LA food

LA food

Breads of many shapes sit in a row on the front counter at three-week-old Kouzeh Bakery, on display behind glass. My eye goes first to a thin disc propped up on a wooden stand. From several feet away, its sandy color and moonscape surface bring to mind a 13th century copper astrolabe that I fixated on at the also-just-opened David Geffen Galleries at LACMA less than a mile away.

For the last five years Kelsey Sachi Lee sold seafood to some of the city's top restaurants. Now she's opening her orders to the public with weekly Instagram drops - and handing off poke from the back of her car. Lee still sources fish for some of the city's most prominent chefs, such as Ari Kolender of Found Oyster and Queen's Raw Bar & Grill, but with her new, online-only venture, Dover Sole Market, she's offering weekend ahi poke pickups in parking lots in Koreatown and Sherman Oaks in an ode to her upbringing on Oahu.

Inside the gaping maw: blocks of tongue-red pastrami, rubbed with chaimen (a fenugreek-forward spice rub, also flecked with cumin, garlic and chiles) used to season jerky-adjacent, air-dried Armenian basturma, cured for two weeks and then smoked for 12 hours. The result, beyond beefy intensity, is several textures at once: flaky, taut, buttery.

Mic Drop Karaoke is a 6,300-square-foot venue that opened in West Hollywood, marking the first dedicated karaoke bar in the area, located in a historic building.

The forthcoming restaurant will focus on Provencal cooking and local sourcing with plans to operate as a bakery during the day and dinner destination in the evening.

Katz's deli exemplifies how pastrami took over New York City, but the offering from Langer's is certainly no slouch either. Both sandwiches are piled high with meat that has been expertly cured and sliced fresh and thick.

"Léa brings a clear strategic vision combined with a pragmatic approach. Her experience will be instrumental in further reinforcing ACA's role and supporting our members in a rapidly evolving environment."

The pastry clung to a thin layer of aspic that enveloped a filling of pork shoulder and fat, bacon, chicken liver, veal sweetbreads, and button, shiitake and wood ear mushrooms.