Midtown Lunch

A few weeks ago I shared my… uh… unique guide to what I consider a “healthy” lunch in Los Angeles. Because as much of a fatso as I am, there are occasionally days when this “job” catches up with me.  And for those days, I try and eat something “light”.  (Sorry, a side effect of writing about food that isn’t dripping in fat is the overuse of quotation marks.)  I mentioned how much I like Vietnamese bun, and posted a photo of the ok version at Tiato- an Asian’ish lunch spot in Santa Monica.  It’s the kind of place I would never go out of my for, but if I worked in the building (or anywhere in a 5 minute vicinity of Colorado & Stewart) I might eat there once or twice a week.

Lunch’er Jake W. was nice enough to let me know in the comments that Le Saigon (on Santa Monica Blvd. near Barrington) made a much better bun than Tiato.  And since I was feeling a little gross the other day (possibly because of Reddi Check and Greek doughnuts) I decided to put this theory to the test.

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If you live or work on the westside, and are on the hunt for great ramen, most people will point you to Santouka in the Mitsuwa Marketplace on Venice. And it’s hard to argue with that recommendation. It’s a porktastic bowl of ramen, with great flavor, solid noodles, and tons of sheen (aka greasy greasy fat). But what about for those days when you feel like complete crap (i.e. how I feel as I’m typing this.) Yes, while this might be hard for most of you to believe, the last thing I feel like dumping on a fever, stuffed up nose, and sore throat is a hot liquid made up of 50% pork fat- and that’s a conservative estimate for Santouka’s ramen

So… what’s a sick guy, craving a lighter bowl of ramen on the westside to do? Ramenya of course!

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If you work in West L.A. but don’t lunch on Sawtelle at least once a week, what is wrong with you!? Dubbed little Osaka (to Downtown’s Little Tokyo) the area is chock full of Japanese goodness.  Back in April, I went on a bit of a curry spree and I’ve been meaning to check out all the take out bentos available at the Nijiya Market.  But that was put on hold once I spotted this post about Fu Rai Bo- written by my friend Aaron the “Savory Hunter”. Hello Japanese fried chicken wings!

I don’t know much about Fu Rai Bo (apparently it’s a giant chain in Tokyo?) or Japanese chicken wings for that matter… but there was this place in New York called Tebaya that served these amazing sweet and sticky wings sprinkled with sesame seeds that were out of control.  If Fu Rai Bo was even half as good as that place, I’d be one happy fat man.

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Love them or hate them, there is no denying that Kogi has influenced the entire landscape of food trucks in Los Angeles (and beyond).  And I’m not talking about twitter.  These days it is hard to find a single food truck that doesn’t serve some kind of fusion taco, and it looks like Chego- their new brick and mortar restaurant near Palms- might be having the same effect on the restaurants in the vicinity.

Chego, which serves Kogi-esque rice bowls with various toppings (an “upscale Yoshinoya” if you will) is still not open for lunch (much to my disappointment!) but Rio Brazil Cafe, located just a few doors down, is trying to fill the void.  Known for their feijoada, which traditionally is only served on the weekends, Rio Brazil Cafe has tried to capitalize on the new attention being paid to their previously deserted strip mall by beefing up their lunch options. I stopped by for lunch while Chego was under construction, and the restaurant was a ghost town.  Lunch options were limited mostly to sandwiches, and nothing looked too great.  Since Chego opened they’ve started serving the feijoada every day, and the walls are papered with specials- including a $7 lunch plate, and (naturally) a $6 Brazilian “chopped steak bowl”.

I headed over on Friday to check it out.

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I don’t like turkey sandwiches.  Is that crazy?  Don’t get me wrong… freshly roasted turkey topped with cranberry sauce, stuffing, and gravy is one of the greatest sandwiches of all time.  But Boar’s Head roast turkey on a roll with lettuce, tomato, and mustard?  Meh.  In fact, this site was founded pretty much entirely on my desire to find an alternative to boring turkey sandwiches (and salads.)  But what about a Korean twist on the turkey sandwich?  I do love Korean food.  And they did wonders with fried chicken.  Could they possibly make a turkey sandwich on white bread palatable?  2000 locations of Isaac Toast in Korea would say yes… and the first U.S. location opened in Westwood a few months ago.

What exactly is this “toast” craziness?

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With all the talk of the Go Go Curry eating championships in NYC, I found myself craving some Japanese curry recently.  It doesn’t help that Hideki Matsui is a California Angel now either.  My favorite cheap curry spot in Midtown was a shrine to #55 (Go Go in Japanese) and every time he hit a home run you would get a free topping coupon.  Sadly Go Go Curry hasn’t followed Matsui out to L.A. (yet!) but thankfully there are plenty of spots to find Japanese curry out here, and the other day I ventured to Little Osaka (the section of Sawtelle btw. Olympic+Santa Monica) to try two of them in a head to head curry battle the death!

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