Local Flavour
More reasons why I love CaLi -
3 solid detoxing poops later. Yes I said it, (you must be wondering, and most people look at my size after they watch me eat and ask “where do you put it?!” so in entering the TMI blogosphere herr, I must talk a bit about digestion. Let’s keep it real folks, with all this eating and gluttony, I too hope you are regular, since it means that you are healthy, and when you are healthy, that makes me happy.)
I must confess my love for LA, as the best part of coming for vaca was the fact that I had no plans, and a whole lot of awesome people to see, and in my world, all of that revolves around FOOD.
Last night we went downtown LA to Bottega Louie. Which surprisingly for a concept resto, had affordable GOOD FOOD. That’s what saved the experience really. The fact that their hand rolled and sauteed to a crunch triangular prism shaped pasta in a braised beof sauce was something I had never had before, and as my friend tried to explain the dish as “fun”, I was delighted by how fun it actually was to eat it. We paired it with a perfectly seasoned asparagus side dish that was topped with a fried egg that danced down my throat while I inhaled it on a very empty stomach.
It was way past my dinner time, which meant I was hitting a cranky wrath of janet east coast time gutteral haze. Walking into the hoard of well dressed LA-ers on a Friday night through all the staring eyes was enough to make me feel lost in the giant hotel-museum-esque cafe style type of atmosphere. For the first time in a while, I was self conscious of how I looked, whether or not I was fancy enough. HAHA, oh LA… It was loud, chaotic, and bizarre, like a restaurant trying too hard to create a sense of magic in the “sparkle and vibe” of it all. Sound familiar? The kind of nightmare situation where the hostesses smile at you and tell you that the wait at 9:30pm to their 600 seater resto is an hour and a half wait, where they point you over to the ‘bar’ area already crowded with other hungry post happy hour yuppies and hipsters who seem to have been there for hours already. I looked over at the open kitchen at the surprisingly composed line cooks and couldn’t help but feel sorry for them, with a complete twist of mad respect. This was a place where urbanites go to be seen, which happened to have decent food, which in my past experience always overrides good service and food as a top priority. It is after all, a restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for new experiences, but my stomach overrides everything. and I usually listen. this is after all jloeats.
An expensive but delicious tiny french passion fruit macaroon later to hold me over, we end up getting a table in the ‘bar’ area after my friend had charmed the dudes sitting there to leave. anyway. Like the mentioned already, if their food wasn’t good and reasonable, there would be no story here.
We moved on to two more bars, and finally ended up at Corkbar, a new wine bar in a developing / gentrifying area. The fabulous bartender/sommlier offered me a 2008 Napa muscat that danced in my mouth like a beautiful summer day. The crisp bite of the apricot notes made my heart sing. I love it when people know their ingredients. You can just taste the respect. It was fabulous…and the cheese they offered us really was the cherry on top of all the winey winey…
1am, J-town. something had to be open. After reminiscing about my travels over wine and cheese, as wine and cheese often transports me so, I needed to satisfy my oral fixation with something as savoury as the Japanese cuisine offered within the diaspora of Los Angeles unlike any other area outside of Japan. And I knew exactly what I wanted – UNI.
Nothing gives me more joy than watching someone who’s never had Uni before, try it, savour it, and smile. The sweet golden essence of the ocean made Alex giggle as much as I did. It was the perfect endnote to a fun food filled day.
Mmm ethnic food in LA. So fabulous, so delicious…
what’s next tomorrow? Indian at Samosa’s, Pho in the Valley, ughhhhh yeaaaa…
happy eating ;)
xoxo J xoxo
