What I Ate This Week

Did everyone have most excellent holidays?  Hope so!  I’m writing a full two days later than normal (hope my submission doesn’t get marked down for it!), but I blame the holiday rush.  We returned home late last night after a week (or more, depending on how you measure it) of travel.  Our holidays were full of excellent times with family and friends, including the food.  We once again had my mom’s excellent ham (detailed a year ago) and a fun time with bad-for-you party foods at our annual 12/27 party (also detailed a year ago).  Rather than rehash that most excellent and tasty tradition, I’ll write about a most excellent 24 hours in Los Angeles which occurred about a week ago.

Lunch at In ‘N Out Burger—Beef Heaven

American food culture is a subject worthy of good academic study.  (In fact, if anyone knows about serious texts on it, could you let me know?  I’d be eager to read up!)  There are certain topics which really warrant a deeper level of scrutiny.  For me, I think I’m most interested in how the culture of a place (and the events within that culture) shape a society’s eating habits.  It’s really remarkable about how almost all interesting regional American specialties (as well as most global ones) have a really well-grounded story, from regional BBQ (often a “go-to” staple for African American slaves who got the tougher parts of the hog to eat) to different types of hot dogs (the Chicago dog as a cheap way for laborers to get a fill of vegetables and protein during the Great Depression) to endless others, the story of American food IS the story of America’s history.

So what do fast food hamburger places say about us?  As a more modern contrivance, we often don’t think about it—after all, it’s nationally (now globally) ubiquitous and still very relevant.  And it’s true that the fast food hamburger stand (which In ‘N Out clearly harkens to) comes to us from recent memory.  For me, it’s ubiquity comes from the great uniting of our country in the automobile’s golden age.  Much as Europe did a century earlier with railroad transit, it wasn’t until the car (and its highway infrastructure) that we really all got connected.

And, like it or not, one of the by-products of the auto revolution was the advent of eating in our cars—it started with car-hops and dine-in parking lots before moving to the relatively ridiculous (if you think about it) “drive and eat” lifestyle of today.  From this primordial transportation soup came the hamburger stand.  Cheap, able to be eaten with one’s hands (keep your eyes on the road!) and within easy reach of major highways, they caught on like wildfire.  Eventually, of course, the biggest and most successful of these chains easily nationalized and put many smaller guys out of business.  But it is very curious to study the regional chains that remain—I’ve done this a few times over the past year, including several in Ohio (Kewpee Burger anyone?  The Spot?).  In-N-Out MUST be the most famous regional burger chain in the country.

In ‘N Out was a part of the early burger mayhem in California.  (McDonald’s started in San Bernadino in 1940, but didn’t get on the “fast food” bandwagon until 1948 when they began their endless stream of standardization—In ‘N Out was born one year later in Irvine.)  What has kept this small chain at the forefront of California diners’ thinking for so long?  It’s an interesting thing, as you can see that the menu includes only four food items (the Hamburger, Cheeseburger, and the Double-Double cheeseburger) and a few drinks.  But yet, there is an almost ENDLESS stream of fascination with this place.  I’d like to think that the reason is that the food is world-class—and for fast food, it really IS excellent.  The beef is fresh, the shoestring fries very tasty.  But why for me, and literally MILLIONS of others, is In ‘n Out a MUST DINE place when you’ve got only 18 hours in L.A.?  (Don’t believe me?  Google the restaurant and just look at the madness with which folks follow this place.)

For everyone that loves In-N-Out for the food, there are two more that love that they get to order a secret item just for them.  Despite the four food items on the menu, a number of particularly avid lovers of the chain started experimenting with ordering dishes prepared in a unique way.  In-N-Out briefly considered adding these “customer favorites” to the menu, but it turned out that word of mouth was a FAR better marketing tool.  Thus, an In-N-Out “secret menu” took form.  The company even puts some of the most popular “secret” offerings on its website, but any burger fan will tell you that it’s only the tip of the “secret” iceburg.  It’s hard to look at that short menu and at my receipt and see really any kind of connection:

OK, you might figure out the Cheeseburger and the Shake (oh my god those shakes are delicious).  I ordered the most heart-stoppingly wonderful thing, my newest favorite.  (I seem to have a new favorite with every visit.)  A 3X3, Animal Style (no tomato) with Sliced Chiles, with a side of Animal fries.  Let me explain:

3X3:  Three burger patties, three slices of cheese.  (You can order any #X# you desire, up to four.)

Animal Style:  Cooked in mustard with lettuce, tomato (except for me!), extra pickle, extra “sauce” (don’t call it Thousand Island!), and grilled onions.  (“Animal Fries” are shoestring fries with sauce, mustard, and grilled onions.)

Chiles:  You can get banana peppers on the side (“with chiles”) or on your burger (“chopped chiles”).

Wanna see it?  Hope you haven’t just eaten!

Oh, wait, I forgot the fries.

There, that’s better.  Awesome.  Next time you’re in California (or a neighboring state), go and invent your own delicacy.  Just don’t plan to eat for a while.

But somehow, we DID have dinner.  And it was excellent…

Dinner at Josie (Santa Monica)

I’ve been hearing good things about Josie for a while.  L.A. is a bit of a persnickety food scene.  You can find lots of great greasy road food, and you can find uber-hip, holier-than-thou restaurants, but I’ve heard that this place is the real deal—a simple, elegant, delicious, and very REAL dining experience.

The first good sign (for being an excellent restaurant, anyway) is that the place is a few miles from the beach and the promenade.  I love Santa Monica, but I’ve found most of those places to be over-run tourist places where you’re paying pretty much just for the pleasure of the location.  So, we had a drink on the promenade and then headed inland for dinner.

(Apologies to the nice family pictured here—hope you don’t read the blog!)  It’s a small but very open space that is extremely warm-feeling.  Service is attentive without being dismissive, and the menu is excellent.  After my exceedingly-unhealthy lunch I had my heart set on their barramundi filet, but they had a venison steak special that captivated me, and it was an excellent choice.

I recognize you probably can’t see it very well, but it’s venison shank atop luxurious potatoes with earthy mushrooms.  It was divine.  Best of all, the kitchen properly seasoned and prepared the steak.  A wonderful, still-moist medium rare, with a bold but balanced hit of pepper, this thing slid down my throat gratefully and helped me forget my lunch (quiet a feat).  Not pictured, but I also had an excellent squab appetizer and a dessert of mixed sorbets that was bold and fresh.

In any case, let’s just say I slept well on the redeye home that night.  And I’d like to tell you I fasted for a few days upon my return, but I got back on the 23rd and from there it was holiday eat-a-thon.

So today, we check out a new gym.  It’s time.

I hope each of you are having a lovely holiday season and are ready to ring in the new year right!

The “Fiesta Sampler” at Carlos O’Kelly’s- “A” for quantity, and a “B+” for quantity, the usual recipe for holiday eating! (Grand Rapids, MI)

Well, I’m in an airport terminal awaiting a quick round-trip to L.A.- a little risky to be traveling AWAY from home during Christmas week, but I guess that I’ll leave myself in the hands of the holiday travel gods. In any case, I just finished an excellent burger and a beer (OK, maybe two) so my spirits are strong and I’m quite contented. This evening, I tried Gordo’s.

Gordo’s: Norwood’s hip burger joint

Sarah and I found ourselves in Norwood for what is fast becoming a lovely and rejuvenating holiday tradition (an acoustic show by local favorite Over the Rhine; I wrote about last year’s in the event you want to know more). The show finished around 5, and my flight was around 8. As I rarely have free time in Norwood anymore, my first thought was to check out this little polarizing pub on Montgomery Rd between Dana Ave. and Norwood proper.

Gordo’s is run by a former sous-chef of former (and future?) Cincinnati food savior Jean-Robert de Cavel. When he parted ways from J-R and decided to open a pub in Norwood, eyebrows were raised… and a bar was set. Rightly or wrongly (wrongly, as it turns out) when a “famous chef” associate heads out to do their own thing, the assumption is that the apple shan’t fall far from the proverbial tree. This axiom has dealt death blows to countless aspiring chefs and is a sad and innovation-killing premise. In this case, all that was intended was a good simple unprentious neighborhood pub, to fill a void of sorts in the Norwood “scene” (if indeed such a thing even exists!).

I sure heard a lot about Gordo’s when it first opened, and I fear that much of the early word about the place was from folks who seem to have made their mind up about the place before even going. (Sad!) Then I pretty much forgot about the place until tonight!

Let’s get something straight upfront: Gordo’s IS a neighborhood/family pub. It doesn’t seem to want to be anything else, and it needn’t! I found it to be cozy and exceedingly comfortable. It wasn’t pretentious, nor was it grubby and care-worn. It was just about right.

Gordo’s is known for its burgers and I knew i’d end up there, but we thought perhaps we’d start with some healthier appetizer of some kind. We picked the wild mushrooms with Parmesan. It WAS delicious, but it was a far cry from healthy! The dish was made of perfectly good mushrooms drowned in perfectly good cheese. For me, the ratio was all wrong, and the sight of an unnecessarily greasy cheese puddle made me sad for what it could I’ve been. That said, it tastes good and would have been even better as a burger topping. A delicious, if pretty unhealthy, starter.

Mains fall into traditional upscale pub fare- a few interesting but pricey mains (bass, steak), a page of burgers, and a page of other sandwiches. It’s certainly the kind of place where I’d have been happy ordering a “normal” dinner main, but the burger was what I came for. So I ordered the house Gordo’s burger (bacon, mushroom, and Boursin cheese) alongside an IPA draft. I should mention that the beer selection really is commendable- several interesting drafts and a page full of tempting bottles.

Anyway, the burger came as a towering vision- narrow, tall, and colorfully layered. I was very happy at the very first bite- the burger is very nicely seasoned; as at Terry’s you can taste the pepper, and here they also cook their burgers with onion inside, and you can tell as there’s a lovely hint of it on the edges ofthe palette. (the promised bacon inside the burger patty proved much more elusive.). I also enjoyed the balanced flavor of well-seasoned beef, bacon, and cheese. However, I’ve got to say that by mid-burger, the novelty of the Boursin had more than worn off, and the proportions felt a bit, well, off. By the end, I was almost pleased to have finished it. All in all, a very good burger experience (and cooked to a spot-on-perfect medium rare)- next time I order plain! And I should also tip my hat to the side dishes- the steak fries were very ordinary, so I strongly recommend upgrading to the mac and cheese (great bechemel sauce) or the scalloped potatoes (divine).

All in all, Gordo’s defies most people’s expectations by being exactly what you SHOULD expect: a neighborhood pub with great food and a good and unpretentious atmosphere. Probably not worth a half-hour drive across town, but for my money it’s the best food in the neighborhood and can easily rival its neighbors in Hyde Park.

Shanghai Mama’s at night: just fine, if you know what you’re getting into!

Last night, after a show, we thought we’d get some good late night food (midnight, in case you were wondering) downtown. Because it was snowing, we opted for the short walk to Shanghai Mama’s instead of a longer trek toward uncertainty.

Shanghai Mama’s is one of those strange places with a great atmosphere and a strangely loyal following. I’m there with coworkers quite a bit for lunch and no matter what I order I always have the same conclusion, “not bad.”.

Now, I will say this: late at night, “not bad” starts to look attractive- both because some drinks may have been consumed, and because (at least around here!) there aren’t many options. (in college, I called this the “Denny’s Rule” for reasons that may seem obvious.)

Anyway, I’m neither happy nor sad to report that Mama’s remains “not bad.”. The most authentic part of the meal was the Tsingtao beer. The potstickers were interesting to look at, but ultimately blandness limited it’s appeal. The orange duck breast had some good duck meat but seemed to be not so much a breast as a leg. D’oh! The sauce was cloyingly sweet but it helped balance a dry piece of duck. The net effect was definitely “not bad.”. (much worse was Sarah’s cashew chicken, which wad pretty much cooked beyond the point of recognition.). Anyway, Shanghai Mama’s is an OK choice anytime and marginally more so between 10pm and 3am when it may even qualify ad your only option, depending on where you are. Just don’t order anything too fancy. And definitely start with a beer!

Let me be one among many to wish everyone Happy Holidays! I’m sure there will be some “pictures of food” in the coming days. In the meantime, may your meals be merry and bright?

Homegrown stuffed spud (baked potato filled with Cuban black beans, honey ham, fresh chorizo, and a bit of 2-year cheddar… Tuesday night leftovers!)

A beautiful thing: a grocery store with a sub shop that serves exclusively Boar’s Head products, like this fine knockwurst with spicy mustard and sauerkraut. Retail therapy! (Jungle Jim’s Sub Shop, Fairfield OH)