Taste test: Chameau

I feel silly that I never ate at Chameau all the years it was the closest restaurant to my house in Silver Lake. So when I heard that the new location on Fairfax had great decor and creative takes on Moroccan dishes, I decided to finally give it a try.
The room: This place is definitely my favorite restaurant design in L.A. at the moment. Lots of colors and textures, everything from an allusion to a camel's eyelash dangling from the ceiling to colorful blocks of light to patterned wall screens add up to a very festive interior. "I'd like to have my house look just like this," I said. "It's a little bright," said Kathy. When I arrived at 7:30, several tables of older folks were finishing up their dinners, and the restaurant was having some trouble with the music system. A young, hip couple sat down, noticed the tables of early-bird diners and lack of music (I guess they were shocked that they might actually have to converse) and got right up again and left. Later on, the music came back on and the room filled up with stylish younger folks. My only quibble with the otherwise fun psychedelic design is the formica tables, which lend a slight coffee shop feel to what is otherwise a more ambitious mid-range restaurant.
The food: After some amazingly tasty spicy olives, bread, lemony dipping oil and eggplant spread, we ordered three starters: merguez sausage with goat cheese, grilled sardines and the sort of signature dish, the duck bastilla. I loved spreading spicy harissa on the crispy sardines and the merguez had a nice kick also. I was a little skeptical of the deconstructed bastilla, which was like a pastry disc sprinkled with ground duck and topped with another pastry disc -- I kind of like my bastilla to hold together like a spanokopita. But in the mouth, it all combined perfectly with the powdered sugar topping for a nice savory/sweet contrast.
For mains, the three of us shared a loup de mer with charmoula and the lamb shank with couscous. Both were excellent -- the whole loup de mer, a type of firm, white, Mediterranean sea bass, is rarely seen on restaurant menus here, and I loved the garlicky charmoula sauce with it. I'm not always a lamb fan, but the tender braised shank came in a wonderful inky sauce which could be poured over the couscous, and it wasn't at all overly lamb-y. For dessert, we shared an almond snake with caramel ice cream and bittersweet fudge sauce -- a nice sweet ending, but I'm not sure if marrying traditional Middle Eastern pastries with ingredients like chocolate and caramel really works that well. Skip the Moroccan wine, the French rose (only $28 a bottle) was much better.
The verdict: A big hit for food, decor and service, but a little pricey for Eating L.A.'s budget. Three of us ate well for $125, but there were no leftovers.
Chameau
339 N. Fairfax Ave.
(323) 951-0039

OK, it was available light, but this gives an idea of the exotically-lit interior at Chameau.

These lights at Chameau are so cool.

Chameau's super-charged olives go well with the slightly sweet bread and the lemony dipping oil. The Moroccan glassware and china adds an exotic touch.

They say it's my birthday...

A fine birthday treat...my very own little red velvet cake at Doughboys. (I did share some of it.) Eating L.A. is also fond of Doughboys' portobello mushroom salad -- really not a salad, just an excuse to eat mushrooms and potatoes sauteed with bacon and piled on a few elusive strands of frisee.

Eating San Francisco

Ricotta/sour cherry tart from Frog Hollow Farm at the Ferry Building. One thing about the Bay Area is that you're never more than 10 feet from a great cup of coffee. It's a comforting thought.

Mushrooms at the San Francisco Ferry Building

Mushrooms at the San Francisco Ferry Building. Eating L.A. had a very worthwhile field trip to San Francisco. The Ferry Building was different from what I had expected -- I thought it would be lots of small stalls like Grand Central Market or Granville Market in Vancouver, but instead it was more like a mall with gourmet emporiums instead of Claire's and the Foot Locker. Every store gives samples, and the smoked salmon store had such copious samples that I didn't really need lunch. Now that's the kind of mall I like. I thought the prices on these wild mushrooms were pretty good, until I hit the Berkeley Bowl the next day.

Grilled squid on white bean salad at Delfina in San Francisco's Mission District. Delfina is a casual Italian place with the typical attention to details you find in the Bay Area -- amazing bread from Acme Bakery and Tartine, good beer and soda as well as wine -- they get the small stuff right. I also had wild nettle fettucine, which is a beautiful kelly green color and tastes exactly like Stouffer's spinach casserole. Well, a really well-prepared version, but still -- the nettles were pureed, so it was hard to tell what they were really like.

Amazing fruit at the Berkeley Bowl -- Buddha's hand at lower left. This is probably crazy, but I bought raspberries, Pink Lady apples, kiwis and chanterelle mushrooms at the Berkeley Bowl and hauled them all the way back to L.A. The prices and selection are quite astounding. I can't believe this place used to be my neighborhood market, back when it really was in a bowling alley.

Boule bowls them over

Last night's opening of Boule, the new patisserie/confiserie from Sona's Michelle Myers, was a delicious sampling of candies, cookies, sorbets and pastries. Thankfully, there were a few lovely savory snacks like mini BLTs for those coming straight from work who weren't yet ready to launch into full-scale pastry chowing. The tiny tastes were full of flavor, so it was possible to taste nearly everything. The gelatos and sorbets included a pain d'epices gelato, a Venezuelan chocolate gelato, a Chino Farms strawberry gelato, Meyer lemon sorbet with saffron, Volcanic blood orange sorbet and pineapple sorbet with Indonesian pepper, which was my favorite, with a nice spicy kick. All the chocolate items were rich and not too sweet, including a Valrhona chocolate tart, Mumm's truffles and some wonderful little chocolate nut cookies, which were everyone's favorite. I don't quite understand the current fluff over handmade marshmallows, but the rose flavored ones were certainly different. The pates des fruits, one of my favorite treats in France, were the best I've tasted in L.A. With Jin and now Boule, L.A. connoisseurs of haute patisserie now have some solid choices.
Boule will also bake bread and serve sandwiches to-go made with the bread. Opening is planned for Thursday, December 9.
Boule
420 N. La Cienega
open Weds. - Sun. 7-7