Special Foodventure #97: Providence Dessert Tasting (Mid-City)

Anyone who's eaten with me knows I don't have just a sweet tooth, it's more like sweet jaws; no matter how full I am, there's always room, or a house, for sugar at the end.

But what if the meal is ALL sugar? That's exactly what I am in for when Tony of SinoSoul gathered a bunch of bloggers and yelpers to check out the dessert tasting menu at Providence (where I had my splurge meal of '07.) Hang onto your pancreas, folks, as we go down the eight-course sucrose tsunami!

Having arrived a little bit early, my friend and I slinked into their bar to check out their specialty-crafted cocktails. I got the Rhode Island Red made with Hornados silver tequila, pomegranate juice, chambord, agave nectar, ginger beer and freshly-zested citrus. It reminded me of a pomegranate margarita with a little zip from the fizzy beer, it was a decent drink -- fruity but not sweet, nice tang with a little earthy, cactus zip from the nectar and the tequila.

It didn't take long before the rest of the party arrive and we all got seated. The kitchen was already expecting the dozen of us, so the service was fairly streamlined but the waitstaff was still pretty cordial in presenting our orders throughout.

Since I'm driving that night, I opted out of wine pairings and went for coffee instead. I told the waiter that I was looking for something mellow and softer in body and he suggested the Ethiopian blend (from LA Mill, of course.) It was a nice cup 'o joe, very bright notes of blueberry with a mild citrus backdrop and not heavy or bold just like I wanted. Taking sips and whiffs I can already see this pairing well with fruit-based desserts.

Within minutes of our orders (most of us opted for the eight-course tasting), the parade of sugar started coming, beginning with:

Their mojito gelee, one of their signature amuses that almost never fails to impress. Limey, minty-refreshing and palate-cleansing, it's exactly what I would expect if someone took the cocktail and had the ingenuity to gellify it (and for the adventurous home cook/mixologist, LA Times shows you how to do these classy edible cocktails at home! Sayonara to those funky-colored and cloyingly sweet jello shots!)

Following that is their kalamansi lime gelee with lychee-shiso sorbet, coconut-soy milk "broth" with tapioca pearls and coconut streusel. Yay! My favorite dessert is not dead afterall. Ok, there's been a few tweaks but it still taste as delicious as I remembered, the tart citrus gelee against the cooling, herby sorbet in that creamy broth. I can't tell if I like the extra texture contrast from the streusel since it was the one decidely hard, solid element in a bowl of all things soft and fluid. But a delightful dish nonetheless.

Next is their sous-vide Jonalicious apples with barley ice cream, streusel, pine nut puree and dried North Star cherries. Essentially, a reinterpreted apple brown betty - all the components were solid: the apples were sweet with a slight crisp, the toasted malty flavor of the barley shown through in the ice cream, and the cherries and puree added notes of bright tartness and woodsy nuttiness, respectively. As much fun as I have mix and matching the different component, and I've said this before, I always feel there's something amiss when a classic comfort dessert is taken apart and tweaked like a lab experiment, and if anything, eating this dish made me miss a traditionally-made apple betty/crisp/pie even more.

I felt similarly with the following dessert: deconstructed pumpkin pie with curry ice cream, pecan streusel with dots of coconut milk and balsamic vinegar. While I still got the slight longing for a traditional pumpkin pie, I did like this modernization better than the apples, since the adjustments of curry spices, balsamic and coconut sauces added a distinct edge to this dish and made it considerably more complex and intriguing to eat. And that smooth, creamy spiced pumpkin custard is definitely a hit.

Moving onwards, a milk chocolate panna cotta with coconut raviolo, chocolate streusel and Bailey's ice cream. Being a lover of both chocolate and panna cotta, I found myself only liking this dish. The panna cotta itself was luscious and the Irish cream flavored ice cream mixed with it well, but somehow it lacked the extra oompf to make it truly memorable. And as fun as that coconut raviolo was (which popped like the mojito gelee) the flavor of it felt out of sync with the rest of this dessert. But just to reiterate, this was still a satisfying sweet and I spooned every last chocolatey bit.

After that, we were presented with burnt caramel ice cream with a side of pears, gingerbread and chocolate cream. The duo was interesting, and I particularly like the buttery-toasty flavor of the burnt caramel ice cream (almost like a creme brulee with a lighter mouthfeel and, of course, without the crackling sugar top) The pears and gingerbread was OK, when combined the chocolate and gingerbread easily overwhelmed the fruit's flavors.

More chocolate followed, this time it's a ganache bar with peanut butter, pretzel pieces, chambly noir ice cream and beer foam. It was very, very rich (and my friend couldn't finish her ganache bar) and, again, it felt like a spin off a familiar sweet (chocolate-peanut butter pretzels) but I think the beer creams added a nice contrast with its slight hoppy-bitterness, cutting into the dense and intense chocolate and PB.

The last listed course of the tasting is another Providence signature, liquid center lollipops -- with a "crimson berry" center encased in a white chocolate shell. The waiter made very sure that we are to eat it all in one bite, which we did -- and like the mojito starter, it was very refreshing -- like having a big sip of berry punch to go along with white chocolate pieces.

Finishing off, a few mignardises -- espresso truffle, olive oil gelee and barley caramels. Of course, the olive oil gelee came out as most memorable - and I loved how it tasted "oily, but also NOT oily" at the same time. The espresso truffles were good but after all those chocolatey courses towards the end, I wasn't really feeling it. The caramels were only OK as well, the barley flavor didn't really hit it off with me and it was too chewy/sticky.

And that's how my dessert tasting at Providence went; overall it was not bad but not as memorable as I hoped (though my expectations can be partly to blame, having a high bar set from reading PoetKitty's dessert tasting report many moons ago). So many of the courses are very similar, being modern twists off homestyle desserts accompanied with streusels and ice creams (and woe to anyone in my group who's lactose intolerant), but the reinterpretations didn't really work their magic, instead of being an improvement over the classics, they seem just seem more sterile and distant and, dare I say, needlessly cocky.

I am not sure I would do an all-dessert tasting at Providence again, dropping $50 for just desserts alone is a bit excessive and the $12-14 cocktails and the $5 coffee seemed like a more worthwhile (and less risky) indulgence. I 'll still probably do desserts again at Providence since they're still pretty good, but I'll definitely opt out of the parade and ordering them a la carte or as part of their regular tasting menu.

One final note: it was total killjoy whenever the pungent cheese cart gets pushed by our table as we're eating our sweets. If any of you are planning a dessert tasting, be sure to ask for a corner table to reduce your chance of your nostrils being attacked with brie-and-bleu fumes while you have dessert in your mouth -- it's not a pleasant mix, believe me.

Providence
5955 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323) 460-4170
providencela.com

For another take, check out what dining compadres Food Destination and SinoSoul have to say about this tasting too.

Friday Quickies #44: Cheap-Chic, Inauguration, Mocktails and Detox

Individual red velvet bundt cake from Kiss My Bundt

'09 Food Trend - Cheap-Chic: Thanks to Abby of PleasurePalate for sparking this idea in my head, but one '09 trend I definitely expect to see on the uptick are cheap-chic food, namely foods utilizing gussied-up ingredients and creative recipes while still remaining on the cheap (single-digit prices), it satisfies both diners' need to try something new and edgy and not spend a whole lot. Some of the better local examples include the Kogi's Korean BBQ tacos, the Let's Be Frank gourmet hot dogs, Wurstkuche's assorted exotic sausages, the filet mignon pho phenomenon sprouting up in S. El Monte and elsewhere, plus Fulfilled and their eccentric imagawayakis and Kiss My Bundt's unique cakes.

And of course, I expect folks to be a lot more value-savvy with their food and drinks in the recession, not necessarily a bad thing since they may be more adventurous than they otherwise would've. Instead of going for that ubiquitous bottle of Champagne to celebrate, maybe they'll pick up that bottle of Cava or Prosseco or even learn to make a few sparkling cocktails to stretch the wine.

Obviously, there's still a time and place for the high-end, fine-wine-paired tasting menus and such -- but competition will definitely be tougher; again, I don't see this as bad, since expensive doesn't necessarily equate to high-quality and hopefully the downturn will sort out the good from the bad; I for one don't like the "rip-off" feeling if I am making that sort of investment!

Inauguration Day Events: Are local places really excited about the presidential pass off are they just capitalizing on the event for a financial change of their own? You decide. Nevertheless, there's quite a few potentially fun events going on (provided they're not sardine-can-packed, as I anticipate L.A. Live's all day viewing party to be.) 55 Degree Wine will be doing a eight-sparkling-wine tasting (six of them Champagnes) for a not-too-shabby $32/person, while South and Akasha will both have an Obama-themed menu with their own take on his fave shrimp and grits and cocktails too. Of course, there's always the official gala at the J Restaurant Lounge with packages ranging from $25/person to $2,000 (and bottle service) for a party of 16.

As for me, that evening I already have reservations to check out Tradition by Pascal for their Newport Beach Restaurant Week. The actual menu has tasty choices such as roasted beet salad with lemon scented goat cheese // roasted quail stuffed with chicken sausage in cognac sauce // salmon with quick sauerkraut in mushroom-tarragon-tomato jus // creme caramel with roasted pistachios. Not very American, I know, but maybe I'll get a glass of Californian wine there to compensate ;)

Another going-on of note, blogging friend and mixologist mistress extraordinaire Natalie of the Liquid Muse will be at Silver Lake's Bar Keeper this Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m. to sign copies of her book Preggatinis, a book with dozens of creative, delicious "mocktails" for the mom-to-be utilizing mixology techniques and creative ingredients (like the Preggie Provence with fresh rosemary sprigs and lavender soda) with options to "de-virginize" for dads who could use a little alcohol. In addition to the signing, samples of her preggatinis (even de-virginized ones) will be available, as well as snacks from Amy's Culinary Adventures. To RSVP, email natalie@theliquidmuse.com.

Finally, poor Mary Melton of Los Angeles magazine has been "volunteered" to go on the Gwyneth Paltrow detox plan that she blogged about on Goop.com; let's just say it's not been a pretty past few days for Mary as she sucks down periwinkle-colored smoothies and other liquid and semi-solid oddities. Catch the entire hilarious / painful "Gwyneth Cleanse" series through LA Mag's Eat blogfeed here.

Oh yea, speaking of Kogi's -- chill out, folks! Yes, they're appreciative of all the love they've gotten (in media and customers) but they can't help it when lines are out of control, when they run out of ingredients or when cops intervene! They're going above-and-beyond the call of the duty and I think this highlights it best from their blogpost: "I can’t speak for others, but there were times when I almost lost a finger chopping up meat in the truck while one the freeway just because we didn’t want to be any more later to Silverlake than we already were. And let me tell you — those knives are sharp and sudden turns can prove to be quite deadly."

The Chocolatey, Silver Lining in My Snowy Cloud

As I noted before, my mid-December Vegas trip turned out to be quite a let down; on top of being snowed in for an extra day (yes, you heard me), I found out that pretty much all the restaurants I wanted to try such as SeaBlue and Bradley Ogden and even reliable backups including Bouchon and Sensi were closed (my guess is that the respective restaurants wanted to give their staffs their early holiday break before the actual rush from Dec. 20-something onwards, but I didn't think ALL the hot places would be doing it.)

Did I mention I was totally unprepared and underdressed for snow in Vegas?

Thankfully, the trip was not a total loss -- at least one of my Vegas staples stayed open during this cold snap; the Vosges boutique at Caesars' Palace Forum Shops, and the surprise weather meant it's a perfect time to slink into their bar to enjoy their freshly-made couture cocoa. I got the Aztec Elixir, a blend of dark chocolate with chiles, vanilla and cinnamon (pretty much a potable version of their Red Fire bar). The very warm, very rich, deeply chocolatey and mildly spicy concoction was just what I needed to warm my body and soul.

Of course, I couldn't leave the store without a little loot to bring home too; I opted out of buying their exotic chocolate bars that already readily available in L.A. and got their less locally available stuff instead, including:

- the chocolate-covered caramel assortment with edgy flavors like Rosey (made with rose water and pink peppercorns) and Leaf (infused with Australian anise myrtle, surprisingly tasty since I am not big on anise flavor)

- a variety of their truffles with equally-exotic ganache fillings (the more colorful flavors included Hip-Hop with Krug champagne, the Kirsch-infused Chef Pascal and the Balsamico with 12-years-old balsamic vinegar and sicilian hazelnut pieces)

- the organic Habana bar with Dominican deep milk chocolate with savory, crunchy plantain chips embedded within; wound up eating half of this during the snow layover and the drive back.

- and my personal favorite new discovery, the caramel marshmallows with their creamy caramel set atop fluffy vanilla marshmallows, topped with a sprinkling of grey sea salt, enrobed in dark chocolate and topped with nutty toffee pieces. Simply put, It's just all kinds of delicious! (It really wasn't much a sacrifice for me to take a bite to show the interior for the below photo... and yes, I gobbled the rest of it up soon after getting the shot)

Oh yea, did I mention how crazy-excited I am that they are planning a boutique in L.A.? Slated for Fall/Winter of this year...

Vosges Haut-Chocolat
3500 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 836-9866
www.vosgeschocolate.com

Akasha "Bollywood Monday" sneak peek tonight!

For those looking to get rid of their "case of the Mondays" tonight, Akasha (on my DineLA to try list) is doing a sneak peek event with chef Akasha Richmond cooking up some of her favorite Indian dishes, some with a slightly modern twist, with small plates like northern Indian daal with Punjabi flatbread and baby spinach pakoras with a chutney duo (mint and tamarind-date), complex entrees such as chicken tikka masala served with black cardamom and ginger infused basmati rice and seared okra with tomato chutney, raita and black mustard and spicy sweets like chocolate-cardamom molten cake with chai ice cream and pistachio brittle. Definitely a great way to liven up the palate for the rest of the week.

But even the cocktails alone are worth a stop, since the restaurant has crafted several specialty cocktails ($11-13 each) inspired from flavors of that subcontinent, such as a spiked mango lassi with TRU vanilla vodka blended with mango puree, yogurt, cardmom and sugar, and mint chutney with TRU organic vodka alongside organic mint, jalapeno pepper and lime juice. Of course, the floral and fragrant gewurztraminer is a natural wine pairing for spicy Indian dishes, and Akasha will be serving a 2005 Domaine schlumberger gewurz from Alsace for the occasion too.

The event starts tonight at 5:30 p.m., hopefully this will be the first many successful "Bollywood Mondays" there (considering the lack of Indian food presence in the Culver City area.)

Akasha
9543 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 845-1700

Friday Quickies #43: Recovery from the Flu edition

Clam Chowder from last year's DineLA lunch at Ford's Filling Station

As my tweets this past week indicated, I've fallen ill to the flu for about a week. Lots of fatigue, rampant fevers (felt like I was holding a fireball in each hand on Monday!) alternating with chills, and a throat sore enough for me to favor texting and miming over speaking. And of course, missing out on delicious foods, from the first of the Silverlake Wine tastings to Kogi stopping in downtown to serve its Korean barbecue tacos during the ArtWalk. But at least mid-week I felt well enough to grab some pho and wonton noodles, as opposed to staying home with chicken noodle, steamed veggies and oatmeal.

Oh well, I take it as nature's way of telling me to save my calories and dollars till the DineLA meals, which I have four I already lined up (as well as two from the Newport Beach restaurant week.)

But moving to interesting tidbits of the week:

I've just noticed how dramatically improved the LA Times Daily Dish foodblog is. The layout could still use a little work, but the content is much better than a year ago, when the blogposts were way too wordy, not particularly engaging and pretty infrequent for a newspaper blog. In fact, it looked like the dumping ground for articles that didn't make it to hardcopy (and while they're still very well-written pieces, they're simply not bloggy.)

Now there's the sampler platter with considerable linkage to interesting food articles; impromptu local food-scene gossip (though Eater LA still clearly has the corner on that); delightful musings musings on local in-season ingredients, favorite recipes and food events; quirky features like the 1,001 things to do with bacon and; now, a new series of simple how-to videos for cooking a fresh, tasty everyday entreé stat. But most importantly, the writing is just livelier, simpler, shorter and easier for monitor-watching eye to grasp on to.

If you're glanced by and passed up on the Daily Dish months ago, now's a great time to give it a second try. I, for one, check it out almost every day now (on top of my usual Wednesday ritual of reading the section itself). Definitely worth the kudos, especially given LATimes' staff (Food Section being no exception) becoming leaner in the recent years. Keep up the good work!

Speaking of interesting food articles, New York Times had a pretty fun piece this week, essentially mythbusting some food folklores -- you know, the tips your friends, family and other cooks and chefs have passed on and you're not quite sure if they work but too afraid to deviate. Well, the NYT science and food crew isn't scared of asking questions and they've confirmed and debunked quite a few of those tricks of the cooking trade -- such as whether browning meat help seal in the juices, if adding a little sugar to veggies help them keep their color and shape and what's the point of adding vodka in a sauce if it's just going to boil away while cooking? Check out the article and find out, and you'll even get some new trivia knowledge to dish out at your foodie friends.

If you're looking for more -- there's also Chow.com's ongoing "Nagging Question" column, where staffers tackle one weird question a week, from whether running cheap vodka through a home water filter will improve its quality to if eating Luna Bars will make a guy grow boobs.