Newsletter: Counter: Brunch, BBQ, ice cream

Welcome to your three-day Memorial Day weekend. How that happened, we’re not entirely sure, but we’ll take it. Which means it’s the start of the summer season, more or less, and thus we’ve been thinking about where to eat brunch in Los Angeles, barbecue — and lots of ice cream.

So Jonathan Gold reviews Hanjip, a newish Korean barbecue place which is not in Koreatown but in Culver City. And Jenn Harris checks out the new wave of chefs who are adding brunch to their menus, elevating the omelets and eggs Benedict and biscuits and gravy to new levels. And Noelle Carter and I profile ice cream makers, one old school and one who’s doing crazy science experiments in his ice cream lab. In other words: Enjoy your holiday weekend.

– Amy Scattergood

Korean barbecue in Culver City

Chef Chris Oh holds beer and a 48-ounce tomahawk steak at Hanjip, a Korean barbecue restaurant.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times )

At Hanjip, the newish Korean barbecue restaurant from chef Chris Oh and restaurateur Stephane Bombet, there is much meat, including an excellent rib-eye and a tomahawk steak that will run you $150. Also: watermelon soju with pop rocks. You are not in Koreatown, are you?

Brunch, brunch and more brunch

The crispy potatoes with smoked salmon, egg yolk, seaweed and roe at the Alma restaurant at the Standard in West Hollywood.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times )

Who doesn’t love brunch, especially on long weekends? Lately, L.A.’s brunch game has been seriously elevated, with many of the city’s best chefs adding it to their menus. Mozza, Connie & Ted’s, Animal and Alma are all now serving happy weekend daytime food. Welcome to summer.

Old school ice cream

A vintage photograph at Fosselman’s Ice Cream shop.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

Among the many ice cream shops in this town (check out our updated list), Fosselman’s Ice Cream Co. is among the oldest, a neighborhood shop that’s been in the same Alhambra location since 1941. I talk to the Fosselman brothers who run the place, almost a century after their grandfather started the business in Iowa.

New wave ice cream

Tyler Malek is head ice cream maker for Salt & Straw, which means he\’s the dreamer in chief of those surprising flavors.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

Noelle Carter spends time with Tyler Malek, one of the founders of Salt & Straw, the Portland, Ore.-based ice cream company. Malek is only in his 20s, but he’s already perfected some pretty amazing recipes — including fermented carrots — as well as making ice cream based on a Bach composition.

Eat what Obama and Bourdain ate

Bun cha ha noi at Pho Ngoon in San Gabriel.

(Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times )

This would be in Vietnam, where the president was recently, and where he joined Anthony Bourdain for a meal of bun cha ha noi at a Hanoi restaurant. Jonathan Gold finds four local restaurants that serve the dish.

Birria and a haircut

Food writer Gabriel Carbajal heads to South L.A., where he finds Birrieria Gonzalez, a food truck run by Los Angeles native Oscar Gonzalez that is conveniently parked next to a barbershop. There Gonzalez is serving his family’s beef birria tacos, wrapped in Tijuana’s signature cone-shaped form, to an increasing number of consommé-sipping Angelenos.

Your “City of Gold” reminder: It’s playing. Maybe go see it. Maybe don’t go hungry, which brings us to ...

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