Wow, nice bang bang! Glad you liked the truffle ice cream… it’s worth the price of admission alone I think. Interesting on the crumbly texture… for our batch we got it wasn’t super creamy, but it wasn’t crumbly. I hope it was just a fluke on texture. Thanks.
fish sandwich - beer battered white fish with american cheese and dill pickles served on a steamed bun with homemade tartar sauce
They should rename this thing the “school of fish sandwich” or the “filet-o-school-o-fish™”, this thing was massive. It had at least 2 or 3 perfectly fried, flaky filets of fish, delicious tartar sauce, crisp pickles, and enough glorious processed yellow American cheese to cover the whole thing. If you’re in the FoF fan club, paging @JeetKuneBao, @Chowseeker1999, @J_L, @Mattapoisett_in_LA, @js76wisco, @OCSteve, @Ns1, @Sgee, (am i missing anybody) you need to try this.
Came here to try the tomatoes and bar pie but unfortunately their pastry chef left and Friday was her last night.
momotaro tomato - bagna cauda, lap xuong, creme fraiche, fines herbes
Everything tasted fine, unfortunately the tomato itself wasn’t quite there in terms of flavor.
BANG BANG SUCCESS
HOLBOX > REVOLUTIONARIO (This was a bit ago, but I still revel in its great success)
BANG BANG FAILURE
BEST NOODLE HOUSE > DONUT MAN (When Donut Man is closed for the holiday weekend, but you didn’t know and still drove all that way, and now you don’t have no donut for your drive back to LA where everyone will ask you, “How was that donut from Donut Man??” and you’ll lie and say, “Oh, it was great,” and they’ll know you’re lying and say, “Why was it so great? Describe it to me in detail,” and you’ll break down on the spot, covering the sidewalk in tears, confessing the sham and shame of it all.)
Bing bang bong on Saturday. Went to Superba on Lincoln in Venice to pick up pastries and desserts. Couple that with an unexpected trip to K-town-adjacent, I ended up grabbing a couple of birds at Pollo a la Brasa.
Bing - Superba truly does a beautiful job on the aesthtics of their pastries. Most actually taste as good as they look too. Their guava cream cheese croissant is a standout. It’s a big loud beast oozing with guava preserves and cream cheese (it might actually be something like creme fraiche blended with cream cheese). Their rueben croissant is a nice savory counter to all the sweets.
Bang - the birds from Pollo a la Brasa were so moist with a nice bronzing on the skin. The roasting process involves wood as opposed to gas, so the kiss of wood smoke adds a nice complexity. You can’t miss this place on Western - just follow the smell of smoke and look for the stacks of firewood.
Bong - like banging the gong on The Gong Show. I mentioned picking up dessert at Superba as well. Banana cream pies that were so beautifully constructed were calling to me. Rectangular in shape with perfectly scalloped waves of whipped cream on top, I couldn’t resist. I was so looking forward to these after downing the pollo a la Brasa, but the pies were so meh on flavor, and the crusts were super hard - needed a knife to pierce and break the crust apart in order to eat it. Mean Gene the Dancing Machine - set the hooks and drag these underperformers off the stage please.
Eggslut is too squishy for me. As a soft-scrambled egg lover, there is something odd and runny about the eggs, and the bun is too rich. The whole thing is overwhelming to me.
#Nambankan
I was a bit underwhelmed with dinner most of the skewers were under seasoned and I had to use the provided togarashi to give it some flavor. The scallops, lamb chop, shrimp and squid looked great but were sadly overcooked. Highlights were the tsukune, heart, dark meat with scallions, and eggplant.
#Popcorn chicken Hokkaido milk slush
Stick with volcano down the street
popcorn chicken
These were okay, their “secret” seasoning tasted like too much five spice and cinnamon.
#Artelice Patisserie
Filling was really good, my favorite was the exotic. My only nit was the the outer shell on the exotic and cheesecake had this sticky, elastic, rubbery texture so it was like trying to eat through a melting racquetball.
yuzu tart
cheesecake fraise - lemon and vanilla cream cheese mousse with strawberry insert and sable cookie
exotic - pistachio sponge, mango, banana, passion fruit insert with Caribbean cocktail (pineapple, coconut, lemon, and passion fruit) mousse