Forage: Good Roasted Veggies and Interesting Salads

I love the concept of Forage, which distinguishes itself from other "locavore," "slow food movement" types by offering "best of the backyard" of people. So if you happen to have, say, an avocado tree in your backyard and always wonder what to do with hundreds of avocados each year, Forage can help. It reminded me a of friend in Seattle who had a fig tree in her yard and one summer she harvested so many figs she bought a fig cook book to cook and bake all things fig. But there's only so much you can do that for.

Anyway, I was excited to try this place. It was a much more casual place than I had anticipated. It was like a cafeteria of ready-made food you pick up at the counter, pay and eat at open tables. It was packed.

The verdict is that it's above average but not sure it's a place I would seek out. There are some basic limitations to eating at a place where the temperature of the food served (flank steak that night -- menu changes daily) is an issue, seats are first-come, first-serve and most things are self-service. It's really a cafe.

Now for the food. We got the medium protein plate, which comes with two sides of my choice. One plate was the flank steak marinated in herbs and garlic with sweet potato gratin and mixed roasted vegetables. Second plate was rotisserie chicken with mac-n-cheese and a beet salad.

The steak tasted like galbi -- the classic Korean ribs marinated in soy sauce and garlic plus other good stuff -- which wasn't shocking since the owner Jason Kim is Korean. I found it a tad on the salty side, even for this sodium fiend.

My favorite thing on my plate were the grilled vegetables, which included turnips, carrots and brussel sprouts, to name a few. The vegetables were obviously fresh and grown locally and thankfully, minimal preparation brought out the best of their natural flavors and textures.


The roasted chicken was ok but nothing amazing. I much prefer to buy my own chickens in Japanese markets and roast them myself. The mac-n-cheese was also average -- good enough but nothing remarkable.

What stood out in my companion's plate was the very interesting yellow beet salad that came with chopped up hard-boiled eggs, crumbled feta cheese, green onions and fennel. The flavors melded well together and it was a combination I'd never had before, so it was a welcome surprise.

Now for the biggest dud of all -- the gratin. Whoever said the sweet potatoes had to be drowning in butter for a gratin to be good? It had so much butter that butter was all I could taste. I love butter but not if it overpowers my food. It should complement it. Such a pity, since I love sweet potatoes. But I couldn't finish it. Yuck.

I'm glad I tried it. It's decent food at decent prices but ultimately not enough for me to make a point of going back.

Barbrix: Overpriced and Overrated

This hot spot is tucked away and almost invisible unless you look really hard to find it. Barbrix is an extremely crowded bar/restaurant that serves some Italian, Spanish and French items but ultimately failed to impress. I was excited to see so many choices under cured meats and cheeses so ordered a sampler of five kinds of ham. These included Jamon Serrano, prosciutto, speck, culatello and chorizo. They were all good enough, although the Jamon Serrano was not as fantastic as the Jamon Iberico de Bellota at The Bazaar. I mean, forget about it. No contest. Then the prosciutto wasn't as amazing as the one I had at Girasole.

Don't mean to be too negative here, but it's true that if you're going to offer cured meat plates and such that they be sliced super thin to the point of being transparent. That's really important. But they weren't sliced this way.


There are two things I did like about this place --the bread and the wine selection. The bread was nicely charred and warm, although yes, still not as good as Bouchon's most excellent bread I've been dreaming about since trying it last month.

I'm no big wine expert, but when I saw Lambrusco being offered, I had to get it since so few places offer it. The last time I had it was at Hatfield's and this was a fraction of the price. This sparkling red was refreshing and paired very well with my salty meats. It reminded me of my trip to Italy last summer. Ah, how I wish we had more Lambrusco available here! Not the $3.99 bottle. A real one.

In any case, I found the bar service not up to par although the owner or manager took off an item off the bill when I told the bartender that it wasn't very good and he saw that it stayed on the plate barely touched.

The culprit? This "crispy" pork belly wasn't just not crispy but there was hardly any meat on it. I understand there's going to be fat but this was all fat and no flesh! So as much as I love me some fat, I couldn't get myself to eat these. I found these poorly executed. Maybe they need a lesson from Chego chef Roy Choi of kogi truck fame, who makes the best glazed pork belly chunks.

To be fair, I haven't tried its dinner menu but I feel like I've tried enough. Actually, one of my favorite dishes our party shared was the grilled baby broccoli that was perfectly charred and seasoned. Never thought I'd get excited about a broccoli dish but that's how good it was. Or maybe that's how unremarkable the other meat dishes were, and you know how much I love meat.

Juicy Burger: Decent Value But Not Good Enough to Return

Juicy Burger in Silver Lake seems like a place to go for a quick, cheap and above average burger. It's good value but don't think I'll be returning for various reasons.

I know that's what you get for your money, but those stools were utterly uncomfortable and made for a less than a satisfying experience. If you're on the go and just want to pop in for a bite, it may not be a big deal. But it's definitely not a place to sit down and talk over a burger and shake.



But I digress. Let's talk about the burger itself. I got the signature Juicy Burger and added Cheddar cheese and my one free dipping sauce choice for the fries (cheap) was barbecue sauce. I had to send the burger back once because it came overcooked the first time when I had asked for medium rare.

The second time around, it was cooked right, although the patty itself was so anemic that it barely made a difference. The quality of the meat was decent. I'll give them that. I could see the dude in the back forming the patties by hand so they are definitely freshly made daily. No frozen patties shenanigans a-la fast food. I also liked the red onions it came with, but wasn't crazy about the shredded iceberg lettuce drowning in Thousand Island dressing that made it not only messy to eat, but also drowned everything else with it in terms of flavor.

As for the bun, it was a fresh brioche that was in and of itself ok, but as a burger bun, way too dense, especially on top. Like it was a meal by itself. The ratio of bun to meat was like 9:1, which should be more balanced.

The California burger with guacamole and bacon looked good but was just ok, according to my Burger Club companion who, like me, ranks Houston's as her favorite burger in LA.

The fries were ok but after having a few, I could taste the oil they were fried in, and they tasted a bit stale. In fact, I couldn't finish the fries or the burger because they suddenly tasted too heavy. The barbecue sauce, however, was very good and the owner was nice enough to give me a little container to go.

But I won't be returning unless I happen to pass by this place at 2am, there's nothing else that's open nearby (although there's always Ktown), I'm starving and don't care to linger -- which, in my book, is pretty much never. I'd rather go to BCD Tofu House or Hodori in Ktown that are open 24-hours any day over this greasy spoon that may just be too greasy.

Local: Flavor Wanted

Why does organic have to taste so bland? Local in Silver Lake prides itself in serving, well, local food that's good for you -- organic, etc. The online menu looked so promising, filled with items like pork belly with apples and wilted spinach and osso bucco style braised pork shank on brioche. Well, I was sorely disappointed. The semi-outdoor seating and vibe were great, but the food sucked!

I had the artichoke and goat cheese croquettes, which sounded great on paper and tasted just ok on execution. I liked that it came with a green salad to balance out the heaviness from the deep fried goodies. The creamy crab croquettes at Shinsengumi Shabu Shabu were far better, if we were to compare with other Japanese-style venues (our waiter told us the chef came from Matsuhisa -- too bad it didn't show).

Then came the main course, "Japanese-style" osso bucco pork with garlic fries. I was expecting tender as buttah but the pork was hard, a total disappointment. The marinade was sweet and salty, ala teriyaki -- hence the "Japanese-style" moniker -- but it was far too sweet and not salty enough. The garlic fries were fine but they had already lost me at bland.

I also tried the albondigas burger, a pork burger made in the tradition of Mexican meatballs, and fried yams as a side. The burger was bland again and no amount of queso fresco sprinkled on top could give it the flavor it deserved. The fried yam wedges were fine. They weren't particularly crispy but I'm partial to yam or sweet potato fries so I still enjoyed them, dipping them in the creme fraiche provided.

I have to lament, I have yet to like a restaurant in Silver Lake. I liked canele, but that's in Atwater Village, right?

I welcome any suggestions. I need flavor!

One thing I didn't like about the service was that same old practice of giving us the bill before we ask for it. Don't do it. It's a REAL turnoff, especially if there isn't a line of people clamoring to get a table. It's BYOB so bring your fave booze. Parking on the street was easy.

Local
2943 W. Sunset Blvd.
(323) 662-4740

Get Your Burger Fix

After many disappointing outings, our burger club resumed to mild success at Fix Burger in Silver Lake. While the beef burger cooked medium rare with avocado, American cheese and barbecue sauce on the side was above average, the patty was a bit pasty for my taste. I loved that it offered sweet potato fries, but was bummed to see that the fries had been fried a while back and flash-fried just before coming out. I could tell because they were crispy but too hard. Just didn't taste as fresh as, say, the amazing sweet potato fries at Mr. Bartley's in Cambrige, MA (which, by the way, has great burgers too).

Let's talk about the burger. The bun was too flimsy and didn't hold its own to the patty and toppings. This place apparently specializes in unusual burgers like ostrich and buffalo burgers, and also has vegetarian options (but you know how I feel about that). I've had buffalo burgers before but I'm not feeling the ostrich kind, not least because I like my burgers pretty bloody. The thought of consuming a bloody ostrich burger (if they'll even cook it that way for me) isn't too appealing but I will probably try it one day.

Bottom line is that Fix ranks higher than Lucky Devil's, the Hungry Cat's Pug Burger and Weiland Brewery's burger for its taste and value, and similar to the one at 25 degrees in Hollywood, but nowhere near, yes, my all-time favorite Houston's California burger. Granted, Fix's quarter pounder is half the price but also half the flavor, half the juiciness, you get the idea. I think key is the fat content of the patty that will make it juicy. The way it's ground also matters so it's not too pasty but just chunky enough.

It's strange. Everyone at the burger club agrees Houston's has the best burger and yet we've never gone as a group to savor it. It's like we're forever in a quest for a better burger in L.A. but inevitably we haven't found it. We are limited by our budgets but I am willing to try Comme Ca and other high-end burgers (although heard Grace's burger was underwhelming, agree?).

The atmosphere was a bit sterile (Pinkberry meets Yogurtland -- wait, don't they have the same decor?) but service was fine and it was so baby-friendly that almost all the other customers seemed to have babies in tow. Its shakes are supposed to be good but alas, I'm no shake fan. I am a fan of BYOB, though, which I happily complied with by bringing my own Pacifico.

Stay tuned for my best of 2008 list!

Fix Burger
2520 Hyperion Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 661-8494