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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G. Snyder

Yup, that's a whole cow head

To describe the soon-to-be-unincorporated City of Vernon, located a few exits southeast of downtown, as an industrial wasteland might serve as an understatement. Most of the landscape is a collection of sprawling warehouses, massive scrapyards and factories producing an array of products that range from Tapatio Hot Sauce to Farmer John's Sausage. The city's motto is "Exclusively Industrial." The 2010 census lists a total of 91 residents.

Yet, a brief drive through Vernon's wide, pot-holed boulevards shows hints of life that a Census Bureau can't capture. First comes the smell of the roadside asaderos that dot the street corners come weekends, grilling over modded oil drums and scenting the air with thick plumes of poultry-flavored smoke. Drive further, and men waving day-glo flags directing cars into empty lots appear, operating with a finesse that might suggest they moonlight as LAX ground crews. Beyond that, hidden in plain sight amongst rows of unremarkable looking warehouses, is the Alameda Swap Meet.

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Kathy A. McDonald

Wat Dong Moon Lek's lunch set

Experience has taught us that there's no such thing as a free lunch -- and the almost free, cheap eats version often verges on inedible. However, in L.A.'s Thai town and Hollywood's eastern edge you can find some lunch plates that defy economics and satisfy for as low as $4.99 for a combo platter.

"After working in an office, I wanted to offer an affordable lunch with more choices," explains Wat Dong Moon Lek's co-owner Jenny Seetathaworn, who along with her husband chef Billy Jalanugraha, created a $6.99 value-priced lunch set combo that's available everyday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Turn the page to find out more about what's on the menu during these three lunchtime deals, from low to the (relatively) highest priced.

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Dan Cox

Your mimosa awaits at The Misfit

Like any great metropolis, L.A. is full of differing perspectives. First, there are the die-hard Angelenos for whom Los Angeles is the greatest city in America. Then there are those East Coast transplants who mope around town looking like refugees from the Lower East Side, cursing their cars, and pining for The City. To them, the only good thing about L.A. is the weather. And then there are those of us who have lived in both cities, loved both cities, and who now prefer Los Angeles. But to us, NYC still bests L.A. in two major categories: public transportation and weekend brunch.

Our public transportation system may never rival that of New York, but The Misfit in Santa Monica plans to reconfigure the way we do brunch as early as this weekend, thanks in part to the introduction of $12 bottomless mimosas.

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Photo via Thrillist.

Party like a rock star.

This is a man's world. At least if you're a reader of online men's magazine Thrillist, it is. And those masculine horizons are suddenly expanding by way of Thrillist Rewards--a Groupon-like program chock full of guy-specific food, drink and entertainment deals that, for the most part, seem to be hell-bent on getting you liquored up and reckless.

New Yorkers have been getting Thrillist rewards for a while now, and according to a recent press release, it's been such a success that they're introducing the same program in L.A. Now L.A. 'dudes' (their word, not ours) are able to get in on discounts as well.

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T.Nguyen

Bánh Mì Chè Cali vs. Bánh Mì Mỹ Tho

A Vietnamese-style breakfast really is not so different than one you would find at, say, Denny's: scrambled or sunny-side up eggs, meat (usually cha lua or other Vietnamese sausage), and bread (ideally, a hot, buttered bánh mì). Turn the above ingredients into a breakfast sandwich perfect for the American to-go culture, and you have bánh mì op la: all the traditional ingredients of the classic Vietnamese bánh mì sandwich (jalapeño, pickled carrots and daikon, cilantro, cucumber), with an egg instead of, or on top of, the meat.

For this edition of Food Fight, we pit the bánh mì op la sandwiches from Bánh Mì & Chè Cali and Bánh Mì Mỹ Tho against each other. Mere blocks apart in Alhambra, what separates them is not so much the geography as much as the incredible, edible egg.

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