Disney's Soda Fountain - Great Shakes, Bad Food

The Disney Soda Fountain, adjacent to the Disney owned El Capitan theater, is like a small Disneyland outpost in Hollywood. Enter it and you could very well be in one of Disneyland's many shops where food, gifts and Disnified decor intermingle. The cramped space is divided about half and half between a gift shop and a soda fountain with a few tables. I had lunch at the Fountain a few weeks ago after watching a Tinkerbell movie at the El Capitan and expected the food to be roughly the same as the movie, recognizable and kid-friendly but overhyped and utterly unoriginal. On balance, I was about half right.

The food at the Fountain was uniformly bad. My French Dip was served on a roll that should have been parbaked but wasn't. The meat was sad and dry and the jus was little more than tepid salt-water. The pastrami sandwich was similarly uninspired with a few slices of deli pastrami on cold, supermarket-style rye bread. The hot dog was a lackluster Hebrew National.

But this is a fountain and they should really be judged on their fountain drinks. I figured there was some hope here, since at Disneyland, the sweets are nearly always better than the savories, but I was surprised at what I got.

I ordered a simple vanilla malt and what I got was a nearly flawless version of the classic specimen. The shake was thick but sippable through the straw, the malt was perfectly balanced with the ice cream, and yes, they even gave us that sadly endangered species, the metal cup with the overflow shake. Had they used home made whip cream instead of the can, it would have been perfect.

I wasn't expecting this milkshake to be so good partly because of the low quality of the food and partly because of the various absurd ice cream items on the menu, including various Disney themed toppings such as Mickey Mouse shaped sprinkles and Tinkerbell green marshmallow cream (which seems more akin to what you would get if you stepped on the fairy). I must say, though, that I'm now interested in trying some of their sundaes and other items.

The Fountain is usually packed after the more popular movies so avoid it as you're coming out of the latest Pixar release, and instead, go during show time, or better yet, take in a Tinkerbell movie.

Disney's Soda Fountain
6834 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 817-1475

Whiskey Wednesday: Amrut

Amrut, an Indian single malt whisky, entered the US market about six months ago, but they have been using the fall whisky season as a sort of west coast coming out party, holding tastings and appearing at whisky festivals throughout California. I hadn't tried Amrut before but was able to sample their whole range at an excellent tasting at the Wine House (Note: as usual, I paid my own freight).

Unlike some Indian distilleries which have caused controversy by using molasses in their whiskies, Amrut makes single malt whisky entirely from barley. The barley comes from Punjab and is distilled and aged at the distillery in Bangalore. Amrut has been making whisky, mostly for domestic blends, since the 1970s, but starting exporting single malts to Britain and the EU in 2004.

Amrut is a single malt in the Scotch tradition, and tasting blind, I would certainly guess that it was Scotch. They have both peated and unpeated expressions as well as a new, sherried malt and the Fusion, a blend of the peated and unpeated malts. All of their malts are four to six years old, but likely due to the high heat in Bangalore and the use of some new American oak, they seem to age quickly and taste older than their years.

The current Amrut range is as follows:

• Amrut Single Malt, 46% abv ($55)


• Amrut Peated Single Malt, 46% abv ($70)


• Amrut Fusion, 50% abv ($65)


• Amrut Cask Strength, 61.8% abv ($75)


• Amrut Cask Strength Peated, 62.8% abv ($85)


• Amrut Intermediate Sherry Cask Strength, 57.1% abv ($125)

All of these malts were good. My favorite was the regular cask strength malt, which had some very nice spice and fruit notes; the sherried malt was also nice with some candy notes, though at $125, I wouldn't see myself buying a bottle. I was less enamoured of the peated malts, which were fine but didn't offer much more or different than is currently available in the world of peat. Distilleries without a strong peat tradition need to learn that it is not absolutely essential to peat everything, especially when the chances of improving on the existing world of peat are pretty slim.

This is a good start for Amrut. Right out of the gate, they have shown themselves to be a quality distiller, and I'll look forward to more of their output.

New on Larchmont: Larchmont Bungalow

The commercial strip of Larchmont Boulevard between Beverly and First Street is known for many things such as roaming $1,000 strollers, overpriced crappy restaurants, and being the furthest point east within the city limits that many Hancock Park residents will go without a police escort. Now, there is a welcome new addition to the strip. Occupying a former antique furniture shop, Larchmont Bungalow is a homey place which smells warmly of the fresh coffee they roast in the front window. They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and have a full pastry counter. I had brunch there a few weeks ago and have been doing my best to sample a wide variety of the pastries ever since.

The Bungalow has a large breakfast selection, available any time, including crepes, omelets, benedicts and more. I ordered the Latkes and Lox plate which is similar to Square One's salmon benedict, including lox and a poached egg over a potato latke. The latkes were a bit too crisp, really fried to the point of being tough, but the eggs were perfectly poached and I really enjoyed the wasabi creme fraiche.

The coffee is fine, but nothing special, which is too bad given the amount of effort they are putting into roasting their own. I had an espresso and a cappuccino, and wasn't impressed by the technical quality of either. The espresso was a bit thin and the cappuccino was too milky.

The Bungalow has a lovely pastry cabinet with a mixed bag inside. One of my favorite things was the strawberry muffin, a deeply pink muffin with a good strawberry flavor. I also enjoyed the chocolate cigar, a rolled chocolate croissant type pastry. The cupcakes were decent, but a number of the sweets, including both the lemon bars and the moon pies, were too sweet.

The cake selection looks very familiar if you have ever been to Sweet Lady Jane, the princess and berry cakes are almost identical to to popular versions at the Lady. I'm wondering if the Bungalow baker trained there or just "took her inspiration" from it. In any case, they are good copies. The princess cake's custard is rich and creamy with a distinctive egg/custard taste, but the cake is a bit dry. They also have a chocolate truffle cake, which is delightfully rich but a bit on the sweet side.

My favorite sweet was the chocolate bread pudding, a huge (though size varies) sort of muffin shaped creation. When warmed, the chocolate oozes over the bread in just the right way.


Not every dish is a star, but overall I really enjoyed the Larchmont Bungalow and it's a good addition to the neighborhood. I'm looking forward to more deeply exploring their menu.



Larchmont Bungalow
107 N. Larchmont Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(323) 461-1528

Blogger Profile: JayMan and the Noodle House

The blogger who goes only by JayMan is a food blogger like any other, except for one thing. He only reviews one restaurant.

"The first time I went to Jay's Noodle House in Alhambra, I was blown away. I was like, how could this little hole-in-the-wall have such great noodles."

Since that time, JayMan has reviewed nearly every one of the 47 dishes on the Taiwanese Noodle House's menu. (He doesn't favor eggplant, so he is missing a couple of dishes on that account). His popular blog also reports on staff changes, decor, some of the regular customers and other news from the restaurant.

"One of my biggest scoops was when Hsin Jr. started working exclusively lunch shifts. I think I had it up and posted before he even made the switch. I was also the first to report when they switched to shorter hours for two weeks back in August when the owners went back to Taiwan."

The owners of Jay's, while they appreciate his business, seem somewhat bemused by all of the attention.

"I think he is a very strange man," said owner Hsin Yu-Shan. "I put up a new picture or sweep the back room and he puts it on his blog. I think he needs to get a real job or something."

Jay shrugs off comments like this as well as the odd stares he sometimes gets from the restaurant's patrons.

"Hey, I've got to be true to me," he says.

When asked if he would ever blog about different restaurants, he is indignant.

"The internet is full of people posting about all sorts of restaurants and cuisines they know almost nothing about. I may only post about one place, but I am the world expert about that place."

Whiskey Wednesday: Whiskey Calendar and Books

Fall is the big season for whiskey in LA. It's when all the new releases come out, all the big whiskey festivals take place and all the new edition whiskey books publish. Here's a quick guide to the events coming up soon and the books that are just coming out:


CALENDAR

October 13:WhiskyLive LA is back. Whisky Magazine's tasting event has moved east to Beverly Hills at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

November 18: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society's Scotch Malt Whisky Extravaganza will be held at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, 1700 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica from 7:00pm-9:30pm. Sign up on their website, and don't forget to use your Sku discount: SRE2010. FTC Disclaimer: Sku was invited to attend this event free of charge.


BOOKS

Jim Murray's 2011 Whisky Bible is available for preorder. Now in its eighth year, the Whisky Bible is a massive compendium of whisky tastings. Murray rates whiskies of all types from all over the world. Now, I personally think Murray's ratings are pretty much useless, but it's a very thorough listing of current releases and it's always interesting to see what he thinks. More importantly, Murray is a great writer, and the articles in the front of the book, and prefacing each section, are usually worth the price alone.

The Malt Whisky Yearbook 2011 is also available for preorder. The Yearbook is an invaluable tool for any whisky fan, with detailed listings of all of the malt whisky distilleries, bottlers, and blenders and containing articles reviewing the year in whisky. It's another one that I buy every year.

So drink, read and be happy!

Whiskey Wednesday: Where in the World is the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection?

Each fall, American whiskey lovers wait with baited breath for the release of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. This release typically features some of the best Bourbons and rye whiskeys in existence and includes George T. Stagg, William Laure Weller, Sazerac 18 year old rye, Thomas Handy rye and Eagle Rare 17. Typically, the releases are announced in September and advance reviews start going out in mid-October, which is around when the bottles are released in Kentucky. They typically don't make their way to California until late October/early November.

But this year, we've heard nothing from Buffalo Trace. We've seen no press releases, advance reviews or anything else. What's happening?

The reason we love the Antique Collection is that it is extremely high quality (among the best Bourbons on the market) at an extremely affordable price. Even the vaunted Stagg can usually be found for $75-$80. At a time when more and more American whiskeys are inching up over the $100 mark, especially for special releases, American whiskey lovers are especially thankful for the Antique Collection.

I've heard nothing in the way of rumors about what's happening, so hopefully, it's just an issue of production delays. This happens in the industry; for instance, the 2008 edition of Old Forester Birthday Bourbon wasn't released until early 2009, but usually, those problems are accompanied by some news from the distillery.

So, is this just a delay or are the folks at Buffalo Trace trying to build up suspense for something new? Anyone know what's going on and when we can get our Antiques?

UPDATE: Buffalo Trace announced this very day that they are releasing the Antique Collection, which will consist of the traditional lineup. I'm nothing if not timely.

Black Cod in Red Sauce at KangNam

I was glad to finally make it to KangNam on Olympic at the western edge of Koreatown. They have a wide and varied menu with BBQ and sushi, but seem to specialize in home-style dishes. It's sort of a less funky version of the food at Seongbukdong.

The fried oyster pancakes had a nice oyster flavor but were a bit too doughy; I would have liked to see a lower oyster to dough ratio. The boiled short rib is actually braised and served in a sweet jus with apples, cherries and chestnuts. The meat was tender, but the sauce was a bit thin. The KangNam version only made me yearn for the bolder braised kalbi at Seongbukdong.

But the spicy boiled black cod with mixed vegetables was a home run. The dish is a braised code with scallions, rice cake, tofu, daikon and assorted vegetables in a thick Korean chili paste braising sauce. The cod itself was cooked perfectly, maintaining its buttery texture while soaking up the spice from the sauce. The assorted accompaniments added a wide variety of textures and the sauce was sippable by the spoonful.

They also do a good, somewhat spicy chapchae (the ubiquitous Korean noodle dish that we always order for the kids).


KangNam
4103 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 937-1070