happy july
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You had these this morning?
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dreamt about them
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No pics, but someone brought a bag of bagels from Beverly Hills Bagels today. Never heard of this place, but the bagels are actually pretty good. A bit softer than I think is ideal, but they still have a pretty darn good chew. It’s like an elevated version of an “old fashioned” bagel.
Now I’m reading on Yelp that this place is insanely expensive. That’s too bad. 
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First visit to Birdie G’s tonight:
Cornbread, cesar, rice-flour coated mushrooms, grilled striped bass (the last two items differ from what is shown on the website’s menu). 2 non-alcoholic drinks.
This was a very weird experience. The cornbread was oddly soft (like almost flaccid) but tasty enough. The corn-shaped bread and butter was a nice touch, though.
The cesar, again, tasty but not exceptional.
The mushrooms were incredibly bland in flavor. As in, they looked like potatoes and had no discernible mushroom flavor. The mushrooms themselves were also very springy and bouncy.
The fish itself didn’t have much flavor, the tomato was actually quite unpleasant (I thought it was both bitter and lacking in tomato flavor; partner will only say that it was “odd”). The sauce had a hint of corn flavor, but it tasted like multiple ingredients all dialed in at a medium intensity (so there wasn’t really an over-arching flavor).
Partner thought my drink was pretty medicinal; I thought his had a bit of an odd (and not entirely welcome) funk.
The experience was weird b/c the ingredients seemed to be of excellent quality, and the preparation/technique (the little I understand and can discern of that) also seemed very good (eg., fish well cooked, good fry on the mushrooms). But the calibration of flavors in the mushrooms and fish was really, really off (to our taste). And the other two dishes weren’t amazing.
B/c of the high ingredient quality and technique, we assumed that the food was meant to taste the way that it did. And I could understand why the dishes are as expensive as they were. But we couldn’t understand why you’d want food to taste the way that the mushrooms and fish dishes did (particularly that tomato, which was bordering on genuinely unpleasant).
Really disappointed b/c I had been wanting to come here for awhile.
Service was very good.
I went to Ruben’s taco truck afterward b/c, while relatively full, I didn’t feel satisfied.
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Been wanting to do something like a side-by-side for a while now of Tire Shop Taqueria and Tacos Los Poblanos.
The operation at Tire Shop is intense. Line of about twenty people when we showed up. From queuing to first bite was maybe twelve minutes. Two tacos al pastor, two carne asada. This might be my favorite taco in LA. Bright and vivid acid from the salsas, smoke and char and chew from the meats, warm earthy masa. The atmosphere was buzzy, lots of families, couples, and a bunch of tourists. Four tacos for $12.
Farther down Avalon at the southwest corner of Slauson. Tacos Los Poblanos. My first time here. Similar TJ style setup with a focus on grilled meats and al pastor. I think the tortillas here were more substantial, I liked the chew more, and the heft gave me more latitude with the taco. The meats may have been a little over seasoned. I got a few very salty bites, and a little more gristle in the asada. The atmosphere was less inviting. More subdued. Less buzz. No tourists. Four tacos, $12.
Two great taquerias.
Then we went to Canter’s and split a hot corned beef. $30 with tax & tip.
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new here and was hoping to use my one time and post some enjoyable meals from the last ~45 days
Jambo Hanare, Tokyo
Beef skewers and misuji
Sushi Sakai, Fukuoka
Gold tabelog sushi, wonderful experience
Horse Mackerel from Hirado, Negitoro (minced tuna with green onion), Katsuo Heart from Nichinan Grilled with straw and then marinated .. other dishes to note: the anko (monkfish liver), the simmered clam, and all nigiri was exceptional. Also, they have a sommelier which is worth taking advantage of – red burgundy with tuna pairing.
Sojiki Nakahigashi, Kyoto
A season’s greetings to start the meal – the king of sustainability, Hisao Nakahigashi, was there running the show but he is transitioning the restaurant to his son so it is rarer these days to see him. Here we have a bamboo leaf wrapped mackerel sushi; smoked dried bonito, gingko nut, strawberry; sardine with sansho oil; miso marinated Angelica bud; knot weed jelly, shiitake powder; wild herb spring roll with wild boar bacon, Japanese parsley with sea cucumber orlay. All mountain vegetables, herbs, flowers are freshly foraged; wild meat, local fish. Other dishes to note: Kyoto style white miso soup (onion, yellow mustard) a perfect soup, and the catch of the day which was venison grilled just right.
A nice zensai in Hakone
Hiroo Ishizaka, Tokyo
Kasugodai (young sea bream) with yolk crumble, Akagai (red clam), Kohada (gizzard shad) - the soy sauce ice cream was a great ending
Masala y Maiz, Mexico City
My favorite dish at Masala y Maiz (fusion restaurant blending African, Indian, and Mexican cuisines) – have had hundreds of shrimp dishes and this was the first time I combined shrimp with vanilla and it was actually pretty genius
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Welcome to FTC
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Haven’t been to Salsa and Beer for some time. I forgot how much food they give you. Ordered Shrimp Fajitas - three meals for me, and so delicious!
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Fantastic! The pictorial depiction looks like some sort of deliciously dreamy Studio Ghibli-esque otherworldly victuals…
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Districto Catorce - on 1st Street half a block down from Mariachi Plaza, across the street from Casa Fina.
It looks like a bar, however the menu has a nice selection of food. I like to go and sit at the street facing open windows. If you’re in the area, I think it’s worth it.
No pricing on the menu which is weird. We got the carne asada ($22.77) , the Frijoles Josefa ($20.40) [item not on website menu], and beet avocado salad ($13.46).
I’m not drinking these days and had a mineral water ($3), I want to try one of the mocktails if its not too sweet.
Okay, so I had eaten two slices of Asada before I took this photo. I liked this quite a bit, and really loved the flour tortilla. I’m 98% positive the tortillas were to order. I could have eaten 50!
On my last visit I tried the burger and thought it was just okay. [My favorite burger in this neighborhood is over at George’s.]
The bone marrow. The photo on the website shows one bone. I somehow received two, and in the background is the accompanying bowl of chorizo and frijoles.
This was way too rich for me, but it was exactly as the menu described. I’m on a serious Rancho Gordo bean bender which is what drew me to ordering it. Most of it came home with me to use with eggs for my breakfasts this week. These tortilla were corn, and not as spectacular as the sonora flour tortillas.
As we walked back to our car we saw the Boyle Heights Bridge Runners gathering. Really nice night.
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Had a great meal at Sushi Note Omakase in BH last night for the wife’s birthday. Haven’t done a ton of omakase’s in LA, but this one was worth every penny.
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Sushi Note in the SFV is always consistent too
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Lunch at Bowl Thai Grill on Redondo. My first instinct was to go to Fukagawa, but as I was walking over, an appointment got moved to an earlier time and I wasn’t confident I could order, eat, and pay at Fukagawa in under an hour (previous meals there have had a leisurely pacing).
So I popped into the spot next door and was pleasantly surprised. Counter service operation. You order, grab your utensils and a cuppa water, then take your number-on-a-stick and find a table.
There was a rushed feeling while taking my order, so I sort of panicked and got the moo ping. Nicely charred pork. Simple. The jaew (sauce of fish sauce, lime, toasted rice powder, chilies, shallot, (sometimes tamarind paste)) is really good (pretty hard to mess up), and kept me taking bites long after I should’ve grabbed a to-go box. I think it was $17.99 before tax, but I did end up taking a quarter of it to-go.
I thought the papaya salad was pretty forgettable-- too mild; but my palate might skew a little funkier than other folks in that area.
NB: the rice was in a lovely little mound before I mushed it into a single plane.
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That’s good to hear if they’ve improved. My only bad sushi meal in LA was there (mushy underseasoned rice, bad knife work, over reliance on caviar) but I’m a big fan of the SFV location for the wine and accessible price
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I always eye that spot on my way out from Fukagawa. Definitely will try soon!
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The mango sticky rice there is good! We’ve had good experiences at all their affiliated spots they have a khao soi focused place in the same plaza and I think they also opened a Thai hot pot place too
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Our party had quite the opposite experience at Sushi Note BH a year back - Inattentive service, atrocious rice. I hope this means that they’ve made appropriate changes since my visit.
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This is hilarious (I mean that as a compliment). Is moo ping a go-to for you for Thai?
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