30 March 2011
Lazy Ox Canteen
We had dinner here before going to see NDT. This place, in Little Tokyo, has a casual pubby atmosphere, with wonderful food. We had some delicious sugar snap peas and roasted cauliflower. We asked that the chef send us out a surprise small plate, which turned out to be beef tongue with polenta. All were delicious. The family style special for the day was a pork porterhouse, which turned out to be a giant piece of perfectly roasted pork with a delicious sauce. The best dessert was the butterscotch pudding-unbelievably rich, caramel-y and creamy. Service here is friendly and quick. We had to get in and out in an hour and they did that without our feeling rushed.
Nederlands Dans Theatre 1
I went to see this contemporary dance company last week with a couple of friends. I've been wanting to see them for a few years, as they were supposed to be in town a few years ago but had to cancel due to the economy. This company is one of the top contemporary dance companies in the world, working with the most interesting contemporary choreographers, who create dances especially for them. For this visit they did a piece by Crystal Pite and one by Lightfoot & Leon. The Pite piece had some beautiful sections but I didn't feel like all of it hung together. The piece starts with a mannequin (like the kind of models that artists use) manipulated by the corps of dancers. The best section of this piece was near the end when a dancer replaces the mannequin and the other dancers appear to be echoing her movements. The second piece by Lightfoot & Leon was stunning, danced to Phillip Glass, whose music is always gorgeous to dance to (although I don't much like listening to it for its own sake). The piece uses video projection, stage manipulation and a beautiful effect with a black fabric. Since some of the men were bare chested, rather than wearing suits, you could see their bodies much better and you could see how beautiful their movement quality is, how elongated and stretched they are. They are also incredibly strong, hitting their positions precisely and with no extraneous and unnecessary movement. Watching them made me wish there was a way for me to dance with them.
13 March 2011
LA Ballet turns 5
I saw the Celebrations performance of LA Ballet yesterday with a few dance friends. We've all been attending performances to support this company since its inception. This program consisted of two Balanchines (Raymonda Variations and Western Symphony) and a new piece created by Sonia Tayeh, who most people know from So You Think You Can Dance.
Sonia's Piece was beautiful and very moving, called The Greatest Fear, choreographed to Arvo Part's music. The lighting was very dramatic, adding to the drama on stage. The dancers were all wonderful, fully committed and completely involved in the piece.
You couldn't say the same for the two Balanchines. Raymonda Variations is wickedly difficult and the dancers were not up to the task, but even in the easier passages in both ballets, they seemed to be going through the motions, without any of the emotional connection that I thought they had with the Tayeh piece. Aside from Melissa Barak, very few of the dancers were familiar to me from previous seasons. It's a shame that the company appears to lose their best dancers to companies with longer seasons.
I'm looking forward to their next performance of Giselle. I'd like to see what they do with a non-Balanchine story ballet.
Sonia's Piece was beautiful and very moving, called The Greatest Fear, choreographed to Arvo Part's music. The lighting was very dramatic, adding to the drama on stage. The dancers were all wonderful, fully committed and completely involved in the piece.
You couldn't say the same for the two Balanchines. Raymonda Variations is wickedly difficult and the dancers were not up to the task, but even in the easier passages in both ballets, they seemed to be going through the motions, without any of the emotional connection that I thought they had with the Tayeh piece. Aside from Melissa Barak, very few of the dancers were familiar to me from previous seasons. It's a shame that the company appears to lose their best dancers to companies with longer seasons.
I'm looking forward to their next performance of Giselle. I'd like to see what they do with a non-Balanchine story ballet.
Two LA dining experiences
This was one of those weeks when dinner invitations seem to pop up unexpectedly. I had dinner on Wednesday with a couple of designer friends at Whist Restaurant in the Viceroy Hotel. The restaurant is just to the right as you enter the hotel lobby. The hotel is designed by Kelly Wearstler who has made quite a name for herself with her distinctive flair for hospitality design and the decor is very dramatic and interesting. A small lounge area near the dining room looks like a great place for drinks and happy hour. The menu is fairly eclectic, with a selection of small plates, seafood and pastas.We shared a crispy potato appetizer and figs with burrata. Both were well done. For my main, I had the black sea bass. The sauce had a mild curry flavour to it, which set off the fish nicely. The dessert was a standout. We had the pear tart tatin with goat cheese ice cream and kumquat preserves. The crust on the tart tatin was not great but the pears were perfect. The goat cheese ice cream was quite an interesting flavour and texture combination on the tongue and the kumquat preserves had a nice sourness to it, but it was when all of the flavours were combined that the dessert really came together. Each flavour brought out something in the others that weren't apparent before. The service was fine but not exceptional.
On Thursday, I had what may have been the best all around meal that I've ever had in my life at Providence. This restaurant is one of the few in LA with Michelin stars (receiving 2 in 2009) and I think I now understand what kind of experience is expected at such an establishment. The restaurant is located in an out of the way part of LA, a mostly residential neighbourhood east of La Brea. The interior is a nice dark taupe colour with interesting shell and flower decorations on the walls. The specialty of the house is seafood. They feature several versions of tasting menus as well as an a la carte menu. We ate off the a la carte. We started by sharing the cold dungeness crab appetizer and the Santa Barbara spot prawns. Before we get our appetizers, the server brings out an amuse bouche for each of us, consisting of parsnip soup with a port reduction and parmesan foam. Wow, what an amazing little taste. First you get the essence of parmesan via the foam, then the sweetness of the parsnip soup followed by the wallop of intensely concentrated port sauce. Great way to start the meal!
The crab came layered with grapefruit, pine nuts and cilantro with a sheet of jellied grapefruit on top, all of the flavours just sparkling off the tongue. The prawns arrive at the table via serving cart, in a copper pan and covered in salt (so just their antennas are poking out). The server brushes the salt off of the giant prawns, cuts the heads off of each, slices the bodies and heads in half and arranges them prettily on the plate. The freshness and slightly salty flavour, bringing out the sweetness of the prawns is amazing. Yes, I tried a little of the head.
For my main entree, I had duck (not really seafood, but they do swim). They serve it medium rare (this should be mandatory, really). It comes with braised cabbage, chanterelles and bacon. The acidity of the cabbage really sets off the fat of the duck, and the chanterelles and bacon add agreat texture. Our first dessert was a beautiful chocolate mousse with gingerbread crumbs and an amazing sauce. The second one was a combination of peanut butter, banana and jalapeno, the heat of the pepper just enough to bring out the flavours of the other components. Again with both of these dishes, the whole was much greater than the parts. Before receiving our cheque, the server brought out three small confections to end the meal-beet sugar macaron, chipotle chocolate marshmallow and thai jelly. My favourite was the marshmallow.
Although the food is clearly exceptional here, what really makes this restaurant stand out is the service. There is a main server who describes the menu and takes your order. There were at least 2 or 3 other servers who brought dishes out, supplied bread if you wanted it, cleared plates. One gentleman handled all of the prawn preparations. The sommelier suggested an insanely good red wine from Umbria, which was decanted at the table, and he continued to keep the glasses filled throughout the night (no one else touched the wine, and our glasses were never empty). Service was professional, subtle and at a level I've personally never experienced.
This is definitely a place to go for special occasions and I'd love to be able to try the chef's tasting menu some day-just leave yourself in his capable hands. There is an option to have a wine pairing with all of the tasting menus (2 oz pours of each wine) and they also have a dessert tasting menu.
On Thursday, I had what may have been the best all around meal that I've ever had in my life at Providence. This restaurant is one of the few in LA with Michelin stars (receiving 2 in 2009) and I think I now understand what kind of experience is expected at such an establishment. The restaurant is located in an out of the way part of LA, a mostly residential neighbourhood east of La Brea. The interior is a nice dark taupe colour with interesting shell and flower decorations on the walls. The specialty of the house is seafood. They feature several versions of tasting menus as well as an a la carte menu. We ate off the a la carte. We started by sharing the cold dungeness crab appetizer and the Santa Barbara spot prawns. Before we get our appetizers, the server brings out an amuse bouche for each of us, consisting of parsnip soup with a port reduction and parmesan foam. Wow, what an amazing little taste. First you get the essence of parmesan via the foam, then the sweetness of the parsnip soup followed by the wallop of intensely concentrated port sauce. Great way to start the meal!
The crab came layered with grapefruit, pine nuts and cilantro with a sheet of jellied grapefruit on top, all of the flavours just sparkling off the tongue. The prawns arrive at the table via serving cart, in a copper pan and covered in salt (so just their antennas are poking out). The server brushes the salt off of the giant prawns, cuts the heads off of each, slices the bodies and heads in half and arranges them prettily on the plate. The freshness and slightly salty flavour, bringing out the sweetness of the prawns is amazing. Yes, I tried a little of the head.
For my main entree, I had duck (not really seafood, but they do swim). They serve it medium rare (this should be mandatory, really). It comes with braised cabbage, chanterelles and bacon. The acidity of the cabbage really sets off the fat of the duck, and the chanterelles and bacon add agreat texture. Our first dessert was a beautiful chocolate mousse with gingerbread crumbs and an amazing sauce. The second one was a combination of peanut butter, banana and jalapeno, the heat of the pepper just enough to bring out the flavours of the other components. Again with both of these dishes, the whole was much greater than the parts. Before receiving our cheque, the server brought out three small confections to end the meal-beet sugar macaron, chipotle chocolate marshmallow and thai jelly. My favourite was the marshmallow.
Although the food is clearly exceptional here, what really makes this restaurant stand out is the service. There is a main server who describes the menu and takes your order. There were at least 2 or 3 other servers who brought dishes out, supplied bread if you wanted it, cleared plates. One gentleman handled all of the prawn preparations. The sommelier suggested an insanely good red wine from Umbria, which was decanted at the table, and he continued to keep the glasses filled throughout the night (no one else touched the wine, and our glasses were never empty). Service was professional, subtle and at a level I've personally never experienced.
This is definitely a place to go for special occasions and I'd love to be able to try the chef's tasting menu some day-just leave yourself in his capable hands. There is an option to have a wine pairing with all of the tasting menus (2 oz pours of each wine) and they also have a dessert tasting menu.
05 March 2011
Paul Taylor Dance Company
This venerable modern dance company was in New York when I was there on a business trip. They were performing at City Center, which is just one block north of the hotel that my company puts us up in, so I took advantage to see them perform. I didn't know much about the company, but Paul Taylor is one of the founders of modern dance in America. He's still running the company and creating pieces for them. The program I saw consisted of Company B, Phantasmagoria and Promethean Fire. The company uses the same three people to design costumes, sets and lighting for all of their pieces.
The first piece was set to music by the Andrews Sisters and the costumes had a war-time look and feel to them. The dance was composed of various vignettes that captured that mood of each of the songs, ranging from fun to melancholy to sexy. The second piece was set to Renaissance music, with a mish-mash of costumes from peasants to a nun to an Irish step dancer and an East Indian Adam and Eve. Again, the piece was a series of vignettes although in this case the various odd and mismatched characters went in and out of each other's stories. This piece had a lot of humour in it, which was a nice change of pace from so much of modern dance.
Up to this point in the evening, I had been enjoying the performance and the strong dancers but not overly impressed. The final piece blew me away. The music was Bach, starting with the Toccata and Fugue, the preferred theme of all organ-playing villains everywhere. The costumes were black full length camisole suits with a silver chevron pattern and the stage was set with dark backdrop and dark floors. The music is enough to make you kind of sit up and take notice, but as soon as the dancers started moving, you could feel the entire audience become electrified. This was one of the most remarkably emotional dance pieces I've ever seen. And I'm not the only one who felt this way, as I saw another woman wiping her eyes after wards. This piece also has some of the most beautiful corps patterns I've ever seen in modern dance (which is not much known for choreographing for a group like that). This is one of those pieces of performance that makes me glad to be alive and to be able to experience it.
At the end of the evening, Mr. Taylor came out and took the stage with his dancers to bow to the audience.
The first piece was set to music by the Andrews Sisters and the costumes had a war-time look and feel to them. The dance was composed of various vignettes that captured that mood of each of the songs, ranging from fun to melancholy to sexy. The second piece was set to Renaissance music, with a mish-mash of costumes from peasants to a nun to an Irish step dancer and an East Indian Adam and Eve. Again, the piece was a series of vignettes although in this case the various odd and mismatched characters went in and out of each other's stories. This piece had a lot of humour in it, which was a nice change of pace from so much of modern dance.
Up to this point in the evening, I had been enjoying the performance and the strong dancers but not overly impressed. The final piece blew me away. The music was Bach, starting with the Toccata and Fugue, the preferred theme of all organ-playing villains everywhere. The costumes were black full length camisole suits with a silver chevron pattern and the stage was set with dark backdrop and dark floors. The music is enough to make you kind of sit up and take notice, but as soon as the dancers started moving, you could feel the entire audience become electrified. This was one of the most remarkably emotional dance pieces I've ever seen. And I'm not the only one who felt this way, as I saw another woman wiping her eyes after wards. This piece also has some of the most beautiful corps patterns I've ever seen in modern dance (which is not much known for choreographing for a group like that). This is one of those pieces of performance that makes me glad to be alive and to be able to experience it.
At the end of the evening, Mr. Taylor came out and took the stage with his dancers to bow to the audience.
Dining in New York
I was in New York for a short business trip and of course we took advantage to try a few new restaurants. Our first location was Geisha, on 61st between Madison and Park. The food is Japanese. I'm not a sushi fan, so I stuck to cooked items. I started with lobster dumplings and shrimp lollipops, both quite good. My main was a salmon in miso, perfectly cooked. Dessert was a chocolate cake with a delicious ginger-y sauce and tiny dollops of ice cream along with some fresh oolong tea.
Our second evening, we had booked a table at OTTO Enoteca, one of Mario Batali's places. It's one of his many restaurants in NY and located at the end of Fifth Ave. where it meets with Washington Square Park. This is a casual pizza and pasta restaurant, with a large bar area in front and characteristically loud dining room. Because we had a pretty big group (6 people) we decided to order a bunch of things and share. We started with the sformato di parmigiano, which is basically a mini parmesan souffle, but that doesn't begin to describe it. It's the most delicate, creamy, airy cheesy thing you'll ever taste. For pastas, we did the short rib with tomato sauce and a special agnolotti with fennel seed and a cream sauce. The short rib was very good, but the agnolotti was exceptional, with a very light fennel aroma. Our pizzas were the funghi and taleggio, prosciutto arugula, and the special with lamb. My favourite of these was the funghi (of course) but the prosciutto was also very good. The special thing about the pizzas is the crust. Very very thin, but crisp all the way through, even at the points of each triangular slice, which tend to flop over on a thin pizza. For dessert, I had the Black and White, which was mint chocolate chip gelato, creme fraiche gelato, hazelnuts and chocolate and caramel sauce. Apparently this is the favourite dessert in the house, because after I got it, I realized the wait staff had been bringing these out of the kitchen past our table all night. Wine was a delicious Tuscan recommended by the sommelier. We were well stuffed by the time we left, so we walked back to our hotel at 56th Street via 5th Ave., taking in all the wonderful sights of NY along the way (Flat Iron building, Madison Square Park, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, etc.).
For lunch on the 2nd full day, I joined a colleague at the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien where we were staying. This is an odd little place. The hotel itself is very European chic. The burger place is tucked around the corner, a little room covered in plywood with patron's graffiti all over it, cash only and it carries only burgers, fries and sodas. The burgers are exceptionally juicy and the fries are amazing. The place was packed, we barely grabbed ourselves a couple of stools, and by the time we left, the line to get in was around the corner and almost to the hotel lobby.
My final meal had to be a relatively quick one, since I was seeing a performance at City Center, so I grabbed a seat at the bar at Rue 57 (at 6th Ave.). They have a nice cocktail menu, food leans towards French bistro fare, and service is friendly. The bar was a popular place it seems for the after work crowd, grabbing a beer with their buddies before hopping on a train to go home.
Our second evening, we had booked a table at OTTO Enoteca, one of Mario Batali's places. It's one of his many restaurants in NY and located at the end of Fifth Ave. where it meets with Washington Square Park. This is a casual pizza and pasta restaurant, with a large bar area in front and characteristically loud dining room. Because we had a pretty big group (6 people) we decided to order a bunch of things and share. We started with the sformato di parmigiano, which is basically a mini parmesan souffle, but that doesn't begin to describe it. It's the most delicate, creamy, airy cheesy thing you'll ever taste. For pastas, we did the short rib with tomato sauce and a special agnolotti with fennel seed and a cream sauce. The short rib was very good, but the agnolotti was exceptional, with a very light fennel aroma. Our pizzas were the funghi and taleggio, prosciutto arugula, and the special with lamb. My favourite of these was the funghi (of course) but the prosciutto was also very good. The special thing about the pizzas is the crust. Very very thin, but crisp all the way through, even at the points of each triangular slice, which tend to flop over on a thin pizza. For dessert, I had the Black and White, which was mint chocolate chip gelato, creme fraiche gelato, hazelnuts and chocolate and caramel sauce. Apparently this is the favourite dessert in the house, because after I got it, I realized the wait staff had been bringing these out of the kitchen past our table all night. Wine was a delicious Tuscan recommended by the sommelier. We were well stuffed by the time we left, so we walked back to our hotel at 56th Street via 5th Ave., taking in all the wonderful sights of NY along the way (Flat Iron building, Madison Square Park, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, etc.).
For lunch on the 2nd full day, I joined a colleague at the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien where we were staying. This is an odd little place. The hotel itself is very European chic. The burger place is tucked around the corner, a little room covered in plywood with patron's graffiti all over it, cash only and it carries only burgers, fries and sodas. The burgers are exceptionally juicy and the fries are amazing. The place was packed, we barely grabbed ourselves a couple of stools, and by the time we left, the line to get in was around the corner and almost to the hotel lobby.
My final meal had to be a relatively quick one, since I was seeing a performance at City Center, so I grabbed a seat at the bar at Rue 57 (at 6th Ave.). They have a nice cocktail menu, food leans towards French bistro fare, and service is friendly. The bar was a popular place it seems for the after work crowd, grabbing a beer with their buddies before hopping on a train to go home.
San Francisco Ballet
I went to a performance of San Francisco Ballet last Friday with my mom. Tickets here are expensive, so we were up in the first balcony. The program consisted of 3 ballets performed to Tchaikovsky's music. The first piece was Balanchine's Theme and Variations. This is a notoriously difficult piece. Frances Chung and Taras Domitro were in the lead roles and they handled the difficult and very fast steps admirably.
The second piece was Kenneth MacMillan's Winter Dreams. I love MacMillan's choreography in Romeo and Juliet. This was a premiere of this piece at SFB. The story is based on Chekov's "Three Sisters". The program didn't give a lot of detailed information on who all the characters were, even though they were all listed by cast in the program. It would've been nice to get some kind of summary for those of us who are not so versed in Russian theatre. The role of the sisters were performed by Sofiane Sylve, Maria Kochetkova and Lorena Feijoo. The ballet did have a very strong theatrical feel to it and even without knowing the story, you could see that this was a family of people and they were not a happy bunch. The heart of the story is sister Masha and Sofiane Sylve was exceptional in the role. This ballet was performed on a dark floor with very low lighting, which unfortunately made the men, in their dark costumes, very difficult to see from our seats.
The final piece was a new one by SFB's Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson. This piece was lighter, brighter and a lot of fun. It's divided into 3 sections, based on Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, with a slower middle section. Sarah Van Patten was wonderful in this part, with her two partners, Tilt Helimets and Vito Mazzeo. The costumes in this piece were beautiful.
The second piece was Kenneth MacMillan's Winter Dreams. I love MacMillan's choreography in Romeo and Juliet. This was a premiere of this piece at SFB. The story is based on Chekov's "Three Sisters". The program didn't give a lot of detailed information on who all the characters were, even though they were all listed by cast in the program. It would've been nice to get some kind of summary for those of us who are not so versed in Russian theatre. The role of the sisters were performed by Sofiane Sylve, Maria Kochetkova and Lorena Feijoo. The ballet did have a very strong theatrical feel to it and even without knowing the story, you could see that this was a family of people and they were not a happy bunch. The heart of the story is sister Masha and Sofiane Sylve was exceptional in the role. This ballet was performed on a dark floor with very low lighting, which unfortunately made the men, in their dark costumes, very difficult to see from our seats.
The final piece was a new one by SFB's Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson. This piece was lighter, brighter and a lot of fun. It's divided into 3 sections, based on Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, with a slower middle section. Sarah Van Patten was wonderful in this part, with her two partners, Tilt Helimets and Vito Mazzeo. The costumes in this piece were beautiful.
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