Downtown LA at night.
Recently a cousin of mine was visiting the West Coast. She asked me where the good places to eat were. I sat down to write the email and it took me a good few hours to finish. I realized, this isn’t a bad list. So I wanted to share it with anyone interested. It’s not anywhere near complete, please add via comments.
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Sausage and Mushroom Pizza
When I moved to LA, I had come to the sad conclusion that there is no good pizza in LA. I’ve eaten good pizza in the Midwest and Bay Area but LA has always been disappointing for quality Italian pies. I’ve found a lot of pizzas in LA use lifeless frozen dough, have incredibly tasteless toppings, are not baked long enough, (For me a good store pizza is piping hot) or costs an arm and a leg for a bit of spring mix on top of a cheese pizza. For the longest time, I thought the best value for pizza in LA was Papa Johns. Though, in the past couple of years I’ve discovered there are actually a handful of good pizza places in LA. They are usually smaller privately owned places. One such place is Village Pizzeria and it happens to be my favorite.
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Ranchito Torta
So I’ve been dying for good mexican fewd in my area and I know there aren’t too many good places. I was doing a bit of research on yelp and found this highly rated Torta restaurant. So I made a trip out to Cook’s Tortas to see what all this hullabaloo was all about.
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Sausage and Chicken with pickled carrot overload Vietnamese sandwiches
Those of you in the know, know that Vietnamese sandwiches have been a delicious affordable way to have a meal in the LA area for some time now. along with Lee’s, Mr. Baguette is one of the early chains to pop up on the east side. I tend to call these sandwiches Po’ Boys being very similar to the Louisiana fare without the fried goodness…sometimes. My favorite place is actually Banh Mi My Tho in Alhambra. This time I wanted to try one of the chains to compare.
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Al Pastor Nachos
Rosarito located in Pasadena is slightly west of the Colorado and San Gabriel St. Intersection. A few of my friends have said this is THE BEST nacho place. This is with regard to flavour, price and coverage. This is one of my regular spots and it seems the only thing I ever get are nachos. Usually I get the carne asada nachos which are excellent, but wanted to try the Al Pastor (BBQ pork) this time.
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La Lotte
The seventh Course at Mélisse consisted of celtuce (celery lettuce, but really just a big stemmed celery), maitake mushrooms, jus de rôti (juice from roast), mustard sabayon (a very light custard). I’ve had monk fish before. It’s a very firm texture fish and is difficult to cook. Most of us are familiar with monk fish (ankimo) from their liver which is served often in sushi bars. This is the first monk fish dish I really enjoyed that did not incorporate the liver. The fish was expectedly firm, but the jus, vegetables and sabayon really complimented what is usually an oily and seemingly bland fish. Monk fish is very difficult to not over cook. I’ve had monk fish that has been cooked so that it’s almost rubbery with no flavour. This dish however, was remarkably savory with a texture between cod and lobster. The celtuce is a puree under the monk fish. A great dish, but not the best that we had at Mélisse.
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Ribeye al forno
Spark is located in Beverly Hills right off of Pico. It’s a dimly lit destination to get your steak fix, if you don’t mind subpar service and the possibility of waiting for awhile for your seats on a busy night. The place isn’t super busy, it’s just kind of small for a steakhouse. Steak was good though. Let’s do this!
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