Definitely more “make your own salad” places!!! More restaurants with any of the following words in their name:
Fresh
Green(s)
Salad
Chop
God I hate LA.
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You got a place in LA for some solid feijoada?
nope… best Brazilian I’ve had so far is the one up in Ventura. Aint shit here I can think of…
need to still check out Cantinho
Wood Spoon (DTLA) makes it only on Saturdays due to the extended prep time. I had a taste of my friends bowl (his first time trying it and he loved it) and I thought it was pretty good. Not as good as the version my former Brazilian neighbor made w/ his family’s recipe (his was “funkier” and took days to make–so he only made it a couple of times a year), but still good.
Still true, no good Singaporean?
As far as I know, unfortunately. The only passable place was the short-lived Grainivore.
If you’re ever around Walnut, give Chop Chop a try. Their chicken & rice is very respectable. They offer a fair amount of other Singaporean/Malaysian dishes in their menu as well. It definitely itely scratches the itch.
What else is good there?
I have always wanted to try this place.
The only Singaporean dish I can easily get is Hainan rice. What I could go for is laksa, curry mee, roti canai, and Singapore-style rendang.
We only went once last summer. Along with the chicken and rice, we had the paratha/curry, laksa, nasi lemak and curry puffs. We enjoyed all of it.
I’m pretty sure the online menu either isn’t up to date, or they offer more items on a board. I recall more dishes being offered. Looking at the yelp photos tells me they do make more.
Chop Chop states that they make their dishes to order - we were told our order would take 30-40 minutes. It took about 20. And they were very busy around 2PM on a Saturday.
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My mom is from Singapore, so she cooks Singapore/Malaysian food, and I also cook it quite a bit. But when we were in the mood to go out and eat things we didn’t make at home, Little Malaysia in El Monte (RIP) was where we’d go to scratch our itch. Their mee goreng (one of my favorite Malaysian foods) was excellent – just like the hawker style mee goreng mamak I get when I go back to Singapore/Malaysia. I’d always ask for it extra spicy though. Wasn’t a fan of their roti canai – the curry was too sweet. The char kway teo was also very good as were their other dishes. We always ordered the nasi goreng istemewa each time because they did a good rendition. They knew us there, and knew we could handle the spicier version of the food, so they’d kick it up for us to make it more like the foods we get back in Singapore/Malaysia.
Has anyone been to the place that took over that location? I read that they serve Malaysian and Burmese food. We’ve been meaning to get over there – my dad grew up in Burma so we’re curious to try a place that has both cuisines in one restaurant!
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it’s more indonesian/malaysian but have you tried q q kopitiam? their laksa is actually quite good.
penned by our own @JThur01
the laksa is as of october 2017:
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it’s on the list of places to try but i have yet to get there.
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We’ve been wanting to try QQ Kopitiam but it’s a no-go since they aren’t open on the weekends.
i live in pasadena so it’s easier for me. i added a pic of their laksa in a previous post. i was last there in october.
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I have colleagues and acquaintances with deep Singaporean ties, who have pointed out their disappointment with QQ Kopitiam, so, as always YMMV. Admittedly, those who have visited Singapore/Malaysia have a rather high bar. There are definitely inauthenticies with some of the dishes at QQ Kopitiam, but I just wanted to point out that when it comes to Singaporean cuisine, it’s about as good an option as there is (and, as usual, the superlative in the headline was not my doing).
EDIT: I did like their laksa though.
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@set0312 I still miss your friend’s excellent Hainanese Chicken Rice from his Grainivore venture; after finally traveling to SG and trying the HCR at Ah Tai, his is still the one in LA that came closest to hitting the mark!
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Ha, I miss it too. I actually just messaged him about this comment–he’s in awe that such a short-lived place is actually remembered by people! According to him, he was doing it on a shoestring budget while learning the differences between doing business in the states and in Asia, which, as you can imagine, are rather large.
He pledges to revive Grainivore if he ever becomes wealthy enough that the financial loss doesn’t impact him haha.
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Well here’s hoping the year of the Dog proves to be an auspicious year for him!! In the meantime, would love to know his sourcing on the chicken (i.e. breed/type), as well as any particular brands for recreating the sauces. I have a Prima kit I need to use soon, but his sauces were far better!
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I’ll get back to you!