theonceler's Profile
New vegan eatery in Ladera Ranch (OC): Loving Hut
Yes Asian... one could say Vietnamese. It is one of the many vegetarian restaurants run by followers of Ching Hai.
The Alhambra location opened on Main St. last year.
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Loving Hut
621 W Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801
New to SFV, where should I eat?!
I think maybe you've gone at the wrong time. A while ago I could have agreed with that (it seemed to hit a low point a few years ago), but in the past year or two they've changed things around several times. The hot food area has been expanded so there's better variety... and everything I've had there lately has been pretty great.
They also made the dining area quite nice as far as these places go, which isn't so true at Sherman Way unless things have changed recently there too.
Even disregarding the drive from CSUN I'd rather go there than Sherman Way (or Venice for that matter).
New to SFV, where should I eat?!
For low-end (pricewise) dining next to CSUN get to India Sweets & Spices... or Mandarin Deli for a more sit-down dinner. You are actually in a great place for chow.
Roasted Pig Heads?
I know they have them at Valu Plus #11 (Hawthorne and Marine) cut into halves/quarters now because I was just there... but I don't think they always have them. I also passed on the lamb tongues.
I've seen whole heads (cows too) on display at Vallarta around Christmas time. I'd bet any similar place could get them for you pretty easily even if they didn't have them on hand.
Where do you go to get your raspados (Mexican shaved ice) fix?
Rompope? For someplace different there is a popular stall in El Mercado next to the parking lot entrance. It is too sweet for me but there seem to be a lot of happy people there.
Finding Mexican Pulque in Echo Park?
Maybe you could try making it yourself. My local store carries 'mezcal' in the produce section which seems to be some kind of agave. I don't know how close it would be to the real thing but the sap is extremely sweet... certainly enough to produce alcohol.
Best place for loose leaf tea?
Ten-Ren: They have some very strongly scented jasmine if you like that (great for guests!), and good taiwanese oolong. But If I'm paying their premium prices I'd rather order online where you can get exact harvest locations/date etc instead of a pretty box.
Tea Habitat is the only local place I've found where they actually know the details and will tell you when and where the tea is from (if you believe any tea merchant on this...), but very specialized to mainland chinese.
Wing Hop Fung is great with a few caveats... you sort of have to know what you're doing. There is a lot of junk there... everything that is pre-packaged has been horrible in my experience (including the icky pu-erh cakes they have been carrying in the past few years). You MUST order from the bins.You can't ask them for advice because of course they will just push you towards whatever is the most expensive thing... which will be no different than what is next to it at half the price. Also you need to know that when you say 2 ounces on a $200/lb tea they will always fill .2lb and feign innocence if you call them it. So you should just think .2lb in advance to avoid anger/frustration issues. But they do have some good stuff in the bins and I think the ginseng-coated oolong at $20-30/lb cant be beat... (also good for cheap pots).
Best place for loose leaf tea?
They are a good source for very high-end mainland Chinese oolongs.
North Hills?
Some good recs already... no wasteland here. You are also pretty close to Rincon Taurino, and in Panorama City at the Van Nuys/Roscoe intersection you have El Gallo Giro, one of the first El Pollo Campero locations, and a whole bunch of filipino options... I like Pinoy Pinay but there are several others. Also on Roscoe you have Van Nuys German Deli... not an obvious lunch place and not that cheap, but they have an awesome cured meat selection and a lot of licorice candies that I don't think you can get anywhere south of Solvang (and certainly not at Alpine Village...).
fresh fiddleheads in LA?
I saw them at Whole Foods (El Segundo) a week or two ago, next to the mushrooms. So I'd guess at least all of the mega Whole Foods have them now. But they didn't seem to be in very good condition... so I wouldn't recommend a trip there unless really desperate.
Any "Must Eat" Mexican in South O.C.?
If you are looking for Oaxacan, there is at least one place in Santa Ana... but I thought that Chicago has captured the regional (and higher end) Mexican quite well already.
If I were to choose a must eat for visiting South OC it would be in the opposite direction... perhaps Americanized but very uniquely Orange County, which is Taco Mesa.
It looks like nothing from the outside but they work with high quality ingredients... Many of the specials are amazing and I can't remember getting anything less than totally delicious. Again tho, its not just that the food is good... but rather I don't know of anywhere outside of OC that's quite like it... so thats what makes it a must visit for the area.
Best time to eat Pink's?
Earlier is better than later. 11 is okay but don't expect an odd aftermoon hour like 3-4 to work.
Any Good Eats in Northridge?
If he has a short time, I would strongly suggest Brent's and Mandarin Deli. There are a lot of good spots in Northridge, but I think these are the ones with 'institutional' status.
Brent's: This is the one deli with a huge menu, where everything on the menu is actually good (usually VERY good!). The black pastrami ruben is I think the only pastrami in the LA area close to what Langer's has (which is probably not an easy haul for your DH), and blows away anything else in the area. Again, even if you aren't into pastrami you would be hard-pressed to find a bad meal here.
Mandarin Deli: This is the SFV outpost of the Chinatown Mandarin Deli which was a mini-chain for about 10 years. Excellent cold-side dishes. AWESOME hand-cut noodle dishes and soups. There are some other cooked dishes on the menu which aren't as impressive, but you would be crazy to order them anyway. Very nice people there too.
I consider those the 'iconic' places in Northridge, but that just scratches the surface. There is India Sweets & Spices, BCD Tofu, Shik Do Rak, and so many other 'ethnic' eats. Fab hot dogs on Tampa (which has been pretty trendy here for a while) is just down the street.
Pho to go in Little Saigon?
ANY pho (or any other type of noodle) place will have NO problem with to go orders. I'd guess that I've gotten to-go 100+ times and the noodles are always soft but dense and not heavily cooked with the meat on top... (raw or cooked depending on what it is) veggies usually separate. Broth DEFINITELY seperate.
I am not Vietnamese but a lot of my relatives are. I just asked the local expert in the house and was told (lectured) that it could NEVER EVER be done any other way. That is, something like putting the noodles in the broth for to-go would never be done unless they were specifically pushed to do it by the customer. Again this is also my experience... as a non-viet I have never gotten it any other way.
It's hard to find really bad pho in the area. Pho Thanh Lich seems to have an extra rich beefy broth compared to the others. For just 'noodles' (as opposed to pho), I have a *huge* soft spot for Hu Tieu Thanh Xuan on Bolsa... with lots of extra garlic.
Top Chef Finale Pt. 2(spoilers)
He could have also made the choice to pee on his food. Maybe its just me but choosing either of the other two over RB would have been insane.
Top Chef Finale Pt. 2(spoilers)
Umm... made a smart decision by picking Blaise? That was decided for him by picking the right knife... erm duh! And if the app situation was reversed and Stefan stuck him with the alligator, he would have been DEAD. (And did I mention that his whining is still really lame?)
Junior's--pretty blah
The rye bread is like bread-flavored chewing gum... the deli meats are low-end supermarket. The only way this place has existed for so many years is the lock on the location. Worst deli in LA unless you are confined to that part of the westside.
offal eaters
If you are looking for shock value stuff, things like tripe/stomach and intestine are pretty accessible and at the bottom of the list. (except smooth tripe can be a little slimy.) The worst thing I can think of tastewise is the spleen that comes in the soup at han bat shul lung tang in koreatown. Like eating an ancient rusty iron sewer pipe... except made out of meat.
What makes Tito's so good
I don't consider Don Adrian's a long distance chow destination place but you should try that sandwich since its near... pickled feet are actually not that scary and its one of the better things that they have there. At worst you would be out a few bucks.
What makes Tito's so good
Almost every time this comes up it seems that hardly anyone acknowledges that the tacos are actually the worst thing on the menu (except maybe the guacamole water... but the dry meat thing in the tacos is really that bad). To pile on titos about the tacos is just beating a straw man... even if the OP seems to like them.
Despite the name, titos tacos is for chips and salsa, beef and cheese burritos, and especially the enchilada... which must be near the top of LA's greatest creations. None of these things has to resemble anything actually existing in mexico to be good. Yellow cheese has its place.
BEST BEEF PIZZLE?
Pho Nguyen Hue in Westminster (10487 Bolsa, just east of Brookhurst) has beef pizzle on the menu, although I've never ordered it. Their specialty is actually pho ga (chicken) for which they also offer some of the more interesting parts.
Tho I can't comment on whether the pizzle is fresh or not... the chicken definitely is. It has the same character as what you get after cooking your own from a live poultry joint... which can't be mistaken for supermarket stuff.
Soot Bull Jeep or Park's Bbq?
Coincidentally, I've taken the same work-related (and CHEAP) mixed crowd to both SBJ and Park's.
The SBJ trip was pretty underwhelming for them... I got some feedback that it was too expensive for the money, especially when not just smoke but floating sparks are flying around in your face. (And as everyone else here has said, it is pretty dark in there...)
But the same group totally *loved* Park's, which I was surprised about since it is more expensive. I don't think it was the yuppier atmosphere that won the day. Rather, the meat there just stands out as *that* good (and I agree). Get the Kobe beef and at least one of the Pork dishes from the top of the list and you won't be dissapointed.
SBJ might be good for an 'adventure'... but for the better food I would go with Park's.
Trader Joe's "Distinqt" tequila?
Despite being wary of the wierd color (very pale but with a slightly green almost neonish tint), I got pushed to get this by a TJ employee yesterday and fell for it.
This stuff is pretty harsh. It has so much alcohol in the nose that it really dominates the agave. It also has a decent amount of oak but... since I actually prefer blancos, this is sort of the worst of both worlds for me.
I think its worth the 5-10 bucks to get to the Cazadores or Hornitos level. (Unless you are mixing it, in which case at TJ's you would do just as well to get the 10$ bottle of Zapopan.)
Zankou Chicken
I don't know how he relates to the family, but I like the way the big balding white-haired guy who is obviously a manager has always been sitting around at the tables in here (sherman oaks/van nuys) for at least a decade.
The garlic paste has never been the big deal everyone makes of it... but anyway the tarna plate totally rocks.
Where can I buy canned huitalacoche around Pasadena?
I've looked for it at several Vallarta's in the Valley and have never found it there myself. The last time I got some about a year ago was at the small grocery on the 2nd floor of El Mercado on 1st St. in East LA which had a lot of small (somewhat expensive) cans. There's also a meat counter around the corner that has some interesting oaxacan items.
Also (somewhat impractical unless you are on a real mission... daytime only), on Olympic Blvd. east of the Fashion District but just west of Central Ave. there are a lot of pinata + candy sellers (easy to see from the street)... But they are interwoven with bulk mexican spice/cookware sellers, and I've seen *many* different brands of canned huitalacoche stacked behind the registers at those places.
TACOS-I found the spot!!! Review
This is an awesome find. I've passed both locations for years and never thought to stop. The grocery store is sort of hidden since you have to enter through the parking lot in back, but once you get inside it really is like stepping through a portal into mexico. Very rich and oily al pastor... and right off the grill. The people are quite friendly too... great atmosphere.
Took an asada burrito back to the office... perfectly flavored but a little on the fatty side. But also, it easily had 3 times the amount of meat that you normally get in a burrito like this... and just a smattering of the rice/beans/onion/cilantro stuff. For $4.50... I'm still stuffed.
My only complaint is I thought the salsas were all pretty bland... I need a lot more heat. But anyway I'm definitely going back.
shawarma envy - south bay recommendations?
There's a banner over the Shafaa sign that says 'Hummus House' now... I think it happened fairly recently. Looking at the website, the menu has some similar items but it has been revamped a little:
http://www.hummus-house.com/
vs
http://www.shafaarestaurant.com/menu.htm
Too bad the other side of the street is wasteland because of the big shuttered mall... can't be helpful for business.
El Segundo Whole Foods
Whenever I have been (3pm to late evening) it has been reasonably well-crowded, but most of the in-store restaurants are completely deserted except for 2 employees at each site washing things. Either they do huge lunch business or they are essentially space/employee loss-leaders.
And the food doesn't look so great from the side either... which leads me to: Whole Foods has always been peddling *hideous* looking supermarket sushi. How can they try to pass it off at an even more high-end location like this? I mean very dark *dull*-brown (not deep-red) tuna for 35$/lb... and the ahi being sold from the seafood counter was about the same price and appearance. The 10$/lb ground beef... organic or not, was mostly a pretty sickly color too. WF might have some good products, but I don't like being openly treated as a sucker.
That said I got some good heirloom tomatoes and cheeses. But most the stuff there would be also be available at a regular whole foods... just not distributed more confusingly about the giant emporium.
Best raw food on the Westside?
Not the westside at all, but if you ever end up in OC around Little Saigon with your friend or want to take them someplace a little more interesting, Au Lac is a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant with mock meats (like a lot of chinese mock meat places in the SGV), but also with a really great raw menu.
I am a big meat eater myself, but the raw 'cream' sauce they use is insanely delicious, no matter what your standard diet could be... I love the cabbage wrapped things with cream and nuts that they call 'tacos'. I'm guessing the raw food world is small and your friend has heard of this place before... but I'll vouch for the fact that even for outsiders the food there is quite good.
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Au Lac Gourmet Vegetarian
16563 Brookhurst St, Fountain Valley, CA 92708
