LUDO BITES

We finally made our journey to the highly acclaimed LUDO BITES. I must say, I was waiting in anticipation all week. Especially with Ludo's tweeting, musing about his potential ingredients and dishes, my mouth was watering.

Ludo Bites is a temporary "guerrilla style" pop-up restaurant that is serving out of the Breadbar in Beverly Hills. Ludo is serving his ingenious creations here Tuesday-Saturday nights until August 22.

We began the evening with the snails, spinach and curry and the creamy polenta, cantal cheese, oxtail beef and black truffle. I will admit, both me and my boyfriend were snail virgins. I am willing to try anything once (almost anything - i've seen what Zimmern and Bourdain eat, and I am not going to promise anything). I had a feeling Ludo would not disappoint, and he did not. The snails were wonderful. Well, at least the foamed curry, spinach and toast was full of intense flavor, and the snails just provided an interesting texture and protein. Overall, we were both largely impressed. However, my favorite dish of the night was the polenta and oxtail. I can guarantee you I will be recreating this dish this winter and snuggling up on the couch with a huge bowlful of this on more than one occasion. It was wonderfully rich and comforting. Perfectly seasoned, and a pleasure to the palate. We could have ended the evening right there.

But we didn't. We moved on to the bacon tart (yes, bacon tart) and the "spaghetti" carbonara" (both of which were recommended by the Chef himself). The bacon tart is not for the health conscious, or those with high cholesterol. The bacon tart is composed of chopped up bacon, almonds and cinnamon atop of a puff pastry and served alongside chantilly butter. And, yes, I admit, we generously smothered the butter atop the bacon - when in Rome... Honestly, it was not our favorite dish, however it was an interesting experience. The "spaghetti" carbonara was actually not spaghetti but rather strands of celery root in a peppery cream sauce with wonderfully large prawns. It was incredibly flavorful and you didn't miss the pasta one bit. The celery root actually added a nice texture to the dish, and lightened up what usually is a pretty heavy meal.

We ended the night with a sweet - and salty - note. Along with being snail virgins, we were also caviar virgins. So we had to order the panna cotta, caramel and caviar. When it arrived, being caviar virgins, we each tried a bit of the caviar alone. That was an experience in itself, salty fishiness, not anything you want on top of any dessert you are about to eat. However, then we tried the entire dish together, the creamy cool panna cotta, with sweet caramel, and the salty caviar, and I have to admit, it was very good. Each element perfectly complimented the other, the saltiness, the creaminess and the sweetness. I am not sure that I would order it again, but I am sure glad I tried it!

Thank you Ludo for a wonderful culinary experience. We will be seeing you again soon!

P.S. if you want to taste these innovative culinary creations, you better hurry up, you only have 2 weeks left. After that you will have to cross your fingers and hope that his next restaurant "pops up" back here in LA.