condiment's Profile
"Why Pork Chop Over Rice Isn’t Classically Taiwanese"
As a non-Asian who spends an awful lot of time in the SGV, I've got to say: OG Taiwanese food, at least as it's presented here, is as off-putting as any cuisine on earth - often to the point of seeming intentionally so. The style of cooking is a cultural marker, an aggressive yet acceptable way of saying: We do this; you don't. I don't tend to agree with Mr. Dixit, but when he implies it is a political thing, he is on the mark.
Except in boba shops or porkchop rice restaurants like Sinbala, you almost never see non-Chinese - or probably non-Taiwanese - in specifically Taiwanese restaurants. It seems to be strictly a generational joint.
Sahag's House of Basturma in Pasadena
The original Sahag of Sahag's intended to open House of Basturma, but fell ill from what I understand and never quite did. HoB as it now stands is . . . ok, but not quite revelatory. The best basturma sandwich in the north Pasadena area is probably at Torino.
I have never, ever, had a bad meal at ____________and I have eaten there over a dozen times!
The moros were never knee-buckling; El Colmao was always the place to go for that. And the chicken and pork started to bite at about the time they started selling the bottled marinade - never figured out whether there was a connection. Still: not awful.
I have never, ever, had a bad meal at ____________and I have eaten there over a dozen times!
I would go to Sasabone, totally.
10 Best Dim Sum Restaurants In Los Angeles
Sun Sui Wah was better, alas. Kirin was better still.
best paella restaurant in Los Angeles, preferably on the westside
Interesting that he's namechecking El Bulli. According to Lisa Abend's book The Sorcerer's Apprentice, he left just a couple of weeks into his stage to go work in Las Vegas.
The Sandwich at Roma Deli
He has the basil out of season too - and it's always weirdly good. Always kept by the cash register.
Supreme Dragon is Now Supreme De Dragon But King of Shrimp Roll Is More Interesting
That center hasn't been the same since Hainan Chicken closed down. Which suddenly makes me feel very old.
Forbes Top Restaurants in the US?
For what it's worth, the OAD dude was very, very active in the early days of CH. He was part of the contingent that split off to start egullet - in other words, an OG apostate.
Manresa is often discussed within the context of the world's most important restaurants at the moment, along with Coi and Alinea. Melisse is just the last fancy L.A. place standing...
The Sandwich at Roma Deli
10-year? He sometimes has some decent pecorinos, but the parmigiano reggiano tends to be middling. Unless there's a secret stash I don't know about.
Fried chicken in LA?
I would bet everything I own that Ludo has never even heard of Taiwanese popcorn chicken.
SoPas Farmers Market
The new management has really improved the market in the last few months, opened it up to EBT (which shows dedication to the community), and pruned back some of the prepared-food vendors. Phil McGrath, one of the very best farmers in Southern California, has a stall there now, which is probably reason enough to go; Healthy Family Farms chicken is there too.
The organic laws were set up in a way that makes it very, very difficult for a small farmer to be technically compliant. The paperwork alone can require thousands of hours a year. But many of the farmers are essentially organic, if not certified, and they'll usually tell you the truth if you ask in a nice way.
Where can I find Nina's foods or quesadillas like hers?
Nina is apparently unwell. If her operation is running, you can find it on Twitter by looking up @BreedStScene. If not, you can find similar versions of the dishes, including the quesadillas, at Antojitos Carmen on Caesar Chavez near Soto.
Where Can I find a great Selection of Balsamic Vinegars in Orange County/LA
Although a trip down the aisle of an upscale supermarket may suggest otherwise, you don't need a great selection of balsamic vinegar, you just need the right balsamic vinegar. For almost any purpose, I like the Villa Manodori, made by Massimo Bottura, chef of the best restaurant in Modena - it just earned its third Michelin star. The vinegar is beautiful, evocative stuff, not cheap at about $40 a bottle, but not so dear that you will never use it. You can even find it at Whole Foods, I think. Anything less is just sugary, caramel-colored junk unworthy of your table.
Astronomically more expensive but perhaps worth it is the real balsamic, the tradizionale, which is made by one of the small makers in the consorzio, comes in a distinctive globe-meets-cube 100 ml bottle, and starts at around $160 for the entry level. Cube, Guidi Marcello and Surfas in L.A. are places to start, or you can order online from Zingerman's. There is a pretty big difference between producers, but you're probably not going to be able to choose. As with Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma, the consorzio promotes the useful fiction that all tradizionale is the same.
Los Angeles - Scandinavian (preferably Danish or Dutch) Restaurant
Top, the Indonesian place on Colorado, is still there, isn't it? Was a month or so ago at any rate. It's pretty basic - really basic - but fine for a plate of nasi goreng. Anyway: Not particularly Dutch. Carry on.
The Indonesian/Dutch crossover that was so common here even a decade ago seems to have faded away - you used to find wooden shoes and spice pastes in the same markets, and you never had a good Indonesian meal in a restaurant in which at least one table was filled with Dutch ex-colonials reminiscing about the war.
Where to take a "Pizza Virgin" to pop their cherry?
It may as well be Pizzeria Mozza. It will destroy her for anything else, but that's kind of the idea.
KOREAN BBQ - soot bull jeep or chosun galbee
That Sa Rit Gol is unrelated. It's a very informal place best known for its breakfasts. The son of the family that ran the original Sa Rit Gol owns Biergarten, which is remarkably un-Sa Rit Gol-like.
Sa Rit Gol was probably my favorite traditional Korean restaurant - wonderful banchan! Its spiritual descendants may be the Korean bistro-type restaurants like Soban and Seongbukdong with smallish, well-executed menus.
25 Most Expensive Restaurants in the U.S.
$100 less = $350. Perfectly doable at Cut. $250 will do just fine if you stay away from the Japanese beef. With tax, tip and a bottom-of-the-list wine, you ain't getting out of Melisse for anywhere near that - the cheapest menu (there is no a la carte) is $105, and practically everything worth getting carries a supplement.
Sushi Nozawa Closing!
I'm not quite a fan of Nozawa. The faded plastic plates and assembly-line sushi of the last decade or two has been unaesthetic at the least. But you can't accuse his Trust Me sign of bastardizing the omakase concept. I can assure you that when I first saw the sign, back in 1986 or 1987, there was no popular omakase concept to pervert.
25 Most Expensive Restaurants in the U.S.
Urasawa is the most expensive by some margin, but Melisse probably is number two. It is very, very hard to walk out of there for less than about $450 for two. You can eat well enough at the others for $100 or so less.
What food magazine do you recommend?
Oseland is kind of interesting. If you were to judge him solely by his TV appearances or even by much of his magazine writing, you wouldn't let him within a mile of your kitchen. Yet his Southeast Asian cookbook is breathtakingly good: novel, well-researched, and the recipes all work. A conundrum. In Saveur, you have to take your Jekyll with a bit of Hyde.
Malo: Really?
When you've had a few, sometimes those fried beef and pickle tacos are the most delicious things you've ever tasted. And as with many pleasures experienced in that condition, it is best to pretend the next morning that they never happened.
Native returning for a visit. Need recs.
Pizzeria Mozza a good idea for lunch. The four-year-old is not going to be happy at Ink Sack - there are no chairs, and nothing will be to her taste. Langers is great too, of course, and Baco Mercat would work too.
Providence is splendid.
Native returning for a visit. Need recs.
Vol. 94 is pretty wretched. As if it were somebody who learned about charcuterie from a book without actually tasting the stuff. The new Haven, a few blocks away in the old Jerry's Deli space in Old Town, may have a few too many TV screens for my taste, but the cooking, in a similar charcuterie-intensive gastropub vein, is both less precious and leagues better than its neighbor.
What food magazine do you recommend?
Yep. The excitement at the moment does belong to Lucky Peach. Although I simultaneously love and loathe Saveur, which must mean something.
Best Seoul-like Korean in LA?
Hwae naengmyun is served at dozens of restaurants in Koreatown, including places like Chosun that you wouldn't think would touch it. Hamhung does pretty much specialize in the dish - you may as well give it a try - and although I've never tasted the version at Chilbo, I would imagine it would be as good as the regular naengmyun there, which is superb. Yu Chun has a somewhat different take on the dish - their naengmyun are made from kudzu root - but it is worth tasting.
I would imagine that the higher end seafood places like Masan might have jukkumi during its short season, but I've never seen it here.
Spanish Chorizo substitute for Paella
There are as many ``authentic'' recipes for paella as there are people in Valencia, and some, although not most, of them include chorizo. The imported Palacios brand, not bad, is widely available, even at some Mexican markets (who also tend to carry the excellent local La Espanola chorizos), but definitely at Surfas.
Best Mandarin restaurant in Chinatown???
Until the mid-1980s, Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles were divided into Cantonese (served egg foo yung) and Mandarin (served moo shoo pork). One has to assume that's where the OP was coming from.
Best Mandarin restaurant in Chinatown???
You're almost certainly looking for someplace like Mandarin Chateau. The menu is all over the map, but you probably want to concentrate on the old-fashioned Shanghai-style dishes: lion's head, braised fish tail, fried rice-cake noodles, shredded bean curd, pork with salted vegetable, etc.
