February 8, 2015: Alimento

Alimento opened about 8 months ago to much anticipation and has been written about quite extensively. The chef/owner, Zach Pollack, has garnered positive attention at all the restaurants he has worked at before this and Alimento has been on my short list of L.A. restaurants to try since it opened.

We arrived a little bit late and were seated promptly by the host. Luckily our reservation was early in the evening because as the night wore on and the restaurant became filled to capacity the noise level ramped up considerably to where it was difficult for me to hear Christal at times. For some reason it seemed like our table was in between the two waiters’ territories because the waiter that introduced himself at the beginning of the meal ended up checking on us one other time, and that was at the end when he asked us if he wanted to order any dessert after we had finished our dessert. The other waiter seemed to have arrived a little late and checked on us once to see if we wanted dessert after we finished our main courses. The host ended up waiting on us more than the actual waiters and the busboy and runner worked like stealth ninjas. When I was writing the tip on the check I felt bad because I didn’t feel like the waiters deserved any of it and that it should all have gone to the host, runner and busboy, but alas, the world isn’t fair. Anyway, now we’ll get on to the real star, the food.

Christal started her meal with the white bean and emmer zuppa with Fresno chilies and bread. Emmer is basically another name for faro. The soup was much better than it looked. It was extremely flavorful and hearty and the chilies gave it a nice kick. The emmer gave the soup a nice chewy meatiness to contrast with the soft tenderness of the white beans. The bread was grilled to perfection and had a glutinous chewiness enveloped in a crunchy envelope. My only wish was that there was about three more pieces of bread. 

White Bean & Emmer Zuppa w Fresno Chilies & Bread

I ordered the veal tongue tonnato with radishes, pickles and celery. This dish was the chef’s take on the classic Italian dish, vitello tonnato, which I have not had before. The tonnato sauce is like a thin mayonnaise-like sauce flavored with tuna and it was a salty rich revelation. The veal tongue was sliced deli-thin and when paired with the tonnato it seemed like the sauce overpowered it. The pickles provided the needed acidity to cut through the richness of the tonnato sauce. After a couple of bites I finally wised up and started using less of the tonnato sauce with each bite and the dish became infinitely better. Of course after all the veal tongue and garnishes were finished I couldn’t just waste the tonnato sauce. Unfortunately there was no bread so I just spooned it up and ate it like the white bean and emmer soup.

Veal Tongue Tonnato w Radishes, Pickles & Celery 

For her entrée Christal ordered the whole wheat bigoli with tomato, pinenuts and fiore sardo. Bigoli is basically a thicker spaghetti and it has a really good chewy texture. Fiore sardo is a firm Sardinian sheep’s milk cheese that provided the dish with the salty richness to balance the sweet acidity of the tomato. The pinenuts gave the dish a nuttiness that helped to round it out. The whole dish was composed perfectly.

Whole Wheat Bigoli w Tomato, Pinenuts & Fiore Sardo 

My main course was the radiatori with braised pork sugo, kale and fennel pollen. The radiatori pasta was cooked to a perfect al dente and had a great toothsome bite to it. The pork sugo was filled with chunks of tender meaty pork that was slow cooked to perfection. Unfortunately, I had a hard time detecting the fennel pollen in the dish because the sugo was really rich and tomatoey. Aside from the lack of fennel pollen flavor the dish was a really satisfying plate of pasta.

Radiatori w Braised Pork Sugo, Kale & Fennel Pollen

For dessert Christal and I decided to share the polenta almond cake with blueberries and mascarpone cheese. To me this was the most surprising dish of the night. The cake was really moist and appropriately dense with a ton of lemon zest in it that totally surprised me. The blueberry compote gave it extra sweetness and paired with the lemon zest in the cake perfectly. The mascarpone added richness to the dessert that made it seem more like a dessert than a sinful brunch item you might have on Sunday.  It provided a fitting end to the meal and I would have to say that Alimento’s food met my expectations, even if the service didn’t.

Polenta Almond Cake w Blueberries & Mascarpone 

Food 4/5
Service 1.5/5 for the waiters & 4/5 for the host, busboy and runner
Christal's Rating 2/5 (-1 cause of service)
http://www.alimentola.com/

January 31, 2015: Babita Mexicuisine

Babita Mexicuisine is located on an unassuming street corner just off the 10 in San Gabriel. I forget how I heard about this place, but I have been wanting to try it for quite a while now and with all the incredible Asian food in the area I know my parents would much rather eat at one of those restaurants than a Mexican restaurant so Christal and I decided to try it out by ourselves.

When we first arrived chef Roberto was there to greet and seat us. He had an extremely enthusiastic personality that made us at ease immediately. The interior of the restaurant was cozy with Mexican art hung up all around and an impressive collection of empty tequila bottles on a shelf near the ceiling that ran around the room. After a few minutes chef Roberto brought out our waters and proceeded to tell us about the special for the night. In the same enthusiastic style that he greeted us with he went on to describe the chile en nogada, which is one of the national dishes of Mexico, and how it would only be on the menu through the weekend because it was the end of the pomegranate season. After we ordered they brought out chips and salsa. The chips were still warm from the fryer and the salsa had a great smokiness as well as a heat that built the more you ate it.

My first course was a huarache de nopal with shrimp, grilled cactus, beans, tomato, onion, chile, and crema. This huarache was not like the other huaraches I’ve had before. Typically the huaraches I’ve eaten consist of a griddled masa patty that is then covered with beans, meat, vegetables, cheese, salsa, sour cream/crema and sometimes guacamole. With this huarache the masa patty was replaced with a grilled nopal paddle that made the dish much healthier and more appropriate for an appetizer. The smokiness of the grilled nopal brought out the sweetness of the shrimp and the crema gave the dish the added richness that it needed. Overall it was a delicious twist on a classic Mexican dish.

 

For her entrée, Christal ordered the chile en nogada. The national dish of Mexico was a roasted poblano that was stuffed with roast pork and a mixture of fruits and then topped with a creamy walnut sauce and garnished with fresh pomegranate seeds. Chef Roberto told us that the dish is originally from Puebla and that it was created to celebrate Mexico’s independence and includes all the colors of the flag of Mexico. The dish itself was very good. The filling was sweet and savory and the walnut sauce helped to temper the sweetness of the fruit in the filling. The pomegranate seeds gave the dish some zing and kept it from feeling too heavy.

 

I ended up ordering the cochinita pibil with pickled cabbage and onion for my entrée. Cochinita pibil is a traditional slow cooked pork dish that is originally from the Yucatan peninsula. It is usually marinated in a mixture of citrus, garlic and achiote and then wrapped in banana leaves and roasted for a long time until it is tender. In chef Roberto’s cochinita pibil the meat was falling apart, but still plenty moist, and it was covered in the achiote-saturated jus from cooking the pork. The homemade tortillas that were served with it were excellent as well. They were tender, yet chewy and stood up to the moist pork. The pickled cabbage and onions were nice and acidic and helped cut through the richness of the pork. This version certainly did justice to the classic cochinita pibil in my opinion.

 

For dessert Christal and I shared the semifreddo with cajeta and sauces of strawberry, tamarind and tequila. The semifreddo was creamy, sweet and had some fruit that was mixed in with it. The cajeta, which is a caramel that is usually made from goat’s milk that has cooked for hours over a low heat until it becomes golden brown, was delicious and I wished that I could have just had a whole bowl if it. The sauces were interesting but in a good way. All three were a kind of progression from sweet to sour. The strawberry sauce was very sweet and packed with strawberry flavor. The tequila sauce was sweet and sour, kind of acting as the mediator between the other two sauces, and the tamarind sauce was very sour, but in a way that helped to accentuate the semifreddo itself. It was an excellent end to a very good meal.

 

Food 3.5/5

Service 4.5/5
Christal's Rating 3/5
http://www.babita-mexicuisine.com/index.html

January 30, 2015: Le Comptoir

Ever since I started taking pictures of the food I eat my friends and family have said that I should blog about all the restaurants I visit. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and I feel like I can’t remember my favorite meals as well as I used to or maybe it’s because I’m finally finished with school and don’t really have an excuse to not write more, but I figured I would finally give in to those suggestions and start doing some writing. Hopefully I'll get better at it sooner rather than later.

Le Comptoir is an extremely small 10-seat “restaurant” that is the brainchild of chef Gary Menes. The space is little more than a diner counter with a sink, refrigerators and counter space behind it. There are no open flames in the restaurant at all, only a countertop convection oven and about three induction burners.

Chef Menes started Le Comptoir as a pop-up restaurant concept that was vegetable centric and featured many veggies from his own garden and he has not changed a thing now that his restaurant has a permanent residence. On this night there was one other couple dining as well as Christal and me for a grand total of four diners, which matched the number of kitchen staff including chef Menes. The four chefs took care of everything from the cooking (obviously) to bussing to dishwashing. Throughout the meal it was fun to observe the interactions between chef Menes and the rest of the staff. Pretty much each course chef Menes was softly chirping at the commis, Josh, to hurry up with his plating and garnish placement and then once the dishes were served he would give him a wry smile. The sous chef and chef de partie were the main “busboys,” dishwashers and cashier.

Chef Menes & His Sous Chef Plating 

We started the meal with an amuse bouche of crispy Carolina gold rice with blistered shishito pepper, sherry vinaigrette & carrot top garnish. The only problem with the dish was that not all the rice was crispy, but with that being said the dish was still excellent. There was the perfect amount of rice to match with the small shishito pepper and the sherry vinaigrette provided just enough acid to keep everything light and brighten up my palate. After eating it my mouth was definitely amused and ready for more.

Amuse Bouche

The second course was a Japanese sweet potato velouté with Greek yogurt and fried bread. The bread that was used for the fried bread was a sourdough made from chef Menes 20 year-old sourdough starter and I wished that we could have had more of it. The velouté itself was velvety, rich and absolutely packed with sweet potato flavor. It had great balance between savory and sweetness, the Greek yogurt provided the acidity to brighten the whole dish, and the fried bread added a needed textural contrast to tie it all together.

Sweet Potato Velouté w Greek Yogurt & Fried Bread 

The next course served was the vegetable and fruit plate and pretty much everything on the plate was grown by chef Menes in his garden. It had a large slice of sautéed apple, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, roasted beet, simmered celery & celtuce, candied calamansi, pickled onion, sautéed carrot, tangerine segments, corn, seared grapes, almond, celeriac puree and finished with a baby radish. Obviously this dish was very light and refreshing, but it also had a lot of complexity without being confused. One of the things I enjoyed most about the dish was how literally every bite was different. I also have not really been exposed to celtuce very much, but the way it was prepared made it tender yet crisp it’s flavor was kind of a mix of romaine lettuce, celery, green bean and artichoke and it was very enjoyable.

Vegetable & Fruit Plate 

For the fourth course I chose to get the supplemental item, which was Santa Barbara spiny lobster with tomato fonduta and sautéed cauliflower leaves.  This dish was outstanding and it showed how incredible simplicity could be. The lobster was pan roasted with some thyme and butter until it was perfectly medium rare. The tomato fonduta was meltingly soft under the lobster and the cauliflower leaves provided some much needed bitterness to round out the sweetness of the lobster. This was another dish I wished I could have had half a piece of bread to sop up all of the juices left in the bowl.

Santa Barbara Spiny Lobster

Christal’s fourth course was an oeuf en cocotte with beurre noisette, baby lettuce, Parmigiano-Reggiano and sourdough bread from the 20 year-old starter. The egg was cooked in the brown butter until it was perfectly over easy and topped with the Parmesan cheese. The baby lettuce provided added crunch and acidity to the rich egg and after it was all spread on the sourdough bread it felt like we were eating a really good breakfast.

Oeuf en Cocotte 

The fifth course was a tranche of roasted blue Hubbard squash with wheat berries, preserved cherries, pumpkin seeds, beet greens and an orange reduction. This dish may have been one of the most surprising dishes I had all night.  As the chefs plated up the dish I have to admit that I really wasn’t excited about the dish, but once I tasted it I did a complete 180. The squash was roasted perfectly. It was tender and caramelized, but not mushy. The wheat berries provided a chewiness to the dish that helped make it seem more substantial than it was (even though it was a pretty big piece of squash). The pumpkin seeds added some crunch and the cherries added some sweetness. Last, but certainly not least, the orange reduction…oh the orange reduction. It was so simple, but it seemed to make everything come together in perfect harmony. The only minute criticism I had was that the middle three to four bites of the squash were under-seasoned due to the thickness of the squash, but once you rolled those bites around in the orange reduction a little extra all was forgiven.

Tranche of Roasted Blue Hubbard Squash

For the sixth course I again ordered the supplemental item, which was dry aged prime beef with rouge d’hiver (heirloom red romaine), roasted pear and parsley vinaigrette. Unfortunately, this was probably my least favorite dish and maybe it was because I had such high expectations for it. The beef was cooked to perfection and rested more than sufficiently and the parsley vinaigrette on top was excellent. The roasted pear was delicious, especially with the pear juices spooned over the top, and the rouge d’hiver was lightly sautéed so that it didn’t lose its crispness, but was more tender and temperature appropriate for the dish. Even though each component was good on its own they didn’t all mesh together the way the roasted squash dish had. The beef was tougher than I was expecting and I think there were almost too many sauces on the plate. The pan juices that the pears were seared in were generously spooned over the pears and the same with the rouge d’hiver and when it was all mixed with the parsley vinaigrette it almost seemed to cancel each other out. In the end I certainly wouldn’t say this is a bad dish, just that my expectations were not met and may have been too high for this dish.

Dry Aged Prime Beef

Christal’s sixth course was a “fricassée” of peas, broccoli and scallions over stone ground grits with jus d’onion. After tasting her dish I wished I had stuck with the regular menu item. The “fricassée” of vegetables was really tasty and fresh and the grits were super rich and creamy and unctuous, but the onion jus elevated the dish to another level. It provided a depth of flavor that made you forget about having any animal proteins on your plate.

"Fricassée"

Our seventh, and last course was a sourdough donut hole (from the 20 year-old starter) with sour cream, Meyer lemon curd and brulee banana. This dessert was good, but it just wasn’t at the same caliber that the rest of the meal was at. It kind of reminded me that most savory chefs are not that comfortable with desserts. The sour cream was just a small quenelle of plain sour cream. I felt like they could have spruced it up some with some cinnamon sugar mixed in or something along those lines so that it would kind of lean more towards dessert. The lemon curd was good, but there was less lemon curd on the plate than sour cream. When you spread both the sour cream and the curd on the donut hole it was just slightly sweet and by the end of the bite it almost tasted like savory dish.

Sourdough Donut Hole

Once the meal ended chef Menes seemed to relax. He started talking with us more and I really got a greater sense of his passion for food and his profession. Overall I would definitely recommend Le Comptoir to anyone, and especially to people leaning towards vegetarianism. It was a truly unique experience to dine in a restaurant that had just as many chefs as it did patrons.

Food 4/5
Service 5/5
Christal's Rating 4/5
http://www.lecomptoirla.com/