Vietnamese inspired Red Medicine in Los Angeles rose to yellow press fame when one of its owners Noah Ellis took a picture of The Los Angeles Times food critic S. Irene Virbila before telling her to leave the restaurant. Personally, I don’t think if it’s the best way to treat your restaurant guests, especially that your chef (Jordan Kahn) is so brilliant and you would have probably received a positive review anyway. (Umami burgers’ Adam Fleischman is one of the partners too.)
The food at Red Medicine is something in between Momofuku (NY ) and Noma (Copenhagen). The only “proper” Vietnamese dish I had was dungeness crab spring rolls which were fresh, crispy and as fine as spring rolls could be. “Heirloom black carrots with guava, dulse ( red algae) and tamarind” was my favourite, memorable and rich in flavours. Pork with caramelized black vinegar, goji berry, spring onions and dried almonds was so tender you could almost eat it without using a knife; and the marbled Akaushi beef went perfectly well with the freshness of crême fraîche sauce, garlic chive, cashew, lovage and charred cucumber. I see only one problem with this restaurant – it is 9000 km too far from where I live!
