Fishing with Dynamite UPDATE - Manhattan Beach

My first and only DineLA deal this year. The menu is incredible, and everything they make is so simple yet so complex. Every bite is a flavor-burst, every dish an accomplishment, no details overlooked.

I love Fishing with Dynamite. The crazy thing is, I never thought I would. I wasn't a fan of David Lefevre at fist as his flagship MB Post has rubbed me the wrong way more than a few times, but it's FwD where he truly shines. 

The simple things are simple, but starters like the Raw Bar Platter showcase the quality of the food. The oysters are more butter than brine, and they're sweet enough to entice even the skeptics. The scallops are as tender as a cut of wagyu, and the jumbo shrimp are exceptional and out-of-the-ocean fresh.

The second course requires a little more than shucking an oyster. You better have a steady hand to balance the crab-bread ratio in the Maryland Blue Crab Cake. A few extra crumbs can tip the scales as these slivers of my favorite crustacean are easily overpowered. Not enough crumbs, and you just get a pile of fall-apart crab. This one is perfect. And it's almost all crab, no filler, no bullshit. The house pickles have a lighter acid touch that cuts through the fried breading around and creamy mustard remoulade beneath.

It's called Fishing with Dynamite because the flavors are explosive. The Softshell Crab is lightly fried, and every bite bursts with seafood soup. The inside is a symphony of seaworthy-savor, like a soup dumpling inside the edible shell of a crab. There is a bed of what appears to be a signature summer coleslaw, a creative combo with sharp salsa verde and a gentle lime gastrique. The jicama adds the most gratifying crunch amongst the sweet kernals of corn and, and the candied peanuts make it pop.

The Grilled Albacore is a steak of sea. A weighty barrel of seared tuna, a rare beauty indeed. The sauce is seductively simple. Olive oil draws you in, lemon juice enhances the fish, and the chopped basil lends a breath of fresh fragrance.

Easily the best part of the meal, the Manila Clam Steamers are a show-stopping lagoon of concentrated clams in a shellfish broth that is reminiscent of bouillabaisse but better. This broth takes it to a whole new level that I've never seen anyone reach, and we easily rip through the entire perfect baguette provided to sop up every drop of soup. 

I need a cold shower after those clams. The Key Lime Parfait is a gentler cool-down, a smaller portion of their work-of-art key lime pie, complete with a killer crust and stiff peaks of picture-perfect Kaffir lime meringue.

At the right price and in the right place, Manhattan Beach can be enchanting. Fishing with Dynamite is exactly that place. Intimate, small-scale seafood that literally tastes like passion. They say you never forget your first love...I literally didn't love anything in Manhattan Beach until Fishing with Dynamite.

Manpuku Yakiniku Dining - Torrance

Everything from Japan is better. #sorrynotsorry

I'm mainland Chinese, and I fully admit that the Japanese are the superior Asians. Even their barbecue is better. Yakiniku is their answer to the Koreans and the American South.

I love this Japanese-style grilling. It's a more delicate iteration of what I already know, an elite selection of bite-sized brawn on a sizzling grill. Fear not, for the small can be mighty. One only needs to taste the Pork Toro to know. The softest meat below the jaw, a drooping jowl is soaked in yuzu, a citrusy breath of life into a mix of intricately-marbled fat.

Even a simple Chicken Leg is anything but. The marinade is like a teriyaki-ponzu-galbi mix, and the dark meat parcels into plump pieces that hold all the savory juices. The Rib Cap is the beefy version, meatier with the same sweet marinade.

There's a Premium Beef Tongue that's probably worth the extra charge. This "Tongue Shio" is so impossibly melt-in-your-mouth slices, exquisitely salted with a gentle sting of Tokyo onion. 

A small plate of Napa Kimchi breaks up the fat, a palate cleanser between barbecued bites. 

The Ishiyaki Garlic Rice is the best side of starch. The garlic chips get burnt into a pungent smoke, and the rice goes just slightly crispy inside its stone pot. 

Don't go to Manpuku if you're trying to eat more for less. Their meat isn't cheap, but it's absolutely worth the money. Go to Gen if you're looking for quantity, but don't think you can't get full at Manpuku either. Manpuku is all about big flavors in smaller bites, and that's not something you want to miss. 

Meiji Tofu - Gardena

We've all heard mom and dad wax nostalgic about the good old days. Grandma and grandpa too. There's a far-away look in their eyes and a glint of better times.

I don't know how much of their time I would really miss. Instagram be damned, I like keeping tabs on my friends on social media, and I've never felt the need to walk uphill both ways. 

What I do wish I still had, though, was the ability to find mom-and-pop places in their purest form, to find a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker to fill my pantry with no-preservatives, non-GMO, certified-organic, blahblahblah.

Well, the farmer's market only opens twice a week, and I still hadn't found a reputable source for affordable protein...until I found Meiji Tofu. Not just a mom-and-pop shop, but a family factory that is frustratingly hard to find. They make tofu old-school but only until 1 PM, and they make it good. 

Their supreme tofu has twice the soy beans and 100 times the flavor of any tofu you've ever tasted, and it needs no adornments. The Kumidashi is creamy and smooth, and the soy bean flavor runs all the way through. The texture makes it more like a custard or a pudding, and it works as a quick n' easy protein for every meal. 

The Zaru costs a bit more, but you're really just paying for the basket. This cute little green sieve drains out the extra liquid and concentrates the tofu even further to squeeze out the savor of a saltier soy bean.

Imagine a full-fat, full-cream soybean Greek yogurt but better. That's what Meiji Tofu makes. Their product is pure, and it's worth getting up early to get. And for the tofu haters out there, give Meiji a try. This stuff will change you. 

Pho 1945 & Poke Bowl - Lomita

Simple Vietnamese food and a poke option if you're feelin' it. 

Not feelin' it. The Spring Rolls are terrible. The wrapper has started going stale, and the shrimp is not fridge-fresh...as in it's clearly been in the fridge for days but hasn't gone bad. You can barely taste it, though - it's suffocating in a thick forest of lettuce leaves from which no flavor can escape, and no amount of sauce can save it.

The BBQ Chicken Bahn Mi is a much better choice for lunch. The baguette is nicely crispy but not big enough to give you a carb coma, and the chicken is tender and has just the right amount of sweet bbq flavor.

I've been craving Pho for days, and theirs does hit the spot well enough. The beef broth is standard and pretty okay. I went for small bowl with rare steak, tendon, and tripe, which is just enough to be filling but not too much for leftovers. The tendon is soft, the tripe is tripe, and the rare steak is tough and very NOT rare.

So far all the pho places seem interchangeable in the South Bay. This one is affordable in price and comparable in quality, though I think Pho Pch is a little bit better. I'd come back to grab a quick and casual meal if I were in the area and hungry, but I wouldn't go out of my way to make it back.

Taqueria Los Anaya - Los Angeles

I have a taco tooth. Like a sweet tooth but for tacos, and it's more like a fang...like on a mastodon. Today I'm teething at Taqueria Los Anaya, a West Adams favorite of DineLA. I don't get to spend a lot of lunches in LA, and this one holds no regrets. 

A taco combo of Special Meats proves incredibly affordable, $10.75 gets you three sizeable, meat-spilling soft tacos, so I'm already impressed. I get two lengua, one shrimp, and both are pretty bomb. Well-seasoned one-step-below-jumbo-prawns emerge from the folds of a house-made corn tortilla, and the lengua floats like a pillowy dream. The meat is cut into block-chunks, stewed so soft it's just a little cube of savory juice. And if the tacos don't fill you up, rest assured, the generous side-staple of rice and beans will.

Tacos usually don't taste good when you make them fancy, but Taqueria Los Anaya makes it work. Their tacos are made with all the right stuff, and I'm glad I got stuffed here for lunch!

Lulou's UPDATE - Reno, NV

All of the best food in Reno still lives at Lulou's. 

The menu has changed a little, but they still serve my favorite Seared Foie Gras. Tonight they tend toward a sweeter interpretation, a flavor-burst of fatty liver melting over a bed of sweet-beet molasses, sticky like the summer sweat, lightened by a fruity half of char-grilled apricot.

The Pork Buns could be their own meal. Twenty-four hours of braising does the pork belly good, and shiitakes add a firm texture to the fat. Hoisin sauce brings the sugar, and the pickled cucumbers add a new dimension, an extra element of acid. Not part of the pork bun tradition, but still a very wise decision. 

Keeping it simple with the steak. Prime Dry Aged Ribeye says it all, and the black garlic-truffle butter is divine. The steak is decadent with its marbled fat, an on-the-dot medium rare makes it melt like rivers of silk.

It's a sneaky surf n' turf if you find someone willing to trade you some Lobster Spaghetti for the ribeye, but both dishes stand alone so well. Gorgeous, ebony ropes of squid-ink spaghetti are al dente to the max, and they swim in a creamy consomme-like broth. Giant edamame beans float aloof, cutting through the cream with a garden green. Take a moment to gape at a entire lobster tail with both claws, a juicy succulence for a firm spaghetti. 

Dessert comes too soon as the lobster still has me reeling. The Cherries a la Mode are a cold shower, a light dish of port-poached cherries and a creamy vanilla ice cream. Langues de chat are an experience, sugary, air-biscuits with barely-there vanilla hints.

The Pavlova is gently hard-hitting, a mix of brown sugar meringue so impossibly floaty and light like crunchy cotton candy. A decisive pastry cream is far more cream than sugar and grounds the candy crust. Summer strawberries declare their sweet and tartness, and shreds of bolder basil leave a lasting impression. This may be the best dessert I've had.

I sit stunned, long after the bill is paid. I can barely process what happened here. Hit with all my favorites, ambushed by every one of my culinary soft-spots, all in the same meal. One things for sure: someone at Lulou's knows what they're doing, and they need to clone themselves all over Reno.