The chipotle salsa.

I went in a few days ago and bought some salsa. I was nice, I was polite, I tipped and asked if the cashier could give me a few of the little cups to go with the thimble-sized container I had just bought. He gave me...
napkins.
So, if anyone out there has a recipe that comes close (I think Loteria's salsa has actually gone down in quality over the last year) and if I can recreate it without calling on the archaic deity Baal, I will donate $20 to the charity of your choice.

(And before you say anything, yes, I know it's a business. Yes, I know that salsa costs money. I get that. I ain't no hippy. Still, though: I go to my local coffee shop and sometimes I ask Mabel for extra butter. She knows I tip and she gets it with a smile. I have shown my respect in a way she values, I GIVE HER MONEY and am polite and all that good stuff. At La Loteria, I smiled, I was polite, I PRE-TIPPED...and I got napkins.)

add 1 for Cole's: the sandwich is better there, they have fries!, and you eat in a restaurant as opposed to a bus station.
Sorry, but it had to be said.

A lot of places in Florida do this on a discretionary basis. If I were a tourist, I might be surprised, but it's right there on the menu or on a sign at the door. If I were a server like la2tokyo's friend, I'd be pissed and looking for another job. If you can't afford to tip, you probably should stay home and tourists need to learn that, too. It comes with the, uh, turf.

Clustertruck! Exactly, if someone starts a 'Mongolian Clustertruck', I'm at least buying a t-shirt. I went to the one downtown. Having VIP tickets was invaluable: access to bathrooms, free cocktails, etc. Then we went out into the public area and holy smokes it was a nightmare! Standing for a long time to get food that seemed like an experiment (and not a successful one).
Let's face it: Food Trucks are cool. Pleasure Palate booked the Frysmith truck just for ourselves and it was great: no wait, in the shade, low stress. Great fries! but food trucks AREN'T SET UP for big massive events. Their very design precludes that.

-----
Frysmith
Mobile truck, Los Angeles, CA

I took the four of us to Malan last night. The show begins when you order the noodles for your soup: a silent, serious guy in the kitchen starts waving a blob of dough around. Suddenly, he shoves his fingers into it and the blob separates. The way he holds his fingers is dictated by whether you ordered triangular, flat or round noodles. After about a minute's worth of gyrations, he lowers a huge skein of noodles into the soup. The bowls are HUGE. The noodles are long: I had to use my Swiss Army knife to cut them in the bowl and my wife did the same. Might I suggest kitchen shears?
The broth is beefy, a little less subtle than pho, with lots of green onions on top. My wife said she got a lot of gristle; I found a lot of well-done beef (brisket? hopefully not tongue) falling apart in mine. Chunks of radish or daikon in there as well, I think. I ordered the green onion pancakes: let them cool, then I like to shred them and drop them into the soup...bliss. Little soy sauce, little chili oil, wow.
Our 13-year-old ordered the spicy pork chow mein. It was good; be aware that the peppers are jalapenos and not bell peppers! He liked the dish, but he saw the noodle soup and tried it as well- a first for such a picky eater.
The manager? owner? was so nice without being over-solicitous, making sure we had enough bowls, plates, offering us forks. I've been the only Anglo here on previous visits and felt like my actions were being...'narrated' for the other diners, but he was just a great guy.
I dig this place, I really do. I'm taking my high school food club if they haven't succeeded in finding an affordable Polish place within carpooling distance.
They only take cash, they closed at 9ish when they had said they close at 10 (slow night?), and what's with the guys in the parking lot changing their shirts before going into the sauna next door?
Good stuff!

-----
Malan Noodles
2020 S Hacienda Blvd, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

I'm in the SGV, near Montebello. I DID ask for recs in an earlier post. I also asked if anyone knew of a restaurant owner willing to give us a discount in exchange for helping to build a new generation of Hounds. Someone accused me of trolling for free food...sheesh.
Yes, in answer to your offer, yes, I'd love some recommendations. For Greek, we are looking at Papa Christo's and for dim sum we usually do well at Ocean Star. The Cheese Store of Silver Lake gave us a great intro-to-cheese class a few years ago, but they have stopped returning my calls.

Ha! The first time I took the club (4 years ago?), Mr. Kim warned me to keep the tiny freshmen girls away from the rum-added flavors, because he hadn't 'boiled off the alcohol'. They tried to sneak away and eat it as fast as they could. It is hilarious watching someone get an ice cream headache when they were hoping to get tipsy (for the record, I think he was joking).

Saturday, 12 kids and a few adults went to Cafe Sanamluang on Hollywood at Kingsley. Most of the kids had not tried Thai food. There are those who say Sanamluang isn't the greatest Thai restaurant in town.
Yep. That's true.
However, it's cheap, it's easy to find, they have a big table outside and they don't care if you bring a bunch of teenagers for lunch. As to the food and the kids' reaction to it?
The four curries were very popular- most of the kids had never tried duck. The rendang was particularly popular. We ordered a lot of rice and the kids kind of went overboard with it. The tom kha kai soup was almost as popular. What really surprised me was how much they liked really spicy stuff. Fried chilis and mint leaves? They almost licked the plate.
After that, we went to Scoops. That blew their minds. Peach-sriracha sorbet...chai tea ice cream. They went nuts.
All in all, a successful day: kids with limited culinary variety in their lives got to try new things, I got to have pad kee mao and it was only thirty bucks out of my own pocket.
Next on our list? Greek if they plan it. If I plan it, we're getting dim sum.

Absolutely. Furthermore:
-Cole's has the best cocktails. A margarita with a Dip = yes, a glass of red wine with a Dip = I guess you couldn't get a margarita.
-Cole's has fries, not just bags of Fritos. If the passive-aggressive waiter tells you you can't get the fries well-done, you tell him 'yes we can, be like Obama'.
-you can eat outside (although passing street-people have asked if they could have my fries) (no, they couldn't).
-Philippe's is across the street from...a parking lot. Cole's is across from the best pet store in the city, PUSSY AND POOCH. Lithe ex-models bring in their Italian Greyhounds, flashing cleavage so deep there's an echo.
-Cole's is pronounced 'Cole's', with a long O. Philippe's...is it Felipe's? Philip's Phil-lip-ees? Hell with it.
Cole's.

When I lived in Asia and people would complain about the smog and traffic and syphilis, I'd lean over and say, 'y'know, the boats run both ways.'

But seriously...well-written review. (You misspelled 'queue')
Wow. You didn't like it! I go once a year. That's about how often I can handle a Shaq Dog or whatever it is they're calling it now: tortilla the size of a bed-spread, three hot dogs or Polish sausages, six strips of bacon, ladle of cheese, ladle of chili (and not gourmet chili! this is industrial chili) and I've seen guys get pastrami on top of all that. Gee, uh, what do they call that back in old Chicago?

Right.
They don't have it there.

It's a tradition that Pink's has a loooooong line at all hours, that half of the people in that line are criminally insane or totally wasted, that the counter workers are always happily frantic and miss half of your order the first time. We accept that here. We don't run the gauntlet every day- anybody who eats at Pink's every day is a maniac and won't be around long!

I love the way Pink's names dogs after current events and celebrities.
I love how the cashier looks at you funny if you get 3 chili dogs, chili fries with cheese and THEN ask for a DIET soda.
I love eavesdropping in line.
And the family that has owned the place for how many years? LOVES that line, that ever-present line. For them, it's the sound of money.
They could be faster. The Original Pantry could put locks on the doors and clean up once in a while. Cole's PE Buffet could start selling hamburgers- just to see, hey, what happens, maybe we make a few bucks, what's tradition?

-----
Original Pantry Cafe
877 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90017

What I don't understand is WHY??? the film school must know that people in the industry, even if they just talk about going once in a while, LOVE the idea of a Hollywood Farmers Market. If you got a 'degree' from this film school, would you want to go into an interview with that on your resume? 'Oh, so you studied with the jerks who made it more difficult for my Tiphany to get her num-nums, eh?'
It's Sunday, do they really need the space more than they don't need the bad publicity?

-----
Hollywood Farmers Market
1600 Ivar Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

about 8 kids tried all of the meats, the chili, apple pie, pickles and pickled eggs (a first for me). Everyone enjoyed everything. The chili was a surprise hit. The lamb was the favorite meat. Two kids almost died from the mustard; they were expecting Guldens? After we walked to Union Station and looked around- great building!
They loved it. Me, I prefer Cole's. Sue me, I do. Next time...hoping for a cheese tasting or Thai food.

Oh, man. That was...my mouth is watering. I have got to get there.

Wow. Thanks to all with suggestions. This'll be after French dips, so i don't think we'll be up for sandwiches and ramen. On the other hand, these are teenagers we are talking about, so Fourth Meal is a definite possibility. The Chinese egg custards sound best so far. I've always been interested in Homeboy's bakery and may go that way, just to show my kids what's possible. My kids LOVE boba...so no boba! But, once again, thanks.

Phillippe's.
I know. Kind of surprising; I was all for Thai food and Scoops. I am the teacher- and i was out-voted! Maybe next time.
My question: are there any other interesting tastes around there? Olvera Street is there, but most of my kids wake up to churros and huevos Revueltos every day. Chinatown is right there- is there anything within walking distance worth tasting? Not sitting down for a three-course meal, we'll have just had French dips! But a Chinese pastry shop a Hound could recommend? We'll be there around 4 in the afternoon on a weekday.
If nobody comes up with anything, we'll probably just wander over to Union Station and look at the great architecture.
Thanks!

-----
Olvera Street
845 N Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Thanks to both of you! I'll try Ruen Pair as soon as my grades are done. I know nothing about Thai desserts, but I look forward to learning more.

-----
Ruen Pair Restaurant
5257 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027

My food club is planning its first trip of the year. i like to start off with Thai food. We order 12 entrees, everybody gets a taste of everything, we discuss and analyze, etc.
We then go to Scoops on Heliotrope. The new kids get to see the older kids get excited about going and that motivates them to keep the whole club going.

I've been going to Cafe Sanamluang for a long time. The food is...okay, it offers an okay intro to new flavors for kids who've never tried Thai, and it's pretty cheap. That's why, for the last three years I've taken the club there.
But I know there are better choices out there. RCA is great, but I don't think they'd appreciate me bringing in 20 eaters some afternoon; it's a little classier than we're looking for, perhaps.
If anyone could suggest a Thai place in Thai Town (or the Montebello/Alhambra/Monterey Park area and we'll save Scoops for another time) that is:
-able to handle 16-20 diners in a group, including polite-but-excited teenagers
-fairly cheap, entrees around $7-8
-easy to find, decent parking (parents will be driving carpools)
-offers a decent introduction to Thai food

and, if any Hounds know an owner or manager who would offer us a discount, I'd do my best to get the place mentioned in our school paper...

I lived in Jakarta for ten years. Sounds like I'm going to Bellflower very soon. I hope they all have the appropriate bumbu- the little bits of grated shallots and garlic and chili, etc., that makes Indo food so good.

-----
Indo Cafe
10430 National Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034

So we went here tonight.
VERY GOOD SALSA.
Everything else, everything!, was fair to almost good. We ordered easy, basic stuff. It took a long time to get to us- they had some big parties, so, yes, that takes time- and when we got our food, we were all disappointed. The band tuning-up for most of the evening didn't help. Margaritas made with wine instead of tequila were new for me, but they weren't bad. In any case, we are still looking.

Fair enough. I've tried Mexico 1900, Vera Cruz and Muchas Gracias.
Yes, we do like 'real' margaritas. Any guidance would be appreciated.

-----
Muchas Gracias
14323 Whittier Blvd, Whittier, CA 90605

Mexico 1900 Restaurant
, Whittier, CA 90601

After being disappointed so many times, I ask: is there a place with:
good margaritas?
good hot chips and salsa with some heat and flavor (maybe more than one kind of salsa)?
carnitas like Mom used to make?
Extra points if it's near Whittier Blvd./Colima Rd. intersection.

I just had dinner at C and S for the first time. I had the steak frites, my wife had the veal stroganoff. We ended the meal with a cheese plate (me) and raspberry chocolate tort.
I started the evening with great expectations. After I saw the menu (simple dishes for comparatively high prices), I was excited: they were gonna nail this, great meal, right?
No. It was very disappointing. The steak portion was very small and utterly without flavor. I know the flavor of good beef when it's cooked right. The frites were...frites. My wife's dish was...fine, okay, rather bland. My companion said the steak was the best thing on the menu. If so, I would be very concerned about the rest of the offerings. (as for service, it was fine: but if the dining room is half-empty, why would you seat two very chatty women next to four newlyweds? We kept having to lower our voices and, well, watch our elbows---and there was miles of room around us.)
The problem wasn't the food. It was the food and the check. In downtown, it seems like people have talked themselves into believing that we're all rich. You're rich, you came downtown and a very plain, rather small steak should cost $28. I'm not saying that quantity is everything. I am all about clean flavors of the ingredients coming through. People were lined up to get in. I don't think we're going back; I know where better steaks cost less.

It was such a great place during the 80s: cute little Middle Eastern waitresses, cheap food, plates of pita and hummus appearing when you sat down.
Now? It's so sad. They can't even make a margarita, and I KNOW they use a commercial mix for them. I would go back for the Alamo Burger with fries well-done, but that's the ONLY thing I've seen then not screw up.

Yeah...I did the 'Number 2 Crazy Deathwish Ramen' contest thing and I gotta say:
1. It ain't that hot. It's a lot of crushed red pepper and they float jalapenos on top. It's hot, sure, but the main problem is the sheer mass of it against the time limit. Also,
2. I did it within the time limit, they took my photo...and now it's gone from the wall and the website. I'm not saying it's straight-up racist (I'M KIDDING! I KNOW IT'S NOT RACISM), but if they say your pic is gonna stay up, it oughta stay up.

Oh, man! Great review, I want to go now!

Philippes and Cole's are both special. You're in the neighborhood = you go. Someone's visiting = you take them. You want to feel L.A.'s history, you want to feel connected to the city, you go. They aren't the best sandwiches in L.A., but they're pretty damn good. I'd love to form a Sandwich-Eating Team this summer and try all 17 sandwiches in the Los Angeles Magazine spread (ah, food-porn at its best!)
The answer to your question: yes, and very very yes if you get the lamb with bleu cheese!

We are getting married this summer and our planned catering firm is looking shaky. Our wedding will be about 50 guests and simple, but we do care about food. We like a lot of different ethnic styles and our friends and family aren't expecting the lobster/prime rib usual, either in price or familiarity. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Can't wait! Please keep us informed! For the record, Jumbo's is not topless.

Didn't see it mentioned, so I'll just bring it up: I went to Cole's P.E. Buffet over the holidays and liked it so much, I went back. They do the best French Dip in town. Which means they make the best French Dip on Earth.
Phillippe's is good, okay? Very good and it's a damn institution in our town and we need them. But Cole's has pastrami (Ps does not), good margaritas (not at Ps), better mustard, more comfortable seating and, well, 101 years, folks. 101 years and we'll take our grandkids.

The only problem: a waiter who insisted that we could NOT, absolutely NOT get our fries well-done. We pointed out that we'd had them well-done last time. Nuh-uh, he said we had not. I assured him that I'd had this mouth for many years and this mouth had eaten said fries a week before. Later, a waitress confirmed that, yes, we could have had the fries the way we wanted. I respect and make way for servers when I'm out, and I tip well. Why make a customer unhappy by arguing?
Other than that, a great place.