I actually went into their store and they informed me that they were not making the buche de Noel in Exotic this year. So I opted for the round cake instead, decorated in the winter theme. Then, they actually called a week later saying they were going to offer the buche de Noel in Exotic afterall, but the buche was a little less in cost. I didn’t want to go through the “hassle” of getting a credit back so I just left it with the round cake since it was all paid in advance. It was excellent, a toss up between the buche de Noel version.
Glad they let called me up. I saw one customer custom order a large Mille feuille, I may get one of those too, but it seems a bit difficult to slice as it was one large square.
Revisited Takatis again, so I’ll spare you the roast chicken photo (it’s excellent there) but here’s the ceviche and their grilled beef heart (anti cuchos). Peculiarly everytime i’ve had that it has a way too strong chemy scent flavor, as if cooking direct on natural gas is somehow affecting it.
My friend picked up some custard cream puffs for me from Nagomi Cake House in Torrance. After inhaling the first, I wasn’t sad because I had 5 more left. I shared…the chowpups each had one…while I got 3. Makes that Beard Papa stuff so pedestrian.
Did a bunch of good Asian soups this rainy weekend! Started with wonton soup at Ho Kee Cafe, a nice Hong Kong style soup joint with roast meats. The duck was not to my liking, but the soup was very good. But then I had the Zeed Noodle soup at Luv2eat, which was fucking incredible. Spicy, sweet, lots of different textures–a sensory experience when ordered spicy.
hamachi crudo, pineapple, ginger, lime chili
highlight of the night, the dressing tasted like a fish sauce vinaigrette that had a nice balance of sweet, heat and acid. loved the fried shallots on top.
sweet potato pancake, umeboshi creme fraiche, fresno chiles, lardons
this was described as a latka by the server and i was hoping this would be a play on a vietnamese banh tom. it was neither. what came out was sweet potato mush topped with overpowering umeboshi creme fraiche and enough salt from the lardons to give you chronic kidney disease. inedible.
Ran into the city for the morning and stopped at Chaumont for come croissants to take home. At 7:30AM, the pastry case was rather bare with only some breads and some morning/breakfast pastries. Croissants still look fabulous. Had to run, so didn’t get a chance to eat it quite yet.
