Posts for January 28, 2013

Ikemen Ramen Opens in Little Tokyo; Where to Find The SGV's "Best Buns"

By Hadley Tomicki

Pulled pork-stuffed bao at Flavor GardenPhoto: Tony Chen/SinoSoul

Alhambra: SinoSoul picks the region's hottest buns. And we mean the kind you find at Flavor Garden, not the ones at L.A. Fitness. [SinoSoul]
Beverly Hills: Kate Mantilini's cocktail and bar program was recently rejiggered by Tasting Kitchen veteran Devin Espinosa, including drinks that take the restaurant's Hollywood clientele into consideration. [LAist]
--Caulfield's is offering a $20 pizzette with a carafe of wine on Mondays and one-dollar oysters every Friday. [GS]
Century City: KevinEats inhales David Myers' new menu at Hinoki & The Bird in a single bound. [KevinEats]
Citywide: Yeah, that pizza oven is alright, but is it distinguished? Josh Lurie takes a look at the city's brightest burners. [Food GPS]

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Make Your Eggs Look Extra Cutesy

This $12 egg shaper will separate the yolk from the white and elevate your breakfast to Zooey Deschanel–levels of adorable. And with a pinch of salt, your eggs can produce snow. It's so cute that it makes it maybe-almost-still-not-okay for you to photograph your food. [BookOfJoe]

Can We Call This “Bathtub Foie Gras?”

By Hadley Tomicki

“Nothing will replace foie gras,” Vinny Dotolo tells L.A. Magazine, doing his best to live life a mere seven months after one of Animal’s favorite ingredients was declared an enemy of the state. While peers like Gusto’s Vic Casanova are turning to other forms of animal liver to relive the dream and Josiah Citrin is seeking solace in the lush texture of avocados, resourceful chef Walter Manzke is all but jerry-rigging his own form of the verboten delicacy. Manzke tells Digest he prefers using “regular duck liver from Liberty Ducks in Sonoma” before adding “some butter to increase the fat content.” Says the chef, “It’s the closest thing to foie gras I can create.” Suddenly, the debut of Manke's Republique can't come soon enough. [Digest]

L'Scorpion Stung By Actor-Activated Lawsuit

Actress Kristen Bell is being named in a lawsuit targeting Meridian Restaurant Group, the owners of Hollywood's tequila and mezcal bar, L'Scorpion. The pregnant star is one of five plaintiffs alleging that their initial investments in the business were never reciprocated in a promised five-percent of returns. Bell invested $20,000 into the business in 2005, while the bar has reportedly turned a profit of $30,000 per month in its seven years of operation. [NYDN]

"The Golden State of Cocktails" Trade-Show Launching in 2014 in L.A.

By Hadley Tomicki

Aidan Demarest's "Churro on a Burro"

A super-group of mixology-progressives is banding together to give California a cocktail-event that can rival New Orleans' Tales of the Cocktail. Called "The Golden State of Cocktails," the inaugural conference is planned to take place over three days starting January 26 of next year. Eater breaks downs the board that will oversee the organization and implementation of this booze-fueled trade-show, which will consist of panels, classes, and demonstrations, including members like San Francisco barman Erick Castro, locals like restaurant owner Bill Chait, Neat owner Aidan Demarest, Mark and Johnny Houston of La Descarga and Harvard & Stone, Bar Lubitsch owner Jared Meisler, and 213 mastermind Cedd Moses, as well as cocktail cognescenti like Simon Ford and Pebble Beach Food & Wine co-founder David Bernahl. Details are still emerging on the three-day event, which promises to highlight California's contributions to cocktail culture while offering heavy drinkers a more temperate climate for their official business-based benders.

Jolting News: Caffeinated Maple Syrup Is a Real Thing

By Hugh Merwin

Put it in your coffee!

"Natural maple flavor," caffeine, butter flavoring, and invert sugar are just four of the ingredients that make up the unholiest of breakfast condiments, Wired Wyatt's Caffeinated Syrup, which retails online for $12.99 per bottle, or essentially, $1.85 per ounce. Sure, you could get by with a few crushed-up Vivarins, a family-size jug of Aunt Jemima Butter Rich, and a balloon whisk, but the whole point of using Wired Wyatt's — with its tweaky label emblazoned with the words "all-natural" and "energy" and Doug Funnie-on-steroids caricature — is to announce to the world that you absolutely adore caffeine. This seems to be something of a trend.

A hell of a drug. »

Genwa Replacing Woo Lae Oak on Restaurant Row

By Hadley Tomicki

GenwaPhoto: Joshua Lurie

When one fancy Korean restaurant closes, another will open. Or so it was decreed long ago by the deities of prime kalbi. Genwa, the Mid-City Wilshire griller known for its premium cuts and dizzying avalanche of panchan, is taking over the former location of Woo Lae Oak, that well-dressed Korean chain that often plays host to bachelor parties and other special-occasion dinners for the set that doesn't cross Crenshaw. New signage indicates that Genwa will open its second location at this Restaurant Row address in the coming weeks, bringing the Westside one of its only, and quite possibly its strongest, bet yet for a solid Korean barbecue option.

Genwa, 170 N. La Cienega Blvd. Beverly Hills.

Simi Valley Restaurant Week Scores Special Menu From McDonald's

Simi Valley Restaurant Week launched yesterday, featuring seven days of special menus from 20 restaurants in the area. In fact, a couple of them you may already be familiar with, like Famous Dave's Barbecue, Qdoba, and McDonald's. That's right. Even the Golden Arches is getting in on this, offering a $12 lunch menu and a $20 special menu where guests can blow it out on a 40-piece order of McNuggets. Wow, first the chain commits to ditching mystery fish and then goes double digits for Restaurant Week. Who says fine-dining is dead? [Simi Valley Chamber]

Hugo's Tacos Opens in Woodland Hills, Wednesday at 10:00 A.M.

By Hadley Tomicki

The third installment of Hugo's TacosPhoto: Hugo's Tacos

Hugos' Tacos, the Mexican restaurant that sprang out of staff meals at West Hollywood's Italian-influenced Hugo's, will open its third location this Wednesday at 10:00 A.M. in Woodland Hills. The basic menu here offers eleven dishes like your standard burritos and tacos, with room for less common fare like tortas ahogadas, jalapeno-tomatillo salsa, and green tamales. This being a taco stand descended from a West Hollywood restaurant after all, the beans are organic, the tamales are packed with spinach, and almost any dish can be modified to fit a vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free lifestyle. See the full menu right here, and find Hugo's third leg open twelve hours a day at 22941 Ventura Blvd. Woodland Hills; 818-222-7700.

Whopper Lover’s Funeral Procession Takes a Trip Through Burger King’s Drive-through

By Collin Keefe

From Burger King to Kingdom Come

We can thank Taco Bell for giving us “Fourth Meal,” and “First Meal,” but it looks like credit for “Last Meal” goes to Burger King. This past weekend, the funeral procession for 88-year-old Whopper lover David S. Kime Jr. passed through the local Burger King drive-through on the way to the cemetery.

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What to Expect at Mozza's Chi Spacca, Opening February 4

By Hadley Tomicki

Chi Spacca

Today Russ Parsons infiltrates Chi Spacca, the newest restaurant to emerge at the Mozza complex. As expected, the “meat-heavy” concept stems from Chad Colby’s salumi bar and whole pig dinners with the intention of highlighting his cured meats, which represent the output of L.A's first legit dry-cure program. The Times foresees a menu that starts on "whole muscles" like speck and capocollo, with space for salami, pate, terrine, and whipped lardo, and room for roasted and grilled meats in dishes like veal and bone marrow pie, a $311 80-oz. bistecca fiorentina, and Moorish lamb shoulder chops. There will also be weekly events like a Saturday nose-to-tail feast, as well as salads, fish, and veggie dishes, with desserts by Dahlia Narvaez.

Read more »

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