Bistro LQ

In July 2009, Chef Laurent Quenioux opened up Bistro LQ, serving up his French Nouvelle California cuisine with a Farmer's Market driven kitchen. To be honest, I can't say that I am especially well versed in French Cuisine. During my trip to France I think I visited more patisseries than fine dining establishments. Its true, I have one heck of a sweet tooth! So I was pretty excited to try out Bistro LQ with fellow food bloggers and foodie-extraordinaires PepsiMonster, samkimsamkim, LAOCfoodie, olivejina and estarla.

The dining room itself is modern and simple, yet exquisitely elegant. And the waiters, while dressed in their standard black uniforms, spice it up just enough with their bright red converse, adding a little flare and personality to the otherwise clean and classic dining room.


Chef Quenioux offers both a 6 and a 9 course tasting menu (the 9 requires the participation of the whole table). There was a little debate at first, but thankfully we decided to go with the 6 course. That was a good decision seeing as though our 6 courses magically turned into 12 with the various amuse bouche, intermezzos, cheese and desserts. Had we decided to dive in actually go with the 9 course menu, we definitely would have been there long enough to see the sun rise!


My two favorite dishes, hands down, were the lobster tapioca with uni and the touchon-style foie gras. The Lobster tapioca with uni (sea urchin) was simply heavenly. The creamy and slightly spicy tapioca topped with the fresh uni was phenomenal. I savored the flavors of each tiny bite hoping that they would linger in my mouth forever. The Phillo filled with oxtail jam, and topped with Torchon-style foie gras, frisee and pistachio oil left me speechless. The oxtail jam stuffed phillo was rich and savory, and the foie gras was cool and creamy. The perfect compliments to each other creating one absolutely extraordinary dish. I still have dreams about this dish...

Some other dishes included Cuttlefish with chanterelles and quinoa served with a smoked egg; Smoked eel served on top of seared foie gras and topped with caramelized apple; Veal cheeks, corn sorbet, pea shoots, pea guacamole and pea gazpacho; Smoked salmon with a fried squash blossom and cucumber sorbet and Squab with duck hearts, duck gizzard pastilla with pistachios, rhubarb and ras el hanout jus.

Overall, the entrees were very good. A few of the dishes involved smoking, and the smoky flavor was a bit overwhelming and for me and took away from the otherwise fresh and rich flavors.

But now, it was time for everybody's most anticipated course....THE CHEESE!!


The cheese cart as Bistro LQ is no laughing matter. It is a cheese cart to rival cheese carts in Los Angeles. From creamy, to pungent, to firm and to fresh. There was a cheese for every craving. In addition to the amazing array of cheeses, Bisto LQ offers an assortment of breads, truffle honey (oh yes, I said truffle honey!), and various jellies and condiments to accompany your cheese selections.


Finally, to top off our fabulous meal we ended with tea and dessert. I was so excited when the waiter brought out my tea, and along with it he brought two beautiful flavored sugars - coconut sugar and marshmallow sugar. Maybe it is the girl in me, or the child in me, but I loved the novelty of the bright blue marshmallow sugar. Not only did it look beautiful, and smell great, it made the tea taste exquisite.

The desserts, on the other hand, were not the standouts of the meal. They were beautifully plated, however most of them were fruit based, and I tend to stay away from the "healthy" desserts.

Verdict: There were some dishes (including the lobster tapioca with uni and the touchon-style foie gras) that I will continue to dream about and that I will wait in anticipation to try again, and there were also some misses. But overall, it was an experience that I would not pass up. Laurent Quenioux put together an exquisite array of dishes that are more than worthy of sampling.

Bistro LQ
8009 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048-4503
(323) 951-1088

Animal Restaurant

In 2008 Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo opened Animal restaurant in Los Angeles. Since then John and Vinny have become the talk of the town amongst Los Angeles foodies, have won Food & Wine Best New Chefs of 2009 award, and received a James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant. Quite a year for the duo.

The menu at Animal is based upon...yes, you guessed it - MEAT! More specifically rustic, comforting meat dishes - like their famous poutine (a dish from Canada - french fries topped with oxtail gravy and melted cheddar). The menu is not for the health conscious. Animal is truly for the carnivorous.

Dave and I decided to finally pay this animal a visit.

ROUND 1: Amberjack and Grilled Squid


The amberjack was served with fresh, sweet and juicy peaches, a touch of citrus and chili, and topped with micro greens and mint. The dish was clean, fresh and sweet with the perfect hint of acidity. This is one of my favorite dishes just because of the simpleness of the ingredients and the burst of flavor.


The grilled squid was Dave's choice (over my preference for the foie gras, but we all have to make concessions sometimes :) ) Luckily, the grilled squid was fantastic. The squid was cooked to perfection, not too gummy, and perfectly tender, and alongside the diced potatoes, corn, chorizo and a tangy chimichurri, the dish was the perfect melding of flavors and textures.

ROUND 2: PETIT BASQUE


This was heaven in a bowl. Petit basque is a sheep's milk cheese produced in the Pyrenees Mountains. This petit basque was served melted atop a layer of sauteed leeks, onions and chorizo, and served with grilled garlic bread. I know, irresistible, and it was.

ROUND 3: BBQ Pork & Sweetbreads


We were having a tough deciding between the BBQ pork belly or the pork belly with kimchi, so on the waiter's recommendation we went with the BBQ. This was one fun dish. A piece of pork belly, slathered with BBQ sauce, topped with coleslaw, and inserted between the most perfect buttery kaiser roll. This recipe is going definitely going in the vault for our next college football Saturday menu!

Our final dish, the sweetbreads (in case you don't know, sweetbreads are the thymus and pancreas of the calf or lamb). The sweetbreads were served with creamed spinach, capers, hen of the woods (mushrooms). Over all, this was probably our least favorite dish. The flavors and overall taste were not quite as impressive as the previous dishes. If I were to do it over again, I would not have ended on this dish. Oh well!

Unfortunately, there was no room for dessert at this dinner. We had a box full of Susie Cakes waiting for us at home, so we had to take a rain check this time.

Overall, we were very happy with our meal. I would highly recommend the amberjack, grilled squid and petite basque. And next time around I will definitely be ordering the foie gras biscuit and bacon chocolate crunch bar!



Animal Restaurant
435 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 782-9225

Vegan or Not...Here I Come!!! Cru in Silverlake

I had the pleasure of dining with LA OC Foodie, Sam Kim, ToastyMuffin, estarla and SquashBlossom Friday night at Cru, a vegan/raw restaurant in Silver Lake. This was my first intentional vegan meal, and I was pretty excited. What can I say, new adventures excite me!!

So Cru it was. The menu was intriguing. . .pizza, pasta, pad thai, chocolate cake….HUH? I thought this was RAW VEGAN. Then the obvious next question was – what exactly do they consider “pasta” and “pizza”. Well, we were about to find out. . .



First things first, a beverage on this sweltering day. The choice was easy for me, ginger lime aid please! And it was just what the doctor ordered, tangy, just a touch of sugar, and tiny pieces of ginger.



Next we ordered the Mezze Platter - This consisted of Tunisian beet and apple salad, cucumber tzatziki salad, marinated garlicky kale, fig paté, cashew cheese and flax/pumpkin crackers. The kale was tasty. It had a nice garlic essence, but it the end it was just raw kale, basically just dressed lettuce. The cashew cheese with the flax crackers was very good as well (for pseudo-cheese). Having been seriously disappointed by soy cheese in the past, I am still perplexed as to how they made vegan cheese so tasty. This cheese actually inspired me to later order the ravioli as an entree. With tzatziki being one of my absolute favorite sauces, the cucumber txatziki salad just didn't meet my high expectations (not enough garlic or white pepper in my opinion). The fig paté tasted like dessert, a fig newton minus the cookie, it would have been very good with some goat cheese (oh yeah, we're at a vegan restaurant, shoot!).



The next appetizer we had was the Dream Roll - kim chee, avocado, shiitake mushrooms, jicama rice and hijiki in a collard leaf served with tamari dipping sauce. The roll had a nice texture, fresh and crunchy. The tangy and sweet tamari dipping sauce was a nice accompaniment to all the fresh veggies.




























On to the main course. I went with the Shiitake Mushroom Ravioli - this consisted of seven cashew cheese in a thinly sliced vegetable wrapper (maybe jicima or celery root?) in a sweet miso cream sauce topped with marinated shiitake mushrooms. The dish was average. There was a little too much cashew cheese for my taste, I felt like I was just taking big spoonfuls of cashew cheese - which had the benefit of filling me up, but the side-effect of a sever overdose of psuedo-cheese. Some of the other dishes that were ordered included Pad Thai made with kelp noodles, shredded cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, and sprouts in a chili almond sauce; Vegetable Linguine (carrot and zucchini noodles) in a Pepper Cream Sauce; the Mushroom Quinoa Risotto with shiitake mushrooms and spinach with a fig reduction; and the Sweet Pesto Wrap, made with pesto, cashew cheese, cucumber, cabbage, sweet onions and sprouts.

All the entrees were very flavorful and most of all, intriguing. My favorite raw entree was the Pad Thai, simply because of the texture of the kelp noodles, and the overall composition of the dish. The best dish overall in terms of flavor was the quinoa risotto. I make quinoa on a fairly regular basis (as a salad, it makes a great boxed lunch for work), and this quinoa was perfectly cooked and just bursting with flavor.










On to my favorite part of the night -- dessert! We decided to go with the chocolate truffle cake, the mint ganache cake and the lime cheesecake. All raw vegan desserts. My favorite was the "cheesecake". At first, it tasted like undercooked and melted cheesecake, but after a couple of bites, it really was pretty good. However, I cant say that I enjoyed or was fulfilled by either of the chocolate desserts. The chocolate cakes had a very hard consistency and were far too rich. They simply tasted like hard chocolate ganache. They were lacking a flavor and texture contrast which would have toned down the rich chocolate. A raspberry coulis or soy ice cream would have done the trick. It just needed something else to mellow out the incredibly rich and overpowering "chocolatiness" of the dish.

By parting thoughts? I will not be turning raw or vegan anytime soon - I am a carnivore through and through. However, for those days when I am racking my brain for another good salad place, or when I just went something light and fresh, a vegan meal just may be the answer.

LUDO BITES - THE FINALE

I heard about Ludo Bites a few months ago, I don't remember exactly where, but since then the city has been all a-buzz over Ludo, and for good reason. The food is unique, decadent, innovative...simply divine. Dave and I made our first trip to Ludo Bites in July, and I knew I had to come back for the final celebration. And I did. And Ludo did not disappoint.

This time Dave could not accompany me so I brought along two friends, two friends who are now two new Ludo fans. The evening did not disappoint. There was a sense of euphoria in the air, the music was playing, the diners were laughing, the staff was all smiles, and the cameras were trailing Ludo's every move during his final hurrah.



We began the evening with, of course, a great bottle of red, and a large serving of Ludo's amazing lavender butter. Oh yeah, and some bread with the butter. Our first course was the lobster medallions with honey-sherry vinegar, daikon and rosemary. This was my favorite course, and Erins. The sweet and tangy vinaigrette perfectly complemented the soft and cool lobster. Oh yes, and we were so anxious to dive into this dish that I couldn't even get a picture in before each one of us had devoured our portion. Oops!



Next we tried the infamous Foie Gras Black Croque-Monsieur with ham, cherries and amaretto. Ludo takes the typical croque-monsieur, which is just a hot ham and cheese sandwich, and takes it to a different universe. Ludo's version starts off with squid-ink break, specially made for Ludo, and then fills it with foie gras, ham and cheese, and tops if off with a heavenly cherry amaretto jelly. This was my second favorite after the lobster medallions. Extraordinary.



Our third course was the Lacquered Pork Belly with mustard ice cream and vadouvan. Yes, mustard ice cream, and I have to admit, that was the selling point for me. How can you not order something on the menu that is served with mustard ice cream? When the plate came, Erin and Dana looked at it with a bit of skepticism. My response - just trust Ludo. Our waitress recommended that we "get a little of everything" on our bite (the same instructions apply to each dish). We happily obliged. It was awesome, BBQ in a bite. Even the two skeptics took down every last morsel. Something about each and ever element perfectly melded together to make the most awesome tasting BBQ bite.



We ended our culinary journey with the Fish & Chips, kimchee, honey-beer and peanut butter. This is another one of Ludo's take on the classics. This dish was actually a piece of halibut with a peanut crust served with a potato chip stick and a side of kimchee. Once again, you had to get a little bit of everything on each bite. This wasn't your typical fish and chips, by any stretch of the imagination, but the flavors and textures all worked together to make one amazing dish.

Thank you Ludo for bringing innovation and culinary ecstasy to Los Angeles. You are a trail blazer and a true magician in the kitchen. I can't wait for your next venture, and when you find you next stop, I will be first in line when the doors open!



PS: Thank you Krissy for your patience and your help, sorry for the +1! But you now have two new fans spreading the Ludo-gospel! :)

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.

Riva Restaurant

This past Wednesday, Riva transformed the former pizzeria by introducing a new menu, now offering stuzzuchini, or Italian tapas. Let me start by saying, I am a "picky eater" and by picky I mean I pick at everybody's plates. There is nothing I love more than getting a sample of everything (yes, I can spend all day at Costco). Oh how I wish that all restaurants offered small plates!

We started off the evening with a nice bottle of Chardonnay - I have to have my wine with dinner -- and the sea bass and caprese. The sea bass had a hint of lemon oil with pink peppercorns and salt. The fragrant and tart lemon oil offered the perfect compliment to the fish and floral peppercorns. The caprese was served with yellow heirloom tomatoes, burrata, and a basil sauce. Being a burrata lover myself, you just can't go wrong with an heirloom tomato topped with fresh burrata.

Next we had the garlic shrimp and lamb bolognese. The garlic shrimp were served in a garlicky tomato sauce with English peas, and the lamb bolognese was served with a small, flat homemade pasta. The pasta seemed to be a favorite amongst both us, and the diners near us as well. It was rich, flavorful, robust and simply delicious.

Our final two plates were the diver scallops and the short ribs. The diver scallops to me, were perfection. They scallops were soft, buttery, and covered in light bread crumbs and lemon zest. The short ribs were served with creamy semolina, mushrooms and smoked mozzarella. This smokiness of the mozzarella complimented the rich beef, and it all melted in your mouth with the creamy semolina, a perfect combination.

All in all, this was a great experience and I will definitely be back. I was not disappointed, and was pleasantly surprised by each dish. Five stars in my book.