This has been one. crazy. month so far, and it's far from over. This past month, I packed up and moved (temporarily) ~400 miles to Los Angeles for a short four weeks. During that time, I drove three round trips between the Bay Area ↔ Los Angeles and 2 side trips (to Pomona and Davis), racking up a total of roughly 2500 miles behind the wheel. I gave five (different) talks at five different universities and really slept no more than five hours every night (on good nights). And, of course, there was the main reason that I moved: launching a new research project with a collaborator at UCLA. Anyways, I did say it's been crazy, right?
Given this breakneck schedule, I really didn't get to explore as much of the wonderful LA food scene as I would have liked, but I did make sure to carve out a bit of time one Thursday evening to visit one of my favorite bakeries in the city: Huckleberry in Santa Monica. The reason I wanted to go on a Thursday evening was because it's the one night a week that they turn their attention from pastries and breakfast to dinner. And oh.my.gawd, the Thursday evening dinner at Huckleberry was amazing.
Served family-style, we had dates stuffed with curry mascarpone for amuse bouche, followed by a huge bowl of bright cucumbers, fennel, olives, and frisee tossed in light and (at the same time) velvety mustard dressing. For the main came this big platter of some of the best fried chicken I've ever had, perched atop a bed of white bean cassoulet, which was this hearty, thick, warm-your-soul tomato-y and bacon-y stew. Uh! so, so good! Dessert was simple and sweet, with softly macerated raspberries ladled over an ultra-flakey egg-custard-filled tart. (Their dinner menu changes every week.)
As I said, this month is far from over yet (okay, fine technically, an extended month, but all the days are blurring together at this point). I'm off to the UK next! Tea and scones, here I come!
More details in subsequent posts, after I'm able to get more sleep, I promise. :)