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Phurstluv
Apr 16, 2010 04:38 PM
Just an update:
The MiL & I had a lovely lunch there today on the sidewalk. We thoroughly enjoyed the Terrine de Foie Gras, the onion soup and the moules mariniere, with our glasses of Albarino. (I know, bit of a disconnect, but I'm a sucker for the Albarino, it's my new fave).
And the salads were beautiful, the petit mache & frisee that accompanied our terrine had a perfect amount of a type of mustard vinaigrette, very mild but complementary. And the frites that came with the moules were perfectly done, no grease, nice bite to them.
My only regret was that I did not order the duck confit, which you make sound so lovely, Mr. O, only b/c we had chosen to sit in the sun, and made me want something a bit lighter. But I will be bringing the DH soon, and will get my chance then.
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re: Phurstluv
>>...with our glasses of Albarino. (I know, bit of a disconnect, but I'm a sucker for the Albarino, it's my new fave).<<
If they offered it, I'm sure they figured it worked with the food. IMHO, Albarino is very versatile and has been my go-to white for a few years now. Condes de Albarei has been my favorite so far.
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re: mnosyne
Phurstluv
Apr 16, 2010 05:39 PM
I know, isn't it so pleasant? No rabbit & prunes on this menu, perhaps that was a seasonal dish?
And bula, where do you shop for your Albarino, specifically the Condes de Albarei, Wine House on Cotner? I love them all, they are soooo good, aren't they?
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Wine House
2311 Cotner Ave, Los Angeles, CA-
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re: Phurstluv
Albarinos are becoming more available, but usually only one or two choices (usually Burgen's or Martin Codax) at most places. Wine House does carry at least a few (as of two weekends ago) but I didn't see Condes de Albarei this past visit - could easily have missed it though. La Espanola in Harbor City usually carries it but I haven't been for a few months. And believe it or not, BevMo carried it as well - again, haven't been in a while to confirm. This albarino has a lot of bright summer fruit action, mineral-y, good acid, and a nice frizante. Can't speak for the 2008 as I haven't tried it yet.
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Wine House
2311 Cotner Ave, Los Angeles, CA-
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re: Phurstluv
I think I saw a BevMo on Rosecrans in Manhattan Beach. There's also the Van Nuys store. I think you're in Pacific Palisades, so those would probably be the closest. :( Try calling Wine House - you know they love to please! I'll post if I spot this albarino or any others that might be of interest.
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Wine House
2311 Cotner Ave, Los Angeles, CA
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re: bulavinaka
Wine House's website indicates that they currently carry eight various albarinos from Riax Braxis and one from Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz (might be interesting).
Their inventory count shows all are in stock but only one bottle remaining for Condes de Albarei - probably in one of their "Last Bottle" barrels. I don't know if that is any indicator, but obviously at least a handful of customers have been happily whittling down the stock in this particular wine. :)
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Wine House
2311 Cotner Ave, Los Angeles, CA
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Hi Will Owen,
Great review. :) I'm glad you enjoyed their Duck Confit, definitely a lot of flavor. :) So you didn't get to try the (in)famous, homemade Andouillette Sausage there? I was hoping to get your impressions on this dish. :)
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re: exilekiss
Will Owen
Nov 2, 2009 04:42 PM
Next time for sure. I love me some andouillettes; I especially enjoyed showing Mrs. O, chapter and verse (in Larousse Gastronomique) that they are in fact made from chitterlings and not from tripe as she had insisted. Of course the last I had was in a joint near the Clingancourt flea market in 1991... and it was just half of one of ma-in-law's. But I remember richness with a slight gamey whiff, and wishing I'd gotten that instead of my dry chicken.
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re: Will Owen
Servorg
Nov 2, 2009 04:53 PM
Ever since this hysterical and classic Burke & Wells encounter with the Paris version of andouillette I've not been able to bring myself to place an order whenever coming across them on a menu. YMMV
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re: Servorg
Will Owen
Nov 3, 2009 03:50 PM
Well, if truth be known, chit'lins themselves (when prepared in the approved downhome Southern manner) do have that unmistakeable whiff, which I found much more pronounced than anything I got from the sausage. I also found them delicious, though I'd have to be in the mood...
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Here's Will's review:
LUNCH AT SAINT AMOUR - BEYOND SUPERB
We had a free day yesterday, and Mrs. O being a hopeless Hello Kitty freak wanted to see the HK exhibit at Royal/T in Culver City. I agreed, IF we could have lunch at Le Saint Amour. As she still dreams about her charcuterie plate at Angelique several years ago it was not a hard sell.
Those folks have clearly come up in the world since their Angelique days, though they still seem to like oddly-shaped spaces. This is a very nice and bright one, though, and with a fine big fenced-in space outdoors beneath the trees. We had a small table at the outer edge of that, so mostly got served from the sidewalk. A glass of Muscadet for her, St. Amour for me, a basket of bread and plenty of butter arrived very quickly. The bread is rather disappointing, being a sort of semi-whole-wheat baked item sliced from a loaf, and not really interesting. Nor French, for that matter. It was however the only remotely disappointing thing we had there.
Mrs. O of course had to have her Asiette de Charcuterie, and ordered the half-size cheese plate to go with it. I'd been ogling the grilled onglet with frites on the website menu, but it was not on this one, so I thought I'd give their duck confit a whirl; that's what I'd had at Angelique, for one thing, and for another I saw that it came with both frites and a salad. After a decent interval the cheese plate arrived, along with TWO salads. Mrs. O was pleasantly surprised - "I get one too?" "Oui, Madame." Well, that was about the nicest little salad I've had in these parts, all fresh wild or tame greens in a whisper of simple, light dressing. The cheese plate had four wedges, really enough to share, with grapes, a strawberry, and what I could swear were deep-fried walnuts. There was no indication as to what the cheeses were; I suppose we could have asked, but eating them was more fun.
The main plates showed up fairly soon, both quite bountiful. Of the charcuterie slices there was one of of a pate en croute with pistachios, another of more coarsely chopped meats with some jelly in there, some rillettes, a few slices of saucisson sec and some paper-thin prosciutto, and cornichons on the side. My plate was wall-to-wall with a mound of perfectly crisp, perfectly greaseless matchstick frites, and two big duck legs laid with the ends of the thighs kissing and ankles crossed. A poke of the fork revealed that our host had been working on his confit since last we met: the one at Angelique had been chewy but good, whereas this was both fall-apart tender and bursting with rich flavor. The first leg I painstakingly cut meat off the bone; the second I just pushed on the meat with my fork and pulled the bones right out, and never bothered with my knife after that, except to clip the little gristly doodad off the thigh meat. My taste of crisp skin was so divine I passed the second one over; she rolled her eyes and murmured, "Heavenly." The French love fat, and certainly know how to treat it...
After hunger had been well satisfied we settled back and nibbled at the meats and cheeses, some wiped straight onto the bread (which for all its faults stood up sturdily to this) and some laid over a shaving of butter. The frites showed their class by remaining crisp and tender no matter how cold they got; I guess we showed ours by not just spending the rest of the day there, although I certainly could have. It came to about $50 all told, before tax and tip. This is not our usual level of lunch tab, but it was more than matched by the level of lunch. We are saving our spare change for next time.
9725 Culver Blvd. (entrance also on Washington)
Culver City, 90232
310-842-8155-----
Le Saint Amour
9725 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232›1 Reply-
re: RicRios
Will Owen
Oct 31, 2009 04:42 PM
Thank you! ServOrg suggested pulling it from an email, but you beat me to it.
Their website BTW is
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