The fine dining opportunity spotted by @PorkyBelly is up now and on for 9/25 and 9/26.
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This will be an 11 course dinner according to a source.
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Jasmine Milk Tea
Even though it’s nothing like HK milk tea, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s light-bodied and has a strong floral aroma with a hint of milkiness so the Jasmine flavor really comes through. I also appreciate that it’s not too sweet. @beefnoguy @TheCookie @PorkyBelly
And for $12, you get 750 ml of goodness AND the lovely glass bottle to boot! #dealz
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I got some good serving dishes from Ross! 
The Jasmine Milk Tea sounds delicious!
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Phenakite - Equinox Dinner Under the Stars
Equinox Amuse
Champaign grapes and Phenakite champaign agar, ogonori seaweed, gooseberries, celtuce, finger limes, wasabi, shisho
Chef Minh passed this first course around, describing it as: the garden meets the sea. It was just a shooter and an absolute flavor bomb.
A Seaside Garden Walk
Wild figs, borage, crab, pickles, black sesame vichyssoise, lemon verbena oil
This was the first course after being sat, and was instantly reminiscent of something you’d find at Porridge and Puffs, but with a lot more tweezer action going on. I loved the sweetness of the fig and the black sesame vichyssoise underneath was creamy and silky. Eaten all together, the crab played in the background like an expert bassist.
After two courses, I’m thinking this is already one of the best meals I’ve had in 2020.
The Visualize
Bourbon, black sesame syrup, and iki Japanese bitters.
The next thing to hit my table is a cocktail—It’s strong on the bourbon, but you do pick up just hints of sesame.
The next two courses come on the same plate.
Beverly Blvd
Steamed corn cake with Chinese sausage, corn, wasted stems, tomatillo-coriander sauce, pickled okras and carrot.
The corn cake will be familiar if you had any of the Porridge + Puffs x n/naka collaboration dinners, and I was more than happy to eat this one again. It’s a great expression of late summer corn and the spicy tomatillo sauce accented it perfectly.
SoCal Patio
Santa Barbara spot prawns and sweet potato fitter, watercress, pickled radishes, oro blanco-habanero kasha
The spot prawn is still the course that I’m thinking about days later. Not only was the technique impressive of wrapping the sweet potato around the outside and turning the prawn into a fitter, but the flavor was unreal. Soft, perfectly cooked, and with a killer oro blanco-habanero kasha sauce, it was the bite of the night.
Fire
Bincho-seared swordfish, smoked tomatoes, chrysanthemum, watermelon rind and passionfruit pickles, baby lotus pickles, basil.
Chef Minh approached holding a small donabe and a blowtorch, and after lifting the lid scorched the insides before recovering and letting the contents sit in the smoke for a few seconds. Swordfish can be tough or dry sometimes, but this was still incredibly juicy. It was simply seasoned, which contrasted against the pops of flavor provided by the tomatoes and pickles.
Grounding
Scallion rolled rice and millet cake, braised short ribs, fennel, carrots, cucumber and kohlrabi tossed in calamansi vinaigrette, enoki tempura, cinnamon basil
The braised short ribs underneath the cake was also very similar to the short rib spaetzel course in the Porridge + Puffs x n/naka collaboration dinner, but this was much better. With the cake, each bite came together effortlessly, and the fresh salad was a welcome respite between each rich bite of beef. The enoki mushroom tempura was beautiful and crunchy.
Gratitude
Brown butter abalone liver porridge with pan smoked abalone, nori oil, koji fermented goji and ginger, radish sprouts, negi
Another dish from the collaboration dinners, but with a couple tweaks. The abalone was a bit chewier and felt heartier. The porridge was a bit pepperier, but also luscious and so GD creamy. All mixed together it was such a delight and one I absolutely scraped clean.
Balance
Wintermelon, pork meatball, herbs
Our 8th course for those keeping score at home was the meatball. Introduced as a palette cleanser or a bridge between savory and sweet course, it was similar to the one in the n/naka x Porridge + Puffs bento boxes. It was really just one or two bites, but I wish there were probably 6 or 7 more. It had a wonderful broth that was perfect to drink while the night cooled off.
Cornsilk Chamomile
Off of the nonalcoholic drinks menu, this absolutely blew me away. It was like drinking liquid sweet scorn. 
Cleanse
Purslane granita, frozen phenakites, lychee grapes, “wasted” fruit and stem jam
Unfortunately, this had already melted when it hit the table. But it was still delicious eating it as cold soup, albeit with an absolutely tiny spoon. All the gummies and jellies made out of the scraps from the dinner were punches of fruity flavor.
Sweet
Cardamon cremeux, buckwheat, oats, jujubes, tart cherries, carrot ice cream
Housed underneath the granita, the cardamom cremeux was a whimsical end to the meal. The fantastically balanced carrot ice cream and other crunchy toppings were a perfect accompaniment.
Phenakite Party
The edible crystal glass was the last bite to top it off and left me with a crunchy and sweet blast of fruity sugar. A statement for the end of the meal.
A bit about the dining experience itself: hosted at Second Home in Hollywood, the nearly overgrown coworking space was actually great for a pop up like this. The team had protocols in place and the servers generally left us alone. Everything was swapped out smoothly and there were little spray bottles of hand sanitizer for us to keep. The space had plenty of tree coverage, so it was still open air but also felt covered and secluded—definitely not like a retrofitted parking lot. All of the tables were way more than 6 feet apart and bumping into other guests was never a concern.
Overall, this was a fully remarkable meal. It was definitely fine-dining with the Porridge + Puffs DNA. I recall earlier this year taking my folks to Porridge + Puffs for brunch, and them remaking that the humble porridge and salads we ate were like Michelin quality dishes. Phenakite was Chef Minh and her team flexing those muscles, giving everyone a glimpse of what they can do given the latitude. I’m absolutely thrilled to see what the team comes up with in the future.
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Great to see Chef Phan flex those fine dining muscles! Don’t get me wrong, P+P is absolutely great, and I think we’re really lucky to have it, but there were times I felt that Chef Phan should really take to the skies display her impressive prowess and pedigree. This meal is so splendid to see (and to taste, I’m sure)…
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IMO I think Chef Phan is making some very creative, thoughtful, and tasty food. I am glad she is doing some fine dining. I think she deserves more credit as one of LA’s best chef. Before I left LA, Porridge and Puffs easily became one of my favorite restaurants. Just beautiful food.
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this looks phenomenal, fantastic write up. wish you could show more of the space as a few of the pictures floating on IG was also phenomenal.
was the scallion rice roll…like cheung fun or banh cuon or was it wheat based like a scallion pancake?
Chef Minh never ceases to amaze and this meal really makes you appreciate the “normal” menu as many of these components are often found there. but I think can gloat a bit in that I might have inspired her with the spot prawn dish…a classic hanoi banh tom, shrimp sweet potato fritter, but typically not wrapped like this…
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDrcVJVBPwE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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any good versions around town to hold me over until you open your pop-up?
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Ahh thanks–yes I should have taken some more pictures of the set up–I will next time!
The rice roll was a bit closer to cheung fun, as I found it a bit chewier and had to kind of cut it with my utensils to get a good bite and I think the rice helped create that texture. But the millet flavor did come through.
Your banh tom looks really close to what we had 
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particularly n/naka’s Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida, who gave Phan ceramics made for a Vespertine collaboration as a “permanent loan” for Phenakite
there was an n/naka-vespertine collab?
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Wow, wow, wow! So much to unpack in that article.
Seems like the take away is that Chef Minh is overseeing two different operations, the FTC favorite Porridge and Puffs, and this new fine dining Phenakite.
She’s promoting staff at PP into bigger roles to continue their comfort food and pantry staples and taking on new staff and collaborators at Phenakite.
Just when we thought Chef Minh was just trying to survive this pandemic, she just went YOLO!
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Sounds like she has a great team behind her!
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“I am super excited about Connie spreading her wings and taking over P+P,” Phan said. “She’s been at my side, through thick and thin, for almost two years. She and Traci Matsumoto have made the restaurant what it is, through its half-dozen incarnations (including a focus on takeout tasting menus and flower arrangements) in the last seven months.
Stoked to hear that P+P is reopening as well. I really enjoyed the tasting menu style takeout menus.
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p+p x ototo
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I love how thoughtful porridge + puffs and Ototo have been with their vegetarian options at their respective restaurants. And now together? This looks great.
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And before heading on over to OTOTO to pick up dinner, you can drop by P+P for a pastry box collab.
On Black Friday, it looks like they’ll be selling $10 tokens that can be traded in for porridge (instead of the $14-15). 11/27 only. Cash only. Limit 6.
https://porridgeandpuffs.square.site/product/ototo-and-p-p-pastry-box/557
https://porridgeandpuffs.square.site/
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