Andy Gavin's Blog, page 135
September 19, 2014
Posh Spice
Restaurant: Szechuan Impression
Location:1900 W Valley Blvd.Alhambra, CA 91803.(626) 283-4622
Date: September14, 2014
Cuisine: SzechuanChinese
Rating:Red sauce for the win
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Szechuan is among my favorite Chinese sub-regions. It’s also, somewhat mysteriously, a really hot genre. Chengdu Taste is so hot (haha) that the line rolls around the corner. This diner was organized by Skylar.
Szechuan Impression is brand new, just a couple of weeks old, but it too is mobbed and doesn’t take reservations.
The di...
September 17, 2014
Hills of Gold and Spice
Hedonists aren’t confined only to restaurants. Tonight’s meal features home cooked Pakistani cuisine at the home of chef Noorani Burstein.
And what a home it is, perched over Benedict canyon in Beverly Hills. Tonight we ate outside, and given the usual Southern California September heat wave it was absolutely gorgeous.
From my cellar:1994 Robert Ampeau & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. 91 points. Nicely aged white Burgundy with notes of butterscotch and citrus. It started promisi...
September 15, 2014
Elite Wine Night
Restaurant: Elite Restaurant[1, 2]
Location:700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754.(626) 282-9998
Date: September11, 2014
Cuisine: CantoneseBanquet
Rating:Elite!
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Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places, but I’d never been for dinner.Tonight I gathered with a group of Burgundy loving friends for some awesome Cantonese grub.
We had the private room, complete with authentic Chinese decorative screen.
For whatever reason, tonight’s wine lineup is a crazy blitz of great champagn...
September 12, 2014
September 10, 2014
Fargo’s Dark Fable
Title: Fargo
Genre:Dark Crime Dramedy
Cast:Martin Freeman(Actor),Billy Bob Thornton(Actor)
Watched: Late August,2014
Summary:Evil Walks the Earth
ANY CHARACTER HERE
I’m generally a big Coen brothers fan — as I like things both dark and surreal. Certainly the movie Fargo was a great film, butthis show, without redoing anything, replicates a bit of the feel of the film while taking it to the next level. Perhaps this is due to the current Golden Age of narrative television, and the subject matter’s re...
September 8, 2014
Shunji Sushi – Nonstop Nigiri
Restaurant:Shunji
Location:12244 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064.(310) 826-4737
Date: September4, 2014
Cuisine: Japanese Sushi
Rating:First rate traditional sushi
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Somehow, straight nigiri sushi is mostly a lunch thing for me. And oh do I love it, perhaps no other savory food offers such a consistent yummy bite factor.
Shunji, which took over for the “Mr. Cecil’s BBQ” in this oddball looking building on Pico has developed quite a reputation. ChefShunji Nakaowas an opening chef at Matsuhisa in th...
September 5, 2014
Totally Totoraku
Restaurant: Totoraku[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Location:10610 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064.
Date: September2, 2014
Cuisine: Japanese Yakiniku
Rating: Best beef in town!
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About twice a year my Hedonist group makes a regular pilgrimage to Totoraku, LA’s “secret beef” restaurant. Toto (as its affectionately known) serves a refined version of Japanese Yakiniku, which is Beef BBQ originally from Korea but filtered through Japanese sensibility.
This time, we’re back to a30 person mega dinner, quite the mad...
September 3, 2014
The Last Kingdom
Title: The Last Kingdom
Author:Bernard Cornwell
Genre: HistoricalFiction
Length: 384pages
Read: August3-13, 2014
Summary: First Rate
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I usually don’t read “straight” historical fiction (i.e. without magic), but I was drawn to The Last Kingdom by a comment George R R Martin made about how it contained some of the best battles he’d read.
This is the first volume in the “Saxon Stories” (there are at least 8) and chronicles a fictional earl during tumultuous 9th centuryEngland. This is the same period a...
August 31, 2014
Newport goes Westside
Restaurant: New Port Seafood
Location:50 N la Cienaga Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA
Date: August28, 2014
Cuisine: Cantonese / Southeast Asian
Rating:almost the SGV in Beverly Hills
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My Hedonist group has been out several times to the classic New Port Seafood in the SGV. Always a trek, but worth it. Well this hugely popular east side place has just opened a branch in Beverly Hills (actually, it’s on Restaurant Row in what I think of as West Hollywood).
It will be interesting to see how they do here in the...
August 29, 2014
Eastern Promises – Robert Morris Inn
Restaurant: Robert Morris Inn
Location:The Robert Morris Inn.314 North Morris Street.410 226 5111
Date: May 26, 2014
Cuisine: American
Rating:Classic Oxford
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My family first started going to the Robert Morris Inn in the late 1970s! Well, visually, it hasn’t changed much, probably really hasn’t since the 19th century (the building is mostly 18th century).
A classic building right by the Oxford ferry dock.
The tavern has both outside and inside seating. I wonder if they ate outside in the 18th century...
