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Old School at Choco Chicken

By now, you may have heard about Los Angeles’ latest food innovation — chocolate fried chicken from Choco Chicken. The brainchild of AdVantage Restaurant Partners’ Adam Fleischman (Umami Burger, 800 Degrees pizza), Choco Chicken offers all kinds of chocolate-infused foods, including mashed potatoes, french fries, meatballs and cocktails, in addition to the fried chicken.

The fried chicken, which is marinated in a secret sauce and fried in a batter mixed with chocolate and spices, isn’t as strange-tasting as it sounds. It’s kind of like the fried version of chicken mole, Oaxaca, Mexico’s famous dish. It’s much more savory than it is sweet. The chocolate-dusted fries and white chocolate mashed potatoes are just sweet enough to make them interesting, too. The cocktails are on the sweet side, though, but I suppose that’s less surprising.

Chocolate fried chicken

Choco Chicken fries

Choco Colada

The standout dish here is the Old School (pictured at top): a chocolate fried chicken thigh on a butter biscuit topped with white gravy. This is comfort food at its finest. Every component of this dish is rich with flavor and complements each other perfectly. The butter biscuit — order this one over the bacon one, if you’re going a la carte — is a revelation in fluffy butteriness.

Caramelized bacon biscuit

Note: This meal was hosted.

Burrata and peaches at Wood & Vine

Hollywood’s Wood and Vine has gone through a few changes over the years, but the restaurant’s new summer menu from Chef Marc Johnson might be its best yet.

With a sharing-plates concept, you can try many dishes at Wood and Vine — a good thing, considering the high quality of each.

Start with the burrata and peaches (pictured above) served with prosciutto crisps and micro basil. I love stone fruit, so summer is always exciting for me, and the peaches in this dish pair well with the smooth cheese and crunchy ham.

Move on to the braised bacon with fried grits, cheddar, pickled ramps and jalapeno. The pork belly is super tender, and the fried grit balls topped with the pickled veg are an interesting way to get a creamy sourness in as an accompaniment.

Braised bacon

For your pasta course, get the basil capellini. The basil-flavored pasta topped with charred cherry tomatoes, proscuitto, mushroom, preserved lemon and duck egg yolk is somehow light and substantial at the same time. My favorite part is the lemon.

Basil cappelini

The striped bass comes on top of an interesting concoction of nduja (spreadable salami), peaches and cauliflower, and is topped with fresh peppercress. The fish is perfectly cooked with delightfully crispy skin, and its lightness paired with the flavorful meat combo is a pleasant complement.

Striped bass

For dessert, get the butterscotch pot de creme. No question. Its sweet-and-salty combination makes me happy.

Butterscotch pot de creme

Don’t forget the cocktails! Wood and Vine’s bar manager Justin Stidham’s summer drink menu includes some good ones. The Black Star, with House Spirits rum, Giffard Banane (banana liqueur), housemade orgeat, Angostura bitters, fresh pineapple and lime, is summer in a glass served over crushed ice. And the Street Spirit, with its slightly sour combo of Buffalo Trace bourbon, fresh lemon juice, strawberry balsamic shrub, sherry, ginger beer and lemon peel, might not be for everyone, but it is certainly for me.

Black Star

Street Spirit

Note: This meal was hosted.

From Bacon Today.

L.A.’s favorite hot dog: Farmer John has a fundraising campaign aimed at making the bacon-wrapped hot dog Los Angeles’ official wiener, and more importantly to donate food to local food banks. Between now and election day on Nov. 2, you can vote at www.votelahotdog.org, and for every signature collected in support of the bacon-wrapped hot dog, Farmer John will make a donation of 1 pound — up to 50,000 pounds — to local food banks. You know you’ve had your fair share of danger dogs after a late-night of debauchery, so a simple click to submit your vote and help food banks shouldn’t be too hard, right? Oh, and here’s Farmer John’s recipe for making your own bacon dog.

Macy’s Culinary Council: Macy’s in Pasadena is hosting James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur and author Takashi Yagihashi of Takashi restaurant in Chicago. He’ll be at Macy’s on Lake Avenue Oct. 7 to talk about his favorite recipes and gourmet techniques, as well as sign copies of his cookbook, which will be available for purchase the day of the event. You don’t need a reservation, but seating will be limited to the first 200 people. And a suggested $5 donation to benefit the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank will be collected at the door.

Macy’s
Furniture Department, Level 3
401 S. Lake Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91101
Oct. 7, 6:30 p.m.

Pinkberry’s 100-store celebration: To celebrate the milestone of opening its 100th store, Pinkberry is holding a contest called “100 Stores, 100 Ways,” inviting Pinkberry fans to share favorite ways and places to enjoy the tangy froyo. To enter, you’ll have to explain in 100 words or less your favorite Pinkberry combinations, creative ways to eat Pinkberry and how Pinkberry has played a part in your life. Those 100 words could be in the form of a story, poem or song, and optional Flickr photos and YouTube videos can accompany the submission, too. The grand prize winner will receive a $1,000 Pinkberry VIPink Card, and 10 first-place winners will each get $50 Pinkberry gift cards.

Petrossian in West Hollywood recently held a special event dubbed an industry night for those in the food business to meet and mingle, and that included food bloggers — oh, how far we’ve come, huh?

The restaurant/marketplace (very trendy these days, though to be fair, Petrossian was a market first) is planning on holding these industry nights about once every couple of months, according to Chef Benjamin Bailly. If this recent event is any indication of what these nights will be like, we’re all in for some great food and drink. It’s a great deal, too: Drinks range from $2 to $8, and the plentiful appetizer-size food is free!

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