Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Restaurant Review

03 Mar 2020

Melisse – Santa Monica

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Chef Josiah Citrin closed Melisse about a year ago. After retooling for most of 2019, the restaurant reopened last December with just 14 seats. Though the new Melisse’s footprint is much smaller than its previous incarnation, the institution continues to dazzle diners with the kind of refined hospitality and fancy flourishes that make fine dining such a treat.

The $295 tasting menu, which includes nearly a dozen courses, takes diners on a familiar journey, with lighter, more seafood-centric dishes at the get-go and heartier proteins to finish. What makes a meal here particularly special are the table-side touches sprinkled throughout the experience. Plus, the unbeatable views of the open kitchen from every seat in the house.

Dinner began with a trio of canapes: a crab tart with sesame and trout roe, a purse filled with wagyu beef tartare, and a seaweed chip topped with wild Japanese amberjack.

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Potpourri

19 Feb 2020

B-Sides: Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup Edition

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At the top of the year, I ate bowls upon bowls of Lanzhou beef noodle soup from over half a dozen specialists in Los Angeles while trying to wrap my mind and palate around the Hot Dish for a feature on Eater LA. With its ropey, hand-pulled noodles and gorgeously clear broth, I never tired of the noodle soup even though I ate it for weeks on end.

Still, on occasions when I was dining out slash researching with a companion or two in tow, I took the opportunity to taste other specialties on the menu. Below are the best of the b-sides. Mmm…

Though the Lanzhou beef noodle soup at Lanzhou Noodle House in Walnut was one of the weakest that I sampled, its cold fried tofu appetizer was terrific, with a generous slicking of chile oil and light crusting of sesame seeds.

At LAN Noodle in Arcadia, The Astronomer and I were taken aback by the seemingly simple scallion noodles. Whereas scallion noodles are usually stir-fried quite straightforwardly with soy sauce and scallions, the ones at LAN arrived in a shallow soy sauce broth with crisped and browned green onions heaped on top. The dish’s innovative composition and nuanced flavors gave the famed beef noodle soup a run for its money.

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Potpourri

31 Jan 2020

The Year In Delicious: Top 10 Bites of 2019

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It’s the last day of January, which seems like as fitting a time as any to finally reflect on my favorite dishes of 2019. Thank you for reading Gastronomy these past thirteen years—it’s been a genuine thrill getting to share my culinary adventures and endeavors on this space. And without further ado, here are the 10 best bites I ate in 2019…

Gambas a la Plantxa at Otoño in Highland Park, California

Chef Teresa Montaño has found a new home in Highland Park at Otoño since closing her six-year-old Basque restaurant Racion. By the time we were through with the griddled blue prawns with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and Brandy de Jerez, the only thing that remained on the plate were the blackened shrimp tails. We ate every last morsel—head, whiskers, flesh, and all.

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Lamb Sausage Pizza at Cotogna in San Francisco, California

After years of hearing my cousin Michael espouse the glories of Cotogna, we finally had the opportunity to dine there together. Of all the memorable plates that evening, the lamb sausage pizza lingers in my mind for its exceptional crust and balanced toppings.

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