Ritz Bites

Mobile Food Trend: Will It Stay or Should It Go? and Other Dwell on Design Thoughts

Edgy eyewear, crisp lines aplenty, sustainable materials up the yin yang, and the many other components that created the Dwell on Design gestalt were within tangible grasp of Los Angeles aesthetes. Of the panels and discussions, perhaps the most anticipated event was Saturday night's movie event hosted at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Docs about Julius Shulman and environmental activism in Boston were part of the draw, but food on wheels proved to be the main attraction to the sold-out event. This was a Restaurant Row absent of any trace of Lawry's, the Stinking Rose, and Benihana.

Roach coaches from Sprinkles, Coolhaus (debuting its newest flavor, Louis Kahntaloupe; I struck out, alas), the Green Truck, Barbie's Q, Let's Be Frank and Locali's "Icycle" frozen dessert tricycle did brisk business. I was quite the permissive mom and James got INSANELY messy, between the cupcake and mint choco chip ice cream sandwich. NEVER underestimate the appeal a "truck with cupcakes" has to a toddler.

The trucks and customers activated the hardscape beneath the steel structure in an exciting way. But it also provided some fodder for geeky urban planning-type debate.

This latest craze makes perfect sense in our mobility-obsessed city, offers a big convenience factor, and can get people to experience public life and know sidewalks they might otherwise never see. And yet I wonder. Is it a hipster/bourgie fetish of something that's already existed for decades mostly in lower income communities out of necessity? Does this phenomenon celebrate or ultimately belittle food trucks, co-opting and turning it into a flash-in-the-pan trend?

Or will more eateries jump on the bandwagon, making it a permanent addition to the city landscape and a rare tool that manages to cut across socio-economic lines? 

But let me state that part of this anti-romanticizing comes from six years of having food trucks as my school cafeteria.

Anyway, getting back to what I actually saw, food-oriented highlights from the convention hall included the eye-popping green -- literally and figuratively -- recyclable kitchen by Valcucine, displayed with a fabulously practical plant wall that momentarily took me back to the Casa Camper in Barcelona. And after seeing the Zyliss SmartTouch salad spinner included in designboom's Kitchen Ecology exhibition, I might have to ditch my old trusty, beat up Oxo.

Other reports: Marissa went on the East Side home tour, and Pat at Eating L.A. spent a few hours at the Square Meal panels and demos on Sunday.

More this n' that from the JBFAs

I've already summarized the Angeleno presence on Monday at the James Beard Awards. Here are some other miscellaneous observations and dish.

I know from seeing plenty of celebs that they're always smaller or bigger than you expect. Martha was, like, a giant. I recognize those gottahavethem Manolo d'orsay pumps; looks like she's a size 40 to me, and has a very high tolerance for stiletto pain. Martha and Lorraine Bracco had a lot to talk about as Ms. Steward balanced herself on the couch arm next to me in the press room before the show started. I don't want to dwell on other starstruck moments, but Grant Achatz up close...Foxy!

After all the orange ribbon medals were handed out and the near-Oscars-length ceremony ended, it was time to eat at the Women in Food themed gala. Yay, finally. I've been to some disorganized, patience-testing tasting events. This was definitely NOT one of those. The food and drink were plentiful and efficiently churned out for a big crowd. That's the way to do it y'all, and thankfully all the pros are there to impress with their A game. 

The small bites ranged from the familiar to the uncharted. To wit: Fiore di Nonno burrata on bulgur crackers with artichoke and green olive (Jody Adams of Rialto) vs. Bolinas goat tongue on a thick crisp crouton with Meyer lemon, fenugreek, mint and tomato chutney (Loretta Keller of Coco500) .

Jennifer Petrusky of Charlie Trotter's super seasonal fava bean and onion surprise did leave us wondering what the that mysterious element was. The morels were obvious, but the terrine seemed to have something else to make it dense. Turns out it was all morels in there, topped with the pickled onions, more morels, and duck gizzards. Surprise!

A few desserts required a second round. Green apple sorbet topped with Alaskan king crab and crab butter powder served in little bamboo bowls by Holly Smith of Cafe Juanita

showcased intriguing texture, flavor, and temperature contrasts, even if the sorbet was a little overly sweet.

Danica Pollard's beautiful toasted almost and rose bonet (similar to flan) with rhubarb and candied rose petals and Kate Zuckerman of Chanterelle's warm coconut-cardamom rice pudding with rhubarb and kumquats were both gorgeous to look at and taste.

Green apples in the pink rose and verbena flower arrangement at Pollard's Lidia's Kansas City station is something I'll have to copy in future flower arranging  endeavors. Asparagus with white tulips at award-winner Maria Hines of Tilth's table, where the Best Chef Northwest winner set out beef carpaccio with asparagus, horseradish creme fraiche and sorrel, wasn't quite as pretty, but I love these efforts to incorporate food with flowers. 

One last little thought. Given the overflowing trash cans full of plastic plates and utensils, I recommend there be a Green Food /Good Habits attempt in future years.

Adventures in urban architectural agriculture and stupid bodily injuries

Traipsing around the rooftop garden known as SYNTHe near 8th Street just west of the 110 involves a lot more than just looking at pretty vegetable and herb plants. It requires watching your step, and overall engaging in an intense yet oddly soothing sensory activity. I knew the urban garden at The Flat apartment building and Blue Velvet restaurant was architect-designed, but I expected something along the lines of rows of pretty planting beds; what you get instead is hundreds of hand-installed galvanized metal panels painstakingly shaped into curvilinear forms that undulate into varying heights and widths. (The underside of the structure, which will transport you to a high school football field or parade route, is worth checking out, too.)

De LaB's well-organized garden party today featured the site's architect Alexis Rochas, an instructor at SCI-Arc, who explained components of the design process and fascinating subtle details, like how the soil contains different densities so that the structure can efficiently support the weight of the plants while most efficiently using water and other resources. It even includes tiers of lawn that will be left to let brown once the root system is soft enough to be suited for outdoor seating. A perfect example of form-follows-function. This is an awesome trend we should see a lot more of, since we truly have no excuse to NOT encourage this type of urban agriculture in Los Angeles.

I would have stayed for the lunch at Blue Velvet that followed, which featured foods cultivated six floors above, had the sharp corner of the fancy mod glass and steel door not gouged out a little chunk of my foot (and scraped my new pretty Miu Miu flats, dammit). I stopped the bleeding, then bailed in pain and a soured mood.

Unfortunately after all that exposure to clever aesthetic ingenuity, and treading so carefully on the rooftop, I left feeling foolishly accidently-prone and resenting at least one feature of contemporary design.

750 Garland Street
Downtown L.A./Central City West

Shut out of Slow Food Nation (sort of)

Here we are in San Francisco for the weekend. Slow Food Nation was the original impetus for the trip, but since I botched my chance to get tickets to the Tasting Pavilion -- which were being sold on Craig's List for upwards of 5X face value, apparently -- and other events, that wasn't happening. So, no tasting pavilion for us, but our font-of-SF-food-tips friend Tracie told us over delicious, perfect cocktails at Bourbon & Branch that it was like, ridiculous waits for a few bites of food. That made me feel a lot better. 

Instead we're spending a lovely, relaxing, pre-birthday, friend-filled, child-free, food/coffee/booze-soaked weekend up north, albeit one with a little too much time being spent along Market Street. But the open-to-the-public SFN Marketplace gave us enough of an idea of what the whole festival thing is about. (Proximity to Blue Bottle just around the corner helped get me over the initial disappointment, and it totally kicks Ritual and definitely Four Barrel's asses.)

To summarize: it was basically like a big farmers' market with better graphic design and lots of maps. Plus a nearly oppressive amount of geographically detailed information. I can't say the selection of products totally blew me away, since a lot of it was familiar: Weiser Family potatoes, Far West Fungi that I visited at the Ferry Building this afternoon, Let's Be Frank, etc. But we had some tasty bites of edifying eats, including the hand pulled noddles made with unbleached organic flour from Giusto's of South San Francisco (you get the idea about locational specificity overload) from the Imperial Tea Court.

Certain design elements were the highlight, like the shipping container turned info booth, the convivial group tables that used scaffolding components, and the awesome earthworks-y outdoor garden. Food plus public space is the most pleasing type of formula, and this one added up to something pretty cool.

Update: Turns out the Victory Garden will stay until November.

Gotta love food for a good cause: Planned Parenthood Food Fare

The list of participating vendors in the annual Planned Parenthood Food Fare lured me out to the fabulous Santa Monica Civic to join other pro-choice Ladies of Leisure who are able to attend a Thursday afternoon event. All in all it was lovely, and offered plenty of enticing ways to use your dollars to support PPLA's work.

I'm a total pushover at non-profit silent auctions (if you're planning one, be sure to invite me), and I was thrilled to leave with a Kate Mantilini gift certificate, two exciting bottles of Bordeaux, and hundreds of pages of glorious ornament to flip though.

A mitzvah! And at below retail! My grandparents would be proud. 

But I showed up at Food Fare today on more on an empty stomach than I should have. While I didn't exactly leave hungry, I wasn't stuffed to the gills either. A quick scan of the room revealed that a lot of the businesses listed on the invite weren't to be found. Turns out many of the big names only come to the later shift, and the mid-day crowd misses out. At least I had dinner at A.O.C. last night, so I didn't pout about Goin goods deprivation. 

Highlights included Linda's Gourmet Latkes, which I will definitely be seeking out next time I can't stand to face pounds of potatoes and hot splattering pans of oil. La Provence in Beverly Hills (and coming soon to Brentwood) made some impressive macarons, and salad bites from newly opened Culver City hot spot Akasha had an interesting spicy surprise. Tuna tartare with shiso from Michael's is the closest I've ever been to eating at that legendary room on 3rd Street, and chicken tagine from Kitchen for Exploring Foods again proved its among the city's best foolproof catering options. I also went back for seconds of Clementine's chocolate pudding.

Events like this are not easy to organize, so kudos. And I look forward to drinking Bordeaux while looking at 15th century polychrome velvet patterns.

Public Service Announcements

Just a couple small items since posting has been somewhat light lately.

Those pork chops I found in the freezer from late last year look like they have a little freezer burn, so are they safe?  Well, I can simply check here to find out.  I'm glad to have found this handy dandy FDA refrigerator and freezer food storage guidelines.

And FYI for the many NPR geeks out there: the Kitchen Sisters will be at the Hammer on the 29th.