Oak Park to Hollyweird and back!

L.A. is a foodie town like no other. It's also a lot of other things...but we'll stick to the food because that's the purpose of this blog. One of my favorite things about Los Angeles and the surrounding areas is that it is filled with mom and pop operations. While chains and big box stores still rear their ugly heads , L.A. has stayed true to its local business owners. Possibly because the population demands nothing but the best. Well, duh. It's Hollywood baby.

After getting a good night's rest at my aunt's Oak Park digs we woke, drank coffee, and discussed our plan for the day. I was aware that my aunt and father had been discussing eatiers to visit while there, but I was completely oblivious to the seriousness of this day of total gluttony. My dad constructed an excel spreadsheet highlighting 20-30 of the BEST places to eat in L.A.'s metropolis. Can you grasp my confusion? Here I am thinking 3 square meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, done. When I expressed my surprise to my family (that had rented a van for the day so that we could all drive in one car...on tour), the unanimous response was "you're the one with the food blog". Touche. So I got in the van and went with it. Here is what I can recall seeing that my brain stopped sending signals after the first two hours of the eating expedition.

Pure awe!

Our first stop was Umami Burger in Hollywood. They refer to themselves as the "fifth taste". There is sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and Umami (apparently). Their menu is set. You can remove things from the burgers, but you can't add. They don't ask how you want your meat cooked either. Fortunately for me, I like my burgers medium rare and this place hit the nail on the head. They've got the temperature down! I ordered the truffle burger. One word: truffle. If you use it in your cooking I am forever yours. I love truffles so much I'm thinking about moving to France, buying some farmland, and getting one of those truffle sniffing pigs. That's how crazy about truffles this lady is. The burger was simply bread, meat, truffle cheese, and truffle glaze. No garnish. Some might say this place is pretentious. I would disagree. They are experimental, redefining the all American food. It was awesome. Two thumbs up for the burgers. I paired my truffle burger with a tall glass of IPA. We also ordered fries and onion rings for the table. They were served with a roasted garlic aioli and house spread, which I think was some type of chipotle mayo/ketchup sauce. The fries were cooked well, but I wasn't a fan of the rings. Too much batter, not enough onion. Overall, an excellent start to the day!

Me and my Sally Rose at Umami!

My beautiful family at Umami!

Next, we arrived at Luna Park. A hip, new American restaurant in the Fairfax/ La Brea neighborhood. I couldn't tell you anything about their menu because we were there for one thing and one thing only: smores...and they don't come all pretty, prepared, and plated for you. All 3 of the ingredients are brought out so that you can build them at the table. I really enjoyed the homemade graham crackers and I thought the chocolate was perfectly melted while the marshmallows perfectly roasted, BUT there was just something too delicate about the whole thing for my taste. I get the concept, but honestly the thing I really like about smores is that you don't have them that often and when you do it is usually around a campfire and the chocolate is the cheap milk Hershey kind. I was chomping at the bit when I noticed that their happy hour cocktail special was a ginger infused concoction. I had to have it. Once ordered, the server returned with the bad news that they had sold out of them! What?!?! My state of confusion led the server to ask me if I wanted to have the bartender make something up. Below is the recipe for what he came up with, but first some photographs....

Blog discount! Sweet!

**Note: just for asking for this recipe and mentioning my food blog we were given a facebook/twitter discount, and they took off one of our smores. Woo hoo!

Yummy ginger drink with no name
2 shots preferred Vodka
Dash of canton
Couple second pour of ginger infused liqueur
Half of a lime
Splash of soda water

Add all ingredients into shaker with ice, give it a few shakes, and pour.

So yummy! It was perfect. If I lived in the L.A. area I think I would return to this place for brunch. The decor was awesome, the vibe hit. Nice choice, Dad!!

The third stop (yes the THIRD stop in less than 2 hours) was a sweet little bakery/eatery/market place/catering & event planning business in the Hollywood area, Joan's on Third. I've read that everything there is GREAT and it all looked good, but we were there for baked goods. Well, actually my family was there for the baked goods. I was done eating at this point and couldn't stomach the idea of getting a cupcake, but of course I had to try a little bite of what my mishpacha had ordered. The desserts here were insane. I never really got on board with the whole cupcake fad thing (I do remember my mom visiting me in Oregon several years ago, however, with cupcake talk about how they were about to be really "hot". Always a woman ahead of the times...). I attribute my disinterest to preferring savory over sweet, but damn!! people are doing some things with a little cake batter and icing these days. My favorite was the red velvet cupcake, but that's because I'm a sucker for anything with cream cheese in it...and I'm from the south. If you are in the area I would definitely suggest you stop here for the whole shabang. Pick up some fresh bread, soup, salad, dips, and don't skip out on the dessert.

Moo!

If you can believe it!!! after the burgers, smores, and cupcakes we drove to Carney's Restaurant, a SoCal burger joint famous for its chili cheese dogs. Now here I wasn't even able to sample. Enter whining, returned with "your the one with the food blog" again. Now while I didn't participate I was provided with a very enthusiastic thumbs up from my dad as he downed his dog. My favorite part was the architecture, or actually lack thereof. This place is housed in an old railroad Amtrak car from the 1920's. Uber cool.






After the furious frenzy of driving, stopping, unloading, and eating we decided to return to Oak Park for a quiet evening of digesting by the pool...

And then 9:30 happened. My aunt and uncle completely convinced me to trade my swim suit for jeans and head back out for some more nosh. This time we decided to stay in the neighborhood. Leila's, Leila's, Leila's! Right down the street from my aunt and uncle's place in Oak Park...never would have thought I'd find you!

When I was younger I would spend the summers in California with my aunt aka mother in training. I always looked forward to the month of California bliss; going to the beach, seeing summer friends, squeezing lemons in my hair for the glow, playing in my aunt's makeup drawer, rollerblading with my uncle, etc. etc. Those summers were the best, but I definitely do not recall ever eating like this. Italian deli, of course. Agoura deli, sure. I guess this time they figured grown up palete, grown up restaurant (well it's fairly new as well, so there's that...). The food was phenomenal and the wine list extensive. The service was friendly and quick. 5 golden stars for this place. The food memory is slightly blurry, but I do recall the crispy lobster tempura with an aioli that was da bomb!, and Tobikko. We also had some sort of duck confit pancake that was out of this world. My favorite: the tuna tartare. Get out. It was bursting with a trillion flavors that didn't overpower each other, but instead perfectly balanced and played out like a little story in my mouth. Aha, I'm pretty sure I just stole that last line from a Top Chef episode, but whatever it still puts my point into words and they are very, very true words. It was kind of like picking a bunch of fresh ingredients from your garden, getting on your boat, catching a tuna, and putting it all together to devour right at sunset. It was THAT fresh and THAT beautifully constructed. That's the great thing about this place. Their menu is always changing to reflect the seasons and the presentation of the food is so appealing to the eye. High-five California Cuisine, and double high-five Leila's in Oak Park. Thanks Uncle Philip for treating us to such a special evening!!




The end. Whew. That was a long day (long post) and extremely memorable. There was a lot of driving, a lot of complaining, a LOT of eating, and definitely a whole lotta love. One word: WONDERFUL!