Local Flavor: Quinn Hatfield Talks Tongue Tacos and Hostess Baseballs...

Welcome to “Local Flavor,” a new weekly-ish column on Rainy Days and Sundays. Every column will feature a local chef, sommelier or tastemaker talking about his/her favorite local eats. Featured this week is Chef Quinn Hatfield, of the much-lauded Hatfield’s restaurant. Foodies all over town are waiting with baited breath for the opening of the new Hatfield’s location, which takes the place of Red Pearl Kitchen on the corner of Melrose and Highland. According to the chef, he and his wife, business partner and pastry chef Karen will start cooking “friends and family” dinners in late December and are aiming for a January 1, 2010 open date. Needless to say, I can’t wait!

1) Favorite neighborhood joint?

Quinn: I love to walk down to Blue Jam Cafe on Melrose for breakfast. “Kamil's Breakfast” is a favorite race day meal, on days that I have bike races. It is kind of a good luck tradition!

2) Favorite high-end restaurant?

Quinn: My last meal at Providence was really fantastic.

My Favorite Hangover Breakfast, Chocolate Cake, Steak and More...

I was going to write about some of the food I’ve been cooking this week, but sadly my camera needs some TLC (the filter is so bent from being dropped that it cannot be removed, and there are a few pieces of lint conveniently tucked in between the filter and the lens, adding beautiful black specks to every photo I take) and therefore I don’t have any photographic evidence of my cooking conquests for the week.

Seems to me that this is the perfect opportunity to do a list of some sort (I do love me some lists, let me tell you!). Today, I’m featuring the long-winded yet appropriately titled, “Foods that I Generally Love and Where You Can Get the Best of Said Foods” list. I’m a bit brain dead today, so please forgive the literal and lackluster title. Hopefully, you’ll find the content more appealing.

A Great Sandwich

It’s simple, really: Two slices of bread and a number of fillings in the middle does a sandwich make. However, it wrecks my head how difficult it can be to find a good-tasting, well-constructed sandwich. Some sandwiches are tasty, but perhaps the bread is so overly toasted or thick that it scrapes up the roof of one’s mouth, while others may be well-constructed but ill conceived otherwise (example: layering lots of “slick” ingredients on top of each other like roasted peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers and having it all squirt out one side as you take a bite from the other). There are sandwiches so big, taking a bite requires surgical restructuring of one’s jaw. There are others that are too soggy from over mayo-ing or saucing, and some so dry you feel like you’re competing in a Saltine eating contest. Ever try that? Without water, it’s nearly impossible to eat 10 Saltines at once!

One of the most memorable I’ve had was a shrimp po’ boy at the Sandcastle Café & Grill on Saint Simons Island in Georgia. The lightly battered and fried shrimp, still warm from the fryer, sat atop a bed of freshly shredded, cool iceberg lettuce and was coddled between two slices of a chewy/crispy baguette that was lightly brushed on the inside with a tangy house mayo. Two, thin slices of red, ripe tomato added a slight sweetness and balance to the savory notes of the sandwich. The best part? Bite after bite, the sandwich held together beautifully. The photo above was the last bite of one-half of the sandwich, and look! Everything is still in its rightful place. I seriously dream of this sandwich!

Local Flavor: Chef Albert Aviles Talks Rivera, NomNom and a Distate for Molecular Gastronomy...

Welcome to “Local Flavor,” a new bi-weekly column on Rainy Days and Sundays. Every column will feature a local chef, sommelier or tastemaker talking about his/her favorite local eats. This week: Albert Aviles, Executive Chef of Corkbar, a casual, California wine-inspired bar/restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. Aviles’ “Test Kitchen Tuesdays,” which features an off-menu, tapas-style dish for a mere $2, is fast becoming a favorite among locals. What SoCal eats inspires this laid-back chef? Let’s see…

1) Favorite neighborhood joint?

Albert: Tinto Tapas Espana on Santa Monica.

2) Favorite high-end restaurant?

Albert: It’s a tie between Rivera and Itacho. Not sure if they are considered high end but they're both good. Rivera was cool experience. Truthfully it was the tequila; they have so many and they are all good! The food was very good and well executed. Chef John is a talented man.

Itacho was a great mistake. My wife and I couldn't get into Angelini Osteria next door, so we walked into Itacho. Very good traditional, simple Japanese food. The kitchen is the size of my shoe, and they put out well executed food, on time and on point.

The Hostesses with the Mostesses....

Jaden, the guest of honor, shows off some caviar

A good party has to have a few essentials: Great food, fabulous drinks, a good mix of guests and some form of entertainment. And I do believe that nobody knows this better than Diane and Todd, who are getting as well-known for their magnificent parties as they are for their much-beloved blog, White on Rice Couple.

A beautiful evening on the patio in downtown LA

Case in point: The celebratory party for Jaden Hair and her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. The party started off on the gorgeous patio of Diane and Todd’s downtown loft, and featured Pama Liqueur cocktails that were mixed up by Jaden herself. It was the perfect way to unwind from the day, mingle with the guests (who were mostly food journalists) and get to know each other a little bit. The hosts served up Jaden’s chicken eggrolls by the dozen along with everybody’s party favorite, blinis with caviar and crème fraiche.

Local Flavor: Ludo and Krissy Lefebvre Talk Urasawa, Sprinkles and...KFC?

Ludo & Krissy - photo credit: Jo Stougaard

Welcome to “Local Flavor,” a new bi-weekly column on Rainy Days and Sundays. Every column will feature a local chef, sommelier or tastemaker talking about his/her local favorite eats. This week: Chef Ludovic Lefebvre and his business partner and wife, Kristine, who are currently working on the next incarnation of their roving restaurant LudoBites (coming to Royal/T Café in Culver City for 13 days in December), sit down and share their favorites (and not-so-favorites) from the SoCal food scene.

1) Favorite neighborhood joint?

Ludo: Kaya Sushi in El Segundo. When we lived in Venice we used to go to the location in Marina del Rey all the time. I love Asian food and they have a great mix of Japanese and Korean.

Krissy: I agree with Ludo on Kaya, it is definitely a favorite. I LOVE the Japchae noodles. Although it is a bit further away (closer to my old neighborhood), Typhoon is still my ultimate favorite neighborhood joint.

2) Favorite high-end restaurant?

Ludo: I have not been to a high-end restaurant since I returned from Las Vegas. I had many great high end meals in Vegas, but now back in LA I mostly focus on exploring new different cuisines. I am always looking for new inspiration. If I had to pick a high-end restaurant it would be Urasawa, and I loved my meals at Hatfield's.

Krissy: Unlike Ludo, I have a really hard time going to high end restaurants. Ludo is simply happy to have someone else cook for him, but I can't help myself and compare every meal to his cooking. I am so spoiled. I have eaten probably 100+ meals at L'Orangerie and Bastide. How do I ever enjoy anything else? My favorite high-end restaurant is definitely my own kitchen when Ludo is cooking. Nothing tops it.

That Pork Used to be A Pig, Ya Know...

Gordon Ramsay photo courtesy of the Mail Online

There’s been a lot of talk lately on the topic of whether or not we, as humans, should eat meat. About a month ago, the New York Times published a frightening article about one woman’s health crisis after consuming tainted hamburger meat, and of course there’s Jonathan Safran Foer’s recently published and much-ballyhooed book, Eating Animals, which takes a firm stand against factory farming and makes a strong case for vegetarianism.

I eat meat, and I have no plans to give that up. I choose free-range, cruelty-free meat, which costs more but is ultimately better tasting, better for the environment and for the animals themselves. In my mind, an animal that’s had a happy life tastes better (I realize many vegetarians will disagree with me on this one!).

One chef who seems to be putting his money where is mouth is on the subject is Gordon Ramsay. Don’t get me wrong: Ramsay, with his piping-hot temper and inability to articulate himself without the use of the word “f*ck” every five seconds isn’t exactly the most beloved chef of our time. There have been allegations of an affair and other personal and professional missteps. Frankly, I could give a toss about those things. What I do admire about him is that on his BBC show – appropriately titled “The F Word” – Ramsay is showing the world where his food comes from, and isn’t afraid to get personally involved with it.

Of Gumption and Gumbo

It's undeniable: There's just something special about New Orleans. Even before the will of its people was tested by "The Storm," as locals call it, even before being completely abandoned by its government, and nearly forgotten after the other storm (the one of the media variety) died down, it was something else. And after all that? To say that the hardships endured by this city and its loyal residents brought out a kind of character and might and determination that us outsiders didn't think existed would be an understatement.