LA (2of2) 0 to Packed at Chaya Venice

After a day of meeting with a partner company about plans, ideas and what-not, their team offered to take us out to a nice meal at Chaya Venice. In order to assure we got a decent seat, we were told to meet them promptly at 6pm, which seemed to be an obnoxiously early time for dinner, but I'm glad we took their council. Within 25 minutes of our arrival, the place went from pin-drop empty to every table being filled with the vaguely beautiful, but pained set that only southern California can produce.

My friend Eric had suggested/considered Chaya for our dining spot the night before, but it was closed on Monday so it was either an odd coincidence that our business colleagues chose this place or there just aren't many choices in Santa Monica for high-end cuisine. Like Chinois, Chaya Venice aimed for Asian fusion, but with a more Japanese underpinning and a modern aesthetic that added to the vibe and energy of the place.

I started my meal with a fabulous set of seared sea scallops over Thai green papaya salad. The dish was lightly dressed with a delicate ginger garlic vinaigrette that helped to bring out the sweetness of the papaya and the scallops beautifully. I followed the scallop salad with another attempt at paella. My last experience with paella was viciously heavy and unpleasant so I feared ingesting this dish while wearing a shirt that was just on the edge of being too tight for a business dinner. This particular paella was served with half a grilled lobster on top so I couldn't resist giving it a go.

The mix of seafood and rice was superb in every way. The underlying dish was well seasoned to help the sweet meats of the lobster, shrimp and squid to shine, but the portion was reasonable enough to not leave you feeling like a stuffed horse. This is certainly a place to be if you want to dine among the sorta beautiful (but certainly well dressed) people and try to "get" what SoCal is about.

Walleye Wow!

I'm not a big fan of walleye. When I first arrived in Minnesota almost 5 years ago, it seemed like this state was obsessed with the stuff. Every restaurant from greasy spoons to white linen places offered the fish in some form. Coming from catfish country where I was raised, Walleye seemed to be a bland off-center departure from the type of every-man's fare I was used to so I've generally avoided the stuff unless it's been battered and fried to oblivion (thus closer to what my southern palate expects from a fish like that).

My eyes have been opened by the folks at Birchwood Cafe - an enchanting eclectic establishment buried in a neighborhood on the east side of town, a few blocks shy of the Mississippi River where they rely on organic ingredients, unusual grains, and crank out some incredible baked goods and desserts. The menu is perpetually changing chalk-board listing of entrees, salads, pizzas and other treats. That description cheapens the experience of eating there which is best captured in the invitation painted on the window proclaiming "Good Real Food".

This trip, I was intrigued by an entree of Pan-fried Canadian Walleye in browned butter. Trusting that if anyone could do walleye in a way that I could appreciate, it would be the Birchwood folks. Holy Crap! I scarfed it down too fast to stop to get a picture.

Two fillets of moist, delicately flavored walleye exploded with flavor as they were perfectly caramelized and the flesh was crisp on the outside and just done inside. I love perfectly browned butter as it is rich and deep at the same time and this combination perfectly accented the fish.

The dish was brought together by fried sage, and a pilaf of wild rice, a grain that looked like bulgar or maybe quinoa (I'm bad with my grains) and chunks of pineapple - who would have thunk. The pineapple with the browned butter gave me that rich sweet/savory mix I adore and lingers on my mind for hours afterward. I rounded out the meal with a Jamaican ginger beer and an way-too-sweet chocolate/almond layer cake stuffed with bananas swimming in almond liqueur. All-in-all, the great start to a weekend and an invite to get my buns back into Birchwood more often as well as opening my eyes to the possibilities for walleye.