The SLY Foodie

I found out about Syrup Desserts from a Six Taste brochure promoting a food tour of Downtown's Financial District. The sweet grilled cheese sandwiches they offer were reasons enough for me to make a short bus trip down the street.

Urth Caffe is a hip organic coffee company that specializes in its own brand of coffee and tea. They also happen to serve good, farm fresh food. They have four locations - Beverly Hills, Downtown, Santa Monica and West Hollywood. In fact, some episodes of HBO's Entourage show the Beverly Hills location.

On one of my first visits to Urth, this is what I got:

The Flying Pig Cafe opened its doors in Summer 2011, to much anticipation from food truck followers. The Flying Pig Truck currently has a successful run serving pan-Asian fusion food to pork lovers. We visited the restaurant in Little Tokyo within the first two weeks of its grand opening.

Cabbage Patch is known for "farm fresh fare." They have three locations - Beverly Hills, Playa Vista and Downtown Los Angeles. Some coworkers and I visited the downtown location for a quick bite and also to check out the culinary selections available.

We first heard of Starry Kitchen at the LA Street Food Festival, and because we weren't able to make our way to their booth that night, Hubbs and I decided to give it a try since it was very close to work. Located at the Water Court in Downtown LA's Financial District, Starry Kitchen serves up pan-Asian fusion cuisine. Now, you may be scratching your head, thinking, "Huh?" but trust me, it all works.

The menu at SK changes frequently, save for a couple of staples like the Free Range Lemongrass Chicken. So the way it works is: 1) Pick your meat - there are usually four to choose from. 2) Pick your vessel - i.e., how you want to eat your chosen dish (in a sandwich, as a lunch plate, as a wrap) and 3) Choose a side, maybe two. The side choices also rotate on a regular basis.

On this day, I chose the crab cakes on a lunch plate, which came with a salad, the Japanese Garlic Noodles and Shallot Fried Rice. The crab cakes were excellent, perfectly fried with panko bread crumbs, and drizzled with aioli. I honestly loved every bite of it, so much so that I was a little sad when it was all gone. The Shallot Fried Rice was great, very flavorful. The Japanese Garlic Noodles delivered on the garlic - definitely not breath friendly, but so worth it.

We were in a hot dog state of mind, and wanted to go to Tony n Pete's for lunch today, but alas, they were closed (they don't open until noon). Instead, we settled for Rocket Pizza Lounge, located about two doors down on 4th Street.

I got the Eggplant Parmesan, which is served with garlic bread. I liked the eggplant, it wasn't overly soft and had a little bite to it. I also liked the mozzarella on top, nice and gooey as a mozzarella should be, plus the tomato sauce was pleasant as well. The garlic bread was quite tasty; there was a thin layer of cheese on top, and that made it, in my book.

First, let me explain the title. I try to frequent Lot 44 Coffee in Downtown LA as often as I can, because I really like their lattes. They used to offer cupcakes from Blue Cupcakes, which had really great cupcakes, the red velvet was my favorite. However, they recently changed vendors, and are now ordering their cupcakes from Delilah Bakery in Echo Park.

So on one of my visits to Lot 44, we saw that a new batch of freshly delivered cupcakes, and asked what flavors were available. The barista said something about Jack Daniels Chocolate Orange Cupcake, which immediately piqued my curiosity. In keeping with my pseudo resolution, I ordered one to sample.

Let me break the cupcake down: chocolate cupcake, which was a little on the dry side, topped with cream cheese frosting with a hint of that good 'ol Jack, and I would venture either maybe orange zest or orange liquer. First of all, the frosting was sweet enough to send anyone into a diabetic coma, and although I am usually a fan of the chocolate-orange flavor profile, this combination was sadly lacking. I also didn't really appreciate the whiskey flavor in the background, to me, it seemed like it detracted more than it complemented.

We frequent Pitfire Pizza for two reasons: good food and location. It is essentially a stone's throw away from our building, and even better, the restaurant offers a "buy-ten-meals-and-the-11th-is-free" program. What's even better that is they gave cards with 9 stamps to all the new building tenants. Its motto, "the crust you can trust" implies that they have great pizza. It also serves up pasta, panini sandwiches, soups and salads. Ironically, however, my favorite dish there is only available in the fall and winter seasons.

That dish is the Short Ribs with Pappardelle. Given my affinity to short ribs, it was an easy pick for me. It's short ribs braised in a red wine sauce, served over fresh pappardelle pasta and topped with grana padano cheese. Simple, yet complex, a perfect marriage of flavor from the beef, wine and cheese. Although the pasta primarily serves as a filler, it is actually quite tasty and cooked to al dente perfection.

Yesterday, my friend (who loves, loves, loves hot dogs) and I went on a noble quest for Downtown LA’s finest gourmet hot dogs. We had a flyer for Big Ed’s Gourmet Hot Dogs, which was basically a cart located in some alley. Focused on our mission, we prepared to hit the pavement with our heels in search of the proverbial needle in the haystack. Luckily for us, our knight in shining armor, or hybrid car from the motor pool, swept us off our feet and joined us in our merry cause. Long story short, we found the alley and the cart, with many thanks to our “knight.”

It turns out that Big Ed became Tony-n-Pete, an alley cart in the Old Bank District. They serve customized hot dogs and sausages, plus sandwiches, among other things. I ordered the Cahuenga, which is a jumbo beef hot dog with sautéed onions, chili pepper, sauerkraut and brown mustard. Having never had sauerkraut before, that was an adventure in and out of itself for me. The hot dog was pretty tasty and juicy, the sauerkraut the perfect complement. I wish that the onions were cooked longer, because I think that caramelized onions with that hot dog would have been sublime.

Since moving into the new building at work, I've been visiting eateries I never knew existed. Blossom Restaurant is a prime example. Located in the heart of Downtown LA, Blossom serves up tasty Vietnamese cuisine at reasonable prices. Personally, I've never really tried Vietnamese food, let alone pho (rice noodle soup), which is probably the first thing most people think of when Vietnamese food is mentioned.

I've been here twice - once when a friend took me out for my birthday (in which I was sans camera), and last week, when some work friends and I had a pho craving. The first time I was at Blossom, I tried the Fried Roasted Cornish Hen with Pan Fried Egg. It was the cornish hen marinated in a garlic-shallot mixture served with rice, the pan fried egg, sauce and a side house salad. It was really good, the hen was marinated well, although slighty dry. We also ordered egg rolls, which contained ground chicken, shrimp and vegetables, wrapped up, then deep fried to perfection, and served with lettuce, fresh herbs and fish sauce. They were quite tasty, and the fish sauce was the perfect complement to the dish.

Fortuitous circumstances led my husband and I to the Nickel Diner, located a few blocks from Pershing Square in Downtown LA. I had been wanting to try out this restaurant because a coworker mentioned wanting to try it someday. Having never heard of this place, I checked out the website to find that it was featured on an episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," hosted by the Food Network's Guy Fieri. Browsing through the menu, I found that they are actually well-known for their Maple Bacon Donuts. So when the opportunity arose, I seized the chance to check out the place.

We ordered the Maple Bacon, Red Velvet and Nutella donuts to sample, because quite frankly, they seemed the most interesting off the menu. In keeping with my "resolution" to have a more adventurous palate, I tried the Maple Bacon first, to find that it was immediately my favorite of the three. The sweet-savory combination of flavors just worked for me. The saltiness of the bacon offset the sweetness of the glaze perfectly. I just wished that the donut itself was not so dense. I like fluffier donuts (i.e. glazed) versus the dense donuts (like crumb), but that's just me.

I took a friend out to lunch for his birthday today, and we decided to try Origami Bistro Bar, located in Downtown LA, and in between both our buildings. Another friend of mine actually recommended this place for lunch because the bento boxes were good and reasonably priced.

So bento box it was, a chicken teriyaki and tempura box. It came with a bowl of miso soup, green salad, rice, and three pieces of California Roll. It's probably best to break down the entire meal and describe each component separately, so here goes:

Every year, my boss takes us to the Pacific Dining Car to celebrate Administrative Professionals' Day. Pacific Dining Car opened its doors to the public in 1921, and has been serving great steaks since. The restaurant was originally a replica of a dining car, but has expanded to accommodate the growing number of diners. It is one of many Los Angeles restaurants open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Pacific Dining Car serves breakfast all day, which is great for a breakfast lover like me. I've tried the French toast there, which are thick slices of brioche served with diner's choice of sausage or bacon. There isn't anything particularly anything that sets the French Toast from others I've tried, but it is still very good. If you choose the sausage, be prepared to eat one of the biggest sausage patties ever. It tastes good as well, the combination of spices with the meat was great.

This time though, I ordered the Creole Benedict, which are poached eggs atop crab cakes and sauteed mushrooms on top of English muffins and served with a Creole hollandaise sauce. It also comes with potatoes lyonnaise and choice of muffins or toast. Pacific Dining Car does a terrific job of combining some of my favorite things in the world: eggs, crab and mushrooms. The eggs were cooked perfectly, crab cakes were moist (and these are jumbo lump crab meat, too), the mushrooms were sauteed to perfection, and the sauce was flavorful and not too spicy. The potatoes that accompanied my order were also very good, seasoned well, but maybe just a wee bit undercooked. It has become the breakfast item of choice for me.



When you go for breakfast, make sure to order a glass of their fresh squeezed orange juice. One of the best around, trust me.

Pacific Dining Car, 1310 W. 6th Street, Los Angeles

One of our favorite places to walk to for lunch (that is, when laziness doesn't get the best of us) is Liliya's China Bistro, located on 2nd Street between Main and Spring. It serves "Americanized" Chinese food... well, something you would expect from a Chinese bistro. Personally, I've never really been into Chinese food not being authentic, but this restaurant serves flavorful dishes at decent prices for lunch. We haven't tried their dinner menu, which is probably something we should do one night if we stay late at work. Here are a few pictures of the restaurant's first floor:



For their lunch specials, they offer a large selection of typical Chinese-American dishes such as Sweet and Sour Pork, Orange Chicken, Chow Mein, Shrimp with Lobster Sauce, etc. It comes with rice, a salad dressed with sweet and sour dressing, and their soup of the day. Now being a creature of habit, I (almost) always get the Szechuan Pork with Garlic Sauce, a spicy, delectable dish of pork strips, green and red peppers, onions, bamboo shoots and "rat ears" (it's a type of fungus). My husband usually gets the Orange Chicken, which is one of the best orange chicken dishes I've had. Sometimes he'll liven things up by ordering the Cashew Chicken, which is, as you can guess, chicken cooked with peppers, onions and well, cashews. The last time, however, I decided to be a little more spontaneous and ordered the Bulgogi, which is thinly-cut marinated rib eye cooked with onions and scallions. It was full of flavor because of the marinade, and let's face it, you can't go wrong with rib eye. You just can't. For kicks, we also ordered potstickers, which had ground pork and vegetables inside wonton wrappers and deep-fried. It was served with a too salty dipping sauce, but otherwise was just so-so.

The soup and salad starter, shown above. As you can see, the salad just seems pedestrian, in fact, the wonton strips are the most exciting ingredient, despite the sweet and sour Asian-flavored dressing.

The potsticker appetizer... looks appetizing, doesn't it? It's so-so. The dipping sauce (not shown)is very salty.

The teriyaki beef bowl my husband ordered. Broccoli was cooked to crisp tender, the way I like it. Teriyaki sauce wasn't too sweet, which was the way I like it as well. Good-sized portion for the price, so overall, not too shabby. Pictured below, we finally come to the Bulgogi, which is one of my new favorite dishes at Liliya. It comes with pickled ginger on top, which if you're not a fan of (I'm not), you can just take off. The onions are cooked until they're sweet, and there's enough sauce in the dish for your rice, plus, you can always ask for more rice when you run out... yum!