Cocktails, Italian style: Nights with Neve at Osteria La Buca

Neve icemaster Michel Dozois at Osteria La Buca

It was only fitting that Neve Ice's latest Nights with Neve cocktail pop-up at Osteria La Buca featured Italian -inspired cocktails to go with the snacks of arugula pizza, prosciutto and arancini with beets. Neve, purveyors of the jumbo crystal clear cubes used by some of the better bars and restaurants around town, invited La Descarga bartender Steve Livigni to create four inspired cocktails at La Buca's secret space accessed through the back alley. All the town's enthusiastic cocktail chroniclers were there: FoodGPS, ThirstyinLA, CarolineonCrack and SavoryHunter, to name just a few.

Silenzio Dolce cocktail, Nights with Neve at Osteria La Buca

The Silenzio Dolce, with Zaya rum, Averna Amaro liquer, blood orange juice and nocello walnut liqueur) was my favorite. I'm not sure the pulpy cantaloupe puree in The Eloper (Dimmi Italian liquer, vodka, lemon juice, cantaloupe and Prosecco) worked that well in a cocktail, though. The Italian Stallion (Scotch, Carpano Antica, Cynar) was much smoother and less bitter than I had anticipated -- maybe I don't dislike Cynar artichoke liqueur as much as I thought. Last up: I Luv Lucy, a perfect frothy brunchish concoction of Carpano Antica, whiskey, lemon juice.
And look out for news of the next Nights with Neve event: Round 3 will be a rolling tour, with a bus carting cocktailians from Santa Monica to Downtown, with several mixology meccas in between.

Tea festival this weekend - where? At Royal T, naturally

After hosting events for Hello Kitty, Alice in Wonderland and other strange and cute phenomena, Royal T is going back to its roots this weekend to examine tea in all its forms. The Kulov Tea Fest takes place at Royal T in Culver City from 10-3 on Saturday and 10-6 on Sunday with all kinds of tastings and classes. Among the highlights:
- Kids tea party, noon Sunday, $10
- Traditional Japanese tea ceremony workshop, $10, 2 and 4 pm Sunday
- Cooking with Tea class for both sweet and savory dishes with dessert chef Robert Wemischner 4:30 Sunday, $20
- Tastings of Algabar teas with tea expert Gail Baral from 10-4 Sunday
Check the Kulov website for info on other workshops and tea companies exhibiting.

The Counter: Finally trying the new face of L.A. dining

Turkey burger with chipotle aioli, The Counter

I'm not sure how it's possible that the Counter started just before I started this blog, when I wasn't paying attention expanded to some two dozen locations including Ireland and Australia, and yet somehow I had never been to one. This strange food blogger oversight was remedied last week when I needed to be at the Directors Guild on Sunset and realized I could have an actual meal before the French film festival. The music is loud, the patrons are reading Kindles and drinking Arrogant Bastard on tap -- it's the new age of L.A. eating, fast, relatively inexpensive and pretty fun to eat. The choices were almost too much to handle, but eventually I ticked off Turkey burger - 1/3 lb., pepper jack cheese, whole wheat bun, chipotle aioli, sliced jalapenos, baby greens and alfafa sprouts. I called it the Mexican Hippie. I had been swilling free French wine at the festival, so I had to pass up the milkshakes and beer, but I thoroughly appreciate the idea of having several decent beers on tap at a hamburger joint, not to mention wine, shakes and malts. The burger itself didn't have a ton of flavor, but the toppings totally compensated. It's not quite burger nirvana, but the Counters are a fine thing to have strewn around the city, and it won't be five years until I go again -- I'm thinking beer float with coffee ice cream, sweet potato fries and...apricot sauce?

Akasha: Does upscale comfort food have more pedigree than flavor?

rhubarb tart, strawberry ice cream, Akasha

I don't usually read a bunch of other reviews before I sit down to write about a restaurant. It's like reading a movie review before you see the movie: there might be spoilers. But I had to go back and read S. Irene's review of Akasha before I wrote this, to see if there was something I was missing at the groovy, green Culver City restaurant run by chef Akasha Richmond. Well, one thing we were missing was the big basket of Breadbar bread -- we never saw any bread. And the comfortable chairs she mentioned were absent --  ours were too low and strangely pitched. So, 1 1/2 stars from the L.A. Times, for "an everyday restaurant with healthful comfort food." Miles Clements calls it "agreeable."
I think it's my fault for expecting something non-everyday from Akasha -- the ingredients are well-sourced, it's a pretty room with artsy light fixtures, there's a well-put together cocktail, beer and wine list -- but the food just didn't seem that compelling.

bass with artichokes and pea puree

Last Monday night, a live jazz trio was playing -- nice enough if you like live music, but they might have mentioned it when I made a reservation since I was hoping for somewhere quiet to catch up with my sister and her family. It was a bad sign when nothing on the menu looked that tempting. My brother-in-law's attractively-plated wild bass and my sister's trout were perfectly fine, as were my salad with kumquats and sunchokes. None of the entrees were calling to me, so I had pulled pork sliders from the starters menu. Again, fine, correct.

rice flour-crusted onion rings

Sommelier David Haskell tweeted that we must try the onion rings: the rice-flour crusted rounds are light and greaseless, but not particularly addictive. There's nothing particularly wrong with Akasha's food -- it's just that I can think of half a dozen places where I've eaten lately where the food had more vibrant flavors, where I'm more excited to return. Akasha seems like a good place for well-heeled Westsiders who want to have their pulled pork and mac 'n cheese and feel like they're eating healthy too, but maybe it's just not my kind of place.
Fortunately, the meal was redeemed by dessert: a wonderful rhubarb tart with a buttery, crumbly crust, perfectly tart fruit and homemade strawberry ice cream.
Akasha

9543 Culver Blvd.
Culver City(310) 845-1700

King's Highway: Palm Springs' other fine breakfast

Ricotta pancakes with bananas and maple butter, King's Highway

Yes, I have just about exhausted all the decent non-pricey, non-overstuffed options in Palm Springs by now. But after having just a snack last time at the Ace Hotel's Amigo Room bar, last weekend the teens and I tried breakfast there as it was much closer to our cheap and groovy Caliente Tropics hotel than my other favorite breakfast spot, Cheeky's. I'm sure I ate in the Howard Johnson's coffee shop many times as a child; the Googie architecture of the coffee shop remains but the tables are now rough-hewn wood, with a mirrored section above the counter where the wine list is written. The menu seems almost too good to be true for the barren desert: Stumptown coffee, couscous salad with za'atar and preserved lemons, meatloaf sandwich with ras-el-hanout. The prices aren't nearly as high as most hotels, and though other peoples' experiences haven't always been as good, so far, I'm impressed. (Fair warning: it's probably a zoo during Coachella; anyplace that's completely overrun is likely to suffer from bad service.)

Chilaquiles, King's Highway

Ricotta pancakes with maple butter and bananas seemed more buttermilk than ricotta, but the slight cheesy tang was a good addition. The pancakes absolutely must be eaten with a side of the pepper bacon to provide the right balance of maple, pancake, salt and pork. My daughter's friend had chilaquiles made with homemade tortilla chips; a very credible version indeed. If you just need coffee or you have a dog with you, then check out Koffi next door. But if you're in need of a serious breakfast in the desert, the King's Highway is the route to take.
King's Highway/Ace Hotel
701 E. Palm Canyon Dr.
Palm Springs

Google's Santa Monica cafeteria: A free lunch for the lucky

Sampling Google's salad bar

EatingLA lucked with an invite to speak at Google's Santa Monica office along with fellow Eat: Los Angeles contributors Amelia Saltsman, Linda Burum and Miles Clements for their lunchtime speaker series. There was a full house of Googlers, who manage to tap away on their laptops, eat and ask questions about the best burgers and Singapore restaurants all at once. Afterward we were invited to try Google's cafeteria. It's a much smaller operation than the company's famous Silicon Valley Google cafeterias which have their own chefs and specialities. The food service is provided by Lifeworks, the upscale branch of corporate caterers Aramark, but it's much nicer than most corporate food. The bright, airy room has a whiteboard calendar announcing specials like "Grilled cheese day!" A salad bar has plenty of options including picked vegetables, roast beets and fresh bacon bits. The day we were there, a pasta bar offered three kinds of pasta with several sauces and add-ins like shrimp and radicchio.

Google's pasta bar with several noodle options.

A helpful stir-fry cook was standing by to combine the pasta and sauce for a decadent mac 'n cheese dish. Hot entrees like salmon and roast beef are available for heartier eaters. I can see how it would definitely help productivity to have all these options available for free, along with several other salad and fruit choices and sandwich and cereal bars. Plus, you can learn while you eat with the Google Talks series, which is also posted on Youtube so everyone can watch.

Forage puts foraging on hold due to yet another arcane city regulation

Progressive urban farmers in Silver Lake just can't catch a break. First, Silver Lake Farms gets hassled for selling flowers, though vegetables are ok; now Forage can't collect produce from local gardeners because it's not "certified." Forage has posted a note on its website explaining that it will still accept produce to be donated to community food programs, but the restaurant will have to source all the food it cooks from farmer's markets. Fortunately, Silver Lake Farms has been making excellent progress towards passing the Food & Flowers Freedom Act; hopefully Forage and its supporters can make some similar progress towards enlightening city officials. Do you think there's a risk accepting produce from the public?

Vizzi Truck: A delicious truck with an odd name

@VizziTruck on Wilshire Blvd.

chimichurri chicken, broccoli and popcorn

The food truck craze shows no signs of abating -- I've been interviewed twice this week already by people working on TV shows and articles about food trucks, even though it seems like we'll never need another article about them. But some of the best-known trucks specialize in greasy late-night craving sort of food that frankly, most of us can't afford to eat too often. Since I rely on the rotating trucks of Wilshire Blvd. to mix up my office brown-bagging, I'm happy to find ones that actually serve vegetables. The Vizzi Truck's description is "coastal infused visionary cuisine." I have no idea what that means, but I really enjoyed my grilled Jidori chicken with a super-garlicky chimichurri sauce with caramelized broccoli. The Vizzi Truck's dishes come with a side of pimeno-spiced popcorn which is much more fun than say, tortilla chips. A work colleague reported that organic chickpea sliders were flavorful and garlicky, too. Other dishes include Wagyu beef on sliders or over broccoli and flatbreads with marinated chicken or shrimp and cheese. It's a little harder to describe than just fries, grilled cheese or Korean tacos, but trucks like the Vizzi Truck and Worldfare are trying to do something closer to restaurant food, with fresh, high quality ingredients -- and you don't even have to be hung over to appreciate them.

Private Chefs of Beverly Hills premieres Friday

chef Manouchka's appetizers with Urban Homestead flowers

Last night I stopped by the preview party for the Food Network's Private Chefs of Beverly Hills. which starts Friday night at 10 pm (or 7 pm on the East Coast feed.) They call it a docusoap -- instead of a cooking competition, each week a group of private chefs (the Ladykiller! the Comedian!) have the challenge of cooking for an event where something is bound to go wrong, and we watch them confront the challenge and the snotty clients and bond in the process. On the first episode, the chefs had to cook for a group of Beverly Hills dogowners while their pooches also ate their cooking at the table. Um, yuck. They also had to cook for a group of predictably scary ladies having a botox party and a group of businessmen going "glamping" in a yurt at Lake Cachuma, which looked pretty sweet. In a few weeks, they'll be showing the episode where I was invited to be a diner, shot at the fascinating Path to Freedom Urban Homestead in Pasadena, where they had to cook with solar ovens on the drizzliest, freezingest day of the year. Also cooking on the episode I was on was the energetic and madcap Brian Hill, former Top Chef contestant who now owns the Comfort Truck.

Ladies of the L.A. Times food section speak at Culinary Historians

Remember when the L.A. Times food section was a bulky read, with lots of recipes and lengthy features? Here's a chance to hear from four of the women who made it happen each week. Betsy Balsley, Donna Deane, Rose Dosti and the awesome Barbara Hansen will talk about the Heyday of the Food Section at the Los Angeles Times. From the late 1960s into the '80s, the food section had 40 to 50 pages every week, with popular columns such as Culinary SOS and Borderlines and dozens of original recipes. Recipes were prepared for publication in a magnificent test kitchen. The LA Times Food Gals will reminisce about this extraordinary era of food journalism and the resources they had to produce a great food section.
When: Saturday, April 10th, 10:30 am 
Where: Los Angeles Public Library, Mark Taper Auditorium, Downtown Central Branch
630 W. 5th St.
What else: It's free, and there's a reception with themed refreshments after the talk.

Tired of plain Peeps? (As if!)

What is it about sushi that inspires so many variations on raw fish? We've seen chocolate sushi, candy sushi as a kids' project and lots of others...but this Peep sushi is an inspired thing indeed.
Via Postsecret

Good Girl Dinette: In Highland Park, why not Vietnamese comfort food?

spicy jalapeno fries, Good Girl Dinette

I was so glad when Good Girl Dinette opened in Highland Park, because it's an up-and-coming area that really needed some variety in its restaurants. I was there for the soft opening a year ago, and it's gotten even better since then with longer hours and a few really solid dishes like the crazy good spicy fries. Here's an excerpt from my review for this month's Los Feliz Ledger.

Good Girl Dinette is a perfect snapshot of Highland Park at this moment
—incrementally gentrifying, but still a humble, unflashy place. Owner/chef Diep Tran cooked at Eagle Rock’s Blue Hen and ran a catering company before starting Good Girl a year ago. The high-ceilinged space is spare and a bit echoey; dinner here (or lunch on weekends) feels like getting invited to an impromptu dinner party at a cool loft-dwelling friend’s house.

Good Girl Dinette's famous chicken curry pot pie

The menu covers a range of familiar Vietnamese dishes with a few ventures into the diner category—from banh mi baguette sandwiches, to pho noodle soup, spring rolls and main dishes served with white or brown rice. Most order the chicken curry pot pie ($10), which takes 30 minutes to cook. It’s a good choice, with chunks of chicken in a mellow curry sauce hiding under a flaky disc of biscuit dough.
Don’t miss the spicy fries, topped with a flurry of diced jalapeno, chopped garlic and cilantro—order them with cilantro-Maggi mayo on the side. Beef stew ($10) sounds prosaic, but balanced five-spice powder seasoning, chunks of carrot and good quality beef cubes lift elevate it. Drinks include Vietnamese coffee or housemade citrus soda; and there’s free corkage.
Good Girl Dinette
110 N. Ave. 56
Highland Park
323-257-8980