12/08/17
P.Y.T. What a cool name...not only is it my favorite Michael Jackson song, it's the name of one of my new favorite restaurants in LA. After a night of carbo loading at Bestia (also BIGTIME) the previous night, my body needed a brief hiatus from meat. Enter P.Y.T.: a very veggie-forward menu. Most of their offerings can even be made vegan, in case anyone was wondering. Faced with a very eclectic variety of menu options, I had a hard time narrowing it down, but ended up beginning my meal with the roasted satsuma (Japanese) sweet potatoes, served with apples, nori, and cultured anori butter. It's one of those dishes you have to experience yourself in order to fully understand, but man, this dish was bigtime. With each bite, I tried to grab some apple, a tiny bit of butter, and a pomegranate seed or three (also a garnish that wasn't listed on the menu), along with the sweet potato and that move paid dividends in a big way. Kind of like when the Hornets extended Kemba a few years ago at such a team-friendly price tag. Two equally bigtime moves. Anyway, back to the dish - the chef did a great job balancing different flavors along with unique textures to really create a multilayered experience with each bite. The sweet potatoes were cooked and seasoned perfectly, the apple offered some contrast with its crisp sweetness, the butter accentuated everything without overpowering the dish and the pomegranate provided some pop. This dish was the star of the show, without a doubt. All in all, it'd be tough for me to come back to P.Y.T. and not order this bigtime bite.