Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Restaurant Review

30 Mar 2016

State Bird Provisions – San Francisco

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State Bird Provisions came across my radar back in 2012 when Bon Appetit named it the Best New Restaurant in America. Owned and operated by chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, the restaurant is most notable for serving inventive small plates on dim sum-style carts and trays.

While State Bird’s service model sounded a little gimmicky, I was intrigued enough by the menu to make reservations while in San Francisco for a digital conference last fall.

Even though it’s been a minute since the restaurant was lauded by Bon Appetit, reserving a table at a decent hour is still quite competitive. A little good press goes a long way.

The food started rolling by as soon as my dining companions and I settled in. In true dim sum fashion, hash marks were added to our “bill” as we selected various items from the carts and trays. (more…)

Restaurant Review

14 Mar 2016

Miàn by Chengdu Taste – San Gabriel

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Thanks to The Astronomer’s “alternate work schedule,” every so often we’re able to meet up for a low-key weekday lunch. We stopped into Miàn during its first week of service for a taste of Chongqing-style noodles. Even though the line for a table was longer than anticipated, the food was well worth the wait, especially the dumplings (surprisingly).

Tony Xu, who last dazzled our tastebuds at Chengdu Taste in Alhambra and Rosemead, keeps the hits coming at his second concept Miàn. The restaurant serves just a dozen different mian (noodles), five kinds of chaoshou (dumplings), and eight appetizers.

A complimentary dish of pickled and lightly spiced cabbage arrived at the table to start.

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Now Closed

07 Mar 2016

Trois Familia – Los Angeles (Silver Lake)

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The Astronomer and I ducked into Trois Familia for brunch on a Friday morning back in January when we had an engagement in the neighborhood. This was hands down the hippest restaurant that we’d dined in together in quite some time—knit caps and tight jeans errywhere. We fit right in (wink, wink).

The third restaurant collaboration between chefs Ludo Lefebvre, Jon Shook, and Vinny Dotolo (previously: Trois Mec and Petit Trois), Trois Familia serves French-Mexican brunch from 10 AM to 3 PM seven days a week. We ordered a bit of this and a bit of that from the breakfast and lunch menus, and made sure to save room for dessert.

First up was the Beet Tartar Tostada ($8.95). Truth be told, we ordered this thinking it was beef tartar. Even though it was kind of a bummer to receive beets instead of beef, I couldn’t stay mad for long because this tostada was delightful with its bright lime zest and swirls of avocado milk.

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