Showing posts with label street food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label street food. Show all posts
L.A. Street Food Festival - Favorites
Earlier this month, I attended the 2nd Annual Summer Tasting Event, aka the L.A. Street Food Fest.
Because this year, there were 2 shifts and it took place during 'Carmeggedon' weekend, where many L.A. residents stayed local to avoid traffic jams resulting from a major freeway closure, festival attendees were able to enjoy barely-there lines.
This year, what really drew me there were the Baja Chefs.
Javier Plascencia / Mision 19 - Grilled oyster with short rib chicharron, chili, ponzu butter, lemongrass foam and sea bean.
This elegant oyster dish tasted as wonderful as it looked - my favorite dish and the only one which I immediately asked for seconds (not caring about saving my appetite).
They grilled the oysters fresh in the tent and assembled the dish per order.
The judges voted it Best in Show and it won the People's Choice award as well.
Manzanilla Restaurante called this dish Manzanilla Surprise. The abalone tostada really stood out, as did the two beef tostadas.
It was a pleasure to chat with Chef Javier Plascencia and let him know how much I enjoyed his dishes and asking when L.A. can have some more of his food.
Javier Plascencia / Casa Plascencia - Mini beef cheek tacos. The beef was tender and smokey.
Some of the visitors were turning away upon hearing about beef cheeks and oysters, which left more for those who appreciate it.
Sabina Bandera / La Guerrerense won the judges award for Best Original Showmanship. She lined up these multiple bottles of fresh, hot, salsa on the table and served them according to peoples' preferences.
Sabina Bandera / La Guerrerense - Sea Urchin Tostada with Pismo Clam
The uni (sea urchin) was stewed, prepared in a way I had never tasted.
While in seafood mode, I hit Mariscos Chente for a delicious bite of Nayarit shrimp ceviche.
Streets of Thailand offered very good Thai iced tea in these smart carriers. Even after I finished my drink it seemed to stay on my wrist like a purse!
Tiara Cafe put up this eye catching sign and provided quite a show all in cowgirls and Indian outfits. Their food stood up to the show.
Tiara Cafe - Slow Smoked Short Ribs wrapped with mac and cheese and a seasoned crust, with squirt of BBQ sauce.
Naan Stop served delicious, crispy samosas from a family recipe, accompanied with apple tamarind and spicy coconut chutneys. They also introduced themselves and were very friendly. Judges awarded them 3rd place.
Taste of Tunisia had one of the longest lines. Because their food was good but also because they made each tasting fresh and on the spot. Props to them for that.
The tuna Brik contained runny egg, capers and other complementary ingredients.
They heavily decorated their tent and did their best to entertain people with reading material as they waited.
Maggie's Meat & Bread - choripan, tortilla espanola, chimichurri, carbonada
They offered several dishes, but due getting full, I tried this delicious Argentinian sandwich. More American sandwiches should feature potatoes (the tortilla espanola).
Border Grill Truck - quinoa fritters. Mary Sue Milliken
These coin shaped fritters were so attractive, I really wanted to like them more. Unfortunately they were room temperature when I had them and had stiffened up a bit.
Glowfish's Okonomiyaki, a wheat pancake with cabbage, potato, eggs and tempura flakes sounded so good that I waited 10 minutes to try one. The sauce for me had way too much umami punch and drowned out the other light flavors.
There were a few other bites I tried but didn't photograph due to juggling beverage, plate and camera:
- Mariscos de Jalisco's tacos dorado de cameron (2nd place by Judges and my favorite from last year)
- Mexicali Taco & Co's vampiro
- King's Row Gastropub's lamb merguez corndog
- IOTA's Korean pour over coffee
- Ramen Jinya's shoyu tonkatsu ramen
A couple of places I wanted to try closed shop before I got there, such as the Picca tent, serving Judges' award for Best Nouveau Street Food - Ricardo Zarate - Peruvian Cau Cau .
By that time I was ready for dessert.
Bulgarini Gelato served my favorite dessert hands down, and also the judges' Sweet Tooth award. They brought so many flavors of their gelato, it was almost as if you were in their shop.
I tasted almond, peach and plum. Their gelato tastes as if they somehow crushed the fresh ingredients into cream and froze it. The plum burst with tart and sweet plum flavor, and they happily served me a second helping of it.
Dan Moody / Relate served Banana Bread Pudding a la Pecan Pie, with a delicious bourbon sauce. A great bite.
There were several Masterchef contestants helping out former attorney Esther Kang with her Batch from Scratch cookie bakery.
We spoke with Adrien and noticed Alejandra and Tracy working hard. It's great to see how they help each other out. I couldn't ask too much about what they are doing now, since the season is still airing.
Esther served us some lemon lavender and Scoops brown bread ice cream sandwiches. It made me wonder why there were 50+ people in line for Coolhaus next door.
Starry Kitchen's Star Wars themed staff brought a lot of energy to the event, as they always do.
Starry Kitchen served 3 dishes, including their infamous tofu balls, but since I've already tried many of their dishes and was full, it was just the pandan donut holes for me. They tied for 3rd place with the judges.
Gleeka - spanakopita, melomakarona (cookies) and baklava.
Delicious Wishes LA - Bananas Foster Cake Ball (and various flavors)
Basically the time flew by, from this 30-40 wait to get in, to me getting to the car 10 minutes after closing and finding the field almost empty!
I definitely was full and got to try several bites, only making a dent in all the offerings.
A Taco Tribute to Gary
Last week I got the shocking news that a dear friend, Gary Mogil, passed away. The news made me so profoundly sad and got me thinking of many things.On a deeper level, I pondered how people impact your life in amazing ways. Gary and I met through a meetup.com event, an event I was hosting. He walked in full of light, and as anyone who knew him can attest, was the life of the party.
What I realize now is that I don't know much about Gary's life - where he grew up, about his family, what he does for a living. But that first day we met, he helped me with logistics of the event, had a great time and his energy was contagious.
Since then we saw each other at many other events, festivals, picnics. I always sought him out. We became Facebook friends and he'd post sassy and fun comments on my profile.
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| Ricky's Fish Tacos |
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| Ricky's Fish Tacos - original spot in Silver Lake |
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| Gary Mogil - East L.A. Taco Crawl - photo courtesy of Sunny DeJesus |
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| Santa Rita, Jalisco - Pescuesos de Pollo |
It's not for everybody. If you like chicken on the bone and fried chicken and tacos, it would probably work.
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| Santa Rita Jalisco |
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| Tacos Leo - Al Pastor |
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| Tacos Leo - al pastor tacos with a slice of pineapple from the spit |
I don't even know whether Gary tried these, but when I did, I thought of how he'd love them.
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| Mexicali Taco and Co. - salsa |
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| Mexicali Taco and Co. - tortillas |
They bring in their tortillas a couple of times a week from Baja California.
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| Mexicali Taco and Co. |
The taco chefs are super friendly and cool too. They told me about eating oysters on the beach in Baja and said I should come along! Nobody has to ask my twice...
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| Mexicali Taco and Co. - The Superman |
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| Mexicali Taco and Co. . - carne asada and chorizo tacos |
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| Mexicali Taco and Co. - chicken Vampiro |
During this past week, a couple of mutual friends were talking about how Gary's mug shot remained on our Facebook friends list on our profile pages all week, almost as if he was still hanging out with us.
I asked my friend Sunny if I can repost a couple of her photos of him, and she replied that Gary would love the publicity and networking.
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| Gary Mogil - photo courtesy of Sunny DeJesus, 2010 |
Gary and I met after having gone through a very personally challenging 2 years and his upbeat demeanor reminded me to keep my zest for life at all times and enjoy the present. I constantly laughed and smiled around him, or just thinking of him.
When my father passed away 8 years ago, some people I hadn't met came to the memorial service. They were his students in the 60's at USC graduate school (even before I was born).
They told us how he impacted their lives being a philanthropist who helped them in so many ways. It really moved me.
Gary was also one of those people always sharing their light and delightful energy with others, totally evident by the outpouring of love upon his blessed departure.
The spark he had is something I will always cherish and aspire to. And will never fail to think of him with every new taste of a taco in town.
¡Buen provecho, Gary!
Night + Market - Thai Street Food Specialties
It is unexpected to find small plates of authentic Thai street food in the trendy part of the Sunset Strip. Night + Market, a recent extension to Talesai, provides all that and more in a sleek, gallery like setting that perfectly highlights the soul satisfying food.
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| Curtained off entrance across from the door to enter Talesai |
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| Communal tables and artwork on walls |
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| Video projections on wall in dining room |
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| Night + Market's mailing lists |
The dining room felt so calm and no frills, one almost feels like they are dining in a home. There are hand written mailing list sign-up sheets taped onto the communal tables and walls.
Three of us were dining together that night, which conveniently allowed us to sample all but one dish on the DineLA menu.
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| Appetizers of Yum Octopus/Tuna/Blue Crab |
First courses consisted of a trie of cold salads bursting with flavors. While they were very spicy, the flavors all played off each other well.
- Yum Octopus contained tender, steamed octopus tossed with crunchy shallots, fresh mint, lime and bird eye chiles.
- Yum Tuna came in the form of lettuce wraps with a filling of diced raw tuna dressed with lime, fish sauce, rice powder and roasted red chile. The rice powder provided a crispy textural surprise.
- Yum Blue Crab contained raw, salted blue crab sitting on a bed of scorchingly spicy green mango slaw.
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| Course two - entrees |
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| Thai Charcuterie Plate |
The salsa tasted surprisingly mild compared to the salads. This time they left the hot chili in its entirety on the side of the plate. We wrapped the bite size sausages in cabbage, added a spoon of salsa and popped the rolls into our mouths.
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| Hor Mok Red Snapper |
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| Oxtail and Game Hen entrees |
- Kew Wan Braised Oxtail in a housemade green curry paste containing coconut milk, Thai basil and sugar snap peas. The curry sauce was slightly runny, but packed a ton of herbal, savory flavors. The side of roti (pan fried, layered flatbread) was perfect for mopping up the sauce. The stewed oxtail was nicely complemented by the crunchy snap peas.
- Ob Gai Game Hen was a half hen braised in North country aromatics. The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender and sauce also had a runny consistency that also went fabulously with the mound of sticky rice topped with fried shallots.
A couple of days before arriving, I read a tweet from the Chef/Owner Kris Yenbamroon saying that after the DineLA people leave he was going to put on a batch of pork rinds. It sounded random at the time. The one dish we didn't try was the Kao Soi Chieng Rai Noodle Soup, including among many things, the housemade pork rinds.
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| Night + Market's Ice Cream Sandwich |
The base was a pan de leche, topped with a layer of sticky rice soaked in evaporated milk. A scoop of housemade sweet coconut ice cream sprinkled with toasted mung beans rounds out this curiously delicious dessert. At first we thought the bread was overkill, but probably used as a vehicle to port around the ice cream. Once the bread started soaking up the ice cream and evaporated milk, it was clear why this dessert was yet another well executed dish.
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| Lemon bush outside window at Night + Market |
