The first time we had HR it was the same situation except a Saturday. A. was on the freeway heading home and decided to detour. It was about a half hour before closing and the parking attendant said ‘It’s too late. You won’t get any chicken.’ He was back in the parking lot with batches of hot, crispy, chicken goodness in about 30 minutes.
1 Like
Cafe du Croissants inside Tokyo Central (Gardena)
Went on a jaunt with my friend for brunch at Fukagawa. How can you say no to a lunch set with grilled mackerel, house made soba, miso, rice, pickles, and California roll…with a side order of dashimaki, lunch becomes brunch. We then hit up the other Tokyo Central close to the end of the 91, where my friend found Mentai Butter Sticks…a brioche breadstick, slit open and spread with a mentaiko mayo and nori flakes and tossed back into the oven for a few minutes more to set the mayo. She hadn’t had one since she last lived in Japan 5 years ago. It was quite the savory snack. Also picked up a cone made with their croissant dough and filled with a lovely vanilla bean pastry cream…the cone still retained a nice crispness making you feel it hadn’t been sitting out long. For $2, it was a steal…and gives the cream puffs I love a run for their money. I don’t believe they use French butter so I didn’t bother trying the plain butter croissant.
4 Likes
3 Likes
My favorite thing there is the "scone’ with cheese and edamame. They have quite a few savory pastries that sadly not everyone does.
Also, the rice ball place inside Tokyo Central is SO GOOD. Especially their grilled rice balls.
1 Like
I was eyeing that edamame and cheese scone…thanks for the rec, @Dommy! Since we had already made purchases at the other Tokyo Central by Fukagawa, we didn’t walk through the store…just dropped by the food court for pastries and left. I’ll make note of it next time.
I really like the bonito shoyu ramen at Ippudo. The broth is delicate and flavorful, and the skinny noodles at medium texture are chewy and firm.
Cucumbers.
These were incredibly good. I was wiping the plate with my finger to try to figure out the flavors. (I made sure no one was watching.) Sesame, shoyu, and… ? My new favorite cucumbers.
My friend had the classic ramen. I tasted the broth and found it bland. He finished the whole bowl, so he seemed to like it.
And of course I had an icy cold Sapporo. Cheers, @J_L and Samurai Gourmet!
6 Likes
Beef tempura and Seared wagyu (non pedigree) with uni at Kemuri Japanese Barú (Redwood City)
Killer combo of Super Tuscan Tignanello 2011 x Denver strip with peperonata, crispy eggplant, wild arugula, grilled scallions at Pausa Italian in San Mateo
Baked pork chop rice with extra red sauce at Cafe Salina in Millbrae
The previous craftman retired and went back to Japan, #2 chef has been around a while but crafting, draping, shari, shari temperature and texture are not my style, however one of few places that has up to four hikarimono selections and overall very solid neta quality: kohada, iwashi, Saba. Gintei, San Bruno
Gintei has a sake sommelier there. New sake added to the menu and these are efffin splendid.
Blue label: Mutsu Hassen Isaribi Tokubetsu Junmai (Aomori prefecture). Lightly sweet but lots of Umami, finishing dry but clean.
Red label: Mutusu Okotoyama Cho Kara Junmai (Aomori prefecture). Excellent astringency and has a nice rippling effect with right amount of acidity. Super dry but a wonderful fairly clean finish that lingers a little.
Both are great with sushi, someone just needs to champion your favorite SoCal restaurants to carry them. If you enjoy Denshu, Mutsu Hassen and Mutsu Otokoyama will be right up your alley.
8 Likes
Banh Cuon Luu Luyen (Garden Grove)
After write ups in the LA Times and the NY Times, I’ve been meaning to have some banh cuon. I made it today. Had lunch with my cousin. We arrived around 11AM to find a short waitlist, and it wasn’t too busy when we left at 12:30PM…still a short wait, but nothing crazy like an hour. We ordered their banh cuon thit nuong (rice paper noodle with grilled beef) and their banh cuon dac biet (OOE/special banh cuon platter).
I love the jars of nuoc mam and sambal on the table. Use as much as you like or as little as you want…I love it so I tend to have a heavy hand.
For being a family run operation, this place is run so well. Delicate banh cuon arrives fairly quickly. The banh cuon thit nuong is really fantastic…the banh cuon sheets are thicker to handle the heft of grilled lemongrass beef, herbs and steamed bean sprouts. They are rolled up spring roll style and topped with crispy fried shallots. I never had it this way growing up. The dac biet platter has plan banh cuon sheets, banh cuon filled with ground pork and wood ear mushrooms, and banh cuon filled with ground shrimp. Then the platter is topped with herbs and steamed bean sprouts, cha lua (plain and fried), tofu, a fried mung bean fritter and crispy fried shallots. The most notable thing is that this banh cuon is truly in a class of itself. Unlike some of the hum drum take-out banh cuon that’s usually served at family potlucks, this banh cuon and super thin and delicate and you can really taste the fact that it was steamed and made recently rather than hours ago.
For the quality of this meal, it should really cost more. I picked up extra to take home for later.
Thanh Noi Restaurant (Garden Grove)
My cousin and I hopped down the street for a bang-bang since she mentioned that when Banh Cuon Luu Luyen is too crowded, she and her parents have Bun Bo Hue down the street instead…impatience and dislike of lines accurately reflects our parents’ generation.
Warning, don’t come here on a hot day. Methinks AC may be close to nonexistent here because it was cooler outside than it was inside, and we were crazy enough to order soup. The Bun Bo Hue here is pretty delightful. The broth is both complex and light at the same time…very nuanced. The bowl was laden with sliced pork belly and pork pieces, tendon, beef chunks, one meatball, and one blood cube. My only complaint was that the noodles were overcooked so they were not so sturdy as we added the cabbage, banana flowers, bean sprouts, herbs, and lime…they started breaking. We also got an order of banh bot loc la…I love these little banana leaf-wrapped chewy dumplings with seasoned shrimp and pork belly. They are my ideal drinking food snack because I inhale them. These ones are smaller than the ones served at Ben Ngu, and still delicious when straight out of the steamer.
10 Likes
Ichimian (Rollling Hills location…they take cards!!)
Was in the hood for Tamaen for the beef bowl during lunch but now lunch is only served on weekends! Damn it! I also been craving some oyakodon…
Got the combo oyakodon with soba. As always great chew and flavor on the soba. The oyakodon needed a little togarashi, just slightly sweet.
Of course I had to try some battera!
Cheers Bar and Grill
New Taiwanese place in Rowland Heights in Diamond Plaza.
Tip: Take Jellick off of Colima and enter Diamond Plaza from the back!
Got the 3 Cup Chicken and Cabbage. I thought it was okay. I might have to go back to Uncle Yu’s to compare 3 cup chicken. When eating this remember to mix it up and get some of the sauce in each bite. Pine and Crane does a respectable one btw
The Boy and The Bear (Redondo). Pour over. Colombian beans here. Nice and smooth.
Brodards.
I was seduced the pictures of the Banh Xeo but the texture was very mealy. A hard pass for me. And what is up with that dipping sauce?
The grilled pork spring rolls…as always good. Maybe it’s wearing off for me from the potlucks and parties over the years but it’s not quite the same. First time I had one was slap yo mama good.
11 Likes
Bon Temps
illanka chocolate souffle, green chartreuse, genepy
excellent textbook souffle that rose so high it made snoop dogg look sober. loved the sugar crusted exterior and the herb-y minty ice cream was a perfect complement to the rich chocolate.
7 Likes
Manhattan Beach Post
Skirt steak was cooked perfect with a nice mild flavor from the white oak and a little punch from the chimichurri. The biscuits…no words needed!
Fishing with Dynamite
If I was to order again I prefer the scallops without the grapefruit tbh and to split hairs it was a little heavy on the salt.
That key lime pie is one of the best damn pies I ever eaten. Second best if you know what I mean.
9 Likes
That crack! 
those biscuits and that pie!
1 Like
Simpang this place doesn’t get a ton of love on this board but one of the best affordable eat restaurants in LA. Serving Indonesian food tons of nasi dishes and even some desserts like martabak manis.
Had the nasi bungkus, sauted morning glory, and Soto Ayam.
Every menu item I’ve ever had here is 
6 Likes
If you examine the fracture, you’ll notice it’s clearly a mode I crack caused by tensile stress from the scoop of ice cream normal to the plane of the crack and not from over-beaten egg whites.
6 Likes
It’s not quite orthognoal since you clearly demonstrated that components of a force is at play here.
The FTCer who illustrates this concept is an acute Angler.
2 Likes
Thought I was looking at an LA Times infrographic on recent seismic activity.
Total agreement. An international treasure.
2 Likes