After lunch at Din Tai Fung (see previous post), we had dinner at Providence (5955 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA‎ - (323) 460-4170‎). Providence serves seafood in what I would call New American or Modern California cuisine and they do it quite well. We ordered the providence market menu which is a nine course (including cheese and intermezzo) for $110 per person.

We were brought an amuse bouche of three cocktails - greyhound (grapefruit with vodka), gin & tonic, and margarita. All three were served in a solid form with the greyhound and margarita both in the form of gelatinous bubbles filled with delicious versions of the cocktail. The greyhound was my favorite with excellent grapefruit flavor and just enough vodka taste to tease the palate. My mother's favorite was the margarita.

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What I Ate: March 26, 2010 (Providence Restaurant, Los Angeles)

Big food day today starting with the world famous Din Tai Fung dumpling restaurant and followed by one of the highest rated restaurants in Los Angeles - Providence. I'll cover them in separate posts - first is lunch at Din Tai Fung.

Lunch: We've long wanted to taste the xiaolong bao (literally "small steamer dumpling" but often translated as Shanghai soup dumplings) from Din Tai Fung (1088 South Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, CA‎ - (626) 446-8588‎) because a lot of people say they are the best. Their original location(s) in Taipei, Taiwan are supposed to be the best, but the Los Angeles location (in Arcadia, CA) is supposed to be quite good. Several people have claimed they make the best in the United States, so we definitely wanted to check it out. They actually have two locations in Arcadia next to each other. They serve the same food. The original location is in a strip mall and seems more like your typical Chinese restaurant in appearance.

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What I Ate: March 26, 2010 (Din Tai Fung)

Dinner: We were in Fresno during the day, so I had us go to El Pescador Seafood Taqueria (4610 North Blackstone Avenue, Fresno, CA‎ - (559) 230-1299‎) for some seafood tacos.

We started off with their shrimp and fish soup which was a simple broth enhanced with flaked fish and a few tender shrimp.

Pescado (Fish tacos) - fried fish in corn taco with a cabbage slaw. Very tender fish with a delicious lightly fried batter and refreshing slaw. The fish had a slight muddiness to its flavor that made me think it was tilapia, but I forgot to ask what type of fish it was.

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What I Ate: March 25, 2010 (El Pescador)

Lunch: We flew to Los Angeles today to visit my parents. Immediately, after getting off the plane, I had my parents drive us to an In-N-Out Burger where I got a Double-Double with Fries.

Dinner: For our first dinner in Los Angeles, I decided to try Yang Chow (6443 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Canoga Park, CA‎ - (818) 347-2610‎) because it was one of the few Michelin listed Chinese restaurants with a location in the San Fernando Valley. After reading online reviews, I knew I had to try their Slippery Shrimp (which they claim on their website is world famous) and the hot and sour soup (which many report to be sinus clearing). The restaurant describes itself as Mandarin and Szechwan Cuisine, but none of the spicy dishes we ordered tasted like they were intended to authentically replicate Sichuan cooking. In fact, the whole experience was a little bit of a disappointment (we had high hopes) and it certainly is NOT one of the better Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles (at least not their Canoga Park location).

While we were waiting for our food, they brought out some pickled cabbage which was flavorful, but much too sweet. There was a pleasant mild spiciness attached to the flavor, but the sweetness was overwhelming.

The Hot & Sour Soup ($6.50) (this was an order for 2 that we split between 4) is the best thing we had at the restaurant. The soup was sour, but not overwhelmingly so. The spice (from peppercorns) was well balanced and left a pleasing tickle in the mouth after swallowing. We felt that there were a lot of pleasant flavors and yet everything was kept in balance. Was it peppery enough to clear sinuses? Not even close. If I were to try to develop a hot & sour soup recipe, I'd try to achieve this mix of flavors. I would highly recommend this dish.

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What I Ate: March 24, 2010 (In-N-Out Burger, Yang Chow)

Dinner: We felt like eating some delicious smoked brisket, so we headed over to Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Q (2451 South Capital of Texas Highway, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 329-5554‎) and ordered a pound of moist brisket, half a jalapeno sausage and a half rack of baby back ribs. The brisket was juicy, fatty, tender, and extremely flavorful.

The jalapeno sausage had just a tad of spiciness. Just enough to give flavor without having it burn.

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What I Ate: March 23, 2010 (Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Q)

Dinner: We had dinner at Gumbo's (710 Colorado Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 480-8053‎). We've eaten at gumbo's before (in 2008) and had a middling to poor experience there. The gumbo was not particularly tasty, the tilapia that Tina ordered was borderline inedible (they replaced it with blackened shrimp which was much better), and my steak was fine, but not inspiring. I had returned for a tasting in late 2009 and found the Redfish Francine to be particularly good. They didn't have redfish tonight, so we ordered flounder.

We started today's dinner with a serving of their Escargot (imported French snails, baked in beurre ál'ail and Cajun spices, $10). The escargot was very tender with no rubberiness or excess chewiness. They were served hot (temperature) and slightly spicy with a pleasant acidity. Unfortunately, the sauce was a bit too salty.

Flounder Francine (Blackened, served over crawfish tails sautéed in creamy tarragon sauce, $29). I loved this fish. It was excellently prepared - the fish was extremely tender and the delicate texture worked extremely well with the contrasting crawfish. The sauce was also well balanced for both the flounder and the crawfish.

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What I Ate: March 22, 2010 (Santa Rita Cantina, Gumbo's)

Dinner: Yesterday, I started cooking the short ribs for tonight's dinner. I vacuum sealed the short ribs with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and brown sugar. Then I placed the pack into a rice cooker filled with water being held at 56°C (133°F) and let it cook. The short ribs are pasteurized if held for at least 2.5 hours after the interior of the meat reaches equilibrium temperature. Since I wanted to convert as much of the collagen into gelatin as possible, I held it there for about 24 hours. (More time would be even better - but after 24 hours, most of the collagen has denatured.)

After I removed the short ribs from the water bath, I seared them on the grill while basting with the juices from the vacuum bag. I've had a fair amount of food prepared sous vide at restaurants, but never short ribs. This was also the first time where we've had short ribs medium-rare (because when cooking short ribs it's best to use a cooking process that will convert collagen to gelatin which typically results in a fairly high internal temperature). (Of course, we've had thinly sliced short ribs cooked medium-rare in Korean BBQ, but nothing involving relatively large pieces of meat.) The result is some of the most flavorful and tender (falling apart in the mouth tenderness) beef we've ever had. I don't think I'm ever going to braise short ribs again when I can sous vide them.

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What I Ate: March 21, 2010 (Mighty Fine Burger, Sous Vide Short Ribs)

Dinner: I ate Aidells meatballs served on sauteed arugula and seasoned rice.

Lunch: I ate the remaining two slices of Domino's Deluxe Feast Deep Dish Pizza.

Lunch: I sous vide cooked two pieces of sockeye salmon to 49°C (120°F) as an experiment. I found it to be well textured, but a little overdone for our taste. Next time we'll try it at a slightly lower temperature. Tina prepared a lemon penne with olive oil and broccoli with fennel side.

Dinner: I had dumplings.

Lunch: I ate the last of the frozen tamales from Costco for lunch.

Dinner: I picked up a Domino's Pizza "Deep Dish" Deluxe Feast Pizza without the butter-garlic sauce brushed on the crust. This one was better than the last take-out pizza we had, but still just so-so.