Catching up on the rest of the month here with a little BBR.
Burmese Please
Tea Leaf Salad
There was only one pop-up from Chef Nicely this month, so I was really jonesing for some of that sweet sweet fermented tea leaf action.
Bar Ama
Brussel Sprouts with Cherry Tomatoes
With Baco Mercat gone, I’m so happy that Chef Centeno is carrying over some of the dishes and flavors from that restaurant to the still humming Bar Ama. While it’s not the caesar brussel sprout dish that caused me to fall in love with Chef Centeno’s cooking in the first place, these fried brussel sprouts are reminiscent of many of the flavors that made it into other dishes at Baco—fenugreek, pickled onion, a bit of cheese, and a variety of fresh herbs.
Tex Mex Corn
The proper ratio of any street style Mexican corn is 1:1 corn to butter. Here Chef Cento makes it 1 part corn, 1 part butter, 1 part cheese, and it is absolutely glorious.
Tartine Silver Lake
Persian Herb Omelette
Kuku Sabzi is up there among my personal favorite egg dishes, and while I normally see much more herbs making up the dish, I really dug the version here at Tartine. It was piping hot when I picked it up and paired with the yogurt and basically butter fried bread it was a highly satisfying meal.
Tiger and the Horse
Chef’s Choice Chirashi
The Tiger and Horse has just gone on hiatus for a little bit, so I jumped at the opportunity to get one last order of chirashi in. The variety of fish was expertly cut and presented with charred salmon belly and freshly fried eggplant tempura. The Tiger and the Horse has quietly been churning out some of my favorite chirashi bowls of the pandemic era.
Mizlala West Adams
Crispy Broccoli
Nutritional value is inversely proportional to taste.
Brussel Sprouts
I have a deep love for brussel sprouts and Mizlala’s charred and fried version is one of my favorites in the city.
Zooies
Carrot Cake Cookie
In the midst of batch 3 research I stumbled on the carrot cake cookie. It’s exactly as described—your typical carrot cake flavors and elements pressed into cookie form. So there are chunks of walnut and raisin alongside slim shavings of carrot and a nice dollop of cream cheese frosting. It has the same hallmark quality of Zooie’s chocolate chip cookies, chewy, gooey, and confident.
Keepers
Mochi doughnuts
These are smaller than the ones you’ll find at Modo Hawaii, so the exterior is a bit crisper on the exterior to the extent of almost being crunchy. That said, they’re all still very chewy and quite packed with sweetness. At 6 for $6, it would be hard not to put them away quickly because they’re a pretty good snacking size. At the time, they had 4 flavors: Strawberry, Matcha, Chocolate, and Glazed
