johnnycab

Tama Sushi, Sushi Nozawa, Asanebo. Ventura Blvd has a plethora of restaurants.

Also - I think Roscoe's is kind of overrated. It's OK. The chicken is pretty dry, even with the gravy. The waffles are served with cheap corn syrup. You might want to check out M&M's Soul Food on Washington Blvd as an alternative. Near M&M's is Restaurante Salvadorena (cheap Salvadorean food) and Lebanese Kitchen: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/99/30/counter-gold.php Tropical Caribbean on Lake near California Blvd is highly recommended. (BTW - the last couple times I've been to the School Cafe, I found myself still pretty hungry afterwards. The food's pretty good though.)

http://theschoolcafe.com/

Definitely go to Din Tai Fung. It's hard to find Shanghai dumpling done that way anywhere else. Lots of other options for Chinese in the San Gabriel Valley. Might want to try Dim Sum at Ocean Star or 888 Seafood on Sunday morning. El Portal or Yahairas on Colorado Blvd. In Old Town Pasadena, there's Yujean Kang, Azeen's (Afghani), Kansai, Cafe Atlantic (Cuban) off the top of my head. Downtown LA - try Daikokuya in Little Tokyo or Langer's for a pastrami sandwich (possibly the best in the USA). I'm not completely sure all of these places are open on the weekends.

If you're going to recommend driving to Los Gatos, then why not SF as well?

Molly Stevens also contributes to Fine Cooking magazine. I highly recommend it - it's got more usable recipes than Cook's Illustrated.

My friends and I go there a lot. I take out there a good amount too. I love the place. The little pork dumplings with broth inside are heavenly. Their other dumpling are excellent too. I find their fried rice to be the best I've had anywhere. The Shanghai rice cakes are pretty good too. I find the food there very clean-tasting - which appeals to me a lot. I think that others don't like it for that very reason. The only problem with the place is that it's relatively pricey. There's another place called J&J at 301 W Valley Blvd in San Gabriel which is much cheaper, but not as good. But they have Shanghai-style dumplings - called Steamed Pao on the menu. Also - when I take out from there - there's this funky, Asian-market sort of smell that permeates everything.

I'm sure this won't sit well with some - but I kind of feel that if Rayner hadn't gone with Pim (at her suggestion I assume as well), and had just picked the restaurant out of the blue while visiting the Bay Area, his review would have been less gushing. His affection for Pim was more than evident in the Observer review, and it's quite possible that biased it. (My impression is that British journalists don't aim for the same level of objectivity that we expect from American journalists). Also - as a guest of Pim - it's possible he got extra-special attention from the restaurant. As a lurker - I've been reading this thread from its inception with some degree of interest, and feel that there's a bunch of you who do really want Manresa to succeed, for one reason or another. Which is not a bad thing - it's great actually. But some degree of objectivity is lost, whether intentional or not. Just my (possibly terribly misguided) impressions.

The Panasonic Infrared toaster oven seems to have really great reviews on Amazon.

FatGuy - You mentioned bringing the steaks to room temperature. Does this make a big difference? Thanks.

I'm not trying to be a heathen here, and I do understand that there's aspects to the food preparation that I have no inkling of, but nonetheless, since Tony points out that Masa is pretty much only focused on the ingredients, letting them speak for themselves, I do find it curious that he's willing to use fish that's been say, around a day old (door-to-door). I'm not quibbling here - I'm really trying to satisfy my curiosity (and slightly skeptical). And with obsessives like Keller and Masa, it would seem to me that having the absolutely freshest ingredients would be a really important issue. Let's say we're talking about sashimi for a minute. Apart from going to the market (or purveyor) and getting what he considers the freshest fish, is there something a master sushi chef does to the fish which makes it better? I know he can cut it, perhaps improve texture and flavor in a particular bite-sized piece. In a blind taste test, would a connoisseur choose Masa's toro over freshly caught? My impression from reading Tony's book is that the freshly caught would have been bought sometime in the morning in some fish market in Japan and served later that day. And would Masa's toro sashimi really be any better than that of a high-end sushi restaurant in Japan? Or LA? Which have the advantage of fresher fish, especially if you go at lunchtime.

Tony - I remember reading somewhere that they fly in the fish from Japan. If so - how truly fresh can the fish be? You wrote in A Cook's Tour about eating toro cut straight out of a freshly caught fish. How does or can this compare?

You're right, I haven't had an H&H bagel for at least a couple of years, though I've had East coast bagels about a year or so ago - which were really good. I think I'll ask my brother to check out H&H on the UWS when he gets a chance. I can't believe it's that bad now.

On the 31st, a couple of friends and I ate at Barney Greengrass at the top of Barney's in Beverly Hills for the first time. Two of us were former East coasters, and were looking forward to getting some real New York H&H bagels for a change. Instead, we were thoroughly disappointed: the so-called "H&H bagels" were small and airy, nothing like the big, dense NY bagels that we love. Something I could have easily gotten at Noah's. I don't see how anyone who's even eaten a bagel from H&H in NYC could ever be fooled. The people at the restaurant did claim they were H&H and I even saw an H&H box behind the deli counter. The waiter did mention that the bagels were frozen for the trip west. So I don't know what's up. Has anyone else been as disappointed as we were? Or perhaps they weren't really H&H? (They ran out temporarily?).

SC - I've noticed the rice at Nozawa is also very warm and loosely packed (annoyingly so), and I'm under the impression that this is a certain style of doing sushi. I actually don't mind the more run-of-the-mill fish that he serves since it really is good. But - if you tell him up front that you're feeling adventurous, I'm sure he'll oblige. Nozawa does have a "Sushi Nazi" reputation, but I've found that when he's not too busy - he's quite willing to chat if you show interest. The last time I was there back in Aug - it ran to more than $70/head after tax and tip (no alcohol), so the prices may keep more traditional types away. There were a handful of Japanese sitting at the tables though. But my impression is that because of the location in Studio City, you're going to get more Hollywood types than Japanese. Thanks for your take on the place.