Sunday, February 21, 2010

Tables (Denver!)

I'm always quick to mention that I am absolutely not a Southern California native.  I was transplanted here (semi-unwillingly) three-to-four-ish years ago for a job opportunity.  I say 'semi-unwillingly' because I always swore I would never move to LA...then came this job thing...and so here I am, eating my way through the city.  I grew up in Denver, Colorado, where I spent most of my time eating plain noodles with butter and salt, and mom's chocolate chip cookies...quite the change I've made in culinary appreciation, huh?

In any case, I often have the great fortune of leaving Los Angeles and heading "home" to Denver.  "What would you like for dinner?" is generally the first question Mom asks when I announce that I'll be gracing her with my presence for a few days.  Certainly by this point in my life,  I'm completely tired of noodles and butter (never the cookies, though), so it's always a bit difficult to decide where to go for dinner.  Given my relative new-found appreciation for...well...anything other than pasta, Mom can finally take me to some of her favorite restaurants in Denver - actually her only favorite restaurant in Denver - Tables (she might actually have other favorites, I'm just not sure when she'd have time to go to them since she's always at Tables!)

Tables. Cute name for a restaurant, right?  Tables, as the name would imply, is done-up in all sorts of different style tables and chairs, and the restaurant is just as adorable as its name in so many ways.  There are few restaurants in Denver that have anything I can't find in LA.  I didn't even need to eat anything at Tables to know that it definitely has something I can't find in LA - charm.  This unassuming restaurant has exquisite food, without the attitude.  The atmosphere is incredibly comfortable and the wait-staff (and owner, who was bouncing around the house chatting with customers) have mastered a wonderful balance of friendliness and casual professionalism. 

The tables at Tables (!) are set with a bucket of fresh bread, and a bottle-like jug of water, two of the most important things to have available at all times at a dinner table!  The menu is composed of Table Leaves (salads), Side Tables (appetizers), Head of the Table (main dishes), and End Tables (desserts), to play on the theme of the restaurant.  The menu items themselves are original, with ingredient combinations that are unique, but not uncomfortably so (they combine ingredients that everyone likes, but may not have ever thought to eat together).

Mom lives off of the Tables tuna tartar, but this past visit she ordered crispy chicken with bacon-pineapple bread pudding and black pepper-bourbon sauce. Bacon and pineapple...commence drooling.  When you're with family (and NOT in a snooty restaurant), it's absolutely appropriate to eat off of eachother's plates, so I helped myself to a bite (or two...shhhhh) of the enticing bacon-pineapple bread pudding.  Incredible!  Pineapple and bacon are two very potent ingredients; adding too much of either one would probably still result in something delicious, but wouldn't have the amazing balance and composure that this bread pudding has.  The flavors are subtle, but very obvious, and the chef must have known I would be there, because I'm sure the crust was extra-caramelized just for me.

I ordered soup and salad.  I don't know what I was thinking, other than kicking myself for eating a big lunch earlier in the day.  But really, the soup of the day, roasted red pepper and tomato, was hard to pass up, and I'll admit I was intrigued by the kumquat-vanilla dressing that topped a salad of watercress, endive, prosciutto, and bleu cheese.  I'd had the pan-seared scallops with meyer lemon risotto in the past and remembered polishing my plate (which is quite the accomplishment since risotto is rather heavy), but since I forgot my elastic-waisted pants at home, I didn't want a repeat performance and did want dessert, so soup and salad it was.  (I did get funny, concerned looks from my family, but I figure that worked to my benefit as well, as they were more than willing to share their meals to make sure I didn't leave hungry!)  One thing I have learned in California is an appreciation of really fresh ingredients, and the ability to combine the ingredients in a way that allows each to shine while also complementing the others, as in my lovely salad.  The vanilla-kumquat dressing is heavenly - light, with soft flavors of vanilla and kumquat, and surprisingly delicious without the usual tangy bite of a vinaigrette dressing.  The roasted tomato and red pepper soup is rich and full of fresh flavors of roasted peppers and tomatoes. It's topped with a pesto crouton of sorts, which provides textural and flavorful variety to the smooth, comforting soup.

Of course I saved room for dessert!  I struggled to choose between the double-chocolate smores with graham crackers, marshmallow, and chocolate sauce, and the carrot cake with mascarpone cream (which, as the waiter kindly informed me, fortunately does NOT contain raisins!)   Thanks to my sister, no decision was necessary, and both desserts arrived at the table with extra forks and spoons.  The s'mores are topped with marshallow that actually has the crispy brown campfire-like charred flavor and texture, and melted chocolate that beats a Hershey's bar any day!  A few bites of the rich dessert was all I needed to satisfy my chocolate addiction.  The carrot cake, thanks to the wonderful mascarpone cream frosting (and lack of raisins), is also scrumptious.  I barely got two forkfuls of the cake before my 1.5 year-old nephew, who refused to eat anything else all night, polished it off.  Thanks, pal!

At the end of the day (as it usually is when I'm eating dinner), no matter what I'd eaten at Tables, I would have left happy as a clam.  There's something incredibly special about a restaurant that can evoke the comfort of home, but also the excitement of new and different flavors in food.  If I could, I'd grab a table or two from Tables to bring back to Los Angeles, because we could certainly use a restaurant like this, where those of us without 'fame and excess' can feel a little more at home.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Piccolo in Venice

dineLA Restaurant Week always sneaks up on me.  In fact, I was lucky enough this year to have gotten a reminder a couple days before it started so I didn't miss it completely.  Honestly though, a couple days advanced notice is hardly enough to sift through all of the restaurants that participate in Restaurant Week and finally decide on which one or two to visit. 

We actually turned this decision into a science project, complete with an Excel spreadsheet with sort and filter functionality.  Ultimately, it really just came down to the special Restaurant Week menu offerings (each restaurant has a set three-course menu that will run you either $, $$, or $$$), which are fortunately available for pre-viewing on the dineLA website!  There are a lot of really amazing-looking restaurants that offer Restuarant Week menus, but so many of those menus feature a choice of chicken (fancified because its 'Jidori' chicken...seriously), beef (usually with some French fancification), or salmon (which isn't fancy but some people think it is).   Knowing that none of these have much chance of impressing me, we decided to avoid the places with "boring" choices, even if they were the big name, fancy restaurants.

Piccolo, located in Venice Beach, immediately caught my attention because their special menu offered FIVE courses instead of the standard three.  Five is more than three...more is better.  Piccolo's got extra credit for the fact that there was NO chicken, beef, or salmon on their Restaurant Week menu.  We generally don't jump for joy over Italian food, mostly because Italian food in America is so often spaghetti with meatballs or lasagna or something else slopped with marinara sauce.  Careful scrutiny of the Piccolo's menu revealed no such marinara nor meatball, and therefore we had our winner!

I had a heck of a time making reservations at Piccolo's, which I later learned is due to the fact that they only have twelve tables in the restaurant.  Cute!  After a bit of restaurant research, I also learned that Piccolo's essentially told the Zagat ratings people to take their guide and shove it you-know-where due to a disagreement over the restaurant's rating (they actually asked to be removed from the guide).  Finally...a restaurant with some personality!!

A trip to Venice is always a bit of an adventure. In the past, I'd only been through Venice on a bike in daylight, when the crowd is a bit weird.  This time, it was night and I was in heels and the crowd was weirder...and had a bonfire.  Piccolo's is on the corner right by the main Venice Beach walkway, so the weird street crowd certainly adds to the experience.  It's a tiny place, but absolutely adoreable inside.  They have an open air kitchen, authenic Italian decor, and a narrow curvy staircase that I wish I had climbed to find out what's at the top.  This is a perfect date restaurant, in my opinion, because there's just enough hustle and bustle that you have to lean in just a bit to talk to the person across the table (and nothing is over-garlic-ed to make that problemmatic).

Wine should accompany Italian food, so we picked out a half-bottle even though it's not included in the special set-price menu (that's where they get you!).  The waiter recommended something non-Californian (Italian...duh), so naturally I had no idea what it was, but it was absolutely delicious (and non-headache forming, for me at least).   In an effort to slow the wine's effects (or at least that was my excuse),  I dove straight into the basket of fresh bread.  Breads actually...there were different types: a classic and beautifully baked Italian bread, and some tiny knots of cheese-flavored bread that were absolutely heavenly.   I did not ask for more bread to avoid embarrassment, but looking back, I'm certain it would have been worth every bit of the embarrassment to eat a basketful of the delicious knots of cheese bread...perhaps then I wouldn't continue to dream about them...

For our first courses, we chose a duck prosciutto with a gorgonzola "drizzle" and a watercress salad with pine nuts, fresh shaved parmesan, and hearts of palm.  Both dishes were incredible.  I've never had anything with gorgonzola that wasn't completely overpowered by gorgonzola flavor, but they somehow manage to let the prosciutto shine with the surpisingly subtle gorgonzola flavor in the drizzle.  The watercress salad is light and fresh, but bold with delicious flavor and texture from the perfectly complementing ingredients.

Next to the table were seared scallops with a truffle shaving over parmesan fondue, and seared ricotta with wild mushrooms and pancetta.  Nothing else I can say will make your mouth water any more than it already is, and it should be.  My only complaint here is that I wished I had more, but with three other courses on their way, I was better off without more.

In true Italian form, our pasta was served separately from the "main course."   Pumpkin garganelli with porcini mushrooms, leeks, and fresh parmesan.  The pumpkin flavor in the pasta is subtle, but absolutely delicious paired with the creamy leek sauce and earthy porcinis.  Our main course was a baked pheasant breast, rolled in speck (prosciutto-like pig product), and stuffed with truffled-honey roasted pears.   I was actually shocked at how much I liked this given that I generally don't go nuts over fowl.  I'll admit the pheasant itself was a bit dry (typical fowl!), but the speck was crispy and salty and so much more pleasant than the typical bacon-wrapping.  The roasted pear stuffing provided a perfect balance of sweet to accompany the savory meats.

Thank goodness Restaurant Week menus all include dessert...I always want dessert!  I will admit that, although I always enjoy my dessert, I am particularly critical of desserts, and few desserts really shock me.  Piccolo's desserts, however, blew me away: flourless chocolate cake and chocolate-cream pastry puffs.  The flourless chocolate cake is incredibly rich and creamy, but not the typical super-sweet uncomfortable richness so common in chocolate desserts, and the pastry puffs are perfectly light and fluffly, like chocolate flavored clouds.  I used to think it was only in movies and commercials that people closed their eyes when they ate something delicious.  I actually closed my eyes to eat my dessert, and I still don't really understand why, but it was THAT amazing. 

You can keep your Olive Garden and meatballs...I'll take a table at Piccolo's any day!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Langer's Deli



Langer's Deli is a Los Angeles favorite, a kosher-like deli known for its corned-beef and pastrami sandwiches on the best rye bread you can get outside of New York City.  I was eager to visit the diner, if for no other reason than to escape the overabundance of "California cuisine" (sushi and avocados) that follows me everywhere.

Driving to Langer's, which is somewhere East-LAish, I was keenly aware that "we're not in South Bay anymore."  The deli sits on the corner in a neighborhood that is the last place you'd expect to see a kosher deli.  I was surprised that the line was out the door and halfway up the road.  This must be a d*mn good sandwich for people to wait outside for it, I thought.  Fortunately, the wait was very short, and we were at a quaint diner table in no time.

The menu is a bit daunting if you don't eat deli food every day.  Lots of options.  They help you out by pointing out that their most popular sandwich is The #19.  Clearly this helps with quicker table turn-around by minimizing time wasted to indecision and menu gawking.  The #19 is made with their famous pastrami, topped with swiss cheese, coleslaw, and russian dressing, served on rye bread - clutch.  Sounded weird to me but I figured it was the most popular for a reason, so we ordered one #19 and one #something-else, which was a corned-beef sandwich with sauerkraut and swiss cheese, also on rye.  Having recently discovered an appreciation for sauerkraut, I had high hopes for this one.

What do you order to drink at a deli?  I poked around the drink menu for something that screamed "deli."  The first on the list of beverages is the "egg cream".  Huh?  I asked the waitress to explain the "egg cream" to me.  Milk, seltzer, and syrup.  Gross. I ordered one.

Waitress: Chocolate or vanilla?
Me:  Oh...(hesitating, as if there was actually any competition) What do you recommend?
Waitress:  Chocolate.
Me: I'll have chocolate (duh).

My egg cream came seconds later, and I don't know why, but I was actually suprised that it tasted EXACTLY like chocolate milk mixed with seltzer water that had gone flat.  Next time I'll go for the milkshake, but at least now I can say I've experienced an egg cream.



Two gigantic sandwiches arrived at our table.  I dove into the #19 pastrami sandiwich to see what all the hype was about.  I was immediately surprised by the texture of the rye.  I expected a strong bread to hold up to the creamy coleslaw, but the deliciously flavored rye was actually soft and fluffy.  My first thought on the popular sandwich was that there was just too much wetness from the coleslaw, but I supposed that's the appeal for some.  I followed with a bite of my corned-beef sandwich in an analytical, comparative fashion.  The bread on the corned-beef was toasted, so it had that stronger texture I expected, but had also been buttered, which detracted from the bold rye flavor that was so nice in the untampered bread.  I was hoping for more sauer in my sauerkraut, and found the sandwich tasty, but lacking a bit of the bite I'd hoped for.

As is my routine with sandwiches, I proceeded to take my sandwiches apart so I could eat each component separately.  I prefer sandwiches in their non-sandwiched state because you can take out the parts that taste the best.  The pastrami that was extracted from my #19 was tender and flavorful and absolutely delicious when separated from the coleslaw.  Unfortunately, I could not rescue the beautiful rye from the sogginess that was its destiny.  Even the crusts, my absolute favorite part of the sandwich, were were beyond repair having fallen victim to leaks.  The corned-beef was equally delicious, but didn't have the same wonderful kick as the pastrami.  Due to my obvious lack of appreciation of a sandwich (and apparently coleslaw), I feel I should share the opinion of my lunch date, who thought the #19 was an amazing sandwich. He left his intact and clearly enjoyed the mess factor. 

By far the best part of my experience at Langer's took place on the way out.  I insisted that we take home a loaf of the best rye bread I've ever had.  At the counter, I watched them slice the bread and toss the ends to the side, leaving our loaf "buttless".  STOP RIGHT THERE!  I asked what they do with the ends of the bread, and was promptly told that they were thrown out.  I asked if I could have them, since the butts are my absolute favorite parts of the bread, acually they're the only ones I usually eat, and was sent home with a paper bag filled with the day's bread butts.  THANK YOU LANGER'S...a dream come true!  I also left with a roll of poppy-seed bread...or cake...whatever you call it.  The poppyseed filling, the most I've ever seen in such a pastry, is surrounded by a soft, semi-sweet dough that half melts, half crumbles in your mouth as you eat it.  Absolutely scrumptious.  My dog agreed, and polished off the loaf of take-home rye and poppyseed bread he stole from off the counter a few days later.  I guess I'll be making another trip to Langer's pretty soon...