March 2017 Weekend Rundown

Thanks @Aesthete. It was your early report that got us interested in trying it. :slight_smile:

The 2nd favorite recently? Gjusta’s Falafel Sandwich. :slight_smile: (Yah, Gjusta’s Veggie Sandwich, Gjusta’s Falafel Sandwich and then Wax Paper’s Ira Glass.)

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I was at Wax Paper on Thursday. I actually called to order a Larry Mantle but she got me with “do you want to hear our special?”

It was a corned beef with horseradish and stuff. Whatever it was, it didn’t make me a corned beef convert and it gave me instant buyers remorse. The corned beef itself was pretty good but the sandwich as a whole didn’t meet the mark.

Evidently Thursdays are their busiest day. It took us 40 minutes from the time we placed our phone order to get our food.

Thanks for the warning @Ns1. Good to know.

Santa Barbara - Les Marchands - cheese (bucherone, point reyes blue, manchego, sottocenera) and charcuterie (calabrese, nduja); Helena Ave Bakery bread with a full head of roasted garlic perfectly done; Brussels sprouts Caesar salad, pancetta - great way to serve sprouts raw- excellent!; grilled eggplant mezze lune, ricotta, butternut squash puree pinenuts and calabrian chili (kinda crazy mix, but it all tasted good). 2 bottles of wine - 4 people - more than enough food, and I suppose, enough wine. Sit outside.

I agree… In addition to the Nori, the rice is also better seasoned at Sunny Blue. The only think Kawaba has is that Egg Omusubi. If I am in the area, I stop in there just for that!

–Dommy!

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Hui Tou Xiang in San Gabriel.

I’m a little obsessed with the complimentary kimchi that they give you. Gingery garlicky goodness. :yum:

Crab xlb:

Wontons in chili oil:

Pork hui tou:

Fried noodles with shrimp:

I know what we ordered might be considered boring here, but everything was really tasty and satisfying.

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Filet 'O Fish $1.79 fridays!

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Kotosh in Lomita.

Jalea mixta with salsa criolla:

Lomo Saltado:

Great as always.

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Combined weekends (since the start of the month?). Posting from my phone, so text later (edit: now adding text… :))

Pho So 1
We stopped at this place on our way to see the cherry blossoms at Lake Balboa (thanks, @J_L for mentioning the ones in the SFV!). The love the egg rolls here, and you can get a half order so you feel less decadent. :slight_smile: I don’t know this compares to other Vietnamese places, but I find it quite respectable.

Smorgasburg Santa Monica

Hot-Star Chicken. The pic doesn’t show just how big this piece of chicken is. Partner said it was the size of a dinner plate. This was actually a small piece b/c we got the last one (bwahahahaha). Not a revelation, but I ain’t complaining for $5.

Mama Musubi. Still have yet to get to Sunny Blue, but I enjoyed these (salmon and eel). What should I be looking for in a well-constructed musubi (other than it tasting good?)

The goa pork tacos were delicious, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around spending $9 and still being quite hungry. Still, they had an army of people working there, so perhaps it’s quite work intensive.

Belle Vie
This place ain’t cheap, but it still remains deeply satisfying. However, they’ve changed the recipe of their beef burgandy tacos!!! Argh. The beef itself is still delicious, but they’ve added picked veggies and a small piece of bacon. It’s too much (both flavor-wise and in terms of folding the taco). Not sure if the change was based on feedback or just b/c they felt kind of bored w/o the original. They have a seasonal cassoulet (available for $30). It’s big enough to share, but you’d still probably want another entree. The cassoulet was lovely, and very subtly seasoned. I was also hoping for crispier skin on the duck, but the meat was pretty good. Sausage was simply perfectly cooked. Dessert was lemon curd + citrus slices w/ a ring of meringue that had been torched. SO delicious.

Happy Noodle
What can I say? I’m a devoted follower of trend. :wink: The veggie dumplings are indeed delicious, and the skin is JUST thick enough to have pleasant chew. The lamb dumpling is REALLY gamey (as @Chowseeker1999 said) . I like gamey, but this might be a bit too gamey even for me! :wink: Partner loved them, though. Are the orange flecks carrot? For whatever reason, I think the lamb flavor would go better in a shen jiang bao. The beef roll wrapper wasn’t quite crispy enough, but I thought the filling was quite good (and way better than the very flaccid version I had at 101 Noodle Express Culver City this last wk).

Bulgarini Gelato
We were planning to go from Happy Noodle to Me Gusta Tamale. Bulgarini is on the way, and partner had never been there. I had the pear + pistachio and partner had coffee + chocolate. All delicious, as usual. Also sampled the hazelnut (which I love but find too intense for an entire scoop).

While driving somewhere through Sunland, we saw this…

Eating Me Gusta tamales now but too lazy to take a photo. :smiley:

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Looks like you had a wonderful eating weekend! :slight_smile:

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Egg Slut and Bay Cities Meat Loaf Sandwitch …

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Our Italian au pair made us some gnocchi using papa púrpura (Peruvian purple potato - quite the alliteration) and a fresh asparagus cream sauce with a touch of bacon fat…

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Wow, looks spectacular!

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Channeling my imaginary inner-Japanese housewife at Mitsuwa…

Lunch in the Marketplace, because I have no idea what to do with Ciclavia blocking my way back home.

Misasa. I love their bento boxes and food in general. It’s a nice Japanese lunch. The fish is always good, they have good pickles and rice, and their tempura is better by far than Hannosuke. The shrimp was so sweet, and the batter light and crispy and not oily at all.the sweet potato tempura was very good too. $10

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#Osteria Mozza
The place is crawling with nancy-silverrozzis now.

amuse bouche of olive tapenade something or other

smoked mozzarella di bufala, prosciutto di parma
not bad for a plate of ham and cheese

squid ink chitarra freddi - dungeness crab, sea urchin, jalapeno
The uni was sweet and pristine and the two bites of pasta i had with the uni was delicious. the rest of the dish was terrible, the crab was sad and not fresh and the whole dish was overpowered with too much lemon.

orecchiette, sausage, swiss chard
This was better, great chew from the orecchiette and crunch from the toasted breadcrumbs. A tad salty.

butternut squash mezzelune, amaretti
Slightly sweet and savory, good.

candied kumquat semifreddo - sicilian pistachio, cocoa nib brittle, chocolate
Highlight of the night, great texture contrast between the chewy kumquat, creamy semifreddo, and crunchy pistachios and cocoa nib brittle

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That semifreddo must have been killer. It’s one of the greatest and most underrepresented desserts.

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I had a good strawberry/cornmeal crumble one at Hachet Hall recently; although, I will concede that @PorkyBelly’s Mozza one looks better.

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Such a difficult life of freshly made gnocchi! :wink:

Looks marvelous!

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I’m a big Bay Cities fan and usually frequent the hot side. Assume that is a hot meatloaf sandwich. Looks like the top may have been dipped? Are those peppers? Tell more…

TAQUERIA LOS ANAYA
We always get the sampler. Also had the mixed taco plate. Love this place.

GCM
After going to Howlin’ Rays at 10:30am only to see the line literally stretching out to Broadway, we nope’d out and headed to GCM for a lil tour. It’d been a while since I’d been there. Does feel a bit, I don’t know, off now that seemingly 90% of the stands are new, hip spots.

There was no line at Knead, so we tried the spaghetti&tomato. The noodles had a great bite. Felt like a solid portion for the price, too. Then got in the small line at Wexler’s for some pastrami. It was good, but it didn’t sing pastrami, if you know what I mean. Might have been the batch or my unsophisticated palate. But to me, Langer’s by a long shot.

The star of the trip was the espresso shot from G&B Coffee. Boy howdy. I didn’t even want one, but we grabbed two beers from Golden Road and the only seats were at G&B, so we sat and were forced to order. Lucky. I’m not even sure which one I got, but it was rich/smooth/vibrant/heavenly. Plus that fizzy green tea shot that comes alongside is a perfect companion.

Also did a quasi-bang bang…

JAPADOG
Been wanting to try it for a while after missing out trying the original location in Vancouver on a trip some time back. (paging @lectroid). We were in SM, so I took a turn and braved the masses on the pier. Opted for their “signature dog”: TERIMAYO - teriyaki / mayo / seaweed / onion. Pretty good! The teriyaki was a bit sweet for me, but the actual dog was tasty. I’d put it in the category of: glad I tried it but not in a hurry to have it again.

BELCAMPO
This is a cool place. About half empty at prime brunch/lunch time, though. A bit surprising, but I think it’s likely a price thing. Most of the entrees are in the $22 range, which is steep to this lil pauper boy. Heck, there’s only one cocktail under $15. Wild times. Still, both of the food stuffs we got were really great.

Chorizo Scotch Egg ($10) - like a friggin huevos rancheros scotch egg. Delicious.

Pancake w/ citrus jam & strawberry butter ($6) - almost meaty while still fluffy. MEAT FLUFF. Great.

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