After walking on the boardwalk at the Santa Monica Pier of riding your bike along the coast, there is nothing better than going to Santa Monica Seafood on Wilshire Boulevard to get a spicy seafood soup, aka, Cioppino.

The Cioppino at Santa Monica Seafood is served with crispy crostini bread that is lightly smeared with fresh garlic and olive oil. The Cioppino is overflowing with fresh mussels, clams, shrimp, and whitefish. The soup is a thickly blended tomato, white wine, garlic, and onion base that is perfect for dipping the hot crostini.

If you’re unable to handle real spice, the regular Cioppino has minimal heat and is easier on those delicate tummies. But, if you’re not afraid to turn up the heat a notch or two, ask the helpful waitstaff to add additional red pepper to the soup base.

The Cioppino is pretty large. If you split an appetizer, share the Cioppino, and have dessert, you will be satisfied with the amount of food and the price too.

Santa Monica Seafood caters to a local crowd and usually gets pretty busy around 6 or 7 PM. If the line is long and you have to wait for a table to open, you can always belly-up to the bar, down a few fresh oysters, have a California pinot noir, or a beer from a favorite micro-brewery.

Trust me, the wait will be worth it.

The players might differ, but certain elements should be present and sandwich rules followed. The bread, whether rye, Pullman, challah or baguette, needs to be fresh. It should be properly lubricated with the sauce, aioli, jam or spread of your choosing. And the construction, regardless of the middle components, needs to be sound ( i.e. don’t put wet tomatoes directly onto the bread, and try to get equal dispersal of stuff for optimum bites).

Croque Matthieu from Pasjoli

I recognize the many pitfalls of claiming anything is the best of whatever it is you’re talking about. It’s subjective. My best might not be your best. If the mood and setting are just right, anything can be the best. But I feel good throwing my weight behind what I deem to be the best grilled cheese sandwich in my universe.

It is the croque Matthieu on the bar menu at Pasjoli in Santa Monica.

During a recent visit, my party fell silent as we each bit into a square of the sandwich. The bread, annealed and shiny, was all crunch and butter. Then there was crispy Gruyère cheese, like a nutty, sharp cracker cemented to the inside of the sandwich. It shattered into a puddle of rich, creamy Mornay sauce that melted into sweet caramelized onions and shaved Bayonne ham.

The decadence of French onion soup, the simplicity of a good jambon beurre and the thrill of a gooey grilled cheese were all present, crammed into this four-bite sandwich. Its unabashed decadence something to marvel.

The sandwich is named for Mathew Kim, former chef de cuisine at the restaurant, who used to make a grilled cheese blanketed in Mornay sauce and a fried egg.

“Every now and then he would make a fancy grilled cheese kind of scenario,” chef-owner Dave Beran said during a recent call.

The sandwich made its way onto the Pasjoli lunch menu and was offered as a limited takeaway item, but it disappeared along with lunch service at the restaurant. When our restaurant critic, Bill Addison, tried Kim’s sandwich back in 2020, he wrote, “I went feral on this thing.”

Kim now runs a gourmet edibles company, but Beran recently brought back a version of the sandwich for the restaurant’s new bar menu.

He starts by cutting the top and bottom off of a baguette, then slicing it through the middle. He adds a heap of shredded Gruyère cheese to a nonstick pan. Once it’s melted and bubbly, he places the baguette slices onto the cheese, letting the two fuse together.

After the bread cools, he spreads a thick Mornay sauce onto the crispy cheese and adds a mound of jammy onions. They’re the same onions he features in the restaurant’s signature caramelized onion tart, cooked low and slow for six hours and finished with Madeira and sherry. He layers on slices of Bayonne ham, which taste like a combination of prosciutto and country ham, and closes the sandwich with another piece of baguette crusted with the melted Gruyère.

To finish the sandwich, he adds butter, shallot, garlic and thyme to a pan. Then he adds the sandwich to the pan, engulfing the entire thing in butter, basting it like a piece of Wagyu.

“We basically cook the sandwich like it’s a piece of meat,” Beran said. “It’s a pretty awesome sandwich.”

The croque Matthieu is only available on the bar menu, served until 7 p.m.

Originally posted at www.latimes.com by Jean Harris

OFF THE HOOK Santa Monica Seafood Festival 2015

Off the Hook Santa Monica Seafood Festival on the Santa Monica Pier on Oct. 17, 2015. Celebrating National Seafood Month with some of the top seafood restaurants and chefs in Los Angeles, benefiting the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Seafood for the Future program.

SANTA MONICA – Seafood and ocean lovers unite! Santa Monica is celebrating National Seafood month with with their annual OFF THE HOOK Seafood Festival, presented by Capital One.  On Saturday, October 14th from 4-7, Santa Monica Pier will transform into a seafood lovers dream. Food from some of Santa Monica’s best restaurants like Tar & Roses, FIG, The Lobster, BOA, Sushi Roku, Herringbone, Spinfish Poke, and Red O will be among the places to eat.

Additionally, environmentalists can rejoice because the OFF THE HOOK Seafood Festival has a dual purpose.  Aside from bringing the most delicious seafood all to one place, OFF THE HOOK is also partnering with the Surfrider Los Angeles Chapter to raise awareness and money to keep our oceans and beaches clean.



“In an effort to help build a more sustainable future, this year’s event will be free of all single-use plastic containers using all recyclable cups, straws and disposable items. We hope that all who attend this event will not only enjoy great seafood, but learn about ways to reduce their single-use plastic footprint in their everyday lives and help build a more sustainable future for ocean ecosystems,” said Graham Hamilton, the Surfrider Los Angeles Chapter Coordinator in a press release.

The event will also honor three outstanding people involved in the sustainable seafood movement.  Festival goers can meet with them and learn more about how to lead a more sustainable life.

Advance sale general admission ticket cost $50.00 and include tastings, entry to the beer and wine garden, spirits tasting, live music, and games.  Advance sale VIP tickets will cost $75.00 and include early entry at 3:00, entry to the Capital One Cafe Sustainable Seafood VIP Lounge, with cocktails and exclusive seafood dishes.

Photos courtesy of SPIN PR.

SANTA MONICA – Some days you wake up with a deep hunger, a fierce, intense craving for a big, juicy, delicious burger. Hundreds of restaurants serving burgers line the street, so where do you go? Two words: Umami Burger. Sure, you’ve heard musings, maybe even seen pictures of the iconic U they stamp on their burgers, but until your teeth have sunk into their mouthwatering food, you know not of what awaits you.

On the corner of Broadway and Sixth street sits the answer to all of your wildest burger dreams. You enter through the cute, little outdoor patio lined with greenery, wooden tables and heat lamps.

Upon arrival, a hostess and full bar greets you to left. Now it is time to sit back, sip on a beer, and relax.

During my visit, I waited with excitement after being seated. After all, I had heard chatter for years about this burger, but the question lingered: how would it live up to the hype? Upon being brought a menu, my waiter dropped off some complimentary pickles. After going back and forth I settled on a half order of fries and the Throwback Burger: two 3.5 oz. patties, white cheddar cheese, miso mustard, Umami ketchup, soy pickles and minced onions.

As I waited, the waiter brought me a tray of condiments, and then, just minutes later, my delectable burger sat in front of me. One bite was all it took for me to know that this burger was unlike any other. The juiciness of the patty alone was enough to make my taste buds do a little dance. But I had to wonder: what made this burger so unique?  Well Umami burgers contain something referred to as umami (no surprise.)

According to an article in the New Yorker, umami or the “fifth taste” is a concept that has actually been around since 1979, and was discovered by a Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda, however, it did not gain popularity until about a decade ago.  It is actually a scientific concept about a type of food thats main ingredient is glutamic acid.  The New Yorker continues on, stating that recent research has shown that the “molecular compounds in glutamic acid-glutamates-bind to specific tongue receptors; this apparently, is what makes the magic,” and what makes the taste of umami so unique.  

Umami Burger simplifies their definition of Umami, and describe it on their website, by saying that “Umami means “deliciousness.” Beyond sweet, sour, salty, and butter, the fifth taste of umami is rich and savory…Umami-rich foods include soy sauce, miso paste and bonito flakes in Asian cuisine; and cured ham, cheese, tomatoes, ketchup and mushrooms in Western cuisine.”

Umami burger in Santa Monica is open from 11AM-11PM Monday-Thursday. They are open from 11AM-12AM on Friday, from 10AM-12AM on Saturday, and from 10AM-11PM on Sunday. Their burgers, however, are on the expensive side, ranging from $11.50-$15.00 and  if you want to add fries, a half order costs an extra $2.50, while a full order will set you back $4.00.  Want the same delicious food for a better price?  Come Monday-Thursday from 3PM-6PM and 9PM-closing to enjoy happy hour!

Photos courtesy of Umami burger in Santa Monica. 

–Story updated on September 13th.

SANTA MONICA – It might just be time to put on your stretchy pants and head over to Main Street this weekend! MAINopoly is here for the fourth year in a row bringing with it music, delicious eats, and games!

If you’re not familiar, MAINopoly is pretty much a child’s dream come true: it brings Monopoly to life in an interactive event complete with ice cream, chicken, waffles and pretty much every other type of food.

However, it’s not just for kids, MAINopoly has a little something for everyone. For the over 21 crowd, jail has never looked so good. The “GO TO JAIL” VIP Beer Garden is complete with cold beer to sip on, a photo booth, a DJ, snacks, and games.

However, despite all the fun, the event is about more than just good music, good food, and good times. It all started when Gary Gordan from the Main Street Business Improvement District searched for a way to raise funds for Summer SOULstice and bring in new customers to Main street.

Together, with Spin PR group they “brainstormed some different ideas and came up with a fun, interactive play on the classic board game that introduces people to new businesses and restaurants they may have never been to before,” said organizer Kim Koury. That was four years ago, and since then, the event has grown in size and effect.

“It gets bigger every year! We had nearly 1,000 people attend,” Koury said in reference to last year’s crowd. “People love to get dressed up as Monopoly game board characters and participate in the festivities,” she concluded.

In addition to raising money for Summer SOULstice, MAINopoly raises money for Heal the Bay, an environmental organization dedicated to improving the environment. MAINopoly will run from 3:00-8:00 on May 28th on Main Street in Santa Monica.

Photos courtesy of Spin Public Relations.

SANTA MONICA- For the entire month of May, Los Angeles is going to be filled with good eats at the Los Angeles Times food festival.  The festival, being called the Food Bowl will include events throughout the city in restaurants, farmers markets, and coffee shops.  There will be guest speakers, conversations about conservation, hunger, and waste, classes, dining pop ups, and world renowned chefs.

Santa Monica is joining in on the festivities starting today, May 3, at the Farmers Market by having chefs create recipes using farmers market produce.  There will continue to be special events at the Santa Monica Farmers Market for the entirety of the month.

The festival will center around a massive Night Market held at Grand Park in downtown L.A. from May 10-14.  The Market will have live entertainment, drinks and 50 restaurants and food trucks.

A full list of the events can be found here.

SANTA MONICA- It was a typical sunny Santa Monica afternoon at Mainland Poke when the day took a hostile turn.  A couple was waiting in line to order their food when another costumer became outraged at their display of affection.  The whole outburst was recorded on video and posted on LiveLeak.  The man captioned the video saying that he simply, “had [his] arms around [his] girlfriend and kissed her on the forehead a couple times, waiting for this lady to finish checking out, when all of a sudden…” she began shouting.

The lady verbally confronted the couple and called the girl a slew of derogatory names claiming that she was a “prostitute”.  As her shouting continued, the lady walked up to the couple and said  she was being sexually harassed and stalked by them.

Displeased with the lack of intervention by staff, she demanded a refund and asked to talk to the manager.  When she did not immediately get her money back she took to yelling at the couple once more.  The video then pans to a group of onlookers starring in disbelief.  One man, however, steps in and tries to get the woman to go outside and leave the establishment.  She, having none of it, turns her crusade racial calling the man a “retarded foreign asshole.”

The video ends with the lady promising to send the police and calling the woman a prostitute one last time.

Just south of the Thai border, on the northeast coast of Malaysia, lies Kota Bharu, a city of sweet, scrumptious Malay fare different from the rest of the country.

Kota Bharu is the capital of Kelantan, an intensely religious state ruled by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, and where Friday, the Islamic day of rest, is a holiday for nearly everyone. The shops are shuttered and the offices are closed, but the streets are packed with crowds gathered for sermons and prayer.

The night market

And at night, the people head by the dozens to the pasar malam — the night market — to hang out with friends or to enjoy some of Kelantan’s delicious and unique food.

“I come here to enjoy myself and look around,” says Muhamad Hakim, a young man hanging out with about a dozen other young men, drinking iced tea and juices at the long tables.

One of his friends blurts out something in Malay, and they all explode with laughter — probably something off-color. For a people forbidden to drink in bars, the night market is where young guys go to cruise, though in this conservative society, Hakim will certainly be driving the 15 miles back to his home village alone.

A unique rice dish

But above providing a place for young people to eye each other, Kota Bharu’s night market is the best place to sample Kelantan’s unique food. The state’s beloved favorite is a concoction called nasi kerabu — nasi meaning rice, kerabu meaning the variety of chicken, fish, seafood, eggs, and vegetables cooked up to go with it.

A young woman and her mother stand behind an enormous nasi kerabu stand, where you can choose between three kinds of rice — white, blue and yellow — which is rolled up into a paper cone. Then you choose your toppings from the dozen or so arrayed before you. The most popular are chicken in coconut sauce, prawn and squid in tomato sauce and fish eggs in oil.

The toppings are added, and then the whole concoction is folded up into a neat parcel and secured with elastic bands, so you can take it home or to the tables by the juice stands, where televisions play a steady stream of Malay soap operas and Premier League soccer.

A hint of sweetness

The prevalence of both coconut and sugar means that Kelantan food is sweeter than the rest of Malaysia’s. Sauces are made usually with either tomato or coconut, and can be quite spicy — but not always. They do, however, almost always have a bit of sweet to them.

Also popular at the night market is murtabak, a crepe fried with chicken, beef or banana, that is made into something like a fried sandwich.

To make the banana variety, the chef pours the batter onto a sizzling oiled pan and then adds a mixture of chopped bananas, whole raisins, butter, sugar, eggs and condensed milk. Once it’s finished frying, it’s all wrapped up into a tidy square and served wrapped in paper. The outside crepe is very crispy, the inside sweet and flavorful, but lava-hot.

Murtabak is a huge hit with tourists. Eke Overbeek, a young visitor from the Netherlands, describes the concoction as “lovely,” but curses because she keeps eating it too fast without letting it cool.

A trip to the dessert stand

For a place so famous for its sugar, the final trip is, of course, to the dessert stand, where there is a booming variety of colorful treats — coconut jellies, caramel pudding, coconut milk cake, rice cake with peanuts, and pastries stuffed with jam. Most of the offerings are crumbly and a bit dry, but the choux pastry in particular is magnificent.

Syamin Yusoff, a local technician, comes every weekend to the market. Tonight he’s drinking iced tea and eating Maggi noodles, even though he argues nasi kerabu is the best meal in Malaysia. He can’t speak much English, but he can get across that it’s both the “friendliness” and the “sweet” of the food that makes Kelantan and Kota Bharu different from the rest of Malaysia.

Writtern by Dave Hazzan.  Copyright Dave Hazzan via Zester Daily and Reuters Media Express.