yeah. they do the entire hog. it’s a glorious thing. they also usually include extra tortillas too - be advised that the amount of meat from one taco makes 3 regular sized tacos. you might consider eating one taco completely unadorned. the meat is that good.
and they are open on sundays.
My man @JeetKuneBao has been laying it down in this thread. Follow his advice, and you’ll be on the path to glory.
Also, +infinity Holbox.
Leaving my belt at TSA was an unconscious attempt to prepare for the delicious food we would encounter last weekend. We accomplished a good chunk of our itinerary, and will go to Beijing pie house and do a taco crawl on our next trip at the end of the summer.
Friday night’s crawl started at around 6 PM at FuRaiBo. We got a bunch of yakitori, which were okay, but two other dishes stood out:
Hanpen cheese: American cheese, fish cake so !soft and mild I could’ve mistaken it for soft tofu, coated in Panko breadcrumbs and deep-fried.
The other stand out was the beef sashimi, cut thicker than carpaccio. It tasted like the outer edge was lightly seared, and it added a very beefy flavor beef to the fleshier center.
Having already had cheese, we split a 25 layer pork at Kimukatsu and ate it on the sidewalk. Juicy and tender, A+.
Korean Super had “Seoul Sausage” sandwiches seasoned with gochugaru and garlic, in kind of a po-boy bun and slaw. A+. Their “orangish chicken” didn’t taste citrusy, and I enjoyed most the sauce on the rice.
Artelice Patisserie was phenomenal. We enjoyed a few samples and ordered a St. Honore cake, a pastry we’ve been reminiscing about since a 2012 visit to Montreal’s Joe Beef, and whose implementation in the Bay Area looks closer to a Carvel cake. Wow, worth the visit to LA! The base was a pastry similar to what’s in a Napoleon, and there were two types of cream/custard, one speckled with vanilla. The best part was the caramel coated creampuffs, crackly and soft centered. Beard Papa Isn’t deserving of the same ZIP Code.
Yes! Hanpen Cheese!
Huge Tree Pastry exceeded my expectations, and the group loved it too.
The menu at the front of the store is written only in Chinese characters, but the menus have English translations and the servers speak fluent English as well.
The star of the meal was the purple rice fan tuan, filled with egg, a you tiao, pork floss, and pickle. Crunchy, salty, umami so good.
I am allergic to soy milk, so I was pleased to see an option for peanut milk, which was delicious by itself and a good medium to dip you tiao (long doughnuts) into.
I’m usually not a fan of the type of pastry used in their beef stuffed shao bing, but someone else wanted it. I was surprised and pleased with the results—pickles brought the pastry to life.
Radish cakes had a pronounced dried shrimp flavor, and were pleasantly liquidy in the center. These went well the soy sauce ginger garlic at the table top.
From breakfast, we did a 5.8 mile hike to Echo Mountain and had good views to orient us to LA county.
We got to Newport Seafood at about 1:15pm, and there was only a 20 minute wait. The meal started with a complementary hot and sour soup, which was satisfying after a hot and sweaty hike.
The five of us split a house special lobster, ordered spicy. The 4.75 lb. beast was chopped and cooked so that the meat was enhanced, not overpowered by, ginger, scallions, chili, and sugar. I prefer crab simply steamed, but can’t imagine eating unseasoned lobster after this.
With tax tip and a plate of Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, total bill bill came to $140, quite a deal for the experience.
We proceeded to a Shandong beef roll head to head. 101 noodle express’s roll was flatter, had many turns, and was served warm. The meat was finely shredded and sauced, lots of cilantro.
Across the street, ZXY’s was sturdier with fewer curves, the meat was chopped and cold, looks similar to corn beef hash, and the rolls were lathered with hoisin sauce.
It is tough to say which one I liked better, they are such different styles, so why make a comparison? Instead, consider the McShandongLT, stacking the cold side on the top, and the hot side on the bottom. Delicious.
We had an epic dinner at Chengdu Taste in Alhambra, which I’ll write about in another thread.
On Sunday, Sqirl was quite a scene, but the food was worth it. Lots of fermented flavors in the Flat Tot.
Delicious ricotta and jam brioche
Crispy rice salad because breakfast needs acidity and crunch.
Our last meal was at Ricky’s fish tacos. Much silkier fish texture than the last good fish taco I had this year, at Las Cotijas in Garden Grove. We walked here from Silverlake and had a heck of a time getting a Lyft back (it’s on Riverside Dr., underneath a highway, so we eventually had to wait a few blocks away).
I can’t wait to return and finish the itinerary!
ahhh the sawtelle filet-o-fish
that’s an awesome description of Hanpen Cheese. Is there anywhere else that makes this? i only know of Furaibo.
Thanks for the report back, @hyperbowler! So glad you were happy with your L.A. weekend eating.
My three go-to dishes at Furaibo are Torishio, Spinach bacon and the hanpen cheese.
Glad you had a good time OP! Come back more often!
Man I got to try this Hanpen Cheese.
too bad the Furaibo in Rowland Heights closed… 
Aww forgot to mention that Ricky’s Fish Tacos makes real horchata at $1 for a small cup, not that powdered shit
Enoki butter and tebasaki for me…
i’m glad that you liked it, but i have found ZXY to be capable of greater finesse and nuance in the past, however, i’ve been there no more than 3-4 times in the last couple of years as i’ve spent more time exploring east LA & K-town lately.
We’re back in LA, this time on a trip that isn’t food focussed, and staying in Playa Del Rey (unlikely eating there, but is anything remarkable to seek out for an early dinner?). Tonight we made it to Holbox and Chichen Itza, which I hadn’t realized were in a food court. We were happy to find it half empty on a Saturday around 6pm (is that typical?), but damn, they deserve bigger crowds.
The octopus and squid ink taco at Holbox was phenomenal, trip to LA has been fully justified! I loved the squid ink/citrus flavor, and was surprised by the octopus’s crunchiness.
Pollo pibil at Chichen Itzá was quite good, next time I’ll have to try panuchos and other suggestions from above.
The Tripel has very good food and great beer line-ups.
Thanks for the recommendation! Between NYE hours and typical Monday closings, our taco plans didn’t work out last night. Instead, we went to Tripel and had the Tripel burger: burger with duck confit, apricot jam, truffled pecorino, on brioche. It sounds overwrought and laughably trendy, but was actually pretty good. Lots of good vegetarian options in the appetizer board.
