The burritos and quesadillas at BLP are still fantastic. The birria is still my favorite but the bean n cheese always delivers. 4th St market open for business. There may or may not be some socially distanced seats to eat your food at in the front on 4th st and in the back. My kids absolutely devoured and demolished the burritos. Had to go back to get them a birria quesadilla.
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La Española Meats, Harbor City.
Got a good haul from the Spanish market today. Inside the foil are one bocadilla de la casa and one choripan. Will do a full report on this place soon, it’s so fun!
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Looking forward to your report! Love, love La Española. This gem is a secret many of us FTCers are already privy to…
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We ate at and/or picked up food from 7 places in ~2 hours today in DTLA. And bought some books at the Last Bookstore to boot.
11:30am - 2 cheeseburgers at Shack Shake which is our favorite cheeseburger. Double the price of In n Out but so worth it.
11:45am - half dozen donuts at Mochinut. Our favorite of the mochi donut places between Fill Bake Shop, Modo and Mochinut. These have the best texture and more generous toppings. We shared 3 in the car and showed great restraint in saving the rest for my mother in law. Blueberry not shown was my favorite. These are pics of the glazed, churro and Nutella.
12:15 - picked up 4 tamales from Me Gusta in Pacaimoa at the 6th St FM. I would have normally passed right by the stand but I know several FTCers have mentioned Me Gusta. Ate the chicken tamale and it was very good. The sweet corn smelled great and we’ll have as snacks the next few days.
12:25 - Kazunori. It wasn’t bad per say but don’t think it was worth the price tag. They only do cut rolls and sashimi. If I planned better maybe we could have tried Kaneyoshi or somewhere better. The best bites were the salmon sashimi and crab rolls. We were planning on Majordomo but was closed today.
12:50 - pick up at Holy Basil for tomorrow’s dinner. Smells and looks great. The bathroom at Holy Basil is very clean if you need a bathroom. Ask them for the code.
1:15 - oysters at Rahhapanock while waiting for our bento boxes. My kid ate half of the dozen. Can’t take them anywhere.
1:30 - the grand finale.
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Holy crap.
Wait, was there a thread on FTC about this??? How did I miss this entire food movement???
Glad you enjoyed it!
Seriously, your kids are going to be a nightmare when they older. 
All of that (is that the pad see ew and pumpkin? from Holy Basil?) + bookstore is a SERIOUSLY impressive bang bang.
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Mochinut has a lot of locations and more coming soon to SoCal. The Mochinut donuts have more mochi chewy consistency and the flavors were sharper without being too sweet. Modo is one of the OGs I remember from the mochi donut craze. The Modo donuts are airy with a crunchier outside but more subtle flavors and a slight mochi chew.
Yes pad see ew, pumpkin, long beans and tom yung goong not pictured. Can’t wait to try tomorrow.
The driving in DTLA was very easy but as usual no where to park. Lots of people double parked and parked in red zones. I doubt parking enforcement was doing much today. The one place that scared us off was GCM. There was a very long line on the Broadway side near Eggslut (had to be close to 75-80 people wrapped around multiple stalls and spilled out into the street). I assume this line was for the Donut Man but no need to find out.
I might do this again on Saturday so I can add Langers, Fat N Flour, Majordomo, Laroolou and a few others that we missed out on today.
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No photo, but goodboybob had a sunchoke latke special this morning that really hit the spot.
Autocorrect? Wow, I remember when Me Gusta was in Lancaster. Stopped by and picked up tamales on a few occasions when they were in the AV. I thought they were pretty good. I guess relocating to the valley allowed them to be noticed and get some publicity.
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Christmas Day at Huge Tree Pastry
Fan tuan with pork floss and egg with purple rice
Fried radish cake
Baked bread w/ pork and pickles
Pan fried leek pie
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A few odds and ends throughout December.
Special thanks to @PorkyBelly for the premium delivery service on several occasions…
Bun Cha Hanoi by Chef Nessa
Cool, refreshing, yet satisfying, with plenty of umami
Daybird Pop-Up at Match Stoneware by Chef Mei Lin - if this is a preview of what the chicken sandwich is going to be like, she’ll have some long lines. The spicy, but slightly sweet Asian spices coupled with the perfectly breaded and cooked chicken thighs means that, yes, I actually liked this more than that other joint with the initials H.R. Of course, this was only a sample of one, so I’m excited to check it out again when they open proper.
Laroolou coconut cream pie and mocha chocolate pie
Thiccie - this was extremely decadent (sweet, rich, chewy)
Pizzette - I’m liking it more and more, and I’m really glad that we can get Pizzeria Mozza-quality dough here on the Westside. The sandwich is a roasted eggplant stuffed pizzette, which had really great middle eastern flavors.
Needle
This shrimp scramble is really, really great. Like, as in Chef-please-leave-it-on-the-menu-Great. As many have said, perfect execution. Was afraid my mom was gonna pull Asian mom-ness and scold me saying “how can you pay that much for eggs and shrimp - I can make that myself!”. Instead, she just said it was delicious. ‘Nuff said.
Almond jello - the citrus and pear make it nice and refreshing
James Sugishita just really continuing to evolve his bentos! Fantastic!
Kaneyoshi ‘nuff said. The ankimo is exquisite - clearly Yoshi-san took note from his time at SGO.
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You should try a few bites on the spot next time. It’s still very good when I waited till I brought it home to eat it but it’s 100/100, much creamier and softer, when eaten right after pickup.
Is that bento still $80?
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Pls send link to sign up
SGO’s ankimo is very good
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I was hoping you would try the shrimp and egg at Needle! Who am I kidding you are one of their best customers!
Eating that shrimp and egg in the restaurant just seconds from the wok was incredible. So creamy it is the best scrambled eggs I ever had
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Might get the evil eye from the family 
The three box bento on the right is $95, though might be seasonal.
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Just to add to @js76wisco re: the mochi donuts, King’s Hawaiian has them, but unlike the other places, they’re probably sitting in the cases for a while depending on when you go.
Also, I tried MochiDochi on Sawtelle (on the second floor of the plaza with Daiso and Niijiya) the other day when I was picking up my buche de Noel from Artelice. They offer freshly made mochi donuts and Korean corn dogs. Unlike at Modo, you have the option of buying just one donut, and MochiDochi has six flavor choices daily compared to Modo’s three.
Not going to attempt a comparison between the different places, but I will say that the MochiDochi churro donut was solid enough that I’m willing to go back to try other flavors like black sesame and blueberry yogurt. Family members also liked their caramel macchiato donut. The corn dog batter with onions was good; beef sausage inside just ok for me.
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His “standard” bento is $80 but if you slide into his DM’s he can do other things as well
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Thanks for the reminder. i keep meaning to try the corn dogs, I’m usually at that Nijiya at least once a week, but always forget it’s there
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I am terrible at valley geography and both Lancaster/Pacoima seem very far. The tamales are very good though.
Shirako sighting?
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