September 18, 2019 Brunch – IKEA  Dinner – Audrey’s at the Hammar

An unusual day of food and activities.

I ate a cup of yogurt with one large diced Mission fig in the morning.

At 10:00 we drove to IKEA in Burbank and we each ate their Swedish breakfast for $2.99.  It included two Swedish pancakes, two sausages and a scoop of scrambled eggs, plus strawberry and lingonberry preserves.  We each got elderberry drinks, but it turned out there was a dispenser with flavored waters (safts) anyway.

I made a mistake and put a large scoop of strawberry preserves on my pancakes and had to go back and get lingonberry preserves (sylt) in a cup.  But it turned out okay because there were two pancakes, so I ate one each with each type of preserve.  Then Suzette gave me one of her pancakes.

Fortified by a big breakfast, I was able to push the cart through the showroom and then the first floor picking area, which must have been at least a mile.

When we loaded up it was about 12:30, so we drove to  the Frederick Weisman  home, a mansion built in the 1920’s located high in the hills above Beverly Hills filled with modern art.  Our trip took us along Coldwater Canyon Dr. and we kept passing tour vans as we ascended out of the Valley, passed Mulholland Dr. at the top of the hill, and descended into Beverly Hills.

We arrived early at 1:30 and they said to come back at 2:00.  We drove down into the commercial area of Beverly Hills looking for a glass of wine but the traffic was so congested, we could not find a place to park.  We became convinced that unless you have a complete plan of where you want to go, how you will get there and where you can park your trip will probably be frustrated in L.A.  For example, my cousin Dharma says she only drives on Monday to do her errands and on the weekends when she sets up her booth of Mid-century collectibles at the flea markets at Pasadena Community College or at the Rose Bowl parking lot.

I understand her strong aversion to driving.  Driving in LA has ceased to be pleasurable.

We returned to the Weisman house at 2:00 and were let in the gate.  When we entered the huge mansion we were greeted by a treasure trove of modern art.  Weisman was a very successful businessman, who loved to collect modern art.  His collection fills three museums and some is touring all the time.  He was friends with many of the giants of modern art.  There are multiple portraits of him and his second wife by Andy Warhol.  We were pleased to see three large Ron Davis pieces and a Larry Bell among the hundreds of major works.  For example, I saw the best Clifford Stills painting I have ever seen. There are two in the collection. And one of the two best Morris Louis Curtain or unfurled Paintings I have ever seen.  The other was in the Steadlick Museum in Amsterdam in 1968.

I can not tell you how impressed we were.

We finished seeing the collection after 4:00 and drove to the Hammar Museum in Westwood, which is located in an office complex near UCLA.  We were hungry and tired so we went directly to Audrey’s Restaurant for dinner.  It is located in the open courtyard within the complex. They started seating for dinner at 5:30, so we sat in the bar area and drank glasses of rose $10.00 and ordered a
New Zealand fresh oyster on the half shell $3.00 and a fried chicken slider with a fresh homemade
dill pickle and aioli $5.00.

I was fascinated with the structure of the oyster shell and the waitress was kind enough to pack them for me in a take out box.

At 5:30 we were seated in the dining area.  We enjoyed looking at the menu, because of it rich selection of unusual locally grown or available ingredients.  We finally settled on four dishes to share:
 a cold cucumber soup with melon and fresh mush melons with bits of fresh dill, a plate with strips of raw Kampachi (Almaco Jack) closely related to amberjack and yellowtail.  The flavor was similar to
yellowtail and its appearance was similar to albacore tuna.  It was served with a tomato foam and slices of tiny yellow tomato.

Finally, the entrée we both enthusiastically waited for, whole sea bass wrapped in Hoja Santa.  It was grilled and filleted with a crispy charred skin side and a super tender flesh.  It was perfect, but it was not wrapped in Hoja Santa leaves.  Instead each of the two filets were laid on a bed of fresh Hoja Santa leaves.  The fresh Hoja Santa leaves sent Suzette into a frenzy to try to find some fresh Hoja Santa leaves.  The waitress told us that she thought they were grown locally, so we called Dharma and she said she would check to see who might have an Hoja Santa Bush.  The grilled fish was
garnished with pickled radishes and the carrots with pickled red onions.  The fish was sauced with a mild adobo sauce.

We ordered a side of roasted carrots that were also amazing; firm but tender and sweetened by the
roasting process.

The only unfortunate part of the meal was the wine selection. All the bottles of wine were expensive, starting at $50.00.  We should have stayed with the Rose we were drinking by the glass, but instead we decided to try a Bandol Rose for $65.00 we had never heard of by a producer named Claussen. The sommelier said the producer was a red wine producer but made a Rose, so we tried it and did not like it it had a bitter licorice aftertaste that we found undrinkable.  We discussed the issue with the proprietress and she substituted a bottle of the French rose we had been drinking, removed $40.00 for the four glasses of rose we drank in the bar, and comped us a fig tart for dessert that left us with a

good taste in our mouth.  In fact the fig tart was wonderful, Poached fresh mission figs with a rustic
brioche dough folded around and baked, simple and very tasty.

Here is the wine we were given that we loked

When we finished dinner at 7:00, we were confronted by another choice, whether to get in line to see a new Toni Morrison documentary or see the Armand Hammar Museum.  We chose to see the museum.  It was a small collection but several fabulous paintings.  There were several great Rembrandts, a wonderful Sargent portrait of a man in a stunningly bright red dressing robe, and a lovely Paris street scene by Vuillard.  It only too thirty minutes to see the museum but when we returned to the patio area, all the seats were taken for the documentary.  I guess we will need to see it on PBS.

We were a little drunk and did not want to drive on the freeway, so we drove home by some circuitous route that took 45 minutes of driving through the heart of LA.  Way too picturesque for me.  We should have taken the 101 that would have delivered us nearly to our door.

We went to bed by 9:00.

Bon Appetit