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GREAT TASTES IN BRENTWOOD

By foodflirt90210 ⋅ October 8, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

I I spent this past Sunday exploring the culinary offerings at the Great Tastes in Brentwood festival. About 20 restaurants in and around Brentwood set up booths that boast some of their signature fare. It’s only $2.00 to enter the event and then you purchase “scrip” to taste the food … 1 scrip is $2.00 and items range from 1-3 scrip … not bad.

I began my little adventure at Cafe del Ray where Jason Niederkorn is the executive chef. On the menu: Rabbit Rillette on crostini with persimmon marmalade, green apple celery root soup, and chocolate truffle cookies.

I opted for the Rabbit Rillette and it was delicious. The golden crostini; perfectly crisp without being dry thanks to just the right amount of olive oil I. The tart, sweet persimmon marmalade mingled well with the soft, savory rabbit rillette and made a gorgeous pair. Together with crunchy crostini this appetizer had both fabulous taste and texture. I was so satisfied with the rabbit I wanted to try their soup and truffle cookies, but I had to give some other restaurants a try :)

Next stop, Pecorino where chef Raffaele Sabatini presides. I chose a dish that reminded me of a cross between an au gratin and a Paella. The regional dish from Puglia in south eastern Italy was a flavorful medley of riso, thinly sliced potatoes that melted in my mouth, mussels, zucchini, summer squash, and tomatoes. Besides being a touch heavy on oil, it was wonderful Italian comfort food.

The chef was kind enough to give me a sample of roasted pork leg as well. It was wonderfully simple, tender and the marbling gave it a rich, satisfying flavor. All three gentlemen from Pecorino including Mario, who is one of the owners, were clearly passionate about their food and I can not wait to try the restaurant!

Somehow I managed to have enough self control to save room for dessert … difficult when all the food thus far had been scrumptious and served as much more than just a taste. I headed over to Punch Grill where I’d seen the spiced panna cotta dessert. I’d actually never had panna cotta before, so this was the perfect time to try something new. Three words: Creamy, velvety, bliss. Why I’ve never ordered panna cotta before, I have no idea but if this is what I’ve been missing I’m looking forward to making up for lost time. Each lush, subtly sweet bite enrobed my entire mouth with pleasure. The flavor of any spices was a bit lost but the berries on top cut the richness of the dessert very well.

I REALLY wanted to eat the entire petite pot of heaven but with 4 tickets left I was eyeing a red velvet cupcake across the way so … regretfully, I left half of the panna cotta uneaten and strolled over to continue my sugar rush at SusieCakes.

This was unquestionably the best red velvet cupcake I’ve had in LA; FAR superior to well, all the other cupcake stores. (Why name names, you know who Iâ€™m talking about.) I took one, two, three licks of the fluffy white frosting spilling over the edges of the little ruby red cake. Um … AMAZING! Tart nâ€™ tangy, sweet nâ€™ creamy, everything that great cream cheese frosting should be. The cake itself was not only super tender and buttery but also filled with even more of that addicting frosting. I really really wanted to eat the whole thing … so I did :)