Sample sale info for Steven Alan NYC in Los Feliz.

It’s dangerously close to home for me and way less a pain than going downtown and having to hunt for parking.

Just when I should be thinking of others for the holidays, and not myself. I can literally go right after pilates next week at 8:30 am.

 

Thanks to my cousin, Joyce, for the tip and she doesn’t even live in LA!

 

Whitney Smith’s organic inspired items to adorn the table and home are warm and modern, which is no small design challenge. I first discovered this ceramic artist’s beautiful vessels and platters at Miette in San Francisco at the Ferry Building location and wanted to learn more about her. They have hints of Bauer and Japanese ceramics but are also completely unique with a cool antique vibe.

 

A couple years ago I was obsessed with hunting for vintage Indiana milk glass cake platters on ebay. They come in the common white, not-so-common black, and a few other milky colors, like light green and pink. These are borderline kitschy and part of a sensibility that is quite “grandma chic”. 

 

Whitney Smith’s cake stands are anything but, though you could gift one to a grandma and she would be the coolest grandma ever.

 

 

Cake stands and domes have definitely increased in popularity in the last few years. Though the downside to owning several is that they are hard to store (trust me), they go beyond the norm for beautifully displaying cakes and sweets, tarts, cookies, pastries, and savories. Adding different levels to a large food spread is an age old trick for entertaining and adds depth and drama. I love stacking cake stands of two different sizes. I have been known to pile these up with bacon wrapped dates for parties.

 

 

Since wallFlour is about the seamless melding of food with design and design with food, I have been honing in on designers and products that share that same philosophy. 

 

Please read on to get a deeper insight into the mind that dreams up these beautiful creations and how food is definitely an inspirational element of her creative life. The care and depth in which she responded to WF’s food and entertaining related questions is refreshing, welcoming and completely inspiring and makes me want to run out and fish for salmon in Alaska, make my own honey, and curl up with a new book.

 

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wallFlour:  What’s your favorite restaurant where you can eat for under 10 bucks?

WS:  Cam Huong in Oakland Chinatown (920 Webster St Oakland, CA, 94607). I always order their pork Vietnamese sandwiches, which is a french roll stuffed with roasted pork, picked onions, sliced jalapenos, and chopped cilantro.  They are under $3 each so I usually get two– they are so delicious that just thinking bout them makes my mouth water.

 

 

wallFlour:  Since the inspiration for your designs is heavily influenced by nature and naturally occurring patterns, what plant or flower do you find the most fascinating?

WS:  I love poppies, especially when they are really big and colorful with a big poppy seed pod.  And I will never get over the datura tree, with it’s big, lush, scented blossoms. They are simply magical.

 

 

wallFlour:  What’s the most memorable thing a host / hostess has impressed you with when welcoming you into their home for a meal or a stay?

WS:  I have one girlfriend who always makes the most wonderful, yet simple things from her garden.  She always goes out on a limb when she entertains, so I’m always trying to angle for an invitation. One time she served for dessert some black mission figs from her garden, with a local honey that another friend raised drizzled over it.  The flavors of that honey was out of this world, and I licked my plate clean, then drizzled more honey on the plate and licked it again.

 

 

 

wallFlour:  What food did you hate as a child but now love?

WS:  The food I hated as a child I still hate now. I really hated my mother’s tuna casserole, and I think I still would if she still made it, which she fortunately does not!  I always loved the things kids typically dislike, such as spinach and brussel sprouts. My parents always encouraged me to just try everything at least once, and I developed a taste for all kinds of flavors.

 

 

wallFlour:  How often do you prepare meals at home and do you have a signature dish that you make for family and friends?

WS:  I cook dinner for myself and my husband just about every night.  I go through phases with dishes, and right now what I really enjoy making is lamb curry.  I love all the different spices and their wonderful scents.

 

wallFlour: How does living in the Bay Area influence and inform your design?

WS:  Since we live in such a mild climate here, I’m outside a lot at all times of the year and checking out all the things that are growing, looking at the water in the bay, enjoying the scenery. I think that influences  me to create work that incorporates elements from the natural world, and gives my work a certain ease and grace.  I hope anyway.

 

wallFlour:  What is your ultimate comfort food?

WS:  Pasta and tomato sauce with lots of cheese.

 

 

 

wallFlour:  What is your fondest food memory?

WS:  When I was a kid my sister and I would visit our dad over the summers, and we would always participate in the Grant County Fair in Moses Lake, Washington with my dad and stepmother.  My dad once won “Best of Show” for his blueberry pie.  One year we decided to get ambitious and make candy for our entries, and we tried to make taffy and peanut brittle.  We didn’t really have the right equipment and ended up with something not resembling either taffy or peanut brittle.  We simply renamed the candy something else, like “Peanut Crunch” and “Gooey Fruit Drops” and won blue ribbons for both entries.  We laughed so hard over that.

 

wallFlour:  Who is your favorite potter of all time and why?

WS:  Christa Assad, because her forms are so wonderful, and made with incredible craftmanship and precision.  I have a pretty good collection of her work and I always want to add more.

 

 

 

wallFlour:  Would you describe yourself as a wallflower or a social butterfly?

WS:  I’m definitely a social butterfly, though I am known to attach myself to a wall every now and then.

 

wallFlour: This is a 2 part question: What was the last supper you just ate? AND describe your “last supper”.

WS:  Last night we ate at a friend’s house.  We brought over some salmon a friend caught in Alaska that I grilled the night before, along with a mash of toasted pine nuts, salt, and basil.  It was a lazy Sunday dinner so we boiled up some garlic-lemon pasta and sprinkled chunks of the salmon over it, along with the mash and some parm.  It was delicious. Realistically, I would need 7 or 8 last suppers to be satisfied, but if I had to choose just one I would probably ask for a coconut and chicken curry with lots of vegetables and chapati on the side.

 

 

Miette exterior, Hayes Valley location, SF 

 

wallFlour: Where do your favorite sweets and pastries come from that would be worthy of resting on your beautiful cake stands?  

WS:  My favorite bakery is Miette Patisserie in the San Francisco Ferry building, and they do buy a lot of my cake stands for their awesome cakes and tarts.  My favorite item of theirs is the hazelnut macaroons. And their graham crackers.  But bottom line, nobody make better cake or cookies than my husband, and he was the whole reason why I started making my cake stands in the first place. (see chocolate cake recipe below)

 

wallFlour: Tell us, in detail, about your favorite restaurant to enjoy a meal at and why it has won you over.

WS:  My favorite restaurant in Oakland is Mezze on Lakeshore.  I love them because they simply never turn out a bad meal.  They know how to walk the fine line of  paying attention to what’s happening with the contemporary food scene, but they are never fussy with how they prepare the food or get bogged down with silly or passing trends. They have a lovely bar where I love to get a glass of wine with a friend and order some of their small plates.  They also just started serving brunch, which I expected would be on the higher end of pricing because they have such exquisite food, but it is not any more than most breakfast/brunch places, and the food is out of this world.  This adore their biscuits and gravy.  Their biscuits float off the plate and their gravy is not too heavy and filled with chunks of sausage. They also make their own jams and fruit butters, which I like to eat it with just a spoon.

 

wallFlour:  What are you reading these days?

WS:  I’m almost done with “Nature Girl” by Carl Hiaasen.  I also just finished “The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz which was one of the best books I have read this year.

 

 

 

Andrew’s Chocolate Cake:

 

Mix into a bowl:

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup boiling water

1 cup heavy cream

 

Sift together:

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

 

Cream together:

1 cup butter

2 1/2 cup sugar

then add:

6 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

 

Mix together dry and wet ingredients.  Pour into greased cake pans and

bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until done.

 

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A huge thank you to Whitney Smith for taking the time to participate in this virtual interview and to her husband, Andrew, for sharing his cake recipe. I can’t wait to try it myself. Enjoy!

 

More of her pieces can be viewed and purchased at her website. I’m sure you will be as smitten as I was with her choices of color and form.

 

Ceramic product photos used in this article are courtesy of the artist.

This valuable information found it’s way to wallFlour, via the founder and brainchild behind UNIQUE Los Angeles, Sonja Rasula. 

 

 

 

After checking out the site, It is my moral consumer and design junkie duty to spread the word about UNIQUE Los Angeles. Just in time for the holidays, the big sale event will be held the weekend of December 13th and 14th in downtown LA. The event is sponsored by Etsy, but feels less “crafty” and more urban than I would assume of the Renegade Craft Fair that first started in Chicago, IL. And less Readymade Magazine too. Crafts are making a huge come back but are less rough around the edges than they used to be. Being crafty today means letter pressing your own stationery and gift tags and making your own clothes that are runway ready.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a blurb about the sale to peak your interest and a sneak peek at some vendors that have already signed up to sell their goods. If you are an interested vendor, applications are due November 2nd, so hurry! 

 

“UNIQUE LOS ANGELES is an exciting two-day shopping event that showcases independent design talent at great prices. Just in time for the holiday shopping season, the event brings together over 150 of the best designers, artists and merchants. We believe in supporting the community, we thrive on individualism, and we hope to introduce independent design to the masses. Whether you’re a hipster, a soccer mom or a tween, at UNIQUE LOS ANGELES  there truly is something for everyone!Clothing & Accessories • Stationery • Jewelry • Housewares • Artwork • CeramicsGourmet Edibles • Plush Toys • Books • Photography • Screenprints • Plus more! “

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liver and cream cheese spread with a pear champagne cocktail at Shoto-Club

 

One doesn’t immediately associate cocktails with Japan, but as I quickly witnessed and learned first hand, the Japanese are champions of perfecting everything in their own country’s traditions as well as preserving and amplifying traditions of other cultures in regard to food, fashion, and design. Basically, they are obsessive perfectionists and I loved every minute I was there. There was an eight page article in Bon Appetit’s September Issue about the Cocktail Revolution in Tokyo, which the author claims surpasses that of New York City and London. This, of course, sounded enticing, yet not surprising.

 

Men in Plaid at Shoto-Club 

I had never been to Asia, let alone Tokyo, and had no idea what I was in for in terms of navigating through the city. It’s not the kind of city where you jump in a cab every two blocks to go bar hopping, unless paying $40 a cab ride sounds like fun. The cabs all have automatic doors, meaning they open and close them for you, but the price is high since the subway closes at midnight every night. Tokyo is much like a virtual 4D maze of office buildings and sky rises and non existent or incomprehensible addresses.

 

 traditional white waistcoat uniforms at the Tender Bar

 

In my four days in Tokyo, I managed to check out two bars on the list of eight that were in the article, The Tender Bar in Ginza and Shoto-Club in Shibuya.  We went to another one that was a bit out of the way, Misty Opar’s, but it had its own unique charm as a traditional English tea shop by day and a bar at night, complete with a revolving coffee maker and an automated shelf that came down and covered the innocent tea cups with all the glassware for a fully equipped bar.

 

 the tea and coffee shelves that switch into the bar at night at Misty Opar’s, automatic style.

 

 

Misty Opar’s well stocked bar at night.

 

 

  

Shoto-Club coaster 

  

My favorite was Shoto-Club, not only for the cool plaid vests, but because my friends Georges Sakai and Maya Nishimura, were able to engage the owner and bartender, Ryougi Kodama and Takumi Tsugawa in the blue colored vests, in an in-depth conversation about the cocktail culture in Tokyo.  We got a lowdown of the history of the bar itself, and the mixers and imported spirits that are banned from being imported into Japan due to some new strict agricultural regulations. They cannot make the perfect gimlet or martini that people ask for from the recent 007 James Bond film because Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice and LIllet Blanc are among two mixers that are on the list of banned imports. I know what to smuggle back into Japan next time, as long as the drug sniffing golden retrievers don’t sit down next to me in customs. But they look so cute.

 

 

Unlike Tender Bar, which is located in Ginza, which was the Beverly Hills of Tokyo, Shoto was not stuffy. They were formal and proper, but not uptight. There is a difference. The Tender Bar’s stellar reputation lies in the owner, Kazuo Ueda, who has been accredited with preserving and heightening the cocktail culture in Tokyo, coining the “hard shake” and making his own house salami and cornichons. The white waistcoat uniforms reminded me of the movie, ‘The Shining’, very nostalgic and other era. Makes sense since the bar has been likened to an ‘old school speakeasy’.

 

 

artisanal snacks at Tender Bar 

 

At Shoto-Club, the owner told us about the history of the area where the bar is located. Udagawacho was famous as a tea area in Shibuya-ku, in ancient times. The word ’shoto’ is the term that describes the movement that occurs when putting tea into water that is just about to boil. Quite a poetic thing to name a bar after, and didn’t I feel silly when I thought ’shoto’ was just the Japanese way to say ’shot’. 

 

husband and wife team behind Misty Opar’s, charming neighborhood bar in outerTokyo.

 

In between showing us some fancy dice shaking and rolling like we were at a Vegas craps table, he also told us about a small tradition of the mint plant. The dice game was how bartenders learn the quick flick of the wrist for the proper shaking technique.  It was really impressive when he flipped the cup onto the table, moved it swiftly, three times towards himself and then lifted the cup and unveiled that all four die were stacked vertically on top of one another. Wow. LIke any food service in Japan, everything is done with pride and tradition. Mint plants were very expensive a long time ago in Japan. Once an apprentice was initiated into being a full-fledge bartender, he would be presented with a mint plant that he was to keep alive in his own bar. Shoto-Club is in the basement so they were off the hook on this one, and mint plants are not rare anymore, but the tradition is maintained and will explain why you will see mint plants in many bars in Tokyo.  The owner also shared with us that the best blend of mint is actually a combination of spearmint and peppermint plants that are grown in the same pot, allowing the roots to intermingle. They treated their mixers and seasonal, regional ingredients like those of a 3 star MIchelin restaurant.

 

The namesake drink, the “Shoto” with green tea or course.

 

Some memorable cocktails we had were seasonal as well as ‘omikase’ which is much like going to a sushi bar and having the chef surprise you. The softness of some of the wine and champagne cocktails was nice. All the produce used was of top notch quality. But even on drinks that used hard alcohol, nothing tasted like alcohol and was void of the overly strong drinks I have had my whole life that taste like nail polish remover. The Japanese love their perfect produce. We saw bunches of grapes on pedestals selling for about $80. Beautiful, perfect grapes.

 

something pretty to drink at Tender Bar

 

Pear infused champagne made with fresh pear and pear liqueur

White nectarine wodka grey goose

Gin and Malibu with a splash of pineapple juice and green tea the “Shoto”

Sauvignon Blanc with tonic water and grapefruit

 

Shoto-Club

Kazama Bldg B1F 37-12

Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku

011-81-3 3465-1932

 

Warning: Bring a Japanese reading or speaking friend. The cab dropped us off and we still could not find it.  Even with the detailed address for Shoto-club, we had to call. There is no English sign on the building and it is on the basement floor of a high rise, next to some small convenience store.  Good luck!

 

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Going to high-end bars like Shoto and Tender were a “I am on vacation” treat. In LA, if I go out at all, it’s mostly to dive bars, places that look like they were dive bars, open bar events or bars that the bartenders are wearing lederhosen and the drink of the night is beer. In other words, nothing fancy. I suppose there are places in LA that one can spend $14+ on a cocktail but who wants to deal with the Hollywood crowd. 

 

There will be no performance of your drink being made. You won’t be getting seasonal fresh fruit muddled with ‘wodka’, or artisan salumi and liver spread amuse bouches. You’re lucky if you get anything to nosh on. And your server will be a girl in a cropped shirt with a tramp stamp. No swanky uniforms to be had here. Forget about hot towels and having someone pull out your seat every time you go to the restroom, hand carved ice blocks for each drink, and top notch service with a splash of the “hard mix” performance art, that makes the cocktails about 10˚ colder.

 

These are things that put the ‘tender’ back in bars.

 

 

My pilates partner, Susann, tipped me off on a YSL retrospective show she saw in Montréal a couple months ago. Pilates has been one of the few forms of exercise I manage to stick to year after year. An added benefit of these sessions is learning about new things and top secret sources for taking good care of yourself, like the best facialists and restaurants to go to. I wanted to get my paws on the exhibit catalog, but could not stomach the international shipping fee off of the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts site, about $20 bucks a book.  eek.  I happened to find the book on Amazon and what a deal it was.  

 

After some online research, I could not find any information about the show traveling to other cities and in my head I knew there was no museum in Los Angeles that would house the exhibit. 

 

Good news! The exhibit is coming to the West Coast at the Deyoung Museum in San Francisco, that also had the exhibit about a year ago of Vivienne Westwood. Another incentive to visit this gastronomical city again in the next couple months. In a perfect world, I would be attending the opening night gala event.

 

 

 

The YSL exhibit will be on display for its stateside debut November 1, 2008- April 5, 2009.  It is the luxury house’s 40th anniversary and its first show in 25 years, since the one from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, only retrospective show of a living designer back in 1983.  

 

DeYoung Museum

50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94118

 

The show is put together in collaboration with the designer’s former partner, the Pierre Bergé Foundation.  Yves St Laurent passed away June 1, 2008, earlier this year. Please see my tribute to him in a previous entry.

As if I don’t talk enough about my own el bulli, Guinness, this is the most appropriate time to include a photo of him since I just scored a signed copy of the elBulli Book, “A Day at El Bulli”, which is a day in the life of head chef, Ferran Adria and the entire restaurant.

 

 

First things first, the restaurant uses an icon of the Frenchie as it’s logo.  I didn’t know that ‘el bulli’ actually meant French bulldog until very recently. The original owners names the restaurant after their beloved bulldogs and there’s a spread in the book about them. 

 

 

My good friends, Jen Hluska and David Capon, were nice enough to tip me off on the book signing at The Cook’s Library on Third Street in Hollywood. Not only did they tip me off, they got me my own signed copy with a personal dedication. It was held in two sessions and there were tons of people waiting in line. People in front and behind them were overheard as being sent as agents for the likes of Suzanne Goin and other well known LA chefs. Everyone wanted a piece of the action, even if they couldn’t leave their demanding posts to do so. This is exciting for me and instills hope that LA will continue to better its gastronomical choices.

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