MVP Seafood

It's not often that I blog about Chinese restaurants around the SGV, but this opportunity was too good to pass up. Probably because I ate so much seafood that I wanted to pass out ... see the theme there? Sometimes I go to American seafood places (like McCormick & Schmitt, which my dad loves but I despise) and wonder why their prices are so high compared to these Asian places in the SGV, especially for crab and lobster. We ordered all this seafood and the total came out to be a few bucks less than $150, with tax and tip included.

hand-shredded house chicken

mirugai / giant clam / geoduck sashimi

Let me take a minute to say OMGZ on this. The mirugai in sushi form usually runs an average of $7-8 for two pieces and here it is, an entire plateful in all it's fine glory. Freshly killed and sliced up. The restaurant was having a special where the mirugai was only $5.99/lb if you order at least $35 worth of food, which was easily done.

mirugai / giant clam / geoduck soup

After you eat the sashimi, the restaurant will take the body cavity portion of the mirugai and cook it in soup, rice, or congee/jook/porridge form. My parents wanted to order the soup but I think the congee would have been delicious.

dungeness crab, ginger green onion style

lobster, house style 

large pea leaves with garlic

complimentary red bean soup dessert

Red bean soup is delicious. I drank my portion and wheedled my way into drinking my mom's portion too. Couldn't take my dad's, even though he offered, cause it was his birthday ... next time though, all bets are off. Get yourself down to MVP Seafood for some super fresh lobster and mirugai! Everything we had was top notch and I was more impressed than I thought I'd be.

MVP Seafood
545 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776

Animal

Ahh, Animal. Ever since you opened, you've attracted hordes of hungry carnivores. On your extensive, meat-centric menu, you have but a handful of vegetarian dishes. Even though the ban of foie gras caused you to take some much loved items off your menu, such as the foie gras loco moco, you are still full of satisfied and meat-sweating customers every night.

My first time at Animal was prior to the ban and I only recently returned with a couple friends who were interested to try the place out. Lady Ducayne's man was working there at the time (hey hey Mari!) but I was only able to quickly wave to him through the kitchen before going back to the table. We ordered a bunch of dishes to share between us (the restaurant is family-style) and they demanded my full attention!

shrimp & rabbit sausage spring roll, mizana, green curry

The spring rolls were tasty ... but if they're fried then aren't they eggrolls? Am I wrong? Should I turn in my Asian card right now?! One of my friends refused to eat the spring roll cause umm ... she has a couple pet bunnies. But her husband had no qualms about eating them! In fact, he was the one that wanted to order them. She thought he was a barbarian.

charred octopus, rancho gordo bean, pistou, dandelion

roasted peaches, hazelnut, buttermilk, white currants, crispy ham

crispy pig head, short-grain rice, bulldog sauce, soy egg

barbeque pork belly sandwiches, slaw

poutine, oxtail gravy, cheddar

grilled quail, plum char-siu, pear, apple, yogurt, pomegranate

persian mulberry tart, lemon chiboust, vanilla, black mint

blueberry, frozen brown butter crumble, yogurt, bay leaf ice cream

Favorite dishes were the pork belly sliders and the blueberry dessert, hands down. Actually the desserts were pretty strong here the other time I visited as well. I wasn't blown away by the bacon crunch bar the last time I had it, so we didn't order it again. These two fruit-based desserts were the perfect ending to a heavy meal.

Animal Restaurant
435 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036

I-Naba

I'm totally obsessed with this soba place in Torrance. SO OBSESSED. Every time I can drive into work, I take the opportunity to go here for lunch. Their soba is good and everything but it's the tempura that really gets to me. It's light and crisp and not at all greasy. There's a tempura BAR, for heaven's sake. You know when you go to yakitori restaurants (like Shinsengumi or Honda-Ya) and you can order items from the grill? You can do that here too, except they tempura it instead of grill it. There's even one where they wrap uni in seaweed and then fry that, though I have yet to try it.

Go for lunch as soon as you can. Or dinner. I don't know if there's a different dinner menu but the Tempura and Cold Soba combination is my go-to. It comes with two pieces of shrimp and a few vegetables, which have been different every time. And then on top of that, there's a bowl of veggie fried rice, which I always end up taking home. So much deliciousness, seriously.

I-Naba
20920 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance, CA 90510

Tsujita

I know I used to blog a lot more frequently but lately, in the last few months, the bloggins spirit has gone out of me. Mainly because I haven't really been anywhere new and haven't been really cooking anymore. But maybe a part of it is a funk of sorts. I was perusing through my blog roll, which I used to keep 100% up to date on earlier today when I came across the latest post by Luisa of The Wednesday Chef. She wrote about how happy she is now, married and living in Europe with her husband and first child, after moving from New York and a certain paragraph struck a chord:

"When I was in high school, a classmate of mine named Rhonda looked at me coolly one day and told me she didn't like people who were always so damn happy (her words, not mine). It didn't come across as an insult, really. It was just a blunt observation. I remember looking back at her and wondering how to respond.

Years later, towards the end of my time in New York, when things in my life were going up in flames and I felt like I couldn't see even one foot in front of me for all the pain and confusion and sadness fogging my vision, I thought a lot about Rhonda and that comment she made that day. And about the girl she'd been talking to. I was so unhappy, had been so unhappy for so long, that I couldn't even remember what it felt like to be happy. How strange, I used to think, that someone used to see all that happiness in me."

I wonder if that's how I think sometimes as well, though not as eloquently put. Maybe I need to get back into doing the things that I love ... and catching up on my many TV shows, going out or talking with people, trying new places, and then MAYBE being able to blog about them ... those things make me happy.

It is a bit late to write about Tsujita LA right now, though I did go when it first opened and it was all the rage. The most popular item on their menu is the tsukemen, which is basically deconstructed ramen. You dip dry noodles into the broth and slurp up, much like zaru soba. Egg (perfectly soft boiled and amazing, as seen in the top picture) are presented in the broth.

Though the broth was delicious and extremely fatty, and the noodles were good ... I think I prefer my ramen in the more traditional sense ie hot and constructed. If you've never tried tsukemen though, this is THE place to go try it ... maybe you'll like it more than traditional ramen after all.

Also, another place that I'm more excited about will be opening right now the street and it ensures that I won't have to be driving to Studio City to get my fix ...

Jonathan Gold loves this place. I believe in what he says.

Tsujita LA
2057 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025

Bërëkët Kitchen

A few months back, Grace (hi Grace!) invited me to an "underground Ethiopian supper club" dinner. As I've had some of the best experiences in my life with Wolvesden (Part I, Part II, Part III) (no joke!), I jumped at the chance to try another supper club. The fact that it was an Ethiopian supper club intrigued me more, as I had never tried Ethiopian food before at all.

Bërëkët was created in 2011 and serves "modern Ethiopian cuisine." The restaurant is run by two sisters, one acting as the hostess and one acting as the chef, and pops up all over Los Angeles in different locations. This time, it was held in an art gallery on the corner of Fourth and Spring Street. The open space was great for accommodating the 60-70 people who were invited to dinner that night. The event was BYOB (and all other drinks, besides water) and there was homemade honey wine available, which was so delicious that I'd probably drink it all the time if I had access to it.

homemade honey wine

The first two courses served were more modern dishes, with Ethiopian components to it (ie toasted barley and berbere). It was a good introduction for the people at the table, such as myself, who were a bit nervous about jumping into this cuisine. Luckily, we had nothing to fear; the twists were small enough to be unobtrusive and large enough to make you notice the dish was different.

farmer's market salad - rainbow kale, wild arugula, blood orange, toasted barley

berbere spiced hamachi crudo

Up to this point, the spices were pretty light in the dishes but it certainly wasn't to remain that way! A trio of vegetarian curries was served next, with the traditional Ethiopian bread to eat it with, which had a slightly sour taste to it. Afterwards, there was a chicken dish and THAT'S when the spices started like crazy. It wasn't hot-spicy, but simply full of spices. The chicken was marinated and broiled over the course of three days.

injera

turmeric spiced yellow split peas, french black beluga lentils in cider vinaigrette,
organic golden beets with cherry tomatoes in dill emulsion

doro wot - broiled chicken, fiery shallot confit, soft boiled egg

That chicken had a crazy amount of spices! But it was really good, especially with the perfectly cooked egg. I wish there were bigger, meatier pieces. We happened to sit next to two Ethiopian couples and they told us that the food was very authentic. Doro wot is a traditional dish and every family has its own variation of it. I can't wait to try a different version ... maybe a milder one next time? Maybe because the chicken was on the bone and there was less meat to it, the spices got slightly overwhelming by the time I was on drumette number two.

poached forelle pears - honey wine reduction, macerated blackberries, almond whip cream

Dessert did NOT disappoint. In fact, it was so good that when Patrice didn't want hers (hi Patrice! hi Chadwick!), I ate hers for her ... even though we just met. Shameless huh? She didn't seem to mind though. We're all already Facebook friends, so that means we're besties for life, and that makes it un-weird. The company and the food was great. Sitting at a communal table, trying new foods, and talking to the people around us (many of them were also trying Ethiopian food for the very first time) made for a great experience. Plus ... we had dinner with ... Alec Baldwin?! Check out that pose!