November 5, 2009
Finding halal highlights of Burmese and Malaysian cooking in Inglewood for the L.A. Times:
PHOTO by ANNE CUSACK / L.A. TIMES
The Koranic art at Mutiara Food & Market is rattling against the wall, its filigreed details shaken by the groans of a jet passing overhead. When the plane travels out of sight, Mutiara fills with a consuming quiet. The Inglewood restaurant and market is a subdued place, but its unassuming setting belies its rich and varied Burmese and Malaysian cooking.
Mutiara concentrates mostly on the halal highlights of Islamic Burmese cuisine, a hearty cast of curries and kebabs more closely resembling those of India and Pakistan than Myanmar. They’re the dishes of owner Myo Aung’s personal history. His recipes re-create his Myanmar, paeans to the Islamic traditions of both his family and home. (Outside the kitchen, Aung performs a similar service as an imam, leading prayers and instructing the teachings of the Koran.)
Mutiara isn’t his first restaurant venture. Aung used to own Jasmine Market in Culver City but sold it about two years ago and opened Mutiara. Similarities to the former restaurant remain, but Mutiara has a deeper, more complex menu.
Read the rest here.
October 20, 2009
PHOTO by SABRINA L.
To free the blog from stagnation, an update on a favorite lunch spot: Top Baguette. It’s possibly common knowledge by now for Little Saigon regulars, but the beloved banh mi shop made a recent move to a colorful spot on the corner of Bolsa and Magnolia. Earlier this month, Top Baguette was still offering a buy-one-get-one free banh mi deal to celebrate its grand reopening. It’s not the same value as, say, the three-for-two deal at Saigon Bakery, but still one to take advantage of while the eats are even cheaper.
Top Baguette
9016 Bolsa Ave
Westminster, CA
714.379.7726
October 2, 2009
Long Beach sprouted out of an agrarian dream, a pastoral fantasy of bean fields and beaches that sustained entire generations before the onset of the city’s industrial complex. But as happens with the immutable laws of progress, those plots all eventually disappeared, family farms and cultural traditions wiped out by time. With that came not just a divorce from the land, but a fundamental shift in thinking that has left many of our friends and neighbors without access to or understanding of good, fresh food. Long Beach, however, is blessed now with a whole community of food philanthropists: gardeners, cooks, activists and organizations all using their green thumbs for good. They’re reconnecting with the soil, and with Long Beach itself—feeding us, teaching us and reminding us of the simple pleasures (and power) of food. It’s not a new vision, but an eternal one, a return to the time when local, seasonal produce dictated diets and compassion compelled those more fortunate to extend a helping hand.
Read the stories of Jimmy Ng, Adriana Martinez, Cindy Goss and Paul Buchanan in the District.
Filed under General
Tags: adriana martinez, anarchy in the garden, cindy goss, food, food philanthropy, growing experience, jimmy ng, long beach, paul buchanan, primal alchemy, socal harvest, the district
September 21, 2009
The makings of Long Beach’s own Mayan Riviera for the District:
PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Fuego looks out onto the Long Beach of everyone’s oceanfront dream, a seaside theater where pelicans dive with hungry, graceful precision and pleasure-seekers boat by on the last winds of summer. It’s a scene so idyllic it’s nearly unbelievable, almost as if it were constructed and choreographed by a television crew trying again to approximate Miami. For Fuego, the newest tenant of the equally new Hotel Maya, it’s fitting, a perfect backdrop for the restaurant’s high-end exploration of coastal Mexican cooking.
But that sublime setting doesn’t diminish the difficulties of upscaling a cuisine so common in Southern California that even less-than-serious eaters possess a passable understanding of its regional distinctions. As a result, successful Mexican fine dining must undeniably out-cook our taquería favorites and also compete directly with modern masters like La Casita Mexicana in Bell and Moles La Tia in East LA. Chef Jesse Perez is, by and large, up to the task.
Keep reading →
September 17, 2009
Feijoada and more for the L.A. Times:
PHOTO by JAY L. CLENDENIN / L.A. TIMES
The menu at Rio Brazil Café seems a relic of restaurant protocol, a vestigial document that exists only to fulfill standard expectations. There has to be a menu, right?
But on it are dishes that are hardly reflective of the Palms restaurant’s best offerings. Rio Brazil Café is governed by the caprices of the kitchen, run by chef-owner Luciene Peck, who deftly cooks her way through Brazil’s regional recipes. These don’t always show up on the menu.
As a result, Rio Brazil Café can feel in flux. Even the restaurant’s name is up for revision, as a recent change is yet to be reflected on the sign, cards and website that are all still emblazoned with the old Brazilian Exotic Foods moniker.
The only constant is the cafe itself: half a dozen tables, lime-green walls and a flat-screen TV broadcasting high-definition diversions.
Read the rest here.
September 8, 2009
Serious sandwiches at Foggia Italian Market and Deli for the District
PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Sandwiches are the product of industrial circumstance, traditionally inexpensive meals of two-handed utility meant to be consumed in no more than a few hearty bites. Rarely does an expensive, decadent sandwich ever seem truly worth its weight—the humblest creations please the most. But there’s nothing lowly or undistinguished about the sandwiches constructed at Foggia Italian Market and Deli in Lakewood: they’re bold, brash stomach-stuffers descended from a proud East Coast tradition.
Keep reading →
September 6, 2009
Advanced notice on this one, but that might just give you enough time to stretch your stomach: Bamboodles is hosting its second annual Wonton Noodle Eating Contest (download an application here) on October 24th at 3pm. The first-place eater wins $2,500 worth of cash and prizes, while second place earns $300 in cash and prizes.
August 27, 2009
Wide-ranging vegetarian Vietnamese for the LA Times:
PHOTO by GINA FERAZZI / LA TIMES
Bo De Tinh Tam Chay is so serene it can transport you to a meditative state. The sound of trickling water flows through the dining room, a peaceful backing-track that blocks out the occasional clangs and whirs that erupt from the kitchen. A forest of fake bamboo surrounds the dining area, and Buddhist statues are placed throughout the room
The Westminster restaurant is not reserved about its Buddhism (the restaurant’s name derived from the sacred Bodhi tree, and Buddhist brochures and texts are strategically stationed near the doors), and with that comes a boundless menu of vegetarian Vietnamese cooking.
Although Bo De’s Beach Boulevard branch is a mere 3 months old, the restaurant’s roots are far deeper, having outgrown a long-standing location near the Asian Garden mall on Bolsa Avenue. There, the restaurant operates in a comparatively cramped space that, by virtue of both size and reputation, is constantly crowded.
That original location remains, but the second Bo De is even better — the expansive Beach Boulevard restaurant brings all of Bo De’s 100-plus meatless meals into a significantly more upscale and impressive setting.
Read the rest here.
August 18, 2009
A Little India standby for the District:
PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Twenty years into its venerated tenure, Jay Bharat is still stuck halfway between a snack shop and a restaurant. A stretch of lilac lights illuminates one specialty: a display case filled with a rainbow of sweets, some shaped like tiny watermelons, others like shrunken slices of pie. The kitchen, however, focuses on thalis, diverse, compartmentalized meals divided into seven or eight separate tastes. Tradition connects the sweet and the savory here, but Jay Bharat continues to anchor Artesia’s Little India because it expertly prepares the best of those two Gujarati worlds.
Gujarati cuisine, the predominantly vegetarian fare from India’s western, Pakistan-bordering state of Gujarat, is well represented on Pioneer Boulevard. Yet none of Jay Bharat’s peers offers quite the same variety. As excellent as Surati Farsan is, it’s best at small bites and take-away snacks. Rajdhani, meanwhile, is defined by its all-you-can-eat thalis, endless meals that litter its tables with constellations of steel cups. Jay Bharat strikes the ideal medium.
Keep reading →
August 16, 2009
Classic roadside restaurants are memorialized in a new photo book by John Eng and Adriene Biondo. Find the flier below for a schedule of upcoming book signings at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Hollywood, Bun n Burger in Alhambra and Bob’s Big Boy in Downey (former home of Johnie’s Broiler).
