My Unidentifiable Edibles

Taiwanese friends are the best. They introduce you to all kinds of weird foods.

Here’s a sample. There’s a lot in the picture, but I’m specifically interested in the bumpy brown thing stage center. Comment in your guess as to what it is. I’ll announce the winner at the end of the week.

This particular feast was courtesy of my friend’s wonderful parents, who were throwing her new baby (hi, Kai) a Welcome to the World party at Mandarin Restaurant in Fountain Valley. Interesting point: There are no visible hills in the area, so how can it be a valley?

This is not your PF Chang’s, egg fu yung, crispy noodles on top Chinese food. It’s authentic, taste of the homeland, “Oh my gosh, I’m white and don’t recognize anything” Chinese food.

But it’s tasty.
This was an appetizer platter. All cold meats and ... and ... noodles?

Orange shrimp and garlic shrimp. The Americans sighed relief.

Roast duck. It's surprisingly meaty, if that makes sense. Only a couple little pieces, and you feel like you ate a petite fillet of beef.

And speaking of beef, this thin-sliced steak over baby bok choy was perhaps the most tender I've ever had aside from Crock-Potted.

Steamed sea bass with ginger and scallions. REE-diculously tender, moist, and buttery (from the fish fat, not actual butter). Leftovers were Monday's lunch. And since it's a mild fish, I was able to microwave it without fishing up the kitchen. Apologies to all who stopped by my cubicle and beheld fish vertebrae on my plate.

Dessert. A kind of rice pudding cratered out like mashed potatoes and filled with sweet red bean paste. There were juicy raisins, maraschino cherries, crushed peanut, and some green and yellow things that I couldn't identify. Super tasty ... I'm still working on leftovers.

My Blogging Style

I'm not usually one to believe in the accuracy of online personality quizzes ... which never stops me from taking them. But this bemusing gem requires no interaction at all, and -- in my case at least -- was surprisingly accurate (aside from the fact that I'm not a chick; and especially not a drunken bar fly, despite the picture).

Oh, and if any of my bosses are reading this, the part about me not being good at management is also wrong. Please promote me soon.

What's your blog reveal about you? Just drop your URL in this tool: http://www.typealyzer.com

My Trick for Free Lunch

I'm all about saving money, especially these days. I accomplish this mostly -- as you've seen in this journal -- by cooking large batches of food to feed me through a week, not eating out for lunch, and bringing home leftovers on the rare times I eat out.

But a lesser-appreciated method of saving a buck while not getting stuck in the PB&J trap can be summed up in one beautiful word: friendship. Making friends with those who work -- and eat -- at the desk next door often results in anything from the rest of their fries, to a few pieces of their gourmet bacon chocolate discovery, to (in my case) full home-cooked meals.

Today, one of the developers on my team brought me homemade lentil soup and some sort of Indian buns made of lentil flour with sides of spicy coriander sauce and a sweeter lentil chickpea sauce. (I think maybe her lentil tree just had a new crop)


If you find yourself wasting away at work, you're probably not well liked and need to sew seeds of harmony ... or just get really rich so people will be nice to you. Though at that point, I guess you can just buy your own food ... but then where's the love?

My Favorite Napoleon

Pastry dough, custard, pastry dough, custard ... repeat, repeat, vanilla icing, chocolate piping.

A napoleon. But this isn't your impulse buy from the Vons refrigerated bakery section. This is the hands down, foot stomping-est, thickest custardy napoleon ever I've had the fortune of tasting.

I had it imported at great personal expense.

Ok. My girlfriend was in the neighborhood, and I made her promise to buy me a couple. But she did have to bring them all the way from San Diego to LA. And my first bite was well worth her time and effort.

If you're ever in the neighborhood, DZ Akins' bakery department is the source for these luxurious pastries. And if you're feeling impish, try a josephine -- same deal, but with strawberry (or raspberry ... something red) layers alongside whipped cream (oh, and the restaurant has great Ruben sandwiches ... but that's for another post).


Lunchtime leftover factor: I have two, and at about 4x6" each, and about a million Joules, it'll take me a couple days to eat each. I don't know what I'm having for lunch in the cubicle Monday, but I know what I'm having for many small snacks. Oh, hell, I'll just eat it as lunch.

My Dueling Neighborhood Taco Trucks

There's a long-standing tradition of taco trucks roving the streets of Venice. From the Mariscos truck feeding the futbol players of Penmar Park on weekends to ... well, I'm sure there are others.

But no matter what you call them -- lunch trucks or roach coaches, they're breaking into the discerning foodie market, with its disposable income and all.

In the typical Venetian twist of shabby chic, the venerable taco truck tradition has gone yuppy. If you're in the know, you've at least heard about Kogi BBQ, if not queued up at midnight outside the Brig to sup on Korean short rib tacos (see them rolling down Lincoln here). They cruise UCLA too, and once in a while, points east. The best way to find where and when they'll be is by following their dutiful Tweets.

They were parked outside the Brig on Abbot Kinney tonight, with its built-in clientele in need of grub to buffer a few extra drinks. But just down the street, I found something new: The Green Truck. If Kogi broke the glass ceiling keeping mobile restaurants down, GK is aiming to catapult the genre into the starry LA culinaria by slinging hummus & lavash, harvest salads. Though let's be honest. If you're out for a few beers, you're gonna be wanting the grass-fed beef burger, or at least the grilled cheese. Of course, the shiny Mercedes green machine is a biodeisel running on veggie oil, and they're capitalizing on the organic food revolution.

Who wins the night? Green had two lonely souls milling around its maybe-too-fancy exterior and its coconuts with straws (truly). Kogi was swamped by fans who were drawn perhaps by the word of mouth, possibly visiting out of convenience, perhaps following the irresistable smell, but most likely, it's just that late at night when you're eating outdoors spicy barbecue chicken tastes better than vegan sesame tofu wrap.

My Favorite Lebanese (Cedar House)

My Facebook status after my first visit to Cedar House read something like "Finally, something good to come out of North Hollywood."

It's near my office, and a few of us hit it up for lunch on a lark. They're not busy during the day, so we were in and out in good time (the food isn't "fast," but fast enough).

The ambiance is comfortable and bright, and the Lebanese music makes you want to get up and dance ... which you probably don't want to do during dinner because you'll be competing with the professional belly dancers.

The kibbeh is pretty rocking -- perfectly tender and moist inside with a crisp crust. Still not on par with my grandmother's, but better than I've had most anywhere else. My cohorts had never partaken, but I made believers of them all.

Someone said the place was voted among the top five places in LA for hummus. I'm not sure it outdoes nearly everyone else in the city, but that IS some good hummus. The real surprise was the baba ganoush -- so light, great texture, good garlic punch.

We were joking about how their menu says the chicken is "expertly seasoned," but after trying the chicken shawarma and chicken salad, we conceded. I'd recommend getting the dressing on the side with their salads -- it's really thick and heavy.

I was a little let down by the beef & lamb shawarma. The beef was good, but the lamb tasted like it had been marinating too long and had broken down a bit too much.

Shawarma comes with a dollop of garlic sauce -- this is not the smooth, savory garlic sauce of Zankou ... it's PUNGENT. The garlic is raw and chunky. It's good, but you've got to have a strong disposition to handle it.

Prices on their sandwiches are $7-8, not bad for lunch. Plates are up around $15, but you get a ton of food -- you'll have leftovers for lunch the next day.

They're right across the river from the old hospital where they used to tape "Scrubs." I asked one of the waitresses if the cast ever used to come over to the restaurant. She said no, but I get the feeling she had no idea what I was talking about.

Find 'em at
4805 Whitsett Ave.
North Hollywood, CA 91607

See it on Yelp!

My Cha Cha Cha

We hit up Brazilian classic Cha Cha Cha the other night.

I'll go three stars out of five because my spidey sense tells me we didn't catch the kitchen on their best night. Prices were reasonable (and I don't mean LA reasonable)

The funky little dining room is cute, if not overly comfortable. We felt genuinely welcomed by the extremely friendly service, from our great server to the manager.

The goat cheese quesadillas would have been too strong without the welcomed spread of guava inside to cut the dairy. Try their vegetarian empenadaditas; they're crispy, doughy inside, and so comforting.

The downturn came with our entrees. Rice and beans came on the side of both our dishes. The rice was nominal. Beans were watery. My pork chops sounded good with the apricot sauce, but they were presented thin (menu said double cut) and overcooked. The sauce was tasty, but full of too much dried rosemary. The flavor was overpowering, and the leaves were too dry to chew.

My girlfriend's gambas negras shrimp tasted a little fishy. The black pepper sauce was good, but if I'd had more than a bite, I think it might have started to get too strong.

I really wanted to love the place. Maybe I'll go back for breakfast sometime -- the banana French toast looked good.

Be aware, there's not much street parking, which forces you to use their valet.