First, my family took me to Susan Feniger's new restaurant Street for my 21st birthday. Besides the inviting and interesting decor--white graffiti-like drawings all over the black and orange walls and a really great playlist--the concept itself is great. It's been a while since I ate at a restaurant with a cohesive message other than just, well, gourmet _____ food (fill in the blank with geographical adjectives like French, Italian, Moroccan, etc.) And of course there are so many new places that are trying to do high-end takes on low-end food, like burgers, pizza, hot dogs (see below), but Street takes a gourmet approach to ALL street food, all over the world, all under one roof.
The choices are endless, yet that night it seemed like my family was on a particularly asian-influenced bent. I would wonder what mixing Japanese gyoza with Moldovian meatballs or Cuban stuffed potato cakes would be like, but alas! I don't know. (I'll just have to go back!) We had the following items:Indian Vada Dumplings: "crispy dal fritters topped with yogurt sauce, mint sauce, and tamarind date chutney"
Japanese Shizo Shrimp: "marinated shrimp rolled with shizo, nori seaweed, and crispy dough; served with ponzu, grated radish, and wasabi"
Vietnamese Corn: "wok cooked medley of fresh corn, spring onions, and glazed pork belly"
Roasted Enoki Mushrooms: "in sesame marinade topped with fried enokis"
Massamun Chicken Curry: "traditional Southern Thai curry with chicken, red yam, and mushrooms simmered in coconut milk and spices of Muslim Indian influence"
Korean Barbequed Shortribs: "in asian pear rice wine marinade; served with asian pear salad and roasted enoki mushrooms"
The Vada dumplings and Shizo shrimp were perfect starters--both still perfectly crisp and served with the perfect pairing of sauces. Considering that pork belly makes everything taste better, the Vietnamese corn was probably my favorite dish. It was very rich and salty in some bites (salty means good for me---I'm a salt fiend, and I love when I don't have to add any extra salt to a dish), yet fresh at the same time, balanced out by the corn. I was underwhelmed by the shortribs, which are by nature fatty but seemed in this case to be only fat. The chicken curry was great too, but nothing I haven't had before. The one outstanding thing about the curry was the addition of red yams--from now on I think all curries should have yams in them.
Our plates went together pretty seamlessly, as we shared everything between the four of us, but mainly because we picked food from the same general geographical location in the world. Sharing everything also limited some of the choices--if I were dining with one other person, I probably would have considered one of the noodle or soup dishes. But sharing Beef Pho didn't seem that easy. My drink was one thing that didn't go with the meal. For my first legal drink, the mint julep was calling my name because I really wanted the Knob Creek Bourbon they had on the menu. But after a while I was wishing I had tried the salted Lhassi with toasted cumin and mint....if only they had an alcoholic version.
Just writing this I'm convinced I need to go again for another taste testing.
LA Times Review
Street Website
More to come on 8 oz. Burger Bar...
RIBS AND MUSHROOMS. DO WANT.
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