Bean There, Done That

A lovely coffee tasting at Lamill

Here's my latest roundup for Variety Weekend on coffee. I found out that most of these roasters could make me an amazing cup of coffee, but making my own was a bit more challenging. There's life beyond Starbucks, and although Peet's can be good, if you really like coffee it's worthwhile checking out companies like Lamill, Ristretto, Monkey and Son and Graffeo for really top-tier stuff.

Here's a few tips on making drip coffee at home from the coffee experts I interviewed:

• Buy a week's worth of beans at a time. Some say to freeze the rest if has to be stored longer, others argue that's best just to keep them in an airtight container.
• Never use a small blade grinder, which beats up thebeans. Get a burr grinder like a Kitchenaid or a SolisMaestro Plus, both under $200.
• Grind only what you're going to use for one pot.
• Use water filtered with a small home carbon water filter, if possible. Bottled water doesn't have enough minerals; tap water has too many.
• For good home-brewed regular coffee, use a French press pot, an electric drip coffeemaker, or a manual drip like a Chemex. If you want to make really great espresso or cappucino, you'll need a machine that approaches commercial quality -- which can get expensive!
• Experiment with different grinds. The slower the coffee takes to brew, the coarser the grind.
• Use about two tablespoons of coffee per 6 oz. of water.

Taste test: Skip over to Lou

Variety's Dana Harris and Deb Vankin quaffing at Lou
As a rough rule, many of L.A.'s most interesting restaurants are in mini-malls, and Lou: A Wine Bar is no exception. Proprietor Lou Amdur, who worked in software before launching his longtime wine bar project, has chosen a really interesting selection of well-priced wines. It's a nice touch that they're available in small 2 oz. tastes as well as regular-sized glasses and very reasonably-priced bottles. You could while away several hours here nibbling on some of the best olives ever, spicy-sweet almonds, pig candy, cheese and salami plates and more.

duck, mushroom and cannellini bean crostini plate

Dana loved her classic frisee salad with a perfectly poached egg, and Deb and I especially liked the mushroom/truffle crostini and of course, the pig candy.


pig candy! (sweet and spicy glazed bacon)
There's also a few more hearty dishes like a braised pork shoulder, so you could make a whole meal there, and a few desserts. Lou says he'll soon be adding a root beer float made with Abita root beer and hosting Sunday night family-style dinners -- very cool. I tried a California Praxis Pinot Noir, really nice, but more French-style, not as fruity as California ones usually are; and a more subdued French syrah/grenache blend -- the Mas Neuf Tradition.
Verdict: A great place for a glass of wine and a snack before a movie or a evening's conversation with friends and lots of small plates. Oh, and good music, too, not too loud, and cool Jonathan Adler-on-Prozac decor.
Lou
724 N Vine St.
(323) 962-6369

Tasting notes

Haven't gotten to anyplace worthy of a full review lately...here's a few notes from places I've been the last week or so.
New Concept: We returned for dim sum, this time with a reservation -- no hour wait, yay! With six people, we had a great selection of dishes. Standouts were the lotus root stuffed with shrimp, the mushroom/pinenut/abalone dumplings, the Shanghai dumplings and the shark fin dumplings, although the green wrappers have gone from natural looking green to positively flourescent green, it seems.

Verdict: I like Sea Harbour a bit more, but New Concept definitely has some dim sum standouts. Here's my New Concept review from exactly a year ago.



El Compadre: A few posters on Chowhound tout El Compadre as their Eastside Mexican restaurant of choice, so we tried it out with the carne asada-munching Chowteen. Verdict: You gotta love the flaming margaritas, and the guacamole was mighty tasty. But all our dishes seemed overly greasy. So I'm going to have to stick with Malo and Barragan's, unless I'm in the mood to make a meal of guacamole and flaming margaritas. Also the mariachis are pretty loud, but a drunk guy did fall off his barstool, which was kind of entertaining, in a midget-tossing kind of way.

Hop Li: Some people choose this place as their favorite Chinatown restaurant, so we went back to try it out. I remembered the Peking duck wasn't bad, but couldn't remember anything else. Verdict: We didn't have the duck this time, but our dishes were underwhelming. If there's something I missed, please leave a recommendation for what you like there. Otherwise, it's back to Full House Seafood if I'm eating in Chinatown.

Livin' la Dolce Vita

sanddabs at La Dolce Vita

For once, I won't bore you with a this-was-my-favorite-restaurant-as-a-kid entry because I think we were too busy chowing down on spareribs and pu pu platters at the Luau to spend much time at La Dolce Vita. It's been on little Santa Monica since 1966, and since my name isn't Frank Sinatra or Sumner Redstone, I hadn't really noticed it until I was invited to try it for its 40th anniversary year. The old Hollywood favorite was taken over and lightly renovated by three Hollywood producers two years ago. The discreet, windowless spot could practically be a private club, it's so unassuming, but that suits the clientele just fine. That clientele is a heady BevHills mix of bubbes and alta kockers (the late Don Knotts was a regular), CEO's, CAA agents and youngish Hollywood of the Jennifer Aniston variety. Maitre d' Ruben Castro has been there 35 years and treats everyone like a star.
In honor of its 40th anniversary, La Dolce Vita is inviting guests to try To the Nines Tuesdays, encouraging diners to dress up for dinner and Dinner and a Movie, with classic films from 1966 screening on Wednesdays in June.
We tried a nice selection from the traditional Italian menu and I agree with S. Irene Virbila's review that the food is much better than many of L.A.'s classic joints. I went old-school with a refreshing chopped salad to start and then an ample plate of perfectly-sauteed sanddabs. Spaghetti amatricciana on the side made a decadent accompaniment. I part with S. Irene on the desserts, though -- the restaurant must have changed its suppliers because I wanted seconds on the ricotta cheesecake, the tiramisu and the spumoni cake -- I didn't find any of them gooey or overly sweet. Prices are commensurate with the neighborhood, but it's nice to know that there's still places where you can hear your companions speak, get a plate of veal piccata and a piece of spumoni cake, all with impeccable service.

Wednesday is food news day

Jonathan Gold answers the burning question "What is pig candy?" in the L.A. Weekly...I was going to get to Lou soon anyway, but that certainly seals the deal.

Why we love Chowhound: First of all, because former Chowhound editor Thi has resurfaced in a posting frenzy, paying homage to all things fried in many guises. But also for debates like the one about Peruvian aji sauce that Petradish got into with Thi: "A while back, I suggested the greatness of PALB's aji and you said Mario's Peruvian seafood's aji was the magic one. Well yeah, but no. Different ajis, different needs. Mario's has a lovely sweet radish + vegetal greeness going on- which works beautifully against the sweet onion and marinated meat of their lomo saltado or lemony zip of saltado de mariscos-but doesn't perform well with the smoky presence of PALB's chicken. PALB's aji has just enough raw power, lingering heat, and guts to take on the bittersweet smoke of that chicken. Mario's aji runs home crying to mama." These people take their aji seriously!

Yes, we suppose Eagle Rock is the new Silver Lake, as the L.A. Times explains again...and there are indeed lots of new restaurants cropping up there. But the Chowhounds say that Dante's BBQ seems to be closed, which is too bad if it's true, as I found it a friendly place.

My son says he wants to work at Google, and with an employee restaurant like Cafe 150, I can see why. Not only that, it's one of five cafeterias on the Google campus. Can you imagine a company canteen in L.A. with organic/sustainable/local menu?

Taste test: It's hip to be Square One

poached eggs with cured salmon on potato pancakes

I used to like having brunch on the patio at New York George's oh, about 15 years ago, so when I heard that a new restaurant had finally opened in the old space on Fountain across from my birthplace, now the Scientology headquarters, I hastened over for brunch. Square One is a well-conceived cafe open for breakfast and lunch, featuring my favorite words, "breakfast served all day." The breakfast menu is one of the most imaginative in this part of town, with baked egg dishes served in a skillet with ingredients like lamb or chorizo, pancakes and French toast with banana citrus caramel or bourbon pecan topping, and nice sides like grits with cheddar and bacon. I had a luscious salmon eggs benedict with poached eggs perched on top of a potato pancake and citrus cured salmon with a perfectly tart Hollandaise, and a good stiff cup of coffee. Matt had a pressed egg sandwich with arugula and tomato, served with a huge bowl of coarsely-milled grits, and a fresh-squeezed orange juice.
The verdict: Everything was lovely to look at and completely delicious. I heard the open-faced skirt steak sandwich with carmelized shallots was good, so I'll be back soon for lunch. There were just a few small glitches which I'm sure will be ironed out soon -- Matt's breakfast sandwich came with a side of toast, surely overkill for a sandwich, while my eggs on potato pancakes were offered with a side of more potatoes, when toast would have been welcome. And when offered milk or cream for coffee, surely no one really wants a small cruet of whipping cream for their coffee. Also, the prices are quite reasonable for food of this quality and a menu of this variety. It's enough to make you forget the late, lamented stuffed French toast at New York George's.
Square One Dining
4854 Fountain
(323) 661-1109
(closed Mondays)

A trip through L.A. restaurant history

The first meeting of the Southern California Restaurant Historical Society gathered quite a collection of L.A. history buffs, menu geeks and ephemeral folk. Cathy Seipp and daughter Maia, Citybeat restauraunt critic Richard Foss, Tiki bar expert Jeff Berry, photo archivist Marc Wanamaker and author/archivist Jim Heimann were among those gathered at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. Filomena D'Amore, daughter of Hollywood restaurateur Patsy D'Amore, talked about her dad's long restaurant history in L.A. Here's a few highlights:
--Patsy was the first to bring pizza to L.A. in 1938 at the Casa d'Amore restaurant. There was also a Catalina outpost of the restaurant, and when it closed down, he brought the pizza oven brick by brick to Farmer's Market, where he opened D'Amore's Pizza in 1948. It's still there, and still a fine place for an old-fashioned slice.
--When he opened the famous Villa Capri restaurant in Hollywood in 1957, a film of the opening night said the restaurant was "built on a foundation of mozzarella, and dedicated to the proposition that spaghetti is fattening, but who cares?"
--The restaurant was a favorite hangout of the Rat Pack and of James Dean, who had a table in the kitchen and liked to practice his Italian with the staff.
--The Villa Capri building, on Yucca, was torn down last August.
Former Villa Capri maitre d' Ciro Marino also spoke about his fellow waiters who went on to open Dan Tana, La Scala and La Dolce Vita. Marino, of course, owns Marino and his son owns Il Grano.
What an interesting bit of history! Check back with founders including L.A. Time Machines' Jonathan Foerstel for news of the next meeting.

Those silly New Yorkers, part two

Gawker reports that Trader Joe's Manhattan opened today and surprise, surprise -- it's too small, and it's full of slow-moving older folks. That's the whole point right? And really, what's the point of complaining it's too small if you can't complain about the parking lot? I'll bet it can't match the Silver Lake though, with as many squalling, badly behaved toddlers being poorly parented by goateed dads!

Kudos to James Beard nominees

Congrats to James Beard award nominees from L.A. including Jonathan Gold, Patric Kuh, Nelson Handel, Karen Stabiner and Carolyn Carreno.
Also to local nominated restaurants, including Lucques, Patina and Providence. Best of luck to everyone -- awards will be presented May8 in New York.

Yamashiro: an L.A. classic

The view from Yamashiro
If you're still telling visitors to L.A. that they should go to Yamashiro for a drink, but under no circumstances should they chance ordering anything, it might be time to reevaluate that old canard. Since he started about two years ago, chef Jason Park has been updating the menu and bringing Yamashiro out of the dark ages of chicken teriyaki and into a brave new world of black rice and nasturtium-dandelion pesto. I had never eaten a full meal there, and we were invited to try it out.
It's a truly L.A. experience to climb the hill above the Magic Castle and be led past the lagoon to a table overlooking the lights of L.A., and one that few restaurants in the city can match. The good news is that you can actually eat here too now, especially if you enjoy Asian fusion fare of the Roy's/Koi/Yi persuasian.
I don't think any other L.A. restaurants have such an interesting history either -- after the Japanese temple-style building was constructed as a residence in 1911, it was a private club in the '20s, reportedly a bordello in the '30s and during World War II, it was suspected of being a hideout of anti-American Japanese merely because it was shaped like a pagoda. After the war it served as a military school, then came close to being destroyed before a new owner rescued and restored it.

lamb chops with ratatouille
Chef Park enjoys unusual ingredients -- sometimes a lot of them on a plate at a time -- and I thought the pea tendrils that came with my black cod were a great change from the usual sides. I also liked the refreshing coleslaw with apples and daikon that came with our crispy chicken appetizer. Although I love traditional, high-end sushi, I'm always up for trying silly rolls too. The Darth Vader roll with spicy tuna, avocado, black rice and black tobikko was indeed scarily black, but it was quite tasty. Matt enjoyed his tender chipotle-citrus lamb chops and the homemade doughnuts with buttermilk ice cream, while I dove into a pretty glass carafe of iced sake. Of course, Yamashiro has to please people from all over the world, so the menu isn't going to be challenging or revolutionary, but it's come a long way from it's former reputation.
Yamashiro
1999 N. Sycamore Ave.
Hollywood
323-466-5125

Newsworthy Wednesday

I just had to try the kind of silly Rate-your-own-kitchen quiz at the L.A. Health Dept. site. Phew, I got a 91. I got marked down for not having a thermometer in my refrigerator (does anyone?) and for sometimes leaving cooked food out while I'm preparing other parts of the meal. They're going to send me an "A" placard for my window!

Lots of new restaurants popping up: good reviews for Square One Dining on Fountain and two new Asian restaurants coming to the Eastside -- a sushi place on Sunset where Cirxa was located, and a pan-Asian place on Los Feliz where the old smorgasbord was. Stay tuned.

Thanks to Chowhound poster Alison for noting that Blair's is expanding into the store next to it, and may start offering breakfast and lunch.

In the L.A. Times, details on the Secret Restaurant downtown and Comfort Cafe's chef on Food Network's "The Next Food Network Star" on Sunday.

Taste test: Uncle Moki's Original Hawaiian Shrimp

shell-on shrimp smothered in garlic

We're planning a trip to the North Shore of Oahu this summer, but it's a long five months away. All my research into which is the best shrimp truck -- Giovanni's, Romy's, the Shrimp Shack? -- has been getting me awfully hungry for Hawaiian garlic shrimp scampi. So imagine my surprise when I was shopping at the Target on La Cienega and Rodeo Road and noticed World's Greatest Shrimp -- Uncle Moki's in the mini-mall across the street. Even more surprisingly, owner Uncle Bob told me he used to be a part owner of Giovanni's, one of the original North Shore shrimp trucks. Uncle Moki's is a sparkling clean little place with copies of Hawaii magazine on the tables and a tiny menu -- garlic shrimp with rice, Volcano hot shrimp with rice...that's about it. I tried the wiki wiki size, which is five shrimp and a scoop of rice for $6.50. Uncle Bob generously threw in some volcano shrimp for me to taste, and they were pretty spicy indeed. He says they use olive oil instead of the saturated fat used in Hawaii, resulting in a healthier product. Garlic, olive oil, shrimp...how can you really go wrong? This place is the real deal -- not quite the same as eating in a field on Oahu, but as close as you're going to get in L.A. The only thing it lacked was a fresh coconut pineapple smoothie like you can get next to Giovanni's.
Mahalo, Uncle Bob, for a little preview of my vacation.
World's Greatest Shrimp -
Uncle Moki's Original Hawaiian Shrimp Scampi
3560 S. La Cienega Blvd.
(323) 954-7051

Taste test: La Belle Creole

When we ventured to La Belle Creole for lunch on Friday, I had visions of etouffee and such dancing in my head. But silly me, it turns out this modest little place located in a dodgy La Brea Ave. motel is Caribbean creole, a different animal entirely. And they did have different animals alright -- goat and oxtails, griot (fried pork), stewed chicken, jerk chicken and stewed fish. We ordered the goat and the griot because, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit, I felt like some fried pork skin. Both plates were large meaty chunks with no sauce or adornment -- pretty good meat, but a little too plain for us. The black rice that came with it was excellent, with cowpeas strewn through dark savory rice. There was a choice of sweet or green plantains, and the sweet weren't too exciting. The waiter wasn't very forthcoming, so it was hard to choice a good selection of food, but I'm glad I found out more about Caribbean food. And each plate is enough for about three meals. La Belle Creole is deserted at lunch, but it might be fun at dinner with some wine and a group of people ordering a wider selection of the menu.
La Belle Creole
1271 S. La Brea
(323) 965-7700

Baby greens with envy

I guess we always want what we can't have...
in Manhattan, for instance, they've been wanting a Trader Joe's for a long time, and now they're finally getting one. They've only had Whole Foods a little while, which I thought it was claustrophobic and petite compared to our lavish Glendale location. New Yorkers can't quite seem to figure out what to make of Trader Joe's -- is it a health food store? a gourmet shop? Is it as good as Zabars? Oh, who bloody cares, but the New York Times weighed in today with an amusing story on how they choose what to sell at Trader Joe's. They left out Matt's favorite part, though, the silly names -- Broccoli Wokly, Jo Jos, Soy Vey, etc.

And what I want is this place being built around the corner from my sister's house in Berkeley's Gourmet Gulch, adjacent to Chez Panisse. Epicurious Garden is a sort of yuppie food court featuring sushi, Provencal takeout and all the other wonderful things the citizens of Berkeley have come to demand. Just don't ask for extra plastic bags. In my experience, that's the kind of thing that gets you snapped at in Berkeley. But I'd settle for the Berkeley Bowl market, instead.

Oh no, not tuna!

time for a little less maguro...

For a few years now, it's been reported that tuna is one of the fish that contains higher levels of mercury. Sushi lovers have pretty much been in denial, but now it's harder to avoid with a new study reported in an L.A. Times article about tests at five top sushi bars carried out by Gotmercury.org. If you tend to eat a lot of tuna and this worries you, it's really time to get more adventurous at sushi bars and seafood restaurants and order more sardines, shrimp, salmon, clams, crab, squid, black cod, etc. If you like canned tuna, be sure to buy light tuna, not white/albacore, which is much higher in mercury.

Here's a handy list of sushi names I borrowed from the Natural Resources Defense Council:

HIGHEST MERCURY-- Avoid Kajiki (swordfish) Saba (mackerel)

HIGH MERCURY-- Eat no more than three 6-ounce servings per month:

Ahi (yellowfin tuna) Buri (adult yellowtail) Hamachi (young yellowtail) Inada (very young yellowtail) Kanpachi (very young yellowtail) Katsuo (bonito) Maguro (bigeye, bluefin or yellowfin tuna) Makjiki (blue marlin) Masu (trout) Meji (young bigeye, bluefin or yellowfin tuna)Shiro (albacore tuna) Toro (bigeye, bluefin or yellowfin tuna)
LOWER MERCURY-- Eat no more than six 6-ounce servings per month:

Kani (crab) Seigo (young sea bass) Suzuki (sea bass)

LOWEST MERCURY--Enjoy these fish:

Aji (horse mackerel) Akagai (ark shell) Anago (conger eel) Aoyagi (round clam) Awabi (abalone)Ayu (sweetfish) Ebi (shrimp) Hamaguri (clam) Hamo (pike conger; sea eel) Hatahata (sandfish)Himo (ark shell) Hokkigai (surf clam) Hotategai (scallop) Ika (squid) Ikura (salmon roe)Kaibashira (shellfish) Kaiware (daikon-radish sprouts) Karei (flatfish) Kohada (gizzard shad)Masago (smelt egg) Mirugai (surf clam) Nori-tama (egg) Sake (salmon) Sawara (spanish mackerel) Sayori (halfbeak) Shako (mantis shrimp) Tai (sea bream) Tairagai (razor-shell clam)Tako (octopus) Tamago (egg) Tobikko (flying fish egg) Torigai (cockle) Tsubugai (shellfish)Unagi (freshwater eel) Uni (sea urchin roe)

Here's a honey of a story

mmm, cheese with local honey...

My L.A. Times story on Mary Ellen Mason, who makes her own honey in Elysian Heights, came out today. You can read it here. First honey and then moonshine, I wonder what else is being made in Echo Park? In the picture above, you can see a lovely honey and cheese pairing that Mary Ellen arranged -- a nice thing to try at home, n'est-ce pas?

Taste test:: JJ's BBQ and Burger

I can't believe this place has been just a few minutes from my office all these years and I never tried it. In search of mid-city barbecue, I've been to the truly scary (but pretty tasty) Greece's, the Pig (blah), and Zeke's (usually blah). Years ago, we used to go to Carl's on Pico for the 99 cent bbq pork pieces sandwich -- I used to say it was the absolute best dollar meal in town. So when I heard that JJ's sauce was reminiscent of Carl's, I took the barbecue loving karate master (my teenage son) for lunch on Saturday. JJ's is easy to find because it's hard up against a huge firewood yard, which at first we took to be the wood supply for their smoker. I don't know if the two businesses are connected, but it's certainly a fortuitous pairing.
JJ's is two ramshackle stands in one -- in front, a massive menu offers everything from burgers to Mexican to grilled red snapper to grits -- we didn't try anything from the front menu. If you want barbecue, you go around the side, where the counter fronts an open patio sporting a huge smoker in the shape of a locomotive. There's all the usual suspects, in even more permuations than usual -- sandwiches, lunches, dinners, racks, sides, etc. Sam's brisket sandwich (about $5.00) was thick slices of meat, some fatty and some a bit tough, but the overall effect was hearty and tasty. He loved the potato salad, which was more like mashed potato salad. "Sometimes you just forget how good potatoes are!" he commented. I had the rib lunch, which was a huge stack of meaty pork ribs and a side of beans at the unheard-of price of about $5.00. The ribs were kind of chewy, not exactly falling off the bone, but the sauce was as good as promised, and the beans were smoky and flavorful.
The verdict: I liked the funky patio, the beans and the brisket. The prices were truly amazing. We'll be back again to try the chicken, the hot links, the collard greens and the burgers.
JJ's BBQ & Burger
5754 W. Adams