Sunday, November 3, 2013

Not to be Confused With Your Grandmother's Kugel

As already established, we watch a lot of cooking shows on television.  This past summer we watched Top Chef Masters, which I definitely prefer to the traditional Top Chef as the chefs have more fun as their prize goes solely to charity.  This season one of the Masters was chef Sang Yoon known in Los Angeles for his burger destination Father's Office, and the neighboring upper-scale Lukshon.  After weeks of watching Sang cook we knew a trip to Lukshon was in order.  And trust me, we will hit up Father's Office soon enough!

Someone actually asked me where I traveled this past weekend to try food, and I responded "Does Culver City count?"  At the old Helms Bakery location is where Sang's restaurants are located.  We were seated outside on the heated patio.  The overhead heat lamps were so strong that my cushioned bench was nice and toasty.  Our waitress greeted us and told us that the restaurant was modern Southeast Asian and that the dishes are small and are meant to be shared.  She also offered us either flat or sparkling water, both of which are complimentary.  Complimentary sparkling water?!  That's unheard of!  Too bad I prefer flat.

Our first dish was the Hawaiian butterfish which was served sashimi style, nice and cold with yummy salsa. Okay, so the "salsa" is nahm jim, which according to Wikipedia is Thai for "dipping sauce". It can refer to a wide variety of dipping sauces in Thai cuisine, with many of them being a combination of salty, sweet, spicy and sour.  And rau ram is a Vietnamese coriander which I'm not sure how was presented on the plate.  The fish was tender even though it is a meatier fish and the nahm jim complimented it perfectly and was not even the slighted bit spicy.  This was the perfect way to start our meal.

Hawaiian Butterfish (pickled watermelon radish, daikon, nahm jim, rau ram)

Next up came the crab fritter because, well, I love crab.  This was also the beginning of servings that are not easily divisible amongst any size party aside those that are factors of three.  The fritters are near impossible to pick up with chop sticks due to their odd shape. And then once you take one bite they are impossible to hold onto with anything other than your fingers. That said, they are yummy. Nice and crispy on the outside, soft and crabby on the inside. The chili jam that it is served with is tasty, but not spicy, and a great compliment to the fritter.

Crab Fritter (red crab, Singapore style chili jam)

Admittedly this dish was not at all what I was expecting.  While very yummy (especially the perfectly deep fried pork belly) it was difficult to eat due to the combination of glass noodles and sauce.  I had to serve, or at least try to seve, the noodles and sauce onto my plate without splashing myself and everything around me.  This was definitely a dish that was difficult to share due to how hard it was to grab anything other than the clams and the pork belly.  One more note on the pork belly, it was perfectly crispy on the outside and tender in the center, and surprisingly not too fatty.

Manila Clams (glass noodles, pork belly, cloud ear, hijiki, thai basil)

For our vegetable we decided to go with the Chinese black mushrooms.  As soon as they were delivered to the table we both looked at each other and exclaimed, "Smells right!"  The mushrooms are cooked and prepared Szechuan style with the right amount of heat that does build, so be careful.  I really enjoyed the lap cheong (Chinese sausage) which was dispersed as thin slices throughout the dish and the mustard greens added just the right amount of crunch.

Chinese Black Mushrooms (maitake, woodear, shitake, mustard greens, lap cheong)

Originally I only wanted the crab fried rice to feed my crab craving, but my husband suggested the fritters.  The dish is served with individual rice bowls that are served warm for you to dish your serving(s) into.  I liked that this dish was also served with teaspoons to make the rice eating easier as with this not being sticky rice the use of chopsticks exclusively would have been disastrous.  You could easily see the crab shavings when looking down at the dish which is always a positive sign.  Unlike most fried rices, this dish had a subtle flavor that was accented with serrano chiles to provide just a little bit of heat without overpowering the dish.

Crab Fried Rice (blue crab, jasmine rice, egg, pea tendrils, serrano chile)


I think Kurobuta pork might just be my favorite type of pork.  What I liked best about these ribs is that they were tender, but didn't fall off the bone.  The bbq sauce is dark in both color and flavor with a slight bitterness from the chicory coffee.  Absolutely delicious.

Kurobata Pork Ribs (spicy chicory coffee bbq sauce)

After we were done with our ribs a bus boy came by with a small plate that looked like it had two large Life Savers on it with the L from the Lukshon logo imprinted on them.  I assumed it was for my breath after the ribs, but instead he poured hot water over the discs and they grew into washcloths for our hands.

Washcloths, post water pouring

My biggest complaint with the dinner service was that at no time during the serving of the six dishes did they ever change our plates.  So while my plate was covered with sauce from Manila clams, I added to that the sauce from the mushrooms and then the ribs.  That said, it wasn't the end of the world, but merely an observation especially when compared to other restaurants that also serve small plates family style.  It should also be noted that this was a meal that required the use of a napkin, and I'm not just referring to the ribs dish.  Each course involved getting so into the food that I found myself repeatedly wiping my mouth and my hands.

There were three main desserts offered on the dessert menu, along with the basic ice cream with topping, and they were out of one of them.  I'm still trying to understand how they would be out of one of the desserts by the 7pm seating.  So we decided to go with the barley pudding, largely because the other dish was chocolate and my husband doesn't like chocolate.  The pudding itself had a subtle flavor which was nicely complimented by the very-banana sorbet, which seemed more like an ice cream or gelato.  The coffee streusel added the needed crunch, which made the nasty puffed barley superfluous.  The combination of the coffee streusel and the banana sorbet was a perfect pairing, and who can complain about caramelized bananas.

Barley Pudding (coffee streusel, caramelized banana, mandarin, banana sorbet, puffed barley)

When our dessert was complete, and just before we were presented with the bill, we were given a complimentary dessert of small bites of palm sugar butterscotch brownie and raspberry pate de fruits.  Even my chocolate-hating husband cried out "Oh it's good!" when he bit into the brownie.  And the pate de fruits was sweet and slightly chewy jellied raspberry preserves.  The perfect caps to the meal.

Palm sugar butterscotch brownie and Raspberry pate de fruits

One nice touch of the meal was that our server swiped my credit card right at the table.  This is actually something that is done in Europe to help minimize fraud as the diner has their eyes on their credit card the entire time.  The only suggestion I would make would be to give the servers portable printers as well as it seemed awkward when she stepped away to collect our credit card receipt.

Every dish from our meal was delicious.  And the nicest part was that they were all reasonably priced allowing people from all walks of life the opportunity to enjoy them.  That said, you'll be sitting with industry-types as the restaurant is in the neighborhood of the Sony and Fox studios, but at least its entertaining conversations to overhear.