Whiskey Wednesday: Costco Goes Macallan

Recently, while shopping at my local Costco (Los Feliz Blvd.), I noticed that they are now selling an 18 year old Macallan under their Kirkland label. The Macallan, which was going for $60, was bottled by Alexander Murray & Co., the same bottler which bottles for Trader Joe's. As you may recall, I was not a fan of the Trader Joe's bottlings by Alexander Murray, so I passed, but it peaked my interest about this independent bottler who seems to only bottle for American supermarkets.

Anyway, if you've tried the Costco Macallan let me know, because at $60, if it's good, it's still a good deal for an 18 year old Mac.

Instant Fondue: Petit Sapin

Petit Sapin is a soft ripened cheese from the Jura area of Comte, France. It comes in a small wooden box a la Epoisse.

And when I say soft, I mean that at room temperature this stuff is instant fondue. Crack open the rind and just dip small pieces of bread as you would a fondue pot. It has a mild but ripe and complex taste and a wonderfully runny texture, one of the best new cheeses I've had in a while.

Indo Cafe

If you live in southern California, you have a choice of hundreds, maybe thousands of Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Salvadoran, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese restaurants sprinkled throughout the city. Not so with Indonesian food. I can name all the Indonesian places I've heard about in LA on one hand, but luckily, Indo Cafe, an Indonesian gem in west LA, will give you an excellent Indonesian sampling.

Gado gado is probably the most known Indonesian dish. It consists of a salad of veggies, egg and tofu covered in a peanut sauce. Indo's sauce is thick and rich and the veggies are crisp and fresh. Gado gado is popular, but their other dishes are more exciting.

One of the best dishes I've had anywhere is Indo's lamb satay (satay kambing) with lamb chunks marinated in a sweet soy sauce to awesome effect. The little black lamb chunks become flavor bombs, sweet, tangy and savory. This is a fabulous dish and one I keep going back for...it makes me salivate just to write about it. (Okay, too much information, I know).

Also excellent are the pan fried noodles (kwetiau goreng), fried fish cake with noodles in a sweet sauce (empek empek) and the various curries, especially the lamb, and the amazing fried rice (nasi goreng). Meals are served with a pungent and essential fermented fish condiment which is thicker than Vietnamese nuoc mam.

There is an intriguing list of desserts including various concoctions containing avocado, jackfruit and durian, none of which I've yet tried.

So, if you are interested in trying Indonesian, you can't do much better than Indo Cafe.

Indo Cafe
10428 1/2 National Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 815-1290

Whiskey Wednesday: Ichiro's Malt

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, thanks to a friend who travels regularly to Japan, I have been able to sample a number of Japanese whiskies that are not available in the US.

Other than the Suntory Yamazakis that are available in the States, two of the most common whiskies in Japan are Nikka Yoichi and Suntory Hakushu. I tried the 12 year old Hakushu and a Yoichi without an age statement. The Yoichi was good with a similar flavor profile to the Yamazakis (malty, a bit smoky) but was a bit less smooth.

I didn't care as much for the Hakushu which was a lighter style whiskey, similar to a Glenlivet or other typical Speysider...just not my cup of tea.

Most recently, my pal was able to snag me a couple of Ichiro's Malts, which he found difficult to acquire even in Japan. Ichiro's Malts, according to the label, come from the Hanyu distillery in the town of Hanyu on the Tone River. The distillery was closed in 2000 and dismantled in 2004, but the founder's grandson is apparently trying to start it back up.

These whiskies were on par with the best of Scotland. The 15 year old was bold and smoky with subtle fruity notes. The 20 year old was extremely complex and well balanced. There was light smoke, fruit and just a lot going on flavor-wise. It's an enchanting and intriguing whiskey, one of those that you look forward to tasting again and again because, like rereading a Tolstoy novel, each time you do, you find something new and interesting.

If you're ever lucky enough to get to Japan, get some Ichiro's Malt.

Donuts and Mariscos in Moorpark

We headed to Moorpark this weekend for our annual visit to Underwood Family Farms to pick out a pumpkin. Sure we could have bought a pumpkin at any number of LA spots, but the farm is similar to the LA County Fair in that it is a place for urban kids who think of feral cats and pigeons as wildlife to see livestock, hay and people in cowboy hats.

I was skeptical of the chance for reportable eats, but there are actually a few good finds in the MP.

On the Underwood grounds, hungry pumpkin pickers can snack on Tia's Fresh Mini Donuts. The popular stand fries bite-sized donuts to order, topped with either powdered sugar or sugar/cinnamon. There's just nothing like fresh donuts and these have a nice little kick of nutmeg. They also cook up fresh potato chips that look good, but the donuts met my fry quotient for the day (see Mom, I have a fry quotient), so I abstained.

After observing livestock (emus, who knew?), eating mini doughnuts and picking out some good pumpkins, we set out for food and stumbled upon Mariscos San Felipe at the corner of Moorpark and Los Angeles Avenues in "downtown" Moorpark. The homey restaurant shares a building with a psychic, which I assume means they knew we were coming.

Mariscos San Felipe was a pleasant surprise in what we had feared was a culinary wasteland. It's a great little Mexican seafood joint with a similar rural/country feel to Mexican seafood joints I'd been to in east Texas. The place has only been open for about a year, and the staff had a down-home friendly feel that also reminded me of Texas.

I ordered octopus, scallops and shrimp al ajillo, which were sauteed with dried red ajillo peppers. The tangy, smoky ajillo skins combined well with the seafood, especially the octopus, which soaked up all of the ajillo flavor. The richness of the seafood and tang of the dried pepper was a perfect counterpoint. The seafood medley was served over rice, which further soaked up the rich ajillo. All courses were started with a vegetable soup in a succulent chicken broth.

In December Underwood Farms switches from pumpkins to Christmas trees. I've never been for that, but I may head up, just to get another meal at Mariscos San Felipe.

Mariscos San Felipe
50 Moorpark Ave. (at Los Angeles Ave.)
Moorpark, CA

Happy Birthday Mom: Organic Brown Rice

My mother, who is a semi-regular reader of this site, is constantly horrified by my diet. Well, let's face it, my food pyramid pretty much consists of fried foods, pupusas, cheese plates and butter, washed down with whiskey.

This may not be what the nutritionistas consider "healthy" but you have no idea how much will power it takes to maintain a high fat/high carb diet. I mean, sometimes I just want to splurge and have a celery stick or something.

So, in honor of my Mother's birthday, I excitedly tore open a package of frozen organic brown rice from Trader Joe's. Mmmm, so brown, so organic, so ricey...of course, it would be really good with some butter, or maybe deep fried.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Buttering Up Local Restaurants

My recent pontifications on butter have led me to wonder whether it's time for a change in butter service at LA's finest restaurants. Usually, along with some very fine bread, you get a plate of unidentified butter plopped down unceremoniously. There is little commentary around it, and, in my experience, you almost always have to ask to find out what type of butter you're eating. (And more often than not it is something acceptable but unexciting, like the European style Plugra that is available almost everywhere now).

Given that there is a new crop of fine artisanal butters available as well as plenty of wonderful European butters which now appear regularly in gourmet stores (butter apparently freezes well for transportation), it's high time that fine restaurants put more of an emphasis on butter.

Why not offer a choice of butters as an alternative to the standard? In fact, in a town that has seen water bars and oxygen bars, why not a butter bar...selling great bread with an option of different butters?

Now, I know that in a city in which the cheese spread is so often lacking, even in the finest establishments, butter appreciation may be asking too much, but this is something that people eat everyday, and damn it, it should be good.

So come on all you fancy-dancy restaurants, you Patinas and Providences, Spagos and Bastides, butter us up.