Midtown Lunch

The very first post on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles was khao soi (very fitting if you ask me) but do you know what the very first Midtown Lunch of all time was?  The one that kicked off this under $10 fat face stuffing nonsense almost 6 years ago in NYC?  It was Chinese food.  And not just any Chinese food, but possibly one of the most perfect Chinese lunch spots of all time.  The place was called Hing Won, and it featured a groundbreaking to me at the time two line system.  The left line was filled with mostly white people in suits, selecting Panda Express style orange chicken and egg rolls using the time tested method of menu ordering known as the finger point.  The second line was mostly Asian people, ordering from a bilingual menu of Chinatown style roasted meats, soups and noodle dishes featuring stuff like sichuan pickles and bitter melon.  Nothing over $7 (at the time), everything delicious.  And when they added Roast Pig over rice to the menu, it might have been the best day of my lunching life.  (And yes, there is a difference between char siu roast pork and roast pig.)

Head into Chinatown or the SGV and these places might be everywhere.  But for an eater trying to keep my lunches centralized, I would gladly cut off my Chinese food pointing finger for a Mid City equivalent to Hing Won.  Beef rolls from 101 Noodle are nice.  And I’ve had a few decent meals at Hop Woo.  But where’s the roast pig over rice?  Hell, I’d even settle for a decent roast pork over rice.  So when I saw Eater’s “Best Chinese Food Outside of the SGV” post last month I got super excited. Could the answer to my prayers be contained within?   I was a little concerned that Hu’s Szechuan made the list (the place is down the street from my house and kind of terrible), but the description of BBQ Unlimited #2 on Melrose in East Hollywood sealed the deal:

“A picture perfect hole-in-the-wall [with] steam baos for less than a $1, Cantonese style noodle soups, and cheap char siu pork that’s actually roasted.”

I’m there.

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As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Diane, a paralegal who is about to move to Paris. Also we couldn’t decide between the two photos Diane sent, so if the corn dog photo isn’t enough you get a second bonus photo after the jump…

Name: Diane

Age: 25

Occupation: Paralegal

Where in L.A. do you Work?: At a law office in Downtown (7th & Fig area), though I am currently working remotely from Santa Monica, and will shortly be doing so from Paris!

Favorite Kind of Food: Carbs and fat. Hurrah!

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Raw onions.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Mendocino Farms is always fantastic, though the lines have been egregiously long lately. The pork belly bahn mi is absolutely the best sandwich in town. It’s a Wrap and Green Hut Cafe are also close, cheap, and dependable, and even faster if you call in your order. We have a food truck lot on 7Fig that has different trucks daily, but our favorites are Auntie’s Fry Bread (they’re like savory donuts filled with taco ingredients — amazing) and the Ludo Truck.

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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier on Sawtelle, I stumbled upon this last week: Gottsui, the previously dinnertime only Tokyo okonomiyaki chain, is now open for lunch!  But before Japanese egg pancake fanatics get too excited over this new West L.A. lunch option, you should know they’re not serving okonomiyaki.  They’re serving ramen.  (I warned you it was about to get crazy.)  With the lines at Tsujita getting longer and longer by the day, you can see how a place on Sawtelle with no lunch business would be tempted to do lunchtime only ramen.  But with Ramen Jinya opening soon, Gr/eats becoming a tsukemen spot, and no standout lunchtime okonomiyaki to speak of in the area, the decision seems questionable at best.

What could they possibly do to make their ramen stand out on this soon to be ramen packed street?  Bring on the beef!

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Rice Cakes and Blood Sausage from Jang Tou Bossam. Photo by Food GPS

• DTLA Congrats to Spice Table on their 1 year anniversary… [Squid Ink]
• DTLA … hope they won’t have to move! [LADN via Grub Street]
• HWOOD Fukuburger has added a falafel burger to the menu [Eater]
• KTOWN Jang Tou Bossam has a $10 dukkboki/soodae combo [Food GPS]
• KTOWN This goat stew looks worth the splurge! [Gastronomy]
• LIST Vietnamese Food Flowchart: Where to go for Pho & Banh Mi [Squid Ink]

I don’t hate chicken, but I do reserve the right to hate L.A.’s obsession with chicken. I’ve never met so many people who love chicken, or (the horror) will only eat chicken. Fat man cannot live on chicken alone (unless it’s deep fried, covered in garlic sauce, or sauteed with french fries.) Ok, so maybe hate is a strong word.  I don’t hate chickenterians, some of my best friends are chickentarians. I just like to make fun of them for missing out on all the joys of beef, lamb, seafood, goat (yes goat!), and of course pork.  So if the future me had told the past me that I would end up eating at a place called Chicken Lady Cafe, a catering specialist in the shadow of the Beverly Center, and love it, the old me would have proactively punched the new me in the face.

Chicken Lady Cafe?  Catering?  The Beverly Center?  How did this happen?  I’ll tell you how it happened.  Chicken. Fingers.

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Since I moved here from NYC two years ago I’ve been on the hunt for a replacement for my beloved Jamaican Dutchy, the Midtown cart that introduced me to the wonders of jerk chicken, curry goat, and most importantly stew peas.  The Kassava Truck was good while it lasted (it’s gone now), but I still can’t bring myself to go to their restaurant- mostly because it’s too expensive for ML purposes, but also because a little part of me is sure that great Jamaican food is not going to be found in the shadow of the Beverly Center.  Nope- for that your best bet is to head to Mid City where Carribbean restaurants dot Washington and Pico in a way that makes you wonder when the “Little Kingston” sign is going up.

Natraliart is the go to favorite in the neighborhood, but I was a bit underwhelmed on my one visit.  And it’s a bit too expensive.  So when Lunch’er Garrett pointed out this quick little mention of Kaboom on the blog Food GPS I was intrigued.  When I saw their prices, I was downright excited.

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