Tag Archives: reviews

Quick Eats: Osteria Latini

Restaurant: Osteria Latini [1, 2, 3]

Location: 11712 San Vicente Blvd.Brentwood, CA 90049 310.826.9222

Date: Dec 03, 2010

Cuisine: Italian

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LA is full of good Italian places, and, well, it was date night and my wife loves Italian. So off we went to Osteria Latini which is one of the ten or so in Brentwood, most on San Vicente. About half of the places are actually very good and we often rotate around between them. The menu can be found HERE.


“BELLA SALAD, Arrugola, pears, dry cherris, goat cheese and shaved parmesan.”

“BEEF CARPACCIO, Thin sliced filet mignon with capers, parmesan and arrugola.” This was a very good version of this classic. The beef was excellent, there was a nice tang to the dressing, and the cheese was very good. I love good cheese.

“BOMBOLOTTI, Small rigatoni with tomatoes filet and basil.” Very straight up pasta.

“RISOTTO ALL’ARAGOSTA, With lobster in a light tomato sauce.” I’m a huge risotto fan, all sorts of risotto. This was an excellent seafood variant. You can’t see it, but there was a lot of lobster in there. And the light tomato sauce was indeed — light — complementing the fleshy lobster well. It was not particularly rich — but was very good. Given that I was coming off the gluttony of the ThanksGavin, light was a good thing.


Latini always gives you this little glass of lemon sorbetto mixed with prosecco at the end, regardless of whether you order desert or not. Given my penchant for lemon and my sweet tooth, I like it a lot.

This place is well above the median line for the already high bar of LA Italian (although it certainly has A LOT of company). They’re friendly, tasty, reasonably priced, and the chef has a very good touch.

For other Osteria Latini reviews, click HERE or HERE.

Or for LA Restaurant reviews.

Or an entire month of eating in Italy!

Book Review: Uglies

Title: Uglies

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Read: Nov 19-21, 2010

Summary: Great Read.

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The Science Fiction in this book is a little hokey, but it’s still a extremely compelling read. There is a bit of a silly high concept in this dystopian future, where at 16 teenagers get an operation that promotes them from “uglies” (normal people) to super improved “pretties.” I didn’t really buy the idea of this particular and odd society, but I just suspended my disbelief and enjoyed the ride.

The voice is solid and captivating. It’s a good story, and the world has a really nice feel. The characters are pretty well painted too. I pounded though the book and ordered the sequel. I have some little beefs with the logic of the plot, and a bigger one with a motivation of the protagonist, and the ending. However, when I enjoy a story and care about the characters, a little ignoring is worth it.

There are also some cool gadgets. The tech feels a little uneven — I usually find that the case, where the level of technology changes aren’t consistant across the board. But a good read is a good read.

Food as Art: Ping Pong

Restaurant: Ping Pong

Location: 900 7th Street NW. District of Columbia 20001. 202-506-3740

Date: Dec 01, 2010

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum


I’ve been going to Dim Sum for thirty-odd years, and it’s long been one of my favorite cuisines. Basically, this follows from the “law of appetizers,” which reads: “appetizers are always better than the main course.” Dim Sum is all “appetizers.” Ping Pong represents a modernization of the traditional Dim Sum concept. There are no carts, everything is made fresh to order, and there are modern variants on traditional favorites. Most of this is good, and they did a great job. The only downside is that it’s about twice as expensive as a hole-in-the-wall traditional place. However, particularly if you have a vegetarian in the party (traditional Dim Sim is nigh on impossible to appreciate as a vegetarian), it can be worth it.

The menu and our order. I like this “check your order” type menu, like an old school sushi menu.

Jasmine tea, the way they do it in China. The ball expands.

Into a pretty flower. Ping Pong has a very extensive drink menu, alchoholic and non.

Sauces are essential at Dim Sum. These are two kind of chilies. They had good soy, vinegar, etc. The odd missing one, which we asked for, but they didn’t have, was Chinese mustard. I love Chinese mustard.

Baked pork puff. This is a standard, and they did a great job of it. The pastry was buttery, and the pork sweet.

Here is an example of a welcome “modernization.” A vegetable puff. Same dough, but inside was honey-roasted vegetables. These did a pretty good approximation.

Vegetarian spring rolls, with a very nice sweet and sour sauce.

Spare ribs. Ultra soft (and fatty), with a very nice sweet flavor.

Asian leaf and three mushroom salad.

Crispy hoisin duck rolls. Tasty. Who could tell what was inside, but it had a nice meatiness to it. Like a duck taquito.

The tower of steamers begin to arrive. I personally love the steamed dumplings best of all. In China I had a 64 course Tang Dynasty style Dim Sum meal that was one of the best meals of my life.

Classic lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice. An excellent example of the species. The rice is mixed with pork, chicken etc.

Crabmeat and prawn, what’s not to like. Also very hot! They are steamed after all.

Classic Pork Shu Mai. I made the mistake of getting greedy on these and could barely taste them as I seared off my tongue. What I did taste seemed good.

This is a bunch of seafood and vegetable cooked on a griddle. A sort of Chinese seafood sausage. They call it a seafood cake. My father and I ordered these at random from an entirely non-English speaking greasy griddle at a rooftop restaurant in Shaimen China. These were better.

“Crab, shrimp, and scallop, carrot pastry.” These were great too, with the shell almost like a fresh ravioli.

Jumbo shrimp and coriander dumplings. Light and succulent. The coriander mixed it up a little.

Spicy pork dumplings. I loved these, and they have a significant kick. Basically ground pork spiced with Schezuan peppers. In Western China we would get these at hotel breakfasts.

Classic “Har Gau,” or shrimp in a light translucent pastry. Yum, but I missed the mustard.

Vegetable and beans in black bean sauce over coconut rice. Kinda light a high end weight watchers dinner.

Another example of a modernized lightened classic. Vegetable steamed bun, with sauteed vegetables and fresh baby corn. Really good. Almost as good as the pork version.

Spinach and mushroom pan fried dumpling, in crispy wheat flour pastry. Almost like meat.

Spicy Basil, rice noodles and chili. Interesting flavors.

My favorite of the meal, “black prawn, garlic and shrimp, black squid ink pastry.” There was a succulent sweetness that complimented the shrimp brilliantly.

The decor too is modernized as compared to your traditional place.

I was impressed with Ping Pong. On average the dishes were fresher than you get in the typical cart driven place, and the introduction of new flavors was very subtly but nicely done. I particularly appreciated having really well done vegetarian versions of classics. Bravo!

Quick Eats: Coastal Flats

Restaurant: Coastal Flats

Location: 7860-L Tysons Corner CenterMcLean, VA 22102(703) 356-1440

Date: Nov 30, 2010

Cuisine: Southern Coastal American

 

This place is part of a small local chain of one-off’s. That is, each restaurant in  the group has a different name and menu. While they’re slightly commercial, they do a good job. Everything is tasty and reliable. Not innovative or fancy, but good. In a world dominated by chains the complete one-off restaurant is dying at the midrange level. In particular, they seem unable to secure leases in these coveted mall-type spaces. Probably the mall authorities are unwilling to take a risk. However, not all chains are totally evil — just most! — you know who you are Olive Garden et all!

The menu. Not so disimilar to the little non-chain Eastern Shore places I remember as a kid, just bigger and more internationalized.

Crab cakes, with cous-cous. I didn’t try the sandwich, but the cous-cous was very tasty, with a slighly sweet flavor.

A grilled salmon sandwich, not on the menu, but they improvised.

The lobster roll. This was GOOD. The corn was very sweet, and the lobster tender and fresh. The fries were excellent too.

The remains of the fried grouper my two-year-old enjoyed. He was particularly partial to the applesauce.

I love tartar and cocktail sauces with my fries. This tartar, i have to say, was one of the best I’ve had. There were capers, and an excellent lemony tang.

The flour-less chocolate waffle is awesome.

The commercial-style decor. Nothing wrong with it, but not a lot of character either. Service is always very good at these places, in that way that tells you they have a formal staff training program.

Quick Eats: Mon Ami Gabi

Restaurant: Mon Ami Gabi

Location: 7239 Woodmont Ave.  Bethesda, MD 20814. 301.654.1234

Date: Nov 29, 2010

Cuisine: French Bistro

 

Out with friends in Bethesda we checked out this small chain French Bistro.  After 10-20 years out of favor the bistro seems to have returned in spades.

An “Amuse” of marinated carrots, quite nice.

The menu.

Parker gives this a 92, “Potentially the finest Gigondas made here since their sublime 1978 (still going strong, by the way), the 2007 exhibits gorgeously sweet black currant, kirsch, and mineral notes intermixed with hints of cigar box and forest floor. Full-bodied with elegance married to considerable substance and power, a beautifully textured mouthfeel, and a long, heady finish, this will be a long-lived Gigondas. Give it 2-3 years of cellaring and enjoy it over the following 15 years.”

The classic goat cheese salad.

Steak Bernaise for a young carnivore.

An excellent lump crabmeat cake. I don’t get enough of these out west.

My two-year-old’s grilled cheese and fries. He seemed to enjoy it.

French onion soup.

Steak frites. Lots of frites.

Bacon wrapped pork, with dijon mustard coated potatoes.

Breaded cod.

With frites.

This was a solid place. Not blow-you-away, but good.

Movie Review: Adventureland

Title: Adventureland

Director/Stars: Jesse Eisenberg (Actor), Kristen Stewart (Actor), Greg Mottola (Director)

Genre: Period (80s) Comedy Romance

Watched: Sept, 2010

Summary: Touching, funny. Great film.

 

I didn’t really have a lot of expectations going into this film. I knew it was by the same director as Superbad (great film) and starred Eisenberg and Stewart, and that’s about it. It’s a great film. The kind they rarely make anymore where it’s essentially a character movie woven around a romance. The script is great, the acting’s great, and the direction is great. It’s a funny movie, but not in the laugh a minute kind of way, but in a wry more or less real way.

Comedy varies across the spectrum of dark to realistic to slapstick to abstract. This is realistic. The humor is partially in the fact that these situations are real situations that we did or could have found ourselves in — and hence, it’s a kind of bittersweet humor. The tone is not so different than the excellent Freaks and Geeks TV show, and in fact there’s at least one actor in common (the excellent Martin Starr). They don’t make a lot of comedy romances like this anymore, the kind where there’s no gimmick, just real people, and hence real romance.

The plot is fairly incidental. We have the likable Eisenberg (playing on type, but great as a Geek who isn’t really shy) who has money troubles and needs to take a lousy summer job at a crappy Pittsburg theme park. Having grown up in the 80s this is exactly my generation (I’m perhaps 4 years younger than the characters) and the music and outfits are nostalgic and amusing. None of the people he meets are exactly stereotypes, and they have a delicate underwritten quality. The core that holds the film together is Eisenberg and Stewart (who proves she can do better with a script that isn’t terrible… I mean Twilight — CLICK FOR MY REVIEW). Not just the acting but the writing. He’s the kind of guy I could imagine being friends with, and she’s the kind of girl I could imagine having fallen for in college. There relationship feels real. This makes it sexy even though there isn’t much sex. And isn’t that one of the main things that fiction is about? Depicting real people. It seems all too often forgotten.

Food as Art: Little Saigon

Restaurant: Little Saigon

Location: 6218 Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044-3210 (703) 536-2633

Date: Nov 27, 2010

Cuisine: Vietnamese

ANY CHARACTER HERE

One of my favorite places back “home” (Washington D.C.) is Little Saigon, a local hole in the wall Vietnamese place with absolutely stellar food.

Yeah, Hole in the wall. But good!

We start with this prosecco. Basically Italian Champagne.

The menu is as long as War and Peace!

Table condiments.

Almost everyone here is Vietnamese, which is always the best sign of authentic ethic restaraunts.

This is marinated raw beef, soaked in fish sauce, with onions, chilies, and basil. Not a typical American flavor, but amazing nonetheless.

My two-year son’s favorite: rice cracker (with black sesame).

Vegetarian spring rolls, hot as the 9th circle of hell (temperature). The sauce is this amazing chili-sweet-soy combo.

The owner visists. My parents have been friends with her for years.

Vietnamese “hot wings,” but fried with TONS of garlic. Amazing. I was dipping the garlic by itself in the sauce and eating it.

We moved on to this tasty malbec. Toasty oak.

Soft egg noodles with tofu, brocoli, mushrooms, baby corn. Fine, but not the best dish of the evening.

Crispy orange duck. This must be Chinese inspired, but it’s amazing, totally amazing. The duck is perfect, and the sweet/bitter tang of real orange peels (not to mention the schechuan peppers) delectable.

Rock fish, steamed, with a ginger cilantro sauce. Very nice light whole fish.

One of my guilty pleasures is just soaking rice in the orange duck sauce!

The check for 6 people, $108! Not a bank breaker.

Observe more Vietnamese diners — they know their own cuisine. Never trust an Asian restaurant with blond waiters (none here).

There were oranges for desert, which nicely finish off the meal, and my two-year-old loved them.

For a second review of Little Saigon, see here.

Thanksgiving – The Prequel

Restaurant: Umbria

Location: 7131 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia. 215-242-6470

Date: Nov 24, 2010

Cuisine: Modern American

 

Our traditional family feast, which we could dub the Thanksgavin, begins with the Wednesday night forefeast (to borrow a term from the Greek orthodox). In 2010 it was at an American place in Germantown outside of Philadelphia, called Umbria. Curiously the name might lead one to believe it was an Italian restaurant, but no.  regardless, it was very good. There were 14 of us.

Yesterday I blogged a bit about our PAST THANKSGIVINGS, and tomorrow I will cover the main event itself.

We really don’t mess around with the wines at these dinners. For the white lovers we had a brand new “2009 J.J. Prum Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr SpatleseFrom the sultry bouquet which exudes saline minerality, bounded by a medley of baked pear, raspberry, and lime skins…to the sweet, succulent attack of white fig, lemon and lime skins, and orange cream…to the mid-palate laden with pepper and dark blueberry and candied Meyer lemon flavors…I think that you can get the picture. Namely, this rich, vibrant wine is one of the most complex I have had the pleasure of tasting in 2010! Lithe minerality is present on the back palate and rich lemon ice notes reverberate on the 75+…yes, more than 75 second…finish. Pure ecstasy in a bottle? Quite possibly so!”

Next up. Parker gives the Nuits-St.-Georges 93 points, “An assortment of candied cherries explode from the glass of the 2002 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Perrieres. This seductive wine’s character is drenched in black cherry syrup, rocks, and earth. Medium-bodied, it has outstanding depth, concentration, and a long, expressive finish that reveals copious quantities of ripe tannin. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2018.”

Then the 91 point “2004 Brunello di Montalcino is a fresh, vibrant offering bursting with dark cherries, violets, underbrush, minerals and sweet toasted oak on a medium-bodied frame. The wine reveals terrific balance in an energetic, focused style, with firm yet ripe tannins. The finish is long, clean and refreshing. This is a gorgeous effort from Loacker. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2019.”

And then the 94 point, “2005 Shardana is an awesome Carignano endowed with exuberant dark fruit, smoke, licorice, sage, rosemary and tar. This is a fairly big, masculine wine with great intensity, depth and roundness. It needs another year or two in bottle for the tannins to settle down. The Shardana is formidable, though, and a terrific choice for hearty cuisines. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2021.”

The menu tonight.

The room, or at least half of it.

Bread.

“Roasted butternut squash ravioli, sage hazelnut and wild mushrooms.” A fall take on an italian classic.

“Mixed green salad, asagio cheese, balsamic vinaigrette.”

“grilled fennel sausage, sweet and spicy fig sauce.” Wow! Wow! The sausage itself was amazing, and the sauce was basically what you would get at a thai or vietnamese place for fried spring rolls. Wow! The combo was amazing, with the sweet tangy goodness against the rich meaty sausage.

Escargot special.

Special “crab and wild mushroom soup.”

“Filet of salmon, cedar roasted, maple glaze.”

“lump crabmeat, fresh herbs, extra dry vermouth.” This emphasized the crab, without a lot of added fat or butter. It worked.

“Pork loin chop, apple bourbon grilling sauce.”

Grilled swordfish special.

Beef short rib special. The meat was seriously falling from the bone here, with a wonderful smoky flavor.

Hmmm.  Not sure. But it was a white meat or fish 🙂 This might have been the swordfish, and the above the chicken.  Hard to remember.

For the deserts, it was time to bring out the big guns — sweet wise — the motor oil vicous PX. Pure sugar in a bottle. Yum!

Carmel almond sundae. Wow!  This was amazing too.  The nuts toasted into a praline like whatever, and the homemade carmel with a bit of sea salt.

Pound cake with fruit.

Classic “creme carmel.” Good, and I love flan, but not as divine as the sundae.

ThanksGavin Calendar:

Wednesday night dinner

Thursday night Thanksgiving Feast

Friday night pork roast

Saturday Deli Brunch

Book and Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author: J.K. Rowling

Genre: YA Fantasy

Read: 21 July 2007, Watched (part 1): 20 Nov, 2010

Summary: Satisfying but obligatory conclusion to the epic series.

 

Retarded title aside, this is a pretty good film. Caveats, however, abound. If you haven’t seen all the previous installments, or at least the last several — forget it. The film just roles right into the action, with nary an attempt to explain past events, or even to introduce the rather vast array of characters, some of whom die after only a few moments of screen time. This reliance on the previous chunks of the story I find perfectly reasonable, to do anything else would be difficult and boring.

What is odd, however, is that I’m not sure this film series would make a whole lot of sense to the fifty people on earth who haven’t read the books. In fact, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t. I know a few of those people, and they seem to be universally baffled by the films, and don’t particularly enjoy them. Now I enjoyed my 2.8 hours, but I’ve read all the books, and seen each film at least once (as they came out in almost all cases). The books and films enjoy an peculiar symbiotic relationship. The films rely on the books completely for the sense of the rhythm of Hogwarts (not present in DH part 1 anyway), true understanding of the complexity of the plot, anything beyond names and faces for the secondary characters, etc. They just don’t have time to include it. The movies, on the other hand, prop up the visual world of the series. Now I first read the first four books BEFORE any of the films came out, but when I went back to reread book one this year (it’s still great) I realized how little description is actually in the novel, and how I now visualized exactly the lush and detailed visual world of the films. Most of the viewers in the theatre weren’t even old enough for it to have been possible for them to have read before being exposed to the film imagery. It also seems a bit odd that the films aren’t really made to stand on their own. To the non reader they offer up characters that they never explain. I guess the gravitational pull of the source material is too strong.

Back to DH part 1. Like the book it has an entirely different feel than the rest of the series. Particularly, given how the writers have split it. There’s no Hogwarts at all. No teachers (except a brief glimpse of Snape). Almost none of the other students (Draco and Luna only). It’s a movie about Harry, Ron, and Hermione. That isn’t bad, but it’s different. It’s also a film about Voldemort, because we see a lot more of him — or at least of the CG that completely hides Fiennes. The decision to split the film — beside making the studios et all an extra billion dollars — has given them five hours to work with instead of three. This means that this film is the most faithful to the book since number 3 (my favorite). It feels less rushed, darker and more deliberate. But even having read and seen everything, I had the feeling several times that I just had to take the logical leaps for granted. There still isn’t enough time to really explain the byzantine backstory.

Ron continues to be the weakest of the three core actors, with Harry being fine, and Emma Watson shining as Hermione. I want to see what she can do in a totally different role. Helena Bonham Carter is too over the top. The opening scene with the council of baddies was kinda cheesy, and the death of Dobby felt forced and lacked proper emotional weight. Draco just stands around and looks like he doesn’t know his lines. Hardly anyone else matters. As I said, it’s basically the gang of three in the tent vs the world.

But hell, on top it felt pretty satisfying, and now we have to wait for the last one.

Food as Art: Hatfield’s part 2

Restaurant: Hatfield’s [1, 2]

Location: 6703 Melrose Ave, Los angeles, Ca 90038. 323-935-2977.

Date: Nov 18, 2010

Cuisine: Modern American

 

I went back to Hatfield’s with friends to try it again. You can read about our PREVIOUS MEAL HERE.


They had the same Amuse, crab with quinoa and a light curry flavoring. It was okay, but certainly not mind blowing.

At one time I had two cases of the Gros Frere et Soeur 1998 Richebourg. This is my last bottle, and I’m sad to see it go. Not only were there only a couple hundred made, but it was last sighted on the internet for $1,332 a bottle. Oh well. Richebourg is one of my favorite wines, particularly when as balanced as this one. Some find it too subtle. Not I.

 


The Prix Fixe menu.


The regular menu.


The other half of the regular menu.


“Roasted baby beet and mizuna salad, french feta, falafel, balsamic vinaigrette.”


“Sweet corn soup, poached lobster, jicama, roasted hon shimeji mushrooms.”


I love these French style soups with the “pour in” around the stuff, I don’t know exactly why. I also love corn soups when done right.


“Warm creamy crab buckwheat crepe, pickled beets, marinated radish, fine herbs.” This was very yummy, particularly the guts of the crepe. Oddly, it was reminiscent of a high end version of that crab omelet thing they have a IHOP (haven’t been there in around 20 years — just so you know).

“Steamed skate wing salad, wild greens, fried maitakes, garnet yams, harissa.”

“Warm summer salad, corn agnolotti, cherry tomatoes, zucchini coulis, fava beans.”

“Charred octopus, caramelized fennel, saffron vanilla braised hearts of palm, red wine olive puree.” The fennel tasted like caramelized onions. Overall this was a very sweet (and tasty) dish with a variety of unusual textures.

“Slow cooked beef short rib, blue lake beans, braised radish, horseradish potato puree.”

“Sauteed Loup-de-mer, braised shelling beans, english pea puree, charred pea tendrils.” I always require my pea tendrils charred, otherwise The Day of the Triffids is a possibility.

“Brown butter-roasted cauliflower”, golden raisons, corn, etc.  — again (we had it on the previous vegetarian menu).

“Pan roasted duck breast, caramelized endive and cherry, pistachio pistou, celery root puree.” This was about as good as a duck breast dish gets (and I’ve tried plenty). The duck was medium rare, and perfectly tender.

The dessert options.

“Chocolate Carmel Semifreddo, salted peanut crunch, bitter chocolate sorbet.” Wow. This was a good dessert. Sort of like a chocolate caramel penut butter cup. There is a new trend to mix salt and caramel. Having always been a fan of the sweet/salty (I put syrup on my bacon), I’m loving it.

“Warm pear strudel, poached sour cherries, black walnut praline ice cream.” I only tasted the ice cream. It was pretty wonderful.

A repeat for the petit fours as well! At least the main menu changes up a lot. It takes a lot to create new dishes and it’s nice to see a place that is willing to experiment. Hatfield’s seems to me to spiritually pick up where Sona left off, with bright Franco-American market driven cuisine. I like it. Somehow it isn’t totally WOW, but it is very good. These are not easy dishes, and each was very good, nothing fell particularly flat. Our last meal at Sona before it closed, for example, felt limp. The chef’s here are as bold as a Ludo (SEE MY REVIEW HERE), but there is also a lower failure rate among dishes. I’d like sometime to try the chef’s “anything goes” menu and see what happens.