Ramen California

Last week I posted a short tidbit on Eater about Ramen California, a restaurant I had recently heard about. After reading about the molecular gastronomy ideology applied to ramen, I was enthralled. Therefore, I dragged by boyfriend 18 miles out to Torrance to experience the fusion firsthand. Ramen California is located in a typical strip mall with a simple outside sign and a simple interior. The menu is quite limited with a few appetizer options plus a few ramen choices.



Now, the menu doesn't exactly scream molecular in the way that a Wylie restaurant might, though it does incorporate a new California take on traditional ramen. I met the chef "Sean" who is a totaly muffin/hipster with white blonde hair and baggy jeans. Apparently he is some bigwig in Japan and has written two books plus owns three restaurants.



We started with oysters that had been cut from the shell and topped with olive oil and baby "desert" tomatoes. The tomatoes were interesting and actually did work with the flavor from the oyster. The trick? Eat the oyster and tomatoes with your chopsticks then gulp the "liquor" at the end.



We also had a tasty rendition of Japanese bread with rosemary and salt, which was slightly chewy, slightly sweet- but not, all at the same time. Then there was the ramen. Basically Sean applies the California effect to ramen, thus sourcing local veggies from the SM wed farmer's market. He also uses organic ramen noodles which are custom made from a local noodle vendor.



The ramens are the ultimate synthesis between a traditional ramen and the cali market driven theme. Sean uses 20 different seasonal veggies in his soups, all with brilliant beautiful colors. We tried the regular ramen, the ramen with "tofu cheese," and the curry ramen with masala- all yummy. Like I said, this wasn't a molecular experience. Sean did tell me (in broke English) he was trying to take it slow and planned on applying more molecular components into dishes in the future. Stay tuned!



Ramen California
24231 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
(310) 530-2749

Cuisine with Kat: Seasonal Strawberry Shortcake Video

Eater LA

I am super excited to announce that I am the new editor of Eater LA. I've been working on the site for the past month, but as of today I have officially taken over the Eater ship. I hope you will tune in to la.eater.com.

Thanks!!

Kat

Bonnaroo

Last week I trekked across country to attend the music festival in Manchester, Tennessee called Bonnaroo.



Except for visiting Emory in Atlanta a handful of times during college, I haven't really been to the south at all, so when I visited my first Waffle House, I was highly amused and enthralled by the various accents that greeted me when I stepped into the fast food eatery.



I am probably the only person that goes to Bonnaroo and comes back with not one festival picture, but shots of Waffle House, shots of a Tennessee bbq spot that I searched out, and...well yeah.



Things that happened at Bonnaroo include me meeting a 25-year old boy scout (year, those actually exist), me meeting a crazy guy that talked about his brilliant movie script that involved a dog president and poisonous pinto beans, and bomb dumplings from Vermont that I discovered amidst various fried food stands.



Moral of the story? Bonnaroo is the bomb, go, but make sure you bring your rain boots.

Umami Burger

Last weekend I finallllyy made it over the Umami Burger. I fell in love. I wasn't even really in the burger mood when we stopped by... We ordered the Umami Burger as well as the Truffle Burger and they were both simply delicious. And, they serve yummy throwback dessert from Cake Monkey which I most enjoy as well.



The bun is soft yet crisp (I think the bun is made by Rockenwagner because I also recently went to The Cabbage Patch where I tried a burger with the exact same bun...and Chef Samir gets his buns from there) on the outside and the meat is insanely moist and juicy to the point where juice ran down my arm when I bit into the Umami bliss. I think for the truffle burger they use Truffle Tremor from Cypress Grove which is an out of control cheese.



Usually I can't finish a whole burger, but the portion control is on point and the burgers are the perfect size, not too small not too big, just the right size to leave you filled.



I dug the fries too and loved the perfectly formed rectangles, in addition to the yummy tangy homemade ketchup. We also tried the pickle plate (I love me a good pickle) but they didn't blow me away- my fav was Ammo's pickle plate made by chef Julia who is no longer there. In my book, Umami is the perfect lunch spot- go get a burger NOW!



Umami Burger
850 S. La Brea Ave.
(323) 931-3000

Beer Tasting in San Dizzle

I have been completely out of the loop due to travel and a new job, so I am SUPER backed up with posting material. About two weeks ago I went beer tasting in San Diego to Stone Brewery, The Lost Abbey, and The Breuery in the OC- I have been very into craft beers lately.


(Stone)

Actually, Ryan Sweeney from Verdugo in Silver Lake gave me a great list of breweries to check out (and I happen to be going to BoHo tonight where Ryan created the beer list), but I didn't get to nearly as many as I would have liked. Our first stop on the beer tour was the behemoth, Stone.


(Bottle line at Stone)

Popular for Arrogant Bastard, these beers- I think they had about 16 available- were quite hoppy. We also took a tour of the brewery and it was HUGE.



Actually, it was the first real brewery tour I have taken, and it much resembled a winery. Cool fact about Stone, it's totally huge and almost entirely run on solar power, score! Our next stop was The Lost Abbey down the road, and TLA occupied the old Stone brewery space.


(The Lost Abbey)

The Lost Abbey was wayyy smaller and seemed to focus more on barrel fermenting. Unfortch, when we got there, there were only a small selection (like 3) of beers to try, and I didn't really dig any.



On our way back up to LA we stopped at The Breuery which I absolutely loved. I am a HUGE fan of Flemish reds and sour beers, and I tried some fantastic sours there.


(The Breuery- Sour Beer List)

The breuery is definitely a more renegade brewery and they experiment a lot with brett (brettanomyces) - a hard to control beer yeast that many breweries fear because it's hard to control and spread via air and contaminate other non-brett beers.



Also, the day we chose to stop by happened to be their 1 year anniversary party, so the brewery was completely packed.



The downside: (and I was very upset about this) they didn't have any sour beers bottled- so I had to sip- then leave with no doggie bag. GR.