Friday night, we checked out Red Medicine, a new restaurant concept engaging in a week-long test run at Test Kitchen in Beverlywil. Test Kitchen is a really cool idea that provides a restaurant location, usually from a day to a week, for new restaurant concepts to test out their menus (and staff) prior to opening. In some senses, it is similar to the Ludobites pop-up restaurant phenomenon that has been creating quite the buzz in LA over the last year. Reservations are increasingly tough to get; we were told yesterday's waiting list was over 250 people long. Walter Manzke formerly of Church & State is scheduled to cook next week (too bad I can't make it, I've heard a lot of great stuff about him) and Michael Voltaggio, last season's Top Chef winner (by the way, isn't this season terrible) and former chef at the Langham restaurant is rumored to be considering a stint. In fact, I saw him outside the restaurant as we were leaving. Red Medicine is a concept led by chef Jordan Kahn, a former pastry chef who has worked at such illustrious restaurants as French Laundry in Napa, Per Se in NYC, Alinea in Chicago, and Michael Mina's XIV in LA. We enjoyed a $40 prix fixe 12 course tasting menu described as "Contemporary Vietnamese featuring local ingredients and modern cooking techniques." First couple of photos are blurry but I will include them for completeness.
Radishes with coco-butter, lime, dried soy
Cured amberjack with lime leaf, french melon, nuoc cham, bird chili, mint
Tomatoes marinated in an infusion of their vines, silky tofu, crunchy tofu, herbs
Brussel sprouts, caramelized shallot, fish sauce, prawn crackers
Each dish was inventive and bursting with flavors with completely different tastes and textures from the ones that proceeded it. It was like a little adventure; you never knew what something would taste like when you saw it, only after you put it in your mouth. The dishes took flavors that were familiar in Vietnamese cuisine, such as fish sauce, coconut, thai basil and mint, and applied them in untraditional ways and combinations. You can tell when a chef is having fun and it's really refreshing and enjoyable to eat something that has so much care put into it. It was also nice to be able to sample so many different dishes; there was definitely never a dull moment. Our favorite dishes were probably the beef bavette (beef was perfectly cooked and smoky, bacon XO is genius and the sour eggplant was a nice counterpoint) and the coconut bavarois (so rich and delicious) with our least favorite being the chicken dumplings (dry and underseasoned). With our meal, we had some interesting specialty cocktails with a twist including a spicy gimlet with jalapenos and chili and Pimm's cup. Red Medicine will be opening at 8400 Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills in the next month or so.
Test Kitchen 9575 West Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90035 Reservations can be made through Opentable
I cooked with chipotle peppers for the first time on Thursday. Chipotles are smoked dried jalapenos that are often packed in adobo sauce, a nice smoky sauce with tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, salt, and spices. I really enjoy the smoky heat that the chipotles and adobo sauce adds; I've been throwing it into random recipes such as my Mexican corn to use up the opened can.
I bought the chipotles in adobo for my fish tacos on Thursday. It's been quite warm recently and fish tacos are a great warm weather dish as many of the accompaniments are served chilled / room temperature. Usually I like to make mango salsa which is a very summery dish, but I didn't have time to get mangoes last week. I basically followed the epicuriousrecipe for baja fish tacos with some inexpensive dover sole from Costco, the southwestern slaw and the chipotle pico de gallo (although I added some lime juice and a little bit of garlic and jalapenos). I wouldn't recommend using dover sole in the future; it gets a little too watery when cooked. The marinade was quite nice, although I did undersalt it just a touch. I liked the chipotle pico de gallo; I make pico de gallo a lot and I liked the smokiness that the chipotle adds. I didn't care for the southwestern slaw; the honey didn't really combine well with the slaw. I prefer my own slaw concoction for tacos. Not the prettiest picture, but see below:
We had a bottle of Morgan Sauvignon Blanc which was nice and crisp for a warm summer day and balanced the heat of the tacos nicely.
Z and I met up for an impromptu Friday lunch and afternoon together as she got out of work early. I forced her to go vegan organic with me, so we had lunch at the Real Food Daily in West Hollywood. The interior to the RFD in Hollywood is a little bit older and not as bright as Santa Monica and street parking is a bit of a challenge as La Cienega is so busy all the time, but the restaurant was quite packed when we arrived. We ordered the sea cakes, which were delicious as usual (we were so hungry we ate the whole thing before snapping a picture), the tac'o the town and the "Hunk of Burning Love," a kung pao tempeh special.
Tac'o the Town
Hunk of Burning Love
Both dishes were very flavorful, in very different ways of course. I like all of Real Food's mexican style dishes; I've had their "not-chos," fajitas and enchiladas before. It was a very filling meal and we had plenty of leftovers as well. I'm happy to say that Z's first vegan experience went well (at least that's what she told me). After lunch, we checked out Fred Segal on Melrose where Z. picked up a cute top and watched a gaggle of paparazzi chase after some poor celebrity (not sure who it was yet, I'm sure we'll see the photos somewhere soon). We also stopped by the Grove which was nearby. I've actually never been to the Grove before; I think it opened when I was away at college. It's very pretty and clean, but a little in an artificial way. It reminded me a little bit of a cross between Las Vegas and Disneyland. They even have a trolley that runs through the place. Kind of a strange place. I get annoyed at malls without ample free parking; at the Grove, it is only 1 hour free parking, which is ridiculous for LA. Needless to say, we rushed out before our hour was up to avoid the $3 charge after an hour.
The Grove capped off a busy day of running errands and driving around LA. I definitely encountered a lot of stupid drivers today, particularly as I was only driving local roads. In the morning, I went to Beverly Hills and dropped by Williams-Sonoma for some parchment paper, which is one of the rare things that Williams-Sonoma carries that is cheaper than elsewhere. Case in point, I also wanted to buy a 10-inch cast-iron lodge skillet for the grill which was $7 dollars more, but more importantly almost 50% more expensive at Williams-Sonoma than on Amazon. That is some serious mark-up; I'm glad I double checked the Amazon price on my iphone as usual before purchasing it at Williams-Sonoma. Since I happened to be across the street, I also stopped by Lululemon to pick up a pair of wunder under reversible crops that reverse from lolo purple to black. It's like two pants in one, plus I don't have a pair of longer crops in black for the cooler weather, although I really shouldn't even try to justify my out of control addiction to Lululemon. Oh well.
After my third Trader Joes run of the week, I also picked up a couple of neoprene 3 pound weights at Sports Chalet; I really like the small weights / sculpting parts of the Bar Method and Pop Physique classes so I figured that I could replicate the exercises, which are pretty much the same everytime, at home. I can use the money saved on classes towards my Lululemon spending deficit.
Real Food Daily 414 N. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048 (310) 289-9910end_of_the_skype_highlighting
We visited the Santa Monica farmer's market yesterday. We saw pretty much the same fruits and vegetables as last week with even more varieties of grapes, melons and peppers. I love watching the season evolve even through the same fruit and vegetables. It's finally nice and hot in LA so we bought some vegetables to grill outside so we can enjoy the nice summer evenings outdoors on our patio. We bought red flame grapes, Dapple Dandy pluots, a variety of eggplants, corn, heirloom tomatoes, regular beefsteak tomatoes, avocados, salad greens, and dill; I'm looking forward to cooking a good amount in the coming week!
I still prefer the seedless, thinner skinned grapes in the right two boxes
Earlier in the week, we stopped at Johnnie's in Culver City for a pastrami sandwich lunch. Johnnie's is an institution, opened in 1952 (that's old by LA standards) though not quite as famous as Langers, which is generally regarded as the best pastrami in Los Angeles. I know it's sacrilegious given how much I love food, but I actually haven't been to Langers yet. It's too far east for me!
Johnnie's is a slightly divey retro diner with jukeboxes on every table and two nice simple patio areas. It even has the requisite slightly grumpy older female waitresses. We ordered a pastrami with swiss on rye and a hot pastrami with swiss on a roll. My favorite was the hot pastrami on a roll which is dipped in their specialty sauce, like an au jus with a french dip. The sandwich is warm, juicy and salty and the soft bread just sops up all the goodness. You need the pickles and hot peppers that they give you on the side for a little variety. I like how they slice the very thin; I actually don't like the pastrami at Katz's Deli in NYC because their pastrami is so thick, and I suspect Langer's is similar, from the pictures. The thinly sliced pastrami just makes biting into the sandwich somewhat airy and nice. My favorite sandwiches in the world are found at Koch's Deli in its prime, near the UPenn campus in Philadelphia, and I'm convinced that their sandwiches are so good because they slice it so thinly. The sandwiches at Johnnie's are good, though pricey at over $10 for a sandwich. You won't go hungry though!
Hot Pastrami on a French Roll
Hot Pastrami on Rye
Johnnie's 4017 Sepulveda Blvd Culver City, CA90230(310) 397-6654
I know I've mentioned it recently, but I just got to say again, I love the Cooking Channel. I've been watching mostly Molto Mario, Nigella Feasts and Spice Goddess. It's made cooking exciting once again. Sometimes I get in a cooking rut, particularly as it gets later in a season and I tire of the same ingredients, but the Cooking Channel has inspired me to try new things. I particularly adore Mario Batali's show; his food is so unique and sometimes challenging, although he makes it look easy, making everything from scratch and usually with his hands (no food processor or mixers; I loved when he made Rocco DiSpirito whip egg whites into firm peaks by hand, who does that anymore!), everything looks absolutely delicious, and I really feel like I learn something new from him every show. He's so much fun to watch and full of all sorts of interesting facts and knowledge. I wish I could be a guest on his show. I also like some of its non-cooking shows such as Chef(ography) (I enjoyed the Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck episodes), Food(ography) and Unique Eats.
This sake salmon dish was one of those new dishes that I couldn't wait to try; it looked so good when Nigella made it and also seemed relatively simple and quick to make. I bought some wild salmon yesterday from Costco that looked nice and fresh so I was eager to use it while very fresh. I basically followed her recipe with some very minor tweaks. To serve four, I used the entire 1.7 lb filet of salmon.
For the marinade, I combined in a gallon zip-loc bag with the salmon that I divided into four pieces:
2 TB of light soy sauce
2 TB of worcestershire sauce
1 TB of finely minced garlic
1 tsp of dijon mustard
1 tsp of wasabi paste
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of chili oil
2 TB of sake
I let the salmon marinate for 20 minutes. Over medium heat, I cooked the salmon for 1.5 minutes on one side, and then 1 minute on the other side. I cooked two filets at one time. I then wrapped each filet in two sheets of aluminum foil tightly and let it rest for 10 minutes. While it rested, I made the sauce:
Bring 1/2 cup of sake up to a boil and then turn off the heat and add:
2 TB of light soy sauce
1.5 tsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of dijon mustard
1 tsp of wasabi paste
2 tsp of worcestershire
I served the fish on top of rice, cut the salmon into strips (so there's more surface area for the sauce), drizzled some sauce and sprinkled cilantro over it. I served it next to a simple arugula, grilled pepper and grilled zucchini salad with some balsamic vinaigrette.
The fish was so good; definitely the best salmon that I have ever made, much better than the last time. The fish was cooked medium, which I think is the best way to enjoy really fresh, wild salmon. I'll definitely be cooking salmon this way from now on. The fish was so delicate, silky and not at all fishy and the sauce went great with the fish and the rice. The sauce wasn't too salty or overpowering; sometimes I have that concern with non-Asian chefs cooking Asian food; I worry that they think that the way to make it taste Asian is to use lots of soy. Maybe using light soy sauce also helped. The sauce was actually quite delicate and complemented the natural freshness of the salmon with just a little heat from the mustard and wasabi and umami savoriness from the soy. Go Nigella! I'll definitely be trying more of her recipes.
To go with the salmon, we had some Otokoyama sake, which was also the sake that I used for marinating the fish as well as in the sauce. It's a fairly common sake that is found on pretty much all sake lists; I personally prefer Wakatake, Kurasawa, Kubota or Hananomai (all also fairly easy to find), but it was perfectly fine with the salmon. It's always a safe bet to pair dishes with the same wines that you use to cook the dish with.
for the first time on Thursday. 
for the grill which was $7 dollars more, but more importantly almost 50% more expensive at Williams-Sonoma than on 
