Otium - Los Angeles

The bachelorette afternoon is a disheartening escape room, but lose the battle, win the war. Otium more than makes up for it, a gorgeous wood-front with a sprawling ceiling, simmering in the shadow of The Broad, everything is easy on the eyes, inside and out. There smooth wood-block structure is modern and sleek, the bar with bottles that go all the way up the wall guides a smooth line of sight, and the wind whispers through my hair on an airy patio.

The service is speedy but patient, guiding but accommodating. The Sea Urchin is a definitive decision, as quick as it is easy. The uni is fresh, the yuzu refreshing. The tofu sorbet chills it with a silken texture, illuminating the grains of uni, uplifting the sweet sea flavors like an ocean breeze.

The Hamachi smooths over the ripe avocado, a bright and buttery sashimi in a tomato ring.

The Cauliflower is meant to be a softer side, a vegetable refresher, but it's good enough to stand alone. Soft little trees, sweetened with grapes, nutty with almond. 

The Funnel Cake looks like a waffle, batter fried firmly, foie gras a filling and silky luxury. The strawberries add sharp and sweet, and fennel brings in a fragrance.

The Octopus is gooey and dense. Guanciale adds some savor, pecorino adds a sleek velvet, and tellicherry peppers are roasted rich.

The Whole Fish is the special tonight, crispy skin and soft, buttery, though somewhat bland flesh. The Tom Yum/Tom Ka soup beneath is Thai food lite, the soup has that delightfully sour finish, but it's not as hard-hitting as you get in Bangkok.

I never say no to squid ink, so the Squid Ink Bucatini is a must. The pasta is a not-quite al dente, with a sharp accent of arrabiata and bold with bottarga. The cuttlefish tastes a little too much like fish.

Modeled after Mexican street corn, the Agnolotti comes highly recommended, declared the "best thing this restaurant has ever made". Right on. Rock on. That pasta is soft and filled with sweet summer corn, the chili gives it a curious kick, and lime zest and cottony cotija add their flair.

The dessert menu is irresistible. The sweets stand out seductively, imagination lifting them off the page. They beckon suggestively, daring me to take the plunge. But no one at the table would budge, and not a single person would bite. They have surprise inappropriate cakes waiting for me at the hotel, and both are equally delicious, but I so mourn no dessert as an Otium opportunity missed.

I can't imagine a better group with which to spend my bachelorette, and I can't imagine a better place to have dinner with this group. Otium is breathtaking, it's creative, and it's modern. The food is thoughtful, each dish is thought-through, and the flavors are fervid and fierce. Hopefully this is my only bachelorette, but I will definitely return for a birthday or anniversary or anything I can use as an excuse to come back!

Grand Central Market - Los Angeles

My bachelorette party has to start somewhere, and noon is a bit early for a bar. There won't be booze until later, but food is hardly the next best thing. And what better way to start the day than to stand in a fancy court surrounded by food?

Wexler's Deli

We might be surrounded by food, but I ignored it all. There's only one path for me, and all roads lead to Wexler's. I've read so many features, so many breathtaking pieces highlighting this legendary deli; magnum opuses written with an eloquence I will never possess. 

The way these articles describe the Lox and Cream Cheese Bagel induce instant salivation to the point that you will want to grab your keys and find the nearest package of salmon for a taste of pink velvet. And those descriptions are right on. 

The Pastrami, however, I could have done without. It was as bland as it was dry. And not just dry or just a little overheated, it was parched. It crumbled like a sad, droopy jerky. 

Valerie

We needed a pick-me-up after a lackluster pastrami, and Valerie, with its sweet smells and warm feels, was irresistible.

I got the Rose Petal Petit Four. It tastes like a delicate floral breeze, petals floating in the wind. The layers of cake are dense and moist, and the sleek chocolate coating is creamy and sweet. There's so much satisfaction packed into this tiny petit four, I better be back for more.

At Grand Central Market, there are a lot of choices all around. One day I'll work up the patience to stand in the Eggslut line, and maybe next time I'll slurp an up oyster or bite into a dripping brat at Currywurst. Whatever I do, I probably won't go back to Wexler's, but Valerie deserves revisits.

Yerim Korean BBQ - Los Angeles

We can't keep going to K-town for my dress fittings and skip the Korean BBQ, but there always is the catch-22 of wedding dress vs weight gain. Eat smart, don't eat less; so we wait until my final dress fitting, a mere 4 days before the wedding, when I am securely out of the window for putting on last-minute pounds.

It's a big yes to Yerim, a highly-rated random Yelp find. We sit down to the standard small plates, plenty of pickles to munch as we peruse the menu. The kimchee is still my favorite, but the cucumber is cool and crisp, the bean sprouts are refreshing and light, and I love the texture of the cold noodles.

The AYCE selection is extensive, and we go for the lowest level. At $20/person, it's a steal. There are several kinds of Pork Belly, and we make no mistakes going for the garlic. The belly is fatty and thinly-sliced, juicy and easy to chew. Beef Brisket sits on the other side of the sizzling grill, shrinking into tender, meaty mouthfuls.

Chicken Hearts are the ultimate meaty mouthful but not for the faint of heart. Each one is a bite-sized mass of thick muscle, and there's no preparing for the iron-blood aftertaste. The Beef Bulgolgi is marinated all the way through, soaked with sweet-sauce, hot and juicy right off the grill. 

I've never seen a Squid so large and in charge, as we watch the tentacles dance on the grill. The squid is meaty, more like a seafood steak but clean and smooth rather than veiny and dripping with blood. We give the Tripe a try as well. Love the sting of the spicy sauce, and the honeycomb tripe is a texture that is either freaky or fun, depending on what you like. I had fun.

The service is a bit surly, and you have to wave like a raver to get a waiter, but occasionally one will take pity on us and do a little cooking. Then again, if the service were more speedy, the restaurant wouldn't be authentic. Service aside, everything is decent quality, and the AYCE is a quite a deal. When in the neighborhood, I would rarely miss the opportunity to stuff myself at Yerim. Those opportunities are a bit rare thanks to the 405, but I'll find a way to wander back. 

Tanobar - Los Angeles

Every bride-to-be looks forward to their dress fitting. For some, it is the relief of having actually found a dress they want to wear. For others, it is the glamour of seeing those lacy layers fall around them, swirling fabrics, row of delicate beading shining like fireflies, airy tiers of tulle that wave with the wind. I think for everyone, this is when the wedding becomes a little more real. 

For me, there is a little bit of all of that, but the best part is that my dress shop lies in the middle of K-town, and every time I have a fitting, I get to try out a new Korean restaurant after. The key word is after. That dress is tight. 

There are two fittings, and Tanobar follows the first. We need quick and we need casual, and Tanobar is both. A hasty Yelp search shows a bunch of rave reviews, and we pull back our plastic chairs, peruse a great-looking menu, and admire a really suave-looking rope chandelier.

I went to the dress fitting prepared, which basically translates to "I didn't eat anything all day", and hungry doesn't begin to describe my state of mind. We rip into strips of Steak. Medium rare and still sizzling on the skillet, this is a decent cut and a simple but effective salt-pepper-rosemary preparation. It's just meat and potatoes, but it is a delicious and incredibly satisfying preparation. The potatoes are soft, the carrots are sweet, and the asparagus is grilled just enough to stay crisp and green.

You can't leave K-town without some Pork Belly in your belly, and we opt for a crowd-favorite classic. Thin-cut slices striped with alternating strips of flesh and fat start sweet in a traditional sauce and finish with a sharper spice from the crunchy kimchee. The side salad is a cold refresher, and it has a dressing that tastes like ginger and ends with sesame. I'd eat more salad if I could make a dressing like this.

Two dishes would have been plenty for the three of us, but winding down with a bowl of Cold Noodles is a must. Ice cubes melt in a sweet, chilly broth. The thin noodles are a chewy buckwheat starch, and they drip with a daikon-kimchee broth. It's a sweet soup, and it's dessert as much as it's dinner. 

The food isn't fancy, but it sure tastes like it is. Every dish is meticulously-made, though every dish seems simply prepared. The ingredients have undeniable quality, and the proportions of meat and veg, components and sauce strike an amicable balance, and there is merit in the stasis. 

Tanobar is hard to find, mostly because you can't tell which clear glass panel is the door. Just walk along the wall like an ineffective mime until you find your way - the search outside is always worth the hidden gem within.

Umenoya UPDATE - Torrance

Congratulations Umenoya, you have become the official lunch spot of the gentlemen (and me!) of the HCP weekend crew. Those staffing Torrance Memorial will make the same mile-long trek to wait with our noses pressed to the door, counting down the seconds until noon. When the doors open, we rush inside like suburban housewives at Walmart on a Black Friday to salivate over a steaming bowl of so-fatty-it's-creamy broth. 

We all stick to slurping the spicy miso ramen now, but we recently found a new addition to our ramen routine. The Gyoza Roulette occupies the suspenseful pre-noodle period, as we take turns guessing which one of these is not like the others. I'm not worthy of braving the burn, but my more spice-savvy colleagues love every agonizing moment of that one red-hot dumpling. Roulette aside, the regular gyoza are very good as well. The filling is light and juicy, and the chewy wrappers are just the right texture, pan-fried to perfection. 

I won't stray from my spicy miso again, but the Tsukemen is an aspiring alternative if you want to work a little harder for your food. The ropy noodles have that enjoyably chewy texture, and the broth is concentrated, velvety and thick. The noodles hold firm against the clinging pearls of rich, fatty soup, an effective contrast that adds a level of complexity.

I may not try anything else at Umenoya ever again, but I suspect you can't go wrong. Everything they make seems to taste as good as it looks and smells, and they have something for everyone. Even the vegetarians of our group get to enjoy the savory miso broth, and there is not a single day when we don't leave joyfully comatose.

Ichimi-An UPDATE - Torrance

I still love the soba, and now I'm bordering on obsessed. I tried to make my own, and I tried to love it somewhere else, but there's nothing like the toasty buckwheat texture after a cold dip in mirin and soy. 

It's hard to try new things when the soba is all I want and need, but now they have summer specials, and the game has changed. The Scallops Rice Bowl is as it sounds. Fresh slices of sweet sea scallops, in a circular array over a bed of vinegar rice. There's a pile of ikura in the middle to contrast the scallops with a briny salt. 

The combo comes with a mat of their buckwheat soba, the paragon of all Soba, which I like best in zaru style; cold and dipped in a soy-and-mirin mix. The side of Mochi Tempura is a luxury, a glutinous mouthful of soft mochi ringed by tempura crisp.

The Unagi Bowl is another combo contender, The eel is a melting cushion, disappearing by the mouthful as its sauces seep into the rice below.

Noodles are more common than sand in the South Bay, but Ichimi-An stands alone. Few can contend with their soba, and I've heard volumes about their udon as well. There are so many other places to go and many new bowls to try, but I rarely stray from Ichimi-An. I doubt I'd find better soba anywhere, even in Japan, so I'll stick to sticking with Ichimi-An.

Barrique - Venice

DineLA is my favorite time to dine. Suddenly the unattainable becomes comfortably affordable, and I have an excuse to buy it because it is on sale. I used to go just anywhere, but I've fine-tuned my game in recent years. 

The first thing I look for is a menu that represents the restaurant. Some like to choose cheaper items for the discount menu, but I choose Barrique because it doesn't skimp. 

The Proscuitto e Burrata is my first sample of Antonio Mure's work. The proscuitto is tenderly cured, and it finishes a little sweet. It tastes like a Tuscan villa with vineyards as far as the eye can see, and the burrata tastes like a fresh pail of milk. 

It's easy to make a plate like that when you have access to the best ingredients, but if the Polipo alla Griglia is any indication, Mure can make anything taste good. The octopus is grilled to a light char. It's firm on the outside and soft and gooey in the middle, highlighted by simple salt and smooth aioli.

With a prequel like the polipo, it's hard to be impressed by the mains. But it's hard not be be impressed by the Pappardelle verdi al Ragu di Bisonte. A hearty stinging nettle pappardelle and a meaty, gamey bison bolognese is tangy and strong, with a stimulating tinge of wine at the finish.

The Linguine Nere is another breathtaking plate. It has a beachfront flair with a firmly assertive texture, sweetened by lobster tail. It works well within itself, but I did like the bison better.

I usually stay away from fish because it's so easy to do poorly and so difficult to do well. The Branzine alla Griglia puts all the other fish to shame, a flaky, tender filet grilled to a buttery finish. A blood orange reduction highlights the crispy skin and blends a hint of sweet-n-tart into the flesh.

The end is as rich as the beginning, starting with the Barretta Al Cioccolato, decadent dark chocolate mousse with a highlighting hazelnut crunch.

The Panna Cotta Al Fruitti di Bosco is creamy and light, airy and summer-sweet with sun-ripe berries in dots of coulis. 

I don't love braving the traffic in Venice, but Barrique is worth a trip. Barrique is the very definition of "wine and dine", with a strong selection of wines by the bottle and the glass, and the dining is superb. The outdoor seating area is adorable, the service is as impeccable as it is attentive and polite. It's an enlightening experience from all aspects, and it's one I highly recommend.