Sorry; as someone asked me, “What the hell have you been eating all month?” Well, I’ll tell you: not much. Lots of work, lots of repeated business at places I’ve already reviewed, lots of forgetting to eat, lots of coffee dinners, and not a lot of time overall. Here’s a short one: the holy ramen house of Daikokuya.
I was in Echo Park a few days ago with a friend and had one of those moments where I’m grasping for straws as to where to eat. As someone who nerds out, and is a total snot, about food, I feel like such a disappointment whenever I can’t think of somewhere to go. My problem was that I had been to the Echo Park area at least once every week or so for the last few weeks, so I was really tired of all the nearby joints. My friend asked me what I would eat if I could have anything right then, a question that was a lot like the “What would you do with your life if you could do anything right now?” discussion we just had. Unlike that conversation, I did come up with an answer: pho. On cold days, that’s all I want. Neither one of us felt like driving out to the Valley, so what is a good alternative? And that is the story of how we ended up at Daikokuya.
Filed under: Food, Santa Monica | Tags: breakfast, Huckleberry, Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica, Zoe Nathan
I don’t like paying a lot for breakfast because it’s stuff I generally can make at home; at the same time, it’s probably my favorite meal to go out for when I can. There’s something lovely about lounging around at the beginning of the day, eating, talking, and contemplating the hopes and plans for the rest of the day, rather than bitching over dinner about the regrets and anger about that assignment you should have taken at work because you badly need the billable hours. Welcome, Huckleberry!!
Huckleberry Cafe is the bakery/day-time offspring of Rustic Canyon and its James Beard-nominated pastry chef, Zoe Nathan. This place has been in the works for a while; along with Santa Monica Seafood a few doors down, we’ve been busy with excitement over their simultaneous openings. I’ve been particularly excited about Huckleberry, because Santa Monica severely lacks in solid breakfast fare. Don’t give me the overpriced Bread and Porridge; Snug Harbor is meh; and Swingers is good but typical. The openings of these places also were a nice distraction from yet another shit week at work, this time infused with potential layoff politics. I wanted to start a pool to place bets on the date that they will announce the bloodshed; so far, no takers.
Back to the more important topic: food. In the tradition of all things beachside, the cafe is super airy with lots of natural light. I really like that. A huge menu showcases breakfast items (pancakes and eggs), and a huge counter showcases their pastries. A lot of pastries.
We got there around 9:30am on Saturday, usually a decent time to get breakfast around here, but it was already mad with activity, with all manners of white people and their families at every nook and cranny of the cafe. Other than one Asian woman, we again were the only non-white people there. I guess all the rest of the Asians were over at Amandine. We got into the huge line and surveyed the menu – for brunch, it goes from $8 for two soft-boiled eggs all the way to $12 for brisket, “green” eggs and ham, and poached eggs. Coffee is $2.75. Whenever substantive breakfast choices top $10 and the coffee is over $2 … well, you’re starting to pay lunch and even dinner prices, just for breakfast. That’s dangerous.
Whenever I bitch about not having enough affordable food options in Santa Monica, someone inevitably reminds me of Bay Cities or Santa Monica Seafood. I’ve talked about Bay Cities before; Santa Monica Seafood, though, is a different story. At its former location on Colorado and 11th, it was primarily our local source for fresh fish and amazing …ly expensive mango salsa. In addition to fresh fish, a very tiny portion of the shop was devoted to non-fish, but fish-related essentials, the cashier counter, and general walking space. Not totally comfortable, especially when it got Bay Cities-crazy during peak hours. Effective yesterday, SMS has moved to the corner of 10th and Wilshire.
I think the prior tenant was Carl’s Jr. and/or some other fast food restaurant. Before totally gutting and renovating the space, SMS opened its then-shabby ass storefront with a fairly limited menu with even more limited operating hours, sort of an experimentation lab while it decided on its menu and got used to the kitchen. The girlfriend and I hit up the pre-fab SMS and while the food was good – your basic chowders, fish and chips, etc. – the space was horrendous: retro 70s baby turquoise lacquered pastel, fast food-style booths and tables, and horrific linoleum. I mean, you felt like you were eating in a fish tank. What they did with the space is amazing.
Filed under: Culver City, Food | Tags: Ben Ford, Culver City, flatbread, Ford's Filling Station, Indiana Jones, onion rings, polenta
The girlfriend got a high score on her GMAT this weekend. She was bragging to all her friends, our dog, acquaintances, and people she just met. To celebrate, we went to Ford’s Filling Station, a place she’s wanted to try for a while (more so because of the son-of-a-celebrity-factor, as Ben Ford owns it), but was hesitant previously because of negative reviews regarding price and portion size.
Sometimes I forget what it’s like to walk down Culver City’s main drag. It’s part European, with its restaurant row and plentiful patio sidewalk seating. It’s part Disneyland, with its restaurant row and plentiful patio sidewalk seating. In all cases, I always forget how many white people there are in Culver City. Go gentrification!
I need to have a full-fledged post on this topic, but for better or worse, gentrification and economic revitalization of a neighborhood results often – not always – in good food. Or, was it that the good food resulted in gentrification and economic revitalization? In any case, Ford’s Filling Station opened up when Culver City just was being christened the Westside’s old-but-new Awesome Place to Live. Located right next to Honey’s Kettle, which itself is planted next to Akasha, which I would like very much to try but have not gotten to just yet, Ford’s Filling Station is owned by Harrison Ford’s son. This alone probably got it through its initial stages.
Filed under: Food | Tags: burrito, Kogi bbq, Korean taco truck, taco truck
Making do on a promise to Alice over at Kogi, I gave the now-fabled Korean BBQ taco truck another shot, sans peoples ordering “one of everything.” Instead, I did what most people did – Twitter for location (they were in Silverlake, near the new lofts on Sunset that took them for-ever to build), find parking, get in the line, order one or two things, like normal people. Surprisingly, the line wasn’t bad at all – less than 20 minutes, which, as I said before, is pretty much the maximum I’d wait. Unfortunately for all of you wanting to taste the hype with the least effort possible – literally since the night I went, Kogi has had a slew of publicity, from popping up on Evan Kleiman’s Good Foods show on KCRW to getting some ink in the LA Weekly courtesy you-love-him-or-you-hate-him Jonathan Gold. This means: the lines are tremendous. They are promising a second truck, but it won’t be here for a bit. So, choose your taco battles carefully.
The line was only a truck and a half long when I queued up. Right after I go there, a pair of Kogi newbies came up behind me: “Ooooh, it looks so looong!!” I had to tell them, essentially, You have no idea. Better to stay put now or risk really knowing what a long Kogi line looks like next week. Ten, fifteen minutes later, I ordered a $5 short ribs burrito. Five minutes later, I had my food. That was the best part! (FYI – They’ve put a cap on the number of tacos you can order – 3 – which makes total sense, because it really eats up the time. Why y’all ordering so many tacos!!)
The short ribs burrito was pretty good last time, but without being encumbered by having a taste of everything, and eating while it was freshly made – - – one of the reasons why lawyers have such poor social relationships is because we are taught, trained, and encouraged to think, that we’re always right. Even when we lose, it’s because the judge screwed up, it’s because of a mere technicality, it’s because of something other than well, we had a shit poor argument. This mentality leeches into our personal lives, and so everyone, justifiably, hates us. I have to break out of my institutionalized training for a second and admit that, fine, Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice, you’re right, it is better this time around. The short ribs are delicious and again, I absolutely love that they do not fear putting eggs in something other than a breakfast burrito.
There’s a lot of Pinkberry (ugh, PInkberry) hype with Kogi, more so since Mr. Gold, with his angelic aura, has confirmed for us all that Yes, It Is Good. Is it worth it? The prices, absolutely, no question. The better question is, is it worth the wait? I say, 20 minutes max, but I know a couple of people who have waited upwards of 30 minutes. This is a total of an hour, from getting into line to eating your order. That is a lot of time to spend at a food truck. Some of us have time and don’t have anything better to do, so that is fine, and great, and a grand hipster foodie adventure for all. Some of the other us don’t have time and do have things better to do, so we’re not privy to the luxury of the wait. Womp womp for us.
Filed under: Food, Silverlake/Los Feliz | Tags: cheeseburger, cochinita pibil, taco, Yuca's
It was my birthday recently. There’s a huge, mental gap between 26 and 27 that I didn’t anticipate; it didn’t hit me until a few days after my actual birthday, on Saturday morning. I managed to stave off yet another quarter life crisis by concentrating on the Really Important Thing: Food. We were having a birthday dinner party on Sunday; because we were making quite a few things from Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers with Lucques cookbook, this meant we needed to prep everything day(s) in advance. Sigh. Such a wonderful cookbook, but the recipes have onion-sized layers that require much too much forethought and planning. I was supposed to spend all of Saturday prepping everything, but I forgot I had to 1) contemplate the meaning of 26-going-on-27; 2) de-mullet, i.e., get a haircut; and 3) buy groceries. Running in and around Silverlake after my haircut, I needed a food break, but it had to be quick, because I had groceries to buy, ingredients to prepare, life directions to overanalyze. I also had a hankering for a cheeseburger.
Yuca’s is one of Los Angeles’s prides and joys; we’re proud of big, James Beard-ed things in small packages. Known primarily for their tacos and burritos, people from all over apparently battle traffic to line up for a Yuca’s burrito or taco. Mother Herrera, sitting on a stool as you step up, takes your order and writes it on the back of a brown paper bag if you’re taking it to go, on the bottom of the paper plate if you’re getting it for here (“for here” meaning, one of 4 tables at the shack, the tiny stool on the side of the shack, a random chair scattered about the shack, or the back of my Yaris). She tallies the price of your order and you submit payment to the kind lady who is doing triple duty of receiving payment, cooking, and packaging. The remainder of the 4 people squeezed in this shack are doing their part to grill and cook everyone’s order. This is the real Five Guys.
The end of the month is dineLA’s Restaurant Week and a Half wherein participating restaurants have special pre fixe 3 course meals for $16-28 for lunch and $26-44 for dinner. The idea here is to try different places you normally wouldn’t go to, usually for cost reasons. But, is it really worth it? I’ve found that sometimes you end up paying what you would have paid had you just ordered the items off the menu, except you don’t get the benefit of the full menu; sometimes all you save is a buck or two; sometimes you save lots more; sometimes you save a lot but the portions are noticeably tinier. Let’s take an example.
Here’s one place that caught my eye – Akasha in Culver City. Have heard great things, have been wanting to try it for a while. They also give you a coupon for coffee in their bakery when you sign up for their email list. Hurrah!
Akasha: dineLA lunch menu for $22. The menu cost of these dishes are in brackets ([ ]).
Appetizers: Choice of
- soup [$7];
- cannelinni Bean Hummus, Truffle Salt, Flatbread, Marinated Olives [$8]; or
- Grilled Artichoke – Smoked Paprika Aioli [$9]
Entrees: Choice of
- Grilled Steak – Bibb Lettuce, Picked Red Onions, Oregonzola, Tarragon Mustard Vinaigrette [$16];
- Masala Spiced Wild Shrimp – Local Greens, Red Leaf, Pistachios, Picked Onions, Yogurt-Tomato Chutney Dressing [$16]; or
- Punjabi Mung Beans and Rice – Local Greens, Tandoori Flatbread, Tomato Chutney, Raita [$14]
Desserts: Choice of
- Assortment of Mini Desserts from Akasha Bakery [not offered on their regular menu, probably around $8-9];
- Ice Cream Trio – Choice of three: Vanilla Ice Cream, Soy Vanilla Gelato, Pumpkin, Toasted Almond, and Chocolate Hemp Gelato [$8]; or
- Sorbet – Choice of three: Tangerine, Coconut, Acai, Pomegranate [$8]
Assuming you get the most expensive things offered – grilled artichoke + grilled steak + any dessert – had you ordered these items off the menu, the total would be $33. That is $11 more than the pre fixe menu, or approximately the cost of the dessert (approximately). So, you end up ahead with dessert, plus two bucks to help cover the tip. Not too shabby!
By the by, dineLA’s dinner at Akasha is $34, a little high for my range right now. It’s high for a lot of our price ranges right now and five months from now.
The only catch is that Akasha is only open for lunch Mondays through Fridays. Grumble grumble grumble. As the international law student once said to me when I explained how the law school curve works: That is suck.
dineLA Restaurant Week
January 25 – 30; Feb. 1-6, 2009
must check website for participating restaurants.
