Great Deals at Bawarchi Indian Kitchen

Bawarchi is a small, vegetarian steam table Indian spot in Culver City where you can get good Indian food at a great price. For a mere $8, you get to choose one of two rices, one of three breads and three main dishes from the steam table, along with a small salad, pappadum and raita. There must be a dozen main dishes to choose from, and they change with some frequency (the labels on the steam table seem to change somewhat less often, so it helps to ask what the dishes are). The day I was there I tried a nice jackfruit dish, paneer in cashew sauce, saag with corn and a lentil dish. All of it was nicely spiced, though not too hot, and tasty. Good food at a great price is hard to beat.

Bawarchi Indian Kitchen
10408 Venice Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 836-8525
www.indianbawarchi.com

Downhill Alert: Peet's Coffee

I don't write this lightly. As a Bay Area kid, I grew up on Peet's Coffee. I had Peet's beans shipped to me by UPS when I lived in New York. When the first Peet's shops opened in LA, I would go out of my way to get to Beverly Hills or Manhattan Beach to get some of that deep, smoky brew. Back then, they didn't even carry syrups in their stores, it was just coffee.

I suppose it was bound to happen with expansion. It's simply hard to keep a product at a consistently high level of quality once you reach a certain point (take note, Intelligentsia, don't let this happen to you!). With hundreds of stores spanning six states, Peet's has simply overreached.

I still buy Peet's beans for my own use, but the in store service for the last few years has really gone down hill. Peet's used to be reliable for a thick, smoky espresso with a good crema or a cappuccino with a light head of milk. Now, my espressos often lack any real crema and the caps are drown in milk. The coffee sometimes tastes burnt (too long in the warmer for drip or bad temps for the espresso). Peet's in LA was always a chain, but it used to be a sizable step up from Starbucks; while I wouldn't say it's as bad as Starbucks had become, it's about as bad as Starbucks was five or ten years ago, which is not good.

It's not just the fact that the bar has been raised. Even a couple of years ago, when Intelligentsia and LA Mill were already on the scene, I still enjoyed the pleasures of a dark Peet's espresso. But now, when I crave an espresso drink, it's nearly always Intelligentsia I head to.

I would love to see Peet's reclaim its former glory, but I fear they have morphed into Starbucks Junior. Farewell, my dark and smoky friend, farewell.

Whiskey Persons #1 - A Blogger With a Secret

One of my favorite new whisky blogs is Oliver Klimek's excellent Dramming.com which includes tastings, articles and interviews with people of the whisky world. Oliver's blog is so impressive (and listed in the Malt Whisky Yearbook after little more than a year in existence!) that I decided to copy it and start doing some interviews, but they didn't quite work out as I had planned.

This first interview is with one of the web's most famous whisky bloggers. If you are a whisky lover, it's a name I guarantee you would recognize, but this is a blogger with a secret. I must warn you that the interview that follows may shock you and lead you to question everything you thought you knew about the whisky blogosphere.

Interview

What gave you the idea to start blogging about whisky?

I was lonely. I had a family, but I wanted a more intimate community, one that would think I was really special, so I started hunting around on the web. For a while, I posted on gardening sites, but those people are horrible. I mean, if you suggest that you use the wrong shaped hoe or soil, they will flame you to death. I just couldn't handle the stress of the gardening forums. I flirted briefly with the parakeet-loving community, then I followed a link to a whisky forum and I loved it. Right there, I said, okay, this is for me.

Had you been a whisky drinker before that point or did you only start tasting whisky when you became involved with that forum?

Oh, I don't drink.

I'm sorry, what do you mean?

I don't drink whisky, or anything alcoholic, not even a bit. I just blog about it.

But you rate and sample whiskies by the hundreds, you are a household name among whisky fans, and you are in a famous tasting society. How can you not drink?

I'm interested in blogging, not drinking. It's really quite easy. When I started out, I read everything I could find about whisky, studied ratings, bought every book and became knowledgeable. I know how whisky is supposed to taste from sherry and spice, to malt and heather, to peat, iodine and seaweed. I mean, once you know those combinations, you just make up the rest. It's easy and it's a great creative exercise. I use heather and treacle all the time in my reviews, and to be honest, I have no idea what those things are, but they sound great.

You're kidding, right? I mean, you've sampled Bowmore Black and Macallan Lalique. Did you just make those up?

Oh, those are the easiest. With whiskies that almost no one else in the world will ever taste, I don't even have to try. Who's going to prove me wrong? Do you think some Russian tycoon is going to post a comment saying my tasting notes are bogus? That's why I confidently wrote that I tasted "Iam's kibble for senior cats" in the finish of the Mortlach 70. Why not?

But don't the distilleries send you samples?

I get more of those damned things than I know what to do with. I do like the little bottles though. They're so pretty! The whisky? Most of it goes down the drain.

You dumped a Bowmore Black down the drain?

I don't dump all of them. I give some of them to the wino who hangs out on the stoop outside my apartment.

What about your scores? Whiskies have been known to double in price when you give them a high score?

Scores are just a way of imparting confidence in the consumer. When you think about it, I'm like the Wizard of Oz, and the consumer is the Cowardly Lion; all they need is the courage to make the choice they know they want to make anyway. People want Ardbegs, Broras, Port Ellens and Highland Parks to get high scores, so I oblige. They don't care about much else, except that they like it if you occasionally give something that's really expensive a low score. That reaffirms the consumer's feeling that they aren't missing anything. Scoring isn't a matter of taste or math; it's a matter of psychology. And, of course, who can disagree? Taste is subjective, and I include the disclaimer that my scores are only my opinion and it may be different from that of others, which is certainly true.

How do you live with yourself?

My liver is very healthy.


Common Questions

Your Three Tips for Whisky Novices

1. Always listen to the experts. Remember, your palate is not sophisticated enough to judge whisky. Leave it to those of us who know what we're talking about.

2. Don't buy anything that scores less than a 98.

3. Please support my advertisers.


Your three tips for experienced whisky lovers

1. Always listen to the experts. Remember, your palate is not sophisticated enough to judge whisky. Leave it to those of us who know what we're talking about.

2. Don't buy anything that scores less than a 98.

3. Please support my advertisers.

Good Things in Small Packages: Platine's Pot du Creme

Platine is a small bakery on Washington in Culver City. It carries a sparse set of offerings at premium prices. There's nothing wrong with the small one dollar cookies, but I feel like I could make most of them myself. The chocolate chip with salt is nice enough, but the black and white cookie is unexciting, and it's cookie isn't cakey enough (as is needed to support a true black and white).

I tend to avoid high priced, museum-quality bakeries, but the pot du cremes at Platine are delightful. The chocolate pot du creme is thick and creamy, textured half way between a mousse and a ganache. Served in a little custard cup the size of a large thimble or a small demitasse, the pot du creme is the perfect mouthful of thick, dark chocolate with just a touch of salt sprinkled on top. It will set you back $2.50, including a dime that you get back if you return the ceramic cup.

When I was last there, the special, for a dollar more, was a wonderful pumpkin seed pot du creme. This was another winner. More chunky than creamy, it was rich and nutty tasting with a flavor that reminded me more of pistachio than pumpkin seeds.

The danger of Platine is that I save up those pot du creme cups to return, (more because it seems sad to waste them than because I need the dime), but each time I return one, I buy at least one more, and so the cycle continues.

Platine Bakery
10850 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 559-9933
www.platinecookies.com

Charamel: Garrett Chicago Mix Popcorn

I'm woefully underexposed to Chicago, having set foot in the Windy City only briefly, and I look forward to exploring it, but for now, I will need to rely on friendly travelers, layovers and the like. In terms of food gifts from Chi-Town, hot dogs, deep dish pizza and Italian beef just don't travel well, so the good folks of Chicago came up with Garrett Popcorn. Garrett is a popular flavored popcorn shop that makes caramel and cheese popcorn. The caramel is good but pretty standard, while the cheese is fairly special, more greasy than powdery and full of cheesy-salty goodness. But the prize at Garrett is the Chicago mix, equal parts cheese and caramel corn (my daughter has dubbed it "charamel") which play off the sweet/salty flavors that we all find so enticing.

I have no idea if real Chicagoans eat Garrett popcorn or if it's simply a tourist thing (Chicagoans, please let me know), but the best thing about Garrett is that there are at least two at O'Hare (and they make the popcorn fresh on site).

Whiskey Wednesday: WhiskyLive 2010

Last week was the second annual WhiskyLive Los Angeles, sponsored by the good folks at Whisky Magazine. This year, the festival moved from the Santa Monica Civic Center to the more centrally located (and much more posh) Beverly Wilshire Hotel. While it lacked some of the more casual atmosphere of last year's event, the whisky was good and there was a wide variety of it to be had.

Some special treats that were being offered included a 40 year old Tomatin and a nice range of unusual single malts from Duncan Taylor, including Auchroisk, Imperial and a peated Bunnahabhain. There was also a wide variety of American whiskey on display. At the Heaven Hill table, they were tasting several versions of the Parker's Heritage series of Bourbons, including the most recent wheated version which I found very impressive. Dave Pickerell was there with his WhistlePig Rye which I was glad to finally get to taste. And it was nice to see a whole table devoted to my favorite underrated whiskey, George Dickel.

As usual, apart from the tasting floor, there were masterclasses dedicated to specific distilleries. For the true whiskey geek, there was the class by High West's David Perkins (bottles pictured above). Perkins not only offered tastings of two of his newest whiskeys which aren't on the market yet, but ran a "virtual distillery," in which he provided samples from the various phases of distillation, including the heads, heart and tails, and explained how distillers make the all important cut that creates good whiskey. It was a fascinating experience and went far beyond the basic brand promotion that is the norm for most masterclasses.

Next up in the fall tasting lineup is the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's Extravaganza on November 18.

Whiskey Wednesday: Why I Shed No Tears for the Stolen Mortlach 70

The big news in the whisky world over the past week or two has been that a bottle of the Gordon & MacPhail 70 year old Mortlach, reputedly the oldest whisky ever bottled, was stolen from the Gordon & MacPhail importer's table at the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival. The bottle was stolen after the show while the supplies were in a locked room. Mark Gillespie has a thorough report on this week's episode of WhiskyCast.

For those of you who have been living under a rock (or drink it on the rocks), the Mortlach 70 was released earlier this year and goes for around $15,000 per bottle. Of course, while this may seem like a lot to the uninitiated, two bottles of Dalmore sold last week for around $150,000 each.

Now, I don't condone theft of any kind, but I can't say I'm shedding any tears for the folks at G&M (or importer Symposium). If you are going to start selling whisky for the same price as rare jewels, you better be prepared to treat it like rare jewels. I'm talking armored cars, motion sensor laser activated alarm systems and briefcases handcuffed to the brand ambassador. Leaving it in the back of the stack of bottles just ain't going to cut it anymore. Sorry, but the industry brought this on themselves.

In my dreams, some whisky Robin Hood figure took the bottle and will be pouring it at his local pub.

And I hope someone is on the phone with Henning Mankell. This would make a great Wallander mystery.