Midtown Lunch

Ever since visiting Thailand back in 2007 I’ve been on a futile quest to recapture some of the great meals I had there, minus the expensive plane ticket.  Pad thai from a street cart in Bangkok, khao soi from a night market in Chiang Mai, rice noodle soup from a shack in Phitsanluk (oh, how I miss you legs hanging rice noodles.)  So back in July when The Guru called Siam Sunset, a coffee shop looking restaurant connected to an America’s Best Value Inn,  the Thai-est Thai restaurant in Thai-Town I was instantly interested.  He described it as being the cafe you’d find around the corner from your apartment in Bangkok, but the thing that got me most excited by the review was the fact that they have a menu of specials for just $3.95.  That’s right.  4 bucks!

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Oh Peruvian food I love you so much.  You are one of my favorite things about Los Angeles, but finding a Midtown Lunch version of you has been very difficult. I got a number of good recommendations in the comments of this post, but sadly none of them really qualify. Lomo Arigato makes a decent lomo saltado, but the portion is small and sometimes you don’t want to chase after a food truck. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mo Chica is easily the most interesting, and expertly made Peruvian food in L.A., and their food court location allows for it to be a huge bargain. But as cheap as it for what you get- you will not find a better ceviche in this city for the price- it’s not really a Midtown Lunch (everything is over $10).  And their lomo saltado, as delicious as it is, is a bit fancified for me (I like the french fries sauteed in with the meat, tomatoes and onions.)  For the Chinese influenced, soy sauce laced saltado, Mario’s Peruvian has always been my go-to choice.  But their version of the dish is over $10 as well!  And it seems as if most Peruvian places have followed suit.  Inti Peruvian on Melrose, Natalie Peruvian in Thai Town, Los Balcones on Vine… all charge $10 or more for their lomo saltado.

So you can imagine how excited I was to discover a $7 (!?!) lomo saltado lunch special at El Dorado, a fast food Peruvian restaurant just north of Mario’s on Vine.

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When I first read that there was a Chilean bakery serving sandwiches on Melrose in East Hollywood I got pretty excited.  Ever since visiting Chile in 2008 I’ve been a big fan of their food.  Mote con huesillos, chorrillana (steak and egg topped french fries), their sandwiches (churrasco FTW!) and their egg and olive filled empanadas de pino will forever be embedded in that part of my brain where good things are stored.  After a bigtime lunch fail a couple of months ago (they’re one of those places that are closed on Mondays!) I finally made it over to Rincon Chileno to see if their sandwiches and empanadas would live up to my fond memories of Chile.

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For fancified Israeli falafel, you could do a lot worse than Pita Bar & Grill on Fairfax, and for a cheap, no frills, good if you’re-starving-and-in-college-on-the-west-side falafel, Hungry Pocket is your spot.  But what about some authentic Lebanese falafel action?  For that, all signs pointed to Falafel Arax in Hollywood, the next stop on my quest to find LA’s best falafel.  Situated right next to Spicy BBQ in Thai Town (on Santa Monica and Normandie), my first Falafel Arax recommendation came in the comments courtesy of Lunch’er Katherine, and since then a bunch more people have mentioned that it could be the best falafel in all of L.A. (most agree it’s the best in Hollywood.)  Clearly it was time to check it out.

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**Since this post was originally published, Mozza2Go has begun to offer these specials daily**

I don’t know if there are many absolute food truths in this world, but one that is seemingly undeniable is that Nancy Silverton is an L.A. food goddess. And nowhere is that more evident than at Pizzeria Mozza. Minor quibbles aside (some people just have to be contrarian!), the place is awesome… so much so, I’ve been back more than once. (Which is saying a lot considering how much catching up I have to do since moving back to L.A. from NYC at the beginning of the year after 4+ years away.) Obviously the place isn’t a Midtown Lunch, but when Mozza To Go opened up around the corner it didn’t give me hope that maybe- just maybe- we could squeeze a $10 lunch item out of the Mozza empire. Sadly on their whole menu of pizzas and sandwiches (sorry, I think of salads as an appetizer not a lunch!) only one thing qualifies: the $10 tomato pizza with oregano and extra virgin olive oil. I’m guessing that means no cheese, right? A cheese-less pizza? (*sigh*) Can Midtown Lunch really endorse this?

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Last month I indulged my new-found craving for Thai boat noodles by embarking on an epic crawl across Hollywood’s Thai Town.  My goal? To help people determine which boat noodle soup was right for them based on personal taste.  The conclusion?  After 9 bowl of boat noodles, eaten at 5 different restaurants, in less than two weeks, I could conclusively say that… I probably wouldn’t need to eat boat noodles again for a long time!  Or so I thought. I’ve been finding it hard to stay away from Sapp Coffee Shop since then… the bare bones boat noodle spot on Hollywood Blvd. that was featured on No Reservations and comes highly recommended by The Guru.  And yet, it’s not the boat noodles that keep bringing me back (even though their version is arguably the best.)  It’s actually the rest of the stuff on the menu that has me going back to Sapp again and again.

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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.

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