Well, it was my last day in LA, and my parents had headed out of town to go to Vegas. but that was ok, since i was hanging out with two of my friends. So of course I took them to two restaurants that I enjoy eating at and, as usual, had my requisite Japanese food.
I met my friend Rudy at Neiman Marcus cause I wanted to take him to the restaurant in the basement of the store, called Mariposa. And i got to look around at all the clothes that were on sale since it was post- Christmas. Now, unlike what you might normally think of restaurants located in departments stores or malls, Mariposa is an excellent restaurant that specializes in California cuisine. This was also the first restaurant i went to at home that has that LA "scene". You know, pretty people looking around to see who else happens to be dining there. But since we were the first ones to arrive, I was pretty comfortable and got to watch the rest of the place fill in. Here's a pic of the menu.
So at Mariposa, they always start you off with a popover with homemade strawberry jam and an amuse bouche of chicken broth. Here's the popover. Puffy and eggy. Rudy enjoyed it a lot. And I liked the strawberry jam. Sorry for the bluriness.
And here's the chicken broth in a little cup along with a cheese stick.
For lunch, I chose to have a duck salad. It was very nicely plated when it arrived. And it was more like a generous portion of duck with a side of salad. But both were totally tasty. Rudy got a lamb sandwich (no pic here) and he also liked it a lot.
And lastly, we had dessert. We had problems picking out what we wanted, so we decided to get 2 and share. There were homemade sorbets and a pear/cranberry crumble with ice cream.
Here's the sorbet. The flavors were raspberry, champagne and a green thing i don't remember. Actually, the desserts were my least favorite part of the meal. And the champagne sorbet was so icy, it was more like a granita.
Here's the pear/cranberry crumble. You'd think it'd be hard to screw up a dessert this easy, but people always manage to do it. In this case, the fruit was undercooked and still a bit hard and the topping was really gooey. The probably put in too much sugar and butter, but it made the oatmeal in it taste wet and really not tasty at all. At least the vanilla ice cream was good, and made with real vanilla beans (you could tell by the little black specks and the intense flavor of the ice cream).
Over all, it was a very yummy meal. A bit on the pricey side, but hey, we were sitting in Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills. After lunch, we walked around Rodeo, since Rudy hadn't been there before, and I got to check out the new Prada store, which is super cool. You should all go check out the architecture on the place. Now! Go!
Are you back from Prada? Aren't the cameras in the elevators totally cool? Well, we were done with walking, so i suggested we get coffee. We drove to my favorite coffeeshop in LA, the Balcony Cafe, but it turns out there were closed. They have strange hours and didn't open until 3pm. So instead, we went to another favorite place of mine, Amandine. Now Amandine is one of those really great Japanese French Bakeries. I'm sorry I didn't take a pic of the pastry case for you, but they always have fresh cakes and tarts and you can get slices of them. Not great coffee, but the desserts make up for it.
Here's my strawberry tart. The strawberries were lovely and ripe, the pastry buttery and flaky and the pastry cream was delicious. Now I don't readily dole out high compliments to most pastries, but this place is excellent.
Rudy got an almond croissant. Here it is below. I think he liked it, though he's rarely unhappy with any food.
And lastly, here's a pic of my coffee. Though it's not great, at least they're generous with it. And so i bid farewell to Rudes after our hours of eating and headed home, where I watched Hitch as I waited for Juliet to arrive so we could go out to dinner.
When Juliet got to my house, I decided to take her to Granita in Malibu. Granita was one of the first Wolfgang Puck Restaurants and one of my favorite restaurants in LA. But when we arrived, it was closed. Not just closed, it didnt' exist anymore. Which I think i had heard about a while ago, but had forgotten. I think it was one of the casualties of Wolfgang's divorce from his wife. So, we decided to drive across the highway to Nobu, located in the Malibu Country Mart.
You might have heard of the Malibu Country Mart cause stars, especially Britney Spears, are often photographed shopping there. And it really is a great example of the LA "scene". I actually didn't like Nobu the first time I ate there. Since it's located deep into Malibu, it's really more for the locals, and there were more children running around the restaurant screaming than adults sitting at tables, eating. Which I found very strange for a restaurant like Nobu. Plus I didn't think the food was that great. But we didn't have many choices left, and so off to Nobu we went.
We were seated immediately, which is always good. But it was a very small table crammed between two other tables, so we could hear our neighbors' conversations and vice versa. (the ppl to our right were celebrating a bday). One thing I will say about Nobu, though, is that it is fun for people watching. (Jeremey Piven was leaving when we arrived) But onto the food. After perusing the menu, which is a bit confusing cause it's hard to tell what size the entrees actually are, i ordered the Shrimp with Lobster in a Lemon Sauce and a Shrimp Tempura Handroll.
Here's a pic of the shrimp/lobster dish. I was acutally pleasantly suprised by this dish. It was totally yummy, with the tanginess of the lemon and there were lots of mushrooms, which i love.
It was also a pretty big dish, so i wasn't able to eat my handroll(pictured below) which i handed off to Juliet. She never has a problem finishing off food. Which is quite a useful skill when you're eating with me, cause a rarely finish my food.
And to finish off the meal, we got these hazelnut ice cream sandwiches. Very nice plating and they were pretty tasty.
I'm sure you would think a meal like this would be totally pricey. But to be honest, it was very reasonable. I think that Nobu Malibu would actually cost less than Nobu in NY, maybe by 1/3 of the price. ( I don't really know what the prices are like at Nobu NY, since i've never been, but i do know what prices are like in NY in general, and our meal cost way less). Actually, it cost less than it would've in Boston. And I'll say it again, that's the best thing about eating in LA, you don't feel like you're getting ripped off when the check arrives. And after living for a while in Boston, lots of the time I feel like I'm getting a great deal for the quality of the food. Well maybe not a great deal, but at least there's no remorse at the end of the meal. And that's something that will always keep me happy.
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