An Open Door to World Cuisines

Open Door is an Asian fusion restaurant that isn't afraid to mix up genres, ingredients and common sense. Set in the heart of Monterey Park, Calif., home to many dim-sum and noodle restaurants, its walls are painted like giant ukiyo-e screens and the tree sitting in the middle of the 28-seat room is lit with electric candles.

But like any good izakaya, Open Door serves tasty food that goes well with sake and beer. You don't have to look any further than the mural on the back wall for a recommendation on what to eat and drink.

I had never seen this beer in Japan or the U.S. before.

If you didn't know that you were in the middle of a restaurant, you'd think that you were on a spaceship because of the way the sake bar is illuminated. The tanuki statue to the left, along with the Japanese subway station sign hung under the ledge, reminds you that you are here to eat Japanese cuisine.

But it wasn't traditional Japanese cuisine. Melted truffle butter was drizzled on the edamame for an earthy but crunchy start to the meal.

Tonight's whitefish sashimi was halibut. Basted in a ponzu sauce with tiny crowns of chopped scallions, the dish was my favorite of the night.

When I mentioned earlier that Open Door mixes common sense, I was referring specifically to the truffle tater tots served with ketchup and mayonnaise. Though some online critics raved about the tots, I couldn't quite get into them. There were too many memories of elementary school lunches.

The seared salmon tasted as if it was torched ever so gently with a blowtorch, just as the wagyu beef in the Philly cheesesteaks at Jose Andres' Bazaar were.

The tomato and onion salad was my second least favorite dish. The caramelized onions weren't mushy or sweet enough to my liking, and the tomato slices were too cold and hard. I would have preferred the whole dish to be roasted, with only the crunchy bonito flakes dancing frenetically on the tongue.

The black cod was cooked perfectly with a sweet sauce. The presentation, however, was rather odd. Was it supposed to resemble a boat, with the shrimp crackers resembling sails and the banana leaf serving as the steer?

The beef carpaccio arrived so late in the meal that the 15 of us at the table were trying to dump it onto the other person. I would have eaten more if the beef had been sliced paper-thin.

This was one of the best examples of Asian fusion cooking: Korean-style kalbi ribs with fried potatoes.

This was another favorite of the night: steak tartare topped with a raw quail egg.

This was the surprise hit of the night: potatoes with a dollop of cream and fish roe.

We tossed all the ingredients together in a hot cast iron pot with a wood spoon. I liked this so much that I am determined to improve my knife skills just so that I can julienne the potatoes and make this dish at home.

Open Door managed to fuse French, Japanese and Korean culinary traditions in its menu. It added another country -- Mexico -- with the cinnamon-dusted churros. The pastry's sweet crunchiness complemented the earthiness from the edamame and truffle butter that kicked off the three-hour meal. The fried flutes were like exclamation points ending a long, fun evening.

Guide to Food Trucks

This handy guide to some of L.A.'s yummiest food trucks comes courtesy of Daily Candy. I love how Twitter has become a standard operating procedure for these mobile eateries, as indicated by the trucks' tweetability.

Food52

I recently joined an online community that is all about cooking. Founded by former New York Times food writer Amanda Hesser and her Le Cordon Bleu-trained co-author Merrill Stubbs, Food52 curates recipes submitted by members in a database and dispenses tips, videos and chatter all pertaining to cooking. Though I've already filled out my profile -- i.e., What is the strangest food you have ever eaten? (Balut eggs) Your ideal meal? (Anything shared with my husband) -- I've yet to post my recipes and submit a video tour of my kitchen. It should be interesting!

In the Know

Los Angeles is home to a plethora of ethnic eats. But if you don't hail from a particular ethnicity, then it can be damn intimidating to figure out which spot is the best and most authentic. At a recent dinner organized by my foodie fashion friend, Johnny, I met the Rameniac (right in photo, next to the easily excitable Johnny). The Rameniac totes his ravenous stomach around the world in the quest of a piping hot bowl of ramen. After professing my love for Daikokuya, Rameniac said his favorite ramen joint in Southern California is Ramen California in Torrance, an industrial city lying about 30 miles south of L.A. "All the best Japanese restaurants are in Torrance," a tablemate noted. Why? That's because Torrance serves as the U.S. headquarters for many Japanese conglomerations, ranging from car makers Honda and Toyota to Tecmo, the video game company behind the “Dead or Alive” series. The reason the Rameniac highly endorses Ramen California is because the noodle shop's chef is one of Japan's best exports. From his Torrance post, this savory sensei has an artisanal touch with his noodles and broth, adding an unconventional flair (Heirloom tomato ramen, anyone?) to warm your soul and rejuvenate your palate.

Our conversation quickly shifted to another Japanese delicacy: Kobe beef. Johnny and the Rameniac said The Steak House, also located in Torrance, is the best chop house serving marbled beef cut from pampered, beer-fed steer.

As half of the people at dinner hailed from Korea, we had to determine which is the best Hangol haven in Los Angeles. For Korean-style BBQ, Andrew recommended Chung Ki Wa, in the heart of K-Town (that's K for Korean) on Olympic Boulevard at Wilton Place. As for a late-night stop, where you can sop up the Crown Royal & 7 swishing around your tummy with some kimchee, Andrew and his cohorts recommended a place that they nicknamed Big Mama, after the restaurant's plump proprietress. The only geographic markers we rustled from our Korean pals' hazy memory were that Big Mama is in K-Town next to the 7-11 on the east side of Sixth Street, south of Alexandria Street. Needless to say, it's important to have not only a hungry appetite but also a sense of humor and adventurous spirit when exploring these ethnic enclaves.

Breakfast of Champions

I used to not like eating breakfast. Then I bought some cool widgets such as a crepe pan, madeleine tins and yogurt maker to help make breakfast more fun. For the slow-cooked oatmeal that I learned to make from Cook's Illustrated magazine, all I need is a heavy-bottom pot. Though the pros in the culinary lab recommend toasting the steel-cut oats in butter before cooking them in a blend of milk and water, I often skip this step. I also sometimes cheat and use quick-cooking oats. But that doesn't mean I curtail the cooking time. The longer the oats can soak up the liquid, the more puffy they get. Other key steps are maintaining a 1-to-4 ratio of oats to milk/water and adding the salt before the final five minutes of cooking. Cook's Illustrated claimed that if you add the salt any earlier in the cooking process, the oats will turn out clumpy. I sweeten the gruel with honey. To help balance the flavors -- and avoid any accusations of being overly healthy -- I also fry some Jimmy Dean sausage.

Another homey dish for breakfast is a French toast souffle. You make the same egg mixture in which you'd dip the stale pieces of bread. But you let the bread soak in the mixture in a baking pan overnight. The next morning, you dot the pieces of bread with some butter and bake until the eggs set. Recently, I used stale wheat bread for my souffle. Don't be scared to drown the souffle in maple syrup.

Another breakfast recipe that requires some advanced preparing the night before is that for home-made yogurt. I've always loved the European-style yogurt made in little glass jars. But they're often too pricey. So, for my wedding registry, I requested a Euro Cuisine yogurt maker that prepares seven jars of yogurt. All you need to do is boil milk, cool it down a little and add the culture and any flavoring that you desire. It takes nine hours to cook 2 percent low-fat milk, shorter for whole milk and longer for the skim version.

For my first batch of yogurt, I mixed in a bit of fancy orange marmalade. It's a treat worth waking up for in the morning.

Lollipops for Lushes

I write about the action sports industry, which means that I'm often surrounded by very loud, always raucous and often inebriated dudes. They're not known for being foodies. But last Saturday, while hanging out with the DC Shoes crew during the X Games, I discovered a new treat that could have been invented just for the extreme athletes: alcohol-infused lollipops by Lollyphile. The flavors included white Russian, absinthe and bourbon (the skaters skipped the maple bacon candies). You didn't even need a Monster Energy drink to chase the booze.