LA Eats
Recently I was in LA for a wedding and what a fabulous wedding it was! The bride and groom were absolutely glowing. I usually don’t cry at weddings but it was hard not to shed a tear or two at this one.
Since it might be awhile before I can go to LA again, I took full advantage of every meal. Neither a calorie nor a bite could be wasted on mediocre food.
One of the things I miss about LA is the fresh produce. Even with all the fancy restaurants and my favorite dives, I try to make it to Souplantation a few times while I’m out there. I know, I know…it’s a salad buffet. The pizza and pasta there is pretty weak but I really love their salads. Produce really does taste better in California!
These are typical things you’d find in a Taiwanese breakfast. This was ALOT of food to have all at once and we didn’t eat it all in one sitting. But it was just good to have a little taste of everything.
From the strawberries going clockwise, little steamed dumplings filled with Chinese chives. Next to it is part of a Chinese cruller, an eggy donut without any sugar. You can dip the cruller into the hot sweetened soy milk for a decadent treat. To the left of the soy milk is a fan twan, a Chinese cruller wrapped in steamed sticky rice. Sometimes you’ll find other fillings in it like dried shredded pork, salted cabbage, and/or a chopped soy sauce egg. To the left is a plate of sticky rice, which is something I hadn’t seen as a breakfast item. Next to that is part of a green onion pancake. I actually prefer mine because it’s less greasy.
I’m not Korean but over the last year or so, I’ve been obsessed with Korean food especially since the places in Chicago doesn’t compare to the places in LA.
One of my favorites is a big bowl of bibimbap. It’s mostly veggies with a bit of meat over a bed of rice. The best part really is the rice. It’s served in a hot stoneware where the egg gets cooked and the rice gets all nice and brown and toasty and crispy at the bottom. Nom nom nom!
Tofu is meh but I looooove soondubu, a tofu stew. Now my Korean friends laugh at me because as much as I love soondubu, I can’t eat foods that are too spicy. So mine is white when the broth is normally red. Sometimes an angry red.
You crack an egg into the stew and the bubbling hot broth will cook the egg. You can stir the stew and break up the egg or just leave it there for it to poach. It’s really up to you. My favorite way to eat it is to take a spoonful of rice and dip it into the broth with a little bit of tofu and its toppings. Nom nom nom!
Ok, my favorite part of Korean food is the banchan, or side dishes. Talk about a little foodie paradise for my ADD! And if you ever run out, you can simply ask for more. How cool is that? I also love the little croaker they have at some places. Crispy and salty goodness. Nom nom nom!
At this one Korean BBQ place, they gave us 12 banchans. Twelve! OMG, there was so much to choose from, where could I even start? And the Korean BBQ? I’m not a huge BBQ fan but I really could eat this all day. My favorite has to be kalbi, or Korean shortribs. Nom nom nom!
After a fantastic meal, the hardest part is remembering to leave room for dessert. I didn’t have dessert often but managed to get this on my last night in LA. Shaved ice is a popular Asian dessert and we went to a dessert cafe called Mochilato where they serve Japanese (mochi) and Italian (gelato) sweets. The ice was powdery soft under the sweetest chopped strawberries, kiwi, bananas, and mangoes. It was topped with pieces of mochi and a dollop of azuki beans. Oh and the surprise was that this was all over a scoop of gelato. Nom nom nom!
Also near and dear to my heart is Ethiopian food. Loooooove Ethiopian! My friend from college first introduced me to it 15 years ago and I don’t have it as often as I like. It’s better to have alot of people so you can have more variety but it’s hard to find people who are open to having it. So whenever I see him, we always have Ethiopian!
That night we ordered 3 things: vegetarian (all the veggies and bean stews on the perimeter), lamb (closer to the camera) and beef (away). It’s served on injera, a spongy flatbread that tastes tangy. Sounds funky, I know but I swear it’s really good!
The restaurant gives you a bunch of injera on the side. You tear off a piece of the injera and use it to scoop up lentils, beef, whatever. The best part is at the end of the meal, all the juices from all the fillings have soaked into the big injera. Unfortunately we were too stuffed to even have it.
Nom nom nom!
Ok, seeing these pictures is making me hungry again.
The food looks so good! Just curious, what were the names of the restaurants for the Taiwanese breakfast and the Ethiopian food? I’m based in Southern California and would love to give those a try.
Thank you! Taiwanese breakfast shown above is from Ranch 99 and is available on weekends. The one in Irvine has a place where you can sit and eat there. If you want more of a restaurant, there is A&J on Jeffrey in Irvine.
The Ethiopian restaurant I went to is called Tana in Anaheim. It’s a bit hard to find so look for a small strip mall that doesn’t face the street. But if you’re in LA, a better place is Merkato on Fairfax. They have a bigger menu including trout and beef tartare (I’m not a fan of eating raw beef but was feeling adventurous). But if you’re in OC, Tana is a solid and convenient place.
Thanks for replying! 99 ranch is relatively close to my house, so I definitely will try their Taiwanese breakfast out (I’m Taiwanese so it’s like comfort food to me). And I’ve had Tana on my list of places to try for a long time but never made it out there! Now I know I really got to go and try it.
This all looks so delicious, and it is such a yummy way to start my Sunday morning. I hope you have a beautiful day full of laughter and love, my friend!