Everything I want to eat
Recent Toronto, Los Angeles and home cooking faves
Hello, hello. After a few quiet, mostly uninspired food weeks in Los Angeles, I’m writing this from the Toronto airport on my way to New York with a packed calendar of upcoming meals and new energy via a few days of Canadian dining.
Los Angeles is beautiful, easy, and exceedingly good at curving toward the routine. Hit Silver Springs. Get produce from LA Homefarm. Work, cook, watch movies. Hang on porches and rotate through four amazing, homey restaurants. It’s easy living. An opt-in escape rooted in peace and comfort. But it can also leave less to write about.
In the hum of the past month, I’ve enjoyed a steady residency in my home kitchen, cooking as though I might cook again. I’ve had a few banger LA meals, including one at Sqirl I wrote about here. I’ve blitzed through Toronto, a lovely dining city. I’ve loaded up on New York reservations the easy way, perfecting a system that keeps me from ever having to leave iMessage. And I’ve launched a little app, a kind of Fandango for indie movie theaters called Ludlow, that was in beta for paid subscribers but I’ve decided to open up more widely. Check it out and send along feedback.
Here are the highlights. It’s good to be back.
Toronto
Mhel: I loved Toronto’s small, sweet and stellar restaurants. I didn’t go into one establishment lacking a great playlist or considered acoustics, which carried a compounding effect I’ll miss. Mhel, a little Korean-inspired, seafood-forward small plates spot, was my favorite of the bunch. The menu of six snacks and four plates is paralyzing, loaded with interesting combinations that are driven more by culinary vision than cheffy ambition or social media virality. A white asparagus dish with baby squid and mirepoix will certainly finish in this year’s top 10.
Côte de Bœuf: Perfect lunch of steak tartare, fries and salad. What else could you ask for?
Dreyfus: There’s at least one version of Dreyfus in most major cities. A little French. Indebted to local farmers. A tough reservation. Part of a professional, successful restaurant group. Good wine. Twelve-ish dishes that rotate through different sets of crudos, salads, tartares, pastas and simple proteins with pristine sauce work. I’m a mark for exactly this kind of thing, with mixed results. Dreyfus nails it.
At home
I love The Angel’s description of “getting bent over at McCall’s” — a grocery store where the quality is incredibly high and the sticker shock can get even higher. But for those of us who love cooking seafood at home, it’s one of LA’s great treasures. Alongside $50 per pound filets, there are always affordable, less broadly desired gems. Collars and Japanese sardines have been recent standouts. If you’re afraid of cooking fish at home or looking to expand your repertoire, find a reliable market, ask for their recommendations in the cheaper price range, as well as simple preparation techniques. The path from weird fish to something delicious with olive oil, salt and lemon is more accessible than you think. Just eliminate all fear and let it rip.
If you’re going to do a long braise, like a Passover brisket, always, always, always get Martin’s potato rolls for sandwiches the next day. I like to heat the buns up lightly in a pan with good butter, and then top the meat with whatever sauce, herbs, and textural element is already around. Pickled onions are also nice.
I got a small bottle of house-made riesling vinegar before departing Le Doyenné in January. If there are ever special vinegars around, grab one. A dab in a salad dressing, aioli, or anything else you’re cooking up is a good way to learn and layer different flavors. Hints of the vinegar have added a new shine to things as basic as staple celery salads. Don’t bother with a recipe here. Just play around.
I usually avoid cakes but Clare de Boer’s Cake Belle Hélène is magical. Make it.
Andrew Martin’s Early Work is a beloved text in my friend group, the kind of “young, hot people getting up to shit” novel with just enough wit, grace and insight to be crushed in a day while rattling your grasp on self-delusion and human intimacy. Martin’s second novel, Down Time, is a little more grown up and just as effective. Give me so many more of these. And I co-sign Emily Sundberg’s Transcription rave. I finished Ben Lerner’s new novel on the plane on Tuesday, holding a strong desire to reread it immediately. Both books play around with how deception, shared history, and technology interfere with modern happiness and connection. Parul Sehgal has an excellent essay on the Lerner here.
Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3 is my favorite new film of the year so far, buoyed by this impeccably placed needle drop:
LA
This new spring version of Wilde’s is an already great restaurant at its absolute best. Like a Los Feliz Rochelle Canteen remix with a little more oomf. Four months in, they’re operating like a mature, well-oiled machine. Don’t skip the artichokes.
It unfortunately looks like Baby Bistro has rotated out the fried sweetbreads set, essentially slightly cheffed up blue cheese buffalo wings. They will be missed dearly. I love full meals at Baby Bistro, but more people should take advantage of hanging out on the patio with a glass of wine and trying whatever new dish they’ve cooked up that week.
Quarter Sheets delivers now which is … crazy. Isn’t life in Los Angeles easy enough? Watching the Oscars with a spread of pies and Hannah Ziskin desserts like a chocolate gateau cake and banana cream pie. Nothing better.
And, finally, I fucking love the energy behind the Bruce pop up. I hope they keep this up all summer.
