March 23, 2009
The Bazaar
Fun at the Bazaar
When in LA with Peri a few weeks ago we went to The Bazaar at the SLS Hotel. It’s a new (opened in December ’08) Jose Andres restaurant. This was his first LA restaurant – his other places are in DC. He was recently (2008) on “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain for his restaurant “minibar” (in DC).
Go.
It was one of the top 5 meals that I’ve had in the past year.
The menu is an eclectic combination of traditional Spanish tapas, and playfully re-imagined modern plates.
I’m a fan of a nice Mojito. They had two on the menu – regular, and “Magic”. Of course, I got the Magic one… What makes it Magic? Well, they first bring a martini glass overflowing with cotton candy, and pour the Mojito less-sugar over the cotton candy. The candy melts, making the Mojito complete (not to sweet even!).
Not at the fairground
Three other favorites: rice (risotto) with field mushrooms and two types of caprese salad.
Yum! Caprese
Now, the first type of caprese had cuvee’ed cherry tomatoes, served with little balls of mozzarella, all served over lovely pesto. When you took a spoon with a tomato, mozzarella and pesto, it just melted.
The second type of caprese was even more funky – instead of mozzarella balls, the liquid was put in a pipette, and you put the tomato in your mouth, then squirted the pipette in. Lovely.
Pipettes can be used for food
Go… order lots of stuff. It was fun, funky, and yummy.
M( ) 
Helen Berns said,
March 23, 2009 at 9:38 am
Jose Andres’ middle daughter Ines is in Anson’s second grade class. I knew he was a Spanish chef, but I didn’t know he had multiple restaurants.
I hope you are all well,
–Helen
marbenais said,
May 24, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Next time you’re in DC, come to all of his restaurants here! They’re all within a two-block radius of where I work. AMAZING. minibar can take months to get a reservation — supposedly it’s worth it — but I’ve been to all the rest and they ARE really that good. And at Rosa Mexicano they make fresh guacamole at your table.