Midtown Lunch

A few days ago the President visited Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles on Pico, and as excited I was to see him getting his fried chicken and waffle on at one of L.A.’s food institutions, I was pretty disappointed in his order.  The Country Boy: 3 wings w/ your choice of a waffle, potato salad or fries (though one only assumes that waffle is chosen 100% of the time.)  I can be disappointed because this was actually my go-to order at Roscoe’s for my first I don’t know how many visits.  The appeal is obvious.  At $8.90 it’s one of the cheaper chicken and waffle combos available, and one cannot downplay the mental importance of getting 3 pieces of chicken instead of 1 or 2 (even though they are the smallest pieces you can get.)  There’s only one problem.  The chicken wings at Roscoe’s are terrible… and this is speaking as somebody who loves fried chicken wings.  If you have been to Roscoe’s and only had their chicken wings, you cannot judge Roscoe’s.  I don’t know if it’s the shorter cooking time, or what, but the wings at Roscoe’s just don’t taste as good as the other 3 pieces of chicken. And it’s not just the actual chicken itself.  It’s the crust too.  The crust on the wings isn’t as salty and peppery and just plain delicious as the other pieces of chicken.

Don’t believe me?  Do the side by side taste test, and you’ll be convinced.  I’ve wasted two meals on chicken wings just to prove my thesis, and I will not make that mistake again.  But if only my obsessive Roscoe’s menu dissection ended there…

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I don’t know what it is about fried chicken and waffle that gets me so excited- oh, who am I kidding.  Of course I know what it is.  It’s the excuse to pour maple syrup over a piece of fried chicken (and enjoy it with a waffle!)  Now, I know what you’re thinking.  “But Zach, you are a fat bastard.  Isn’t that excuse enough to pour maple syrup over your fried chicken, waffle or no waffle.”  Yes.  I suppose it is.  But doing it in a sanctioned environment somehow makes me feel better about myself.

So when I heard that Waffle Chix, a new fried chicken and waffle place, had opened in Westwood I figured I’d take one for team and go check it out.  You know… for you guys.

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Which one of these do you think is in Culver City?

There’s no question that you lose a little bit of Compton magic going to the Culver City location of Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken.  For one thing the ambiance is… well… very Culver City’ish.  (The new Culver City that is.) The original is sparse and kind of dirty looking, just what you would want from a good ole fried chicken shack. The CC location is… well… very Culver City’ish.  In Compton you can get two thighs, two biscuits, and two orders of pickles for $5 in a basket lined with red and white checkered picnic table cloth patterned paper.  No such luck in Culver City, where the picnic table cloth paper seems a bit more like a kitchy design decision.  On the other hand, Culver City has a fried chicken sandwich.  Compton does not.

But one thing is for sure, the chicken has the same super thick, super crunchy, super tasty crust at both locations. And the honey tastes just as sweet.  And the fact that the Culver City location is right around the corner from where I live (and work) kind of makes the “where to lunch?” decision an easy one.

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There is not much I can say about the infamous Chef Ludo that you couldn’t read in the L.A. Times or the New York Times or the L.A. Weekly, or in the millions of blog posts that have been written about him. But I will say this- the prospect of an under $10 Ludo lunch is especially exciting to me. When he introduced his ham and cheese sandwich at Gram & Papa’s downtown I got a little giddy…  but ham and cheese is child’s play compared to fried chicken. So once it was announced that Ludo would be taking his famous fried chicken to the streets permanently, the official stalking began.

There have been sporadic sightings over the past few months (like the one a few weeks ago at the Tuesday only LAX food truck lot) but lately it feels like they’re finally gearing up for an official launch.  They’ve even posted a schedule to their Facebook page and a menu to their MobiMunch page, so when I saw they were going to be parked on the westside for lunch yesterday I had to go check it out. (Fat man likey fried chicken.)

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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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Oh man, do I love Korean fried chicken.  I mean, how could I not?  (How could anybody not for that matter?)  I love fried chicken.  I love Korean food.  Dip one into the other, and voila.  Food magic!  And while there are plenty of versions to sample these days, there are still two major chains that can’t be ignored:  Bon Chon & Kyochon.  Midtown NYC got a Bon Chon a few weeks before I moved to L.A., but I never got to try Kyochon (their Midtown location is still under construction.)  Contrary to what some back East might think, I didn’t move to L.A. specifically so I could eat at Kyochon, but it sure is a nice bonus!

Hello Koreatown lunch…

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