Thi N.'s Profile
Los Angeles "Digest" Editor
My digestive system is perfectly fine, darlins'. I'm charmed anybody noticed.
I asked Sarah to fill in for me for a few weeks. Due to the collisions of various schedules and the difficulties of teaching at multiple institutions and a curious overlap between the quarter and semester system, I seem to be teaching 6 courses right now.
On the other hand, during a lecture on the consequences of disagreement in my aesthetics course, I did fire up the computer projector and project a particularly nasty thread from Chowhound on the board and asked my students to analyze it.
Rodded follow-up visit re: duck soup
How long ago was the original write-up? Like, 2003? Almost every place I loved in 2003 has declined, gotten boring, been replaced and surpassed... but I still love Rodded pretty damn hard and still eat here on the regular.
They also have my favorite Hainan Chicken rice in town - only on weekends, and they run out by noon or soon after... but *damn* it's good.
NEED stinky tofu. Not the squishy hotpot kind.
Though I love Tofu King, in interview, the folks admitted that it wasn't and couldn't be perfectly Taiwan authentic, because the fermentation process for the Full Deal got them in trouble with the LA department. They now do a 3 day soak in the fermented mash, instead of the full week-or-longer soak.
I love the stuff, but I'm sure it isn't as... developed as it could be.
Incidentally, I remember when Otafuku stopped serving their insanely great homemade pickles, and explained the same problem... the proper technique (a very long multi-week soak in a fermented bran mash) was in violation of LA Health Code.
Sigh.
Flossies in Torrance --- thi's review from a few years back, link???
I just looked at the dates on those original posts, put my head in my hands, and had a quiet sob to myself. Ah, my misspent youth.
Despite years of searching, I have not found better fried chicken in Los Angeles. I have found better fried chicken in the SF area (Brown Sugar Cafe, Oakland) but Flossie's is still supreme in my mind. Haven't been in a few years... this makes me want to go back...
Chans Paris N(o), Bamboo House, si!
Thanks, Bradbury. I am unspeakably proud of that Natalie Portman line, which took me over an hour and 3 espressos of effort. My dissertation advisor stopped me in the hall to congratulate me for getting the most subtly pornographic thing he'd ever seen in a major newspaper. He called it "obscene in a profound way." I was so proud.
Chans Paris N(o), Bamboo House, si!
Also, important to note: that while I love the RH stall's mega-old-school-funk ambiance more deeply, as of the opening of the new branch, the Master Chef Himself has moved permanently to the Arcadia branch. The apprentice running the RH branch is good, but doesn't quite have the same touch.
Chans Paris N(o), Bamboo House, si!
I think the new branch is a slight improvement over the Rowland Heights branch - the original chef moved over, but I think he got a much nicer kitchen. The RH kitchen was a stall. The stuff is just a little closer to sparkling perfection.
Canton Restaurant – Delicious Cantonese Fish Congee (Porridge) and Cha Ca Thang Long (Vietnamese Turmeric Fish with Dill) in Little Saigon
Oh - I think that the waitress told my Mom (remember, this is a 7 year old memory) that most of the rice porridge places around town use catfish, but they used high quality yellowtail, but it still didn't quite taste right, complained the waitress. Never as good as it was with the *Vietnamese* fish back in the day. There was much head shaking and nostalgic sighing between my Mom and the waitress.
Canton Restaurant – Delicious Cantonese Fish Congee (Porridge) and Cha Ca Thang Long (Vietnamese Turmeric Fish with Dill) in Little Saigon
I love, love, love this place. My Mom and I wandered in here forever ago... like, 7 years ago? She commented that it had the same name as her favorite place back in Saigon, decades ago, and the same specialties. She used to eat lunch there all the time as a young girl back in the early 70s. She mused that it was some sort of reference to the Saigon original. Turns out, it *was* the same place... same cook, some of the same waitstaff.
Authentic Szechuan style Doubanjiang in Los Angeles.
Score and nice eyes, Will. I'll check it out, I'm tempted to go buy every variety and run them all through some basic dishes...
Khanh Hoa Dac Biet Kem Nuong 9738 Westminister Garden Grove
How's it compare to Brodard's nem nuong? Like, 5x better?
Nem nuong is among my favoritest things ever.
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Brodard Restaurant
9892 Westminster Ave, Garden Grove, CA 92844
Ramen Yamada-ya coming to Culver City in May
I've gone back and forth between Yamadaya Torrance (haven't been to the CC location, excited to try it) and Santouka. What I've decided is, in the end, when I'm tired and cold and need uplifting, Santouka calls to me a little more, and when a want a little more perfect aesthetic sublimnity, Yamadaya appeals to me a little more. But it's a matter of inches. It's a lovely thing, to have such a choice...
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Santouka
3760 S Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90066
Gui Chai (Thai chive dumplings) in LA?
Samnaluang has a decent version, and Rod Ded has *awesome* ones.
CHICHEN ITZA - I've known about you for years. Why did I only meet you yesterday?
Yes... ah god yes... the texture is incredible... the corn tortillas are fresh and moist and the hardboiled eggs are so delicate and the sauce is so thick... like a little bundle of eggy cloud held down by nut sauce... rmrmrmmmrmrmm
Perfect restaurant to have an affair in.
There's a bar in Downtown, near the Smell, which seems to consist entirely of Armenian transvestite girls, and Mexican guys with handlebar mustaches and huge cowboy hats, hitting on the Armenian transvestite girls. And one lost Canadian guy hitting everybody up for free beer.
I don't know how or why this exists, but it makes me suspect that my life is a lot less interesting than it could be.
Perfect restaurant to have an affair in.
That was an impressively intricately thought out response... you've convinced me...
CHICHEN ITZA - I've known about you for years. Why did I only meet you yesterday?
My favorite thing on the menu, of both the old 6th version and the mercado version is the... the name escapes me... but they're rolled tortillas stuffed with chopped hardboiled eggs and topped with a delicate, pale-green, soul-singing pumpkinseed sauce. Ah, beautiful...
looking for fresh sardines
Be careful... not all bait fish are human-edible (there are often warning labels) - I think they're sometimes harvested in areas with pollution levels that make them no-go for humans...
Donkey Roll (驢打滾 or "Lu Da Gun") at Beijing Pie House
"Well, imagine a jelly-roll had a one night stand with a French crepe and they conveniently forgot to use protection."
-1st Place, Chowhound Imagistic Majesty Awards 2010
Keep on tootin' brave soldier.
Trying to find the best ready-made Chinese 'zongzi' (粽子) to take home... Where to go buy?
Huge Tree has really nice ones. Pork + salted egg.
J.L., have you tried the Vietnamese version? Banh chung? Sticky rice block filled with mung bean and possibly peppered salted pork belly, wrapped in a banana leaf? Pretty much the most stick-to-your-ribs thing I've had. They show up at a lot of the Viet delis in the SGV and Little Saigon; the banh mi shops typically have them.
When I was growing up, my favorite Viet breakfast ever was a banh chung, smashed down in a large pan and very slowly pan fried until it was crispy brown on both sides, with molten mung-bean pork-fat chunks throughout, the pork fat seeping out and helping fry everything, and sometimes hitting the side and getting fried into something like Viet carnitas.
It's the same thought, I think, as leftover risotto pancakes - something about glutinous rice/risotto rice refries extraordinarily well leftover... gets that super-crisp shell, ultra-melty innards thing...
Where can I find gourmet SPECIALTY STORES in Los Angeles and surrounding areas?
Trust Dommy. Dommy is correct.
I used to think Penzey's was THE place, but my heart has been won over. Not only do they have weirdball stuff I've never seen before, but their just straight-up normal spices are *gorgeous* - like the best, most warm-intense-complex-glowing cumin I've ever had...
Coffee Tomo - new on Sawtelle
But did you have a pretzel? The pretzel is the key. If you don't want sweet beans, do the sweet potato cheese. HAVE THE PRETZEL. It is the center of their soul. And honey butter bread. So JapanoKorean that it hurts my tender little soul with dainty joy. PRETZEL.
Coffee Tomo - new on Sawtelle
Hola. I wrote the article - I'm very happy you went and enjoyed!
Note: his espresso roast is *weird*. Non-traditional and awesome. A mix of light roast, medium roast, and dark roast. They are not exactly traditionalists here, but you probably guessed that.
I think the red bean cheese pretzel is the most weird (and great), and you're right, it doesn't sit as well with coffee. It's a bit too manic/savory... but the sweet potato/cheese pretzel goes much more happily with coffee. But I tend to be of the opinion that really good beverages get occluded by having any food, so I savor the coffee first and get the pretzel after.
For those following along with my coffee-vendetta/obsession, I rate their drip well ahead of Funnel Mill's, *way* in front of Intelligentsia's drip (Intelligentsia to me has always truly gotten espresso and always sort of flubbed their drip) and almost to my LA favorite, Cafecito. They're still playing with it - they're not quite as spot-on-every-time, but they do a good, intense job. It makes me happy - years ago I ranted about the impoverished state of LA coffee compared to the Bay Area, let alone Seattle, and now things are much ahppier.
Oh: and Chowhounds: I'm really excited to see other people try the honey butter bread. It's described at the end of the article. It's the "negative space modern art inverted Belgian waffle toast thing." It is one of the most utterly mondo-bizarre joyous-sugar-attack bits of Japanese post-Western-pop weirdness I've had out here. I'm wondering if others will dig it, or if it's part of my weird affinity of Japanese bizarroid cutesified perfection excess.
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Funnel Mill
930 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA
Krua Siri - Hollywood Blvd. Thai Town for Issan Food
I cannot compare them yet because I haven't been to CanCoon but, with your recc, I surely will.
What else should I get? This gives me an idea for a Thai Taste-Off...
Krua Siri - Hollywood Blvd. Thai Town for Issan Food
I still wake up at night with the cold sweats craving the sausage.
I think of all the new places I've been to in the last few years in L.A., this is the one closest to my heart.
El Bolivar in Chatsworth , is it still open?
It's only pricey if you have your mind fixated on "Latin American food = cheap food." This place has way higher ingredient quality and prep care - and the prices are commensurate. Dude: she handmakes her arepas every morning from masa she grinds herself every morning. What would you have to pay in LA for the equivalently fresh-made pasta?
Authentic Szechuan style Doubanjiang in Los Angeles.
Fuchsia Dunlop, of the Only Great Sichuan Cookbook In English, Land of Plenty, apparently tried all the doubanjiang's available in the US and recommends Lee Kum Kee brand. It has some additives, but it tastes in the right range of genuine Sichuany-ness to me. Hawaii Supermarket in the gaberhood has a huge massive selection of Lee Kum Kee stuff...
Banana Pudding?
I used to date this Southern girl from North Carolina who made the best, most astonishing banana pudding the way her grandma made them. I once, in the store, suggested that we try something besides Nilla Wafers and she gave me this horrified look like I'd farted on her family's grave. That was the best bread pudding in Los Angeles, but alas, not for me any more.
The last time I was at Flossie's, they had a banana pudding that was within inches as good. Magical. But that was four years ago.
Oaks Gourmet Market carries Delilah's banana pudding, and it's pretty damn good. It's expensive, but yums.
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Oaks Gourmet
1915 N Bronson Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90068
Wonderful food in places off Chowhound radar? Lynwood, for example.
For some reason, it seems *impossible* to get people to go to the Valley, especially anything west of the 405. A few of the places I've pushed in Times articles have been Valley places - amazing places - and nobody goes. Cafe Bolivar, where the lady *handmakes arepas from corn masa she grinds herself every morning*. You'd think Chowhounds would be all over that, right? Nada. Not a blip. One of my favorite restaurants ever - Priyani Cafe - a Sri Lankan wonder of grandma love-cooking, perfect roti and then perfect roti noodles stir-fried and perfect, perfect goat biryani - closed, after less than a year, for lack of business. Sorrow, sorrow, bang head against wall in sorrow.
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Cafe Bolivar
1741 Ocean Park Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Sri Lankan Cafe
18845 Sherman Way #D, Reseda, CA 91335
