DineLA Restaurant Week

Love it. Can’t wait to go back.
I love all the different parts of this flowing restaurant. I love the quirkiness. I just love kitch and quirk in general.
The round “plates” of motion pictures at the bar table. All the different spaces for hanging out in the bar. The tall big table crossing the lower big table. The nooks of spaces here and there. The non-recession gift shop. The patisserie. The two distinctly different dining rooms. The ham and cheese bar.
Just like how I enjoyed all the quirky architecture in Spain as seen on “On the road again..” Come on, you know you watched it too. I won’t name those four bc I can’t stand them now, but the architecture and the food..

The food. I think this is as close to molecular gastronomy as it gets in LA. And it is fun.

- pitcher of sangria: we chose rojo. They make it with tempranillo (love it!), big pieces of beautiful sweet fruit. That was the best sangria I’ve ever had.
- foie gras wrapped in cotton candy, on a stick: fun, actually good flavor combo, the foie gras was not the best, it was very stiff, but that’s what they need to make this.
- “canned” uni: ok, this was the only miss. The uni was not very fresh. It was placed on top of tiny dice veg that were heavily dressed with vinegar—overboard, it was way too acidic by itself, and much more so with the uni. Heavy acid and uni: not good.
- watermelon and tomato skewers: big hit. Surprisingly wonderful flavor combo.
- lobster medallions: this was way beyond just medallions, the whole claw was in it. Perfectly cooked, flavorful foam.
- brussel sprouts: more foam (“lemon air”), very good.
- sauteed shrimp: perfectly cooked large shrimp, simple good flavors. It was delicious but not interesting enough for me.
- tuna with foam: I’m drawing a blank, maybe I didn’t taste enough of it.
- crab stuffed buns in a Chinese steaming basket: delicious.
- Philly and Hilly: My friends all got the Philly and I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a uniform and unison exhalted praise. I got the Hilly and really enjoyed it. The bread was unexpected, it was so airy and light inside, like a cream puff. The cheese on both was so good, and it turned out to be white cheddar!
- paella pasta with shrimp, with a side of aioli: this was ok, didn’t do a lot for me. It’s a very large “tapa” so if you want to limit spending, this will help fill you up.
- lamb with mushrooms and potato: I tried the potato, it was like an almost soupy mashed potato, very creamy, delicious.
- apples Carlota: like a high end modern Macdonald’s fried apple pie.
- pear sorbet and chocolate: this didn’t do much for me, except for the small cubes of very good pears.
- chocolate something, can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s like a high end modern twix bar, it came with freeze dried raspberries which were very cool to eat.

The food was very good, with just a couple of exceptions. On top of being good to eat, it was fun to eat, the ingredients were all interesting, high quality (except that uni), and with a touch of chemistry class.

The service was very friendly and helpful, but there was some confusion in the kitchen, since we had to ask several times for a couple of the dishes.

Like I said, can’t wait to go back, and next time I def need to try their very interesting drinks.

Molecular gastronomy has finally come to Los Angeles! Best of all, it is served on the same menu with traditional Spanish cuisine. This is, well.. food heaven by my standards. The meal I had at Bazaar was tres exciting. Before this meal I’d had more exposure to molecular gastronomy theoretically then actually tasting it, so this was a big event and I was not disappointed.

There are 2 sides to the menu, Rojo and Blanca. Rojo contains traditional Spanish cuisine, Blanca non-traditional. Each dish is served tapas style, in smaller portions, the perfect size for 2 people dining together. Knowing that that the avante-garde cuisine would be more satisfying as a dining adventure when I was not experiencing hunger pangs, I ordered some traditional Spanish fare to start with, so that I would not be hungry when we tasted the Blanca dishes.

The Jamón Ibérico de bellota and Croquetas is on the Rojo side of the menu. The hand-sliced, acorn-fed, free-range Ibérico ham was divine. A friend from Barcelona told me that the ham Andres imports is not available anywhere else in the US. It’s good!

The jamon was served with a brown bread with tomato spread, a Catalan dish served in almost every restaurant in Barcelona. Brown bread is rubbed with garlic then topped with olive oil and tomato pulp. When I was in Barcelona last summer I remember it being a bit different, same components just less oil and tomato on the bread. This was still very good. The Croquetas de Pollo were excellent: perfectly crisp outside and creamy inside. I could fill up on just croquetas alone. Luckily I did not. The rest of the meal was my most exciting meal all year. Really.

We started with Olives Ferran Adria, FA being his teacher, the molecular gastronomy guru in Barcelona. It looks like an egg yolk, only green as an olive. The inside was filled with an olive tasting liquid. They were served on porcelain spoons. The instructions we were given: slide it onto your tongue then press your tongue to the roof of your mouth. As I did so the salty liquid exploded in my mouth. It was an unusual almost pornographic sensation. One of those things you want to try at least once for the experience more than the taste. For full post view http://www.alli411.com