Mexico Roundup I: Chile en Nogada Rules in Mexico City

There are far too many places I went to on my Mexico trip to review them all, and not all of them I liked anyway. So I'm just going to mention the highlights. The best thing about eating Mexican in Mexico is its sheer variety -- so much more varied than Mexican food in LA. I know that's obvious and true for any cuisine but it just hits you when you travel.

My favorite food moment was at Corazon de Maguey in the Coyoacan area of Mexico City of Frieda Kahlo fame (the area not the restaurant). I loved the tamarind Margarita made with mezcal even though I don't usually like tamarind as a solo drink. Mix in some alcohol and frappe it and I suddenly loved it. I also discovered mezcal, which I hadn't tried before, and bought four small bottles at the El Rey distilling plant in Oaxaca days later.

The top dish on this trip was chile en nogada, which fortunately was in season. My friend I was eating with told me it is a very labor intensive dish and worth trying. What's not to like about a poblano chile stuffed with a mix of ground meat, onion and pineapple, topped with a nutty walnut sauce and sprinkled with beautiful pomegranate seeds? It's from Puebla and associated with the country's independence, which explains the ode to the Mexican flag with its corresponding colors of green, red and white.

All patriotism aside, I fell in love with this dish. I've never been a big fan of chile relleno as I found it too heavy with the stuffed cheese and deep fried aspect. But this dish stuffs the chile with ground meat, which I love, and mixes savory and sweet with the pineapple in the filling. The walnut sauce looks creamy but isn't in the least heavy. The pomegranate jewels give the dish a tangy and refreshing bite. Just perfect.

I also loved the chocolate cake that had a surprise center oozing with 80% Oaxaca chocolate and came with a side of cotija cheese sorbet. See what I mean? You can't find this kind of creativity in any of the Mexican joints stateside. Ok, the flavor of the sorbet was a bit pungent for my taste but it was still a welcome take on traditional flavors and textures.

The venue was also gorgeous, as were the restrooms. They're important! Service was also solid. I'd definitely recommend this spot, although I was initially skeptical due to its central location lining the plaza.

We went to a neighborhood taco joint, El Farolito, which was also a revelation. It didn't just offer carne asada tacos. It offered skirt steak or rib meat. I learned that arrachera meant flank steak. Did I want that with cheese? Sure. It turned out it wasn't any shredded cheese or even queso fresco. It was manchego cheese, melted on the grill over the meat. Wonderful.

I couldn't get enough of the salsas either. Instead of the watery guacamole sauce or a chunky order of guacamole found here, our server gave us wedges of fresh avocado, just like that.

I like roasted salsas so it was nice having several to choose from. The salsa verde that I usually don't like was super fresh and concentrated in flavor.

I also liked the flan, which wasn't too sweet and had just the right consistency.

I had two things at Merotoro that I had never tried before and therefore will mention. I'm not sure how much I liked the flavors but I always like to try new ingredients and mix them with familiar ones.

First was salicornia, a green that was very mild in flavor but was an interesting accompaniment to the raw clams and cucumbers.

The second was barnacle topped with sea urchin on a bed of cherry tomatoes, avocados and red radishes dotted with greens.

The flavor was also mild but the texture was a bit odd, on the gooey side and chewy. It was definitely a type of dish not easily found out here and a great summer dish for its crunch and refreshing mix.

One other cool thing I had in Mexico City was fried parsley that came with a dollop of cream cheese in the middle at La Tecla, a trendy spot in the posh Colonia Roma neighborhood. Such an odd idea but somehow it worked.

Another dish that was just as novel but didn't work quite as well was the ancho chile stuffed with mashed plantain. I noticed the balance of sweet and savory was a big theme in Mexico and this place was no exception. It came with a side of bean sauce but it didn't do it for me. But glad I tried it!

Koreatown Food Tour Roundup: Red Hot Mackerel to Ice Cold Buckwheat Noodles

I recently led a food tour of LA's Koreatown where we made five stops along 6th street and got to sample delicious dishes ranging from kimchi spam stew and shaved ice with red beans to cold buckwheat noodles and fried chicken.

Here are highlights:

1. Seongbukdong

We had the galbijjim, braised short ribs slow cooked in a garlicky, salty and sweet sauce for hours and hours until it delightfully crumbles upon popping a morsel into your mouth.

The godeungeojorim, braised mackerel that was also slow cooked equally garlicky but spicy and slightly sweet. The mackerel chunks were super tender as well, as were the moo, Korean radishes, which are my favorite part of this dish.

We also had grilled mackerel as well grilled covina, or jogi, as the fish is known in Korea. They were both good but I liked the braised version of mackerel better. Grilled versions would be good if you're in the mood for something lighter.

The pork bulgoki, where the meat is marinated in a spicy sauce as opposed to a salty soy sauce-based sauce like the classic beef bulgoki. The marinade wasn't too sweet and the pork would make a fine accompaniment to a cold glass of soju.

The duenjangjjigae, or fermented soy bean paste stew, also known as miso on steroids, was good but I liked the one in Jangan Duenjang better.

Another thing worth noting is the banchan, or side dishes, that come out. The owner personally made the acorn jelly that came topped with a soy sauce, red pepper and scallion mix. The jelly was very concentrated in flavor and I could tell it had been made with care, unlike the commercial ones you find ready-made in markets.

Since the restaurant specializes in Kyungsang Province's regional cuisine from the southeastern part of South Korea with a large coastal area, the seafood dishes are its most popular dishes.

2. Ice Kiss

With temperatures hitting 100+, patbingsoo, or shaved ice with red bean and a bunch of fruit and ice cream, was a welcome treat.

We had different variations with strawberries, bananas, taro or green tea ice cream, all topped with some colorful corn flakes pristinely sitting atop a dollop of whipped cream.

Taro was my favorite, closely followed by the green tea. I love that it had a ton of fresh fruits and not too sweet.

In Korea, it's apparently so popular that every fast food joint offers it, including KFC, Burger King and Mickey D's.

3. Chunju Hanil Kwan

Ah, spam and kimchi. They are like peanut butter and jelly. They go so well together although I must say, it's hard for me to swallow spam these days. I used to love it too, but I think my taste buds have changed.

Having said that, the budaejjigae, or military base stew, as it's called, totally hits the spot with its spiciness and perfectly aged kimchi.

The stew has tragic origins dating back to the Korean War, where US involvement led to the introduction of spam, vienna sausage and other canned, processed foods to Korea. They were considered fancy foods after the war when the country was so impoverished that even garbage and scraps from the US military base was coveted as food. Koreans allegedly threw everything coming out of the bases, including spam and sausage leftovers, into a stew and threw in some kimchi and boiled it to death.

The military base stew was born. Decades later, the stew is now a popular accompaniment to soju among younger generations.

4. Chilbomyunok

We needed another reprieve from the scorching heat so sampled some ice cold nengmyun, buckwheat noodles. A North Korean specialty, we got both the broth one and the one with less broth and smothered in a spicy, tangy and sweet sauce. Both mul nengmyun (brothy one) and bibim nengmyun (spicy one) were very respectable but as my previous review said, I go here for the yooksu, that hot beef broth that basically like extra comforting soup that's at once garlicky, salty and super flavorful.

5. Kyochon Chicken

This photo is officially the very first photo of an actual person, Ruth, who was one of the 13 tour participants. She is sampling the soy and garlic fried chicken leg with some pickled radishes.

I love those radishes, although my beef is with having to pay for what in Korea you would get for free. It felt like paying for kimchi but I'll let it go.

You can still sign up for the 9/22 tour here, which may include slightly different stops and samplings.

Asa Ramen in Gardena: Give This Anemic Broth Some Steroids!

I had tried to sample the much talked about Asa Ramen for years now but it was always closed for lunch on weekends. Or more accurately, it only opened from 6pm-2am so had given up trying. Going to have ramen for dinner in South Bay that's farther from where I live turned out to be harder than I thought. 

I finally tried it and now that I made time to go for dinner, it is open for lunch too. Go figure. I know I am rather late in the game -- it opened at least five years ago -- the verdict is a resounding thumbs down.

The kotteri shoyu tonkotsu broth was so weak I thought I was having instant ramen. Ok, that's a stretch. But doesn't kotteri mean thick in Japanese? Come on. Where's the milky, industrial strength pork broth that makes ramen so incredibly comforting and satisfying?

The broth wasn't horrible. It just wasn't thick enough. Was I supposed to order the extra topping of butter/pork fat, which actually exists on the menu?

The char siu slices were solid. I'll give them that. And the noodles were cooked al dente, just the way I like them. But that's where the good ends. It was respectable but merely above average and most definitely below Shinsengumi, the reigning ramen joint in LA for me, followed by Santouka.

The gyoza, another litmus test I like to do when I go to a ramen joint, was just as disappointing. The filling smelled too porky and not in a good way. They were piping hot, fresh off the pan, which I liked, but what use is it if the experience is botched as soon as you bite into the dumpling? Sad.

Brodard Restaurant: Rolling in the Deep (Fried Goodness)

Finally tried the much-talked about rolls atBrodard Restaurant in Garden Grove and glad to say I wasn't disappointed. Evidently, there are times reality does live up to the hype. The beauty of these rolls is that they were nothing like any Vietnamese fresh rolls I had had before. I'm not sure how traditional they are, but I like them.

I think the biggest element that sets these rolls apart is the crunch factor from the inside, delivered by a wonton skin that's been neatly rolled up and deep fried to perfection, which they then surreptitiously inserted amid all the freshly cut vegetables like cucumber, lettuce (use anything but iceberg), a type of flatter green onion strand, carrots and radishes.

The fresh veggies definitely help to reduce the guilt factor. Then the protein can be either a slice of grilled pork sausage, grilled shrimp paste or tofu. Bonus points if you can guess which was my fave. Yes! Pork, of course. The shrimp one was on bland side and I wouldn't order it again.

My buddy PK and I tried to recreate these rolls and they turned out pretty well, if I may say so myself (I know, I often do...).

We deconstructed the rolls to figure out the ingredients and then snooped on the master rollers to see how they were rolling them. They made it look so easy. We didn't churn out the rolls as quickly and deftly as they did but we weren't too shabby.

They were a hit. I predict I will be making these rolls for many a dinner party or Hollywood Bowl outing in the future.

We weren't able to replicate the thick, slightly spicy sauce but that's ok. I wasn't too crazy about the sauce anyway. So we created our own, one with almond butter, garlic and soy sauce with a bit of kick from sriracha.

We also got the "Luna rice cakes," which were little omelet cups filled with shrimp, mung bean and scallions, served with a bunch of greens, pickled radish strips and a side of chili lime sauce.

The cups could have used a bit more flavor but I just had to reach out for the hot sauce on the side of the table so it wasn't a problem.

We also liked a noodle soup that had everything under the sun, including shrimp, pork slices, ground pork, quail egg, "assorted pork organs" and greens in a super flavorful pork-based broth. It was so flavorful that it made me wonder whether it had used any MSG but I'm going to say it was likely from boiling the bones for hours on end. The noodles were clear noodles that were like thicker versions of vermicelli and the soup was topped with fried onion bits.

Now for the least satisfying part. The Bo Luc Lac rice was weak. I haven't had a good version of this classic dish in a while. It is to Vietnamese cuisine what lomo saltado is to Peruvian. The quality of the meat has to be excellent since it's filet mignon. But this meat was not tender. The tomato fried rice it came with was fluffy albeit on the bland side. It reminded me of arroz con tomate you get in Mexican restaurants when you order a carne asada plate.
The taro plus coconut milk dessert was interesting. The wait is usually insane so make sure you come at an odd hour, like 5:30pm-ish on a Sunday, like we did.

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.

Decent Italian, Out-of-This-World Strawberry Rhubarb Pie and Crustiest Bread Around: The Best of Ojai (near Santa Barbara)

I wasn't sure what to expect when we took a road trip to Ojai for the weekend, but it turned out to be all that it was cracked up to be -- relaxing and quaint, with a few unforgettable gems thrown in. Our first stop was OMG! - Osteria Monte Grappa, a cute little Italian place with a nice outdoor patio that purports to serve authentic Italian food. The pan fried calamari in a tomato sauce with a slice of polenta sporting the perfect grill marks was ok but the squid wasn't top quality.

I liked that the bread was warm although in Italy serving fresh, warm bread usually seemed to be the last thing on restaurateurs' minds. Anyway, we used the bread as sponges to absorb the tomato juice in the calamari dish.

It was fun trying some of the local wines -- an Ojai rose that I craved due to the severe heat. It was 7pm and barely under 100 degrees!

The first pleasant surprise was the grilled beet salad, which came with radicchio, green beans and shaved parmesan. I usually like my radicchio grilled so its bitterness is tempered but the revelation was definitely the grilled beets. The tiny beets themselves were bursting with flavor. They seemed like they were just picked in the restaurant's own garden. They were naturally sweet but they also had smoky undertones from the grill, which first made me happy but then made me wonder if they had added any liquid smoke to infuse a smoky flavor.

Nah. It's got to be natural, right? Well, I'll never know. But they weren't smoky to the point of being overpowering. They were just right and added a whole new dimension to the beet salad I had never tasted before. Brownie points.

The first pasta, penne with eggplant, tomatoes and chunks of burrata was just average. I liked its lightness.

Revelation #2 came with the fettuccine pesto with monkfish, green beans (OMG evidently likes its green beans -- never seen so much of it in Italian food before) and bell peppers. What I liked about it was that it didn't taste too heavy like most pestos I've had. I've had very few pestos that I loved. This was came very close. Purists may say it was too watery or that one couldn't taste the basil as much. Guilty on all accounts. But I actually liked the subtle basil taste. One of my dinner companions and I were positive this pesto had more than basil -- we tasted mint, for instance. But the menu cryptically presented the dish as "local herbs pesto," whatever that means. We asked the hostess and server but they insisted it was mostly basil, maybe with some parsley. Parsley?! We swore we detected mint in there but apparently none was used. In any case, I had never had pesto with fish, only solo, with veggies or shrimp. So it was a nice combo that I hope to have again.

And now, for the third and last revelation -- the cheesecake. I've never had cheesecake in Italy so not sure how authentic it was and it wasn't the most attractive-looking piece of cake. But oh, it was the perfect end to a good meal. It wasn't too sweet, which is always a pet peeve of mine for desserts. The raspberry sauce was subtle and the cheese flavor was just enough to appreciate the fact that it's a cheesecake. Italians seem to use ricotta for their cheesecakes but not sure ricotta was used for this version. In any case, it was solid.

The sorbets were good too although not exactly revelatory. The lime sorbet was the best, followed by peach.

Definitely a place I'd like to return to, save for the weird server who carded us (normally would have been flattered but he was creepy!) when we ordered wine and gratuitously kept calling us "love." You're not in London and you're not English, dude!

The next day, we discovered some amazing gems at the Farmers' Market despite the scorching weather. We managed to get the sweetest yellow peaches and juicy plums from the stands. I got the most delicious crusty bread from New Vineland Bread, which is part of a well-known winery in Lompoc that sounds very promising (note to self: must visit soon). I also stopped by Mt. Olive Company's stand, which had the most amazing jams. So amazing, in fact, that I got the peach and nectarine one spiked with chili sauce.

The kicker was the strawberry rhubarb pie from Marcie's Pies/Jimenez Family Farm that was, quite simply, out of this world. I'm a huge pie snob and this was one was, again, not too sweet, and the fruit filling was clearly made with the best quality ingredients where you can really taste the sweetness. You know how many fruit just don't taste like anything anymore? Well, you could definitely taste these berries and rhubarb. This was my very first rhubarb pie and it was divine.

I mean, take one look at this pie. It's a veritable beauty! I just learned much to my delight that I won't have to trek all the way to Ojai to have another one of Marcie's Pies because they come out to the Farmers' Markets in Santa Monica and Hollywood. Woo hoo!! Big thumbs up.

 

After nearly melting away in the sun, we headed to Oak Grill at the massively expansive Ojai Valley Inn & Spa to seek refuge in the wonderfully air conditioned interior.

The bread was freshly baked and warm. The butter was notably good. I had the slow-cooked barbecued braised beef sandwich that came with roasted green chiles, arugula, pepper jack cheese and chipotle aioli on a toasted potato bread bun. It was excellent. Picture-perfect grounds. Impeccable service. All this doesn't come cheap but lunch is more affordable than dinner.  Plus, you get the view.

Try going to Ojai for a weekend getaway. It's close enough and its greenery and remote feel still make you feel like you've escaped the city.