If you didn’t already know I like food.
Though I don’t have a large repitorie of places that I like to go that have REALLY good food.
A few weeks ago I told you all that I was going to head down into LA to go to Angeli Cafe. (post here). I never really told you how it was.
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G
The owner Evan Kleiman has put together such a wonderful place. The food was so great, fresh and delicate. For my dinner I had a 3 course meal, which consisted of caprese (roasted tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, and some kalamata olives), beet (yes I said beet, not beef, which is what I read on the menu (I’m dumb)) gnocchi in a butter sage sauce (it was divine, creamy, silky and mildly flavored), and for dessert had some chocolate bread pudding, just enough chocolate, and some of the best bread pudding I’ve ever had. My friend had their famous garlic lemon chicken, which I must admit, usually I’m not the biggest fan of chicken, cause it’s never really cooked right, but this chicken was superb. I know that they brine all of their meats when they come in, but the flavors and the doneness and the mositure of this bird was some of the best ever.
If you get a chance I’d highly reccomend it, I know I’m going to try and find time to get back there for some of their other stuff.
On another note about being a foodie. I’m trying to expand my culinary horizions.
Last sat night John and I were going to go out to eat and we were having the hardest time trying to decide where to go. We finally made up our minds that we wanted to try somewhere where neither one of us had been before. Which kinda proved a little more difficult than it sounds. We couldn’t think of anywhere off the tops of our heads, so we decided to take Topanga Cyn down to Ventura and head east and stop somewhere that looked interesting, that was new.
We ended up at “The Hummus Bar” 18743 Ventura Blvd, Tarzana, CA – (818)344-6606
It was pretty good. And that comes from aguy who knows how to make his own hummus. Their homemade pita bread was a real treat too. I highly suggest this place if you like Middle Eastern type foods. Or if you want to try something new.
All this to say that I’m embarking on a bit of a quest. Largely inspired by the pulitizer prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold who writes for the LA Weekly. I’m looking forward to branching out and trying to find some great restraunts around the city.
Not only will it give me a chance to taste some fantastic food, but it should make good use of my KCRW card, which should save me some green in the process (as many of the places that I already know that I want to go to are in the book of places my card is valid).
It’s definatley going to be an adventure, I’m hoping to go to at least one new place a month if not a little more. I don’t have all the cash in the world, but when you get a free meal a day at work that helps free up a little more money for the one meal that I do have to pay for in a day.
I’ll keep you all posted as I go out and try some new places. Let me know if you’d be interested in going with me. I’ll probably be using Jonathan’s top 99 list from 2007 as a good reference guide. The only downside is that I don’t think there’s more than 2 places on his list that are in the valley and I’ve already been to one of them.
Happy eating. Savor, don’t consume.
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