Cupcakes that died and went to heaven

Auntie Em's mini coconut cupcakes

I don't usually write about what we get delivered at Variety when we work late on Wednesday nights...it generally ranges from just ok to positively dismal. But this week, things took a major turn for the better when Auntie Em's catered our Wednesday night buffet. Those mini coconut cupcakes in the picture achieved cupcake godhead -- more so than Em's usual larger size. The proportion of cake to frosting was more ideal, although they caused the same sugar rush. People were hoarding the mini red velvet ones as well. We also enjoyed the skirt steak, stuffed chicken and mac 'n cheese. What an improvement!

Question of the week: Ethiopian

Danica asks, where can I get good Ethiopian food? I have to admit I'm kind of stumped on this one...I just haven't gotten around to trying very many African places, other than Ngoma on Wilshire. Ngoma is pretty good, but it's pan-African, not specifically Ethiopian. I've heard that Meals by Genet and Rosalind's are two of the best, as well as Rahel, which is vegetarian. Readers -- any suggestions for Danica?

Weekly news

Oh joy, another insipid chain sushi bar, Maki Maki, is about to join the other uninspired chain eateries at the Grove/Farmer's Market. It's upstairs from the Bath & Body Works store. If you must eat outside of the real Farmer's Market, I find Ulysses Voyage to be pretty decent -- it's related to Mama Voula's.

Norman's on Sunset has a new chef -- Mike Bryant used to be the sous-chef under Craig Petrella, who went "on sabbatical." (Is that like when movie stars have to go to the hospital for "exhaustion"?) Excellent sommelier Peter Birmingham is fortunately still on board.

Bravo's Top Chef is casting for a second season...they're looking for professional chefs, self-trained chefs and skilled non-pros to compete on the show...in other TV cooking show news, Comfort Cafe's Reggie Southerland came in second in "The Next Food Network Star"...so Santa Rosa chef Guy Fieri will get his own Food Network show.

The Santa Anita mall in Arcadia is really heating up...besides being in the vicinity of tons of great Chinese food, the mall is soon opening an H & M clothing store as well as Crispy Cones...a dubious food concept that's been hanging around some years now, with pizza, taco, teriyaki chicken, BLTs, etc. in a cone. Whatever happened to Tacone, by the way?

Here's a great article from the S.F. Gate on Asian desserts featuring my favorite, snow frog ovaries. And don't worry, from cream puffs to mango mochi, it's all easily found in L.A.

Guest taste test: La Super-Rica

tamales con crema at La Super-Rica

On a recent wine trip to Santa Barbara, my friend Kathy took a break from vino and stopped in at venerable foodie pilgramage spot La Super-Rica. Here's what she had to say.
La Super Rica is remarkable for its mundane, former dairy stand setting and the fact that no matter when you cruise by, there's a line. Since it's a 99-mile cruise-by for me, I've only been there a couple of times but I've yet to be disappointed. Thomas Keller once told me he was a fan; Julia Child was a famous customer. Because of its stellar rep, a visit to this family run operation requires some strategy. Mine was to get there just after the 11 a.m. opening on Saturday. I waited about five minutes to order, not giving me very much time to study the menu. However, it doesn't seem to have changed much in the last 10 years. Compared to Los Angeles prices, it's more in the Seite Mares than Allegria range. You order and pay (cash only) at the window. Behind the counter was an overflowing bowl of masa as tortillas are made and grilled to order here. The cook was frying up a hearty mix of chorizo, pasilla peppers, strips of beef and pork. The menu is posted above on a chalkboard with daily specials to the left. I had the taco de costilla, generous, thick strips of marinated top round served on two of those fresh corn tortillas. ($2.10).

Was that a hint of anise in the marinade? The special tamale de verdaduras was a blend of white corn masa, sweet, white corn kernels, strips of red and green pasilla peppers, chopped zucchini and potatoes, mixed with an orange, Kraft-American cheese and topped by the a milky, almost soupy crema. I combined four salsas as topping -- the salsa verde was just perfect. Some folks pack up extras to take home. The cinnamon spiced-coffee hit the spot on such a chilly morning. Part of La Super Rica's charm is the bare bones operation ­you can practically touch the food on the grill at the pick-up window. Whether they serve the best Mexican food in California is certainly debatable, but fresh, flavorful and inexpensive, is always a winning combo.
-- Kathy A. McDonald
La Super Rica
622 N. Milpas St.
Santa Barbara
805/963-4940

Restaurant news...plus, something's fishy!

Restaurant updates: Silver Lake Wine's Sunday tasting (April 24) will feature a preview of June restaurant, soon to open on Hillhurst in the old Belle Epoque space in Los Feliz.

My faithful gal-around-town Kathy reports on a new cafe on Beverly Blvd. called Milk...the sign says it will serve milkies, whatever that is...

Remember Cinnabar on Brand in Glendale? Been wondering what happened to the bar from Yee Mee Lou they rescued? Apparently property owner Nancy Hathaway is trying to open her own restaurant called Acacia House in the space, and the bar is safely in storage...

If you have a spare $800,000, you can have the Yi space on Third Street...it's a lovely space...any takers?

Something's fishy...
Do you like escolar or butterfish? I haven't encountered it too much around town but it's served at Hawaiian places like Roy's and at some sushi bars, where it's also called Shiro Maguro, or white tuna. However, I had never heard that eating large servings of it causes a severe and unseemly digestive problem in many people who eat it. Here's a link to a USDA warning, and here is a web discussion that describes the problem in more colorful, or uh, specific terms. It seems that while one order of escolar sushi probably isn't enough to cause a problem, some restaurants are serving large 8 oz. portions that trigger quite a bit of distress. So, I guess I'll be careful in Hawaii.

A little slice of Tart

salmon with artichoke pancetta hash on vintage china

Tart is the new restaurant at the Farmer's Daughter hotel, which is naturally across the street from Farmer's Market on Fairfax. For decades, contestants from "The Price is Right" at CBS across the street have made it their home base, and the lobby still features a Polaroid gallery of the happy winners. But that's about all that remains from its past as a nondescript motel and former home of the Olive, Eurotrash restaurant of the early '90s or thereabouts. The hotel and restaurant have been completely redone in tongue and chic barnyard camp, complete with rusty farm implements and a gingham moderne motif.
I was invited to try the restaurant for lunch -- it's only been open for two weeks, and next week it will open for dinner as well. Wine reps packed the dining room touting their product to the chef, who plans to seek out rare pinots and other hard to find bottles. Inside, the restaurant combines rough barn walls with vintage green-banded china stocked in an antique cabinet. A large patio off the pool is sure to be hopping in the evenings. The chefs are of Portuguese and Caribbean descent and the menu reflects touches of these regions as well as ingredients of the moment like smoked black tea gelle, chorizo oil and Guiness stout emulsion. Among the lunch dishes we tried were crab cakes with a good solid crab flavor and not too much filler, a super-rich lobster risotto and grilled salmon with artichoke pancetta hash and a saffron sauce. Tart is a great addition for workers at places like the Writer's Guild and CBS who have worn out the choices at Farmer's Market and the Grove. And when it's open for dinner, check out the evolving wine list and imaginative dishes like scallop carpaccio with yuzu cream and ahi tuna with coconut purple rice.

Tart, 115 S. Fairfax, (800) 334-1658

(Open for breakfast, lunch, and very soon dinner)

Happy Thai New Year!

Miss Junior Thai Princess, or something like that
You have to give it up for the Thais, whose New Year's celebration manages to combine lovely dancing girls, karaoke in Thai, paying respects to Buddha, drenching kids with water and tons of amazing street food.

Birds carved out of crookneck squash at the clever fruit carving stand
All this with absolutely no aggro or attitude even after an hour of waiting at the papaya salad stand. Yes, the waits were a little out of hand this year, but that didn't stop the papaya salad ladies from patiently constructing each salad to order, adjusting the degree of spicyness requested, tossing some extra toasted peanuts on top and generally acting as if there weren't dozens of starving people queuing up in front of them.

I started out with some excellent duck noodle soup (above) and followed it up with papaya salad, Thai sausage and sticky rice and mango, all delicious and wildly fresh as usual. I'm so glad the Wat Thai temple exists, but next time I might have to hit it on a less busy weekend. Still, it would be a shame to miss the disco dancers and the one lady d'une certaine age who shakes it up with the most unusual costumes.

McDonald's history tour

For all you fast-food nostalgics out there, I wanted to let you know about a fun event hosted by Chris Nichols from the L.A. Conservancy Modern Committee as well as the new Southern California Restaurant Historical Society. McDonald's may not be my cup of tea, but it's definitely a part of California restaurant history.

McDonald's History Tour
Saturday, April 22

Join McHistorian Chris Nichols to discover the rich and hidden history of Richard and Maurice McDonald, founders of McDonald's. Travel in a luxury motor coach down Route 66 and into the Inland Empire where you will visit the people and places that helped start the world's largest restaurant chain.

You'll go inside a working orange grove, tour a 19th century blacksmith shop where the first automation tools were invented, and visit the museum on the site of the very first McDonald's. We'll also meet some of the folks who were there at the beginning. From a carhop to the neon man who installed the very first golden arches.

A non-McDonald's lunch will be served at the museum. Snacks and water will be provided. Our story starts when the brothers come to California and ends when Ray Kroc buys McDonald's.

McDonald's History Tour
Saturday, April 22
10am-5pm
$50 per person

Send payment to:
Chris Nichols
c/o Los Angeles magazine
5900 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036

or paypal to:
mcdonaldstour@yahoo.com

Questions? Call 213-804-4184
http://mctour.blogspot.com/

News: Eat Well, Koda and more

There seems to be a lot of action on Beverly Blvd. between La Brea and Fairfax...Kathy reports that Eat Well is advertising for staff at 7385 Beverly, which is currently Cafe Tartine. Cafe Tartine may have imported its bread from Paris, but it never seemed to find its audience, as we say in the film business. Perhaps this will cut down the wait time at Toast...
and the L.A. Times reports that San Francisco chefs Quinn and Karen Hatfield are taking over the Le Chine Wok space for a dinner-only restaurant with market and tasting menus.
...and of course there's the new place from the owners of Grace, in the Opaline space, which we mentioned last week.

Koda, the new sushi bar which replaced Cirxa on Sunset in Silver Lake opens this weekend with Anchor Steam beer on tap. Guinea pigs, anyone?

Franklin Ave.'s Mike and Maria didn't have a very good time at Memphis...guess they should know my Rule of Trendy Hollywood Restaurants: They are not about the food. They exist so patrons can drink, and see, and be seen. Period. I'll be happy if anyone wants to prove me wrong, though. But from everything I've heard about Geisha House, Citizen Smith and their ilk, the rule pretty much holds true.

Don't forget, this weekend is the Thai Songkran (New Year's) festival at the Wat Thai temple in North Hollywood. Bring water pistols and your appetite! It's open Saturday and Sunday from around 10 to 4 or so. Here's my report from last year. And do not miss the grilled Thai sausages.
Wat Thai temple
8225 Coldwater Canyon Ave.
North Hollywood

Taste test: Renu Nakorn

John attacks a catfish carcass

For years I had been hearing about how Renu Nakorn had the best Thai food in L.A. The problem is, it's not really in L.A., it's in Norwalk, and where the hell is that? In fact, I made it to Las Vegas to try the Lotus of Siam twice before I ever got to Norwalk. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that Renu Nakorn is only a few blocks from the 5 freeway, just before the Orange Curtain. It takes only 30 minutes to get there, less than going to Santa Monica or West L.A. from Silver Lake.
Question #1: Was it worth the drive? Definitely. The food is far more flavorful than any Thai town restaurants.
Question #2: Was it as good as Lotus of Siam? No, and the service especially was far inferior to LOS.
Now, on to the food. Eight of us wrangled with the lengthy menu for a while while sipping our assorted Reislings et al. We tried to order several things off the Northern Thai specialties menu in the back, including the jackfruit curry with pork. Jackfruit, as the menu explains, has a similar texture to artichoke hearts, and the curry had an earthy bamboo shoot-tinged funk that tasted exactly like Bangkok street food. I loved the Issan sausages, which the menu compared to andouille. The texture and heat was indeed similar, but lemongrass and cilantro brought a whole other dimension to the sliced sausages. They would have been excellent with the red chile dip, which was a thick pungent paste which could be used as a condiment with the other dishes. I thought the chili chicken wings had been recommended, but neither the chili ones nor the stuffed chicken wings (below), although tasty, were as life-changing as I had remembered from the reviews.

The khao soi -- curry flavored broth with noodles and chicken -- was the best version I've had, with plenty of flavor even though we ordered it medium. The only really incendiary dish we got was the papaya salad, which tasted very freshly made.

Our centerpiece dish was a whole catfish (above) broiled with an amazing green chile relish -- not quite as impressive as the Lotus of Siam whole catfish, but a nice dish for a group, and that relish had a boatload of spicy, sour and garlicky flavors going on. All this fare was pretty light, so we ordered a few more dishes -- excellent spicy sliced beef with Thai round eggplant, again in a sauce that had more layers than the conversation in a Robert Altman movie, and a nice squid larb.
Verdict: Clear, strong and pungent flavors made all the dishes sing. Service unfortunately was nearly non-existent -- they never offered dessert, so we missed the famous coconut ice cream. It's a good thing we had our own corkscrew and wine glasses. Corkage is $5, but I'm not sure whether they charged it or not. The total was $15 each. Located in the mini-mall that time forgot (have a drink at The Lark afterwards if you dare), the restaurant may be moving next year if they wisely decide to tear down that mini-mall. So go now in case they don't reopen right away.
Renu Nakorn
13041 E. Rosecrans Ave.
Norwalk
(562) 921-2124

What the French are good at...

foie gras hors d'oeuvre; Josie LeBalch with her quiche
Besides sex and fashion, the French do rather well at food and film. Eating L.A. stopped by the opening night of the City of Lights, City of Angels French Film Festival to see Francis Veber's charming screwball comedy "The Valet" and sample some hors d'oeuvres prepared by local chefs who are members of the Club Culinaire of French Cuisine. The chefs outdid themselves, with a selection of mostly fish-oriented snacks and champagne. Standouts included Jean-Pierre Bosc's opera de foie gras and Alsatian tart; soba with smoked salmon from Maison Akira's Akira Hirose; soupe de poissons with rouille croutons from Jean-Francois Meteigner; ahi tuna napoleons from Patrick Jamon and Josie LeBalch's signature quiche. The Club Culinaire has several events throughout the year open to the public, like the June 11 picnic in Griffith Park and the bargain-priced bistro dinners for $45.

Weekend news

Faithful Chowhound poster Carter reports that the owners of Grace are taking over the late Cafe Capo, Opaline, Red space just down the street from Grace...another post says the new spot may be similar to Craft in New York, where you "build your own plate." It's a great chance to do a more casual place with Grace quality...

I just heard about the blog Taco Hunt although apparently it's been going since August...very helpful when you've exhausted the nearby taco options and are ready to get serious about Mexican street fare.

Not in L.A, but Franklin Avenue's Mike and Maria are travelling in Hawaii right now, and although it's rained a lot of the time, they've managed to take quite the eating tour of Oahu.