Going Greek on Mardi Gras

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For many years, I stared at an abandoned store space when I walked out of my parking lot everyday. Then rumors emerged that a Greek restaurant was going in…I still stared at the empty space everyday. Many months later, construction permits appeared but nothing was happening. Many more months later, a plywood wall went up outside the space but nobody knew what was going on, not even my friends who own the bars on either side of the space. It was like watching a movie on pause but advancing it one frame at a time.

Then one day suddenly, it opened for business.

Looking for a place for dinner on Mardi Gras, we decided to celebrate the day our way, by doing Greek.

Opa is a beautiful restaurant dominated by its bar in the center of the dining room. One side of the exposed wall is accented with a full length metal and stained glass trellis of circles that extends up to the ceiling and transforms into a wood overhang overlooking the dining room.

Antho

Feeling like something different, we started with this $10 cocktail made with cucumber vodka, lemon, and dill. The Antho was refreshingly and sour with a good dose of dill flavor. It certainly stood out from the usual sweeter and fruiter cocktails favored by the popular demands.

Grilled Octopus

The octopus was absolutely tender (supposedly braised for 4 hours) with a nice hint of grill flavor. There were some crispiness on certain pieces but unfortunately it was overshadowed by a slight heavy hand of salting. The chickpea fondue was done without any dairy product. It resembled very much like a dryer but tasty version of chickpea and tomato stew. The sauce on the plate was supposed to be chili oil but somehow we couldn’t detect any spice from the oil. $12

Kokorestsi

Not sure if this was done in the traditional way of roasting over a pit. This $10 plate of lamb sweetbreads, liver, and heart arrived in the form of a nicely packed ball with pieces of intestine on top. The sweetbread was a bit elastic however the flavor was excellent. Being a muscle, the heart was very tender and could have passed for being a piece of veal. The intestines on top supposedly bind everything together; they were flavorful but chewy. Taken as a whole, this was a very interesting and flavorful dish with each component having its unique texture and flavor. There was a lot of grizzle in the sweetbread which the kitchen should have taken better care in the preparation.  I though the fries were an odd complement for the kokoretsi but their crispiness and seasoning did a good job in cutting the heaviness of the dish.

Toourlou

A savory dish of stewed zucchini, greens, gigante beans, okra with a poached egg on top.  This is a vegetarian’s delight at $11. The vegetables were delightfully prepared with the right crispiness and yet allowing its flavor to come thought. And…everything tastes so much better with a runny egg on top.

Rabbit

The meat was braised in wine, then shredded and mixed with the house-made pasta, olives, capers, carrot and topped with keafalotiri cheese shaving. This was a very satisfying comfort food dish with a well balance of flavors. The meat was absolutely tender. It tangoed so well with the delicately soft pasta and the sauce that it made me forget the pasta was more done than I prefer. When I placed the order, I was wondering how much meat I would get for this $16 dish. I found my answer as I kept digging into the dish and rewarded with fork full after fork full of meat. I definitely had gotten my USDA recommended dose of daily of protein.

Baklava

For $8.00, you do get a large piece of layered phyllo with chopped walnuts, honey and spices folded inside. It did not have that hit-you-in-the-face sweetness, the walnuts still had a nice snap to the bite and the filling was not gooey. There were some nice pieces of fig in the fig ice cream on the side. It was very nice on its own as well as quite delightful as a pairing with the baklava. Although neither the baklava nor the ice cream was over the top sweet, there was sufficient sugariness in the dish to stop me from finishing the dessert without going into a diabetic coma.

Greek coffee

That was one of the more interesting serving vessels we have seen for Greek coffee. Unfortunately, the coffee was not as interesting as the vessel it was served in. It lacked the intensity that we were expecting and it also wasn’t the most flavorful rendition, but the serving vessel was worth the price of the admission.

Opa is a beautifully built restaurant with intricate finishing touches. The service was attentive with our waitress kept checking up on us and our water glasses were never less than half-filled. It was also a very slow night. As any newly opened restaurants, the kitchen has its ups and downs. The food was well thought out with its execution almost there. There was grizzle in sweetbread and tiny bones in the rabbit meat that could be easily taken care of with a little more attention paid to the prep processes. We have subsequently returned to Opa and enjoyed a few cocktails at the bar while watching “beautiful”

Samson Street

and the cars going in and out of my garage across the street through the huge opened windows on a Spring night. An interesting conversation with the bartender over beer led to his creation of an interestingly made beer cocktail for us with Victory Prima, vodka, and a Greek liquor with a name that I couldn’t pronounce.

The Urban Dictionary defines “opa” as “A word that Greek people use for no apparent reason at all” but I find it plenty of reasons to visit this place.

Opa!

http://opaphiladelphia.com/

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The Lazy Meal

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At the fringe of Little Tokyo, across the street from the gift shops and restaurants selling run of the mill tourist-trap Japanese buys and eats sits a very unconventional restaurant. The Lazy Ox Canteen can easily be missed as a neighborhood bar serving Coronas and cheap nachos with its non-descript exterior. Yet, the slightly industrial and rustic interior reveals a place ready to put out edgy cooking with quality ingredients and a drink list to match.

The restaurants in Little Tokyo have full size plastic mock-ups of the entire menu on display neatly arranged in the window. A world away across the street, Lazy Ox has its nightly special menu of locovore farm fresh cuisine on chalk board overlooking the bar.

I started with a refreshing California brewed 4.4% North Coast Scrimshaw pilsner while the Tourist Tree sipped a more serious 10% Port Brewing 4^th Anniversary. We then moved to the 8.7% Gordon IPA from Colorado and the Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza, a refreshing 8% strong golden ale from Michigan which got our appetites going.

There was a 5 for 5 happy hour special with 5 small plates for $5.00 each but we were attracted to the unique specials on the chalk board and some of the interesting items on the regular dinner menu.

Squash Blossom with Ricotta, Prosciutto

Squash is a vegetable. Squash blossom is the flower from the plant that produces the squash. I can’t imagine what drug made the first person decide to make this flower a food and how high the rest of the people were when first served this.

These blossoms were stuffed with ricotta and prosciutto, fried, then drizzled with honey. The crunch of the batter followed by the softness of the warm cheese and accented by the saltiness of the meat and the sweetness from the honey made this a very nice textural and taste experience.

Pig Ear “Chicharon” with radish salad and lime

One word: “Awesome”. My taste buds were dancing in joy with these crispy goodness full of gelatin softness inside. They were nicely seasoned with a light sprinkle of salt on top. Not so much a chicharons in the traditional sense but they were definitely in the spirit with the preparation. This dish met all the qualifications to be a great snack for drinking.

Beef Tartar with Tarragon Aioli

Light and refreshing are not the two words that are used regularly to describe a beef tartar but somehow there were the words that I was thinking when we were enjoying this dish. The freshness in the raw beef, the spice, and the slight vinegar note from the mustard just made everything feel so right. The mustard note was carried along to the toast with a light spreading of the substance which also carried a little spice kick.

Dashi Marinated Yellowtail with Avocado, Hash Browns & Tonburi

Freshness, along with a delicious marinade. It is similar to a cheviche but more or less as a “lite” version. The hash browns were an interesting companion for the fish but they stood out on their own with their lightness and crispiness. They were very appetizing and we liked this dish very much.

Ox Heart a la Planchu with prawn

Plancha is a Spanish method of grilling food on a metal plate. Tourist Tree made a face when I wanted to order the ox heart. However, the inviting aroma got her curiosity when it arrived in front of us. The ox heart was tender, cooked perfectly, and tasted just like a slight gamely version of beef. It worked very well with the green tomato and red onion on the plate with its vinger’ish, lime’ish seasoning. This dish won the Tourist Tree’s approval.

Blistered Shihito Peppers

It sounded good. It looked good. But we were not impressed. It was just peppers done in a deep fryer. We were expecting some spicy peppers with crunchy on the skins but it didn’t happen.

Grilled Octopus and Squid with Zhoug

They were grilled perfectly, tender and full of sweetness. I expected some heat from the zhoug which was famous for its fiery spice in its native Yemen but I guess the chef had dumb it down for the LA crowd. The dish also had a sweet fruity dimension from the red grapes on the plate.

Fried Rabbit Liver with Cucumber and Salmorejo

Salmorejo is a soup/sauce originated from Southern Spain. It is made with pureed tomato, bread, herb, garlic and vinegar. The rabbit liver was crispy crisply fried and served with a cucumber salad with the salmorego used as a sauce on this dish. The liver was very mild tasting and would be a great introduction for those who would usually say “Ew” with organ food. The frying did not make this dish feel heavy since the vinegar in the cucumber salad balanced out the flavor quite well. The salmorego was also less heavy then expected. I guess not too much bread was used in this particular rendition which worked very well as a tasty companion to the fried rabbit liver.

Lamb Neck Hash with Fried Jidori Egg & Pickled Mint Onions

Anything tastes good with a runny egg on top. The lamb neck hash certainly did not need the runny egg to taste good. It’s tender. It’s savory It’s delicious. It sat on top of a bed of tiny zucchini, spring onion, pea, and pickled mint. The pickled mint was interesting. It had the consistency of chard but tasted minty. Jidori is the rave in LA. It is a free roaming, all organic Japanese chicken known for its freshness since it is delivered to the chef commonly within 12 hours of leaving the farm.

The “Egg”

 

This item did not spike our interest on the menu but it got our attention when the chef delivered one to his friend sitting next to us. It is a breakfast in a shell consisting of the egg, very finely diced panchatta, crème fraiche, maple syrup, cream of wheat, and garnish. It was an unbelievable delicious comfort food intermingling with each other in harmony. A bite size meal in an egg!

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We walked into the Lazy Ox Canteen for drinks and a few bites for happy hour figuring we would have plenty of time to catch the plane home. Somewhere along the timeline, we decided to leisurely order more food, one course at a time. Our lazy meal at the Lazy Ox turned into a 2 ½ hour of very enjoyable culinary eye-opening adventure. We did make our plane on time and slept very well all the way home.

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 http://www.lazyoxcanteen.com

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