Restaurants - Delivery or Pick Up Options

Did Birdie G’s last night. Kind of a mixed bag. Portions were very small for the price, but the jerk chicken, chop salad, and corn bread were all tasty, and I quite liked our to go cocktails. However, their chocolate cake was completely dry and would be a very bad piece of cake from Ralphs, let alone from a restaurant priding itself on desserts.

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Valle is a “pop-up” Oaxacan at (though might replace) MTN on Abbot Kinney. It is part of the Gjusta group from two of the chefs at MTN. I tried the tacos for lunch (2 for $9, 3 for $13–so not inexpensive) and liked the carne asada but thought the pollo adobado was too dry. Comes with paired salsa and a lime wedge but chips (good) are extra ($2.50) and do not come with their own salsa.

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They opened in the MTN space on Abbot Kinney. LAT story here: https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2020-05-04/gjelina-mtn-chefs-oaxacan-pop-up-venice

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I don’t typically order breakfast delivery, but very early this morning I had Postmates bring a scrambled egg croissant sandwich from Chaumont. The eggs arrived perfectly warm - perhaps because it was so early that there was no traffic (I have been noticing a lot more traffic lately which was confirmed by an article this morning in the L.A. Times) and also because I am not far from Chaumont.

I would say it was one of my more successful quarantine deliveries, particularly because I rarely have the patience to scramble eggs perfectly (nice and fluffy) and the Chaumont eggs were scrambled perfectly.

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I never got to try the famed Europane egg salad of yore, but Amandine has always been a decent local mainstay. Via Ubereats:

Amandine - Egg Salad Sandwich

Fluffy bread that really perked up at the edges in the toaster - nice and fluffy egg salad but nothing special. Pleasant salad and tart, salty gherkins for contrast.

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In case anyone on the Westside is interested…you may want to double check first since the guy at the truck wasn’t 100% sure if they would be there through Tuesday. Shrimp tacos and ceviche only. The truck parks over by the driving range.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CABDVqZjI0G/

As a matter of fact the mom & pop whose name I don’t want to mention is a Thai spot. The meat & poultry were chewy and/or dried out, and what you order is sometimes replaced or prepared differently. But you’re right, the noodles and sauce were great even the next day. Not sure if we’ll order from them again but they said they’re really busy now, so that’s good.

Mmm hmm… and air quality starting to return to normal… bad. I have a feeling all this talk of change in routine and lifestyle is just that, talk. We’ll be right back on that road and also Uber-ing again to avoid parking issues.

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Actually I hope so. I am so tired of not working, not exercising, and not backpacking. Missed an incredible spring. I had just discovered a great taco stand two blocks away; they will probably be gone forever. I miss cooking for people, and meeting new friends. I wanted to have you and A, and @CiaoBob and @J_L and families over as well as @attran99, @Nemroz and many others. Plus I want to meet @PorkyBelly, who as far as I can tell, has kept the spirit of FTC alive more than anyone. I hate pollution and traffic, but I hate not seeing friends even more. I could name so many more I want to meet, but the censor just told me I can only name ten users in a post so I edited out many more. I know you feel the same way as do all of us. Sorry for the rant.

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I do… I do! Getting together at friends’ homes and restaurants opening is going to be really great! My only regret is traffic was so awful in L.A. and we had the 2nd worst air quality in the country two months ago, but after the shelter-in-place order we had the best air quality in the country. My wish is those who can work from home continue to do so. But after running into traffic on a Sunday I’m not hopeful.

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I agree. So let me name others whom I want to meet in no particular order: @Chowseeker1999, @butteredwaffles, @beefnoguy, @Google_Gourmet, @Gr8pimpin, @Ns1, @paranoidgarliclover, @moonboy403, @NYCtoLA, and @Dommy. That’s ten so there are many more. I hope we can do a meetup someplace after this - I guess we call it a bang now.

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That’s very nice of you to say, thank you. I would love to break bread with you too someday.

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As long as UCLA, USC, and other massive employers are remote, traffic won’t be close to normal.

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Would love to meet up someday! Yes this all sounds so nice

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Yeah, this. I got laid off because of current situation and looking for a job is almost impossible. I remind myself frequently it’s not me and the lack of response is not because of any failings on my part. I miss my daily walks. I’ve given up because of the lack of awareness from other joggers and bicyclists not keeping a distance and instead of calming and centering me, the walks were increasing my anxiety of instead. I’ve resorted to doing indoor cardio to keep in shape.

Spring was also tough because we’ve had an annual reunion for a group of friends that had been going on for over two decades. To have that be snapped was yet another loss due to the pandemic.

There’s a few taco stands in my neighborhood that I visited regularly, gotten to know the people, know the kids that help with the stand, always tipped, extra when it was the kids manning the cash box. I worry about them, will they survive. I hope so, immigrants that run small food operations are resilient and tough.

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It’s not and it’s something we have to remember and remind ourselves. Thanks for sharing @Jase. It helps folks who are going thru the same things.

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I’m curious about the taco truck / stand situation. @Jase @ebethsdad and others have mentioned some of their favorites being closed, yet some are still operating. Is it lack of business, supply, what?

Bavel couscous is hand rolled! A real gem.

The ones I’ve seen out certainly don’t look like they are thriving

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Thanks, appreciate it. I count my blessings, we are in a more fortunate position than most to deal with this, we can put food on the table without the financial pressures many unemployed people experience, have health insurance, healthy (knock on wood). Even then it’s daunting to think at best, it’ll be several more months before businesses think about hiring and the type of white collar jobs I’m in the market for will be flooded and pay ranges will be cut.

Wildly uneducated guess, probably a combination of all the usual factors. Low margin business that depends on customer volume that’s not there, the additional sanitary measures needed further adding more hurdles. I did notice one stand on the way home the other day that was set up but they had one customer instead of usual crowd. They normally handmake tortillas fresh for each order but I wonder how they would handle that now with the sporadic customer. How would they even project how much masa to prep and keep handy?

All this and I’m not sure how it would play out legally too. I was reading about a tamale maker who had all her tamales thrown away by LAPD when she was trying to sell. Luckily her old employer is now allowing her to use the restaurants kitchen in DTLA and now has been selling out of that location successfully. But not everyone has that option. Ugh, that reminds me of the tamale gal who would set up at the parking lot of the Northgate in my rotation. She was there every day with tasty tamales and friendly smile. Haven’t seen her around.

Anyway, I’d guess that many taco stands would be leery of investing the money in supplies and setting up if there’s a fear that they’d be shut down, all their product be destroyed or wasted due to lack of customers. The financial loss would be hard to absorb.

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