French Dips from Philipe, Tacos from Loteria! Grill

I was psyched to be able to eat at Philipe during my recent trip to Los Angeles. It was on the to-hit list last summer, but the overwhelming deliciousness that exists in this city made it impossible to make a trip. The place has been around for about 98 years and their specialty all that time has been the french dip. The restaurant is located practically in Chinatown. There's ample parking for customers. There's sawdust on the floors. There's an air of bizarro-ness at the counter. I asked for a beef french dip, only to be told there wasn't. Then I asked for pork, but then the lady at the counter told me there was beef and no pork. I don't know if this is a schtick or the way things work there. I forgot to ask for double dipped, when they submerge your the french bread upon which your sandwich is built, twice in the jus. The sandwich still rocked, as the crusty roll was able to withstand the jus without disintergrating into a wheaty mess. The CLC and I wound up swapping halves as she got the pork sandwich somehow, despite only ordering like 16 seconds after me. Bizarro I say! Along with my french dip I got a side of macaroni salad. I know among my friends and in my household that I'm in the minority when it comes to stuff like macaroni salad. But mix up anything with mayo and I'll pretty much stuff it in my face. Philipe's macaroni is made with ditalini pasta, which is a small tube or ring-shaped pasta, which made it more appealing to me. There was a nice tang and zip to the mayo-base and I gobbled up the entire portion.



The very next day, we ventured to the Farmers Market on 3rd Street. I knew where I wanted to eat - Loteria! Grill. Again, this was a place that I hoped we would get to last summer, but of course didn't make it to. The LA Farmers Market is a series of open air stalls and stores. Well the stalls are covered, but the pathways between are not. You can get everything at the Farmers Market, as evidenced by our table. The CLC got clam chowda, Chris got tacos not from Loteria! and Julie got pizza and a donut. Those three also shared a pitcher of hefeweizen to wash it down. There was a boureki place that looked super tantalizing, but I wanted one thing and one thing only.

I opted for a couple tacos. The first was albondigas en chipotle (the first of tastes of albondigas to be had that day), which translates to meatballs in a chipotle/tomato sauce. The second was the champinones con epazote - mushrooms with something called bean herb that the woman likened to cilantro. Both were served on delightful homemade tortillas, but frankly they were a little smaller than I thought. After I polished off the albondigas, I went back to get a carna deshebrada which ultimately turned out to be my favorite of the three I sampled. It was a delicious stewed shredded beef that was bursting with flavor, served with fresh guacamole, chipotle salsa and finely chopped onion and cilantro. The third taco totally put me over the top but it was such a satisfying place to be. Oh the reason I didn't partake in beer was that I knew Loteria! would have a wonderful selection of agua frescas and such. I'm a big fan of watermelon agua frescas but they were out so instead I ordered a horchata, which is a refreshing rice-milk drink accented with lots of cinnamon. In fact, the last time I had a horchata was at the Santa Monica farmer's market last summer! I remember we also bought some brittle or bark that was mighty tasty. Viva Los Angeles!

Man, I am totally getting sports emotions right now watching the last seconds of the Heat/Mavs game and I wasn't even rooting for the Heat!

Breakfast 06/09/06

I may have already stated this (in fact maybe in the previous post), but I love room service breakfast. After the bacon-a-thon of the previous morning, I opted to go a bit healthier and ordered up steel-cut oatmeal with caramelized bananas. Unfortunately, the bananas were the furthest thing from ripe and pretty inedible. The butter and brown sugar coating did provide a nice touch of sweetness that you need with oatmeal, so I swirled in the bananas to spread the caramel sauce around and then fished them out. For lunch later that day, I got a vegetable plate and of course my dinner time I was hankering for some meat!



Oatmealy bananas up-close.

We're In Los Angeles

Which is why we haven't been posting.
We've been eating lots of deliciousness and will share in our eating outings once we're back next week.

Til then, I leave you with this nugget: I left bacon uneaten today.

The Park Slope Gastronome #15 - West Coast Baseball Trip Day 3

Calling this Day 3 of the WCBT may be a bit misleading. So let me offer this disclaimer. Team Brooklyn arrived in Hollywood very late in the evening on Thursday. This post is about what we ate on Saturday, which if you count Thursday as Day 1, makes this our third day.

Saturday morning we awoke to the delicious smell of donuts. While I was still sleeping (I can't vouch for anyone else), Dave had made the trip out to Westwood to Stan's Doughnuts. Stan's is this little corner shop that has been making amazing variations on the fried cake for nearly 40 years now. I had first heard of Stan's on where else but the Food Channel, and remembered telling myself, "I need to file this away for future use." But I should know by now that if I don't write something down, it's as good as lost. When I saw the pink boxes in Dave and Jen's kitchen though, I had a memory jog and immediately pictured Stan, showing off his cakey creations behind a glass case and couldn't wait to stuff my face.

Dave had brought us a true assortment. There were cake donuts and buttermilk donuts, twisted and covered ones, crumby and chocolatey types. It's not easy to admit negative things about yourself, but one problem I've had my entire life is that if presented with a dozen varieties that are all new to me, I need to try all 12 different types. I don't care if there are other people; I need a taste of every single one. So when there are two boxes of donuts in front of your greedy mug and there are only one or two repeating variations, it causes a big problem for you. Knowing that I could take a bite out of each one, I had to make the perfect choice or I would really regret it for the rest of my life. I chose a banana cake donut that was drizzled with chocolate. It was moist and chewy. The banana and chocolate created a beautiful harmony in my mouth. A perfect way to start the morning. Rumor has it that New York restauranteur Danny Meyer sent one of his sous chefs out to LA to apprentice with Stan to learn how to make these treats for his Shake Shack in Madison Park.

Later that day, we hit up a Lebanese chicken shack called Zankou. Apparently it's a mini-chain in LA, and even immortalized in a Beck song. Jen had been raving about this place, especially the white garlic sauce and I was ready to give it a try. I think she ate an entire chicken! I was in awe of her appetite the entire trip since I suffer from eyes bigger than stomach syndrome.

This branch of Zankou was located in a strip mall. The menu was posted above the counter and the space had exactly the ambiance of a restaurant located in a strip mall. I ordered a quarter white chicken plate, which came with a little plastic container of the infamous white garlic sauce, which actually looked more like the pastey stuff you got in kindergarten during art class. My chicken was served in an elegant white styrofoam container; it's brown crispy skin glistening under the artificial lights. Along with the garlic paste, you get a bunch of pita, some hummus and a salad consisting of tomatoes, pepperoncinis and bright fuschia pickled daikon. I would have preferred a crisper daikon (the strips were pretty limp, but that was probably the only downside to a fantastic fast and cheap meal. I couldn't get enough of the garlic paste - I would put it on anything and everything. Dan, being averse to eating anything that includes a bone*, opted for a shawarma wrap, but I gave him some of my food because he really would have regretted missing out on such tastiness.

That evening on the way to Barstow after a High Desert Mavericks game (where I think I had some nasty nachos after standing on line for way too long), we hit up the first In-N-Out on the trip. I don't think I was really hungry, but just seeing that red and yellow sign made my mouth water and I made a request for a stop. While the shakes were nice and thick and the burger topped with some really fresh produce, I was a bit disappointed in the hand-cut fries which were a bit undercooked. Still, I'd kill for an In-N-Out in New York.

*This doesn't apply to buffalo wings - he seems to have made an exception for anything drenched in Frank's hot sauce.

The Park Slope Gastronome #13 - West Coast Baseball Trip Day 2

Our first full day in El Aye begins with a trip to Japantown. The area is filled with modest, well cared-for ranch style homes, but due to its low crime rate and overall pleasantry, the houses go for over a million dollars. Crazy! Of course my need to check out this area has nothing to do with real estate, but everything to do with visiting the Giant Robot stores. The store is an offshoot of an Asian American lifestyles magazine of the same name. I've been a fan for some time now. When I last visited Los Angeles around 2002, there existed but one store. It's since expanded to include another store across the street (GR2), a restaurant (GR Eats), a shop across town (GR Silverlake) and outlets in San Francisco and New York (GRSF and GRNY, respectively). It's safe to say the robots are doing all right. I must say, I was on my absolute best behavior at the stores and only purchased a couple sheets of stickers, a Relax Bear mini-diorama and a Japanese book about chewing gum wrapper graphic design. Stop laughing.

On the way back from shopping, we hit the Apple Pan in West LA, a city institution since 1947, serving quality forever! This is the kind of place that you live for. It's a u-shaped counter with stools all around. It's also free form, first come, first serve, making the seating situation a bit hectic. After a short wait, our party of six managed to secure 5 seats together. The ladies (myself and Jen) were allowed to sit first, so it was us who got to initially witness the ketchup magic. We both ordered Hickory Burgers with cheddar cheese and french fries. The fries were up first - a golden, crispy mass of half inch thick potato joy strips. Our server put out two paper plates made of recycled gray pulp and deftly poured ketchup onto both using a bottle in each hand. As we munched on the fries and made our way through the initial serving of ketchup, our guy came over, saw that our ketchup supply had dwindled and promptly refilled. Judging by the eyes I'm giving our server, the experience was magical! Then it was time for the burgers! We all opted for the Hickory with cheese, except for Balgavy who has an aversion to cheese that is not found on pizza. But come to think of it he ordered the plain burger, not even the Hickory, so I don't know what to tell you. The mounds of happiness came snuggled in their own little white paper wrapper. The burgers were juicy with a pile of crisp lettuce acting as a good counterpart to the mush created by the melting cheese and ketchup. I made a mess. The consensus was that this was a fantastic burger, except for Balgavy, but like I mentioned, all he got a regular burger, plain. Beef and bun as he likes to call it. I believe it's a decision he still rues to this day.

Unfortunately, we didn't have enough room for a slice of their famous apple pie. I could see a wall of them through a window inside the restaurant and they seemed to be about 2 feet high. No kidding.

That evening we hit Angels Stadium in the OC to watch a game between the ridiculous named Anaheim Angles of Los Angeles and the Boston Red Sox. Wow, talk about boring fans. The Red Sox fans made mince meat of the Orange County snoozers. While the boys were taking pictures of the flair outside the stadium, I had to rush in cause of course I had to use the ladies' room because I suffer from SABS (small Asian bladder syndrome). I am not sure if this is a real disease or if I am the only case of this existing. After emptying, I took a tour of the stadium to figure out where I wanted to get my dinner. I had nearly walked the full perimeter of the stadium when it appeared. The line was surprisingly short, although once I got in line, I realized there was a terrible glare off the concession window that made it nearly impossible to look at the cashier. After some debate, I decided on the hot Italian beef with jus. It came with a side of crunchy barbecue chips. The meat was dripping with drippings, but it was a nice alternative to a hot dog. This would be the first of many times I would double beef in a day on the trip.

The Park Slope Gastronome #12 - West Coast Baseball Trip Day 1

The unthinkable has happened and I have fallen in love with the city of Los Angeles. My first two trips there were relatively underwhelming, leaving me wondering what people could possibly see in this sprawling city. But this time there was an emphasis on food, not the nouveau cuisine served in dim, trendy settings for vapid club hopping dumbasses and out of touch richies, but the food made by the people and for the people that are the pulse of this city - the working class, the immigrants, the regular joes.

Our first meal in the city came past midnight. We had been hoping to pass an In-n-Out from the airport to Dave and Jen's, but instead settled for Carl's Jr. Carl's Jrs are mostly found on the West Coast. I had my first taste on a trip to Hawaii about a decade ago. It was founded by a man named Carl and the franchise began as a hot dog cart. Eventually Carl's hot dog cart turned into a drive in, which in turn begat a smaller version, the Jr. Later in the week we even passed a couple Carl's Jr. Jr's, akin to Pizza Hut Expresses, I imagine, serving a condensed version of the menu.

While waiting for our turn at the drive-in, I was able to study part of the menu. It was only part because of the angle of the car and I didn't even learn about the fried zucchini until the order was placed, which in retrospect was probably a good thing. And this is also a place where instead of chicken nuggets, you get chicken stars! I wasn't really hungry, but am I not one to pass up a meal, so I settled on the Western Bacon Cheeseburger. It would fufill my bacon quota for the day, it was relatively small and the idea of two onion rings nestled between the charbroiled patty and sesame seed bun was too ingenius to pass up. I always like having sides. I don't like just having a burger. Or just an entree. I like having a salad or vegetables - something to break up the monotony of what you're eating. How perfect was this, I thought. I just wanted a little taste of a side and it already came with the package! Brilliant! The most remarkable thing about the burger was the staying power of the pleasing crunchy texture of the onion rings. I got crunch on my last bite and couldn't have asked for more.