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 Harriet, the Producer of Good Food w/ Evan Kleiman on KCRW (Saturdays at 11am.) So if you’ve ever wondered where your favorite KCRW employees (or Santa Monica College co-eds) eat lunch, this should give you a good idea…

Name: Harriet

Age: 34

Occupation: Radio Producer

Where in L.A. do you Work?: KCRW in Santa Monica, on the campus of Santa Monica college.

Favorite Kind of Food: Mexican Food

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Processed lunch meats

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Cafe Bolivar, this Venezuelan cafe that serves really yummy arepas (1741 Ocean Park Blvd), Mrs. Winston’s Green Grocery (2450 Colorado Ave) for their incredible salad bar, and Thyme (1630 Ocean Park Blvd) for their prepared salads (new, but a little expensive).

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This isn’t really about lunch, but we had to mention it for those of you who don’t work near Ricky’s Fish Tacos… Inspired by last month’s fundraiser for Breed Street vendor (and Vendy Award Winner) Nina’s Food, Chef Evan Kleiman, with the help of Bill Esparza from Street Gourmet L.A., have launched a new Monday night street food pop up series at Angeli Caffe (7274 Melrose). It kicks off tonight with an appearance by Ricky’s Fish Tacos, the famous fish taco vendor who used to only sell on the weekends at Sunset Junction, but now has a tent Wednesday through Sunday at 1400 Virgil (just south of Hollywood Blvd.)

So if you work in Mid-City or the west side, and haven’t been able to make it over to Los Feliz for a delicious fish taco lunch, tonight is your best shot at Ricky’s Fish Taco goodness (voted best fish taco in L.A. by the Taco Task Force!) Owner Ricky Pina will be selling $3 tacos from 6-10pm, while Angeli Cafe will selling beer and desserts.

After an aborted trip to the inaugural LA Street Food Festival Downtown back in February, I decided to give Profiled Lunchers Shawna and Sonja another chance on Saturday- and hit up Pasadena for their massive tasting event, featuring food trucks and street food inspired restaurants all handing out food on the field of the Rose Bowl. The lines weren’t much shorter this time around, but they moved a lot quicker (that happens when you don’t have to take money for each dish) and *most* (but not all) of the vendors seemed a bit more prepared for the crush. Plus, getting to hang on the field at the Rose Bowl while drinking beer and tequila makes waiting 30 minutes for a taco much more palatable.

Truthfully, for a guy like me even the best run tasting event is stressful. My strategy is always to get there as early as I can (buying the VIP tickets is definitely the way to go), and run from booth to booth eating as much as I can as quickly as I can before the lines get to be too long (which happens pretty quick when an event like this is sold out and thousands of people are waiting at the gate to get in at the very beginning.) Not fun, right? And it’s tough to really taste or enjoy the food. And yet something about these events keeps me going back again and again- excited for the prospect of being able to try so many places, from all over the city, in one spot, even though it’s not always a good representation of what you’d get if you went to actual truck or restaurant. After all, sometimes a great restaurant will serve up something that is not nearly as good as the food made fresh at their actual location, and bad places can easily pull it together to serve up one good bite.

And yet- despite my running, and face stuffing, one dish did manage to stand out above the rest. Not just to me, but to “The Guru” as well. And that place is now at the top of my list of must try spots…

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Now that makes me want to try the Ahn-Joo Truck! Photo by My Last Bite

• MOBILE Jitlada’s Mayor shares her faves from recent food truck visits [My Last Bite]
• DOWNTOWN “The Guru” stumbles into Izakaya Fu-Ga [LAW]
• HOLLYWOOD Remember Fortune Cookies? Here’s Cathy’s review [Gastronomy]
• HOLLYWOOD Hello delicious looking torta truck! [Squid Ink]
• KOREATOWN For cold noodles “The Guru” recommends Ma Dang Gook Su [LAW]
• MELROSE Paddy Rice has their veggies delivered fresh daily [Table Conversation]
• MID CITY You can get liege waffles at the newly open Shaky Alibi [Eater]
• MID WILSHIRE The Counter is coming to Miracle Mile [Grub Street]
• SANTA MONICA A new omusubi shop has opened on Main [Grub Street]
• VENICE Chicago’s Mr. Beef has opened on Muscle Beach [Squid Ink]
• WESTWOOD Junior’s Deli serves some nice pastrami and corned beef [Savory Hunter]
• MOBILE The girl who runs the NomNom Truck is also a model [Lo Down via Racked]

If you work, or ever eat lunch, in Venice or Santa Monica you have to check out tuesday’s Profiled Lunch’er, “Jeff”. His recommendations have given me at least a week’s worth of west side lunches… including the meatloaf sandwich at Bay Cities (who knew?) and an entry for my Cheap Chinese Food Challenge.  But the one rec that stood out the most was the “Lambwich” from Venice Beach Wines (on Rose btw Lincoln and Pacific).

Last month Los Angeles Magazine and Grub Street both released lists of the “Best Sandwiches in Los Angeles” and the lambwich wasn’t mentioned in either.  After trying it yesterday, I think we might have an addition to the canon.

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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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