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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. 

Ta-eem Grill--Cool Food When It's Hot

It's never too hot to eat at Ta-eem Grill, even at the worst of the heat wave last week. 

I had no appetite for meaty dishes then, not even Ta-eem's merguez and schawarma, which I hear are wonderful. 

Never mind, this tiny glatt kosher cafe puts together an excellent salad plate. The cheerful servers (above) heap a little of everything into such a beautiful arrangement that you wouldn't want anything else.

There it is, at the top (and on top of the counter). That's hummus in the center, with garlic sauce spooned over. At top right (1 o'clock) is creamy baba ghanoush. 

Continuing in a clockwise direction, the next is Israeli salad with lemon dressing, then a cooked tomato salad, fried eggplant, Moroccan carrots and Moroccan beets. When the plate is complete, the server sprinkles fresh parsley over everything.

Then you eat the salads with hot pita (above). 

The restaurant is very small--only five tables crammed together in back and a little seating outside. From the line ordering at the counter, I figure that takeout is as popular as eating there. 

Ta-eem Grill, 7422 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036. Tel: (323) 944-0013.

Paradise on a Plate: Boutargue

How lucky I was to drop into Got Kosher? Cafe when someone had ordered pasta with bottarga.

It was lunchtime, and that dish is usually only on hand at night. So it must have been a special customer who wangled the exception. I wangled a taste too (at top), luxuriating in the salty, briny intensity that worked magic on a plateful of angel hair.

Bottarga is the roe of the grey mullet (and sometimes other fish), sun-dried and encased in wax to protect it. The taste is so powerful that you eat it gingerly, a slice or two with bread perhaps, or as an appetizer with lemon or grated sparingly over pasta, as if it were truffles.

But don't ask for pasta with bottarga at Got Kosher? There, it's known as pâtes à la boutargue and defined on the menu as Tunisian caviar. French is common at the restaurant, because chef/owner Alain Cohen lived in Paris, where his family operated a restaurant. Above, he's grating bottarga over an order. 

Born in Tunisia, Cohen described how thrifty Mediterranean travelers would pack bottarga along to slice and eat with bread, providing protein at much less cost than eating out. 

Bottarga is more reasonable in that area, close to where it is produced, but here, it is costly. Cohen sells the wax tubes (above left) for $40 to $60, depending upon how much they contain. At dinner, pâtes à la boutargue will set you back $28, but then caviar, Tunisian or otherwise, is never cheap. 

Got Kosher? Cafe, 8914 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035. Tel: (310) 858-1920.