Midtown Lunch

As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Robert, a web guru who clearly needs some help finding delicious lasagna in SaMo…

Name: Robert

Age: 25

Occupation: Founder and CEO of VOKLE.com, a live video townhall platform with the goal of humanizing the web.

Where in L.A. do you Work?: VOKLE HQ is located in Santa Monica, CA, right by the 3rd Street Promenade.

Favorite Kind of Food: Italian – a good lasagna could be a work of art.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything with anchovies. I know that sounds cliche, but anchovies generally taste like fish-flavored clumps of salt to me.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: There’s a lot of health conscious places to eat in my area of Santa Monica. Like “Real Food Daily,” (514 Santa Monica Blvd.) which serves only organic dishes (they have a “sweet green juice” made up of every green vegetable you can think of). But if you want a really delicious dish, there’s a hole-in-the-wall Middle-Eastern restaurant on 5th and Lincoln called Sham (716 Santa Monica Blvd.) that serves the most amazing “Shawerma Beef & Chicken Combo” plate. One combo plate is enough to feed a hungry pack of grizzly gold miners.

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There were quite a few standouts at the LA Food Fest tasting event last weekend at the Rose Bowl, but none stood out more to me than the pork belly adobo served up by the Manila Machine, a Filipino food truck that hit the streets of L.A. back in June. Run by two popular food bloggers (not a joke), the truck launched with a ton of great press (mostly by bloggers, natch) but I couldn’t help but be a little skeptical. Nobody gets more excited about street food than me, and I’ve been covering the ascent of the “hipster truck” for over 4 years now.  But I’ve also been burned by one too many mediocre new school food trucks, and have gradually gone from feeling like “anything new with four wheels is worth getting excited about!” to “I’m going to wait until I hear something really good from somebody who isn’t friends with the owner of the food truck, or getting free food” before I dig in.

A single bite of pork belly adobo with pineapple changed all of that, so on Friday I found myself on Olympic btw. Bundy and Centinela- ordering practically the Manila Machine’s entire menu.

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Photo courtesy of gas•tron•o•my blog

• MOBILE More deep fried sushi porn from the Yatta Truck [Gastronomy]
• DOWNTOWN A new Singaporean spot is opening soon [Daily Dish]
• MAR VISTA Empanada Place is better than Gardel [Squid Ink]
• MID CITY Tinga Taqueria opens today on La Brea [Eater]
• MID CITY 99 Cent soul food?  Yes please! [LAist]
• PASADENA “The Guru” loves Cham Korean bistro’s dolsot bibimbap [Squid Ink]
• SANTA MONICA Pourtal’s Wine Bar is now serving lunch [LASnark;Grub Street]
• STUDIO CITY The valley gets a great new ramen spot [Food GPS;EDBM;The Guru]
• MOBILE Apparently you don’t want know how fattening Kogi is [Grub Street]
• MOBILE Hello new fried chicken truck! [Squid Ink]

I try to be positive here on Midtown Lunch… and I freakin’ love this city.  The food is amazing, and there’s no better place to be a “Midtown Lunch’er”.    But as much as I love much of the food in L.A. (and will defend it to the death against any outsiders, or natives with an inferiority complex) there are some things about lunching in this town that really piss me off. (And more often than not it’s not the food but the people eating it… or not eating it, as is often the case here.) Here are 7 of them, LAist style, for your enjoyment…

This is not an acceptable order at Langer’s. Photo courtesy of Noah Galuten.

1. Last month I had my first Langer’s experience… you know… the place where nobody orders anything but meat.  And one of our friends actually ordered a salad.  Really?  Really.

2. Magnolia Bakery is now in Los Angeles, and people seem very excited. Feast NY says “you’re welcome Los Angeles”. I say “thanks, but no thanks.”  Sure, their banana pudding is amazing (you might say the secret ingredient is Jello-O instant pudding mix and Nilla wafers) but the cupcakes? Nobody who lives in New York thinks Magnolia makes a great cupcake.  It didn’t even make Serious Eats’ Top 12.

3. On my way to the Counter last month I ran into a friend on the street, who excitedly recommended I try their burger without the bun.  Uh… I’m sorry.  Leaving bread off a dish is not an awesome “tip”.  That’s a lifestyle choice (and a poor one at that) not an improvement (although shockingly Chef Ludo does it.)   Funniest part of the exchange? She immediately followed her breadless two cents by telling me I have to try their milkshake!  That’s fucked up L.A. logic for you…

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Yesterday I took my very first trip to the Grand Central Market downtown- and let me be the first (although probably not) to say: if you work in walking distance from Hill and 3rd, I am extremely jealous of you!  Sure, some complain that a number of the stalls are crappy, and there is not enough variety.  You know what I say?  Who needs more than roast pig parts and cheap Chinese food!?  Not me.

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Back in June, Squid Ink called the Cold Soy Bean Noodles at Ma Dang Gook Soo (869 Western, in Koreatown) one of the Top 10 Asian Noodle Bowls under $7 in Los Angeles, and now that we’re knee deep in summer “The Guru” reaffirmed his love of the same dish in a response to a reader question. The nutty, thick broth (if you can even call the sludge a broth) is unlike anything I’ve ever eaten before… and completely worth the trip.  The flavor is pretty subtle (borderline bland) and takes a while to completely comprehend.  But eat a whole bowl of the stuff?  I don’t know.  Even on the hottest day, I couldn’t imagine finishing the enormous circular troth you get for $8.25 (I guess they raised the price, because it’s not under $7 anymore.)

It’s far better to grab a few friends, and order a bunch of dishes…(isn’t it always?)

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