Providence: Fancy Seafood Using Asian Ingredients is a Winner But Save Up Before You Go

I had high expectations of Providence, a fancy shmancy place known for its seafood cooked using Asian ingredients and sauces. Oh, and its multiple dollar signs when listed indicating it's a pricey place. I'm normally a pretty demanding customer when it comes to restaurants that charge an arm and a leg. If I'm going to pay bank, I expect the ambiance to be wonderful, the service attentive, knowledgeable and unpretentious and the food stellar.

Shortly after my dinner companion and I arrived, we were told we needed to wait as our table "was not ready." As we sat there waiting for our third friend to show up, it dawned on me that they were just being lame and not seating us to wait for the entire party to be present. I have to vent a bit here. I don't understand why restaurants do this! It is the most frustrating, customer-UN friendly practice ever! Don't make your customers wait for the sake of your convenience. If there's a reasonable reason restaurants do this, I have yet to hear it. It's not like we had a 8-person party. So we were seated after I asked our hostess what the holdup was. Overall food was very good. Service was above average but short of my expectations for a restaurant of this caliber (and price tag).

One thing I do love about fancy restaurants is that at least they give you a few freebies like amuse bouche in the beginning of the meal to whet your appetite. Providence was no exception and I took diligent mental notes of what everything was but unfortunately, my brain has limited memory so I wasn't able to remember everything.

The first soupy one was a bright green concoction that was likely a cold cucumber soup with some foamy thing in the bottom, paired with a cheese puff. Presentation was gorgeous and it was nice having a cold starter in this scorching weather although the interior felt a bit over-air conditioned after a while.

The most effective "mouth-amuser," as it translates from French, was the salmon skin chips that came displayed on a marble-like plate with compartments, accompanied with a trout roe dip topped with chives. The chips were a revelation. 1) I'm not a huge salmon fan, much less a salmon skin fan, 2) it was as perfectly roasted/toasted/torched as you can imagine -- crispiest of crisp and 3) and how green of them to not throw anything away and transform them into these beauties.

I liked the butter and the bread selection was not bad, but again -- high standards alert -- I like my fancy bread warmed up so it almost tastes like it came fresh out of the oven. The selection included bacon bread, olive bread (both of which were bland and too salty, respectively) and a very interesting seaweed focaccia-type soft bread. Who knew seaweed had so many permutations like seaweed mashed potatoes and seaweed bread? Bonus points.

Of course there's always the more disciplined part of me telling me to stop filling my stomach with useless carbs and save myself for the really good stuff that's about to go down. The crab appetizer was, yes, pretty, and a mix of sweetness from the crab meat and juicy sweetness from the melon that lined the plate, which was drizzled with what tasted like balsamic vinegar to add some savory to the sweetness. It also had mango, which was a lot of sweetness on the plate that was tempered, or saved, rather, by the addition of this sriracha mayo that gave the dish the flavor and kick it needed. Another rant: I couldn't believe I bit into at least three shells. I most definitely don't think this should happen when I'm paying $$ for my food. This ain't the Crab Shack, y'all. Am I being too demanding here?

The scallop ceviche that came with "sea lettuce" that basically resembled a type of seaweed, was fresh and naturally sweet.

The main dish was spectacular in its presentation and flavors. French rouget, aka red mullet, pan fried whole and fileted with a green as grass pistou that was a mix of parsley and jalapeno.

Our server had cautioned that the fish is naturally fishier than your average fish a la Spanish Mackerel but the fish was perfectly cooked and seasoned -- and not fishy at all. The flesh was soft and tender. Obviously the quality of the ingredients was solid.

Another main dish, the sea bass, came with blocks of blood sausage, celery root, pickled celery that I didn't care for and shishito. The fish was equally well-cooked although I didn't love the celery.

The seared duck breast had a croquette-like fried ball with some deliciously smoked eggplant, chanterelle mushrooms, black figs and shiso leaves. There was a lot going on on the plate but the meat was well-cooked and the sides complemented the gaminess of the duck well.

We tried three desserts, including a trio of house-made sorbets and two extremely creative desserts -- a peach crumble over a bed of miso pot de creme and a combination of soft cakes, muscat grapes (my new favorite fruit of the summer), rice crispies and a muscat grape sorbet.

The sorbets were good but the best one was the muscat grape flavor. What did I tell you about my new obsession? They were all like biting into the original fruit transformed into icy scoops sitting daintily on avant garde glassware.

The peach crumble over the creamy miso creme was divine. I suspect both the chef and pastry chefs are masters of mixing sweet and savory that seemed to be a common thread throughout the entire meal. This dessert was very creative and it worked well.

The grape-rice crispies-sorbet dessert was also a nice mix of textures and temperatures but not as memorable as the miso peach crumble.

After stuffing ourselves silly with all this crab, mullet and miso peach crumble, the restaurant offered us a sweets sampler plate including macaroons, raspberry jellies and plum caramel. I can't believe I'm saying this because I'm not a big candy person but the plum caramel was incredibly good.

The macaroons were too sweet for me. I'm no big fan of jellies either but I still finished them because they were home-made, so to speak.

I brought a nicely chilled rose from a cool winery in Napa I recently visited for a hot summer evening so we could enjoy a whole bottle and not pay a hefty check. Corkage is $30.

Service was not as good as other high end restos like Bazaar or Mozza.

I will likely be returning although it is, after all, a special occasion restaurant.

It's located in a weird part of Melrose -- not quite WeHo nor Hollywood. A bit grungy for the type of restaurant, actually. But street parking is easy so that I like.

Nhu y Ca 8 Mon in Fountain Valley: 8 Courses of Fish is a Big Flop

I had tried seven courses of beef but not the fish version, which Nhu y Ca 8 Mon in Fountain Valley offers. I was sorely disappointed. The quality of the ingredients were clearly sub par. Execution was poor and flavors were bland. I don't necessarily recall loving the seven courses of beef but this was weak beyond repair.  

Similar to the beef version, the eight courses include fresh rolls with fish instead of pork and shrimp, fish salad, fried rolls with fish that you can wrap in a panoply of greens like lettuce, basil and mint as well as pan fried fish and fish porridge.
The least of all evils were the fried rolls that we could wrap in rice paper we soak in hot water, add a bunch of herbs, roll up and dip in a fish sauce. Tasting fish instead of pork as a filling was unusual in a good way. Otherwise, the course meal was truly unremarkable.

The pan fried fish that came on a hot place was sizzling but overcooked and stuck to the hot plate so we virtually had to yank the meat off of it.

The porridge didn't have any fish in it that we could see or taste like it, for that matter. I know porridge is by definition bland, but this was ridiculous.

We got some meat dishes like bo luc lac with garlic noodles and the bun with charbroiled pork and fried rolls.



The bo luc lac was average at best. The quality of the filet mignon wasn't great. The meat should have been incredibly tender. The noodles were a disaster. Overcooked and underseasoned. What were they thinking?

The fish salad isn't even worth mentioning.

The bun -- noodle salad with thin slices of charbroiled pork and chopped fried imperial rolls with raw carrots, bean sprouts, cucumber and lettuce all mixed with a fish sauce based dressing that I like to spike up with the chunky red hot chili sauce -- was ok but the noodles were overcooked and the rolls gave off a strong porky smell, which could only mean they used poor quality pork or worse, old pork.

The only redeeming factor about this place was the half-way decent dessert. We got the halo halo, which came with taro ice cream and three kinds of beans topped with chopped peanuts.

The beans weren't too sweet (a lot less sweeter than the Korean or Tawainese shaved ice versions) and the taro ice cream was ok.

Still, that isn't enough to make me want to return.

It makes me sad because I feel it has so much promise but I didn't get a sense that the owners cared about serving quality food.

Korea Roundup 2011: One of the Best Charcoal-Grilled Eels Ever

The only time I've had really good eel was at my fave sushi joint, Hiko Sushi, where I usually revel in my last piece (ok, usually anyway -- unless I decide I want another uni...) of my omakase with anago, or salt-water eel grilled and topped with a super light sauce.

I had some of best eel I've ever had at a place called Poongcheon Jang-eo Jeonmun in the suburban town of Bundang about half an hour from Seoul. What a find.

First of all, you gotta love a place that serves you deep fried eel bones as soon as you sit down. I'd never had that before, so was skeptical but I was hoarding them after the first crunchy bite. Note to self: fried eel bones would make great anju, or bar food.

I know they look like they've been displayed in a natural history museum but they were excellent, packed with calcium and sure beat lame peanuts as my bar food of choice.

After a bunch of banchan, or side dishes, were placed before me, nine neatly chopped pieces of minmool jang-eo, or freshwater eel, were laid out on the grill tableside with a copper-toned vent to ensure my clothes wouldn't stink of burnt eel afterward (not that I'd mind).

I went with the sogeum gooey (gooey means grilled in Korean, not anything resembling the texture of okra) upon the owner's recommendation. Also, I knew that if the eel were truly fresh, the best way to enjoy it would be in its purest and simplest form -- seasoned with nothing but a little salt.

And I was not disappointed.

I flipped the eel pieces to ensure they would be nicely browned on both sides. And I dug in. Wow. The flesh was so incredibly tender and tasted like it had just been caught.

The cool thing about this place was that like with Korean barbecue, there was an array of different ways I could eat the eel. Solo, wrapped in pickled kkennip (perilla leaves), with some grilled raw garlic, with a buchu (this is the green that I recently raved about on this post) and onion  "salad," wrapped in ppongnip (pickled mulberry leaves), pickled radish or cabbage leaves -- the list goes on.

Then there was ssamjang, a dip that struck a perfect harmony of salty and spicy from a mix of fermented soybean paste and red pepper paste and other aromatics that is consumed with a wrap (where the ssam part of the word derives from) containing a protein and greens.





Check out "the works."

I had three favorite ways to eat the eel. 1) Wrapped in the pickled perilla leaf, 2) wrapped in a radish round and topped with a slightly charred slice of garlic and 3) wrapped in napa cabbage (it's a non-spicy form of kimchi -- basically pickled cabbage) and topped with some ssamjang.

There's something about the combination of tangy and oily (in the best way possible) fish finished off with another dimension of flavor by way of garlic or some kick.

I'm tempted to go into a rant about LA not having a place nearly this good (I'll have to stick to Hiko for now. Sigh.) but I'll spare you.

It was hard to believe, but the duenjang jjigae, or fermented soybean stew, and gyeranjjim, or savory egg custard, that came sizzling to my table in all their rustic glory were just as good.

The duejang was hearty and bold in its saltiness with tofu cubes, mushrooms, onions, zucchini and green onions.

The egg custard (check out those bubbles!) was soft and the epitome of comfort itself -- topped with the perfectly color-combined green onions on a yellow background. The green onions are added at the very end so they don't overcook and they stayed crunchy here too. I would have finished it off had I not been relishing every single piece of that eel so much.

They say eel has 200 more times vitamin A than beef and Korean men literally eat it up because it's supposed to be good for virility (What's up with Korean men and their obsession with eating anything that's supposed to help in that department? That's a whole other post.). Whatever.

All I know is that it's incredibly delicious and although it doesn't come cheap (about US$23), the treat is well worth it.


Bundang Poongcheon Jang-eo Jeonmun
분당 풍천장어 전문
(031) 718-5129

Son of a Gun: Excellent Lobster Roll + Fried Chicken Sandwich = Happy Camper

I've always been a big fan of Animal, a veritable shrine for hard-core carnivores like me. When I heard the dudes behind Animal had opened a seafood-centric restaurant called Son of a Gun, I knew 1) I had to go, and 2) I would like it. I finally made my way there and I was not disappointed.

I mean, behold this cutest little lobster roll that has the perfect amount of lemon aioli and celery with the super soft bread toasted on the sides just so. Ok, I admit I was taken by the way it looked (adorable) but it also tasted great. The little chip it came with played the role of salt as the lobster was seasoned mildly. They were meant to be eaten in concert to marvelous harmony in your mouth.

Everything was very good but one semi-revelation (because a full-blown revelation would be jamon iberico de bellota at the Bazaar) was the octopus confit salad with chick peas, radicchio and fennel. I've had duck confit but who knew one could make confit out of octopus? The octopus was soft and had a thin crust on the outside with slightly charred edges, as if it were straight off the grill. Combined with the chick peas and other vegetables in a light tangy vinaigrette, it was the perfectly refreshing summer salad.


The oysters on half the shell were good but perhaps because it was raw, I wasn't as wowed. It came with freshly grated horseradish, a red sauce and a vinegar-y sauce but I only used lemon. I'm a purist when it comes to oysters. If it's fresh enough, it shouldn't need any embellishments, so to speak.

I had read that the fried chicken sandwich is good and while a bit puzzled at this menu item at a supposed seafood specializing joint, we ordered it.

When it came to the table in all its imposing glory, my dinner companion and I were at first a tad intimidated at how we would attack this scary looking concoction.

The fried chicken wasn't immediately visible, buried underneath a heap of spicy cole slaw dotted with thin slices of jalapeno and what tasted like picked red onions.

Once we found it and took a bite out of that sandwich, wow, that was one excellent fried chicken. It was probably smothered in buttermilk and then fried in lard or something to have it be that crunchy and delicious.

The interesting thing was that it didn't feel too heavy because of all the slaw with the light dressing and the kick in the slaw gave it another fantastic edge that I loved. The bread, oh, the bread -- a perfectly toasted brioche bun that looked and tasted great.

I was so tempted to try other dishes other message boards and reviewers raved about like shrimp toast, but I decided to reserve that and other goodies for my next visit, when I'll bring an army of friends so we can try every single dish on that menu. Really.

The dessert menu was just meh so we were going to skip dessert when our server suggested the sugar plum sorbet. I think it was one of the best sorbets I've ever had in LA. The first bite tasted just like a really sweet and juicy plum except it was in sorbet form and really refreshing.

The communal tables were a bit tight quarters but it was also nice seeing what others were getting and we influenced each others' choices and, in some instances, even shared food. Our neighbors were having some benton's country ham with honey butter and cornbread and offered us the cornbread since neither of them could eat it. After they insisted, we couldn't resist, and that cornbread was pretty awesome. It hardly needed the butter, although the buttah certainly didn't hurt.

I'm impressed. I'm returning. Thumbs up to the dudes.

Fish in Sausalito: Spicy Cheddar Grits with Spot Prawns? 'Nuff Said

I'm sure the cool maritime decor and foggy weather in Sausalito had something to do with it, but Fish was pretty excellent.

It wasn't cheap by any means but maybe because I was traveling, or maybe because I had just endured a windy car ride that made me severely car-sick, I felt it was somewhat worth it. Oh, and a minor detail -- I was treated.

The fish was fresh and Fish was both good at doing old standbys well (think fried fish sticks) and offering new and interesting takes on old ingredients (can you tell what the picture on the right-hand side is?).



Yes. It was shrimp, but not any old kind of shrimp. I don't really like peppering names of dishes with millions of qualifiers and adjectives, but for the record, these were Kelsey Michelle spot prawns. They looked and tasted different from the ones I'm used to eating at home and other restaurants. I'm guessing these were caught locally and it showed. They were sweet, plump and delicious.

Key to this was what it came with -- spicy Spring Hill Cheddar grits and local dungeness crab gravy. I'm usually not a grits person whatsoever, but I made a huge exception here because these grits actually had flavor -- spicy with that loverly sharp taste of cheddar cheese. Seriously, what's not to like? To add amazingness to the already goodness, it was smothered in crab gravy.

Again, anyone who knows me will tell you I've never liked gravy. But this one was definitely special. While it wasn't exactly crab-filled, the little pieces that I did find really added a lot to the texture and flavor. What a great dish.

The fried fish sticks were good but I wouldn't return just to have that again. It's pretty plain, although I do appreciate its simplicity.

The grilled cheese sandwich was nothing to write home about. But the fries, oh the fries. This place understands that no self-respecting seafood joint that hawks crowd favorites like fish and chips would have fries that are anything but perfectly crispy, piping hot and not over-salted. Definitely not the frozen kind. I had a hard time keeping myself from wolfing down the entire batch of fries so I could leave room for the real deal -- the super fresh seafood served so creatively here.

It's far from home but I'd definitely like to return here on my next trip.