Shine On Harvest Moon

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Val

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Chinatown, Los Angeles, California

Chinatown in LA during the Moon Festival

Chinatown in LA during the Moon Festival

China marks the autumn equinox with the Moon Festival (also known as the Mid-Autumn, Lantern Festival or Mooncake festival). The celebration is traditionally held on the 15th of the 8th lunar month, although for 72 years (not in a row) it has been held in Los Angeles’ Chinatown on the Saturday closest to the full autumn moon. The mythology behind the festival dates back several millennia to the Shang Dynasty, primarily centering on the beautiful Chang’E (or Chang Er), who swallowed a pill (either by force, as an act of self-sacrifice or by curiosity, probably after a conference call with Eve and Pandora) that granted eternal life; when her husband Houyi found out he became angry, causing her to fly to the moon where she remains today. There’s something more magical about flying to the moon after a marital argument than simply sleeping on the couch. She is accompanied on the moon by the Jade Rabbit (his famous bunny head silhouette clearly visible on the moon’s surface); his job is to create an antidote for the flying pill to allow Chang’E to return to Earth. If you’re curious like me, you’re wondering how the Jade Rabbit appeared on the moon. As the story goes, three fairy sages morphed into old beggars, asking for food from a fox, a monkey, and a rabbit (most likely because the Stop and Shop was closed). The fox and the monkey gave them some of their food (which may or may not have included rabbit); since the rabbit had no food to offer he jumped into a fire as a sacrifice. For his selfless act, the sages let the rabbit live in the Moon Palace to become the Jade Rabbit (without singed fur, one would assume).

Mooncakes cut in typical presentation

Mooncakes cut in typical presentation

During the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, it is traditional to eat the Chinese version of the fruitcake – the mooncake. Legend has it that during the Yuan Dynasty the Chinese people were plotting to overthrow the Mongol oppressors who had occupied the land. In order to pass information without being detected, they baked messages into small cakes which were distributed under the guise of a blessing for the emperor. The messages informed the Chinese people to rise up against the Mongols on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, which successfully resulted in the formation of the Ming Dynasty. From that day on, mooncakes were eaten on that day to commemorate the great event. I’ll delay the description of how mooncakes are made for later in the article, but keep in mind that mooncakes are about the size of a can of tuna fish with the name of the bakery or type of cake baked into the cake. Since mooncakes are generally sold in boxes of four, it is a common practice to “re-gift” them; as the old saying goes, “It’s the thought that counts”, and when you receive a single mooncake without no salted duck egg yolk, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how you’re thought of, and know what to do with those knitted powder-blue socks Aunt Molly made for you.

Chinese calligraphy writing at Chungking Plaza

Chinese calligraphy writing at Chungking Plaza

The event itself was very similar to the Chinatown Summer Nights celebrations earlier this year. DJs from KCRW provided music in Central Plaza while vendor booths lined the surrounding walking paths. L.A.’s omnipresent food trucks were lined up along Gin Ling Way, for the most part intentionally featuring non-Asian cuisine; demonstrations of martial arts were held in the plaza and one huge white wall had video projected onto it. Deep End Dining’s Eddie Lin reprised his role as MC for the cooking demonstrations with 5 local restaurants featured In Chungking Plaza across Hill Street. Tables were lined up at the front of the plaza that allowed participants to try their hand at Chinese brush calligraphy while along the sides artists painted faces, made melted candy figures and self-proclaimed “dough artist” Chris Lee created colorful, detailed sculptures on a stick. Around the corner on Chungking Road a ping pong tournament was being held to the left, while a traditional big band performed to the right. The first restaurant featured in the cooking demonstrations went by the odd name of Queee Sushi Station and Portuguese Cuisine. Chef Paulo Soares created cod fritters which proved once and for all that fish truly do have balls; these were served with fresh-tasting new fall potatoes and accompanied by a spicy, pepper-based piri-piri salad. Not an easy act to follow, but Chef Da Fang Xuan of Golden City Seafood created golden fried black mushrooms with spicy salt and a wok-fried French-style beef dish that gave off an intoxicating aroma. The mushrooms were hot, firm and tasty, but unfortunately the beef was a bit chewy.

Ken Chan of Phoenix Bakery explains the mooncake proces

Ken Chan of Phoenix Bakery explains the mooncake proces

After the first two restaurants presented their cuisine, Ken Chan of Phoenix Bakery gave a demonstration to the audience showing how mooncakes are made. There are a variety of the little cakes, with the three main types being red bean, lotus seed paste and fruit and nut. Typically a salted duck egg yolk is placed in the middle of the paste, which is then wrapped in dough and pushed into a carved wooden mold with a handle like a thick paddle. The mold is whacked on its side against the table, turned and whacked on the other side, then flipped cake-side down and hit one final time, dropping the unbaked cake into the baker’s eager hand. Chan explained that he has been making mooncakes for 30 years with the bakery being family owned for three generations; unfortunately experience did not translate into a flawless performance, as the first time he popped a cake from the mold it landed squarely on the ground. A young girl from the audience tried her hand at making one, as did MC Lin while wearing a single purple-gloved like Michael Jackson’s pastry chef. Obviously in the interest of time they did not bake the cakes on the premises, but had some on hand that were made earlier in the day. After baking, the cake is typically cut into quarters, which displays the orange yolk in the center with each recipient getting a piece. The cheapest (and I mean that towards the cake and its purchaser) mooncake has no yolk inside; they then vary in cost depending on the number of yolks, with up to four in a single cake. Phoenix Bakery had brought lotus seed paste cakes, which had the texture and flavor of a less-sweet marzipan in a pastry shell.

Fried and braided taro bird nest with chicken and asparagus

Fried and braided taro bird nest with chicken and asparagus

The mooncake demonstration was followed by the two most dramatic of the evening (for completely different reasons). The first was by Chef Lupe Liang of Hop Woo BBQ Seafood Restaurant who prepared a series of dishes not featured on the menu that were designed specifically for the Moon Festival. The first dish was spectacular in its presentation; strands of taro were woven into a basket “bird nest” and fried, with a winged bird carved from taro root perched above the natural bowl. The nest was filled with fragrant, sizzling chicken with asparagus, and then garnished along the sides with orange segments, mooncake wedges and whole black water chestnuts. These aquatic seeds (also known by the proper name of water caltrop as well as Singhara, buffalo nut, bat nut, or devil pod) look like the black head of a water buffalo or a bat with outstretched wings and have a taste like a dry, woody chestnut – a nice treat to drop into the kid’s Halloween goody bags. Chef Liang followed the fake bird nest with a dish featuring tender Napa cabbage with pork meatballs and vermicelli noodles and a Moon Festival Noodle Soup with big chucks of sometimes-fibrous lotus root. The final presentation was by the Golden Dragon Restaurant which demonstrated a dish called Lobster Yee Mein that started with a live-and-kicking lobster. The chef brought the lobster over to the sink area where he mangled the poor crustacean with a cleaver in true Anthony Perkins-style while the horrified audience looked on. Although the finished dish was attractive, I never saw a hungry crowd so uninterested in sampling lobster, but perhaps it was because they were busy attending to the sick and wounded.

The more I visit Chinatown, the more I love it. You can immerse yourself in the culture, from the ethnic groceries to the restaurants offering everything from the Americanized sweet and sour chicken to dishes featuring bull penis. I’ve got to make it a point to partake of what Chinatown has to offer more frequently than having to wait for a blue moon.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
Chinatown
Los Angeles, CA 90036
GPS Coordinates:  34°3’55.81″N 118°14’17.31″W

Queee Sushi Station & Portuguese Cuisine
643 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
GPS Coordinates: 34°3’30.77″N 118°14’19.03″W

Golden City Seafood Restaurant
960 North Hill St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
GPS Coordinates: 34°3’57.70″N 118°14’15.77″W

Hop Woo Barbeque Restaurant
855 North Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90012
GPS Coordinates: 34°3’49.81″N 118°14’15.67″W

Golden Dragon Restaurant
960 N. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90012
GPS Coordinates: 34°3’55.87″N 118°14’11.33″W

Phoenix Bakery
969 N. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90012-1728
GPS Coordinates: 34°3’57.15″N 118°14’12.12″W

See images from the 72nd Annual Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in Los Angeles’ Chinatown

Read article at Deep End Dining on Eddie Lin’s visit to Phoenix Bakery to make mooncakes

Posted in Asia, Trippy Food (Tasty flora and fauna), Trippy Happenings (Events) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Shine On Harvest Moon

The Full Brazilian

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Val

Brazilian Day at the La Brea Tar Pits

Los Angeles, California

The 5th annual Brazilian Day festival in LA

The 5th annual Brazilian Day festival in LA

With no disrespect intended, mention “Brazilian” and some people think, “wax”, but in Los Angeles on the weekend closest to the anniversary of Brazil’s independence from Portugal, the sticky substance in abundance is tar. The annual Brazilian Day festival has been held for the past 5 years in Hancock Park, a green area framed by the famous La Brea tar pits. You won’t be sinking into the black gooey quagmire while participating in the festivities, although after the chowing down on rich Brazilian cuisine you might want to walk it off by a visit to the Page Museum located in the park, or simply stroll around the fenced-off pits. The festival area is ringed by a row of tents where vendors on one side offer goods and services from and for Brazilians, and on the opposite side offer up delicious traditional Brazilian fare prepared fresh locally. It’s a one-stop shopping trip where you can get a Brazilian soccer jersey, a can of Guaraná Antarctica, sign up for dance classes, stock up on Brazilian groceries, buy a painting of a green and yellow-clad Christ the Redeemer kicking a goal off Corcovado Mountain, enjoy a half dozen coxinhas and finish them off with a brigadeiro and a cup of coffee. The 2010 festival was hosted by radio personality Sergio Mielniczenko of the Consulate General of Brazil (the event’s founder and sponsor).

The sights and sounds of Sambajah

The sights and sounds of Sambajah

Entertainment starts early on the stage set up at the back of the park, with a huge tent erected in the center for festival attendees to enjoy the music out of the oppressive sun. At the 2010 festival, Brazilian music acts Los Brazilian Boys, Muamba, Sambajah and Renni Frores provided musical entertainment while Capoeira Gaiamum dazzled the audience with the breathtakingly beautiful traditional art form of capoeira (a cross between dancing and martial arts) on the wooden dance floor. Brazilians know how to party and the summer heat did nothing to keep the samba dancing at bay; during the last song in Sambajah’s set, the two female backup singers tore off their green tunics to gyrate at the front of the stage in skin-tight green and yellow outfits and 6-inch platform shoes to the gratification of the camera phone-wielding crowd. It was impossible not to get caught up in the music – it seemed that a few people at the front of the crowd were dancing to the beat of a different drum, but their enthusiasm was contagious.

The feijoada completa at Brazilian Exotic Foods

The feijoada completa at Brazilian Exotic Foods

If you worked up a good appetite there was plenty of Brazilian favorites to choose from. The event was free, so naturally food was available for purchase; even though there were only about 6 food vendors, there was a decent selection from each. Most stalls had Brazilian favorites pastels and coxinhas, but I took advantage of the opportunity to have what many consider the national dish of Brazil: feijoada. Brazilian Exotic Foods had what looked like the best at the festival, and I was almost tempted to try the feijoadinha, a small, breaded and fried football made of the feijoada and collard greens, but it seemed like the feijoada completa had everything I could possibly want. The rich, slow-cooked black turtle bean and pork stew was savory and filling; the pork simply melted in my mouth. In addition to the feijoada, little compartments held fresh and still crispy sautéed collared greens, cassava flour farofa, white rice and big, thick cross-sectioned sausage. There was an overall salty flavor to the dish, but fortunately it wasn’t overpowering. In the meantime, Claudia had waited in line for Brazilian pizza from Bella Vista Brazilian Gourmet Pizza. At their restaurant in Culver City the mode of dining is “all you can eat”, but at the festival it was by the slice. They offered flavors familiar with Americans, but also featured pizza popular in Brazil such as frango con catupiry (chicken with the cheese used in coxinhas) and a remarkably sweet and delicious pie appropriately named “Romeo and Juliet”. Upon first consideration, one wonders how a pizza with star-crossed ingredients like cheese and guava paste works; the answer is quite well. There is no tomato present leaving the crusty dough to serve as an edible plate for the cheese and guava (which is eaten in that combination in many Latin American countries anyway). After we shared our dishes, I had queued up to get some coffee at Sabor da Bahia’s booth while Claudia stood in line for some brigadeiro; I purchased the coffee and met up with Claudia, who instead of getting us a couple of dainty, chocolaty brigadeiros returned with a slab of brigadeiro cake the size of your head. I think I prefer the rich, moist dessert ball form, but the cake was tasty (although a little dry).

Many sabertooths died trying to eat one of these

Many sabertooths died trying to eat one of these

After spending some time at the festival, you can double your fun by taking in the tar pits. The largest of the pits has filled with rainwater, but big, greasy black bubbles percolate up to the surface and pop near statues of mastadons trapped in the mire. One of the pits in the back that is being excavated has a little viewing shack where you can see the progress and get a better idea of the painstaking process required to extract the layers of ice age bones and debris from the tar. The bones jutting out of the tar don’t look like much, but a visit inside the Page Museum onsite opens your eyes to a menagerie of amazing animals that have been extinct for tens of thousands of years: American lions, ancient camels, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths as big as grizzly bears and the scourge of the ice age, the dire wolf. One exhibit takes up an entire wall – it is simply a glass case containing hundreds dire wolf skulls extracted from the pits. Many of the species that have long since disappeared have their bones reassembled for display, and a few life-sized dioramas feature animatronic beasts in something that looks like it might be called “When Disneyland Animals Go Bad”. At the center of the museum is a glassed-in paleontology lab where you can watch researchers delicately remove objects as large as mammoth pelvises and as small as insects from their tar prisons.

Hosting the annual Brazilian Day festival at the La Brea Tar Pits seems a little disjointed, but it gives you the opportunity to roll two activities into one. Be sure to pace yourself, because enjoying yourself under the hot August sun in Los Angeles can beat the tar out of you.

The George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits
5801 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
GPS Coordinates:  34°3’48.81″N 118°21’19.62″W

Brazilian Exotic Foods
3300 Overland Ave
Suite 103
Los Angeles, CA 90034
GPS Coordinates:  34°1’38.88″N 118°24’48.02″W

Bella Vista Brazilian Gourmet Pizza
10826 Venice Blvd. #110
Culver City, CA 90232
GPS Coordinates:  34°1’0.87″N 118°24’34.99″W

GALLERY: See images from the 5th annual Brazilian Day festival at the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles

Posted in South and Central America, Trippy Food (Tasty flora and fauna), Trippy Happenings (Events) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Full Brazilian

Out In The Street

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Val

The Street Hawker truck- Singaporean street food

Los Angeles County, California

The week-old Street Hawker truck

The week-old Street Hawker truck

Street hawkers were once a thriving part of the Singaporean landscape, providing cheap and plentiful food from stalls on the street, as well as dysentery, ptomaine, salmonella and a wide variety of gastrointestinal treats. Over the past half decade, the government of Singapore has taken most of these vendors off the street and consolidated them in hawker centres where they are heavily regulated and inspected for cleanliness. In recent decades these conglomerations of food stalls have been referred to as “food centres” partially to avoid their sullied past reputation. Meanwhile in the United States, the concept of putting relatively inexpensive food on the street has escalated in the form of the gourmet food truck scene, so it’s somewhat fitting that one of the newest trucks to join the ranks of Los Angeles’ fleet of street vendors is Street Hawker. Event attendees at the recent Chinatown’s Mid-Autumn Moon Festival may have stumbled across Street Hawker parked alone on a dark, quiet stretch of Broadway. The infant food truck has only been in operation since mid-September of 2010 according to Simon, Street Hawker’s manager. The truck is small with glass all the way across the business side, giving the impression of a street stall with wheels and leaving no room for doubt that they dish up “Singaporean Home Cooking” as advertised.

Satay cooking on an open flame

Satay cooking on an open flame

Street Hawker has eight traditional dishes, including the popular Hainanese chicken rice. One camera-shy couple I encountered at the truck hailed from neighboring Malaysia, and as they tore into the chicken and rice dish I asked about its authenticity. They told me that Street Hawker’s rice was more aromatic and flavorful than what would typically be found in a Singapore food centre, and that the chicken was tender and delicious. Other dishes that would do Singapore proud include nasi lemak (meat and vegetables served on the side of a mound of coconut rice) and satay grilled over an open flame. I wanted to try something on the unusual side, so Simon recommended the roti prata (a grilled flour pancake) with chicken curry. Since the temperature that night was a few degrees short of lava I decided to purchase a cold beverage to wash down the tasty roti prata, although I found it hard to choose between the soy bean milk, lime with jelly or ice barley with lime. I took the chef’s recommendation of the ice barley and waited patiently for my home-cooked order. The ice barley was funky strange – it was refreshing, with a nice citrus accent from the lime, but when the whole barley grains found their way up the straw it was like drinking a cold glass of breakfast. Simon was apologetic about the wait (that to me didn’t seem all that long), and I walked into the night to find a place to sit and consume my Singaporean street food.

Roti prata with chicken curry

Roti prata with chicken curry

The pancake was slightly oily, but neither overly crisp nor soggy. Rather than to ladle the yellow curry chicken over the pancake, I decided to break off pieces and dip. The curry was astounding – it packed a spicy and rich punch, drowning the huge helpless chunks of tender chicken. While fishing around in the curry, I found a whole leg section that simply fell off the bone when prodded with the spoon. All in all, the roti prata with the chicken curry was one impressive dish. On a later visit to Street Hawker I discovered that he upped the ante – Simon had switched to a rich, earthy red bowl of curry; in addition to being rich, flavorful and aromatic it had a kick that would burn your socks off.  On that same visit, I sampled the fried bee hoon, a mix of noodles, peppers, shrimp and a galaxy of other ingredients that blended textures and combined tastes without losing any of the qualities of the indiviual ingredients.

Hainanese chicken rice served on banana leaf

Hainanese chicken rice served on banana leaf

The beauty of enjoying ethnic street cuisine from Street Hawker (like some of its elder sibling food trucks) is that you are transported to a bustling thoroughfare somewhere else on the planet and can forget you’re in LA for a short while, which these days is a blessing. Street Hawker is a refreshing change on the food truck scene, but I’m not sure we’re quite ready for hawker centres just yet.

Street Hawker
Los Angeles County, California

Visit Singapore’s hawker center web site

GALLERY: See images of Val’s visit to the Street Hawker food truck

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I Like Them French Fried Potaters

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Val

French Fries

Belgium

The unbeatable Bourgeois fries from Boise Fry Co.

The unbeatable Bourgeois fries from Boise Fry Co.

In 2003 (by demand of two Republican Representatives), the United States Congress cafeteria renamed French fries “Freedom fries” in an effort to slight the country of France for not participating in the Iraq war. Thankfully, the utter absurdity of this nonsensical endeavor was reversed a few years later before we had to endure sharing a Freedom kiss, drinking Freedom-pressed coffee, eating Freedom toast and Freedom vanilla ice cream. Never mind that they had it all wrong; in fact, the French Embassy highlighted their stupidity by indicating that the fried potato dish we know and love as French fries originated in Belgium, and further adding, “”We are at a very serious moment dealing with very serious issues and we are not focusing on the name you give to potatoes.” The history of French fries as we know it is vague, as is the origin of its name. The most common explanation for the name comes from World War I soldiers in Belgium being served paper cones filled with the cut and fried potatoes by the often French-speaking Belgians preparing them, but there are references to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson referring to potatoes prepared “in the French style”. Potatoes have a South American ancestry, having spread to Europe during Spanish colonization, and then back to the New World – through the centuries these have been served in a variety of preparations (including deep frying), but the familiar thin, lengthwise-cut and fried potatoes we call French fries most likely originated in Belgium in the late 1600s. Lest we digress into Fried Potatoes 101, I’m going to disregard French fries’ cousins home fries, steak fries, British “chips” (which are more true to their name anyway), cottage fries and hash browns. By the way, be wary of the surname “fries” on the menu in exotic restaurants; trust me, when you order the bull fries expecting large, crispy golden brown potatoes to appear at your table, you will be disappointed. Horrifically disappointed.

Native Taters - closed Saturdays

Native Taters - closed Saturdays

I’m going to ignore fast-food French fries. While McDonalds started out cutting fresh Russet Burbank potatoes on demand, they evolved into the frozen, sprayed, artificially-flavored abominations Americans seem to not be able to get enough of, a mass-produced side dish imitated at most fast food chains. Since we’ll start with the basics and work our way up to variations on a theme, I’ll take you to a place synonymous with potatoes – Boise, Idaho. One would assume (incorrectly) that once you hit Boise city limits you’re greeted with giant potato sculptures, billboards, tuber-shaped buildings and free-flowing Spud Beer fountains; oddly enough Boisians don’t really seem to embrace their potatoey reputation. It’s not that they distance themselves from it (after all, the state license plate still reads “Famous Potatoes”); they just seem to have an indifference to it. The closest thing Boise has to a food truck is Native Taters, a trailer parked somewhat permanently in the parking lot of a tobacco store occupying a former gas station. Boisians rave about Native Taters’… ready?… sandwiches. Oh, yes, they also serve potatoes, but you wouldn’t know it from the signs on the trailer that tout how much more sandwich you get for your dollar over Subway, Quizno’s, etc. So how are their potatoes, you ask? I wouldn’t know, since they apparently have decided that Saturday isn’t a big business day and remain closed. On the other end of the spectrum, there is one place in Boise that proudly celebrates their association with the potato – Boise Fry Company. This place is all about the French fry, to the point where their logo proudly proclaims “burgers on the side”. The menu is available on their ever-changing board that looks like something you’d see in the stock exchange. The available potato varieties are handwritten on the board, along with the small, medium and bowl prices; in columns to the right are check boxes indicating the available preparations of the day; on my visit, Russet Burbank, gold, Peruvian purple, and Okinawa potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes were available traditionally cooked, home-style, or as curly or shoestring fries. I had a hard time deciding which I wanted to try until my eyes wandered to the bottom and caught The Bourgeois – fresh-cut local Russets fried in duck fat and seasoned with black truffle salt. Although the local free-range beef and bison burgers served on freshly baked potato wheat buns sounded appetizing, I knew that just The Bourgeois was going to be satisfying enough to qualify as lunch. Just the smell of these savory, golden beauties was giving me a massive food-on. A topping station provided sauces, spices and other specialty garnishing, but I knew that it would be a sin to hide any of the flavor inherently found in this dish. Claudia and I slowly savored the fries in the car; there was still crispness left in them, but they were moist and perfectly cooked and the truffle salt was not heavy or overbearing.

Danielle at Redondo Beach Cafe means what she says

Danielle at Redondo Beach Cafe means what she says

A dish with somewhat recent culinary heritage, poutine has been the celebrated specialty of Canada’s Québec Province since the 1950s. The name loosely translates in French Canadian as “a mess”, which can often accurately describe poutine. On a basic level, poutine consists of French fries topped with cheese curd (the curdled solids made from soured milk) and doused in a brown sauce. The quality of the ingredients makes all the difference in the world, as the curds lose flavor and consistency quickly, and the sauce is locked in the middle ground between broth and gravy. The brown sauce is seasoned and usually chicken-based, although there is an Italian version of poutine that is served with tomato sauce. Poutine’s popularity has spread throughout Canada to the point where it is available at international fast-food chains, but I will never speak to you again if I ever hear that you’ve succumbed to this evil transgression. In the U.S., poutine makes surprise appearances on the menu from time to time and seems to be becoming a trendy starch in gastropubs and even on gourmet food trucks. As a Bostonian, I was a five-hour drive from a poutine and smoked meat sandwich fix; living in SoCal makes that trip a little more difficult, which made me ecstatic to find the Redondo Beach Cafe. This gem was founded by Montreal expatriate brothers Chris and Kosta Tsangaris, who ended up with a 50s-style diner that specializes in the Greek and French Canadian cuisine of their heritage. The clean red, black and white retro restaurant looks like it was decorated by Guy Lafleur, a decent place to hang and watch a hockey game, but trust me when I say that when it comes to the poutine, they mean business. Their poutine is garnished with an herb and spice seasoning, and topped before serving with a brown sauce (both imported from Montreal). They use sea salt and olive oil from Greece in all of their dishes, and make a mean smoked meat sandwich made from slow-cooked brisket and a close-to-authentic Montreal rye baked in-house. The food is nothing short of traditional, fresh and delicious, but in a shrine to hockey, you need to be careful when saying, “Check, please!”

The gleaming metal Frysmith truck

The gleaming metal Frysmith truck

Frysmith has taken the art of topping French fries to another level. In April of 2009, Erik Cho and his wife Brook decided that they wanted to be a part of the then-young gourmet food truck scene; they had always dreamed of owning and operating a restaurant and since French fries had always had a special place in their hearts, they decided to use this as the theme for their rolling restaurant. You could say they were destined to run a potato-themed food truck – their vehicle of choice was a Lay’s Potato Chip delivery truck used not only to store biodiesel fuel, but that also runs on it. If having a truck that runs on the by-product of its output isn’t kismet, I don’t know what is. Brook’s father had the idea to strip the vehicle down to bare aluminum which created a brushed-metallic look that makes the Frysmith truck look like the Frialator may be powered by a 1.21 gigawatt flux capacitor. Along with their rough-lettered anvil logo, Frysmith has a commanding presence when it rolls up to the curb, but looks alone don’t get return customers. Since opening in November of 2009, Frysmith offers a standard menu of 5 French fry-based items: Rajas Fries, topped with Angus steak, poblano peppers, onions, and Monterey jack cheese; sweet potato fries with chicken, cheese and a sweet and spicy sauce; kimchi fries with Kurabuta (Berkshire) pork belly and kimchi, a vegetarian chili offering and the tried-and-true chili cheese fries (although made high-end by using Angus beef and chocolate ala Cincinnati chili). The French fries themselves, although natural and fresh seem to provide a palate for the other ingredients; choosing the dish is more about what toppings to get. The Rajas fries use high quality steak and seasonings, but when you’ve stripped the fries bare of the toppings it makes it harder to want to eat them. The kimchi fries are also delicious, although the kimchi is relatively mild and may not appeal to hard-core kimchi fans that like a more aged, effervescent vegetable. It seems that what you get on the fries makes the meal, and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve tried off the truck so far. Frysmith is looking to expand soon, and is adding unpublished menu items such as a “poutine of the day” and a burrito stuffed with one of the French fry dishes, sour cream and cheese.

French fries are often candidly dismissed as a second-class side dish, and in most fast food preparations that may be well deserved. Before you turn your nose up at the golden tuber sticks, try them as a main course prepared by someone who treats the lowly, dirt covered spud with the same respect and admiration Luther Burbank and George Washington Carver had for them. Reckon I’ll have me some of the big ‘uns…

Native Taters
1899 West Boise Avenue
Boise, ID 83706-3414
GPS coordinates: 43°35’51.63″N 116°12’17.60″W

Boise Fry Company
111 Broadway, Suite 111
Boise, ID 83702
GPS coordinates: 43°36’37.19″N 116°11’37.98″W

Redondo Beach Cafe
1511 S. Pacific Coast Highway
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
GPS coordinates: 33°49’14.34″N 118°23’7.91″W

Frysmith
Los Angeles County, California
http://twitter.com/frysmith
http://www.facebook.com/Frysmith

GALLERY: See images of a variety of preparations of French fries

Enjoy your French fries with Carl:

Posted in Europe, Trippy Food (Tasty flora and fauna) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Use The Fork, Luke

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Val

The Chosun One

8 oz. Burger Bar, Hollywood, California

The fabled Chosun One

The fabled Chosun One

My friend and fellow unusual food writer Eddie Lin had been telling me for weeks that I needed to try what he loosely called a “kimchi burger” that was a featured item on the menu at Los Angeles’ 8 oz. Burger Bar. The dish is dubbed “The Chosun One” by its creator (Chef Edward Hah) as a nod to its Korean influence, as Chosun is the older northern name for that country. Chef Hah gets a little defensive when the dish is referred to as a kimchi burger, mainly because anyone expecting a beef patty topped with aged Napa cabbage will be sorely disappointed. The dish is a complex assembly of a wide variety of flavors, starting with the scallion and parilla leaf-laced beef and pork patty. Just the addition of bacon, fresh Korean radish, Dijon ketchup, mustard and a red pepper/sesame aioli would make this a formidable dish, but the crowning achievement is Hah’s special escarole-based kimchi. The green is salted and soaked, aged, pureed and sautéed to create a vegetable ingredient that only earns the name kimchi as the result of its preparation. The bun is unassuming and ordinarily would be easily disregarded, but as the consumption of this culinary masterpiece progresses the bun soaks up all of the juices and turns the dish into an Asian Sloppy Joe. The flavors fight for dominance on the tongue with the escarole kimchi emerging as the clear winner, but it graciously gives each of the runners-up some of the spotlight.

8 oz. Burger Bar in Hollywood, CA

8 oz. Burger Bar in Hollywood, CA

All of the items we had at 8 oz. Burger Bar were fresh and delicious – a duck prosciutto salad with Mandarin oranges, toasted hazelnuts and green beans was like a crisp day in the wilderness hunting for duck; milky, stringy burrata cheese atop a stack of colorful tomato slices and skinned globes highlighted the flavors of the individual varieties, bringing out the fruits’ tartness and sweetness; and, their Panini-style short rib grilled cheese sandwich was melty without being greasy. As tempted as I am to revisit 8 oz. Burger Bar to try their beef burgers, I would undoubtedly order The Chosun One again, hoping to relive the culinary experience over again. This burger is getting plenty of press these days, so rather than to babble on about it, I’ll leave you with a joint video podcast with Deep End Dining, and a link to a superlative article by Javier Cabral of Teenage Glutster. A word of caution – you may want to bring a bib, or perhaps a wetsuit as you’ll undoubtedly spend the rest of the evening sucking the juices out of your shirt sleeves.

8 oz. Burger Bar
7661 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90046
GPS coordinates: 34°5’1.65″N 118°21’24.38″W

GALLERY: See images of Val and Eddie Lin’s visit to 8 oz. Burger Bar for The Chosun One

Read an account of an encounter with The Chosun One by Javier Cabral (The Glutster)
Experience the podcast of Val and Deep End Dining‘s Eddie Lin enjoying The Chosun One

 

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