The hot sun was shining down on me hard the day I first tasted it. About fifteen people deep in line I waited my turn impatiently. One by one, people walked away gleefully with their treat and I inched closer to the table. Finally it was my turn. There was no moment of hesitation when I said firmly “Watermelon & Basil!”
Excuse the Ludo Bites count down but I just adore the food there and the fact that you can b.y.o.b. with no corkage. The combination of excellent food and no corkage is rare. So I returned this week, the last week of the event, with a few more friends.
We started off the night by popping off the cork on a shiraz and going to work on the bread basket with Echire butter. Our large cheese plate was served up shortly after featuring these pairings:
Epoisse (Cow) – honeycomb
Mimmolette (Cow) – pink grapefruit confit
Petit Basque (Sheep) – date puree and sea salt
Morbier (Cow) – toasted hazlenut paste, licorice
Le Cornilly (Goat) – spiced Prune
Cherry tomato aigre-doux, rigatoncini pasta, poached lobster in tamarind butter
I went back Ludo Bites a few times since my post but haven’t written about any new subsequent dishes. And there are new dishes or little edits every week! My initial plan was to go eat there every week but unfortunately this did not come to fruition. But next week is the last week of Ludo Bites and a small panic set in. It’s been over a month since I ate there and I wanted to come back and see what was going on.
Last week when Karina was in town she suggested a group dinner at Ludo Bites, a collaboration between Breadbar, Beverly Hills Cheese Store and Chef Ludovic Lefebvre. This sounded intriguing. I’ve never had Chef Ludo’s food before at L’Orangerie or Bastide, either being a poor student or a poor college graduate depending on what year it was. Dinner at Ludo Bites turned out to be an absolutely amazing night of food, fun and excitement. A night of beautiful quenelle of feta mousse over juicy and sweet heirloom tomatoes; an amazing spread of cheeses with equally amazing condiments most of which were made by Chef himself, especially the addicting pink grapefruit confit; chile spiked chocolate mousse; and so much more. Karina and Dawn both wrote great posts on this magical dinner with beautiful photos to accompany.
I attended the very delicious Bloggers ‘N’ Beer event at Library Bar with the tasting menu created by beer sommelier Christina Perozzi. The beer choices were excellent and the menu came in these little library cards, all in order from lightest to strongest. Ok, I’m a sucker for cute things and the library card menus were brilliant!
Back to the beers.. here was the menu:
1. 1903 Prohibition Lager – Craftsman Brewery (Pasadena, CA)
2. Blanche de Chambly – Unibroue (Chambly, Quebec)
3. Saison Dupont – Brasserie Dupont (Tourpes-Leuze, Belgium)
4. Maudite – Unibroue (Chambly, Quebec)
5. Inversion IPA – Deschutes Brewery (Bend, Oregon)
6. Black Butte Porter – Deschutes Brewery (Bend, Oregon)
7. Road Dog Porter – Flying Dog Brewery (Denver, CO)
8. Westmalle Trappist Tripel – Brouwerig Westmalle (Province of Antwerp, Belgium)
I think Boy and I have tried all of those before, except the Road Dog Porter. My beer memory is not so good as Boy’s but why do I need beer memory when I can just turn to him and say “hey, did we try this before”? I know, so lazy of me. Hey it’s equal exchange – he provides beer & beer knowledge and I provide food and somewhat truthful food knowledge.
I really gotta give it to Boy though for introducing me to quality beer and really piquing my interest in this delicious drink. Before I was just a beer drinker, and now a more discerning beer drinker. Seriously I’ve never met anyone who was so into beer as he is. To my dismay his fridge is always packed with beers and no food. I practically forced him to start this blog beerblahblog.blogspot.com telling him that only cool people blog. Hehe.
The menu actually had one of my favorite beers ever – Saison Dupont from Brasserie Dupont. I have hailed Brasserie Dupont as my favorite while sipping on some delicious Saison Dupont from Boy’s living room at least a few times while raising my chalice up and admiring the beautiful lacing. I can’t get enough of that yeasty character, a reason why I also really love Brut Champagne. There are only two alcohols that ever make me really swoon – that is a really good saison and really really good dry Champagne. Ok, and maybe a really piney floral double or triple IPA.
Christina on the right with friend
Christina came over and talked to us for a bit about the beers we were drinking. She’s so knowledgeable and easy going too. Very cool that she is considered one of the top beer experts on the West Coast. Go grrls! All I know is imma be drinking more beer and try to learn more too.
Check out her blog www.christinaperozzi.com.
Pics from the event (not taken by me) HERE.
imma.eat.chu 