Grubtrotters

Eating at Green T. House Living on the outskirts of Beijing is like participating in an avant garde performance art piece. It was truly a unique dining experience. Everything from the setting to the decor to the presentation to the taste of the food surprised me. A friend of mine described it as the restaurant equivalent of the Kubrick film ”Eyes Wide Shut.”

Located in a suburban setting in the high-end Wen Yu River quarter of the city, the restaurant sits behind huge concrete walls in a large glass and concrete compound inspired by the Zhanguo period. A serene, white pebble courtyard the size of a football field leads up to the restaurant, giving you the feeling that you’re in the desert or on the moon, but definitely not in Beijing.

Inside, you’re greeted by trippy, ethereal music, a video wall resembling a shape-shifting Rorschach test, fat Chinese lanterns, lanky candelabras atop a baroque desk, daybeds and lots of white space sparsely decorated with works of contemporary art and about three massive tables. The place is like a Zen temple on acid.

Green T. Living is the brainchild of JinR, a musician, artist, interior designer and tea-master. This woman’s mind must be brilliantly twisted. She has a kitschy sense of humor, designing Ming-style chairs and a table in clear, Phillipe Starck-style plexiglass. Downstairs, the ceiling is made from hanging twigs, and the bathrooms are impossible to find behind a wall of mirrors. Web-like structures sit atop chairs. There is a mannequin and an underground concrete tunnel. Don’t ask. I should probably stop trying to describe it because you really have to experience this place and its wonderful oddities for yourself.

Pictures were not allowed, but I snuck a few anyway and didn’t get caught this time. Oh, yes, and there was food, too. Dishes with names such as “Erotic Dance By Six Mushrooms Around a Lonely Chestnut.” OK. I didn’t try that one. But I did have the delicious pork and fennel dumplings with a gingery vinegar spring sauce, which was served with an artistic looking twig. I have never used such long chopsticks, but you need them because everything about this place screams space, and the person sitting next to you feels ridiculously far away. I also tried the pear crostini with nuts, goat cheese and honey mustard. That was served with a live goldfish swimming in a wine glass.

There was also a lamb dish served with tea and cilantro and my favorite, the curly chicken with crispy Sichuan pepper. The peppercorns in this dish tingled so much my tongue went numb. Curly little funnel-cake like croutons were sprinkled throughout to cool the heat. Bizarre but good. The whole experience ended with a lovely tea ceremony. I was in Beijing for business, but if you’re heading there for the Olympics in August, give yourself some time to check this place out. It’s not exactly traditional China as you may have imagined it, but it may just be the epitome of new China — full of creativity and vibrancy and its own quirky way of doing things. –Jenny

If you like bacon as much as we do, you might enjoy these clips we found on YouTube:

Comedian Jim Gaffigan devotes his entire spot on Letterman to riffing on bacon.

Bacon: A musical tribute.

Who: LAMILL Coffee Boutique.

Where: 1636 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles 90026.

When: 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday June 24.

Why: Six-month anniversary of opening in Silver Lake.

What: Coffee made from beans grown in a special region of Rwanda.

Karma: A percentage of proceeds from Tuesday’s event will go toward providing bicycles to workers in Rwanda’s coffee mills.

More proof of the power of food to bring two souls together. The LA food bloggers behind Oishii Eats and Eat Drink & Be Merry, met and fell in love over food and just got engaged. They detailed their food courtship (with lots of lovely photos) and announced the happy news on their blogs today. Congrats and best wishes to them. We asked whether these two food lovers will keep their blogs separate or join forces like we did. And apparently they are planning a joint blog and other food ventures. Our Chicago writer/foodie friends Claire Bidwell Smith and Greg Boose also got engaged recently and launched a joint blog called She Wrote, He Wrote, where they each detail their shared meals and experiences from their separate points of view. Couples that blog together stay together. At least, that’s the plan. – Jenny

I have a new story up on Dinela.com called “An LA Carnivore’s Guide to Veggie Dining.” The biggest delight in writing the piece was the wonderful meal I experienced at Madeleine Bistro in Tarzana. Run by husband and wife team David and Molly Anderson, Madeleine serves fine, animal-free cuisine. Sound like an oxymoron? I was shocked by how tasty and filling the food was. David Anderson is a bit of a vegan genius. A veteran of five-star restaurants, he was the only student in his culinary school class to get an A in butchering, although he temporarily lost his voice from the stress.

My favorites were the artistically presented beet tartar, the grilled lemon rosemary seitan and the chocolate souffle. Don’t ask me how he does the souffle without any eggs or milk. Like I said, he’s a genius. If you’re looking for something a little less fancy, he also makes comfort food, including a surprisingly delicious veggie version of the Big Mac for lunch. I brought the leftovers home to Victor, who is the biggest fan of Fogo de Chao’s all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse that I know. He devoured the vegan cuisine and licked his fingers.

If you can’t imagine driving to the Valley for a vegan meal, then wait six months. The Andersons are currently securing financing and looking for a space in West Hollywood to launch a new vegan restaurant by the end of the year. The new place will be “bigger, with a bar, more of a scene kind of place,” says co-owner Molly Anderson. It will also have a new name.

The Andersons have no plans to close Madeleine, but they are considering making it a more casual restaurant to fit with its Valley setting. Whole Foods is opening up nearby, and Yoga Works is coming in across the street. So they want to capitalize on the post-yoga crowd. Right now, hungry yogis sporting Hard Tail and mats may feel out of place at a fancy restaurant with tablecloths.

As a fledgling yoga teacher who worries about the environment, I’m trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my diet. Madeleine makes that easy. When the food is this good, you don’t miss the meat. We swear. – Jenny

Madeleine Bistro, 18621 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana; 818-758-6971.

Not that we’re cracking any kind of huge mystery here, but you know one of the reasons Communism flopped was because nobody had any choices. That’s why we love the spirit of the DeTox-ReTox promotion at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills. Every Sunday this summer from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., its blue on blue poolside lounge will offer selections to either keep the Saturday night party raging or ease your pain. (Our favorite hangover description is from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” courtesy of Lou Grant: Did you ever feel so sick you’d have to rally to die?) The options:

DeTox Drinks

Mixed berry smoothie with bee pollen ($8).

Sparkling pomegranate lemonade ($6).

Pitcher of cucumber/lemon water ($3).

ReTox Drinks

Build your own Bloody Marys ($14).

Mimosas & mixers ($14).

DeTox Menu ($8 each)

BBQ brisket sliders

Thai chicken with cucumber cream

Fingerling-ricotta baked tater

Crab and corn hushpuppies

Spicy beef rice wraps

ReTox Menu ($8 each)

Tuna sashimi & pina-soy colada

Scallop ceviche

Salmon BLT flatbread

Duck and apricot strudel

Chicken and vegetable pot pie

No doubt that sometimes a greasy burger is the perfect hangover cure, but trust us when we tell you that those spicy beef wraps (above, right) can provide just as much comfort with 38 times the taste. And if you can eat them in a swanky, modern spot in the sun, so much the better.–Victor.

Avalon Beverly Hills, 9400 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills 90212

Which country has the best food?

A. Italy

B. France

C. China

D. Japan

E. Djibouti

We went back to Mozza Pizzeria recently for the first time in more than a year, and this time we shared the experience with four others — one veteran and three rookies. Here are some of their thoughts:

Setting
The one major complaint was that the music was too loud, which made conversation more of a strain than it should have been. Doris: “I don’t want accordions and ‘That’s Amore,’ but something less KROQ would have been better.”

Appetizers
Jason suggested the chopped salad, which he had tried on his previous visit. Doris: “Excellent. Great call.” The fried squash blossoms received thumbs-up around the table, but Matt was particularly impressed with the mussels. The shells were relatively small but the meat was plump, copious and tasty. Score.

Pizza
We ordered six and spread the wealth. The white anchovy pizza was particularly memorable from our first Mozza experience, and Doris reinforced that sentiment this time: “I liked the slight pickling of the fish, and the hot chili strips were a great contrast.”

Matt raved about the prosciutto pizza: “Better than the one I had in Rome!”

Cynthia loved the funghi pizza in particular and the dough of all the pizzas: “It was thin where you wanted the impact of the toppings but chewy and crunchy at the same time toward the ends.”

Dessert
Rosemary cookies were the biggest hit.

Last word
Cynthia: “In the end, really excellent food. Really expensive valet!!”

Mozza, 641 N. Highland Avenue, Los Angeles 90036. 323-297-0101

Jamba Juice is breaking into the bottled beverage business.

Starting this summer, Jamba will sell three smoothies and three juices, available in 12.5 ounce bottles in most Western states. The list of vendors includes Target, Safeway, Albertsons, Ralph’s, 7-Eleven, Raley’s and Walgreens.

The smoothies:

•    Strawberries Wild with Energy Boost.

•    Banana Berry with Heart Health Boost.

•    Orange Dream Machine with Immunity Boost.

The juices — or in proper Jamba parlance the Juicies, which include a splash of nonfat milk.

•    Orange Strawberry Banana with Protein Boost.

•    Mango Orange Peach with Fiber Boost.

•    Very Berry with Calcium Boost.

Suggested retail prices are $3.49 for the juicies and $3.99 for the smoothies.

We haven’t seen them in any of our local markets yet, but we are eager to taste-test how they stack up against Naked and Odwalla.

And as long as we’re on the subject of Jamba Juice, anybody else still upset that they discontinued the Cranberry Craze? Yeah, I know. I should be over by now.

I’m not. –Victor

Guilty as charged.

Jenny was taking a picture from above the open staircase at Anisette when chef/owner Alain Giraud raced up to her to ask if she was a blogger. We had popped in for breakfast over the weekend after noticing significant buzz in the blogosphere about Giraud’s new establishment in Santa Monica. Apparently Giraud, former chef at Bastide, had been monitoring the same sites.

Perhaps Jenny’s acknowledgement to Giraud that we are bloggers paid off. We received our food before the couple next to us even though they had arrived and ordered first. Maybe this was a perk due to our blogger status. Or maybe this was just one of those wrinkles that needs to be smoothed during this semi-opening process. Giraud and friends just opened for breakfast last week and are scheduled to expand to lunch and dinner hours this week. They also plan to be open late, a welcome development in L.A.

Jenny went for the Anisette omelette featuring goat cheese feta, red peppers, wild argula and mushrooms. As an unadvertised bonus, it also arrived with extra veggies including fresh asparagus and onions. I had the savory croissant with turkey that came with Gruyere, scrambled eggs, sauteed spinach and slices of vine-ripe tomatoes. We both classified our orders under the category of “very good but not mind-blowing.”

Perhaps a bit soured by the delay, the couple next to us didn’t necessarily grumble about the food but they weren’t heaping praise either. But they also said they were big fans of Giraud at Bastide and would definitely give Anisette another try, knowing these are the kinds of snags you encounter the opening week before the kinks are ironed out.

The party of three on our other side also ran into a production problem. Two received their orders while the third looked on enviously for several minutes before her food arrived.

The décor was old-fashioned with flair and grandeur: tall ceiling, red leather booths, tile floors, antique-looking mirrors and an entire wall of bottles behind the bar. Clearly they put in a lot of work into the look, but frankly I was more impressed by the fresh-squeezed orange juice. Sweet. –Victor.

Anisette, 225 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica 90401. 310-395-3200.