Midtown Lunch

Photo courtesy of Deep End Dining

• MOBILE Cool Haus’ bacon/brown butter ice cream is *amazing* [Deep End Dining]
• KOREATOWN Authentic Thai food in K’town!? I’m intrigued. [Squid Ink]
• PASADENA Lunch at the new Intelligentsia looks pretty good [Mattatouille]
• BEVERLY You can get liege waffles at Shaky Alibi [Squid Ink]
• STUDIO CITY Even the chicken ramen at Jinya is good [Savory Hunter]
• MOBILE SaMo has approved a permit for temporary food truck lots [SM Daily Press]
• MOBILE L.A.’s 1st Kosher taco truck rolls out on Monday [Squid Ink]
• VIDEO Lord help me, I’m not an attractive man [Eater LA]

I have a confession to make.  When I first moved here from New York back in February I was completely overwhelmed by the street food scene here.  NYC has its fair share of new school trucks, and Midtown Lunch has enthusiastically covered them since their numbers began to explode back in 2007.  But what’s going on in Midtown is nothing compared to the scene here in Los Angeles.  As everybody knows, it’s far from easy to vend here… but if you can believe it, it’s even harder in New York.  Licenses are hard to come by, and permits are capped, so the waiting list to legally open a food truck in any of the five boroughs is a mile long. Don’t believe me?  Kogi, arguably the most successful street vending operation to date, looked into opening in NYC and decided it was too difficult.  Here, parking might be tough in some high density areas, but renting a truck is super easy (there is no Road Stoves equivalent in NYC) and there are no caps placed on permits so there is no limit to the number of new trucks that can (and have) hit the streets here in L.A.

The Flying Pig Truck, which will be one year old in October, is one of those trucks that I would have been super excited about had it opened in Midtown.  Or if I had been living in L.A. when it first hit the streets.  On one hand the choice between pork and anything else is no choice at all for this (lower case) jew.  On the other hand, Asian tacos and Asian sliders are not as exactly the ground breaking menu item they once were here in SoCal.   And then I read this blog post a few weeks ago, saying their pork buns were “ripped from the Momofuku playbook”.

Well, that’s all I needed to hear.

Read more »

Westwood has no shortage of teriyaki.  Whether it’s for the office workers on Wilshire, or the students of UCLA, if you want some cheap chicken covered in a sweet and goopy Japanese(ish) sauce, you are totally in luck in this part of town.  San Sai and California Teriyaki Bowl are the most visible in the heart of Westwood Village, but for the old school anti-chain hole in the wall Midtown Lunch seekers there is only one option: Sak’s Teriyaki!  I first heard of this place back in April, when Lunch’er Steve recommended it as not great, but “a great Midtown Lunch”.

I finally made it to Sak’s yesterday, and I don’t know if it was the low expectations or what- but great is precisely the word I would choose to describe it!

Read more »

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 Heather, a video game archivist (hello dream job!!!) who hates fake food.

Name: Heather

Age: Really? I thought you were a gentleman.

Occupation: Creative Development Historian (Archivist)

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Activision, 31st & Ocean Park in Santa Monica

Favorite Kind of Food: Fresh. I can’t commit to any particular cuisine, but noted that most of my favorites are only edible when fresh. Caprese salad, Sushi, New England Clam Bake (lobsters, clams, corn on the cob- best if everything was in its natural habitat of field or sea when the sun rose that day), Grass fed burgers w garden tomatoes, Farm Fresh eggs in a crepe with ham & cheese.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything that requires a loophole legal term gives me the creeps: “cheese product”, “juice drink” “chicken by-product” “frozen dairy desert”

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Border Grill Food Truck (Check twitter for location): They don’t come by often enough! Cerviche from a truck?!?! I know…this is the only truck I trust for that & it is awesome. The tacos are divine. Mrs. Winston’s (3150 Ocean Park Blvd): I was blown away the first time I saw their salad bar- it is extensive, fresh and clean. This isn’t your NYC bodega salad bar (no ambrosia, no mayo carrot salad, no bugs). You pay for what you get however- even careful salad artists can easily spend $12-$15. It is nearly impossible to spend less than $7. Zabies (3003 Ocean Park Blvd): Steak salad, chicken chopped salad, homemade soups. Takeout is recommended- their service sometimes makes me angry. The Counter: Build-a-Burger with sweet potato and shoe string fries (fav burger: swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions on a bed of mixed greens.)

Read more »

It’s official… my new favorite thing about Los Angeles (and more specifically L.A. over NYC) is Thai boat noodles.  I can’t say for sure if there are or aren’t “boat noodles” in New York City (I’m guessing you can get them somewhere) but it isn’t like it is here.  Here, boat noodles are a thing. And like most regional specialties in L.A. (be it Thai or whatever) there are quite a few restaurants that specialize in this one dish.  For those of you who have never tried boat noodles (aka me, three weeks ago) it’s a beef noodle soup that got its name from being served off of boats in the rivers and canals of Thailand.  It is traditionally made with bits of beef, liver, tripe, and whatever else is on hand… but for those of you who aren’t into the offal, most restaurants in L.A. have a version that’s just pieces of plain old beef.  The one thing they can’t go easy on (or else it wouldn’t really be boat noodles) is…brace yourself… the blood.  (Please don’t stop reading.)

That’s right.  The not-so-secret ingredient in boat noodles is blood- but now that I’ve told you that, I want you to completely forget you ever knew it.  Because if nobody told you about the blood, and pushed this sweet and sour, savory and spicy soup in front of you and told you to drink, you’d love it. And why should a little blood get in the way of you tasting one of the best foodstuffs ever. I guarantee you will love it.  Well, maybe you wouldn’t love every version.  But some boat noodles are… let’s say… easier than others.  So the trick is to find the bowl that is right for you.

And if you thought department of health ratings or willingness to accept credit cards is a factor, it isn’t. They all get Bs and none of them take plastic.

Read more »