Robata JINYA, LA

I had a nice supper at West Hollywood's Robata Jinya. My friend Dan raved about their Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen, which is the same style of ramen they serve at Ippudo in NYC. The broth is a fatty white broth made with pork bones. When the restaurant started serving this, they used to only make enough broth for 20 bowls/day. We both got our own bowls, and boy was it good. The ramen had a great chew to it and a wonderful alkali flavor, and the broth was wonderful. I cleaned the bowl.

Since their specialty was "robata grill", we ordered a few skewers with our meal. First off was a set of shishito peppers. On special, they had a tender miso grilled beef tongue. We finished off with a skewer of incredible chicken thigh "oysters".



8050 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 653-8877

Roberta's, Brooklyn

Brooklen, LBT, Jude, and I went one Sunday morning to East Williamsburg in Brooklyn to Roberta's for the the weekly NYC ritual of brunch. Brooklen had been wanting to go because he had tried their pizza at Madison Square Eats events.
When we arrived at the address, at first, we weren't sure we were at the right place. The exterior looked very modest, with a very small sign just above the doorway. Inside though, the space was great with long wooden tables, a red wood burning oven, exposed ceilings, a bar, and where we sat, a garden courtyard that looked into a radio studio.

We had to at least get one pizza. Immediately, we knew we wanted to try Paige's Breakfast Burrito pizza. It came topped with tomato, mozzarella, potato, red onion, jalapeño, egg, and Berkshire pork sausage. The crust on the pie was thin, crisp, and a little chewy with a decent char.
We also shared a tasty sticky bun and buttermilk biscuit. Both were scrumptious.

For our main courses, I ordered the fried eggs with beef tongue, salsa verde and potato hash. The tongue was great, really tender and delicate.
LBT got a breakfast sandwich of a hunk of sausage, egg, and cheese on a potato roll. It was a bit odd that they could not scramble the egg for her.

Brooklen got the ricotta pancakes with brown butter and maple syrup. We shared a small plate of thick fatty slab bacon.

261 Moore Street
Brooklyn, NY
(718)417-1118

Mile End, Brooklyn

After wandering Boerum Hill for a while, we had worked up enough appetite to eat at Mile End, the Jewish-Canadian delicatessen (named after Montreal's traditionally Jewish newly hip neighborhood).

We had a big group so 6 of decided to order a bunch of dishes and share. We started out with chopped liver, served with onion relish, egg, and a "pletzel."  Even those unsure of whether they'd like liver thought it was delicious.  The onion and egg went nicely with the liver.  The "pletzel" was like an everything foccacia (not pretzel-like was we were expecting). 

Next up we had the Deli Meat Board - that day's selection was turkey rillette, duck proscuitto, and salami served with toast and apricot preserves.  All the house-cured meats were excellent.

Then came the lamb's tongue with onion raisin marmalade, served on pumpernickel toast with horseradish.  I didn't really taste the horseradish, which was fine with me. The pumpernickel had lots of great rye flavor which went well with the sweetness of the marmalade.  I think they really have a knack for not only preparing the meats well, but pairing them with great flavor combinations.

Our next dish was Veal Sweetbreads with pecan butter, concord grape jelly, apple and chili.  Of course deep-fried sweetbreads are always delicious, but again, it was the sauces and toppings that made the dish stand out.  Concord jelly with pecan butter - like schpanky PB&J -- with crisp spicy apples on top - who would think of such combinations?!  Somehow it worked!

Our last small plate was warm chanterelle salad with radicchio, chevre noir, and maple walnut vinaigrette - the mushrooms were perfect and worked well with the crunch of the radicchio - another great dish.

Then came our mains.  My friend Tricia ordered her own main which was the Hoyt Dog (named for the restaurant's address on Hoyt Street).  It was a house made beef frankfurter with smoked meat baked beans, and sauerkraut.  The beans were excellent - the meat to bean ratio was heavily meaty - and very satisfying.

Brian chose the Trout served on top of smoked trout bisque, with pickled mustard, horseradish.  I only got a small taste of this, but it was nice.

We all dug into the Smoked Meat Deluxe.  By this point, after so much food, we just dispensed of the bread and dug into the meat in the sandwich (pictured above).  Poutine came with it on the side.  Not as good as Montreal (the cheese curds got a bit too melty in my opinion, so there wasn't that nice texture contrast of chewy cheese, creamy gravy, and crisp fries), but I can't complain too much - it was still delicious.

Mile End
97a Hoyt Street
Brooklyn, NY
718.852.7510

The Pambazo at La Fiesta Mexicana, Rosedale, MD

I dropped into Fiesta Mexicana, a small Mexican eatery in Rosedale, just outside of Baltimore for lunch.
I ordered their Pambazo, a sandwich that is thought to have originated from Veracruz. It started with a roll brushed with a red guajillo suace and then pan seared. It's stuffed with chorizo, potatoes, lettuce, crema fresca, & queso fresco. It's really hearty and filling.
I also enjoyed a small lengua taco. I like Fiesta Mexicana also because they do not pull punches on their salsa.

8304 Philadelphia Rd.
Rosedale, MD
(410)686-0134

M. Wells Diner, Part Deux

After hearing about Fougoo's trip to M. Wells, I knew, as a fan of APDC, I had to make a trip there as well. I went for a lunch last week, sitting at the counter of the diner, watching them prep bone marrows for their escargot-bone marrow dish as I ate.
For a starter, I ordered the pickled pork tongue dish. It came with soda crackers and spicy mustard. The pork pulled apart easily and had a wonderful salty-sour flavor.
I then ordered the green pea soup with foie gras. The soup was sweet and tasted very fresh. However, with the chunks of seared foie gras, this brought the soup up to another level. The fattiness of the liver complemented the mushy pea so well. It felt healthy and decadent at the same time.
For dessert, inspired by a postcard above the prep area of Twin Peaks, I tried the maple pie with a cup of joe. The pie was egg-y & creamy, and it just oozed maple syrup.
I know I need to get back here for their dinner service sometime.


21-17 49th Avenue
Long Island City, NY
(718)425-6917 ‎

St. John's, London

Throughout our trip we kept it pretty on-the-fly in terms of our meals, but the one place we knew we wanted to eat at and made a reservation for in London was nose-to-tail guru Fergus Henderson's St. John's. The smell of fresh-baked bread as we walked in to the clean white space was so enticing... Did I mention that we had no good bread in Scotland? So we happily dug into the homemade bread basket, while we perused the menu.

We decided on 3 small plates -- bone marrow, served in traditional fashion with parsley salad, sea salt, and more delicious bread; cauliflower, fennel, and butter bean salad; ox tongue with bread and green parsley dressing -- and one large plate: hare saddle with lentils.

It was so wonderful to eat fresh crisp vegetables - crunchy fennel and cauliflower with creamy butterbeans. The ox tongue was super tender; bone marrow, of course, such a simple pleasure. And the hare was a nice medium rare, simply seasoned.

Redneckhunter finished the meal with a refreshing lemon sorbet with vodka.

St. John's Restaurant
26 St John Street
London
EC1M 4AY
020 7251 0848

Lambfest at the Slackhaus

This year, after the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival, Gubeen and Olironstomach invited us over for a Lambfest dinner. Our friend, Jake, also lent a hand in cooking as well as supplying us with amazing drinks.
It was a fantastic and ambitious dinner using 6 different cuts of lamb.
We started with Gubeen's tasty quinoa dish served with Jake's dish of lamb tongue, fennel and oranges. The tongue was so tender- more so than beef.

Our second lamb dish was loin chops roasted on the infrared grill. They came out a perfect medium rare and were just amazing with really no other prep beforehand.

It was served with homemade persillade, a side made of chopped parsley, garlic, oil, & vinegar, that went perfect with the lamb.

Redneckhunter was thrilled to have the next course- white beans cooked with lamb necks.



It was so good- the meat from the lamb neck actually had a really nice sweetness to it. Fougoo and I both cleaned the bones clean. I'm pretty sure I ate all the cartilage, too.

Inspired by what they had at the festival, they also made a pit lamb for us. Just to kick it up a little, the meat had a glaze of sriracha sauce. It was so much better than any pit beef I've had because of the lamb's incredible flavor.

Our last courses were grilled lamb leg and shoulder pieces. The best part was the shoulder because Jake had marinated them in Dolin vermouth. I think the shoulder was my favorite piece, or pieces rather, of lamb I had that evening.

Jake brought some bottles of Dolin vermouth- the rouge, blanc, & dry. I tried all three and really loved the flavor of each of them.



My favorite drink of the evening was an aperitif, the Cocchi Americano. I finished the evening with this fine digestif.
I should also note that after crashing in the living room that night, we had more Cocchi the next morning to kickstart the day.

Hecho en Dumbo, NYC

Brooklen, LBT, and I went to dinner a Hecho en Dunbo, a Mexican restaurant in the East Village for a great meal before going to see the Joanna Newsom show.

We started with some drinks. I had the Michelada made with beer, lime, and Worcestershire sauce- making it kind of like a bloody mary, but with beer. It was nice and refreshing. Brooklen partook of some delicious tequila with a side of sangrita.

Hecho en Dunbo was fun to eat at because they serve mostly small plates that we could all share.
We started with some fresh guacamole and chips. Then we got some housemade Queso Oaxaca smothered in avocado oil. They reminded me of Wisconsin cheese curds. Good.

We then had the Tostadas De Ceviche - corn tortillas topped with fresh halibut ceviche and guacamole mixed with green squash.

LBT could not get enough of the Queso Fundide de Chorizo.
We all shared small cups of the Pozole Rojo, a nice zesty soup of hominy and shredded pork with radish, oregano, chiles guajillo and piquin.

We order several plates of tacos. The first was the Tacos de Costilla (top pic), made with grilled steak short rib with the bone on the side. I gnawed up all the meat of the ribs. Yum.

We also got Tacos de Cochinita Pibil made pulled Berkshire Pork. The menu said the meat was prepped with Yucatan spices and steamed in a banana leaf
over orange juice. It was really delicious.


We then finished things off with a few main plates. First was the Cecina, made of a thin filet of cured beef with a side of their frijoles borrachos, "drunken beans"- made with Negra Modelo.

My favorite dish was the Lengua De Res, made of wagyu beef tongue. I was smothered in a caper and chile poblano sauce and came with delicious chard. It was so tender.

Dessert was also quite good. We ordered the Tres Leches cake, but our favorite was the flan & chocolate cake. That item was so good, we ordered a second one to polish off.

354 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
(212) 937-4245