Eating L.A.'s Best of 2006: Year of the Pig?

Like film critics, apparently food writers are required to come up with their best moments in food for the year. Here are 10 or so of Eating L.A.'s top trends and favorite spots for the year:
1. Best newcomers: Mozza, BLD, Cut, Lou, Square One, and no doubt Hatfield's, except I still haven't eaten there. When you look back, it was actually a pretty good year for places that use really flavorful, high-quality ingredients. Coincidentally or not, all the newcomers are very big on piggy products like pig candy, artisanal charcuterie and thick bacon -- even Cut offers a great pork belly appetizer along with the super-pricey steaks.
2. Best rediscovered favorites: I got back in touch with my meat-eating side at old-timers Taylor's and the Pacific Dining Car. At Taylor's I found my ideal meal: a Molly salad; either the burger or the London Broil appetizer, and one of their excellent Manhattans. At the Pacific Dining Car, I had the most expertly-cooked steak salad ever for lunch, and vowed to return for a real steak. Another satisfying beef-fest was at the food bloggers dinner at Manna Korean Barbecue. I got flamed by Korean food experts, but hey, it tasted good to me.
3. Worst Asian-inspired fast food trend: the Pinkberry's invasion. These places are springing up everywhere, guaranteed to increase bad parking situations anywhere they light. All that parking angst for a few blandish flavors of frozen yogurt -- I just don't get it.
4. Best Asian-inspired fast food trend: Famima. You can actually get a solid meal at these adorable Japanese minimarts. While Christmas shopping in Glendale the other day, I picked up a very respectable warm pork bun and a triangular salmon rice ball, along with green tea mousse with a surprise red bean layer. And some rice crackers and Pockys for later. There's also warm clam chowder and grilled cheese paninis, and every kind of potato chip you could want.
5. Best tacos I had this year: I thought I hit the jackpot at El Parian in February, but a recent trip to the Echo Park Taco Zone truck may have changed my mind.
6. Best quick service trend: Upscale fast food, like Eagle Rock's Oinkster and Spitz, and gourmet fast cafes, like Cafe Surfas. Although the Oinkster gets mixed reviews, all these places have realized there's a place for really good quality ingredients, fun shakes and sodas and good desserts to go alongside well-thought out sandwiches and salads.
7. Most missed: The closure of Norman's was no surprise, since far too few customers made to the strangely-situated spot. But the roast pig was hard to beat and people who braved the Strip to get there usually loved it.
8. Best neighborhood explosion: Downtown. I still haven't checked out Royal Clayton's, Blue Velvet, Tiara or all the other places that opened Downtown this year, but it looks like there might be life in the old central city yet.
9. Best non-restaurant trend: underground dinners like Ghetto Gourmet -- like a cool dinner party at your friend's house, if your friend could cook.
10. Best new neighborhood spot: Canelé in Atwater -- nearly everything tastes just right at this convivial spot.
Wow, I'm already at 10 -- ok, here's a few runners-up:
Best continuing trend: Izakaya like Izayoi and Musha continue to beguile with savory Japanese small plates. Many imitators springing up.
Best artery-clogging trend: haute hamburgers from the likes of 25 Degrees and Lucky Devils, topped with Maytag blue cheese and served with a Guiness milkshake, or a nice little glass of cabernet.
Best dessert: Butterscotch budino pudding at Mozza. Now, I seem to crave fleur de sel on all my sweets.
Best meals: It may not be the most au courant cuisine in L.A., but Thai food is pretty much my all-time favorite kind of food. So it's not surprising that perhaps my favorite meals this year were at Renu Nakorn and Swan Thai.
Best neighborhood for food overall: Can the San Gabriel Valley be considered a neighborhood? If so, the communities of Monterey Park, San Gabriel and Arcadia offer an array of Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants that would take years to thoroughly explore. But I'm game to try.
Inevitable headline for next year: "Pinkberry's to scale back rapid expansion."

Quick bite: Halal Tandoori

eggplant bharta, at right
I know a lot of people in the Los Feliz/Silver Lake area area are desperate for more takeout and delivery options, so I was glad that when I finally got around to trying Halal Tandoori, it turned out to be a solid Indian option. Located in a large, busy mini-mall at 4th and Vermont, next to a Korean pirate pub, it's a modest Indian-Pakistani restaurant with a fairly standard menu, but I think it's a least as good as Agra and likely better than Electric Lotus. We ate in the restaurant, ordering eggplant bharta, chicken biryani and then we thought we ordered lamb madras, but we ended up with chicken madras and decided to stick with it.The garlic naan was fresh and pillowy, and everything was clean-tasting and well-spiced. (Next time, I might try ordering hot instead of medium.) There's no beef on the menu, but plenty of chicken, shrimp, fish, lamb and vegetable dishes to choose from. The biryani seemed a bit boring after the saucy Burmese version we had in San Francisco, but we managed to gobble everything up with just a few shreds of chicken left behind. And there was no heavy sheen of oil left behind like some Indian restaurants seem to have.
Halal Tandoori is open 7 days a week and they said they'll deliver at least as far as Hyperion -- call and see if they'll deliver to your hood too.
Halal Tandoori
401 S. Vermont Ave.
(213) 383-9976

Quick taste: Bloom Cafe

We tried Bloom Cafe on Pico for lunch last week. The perky, modern spot has been getting good notice for its breakfast dishes, but I wasn't too impressed after my first visit. I ordered the seared salmon salad, but I guess I didn't realize that "seared" was code for "covered in incredibly salty spices." And that nice pile of potatoes on top in the photo? They were practically raw -- isn't that poisonous or something? How hard is it to boil a potato, anyway? I did like how the salmon was cut into manageable little filets -- I could eat this all the time if it was prepared properly. On a blustery winter day, we were hoping for some really stellar soup selections, but the only choice was a wan basil-vegetable, which could have used some of the salt from the salmon. Since it was my birthday, we shared a nice chocolate mousse pastry with a crispy cookie bottom that was substantially better than the main dishes. I might give Bloom another try since it's close to my office, but at this point, I'm still missing Posh on Pico and the Latino burger.

Wok Ave. to become Pinkberry

I was hoping Silver Lake could escape the Pinkberry plague, letting Los Feliz take our Pinkberry gracefully. But it's not to be, as apparently the Pinksters are setting up shop in the former Wok Ave. space on Hyperion and Rowena, which in the grand tradition of Pinkberries, has a horrible, crowded parking lot. I'm sure many Silver Lakers will be thrilled by this development, but not me, as I find frozen yogurt utterly boring, and I'm starving for a decent Chinese delivery place/roast chicken place/gourmet food to-to place/any other kind of decent restaurant that serves real food instead of frozen milky fluff. At least in San Francisco when they open an ice cream shop, they have the good sense to have burnt caramel and fresh huckleberry flavors.

Also, Flor Morena appears to be closed -- what gives? If they're giving up, let's hope they can get something better in there as well -- or perhaps the Coffee Table will move there when the condos start construction?

Bits 'o news for the weekend

Sorry if posting is slow...crazy busy but will keep adding items at the top as they come in.

Silver Lake's Da Giannino is changing hands...it looks like they're continuing the same concept. I know the place has its fans, but I've never once been tempted to try it. As my readers know, other than La Buca, I find mid-range Italian to be one of the most boring types of restaurants, right after mid-range upscale comfort food.

Did Silver Lake Chinese fast-foodery Wok Avenue go out of business? Could there possibly be anything more interesting coming to the high-visibility corner of Rowena and Hyperion? We dare not hope.

We ran into Pamela Kasdan, co-owner of the new Rustic Canyon Wine Bar in Santa Monica, at the Chakra dinner the other night. The menu and wines sound great, if I can just get to Santa Monica one of these days.

There's a new Chinese place to check out in Alhambra, but don't get it confused with the
Silver Lake late night spot. The Kitchen is an outpost of a San Francisco Bay Area upscale Chinese restaurant which is said to be quite good.

A largish new Cuban restaurant is going in on the north side of Pico just west of La Brea...anyone know anything about it?

Get your Mario on at Mozza

With Mario Batali in town to tape the Jimmy Kimmel Show, he's apparently decided to check in and see how Mozza is doing. A Chowhound poster reports that he'll be in L.A. Wednesday, and maybe Thursday, so start lining up now for those counter seats.

La Belle Epoque becomes Little Dom's

Eating L.A. just spoke to Warner Ebbink, who will be taking over Hillhurst Ave.'s 16-year old La Belle Epoque from longtime owners Eda and George Abrahamian. Ebbink and partner Brandon Boudet, who run Dominick's and the 101 Cafe, will debut Little Dom's in May, if all goes well with remodeling. La Belle Epoque, which has lots of faithful customers including Jessica Simpson and Gwen Stefani, closes Dec. 24.
Ebbink says Little Dom's will have a similar menu to Dominick's and open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an Italian deli, pizza station and hopefully, a full liquor license.

A Bay Area weekend

oysters on Tomales Bay, sunset
Today's installment of Eating L.A. is a travel special...we had a fairly quick trip to Berkeley and San Francisco this weekend, during which I learned that there is a finite limit to the amount of things you can taste in one weekend. Friday night my sister in Berkeley ordered in chicken pot pies from one of Berkeley's seemingly inexhaustible supply of cute gourmet takeout places, Lola's. The Bay Area Chowhounds had supplied me with a handy list of Berkeley pubs, wine bars, etc., so after dinner we checked out the bars of San Pablo Ave., settling at the Acme, an old-school punk bar with smokers, Black Flag on the jukebox, The Daily Show on the TV, the requisite tattooed barmaid and an adorable puppy cavorting across the bar. Drinks seem incredibly cheap in the Bay Area -- it was $7.75 for a mixed drink and an excellent pint of Lagunitas IPA. For nostalgia's sake, I needed to have a Top Dog bratwurst before turning in.
Saturday our first meal stop was at La Cumbre for a Mission district burrito -- I must have had an even bigger appetite in the old days, because I couldn't begin to finish my carne asada burrito.

grillin' like a villain at La Cumbre
I know Mission style involves mandatory rice and beans, but the rice put it over the top, to my mind. Later on I tried the date toffee cupcake at Citizen Cupcake in the Virgin megastore -- it tasted like a See's butterscotch square melted in the middle of a cupcake. Intense, but delicious, although I would have gone with a more tart frosting.
Before dinner, we hid from the rain at a Clement Street bar where two drinks were -- get this -- $2.00. This included a half pint of Lagunitas cappucino stout, which combines a hint of coffee flavor with a creamy stout.
I've never had Burmese food, since L.A.'s sole Burmese restaurant is none-too-conveniently located in Whittier, so we wanted to try Burma Superstar for dinner. There's always a wait, but it wasn't too bad, and soon we settled in to the cozy restaurant and decided to try the tea leaf salad, a typical Burmese dish which doesn't seem to be found in any other culture. The tangy, sour tea leaves were delicious mixed with fried garlic, peanuts and sundry other items, but this stuff should come with a warning: "Insane caffeine content, consume at your own risk,"
because I was up until at least 3 am. We also liked our coconut noodles and chicken shrimp clay pot biryani casserole. Burmese food is flavorful and fun to try, but all in all, I prefer the sharper and more nuanced flavors of Thai food to Burma's coconut-heavy, rather sweet dishes.
Sunday the rain thankfully cleared, and we had a beautiful drive through Marin to Pt. Reyes seashore where we hiked to a sunny meadow. After driving through the precious gourmet hamlet of Pt. Reyes Station, we hit the Marshall Store further up the coast for some incredibly fresh oysters, great brown bread and clam chowder. We also tried the Oysters Rockefeller, but raw is definitely the way to go, as they taste like they've been pulled out of the bay just minutes before. Slurping oysters on the balcony overlooking the bay at sunset -- it was a pretty cool scene.
Later that evening we cooked up a Cheese Board pizza and then went back to San Pablo to check out Club Mallard, which kicks the ass of any L.A. bar. In business since 1945, the downstairs bar area is decorated with duck art and vintage, not Bigfoot Lounge-fake wood panelling. Two pool tables, comfy booths, a TV playing La Dolce Vita and a jukebox playing The Fall and The New Pornographers complete the downstairs bar. Outside is a roomy tiki-themed patio with plenty of heaters and flaming tiki torches, while the upstairs is like being in someone's Victorian apartment with sofas, built-in bookshelves, three more pool tables, another patio and another bar. Oh, and the downstairs bartender is a demon at cocktail-shaker twirling. Once again, the fancy places will have to wait for another time, but it was a tasty quick tour of the bay.

Chakra: Putting the spice in Beverly Hills

I was invited to try Chakra, a new Indian restaurant in the same spot as former Indian restaurant Maurya, and before that, the Manhattan Wonton Co. The Doheny Blvd. location is great if you're going to a screening at the Writers Guild or the Academy, but it seems to be a hard location for people to wrap their minds around otherwise since there's not much else on that block.
Design score: Chakra has added a room full of curtained booths and two private party rooms, so between the bar, the main dining room, the patio and the other spaces, there's plenty of room for parties and events. Decor is exotic sans the kitsch.
Unusual martinis aren't exactly indigenous to the Drinkability: Indian sub-continent, but it was fun trying the Fire on Doheny chili-infused martini and the lassi and watermelon martini. Now, the food: The dishes are Indian fusion or modernized Indian -- we tried tandooori-cooked mushrooms stuffed with paneer cheese (pictured), scallops masala and tandoori chicken in puff pastry. My favorite dish was called Dal Sorba, a perfectly spiced creamy lentil soup with crabmeat.
Who it's good for: It's not for the Chowhound crowd looking for a dirt-cheap Indian dive with fiery food, but if you're looking for a relaxing restaurant in the Beverly Hills area, some exotic cocktails, and possible a sexy curtained booth, Chakra could be the spot.

Taste test: the Taco Zone truck

Even though in the last few weeks, I've been fortunate enough to try some wonderful things like the butterscotch budino pudding at Mozza and the citrus-caramel French toast at Square One, I'd have to say that the best thing I've eaten lately has got to be a $1.25 carnitas taco at the Taco Zone truck. I've been meaning to get to this truck probably for a year or so, but for some reason I never seem to be around Echo Park after 7 pm when the truck arrives on Alvarado just north of Sunset, next to the Von's parking lot. Last night I finally made it there after Kathy and I had a drink at Pete's Downtown. Blazing hot from the grill, crunchy and charred around the edges, rather salty but not overly so, a touch greasy, yet not dripping with grease -- it's a perfect package, and one that demands being immediately doused with the nice selection of incendiary salsa and consumed standing up next to the truck. Taco Zone is there until 3 am on weekends and 2 on weeknights, so it's a must stop on the way back from Downtown or Echo Park.

El Chavo changes hands

Here's an update on what's going on at El Chavo from my restaurant news column in the Los Feliz Ledger. As Eating L.A. wrote about several months ago, the Edendale Grill's Melanie Tusquellas has taken over the Sunset Blvd. Mexican spot. Tusquellas, who has been eating at El Chavo with her food biz family since she was a child, says she'll keep the Mexican decor and potent cocktails much the same while giving the menu "more of a food sensibility." She's also expanding the hours to serve the post-Vista crowd and giving the 40-year old spot a cosmetic facelift over the next six months while remaining open for business. New entertainers will be added, as well as more dishes from Spain and various regions of Mexico. It's about time!

Taste test: Asia in the Los Feliz Ledger

My latest review from the Los Feliz Ledger isn't online yet, although you can find the papers around the neighborhood at places like Skylight Books and Silver Lake Coffee Company. And no, that wasn't me working on my laptop at Silver Lake Coffee, I'm afraid -- Jonathan, blogger at LAFiltered who just moved to the neighborhood, spied another lass with similar glasses there.
Anyway, this month's review is Asia Los Feliz. This isn't really the type of restaurant I would normally go to, but I was pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of the food. Here's an excerpt from the review:
"Asia Los Feliz has more of a slick Hollywood vibe than a funky Atwater feel, and prices to match. With solid cooking and a vast menu, it's a good choice for both dates and celebratory groups. Lunch specials, including stir-fry dishes with salad and rice or sushi combos ($9-15), offer a less pricey way to sample the flavors of Asia."