Newsletter: Bone broth and beer
If you’re reading this at Comic-Con, congratulations and, yes, we’re jealous. If you’re not in San Diego, it’s a good weekend to take in the Dodgers or “Dunkirk” — and, of course, to dine out. To help with that, Dine L.A. runs another week, a new Filipino restaurant is open at Grand Central Market, and we have an update on Momofuku chef David Chang’s Los Angeles restaurant plans. And Jonathan Gold’s latest review is Bone Kettle, the new bone broth restaurant in Pasadena. Because a bowl of very hot broth can, oddly enough, be just the thing for summertime, especially if it’s also filled with excellent noodles.
For those who’d rather have dinner at home, we consider hummus — specifically, 11 tubs of it. We also check out the world of pale lagers, not a bad thing to stock up on for those long hours of baseball. And then there’s breakfast, something that many of us only really think about on the weekends. Before or after you head out to the farmers market (eggplant!), maybe make the superlative waffles that Jonathan considers well worth the drive from Los Angeles to West Oakland.
WHAT’S IN YOUR KETTLE
This week’s review is of Bone Kettle, chef Erwin Tjahyadi’s bone broth restaurant in Old Pasadena. Tjahyadi, a Wolfgang Puck alum who brought us the Komodo truck (remember the “phorrito”?), is now focusing on broth and how to play with it in dishes influenced by the Indonesian flavors he grew up with. Hence bowls of long-simmered broth paired with noodles and brisket, as well as oxtail dumplings, crab fried rice and chicken wings. Will you have leftovers? Indeed, you will.
MOMOFUKU IN LOS ANGELES
David Chang is finally opening a restaurant in Los Angeles, in the northeastern corner of Chinatown, sometime this fall. The chef tells me where, why it took him so long to come to L.A., what he’s worried about, and why this restaurant will be something different. “By no means do we want to seem like East Coast carpetbaggers.” Here’s hoping that we’ll soon have, if not pork belly ssäm and shrimp buns, something equally fun to eat after Dodger games.
11 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BOWL OF HUMMUS
Hummus is one of those dishes that’s become as ubiquitous as salsa (thank you, Yotam Ottolenghi), but most of us buy the stuff rather than make it. So Deputy Food Editor Jenn Harris and the rest of us gathered in the Test Kitchen the other day for a hummus blind taste test of 11 store-bought brands. You might be surprised at the results; we were. And if, after reading this, you want to make your own, maybe try this recipe from Zahav chef Michael Solomonov.
IN PRAISE OF YELLOW BEER
Beer writer John Verive considers the category of yellow beer, the light lagers that were once disdained by craft beer drinkers but now have been largely embraced. (Your Frank Zappa joke here: ___.) He details the differences between Pilsener and Kölsch, cream ales and blonde ales, and gives recommendations.
WAFFLEMANIA
“The best waffles commercially available,” Jonathan writes in our latest Culinary SOS column, “come from Brown Sugar Kitchen, a small, fragrant breakfast diner on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland.” If you can’t drive north for breakfast, you can make chef Tanya Holland’s waffles yourself.
FIRE AND WINE
It’s fire season in California, and while we think of the dangers to towns and parks, forests and farms, there’s another industry that’s at risk: vineyards. Wine writer Patrick Comiskey gives an update on the recent Alamo and Whittier fires, which ravaged the Central Coast and threatened important vineyards, including Bien Nacido Vineyards, one of the oldest and most important in the state.
The Taste, our annual Labor Day food festival (this one is three days, not a whole month!) is returning to Paramount Studios. Check out the lineup, the demos and panels, the chefs and bartenders, and of course all the food. Tickets are on sale.
Goldbot: You can now talk to Jonathan Gold any time you want — or at least the robot version of him that now lives on Facebook Messenger. You can ask Goldbot for a personal restaurant recommendation based on location, type of food or price. The bot will also deliver Jonathan Gold’s latest reviews straight to your device.
The Daily Meal, the food and drink website under the editorial direction of Colman Andrews, is now one of our partners. Check out their 101 best pizzas in America and other stories, recipes and videos.
Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers and now features his 2016 Best Restaurants. If you didn’t get a copy of the booklet, you can order one online here.
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