Final's-Crunch Post: STK L.A

Almost done with semester at PCC, still have no idea what I'm going to do in life. Was thinking of going somewhere in South-East Asia if I man up in time, but my 4 year macbook companion, took a five feet dive yesterday and it wasn't pretty, like dropping a baby. Hmmm...new mac or vacation?

So backlogged, don't even know where to start, must use this school library time carefully!

Being a guy of my word...






A while back, Abby from PleasurePalate organized a media dinner with a bunch of us over at STK house, basically an event where the set restaurant gets to showcase it's chops. Abby is interning with One Group, responsible for other L.A-hip abodes such as One Sunset and Coco De Ville.

Blogger dinners are something all in their own, an all out attack of comped dishes, drinks, desserts one after the other until we reach that sad/sickening feeling of satiation and you just can't take another bite...one of my top reasons of loving life personally.

Today was no exception.





Talk about [tongue] sweeping a foodblogger off his taste buds! Tomato 4 ways (Tomato "tartar", marinated sun-dried tomato, flash fried tomato, and a marinated raw cherry tomato), Chef Todd Miller set the bar high with this special off-the-menu starter. Top quality tomatoes of any sort need not too much doctoring at all, as is the case here with basil infused olive oil & a dash or two of bacon salt, like I said, not much at all.

A cocktail pairing was to accompany every course apparently, courtesy of their mixologist Pablo Moix. Wished I would of knew this before the cocktail reception, based from PURELY aroma and presentation sense perceptions...\






Uva Caipirinha (Leblon cachaca, red grapes, lime, clover honey)






Golden Roasted Beets get the Eastern treatment with coriander, micro mint, yogurt & a light curry blend ($12). Surprisingly superb blend vs. these perfectly cooked root veggies.






Jumbo Lump Crab Salad (green melon, avocado, mache greens and kaffir lime)
Keeping true with it's "Jumbo" naming (for once), this mix was jam packed with luscious, sweet crab flesh, tasting overly fishy in some bites, but that Kaffir lime took care of that nicely.






Capsicum Mojito (Bacardi, lime juice, mint leaves, bell pepper)
...smelled sweet and spicy, in the truest sense of the word.






Lil' Big Macs (Japanese wagyu, "special sauce", sesame bun; $20)
Juice bombs that made perfect headway for those nice fresh-baked buns, that secret sauce only brought everything together. Never having an actual Big Mac ever in my life, and not planning, ever, especially after this baby.






Wet and Dry Aged Beef orders were charred & nice from what I can remember, but not to much swoon factor, the myriad of sauce I'm sure would of helped (herbed Bearnaise, red wine sauce, blue butter, STK, lemon mustard, bold STK, and toasted peppercorn, creamy horseradish) if only they weren't all the way on the other side of the buzzed blogger table...

Swoons were definitely heard on these spud sticks though.





Truffe Parm. (more like porn) Cheese Fries
Lincoln log style-stacked. Wait, since I wasn't around to play that back in the day, so, can't really walk the talk, so, here's my J.Gold style bad ass description: Jenga, jenga, jengaaa! A-ha, take that J. Gold guru...

And the night's clincher, a most surprising makeover of old friend friends.





Hazelnut Pop Tart w/ Hazelnut Ice Cream
Nutella containers and Chocolate Pop Tarts never lasted longer than a week in my house. These renditions were impressive, they got down that signature crumby, buttery crust like in the industrial artificial ones but actually made from real quality ingredients. And very few times does A la Mode not work on desserts.

Honestly, didn't know what to expect as I fell asleep on the bus coming to this place but, it was pleasantly surprise. Vowed to myself to never become one of those L.A hipster type of guy's, but wouldn't mind coming back on an 'expense account' one day to experience that hip burger, fries and Nutella pop tart thang.



Other bloggers who joined who were hip enough:

Alli 411 http://alli411.blogspot.com/
Folie a Choisauce http://choisauce.wordpress.com/
Food She Thought http://foodshethought.blogspot.com/
Gastronomy http://gastronomyblog.com
Gourmet Pigs http://gourmetpigs.blogspot.com/
Kung Food Panda http://kungfoodpanda.blogspot.com/
Liquid Muse, The http://theliquidmuse.blogspot.com
Matt Bites http://mattbites.com
Mattatouille www.mattatouille.com
Seeking Food http://seekingfood.blogspot.com
Sinosoul http://sinosoul.com/
streetgourmetla http://streetgourmetla.blogspot.com/
Teenage Gluster http://teenageglutster.blogspot.com/
When Tara Met Blog http://www.tarametblog.com/

List thanks to Gastronomy Blog

STK
755 N La Cienega Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90046
310-659-3535

Mmmm...[Secret] Barbacoa

Girls have been eating up my blogging time lately, a lot. At least two ‘friend requests’ per online networking medium a week—average--thanks to that Bizarre Foods episode I came out in a while back. Not a bad thing, I mean, if it wasn’t for this girl I met a while ago…I would had never found out about this lady who sells the worthwhile lamb dish known as Barbacoa straight from her backyard pit--score.






I was ecstatic, the secret restaurant concept is one that makes any foodie swoon with giddiness. And there it was...

From the Puebla provinces of Mexico, Tia Flor slaughters one sheep, and one sheep only every single Saturday.





She breaks the night, dwelling into twilight hours of Sunday, tossing and turning the smoldering Maguey cactus leaves that moisten and infuse the fresh mutton chunks that it encapsulates within. The ash temperature can turn to toughening hell in a sleep-derived blink of an eye.






I will say what is to be said, that is: foolhardy consistence. Then again, hell's oven really has no way of being controlled, thus, the concept of consistence--in this case--is quite contrary. This is not the best I've had in my life--that would be this guy in the corroding streets of East D.F (Ahuizontla, Nacaulpan), he makes a three hour trek from ______ every Sunday morning. But just as his tender game runs out by the strike of noon...so does hers.





My first taste of the stuff was actually at my house, take-out, personal delivery right after--no meeting parents for me, thank you very much! At first taste...smoke, in it's most subtle of way's I've EVER experienced it before, unlike any of the restaurant stuff I've had around here before. The flesh itself actually had flavor, my mind was running lucid imagining how her Consomé, the broth that leaks of the lamb as it roasts, would be like.






My foodie apparition was correct, spiked with creamy Garbanzo's, it was utterly unami in every savory sense of it, along with that subtle smokiness...






She also griddles up some'!






Quesadilla's here are stuffed with the Mexican Exotics Canon: First, the notorious jet oil-black stuff known as Huitlacoche that is the epitome of the "earthy" flavor characteristic. Second, Flor de Calabasa (Squash Blossom's) that are marinated. And last, the strikingly aromatic herb that Aztec's knew as "Skunk Plant" aka Epazote.

Mention "con todo" and your fresh-made tortillas raptures will be truly glutted. Hongos, mushrooms that are snipped up into tiny little rectangles and of course, Chicharron (fried pig skin), that is fried to jagged crispness and also cut into confetti-sized pieces. You will be surprised to see how much those aforementioned sized items adds immensely to overall awesomeness.





Consistence in this category is fail-safe, hence, these are the best Quesadillas I have ever had the pleasure of.

With this, a description of her Salsa supplements is almost mandatory.





Behold:
Tangy Tomatillo Green,
Tomato--not chile--based Red (don't let tomato fool, packs a punch)
Cured Red Onion and Habanero Relish...fucken fire.

I was also introduced to a Jaliscan Neveria (Ice Cream) street vendor that makes some of the smoothest water/cream-based, natural Tamarindo nieve I have ever tasted.

Doña Evangelica also sticks to old world ways, from house-to-back-of-truck vending, the making of these Nieves takes several day's. Ice Cream making is a full arm workout, churning and churning for two hours, or however long it takes for the rock-salt and ice solution to do it's thing on five gallon steel tubs filled with base. She starts on Tuesday and goes on making the stuff until showtime: Friday, Saturday and Sunday.







Doused with a strong Chamoy sauce she actually makes from scratch, it's originally made from apricots for a Mexican Sundae sort of thing, on a Sunday afternoon. This usually follows a trip out to that ghetto Barbacoreria, and it's like also like an esoteric godsend after all that spicy, heavy food.

Mmmmmm...occult debauchery.





And they also do a Tequila Nieve for special occasion.

"Ohh...sure! I'll be happy to meet your parents..."

Garcias Mexican Ice Cream:
cell: (323) 271-9437
(323) 309-6313
On corner of Potrero Grande St. and Rush St. (Citizens Business Bank parking lot)

Secret Barbacoa
shhh...it's a secret!

Beyond Conchas: La Monarca Bakery in East L.A

About three years ago, I remember reading the L.A Times Food Section and feeling proud, surprised and excited.

They had done a front-page article on Ricardo Cervantez and his groundbreaking demographics upon opening La Monarca Bakery in Huntington Park. Finally offering a little more sophisticated Pan Dulce fare to the Latino market...which is often neglected in the eyes of much of the retail food industry. Stepping beyond ultra-traditional Conchas and Cochinitos and supplementing the usual Mexican Bakery arsenal with things like Napoleon's (Mil Hojas), Tiramisu and his very own Goat-Milk Caramel Dulce De Leche Cake. Avant-Gard pastry thought carries out through beverages as well, organic brew in East L.A? Never thought I would live to see the day...











Sticking true to his word, another Monarca Bakery has opened up in East L.A in the Commerce Shopping Center, where just about every Latino East Sider goes to hang, buy socks or even watch a flick. The new location also happens to be just a super-powered stones throw from my house.






Also offering house-made, sorbet-like "Ice's" (Nieves de Agua), including the rare water-based Coco (coconut) with tiny morsels of mature rich, coconut flesh.






Not forgetting his roots, Conchas, a yeast bread with a lard/butter-sugar-crumble topping shaped in the pattern of a sea shell and probably the most traditional of all Pan Dulce--are redefined. Light, spongy with a perfect bread-to-topping ratio, the difference here in quality of ingredients is vastly noticed, the paper bag here will hold up grease-less, unlike the Concha's in just about every bakery in East L.A.







This goes for the plethora of delicate Polvoron style butter cookies too, so tightly packed but gives away elegantly at the bite. Pecan, powdered sugar 'Wedding cookies', Cinnamon, options abound...but all superbly consistent.











East L.A...why not?

5700 E. Whittier Blvd.
Commerce CA.
90022

(323) 869-8800