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Church & State - Los Angeles (Downtown)

Published

on March 8, 2010

in French, Los Angeles and Restaurant Review

. 17 Comments

There’s really no need for me to recount the wonderful dinner I had at Church & State last week. By now, every blogger, critic, and casual eater knows that the downtown bistro is a gem. And more importantly, the man who made the restaurant what it is today has one foot out the door. Like I said, there’s really no reason for me to write about this place again, except that I totally can’t help myself—Church & State is so incredibly good!

I sat down to a most satisfactory feast with The Astronomer, my mom, and D takes a B on the evening following Chef Walter Manzke’s announcement that he would be leaving the restaurant. We arrived right as the doors opened for dinner service. I usually don’t sup until the sun has fully set, but we had tickets to The Lake Show this evening, so it was imperative not to miss the opening tip-off (and the celebrity sightings).

To start, complimentary gougères for the entire table. The cheesy poofs were warm, light, and delectable.

Next, crusty baguettes, soft butter, and coarse sea salt arrived at the table. The simple spread was so satisfying that we inhaled it in mere minutes.

Our first starter was the Oreilles de Cochon—crispy pig’s ears with a Bearnaise sauce ($8). Unlike the chewy specimens I’ve sampled in the past, Chef Manzke’s ears were vein-less, gelatinous, and had a velvety finish. The thin batter coating the ears provided a crisp and salty complement to the unmistakable essence of ear.

The Escargots de Bourgogne, snails baked in garlic and parsley butter ($13), was as good as ever. After a lot of trial and error, I’ve come to the conclusion that the best way to consume these little vessels is to gingerly peel the puff pastry from the ramekin, dunk it with abandon into the hot and garlicky butter, then scoop the snail and butter-soaked pastry onto the spoon and into one’s mouth. It’s a lot of mass, but the flavors cannot be beat. Be sure to swipe the house baguette through the ramekin afterwards so as not to waste a drop of butter.

My favorite course of the evening was the Assiette de Charcuterie—a selection of artisan and housemade pâtés, terrines, and saucisson sec ($18). The nearly three-foot long plank was beautiful to behold and crazy-delicious to consume. The pork rillettes with prune confiture were rustic and delightful, as were the various duck, pork, and rabbit pates. The most memorable was the goose liver pate with chives and coarse salt. I drifted off to a very special place with each bite. Balancing out the richness were briny olives, cornichons, pickled vegetables, dijon mustard, and little radishes swiped with butter. Heaven on a plank.

After indulging in three appetizers and countless loaves of bread, we shared two entrees. The Astronomer picked the short ribs ($26), which were served with roasted carrots, mushrooms, pearl onions, and a heap of pureed potatoes. The meat was so tender that a plunge of the fork was all that was needed to tear off a hunk. This is comfort food at its best.

The seared duck breast with Brussels sprouts and candied kumquats ($24) was also expertly prepared. I loved how well the tart little fruits mingled with the duck’s natural juices.

With Church & State’s kitchen in flux, I was pleased to take in one final meal with Chef Manzke running the show. It’s uncertain what the future will hold for both the Chef and the restaurant. However, one thing is for sure—with Chef Manzke manning the stoves, Church & State is nothing short of spectacular.

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Church & State
1850 Industrial Street
Los Angeles, CA 90021
Phone: 213-405-1434

Canelé - Los Angeles (Atwater Village)

Published

Gastronomer

on December 11, 2009

in Breakfast / Brunch, French, Los Angeles and Restaurant Review

. 12 Comments

Whereas the majority of the restaurant write ups featured on this site are based on one lone visit, with Canelé, I decided to shake things up a bit. Inspired by professional restaurant reviewers across the land and one of my favorite Los Angeles-based food blogs, Exile Kiss, I decided to eat at Canelé three times before pounding out a post. So, from September to November, I brunched at Canelé once and sat down for dinner twice. To get the fullest sense of the kitchen’s range and abilities, I ordered from both the regular and specials menus. Here’s how my little experiment went down:

Chef Corina Weibel and her business partner Jane Choi are the two forces behind Canelé, a neighborhood gem in Atwater Village. Chef Weibel previously cooked at two of the city’s most beloved restaurants, Campanile and Lucques, while Ms. Choi worked the front of the house at New York City’s Balthazar and Pastis. The gals joined forces to open Canelé in 2006.

On my first visit to Canelé on a sunny Saturday morning, I was joined by The Astronomer, Mattatouille, and D takes a B. Although we each gave the brunch menu a cursory glance, all of us knew good and well that the famed French toast ($7.50) would be ours. For an additional $2.50, it came adorned with marscapone and figs.

When my plate of French toast arrived, my jaw dropped to the ground. I couldn’t believe that a single serving entailed three massive slices, each of which were two-inches deep and weighed in at half a pound. I had never been so intimidated by French toast before! With a fork and a sharp knife in hand, I dug right in. I loved that the the bread was perfectly seared on the outside and silky smooth, almost custardy, within. The marscapone and figs were outstanding complements. Canelé’s French toast is regarded by many as one of Los Angeles’ finest, and I wholeheartedly agree.

I returned to Canelé several weeks later for Friends Cook Night, a periodic event where friends of the restaurant are invited to create and execute a unique menu. My friend Jessica Koslow of eat.sip.chew. took over the restaurant’s stoves in early October to prepare a three-course dinner featuring local ingredients. Jessica recently moved to Los Angeles from Atlanta, where she worked as a pastry chef at Bacchanalia.

Dinners at Canelé begin with complimentary bread and butter. The crusty white bread was adequate, but the butter was cold and hard. I prefer butter at room temperature, especially when served alongside bread.

Jessica’s three-course meal ($35) was phenomenal. The first course was a Cavolo nero salad with preserved Meyer lemons and fingerling potatoes Provençal, the second course was handmade poppy seed pappardelle with lamb and wild mushrooms in a porter ragu, and the final course was a Valrhona 66% caribe torino made with free range eggs and homemade vanilla bean ice cream with pumpkin seed brittle.

Best of all, the number of food miles that made this meal possible was kept in check. The lamb came from Niman Ranch, the mushrooms from Lili Bih Shan (Cerritos and Long Beach Farmer’s Markets), the eggs were from Silver Lake urban farmers John Whitton and Erin Burrell, and the preserved Meyer lemons from San Pedro urban farmers Steve and Melissa Griswald.

To supplement Jessica’s menu, The Astronomer and I shared an arugula, melon, and burrata salad ($8) from Canelé’s specials menu. The pairing of ripened cantaloupe with burrata was glorious.

We also ordered a plate of duck confit with parsnip mashed potatoes, red cabbage, and plum sauce ($20). The duck had a fantastic sear and its meat was fall-off-the-bone tender. The potatoes and cabbage gave the dish a homey and comforting quality.

As we headed out the door, The Astronomer and I were each presented with a tiny canelé, a French pastry with a soft and tender custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust.

I returned to Canelé a third time with the Eat My Blog committee (Laurie, Diana, and Anjali). We were weeks away from the big day and needed to discuss the finer details over a hearty meal in a quiet space.

We were all starving once we were seated and quickly mauled the bread and butter. Once again, the butter was disappointingly cold.

For my appetizer, I took Anjali’s advice and ordered the brandade with tomato confit and toast ($10). The brandade, an amazing combination of of salt cod, olive oil and milk, arrived bubbling in its vessel and smelled unbelievably great. The savory and cheesy mixture was at its best slathered atop the buttery slivers of toast.

For my main course, I settled on the boeuf bourguignon with buttered noodles ($22). This dish was easy to love because stewed meat and tender noodles are an unstoppable paring. The tiny mushrooms, pearl onions, and salty bacon kept me captivated when I was all beefed-out.

For dessert, Laurie and I shared well-executed coffee ice cream sandwiches with caramel sauce ($7).

Canelé is a solid restaurant that consistently churns out food ranging from very good to great. Service is mostly friendly and always adept. In this particular case, I can’t say that multiple visits added any real insights about Canelé that I would not have been able to gather from one meal. However, the opportunity to explore the menu in depth cannot be discounted.

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Canelé
3219 Glendale Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90039
Phone: 323-666-7133

Ludo Bites at Royal/T - Los Angeles (Culver City)

Published

Gastronomer

on December 2, 2009

in Asian Fusion, French, Los Angeles, Media Event and Restaurant Review

. 28 Comments

He’s baaaack! And dare I say, even better than before. After a three-month hiatus, Chef Ludo Lefebvre has returned with the third installment of Ludo Bites, his highly-anticipated guerrilla-style pop-up restaurant. [Read about the second installment here.] This time around, Chef Ludo has teamed up with Culver City’s Royal/T—the city’s first Japanese-style cosplay café.

The thirteen-day engagement officially begins tonight, but the cool cats at Fooddigger managed to arrange an exclusive pre-grand opening tasting. I was fortunate enough to snag a seat, granting me the opportunity to sample Ludo’s bites 24-hours before the general public. It’s no secret that being first feels good. Real good.

Whereas Ludo’s former haunt was a casual neighborhood eatery, Royal/T is a multifaceted space with a café, shop, and art gallery. The art-covered walls and funky maid get-ups give Ludo Bites 3.0 a deliciously different vibe.

Currently on display at Royal/T is “In Bed Together,” an exhibition curated by Jane Glassman. The collection features 50 works by 50 different artists that have been selected by 50 art professionals. “In Bed Together” showcases an array of different art forms including paintings, drawings, mixed media, sculptures, videos, photography, and performance art.

After sipping some bubbly and chatting with my blogging brethren, we were seated in a glass-walled room toward the back of the gallery. In addition to the usual tables, chairs, and place settings, the room contained a curious-looking white tent. Understanding the heartache that food bloggers experience in dimly lit dining settings, Ludo’s wife and right arm (wo)man Krissy invested in a photography light box! Amazing times a zillion.

Due to the diminutive size of the kitchen, Chef Ludo and his sous chefs plated each course within the gallery.

The first of nine courses was a pretty little dish of barely cooked scallops, brown butter, pineapple, and a mysterious “black powder.” Now, this is the kind of food I love to eat—light, refreshing, and complexly flavored. Props to “The Glutster” for figuring out that squid ink made the “black powder” possible.

Next, we moved on to a bowl of warm bread soup accented with a Gruyère marshmallow and a beauteously poached egg. Made from Bread Bar’s rustic loaf, the soup tasted toasty and familiar. The egg and “cheese” jazzed up the bowl from top to bottom.

The third course, a foie gras beignet, nearly did me in with its unparalleled richness. Fried dough is naturally quite decadent—add to it two full ounces of Hudson Valley foie gras and you’ve got a downright lethal combination. The celery root remoulade tried its darndest to reel in the dish’s intensity but couldn’t quite manage to strike a balance.

The foie gras beignet was appropriately followed by a simple squid preparation featuring chorizo oil, kimchi puree, eggplant “paper,” and pickled red onions. I ate this one with my fingers, swiping the squid in each of the sauces and biting off a piece of “paper” to finish. The kimchi’s kick and the squid’s supple texture were my favorite components.

Drawing inspiration from his new space at Royal/T, Chef Ludo created a Japanese udon dish with veal, kombu dashi (kelp stock), enoki mushrooms, and a sesame seed miso paste. The deeply savory broth enveloped the entire dish, creating an outstanding noodle soup experience. Chef Ludo’s talents aren’t limited solely to French and modern American cuisines; this man can do Asian cooking too!

For the fish portion of our meal, we were served a delicate fillet of wild striped bass with garden vegetables and aioli. Whereas Chef Ludo’s creations are usually quite bold in the flavor department, this one was subdued. The only item that really popped on the plate were the florets of purple cauliflower.

The final savory course of the evening was a superbly tender hunk of hangar steak coupled with crunchy escargots, baby corn, bok choy, and a black olive mole. Everything on the plate tasted fantastic, but it was the parsley-crusted escargots that I was particularly fond of.

Instead of a traditional cheese course, Chef Ludo prepared a tart using Fourme d’Ambert, one of France’s oldest cheeses with pungent notes similar to blue. The flaky tart was paired with pears bathed in beet juice and a swathe of honey balsamic.

The final course of the evening was a chocolate cake floating in an ocean of frothy coconut sorbet. While I’m usually not a chocolate dessert lover, this one managed to woo me in with its refreshingly light flavors and textures. Pink peppercorns and a coffee caramel provided the finishing touches.

Thank you to FoodDigger (Brian, Marshal, and Will), Ludo, and Krissy for an amazing feast! And thank you to my fellow gastronomers for providing great company: Caroline of Caroline on Crack, Kevin of Kevin Eats, Danny of Kung Food Panda, Elina Shatkin from the LA Times, Fiona of Gourmet Pigs, H.C. of LA and OC Foodventures, Javier of Teenage Glutster, Josh of Food GPS, Lindsay William-Ross from LAist, Liz of Food She Thought, Sonja of The Active Foodie, and Rachel Hirschfeld, of Les Dames d’Escoffier and Petriarch.com.