"Soup's On" - Borscht Soup at Traktir

As part of a "Soup's On!" dining series, a friend of mine and I put together for my dining group a series of restaurant outings where we got to try different soups around the world. We did everything from chicken mami soup from the Philippines to jade noodle soup from Thailand and ended the series with Russian borscht soup at Traktir in West Hollywood.

On a side note, Santa Monica Boulevard going through WeHo is home to a host of awesome Russian delis. After our lunch at Traktir, we actually did a Russian deli crawl and some of the food we saw in those delis were amazing, from breads and pastries to salads and various cooked meats. Definitely check it out when you get a chance.

Anyway, on to the food. While the primary draw was the Borscht soup, we all started our meal with a compote. When I went home, I did an online search for what a compote was and according to wikipedia, it is a light refreshing drink most often made of dried fruit (raisins, prunes, apricots, etc.) boiled in water with sugar and left to cool and infuse. The compote really was as the description said, light and refreshing. It reminded me of fruit ice tea.

For an appetizer, I ordered feta cheese and kalamata olives. When the dish arrived, I was surprised to see a whole bunch of cilantro on top. It seemed like a lot just for garnish, but then I was told by someone in the know that you actually eat the cilantro with the olives and cheese.

So I ended up doing a Korean BBQ thing, wrapped the leaves around a piece of the cheese and olive and eat them all together. The peppery cilantro really added some great flavor and green freshness to the mild saltiness of the cheese and the olives. What a great combo.

Soon after the borscht arrived. This was my first time having borscht and given that I love beets, I was really looking forward to this soup. While the soup was quite tasty, I was a little disappointed. I expected more of a "beet" flavor to come through, but in some ways, this particular borscht reminded me more of a chunky tomato soup and tomatoes weren't even part of the ingredients. It was still a good soup, but just not what I expected.

From the soup, I shared an order of Russian Vereniki (dumplings) with another diner. Our order consisted of three different verenikis:

Potato Vereniki - Russian style dumplings with potato filling

Meat Vereniki - Russian style dumplings with ground meat and spice filling

Mushroom and Sourkraut Vereniki - Russian style dumpling with mushroom and sourkraut filling

I didn't think any of the three Russian dumplings were anything to write home about. The meat dumpling had some good flavor, but the potato dumpling was bland and I couldn't even tell that there were mushrooms or sauerkraut in the mushroom and sauerkraut dumpling. At least the sauce for the dumplings were good, but without that great sauce, these dumplings would have been a waste of time.

Overall, I'd say that lunch at Traktir was okay. I'd go back to check out some of their other dishes at another time, but be warned. Parking is a pain. There's a small parking lot, but primarily it's metered street parking and you know how much fun that is.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594587148440/

Traktir
8151 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90046
(323) 654-3030

"Soup's On!" - Clam Chowder at Original Fish Company

New England Style Clam Chowder is definitely one of my favorite wintertime soups and after having experienced the fabulous clam chowder at Splash Cafe in SLO earlier in the year, I was definitely on the lookout for a Socal version.

Before I go on, let me preface that I've never been to New England, which means I've never tried authentic New England Clam Chowder, so I can't attest to how "authentic" is the clam chowder at OFC. All I can tell you about is how my taste buds reacted.

I can say for sure that my tastebuds were completely happy. Although not as good as the one I had at Splash Cafe, this version came pretty close. This version of the New England Clam Chowder was thick, creamy, buttery with a good amount of clams and was the kind of soup that will warm you up and stick to your ribs. Delicious!

I almost wish that I just had a large bowl as my entire meal instead of just a cup. The filet mignon and shrimp skewer that I ordered for my entree was less than stellar.

By the way, since Manhattan Clam Chowder was also on the menu, I ordered a cup of that as well to check it out. I think the overall flavor was good and had a nice little kick to it, but it seemed oversalted to me so I only had 2 or 3 spoonfuls and that was enough for me.

Overall, my soup experience was very positive and with the Original Fish Company only 35 minutes away, I'd be willing to make the return trek just to savor their New England Style Clam Chowder again. :)

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594395298484/

The Original Fish Company
11061 Los Alamitos Blvd.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
(562) 594-4553
http://www.originalfishcompany.com/

"Soup's On!" - Mami Soup at Asian Noodles - CLOSED

With the weather getting cooler, I was definitely looking forward to warming myself up with wintertime soups and stews, so my friend and I thought it'd be fun to organize outings to restaurants that specialize in certain kinds of entree soups, ethnic and otherwise.

With me being Filipina, I wanted to introduce people to a Chinese-inspired, Filipino soup called Mami. First, a little history that I picked up from Wikpedia.

Mami is the creation of Ma Mon Luk, a grade school teacher in Canton. Arriving penniless in Manila, Ma Mon Luk decided to peddle chicken noodle soup, utilizing egg noodles. He soon became a familiar sight in the streets of Manila, plodding down with a long bamboo pole slung on his shoulders with two metal containers on each end. Ma Mon Luk himself called his concoction "gupit", after the Tagalog word for "cut with scissors". Soon however, Filipinos took to calling the dish "mami", an amalgam of Tagalog words for chicken ("manok") and egg noodles ("miki"). Ma Mon Luk also introduced siopao, a steamed bun, which is like the Chinese bao, to Filipino culture and generally, the siopao is eaten as a side to the mami soup.

Anyway, I took the group to experience mami soup at Asian Noodles in Chinatown. While mami is still made up of chicken broth and noodles, you have meat options other than chicken. Now you can get mami soup with beef, pork or won ton. I opted for the Classic Filipino Mami, which has chicken and pork.

My mami soup was excellent. The broth was flavorful with the green onions adding just the right amount of zip. The noodles were cooked just right and not overdone and the meat was tender. What was nice is that they also put out a couple of bowls of extra broth so as you ran out, you could add more to your mami.

Along with the mami, I had the bola bola siopao, which had a filling of chicken, pork, sausage and salted egg. You can also order siopao with just chicken or pork fillings.

In regards to the siopao fillings, regardless of what type of meat is used, the filling tends to be on the sweet side. Usually, the siopao meat mixture has sugar and soy sauce as part of its ingredients. I think the combo of the two gives siopao a unique sweet-salty flavor. That sweet-salty flavor also gets carried into the sauce that the siopao is dipped in since it is also made up of sugar, soy sauce along with other ingredients. What I like about the bola bola siopao is that the sausage and the salted egg will cut down the sweetness of the filling even more, so that when I break off a piece to dip it in the siopao sauce, all the flavors are balanced well.

By the way, an interesting thing that the manager told us is that the number of red dots showing up on the siopao will tell you which kind of siopao you have. By the way, Bola Bola siopaos only have one red dot.

Whenever I eat mami, I'm reminded me of those moments growing up as a kid, when the rainy season would come and when my Mom didn't feel like cooking, she'd pile the whole family in the car and we'd head off for a steaming hot bowl of Mami soup at a local Filipino restaurant. No words were needed as we enjoyed each spoonful to the last drop. Essentially, mami soup is really just another version of chicken noodle soup, but regardless of what name it goes by, it's good comfort food that will warm you from the inside out and it certainly did its job that evening.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594345119848/

Asian Noodles
643 N Spring St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-617-1083