JoshEKG

It would be helpful to know where you are coming from to determine what you can't get at home that is available in LA. Some places I would recommend: Monte Alban - Just outside of santa monica, Oaxacan food (moles). I really like the goat taco, molotes, and the mole tamale. Mariscos Chente in Mar Vista for Sinaloan/Nayarit style seafood. This is about 15 minutes away from Santa Monica and has very fresh seafood, great shrimp dishes, pescado zarandeado (whole grilled fish) and is priced very reasonably ($15/kg fish, $12 shrimp entrees). Mori Sushi, great sushi just outside of Santa Monica. Sit at the counter and make sure to ask for fresh wasabi Gjelina or Tasting Kitchen on Abbot Kinney in Venice. I like Gjelina for brunch or dinner and Tasting Kitchen for dinner. Good atmosphere and great food. Langers - best pastrami. Not open for dinner. Father's Office - culver city & santa monica. I prefer the culver city location since it is much larger and has full bar. Get the burger. Great beer selection and good mixed drinks. They are kind of like the soup nazi in that there are no substitutions and no ketchup available for the fries - but if you can get past this the drinks and the food are good. Cora's Coffee Shop for breakfast in Santa Monica. Geoffrey's in Malibu is only worth going to for the view. The food is ok and the drinks are good, but if it didn't have the view I'd never go. It's probably better to go for lunch and sit on the balcony, since it should be sunny out (bring sunglasses). At dinner it will be dark and much colder.

I can't provide feedback on last years reservation process. But when I made a (successful) reservation for the 2008 season, I sent my request on 10/15/07 and received my reservation on 11/20/07. I've put in a request for the 2010 season and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Question on the Improved Hollands Gin Cocktail, what type of genever should be used (oude, jonge, corenwyn)? I've got a bottle of Bols Corenwyn and a bottle of Ketel 1 Jonge at home.

If it's not online on the No Res site, I'm pretty sure it'd be in Rippert's new cookbook On the Line. It is available in the On the Line cookbook. The full recipe is available in the google books preview of the cookbook, here.

Sounds like it might have been boar taint.

I have not eaten there yet (I plan to sometime soon), but I was at SLS for drinks and they had a dirty martini with the el bulli olives that I ordered with an extra olive on the side. The olive was very good and tasted just slightly different from that served at el bulli.

I believe that Sham (http://www.sham.la/), a middle eastern restaurant, is byob. I really enjoy their lentil soup, mouhummarra, moutabbal, and shwarma sandwiches. The prices on their website are outdated and are slightly higher now. Cha Cha Chicken is byob and is 'caribbean.' The food is not very authentic but it is tasty. The seating is outdoors so don't go expecting great ambiance. Musha is a great izakaya, it isn't byob, but they do have very cheap draft sapporo (pitcher for $8 I believe). And, Houston's always makes a great byob choice but is not ethnic and being a chain might not be someplace you want to go, but their burgers and baked potato are great.

I just picked up a 16 lb 7 rib standing roast. Prime and dry-aged for 30 days, so not even half the aging of your roast. I'm cooking it Sunday. Tonight (Friday) I am going to rub it with a decent amount of course sea salt & pepper and place it on a platter (uncovered) in the fridge to sit until Sunday. Sunday morning, I will take it out of the fridge and give it a few hours to warm to room temperature. Then I will sear it on the stove top in some clarified butter and place it in the oven at 200 degrees and will remove it when it reaches 125 degrees (I would prefer to remove at 120, but I don't think my guests would be happy). Then I will let it rest for 15-30 minutes while I prepare Yorkshire puddings. I also will be making horseradish, bernaise and bordelaise sauces. Will try and post up some pics of the process - would love to see the 10 week aged.

I live in Santa Monica and much prefer Comme Ca to Anisette. I had a walk in dinner at Anisette a few months ago. I was seated at a table in the bar area. I found the food to be pretty good, but the service was lacking. I think the food, service and prices are better at Comme Ca.

I just received my reservation - May 8th dinner service for 2. Now it's time to start planning the rest of the trip.

Anyone have any recipes for some amaros? I read that Del Posto in NY has a radicchio based one - any ideas what's used as flavoring agent besides radicchio? I currently have some limoncello in process and ordered some green walnuts to make nocino next month.

Mozza sounds good - I've been missing a great pie here in LA

Anyone know of some decent chinese on the westside. I live in santa monica and while I def. will make the trip out to SGV for good food it's a bit far for regular trips. I've been looking for decent hunan style food on the westside and I've been missing scallion pancakes. Can't seem to find them here, I've been told (while in a chinese restaurant) that they are chinese food and that's why they don't have them. Upon clarification I was told they are chinese food for chinese not for white people lol. Any help?