Convince me LA Eats are better than Bay Area Eats
hermes1
109 Posts
So I will be in LA for a week starting today. I am a food nerd like you won't believe. I do not get down with trendy foodie bullshit. Antony Bourdain is more my speed ie cheap ethnic eats but get down with haute cusine when the food is up to snuff with the price. What are ESSENTIAL eats that I cannot get in the Bay Area ?
I have 7 days and I need to convince my SF friends that LA food culture is deep. I grew up in LA but moved to Berkeley and have been here the last 10 years so I have no clue where to start besides the obvious (mexican and asian) but even then I do not know specific spots. I will be staying in El Sereno, Pasadena, Westside for 1 day to go to the Getty, but will be spending most of my time on the East Side ( Mount Washington where my cat lives and nearby surrounding areas). Btw I know Bolone got knowledge so please to drop the gems on me.
I have 7 days and I need to convince my SF friends that LA food culture is deep. I grew up in LA but moved to Berkeley and have been here the last 10 years so I have no clue where to start besides the obvious (mexican and asian) but even then I do not know specific spots. I will be staying in El Sereno, Pasadena, Westside for 1 day to go to the Getty, but will be spending most of my time on the East Side ( Mount Washington where my cat lives and nearby surrounding areas). Btw I know Bolone got knowledge so please to drop the gems on me.
Comments
http://www.laweekly.com/
Here's some notes from my last visit, as well...
http://www.thirstyreader.com/los-angeles-10000-calories-in-48-hours/
Super delicious Singapore style street food - only at a sit-down venue/price.
Jonathan-Gold-Approved as well.
Indian (killer Vegan options too!) = Bawarchi (Venice @ Motor)
Hawaiian = Rutts (Washington @ Grand View)
Late night Thai (open until 4am most nights) = Torung (Hollywood @ Wilton)
Ethiopian = Awash (Pico between Stearns & & Point view) ORDER THE BEEF RIBS!!!
Jamaican = Derrick's Jamaican Cuisine (La Tijera @ Centinela)
Cuban = Versailles (f*ck what people say i grew up on this sh*t go there Venice between Motor and Vinton)
Mexican = a ton of spots too many to list but you Bay area dudes do beans on a burrito which is some sh*t i've never heard of before ordering a burrito in SF so you might have to find one that suits you best good luck.
san fernando swap meet - i think it happens from friday to sunday. there is a vendor that sells shit you can only get in df and he has it trucked in every week. he's got rare spices and cheeses but the rarity here is the tostadas. you just never see them in the states. i dont even know how to describe them. its like a dense taco bell cinnamon crispas but in the shape of a tostada and not all sugared up. i think the cheeses need a deeper investigation but frankly everone ive ever brought by there cant get past the tostadas. he's somewhere in the middle of the swap and he's one of the few food vendors and he's the only one that has the tostadas. youll notice them cuz they are sold by the dozen in giant garbage bags, cuz they are HUGE!
before you leave the NE valley, you should make a stop in pacoima. van nuys blvd is prolly the best examples of al vapor cooking. they seem to be concentrated on this street. in any case, al vapor cooking is when they steam everything and its a lil bit healthier for you. i wouldnt say its not in the bay, but it is pretty rare. also, taquerias in the valley tend to handmake their tortillas as opposed to la joints. and the fresh tortilla makes a world of difference.
rosemead - i think its called bachans take out and its on potrero drive. they do hawaiian style teri dogs with the pink dog boner weenies, carmelized sweet maui onions, and kewpie. its a straight up plate lunch teri joint that is pretty endemic to LA, though generally in the south bay. everything they do is pretty damn good cuz the chef is like a gourmet dude from hawaii. i forget his name but his credentials are framed up on the wall.
cevicherria - this is my neighborhood. pico just east of crenshaw. theyve quietly built their rep as one of the freshest fish spots in town. plus they do a coconut fish thing that is dope. id say their best ceviche is the chapulin guatemalan style jammie with the mint. bloody clams is pretty awesome too. you can also get crickets on the block. theyre a delicacy and NO i havent tried them. in fact you can get things like chapulines and tlayudas at the local meat markets. this area is predominantly central american.
madang gook so - korean handmade noodle joint on western and i think james woods blvd. pretty decent. the noodles are dope, the service is shitty. straight up surly ajumas dressed up like candy stripers and ignoring the shit out of you. in the same shopping plaza is one of those korean joints that does the ginseng chicken foot soup thing. i dont know what its called nor do i know the name of the shop cuz its in korean. but it has a picture of the soup on the window. across western is some sort of korean ikea or some shit and there is a food cart that to my knowledge is the last holdout of korean street food. dude does the korean sweet pancake dealie that is kinda like a bigger mcgriddle bun (infused with some sort of syrup).
6th and normandie in the zion market. there is a small kim bop booth inside the actual market. 2 old ladies and they make the best veggie kim bop ever. seriously, its really good and cheap.
okazu joints - there used to be some straight up shitty delicious hole in the wall okazu joints in the torrance gardena area. there arent too many around anymore. my alltime favorite is gardena bowl, but its not really an okazuya, its a diner in a bowling alley that serves hawaiian and japanese food alongside the diner fare. i love this place cuz the vibe is dope. its like as if america was a majority asian and minority whites, this is what that diner would look like.
port of calls - PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDRO. this place gets flooded with immigrants. mexican karaoke, asians plugging in rice cookers on the pier, and a mess of garlic fish/shrimp/bread served on a tray. not a plate, a tray. its right on the LA harbor which is disgusting and beautiful just like LA.
im sure there are more. but these are some of my favorites. generally, all these spots are total dumps. or what i like to call "awesome".
One thing I can say, and no offense to the above recs, but if you're going to get sushi in LA (and you're a purist) if it's not Nozawa, you're probably wasting your time. Some might make an argument for Asanebo, and Sugar Fish is apparently quite good, but Nozawa is world renowned -- there's a documentary on the guy. He has first choice at the Long Beach fish market ahead of everyone else. No snob-o, but I don't really consider "rolls" to be sushi. Nozawa is straight fish on rice or sashimi in the traditional sense --- he has three hand rolls only (blue crab, lobster or toro) which are just that, simple hand rolls. None of that "dynamite" spiel. That stuff can be tasty no doubt, but it is to Japanese food what Baja Fresh is too Mexican food.
And, why not, I'll beat the shit out of this dead horse and claim Apple Pan again for a burger. Nothing's better. But hey, that's just my opinion.
apple pan is great. its just that it has the atmosphere of an olive garden.
the burger stand and its variants are one of the few historical landmarks still standing in south central. and there are some pretty good ones. i like mom's on alondra in compton. also hawkins burgers across the street from the imperial gardens. its a liquor store/burger joint hybrid which are pretty common in the beat up parts of any town. the la burger joints were the original "fusion" food joints spawning such hybrids as the pastrami burrito and the teri-burger.
anyways, im not saying any of them are better than a apple pan burger, but they are way more interesting. garbage burritos, oki doggs, chili boats, chronic burgers, etc.
I love food threads on there though.
I trust him and I would go. Also, just to hear him talk.
That's just the weirdest comparison / call of all time.
here's a blog thing on moms burgers in compton. dude ate a damn turkey burger tho! the thing to get is the chronic burger.
http://swapmeetlives.blogspot.com/2010/04/moms-burgers-compton.html
hahaha -- mad funny. I dig that vibe though at Apple Pan as it's authentic, shit's been there since '47 or something and they do everything exactly the same. Johnny Rocket's is on some bs chain ish.
HIs spots in DC are great. Word on the street is the LA joint tops them all.
Believe it or not, and yes Johnny Rocket's is on some chain BS, but every time I've ever been at one, the service has been amazing. That goes along way with me.
food ain't bad either, burgers have good spices.