WHY Deeply satisfying rustic cooking at prices that might inspire you to entertain more. WHAT Evan Kleiman and her trattoria, Angeli, are known for irresistible Italian fare—small pizzas, bruschetta, frittura mista, roast chicken—but the catering operation can go beyond Italian to do Provençal, Indian, American, even Irish food. The universal theme is a homey rusticity [...]
WHY Real shabu-shabu made with exceptional ingredients, notably the Wagyu beef. Best of all: When you finish cooking and eating your meat, seafood and veggies, they take the pot back to the kitchen and turn the now-rich broth into a heavenly thick soup with rice or udon. WHAT It’s a modest-looking place, and shabu-shabu (meat, [...]
WHY For fine dining in the French Laundry style, but in the dazzling Walt Disney Concert Hall instead of the Napa Valley. WHAT Seafood is a focus at this elegant Joachim Splichal flagship restaurant, with dishes like diver scallops carpaccio with kumquat liquid sphere and black truffle, or a Mediterranean loup de mer with spring [...]
WHY Beverly Hills’s is the first SoCal market to sell wine—so with chickens and eggs available from Healthy Family Farms and grass-fed beef from J & J, you really can get everything you need for dinner. WHAT This mid-size market has easy-breezy street parking, great variety and a Persian New Year celebration. The many A-list [...]
The season has officially begun, clocks have sprung forward, and farmers’ markets are filled with young plants — called “starts†— for our gardens. You’ll find growing advice and various heirloom tomatoes, such as Black Krim and San Marzano, at Windrose Farm at the Wednesday Santa Monica market, and every vegetable imaginable from Jimmy Williams’ [...]
Where were we? Right, Medflies. You’ve been seeing the signs of a quarantine (such as netting over produce) in farmers’ markets in Santa Monica, Culver City and adjoining areas (see my original post on the subject here). They’re not beneficial insects — they don’t pollinate fruit, they destroy it — so once their presence has [...]
You’ve seen the quarantine signs, the netting draped over fruits and vegetables-that-are-really-fruits, such as tomatoes and avocados, and the fans propelling streams of air over some produce displays. What does it all mean? First of all, there is nothing wrong with the fruit that growers bring into Los Angeles, so don’t stop buying. The problem [...]
Punxutawney Phil may have seen his shadow a few days ago, but here in the SoCal farmers’ markets, early spring green is already here. Namely, the exiting arrival of the first small, tender, sweet English shelling peas. Tamai Farms has them at Mar Vista on Sunday and the Wednesday and Saturday Pico Santa Monica markets. [...]
Regier Farms (Wednesday in Santa Monica, Saturday in Pasadena) is in the second week of its seedless, easy-to-peel Satsuma mandarin crop. Grower Troy Regier says it’s “looking like it’s going to be a good season.†Early fruit tends not to have a lot of sugar or bright color, but this fruit is already quite sweet, [...]
Last week marked the return of Laura Ramirez (J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch in Riverside County) to the Santa Monica and Hollywood markets after her late-summer hiatus. She brings fully ripe Hachiya persimmons, the oblong type you can only consume when they’re utterly soft and jammy. Their spicy, deep-orange flesh is a perfect reminder of right [...]
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