Tag Archives: Tartar sauce

Picca Potency

Restaurant: Picca [1, 2]

Location: 9575 West Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Tel: 310 277 0133

Date: September 27, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Peruvian

Rating: Really interesting flavors

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My parents were in town and I wanted to take them back to Picca, which I had recently tried. Peruvian food is on fire right now in LA, and for good reason.


The Pico Blvd frontage is hard to miss.


Picca’s Peruvian cuisine has enough citrus and Asian notes that it goes best with a lighter fruiter red like this lovely Burgundy (from my cellars as usual).


The bar was hoping when we arrived and at least ten people were waiting for tables, but they honored our reservation and seated us immediately (love to see that).


The interesting handmade cocktail menu.


“Rhubarb Sidecar.” Cognac, pisco, fresh lemon juice, rhubarb gastrique, shake violentyly (and they mean it), garnished with spiced sugar.”


Today’s menu. There are so many dishes that I took to underlining the ones we wanted. Saved on recitation to the waitress.


“papa rellena. stuffed potato, slow cooked beef, boiled egg, rocoto aioli.” Tasted like potato and chilli (known in Texas as a super-spud).


“empanada trio. beef, chicken, eggplant, salad.” I tried the chicken one, it was good. Not too heavy (considering).


“jalea mixta. crispy mixed seafood, tartare sauce.” Some really good fried seafood. The tartare sauce was fantastic too.


Parker 93 points, “The 2008 Vico made from 100% Mencia with 30% whole clusters and aged for 9 months in seasoned French oak. Opaque purple-colored, it offers up a slightly reticent bouquet of damp earth, mineral, incense, black cherry, and black raspberry. Dense and loaded on the palate, the flavors are already complex and mouth-filling. Impeccably balanced and with a 45-second finish, it has the stuffing to blossom for another 2-3 years but can be approached now. It is a great value.”


“ceviche criollo. seabass, rocoto leche de tigre, choclo, sweet potato.” The leche de tigre (vinegary lime sauce) makes all these cerviche‘s taste fairly similar, but this one had big soft chunks of seabass.


“ceviche crocante. halibut, leche de tigre, crispy calamari.” And this followup was rendered considerably different by the addition of crunchy calamari.


One of the menu’s many sections is “terceras – antichuchos” which are mostly grilled skewers, sort of Peruvian yakatori.


“tomatoes. burrata, black mint pesto.”


“beef filet. sea urchin butter, garlic chip.” Good stuff, with just a hint of the classic Uni flavor.


“scallops. aji amarillo aioli, wasabi peas.” Lightly cooked, very nice.


“black cod. miso anticucho, crispy sweet potato.”


Then we have a round of “causa sushi,” with yellow Peruvian potato replacing the rice. In general, as I’ve mentioned before rice is more successful, but these are still tasty.


This is the “unagi. avocado, cucumber, eel sauce” and it’s pretty much your eel sushi. Of all these causas this was my favorite as the polenta is heavier and stronger flavored than rice and the eel held up to it best.


“spicy yellow tail. spicy mayo, green onions, wasabi tobiko.”


“smoked salmon. hijiki, shallots, aji amarillo yogurt.”


“shrimp. pickled cucumbers, yuzu kosho guacamole.”


“albacore. garlic chip, ceviche sauce.” My second favorite of this set.


“scallops. mentaiko.” Certainly tasty, but it would have been better with rice.


“snow crab. cucumber, avocado, huancaina sauce.”


“seabass tiradito. thin slice sea bass, soy sauce, lemon dressing, sweet potato puree.” Very nice. Bright fish, even further brightened by the bold flavors.


Our server was very perky and friendly. Although she got caught up talking to lots of other guests and took a while with the check :-).


“chicharron de costillas. crispy pork ribs crostini, sweet potato puree, feta cheese sauce, salsa criolla.” This however was pretty spectacular, one of the best pork sandwiches I’ve tried.


“arroz chaufa de mariscos. mixed seafood, peruvian fried rice, pickled radish.” This was a nice version of paella. Brighter and more citrusy (by far) than it’s Spanish cousin. The ingredients were very fresh.


“sudado de lenguado. halibut stew, peruvian corn beer sauce, yuyo.” This really added some flavor to the nicely cooked fish.


“pollo saltado. chicken, onion, tomato, ginger, potato fritters.” This was also a tasty chicken. Like a south american stir-fry. With fries!


“chanfainita. braised oxtail, mote and potato stew.” This was our least favorite dish of the evening. There was a lot of bone on the tail, and a lot of fat. Not that it tasted bad or anything, but I think we were done for.


I love even street cart churros but these were pretty supreme. The churros were stuffed with some kind of dulce de leche custard. It kept squirting out but was intensely good. The carob sauce was surprisingly amazing. I remember carob from the 1970s as the horrible chocolate bars that weren’t. This could have been caramel.


“Lemon tart.” This was a pretty amazing dessert. Light and airy, almost foamy, the intense lemoness paired nicely with the sweet pineapple stuff on the side.


Picca was just as good the second time. We rounded out the menu and ordered mostly new stuff. As long as you are of the “bland is banned” school like I am, there really isn’t anything not to like about their solid implementation of this bright and flavorful cuisine.

For my previous review of Picca, click here.

For more LA dining reviews, click here.

Tidewater Crab

Restaurant: Tidewater Grille

Location:  300 FRANKLIN STREET, HAVRE DE GRACE, MD 21078 410.939.3313

Date: April 18, 2011

Cuisine: Eastern Shore American

Rating: Real crab cakes!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

One of the great things about the greater Washington DC area is the proximity of authentic Eastern Shore crab (and hence crab cakes!). Technically this is a “guest palette” as my brother was the one doing the eating. So the text and pictures are by Mitch Gavin.


An unassuming coastal frontage but a surprising beautiful find.  My parents have been going to this spot for a decade or two. We used to go to a restaurant up the street with a reputation for great eastern shore crab cakes and fried chicken.  I think I remember a s a kid getting a lot of bacon and dipping it in apple sauce.  To be discussed at a later date.  But in the recent past 2 decades M & D have been talking about this place.  I finally went one recent visit driving from DC to Philly to see my cousins.

To start: Maryland Blue Crab Soup.  Hands down my favorite soup and most scrumptious!  Vegetable base with chunks of tomato, corn, green beans I think and loads of crab meat.  Just crab.  Followed by a spicy seafood seasoning.  Something that reminds you of the beach and spiced vinegar fries.  Hot!  I tried to squeeze a bowl in because it’s going to be a year before I taste something this good again.

Now onto the crab cake!  Tidewater is the best crab cake east or west of the Mississippi.  These things are just so truly American, harder to find and worth savoring every bite.  Again you don’t find this in many places, it’s almost pure crab meat, very large and seared in a pan just right.  The taste of crab is so distinctive and Maryland stands alone at the top, athough Louisiana might get the Blue Crab too and be a closer runner up.  Arguably better tasting than the more expensive Maine Lobster this sandwish melts in your mouth.  The chips at Tidewater are unique — just simple strips of baked potato –and great!  The lettuce and tomato are unnecessary because additions just mask the special taste of the meat, so I recommend just lemon and bun.  No tartar was added to this sandwich.  🙂  [ although Andy adds that he loves tartar sauce because “fat == flavor” ]

After a few iced teas, a cup of soup and the oh so lovely crab sandwich the total was only $24.  Sandwich $14, Soup $4 and tea $2.5.


True tidewater country.


Here is another example, this one from Washington area restaurant Clydes.

Clydes crab cake was surprising lovely too, especially after closely visiting the Tidewater as  acomparrison.  It was a little more seared and smaller but very tasty.  They even simplified the platter for you with no lettuce or tomato, annoying not to be given the choice, especially since they have over the past 30 years.  And I’m not kidding people I’ve been going to this restaurant over 30 years; I even had my Bar Mitzvah there in the bright room upstairs in 1987!

Now the true pride in a restaurant in my opinion is not changing something that’s good.  Over the years, Clyde’s has managed to maintain the absolute best Chili I have ever had, and they have been doing so since before 1985.  It’s dark, molassesy, tangy and damn freaking good.  Seriously I’ve had other “great” chili’s but the tang and flavor of this one keeps me coming back year after year (when home on holidays!).

Dad had to leave early so I ordered the Blondie Brownie Sundae (not pictured), which I liked as a kid for mom and I.  The thing used to come in a tall Sundae glass, have a great grandma blondie brownie with carmel and great vanilla bean ice cream, nuts and everything but when the server brought it out on a flat plate the Blondie Brownie had no brown in it at all. It was disappointing as a too sweet flat white pastry looking thing with some vanilla ice cream, whip creme and thick brown chocolate sauce all over it that wasn’t good, maybe some nuts, the ice cream was similar but in short supply.  Thumbs down and unfinished between two.  That doesn’t say much that we then decided we didn’t need the unnecessary calories.  But on a positive note I’ll be back to Clyde’s again for that Chili, Crab cake and a lot of other stuff.  Clye’s gets a thumbs up.

Some other good crab cakes can be found on the west coast at Houstons or, surprisingly, at Capo. But they aren’t quite the same.