The Yellow Brick Road

Food-ing in LA

Everything here is cooked in garlic which maybe isn't too novel for someone from Singapore. But can you imagine garlic ice cream (thank God it was covered in caramel)

or garlic martini (skip this if you know what's good for you)???


It was a good experience, the steak I had was cooked really well though it was nothing compared to Spago, #4 in the USA.

Ahia and I were both surprised that the interiors weren't swankier. We've both been to places in New York which were a lot more formal. You didn't have to dress up or wear a dinner jacket to this one, in fact we never had to. We didn't see any stars that night, though Wolfgang Puck did come by to the table TWICE. Haha... I'm such a gossip.

I had the best main course, caramelized organic veal chop which came with creamy parmesan polenta. The veal was tender, juicy and had just the right taste. The polenta left a lot more to be desired but the veal itself was worth the price of the meal ($66).

I had told Ahia that I rarely order the requisite Asian item on the menu, no matter how celebrated by the magazines. They can never beat the authentic thing, and in this case, I was right. The Cantonese style roast duck ($39) was disappointing despite promising ingredients like star anise and apricot.


We also had dessert though we were bordering on gluttony by this point. That's my chocolate cake with raspberry...

And Ahia's poufy creamy thingie...

Next night was even better. Cut was one of the newest Puck restaurants, where Ahia had seen Stevie Wonder and Paul Reiser dining there before. He made me try the bone marrow flan with mushroom marmalade for appetizer ($16). Trust me, share this with someone. It's good but terribly fatty and at some point, you need to eat something else.

We had really good food that night, Ahia just ordered a couple more appetizers for himself... the maple-glazed pork belly ($16),

the crispy Chesapeake Bay soft shell crab (yummy not oily),

while I of course, attacked the steak which is quite obvious since I forgot to take the picture until I had devoured half of it. But just look how the meat is so perfectly cooked!

For dessert, there was only one choice: bruleed baby banana cream pie with dark chocolate sorbet. Now that was worth carrying a food baby all the way back home.

The best of the lot though for me, was Providence, #35 on the list.

I thought it had the most inventive menu, with ingredients you never thought could mix well together such as our popcorn pineapple dessert. We had the tasting menu (5 courses for $80) and I enjoyed every second of it that I forgot to take pictures.

Our last stop was Lucques, easily the best value for their Sunday suppers at only $40 for three courses. This was really evidence of walang patalo: this was literally our last stop before I caught the red-eye to Cincinnati! This was where I saw Andy Dick, I know, how D-list can you go, but this is LA and at least I saw a celebrity before I left!

posted by moan @ 2:06 PM