The chef who started the food truck crazed in LA, Roy Choi of Kogi has opened his first restaurant some time ago called Chego. It is a rice bowl joint. Their menu features various BBQ meat served in inexpensive rice bowl, and fun starters that’s inspired by Korean and American cultures. The interior is decorated with vintage toys…it’s fun, hip and casual.

Ooey Gooey Fries fries: sour cream sambal, melting monterey jack and cheddar cheese, cotija, chillies, cilantro, pickled garlic. Wow this is loaded with goodness, though it’s a little too rich tasting for me (especially after a few bites). I especially love the pickled garlic. It’s way better than chili fries for sure.

Chubby Pork Belly: kochujang-lacquered kurobuta, w/fried egg, pickled watermelon radishes, water spinach, cilantro, cotija, peanuts. It looks and sounds mouth watering, doesn’t it?  The kurobuta (Black hog) pork was very juicy, flavorful and tender…very impressive. Though it can get salty after some built up, as the sauce can get  a little overwhelming. I still enjoy it a lot, wouldn’t it wonderful if all rice bowl can be this thoughtful and well made?

Tiny’s Prime Rib Rice Plate chili-rubbed, w/fried egg, water spinach, creamed horseradish, roasted garlic serrano paste, shallots. It’s as good as it sounds.

In general the flavor is bold in the salty and spicy side. This place  has the premise of  fast food rice bowl (Yoshinoya), except the food are prepared carefully with attention to details, and used only good quality ingredients. The grilled meat are all unquestionably great. I’m a little bummed that they don’t open for lunch, it’s the perfect fast food. At least they open late, so it’s great for those of us who always have to work late. I can’t wait to come back and try their other interesting starters.

Chego
3300 Overland Ave.  Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 287-0337  Tue-Sat, 5:30PM-11:30PM

Tags: Korean

There are many good food trucks out there but I’ve never been such a loyal fan to any of them except for The Little Frenchie, an authentic French truck offers delicious french sandwiches and crepes for a very affordable price. They come to the Hollywood area every Thursday near the CNN building and has been the highlight of the week for me. It’s run by three cute and friendly girls, and I love the hand painted truck very much.

Half of the menu are sandwiches but every time I go there I couldn’t help but get crepes. I’ve only tried two of them and I’ve loved them too much to move on to try others. They are:

La Provencale - Ham mushrooms, jarlsberg cheese and asparagus in ratatouille sauce
The ratatouille sauce is amazing!

La Parisienne – Ham, Caramelized onions, spinach and mushrooms in momay sauce

I couldn’t get enough of either of the crepe. Both have  nice thin and soft crepe “shell”, with generous portion of fresh ingredients and amazing sauce. They taste homemade and full of flavors, what more can you ask for? For vegetarians, you can get the crepes without the ham.

The crepe cost $6 each and it came with a side which is a great deal. There’re 4 choices to choose from: Mixed green salad, fruit, pasta salad and chips. I’ve always get the pasta salad because they’re so incredibly delicious too. Light tasting with lots of subtle flavors, it can be a meal by itself.

I also tried their French onion soup and dessert crepe which cost around $3-$4.50, very good price! They also sell fresh baked french pasteires.

If I ever get tired of the crepe I will try their sandwich (I heard the “The Little Frenchie” – roast beef sandwich is really good).  For some reason it’s difficult to find good crepes in LA (for the record, the extremely popular crepe place at Farmer’s Market is overpriced and mediocre at best), so I’m really glad there’s The little Frenchie truck. Seek it out if you haven’t try it!

Tags: Crepe, food truck, French

Walked by Komodo Truck and was instantly attracted by the interesting sounding menu. They specializes in fusion tacos, particularly tacos with South East Asian flavors.

Normally I would have got the “Komodo taco” as it seems to be the signature dish, but the other tacos on the menu sounded more interesting to me. I tried:

Fish n’ Grape Taco: Deep-fried Alaskan Cod tossed with Fresh Grape Salad. And Java Taco: Indonesian Beef Rendang with Fresh Cucumber Salad

Both are good! Love the grapes with the fried fish. The Indonesian beef rendang is spicy and quite heavy tasting, so the cucumber salad gave a good balance. The crispy fried garlic on top was a nice touch.

I got a side of Meatballs with Romesco Sauce – Pork Meatballs topped with Spanish Red Bell Pepper Sauce. Very delicious! Though a bit too peppery by the end.

The food is very tasty overall. The truck hasn’t come back near my office for awhile, otherwise I would have try the others. Read up on their website about the chef, he was Le Cordon Bleu-trained so that explained the quality of the food.

Tags: food truck, Fusion, Taco

We all know how good Korean fusion Tacos can be, so the idea of Korean fusion burger sounds very promising. As soon as I saw the signage of “Kalbi burger coming soon” I knew I have to check this place out. Kalbi Burger finally opened, it’s located at the edge of Koreatown and Hancock park, a very convenient neighbourhood that has change a lot in recent years.

In fact they have more than just Korean fusion burgers on the menu. There’s Vietnamese burger, “Tokyo burger” with teriyaki chicken, and a “my burger” which you can customized yourself. All the burgers use certified natural angus beef so that’s a big plus.

Kalbi Burger – Fresh ground short rib meat, ground chuck American cheese, Korean vinaigrette, red onion, tomato and kalbi aioli sauce. It was incredibly delicious! The meat was juicy and fresh tasting. It was also well seasoned and I love the Korean flavor. It tasted gourmet and better than some of the so call gourmet burger places out there. One thing I definitely have to praise is the bun. As I complained about Umami’s burger before, where their buns had completely gone soggy and mushy half way eating the burger, Kalbi Buger’s stay non-soggy and firm till the end.

LuLu Burger – Swiss Cheese, romaine lettuce, grilled pineapple, bacon, tomato and “lulu sauce”.
It taste just as good as it sounds. I love it, though I wonder what “lulu sauce” is?

Saigon Burger – cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro, pickled carrot and radish, and saigon sauce.
Basically a Bahn mi in a burger, in theory it should work and in reality it was tasty indeed!

Good thin, crispy fries. You can get it as a combo with the burgers. In fact, you can get kimchee as a side!

I’ve gone back several times and have tried the Seoul burger as well. I like them all and it’s hard to decide which is my favorite. It’s a pity they don’t serve beer here because this could have been a great “beer and burger” type of place which is so popular now. Though there aren’t a lot of seatings and the stools weren’t too comfortable. But it’s definitely a great addition to the neighbourhood. It’s a good place to grab a quick good cheap bite before a concert at the Wiltern theatre or movies at the new movie theatre opened up few blocks down. Highly recommended!

Kalbi Burger
4001 Wilshire Blvd. Unit E Los Angeles, CA 90010

Tags: Burger, Fusion, Korean

I could still remember Baco Night and the $30 Three Course Prix Fixe at the long gone Opus Restaurant. Chef Josef Centeno have since moved on, and his latest establishment is Lazy Ox Canteen at Little Tokyo. It is a wine bar with inventive small plates.

Wine of the day are featured on the chalkboard. Each table is given peanuts that’s seasoned with lime and chile. This flavor combination would appear in a lot of dishes. Other than the daily menu on paper, there’s also a huge regular menu written on the blackboard (it can be overwhelming!)

Pig Ear “Chicharon” with Radish Salad & Lime 9. The pig ear’s gooey textures is contrast with the crispy surface . The lime flavor made it quite an addictive snacks. Though it’s the type of dish that I wouldn’t order often.

Dashi Marinated Yellowtail with Avocado, Hash brown & Tonburi 15  A wonderful dish inspired by Japanese, Mexican and American flavors. It is also surprisingly hearty.

Braised Beef Lengua Ravioli with Spiced Lebni, toasted pine nuts & dry chile 12. The beef tongue is beefy but tender, however the pasta skin is a bit too soft. We also got a Mango Duck Pate another time, it was smooth and very delicious.

Brick Roasted Mussels with Basil, White Wine, House made Sriracha & French Feta 16  The broth is very rich and strong tasting, it’s a pleasing dish that goes well with wine.

Chocolate Mousse. Wow this is so lovely! The chocolate flavor is rich but not sweet. The taste is enhanced by the salty crisp sprinkled on top .

I came back here for lunch, and they have a limited menu. Their Burger is also very good. I like the Crispy Pork Belly Burger (not in photo) even more.

Their palate tends to be on the strong side (good for wine pairing). From the ones I sampled so far, their menu seems to gear toward a sour & spicy (lime and chile) combination. I want to come back to try more, as their menu is so big. I think place showcase how cultural diverse and interesting the SoCal food landscape is.

Lazy Ox Canteen
241 S San Pedro, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Tags: small plate, Winebar

We were among one of the 5000 foodies in LA who participate the LA Street Food fest at Rose bowl last Saturday. It was a great experience and we had a great time. The ticket was $45 (VIP for $65) and was all inclusive for the 60+ food vendors and alcohol and drinks. $45 seems a lot for “bite-size” food and people I know complained about not able to eat anything at the event last year because the lines were so long. I wasn’t there so I didn’t know, but seems like this year they improved in that aspect. The lines to get into the Rose bowl was long when we arrived (roughly at 5:00 pm, the event starts at 5:30 pm), but we got into Rose bowl pretty fast as soon as the door open (less than 10 minutes).

As for lining up for food, we didn’t have much problem with it either. I don’t know how it worked last year, but this year each food vendor featured only one or two things (some have different items at different time of the day) so the line move along pretty fast. And it’s good to go with a big group of friends so different people line up at different vendors and then we all share with each other afterward.

Some of the highlights:

The Asian Fusion Tacos truck Komodo served Miso Beef Skewers. Tasty! I was hoping they would give away their delicious meatballs too (will blog about it later on another entry).

Maggie’s Tatas served Gazpacho, Berries with cream and three mini Fritatas. They specialize in tapas and fritatas for catering and were usually sold at Farmer’s markets. I have to say they’re one of the vendors that give out the most food! And they’re delicious too. The Gazpacho was refreshing and the fritatas were very good! The cream for the Berries with cream has a subtle alcohol flavor, it was wonderful!.

The Gastrobus gave away Plum and cucumber and Ecuadorian ceviche (shrimp with…popcorn!). Very tasty the portion was a little small. Though since their line moves very fast, we went to get our second servings.

Antojitos mi Abuelita was definitely the star of the event for me! They’re a truck based in North Hollywood. They served four kinds of Tacos: green mole, mole, mushroom, huitlacoche (corn fungus), and they’re all AMAZING (and also very generous portion)! Their tacos gotta be one of the most authentic Mexican food I’ve tasted in Los Angeles! I would definitely go seek them out and try their other dishes. They are located at: 6135 Vineland Ave. North Hollywood, CA.  Highly recommended!

From Mo-chica, a gourmet Peruvian restaurant near USC I’ve always wanted to try. They served Causa (tuna over potato) which was just as delicious as how pretty it looks!

From Starry Kitchen, a fusion Asian restaurant in Downtown I have yet to try (my friends highly recommended them during the “Secret North Hollywood based phase”). It looks green but it’s actually fried tofu. I found it so-so, the fried batter was still kind of doughy…perhaps I got a bad one.

Sedthee Thai Eatery is a restaurant from Glendale and it was the other star booth for us. I was blown away by how good their food was and how generous the portion were. The flavors were complex and interesting, and they didn’t tone down the spicy-ness. The Pork Sparerib was phenomenal! The other two are Curry Duck and Shrimp Noodle and BBQ Pork. They also won the Best Nouveau award of the event, well deserved! I’m glad to know about this place from the event…a visit is coming up.

A truck from Camarena tequila, featured mini size tequila-infused tacos. You can really tasted the tequlia in the meat! They also had a station next to it serving tequila cocktails but the line was very long. There were many other tequila tasting in the festival so you could get pretty wasted.

From Fresh Fries Truck: sweet potato fries with nutella and peanut butter and regular fries with green chili guacamole with sour cream.

From Crepe n’ Around: Maple Braised Pork Crepe with Apple Chutney, Toasted Walnuts, Mixed Greens, Honey-Dijon Sauce Wow so good! The pork was very tender and the sauce is unusual: a wonderful mix of fruity, sweet and savory. I’d love to visit this truck everyday!

While waiting for the ever long Maggie Tata’s, we grabbed gelato from Scoops Westside. There’s also the S’more Cupcake from Tiara Cafe, it was so good! People kept going back getting them.

We also got ice-cream sandwiches and lots of juices. Everyone in our group got plenty of food and was very full by the end of it. There were so many other trucks we didn’t get to try! We probably miss some good ones but it’s simply impossible to eat them all. I’m really glad the whole event wasn’t as much as an ordeal as some people claimed it was last year.  Though it is important to try to go with a group. It’s a lot easier to line up next to each other at different vendors and then share!

Tags: Street Food

Chef Walter Manzke (former executive chef at Church + State and Bastide) has created a special Around the World tasting menu for his guest appearance at last month’s Breadbar Hatchi Chef series. Hatchi means Eight in Japanese, which means there’re 8 dishes on the menu, each price at $8.

My friend reserved a table for this highly coveted foodie event, I was lucky enough to tag along at the last minute. After a bit of a wait, we were finally seated. I think most of the patrons there were fellow food bloggers.

First we got Breadbar’s gem: Foie Gras Butter $3 Delish! I can eat this alone all night.

Each of the item on the Around the World menu is named after a country (can be seen here). While we were waiting for our food, two of them sold out  (France’s Tarte Flambe and Italy’s Sweet Pea Ravioli).

Mexico
: Yellowtail Ceviche with Jalapeno,
 Tomatillo
 Sorbet. Not citrus acidic like the usual ceviche, the dressing was sweeter and the yellowtail was sashimi-like, very good.

Thailand: White Corn
 Curry
 Soup,
 Mussels,
 Coconut Tapioca. The flavors were lighter and more subtle than it sound, so the mussels’ natural flavors weren’t overwhelmed.

Spain:
 Santa
 Barbara Spot Prawn, 
Garlic,
 Sherry. Simple but flavorful. The sauce enhanced the sweetness of the Prawn. The little sprinkling of garlic and chili stimulated the aroma and taste.

Vietnam
: “Banh
Mi” Pig’s 
Feet Sliders. The pig’s feet were chopped up into a gooey gelatin fried patty, I love it!  I’m surprised at how well it went with the pickled radish and carrot.

Japan Chocolate fondant, Bing cherries, black sesame ice cream, green tea. I loved the black sesame ice cream, though it melted too quickly on top of the melty fandant.

Philippines Leche flan, pandan, coconut sorbet. The pandan added a nice coconut-y, fresher flavor to the egg-y flan.

It’s a great pity that we weren’t able to try the ravioli and tarte flambe, since I enjoyed every single dish a lot. Our next door table of 2 had two orders of the Tart Flambe and they barely ate them. We had strong urge to grab the leftovers from them. I’ve seen similar version of these dishes at other LA restaurants, but Manzke’s execution are much finer. I think this menu captures the vibe of Los Angeles nicely, this is what SoCal cuisine is about.

I can’t wait for Walter Manzke’s own restaurant.

Breadbar
Century City Mall, 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles

Tags: bread, Foie Gras, tasting menu