A weekend in LA - part 2

On Saturday night, we ate at Osteria Mozza in Hollywood. About a year ago, we had a great meal at Pizzeria Mozza, which is the more casual restaurant next door. The Mozza restaurants are owned by Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich. I think Nancy Silverton is a great chef – I own three of her cookbooks and I cook from them regularly. I’ve also eaten at both Batali/Bastianich ventures in Las Vegas, most recently at Enoteca San Marco, which was not very impressive.

Unfortunately, we were also not impressed by Osteria Mozza. Everything - from the grilled octopus appetizer to the fritelle di riso dessert - was on the bland side. I didn’t get any pictures because the restaurant was quite dark. On the plus side, Nancy Silverton was working at the mozzarella bar, and my husband spotted Michael Hall and Jennifer Carpenter from the tv show Dexter.

On Sunday morning before we left town, we ate breakfast at Brent’s Deli. My entire family has been eating at Brent’s for as long as I can remember. A trip to LA is not complete without a trip to Brent’s. We really don’t have any good jewish delis in the Bay Area, so I can only get my smoked fish and black and white cookie fix when I’m in LA. As usual, they didn’t disappoint.
Smoked whitefish and cod platter, enough to serve an army (bagels not pictured)
Black and white cookies - the mini version. Their large version is 10 inches across!