LA Trip Report July 2021

Exemplary escargot !

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I had sticker shock too! And while your issue with the main course could reflect a difference of palettes, the undercooked soufflé is inexcusable at that price. Beautifully photographed as always.

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Good gawd…catching up?! I thought you had completed all of your reports. Bravo (well, except for that last meh and pricey experience at Pasjoli)!

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Thanks, yes definitely could have been a difference in palates with the halibut. Re: soufflé - right??

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Only a couple more left :pig:

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Hi @Mr_Happy,

Thanks for the follow-up reports. Re: Pasjoli, we had the same experience. It’s just OK. Some tasty dishes, but many were just “fine” / typical and the price (yes, including service charge) still felt on the high side for what you actually got.

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Ah, interesting. Curious if you all tried the pressed duck? Seems like the thing to get there but I think you need a crowd to have that.

I had an early evening flight back home so was able to fit in a couple more lunches.

First, I went to Smorgasburg LA to get some flautas at Los Dorados. Thanks to @A5KOBE for the rec. Smorgasburg LA is the LA version of an open air food stand marketplace that started in NYC. Its located in the ROW DTLA shopping center on Sundays and this was the second Smorgasburg after it had returned to LA on July 4. The line wasn’t too long at Los Dorados when I got there a little before noon, and I had an order (there are 2 to an order) of their chorizo con papa flautas.

Flautas are corn tortillas that are filled and then rolled and deep fried. TBH I haven’t had that many flautas in restaurants and my main experience with them has been with the frozen ones from Costco. The flautas from Los Dorados were much better than these of course. Fried to order, they are quite large, two orders of these would be enough for a meal. Crispy corn tortillas with a savory and slightly spicy chorizo and potato filling, which kind of had the texture of canned corned beef hash (in a good way!). According to their signage their chorizo is aged longaniza. They were topped with a tomatillo salsa that gave it a bit of zing, a spicier red salsa, some crema, and a sprinkling of crumbly white cheese that gave it a little feta-like barnyardy flavor. Very nice. Note: they only take cash or Venmo.

Fabulous flautas frying.

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And then I went for a second lunch at Pearl River Deli, where I had the best Hainan chicken rice I’ve ever had. Thanks to @JeetKuneBao for the rec. Pearl River Deli is a Chinese take out counter in the Far East Plaza in Chinatown from chef Johnny Lee. They have Hainan chicken rice on the weekends and apparently sometimes run out, so I was glad to be able to try it. Hainan chicken rice is a dish of poached chicken and chicken fat flavored rice, served with various dipping sauces. Very similar to the Thai dish of khao man gai. I think the main difference between the two is in the dipping sauces. Khao man gai usually has a single sauce that has fermented soybean, whereas Hainan chicken rice usually comes with a trio of different sauces.

The chicken in the Hainan chicken rice from PRD ($16) was just fantastic. Gelatinous silky yellow skin, perfectly cooked tender flavorful succulent chicken. Even the white meat parts were tender. There was a lot of chicken in my order, which had a mix of boneless white and dark meat, a drumstick, and a wing. The rice was also quite good and full of chicken flavor. It came with three sauces to accompany the chicken - a slightly thick slightly sweet soy sauce, a mildly spicy red chili sauce, and a scallion and ginger sauce. I also had a bowl of the chicken broth for an extra $2, which was flavorful and nice to sip on between bites of rice and chicken. Really great. Again and with the caveats that I haven’t been to Singapore or Thailand yet, and that I’ve mostly eaten this dish in the form of khao man gai (which I’ve eaten a lot of) rather than Hainan chicken rice, this was the best version I’ve ever had.

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And that’s a wrap for this trip report! Until next time. Thanks again LA HO’s for all the great recommendations and advice.

Some random thoughts:

  • I think I overdid it a little bit on the Cal-[French/Italian/American/etc.] places this time.

  • Of the Cal-* places Bestia, Osteria Mozza, and Gjusta I enjoyed the most.

  • Since I went to a few [Cal]-French restaurants I can have a ranking of their baguettes :baguette_bread:

  1. République
  2. Pasjoli
  3. Petit Trois
  • I would have liked to have squeezed in some more Thai and Korean meals. I stayed in Koreatown and only went to one Korean restaurant!

  • Hayato was definitely the highlight of this trip.

  • Sushi Hide was great too.

  • Langer’s is still the best pastrami sandwich I’ve ever had.

  • Pearl River Deli makes the best Hainan chicken rice I’ve ever had.

  • LA tacos are :fire::fire::fire::fire::fire:

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I personally have not, but my vague recollection of reports from another board indicated that the show surrounding the pressed duck was perhaps more interesting than the final product.

Not a fair comparison, but I’ve very much enjoyed the pandemic potpies I got from Dialogue (Beran’s other Santa Monica restaurant, now closed). The Thanksgiving meal I got from Pasjoli (and I think it was Pasjoli, not Dialogue) was too clever by a half.

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I enjoyed reading your report from afar!!! Thanks for sharing!

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