21 Courses of Fantastic: SAAM

My apologies for taking a blog break. I hope at least a few of you have missed lil ole LCG. Here's one I've been meaning to post for a while now...

For my birthday Big N surprised me with a trip to SAAM, the exclusive chef's tasting room at newly opened SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. The tasting room is in the back of the bustling Bazaar Restaurant, seats only 40 guests, though when we dined there were barely 15 people there, and resembles a library reading room. I was delighted to discover that I would be feasting on 21, yes 21, courses that evening. Luckily Big N warned me that I should be very hungry for my surprise dinner. Since there's 21 courses to talk about, I'll only hit the highlights, but be prepared to be wowed. We started with a few "snacks" as they like to call them. Memorable ones included the olive oil bonbon, which were liquefied olives in a crystal candy shell, and the cotton candy fois gras, a morsel of goose liver wrapped in cotton candy. Strange I realize, but you really must try them to appreciate these salty/sweet bite size delicacies. For the "soup" the waiter made fresh gazpacho, but brought a canister of liquid nitrogen tableside and actually froze the gazpacho until it was sorbet-like. Fun.
The main courses were mostly items from the sea: sea urchin, bluefin toro, smoked salmon, and a delicious prawn served on a squeezy tube for a skewer. You bite the prawn and simultaneously squeeze the sauce into your mouth. We also had wonderful kobe beef and a lovely Norwegian Lobster, among several others. The courses are so creative and unique, that the waiters have to give you instructions on how to eat them. Another fun use of the nitrogen was the "dragon's breath popcorn," which are caramel corn bits frozen in nitrogen, so that when you bite into them, it's so cold that smoke comes out of your nose. Entertaining to say the least, but a bit gimmicky. With 21 courses you get 2 desserts, but my favorite was the coconut in a "half shell," which was frozen coconut milk that actually resembled a half-shelled coconut, with passion fruit vanilla bean sauce.

SAAM definitely impressed, though it's not for the picky eater.
Chef Jose Andres used to be the soux chef for Ferran Adria at el Bulli in Spain, one of the most famous restaurants and certainly the most renowned chef in the world. If you can't get to el Bulli, you can come close to tasting greatness at SAAM for $120, plus $40 for wine pairings. I'll be going back just as soon as the menu changes for the season, with friends. If you want to visit a hip tapas-style restaurant to start the evening off, you can't go wrong with Bazaar, which shares some of the menu items with SAAM. But if you want romantic foodie heaven, book a table at SAAM and leave yourself at least 3 hours to indulge.

Providence Redux

Last night we joined our sommelier friend 'Mousseux' for another round at Providence. Mousseux had dined at the bar before, but wanted to do one of the tasting menus with her foodie friends. Since nobody in their right mind would turn down an offer to dine at Providence, we happily accepted.

Once again the meal was flawless. This time we ordered the *modest* five-course tasting menu with wine pairings.
We dined on amazing hamachi, scallop, cod, veal, cheese, and more. For the most part the wine pairings were lovely, including the always amazing Sean Thackrey Pleiades (we simply must have more!!!), though there were a couple of misses where the dishes had citrusy sauces (see meyer lemon foam --> ), which are understandably hard to pair.

Over dinner we chatted about Mousseux's new job selling boutique wines to the best restaurants all over the country, while I thought to myself that I really am in the wrong business.

Providence

Last night I took my husband, Big N, to Providence for his birthday.

The two-starred Michelin restaurant occupies the old Patina space on Melrose. Warm and spacious inside, with high ceilings decorated with artsy barnacle looking thingees (the restaurant specializes in seafood).

So, we splurged by ordering the 9 course tasting menu with wine pairings, and since that wasn't exactly enough food for our foodie palates, we simply had to order the wagyu beef too.

I have to tell you, I never thought I'd be so pleased dropping so much dough on a meal, but hot damn that food was good. I wouldn't want to spoil it for you by giving you a complete list of the dishes we had, which are simply too numerous to mention, but I can tell you that I was amazed by the amuse bouche (above, please forgive the iphone picture), which had, starting from left, a gin and tonic gelee, a mojito bubble, which burst in your mouth with minty goodness, and a fennel saffron shot. What a bonus- my mouth was truly amused. Highlights also included the scallop with a generous portion of shaved truffles, the cheese plate course (we chose 4 from about 25 cheeses offered), the veal tenderloin tournedos sous-vide with chanterelles and celery root puree, and of course, the wagyu ribeye. The wine pairings were atypical and surprising. Gems included the Sean Thackery vxi blend of petit sirah and syrah and the Casa Rivas 2006 carmenierre from Argentina that was served with our wagyu ribeye.

My husband and I had to hunker down to make it through our 10 lovely courses, but I'm happy to report that nothing went uneaten. Even the dessert (coconut tapioca with kfir lime and shiso lichi sorbet) and the petit fours were gobbled up.

This restaurant ranks up there with my favorites, and I cannot wait to have an excuse splurge there again!

Kudos to Providence. I'm a fan.

And thanks to our friends at lickity list for the recommendation.