Otoño - Highland Park

from my memory right around then. they kept most of their staff but we noticed little things here and there… haven’t been back since… wonder if it is still good… to be transparent we never ordered paella… tapas only every time. during our 2 trips to spain we were told if you’re not around valencia you don’t order paella, so we never have lol

It’s generally true…don’t eat paella outside of Valencia. Having said that, there are some places that serve up really tasty arroz dishes (places with dignity will not call them paella) outside of Valencia. Had an awesome arroz negro in Madrid on our last trip.

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Ah I see. I’ve only been a couple times since then, but it’s always been pretty good. I must say, though, I’m happy enough to have a tapas place - without a hip scene to contend with or much of a fuss to getting a table (not to say Otoño is those things, rather other restaurants that have come and gone) - that I prob forgive them for any small inconsistencies.

As for paella outside of Valencia, yeah I heard the same thing when I visited Spain, but I still tried it at a couple random places in Madrid and Andalusia. They were tasty but nothing special, which was as you would expect!

Better than Breva’s?

Or anyone who can answer this question…
Is socarrat not standard for paella? I’ve been under the impression that it should be, but I find that of the handful of times I’ve ordered it, I’ve only ever gotten socarrat maybe a couple of times.

Perhaps, you didn’t, um, ahem, request it.

@attran99 The few times I went to Julian Serrano in LV, socarrat fortunately came with the order for free.

Error on the bill, no doubt.

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I did give the server the side-eye since there ain’t free lunch after all.

I’ve lived under the impression that socarrat = paella and no socarrat = risotto.

If I’m not mistaken, in general, risotto is a lot creamier while paella = saffron + socarrat + not creamy like a risotto.

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No, you’re right. I, perhaps, was simplifying too much.

The only thing risotto and paella have in common is that they’re both rice based dishes. Has nothing to do with soccarat.

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Never had Breva’s.
Have you eaten there?

Good neighborhood spot, especially if you need a place for a business breakfast.

Agree with @ipsedixit and was going to point you to that thread. Their gin and tonic is awesome; because they make their own tonic, it doesn’t have that stale medicinal quality that many bottled tonics have.

We found the jamon iberico de bellota at Otoño to be very similar to what we’ve had in Spain–more so than any other place we’ve been to in the U.S. Chef Montaño hand-sliced it to order (and I would disagree that it should be sliced thinner; this is not prosciutto, and hand-slicing will necessarily produce a thicker, more uneven texture, which I feel accentuates the flavor). My only complaint was that, upon slow and meditative mastication (the only way to eat this ham!), it revealed a slightly moldy flavor (!!) that suggested it may not have been trimmed well enough before slicing, or had sat out too long (it was nearing the bone when we had it), or something…

Out waitress advised us to make sure to eat ther “crunchy stuff” at the bottom of our paella–but ours had no soccarrat at all. Makes me think it is supposed to have soccarrat by default.

It was a pleasant dinner overall, and I would go back, but not at a dead run.

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I think you and @J_L are actually saying, more or less, the same thing.
It needs to be hand sliced and, of course, it should not be paper thin a la prosciutto.
But what we had week one or two was done in-artfully and was poorly trimmed.
Chef agreed they were still learning how to do it - maybe they’ve mastered it by now.

Yes; that’s a pretty expensive learning curve!

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I go to Spain with relative regularity (I have relatives there, and we often buy an entire paleta of jamón to bring home to enjoy over the course of 1-2 weeks.)

The cortadors of Spain usually maintain a more-or-less ‘horizontal’ cutting technique with the jamón on the stand. The right thin-ness of the cut is crucial to the enjoyment of Spanish jamón:

And here are my photos of Otoño’s jamón during my visit:

I really love the fact that Chef Montaño is offering this wonderful Spanish product here in L.A. True, the cutting needs a little work, but I’m sure it’ll get better!

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