La Paella, Mid City (W)

I love tapas, and it isn't necessarily because I'm all about the chorizo, shellfish and other seafood, but moreso because I love the experience of trying all sorts of small plates and sharing dishes with the company so we can compare our thoughts about the food. I recently went to La Paella, and got to try a few of their small plates as well as their famous paella, and I was not disappointed.

We ordered the: Chorizo and sauteed mushrooms, spinach with raisins and pine nuts, manchego and patatas bravas, as well as the Paella Marinera. It was all, oh-so-good. The patatas bravas were perfectly spicy, which was a terrific complement to the slight sweetness of the spinach and raisins. The mushrooms and chorizo were a hearty yummy morsels.

The paella was terrific, it came with mussels, clams, lobster, bay scallops, and prawns. It was light on the saffron and the perfect texture. The waiter served it in a giant pan and it could have served 4. Needless to say, we were only able to finish MAYBE 1/3 of it before we had to pack up the rest.

La Paella
476 S San Vicente Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 951-0745

Wine Review, AKA What I'm Drinking Lately

In my recent search for Adelaida, I went on a wine-shopping spree at Bristol Farms, determined to try other wines outside of the staple 6-7 varietals that I usually get, so I splurged a little bit and picked up the Provenance 2005 Merlot from Napa Valley. It got rated fairly high, and I was excited to try it.

I have to say, I was certainly not disappointed.

This little bad boy is packed with flavor, without compromising the prototypical smoothness of a merlot. It has a nice blackberry taste, and a clean, woody taste lingers on the palette on the finish. I served this bottle with lamb seasoned with coriander and dijon mustard, and a mushroom risotto, and it was all a terrific meal.



Provenance Vineyards
2005 Merlot
Napa Valley- Rutherford Region
~$35.00

Wine Review aka What I'm Drinking Lately

A few weeks ago, my personal sommelier DH told me that Adelaida's Pinots were a must-try, so I had been searching high and low at various Bristol Farms for them. Lucky for me, I a certain someone was nice enough to personally order a couple bottles online for me, and I got to try it over the weekend.

Personally, I'm not big on Pinots because I tend to like my wine a lot more full bodied, fruity, chocolatey and oaky, and I often feel that pinots taste a bit watered down for my tastes, but I know that DH is a big bad cab boy, so I knew it couldn't have been a typical pinot.

And it was not. It had the smoothness and clarity of a pinot, but it had an amazing, lasting finish of cocoa, vanilla and oak. This is a definite must have in your collection for a lighter Italian fare, I think it would go terrific with basil, pancetta and fontina cheese. Yum.

Adelaida
2004 Pinot Noir
Paso Robles
~30.00

Takao Sushi, Brentwood

I recently went to a lovely dinner with a very sweet fellow food/wine enthusiast who treated me to an awesome omakase experience at Takao in Brentwood.

I love omakase style sushi because I think it gives me a chance to experience different types of things I may not normally order, and also, it is always exciting to see what the chef can whip up.

They have different levels of omakase by price: $60/$80/$100, and we went with the $80.00 one, which came with about seven courses, many of which I cannot remember due to the multiple orgasms my mouth was having, but I will try to re-construct the meals as best as I can.

We started with an interesting crab and apple salad, which consisted of thin apple slices, spring greens in ponzu sauce and a few shreds of fresh crab. Following that was a series of various nigiri, and the "new sashimi" (photo above), which included uni with cavier, tuna and avacado and snapper, all drizzled with truffle oil (which made it amazing). We were also served fresh clam miso, which was delicious, although it was hard for me to eat at this point, because I was stuffed, and a baby squid calamari.

The chef, Takao, is one of Nobu Matsuhisa's creations, as indicated by the creative use and fusion of ingredients, and nouveau sauces, very reminiscent of Costa Mesa's Ikko, also a restaurant with a Matsuhisa student.

The interior is unassuming, but very cute, and in a cute part of town.


Takao Sushi

11656 San Vicente Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90049

Get Directions

(310) 207-8636

Echigo Sushi

Tenacious D and I met up for sushi a couple weeks ago and I wanted to try someplace new, so we decided to try Echigo on Santa Monica and Amherst. While the decor is nothing to write home about, the sushi certainly is. We shared a couple bottles of hot sake and picked a few items off of the a la carte menu.

We had the: toro, hamachi, crab handroll, unagi and maguro. The sushi was served promptly by a friendly waitstaff and I was incredibly impressed by how fresh everything was. The yellowtail was amazing, and the tuna was ruby red in color, attesting to its freshness. The crab handroll was to die for, so much so, that Tenacious D had to have a second order.

The prices were reasonable, as well-- we each had a feast of sushi and drinks, and paid about $45.00 each for a wonderful dinner! The only slight criticism I had of the place was that the slices of fish were a little on the thin side-- these were no fat slabs of fish, and the sushi rice was a little too moist. However, overall, this place gets 4.5 stars.

Echigo
2217 Santa Monica Blvd # 201
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 820-9787