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85°C Draws a Crowd in Koreatown

Who wouldn't stand in line for icy, creamy sea salt coffee paired with a slice of sea salt coffee brûlée?

Even if the line lasted an hour, or more?

That's the way it was this morning, when 85°C Bakery Cafe opened in Koreatown. 

The line was a happy place. Some standees even got free coffee samples, until they ran out.

Once inside, shoppers received a bakery tote bag, tongs and a tray to heap with breads, buns, cookies and cakes. 

And who wouldn't heap, when the total would cost so little, compared to other bakeries? 

It's not like 85°C is a novelty. There's one downtown and more scattered around Southern California and one due to open in Santa Monica next year.  But this is the first in central Los Angeles. And it's in a buzzy part of Koreatown, packed with restaurants, a market, a branch of the Korean bakery Paris Baguette and shops selling bingsu and other cool treats.

The company is Taiwanese, and its baked goods are Taiwanese, European and Japanese in style plus Danish and "other," a category that includes a ham and tuna sandwich. 

Portuguese style egg tart is a big seller. A Hokkaido cheese tart is cheesy as in cheesecake. The Portuguese tart (dotted with brown) has a flaky crust, the Hokkaido tart, a cookie crust.  

This tray includes the two tarts and a berrytale, which is filled with blueberries; milk pudding bread, a cranberry cream cheese bun, a boroh Danish, with a crunchy top that looks like a pineapple shell; walnut raisin multigrain bread, a chocolate chip bowl, and a chocolate cream bread. 

The cake section (above) is glorious. There are savory snacks too, such as a Taiwanese cheese dog and garlic cheese bread. 

But it's the sweets that catch the eye.

Each item is placed in its own bag rather than jumbled together so that they mash and crumble. 

Teas, smoothies and espresso drinks are on tap, but the famous specialty is sea salt coffee or tea.

Now that opening day excitement is out of the way, the bakery will be open daily, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.

85°C Bakery Cafe, 3377 Wilshire Blvd., #101, Los Angeles, CA 90010, which is at the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Alexandria in Koreatown.  

Origin Cafe's Creative Kosher Food

Great vibes and good food--that sums up Origin Cafe, the new kosher restaurant on Pico Boulevard.

Chef/owner Aaron Clayton (at the top) is dedicated to personally sourcing his ingredients so that what you taste is really fresh. 

Because it's a dairy restaurant, there's no meat, but you won't miss it because Clayton knows how to make fish really appeal. One example is his Moroccan salmon tacos with mango and harissa (above). 

And then there's seared halibut (above) with roasted asparagus, artichoke risotto and a roasted cherry tomato sauce that includes white wine infused with saffron.

This soup may look plain, but it's made with pea tendrils and asparagus. The only decoration is a swirl of olive oil on top.

Clayton fills artichoke ravioli with house-made ricotta and chopped artichokes (above). Roasted oyster mushrooms are on top along with pea tendrils and pistachio pesto.

From these dishes, you can tell that pea tendrils, asparagus and artichokes were in top form when he created this menu for Origin Cafe's inaugural dinner. 

However none of these appeared in roasted eggplant with a miso sesame oil glaze, finished with tahini and mint and served on a toasted baguette. 

Here is an heirloom cherry tomato salad with sliced watermelon radish and cubes of mozzarella. 

Dessert was bread pudding, which the cafe makes with remainders of the breads on hand, usually brioche, baguettes and 7-grain. Here, the pudding is topped with honey halvah ice cream.

Origin Cafe opened in May and by September was already on its third menu. This is how responsive Clayton is to seasonal and fresh ingredients. "It's amazing what you can do with high quality ingredients," he says. 

Serving only breakfast and lunch at first, the cafe now offers dinner Tuesday through Thursday. The dinners are prix fixe, priced at $30 for three courses and $40 for four. Above, he's with girlfriend Julie, who stepped in to help with the first night's dinner service.

The atmosphere is bright and contemporary, decorated with art work and photos by family and friends. A long menu of coffees and teas is written in chalk on a blackboard. 

The space is small, so the lanky (6'4") chef can easily leave the kitchen and circulate among the tables. Raised in Encino, he cooked in Tel Aviv and as a private chef before opening the cafe.  

Origin Cafe, 8532 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Tel: (424) 288-4682. Closed Saturdays. Click here for the cafe's Facebook page. 

An Affordable, Historic Petite Sirah

If you drink just one Concannon wine, it ought to be Petite Sirah.

Then, you'll be drinking California wine industry history. Concannon Vineyard was the first winery in the state to bottle Petite Sirah as a varietal. That was 54 years ago, in 1961. Until then, the grape was used only in blends. 

Another reason is, this wine is so good. I'm talking about the 2013 Petite Sirah that is part of Concannon's new Founders' Tier. It's the wine in front in the photo above, poured during a dinner at Spago Beverly Hills.

Released in March, the Founders' Tier also includes a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. The price for each is just $18. They won't be in stores until 2016, but you can order them from Concannon now. 

In Los Angeles last week to promote the new line, John Concannon, managing director of Concannon Vineyard Estate, admitted that Petite Sirah is his favorite. "It's a friendly wine, but a big wine," he said. "You have to tame it."

Fermented in stainless steel, the Founders' Tier Petite Sirah went into oak barrels and was finished in neutral French barrels "saturated with 50 vintages of Petite Sirah," Concannon said.

The wine is inky dark from skin contact, which also makes it rich in tannins. "You can enjoy it now or lay it down for 10 to 20 years. That to me is the beauty of Petite Sirah," he said. The AVA is San Francisco Bay, and the fruit came from Livermore, where the winery is located. 

Concannon also produces reserve wines that are more complex, come from better vineyards, are aged in better barrels and consequently cost more, he said. Meanwhile, the Founders' Tier wines are just fine.

The 2013 Chardonnay (above), sourced from a vineyard in Monterey County, was aged in separate lots in French and American oak and then blended. Oak is present but not dominant, and the buttery fruity flavors are not overpowering. "People who don't like Chardonnay, they tend to like it," Concannon said.

The Founders' 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon is from Paso Robles, "the first time we've ever had a Paso Robles Cabernet," he said. "I wanted to try something new."

The wine is "bright, easy to drink, not overly complex," he said. It has a little residual sugar, on purpose. "I wanted to keep it real food friendly and fruit forward," he explained. 

Concannon Vineyard has considerable history with Cabernet Sauvignon. The most widely planted Cabernet clones in the United States, Clones 7, 8 and 11, originated there.

Founded in 1883 by James Concannon, an Irish immigrant, Concannon is the oldest winery in California owned continuously by the same family. Its site in the Livermore Valley, 40 miles east of San Francisco, was found to be similar to Bordeaux in climate and soil, and James Concannon brought over cuttings from such elite Bordeaux wineries as Chateau d'Yquem, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Lafite Rothschild. The winery building is a California Historical Landmark. 

An environmentalist, John Concannon has placed the estate's land in a conservancy land trust so that it can never be built upon. The winery tried going organic, but that didn't work out. "It was too hard on the vines," he said.  Instead, he opted for certified sustainable.

"I think the wines are more alive [as a result of being sustainable]," he said. He's proud of the Founders' Tier label, designed in copper and leather tones. The Concannon motto at the top, "Wisdom Without Compromise," is the translation from Gaelic of the family name.  

"I wanted it to look good on the table. Nobody is going to buy a wine that is ugly looking," Concannon said. Of course, it helps if the contents are good too. 

An Easy DIY Taiwanese Food Tour

Here's a great Taiwanese food tour you can take without a plane reservation.

Just go to Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center in Irvine (above). There, within a few feet of each other, you'll find three places where you can explore Taiwanese cuisine from soup to desserts and baked goods. 

Stop 1--Meet Fresh. This brand new sweets and tea shop (above) is the first outpost in the United States established by a Taiwanese chain that has 500 stores around the world. 

The signature dish is a bowlful of herbal jelly, herbal blended ice, taro balls and sweet potato balls accompanied by a pitcher of cream (above). 

When you stir it up, it looks like this.

The dark roll on this tray of mochi sweets is flavored with brown sugar, and the taste is so rich and brandy-like you'll probably want to order a second tray.

You can have green or black teas, but choose instead cold sweet winter melon tea, which comes plain or with such additions as lemon juice, herbal jelly, taro balls or milk.   

As is typical of Chinese desserts, nothing is overly sweet and cloying. Even the herbal jelly bowl seems light despite its many components. This means you won't be too full to enjoy the next stop.

Meet Fresh, Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center, 2710 Alton Parkway,  #105, Irvine, CA 92606. (949) 955-9236.

Stop 2. Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle.  Chef Hung is a perpetual champion in Taipei's International Beef Noodle Soup Festival. Three of his champion soups are on the menu at this Irvine restaurant (above), which is the only Chef Hung restaurant in the United States.

The chef owns restaurants in Taiwan but sells the rights to the overseas stores, along with his recipes. He comes to Irvine once a year to consult. 

The three champion beef noodle soups you can try include the traditional style, with a dark, strongly flavored broth. A second soup has light, clear broth in order to focus on the flavor of the meat. And the third has a touch of tomato in the broth, a newer concept that has become very popular in Taiwan. You can see all three in the photo above.

The noodles are handmade for the restaurant, and all the soups are made with beef bone stock that cooks at least 15 hours. 

The many Taiwanese side dishes on the menu include "deep fried tasty chicken wings" (above), which are as tasty as their name. 

Be sure to ask for golden kimchi (above), which is nothing like kimchi in Koreatown. It's a Chef Hung original.

Although beef noodle soup is the top draw, you should also try the restaurant's wonton soup (above). The wontons are small, and the wrappers are so sheer that it takes a fine hand to work with them.

Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle, Daimond Jamboree Shopping Center, 2710 Alton Parkway, #117, Irvine, CA 92606. (949) 756-0088. 

Stop 3. 85°C Bakery Cafe. When this popular Taiwanese bakery opened in Irvine, you had to wait up to four hours to get in. The wait is still long on weekends, and weekdays can be busy too (above). 

Interestingly, Taiwanese say the baked goods here are better than at 85°C in Taiwan, because American butter and milk are superior.

One section is devoted to luscious desserts such as tiramisu and Black Forest cakes (above). 

If you can tear yourself away, go to the bread section (above), where workers shout "fresh bread" as they bring trays of buns straight from the oven, and everyone rushes to see what's new. 

The Chinese egg tarts with their flaky, crisp shells are irresistible. One is partially hidden by the four segments of brioche in the photo above.  Other top sellers, starting from bottom left, are a chocolate chip bowl, a milk bread with powdered sugar on top, a milk pudding bun filled with custard and a berrytale bun with blueberries peeking out the top. Not everything is sweet. A ham and cheese bun is at top left.

The chocolate bowl is worth looking at again. It's a big bun, for just $2.

Black calamari breads colored with squid ink and lined with garlic spread (above right) might not appeal as much as sweet buns, but they're very popular too. For breakfast, you'll definitely want the chewy multigrain bread with raisins at left.

The name 85°C refers to the ideal temperature for serving hot coffee, but the famous coffee at this bakery isn't hot. it's cold, sweet sea salt coffee, made from Guatemalan beans and topped with thick, salted whipped cream and a sprinkle of cocoa.

85°C Bakery Cafe, Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center, 2700 Alton Parkway, #123, Irvine, CA 92606. (949) 553-8585. 

Copenhagen Pastry Hosts a Party

If Christmas makes you think of Scandinavia (it does me, because I'm part Danish), the place to be today was Copenhagen Pastry's annual holiday party.

The bakery's small sunny parking lot in Culver City (at top) was crowded with people and kids eating wonderful, buttery Danish treats.

Owner Karen Hansen (above) handed out cookies in the buffet line. The assortment included crackly crisp ginger cookies, orange cookies partly frosted with chocolate, plain vanilla rings and thin, crisp cinnamon cookies, each so good that I wouldn't have blamed anyone for sneaking through the line a second time.

First up on the buffet was the bakery's own nutty, delicious rye bread, sliced thin and topped with havarti cheese or nutella. (You didn't have to choose. You could have both.)

And then that quintessential Danish pastry kringle (above), cut into generous slices.

Here's how a fully loaded plate looked. 

The party was  breakfast, with orange juice and coffee. If the line for the buffet was long, so was the line inside the bakery. One taste of Danish baked goods like these, and you wouldn't forgive yourself if you didn't buy some to take home.

Copenhagen Pastry, 11113 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232. Tel: (310) 839-8900.

Saturday Specials at the Olive Tree

They eat heartily in the Middle East, judging by the huge plates of rice with meat or fish that are Saturday specials at the Olive Tree restaurant in Anaheim's Little Arabia.

The fish, a whole tilapia, is deep fried until the skin is golden and crisp, while the white flesh remains moist and soft. The photo at top shows how It's served with containers of tahina sauce and a searingly spicy cilantro sauce.  The name of the dish is sayadiyet samak. 

The rice on the plate is brown rice flavored with an amazing 22 spices and cooked with fish fillets so that it complements the tilapia.

The other Saturday choice is kabseh, a Saudi Arabian rice cooked with 17 spices and served with lamb shanks or half a chicken (above).

The lentil soup that comes with these dishes is as delicious as it is plain.  A bowl of yogurt with cucumbers, similar to an Indian raita, also appears. Wonderfully creamy, it's flavored with dill.  

The servings are so large that you either have to share with a companion or leave with takeout cartons.

Abu Ahmad, who owns the Olive Tree, is from Palestine. He's  everywhere, greeting new arrivals, cooking on the grill, checking how people like their food, passing around a tin of chocolates. In the photo above, he's the man in the dark shirt behind the counter. 

The restaurant is small and modest, but the atmosphere is so pleasant you'll probably be back. Each day, there's a different special along with a full menu of kebabs, shawerma plates, hommus, falafel, stuffed grape leaves and many other Middle Eastern dishes.

Olive Tree Restaurant, 512 S. Brookhurst St., # 3, Anaheim, CA 92804. Tel: (714) 535-2878.

Something Different--a Purple Latte

Remember that old ditty, "I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one"?

That cow may still be hard to find, but any day you can have a purple latte at Paris Baguette, the Korean-French bakery chain.

Actually, it's a purple sweet potato latte, nothing but purple sweet potato blended with milk, which is as close as it gets to a cow. No coffee included.

This delicate lavendar drink comes hot or iced. It may look beige in the photo, but that's due to the lighting and lack of Photoshop. Trust me, it's truly purple, although very pale. You won't find a latte like it at Starbucks or Peet's. But that's why you go to Koreatown, to taste something other than the same old thing.

Paris Baguette, 3470 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90020 (in Koreatown). Tel: (213) 384-0404. And other locations.

Danish Pastry Arrives in Culver City

I don't run into many other Danish Hansens, but the one I met last week deserves lots of praise, thanks and your, and my, business.

This Dane is Karen Hansen, who has taken pity on the Danish pastry-deprived in West Los Angeles. In July, she opened Copenhagen Pastry on Washington Boulevard in Culver City.

You can almost smell the butter as you walk into this spare, neat little space. Nothing distracts from the counter, which is filled with tempting pastries never before seen on the Westside.  Even more are heaped on top.

You can't get everything right now. No cookies yet, no cakes and only one bread, at least when I was there. It was a sesame-coated rye bread (above) with great texture and flavor, unlike any you'd get in a deli sandwich or in a supermarket. 

I could evaluate this and many of the pastries thanks to samples set out on the counter. 

The plate above holds what I bought. The long, poppyseed- and sesame-sprinkled pastry at the left is what Hansen calls a "savory pastry." This means it is only slightly sweet, not savory in the sense of salty.

The slim pastry that looks like a ladyfinger at the right is "coffee bread," which is baked twice. The plain dough that forms the base is baked first, then topped with sweet almond paste and baked again. The only coffee involved is the hot liquid into which Danes dunk this pastry. 

At the front is a round cinnamon pastry topped with a circle of white frosting. Behind it is a nougat crown, which is filled with custard, hazelnut and almond paste. 

Also on display were hard-to-resist raspberry pastries and the Copenhagen, which is lined with strips of white and chocolate frosting and filled with custard. Hansen says head baker Henrik Gram will add a new pastry each week.

A great find is the pretzel-shaped kringle (above), a Danish classic filled with almond paste and topped with sliced almonds and sugar. Until now, I had to drive to Solvang to get one.

Hansen advises calling in advance to make sure that kringle is available. Apparently, other Danes have discovered it too. 

Copenhagen Pastry, 11113 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232. Tel: (310) 839-8900.