Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(Julie Wiskirchen) Hi everybody I'm Julie Wiskirchen from the Authors Team at Google
and today I'm excited to welcome the, some of the contributors to "Eat LA," the 2010
edition of the restaurant guide for food lovers of Los Angles.
I'll just introduce our panel today. First, we have Amelia Saltsman who's gonna moderate.
She's the author of "The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook," a subject dear to our hearts.
An LA native and long-time Santa Monican, she writes about cooking, markets and food
for such magazines as "Bon Appetit," and she's a regular guest on Evan Kleiman's "Good Food"
show on KCRW.
And we have Linda Burum. She's the author of "A Guide to Ethnic Food in Los Angeles"
and an expert on international cuisines. She writes regularly for such publications as
the "LA Times" in Los Angeles. She lives in Santa Monica, but covers all of Southern California
in her never-ending quest for that great little market or secret cafe.
Then we have Miles Clements. He writes about food for the "LA Times," "The District Weekly,"
and others. He is a Long Beach area resident and native who also roams the South Bay and,
indeed, all of LA for his blog, Eat Food With Me.
And finally we have Pat Saperstein. She's a savvy sleuth behind LA's best food blog,
Eating LA. The South Pasadena resident is also a senior editor at "Daily Variety" and
in her spare time she writes about restaurants for the "Los Feliz Ledger" and posts regularly
on Chowhound.
So please join me in welcoming our panelists.
[applause]
(Amelia Saltsman) Well, thank you. we are just delighted to be here with you today and
hope we get lots of good conversation and, and questions.
So the Eat Los Angeles project is the brainchild of Colleen Dunn Bates who's out of town; last
day of the college trip with her younger daughter. I think some of you might have a few memories
of that.
And really the whole idea of this project, and I keep referring to it as a project because
the book is just one piece as everything must be these days only there's a whole pie.
And this, this really was designed to be a curated collection of really savvy food resources.
You might call it the anti-red covered food guide. No corporate chains. I think there
might be a couple of references to maybe Peet's Coffee, something like that.
But, and not a popularity contest. Basically Colleen came up with the idea that we all
leapt into with passion, which is we wanted a book that talked about our city, our county,
that we would wanna use that we could really trust.
So Colleen put together this team of which we are four to, to really write all about
everything, [inaudible] every topic, food topic that you might wanna know about that
we would wanna know about.
It's not exhaustive in the sense that it doesn't cover every single thing, just what we really
like. So, and we're all food writers in the area. Some of us are even LA natives so we
bring that sort of hip backstory to a lot of the places that we suss out.
And do any of you have the first edition? The last year's? So just to know, just so
you know, you've gotten the new and improved; 250 additional resources, a couple of new
chapters.
One of my favorites is the chapter at the beginning of the book, "Good Food Neighborhoods."
It really gives you an idea of what a particular, almost like a micro scene, has to offer; a
particular swath of Ventura Boulevard in Studio City that for some reason seems to have an
awful lot of Japanese restaurants; all the way to neighborhoods in your own backyard.
Abbot Kinney, Sawtelle, to field trips. Gee, I'm finding myself in Artesia, where can I
go?
So that's the book and of course with it now comes eat, I wanna say, eatla.com, and now
the book is completely searchable on the website which is really nice. And complete with Google
maps.
And let's see, what else have we got? Oh, and it is, if you have a smartphone it's,
you can do it as, there's a mobile version and if you have an iPhone right now Eat Los
Angeles is, is an app-like icon. Not quite all the way to an app.
And let's see, of course, we now have a Facebook fan page and you can follow us on Twitter
and the biggest most recent news is that we are now gonna be regulars on "Off-Ramp" on
KPCC and I don't remember what time that airs because whoever listens to anything right
at exactly the time? Just TiVo or Stream or whatever. So, but you can check that out.
So with that I thought what we would do is each of us could talk a little bit about some
of our latest favorites, discoveries, and so on, and then we could open it up to discussion
and questions from you guys unless there's anything in particular you want us to hit
right off the bat.
Anything?
All right. So let's start with Pat and we'll work our way back up.
(Pat Saperstein) Well I wanna talk a little about the area that my blog kind of specializes
in which is sort of the Silver Lake, Echo Park, Pasadena, South Pasadena. It's actually
a fairly large area [inaudible].
[pause]
Basically the Northeast LA-ish area is what I like to cover the most heavily and I try
to also get downtown as often as I can, although I'm still not a downtown expert because so
many places keep opening that, down, downtown that I can't even keep up with them.
But a couple of the places that I would love to point out that have opened fairly recently
are in Silver Lake. Forage is a great new place that has really fresh vegetables and
wonderful baked goods and just really nicely cooked quiches and all different kinds of
things.
[inaudible audience question]
Well, it's on the website. I think it opened after the book came out.
And the really novel thing about it is if you grow food in your garden you can also
bring it to them on Sunday afternoons and they will, if they like your produce, they'll
accept it and they'll give you some credits to eat at the restaurant and they'll incorporate
your produce into their meals.
So that's kind of a fun and different approach. Although I heard that there could be some
problems with the city over that. So I'm not sure exactly how that's gonna work out for
them, but I hope that they're able to keep doing it.
Like the day I was in there they had lemonade made from the lemons from someone's garden
in Echo Park and it's just a really nice way to, for them to get involved with the community.
But it's also just a higher level of cooking than most of the places that you see in Silver
Lake, which for some reason seems to attract kind of mediocre restaurants in a lot of cases.
But I think it's more like a Tartine in San Francisco with just really great attention
to the way they bake and -the flavors that they bring out in the vegetables and everything.
And it's just a small place that used to be a bakery; bring your own wine, nothing, nothing
fancy; order at the counter, but just a really good example of kind of the new wave of places
that pay a lot of attention to local ingredients but also to making the food taste really good.
So that's- one place. Forage. And their website is foragela.com and they have like a completely
changing menu everyday. So it's, it's a really interesting place.
And another place that I've really been liking lately is CaCao Mexicatessen in Eagle Rock.
It's a just a kinda also a pretty informal Mexican place but it's not like any typical
Mexican place. It's not like just a burrito joint or it's not like a taco truck, it's
kind of a higher level of food, but without being like an expensive gourmet Mexican kind
of spot like the places downtown; just informal but really great things.
They've been having venison tacos lately. I haven't tasted those yet, but I did, their
duck carnitas are just amazing especially for people who don't eat pork, it's just,
they're just as good as any pork carnitas that you could have.
And they also do homemade Mexican desserts and all kinds of Mexican coffee drinks with
dulce de leche coffee drinks and things like that that are really great. And they make
homemade tortillas you, that you can take home with you, make your food at home and
so it's, it's a really great resource also.
And then the other thing I, I really like to talk about is beer. And we also have another
writer that contributes to Eat Los Angeles, Jenn Garbee who writes a lot about beer for
the " LA Times" and other places, but we're both into beer and the beer scene is really
exploding in LA recently and it's a great thing because we've been waiting years and
years.
For years there was just Father's Office on Montana, was almost one of the only places
you could get good beer in the whole city and now every neighborhood has a couple of
great beer places.
In West Hollywood, The Surly Goat just opened which has a really amazing selection of beers
and that's owned by the same person as the Verdugo Bar in EagleÉ, in, yeah, in Eagle
Rock Glassell Park area which is one of my favorite beer places and they have one of
the only real beer gardens in town. They don't have a kitchen, but with the advent of the
food trucks and everything, they've been having food available on, at their beer garden everyday,
or people who just barbecue out on the patio and they're open all afternoon on Saturdays
and Sundays.
People play board games and just hang out and drink beer and it's really fun; it's the
kind of place that I think LA has needed for a long time and hasn't had very many of.
(Amelia Saltsman) I, I should mention that on the website, that's the place to go for
all the latest updates, deals, events, groupons, the whole thing.
(Pat Saperstein) [chuckles]
(Amelia Saltsman) So, we're constantly feeding, feeding the- mob.
(Pat Saperstein) [chuckles]
(Amelia Saltsman) I couldn't think of any other word and I just went --
(Pat Saperstein) [gasping]
(Amelia Saltsman) Okay. So maybe we, we hear from Miles and then we can come back if --
(Miles Clements) Okay. I'm gonna talk a little about the South Bay which is where I do most
of my coverage for the "Times" and for the book as well.
And kind of taking up where Pat left off, one of the kind of bigger trends in the South
Bay has been kind influx of gastro pubs which, depending on how you look at it, is either
a restaurant with a bar or a bar with a restaurant inside and, they're usually very beer focused
and lots of craft beers, lots of local beers.
One of the, I don't know, maybe, more popular ones is Simmzy's in Manhattan Beach. It's
basically kind of standard American; kind of up scale, more focused burgers. There's
more attention paid to the food. They have a really good pulled pork panino that they
braise the pork overnight in sherry vinegar and put it in the sandwich and press it. It's
crispy, fatty, really good.
The other place is still relatively new. It's called Hudson House. It's in Redondo Beach.
It's from the same owners as Beachwood in Venice. And they have, I would say, a little
bit more of a global skew towards things.
You can still get burgers and such and they have a good one it's on a pretzel bun. But
they also have, if I recall this, ground, ground lamb skewers which are on sugar cane.
They roast them over the fire and they have a yogurt harrisa dipping sauce that's got
a little bit of a heat also.
And there's some other ones that you can find in the book. I'm not going to go into too
much details; they all kind of pull from the same themes. But I would say that probably
the other thing in the South Bay, especially Torrance, is really known for is Japanese
food.
And they have great sushi places, great ramen houses, but it goes a lot beyond that. And
one of the places that I like a lot is called Torihei, which essentially is an Izakaya but
they have basically two parallel menus: one is a yakitori menu, so grilled chicken parts,
any kind of part you could imagine; and the other is oden, which is a soupy stew that
is usually a bunch of different ingredients in one, and it's usually kind of a homey dish
and here they separate it out into kind of an ala carte menu. You can get really, these
really precise dishes with like a soft-boiled egg that's topped with salmon roe and it's
just, it's really, I don't know, clear and flavorful cooking.
(Amelia Saltsman) You know we, I see that we're totally, we must be hungry?
(Miles Clements) [chuckles]
(Amelia Saltsman) because we're totally focused on restaurants and one of the things that
I love about this book, because I use it all the time, is that there, it's not just about
restaurants, it's about stores, it's about kitchen supply places.
I was just thinking, Miles, as you mentioned Torrance and right away I have Marukai --
(Miles Clements) Um-hum.
(Amelia Saltsman) Has anybody been to Marukai? I mean you can buy furniture, you can buy
food, I mean it's amazing. So you're going to find all of those. This is all about everything.
(Miles Clements) Right. And along those same lines you can obviously, you can get a lot
of great food in those stalls in those same markets too.
But the food, as I was going to say, the Japanese food really does sprand, spread a huge variety.
There's a really great dessert, dessert shop/bakery in Lomita called Patisserie Chantilly which
is basically a French Japanese bakery. And again I would say it's one of the top Japanese
bakeries in kind of the greater LA area and they put a lot of care into their dishes.
They have really, really great cream puffs. They do one with a sesame cream, a black sesame
cream. So it has kind of a smokiness of the black sesame and it's, they're these huge
things that are like the size of hamburgers.
But, and, one more thing before I pass it off onto Linda, is that if you also find yourself
in the, at some of the farmer's markets on the South Bay in Torrance or El Segundo there's,
they have a lot of great vendors there and one of them whose been kind of building a
huge web presence lately is Bigmista's Barbecue.
(Pat Saperstein) And he goes, and he goes to Atwater --
(Miles Clements) He also goes to Atwater Village, yeah, and he's a, he's a big web guy. He's
on every possible social networking thing you can imagine. You can text him orders and
he's big, his, he doesn't really have a style of barbecue per se, even though he grew up
in Texas he's learned a lot from other people, but he's kind of become fairly well known
for pig candy which is basically bacon smoked with brown sugar and cayenne until it gets
sweet and spicy and --
(Pat Saperstein) Éprobably the best thing I've eaten in the lastÉ
(Miles Clements) [laughs]
(Pat Saperstein) Étwo months, which is that one strip of one dollarÉ
(Miles Clements) Yeah.
(Pat Saperstein) Écandy.
(Miles Clements) ThereÉ
(Pat Saperstein) Certainly the best dollar I'veÉ
(Miles Clements) [laughs]
(Pat Saperstein) Éspent anywhere.
(Miles Clements) It's uh, it's worth the, the trip if you guys can make it out there.
[pause]
(Linda Burum) Well, hi. I thought I'd concentrate on West LA a little bit since some of you
are from here. And speaking of stores, we were just talking about J & T on Wilshire
Boulevard. J & T Gourmet at, it's about 10th Street on the north side.
I'm sorry to tell you I didn't bring, that's in the book, so you can look that one up.
But you can also Google all these things and I'm sure you'll find them.
(Amelia Salsman) Topeka.
[laughter]
(Linda Burum) Anyway, J & T is fun because they make their own, they cure their own hams
and they make their own hams; they have like a little, the two guys are from Hungary --
where do they Ð no, they're from Poland, sorry. They make, they have all these Polish
sausage hanging in the, in behind the butcher case and then they have softer sausages in
the case, but they make them all themselves including the dry cured ones.
Then over in the freezer you find those dumplings and stews in, frozen, and then they have a
fish case with some cured fish and butter from Europe and it's just kind of -- if you
do your own thing. Unfortunately they stopped making sandwiches which is really sad. [looking
at microphone] Is this on? Yes, I guess.
So I made this little list of things that I found around LA, around West LA that, 'cause
I thought, "Well, you guys are all here." I did a piece on Izakaya about, I don't know,
two or three years ago before everybody, everybody had one in their neighborhood. And they were
kind of underground places at that time. I mean, very few people had even known the term
I suppose. But around here along Sawtelle you can find --How-how many people are from
this part of town that grew up here and know the area that well? Oh good.
Well, that means that the rest of you will benefit from this because you probably won't
know them that well. But Furaibo, it started out as a fried chicken place in, in Gardena
and then they, well actually they have branches in Tokyo but, and all over Japan, but they
do this wonderful fried chicken; they do wings; they do ***; and they have funny names
like The Jane and The Tarzan for different parts of the animal which they deep fry.
But more than that it's a pub with all kinds of sake, all kinds of soju, and all kinds
of little dishes and you can, like all Izakaya, they're just places where you can order a
little of this and a little of that and drink and hang out.
(Amelia Saltsman) It is kind as, are they Japanese gastro pubs?
(Linda Burum) Yeah, essentially.
And speaking of that, Musha on Wilshire, M-u-s-h-a, is a more, what shall we say, au courant type
in that they do more global tidbits. They're, they're still fairly Japanese but they're
a little more influenced from other cultures. So that's a good place to know. Also Wakasan
on Westwood Boulevard, they do a little prix fixe. It used to be $25 plus whatever liquor
you bought, but now it went up to 35 I understand. And that, that's very, very purist Japanese
I would say.
People come in. They spend the night. They buy their bottle of soju, but you can get
individual glasses also. And they serve a multi-course dinner which is about 10 courses.
In this case you don't choose your own like Furaibo and these other places, but you just
go with what they have and it's very light, very delicate food, very, it's enough by the
time if you're a hungry guy you'll, you won't starve. But it's very refined kind of food
and it's interesting that you get this progression of courses.
And then Sasaya on Santa Monica Boulevard right near, kinda near Sawtelle, is, they,
it's more of a raucous down-home, salary man-type place with crab cakes and little dishes of
pork belly and all kinds of vege-vegetable dishes in small plates.
Once again you get, you can have, I think they for sure have beer, wine, soju and maybe,
maybe hard liquor but I don't remember that, if you'll pardon me.
(Amelia Saltsman) I think we need to --
(Linda Burum) Wrap it up?
(Amelia Saltsman) We need to save, I think we need to save the rest forÉ
(Linda Burum) Okay.
(Amelia Saltsman) Éfor the next piece.
(Linda Burum) I just want to say that you should, how many of you have been at, down
on Sawtelle Avenue? Yeah, well you know then. Most of you who haven't gone, it's a real
field trip because it's lined with, it's lined with all kinds of Japanese places from tofu
specialists to places like Blue Marlin which is crossover food and, of course, Hide Sushi
is famous. Okay.
(Amelia Saltsman) Do you know that Los Angeles has, historically, three, four, the LA area,
four JapaneseÉ
(Linda Burum) ÉJapanese enclaves...
(Amelia Saltsman) Éenclaves. There's Little Tokyo downtown. There's Sawtelle, that's the
Sawtelle area. There's Torrance and there's also I guess what is now called, what I guess
would be called East Hollywood. Sort of it's not, if like by Virgil and Melrose that area
I think it's, it, there's a lot of Latin, Latinos there now, but in the '50s and then
before the internment in of Japanese Americans in, of, during World War II, that area was
a very important, it was called Little Tokyo West. So we have
this, these things that seem like new are not so new sometimes. And people from outside
of LA, I think, don't understand the depth that there is to LA because it is so big and
sprawling. It's this wonderful patchwork of neighborhoods and ambiences, but there's a
lot of heft there; there's a lot of substance.
Well I --
(Linda Burum) The Japanese used to do, I'm going to cut in here. They were big in agriculture
right in the city. So that's --
(Amelia Saltsman) Yes.
(Linda Burum) you have Sawtelle, they used to do floral gardens. There were bean fields,
celery --
(Amelia Saltsman) Right. Celery --
(Linda Burum) celery fields and that's why we had --
(Amelia Saltsman) And strawberries.
(Linda Burum) Yeah. And then also the workers, there would be these hotels that were just
for men 'cause the men used to come over from Japan and work the fields that their friends
owned; relatives and friends. It was just like a little network and the hotels eventually
turned into what Sawtelle is today with the, the places to eat.
But it was like boarding houses in those days. That was pre-, the pre-war. And then after
the war when people got out of the internment camps they came back there because there was
a Buddhist temple, there were churches, there were places that people who had lost everything
could at least get a bed. And then eventually they evolved into getting their lives back
together.
(Amelia Saltsman) Well, I thought that I would just tell you what I found at the market this
week and what's coming. I did a little, a little scouting. Right now do--How many of
you shop at farmer's markets? Ooh, nice. How many of you shop at Santa Monica, anyone of
the Santa Monica markets? Throw out some names of other markets that you go to.
(voice in audience) Hollywood.
(Amelia Saltsman) Hollywood.
Venice, did somebody say Venice? Oh I love that market.
(voice in audience) West LA.
(Amelia Saltsman) West LA, the one at on, um --
[inaudible]
oh, okay. Oh, okay, okay.
Anybody go to the Mar Vista Market or Playa Vista? Yeah.
Okay, great.
Anyway, what I found this week: purple sprouting broccoli. Has anybody tried that? It is amazing
and I have a story about that because I helped Alex Weiser get the seed for that and, just
so you know, we got it through, with the help of Jamie Oliver. And it's very nutty; it's,
it's, and it, there's nothing new about purple vegetables; those are, those have been around
for a really long time. Purple asparagus is really big right now from the Zuckerman's.
There's one farmer who comes just briefly. Most of the farmers at local certified farmer's
markets are really from within anywhere from 10 to 150 miles; some of them maybe a couple
of hundred miles, but occasionally those are the regular farmers. But even in this sprawling
community of LA.
But there are a few farmers that come just for very brief time from farther away. So
Zuckerman's comes from the Sacramento Delta and they have this, they have amazing asparagus
including purple asparagus which is super sweet. And has been around, chefs have been
writing about it for 130 years in Los Angeles. So, it's, it's definitely not new, it's a
lot older than that.
What else did I see? Oh, next week lilacs are coming. If you like flowers. And two week,
in two weeks we're going to start seeing early cherries. So be on the lookout for that. What
else did I spot?
Oh, my big find this week: French leeks from Windrose Farms. The leeks are, the white part
is probably, maybe, 12 to 18 inches, just snowy white and tender. You can even use some
of the darker green part. And what I did was I just sauteed them like really sweetly, low,
low heat and I threw in some English peas which are amazing right now and some fresh
mint. Everything green is incredible right now. And oh it was so good! And then I had
a farmer's market egg on top with a little ricotta cheese. It was really awesome.
The other thing that is coming are Galante strawberries. There is one farmer who grows
Galantes, Jerry Rutiz, and he's at the market, the Santa Monica Market on Wednesdays, and
there is an interesting story to that but I'm not going to take your time with that
now. So you'll have to read that story in my book, if you have my book.
So, let's, any questions? 'Cause I also, I actually have a couple of questions for the
panel. So, yes.
[pause]
(Male #1 in audience) Thank you for coming. I noticed that, I mean each of you has your
kind of pet areas, but even in the book there are some areas of LA that just seem chronically
left out, like the West Valley, for example. It's probably got one of the smallest sections
in the kind, in the area. It doesn't have, at least according to this book, any specialized
neighborhoods or anything like that. But there's tons of great food there. Is there any reason
it always gets left out?
(Amelia Saltsman) We're working on it. And we would like to hear from you.
(Linda Burum) I'll tell you why, also, is that there's so much, pardon me, there's just
so much around. I know there's a lot of Arabic restaurants around there.
Rosita Boulevard which I guess starts the area and then it goes West on and there's
heaps of Indian, especially in Northridge, and you have the giant Korean market out there
in Northridge called, do you know the name? Galleria. And then they have a little food
court and we know it's there, but there, it's just when you're doing the book it's so overwhelming
and we go, "Well, what's the most important thing to put in?" So we'll start thinking
more about that. I think the Galleria is out there. But, you know, once you have one Korean
market, even though there is 20 big supermarkets, in a book like this, one serves the purpose
because you can, if you have to pick one or two that's all you get.
(Male #1 in audience) I think we kind of, we kind of look to you to tell us which one
is the, we know, of the 20, which are the two or three that we should go to?
(Male #1 in audience) Which are the few we should avoid?
(Amelia Saltsman) So, what we would, we would love to hear from you. Anybody in fact, I
mean you generally. We're looking for hot tips andinterest. So, definitely, communicate
through via the website; we're taking notes. So I got West Valley.
Any other --
[pause]
(Amelia Saltsman) And if you want to direct the question to a particular team member,
please do.
(Female #1 in audience) I just moved here like a week ago so this is real useful because
I had no idea where to start.
(Linda Burum) From where?
(Female #1 in audience) From San Francisco. So--
(Amelia Saltsman) We have great food here.
(Female #1 in audience) Okay. That's what I've heard.
I'm really looking for, I live in Santa Monica. I'm really looking for, like, just local fresh
artisan, rustic bread. Is that somewhere?
(Amelia Saltsman) Yes. I can answer that in, two:Huckleberry--.
(Female #1 in audience) Okay.
(Amelia Saltsman) on Wilshire and 10th right next door to Santa Monica Seafood. But Huckleberry,
Zoe Nathan is an amazing pastry chef and bread maker and you will find incredible bread;
so that's the newest one. In fact, Huckleberry's just starting, it's their sort of bakery arm
they have, they own Rustic Canyon as well, the restaurant, which has great beer and wine.
And also cooks seasonally and supports the farmer's market.
But Huckleberry just started having a family dinner night on Thursdays. That's a new thing.
So that might be fun; probably long tables.
(Female #1 voice in audience) Is there another venue like [inaudible]
(Amelia Saltsman) Yes, on Pico. There is sort of a classic French baguette and croissant
bakery on Pico and Lincoln.
(Linda Burum) You know, Bay City's Italian has good bread for sandwiches. There's all
these have their own style. And I, they bring it in three times a day. It's still warm when
you buy it. So if you're looking for a baguette-type thing that, for good sandwiches of course
they're famous for that, sandwiches. The bread itself is inexpensive and good. And--
(Pat Saperstein) [inaudible] on Third Street [inaudible]
(Amelia Saltsman) Right.
(Pat Saperstein) It's very good, but that is one thing that LA is not quite up to [inaudible]
so [inaudible]
(Amelia Saltsman) Well, and let's --
(Pat Saperstein) more gently [inaudible]
(Amelia Saltsman) Well, and --
(Pat Saperstein) and if you're around Third Street or Century City area [inaudible]
(Amelia Saltsman) Well, and let's not forget the great classic La Brea. I mean it's still,
particularly if you get, if you can get La Brea bread from, at the, at the source even
at La Brea Bakery on, on, on La Brea.
I would like to get some more questions.
Yes.
(Male #2 in audience) This is for any or all. I'm curious about the process when you're
gonna review something or consider it for inclusion in the book. Do you go with a group
and trade food? Do you go multiple times? Or, how does, how does that work?
(Pat Saperstein) We don't, we don't really approach it the way you would a newspaper
restaurant review where you sort of go multiple times and evaluate every dish on the menu.
I mean these, the places in this book are more a compendium of our experiences eating
all year long in all these different restaurants.
So some of them might be places that Linda or Miles have reviewed in the "LA Times" that
they remembered were great. Some of them might be places we just stopped in for lunch while,
near our offices. They're just, it's, it's just kind of a repository of our experience
more than a systematic going through each restaurant and reviewing it the way you would
if you're writing a full review for a magazine or a, or a blog or something.
(Linda Burum) I want to say something about that.
Like if we go to hundreds of Chinese restaurants throughout the year then certain ones stand
out for whatever reason. Maybe they have a specialty, the best dumplings or what have
you. Or, or, or they're just fabulous food. So we filter all that, like all the Shanghai
restaurants I know about, maybe 20. What two am I gonna get to put in, that kind of thing.
(Female #2 in audience) I have a question.
(Amelia Saltsman) Does that answer your question?
Yes.
(Female #2 in audience) Hi.
(Amelia Saltsman) Hi.
(Female #2 in audience) A few of us in this room are actually from the sales team. So
we take out our clients a lot of times and we've kind of tapped out our restaurant in
the Santa Monica area. We have an event coming up that will probably have about 25 clients.
Do you have a recommendation in the --
(Amelia Saltsman) Probably --
(Female #2 in audience) Preferably in the Santa Monica area for 25 people, pretty private
dining.
(Amelia Saltsman) Have you been to, have you been to Fig?
(Female #2 in audience) We have been there for lunch for a smaller group.
(Amelia Saltsman) Uh-hum.
(Female #2 in audience) I just wasn't sure if they can accommodate a larger group.
(Amelia Saltsman) I would think that they could.
(Female #2 in audience) Okay.
(Amelia Saltsman) And they're certainly doing a lot of interesting events. I'm trying to
think --
[inaudible]
(Amelia Saltsman) Wil-Wilshire was the --
(Female #2 in audience) Don't say Wilshire. We love the Wilshire, but we go there --
(Amelia Saltsman) Okay. You, you, but just --
(Female #2 in audience) all the time.
(Amelia Saltsman) Okay.
(Pat Saperstein) What about Tasting Kitchen?
(Female #2 in audience) That's on our list. Yeah, if the second floor would be great for
25 people, I think.
(Amelia Saltsman) Yes, yes.
(Female #2 in audience) Okay.
(Amelia Saltsman) That would, Tasting Kitchen on Abbot Kinney.
Any other - does that --
(Female #2 in audience) Yeah, that's a pretty good list.
(Amelia Saltsman) Okay.
(Female #2 in audience) Thank you.
(Amelia Saltsman) Any other questions?
In the back.
[pause]
(Male #2 in audience) Hi. Some of us are just interested in a good burger and living on
the West Side I've been to Apple Pan, The Counter, and Father's Office. And I don't
know what comes after that. Can you guys give --
(Amelia Saltsman) Ooh, I would say Umami Burger.
(Pat Saperstein) Umami's Burger is open. I think it's like a block away [inaudible].
So people have different opinions about Umami Burger. Some people have quibbles with the
service or some people think that they always come out too rare unless you instruct them
carefully, but it still comes down to what is really one of the most unique and great
tasting burgers in town, I think.
I haven't been to the new Santa Monica one yet. It just opened like a week ago, I think,
but I would definitely recommend checking out the one here and also the original one
on La Brea I think is also a good one to try; or the one in Los Feliz.
[pause]
(Amelia Saltsman) Also a lot of restaurants have really great burgers such as Rustic Canyon.
They have had the same sort of burger on their menu from the day they opened and it's delicious
on a homemade, on a brioche bun, but it's like really, really good. Great fries.
(Pat Saperstein) [inaudible]
(Amelia Saltsman) We're blanking.
(Pat Saperstein) [inaudible]
(Male #3 in audience) Does it have bacon and avocado burgers?
(Amelia Saltsman) Oh, oh, you mean -
(Male #3 in audience) That place is good.
(Amelia Saltsman) on, on -
(Male #3 in audience) In Venice.
(Amelia Saltsman) Howard's, Howard's,
(Male #3 in audience) Howard's.
(Amelia Saltsman) on, on Venice and Sawtelle? Sepulveda.
(Male #3 in audience) Sepulveda, Venice and Sepulveda.
(Amelia Saltsman) Sepulveda. Yes.
Any other questions?
(Pat Saperstein) I'll, I'll find it out. I'll let you know. [inaudible]
[laughter]
(Amelia Saltsman) But it's not --
(Female #3 in audience) [inaudible] No, I think it's on Santa Monica near [inaudible].
I think it's actually right near [inaudible]
[laughter]
(Amelia Saltsman) Yeah. Yeah, we're having a moment. Okay. Oh.
Back here and then up in the --
(Female #4 in audience) I'm from Singapore and it's impossible to find authentic Singapore
food here. Do you guys know of any secret places that might possibly have Singapore/Malaysian?
I mean, Penang in Pasadena was the closest I've found but they closed down.
(Linda Burum) Yeah, there was a Penang out in Duarte, right? It's, I, it's Covina. Penang.
(Female #4 in audience) Okay.
)Linda Burum) And it, that's the best one that I've been to.
(Female #4 in audience) In Covina.
(Linda Burum) There was an Indonesian place on Motor Avenue called --
(Female #4 in audience) [inaudible]
(Linda Burum) called [inaudible] Cafe.
(Female #4 in audience) I'm sorry, what's that?
(Pat Saperstein) [inaudible] They just moved into a larger [inaudible]
(Linda Burum) No.
(Pat Saperstein) [inaudible] They expanded into the market next door so --
(Linda Burum) Oh, so it's bigger? So it's close but not a cigar. But anyway, closer
(Pat Saperstein) If you haven't been to Indo Cafe [inaudible]
(Female #4 in audience) I've tried it. It's close, but not quite Singaporian.
(Linda Burum) Yeah. That's, well, that's as close as we can get.
(Female #4 in audience) I know. I'm really craving the Ð [laughter]
(Linda Burum) Unless you wanna drive to Covina to Penang.
(Female #4 in audience) I'll do that.
(Amelia Saltsman) Please, please let us know when you find something even closer.
(Female #4 in audience) Okay.
(Amelia Saltsman) Okay, to the goal.
And up front.
[pause]
Here let me--
(Female #5 in audience) Do you know of any good places particularly in the Glendale area
that's like a cafe that has good salads and dessert, kind of like Earth Cafe or the Alcove?
(Pat Saperstein) There is a place that recently opened in Glendale. I'm blanking on the name.
It's pretty new. That's really the only place I can think of that's kind of like that. There's
a new place in Eagle Rock that just opened. I think it's called Four Cafe that sounds
like it's gonna be really great for that kind of food.
Its funny right in Glendale you just don't get as many more progressive kind of eateries.
There's a couple of good Persian and Lebanese places and there's starting to be some Korean
places, but there's, there's not much in the way of just like good, interesting, fresh,
new food.
(Female #5 in audience) Well how 'bout in that category but elsewhere?
(Pat Saperstein) Yeah, so check out the-the new Four Cafe in Eagle Rock. I haven't actually
been there yet, but I have great hopes for it and then Forage in Silver Lake, like I
mentioned. And I'm trying to think of another one vaguely in that area. I'll see if I can
--
(Miles Clements) Culver City has a bunch of new lunch places. I can't remember all of
'em. There's like Chop Chop and they're all kind of like salad, yeah, salad and lunch
base that might be a good fit.
[pause]
(Amelia Saltsman) Maybe one last question?
(Female #6 in audience) I have two actually.
So one is [laughs] recommendations for Cuban cuisine that's not like Versailles and the
other one's for Peruvian food, but that's not Chinese influence like Mario's and that
kind of thing, but rather traditional Peruvian.
[pause]
(Linda Burum) Yeah. Well, yeah, and also have you been down to, what's it called, Mochica?
(Female #6 in audience) No.
(Linda Burum) It is actually Asian influence, but they don't have so much the stir-fries
and the noodles, but it's very -- this is what you should do for Peruvian is go to the
Mochicha which is in a market called La Paloma Market. And it's on the web all over so it's
easy for you to find.
(Miles Clements) It's right by USC.
(Linda Burum) It's by USC and they are open at night I discovered; at least if not every
night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. They started out being only open during the day and closing
at six 'cause the whole La Paloma complex was open 'til six only, but now they have
extended their hours which is fabulous.
And Puro Sabor in the Valley is, is also a good Peruvian, but it's more traditional.
This one that I'm recommending, Mochica, is more progressive; still it has all the elements
of wonderful raw fish dishes or, if you call them raw, marinated, and just it's pretty
creative. Still --
(Pat Saperstein) [inaudible] excellent ceviche and then some sort of more modern inspired
dishes as well Everything is very light not [unintelligible] not heavy, greasy.
(Linda Burum) Well, the guy who owns it was the chef for a long time at Sai Sai in the
Biltmore downtown and he's from Peru and now he's working at a sushi bar to keep this thing
going. Hopefully, we're all hoping that he'll open a regular restaurant, if you will, but
you, you can get down there and it's just wonderful.
(Female #6 in audience) Cool. Thank you.
(Linda Burum) And Puro Sabor is not bad either.
(Pat Saperstein) In Cuban, I don't know, I went, I went to El Colmao the other day, which
is a very old-school kind of Cuban coffee shop. It was kind of fun, but I don't know
if I would really recommend it as like the best Cuban. It's not that different from Versailles
but just a different menu but also really, really old-school. So, I don't know about
like newer Cuban food.
(Linda Burum) [inaudible] Yeah, I just did this, it's not even in the paper yet, but
I'll tell you anyway. It's called Don, Casa Don Rolando in North Hills and it's fairly
formal. The guy used to cook at Madre and it's a little more refined than a lot of Cuban
places. There's also, gosh, you, you should I'll, I'll talk to you afterward 'cause I'm,
it's so hard to keep all these things in your head, but I know about 20 good places. Now
there's always Porto's --
(Female #6 in audience) Right.
(Linda Burum) which is actually a bakery and it's very famous by now. But I, I do know
a lot of them. I just can't think of it right this, --
(Linda Burum) off the top of my head.
(Female #6 in audience) Thanks.
(Amelia Saltsman) Also one of the things that I've been enjoying lately are the happy hours
in Santa Monica. A lot of, [cough] excuse me, a lot of Shangri-La. Have you been to
the, to the newly redone Shangri-La and to their happy hour and to the, really nice,
huh?
And The Yard, have you been to The Yard on Broadway and Second? Yeah. Probably good burger
there. Fish tacos, very nice. Nice beers.
So that, that a lot of that is happening around Santa Monica these days, but I think it's
almost one o'clock so we're happy to sit here and keep, keep chatting, but I know you have
to get back to work.
[pause]
I, well I could, if, if there is time I would ask the panel what they think is sort of in
the trends of, or fads of food. What has, what is peaking and what might be next?
Not to put you on the spot or anything.
[pause]
Food trucks. Yeah.
We were the first and --
(Pat Saperstein) Well I'll, yeah, I'll, I'll just talk about trucks for a second 'cause
we haven't really touched on that. But I think the food trucks have actually been a great
trend for the city because it's brought a lot, sort of more community and a feeling
of something really happening to the city and it's been great for places like I mentioned
like bars like the Verdugo or the new Eagle Rock Brewery which weren't able to have kitchens
before. They can just have a truck pull up. They can feed their customers and it really
works for everyone.
Also where I work on Wilshire and Fairfax we just had the crappiest selection of restaurants
ever and now we have like six or eight different trucks everyday to choose from so it's really
been an improvement.
But that said, it is still very faddish and there's supposedly 60 or70 of them operating
right now and I'm thinking a year from now I'll be surprised if there's like 40 that
really stay successful because I'm sure there'll be a huge shakeout in the summer. It's just
like restaurants: some are good and some just aren't very good at all.
(Linda Burum) This is not, when you're talking about what's the newest, hottest. This, sometimes
old things that have been around for a long time surface. For example, you're seeing a
lot more widespread Southern Indian and Gujarati Indian. That is to say purely vegetarian where
they have the dosa type things. What are those steamed -- I'm
{Pat Saperstein) [inaudible]
(Linda Burum) Yeah, utapan, those are the pancakes. Anyway, they have all sorts of breads
and baked and steamed bread items with curries that go with it. So if you're, look, there's
a place called Annapurna on Venice. There's, let me see I even wrote a little, [Bilwatchi]
and Samosa House East. Whereas we always used to have tandoori, tandoori, tandoori, now
people are branching out to more regional type Indian foods and I think, though it's
been there a thousand years, now it's being discovered by everybody who even isn't Indian,
so --
(Amelia Saltsman) I have a feeling, I'm seeing people going back to work so I think we need
to stop. But this has been an awful lot of fun. Thank you so much.
[applause]
(Julie Wiskirchen) Thank, thank you all for coming and giving us such a great list of
new places to try and the writers are happy to sign your books if you wanna get your book
signed now.
Thanks a lot.