Leslie Brenner

In West L.A., just south of Brentwood, Juquila serves wonderful Oaxacan food--for a pittance. Lately they've been offering a special of empanada filled with huitlacoche (corn fungus--a delicacy), zucchini blossoms, and quesillo, a crumbly, salty white cheese. This is a fabulous dish at something like $6.95, and big enough for lunch. (Juquila is on Santa Monica Blvd. between Federal and Barrington). I eat there several times a week. I know it has its detractors, but the dim sum at Royal Star on Wilshire in W.L.A. is pretty good--in fact, terrific compared to most of what you get on the east coast. Someone already mentioned San Gennaro--if you go there you should know that the entire wine list is $10 per bottle. Yes, that's right. And they have some pretty decent Chiantis! They do have a "reserve" list that's pricier. Food is just okay, but decent antipasto and pasta and a ten dollar bottle of wine make for a fun evening. I also like Pizzicotto Cafe in Brentwood, on San Vicente. Wonderful gnocchi and good thin-crust pizza. If you sit outside at a sidewalk table, they won't (can't) serve you wine. If you want to pay a little more (okay, a lot more) for a special meal, there are two fantastic sushi bars in/near Brentwood: Takao, on San Vicente Blvd. and Mori Sushi on Pico Blvd. Hope you have a great trip!

I'm a huge fan of Mori Sushi, too. I wonder if there could possibly be another sushi bar in L.A. as good--if so, I'd love to find it!

Hi Cabrales--that was I who wrote the piece in T+L November issue; I sampled both the foie gras selection at Campton Place and the little foie gras burger at Fleur de Lys. The foie gras at Campton Place ranged from very good to stunning; I loved the roulade with prune chutney; the hickory-smoked version was very original, but I thought less successful. The presentation is wonderful, served off a cart tableside. We shared two orders for a table of four, and that was perfect, matched with a terrific Jurançon. At Fleur de Lys, the little foie gras burger was (if memory serves) a couple little slices of seared foie on a tiny brioche bun. It accompanied a baeckeoffe of oxtail soup with wild mushrooms, sealed with a pastry crust--a spectacular dish that released a little puff of gorgeous aroma when the waiter broke the crust. I have photos of these two dishes (they look different on the plate than they do in the T+L piece), but I can't figure out how to paste a jpeg image into this message. If someone can tell me, I'll be happy to post them...

I'd go with La Cabana in Venice which you are probably aware of. Or, further East, Loteria in the Farmer's Market. Thanks, Hollywood. I do like La Cabana very much (partly for sentimental reasons--I've been going there for 25 or 30 years), but I don't love it. I'll try Loteria. It's actually in Farmer's Market? I've never noticed it.

She does still serve lots of game. I LOVE her wild boar, a standard on the menu, as is venison.

She does still serve lots of game. I LOVE her wild boar, a standard on the menu, as is venison.

Congratulations, Steven! It's a great idea, and it looks beautiful. I look forward to tucking it into my carry-on on my next trip east!

Interesting thread! I somehow had missed it until now. Especially interesting to me, since I'm a food critic who moved to L.A. from NYC just over a year ago. The tenor of it echos the conclusion I've come to over these past months: the general level of the higher end restaurants in L.A. doesn't nearly measure up to the level of such restauratns in either NY or San Francisco, either in terms of food or service. Or even, odd as it may sound, ambience. There are restaurants I'm quite fond of--Josie, Joe's, Water Grill, Spago come to mind. And many, many others that I find extremely overrated. And still others I haven't yet had the opportunity to try. I do agree with Fat Guy's glowing appraisal of Aqua at the St. Regis Monarch Beach--based, anyway, on the one dinner I had there. I do, however, find the general level of Japanese, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese restaurants to be spectacular--so good that I'm even willing to drive (far!) sometimes to sample them. I fell in love with a Mexican (Oaxacan) restaurant nearby where I live--Juquila, in West L.A., but last time I ate there, I noticed with some horror that the posted health dept. grade in the window was a "C." Haven't been back, and I'm still seeking amazing Mexican food. I don't love Guelaguetza. I found two superb Vietnamese restaurants, both nondescript, but with stunning food: Song Long in Westmister (9361 Bolsa Ave, Ste. 108; 714/775-3724). Don't miss #35 on the menu: Cha Ca Ha Noi (sorry, I can't do the punctuation)--a grilled fish dish that's a North Vietnam specialty, with grilled onions, lots of dill, peanuts, rice vermicelli, nuoc mam, etc. Also a phô restaurant whose name I can't recall, but I can tell you exactly where it is: in the San Fernando Valley, in a strip mall on the northeast corner of Sepulveda and Victory. I know the spot well because it used to be the site of Dale's supermarket, where I bagged groceries when I was in high school. Loved the phô (which included every correct herb in the garnishes!), as well as the shrimp paste on sugar cane. In fact, everything was so good that it made me feel I didn't even want to continue to look for decent French food in this town--I can make that at home! And now, if someone can point me to a wonderful Mexican spot on the westside, I'd be most grateful...

Oh my goo-ness. It wasn't very very goo, it was very very doog. I mean good.

I was a huge fan of Gras's at Peacock Alley--felt it (and he) were totally underrated. I dined at Fifth Floor a month ago and didn't feel it measured up. It was very, very goo--a warm summer salad, with gorgeous tiny vegetables poached in vinaigrette served atop a purslane salad, blew me away. But other dishes were disappointing, and the place as feels like a money-making-machine--completely unlike Peacock Alley. I think he's tremendously talented, but based on only one visit, I don't feel he's shining there.

Trim the bottoms by rotating against a sharp paring knife, cut off the top third, then cut in half vertically. Blanche a couple minutes, then saute in olive oil and garlic. Serve hot or room temp for a fab first course.

How about 100% Arabica French roast coffee, $3.99 for 13 oz? I go there just for that, and often wind up picking up other liquids ($5.99 Chiantis, cut-rate San Pellegrino, etc.).

Jaymes, I couldn't agree more. We always approached the food issue with our son (now 5 1/2) from a "get to" rather than a "have to" position. We've always shown him how much we enjoy food (not hard), and we've always done our best not to give him any clues that something might be considered "weird." He eats almost everything (loves stinky cheese, baby octopus, sushi, most vegetables), but is only starting to enjoy fruit. We've never chided him for not liking something, only perhaps made him see that we really enjoy it. He has only eaten at McDonald's once. He liked it, but he likes just about everything, and LOVES eating in restaurants. Although he hates wearing anything but a t-shirt, he'll gladly put on a suit and tie (!) to go to a special restaurant. For whatever it's worth, he was breastfed--for a rather long time--and I never avoided garlic, spices, gassy foods the way some people say you should. And he didn't reliably sleep through the night until he was four!

It is my understanding (and I've spoken with a number of winemakers about this) that when TCA attacks a bottle, the first thing that happens is that much of the palate disappears--this happens before the characteristic "corked" smell manifests itself. And you'll notice, if you actually taste a wine you know to be corked -- in other words, once you've identified the corked smell -- that the palate has somehow disappeared. To me, "cooked" wines have a decided off-taste, as opposed to nothing left in the palate.

I just wanted to say thank you to the Egullet community for giving me the opportunity to participate in this Q+A--I've certainly enjoyed it! Thanks especially to all of you who asked such interesting and provocative questions, and a special thanks to Bux for putting it all together, and Jason Perlow for facilitating. If anyone's interested (and I mentioned this somewhere below in a response), Amazon.com asked me several weeks ago to write an "Epilogue" to the book, which they've posted on their Cookbooks page; here's a link. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/featu...6900400-0748112 I look forward to participating actively in many threads in the future. Thanks again, all! Leslie

To my knowledge, I haven't eaten at any other NYC with Asian-American women chefs beside AZ. I admire Patricia Yeo's cooking for its clean, harmonic flavors, solid technique, and her understanding of how to bring disparate elements of a dish together in a way that works well. She's also a good restaurateur--the restaurant is beautiful and the service attentive and highly professional. I have felt soigné there even when I was there as an ordinary Joe, under someone else's name. Last time I lunched there, they were out of a tea I had asked about, and she sent me some of her personal stash of a Chinese green. She had no idea who I was, and I was not eating with anyone known to her.

Cabrales, sorry for taking so long to respond to this one. I didn't hear any discussion of the significance of the Relais Gourmand connection while I was in the restaurant, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one. I know that Daniel Boulud is very proud of his affiliation with Relais & Chateaux. I don't imagine that reserving through the R&C organization would yield any greater benefit than reserving directly through Daniel.

On the same subject, amazon.com asked me a few weeks ago to write an "Epilogue" to the book; it's posted on Amazon's Cookbooks page. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/featu...6900400-0748112

Sorry to take so long with this one, Bux. I think I agree with you about the change in attitude that took place around that time, but I spent so much time in the restaurant during that year, and hence kept myself mostly planted in New York. As a result, I didn't get that much of a handle on what was going on in France. I did go once that year, but spent most of the time with friends and family, and very little time in restaurants, so I didn't get to speak with many French cooks at that time.

Andy, this question has been eating away at me for the past week. I've come to realize that it's because I'm not really the kind of person who has favorite dishes, odd as that may sound. What I love at Daniel is the style of cooking and the technical skill and the creativity, and I always love to try something new to see what Daniel and his chefs are up to. For that reason, I love to try the specials there--Alex and the sous-chefs really strut their stuff with them. In general, what I love best about the dishes at Daniel are the elaborate vegetable garnishes and the sauces, often meat jus, even for fish.

Bruno did work at Alain Ducasse for some months; he is now in the process of opening his own private club on the upper East side of Manhattan.

My interest in food does spill over into my fiction. In my first novel, one of the characters becomes very interested in food, though he's not a food professional, he's a teenager. Since food is such an important part of life as far as I'm concerned, it's natural that it take its place in the world of my fictional characters. In the novel I'm working on, there is a character who's a chef.

I think if I could do it all over again, I'd spend more time trying to get to the bottom of who Daniel Boulud is. He's a difficult person to get to know, and I think I'd try to spend even more time with him and paint a somewhat fuller portrait. I shied away from doing so, because I wanted the book to be about the restaurant more than about Daniel Boulud, but I think more on who is is wouldn't have hurted. I don't see, however, going back and making such changes in a revised edition: the book is really a snapshot, a year in the life of a restaurant, and I'd like the document to remain as such.

That's a great question, Swissmiss, and a really tough one. It's a question that kept me awake many, many nights after I turned in the book to my publisher. I'm about to drive six hours to San Francisco today, and I'll ponder it on the way and answer in the next 24 hours.

Thanks, Jinmyo. And thank you to you and all the Egulleteers for welcoming me so warmly for this Q+A. I so appreciate the opportunity to chat with y'all about The Fourth Star! I will do my best to be as prolific a poster as I can, whenever my deadlines will cooperate.