Animal was another Food Network recommendation. The episode was "The Best Thing I Ever Ate...With Bacon." Doesn't bacon make everything taste better anyways? Duff Goldman's (of Ace of Cakes) "best thing...with bacon" was the chocolate bacon crunch bar from Animal in Los Angeles. Chocolate and bacon? I don't know about that. I think I'll have to try it. And so continued the quest for the "best of's" in Los Angeles.
A week in advance we were only able to get a reservation for 9:15pm the following Saturday evening. I suppose that makes sense for dessert, but I'm not gonna haul all the way out to West Hollywood just for dessert. So dinner at 9:15 or nothin. The good thing about a late dinner, though, is you can park right across the street from the restaurant and the meters are free! We arrived at the restarant a good 30 minutes early (you never know with LA traffic), and the waitress seated us immediatly. OK...why could I not get earlier reservations if you could seat us early anyways? No matter. As long as I could eat...and soon...
The wine menu looked pretty fantastic, but at 9:15 at night, I'd be lucky to keep my forehead out of my food as it was, I certainly didn't need wine to encourage any sleepiness. For some reason, the Fresh Mint Tea sparked a ridiculous amount of interest, and despite the fact that it was really hot in the restaurant, I ordered the hot tea. It came out in a clear, individual sized tea pot with a tiny cup for me to pour. I couldn't help but wonder if I'd ordered myself a pot of hot water with mint leaves in it. But you know what? It was just what I needed and turned out to be a most perfect palate cleanser in between courses, so what the heck, I'll pay $5 for some minty hot water since they're smart enough to put in on their menu. It's not like they'd let me bring my own minty hot water into the restaurant anyway!
The menu intimidated me a little bit, actually. There were a lot of obscure meats on the list and some unusual combinations. I was pretty sure everything would be good, I just wasn't sure how much I'd like the meatiness of it all. But really, the restaurant is called animal...not vegetable...what did you expect to be on the menu? Gotta trust the chef! We ordered six of the small plates, which turned out to be the perfect amount for two (we were starving).
The grilled spanish mackerel with fava bean salad and magna cauda, is light and fresh and incredibly flavorful. The rabbit loin with country ham, haricot vert, and spetzel is incredible; I have a whole new appreciation for spetzel now. We also had duck confit with apricot, marcona almonds, dates, and arugula, which was very good. All I really have to say about this is that marcona almonds are far superior to regular almonds, and they taste really good with dates. Lamb meatballs are good, but not nearly as good as the gold rice, green garbanzos, and creme fraiche they are served with. Quail fry with grits, chard, and slab bacon is a nice play on southern comfort fried chicken. The grits are even "spiked" with a surprising smoky flavor that makes this really fun to eat. Of course, we had foie gras, which is served on top of a biscuit that's smothered in maple sausage gravy. It was good, but a little to heavy. I actually really like all of the food and found the presentation and combinations of food to be incredibly creative, interesting, and packed full of flavor. Each dish had a meat that the dish was based off of, but I found myself appreciating the "other stuff" on the plates much more than the meat itself; the meat didn't necessarily take over the dishes, and I really appreciated that.
We were obviously up for dessert after the meal, since that was the idea behind this adventure to begin with. I was hesitant to grab the bacon chocolate crunch bar immediately, though, as our last couple dishes were heavy on sausage and bacon flavors. We decided we'd throw in an additional dessert to break from the bacon before embarking on a bacon dessert adventure. We ordered the tres leches with dulce de leche, and...well...oh.my.goodness...it was unbelievable. This might have been the first time I've ever had tres leches cake and I can't believe I've been missing out my whole life. It was life-alteringly delicious. Then we ate the bacon chocolate crunch bar and, well, I don't know. It was not "the best thing I ever ate...with bacon." I'd venture to guess that it's also not the best thing Duff ever ate with bacon, but it sounds good to say so on television because bacon and chocolate is novel and interesting and attracts people...marketing. It worked on me. I tried it. And I'd even go back...but not for the crunch bar...for the hot mint water and the spetzel and the tres leches cake...because those were "the best I ever ate."
