One of my proudest moments representing the pride of southern california eating ability occurred at the Iowa State Fair. One of my vendors was based out there and as part of a client event, they brought us to the fair. My account rep was a strapping corn fed young lady who played a lot of sports and had teased me for months about the weak appetites of SoCal people with their alfalfa sprouts and salads. I had told her I had a big appetite and loved meat and fried foods and was looking forward to eating a lot at the fair. I’m sure when she finally met me in person and saw a slender average height asian, she thought I was full of bs.
We spent the day at the fair and she informed me that she had gotten approval to buy whatever we wanted to eat and to make sure I was stuffed. I politely asked if she would be matching my orders. She gave me a teasing smirk and retorted she was worried I’d be bored and full while she was still eating.
Off we went, ordering food and drink regularly. There was a large variety of fried foods on a stick and in large portions. By early evening I noticed she was starting to slow down while I was still going strong. Finally I asked her if she was ready to tap out and she nodded and wanted to know if I was done. I smiled and said not even close. I proceeded to get another half dozen different food on a stick and devoured all with no problems. She was in awe and finally had to apologize for doubting me and buying into the stereotype of skinny Californians who could barely eat some salads.
All that said, the quality of the food was surprisingly good. I really did enjoy trying all the different things they had. With the expensive fair pricing, it was nice to have it picked up by someone else.
Just had an Osaka specialty of kushiage, meats and vegetables skewered. We had shishito peppers, chicken, asparagus, sweet onion, pumpkin, egg, and more deep fried. The fried foods in Japan is rarely if ever greasy, in our experience.
Also had skewers of beef tendon cooked in miso. A bit heavily flavored for our taste, some cabbage helped balance the bite.
Just open earlier. I’ll be at Wilshire/Barrington (phone store) late morning. Since it’s close to spots y’all talk about, I was thinking Japanese. But, I just checked out Javan’s menu… yumm. My office mate would certainly be happy if I brought back Kebabs.
OMG… Now you’re confusing things. Although I’m not a pizza lover, you may know, my passion is eating things on top of bread (crostini, flatbreads) - pâté, vegetables, fritto misto, eggs, sauce… okay I’ll stop. I’m trying to stick to the program here!
that’s funny. there are a lot of small SE Asian markets by me (store front shops) that sell really great frozen fruit deserts on a stick–mango, etc. plus all the great paleta people. maybe this weekend I’ll hike down 3rd street in the heat and grab one for DoTM
I’d say there’s a good chance it is! It wasn’t advertised as such, simply “Coconut Waffle” but it did have a hint of the flavor, and it clearly IS electric green. Courtesy of the Lynda tent, so shouldn’t be too hard to verify.
The stickman dips each skewer a few times in a vat of sauce during the grilling. Also carefully trims any bits of charred edges with schears. All the items were juicy tender with crisp char. We had chicken hearts/cartilage/skin/popes nose/meat balls and some other stuff. Memory and camera operations faded after our fourth bottle of shochu.
Since man/woman does not live by sticks alone. Also had chicken sashimi, dark and white meat. Slightly seared first, delicious.
