Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Restaurant Review

11 Dec 2008

Vanilla Bake Shop – Los Angeles (Santa Monica)

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The cupcake trend, which got rolling with New York City’s Magnolia Bakery a couple years back, is still going strong on the Left Coast (although sadly not as strong as the Pinkberry fro-yo trend). I find cupcakes irresistibly cute and delightful, even though they’re totally overpriced and oftentimes look more delicious than they actually are.

On one very special day at work not too long ago, a colleague surprised the office with an impromptu cupcake party. He brought in a dozen from the Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica. Amy Berman, the shop’s owner, was featured in the New York Times article entitled So, Sweetie, I Quit to Bake Cupcakes two summers ago. She is one of a handful of Angelenos who have left their day jobs to pursue their passion for baking.

During the office cupcake party, I sampled a plethora of Vanilla Bake Shop’s offerings including the Fudgy Brownie (Fudgy Brownie Cake, Vanilla Bean Frosting, Valrhona Cocoa Dust), Southern Red Velvet (Southern Red Velvet Cake, Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting), Pumpkin (Sweet Pumpkin Cake, Cream Cheese Frosting, Dusted with Graham Cracker and Spices), Meyer Lemon Raspberry (Yellow Butter Cake, Lemon Curd Center, Vanilla Bean Frosting & Raspberries) and Mocha Chocolate (Dark Chocolate Cake, Creamy Mocha Frosting, Chocolate Covered Coffee Bean). At $3.25 a pop, these babies are priced on par with the holy grail of L.A.’s cupcakes—Sprinkles.

The Meyer Lemon Raspberry was the tastiest of the bunch, with a cool and tangy curd center. Mmm! The biggest disappointment was the Southern Red Velvet. Even though it was generously topped with a killer cream cheese frosting, the cake was drier than it ought to have been. See: Billy’s Bakery for a flawless Red Velvet.

With the exception of the Red Velvet, Vanilla Bake Shop’s cupcakes are immensely pleasurable. While it would’ve been ideal to consume them on the premises, eating cupcakes in a conference room turned out to be a rather festive affair.

POWER RANKINGS

Sprinkles Cupcakes > Dots Cupcakes > Vanilla Bake Shop > Crumbs Bake Shop > Auntie Em’s Kitchen > Yummy Cupcakes > Violet’s Cakes.

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Vanilla Bake Shop
512 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Phone: 310-458-6644

Restaurant Review

10 Dec 2008

KyoChon – Los Angeles (Koreatown)

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KyoChon has been on my ‘To Eat’ list ever since our fair city’s restaurant guru Jonathan Gold named it the Best Fried Chicken in the L.A. Weekly‘s Best of L.A. issue. Mr. Gold writes:

Korean fried chicken really is an evolutionary leap forward — marinated in a cabinet full of spices, saturated with garlic, double-fried to a shattering, thin-skinned snap dramatic enough to wake a sleeping baby in an adjoining room.

Quite a sell, right? After our Tar Pits outing, The Astronomer, my mom and I swung by KyoChon in Koreatown to sample their highly-praised offerings.

The brightly lit restaurant was packed (and slightly understaffed) on the Saturday afternoon we visited. Even though KyoChon looks like a typical American fast food joint, ordering takes place table side and the bill is presented at the end of the meal. On the restaurant’s wall is a cryptic slogan that reads: “Healthy Food For Ecstatic Body & Soul.” Firstly, what does that mean? And secondly, let’s not kid ourselves—this place serves up fried chicken!

At KyoChon, the chicken is prepared to order, which means a thirty minute wait is fair game. To keep patrons from bitching and moaning about the substantial lull, KyoChon offers free soft serve. The Astronomer nibbled on a little cup of chocolate fro-yo to keep his blood sugar level steady.

The three of us shared a twenty piece wing platter ($16.99)—ten pieces with garlic soy sauce and ten with hot sweet sauce. What makes Korean-style fried chicken radically different from Southern fried chicken is an “Asian frying technique that renders out the fat in the skin, transforming it into a thin, crackly and almost transparent crust,” according to Julia Moskin of the New York Times. In her article Koreans Share Their Secret for Chicken With a Crunch she explores the process in depth.

The chicken is unseasoned, barely dredged in very fine flour and then dipped into a thin batter before going into the fryer. The oil temperature is a relatively low 350 degrees, and the chicken is cooked in two separate stages.

After 10 minutes, the chicken is removed from the oil, shaken vigorously in a wire strainer and allowed to cool for two minutes. This slows the cooking process, preventing the crust from getting too brown before the meat cooks through. It also shaves off all those crusty nubs and crags that American cooks strive for. After 10 more minutes in the fryer, the chicken is smooth, compact, golden-brown, and done.

The garlic soy sauce wings were easy to love. The snappy texture was appealing and the garlicky flavors were fantastic. A definite crowd pleaser.

The hot sweet sauce wings were addictive even though they caused an intense burning sensation in my mouth. At first bite, the wing’s sweet sauce pervaded my senses. A few chews later, my tongue was on fire due to the Korean red peppers. Yow! Even though my nose was running and I was beginning to sweat, I went in for another. And then another because they’re so good!

To curb the wicked spiciness, I melted ice cubes on my tongue and popped a couple cubes of pickled radish ($1) in my mouth. Pickled radishes, which taste briny, sweet and crunchy, are a typical accompaniment to Korean fried chicken and serve as a much-needed foil to the fiery wings.

The wings platter came with a coleslaw of shredded cabbage topped with mayonnaise and ketchup. Pass.

POWER RANKINGS

KyoChon > Bonchon > Chicken Day > Hite Kwang-Jang.

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KyoChon
3833 W. 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Phone: 213-739-9292

Restaurant Review

09 Dec 2008

La Brea Bakery – Los Angeles

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La Brea Bakery is an L.A. institution. Back in 1988, founder Nancy Silverton developed her very own starter from scratch using flour, water, and wild yeasts from the skin of organic grapes. Twenty years later, the original starter remains the signature ingredient in every single loaf of La Brea Bakery bread, even the ones sold at Costco. Talk about a legacy!

My mom, The Astronomer and I made a quick stop at La Brea Bakery because we were in the neighborhood visiting the La Brea Tar Pits, another classic L.A. destination. Because the holidays are upon us, there was a kind woman out front offering samples of La Brea’s holiday pies, including a spiced yam and pumpkin puree, an apple crumble, a sour cherry crumble and a toasted pecan and molasses tart. We all agreed that the sour cherry crumble was the best.

La Brea Bakery’s flagship store is tiny and quaint. In addition to breads and pastries, there are also a selection of gourmet jams, granola and honey. The Astronomer wanted to treat me to a jar of honey or jam, but thirty bucks was too much for a graduate school stipend to handle.

My mom bought me a whole grain loaf, which was wrapped up to-go. I happily consumed the hearty loaf the following week for breakfast and as a midday snack. Even though Ms. Silverton devotes the bulk of her culinary attention these days to Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza (her dining ventures with Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich), the quality at La Brea Bakery has definitely not slipped.

By the way, La Brea’s whole grain loaf is available for sale at your neighborhood Costco. I’ve tasted the Costco variety and can vouch for its comparable deliciousness.

My mom picked up a few treats for herself as well, including a long and skinny baguette and two coconut macaroons.

Prior to visiting La Brea Bakery, we explored the famous La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum.

The La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits located in Hancock Park in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Tar has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years, forming hundreds of sticky pools that trapped animals who unknowingly entered. Over time, the asphalt fossilized the remains. The result is an incredibly rich collection of fossils dating from the last Ice Age.

The collection of skeletons, which includes saber tooth tigers, mastodons, dire wolves and wool mammoths, are located inside the Page Museum.

The pools of black tar surrounding the museum are glossy and smell like fresh pavement. A few of the pits are active excavation sites, including one that is open to the public. Unfortunately, we visited on a weekend so no one was hard at work in the dark matter. Here’s a picture of my mom and I in front of the main tar pit, and a photo of The Astronomer hugging a life-size model of an Ice Age sloth. It was his favorite.

This twenty second clip entitled “La Brea Tar Pits: It’s Alive” captures the awesomeness of tar bubbles and features narration from my mother. What a treat!

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La Brea Bakery
624 S. La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA‎ 90036
Phone: 323-939-6813‎