City Hall (The SS Remix)

Thanks to an invitation from a friend, I was able to join a mixed group of sorts at, oddly enough, a DJ set on the lawn of City Hall in downtown Los Angeles where one of my old favorites was spinning, Groove Armada. They were being opened by Jason Bentley who many forget was a DJ before he became a radio personality for a reputable music program on KCRW.

I’m listening to Radio1’s Essential Mix (they are showcasing Moby’s set in Miami from this past WMC) courtesy of my girlfriend in Grenada; she is there for medical school (and always a good source of music).

My friend and her boyfriend picked me up on their way; and we made one more stop to get Chef Matt, an interesting and worldly friend of theirs whose music tastes trend towards the largely under-discovered European electronic artists (minimalists he calls them). He is so-named because he is a personal chef. He just got back from Miami and was sharing his WMC experiences with us in the car. For those not in-the-know, the Winter Music Conference is a weeklong electronic music event held every March in Miami. It is a who’s who of electronic music and attended by fans from around the world.

Switching up my music to The Faint’s “The Conductor” remixed by Thin White Duke on their Danse Macabre Remixes album

We got Downtown early enough to reminisce at the Standard, where both good and bad memories haunt me…and so be it. What fun is nostalgia if it cannot offer you a pointed experience when strolling down its familiar lanes?

At the bar we ordered Ketel-sodas and Ketel-Citron-sodas. Admittedly I am not a soda girl. I switched from tonic to soda several years ago only because soda has no sugar, but it also has no flavor. So after a season or two of ordering vodka sodas, I switched to straight, clean vodka, neat with a twist and served in a snifter. No more watered-down versions of what could be a smooth and tasty liquor for me…although I had to change this preference as well because I am a fast drinker (not a tippler, mind you).

Les Rythmes Digitales “Jacques Your Body Makes Me Sweat”

Of course that put me in my kind of a frivolous bind. What should become my drink of choice now? Should it be socially influenced or driven by my taste? I happened to visit Cuba several years back (it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience) and for a while I was faithfully hooked on Mojitos, but invariably none are ever as good as I had tasted in Cuba, so on to the next. An old friend of mine, a southern belle, would always order Black Russians, so I had a flirty stint with those as well...but enough about cocktails. I settled on the Ketel-Citron-soda because Chef Matt ordered one, and it seemed like a nice, light starter cocktail for me.

We also ordered food: overcooked sliders with dried-out skewers of steak and chicken and a wilted frisee salad. Yes, I didn’t know it was possible to wilt frisee either, but apparently it is. The French fries were dark and crispy, which is fine to me, but they were also heavily salted (but who doesn’t make that mistake these days unfortunately). All things considered, it is the rooftop bar at the Standard, and that culinary experience has always been a mixed bag of sorts for me.

Another one of their friends, a private practice lawyer, joined us as we repositioned ourselves at the couches. He played football in Nebraska and came out to California like many others do, for a sunny, more successful, upbeat change of pace. He found his refuge in Hermosa Beach. Not a shock as many supplants first migrate towards the beach cities, also known as the South Bay, when coming to California. I myself live in Hermosa, and up until about three months ago in Manhattan Beach.

Felix da Housecat “Silver Screen Shower Scene” (Thin White Duke Mix by Jacques Lu Cont)

Our conversation spanned an array of topics, from the delicate to the severe, from the perceived loss of habeas corpus for non-citizens to Top Chef, a cooking show on Bravo TV. I am a huge fan of Top Chef, so all of my questions were of course directed at Chef Matt. “Have you considered being on the show?” “What knives do you have in your knife roll?” “What is your favorite ethnic food group to prepare?” etc.

On our way out, I stopped in the restroom and was surrounded by the happy alcoholic buzz of three rambunctious Newport Beach women pitstopping on the rooftop before heading home from a designer jeans sale at the LA Convention Center. They proudly pulled out their Hudson and True Religion purchases from their purses for my inspection. Yes, I know, why? I guess I have a friendly smile--and they were also drunk.

The Whitest Boy Alive “Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)”

We parked at an outside lot a few blocks away; the opening acts had already begun and we could hear a persistent electronic bass line from our outside lot. That alone was enough to give me that giddy feeling akin to a teenage girl before a school dance. We started our beeline through the parked cars towards the sound.

Tickets, will call, nasty bathroom stalls, and a few grassy knolls later, we were standing in the middle of a crowd of head-bobbers and enjoying Jason Bentley. With cheap cocktails in hand, and a little over an hour later, we appropriately shouted our welcome as Andy Cato and Tom Findlay, aka Groove Armada, strode onto the stage.

Their set was pleasant and pumped. It had the perfect crowd-pleasing crescendos that broke into ear-splitting bass lines. And as I enjoyed the music and soaked in the experience, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy at how many other people were experiencing something akin to my appreciation of their music. A part of me wondered if my best-kept-secret-of-yesterday had become the latest kitschy music craze.

Hot Chip “The Warning”

Ah, well. I cannot deny that I love the music, no matter how popular it is or not. I just do.

A Case of You

Admittedly this Joni Mitchell song prompted me to post for the first time in months.

"You're in my blood like holy wine. You taste so bitter and so sweet. Oh, I could drink a case of you, and I'd still be on my feet, I'd still be on my feet."

Don't know why it affects me with nostalgia whenever I listen to it. When it was popular in its day, I don't think that I was even born. But there's something familiar, something comforting...it makes me smile.

That's how I felt last night while enjoying our potluck-turned-quasi-Easter dinner for those orphans among us (there are quite a few). Our spread was a veritable feast of sorts. We started with two types of tapenade, olive and artichoke, and four kinds of cheese, with a basket of assorted crackers, pita chips, and chunks of soda bread. Someone made delicious cheese and onion stuffed mushrooms. Our gracious host made stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. The main courses were even heartier and full of classics. There was a crunchy onion-topped green bean casserole, a spinach dish with bacon and onions, a squash souffle, and I made the baked ham with a whole grain mustard glaze and mashed potatoes with celery root and garlic. Our host made a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. And everything was accompanied by wine, a buttery chard, a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, two California cabernets, and some microbrews.

Our conversations flowed with a familiar ease. I could have closed my eyes and transported myself back ten years, having the same experience with my family. I wore a permanent smile all night. The evening was as comforting to me as my glass of cab.

As I left the dinner party with my packaged leftovers (thanks again to the host), I couldn't help but be reflective, almost retrospective...in the perfectly sappy and sentimental sense.

It feels good to be back. It feels really good.

New Lease

So, it's been 5 months since I last blogged...5 fully loaded months.... And through these past few months I've developed a new lease on life (yep, I said it; I overused it). I've even made changes in these past few months that will likely drive even less traffic to my blog, but so be it...for now. I will definitely be blogging more frequently, that I do know.

Pretentious Food Trends

Okay, so I know it's been a little long since my last blog, and I've actually had this blog in my head for about 3 weeks now, so I figged it's time to post it. In an earlier blog I talk about many of the foods that I love, and how...depending on the establishment...I will harshly, or appropriately, criticize the food. This builds off of that last, and severely conscientious, judgement of food...my judgement of food, that is.

* * * * *

This year I wanted to keep my birthday mellow. It wasn't an important number to anyone except to me (insomuch as I've finally turned the age that I've wanted to be frozen in time at since the age of 10). Mylo was going to take me to dinner, and since I'm far more particular when it comes to food, I got to choose the place. There are many, many eating establishments in Los Angeles that I would absolutely love to patronize...many, many...and I thought that this would be a welcome reason to try one of them, but alas, my birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year, and many establishments had modified menus, pre fixe offerings, odd hours of operation, etc. etc. etc. So, in the interest of getting Mylo to share a bottle of wine with me, we had to find a place that was walking distance from one of our houses. I chose a place close to mine, a Cali-franco eatery known for its wine cellar. That alone made me anticipate dinner. Of course I inspected the online "sample" menu and it looked promising.

When we got to the restaurant, we were seated at a small table in the middle. Our server was young and friendly...and did not know how to pronounce half of the menu items; she corrected my pronunciation of "meritage" (a made-up word for one of my fave wine blends that actually rhymes with "heritage"). We ordered a burrata plate (with carmelized yellow grape tomatoes and their house eggplant tapenade in the middle), and she didn't know that the heavenly pillow of cheese on the one side of the plate was the burrata. She is not my complaint, though.

My unwelcomed epiphany came when I was perusing the menu and then, as the evening wore on, trying to enjoy our food. It dawned on me that half of their menu items had changed since the online offering must have been posted. The menu had become a collection of pretentious, trendy food plates that had transcended the foodie restos and had already begun to infiltrate the chain establishments--much like Target has been successful at doing with its clothing (budget-minded threads with designs that were introduced at the New York Fashion Show a year or so earlier). Granted, I am not a clothier, nor do I regularly buy clothes, so Target is fine by me. But food? Food is a very different story.

The restaurant had a representative from almost every food trend in the food industry today: Colorado lamb, tilapia (the junk fish of the Polynesian Islands I might add), Kurabuto pork, and Wagyu (Kobe) beef--this is only a list of some of their meats. They "infused" the popular citrus trend with Mandarin sauces, Clementine sorbet, Meyer lemon reductions, and blood orange coulee. One of their two risotto dishes was a mushroom risotto (actually a porcini), while they employed morels in another dish. They were also trite enough to offer a beef tataki and Louisiana crab cakes. I almost half expected to see Diver scallops with a soy gelee or a yuzu foam, or better yet, an offering of something, anything, like a soup "served three ways."

There was absolutely nothing original on their menu, nothing at all.

The evening got worse. Their dishes were not executed well either. They were hardly pretty to look at on the plate. The burrata dish and BOTH of our entrees were also doused in a pesto (we had kabocha squash ravioli - yes, kabocha - and a lamb special with chunks of lamb that were SO chewy, it took me forever to eat half of my dish). The pesto completely overpowered the burrata cheese and the ravioli. It slightly added to my lamb dish which was oversalted, but otherwise underseasoned. And since nothing inspired me on their dessert tray, I ordered a cheese plate with 3 types of cheese (some kind of blue, a soft, and a semi-hard).

Mylo isn't the most critical restaurant patron (definitely not like me), and even he was still able to be completely unamused. We walked out of the restaurant wondering what exactly we had paid for.

Now this blog is not to say that I have a problem with certain food trends. Of course some of these dishes will be seen more frequently on menus across America because their ingredients are more easily available to resto kitchens and chefs, and they have picked up some popularity as well, thus many kitchens want to serve what they think their patrons will want to eat. I can understand that, the practice of following certain food trends. And I can understand the latter, choosing, and depending on, only certain popular trends at a place that is void of risk, the kind of place that depends on consistency and dependability in order to survive, the kind of place that served Chilean sea bass back in the day and before it was overfished. If you are the neighborhood mom-and-pop Italian restaurant that caters to families, you are not going to veer too much from a traditional Italian menu. In the same token, the local sushi restaurant will not be serving filet mignon. And the healthy American restaurant chain will always serve a combination thereof including every popular dish that is current and marketable.

I did not think that my little Cali-franco establishment was one of those places that wagered nothing and yet tried to provide a little bit of everything. I did not think that it was going to be so...uninspired. But I was very humbly, and completely, mistaken. Its price tag was definitely not reflective of this lack of creativity either. And its most recent reviews were quite favorable.

I do not have a response for this experience. I do not know what to say or how to avoid it in the future without being too auspicious, and, in the process, all but marking the evening. Of course, this is where my reasonable-thinking cap goes on. Had I been at a Daily Grill or a McCormick's and Schmick's, or even a Flemings, I might have judged this experience a little less harshly (as chains, they have to maintain a certain uniform and thus rather insipid standard across the board and in all of their locations).

I do, however, try to be appropriate and fair with my critical opinion of a food experience, and...that is why this one goes down in the books as being a really disappointing one.