animal, fairfax.
HAPPY DECEMBER! the past few posts have all been from our travels to other places this year, but it's time to get back to los angeles, don't you think? starting around july, we thought we would be moving to shanghai, china for work this fall. ultimately, that fell through right before thanksgiving, BUT we did end up doing a bit of a greatest-hits of LA food tour. finally making it to spots i've wanted to go but kept putting off, as well as some old favorites i haven't been to in awhile; anything that felt quintessentially los angeles. one of those was animal, where i haven't been in years and james had never been. i definitely had high expectations after so much time, and the experience did not disappoint!
chicken liver toast.
burrata, raymundo's tomatillo salsa, grape, poppyseed.
everything was expertly executed, and i had forgotten how unique the flavors were at animal. the burrata with tomatillo and grilled grapes blew. my. mind. creamy and sweet and tart, textures and flavors all over the place in the best possible way.
marrow bone, chimichurri, caramelized onions.
barbeque pork belly sandwiches, slaw.
spaghetti dan dan, lamb, peanut, bok choy.
veal tongue, pickle, apple, salmon roe, black mustard.
peads and barnetts pork toro, plum char siu, cabbage, kanzuri, green garlic.
my absolute favorite dish of the evening was the pork toro, which itself was good, but it was really the charred cabbage it came with that stole the show. such a simple dish, but i could eat plates on plates on plates of this stuff. the foie gras, biscuit and maple gravy was another standout. on its own, the maple gravy was far too sweet, but if you got all three of the main components into a single bite, the salt and fat of the liver perfectly balance the sweetness of the gravy, and the biscuit gave it just the right, starchy textural base.
foie gras, biscuit, maple sausage gravy.
tres leches, dulce de leche.
animal was just as good, if not better, than i remembered. we definitely need to go back, especially since we really only got to try a very small fraction of the menu.
435 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
