Midtown Lunch

If you’ve been reading Midtown Lunch for awhile then you probably have figured out that I don’t necessarily love the standard sandwich as much as the average luncher.  For me to get excited about a sandwich it’s got to have the greatest meatloaf of all time in it, be stuffed with mozzarella sticks and onion rings, topped with string beans, and/or Pueblan string cheese. Give me a something I can work with here.  In other words, when presented with the choice between the greatest turkey sandwich of all time, and just decent Chinese food- I’m going to go Chinese.

Unless of course that sandwich uses waffles as its bread!  So when I read on Unemployed Eater that Bru’s Wiffle in Santa Monica was doing a special waffle breakfast sandwich, I was intrigued and ready to subscribe to their newsletter.

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As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week its Cristina, a publicist who has a question about ham.

Name: Cristina

Age: 31

Occupation: Owner of NoiseNY PR

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Our office is located in Los Feliz

Favorite Kind of Food: Italian

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Chinese

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Il Capriccio (1757 N Vermont Ave) – the turkey panini with pesto spread (fresh basil, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic) is bellissimo. Their pasta e fagioli soup is amazing if you come on Wednesday it’s their green day special. And if you take the bus, walk, ride your bike, or bring recyclables, you get 10-15% off your meal

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I fully admit to being surprised with how much I liked Wow Bento and Roll in DTLA (more than I expected to like it, anyway.)  But what’s even more shocking is the fact that they printed up a gigantor banner that quotes what I wrote!  They did leave out the “probably” that appeared in the original review (which takes a bit of the umph out of the whole proclamation) but considering the unattributed “#1 Fast Food Japanese Restaurant in Downtown L.A.” banner I noticed on my first visit, I can’t really be too shocked.

Thanks to Jill from Domaine L.A. for sending along the photo (the banner is hung up at the branch on Melrose).

Related:
Wow Bento & Roll’s Sashimi Salad is Far Less Scary Than I Expected

Not sure if you follow @foodisnewrock (my music/food side project) but over the weekend I went to my first Coachella and quickly realized something most Coachella vets are well aware of: Spicy Pie is pretty fucking awesome.  Sure, I did my due diligence by eating a corn dog, crab fries, Asian BBQ, fish tacos, shitty Thai food and an absolutely sick chocolate filled malasada (hawaiian doughnut), but next year I think I might just eat Spicy Pie for every meal. And considering it’s $7 a slice for their signature slice (jalapeno and pineapple) that’s saying a lot.

Maybe it was heat stroke, or the fact that the food at Coachella is mostly terrible and ridiculously over-priced, but Spicy Pie is easily the best option (provided you don’t count Kogi, which we can eat whenever we want).  I want another slice right now.  Only one problem… they only do festivals.  What up with that!?  We need a Spicy Pie in L.A.  It would easily hold its own against Vito’s or Joe’s or LaRocco’s in Culver City.  Can somebody make this happen?

Coachella Crab Fries. Photo courtesy of the OC Register

• EVENTS Going to Coachella this weekend?  Here’s a list of all the food options [Food is the New Rock]
• DTLA Cafe Dulce is now open in Little Tokyo [Eater]
• DTLA Aburiya Toranoko is now open for lunch [The Minty]
• DTLA Wurstkurche is better than Berlin Currywurst [Squid Ink]
• DTLA For Downtown Pho Saigon doesn’t look too bad! [The Minty]
• LAX Front Page Jamaican looks awesome [Savory Hunter]
• MID CITY Speaking of the Farmer’s Mkt, Charlie’s Cheeseburger is great [AHT]
• SAMO Tinga on La Brea is looking to expand [The Feast]
• MOBILE How to make Grilled Cheese Truck’s signature item [Popsugar]
• NEWS More on Mendocino Farms’ planned expansion [City’s Best] [

I still remember the first time I want to the Original L.A. Farmer’s Market.  The year was 1994 and I may or may not have just been a studio audience member of the Price is Right (sadly I didn’t get called to come on down.)  Getting to go to Los Angeles, and visit my cousin, was my High School graduation present and I remember thinking the Farmer’s Market was quite possibly the greatest food court I had ever been in.  Fast forward 17 years later, and the excitement has worn off a bit.  Most of the places are pretty mediocre, and even the decent ones are kind of pricey for what they are (I’m looking at you Loteria.)  Was it always that way? Probably.  The 18 year old me also thought that I would never find better clothing stores than the T-shirt shops on Hollywood Blvd.

And yet, it’s rare that you’ll find somebody willing to outright bash the Farmer’s Market food court.  The place is an institution, and for somebody who loves food courts it is hard not to get a little bit excited walking into that place on a beautiful day.  (And let’s face it, it beats eating at La Piazza.)   But I think the real reason most people have fond feelings about the Farmer’s Market is because everybody has their one go to dish.  The one thing they always order, every single time, without fail. After all, the number of options can be intimidating.  And it’s easy to get lost in that maze.  Going back again and again for the same thing is the easy solution for that.

My go to dish?  The Mee Indo Style at Singapore’s Banana Leaf.

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