2.48 Animal
Posted on June 24, 2009
Filed Under American, Best of the Best |
Sorry for the lack of updates. Honestly, I’ve been gaining weight and have been trying to cook healthy food and eat at home. I miss hard core deviant food, but I’d also like to live (and keep eating) for a long time. My apologies, dear readers, but I gotta hang up the foodie hat for a while. The website will still be here for your reference, and I’ll probably reorganize this thing so it’s easier to find what you need. Hopefully I can still get a couple of last hurrahs in and finish year two.
My best friend Matt has recently turned into a huge foodie. I’m talking hard core crazy off the hook stuff. He came to town raving about Animal, which he has been to before, so of course we had to try it! Of course our good friend and fellow foodie Mikey K also joined in on the fun, so tonight we had three guys and one great restaurant.
Animal is a small, elegant place on Fairfax just North of the Grove. The whole place seats 45 people and it was full when we got there at 9pm on a tuesday night. Thankfully we got a table in about 10 minutes and it was on!!!
We start with the Crispy Hominy, which Jonathan Gold raved about. It was crispy, simple, and tasty. $5.
We turn to something a bit more hard core next. This is the poutine with oxtail gravy and cheddar. Poutine is essentially french fries with some sort of gravy or other stuff added on top. In this case the oxtail was the amazing catalyst of all kinds of flavors. Sure, fries are always good, but the oxtail is extremely tender, flavorful, with a rich buttery taste. This is comfort food at its very best. Amazing dish. $15.
We go all out deviant next with pork belly, kimchi, peanuts, chili soy, scallion. The pork is chunky and fatty but had a lighter than expected taste, with great flavor that was lightened and teased by the mountain of kimchi and all kinds of shredded veggies on top. Fantastic stuff. $12.
We finally arrive at our entrees. Here is the flatiron steak with potatoes, chanterelle, and truffle parmesan fondue. The sauce here is quite strong, the truffle aroma overwhelms you at the first bite but the flavors of the wonderful flatiron steak comes out gradually. buttery and flavorful, a satisfying finish. $26
We saw the next table order this and just had to get it ourselves. Balsamic pork ribs. Humongous. Ridiculously tender. The balsamic barbecue sauce is tangy and sweet. The meat is so tender it falls off the bone as you try to get it on to your plate. You can even bite through the bone and eat the marrow, which is surprisingly good too. A little pricy at $37.
We arrive at dessert. Pound cake with strawberry and cream. The cake was perfect with a little crispiness to it, and the strawberries and the fresh whipped cream were just delectable. $7.
Everything was so good here, it reminded me of Mario Batali’s Babbo. The flavors were bold, rich, and unexpected. It was a little pricey, but I think it was well worth it to experience something extraordinary. Indeed, I had forgotten how new food experiences can make you feel — the excitement of trying something new — makes you feel so alive, so unhindered in enjoying the basic stuff in life. Like, you know, an Animal, or something. Alright, back to the diet. See y’all soon.
Animal
435 N. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 782-9225
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Been reading your blog for a long time, always enjoyed the great content and photography. I’m truly sorry to hear the end of 50meals, but health first, I understand.
Thanks for the great content over the years, any thoughts on maybe continue 50meala with guest post and such? It’d be truly a shame to see this site left behind dusted up in closetslike so many blogs out there.
What’s a homemeal for 50meals like? Hardcore? Deviant?
Whoa! Great site, and it’s ending waaaah!? Another one bites the dust eh?
I’m from Korea, sorry for my English.
Your site will be missed, I enjoyed reading weekly for new updates. The pictures are amazing and I love how you cover great hard to find places in LA. Any other sites you can recommend for abroad student like me?
Animal looks awesome! Too bad I’m all the way out here at Witchta. I’ll have to make a trip out to LA soon. Where would you recommend to not miss? and San Fran too!
Maybe 50meals can be turned into a recipe site of your home cooked meals? With big pictures!? just a thought
Thanks for years of work, I loved watching your adventure.
Great pictures! I’ve had poutines before but never Oxtail, that sounds great! If you make it down to Australia any time, look me up!
I’ll definitely check out Animal when I’m in LA
I think perhaps you’re putting too much pressure on finding best eats. I find it hard to imagine you’d be eating every day at home having to have experienced so much great food.
I’ve personally never read a review about that place less than stellar, what I’m trying to say is sometimes ocassional update with taco shop down the street, burgers and whatnot should be suffice, or even places that’s not a “great eat”. I’d love to read about a “bad” experience you know?
I think people come here for the photo, for the writing and entertainment, not necessary for the best place to eat in Los Angeles only.
I’m in Macau and I visit frequently even if I rarely go to Los Angeles.
Does your best friend “hard core crazy off the hook stuff” Matt have a blog?
I think the news isn’t huge surprise to those of us who’s been reading for a while, the update has been slim recently and that’s always a sign right?
I’ll quickly share my experience with 50meals, may sound cheesy but this blog changed my life or at least my perspective of it.
Food always has been a means to an end. “Eat to survive” my dad would always say (I grew up in the military). And 29 years of my life, this was just fine. Until one day I decided to visit San Francisco and a coworker insisted that I visit 50meals. I had planned on having some famous burritos in the mission, the bacon cart everyone talked about, In N out and chowder at the wharf, then sight seen and whatnot for the rest of the time.
However going to Spices, House of Prime Ribs, San Tung had changed my perspective completely and helped me appreciate food in new ways. Since then I’ve been to SF 2 more times each time trying new things and meeting more and more foodies and really learned to enjoy food in new light.
I live in suburb near Seattle and really enjoy the full spectrum of gastronomic experience this great city has to offer. I’ve had some fried quail egg at a gastro pub last night, malaysian restaurant in international district the week before. I attribute this directly to your site, so thank you for posting over the years, I’d encourage you to keep going but it sounds like you’ve decided to close shop, thanks for keeping the site on for reference.
My day job is a personal trainer, so if you ever need any advice, I’d be happy to help. You definitely can enjoy eating out in moderation and still be slim and healthy. I’ve competed recently in a bodybuilding contest where I had to cut to single digit bodyfat. I didn’t have to give up eating out all together.
@Harmony: I think we’ll do a couple more meals and call it quits, I might update once in a while if and when I find something good enough to blog about. I’m open to guest bloggers, we’ve done it before, but I think food photography is where 50meals is at and if someone can take great pictures, I’d love to post their entries.
@Mike: No, it’s very plain. I love making string beans, pan fried tofu, I make a great steak. It’s all just veggies and protein these days.
@Deni: You write better than lots of Americans. Jonathan Gold over at LAWeekly is my food writing idol, the guy knows absolutely everything and is such an amazing writer. Thanks for visiting. http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants
@Jonathan: I got almost two years of entries all over LA and SF on this blog. Places not to miss: Indian in San Gabriel for Taiwanese, Lu Ding Gee in San Gabriel for Peking duck. Spices 1, 2, and 3 in and around SF. House of Prime Rib in SF. Babbo in NYC is also one memorable meal. Browse this site, see what catches your eye.
@John from OZ: I hear the seafood down under is amazing. I just might take you up one day. Leave me your E-mail?
@Dexter: I hear Macau has amazing amazing food, definitely look forward to visiting sometime. I don’t write about bad places because, well, I don’t want to be a negative person and I don’t want to bash someone’s restaurant if it’s just an off day. As for only writing about stellar places, I think that’s how I make it worth your while to visit this site. I think if I’m not excited about a restaurant, you wouldn’t be either, and the whole point of this site is to introduce people to new exciting stuff.
@Anil: Matt’s way too busy to keep a food blog, which is too bad, because he’s a phenomenal photographer and my photography teacher. You can keep up with him on twitter, he’s @Chou. and of course I’m @50meals. Speaking of photography, Matt and I run a wedding photography studio if any of you are getting married or need portraits or… you know, own a restaurant. Check us out at InTheVerve.com.
@Billy: I’m very touched and am so very proud to have made a difference in your life. I love food and I love telling people about it, it’s like I’m expanding people’s horizons and helping people get more out of life. I definitely agree that I can keep eating out even on a diet, but I think we can also all agree that poutine, bacon, ribs and poundcake isn’t very healthy. One meal like this can ruin one week of hard dieting and exercise work. I think as long as I’m significantly overweight, I shouldn’t exacerbate the problem by keeping a food blog. Thanks for your generous offer.
@everyone: I love my readers, thank you all for writing. It’s been a great journey and I’m so proud to have so many people visit and comment on this site. I’m still going to try to finish my second year, so this isn’t goodbye just yet. Keep the comments coming, I’ll be sure to reply.
KevCheng
@50meals
.com
Wow, poutine, kimchi pork belly, steak, ribs. Holy crap y’all, you guys know how to eat!!
As co-founder of this blog I’m overwhelmed and feel really honored to have been a part of the 50meals project. This project was born out of a night of spontaneous discussion between Kevin and I, we decide that 50meals a year would be a great way to expand our horizon and maybe our readers.
As Kevin has eluded many times, 50meals is about the experience of great food. To us, expression of great food needs photography and words in concert. We can probably all agree on Kevin’s incredible ability to express both elements.
As for the future of 50meals, we (Kevin and I) really haven’t discussed it in detail yet. Guest post is on the table, keeping it at status quo may be an option. I’m hearing a lot of eagerness and fear of Kevin’s departure. I’m here to assure you 50meals will continue in one form or another, my hope is that we’ll continue to be here as a great resource and inspiration for you all regardless of frequency of updates.
Finally, thanks for all that have been reading and following the site. I had a lot of fun building it and great fun watching the progress of the site. Today may mark the highest traffic date of 50meals in history, and I’m proud of the great content we’ve created over the past 2 years. Please keep coming back, you can always keep in touch with me at http://twitter.com/chou and kevin at http://twitter.com/50meals . Animal is one of my favorite restaurant in LA but our coverage won’t end there, we’ll continue to look for best grubs either in our test kitchen or on the road. Thanks again for reading.
What are you looking for in guest blogger? I’m based in South Africa and write and take photos.
Not sure if you realize this but you can actually continue the site without actually eating out. For example, covering food topic in Los Angeles, what’s your top 5 meals in LA. Websites you come across, maybe even user interaction such as suggestions and posts.
Additionally, you can also have a reader go and eat somewhere and report review back. There’s great opportunity there that you’re not seeing.
Good luck with everything, hope the blog will continue in one form or another. Thanks for all the hard work!
Ps. Animal looks like a great restaurant, if I’m not all the way out in Charlotte I’d be eating there every day
I am from Argentina, the ribs are similar to my cooking in my country.
what was your favorite from the night at Animal?
Was hoping to come to another 50meals meetup, too bad. Gonna miss this site man
well, animal is a great post to end on if you are taking a break.. hope to see some new posts soon! maybe you can do some posts of your home cooking.