Wakasan

One late evening, I wanted to give Owen and his mom some time to hang out, so I went out to dinner with Scott to catch up. He had mentioned how he had indulged at Wakasan a few weeks earlier, and I had been hearing about their stellar budget omakase dinner, so I leaped at the chance to go.

The restaurant was pretty full, but I also noted that there weren't very many seats...which would be difficult during busier hours, but the nice part was that the restaurant was open a bit later than I'm used to, (which is one of the reasons why we went here.) As we were being seated, we were handed a drink menu, but I just wanted water. The only thing to order here is the omakase, so we chatted and waited for our meal to arrive...

Part 1 of Wakasan's Omakase - a bit of cooked veggies (mushrooms, spinach, carrot shreds), and some dried bonito flakes on top, in a light clear sauce. Yummy and light, this was a nice start to our dinner. The veggies weren't overcooked to mush and it was just fun to eat.


Part 2 of Wakasan's Omakase - shaved pickled slices of carrot and daikon, in a tangy vinagrette with some sesame seeds on top. This was just okay to me, pickled stuff is pickled stuff, and I wouldn't necessarily order this anywhere. A filler dish.

Part 3 of Wakasan's Omakase - Mini spaghetti "mac salad" - spaghetti noodles made into a cold noodle salad, with mayo and seasoned up mac salad style. Spaghetti mac salad? Well, why not - I think it was actually pretty tasty. The mayo wasn't too thick and it coated the noodles well. I finished this off pretty quick...what's next?


Part 4 of Wakasan's Omakase - Sashimi selection. From the left - scallop, medium tuna, and some sort of white fish (I forgot what it was.) Out of all of these, the scallop was the best, as the others had a lot of tendon going through them, which made eating them not as good. I had to pick out the tendon membrane from my teeth. Gross...but...well, since this is part of a omakase, leaving stuff on the plate is pretty insulting...so I ate what I could eat of the sashimi, but really, in any other case, I would have left the fish on this plate right where it was. Ah, well. Not every plate has to be a winner.


Part 5 of Wakasan's Omakase - Salmon, and a bit of bean sprout stirfry. Pretty tasty, nice grill on the salmon, didn't know what that gourd looking thing was but ate it anyways, bean stirfy was nice.


Part 6 of Wakasan's Omakase - Legs and part of the body part of a crab, the ponzu sauce was on the bottom of this dish. Yum, crab was quite a surprise, when it was brought to the table. The ponzu sauce was great to dip the crab meat in, a fun little interactive dish.


Part 7 of Wakasan's Omakase - Fishcakes and tofu in an oden stew. A little bundle of noodles, tied up, can be seen in the upper left corner. A smear of hot mustard adornes the lower left of this dish. I'm not really a fan of oden but I like tofu and fishcakes enough to ignore any misgivings I had about oden stew. I loved the little bundle of noodles, although maybe I should have untied them before eating? I just popped the whole thing in my mouth and it was gone in a second...drat, is there a knot of noodles in my stomach?? Also, hot mustard makes EVERYTHING better. (this is coming from someone who can eat wasabi by the spoonful though...)


Part 8 of Wakasan's Omakase - Tempura. Assorted tempura, nice that they included two shrimp tempura! Freshly fried, not greasy, and completely delicious! Yay!


Part 9 of Wakasan's Omakase - Chanwanmushi. Savory steamed egg, with special stuff at the bottom, like fishcake. The top is adorned with cilantro, which is not my favorite but I ate around it. Savory egg custard, I love it. It was such a nice flavor and delicately steamed, the consistency was like soft silken tofu. Awesome!


Part 10 of Wakasan's Omakase - miso soup with clams in it, the clams gave the miso soup broth a nice rich flavor. A nice little surprise and treat.


This is the last savory dish...by this time, I was pretty full...Part 11 of Wakasan's Omakase - Mini Beef shortrib bowl. The sauce really made this dish, as it flavored the rice underneat the meat. The ribs were good, a little fatty but the sauce made up for it. Nice way to end the savories.


Dessert! Part 12 of Wakasan's Omakase - one cute scoop of red bean ice cream. Love the dish that this was in, and love the adorable little scoop which matched the sakura blossom design in the bowl. Sweet, but not too sweet, I was DONE after eating this.

What a fun little place...I felt like I was eating at someone's house, with dish after dish arriving from the kitchen. On top of that, a pretty good deal, 35 dollars each. I'll be back!

Wakasan
1929 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 446-5241

Hop Woo

I took a bookmaking class at Nucleus Gallery, so I happened to be out in Alhambra. Stupidly, I didn't really eat lunch before class, and ended up out of class at 6:30pm, starving and ready to keel over. Bryan was cool enough to hang around until after my class ended, and we walked down the street to go to Hop Woo, which had some sort of red egg and ginger ceremony going on. They assured us there was seating in the back, and we were lead to a tiny table underneath a flatscreen playing a basketball game. I wasn't going to complain too much though, I was starving!

Our first order was honey walnut shrimp. The shrimp they used were jumbo sized, so they had a lot of meat to them, and they were PERFECTLY fried. Not too much mayo either. The candied walnuts were great too. A well done version of this dish, I hope to have it again soon.

Dry flat beef noodles, a favorite of my brothers' (me too!). This was also a very good version, good "wok hay", noodles were noodley tasty, nice and coated with the XO-soy sauce, and the beef was nice and tender. Good amount of sprouts, too. Delicious.

Because I was craving something super comforting, I ordered a hot pot - beef and turnip stew. The rich gravy kept me going back for more. The turnips were soft to bite into, and slightly sweet tasting. The tendons of the beef were the best part of this hotpot - cooked down, they had soaked up all of the flavors of the sauce. The texture of the tendons were like savory jello...that doesn't SOUND good but it sure tastes good.

I was pleasantly content with the place, even though they had a huge banquet going on, they were fairly prompt and the food was great. If I'm back in Alhambra again I want to come back!

Hop Woo
1 W. Main St. (Garfield Ave.)
Alhambra, CA 91801
626-289-7938

Grace Restaurant - Appetite Stimulus Dinner

The other Appetite Stimulus meal that I had through Open Table had to be somewhere where I wanted to go for a long time, and so I chose Grace Restaurant. I was really jazzed to be able to go to a restaurant I knew would normally cost me an arm and a leg...the appetite stimulus price was still a bit more than I'd like to pay for a usual meal out, but to have the chance to eat here! Whoo! Anyways, enough griping about my food budget (which is pitiful nowadays!)...let's get on with the post!

The restaurant had accidentally canceled my appointment right before I was about to leave the house...I frantically called them back and said, YES I'M GOING TO BE THERE please do not deny me a seat OMG...! They brusquely apologized and reinstated my reservation...whew...! Upon arrival, they even made light of the situation, mentioning that yes, in fact I WAS there, heh.

The place itself had very dim lighting, which is not really my preference in lighting schemes (I like seeing my food, maybe not in blaring fluorescent lights or anything, but maybe a little more lighting would have been nice), and we luckily had a table instead of being seated along the half booth, half chair side of the wall. The other patrons there looked rather cramped and sitting very close to one another. Sometimes I like that, but I didn't feel too chatty that night. I was there for the food, and ready to chow down...

A very nice glass vase full of water (still) was set at our table, so we could easily refill our water glasses when we so chose. Props to the nice choice of glassware - I love the shape of this carafe. I also got an iced tea, as they did not have lemonade to make arnold palmer. Owen got the wine pairing, but I neglected to take pictures of that, as it was...wine in wine glasses. But I'll discuss what he had, from what I remember...

The appetizers started coming. I can't resist any kind of salmon, especially if it's a raw or smoked kind. And when I saw this on the menu, I absolutely had to order it - House Cured Salmon, which consisted of roasted beets, heirloom tomatoes, horseradish crème fraiche, and of course, the house cured salmon. The creme fraiche added a nice contrast to the flavors of the salmon and tomatoes. I usually don't care for beets but these were done very well, and didn't mind them. I also noted the nice use of microgreens on top- very pretty!

Owen got the Fall Squash Soup, with a topping of duck confit and pistachios. The wine that came with this soup was a glass of 2005 Silvaner “Trocken,” Wittmann, Rheinhessen, Germany. Owen really loved the this course, everything worked really well together. The texture of the soup was beautiful, the duck was the salty that the slightly sweet soup needed. I even think I liked this more than my salmon dish - and I love salmon, so that's saying something. The wine was very well matched to this soup (says Owen).

Owen's choice was Oven Roasted Leg of Colorado Lamb, with Byaldi confit, and olive infused lamb jus. I knew he'd order this one, whenever he sees lamb on a menu he'll usually go for it. The lamb was super moist and cooked perfectly. The taste that I had was excellent. The au jus that came with it was the perfect accompaniment, as were the very thinly mandolin-sliced veggies. The wine, however, Owen did not like as much as the first one that came with the soup:
2003 Madiran “Vielles Vignes,” Château Peyros Southwestern France.

The beef dish (I forget the exact name of the dish!), an additional 10 dollars add on to the appetite stimulus meal but worth it. Cheese and onions were melted over the top of really succulent beef (very small amount though, a few more bites would have been perfect!) The green beans were good too. I wiped this plate clean.

A blown out photo of Owen's cappuccino, which was a pretty sight - love the way the foam curls like a cartoon version of fresh snow. I'm sure it was good, but I don't really like foam too much. My loss, I know.

Dessert! Owen's choice was obvious to me, right when I saw it on the menu: Boca Negra Cake Affogato - dark chocolate cake, vanilla malt ice cream, espresso, brandied orange slice. Chocolate PLUS espresso? That's melding two things Owen loves dearly. However, he could not finish this, as it was way too rich. The one tiny bite I had overwhelmed me with flavors - I personally like more subtle flavors, so this wasn't for me. The wine that went with this was a
2005 Banyuls Rimage, Les Clos de Paulilles, Languedoc, France. Owen did not finish his glass. He was way too full at this point.


I went with the Apple Upside Down Bread Pudding - buttermilk ice cream, apple cider syrup, cranberries, brown sugar walnuts. The carmelization on the top of the pudding stuck to my teeth immediately, so I was concentrating on trying to dislodge the stuck caramel from my poor molars after the first bite. Also - maybe it was a bit TOO tart for me...I don't think I'd order this again if I had the choice, maybe a simple sorbet or ice cream would have done the trick.

I would love to revisit this restaurant, perhaps for one of those burger nights on Sunday I saw advertised on their website...anyone interested in joining me for a Grace burger night?

Grace Restaurant
www.gracerestaurant.com
7360 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 934-4400