Antica Pizzeria non e l'autentico

I'm doing some pizza research at the moment, and having recently had pizza from La Buca and Damiano's, we decided to go further afield. I heard that Antica Pizzeria in Marina del Rey had the only pizza maker in L.A. certified by the Vera Pizza Napoletana association -- in fact the owner is apparently president of the North American branch. Well, I didn't find out whether he was in the kitchen Saturday night, but I hope he would be ashamed at the pizzas they sent out to us. Matt ordered a Quattro Stagioni, with artichoke hearts, proscuitto, mussels and clams. When they put it down, the burnt mussel shells gave off a powerful briny odor, which immediately put him off. They were so burnt that pieces had already broken off in the cheese, making it impossible to eat. I've never seen a seafood pizza served with the shells still on like in a pasta dish, and this seemed like a new and bad idea. The proscuitto seemed haphazardly piled on the pizza, and under the cheese lurked some chunks of pre-cooked mushrooms. It didn't seem like this pizza had been put together by anyone who had ever eaten a pizza -- everything was just thrown on, and nothing was integrated into the cheese, which didn't seem cooked enough.
Many of the pizzas are inexplicably served without sauce, including the one I ordered, with broccoli rabe and sausage. It also seems crystal clear that sausage on a pizza must be crumbled, not in chunks, but this one featured haphazardly-strewn chunks of sausage and some nice clumps of broccoli rabe. The crust, from a wood-burning oven, had a good flavor. My pizza could have been good with sauce, crumbled sausage, and a little more time in the oven, but Matt's was a disaster from start to finish. Service was also a minor disaster, with the pizzas taking forever to come out and a friendly Italian waiter repeatedly visiting the tables on either side of ours to chat and make sure everything was ok, while our waitress hid far away in another part of the restaurant. At least she comped the shell-filled pizza. Strangely for a place supposedly known for their pizza, most of the people around us had pasta and salads.
Verdict: Stay away from Antica Pizzeria. If I'm ever in that neighborhood again, it's back to Abbot's Pizza.
Antica Pizzeria
13455 Maxella Ave.
Marina del Rey
(310) 577-8182

Auntie Em's Marketplace is open!

Cheese, cheese and more cheese...that's what you'll find at Auntie Em's Marketplace, located in the little storefront next to Auntie Em's in Eagle Rock. We stopped by the opening last night, had some nice wine and tasted the dips from Grassroots dips. Besides a carefully edited selection of cheese, owner Terri has also chosen jams and sauces, raw honey from Elysian Park, candies, frozen Auntie Em's specialties to take home and really cute vintagey kitchenware. And who doesn't need a box of decorated sugar cubes? Try some scamorza on your next homemade pizza, or taste the Lamb Chopper from Cypress Grove. Speaking of Lamb Chopper, don't miss Leslie Brenner's droll takedown of the Belvedere Restaurant at the Peninsula Hotel in the L.A. Times food section.
Auntie Em's Marketplace
4616 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock
(323) 255-0800

Partying in the hood

Thanks to all who turned out for Eating L.A.'s 100,000th visitor blog party. We had a good time at Malo watching the little creature which was generously dubbed a "large mouse" running across the patio fence, drinking, eating and talking. I met a few new people including Adam (Adsvino from Chowhound) who first convinced me to go to La Buca. The pictures are kind of bad, but that's what happens after two margaritas and just chips for dinner. Best of all, I think I've solved my case of restaurant boredom with a new list to attack: Mario's Peruvian, Edendale Grill for brunch, Triumphal Palace, Norman's pig roast and more. Cheers everyone!

Cheese, beautiful cheese

If Barrie Lynn has her way, I'm going to give up my calorie-controlled, lowish fat diet and live on cheese. It doesn't sound like such a terrible fate. Check out my tour of cheeses with stories to tell on VLife Weekend. My favorite from the article was Evangeline, a rich and creamy goat cheese from Louisiana.

BLOG PARTY TUESDAY! and other bits and pieces

Reminder...please join us at Malo from 7 to 9 on Tuesday for a toast to Eating L.A.'s 100,000th visitor. See you there!

Sorry for the slow posting week...no time to check out new places, and Eating L.A.'s teenage companion (son, that is), only wanted to go to Yuca's and Saito. Both were excellent, however, and both would make excellent introductions to the L.A. scene for a visitor. Yuca's, because the tacos, burritos and tortas are pretty good for a place in semi-ritzy Los Feliz, but also because the customers are a great microcosm of the neighborhood -- firefighters, rumpled yet fashionable 20somethings, Save Griffith Park activists, electricians, teenagers, all sharing the ripped cast-off furniture and the tastiest carne asada tortas in the hood.

cochinita pibil and carne asada tacos from Yuca's
And Saito because where else can you get lovely, fresh albacore sashimi, shitake mushroom sushi and tuna sushi, park right in front, easily get a seat at 7 on a Friday night, sit next to an ex-member of the Circle Jerks and chat with two rocker-looking dads and their boys while poor Saito tries to cater to three picky kids (including mine, that is.)

Glad to hear Indochine on Glendale Blvd. is opening next week -- we can always use another Vietnamese place, since Gingergrass is too crowded for a casual dinner.

And finally, it's kind of sad to see Noura on Melrose close...I spent a lot of time there in about 1981 or so. But I'm interested to see what David and Michelle Myers of Sona do with the space when they open Sokyo there next summer.

Oh, and perennial thanks to Chowhound poster Carter, the best source of restaurant news in the city.

A tiny taste of fame

As a 10 year-plus employee of Variety, I was invited to watch the unveiling of our star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Right between Samuel Jackson and Winona Ryder, Variety finally got a star for the 100th anniversary celebration.

After the unveiling, we repaired to the Dakota restaurant in the Hollywood Roosevelt with Johnny Grant, Army Archerd, veteran publicist Julian Myers and some other longtime employees. We had a lovely lunch of grilled salmon (for me) and steak with roquefort butter and fries (for some of the others). I liked the Dakota's leather tablecloths and clubby, masculine feel. I've eaten at that restaurant in several different incarnations and this is definitely the best one yet. I think they could have done without the alfalfa sprouts on the salmon, but it was a beautifully tender piece of fish, cooked medium rare to order. And you have to love that liquid sugar in the little beaker for the ice tea, although the concept of Sweet 'n Low seemed beyond them. Still, I kind of miss the vaguely grotty old Roosevelt with its cheap poolside rooms.

salmon on a bed of green stuff at the Dakota

Blog party time!

yum! carne asada tacos at Malo

In honor of EatingLA's 100,000th visitor, you are invited to come have a drink with us (sorry, not on us). I'd love to get to know some of my readers or catch up with the ones I don't see often.

Come to the patio at Malo
4326 Sunset Blvd.
Tuesday, Oct. 25
7-9 pm
The chips are on me!
(no-host bar)

Shameless self-promotion

But that's what L.A.'s all about, right? No, actually L.A. is about that moment when you find the perfect burrito, and a surface street shortcut to get there...but I digress.

If you have kids or ever need to feed and entertain kids, check out my story Declaring a dining truce in Variety's VLife Weekend. My kids aren't the greatest eaters in the world, but feel free to email for more suggestions.

And thanks to Gridskipper, the cool travel blog from the Gawker/Defamer family of blogs, for posting my article A Cuisinart of Ethnicities for their special L.A. day Friday.

For more self-congratulation, stay tuned for Eating L.A.'s 100,000 visitor party coming soon to a bar near me.

The week's news

The L.A. Times has revealed the location of Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali's new pizzeria/restaurant/etc. -- it's on the corner of Melrose and Highland, former location of Emilo's and then Alessi's. In any case, it was the only space available with a "grandfathered" wood-burning pizza oven. It all sounds wonderful. Apparently David Rosoff, formerly of Campanile and Opaline, will be joining Silverton and Batali at the as-yet unnamed spot.

Favorite dish description of the week:
Now that Bastide is going back to traditional French food, where will we go for food like this:
Chicago's Alinea offers "a single piece of limp bacon in butterscotch, apple and thyme and hung on a tiny silver clothesline."

Oh, my god, I am so jealous of the New York Times' R.W. Apple, who found the most amazing Thai delicacies -- think Banana flower salad -- on a recent trip to Bangkok. Here's his article "On the Streets of Bangkok."

Seen at M Cafe

OK, I know I've been writing about M Cafe de Chaya too much lately, but this was kind of funny. Friday at lunch I sat down at the communal table with my excellent ahi tuna burger and perfectly cooked broccolini. A nice-loooking young blonde woman came in with her boyfriend. She ordered a salad or something and sat down. He was wearing a t-shirt that said "I Eat Vegans." He left and reappeared in a minute with a bag from Quiznos and a soda, proceeding to eat a roast beef sub while his g.f. nibbled on her microgreens. They must have some fun arguments over food...

R.I.P. L.A. restaurants

As the L.A. Times pointed out Wednesday in the article Incredible Shrinking Restaurant Scene, it hasn't been a good year for L.A. restaurants. Some places, like Rika, with its high roller-meets-callgirl aesthetic and BLT sushi, obviously deserved to die a painful death. Other, like Mix, seemed to have the right ingredients, but never managed to find a following.

Now Silver Lake's Tantra, which offered pretty nice Indian food in a lovely setting, has closed and seems to be undergoing renovations inside. I'd had several problems with their service in the past, so it wasn't at the top of my list, but it did seem good for the neighborhood to have a more upscale restaurant. With the adjacent Cirxa also being remodeled, there could be a lot of activity on that block soon.

More Steve Don't Eat That!

Extreme eating is becoming a popular sport on TV and in Blogland. Here's the latest installment of the hilarious Steve Don't Eat That!, wherein he tackles silkworm larvae.

Then there's Deep End Dining, a group blog that's been around about as long as Eating L.A., which introduced us to the wonders of balut and live octopus at Koreatown's The Prince.

Both of these sites are quite entertaining, although they really aren't devoted to the pleasure of tasting wonderful things. I'm not really into gross food for grossness' sake, but you've got to read Steve anyway. And if you want to be able to say you've had something gross, but aren't in the mood for silkworm larvae, try the harsmar drinks at Hui Lau Shan, 250 W. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel. The little frog ovaries are hidden in a tasty mango smoothie and you'll never even know they're there.

Taste test: La Buca

I've been meaning to get to La Buca for a while, but the last round of glowing Chowhound reviews finally pushed me over the edge. Plus, I still wasn't sure exactly how I felt about Aroma, so I thought it would be helpful to have another neighborhood Italian place to compare it to. I knew there were only a few tables, so I reserved for Saturday night. I'm glad I told the waiter right away that I wanted to try the burrata antipasto plate, because it was their last order of burrata. The creamy cheese was a perfect foil for the speck, salumi and proscuitto on a bed of arugula and avocado. I love speck and there aren't enough places in L.A. that serve it. For mains, we shared a spinach and sausage pizza with a tangy mix of parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Every ingredient on the pizza meshed perfectly together -- the fennel sausage, the perfectly cooked spinach and the flavorful cheese. The crust had a nice yeasty flavor, and although it wasn't quite as chewy as a New York pizza, it was still quite respectable. Our other dish was homemade tagliatelle in a creamy shrimp and asparagus sauce. It was also delicious, and their homemade noodles had the perfect bite. For dessert, we had a coffee panna cotta with chocolate sauce, which was a nice light finish. We brought a bottle of Judd's Hill cabernet to drink, and managed to polish off the whole thing.
Verdict: Not only is La Buca delicious, it has a lot of heart. It's cramped and tiny, and they almost forgot the espresso. But it's like being in a little trattoria in Italy or France, far from Melrose Ave. With free corkage, our wonderful meal came out to $53 -- pretty amazing. And I'll definitely be stopping off on the way home from work to pick up a white pizza with speck, walnuts and truffle oil, or a Claudia Cardinale with ricotta and walnuts.
La Buca
5210 1/2 Melrose Ave.
(323) 462-1900

Learning Chinese

Bottom left, scallops with orange peel, top, Hunan eggplant flanked by two hot and sour soups

Well, not the language, I think I'll learn Japanese and Thai before I learn Chinese. In the meantime, I decided to learn to cook some Chinese dishes, since there's no decent Chinese restaurants within five miles of my house, and I'm trying to eat more healthfully, so I can add less oil. Some posters on Chowhound recommended Barbara Tropp's The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking, so I ordered a used copy on Amazon and started cooking. My first meal was hot and sour soup, stir-fried spicy scallops with orange peel and Hunan eggplant with spicy meat sauce. Tropp's book is excellent for anyone who's fairly new to Chinese cooking -- she describes every step with sometimes exhausting precision. For the eggplant: "Put a serving dish of contrasting color in the oven to warm." Everything was fairly successful. The scallops were probably the best, especially since I found fresh water chestnuts at A Grocery Warehouse in Echo Park. In fact, I found everything I needed there, all ridiculously cheap -- garlic at six heads for a dollar, a huge package of dried mushrooms for $1.99 -- except the scallops, which were ridiculously expensive, from Fish King. The fresh water chestnuts were a revelation -- crispy, sweet and hauntingly nutty -- a huge difference from the canned ones.

Monday musings

The new 2006 Zagat Survey for L.A. is just out.
The good news:
-Thank god, they got rid of those horrible geographic divisions. When I'm looking for a restaurant in a hurry, I really don't want to stop to ponder the difference between Hollywood, mid-Wilshire and Beverly Hills.
-It's nice to see A.O.C. jump to the top of the Most Popular list, even if it is a bitch to get in there.
-Also cool: Sea Harbour up near the top of the Chinese list. Zagat continues to improve in the east-of-downtown offerings. The Thai winners are still pretty pallid, though. Typical misstep: "Nadpob is slowly drawing customers with a fairly typical straightforward menu." Sure, if you call Germany pork leg, yum bloody clam, and red wine fish maw "typical."
The wierd news:
-What on earth is Brandywine, and how did it make the top food list over Spago, Campanile and A.O.C.? Could Woodland Hills really be hiding such an amazing find, or does it just have some very devoted patrons who voted early and often? Of course, Brent's Deli also got a high 27 score, but at least I know it has a lot of fans.
- So, so sad the Cheesecake Factory remains the pinnacle of dining for so many L.A. residents. Oh well, more for us.

Also, coming soon in the neighborhood:
Auntie Em's is expanding into the space next door with a cheese counter, gifts and more, opening in a few weeks.

Pazzo Gelato is opening soon in Silver Lake next to the Town 'n Country Bakery on Sunset. With Zanzabelle in one direction and Pazzo in the other, ice cream is coming at me from every direction...is this a good thing or a bad thing?