Favorites: Paris Baguette

What it is: A Korean owned French bakery with excellent French pastries. A dry erase board outside tells you when things come out of the oven.



What to get: chocolate feullette, anything with cream or custard (fresh made and heavenly), green tea pastries, plain croissant ...mmmm.




Paris Baguette, First and Western.

Whiskey Wednesday: Trader Joe's Scotch

Getting Started: Visit Trader Joe's

If you live in California, there is no better place to start sampling single malts than your local Trader Joe's. TJ's carries some excellent malts at excellent prices from a variety of Scottish regions (we'll talk about the regions at some later date). Here are some you can start with. (For you out of towners, TJ's is a popular discount gourmet store.)

Glenfiddich, 12 year old, Speyside Region

Glenfiddich is the world's most popular single malt. If you've never had a single malt before, you should try it. And even though I feel I have outgrown it, I have a soft spot for the first single malt I tried and the one that served me dutifully for years before I got more adventurous. Glenfiddich sold me on its smoothness...it has no harshness; it's light and pleasant. It is a malt stripped down to its maltiness and a good example of the smooth, mellow style of the popular Speyside region. TJ's price: $23.99

Dalwhinnie 15 year old, Highlands

Like Glenfiddich but more so, Dalwhinnie is super smooth but with a richer taste. You start to see the complexity that scotch can have. I think it smells sort of grassy, maybe that's what they call floral. I get some vanilla in there too, wait there's more: honey, heather, treacle...Noooo. Hey, you were supposed to stop me. Anyway, you get the drift. TJ's price: $41.99

Dalmore, 12 year old, Northern Highlands

Now we get to the good stuff. I think of all the malts on this list, I like Dalmore the best. I generally like Northern Highlander malts. They are rugged, pungent and complex. Dalmore doesn't smell like flowers; it smells like the earth and tastes like the sea. The oak of the barrel comes through and right at you - screaming WOOD. It is complex and thick and if you hold it in your mouth it actually gets a bit sweet. This is rugged whiskey for rugged people living on rugged terrain. And at $22.99 at TJ's, it's about the best deal you will ever find for a malt of its quality.

Laphroaig, 10 year old, Islay

Here it is in all its smoke and glory: Laphroaig 10 year old. The most affordable of the smokers. This is your typical south Islay, with all its peat smoke, medicinal flavors and oily textures. I'm an Islay fan and a smoke fan and if you've never had a scotch with powerful smoke, Laphroaig is a good place to start: TJ's price: $29.99


There you have it. A fabulous one-stop intro to scotch for about $120 (an amount a scotch nut could easily spend on a single bottle). And remember, unlike say, wine, which you have to drink within days of popping the cork, an open bottle of scotch can last for years (though mine never seem to). So, you get more for your money.

TJ's also has its own line of private label independent bottlings; I've seen them from Aberlour, Glenlivet, Macallan and Bowmore, but haven't tasted any yet...maybe that will be a future tasting.

Next Whisky Wednesday: Lagavulins Young and Old

Quick Picks: Corn Dog Castle at Disney California Adventure

Disney theme parks are not food destinations, to say the least, but Corn Dog Castle, in the Paradise Pier area of Disney California Adventure, is serious fair food. You can get a juicy, jumbo hot dog or hot link (choose the hot link), dipped in a slightly sweet batter and fried crispy and golden brown but moist on the inside. The battered coating is thick such that the finished product looks like a miniature baseball bat. It has the perfect Corndog Textural Counterpoint (CTC, for those in the know) when you bite through the sweet, crunchy cornmeal and into the juicy, spicy dog. This is one of the best corndogs I've had in the admittedly low-corndog density Southern California area.

Sure, it's almost $6, but at Disneyland, what isn't?

Recent Reads

I read a lot of food books and will occasionally report on those I find interesting:

The United States of Arugula by David Kamp.

David Kamp provides a delightful and gossipy romp through the past 50 years of American food history, from David Beard and Julia Child to Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck. Lots of fun and a quick read; five stars.


Heat by Bill Buford.

Buford documents the year he spent working in Mario Batali's famous New York restaurant Babbo and apprenticing to a butcher in Tuscany. Hard core Batali fans might love this book, but I found it a bit tedious. The voyeuristic thrill of looking into a celebrity kitchen wears off quickly, and I didn't find Buford's hand wringing and performance anxiety very compelling. The chapters on the butcher are fairly slow. All in all a decent book to pass the time but not one that is thrilling or life changing.

Recent Drinks: A Passion for Scotch

I hereby anoint every Wednesday Whiskey Wednesday on Recent Eats, where I will review or otherwise opine on my favorite spirit. Starting next week, I will be doing some scotch reviews, so I thought I would give a basic scotch outline for anyone who's not experienced with this elixir of life.

What is Scotch?

Scotch is a whiskey made in Scotland (hence name), where by the way, they spell it whisky. The primary grain used in Scotch is barley. Generally, we can break Scotch down into two major categories:

1. Single Malts

A single malt is a Scotch made by a single distillery from 100% malted (germinated) barley. Single malts you might have heard of if you are not a scotch aficionado are Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, The Balvenie and The Macallan.

2. Blended Scotch

A blended Scotch is a scotch made by a company that buys single malts from a variety of distilleries and blends them with cheaper and usually more neutral tasting grain whiskies. All of the biggest selling Scotches are blends: J&B, Dewar's, Cutty Sark, Johnnie Walker, Chivas Regal, etc.

While there are some examples of high quality blends, I have found that I favor single-malts; they seem to have more distinct and interesting flavors.

What does Scotch taste like?

Scotch is a complex tasting spirit containing a wide variety of flavors and aromas that can be found across various scotches or in a single bottle. One of the most notable flavors is peat or smoke. In making scotch, the malted barley is dried by a kiln which is sometimes fueled by peat, a fossil fuel derived from swamp moss, haggis and other Scottish things. The peat imparts a smoky taste to the spirit. Sometimes the smoke is subtle and sometimes it is like drinking Liquid Smoke straight out of the carton. Islay, an island off the west coast of Scotland, is famous for making smoky Scotches like Lagavulin, Ardbeg and Laphroaig.

Other common flavors associated with Scotch include "malt" which is the flavor of the barley and is that which makes Scotch taste like Scotch. In addition, many Scotches that are aged in old sherry casks have a distinct sherry taste. Macallan, in particular, is known for its sherry flavors.

Where can I buy scotch?

For the Southern California beginning scotch drinker, you can get all you need to introduce yourself to Scotch at your local Trader Joe's. Next week I will describe some of the excellent single malts available there.

For the intermediate to advanced drinker, I have found no better place to purchase Scotch than Wine & Liquor Depot in Van Nuys. They have a selection that rivals any I've seen in the US, with an emphasis on independent bottlings.

Where can I learn more about Scotch?

The best introductory text on Scotch is the slim but extremely instructive Instant Expert's Guide to Single Malt Scotch by Kevin Erskine, available from Doceon Press. I can't say enough good things about this book. There are a lot of books about Scotch, but most of them are written assuming a fairly vast knowledge. Precious few give the type of basic, helpful information needed by a novice. I had been drinking and reading about Scotch for several years before I bought a copy, and I learned some very basic things that had previously eluded me. If you want to get into Scotch, you owe yourself a copy. (Kevin Erskine is also the author of the excellent Scotchblog, the leading website on Scotch industry news and happenings.)

There is also an excellent whiskey posting board, with loads of Scotch information, on the website for Whisky Magazine, a British publication with lots of great news and insight into the world of whiskey.

How do you drink Scotch?

As with bourbon and other whiskies, Scotch should be enjoyed straight or with a dash of water. However, if the occasional ice cube strays into your glass, it won't kill you (though the Scots might since they disapprove of such adulteration).

As with wine, professional Scotch tasters have an annoying habit of coming up with bizarre descriptions of Scotch's taste. Their reviews often devolve into free association, such as "malt, smoke, ripe apricots, blueberry jam, Skippy peanut butter, spring almonds, extra virgin olive oil, fresh cod livers, turnip stalks...etc." I find these descriptions to be pretty much useless in determining whether I will like a given bottle of scotch, and alienating to new imbibers.

In addition, since so many of the experts are British, they use descriptive terms that have little meaning to Americans, like treacle, for example. I don't know what treacle is, what it smells like or what it tastes like, although I have a vague recollection that Harry Potter eats it at some point, and it may or may not have turned him into a ferret. Another popular descriptive term is "iodine." This is the 21st century...who the hell knows what iodine smells like anymore? And don't even get me started on "heather"!

In any case, I swear an oath unto the Great Scotsman to never engage in pretentious tasting note free association. In addition, I will never, on this blog, utter the terms tipple, dram, angels' share or New Labour. To the extent I use similes, I will try to do so only when there is a clearly evident comparison to be made to a common taste or smell. This is my oath to you the reader.


Next Whisk(e)y Wednesday: Get Started at Trader Joe's

Choice Meats

Living, as I do, in the center of the largest Korean population outside of Korea has its perks, primarily, a selection of over 5 million Korean barbeques. Sometimes, though, you just don't feel like hiking half a block to the closest BBQ joint, and for those times, there is Choice Meats.

Choice Meats is an excellent Korean butcher located in the strip mall at the southwest corner of Third and Western. I go right for their pre-marinated packages of bulgogi and kalbi. The bulgogi is sliced thin and the Kalbi is wonderfully fatty. They also have beautifully marbled beef slices you could use for roast gui and marinated pork, but I have yet to try those.

From there it's easy. Stop off at HK Super, up the street at First and Western for some panchon to go, head home- fire up the grill, start up the rice cooker, cook, serve and enjoy. The paper thin bulgogi cooks in minutes, the kalbi takes maybe 15 minutes of frequent flipping...and then, you have a restaurant-quality Korean BBQ meal made at home.

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.