Why? If the noodles never come out hard enough, if the broth is nearly as salty as Asa’s, if the char-siu slices border on stingy?

Because they serve food. By food, think things other than ramen. This argument’s premise is really ridiculous if you’re a ramen chubby chaser. Some are not. Some are often dragged to Daikokuya on First (sucks to those who are still waiting in that line) by Nipponphilic hipster friends who love doriftu and Comme des Garcons, or perhaps by someone you married. Hakata Ramen is great if you don’t want ramen because they serve “real” food that doesn’t involve carb-on-carb molestation ala ramen & fried rice combos of Daikokuya. If there’s something I detest more than Filipino food. Scratch that, there’s nothing I can’t stand more than Filipino food… Ramen and fried rice never make a complete meal.

There’s a very palatable agedashi-dofu, there’s Kurobuta sausage (skip the generic yellow mustard & ketchup, use the shichimi togarashi 7 spice instead), and a very nice chilled plate of vinegary Japanese style cha-su, topped with plentiful scallions plus sesame seeds, that borders on refreshing. If you steal a few ladles of tonkotsu broth from your favorite tablemate to accompany the aforementioned dishes, a complete meal with nary a carbohydrate to fatten the love handle will emerge. “Yum-o”, and much more fulfilling than a bowl of simply noodles.

And now, they even have a happy hour!

March “Summer Happy Hour”:
3/15(mon),16(tue),17(wed),22(mon),23(tue),24(wed),29(mon),30(tue),31(wed)
6:00pm-8:00pm

Sapporo&Asahi Beer $3.00 ($5.75)
Orion Beer $3.50 ($6.25)
Extra Noodle $0.50 ($0.95)
Takana Fried Rice $4.75 ($5.75)
1/2 Takana Fried Rice $3.00 ($3.75)

Shin Sen Gumi (various branches)

Froma is just the loveliest of cheese shops imaginable on a stretch of Melrose that craves for consumers, not grubbers. One would never associate “monger” (nor should one, since she’s a sommelier by trade) with Francine Diamond, but with her at the helm, Froma seems to march to its own beat even as Japanese tourists exiting Paul Smith’s boutique casually walked by the wine & cheese shop without half a glance.

That trait is perhaps one of the reasons why Froma is so infectiously charming. It’s in the wrong place, serving possibly the wrong crowd, but it doesn’t care.

Past January, Froma started a happy hour program that made the visitors seek out wine instead of Agent Provocateur’s bustiers. A few selected wines, mixture of red and white, all curated by Francine herself, are poured for $5. Various accompanying cheese plates, as well as burrata platters, rillettes, an eponymous brushectta, etc., cost between $4 to $6. It’s hard to imagine eating country pate and cornichons while staring at clientele voyeuring in and out of Provocateur, but it’s fun, especially if you can get off work by 4pm.

If you like the various items from happy hour well enough, the daily selections are all available for impulse purchase and thoughtful consumption later on. At the risk of self-quoting, this place is like Osteria Mozza & Cube had a cute little baby.

Froma
http://www.fromaonmelrose.com
7960 Melrose Ave.
(323) 653-3700.

Happy Hour 4:00-7:00pm

For many, La Cachette will always live on as one of the oldest memories of fine dining in LA. That gentle & elegant room off Santa Monica existed before the advent of the Internet, and it was a place fledgling gourmands first tasted “real” French cooking in Los Angeles. Unable to rest on its laurels, La Cachette shuttered half a year ago (August 2009) and things have never been the same since it moved into a space that occupies the first floor of a professional building amidst Santa Monica’s hotel row. Instead of the country setting filled with lace and merengue, LCB is now a modern French “bistro” clearly ready to embrace Santa Monica’s tourists.

To attract business diners, there is a new happy hour menu that features extremely small bites of French constants. Think pate, croque monsieur, a few bites of desserts, etc. The bar is operated by a Frenchmen with cosmopolitan flair. He loves France, he wants you to have a great time, he has an awesome accent. Drink up.

The croque monsieur was served as a cheesy gooey mound topped with bechamel, and it smelled delicious. Grass fed slider (what’s a happy hour menu in Los Angeles County without sliders) were surprisingly good, sporting a patty that’s still moist and not undercooked. Sweet potatoe fries were served up and finished with a light drizzle of truffle scented oil. The desserts were quite tiny, so don’t expect value, but do expect good fare that has been served since 1984.

La Cachette Bistro
1733 Ocean Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Happy Hour Monday – Friday, 5-7:00pm
Reverse Happy Hour 8:30-10:00pm

The exotic meat emporium of Rosemead is headed West. After many a failed pho shops (101 Bakery, etc.), the space on the corner where KT/JJ restaurant meats will now house Phong Ding, the famous purveyor of baked cat fish (cha ca for short, for long… err. google). The furniture is in (it never left) and the banner states: March 2010 opening date.

Of course Phong Dinh is famous for the baked catfish, but one can also taste kangul, alligator, frogs, etc. at this infamous Vietnamese joint with no OC branch. This place is best in a large party, as even the smallish fish ends up being very pricey for 2. Personally, I go for the prix-fixe dinners for less than $20. They do a quick salad, a few bits of baked catfish in crock pot, finished off with a soup and some rice. Killer bargain for seafood.

from Trip Advisor

501 W Garvey Avenue
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Liang’s Kitchen

My favorite Taiwanese restaurant in all of LA has opened its 4th branch as of Friday night. Now it qualifies as my favorite Taiwanese chain. There is some crazy kitchen sharing shenanigans going on with the San Gabriel branch, so please note this branch is still under “soft opening” phase – their terminology, not mine. This is the old Foo Foo Tei Monterey Park space, but there is already new signage (and banner) touting Taiwanese country cooking. Think red yeast marinaded fried pork chop, and delicious cold ginger cuttlefish, great duck, etc.

And let us not forget the hand made noodles that surpasses even the best bowl of knife shaved noodle at JTYH. Yes, it’s out there now: this bowl of niu rou mien is better than JTYH. Last year, Mrs. Liang worked the San Gabriel shop for a bit, now her son is manning the new branch until the soup stock passes muster.

Though this place touts itself as a carb house, per usual, look deeper and you’ll find a few dishes not often served in US of A.

750 S Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Lu Dumpling, the second restaurant of Mama’s Lu, is about to open on Garfield and Emerson, SE side of the intersection. This was slated to open as Java Coffee in ‘09, but the coffee shop never materialized. Lu’s Dumpling will mark the 3rd shop within the Lu Family Empire (Mama’s Lu, Dean Sin World)

330 N Garfield
Monterey Park, CA 91755
626-307-2700

Doing your wife on top of your car on the side of the road will get you a ticket (and a lot of stares).
LA has lots food trucks. Enough said.

Safran Foer: “Listen, we make these choices many times a day every day; we just no longer recognize them because they’ve been socialized. I think on Larry King I responded to something about sex. Most people have sexual urges throughout the day. It’s probably the case that you would like to have sex with at least some of the people you see on the street every day, but you don’t.”

Mr. Foer, fucking a random stranger on the street is called “rape”. Chasing a grilled chicken butt is called “eating”.

WTF man? The line of reasoning makes no sense. Given the chance, people are going to have dirty sex, masturbate, whatever. You’re telling me people don’t wack off when they have the urge? Are you kidding me?

Sign up for Groupon!

If your life resolves around a bunch of foodiot savants, it’s inevitable you will hear about various items on the list. If you are even a casual peruser of Mr. Gold’s column, you should be able to compile perhaps a quarter of the list on your own. Having not clicked on the links, nor read through the paper, one can surmise: beef roll from 101 Noodle, some form of pizza from Mozza, a hot dog from somewhere, probably Ludo’s fried chicken, maybe Gorbal’s matzo thingie, Spago’s dessert, some form of bacon candy, one of Jitlada’s rank curries, and Euro Pane’s egg salad sammie, something with pork belly at Animal, gelato at Bulgarini, an Mexican offal taco/torta somewhere, ad nausea.

To be frank, if JG’s 2009 Essential 99 Restaurant list was a test, I’d score a pretty solid B. Yes, I did what everyone else did last year, trying to measure up to the Gold standard. Not that I should even dare, as I’ve been Anonymously told. But it was fun.

And therein lie the problems with this new list. The previous versions of the “99″ allowed leeway while being suggestive. This new list sounds like preachy homework assigned by a Catholic nun. The eats now seem demagogical, are myopic beyond belief, and the article was unapologetically titled as an ultimatum. If you disagreed with the LAW critic on certain dishes at a certain restaurant prior to this, you are still… by most definition of the word, “OK”. Now, you’re not in line, you’re not worthy.

The media is portraying this list as the end-all, be-all to LA dining. If indeed the case, why only 99 items? For those who refuse to light their stoves at home, 99 items wouldn’t last a year, much less a life time. Finally, and this is rather annoying pet peeve: the concept of only 1 thing being deserving enough to be eaten at a restaurant such as Urasawa is a tremendous disservice to the establishment and its cuisine. Invariably, everyone goes to Jitlada only to order that green lipped mussel in Southern curry because Gourmet advised them so. Why why why? When there are 50 items in the menu that will blow your mind equally? Why only 1 flavor of gelato at Bulgarini, especially when the flavors are seasonal? Armed with this list, the unadventuresome will cross off a restaurant with impunity after tasting 1 piece of beef roll from 101? How ridiculous? Perhaps even more ridiculous than the hatred of Oinkster after only one visit?

Here, Sku skewers the LAW list as a complete rehash.

PS: The eggy beef roll at Mama’s, now 4 doors right of 101 Express, is still superior, no matter how much positive verbiage bestowed upon the original.

Last night, the second Radio Room of this year, was on fire. After tasting the new cocktails from Mr. Joe Brooke, winner of season 2 of On The Rocks on LXTV, we stayed at the center bar and finished off with drinks by Mr. Brian Miller of Death & Company. During last September’s trip to New York, Death & Company’s popularity precluded a visit, and sent us to Milk & Honey instead. Feb 23rd brought drinks from New York to LA to complete the circle. The Hispaniola and Miss Behavin’ were mixed by Mr. Miller himself, and the results were tasty studies of contrast.

Next month’s mixologists have yet to be announced, but rest assured, Mr. Joe Brooke, now Edison’s bartending captain should be around, as well as his High Tea (seen above). To top that off, LA oyster man extraordinaire Christophe Happillon was shucking Fanny Bay’s all evening long. No telling if he will be at the next event, but the thought of champagne cocktails and sweet yet briney oysters should make everyone wish tomorrow is yet again Tuesday.

The Edison
Tuesday, March 30 – “March 4th Marching Band.”
Radio Room

Barring the still indecipherable (to Angelenos) name, Allston Yacht Club is actually a fun restaurant with great service from the team of well-meaning first time restaurateurs. AYC recently realized the recession is still in full force, with even more unemployed newspaper reporters wandering the streets of Echo Park, hence the start of a brand new $5 Wednesday menu:

Diners have a new reason to look forward to the middle of the week: Allston Yacht Club’s $5 Wicked Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, EVERYTHING on the food menu at AYC will be just $5! Pick from a diverse array of small plates such as braised short ribs and duck confit on goat cheese crostini to merguez sausage with smoked corn and fried feta with marinated tomatoes. At such affordable prices, food-lovers can try as many of AYC’s delicious small plates as possible (ideal for sharing among friends) without breaking the bank.

Allston Yacht Club is also introducing an expanded Sunday brunch menu with new additions such as brioche French toast, waffles, create-your-own omelettes, tofu scramble, and of course, the usual AYC brunch suspects such as duck confit hash, house-cured Gravlax and Croque Monsieur. Also new: French-Vietnamese drip-coffee served in a traditional metal filter with condensed milk & tangerine mimosas, along with AYC’s house special cocktails such as bacon-infused Bloody Mary and the Ramos Fizz (gin, egg white & orange blossom water).

Try the merguez sausage, as well as the duck confit and the salmon board. Really relaxed vibe, but non-neighborhoodie watch-out: street parking could be atrocious, so ride you Vespa in from DTLA.

Allston Yacht Club
http://www.allstonyachtclub.com/
1320 Echo Park Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 481 0454

Finally, we have Checkers Downtown’s FOUR happy hour again. Alas, no foie this week, but there will be: “SHORTRIB GRILLED CHEESE”. Wait for all the women to stop squealing.

Click to enlarge plugger:

Checkers Downtown
http://www.hiltoncheckers.com/diningCD.php
535 S Grand Avenue,
Los Angeles, California 90071
(do NOT trust the Google Maps)

First up: buncha dancing dragons at Monterey Palace in Monterey Park for dinner. Immediately after the dinner, everyone chalked up this mediocre meal to inexperience ordering. There were so many dishes that “seemed” ideal, but between a certain dislike of lamb, and a certain health fear of duck as well as lobster, it was really difficult to design a great meal at a Hong Kong style seafood house.

Real first stop: Varnish. La Vie En Rose made with Hendrick’s, ginger syrup, rose water, lime, served with two straws. Tasty and actually topped off with a huge cube of candied ginger. Highly enjoyable, and FREE!

East Side – Gin, mint and cucumber, lightly sweetened. Refreshing and matches well to the interior of Varnish which “smells like Knotts Berry Farm” per our menage a tois (family) date for the evening.

The other 2 cocktails were all fine and dandy. With all the couple already drunk on love, once the fresh fruits and veggies come in play, no one can hate on fruit juices spiked with alcohol and flavored by bitters.

Onto service — dear door lady: you frustrate me. Letting in 2 x 2 (equals four), but not a 2-fer waiting for a 3rd person, made no sense. Dear various door staff at Varnish, you guys can’t do math and annoy the shit of people who likes to hang out with more than just one other person. A lady in a 4 top that got denied earlier in the evening actually got up to speak with the door girl, without our prompting, because she became indignant after watching the ludicrousness that went down for 20 minutes. After 4 attempts resulting in pricey bills, frustrated tempers and even one complete shutout, the bottom line on Varnish, and I quote: “it’s not that cool”.

Varnish
http://www.thevarnishbar.com/
118 E Sixth St
Los Angeles, CA 90014
(213) 622-9999

Tony’s.

They serve Crown Cast, they serve McCallan 18 (and other much more sophisticated whiskeys, of course) and on Valentine’s Day, they even served a $6 margarita. Out of all the Cedd Moses properties, this was the emptiest on Valentine’s Day, and where I much preferred. Inevitably, when drinking downtown Los Angeles, you’re going to give up money to 213 Downtown, might as well do it somewhere you can blast Social D with nary a soul listening, then hop across the street to a fine $1 al pastor stand. The neighborhood is gritty as ever, but there’s parking, gated parking! Hallelujah!

Tony’s
2017 E 7th St
Los Angeles, CA 90021
(213) 622-5523
www.tonyssaloon.la

Church & State.

C&S doesn’t answer their phone. It doesn’t matter whether 4pm, 11am, or 10pm. But unlike the Varnish, this bar is accessible because the barkeeps and front of the house make it accessible. David, the bartender, (Michele of Neve has departed, as has Josh the sommelier, now at The Dining Room/Langham) took us in at 11:00pm, well after the final set of Valentine’s Dinner participants were turned. At 11:30pm, we were served the duck and pork rillette, and a cheese course (sorry, no cheese notes, but really, it’s Valentine’s Day, you anal wine tasting notes demanding guy) after the kitchen profusely apologized for running out of the foie terrine.

David talked shop with us, in between pouring us wine, and we topped off the night with some absinthe service for an absinthe virgin. Church & State, thank you for always being there at 11:00pm, be it rillette or pear tarts; thank you for always coming through with delicious simple French fare, even after your head chef was AWOL for a week.

Church & State
www.churchandstatebistro.com
1850 Industrial St
Los Angeles, CA 90021
(213) 405-1434

Let me count the purveyors of ocean’s bounties: Ocean Seafood, NYC Seafood, Capital Seafood, Seafood Village, Monterey Palace, LYL Seafood, MPV Seafood, Lucky City (no seafood in name, what the heck!?), Empress Harbor, and maybe some others. That’s about 10 seafood restaurants for a city of only 7.7 square miles and 67,000 people. Insane.

For New Years Eve, we stalked the ghettoist seafood restaurant on Garvey Ave. LYL Seafood scared us away with a below “C” score card, then I remember how the ‘rents raved about Seafood Village’s fried crab. While there was nary a non-Asian under Seafood Village’s ceiling, fear not, all of the most popular dishes are printed as large color posters and pasted on the wall. While some of the seafood piles look doubtful, if you stick to recognizable dishes, you’ll be in great shape.

The most notable dish here is the “House of Hiding from The Wind” fried crab. Every table seems to have mounds of this lightly battered deep fried crab. The crabs are chopped into chunks after deep frying, then flash stir fried with copious garlic and green onions. It is, unlike lump crab cakes, quite difficult to eat, and requires mandibular activity beyond using the shell crackers, but the exercise results in small tasty morsels of fresh crab meat. Other popular items include various forms of seafood (clams, live fish, etc.) in hot pot, the tasty soy sauce duck, and house special chicken (akin to Hainan chicken). Remainder of the menu culls from Chiu Chow regional cuisine, and even includes a traditionally Vietnamese dish of “bo luc lac” (shaking beef), named “French style beef” here, as well as a offal-centric stewed duck tongue.
Service is curt but extremely efficient. Do not take offense to the waiters’ short attention span, do not ask for their favorite dishes, just know that the most popular dish happens to be only $5 per pound. Parking in the small lot, which plays host to both Seafood Village and the nearly Sam Woo BBQ, is more difficult than passing the first level of Frogger, so do not forget street parking during peak weekend hours.

There are now 2 other branches of Seafood Village, in Temple City, as well as Rowland Heights, but even residents of those cities still endure the snarky traffic to visit the original temple of seafood in Monterey Park.

Seafood Village
684 W Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 289-0088