There is a bowl of seafood stew at Bungalow Kitchen Long Beach that helps explain how this inaugural menu is Chef Eric Samaniego’s next culinary chapter.
Guajillo, ancho, and puya chiles. Plenty of Mexican oregano. Shrimp stock and fish bones, plus the scrappy pieces left behind when a kitchen breaks down fish to make the stock. That broth—like a bouillabaisse gone Mexican—is then poured over, tableside, some shrimp, Prince Edward Island mussels, and sole. A seafood-laden nod to pozole.
It’s a heart-warming, collaborative dish with his sous, Kristine Schneider. (You might recognize her work from her time at Liv’s in Belmont Shore and, serendipitously, from her time working under Chef Eric at Michael’s in Naples.) And it sits on a menu that drifts between French, Spanish, Italian, Mexican, and, of course, Californian influences.
And yes, all of those things belong at the same table.
Bungalow Kitchen Long Beach melds Chef Eric’s innumerable influences…
For Chef Eric, the Long Beach veteran whose cooking became synonymous with Michael’s on Naples, Bungalow Kitchen offers room to bring together the influences that shape how he cooks. Here, a chile-rich seafood broth has as much claim to the menu as one of his rightfully loved handmade pasta. Fried chicken named after his father can share space with mustard spätzle under duck confit…