Midtown Lunch

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 Nguyen, who despite being the owner of one of the better lunch spots Downtown (Starry Kitchen) does a lot of amazing eating in Downtown and beyond.

Name: Nguyen

Age: 32

Occupation: Pan-Asian Comfort Food Presenter/Poser + Level 3 – Janitorial Engineer

Where in L.A. do you Work?: The deep dark depths of the dingy dungeon called Starry Kitchen / DTLA – Financial District/California Plaza

Favorite Kind of Food: Most Pan-Asian / Asian

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Off the top of my head, Tibetan (which does fall into the Asian category), but I haven’t had anything I crave yet.. I’m always ready to be convinced otherwise

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Fisherman’s Outlet (529 South Central Ave., Downtown) is one my FAVORITE blue collar paradises, and forget the fried stuff- get the grilled (to perfection) Sea bass drenched in their garlic butter seasoning. Chin-Ma-Ya (Weller Court, 123 Astronaut Ellison, Downtown): Tan-Tan-Men w/ Chicken Karaage (I swear, best karaage I’ve had… so damn crunchy.) Langers: not exactly DTLA, but close enough. #19 – Pastrami & Cole Slaw w/ Russian Style dressing sandwiched in a beautifully crispy & yet brittle bread… so good. Mendocino Farms (what, we can’t like a competitor? ^_^): DUDE, that secret PB&J sammie w/ the carmelized bananas… off the f’ing CHAIN. (Editor’s Note: Too bad they stopped serving it at the end of April!) Daikokuya: shredded pork w/ ramen combo (kotteri / extra fatty style)… actually my favorite things are the things leading up to the ramen – the cabbage salad/slaw w/ this AWESOME ginger sauce + the shredded pork bowl w/ a TON o’ ginger. Curry House (123 S Onizuka St, Downtown): Curry Pan + Extra-spicy Ginger Curry Rice… yuuuuum. Grand Central Market (317 South Broadway, Downtown): can’t remember the place, but there’s one on the side that serves a delicious heart attack of a Torta Cubano “uh huuuh.. pork, cheese, fried pork, tapatio and more meat = heart attack… yuuum” Pitfire Pizza: haven’t been to the one in DTLA, but assuming it’s the same… the freakin’ Burrata Pizza is NICE! And did I mention Fisherman’s Outlet??? :)

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I kind of hate Twitter.  I use it (you can follow me @midtownlunchLA) but I still hate it.  Mostly because it’s just a jealousy feed.  I check it constantly, and all I see are things I wish I was eating from places I wish I was at. Case in point… Jazzfest. After a whole week of reading about crawfish bread and crawfish monica and fried crawfish po’boys I am a very jealous boy.  So on Friday I decided to seek out a little bit of Jazzfest in Los Angeles.  Sadly, Harold & Belle’s is too  pricey for Midtown Lunch purposes… and I could have gone to the Gumbo Pot in the Farmer’s Market- but once I heard that Sky’s Tacos on Pico served a crawfish taco (!?!), I was kind of sold.

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