I hadn't been disappointed in a restaurant in awhile. I guess I was overdue. After eagerly anticipating DineLA as an opportunity to eat at fine restaurants for reasonable prices, I decided to go with my Twin to Jer-Ne, a blind stab in the dark based on what sounded like a good menu. What I got instead was food that attempted to be "fusion" and eclectic and modern, and instead ended up being cooked oddly, tasting slightly "off", all while sitting in a freezing cold restaurant.

I fought the butternut squash movement for awhile, first scorning the notion of an orange vegetable puree being a cold soup... New York changed that with Gramercy Tavern serving what to this day is still one of the best butternut squash soups I've ever had. So I've been adventurously daring in ordering the butternut squash soup, in hopes that it would replicate the greatness of the Gramercy Tavern experience. Jer-Ne fell miserably short. The butternut squash soup (butternut squash, Frangelico, pumpkin oil) was so bland and slightly bitter that I ended up adding tons of pepper in hopes that it would save it. It did not. The bitterness actually overwhelmed the pepper, creating this very sad aftertaste in my mouth that hardly felt like what I was paying for. I happen to love Frangelico, and theoretically, it should have made the butternut squash a little sweeter, but perhaps the pumpkin oil just overwhelmed it.

For the meal, I ordered a Chilean sea bass, also a favorite of mine. Usually the fish is so tender you don't even need a butter knife, but this time it was seared on one side and soft throughout. The only problem was, it was over-seared. In other words, the bottom of the fish was hard to prod through, even with a knife, and the rest was too soft. It had quite an odd texture to it, too divergent, and I couldn't deal with it.

The dessert was hardly better, with pumpkin creme brulee and maple walnut ice cream. In my general order of preference, I would usually pick the creme over the maple walnut, but this time I enjoyed picking at the walnuts more than I enjoyed the creme brulee. The creme was almost too crispy, and again there was something slightly off about the flavor... Almost as if it lacked sweetness. It was odd, coming from a dessert to lack sweetness, but I suppose it may have also been part of the theme of autumn and dreariness.

Overall, nothing to write home about, though presentation was awarded a few points. Next time I suppose we'll have to gun for something in the Beverly area, since I'm having more and more orgasmic meals from there than anywhere else in the LA area.

Jer-Ne Restaurant + Bar

4375 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292 - (310) 823-1700

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/MarinadelRey/Dining/Jer-NeRestaurantBar/Default.htm

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The second DineLA experience was much better than the first at Jer-Ne. Don't get me wrong--the company was equally enjoyable, but the food was absolutely exquisite and exceeded expectations.

This and Gotham in NYC are among the few times I couldn't finish a meal that was absolutely orgasmic because it was too rich. This and Mario's Peruvian Food were the only two times I have ever regretted having even one piece of bread. Yes, it is that good.

As appetizers, DD and I chose the crispy pork belly and the butternut squash bisque. The crispy pork belly was tender and crispy, cooked to perfection. The meat itself was full of flavor, and it was actually juicy, which is so hard to do with frying. It was seasoned with carmelized apple, quail egg, yukon gold puree, and frisee, a perfect balance of delicate, yet fruity flavors that didn't detract from the fact that pork is a more subtle meat. Quite a success! The butternut squash bisque was an equal success! They created a lobster salad with crisp sage in the middle of the bowl and waited until arriving at the table to pour the exact amount of soup from a perfectly measured container (unlike Gramercy Tavern, NYC, which was also delicious but poured their soup from a larger container, almost as if to say you were sharing that soup with the rest of the restaurant like pigs eating from a trough. Yes, the little things get to me. In all fairness, Gramercy Tavern's soup was delicious!). The lobster salad accentuated the soup and yet also brought its own flair. Unlike Jer-Ne, which left the butternut squash to wallow in its own bitterness, you tasted Dakota's butternut squash light up and flair up, like a dear friend telling an exciting story. In the end, a dense and thick soup ended up being a light, refreshing appetizer.

Equally compelling were the entrees. DD picked the beef duo, a coriander crusted grassfed New York and a short rib, paired with poached asparagus and fingerling lyonaise with bordelaise. The meats were filling and heavy from what I tasted, almost as rich as Arcadia's steak rossini (but let's face it--nothing is truly that rich). I had the trout meuniere. Let me just say that to this day, it still leaves me a bit breathless. The trout was so fresh and so rich, a wild trout, I'm told, that it was PINK like a salmon. Not only was it tender and rich, but it was cooked to perfection with lump crab meat, baby parsnips, heirloom carrots, and carmelized salsify. The only thing that could have made it better was the butters.

THE BUTTERS. I still fantasize about those saucy little minxes. Apparently at Dakota, you can order a butter as a side. So for every meal, be it fish or steak, vegetables or soup, the chef recognizes that like bacon, butter tastes good with everything. Of the four choices of butter, DD and I opted for the fine herb and the foie gras butter. You heard me. Foie gras BUTTER. In case you can't tell, I have an inordinate obsession with foie gras, and I love me some butter. So imagine my surprise when the two were wrapped up in one, ready to be eaten with my delicious trout! A-MAZ-ING. I have no other words. You simply haven't lived until you have tried the foie gras butter with the trout. With the meat. With ANYTHING. I want it for my fried rice. I want it in every dish I make. I'll die an early and very happy death.

The desserts were delicious, but nothing to write home about. Honestly, I was still reeling from the ecstasy of having discovered a love of my life. We ordered a chocolate mousse blossom and the warm apple tartin. Since I'm still light-headed from remembering the goodness of the appetizers and entrees, I'll leave you to the pictures. I believe they speak for themselves.

Overall, this was a great experience. Getting there was a disaster since it's located in the heart of touristy Hollywood, and it was in a loud hotel (hotel restaurants kind of irk me), but I'd do it again in a heartbeat to get me some of that foie gras butter with trout. Entirely worth the DineLA experience and still on my list since I'm pretty sure I saw a foie gras on the appetizer list as well... :)

Dakota Restaurant

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA

http://www.dakota-restaurant.com/

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Few things get me more excited than leisure trips. I absolutely love the thrill of exploring new places, eating new foods, planning how to get there, where to stay, how to find the best bargains, and how to maximize every waking second of time I get to escape whatever reality my life is in, and simply enjoy another reality for awhile. So imagine my thrill and surprise when DD decided to take a trip with me, hopefully our first of many together!

We decided to take a trip to Northern California together. Both of us being ambitious and determined people, we decided on several main stops in a span of four short days: San Jose, Napa, San Francisco, Berkeley, and back to San Jose. ...And we decided to drive.

The good news is, with each other's company, the drive went by like a breeze. It felt like a drive, but it felt like a much shorter drive than 5-6 hours. And the further good news is (since with DD I hardly ever have bad news), there was heinously good food on this trip!

Side Stop #1:
Pismo Beach: Mo's SmokeHouse BBQ

Only after looking at the website to research the address and phone number of this place did I discover that this is a chain restaurant with SoCal locations! Woot! I had one of the best Louisiana hot links I have had in my entire life. Well cooked, well seasoned, tender and moist.... I'm salivating just thinking about it! This hot link was a rich shade of red, looking just as appetizing as it tasted. I shared some with DD who also admitted that it was one of the best sausages he'd ever had. I didn't care too much for the ton of onions and peppers they had on top, but I swept it to one side and enjoyed my sausage. The side of coleslaw was pretty good too, though I confess that may at least be in part due to the delirium of happiness upon eating the sausage.

DD had the tri-tip, which was remarkably tender. I confess I don't remember much of it since our trip was at least a month ago and I wasn't eating it as my own main course, but I do recall that in addition to the meat's tenderness, the BBQ sauce made it that much more heavenly.

We ate our food with some beers in one of the outside patio seats, and even though the table was lopsided and annoyed the hell out of us, it was such a beautiful day, sunny with slight winds, that you couldn't help but to just enjoy it and take it all in. So we did, when we walked to the pier on the beach, just a couple storefronts away. Pismo Beach was an amazingly relaxing choice for a pit shop, exactly halfway along the coast, and it fed us well!

Mo's SmokeHouse BBQ

221 Pomeroy Street, Pismo Beach, California 93449 - (805) 773-6193

http://www.mosbbq.com/

Side Stop #2:

Napa: Taylor's Automatic Refresher

It's like the resident In-N-Out, with more options! This is the oddest, and yet cutest 50's diner cafe, in a prime location--directly in the middle of the Napa strip. High traffic passes by the location, and there's always a line. But with good reason! The line goes fast, and once you get to the front, you can order anything from garlic fries to a salmon burger.

DD and I had already eaten lunch, but we were determined to have some food here in between Reverie and Hartwell. So stop we did, and we only got a light snack--which in our world is two orders of fries and a drink. Sweet potato fries, garlic fries, and a root beer float! Oh, I'm salivating just thinking about it again! The sweet potato fries were freshly cooked and extra crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and the garlic fries were SMOTHERED in garlic. I can't vouch for whether it's better than Dodger fries, since it's been awhile since I've been to Dodger's Stadium, but I can say it comes pretty damn close. And the root beer float? What better way to finish off a wildly unhealthy meal at a 50's diner joint while sitting out in the open on a sunny, beautiful day? The root beer may as well have been wine for how good it was to us.

Taylor's Automatic Refresher

644 First Street, Napa, CA 94559 - 707-224-6900

http://taylorsautomaticrefresher.com/

Side Stop #3:

San Jose: Arcadia

I hardly even need to actually describe them. I just need to say their names.

Foie gras sliders.

Duck fat fries.

Lobster corndogs.

Ahi tuna tartare.

Steak Rossini.

Okay, maybe that last one deserves a fuller description: filet mignon topped with Hudson Valley foie gras and glazed in a pinot noir wine reduction. Toss it on a tower of seared potato and sauteed spinach and you have a recipe for LEGEND. This was not only one of the richest items you will ever eat, but it was also a dish that simply melted in your mouth for as long as you would let it before taking it all in. Yes, it was that good. The filet mignon was tender, the foie gras left nothing to be desired, and the wine reduction was such a flavorful and yet delicate complement to the meal that it brought out all the subtle richness of the filet and foie gras, without making it overbearingly rich. In short, the dish sang perfect harmony at a perfect tempo and a perfect volume. It was magnificent.

Also magnificent was how beautiful the dessert was. It was just a couple of mini doughnuts, but it was arranged so beautifully, with hazelnut ice cream and crushed nuts all around the plate... It was rich and decadent without being too sweet or too salty. A good mix of flavors and textures.

Book a reservation next time you're ever in the San Jose area. You will not regret it. The decor could use a little work, but if you ignore the fact that it's a hotel's continental breakfast bar by day, you can eat a meal that will knock your socks off. Needless to say, I recommend the steak rossini.

Arcadia

Marriott, 100 West San Carlos Street, San Jose, CA 95113 - 408-278-4555

http://www.michaelmina.net/arcadia/

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Kotteri. Kotteri is the magic word.

Before this word, I hardly knew what ramen was. Now, it feels as if my eyes have been opened, and a new ramen has come to rule them all. KOTTERI. You. Are. Beautiful.

It all started after a football game, when we all decided to eat dinner together somewhere near the downtown LA area. Our friend AY recommended this place, describing the food and admitting that it sounded disgusting, but it was amazingly delicious. It was pork simmered in pork with pork fat. I don't know about you, but that kind of gets me going.

After finding street parking and waiting the excruciating hour for one of the maybe 20 seats in the place, we finally sit ourselves down to the real deal. But like Levar Burton said on Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word about it--from the menu:

Daikoku Ramen
the process begins the afternoon before it ever reaches your table by boiling pork bones and joints in a large cauldren all throughout the night reducing at an undisclosed location. by the time it reaches the stove behind the counter the next day all the goodness is concentrated in our famous tonkotsu soup base. from the pot the soup goes into bowls (large and half size available upon request) where it is infused with our secret blended soysauce. into the completed broth we add boiled chijire style egg noodles, the firmness of which can be altered upon request. finally the kurobuta pork belly chashu, marinated boiled egg, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, green onions and sprinkle of sesame seeds completes the reason why you're here and why we are still in business. for all tonkotsu fanatics: ask for the richer, kotteri flavor which uses added soup extracted from the back fat

You try to read that and tell me it doesn't sound amazing. The soup base is amazingly rich, so rich that it's almost a pure opaque white color with all of the soup base. After hours of simmering, the soup hardly even splits into miscible layers--it stays one solid rich color and flavor. I've never seen anything like it, and I grew up watching my mother simmer pots of pho that I could swim in. The pho always had oxtail and bone marrow and rich pieces of meat, but it never came out looking as rich as this ramen did. The meats were tender, the sesame seeds added a perfectly faint flair, and the marinated egg is absolutely amazing. It's unlike any egg you've had before. Almost like a seasoned duck egg, but less salty and more flavorful and zesty.

All in all, I was MORE than impressed, and from the time I was introduced a month ago, I have tried to go at least twice since. It's a looooooong wait and parking is annoying, but for a $10 meal, this is absolutely worth it.



Daikokuya
327 E 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
http://www.daikoku-ten.com/

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