Attack of the salty bites
HAVE you noticed that fried olives seem to be popping up on menus all over L.A.? The Italian aperitivo favorites -- traditionally, olives stuffed with veal, then breaded and fried -- have shown up from time to time at local enotecas, but now they’re everywhere.
“As we say in Italy, it’s la moda,” says restaurateur Celestino Drago.
Fried olives might be new to Los Angeles diners, but they have a long history in Italy, specifically in the Marche region in the center of the country. That’s where, according to Drago, “they were really born. Like so many other things, it’s one of those dishes being rediscovered by chefs.”
Neal Fraser of Grace uses pitted, firm green Italian Castelvetrano olives that he coats in an egg wash and panko (Japanese bread crumbs), then fries. No stuffing here. They are served piping hot atop cool tuna carpaccio. Some diners like the olives so much, they order a side of them for snacking.
Napa Valley Grille chef Anne Conness regularly does a nouveau Greek salad with fried, pitted Manzanilla olives. Her batter is made with milk, flour, corn meal, salt, pepper and egg.
“What’s fun about it is you get that wonderful briny taste of the olive with a different texture,” says Conness, “a crispy outer coating. Also, when you fry something, there’s that molten center kind of thing. Not that the olive cooks very much. But it has a lusciousness.”
Firefly in Studio City also does fried olives: small green Spanish ones served as an appetizer with garlicky aioli for dipping. And fried olives are showing up on the private party circuit as well. They are among the most requested dishes for Pasadena-based caterer, the Kitchen for Exploring Foods.
Meanwhile, they’re still hot in the enotecas. At Enoteca Drago in Beverly Hills, large green olives all’ Ascolana are filled with a mixture of ground beef, Parmesan, egg and finely chopped bell pepper, then rolled in bread crumbs and fried.
At Dolce Enoteca on Melrose Avenue, the fried green olives offered as a frequent special are filled with Gorgonzola and coated with flour before hitting the hot oil.
And you thought it didn’t get any better than the olive at the bottom of a martini glass.
Leslee Komaiko
*
Small bites
* Tim and Liza Goodell are opening a burger and wine bar called 25 Degrees (the name refers to the temperature difference between a medium-rare and well-done burger) later this month in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. “We’re not going for anything fancy,” says Tim Goodell. In other words, no burgers stuffed with foie gras or truffles. The Goodells already operate Dakota at the property, as well as Meson G on Melrose Avenue and a handful of restaurants in Orange County.
25 Degrees, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 785-7015.
* Petros Greek Cuisine and Lounge, a modern, upscale Greek dining room, has opened in the South Bay. In addition to familiar dishes such as saganaki (fried cheese) and lamb shank, the menu features horta (braised dandelion greens) and gemista (tomatoes stuffed with rice, ground beef and feta).
Petros Greek Cuisine and Lounge, 451 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, (310) 545-4100.
* Michael Young, formerly executive chef at Enoteca Drago in Beverly Hills, has moved east to head the kitchen at Zucca downtown. “We’re trying to turn it into a very traditional Italian dining experience,” says Young. “We’re doing a lot of Umbrian- and Tuscan-influenced dishes, such as a braised pork shank on a bed of borlotti beans.” Look for handmade pastas as well, inspired by Young’s cooking experience in Emilia-Romagna.
Zucca, 801 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, (213) 614-7800.
* On the horizon, Ford’s Filling Station from Ben Ford. (Some might remember Ford’s Beverly Hills restaurant Chadwick on South Beverly Drive.) This will be the second FFS. Ford opened one in Tulsa, Okla., last summer. The gastropub, expected to open Feb. 14, will serve American fare.
Ford’s Filling Station, 9531 Culver Blvd., Culver City, (310) 202-1470.