PlonkMan's Profile
Ado in Venice: Amazing Al Dente Homemade Pasta!
Ouch. We had a very good dinner there.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/607656
When my wife complained her truffle was flavorless they comped it. But you'd think they would have learned their lesson.
The wine list is clearly unacceptable, though.
Intelligentsia Venice now open
Synessos
La Marzocco
modded
Two proper nouns and a verb I clearly need to learn. Thanks.
Intelligentsia Venice now open
Now I feel like an oaf. I've been there at least four times and I thought there was just the one line in front. What's the slow bar?
Ado in Venice: Amazing Al Dente Homemade Pasta!
How are they priced? Is there a decent selection in the $30 range?
Ado in Venice: Amazing Al Dente Homemade Pasta!
Great report. Thank you. I love Ado after one visit. How is their wine list?
Ado, Venice?
>That plus a glass of Prosecco
So their license came through. Fantastic. I was afraid it would drag on much longer.
How's their wine list? Do they have at least a few bottles in the $30 range?
Ado, Venice?
We ate there Saturday night. Fantastic. The owner, Paolo, is a real charmer, as are his waiters. I had a dish of tagliatelle with fried zucchni, teardrop tomatoes, and walnut pesto, which was delicious. And I dislike zucchini and walnuts. Ann decided to splurge on a plate of ravioli with fresh shaved truffle ($35). Unfortunately, and through no fault of the chef, the truffle was more or less flavorless. When Ann brought this to our waiter's attention, Paolo himself came over to apologize and take it off the bill. Desserts - semifreddo and panna cotta - were also fantastic. Four people, one appetizer, four pastas (one comped), three desserts, no wine, $85. We intend to go again as soon as possible, even before they get their liquor license. (And I was pleased to see the place full despite the absence of wine.) Good bread, too.
Saint Estephe? John Sedlar?
St. Estephe was good, Abiquiu was good, the cookbook was a flippin' nightmare. Labored for miserable hours on one recipe and it came out badly. And I swear it wasn't our fault...
Ado, Venice?
Does anyone know anything about Ado, the new place opening on Main where the late and much missed Amuse was?
It gets a brief mention here:
http://www.foodgps.com/review/ado-replacing-amuse-in-venice/
The proprietors are obviously being close-mouthed for now, but something about the way the blog's author used only their first names seemed to suggest they were already a known quantity in the local restaurant world.
Late Late Valentine's Dinner SM/Venice Area?
Hal's isn't a bad idea either, and the location is perfect.
Thanks nosh & molly.
Still open to suggestions, though...
Late Late Valentine's Dinner SM/Venice Area?
My wife and I are going to a concert Saturday night in Santa Barbara. So it's either a rushed dinner before the show with the early bird crowd, or a 10ish dinner in SB shadowed by the necessity of a drive home I'm not looking forward to, or an after midnight dinner back here.
Can anyone suggest a decent and somewhat Valentine-appropriate restaurant in the Santa Monica/Venice area open past midnight?
Early Valentine's Dinner Near UCSB
My wife and I are going to hear Patti Smith and Philip Glass at UCSB Saturday night at 8. Not your traditional Valentine's Day, but, hey, that's when they scheduled it. So we'd like to have an early dinner, at someplace Valentine-appropriate, in the vicinity. Almost all types of food will do, so long as it's good and the place is at least more romantic than divey. Thanks in advance.
Something to Drink
Wow! I'm really impressed by the sheer number of suggestions on the second round. Thanks to all of you.
Of course I'm reading this Wednesday morning, after I gave up and had about a third of a glass of wine with dinner last night, but I'm none the worse for wear. No one ever said cold turkey was a picnic.
Something to Drink
Water. But my "lunch", eaten at my desk while I'm still on the clock, hardly merits being called a meal. (Zone bar [see comment re Pollan's dictum], apple, some multigrain chips.) When I'm sitting down to a proper hot dinner I want a proper drink.
Seltzer is still water and tart lemonade is still fruity.
I've never tried kvass. Any thoughts on the subject? Though I don't believe it's available even at the epic Whole Foods recently opened in my 'hood.
Something to Drink
Okay. Never mind my name for the moment. I've decided to forswear beer and wine with dinner for a little while and I'm looking for a substitute.
I love water but I find it unsatisfying with meals.
Soda, fruit juice, and anything sweet are out.
Tea, coffee, or any variation thereon, caffeinated or not, won't do.
Alcohol-free beer and wine will make me wistful.
Milk? Yeah right.
Any suggestions? Some traditional beverage I haven't thought of? Something non-traditional, the product of a laboratory? I'm willing to disregard Michael Pollan's advice and eat (or drink) something my grandmother wouldn't have recognized as food (or drink).
Thanks in advance.
Confession: I'm an offal lover. Are you?
You and me and Leopold Bloom, dude. Let's form a support group, the purpose of which (in contrast to the purpose of support groups for people suffering life-threatening or at least inconvenient addictions and desires) will be to satisfy our healthy craving, which has the additional benefit, to nature and society and my conscience, of assuring that no edible part of a slaughtered beast goes to waste.
Our first task will be to contact Fergus Henderson and urge him to open a restaurant in Los Angeles. If that thug Gordon Ramsay can open a local joint, the sole purpose of which, I suppose, is to give him an echo chamber in which he can tell his employees to fuck off (when he happens to jet into town), then surely the UK has a duty to restore balance by sending us Henderson, who only eviscerates animals, presumably with knives instead of f-words. Although it may be cheaper to fly to London for dinner at St. John by the time the British economy finishes collapsing.
You started this, degustateur, so you call Fergus.
P.S. I've had good sweetbreads at 2117 and Fraiche. And while this is way outside the realm of my knowledge, Hakka cuisine of China is renowned for its resourceful use of offal. You might consult someone on this board who knows his way around the San Gabriel valley.
Gjelina: wow!
I went there a few weeks back with a typically ravenous appetite after a small breakfast and lunch, a five mile run, and a few hours of housecleaning. I wasn't sure a salad, a pizza, and a beer wouldn't leave me hungry for dessert. But I was satisfied.
Their "larger" dishes tend to be on the small side, I'll grant you, but those pizzas tend to be more filling than you'd expect, despite the thin crust. Your hunger may vary.
Agra Indian kitchen report
I think he's talking about the one in Venice. Lincoln between Grant and Harrison. Just north of Washington, west side of the street. Right next to the pawn shop. (Lincoln reminds me of Martin Amis's description of Broadway in Money: it always manages to be just a little bit seedier than the neighborhoods it passes through.)
And I concur about the Lamb Vindaloo. Slightly painful but not so much that your tongue can't make out the spices. Much better than so many of the overly creamy versions I've had. Though it might not be fiery enough for Keith "napalm sauce" Talent, to throw in another Amis reference.
Absinthe
>it looks really cool
...and tastes like burnt sugar, the better to disguise the taste of the industrial effluent being sold as absinthe in Prague.
Le Saigon BYO question
Question being, are you allowed to BYO or are they strictly compliant with the law?
Absinthe
Good point. I think there's a reason why the ritual of absinthe preparation involves adding a fair amount of water...
Absinthe
Liqueurs de France sells Breaux's absinthe online, and they ship to the U.S. (And, as the website notes, the current exchange rate makes this a good time to buy.)
Absinthe
Well, don't be too disappointed. It's still strong drink, which has been successfully driving people batshit for thousands of years.
Try to search out the New Yorker article on T.A. Breaux, the New Orleans chemist turned obsessive absinthe enthusiast. (Published the year before last, I think.) I bought one of his absinthes back when you had to order it through Liqueurs de France in the UK. Good stuff.
Absinthe
>the potent compound thujone, which gives classic absinthe its hallucinatory properties
This is a myth.
I don't know of restaurants or bars that serve genuine absinthe (though there's now no legal reason they can't, and I'm only unaware of them because I don't make it to many bars and seldom order hard liquor in restaurants) but you can buy the real thing (now distilled in America, by St. George Spirits, and I believe others) at better-stocked liquor stores. (I've seen St. George Absinthe Verte at Beverage Warehouse in Culver City. Look for the monkey on the label.)
Inauguration breakfast?
>Just take a laptop...
You're talking to a guy who wrote a thousand page novel longhand. (And typed it up at work.)
Okay, so I finally gave up on the breakfast part, so this isn't really Chowhound material any more, but I'll share my findings with anyone interested. You can watch the inauguration with a crowd at the Ocean Park Church (2nd and Hill, featuring free "continental breakfast") or at the Broad Stage (11th and something, no breakfast, I'll eat at home.)
Inauguration breakfast?
Well, if Pie & Burger weren't in Pasadena that would work for me. I'd even have Pie & Burger for breakfast. But it's got to be West LAish. Come on, somebody help a poor guy who had his cable disconnected after Bush was elected and likes life without TV so much he's not going back just because the electorate got it right this time. I just need the tube for an hour. Plus breakfast, thank you.
LA equivalent of Dean & DeLuca?
>Isn't that mostly equipment with a small food section?
No, Surfas has a pretty substantial food section. It's not quite D&D, but I think it's about as close as you'll get around here. Not as flashy as D&D either, which suits me fine.
