Los Angeles Restaurants

The Minty onstage at the Hollywood Bowl If you’re like me, you’ve been going through the Hollywood Bowl concert guide and picking out which concerts you want to see. And if you’re really like me, you’ve been thinking about picnics. It’s always fun to bring stuff but I really enjoyed having food from Patina Catering delivered to the seats last year. We supplemented the dinner with the Minty Popup bar drinks and friends brought dessert. This year there are more dining options at the Bowl. There are new wine and popcorn bars opening and the menus have been updated for catering. I was invited to a media preview of the season and got to sample sliders, ramen and even soup as well as some cool desserts. LA Phil Music Director Dudamel speaking about the upcoming Hollywood Bowl season I’ve had tickets to the Bowl and LA Phil for years and somehow have never seen Dudamel conduct. I must change that this summer and later for the LA Phil 13/14 season. hip offerings like veggie ramen Being a noodles lover, my favorite thing I tried that night was the veggie ramen. Although there was no soup, it was quite good on its own. And probably better to eat  while outdoors. The mushrooms in it was the best part. potato soup It was amazing to be on the stage of the Bowl trying all these treats. new popcorn and wine bars sweet ending I noticed the desserts were very modernist. Everything from eye-catching liquid nitro treats to adorable lollypops. Now to decide which shows I’m going to… Hollywood Bowl catering by Patina Restaurant Group Checking out fried chicken and cocktails from Patina at Hollywood Bowl 2012 Markets and Concession Stands Order your picnic baskets online or call 323-850-1885 Hollywood Bowl 2301 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90068 © The Minty 2012 Filed under: calendar, cocktalian, concerts/ shows, events, food, foodie alert, minty life, music, restaurant reviews, theatre, wine tasting Tagged: bowl, patina catering, patina restaurant group, picnic, picnic basket, the hollywood bowl, the minty, wine

siu mai I recently revisited 888 Seafood Restaurant in Rosemead. I go back and forth on the dim sum carts vs ordering off a menu issue. While I concede the food appears to be freshly steamed when you tick off items from a menu, there’s no fun in it. I know I’ll just order all my favorites and leave. Part of the victory of ordering from the dim sum cart ladies are the surprises they might have for you. That’s why whenever someone asks me about dim sum, I point them to 888. For this meal, I ordered up the usual siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) and har gow (crystal shrimp) to start. har gow Both were standard and good but I still wanted more dumplings. shrimp egg rolls 888 has these great shrimp egg rolls that were still faintly hot when they hit our table. Crispy wrappers really make it. shrimp & leek dumplings I spotted the dumplings cart going around and ordered everything the dim sum lady had including the shrimp and leek dumplings, spinach and shrimp and scallops dumplings. I tend to like the dumplings with leeks because seafood really goes well with anything in the onion family. But straight scallops or spinach is good too. Shanghai pork buns inside of the Shanghai buns I normally avoid buns so I don’t fill up but the Shanghai buns looked good this particular day. I thought it was funny one of the buns had an almost octopus-looking grill mark on it. Yep, that’s the one I ate. The buns were stuffed with a combination of pickled vegetables and pork. I ate these plain but you could dip a bit in black vinegar if you like. veggies tofu wrap The dim sum lady was pretty funny when she warned me the veggies wrapped in dried tofu wrapped was actually vegetarian– some versions come with ham. I didn’t mind until I tried to pick  one up. These had absorbed the broth and looked awkward. It didn’t affect the taste other than being really soupy. daikon  cakes While looking for chicken feet (never came around), I got one of the dim sum cart ladies to grill the daikon cakes I love so much. These can be filling so you might want to wait until the end to have these. scallops dumplings As usual we over-ordered which to be honest, I do with a la carte ordering but fortunately dumplings heat up well for snacking later! shrimp & spinach dumplings I swear 888 used to have more dumplings but I was satisfied with the ones that I got after eating at Ocean earlier in the week and found their dim sum lacking. Perhaps dim sum houses in Chinatown during the week don’t carry as much. SGV all the way! egg tarts The egg tarts were the best I had in a long while. They were still warm and just melted in your mouth. On a side note, I have also now been to two restaurants including 888 where the ladies are wearing half-masks. I guess it’s like the salad bar sneeze guard. Although someone mentioned maybe they’re protecting themselves from the public rather than the other way around. Mini Dim Sum Guide in LA including the SGV CBS Seafood Elite Lunasia Monterey Park Palace NBC Seafood Ocean Seafood Sea Harbour Shanghai No 1 888 Seafood Restaurant 8450 E Valley Blvd., Ste 121, Rosemead, CA 91770  —  (626) 573-1888   © The Minty 2013 Filed under: dessert, food, foodie alert, minty life, restaurant reviews Tagged: 888, 888 seafood restaurant, chinese, chinese food, dim sum, rosemead, SGV, the minty

pho noodles soup with brisket While looking for a lunch spot in Pasadena a couple of weeks ago, I came across Abricott Cafe, a cafe with a mixture of Asian and American comfort food dishes. I couldn’t decide if I should get a burger- I was eying the lemongrass chicken burger (they have a regular burger, too) or explore the Asian side. In the end, I opted to try the Asian stuff such as the chicken wings which reminded me a bit of Korean fried chicken. It came with a side of rice. I asked for the kimchi fried rice but it normally comes with white or brown rice. wings I was meeting someone and thought they’d share the food with me but things happened and I ended up having to eat all the wings. I suppose I could have packed it and the rice up but I didn’t like the rice that much. And I can handle a few wings right? kimchi fried rice Well, no. I had also ordered the pho which came with thick pieces of brisket. It was the best brisket I’ve had in a bowl of pho in recent memory. Abricott is set up so that you order at the counter and they bring you the food. But you can get your own water and condiments. I didn’t see the hoisin and hot sauces at first and tried the broth plain. I liked it that way but wished for some bean sprouts for the soup. It already came with basil in the bowl. Next time, I’m going to restrain myself from ordering so much. But now the question is curry or the croque madame? Salad– the trout and papaya salad looks great –or banh mi? And breakfast is served until 3 p.m.? Oh man, I really need some dining partners to break down this menu! Abricott Cafe 238 S Lake Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101  –  (626) 796-1613   © The Minty 2013 Filed under: food, foodie alert, minty life, restaurant reviews Tagged: abricott, abricott cafe, asian fusion, korean food, lake, Pasadena, the minty, vietnamese food

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Food GPS - Food. Drinks. People. Amanda Salisbury is D.C. native who’s logged time in Maryland and now works as the Dolcezza Artisanal Gelato Director of Coffee. She presides over coffee programs at the company’s four storefronts in Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Maryland, and Fairfax, Virginia. We met at the D.C. location near Dupont Circle on June 5, and Salisbury subsequently shared several insights about her coffee background and multi-roaster approach. What’s the very first cup of coffee you ever remember drinking? I tried coffee a bunch of times as a teenager and an adult and thought it was gross until I studied abroad in Spain as an undergrad. I found that the espresso with milk thing was pretty great, though I still asked for the biggest cup and put sugar in it. When I got back to the States, I tried Starbucks and a few other places to re-capture that experience, but gave up looking. I was confused and thought maybe Europeans just knew what was up. Until I was hired at Dolcezza, I never even know that specialty coffee was a thing that even existed. When I had my first cup of pour-over coffee during training, I was totally blown away! Eric Barth, who worked for us for a good while, made me the House Blend from Intelligentsia (a pretty straightforward, balanced cup) and I was so shocked by my first sip that I blurted out, “Oh my God!—This coffee doesn’t suck!” He and my training partner probably thought I was nuts, but it was a true “a-ha!” moment! At what point did you know you’d work with coffee for a living? Also, what were you doing for a living leading up to coffee? The decision to stick with coffee for good didn’t come until pretty recently. I had been trying to finish up my Master’s thesis for a good while with the intention of getting a PhD in art history, but there really aren’t any tenure track jobs to be had in the field these days. Academic burnout and worrying about racking up even more student loan debt was making me miserable. Making coffee made me happier than anything I’d done in my life for a good while, so the progression was largely natural. I reached a point where I realized all I wanted to do or talk about was coffee 24/7, so decided to go with my gut and do what was most fulfilling for me. How did the opportunity come about with Dolcezza? I was originally hired only as a gelato scooper and cashier two years ago, but begged to be a barista, then for more bar shifts and classes at Counter Culture’s D.C. location. As senior baristas left, I started to train new folks. It was pretty informal, but eventually I saw a need for a more rigorous training program, set baristas standards, and a single person choosing and ordering coffees, so I pitched the idea of a “Head of Coffee Program” to our owners. I wrote beginner coffee training labs, duties for the position, goals for the program, and a whole plan to improve the coffee side of our business all around, which they loved. I became the Director of Coffee one week before going off to the SCAA for more training and the BGA level 1 exam. Right now we’re all impatiently waiting for our production facility next to the new Union Market space to open. Once that happens, we’ll have our own fully customized espresso and V60 bar dedicated specifically to staff training and public coffee events, which is super exciting! What does a coffee have to be for you to brew it at Dolcezza? INTERVIEW CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE Interview: Amanda Salisbury (Dolcezza Director of Coffee)

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