While perusing the menu at Susan Feniger's new restaurant last night, I wondered if there was a travel agent available to help me. The menu was chock full of so many varieties of dishes from around the world. I was feeling a little overwhelmed. Anthony Bourdain would have been a good dining companion at Susan Feniger's Street. I'm sure he's had most of the dishes on the menu there. Many of them were a first for me.The friendly server delivered some millet puffs to the table. They were round little yellow-tinted balls of millet stuck together with marshmallow (like rice crispy treats), with raisins and lots of little, tiny seeds. The millet puffs were a fun treat and great introduction to the food. It perked my curiosity about the other delicious treats I had yet to discover. We finish them off quickly and the server brought us more of them. The first two tasted better then the others that followed. Same quality, they're just better in small quantities.
Win and I decided to order a bunch of little dishes to sample. Here's where we made our mistake: We didn't take into account that so many spices and flavors can clash, nor did we remember to have the spiciest dishes towards the end of our meal. As a result, our palates were compromised early on. With that said, we had a fun time exploring with our taste buds.
My favorite dish was one of the milder ones, Cuban Stuffed Potato Cake ($10). A Cuban version of the potato pancake, this comfort food had spiced beef, sweet raisins and capers, with tomato mint salsa and poblano cream. The Moldavian Meatballs ($10) were delicious and quite mild: ground beef and Kasha meatballs simmered in a sweet and sour tomato sauce with dill sour cream. The bite size Paani Puri ($6) were quite spectacular and beautiful. I imagine they would be a good hors d'oeuvres served at a wedding. Spiced potato, chutneys, spouted beans, and yogurt were served in a edible cup, much like a won ton, but round.
This casual restaurant is a great place for tasting a large selection of exotic street food. The music was pumping last night so those of you who are sensitive to music might want to call ahead of time to see if it's a habit or just a phase Susan Feniger is going through. Valet parking is located in back. Many will like the friendly, female valet parkers in pink jackets. Most won't like their steep fee ($8.50).
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Susan Feniger's Street
742 N. Highland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323) 461-7813
3 comments:
I went a couple of weeks ago, which probably was a week after it opened. The Cuban pork and potato patty was delicious, and the Vietnamese corn dish - yellow corn with pork belly and what tasted like a splash of lime - was totally addictive. And yet, I remained singularly underwhelmed. The roasted enoki was, for want of a better word, inedible, the chinese pork dumplings were just that, not much to them, I don't even remember what else we had. I would have hoped they would focus on cuisines that LA does not have - I know that doesn't leave much, but still. I wonder what Jonathan Gold will make of it. Personally, if I am going to spend $50 on "street" food, I know a great pizza joint just down the block...
OBTC: It's a tough concept to execute well. I read somewhere that she has plans to open in Vegas, probably a better location than LA.
Indeed it is, and I am sure it will work quite well in Vegas!
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