G. Snyder

"Kimmmbap, ba-duba-dop kimbap"

Forget Lunchables -- the real cool kids in grade school were the ones had kimbap in their brown bags. Those loosely wrapped rice and seaweed rolls stuffed with this and that, a close cousin of Japanese futomaki, are one of the favorite mobile lunches in Korea. You can find packages of kimbap in the deli section of pretty much every Koreatown supermarket, as well as a surprisingly tasty triangular version in the cafeteria of L.A. City College.

For restaurant kimbap there was School Food, a hip K-pop café on the top floor of the ultra-modern GCV Cinema complex. Their neat little rolls, shaped and stacked like miniature film canisters, were pretty good, though it always felt like the equivalent of traveling to Mendocino Farms for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Imagine our elation, then, when we found out about Caju Naneng Myon, a bustling bunshik shop just a few steps down from the Wiltern. Bunshik refers to a casual kind of snack shop in Korea where you can drop in for a quick plate of ddukboki , those oblong rice cakes that vaguely resemble Korean gnocchi, or a personal-sized bowl of hot stone bibimbap.

More >>

Anne Fishbein

Chicken on the rotisserie at Takatis

If you wanted to rank L.A. courthouses by approximate distances to good food -- places to console your stomach before or after, say, dealing with a moving violation or outstanding warrant -- the monolithic Superior Court building in Van Nuys would easily rank near the top. Where else could a jury duty-sanctioned lunch include options like avocado-smeared cemitas, tamales criollos, roasted hunks of lechon asado or a sinus-clearing portion of bun bo hue?

It was during a post-court day spent driving along Van Nuys Boulevard that the bold Ruscha-esque sign for Takatis Pollo a la Brasa first came into view, flanked by an off-brand mini-mall and a swap meet filled with replica Chivas jerseys fluttering in the wind.

Pollos a la brasa joints are not lacking in this neck of the woods; Takatis isn't even the only one on the block. You can sniff out the good ones by the plumes of rotisserie smoke, or by the lines of overall-wearing mechanics picking up roasted chicken and fries on their lunch break. You can get a reliably crisp-skinned bird at Lola's, just down the street, or at Nazca nearby, a pan flute-soundtracked spot better known for its lomo saltado.

More >>

Lawrence of India

With the exception of the Kerala-style dishes at Mayura, most of the Indian restaurants clustered along Culver City's Venice Boulevard focus on the same vegetarian-centric, vaguely Southern Indian style of cooking. This is far from a bad thing -- can one ever have too many choices for jackfruit curry, potato dosas or bowls of samosa chaat?

But If you were looking for something more esoteric, the last place you would guess to go would be Lawrence of India, a garish-looking building lit with strings of lights and crowned with miniature Indian flags stuck in a strip-mall sandwich between a Thai BBQ and one of the neighborhood's older trattorias.

More >>

Anne Fishbein

Three milkshakes at Pier Burger

The Santa Monica Pier might be up there with Grauman's Chinese Theater on the short list of places that Angelenos know to avoid like the 101 at rush hour, especially when the withering heat of summer begins to settle in. Yet in spite of its tourist-trap idiosyncrasies -- the overpriced carnival rides, the Midwest retirees whizzing by on Segway tours, the guy wailing "Hotel California" on an out-of-tune six-string -- the Santa Monica Pier manages to capture something as essential to the Southern California lifestyle as Vin Scully's baritone melodies. On a cool blue day, when the salty tang moves lazily through the air and the breakers softly fold into the shore, a stroll along those lacquered wooden planks can feel just about perfect.

If you're the type who frequents the pier daily, like those grizzled dudes with a fishing pole permanently fused in hand, you may have noticed a pale green burger shack with a candy-striped awning that recently cropped up across from Bubba Gump's -- a place that looks like it's been there a lot longer than it actually has. This is Pier Burger, a low-entry concept from King's Seafood, a restaurant group better known for fancier places like Ocean Avenue Seafood, King's Fish House and the Water Grill downtown.

More >>

G. Snyder

Smoked pork with cheese and andouille sausages

Even if you'd never been inside Atwater Village's newest sausage-and-beer pub before, passing through Link 'N' Hops' reclaimed-wood door frame might cause a few rumblings of deja vú.

The dark wood, dim lighting and vaulted ceilings might remind you immediately of Würstkuche, which is probably the idea. The recycled-cardboard menus detailing several species of European sausages and triple-dipped Belgian fries might look familiar, too. At this point you're probably wondering if owner Andy Hasroun, who also runs the stellar 55 Degrees Wine next door, has a good copyright lawyer on retainer.

More >>

G. Snyder

Gottsui Okonomiyaki

That new metro stop whose opening you've been awaiting: not complete. Those suspension-shredding chuckholes on your street: not filled. But there is still good news. It's not as hard to find good Japanese okonomiyaki in Los Angeles these days as it once was. Even a hardened cynic must admit that's some sort of civic progress.

For a long time there was only Gaja Moc, a rowdy space in Torrance where families could satiate their deepest Benihana fantasies by ladling out cabbage-thickened batter onto a tabletop grill, customizing it with a desired handful of ingredients -- yam, scallop, cheese, green onion, anything really -- then flip the whole mess with what resembles a miniaturized snow shovel. The process felt a bit like assembling a stack of Sunday morning pancakes, though it would seem doubtful you'd be sipping a pitcher of Kirin then.

More >>

Anne Fishbein

Taco de cameron at Bizarra Capital

Uptown Whittier can sometimes feel deliberately hidden -- a small stretch of mom 'n' pop businesses sequestered from any nearby freeway or convenient access. It's a fine example of late-'80s public planning, too -- a time when a penchant for Spanish Revival and mismatched pastels gave way to its now-outdated pale pink sidewalks and bilious green street signs.

Yet over the past couple years there have been an increasing number of reasons for mainland Angelenos to venture out this way. You could drop in on a pretty decent punk show housed in an organic juice bar or stop by the Bottle Room, the only beer bar in a substantial radius that has Pliny the Elder on draft.

But the most exciting prospect of late is Ricardo Diaz's newest restaurant, Bizarra Capital, housed in an old-school mariscos restaurant off one of Whittier's main thoroughfares. The decor is similar to those Mexican restaurants your parents frequented back when blended margaritas and molten cheese enchiladas were still considered exotic fare. Diaz hasn't had much time to remodel since taking over the lease earlier last year, but he has managed to assemble an eclectic arsenal of dishes that could easily rival the best Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles.

More >>

Anne Fishbein

Chicken taco and a coke

If you didn't initially order the taco al pastor at Taqueria Cuernavaca, surely you will after the trip to the salsa bar. Because while loading the small plastic cups with salsa and a few dark, dark red chiles de árbol, you'll probably glance into the kitchen. And in said kitchen, you'll spot meat layered on a spit, carved into the shape of a fat exclamation mark and punctuated by a chunk of pineapple skewered at the very top. This is al pastor, and this you can identify within spitting distance because of all those impossibly late nights standing in line next to such a spit at a certain taco truck at Venice and La Brea, counting the number of crumpled dollars in your pocket that will dictate the number of $1 tacos you'll be able to buy. And so, when the server drops off a very fine horchata at your table, she'll add at least one taco al pastor to the tab, and you will be all the better for it.

More >>

Eddie Lin

Kottu roti at Asian Lanka

Taric, a Sri Lankan immigrant and a regular at Asian Lanka Restaurant in Reseda, is one of those gregarious strangers who can trigger hunger pangs when he speaks to you about food while you wait in line to order. Ingredients and cooking methods leap off his tongue. Even if you're uninterested in the type of food he's explaining, your Pavlovian slobbering starts. The Sri Lankan lump rice he discusses in such high-definition, food-porn detail is now something you must eat, well, simply because you can practically taste it.

More >>

Anne Fishbein

Oven roasted turkey being basted with Point The Way IPA

When the Union Pacific blows past the Pub at Golden Road Brewing, screaming its horn and rattling the building, the new customers look up, startled, midsip: Maybe Megatron has assembled himself out of all the propane and machinery in the neighboring industrial yards. The regulars, meanwhile, simply raise their glass and continue drinking, like seasoned Southern Californians who can't be bothered to Drop, Cover and Hold On! during a 5.0-magnitude earthquake. By the time another train zooms through, though, everyone's glass is raised.

Golden Road Brewing is in an industrial area at the Atwater Village/Glendale border, not too far from the local gentleman's club advertising "full nude" dancers. It's on this side of the tracks where Meg Gill and Tony Yanow have planted the largest craft brewery in L.A.; she's formerly of Oskar Blues Brewery, and he currently runs the craft beer-focused Tony's Darts Away and Mohawk Bend.

More >>