Bell’s. Maybe the best QPR in the state? Probably worth a straight up drive to and from LA.
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Carasau in Culver City. Nice local Sardinian focused food - saw some of you posted about this place in an old thread - thanks for the rec!
Did a pick up from Sexy Beans. Agree with the positive recs - only quibble is that the meat is over cooked, likely due to carryover cooking, but it still stays juicy and doesn’t develop the livery flavor so no complains.
Needle - new orange chicken and pork jowl char siu. This is possibly my favorite version of their char siu. The right amount of meaty taste coupled with a decadent amount of marbeling.
Wife let’s me drive all around the city picking up food as long as I grab some of the addictive green curry from Holy Basil.
A kakigori popup at Wanderlust in Venice - using Kuramoto ice for the shaved ice. Drool worthy!
A couple of my favorite pieces from SGO - this time I enjoyed the nigiri more than the appetizers
Everything lox Danish from Rockenwagner - like a lox bagel expert on a buttery pastry - much more decadent
Finally got to try the excellent dry aged duck at Charcoal. Also pictured is the perfectly executed dry aged rib eye. This is a great carnivore palace on the west side.
First time trying Prime pizza at the new location in Santa Monica. Agree with y’all - these are really legit slices. Papery thing crunchy crust with just enough chewiness.
Fully stocked bacon bar at WF in Playa Vista.
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Holy crap.
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Fried sardines are great here.
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I thought about leaving out the location info when writing the post.
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Is this the place?
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Yes
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SUMMAVICH! I keep forgetting about the smoke house area in the back there. Last time I was there in the morning I ran to the food bar area and it was completely empty. I cried and then grabbed a pre-packaged wrap.
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Muelle 3, Ensenada
House ceviche
Fish of the day (yellowtail)
Mussels
Octopus
Seafood pasta
Shrimps
Beer
Dessert
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Yeah like that would keep me from sniffing it out.
Yeah, no doubt. I am indeed the Jew that loves pork. We used to say that was a Jewish dilemma, pork on sale.
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What is the dessert??? Something like a Mexican pancake?
Love Bells, Great lunch too.
Massive Backlog Post Incoming - Posting notable highlights From April → Now
April
Sushi kaneyoshi
Cherry Smoked chutoro & otoro w/ shiso buds & shiso sauce.
Refreshing, rich, delicious. I believe Bar Sawa serves this on their menu too
Chopped Firefly Squid
Different than other preparations I’ve had where the firefly squid were served whole. This gave a much more integrated flavor, kind of reminiscent of a really taste pate. Meaty, tad metallic [kind of like how metallic liver could be] and just an awesome bite.
Anago
Masterfully cooked, tender and fluffy, kind of like the texture of really tasty mashed potatoes. Clean eel flavor, not too much tare but enough to season. Big fan
Sun Nong Dan
Morning Special 13.99 before tip and tax before 10:30 am
The breakfast of champions, reliably tasty and massive portions for the price. Definitely recommend this and other sulluntang specialists in Ktown for an early savory breakfast.
Pizzeria Sei
Of course, I had to follow the food media meta and get a taste for how great this pizza was. I really love it!
napoletana
funghi
DX Lab
Sweet & Spicy Thick Noodles $9.99
Thick, udon-like chewy borderline undercooked served in this awesome chili oil sesame paste sauce with sichuanese spices. Super flavorful, little sweet, little garlicky, super fragrant with chilis.
Boneless Bang Bang Chicken $14.99 - really competent version.
Dan Dan #4 $11.99
Flat-wide like chowfun [but actually wheat noodles]. Chewy as hell, and slightly slick. Wonderful mouthfeel after mixing
Weekender Trip to San Francisco
Mandalay Burmese Restaurant - Richmond District, San Francisco
Mango Chicken $17.95
Deep fried chicken w/ fresh mangos, onions and jalapenos, curry powder, cumin and a touch of coconut. Goes amazing with their coconut rice.
Lucinda’s Deli, Alamo Square San Francisco
Hot Ham $16.25 Aged cheddar pimento, garlic confit mayo, grated horseradish, pickled onion & cucumber, tomato, arugula. Love every sandwich here, almost always stop here when I’m in town.
May
Chill Sons Popup @ Melody Wine Bar
One of the most inspired meals i’ve had in a long time. Loved everything about this popup and really hopeful they do more in the near future! Look out for these guys
Shrimp and Scallop toast
Shokupan, Shrimp & scallop, XO aioli, Cured pork. Paired incredibly with the Bichi Pet Mex.
Handpulled Cavatelli
-Cumin lamb and beef, Pickled pepper, Tomato XO, Asparagus
Needle Siu Yeh Menu
Walnut Shrimp - awesome - light & crispy, definitely among the better/best walnut shrimp I’ve had
Pork Jowl Char Siu - needs no introduction
JUNE
1 Week in NYC
LittleMad, NoMad Manhattan
Overall quality of execution was great, some good ideas, not the most emotionally resonant meal with me. Still worth checking out!
Beef Tartare | Yukhwe - Maesangi seaweed chip, perilla leaf, egg gel and smoked cream. Awesome, the seaweed/tapioica has a certain stick-to-your-molars quality to it that I’m kind of into. Also getting to use the gavel to break up the cracker was fun
Close Up
Mad Toast - Wagyu, Caviar, Black Truffle, Korean Egg Salad, Milk Toast
Conceptually indulgent and fun, but the caviar was imperceptible to me; I could see it but I couldn’t taste it.
Fried Squash Blosoms Stuffed w/ Jeon Chicken Filling + Shaved Squash w/ Stracciatella & Basil(?) Oil Fantastic! Eating the center components tastes really italian, eating the fried squash blossoms taste korean. Together? Some fascinating third-culture korean x italian x American fusion that I really appreciated
Fried Buhsul | Fried Maitake, Sour Onion Cream TBH couldve been a little more sour/tart. It just tasted like a sweet onion cream, which was good! but didn’t really cut/offset the fried mushrooms. The fried maitake was fantastic, substantial and hefty like a good fried chicken, yet maintaining and incredible maitake aroma underneath. Shame the sauce wasn’t more acidic
Mushroom Rice | Bone Marrow, Sesame Leaf, pearl onions, pickled mul radish, maitake, oyster, and king trumpet mushrooms Awesome dish - incredible deep rich mushroom flavor, springry, crunchy, soft, squishy experience. The bone marrow providing that iconic sweetness and richness. My only complaint is the rice itself didn’t have a crispy element ala nurungji/socarrat. I’ve never been to Majordomo, but they also have a mushroom rice, and I think the two kitchens ought to borrow ideas from each other. I believe the head chefs are Momofuku alumn, too!
YunShang Rice Noodles, Chinatown Manhattan NY
This seems to be a chain with locations in Vancouver, Toronto, but I stumbled into this place irresponsibly drunk at 4am hoping a comforting soup would save my morning after. Specializing in Yuunan Crossing-River Soup, this place opens till 5am and is IMO the ultimate late night post-drinking food if your plans out are in Lower East Side.
Shredded Tripe in Chili Sauce Chinese celery, an incredible mala sauce that tastes like pure electricity, and a medley of different intestines that are decently clean! It’s spicy, its chewy, its crunchy and honestly one of the greatest drunk bites I’ve ever had.
Rice Noodlew/ Mixed Mushrooms[oyster, king trumpet and button], add-in tilapia & fish ball sausages
Having this broth for the first time was an emotional experience LOL. Its a rich pork-based broth that’s almost like a proper tonkotsu. Yet, there’s so much Chinese sauerkraut to provide the necessary brightness to keep this broth being one of the most addicting things I’ve tasted in a while.
This isn’t even factoring in the incredibly fun experience of charging up your tongue with mala from the marinated tripe, THEN taking a sip of the broth. A certain sweetness is brought out more and it’s such an experience that feels alive.
Ugly Baby, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn NY
Unapologetically spicy and funky, this thai restaurant requires that you make a reservation through Tock, and pre-pay/pre select your food for your reservation slot. I think the menu does a great job of warning you what items are spicy or fermented/funky for anyone who is still interested in trying this place. I’m copying the menu’s description of the food below:
Laab Ped Udon | $22 | Stay-away spicy Udon Thani’s duck salad Brutally Spicy!!!
This duck is funky, its sour, its stupid spicy. Like, your fingers will tingle, your scalp will get itchy, and you’re slightly having an out of body experience. Great flavor from the toasted rice powder, and honestly love the vegetables to help cool you down–especially as a counterpoint for some of the other dishes we had.
Khoong Muk Kai Kem | $25 Shrimp, squid & salted egg yolk, white pepper
Eye-rollingly good with rice. To me, it tastes like Maggi sauce x Oyster Sauce x Saled Eggs, and it’s a creamy umami masterpiece that’s perfumed with white pepper, crunchy onions, and springy good seafood. I would come back just for this dish.
Hor Mok Pu | $30 | Grilled Banana Leaf Wrapped Crab Meat Curry Custard. Southern Style. Gluten Free.
This is the first time trying this dish, and my impression of it was a red curry omelette stuffed with great crab meat. I wish I could taste more of the coconut cream on top, but it did nothing for me. This was good not great to me.
Pad Cha Pla Duk | $35 | 2 cups of catfish & 1 cup of Thai chili stir-fry Brutally Spicy!!!
This catfish was insanely succulent, and some pieces were incredibly QQ/chewy like what boba is like, perhaps in part due to a very gelatinous skin and fat layer. This is a dish you definitely need rice with. While I like this dish, I personally prefer the flavors of other Thai catfish dishes, such as the Fried Catfish Curry @ Pa-Ord in Hollywood.
Katz’s Pastrami, Lower East Side NY
It was fine, great pastrami quality, terrible bread and terrible sandwich in terms of construction. Langers >>>> Kat’z IMO
Scarr’s Pizza, Lower East Side NY
Definitely ABOVE average pizza, but I think it’s a little overhyped. In fact, I think NY pizza overall is super overhyped. LA’s pizza scene is pretty great.
Ramen Ishida, Lower East Side
New Tokyo Style Shōyu Ramen $19
- Soup: Chicken, Truffle, Porcini
- Noodles: Thin Flour Noodles
- Topping: Chāshū Pork, Chicken Breast,
Bamboo Shoot, Shiso, Egg, Truffles paste
Honestly pretty good. Truffle gives it a mini-Tsuta vibe, but that’s the extent of their similarities. The broth is well-done and super deep with umami. I really appreciate the shiso leaf being an awesome citriusy-herby counterbalance to the heaviness.
I tried some of my friend’s Shio Ramen w/ Yuzu, and would probably get that next time.
Di An Di, Greenpoint Brooklyn NY
Nam Cuon $28 | Sizzling five-spice mushrooms w/ okra, onion, bell peppers, cheese with fermented tofu & sate sauce.
This was freaking incredible. You take pre-cut ricepaper rectangles that soften up from the moisture of the contents you intend to wrap, a stark contrast from the places I’ve visited w/ family where there’s a dedicated water vessel to hydrate each ricepaper sheet.
The result is a rice paper that’s thin enough to break through with your teeth and provide a nice crispy element that I haven’t experienced pleasantly before, everything on the skillet is just an umami delivery system with a delightful creaminess. Definitely order this!
Cha Ca la Vong $34 | Smoked turmeric hake
A massive portion [lol doesn’t look like it] that was was split among 3 people. Incredibly competent and I dare say one of the best versions I’ve ever had. Better than most places in Little Saigon, but not by a big margin. It’s repackaged for an accessible audience, and it does a great job of representing the dish.
Pho Ga $20 | Chicken Pho
Just a really competent Northern style pho with awesome slick wide rice noodles. Very very clean taste, but what makes this pho extraordinary are the house sauces Di An Di makes – a housemade chili sauce and a cilantro chutney-like sauce. Adding the cilantro sauce to this pho broth just brought the acid, fragrance, and umami to make an already very competent pho ga go over the edge.
JULY
Osen Izakaya, Silverlake Los Angeles
Premium Chirashi Bowl - $70
Have heard about this spot for years but finally got the chance to try. Really love this place! I think this is probably my now go-to midrange sushi spot. Their aji/hikarimono are also extremely competent, extremely meaty without any unpleasant fishiness! Superb
626 Night Market
Morbid curiosity got the best of me, but some of the food here is the lowest effort I’ve ever seen. These pho tacos, for example were $10 and just tasted like braised brisket with store-bought hoisin sauce, bean sprouts and onions. Like it tastes ~good~ but tastes soooo low effort.
106 Seafood Underground - FTC Meetup, Inglewood Los Angeles
Was fun to meet with a few FTC’ers on my side of the long table, and trading a ton of different places to try out.
Chicharron De Pescado - crispy, slightly crunchy on the outside, but super fluffy-tender on the inside. Incredible contrast w/ the green mangos and onions dressed in lime juice
Smoked marlin Taco - Cheesy, smokey, meaty, reminds me of an awesome pepperoni hot pocket in a good way
MDK Noodles, Koreatown
Spicy Chicken Kalguksu
Still reliably good, noodles a touch overcooked today, kimchi feels less garlicky. Will check out other kalguksu specialists next time
Bee Taqueria Culver City Los Angeles
From Left to Right
Tinga Betabel $5 | Beets, onions, chile morita, queso fresco, tomato, avocado salsa, cilantro
Super yummy, the beets were braised down and lacked any of the crunch a less cooked beat might have. It was sweet, saucy, and an awesome interplay of sweet, spicy, creamy, sour, fresh, and slow cooked. Would get this next time.
Arrachera Asada $6 | skirt steak, avocado pipicha salsa
Awesome, this was a table favorite. Everyone who ordered this loved it, and some ordered seconds. The beef was nowhere as smokey as other taquerias, but what it lacked caramelization it made up for in texture. The steak was delightfully tender, slight bounce on first contact, but quickly breaks to reveal a classic steak flavor. Great balance with the salsa
Cochinito $6 | slow braised pork, onions, jalapeno, cilantro, serrano sauce
This was good, tender pork, and everything tasted high quality. However, not emotional of an experience vs Zamora Bros/Chichen Itza/Carnitas el Momo.
Media Luna [photo stolen from LATimes] $6 | crispy taco, shrimp, scallops, morita aioli, shrimp consumme
I didn’t try this, but others at the table really enjoyed this. The taco is in the same category as Marisco Jalisco’s: deep fried shrimp and mayo taco, but that’s where their similarities end. This has the addition of scallops, a morita chili sauce on top, and served with an incredibly rich shrimp consumme to dip in. One of their standouts
Ceviche Frito & Chilaquiles
The chilaquiles was good, nice crispy fried chips soggy crispy whenever I needed it. However, it did feel overseasoned. Not bad, but probably wouldn’t order again unless I’ve had a dry spell of chilaquiles and got this out of convenience.
The ceviche was absurdly overseasoned and almost outright inedible. Luckily, it was only the leche di tigre/brine. In my mind, I chose this over the tostada because i assumed that for $3 more, I would get a lot more fish. Consider me surprised when a dining partner got the tostada and got 2-3x as much fish as I did that also weren’t swimming in an oversalted mess. Get the tostada instead
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“Hey man cilantro is used for both tacos and pho, think we should add some here?”
“Nah fam it’s good send it.”
Thx for the pics. Katz never changes.
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Its food like this that makes me appreciate the higher effort products, documented as a humbling experience
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Mandalay was always better than Burma Superstar, which got all the attention despite cluttering up their menu with way too many nothing-special Indian and Chinese dishes.
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this is what we’ve been telling people to try…it’s no dip rice paper and we’ve only recently seen it in the supermarkets at the SGV. But it’s what it’s used in VN. You describe the difference perfectly. 5 stars Hue in Alhambra has it with their nem lui platter.
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