PROFILE: L.A. Lunch’er “Christine”

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 Christine, a grad student who works in Azusa but appears to be an expert on K-Town lunches.

Name: Christine (aka choisauce, aka olivejina)

Age: 28

Occupation: Psychotherapist, Grad Student

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Azusa for school/work and when I’m working from home, Pasadena.

Favorite Kind of Food: Almost anything soupy (especially thai boat noodles, hot pot, ramen), offals (again boat noodles, spicy sichuan, tacos!), anything and everything made by my Korean grandmother.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Only two foods I refuse to eat: bitter melon and durian. No and no.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: When I’m in Azusa, Country Chicken and Ribs BBQ (994 E Alosta Ave) has one of the best lunch deals in town which is a MASSIVE box of delicious brontosaurus sized ribs, moist bbq chicken, coleslaw, rice with gravy & biscuit for a mere $5! I also love that one of my favorite chicken places, Dino’s (original on Pico/Berendo) has another location in Azusa (another massive box of nuclear orange chicken, fries, coleslaw, tortillas for $5). Ironically enough, I’m not a big fan of chicken unless it’s fried so it’s saying a lot that I love LOVE these two places.

On the days I’m working from home, I have the nice luxury of being able to drive anywhere my appetite takes me.

Sapp Coffee Shop (5183 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood) for their thai boat noodles (I could eat this everyday) and recently discovered their spicy crab garlic noodles which are pretty OMFG as well.

San Gabriel Valley (SGV)- I love Boiling Point in Monterey Park for my favorite Taiwanese hot pot place where I can get an individual sized pot of the House Special pot (stinky tofu, offals, pork, veggies, etc) for only $8.99 at lunch and it even includes a drink! Newport Seafood also has killer lunch deals for some of the best kung pao chicken (even though I would normally never order this dish anywhere else), pea sprouts, fried/steam fish for a mere $5-7 each (and when I feel like splurging, this is the home of my favorite lobster!) My favorite places for dumplings are Shau May (Kang Kang Food Court) for their Shanghainese pan fried bao, Dean Sin World for their xlb’s and juicy fried pork dumplings, and Mama’s Lu for my favorite xlb’s and green onion pancakes.

Koreatown- I’m Korean and used to think there were no good lunch deals in ktown. Probably because of the recession but recently I’ve discovered ktown DOES have great lunch deals! Hwal-A Gwang Jang (730 S Western Ave) recently surprised me with the best hwedupbap deal in town. Hwedupbap is a korean style chirashi but its basically a cross between chirashi and bibimbap. Usually it’ll range from $10-16 and even from the supermarkets about $8 but at this place at lunch it’s only $5.99!! I had to go try it myself and it was indeed massive and delicious! Another great deal for lunch I recently came across is Al Bae Nae (Al Bae Nae). This 24 hour spot in ktown is known for their GINORM bowl of jjambbong (spicy seafood noodle soup).The bowl its served in is the size of a sink bowl and includes real crab (in shell) and loads of seafood. It’s usually $8-9 but at lunch its only $6-7. Also at lunch their jjajang fried rice is also dirt cheap (like jjajang myun but over fried rice instead of noodles) and pretty tasty. Those two dishes can easily feed 4 korean girls, 3 normal people or one Zach and one Christine on a good day :) Another place our family loves (and wasn’t ayce until recently) is Si Gol SSam Bob (480 N Western Ave). The style is different than most ayce kbbq places because its the “old school” style where all the meat is wrapped in different types of veggies (i.e. lettuce, cabbage, seaweed, etc etc). They have a home made ssam jang (bean paste) that is really unique and delicious to add to all the wraps. They have the traditional $15.99 ayce meats but they also have an $8.99 special ALL DAY for ayce brisket and pork belly. No, this isn’t kobe and kurabota but I think its still delicious and an amazing deal for $8.99. Steamed egg, awesome banchan and den jang (bean paste stew) are also included.

For Mexican, Ricky’s Fish Tacos in Silverlake (1400 Virgil) for my favorite fish tacos in all of LA/SD/even Baja. I lived in San Diego for 4 hours and traveled to Baja many times, and nothing comes close to Ricky’s. (I still hold the record for most fish tacos eaten by a girl at 10 fish tacos. My power eating partner, Julian, also matched me taco for taco in this contest :P). Rico’s Mar Azul Mariscos Truck in Highland Park, has my favorite mixed seafood tostadas and Baja style seafood cocktails. YUM!

When I just need a good bowl of ramen: My favorite is Santouka (3760 S Centinela Ave) in Culver City for their shio ramen with special pork and Chin Ma Ya (123 Onizuka St.) for their tan tan men (and the best karage, japanese fried chicken, in town).

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? I-can-eat-thai-boat-noodles-at-sapp-every-single-day.

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? I’ve driven to San Diego just for Phil’s BBQ and Costa Mesa just for my favorite bowl of mabo ramen at Mentatsu (I made this trek 2x in a week before).

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? LA. Where else can I get all the above within 20-30 minutes? Second city, San Diego, so I can stuff my face with Phil’s BBQ and carne asada fries everyday.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers in L.A.? I’ve been trying to find Chinese roast goose like the one featured in No Reservations, Hong Kong. I hear no such thing exists here in LA/OC (only roast duck and stewed goose offals). Please, prove me wrong and show me the effin goose.

Got a recommendation for Christine? Put it in the comments. And 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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