Pico Perfection

Just wanted to make sure you all knew that Pico is nearing perfection. The comfortable yet classy former Los Alamos General Store was excellent when it opened, but keeps finding ways to get better and better, and not the least of that was a redesign of the space. Originally it was set up to look like you still were entering a general store, with the main room featuring cute country housewares for sale, but now the bar is on the right side of the room and looking more like a bar, there are tables in the room--up and down the two levels--it's as if some feng shui master whipped everything into rightful shape.

Chef Drew Terp has had enough time to figure out what works, what grows, what smokes in Los Alamos, and you'll get all the best of that on your plate. Like the ingenious scallop starter above, one scallop, sliced, infused with about as much smoke as the mollusk can hold and not just be vapor, then caressed (it has to be some lovingtender gesture like that) with a hit of lime, tarragon, and that pomegranate seed like a button of flavorful crunch. (The salad ain't bad neither.)

Then there's the secretly simple wild mushroom consomme, a dish name that fails marketing 101--some hypester would no doubt dub it with a moniker like Mad Mushroom Mania! For it packs a vavoominess of shroominess in what looks like mere broth, and then there are tiny pearl onions soft as tears that are all onion without any sting. In this scrumptious bath are several perfect tortelloni you will want to cut with with your fork to make them last over several bites and the pasta will give pleasingly before it breaks as its very fresh and then inside you'll find a ricotta stuffing that no doubt is housemade ricotta, moist enough to delight yet something substantial enough to taste.

There's more, there's always more...ah that grilled pork secreto, part of the shoulder of a mangalista pig, a cut that comes fanned out on the plate like duck breast, pink in the center, grilled crusty goodness at the edges, and all pork flavor (and more of that smoke). And a new dessert, a pot de creme de la creme, as I'd like to call it. Better yet, call Pico for reservations.

Sonoma's St. Francis Reaches Out to Restaurants

Wine can get you into a whole host of wonderful things, and that was never more clear than a few weeks back when it meant a tasting/multi-course lunch at BS Taqueria as the very first guests before it opened its doors in downtown L.A. (Yes, it's good to be on the list.) That meant a celebration of the Cochon555 rolling national festival of heritage pig happening later that weekend, a chance to feast on the amazing cuisine of chef Ray Garcia (a two-time Cochon555 winner), and the launch of esteemed St. Francis Winery & Vineyards' new reserve tier wines.

If you want to read the rest then do so at KCET's Food Blog.

Amen to Ramen

That's ramen, lit poorly, and that will be the last negative word you're going to hear. For what Weston Richards is doing at Les Marchands is a total delight. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night you can order up a bowl, and with it winter (with rain and everything!), what more could you want on a crisp December evening? This is the pork version, decidedly upscale and not what you slurped to save all your cash for drinking back in college. For instance, that's a 53 degree egg (and is their menu wrong or does Richards do his 10 degrees cooler than the temp sous viders seem to generally use? hmmm), looking like it's still in its brown shell but perfectly cooked with a yolk that's just runny, adding more viscous deliciousness to the broth. And then why use bok choy when you can use Brussel sprouts? They've got better flavor for a cabbagy cousin and then roast well too (at least the ones in the soup seem to have bee roasted first).

The two big pork belly strips are cooked to perfection even though they're awash in soup; there's no sense they've been soaking--you'd order them as a dish on their own, fatty, of course--it is pork belly after all--but not just fat. You'll wish there was more. Luckily the broth packs tons of pork flavor, too, and has got a surprising zing to it that might be the only issue with the fine Tatomer Gruner pairing Les Marchands is suggesting for the dish. Why not a wine with a hint of dry apples to go with your pork.

I've left the noodles for last not because they're an afterthought, but because they're delightful. There's nothing like a pasta-type product that still feels alive, with a pleasing chewy sproing to them that might make you a sloppy eater, but you won't care. (OK, this might not be the best first date dish.) They're called alkaline noodles, thanks to the sodium bicarbonate in them, along with flour and water (yep, they're eggless). Richards is appropriately proud of them.

One more good thing--there's a veggie version, too. Unlike one place in town that's very very good but can't seem to make a veggie option soup, Richards makes one with butternut squash, curried coconut milk, shiitake mushrooms, and toasted nori, the milk making the broth almost closer to a sauce than a broth. But you won't care, or at least my wife didn't.

So of course, the place to get noodles is a wine bar.

A Pig in Pig's Clothing

Still sort of recovering from the double barreled blast of contest that was the Indy's Third Annual Sizzling Summer BBQ & Cocktail Soirees, so I can't post a ton, but I did need to give a big shout out to what my better half aptly dubbed Pig-Pig-Fig. That's the dish above, my lovely entree Monday when we were out celebrating the birthday of a good old friend who shall remain nameless as he feels past birthdays and all that (but he sure does have a good radio voice).

What you see above is pork tenderloin that still owns the rights to the tender part of its name--how often does that happen out?--wrapped in bacon, so you get crispy and fat in each doubly porky bite. Very clever. The sauce is a port and fig reduction that might pass for 10W40, and I mean that as a compliment, gooey and tasty. It all gets to sit on some mashed potatoes that are light as a starch can be, yet still tater-tasting, and a bit of spinach--for color, for health, for a couple of Popeye jokes.

Goes mighty well with a Jaffurs Petite Syrah, the wine equivalent of the reduction, a jammy delight.

Petit Valentien's the place, if you're wondering. What I wonder is how they get by without a website.

You'd Be a Turkey to Pass the Pork in These Buns

Sure there was turkey this weekend, but then there were also delectable these, the steamed pork buns from The Neighborhood in San Diego. I promise they don't really glow red--that's just the odd lighting from the red ball on the table in the dark room--but they do leave the person who devours them with a pleasing glow, both from their rich deliciousness and the Sriracha. And then there's the stunning fact they bring out three of them, as if you'd eat three regular burgers, which is what they more appear to be than steamed buns. For while the dough is steamed-bun soft and chewy, it's sliced, not stuffed. So that means you might have a rogue wild mushroom, expertly cooked, sneak out of the sandwich on you. Or, preferably, on your plate. And you will pick it up and eat it, every last bit. As for the pork, it's perfectly tender and rich from it's soy and apple cider braising, perched on the exact spot you want the sweet/sour teeter-totter to be.

If you need more balance, of course, The Neighborhood offers more fine beer than one can drink in an evening, but you certainly can't go wrong enjoying a Russian River IPA with these buns--the hops sharpness playing off the pork richness in a magnificent sensual symphony.