Little Next Door

Besides The Griddle Cafe and Cafe Gratitude, I had a few other bucket list restaurants in Los Angeles I just had to eat at. Little Next Door is one of them.

Little Next Door

Little Next Door is a French restaurant, with some of the best food (and macarons!) in Los Angeles. What drew my attention to this restaurant was 1) all the positive reviews, 2) the menu items, 3) the location and setting, and finally 4) the prices. Sounding like an all-around awesome deal? It was!

This little restaurant facing West 3rd Street (a very busy street) is smack in the middle of the hip and trendy city of Mid Wilshire. I just kind of think of it as between Beverly Hills and Hollywood; sounds expensive, no? After a morning of shopping at the Outlets at Orange, we took an hour drive to get to this area. With loudly growling stomachs, we headed to Little Next Door for a very late brunch on a Saturday afternoon. Since it was like 2pm, we were seated immediately. I was very content with our table as it was next to the fence, facing the sidewalk, no direct sunlight, and would give beautiful lighting for photos. So far, Coconut Crumpet was very happy.

Our waitress spoke bits and pieces of French to us, greeting us with a warming 'bonjour!', calling us 'madame et monsieur', and thanking us in French too. It created this unique environment in which my family has never been in before. She was very attentive and came back frequently to refill our water, bring us more bread, or just ask how we were doing.

Complimentary bread and balsamic olive oil

We quickly ordered and another waiter brought us some complimentary bread. My family of four devoured two bowls of bread, happily dipping it in the luxurious spiced balsamic olive oil. The oil had fennel seeds and a multitude of other spices and herbs, very fragrant and a pleasure to eat, especially when you're almost dying of starvation. (We had breakfast at 7am..and brunch at 2pm..) The baguette had a crunchy shell and an extremely pillow-y interior, also served warm. Love.

Quiche Lorraine ($9)

Soirette Macarons & Tea

My brother always hears about my eating adventures in downtown, about all the yummy food, and everything we can't get our hands on near home. Summer is the perfect time to walk around the streets of downtown, so I agreed to take him on a day trip.

Soirette Macarons & Tea storefront

After a heavy brunch at Cafe Medina, our mouths were all salty and desperately called for something sweet. But our stomachs were waving their hands saying "no more food!". We compromised and by walking around a bit to assist our digestion. I saw the Soirette pop-up store inside Holt Renfrew but none of the macaron flavours appealed to me. After my brother showed interest in trying macarons, we continued our walking to Soirette instead of taking the bus. I couldn't quite recall if Soirette was located on West Pender or West Cordova, resulting in extra walking to be done.

This isn't my first time visiting Soirette, but it was my first time trying their food. Papaya Crumpet once dragged us here on one of our foodie adventures. The distance in my mind seemed a lot longer than it actually is. Probably because all I remember is Peanut Crumpet barely making it to Soirette because of a full bladder. "It's around here!" "We're close!" said Papaya Crumpet.

It's strange that my brother would be interested in macarons. Macarons are usually a 'girly' thing at tea parties or given as gifts. "I thought your brother was into manly foods like burgers and bacon.", Peanut Crumpet said to me. "He just eats everything.", I replied. If he is willing to pay for these delicate cookies, then I can't complain.

Desserts and Sweets at Soirette

I expected to see fashionably dressed women chatting over high tea when I arrived on a Friday at 3pm. However, there was absolutely no other customer to be seen. My brother and I stared at the colourful assortment of macarons in the display case, tried a few macaron samples, and admired the other beautifully presented pastries and cakes beside. I picked out 6 flavours of macarons to try and we took our little box outside. We selected almost all the summer seasonal flavours. The summer flavours are s'mores, cherry pie, blueberry pie, charred corn, pandan, basil & strawberry, apricot & fennel, and mango.

Plant decoration at the colourful tables

We took a set at one of the three brightly coloured garden tables right outside the entrance. I really loved the colour combination of the tables and chairs, it is adorable! Makes me happy to be sitting at a pretty table eating pretty macarons.

My brother and I had a taste of each macaron; I would take a bite or two and he'd eat the rest. Here are our (mostly mine, because he's not quite the foodie yet) thoughts:

Half a dozen of macarons from Soirette

DIY Summer High Tea

DIY Summer High Tea

Tuesday June twenty-fifth, the day every single one of us has finally been released from the grasp of year end exams. And what better way to celebrate together than a five hour catch-up gossip session over high tea? Paying to experience high tea at a fancy cafe Downtown is not within our poor student budget, and making food ourselves allows us to have a wider variety of food. Our specialty is eating, and eating a lot. This is just the beginning of an awesome summer vacation, with many more get-togethers involving food to come. 

Here is the menu for the Summer High Tea. Please see the recipe posts for more photos!

Clockwise from top left corner: Fruit Jello Parfait, Earl Grey Cupcake, Salad (sans dressing), Green Tea Macaron, savoury bottom tier, Lemon bars

Fresh Salad with Orange Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette

Open-faced Cucumber Sandwich with Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese

Open-faced Avocado Sandwich

Classic Club Sandwich

Black Tea-Infused Garlic Miso Chicken Salad Cone

Bell Pepper, Green Onion, and Gouda Fluffy Mini Quiche 

Mini Beef and Cheese Sandwich Roll

Apricot Gouda Scone

Baby Strawberry Whole Wheat Shortcake

Earl Grey Cupcake

Matcha Macaron with Chocolate Ganache

Lemon Bar

Fruit Jello Parfait

Love from Papaya and Coconut Crumpet and Co.

Kitchening & Co.

Kitchening & Co. Macarons and Chocolate Ginger Cookie

During my visit to the Eat! Vancouver festival this year, I picked up a few goodies from Kitchening & Co. to bring home. I had a few extra tickets to spend and the flavours were appealing so it seemed like perfect chance to try something new. 

I first ate the Chocolate Ginger Cookie. I prefer the soft, chewy cookies over crisp, thin ones, so this one was right up my alley! It was surprising to find chunks, large chunks, of chocolate within the cookie. I appreciate that they didn't skimp on the chocolate (the cookie itself should already have cocoa powder), but I think the cookie would be better without the massive slabs of chocolate. The ginger flavour and texture was just right; it's a delicious cookie, just as I had read from Foodology while eating breakfast the morning of my visit.

Black Sesame Macaron & Toasted Coconut Macaron

The amount of coconut-flavoured products I consumed at the Eat! Vancouver festival was innumerable. Peanut Crumpet and our fellow 'Clumsy One' can confirm that. So, seeing that Kitchening & Co. carried a Toasted Coconut macaron, I couldn't pass it up. Obviously, toasted coconut tastes so much better than just coconut. Just like how toasted nuts are more fragrant that raw ones. Anywho, the smell of the coconut was present before I even bit into it. The taste of the coconut wasn't as strong as the smell, but it wasn't too lacking. I'm not quite sure what the filling flavour was, but I remember it to be a bit tangy. The Toasted Coconut macaron was the better tasting one out of the two I tried.

The Black Sesame macaron let me down. There was no black sesame flavour, or aroma. In fact, it had a bit of a strange taste to it... The filling was too sweet and overpowered the already nonexistent black sesame flavour. If you're looking for a good black sesame treat, this one isn't it.

Despite that one disappointing flavour, I am still interested in trying more of their macarons. Macarons are finicky so the same recipe can yield completely different results depending on the flavour. The macarons themselves were well made and looked cute, small and tall. If you're a macaron fan, Kitchening & Co. is worth a try. They don't have a store front but check their website for events they'll attend or go to any Urban Fare market and they'll carry the macarons.

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡