Sold out already?! WTF?!
Aw darn! I was trying to see if I could get it for Sunday but it’s all gone.
I decided to randomly check Ototo’s website and they have the strawberry daifuku in stock for this weekend, along with a new muscat grape daifuku! I ordered those two along with the anmitsu and matcha cream puff to try. Also ordered the vegan tofu donburi bowl, since I can’t have a meal of just sweets (or can I? 
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I can finally get my hands on their strawberry daifuku thanks to your post! Thank you!
yay! did you get a grape one too or just the strawberry?
I got 2 sets of daifuku along with a few cream puffs.
Thank you! Got a set. And not only are they muscat grapes they’re japanese magical grapes 
Wow great timing. I was going to put in an order later tonight for some sake they just stocked again and this got me to push go while adding these in. Now I can finally get in on this daifuku deliciousness! 
Resy put together a handful of short docs on how restaurants pivoted after the lockdown and I just got through them. They’re pretty good quality and offer a nice behind the scenes look at how the chefs/owners handled the shutdown.
There are videos on Alta Adams, Kismet, Kensho, and Lasa.
Yesterday I ordered Hinoki & the Bird via Postmates. Hadn’t been there in years and wasn’t expecting much because I always found the place overpriced and just okay, but the restaurant is close by and I was starving and wanted food delivered ASAP.
Very pleasantly surprised by the $16 fried Jidori Chicken – definitely one of the best fried chickens I have had (although I’ve never made it Howlin’ Rays). Eating it left my hands a red sticky mess, and I say that as a compliment. It wasn’t hot spicy per se, but it was nicely flavored with a nice dose of, I guess, red chili and paprika. Since Hinoki & the Bird was never a budget place, I assumed I would be getting a tiny appetizer portion for $16, but it was actually big enough for two people (not that I didn’t devour it by myself). My only regret was that I didn’t want to open a bottle of champagne to go with it when just eating solo, but it would have been even better with champagne.
Because I assumed the portion would be so tiny and not enough for a full meal, I also ordered avocado tostadas with shiso leaf. They were nice, but not sure I would go out of my way again for them.
The only miss was that I fell off my self-imposed sugar hiatus and ordered miso glazed donuts. They truly suffered with delivery, but even putting the delivery issue aside, I thought the flavors were off. Waste of calories.
Bottom line - I will definitely try other things on the menu based on that fried chicken.
The only thing I remember about Hinoki & the Bird was their hinoki scented black cod which was a treat.
Picture by LA Times.
I LOVE their Fried Chicken
Hinoki & the Bird is probably the single closest restaurant to where I live and I had no idea of what I had been missing out on with that fried chicken. I also see on their website that they are open for patio dining, but that is not a step I have yet taken, being perhaps the most paranoid person in my social circle, almost all of whom have been long back to outdoor dining.
Some of my favorite delivery options (living in DTLA):
Elf. High-end vegetarian cooking with robust flavors and a high degree of world food knowledge and creativity. Way better than most vegetarian restaurants. Way better than most restaurants period. Their roasted jackfruit is sensational. The best restaurant in Echo Park by miles.
Southern Spice Indian Kitchen. This restaurant recently appeared out of nowhere on Caviar. I think it’s the best Indian restaurant in Los Angeles (after five deliveries).
Kismet. Refined food with robust flavors. Mostly vegetarian but good meat dishes too. Delivers well.
Last night’s delivery from Hinoki & the Bird was so delicious that I tried again tonight.
Tonight I got cooked Spanish Octopus and “Local Sashimi.”
The Spanish Octopus was freakin’ delicious. Not a huge portion, but enough for one person for a lightish dinner.
The sashimi was fine – not going to make anyone stop going to their favorite sushi restaurant – but fine.
Anxious to try a few more things. Whoever is in the kitchen knows what they are doing.
Hinoki & the Bird so good, out of curiosity I looked up the chef because I wanted to see his Pedigree. Now it all makes sense. He’s Japanese American and I gravitate towards Japanese cuisine. He was executive chef at Asiate in New York, which at one time was a really nice restaurant. Also worked at Lutece. Chef — Hinoki & the Bird I want more of his food.
Continuing to do a lot of pandemic delivery - the good, the bad and the ugly.
Starting with the good - another Hinoki & the Bird delivery last week. Bucatini with roasted garlic, parmesan cheese and white soy. This was the best pandemic pasta I have had - not the best pasta I have ever eaten, but definitely the best pandemic pasta because it was the only pandemic pasta that didn’t arrive as an overcooked gluey mess. I think some places are overcooking their pasta and then packaging the pasta so it continues to steam on its way for delivery. This one arrived in perfect condition and was only $14 to boot. Also ordered a kale salad with spiced nuts and pecorino.
The flavors were delicious, but too many tough unmacerated kale leaves mixed with the macerated leaves.
Now on to the bad and ugly.
AOC - Spanish fried chicken was a soggy tasteless mess. Quite the letdown after the superb fried chicken I had earlier in the week from Hinoki & the Bird. Farmer’s plate (roasted vegetables, muhamarra & chickpea purée, burrata & grilled toast) was so bad as to be unspeakable. Muhamarra is one of the great foodstuffs of the world, but this was oily and bland and the burrata was not good quality and was equally bad. I ended up tossing the dish.
Today was lunch delivery from Haifa, a kosher restaurant on Pico where I haven’t been for years. The chicken kebob was edible, but the $2 add on baba ganoush and the $2 add-on hummus were not. The baba ganoush had no discernible eggplant taste, had the consistency of whipped marshmallow fluff and tasted like low-quality mayonnaise had been folded in. No way could it have been made from scratch. The hummus had no flavor whatsoever – tasted like it came from one of those “easy” mixes. Yeech. And the pita was stale as hell.
Can’t win them all.
I remember reading about this place from Naples, Italy that ships pizza in the US. Has anybody tried it out? It doesn’t seem like a bad deal with free shipping.