Missed out on Brian Addison’s Favorite Things of past? We got you covered—just click here.
Too many years back, I wrote a very self-indulgent listicle that was about so-called “essential” Long Beach dishes; dishes that I loved and could depend on as long as that place existed—and I wrote it because there’s something so elemental and useful about a specific great dish at a specific place. It was less about some grander proclamation than it was about, “This is just great food.” (I’ve done a much more comprehensive, similar list since then.)
And after a year of not doing such lists, I want to return to it. Not some grand list of “essential dishes”—that is too hard of a burden to put on a restaurant: You better have this and you better have it all the time. But for now, in this moment, I am happy to share some of my favorite things.
In other words: Why not just own the moment? Without further ado, here are the favorite things I’m eating right now…
Crawfish bisque from The Attic
3441 E. Broadway
Chef Cameron Slaugh is one of the city’s finest chefs, balancing his time and talent between Nonna Mercato in Bixby Knolls and The Attic on Broadway in the Heights. The latter, at least in my eyes, often goes unnoticed—or, more appropriately, isn’t showered with flowers in the way it should be. After all, even half a decade since taking the helm, I still find people who haven’t returned since Chef Cameron’s presence.
The man’s sheer ambition at the space—a constantly revolving menu (that includes an absurdly valuable happy hour) and his constant special menus—are always a delight to take in. And The Attic’s Mardi Gras prix fixe menu was no exception. A solid gumbo. Proper hush puppies. A shrimp boil that was perfectly Californian in its execution.
But the crawfish bisque? A hark back to when The Attic used to ship live crawfish from the South—and a deeply nostalgic memory of me crawdad fishing while growing up in Big Bear—this perfectly wondrous soup genuinely warmed me across the past few cold-for-SoCal days.
Tsukemen from Hinata Ramen
4211 E. Willow St.
Hinata Ramen—look for my full feature on the space in the coming days—is Long Beach’s underrated ramen gem. Taking over the former Great Tiger Space, whose chef chose to leave and put owners in a branding predicament, this, well, isn’t Great Tiger. Chef Leo—a Taiwanese-born chef with Japanese heritage—has a love of smokiness that beautifully infuses the core of his food. The edge of the chashu… Across the breadth of his tonkotsu broth…
His tsukemen—easily the best dipping noodle in Long Beach—lets you explore this smokiness with remarkable subtlety. Take a sliver of the chashu, wrapped the thick noodles around it, and dip into the broth for the first hit. Then construct your combos: Add the creaminess of a marinated soft-boiled egg. The watery crisp of bean sprouts. The understated bite of green onion. The umami of nori. It’s, simply put, a delicious dish.
Smoked duck confit from Selva
4137 E. Anaheim
For Chef Carlos Jurado, the past year has been a massive reflection of self-determination and focus. His food has never been more consistent and challenging, in terms of both execution—special menus, prix fixe menus, weekend menus…—and quality. His staff has never been more on point, nor has the space’s quality of hospitality. It has been both an honor and a privilege to witness this evolution since Selva’s inception.
And his smoked duck confit—which has appeared on his Wednesday supper menus—is a perfect example of the man’s taste and progression. The base? A bowl brushed with a black garlic puree. Then layered with forbidden rice that is folded into a Peruvian-style pesto. On top of that? A sauce of fermented corn and yeasted sake lees butter. (Sake lees is the leftover paste from the sake brewing method; Chef Carlos scores it from Sake Secret in DTLB).
And then the star: A duck thigh that has a three-day preparation behind it. An overnight cure. A one-and-a-half-hour smoke session. Then confit overnight in a sous vide with duck fat and aromatics. That is then fried off to give the perfect outer layer of crisp. A savory and aromatic bomb of a dish that oozes with complexity, finesse, and outright sexiness. Yes, this is a sexy dish—and deserves to be experienced by as many as possible.
Duck breast from Alder & Sage
366 Cherry Ave.
I’ve been praising collaboration lately and will continue to do so. After all, Chef Matthew Roberts of Alder & Sage and Chef Michael Romo of Brown Butter Boys compiled a stellar Valentine’s Dinner. Co-hosted with Nosotros Tequila—they donated bottles so Chris Serrano, whom you might know from The Ordinarie, could craft one of the best series of cocktails I’ve had for a paired dinner yet—the menu was expansive and quite well-crafted.
Certainly, Chef Matthew is becoming the king of reinterpreting panna cotta. The last time he impressed me was with an insanely delectable chanterelle panna cotta and this time was no less with a lobster-blood orange panna cotta. But the real star? His duck with what was nothing short of a perfect huckleberry demi-glace, lined with charred leeks.
These collaborations are not just beautiful to celebrate but essential for maintaining a healthy food scene. And tasting dinners, as I cannot stress enough, are wonderful ways to see a chef flex beyond their menu.
Sunflower pesto tagliatelle from Chez Bacchus
743 E. 4th St.
I had the luck to preview Chef Danny’s upcoming spring menu over at Chez Bacchus.
His philosophical and mental shift for this menu? Amp up the chef’s inner editor. Chef Danny admits that he loves to “add on.” With this menu, he is trying to let items speak for themselves. (For instance, he didn’t put any dairy in his boar meatballs, and they are gloriously, well, meaty, rather than the hyper-creamy end results of soaking one’s breadcrumbs in dairy for meatballs.) It’s a clean start for the chef—and continues to showcase the international flare the space has always been known for.
A highlight? A wonderfully nutty pesto tagliatelle centered on sunflower seeds. I love monochromatic dishes aesthetically—and this insanely bright pesto, cut with slivers of equally bright green asparagus, is such an example, where the beauty of the vert is cut with the bright orange-and-yellow of a poached egg. Simple, solidly executed, showcasing each of its ingredients properly.
Missed out on Brian Addison’s Favorite Things of past? We got you covered—just click here.
