Animal Appetite

I first heard of Animal , the restaurant by the dynamic duo Dotolo and Shook, from one of  potatomato's  posts.   Since then, it's been on my short list of places to go.  I went there last Friday with a friend hoping to bag some seats at the bar.  They have seven seats at the bar for walk-ins and everything in the menu is served there.  

La Fin Du Monde, 9% ABV, a Golden Ale Tripel.  We got this beer to start while waiting for a seat at the bar.  The beer pours golden orange and the head is billowy white and huge with exellent retention and good lacing.  The nose is yeasty lemony with hints of spices.  The mouthfeel has a champagne-like effervescence when the beer first hits your tongue and tingles as it goes down you throat, light-medium creaminess, and a little tart with dryness at the end.  The taste is malty sweetness with citrussy tartness and some hints of spices.   Not something you would expect coming from Canada.  I could drink this beer all night.  If it was the "End of the World" as the name translates I'd be a happy cow drinking this beer.  If only I could get that REM song out of my head while drinking this beer.

Burrata, olive oil, sea salt, crostini 10 .   Burrata is now officially my favorite cheese,  the creamy subtle buttery taste that melts on your tongue is exquisite.  Mmmm.  The olive oil and sea salt drizzled over the burrata only enhanced the flavors.  The dish is served cold with some nice thin crostini.

Melted petit basque, chorizo, garlic bread 10.   In contrast to the burrata, the petit basque has a more robust punch-in-the-face cheesy flavor, salty and nutty, and served baked and piping hot with chorizo.   I think the chorizo pushed this dish to the saltier side.  I'm glad I had some La Fin Du Monde to wash down the saltiness.

Rabbit & kale stuffed ravioli, truffle butter, parmesan 22.   This was absolutely delicious,  I love the creamy truffle butter and parmesan combination.  The rabbit was subtle in taste adding a savory meaty component to the dish.  I could eat another plate of this.  This and the burrata was my favorite dishes of the night.

Quail fry, grits, maple jus, long cooked chard, slab bacon 24.   We wanted to try the pig trotters but they ran out so we chose this instead.  There is a downside to eating quail and it is dealing with the minute bones of the bird.  If you can get over this, you can truly enjoy this dish.   The bird was cooked well, light, crunchy and delicious.  The slab bacon was thick, smoky, and went well with the grits, chard and maple jus.  

We should have stopped after the main entree. We worked up such an appetite and were still hungry for more. So we pushed through and got some more food and of course beer.

St. Peter's English Ale 4.5% ABV, an English Pale Ale.   My friend had this beer I only had a taste of it.  The beer is served in an unusual oval green bottle.   It pours orange amber color with a small head that quickly dissipates leaving minimal lacing.   The nose is slightly fruity and slightly malty very little hop aroma.  The mouthfeel is  light medium creaminess with good crisp carbonation.  The taste is not what I would expect of an English ale, it is mild smoky, lemony and yeasty with some hopiness and  bitter in the end.  Very drinkable.  

Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale  5.5 % ABV, an American Pale Ale.  The beer pours amber with an average creamy pale flesh colored head with good lacing and medium retention.    The smell is definitely hops, citrusy, and piney with malty caramels.  The mouthfeel is medium creaminess with some carbonation.   The taste is hoppy, piney, with grapefruit-like citrus taste and bitterness which stays on your tongue throughout,  there's also a hint of malty sweetness.  

Pork belly, kimchi, peanuts, chili soy, scallion 10.   This is an asian fusion dish,  Thai-Korean.   The kimchi topping was not made of the traditional cabbage, I think it was a mix of long papaya juliennes and some other vegetables.   The pork belly was crunchy outside and melt in your mouth good.

Poutine, oxtail gravy, vermont cheddar 14.   Poutine is a Canadian comfort food made with French fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy.   This variation was made with oxtail gravy and Vermont cheddar.   Deliciously filling.  

Joe’s doughnuts, apple, caramel 8.   The donuts didn't live up to the hype for me.  We ordered this because almost all of the staff were raving about it.  We had the last serving.  The couple next to us was almost angry because they ran out of this and after all of the hype, they really wanted to try it.    These were small round donuts covered in crunchy brown sugar and and cinnamon and soaked in apple caramel sauce. 

We left the restaurant stuffed to the brim.   Since their menu changes daily, I don't know when we will be able to try the pig trotters.  I hope the next time they will be on the menu.

Animal

435 N. Fairfax Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90036

(323) 782-9225

Bulgogi Sunrise

Hodori is a 24/7 korean restaurant in the corner of Olympic and Vermont.   A staple to a lot of late night clubbers wishing to let the spicy foods sober them up closer to a lucid state. The service can be really awful when the place is busy but terrific when there are only a few customers. 

The array of banchans served.   The seaweed soup is served hot and very welcoming on a cold winter morning.

One of the things I love about Los Angeles is the immense diversity of food at anytime of the day, and any day in the week.  In Koreatown,  you can have bulgogi anytime even for breakfast.  Hot steamy and sizzling on a bed of onions served in an iron skillet.   Delicious.

Hodori

1001 S Vermont Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90006

(213) 383-3554

All Porky Goodness

Named after the traditional Filipino hat, Salakot, is a Filipino restaurant located just outside of DTLA along Beverly blvd.  We saw the place driving along Beverly on our way to some other place after being turned down at Colori Kitchen in DTLA.   We decided to try the place.  It has it's own parking lot with ample space.  Inside is spacious with bright lighting and very nice paintings on the wall.  

Baked Mussles,  we had this for starters, the mussels weren't quite fresh, I think they used the frozen on a half shell stuff.  

Dinugoan,  pork cooked in blood,  traditionally the dish is cooked with the entrails, this however, they only used deep fried pork meat with the skin on.   This was a delightful surprise and spin on the dish.  I enjoyed the crunchy pork skin bathed in the creamy blood sauce.  This was my favorite dish of the night.

Sizzling Sisig,  traditionally the dish is made from parts of the pig's head with a spicy, salty, and vinegary taste.  This was made from pork belly.  It was missing the gelatinous texture that the pig's head brought to the dish, and I didn't think it was spicy nor vinegary enough.  It wasn't even sizzling when they brought it to the table.  I didn't like it.

Inihaw na Liempo,  grilled pork belly and ribs,  this is delicious, smoky, salty, with sweet caramelization, dipped in some garlic vinegar, yummy.

Crispy Pata , deep fried pig knuckes,  this was done to perfection ,  I love the crunchy pork skin with the contrasting sticky almost melted soft tendons beneath, dipped in the garlic soy sauce.  After this dish, I think I could feel my heart beating to rally my cholesterol level higher.

Talking to the owner during dinner, we were surprised to find out that it was their opening day. Hey! for a change, I get to blog first about a restaurant.   I squirmed though when he proudly stated turning the second floor into a karaoke.  All in all we spent about $ 58.00 for everything including rice and drinks but before tips.   I would go back to this place, specially for the Dinugoan and before he gets that karaoke going.

Salakot

2122 Beverly Blvd., 

Los Angeles, CA 90057

(213) 483-0303

Damiano

Pizza and beer is like a marriage made in heaven, they always go well together.  In LA, one of the best places to get pizza and beer is Damiano.   Located in the Fairfax district of LA, right accross the famous Canter's Deli.   Inside you can see pizza being made in the left counter and a huge beer selection in the glass-door coolers on the right.   We sat in one of the dark unlit booths further into the place.  

Floris Apple 3.6% ABV, a Belgian Lambic beer.  I had  this to start with, it comes in a beautiful dark bottle with metallic green foil on the neck.  Lambic beers undergo spontaneous fermentation with the vat left open for sometime in the bewery for the multiple strains of air-borne yeasts to accumulate.  The beer pours cloudy amber with a white foamy head that easily subsides.  The nose is definitetly sweet green apple.   The mouthfeel is medium with some carbonation and a tart bite in the end.  The taste is like apple cider, with some malty wheatiness to it and a slight hint of cinnamon.  Crisp and fresh, very drinkable.

We got some Fried Clams $ 9.95,  as appetizers.  The batter was crunchy and the clams were not overcooked, nice and fresh, very flavorful. 

We also got a Large Thin Crust Three-topping Pizza $19.00,  with italian sausage, ham and pineapple.   It's all about the dough at Damiano.  Crunchy in the bottom with good browning yet still foldable with some chewiness.

Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale  7.0 % ABV, a Belgian Style Strong Pale Ale.  Brewed from the the town of Hitachi in Japan where the electronic manufacturing company with the same name is from.  I love the owl logo on the bottle.  Brewed with wild red rice,  this is the only beer I know that has a sake-like complexity.  The nose is red rice, herbal, with some hints of strawberries.  The mouthfeel is bitter up-front with light-medium body and high carbonation.  The taste is definitely red rice, malty, with a sake after-taste.  This brewery makes unique and very interesting beers.  Their Hitachino White Ale is on of my favorite wheat beers.   This is not the type of beer I would drink regularly, but very interesting.

Damiano

412 N Fairfax Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90036 

(323) 658-7611

Chicken Day: A Damn Good Chicken

Located in the middle corner of a strip mall on Western in Koreatown is Chicken Day.  A Korean style chicken place.  Parking is strictly valet in the basement for a buck.  Free if you can find street parking after hours.  The place is spacious with indoor and patio seating.  Several paintings on the wall with a common theme, chicken :).   There is a counter on the right side when you go in, this is where we made our orders and proceeded to get seated to wait.  There is a large flat screen TV on the wall playing Korean shows, some with English subtitles.  The owner was the one who took our orders and served our food, she was very friendly, conversational and accomodating.  Not afraid to speak English.  Eventhough, I know it was a little difficult for her to do so.  She gave us something in a plate, three, one for each of us, white and small which I thought were marshmallows.   It was the wet towelettes  for our hands :).   

Chicken Day Salad $ 3.45, this is delicious, the sweet pineapple puree was a surprisingly good dressing.  Very refreshing.  It compliments the spicy chicken very well.

Special Spicy Sauce Chicken Boneless $ 14.90,  this is a lot of chicken 22 pieces.  Almost like Bufallo chicken,  it is sweet and sour, very garlicky and a little spicy.  I was expecting to get toasted on the spiciness level like in Kyochon and Bonchon but here it is quite mild.   I wonder if you could ask them to up the spiciness level, maybe next time.  

Fried Chicken Drumsticks $ 13.90, again, this is a lot of chicken, eventhough it is hard to scale with the picture.  This is a huge plate with over 12 pieces of drumsticks stacked on.  This is the one I liked best,  cooked to perfection.  Crispy light aromatic batter and falling off the bone meat inside.  A damn good chicken, reminds me of Sunburst chicken growing up. 

People have been comparing the chicken here with Kyochon and Bonchon, so here is my two cents.  Kyochon and Bonchon to me are so similar in so many ways that even in the name they differ only by two letters.  Both I think are really good chicken, crispy caramel glazed skin and spicy enough to make you cry... for more.   At Kyochon and Bonchon, 20 pieces of  drumsticks will set you back around $ 30.  Their spicy and soy garlic chicken,  are more expensive, but better than Chicken Day.   Of the three Kyochon is my favorite.

In the simple fried chicken area,  you can't really compare Chicken Day's to both places.  I would however, compare it to Roscoe's or Honey Kettle chicken.   Chicken Day hands down is the best.

Chicken Day

301 S. Western Ave. #107, 

Los Angeles, CA 90020

(213) 387-9933

Churrasco Latino

I was feeling the pangs of a good steak so I called on a fellow foodie and asked him for a rec on some good steaks.  What came next was a surprise.  He suggested a place where he and the Mexicans who works in his company goes to.  He said the place is popular to Mexicans specially the Gauchos in vaquero (cowboy) hats, who brings their whole family to the place.  They also have a mean steak served sizzling in a cast iron skillet.  I was in.  

La Fonda is located at the edge of a strip mall on Century boulevard in Inglewood between La Brea and La Cienega  near the Hollywood Park race track.  Not to be confused with the La Fonda on Wilshire in LA, and my favorite Columbian restaurant La Fonda on Melrose also in LA.  The place is small, with no atmosphere and booth seating.   There's a small window to the kitchen where we placed our orders and proceeded to sit down and wait for the food to come.  There is a TV on the wall was playing, of course, futbol. 

They gave us some tortillas and dips while waiting for the food to arrive.  I like the bean and queso dip for a change.

Huarache Al Pastor $ 5.75,  this was delicious, the Al Pastor meat and beans was tasty topped with salsa verde and roja, lettuce, sour cream, and queso cotya.  Me likey likey.

Churrasco Latino $ 9.99,  this is New York steak Mexican style served with arroz and salad, you can also request American style served with baked potatoes and salad.   This was served piping hot and sizzling on a bed of toasted garlic served in an iron skillet.  The aroma of the garlic and steak was so irresistible I could not wait to dig in.  I ordered my steak medium rare, but I think the extra cooking from the hot skillet pushed it to medium.   The steak was still delicious.  They gave us some A1 sauce infused with Jalapeño, that was new to me.  When it comes to steaks, no A1 sauces for me, salt and pepper will do.  

Negra Modelo 5% ABV, a Dark Lager served in a bottle.  The beer has a light, highly carbonated mouthfeel with some bitterness in the end.  It tastes slightly sour, even if I did not squeeze the lemon in, slighly sweet caramel, and some zesty spiciness.  Crisp and refreshing it goes very well with the steak.

La Fonda

4649 Century Blvd.

Inglewood, CA

310-419-7596

Benley

Benley is not really suggestive of a Vietnamese restaurant.  Neither is the food strictly Vietnamese, more of a fusion type, so I guess the name is suitable.   It is located near the right corner of a strip mall in Long Beach.  I did not have a hard time finding the place, eventhough I missed the turn going into the stip mall and had to go around.  The place is small and cozy but not cramped.  I like the decor, minimal sharp and clean.  When I got there the owner got my drink and ran next door to get her cook who was playing cards next door.  I found it amusing.   The menu was interesting.  Their Pho was expensive and I was not in the mood for it.   The entrees did not really appeal to me, but the appetizers did so I just got three appetizers.

Lemongrass Charred Pork Spring Rolls  $ 6.95,  this was really good,  the pork was smoky-charred, salty-sweet with .  Wrapped in fresh crunchy greens and some vemicelli.   It holds up on it's own without the peanut dipping sauce.

Battered Salted Cuttlefish $ 7.95,  nice and crunchy,  very fresh and well salted.  Delicious calamari.

Braised Short Rib with Avocado puree $ 6.95,  I like braised short ribs, this one was really good and served in a bed of avocado puree.  The beef is so tender it almost feels like melting in your mouth with the avocado puree.  I would have preferred to have the ribs well seasoned.  This was a good though to off-set the the salty cuttlefish that preceeded.  There are no salt and pepper shakers on the table.  I know guacamole is good on my beef tacos, but I never would have thought of serving it this way.  Yummy.

Creme Brulee $ 6.95, I have said it before and I'll say it again, "If it's on the menu I'll order it." At least for the first time ;-)   This was delicious with a nice candied ginger juliennes surprise on top.  The bottom part of the creme was cold though.

Benley

8191 E Wardlow Rd

Long Beach, CA 90808

(562) 596-8130