PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Heather”

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 Heather, a video game archivist (hello dream job!!!) who hates fake food.

Name: Heather

Age: Really? I thought you were a gentleman.

Occupation: Creative Development Historian (Archivist)

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Activision, 31st & Ocean Park in Santa Monica

Favorite Kind of Food: Fresh. I can’t commit to any particular cuisine, but noted that most of my favorites are only edible when fresh. Caprese salad, Sushi, New England Clam Bake (lobsters, clams, corn on the cob- best if everything was in its natural habitat of field or sea when the sun rose that day), Grass fed burgers w garden tomatoes, Farm Fresh eggs in a crepe with ham & cheese.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything that requires a loophole legal term gives me the creeps: “cheese product”, “juice drink” “chicken by-product” “frozen dairy desert”

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Border Grill Food Truck (Check twitter for location): They don’t come by often enough! Cerviche from a truck?!?! I know…this is the only truck I trust for that & it is awesome. The tacos are divine. Mrs. Winston’s (3150 Ocean Park Blvd): I was blown away the first time I saw their salad bar- it is extensive, fresh and clean. This isn’t your NYC bodega salad bar (no ambrosia, no mayo carrot salad, no bugs). You pay for what you get however- even careful salad artists can easily spend $12-$15. It is nearly impossible to spend less than $7. Zabies (3003 Ocean Park Blvd): Steak salad, chicken chopped salad, homemade soups. Takeout is recommended- their service sometimes makes me angry. The Counter: Build-a-Burger with sweet potato and shoe string fries (fav burger: swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions on a bed of mixed greens.)

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Pizza Fusion and Mrs. Winston’s (I’ve spent hundreds of dollars & I’m starting to feel resentful)

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? 3.2 miles to Bay Cities Italian Deli: I dream about this place. It is one of my favorite calorie splurges in Los Angeles. 2 mi to Bergamot Station Café (2525 Michigan Avenue). Delicious, inexpensive, and an awesome patio. Not to mention about 20 art galleries to feed your soul.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? Midtown Lunch correspondent for France and Italy. You need one of those, right?

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers in L.A.? I have yet to find really good Vietnamese Bún Thit Nuong. IMHO, good Bún has fresh: cilantro, mint, basil, cucumber, carrots, romaine, mung bean sprouts, chile peppers. It contains real BBQ pork slices, peanuts, cold rice vermicelli and is served with a lime/fish sauce with plenty of Nuoc cham. I’ve been to 9021Pho, Pho Show, and Pho 99 Noodle. Nothing even comes close to what I could find in many hole in the wall joints in San Francisco. Please help!

YES! Thank you. Too many people talk pho when they rate Vietnamese restaurants. I too am all about the bún. Anybody got a recommendation for Heather and I? Put it in the comments. And, as always, if you’d like to be next week’s Profiled: L.A. Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d want to nominate), email me- zach@midtownlunch.com.

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1 Comment

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    The only decent bún in the area is Le Saigon on Santa Monica near Federal, and it doesn’t compare to SGV or OC. You are on the Westside, though… not exactly chockablock with Viet places.

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