Checking out BoHo at 50% Off

Back in May, BoHo had an awesome special: 50% off all food on Tuesdays.
Thanks to Twitter, Choisauce and I managed to set up a last minute dinner date and off to BoHo we go.

Many many foodbloggers told us to get the Oyster Po' Boy sliders so we listened.

Fried Oyster Po'Boy Sliders (gougeres, tartar sauce, applewood bacon, arugula - $9)
Best dish of the night, for sure!! There were four sliders per order, 4 hot and crunchy fried oyster in puffy gougeres. The juicy fried oysters were so addicting! We wanted to get another order but we have so much food coming still ...

Ratatouille (baby summer squashes, eggplant, roasted peppers, tomato - $8)
The ratatouille was not at all like what I thought ratatouille should be like, to say the least.
Rather bland and uh .. "healthy tasting", none of us actually digged this.

Hot oven-roasted beets (goat cheese, lemon-onion confit - $8)
The beets were your standard beet/goat cheese dish

Baked Fennel pizza (applewood bacon, caramelized onion, gruyere - $14)
The fennel pizza was actually pretty good although Choisauce said the one at Church & State was inarguably better.

Beef Short rib Shepherd's Pie (baby carrots, mushroom, red wine, Yukon potato mash, Vermont white cheddar - $16)
Another dish that didn't look anything like what it's supposed to be -- a pie, in this case. Not a bad dish - solid and comforting on a cold night.

Pile o' Ribs (applewood smoked baby back ribs, Belgian fries, bbq sauce - $19)
The ribs themselves were not bad at all, pretty tender. What we were confused about is the sauce in the metal container. It wasn't ketchup for the fries. It wasn't quite your typical BBQ sauce either ...

Besides the awesome oyster sliders, the rest of the dishes were pretty good but not particularly notable. But then the desserts came .... Oh, those desserts!

Summer Peach crisp (almond streusel, vanilla bean ice cream - $8)
I love peach crisps, and this was a really good one, with a great scoop of vanilla bean ice cream to boot.

Brown Butter Blueberry Tart - $8
We all had a hard time choosing which dessert was our favorite ... I believe this one ended up being Choisauce's favorite though.

Chocolate cake bread pudding, vanilla bean ice cream - $8
The heaviest of the dessert, so rich and decadent. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I love this dessert! Among the three, I was having a real hard time deciding too ... maybe the crisp after all?

It's too bad BoHo is no longer offering 50% Tuesdays, but even without that I would go any night for the oyster po boy sliders and the desserts. The rest (so far) I can do without, tho I heard the burger was good.

BoHo
6372 W. Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-8500
bohorestaurant.com

La Guerrerense (Ensenada): Sea Urchin and More Tostada Cart

During the Baja FAM Media Trip, I was most excited about La Guerrerense in Ensenada. It was all due to Glutster's teaser messages about uni tostada!

Sabina Bandera has operated this street cart in the same location for the past 33 years. Talk about an established business. We parked our big bus around the corner and rushed to the little cart.
On a board next to the cart, they have posted various articles about them including one stating that La Guerrerense is chef Benito Molina(of Silvestre, Muelle 3, and La Manzanilla)'s favorite lunch spot.

The crispy corn tostadas can be topped with various seafood offerings. Since the 25 or so of us are here on a strict food marathon schedule (with spatial limitation in the stomach), Sabina tops each tostada with two toppings of our choosings.

For my first one I went with uni/sea urchin(erizo) and sea cucumber ceviche.
The uni was heaven in my mouth. The flavors, the texture contrast with the crispy tostada, the spice. O-M-G. This was worth every word of the hype.
The sea cucumber was also delicious, with a very chewy texture. Compared to the creamy sea urchin, this had a milder flavor with the limes and onions - not really to say that the flavor was mild at all.

Next I had the fish pate and cod (bacalao)
Another amazing creation here. The creamy pate is one of my favorites here while the spicier bacalao was many people's favorite.

Street Gourmet LA scored himself some pismo clams in the shell which looked mighty delicious so I scored a photo of it. Here's the pismo clams, almeja preparada(prepared clam), with a light cocktail sauce on one side and a lime and salsa huichol on the other side (thank you Street Gourmet LA for the info!)

After putting one of the various salsa offered, of course things got a bit spicy, so when Glutster told me that they had a good barley drink, I spared no time in getting me a cup.
Cold and creamy barley milk. This was sweet and refreshing and totally saved me from crying from spiciness.

Since some of the others claimed that the sea snail (caracol) was one of their favorites, I was feeling rather bummed for not having tried it. But lucky me, Sabina was passing out a plate of sea snails for us to sample!
I'm so glad I tried this - I would've regretted not having tried something this good. The sea snail was fresh, with a chewy but "meatier" texture compared to the rest, and a very nice flavor coming from both the snail itself. and the spicy sauce drenching it.

If you're ever in Ensenada, La Guerrerense is not to be missed!

La Guerrerense
Corner of Calle Primera/Alvarado
Ensenada, Baja, Mexico

Culinary College with Chef Andrew Kirschner

Culinary College was back for its second run with chef Andrew Kirschner from the Wilshire Restaurant. Hosted by Los Angeles magazine and Snyder Diamond, the event is again hosted in the Snyder Diamond showroom in Santa Monica.

I was early, so I sat there sipping a glass of 2008 Viognier from the Santa Ynez Valley, picked by Ian Blackburn from Learn About Wine, waiting for the rest of the girls to show up. I was joined later on by Wandering Chopsticks, Caroline on Crack, Estarla, Shop Eat Sleep, and Faux LA Hipster.

We start out with some appetizers prepared by Chef Bridget Bueche from Sub-Zero/Wolf.

First up: Wood plank salmon with miso base, mizuna, japanese long onions.

Before the food was served, a large piece of salmon was displayed sitting on the wood plank, teasing us with the glaze and the smell.

Each dish is paired with a wine, selected by Ian from Learn About Wine. Ian did not only pick wines that will go well with the dishes, he also made sure to choose affordable wines that you or I may actually go out and buy. The salmon was paired with a Pinot Noir from Sweeney Canyon.
Sweeney Canyon is a family-owned vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County, near the Santa Ynez River, which gives their grapes a unique complex flavor.

While eating and sipping, we watched chef Bueche whip up our next dish using a Japanese claypot.
Just watching the chef season the beef and open up the claypot of the cooked beef was enough to get my appetite going.

Here it is: Claypot-baked, slow-cooked beef with craked pepper, coriander, mushrooms.
This was amazing! The beef was so tender, and the mushrooms were great. I just wish the dish was bigger :P The mushrooms are Hokto mushrooms grown in San Marcos, CA. The dish was paired with a 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon, grown in the Malibu canyons.

After licking our dish clean, we were ushered into the back room, the 'main stage' where tables are beautifully set.

Because of the number of attendees, the class is not hands-on, but you can watch chef Kirschner prepare the dishes and take notes. Note the slanted mirror on top of the stove - so you can watch what's going on there too!
Chef Kirschner showed us how to prepare two dishes.
The first is a Shrimp Summer Roll with Chili Garlic Dipping Sauce.
Paired with a Curran Gewurtztraminer from Santa Ynez Valley.

Second course is the Steamed Black Mussels in Red Curry Coconut Broth (find the recipe here)
These mussels are certainly delicious and I can see why they are so popular at the restaurant. The curry broth is bold in flavor yet not too spicy. I'll definitely order this at Wilshire Restaurant. Here the dish was paired with a Sweeney Canyon Chardonnay.

We all came home with a swag bag filled among others with a bottle of 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon and the newest Los Angeles magazine.

Read about the first class here.