Drinkventure with LearnAboutWine's Palate Builder Class

Tasting over a dozen wines in three hours -- the type of classes I won't mind attending in college and grad. school.

There's a reason why I coined myself as LA-OC-Foodie and not LA-OC-Vino; my taste in wine is not very well polished, an extra shame considering I actually took wine classes when I was in U.C. Davis -- known for its viticulture/enology program and for its patented wine aroma wheel. My limited expertise extends to just telling good wines from bad (well, at least when one's been corked), basic, overgeneralized pairing rules like "white with whites; reds with reds," and a very broad idea of what I personally like (fragrant white varietals like viognier and gewurztraminer, citrusy sauvignon blancs or spicy/jammy reds such as shiraz; OK, and the occasional fruit bombs of a rosé.)

So it was definitely a treat when Ian Blackburn from LearnAboutWine extended an invite to me (to attend for free) and my friends (at a discount) for his Palate Builder class earlier this month, meant for folks who are already somewhat acquainted with wine and want to further develop and hone their appreciation of the stuff. I've been to a few prior LearnAboutWine events, on my own dime, before--and they have always been fun, tasty and educational, whether learning how to pair wines with cheeses, the TASTE series that highlight particular varietals or wine-growing regions, and the occasional non-wine classes (I attended a "Learn About Rum" one where I learned quite a bit about its production, flavor profiles and the tricks to make a mean 'n yummy mojito.)

Upon our arrival at LearnAboutWine central (a snazzy concrete studio loft in downtown los angeles' art district), we were greeted by a long "sensory table" - with dozens of little vials and corresponding postcards letting us experience and learn about the different aromas present in wines, ranging from the fairly common and familiar smells such as berry and citrus to the more exotic aromas of musk and acacia flowers.) It was fascinating taking a whiff of these odors in their purest forms and being able to differentiate between similarly-grouped scents, though now I still probably would fall back on 'stone fruits' and 'woodsy' as opposed to specifying peach versus apricot and cedar versus pine.

After all the participants arrived and had their turn twirling and sniffing around the table, we were all seated and greeted by Ian and the wondeful snack platters with intriguing cheeses (including a cabernet-washed cheddar) and sweet fresh and dried fruits. After a little noshing and a quick primer on wine tasting (most importantly, that the vast majority of the flavor comes from the aromas,) we were doing our first set of tastings, a white wine flight consisting of . . .

. . . four sauvignon blancs; surprised? I was too, considering it was our only white wines of the day. What about all the other varietals? Turns out Ian decided to do an all-sauvignon flight so that he can show how the same grape, grown in different regions, will develop different flavor profiles, highlighting its terroir -- loosely defined as its geographical origin, and how the climate, soils, elevation, even the neighboring plants, of that area ultimately influence the final product. This definitely shown through as we were tasting the flight, with two Californian SBs possessing a ripe citrus-dominated smell, but the Chilean SB had a distinct dirt note attributed to its flat terrain with lots of dusty winds blowing about, and the New Zealand SB that had a zesty, limey (the fruit and the stone) edge the came from the cooler climate (i.e. higher acidity in the grapes) and minerals in the soil that gets taken up by the vines.

Following the tasting, test time! We got grouped into foursomes for a taste test contest, with the highest scoring group winning a secret prize. We were poured a random white, which turned out to be a curveball since it's a California chardonnay. For fun, Ian also asked us to estimate the price of the secret wine "The Price is Right" style. The guesses went up to as high as $35, and it turned out to be.... Two Buck Chuck! Definitely a shocker to the attendees, but at least the experiment reinforced that tasty wines doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. The 2005 of this cheapy chardonnay is judged the state's best, with a double gold and 98 points, at California State Fair.

Afterwards, we tasted two flights of red, which followed a more traditional arc of different varietals and different regions -- going from the light grenache to a Bordeaux for the International flight and the pinot noir to syrah for the Californian flight. Along the way we picked up some easy-to-remember tips to analyze wines, such as:

1) smelling/tasting for aspects of F.E.W. (fruits, earth and wood) to get a basic idea of the wine's character (and consequently, the varietal, the region, and, for the pros, the vintage).
2) using color as a tool to help identify varietal (with the thinner-skinned pinot noir producing a lighter shade than, say, a cabernet sauvignon)
3) using more appropriate and creative terms to describe wines, such as taking F.E.W. aromas and mouthfeel to put together more complex labels such as masculinity (to describe muscularity, robustness and assertiveness) and femininity (finesse, roundness and elegance).
4) and the obsoleteness of using "dry" as a descriptor -- since almost all non-fortified/non-dessert still wines are dry in the sense that there's very little residual sugar left; more proper terms may be a palate-drying mouthfeel, noting the tannins or acidity on the tongue or highlighting non-sweet smells (e.g. earthy, woodsy, toasty).

Of course, we had a few more testing rounds -- and alas, my more-learned but still amateur wine palate were no match for the pros in the other groups, who ultimately won mini bottles of Alize Bleu with their elite wine analysis skills.

But ultimately, my friends and I had a great time learning how to build our palates and take our wine analysis and enjoyment to the next level. The palate builder class for any budding wine aficionado wanting to further expand upon their appreciation in a non-stuffy, guided but still-structured setting. Or, for those who are really getting their toes wet into wine, LearnAboutWine also does a Intro to Wine Camp class that takes attendees through the basics of wine history, production and tasting with tips on purchasing, pairing and storage (and of course, with samplings of wonderful wine.) And for the more avid winelover or those already in (or heading towards) the wine business, there are a variety of more serious classes too such as the L.A.W. School (with its own B.A.R. exam ;) ) too.

To find out more about upcoming classes and events at LearnAboutWine, click here! Or for regular notes, tips and tidbits, check out the L.A.W. blog.

For more photos of my palate builder tasting, here's the flickr set. And for another take on the L.A.W. classes, check out Gourmet Pigs' German Beer Tasting event here.

Friday Quickies #41: End of 2008 Edition

Jollof Rice from my most daring foodventure of the year...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or other solstice-related holiday), for any of you that went out (or ordered take-in) that day (or next week during New Year's) -- it's definitely worthwhile to give an extra thanks to those who served you; they're giving up their holidays and times spent with family and friends so that you can have that experience. Having made that little PSA, here's some food related thoughts for today's quickie:

Whatcha doing on New Year's Eve? Yes, many places will be offering a lot of prix-fixe menus (though comparatively less extravagant given current times) and a few other foodbloggers already have posted on interesting New Year Eve's festivities. For the sake of not re-inventing the wheel, I'll point you guys to Caroline on Crack and FoodGPS's wonderful coverage of what's going down on the 31st, with prices going from free to infinity (at least it seems like it). Of course, there's the lowdown from the likes of Opentable and LA.com too. As for me, I'll either be at a house party crafting and mixing a few more (hopefully) delicious cocktails -- or some low-key dining out, such as previewing Rivera with a few sample courses and drinks, or maybe Fraiche's $65 four-course prix-fixe with rabbit tortelli and monkfish francaise, perhaps even dive down to the O.C. for Marche Moderne's special a la carte menu with selections like New Zealand scallops and bacon vinaigrette and noisette of venison, pear and butternut squash.

Beginnings and Endings for Bloggers - speaking of one year ending and another one about to start, the same also goes for a few foodbloggers. First off, Man Bites World finally concluded his epicurean experiment, having ran out of countries to taste after Day 102 (and that's after he included some debatables such as Macau and Tibet.) Following his posts over three months definitely open my eyes and tastebuds to the variety of foods available in L.A. and O.C. and made me realized just how big a cultural culinary soup pot we are (I hesitate using the term melting pot since that just presumes all the cultures melt into one, where as with soup analogy I feel that it's more of a two-way exchange between the individual ingredients/countries and the final product/overall food landscape, but I digress...) And in the news of beginnings, foodbloggers Oishii Eats and Eat, Drink and be Merry tied the knot! Cheers to them and good wishes for many wonderful years of good eats (and everything else...) to come. Their love story is a sweet one indeed.

And a little late, but I'm finally squeezing in my splurge meal of 2008 ... at Spago! Granted, the only reservation I can get is a early 5:45 p.m. tomorrow, but at least that gives me time to possibly check out a bar or two afterwards to gather my thoughts and organize my notes on what will hopefully be a very delicious meal. But in the meantime, hope you all, like me, had a year of wonderful foodventures and here's to another year's worth!

Mini Foodventure #94: POP Champagne & Dessert Bar (Pasadena)

At long last, a place just for sweets and drinks, brings back such fond memories of my days in dessert bars on the East Coast. And even though POP specialize in sparkling wines and closes comparatively early (1 a.m. at the latest for now), it's in nearby Pasadena and is the only thing like it in L.A. And after months of longingly eyeing that "coming soon" banner, I finally got their grand opening email so I got few friends to join me in popping into POP.

The decor is very chill and relaxing, lots of dark tones with deep purple chairs and booths, dark wood furnishings and a red brick wall; also some art deco elements with the wallpaper and the no-picture gilded frames, a touch of elegance with crystal chandeliers and some mellow jazz and French bistro tunes playing in the background. Particularly catchy was one yellow wall towards the back with many little circular mirrors on it, emulating the sparkling wine look. However, I do agree with my friends that in the day this atmosphere looks a bit dreary, but at night it has good potential for a mellow after-hours spot to hang out post-clubbing, a nice follow-up to a dinner date or even a nice little break before or after an Old Town excursion.

Our server, Gregory, was fairly knowledgeable about and gave good insights on what's popular, what's a good value and what's trendy on the foods and wine menu (which covers more than just sweet and sparklies, they have selections of still wines and beers, and some small plate savories as well).

Wanting to try a little of everything, we opted for two bubbly flights, a rosé and a true Champagne trio. Between the six wines, we pretty much ran the whole gamut of smells, flavors and mouthfeels from being light, sweet and fairly bland to rich, dry and fragrant, but we agreed with Gregory on his favorites of the flights, finding them tastiest ourselves.

The first sweets we decided on was a pear poached in a honey-sauternes sauce with pear chip and creme fraiche. While it lacked the visual flair of the red wine poached variety, it was a light, refreshing, not-too-sweet dessert, with the fruit still having a little bit of a crisp. The creme fraiche added a little flavor contrast and richness that my friends liked, but I thought it was unnecessary.

We also got a petit fours plate that included macarons and macaroons, biscotti, chocolate-covered sea salt caramels, truffles and pecan shortbread. We loved the assortment but had mixed feeling about the individual desserts. The macarons, caramels and truffles were a hit, but the shortbread wasn't sweet enough (maybe meant to pair with a dryer sparkly?) and the macaroons were too dry and seemed overbaked.

And just for kicks, we also got something we rarely see, a bottle of Hou Hou Shu Blue sparkling sake, which tasted like, no surprise, sake with bubbles. Ok, to be more specific, I think the carbonation help brings out sake aroma more, and this one was pretty pleasant with a tropical coconut, melon and banana fragrance.

All in all, we left with a positive experience. The place isn't particularly cheap (the bill for what we ordered was around $70) but not super pricey either especially if stopping by for a little wine (ranges from $5-20 a glass or $12-$20 a flight) and some sweets (around the $10 mark), and I hope this makes it in the future since it fills a very unique one-of-a-kind niche, esp. for sweet toothers like me!

POP Champagne & Dessert Bar
33 E. Union St.
Pasadena
(626) 795-1295
http://www.popchampagnebar.com/

Mini Foodventure #93: Take a Bao (Century City)

Since I made the effort of parking my car during holiday seasons at the horrific lot in Century City Westfield's, I figure I might as well check out one of new eateries that pop up around Century City in addition to the chocolate tasting at Breadbar. Craft? A bit far and pricey at the moment. RockSugar? Um, not really feeling like Pan-Asianed cheesecake. Ooh, speaking of Pan-Asian, how about Take a Bao? It's food-court cheap (well, for C.C. standards anyways, considering their court also has Lawry's Carvery serving up $25+ prime ribs) and it sounds like an interesting, if gimmicky, fast casual concept. Could be cool as long as I don't compare them to the baozis readily available in Chinatown and all over the San Gabriel Valley.

Like most fast casual places, Take a Bao's menu is basically a mishmesh, mix and match of different already-prepped ingredients and sauces that's plopped onto and sandwiched between flattened and steamed bao dough (or, if you so choose, in lettuce wraps, on a bowl of rice or noodles -- but really, who'd go to Take a Bao to, well, NOT take a bao?)

After reviewing their assorted "Asian-inspired" filling options (including a signature barbecue pork that includes pea shoots and marinated cucumbers, unlike any charsiubaos I've ever eaten -- reminding me again not to evaluate these dishes by real baozi standards), I opted for the spicy sesame citrus chicken standard white bao and a miso beef wheat bao. About $10, ten minutes and one light-up/beeping vibrator later, my two baos and side of chinese napa salad arrived.

As you can tell, the only real difference between the two tacolike baos is the dough, sauce and meat, the veggie stuffings (pickled carrots, marinated cucumbers, radish sprouts, scallions) were identical -- and most of the other fillings have this same combo too.

I tried the chicken bao first, and it tasted like a poorly made orange chicken (a dish I normally love when I get that faux Chinese craving,) there was way too much of the overly-sweet sauce, and the battered chicken was dense and dry as a brick and not crispy at all (were they trying to compensate for the dryness by overdousing with sauce? well, it didn't work). But at least the bao dough was decent - fluffy, a little chewy, not dry at all and surprisingly holds together well as I took repeated bites of this otherwise sticky-and-syrupy mess.

The beef bao was way better, the miso braising liquid was sweet-savory but not overly so and it complements the tender sheared short rib nicely. The crunchy and tarted-up veggies actually provides a nice foil here and rounded out the flavors while contrasting the textures, as opposed to the previous bao where it was just another territory for that crazy citrus sauce to pillage and dominate.

But the part I liked most was the salad (yes, my yellow flag popped up when I realized the side is the best part); it was one of the better Chinese (no-chicken) salads I've had in a while, nice crunchy texture and flavors from the chopped napa cabbage, carrots, scallions, almonds and fried wonton strips and a light, nutty, sweet dressing that's just enough to bind them all together. I would've readily traded the chicken bao for more of the salad.

Summing up, my feelings for this place is mixed given the hit and miss dish I had (though for anyone craving these taco-style baos, I'd surely point them to Cafe Hiro in Cypress for their peking pork appetizer, styled like Momofuku's roasted pork buns and much more memorable than those here!) I am open to checking out this place again, but it's definitely not a destination eatery and it's rare that I'll be at the Century City Westfield so it may be a while for me to re-evaluate. That may be for the better in the long-run, 'cause maybe by then I can finally forget about that terrible super sweet brick of a fried chicken.

What Do Others Say?
Caroline on Crack, while disappointed by the baos, thinks it's a nice change of pace from usual food court offerings
Drink Your Milk actually did not take a bao here and had mixed experiences with bunless dishes.
Teenage Glutster had better opinion (or luck) with both the baos and salads here
but the democracy of the Yelpers gave it a middling 3 stars

Take a Bao
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, 90067
310.551.1100
http://www.takeabao.com

Special Foodventure #92: Chocolate Tasting at Breadbar (Century City)

One of the things I love about Breadbar, on top of its phenomenal range of artisanal baked breads and goodies, are their fun events held in collaboration with other chefs and restaurants. Sometimes it could be a fondue night with their breads in eclectic melted cheeses, other times it may be a wine and dish pairing like RED with LearnAboutWine, and then there's the guest chefs events like Ludobites last year that was like a huge hit! Of course, the event with my name all over it is the 'Chocolate Tasting' held in collaboration with ChocoVivo's owner/chocolatier Patricia Tsai. So I met up with Fiona from Gourmet Pigs for this $30/person event.

Held in their newer, swankier Century City Westfield Mall location, which has the most horrific parking I've encountered this entire year, the event started off with Patricia giving us a brief lesson of how the cacao bean transforms into the chocolate that we consume, along with her fascinating stories of traveling to Mexico and Central America to observe the cacao plantations and select the ones that ultimately goes into the ChocoVivo products.

We also lived her lessons along the way, sampling the chocolate in various stages of processing from the crunchy cocoa nibs to a intense, thick and bitter pure chocolate liquor (and later a more palatable version with sugar added, though I personally loved combining the two for a bittersweet experience.)

That was followed by tastings ChocoVivo's signature hot chocolates, including the relaxing Chocolate Daisy with chamomile flowers and cinnamon and an exotic, Asian-inspired Shangri-La with goji berries and roasted sesame seeds. Defintely tastier than the plain ole mix-with-water cocoa in an envelope (which we did a side-by-side blind tasting of with their Simply Chocolate hot cocoa, shouldn't be a surprise to anyone as to which one won.) Being a choco-addict myself, I can definitely confirm many of Patricia's points about artisanal v. mass-produced and very processed chocolates, the latter having lost a lot of the subtle nuances, aromas and even textures -- producing a unremarkable product that's just sweet with a very flat, generic chocolate taste.

While we were tasting all these chocolates, Breadbar's executive chef Rogelio Marhx came out and demonstrated how the cocoa nibs are stone-grounded (eventually into the chocolate liquor that he'll use for his mole sauce.) All in all, a fun half-hour lesson and Q&A about chocolate production.

Moving onto the actual food portion, the five-course tasting menu! Already anticipating the the dark cocoa flavor in many of the upcoming dishes, I tried ordering a glass of Syrah only to find out I've been trumped by all the other event attendees and that Breadbar ran out of both Syrahs. But the nice server gave me a glass of the Rhone wine at a reduced price, which made interesting pairings with the chocolate dishes too.

Our first is a flank steak tartar with chestnuts and cocoa nibs sandwiched between a goji berry cocoa bread. I love the cute little raw hamburger presentation, and it was a fun and amusing first course -- with the soft flavorful meat juxtaposing against the crunchy bread and the earthy flavors of the cocoa.

Next came the arugula salad with roasted duck breast, foie gras terrine and chocolate vinaigrette. Here the chocolate taste was muted given the powerful flavors of the fatty duck breast slices, the peppery arugula and the salty terrine. But nonetheless it was a great salad and I had fun mixing and matching the different components of the dish.

The star of the meal was definitely the main course, braised short rib in a chocolate mole with kabocha squash polenta. The mole was insanely delicious, and a delightful mix of chocolate, chili, sesame and about a dozen additional ingredients pounded and blended in a rich, complex paste that's a great balance of spicy, smoky, nutty, sweet, bitter and chocolatey. The tender rib was a wonderful backdrop to soak up the mole as was the polenta with the subtle tinge of the squash.

Fourth course is a molten chocolate souffle cake with olive oil and salt. As big a sucker I am for rich chocolate desserts and sweet-savory combos, I didn't care much for this dish due to the mouthfeel of the center, which was rather fluid and liquidy and made me think that it was underbaked batter rather than an intended molten core.

Next sets of desserts came out better, chocolate beet mini cupcakes that were moist, not-too-sweet, and had an interest tart contrast with the beet frosting. I ate up two of these fast (and got another two take home!)

Finally (yes, there's a sixth course), their variant of the traditional s'more with chocolate marshmallows that we toast ourselves and spread onto Breadbar's bread chips. Without a pure chocolate element, the cocoa flavor here is more subtle than the traditional campfire version but it was still gooey delicious.

Overall and in spite of the souffle, I think this was one of the better themed tasting menus I've had -- which reflects chocolate's versatility as both a savory and a sweet ingredient and Chef Marhx's expert execution of these dishes. And yes, I'll even endure Century City parking (got charged $10 since I went over three hours here) to check out their future events, or even to casually dine in the rare instance that I shop there.

Breadbar in Century City
10250 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90067
310.277.3770
http://www.breadbar.net/