Late summer’s fruitful riches fill our Southern California farmers markets. The many varieties of apricots, peaches and nectarines tempt buyers with their perfume in a way that rock hard supermarket stone fruit can’t.

Buying direct from the growers can sometimes save you money, but variety and vine-ripened freshness are the real reasons for shopping at the farmer’s markets. Rather than the usual industrial cultivars, they’ll raise more flavorful fruit and vegetable varieties. Among the dozens of heirloom tomato varieties sold here, there’s a supersweet, flavor rich hybrid called Sungold, which was recently featured in Saveur Magazine’s Top 100 list. I’ve grown nine tomato plants in my garden plot this year, and the sungold hybrids are my clear favorite. Gardeners can buy seeds from Totally Tomato. (Thanks, Liza, for hooking me up with my seedlings!)

As a neophyte gardener, I’ve sponged off the market vendors for plant care advice, and lifted ideas for things to plant next season. I find without exception the farmers generously share their knowledge, and I value the markets as much for the producers as the produce.

Not all farmer’s markets are the same, though. My local Saturday market across from UC Irvine is Orange County’s biggest, but still pales in comparison to the biggies in L.A. County. These photos were taken at the Santa Monica organic market last Wednesday. The Santa Monica and Hollywood markets, held several times a week, draw the biggest number of vendors and top chefs who shop for locally grown produce.

Among them was a crew from Santa Monica’s bastion of California cuisine, Josie Restaurant. Chef de Cuisine Jill Davie stopped me and chatted because we were both wearing t shirts from Piggly Wiggly, the southern supermarket chain.

T shirt twins: Professor Salt & Chef Davie

Organic shallots from Windrose Farms. I’m using these to seed my garden this winter.

Does your supermarket sort fruit by ripeness?

For a list of farmer’s markets in the greater Los Angeles region, head over to LA Times list of local famer’s markets.

Clock’s ticking fellas. Three short days til Valentine’s. Unless you’re the sort of thoughtful, organized and creative man that had your plans sorted out months ago, you need a gift that sends the right message, and FAST!

“Roses… yeah, that’s the ticket.” No, it’s not. Women operate on a higher plane than men where the actual gift doesn’t matter as much as the effort put into it, and the signals it puts forth.

A single long stem rose with leafy garnish says, “I took the easy way out and bought this from the Mexican guy roaming the offramp.” A dozen long stem roses signals, “I felt guilty that I put no effort into this, and spent more than I needed to get the same, ho-hum reponse from you, honey.” Women compare notes on February 15 and the winner, I assure you, did a lot better than just roses.

So what’s a fail safe, last minute gift you can easily pick up this weekend? Chocolate. Not just any chocolate, though. Exquisite, extraordinary, sensual truffles that send the pulse racing for this holiday of the heart. Here’s your executive summary of a few, select truffle sources in the Orange County / Los Angeles area.

See’s Candies Red Satin Heart $21.35 for 1 pound What it says: “Good luck on the hip replacement, Grandma.” Pro: Grandma will love sharing these with her caregivers at the nursing home. Con: Buy See’s long shelf-life candies by the case for your business associates for Christmas. Hopefully, your lady deserves more special than that for Valentine’s Day. Photo © www.sees.com

Godiva Medium Romantic Heart $65 for 30 pieces What it says: “I care enough to send the fourth or fifth best.” Pro: You can buy these at any major shopping mall up until the very last minute. Hit the 7-Eleven for a card and you’re set. Con: Chocolate shells are thick to withstand shipping from Belgium, and lack finesse. Fillings tend to be heavily sugared for longer shelf life. Godiva rebuts high end artisans with the new Platinum Collection. Photo © www.godiva.com

L’Artisan du Chocolat $30 for 16 pieces What it says: “Rounding third & sliding home, finally.” Pro: Bonbons strike strong, singular flavor of the mostly classic Euro fillings inside. Left-brain mad scientists roast their own cacao beans. Con: Woeful website and no brochure make it difficult to ID which flavor to ask for on repeat visits. 3364 West 1st Street Los Angeles, CA 90004 310-880-9396

Chuao Chocolatier $25 for 16 pieces What it says: “Good girls don’t, (but I do)” Pro: Simply unsurpassed in Orange County. Chuao’s brilliant at layering complex flavors and textures in one bite: ex. Strawberry Caramel Balsamic Vinegar explodes in stages like fireworks. Right-brain creative geniuses. Con: The less adventurous may not enjoy the chili and spice based examples. Irvine Spectrum store: 95 Fortune Drive Suite 603 Irvine, CA 92618 949-453-8813 Four other stores in San Diego County

Jin Patisserie $25 for 12 pieces What it says: “Love the Asian persuasion” Pro: Buy local, taste global. Euro classics like lavender and Asian flavors like black sesame. Immaculate & obsessively crafted chocolates please the sophisticated eye and palate. Con: Hard to spot storefront and iffy street parking may keep you from getting there at all. Men, repeat after me: “effort put forth…” 1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd Venice, CA 90291 310-399-8801

Last minute buying means location, location, location. I’ve added map links to each of the three independent shops above. Remember who’s got your back.

Don’t forget to pick up a card.

In the sloping-forehead, knuckle-dragging days of this blog’s early history, I wrote about Ramentown, USA. Within a quarter mile of the intersection of Bristol and Baker Streets lay no less than five shops serving various styles of authentic Japanese ramen. The best of those, Dadami, brewed a rich, white broth made from pork bones, and with it, made the best Japanese curry that ever was. Sadly, they closed up under mysterious circumstances. I went through the seven stages of grief, although I didn’t recognize it at the time.

During the Guilt and Anger stages, Harvest Yakitori took over that location, but I couldn’t bear to walk into the same space occupied by other people who didn’t serve that special ramen, nor that curry. Not that I wished it upon them, but they closed less than a year later.

Acceptance has now settled in, and I wish the owners of Ramen House Mentatsu better luck in that cursed location. It’s an obscure location in the shadow of a Wahoo’s Fish Taco store.

I left my visit yesterday with a mixed first impression of the food. The broth, though made from pork bones, is not the unctious, fat-and-marrow rich tonkotsu style I prefer, but a clear, light style called “assari” in Japanese. To this broth, shoyu, salt, or miso is added to make the final soup in which the ramen noodles are served. I tried the Shio Butter ramen because the pat of butter melts atop the soup and makes an adequate substitute for the lard slick of my favored tonkotsu soup.

Several pallid slices of chashu (roast pork) lay on top. At first glance, the meaty slices look attractive, but a bite of the tough meat instantly reveals these are cut from lean pork loin. Pork shoulder is better suited for the job. Pork loin’s tender if it’s cooked quickly, but seizes up tougher than a wild boar in rigor mortis if it’s overcooked.

I give credit to a shop that makes their own shumai in addition to gyoza. Most ramen specialists don’t do shumai, so props for them expanding the menu to include them. But the steamed dumplings are a bit large to eat gracefullly, rather like an unsalted plug of ground pork in a wonton wrapper.

Similar sentiments for the gyoza. While cooked skillfully, the fillings tasted vaguely of nira (Japanese garlic chives) and garlic, but lacked depth. An A for effort on both of these items, but a C+ on execution.

Ramen shops stake their reputation on the quality of three things: the soup, the chashu, and their gyoza. The soup here is good representation of the assari style, and fans of that style will probably like it. The chashu is inexcusably tough, and the gyoza is passable at best.

Soup: A
Ramen considered as a whole dish: B+
Chashu: D
Gyoza: C+
Shumai: C+

Maybe I’m still bitter over the loss of Dadami, and have high expectations of anyone that takes over that space. I’m willing to go back and give Mentatsu more chances mainly because they have a broad menu and they’re open for dinner until 1 am. Call me an optimist, but surely on that large menu there’s a pearl in the oyster?

Ramen House Mentatsu
688 Baker St #7
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-979-2755
Open for lunch and dinner

Google “high end pho” with the quotation marks, and you’ll find links to high end pho-tography or high end pho-togrammetry. You’ll find bupkes on Quan Hop’s Vietnamese beef noodle soup with filet mignon. In its most basic form, pho turns humble ingredients into a magical, healing potion cooked with time, love and skill, so no wonder upscale pho doesn’t register on Google’s neural network….yet.

Despite the well lighted, thoughtfully decorated room, this is not some trendoid restaurant serving overpriced, watered-down fusion Cuisine with a capital C. Pho is not Cuisine. Pho remembers when you fell on your ass in a puddle in third grade and you went crying like a sissy to your Grandma, who changed your wet clothes, and made you all better - with what? You remember - a steaming bowl of pho.

Pho won’t give you shit for driving up in a pimped M3 convertible that you can afford only because you still live at home. Pho will be happy to see you and wants to know how Grandma’s doing.

Item #7 - Pho Hop

Grandma would approve of the deeply beefy broth with flavors that only thick slabs of meaty brisket can add. Beef bones and sinew give up rich collagen over hours of cooking that add body to the broth, and gentle simmering ensures that fats and proteins don’t conspire to cloud its beautifully clear complexion.

Carelessly cooked rice noodles show up in your bowl as a pasty ball of glop at lesser restaurants. Here, the cooks understand that a cold water rinse to rehydrate dried noodles followed by skillful cooking yields perfectly cooked, separate strands.

Only two pho variations exist on a brief menu that covers a few examples each of soup, rice, and noodle dishes. The $5.75 Pho Hop assembles different beef textures in a bowl: tender slices of filet mignon; toothy brisket stewed long enough to break down its tough muscle fibers; firm-yet-gelatinous pieces of beef tendon, dense rubbery meatballs, and chewy bits of tripe. While it’s more expensive than the average in this part of town, the Pho Tai Dac Biet only sets you back a whole six-fiddy, big spender. With this, you get only the filet mignon, and none of the “nasty” bits Grandma loves. You kids these days…

Water wall near entrance

Pho joints in non-Viet neighborhoods tend to skimp on the herbs served on the side. Here, the requisite bean sprouts, spicy royal basil, the cilantro-like, sawtoothed leaves of ngo gai (aka culantro), and fresh lime slices are joined by a separate dish of finely sliced shallots. Shredded scallions add another distinct layer of onion bite to the dish.

While there’s nothing wrong with the food at that run-down dump your old man’s loved since 1978, it’s about time that someone opened a good looking joint in Little Saigon and presented pho with premium ingredients to a savvy audience.

Quan Hop follows Professor Salt’s Restaurant and Bar Rule #1: make young women want to go, and the men will follow. Even Grandma would dig the place, and then your old man would have to rethink his divey joint, wouldn’t he?

Quan Hop
15640 Brookhurst St
Westminster, CA 92683
714-689-0555