En Sushi

June 24, 2007

When my friends and I say that we want to get sushi, we are inevitably referring to “En Sushi”, a casual and relatively inexpensive Japanese restaurant on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. En Sushi passes my five-tier sushi test:

#1 Are the California rolls mayo-free?
Call me a purist, but mayo has no place in, on or near sushi. Thankfully, En does not make this mistake. See Exhibit A:



#2 Is the sashimi firm and fresh?
You can bounce a quarter off of that fish.

#3 Is there complimentary green tea?
All you can drink.

#4 Is it affordable?
As sushi restaurants go, En Sushi is by far one of the best deals. You can get a rainbow roll for $12 that is better than most rainbow rolls in L.A.

#5 Can I see famous people there? (Haha, okay, I just threw this one in)
It's reassuring to know that famous people eat just like you and me. My friends and I have seen Christina Ricci (+bf), as well as Shirley Manson (of Garbage) eating here.



When I go to En, I usually get the Rainbow Roll. Tonight, however, I decided to mix things up. For starters, an oyster shooter (with sake, raw oyster, raw quail egg, fish roe and green onions):



This was a delicious mix of my two favorite super-foods of all time! (For non-health freaks, i'm talking about the raw oysters and raw egg... but i guess sake could be considered a super-food too!) I would have had ten of these, if not for the fact that they cost $7 each.

I also ordered the Fried Mussels appetizer, which was irreverently covered in mayonnaise (ugh!) and cheddar cheese (double ugh!). I peeled off the rubbery cheese covering and just ate the mussels underneath. This was an uncharacteristic miss:



Better than the mussels was the gyoza, which I always have to order when I come to En.



These gyoza skins are doughy and flaky, almost like pastry. They are surprisingly grease-less, and filled with chicken, ginger and green onion. Yum!

One of my friends got the Chinese Chicken Salad with mandarin oranges and crispy wonton garnish. She loves this salad:



There is just one caveat for this awesome restaurant: I have heard that the En Sushi on Santa Monica is nowhere near as good as the one on Hillhurst. A friend of mine took a first date there, and let's just say that it was the last time he went to that En, and the last time he went out with that girl!

En Sushi
972 N Hillhurst Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 664-1891

M Café de Chaya, Part 2

July 24, 2007

My friend and I went to Melrose today to do some girly thrift store clothes hunting, and guess what just happened to be on our way:



Is this an excuse to eat more cupcakes? Of course!

On a Tuesday at 4 pm, this place was a lot less crowded. I ordered the Grilled Tuna Sandwich (“glazed with teriyaki sauce and garnished with sliced avocado, umeboshi-pickled red onions, daikon sprouts, spicy yuzu mayo and fresh shiso leaf served on a house-baked whole wheat bun”). This came with a side of deli salad, so I chose the broccolini.

Now here is where I went a little crazy, as only a food blogger can: in addition to ordering the tuna sandwich and the obligatory Pellegrino, I got a Pistachio mini cupcake, a Chocolate mini cupcake, and a slice of their special Carrot Cake (it's okay, it’s macrobiotic!).

While I was ordering, I realized that I might get funny looks if they brought all of that dessert to my table, so I ingeniously asked for the dessert as take-out ("Huh? No, I'm not gonna eat all of that myself. Um, I'm just getting it for a friend.. *cough*").

The food was delivered in under five minutes. My tuna sandwich looked so pretty, I couldn’t wait to bite into it:



I was a little disappointed to discover that the tuna wasn’t a fillet: it was a patty of tuna mixed with green onions and peppers. But those lost points were quickly earned back when I saw that the patty was cooked medium rare.

With all the accoutrements, the burger was a unique, tasty blend of creamy (from the avocado and the mayo), spicy (from the peppers and the daikon sprouts) and tangy (from the pickled onions).


The pistachio cupcake was as amazing as I’d remembered only two days earlier.. The chocolate was great too, but still not as moist and buttery as the pistachio:



At this point, I was stuffed. But I felt it necessary that I move on to the carrot cake:



It was sheer bliss: not too sweet, with a cream cheese frosting to die for (but I’m sure that wasn’t real cream cheese, right? ;) ). It is amazing that this was made with no refined sugar. As a result, I didn't get that terrible sugar rush I usually feel after I eat a dessert. My friend doesn’t particularly like carrot cake, and she was blown away by M Café’s moist, gingery version.

My friend also ordered the two-salad combo of the seaweed salad and the kale salad after reading my last blog entry:



I think that she’s still dreaming about that kale salad, she loved it that much. The seaweed salad was less of a hit: it was just plain seaweed with no dressing or seasoning. Weird.

Regardless, the meal was a success, and we were already plotting our next visit before the day was over. M Café Part 3? Stay tuned… :)

M Café de Chaya

July 22, 2007

Just two blocks away from Necromance (my favorite shop on Melrose!) is my newest “healthy” restaurant discovery: M Café de Chaya. M Café de Chaya is known for serving strictly macrobiotic cuisine, but you don’t have to be on a macrobiotic diet to eat here and love it.

My bf and I arrived at around 3 pm, and the place was packed. We spent a good amount of time salivating over the beautifully presented salads, sushi and desserts on display before placing our order at the counter. After paying for our meal ($26 for two), we chose a table outside.

In about five minutes, our meal was delivered. First, I tried the sushi: Ahi covered Inari ($1.50), Hijiki covered Inari ($1.50), Spicy Shrimp Rolls ($2.00) and Spicy Tuna Rolls ($2.00). The sushi is made with “organic heirloom varietal whole-grain brown rice” and came with a complimentary side of Japanese pickles.



It looked better than it tasted. I should have known better; the sushi isn’t made fresh. It sits in the display case all day. This made the rice chewy and a bit hard.

Next, I tried the 2-salad combo. Ah, much better. For only $6.95 you can choose two of the salads in the deli case. And just look at how much they give you!



We chose the kale salad (with peanut dressing) and the lentil salad (with arugala, tofu “cheese” and candied walnuts).

The lentil salad was very good, but the kale stole the show! The kale was crisp and tender, covered with a light coating of sweet, mild peanut sauce. We devoured it.

I had my usual Pellegrino with my meal and my bf had hot dark-roast Mate ($3.75) that tasted soooo good; like a blend of earthy green tea and mild coffee. With more caffeine than most teas, it makes for a great coffee substitute.

To finish up, we split two miniature cupcakes. After tasting them, I wished I had gotten the regular sized versions! How something could be so decadent yet healthy is beyond me. The cupcakes were sinfully buttery (but I’m sure that wasn’t butter they used, right? ;) ).

The pistachio cupcake was my favorite:



It had such a subtle pistachio flavor that you wouldn’t guess it unless you were told. The strawberry cupcake was good too, but not as buttery and moist as the pistachio.



So how many M Cafe cupcakes can I eat to be equivalent to one regular cupcake? ;)

M Cafe de Chaya
7119 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Cafe Crepe

July 21, 2007

Ok, who would have thought that so many people would show up to an under-advertised Sonic Youth in-store show at Urban Outfitters? I mean, there was hardly a breath about this show, and how many people still listen to Sonic Youth?

A lot. I show up a half hour before the show only to be told that there is a zero percent... no, “a negative percent” chance that I’ll be getting in. Darn. This is all I got:



It’s okay because I was hungry. So we walked three stores down the 3rd street promenade to a small restaurant called Café Crepe. You may have walked past this easy-to-miss restaurant many times on your way to and from the Santa Monica Place Mall.



I love a cheap restaurant that serves good quality food, and Café Crepe is just that. I really don’t understand why people would drop their dime on cheap, bad tasting (or bad-for-you) food when they can go a block down and get better quality stuff for the same price! Café Crepe’s salads are cheaper, bigger, and tastier than CPK’s salads. And their savory crepe is a meal in itself, better (and less carbs!) than a pizza, and will only cost you around $7 or $8. Today, I opted for the panini with cured prosciutto ham, bocconcini cheese, tomato and olive oil.



The panini was delicious and remarkably filling. The bread was crunchy, light, and easy to bite through. Inside the panini were three slices of the reddest, ripest tomatoes that only a Santa Monica farmer’s market can get you, a good amount of prosciutto, and the creamy bocconcini. The prosciutto’s salty flavor was subtle, and paired nicely with the bocconcini. I ate the whole thing.

My bf had a cured copa ham panini:



The taste was bolder and meatier, almost like corned-beef. I preferred the subtler flavors of the prosciutto.

For dessert, the three of us split a dark chocolate crepe with strawberries (and a hint of cognac).



It sounded soooo good on paper, and it was pretty tasty, but it could have been better. The problem? Too many strawberries, not enough chocolate. *Sigh* It was a tease, really. It made me want to head over to that Belgian chocolate shop right afterward.

To sum up, are these the best crepes and paninis I have had? Not really. But for the price, the quality is hard to beat. And if you need to work off those extra calories, you can always hit the shops!

Cafe Crepe
1460 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 576-0499

Daikokuya

July 20, 2007

After reading about Daikokuya on food blogs, hearing about it from friends, and even getting a Daikokuya coupon for my birthday, I decided that it was time to break with my low-carb principles… at least for one night.

So with seven other curious people, I went to Daikokuya at 9 pm, greeted by that famous yellow awning and about 20 other people with the same idea as us waiting hungrily outside. We waited for nearly an hour before we were seated. And we should have known that tiny ramen shop couldn’t seat eight people: we had to split up into two groups of four.

By the time we were seated, we were ready to eat anything. We started with two orders of gyoza.



These were handmade, filled with pork and green onions, slightly charred, and topped off with even more(!) green onions. The green onions on top were excessive, but they created a beautiful presentation and emphasized the onion flavor that dominated the stuffing. A light, tangy gyoza sauce accompanied the dish. It was a delicious appetizer.

Our ramen arrived a few minutes later:



The broth was the first thing I tried, and it was, in my opinion, the star of the dish. I can’t emphasize enough how wonderful it is that Daikokuya makes their broth by boiling pork bones for a full day! How many restaurants, let alone ramen shops, take the time and the love to do this? This is the traditional way humans have made broth for ages, and as both an anthropologist and a nutritionist, I highly approve of this mode of cooking.

So I inhaled that warm, milky, calcium-rich broth, forgetting about… the noodles!

Ok, my disregard for refined carbohydrates aside, I still was not impressed with the noodles at Daikokuya. They seemed just a step above pre-made packaged noodles.

Accompanying the noodles and broth were a few large pork strips, (Mmmmm, these were so rich and fatty! They literally melted in my mouth!) a hardboiled egg (marinated overnight), a small sprinkling of bamboo and bean sprouts, and of course, the requisite heap of green onions over the top.

If you prefer, there is ginger and garlic on the table to spoon into your ramen. I tried both, and found the ginger to be fine, but the pureed garlic lent a strange taste to the dish which I didn’t enjoy.

When all was done, I had finished the broth and the accompaniments, but left half of the noodles uneaten. I sucked the marsh dry and left the fishes flopping around.


327 E First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 626-1680

Father's Office

July 19, 2007

After an evening at the Hammer Museum’s “I like to rock” concert series, I realized that gushing over smooshed vases and getting this close to Low vs. Diamond and Castledoor really works up one’s appetite.

So I set my sights on Father’s Office… at 10 pm. Yes, I knew what a mess this was going to be. So cleverly, I called ahead to order take out… only to be told, “We only accept in-person orders”. Well, ok, we’re like 5 minutes away. “How long will the wait be for a burger?” “Hmm… 15 minutes. I mean, it shouldn’t take long to grill a burger”.

Just as expected, the place was busy. We waited for about 30 minutes (hmm, how long does it take to cook a burger?) before our food was brought out. The place was noisy, small and crowded, so I was glad we did take-out.

Now to that burger… I’ll start describing it from the inside and work my way outward.

I ordered my burger medium rare, and it came out perfectly pink in the center. The meat itself was smoky, grill-marked, juicy and adequately thick. Over the meat were thin layers Blue maytag and Gruyere cheese. The flavors of the cheese and the arugala covering it were pretty subtle. What took over most of the flavor was the caramelized onions and bacon compote. The onions were cooked soft, caramelized until syrupy and sweet with a touch of spiciness. Delicious. All of this was sandwiched between a flaky and light French roll. And all for $11? Not bad…

Father’s Office
1018 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 393-2337

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