wtf is the carrot for?
They use that to tell them what kind of dumpling it is for the servers.
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One of the best meals - and deals - in town!
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Steamed beef mandu at Genwa BH. A decent version. Lots of veggies in the filling.
The parade of banchan may be the best in town. 2 types of fish cake, various seaweeds, jellyfish, dried little fish, even a slab of head cheese.
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Wow, the mandu and the panchan look gorgeous…
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Lunch @ Doma Kitchen in Manhattan Beach.
Chicken pelmeni:
Vareniki (Lithuanian potato dumplings, per the menu) with caramelized onions and shiitake mushrooms:
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I’ve been meaning to try them for a while. Thanks for the reminder, @Pomsmoms. Haven’t had vareniki in quite some time. There was a place in Studio City that used to make them. The caramelized onions and shiitake mushrooms are nice additions.
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Is there a large overlap btw Russian and Lithuianian food? (please don’t shoot if that’s a very non-PC question… 
). Agree that the onions + mushrooms dish looks delicious.
It was my first time trying both dishes, and they were pretty good! The pelmeni were total comfort food - light dumplings, not as heavy on the garlic/onion/leek flavor as asian dumplings, floating in broth with onions, tomatoes, dill, and parsley. Every other table got an order, so it seems to be one of their more popular dishes.
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No idea! (Any FTCers care to educate the rest of us?) And yes, the onions and mushrooms added some depth to the dish. I think there might have been a touch of balsamic in them that gave just a hint of sweet and acid that went well with the potato dumplings.
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Oh! That looks so awesome!
DTF SCP for lunch on Saturday. I’m not saying I’ve been a lot lately, but the bartenders were making jokes about how many blood orange boba martinis my wife and I drink.
I agree with you @Porthos. The pork and shrimp dumplings are better than the XLB. Had to do a side-by-side comparison. We also had the pork won tons in spicy sauce, another of our favorites…
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MELTY. CHEESE. PORK. BUNS.
That is pretty much all it took to head down to to Nikuman-Ya in Gardena
I of course ordered the Melty Cheese Pork Buns and even thought he menu says it’s 1 Piece, sometime I got two LARGE pieces, like fluffy calzones! The Melty Cheese was both inside and outside the bun. The filling was a big pork meatball and quite flavorful. The bun was soft and yielding, not tough or pasty. Overall it wasn’t as good as some of the more refined Dim Sum pork buns (Not as juicy or nuanced in flavor) but it was WORLDS better than most quicky steamed buns available at any number to go places. It was flavorful enough just to eat on the run without any sauce or choking down. Although curiously it does come with a black vinegar and garlic sauce (They call Umami Sauce, it’s okay) and Tapatio (Yep! The Mexican Mariachi Man Hot Sauce!) And the Tapatio actually worked! The bun is slightly sweet so Sriracha might have been too cloying and chile oil too messy to pour on the run. So taking the cute from the countless street elote vendors who use Tapatio as their salsa of choice was a good move.
Not realizing the large order I was getting from the buns, I also ordered mini buns. The Pork and Takana Dumpling. Honestly these would stand up to any of the better dim sum offerings. Little bits of pork, quite a bit of the Takana filling. The addition of pickled mustardy greens was brilliant to these rather rich buns (They seemed even richer than the larger cheese buns. No Tapatio included with these.
Nikuman-Ya is located inside the newish Tokyo Central Market (used to be a Murakai) on Redondo near Western. In addition to these Buns they have Shu Mai, Gyoza and Rice dishes. In fact, they had something like Omurice that I might go down again today and try.
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Cheese w/ a pork bun sounds like heresy, although I must admit the pic is tempting… 
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After alleging it was on the way to the Sports Arena from the valley, we had an early dinner with old friends at TKF on Saturday night. I am always a bit nervous bringing new people there as I rave about the place and don’t get there nearly as much as I would like to. The four of us shared an apple quinoa salad and a mediterranean salad, both of which were full of fresh nice flavors as usual. Each of us had three Khninkali - all tried the beef and fried cheese and our guests had mushroom as well. The beef continues to be the standout in my opinion (as was the opinion of the table) with great herb and pepper flavors in a lovely broth. The cheese was also delicious. We were quite full and left salad unfinished at the table. The guests were shocked that the total bill, including 2 sodas, tax and 20%+ tip was $80. Although J. Gold has written very favorable about TKF, I still think this is a hidden gem!
Sorry, I didn’t take any food pictures, but Nemroz had one above.
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