No. 187: A return to Kohryu . . . (Costa Mesa)

. . . and it was every bit as comforting as the first time around (and especially welcoming given the cold snap we've had recently.)

Their signature Kohryu ramen with extra negi; thick pork slices that's not too fatty, springy noodles in a shio soup base that's delicate and clean, tender slices of bamboo, the medium-boiled egg with its gorgeous and delicious tangerine-tinted yolk and, of course, the heavenly aromatics and deeply satisfying crisp from the fresh & fried scallions.

And at $9, not a bad investment at all. So, in short, a sincere arigatou gozaimashita to the staff for their respite from the season's chilly grasp without the out-the-door waits of the other more popular (but not necessarily tastier) noodle houses.

Can't wait to return in the warmer weather to try their cold noodle specialties too (Hiyashi Chuka!)

Kohryu Ramen
891 Baker St. (x-street: Bear)
Costa Mesa, CA
714.556.9212

No. 162: Old Vine Cafe (Costa Mesa)

After running a half-marathon in Laguna Hills, it's no big surprise that my stomach growled and roared like a king of the jungle. Since I haven't had many O.C. dining opportunities recently, it's good a time as any to check out what delectable goodies they've got on the vegetarian front.

At first, I planned to check out one of O.C. Register's favorite vegetarian eateries, but as usual, I had a quick change of heart and steered myself towards Old Vine Cafe, a comfy-casual, breezy indoor-outdoor restaurant in Costa Mesa's The Camp Site plaza. Having garnered mostly good reviews recently from numerous folks, it's been on my to-try list for some time. And being a Cal-Euro-Fusion bistro, I'm sure they'll have something tasty for (still) non-meat-eating me.

With an "Old Vine" in the name, it's hard to resist getting a glass of vino -- so I did. But instead of Zinfandel (the varietal most commonly associated with old vines) I opted for the Pinot Noir, which is easier to pair with lighter and veggie-based dishes. The one they have by glass is 2006 Frogmore Creek 42 Degree South ($12) from Tasmania. I was skeptical at first, since Australia is more well known for heavier reds of Cabernet Sauvignons, Merlots and, of course, Shiraz/Syrah -- but since Tasmania is an island to the South, the presumably cooler climate would make for a decent (and finicky) pinot noir--and it did. The wine was very straightforward, bursting with berry notes and a smidgen of black peppers and nutmeg, a light body, comparatively low acidity and a silky texture. Delightfully easy-to-drink and a great red for a lighter lunch.

Foodwise, I was intrigued by their veggie & quinoa jambalaya ($10), since jambalaya tends to entail a lot of meats. Upon its arrival, I was a bit taken aback, since I was expecting a saucy-stewy dish instead of a composed tower of spiced grains. Nonetheless, I love the flavor profile... with the sufficiently-fiery Cajun spices melding nicely with the quinoa's nuttiness and the assorted vegetables' earthy and leafy flavors. It made for an interesting pairing with the pinot noir, with the spices of each building upon each other while accentuating a puckery-cherry zing in the wine.

The "jambalaya" left me feeling satisfied, but not quite full, so I seized the opportunity to getting a sweet dish as well. After a few minutes of mental deliberation (caramel apple brioche french toast? Spanish crema catalana with cinnamon and citrus?) I opted for their mixed berry crepes with sweet artisanal ricotta cheese mousse ($11), which turned out to be a great meal finish. The soft, pillow blankets of crepe are filled with a light as a cloud mousse that's ever-so-daintly sweetened, serving as a wonderful backdrop to the ripe, flavorful whole berries and pureéd sauce. And I absolutely love that there were oodles of berries instead of a few token, chopped up pieces here and there.

Overall, the lunch left me happily full, surprisingly guilt-free and wonderfully relaxed (esp. by the serene setting of the plaza, whose shops and eateries caters to more eco-conscious, outdoors-adventurous shoppers,) I'm once again glad for my spontaneous dining nature and already looking forward to another trip (planned or impulsive) back here... that quattro formaggio panini (four cheeses, mushrooms, arugula and a pomodoro dip) has been calling my name like a siren of the sea!

Old Vine Cafe
2937 Bristol Street
Costa Mesa, CA 92626-7993
(714) 545-1411
Twitter

Special Foodventure #142: Dining Around South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa)

When one thinks of good food, "mall restaurant" isn't exactly something to jumps to mind. Let alone a mall restaurant in Orange County (I know I know, I'm LA & OC foodie -- and, yes, they are plenty of good eats in Orange County, but by now I'm unphased by newly-met acquaintances' first reaction to my blog, something along the lines of "You go down to the OC to eat?! What exactly is down there?")

So, with awareness of the uphill battle that lies ahead, the PR and marketing folks behind South Coast Plaza invited a dozen or so bloggers and journalists to check out the various eateries, hopefully elevating the shopping center and the county's food cred. And, having already had a plesant meal at Marché Modern in the past and curious about checking out Charlie Palmer and Pizzeria Ortica, I accepted their generous, and gluttonous, offer.

Since I pull a 9-to-5, I was unable to check out their first stop at Hamamori around 3 p.m. and joined everyone else at the NapaStyle shop, where we sampled some of their signature salts, olive oils alongside wines from Michael Chiarello's winery. All of them were pleasant and quite a bit of a surprise, actually. The wines, made from big red varietals like petit syrah and zinfandel (and named after his family), were shockingly smooth and silky and easy-to-drink right out of the bottle. Meanwhile, the various nuances that were coaxed out of the different salts and the oils will definitely disarm notions of what salt and olive oil should taste like (personally, I was most fond of the intense, zingy Hawaiian red salt while the majority of the others were ga-ga overed the truffle-infused one.)

Afterwards, we were taken to Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's, where we were led into their chic basement wine cellar for a few cocktails while the sommelier demonstrated CP's e-wine-menu, which slices and dices their wine selection pretty much any way you want (by region, varietal, price-point, paired cuisine, etc.) to find that perfect glass. The drinks definitely impressed, being a wonderful mix of flavors driven by quality spirits and fresh fruits and herbs. My favorite "tastings" included the Blackberry Beso (which I dubbed "Gin Thyme" before I had a chance to see the menu) and the Spicy Seduction, with Ketel One vodka, peppers, citrus with a candied jalapeno (a hot drink in more ways than one!)

And I'm definitely glad to find out about their happy hours, when all cocktails, beers and wines by the glass are half-priced from 4-7p and 10p-closing every day! I felt the cocktails were worth their $14 price tag, but $7 is a definite deal for something so fresh and handcrafted.

Shortly after drinks came the "small plates tasting" -- though the publicist forewarned us that the kitchen's interpretation of small is usually anything but. Sure enough, exec. chef Amar Santana (whose voice bears a semblance to Wolfgang Puck's) sent out quite a few plates of food, from sliders to crispy risotto cakes to steamed mussels with saffron aioli. My personal faves were the bone marrow with sweet raisin marmalade and the burrata with arugula pesto and roasted baby tomatoes (I actually liked the tomatoes more than the cheese!)

Lastly, desserts and coffee at Marche Moderne, and we were treated to several sweets, nothing that I'd complain about, including delicate green tea and apricot macarons and a sugar-coated beignet with orange creme anglaise. Adequately hypered up from all that sugar and caffeine, I drove back home to sleep with sweet dreams (many other bloggers actually took the PR folks' offer on a night's stay at the SCP Westin.)

Next morning I woke up early, got my workout in vain hopes of undoing some of the previous night's caloric damage, then headed back down in time a continental breakfast at the rustic-yet-refined looking Pinot Provence. The spread, which included a popular smoked salmon plate that disappeared almost instantaneously, was decent, and we had a good time listening to exec. chef Lauren (Lu Lu) De Rouen talk about her culinary career and journeys while waiting for the coffee to jolt us awake on Saturday at 9 a.m.

Following the eye-opening meal, we stopped by Pizzeria Ortica, David Myers' place of much acclaim, for a pasta-making session. Exec. chef/partner Steve Samson and pizza/sous chef Zach Pollack pretty much demonstrated how pastas are made from start to finish, making the process of dough-making, rolling, folding, filling, storing AND cooking look like a breeze (though I'm sure if I tried to replicate at home my own kitchen I will just wound up with a floury mess of nuclear fallout proportions.) But at least I learned that if you're going to make up a pasta name, say it confidence (and possibly a mock Italian accent!)

Obviously, the best part of all this is tasting the resulting pastas; the one I adored the most was the sweet-nutty-savory pear-pecorino raviolis with a brown butter-sage sauce (right). Very subtle and very sublime.

And since the place IS called Pizzeria Ortica, we couldn't get away without trying a slice. So the gracious Zach lit up the wood-fired oven and popped up a couple of marvelous margherita pizzas with a lovely crust that's crispy char on outside and chewy within.

Since so many of us are LA foodbloggers, the OC restaurants were well aware that this is one of few chances to leave an impression with us -- which meant more food swag than I've ever received before, ranging from beans, a half-bottle of wine and a T-shirt at Pizzeria Ortica, a canister of gray salt and a bottle of blood orange-infused olive oil at NapaStyle, macarons from Marche Moderne and a $25 gift card for a return visit at Charlie Palmer (I'm barely scratching the surface here!)

And, as an added perk to get folks to swing down and share the word, the SCP folks also extended $100 gift cert offers for frequent live-tweets and prompt post-event blogging. Being a bit erratic with both, I already knew I wouldn't be timely or regular enough to qualify (tweeted less than 10 times throughout my stops -- and WAY past overdue with the blogging), but wound up getting extended the offer anyways. So there's THAT extra long disclaimer for you.

But wrapping it up, I know OC foodies who seriously make frequent drives up to LA for fine dining and never bat an eye at some of these places, which I dare say hold their own against some of the LA restaurants of similar style, ambience and price-point (and in some cases, even better quality for the value!) And even though we were treated to every meal here, I'm definitely left with positive enough an impression to make a return trip to do a foodventure on my own dime.

And you can certainly expect me to be that person to go "Well, not exactly . . ." the next time someone decides to unilaterally bash on mall eats. Ditto for the person who gives me the "What's there to eat in the O.C.?"

P.S. Thanks to E*star for saving my butt with the NapaStyle and Charlie Palmer cocktails photos, inadvertently lost about a 100 when uploading (and forgetting to double-check before deleting from camera... *sigh*) But the rest of my photos on flickr here.

P.P.S. speaking of other bloggers, here are a few other reports on the same excursion (including that Hamamori first stop that I missed) from E*star, FoodGPS, Gourmet Pigs, Pleasure Palate and Cork&Rind

Napa Style
3333 Bear St
Costa Mesa, CA
714.825.0445

Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdales
3333 S Bristol St
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714.352.2525

Marché Moderne
3333 Bristol St
Ste 3001
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714.434.7900

Pinot Provence
686 Anton Blvd
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714.444.5900

Pizzeria Ortica
650 Anton Blvd
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714.445.4900

Mini Foodventure #141: Kohryu (Costa Mesa)

After a media/blogger outing this past weekend circulating through five eateries at South Coast Plaza, the last thing I'd imagine myself doing immediately afterwards is eating some more. But after all those Occidental meals and tastings in a span of 18 hours, every bone in my body was *screaming* for something Asian afterwards. Thankfully, with a little blog searching (and thanks to the extensive databases of GoRamen and Rameniac) I found that the fairly reputable Kohryu Ramen was less than 10 minutes away from South Coast Plaza; half-full belly and daily caloric intake be damned, it's noodle slurpin' time!

While I was suppose to meet up with some other compadres from the South Coast Plaza media dine-around, ultimately only e*star joined me on this excursion. We waited outside in the triangular Japanesy plaza on the corner of Baker & Bear for about 15 minutes, then decided to go in on our own.

A casual ramen joint with a semi-open kitchen that looks like it could seat about 25 people max (maybe 30 with some creative, tetris-style table and chair rearranging), it felt comforting, cozy and very neighborhoody-locals kind of place, and I'm definitely optimistic seeing it fairly packed with other mostly-Japanese patrons on a late weekend lunch.

Being a fairly warm afternoon and wanting a final grasp at summer, I tried ordering the pinned-to-wall special hiyashi chuka (cold noodle salad) only to be sadly informed that it's a dinner-only special. So, Esther and I decided to go for their regularly-offered items--taking notes of what other ramen bloggers have liked.

I opted for their house Kohryu ramen with a shio soup base ($8); I love love love the oniony presence from the fresh and deep-fried negi, which is distinctly assertive without being aggressively overbearing. Also of note are the comparatively large thick-sliced chashu, more meaty like ham or trimmed pork chops as opposed to fatty like a pork belly but still very tender, and the shoyu-soaked egg, with a luscious tangerine-hued soft-medium-boiled yolk.

The noodles here are firm, toothsome and springy and the clear broth is clean-tasting but washes over my tastebuds with a wave of umami flavor, and totally worth going over my sodium limit and risking hypertension for.

I also had a taste of e*star's Shacho ramen (with ground pork, bean sprouts and a heartier, meatier soup) with miso base (also $8), also very enjoyable with a more-opaque, fuller-bodied, earthier soup that had a very notable raw soybean taste, which is a rare and pleasing encounter for me and misos (though I'll disclose most of my previous miso encounters are from nondescript, generic Japanese eateries that serve the soup practically as an afterthought and are almost always too bland or too salty and never flavorful enough.)

Half-hour of slurping later, E*star and I left beyond full and beyond happy; for someone who's not a particularly big fan of Santouka and always finding Daikokuya's long lines borderline bearable, I'm definitely glad to discover this noodlehouse viable for future visits when I'm ramen-ravenous in the O.C.

And of course, much thanks to GoRamen's Keizo, Rameniac's Rickmond, Ramen^3's Ed, and OCWeekly's Gustavo for their reports which prompted me to check this place out. And of course, E*star for the company!

Kohryu Ramen
891 Baker St. (x-street: Bear)
Costa Mesa, CA
714.556.9212

Friday Quickies #34: Beer Events, *the* Food Event and Great Bars to Eat, Drink and Talk!

Beer Events: In case you haven't gotten enough beer at the recent Oktoberfest events around town, there's a few more going on for you to enjoy great brews alongside tasty eats. On Wed., Oct. 22 TAPS in Brea is doing a $55/person, five-course beer-paired "Taste of the Harvest" dinner with delectable dishes like a ceviche of Hokkaido diver scallops and Spanish chorizo with green olives and paprika-saffron oil and braised Brandt Farms beef short ribs with Oktoberfest beer reduction and sweet potato gnocchi. Further south in the O.C., Savannah Supper Club in Costa Mesa will be serving up a $48/person, 'Bruery' dinner; the four-course meal will have beer incorporated in the dishes and paired alongside, such as a new spin on Fish 'n Chips with beer-battered butterfish with spiced yam fries, housemade chicken-chile sausage with beer-baked beans and D'Anjou Pear roasted in beer and served with beer gelato! Finally, for something a little less prix-fixe and little more LA, Urbandaddy drop the word that Luxe Lounge in Bel-Air will is going to offer a more traditional Oktoberfest themed food and beer menu from Oct. 20-25. Expect lots 'o sausages and German brews.

And then, there's LA Magazine The Food Event: Thanks to their PR folks, I got a discount code to share with you all. Type in foodevent08 when pre-ordering tickets online and you'll get a $10 discount, so only $50/person. Given the restaurant representation, celeb-chef gawking opportunities, the wineries pouring, the Malibu scenery and that $20 of that goes to charity -- it's definitely worth going to!

Finally, LA Times have a pretty decent guide of accessible bars with good grub, convenient parking and nice vibes - from Twisted Vine down in Fullerton to downtown L.A.'s Bacaro to the newly-opened Laurel Tavern in Studio City. Looks like I have a few new spots to commiserate over investments, get into heated political discussions or just some casual catching up chit-chat.