Trying Astronaut Food at NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory
I have a weird obsession with space food. I can spend hours reading wikis about MREs.
Lunch at Gjelina in Venice today:
- Marinated crimini with parmesan
- Pickled Japanese mackerel on rye
- Grilled broccolini in chili and vinegar, and merguez sausage on sauerkraut.
Plus pizza with chorizo, asparagus with romesco, and to drink: a calimocho! (Red wine mixed with Coca Cola and lime. Way better than it sounds: it’s a little bit sweet, tart, and bitter. Great afternoon cocktail. Might make myself another one right now with all of our leftover party supplies.)
Nommed on some tonkatsu ramen at Daikokuya last night with John before Saraliz’s birfday!
Overall, I’d rank my ramen places as following:
1) Tsujita — Best tonkatsu broth ever. But you need to take a million naps afterwards
2) Asahi — if only for the sake of nostalgia. You’ll always love your first!
3) Orochon — For the ability to customize, as well as the spice challenge. Plus I went there with the Mae Shi, which was a really really special time in my life.
4) Daikokuya — Solid broth. Points off for lack of customization.
5) Yamadaya — I’ve only done take-out from there, so I’m gonna withhold judgment for now. Solid Westside option, though.
(via El Tepeyac Owner Manuel Rojas Gone But Not Forgotten — Grub Street Los Angeles)
RIP Manny! My family and I will remember you, your burritos, and your tequila shots (at 11 in the morning) very fondly.
YumWatching: Culver City Cheap Eats
I think I like retroactive New Year’s Resolutions the best.
This way, I feel pretty confident about telling you guys that I’ve been researching my neighborhood’s food scene for the past three weeks and the results are pretty positive! Culver City is heavy on vegan/vegetarian Indian (for whatever reason? lots of Sikhs?), but it’s got so many other diverse, cheap places that I’ve been able to feed myself every weekend without ever having to repeat a meal.
Johnnie’s Pastrami (gringo pastrami/diner): Est. 1952. Picked up a pretty great pastrami sandwich with onion rings here one morning after setting off an industrial fire alarm the night before at a warehouse loft in downtown Los Angeles. It’s a big, thick pillow of pastrami on a soft roll. Not Langer’s, but man, it kills a hangover dead.
Tito’s Tacos (gringo tacos/burritos): Est. 1959. Tito’s are famous for what I call “gringo” tacos: hard-shelled, with lettuce and shredded cheese. You love them or hate them — or, actually, you feel like I do about them, which is that they’re good for addressing a certain kind of hangover. The burritos aren’t bad, if you love goopy beans, stringy cheese, and shredded beef. (I do really love goopy beans.) Go before 11am if you don’t want to wait for half an hour.
Jasmine Market (cheap Burmese): I just checked out this teeny hole-in-the-wall market-cum-restaurant today to pick up some keema curry and the lentil-tofu salad recommended so highly by J-Gold. The tofu salad is FANTASTIC, but not for vegetarians, since it’s liberally sprinkled with shrimp paste or fish sauce. I’ve also just spent the past 15 minutes shoving the keema curry into my mouth and I need to lie down some more.
Yamadaya Ramen (tonkatsu-style ramen): Yesterday’s lunch was the Spicy Tonkatsu Ramen at Yamadaya. It’s nowhere near as decadently pork-fatty as Tsujita’s tonkatsu, and the noodles are a bit thinner than I like, but it’s closer than the Sawtelle district if I’m in a ramen mood. I would have taken a picture of it yesterday but I was too busy hoovering it into my mouth. Then I had to lie down for a while because pork broth can really take it out of you, guys.
Super Pho & Teriyaki: Kind of crappy neighborhood Vietnamese/Japanese fusion place that’s probably run by Koreans, but the pho and banh mi are good in a pinch. I ain’t complaining.
Ugly Roll Sushi (Japanese/commuter sushi): SO WEIRD! Cheap weird sushi that makes no sense but I love it! It’s right by my work and I can get at least two meals out of about $12-worth of weird cheap rolls and salmon-skin salad!
(via Where Christmas Means Tamales - NYTimes.com)
Thinking about making this a “tamales-only” blog for a while, guys.
The Grandeur of Bullock’s Wilshire Tea Room
Bullock’s Wilshire was the showpiece, the jewel in the crown, the “cathedral of commerce” of the Bullock’s department store chain. Opened in 1929, this green copper-accented, art deco wonder was an innovative masterpiece, both inside and out. Built in the shape of a grand church, the store was the first to cater to automobile culture. Guests drove through a wrought iron gate into a painted porte-cochere, where valets whisked their cars away to be parked. One particularly eccentric customer, legendary entertainer Mae West, preferred to shop from her car, causing busy shop girls to run to and fro with big-busted dresses and long minks …
… A Miss Larson oversaw the tea room, and made sure it lived up to the “Bullock’s ideal” of excellence in service and presentation. The menu was light and refreshing, perfect for active shoppers and a welcome respite from heavy mid-century food. It featured such tea-time fare as finger sandwiches, pecan rolls, an assortment of fresh bread, including orange, date and nut, and cheese, and its famous Cantonese chicken salad with strawberry dressing. For dessert, fluffy coconut cream pie was a specialty, as was French chocolate layer cake, and a cream cheese ring with assorted fruit.
Love these history pieces so much.
I love old menus sooooooo so much!
(Source: kcetliving)
Because coffee and Tito’s Tacos is obviously the breakfast of champions.
(Hey! I’m making a ton of Christmas cookies today, including Momofuku’s Compost Cookies, so I need some serious fuel to get me through a long day of arduous baking. I don’t often bake. It’s going to be…interesting.)
(Also, I may have made some reckless promises re: cookie gifting and now have to figure out how to mail cookies cross-country? Cross-country cookies? Do I have to go to the post office? Can’t I just email them?)
(Source: verticalfood, via ffffood)
You guys, I was really just trying to drive home, and then I drove by JR’s Barbeque and then this (brisket, pork ribs, slaw, beans, and spicy sauce) happened. :( :( :( :D
