What We Loved at LA Times’ The Taste this Year: Sunday Block Party

Erhmagerrrd! Sherry Yerrrd merking brewnies!!! (All photos by Bob Lee for The LA Beat)

Sunday afternoon’s event at The Taste was another day of extreme heat on the lot, though there was also real estate that had set aside for shade. Some vendor got the message on the temperatures and served us the right thing for the right moment.

One of my personal barometers for a successful summer event was met right away: no less than three good restaurants, Otium, Coni Seafood and Ricardo Zarate’s new restaurant, Rosaline, all served up ceviche, and all of it was first-rate. Which was something I had hoped would happen. On the other end of the spectrum, Asian Box was a hit with its traditional breakfast dish of porridge with five-spice chicken – evidently it’s traditional to eat something hot when the weather is hot, and it did go down quite well

Every good event of this type has at least one “shocking success” dish and today’s came from Slapfish’s Surf & Turf Burger — literally, a burger topped with lobster. Hear me out here. We could debate whether there are better uses for quality lobster, and how the beef flavors are sure to overwhelm everything good about the lobster. But presented with the reality of the thing, it’s really good. I would eat it again, today.

Jet Tila was friendly and posed for pics following his Q&A, although there was no trace of the fish he had just cooked up being passed around…I hope he and his team had themselves a nice lunch, harumph. Sherry Yard was kind enough to bake cookies and brownies for all of those who attended her presentation, so I would have to say I liked hers a lot better, because those cookies and brownies tasted like they were made by someone famous for making that kind of thing. She’s also a terrific speaker, very charming and self deprecating, but clearly speaking from a place of wisdom. And should anyone doubt that her spiel was wise, the proof is literally in the pudding, or the brownie.