Midtown Lunch

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 Corianda, a social media analyst who loves being challenged to cook weird stuff.

Name: Corianda

Age: 20

Occupation: Social Media Analyst, moonlighting as a graphic designer and wanna-be food blogger

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Smarter Social Media, a boutique PR/Marketing firm specializing in online and, duh, social media. We’re in the office with the halfpipe at the Santa Monica Airport.

Favorite Kind of Food: Depends entirely on my mood, but can’t pass up a big bowl of noodles, nor german comfort food, nor good cheese and meats platter-style at my family “Cheese Nights.” I recently discovered foie gras- is duck fat a “kind” of food?

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything overcooked and un-inventive. Or overly pretentious, though I won’t say so.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: It’s unoriginal, but slurping down ramen at Santouka in Mitsuwa (3760 South Centinela Ave) is the automatic go-to, especially when I need a break. Following up with a snack labelled entirely in Japanese is like playing Russian Roulette with your dessert. If I feel like eating with my hands and some greasy good samosas, India Sweets and Spices (9409 Venice Boulevard) is worth the trek. Other than that, it’s the food trucks parked on Ocean Park or dragging the co-workers to Westside Food Truck Central.

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? We have a tradition of “Fajita Fridays” from Baja Fresh every so often. We’re kind of a great place to work.

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? I swear, I found Santouka without you! No “discoveries” via Midtown Lunch, but a seriously hefty “to eat” list. Next up: Curious Palate, if I can hock up that $10.

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? For lunch, at around five miles, Westside Food Truck Central or India Sweets is about the maximum. Unless someone else is buying, then bring on the lunch hour traffic!

Dream job location (anywhere in the world), purely for lunch purposes, and why? I moved to LA for school (Fight On!) from the East Coast, without a car. My logic went thusly: LA is a big city, like New York or Boston. So I shouldn’t need a car, right? That was obviously a major failure, so a dream job location would be anywhere I could walk to a fantastic lunch spot, not hop in a car and search for $2 street parking. Though I did have some of my favorite lunches (and breakfasts!) in Germany a few summers ago. It’s the bread, I tell ya.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers in L.A.? My blog is about cooking (or attempting to cook) off-the-wall recipes and ingredients, like liver or oxtail or most recently, octopus. What’s one food/recipe challenge you’d like to see me tackle?

Want to challenge Corianda? Put it in the comments. And as always if you want to be next week’s Profiled: L.A. Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d want to nominate), email me- zach@midtownlunch.com.