Masa at Echo Park
1800 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 989-1558
When you've stood in line for over an hour and finally admit to yourself that you're not gonna get inside to see the Kooks, turn around and trudge to Masa on the corner. Delicacheena was denied entry to the Echo, but at least we could enjoy a late dinner in a friendly setting.
The regular tables were taken, but Delicacheena was happy to sit back in the "living room" area. We started with the compressed manchego salad--refreshing, sweet, crunchy. The pasta fresca a la Siciliana--penne, basil, tomatoes, mushrooms and pine nuts--and the Masa penne--mushroom pasta and sun-dried tomato pesto with cream--were fresh, flavorful and hearty. A chat with our waiter and a glass of Blackstone Pinot Noir also helped to erase the indignity of loitering on the sidewalk.
We ended the night with the ultimate comfort food chocolate croissant bread pudding. . . and felt better that we weren't like our fellow diners who had been in line since 3 in the afternoon and still didn't make it inside.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
side dish: Osteria Mozza
Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323)297-0100
Believe all the hype--the Osteria has amazing food.
Delicacheena had its Christmas dinner there in January. (What? You think we only procrastinate when it comes to blogging?) Each dish had layers of flavors and textures. The wait staff needed to back off a bit--yes, we are going to eat each and every bite so don't clear our plates yet. They were friendly and helpful, if a bit too eager to move things along.
We started with crispy pigs trotter with cicoria and mustard. We fell in love with burricotti with braised artichokes, pine nuts, currants and mint pesto. How many incarnations of mozzarella are there? The Osteria can introduce you to all of them.
The francobolli di brasato with thyme was perfectly cooked ravioli-type pasta pockets of braised beef. The same beef without pasta was served as brasato with polenta & horseradish gremolata. BP enjoyed the grilled quail wrapped in pancetta with radicchio and sage honey.
The standout desserts were rosemary olive oil cakes with olive oil gelato and rosemary brittle. It took us back to Arles where we enjoyed olive oil gelato cones. That sprinkling of sea salt does wonders as it does for the budino offered next door at the pizzeria. The torta della nonna, with more honey for BP to enjoy and pine nuts, was a wonderfully warm and light cheesecake in a tart crust.
6602 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323)297-0100
Believe all the hype--the Osteria has amazing food.
Delicacheena had its Christmas dinner there in January. (What? You think we only procrastinate when it comes to blogging?) Each dish had layers of flavors and textures. The wait staff needed to back off a bit--yes, we are going to eat each and every bite so don't clear our plates yet. They were friendly and helpful, if a bit too eager to move things along.
We started with crispy pigs trotter with cicoria and mustard. We fell in love with burricotti with braised artichokes, pine nuts, currants and mint pesto. How many incarnations of mozzarella are there? The Osteria can introduce you to all of them.
The francobolli di brasato with thyme was perfectly cooked ravioli-type pasta pockets of braised beef. The same beef without pasta was served as brasato with polenta & horseradish gremolata. BP enjoyed the grilled quail wrapped in pancetta with radicchio and sage honey.
The standout desserts were rosemary olive oil cakes with olive oil gelato and rosemary brittle. It took us back to Arles where we enjoyed olive oil gelato cones. That sprinkling of sea salt does wonders as it does for the budino offered next door at the pizzeria. The torta della nonna, with more honey for BP to enjoy and pine nuts, was a wonderfully warm and light cheesecake in a tart crust.
Save Dainties!
Dainties Cupcakes
11058 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
One Saturday afternoon, INK drove up to the tiny storefront of Dainties and was afraid to read the sign posted in the door. She missed business hours by 30 minutes.
It's not closed for good, but apparently there was not enough retail/walk-in business. The retail hours are now limited to 10 am to 3 pm on Saturday only. You can still make pre-orders for Tuesday through Saturday by phone or internet, but not in person at the store.
Don't let it disappear. A dozen cupcakes a week is all we ask!
11058 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
One Saturday afternoon, INK drove up to the tiny storefront of Dainties and was afraid to read the sign posted in the door. She missed business hours by 30 minutes.
It's not closed for good, but apparently there was not enough retail/walk-in business. The retail hours are now limited to 10 am to 3 pm on Saturday only. You can still make pre-orders for Tuesday through Saturday by phone or internet, but not in person at the store.
Don't let it disappear. A dozen cupcakes a week is all we ask!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Happy Birthday to Me: Rose Garden Tea Room
Rose Garden Tea Room
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
The Huntingon Library is well known for its gorgeous botanical gardens and historical art and manuscript collection. Tucked away in the center of it all is the Rose Garden Tea Room and Cafe. High tea was a bit different from the standard loose leaf selection and crumpets and biscuits tower. Instead, we were given 4 teabag choices and the finger foods were located in a buffet type cart in the center of the room. The egg salad sandwich left a nice buttery aftertaste but the other sandwiches were just decent. There were a good selection of cheeses and the caviar was a nice touch. The cookies and cakes were cute and delightful but after seeing a couple customers stick their heads underneath the cart, we decided to end our tea experience.
The Huntington Library should not be spent indoors. Instead, bring a picnic basket, find a nice shaded spot and just enjoy the scenery.
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
The Huntingon Library is well known for its gorgeous botanical gardens and historical art and manuscript collection. Tucked away in the center of it all is the Rose Garden Tea Room and Cafe. High tea was a bit different from the standard loose leaf selection and crumpets and biscuits tower. Instead, we were given 4 teabag choices and the finger foods were located in a buffet type cart in the center of the room. The egg salad sandwich left a nice buttery aftertaste but the other sandwiches were just decent. There were a good selection of cheeses and the caviar was a nice touch. The cookies and cakes were cute and delightful but after seeing a couple customers stick their heads underneath the cart, we decided to end our tea experience.
The Huntington Library should not be spent indoors. Instead, bring a picnic basket, find a nice shaded spot and just enjoy the scenery.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
"Cheena" in Baja
Delicacheena ventured south to La Salina in Baja for the holidays. It was a week of cold wind, wild children and questionable plumbing, yet it was oddly relaxing.
La Salina is about forty minutes of Ensenada and twenty or so miles from there is La Bufadora. La Bufadora roughly translates to "the blowhole," where ocean water shoots up along the cliffs after being drawn into a underwater sea cave. It was not as spectacular as INK imagined, but it still evoked oohs and aahs and numerous poor photo attempts.
Si, the aquamarine sea and sky made a more delicious experience, but we had some fresh and pretty good fish and shrimp tacos at Mariscos Moreno, the stand closest to the blowhole. It was $7.50 or 75 pesos for five items. What a view if you choose to sit at the benches and enjoy your tacos garnished with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, and hot sauces on site.
Instead, we meandered down the shop-line street to check out the deals. Lessons learned: bargain or it's no deal, get the gordidtas de nata. The sweet pancake smell tempted us on the way to the blowhole and we submitted on the walk back.
At $2 for four hockey puck diameter gorditas, INK kept being reminded that Baja wasn't dirt cheap for the tourists, but eight chewy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside disks were happily consumed by babies and all.
Dios mio! How could we forget the fresh churros sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar--cranked into hot oil, emerging curly and golden and so much better than the frozen sticks found in Los Estados Unidos.
La Salina is about forty minutes of Ensenada and twenty or so miles from there is La Bufadora. La Bufadora roughly translates to "the blowhole," where ocean water shoots up along the cliffs after being drawn into a underwater sea cave. It was not as spectacular as INK imagined, but it still evoked oohs and aahs and numerous poor photo attempts.
Si, the aquamarine sea and sky made a more delicious experience, but we had some fresh and pretty good fish and shrimp tacos at Mariscos Moreno, the stand closest to the blowhole. It was $7.50 or 75 pesos for five items. What a view if you choose to sit at the benches and enjoy your tacos garnished with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, and hot sauces on site.
Instead, we meandered down the shop-line street to check out the deals. Lessons learned: bargain or it's no deal, get the gordidtas de nata. The sweet pancake smell tempted us on the way to the blowhole and we submitted on the walk back.
At $2 for four hockey puck diameter gorditas, INK kept being reminded that Baja wasn't dirt cheap for the tourists, but eight chewy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside disks were happily consumed by babies and all.
Dios mio! How could we forget the fresh churros sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar--cranked into hot oil, emerging curly and golden and so much better than the frozen sticks found in Los Estados Unidos.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Tamale-Mobile
Los Angeles International Tamale Festival
MacArthur Park
Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe
2124 West 7th S.
Los Angeles, CA 90057
213-487-4300
Delicacheena loves an all over L.A. weekend: French-influenced dinner in Santa Monica, the game at Barney's in West Hollywood, early morning rowing in the Marina, shots in Beverly Hills, street festival at MacArthur Park.
It was misty at home, but the clouds were holding back around downtown and didn't turn the Los Angeles International Tamale Festival soggy on Sunday. UE and INK were ready with umbrella and, most importantly, empty stomachs. We joined the foodies and mostly Latino local families crowding 7th St. along the south side of the park. The soundtrack was five second snippets of classic rock and americana, a megaphoned street evangelist ["Jesus Cristo es el salvador del mundo."], hyperspeed dance remixes and blaring canned mariachi. There was a brief reprise from the medley when The Smiths' "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" en espanol was played in its entirety while we waited in line. [Hear Mikel Erentxun. Unfortunately you hear the audience singing more.] We ahhhed the tot clad in cowboy hat, vest and bandana astride the pony getting his photo taken, surrounded by wedding photogs hawking their talent, cookware demos, and citizens for Bill Richardson or Hillary Clinton.
The first stop was a booth frying up taco shells and taquitos, but they were temporarily sold-out of tamales so we moved on. We stopped at one of Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe booths. Mama's is a non-profit training restaurant and has a permanent location across from the park. Tamales were $3 at all the booths. According to the Mama's menu, the normal price is $2.75. They call themselves "The Tamales Capital of the World" and don't offer just the usual corn husk-wrapped variety. There were five available; we bypassed the vegan veggie and ordered chicken with vegetables from Honduras, the chicken and mole from Oaxaca, the Gutamalan pork, and chili cheese from Oaxaca. Only the cheese tamale was wrapped in corn husk, the rest were kept moist in banana leaves. The chicken with vegetables had a fry-sized length of potato, some peas and raisins and a green olive, no pit. The chicken with mole was oozing the rich, black sauce that would have been good with some rice. The meaty pork had red sauce and rice dough. Our hands-down favorite was the cheese with red and green jalapenos (rajas) that had a bit of kick and lots of flavor. Later we found that the earned best cheese tamale.
We had double-grease-torta envy even while we clutched our warm cornmeal bundles and sipped our two buck grande horchata, but a chewy on the outside, gooey on the inside cheese popusa is the only time we deviated from the tamale diet. Me Gusta Gourmet Tamales was winner of five of the six categories at last year's festival so we had to give them a try. This year they were named best beef and best pork tamales so that's what we ordered. They were wrapped in corn husks. The beef were hefty with masa, too much so, but the meat and red sauce were flavorful. The pork with green sauce were on the skinny side, but we were charged less for them. They were decent and tasted better with the mild red salsa poured on top. The cornmeal in both was fluffy and moist, but not as moist as Mama's.
We returned to the Mama's booth to find that they now had dessert tamales on sale-- strawberry and sweet corn. Delicacheena has enjoyed dessert tamales at Christmas time with pineapple and corn, but strawberry was something new. We were skeptical, but then even more delighted with the comfort food. It was like corn pudding (think New England), smooth and mushy, but with the sweet tartness of strawberries cooked down to nothingness. The sweet corn tamale was later devoured by JM. As we unwrapped the husks, the comforting smell of sweet corn revealed our treasured treat. The tamale did not disappoint as each bite melted in our mouths.
Fortifided with cornmeal and cheese, we headed off in the newly-christened Tamale- Miata-Mobile to make deliveries to the sick and infirm that could not join us that day. . .
MacArthur Park
Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe
2124 West 7th S.
Los Angeles, CA 90057
213-487-4300
Delicacheena loves an all over L.A. weekend: French-influenced dinner in Santa Monica, the game at Barney's in West Hollywood, early morning rowing in the Marina, shots in Beverly Hills, street festival at MacArthur Park.
It was misty at home, but the clouds were holding back around downtown and didn't turn the Los Angeles International Tamale Festival soggy on Sunday. UE and INK were ready with umbrella and, most importantly, empty stomachs. We joined the foodies and mostly Latino local families crowding 7th St. along the south side of the park. The soundtrack was five second snippets of classic rock and americana, a megaphoned street evangelist ["Jesus Cristo es el salvador del mundo."], hyperspeed dance remixes and blaring canned mariachi. There was a brief reprise from the medley when The Smiths' "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" en espanol was played in its entirety while we waited in line. [Hear Mikel Erentxun. Unfortunately you hear the audience singing more.] We ahhhed the tot clad in cowboy hat, vest and bandana astride the pony getting his photo taken, surrounded by wedding photogs hawking their talent, cookware demos, and citizens for Bill Richardson or Hillary Clinton.
The first stop was a booth frying up taco shells and taquitos, but they were temporarily sold-out of tamales so we moved on. We stopped at one of Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe booths. Mama's is a non-profit training restaurant and has a permanent location across from the park. Tamales were $3 at all the booths. According to the Mama's menu, the normal price is $2.75. They call themselves "The Tamales Capital of the World" and don't offer just the usual corn husk-wrapped variety. There were five available; we bypassed the vegan veggie and ordered chicken with vegetables from Honduras, the chicken and mole from Oaxaca, the Gutamalan pork, and chili cheese from Oaxaca. Only the cheese tamale was wrapped in corn husk, the rest were kept moist in banana leaves. The chicken with vegetables had a fry-sized length of potato, some peas and raisins and a green olive, no pit. The chicken with mole was oozing the rich, black sauce that would have been good with some rice. The meaty pork had red sauce and rice dough. Our hands-down favorite was the cheese with red and green jalapenos (rajas) that had a bit of kick and lots of flavor. Later we found that the earned best cheese tamale.
We had double-grease-torta envy even while we clutched our warm cornmeal bundles and sipped our two buck grande horchata, but a chewy on the outside, gooey on the inside cheese popusa is the only time we deviated from the tamale diet. Me Gusta Gourmet Tamales was winner of five of the six categories at last year's festival so we had to give them a try. This year they were named best beef and best pork tamales so that's what we ordered. They were wrapped in corn husks. The beef were hefty with masa, too much so, but the meat and red sauce were flavorful. The pork with green sauce were on the skinny side, but we were charged less for them. They were decent and tasted better with the mild red salsa poured on top. The cornmeal in both was fluffy and moist, but not as moist as Mama's.
We returned to the Mama's booth to find that they now had dessert tamales on sale-- strawberry and sweet corn. Delicacheena has enjoyed dessert tamales at Christmas time with pineapple and corn, but strawberry was something new. We were skeptical, but then even more delighted with the comfort food. It was like corn pudding (think New England), smooth and mushy, but with the sweet tartness of strawberries cooked down to nothingness. The sweet corn tamale was later devoured by JM. As we unwrapped the husks, the comforting smell of sweet corn revealed our treasured treat. The tamale did not disappoint as each bite melted in our mouths. Fortifided with cornmeal and cheese, we headed off in the newly-christened Tamale- Miata-Mobile to make deliveries to the sick and infirm that could not join us that day. . .
Monday, November 12, 2007
Side Dish: Josie and Vodbox
Josie Restaurant
2424 Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90405
310-581-9888
Vodbox at Nic's Martini Lounge
453 North Canon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
310-550-5707
Normally, this would constitute a full review, but, if you haven't noticed already, Delicacheena likes to be "in the moment" on birthdays, not on the job.
TTO not-so-subtly hinted that she wanted to go to the intimate Josie Restaurant on Pico. Delicacheena was happy to oblige. We drank a fruity syrah and started with frog legs--INK insisted because she wanted to see if they really were just like chicken and she likes brown butter and capers--and the bacon-wrapped quail. Both were as expected; the former is like chicken, but a bit gamier and the latter a bit dry, but elevated by the bacon.
The entrees were Australian barramundi (a meaty fish with meaty maitake mushrooms), campfire trout with crisp corn and intensely-flavored tomato, and jidori chicken breast with polenta. Truffle fries are often maligned, but we enjoyed the hot frites along with a side of fried rapini, a new preparation for us.
Dessert was sublime. The almond crust of the lightly-sweetened peach cobbler was between a traditional pie crust and a flaky pastry. The chocolate bread pudding was airy like an eggy souffle.
We moved on to Vodbox, located in Nic's in Beverly Hills. And that's what it is--a box of vodka. We envisioned the glass walk-in refrigerator to be larger, like in the Icehotel in Sweden with an Icebar to "chill" at. Nevertheless, it was fun to don the fake leopard furs and be introduced to vodkas from around the world. We liked Pinky. How much did each cost? Luckily we managed to stick with the ten buck shots.
2424 Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90405
310-581-9888
Vodbox at Nic's Martini Lounge
453 North Canon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
310-550-5707
Normally, this would constitute a full review, but, if you haven't noticed already, Delicacheena likes to be "in the moment" on birthdays, not on the job.
TTO not-so-subtly hinted that she wanted to go to the intimate Josie Restaurant on Pico. Delicacheena was happy to oblige. We drank a fruity syrah and started with frog legs--INK insisted because she wanted to see if they really were just like chicken and she likes brown butter and capers--and the bacon-wrapped quail. Both were as expected; the former is like chicken, but a bit gamier and the latter a bit dry, but elevated by the bacon.
The entrees were Australian barramundi (a meaty fish with meaty maitake mushrooms), campfire trout with crisp corn and intensely-flavored tomato, and jidori chicken breast with polenta. Truffle fries are often maligned, but we enjoyed the hot frites along with a side of fried rapini, a new preparation for us.
Dessert was sublime. The almond crust of the lightly-sweetened peach cobbler was between a traditional pie crust and a flaky pastry. The chocolate bread pudding was airy like an eggy souffle.
We moved on to Vodbox, located in Nic's in Beverly Hills. And that's what it is--a box of vodka. We envisioned the glass walk-in refrigerator to be larger, like in the Icehotel in Sweden with an Icebar to "chill" at. Nevertheless, it was fun to don the fake leopard furs and be introduced to vodkas from around the world. We liked Pinky. How much did each cost? Luckily we managed to stick with the ten buck shots.
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