Easily one of the best burritos I ever had!
Those beans are magic
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Went to Gus’s on Crenshaw 2 weeks ago, and they sadly weren’t making collard greens either! (And hadn’t a couple other times I ordered during covid.) For LA and for takeout, their fried green tomatoes aren’t bad.
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This was a good 2.5 days of eating. 
Clementine’s DineLA menu is not gourmet, but it does offer something a bit different than the regular menu in terms of possible combos and is a satisfying meal. I love things that are neatly packaged.
Nothing innovative or new here, but the food is always consistent and of high quality. Only nitpick is that I would’ve preferred the cornichons to have been diced; the bigger pieces gave too much salty/sour in one single bite.
Choc chip cookie underneath the sandwich. Had I known that @rlw was going to make their cookie post, I would’ve taken a shot of the inside of the cookie!
Lots of people have taken pics of the Hayato bento box. So I’ll provide the menu.
I think someone had already posted something similar in the past, but I do want to point out the text that accompanies the bento box (upper right on the menu).
Is it possible to literally taste beauty? If so, then the food in the bento box provides that, along w/ heart, soul, and incredible precision and balance.
A mild bang-bang w/ Sweet Rose.
The tart (listed on the menu) froyo isn’t that tart, TBH, but goes nicely w/ the pluot jam. There’s not much jam, which is actually a good thing b/c the sweetness doesn’t overwhelm the yogurt. I do wish the pluot pieces weren’t so… chewy. Banana pudding ice cream was very good, as was the chocolate (can’t remember what it was called, but I think it’s on the seasonal menu).
BONUS pic. Me looking clueless as I sat at The Row wondering where the h*ll everyone was for the Hayato pick up. The buildings there are beautiful, and lots of people seemed to be taking engagement-style pics there. It’s easy to see why.
I’ve anonymized myself to protect the innocent.
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I can just tell from the top of it though that it’s high quality—nicely tanned and rippled edges with a slightly sunken center. If only they weren’t closed on Sundays!
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BBR (best bite roundup)
Tiger and the Horse
I’ve picked up the chirashi bowl a couple times and this was the best one yet. Four types of fish (rock cod, buri, ora king salmon, and kanpachi) and a GENEROUS amount of uni. I really like the addition of the okra tempura, charred belly, and wax apple, but a special shout out goes to the finger lime that punches everything up. Every week they also put out a small playlist of songs to pair with your bowl. If you’re interested, preorders for the following week go live every Saturday at noon and there’s more info on their Instagram.
Konbi
I’m not sure how long it’s been but Chef Miles Thompson has been helping out in the Konbi kitchen, bringing some new inventive dishes to the menu. We may be on the backend of tomato season, but this simple salad comes with a pistachio nori granola and sake lees vinaigrette that let’s the fruit stand out but still adding something special.
There’s also a new brownie on the menu that’s pretty outstanding. It’s quite sweet, but the caramel makes it more interesting than other run of the mill brownies.
Proof
This is the inside of the apex predator chocolate chip cookie I wrote about it in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Death Match–the best one in the first batch.
PRD
Automatic.
Botanica
I can’t say enough about how much of a banger Botanica’s kabob party menu is. While I’ve always had great meals at the small neighborhood spot, I’m going to be bummed when this menu goes away at the end of the month. All the kabobs are great, but my favorite is the chicken with roasted stone fruit. It sits on a bed of toum and the entire combo really is a party in your mouth.
Fat + Flour
On September 9th, Chef Rucker asked if she should add biscuits to the Fat + Flour menu. A week and a half later the biscuit trio landed on the menu with little cups of butter and plum/lavender jam. As revealed in her cookbook “Dappled”, Chef Rucker uses ricotta cheese in her biscuits that creates sublimely flaky and fluffy interior. I nearly blacked out when I ate it with both butter and jam.
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South Park taco crawl. The taco stands were doing al fresco dining before it became popular. No issues social distancing and everyone was wearing masks which was heartening.
Tire shop still the best. Smoky asada all day! Should’ve gotten chorizo too but was worried about filling up
Unnamed taco stand that was grilling asada chicken and chorizo in a barrel grill off mlk near trinity. Homemade tortillas which seem to be the norm these days. Their salsa was very tasty
Tacos Los guichos pastor was good but not nearly as good as tacos Leo also minus of no pineapple on taco.
Tacos don eve probably my favorite vapor vendor. They only serve cabeza and labio. Both are out of this world tender with a great mix of cartilaginous textures. Their habanero salsa is hot!
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That mesquite that they get into the carne asada at Tire Shop is what keeps me going back. Thanks for the update on the COVID conditions.
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One caveat, we went early to tire shop at around 530 by the time we were eating on the back of my trunk, there was a big line and definitely was not appropriately distanced.
Do you know what brand of mesquite they use?
Sushi nigiri takeout box, Shunji Japanese Cuisine (West LA)… It’s hard finding premium uni these days, and somehow Shunji-san found some. Akami was terrific as well.
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5 mcchelin 
,
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5 years! A long overdue post sir. Glad to have you back with us on FTC.
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Errr not true
The chefs (on all ends of the sushi spectrum) I’ve talked to would indicate otherwise. Locally, Santa Barbara murasaki uni quality has diminished, and San Diego uni is also lesser in taste and quantity as before. My own experience when shopping at the Japanese supermarkets has been the slimmest pickings at anytime I can recall. As I recall seeing on your posts, you seek out uni purveyors all over the globe, so you might be able to see better uni and more often.
Don’t they source most of their fish from Japan? Just tack on a tray in their overnight delivery when local offerings are not ideal. Just sayin…there is a lotta uni out there beyond CA waters
https://www.instagram.com/p/BurjWkdlPya/?igshid=1jtgc8xpesjxk
Uni season is very particular so far and we are in a very weird stage this very point in time.
Aka uni season just about wrapped up (very short), and pricing for Hokkaido bafun has skyrocketed (along with many other seafood) as a result of typhoon season. The so called brand name uni is scarce right now and up the point of ridiculously expensive and cost ineffective for numerous chefs in California (NorCal included) especially doing takeout and trying to keep their costs in check, unless they have die hard fans willing to pay and/or take a hit just to keep them happy. In Hong Kong, the Awaji island aka uni pricing has gone up also quite a lot (despite being much closer to Japan and getting more frequent shipments).
So if you have difficulty finding run of the mill Hokkaido bafun, that is also why. Next few weeks should be better.
Prices were way better and lower about a month ago.
Also, coronavirus wrecked havoc with a lot of other things
The instagram photo you linked is dated March 2019, with probably much better pricing then.
I was in Tokyo exactly two years ago at a Michelin sushi omakase restaurant, one week after a really bad typhoon… kuruma ebi was prohibitively expensive but the chef bought all the wild specimens he could get just to serve them to us, and they were ridiculously great quality. I’m sure he took a major hit that night but eventually made up for it later.
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ototo
passion fruit cheesecake cream puff - cookie crust cream puff stuffed with passion fruit curd and cream cheese filling, topped with swiss meringue
order this as soon as possible, so good. this reminded me of the mpfcp, perfectly balanced with the sweetness coming from the meringue instead of the mango.
@hanhgry, @butteredwaffles, @TheCookie, @rlw, @J_L, @js76wisco, @attran99, @Starchtrade, @NYCtoLA, @foodshutterbug
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Holy Omg!
In honor of @PorkyBelly’s ahem, underwhelming, Vespertine: Japan experience, I wanted to recreate it with a bunch of substitutions from spots with track records executing these dishes.
I’d been caught up in the hype, and despite my own gut feeling, ordered right away for the second weekend. Without that critical first report, my friend and I (his trip to Japan was cancelled due to COVID) likely would have been saddled with a highly disappointing meal 
thankfully we were able to save ourselves.
Let’s begin.
soft tofu - Meiji Tofu
fresh and non-gmo
I could have eaten this whole thing with a spoon.
zaru soba - Otafuku
cold buckwheat noodles served with dipping sauce and accompaniments
Incredible buckwheat taste and toothsome, perfectly cooked noodles. I could have drank the dipping sauce straight.
broiled black cod - Nozomi
with sweet saikyo miso
This was a highlight–superbly flavorful and great char.
tonkatsu - Kagura
premium black pork fillet cutlet
Nearly as good with takeout as served fresh, and no trace of blood. Kabocha squash was good.
sashimi - Wadatsumi
five kind assorted sashimi (10 pcs)
Perfectly sized cuts.
taiyaki - SomiSomi
baked fish waffle cone filled with custard on top of milk soft serve
Confirming this was filled with custard.
fruit sando - Katsu Sando
strawberry, mango, kiwi, raspberry
The bread was still soft, but the variety of seasonal fruit is what really stood out in the sweet whipped cream.
le matcha - Patisserie Chantilly
green tea mousse
They were out of cream puffs when I got there, so I pivoted and stuck with the matcha theme. Outstanding.
The end.
Full disclosure I couldn’t eat all of this–it was a massive amount of food and I have rice for days.
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Dayum next level!