Quick Bite - La Super Rica (Santa Barbara)

Driving back down south from working in Santa Maria recently, I decided to stop for lunch at La Super Rica Taqueria in Santa Barbara for a quick lunch.  Now, having gone to college at UCSB, I have been hearing about La Super Rica for years, as it is practically an institution in the Santa Barbara area.  It is a small, family-owned, corner taco stand, which was opened back in the early 1990's, and has been going strong for over 20 years.  The reputation that I have always heard about this place is that it is serving some of the best, most authentic Mexican food in Southern California. It has also been featured on  the Food Network's show, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate", and The Travel Channel's "Man vs. Food."  Now, having grown up in Los Angeles, and having eaten my fair share of Mexican food, I had to see what all the fuss was about.

I was definitely curious to find out how this tiny taco stand in Santa Barbara had become such a legend of foodie lore?  Upon doing a bit of research, I was surprised to learn that Julia Child, the goddess of French cuisine in America, played a large part in creating the myth that surrounds La Super Rica.  The story goes that Julia, who was actually born in Southern California, and who later lived with her husband Paul in Massachusetts, started gravitating back towards California in her later years.  In the late 1980s, she was splitting her time between the east and west coasts.  When her husband passed in 1994, Julia decided to live full-time in the Santa Barbara area.  Apparently, she "discovered" La Super Rica around that time, and when various food writers and friends came to visit her, she would tell them all that her favorite place to eat in Santa Barbara was La Super Rica.  Foodies ate it up (excuse the pun), and found a certain amount of irony in the fact that the mother of French cooking  in America, was giving her highest praise to a small corner Mexican food stand.  She mentioned it in a interview with Bon Appetit magazine, discussed it on Good Morning America, and even inspired an article in The New Yorker about the tiny taco stand.  Legend has it that Julia continued to frequent La Super Rica until a few months before she passed away.

It was quite clear that the "legend" of this place survives to this day, because when I arrived at La Super Rica, around 1:00 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon, the line was out the door and down the street.  

But I was committed, so I waited in line for about 25 minutes before I reached the front door, and was finally able to check out the menu board, which was located right next to the small window where the food is ordered. Customers make their choices from the 20 items listed on the menu board, or one of the daily specials, order from the window, then take a seat at one of the picnic tables in the covered back patio area, and wait patiently for your order number to be called.

The handwritten menu board gives brief descriptions all of their offerings, which primarily consist of various types of tacos using chicken, steak, pork, chorizo, or vegetables. All of the tacos are served with homemade corn tortillas, and as you wait in line to order, you can watch a woman in the kitchen whose sole job it is to hand press and grill fresh tortillas.

As it was my first time, I decided to just order the basics.  My order consisted of two chicken tacos and one steak taco.  The chicken tacos, also came with grilled bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms, and were served with two fresh corn tortillas, which were buried at the bottom of the plate.  You can see from the photo below that the portion of meat was quite generous, as it completely covered the two tortillas, and the server had to tell me that the tortillas were underneath the avalanche of chicken and veggies.

The steak taco was only a single taco, but the serving of meat was still quite generous.

As you can see from the photos, the tacos are no-nonsense, and are basically, just a heap of grilled meat on top of the tortillas.  The homemade tortillas were great, and were definitely the stand out component of the tacos.  However, as good as the tortillas were, both the chicken, and especially the steak, were dry and under seasoned.  I was expecting the meat to have been cooked in some type of sauce, or at the very least, be well-seasoned, and I was quite disappointed in both the quality and flavor of the meat.

Luckily, there was a salsa bar, which included a spicy red salsa, a tangy green salsa, and some delicious fresh made pico de gallo.  I added a lot of the pico de gallo to both my chicken and steak taco, as well as, some of the spicy red salsa.  The addition of the pico de gallo and the salsa definitely improved the overall taste of the tacos, but I really felt the tacos were just mediocre at best.  I would say that, in general, I left feeling disappointed by La Super Rica, and believing it was really just over-hyped, and living off its reputation.

When I got home, I read some reviews and articles about La Super Rica, trying to figure out what I had done wrong.  Apparently, a lot of other foodies have been disappointed by the tacos, but many of these critics talked about how fantastic the chile relleno, pasilla pepper stuffed with cheese, and the chorizo especial dishes were.  I chalked up my disappointment to just ordering the wrong items on the menu.  I  decided that I will need to go back and re-visit La Super Rica on one of my future trips to Santa Barbara, and order some of the items recommended in the glowing reviews that I read online.  I should not have just gone with the basic tacos, and should have tried some of the more "authentic" Mexican dishes.  However, shouldn't a place with such a legendary reputation, and the endorsement of a food guru like Julia Child, be able to make better tacos than say, me?  Now, I've never made homemade tortillas, but I would venture to say that my own chicken and steak tacos have more flavor than those at La Super Rica.

Now, I love Julia Child, and I believe she did wonders for French cuisine, and for cooking in general, in America.  However, I think she probably should have visited a few more "authentic" taco stands in Los Angeles, and elsewhere around Southern California, before touting La Super Rica's greatness.  Just because Julia had great taste in beef bourguignon, does not mean she had great taste in tacos.

Quick Bite - Public School 805 (Westlake Village)

I thought I'd go a little more local this time, for those of you who dread driving into the city.  
Public School 805 is a new gastropub which recently opened at the Promenade in Westlake Village, right next to the Grill on the Alley.  The motto of PS805 is, "An Education in the Art of Food and Beer."  The interior goes along with the school theme, with books on shelves, globes, and menus that look like college composition books.  They are open for lunch and dinner, and have just started a summer brunch on the weekends which looks great.  The menu features some first class pub grub, and the bar features over 40 craft beers (26 on tap), a selection of artisanal cocktails, and several different unusual wines by the glass. It has a large bar inside, as well as, a big outdoor patio.  We have been to PS805 twice since it opened, and have sat outside on the lovely patio both times.

The knowledgeable waitress told us that they focus on small craft/artisanal brewers and distillers, and that they have a constant list of rotating microbrews from around the country.  Also, no Grey Goose here.  They also use small batch distillers for their spirits.  Further, they will happily pour you free tasters of their beers to help you choose the right one for you.  I think my husband tried five before he settled on his first pint.  Here's a shot of their large selection of beers on tap.

A view of the interior.



On our most recent visit to PS805, my husband and I split a couple of the appetizers.  The first was the Bacon Cheddar Tots with sriracha ketchup. These tots are crispy, fried, gooey, cheesy, bacony  bites of perfection!  More than the sum of their parts, these things are outrageously good and extremely addictive. Even the ketchup is elevated here with a kick of sriracha. Yum!

The second appetizer we had was the Speck & Eggs, which were deviled eggs topped with crispy speck, which were wonderfully balanced between spicy, salty and creamy.  Small bites are definitely king at PS805. 

For my main course,  I tried the Jidori Brick Chicken & White Bean Ragout, with sauteed kale, slivered garlic, soffrito, and blistered tomatoes.  The chicken was perfectly cooked, with crispy skin on both sides, and paired well with the accompanying ragout.  The chicken could have used a bit more seasoning, but overall, I thought it was a tasty and well constructed dish.

I enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine with my meal, and my husband washed his down with a couple of beers.

We learned that they have "Recess", aka Happy Hour, from 4-7 pm Monday thru Friday.  They have all types of small bites on the Recess menu, and they all cost either $4 -$5-$6 dollars.  They also have a variety of drink specials.

I would definitely recommend Public School 805, especially for Happy Hour, because we really enjoyed our appetizers and drinks.  If you are looking for a fun place to hang out, and have some good food, go check out PS805 in Westlake Village.

Dinner at Bestia (Los Angeles)

After the final class of our four-week wine course, we decided that we needed to try one more restaurant in Downtown L.A., since we would no longer be coming down to the area on a weekly basis.  Therefore, the place we chose is Bestia, a fairly new, very popular, Italian restaurant in the Arts District of Downtown L.A.  Bestia is located off the beaten path, in an industrial area of downtown, amongst a slew of converted warehouses.  The exterior of Bestia is unassuming, with a corrugated metal facade, with the name of the restaurant displayed in faded paint above the entrance.  The other portion of the building is exposed brick and ivy, with a metal overhang covering the patio.  The style is very urban and industrial, which seems to be the "in thing" for new restaurants in L.A. nowadays.



As I had read quite a few rave reviews of Bestia, and we knew it was one of the places we wanted to try, I called and made our reservations three weeks in advance. I was able to get a dinner reservation at 6:00 p.m., which is right when the restaurant opens.  We received a telephone call confirming our reservation a few days prior, and the hostess on the phone sternly advised me that we "must be on time."  With that kind of warning, we made sure to arrive about 10 minutes early, and there was already a line of people waiting in front for the doors to open. 

The doors opened promptly at 6:00, and we were led inside and seated very promptly.  As we were entering, we heard a couple walk up to the hostess and she asked them if they had a reservation. The couple said no.  The hostess apologized, but advised the couple that they were booked up for the entire night and not accepting any walk-ins. The couple left in defeat.

As you walk in the door of Bestia, the large charcuterie bar is the first thing you see.  To the left is the actual bar, and to the right is the dining room.  The dining room has a lot of small, two-person tables, a handful of booths, one tall, communal table, and some seating around the charcuterie bar.  Behind the charcuterie bar, there is a refrigerator, with a glass window displaying various types of cured meat hanging inside.  There is also an open kitchen so guests can watch all of the action.  The kitchen has a large, wood burning pizza oven.  The light fixtures are very industrial, as are the metal chairs, which were not particularly comfortable.  Due to the mixture of concrete, metal, and brick inside, it was also quite loud, so not a place you want to come for a quiet, intimate dinner.

As we came in, we did hear that you do not need a reservation to sit at the bar, and as such, it was jam-packed the entire time we were there. You can see that it was quite a crowd, even on a Sunday night!

The young head chef at Bestia is Ori Menashe.  Chef Menashe is actually Israeli, not Italian, however, he is a veteran of such L.A. favorites as Pizzeria Mozza and Angelini Osteria.  Chef Menashe was actually there on the night we were there, and I watched him leading the kitchen and working feverishly the entire time.  Occasionally, he came out from behind the counter to talk to some guests, but we never had a chance to speak with him.  However, as we were leaving, I wanted to take a photo of him to post.  He saw me pointing my phone in his direction, and stopped what he was doing to give me a quick smile.  That's him on the right.

A couple of things really struck me about Chef Menashe.  First, he looks quite young for having worked in so many great restaurants around L.A., and already having one of his very own; and second, he looked just like all of the other cooks in the kitchen, with his T-shirt and grey headband.  There was no pretentious, embroidered, white chef jacket, pointing out to the world that he was the head chef.  In today's world of "celebrity" chefs, I thought it was pretty cool that he was just one of the guys, and appeared quite happy to be working on the line in the kitchen.

First, we were presented with the cocktail list.  The cocktails were quite unique and interesting, and I decided to try a "Beam me up, Scotty", even though I wasn't sure what most of the ingredients were.

My cocktail arrived shortly thereafter, and was very tasty.

We decided we wanted a bottle of wine to share with dinner. We were surprised that they did not have  a very extensive wine list, particularly in regards to Italian wines, especially for a place that touts itself as both an Italian pasta and meat specialty restaurant. As we planned to order some spicy, cured meats and pasta, we would generally look for a nice, big Sangiovese wine, or else a Super Tuscan, which is a Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blend.  A Barolo or Barbaresco from Piedmont would have worked well for this type of meal.  There were only a few such available options on the wine list, which were all a bit too pricey,  so instead, we chose a bottle of Barbera to have with dinner.  Although the wine choice was a good one, we both said that we wished we would have had more choices of Italian wines with  a bigger punch to go with our meal.

As we began to peruse the menu, we knew we wanted the charcuterie, which was the chef's selection of house-cured meats.  We asked our server to bring our starter right away as we were deciding on the rest of our meal.  The menu was very rustic Italian, with numerous antipasti dishes, and then mostly pizzas and home-made pasta dishes as main courses.

The charcuterie board arrived quickly, with four types of house-cured meats, pickled vegetables, mostarda, and grilled bread.

The meats included two different types of salami, duck breast, and soppressata.  Each of the meats were delicious.  I particularly like the salami, and my husband really enjoyed the soppressata.  The meats were served with a bright green mustard, which our server explained obtained the color through the use of carrot tops. The mustard was quite different, as it had a very herbaceous quality, which I felt worked well with the different meats.  I also liked the pickled vegetables (carrots, beets, asparagus), as I thought the acid from the vinegar was a good balance to the fattiness of the meats.  However, the best part was probably the slices of crusty, grilled bread that came with the board.  The bread was grilled to perfection, and with a little mustard and a slice of meat, it was delicious.



As our second course,  we ordered the smoked mackerel crostino, with burrata cheese, tomato jam, and sea salt.  We saw this dish being delivered to many of the tables around us, and it looked so great we decided we had to try it.  Now, as a caveat, I have to admit that smoked fish is not a favorite of mine, however, that being said, we both thought that it had way too much fish, which overpowered  the other flavors of the burrata cheese and the tomato jam.  With all the smoked fish piled on top, along with the tomato jam, the entire dish was too sweet for my taste.  However, it was all a top another piece of the fantastic grilled bread, and after scraping a lot of the fish off the top, I found the dish to be much more palatable. 

For our main courses, I chose a pasta dish called Tagliatelle allo Zafferano, which was described as hand-cut saffron pasta, calabrian sausage ragu with cherry tomatoes and arugula. The pasta was home-made, and cooked to a perfect al dente.  The tomato sauce was full of lots of bite-sized pieces of spicy, house-made sausage, and coated the pasta quite well.  Both the sausage, as well as, the sauce had a good amount of spice, and I thought the dish had an excellent balance of flavors.  This pasta dish was definitely one of the highlights for me.

For his main course, my husband chose a classic Margherita pizza which was topped with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and sea salt.  Overall, I thought the pizza was quite good.  I found the sauce to be tangy and acidic.  The crust was crispy on the outside, yet chewy on the inside. There was mozzarella dotted throughout the top, but not quite enough cheese for my taste.

The pizza also came topped with whole basil leaves.  My husband really likes fresh basil on his pizza, however, we both would have liked it better if the basil leaves were chopped up smaller and sprinkled throughout the top of the pizza, rather than having whole basil leaves in just a couple of spots.  The bites with the basil had so much basil that it was a bit overpowering, and then the majority of the pizza had no basil at all.  In fact, my husband picked the basil leaves off the top, ripped them up into smaller bits and put a little on each slice.   


The pizza arrived at the table uncut, and then the server asks how many slices we wanted, and then used a pizza cutter to slice it up for us at the table. 

Chef Menashe's wife, Genevieve Gergis, is the pastry chef at Bestia.  She also has an excellent resume, having been pastry chef at some great places in L.A. We could also see her working away in the kitchen throughout our meal. 

For dessert, I chose the ricotta fritters with fresh strawberry jam, brown sugar gelato, and whipped cream.  The fritters tasted like more sophisticated, freshly fried donuts.  They were light and crispy, and had hints of lemon to balance out the richness of the ricotta.  Of the accompaniments, I mostly used the fresh whipped cream to lighten up the bite-sized morsels, but I tried a couple of dips into the home-made strawberry jam, which was also delicious.





My husband, who does not like any kind of fruit on his dessert, chose the only one without any type of fruit, which was the bittersweet chocolate budino tart, with salted caramel, cacao crust, olive oil and sea salt. The dessert was tasty, but it was very chocolately.  It had a chocolate crust, with chocolate filling, and a couple of bites of chocolate biscotti on the side, which made it all a little too chocolatey for me.  My husband said that he wished that they would have used more than just a "drizzle" of the salted caramel, and that they should have added something lighter to help balance out the richness of the chocolate.  Instead, he helped himself to some of my whipped cream and brown sugar gelato to help balance the intense chocolate of his dessert.


 Overall, I would say that we had a good experience at Bestia. The dishes we had were all quite solid, particularly, the charcuterie board and my pasta. In addition, we both felt that the service was excellent.  If you are looking for some great, home-made pasta and house-cured meats, and you have plans to be in the Downtown L.A. area before the theater at the Ahmanson, or a Lakers game at Staples Center, you should definitely give it a try.


Of note, it was only a week ago that I posted my review of Gjelina restaurant in Venice.  It turns out that our meals at both Gjelina and Bestia were quite similar.  If we had known exactly how similar, we probably would have tried a different place this week for dinner. However, since we scored a Sunday night reservation, we decided to go to Bestia anyway.  In addition, this gave us the perfect opportunity to compare similar dishes served at each restaurant side-by-side.  My general verdict was that the oven-fired pizza at Gjelina was better, based on the combination and balance of the toppings they used.  However, I think that I liked the charcuterie board better at Bestia.  Both restaurants are proof that great, rustic Italian restaurants are all the rage in L.A. these days.                     

Lunch at Gjelina (Venice, CA)

This week, after our wine class, we decided to head about 20 miles west of Downtown L.A., to the trendy area of  Abbot Kinney Blvd., in Venice.  We went in search of a restaurant called Gjelina, which has a reputation of having some of the best pizza in town.  Gjelina was also recently listed as one of the "101 Best Restaurants in L.A." by Jonathan Gold of the L.A. Times.  Gjelina primarily serves lunch and dinner, but it is also open for brunch on the weekends.

As seems to be the norm lately with most of the "hip" places in L.A., Gjelina is very minimalistic on the outside, with only the tiniest of signs in the window indicating you have found the right place. If we didn't know where to look, we probably would have missed it.

Gjelina is fairly small on the inside, with a couple of large communal tables, and a handful of other tables situated around the walls.  The interior is simple and rustic, but with some modern fixtures, including an industrial type chandelier hanging over the center charcuterie bar.  It also has an outside patio, which looked cozy, but was completely packed.  We figured that at 3:00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, we would hit the "sweet spot" of time where we could easily get a table without much waiting.  It turns out that the whole place was packed from the time we arrived until the time we left.  The hostess told us it would be about a 15-20 minute wait, but we were happily seated after about five minutes. 

As our wine class ended at 2:30 p.m., and we did not get to Venice until after 3:00 p.m. (gotta love L.A. traffic), we were only allowed to order from the "afternoon" menu, which was limited to appetizers, salads, and a variety of gourmet pizzas.  This was fine by us, as we were specifically there to try the pizza, but they do have a more extensive dinner menu.

By the time we sat down at our table, we were starving, so we decided on an appetizer, which was the charcuterie board with a selection of cured meats, pickled vegetables, and mustards.   They had some pretty unique wines by the glass.  My husband paired the charcuterie with a glass of  Domaine George Vernay, Syrah (Collines Rhodaniennes, France '11), and I selected the Gilbert Cellars Left Bank Bordeaux Style Blend from Washington.

The four cured meats were prosciutto, capicolla (coppa), sopressata, and duck breast, and as you can see, we were given a hearty portion of each.  It also included three different types of mustards, from a coarse ground, to a sweeter, honey mustard type concoction.  The board also included an array of spicy, pickled vegetables including okra, cauliflower, cabbage (kimchi), and a radish.  The spice and vinegar in the vegetables was a perfect accompaniment to the fatty, cured meats.  I found it strange that we were not given any bread or toast to eat with our meats, so we asked our server who seemed surprised by our request (I forget that no one eats bread in L.A.), but she happily obliged and brought us a plate of freshly toasted bread. Combining the meats with the different mustards, on top of the bread, made for a very tasty starter.  Both of our wines also paired quite nicely.

Our main course was all about the pizza.  Now, the pizzas at Gjelina are not your typical tomato sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni kind of pizzas.  The pizzas are thin crusted, wood-fired, with a wide range of high quality, gourmet toppings.  I chose the mushroom, goat cheese, and truffle oil pizza.  The mushrooms and goat cheese were delicious and plentiful, as you can see below.  The addition of the truffle oil kicked the whole thing up a notch, and added a fantastic truffle aroma to the pizza.  Sometimes when using truffle oil, restaurants add too much which can be overwhelming, and can also overpower the rest of the ingredients.  This pizza had just the right amount of truffle oil, which balanced nicely with the cheese and mushrooms.  The crust was thin and crispy, which is how I prefer my pizza crust.  Overall, I thought the pizza was delicious.

 

My husband selected the pizza with lamb sausage, tomato confit, rapini, and pecorino and asiago cheeses.  Due to the combination of sausage, tomato confit, and cheeses, his tasted a lot more like a traditional style pizza.  Again, the toppings were tasty and plentiful.  The use of the high quality toppings gave the pizza a really great balance of flavors.  He also thoroughly enjoyed his pizza.

Each pizza was served with a small side plate containing freshly shaved parmesan cheese, dried oregano, and crushed red pepper.  I thought it was a nice touch, and I did end up putting a sprinkle of red pepper flakes on to my pizza to give it a little more heat.

Even though we were already pretty full,  we had to take a look at the dessert menu.  My husband ordered a simple scoop of home-made, hazelnut gelato.  Only one dessert stood out for me, the Butterscotch Pot de Créme, which is a coffee mug with sweet butterscotch pudding, topped with a layer of sea salt crystals, followed by a dollop of créme fraiche, and a salted caramel drizzled over the top.  The pudding was rich and decadent, and the créme fraiche helped lighten it up a bit.  It had sea salt sprinkles on top, which added a little texture, as well as, some much needed saltiness to balance out the very sweet pudding.  It was a perfect sweet treat to end the meal.

I also ordered a cappucino, which was artistically poured with a heart design drawn in the foam on top.  It complimented  my dessert perfectly.  My one complaint about the cappucino was that it was served in a regular glass, with no handle, and it was burning hot.  Therefore, I had to wait quite a while before I could even pick it up to drink it.

Overall, we had a really enjoyable lunch at Gjelina.  I don't know that we would race back because it is pretty far for us, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it if you happen to be visiting the Venice area.  However, be sure to get a reservation ahead of time (they only take them for dinner), or be prepared to wait.