Eat Drink Style Fraîche, Culver City - Good Lunch Option for Under $15

If you're tired of Tender Greens, Honey's Kettle Fried Chicken, Sushi Zo, Sushi Karen and the numerous Thai/Chinese restaurants in Culver City, Fraîche might be a great option – with a lunch menu that fits snugly under $15. Frank Bruni of New York Times rated Fraîche as his #6 favorite 'coast-to-coast' restaurant, and stated that he could eat their salads everyday. I've been passing by this place for months and it wasn't until Jeni told me how much she liked the food, that I decided to give, Fraîche, a little attention. This is the kind of place that would make Rachael Ray flash her vibrant, $40-a-day, Joker-like smile. That smile.

I met up my friend TN, aka TyTown, on a Friday afternoon here at Fraîche, who's been a fan ever since having dinner here. And joining us, was our new Canon 40D only a few days old. Jeni & I had our Nikon D70 stolen during a trip to the Quintana Roo-side of Mexico. Under-$15 meal, long lunch break with beer, perfect daylight, and a new Canon – conditions were perfect. Oh yeah, and lunch with a good friend.

I usually don't pay this much attention to such commonplace objects like plates, forks and knives. But they served as perfect subjects for practice shots.

And have you ever heard of this thing known as bread. Apparently it's made of flour, yeast, oil and salt. Mixed together and baked at a certain temperature, it takes shape into this! Apparently, Jesus was a big fan of this. Seriously, more practice-shot fodder.

Any lunch break that is bound to last more than a hour and a half is usually preceded by a nice, crisp beer. Forgot the name of this, but maybe my beer connoisseur friend can guess it's name simply by looking at it.

Burrata Cheese with Roasted Red Peppers & Balsamic
We started out with this per Jeni's recommendation. I can never say no to such a soft, roll-your-eyes-back cheese like burrata. The burrata cheese is dolloped generously over vibrant, red peppers, still shiny from lounging in a pool of high quality EVOO. Garnished with thinly-sliced red onions and parsley, and drizzled with the Italian equivalent of soy sauce. Thought this was very good, but definitely not the best burrata I've eaten. This was a bit more 'cottage-cheese' like in texture but still retained creaminess.

Royale with Cheese
Any fan of Pulp Fiction will do a double take upon seeing this written in the menu. The sound of it immediately causes you to salivate. The prime beef patty is served with gruyere cheese in a sage/cheese bread which resembles a scone. Condiments are served on the side. I loved this, especially the bread. It was the perfect balance of sage and cheese and exhibited a nice toastiness to it. As an LA burger, I put this in line right after Father's Office' burger. Not sure how it compares to The Counter or Apple Pan, so if there are any burger connoisseurs, would love to hear what you think. I myself only eat 3-4 burgers a year.

Fraîche Fries
These are fries done nicely... 36-24-36 fries. Fried beautifully with skin still on. And the perfect amount – about 25-30 pieces. I hate when a restaurant dumps a crap load of Sysco french fries next to a burger or two pieces of battered fish. Proportions are good!

Seared Albacore Tuna, Black Olive, Anchovy & Egg Sandwich (Pan Bagnet)
Fish. Olives. Anchovies. Eggs. I'm sold. You can separate these individually in a tray and I'd still be happy. This was one wholesome looking sandwich. Thick cut of nicely-seared albacore, salty anchovies, olives and my favorite, eggs. This was good but probably my last time ordering this. The tuna was cut a little too thick and didn't have enough salt. Where is my Maggi sauce when I need it?

Overall, this is one solid lunch spot. With food that looks like this, you'd expect a lot of tilted heads and raised nostrils – not one bit. I felt like I was on vacation here... enjoying my food and crisp beer. And the best thing about it is that the lunch menu is pretty much under $15. Now I have a place to celebrate paycheck-day!

Fraîche
9411 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
310-839-6800
http://www.fraicherestaurantla.com/

Eat Drink Style Japan: The Food Hunt, April 29th - May 6th, 2006

Day Zero: Foodzilla Takes On Japan
Day One: 6am Sushi, Orgasmic Ramen and Chicken Butt
Day Two: Oh-Osaka! Yoshinoya, Double Dinner and Octopus Balls
Day Three: Mayonnaise For Breakfast, More Octopus Balls and Beef Tongue Hunt

Eat Drink Style Foodzilla Takes On Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto

I'll be leaving for Japan tomorrow and it still hasn't hit me yet. Maybe it's because I have to go through this last day of punishment called work. My last trip to Asia was Hong Kong last year and boy did I make the trip worthwhile. Well, in the food category. I ate nearly 5 times a day. So you can count on me to bring back a detailed report of Japan's good eats. I expect to gain a good 5-6 lbs in a week - no problem at all because I gave up on modeling a while back.

Thanks for reading... I'll try my best to provide updates on my trip to Japan.

Eat Drink Style Don Antonio’s Tacos: An Escape From UCLA Dorm Food

In retrospect, college is truly a wonderful experience. You’re 18. Legal. No longer under your parent’s rule. And ready to unwind at any given moment. Some of us decided to stay near the parents, in fear of being homesick. Some of us applied to as many colleges furthest away from home. Either way, you were probably living in the animal house also known as the dorm. And dorms, particularly at UCI’s Mesa Court and Middle Earth, were known for punching out some of the nastiest food ever. TO this day, I still remember what was on the menu:

Tacos from Hell. This station served up tepid ground beef or turkey that had been discolored even before it was cooked. You know, the meat that’s always on sale for a $.25 a pound at your local market. This madness was held together by stale tacos even bums wouldn’t eat along with tomatoes, cheese, sour cream and lettuce.

TeriYACKi Chicken. Using an ice cream scoop, the server would lay down a soggy, mushy helping of rice. He would then use tongs to grab some soggy, minced carrots/cabbage and unused chicken parts and drizzle something that tasted nothing like teriyaki sauce. Not sure if anyone noticed that almost everything in the cafeterias were high in starch. Corn starch thickens food and gets you full quite fast, which cuts down on the university’s food expenditure. So they even added starch to the carrots/cabbage. Oh god, it gives me the shudders.

Baked Potatoes. These were strategically placed next to the taco station for one main reason: the toppings were nearly the same. Almost the same selection you’d get at Souplantation, only with Bacon Bits, not actual bacon. You had to put so much salt and butter for eat to even taste good.

Burgers/Hot Dog Grill. If these were considered burgers, then I have a new term for a ‘dry sponge’. It seriously doesn’t take a long time to grill a 1/16 lb. burger yet they would precook them and leave them in a pan. I remembered getting water from the tap and adding it on top of the burger with salt and pepper and throwing it in the bagel toaster just to make it ‘juicy’.

Deli Sandwiches. All I have to say is that nothing beats a peanut butter & jelly sandwich from Kindergarten. These fine sandwiches catered by Sysco had no flavor whatsoever. And all of a sudden, I'm craving a Subway sandwich. The roast beef was hardly beef – maybe some alternate form of red meat from like a zebra, wildebeest or dinosaur.

Pasta bar. Two kinds of pasta: spaghetti or spinach fettucini with red sauce or white sauce. These dishes made Olive Garden and Souplantation shine. Table for two please with this $5.95 endless pasta coupon!

And after 6 days of regular ‘food’, we were treated on Thursdays, otherwise known as “Premium Night”. There, we were served fabulous 9 course meals by Thomas Keller himself… righhhhhht. “Premium Night”, yeah, the day that contributes to the ‘Freshman 15’. Upon sliding your meal card, you were given a ticket to redeem a higher end piece of crap. You had the option of a rubber tire steak or chicken fingers. The steaks were all labeled with those wooden ‘doneness’ indicators. No matter what you ordered, it was going to be well done. The meat was so bad that they couldn’t risk some college student getting sick over. The strips, although dry, were decent because all the students would drown them in ranch or barbeque sauce. Sauce makes or breaks a dish.

Considering my experience with dorm food and probably everyone else’s, it’s no wonder why UCLA students flock over to Don Antonio’s Mexican Restaurant for “$1 Wednesdays” which starts at 5pm. All tacos are $1 are beers are $4. No tax. Last week, I met up with my friend BR, a former Bruin, for $1 tacos. I drove down Pico Blvd. expecting to find parking. Nope. There were cars lined up at the valet booth directly in front of the restaurant. I was about 8 cars back. After 20 minutes, the valet attendant drove off with my car and found myself in a crowd of college kids. Mainly fratboys and Asian kids.

Don Antonio’s was even more crowded. It was dark and really tight inside. I probably saw around 15-20 waiters running around with tacos and beer. I felt like I was in Rosarito on Spring Break minus the foam and little kids selling me Chiclets.


Don Antonio’s offers six different types of tacos, all for $1. The Asada, Chicken and Carnitas all come in soft shell tortillas, wrapped in aluminum foil. The Bean, Potato and Beef come in crispy, oily hard shell tacos – the way I like them. I ordered 3 asadas, 1 chicken and 1 carnitas. The Asadas were somewhat tepid and lacked flavor. Chicken was moist. Carnitas was the best IMO. The true savior, was the salsa roja because it was about the only thing that possessed flavor. After about an hour, my total damage after two Coronas and five tacos was $13. Not bad. If it weren’t for the $1 night, I probably wouldn’t be here. Well maybe, if I was forced to eat dorm food for a year straight.


Don Antonio's Mexican Restaurant
11755 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 312-2090

I’d like to know:

(1) Where you guys went to school and how was the dorm food?
(2) What did you live off in college?

I lived off a lot of dumplings, Del Taco, canned corn and Sriracha Hot Dogs. I remembered I was so broke one time that I actually did the human vacuum for any spare change in my room. I managed to find like $1.95 and ran over to Del Taco to get three red burritos, valued at $.59 each! Haha, I totally scored. As for canned corn, it’s one of my secret good eats. I love microwaving the corn with some butter and garlic salt. Afterwards, I would drink the ‘corn broth’ which had the essence of aluminum. As for the hot dogs, I would just boil the dogs and slap them in a bun. Then I would lay on a nice glaze of Sriracha hot sauce for a nice ‘Asian chili dog’. God I’m glad I have a full time job now haha.

Thanks for reading and sharing.

Eat Drink Style Father's Office II, Culver City - The Sang Yoon Bleu Cheese Burger Legacy Continues

Sequels. Usually a thing that's hit or miss. Karate Kid. Police Academy. Die Hard. Van Dumb & Steven Segal movies... you either love them or you hate them. And a big can of worms is opened with various opinions. With all the talk over the last year about Father's Office opening a second location, the question isn't whether or not it'll be better than the Santa Monica location... the question is "when the f*ck is it actually opening?" And finally, after god knows how long, Chef Sang Yoon has opened up chapter 2 in his restaurant career with Father's Office II this week, located in the Helms Bakery Building in Culver City, or to foodies, as CuCi. I myself, call it Construction City, because things never seem to get done here thanks to Cal Trans.

At exactly 5:07 pm, my coworker RM, Jeni and I quickly turned on to Helms Avenue. It was only the 2nd day of the grand opening and we eagerly stuck our heads out the window to see if there were herds of people outside. And.... NO! No ridiculous Best Buy line-around-the-building crap.

We walked up and were given a warm welcome by the door man. Yes, a door man. "Welcome to Father's Office." Once we walked in, it was immediately understood why this establishment had taken so long to open. It's with Chef Yoon's careful planning, immaculate design and pure passion and craft that make Father's Office an experience of its own. In front of us stood the bar, made out of beautifully, lacquered wood. Behind, we saw about 35+ taps on both the left and right side of the back wall, making it a total of 70+ taps ready to imbibe us with goodness. All the bartenders and servers wore black t-shirts with a simple "F.O..." graphic. Why there are thought dots... I don't know. Maybe a breath of relief that it's finally opened?

35+ Delicious Choices of Beer
Chef Yoon is definitely a beer connoisseur, or in proper form, a cerevisaphile. I felt like a kid in a candy store as I slowly studied the various taps from left to right. Most I have heard of, yet it's still amazing to see all this godsend in one place.

Non-Beer Items
In addition to beer, Chef Yoon has a liking for tequilas, whiskies and gin – further proof that Koreans love to drink. If you look carefully between the shelves, you'll see what looks like a digital indicator. He's got humidifying fans installed above the bottles so that each spirit rests in an optimum level for your enjoyment.

Delirium Tremens, one solid Belgian beer.

Inversion IPA. Never heard of it, but tasted great.

Hitachino Classic Ale. A solid Japanese beer made in Hitachi, Japan, the same city as the major electronics brand.

Smoked Eel with Poached Egg
Yes, all everyone talks about is the Bleu Cheese burger at FO, but what about the lonely, neglected stepchildren on the menu... like the Smoked Eel with Poached Egg. Man, I love this dish. First off it's smoked and it has my most favorite ingredient in the world, eggs. I poked the poached egg with the tine of my fork and watched the yolk slowly ooze out like a premature volcano. I mixed the thinly sliced red onions, poached egg with the horseradish/creme fraîche and cut a piece of the eel. The eel actually required me to use a knife to cut through it, a sign that the fish had great texture. I love this dish. It's a perfect balance of smokiness, temperature and texture. *high-5* Sang Yoon.

Lamb Skewers with Roasted Eggplant and Radicchio
My vegan coworker RM ordered this. Which doesn't make any sense, but he in general, doesn't make a lot of sense at all. Anyway, loved this dish as well. I could taste cayenne, paprika, cumin and oregano... very Mediterranean. The lamb was so fresh that it didn't have any gameyness to it. If you told me it was beef after about 6 beers, I'd believe you.

Yam Fries "A La Cart"
Yet another food pun. But what a great dish it is. These taste better than a lot of the yam fries I've eaten in Koreatown cafes. Nicely seasoned with a side of Cabreles Bleu Cheese aioli. *High-5 Sang Yoon*

Father's Office Bleu Cheese Burger
One time at the Santa Monica FO, my friend and I argued over how many burgers FO sells in one day. In about one hour starting at 12 pm, we saw nearly 30 orders go out. And it wasn't even busy at all. Any idea how many they sell in a day at the new location? My guess is 400 on an average day. 400 x $12 = $4,800. *High-5 Sang Yoon*

And how does the FO sequel pan out? I think it's going to be one of the biggest profiters in Culver City. FO2 is larger, offers more beer and is located at the right place at the right time, when Culver City is booming as a culinary pit-stop in Los Angeles. Next question for Chef Sang Yoon, will there be a 3rd sequel in the near future? And also Sang Yoon, can you add wireless to FO2 so that I could tell Jeni that I'm not actually drinking beer and working at The Office? She'll believe me.

If you find yourself waiting in a long line at FO2 on the weekend, try and stop by Sue Moore's tasty lamb-casing, beef and pork sausages. Check out Jeni's posting on FO2, on why her father thinks that good girls shouldn't drink beer.

Father's Office II
3229 Helms Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 815-9820

Eat Drink Style On the Road to Japan #4: Gizzards & Hearts, Truly the best Chicken Parts

There’s nothing more frightening to a PETA-activist than driving down Valley Blvd. and finding the horrors served up by many of the Chinese zoos. Upon walking into a restaurant, a beautiful display of deep-fried and roasted animal carcasses stops you in your tracks. Platypus Soysaucekus: the soy-sauce duck hanging off hooks. Porkus Deepfriedae: the fat pig that’s been opened up like a big children’s book. Intestinae Sausagi: the flesh-colored garden hose dangling like sausages from Tom & Jerry cartoons. And the butcher/zookeeper who dices and slices up our poor farm friends without remorse. Oh the horror…

But what a delicious horror it is. Before I got into writing about my culinary and gastronomical experiences, I wasn’t into the inner workings of an animal. But I realized that the best food in the world comes from the genius of peasants, worldwide. The upper class were given the ‘delicious’ parts, such as filet, breast and ribs. The rest of the animal was destined for the trash bin, but was soon sought after by the impoverished. They were gonna have to make the unused parts edible if they wanted to live, and they were gonna make it damn tasty.

Take for example, Coq Au Vin. This dish was created by farmers who had a lot of cheap Charles Shaw wine and meat/veggies on the verge of becoming rotten. Rewind a few centuries. One day, Farmer Jean got a little too loaded after a long day of unearthing potatoes. He suddenly got the munchies and scurried around the kitchen for something to eat. Bottle in one hand, veggies in the other, he threw them in a pot with some old chicken meat and fresh herbs and set it on simmer. Two hours later, he woke up from the floor with an excessive headache and what did he find? A delicious dish of Coq Au Vin (Chicken with Wine).

This behavior transcends through all cultures, even to this day. The Chinese offer beef tripe, stomach lining and chicken feet at dim sum. The Vietnamese love to eat cubed pork blood in their soup noodles. The French sautéed snails with some garlic, herbs and butter. My favorite style of cooked animal innards is that of the Japanese culture. Known as yakitori, chicken parts are skewered and grilled over charcoal. Restaurants like Terried Sake House and Gyu-Saku serve up some good yakitori and make a killing. At TSH, you can get 5-6 pieces of chicken parts like hearts and gizzards on a skewer for $1.30. Sounds cheap? Not really, when you can easily eat 15-20 skewers and still want more. I dropped by 99 Ranch Market last Sunday and skipped the ‘regular’ meat section and headed for the ‘special’ meat selection. There I found one lb. packages of hearts and gizzards for $1.75 each!!! So for the fourth installment of “On the Road to Japan”, I present you with yakitori that I cooked over at my friend MK’s place. He and I will eat anything and everything. You can buy Yakitori sauce at a Japanese market and using a brush, add some of it to skewers while you're grilling it or after it's done. Squeeze some lemon juice over the Yakitori right before serving. Traditionally, Yakitori is done on a charcoal grill, but a regular grill will work fine.


The hearts came out awesome. MK put just the perfect amount of Yakitori sauce on the skewers. Juicy, tender and supertasty.


The gizzards are typically chewier, but if cooked right, should have a nice crunch to it. We overcooked these and didn't put enough salt on it.

Thanks for reading.

Eat Drink Style On the Road to Japan #3: Mmm, Junk-in-the-Trunk

Again, I’m doing my take on a great dish I had at Musha’s: Braised Pork Belly. Although it tasted nothing like Musha’s, it was still tasty. I went to 99 Ranch Market this past weekend and checked out the meat section. The pork belly was waaaaaaayyyyy too fatty and I just wasn’t in the mood to eat bacon, so I asked the butcher what he thought about pork shoulder vs. pork butt.

Me: (in Cantonese) “What’s the best piece of meat for braising?”
Butcher: (in Cantonese) “I like the butt. Butt is really goohr! Numma one!”

I kinda wish I heard him say that out loud in English. Most people wouldn’t have known that we were talking about a part of the pig. Anyway, I bought 1.5 lbs of this junk-in-the-trunk for like $4.

Party time:

(1) When braising any kind of meat, it’s always good to start off by searing/browning as much of the meat as possible. You’ll want to render out some of the flavorful fat and seal in the rest of the juices. Tie the pork piece with twine so that it stays intact during the braising process. If you don’t, the meat will fall apart and you’ll get a thumbs down for presentation. Salt and pepper the meat and sear on high heat till you get a nice brown color.
(2) Add 3-4 cloves of smashed garlic and two thumb-sized knobs of ginger (sliced) and sauté for a minute. Add 1 cup of Sake or Mirin and 1 cup of Chinese Shao Xing rice wine. Once the alcohol has evaporated, add about 7-8 drops of dark soy sauce to give the meat a nice color and about 1-2 cups of regular soy sauce for flavoring. Add water into the pot until the pork is submerged in the braising liquid. Use sugar to balance out the salinity, and add more for sweetness. You might even want to try some honey. This dish is typically sweet and the addition of one piece of Star Anise gives the pork a nice cinnamon-like taste.
(3) Bring this all to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer for about 2-3 hours with the pot almost completely covered by the lid. You can also do this in a Dutch oven and throw it in the oven for about 1.5 hours. Just make sure that you baste the meat with the liquid every 20 minutes to prevent the meat from burning.
(4) This dish was served with a marinated egg. To do this, just boil as many eggs as you like in a separate pot for about 10 minutes. Take them out and put them under running water to stop the cooking process. The eggs will think they’re under a nice waterfall in Maui. Remove the shells and throw them in the pot for at least 45 minutes.
(5) Serve the pork radish sprouts, red ginger and braising liquid. Mustard goes well with this dish. Just buy some mustard powder and mix it with water until you get a nice thick consistency. Enjoy.

Thanks for reading.