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 :)