Get Ready, Ludobites is Back.

Ludobites is back for another limited engagement, this time at the first maid cafe this side of the world, Royal/T (and yep, some old faces from the previous Ludobites may be wearing maid outfits serving you). A group of bloggers were lucky enough to get a sneak preview the night before the opening, all thanks to the Fooddigger team!

• Why we love Fooddigger:

They not only get the LA food blogging community together, algorithmically match our palates, and throw dinners for us, they throw dinners like no other. Whole suckling pig, special tastings, and this time, a taste of the new Ludobites before they open.

• Why we love Ludo's wife, Krissy:

While some restaurants think we camera-toting foodbloggers are annoying, she buys a light box to indulge us with great lighting. Yep, so if you're wondering how we got such great photos for this dinner, she's the hero. She's also the power force running the floor, maneuvering the legal side of the restaurant business, and handling the reservation (so get on her good side!).

• Why we love Ludo (9 reasons below):

1. Scallop, Brown Butter, Pineapple & Black Powder
The raw scallops were slightly cooked with the addition of the hot brown butter. The scallops were fresh and delicate, with a nice tartness from the pineapple. The black powder was really made from squid ink and added an interesting texture to the dish.

2. Bread Soup with Gruyere Marshmallow
Who thinks of things like "bread soup"? Ludo does, apparently. Bypasses the need to dip bread into your soup I suppose? Either way, this creamy soup made from Breadbar's Rustic Bread, paired with the poached egg is the perfect warm bowl for a cold night.

3. Foie Gras Beignet, Celery Roots Remoulade
The deep fried beignet is glazed with honey and holds 2 oz of foie gras inside. The most indulgent of indulgence, the richness of 2 oz of foie gras will knock you out. The beignet itself acts as a container for all the juice and moisture that comes out of the foie as they're cooking in the deep fryer. You're going to need that honey and celery root to cut all the richness.

4. Squid, Chorizo Oil, Kimchi Puree, Red Onions, and Eggplant Paper
A perfectly cooked squid with a texture like no other and a delicateness that's accentuated by the spicy kimchi puree and chorizo oil acting as both flavor and texture enhancer. The red onion added a slight tartness the brings the dish to yet another level while we were all marveling over how to make that thin eggplant paper.

5. Veal, Udon, Kombu Dashi, Mushrooms & Sesame Seed Miso
A lovely udon. It surprised me the Ludo can make a bowl of udon like this. The noodles had a nice chewy texture and the flavors of the tender veal and the kombu dashi hit the spot as a great umami flavor should.

6. Wild Striped Bass, Garden Vegetables, Aioli
A return to classical French cooking with the tender and moist fish. The highlight here is the combination with the aioli and crisp cauliflower.

7. Marinated Hanger Steak, Crunchy Escargot, Baby Corn, Bok Choy, Black Olive Mole
It was less than 2 weeks ago that Ludo learnt the art of mole making from Glutster's mom and already here he is blowing us away with his creamy and flavorful black olive mole that elevates the flavorful and tender hanger steak. The escargots are crunchy on the outside and chewy inside - simply addicting.

8. Fourme D'Ambert Tourte, Red Pears, Honey-Balsamic
The Fourme d'Ambert is a pasteurized cow's milk blue cheese that supposedly dates back to the Roman Times. Although the cheese normally has a semi-hard texture, in the tourte form it is soft and creamy. With the intense flavor of blue cheese and the warm crispy crust, this was one delightful tart. The crisp red pear and the tangy honey balsamic did well in cutting the richness, making a balanced dish.

9. Chocolate Cake, Coconut Sorbet, Caramel Coffee
A thick and decadent chocolate cake is paired here with a lightly sweet and cool coconut sorbet soup resulting in a clean and refreshing finish. The sprinkles of pink peppercorn on the other hand gave it that light kick that took this dessert to another level.

Yet another great meal from Ludo. We came in with high expectations and we were blown away once again. I'm certainly looking forward to my future meals here, and if you haven't made your reservation yet, they are sold out but get on the waitlist to snag those cancellations (they do have cancellations for tonight - opening night, just contact Krissy the @Frenchchefwife)!

And thanks to Brian from Fooddigger for handling all the wine pairing!

Ludobites at Royal/T
8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA
http://www.ludolefebvre.com/ludo-bites/royal-t

Fooddigger at Ludobites:"Pushing the Boundaries"

A dinner hosted by Fooddigger is no mere dinner. Before there was the whole suckling pig prepared specially for us at Ford's Filling Station. Then there was the amazing sushi dinner at Shibucho paired with vintage Bordeaux, most of which were older than me.

Here at Ludobites, as expected the wine-collecting Fooddigger co-founders Brian and Marshall came bearing some great wines which they hope to pair with the mystery meal prepared by Chef Ludo. Before the dinner started, we had fun comparing each other's Flavor Match scores based on a short survey we took on Fooddigger a few days before. Apparently my best flavor match of the group was KevinEats.

I've been to Ludobites three times before, but that night's dinner was a big surprise even to me. I felt like I finally got closer to Ludo's true tour de force.

The most memorable and notable dishes for me that night were these:

Tuna sashimi with sushi-rice ice cream.
With all the usual ingredients and flavors, Ludo deconstructed and reconstructed it to a wholly unexpected dish. The sushi rice ice cream tasted like rice, and even had similar density to rice, but the texture and temperature is completely different.

Chorizo gazpacho, onion ice, with cornichon
The chorizo gazpacho tasted like, well, chorizo, and very pleasantly so. Bursting with that spicy flavor but without the oil and grease. The onion ice, which is the green island in the middle, cools down the heat in your mouth, so you can keep eating more and more.

Foie gras tart, maple syrup, mushrooms
The big soft slabs of foie gras contrasted with the crunchy texture of the raw mushrooms. The fat is cut with the sweetness of the maple syrup. Not to mention the truffle essence that really takes the cake.

Vanilla panna cotta with caramel and caviar.
Panna cotta with caviar seemed so strange to everyone at first, but together everything worked harmoniously well. The saltiness of the caviar combined with the thick caramel is strongly reminiscent of salted caramel, which complements the rich and sweet panna cotta very well.

Thanks to Fooddigger setting up this dinner for us bloggers, we got to try some of Ludo's dishes we probably would never have at Ludobites. Some dishes Ludo himself said he had done in Bastide's 16-man kitchen and that he wouldn't do it again at Breadbar's small kitchen. Luckily we got to try it before he realizes what a feat it was ...

I no longer remember what wines we had that night but you can find more on the other bloggers' posts: Kung Food Panda, Gastronomy, Alli411 (not up yet), Two Hungry Pandas, Grubtrotters, Teenage Glutster, Rants&Craves (not up yet), KevinEats (not up yet), DianaTakesABite.

I was expecting something special out of this Fooddigger dinner, and it certainly delivered. I thought that what they said about the vision they had for these dinners and Ludo's ideas are quite a match: It's all about pushing the boundaries.

Shibucho Makes Me Squeal Like a Little Girl

Pairing wines with sushi might sound strange at first, but as a group of foodies experienced firsthand at the end of last year, the two make quite a pair.

Last year? Yeah I'm backlogged. Workin on it! Anyway, Fooddigger has been bringing foodbloggers and foodies around town together on many occasions last year. For their last dinner of the year, KevinEats, Tangbro, inomthings, FoodGPS, sinosoul, and I joined part of the Fooddigger family at Shibucho for a night of great sushi, and great vintage wines.

Now, the good thing about posting late is that I get 'cheat sheets' from the likes of Kevin who takes detailed notes, especially for all the wines that I can't keep track of! and inomthings who already did the background on some of the fishies we had that night.

The wines for the occasion were actually brought in by the wine collectors among us (not I), including the Fooddigger people and Kevin. Here are the red wine lineup.

Oh and when I say "vintage" wines I wasn't kidding. The youngest wine was a 1989, but everything else was older than me with the oldest being a couple 1975 wines.

We toasted the started of the night with a 1978 Dom Perignon, courtesy of Kevin and Tangbro. Light, crisp, and sweet. I wasn't a big champagne fan prior to this one glass.

Foodwise, We started with some ankimo in ponzu sauce.
This was one of the best ankimos I've had yet, the texture being smoother than most. This actually went quite well with the champagne and apparently even better with the red wine we had next, the 1982 Chateau Pavie-Decesse.

Sunomono of mirugai (geoduck clam), aoyagi (surf clam), and hotate (scallops)
Light, and sweet. The marinade was apparently white miso (thx inomthings) which explains the sweet but mild and not overbearing taste.

Next we had bincho maguro/albacore salad in ponzu sauce. Nicely prepared as the ponzu draws out the flavor of the albacore but the lettuce and tomatoes helped cut the acidity of ponzu which I normally don't like too much.

Then onto a series of sashimi. First up is some fatty bluefin tuna (chutoro)
The chutoro is not the fattiest cut, but it's very fresh and still had a nice fattiness to it.
The toro, along with the other tuna, works quite well with the red wine.
We also had some regular blue fin maguro, and tai (red snapper) sashimi, followed by buri sashimi
Buri is "old" yellowtail (yellowtail goes through 3 periods in their life cycle and are called kanpachi, hamachi, and buri, respectively). I don't think I really enjoyed buri before this, but apparently buri is fattiest during the winter, i.e. at the time I ate this, so it makes sense that I like this one better than previous ones.

Salmon salad with onions, arugula, and salmon roe, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Then we had an ... eggplant parmesan. This was a surprising dish considering we're eating at a sushi restaurant but apparently Shige-san is known for occasionally serving western-inspired dishes.
Possibly the best eggplant I have ever had. Unlike other 'eggplant parmesans' this one is lightly sauced, which makes it not overbearing (not saying that all others are) but it's subtly sweet and very delicious. Shige-san also stated that Japanese eggplants are very different and much better than any other counterpart. This eggplant parmesan was quite sweet, but light.

Afterwards was a series of delicious, fresh sushi, for example this toro sushi.
Inomthings and I both let out a squeal as this beauty went into our mouths, prompting Shige-san to ask "Oishii deshou?" *nod* *nod* *munch* *munch*

Probably even more than toro, I loooove my hamachi belleh!
Smooth, fatty, delicious melt-in-your-mouth. Mmmm.

More great sushi followed (hirame, kinmedai).

After all the sushi, we had a daikon stew with buri kama (collar).
Given that this was in mid-December, this was such a perfect dish. Buri is apparently fattiest in the winter, and daikon is in season also during the winter months. The daikon was sweet and so~ soft. I kept thinking back to this dish throughout the winter, especially when I was down with a cold. Sigh.

At the end of the meal, Will from Fooddigger was apparently craving some uni! He asked who else wanted an uni hand roll. Well, uh ... me? me? :D
Some of us split some uni hand rolls, so we each got half a handroll.
The uni was sweet and creamy. A very nice way to end the meal. Well, pre-desserts, that is.

Instead of serving Japanese desserts or mochi ice cream or fresh fruits, Shige-san served Western-style desserts, and everyone got something different (like this tiramisu)- fun!
I was happy to get the blueberry tart since I love blueberries.

A feast. A feast like no other, and I probably will not have another like this. Just the wines alone were such a privilege to drink. My favorite was the 1976 Rioja Bosconia (R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Rioja Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva ). And to top it all off with such great sashimi, sushi, and the amazing eggplant and daikon stew .... Mmmm. Not to mention sharing it all with such great foodie company. Twas a night to remember.


Shibucho
3114 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90057
(213) 387-8498
http://www.shibucho-la.com/

Whole Suckling Pigs and Foodbloggers at Ford's

Two whole suckling pigs and a bunch of foodbloggers.
I'm probably the last of the foodbloggers to write my report up, but at least most of you would've read it on everyone else's blog!

Sometime ago, right after all of us drooled over the Los Angeles Bizarre Foods episode where Andrew Zimmern eats suckling pig at Ford's Filling Station in Culver City, Fooddigger invited some of us foodbloggers for that very same meal at Ford's!!
LA&OC Foodie, iNOMthings, Teenage Glutster, Mattatouille, Matt from Diglounge, Food Destination, KevinEats and Tastespotting were all there, along with our hosts from Fooddigger.
Chef Ben Ford personally came bearing our platter of suckling porky goodness - head and all - which have been prepared for the past two days, just for us (feeling special!).
The platter consisted of different preparations including porchetta, confit of pork shoulder, pork loin, etc ...
(photo courtesy of Mattatouille)
The head is not there just to scare you - you're supposed to eat the cheeks which are supposed to be the best part of the pig :)

We also had a variety of side dishes including brussel sprouts with bacon and cavalo nero (kale):
Another side was the kabocha squash risotto:
The other side was roasted carrots with pomegranates.

I didn't think the sides worked too well with the main entree. Both the risotto and the brussel sprouts were pretty good individually, but very heavy, and so were the other vegetables. Too heavy to accompany an already-heavy suckling pig dinner! That was why my favorite were actually the pomegranate ...

Since we were eating whole suckling pigs, we of course had to have some offals (or close to it!).
One was the tongue salad with crispy pig's ears
This was one of the highlights of the meal for me. Loved the crispy pig's ears and the texture of the tongue. Having the salad was a nice refreshing change from all the ... well, pork.

As far as "offals" go we didn't stop there. We also had deep fried PIG'S EYES.
There were only 6 eyes (4 + a couple extra he took from other piggies), so we had to share .... All I can say was that the texture was ... interesting :)

For desserts each section of the table shared two desserts:
1. Hawaiian bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream
Moist and refreshing - the sourness of the kumquats and the fruitiness of the bread pudding itself was great after this heavy meal!

2. Chocolate Walnut Torte
The chocolate torte is unfortunately a little dry. Despite my completely biased preference for chocolate, I have to say the hawaiian bread pudding wins hands down that night.

Somehow I ended up with half of the leftovers. The pork loin made for great lunch/dinner along with the pork confit sandwich :P
This was a very special treat, since chef Ford does not normally make this unless by special request, and we all had a blast! Dining with other foodbloggers is a completely different experience - thanks to Fooddigger for getting us together for this special


Ford's Filling Station
9531 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
Phone: (310) 202-1470
http://www.fordsfillingstation.net/