Sawtelle Blvd.

…And She Said Wow

Madame Matisse ~ 3536 W Sunset Blvd.~Silverlake~90026 (323) 662-4862

Ever since reading Klaus Kinski’s depraved auto-biography, we’ve had an obsession with the incredible, edible egg. They make their way onto our plate about three times a week and whenever we cross into an ethnic eatery serving egg atop anything we head straight for the ovum like we bore a squiggly tail (like when we spotted Kachapouri, a type of egg-topped Georgian/Russian pizza at Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria in Downtown).

One recent bleary-eyed and regretful Sunday morning at cornerside Madame Matisse in Silverlake, we skipped the french toast with orange syrup, Belgian waffles, flat iron steak, and broiled salmon (albethem both served with eggs) and dove straight into the omelettes. Madame Matisse cooks up a good one as tasted in their “famous” Omlette Normandie, a fiendish egg-xample of henapple egg-stasy chock-full of shrimp, brie, and bell pepper under a layer of salsa. Eggs dominate much of the brunch menu, in rancheros and benedict stylees and the like.

Total control freaks that we are, Create Your Own Omelette seemed the best option, since one can get as many items as they please at no extra cost ($7.95). We threw goat cheese, onion, bell pepper, spinach, mushroom, and avocado into our mix with about 43 cups of coffee.

Normally omlettes come with stringy flecks of what you desire found inside, but Madame Matisse’s appear as though the ingredients were thrown into a sizzling pan by a 15-year old with the munchies, with three eggs cooked around them and rolled into a burrito-shaped Bob Marley joint. Our giant chunks of veggies keep thier crunch and flavor among vast pools of cheese landmining the soft eggs in a massive mash of grilled and pan-fried pleasure. Ingredients were everywhere; bursting through the skin of the egg, arriving as big as one’s lower arm practically, delivered fast, and with no limit to the savory surprises in each new bite.

Madame Matisse is a small, bare-bones boho cafe which serves well-regarded lunches and dinners as well. It is a cute enough place with a great brunch, but the streetside dining is double-edged, as the traffic on Sunset passing you by can be a bummer. Still, for this level of eggstravaganza, we’ll be back.

A rowdy Rockies fan started shit in the second tier, which got a responding LA fan tossed out by security. Rousing jeers and chants about this hometown injustice resonated with everyone, resulting in the Rockies fan’s ejection as well. Then the Dodgers kicked Colorado’s sorry azzes, again.

Santa Monica Blvd. & Wellesley Ave.

Santa Monica Blvd. & South Bundy Dr.

Venice Blvd. & Clyde Ave.

La Paloma means the dove, an apt name for the diminutive spot “wo-manned” by two adorable mamacitas with a serious command of the grill. The tacos at La Paloma are jam-packed with grilled meats. Seriously jam-packed to the point where it spills all over your plate and you’re left needing a tenedor to shovel it all down home.

These fat tacos give the jaw a mean workout in their mo’ meatty meattiness. The asada is well grilled, hot but leaving the undoubtable taste of steak permeating the palatte. Some of the meat was fatty, adding to the macular aerobics, but overall the asada is flavorful and semi-juicy enough to be a good taco.

The pastor had more of a curry flavor, instead of leaving us with the grilled-flavor of its source. It was not very tender, but had a squiggly texture that played out nicely in firm, chewy bites. The heap of fresh salsa and lime juice compliments everything well, though I felt the slightly thick tortillas steal a little sunshine from the main ingredients.

Still, La Paloma serves up enough meat in a tiny $1 taco to last you the entire day’s construction job. We will return!

Echo Park, Los Angeles

Our Mascot.