Yes ladies and gentlemen, that is a sheet of deboned smoked duck, vacuum packed with a lovely twine handle, courtesy of my co-worker’s girlfriend who just came back from the Motherland (Taiwan for those of you not familiar with where I was made). Look it’s even won an award which is made obvious by the picture of the trophy printed on the vacuum pack.

My co-worker does the honors of preparing above mentioned smoked duck sheet with a pair of scissors.

However, a knife later proved to be much more efficient.

Look at all that fatty goodness! I couldn’t help myself any longer and helped myself to a couple or eighteen pieces of the smoked duck and it is what heaven is made of, it’s simply delicious. Surprisingly, it’s not as oily or greasy as I have imagined and it definitely had a very intense smoked flavor. it is however, a little bit on the saltier side. Therefore, I imagine this would go well plain over beer or a nice merlot but also would be great paired with a nice cheese or on pizza or thinly sliced and wrapped around dates.my word, the possibilities are endless!

I had to interrupt my blogging about the rest of my trip in Hong Kong and China because this place blew me away, thanks to Sinosoul and the power of Twitter. ednesday is Date Night with the Hubs and I was stumped on our dinner destination. But I had a vast amount of resources at my fingertips; I tweeted for help and got a slew of replies along with links to the recommendations.

Among them was Cube. Sinosoul had already written a review on the place  (and way better pics!) and sent me the Aperitivo menu for the week. Alas my attempts of getting there before 7pm was futile. Damn you LA traffic. But that’s okay, there’s always the regular menu. Cube’s menu changes every week according to what the chef gets at the local farmer’s market and the food is inspired by a region in Italy. The week we went, the fare was inspired by Umbria. Cube offers Italian fare with strong Californian influences. After perusing their menu online, I was in the mood for tapa-esque, fusion-esque foods so this place was perfect.

As we were seated in a corner surrounded by chocolates, jams and olive oil from Italy, it’s evident that Cube is a restaurant/cafe with a nice marketplace incorporated within. there were chocolates in packaging that would put the Japanese to shame. We were handed a menu, a wine list and another small leaflet of their cheese flight. Cube carries 85 different types of cheese and thus the required leaflet. Hubs and I decided to consult our very nice and informative server Nick for his favorite cheeses. Nick was extremely helpful throughout the entire night. We ordered most of what he suggested and they were just perfect.

A word of warning here, I am still learning how to take pictures in the less than daylight conditions with my point and shoot. So add that on top of hunger, you get fuzzy pictures.

After giving Nick a very generalized preferences of how we like our cheese (no goat and nothing that smells like toe jam), he presented us with the below slab of beauty:

From left to right: Gruyere (semi-hard, cow, Switzerland), Tomme Brulee (semi-soft, sheep, Switzerland, Hubs’ favorite of the three) and my favorite, couch farm triple creme (soft). We also ordered mixed olives and regular prosciutto to go with our cheese. The slab was sprinkled with almonds, rosemary jam, dried apricots and these mini raisins. We were also offered their house crostini which I quickly devoured with the triple cream cheese.

Next up was my favorite of the entire meal, the diver scallop crudo with peaches, blood orange juice and peppercress. OH-EM-GEE, scallop crudo was melt in your mouth, made me feel like frolicking through a field of sunflowers goodness. It was a burst of refreshing goodness in my mouth. The peaches were sliced so thin but the flavor so pungent.

Soft shell crab was next and although fresh, the batter was a little much and tasted like a pastry. However the sweet corn puree that the crab was sittin’ on was delish.

I’m a sucker for any dish with the word crunch or crisp so I had to order the summer crunch made with farmer’s market beans, sweet corn, hazel nuts and pecorino. It was definitely a crunch a offered a pleasant contrast to the meltiness and gooeyness of the 2 items that preceded it.

Hubs and I decided to only order one main entree so we can save some stomach space for dessert and antipasti. With the high recommendation of Nick, we had the seared diver scallops with lemon risotto, asparagus and bacon vinaigrette. Yes, those were bits of bacon on top of the scallops. This is a MUST EAT at Cube. I’ve had my share of scallops before from French restaurants and Cantonese restaurants. But these scallops are possibly the best ones I’ve had so far. The bacon bits on top provided a nice opposition but not overly salted addition to the dish. I am not a fan of risotto but I was fighting Hubs for the last spoonful.

Next up was Hubs’ favorite of the bunch,the baked 4 cheese mac and cheese with fried guanciale and truffle oil. I have no idea what fried guanciale is but man it’s delicious! It taste like bacon but with a denser composition, very similar to the Chinese cured meat. The top layer of the mac and cheese was slightly crunchy and bottom layer a melted heaven. Great contrast and not too creamy.

By this time both of us was stuff to our throats but desserts (and soup) ends a good meal. There were so many tempting choices on the menu so we had to consult our server Nick again for his must haves. Here is what we ended up getting the Victorian rhubarb and raspberry cobbler with tahitian vanilla ice cream and  crispy cinnamon fritters  with dark valrhona chocolate and fresh cream for dipping in which Hubs’ proclaimed upon first bite, “They are like bites of clouds!” Gotta give him kudos for that since his literature consists of curly brackets and semi colons. The cobbler was a very generous portion of sweet and tart goodness. The top crust was not too overpowering and was a good balance to the mounds of berries underneath. Both were Nick’s suggestions and both were unforgettable in a delicious kind of way.

So here’s my only decent picture throughout the entire night.

Yes yes, take some time to admire that. See what a full and happy stomach can do?

Cube is now one of my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles. I was so in love with my experience there that I wanted to come back the following weeks but didn’t because I was ashamed that I haven’t blogged about it after telling Nick I was going to. (Sorry NIck!) Cube’s food is fresh, fabulous and flavorful and the service is top notch which made the food that much better. Now that I blogged about this gem , I can return without shame.

615 N. La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90036
Tel:323-939-1148

The restaurant is literally doors down from Canter’s in Hollywood. There is no sign outside the restaurant though. We were greeted by the lovely hostess (I think she’s the one that got some Nanciful lovin’ over the phone earlier.) The restaurant only seats around 40 with a small bar in the back. They serve the full menu at the bar as well. I love the lofty feeling of the space and eclectic choice of music from 70′s/80′s/90′s

Our very nice waiter handed us our menus on parchment type paper. The menu changes daily and everything is bought local. They have a extensive list of starters. Hubs and I made a pact to have a dinner of appetizers on our next visit. We end up choosing the pork belly with kimchi, peanuts, chili soy and scallions and the melted petit basque with chorizo and garlic bread.

I’ve had pork belly from various higher end restaurants and Animal has THE best pork belly hands down. The dish was a good crossover between American pork belly and Asian flavoring with the kimchi and scallions.

The melted basque was a good glop of gooey goodness. The garlic bread is made how garlic bread should be made.with chunks of garlic embedded in the bread.

Next are the entrees. Hubs ordered the pork chops and I order the Mexican shrimp.

After a bite of the pork chop, Hubs gasped and claimed: “THIS IS PORK??!”

“Of course this is pork! You ordered pork chops!”

Hubs takes another bite. “IS THIS BEEF?!”

“Let me try! MMM..let me try one more bite to make sure.”

After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that the chefs at the Animal Restaurant are geniuses! And yes it IS pork. Hubs continues to be incredulous at the juicy texture of his entree and proclaims that these are the BEST pork chops ever.

grilled pork chop, farro, apple, cipollini, grainy mustard

Does that look like pork to you?

I’m a seafood fiend. So I had to order the Mexican shrimp with beans. It was a generous dish with a very zangy broth.

By this time, Hubs and I were STUFFED but glowing and happy. We were full. However, we will fight on and do what we came here for originally, the bacon chocolate crunch bar. I had to take a shot with flash since I wanted the bacon to show up in the picture. Isn’t she a beauty? The chocolate bar even looks like a slab of bacon. Love it! I usually do not order anything chocolate as my dessert because chocolate can get too sweet. But the salty bacon counterbalanced the sweetness of the chocolate filing. I wish Animal Restaurant would package it like Snickers.

Hubs chose Joe’s Caramel Donuts. Look, you get 4 donuts! They were lightly coated with caramel sauce and the texture was amazing. Slightly crunchy outside and semi spongy, semi banana bread texture inside.

There are always hits and misses with trying a new restaurant. However, everything at the Animal was a HIT. The bill only came out to $140 including 2 glasses of wine, tax and tip. It is a steal for the quality and quantity of food and service you get.

Next time we plan to come with a big group so we can try more starters. Animal has officially made it to my top five.