Category Archives: Food

Enjoying Scarpetta Classics at the Chefs Counter

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Scarpetta Spaghetti

If you ever needed a reason to dine at Scarpetta inside the Montage Beverly Hills, I’ve got a few reasons.

After the unexpected exit of Executive Chef Alex Stratta and the re-entry of Freddy Vargas, a Scarpetta veteran, they’ve started offering a rather reasonably priced prix fixe menu featuring the restaurant’s classic dishes in a four-course dinner featuring none other than their famously simple yet delicious spaghetti (that is, if you choose it over the agnolotti, which sounds pretty decadent itself). It costs just $45 per person; the wine pairing option is additional.

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Giveaway: Tickets to Screening of “Viva Mezcal” with Free-Flowing Mezcal and Oaxacan Antijitos

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Viva Mezcal Documentary

What’s better than a documentary about Mezcal accompanied by free-flowing Mezcal and Oaxacan antijitos (street food dishes, if you will)? Probably the setting – which will be the iconic La Guelaguetza in Koreatown.

Viva Mezcal, a film directed by Pedro Jiménez, addresses the current state of the Mezcal industry, complete with interviews from biologoists, agronomes, ‘maestros mezcaleros,” researchers, distributors, bartenders and experts. Following the film, tasty treats by Chef Rodolfo Castellanos will accompany a Mezcal tasting.

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Fritzi Dog by Neal Fraser Brings Top Dogs to The Original Farmer’s Market

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Memphis BBQ Dog – Porker Dog, grilled peppers, crushed paprika chips

What happens when you take an iconic, American food known for consisting of meat trimmings, fat and preservatives and reinvent it utilizing top notch ingredients and dress them up with imaginative combinations – before framing it all in a delicious bun?

You get Fritzi Dog, now at its first outpost in The Original Farmer’s Market at 3rd and Fairfax, serving up awesome dogs and sausages made with prime cuts sourced from veggie-fed, humanely treated animals. What you won’t find are snouts, tails, antibiotics, added nitrates nor mechanically separated meat. ”You’ll find the same quality of ingredients [at Fritzi Dog] as you’ve found at [my other restaurants] Grace or BLD,” Neal states. Continue reading →

The Bayou Boil Returns to Dominick’s

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Photo by VisitBatonRouge on Flickr

I’ll admit: I’ve always had a soft spot for crawfish. Once you get the hang of peeling and eating those little mudbugs (and believe me, getting proficient at it is like a rite of passage), it’s like a crafty, delicious feast doubling as entertainment.

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Test Drive a 2013 Lincoln MKZ, Get Treated to Dinner at Red Medicine

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RedMedicineLA.com

There are a lot of freebies and promotion deals to be had in our wonderful city, but I can’t say I’ve run across the offering of an entire dinner in exchange for the test drive of a car, before. And now, we have.

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Wilshire Restaurant: No-Nonsense, Bottomless Sunday Brunch For Your Buck

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Crab Benedict

The Wilshire Restaurant (Top Chef star Nyesha Arrington helms the kitchen) has recently launched a pretty spectacular Sunday weekly, and that happens to be a buffet-style brunch that is not to be missed. Since I normally relegate buffets (read: gorge parties) to Vegas, if even that, it’s really easy for me to dismiss these all-you-can eat, self-serve extravaganzas.

However, the Wilshire Restaurant’s Sunday deal has not only the brunch plate essentials, but bottomless Mimosas and Bloody Mary bar – plus a really neat patio ensconced in the cool, Santa Monica air – at the very reasonable price of $35 per person. It runs throughout the daytime for your leisure, so if you are into loitering, you could go from 11 AM until 5 PM if you really wanted to – but that would be pretty tacky.

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BEP Kitchen Vietnamese Brunch Surfaces Every Other Sunday at Franco

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Chao Sang

These days, it’s not exactly hard to find a pop-up around town. So when on the look out for one, unique themes and meal times will catch my eye more than others. Good thing Chef Connie Tran is launching her centrally located Sunday Vietnamese brunch pop-up on Melrose.

It’s a refreshing survey of her style of Vietnamese dishes. Because sometimes, you just want to go beyond a bowl of pho, and for multiple courses. And the option to BYOB is always a great way to go.

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Beyond Celebrity Sushi Rolls: Omakase at Hamasaku is Top Notch

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Kuromutsu Sushi Topped with Shirako

Hamasaku is a Westside strip-mall sushi joint, its designation as such not lost on the many regulars who have gone for a particular sushi experience for a number of years. There’s a menu full of celebrity rolls – that is, name-saken sushi rolls with ingredient combinations made up by celebrities – and it is this menu on which Hamasaku has built its reputation. Until recently, that is. Now, you’ll have to specially ask for the celebrity roll menu should you want to order off it.

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First Taste: Paiche Brings Refined Peruvian Izakaya to Marina del Rey

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Uni Shrimp Toast

While I caught a peek of the new Marina del Rey restaurant’s interior and fare through one of the Best New Chef reunion dinners brought to Paiche by Food GPS (Portland’s Naomi Pomeroy was guest chef), last night was the first time I got a real taste of Ricardo Zarate’s new menu, taking center stage, thanks to a lucky invite to Friends & Family night.

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Pingtung Brings Pan-Asian Café Favorites to Melrose

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Neighborhood Hot Spot

It’s curious that Pingtung is called an “Eat-in Market,” the “market” designation perhaps being a way of propping up the Asian goods that lie on overhead (to me) shelves along the sides of the deep-drawn cafe. Though I have a few guilty snack pleasures such as Yan Yan, Shrimp Chips, that clear, Japanese soda with the swingy little ball, Calpico and the like, I’d make the trek to 99 Ranch, Mitsuwa or Zion if I wanted to go Asian grocery shopping. (I’m trying to cut down on the snacks, much less MSG-laden ones, anyway.)

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