fare seemed more traditional, with tasty rolls, nigiri sushi and fusiony hors d'oeuvres. I heard that an earlier press dinner had featured some amazing Kobe beef as well. I ran into Sophie Gayot, who fortunately had not seen my Mexican restaurant challenge below, food writer/TV writer Jeff Hoyt, Bon Appetit's Lena Birnbaum, food writer Amelia Saltsman who has a cable show "Fresh from the Farmer's Market" and writers from the Asian culture site Chopping Block, which has a lovely picture of the steak sushi. It's an elegantly black-laquered and backlit glass space for looking out onto Sunset, and definitely a high-rollers kind of place.
Rika Restaurant and Diamond Lounge
8590 Sunset Blvd.
(310) 657-9500

Spago, AOC top Chowhound's Ultimate L.A. Restaurant list

Chowhound's Mr. Grub asked posters on the L.A. Chowhound board to put together a list of their top five restaurants for special occasions or to take out of town visitors to. The Chowhounds interpreted these directions quite liberally, with several votes for Zankou, Langer's and Tacos Baja Ensenada -- perhaps not special occasion restaurants, but certainly worthy of out of town visitors. Here's the list of restaurants that got more than six votes. The full list and comments on it are here (corrected version) and here (uncorrected version, but with more comments).
Spago 113
AOC 73
Water Grill 61
Lucques 50
Urasawa 35
Grace 30
Angelini 24
Melisse 23
Sea Harbour 19
Joe’s 19
Campanile 18
Josie 17
Saddle Peak Lodge 16
Valentino 15
Mako 13
Mori Sushi 12
Parkway Grill 11
Nozawa 9
Lawry’s 9
Langer’s 8
Asanebo 8
Matsuhisa 8
Phillipe’s 8
Vincente 8
Zankou Chicken 8
Wa Sushi 7
Giorgio Baldi 7
Sona 7
Table 8 6
Chinois 6
Echigo 6
Mastro’s 6
Nanbankan 6

The "Sideways" party: for the cinephile oenophile

Sandra Oh and Alexander Payne were fielding congratulations from their friends. Sandra said she learned a lot about Santa Ynez valley wines during the shoot.

A nice cheese plate at the "Sideways" premiere.

"Sideways": A film about wine

Since I write about film and I love pinot noir, Alexander Payne's new movie "Sideways" is pretty much the perfect film for me. Add to that a great performance by the classically depressed Paul Giamatti and a bucolic California setting, and it's going to be hard for me to find a better film this year. Last night's premiere offered a nice selection of pinots from Hitching Post, the restaurant featured in the film, and a big spread of cheese, pate and chocolate fondue. I didn't sample much food, though, because I don't have much appetite at 11 pm and I had to talk to Alexander, his wife and the film's co-star Sandra Oh and producer Michael London, who said he had been on a few of the Santa Inez valley wine adventures described in the Rex Pickett novel "Sideways" is based on. I don't think this quote will make the movie ads, but if you liked Eric Rohmer's "Autumn Tale" and Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity," you'll love "Sideways."

Mini-review: Lucques sunday supper

Lucques is one of my favorite restaurants, but I'm a little leery of the prices. So the $35 prix fixe Sunday supper seemed like a good time to check back in at Lucques. I like how with prix fixe meals you are forced to eat dessert, saving me from making the choice of whether I'll indulge or not. Since it was our anniversary, I had made reservations earlier in the week, before they released this week's menu. I was a little disappointed to find they were offering squash ravioli and chicken as the mains -- I'm never much of a fan of squash ravioli, which I find often tastes like pumpkin pie, and chicken usually seems like the most boring dish on a menu. I would have preferred, say, a fish and a pork dish, but we decided to just try it anyway. After some of their amazing bread, butter, Lucques olives and almonds, the first course was a salad of arugula, avocado, fennel, olives and albacore. At first glance this didn't seem very interesting either, but each ingredient had so much flavor that the whole was delicicious. It was probably the best, butteriest avocado I've ever had, the olives seemed ten times as good as those from Silver Lake Cheese, and the fennel was shaved so finely you could read through it.
Though the autumnal, savory ravioli was the least-sweet version of this I've had, I'm afraid squash or pumpkin-filled pasta will never be one of my favorites. The chicken "al mattone" was wonderful -- the skin was somehow crisped so that it tasted like spicy bacon, and I'd eat rapini and garlic with shredded newspaper, as my father used to say. If only I could learn to whip this up at home.
The dessert pictured was light and pleasant, although we thought the chocolate sauce was gratuitous. I thought the orange sorbet was lovely, although Matt thought it didn't go with the ricotta semi-freddo. Matt had a glass of pinot grigio and I had a glass of pinot noir, both good. While I don't think these dishes were Lucques' best dishes ever, I just don't think you can get this quality of ingredients at very many other restaurants in L.A., and certainly not for $35. I wish I had a Wednesday night free to try the Josie $30 dinner, though...

Taste test: Gallo's Grill (temporarily closed)

My friend was at a wine tasting at Norman's the other night, where Sophie Gayot apparently proclaimed that "There is no good Mexican food in L.A." I wasn't about to let a French person decide that for me, although sometimes it does seem like there are considerably fewer really good Mexican restaurants than you would expect in a city with this many Mexican restaurants. So six of us, including three kids, trucked out to Gallo's Grill in Boyle Heights, deftly avoiding the Dodger traffic in both directions. This place is a real winner, with a selection of several cuts of beef as well as chicken, salmon and shrimp, grilled to order over almond wood.
The room: Simple and cheery, but not in a linoleum and fluorescent kind of way, with a glassed-in view of the grill and kitchen. If you don't need to watch your meat cook, there's a patio out back.
The food: Before you order, the waiter brings out the special cuts and fish on a platter, raw -- a nice touch you wouldn't expect in a casual place like this. We chose three different kinds of steak -- ribeye and two others -- arrachera and cesina, maybe. The ribeye was thicker, more like a regular steak, and the other two were variations on skirt steak. All were perfectly cooked, crispy on the edges and flavorful. They came with excellent homemade flour and corn tortillas and good beans or rice. We ordered a crock of the wonderful chunky, fresh guacamole to start. The kids weren't feeling meaty and stayed with quesadillas, plain avocado and tasty freshly-cut papas fritas (french fries). We brought our own beer so we didn't have a chance to try the cucumber aguas or other housemade aguas, but we'll definitely be back to sample the grilled shrimp and chicken. The steak or shrimp sandwiches sound interesting for lunch, and they serve breakfast too.
The tab: If you think Taylor's is cheap, you haven't been to Gallo's. Steak and other dinners range from about $7.95 to $10.95. Of course, it's a casual place with no beer and wine, but you can't even eat at Sizzler for that, and if you did eat at Sizzler, you'd be very sorry. And the waiter was exceedingly pleasant and helpful, although his English was limited. But I've lived in L.A. all my life, so I think I'm capable of ordering some guacamole and meat in Spanish.
The verdict: Sorry Sophie, we found a winner on the very first try.
Update: Unfortunately, Gallo's had a fire quite a while ago and still hasn't reopened.
Gallo's Grill
4533 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
(323) 980-8669

The chef presiding over the almond-wood fired grill at Gallo's.

Needless to say, I brought home some leftovers from my steak dinner at Gallo's.

The entrance to Cliff's Edge is hidden off the parking lot on Sunset -- there's no sign out front, natch.

Restaurant news: Josie and Cliff's Edge

I read in the fascinating Nation's Restaurant News that Josie LeBalch will be turning day-to-day operations of Josie over to chef de cuisine Jill Davie in order to develop a "new concept yet to be devised." It sounds like she doesn't have a location or concept firmed up yet, though. The article, no longer available on the website, also talks about David Lentz and Suzanne Goin's new Hungry Cat at Sunset & Vine, which sounds like a very promising addition to Hollywood, Wolfgang's Puck first steakhouse at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and Michael Cimarusti's Providence, opening this fall.

I haven't had a chance to try Silver Lake's new Cliff's Edge yet, but I ducked in for a look yesterday. The garden is beautiful and the former girl's town bar -- where I first watched "Pink Flamingos" in about 1984 -- has been tastefully redone with an Asian feel. It's definitely about the outdoors at this spot, which has an Asian-meets-Mediterranean menu, as far as I could tell. Hard to say if sea urchin crostini (baguette topped with sea urchin and seaweed) will catch on, but it sure looks like a nice place for drinks. The manager, Pierre Casanova, was formerly at Les Deux Cafes and Little Door...this place looks poised to instantly become Little Door east, hopefully with less attitude than his previous venues.
Cliff's Edge
3626 Sunset Blvd.
phone (323) 666-6116

Foodie quiz: Can you read an L.A. restaurant menu?

I like to think I know my way around a restaurant menu pretty well -- after all, I read restaurant reviews the way horseracing fans devour the Racing Form. It was the alfajores on the dessert menu at Grace that got me thinking, though -- what does the average diner do when confronted with a trendy, inventive modern menu? I worry about my poor boyfriend, the Rhode Island diner, who will eat anything but has never been to France or Italy, and doesn't know his speck from his lomo. Fortunately the likes of salsify, Prosecco sabayon, tian of farro and sumac are no problem for me. But here's a few items from local menus that have me stumped. I know, I could eventually find the definitions on Google, but Eating L.A. will award the prize of a Zagat 2005 Los Angeles restaurant guide or a sandwich from La Brea Bakery, if you come meet me there, to anyone who wants to come up with explanations for these items. I'll throw in a cookie if you swear you didn't Google.
From Sona:
Jivara beignets (I know a beignet is a fried fritter, but Jivara?)
Snapper with sepia (I thought sepia was a color...do snappers give ink?)
Yuzu-kosha (this turns up three times, with watermelon, macaroons and chicken)
From La Terza:
Battilarda di salumi (ok, got the salami part, but still...)
Costata di bue with risina di spello (completely lost on this one)
From Lucques:
Saba
Arzua-ulloa ("I'll have some arzua, please, but hold the ulloa.")
From AOC:
Chickpea sofrito (yes, I know chickpeas are garbanzo beans)
Charmoula
Eggplant in saor

Leave responses in the comments section.

Pillowy pita and dandelion greens

Muhammara, hummus and foul at Mandaloun

Matt tries the hookah while Pat looks on.

Taste test: Mandaloun

Ever since I heard that the fairly new Mandaloun in Glendale was up to the level of the defunct Al Amir, which used to be in my Wilshire office building, I had been wanting to try it. Not only do they have the housemade puffy pita bread that Al Amir did so well, they offer flavored hookahs after dinner.
The scene: On Sunday nights, there is no live entertainment, but there was a very loud Lebanese wedding in the main room. We sat on the patio, but the Lebanese hip hop still came through loud and clear. Either way, it's not a spot for intimate conversations, but a place for festive celebrations. The covered patio has heaters and is clearly a better choice than inside, which has a slight banquet room feel.
The food: Although there were six of us, we ordered lightly. We weren't even able to get to the tartares, the seafood dishes, or the offal, which Kathy thought was an offal shame. If there's a part of a lamb they don't serve, I'd be surprised...brains, kidneys, and yes, "fries." We ordered mostly the meze appetizer plates, which were uniformly good and richer than at most middle Eastern restaurants. Hummus was available topped with a warm, savory ground beef and pine nut mixture; fluffy kelly green tabbouli was perfectly seasoned and nutty; dandelion greens with fried onions offered a pleasantly bitter/sweet combo; foul beans had a nicely sour dressing; and the muhammara (red pepper paste) was thicker and more flavorful than usual. We only sampled two main dishes -- the chicken kebabs were moist and perfectly cooked, but the beef shwarma was dry and largely flavorless. The slightly spicy Armenian lahmajune pizza also makes a good shared appetizer.
The menu is huge, so we'll go back sometime to delve further into the cheeses, brains, etc.
After dinner, we ordered an apple hookah instead of dessert. The tobacco, which is smoked through a real apple, was sweet and smooth -- I'm not a smoker, but it was still a fun, non-caloric end to the dinner.
The people: Large Lebanese families, for the most part
The tab: We paid about $22 each in a party of six people, with a Lebanese beer each. With wine, dessert, and more main courses, it would be easy to pay much more.
The verdict: This is a place to linger over multiple courses, not to eat and run. If price is a big consideration, Glendale offers plenty of more economical middle eastern places. But the food is top drawer and the hookahs add to the party atmosphere.
Mandaloun
141 S. Maryland Ave.
Glendale
(818) 507-1900