Gobi Mongolian BBQ: How to build the best noodle stir-fry

Hand over your noodles, meat and veggies and the cook stir-fries them until they're just cooked through.

Here's a taste of my Gobi Mongolian BBQ review in the Los Feliz Ledger this month. Go to the neighborhood paper's revamped website to read the whole thing.

Basically Gobi is all about the build-it-yourself noodle bowl. Dinner is $13.95, including sesame bread; lunch is $9.95. Diners line up at the buffet, and choose from natural chicken, lamb or pork or choice beef. Meats are piled into thin frozen slices, so they remain fresh. Then pile a selection of fresh, varied vegetables in the good-sized bowl.The selection is miles ahead of a chain restaurant: take advantage of pricey shitake mushrooms, which add tons of flavor to the dish as well as brightly colored peppers, unusual green cauliflower and all the usual suspects. Now choose from sauces like lemongrass, Asian pesto or green curry and combine with flavorings like fresh cilantro and chopped garlic. Then add a pile of cooked noodles on top of the bowl.Hand over the bowl to the cook on duty at the large round griddle, and he’ll stir-fry the vegetables, noodles and meat just long enough for everything to cook through without getting soggy. Read more about Gobi's beer selection at the Ledger, and see how many forks it got.
Gobi Mongolian BBQ, 2827 W. Sunset Blvd., (213) 989-0711

Forage opens Friday in Town & Country bakery space

Silver Lake area residents looking for fresh, healthy food are likely to be thrilled about the arrival of Forage, near Pazzo Gelato in the old Town and Country Bakery space. Chef/owner Jason Kim was sous-chef at Lucques, so it sounds like he's got the food chops to make this space work much better than the previous tenant. Kim has a simple, market-driven menu with lots of salads and vegetable dishes like quinoa, cauliflower and walnuts or heirloom Cannellini beans; homemade baked goods and main dishes like Jidori chicken, Chimichurri-rubbed flank steak and lasagna with nettles and pork ragu. And don't worry, FoodGPS: Pork dishes continue with a Niman Ranch pork belly with fennel pickles.
Dishes are sized for easy family feeding in small, medium and large portions, or eat in the cafe with a main dish and two sides for $13 or three sides for $10. Also, there's Blue Bottle coffee!
Forage will be open for lunch and dinner, with great takeout potential too: Kim is even having an iPhone app designed for easy to-go ordering. After a friends and family soft opening tonight, Forage plans to open Friday - but call first just to make sure there's no last-minute hiccups.
Forage, 3823 West Sunset Blvd., (323) 667-3331

King's Highway, the Amigo Room and the Palm Springs Hyatt for a snowy desert weekend

Crispy fries at the intimate Amigo Room at Palm Spring's Ace Hotel

It might seem like I'm constantly wallowing in Palm Springs nostalgia, but really, Palm Springs just keeps just getting better and better as a weekend destination, with finally-edible restaurants and a slew of hotels getting updates and revamps.
This time around, we arrived as the storm was dumping five feet of snow on the mountains above Palm Springs and the rain was tapering off on the ground. Last time we just had drinks at the Amigo Room bar at the Ace Hotel; this time we ordered some food as well from the adjacent King's Highway restaurant. The restaurant is a perfectly intact Googie coffee shop -- perfect for breakfast but a little stark at dinner, when the bar is cozier. Prices are better than at your average hipster hotel, and the burger and fries were ample and satisfying. Even better was a cup of roasted tomato and fennel soup, topped with a grilled crouton, perfect for the blustery night.
Suites near the Hyatt pool have cabana-style patios with curtains for privacy.

We were invited to try out the remodeled Hyatt Regency Suites right in the middle of Downtown Palm Springs. On a tour of the hotel, I was tickled to learn that the elevator scene from one of my favorite movies ever, "Less than Zero," was filmed in the Hyatt's atrium lobby. The hotel has gotten a tasteful overhaul that's stylish without being as retro-kitsch as other Palm Springs hotels, and rooms are often very reasonable through travel websites. The hotel has a brand-new sleek bar and a restaurant in the lobby atrium, and it's walking distance from my favorite spot Cheeky's as well as Matchbox Pizza, the art museum and some great vintage stores.

Sake pairing from a sake sommelier and Sake meets cheese

Full-bodied, medium and light-bodied sake at Kabuki

At Kabuki the other night, I met sake sommelier Yuji Matsumoto who explained a little bit about sake pairing for us. Matsumoto is one of the few certified Master Sake Sommeliers in the U.S. -- there are only 80 in all of Japan, he told us.
He started us off with a delicate, floral Kikusui Junmai Ginjo sake, which he likes to pair with subtly flavored dishes like white fishes, raw dishes and tempura.
Next, Matsumoto had us try the medium-bodied, fruity Ginjo Mizbasho sake in the middle. This one works with dishes like chicken yakitori.
On the left, the Nanju-Bijin Tokubetsu Jyunmai is the fullest-bodied. The courses of a meal should follow the same order, with heaviest dishes like beef or rich seabass accompanying the heavier sakes.
Here's a good interview from LA.com with Matsumoto, who will be offering sake pairing workshops soon.
***
Looking for something really different? Ever thought of pairing sake with cheese? It may sound counter-intuitive (even though modern Japanese dishes often use cheese), but Barrie Lynn, the Cheese Impresario, is collaborating on a Sake Tasting & Artisanal Cheese session with sake expert Kinosuke Inoue on Sunday at 3:00 Downtown through Learn about Wine.

Kabuki ups the Japanese crunch factor

Mizuna salad with grapefruit and pine nuts makes a good accompaniment to rich seafood dishes.

It's strange, I like my Thai food fiery and as authentic as possible; ditto Chinese. But for some reason, I love nearly all iterations of Japanese food -- salty snacks from convenience stores, decent supermarket sushi and bento boxes, even, years ago, the tempura combo meal from Mako in Los Feliz that used to be about $2.99.
So I also have a soft spot for places like Tokyo Table and Kabuki that introduce ingredients like mayo and cheese to their Japanese food while keeping a Japanese devotion to fresh fish and savory flavors. I was invited to join several food bloggers at the Sunset & Vine Kabuki outpost for a media preview of new dishes that appeal even more to the Western palate than the usual all-encompassing menu. Ginger shrimp on crispy rice topped with a crispy cloud

Sushi purists might want to avert their eyes while I list some of the new items:
- Baja Roll, with fresh tomato salsa placed on top of a spicy krab roll base
- Vegas Roll, a mixture of cream cheese and salmon, fried in a light tempura batter
- Lasagna Roll, featuring three layers of parmesan, mozzarella, and cream cheese on top of a traditional California roll with crab and avocado.Cured salmon with kiwi and orange

I'm guessing an order came down from the head office to make sure nearly every dish except the traditional sushi and sashimi have lots of crunch and something sweet.

Scallops breaded with mochi rice

Ginger shrimp on crispy rice is topped with a cloud of fried something or other; scallops are breaded in crunchy bits of mochi rice while dynamite seafood is incredibly rich and shamelessly fun. The list of baroque rolls goes on for two or three pages -- a Lotus roll with lotus and spicy tuna was light and fresh. And for traditionalists like new sushi blogger SushiLush, there was buttery toro nigiri and a lovely huge bowl of sashimi. I arrived a little late and only tasted the Vegas roll from the new menu -- I'll stick to having my cream and salmon on Spago's Jewish pizza, I think.
There were several winners off the regular menu, including my light and fresh mizuna salad, and I'd certainly return especially with my kids or after an Arclight screening. Prices are very reasonable and with ramen, larger entrees, traditional sushi and every kind of roll ever invented, everyone can likely find something they'll like -- possibly even the new Lasagna roll.
Kabuki is at Sunset and Vine and 11 other L.A. area locations, including Burbank and two in Pasadena.

Urban gardens help feed and green L.A.

Bikes and tamales make a good combo at Mama's Hot Tamales near MacArthur park on the Urban Expeditions ride.

EatingLA doesn't only go on taco and lahmajune bike rides, but we do like it when there's some kind of food connection. So I joined up with the Urban Expeditions Urban Garden ride Saturday, sponsored by C.I.C.L.E., which is working to make biking easier around Los Angeles. Around 60 cyclists turned out for the ride which looked at several types of gardens and green spaces mostly around Koreatown. Starting from the Bicycle Kitchen, our first stop was the lush Rosewood Community Garden, where urban gardeners utilize everything from discarded kids' race car beds to wheelbarrows. Next we got to see the Eco-Village, a cooperative community based in a group of apartments on Bimini Place, with abundant gardens, chickens, grey water recycling, artworks, and above, a solar oven.

Next stop was Bimini watershed park, where community organizers convinced the city to close Second St. and let the naturally occurring stream run through a small park instead of burying it. At the Francis Ave. community garden, south of Wilshire, members of the garden grow traditional Mexican medicinal herbs, fruit trees, and vegetables, and they've also made room for a shady barbecue area where neighbors hold community meetings and children can play. We finished with tamales at Mama's Hot Tamales, which often utilizes ingredients grown by local gardeners, and then a quick stop at a private garden where apartment renters turned their small backyard into an ample food-producing area with composting, a pleasant pergola and several raised beds. This was an inspiring glimpse at what L.A. city dwellers can accomplish to green their neighborhoods and eat the results, and thanks to Joe Linton and CICLE for organizing it.

The Gorbals: Did Downtown need Jewish/Scottish food?

Are chefs so obsessed with novelty that they feel the need to create unholy alliances of national cuisines? Apparently so, because chef Ilan Hall, Top Chef season 2 winner and the child of Scottish/Israeli parents, apparently felt the need to pioneer Scottish-Jewish cuisine at The Gorbals, although no one had previously articulated the need for those cuisines to get cozy with each other. The Gorbals is tucked deep in the belly of the Alexandria Hotel Downtown -- a fine place to see Wall of Voodoo in 1985, but diners at the Gorbals will still have to traverse a grungy underground garage (if you park in the building), then navigate the lobby shared by the hotel's residents. A lunchtime portion of fish 'n chips

The windowless room has spare wooden benches and long wooden tables, with a small bar on one side and a menu that's only written on the blackboard. One signature sandwich, made of gribenes or rendered chicken skin gribenes, is crossed off the blackboard when we arrive for lunch -- fortunately another specialty, bacon-wrapped matzoh balls, are still available. I order fish 'n chips, and the fish is ok -- not as good as Golden State --with the slightly-overcooked fries that have also gained admirers; I like the fries, though others find theirs unbearably salty. We have to keep asking for explanations on the many white sauces that accompany the dishes -- the tartar sauce is nearly indistinguishable from the aioli or the chestnut sauce.
Salty bacon is a good foil to the matzoh balls, making this one of the most successful dishes we try. Butternut squash latkes are a little greasy and flaccid, while a bbq brisket sandwich is oversauced. We're left with the impression that every dish is doused in liquid smoke -- a pall of salt, smoke and grease seems to hang over the table, especially as we've forgotten to order a salad or vegetable side. Plus, there's no iced tea served at lunch, just sodas and very sour limeade. Desserts are equally haphazard -- sticky toffee pudding is irresistibly rich, but Israeli couscous "rice" pudding with pumpkin ice cream topped with bacon brittle (above) doesn't taste of bacon or pumpkin at all.
Some of these dishes, like the fries and matzoh balls, might be perfectly fine if you're just stopping by for a beer or some Scotch late at night, and maybe when the place is full the whole conceit works better. And the prices are fairly reasonable. But for the most part, The Gorbals seems to have achieved much the same thing as my Jewish grandmother -- the cooking manages to leach almost all the flavor out of the food except salt.
The Gorbals
501 S. Spring St.
213-488-3408

Great Harvest Bread brings South Pasadenans their daily bread

Sandwich-sized loaves, cookies, muffins and scones, hot and cold sandwiches and soon, soups and salads are on the menu.

South Pasadena is a pretty placid place, so locals were excited to see a new addition to Mission Ave. with the opening of Great Harvest Bread, first announced last April. It's not a frou frou French bakery with baguettes and croissants; rather Great Harvest is a franchise concept (though it's locally-owned) offering freshly baked wheat and white sandwich loaves, baked goods, sandwiches and Peet's coffee. The selection of breads rotates each day with choices like cheddar garlic and raisin cinamon chip. I tried a slice of hearty, slightly sweet Dakota bread, with pumpkin and other seeds. The addition of cream cheese to a berry scone made it much moister than most scones, though I suspect a berry/apple oat bar packed an awful lot of sugar into one square. Since it's a franchise, the mix of items seems tailored pretty much to mid-America -- it would be nice to see more local food items for sale or a nod to Southern Californians' somewhat more sophisticated, healthier tastes.Opening day drew South Pasadena city council members and lots of curious locals.

Though today was the first day, Great Harvest's earthy decor and location in a historic building (next to Mission Yoga) makes it look like it's been there forever, handing out cookies to kids in strollers and providing a new spot for coffee and pastries in the morning, and sandwiches at lunch. Several tables and a few comfy chairs provide in-store seating; no word yet on whether they'll have wi-fi. Wonder if my yoga classes will now be scented with baking bread?

FungiFest: Shrooms 101 at Machine Project

Even if you're no longer scouting farmland for psilocybin, you can still have fun with mushrooms. At Machine Project's FungiFest Saturday night at 8, there will be mushroom gelato from Scoops, chanterelle schnapps and mushroom collecting advice. That way if you come across a morel sprouting from a neighbor's lawn, as I once did in Silver Lake, you'll know how to tell your false morels from your morels for reals.

Eat Phamish: Vietnamese truck dining goes beyond banh mi

I was excited to try Eat Phamish, a Vietnamese truck which goes beyond banh mi with pho, spring rolls and pork skewers. Unfortunately the anticipation was the best part, because it was one of their first days in business and they forgot to put noodles in my chicken pho ($8). So it was just chicken soup -- with a good amount of white meat chicken and a flavorful broth, and a nice selection of basil and bean sprouts. My colleague had a succulent grilled pork banh mi ($5). Fortunately the truck responded to my tweet, saying they'd be happy to make me a new order next time they come to my office building. It's such as refreshing change to have Vietnamese sandwiches and pho available on Wilshire that I'm willing to forgive just about anything. During the first week, there weren't many veggie options available, but on the website it shows that their menu is growing to incorporate tofu sandwiches and rolls. Let's just call Eat Phamish a work in progress, and I hope I'll get to try again for a more complete review.

Hot Knives pours a foamy Greatest Sips zine

Beer websites are all well and good, with their flashy interactive star rating systems, vast message boards and reviews of everything from the nastiest fake blueberry beers to the finest ales. But sometimes a beer drinker needs something a little more...curated. More artisanal. A hoppier read. That's where Hot Knives Greatest Sips comes in. A sweet little zine-meets handmade book perfectbound in manila file folder covers, Greatest Sips offers a series of carefully-wrought essays on 21 beers worth trying. Here's what Hot Knives' Evan George and Alex Brown have to say about one of my favorites, Pliny the Elder: "One of the few beers you can find for under $5 that fits the bill of idyllic brew, even beer-style perfection, by making a now-common hop flavor into an authentic and imitable natural art."
And no, it's not available online. Remember the cool zines your friends used to put together about their favorite bands? Well this is like that, only nicer-looking and a hell of a lot more relevant. You can get it at the publisher's website, groovy Portland sustainable press Publication Studio, and probably at a few beer-centric spots around town.

Four Cafe comes to Eagle Rock, Hora Bohemian replaces SiLa in Silver Lake

We heard about the arrival of Four Cafe at the Eagle Rock Music Festival a few months ago and now it's planning a February opening. Owners Michelle and Corey Wilton look to have a solid concept with healthy soups, salads and sandwiches, house-baked pastries, and creative breakfasts, all to eat in or pick up to go -- even curbside pickup.
Via The Eastsider LA.
*****
EatingLA is a little more skeptical about Hora Bohemian Bistro, moving into the former SiLa space, which was Fritzie's and Da Giannino before that. Hopefully chef Chris Hora will finally bring something local residents want to that space, but frankly most people would rather see something like Four Cafe with healthy grab and go food. Hora's "Central European globetrotter" menu with entries like Peking duck spring roll with hoisin sauce, $27 black bass and monkfish poached in coffee and rum, chocolate mole just doesn't have a promising ring, but good luck to Hora on his proposed February opening and we shall see.
via GrubstreetLA

New Chong Quing: Going beyond the hot pot

A darn fine bowl of dan dan noodles for $3.99

Will it displease the gods of Chinese food if we go to a Sichuan hot pot restaurant and do not order a hot pot? Perhaps, especially since the requisite framed Jonathan Gold review on the wall of New Chong Qing is titled "New Hot Pot Spot." But after an 80 degree winter day, we're not in the mood for hot pot, so tough. What we are in the mood for is dan dan noodles, and New Chong Qing is said to have some of the best in the area. New Chong Qing is in a modern mini-mall, and with a brief laminated menu and wall decorations of empty Ikea frames and neon post-it note doodles, it has a slick, yet improvisational quality. The menu translations are some of the most amusing around, from pig waist to a drink called something like Manifold Destiny.
Dan dan noodles are just $3.99 a bowl, so order two -- it's not a large portion, and though they're rich and greasy, you'll likely want more of the nutty, slightly numbing, slick herbal mixture. If the gods are angered because we ordered Kung pao chicken (above), then so be it: This is a tangy dish of chicken, garlic and chiles with no peanuts or sugary, goopy sauce to be found. Ma-po tofu over rice has a similar flavor profile to dan dan noodles, so maybe we should have tried green beans or other vegetables instead. But since that profile is complex, spicy and flecked with alluring Sichuan peppercorns, there's no cause for complaint. New Chong Qing doesn't have the hottest food around or the largest menu, but for a quick bowl of satisfying noodles at lunch or dinner, it's just the spot. There's no beer, but Matt was happy with a blueberry slushie. We'll take more people and try to balance the dishes better next time -- oh yeah, and maybe even a hot pot.
New Chong Qing
120 N. San Gabriel Blvd.
San Gabriel
626-309-0836

Eat: LA on Offramp; L.A. Observed re-designs

Colleen Dunn Bates, the tireless editor and publisher of the Eat: Los Angeles guidebook taped a segment with John Rabe for KPCC's Offramp today, talking about the psychology of dining out, finding hidden treasures and much more. The interview will run on Saturday's Offramp, but an even longer version is already available streaming on the KPCC website.

The recently-demolished Fred Harvey restaurant on Cahuenga from Hollywood Gastronomical Haunts

And in other media news, L.A. media site L.A. Observed unveiled a long-awaited re-design with tons of good links, including an entire food links category -- thanks for the link, Kevin! You might discover some new blogs on there -- I know I was happy to find Hollywood Gastronomical Haunts, about long-gone eateries, and I also wasn't that familiar with Tasty L.A., a singles dining service. The list of sites in the L.A. as Subject category is also extremely comprehensive, so if you're looking for some new ways to procrastinate, that's a great place to start.

Cham Korean Bistro: Pasadena's clean New Year's eating

Korean rice cakes are starchy, but accompanied with cruciferous vegetables -- "colon's little brooms," says Mario Batali.

At the start of the year, it seems like everyone is suddenly vowing to start "eating clean," posting Facebook resolutions to give up sugar and twittering ambitious exercise plans.
Here's one place to start: Cham Korean Bistro, a five month-old Korean fusion spot. The clean-lined space is just off Lake St., so it qualifies for the cardinal rule of Pasadena eating: Try to get out of Old Town.
Order dishes like bibimbap or a ssam garden bbq platter with beef, chicken, pork or tuna at the counter, then choose a booth made from minimalist laquered plywood. I tried toppoki ($6), a fat cylindrical rice cake that's like a chewy Korean gnocchi, slicked with a sweet teriyaki-type sauce and mixed with either beef or vegetables. Several dishes have a unusual touch, like the big crab claw trying to climb out of my cup of miso soup ($3). Miles' bibimbap (above, $10) and Colleen's short rib Korean stew ($12) were fresh and colorful, but maybe a little more plain and healthy-tasting than in a typical Koreatown joint. Like many places in Pasadena, Cham seems a touch more pricey than it needs to be, but in this case at least there's a good reason: The owner, a garment business entrepreneur, runs the restaurant as a non-profit and donates most of the proceeds to developing countries. After our lunch, the server delivered a bonus slice of creme fraiche cheesecake with a really nice milky tang to it -- not particularly healthy, but worth the indulgence. Sure, you can eat cheaper in Koreatown, but this is clean, healthy food -- perfect for ushering in a vegetable-intensive 2010.
Cham Korean Bistro
851 Cordova St.
Pasadena
(626) 792-2474