The Year in Review

With the close of another year, I look back on the food and drink gone buy. Here are a few of my favorite memories and some observations.

I ate gelato and found praise worthy cups at Bulgarini in Altadena and a great affogato at Gelato Bar in Studio City

I said a sad goodbye to Fassica but found a new Ethiopian star on Fairfax at Little Ethiopia.

Why did it take me so long to go to Chung King? Now I can't stay away.

More good stuff to drink: I explored the worlds of dan cong tea and brandy.

I adopted a sense of humor.

I made cheese!

My favorite new higher end meals of the year were Animal and Bazaar, but be warned that Bazaar is like a really good magic show. The first time you go, you think it's great, but the second time, you're like, "Okay, I've seen that trick before. What else you got?"

I ate great, non-BBQ Korean food at Hanbat Shul-Lung-Tang and Seongbukdong.

I found my new favorite shen jian bao at Dean Sin World/Tastio.

And Mozza2Go opened and delivered their excellent chopped liver to my door.

All in all, a good year for food (and I even lost weight). Let's see what 2010 brings.

Whiskey Wednesday: William Larue Weller

The yearly release of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection is a cause of great joy among whiskey geeks. Each fall, Kentucky's vaunted Buffalo Trace distillery releases a new version of their George T. Stagg, Eagle Rare 17 year old, William Larue Weller Bourbons and Sazerac 18 year old and Thomas Handy rye whiskeys. All of these are great whiskeys and you can't go wrong with any of them. For three of the seven years he has been writing the Whisky Bible, Jim Murray has picked one of them as his best whiskey of the year (Stagg in 2004 and 2006 and Sazerac 18 year old rye in his latest edition).

From this fall's release, the most praise seemed to go to the William Larue Weller, and since I'd never reviewed anything from the Weller line of wheated Bourbons, I thought I would check it out.

Tasting

William Larue Weller Bourbon, Barrel Proof, 67.4% alcohol ($70-$120)

The nose is woody, wood paneling, wood polish, old library type stuff, a bit sweet smelling, definitely smells of old wheater, deep and thick. This thing has a huuuge, complex flavor that takes you by surprise: first a caramel-Bourbon sweetness coats your tongue, followed by some acid and then some strong wood; the mouthfeel is chewy. The finish lingers for quite a while. A little goes a long way. A fabulous, fabulous Bourbon, worth the praise and then some. One of the best recent release Bourbons I've had. If you can find it, get it.

A quick note on water -- while I enjoy most all my whiskeys neat, I know that some of you like a few drops of water. However, I would avoid water here as I found it to break apart the subtle and complex composition and bring out some bitterness, so if you can bear it, hold the water.

Prices vary quite a bit on the entire Antique Collection and they can be hard to find, but they are worth the effort.

Merry Jewish Christmas

For traditional Jewish Christmas Eve dinner, we always hit something Asian. In the last few years we've done Beijing duck at the old Lu Din Gee, seven courses of beef at Vietnam Restaurant and a seafood extravaganza at Sea Harbor.

Any suggestions for a festive Asian feast for this year?

Merry Christmas!

I-5 Eats: Faster Fast Food at the El Taco Sinaloa Truck

Are you planing a holiday trip up north this season? Anyone who drives from LA to the Bay Area knows the long and culinarily depressing stretch that is I-5. From the Grapevine to the 580, there is precious little to eat close to the interstate. There are the big fast food chains, the alluring but always disappointing Harris Ranch and the hokey, substandard Apricot Tree and Anderson's Pea Soup joints. There are a few In-n-Outs on either side of the trek, but none stationed in the vast middle.

But on my last trek, we found something more. After putting some good miles down, we pulled off at the Apricot Tree exit, hoping for the possibility of finding something edible on its sad, sad menu when we saw it: a lone taco truck parked in a huge vacant lot with rows of tires lined up along the back of the lot. El Taco Sinaloa sits at the edge of the lot closest to the road alongside a table with a single bench. The clientele seemed to be a mix of locals who knew the place and Latino truck drivers.

I don't know that I've ever been so glad to see a taco truck, and a good one at that. El Taco Sinaloa offers a simple version of standard taco truck fare. The pastor taco had nicely crisped chunks of pastor, the plump bits of lengua were cubed almost to a brunoise, and the carne asada was also nice and crispy; the tortillas on the tacos were crisp and fresh and the salsa verde was citrusy and well seasoned if not too spicy.

A simple taco truck perhaps, but also some of the best I-5 exit food between LA and the Bay, and faster and cheaper than the fast food chains to boot. It will surely be my regular stop; let's hope it stays parked right there.

El Taco Sinaloa
I-5 exit 368 (Panoche Road - same exit as the Apricot Tree)
East side of the Interstate in the big lot with the tires along the back
Firebaugh, CA

Whiskey Wednesday: The Thrill of the Hunt - Dusty Hunting

One of the primary sports of which whiskey fans partake is the dusty hunt. Don't worry, it doesn't involve hounds or horses or bugles of any sort. The dusty hunt is the practice of looking in liquor stores for old dusty bottles that have been on the shelf for many years. You can find rare, out of production whiskeys, usually marked at their original price, if you are willing to do some hunting, well quite a bit of hunting.

Now, I'm an amateur dusty hunter, and while I've found a few out of production whiskies, I can't say I've struck whiskey gold with a real rarity. One key to being a good dusty hunter is having a knowledge of whiskey history, knowing what brands have been discontinued and being able to recognize the various elements on a bottle that indicate its age. This could include the numbering on the bottom of the bottle, the presence of a tax stamp, the distillery address information, the use of metric measurements as opposed to the previous non-metric (i.e. ml vs. quart or fifth) and proof v. abv. For more advice on all of this technical stuff, check out the great series on dusty hunting over at Bourbon Dork.

The other crucial element to dusty hunting is having a sense of where to look for old bottles. You won't find dusties at a specialty spirits store. Your best bet is an old corner market with low turnover on most items, but any old liquor store can be a source of dusties. Keep in mind, though, that nine times out of ten, or maybe 99 out of 100, you won't find anything worthwhile.



The largest cache of dusties I've found so far is at Jubilee Liquors, a Koreatown shop at Third and Hobart. When I walked in, I noticed that in the far corner, there was a whole set of tax stamped dusties: Old Crow from its pre-Beam National Distillers days when it was actually a drinkable Bourbon, Old Taylor and Old Overholt rye also from the pre-Beam National Distillers, Old Forester, and Old Charter from the old Bernheim Distillery. All of these looked to be from the late '70s and early '80s. None of these were from prized distilleries like Michter's or Stitzel-Weller, but they were old Bourbons I hadn't sampled, so I picked up one of each.

The counter guy viewed me with a sort of mix of curiosity and disgust. No one ever buys those, he told me. They are really old. Lucky for me, as is often the case with dusties, I don't think they had updated the price tags, so I paid $7 to $15 for these old whiskeys from closed distilleries.

Over the next few months, I may post reviews for some of these dusty bottles. Meanwhile, if you want to try some, stop by. At my last visit, there were still bottles of all of these except the Overholt at Jubilee, along with lots of really old crap (schnapps, brandy, blended whiskey, etc.).

Happy Hunting!

Holiday Gift Ideas: Spirits (non-whiskey)

Aside from the whiskey gift recommendations I made last week, I sampled a number of wonderful non-whiskey spirits this year that have great gift potential.


Germain-Robin XO Alambic Brandy

One of the best spirits I had all year, whiskey included, was the Germain-Robin XO. Made with pinot noir grapes, this bold, complex brandy is as good or better than any Cognac on the market. It is one of those spirits with such complexity and richness that it keeps drawing you back. It's hard to keep a bottle around for long. ($100-$115).


Carpano Antica Forumula Vermouth

Evincing a full and herbal flavor, Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth will punch up your Manhattan, but it's good enough to just sip straight. ($30)


Genevieve Genever Gin

I called it a gin for whiskey drinkers, but Anchor Distillery's Genevieve Genever Gin would also be a great gift of cocktail lovers who want something new to experiment with. It has fast become one of my favorite cocktail spirits. ($30)

Holiday Gift Ideas: Enstrom's Toffee Popcorn and Peppermint Bark

It's holiday time again and what better gift to give than the gift of sweets. I tasted Colorado based Enstrom's toffee in my toffee smackdown last holiday season, and while it was good, it was bested by our local favorite, Littlejohns.

While their toffee was competitive, Enstrom's Toffee Popcorn is unsurpassed. Imagine popcorn made with a really high quality toffee along with cashews, almonds and pecans; the toffee glues it all together in little, candy clumps. Each bite is rich and crunchy with a deep toffee flavor. This is by far the best flavored popcorn I have ever tasted. Two one pound bags go for $24.

Enstrom's also makes a peppermint cookie bark that is among the best I've had. Dark and white chocolate encase cookie bits and are sprinkled with peppermint candy. If you know someone with a hankering for peppermint, they need some of this candy. A one pound box is $19.

All of Enstrom's goodies can be purchased on-line.