The enterprising Thomas Keller is opening a Bouchon restaurant and an accompanying Bouchon Bakery in Los Angeles in 2009.
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 10, 2008 at 7:15 PM
This video really made my day. Improv Everywhere, which stages synchronized outbursts of surrealist performance art, recently organized a musical in the food court of a Los Angeles shopping mall:
We used wireless microphones to amplify the vocal performances and mix them together with the music through the mall’s PA system. We filmed the mission with hidden cameras, mostly behind two-way mirrors. Apart from our performers, no one in the food court was aware of what was happening.
Link: Food Court Musical
Posted by Ed Levine, November 4, 2007 at 7:00 PM
I lived in Los Angeles for awhile, but I never heard of 70-year-old Surfas, which is the ultimate food and cookware shop in the City of Angels.
What will you find there?
Their shelves hold up to 64 types of mustard, 30 varieties of salt, small-batch smoked meats from tiny farms across the South, every type of bakeware imaginable and a range of pots large enough to serve as hiding places for a toddler or two, and that’s just for starters.
Surfas
Address: 8824 National Boulevard, Culver City CA 90232 (map)
Phone: 310-559-4770
Website: surfasonline.com
Posted by Emily Stone, October 23, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Web-based food reporting outlet TasteTV is in the chocolate show business. Its first San Francisco Chocolate Salon over the summer awarded gold medals to chocolatiers such as L'Artisan du Chocolat, Poco Dolce, and Lillie Belle Farms, as well as chocolate-makers like Amano and Divine. (I'm happy with that lineup, but, then, I was one of the judges). The second TasteTV-sponsored event in San Francisco (called a "Single's Chocolate Salon") followed so quickly on the heels of the first that we missed it completely (it was last week).
Luckily, TasteTV has a couple more West Coast events planned. In addition to a Los Angeles Chocolate Salon planned for December, TasteTV is hosting a kinky Halloween event called the Dark Dining Dinner Party (I'm not really sure how it works, but the website says something about 9 1/2 Weeks-style blindfolds).
Emily Stone, a food writer and proprietor of Chocolate in Context, is a chocolate enthusiast, itinerant traveler, and a lover of literature who lives in Pittsburgh.
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 17, 2007 at 2:45 PM
I'm somewhat glad that I don't know what mangosteens taste like; otherwise I might shell out $11 just for one piece of the fruit primarily grown in Thailand. Gersh Kuntzman only indulged in two pieces at a gourmet greengrocer in Brooklyn, lest he wanted to refinance his house. Although Kuntzman happily tore into his $45-a-pound fruit, his wife was less impressed:
"Face it, at $45 a pound, this mangosteen should come in a limousine with a chauffer who also cleans our kitchen. Besides, the joy of eating a mangosteen is eating it in Thailand. Imagine sending a Bagel Hole bagel to your brother in North Carolina. It’s not even worth the bother."
I think I'll skip out on trying a mangosteen stateside for now—it gives me all the more reason for me to visit Thailand.
Of course, if you do want to try them Stateside, shipments of Puerto Rico–grown mangosteens started arriving on these shores earlier this month. (Those grown in Thailand are banned from the U.S. because of concerns over insect infestation.)
The season is short, and only two outlets have distribution deals—Melissa's World Variety Produce in Los Angeles and Baldor in New York City.
Photograph from DiemThuyen on Flickr
Posted by Harold Check, July 31, 2007 at 11:15 AM
Chicago, which is certainly a hotbed of great cuisine these days, has been tapped as the next locale to host Bravo's culinary cookoff. Unfortunately, the press release hit our inbox a couple days late to let you know about this past weekend's open casting at the Rock Bottom Brewery. Still, if you think what you've got to be a "cheftestant" and want to brave the Top Chef pressure cooker, you can still send in a tape or show up at the open casting calls in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Just remember, the weather in Chicago during taping is unlikely to resemble Miami's balmy temps. It's gonna be a whole lot chillier when you step out of the Top Chef hot tub. After the jump, audition times and locations.
Continue reading »
Posted by Harold Check, June 1, 2007 at 5:00 PM
Google maps + donuts = this.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 9, 2007 at 10:28 AM
Bruni also failed to mention the place mats at Mozza. One is an attempt to teach the unwitting Mozza customer how to speak Italian in seven not-so-easy hand motions, as this video shows.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 9, 2007 at 9:42 AM
Frank Bruni weighs in on the Mozza phenomenon today, but he's just a little late to the party. Serious Eats was on it in January. I do appreciate the butterscotch budino recipe, which is one of the best desserts I have had in years. If you do go to Mozza, have the gelati as well for dessert. You won't be disappointed. This is Nancy Silverton's restaurant we're talking about here. She is merely (for my money at least) the greatest pastry chef in America.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 10, 2007 at 2:15 PM
I had an old issue of Food & Wine on my desk, and, leafing through it, I came upon a story about wine shops serving cheese and tapas. As a confirmed nondrinker and serious cheese lover, I applaud this trend.
Here are the shops they wrote about:
Smith & Vine
Address: 268 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231
Phone: 718-243-2864
Stinky Brooklyn
Address: 261 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231
Phone: 718-522-7425
Silverlake Wine
Address: 2395 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90039
Phone: 323-662-9024
Cesar
Address: 4039 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611
Phone: 510-985-1200
Portalis
Address: 5205 Ballard Avenue, Seattle WA 98107
Phone: 206-783-2007
We've got both coasts covered. Any Serious Eaters know of any others?
Photograph from iStockphoto.com
Posted by Ed Levine, January 31, 2007 at 6:00 AM
"I have seen rock and roll future" is how, many years ago, Jon Landau began his review of a Bruce Springsteen concert in Boston. (Interestingly enough, Landau went on to become Springsteen's manager—a position he still holds to this day.) Well, last week, I might have seen (and eaten) pizza future at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles.
I don't say these kinds of things lightly. How could I when I share an office with fellow serious eater Adam Kuban, the creator of pizza blog Slice, when I'm the guy who ate a thousand pieces of pizza all over the United States and Italy researching my book, Pizza: A Slice of Heaven
. At that time, I believed that Chris Bianco was making the world's best pizza at his eponymous pizzeria in Phoenix.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, January 10, 2007 at 11:40 AM
THE RUSSIAN TEA ROOM | New York
In New York magazine this week Adam Platt gives the new Russian Tea Room (150 West 57th Street, New York City; 212-581-7100) the gentle spanking it deserves. Best line: “…And I had to agree with the lady next to me when she declared that the buckwheat pilaf, which accompanied her decent portion of glazed duck, tasted like “my grandmother’s socks.” My question: Were those socks clean or dirty?
Rating: One star.
Conclusion: It’s a skip unless you feel like overspending to bathe in gilded nostalgia.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, December 13, 2006 at 1:28 PM
As we mentioned on Monday, foodblogger Pim Techamuanvivit has once again organized the yearly Menu for Hope charity fund-raiser. Now in its third year, Menu for Hope is a raffle in which foodbloggers donate prizes and then solicit readers to buy tickets to win the goods in a drawing. Proceeds this year will go to the UN World Food Programme, which provides hunger relief for needy folks worldwide. Last year's MFH took in more than $17,000 for Unicef.
Serious Eats is happy to offer two prizes.
LOS ANGELES: Dinner for Four at Pizzeria Mozza
For West Coast–based Serious Eaters or those willing to travel to Los Angeles, we're offering dinner for four at Pizzeria Mozza, the recently opened Nancy Silverton–Mario Batali–Joe Bastianch pizza joint. As our own Ed Levine said in Details magazine, Pizzeria Mozza is "the first excellent pizza in pie-starved Southern California. Silverton spent a year perfecting the dough. Her breadlike crust is two inches high, but unlike that of Chicago deep-dish, it has a light, crisp exterior and a tender, moist interior."
Dinner for four (you and three of your companions) will include three courses and wine paired with the pizzas you choose. (Winner will need to contact adam@seriouseats.com to make dinner arrangements.)
NEW YORK CITY: Pizza Crawl for Four Led by Ed & Adam
For East Coast–based Serious Eaters or those willing to travel to the Big Apple, we're offering a guided pizza tour for four (you and three companions) of the New York City borough of your choice. The tour will be led by Serious Eats' Ed Levine—he's also author of pizza encyclopedia Pizza: A Slice of Heaven—and me, Adam Kuban, pizza blogger and founder of Slice.
Don't worry: Ed and I will pick you up in the Serious Eats Piemobile and whisk you and your pizza posse away to sliceland. (Winner will need to contact adam@seriouseats.com to make tour arrangements. )
If those prizes don't appeal to you, be sure to check out the full range of wonderful prizes on Pim's site: Menu for Hope III Prizes and Menu for Hope III, More Prizes.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, September 24, 2006 at 11:45 AM
I came across this great little LA hot dog and taco movie.
These guys are both really passionate about their respective fields of expertise. They have their own blogs, babygater and latacohunt
