Midtown Lunch

West Side Sandwich Renaissance: The west-side sandwich train of awesome-ness continues to roll. First Skratch became Choppe Choppe in Culver City, then Mendocino Farms landed in Marina Del Rey, and now this: popular farmers market staple Earl's Gourmet Grub has opened a storefront in Mar Vista with sandwiches like the "Pigtail" "Pig-n-Fig" and the "Choppy Joe". I know where I'm eating today.

50% off Ethiopian Buffet: My Ethiopian lunch at Rosalind's on Fairfax last month was perfectly good, but left me bummed we didn't check out Rahel's $9 lunch buffet across the street. Now I can, and for 50% off. Today's Living Social deal is a $30 gift certificate at Rahel, for only $15. The only catch is you have to use the coupon on one visit, so you'll need to round up 2 other friends.

ML on Good Food: So excited... I get to be on Good Food w/ Evan Kleiman this weekend on KCRW!  Listen live on Saturday from 10-11am pst, online or via podcast after the fact.  I'll be talking about Starry Kitchen, Ganda, Simpang Asia, Cafe Columbia, and more, while trying not to sound like a complete dork. UPDATE: Did you miss it?  Here's a link to the podcast.

Los Angeles’ Best Pizza: When I wrote about Pitfire Pizza last month, the recommendations for good L.A. pizza poured in. Now I have, like, a thousand more places to add to my list!  Slice, the king of all pizza blogs, has put together a list of their favorite places for pizza in Los Angeles.

Shook & Dotolo Added as Vendy Judges: Speaking of the guys from Animal, they've been added to the judges panel for this years Vendy Awards... which is just 3 weeks away! (May 15th, 4-7pm in MacArthur Park.)  Once the nominees are announced, sometime around May 1st, it's going to be a tough ticket to score... so you should probably do that now.  For more info about the "Oscars of the Street Food World" go here>>

Lunch Today: Fried chicken sandwich... made by Vinny and Jon from Animal... served off a truck... proceeds go to charity? Yes please. See you at the Pacific Design Center at Noon!

25% off Curry House: I didn't think the chicken katsu at Curry House was as good as the version at Hurry Curry of Tokyo- but if you're going to go, you might as well get 25% off! Offer good 4/20-4/21 for any item on the menu that contains curry sauce.  [via Sinosoul]