I've long been a fan of the wonderful Italian sandwiches of Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica. The Bay Cities Godmother, loaded with meat, oil and vinegar and stuffed onto a freshly made, crispy crusted loaf of their housemade bread, satisfied a hero sandwich craving when I first moved her from Manhattan. Now, I'm guessing that if I ate at my old sandwich haunts in New York, I would miss the Godmother. I'm also a sucker for the meatball sandwich, with all of that glorious sauce loaded onto that same fresh bread.
The big disadvantage of Bay Cities is that it's in Santa Monica, and while it makes an ultra-convenient beach picnic, it's not always easy to satisfy a craving, and I've long wished for a good grinder east of Fairfax. That's why I was excited to hear about the new deli All About the Bread on Melrose at La Brea which I was told made similar sandwiches to Bay Cities.
It turned out that these were not merely similar sandwiches. The primary meat sandwich at All About the Bread is the Godfather. As with Bay Cities, it can be ordered with "the works" which includes hot peppers. And it is served on housemade bread that is remarkably similar in appearance to the bread in a certain Santa Monica deli. Why not just call the place Inland Cities? Anyway, I would caution the proprietors of this new haunt to be on the lookout for angry lawyer letters in the new future.
But how do these sandwiches compare to the Bay? They are good sandwiches and I'm glad to have an outlet for them closer than Lincoln Boulevard, but they aren't quite up to the Bay Cities standard. The Godmother was tasty and I liked that it had prosciutto, which added a nice hint of cured meat. The All About the Bread bread is crunchier than Bay Cities' version, but it lack some of the nice, yeasty flavor of the Bay Cities bread.
The meatballs and marinara on the meatball sandwich were nicely flavored, though I would have liked more sauce. Still, I didn't dig it quite as much as the giant Bay Cities meatball.
Of the sandwiches I tried, the one that I thought All About the Bread did better than Bay Cities was the caprese, which had a good balance of mozzarella, tomato and basil and came together well. The caprese benefits from the somewhat thinner bread at All About.
It may seem like a blatant copy of the Bay Cities formula, but hey, it's a successful formula and I'm glad to get a good Italian sandwich closer to home.
All About the Bread
7111 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 930-8989
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Whiskey Wednesday: Templeton Rye
Templeton Rye is a fairly new rye whiskey that is, so far, only available in the Midwest. It is made by a company in Iowa which buys the whiskey from Lawrenceburg Distillers, a large distiller (formerly Seagram's) in Indiana.Templeton Rye is apparently named for a prohibition-era whiskey which was distributed by Al Capone. On its website and bottle, Templeton has adopted a prohibition era aesthetic. Ah, the world of American whiskey, where even a brand new brand can claim a storied history.
Tasting
Templeton Rye, 40% alcohol ($35).
The nose is beautiful; full of rye spice with pickling herbs, very characteristic of a strong rye and very nice. The flavor is doesn't fully follow through with the nose. There is some good spice, but also a bit of soap and a watery quality which dulls the spice. I'd like to try this at a higher alcohol level, which might allow it to retain a bit of the punch from the nose. For now, I'll just enjoy the aromas.
Templeton Rye is not available in California yet, but can be purchased on-line from Binny's, though it is occasionally out of stock.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Mantee Mediterranean Cafe
My latest obsession is Mantee Mediterranean Cafe in Studio City, a decidedly atypical Armenian-Lebanese-Turkish restaurant.
The salads at Mantee are stupendous. At first, the Armenian salad appears to be a fairly typical Middle Eastern chopped salad of tomato, cucumber and lettuce; to be honest, I expected a throw-away dish, but this salad tastes far better than the description merits. The fresh lemon vinaigrette is super-tangy and loaded with spices. It's the perfect version of a very standard dish. The fattoush, a traditional Mediterranean salad with crisp bits of pita was composed of sumac, radish and mint with a similar dressing and was also quite good if not quite as wonderful as the Armenian salad.
You will find the standard mezze features on the menu, all done well: Hummous, a very smoky motabbal (baba ghanoush) and a slightly spicy muhamarra among them.
The centerpiece of any meal at Mantee though is the eponymous dish Mantee, which comes in both regular and vegetarian. The menu describes the dish as ravioli in a yogurt sauce, but the culinary experience is more akin to escargot en croute. The small, pasta shells are firm and crunchy, almost as if they were made from phyllo dough. The yogurt sauce is thick, creamy and intensely garlicky. I used my pita to mop up every last drop; you don't want to miss this sauce or this dish. It may be my favorite new dish of the year.
Another star was the lamb chops, some of the most tender I've had; they are marinated in a heavily spiced sauce, but that opening spice yields to the smoothness of the lamb. They come with foil on the tips so you can pick them up and eat them as they deserve to be eaten.
The kabobs were also excellent. Mantee's sweet and sour kebab is a kafta-type sausage kebab in a sweet cherry sauce with dried cherries. I never would have thought to pair kafta with cherries, but the sweet and spicy contrast worked well.
The regular shish kebab, featuring a spiced, grilled filet was less exciting but tender, juicy and perfectly cooked.
Desserts were also well done. We had a very nice passion fruit mousse as well as a passion fruit-coconut chiffon. A tri-chocolate mousse cake was good if fairly standard dessert fare.
Mantee is decidedly different from most restaurants in the broad Middle Eastern category and offers a refreshing and innovative take on the cuisine. Check it out!
Mantee Mediterranean Cafe
10962 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 761-6565
The salads at Mantee are stupendous. At first, the Armenian salad appears to be a fairly typical Middle Eastern chopped salad of tomato, cucumber and lettuce; to be honest, I expected a throw-away dish, but this salad tastes far better than the description merits. The fresh lemon vinaigrette is super-tangy and loaded with spices. It's the perfect version of a very standard dish. The fattoush, a traditional Mediterranean salad with crisp bits of pita was composed of sumac, radish and mint with a similar dressing and was also quite good if not quite as wonderful as the Armenian salad.
You will find the standard mezze features on the menu, all done well: Hummous, a very smoky motabbal (baba ghanoush) and a slightly spicy muhamarra among them.
The centerpiece of any meal at Mantee though is the eponymous dish Mantee, which comes in both regular and vegetarian. The menu describes the dish as ravioli in a yogurt sauce, but the culinary experience is more akin to escargot en croute. The small, pasta shells are firm and crunchy, almost as if they were made from phyllo dough. The yogurt sauce is thick, creamy and intensely garlicky. I used my pita to mop up every last drop; you don't want to miss this sauce or this dish. It may be my favorite new dish of the year.
Another star was the lamb chops, some of the most tender I've had; they are marinated in a heavily spiced sauce, but that opening spice yields to the smoothness of the lamb. They come with foil on the tips so you can pick them up and eat them as they deserve to be eaten.
The kabobs were also excellent. Mantee's sweet and sour kebab is a kafta-type sausage kebab in a sweet cherry sauce with dried cherries. I never would have thought to pair kafta with cherries, but the sweet and spicy contrast worked well.
The regular shish kebab, featuring a spiced, grilled filet was less exciting but tender, juicy and perfectly cooked.
Desserts were also well done. We had a very nice passion fruit mousse as well as a passion fruit-coconut chiffon. A tri-chocolate mousse cake was good if fairly standard dessert fare.
Mantee is decidedly different from most restaurants in the broad Middle Eastern category and offers a refreshing and innovative take on the cuisine. Check it out!
Mantee Mediterranean Cafe
10962 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 761-6565
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Boycott Eater and its Advertisers!
The Eater websites, including Eater LA, Eater NY, Eater SF, etc., have long been the bottom feeders of the food blogging world. They traffic in gossip, rumor-mongering and celebrity watching like a food-world National Enquirer. They've even used one of my own photos without credit (which raises questions about both their ethics and taste - since my photos largely suck). And they do all of this without any apparent interest in actual cuisine.
All of that would be at most a minor annoyance, but this time, Eater has gone too far. Earlier this week, they published photos of the nation's most prominent food critics, many of whom pride themselves on their anonymity. This ridiculous "news item" does an immense disservice to restaurant consumers. Even in this day of Yelp, Chowhound and countless bloggers, there needs to be a place for the professional food critic, a knowledgeable journalist who takes multiple meals under the cloak of anonymity in order to make reliable recommendations to the public.
The issue is less crucial for someone like Jonathan Gold who, over the last few years, has appeared to have largely shed his anonymity. Once a critic goes public, they are fair game for the press. Publishing a photo of the new New York Times critic Sam Sifton, however, is an entirely different story. Not only is Sifton anonymous, Eater apparently lied in wait for him while he was eating in order to sneak a photo, prompting Sifton to label them the "geek paparazzi." And kudos go out to Lee Klein and our own Irene Virbila for managing to completely avoid Eater's prying eyes.
Some may argue that many restaurants already know what the critics look like and what tricks they use, but if that is so, then I would like to know what value this post had to anyone. The fact is, Eater is doing restaurants a favor at the expense of us, the eating public.
I have no use for a food blog that would so grievously undercut the interests of consumers, so I say BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT. Don't read Eater and don't buy its sponsors' products. Better yet, maybe we should post pictures of Eater editors Raphael Brion, Greg Morabito, Amanda Kludt, Katherine Odell, Lesley Abravanel, Eva Hagberg, Ben Leventhal and Lockhart Steele, so people can follow them around with cameras.
All of that would be at most a minor annoyance, but this time, Eater has gone too far. Earlier this week, they published photos of the nation's most prominent food critics, many of whom pride themselves on their anonymity. This ridiculous "news item" does an immense disservice to restaurant consumers. Even in this day of Yelp, Chowhound and countless bloggers, there needs to be a place for the professional food critic, a knowledgeable journalist who takes multiple meals under the cloak of anonymity in order to make reliable recommendations to the public.
The issue is less crucial for someone like Jonathan Gold who, over the last few years, has appeared to have largely shed his anonymity. Once a critic goes public, they are fair game for the press. Publishing a photo of the new New York Times critic Sam Sifton, however, is an entirely different story. Not only is Sifton anonymous, Eater apparently lied in wait for him while he was eating in order to sneak a photo, prompting Sifton to label them the "geek paparazzi." And kudos go out to Lee Klein and our own Irene Virbila for managing to completely avoid Eater's prying eyes.
Some may argue that many restaurants already know what the critics look like and what tricks they use, but if that is so, then I would like to know what value this post had to anyone. The fact is, Eater is doing restaurants a favor at the expense of us, the eating public.
I have no use for a food blog that would so grievously undercut the interests of consumers, so I say BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT. Don't read Eater and don't buy its sponsors' products. Better yet, maybe we should post pictures of Eater editors Raphael Brion, Greg Morabito, Amanda Kludt, Katherine Odell, Lesley Abravanel, Eva Hagberg, Ben Leventhal and Lockhart Steele, so people can follow them around with cameras.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Whiskey Wednesday: Identity Crisis - Party Source Buffalo Trace Experimental Wheat on Rye
Bourbons come in two standard formulas. To meet the legal definition, they have to be at least 51% corn (but usually much more), and to produce necessary enzymes, most use a bit of malted barley. Beyond that, the vast majority of Bourbons use one of two additional grains for flavor: rye or wheat. Most Bourbons use rye as the secondary flavor grain, which imparts a spicy flavor, but a few use wheat, which is milder, sometimes includes citrus or acidic notes and can allow the sweetness of the corn to be more dominant. If you are a regular reader, you know that I have reviewed a number of so-called "wheaters" and have a fondness for them.
Buffalo Trace has three Bourbon recipes, two using rye (with different percentages) and one using wheat. The wheated recipe is used for the Weller and Van Winkle line of Bourbons. They also make fantastic rye whiskeys under the Sazerac label.
In this third in a series of reviews of the newly available on-line specialty bottlings from The Party Source, I taste their Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection Wheat on Rye, a wheated Bourbon aged in rye whiskey barrels.
Tasting
Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection "Wheat on Rye" by the Party Source, 8 years old, 63.5% alcohol ($59.99 exclusively at The Party Source)
The nose on this is soft and mellow, very typical of wheated Bourbons. As with the Party Source's Rye 'n Barrel, the flavor is unique. From each sip, I get different elements of the constituent grains. When it hits the tongue, I get sweet corn, followed by a distinct rye spice. Throughout, there is an underlying flavor from the wheat. The corn and the rye may be more immediately discernible, but the inner Weller is always there, and after a few drinks, it tastes more of wheated Bourbon than rye. Adding water brings the wheat even more to the forefront, but the rye spice still kicks in on the finish. This is another terrific, innovative whiskey from The Party Source.
I've had great fun on the last three weeks of Party Source Bourbons. The Party Source is doing some amazing work with these bottlings, and I look forward to trying some of their other special selections.
Buffalo Trace has three Bourbon recipes, two using rye (with different percentages) and one using wheat. The wheated recipe is used for the Weller and Van Winkle line of Bourbons. They also make fantastic rye whiskeys under the Sazerac label.
In this third in a series of reviews of the newly available on-line specialty bottlings from The Party Source, I taste their Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection Wheat on Rye, a wheated Bourbon aged in rye whiskey barrels.
Tasting
Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection "Wheat on Rye" by the Party Source, 8 years old, 63.5% alcohol ($59.99 exclusively at The Party Source)
The nose on this is soft and mellow, very typical of wheated Bourbons. As with the Party Source's Rye 'n Barrel, the flavor is unique. From each sip, I get different elements of the constituent grains. When it hits the tongue, I get sweet corn, followed by a distinct rye spice. Throughout, there is an underlying flavor from the wheat. The corn and the rye may be more immediately discernible, but the inner Weller is always there, and after a few drinks, it tastes more of wheated Bourbon than rye. Adding water brings the wheat even more to the forefront, but the rye spice still kicks in on the finish. This is another terrific, innovative whiskey from The Party Source.
I've had great fun on the last three weeks of Party Source Bourbons. The Party Source is doing some amazing work with these bottlings, and I look forward to trying some of their other special selections.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Existential Questions: Where do I go from here?
We are approaching the third anniversary of this blog which has prompted me to do a bit of navel gazing which I hope you will politely endure. It's hard to believe Sku's Recent Eats is three years old, which in blog years is teenaged at least. Back in 2007, the blogosphere was a different place. There were maybe fifteen or twenty total LA food blogs, but only two or three of much prominence, and there were only a handful of whiskey blogs. Now, there are too many LA food blogs to count; along with all of the personal blogs we have the commercial blogs like EaterLA, Grub Street, Squid Ink and Daily Dish which, with their constant posting, have created the food blog equivalent of the 24 hour cable news cycle. And even many of the formerly amateur blogs have broken out into the mainstream with book deals and TV appearances. And it seems you can't go to food fair or the opening weekend of any restaurant without bumping into tripod yielding bloggers, hoping to be the first out of the gate with a review. Even at the lower end places I tend to frequent, it's become much more challenging to find something that hasn't been Twittered, Flickred and Facebooked to death.
All of this leaves me, on this third birthday, wondering what the future should hold for this humble blog. I started the blog sort of on a whim, wanting to catalog the types of posts I'd been making for years on Chowhound. Really, just simple restaurant recommendations as well as my favorite libations, cheeses, chocolate and other fun things. I quickly fell into a formula of three posts per week with a restaurant type review on Monday, whiskey on Wednesday and another food item (often sweets, cheese or a non-whiskey spirit) on Friday.
The posts I'm proudest of in the food categories were my big roundups such as those I did for doughnuts, pupusas, gelato, the Farmers Market, Disneyland, espresso etc. Unfortunately a pressing desire to lose some weight and get healthy as I approach one of my own milestone birthdays (down 25 pounds in the last seven months!) make the roundups difficult to stomach (pun intended). I've also enjoyed adding some humor to the food blogging world (both fiction and nonfiction), but that's very occasional and comes only with great inspiration. Beyond those, I worry that I'm simply churning out more reviews of places you've already seen reviewed by the myriad of bloggers out there. Is that really adding anything to the food world at large other than more noise?
The whiskey world is very different, and I still feel like I fill a fun niche in whiskey blogging. There aren't really any other LA whiskey blogs (other than some excellent ones for our local whiskey clubs which I will highlight in some future post) and there still is a surprising dearth of blogs that spend any amount of time on American whiskey (as opposed to Scotch). I should add that some of my thoughts here were impacted by the recent announcement of Dr Whisky, one of the original and finest whiskey bloggers, now balancing the joyous burdens of work and infants, to scale down his blog.
Over the next few months, I will thinking about what lies ahead for Sku's Recent Eats, and I would love to hear your feedback. Should I abandon my self-imposed goal of posting two food items per week and just wait until inspiration hits? Or should I give up the food writing altogether and go back to Chowhound posts while converting Sku's Recent Eats to a purely whiskey related blog with occasional asides? Or should I just do whatever the hell I want and not worry about big questions about a little blog? Readers, I look to you for guidance.
All of this leaves me, on this third birthday, wondering what the future should hold for this humble blog. I started the blog sort of on a whim, wanting to catalog the types of posts I'd been making for years on Chowhound. Really, just simple restaurant recommendations as well as my favorite libations, cheeses, chocolate and other fun things. I quickly fell into a formula of three posts per week with a restaurant type review on Monday, whiskey on Wednesday and another food item (often sweets, cheese or a non-whiskey spirit) on Friday.
The posts I'm proudest of in the food categories were my big roundups such as those I did for doughnuts, pupusas, gelato, the Farmers Market, Disneyland, espresso etc. Unfortunately a pressing desire to lose some weight and get healthy as I approach one of my own milestone birthdays (down 25 pounds in the last seven months!) make the roundups difficult to stomach (pun intended). I've also enjoyed adding some humor to the food blogging world (both fiction and nonfiction), but that's very occasional and comes only with great inspiration. Beyond those, I worry that I'm simply churning out more reviews of places you've already seen reviewed by the myriad of bloggers out there. Is that really adding anything to the food world at large other than more noise?
The whiskey world is very different, and I still feel like I fill a fun niche in whiskey blogging. There aren't really any other LA whiskey blogs (other than some excellent ones for our local whiskey clubs which I will highlight in some future post) and there still is a surprising dearth of blogs that spend any amount of time on American whiskey (as opposed to Scotch). I should add that some of my thoughts here were impacted by the recent announcement of Dr Whisky, one of the original and finest whiskey bloggers, now balancing the joyous burdens of work and infants, to scale down his blog.
Over the next few months, I will thinking about what lies ahead for Sku's Recent Eats, and I would love to hear your feedback. Should I abandon my self-imposed goal of posting two food items per week and just wait until inspiration hits? Or should I give up the food writing altogether and go back to Chowhound posts while converting Sku's Recent Eats to a purely whiskey related blog with occasional asides? Or should I just do whatever the hell I want and not worry about big questions about a little blog? Readers, I look to you for guidance.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Venezuelan Rum: Ron Anejo Pampero Aniversario
Venezuelan rums are known for being sweet, thick affairs. The soils of Venezuela are even said to produce a sweeter sugar cane than other locales. I enjoy the sweet, murky rums of Venezuela; one of my favorites was the Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva (and I will have more from that line to try). Today we try another Venezuelan, Ron Añejo Pampero Reserva Exclusiva (Aged Pampero Rum Exclusive Reserve for those who couldn't guess the translation).
Pampero is a Venezuelan distillery founded in 1938 but now owned by liquor giant Diageo.
Tasting
Ron Añejo Pamero Aniversario Reserva Exclusiva, Venezuela, 40% ($30).
The nose is a deep, brown sugary syrup. The flavor follows up, thick and sweet, almost liqueur like, Christmasy, possessing some of the notes you'd find in a heavily sherried Scotch. A bit one dimensional and a little of this goes a long way. As far as Venezuelan rum, I prefer the Diplomatico, which while sweet, has more complexity beyond the basic sweetness.
Pampero is a Venezuelan distillery founded in 1938 but now owned by liquor giant Diageo.
Tasting
Ron Añejo Pamero Aniversario Reserva Exclusiva, Venezuela, 40% ($30).
The nose is a deep, brown sugary syrup. The flavor follows up, thick and sweet, almost liqueur like, Christmasy, possessing some of the notes you'd find in a heavily sherried Scotch. A bit one dimensional and a little of this goes a long way. As far as Venezuelan rum, I prefer the Diplomatico, which while sweet, has more complexity beyond the basic sweetness.
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