September 10, 2010 5

Cafe Surfas (Culver City)

//// By in 13: Culver City, Favorite Food Entries

The chef’s supplies store Surfas in Culver City has always been my favorite spot to stock up pasta and cooking tools. Yet I’ve never tried eating at their store front cafe until now. I don’t know why I didn’t try sooner!? It’s a gourmet deli that served pressed sandwich, gourmet burger and hotdog made from kobe-style beef and sweets (including treats like macaron, canele).

Cafe Surfas

The selections of pressed sandwich all sounded very delicious, it was a hard decision to make.

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You can eat at their pretty outdoor patio.

Cafe Surfas

The Blueberry Lemonade is incredible! It’s perfectly blended, the berry and lemon flavor are so full and balanced.

Cafe Surfas

Cafe Surfas Tomato And Fig $7.95 Roasted Tomatoes, Marinated Figs, Taleggio Cheese, Pesto Mayo On Roasted Garlic Bread. Yummy! The ingredients are unusual (fig with pesto mayo?), but they worked so well together. Though they burnt my friend’s order one time.

Cafe Surfas

But my favorite has to be the Lobster Club Panini $13.9. Lobster Sensations®, Nueske Smoked Bacon, Shaved Red Onion, Baby Arugula, Fontina Cheese, Tomato Mayo On A Panini Roll. The sweet, chopped lobster is held together by a delicious dressing that’s just thick enough but not heavy. The bread was nicely grilled and got an addictive bite, it was so tasty!

This place has became one of my favorite lunch/sandwich spots in LA.

Cafe Surfas
8777 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232

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September 10, 2010 Off

All About The Bread Deli (Miracle Mile)

//// By in 07: Mid-Wilshire

I always wished I worked closed enough to Bay Cities to have their divine Godmother Sandwich whenever I want. But  I seemed to work at the Hollywood side.  Until All About The Bread Deli came along. As I was checking this place out, their menu isn’t big and one thing stands out: The Godfather Sandwich. Is that what I think it is?

all about the bread

It’s a clean, spacious deli with a little market on drinks, gourmet chips and salad.

all about the bread

The Godfather Sandwich. It looks and tastes similar enough, and I enjoyed it a lot. Their bread can be as hard as Bay Cities (my friend said it hurt the roof of his mouth everytime he ate), so you definitely can’t wolf it down. But something is missing…was it the pink Bay City Juice? This is close enough to satisfy but not enough to replace the real thing. I want to try their another sandwich.

All About the Bread
7111 Melrose Avenue. Los Angeles, CA 90036

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September 3, 2010 2

Chego (Palms)

//// By in 13: Culver City

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.

Chego

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.

Chego

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?

Chego

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

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August 19, 2010 4

The Little Frenchie

//// By in 21: Food truck, Favorite Food Entries

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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:

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

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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.

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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!

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August 19, 2010 3

Komodo Truck

//// By in 21: Food truck

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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:

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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.

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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.

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