When throwing a party, you wouldn’t settle for any old outfit—you aim to wow—and the same should go for your refreshments. So don’t just pick up another pack of generic, been-there-done-that kind of beer. Instead, give your guests a Super Bowl party to remember by going with some of the tastiest, most sought after and, even more importantly, chicest craft beers on the market. Because as every fashion girl knows, the best finds are not mass produced.
When it comes to football, the food you enjoy alongside the game has become something of an event itself. So for the Super Bowl’s 50th anniversary, we’ve put together the best L.A. takeout menus worthy of the big 50: from platters of smoked meat, to caviar and Champagne, to gourmet sandwiches and everything else in between. Dig in.
When it comes to the multitude of ethnic cuisines that make up L.A.’s culinary landscape, certain neighborhoods have become synonymous with certain types of food. If you’re in the mood to slurp soup dumplings, you know the SGV is where you’ll go. East Los Angeles reigns as the unofficial taco capital, and for those who are craving some rich tonkotsu ramen, you’ll want to head over to Sawtelle Japantown.
But while L.A.’s Indian food scene is typically associated with a hub of great Indian restaurants in Artesia’s Little India area, the Westside has its share of spots that can hold their own. From new openings to longtime neighborhood gems, from Southern Indian cooking to Punjabi-style, these are the best Indian offerings (in no particular order) on the Westside.
Ever since Hanjip announced it was opening in Culver City, there’s been a lot of talk about it being a game-changer. Besides being the latest offering from the growing juggernaut of Bombet Hospitality Group (Terrine, Faith & Flower, Viviane), Hanjip was created in partnership with Chef Chris Oh (Seoul Sausage, Escala, Nomad Kitchen) — and it focuses on high-quality Korean barbecue.
But what differentiates Hanjip, which opened last week, from other spots in what is arguably the best city for Korean barbecue outside Seoul?
While there’s been a lot of attention given to the location itself, the fact that it’s not in Koreatown is really not its most intriguing selling point. Famed Korean barbecue spots such as Genwa have been creeping out of Koreatown as far west as Beverly Hills, plus there are dozens of great places to grill raw meat throughout Southeast Los Angeles, from Artesia to Hawaiian Gardens and beyond. A Culver City spot just seems to be in tune with the natural sprawl of a popular L.A. dining trend.
If Los Angeles was a doughnut, it would be a rum-, pineapple-, coconut- and mint-flavored ring covered in shredded coconut — at least according to Blue Star Donuts, the Portland-based gourmet doughnut shop that just opened its third outpost on Abbot Kinney.
Blue Star’s signature brioche, European-ish doughnuts are made from a combination of eggs, flour and butter in a process that takes 18 hours. The shop also is turning out doughnuts laced with an ample hit of booze — “donuts for adults,” as they like to call them.
But it’s not just the booziness that makes these doughnuts grown-up. They’re also lacking in the syrupy sweetness of most frosted treats. With flavors like hard apple cider, blueberry bourbon basil and horchata, Blue Star is subtle when it comes to sugar.
And in typical Blue Star fashion, a new location brings new flavor concepts. As with its Tokyo and Portland shops, Blue Star takes inspiration from the culture that surrounds its L.A. shop and translates that into seasonally rotating flavors exclusive to the location.
So what does a Los Angeles doughnut taste like? In addition to the aforementioned homage to the piña colada, Blue Star has translated Los Angeles’ health consciousness into a Greek yogurt and honey donut topped with freshly made granola.
For the next L.A.-specific flavor, Blue Star will be tapping into Los Angeles’ undying obsession with brunch via a mimosa doughnut infused with sparkling wine and an orange-scented glaze, as well as a nod to our nearby wine regions with a grenache-laden ganache.
1142 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice; (310) 450-5630, bluestardonuts.com.
When it comes to handmade Japanese noodles, Los Angeles is home to a few hotbeds. From Sawtelle’s Little Osaka to Little Tokyo to the South Bay, more than a few restaurants are slinging hand-rolled Japanese ramen, soba and everything in between. With Musashiya, the unlikely neighborhood of Westwood now gets some of the action.
Located in the former Top N One Ramen Express, Musashiya keeps the noodle legacy going, this time focusing on the thicker, chewy udon. But it’s not just that hungry college kids have another place to chow down on carbs between midterms; Musashiya specializes in house-made, prepared-to-order udon that should be notable to any Angeleno looking for authentic Japanese noodles.
Musashiya’s noodles are made simply — with flour, salt and water, the dough left to rest overnight before being rolled in the morning. The dough then goes through an aging period until it’s ready to be cut, boiled and served. This process is tweaked daily depending on sitting temperatures and humidity levels in the air, so that the noodles you’re slurping are always of smooth of texture, elastic but with a firmness.
The restaurant is made up of a bar that wraps around the far wall of the space with high-top chairs, and long communal tables that run down the middle. Covered by nothing more than a glass pane, the noodle-making station is open to diners so you can watch your udon being made. The noodles are then served hot or cold.
In line with some of the wilder, modern udon trends, Musashiya also offers a creamy egg-and-ham–laden carbonara udon and an egg-drop udon with spicy cod roe. For the udon purists out there, Musahsiya covers the bases with classics such as niku udon, wakame udon and the smoky, bonito-rife,dashi-based classic Japanese soul food, kake udon.
Beyond noodles, you’ll also find appetizers and simple side dishes of karaage chicken, dried soft squid tempura, yam and okra, tofu and hand rolls.
Musashiya opens Oct. 28 with a buy-one-get-one-free promotion, as well as a $10 gift certificate to the first 20 people to dine each day through Oct. 31.
1049 Gayley Ave., Westwood; (310)-208-5999; musashiya.tokyo.
When it comes to West Hollywood’s dining scene, the strip of La Cienega between Beverly Boulevard and Santa Monica is a force to be reckoned with. Brimming with ultra-hip celeb hangouts and stylish fine-dining options including the Nice Guy, E.P. & L.P., Nobu, Barton G., Bagatelle and Fig & Olive, this restaurant row is home to some of the trendiest spots in town — especially with the recent addition of Aburiya Raku.
The second location of chef Mitsuo Endo’s celebrated izakaya — a staple of the Las Vegas food scene — is housed in a former soba house behind an understated façade. In this neighborhood of flash, it would be pretty easy to pass it by unnoticed if not for the cloth sign out front.
Last fall, I was driving down a secluded canyon road in Malibu, California, when I spotted a vine full of lily pad-shaped leaves and the occasional orange flower crawling over a fallen tree just next to the road.
After stopping and getting out to inspect a little further, I saw this tree that was covered in what I thought was nasturtium, an edible vine of peppery leaves and bright flowers. And even better, since it was nearly winter, the vines had begun to die down for the season and only the saddest of its leaves, little shriveled flowers, and seed pods remained partially withered on the plant.
To be sure, I grabbed a leaf and a flower and put them in my mouth. When I wasn’t dead five hours later, I began counting down the days until summer.
Nasturtium is the lazy forager’s dream plant. If you’re looking for it, you can find it growing all over the West Coast: on the roadside, near river banks, and maybe even in your neighbor’s garden.
Beginning to bloom in late spring and early summer, nasturtium’s brightly colored orange, yellow, or red flowers (depending on the varietal) and circular, velvety leaves, are the marker of the start of Los Angeles’s summer and begin appearing on menus shortly thereafter. With a peppery, clean vegetal taste—something between watercress and arugula—nasturtium is a versatile plant whose leaves, flowers, and seed pods can be eaten raw, cooked, and prepared every other way in between.
We’ve already tackled the delicious whorls known as fiddleheads, and the seasonal crack-like allium known as ramps (a.k.a. wild leeks). In the final installment of our spring foraging series, we’ve once again asked Steve Stacey—forager and director of the Local CFC, a community food center in Stratford, Ontario—for his thoughts on finding wild ginger, a rhizome that tastes and smells like the regular stuff but bears no relation to it.
Whether you’re searching for a local foraged version of this rhizome for your favorite ginger-based sex acts or want to up your forager ante by hunting down some of this buried treasure, here’s everything you need to know about finding, harvesting, and cooking up some wild ginger of your own.
Last week, we spoke with Steve Stacey, forager and director of the Local CFC—a community food center in Stratford, Ontario—who gave us some tips on foraging one of the finest alien tentacles known to man: the fiddlehead.
Stacey’s advice was so delicious that we checked back in with him for his thoughts on harvesting the lovely, potent, and much sought-after wild leek. Variously known as ramps, these short-lived alliums are basically the seasonal chef’s wet dream.
