Field Trip LA! - Farmers Market in Santa Monica

A series of posts from visiting interesting little (and large) cafes, food-related establishments and other places of inspiration.

If you are in LA on Wednesday mornings this Santa Monica farmers market at Arizona Avenue and 2nd street is the place to be. Larger than the market that opens on Saturday mornings in roughly the same spot, Wednesdays are more of a trade day, with restaurant staff from the area coming to stock up on what's in season.

The colours were amazing

I'm used to farmers markets in Japan like the one outside the UN University with comparatively small amounts of produce arranged very neatly, and much of it processed into jams, juices and pickles already. In California the mountains of herbs, root vegetables, corn and brassicas roughly piled up in their raw state was quite a sight to behold. I fear I may have been a bit snap-happy but everywhere I looked was beautiful or interesting, or both!

Kale chips ahoy!

There was quite a variety of interesting businesses selling at the market - from raw milk, freshly squeezed juice, to famous sourdough, Japanese vegetables, hair relaxers, lavender and sprouted beans.

Many of the stalls had samples to try, so you could compare the different olive oils and nuts etc. These strawberries from Harry's Berries were so good that I ended up buying some despite having no intention to when I took the sample.

Even better than Japanese strawberries!

The fact it was a thriving trade market lent something to the atmosphere. It wasn't as passive and strolling as the Saturday version (I went back!), people were very actively hunting for the best stuff, stock was shifting off the shelves at a pace and being topped up before eventually selling out. There was quite a community feeling about it as well, people from the nearby restaurants catching up and passing on tips on what was good that day. It all came full circle when we ate at a local restaurant on our last night in LA and “Farmers Market” was used as an adjective on the menu to sell the fresh tomato tart.

I left the market with a huge bunch of sunflowers, Belgians bread, some Californian olive oil and 3 packs of Harry’s Berries strawberries. My advice – take a big bag with you when you go!

Field Trip LA! - great coffee in Venice

A series of posts from visiting interesting little (and large) cafes, food-related establishments and other places of inspiration.

From brewed coffee at the doughnut shop to artisan coffee in hipster central. On our way back to Santa Monica we stopped at a popular coffee shop in Venice - Intelligentsia. My friend had wanted to go for a while but the weekend line outside that had piqued her interest also seemed too much trouble to wait in with a baby. Today however we were in luck!

The queue outside the shop turns out to be a bit of a product of the space design - the company want each person to have an individual experience of ordering their coffee, and so everyone waits in the corridor until a barrista becomes free, hence frequent lines.

Look at all those MacBooks!

Once inside the converted industrial shop space you are served by mustachioed and waistcoated baristas who work behind an encircling counter of glass, wood and metal that takes up most of the shop floor.

The effect was a little steampunky, particularly with the re-purposed lighting equipment sticking up here and there. The flat caps and bow-ties had me feeling a little embarrassed on their behalf, but I think they didn't mind. Perhaps the uniform choice is a play on the name, and they were gents? Perhaps this is just how people in Venice dress. Either way, the coffee was excellent! ("And what makes excellent coffee?" I hear you ask...)

Latte art lesson in progress

What's particularly interesting about this company that has shops in Chicago (the first, 1995), New York and LA is that they not only roast their own blends but also work with growers and millers to develop their own direct trade coffees.

The growers are paid more than fair trade rates, directly, and Intelligentsia get to develop the best product they can with them, or as they more artfully state - "continuously expand(ing) economic opportunity and culinary possibility." I like an idea of a positive feedback loop built into a business model, I hope it continues to work for them.

A beautician's lens used as a lamp

Not a bakery or cafe but an honourable mention. Next door to Intelligentsia coffee more or less is a shop called Bountiful Home with perhaps the most cake stands you'll ever see in one place.

Stacked to the ceiling on every surface were what I thought were ceramic stands and glass domes of many shapes and sizes. The lady at the counter informed us that they are all glass, and that the green part is milk glass. They had a couple of different colours but mainly the striking pale green, which is the same shade as the 1940s jadeite items produced by Fire King (though these are new and not branded as Fire King).

1940s style jade-ite salt and pepper pots

As a souvenir from the trip I got a medium-sized found cake stand that fits a 9 inch cake. The airplane boxes they made up for me ensured, somehow, that the fragile glass dome survived the trip to Japan. I wonder how long it'll survive with use... very delicate!

Didn't get, but wouldn't this be great for Battenberg?

Update!

Wait, don't go away yet, look what I found - Identity Coffeebar+gallery. A small coffee bar in Harajuku, branded as Intelligentsia. Now you can try Intelligentsia's direct trade coffee and buy the beans in Tokyo. (The staff at Identity did not wear steampunk uniforms, but were very friendly ;) )

Field Trip LA! - musings on 3 types of bakery

A series of posts from visiting interesting little (and large) cafes, food-related establishments and other places of inspiration.

A world away from Bezian's stall and sourdough, while I was nearby Riverside we happened upon the shop of the winner of the Food Network's Cupcake Wars show, Casey's Cupcakes. This was an extremely pink and candy-striped store.

Despite what one might read online, cupcakes seem to be alive and well on the high street in California at least, when we arrived there was a line outside the door.

I am not interested in running a purely cupcake-based business, though I sometimes think it would be a smarter move than a more diversified business. With sponge bases and frostings you could switch up the flavourings and decorations and have a simplified supply model for ingredients and packaging, as well as regular processes to perfect. A little easier than the logistics of doing various pies, bread and cakes anyway.. hmm. Well, perhaps it would be easier to make money, but I wouldn't be doing this for the money, I have to also enjoy it. :)

A little more up my street (and not only because they were giving away mini chicken empanadas at the door, honest!) was Porto's, a Cuban bakery we visited in Downey. This is a huge bakery with two vast banks of counters filled with savoury pastries, croquettes, sandwiches, fresh cake slices and whole cakes.

It was my friend's birthday that day so we wanted to pick up a treat. After being tempted by the idea of getting a selection of slices to try a few different types of cake we plumped for a whole mango cheesecake. There is something special about having a full round of cake to cut and share at a celebration. They wrote 'Happy Birthday' in beautiful script, that's one thing I'm definitely going to need to practice...

My trip to the US would not have been complete without a visit to a doughnut (sorry, donut) shop! We tried donuts with peanut glaze and one filled with jam. It struck me again, looking at the huge amount of choice, that, like the cupcake shop, the basic recipe and processes are the same for many of the products and the impression of diversity and choice given largely through how they are decorated or through adjustments to the base recipe.

This chain was crammed both front and back. This sneaky photo of the back room shows the packs of sugar and buckets of super speedee glaze (pdf). The glaze is made of sugar and maltodextrin which is a common artificial sweetener and filler. I wonder if it's being used to make the sugar go further, or to reduce calorie content in the finished product?

Huge choice of brewed coffee too

Doughnut alternatives at the till

One other place I would have loved to visit while in LA was the La Brea bakery, started in 1989 on South La Brea Avenue by Nancy Silverton. It became an iconic bakery, home of sourdough and is now a huge business supplying part-baked breads to businesses all over California. I gather that the bakery has reopened nearby the original location this year. Unfortunately my schedule didn't allow for it this visit, so we’ll just have to go back :)

Field Trip LA! - Bezian bakery stall

A series of posts from visiting interesting little (and large) cafes, food-related establishments and other places of inspiration.

Next up, the baking bits of my LA trip. Starting off at the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market which was just around the corner from our hotel, I sought out the Bezian Bakery sourdough bread stand. I had come across a few very enthusiastic articles on Bezian bread a little while ago as well as noting the wildly varied warnings and endorsements on Bezian's Yelp listing, and so I was interested to try the bread for myself and see what a sourdough that generates this much love and hate tastes like.

Like many people I'm resistant to evangelism (video of Jack explaining his opinions) and the harder someone tries to convince me of a particular message the more skeptical I feel I become. So I wasn't sure what to make of all the emphatic and underlined statements on placards around the stall such as "most people who have a wheat intolerance do well with our 'well bred' bread" and "Plant protein damages your intestines meaning the more you eat the sooner you're dead". What was clear is that Bezian is keenly dedicated to his cause and has a lot of information to share - he's there to talk to at the stall. Whether you agree with what he says is up to you.

I bought a plain sourdough boule and a multi-grain sourdough. The first thing I noticed was how soft the crust is for a sourdough, they are also all quite pale and none of the loaves had expanded much along the slashes in the oven. I'm guessing the lack of oven spring and paleness is a product of the very long fermentation that Bezian Bakery say they use in order to get the nutritional results they are after, and I'm guessing from the soft crust and colour that the oven temperature might be lower than most bakeries use. They were much easier to slice than other sourdoughs I've had (not so chewy - again possibly to do with the long fermentation breaking down the gluten more than other sourdoughs), and were markedly sour in taste and fragrance.

That evening we did a little taste test with the two Bezian sours and a french stick, and if I'm honest I found I do prefer a crustier loaf - though to be fair it does appear that his priority in making the bread is more about health as opposed to taste. It did also occur to me that my conflicted feelings about the various messages behind the bread may have spoiled my chances of enjoying it with a clear head!

I packed up the rest of the loaves to try them again back in Japan but unfortunately they went moldy quickly in the Tokyo humidity and so we didn't get a second try. Hopefully we'll get another chance to try his breads and work out how we feel about it all a bit more fully.

Apparently it's possible that Bezian Bakery will lose their spot at the Santa Monica market shortly, but with such an enthusiastic following I'm sure there will continue to be a way to get his bread.

Field Trip LA! - The Museum of Jurassic Technology

A series of posts from visiting interesting little (and large) cafes, food-related establishments and other places of inspiration.

Following on from the post about the hotel we stayed at, another place that felt like it was from a different time and place was a museum not too far away from Santa Monica in Culver City - The Museum of Jurassic Technology. A tip-off from a learned friend, I'll admit my first thought was along the lines of 'Dinosaurs didn't have technology..' but trusting my friend would know better, and after a skim of their abstruse and intriguing website, I decided it must be worth a visit. I'm so glad I went.

Spotted from across the street after a little hunting near a park with those beautiful purple flowering trees I saw everywhere in LA, we thought it must be closed. No windows, no lights or signs flashing "open", just a fountain and a big heavy door. We pushed... and stepped into the darkness. Eyes adjusting from the bright Californian sun outside (what theatre!) we discerned the reception desk and confessed to not knowing much about where we were.

Having a hungry, not-yet 1 year old infant in tow, we were kindly directed to the "tea room and courtyard" at the top of the building. Navigating a dark pathway past mysterious exhibits in glass cabinets, paintings and projections, we emerged at the top of the building, again into brightness, into a magical roof garden of cornices and ferns, doves, a reflecting pool, lamps and flowers.

Rooftop hanging garden

Sunlight streamed into the Persian style garden around banners of white fabric as one person was reading quietly and another was playing a nyckelharpa.

As with the garden, with the baby now fed we discovered that the rest of the museum is an evident labour of love. Founded in 1988 by David (the above nyckelharpist, we later learned!) and Diana Wilson and evolving since, it felt like a strange mix of science, art, literature and superstition. There is an exhibit on the Soviet dogs who were sent into space, along with an interactive sniffable Proust vitrine, a couple of rooms about cat's cradles and instruction on how to tell the temper of a person from a strand of their hair.

The slideshow at the entrance (which we listened to last, of course) reminds us that "in its original sense, the term, "museum" meant "a spot dedicated to the Muses, a place where man's mind could attain a mood of aloofness above everyday affairs." This is a museum that encourages engaged wonder and skepticism, even about the business of being a museum itself, as opposed to a more passive reception of dogma. It won't tell you what to think - the only things you are told explicitly are where you can enjoy the refreshments provided, and not to take photos (the moment I realised this I put away my camera!).

Wholly civilised guidance

Many exhibits were participatory with buttons to press and moving parts, projections that started up at intervals, their sound layering, and lots of bending forward to look into viewing screens or microscopes. One simple presentation choice I particularly liked was the listening stations. These were a couple of black corded phone receivers hung next to various exhibits in the dimness. When you put one to your ear to listen to more about a display, it became an intimate experience that felt like listening to a person speaking directly to you. The voice was hushed, calmly but keenly relating information like a speech-based radio presenter. Quite a different experience to the usual one of walking around a white cube gallery with an ear piece.

Coming through this museum in the 'proper' way then, via a long trail of discovery through the labyrinthine exhibition rooms, reaching the dazzling garden on the roof must feel particularly transcendent. I imagine that each visitor will come away with an experience unique to them and will form their own narrative about the museum, and this was mine. For a more detailed take, have a look at this post or try this frustratedly baffled article ("The exhibit is untitled. There is no explanatory text.") from the LA Times. :)

I look forward to returning, to delight in more of the curiosities it holds and to be “guided along, as it were, a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life” (Charles Willson Peale, from the museum's introduction and background)

Field Trip LA! - The Georgian Hotel

A series of posts from visiting interesting little (and large) cafes, food-related establishments and other places of inspiration.

This month we visited Los Angeles, a first for me. It's always invigorating being away from home and noticing things freshly as only visitors tend to do. I'm planning to write a couple of posts based on things I came across during the trip including a wonderful farmers market, two or three bakeries, cafes and some musings from visiting a couple of special spaces - which is where we'll start.

When not staying with friends in Riverside, our base was in Santa Monica. We chose to stay at The Georgian Hotel, uniquely done up in aquamarine paint and deck-chair striped awnings and just across the road from the beach. I couldn't quite be sure from photographs online whether it would work or be gaudily hideous but the effect was quite elegant in real life.

I loved even the more kitschy flourishes like the saber-tooth tiger head mouldings above the entrance, with gold teeth. I later read that the said beasts roamed the plains of what became Southern California 10,000-40,000 years ago and enjoyed the decorations more.

Check out those gnashers!

The Georgian is a short walk from a big shopping street called 3rd Street Promenade, which we wandered along on our first evening somewhat dazed from the long flight just as it was in full Saturday night swing with buskers every few metres. Wednesday and Saturday mornings an amazing farmers market opens also nearby, and it's also a short walk to the pier with its rides and restaurants.

The hotel was built in the 1930's before Santa Monica was very developed and served as a bit of a hideaway from Hollywood attracting the likes of Clark Gable and Carol Lombard. According to the notice near the lift, the property was refurbished in the 1960's as a set of upscale long-term apartments, and more recently returned to life as a hotel in 2000.

Not that the notice near the lift or the hotel information book (which I devour eagerly upon closing the door for the first time and flopping onto the bed at any hotel I stay, I'm not very classy) tells you, but there is a real prohibition-era speakeasy under the hotel! Well, it's not an operational bar any more, but it still looks the part with all the leather booths and someone can take you down to see it if you ask nicely.

AND, as if that isn't enough, the speakeasy is "haunted." :) We didn't witness any visitations during our quick peek, but the dim lights and slightly damp smell juxtaposed with a somewhat of a threadbare boardroom vibe made for an unusual atmosphere. :) I wonder what it would be like with music and people down there for a party?

Away from the speakeasy, through the low basement corridor and back upstairs then you're at the lobby and the entrance-way which is surrounded by a veranda restaurant where you can look across to the sea and enjoy the sunset with a cocktail (they have a prohibition cocktail menu - I liked the French 75). Nice place to be.