Tag Archives: Cookie

Ford’s Filling Station

Restaurant: Ford’s Filling Station

Location:  9531 Culver Blvd, Culver City. 310-202-1470

Date: April 28, 2011

Cuisine: Gastropub

Rating: Always great for lunch.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

It was a gorgeous day (again) in LA, so I headed out to find another good lunch spot with outside dining. We ended up in Culver City with its rather large selection of good lunch spots and specifically at Ford’s Filling Station, which is run by Benjamin Ford, son of Han Solo. The place has been around awhile but before this he had another place in Beverly Hills which was very good — but I can’t remember the name.


Notice the “pig country” sign. They offer on the menu a 8 person minimum whole pig dinner with a whole roast pig!


Outside, there are two different patios. In general, Culver city has a lot of outside dining which is nice. For some mysterious reason LA restaurants often lack al fresco. This makes no sense given our weather.


The menu.


“Bacon wrapped dates, stuffed with cheese.” Um yum! I love this dish, and I’ve had it at many places (like recently at Upstairs 2). These were as good as any, showing off the sweet and salty.


“Shrimp Curry, jasmine rice, marash pepper and applewood smoked bacon.” Also a really great dish. Very similar to the one I had at Gladstones. The bacon made it even better.


Sliced serrano peppers in has you want to spice it up.

“Pulled Pork Panini, melted gouda and spicy pepper relish.” The beans were awesome too, with a nice smoky porcine flavor.


A close up of the sandwich itself. I had expected something like a North Carolina pulled pork sandwich. That’s kinda tangy. This was more the succulent roast pork with cheese. Yum.


The dessert menu.


“Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich, chocolate chip cookie and mint chocolate-chip ice cream.” The ice cream was great, very similar to the mint ice cream I had at Sweet Rose Creamery, tasting as it did of fresh mint leaves. The fudge was good too. The cookie needed more butter, it was a little dry. Not bad, and the overall dessert was still very good, but with a really awesome cookie, it could have been… really awesome.


Inside, the stripped down old-school culver city building provides a nice deconstructed interior. I’ve never been here at night but I bet it’s a good watering hole.

Another good Culver City place is Fraiche, here for review.

Paulette Macarons

Store: Paulette Macarons

Location: 9466 Charleville Boulevard at Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 310. 275 0023

Date: March 30, 2011

Cuisine: French Macarons

Rating: Very niche, but some of the best macarons I’ve tasted

Only major metropoli like LA, NY, and San Francisco can support places like this. A dedicated French macaroon bakery! I’m not exactly sure why it is that macarons have taken off (at least in LA) during the last year or two, but they have. Not that I mind, I’ve always been a fan of french baking and macarons specifically. I enjoy the some texture and intense flavors. Previously I would only get them in the petite fours courses at very high end resteraunts, now I can have them with the incomparable Cafe Luxxe coffee — or here.

They had 13 flavors on display when I went in. I tried 11 of them. These are decadent little treats, but not exactly “good value” at $19 for 12!

You can get little towers of them if you are so inclined.

Here is my little $19 worth. General notes: the texture was nicely soft, and the fillings distinct and generous. These were a bit firmer and less spongy than some macarons, but still marvelous, probably 8/10 on texture, 10/10 on flavor. The really great thing about these macarons is how intense the flavor is.

Left to right:

1. Peanut – Like a little nutter butter.

2. Colombian Coffee – one of the weaker flavors. Good, but I would have preferred more intense.

3. Sicilian Pistachio – also a little mild, but certainly pistachio flavored, like one of the bands of spumoni ice cream.

4. Carmel and Salt – Amazing, although perhaps Tavern (SEE HERE) makes a slightly punchier variant. The carmel itself was wonderful.

5. Sweet Wedding Almond – Amazing too. This had that perfect marzipan almond taste. Not something everyone might love, but I certainly did.

6. Coffee again

7. Violet Cassis – Really yummy, intense, and interesting. Flowery and fruity all at once.

8. Passion fruit – 9/10 for intensity (more is more with passion fruit).

9. Caribbean Chocolate – The middle was delectable, the outside merely good.

10. Lemon – intense and nice, like a lemon tart.

11. Rose – wow. I loved this one. Like the almond, not for everyone, but tasted like Turkish Delight or Persian wedding treats.

12. Coconut – very nice fresh toasted coconut flavor.