Gold Standard

On March 8, we gorged ourselves at LA Weekly Gold Standard.

The venue seemed nice enough, but I think too many people attended.

Crowds swarmed every stand. Not pleasant.

Here's a minty lime cooler and paella from Ciudad. Delectable.

I love Kyochon fried chicken!


Upstairs 2's braised kurobuta pork and crispy leeks on beef risotto rocked.

Angeli Caffe offered a light and delicious beet gnocchi. And I'm a beet hater!

I liked the sugar snap pea salad by Beacon. Refreshing and crunchy.

Renu Nakorn's salmon panang was creamy with only a hint of kick.

Jitlada's beef curry, on the other hand, set our mouths afire! So spicy it burned!

Animal sizzled with its out-of-this-world pork belly.

Palate also offered pork belly with stone-ground grits, pickled broccolini, and violet mustard. It was good, but it paled in comparison to Animal's version.

Next to Palate's stand was Sona and its colorful salmon and fruity concoctions. Sadly, they looked far more vivid than they tasted.

The seafood salad from Drago did not impress either.

In contrast, cheap little Mr. Baguette was delish.

Tiara Cafe went all out with its quirky presentation.

Too bad its vegan faux pho broth wasn't nearly as tasty as its usual fare. Sad.

Most of Alcazar's tidbits were unremarkable, but the freshly fried falafel was fabulous.



Babita delighted the masses with herbed shrimp and chiles gueritos.

The lines for Anisette and Loteria Grill were tremendous.

Many chefs served their own masterpieces. We adored Meals by Genet!

We were also impressed by Lou.


As we transitioned from savory to sweet, we sampled some cheese from Fancifull.


Clementine served really great hot chocolate with a gigantic fluffy marshmallow.

Even though I thought it was a cop-out, Providence gave us yummy desserts.

For coffee, I had a choice between Urth Caffe and LAMILL.

I went with LAMILL. Mmm.

There weren't enough trash cans at the event. See? Yuck.

The $60 ticket entitled guests to eat and drink as much as they wanted, including alcohol. We were lucky to score some discounted tickets for $36 on Goldstar. Whee!

Since we don't drink that much, we felt just fine swiping all the freebies we could get.


Nothing says "bless you" like Korean fried chicken.