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Sake and Such at Angeli Caffe

Angeli Caffe was jammed last Thursday, the night allotted to special dinners apart from the restaurant’s regular menu.

This time, it was Japanese food paired with sake produced in Oregon, a novelty that alone could have drawn a crowd.

After a sweet, floral appetizer sake, Guest chef Jet Tila started the dinner with miso soup–not the bland, yellowish stuff that I always push aside in Japanese restaurants, but soup so good I wanted more.

This one was made with red miso and dashi (Japanese soup stock) prepared from scratch, not from instant granules.  Shimeji mushrooms and seaweed strands gave it substance.

SakeOne’s Silver, poured with the soup, seemed dry and crisp at first, but became softer and sweeter as it interreacted with the flavors of the soup.

Three beautiful pieces of nigiri sushi came next, topped with tuna, salmon and sweet, chewy eel. No need to drown these in pools of soy sauce or overpower them with wasabi. Tila had brushed each with its own sauce and tucked in a dash of fresh wasabi root, making three perfectly seasoned packages.

Medium dry Diamond, which accompanied the sushi, could go well with non-Asian dishes such as pasta--anything with which you would serve a white wine, said Dewey Weddington, SakeOne’s vice president of marketing. All the sakes were served slightly chilled. Heating destroys the flavor, he pointed out.

Next came the salad course--platters of firm tofu wedges covered with bonito flakes, thinly sliced cucumber and strands of nori (dried seaweed). The distinctive ingredient in the dressing was seasoned sesame powder.

SakeOne’s Pearl, a creamy, cloudy, sweet sake, paired well with the light, sweet flavors of this dish.

Black cod marinated in fermented sake lees (kasu) arrived next, on platters of soba noodles. Sake One’s Ruby showed floral and fruity components as well as crisp notes—good for fish with slightly sweet components.

G, an undiluted sake in a chunky, macho bottle (the others were in graceful, slim bottles), accompanied Tila’s “homestyle teriyaki,” chicken marinated with soy sauce and mirin, presented on a bed of rice cooked with shiitake mushrooms, wine and dashi.

Dinner then ended with bowls of green tea and taro frozen yogurt dotted with bits of chewy mochi (rice cakes).

To learn more about Angeli Caffe’s Thursday dinners, go to www.angelicaffe.com. The restaurant is located at 7274 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tel: (323) 936-9086.

SakeOne, the only American-owned and operated sake brewery, offers free tours of its facilities at Forest Grove, just outside Portland, Oregon. For more information, go to www.sakeone.com.

Chow Down at Chai Toong

The eye-popping red and yellow sign outside announces that Chai Toong  serves E-San (northeastern Thai) food. The regular menu shows little of that but sounds pretty much like what you get at Yai, a long-established Thai restaurant in Hollywood. 

This isn’t a coincidence. Yai’s head chef left to take over Chai Toong, which is on Vermont Avenue just north of Los Angeles City College. What they still share is location:  Yai has a second branch farther north on the same street.

Chai Toong now serves Yai‘s lard na (meat and Chinese broccoli over rice noodles), which Thais say is one of the best in town, its crispy catfish salad and produces a better version of roast pork and Chinese broccoli than I had at Yai on Hollywood Boulevard.

The combination of fatty pork belly cubes and crisp vegetable was unpleasantly greasy there. At Chai Toong it is crisp, dry and almost fat-free.

Not everything is the same.  One friend got up and left when a dish that he dotes on at Yai wasn’t on the menu.  I’m sure he’ll be back once he hears that Chai Toong puts out excellent food.

Just one example:  crisp, fried fish, pla lui saun, handled in an innovative way that made a Thai chef friend sit up and take notice. After the backbone is removed, the fish is turned inside out, fried and covered with sliced lemon grass, red onion and spicy sauce.

The sweetened red curry sauce for deep-fried catfish slices is based on curry paste made at the restaurant, not taken from a can.

The eggplant salad is the best I’ve had—smoky, fire-roasted eggplant covered with ground pork and decorated with shrimp.

A wall menu in Thai offers jungle curry,  a standard but very good version of papaya salad and delicious, glistening dark pork ribs that are sour and slightly fermented. 

Or you can stick to popular standards such as pad Thai, red curry, chicken-coconut soup and beef salad. Or try a $4.95 lunch combination.

The restaurant name is spelled two ways—Chai Thung and Chai Toong, the latter closer to the Thai spelling.  Oddly, it opens into Betsy’s Filipino bakery next door so that the aroma of freshly baked bread occasionally adds a new note to the intricate seasonings that make Thai food so compelling.

Chai Toong Thai restaurant, 1001 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027. Tel: (323) 667-3432. Open daily 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Lunch special 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A Pain Perdu Pancake

You may never have seen French toast--pardon me, pain perdu--like that at Café Laurent in Culver City.

Instead of the usual browned bread slices, you get a golden pancake composed of crumbled brioche, croissants and raisin rolls, with a few cranberries mixed in for jaunty color and powdered sugar over the top. Syrup too, as much as you need.   

The name pain perdu is French, like the café’s owner/chef Laurent Triqueneaux. It’s a breakfast item, served only until 11:30 a.m. weekdays, but all day on weekends, a good time to linger over coffee in the café’s pleasant patio garden.

Pain Perdu (French toast) is $8.75 at Café Laurent, 4243 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA 90232. Tel: (310) 558-8622. Open from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Scoops Scores Again

Scoops isn’t news any more. All ice cream lovers know you can drop in for an always changing panorama of exotic flavors.

The two I chose the other day were relatively ordinary compared to such wild concepts as bacon, kimchi and foie gras ice cream. But what a lovely combination—pale green pistachio-cardamom with a side of vegan red tea (creamy with soy milk).

It was like having ice cream with tea on the side, only the tea was frozen too.

Ice cream is $2.50 a scoop at Scoops, 712 N. Heliotrope Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90029. Tel: (323) 906-2649. Open Monday through Saturday from noon to 10 p.m.  Closed Sunday.

A Cafe for Music Lovers

Could that be Gustavo Dudamel, L.A. Phil’s new  leading man, shaking his dark curls as he makes a point over coffee with a friend? Probably not, just a look alike, but that young guy lugging a cello may be a future star. Same for that girl with the violin case.

The scene is the Colburn School Plaza Café, located behind the prestigious Colburn music school in downtown Los Angeles.

It’s entirely possible that Dudamel might show up there one day, taking a break from Disney Hall across the street.

And why not? It’s a pleasant place to sit, a beautiful, glassed-in space that soars like the music so close by. 

The coffee (Peet’s) is good. The service is cordial. And the food fits a music student’s budget. The wide ranging menu changes every week. There is lots of Italian food, panini, pesto and so forth, as well as ethnic dishes such as Thai chicken salad and Baja fish tacos.

The day I went in, the special was chicken curry Madras. To be sure, the curry wasn’t anything you’d find in Chennai (Madras). That doesn’t mean it wasn’t pleasant.  Sides included lentils--not Indian dal, but regular, plainly seasoned supermarket lentils. And cauliflower, more gently flavored than Indians like it, but all the better to soothe a budding soprano’s throat.

Another day, Italian wedding soup was loaded with marble-sized meatballs, tomatoes, spinach, red bell pepper and other vegetables, basil and couscous in garlic-scented chicken broth. All this for only $2.69 for a small bowl, $3.69 for a larger serving.  And croutons and crackers for the taking.

Just around the corner from MOCA, the cafeteria-style café is slightly hidden but worth seeking out. It's a nice place to relax, even if you'rd rather play one of the games the cafe provides than a piano or flute.

Colburn School Plaza Café, 200 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Tel: (213) 621-4515. Hours are 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Green Curry from India

Thailand has green curry so popular that it’s on the menu at just about every Thai restaurant.

Not so well known is green curry from India, a fresh and interesting change from the usual heavily spiced,  tomato-red restaurant curries.

The place to find it is Flavor of India in West Hollywood and Burbank, where each day there’s a different chicken curry.

Lots of cilantro makes this one green. If you don’t like cilantro, don’t worry. The flavor softens as it blends with large amounts of garlic and ginger, onions, jalapeno chiles and--another unusual aspect of this curry--coconut milk.

Owner/chef Darshan Singh gave me the recipe when I dropped by for lunch recently. It’s not difficult, because it calls for few ingredients compared to the multitude of spices that go into some Indian dishes.

Long slow cooking in various stages is responsible for the smooth, mellow flavor. So be patient, and the results will be wonderful.

GREEN COCONUT CHICKEN CURRY
From Flavor of India

3 pounds medium-sized chicken thighs
2 cups cilantro leaves (1 bunch)
2 jalapeno chiles, seeded and coarsely chopped
¼ cup peeled ginger root, cut into chunks
¼ cup garlic cloves (about 8)
Water
1½ teaspoons Indian brown mustard seeds
¾ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ to 1½ teaspoons red chili powder, according to taste
½ teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons oil
3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 cup coconut milk

Remove the skin and excess fat from the chicken thighs and set aside.

Combine the cilantro leaves, jalapenos, ginger, garlic and 1/3 cup water in a small food processor and process until pureed. Scoop this paste into a bowl and set aside.

Using a spice grinder, grind the mustard seeds to a powder and set aside. Combine the coriander, chili powder, turmeric and salt in a small cup.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or other large heavy pan. Add the cumin seeds and ground mustard seeds and cook until they crackle. Add the onions and cook until golden brown, stirring often to keep them from burning.

Add the cilantro paste and sauté for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add the ground coriander mixture, then the coconut milk and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.

Add the chicken and ½ cup water. Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 45 minutes.  Serve with rice.

Makes 4 servings.

Sunday School for Wine Lovers

Going to school on Sunday is a real drag--unless the class you are attending is a wine appreciation seminar at San Antonio Winery in downtown Los Angeles.

It took a large room to hold the enthusiastic students taking Wine 103, the class that I attended. This was the third in a series that started with Wine 101, “An Introduction to Wine,” in January, and Wine 102, “How to Get the Wine You Want,” in  March.

Wine 103’s topic was “A Match Made in Heaven,” or how to pair wine and cheese. The assignment was to taste eight wines and match these with samples of Boucheron, Parmigiano Reggiano, Brie, Gorgonzola Dolce, Pecorino Toscano and Emmental cheeses.

Our guidelines were to pair red wines with harder cheeses and white wines with softer cheeses, taking into account that semi-dry and sweet wines are more versatile with cheeses than dry wines.

Still more pointers:

Soft and/or mild cheeses such as fresh goat cheese marry well with light crisp wines such as Pouilly-Fume or Sancerre.

Assertive, strong flavored cheeses such as Provolone call for young robust red wines such as Chianti Classico or Shiraz.

Aged mellow cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano and Gouda go well with an older robust wine such as a Bordeaux or California Cabernet Sauvignon.

But the class assignment was to eat as well as taste. So while we nibbled the cheeses and sipped Giesen Sauvignon Blanc 2007 from New Zealand and Comte Lafond Sancerre 2005, we ate a jumbo-sized blue lump crab cake with spicy remoulade.

Then we matched Claiborne & Churchill Dry Riesling 2006 and Domaines Schlumberger Gewurtraminer “Fleur” 2005 with a smoked chicken breast and fruit salad with a mint yogurt vinaigrette.

Moving on to red wines, we drank Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva 2003, San Simeon Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 and Penfolds 389 Cabernet/Shiraz 2004 with roasted pork loin stuffed with Spanish chorizo accompanied by nappa cabbage, coriander mashed potatoes and fresh fava beans in shiitake au jus.

The lesson ended with Grans-Fassian Riesling Eiswein 2001 and a pear and mascarpone charlotte with sour cherry jubilee.

San Antonio Winery's next series of three seminars and lunches will focus on wines of the world. They are “A Day in Tuscany” April 26; “The Wines of Germany and Alsace” May 18, and “Wines from Down Under,” June 21.

The seminars are $75 each or $200 for a package of three.  To enroll, call (323) 223-1401. Ask for Michael Papalia at ext. 8771. Or email to wineshop@sanantoniowinery.com.  The winery is located at 737 Lamar Street, Los Angeles, CA 90031.

Happy Hour Tapas at Tinto

Garfield the cat may hate Monday, but it’s a great day at Tinto in West Hollywood.

That night, happy hour runs from 5 p.m., when the restaurant opens, to 10:30 p.m., when it closes.  During that time, tapas are just $5 each. Normally, they’re $8 and up.

Tapas at Tinto aren’t ordinary bar food. They’re genuine Spanish tapas, because Tinto is a serious Spanish restaurant, run by the Sola family from Barcelona. The chef is Luis Perdon from Bilbao in the Basque country.

This means you’ll have to roll your tongue around such Basque names as txipirones (squid), definitely worth the effort because txipirones en su tinta  is a delectable dish of tender squid stuffed with seafood and coated with squid ink sauce.

Tinto has a full menu, but the tapas are so intriguing, I would make a meal of those. For the main course, I would choose the txipirones and gambas al ajillo, large shrimp in a white wine and garlic sauce, accompanied by patatas bravas, which are delicious, tender, spicy fried potato cubes with aioli drizzled over the top.

The salad would be escalivada, cold roasted eggplant, bell pepper, tomatoes, onion and garlic--like ratatouille, seasoned with oil and sherry vinegar.

If I wanted dessert, I would order arroz con leche or flan from the main menu. The flan is light and very good. Perfumed with lemon and cinnamon, the arroz con leche (rice pudding) rises above most versions of this dessert.

Tinto, which replaces a gay bar, is totally Spanish, from the red kerchiefs around the necks of the servers to the tapas written on the mirror behind the bar, the way it is done in Spain.

Flamenco chill and flamenco pop play in the back ground. There’s bullfight paraphernalia on display. And an arched brick wall like you might see in an old town in Spain separates the bar and dining area.

That wall and the handsome floor to ceiling wine cage were designed by Juan Sola Sr., whose recipes are used for the red and white sangrias.

The long wine list amounts to a course in Spanish wines, divided according to place of origin and described as if a sommelier were talking. The list suggests food pairings too—Rueda white wines with patatas bravas, for example.

If you should miss Monday’s bargain happy hour, don’t worry. There are shorter happy hours (5 to 7 p.m.)  Tuesday through Saturday. And Tuesday is paella night when, for $45, you can have paella for two (all seafood or seafood and chicken) and a big pitcher of one of Sola’s sangrias.

Tinto, 7511 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA  90046. Tel: (323) 512- 3095. The bar opens at 5 p.m. Dinner is 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, to midnight or later Thursday through Saturday. Closed Sunday.

Startlingly Spiny Seafood

This is the most astonishing dish that I have eaten this week, this month, this year.

What looks like a porcupine splayed on a plate is a spiny sea urchin shell. The cavity in the center holds seafood risotto, a soft, chewy  mixture crowned with a luxurious dollop of pure fresh sea urchin.

Antonio Mure, chef/owner of Il Carpaccio in Pacific Palisades, came up with the idea for a dinner that showed off sea urchin (uni) brought to the restaurant straight from the fisheries off San Diego.

There was sea urchin sauce over carpaccio of seabass cut as fine as tissue paper. There was sea urchin on garlic crostini in the center of  thick fennel soup. There was sea urchin dressing on involtini di pesce spada (rolled sword fish) on a bed of caramelized shallots. 

No sea urchin in the dessert, lemon tart with fresh berry puree. But there was more to come--little glasses of limoncello and sea urchin on the front counter, a sweet and briny shooter to down on the way out.

Il Carpaccio, 538 Palisades Drive, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. Tel: (310) 573-1411. Open for dinner only, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Pretty Good Peruvian Food

Dark and woodsy, with huge plate glass windows and vintage movies streaming across the back wall, Qusqo looks like a neighborhood coffee shop for artsy Westsiders.

When you consider that it celebrates happy hour, offers sandwiches for lunch and presents itself as a  “bistro & gallery, ” you are all the more certain that it is just another gathering spot for the young and trendy.

It is, indeed, all of these things. But it is something more that is not apparent from a quick glance passing by. Quzqo is a full-fledged Peruvian restaurant.

The name is a quirky spelling of Cusco, the jumping off point for Machu Picchu.  Perhaps it’s a bid for attention, switching restaurant names around so that they spell the sams thing in a different way, like Wahaca (Oaxaca) in London and Wakatay (Huacatay), a Peruvian-Japanese restaurant in Gardena.

Qusqo has some very good dishes, others that miss the mark. Such failings often occur at restaurants outside Peru, because ingredients are not the same or are not available.

Qusqo's ceviche is one example. It’s well presented and includes the right garnishes—steamed giant corn kernels, crisp golden corn, red onion strands and sliced sweet potato. But the firm, chewy cubes of halibut used the night I was there were wrong for this dish. Lima’s seafood is glorious. It’s hard to match that standard here, but more tender fish would have been better.

On the other hand, chupe de camaron (shrimp chowder) was delicious, packed with large, juicy shrimp in a pleasant broth, better than the last version I had  in Lima.

Aji de gallina, shredded chicken in a subtle, smooth walnut sauce is worth ordering. So is giant corn on the cob in cheese sauce, even though the only such corn available here is frozen. 

American potatoes are different in moisture content and texture from Peruvian potatoes, and this creates a problem for causa, a stacked cake that layers golden moist potato puree with seafood or chicken filling and avocado.  At Quzqo, thin potato cakes replace the soft puree. But the real problem was the canned tuna filling in my serving, a harsh and alien flavor for causa.

The meat for lomo saltado (stir-fried beef), listed under chifa  (Chinese style dishes), was tough, but I’m not so sure I wouldn’t find it that way in Peru. The soggy French fries in this dish are not a mistake. Peruvians mix them with the meat instead of serving them on the side.

Qusqo’s owner is Lucy Haro, a young, American-born Peruvian,  who bases her dishes on family recipes.

Her alfajores (dulce de leche sandwich cookies) are exceptional.  I’ve eaten many alfajores in Peru and Argentina, but never any like Haro’s tender, buttery cookies. They’re sandwiched with delicate dulce de leche made at the restaurant, not the heavily sweetened commercial product. A single cookie comes in a bowl of ice cream with an orchid and a wooden spoon.

Qusqo has enough good dishes to make eating there worthwhile now. With a little more work, it could become one of the better Peruvian restaurants in Los Angeles.

Qusqo, 11633 Santa Monca Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025. Tel: (310) 312-3800. Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, Dinner, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Monday, to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday. 
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