Experience Taste

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

FFY Noodle House

This place was way out in Rowland Heights, which for me was a bit of a trek. It was Chinese New Year, so my mom wanted to take us to a new spot. I had read a few blogs about this place and was looking forward to lunch.

We were seated immediately and I noticed the open kitchen where they were making dumplings and buns from scratch. We ordered Green Onion Pancakes, Cucumber plate, Steamed Pork Buns, Shrimp and Pumpkin dumplings, Beef Roll and Pork and String Bean Gyoza.

The stars were the Steamed Pork Buns, and the Shrimp and Pumpkin dumplings. The buns had a perfect ratio of dough to filling and the dumplings had a substantial amount of Shrimp and pumpkin. The Green Onion Pancakes were too oily and can't compare to the ones at Earthen, which is a few miles away.

This owners originally owned the Noodle House on Garvey, which a tiny little place. This location is a lot bigger and feels very new. The service was typical for a small Chinese establishment. Nothing fantatstic, but efficient.

There were a lot of items on the menu that I look forward to trying the next time I'm out there. Until then I recommend you check it out.

Umami Burger

Not sure if it's all about the fifth taste profile as the name implies. But the burgers are pretty tasty.

It was a Saturday night, around 7:30 and the place was full. We were told there was a 10 min wait, so we put our name on the list and headed to the bar. Just as we were being served our beverages, our table was ready.

This was my first visit, but I had an idea of what I wanted to order before I got there. It was all about the Hatch Burger. I love green chili cheese burgers, so I had to try it. There was four of us, so we had a variety of burgers, The Truffle Burger and The Manly Burger were also on the menu.

For our sides we order onion rings, sweet potato fries and thin fries. We were really hoping or the jalapeno hush puppies, but they were sold out (at 8pm?). With each side you get a free condiment, we got Umami Ketchup, House Spread (Thousand Island?) and Dijon Mustard.

Across the board the burgers were all delicious and perfectly cooked medium rare. The grind of meat is pretty coarse and very well seasoned, there was also a nice charred crust. But my Hatch Burger was disappointing in one respect, the chilis were bland and had no heat. By far my favorite burger was the Truffle Burger. The Truffle flavor was very pronounced and work really well with the meat, that was umami. The Manly burger was not bad either, but I lost the taste of the lardons.

All of burgers are served on airy brioche buns and are about 8 ounces. The sides were decent, with the onion rings being the standout. The sweet potato fries were seasoned with cinnamon, which I did not like.

The service was adequate, nothing special. I look forward to visiting the other locations in the future.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Jitlada

It was a cold Christmas Eve night, Jitlada was our location of choice. We showed up at 6:30, the restaurant was mostly empty. The neon sign outside says Spicy Southern Thai, that's what we came for a family of Chiliheads.

We reviewed the menu and ordered some standard Thai dishes and some items we had never had before. For starters we had the Papaya Salad and the Thai Toast. The salad was delicious and refreshing, a bit spicy. The Thai toast wasn't what I expected, it looked like fried plantains, but tasted like some sort of deep fried seafood cake, tasty and it came with a sweet dipping sauce.

Next up, the Spicy Sweet Pork and Spicy Seafood Padthai. The pork dish was really good, the sauce was a nice combination of sweet and spicy. But like the salad, the portion size seemed a bit small. The Padthai was good, but too sweet for me.

We had the Chinese watercress, Spicy Fried Rice and Steamed Whole Seabass with Spicy Lemon sauce. All of these dishes were good, but none of them were spicy enough. We requested the condiments too late, because they added the kick I was looking for.

To finish off the meal, we split a Mango Sticky rice. Jitlada has gotten a lot of praise for being one of the best Thai restaurants in LA. Our meal was good, but I was expecting a lot more spice and balance of flavors. The price of some of the dishes also seemed too high.

Next time I will request Thai spicy when ordering.

Animal

Oh Animal, Oh Animal, Thy Food is so delicious!

Yes this place did live up to the hype.

Our reservations were for 6:45, we arrived about ten minutes early and were seated immediately. The restaurant was about 80% full. Our server explained to us the different ways we could order, all apps, no apps, a lot of apps and entrees, etc...But we had to make sure to order all at once versus piece meal. That wouldn't be a problem.

We ordered a bottle of the house Cabernet to start and perused the menu. We decided to go heavy on the apps and split an entree. For our apps we had the Chicken Liver Toast, BBQ Pork Belly Sliders, Melted Petit Basque and Chorizo, Sweetbreads, Poutine and the Pig Ear with Fried Egg.

The Chicken Liver Toast was amazing, so simple, but so well balanced. The liver puree was so smooth. The BBQ Pork Sliders were good, but there was too much sauce for my taste. The pork belly was so unctuous and the slaw was not too sweet. Melted Petit Basque was not bad, but the flavor of the Chorizo was lost.

The Sweetbreads were amazing, it was served on top of creamed spinach, with Hen of the Woods mushrooms, capers and lemon segments. When everything was eaten together there were so many flavors that all worked well together. The Pig Ear with Fried egg had a nice spice, but the pig ears could have been a little crispier. The Poutine was the only dish that I thought was unsuccessful. It was too salty and I thought the gravy was too thin.

For our entree we decided to split the Quail Fry. Another well executed dish. The crispy fried quail went well with the slab bacon and creamy grits. The quail was cooked perfectly.

I was looking forward to the donuts for dessert, but they had taken them off the menu. We ordered the Bacon Chocolate Crunch bar. It was nice and chocolaty, but the bacon part of it just brought a little smokyness no bacon flavor.

Animal is casual and the atmosphere is very minimal. The service was excellent and the price is not bad. The standout dishes were the Chicken Liver Toast, Sweetbreads, and Quail Fry. I hope to go back and try some of the other dishes soon.