Whiskey Wednesday: Budget Booze- Take a Peak at Pikesville Rye

Since writing up some good whiskey buys for under $20 a few months ago, I've been getting lots of inquiries about where to find cheap whiskey, so over the next few weeks, I'll be featuring some budget booze.

The only thing better than a good rye is a good, cheap rye, and Pikesville scores on both counts. A Heaven Hill product, Pikesville is a three year old rye which goes for around $15. Pikesville was originally a much beloved Maryland rye, but the old Maryland distillery is long gone. The label claims it is still distilled from an "old Maryland formula," which is curious since I believe it uses the same mash bill as Heaven Hill's Rittenhouse Rye, which is allegedly an old Pennsylvania style rye. Both, of course, are distilled in Kentucky. Marketing aside though, this is good stuff.


Tasting

Pikesville Supreme Straight Rye Whiskey (Distilled by Heaven Hill), 3 years old, 40% alcohol. ($11-16).

Good rye spice on the nose. This has a very straightforward rye flavor. It has good spice, a bit of caramel sweetness, good body, and the spice carries you all the way to a very nice, spicy finish. All in all, a text book rye whiskey. Great stuff for the price and easily better than some ryes I've had that are much more expensive.

Palatable Pickels+ Pottage

Tucked between the rental car centers and auto dealerships on Glendale's Brand Boulevard of Cars is one of the most talked about restaurants to open in the last year: Palate Food + Wine. Specializing in pickling and charcuterie, Palate does these things well, but falls short in other areas.

The Palate menu is delivered in a legal size file folder, which will make lawyers feel like they're still at work -- pig claims intentional infliction of emotional distress based on excessively porky menu. The menu divides into five sections, the "porkfolio" which is a charcuterie plate, potted meats, pickles, cheeses and other dishes (i.e. soups, salads and entrees).

The two dishes we had that were excellent came from the potted meat and pickles sections of the menu. The potted lamb was a wonderfully salty, preserved lamb with ample fat. Much of the lamb gaminess had receded in favor of the salt and brine, which made it akin to an addictive, salty snack with a hint of game; I found myself wishing for a larger portion. Other potted items on the menu the night we were there included pork and hamachi.

For pickles, out of a selection of onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and grapes, we chose grapes. These grapes exploded in your mouth with vinegar and tarragon, almost as if they were one of Jose Andreas' "spherifications"; in fact, I'm not sure I could have identified them as grapes in a blind tasting, though a slight grape flavor does emerge later in the palate. These little wonders left me intrigued about the other menu items and reaffirmed my commitment to eat more pickled fruit.

The porkfolio, aside from the great name, fell a bit flat. It included parma prosciutto, lomo, speck, and three salumi, but all of it was rather ordinary. As a pork and charcuterie house, I held Palate to a high standard, and I didn't think they came through on this, their signature dish. Of everything on the plate, the speck and lomo were my favorites, but the salumi suffered from lack of distinction between the varieties and parma prosciutto is just not that special in these days of charcuterie innovation.

If the porkfolio didn't meet my rather high expectations, the entrees really disappointed. Flat iron steak was overcooked and the accompanying marrow was completely unseasoned. Calamari on greens with chili paste and garbanzos was a nice enough dish if not particularly memorable.

Since I have enough good cheese in my life, I didn't order a cheese course, though the menu selections looked nice enough.

The Palate wine list is creative and I appreciate that they offered three different sized pours of each wine (this is definitely a trend that should catch on), but avoid the cocktails. This is a wine place and the mixology was lacking.

Given the raves that have been heaped upon Palate, I was surprised to be largely underwhelmed. That being said, rave reviews are a mixed blessing and so I came with high expectations. If the place were in a more restaurant heavy district, I could see going back for a pre-meal snack of potted meat, pickles and a glass of wine. Alternatively, they are open for lunch on weekends and the aforementioned would make a nice light lunch. That being said, I'd stick to the top of the menu.

Palate Food + Wine
933 S Brand Blvd
Glendale, CA 91204-2107
(818) 662-9463

She Wore Red Velvet

I'm not much of a cake baker. I tend to stick to chocolate desserts for my baking, but when your significant other loves cake and it's her birthday, what are you going to do? In fact, nearly all my cake baking has taken place around one of her birthdays over the past 15 years. I've fumbled a few, though I've had a few triumphs as well, including a nice tres leches that I made from an Alton Brown recipe.

One of her favorite cakes is red velvet, so this year I took it on. After searching high and low, I found this Chowhound post. All I can say is, use it. The recipe is near-flawless. The secret ingredient is a bit of vinegar and baking soda, which adds that fizzy CO2 to the batter. I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter with the exception of substituting butter for the Crisco, since I have a deep-seated fear of Crisco.

And the frosting is wonderful, though be warned it is a buttercream, and some folks prefer cream cheese frosting on their red velvet cake. As for me, you could frost dog shit with a good buttercream and I'd happily lap it up.

Enjoy!

Whiskey Wednesday: Festival Edition

For Whiskey buffs in LA, fall is festival season, and this fall may be one of the best of all.


October 10 - Hi-Time Wine Cellars Whisk(e)y Tasting

Hi-Time Wine, Orange County's best whiskey purveyor opens up the vault and offers tastes of over 100 whiskies plus appetizers at the Costa Mesa Holiday Inn. The event takes place on Saturday, October 10 from 4:00 to 8:00 and the entry fee is a more than reasonable $50. Reservations are required so if you are interested, visit their website.


October 20 - WhiskyLive LA

For the first time ever, LA will be home to one of the big, magazine-sponsored festivals. Whisky Magazine's WhiskyLive will take place on Tuesday, October 20 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. WhiskyLive features classes, entertainment, food, and of course, whiskey. Tickets range from $99 for a regular pre-ordered ticket all the way up to $149 for a VIP ticket at the door. Check out this site for more information and to order.


November 20 - Single Malt & Scotch Whisky Extravaganza

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society's (SMWS) sixteenth annual Single Malt & Scotch Whisky Extravaganza will take place on Friday, November 20 at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. The SMWS is a private club for Scotch lovers, but their festival is open to the public and will offer over 85 single malts. Tickets are by advance purchase only and cost $115 for members and $130 for nonmembers. For more information and to order tickets, see their website.


I will be doing my best to provide continuing coverage of these excellent events for Southern California's whiskey-loving public.

XLB/Shen Jian Bao Alert: Tasty Bao at Tastio (Dean Sin World)

I Love the popular xiao long bao (XLB), or soup dumplings, but my real love in the area of Shanghainese cooking is shen jian bao. Shen jian bao are pork buns, steamed in deep water and then fried in oil and topped with black sesame seeds. I headed to Tastio because I'd heard great things about their XLB, but their shen jian bao won my heart.

I heard about Tastio, aka Dean Sin World, through the excellent e-newsletter Tasting Table and was surprised I'd never heard of the place given my love of dumplings, though it seems to be pretty off the radar. It's a tiny (four tables) shop in a strip mall on Garfield, just north of Garvey in Monterey Park.

The shen jian bao at Tastio are excellent, perfectly seared on the bottom with bread that is chewy but not too doughy, bursting with juice when you bite into them and full of succulent ground pork. These were possibly the best shen jian bao I've had, though I loved the version at Shanghai Restaurant, back when it was good.

The XLB were also excellent, though maybe not as refined as those at Din Tai Fung. T We also had fried dumplings which also burst with juice, a sort of flat cabbage spring roll, which was good and scallion pancakes, which were a bit too greasy. Shrimp wontons were served in a lovely chicken broth, that no one at the table seemed to be able to get enough of.

Tastio is not very accustomed to non-English speakers and while the menu is in English, the staff's English is limited to none, but they were very nice and excited to share their great food with us, and with some effort on both our parts, we managed to mostly understand each other.

The menu at Tastio isn't as diverse as some place, but for what they have, I would certainly pick them over the more popular Mei Long Village and J&J. Those places are fine, but they don't make my heart sing, and it sings still for the shen jian bao.

They also sell frozen dumplings to take home at 50 pieces per bag for around $12. I steamed some XLB at home and they came out pretty well. The shen jian bao, which are a bit more complicated to cook, are a bit intimidating and, for now, are still sitting in my freezer.


Tastio Bakery & Deli
306 N Garfield Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 571-0636

Red Velvet...Cookies at the Studio City Farmers Market

I'm on a bit of a red velvet binge lately (more on that next week), and at the Sunday Studio City Farmers' Market on Ventura Place at Laurel Canyon, there is a new stand called Xtreme Desserts. Their specialty is the red velvet cookie, a sandwich cookie featuring two large cookie shaped pieces of red velvet cake and a cream cheese frosting filling. The red velvet was moist and flavorful, though a bit too red for me (easy on the dye guys) and the cream cheese filling was creamy and smooth with the right amount of sweetness and tang. It's really more cake than cookie, like an oreo that's been crossed with a red velvet cake, or a souped up Southern spin on some Hostess treat. They have a few brownies as well, but the red velvet cookies seemed to be the mainstay.

They also have a website where you can order the red velvet cookie and lots of other tasty looking treats.

Whiskey Wednesday: The Dark Roasted Goodness of Glenmorangie Signet

Glenmorangie Signet was one of the most talked about releases from last year. Innovation isn't new to this very popular Scottish distillery. They were one of the first to popularize cask finishes, moving a whisky from one barrel to another for its last months or years to impart different flavors. Their regular line still includes port, sherry and Sauternes finished whiskies.

The Signet was an entirely different type of experiment that went to the core of whisky production: the barley. You don't hear much about barley in the Scotch world. Being the core ingredient of the Scotch Whisky, you would think that people would argue about its quality, roast and breed, but no, discussions of barley are largely absent from Scotch aficionado banter.

Signet changed that by focusing the whiskey world's attention on barley. Signet diverged from common practice by uses chocolate barley as the base of its Signet. Despite the sound of it, chocolate barley is not a new sweet snack from Trader Joe's. It's a darker roast of barley than is used in malt whisky; it is used in beer, specifically porters and stouts. The Signet malt used chocolate barley for 15 to 20% of its 100% barley mash; the rest was presumably the traditional roast. What effect will this dark roasted barley have on the finished product? We shall taste and find out.


Tasting

Glenmorangie Signet, 46% alcohol ($200). The whisky has no age statement.

The nose is sweet and honeyed with some banana. It reminds me of Canadian Whisky or even Cognac more than malt. The flavor is sweet; the first sip reminds me again of a super-rich Canadian or maybe an American malt like Stranahan's. Then there is grain, and yes, some chocolate or mocha type flavors. There is a thick, rich mouthfeel that gives this whisky a certain weight. Then, at the end of the palate and continuing with the finish, there is malt, the pure, sweet malt that is the trademark of Glenmorangie.

This is a really extraordinary whisky, both in the fact that it is pleasing to the palate, but also in that it is something totally new in the world of Scotch, both in concept and flavor. Check it out!