The best food and restaurants for today. Atwater, Hollywood, Silver Lake, Thai Town, Hollywood, New York and wherever my travels take me.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Osteria al Doge



Short of a trip to Venice, Osteria al Doge offers a pretty good introduction to Venetian cuisine. As you might expect from a city that built its riches as the center of a seafaring empire, dishes such as grilled branzino (seabass), cozze al vino bianco (mussles in white wine) and carpaccio di tonno (thinly sliced yellowfin) have a prominent place here. So too do classic dishes like fegato alla Veneziana, stir-fried calves liver with browned onions and red wine vinegar, that provide a hint of the tastes that might have been inspired by a Venetian mariner's contact with the salty/sweet/sour dishes of the Far East. Start off with simple Venetian fare such as a soup of pasta e fagioli or fill your plate from a selection of grilled vegetable antipasti that are on display next to the bar. Polipo al carbone, grilled imported octopus with oven-roasted tomatoes and black olives, is a standout as an antipasta, and tagliolini alla chitarra, homemade pasta with veal and wild mushroom ragu, is rich and satisfying enough to sustain me on a 7-hour plane ride back to Los Angeles. (Damn you and your delays, John F. Kennedy airport!)

Osteria al Doge
142 W 44th St (bet B'way and 6th Ave)
New York
(212) 944-DOGE (3643)

Osteria Al Doge in New York

Monday, June 11, 2007

Langer's Deli



Situated on a corner of MacArthur Park for the past 60 years and skipping distance from the Red Line subway stop of the same name, Langer's is legendary on both coasts for its pastrami (and has a James Beard award to prove it). Succulent and juicy, Langer's pastrami is piled on fresh, crusty rye bread and served with mustard and two fresh deli-style dill pickles. It's positively the best I've ever had. A cup of homemade chicken noodle soup down and I'm back to Hollywood on the train in 15 minutes flat.

Langer's Delicatessen
704 S Alvarado St
(213) 483-8050


Langer's in Los Angeles

Monday, June 04, 2007

Meals by Genet


It's hard to count the number of Ethiopian restaurants in the stretch of Fairfax just south of Olympic, but as exotically named as they all are, Meals by Genet still always sounded to me like the most curious. Having nothing whatsoever to do with the homosexual French tightrope-walker-loving poet, it turns out that in Ethiopia "Genet" is pronounced like "granite" and is a common woman's name (and in this case, that of the smiling chef-owner). While we did have to wait awhile for a table to be cleared for us, once we were seated service couldn't have been more attentive, starting with our waiter who flamboyantly draped clean cloth napkins across our laps and counseled us on ordering the right combination of food for our party of 7. We ended up with two large trays of mostly vegetarian options as well as grilled marinated steak and dorowot, the famous Ethiopian stewed chicken in a red pepper and butter sauce. In addition to the heaps of vegetables which included several types of lentils, collard greens and some salad, we went through several plates of folded injera, the thin, spongy bread with which you grab and eat most everything. At our waiter's suggestion, we also ordered bottles of Harar, the wheaty Ethiopian beer which perfectly complemented the subtle spice of the food. Ethiopia was once part of the mighty Italian Colonial Empire so there are a few pastas on the menu as well. But with food this good, I recommend sticking to the traditional East African items and saving the fall-back menu as a consideration the next time you're out for Albanian (or perhaps Libyan) food.

Meals by Genet
1053 S Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles
(323) 938-9304
closed Monday and Tuesday

Meals By Genet in Los Angeles