#16 – Anisette Brasserie’s Pain au Chocolat

“I knew it would happen…the day would finally come. But not this soon! I figured it would be at least halfway through…maybe by pLAte 35 at the earliest,” I dejectedly said to John as we wandered down the Santa Monica 3^rd Street Promenade.

Now, I know what you are thinking – he is cashing out his chips at pLAte #16. What a wimp! No, no, no my foodie friends – what happened this past Wednesday night was far worse. Let me explain …

John suggested we head out to the movies to see Bridesmaids starring Penelope, err…The Target Lady, umm…Gilly.

John - “It’s Kristen Wigg.”

Right, right the Suze Orman look-a-like. Anyways…there were some stipulations on this little adventure.

John - “Well we can go see it in Marina Del Rey, Downtown at LA Live, Santa Monica or at Universal Studios CityWalk!”

Me – “CityWalk?!? Great, maybe we can take a ride in that wind tunnel machine while we’re there too.”

Crazy stipulations can only mean one thing…you guessed it, there was a Groupon purchase involved in this endeavor.

John – “Don’t make fun, it’s a good value!”

While dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp and bowling at Jillian’s was incredibly tempting, I made the executive decision to pass on CityWalk and head to the 3^rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

“Besides we can cross another pLAte off the list!” I insisted.

Anisette Brasserie is tucked away on one of the side streets off the main Promenade drag in Santa Monica. According to Jonathan Gold’s list it offers up a Pain au Chocolat pastry that rivals the best in Paris. For those who aren’t familiar with this delicate treat, think melted chocolate inside of a buttery croissant. 

Have I got your attention now?

What I pictured in my head of this quaint brasserie was an open aired bakery akin to the one Meryl Streep owned in It’s Complicated. You know, bright and airy with the sweet smell of pastries filling the air. What I saw upon arriving was a slightly different image….

Closed! FOR GOOD!!! And even worse...a new restaurant has already taken its space. After inquiring with the folks inside, they assured me there was not a Pain au Chocolat anywhere on the premises.

Me - “Well this is a disaster of epic proportions!”

John – “Yea no kiddin, I mean now where are we gonna get dessert?”

Me – “John…Priorities! This changes the whole premise of the blog!”

John – “Sorry, I didn’t hear you. I’m googling the closest Yogurtland.”

Well there ya have it folks, we are officially down one. I guess that’s what happens when it takes six months just to get to the sixteenth pLAte on the list.

We’ll be back next week with an all new post, in the meantime…I wonder if anyone has nabbed the domain www.98-plates.com.

Anisette Brasserie

CLOSED

Foo-Detour - Fentons Creamery

John – “To be honest, I don’t really remember this part of the movie…”

Me – "Are you kidding??? It’s the part right after Carl gives Russell the Grape Soda pin at the Cub Scout Ceremony. You know…then they go get ice cream at Fentons!”

John nodded somewhat unconvincingly as we turned off the freeway and made our way into the quaint Norman Rockwell-esque main drag of Emeryville, California.

To bring you up to speed…John and I escaped LA for about 48 hours and drove (mistake?) up the interstate for a weekend in San Francisco. We met up with our friends Jayna, Ken and their 6-month old baby, Mady, for a weekend in NorCal. After a tour through Napa AND Sonoma on Saturday, which resulted in this...

Time Check: 8:17pm

…we spent Sunday touring the San Francisco Wharf, Muir Woods and the “Full House” homes on Alamo Square. While all the sights of the City by the Bay were impressive, I had my sights set on a “Only Michael Would Make Us Go There” detour on the way home.

You remember Fentons Creamery…it’s the small ice cream shop that Carl Fredrickson and Russell visit in the closing scenes of “Up”. What you might not know is that Fentons is a real place located just down the street from Pixar’s production campus. Despite the fact that we already downed multiple samples from Ghiardelli Square and a Caramel Hot Chocolate to boot…John knew better than to deny me my ice cream fix. Plus, I knew he was excited about the trip when he insisted we play the “Up” soundtrack before we arrived at Fenton’s.

When I saw Fenton’s in the movie, I pictured a small quaint mom and pop ice cream shop tucked away in a nondescript part of town. When I saw Fenton’s in real life, I felt like I was in the middle of a Johnny Rockets where the kids took over the ice cream sundae bar. At dinnertime on a Sunday, Fenton’s was PACKED with a line of people just waiting to get inside the place.

With a six-hour plus drive (mistake confirmed) ahead of us, we opted to skip the sit-down option and get a pair of cones to go. To my surprise, Fentons actually has a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu featuring your typical burger, hot-dog and ‘old fashioned grilled sandwich’ options. But if you’re gonna make the trek (and by this point, who wouldn’t), you have to go for the ice cream. With homemade concoctions like Toasted Almond, Butter Brickle and Chocolate Marble and seasonal favorites like Pumpkin, Spumoni and Blackberry…it’s nearly impossible to try just one flavor.

That’s why I picked two! Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch and Butterfinger topped my double-scoop waffle cone, while John went for a single scoop of the Coffee Cookie Dream. After downing my cone in a matter of minutes, I was happily satisfied but not convinced I had to make Fentons a must-visit on my next trip north. And then…I saw the sundaes…

I mean…when the banana split comes with a warning like this:

"WATCH OUT! Tourists may take photos of you with this Fentons tradition! HUGE scoops, we mean HUGE, of Vanilla, Chocolate & Strawberry ice cream cradled by a whole ripe banana."

You know you are in for a treat! And if ya can’t quite finish your whole dessert, I’m sure this guy will happily slop up the leftovers.

With our stomachs full and our mission complete, it was time to hit the road back to LA. Of course, we did take a slight detour before we left…

When in Emeryville…

Fentons Creamery

4226 Piedmont Ave.

Oakland, CA 94611

#11 - Akasha's Quinoa w/ Edamame

Planning a dinner with Melissa usually goes something like this:

Melissa – Where do you guys want to go eat? I don’t want to choose.

Me – I just heard about this new brick oven pizza place on 3^rd, let’s try that.

Melissa – And what am I supposed to eat, everything is going to be covered in globs of cheese.

Adam – How about sushi, I could be down for Izakaya or something.

Melissa – I am looking at the menu and there is like 1 option there for me.

Me & Adam – ARHHHHGGGHH!

You’d think Melissa might have extreme food allergies or maybe she just likes to be difficult (ding ding!), but alas Melissa’s real reason for being so picky comes from being a VEGAN. (We watched the movie Fast Food Nation, I fell asleep before the main titles ended, Melissa went off the deep end). Vegan means no animal by-products whatsoever. Meat, fish, eggs, dairy, butter and basically anything that tastes remotely good are OUT on her food plan. (Needless to say, I couldn’t last a few hours without a frozen yogurt fix).

So when Melissa asked to join for a pLAte, I sent the list of 89 remaining spots over so she could give US the options. Surprisingly we were sent back a list of about 8 or so choices and we settled on Akasha, a restaurant with an urban loft-like feel nestled in the newly reinvigorated Culver City.

It had been almost a year since Meredith, Adam, Melissa and I got together for a dinner, mostly because of the infamous Mother’s Day Meltdown of 2010, which kept several parties apart for nearly 7 months. I played the role of innocent bystander (having your own blog gives you liberty to rewrite history). But with everyone Kosher again, we were all looking forward to a night of mildly inappropriate insults flying across the table.

The pLAte to be ordered at Akasha is Quinoa with Edamame. However, the menu only listen two kinds of quinoas, one with chicken and the other with market fresh vegetables.

Adam – Have you ever encountered this before? The pLAte isn’t on the menu!

We asked the waitress and indeed, edamame is not on the menu tonight. Knowing quinoa for dinner wouldn’t be enough, I suggested Melissa and I share dishes. She went with the Punjabi Mung Beans (I mean…) and I ordered the Market Vegetable Quinoa.

Waitress – Do you want chicken or tofu with that quinoa?

Me – Umm, I will go with chi….

Melissa – TOFU!

Me – Right, tofu…(internal groan).

Melissa – Look at you going vegan tonight!

As if I had a choice…

Adam ordered off the DineLA menu and went with Scallops and a German chocolate cake for dessert. Meredith went exotic with her choice…a turkey burger.

Meredith – Is it possible to get no bun?

Waitress – Sure!

Melissa – What the hell are you doing?

This coming from a vegan mind you…

We also ordered a basked of onion rings (per Jonathan Gold’s suggestion) for the table.

After enlightening discussions about whether all beans come in pods (they do) and if I was allowed to share Melissa’s sexual exploits on the blog (I don’t), the onion rings landed in the middle of the table.

Meredith - You know how sometimes you bite into onion rings and they fall apart, these are perfect.

The rings had the perfect breading to onion ratio and almost snapped apart instead of crumbling into a mushy mess.

Next up, the entrees. So how would my first foray into vegan eating begin? 

Me – Meh.

Melissa – Oh, shutup! Michael doesn’t like it because it wasn’t alive once!

Here’s the thing…the quinoa was good. It was tender, not overcooked, well seasoned. Is it something I HAVE to eat before I die? I’m not so sure…If I learned anything from the Lion King, it is that we are all part of the great big Circle of Life and according to Rafiki, eating meat is okay.

Melissa – Well, I don’t care what you say. This is a nice piece of tofu.

Nice piece of tofu??? What does that even mean? Was that bean curd nurtured better than the next?

The Punjabi Mung Bean dish actually had a lot more going for it. Along with the lentil-like bean mush (for lack of a better word) the Naan bread and dipping sauces were a nice flavor injection to the dish.

Meredith and Adam ended up switching plates halfway through the meal. The melted gruyere on the bunless turkey burger called to Adam, while the slightly undercooked scallops were better received by Meredith.

We ended the meal with a slice of German Chocolate Cake and a Salty Chocolate Peanut Bar. Despite lofty expectations, the best part of each dish was the ice cream on the side. Besides, who needs $9 desserts when you have these babies in your bag…

It was Girl Scout Cookie Day at work and Thin Mints beat dry cake any day of the week.

Melissa – So Michael how does this work now? You write the blog, you pay the bill?

Keep it up Melissa…next time we do dinner it will be at In-N-Out.

Akasha

9543 Culver Boulevard

Culver City, CA 90232

#5 - Animal's Foie Gras Biscuits and Gravy

“It smells great in here!” Jessie exclaimed as we walked through the front doors of Animal on Fairfax. Truth be told, it shouldn’t have taken me this long to hit up the neighborhood MEAT-ery…it’s been on my “To Eat Here” list for as long as I’ve lived in LA. Everyone has good things to say about this place…including our fellow diners tonight.

Jessie, armed with a list of must-eats from Robby, was intent on finding any dish that included kimchi (the Korean fermented vegetable dish). Chris, a friend of Jessie’s visiting from NYC, had been told this was the place to try for some unique LA eats. Greg, who hadn’t visited in a year, was praying (despite being Jewish) the Foie Gras Biscuits and Gravy were still on the menu. And me…well, I’m down for ANY restaurant that shares a name with a Muppet.

Animal is located on Fairfax just south of Melrose. It is somewhat hard to find due to the fact that there is no sign on the front of the building. “Ooohhh,” I exclaimed, “No sign…always a sign that the place is really good”…or snobby. 

“Changes and modifications politely declined”

That is Snobby Strike #2.

“$20.00 corkage fee”

Three Snobby Strikes and you're out! Come on…a $20 corkage fee! Half the dishes on the menu are less than that!

But here is the thing about Snobby Strikes (bear with me, I’m making up these rules as I go along)…if the food is good, it wouldn’t matter if they tarred and feathered you (I’m currently reading John Adams so tarring and feathering is in vogue) for splitting the bill on 2 credit cards. Good food will always supersede the Snobby Strikes.

Like any good television agent, Greg intently listened to our suggestions and ideas on what to order and then told us what to actually order. To be fair…Greg has been to Animal before, he is our resident food-a-holic, and he always smells good. And if I’ve learned anything about the business…always trust a man that smells like the misty ocean breeze flowing in from Santa Barbara.

The batting lineup (in order of how the plates were presented) for the night follows below – complete with a sound bite about the dish. Pictures are included for your viewing pleasure. Let it be noted that Greg did an excellent job presenting each dish (ala Vanna White) for the camera. From here on out we will refer to him exclusively as Vanna.

Chicken Liver Toast

“This is so good and only three dollars! We should order like ten of them.” - Jessie

Hamachi Tostada

“It’s like several holidays in one bite.” –Jessie 

(Unsure what holidays she was referring to, let’s say Christmas and Arbor Day)

BBQ Pork Belly Sandwiches, Slaw

“I could pop like…several more of those” – Chris

Let it be noted Chris also mentioned he was in the market for a dark red (Chris interjects “No No…more like burnt orange) leather jacket. Paging Nash Bridges!

Grilled Octopus with chorizo and chow chow

“WTF is chowchow, but it tastes amazing” – Mike

“Isn’t chow chow a type of dog?” – Chris

“Shit” – Vanna

Upon further review chow chow is not only a breed of dog, but also a Chinese pickled relish. Phew!

Poutine with oxtail gravy and Cheddar

“mmmmm….yyyummm….ughhhh” – Everyone

(Side Note: Nobody really spoke during this because the combination of French fries, cheese and gravy is enough to render anyone speechless)

…and finally the highly-touted (and reason we actually came)...

pLAte #5 - Foie Gras with Biscuits and Maple Sausage Gravy

“It’s like rich, sweet, salty and savory all at the SAME TIME” – Jessie.

The Foie Gras was undeniably the richest pLAte I have had to date. The dish brilliantly combines your favorite maple syrup flavors from breakfast AND creamy, salty, fulfilling flavors from dinner. Forget brunch, I say we start a new mealtime called Brinner of Dickfast…on second thought, let’s just stick with brunch.

Six dishes in and you’d think this group of four would be satisfied…wrong-o! Come on it’s ANIMAL, “let’s eat like there’s no tomorrow” said Vanna.

We polished things off with an order of Balsamic Pork Ribs (the meat fell off the bone…and onto the table in my case) and for dessert a Bacon Chocolate Crunch Bar, which coincidently tasted nothing like a Nestle Chocolate Crunch Bar.

You can file ANIMAL under the “Places I Should Have Been Going to A Long Time Ago” category because the food is just that good. Another plus is that the menu is always changing…sort of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book!

We all agreed a return visit was definitely in order….after all, we passed on the rabbit legs, pig tails and chicken hearts.

Hmmm…wonder if Animal is gonna be pissed when we eat all his friends.

Animal

435 N Fairfax Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90048

(323) 782-9225

www.animalrestaurant.com 

Foo-Detour - CRAVINGS at The Mirage

“There have been few times in my life that I have ever been this hungry!” exclaimed John this past Sunday afternoon while trudging past Caesar’s Palace on our way to The Mirage in Las Vegas.

TIME OUT (Zach Morris Style): Questions you have right now may include…

1. What is with the funny looking Foo-Detour logo in the corner of this blog? Well, I didn’t want to just limit the scope of the blog to 99 pLAtes in Los Angeles. So, in an effort to continue and vary the posts (read: write off more meals as ‘expenses’ due to my non-profit writing venture) I’ve decided to cover some other restaurants that aren’t on the list. We’ll call them Foo-Detours. Get it…foodie+detour…brilliant I know, thought of it in the middle of the night.

2. What are you doing in Vegas? A group of nine 20-something, one 30-something and one almost-30-something (sorry Pat) headed out to Vegas this past weekend to run in an insane National Urban Scavenger Hunt competition…which is a whole different blog post…so we’ll just call it a Reunion Weekend.

3. Was John really that hungry?  
Yes – Exhibit A: He had resorted to eating paper.

 TIME IN

 


Things most people do in Vegas include: eating at any number or exclusive restaurants, taking in a Cirque-de-Soleil extravaganza or rolling the dice at high-stakes casino games.

Things this group did in Vegas include: ordered sandwiches at the not-so-exclusive Carnegie deli, watched the non-Cirque water show playing at the Bellagio and rolled the dice (health-wise) by playing flipcup in the not-so-sanitary O’Sheas Casino.

Regardless of the different vacationing styles, I wouldn’t have had it any other way…

Around 10:50am on Sunday, Stacey (small in stature but large in adventure), John and I made plans to have an early-ish brunch and then start our trek back to Los Angeles. At around 1:20pm (hence John’s famished state) we finally put that plan in action and lined up for CRAVINGS, The Mirage’s signature buffet.

Each of us had a mission…Stacey hoped to compare this buffet against the one at the Bellagio (her current favorite), I hoped they had king crab legs and John hoped to make it through the line without passing out from starvation.

“Maybe I can actually eat 99 plates worth of food” John exclaimed as we made our way past the Jazzie Scooters scattered through the dining room. Forget showgirls and the Hoover Dam, a Las Vegas buffet is really a sight to see. Imagine every possible food group available for consumption, then multiply it to the 6^th degree and you have the multiple-thousand foot long troughs of food neatly adorned with sneeze-proof glass.

“They have a noodle bar!” Stacey exclaimed, “This place is amazing!” This ain’t your neighborhood Sizzler…The noodle bar was just the first of 13 (yes a bakers dozen) food areas flanking the perimeter of a room the size of a football field. Salads, Chinese, Hot Grill, Sushi, Noodles, Fishmonger, Raw Bar, BBQ, Latin, Rotisserie, Carving, Italian and Desserts. 

After a brief huddle at the table, we decided a three-man zone offense would be the best way to tackle the field. I loaded up on seafood and Asian cuisine while Stacey made a beeline for the deli. Meanwhile, John…well he blitzed just about every other section. “They had eggs benedict over there!” he protested when questioned on his odd combination of breakfast foods and pho.

Here’s the thing about buffets…none of the food is AMAZING, it’s all sub-par. There are just a gazillion choices so your stomach never has a second to get bored (or get any oxygen for that matter). From chicken chimichangas to pan-fried potstickers...the world is literally at you taste buds.

Two plates deep, Stacey and I were starting to slow as John came back with a fresh made vegetable omelet from the chef’s grill. “I started with dinner and am ending on breakfast,” he firmly stated, “I am like the foodie Benjamin Button.”

Meanwhile, the buttons on my jeans were hanging on for dear life as I saddled up to the gelato bar for a scoop of vanilla bean (which – gasp – I could barely even finish). 

Like a gambler folding his last hand at the poker table, John conceded defeat to Cravings. Despite the glimmer in his eye as we rolled by the panini grill on our way out the door, the food comma had won out. “Can I throw up and start again?” he asked. ‘You gotta know when to walk away’ John, ‘know when to run’ (for the restrooms).

As we cruised down Tropicana Ave toward the freeway, I was reminded of our newly minted Vegas motto. “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…until it moves on down to your love handles.”