The One - A Guiltless Pleasure

In the constant struggle to eat well and be well, I sometimes daydream fantastical questions for myself. For instance, if you could pick any one food of which you could have as much as you wanted without gaining weight or otherwise having ill effects, what would it be?

At first, my mind turns to luxuries, like foie gras or sweet breads, but the truth is, I don't eat those foods very often, so how much joy would I really be giving myself. Then I think about three of my greatest food loves: chocolate, cheese and doughnuts. Each of these though, has its limits. How often can I eat them, okay maybe a lot, but would eating them in quantities take away from their specialness, make them drab and monotonous.

Then I think of milkshakes. I rarely drink milkshakes (well, rarely compared to other treats), but if I could, I would easily do so daily. They go down so smoothly and offer such variety. A taro shake from Fosselman's, a Beam and Mint shake from Scoops, a traditional vanilla from Fred 62, frozen custard, malts, throw in a liquado or batido for good measure; the possibilities are endless. Ah yes, a milkshake a day, that would be dreamy.

What would be The One for you?

Whiskey Wednesday: Parker's Heritage Collection 27 year old

Last year, I reviewed the massive Bourbon that is Parker's Heritage Collection. The more recent version of this Heaven Hill Bourbon is 27 years old (the previous edition had no age statement but was about ten years) but isn't cask strength like its predecessor.

Just a few years ago, it was unthinkable to age a Bourbon for nearly 30 years. Bourbon, the theory went, was best at about 10 years and would be harsh and overly oaked and anything over 15. Unlike Scotch, Bourbon is aged in new, oak barrels, so the oak comes through faster and stronger than for Scotch whiskies aged in used barrels. Lately though, Heaven Hill has been pushing the age envelope. They have 21and 23 year old versions of their Rittenhouse Rye and now this. At 27 years old, this is the oldest Bourbon I've ever tasted. Let's see how it holds up.

Tasting

Parker's Heritage Collection, 27 years old (Heaven Hill), 48% alcohol ($185).

The nose is on this thing is huge, swimming with vanilla, maple syrup and some fruit along with polished wood. There's some quick sweet, caramel taste on the palate and then an acidic, citrus flavor, then there's a blast of wood that lingers into the finish, which is very nice. While there is wood here, I would never guess that this is a 27 year old whiskey. The wood is much less dominant than in many younger whiskies I've had. It also tastes more like a wheat Bourbon recipe than a rye recipe, but I have not seen anything definitive from the company about which recipe they used (Heaven Hill has both).

Side by side with the younger, previous incarnation of Parker's Heritage, the 2007 is the stronger whiskey. The strange thing is that the younger version tastes, well, older. It has the thick mouthfeel and musty, woody taste that I associate with older Bourbons, especially those from Heaven Hill. The 27 year old, meanwhile, carries that acidity, which is a bit sharp. Between the two, I prefer the first edition of Parker's. The older version is interesting but not as spot on with its flavors.

The 27 year old Parker's Heritage runs more than double the price of the previous incarnation. My advice is to get the older one if you can still find it, and I have occasionally seen it still on the shelves.

Last week, Heaven Hill announced that the third edition of Parker's Heritage Collection will include whiskey from as far back as the 1960s. Despite my misgivings about the 27 year old, Heaven Hill is clearly on a creative roll here, and the fun just keeps coming.

Rousing Roe: Al Bap at A-Won

In the heat of LA in the summer, I look for the cooler things in life. In Koreatown that means one of the various cold soups, bi bim bop or al bap at A-Won, a Korean-Japanese sushi restaurant on Western. Al-bap is similar to bi bim bap except that instead of meats and veggies, it is made with seaweed and roe. There are at least five types of roe topping an A-Won al bap bowl, including uni, salmon eggs, smelt roe and other roe in hues of green, red and yellow as well as a small, triangular slice of omelet (continuing the egg theme). The mixture of the rice, seaweed and roe creates a salty, fishy, bite that pops in your mouth as you bite down on the various eggs (fish roe - the original pop rocks). A creamy slab of uni is the cherry on top of this rousing roe.

So on a hot day, stop into Al Bap for a roe break.

A-Won
913 S. Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 389-6764

A Nickel Bag of Funk: Nickel Diner and the Maple Glaze Bacon Donut

I never bought into the whole bacon for dessert trend. Don't get me wrong. I love bacon and I love sweets, but most of the versions I've had which combine the two, even the highly touted versions, left me feeling flat. Because of this experience, it was with some hesitation that I pulled into downtown's Nickel Diner and ordered one of the famous Maple Glaze Bacon Donuts, but I'm glad I did.

Where others failed, the Nickel pulls off the sweet and the porcine. This may be because the doughnut lacks a chocolate element. Part of my dislike of bacon desserts is that they always seem to involve chocolate, and while I love chocolate, its flavors clash with bacon. The bitterness of good chocolate enhances the bacon's greasiness and you lose all of the subtlety of good chocolate in the flavor explosion that is bacon. But the Nickel doughnut eschews chocolate; instead going for a flavor pairing with maple. It is, essentially, a doughnut bathed in maple syrup and topped with crumbled bacon. As such, it references the pancake breakfast in which the syrup spills over to your bacon and creates a lovely combination of sweet and salty. In contrast to the bitterness and complexity of chocolate, the pure, unadulterated sweetness of maple syrup brings out all that is good and porky and salty about bacon.

The one complaint I had is that while the maple-bacon topping is spot on, the doughnut itself seems mostly an afterthought, an unexceptional, overly soft pastry lacking any crispness. I found myself dreaming about what the bacon-maple glaze topping would taste like on one of the beauties from Stan's or Bob's. That would catapult this dish from tasty to transcendent.

I also sampled a red velvet doughnut, which strangely, was not made from red velvet type cake. As with the Maple Glaze Bacon Donut, the red velvet topping, which consisted of a sweet, red crust and a healthy dose of cream cheese frosting, was tasty but it was heaped on the same unexceptional doughnut.

As for the food, the pulled pork hash was well done, though the red BBQ sauce on top was a bit overwhelming, and my companion's salmon salad seemed fine, if not exciting, but who are we kidding, this is a place you visit for the funky doughnuts.

Nickel Diner
524 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 623-8301

Whiskey Wednesday: When You Wish Upon a Star -- Ardbeg Supernova

As I reported last week, both of the new, super peated Islay Scotches, Bruichladdich Octomore and Ardbeg Supernova, are now available in Southern California. These were the most highly peated whiskies ever released and they have been hard to come by, so if you are interested, grab them now. I quite enjoyed the Octomore. Now it's time for Supernova.

Whereas the Octomore stated that it was peated to precisely 131 parts per million of peat phenols, the Supernova is a bit more cagey, stating only that it is "in excess of 100 parts per million." This Ardbeg contains no age statement.

Tasting

Ardbeg Supernova, 58.9% alcohol ($130).

The nose is sweet with smoke, but the smoke is not overwhelming. The first thing to hit the tongue is sweetness, followed immediately with a blast of smoke. The sweet and the smoke are intertwined throughout this whiskey, from start to finish; it's like a smoky candy - liquid smoke + simple syrup. Then, the smoke degrades a bit into bitterness and coal on the late palate/early finish. The final exhale, though, is pure smoke.

The consensus in the Scotch world is that between Octomore and Supernova, Ardbeg makes the better whisky. For my part, though, I have to say I preferred the Octomore. The sweetness is more reserved and the peat punch is bigger and more funky, in a good way. Octomore is a bolder whisky and comes together better on the palate, it presents the whole package in a more appealing way.

In the UK, Bruichladdich recently released the next edition of Octomore (version 2.1) which is up to 140 ppm. The peatiness will keep on coming, and I will be here to taste it.

Will Sweat for Food: Chung King

Another finally made it story for me...I finally made it to Chung King, the much loved Sichuan eatery in San Gabriel. I head out to the San Gabriel valley around three times per month, but my usual quest is dim sum or other dumplings which are Cantonese or Northern Chinese in origin. I'm not as schooled in the piquant stews and stir fries of Sichuan, but after hearing and reading raves going back many years, I was ready to remedy this experiential deficit and sample some of the dishes I'd heard so much about.

The popular Chung King Fried Chicken was a delightful take on the dish, with small, very salty chunks of fried chicken served in a pile of chilis, garlic and peppercorns. A salty snack that I wish I could get at a ball game.

I also loved the pork and pickled chilis. Shredded pork bits are enhanced by the little green pickled chilis which impart flavors of brine and vinegar onto the pork.

We also ordered the braised beef and noodles, a rich, spicy soup with braised beef. The broth was a deep brownish reddish color and had a flavor of beef braising jus and spices; it would have been nice to cut it with some lime. The beef itself was tender but not as flavorful as I would have liked, yielding perhaps to the spices.

The highlight of the meal, though, was the boiled beef, one of the most talked about dishes at Chung King. The dish features a bowl with slabs of beef and cabbage bathed in a soup of spice and peppercorn. The beef was sensational, a spicy revelation. The best pieces were those on top, which protruded from the broth and were coated with chilis and peppercorns. Placing these on my tongue, tasting and feeling the effect of the spices and Sichuan peppercorns was something I don't get much, a totally new culinary experience.

Chung King, and the boiled beef in particular, is less about flavor, though there is plenty of that, than about the physical interaction with the food. There is so much flavor with the heaping piles of garlic, ginger, scallions, chilis and peppercorns, that it is almost a taste overload that seeps from your senses of taste and smell into the other senses. There is so much to interpret that your entire body gets into the game. While Sichuan food is known for spiciness, I didn't have much in the way of the burning mouth or lips which are typical of more conventionally spiced meals. What I did develop was a tingly sensation on my tongue (a commonly reported effect of Sichuan peppercorns). I also began sweating and didn't stop until the meal was over, despite the cool, air conditioned Chung King dining room. It was a fully physical culinary experience, beyond mere taste and flavor, and one I hope to experience more of in the future.

Chung King
1000 S San Gabriel Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776-3113
(626) 286-0298

Brandy Friday: Germain-Robin Shareholders' Reserve

We are back with our occasional series, Brandy Friday, to try another offering from the Germain-Robin distillery in Northern California.

As you may recall, I loved the Germain-Robin XO and fondly look back at that most excellent though long since emptied bottle. The Shareholders' Reserve was originally produced for the initial investors in the Germain-Robin company. (I wonder if any of them looked like the old 19th century guy on the label?). Since 1991, it has been a regular though limited release.


Tasting

Germain-Robin Alambic Brandy, Shareholders' Reserve, 18th Bottling, 40% alcohol ($65)

The nose is sweet and fruity with raisins. The flavor follows up with the sweet and the fruit as well as dessert wine, pineapple, then some old wood later in the palate giving it a nice finish. This is a sweeter and more straightforward brandy than the XO, less complex but delicious in its own right.