Archive for 'Mid-City/Miracle Mile'

Obligatory Roscoe’s Lunch: Dissecting the Toughest Lunch Menu in Los Angeles

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A few days ago the President visited Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles on Pico, and as excited I was to see him getting his fried chicken and waffle on at one of L.A.’s food institutions, I was pretty disappointed in his order.  The Country Boy: 3 wings w/ your choice of a waffle, potato salad or fries (though one only assumes that waffle is chosen 100% of the time.)  I can be disappointed because this was actually my go-to order at Roscoe’s for my first I don’t know how many visits.  The appeal is obvious.  At $8.90 it’s one of the cheaper chicken and waffle combos available, and one cannot downplay the mental importance of getting 3 pieces of chicken instead of 1 or 2 (even though they are the smallest pieces you can get.)  There’s only one problem.  The chicken wings at Roscoe’s are terrible… and this is speaking as somebody who loves fried chicken wings.  If you have been to Roscoe’s and only had their chicken wings, you cannot judge Roscoe’s.  I don’t know if it’s the shorter cooking time, or what, but the wings at Roscoe’s just don’t taste as good as the other 3 pieces of chicken. And it’s not just the actual chicken itself.  It’s the crust too.  The crust on the wings isn’t as salty and peppery and just plain delicious as the other pieces of chicken.

Don’t believe me?  Do the side by side taste test, and you’ll be convinced.  I’ve wasted two meals on chicken wings just to prove my thesis, and I will not make that mistake again.  But if only my obsessive Roscoe’s menu dissection ended there…

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Barbacoa-less Gish Bac Still Makes a Great Weekday Lunch

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L.A. Times’ “The Find” column has sussed out some pretty amazing lunches over the past few months. In March it was all over the completely under-appreciated Flavors of Belize on La Brea. Then came Koreatown jokbal in April. Chimu was the big June discovery. And this month the streak continues with Gish Bac, a Oaxacan restaurant in Mid City uncovered by Bill Esparza, L.A.’s resident food expert of all things south of the border. And for me, when Bill says go eat something you know it’s going to be good.  (Cases in point: Mariscos Jalisco, Ricky’s Fish Tacos, and Mariscos Chente.)

A big portion of the article focused on their weekend only barbacoa, but it also had high praise for their 30+ ingredient house-made mole negro. So when I saw that nothing on their lunch menu was over $10, I rushed right over to check it out.

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Your First Look at Wirtshaus’ Lunch Menu

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I love stuffing my face with a good sausage just as much as the next guy, but I could take or leave the new tube meat craze that seems to be sweeping through L.A. over the past year. Don’t get me wrong… if Hot Doug’s expanded to L.A. I would probably advise my friends and family to sell any stock they held in my health insurance company (after all, duck fat fries every Friday and Saturday are probably not good for your long term health.)  As a resident of Culver City I’m mildly excited about Wurstkuche expanding to Venice, but the opening of Wirtshaus on La Brea brought a major yawn, that is until I saw their lunch menu.

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Getting the Best For Less at La Cevicheria

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Ever since Profiled Lunch’er Sara recommended La Cevicheria back in August of last year it’s been on my list of places to hit up.  It took me a year to finally do so because for some reason I had gotten it into my head that despite its Mid City location (on Pico just East of Crenshaw) lunch at this Guatemalan ceviche specialist was going to end up costing more than $10, my self imposed lunchtime limit (what can I say, I’m a cheap bastard.)  And sure enough the specialty of the house, which features blood clams highly recommended by The Guru himself, is a whopping $15.   But it is actually far easier than I expected to get a lunch for under $10, without sacrificing the best dishes La Cevicheria has to offer.

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Does Bagel Broker Have the Best Bagels in L.A.?

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Ever since my visit to the newly opened Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. in Beverly Hills, I’ve been kind of in the mood for bagels.  And, while their bagels were definitely good, and I liked their ice coffee ice cubes, the rest of the nonsense will probably keep me from being a regular customer (I’m looking at you pizza melts).  So, where does one go for bagels in this town? Noah’s is terrible (real bagels are not completely flat on one side), and most people who have moved here from New York will say don’t bother looking. And yet Bagel Broker, near The Grove, seems to come up in conversation a ton- kind of like Joe’s and Vito’s on the similarly maligned L.A. pizza front.

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Flavors of Belize is Too Damn Good to be Empty

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As I mentioned on Monday, L.A. Times’ “The Find” column has been a goldmine of great lunches lately.  And jokbal isn’t the only thing they’ve introduced to me over the past few months.  I also have to credit them with introducing me to the food of Belize. I do most of my weekday lunching between Downtown L.A. and Santa Monica, so it’s always exciting to find something super unique that doesn’t require driving to the South Bay, San Gabriel Valley or East L.A.  A casual new Belizean place, on La Brea?  Sounds perfect.

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Singapore’s Banana Leaf’s Mee Indo Style is My Go-To Farmer’s Market Lunch. What’s Yours?

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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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