Quick Bites :: Ink.Sack

I could have slept in this past Saturday and further nursed my wicked allergies/cold (that I would later find out was a sinus infection), but why do that when the Work Son was offering a ride to LA to pick up sammies and ice cream? Only condition was that I had to busy myself for about 45 minutes while he got his haircut. He added that there was a popular coffee shop just around the corner where I could hang/read/write while he got snipped, I was all in – just had to load up on the OTC drugs.

The shop was Urth Caffe – which proved to be a little too well known, as I spent William’s hair cutting time waiting to order, and then waiting again for my drink, a Spanish latte that was delightfully rich and bold, just sweet enough, but teeny. The 35 minute wait to 2 minute swig ratio is just wrong.

The sandwiches were from Ink Sack, another short walk from the barbershop; a shop owned by Michael Voltaggio of Top Chef fame, known for general badassness. From here, I got the cold fried chicken sandwich on wheat and a bag of crab chips. The sandwich fared much better than my coffee in its ratio; add to it that it was affordable at five bucks and was packed with bright flavors (moist chicken, a creamy sauce with a slight tang) and robust texture (the chicken had a good bite to it, the bread balance soft and crunchy). And I didn’t ask what made the chips crabby – they looked like ordinary potato chips – but I finished every last greasy, crunchy crumb left in the bag. This place was definitely worth getting out of bed. (Work son William went for the turkey melt and the pork shoulder banh mi).

But then there was ice cream. Salt & Straw was our destination. I’ve been to one of the Portland locations but never to LA’s first outpost. After samples, I almost went with the gritty, unapologetic Stumptown Coffee & Burnside Bourbon, but opted instead for the indulgent Salted Malted Chocolate Cookie Dough. Honestly, I think the odds of going wrong at Salt & Straw are 0 to none – they just make quality ice cream. And they’re so cute!

Outing done, I spent the rest of the afternoon and the next day in bed, finally getting myself to urgent care on Monday with a trip to Northern Cali planned for the next morning. Happy to say I’m 90% recovered with a 100% chance that I’ll be eating lots more once I’m fully back.

Baxter Finley Barber & Shop
515 N. La Cienega Blvd.

Urth Caffe
8565 MelroseAvenue in West Hollywood
and other locations

ink.sack
8360 Melrose Avenue

Salt & Straw Larchmont
240 N. Larchmont Blvd.

Tasty Places :: Number Nine

My fro-worker Kristina sits just beyond my office door. If I need her attention, I can hypothetically toss a stress ball in her direction with a good chance of nailing her in the back of the head, even with my bad aim. Behavior like this is generally frowned upon, especially since I’m her boss.

This past Tuesday, I didn’t throw anything her way or yell out her name but instead loudly drummed my nails on my desk until she finally turned around (I can be annoying like that). I asked her if she’d even been to Number Nine on Fourth Street, as I’d unwittingly come across their website – their tagline: noodles + beer. She told me that yes, she’d been to Number Nine and added that she’d once offered me an invitation to join her there – didn’t I remember? – for bún, for phở, for bánh mì, to which I’d emphatically said no. But that was Diane of a year and a half ago. Ethnically unadventurous Diane. Bland-palated Diane. These days, I’m new and different. Okay, slightly so.

But Number Nine intrigued me. So the idea soon came for a visit the next day; a treat for those of us unfortunate enough to have to come in to work on Christmas Eve. We labeled it Lunchmas, seven of us taking the ride to Retro Row during our lunch hour – the first to arrive as we were anxious to get away from the office in an effort to speed the day along.

The simple starkness of Number Nine hits you right away when you walk in. Clean and bright and quaint. I love spaces such as theirs, although I commented that it’s really suited for dainty folks. Looking at the benches, I couldn’t imagine bringing my six-six husband there, especially if we couldn’t get a seat along the boothed wall. My husband sitting in the little chairs would be a similar experience to him trying to get comfortable at back-to-school nights in my kids’ early elementary school days when he had to fold himself into the desk chairs meant for 7-year-olds.

Didn’t matter for us. We’re a small bunch so we fit fine – disaster averted. And anyway, we were there to feast, though we couldn’t help but wonder how much better our meal would be if we joined it with a cold beer or glass of wine. Perhaps it was the anger talking, a few of us puffed up with envy at those who had the day off when some of us talked of just ordering a drink anyway – who would find out (I was warned not to take any pictures)? What was the big deal? It was lunch! But when our waitress came to take orders, the most salacious beverage ordered turned out to be the lemonade, noted as pleasingly sour by its taker.

Water it was. We were big talkers. What we lacked in alcoholic beverages, however, we made up for in our dishes, with a full round of appetizers brought in. And I got two entrees just because I was feeling a tad crazed (I didn’t make it halfway through either one).

My take home lesson here was that I need to open myself up to new dishes. This was my first bún endeavor – cold vermicelli rice noodles served with vegetables and a choice of protein (I did five spice chicken and crispy shrimp). As happy as I was for this discovery, I’m bummed that it took me so long to try it – their chicken was beautifully grilled, both sweet and succulent; the crispy shrimp delightful little nuggets that soaked up the juices, the sauces from the noodles; the noodles themselves firm and flavorful. And with bún, you get egg roll! – a crispy, finely fried delight – I might order a dozen or so of these on my next visit. And while the seats might be dainty, their portions were not. My leftover game was on point from this meal. I even held back while enjoying Christmas Eve dinner so that I could return to my remaining noodles in the fridge later in the night.

So who knows what new find I’ll fall in love with in 2015. I’ve yet to go for it fully with Korean or Indian or sushi spots. But I know there is surely another bowl or two or 12 of Number Nine’s bún in my future.

Number Nine
2118 E. 4^th Street in Long Beach
(and one other location in Hermosa Beach)

Ladies Who Dine :: Taco Asylum

If the name didn’t clue you in, the choices at Taco Asylum are quite demented. It’s a place my fellow LWDer Sandy has been chatting up since it opened back in 2011, though her fear of the menu kept her from trying, with options back then for tacos stuffed with grilled octopus, lamb, beef heart, curried paneer, and duck. While perhaps gourmet, I wasn’t interested – those unusual fillings did not get me hankering.

Enter Summer 2014, an adventurous and tasty summer for a more courageous me. It was William’s pick for our August outing, one that he did not seize, instead over-analyzing, debating, second-guessing. As Sandy and I mused aloud as an assist to him, Sandy again threw out the idea of Taco Asylum. Remembering their menu, I didn’t immediately co-sign her suggestion, giving instead a non-committed maybe, determined to come up with a better pick for William when I had some Googling time. But at some point, I thought it might be fun to look up Asylum’s menu to see what had had me so scared of this place years before.

To my surprise, I found that TA had had a change. The duck taco was still there, and too was the paneer, but there’d been additions. Playful, less intimidating tacos, like the Bacon PB & J with carrot ginger jam; or the Fried Chicken with a watermelon-feta salad and a Fresno chile hot sauce. Although my palate has come a long way in the last couple of years, their new menu was just my speed. So it was only then that I seconded Sandy’s idea for William’s choice (basically, he let us wrestle his choice away from him), and the rest was history.

With five us us there, we were able to order plenty of tacos and several mixings of flavors, textures, and heat. The Banh Mi was tangy and citrusy, the Wasabi Shrimp surprisingly (at least to me – I didn’t read the description first) luscious and sweet to temper the heat of the wasabi, I suppose. But it was the chile sauce from the Fried Chicken taco that, while perfectly unctuous and flavorful, got me sweaty, caused me to chug down my ice water faster than I did my chilled cider.

Speaking of hot, William ordered the Firepig, a Ghost chile-braised pork taco that comes with a warning to its consumers. He told us his reddening skin was due to his beer, blaming his ethnicity; but I think it was the taco, which he said was pretty darn spicy. Torrid.

My favorite taco of the night was the BBQ Chicken, with peach salsa and scallions. It was initially forgotten by the kitchen so I had to wait for it, but that turned out to be a good thing as it was served fresh and steamy. There was a slight crispiness to the chicken that I really appreciated and the sweetly acrid sauce made me dance in my seat. Full as I was, that taco went down in a couple-few minutes. Next time I’m in the neighborhood, I’ll surely pick up another one. Or seven if my husband’s treating.

So our last LWD outing of the summer ended with a fiery bang wrapped inside a toasty flour tortilla. And a little bit of shopping, thanks to all the boutiques at The Camp, where Taco Asylum lives. Hope your summer’s been as tasty as ours.

Taco Asylum
at The Camp, 3947 S. Bristol St. in Costa Mesa

What we tried:
Bacon PB&J
Banh Mi
Meat & Potatoes
The Shortrib
Fried Chicken
Firepig
Shrimp Pad Thai
BBQ Chicken
Paneer (Indian Style Cheese)
Mushrooms and Brie

Corn Off the Cob
Brave Potatoes

Tasty Places :: Mendocino Farms

So I played my Can’t Join You For Lunch – Going To A Place I Can Blog About card yesterday during a meeting I attended. Lost was a chance to network and schmooze with the folks who manage funding for the major grant that I oversee. While their plan was to sit down at one of my favorite downtown LA spots, Border Grill, I had something different in mind as I’ve eaten at Border Grill (and Border Stop and at the Border Grill Truck) quite a few times.

Found was one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever enjoyed in my 41 years. Mendocino Farms is subtly nudged into the corner of 5th & Flower downtown. I’d passed it on my way to Baco Mercat last year during a conference lunch break. From just the look of the place, I knew it was something I’d have to try eventually, and added it to my (loooooonnnggg) list of future restaurants. When my opportunity to taste this place came with a pair of LA meetings that straddled lunch, I knew I had to go for it, even if it meant our partners might consider me snobby, anti-social, or strange.

Then again, who couldn’t love me, even after ditching a fine modern-Mex lunch. My colleague John must have been in a non-conformist mood too, joining me instead of going with the group. Or maybe he felt sorry for me. Doesn’t matter either way – his company gave me someone to chat with and a second sandwich to photograph.

We arrived just before the rest of downtown LA, a line pushed out past the door by the time we sat to eat. The staff was ridiculously friendly, perhaps even happy to talk us first-timers through the menu and the Mendocino method operandi. This included samplings of their sides. I might have filled up on samples alone, but I didn’t want to be THAT woman. Besides, after trying their curried couscous, I was sold. I ordered a side of it to go with my sandwich.

Watch your sandwich being made 🙂

Plenty of sides to sample and savor

I took back curry couscous – delish

The friendly woman who helped us with our order cued in right away to what kind of diners we were. “Are you a foodie?” she asked, and my response was a strong, affirmative nod. In that case, she suggested one of their Foodie Favorites – the “Not So Fried” Chicken or the Pork Belly Banh Mi. Of course I chose the chicken sandwich, once she described how they deep fried slight drops of buttermilk to create “krispies” that are scattered on top of shaved chicken breast, herb aioli, mustard pickle slaw, tomatoes, and pickled red onions, all sandwiched between sliced ciabatta with BBQ sauce served on the side. She said she liked it with Buffalo Sauce as well, so I requested both sauces with my sandwich.

with herb aioli, mustard pickle slaw, tomatoes, pickled red onions on toasted ciabatta with a side of chipotle BBQ sauce – See more at: http://www.mendocinofarms.com/menu.html#sthash.PKRZzT3O.dpuf

with herb aioli, mustard pickle slaw, tomatoes, pickled red onions on toasted ciabatta with a side of chipotle BBQ sauce – See more at: http://www.mendocinofarms.com/menu.html#sthash.PKRZzT3O.dpuf

with herb aioli, mustard pickle slaw, tomatoes, pickled red onions on toasted ciabatta with a side of chipotle BBQ sauce – See more at: http://www.mendocinofarms.com/menu.html#sthash.PKRZzT3O.dpuf

with herb aioli, mustard pickle slaw, tomatoes, pickled red onions on toasted ciabatta with a side of chipotle BBQ sauce – See more at: http://www.mendocinofarms.com/menu.html#sthash.PKRZzT3O.dpuf

with herb aioli, mustard pickle slaw, tomatoes, pickled red onions on toasted ciabatta with a side of chipotle BBQ sauce – See more at: http://www.mendocinofarms.com/menu.html#sthash.PKRZzT3O.dpuf

John ordered the Pork Belly Banh Mi, which smelled as amazing as it looked when we picked up our tray. In true LA fashion, Mendocino has several vegan options, uses free-range chicken, and stands firmly behind the slow food/sustainable farming movement. All the more reason to visit, sample, and savor away.

Kurobuta Pork Belly Banh Mi

“Not so fried” chicken sandwich

If you haven’t already figured it out, I fell in love with this place. I became enraptured with my sandwich. The chicken was thinly sliced and delicate, the mayo tangy, the slaw firm. The pickled onions dazzled, the toasted bread made me want to do flips. And then there were those darn krispies. The krispies are what got to my heart. They made a great sandwich unforgettable.

Chocolate brownie cookie

I cannot wait to return. While I have another meeting downtown this week, and so another lunch break that I can use to check off another place on my (loooooonnnggg) list, I’m so tempted to go for another “Almost” Fried. I guess we will find out when there is or isn’t a new Tasty Places post later this week. 🙂

Mendocino Farms
444 S. Flower Street in LA and other locations

Post Script
So the next day, I didn’t get back to Mendocino Farms, opting this time to network with partners. We ended up at a place strangely similar to Mendo – the Sandwich Smith also prides itself in offering sustainable food served responsibly. I ordered the Original – a buttermilk fried chicken sandwich served on a french roll with garlic aioli, cheddar, and creamy coleslaw. It was pretty good, but it scored nowhere close to the “Almost” Fried, especially with the fried part of the chicken sliding off with each bite I took. Still a nice find, however.

The Sandwich Smith
362 E. 1st Street in LA

More pics from another outing, this one at Mendo’s Fairfax location

Tasty Places :: Gingergrass

So the hub and I were HUNGRY after our wine tasting date (and very sleepy); so rather than braving the LA freeways in search of a Fatburger (one of his favorites when we venture beyond the LBC limits), we walked across the street from Silverlake Wine to Gingergrass, serving “fresh Vietnamese cuisine.”

Specials

I was somewhat surprised at my husband’s suggestion to get a bite to eat there, as much as convenience and ravenousness (don’t judge – look it up – it’s there) played a role, as I hadn’t known him to be a fan, or to have even tried Vietnamese food. I have on those couple of occasions in my life when I was too new of an employee to voice how picky and unadventurous I was with food and therefore played along when the gang picked Vietnamese for someone’s birthday, going for the spring rolls because they were the simplest (and cheapest) thing on the menu (then taking a break later on in the afternoon, walking to the greasy hole-in-the-wall nearby for fries with Ranch dressing). But that was the old me. That was pre-Dianderthal; pre-Ladies Who Dine. The new me is determined to thrill my taste buds and to take risks, even if it means a stomachache or a straight-up gag now and then.

I’m not sure what these were but they were fried so… sure

Gingergrass ended up being okay, as the Yelp! reviews noted.

Chicken Bahn Mi

My husband’s sandwich was all that I’d ever dreamed the banh mi would be. Tangy vegetables, spicy chicken, soft bread with a crunchy crust. I was a bit sad that I didn’t order one for myself.

Noodles with chicken

My noodles would have been pretty good if it weren’t for the chicken, which tasted slightly stale, like it had been leftover and mixed in rather than specifically prepared for the dish. It was sort of one-note, though the noodles weren’t bad. I also could have used more veggies, more crunch.

Still not a bad way to get me out of my wine haze and please my belly. And the desserts looked promising – might have tried something if I weren’t stuffed (yes, although it wasn’t the best dish I ever tried, it was good enough for me to load up the chopsticks). Not sure if I would ever drive up to Silverlake specifically for Gingergrass. However, if I do find myself hungry (even ravenous) after another Sunday wine tasting, I wouldn’t mind stopping in for a banh mi sandwich.

Gingergrass
2396 Glendale Blvd.Los Angeles, CA 90039