I had been here several years ago, and it hasn’t changed much at all. This is a Korean bar type restaurant in Union Square with a myriad of different Korean foods including noodles, rice, buns, etc. The last time I was here, I had ordered a bunch of side dishes and had wrote down typical Korean American bar food. This time around, we decided to try out Korean BBQ. The staff led us up the stairs where there were many tables with BBQ grills in them.

For this month, it was TRUFFLES. I’ve never eaten a full blown truffle set meal. At $250 a pop and 600 consecutive phone calls over a span of 2 hours, I was able to get this reservation. Coupled with wine pairing, the meal was superbly awesome.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. This has 1 Michelin Star. I remember that after this dinner, I was getting tired of blogging all my Maude meals. I started to go to Maude solo monthly for a few more times, but they started to enforce solo dining restrictions where you can only come at the first serving which is too early for me.

This is my 5th visit to Maude in 6 months. I guess I have the pleasure of doing this because I don’t have many financial responsibilities. This month’s tasting features pears, and again it did not disappoint me. I love pears, and I was curious in seeing how the chef uses it in his dishes.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. This has 1 Michelin Star.

This is the month for tomatoes. I generally love tomatoes. They can come in so many different sizes and textures, such that it makes it very tasty. I will say that the meal for me did not disappoint.

We ended up getting the wine pairing which was about $70 extra. According to my buddy, the wine pairing was excellent throughout the meal and complemented the foods very well. I’ll just take their word for it.

The feature for Maude this month is corn, and it was way more awesome compared to last month. I like corn a lot, so I went in with some expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed.

It really sucks to get reservations here. To get this particular reservation I called about 100 times in a given hour. If you look on my cell phone bill, you will see at least 60 5-second calls to them coupled with 40 some calls from a desk phone. But I did it, woot! Corn is in season, so you can expect bold sweet flavors.

I wasn’t planning to go to this. I really wasn’t. However due to some ridiculous circumstances, I was asked to go, and I had to go. It’s been barely 2 months, and I went back to my favorite LA restaurant. One would expect and hope for the same experience considering how recent their first trip here was. So really, how was it?

It was awesome. For comparison, you can also read my 2 month old review.

This could very well be my last post for food for a few weeks. Doing a special restaurant each week is getting rather grueling right now. I’ve decided to soften the blow, so I’ll go to Maude each month for the remainder of the year.

This is #26 of 52 (or 26?) of my 2014 LA food expedition.

For this month, the special ingredient is berries. Like my rhubarb meal that I went to 2 months ago, I was expecting this to be similar in that every dish would have strong presence and usage of some berry. To be honest, I was slightly disappointed because it didn’t meet my (overly high?) expectations.

I’m getting very full. We’re now on #25, and my ridiculous challenge is starting to take its toll. I’m starting to get a little fatter and a little less motivated. It’s getting harder to find restaurants, get people to go, and to make the trip. Alas, at least I made it to this point.

This is #25 of 52 of my 2014 LA food expedition.

Did I mention I really don’t think I can make it to 52?…

This is a hole-in-the-wall place that is a real hidden gem in the Palms neighborhood of LA. It’s Japanese cuisine served kaiseki style. There are only 10 seats per night as the meal lasts just about 5 hours. There is no sign on the front. There is simply the address. We got there at 6:50 PM, but the door was locked. It actually does not open till 7 PM on the dot.

Smoke.Oil.Salt is another one of those many tapas shareable places that has been popping up all over Los Angeles. Unlike the other restaurants I’ve been to in the past few months, this is Spanish style featuring some traditional spanish dishes. It was surprisingly good.

This is #23 of 52 of my 2014 LA food expedition.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. This restaurant unfortunately is now closed.