No Passport Required at Susan Feniger's Street on Highland Avenue in Hollywood

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

Eating in the Zone at Melograno in Hollywood

Before I knew it, my plate was empty. I'd been in the eating zone, what happens when I get lost in great food. It all happened so fast. After the first bite of the baby artichoke salad (cuori di carciofo e ruchetta con parmigiano) I thought "this is OK, maybe a little too much dressing". By the third bite I was admiring the lemon flavor, thinking "mucho dressing actually works". It was good, damn good.

I'd wandered into Melograno on a cold rainy night last month. Dining alone, I sat at the bar in the back of the restaurant where I could see the behind the scenes action: drinks being prepared, waiters bickering with each other. It's also the place to get great service. I was sitting right in front of the action, having a beer and a quick bite on a Tuesday night.

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Melograno
6541 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-6650

M Cafe de Chaya

This macrobiotic restaurant is probably the best vegetarian restaurant I've ever been to. MCDC is in a tiny space with a long. refrigerated, display case taking up half of it. Being macrobiotic means no refined sugars, eggs, dairy, red meat or poultry. Normally I'd prefer not going this route, yet there are a few things that work for non-vegetarians. The wild salmon is almost always perfectly cooked and moist, a most surprising factor. Their hand-rolled sushi works, as do the salads. They also have some cute little plants they sell. These make cute little hostess gifts. Parking is inconvenient. There are few spaces in their lot. I usually find a spot on one of the side streets.

Update: As of Feb 2009 M Cafe de Chaya now has 3 locations in Los Angeles: Beverly Hills (9433 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, (310) 858-8459), Culver City (9343 Culver Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90232, (310) 838-4300) and Hollywood.

M Cafe de Chaya
7119 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 525-0588

Burgers

Los Angeles has some of the greatest burgers! In the quest to find a great gourmet burger I checked out a few resto hot spots. Here are my results:

Whole in the Wall Burger Joint- WITWBJ's beef burger wins the best burger award in my book. A well-seasoned, 8 oz. meaty burger served on a pretzel roll (you gotta try the pretzel roll) is the way to go. The house-made zucchini pickles are tasty, and I don't even like pickles . The casual, whole in the wall decor is in sharp contrast to the first rate gourmet burgers. Located in an obscure location behind Winchell's Donuts, it is worth a visit.


8 OZ.- Walking to the resto on Melrose I saw Chef Govind in his vintage convertible zooming off somewhere, a true LA moment. The space has a great vibe, casual atmosphere and good music. The beef burgers are decent, yet not better than other burgers I've had. I didn't like the Estancia Grass Fed Burger, but I don't think I like grass fed beef in general. The Sarsaparilla Float and Chocolate Malt were wonderful.



Father's Office, Culver City- This is a neighborhood gem considering the location. I liked the burger served on a roll, liked not loved. A burger and a beer are a great combo and FO has a large beer selection. Wassup with the no ketchup rule? Really, there is no ketchup in the whole restaurant, a mistake. When I ordered bacon with my burger there was bacon in it, just not traditional pieces... odd.


The Hall at Palihouse- The lamb burger with spicy aioli and rosemary fries really surprised me, in a tasty way. I'd never tried a lamb burger before and am glad I did. Love the urban vibe and other food there, especially the Orange Chocolate Frozen Souffle- yum!



The Village Idiot- You can't go wrong with their big, juicy burger and fries. TVI has a great, casual vibe, perfect for a Sunday afternoon, or just about any day. I remember the music being a little on the loud side.

Whole in the Wall Burger Joint

11058 Santa Monica Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90025

Get Directions

(310) 312-7013



8 OZ.
7661 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 782-0008



Father's Office
3229 Helms Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 736-2224



The Hall at Palihouse
8465 Holloway Dr
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(323) 656-4020



The Village Idiot
7383 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90046
(323) 655-3331

Loteria Grill

I tried all 12 of the tacos on the menu last night. At $12 it was a pretty good deal. My two faves were the potato taco and the shredded beef. The Papa con Rajas- was vegetarian, light and flavorful. Potatoes with roasted Poblano peppers were served with finely chopped onion, cilantro, Queso Fresco and salsa verde. The Carne Deshebrada had brisket-like shredded beef served with fresh guacamole, salsa chipoltle, finely chopped onion and cilantro.


The Probaditas Sampler is brilliant, as far as I'm concerned. It caters to customers that want to try a little of everything and still be able to walk out the door. All 12 of their tacos come on a plate, each served on mini hand-made tortillas. There were 4 types of vegetable tacos, 3 chicken, 2 beef and 3 pork. See the menu for details.

We also had Guacamole y Chips to start. Win really liked the creaminess of it. Beers and the side of Platano Frito (fried plantains) helped cool my tongue in between spicy taco tasting. It was a fun evening at Loteria Grill.

Loteria Grill
6627 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323. 465 2500

Osteria Mozza

What a delightful meal this weekend with Win, Andra and Avi. Good food is important, combine it with dear friends and it's a recipe for a delightful evening. I was surprised how packed it was; there was plenty of energy in the restaurant, partly from the wild, Mario-chosen music piping through the speakers. We ordered family style, sharing 8 dishes in all, 3 Antipasti, 3 Primi and 2 Secondi.

The Grilled Octopus was out-of-this world. It was tender, thankfully not chewy, and tasted like the best sausage I've ever had. I know that sounds odd, but it reminded me of the pulpo in Spain. There is a Mozzarella Bar on the Antipasti section of the menu with a variety of dishes made with the cheese. We had the Mozzarella Tasting; a simple dish with burrata, fior di latte & bufala mozzarella served with 2 pieces of grilled bread with garlic and oil. It was fine, just not any different from mozzarellas I get in stores. The third Antipasti was a trio of baby lettuces salad, also tasty.

The Fresh Ricotta & Egg Raviolo with browned butter featured a plate with a 3 1/2 inch ravioli in the center. Slicing through the middle an egg yolk oozed out. The ricotta inside was soft and creamy. It was a beautiful dish both visually and in taste. Andra and Avi loved the pasta that was a little larger than spaghetti with a tomato sauce and tuna flakes. The ultimate pasta was the Butternut Squash Mezzalune with amaretti . It was the best butternut squash pasta I've ever had, so sweet I didn't need to order a dessert. The Grilled Whole Orata, a light white fish, was boned and had greens in the center of it when we opened it up. I can't seem to remember what greens they were, a few drinks does that to me. The Duck served on a wooden cutting board I do remember. It was woodsy, tender and a lovely ending to a great meal.

Side note: Hello, Osteria Mozza was packed, no sign of the economic hardship in sight. We peeked in the pizzeria around 10 and it was hopping. I was pleased to see it filled with people waiting. A funny touch, the valet attendant left a postcard in the car advertising the company's services.

Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038
323. 297. 0100

World's Largest Pizza Delivery

With the holidays just around the corner, many people are already party planning. Here's one way to make a big impact with a low budget : get a huge pizza that feeds 50-70 people delivered. That is sure to make a splash and keep costs to a minimum.

Pizzas this big really do exist. The largest deliverable pizza in the world measures 54" x 54", that's 2, 916 square inches. They charge $199 plus tax for a cheese pizza, $14.99 for each additional topping, and need 24 hours advance notice.

Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria has many locations throughout Los Angeles including West Hollywood, Hollywood, Downtown, Studio City and Glendale. They have a limited delivery area, so call to inquire. Also, I haven't tried their pizza so sample a smaller pie before ordering. They also have 36" pizzas available for delivery.


Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria
5051 Hollywood Blvd.
LA, CA 90027
www.36pizza.com
323.661.1122