JOE'S Restaurant (Venice, CA)

http://www.joesrestaurant.com/
1023 Abbot Kinney Boulevard
Venice, California 90291

This restaurant features French-California cuisine. Its Brunch menu comes with an additional choice of
-Granola with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds With Spiced Milk
-Seasonal Fruit Plate with Honeyed Yogurt Sauce
-Mixed Green Salad - Peas, Carrots, Artichokes & Fennel, Pickled Onion Geleé
-Kevin’s Soup of the Day
Super Nutty Granola with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds With Spiced MilkLamb ragout over pappardelle pasta

Rösti Potato with Scrambled Eggs & Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraiche, Caviar

Macarons (Los Angeles, CA)

Boule Patissiere
boulela.com
As I walked towards the counter at Boule, I was unpleasantly greeted by an employee who didn't smile. I tried to breathe through this air of arrogance and quickly scanned the display of macarons. Many of the flavors were gone by the end of the day. I chose the caramel, chocolate and promagrante (cranberry)-rasberry macarons. The fillings were so soft and decadent. It was just oozing in my mouth and was just sweet enough for my taste.

Tony also picked up a sea-salt caramel candy. The iridescent wrapping unveiled a smooth, caramel piece of candy. After one bite, the caramel just melted away in my mouth, followed by pieces of sea salt for a surprise after taste.

We only picked out 3 macarons (as they only had about 5 options), knowing that our next destination was Paulette Macaron's across town. We wanted to compare the two patissieries.

Paulette Macarons
http://www.paulettemacarons.com/
This place bakes only macarons so we wanted to try. We picked out: green tea, white wedding almond, violet, chocolate, caramel, pistachio, coffee, hazelnut. (Some are not pictured here as I was too eager to eat them all). I didn't enjoy the macarons as much because the fillings were a bit too overpowering for me. Tasting Boule macarons might have spoiled my taste at Paulette.

(from top left: white wedding almond, chocolate, caramel, violet, coffee, and hazelnut)

The Hungry Cat (Hollywood)

The Hungry Cat
1535 Vine Street, Los Angeles
323-462-2155

We were driving up and down Vine Street, looking for an address, storefront sign of the restaurant, or at least any restaurant. We finally saw a courtyard and decided to venture in and found the restaurant tucked away behind nicely-trimmed bushes.

We were greeted by a friendly hostess and were able to be seated at the bar after 10 minutes of waiting. The setting very casual, relaxed, and fun. Our server (and bartender) prepared a refreshing organic tangerine margarita, freshly squeezed and crushed right into my glass (rinds and everything). Her final touch was a garnish of a slice of lime on a skewer.

I started with some raw oysters, both from the east and west coast. I topped each oyster with vinegar and red onion dipping sauce. I enjoyed the east coast oysters more because it was sweeter and had a more delicate taste.

This is my seafood stew with scallops, squid, mussels, clams, and fish, with black kale in white wine sauce and garlic toast with aioli sauce. The squid was amazing. I never had squid cooked to perfection. It was soft, yet not too chewy. I just wanted to lick every morsel off my bowl!

Tony order the Pug Burger with blue cheese, avocado, nueskes (applewood smoked bacon) on brioche bun.

The patrons were really friendly and loved to chat. Tony overheard a woman talking about how her favorite food is uni and he mentioned to here that there was fresh uni and she absolutely adored him and thanked him from the bottom of her heart. Next time, I will try this $16 fresh uni, which is served right out of the sea urchin shell.