By Laura Medina
Danielle Chang, the founder of the now traveling Lucky Rice Asian Food Festival, decided to show the City of Angels some love and gathered the best Pan-Asian chefs of Los Angeles underneath one roof.
Actually, the food fest took over the back area and rear loading zone of upscale furniture warehouse, H.D. Buttercup in historical Culver City but no harm done.
Hungry haute cuisine hipsters, fashionable foodies, and thirsty scenesters, such as Lisa Ling and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, eagerly skipped the London Olympics to get their fest on...and who would blame them?!
A balloon artist twisted ballon fascinators and hats.
The festival was divided into three sections: the furniture lounge was the VIP section where folks enjoyed dessert first, Sang Yoon's Lukshon carrot cakes and Gary Hayward's and Andrew Mirabito's Bombay Sapphire Gin cocktails and the guests were thrilled watching those gents sling those cocktails.
Obviously, the man of the night was Chef Sang Yoon, of My Father's Office (this scribe's favorite deluxe burger with kobe beef smothered in sweet onion and blue cheese) and his second restaurant, Lukshon, was the restaurant of the night.
People can have and did had dinner and dessert based on his booth alone...Cured Hawaiian butterfish/pickled watermelon radish, Nahm Jim and Sichuan lamb tartare/pickled chiles, cumin, scallion, MaLa flavors as starters then having Pork confit lettuce cups/black bean ghee, slaw, kimchi vinaigrette, with pig ear as one of multiple main dishes dotting the warehouse.
Since it was his carrot cake that greeted guests, it was only fitting that Chef Yoon polished his dinner course with caramelized pineapple ice cream sandwiches. The coconut sticky rice/kiwi soup topped with mango makes for a great leftover/hangover breakfast treat.
Chef Yoon's booth wasn't the only hit at the food festival.
People were lining up for...of all things...airline food. Actually, it was Hawaiian Airlines' Executive Chef Chai Chaowasaree's, of Chai’s Island Bistro in Honolulu, kataifi and macadamia nut encrusted jumbo black tiger prawns with pineapple vinaigrette that had people coming back for more.
It was a giant of a shrimp, wrapped in bacon, wrapped in rice noodles, stuck on a skewer, then deep-fried in macadamia oil, then sprinkled in crushed macadamia nuts. Multi-cultured and fried, fried in bacon, just like this scribe!
The chefs didn't have to be Asian or Asian-American to be showcased at the festival.
Sue Feniger debut her new multi-cultured snack/street food restaurant, Street, at Lucky Rice. She wanted the munchers to focus on her Tatsuta-age fried chicken with yuzu kosho sauce and pickled vegetables but snackers were grabbing and munching on the savory/sweet glazed popcorn. Why couldn't more chefs and snack manufacturers cook up more of these emerging East-meets-West savory/sweet glazed popcorn...as Cracker Jacks for adults?
All this grazing, sampling, snacking,...ok, all this gobbling and feasting sure works up a major thrist.
Thank god, the organizers offered an equal vast array of yummy cocktails that span Asian cuisine as much as the food did.
This scribe, with a festival manicure, guzzled down Bombay Sapphire Gin East's Eastern Market cocktail of bing cherries, lime juice, black pepper and rosemary syrup, garnished with a rosemary speared cherry or sprig of rosemary floating.
For something equally light and refreshing, St. Germain's Whatamelon No. 3, a swirl of Corzo Silver Tequila, watermelon, mint, lime juice, agave nectar, garnished with a mint sprig.
Not to be out-done and remember, the Lucky Rice Asian Food Festival is about educating people about Asian culture, heritage, and history through food and drinks, Gary Hayward and Andrew Mirabito of Bombay Sapphire Gin, want to subtly hint that Singapore was a British colony.
In homage to the London Olympics, Queen Elizabeth's Jubliee, and that Singapore still has a spot of Brit in it and that today's England has a sizable Asian population, these handsome gents were whipping two Brit cocktails...
London Calling is concocted from Bombay Sapphire EAST, fresh lime juice, agave nectar, fresh ginger, club soda, and pomegranate juice.
Lemongrass and Elderflower Collins is a modern Tom Collins with Bombay Sapphire EAST, fresh lemon juice, St. Germain, lemongrass, and club soda. This was the first cocktail that greeted me.
Not to be out-shone by Chef Yoon, the Lucky Rice Asian Food Festival was a constellation of other Pan-Asian star chefs.
The line, for Bryant Ng's Spice Table dish of spicy lamb bacon, corn, soybeans, fried pine nuts, laksa dressing, was so long that this scribe gave up and moved onto...
Susur Lee's Mexican goat cheese tart with Chinese duck sausage...
Jenee Kim's Bulgogi and kimchi fried rice...
Charleston's Jet Ti's Five spiced pork belly on crispy bao bun...
Diep Tran's Blistered corn with Red Boat Fish Sauce scallion oil Cucumber & apple salad with basil...
Truth be told, this scribe's favorite Asian restaurant is Chef Mohan Ismail's RockSugar. His BBQ lamb short ribs with Spicy Thai beef salad with toasted rice was a double hitter of lamb, lamb.
Can't forget dessert, dessert, dessert...
Thank god, the dishes are reasonable tapas-portion, or else, no one would looked fashionably cocktail chic and none of us would had room for dessert.
For those unfamiliar with real, modern day Asian food, the Japanese have a thing for french mousse cakes because they're light, airy, and tiny like Sung Kwon Yang of Mango-passionfruit mousse and matcha green tea mousse cakes, more tea cakes than a huge American slice. Her tea cakes were easier to handle to balance all these spicy, savory dishes.
The hipster/intellectual ice cream truck, COOLHAUS was the finale treat to cool down those peppery taste buds.
Sure, the Candied ginger ice cream + snickerdoodle cookie sandwich and the Candied ginger ice cream + snickerdoodle cookie were more acceptable to the young haute cuisine hipsters.
For the more experienced...and jaded palates, the heat and bitterness of the wasabi was a perfect match to dark chocolate's sweetness while ice cream's creaminess soothed wasabi's flame in the Chocolate wasabi ice cream + Double chocolate & sea salt cookie sandwich was a surprising elegant palate cleanser.
An adult ice cream where the heat is evenly tempered by the sugar and cream, great for diabetics wanting to get their treats on.
Ooohhhffff, this was a World Championship to L.A.'s Food & Wine Festival Olympics where afterward, guests just had to rest and recoup before retreating to bed, fulfilled and rested for the next gastromony galores, L.A. Food & Wine Festival and L.A. Times' TASTE Festival at Paramount Studios.
This Fashionable Foodie is recharging and revamping until the next food fest.
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