As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Esther, a financial advisor by day- food blogger by night- who really wants to like Ethiopian food, but isn’t there yet.
Name: Esther
Age: 31
Occupation: Financial Advisor and Blogger at e*starLA
Where in L.A. do you Work?: M. L. Stern & Co., Beverly Hills-Los Angeles border
Favorite Kind of Food: I love a good slice of New York pizza (Folliero’s in Highland Park) but I also love a huge Oaxacan platter at Guelaguetza (3014 W. Olympic Blvd.) If I’ve just completed a full day of snowboarding in Whistler, I’ll feel like a stack of poutine with gravy and cheese curds or a rare flat iron steak…followed by an Irish Car Bomb. If I’m feeling like reconnecting with my roots – I’ll go for a Taiwanese rice pyramid with sweet chili sauce or oyster noodle soup. I can always go for some Chinese juicy pork dumplings, a bowl of pho from Pho 87 (1019 N Broadway, Chinatown) or a bowl of Shio ramen from Santouka (3760 S Centinela Ave., West L.A.) Or, if I feel like reconnecting with my other (Wisconsinite) roots, I’ll go for a thick beer-marinated brat with mustard and a cold beer. And, of course, cheese. It doesn’t need to be Hook’s 100 year – 10 gets a good amount of flavor crystals in there as it is. If I feel like being particularly challenged, I’ll go to Jitlada (5233 W. Sunset, Hollywood) for that sweat-from-the-inside feeling.
Least Favorite Kind of Food: I’m willing to try almost anything once, but what I don’t really understand is gamey or tough meat. I also have to acclimate my palate more to Ethiopian and other African foods to be able to appreciate them. I am no Eddie Lin, so I also have to ease into the organs. But my no-waste, ethnic heritage demands that I at least try.
Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Hokusai (8400 Wilshire Blvd.) is undergoing remodeling right now, but I get a $7 cash-only bento box with a salmon filet prepared with sea salt over rice. It has a tiny amount of sides like a few edamame, pickled yellow daikon and dallops each of seaweed salad, Japanese potato salad – but what do you expect? It’s $7. What I’ll also do is actually drive down to the lunchtime food truck depot going on in front of the Variety Building in Miracle Mile. Having a MINI makes it possible to park in that 1/2-spot behind a truck that takes up 1 1/2 metered parking spots right on Wilshire. When I start talking about extended fancier lunches, I get into Beverly, Melrose and La Brea, like BLD (7450 Beverly Blvd.) for their salads, Hatfield’s (6703 Melrose) for their lobster club sandwich, and Cube (615 North La Brea) for their handmade papardelle. Coworkers, on their birthday, get a Susina Bakery cake if I’m consulted about that.
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Posted at 11:30 am, May 25th, 2010 under PROFILED L.A. Lunch'ers.
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