The best food and restaurants for today. Atwater, Hollywood, Silver Lake, Thai Town, Hollywood, New York and wherever my travels take me.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Arturo's Puffy Taco, Whittier

The half-life of a puffy taco is short. The flaky, deep-fried masa shell that makes it so delectable to eat also makes it painful to pick up and quick to collapse under its own weight back onto your paper plate once you do so. The puffy taco taunts--how badly do you want me?

You might just want it badly enough to drive to Whittier, home of Arturo’s Puffy Taco. Both of the filling options you expect for this Tex-Mex original, the savory ground beef picadillo, or the shredded, stewed chicken, are listed on the lighted menu board outside this taco stand that shares a parking lot with the neighborhood U-Haul franchise.

Order dos puffies with Arturo’s guacamole sauce at the outside window and then head inside to grab one of the formica-top booths that aren’t already filled with local teens or Mexican families out with their kids on a Saturday night. The cutlery is plastic, the lighting fluorescent, but what do you expect for a meal this good in LA where $10 gets you cheese enchiladas, a puffy taco, pitch-perfect rice and refried beans, fresh lemonade and $1.50 in change?

Arturo’s Puffy Taco
15693 Leffingwell Rd
Whittier, CA
(562) 947-2250

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Pinkberry, LA and New York


After what turned out to ultimately be a quixotic drive across town to a meeting that got cancelled while I was waiting for it to start, I decided that a stop to finally try Pink Berry, the Korean frozen yogurt place poised to soon multiply across LA, would be a good way to rescue the afternoon. I can never get enough fro-yo but this, like most all desserts for me, always means chocolate. Pink Berry prides itself on offering only two flavors, Green Tea and Original, and since I'm not typically a fan of the flavors used widely in Asian desserts (you can keep all your lycheess and dorians), I was slightly disappointed not to find my favorite flavor on offer. A few bites into my small cup of Original was enough to change my mind. The taste is fresh, not too sweet and slightly tart. It reminded me very much of a lemon cream or perhaps the taste of Key Lime Pie. This being LA, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised to find they have their own doorman, the better to manage what I've heard can be a line that normally snakes down the sidewalk. What next, a valet?

Pink Berry
868 Huntley Dr (just south of Santa Monica Blvd)
West Hollywood

UPDATE:

I musn't forget to mention that I stopped in at the first NYC branch of Pinkberry for a taste of home back in the fall. There's no doorman yet, much less lines down the street, but the place did have a few mid-day customers. It's on a stretch of W 32nd St lined with Korean barbecue restaurants. I understand that stores in the upper 80s, Soho and Chelsea (naturally) are also set to open, among others. I guess if Pinkberry can make it in WeHo, they can make it anywhere.

Pinkberry
7 W 32nd St (between 5th and Broadway)

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Loteria Grill, Farmers Market

While a more obvious choice than I typically like to post about since it's in the shadow of the Grove and so hardly off the beaten path, I must finally confess in writing my love for this food stand in the 3rd & Fairfax Farmer's Market. Since I'd eaten there with Jon and Jason just last weekend and so had satiated the normal hankering for my favorite-in-LA chicken enchiladas suizas in a tomatillo sauce with a side of black beans and arroz verde, I was free on a visit yesterday with my cousin to try something new. She and I split a plate of chile rellenos and I also ordered two tacos, one of cochinita pibil and one of papas con rajas poblanas. Actually the chile relleno was supposed to be her lunch, but the plate of food was so huge it wouldn't have been right for her not to share. Turns out there were actually two chiles. The first appeared to be the typical battered and deep-fried chile poblano, but inside it was filled with cheese and what we think was sauted squash and onions. The other was a firey dried red chile filled with black bean puree and covered in a light cream sauce. Piled along side the two was a picadillo of ground beef (?), plump raisins and slivers of almonds. Everything was delicious and the presentation really looked amazing too.

I'll admit to having eaten the taco of potatos and poblano peppers with a hint of crumbled Mexican white cheese at Loteria before so that wasn't a new one for me. I loved it again. However, I'd never tried their cochinita pibil and am happy to report that it was fantastic and not as greasy (or admittedly quite as rich and tasty) as the James Beard Award winning standard served at Yuca's on Hillhurst. Tiny slivers of pickled red onion topped the shredded pork taco which is just the type of attention to detail that keeps me coming back for more at Loteria.

Loteria Grill
Farmer's Market
3rd and Fairfax Aves

Full House Seafood Restaurant, Chinatown

After checking out the Banksy show at the gallery downtown last night, a group of us headed over to Chinatown for some chow. We ended up at Full House, a lively but smaller version of the ballroom-sized dim sum/seafood houses across the street but still complete with tanks of live spot prawns, lobsters and a strictly decorative freshwater fish so enormous for the size of his tank we were certain he hadn't been able to make a turn for years. With six of us at the table, we were able to order quite a feast.

I normally don't care too much about Hot & Sour soup, but the one I had was perhaps the best example I can remember tasting. It was full of different types of mushrooms, tofu and just a hint of red pepper to give it some heat. I think I ate three bowls. Others tried the wonton soup which also looked excellent, packed as it was with vegetables including vividly green brocolli, baby squid tentacles, chicken, and pork-filled wontons. I ordered stir-fried snowpea leaves for the table which were a hit. (Spinach seemed like bad idea anyway and I love the snowpea leaves though I can't stand snowpeas themselves.) I also ordered scallops in a black pepper sauce which I thought was okay, not great. I'd never tried the thin Singapore noodles which came spicy and with a kick of curry powder and bits of shrimp and vegetables. The shrimp with candied walnuts is also a good dish to share with a lot of people since it's a heart attack on a plate. (The shrimp are lightly battered, fried and then covered in a mayonnaise-based sauce and candied walnuts.) This version had turned a bit mushy by the time it reached our table so wasn't as nice and crisp as it could have been but still rather delicious. Other dishes included a bright red sweet and sour beef which I didn't try, a half peking duck (I love eating the crispy skin on steamed buns with a little plum sauce but am always rather indifferent to the meat itself; just seems like too much trouble to get much off those tiny bones). Somewhere in there was a plate of pan-fried dumplings which are hard not to like. I'll definitely be going back to Full House and I'm sure it'll come in especially handy when there are gallery shows around the corner on Chunk King Rd this fall.