Otium - Best chicken ever!

I have been so busy for the past few months that I haven’t updated the blog in F-O-R-E-V-E-R! A lot of exciting changes happening in my life: Guai lo graduated from his PhD, both of us decided to move to the bay area, finding new jobs, new apartment, etc.

Anyways, although there are so many great restaurants for me to explore in San Francisco (can’t wait!), there are still so many in LA that I haven’t tried. So, while I still can, I went to this place called “Otium”, the owner / chef of this restaurant was the head chef in the French Laundry for years! This place is of course, way more affordable. The original plan was to have dinner there, but last minute reservation didn’t work out, so I tried their brunch instead.

The restaurant is right next the Broad museum and MOCA, which makes it a even more perfect weekend brunch spot. As you can see from the pictures above, it has a very casual California vibe (more south cal), definitely going to miss this!

Here are what we ordered:

Chicken enchiladas, egg, avocado, Salsa Roja - the rolls are crispy, salsa is great, a dish I can’t complain!

Fried chicken, hoe cake, maple butter - this is out-of-expectation amazing!! The chicken is super moist , even the chicken breast (I usually hate eating the breast)! The crust has some lemon taste, which is quite nice and “lighten” the greasiness of a fried chicken dish (not that it felt greasy at all). And I absolutely love the hoe cake, same theme, very crispy outside but super moist inside, the maple butter added a tad of sweetness and made it perfect. Highly recommended.

Mille Feuille, Vanilla, Mousseline, Hazelnut Praline - this is absolutely another delight. Just sweet enough, super flaky, and love the nutty flavor.

Overall, this is a place I would go back to (especially to try their dinner) if I still live in LA!

Faith and Flower - Nice quiet brunch chat

Last Saturday, my friend and I went to Faith and Flower for a nice little brunch, plus some girls talk. I am always a fan of the downtown area. Great restaurants and museums, lively and vibrant. I just love it! Except for the parking...... There is street parking in that area, and it is easy to find. The only problem is that it costs $5/hour which is insane, but considering we are only gonna be there for less than 2 hours, we didn't want to look too hard for cheaper parking spots. One tips for you guys, downtown's parking is mostly free on Sunday. Go on Sunday!

We actually thought we were doing dineLA, and turned out they only do dineLA for dinner. Honestly, I did not really care for the dineLA anyways, because the menu is usually not as good as the normal food, which means that you cannot judge the restaurant based on your dineLA experience.

Smoked Trout Benedict Poached Eggs, Housemade English Muffin, Trout Caviar, Hollandaise
I found the trout slightly salty, and don't care for the caviar on top. Other than that, it's a normal eggs benedict.

Plancha Seared Hash Browns, Preserved Lemon Crème Fraiche
I was very impressed by the this. I was a little skeptical at first about the crème fraiche, but it was amazing. The preserved lemon balanced out the heaviness of the crème fraiche. Very nice sear on the hash.

Scallop Ceviche Diver Scallops, Red Yuzu Kosho Aguachile, Taro Chips
Scallop was nice and fresh, and the sauce really made the dish! Yuzu kosho is a Japanese condiment made from fresh chiles, yuzu zest and juice with fermentation. It really elevates the dish. One complaint is that the taro chips were kinda like tossed on the side. I think there can be a more elegant way to put the taro chips on the scallop dish.

Strawberry Cake Vanilla Buttercream, Strawberry Jam, Rhubarb Gel
Another pleasant surprise. Great dessert. The cake was nice and spongey. Top layer is the strawberry mousse, and the middle 2 layers were the vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam and rhubarb gel. So many flavors and everything was balanced perfectly.

My rating: 4/5, definitely would like to come back again, and maybe try their dinner.

Gjelina - Venice

Really haven't had a good brunch for a while, and we are craving for it today! We picked this place called Gjelina, and we are still not sure how to pronounce this. Oh well, it's all about the food right? This place is located in Venice, which means it is SUPER hard to find a parking spot, a free parking to be specific. This place is open at 8 am, so if you are one of those early birds, it shouldn't be a problem finding a parking spot. Unfortunately, we got up late today and arrived there at noon, but fortunately, we found a parking spot a couple blocks away! A good start to the day! 

I love the decor of the place, wooden ceiling, brick tiles, metal looking walls..... a very rustic feeling. And I love the little picture of mountains they have on the menu. Apparently, no photography is allowed of the place! They told me after I took a couple of pictures. I wonder why. Maybe there are a lot of celebrities who come here????

We are feeling very breakfast-y this morning/afternoon, so we only picked stuff from the breakfast items. They also have pizza, salad, etc. They have a very extensive list of wine and cocktails too if anyone is interested! I am usually a coffee person in the day, so no alcohol for me. Here's what we ordered: 
Cortado - This is similar to an italian caffe macchiato or a cappuccino, basically espresso with a little bit of warm milk. Very tasty! A brunch place cannot pass without a good coffee. 
Duck Confit-potato Hash, sunny duck egg & grainy mustard - I love an actually HOT hot dish. Some places I have been, the food is kinda luke warm coming out, which ruins the dish! Very tasty, egg is runny, duck well cooked, and I like the caramelized onions and peppers. One thing I would complain is that too little potato hash to balance out the saltiness of the dish. When I order a hash, I expect hot crispy potato hash, and it wasn't there. 
Lemon Buckweat Ricotta Pancakes, creme fraiche & blueberry compote - Awesome pancake! Fluffy, soft and hot. Just enough sweetness, blueberry compote gave it the perfect acidity and sweetness at the same time. 
Roasted Turkey Tartine, Rapini, tomato, caramelized onion, gruyere & fried egg - Turkey is tender, toast is crispy, well seasoned. One common problem of this kind of dish is that it would be too greasy because of the cheese, but they made it well! 
Chocolate Pistachio Tart, creme fraiche & pistachio oil - Not sweet at all but just sweet enough for my sweet tooth. They added a little salt in the chocolate, and it worked perfectly with the pistachio. It was a very big slice, so it ended up a little heavy, but it was good. 

Overall, 4 out of 5.

Above is the place right next door called GTA (Gjelina Take Away). It can be quite a wait sometimes and for those who don't like to wait, here it is! We didn't order pizza there, but the pizza looked really good, and you can get pizza to go here! 

The restaurant is right on Abbott Kinney, a strip of little shops and restaurants. We walked around a little after brunch, and they have a lot of fun stores! Things tend to be a little pricey in this area, so we didn't really buy anything, but it was so much fun to walk around different stores, clothing, gadgets, antique, etc. They also have blue bottle here, a coffee place I found in San Francisco and now has spread to LA! The infamous Kogi taco truck was here today too! We were too full to get anything, but we love that truck.

La Grande Orange Cafe - Pasadena

I don't usually go to Pasadena, because there's no reason to. But today I wanted to get some tea leaves from Flour + Tea for guai lo's dad as I am visiting them during thanksgiving weekend. Since I am driving all the way to Pasadena, I thought maybe I can try out some of the places there, and I found this place called La Grande Orange Cafe with a four-star review by over 1000 reviewers on yelp. 
This place is located in old town Pasadena, and close to the city's main street (Colorado Boulevard), where you can walk around different stores, coffee shops, other restaurants, etc. For people who takes public transportation, it is right next to the del mar metro station! With the reviews, I was expecting a line, but there's no line! I was happy for a second, and then I got worried..... is this place good? Oh well, I am here, let's just give it a try! Although the place does not have a line, it is fairly packed (that's a good sign). 
Once we sat down, we were dying for a good cup of cappuccino/coffee, but they do not have a lot of options for coffee...... which is very disappointing..... since there are a lot of great coffee shops around, we decided to wait till after brunch for coffee. We ordered a short rib hash and a crab cake egg Benedict. For those who like big portions, this is the place to go, they are massive here! Besides what we ordered, all the dishes from the other tables looked equally big, if not bigger! As for the taste, it's okay. I like the crab cake, but the hollandaise sauce was drowning the English muffin so much that it was all mushy, as well as a little too salty and heavy. As for the hash, the potatoes are supposed to be crispy, but they were immersed in sauce, and the dish was slightly under-seasoned. There's just not too much taste to it. A good hash should be pipping hot, right out of the frying pan, but this is really not what we would have expected. We noticed most people ordered Nachos and Tacos, so maybe those dishes are better? In general, it was a disappointing dining experience, but it wasn't bad, it's just not good.

I will give it a 2.5 out of 5. Good Service, nice ambiance, decent food, wouldn't care to come back though. 

Sqirl + Honeymee

See that line?!! It must be good, right?! Since we haven't had brunch for a while, we decided to have a brunch date on a Sunday morning. Lovely. We thought they are all waiting for tables, but it doesn't work like this. That's the line to order, and once you order, you will get a number to put on the table. Since the line to order is kinda long, by the time you order, you can often find a table no problem. 
We wanted to order the chocolate & nut toast (Guittard Chocolate, Hazelnut Butter, Fleur De Sel), but they were out of nut butter. SO SAD T_T Here's what we ordered:

Drinks:
Cappuccino 
"Al Pacino" - Iced Cappuccino, slightly sweetened

Food:
Flaky Ass Biscuits with Apricot Jam
Red Flannel Hash (Smoked beets, potatoes, scallions horseradish cream, fried egg)
Famous Damus (soft scramble, Surryano Ham, Arugula on Ciabatta)

The cappuccino was good. I ordered the "Al Pacino" because it is one of those really hot days, and it is perfectly sweetened, and I love it. 
The biscuits were probably one of the best I have had. Very flaky, just like the name suggested. It was also piping hot too!  For biscuits, besides flour, one of the most important ingredients is butter, and you can tell the butter tastes very good, and the biscuits have layers. Apricot jam, it is almost like fruit jelly, very fresh and tasty. I wish I can try more different jams. 
Red Flannel Hash, perfect for a summer day. Everything goes so well together, at the same time, you can taste individual ingredients, the smoked beets, the crispy hash.... umm.... yum! 
Famous Damus, very good ciabatta, soft scramble was cooked well. A delicious light sandwich if you crave for one. (Not a big sandwich person for brunch)
As you can see from one of the photos, they also have a selection of pastries that I heard is good. The pastries and the food menu changes slightly according to seasonal ingredients, so I will definitely come back to see what they offer in different seasons! Not to mention the hazelnut toast that I missed! 

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Today is such a hot day in LA, and what should I do about it?! Ice cream!! There is one ice cream stand called Honeymee 10 minutes away from the brunch place. 
They basically sell super soft, creamy ice cream drizzled with honey/honeycomb. They use California milk from a family-owned, certified Kosher dairy factory for the ice cream, no artificial color or flavor added. The honey and honeycombs they used are 100% pure and natural, and it comes from a local certified bee farm. Their honey is one of the purest honey I have ever tasted. For those who have never had honeycomb, after you chew it, it's left with a waxy thing, kinda like chewing gum. And it is perfectly fine to swallow it. Honey has so many benefits that it made this dessert so much healthier!!! Perfect summer day out!!! <3

Salt's Cure

Nice brunch with a couple friends on pre-July4th holiday!!!! I have been to this place once, and I just loved it!! So, I decided to bring my friends there for a nice relaxing chat with great food! It is located in west Hollywood. They do not take reservations for brunch/breakfast/lunch anymore, but they do for dinner. (I have yet to try the dinner!!!!) I have never seen a terribly long line, the wait is usually around 15 - 30 minutes, and if you go early, sometimes you get a table right away. 

We ordered the infamous 2x2x2, which translates to 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausages and 1 biscuit, served with homemade jam. It might seem very simple, like how good can it be? But trust me, it is GOOD! They are known to use fresh ingredients grown and raised in California, and the ingredients are carefully butchered and crafted-in-house. The bacon was really good, and you can tell it is definitely cut fresh from a pork belly. There is actual thickness to it. (When you think bacon can't be any better!!) The biscuit was very good too, especially paired with the homemade jam. 

Grapefruit Pie image from google  http://www.prettylittleshoppers.org/tag/salts-cure/

Another breakfast item, oatmeal griddle cake!!!! This is probably one of the best pancakes I have ever had! Again, it sounds simple, but everything is JUST right. It is fluffy inside, crispy outside, and with the maple butter they put on top..... ummm..... phenomenal!! I haven't tasted better pancakes (I guess I will have to explore more), but this is very very delicious. We also ordered 2 sandwiches, which I didn't try, but I'm told they were good. Finally, how can one finish a meal without a dessert!!! They have really good grapefruit pie!! Apparently, it is their best dessert seller too! Not too sweet, but very strong with natural grapefruit flavor.  

I really need to go back to this place for dinner some time soon! Besides the restaurant's organically farmed local ingredients, they are also known for their wine pairing. Apparently, they have an award-winning wine list, and most of their wines are made with native yeast and made from grapes grown without pesticides. 

This little restaurant is doing so well that they are moving to a larger space on Melrose this fall. I am a little sad about this, just because I really like the decor and ambiance of the place. Well, who knows, maybe the new place is even better? Although I do have a thing for the smaller restaurants. Let's hope the quality of food (and the price) stays the same despite the increase in size of the restaurant! 

A hidden gem - Cafe Maji

I really like waffles. It is really hard to find a good waffle place that can satisfy me, and this is one of them! I called it the hidden gem because it is located in Arcadia inside of a gym. Kinda ironic huh, a yummy waffle place inside a gym. I guess at least you can work it off afterwards. 
The decor of the place is very nice for a small group of friends gathering or a day date. They have a wide selection of flavored espresso drinks, (hazelnut, irish cream, vanilla, etc) with very cute latte art. And the drinks always come with a little cream puff <3. They have a couple different choices of toppings for the waffle, but their plain Belgian waffle is just as good if you are looking for something light. I ordered the red bean waffle with green tea ice-cream, which is one of my favorites. Red bean and green tea are always the perfect match! The warm waffle with the cold ice-cream in one bite, it is just HEAVEN. The waffle is not too heavy or sweet, one person should be able to finish it, but of course sharing is always good if you want to try more items on the menu. If you are not a dessert person, they also have Korean-fusion sandwiches that are very delicious too. I heard their Bulgogi sandwich is very popular. I just found out that they JUST opened up another one in Cerritos! (12232 E. Artesia Blvd) Fellow Cerritos neighbors, you are in luck! It has a very warm and cute setup, and this time, it is a cafe on its own, so it is easier to find. 

Sycamore Kitchen - La Brea

Last weekend, we revisited an awesome bakery/brunch place in La Brea called Sycamore Kitchen. If you guys have been to "Hatfield's", this place is owned by the same owner. They closed the Hatfield's restaurant at the end of last year (I made it there before they closed the place, and it was G-O-O-D), and opened up a new place called "Odys + Penelope", which is a little more casual grill place.
I was planning on only getting baked goods and coffee (trying to save some money), but I just couldn't help myself....... So, I got a couple baked goods to go: Chocolate hazelnut pie, flourless lemon custard, blueberry buttermilk scone and buttercup. I know.... that's a lot, but they all looked sooooo good............ We ended up eating the chocolate hazelnut pie for dessert actually...... this is why I went running the following day to try to run it off. I went with some friends, four of us, we each ordered a dish and coffee. I always think that 4 people is a perfect number for a food outing. Enough to try different things, but not too many people because it's hard to share dishes and chat.

Here's what we ordered:

Left upper corner: Cappucino and stumptown cold-brewed coffee

Left lower corner: [Cured salmon tartine, avocado, capers, hard cooked egg, radish, creme fraiche] in  the front and [Yucatan Bowl - Chicken tinga, black beans, corn tortilla, fried egg, avocado, pico de  gallo] at the back

Right upper corner: Pork belly hash, roasted peppers and onions, russet potatoes, two fried eggs, spinach

Right lower corner: Eggs Benedict - Honey-sherry glazed pancetta, poached eggs, fried rosemary, hollandaise

They are all absolutely delicious, but my favorite is definitely the pork belly hash, and if you guys like something light in the morning, cured salmon tartine would be an excellent choice. For the pork belly hash, the potatoes are crispy, and it was stir-fried with grounded pork belly, with slight sweetness from the red pepper and onion. Then, you poke open the egg yolk, and mix it with the dish. Party in my mouth! For the cured salmon tartine, it is perfect for people who prefer a light brunch. Salmon is fresh, with a tiny hint of sourness from the creme fraiche. Very refreshing.

There are a lot of interesting unique stores on La Brea. After having a yummy brunch, you can walk around the street, going into different stores, and see if you find something you like. We went to a store that has very pretty jewelry from Peru, a lot of carpets from India, and they also have different kinds of helmets/sword/armor (look like those in the movie 300). A very weird combination of things in one store, but it is so fun browsing these stores. Even if you are not planning on getting anything, you might find it entertaining just to look around. There are a rocking-chair store, a couple of furniture/décor stores, a chandelier/lamp/light stores, etc., you can definitely spend a whole afternoon wandering around these stores.