What's going on? Artisan food in Venice; Chinatown Summer Nights, last Barnsdall tasting

The bucolic lawn at Barnsdall Park. Make sure your toddler is fashionably dressed.

Friday evening is the last night for Barnsdall Park wine tastings with Silver Lake Wine. If there's a more mellow way to spend a Friday evening, I don't know what it is. We took salami, gouda, bruschetta and biscotti, but you could be even more ambitious with provisions from the Cheese Shop of Silver Lake. Last minute tickets go on sale Friday at noon.
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 Saturday afternoon is the first Food Rendezvous at Sparc in Venice. It's a chance to taste everything from the Full of Life Flatbread we visited last week, to Mark Stambler's Backyard bread to Morning Glory Confections and popsicles from The Pop Shop. Authors like Martha Rose Shulman and Amelia Saltsman will do talks and cooking demos, and there's also movies, gardening workshops and more. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

I'm glad we checked out Chinatown Nights last week, watching little girls twirling to KCRW dj's, people lining up for food trucks and elderly Chinese ladies trying Kung Pao chicken at the cooking demonstration. Deep End Dining's Eddie Lin was last week's jovial cooking demo host; this Saturday is Doreen Fang, from the Next Food Network Star, introducing demos from Golden City and Hop Woo BBQ.

Chinatown Summer Nights is Saturday night from 5-10 pm.

The best Sri Lankan food you'll never get to taste

Egg hopper from Priyani

Priyani Dissanayake was winning over foodies from all over town in her tiny Northridge Cafe after a glowing write-up in the L.A. Times last year. But restaurants are a tough business, and Priyani Oriental Cafe, one of only a few Sri Lankan restaurants in L.A., closed up shop recently. Bill Esparza from StreetGourmetLA is on a mission to bring not just great Mexican food to more Angelenos, but more great food from all over the world. So he's hosting Street Food Mondays at Evan Kleiman's Angeli Caffe.
Last night a herd of bloggers (and some diners who may have been expecting Angeli pizza but stayed even when they heard it was only Sri Lankan food) convened to try Priyani's food one last time, since no one knows where she'll pop up next. Plus, we missed Sri Lanka Day a few weeks ago, and it comes just once a year. Sri Lankan food is street-friendly, with lots of dishes that can be eaten out of hand. The dishes recalled Indonesian food, but combined with Indian influences to make an entirely distinctive cuisine.

Fish cutlet, beef roll

Croquettes are popular in Sri Lanka, most likely left over from the Portuguese or the Dutch East India Company. These spicy, meat and fish filled patties with a zippy sauce were much more exciting in the mouth than they look on the plate.

String hoppers are similar to Vietnamese rice noodles, formed into a patty that can be rolled up with meats and a wonderful coconut sambal -- like a fresh salsa with chiles and chopped coconut. My hopper photo wasn't the greatest, so check out Elina Shatkin's set of Priyani pics.

The egg hopper at top is similar to an Indian dosa, made with a fermented pancake batter. But instead of being rolled, the egg nestles in the middle of the crispy pancake -- a perfect Sri Lankan street breakfast. Mutton curry hides beyond the hopper. 

coconut custard

Lampreis is chicken curry in a banana leaf, which reminded me of the strong cooked banana leaf smell that perfumes the air all over Southeast Asia.  
Chicken biryani came with a hard-boiled egg, cashews, and a deeply flavored eggplant relish that I could possibly live on for the next several weeks, the caramelized onion/eggplant flavor was so intense.

Dessert was Watalappam, a coconut custard with a possibly hallucinogenic amount of nutmeg, similar to Thai taro custard.
Even if you've had Indian and Indonesian food, Sri Lankan food is really different, and worth searching out, though there's only a few places to have it.
How's the Curry Bowl in Tarzana?

Santa Inez Valley: Wine, garlic and Santa Barbara squid

 Full of Life Flatbread's vegetable garden

I'm not sure why I hadn't ever stopped in the Santa Inez Valley on my way up Highway 101, but I suspect it had something to do with the presence of restless children packed into the backseat among loads of camping gear, and the need to get to Big Sur by sundown. Last week I skipped the annual Big Sur camping trip for a closer weekend in Los Alamos, Solvang and Los Olivos, and it's really one of the best close-by getaways there is -- especially if you like wine. Here's some worthy stops between Santa Barbara and Los Alamos.
 
In Santa Barbara, nearly everyone in town was in line at La Super Rica. I've been there a zillion times, so we tried Lilly's instead. Lilly's is a very basic taco place hard by the 101, with a specialty in more obscure cow parts like lip, head and eye. Matt braved the tacos de ojos ($1.40 each, bottom in photo) -- "a little slimy, not bad with salsa," he reported, while I enjoyed the pork adobada. Lilly's isn't much different from eating in Highland Park, but it's probably the only place in Santa Barbara to eat for $3.00 and makes an easy lunch stop.
 
We stayed at the Skyview Motel in Los Alamos -- it's pretty basic, but super reasonably-priced and has a pool, rec room with a pool table, generous free breakfast on weekends and it's walking distance from Full of Life Flatbread, the main attraction in tiny Los Alamos. It's only open for dinner on weekends, but Full of Life is well worth a stop for its flatbread pizzas cooked in a giant woodburning oven.
 
There's plenty of outdoor seating or toasty tables near the oven indoors, and the restaurant has an excellent local wine and beer list. We ate in the middle of the restaurant's garden, ordering Santa Barbara squid roasted in the oven and a salad from the restaurant's garden along with a Central Coast sausage and cheese flatbread. The thin, chewy flatbread uses coarsely-milled organic flour for an extremely flavorful crust marked with browned bubbles.

The next day we explored the beautiful area around Los Olivos, Solvang and Lompoc. In Los Olivos, you can get a tri-tip sandwich at the Los Olivos Grocery or pick up picnic supplies for later. We stopped in at the Carhartt tasting room -- the tasting room is tiny, but a shady garden out back accommodates several more people, and it was lovely relaxing by the fishpond while winemaker Brooke poured samples. The $10 tasting fee was waived because I just had to pick up a bottle of the Pinot Noir and one of the rose.
 
In Los Olivos, don't miss Homegrown Garlic on the main drag, a stand where Paul Poulmer grows and sells over 60 varieties of garlic. We choose Rose du Lautric and Belarus varieties to take home.

Solvang was hot and touristy, but we made a quick stop for Danish aebleskivers, the freshly-made cross between a donut and a pancake that are irresistible with raspberry jam. It was there I invented a new rule for trips: When you see a local specialty being made on the street or served through a window on the sidewalk, it's always best to try it, or you'll be thinking about it the rest of the trip. We didn't stop at the ostrich farm in Solvang, but it might be a fun stop if you've got kids or want to buy some ostrich eggs or meat.

Alma Rosa Winery feels like it's in deep countryside, but it's really just a few miles outside of Buellton on the way to Lompoc. The winery is owned by Richard and Thekla Sanford, who started one of the very first wineries in the area back in 1981. They're now producing all organic wines at Alma Rosa, where the rustic tasting room and patio seems far removed from noisy L.A.

On the way home, we stopped at Classic Organic in Goleta, a wonderful farm stand with pick-your-own strawberries, uber-fresh eggs in  every pastel shade and lots of other fruits and vegetables. The strawberry I stole from a sun-warmed plant was probably the best I've ever had, and I was glad to have the organic eggs when I returned home to find out my Trader Joe's eggs had to be trashed due to the recall. Whether you go to taste wine or just check out the garlic and flatbread, the Santa Inez valley is really close and fun to visit.

Eat Pray Love: But what about the food?

In the book "Eat, Pray, Love," former travel writer Elizabeth Gilbert does a credible job of describing her joy at learning Italian and exploring Italian food, from cinnamon-ginger gelato at Rome's Il Gelato di San Crispino to the transporting pizza at Naples' Da Michele. So how does the film stack up in the food movie department? Not too bad, if my craving for a flavorful, thin yet doughy pizza after the film was any indication. There's barely any eating in the Indian and Bali sections, of course, where she's too busy praying and shtuping. But the meals in Italy are lovingly photographed, and Julia Roberts learns to capably order a multi-course meal in Italian. The scene where Roberts carefully prepares an antipasto plate of boiled egg and asparagus which she eats alone on her floor is a fine way to show both the pleasures of getting to know yourself and the pleasures of simply-prepared Italian produce. The pizza, pasta and gelato all look extremely tempting, but personally I was lusting after the picture-perfect carciofi alla giudia (Jewish-style fried artichokes), and a plate of figs and prosciutto. Oh yeah, and Javier Bardem.
It's too bad Gilbert is such a self-absorbed navel-gazer, and too bad the 2 hr., 15 minute film has to include nearly every scene in the book, but it's a pleasant travelogue nonetheless with several thoughtful moments. One thing that just didn't ring true for me? Her best friend and others trying to persuade her to stay home and "deal with her life" instead of "running away"? Who in their right mind would think it was a bad idea for a 30something divorced woman with no kids or entanglements (and a book contract, no less?) to go away on an adventure? I'm guessing no one, but they had to add a little conflict to the script.
So if you liked the book, or like a good old self-discovery weepie, go. Just be sure to have your favorite neighborhood pizzeria pre-selected before you go.

Rivera's new menus: a pan-Latin tour

Softshell crab with arepas

Rivera's menu was already a fascinating combination of unexpected flavors, but many of chef John Sedlar's dishes, like the famous tortillas florales and moles, leaned towards Mexican traditions. Now Rivera has added several new menus combining Spanish and South American ideas. Many of Rivera's earlier dishes are now featured on the Conexiones menu, which connects Latin dishes to more modern California cuisine.

A recent blogger tasting introduced the new menus, and I was happy to see some dishes inspired by the trip to Tijuana that Sedlar came on with StreetGourmetLA and a group of bloggers, such as the hiromasa crudo with kumquats, above.

From the Conexiones menu, I loved the delicate flan de elote, with a lightly sweet corn custard in a pretty colored tamale wrapper. Another hit was a simple Ecuadorian crudo like the ones we tried at Tijuana's La Querencia, with slices of raw hiromasa fish, kumquats, Fresno chiles and chives, and Argentine wild

Cabeza de oro

mushroom carpaccio from the Latin American Samba menu, served in a similar style. From the Mexican Playa menu, we were a little bemused by the $50 Cabeza de Oro, a gold head figurine piled with foie gras, seafood and caviar. But Chile guero relleno -- a crab-stuffed tempura chile with a soy-spiked sauce, make a rich and savory appetizer, and  Columbian-style softshell crab comes with a bonus of petite Venezuelan corn arepas.
 
New desserts have been added, and the flavors of Xochimilco, an ancho chile cake with avocado mousse and pumpkin seed brittle, work together much better than they might sound.

More adventurous eaters should try Hielo y Fuego, a palate-cleansing dessert, a pure and fiery sorbet of poblano chiles with a port sauce that really gets the chile-activated endorphins going.
As Sedlar prepares to open R26 in the former Grace space, he's continuing to make Rivera downtown a worthwhile trip to discover Latin flavors in ways you never realized they could be combined -- and of course, a wonderful cocktail destination as well, with Julian Cox's mixology at work.
The various menus are served at different locations in the restaurant, so ask ahead when you make reservations. There's also an eight-course tasting menu available for $70 if ordered by the entire table.
Rivera Restaurant
1050 S. Flower St.
213-749-1460

Mark Stambler and his Pagnol bread: Silver Lake's wild yeast man

Longtime Silver Lake resident Mark Stambler's been baking bread for years -- I remember being impressed by his baking when our kids were in school together. Now that his son's nearly off to college, he's gotten way more ambitious and constructed a wood-burning brick bread oven in his backyard to bake his signature Pagnol loaves (It also bakes great pizza). And it's none too soon, since there is still a severe shortage of good bread in L.A., especially for those not near La Brea Bakery and BreadBar. Stambler gets up in the wee hours to start stoking his fire, waiting until his oven gets around 900 degrees to bake about 10 loaves of bread at a time.
 
He attended the King Arthur Bread Baking Education Center in Vermont and avidly studies blogs and books like "The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens" on breadmaking and wild yeast. Since he cultivates his own wild yeast starter, the only ingredients in the bread are flour, water and salt.
 
The batard-sized Pagnol loaves have a sturdy, chewy crust and a lovely beige crumb, due to the mixture of 70 % white flour and 30% freshly-ground whole grains like red winter wheat, rye and spelt. They're a bit heartier than soft white baguettes, but with none of the leaden quality of some whole wheat loaves. While he bakes just a small quantity each week, they're normally available for $8 at the Cheese Store of Silver Lake on Fridays and Saturdays until they run out. Stambler's bread will also be at the Food Rendezvous event in Venice on Aug. 28. This just in: the bread will also be available to members of the Silver Lake Farms CSA. Get info here.
Want to really eat local? Try Mark's backyard bread with some Silver Lake honey from Feral Bee. And let me know if anyone else in the area is selling handmade foods we should know about.

Celebrate EatingLA's 6th blogiversary Friday at Ricky's Fish Tacos

Thanks to CarolineonCrack, who celebrated her 5th blogiversary this week, I remembered that it's also EatingLA's 6th blogiversary this week. I'm celebrating with lunch Friday at Ricky's Fish Tacos from 12:30 - 2. There will be cupcakes, free fish tacos for the first 25 readers, friends and supporters, and muy special aguas frescas. Please come by Ricky's at 1400 N. Virgil and help celebrate six years of EatingLA, which I started to help people find good food in Silver Lake, the near-Eastside and beyond.

Ricky's Fish Tacos are at 1400 N. Virgil in Silver Lake

Here's what it was like back in 2004..

• It was a time before there was Twitter, Yelp or Facebook, before there was EaterLA, before there were other local.food blogs. Outside of Jonathan Gold and the L.A. Times, there was only Chowhound for more democratic discussion of restaurants.

• Only the very brave ate at taco trucks. In fact, EatingLA didn't mention them until 2006, when I started frequenting the Taco Zone on Alvarado.
• Gourmet cupcakes were unheard-of. When I first saw the fad mounting in 2005, I predicted it would soon die out. Wrong again. 
• There was basically nowhere to get good craft beers that was closer than Father's Office or the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica, and there was no such thing as mixology.
• There was no Pinkberry, and frozen yogurt was thought to be a long-dead fad that would never be revived.
• Some neighborhoods, like Echo Park and Atwater, had basically zero places to eat weren't old-timers that mostly seen better days. It was before The Park, Masa, Allston Yacht Club, Elf Cafe, LaMill, Intelligentsia, Pazzo Gelato, Forage, Canele, Local and a zillion others that have really livened up the eating scene.

Guess we've come a pretty long way...happy next decade!