SauceSupreme's Profile
Singaporean Food in LA Anyone?
Yeah, I just finally started watching The Layover and I started getting the same hankering after seeing the Singapore episode.
My Seven Years of Chowhounding
November commemorates 7 years of me posting on Chowhound. While I was much more active in my 20s, I thought I'd relate as to how my life has changed for the better, and it's all thanks to this message board. Let me explain.
I had been stuck in a cubicle job in an LA suburb, and decided to take a pro-level cooking class as a hobby. There, I met lots of like-minded cooks, got the chance to more fully explore the city of Los Angeles, and most importantly, became fascinated with food writing. Jonathan Gold and Michael Ruhlman gave me inspiration.
An article in the NYTimes talked about Portland, Oregon, as an up and coming food destination. I decided to throw caution to the wind and quit my job and moved up there to pursue a career in food.
At around this time, a poster by the name of ErikM translated the menu of Jitlada. Erik and I became fast friends, as his brash attitude and my calm demeanor seemed to translate to fun times exploring food throughout LA.
Now, back to Portland. I had no friends, no family, no job even. But I had some savings so I figured I could endure it while I looked. Erik gave me one contact, another user on Chowhound by the name of ExtraMSG. I arrived in Portland, exchanged a few emails and met up with him.
ExtraMSG ran a local food message board (remember way back when CH didn't have a Portland section?) and through that message board, I made some of the best friends in the world. I became a food writer for the local alt weekly and was exactly all I imagined Portland to be. For two years I called Portland home, and I was happy with my new life. I became more involved with the bar and liquor scene, moreso than the restaurant and food scene, and befriended bartenders not only from Portland but from across the country.
I'm back in LA now, I have a different cubicle job, but I now have this rich and fulfilling hobby and wonderful new circle of friends thanks to this message board and the tiny online acquaintances that turned into deep real life friends.
I remember the weekend market at the Wat Thai temple.
I remember the taco stand at Cooper Tires on the corner of Fletcher and Larga.
I remember what a revelation it was to try Santouka, and meeting foodnerds like Rameniac and EatDrinkBeMerry and OishiiEats (back before they were married)
I remember being the first one at Jitlada after Erik's translation.
I remember visiting Little Saigon for the first time, and Koreatown for the first time and Torrance and the outer edges of the San Gabriel Valley
I remember wondering who would win a food fight among Brookhurst St, Pico Blvd, Sunset Blvd and Valley Blvd
I remember having drinks at the Hungry Cat when Matty was bartending there (before he went on to open The Varnish)
I remember being sheepishly embarassed to take photos of food, at a time when nobody did it.
I'm no longer writing professionally, but I do love tweeting and I certainly love exploring the city for the next hole in the wall. I bemoan how PR companies have perverted the foodie subculture into hype machines, but the fantastic part is that a city like Los Angeles is so big and so vast that there are still large pockets of the city untouched and unexplored, and if you do just a bit of extra travelling, LA is still quite a fun place to go Chowhounding.
This message board has gone through a lot of stylistic changes over the years but the LA board has always maintained a critical mass of knowledgable locals. That accumulated wisdom spans not only pages of text but also miles of travel for anything to go into plate or bowl or open hand. Chowhound made me really understand the importance of sharing this knowledge with strangers, but most of all, the importance of exploring and finding your own way. Thanks, CH.
Any places with unexpectedly good coffee?
Forage (using Blue Bottle) would be my pick.
PLEASE POST YOUR VOTES HERE: Ultimate Los Angeles Restaurants 2010
Under $25
Pa Ord Noodle
La Estrella Tacos
JTYH Noodle
Santouka Ramen
Golden State
Over $25
Lazy Ox Canteen
Tasting Kitchen
Osteria Mozza
Lou Wine Bar
Cut
Your Favorite Tofu
If someone is gonna mention Beverly Soon Tofu, then I gotta mention Sokongdong right across the street.
Favorite Meal Under $10?
I had some amazing al pastor tacos at the taco stand on Fletcher and Larga last night, setting me back $1 a piece.
Also, the huaraches at Azteca on York are only $2.50 each.
Jitlada - first time visit
Green curry ("kaeng khiaw-wan")
I actually think the khua kling and the green curry go great together, as the sweetness of the soupy curry helps take the edge off, while the heat of the dry curry helps bolster the soup. But yeah, that green curry is the bees knees.
Jitlada - first time visit
I concur. Moreover, I also recommend people order their food maybe one level spicier than their normal tolerance level, all the while knowing that a Southern Thai person would have gotten it even spicier.
Jitlada - first time visit
Where is the rice salad on the menu? It's one of my favorites too but when I looked at the menu yesterday I swear it wasn't there.
Jitlada - first time visit
I've never understood why the mussels get so much love. I mean, they're fine, but other dishes on the specials menu shine much brighter like the green curry with fishball and salted yolk and the turmeric fish.
Mariscos El Teto's,Sun Valley, CA-Baja Cuisine Beyond the Fish Taco
WANT. SO. BADLY.
Good Banh Xeo in PDX?
While I've never had it, banh xeo shows up on the menu at Tara Thai (listed as Ban Seo).
Good Banh Xeo in PDX?
The best place for them closed a few years ago, but you can get a pretty good version at Pho Nguyen in Beaverton. I like the bun mang vit here, too, if you're looking for something beyond just a sizzling crepe.
Where's the best/most authentic place to have a philly cheesesteak in socal? Ala Gino's/Pat's in philly, thanx
I like Luigi Ortega and Big Mike's.
A better question is, who's got the best Philly roast pork?
How Breakfast for One This AM at Junior's Deli Totaled $26
I'd consider breakfast but I'm still full from the torta cubana that I drunkenly ate at 2am last night. Blarghhhh.... :p
Oak Fire Pizzeria in WEHO
I'm assuming this is the same as the one in Sherman Oaks, right?
Ruen Pair
I've only been back in town for a week, but already I've made a pair (heh) of late night visits to Ruen Pair. The menu at here can be a bit of a minefield, but for me, their specialty lay not with their Thai noodles or curries, but with rice, and my go-to dish for helping to soak up the booze from an evening of heavy drinking is rice with stewed pork leg.
I'd started really appreciating this dish while I was in Portland, where the restaurant Ping did an excellent version of it, and so this was a case of me trying to find the same cherished flavors from the Northwest.
Ruen Pair's version of stewed pork leg is meaty and rich, with a generous amount of pork and skin glistening atop rice that slowly soaks up all the juice, giving it a flavor reminiscent of Hainanese chicken rice. Pickled greens and a spicy dipping sauce go a long way toward balancing the dish, cutting through all that richness.
Often times, spicy dishes are the only thing that a palate can register after a relentless assault from gin and whiskey. Ruen Pair's fried egg salad fits that bill nicely. It's a typical Thai "mix" salad, and it features fried eggs that have been cooked over hard, chopped up, and topped with a chili sauce. This dish does well on its own, but I find it pairs incredibly well with the stewed pork leg, as the egg offers a nice "change up" of flavor while still remaining in balance.
It didn't take long to get back into my stride (Hollywood and Thai Town were my old stomping grounds, after all). And Ruen Pair has resumed its role in my post-drinking sobering-up ritual. The rich and spicy dishes are salves, the waitresses administering them like Thai Florence Nightengales, shepherding my booze-addled mind down the path to recovery.
http://www.saucesupreme.com/a-pair-visits-ruen-pair
Excerpt from Monstrous SGV Rundown: Heavy Noodling (er, JTYH) is back. {pix + menu}
Really enjoyed the knife-cut noodles here; I'm eager to try them in the various soups to see which one I like best (I started with the basic NRM beef noodle soup, though Tony's pho de chivo and the simmered spare ribs were both certainly tempting).
I also had the beef roll, as per ipse's suggestion, and I certainly appreciated the added vegetal quality of it: fine juliennes of cucumber are in the mix, thus JTYH's rendition actually comes across as a bit more balanced.
$6 gets you a large starchy bowl of knife-cut noodles, while the beef roll (listed on the menu as Pancake with Beef) is $6 as well, both dishes really built for sharing, and so you can see that it's pretty inexpensive here, too.
Looking for a good butcher in the LA area
I ended up going to Alexander's Choice Meats to pick up some corned beef for St. Patty's day (after scoffing at the prices at my non-ADA-compliant Whole Foods), and also to check out the rest of the wares. Really nice selection of all sorts of protein, and I especially liked the big slabs of beef aging in the window. While this butcher shop is a bit of a haul for me, I figure I'll pair it up with a lunch in SGV somewhere to make it a total Chow-worthy road trip of sorts.
Best izakaya in Little Tokyo...
There's a lot of cross-over & affinity for Korean food in a Japanese pub, especially evident in Okinawan izakayas like Shin. I'd be interested to hear from other people, too, about any experience that they may have at Raku.
101 Noodle Express
No, my last visit was years ago. Not likely I'm going to end up in El Monte any time soon, but stranger drives have happened. (I once drove from Oxnard to Donut Man in Glendora.)
101 Noodle Express
I should add that the beef roll is also available at Dumpling 10053. Of course I only know that because of my extensive photo collection, and I have no recollection of what it tasted like. Next time I'm in El Monte (!) I'll swing by.
the best SANDWICH in (Los Angeles) period.
Langer's #6. Mmm... chicken liver.
Gonna have to check out Mario's since it's so close to where I'm staying. I see a sopressata sandwich in my future.
unique only in LA regional specialty
I believe the Chinese Chicken Salad was also invented here (at Ma Maison).
Your single favorite dish in LA
There are medicinal herbs that might facilitate that consumption. All perfectly legal, of course. ;)
I've gotta pay a vist to any place called Pizza and Chicken Love Letter.
Your single favorite dish in LA
While my previous post showed how much I missed the beef roll from 101 Noodle Express, I'm inclined to agree with Dommy: the boat noodles from Sapp.
