TAVERN

Tavern reminds me of a place that Larry would go on Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's in Brentwood. I sat at the bar, watched some NCAA basketball and had a hamburger and a Coke.

OSTERIA MOZZA

To celebrate Georgia's birthday, Ira took a few of us out to Osteria Mozza. We shared a bunch of appetizers: two different types of mozzarella, butter lettuce with bacon, sardines and crispy trotters.

I had the squid ink pasta with crab and sea urchin.
And Orata stuffed with herbs
Afterwards we went to see OFF!

FARMSHOP

Farmshop at the Brentwood Country Store is filled with rich people. You can tell by their shopping bags and expensive clothes. The food is great. We shared an albacore tuna sandwich, egg salad and french fries. A short walk down the street is Sweet Rose Creamery. I had mint ice cream with chocolate pieces. It tasted like real mint, maybe the best ice cream I've ever had.

SQUARE ONE DINING

Square One Dining is a restaurant that focuses mainly on breakfast (and a little on lunch). They do a great job, everything is always freshly made and they try to use the best ingredients. I had the baked eggs with braised greens and mushrooms on grits (it's all underneath the eggs) with a sausage patty on the side. It always feels a little bit like "brunch" in here, even on a Thursday morning, which is both good and bad. What I mean is that if you are in a hurry and don't have time to hang out and linger it can be bad because everyone else is relaxing and hanging out like you might on a Sunday, which can feel weird if it's Thursday and you have to work. It's right across the street from the Church of Scientology.

YO LA TENGO

Yo La Tengo played the penultimate show of their "wheel tour" last night at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles. The wheel landed on SitCom Theater, so the band, crew and special guest star Laura Kraft performed an episode of Sponge Bob Square Pants. Everyone was hoping for a set of Condo F*cks songs so they performed a few before taking a short break and launching into another tremendous show.

MUAMMAR EL-QADDAFI

He has a good look.

KIYOKAWA SUSHI

Back in Los Angeles, back to eating alone. Kiyakawa Restaurant is a few blocks south of The Ivy on Robertson but it's a good place to go by yourself and play Scrabble on your iPhone. The sushi chef is a young, nice guy that isn't intimidating. I had the Omakase, but I don't remember what everything was. This sake container is pretty cool.

KNICKERBOCKER

Knickerbocker is in a great location and it's never crowded, and the food is good. I don't understand why, but I'm glad. Kevin, Ford and I caught up over steaks.

DEL POSTO-LUNCH

Del Posto has a good deal for a prix-fixe lunch. It's kind of a fancy place and feels a little bit like you're in Las Vegas but Mott is a great person to do fancy stuff with. They start with a trio of little snacks: stracciatella, a ham foam brioche and a crispy risotto ball. We chose the lobster salad and steak tartar as our appetizers (there was an extra charge for these super fancy dishes)
I had the grilled pork.
For dessert: chestnut cake with plums and yogurt gelato
After dessert, they give you four more little desserts: an ice cream lollipop, a mini doughnut, a custard tart and a shaving of chocolate.

DINNER AT KIM AND ROB'S

Kim and Rob invited some friends over to their place and I got to cook. I have lots of free time right now so I rode my bike to China Town and got ingredients from the markets not really sure what I was getting. Ann requested Tuna tataki, so I made that. I wanted peanut sauce so I made summer rolls but got these weird wrappers by accident.
Tumeric Fish with noodles is my favorite thing at Viet Noodle, so I wanted to try it too.
There were tons of inexpensive citrus fruits at the stalls on Grand Street so I got a bunch of oranges and grapefruit and made some more ice. It's very satisfying to juice the fruit and a few hours later have this tasty dessert. I added a little simple syrup to the mix to make it sweeter. I couldn't tell what type of cookies these were from the package but they turned out to be sweet sesame cookies which were a good contrast.

FATTA CUCKOO

Fatta Cuckoo is a weird name for a restaurant and it's kind of weird place. It's on Clinton Street which is filled with restaurants. It's tiny and a lot of the seating is stools, like in a nursery school. Mindy and I loved the food. I had an escarole salad, grilled salmon with cold sesame noodles and coconut custard pie. I'd go here all the time if it was in my neighborhood.

BLOOD ORANGE

Blood oranges are one of my favorite things. Last night I made a granita out of their juice. It's easy, you juice the oranges and put it in the freezer and then once in a while fluff it up with a fork. I didn't add any sugar. The cookie is Newman's Own Cinnamon Graham Alphabet cookie. Susan came over for dinner. You can't go wrong with Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken. We also had swiss chard, potatoes and cipollini onions cooked in balsamic vinegar.

BUVETTE

Phil pointed out that I said "we" too much... as in "we'll be back to try the tart tatin". It was cutting into our ability to flirt with our server who assumed we were a couple spending Valentine's Day together at Buvette, a new French "gastroteque" where the Pink Tea Cup used to be. They serve wine and two drinks only: Martinis and and Manhattans. I started with a Manhattan that came with some ice and a tiny beeker. We shared sardines, bacalao, lentils with kale, chicken and meatballs.

15 EAST

15 East is a fancy Japanese restaurant near Union Square. They have a prix-fixe lunch that's a good deal. I had Miso soup, a piece of cod and sushi. Ruth Reichl was there. She wrote Garlic and Sapphires about her years as food critic for the NY Times.