Taste of the Nation

June 7, 2015 was the Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry by Share Our Strength. It was a well done event in Culver City’s Media Park. We were happy to have VIP Valet Parking and early admittance with our tix. We immediately went to the VIP lounge hosted by Maru and staked out a table with 4 barstools — good choice! Have someone hold down the fort while you scout out the food.
Maru: a beautifully seared scallop atop two raviolis with English pea purée in a Tahitian vanilla sauce. Good.
Mud Hen Tavern: freshly made flatbread topped with refried beans, sautéed chorizo with walnuts and topped with shredded cabbage and a cilantro crema. WOW!
Ray’s: fried fish sandwich made from skatewing with a coleslaw, shaved onions and Tabasco aioli. The roll was a skip, but the fish was super moist and the slaw was great. The aioli was undetectable.
Mainland Poke — an thin slice of watermelon radish was topped with salmon poke and a slice of Fresno chile with siracha mayo and fish roe and cilantro. A+
Border Grill: shredded kale Caesar with fried Cotija cheese croutons served with a mushroom quesadilla made with browned mushrooms and 3 kinds of cheese.
Black bean brownies from Kye’s in Santa Monica: while they are 85% black beans, vegan and gluten free, they are incredibly rich, chocolatey and delicious.
Valerie’s Confections: salted caramel bread pudding which was very good for bread pudding.
Knuckle and Claw: lil cup with a piece of brioche toast topped with little bits of lobster. Skippable.
Scarpetta: a piece of yellowfin tuna with a vinaigrette and fried sunchokes with togarashi. Very good.
Union & Pasta Bar: spelt cavatelli in a slow cooked pork sugo with little beans and finished with olive oil, Romano cheese and a little basil. Meh.
Bazaar: the Philly Cheesesteak/​amazing air bread is filled with cheese foam and topped with three pieces of thinly sliced Wagyu beef and minced chives.
Venice Whaler: little crab cake was in a Meyer lemon yogurt sauce with dill and topped with an arugula salad. Meh.
Cliff’s Edge: grilled octopus with plum sauce, plums, peas and pea tendrils from. Surprisingly good.
B.S. Taqueria: Campechana Verde (chopped squid, scallops and snapper with chopped cucumbers in a tomatillo-​cilantro sauce and topped with a fried tortilla). Meh.
Maru: a peach tart with crème fraiche ice cream. Perfect!
Culina: carbonara tortellini over a spring pea purée with a little Meyer lemon cream. Wow!
Hinoki & the Bird: honeydew panna cotta topped with a honeydew sauce and had a ball of honeydew and a lemon meringue. Very good.
Churchill: House smoked bacon was topped with a cucumber slaw, pickled cherries and almond crunch. Good.
East Borough: fried chicken wings and drumsticks in a really spicy sauce and finished with scallions and ginger. A-​okay.
Faith & Flower: lobster parfait which was a bowl with pieces of super tender chopped lobster tossed with cubes of Persian cucumber drizzled with lemon cream and topped with trout roe. Very good.
La Brea Bakery: a farro and white bean salad in a vinaigrette with bits of broccoli and herbs and salted caramel bread pudding. Good.
Barrel & Ashes: terrible cube of smoked brisket and a good watermelon salad, which was a cube of jicama and a cube of watermelon that had been marinated in a vinaigrette.
Eagle Rock Brewery: jerk marinated salmon that was topped with a bit of apple and cilantro. A+
Pono Burger: guac with ginger and ponzu was meh but new burger with a brioche bun was topped with a medium well grass fed beef patty and mashed avocado with chimichurri and sweet potato chips was A+.
Plan Check Burger: chef’s favorite burger with a brioche bun topped with baked tomato leather, a grass fed beef patty cooked to medium, melted cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, quail egg, baked cheese and Thousand Island dressing. A+
Joe’s Restaurant: chia seed pudding. Meh.
Slapfish: half crab-​half lobster salad in a split top butter roll. Very good.
Terrine: lamb belly with a summer bean salad of little white beans, yellow beans and haricot verts that were tossed in a puttanesca sauce with little Kalamata olives. A++
The Wallace: a braised beef cheek topped with smoked onions, a slice of Fresno chile and a tapioca chip in a drizzle of crema picante. A+++
The District: traditional rice noodle salad with a bite of lemongrass skirt steak and crispy chicken roll. Very good.
Tom Bergin’s: chicken slider (brioche bun was topped with an inch square of deep fried white meat chicken and topped with a vinegary slaw and marinated shaved red onions). A-​okay.
Dog Haus: Chili con Corny which is a piece of spicy sausage that was dipped in a masa batter and deep fried and served in a house made pepper jack cheese sauce and topped with crushed corn chips. Meh.
Mc Connell’s Ice Creams was serving the lemon and marionberry ice cream — meh; weird aftertaste.
Salt & Straw: a lemon cheesecake ice cream with a guava swirl. A+
Chloe’s Soft Serve Fruit Co.: blueberry and dark chocolate bars. A+

I have volunteered for this event for the past three years. This is such an amazing experience for both volunteers and for attendees! The tickets are on the higher end of the spectrum, but this is a charity event, which means that all proceeds go toward a great cause! Share Our Strength is the charity organization, whose goal is to ensure that NO KID GOES HUNGRY.
There are tons of gourmet Los Angeles restaurants, bars/​breweries, wineries, dessert shops, and snack shops that gather here to provide generous samples of delicious foods to guests. From Campanile LAX to Border Grill, to Valerie’s Confections, and even Beachwood BBQ Brewery, your taste buds will be delighted by the amazing concoctions.
There is live entertainment, a silent auction, and lots and lots of celebrity sightings, including many celebrity chefs (many whom you’ve seen on Top Chef!).
A great time to be had by all. Enjoy!

It seems like there is a food event every other weekend in Southern California. Some of these events are worth trying and some of these events should be an annual pilgrimage. Taste of the Nation is a food event that should not be missed and maybe LA’s best. This was my first time attending and I can’t wait till the next year.
My plan was not to over indulge, but that would be tough. I headed straight to most visually appealing food first and that was Nona Sivley and Kerry Simon’s lamb lollipops with hibiscus glaze on fava bean purée. It was nicely cooked and a great start to the day.
What happened next was a complete blur. The Bazaar/​Tres served their signature olive spheres, a burst of pure unadulterated olive flavor. They also served a delicious grilled octopus tacos, served in bib lettuce with flowering cilantro. The octopus was tender, the taco itself was good, but could’ve used some acid.
Then came Campanile’s olive oil fried egg served on grilled bread with olive tapenade and a tomato concasse. Putting a fried egg on top of perfectly grilled bread, is not fair. Simple but delicious.
Chaya restaurant group was the next food tent and I was not sure what to expect here. But Chef Shingefumi Tachibe really impressed me, as a matter of fact, my favorite single bite of food was the Hamachi Mole Pressed Sushi. Clean, great texture and perfectly seasoned. Their Sukiyaki short rib with porcini mushroom purée was also delicious.
I had to grab a beverage, so I headed over to The Spare Room and they were offering the Nantucket Sound. Boy have cocktails come a long way, this drink included the following: chamomile and lemon balm infused Plymouth gin; Bianco vermouth; and cantaloupe juice, served over spiced ginger sorbet. So refreshing, but back to the food. Up till this point there really weren’t any lines, but at Go Burger, had a line, all for a burger? This better be good. I grabbed a lamb slider with minted goat cheese and grilled fava relish. If grading on looks, this burger would get an A, but for flavor this burger got an A+. Perfectly cooked medium rare, well seasoned and just great lamb taste. I want another one right now.
I’m still pacing myself at this point and skipping any dishes that I may have tried before. So I decide to head over to the VIP tent to try out what Chef Michael Voltaggio had to offer. Wagyu beef tongue cold cuts with pickled red onion, pumpernickle bread and mustard snow, the tongue was perfectly cooked, super tender and all together the dish was delicious. He also had an ice bar, with micro-​cones, ice cream flavors included olive oil, bacon and blueberry pancake. I tried the olive oil and it was really good, so rich and creamy with a subtle olive oil finish. They also had my favorite cocktail of the day, their version of a Pimm’s Cup using gin, sweet vermouth, Triple Sec, orange bitters and Peychaud’s bitters; he combined it with fresh lemonade and garnished it with cucumber, mnt, borage, freeze-​dried apples and strawberries.
AFrame served their signature pop corn, Buttered furikake kettle corn topped with Benton’s bacon, dried pineapple, and fresh shiso. Lukshon served chicken pops, The Red O, had pork belly sopes and grilled blue mazatlan shrimp served on fresh jicama «chips». All of these dishes were good.
Okay, so this was just one side of the venue, I had yet to visit the other side. Next up, Osteria Mozza served porcini rubbed barbecued short ribs with salsa verde. This reminded me of kalbi, but a touch too sweet for me.
I missed the king crab chive dumplings at WP24, but I did get a taste of their chow fueng roll with braised beef short rib. This was a successful interpretation, but it just doesn’t compare to the delicate chow fueng made at most dim sum restaurants.
The torta de lengua from FIG restaurant was another amazing preparation of beef tongue. And the escabeche served with the sandwich was awesome. Border Grill’s offerings were Cold poached Alaska salmon on a jicama tostadita, topped with tomatillo herb salsa; Alaska crab and quinoa fritters with aji amarillo aioli, piquillo pepper romesco. I enjoyed the crab on the quinoa fritter, but the salmon was pretty bland.
All of this food and I only had about half of what was available. So much for my plan. I expected the food to be amazing and it was. But the surprise was the amazing cocktails being served at this event. Some of the best I have ever had. Thanks to everyone that contributed and donated their time for this event. You did an amazing job.

There’s nothing better than food, drinks and charity all in one event. Yesterday, the annual TOTN foodie fest took place to help end childhood hunger. It occurs once a year mid-​June in Los Angeles. They have other events in other cities as well (like the nearby Laguna Beach). This is by far the BEST food event I have ever been to.
Forty seven of the best restaurants in LA county were in attendance serving up two to three delicious dishes each. It ranged from chicken pop to rabbit rillette and from duck fritters to grilled octopus salad. Everything was superb, and I was stuffed going just halfway through. Beer, wine, hard alcohol, and aqua frescas were served to quench your thirst. Also, cupcakes, cookies, fonuts (faux donuts), gelato, panna cotta and meringue cookies, amoung others, were all there to satisfy your sweet tooth.
I am definitely coming back again next year!