Midtown Lunch

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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Prik khing crispy pork from Crispy Pork Gang & Grill. Photo by Sinosoul

• DTLA Suehiro Cafe makes a good pork katsu don [The Minty]
• HWOOD 3 Thai Town lunch specials [Squid Ink]
• HWOOD There’s a new crispy pork place in Thai Town [Sinosoul]
• KTOWN A list of great places for pork belly [Mattatouille]
• KTOWN Wako Donkasu is now Guru approved! [LAW]
• KTOWN Yuk hwe bibimbap sounds awesome [LAW]
• WESTWOOD For Persian pizza head to Café Glacé [LAT]
• WESTWOOD There’s a BBQ Chicken in Westwood!? [Squid Ink]
• WEST LA Hopefully this new okonomyaki place will be open for lunch! [GS]
• WEST LA Tsujita LA is now open on Sawtelle… [Squid Ink]
• WEST LA … but lunch service doesn’t start until Sept. [LAT]
• MOBILE The pernil at Lidia’s Dominican is great [Squid Ink]

It’s no secret that the Jogasaki Truck is one of my favorite new trucks to hit Los Angeles in the past year. Their sushi burritos are not only the perfectly portable food truck treat, but they’re also a good value and delicious. If they parked outside my office, I’d probably eat one every day.  Most of the press they received (and it was a lot for awhile there) was of the “can you believe this truck is making sushi burritos!?” variety, but apparently there were others who saw Jogasaki for what it is… a genius idea, worthy of copying.

A few months ago The Pokey Truck hit the streets of Los Angeles, and if you thought their signature item was going to be Hawaiian poke (like you get at this great place on the Venice Beach boardwalk) guess again.  It’s another sushi burrito truck.

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If there is a better work day lunchtime set up than the mall food court, I haven’t seen it.  What other place can you go with your co-workers (or family for that matter) and everybody be able to get what they want.  You’re in the mood for a turkey sandwich but I want shitty Chinese food?  Food court can make it happen.  You want a salad, but I’m in the mood for- oh who am I kidding.  I always want the shitty Chinese food.  Point is, food courts have got something for everybody.

Recently food courts have taken to looking outside the standard fast food joint model that has dominated the scene for decades.  The Westfield mall in Century City is well known for their upscale food court, which features a number of interesting and kind of upscale options.  And I’ve explored the hidden mysteries of the Santa Monica Place food court.  But nothing could adequately prepare me for the announcement that 101 Noodle Express, the San Gabriel Valley institution famous for their beef rolls, was now open in the Fox Hills Mall Westfield Mall Culver City.  Could this be the Chinese food savior the westside has been praying for?

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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 Felicia, a farmer’s market fanatic who works pretty far East, but lives in Highland Park.

Name: Felicia Friesema

Age: 38

Occupation: By day, spokesperson for a public transportation agency. By night, farmers market columnist for the LA Weekly’s food blog, Squid Ink.

Where in L.A. do you Work?: West Covina, CA

Favorite Kind of Food: In LA, I cannot have one favorite food. Depends on my mood and what’s available. Today it might be Palak Paneer with plain naan and raita from Delhi Palace in La Puente.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: This actually makes me sad. I want to love it because it has so much great tradition behind it. But I’ve never been able to eat Ethiopian cuisine. Every time I’ve tried, the spice has been uncomfortably overwhelming. I adore injera, though.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: It’s been somewhat difficult to find good lunch options out here that aren’t gigantic chain food factories. But there are a few gems. One World Café on Glendora Ave. has some great vegan options, including their “B.B.Q. Drumsticks”, which is actually gluten wrapped around a stick of sugar cane, fried, and then sauced, and their “Passionate Tofu” served over brown rice. Anna’s Pizza on West Covina Parkway makes some of the best pizza in LA. Love the carnitas at Bronco’s in Hong Kong Plaza on Glendora. And then Claro’s over on East College St. in Covina for their prosciutto sandwich with everything. There’s also 1+1 Dumpling House, Anjo Japanese, and Fonda Don Chon. I live over in Hermon, next to Highland Park, and my go-to neighborhood places are Good Girl Dinette (110 N Ave 56), The York (5018 York Blvd), Schodorf’s Luncheonette (5051 York Blvd), and Café de Leche (5000 York Blvd.)  Folliero’s (5566 N Figueroa St), too, though I often forget that they are cash-only, which leads to pizza pout.

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Ever since the Manila Machine food truck closed back in April I’ve been on a hunt for decent Filipino food between Downtown and Santa Monica, and who better to help me on my quest than Nastassia- the brains behind the whole Manila Machine operation.  For our first stop back in June we hit up Aristocrat, a newish steam table place in K-Town where we found a decent kare kare, among other tasty dishes.  Better than average, but nothing that was going to halt our search. But where to go next?

Enter Lunch’er Remil to save the day (aka Pinoy Panda).  Shortly after our trip to Aristocrat he was a profiled L.A. luncher and gave us two quality recs off of Alvarado, just to the NE of Downtown L.A.: Salakot Sizzle and Grill (a sit down restaurant, and his personal favorite in the area), and Bahay Kubo Natin (a steam table place for a quick lunch.)  Always going for the quick and the cheap, we decided to hit up Bahay Kubo first…

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Plantain Sandwich w/ Chicken from Lidia’s Dominican Kitchen

• MOBILE Lidia’s Dominican serves a plantain sandwich stuffed with pork!? [Eater]
• LA BREA The lunch menu at Wirsthaus looks pretty good [Grub Street]
• MAR VISTA Earl’s Gourmet Grub is changing up its menu [Grub Street]
• MID CITY Penguin’s hush puppies are better than Charlie’s [Squid Ink]
• MOBILE The Glowfish Truck is Guru approved! [Squid Ink]