Lagman (Uzbek Lamb Noodle Soup)

My first encounter with Lagman (Uzbek Lamb Noodle Soup) was at the now defunct Uzbekistan - Los Angeles. At the time, I dismissed it as a basic beef stew with similar Chinese noodles. Seven years later, after having explored other Central Asian cuisines, I hope I've become less cavalier of other cuisines in general, but of Central Asian cuisines in particular.

I try to place new cuisines into what's familiar, and would describe Uzbek and other Central Asian foods as a cross between Chinese Islamic and Middle Eastern cuisines. Which, if you think of the former, is already a confluence of two different cuisines.

If lagman seems familiar, that's because the word is derived from lamian (Chinese hand-pulled noodles). The Uzbek version is thicker, similar to Japanese udon, but much more tender. I stumbled upon a package of Shanghai home-style noodles at the grocery store, which looked so very homemade that I couldn't resist buying it so I could experiment. If you can't find Chinese hand-pulled noodles, then I'd suggest substituting with udon or even fettuccine.

Now, as for the lamb or beef stew portion of the soup, I knew there was an undefinable something that made Uzbek lagman stand apart. A little Googling and I found a lagman recipe from Bois de Jasmin that mentioned kala jeera (Indian black cumin). I debated whether to be lazy and substitute with regular cumin, but hauled myself off to Bhanu Indian Grocery & Cuisine - San Gabriel and luckily found a package in stock. One whiff of the smoky aroma and I knew it was worth the trip. No, regular cumin is not remotely similar to black cumin. I would omit it if you can't find any, but if you can, oh, does it add that something.

I find lamb to be quite gamey, unless it's rack of or thinly sliced for hot pot. So I used a combination of the latter with some venison my dad had shot. Regular beef is perfectly fine to use in this soup as well. The lagman I had at Varzoba Kafejnica - Riga - Latvia was described on the menu as a tomato soup, of which I had plenty from my garden. You can cut the vegetables into a thick julienne or dice them as I have. And lastly, as these are fresh noodles, don't add the noodle to the soup. Rather, boil the noodles separately, and spoon the stew over the soup.

I looked through my photos of the lagman I ate at Varzoba Kafejnica and was struck by the artful plating of the bright blue bowl atop a blue plate. Rummaged through my kitchen cabinets for something similar and I have to say the plating made my Uzbek lagman look so much more tempting, don't you think?

Seasons 52 - Costa Mesa

After lunch at Kappa Ramen - Anaheim, lil' sis and I went to South Coast Plaza to do a little shopping before an early dinner at Seasons 52.


I was actually invited to a blogger preview luncheon back in late August, but couldn't make it because of work. I was intrigued by the fact that the restaurant boasts that nothing on the menu is more than 475 calories. No oil. No butter. Nothing fried. How good could the food possibly taste then? Well, according to Gourmet Pigs and Tony of SinoSoul, who both attended the luncheon, it was one of the better media meals they've eaten.

So bummed I missed out. But, the very gracious Marguarite of Marguarite Clark Public Relations, who arranged for my Kappa Ramen lunch invited me to dine here too. I figured since I had to drive down to Orange County for one, why not both? It served as a great half-way point to meet up with lil' sis. Early November was the best time for both of us. I forwarded her the menu and links to both restaurants, and lil' sis eagerly anticipated what she wanted to order.

Happy Sheep Cafe Shabu & Grill - San Gabriel

Since Larkin's wasn't open the day we ended up at The Oinkster, we went back the next day. And it was closed again!

*Ahem.*

I just wanted to point out that I make a pretty good Southern fried chicken and cream gravy and I am not driving out to Eagle Rock unless it's really worth it.



Mrs. SinoSoul and I were craving hot pot, so we ended up at Happy Sheep Cafe Shabu & Grill in San Gabriel. This used to be Little Fat Sheep, but I guess they've split from the main branch in China?

Abraham Partamian Armenian Bakery - Los Angeles (Mid-City)

Several weeks ago, I received an invitation to a pre-grand opening tasting of Fulfilled, a Japanese imagawa-yaki pastry shop in Beverly Hills. Go outside of the San Gabriel Valley? Ack! Because I had to drive so far, I wanted to make it worth my while. So I decided to detour to Abraham Partamian Armenian Bakery in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles.



I was searching for an Armenian bakery in a neighborhood that's now half Latino because it supposedly offers the best lahmajoun in town. Lahmajoun/lahmajune/lahmacun, however you spell it, according to Wikipedia is an Anatolian dish of very thin dough topped with minced lamb, tomatoes, and spices. It's sometimes referred to as Armenian or Turkish pizza.

Earlier in the spring, I was inspired by this Los Angeles Times article about how Leon Partamian, Abraham's son who never married or had children, left the bakery to his two Mexican workers. Francisco Rosales and Jose Gonzales had been with him for more than 35 years. That two Mexican Americans make the best, and bake upwards of 500, Armenian "pizzas" a day definitely goes on my list of things that are "Sooo SoCal." Not that I'm suprised since I've often seen Mexicans working in the kitchens of Little Saigon restaurants.

Pita Fresh Grill - Fountain Valley and Live on the Go III

My series of Greek posts made me crave what else?

Greek food! I wanted some souvlaki, tzatziki, hummus, pita bread, gyros...




And so it was that when I found myself in Orange County last week, I decided to try out Pita Fresh Grill in Fountain Valley. If you'll remember, the second time I used Live on the Go for The Cravery in Tustin, the website's wrong address meant lil' sis drove around in circles. The Live on the Go folks nicely apologized for the error and offered me a $25 credit. This time, I chose a restaurant that was right off the freeway, in an area that I knew well since I used to work nearby.

Grapevine Mediterranean Cuisine - La Verne

Grapevine Mediterranean Cuisine restaurant is a century-old house with a hookah lounge and belly dancing on weekends. Although, it was the first and not the second or third that caused me to dine there.

Actually, the real reason I got lil' sis to dine with me back in March was the lack of dining options in this area and that we had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon.

We went for lunch since prices were slightly cheaper than dinner. We were seated in the patio area. I asked, but there was no seating inside during lunch time. I guess there wasn't much point because the entire time we were there, only one other customer showed up. One. As in, he dined alone.

I don't know how it is during dinnertime, but it seemed like an awfully big, empty space.

Messob Ethiopian Restaurant - Los Angeles (Little Ethiopia)

After making my way through Los Angeles traffic, with my little box of mini cakes from Kiki Bakery in hand, I met up with my friend E(L) at Messob Ethiopian Restaurant in the heart of LA's Little Ethiopia neighborhood. How much do I love that LA has a Little Ethiopia? The inside decor was pretty nice with the straw hut and tables. I forgot to charge my camera so photos were taken quickly and sparingly. We ordered a tej (Ethiopian honey wine) for $4.50. Tastes like what it sounds - a honey-sweetened wine. We ordered a veggie and meat combo. The injera (Ethiopian bread from fermented teff flour) is key to my enjoyment of Ethiopian food. At Messob, the injera wasn't too sour and was lightly spongy. Ethiopian cuisine is eaten with the hands. Tear a strip of injera and wrap it around various veggies and stews. The $14.99 vegetarian combo included yatakilt alitcha (Ethiopian steamed vegetables with onions, garlic, and ginger), yemiser wot (Ethiopian split lentils in red pepper sauce and spices), collard greens steamed and seasoned with garlic and chilies, pumpkin, salad, tomato fit-fit (Ethiopian shredded and spiced injera). The $13.99 three-meat combo included doro wot (Ethiopian chicken stewed in pepper sauce with spices), siga wot (Ethiopian beef braised in red pepper sauce with assorted spices), and yebeg siga alitcha (Ethiopian lamb stew with garlic, ginger, and spices). I think the wots could have been a little bolder, more spices, but overall were very good. The baklava came free with the vegetarian combo. If you've never had Ethiopian food before, do try. Messob Ethiopian Restaurant 1041 S. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90019 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 323-938-8827 10% off Monday to Thursday with website coupon

Uzbekistan - Los Angeles (Closed)

As I said previously, traveling makes me uber-happy. But I haven't been able to leave the country in two years. :( So what do I do about it? I decided to go to Uzbekistan!


The restaurant that is. :P

The outside is a basic strip mall facade, but the inside rather resembled a tent, no? Do I have any Central Asian readers? I know I got my first hit from Kazakhstan recently... I know, I know, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are two different countries. I'm woefully ignorant about both. But as I always say, food is the best way to learn about another culture.

Now, how I got to eventually dine at this restaurant is a rather roundabout story. Located on Sunset Boulevard, I used to drive past it all the time when I went clubbing. Back when I used to go clubbing anyway. Long, long ago. It elicited a slight curiosity but not much more. Of course, this was before blogging. Now it seems like I'm on a mission to eat every ethnic cuisine SoCal has to offer. Or am I trying to eat from A to Z? And should I include only restaurants, or can I cook what I can't find? Because then Uzbekistan wouldn't be my first U, that would be Ukraine and the borscht I made in March. And I'm completely stumped on X. What cuisine or ethnicity starts with X? Gah!

But to get back to my long lead-in to this story, and please bear with me because I still haven't gotten to Uzbekistan yet! Long before Borat put Kazakhstan in people's heads and even longer ago when I lived in the Bay, I caught a show by the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, featuring a skit about hapas. I can't re-tell it nearly as funny as I remembered, but the main point was that the hapas wanted to go to Kazakhstan, where they'd fit in because everyone there is "Eurasian." That's #1 for when Kazakhstan, and Central Asia, entered my consciousness.

A few years ago, I was in Maui for a college friend's wedding, and sitting at my table at a luau was a couple with two incredibly beautiful children. I could tell they were both hapa, but I couldn't figure out their ethnicity. They were adopted from Kazakhstan. That's #2! (Actually, the couple only intended to adopt the girl, but she insisted they adopt a little boy she had been caring for as well. And now that she was entering her teens and he was still a bratty little brother, she teased that she should have left him behind. :P )

Fast forward to a few months ago, I got cousin Q (I have to mention him from time to time because his friends read my blog. Heh.) to add "Nomad: The Warrior" into his Netflix queue for me. That's #3! I have no idea why a film about Kazakhstan starred Jason Scott Lee, Marc Dacascos, Archie Kao, Kuno Becker, and Jay Hernandez. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by the scenery, the costumes, and the faces of all the extras.

Well, if something keeps popping up, it makes me curious. So go to Wikipedia if you want to read more about Kazakhstan, and here to read about Uzbekistan. By the way, did you know there's now about 500,000 ethnic Koreans in the former Soviet Union, primarily in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan who were forcibly deported by Stalin in the 1930s? There's even a documentary about the Koryo Saram. Fascinating isn't it?

But what did they eat? I don't know of any Kazakh restaurants in SoCal, but I knew there was an Uzbek restaurant. So yes, while I know that the two are different countries, cultures, languages, and cuisines, this was the closest I could come to Kazakhstan. And besides, it'd be a whole new experience for me.

Now, I don't know about you, but few of my family or friends are that adventurous when it comes to eating. But there's one time of year when my siblings take me where I want - my birthday! In preparation, I read up a little about Uzbek cuisine beforehand.

Because Uzbekistan was a part of the Soviet Union for so many years, and because there's a much larger Russian than Uzbek population in SoCal, the restaurant also offers Russian cuisine. And while I heard it's good, I didn't choose to go to Uzbekistan to eat Russian food. So, with no further ado, onto Uzbekistan the restaurant, not the country, and definitely not Kazakhstan.

Fogo de Chao - Beverly Hills

The only fine dining lil' sis really appreciates is steak and lots of it. So for her birthday, my brother wanted to try Fogo de Chao. He had heard me rave about my experience several years ago at the Fogo de Chao in Dallas. Actually it's technically in Addison, Texas. If you're not familiar with a churrascaria, it's basically a Brazilian barbecue with lots and lots of meat. According to its website, gauchos (Southern Brazilian cowboys) pierced large pieces of meat and slowly grilled them over open flames. Fogo de Chao elevates the "all-you-can-eat" buffet to a fine dining experience with whirling parades of waiters dressed in gaucho attire weaving between tables with sword-like skewers of various meats. But here, why don't I just show you. I think these particular meats were just for show, but it gives you an idea of what I mean when I say large pieces of meat on sword-like skewers. The lighting in the restaurant was a little weird. Too muted, with an amber glow from the lights and the setting sun, so apologies for the poor photos. That glass display in the center that reaches up to the second floor is their wine selection. I didn't have any that night, but I'm sure there's lots to choose from. And there's the salad bar. I felt a little too self-conscious to snap photos up close. But the salad bar is high quality. Marinated artichokes, hearts of palm, gigantic asparagus spears, endive, arugula, tabbouleh, roasted peppers, oh, I can't remember it all. Let's begin, shall we? Each person gets a disc with green for go and red for stop. Ready to eat meat? Yes please! This is one of my favorite cuts. The picanha is prime sirloin seasoned with sea salt and garlic. Each person gets a small pair of tongs to grab the meat as the waiter slices off a piece. I also like the filet mignon, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, alcatra (seasoned top sirloin), fraldinha (seasoned bottom sirloin), beef ancho (seasoned rib eye), and lamb chops. I think those meats are the best seasoned and juiciest. And the most expensive. I gotta get my money's worth! I pass on the pork loin, pork ribs, leg of lamb, beef ribs, chicken legs, chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, and pork sausage. Rather dry and not as flavorful compared to the other cuts. Just take this plate and multiply it by three. :P We also got a Brazilian version of Chimichurri (Argentinian Green Sauce) with all the herbs and a thousand island-ish cream sauce, horseradish, chili peppers, and something else I can't remember. We had multiple refills of the chimichurri and chili pepper sauces so you know those were good. Since this is Beverly Hills and not Addison, Texas, service was considerably better. Considerably. Well, actually, service bordered on hovering. The minute we sat down and placed our drink orders, we immediately had appetizers placed on our table. Very cool. Except after a while, it became a whirlwind as our sides were replaced before we even ate half the plate. Only one fried banana left? Here, have another plate with three fried bananas. Now, I love my fried bananas, but even I can't eat that quickly! And part of me hopes they're not recycling those appetizer plates onto other tables. Ewww. And the other part of me hopes they're not simply throwing food away because that's such a waste too! The black beans were good. The mashed potatoes were incredibly smooth. I loved the fried polenta. Obviously the fried bananas were a hit. The farofa I just couldn't get behind. That would be the plate in between the fried polenta and mashed potatoes on the far right of this photo. Made of toasted manioc flour, sometimes seasoned with bacon, it tasted like salty sawdust with Baco Bits. Um, yeah, it was as tasty as the description sounds. This light and airy-looking cheese puffs are pao de queijo. Think of them as slightly cheesy popovers. Another lamb chop for moi. If you think lamb is gamey, then you should definitely try Fogo de Chao's. My first time in Addison, I had a little mound of lamb chop bones. They were that good. So succulent. Lil' sis insisted she didn't like lamb either until I made her try a piece of mine. No thanks! That's enough meat for me. I made a brief stop at the salad bar so I could get my greens for the day. And since it was lil' sis's birthday, she got a birthday flan. It was soooo creamy and smooth. We also ordered their papaya cream for $10. Tasted like papaya pudding. Served so prettily, eh? So how much will this set you back? Dinner is $52.50 a person for the meats and salad bar, desserts are extra. Just think of it this way, the meat is comparable to other steakhouses. At least here, you get unlimited sides. Other Brazilian churrascarias might have the same concept, but definitely not the same quality. Starve yourself all day and treat yourself for dinner. Lunch is $34.50, but I'm not sure if you get all the same cuts of meat. I know other churrascarias save the good stuff for dinner, but I've only been at Fogo de Chao twice in my lifetime so I can't say for sure. And for me, it's all about the lamb chops. September 13, 2010 Update: Gosh, those original flash photos taken with my Canon SD110 look awfully harsh. Ah, the things I've learned and haven't learned about photography in the meantime. Not that the Canon SD1000 is so much better, but at least I learned not to use flash. And the restaurant's lighting at night is still too dark and weird. I went back to Fogo de Chao in October 2008 courtesy of an invitation from FoodDigger, a restaurant review site that matches users with similar taste buds. If you have the time to fill out the info for each restaurant, I've heard it's actually good for pairing you up with others who like the same food, or for recommending other restaurants for you. As usual, I tried to get my fill of lamb chops. Alas, dining with strangers made me more self-conscious and I didn't gnaw the meat off the bones. I'm sure Aaron of Destination Eats, who sat across from me appreciated my more refined eating habits that evening. Ha! The FoodDigger folks also brought several bottles of wine for the occasion. And treated us to dessert on top of dinner. This time I chose the creme brulee. Thanks FoodDigger for the lovely dinner! In February 2010, I was back again for lunch during DineLA with lil' sis's best friend and Gourmet Pigs. The normally $34.50 lunch was $28 during DineLA AND included dessert since the participating restaurants had to offer up three-course meals. Desserts are normally $10. We had full access to the salad bar and all of the meats I've enjoyed before so, even without dessert, it was still a great deal. I chose key lime pie, which just tasted like every other key lime pie I've ever eaten. But it was nicely plated, and in all honesty, I was still too full from all the meat to enjoy it anyway. Gourmet Pigs and lil' sis's best friend chose the papaya cream, which is also supposed to help you digest. And after all that meat, I felt like I should've stuck with the papaya cream too. Anyway, DineLA is coming up again October 3 to 8 and 10 to 15 so if you've been wanting to try Fogo de Chao, I highly recommend it. Dinner, which is normally $56.50 will be $44 during DineLA. Fogo doesn't do lunch on weekends. The only difference I noted was that service was much, much better during my normal dinners than during DineLA. Side dishes and sauces were generously given and replaced rapidly. During DineLA, I had to ask for refills. So service wasn't bad, just not as attentive. I told lil' sis and she couldn't wait to try it again. And oldest nephew has never eaten Brazilian barbecue. Seems like oldest nephew hasn't tried a lot of things, said my brother. That's because he's spent his whole life in Portland and Seattle, I said. We didn't try all these different cuisines until we moved to SoCal either. :) Who else ate at Fogo de Chao? Gourmet Pigs blogged about our DineLA meal and as she puts it $34.50 + $10 dessert = $28. Other Brazilian restaurants: Taste of Brazil - Los Angeles Fogo de Chao 133 N. La Cienega Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211 310-289-775 Monday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.