Rob Inderrieden

Dosa at Mayura

There are as many kinds of dosas as there are moms in South India -- which is to say, a lot. This Indian breakfast and snack food is a thin, crispy crepe made from a lightly fermented batter of ground rice and lentils. The batter is ladled onto a hot griddle and then quickly spread to paper thinness by circling the ladle on the griddle in ever-expanding circles. A homemade dosas might be the width of a dinner plate; a restaurant or street-vendor dosa could be the length of your arm.

A dosa is eaten by hand -- tear off chunks with your thumb and first finger of your right hand while anchoring the dosa with the other three fingers. While plain dosas were used for comparison's sake here, there's no need to limit yourself: They come wrapped around spiced potatoes (masala dosa), spread out even larger and thinner (paper dosa), made out of a wheat batter (rava dosa) and in many more variations. Turn the page for our five favorites.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Xiao Long Bao, Dean Sin World

The first U.S. city with an Asian population majority, Monterey Park has been referred to as "the Chinese Beverly Hills" and "the first suburban Chinatown." When it comes to doing a food crawl, it will obviously skew heavily to Chinese cuisine. Indeed, a top 10 could consist solely of Chinese restaurants, but that would be missing excellent representatives of other Asian cuisines, and so much more.

Eateries dot the city thoroughfares of Atlantic, Garfield and Garvey. While the clusters around the intersections with Garvey are easily walkable, you'll probably want to take a car for outposts further east on Garvey or over the hill on Atlantic. Portions are large and prices low. Because of this, you'll probably want to bring friends and get a bit more walking in. For that, the Atlantic Times Square provides a strollable city centerpiece with additional dining options, shops and a place to see first-run Chinese movies. From dim sum palaces to late night Hong Kong cafés to tiny dumpling houses and everything in-between, you can find it in Monterey Park. Here are our picks for Top 10 eats. Turn the page.

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E. Dwass

We realize that the profusion of pumpkin products isn't everyone's cup of squash. So we feel a little sheepish admitting that we're suckers for some of this pumpkin stuff (which reminds us, we need to get to See's Candy for a box of their pumpkin spice lollipops).

With that in mind, we put together a list of our favorite seasonal pumpkin picks. Our criteria were pretty simple. Because most people bust their budgets during the holidays, everything we chose sells for around $5 or less. Also, we ignored calorie counts and nutritional value -- let's face it, even though pumpkins are a vitamin-rich vegetable/fruit, most of the treats made in their name aren't what you'd call healthy. Our rationale for neglecting our usual dietary concerns is simple: 'Tis the season to eat whatever the hell you want. The upside of this over-indulgence is that we won't have any problem figuring out our top New Year's resolution. These items are available through December, unless otherwise indicated. Turn the page.

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The Original Tops

The Tops Special

It's tough to purchase an entire meal for under $1 these days, but the Original Tops on East Colorado in Pasadena is making an exception. In celebration of its 60th anniversary, it's selling the Tops Special for 60 cents each.

The special is a old-fashioned hamburger (with lettuce, fresh tomatoes, sweet red onion, dill pickle and homemade Thousand Island dressing), topped with Tops' pastrami, mustard and American cheese.

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Yelp/Natalie F.

Garlic cheese bread, Bergin's

Particularly early in the evening, Tom Bergin's Tavern feels like a throwback, a place where men who have made mistakes eat alone in shadows: a small, rare steak; a potato. Mostly they drink here, looped around the oval bar, sliding faded bills across the wood to the smartly dressed barkeeps, waiting until the stool feels wobbly to totter toward the exit and more darkness.

On Saturday, the closest the scene came to this dim vision was a dude in plaid wolfing down some garlic bread while moaning into a cell phone about his fantasy picks. However, given the bar's inexpensive and ever-changing Tuesday "Tavern Plate" menus, the sight of single, non-chef bros bellying up to the bar for epic, solitary feasts would not be shocking.

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Flickr/ltcarter

In the hierarchy of restaurant rolodexes there have always been certain places for specific moods -- places to celebrate an anniversary or a first date, places when you're feeling particularly adventurous for, say, for Hunan braised fish or lamb biryani. At the very bottom rung of this ladder, if you're like us, are those peculiar days when some greasy takeout seems inexplicably more appealing than a prime round of steak or a fresh kale salad -- the food equivalent of a quickie hook-up in the back of an El Camino.

If you can resist the occasional pull of the Americanized Chinese combo plate -- there are plenty of those in L.A. who can -- we salute you. But for us, a list of places where an overstuffed box of chow mein and orange chicken is an invaluable asset when you find yourself weak in the knees for some MSG. (In this field, Midtown Lunch's Zach Brooks has been a true pioneer.) Skip Panda Express and support one of these local Chinese fast food shops; your food will taste better and probably end up cheaper, too. Feel free to add your own favorite steam-tray dives in the comments as well.

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Why should you have to choose between meatballs and sausages on your sub? Or, for that matter, between roast beef and pastrami? Thankfully, at Eastside Market Italian Deli, you don't.

Though it has been around for 73 years in the same beige and brown corner building, the deli is a hidden gem tucked in the hillside neighborhood just above Chinatown, once a thriving Italian enclave. Current owner Johnny Angiuli came to Los Angeles in 1956 from Adelphia, Italy, at the age of 12. In 1975, lean years for the neighborhood, he invented the hot roast beef and pastrami sandwich. Known to regulars simply as the #7, it is the most popular menu on the sandwich -- and rightfully so.

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caryatidxx/flickr

Ingredient No. 1 in Tacos "Culver City"

Last week, Good. Food. Stories. compiled a few highlights from the early '90s alt-teen mag Sassy's Eat This column. The highlights? Evan Dando's "Morning Noonan Knight" chocolate sauce for ice cream and Kim Gordon's recipe for tuna fish tacos "Culver City." The husky-voiced Sonic Youth bassist developed the latter when she was a student at the Otis Art Institute (now known as the Otis College of Art and Design) in the early '70s.

Hinging on a can of "white, dolphin-safe" tuna, a "glob" of mayonnaise and "as-fresh-as-you-can-find" corn tortillas, the recipe is rudimentary, and yet the sort of satisfying, low-cost, low-effort concoction many of us associate with student days. For some, it's egg sandwiches on hot dog buns; for others, it's Hamburger Helper without the hamburger. We're not making that up. A college housemate prepared it on many occasions, filling our shotgun flat with noxious, powdery fumes. In light of such crimes against lunch, Gordon's tacos seem positively refined.

Billy Vasquez

the 99 Cent Chef

Where does Billy Vasquez, the 99 Cent Chef, find inspiration for his blog? At L.A.'s ubiquitous 99 Cents Only Stores, of course. His blog reports on the current food items (some vary from day to day) as well as other under-a-dollar bargains at local markets. Using these cheap ingredients, "The Chef," as he refers to himself, creates clever, tasty and often health-conscious recipes that he demonstrates with photographs, video and stop motion animation.

By day, Vasquez is a digital artist, skilled in techniques of visual and audio presentation. His background as an editor, camera operator and director of photography enliven his sometimes prosaic instructions -- cutting an onion, squeezing a lime. The stop motion animation videos are especially unique -- the kind of thing that might show in a theater alongside a feature film. (Check out this video-recipe for chicken stroganoff or scenes of restaurants at night to see the blog in action.) Many of Vasquez's posts are humorous and sometimes feature relatives, friends and neighborhood scenes. Others explore L.A. culture -- perhaps a trip east on the Metro Gold Line, a gay marriage celebration or a night at the Hollywood Park Racetrack. We talked with Vasquez about the blog's origins, his inspiration, and of course, 99 Cents Only Stores.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Beef koobideh at Kabab Mahaleh.

In a neighborhood as heavy on Persian culture and cuisine as the Kosher Corridor, it shouldn't be so hard to find a good kebab. It shouldn't be, but it often is. The small and grubby Livonia Glatt Market grills up kebabs you can smell from half-a-block away, but they only do it on Sundays. What about the rest of the week?

Tucked unprepossessingly between a rug store and a Walgreen's, Kabab Mahaleh, which opened a few months ago, is fast becoming a neighborhood favorite. Locals flock to the Glatt Kosher eatery for its its koobideh, skewers of ground beef or chicken served with grilled tomatoes, onions, sprigs of lemony basil and a generous helping of freshly baked sangak. At $5.99 for a hearty one-skewer plate, it's a killer deal.

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