Midtown Lunch

Shrimp Tacos from Ricky’s Fish Tacos. Photo courtesy of NomsNotBombs.

• HOLLYWOOD Fish haters can order shrimp at RFT [Noms Not Bombs]
• DOWNTOWN A new macaron place is opening in Little Tokyo [LoveLA via Eater]
• DOWNTOWN Q&A with the Chef of Starry Kitchen [Part 1;Part 2]
• DOWNTOWN Q&A with the Chef of Izakaya Fu-Ga [Blog Downtown]
• DOWNTOWN Can’t make it to the SGV? Mandarin Chateau is acceptable [Squid Ink]
• KOREATOWN Kogi’s Roy Choi recommends his favorite spots [LAW]
• MID-CITY Miracle Mile is getting a Chipotle [Grub Street]
• WEHO The Guru says Salt’s Cure makes a great BLT [LAW]
• WEST L.A. “Big Fat Pita” is coming to the Westfield Mall [Grub Street]

The brand new “Shrimp Pimp” truck showed up in Westwood on Tuesday (Glendon & Wilshire) and Lunch’er Sarah, who tried the shrimp po’boy, sent this photo and report to let us know how good it was.

“Not a traditional po-boy because it had no pickles and a spicy remolaude instead of mayo and also mesculen instead of iceberg – but the shrimp were huge and delicious. They also offered cevice and handmade French fries which were also delicious.”

New truck + the name “Shrimp Pimp” = automatic eye roll (I’ll refer you to the first paragraph of yesterday’s post.) On the other hand, I do like the sound of shrimp and chips. Supposedly the truck will be parked in front of Hulu today (on Olympic just West of Bundy) and according to Sarah they’ll be trying to park in Westwood every Monday. You can track them (naturally) on Twitter. Got a lunch you want to share? Email it to me at zach@midtownlunch.com

Yesterday Eater reported that Pasadena’s Slaw Dogs was scouting locations for a second branch.  Might we suggest anywhere between Downtown L.A. and Santa Monica!  Slaw Dogs might not have been the SoCal version of Hot Doug’s I was hoping for, but I did enjoy their Thai Slaw Dog (and it’s one of the few ways you’ll see me eating that much “salad” during lunch!)

Check it out after the jump…

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Oh food trucks… you are everything I love and hate about lunchtime in Los Angeles.  I love you, because you bring fun and interesting food to my neighborhood every day, saving me from another visit to [insert boring fast food chain near you office here].  You get me outside, and interacting with people on the street.  You make my lame co-workers willing to eat a less than healthy lunch they would otherwise balk at (“Korean buffet?  Meh… Kogi is outside?  Let’s do it!”)   But there are a lot of you. And not all of you are good.  And sometimes you are hard to find.  And you have made me hate the words “fusion tacos” and “seasoned fries”.  And most of you take too long.  (Isn’t street food supposed to be fast?)  And some of your concepts are ridiculous, and not well thought out.  And if it wasn’t for you I could probably get away with pretending Twitter doesn’t exist.  Did I mention there are too many of you?

Clearly my relationship with food trucks is complicated, but my fat stomach was still pretty excited to move to L.A. and be unleashed into the wild street food scene.  When I first got here, Kogi was already on my radar (I don’t live under a rock), but beyond that I didn’t quite know where to start.  Thankfully (?) a few names kept popping up over and over again.  Grilled Cheese Truck (how could that be bad?), Cool Haus (I like ice cream sandwiches!), India Jones, Komodo… and of course, The Buttermilk Truck, which for some reason I kind of brushed off.  (Here’s where I admit I’m an idiot.)  For some reason the whole “buttermilk” thing didn’t register with me.  Buttermilk pancakes?  Buttermilk biscuits?  It didn’t click (I think I thought it was dessert or something?) until I heard the words fried chicken and waffles.

I want to go to there.

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This is not a mirage people. This was the scene about 30 minutes ago at the Tuesday Food Truck Lot near LAX, on 98th Street behind 5985 Century Blvd. (which is totally amazing btw!) And that, in the foreground, is the infamous, rarely seen in public, Ludo Fried Chicken Truck with absolutely no line. To be completely honest, they were getting the food out lightning fast and by the time I got there shortly after 1pm they had run out of their signature fried chicken balls (and slaw), but there was still the brand spanking new honey garlic glazed chicken wings and buttermilk fried chicken finger strips, plus biscuits. I would have expected them to be slammed until the very last morsel of crispy chicken goodness had been sold.

Presumably today’s lunch was a little test run for this Friday night, when the truck will be parked Downtown for the last night of Ludo Bites 5.0 at Gram & Papa’s. I can 100% guarantee this scene will not be repeated…

Related:
Ludo Parisian Sandwich Now Available at Gram & Papa’s

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 Julie, a freelance writer who is looking for some good Asian food without having to drive to the SGV…

Name: Julie

Age: 42

Occupation: Freelance writer (Cool Hunting, Official Guide LA, IGN… and I am the Lifestyle Editor at LAist) and arts educator

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Home office, out and about covering stories, and I teach classes for the Virginia Avenue Project at the Police Activities League in Santa Monica

Favorite Kind of Food: Japanese

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Giant nondescript salads covered in bland chicken breast slices

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Falafel at Pita Bar & Grill (519 N Fairfax Ave), burgers at Golden State (426 N Fairfax Ave), shrimp tacos at Loteria (in the Farmer’s Market), simmered pork and shiba ebi at Ita-Cho (7311 Beverly Blvd), salads & soup at Cube (615 N La Brea Ave), salami and manchego sandwiches at Larchmont Village Wine (223 N Larchmont Blvd), pureed fennel soup at Cafe Midi (148 S La Brea Ave), Morning Glory salad at Jitlada (5233 W Sunset Blvd), and The Corner Place (2819 James M Wood Blvd, Koreatown) for BBQ and cold noodles. Some days for a splurge I go to Angelini Osteria (7313 Beverly Blvd) for nona’s lasagna and octopus salad or have pizza and sweets at Mozza (641 N Highland Ave). The days I have meetings downtown I love the Brazilian plate with fish at Wood Spoon (107 W 9th St), sushi at Sushi Gen (422 E 2nd St), and everything on the menu at Starry Kitchen (350 S. Grand). Lately my favorite ultimate splurge lunch spot is having crudo, pasta, and salads at Culina (300 South Doheny Drive) in Beverly Hills. For the days I work in Santa Monica, my classroom is across the street from a Tacos Por Favor (1406 Olympic Blvd).

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