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It’s that time of year. The time of year when KCRW has their pledge drive and most of us tune around the dial for something else to listen to during the pledge breaks.

With the economy tightening and people rightfully reigning in excess spending, I suspect that it will be tougher than usual for KCRW to raise funds.

I, for one, treasure Good Food. My wife and I listen religiously to the podcast while we drive around town or on road trips. Evan Kleiman’s potpourri of fascinating guests and special segments along with Laura Avery’s (farmers) Market Report are a local treasure and something very special for us to all enjoy. Evan has often reached out and pulled in guests who are part of our local foodblogging community as well.

Admittedly, I have let my KCRW subscription lapse over the past couple of years. This pledge drive I am resubscribing and I am asking our friends and readers to do the same with whatever they can muster in support.

I reached out to Evan Kleiman and her team to help impress upon our readers, and the readers of other food blogs, the need for support this year. In response, the Good Food crew have created this video message:

If you are able and if you are interested, please help support Good Food and the other programming on KCRW by going to kcrw.com/join or calling 1-800-600-KCRW and giving what you can. If you listen during the pledge drive, you can also take advantage of additional premiums on top of the Fringe Benefits Card

Finally, if you have a blog of your own, please considering grabbing this video (embed code available here, or in the video above) and spreading the message to your own readers.

These bloggers have also joined in spreading the word (let me know if you have posted something):

• Mattbites
• The Kitchn
• Sippity Sup
• Taste of Pace

Thanks!

Subscribe: KCRW.com/join
Or Call: 1-800-600-KCRW

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.

I visited Mariscos Chente for the first time after being tipped off by this Chowhound thread about them. Boy, am I glad this is just a short drive from work. I’m definitely going to want to come back to try all of the shrimp dishes.

I ordered the Camaron a la Pimienta: shrimp in pepper oil and sauce. People who know me will know that I don’t like black pepper. I don’t know what made me order this, but I’m glad I did. The sauce was finger-lickin good. I couldn’t stop eating this. The pepper oil had a nice heat to it that just magnified the juicy sweetness of the shrimp. I’m glad they included the helping of rice on the side because it sopped up the sauce really well. A mouthful of rice soaked in sauce, a bite of shrimp — I was in heaven.


One of my dining companions ordered the Camaron a la Diablo: the devil’s shrimp. Heat-lovers, this dish is for you. The sauce for this dish is a little smokey and has a heat that just builds and builds. I love it when restaurants aren’t afraid dealing out painful amounts of heat. This dish is next on my list of plates to order when I re-visit. I bet it would be fantastic with a cold beer.

Other than my group and the family who ran the restaurant, there weren’t any other people at Mariscos Chente when we entered. About halfway through our lunch, two other parties came in. The place just recently re-opened and they seem to be still in the stages of getting all the kinks worked out. They only accept cash, but there’s an ATM in the little market a little south and across the street, as well as one in the liquor store by the donut shop across from the police station on Culver.

Most of the shrimp dishes range from $11-13. They also have ceviche, which I had a taste of and liked. I saw a member of another party order a huge fried fish which looked good, so I may have to put that on my list of things to try too. The menu is mostly in Spanish, but the waitress spoke English and explained what a couple of the dishes were.

Since Mariscos Chente is a Sinaloan restaurant, don’t expect to see things like bean and cheese burritos on the menu. It’s best to go elsewhere for those. But if you’re a fan of seafood (shrimp especially), there’s no way to go wrong when ordering one of their seafood plates. Just remember that it’s okay to use your fingers to pull off the head and suck out the insides. That’s where all of the good stuff is.

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Mariscos Chente
4532 S Centinela Ave
Los Angeles CA 90066

By Louise (see more of her posts). You can find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.

Though the name and graphics make you think you’re walking into a kebab shop, in reality, Bashan serves up fantastic contemporary global cuisine in an intimate setting nestled in one of Los Angeles’ most under-appreciated districts. Located in the former Bistro Verdu spot in the quiet mountain hamlet of Montrose, Bashan serves dishes of unexpected flavors that satisfy the palate.

Bashan is the kind of place you want to be a regular at. Its rare that a restaurant hits all notes with excellence and Bashan doesn’t fail to miss the bullseye. Service is warm and friendly, knowledgeable and competent. One thing is clear: these people love food and they love to serve it to you. Details pepper the meal like a good novel, right down to the small dish of honey that comes with an order of tea. “Its a lavender honey made by our sommelier’s father who is a beekeeper.”

My trusty dining companion and I ventured into the menu full bore. We’re presented with a subtle amuse of watermelon juice and french feta. The sweetbreads were crispy, tasty morsels of glandular goodness–supported by the piquant notes of capers and sun dried tomatoes. My field green salad was a tasty combination of the season’s flavors-earthy jicama, summery nectarines, mini tomatoes, manchego and a bit of vinaigrette laced with truffled exotica.

The menu is small but excellent, with dishes sourced from sea to sky. I ponder the Maple Leaf Duck Breast or the 21 Day Dry Aged New York Steak….. The menu is a celebration of delicious decadence enjoyable through airlifted treasures brought to you by the waning days of the global economy. Both of us elected for sea–Alaskan halibut and Australian barramundi. The halibut was a solid, fleshy preparation with squash and eggplant; while the barramundi was crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. The fish from Down Under is paired with creamy shrimp, crispy chorizo, Jerusalem artichoke and sweet and unctuous Italian cipollini onions, the global range of unexpected flavors harmonizes happily on a single plate. It is the culinary equivalent of Barack Obama.

We declare the cheese plate to be one of the best we’ve ever had. Small dollops of creamy flavors arranged on a rectangular plate, come paired with figs, walnuts and toasted walnut bread. We innovate and add the honey that came with the tea. All is well with the world.

Bashan is the place you want bring someone you care about. Not only that, the staff and chef are lovely people, passionate about food, and you want them to succeed.

Bashan Restaurant
3459 North Verdugo Road
Glendale, CA 91208
818 541 1532
818 541 1538
bashanrestaurant.com

Nadav Bashan
Chef/Owner

By Secret Asian Man (see more of his posts). You can find more writing at his own website The Digestive Tract

Dating a vegan guy, it’s not everyday that I go to a Korean BBQ restaurant. When the BF actually agreed to go to Park’s BBQ for dinner this weekend, I jumped at the opportunity before he had a chance to change his mind.

We ordered the bibimbap with vegetables ($10) and told them to hold the egg. Supposedly, this was vegetarian, but it came with a dried radish kimchi that we were unsure of. I think it’s just dried radish and gochujang (a spicy Korean bean paste), but there’s always a slim chance that there’s mashed anchovy or small shrimp in it, although I don’t believe the BF had any ill side-effects. Other than the suspect radish kimchi, there was also lettuce (which wilted nicely after it was stirred into the smoking hot bowl), spinach, seaweed, some sort of Asian broccoli rabe, red kidney beans, and sprouts. Other than the lack of an egg, it looked and tasted like a pretty good bowl of bibimbap.

Not wanting to overwhelm the poor man with too much meat, I somehow refrained from ordering any BBQ to be cooked on the grill in the middle of the table. Instead, I ordered the beef rib soup with dduk (pounded rice ovals), which was a fantastic choice for $10. The broth was rich and had such depth of flavor that I couldn’t stop slurping it up even after I was full. The dduk was too soft, but that’s understandable considering it had been cooking in hot soup for so long. The meat was tender and tasty. The cooked, swirled egg on top just added to the perfection of this bowl. The soup also came with strands of yam noodle inside. It’s going to be tough not ordering this the next time I visit Park’s BBQ.

When we had placed our order, we asked our waiter which of the panchan (Korean small appetizer plates) were vegetarian and he pointed them out when they came. The cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi are definitely not veggie friendly — they have anchovies or shrimp mixed into the paste. Supposedly, the cold Asian broccoli rabe and kabocha salad are both vegan.

Whenever I go to Park’s, I wonder if I’m getting the real deal: authentic Korean cuisine. In the back of my mind, I always think that if the waiters are nice and speak English, maybe the joint is too Americanized to be authentic. Fortunately, there are always plenty of Korean patrons in the restaurant and the food is pretty damn good. Even my Korean friends seem to like this place. Although the prices are a bit higher than that of other K-town BBQ restaurants, the meat quality is better and I’m okay with paying a few dollars extra for a waiter who understands English and is patient with questions about food.

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Park’s BBQ
955 S Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 380-1717

By Louise (see more of her posts). You can find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.

You may or may not have noticed, but I haven’t been posting around here much. I have fizzled out a bit on la.foodblogging and am starting up a new project to get my food writing juices flowing again.

As long as our contributors are willing to write and share their finds with the readers, I plan on keep la.foodblogging going, and I will be popping in now and then. My main focus for 2009, however, will be 365 Places to Eat.

365 Places to Eat is pretty straightforward. I’m putting together a list of 365 Places to Eat, mostly in Los Angeles. My stretch goal is to complete the list with their write ups during 2009. The list of places is mostly complete. The challenge is to complete a short write up for each spot.

It’s fun to think that Los Angeles provides so many great places to eat that you could literally eat at a different spot each day of the year. Of course, there are many, many more dining spots than 365, but how many people can compile a list of 365 places that they have eaten in their home city? Go ahead, see how many places you can list on your own, you might be surprised (one way or the other).

So, I invite you to join me this year as I list 365 Places to Eat. I appreciate your feedback, comments and suggestions. A little more about the site can be found over on the About Page.

Happy New Year to you all and thank you for the support you have given us over the past four years at la.foodblogging!

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.

After reading about That’s Amore from QuarryGirl a few days ago, the BF and paid them a visit despite it being all the way in Cerritos — almost 30 miles away from our place.

That’s Amore is a pizza restaurant in the same plaza as the Korean Farmer’s Market at the corner of Carmenita and Artesia. When we got there, a woman, whom I assume is the owner greeted us warmly and told us to take a seat at one of the many tables.

The menu lists not only pizzas, but also lasagna, meatball subs, wraps, and pasta. Almost all of the items on the menu can be made vegan with vegan cheese from Follow Your Heart and everyone working there seems knowledgeable about what’s vegetarian and what’s vegan.

We had a hard time deciding what to get as an appetizer because several things sounded good. The caprese with tofu ricotta, broccoli gratinee, or garlic bread? In the end, we chose garlic bread. The bread was soft on the inside, crunchy and garlicky on the outside. I really like their vegan take on the parmesan cheese shakers. It’s their special blend of almonds, nutritional yeast, and other stuff. A half order of garlic bread, a few shakes of the vegan parmesan cheese, and a few shakes of red pepper flakes and I’m happy.

Of course, we couldn’t stop at just garlic bread, so we ordered a 14″ pizza with marinara sauce, vegan cheese, pepperoni, and red onion. All of their pizza toppings are vegan, which makes picking toppings very easy. When the pizza came, the vegan cheese was all melty and looked great.

I thought the crust was good — a nice balance of crunchy bottom with soft top. The BF, the self-proclaimed New York Style Pizza Expert (he thinks he has a PhD in pizzaology) thought it needed work.

The cheese was good at first, but ended up tasting a big bland as it cooled down. It lacked that savory cheese taste that real cheese has as well as stringiness. I think next time, I’ll have to order my own pizza with real cheese, or just go without. As soon as it cools down, it gets hard, so you’d better eat that pizza fast if you order it with vegan cheese.

I usually complain about pizza being too heavy on sauce, but this time I’m complaining about the opposite. That’s Amore went really light on the sauce. I couldn’t even tell it was there until I looked carefully. According to the owner, they do that on purpose because too much sauce makes the pizza too doughy.

The vegan pepperoni topping was actually quite good. The taste was similar, but the texture was slightly off. It was a bit too crunchy and dry. If they had brushed the top with some olive oil to keep the pepperoni moist, I would have liked it better. When I commented about this to the owner, she admitted they had done that before, but customers complained that it was too oily and were blotting the pizza with napkins. I don’t mind that — blotting pizza with napkins is a pizza-eating ritual.

Even though the BF and I were both stuffed from the huge order of garlic bread and pizza, we had to try the vegan cannoli. While it may not be authentic cannoli filling, I thought the filling in That’s Amore’s cannoli was quite good. It wasn’t too cloyingly sweet and it didn’t taste like pure oil like some vegan renditions do. The crispy shell was also really good; it was crispy with a slight give, and just the right amount of crumbly.

While we were waiting for our order, the owner came by to chat with us. It seems That’s Amore used to be a regular pizza place, but the owner realized that times were changing and wanted to serve something more healthy. They talked to several customers and asked if they should offer vegetarian pizza; a few of them said it would be great if they could do a vegan pizza, which is how they turned into a vegetarian and vegan pizza place. Once That’s Amore gave up meat and turned vegetarian, the Indian population in Cerritos took notice, which explains why many of their customers are Indian. It’s also worth noting for super strict vegans that That’s Amore has separate cooking and serving utensils for vegans. We noticed that the word “vegan” was etched into our pizza pan.

The pizza at That’s Amore wasn’t the best that we’ve had, but we’re definitely going to return. Chatting with the owner was nice because she seemed very open to our comments and suggestions. The BF says that it’s worth coming back just because it’s so vegan friendly and there’s no risk of accidentally eating something he shouldn’t. I want to come back to try their meatballs. They were huge. One of the omnivore customers sitting by us said it tastes just like a real meatball.

For what the two of us ate, including a bottle of beer, the bill came out to be about $26 including tax. Not bad for a satiating dinner. The only negative thing I can say about That’s Amore is that it’s so far from our place.

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That’s Amore
13349 Artesia Blvd.
Cerritos, CA 90703
562-926-2112
menu from quarrygirl.com

By Louise (see more of her posts). You can find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.

As some of you have noticed, about once a year, I write about some extravagant dining experience. Well, it’s that time again. Once upon a time, I went to Melisse and did the carte blanche, which basically means the chef chooses what will be served. I recalled that there were about 9 wonderful courses. Things have changed. Last night, I found out the carte blanche ($210 per person) is a 13-course meal (not counting extras). Now usually, I do a detailed recap of what I had during a given meal, but seeing how there was so much food last night, I will just list each course here:

1) red grapes covered with goat cheese and crushed pistachio; 2) amuse bouche - sturgeon with black truffles and celery root; 3) orange gelee topped with fennel flan and vanilla essence; 4) butternut squash soup with almond butter, brioche croutons, chives puree, and crispy sage; 5) egg with cauliflower creme and caviar; 6) truffled egg; 7) duck liver served 3 ways; 8) lobster thermidor and lobster bolognese pasta; 9) truffle covered sole with gnocchi and mushrooms; 10) duck; 11) pork served 3 ways; 12) cheese plate; 13) vanilla bean yogurt with strawberry sorbet; 14) passionfruit parfait with coconut ice cream and coconut wafer, served with lemongrass broth and tapioca; 15) chocolate dessert sampler.

I can’t say I was in love with every single thing I had last night, but everything was overall beyond good. Perhaps my favorite last night was the truffled egg ($115), which was actually an additional order, not part of the carte blanche. This was a plate of melting organic egg with truffle sauce and truffle foam. After arriving on the table, the servers shave white truffle over the whole thing. We were also given a half slice of toast that is used to break the yolk and sop up all the egg, truffles, and truffle sauce. Every bite was absolutely delectable. Part of the enjoyment though was also realizing that I was at one of the top restaurants in Los Angeles, using my fingers to break off pieces of bread and shamelessly swirling it in a plate so soak up as much yolk and truffles as I could, behavior that Ms. Etiquette would surely frown upon.

I’m a little torn about which of the actual carte blanche was my favorite. If I am really pressed to pick, it is a toss up between the foie gras and the lobster thermidor. The foie gras was part of the duck liver trio. It was cooked just so perfectly and placed on top of a piece of gingerbread. The two together was an interesting pairing that worked surprisingly well, though the gingerbread proved to be a bit too overpowering. After the first bite, I realized this and ate the foie gras with just a bit of the gingerbread crumbs instead, which worked much better. Also on the plate were pate over toast with persimmon, seared duck liver served with toast and apple, and lemon ginger sorbet in shot glass.

The lobster thermidor actually was served simultaneously with the lobster bolognese pasta. The latter was good, but the lobster thermidor was just so much more flavorful. It is served with some creamed spinach (that can be found on the bottom of the dish) and a Dijon glaze, that really had more of a custard texture. I enjoyed a couple big bites of the lobster before blending it with everything else in the dish. Once I did so, I felt that the lobster flavor became more present throughout the dish. After I finished picking out every bite with my fork, I took a page from my earlier lesson with the truffled egg, and I ripped off a piece of brioche on my bread plate and sopped up the left over Dijon-spinach-lobster blend.

The entire dinner took over 4 hours. While I enjoyed this experience, I really probably could have stopped eating after the truffled egg. I love food and eating, but this was probably the first time in my life I wished the food would come to an end. Everyone at my table was beyond stuffed by the end of the night. I don’t think my stomach has recovered yet. It had taken about 21 hours since that dinner ended before I could even eat anything today. Still, last night was a fun excursion for my taste buds.

Now for all the non-food related comments. The service was quite good, which is expected from a restaurant like Melisse. The ambiance was pleasant. On a very silly note, one of the things I always tell people who had never dined at Melisse is how the restaurant has purse stools, so that we ladies do not have to set our purses on the floor and let it hang awkwardly on a chair. I always thought this would take off in other restaurants, but I have yet to see that happen. Fortunately, Melisse did keep this old tradition going. Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, I would not recommend dining at Melisse on a regular basis unless you can afford it. The cost of last night’s dinner is yet another reason (and quite honestly the primary reason) why this will probably be my last fine dining experience for years to come. (This also means that this is the end of my annual fine dining posts.) Nevertheless, I would recommend dining at Melisse and going carte blanche at least once if you can swing it.

Melisse
1104 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 395-0881
Tuesday-Thursday: 6:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Friday: 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Saturday: 5:45 PM - 10:00 PM

By Pauline (see more of her posts).

It’s easy to miss this hole-in-the-wall restaurant with its generic name and bland red awning, but Shanghai Xiao Chi serves up tasty Shanghai dishes on par with that of better known Shanghai restaurants such as Mei Long Village.

We started off with a traditional Shanghai appetizer called kao fu. The kao fu was soft, chewy, salty and sweet. It was a bit on the sweet side for me, but its sweetness reminded me of the type of kao fu I used to eat in Shanghai. Sometimes it’ll come with some wood-ear mushroom and lotus root, but this version at the restaurant was mostly wheat gluten and light on peanuts and pieces of mushroom.
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By Louise (see more of her posts). You can find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.