Taco Heaven: Guisados

Boyle Heights lies at the western-most outpost of East LA, just across the LA River from downtown, and it's one of the culinary centers of Mexican food in LA. I've been craving Mexican a lot lately, and while there is good Oaxacan in my neighborhood, to get traditional northern Mexican cuisine, it helps to cross the river.

A small, rectangular taco shop at the corner of Cesar Chavez and St. Louis with a sort of Chicano hipster vibe, Guisados is a recent edition to the neighborhood, having opened in 2010. It's purely a taco shop, offering about a dozen varieties and no other dishes to speak of. For those of you who are fans of Loteria, it's like the taco selection there, but so much better with bolder flavors and spicier sauces. And if it's not spicy enough, try some of their fiery habañero salsa, but use it sparingly, very sparingly.

The base of any taco is the tortilla, yet so many LA taco joints just pop them out of a plastic bag, not so Guisados which makes fresh, thick corn tortillas. And the toppings are worthy of those excellent tortillas (guisados is Spanish for stews).

The chicken tinga, shredded chicken in a savory red sauce, was a stand out. The mole Poblano was less thick and molten than the Oaxacan style found in my neighborhood but equally rich and complex. The fish tacos were also wonderful with pan fried rather than deep fried fish and the traditional cabbage and cream sauce. All of the meat dishes, spicy chorizo, tangy conchinita pibil, a lovely bistek in salsa rojo, and many others, were superb. Vegetarian tacos were also excellent, including a lovely hongos (mushrooms) con cilantro in which the earthy mushrooms were well paired with the bright flavors of cilantro. It's apparent that so much care goes into the preparation of each of these dishes, both the cooking of the meat and the sauces; you really can't lose at this place.

For all of these complex stewed delicacies, though, my favorite taco was probably the quesadilla (pictured as the center taco in the bottom plate at right). It consisted of a disk of Mexican cheese fried so that it developed a crispy crust, and topped with a sort of remoulade sauce. It was so simple, but so rich, with a diversity of textures and a richness from both cheese and sauce that practically forced me to order a second.

For your first visit, a great menu option is the sampler plate of six mini tacos with your choice of toppings (pictured), then go back for the ones you love most.

If you're a taco lover, you need to get to Guisados.

Guisados
2100 E. Cesar E Chavez Ave.
Los Angeles, CA. 90033
(323) 264-7201

Ten Years at the LA County Fair

This year was my tenth consecutive year attending the LA County Fair. I first visited back in 2001, upon hearing of the deep fried Snickers bar, still one of my fair favorites. Over the years, I've become very strategic at navigating fair food, concentrating on a few old favorites (notably the aforementioned Snickers and Dr. Bob's excellent ice cream stand) while scouting for anything new that looks like it has potential. (All of my fair coverage can be found here.) This year, I came out with two new finds.

The best strategy at the fair is to look for stands that are connected to local restaurants. Why eat some generic corn dog when you could be eating a taco from King Taco or a shrimp po-boy from Harold & Belle's? This year's find was a stand from the famous East LA institution, Manuel's El Tepeyac. The fair stand, as with most stands, has a limited version of the regular menu, but it includes the Hollenbeck Burrito bursting with chili verde, beans, rice and guacamole and their famous taquitos, which are some of the best anywhere.

The next good find was from an unexpected source, Chicken Charlie's, that haven of deep fried crap (which may have been an actual menu item one year). I generally decry each year's deep fried novelty but then try it anyway because I'm a sucker for such things. This year, it was deep fried cookie dough. About the size of doughnut hole, the fried cookie dough balls were sweet and gooey with a chocolaty molten filling. The contrast of a sweet, gloppy filling with a fried exterior is exactly what you want out of a fried treat, and this one worked well.

The Fair has another week to go so you're not too late to catch some deep fried goodness.

Recent Reads: Taco USA by Gustavo Arellano

If you're looking for a great summer read that will make you hungry to boot, look no further than Gustavo Arellano's Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. Through a series of narratives, Arellano traces the history of Mexican food, in some cases going back to the Aztecs, and how its popularity spread through the United States. You'll learn about the mass popularity of tamales a century ago, a fad that survives in the tamales available in Chicago and Mississippi, the once famous chili queens of San Antonio, numerous regional delicacies and the evolution of the US love affair with chips, salsa, tequila, burritos, and of course, tacos, from taco trucks to Taco Bell. More than just the story of a cuisine, these culinary trends reflect the multi-cultural nature of the US, its relationship with Mexico, and most strongly, the Mexican-American experience.

Based in Orange County, Arellano is the OC Weekly's food editor and author of the popular "Ask a Mexican" column. He clearly owes some of his writing style to Jonathan Gold, the food critic who formerly wrote for the LA Weekly, which has common ownership with Arellano's paper. That style, casual, witty and metaphor-heavy, is entertaining, but in reading Taco USA, I couldn't help but wonder if sometimes it's better suited for a short review than an entire book. Arellano sometimes goes overboard with the metaphors, which are often mixed. In a two sentence description of the making of a San Francisco Mission-style burrito, he writes of a "tundra of rice," a "rain of cheese", a "jungle of shredded lettuce," being made "as fast as in a game of Whac-a-Mole." Sometimes this goes on for paragraphs at a time. But that tendency is a minor annoyance which is more then made up for by the stories Arellano tells and the history he uncovers.

The one word of caution I would give is that this book will make you hungry. I finished reading it on a flight to LAX and upon reaching the airport found myself heading immediately for the closest great Mexican food I could think of (La Huasteca in Lynwood - review to come). So if you read the book, and you should, I'd recommend doing it in close proximity to some good Mexican grub.

Post-Cognac Al Pastor: El Matador Taco Truck

What's the best place to get cheap eats after a night of Cognac
(or rum) at La Descarga, the rum bar on Western just south of the 101? The clear answer is the El Matador taco truck. Situated in the parking lot of mechanic on Western that advertises "Smog Transmission" just across the street from La Descarga, El Matador is recognizable for the line that forms every night after dark.

There's good reason that people line up, they've got the full menu of meats including sesos (cow brain) and buche (pork stomach). I went a bit more conventional and tried tacos with carnitas, al pastor, lengua and cabeza. All of these were very good, but the al pastor was a stand out. Heavily seasoned pork (not sure if they spit roast theirs in the traditional style) in nicely fried bits with plenty of crunch along with the satisfying spice. Really addictive stuff.

I may go out late just as an excuse to eat here again. And with four tacos for five bucks, you can't afford not to go.

Tacos El Matador Truck (nights)
1174 N. Western Ave (@ Lexington)
Los Angeles, CA

The Search for Cemitas: El Delfin Jr.

Ever since the closure of the great but short-lived Pal Cabron, I've lost my best neighborhood source of cemitas...the Mexican sandwiches served on sweet bread. Since then, I vowed to search for other options for my Koreatown cemitas habit, which mostly means checking out the local food trucks.

One of the most visible cemitas trucks, El Delfin Jr. can regularly be found on the south side of Wilshire by the old Ambassador hotel site. The neon-orange truck serves cemitas, clayudas, tortas, tacos and burgers.

Why it's named with the Spanish word for dolphin, I don't know. While there is a small picture of a dolphin, the truck's main logo appears to be an unfortunately Hootersesque picture of a woman with cemitas where her shirt should be. Pal Cabron had its share of strangely drawn busty women as well. Something about cemtias seems to bring out mammary fixations.

They didn't have pork milanesa, so I ordered the cemita de milaensa de res (beef). It was served in the fairly standard manner with quesillo, papalo, avocado, a nice tangy salsa with pickled peppers on the side so you can add them to your taste (which for me means they all go in).

It was not bad, but it didn't measure up to the Pal Cabron standard, mostly due to the bread and meat. In contrast to the Cabron's puffy, perfectly textured, freshly baked rolls, the Delfin's roll was a sad, flat, stale piece of bread. The milanesa itself was thin, overly chewy and lacking in distinctive flavor. That being said, the overall flavor on the sandwich was not bad due to plenty of papalo, a really nice red salsa and the aforementioned pickled peppers. Still, bread and meat are the essential components of a cemita and you can't do that well if you're missing them. It's like messing up on the triple axle in an Olympic figure skating competition; you lose a lot of points.

So on we go...

Sonoma Highlights

As promised, here are the highlights from my week in Sonoma. Two oldies and two newer places.


Juanita Juanita

Practically everyone who's lived in Sonoma for more than a decade has a story about the original Juanita, the mysterious, somewhat scandalous proprietor who first opened a restaurant in Sausalito in the 1960s, then moved to Glen Ellen before landing on Arnold Drive in Sonoma in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Juanita is long gone but the restaurant is still some of the best Mexican food in Sonoma, beginning with their addictive, fresh chips and salsa. The al pastor, prepared on the traditional spit, is the highlight. The pork is crispy with a good flavor but not overwhelmingly seasoned, you can get it on tacos or, covered with salsa verde in the chile verde.

Juanita Juanita
19114 Arnold Drive
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 935-3981


The Girl & The Fig

The Girl & The Fig, which first opened in nearby Glen Ellen in the 1990s, is probably one of the restaurants most responsible for making Sonoma a culinary destination. There were good restaurants before it, including the Sonoma Hotel's restaurant which previously occupied the current Girl & the Fig location on the Sonoma Plaza, but the Girl was one of the first to win wider regional, and even national acclaim.

The formula has changed very little since those early days, though there are more figs on the menu (I remember thinking on one of my first visits that the menu was surprisingly unfiggy) and they have a bit of an absinthe obsession (I appreciate the sparing use of absinthe in cocktails but any more than a half ounce and the drink just tastes like absinthe). Still, the duck confit is some of my favorite anywhere with a crispy but not greasy skin and moist meat, there is a nice selection of local cheese and home made charcuteries (though they could be more generous with the charctuerie) and both the chocolate desserts and those using seasonal fruit are very well done. The Girl & the Fig chocolate pot du creme is one of my favorite desserts anywhere and I regularly make it on holidays, but the night I was there they had a wonderful chocolate caramel tart with a few crystals of salt on top. Equally delicious was a stone fruit crumble with a creme fraiche ice cream.

It may not be as innovative as it once was, but the Girl is still one of the best dining choices in town.

The Girl & the Fig
110 West Spain Street
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 938-3634



La Michoacana

This ice cream/paleta stand on Highway 12 in Boyes Hot Springs was our top new find of the trip (well, new to me; it's been there for two years now). Sonoma never really had great ice cream, but this shop changes all that. The familiarly named Mexican stand has creamy ice cream with punchy flavors, smooth ice cream pops and popsicles with fresh fruit. The ice cream flavors included caramel, Mexican vanilla, guanabana and many others, all tasting of fresh ingredients and not too sweet. My favorite, though, was the chongo, a Mexican custard with a mild, sweet flavor and little custard bits in it.

Along with ice cream there is a freezer full of what I'd estimate to be about twenty varieties of of ice cream bars, popsicles and frozen bananas. The ice cream bars were particularly good. The strawberries and cream bar tasted intensely of strawberry, like a great, creamy strawberry ice cream (the bar was, in fact, better than their regular strawberry ice cream). I would have liked to try more, like the arroz con leche and the rum raisin. Popsicles included chili with mango or pineapple and other fresh fruit combinations. And to top it off, they have a selection of fresh aguas frescas.

In one week, I visited this place three times. It's a keeper.

La Michoacana
18495 Hwy 12
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 938-1773


Studebaker Cheesecake

Studebaker Cheesecake has been making cheesecakes for sale at local grocery stores for a few years now, but just a few months ago, they opened their first retail shop on West Napa Street. The cheesecakes are the specialty, and they are quite nice, but the highlight of this shop was the small selection of baked goods. I loved the huge scones using fresh, seasonal fruit (raspberry and blueberry when I was there), dusted with sugar, rich and moist. The chocolate chip cookie was another winner, a whole wheat cookie made with Valrhona chocolate, made fresh that morning. I'm keeping my eye on this place.

Studebaker Cheesecake
248 West Napa Street
Sonoma, California 95476
(707) 933-9224

Life's a Beach: Playa

Playa is the newest restaurant from New Mexico native and Jonathan Gold favorite, Chef John Sedlar. It's a pan-Latin, quasi-small plates, bustling space on Beverly where Grace used to be.

The first thing you notice upon entering Playa is a giant and impressive wall of spirits (now that's my kind of beach!). One would expect the nice selection of tequilas and mezcals (including at least five from the Del Maguey single village line), but there was also an impressive selection of whiskeys, including Scotch, American and Japanese, with full lines from High West and the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and some good standards from distilleries ranging from Glenfarclas to Springbank. There wasn't necessarily anything rare, but it was a much more complete selection than I usually see in LA restaurants (or bars for that matter). They will also make you a customized cocktail if you tell them what you like; everyone at my table who had one was very satisfied.

This was my first taste of Sedlar's cuisine, which I would describe as based on but not restricted to Latin flavors; one motif seemed to be a use of Indian flavors with Latin ingredients. I call it quasi-small plate because there is an extensive small plate menu but also and entree list. We indulged in both.

Much has been made of the maize cakes on the menu, but these were basically updated tacos, and while generally good, they didn't strike me as any sort of revelation, though I very much enjoyed the cauliflower cake which featured purple and white cauliflower, nicely caramelized. The best sounding of the cakes, the Bombay Taj, featured pork belly and Indian spices, but the pork was a bit dry and the flavors didn't seem to coalesce.

Among the other small plates though, there were some real standouts. The Octo-Palm included grilled octopus, dried red onions, hearts of palm and a roasted tomato. The octopus had a super-rich flavor and a mouthfeel that was more like a tender filet than octopus. The dried onions and the roasted tomato were little flavor bombs that added to the richness of the dish.

The Tamalli Chipotle looked like a tamale but was made with wild mushrooms and had a deep mushroomy flavor. It was served with a few slices of perfectly cooked, tender and spicy filet mignon.

The favorite dish of the night, though, was the Flan De Elote. A rich, corn custard topped with huitlacoche. The custard was light and creamy and the addition of the huitlacoche added just the right savory, slightly funky note. We ordered a second dish.

All of the entree dishes were also very nice. Duck was crispy and well cooked, though the "garbanzo creme" it was served on tasted like a very bland hummus. The New York Strip was well cooked, and the skate wing, fried and sliced, was lovely, crispy and sort of addictive.

Desserts were generally good but nothing fantastic.

Aesthetics are big at Playa. The photo above is one of their floral print tortillas, and many of the dishes are served on large plates which feature themed photos. The night we were there they were all scenes from A Clockwork Orange, some of which were a tad creepy, in a fun way (I particularly liked one of a woman doing yoga surrounded by cats, though I can't recall that scene from the film).

The space itself is quite loud and was very warm, though it was one of those unseasonably warm April nights that we had this weekend, so they may not have had their AC up as high as they will in the summer.

The service was friendly and informal, and they were very happy to accommodate diner's wishes, on or off menu.

Overall, Playa is a fun experience, and I enjoyed Sedlar's playful take on Latin cuisine.


Playa
7360 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 933-5300

Grills Without Borders: Border Grill Downtown

Border Grill has long been an LA area fixture. Long before Babita and Rivera, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken were cooking up high end Mexican treats in Santa Monica. Recently they converted their pan-Latin downtown spot, Ciudad, into another outlet of Border Grill. I've often been to the Santa Monica BG, but this was my first trip to the downtown spot, on Figueroa directly across from the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.

The look, feel and menu are pretty similar to the Santa Monica location. I haven't been to Santa Monica recently enough to know if the new things I found on the menu are specific to the downtown location or available in both, but along with the old standbys (green corn tamales, conchinita pibil, plantain empenadas among others) was a roasted potato rajas relleno, a potato rajas (in cream) stuffed in a poblano pepper and topped with a salad of quinoa, greens, tortilla strips and their tangy salsa verde and tomato salsa. Good stuff and something I'd never seen on the Santa Monica menu. This was a nice dish, fresh and tangy, though I wish the pepper had just a bit of heat.

My favorite dessert at the Santa Monica branch is the Mexican chocolate cream pie. The version downtown is similar except that instead of a meringue crust, it has a chocolate cookie crust. The cookie crust is good, but I prefer the meringue.

Basically, though, this place is a pretty identical to Santa Monica, so if you are a fan of that location but live further east, this is a good deal for you, and walking in without reservations, I was able to get a table for 5 on a Friday night. That's hard to beat.

Border Grill Downtown
445 S. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90071
(213) 486-5171

My Pal Cabron and His Cemitas

Back when I was first learning Spanish and working in Dallas, I was intending to order tacos al carbon but instead ordered "tacos al cabron" which led to a laugh riot among the restaurant staff and my co-workers. Cabron, as I later learned, is a sometimes-curse word in Spanish. It's one of those words that is hard to translate, but the polite translation would probably be something akin to macho man or, really, macho shit-head. The cabron is the guy with more machismo than sense.

Pa'l Cabron, near as I can tell, is an abbreviation for para el cabron, a restaurant for the Macho shit head. The restaurant was founded by the owners of the popular Oacacan mini-chain Guelaguetza and originally opened in Huntington Park but has migrated to the location of the original Guelaguetza on 8th Street west of Irolo.

The cabron theme is apparent in both the decor and the cuisine. The walls are decorated with mini-comics, sort of like the bottom of the page illustrations in Mad Magazine, showing the bearded, pot-bellied cabron in various absurd situations, like running over pedestrians in his car while he day dreams about cemitas. And while I tried to ignore the sketches of absurdly large breasted women, it's hard not to like the portrait of the cabron wrestling two donkey piñatas, a painting that is flanked by two mounted donkey piñata heads (presumably showing that the cabron won that fight).

The cuisine is casual food. Tlayudas, the Oaxacan pizzas, are offered here as they are at Guelaguetza, but the highlight at Pal Cabron is the cemitas. Cemitas are Mexican sandwiches, much like tortas but served on Mexican sweet bread instead of a white roll. The cemitas at Pal Cabron are unbelievable good, and once I started going there for a cemitas lunch, it was hard to stop.



La Muy Muy, a pork milanesa cemita (all of the sandwiches have cute little names) was probably the best milanesa sandwich I've ever had and I'm a huge fan of milanesa. Pounded, breaded, deep fried pork with queso fresco, avocado, quesillo (Oaxacan string cheese), papalo (a Central American herb with a sort of arugala like bite) and a choice of the sweet chipotle ketchup like sauce or tangy pickled jalapeños (both are great). The pork cutlet was painfully good, with the right balance of crunch and tenderness...I wanted another one right away! Mark my word, this is one of LA's greatest sandwiches.

The La De Barbacha is advertised as a lamb sandwich but tastes more like goat; perhaps it is mutton. Stewed in a red sauce, it has a nice gamey taste similar to the popular Oaxacan goat soups.

I also enjoyed La Cabrona, a sandwich which combines a beef milanesa and a few slices of head cheese. While the beef milanesa is not quite as rich as the pork, the head cheese gives it a nice smoky, ham flavor.

As anyone who loves Langer's or Bay Cities can tell you, a sandwich is only as good as its bread, and the bread on these cemitas is part of the beauty of the sandwich. They are made on huge, round, sesame studded rolls baked fresh at the restaurant. The rolls are crisp and crunchy on the outside and soft within. The crunch of the crust is an essential part of the gestalt that makes these sandwiches so amazing.

While they didn't all reach the heights of the pork milanesa, every sandwich I had at Pal Cabron was great. I'm not kidding, the first time I went to Pal Cabron, I felt compelled to return the next day. The place is addictive, and I can see how you could end up with a belly like the pictured cabron.

Pal Cabron
3337 1/2 W. 8th Street (where the original Guelaguetza was)
Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 427-0601

Juanita's at the Hollywood Farmer's Market

There are a number of great food options at the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market (Ivar Street between Sunset and Hollywood), but lately I've been enjoying the Mexican home cooking at Juanita's. It's fairly straight forward Mexican food, cooked fresh. The enchiladas go right into the pan as you wait. I'm always a big fan of a plate of chilaquiles for breakfast and the Juanita's version is piled high with chile sauce with egg and a sprinkling of cheese; it's not the most sophisticated version, more like someone's grandmother made it for you. There's a little table right alongside to sit and eat and it all washes down well with an ensalada from Delmy's pupusas, a few doors down.

I-5 Eats: Faster Fast Food at the El Taco Sinaloa Truck

Are you planing a holiday trip up north this season? Anyone who drives from LA to the Bay Area knows the long and culinarily depressing stretch that is I-5. From the Grapevine to the 580, there is precious little to eat close to the interstate. There are the big fast food chains, the alluring but always disappointing Harris Ranch and the hokey, substandard Apricot Tree and Anderson's Pea Soup joints. There are a few In-n-Outs on either side of the trek, but none stationed in the vast middle.

But on my last trek, we found something more. After putting some good miles down, we pulled off at the Apricot Tree exit, hoping for the possibility of finding something edible on its sad, sad menu when we saw it: a lone taco truck parked in a huge vacant lot with rows of tires lined up along the back of the lot. El Taco Sinaloa sits at the edge of the lot closest to the road alongside a table with a single bench. The clientele seemed to be a mix of locals who knew the place and Latino truck drivers.

I don't know that I've ever been so glad to see a taco truck, and a good one at that. El Taco Sinaloa offers a simple version of standard taco truck fare. The pastor taco had nicely crisped chunks of pastor, the plump bits of lengua were cubed almost to a brunoise, and the carne asada was also nice and crispy; the tortillas on the tacos were crisp and fresh and the salsa verde was citrusy and well seasoned if not too spicy.

A simple taco truck perhaps, but also some of the best I-5 exit food between LA and the Bay, and faster and cheaper than the fast food chains to boot. It will surely be my regular stop; let's hope it stays parked right there.

El Taco Sinaloa
I-5 exit 368 (Panoche Road - same exit as the Apricot Tree)
East side of the Interstate in the big lot with the tires along the back
Firebaugh, CA

Soup is Good Food - My Favorite LA Soups

As the air finally begins to develop something akin to a chill, for Southern California at least, my thoughts turn to soup. Soup is a comfort food in nearly every culture; perhaps the warm, wetness appeals to our desire to return to the womb and feast, once again, on amniotic fluid from the one time in our lives when we lacked any literal independence and were totally and completely dependent on the care of others. Or maybe it's just warm and tasty.

In no particular order, then, come a few of my favorite LA area soups.


Seolleongtang with beef tongue at Hanbat Shul-Lung-Tang. Like Pho Minh's pho, the broth is the essence of beef, though this time, it's beef bones, oxtail to be precise. The murky, milky broth shows the presence of stewed bones and reaches out to comfort every extremity. The tongue is sliced so thinly and is so tender that you might think you are eating ultra-thin strips of filet mignon. This may be the best of the cold-day soups on the list.

Ajiaco at La Fonda Antioqueña. Made from specially imported potatoes and only available on weekends, ajiaco is a Colombian chicken and potato soup in a rich, corn broth. The rich, yellow broth yields flavors of corn and chicken fat and puts the rest of the ingredients to shame, making you wonder why they are; even there. This may be the most delicious broth on the list; it's hard to stop eating.

Pho at Pho Minh. There are thousands of phos throughout the Southland, but none that I've tasted is as intrinsically beefy as Pho Minh's. The broth is so full bodies and representative of beef, that I hesitate to add any of the traditional condiments lest they interfere with that broth. Unlike the beef bone broth at Hanbat, this broth is the essence of the meat, the cow, simmered for God knows how long to wrest every last bit of flavor and present a liquid composition of meat.

Napa Soup with Lamb and Hand Cut Noodles at Dumpling Master. It's tangy, sour and gamey, filled with cabbage, boiled lamb, a good dose of vinegar and chewy, hand cut noodles. This funky Northern Chinese soup is one of my go-to soups and seems like it should cure hangovers, improve virility or have some other mystical effect.

Cream of Corn at La Cabanita. Given how much I love cream soups, it's odd that this is the only one on the list. I just haven't been excited about that many creamed soups in LA. La Cabanita's cream of corn, however, is velvety smooth, sweet and corny. It's topped with crumbled Mexican cheese, which gives it just the right amount of added salt. La Cabanita has a number of excellent soups, but the cream of corn is my favorite.

Bean Paste Casserole at Seongbukdong. The funk continues at this home style Korean restaurant with the bean paste casserole. Not a casserole at all, in the way westerners conceptualize of such a thing, this is a chewy, salty fermented soy bean soup. It tastes like eating an entire bowl of slightly diluted doenjang, the fermented soy bean mash served as a condiment to Korean BBQ. Since it's all I can do not to eat doenjang of the condiment tray with a spoon, this casserole suits me just fine.

Ramen. I'm no Rameniac, but I like a good bowl of ramen, and I go back and forth between whether the ramen is better at Daikokuya in Little Tokyo or Santouka in the Mitsuwa Marketplace. I have a porky soft spot for both Santouka's fatty broth and the pure porky goodness of Daikokuya.

There are other soups I love, but don't have a great example of in LA. Lobster bisque is one of my favorites (are there any Hamburger Hamlets left?). I'm a huge fan of vichyssoise, but I really like my own version the best and besides, it doesn't really count as a cold weather comfort food. And Hawaiian chicken long rice from Ono Hawaiian in Honolulu always deserves a shout out. Then there is Laksa and...well, I could go on.

What are your favorite LA soups?

Vera's Chips & Salsa

Last week, in discussing the Farmers' Kitchen and their use of the excellent chips and salsa from one of the Hollywood Farmers' Market stands, I got several inquiries about that, so I thought I'd post a brief follow-up.

Vera's stand is on Cosmo, which is the street parallel to Ivar, to the west. From Ivan, walk west on Selma and when you see the Thai food vendor, take a right. Vera's has excellent fresh chips and jars of tangy salsa verde and rojo. I can't decide which I like best. They also sell tamales, which are fine, but the chips and salsa are the real treasures.

Commercial Tacos: Sergio's Tacos

For a place called Commerce, there is surprisingly little commercial activity in City of Commerce in southeast LA. I was there recently scouring the streets for signs of decent food and doing my best to avoid the casino and the outlet mall.

It was there that I stumbled upon Sergio's Tacos. Sergio's is a small shop with the basic taco selection done very well. Carne asada was nicely charred and beefy, carnitas were fried well, though not as fatty as I might have liked, and I enjoyed the sauce on the pastor. If I am in Commerce again, you can bet I'll be stopping by Sergio's.

Sergio's Tacos
2216 S Atlantic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90040
(323) 261-3364

Winter Break: Tahoe Report

I took a winter break for some skiing, skating, sledding and eating in the Tahoe area. We were based in the North Shore area around Truckee, California. When I'm out in Tahoe, I don't typically eat out as much as I do at home, preferring home cooked, rustic meals. In addition, Tahoe and environs aren't exactly a culinary Mecca, but there are some gems in the snow that are worth noting.


Moody's Bistro

Since Moody's French Bistro opened in old-town Truckee four or five years ago, it has become our place for the special night out. This was my third visit, and each year I go, it is one of the best meals I have in Tahoe, serving French bistro food with a nod to rustic Sierra cooking. This year, I had a wonderful sweet breads appetizer, a plate loaded with perfectly fried sweetbreads on polenta. For my entree, how could I resist Moody's Big Ass Pork Platter? Moody's buys and butchers its own hogs to come up with this five way pork preparation. The night I was there it was loin, tenderloin, copa, fried belly and a sort of hash of trotters. The loin was a bit on the dry side, but all of the others were perfectly cooked. I'm impressed by Moody's every time I go, and given the cost of similar meals in LA, I'm impressed by the price as well.

Moody's Bistro
10007 Bridge St
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 587-8688


Euro-Snack Waffles

One of my favorite Tahoe fast foods is the Euro-Snack waffle stand at the Squaw Valley and Northstar ski areas. For $4 you get a small, sweet waffle square, grilled to order (pictured above). The gooey, chewy, sweetness warms your soul on a snowy day. It's one of those things that is probably only good in Tahoe, but I can't resist.


Lupita's

If you're flying into Tahoe, as we generally do, you're more than likely coming through the Reno-Tahoe Airport. Reno presents some of its own culinary challenges, but I try to find something decent on my way in or out. Mexican is generally the best bet, so we tried Lupita's in the Reno-adjacent town of Sparks. Lupita's features good, home-style Mexcian food, centered in the cuisine of the state of Nayarit. The food was solid if not particularly exceptional, though the chili verde was excellent, with the pork pieces fried up nicely with a crispy crust and a good tart salsa.

Lupita's
668 E Prater Way (in the strip mall on the northwest corner of Prater and McCarran Blvd.)
Sparks, NV 89431
(775) 355-1770


Sweets Handmade Candies

Sweets candy shop in old-town Truckee (with a branch in Reno) is a pretty typical old-time candy shop featuring fudge, peanut brittle and many other handmade candies that inevitably seem to look (and smell) just a bit better than they taste. It's fun to watch them making the candy in the window and be lured in by the scent, and it's easy to overindulge. The one thing I love at Sweets, which lives up to its smell, is the chocolate covered toffee popcorn. It's a butter toffee corn dripped with chocolate and served in big clumps; it's sweet, salty and highly addictive. They also do good fudge, but stick to the traditional flavors like chocolate and penuche.

Sweets Handmade Candies
10118 Donner Pass Rd # 1
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 587-6556

4991 South Virginia, Suite C
Reno, NV 89502
(775) 827-8270

If you're a Tahoe visitor or local, I'd love to hear your recommendations as I'm always looking for something new and good.

Meals Fit for a King...or a Super Giro

I love my neighborhood for its diversity of cuisine. I sit smack in the middle of enormous Korean, Thai, Central American and Filipino populations. Within five blocks, I can walk to tons of pupuserias (including the best pupuseria in LA), Korean BBQs, and countless other spots. But the one thing my neighborhood is lacking is great tacos, tortas and other Mexican staples.

We have some of the best Oaxacan food around, which is great, but sometimes, you just want a great taco or torta stuffed with the carnitas and al pastor in the style of the western states of Jalisco and Michoacan.

What I really should do is finally get serious about East LA and do some Whittier Boulevard or Huntington Park exploration, but I haven't yet, so I get really excited when I get somewhere where there is a King Taco, and recently, I've added the popular Gallo Giro to my list.

El Gallo Giro [GUY-oh HE-ro] is a 20 year old chain which now has multiple locations, mostly in eastern LA, but also Long Beach, Van Nuys and Santa Ana. They do traditional Mexican fare: tacos, tortas, fabulous aguas frescas and pastries.

King Taco is in many ways a similar institution, dating back to the '70s and serving tacos and burritos to a crowd of hardcore taco fans from its outlets across LA County. In Long Beach there is a King Taco nearly a block away from a Gallo Giro, so I was able to try both and do a little compare and contrast. Being a porketarian, I concentrated on the al pastor and carnitas.


Al Pastor

The Gallo Giro al pastor was nicely spiced, but the King Taco pastor blew it away. The spicing on the KT pastor was above and beyond. Not only chili, but great seasoning with almost a bit of sweetness to it.


Carnitas

If KT wins the al pastor award, Gallo Giro takes it for carnitas. Their carnitas were crisp and oh, so juicy, if a bit on the fatty side. The KT carnitas were fairly standard.


Other

Both establishments serve excellent salsas. The red salsa at KT was spicier and I think the KT green was my favorite, but Gallo Giro's salsa were also quite good.

El Gallo Giro has great aquas frescas (loved the pineapple) and a panaderia, though I didn't try any baked goods.

El Gallo Giro also has daily specials, including the family pack: meat, rice, beans, tortillas and a liter soda for $15. Now, during a recession, that deal makes El Gallo a true hero.

So whether your a King or a Hero, there's good stuff (and pork) all around.

Stuffing the Chili at Babita

The beautiful thing about Mexican stuffed chilis is biting into a pepper and getting something unexpected, be it cheese, meat or, with my favorite chilis en nogada, sweet nuts and raisins.

Much the same could be said for Babita restaurant, which, from the look of its exterior, seems an unlikely venue for one of the most creative Mexican kitchens in Southern California. Babita is housed in a dumpy little house on an unassuming stretch of San Gabriel Boulevard north of the I-10 freeway in San Gabriel. But open the doors and you see white table cloths, a sophisticated menu and a dedicated and enthusiastic chef who will seat you and take your order before the waitress has a chance to say hi. ("I'm always too late," she noted when we told her that the chef had already taken our order).

Chilis and refined sauces are the emphasis at Babita - nuts, moles and the interplay between sweet and spicy are recurring motifs. Two of the best dishes we had were daily specials. A soup duo of carrot and pecan soups, served elegantly with sour cream and chilis en nogada was rich and showed a wonderful contrast between the ingredients. "Don't eat the soups together," the chef cautioned, "because that would be a soup that doesn't exist." On second thought, he added, "but when I give it to you it's yours and you can do what you want with it." We tried them both together and separate. He was right, they were better separate.

I was pleased to find that one of my favorites was also on special. Chilis en nogada is a chili stuffed with raisins and nuts, topped with a walnut cream sauce and tangy pomegranate seeds. The version at Babita, fresh and clean tasting without being too sweet, was on of the best I've had.

Not every dish we had was a winner, but they all had glimmers of brilliance. My fillet mignon was unimpressive, but the pool of tamarind tinged mole poblano it sat on was delicious, and the tiny chili relleno and fried quail eggs that topped it were superb.

There is something so endearing about this place. I love the creativity and energy of Babita as well as the unassuming nature of its exterior. I'm already thinking about what I'll get when I return.

Babita Mexicuisine
1823 S. San Gabriel Blvd.
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 288-7265

Comfort Food at the Rodeo

What to eat when I'm back home from a vacation in Hawaii? Thai, Japanese and Korean are all out, since I've been eating them nonstop. But there are many foods they don't do well in Hawaii: pizza, Middle Eastern, Indian, and most of all, Mexican.

So, I head for one of my favorite comfort foods, Mexican breakfast. Rodeo Grill on Sunset in Echo Park may not be the best Mexican Breakfast in town, but it's darned good and convenient to my mid-city location. I love the breakfast burritos, bulging with egg and chorizo (Tacos Delta, just down the street does a comparably good version), but today, I go for chilaquiles. Yes, they are tortilla chips in sauce, red or green (both very good). They aren't quite as tangy and refined as the version you can get at Loteria Grill, but they are tasty nonetheless. And you even get them with a side of chips. That's right, chips in sauce with a side of chips.

Scoop up a bite of Rodeo's excellent refried beans, and I'm definitively back home.

Rodeo Grill
1721 W Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 483-8311

Got Milks? Tres Leches

Tres Leches cake is one of my many loves. This Latin American dessert consists of a yellow cake soaked in three milks (tres leches): evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and half and half or cream. It's topped with a white icing (hopefully whipped cream). The moist cake, the milks and the frosting combine to make each mouthful a heavenly slice of creamy, dairy goodness.

Tres Leches cake is available at nearly every panaderia in LA, but it's surprisingly hard to find a good one. For one thing, as a cake soaked in milk, it needs to be fresh. It gets gloppy when old and sours pretty quickly as well.

I've gone through a number of Tres Leches phases in my life, and even made my own, which is actually pretty easy. The most commonly recommended Tres Leches among foodies is probably Porto's, the Cuban bakery with branches in Glendale and Burbank. Personally, I think Porto's, while good, is overrated. While technically proficient, their food just doesn't excite me much (though I like a beef filled, fried potato ball as much as the next person).

Lately, my Tres Leches of choice is from the bakery section of the Liborio Market. I go to the one on Third Street, east of Alvarado. Their cake has the perfect consistency - creamy but not completely sopping- and high turnover assures that it is fresh. The cake is super moist but not super sweet. The frosting isn't whipped cream, but the more typical sugar frosting you get at supermarkets, with a bit of the chemical aftertaste they sometimes have, but the overall cake is good stuff and fills my Tres Leches need better than most competitors.

Liborio Market
1831 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90057
(213) 483-1053

Now Playing at Hollywood and Ivar

As many of you know, I'm a regular at the Sunday Hollywood Farmers market on Ivar Street. I buy nearly all of my produce there and much of my other food as well, and I've often reviewed the various product available.

Over the last few months there has been a new crop of prepared food stands selling a wide variety of wares. I've written about Flan King and the great buffalo mozzarella available at the Winchester cheese stand, but there are some other new stands as well. Here are some quick hits.

Vera's Tamale Express

Fresh made chips and salsa as well as tasty tamales are available at this stand. I'm especially happy about the chips as there aren't a lot of places in LA to buy real restaurant style tortilla chips. Pork and chicken tamales were very good, both with a nice bite, and the green and red salsas were delicious and fresh tasting.

Carmela Ice Cream

I previously reviewed Carmella's stand at the Larchmont Farmers' Market, but they've moved to Hollywood. Their latest great flavor: Strawberry/Balsamico Sorbet.

Organic Coffee

I can't remember the exact name of the stand that sells organic roasted coffee (Organico Reserva?). It's all cold brewed and iced for the summer and was quite nice. They serve a fairly dark roast, which I like. I believe the coffee is Costa Rican.

I love the proliferation of prepared take-home food at the Market, and I hope there is more to come. My real hope is that our friend Nina, over at Sweet Napa will get a stand for her wonderful candy bars. We'll keep you posted.