L.A. Late Night, Early Morning

7 Mar

We were back in California this weekend for what felt like 10 minutes but it was great to be there, as always. After a day in Palm Springs, Saturday night was a late dinner at Comme Ca, a French bistro in West Hollywood that we had been meaning to try.

I so loved our waiter’s original-design tattoos – I was in a super good mood about them.I loved the menu, too. It’s a beautiful, mostly-traditional French menu and I wanted to try everything on it. (For me, this is such a well-written menu – simple, appealing, only key ingredients featured. It connects you to your meal and raises some anticipation for the actual food experience. Culinary Artistry is big on menu drafting and design – I think that’s where I got it.)The food at Comme Ca was excellent. Highlights of the meal include:

Mussels – always (the creamy fennel-white wine sauce for dipping bread more than the mussels, actually).Frites! Crunchy, salty perfection. Sweet butternut squash puree with croutons. Chino Farms. Ah-mazing. Three-cheese agnolotti (stuffed pasta) with “melted” tomatoes, herbs and a truffle oil broth. Delicious but intensely truffle-flavored, so if that’s not your thing this is not your thing.We also had the lamb shank with mustard spaetzle (German pasta) and brussel sprouts. I heart spaetzl. It has the best, firm texture. And the duck confit and beef stroganoff. But we ate too much of those dishes before I thought to photograph them so the pictures don’t do any justice. Unless you like pictures of things that have been eaten. Anyway, you’ll have to trust me. All very good.

(As a compromise, here is a little sliver of the brussel sprouts and spaetzle. Yum.)For dessert, we had profiteroles with a sugar-sculpture-mohawk and dark chocolate sauce and chocolate bread pudding with vanilla ice-cream. I always order bread pudding when it’s on the menu. I adore it. This was rich and chocolate-y – dense and sweet. Loved it. We might have had other desserts, too. No one is counting.At nearly 2:00 am when we got back from dinner, Beowulf, everyone’s favorite Great Dane, was looking a little distressed. This is before he got our leftovers, obviously.I was a little distressed, too, given that I would have to be up in 3 hours.