Mix 'n Munch: A little bit of Graceland right in South Pasadena

South Pasadena's Mix 'n Munch fits its small community well: very child-friendly, unpretentious and a bit quirky. It's not really a destination spot, more of a place for parents to take hungry kids after soccer practice or for laptop-wielding folks to catch a bite while studying. But we liked Mix 'n Munch's homey grilled sandwiches, which are reasonably-priced and reasonably-sized, in contrast to the giant, pricey sandwiches at other restaurants that seem to use a pound of cheese in each one.

Cereal bins are behind the counter; choose 2 scoops of cereal and 2 mix-ins for $3.75

No, we didn't try the cereal -- I don't care how creatively they combine the choices, I'm not paying $4 for a bowl of cold cereal. But the kids and teens seem to appreciate the custom mixes like the Rock 'n Roll Circus Bowl and the Cookie Bowl (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cookie Crisp, Golden Grahams and crushed Oreos). Along with the grilled cheese sandwiches, there's Tater Tots, tomato soup, oatmeal, yogurt parfaits and grilled dessert sandwiches like the Fluffernutter.

A cereal characters-meet-South Pas landmarks mural sets the tone for the casual wi fi-equipped cafe a few steps from the Gold Line's Mission Station. The staff is young and friendly, and though the concept still seems a little odd, South Pasadenians seem happy to have a reasonably-priced hangout.

Though the cheese could have been a little meltier in my smoked gouda, tomato and pesto sandwich, the price was right at under $5 and the counter-person complimented my fillings choices. Choose from sandwiches like a Breakfast grilled cheese, a Monte Cristo or a Turkey club, or create your own with fillings like bacon, spam, arugula, apple slices, or sauteed mushrooms with several types of cheese and bread.

The Elvis will work for breakfast or lunch: the King knew what he was doing by pairing peanut butter, bacon and banana. Dessert sandwiches -- or any sandwiches -- can also be made on breads from Bicycle Bread Company, an artisanal bakery near USC specializing in whole grain breads with raisins, cranberries and more.
Mix 'n Munch
1005 Mission Street, Unit A
South Pasadena
 (626) 441-8808

Pal Cabron: sandwiches with plenty of attitude in Koreatown

Pal Cabron's Bricia Lopez with Deep End Dining's Eddie Lin

Bricia and Fernando Lopez, whose family owns Guelaguetza restaurant, is ushering in a new wave of interest in the cuisine (and mescal!) of Oaxaca with their gradual updating of the family's empire. They launched Pal Cabron last year in Huntington Park, then opened the Natura juice bar on 8th St. and have now moved Pal Cabron to the more-convenient-for-most folks 8th St. space, a former Guelaguetza location. And since it's right next to the juice bar, there's a window in the restaurant for Leche quemada ice cream or passion fruit shaved ice (sorry, no mescal, but she'll be glad to tell you the best places to drink it). Last night Lopez and assorted friends and bloggers celebrated the opening of Pal Cabron with plenty of cemitas -- similar to tortas, they're Oaxacan-style sandwiches on a sesame seed bun filled with mole-sauced meats, barbacoa (lamb), chorizo, chicken, breaded pork, ham and more. Also on the menu are clayudas -- kind of like open-faced corn quesadillas topped with black beans and various meats and other snacks like fiery green chile memelitas (pictured) and mole tamales.
Prices: Very reasonable, everything is under $8. Casual, order at the counter.

Hours: 10 to 10 every day
Good to know: If you can't find a place to park and really need a cemita, they'll offer curbside service. And if you're a customer of R Bar on the corner, ask about special privileges for bar patrons.
Pal Cabron

3337 1/2 W 8th St

(213) 427-0601

Butchering, pickling and beekeeping workshops at Artisanal L.A.

Here's a schedule of events at this weekend's Artisanal L.A. event at the Cooper Building Downtown, which brings together food artisans for a snapshot of the L.A. artisanal food scene. But it's not just about buying chocolates and cupcakes, honey and handmade bacon -- the workshops offer tastings and chances to learn about all kinds of DIY food trends.

Saturday, October 23

12p: Chef Jonathan Rollo, Greenleaf Gourmet Chop Shop
Using Local and Seasonal Produce (Demo)

1p: Woolly Pockets
Simple One Container Kitchen Herb Gardens (Workshop)

1p: Backward Bee Collective
Local Beekeeping w/Backward Beekeepers incl Feral Bee (Panel)

2p: Chef James Overbaugh, The Peninsula Hotel
Growing and Cooking with Artisanal Pumpkins (Demo)

3p: Christopher Klapp & Chef Ben Bailly, Petrossian Caviar
Sustainable Caviar (Demo and Tasting)

4p: Lindy & Grundy, Heritage Meats and Home Butchering
w/ Marissa Guggianna, Author of Primal Cuts (Demo, Tasting, Raffle)

5p: Laura McIntosh, Host “Bringing It Home”
The Difference Between Sustainable & Organic: What’s More Important?

All Day: Common Thread Studio
Hand Sewn Egg Cozies (Workshop 12-2p & 3-5p )

All Day: Pumpkin Crafts for Kids (Craft)

Sunday, October 24

12p: Chef Joseph Gillard, Napa Valley Grille
Biodynamic Wine Pairings (Demo and Tasting)

1p: Geri Miller, Mar’Sel
Garden Cocktail Infusions (Demo and Tasting)

2p: Suzanne Griswold & Rachael Narins, Chicks with Knives’
Perishable Pickle Shop: Pickling 101 (Demo and Tasting)

3p: Craft Beer Panel
Eagle Rock Brewery & Local LA Brewers TBA
Moderated by The Beer Chicks (Panel and Tasting)

4p: Lindy & Grundy, Heritage Meats and Home Butchering
(Demo, Tasting, Raffle)

5p: Josh Simon, Function Drinks
Growing a Local Food Biz in LA (Speaker)

All Day: Common Thread Studio
Hand Sewn Egg Cozies (Workshop 12-2p & 2-5p)

All Day: Pumpkin Crafts for Kids (Craft)

L.A.'s beer scene comes of age at L.A. Beer Week Festival

Firestone Walker's dense Parabola

With more Best tastes from the Beer Fest: We only sampled a small slice of the bounty at the beer festival, but a few highlights were:
1) Our favorite was Firestone Walker's Parabola, a hefty, chocolatey Imperial Stout with 13% alcohol and notes of anise or ginger. If I ever find a bottle of this, I'll make sure to try a float with a mild, caramelly ice cream.
2) Running a close second was Craftsman's Sour Lavender, a crisp, tartly floral brew which was nearly tapped out when I got there, but I managed to snare a small and satisfying taste.

H.C. from LA and OC Foodventures manned San Diego's Mission Brewing table

3) Somewhere in there was Chimay, Brouwerij West Blond, Mission Double IPA, the Bruery's Three French Hens, North Coast, Lost Abbey, Gentleman Scholar espresso stout from Naja's Place/Skyscraper and Lindeman's Framboise lambic, among several others.
4) The venue: Union Station wasn't quite as bucolic as the shady lanes of Descanso Gardens, but it was a lot easier getting there on the Gold Line, and there were none of the pesky long lines that plague other local festivals.

Cigars and beer seem to go together

5) The crowd: Everyone was friendly and low-key, only one woozy drunk guy that I could see. Despite being pretty buzzed, this crowd was almost as mellow as the folks at the Pavement concert.
6) The organization: Free cheese and chocolate samples were a welcome touch. I didn't try the truck food, but everyone seemed to be enjoying Mandoline Grill's banh mi. Next year, it would be cool to get a list of breweries and beers at the entrance and check off what you try, and the signage on some of the breweries' tables could be a little more clear.
With Nibble Bit, Brouwerij West, Ladyface Alehouse and Eagle Rock Brewery among the L.A-area breweries joining since last year, it was great seeing how fast the local beer scene is growing. If you missed the fest, get over to Verdugo Bar, Surly Goat, Tony's Dart's Away, Naja's or tasting rooms at the Bruery and Eagle Rock Brewery and try some of the brews you missed.

San Francisco Mission district ramble: Poc-Chuc, Four Barrel Coffee

Four Barrel Coffee's spacious counter

I couldn't spend a weekend in Berkeley and Mill Valley without squeezing in an afternoon roaming San Francisco's Mission district. But I've gorged on enough Tartine pastries; where else to go? After settling on Poc- Chuc via a little Internet intelligence and Four Barrel Coffee, which I first tasted at the Cognoscenti Coffee stand, I had a chance encounter on the BART platform with Josette, an adventurous and youthful retired French woman who was also spending the afternoon exploring San Fran.
She decided my food-focused itinerary sounded better than her cable car plan, so she joined me for lunch at Poc-Chuc, a pleasant Yucatecan refuge near the bustling Mission St./16th St. Bart station. Poc-Chuc was similar to the now-closed more formal version of Chichen Itza, but I found the cooking even more focused and luscious. Josette's prudent French appetite was stunned at the size of the generous plate of poc-chuc, the signature dish of grilled citrus-marinated pork, beans, rice, grilled onions and housemade tortillas.

Seriously good plantains at Poc-Chuc

We also tried excellent cochinita pibil and shrimp tacos, and some of the best fried plantains I've ever had -- with "creme fraiche" on the side, I explained. Even the tamarindo drink was generously sized and perfectly balanced -- this place is a real winner, even if it's not in the down-and-dirty Mission burrito style one might expect in the area. 

Grilled pork was tender and nicely caramelized

Then it was time for afternoon coffee at Four Barrel, a newer caffeine stop on Valencia with a woodsy, open design. A bar with stools overlooks a large roasting operation in the rear, while the large counter in the middle makes espressos and cappucinos. A wall of vinyl records provides the soundtrack -- "Hunky Dory" when we were there -- while a gentleman at a small counter in front prepares special varieties like a richly-flavored Ethiopia Welena Suke Quto I tried. 

Making a pour-over at Four Barrel Coffee

He'll ask you to specify if you want an espresso or a "pour-over" -- that's a drip cup made in a Clever Dripper filter which steeps the coffee more deeply than a normal drip filter. With its trendy mounted animal heads, rough-hewn tables filled with Macbook-using Missionites and retro soundtack, this is one seriously cool coffeehouse. I would have liked to also check out Dynamo Donuts for a Lemon Szechuan or Molasses Guinness, but I just couldn't fit in another bite. Must return to the Mission, soon.

Berkeley catch-up: Bakesale Betty, Ippuku, Revival, Philz Coffee

Revival's special bourbon/wine cocktail

It's always fun to spend a few days in the Bay Area, where I usually stay with my sister in Berkeley. She's a great sport about taking me around to the hot newer places. Here's what we tried:
Revival Bar and Kitchen is a retro-themed farm-to-table restaurant and cocktail bar on Shattuck in downtown Berkeley. While that area's not usually where the best food is found, the situation seems to be improving with several new places just steps away from the Bart station. The cocktails were a bit hit and miss, but I enjoyed my special concoction of bourbon, egg white and red wine reduction.

Ironing boards provide narrow lunching spots at Bakesale Betty

Bakesale Betty is a bakery/sandwich shop with two Oakland locations that makes an astoundingly crispy, spicy, crunchy, greasy, filling fried chicken sandwich with jalapeno slaw. We both went home and passed out for an hour after managing to finish off one each.

Bakesale Betty's fried chicken sandwich is an awesome beast

 Open only for lunch or breakfast and lunch depending on the location, Bakesale Betty does only a few things exceedingly well, even if you do have to eat on the sidewalk on festively painted ironing boards.

Shochu on draft at Ippuku

Also in Downtown Berkeley, Ippuku takes izakaya to another level. Despite Michael Bauer's SF Chronicle review, you don't have to enjoy chicken tartare to fully appreciate it, there are plenty of other intriguing small plates. But if you're brave enough, it's perfectly safe, as everything is carefully sourced with choices like grass-fed beef tongue.

Bacon-wrapped mochi proves that just about anything can, and should, be wrapped in bacon

There's nothing quite like Ippuku in L.A. -- designed by a Zen Buddhist priest and specializing in shochu and yakitori skewers, it feels like you're transported to a small, secret inn somewhere in the wilds of Japan, where rough-hewn pottery dishes hold delicate stacks of roasted eggplant or skewers of meaty ground chicken or careful piles of house-made pickles.

sesame soft serve with red bean paste and tempura crunchies

There's 50 kinds of shochu, including a dynamite soba one, and barley varieties that taste like watered-down scotch. For dessert, try Straus creamery soft-serve ice cream in sesame flavor with bean paste, or matcha affogato.

Philz coffee brews each cup in a filter basket

At times it seems you need a graduate level course in coffeeology just to order some joe in the Bay Area. At Philz, where I gather the prevailing philosophy runs towards lighter roasts, you choose from more than 20 varieties divided into dark, medium and light roasts, then explain how you like it and the barista brews one cup at a time in a filter cup. I tried a cup of Jacob's Wonderbar brew -- it was nice, but not transcendent like the cup of Four Barrel I had in San Francisco.

From ultra-customized coffee to sustainable izakaya, there's always something new in the Bay Area, and Berkeley as always merits an eating tour of its own.

CicLAvia: Take over the streets and eat, too

It's going to be really cool to see seven miles of streets from East Hollywood through MacArthur Park to Downtown given over to bikes and pedestrians for CicLAvia on Sunday from 10-3. Here's a list of what food trucks will be along the way to fuel the riders, and a helpful list of other restaurants along the way:

Hollenbeck:
Crepe N Around
Slice Truck
Maui Wowi

MacArthur Park:
Smokin Willies
TAM TRUCK
Del's Lemonade

CITY HALL:
Krazy BBQ
Surfer Taco
No Jodas Cuban

Bike District:
Slammin Sliders
TNB
Chef Che Argentine Cuisine

Other food-places on the CicLAvia route 10-10-10
Little Tokyo
Burger Joint
Weiland Brewery
Spitz
Omasa
Daikokuya

Cole’s and Casey’s are opening early (11AM).

Bottega Louie has brunch starting at 11AM Sunday.

Falls & Spring Street may open as early as 11/12PM.

Downtown
Rocket Pizza
LA Café
Clifton’s
Dublin’s

MacArthur Park/Westlake area
Langers
Mama’s Tamales
Antojitos Bibi

Bike district
La Morenita Oaxaquena Restaurant-
New Hampshire and 3rd
el Pollo Bailador

Salty, wrinkly, and delicious: Jose Andres papas canarias

EatingLA's papas canarias - just like Bazaar!

Everyone was raving about Bazaar's papas canarias the other night, and they're actually pretty easy to make. Hopefully you have a fairly high salt tolerance -- I recommend offsetting the pleasant saltiness with something like a mild, flaky white fish. Here's the recipe from MarthaStewart.com:

Papas Canarias
Ingredients:
2 pounds baby potatoes
1 cup salt, plus more as needed
Mojo verde, for dipping

Place the potatoes in a deep, medium-size pot. Add enough water to cover, and salt. Potatoes should float in the salted water; if not, add more salt.
Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes are easily pierced with the tip of paring knife, 25 to 30 minutes.
Drain water from pot, leaving just enough to cover the bottom. Return pot to low heat and cook, shaking pot until the salt covering the potatoes begins to crystallize, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover pot with a clean kitchen towel until potato skins have wrinkled, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately with dipping sauces, as desired.

Mojo verde (don't add salt unless you're serving it with something other than the potatoes)
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 cups well-packed chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons sherry-wine vinegar
Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and salt to a smooth paste. Add cilantro leaves and cumin seeds; mash until well combined. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while continuing to mash, until all the olive oil is absorbed.
Turning the pestle in a slow, circular motion around the mortar, drizzle in 2 teaspoons water and vinegar. Keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Let Jose Andres take you to Spain: The Luxury Collection Destination Guide

I wouldn't mind having Bazaar chef Jose Andres as my tour guide in Spain. Unfortunately, he hasn't invited me. But I was invited to the SLS rooftop party and Bazaar dinner for the Luxury Collection hotels Spain guidebook of art, culture and food from Assouline publishing, with recommendations from Andres. Each of Assouline's destination guides has an expert host, like Mario Batali for Italy, as well as an enticing list of all the Luxury Collection hotels from Phuket to Peru.
Also included are cocktails themed to various locations from Greg Seider, the farm-to-glass mixologist who runs Summit in New York. Seider knows how to have a good time, to say the least, so our end of the table was infused with a non-stop parade of jamon iberico and a double dose of New York suggestively snarky banter. We talked with Seider about cinnamon-infused agave, the best bourbons, and cocktails with sun-dried tomatoes while 20 or so wonderful tastes unfurled from Andres' kitchen. Among the highlights:

• A delicate eel taco enfolded in a tortilla-thin cucumber slice garnished with chicharron



Not Your Everyday Caprese flavors popped with liquid mozzarella

• tuna ceviche and avocado roll with coconut dressing -- it sounds like something nearly any restaurant would offer, but the silky slices of avocado wrapped around top-quality tuna elevated the roll way above the usual sushi bar fare



salt-crusted papas canarias

• Norwegian lobster - a rectangle of perfectly-cooked lobster on a bed of briny seaweed, paired with a shooter of creamy, deeply ocean-flavored lobster essence; and
• Papas canarias -- a favorite nearly everyone at the dinner, the pequeno potatoes are cooked until a salt crust forms on their skins, then dipped into a tart mojo verde sauce. I'm going to try the recipe for these in Jose Andres great-looking "Made in Spain" cookbook which is almost all real, hearty Spanish food with nary a glimpse of lemon air.

If a trip to Spain isn't in the cards, an evening with Bazaar's jamon and baby squid in its own ink is certainly a good substitute -- or at my house, maybe an evening from the Made in Spain cookbook combined with cocktails from Seider's globe-trotting Cocktail Collection booklet.