To Live and Eat in L.A.

[If you're just now reading this, than you missed it! Did anyone else go? Tell us in the comments how much you loved it!]

Late breaking important news! Breadbar is an omnivorous restaurant in West Hollywood which specializes in “vigorously-crafted breads and pastries”. For the past couple of weeks they’ve been offering a special vegan tasting menu and tonight (Saturday, December 19) is the last night! I was very lucky to get to experience this fantastic food last night and I highly suggest you drop whatever your plans are and do the same… before it’s too late. I usually don’t blog about stuff until I’ve at least had a chance to digest it, but time is of the essence on this one, so as soon as you’re done reading this post, call up Breadbar and make a reservation. This one is seriously not to be missed.

They’re calling this adventure “Vegan Greetings”, a silly name for some very not silly food. From what I understand the recipes were created by Breadbar’s Chef Noriyuki Sugi, in association with Kim Barnouin, co-author of the Skinny Bitch book, and apparently some of these recipes are going to be featured in her new cookbook. This gave me pause as I wondered just how pedestrian the food might be considering some of what’s in the first Skinny Bitch cookbook, but I was more than pleasantly surprised by the exquisite meal that awaited me.

The menu isn’t very large, and you can either order the items individually or go for the “Set Menu” which consists of your choice of 4 dishes (bento style) for $25 or you can order the “Omakase” featuring 8 dishes of the chef’s selection for $50. I and my fellow foodeating adventurers, Miss Alix and Studiodrome opted to get the 4 piece sets, and at the wise suggestion of the host, all ordered a sampling of different things so that we could share and each get to try as much as possible. That turned out to be an excellent idea.

Before we even had a chance to order we were served an Amuse-bouche, an alternately fancy French term for appetizers. These were tiny little falafel balls that were served up hot & steamy and very tasty. For something so small they packed a punch, a bit on the salty side but enjoyably so. For a chef with a Japanese sounding name, they really managed to perfectly capture the Middle Eastern flavor of a very well made falafel (easier said than done).

This is one of the first sets of food that arrived. From left to right you’re looking at soup, salad and eggplant… I’ll tell you more about each of these below.

The soup is tofu, kimchi and bean sprouts. This was so good, the flavors were very complex and surprisingly the kimchi didn’t overpower everything. You could really taste the individual ingredients and the broth was simply sublime, with an unexpected hint of smokiness. This is the kind of soup I’d really enjoy a large bowl of on a cool winter evening. It gives the impression of being someone’s old Korean grandmothers recipe, passed on to her from generations of even older grandma’s. I’m totally making that story up, but it’s a good one so I’m sticking with it.

The salad is comprised of shaved brussels sprouts, pomegranate, hazelnut and balsamic dressing. I loved this salad and even though it was one of the more simpler dishes I was practically licking the bowl clean. I would have never in a million years thought of putting pomegranate seeds with brussels sprouts, but it was a match made in heaven. Brussels sprouts get a bad rap, yet this is another preparation of them that is sure to dispel any lingering dislike for the much-maligned vegetable.

Here we have one of the stars of the show, eggplant caramelized in red miso. Wow. All three of us were somewhat in awe of this dish. I don’t hate eggplant but it’s something that I tend to approach cautiously, it’s usually hit or miss. This was truly a hit, the eggplant was perfectly cooked with no hint of bitterness or that ubiquitous mushy texture it’s often reduced to. Here it was succulent, sweet and sexy… the red miso combined with the eggplant had been taken to the precise point of caramelization to become just slightly sticky and a little bit chewy around the edges, while the meat of the eggplant in the center was still delightfully smooth. The whole thing just sort of melts in your mouth and then your mouth begs for more.

And there was much more to be had. Above is the pizza, an unconventional preparation of sweet potato, green kale, tofu, caramelized onion and cumin seed. It comes served on a flat, slightly crispy lavash-style bread which is a nice change from what you might expect from a normal pizza. I didn’t really get too much of the sweet potato taste, more so I was aware of the tasty oil that had been applied liberally as well as the cumin. Having kale on a pizza was a nice surprise (why don’t more places do this, it seems obvious now that I think about it), and even though this was very oniony (I’d say that was the dominant flavor), I really enjoyed it.

Next, I had the ravioli: napa cabbage, black kale, brown rice served with chili soy sauce. Yum! These were great, not really much like what I’d consider a ravioli, they were a lot more like pot stickers or fried Chinese style dumplings. They had a chewy outside and while the filling was relatively subdued, the chili soy dipping sauce elevated these so-called raviolis to being some of my newest favorite finger food.

These are the tacos: green lentille, avocado, salsa, arugula salad on corn tortillas. This was one of Studiodrome’s dishes which I didn’t get a chance to try… at the point in the meal when these were served I was already too full, but he sure looked like he was digging ‘em!

Last but not least (but perhaps the crappiest photo- sorry!), the vegetable red curry with coconut milk, okra, eggplant and lemongrass. This was by far the most fragrant dish, when it came out hot from the kitchen we got to enjoy the wonderful smell of coconut, and then even better… we got to eat it. This finely spiced Thai inspired broth was so creamy and smooth, and the notoriously difficult vegetables of eggplant and okra were again, perfectly cooked, and rather than being overshadowed by the curry, were allowed to each bring their own distinct flavors to the forefront.

They had two desserts available… you better believe we got them both.

This is the spiced persimmon with a crumble of crispy oats. In a word: divine. Persimmon is one of my most favorite fruits… here it was baked to an almost compote like consistency and it wasn’t overly sweetened and in fact this had an unexpected saltiness to it that played well with the full & fruity persimmon. The crumbly topping was a lovely texture and a perfect balance to the sweet-salty goodness underneath. I loved this so hard… gonna try to recreate it at home the first chance I get.

The other dessert was a custard of kabocha squash, tea-infused caramel, tapioca and almonds. Oh man, this was simply spectacular. As vegans, custardy items are not frequently something we get to indulge in. Here the squash was made into a most delicious creamy custard, again not too sweet, while the toppings blended with the custard to provide not only a fun sensation but an exotic combination of flavors. The tapioca was really delightful, looking and feeling a bit like caviar (but thankfully not tasting anything like it) and coated in the amazing caramel sauce, everything in this came together in a truly wonderful explosion of taste and texture. I can assure you that you’ve never tasted anything like it.

And that’s just some of the menu. The folks at Breadbar truly stopped at nothing to create a non-generic and exciting extraveganza. I cannot recommend this enough, if it’s at all possibly for you to get over tonight to check out this amazing food, you owe it to yourself to do so. Not only was the food top-notch, but so was the very attentive and personalized service. Grab a friend or two or three and share like we did, it’s the best way to get to try as much as possible without making your wallet cry. While $25 plus dessert and drinks isn’t exactly cheap, considering what you get for the money I’d say that every single cent was worth it.

While this is the last night that they currently have scheduled for serving this array of vegan awesomeness, they were very eager for feedback and I got the impression that they might do it again. So do yourselves a favor and go experience this very special treat, and let the folks at Breadbar know that if they continue offering such well thought out and expertly prepared cruelty-free meals, that us vegans will continue to support it. There’s nothing else even remotely close to this going on in L.A. right now so I really hope it comes back and sticks around.

Breadbar
8718 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(310) 205-0124
www.breadbar.net

1. Vegan Vietnamese Porridge Soup
2. Garbanzo beans, couscous and eggplant salad
3. Foodeater Does Vegan Portland, V.7: Kinta Restaurant
4. Melrose Avenue (vegan) Muffaletta
5. Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 4:02 pm and is filed under L.A. Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.