A House of Bricks...and Meat: Les Trois Petits Cochons

Founded in 1975, Les Trois Petits Cochons was an American pioneer in the sale of French style charcuterie, pate and other meats. For many years, even after the advent of the internet, they stayed small and mostly East Coast focused.  Recently, they have had a change in management and seem to be branching out.

The company sent me a sample pack of pates, sausages, salami, duck confit and cornichon.

Chicken Sausage with Spinach and Gruyere

I'm not usually a huge fan of packaged, gourmet sausage, particularly chicken sausage, but these were great. It's a mild white sausage, sort of weisswurst-like, with a very subtle gruyere flavor. It's tasty and goes well with a nice, seeded mustard.

Saucisson Sec Aux Herbes de Provence

This was a delicious pork salami with a nice balance of spices and a light garlic note. While it's a dry salami, it's juicy and satisfyingly chewy, as opposed to some salamis that are harder.

Duck Confit

These are packaged confit of duck leg and thigh. I'm a big fan of duck confit. These are a little on the salty side but quite rich with great flavor. Shredded and lightly fried to crisp up the fat, the duck was fantastic in a salad, a sour vinaigrette providing a nice contrast to the duck's fat and salt.

Mousse Imperiale is a pork and chicken liver mousse with truffles. There isn't much truffle influence, but the pate itself is fantastic, my favorite of the three.

Terrine de Trois Rois is a terrine with layers of of Armagnac macerated prunes, duck foie gras and some sort of chicken sausage. The foie and macerated figs were great and went perfectly together, but the chicken was like an unwelcome guest at this party, its gelatinous texture a distraction from the creamy foie gras.

Wild Boar Pate is wild boar with pork and chicken liver pate, chestnuts and raisins. This was another great pate with sweet and savory notes.

Cornichons

These were pretty basic but tasty cornichon. Sour pickles are the perfect accompaniment to a charcuterie plate.


The overall quality of these products was outstanding. I would buy pretty much all of it again, and given how much I enjoyed the Trois Petits Cochons mousses, pates and sausages, I will certainly try other varieties.

Many Les Trois Petits Cochons items are available on Amazon, and their website also lists various markets that carry their products.

The Best Things I ate in Paris

I was lucky enough to spend a week in Paris with my wife for our twentieth anniversary.  Having never before visited the City of Lights, I was excited to eat as much amazing food as humanly possible.  Based in the Rue Cler district, we branched out all over the city center and ate and ate and ate.  Given that it was my first trip, I make no claims to having uncovered anything veterans wouldn't know well, but these were my favorite things.

Cheese.  There are more cheese shops in Paris than anyone could make a dent in during a one week trip, but my very favorite was a small shop on Rue du Champ de Mars called Marie-Anne Cantin. They age their own cheeses and have a wonderful selection.  Epoisses is one of my favorite cheese and Cantin's had a wonderful grassy note, but I also loved their pungent Camembert, and their wide selection of aged goat cheeses as well as their butter.

Baguettes Cereal.  A baguette is a simple enough thing, but Paris baguettes are a wonder, with a density and richness absent in even the best baguettes I've had in the U.S.  While wheat breads in the US tend to be hard and flat tasting, the baguette cereal, a French whole grain baguette, is intensely flavorful, adding a zing to the regular baguette.  There were numerous boulangeries that had amazing baguettes, but one of my favorite cereal baguettes was at Nelly Julien on Rue Sainte Dominique.

Chocolate apes at Patrick Roger

Chocoalte Truffles.  The amount of cheese I ate in Paris was second only to the chocolate. Chocolate stores abound and display their wares like jewels in glass containers.  I'm a fan of the plain, cocoa coated chocolate truffle.  The two best I had were at Patrick Roger and La Maison du Chocolat.  The Patrick Roger truffle had a stronger and more complex flavor with a good balance of acid and bitterness. The Maison du Chocolat truffles may not have been as complex, but they had a creaminess that made them even more enjoyable.

Hot Chocolate.  Laduree is a chain of chocolate cafes.  Looking like a frilly English tea room, they might have been decorated by my six year old daughter, but they are oh so good.  Hot chocolate is everywhere in Paris in the fall, and the hot chocolate at Laduree is the best I had.  It's really a very thick ganache, much like the kind I make at home.   The serving is enormous and I'd recommend getting it with whipped cream (a la Viennoise) to cut the richness a bit because it really is more like drinking melted chocolate than any typical hot chocolate, though it is oh so good (and it'll give you a bit of a caffeine jolt as well).  They have great macarons as well.

L'As du Fallafel.  I thought it was curious that this little falafel stand seemed to be the single most recommended eatery in Paris by my friends and guidebooks alike.  Located in the Jewish corner of the Marais neighborhood, L'As dishes out falafel sandwiches to long lines day and night, and they are worth the wait.  These are small, perfectly fried, perfectly spiced falafel in a pita with a number of veggie slaws, grilled eggplant and an awesome, garlicky, hot sauce.  This may have been my favorite meal in Paris (I went twice).  The sweetness of the eggplant, the piquant sauce and the plethora of little falafel balls all comes together in perfect balance. You can go to the take out window or eat in, but the advantage of eating in is that you get your own little bowl of the hot sauce, which is a big plus.

Aux Merveilleux de Fred

Meringues from Aux Merveilleux de Fred.  These things are crazy.  Layers of meringue covered in whipped cream and rolled in chocolate (or other flavored) flakes.  Akin to a meringue layer cake, they come in various sizes.  They are creamy, chewy, melt in your mouth miracles of taste and texture.  The cream is not overly sweet and comes together with the delicate meringue to create a crunchy, creamy wonder.  The whole experience is like biting into a sweet cloud.  I'm not usually a fan of white chocolate but that was my favorite flavor.  The dark chocolate flakes overwhelmed the subtlety of the cream whereas the white chocolate just added to the creamy richness.

Ice cream. Ile St. Louis is a small island in the Seine that seems to consist mostly of ice cream shops.  Flocks of tourists window shop with cones in hand.  Most of the shops serve Paris' legendary Berthillon ice cream, but if you continue past the pretenders, you'll reach the actual Berthillon shop and find that its reputation is well earned.  Bold flavors and a creamy texture made this some of the best ice cream I've had.  We tried the rich, dark chocolate cacao, tangy passion fruit sorbet, and a creamy but nutty pistachio. 

Fine Dining.  I ate at a lot of bistros and cafes, but while in France, I wanted to do a splurge meal at a traditional French temple of fine dining.  On a friend's recommendation, I chose Le Pre Catelan.  The restaurant is located in Bois de Boulogne, a huge and beautiful (though somewhat seedy) park on the northwest outskirts of Paris.  The dinner menus at this three star Michelin eatery are extravagant and extravagantly priced, but they have a lunch prix fixe for 105 Euro (140 with the wine paring).  The lunch is an even better deal than it looks like as each course actually consists of two or three parts.  I will resist going through each course of this meal and say only that it was one of the most memorable meals of my life.  The ambiance, including the traditional French service with an army of waiters set in a beautiful dining room with a courtyard view, was of course memorable.  But, as part of my three part pork entree, the meal included probably the best cooked piece of pork belly I've ever had, with cracklin' skin, a thick, toothsome but somehow not fatty layer of fat and meat that was the rich essence of all that is good and porky in this world, all bathed in a pork jus (the other two pork courses were a braised pork in tomato foam and a sort of liquid head cheese served in a martini glass and topped with mayonnaise.  And of course, the cheese selection was wonderful, with a particularly well aged Mont D'Or.  The wine pairings added depth to each course, and unlike in most American tasting courses, the pours were generous and bottomless.

Not everything was perfect in the world of Paris food, but it was pretty close.  Sure, we had some mediocre bistro meals, and I can only imagine the world of tiny, out of the way treasures we had no clue about (and please let me know what they are!), but generally, the availability and quantity of amazing food was, well, just as true as everyone says it is.

The Fall of Foie

Beginning today, foie gras, the ancient culinary delicacy consisting of the fattened liver of a duck or goose, is no longer legal in California. We've known this day was coming for a long time now. The ban was passed back in 2004 in a bipartisan effort by a Republican governor and a Democratic legislature. The long period between the law's enactment and its going into effect was intended to give California's one foie gras producer a chance to adapt or find a new line of work. (If you're interested in an engaging treatment of the general controversy around foie gras, I recommend Marc Caro's excellent book, The Foie Gras Wars.)

The law can be found beginning at section 25980 of California's Health & Safety Code. It prohibits two things:

• Force feeding a bird for the purpose of
  enlarging the bird's liver beyond normal size; and
• Selling a product that is made by force feeding a bird.

Force feeding is defined as "a process that causes the bird to
consume more food than a typical bird of the same species would
consume voluntarily. Force feeding methods include, but are not
limited to, delivering feed through a tube or other device inserted
into the bird's esophagus."

Violations are punishable by a fine of $1,000 per violation, per day.

It will be interesting to see if restaurants come up with creative ways around the ban, as they did during the brief period in which foie gras was banned in Chicago. For instance, producing and selling foie gras is illegal, but the law does not prohibit possessing, consuming or giving it away. In Chicago, a number of restaurants provided free foie gras with certain purchases, though my guess is that such schemes would still be interpreted as sales unless the foie could be obtained without any purchase at all.

Who knows what other hijinks or unintended consequences this prohibition might give rise to. Smuggling rings from Las Vegas? Foie gras speakeasys? Clandestine backyard goose farms? Foie gras kingpins? Stay tuned.

Worshipping at Church & State

When Church & State opened a few years ago, it got plenty of buzz, but after chef Walter Manzke left, that buzz died down. I never made it during the Manzke days, but I love a French bistro, so I headed out there recently and was not disappointed.

Located at the eastern edge of downtown, right off the 101 freeway at 7th street, Church & State does fairly traditional French bistro food, but does it very, very well. The menu has a variety of small plates as well as entrees, and some of the entrees can be done as small plates as well. If you order small plates, they will serve them sequentially, so it's more like a tasting menu.

I ordered a variety of plates and everything was very good. The sweetbreads were among the best I've had. They were perfectly fried, very crispy on the outside and soft within. The charcuterie plate included six different items including a wonderful chicken liver mousse, smooth as silk but dense and not overly whipped, as well as some very nice country pates. The lamb tarte was a French style tarte with a cracker crust, gruyere, caramelized onions and bits of lamb. And the pork belly entree literally melted in my mouth into a porky, fatty treat; it was served with baby vegetables in a porky broth/jus.

Desserts were also very good. A chocolate-coffee pot du creme tasted more like a pudding then a traditional pot du creme but was quite good. The salted caramel chocolate tart was a slice of dense, dark chocolate torte dripped with a salted caramel sauce.

Everything was good and while not cheap, the prices were not as bad as I expected for this caliber of food. I will definitely be heading back.

Church & State
1850 Industrial St., #100
Los Angeles, CA 90021
(213) 405-1434

Vegas Report: Bouchon Las Vegas

Last time I was in Vegas, the Bouchon Bakery was our go-to breakfast and snack spot. This time, we tried the Bouchon restaurant for breakfast, twice. (Yes, they have Bouchon in LA, but it doesn't serve breakfast.)

Bouchon is located off the Venetzia lobby, which is one floor above the Venetian lobby. The ambiance is a bit more laid back than the Beverly Hills location. Since one of my favorite dishes in LA was the boudin noir, I thought I'd try the boudin blanc for breakfast. I was not disappointed. Served with perfectly prepared scrambled eggs, the white sausage was butter-soft and had a melt in your mouth quality that I've seldom experienced with breakfast sausage. The spicing was mild, but there was an essential meatiness that came through. It was almost like a pate in a casing, but fluffier.

The corn beef hash was also excellent. Consisting of perfectly brunoised cubes of corn beef and potato. Unlike some hashes which are more of a mush, the individual cubes made this more like a beautiful meat succotash, dotted with parsley and nicely spiced.

The hash comes with two eggs; I had them over easy and they were utterly perfect- whites were soft but not runny and a mere pin prick of the fork released the yolk. Bouchon definitely knows how to cook eggs.

The toast and croissants were fine though not exceptional, but slathered with the sweet and tangy marmalades (we had peach and pineapple) anything would have been good.

Sonoma Highlights

As promised, here are the highlights from my week in Sonoma. Two oldies and two newer places.


Juanita Juanita

Practically everyone who's lived in Sonoma for more than a decade has a story about the original Juanita, the mysterious, somewhat scandalous proprietor who first opened a restaurant in Sausalito in the 1960s, then moved to Glen Ellen before landing on Arnold Drive in Sonoma in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Juanita is long gone but the restaurant is still some of the best Mexican food in Sonoma, beginning with their addictive, fresh chips and salsa. The al pastor, prepared on the traditional spit, is the highlight. The pork is crispy with a good flavor but not overwhelmingly seasoned, you can get it on tacos or, covered with salsa verde in the chile verde.

Juanita Juanita
19114 Arnold Drive
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 935-3981


The Girl & The Fig

The Girl & The Fig, which first opened in nearby Glen Ellen in the 1990s, is probably one of the restaurants most responsible for making Sonoma a culinary destination. There were good restaurants before it, including the Sonoma Hotel's restaurant which previously occupied the current Girl & the Fig location on the Sonoma Plaza, but the Girl was one of the first to win wider regional, and even national acclaim.

The formula has changed very little since those early days, though there are more figs on the menu (I remember thinking on one of my first visits that the menu was surprisingly unfiggy) and they have a bit of an absinthe obsession (I appreciate the sparing use of absinthe in cocktails but any more than a half ounce and the drink just tastes like absinthe). Still, the duck confit is some of my favorite anywhere with a crispy but not greasy skin and moist meat, there is a nice selection of local cheese and home made charcuteries (though they could be more generous with the charctuerie) and both the chocolate desserts and those using seasonal fruit are very well done. The Girl & the Fig chocolate pot du creme is one of my favorite desserts anywhere and I regularly make it on holidays, but the night I was there they had a wonderful chocolate caramel tart with a few crystals of salt on top. Equally delicious was a stone fruit crumble with a creme fraiche ice cream.

It may not be as innovative as it once was, but the Girl is still one of the best dining choices in town.

The Girl & the Fig
110 West Spain Street
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 938-3634



La Michoacana

This ice cream/paleta stand on Highway 12 in Boyes Hot Springs was our top new find of the trip (well, new to me; it's been there for two years now). Sonoma never really had great ice cream, but this shop changes all that. The familiarly named Mexican stand has creamy ice cream with punchy flavors, smooth ice cream pops and popsicles with fresh fruit. The ice cream flavors included caramel, Mexican vanilla, guanabana and many others, all tasting of fresh ingredients and not too sweet. My favorite, though, was the chongo, a Mexican custard with a mild, sweet flavor and little custard bits in it.

Along with ice cream there is a freezer full of what I'd estimate to be about twenty varieties of of ice cream bars, popsicles and frozen bananas. The ice cream bars were particularly good. The strawberries and cream bar tasted intensely of strawberry, like a great, creamy strawberry ice cream (the bar was, in fact, better than their regular strawberry ice cream). I would have liked to try more, like the arroz con leche and the rum raisin. Popsicles included chili with mango or pineapple and other fresh fruit combinations. And to top it off, they have a selection of fresh aguas frescas.

In one week, I visited this place three times. It's a keeper.

La Michoacana
18495 Hwy 12
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 938-1773


Studebaker Cheesecake

Studebaker Cheesecake has been making cheesecakes for sale at local grocery stores for a few years now, but just a few months ago, they opened their first retail shop on West Napa Street. The cheesecakes are the specialty, and they are quite nice, but the highlight of this shop was the small selection of baked goods. I loved the huge scones using fresh, seasonal fruit (raspberry and blueberry when I was there), dusted with sugar, rich and moist. The chocolate chip cookie was another winner, a whole wheat cookie made with Valrhona chocolate, made fresh that morning. I'm keeping my eye on this place.

Studebaker Cheesecake
248 West Napa Street
Sonoma, California 95476
(707) 933-9224

Culver Crepes: L'Epicerie

L'Epicerie is the little market/restaurant from the former owner of Fraiche. I recently stopped by for lunch. There is a nice menu of pretty basic sandwiches, all of which were good if not very exciting, but I particularly liked the desserts. Ice cream sandwiches were sandwiched with large, macaron cookies. The grasshopper with mint chocolate chip cookies was fabulous. The highlight, though, was the brown sugar crepe, a simply enough made crepe with melted butter and brown sugar, but it was spot on, chewy and a bit eggy, with sweet melted butter popping out as you bit into it.

The dinner plates look intriguing as well, especially the house made charcuterie and duck and pork belly confit, some of which are also available in the small market section of the restaurant.

L'Epicerie Market
9900 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 815-1600

RIP: Ortolan

Yet another restaurant closed its doors recently. Ortolan, on Third Street, was a temple of high cuisine, the aesthetic and presentation was probably the closest thing we have to places like Joel Robuchon. I only made it to Ortolon once a few months ago, I guess I was right under the wire. I'll be sad not to be able to dream about returning for the seared foie gras in mushroom soup, a fatty-fungus combo that showed that foie gras need not be paired with something sticky-sweet to work. That, along with one of the smoothest, creamiest panna cottas I've ever are my best memories of that meal.

Fly away little ortolan, hopefully you will land on your feet.

Vegas Journal: Bouchon Bakery

As a last post on my Las Vegas trip, I must pay tribute to our regular breakfast stop: Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery in the Venetian. The Bouchon Bakery is a small stand near the Phantom of the Opera theater. Since I enjoyed Bouchon in LA, I figured I would try the bakery. Sweets are done well here, including large macarons of various flavors (I liked the chocolate, mint and coffee versions the best, but all were good), eclairs and assorted cookies. Croissants were a bit dry, and I would have expected more from someone known for his French cuisine. The trademark beignet had a wonderful raspberry jam in it, but the doughnut itself could have been fresher; beignets really need to be cooked a la minute. Coffee was so-so, but pretty good for the strip. One of my favorite items was a simple ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette with a dab of dijon, simple, straightforward and tasty. Oh, and everything was very expensive.

I hope you enjoyed my romp through Las Vegas. Now it's back home for a spell.

Vegas Journal: The Lion, the Witch and Joel Robuchon

Deep in the heart of the MGM Grand, right off the casino floor, not far from the lion habitat housing actual lions, lies one of only two Michelin three star restaurants west of the Hudson River (the other being, of course, the French Laundry). To walk through the large doorway is akin to entering a new dimension. The sights, sounds and smoke of the casino are gone, and you are now in a more tranquil world.

The aesthetic of Joel Robuchon is unique, far different than any American restaurant I've visited. It is as if the designer was a pre-teen girl. The centerpiece of the room is a gigantic chandelier hanging much lower than seems wise. There are pink and white flowers everywhere, and each table includes a bird cage containing pink birds and butterflies made of feathers. The decor caused me to wonder whether they used the same designer as the American Girl Cafe.

There are a variety of tasting menus offered, starting at $109, but this may be the only time I ever set foot in a real Michelin three star, and it's a very special occasion, so we opted for the 16 course tasting menu for around $400 per person (and that's without wine!).

Robuchon makes ample use of carts and the first presentation was the bread cart, a massive, elaborately decorated cabinet housing what must have been twenty or more different breads. There were baguettes, focaccias, rustic country breads, flavored breads, soft buns. It went on and on. We sampled a selection throughout the meal. All were excellent. The rustic country baguette is all you would want it to be, deeply crusty, light and airy. The bacon bread tasted of smoky bacon with thick cut pieces studded throughout. Various cheese breads were also very good.

Then came the parade of courses. As with everything at Robuchon, there was an attention to presentation beyond anything I'd seen before. Each plate was a work of art (I'm not talking about the food here, but the actual dishware). There were props and accessories and spiral wires that wrapped around each bowl and saucer. An asparagus dish came with a glass framed picture of asparagus, a seafood plate included a starfish and piece of coral on the tray, and on it went.

Much of the food was very good, but in general, while the experience was exciting, the food was not better that at other great restaurants; in fact, it was a bit hit and miss.

Many dishes blended French technique with Asian flavors to good effect. One of my favorites was a starter of tender uni in a carrot mousse topped with a chilled, beef consomme. Interplay of textures, as evidenced in this dish (soft uni, smooth carrot puree, and gelatinous consomme) was another motif that we saw throughout the meal. A roasted lobster ravioli in a foie gras foam was hard not to love.

Another very successful plate was a trio of asparagus dishes - a savory pana cotta, a lightly scrambled egg with asparagus presented in a thin "toast" and an asparagus flan with morels.

The main course dishes were weaker, particularly around texture. Foie gras with bamboo shoots wrapped in green cabbage was a bit too mushy, and a veal chop, while tasty, was very tough.

Mid-way through the meal, I was shocked to see the man himself, Joel Robuchon, clad in black shirt, making his way through the dining room greeting what I can only assume were VIPs and studiously ignoring the rest of us who were merely ponying up several weeks' pay for a meal. It never occurred to me that Robuchon, who has restaurants in six countries over three continents, would actually be in the restaurant while I was dining there.

For some inexplicable reason, the tasting menu does not include a cheese service, although a cheese cart was in evidence, so we moved directly into dessert. Dessert at Robuchon successfully combined the qualities that were sometimes lacking in the main part of the meal: consistency, originality and the wow factor.

I'm generally a chocolate guy, and while there was a fine chocolate mousse, the best dessert was la verveine, a tangerine cream with candied kumquats and a lemon verbena sorbet.

And then came the candy cart. The end of service candy cart is a thing of children's dreams. A massive cart filled with dozens of candies: chocolates, caramels, jellies, marshmallows, cookies and even lollipops. The server then fills plates and plates based on your request. I was tempted to order "one of each" but I reined myself in. The chocolates were rich and tasty, especially the chocolate macaron, but everything was quite good. If I was left with one strong sentiment from the meal, it's that I want a candy cart. Yes, after each meal, I want some guy to wheel in a candy cart and serve me rich, delicate sweets to my order. Now that would be living.

We finished our candy and coffee, and then we were done. The portions were small, so I was certainly satisfied, but not stuffed. We set out past the flowers and bird cages, through the doors to the hustle and bustle, the ring and the bling of a Vegas casino. I looked back, half expecting the entrance of Robuchon to have disappeared, like the door to Narnia, another strange, mystical place that lives by a different set of rules.

Bouchon: It's Kellerific!

As is my tradition, when a glamorous new restaurant opens, I try to wait until the hype has died down, the celebrity chef has gone back to his home restaurant and the reservations are available. Using that measure, it was time to try Bouchon, the Beverly Hills outpost of Thomas Keller's bistro that opened last fall.

I've never been to a Keller restaurant, so this was my first exposure to the cuisine of one of the most highly regarded chefs in the world. No pressure though.

We went for charcuterie and pate for appetizers, all of which pleased. There is little nicer than a jar of pure foie gras terrine. I like that it was served unadorned, without jellies, glazes, nuts or berries; it was just a jar of Sonoma foie gras, some toast strips and sea salt, leaving nothing to cover the pure, silky taste of the terrine.

Pate de campagne looked like the traditional country pate, but one bite reveled it to be so much more. It was moist and porky with much more spice than a traditional pate de campagne. It quickly disappeared and was among our favorite dishes.

The Assiette de Charcuterie consisted of a number of salamis and a dry cured ham. All very good, but not as exciting as the pate or as sublime as the foie.

I was thrilled to see boudin noir on the menu. I love a blood sausage, but I haven't seen boudin noir much on LA restaurant menus(morcilla, yes; soondae, yes, but boudin noir, not so much). And this one was divine. A modestly sized sausage, the boudin noir innards which spilled out of the sausage once the casing was severed were moist to the point of melting in your mouth with a few chunks interspersed within. The flavor was deep and pure, spiced well enough but not such that it got in the way of the pure blood sausage flavor. It was served with mashed potatoes and caramelized apples.

As the meal progressed, it became apparent that Bouchon's food aimed to highlight the main ingredient with as little adornment as possible. Sauces were mild, there were no molecular tricks or other gimmicks, and it really was about showcasing great ingredients.

Another great dish was a rack of lamb special. The lamb was rich and tender, but the highlight of the dish was a few slices of a house made merguez sausage, which hit all the right notes, which had all of the requisite merguez spice without losing the taste of the lamb.

We ordered a plethora of desserts, but my favorite was the Ile Flottante, a traditional floating island (meringue in creme anglaise) with the addition of caramel sauce. The meringue was light and airy while also being moist and creamy; it was served in anglaise with caramel poured over it tableside. It was all I could do not to lick the bowl to get all of the sauce out of there.

Other desserts were all very good. The chocolate mousse was thick and rich, pot du creme infused with almond was delightfully subtle, profiteroles came with a hot fudge sauce on the side which was another lap it out of the container situation. The two desserts that were less exciting were the creme caramel, a well executed but fairly typical flan and the restaurant's trademark dessert, chocolate bouchons. Bouchon means cork in French, and the chocolate bouchons are small cork-shaped chocolate cakes topped with chocolate sauce and raspberry sorbet. The sorbet was fantastic with a strong raspberry taste, but the bouchons were just okay.

Bouchon opened last fall to mixed reviews from the food bloggerotti, but count me as a convert. Less is more at Keller's only Southern California outpost which goes for traditional interpretations of bistro dishes that put ingredients first.


Bouchon Bistro (at the Montage Hotel)
235 N Canon Dr.
Beverly Hills, California 90210
(310) 271-9910

RIP Pastis

LA is a funny food town in some ways. It's an easy place to find a great meal for two for under $30, be it a pastrami sandwich at Langer's, dim sum in the San Gabriel Valley, Thai, Korean or a taco truck taco. It's also easy to find a great meal for over $200 at one of our numerous and growing fine dining establishments, but it's very hard to find a great meal for two for $100. What is an LA couple to do when they want to splurge on a meal without taking out a second mortgage?

For years, a great answer to that question was Pastis, which closed its doors earlier this month. The Beverly Boulevard French restaurant offered up well prepared French dishes at decent prices. A full dinner with apps, desserts and drinks, would run a couple about $100, depending on the price of the drinks.

I particularly loved the profiteroles. Unlike the normal pastry, Pastis profiteroles were more like chocolate wontons, fried wrappers filled with molten chocolate. I also loved the Moroccan mint tea service, which featured a sweet mint tea with pine nuts poured artfully from a few feet above the glass.

Nothing lasts forever, but recently, we've been saying farewell to too many good, reliable venues. I'm sad that Pastis has added its name to the LA restaurant necrology. I'll miss Pastis and the mid-priced niche it filled.

Winter Break: Tahoe Report

I took a winter break for some skiing, skating, sledding and eating in the Tahoe area. We were based in the North Shore area around Truckee, California. When I'm out in Tahoe, I don't typically eat out as much as I do at home, preferring home cooked, rustic meals. In addition, Tahoe and environs aren't exactly a culinary Mecca, but there are some gems in the snow that are worth noting.


Moody's Bistro

Since Moody's French Bistro opened in old-town Truckee four or five years ago, it has become our place for the special night out. This was my third visit, and each year I go, it is one of the best meals I have in Tahoe, serving French bistro food with a nod to rustic Sierra cooking. This year, I had a wonderful sweet breads appetizer, a plate loaded with perfectly fried sweetbreads on polenta. For my entree, how could I resist Moody's Big Ass Pork Platter? Moody's buys and butchers its own hogs to come up with this five way pork preparation. The night I was there it was loin, tenderloin, copa, fried belly and a sort of hash of trotters. The loin was a bit on the dry side, but all of the others were perfectly cooked. I'm impressed by Moody's every time I go, and given the cost of similar meals in LA, I'm impressed by the price as well.

Moody's Bistro
10007 Bridge St
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 587-8688


Euro-Snack Waffles

One of my favorite Tahoe fast foods is the Euro-Snack waffle stand at the Squaw Valley and Northstar ski areas. For $4 you get a small, sweet waffle square, grilled to order (pictured above). The gooey, chewy, sweetness warms your soul on a snowy day. It's one of those things that is probably only good in Tahoe, but I can't resist.


Lupita's

If you're flying into Tahoe, as we generally do, you're more than likely coming through the Reno-Tahoe Airport. Reno presents some of its own culinary challenges, but I try to find something decent on my way in or out. Mexican is generally the best bet, so we tried Lupita's in the Reno-adjacent town of Sparks. Lupita's features good, home-style Mexcian food, centered in the cuisine of the state of Nayarit. The food was solid if not particularly exceptional, though the chili verde was excellent, with the pork pieces fried up nicely with a crispy crust and a good tart salsa.

Lupita's
668 E Prater Way (in the strip mall on the northwest corner of Prater and McCarran Blvd.)
Sparks, NV 89431
(775) 355-1770


Sweets Handmade Candies

Sweets candy shop in old-town Truckee (with a branch in Reno) is a pretty typical old-time candy shop featuring fudge, peanut brittle and many other handmade candies that inevitably seem to look (and smell) just a bit better than they taste. It's fun to watch them making the candy in the window and be lured in by the scent, and it's easy to overindulge. The one thing I love at Sweets, which lives up to its smell, is the chocolate covered toffee popcorn. It's a butter toffee corn dripped with chocolate and served in big clumps; it's sweet, salty and highly addictive. They also do good fudge, but stick to the traditional flavors like chocolate and penuche.

Sweets Handmade Candies
10118 Donner Pass Rd # 1
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 587-6556

4991 South Virginia, Suite C
Reno, NV 89502
(775) 827-8270

If you're a Tahoe visitor or local, I'd love to hear your recommendations as I'm always looking for something new and good.

The Best of the Farmers Market

For my big Third and Fairfax roundup, I'm dividing the food stands into three tiers. The top tier are the very best, places worth a special trip to the Market. The second tier are very good; maybe not worth a special trip, but good choices if you happen to be there. Third are the rest..the unexceptional and unexciting.

This week is the top tier. These are my very favorites, the old standbys I rely on most and a new try that impressed me. I'm still tasting, so this list isn't complete and more may qualify for the top tier (and sweet shops will be handled in a separate post). They are listed in no particular order.


Monsieur Marcel's

This French Bistro started as a small cheese kiosk and has expanded into a full-on restaurant with its own seating and a gourmet market. This French bistro makes the best fondue in LA. They have a traditional Gruyere based fondue, which is good, but the highlight is their signature Fondue Savoyarde which includes other more flavorful cheeses such as Morbier and Roquefort. I also enjoy their moules frite and their croque monsieur. Take pains, though, to avoid their adjacent gourmet market of the same name which is vastly overpriced.


Moishe's Village



This stand, specializing in Boerek, was a new try for me but one that will definitely enter my pantheon of staples. No, Boerek was not that movie about that guy from Kazakhstan. It is a Turkish pastry served at a stand adjacent to the original Moishe's Middle Eastern stand. It's similar to a rectangular pizza, topped with cheese and your choice of toppings...I can't get enough of the egg. Two eggs, sunny-size up are fried onto the dough. The soft whites and fluid yolks mesh with the cheese and dough to create a delicious doughy, cheesy, eggy delight. I also enjoyed the spinach and cheese as well as the interesting sides like Swiss chard tzatziki and white beans in tomato sauce. As far as I know, Moishe's Village is the only place in LA where you can get this particular, pizza-like version of Boerek (as opposed to the Armenian meat pies of the same name available in Hollywood).


¡Loteria!



I was a late convert to the Mexican stalwart at the center of the market, and I still think this Mexico City style snack shop tends to be a bit overrated by reviewers, but that may be due to the dearth of good Mexican in this part of mid-city. They make a whopping eleven different type of tacos, but I find their pre-made fillings to be generally underseasoned. Their mole is popular, but it pales in comparison to the excellent Oaxacan moles you can get at numerous locations a mere ten minutes away. However, their chilaquiles (a breakfast dish consisting of fried tortilla chips with sauce) are some of the best in town; I like them with the tangy salsa verde. They also make an excellent version of queso fundido (Mexican fondue) topped with chorizo, which is a dish that's not easy to find in LA. And they do a great nacho plate, of all things, though sometimes the plate could use a few more minutes under the broiler.


Patsy D’Amore’s Pizza



In a city in which good pizza is a scarcity, Patsy's tends to fly under the radar, but this FM stalwart (with mandatory photo of the owner mugging with Frank Sinatra) consistently pumps out good, thin crust New York style pies. The toppings ain't much, so stick with plain cheese.


Pampas Grill

A relatively recent entrant into the FM, Pampas Grill puts a fast food spin on the Brazilian churrascaria. All of the traditional elements are part of the Pampas buffet: the massive salad bar, the scrumptious cheese breads, fried yuca, feijoda (black bean stew), and of course, the meat. Pampas has all the traditional churrascaria cuts: picanha (garlic beef), alcatra (sirloin), lamb leg, bacon wrapped chicken and sausage (pet peeve: why can't I find chicken hearts at any LA currascaria?) The food is good and it's a lot cheaper than you will pay at any sit-down currascaria.

The French Crepe Company

This creperie dishes out sizable crepes, both sweet and savory. The white flour creates a result that is more akin to a thin, dense pancake than a traditional French buckwheat crepe, but the results are still delicious. For savory, I love the Raclette, prosciutto and cornichon crepe...it's especially good when drizzled with some of their dijon mustard salad dressing. For sweet, I like the Grand Marnier, or just the plain crepe filled with butter and sugar and topped with whipped cream.


Du-Par's Restaurant

I've written before about the great pies at this newly rehabbed diner which anchors the west side of the Market, but Du-Par's is more than just pies. The light fluffy pancakes are an LA institution and they make one of the last great Monte Cristo sandwiches.



So that's my best of the best so far. Next week, I will post my second tier. Meanwhile, I'm still trying stands; so far, I've tried 27 over the last two months. I have only two more to try that I've never been to before and three I need to revisit because it has been a while since I sampled their wares.

Onward and upward...

Melisse: A Good Egg

While I tend to eat low-end, my love of good food causes me to scrimp and save so that I can eat high end, which I define as over $50 per person, a few times per year. (My motto is wear shabby clothes, drive old cars, eat good food). Over the last 5 years, between savings and the kindness of relatives, I've been able to hit a fair amount of the high-rated and high-priced LA eateries at least once.

Generally, I'm hesitant to weight in on High-End Dining trips (HED trips), as I hit only a few a year and will almost never repeat a visit in the same year, but I can certainly tell you what I love.

A weekend ago, for my birthday, I was lucky enough to be taken to Melisse, in Santa Monica, and enjoy the 13 course (I think it may actually have been more) carte blanche tasting menu. I have to say that this was one of the most extraordinary meals I've ever had. Over the years, I've had tasting menus at Spago, Sona and Providence and I've been to Melisse twice before, including one carte blanche menu, which I remembered fondly. This trip, however, was the best such meal I've had, including the past visits to Melisse, and the highlight was The Egg.

The egg is a Melisse signature dish that I'd had two years ago and had been dreaming about ever since. I was thrilled when it showed up again. It is a poached or soft-boiled egg, with a slight bit of cauliflower puree served in an egg shell, topped with crème frâich and caviar. It is the most rich, luscious dish I've ever had. The salt of the caviar, the rich, fluffy cream and the drippy, viscous egg yolk, all scooped up in one little mother-of-pearl spoonful, make for a silky texture and a taste that is as rich and heavenly as pure cream. Really, it's a rather simple dish. It doesn't have any molecular gastronomic effects. Its elements are very pure, egg and cream cooked perfectly and combined in a way that creates what must surely be the path to nirvana.

This is not to say that I have anything against molecular gastronomy. Another dish I enjoyed was a delicious apple soup, topped with apple foam and dotted with "apple caviar" -which I gather is a gelatin made with a syringe-like apparatus, and then there was the beef...

Beef sous vide. The sous vide technique, as I understand it, consists of placing meat in a vacuum packed plastic container and cooking it in warm water for a long period (in this case 72 hours). It retains all of its juices and comes out a perfect pink. This was juicy, tender and hugely flavorful beef; some of the best beef I've had. I wonder if you can replicate this with some Saran Wrap at home?

Lastly, big kudos to the cheese plate. I'm a bit of a cheesehead (will write about that more in the future), and I expect a lot out of high end restaurant cheese service. I want to talk about the cheese, its age, producer, composition and country of origin. Cheese is a growing, living and constantly aging thing, like wine, and restaurants that serve a cheese plate should put as much thought and expertise into its selection and service as they put into their wine selection.

Instead, however, many restaurants treat the cheese plate as an afterthought, something that Americans don't dig and don't know about. I've been mystified by how little the waiters at some restaurants know about the cheeseplates they serve. Not so, Melisse. The cheese board was excellent, including a wide variety of cheeses (maybe 40 or so). We tried a fairly generous number of selections, all well aged and interesting, and the waiter was knowledgeable about cheese and able to discuss its origins.

Anyway, if you want a splurge, and I do mean a splurge, but one that you will remember, check out Melisse.