pupusas

Little San Salvador Restaurant makes my favorite pupupas in Los Angeles.

pupusa de queso con loroco

(For the uninitiated, pupusas are sort of a stuffed masa flatbread - kind of like a quesadilla, but thicker, and Salvadoran.)

The great thing about Little San Salvador is that they cook their pupusas longer than most other places. The cheese oozes out and forms crispy burnt tasty bits, which provide awesome texture and flavor. It's not completely traditional, but it is really tasty.

Another great thing: their pupusas are much bigger than average. One is probably enough for a light meal, but they are cheap, so I typically overorder.

shrimp pupusa

curtido

Pupusas are traditionally served with curtido (a lightly pickled cabbage coleslaw made with vinegar, chiles, onions and carrots) and salsa. Little San Salvador's curtido is rustically chopped, flavorful and crunchy. The accompanying salsa is nothing special, but it does its job.

While you're there, you should also get an order of the fried plantains. They are everything a fried plantain should be: soft yet firm, and perfectly caramelized. I don't know if it would be possible to make a better fried plantain.

fried plantains

ceviche

Also consider ordering the ceviche.

Salvadoran ceviche is simple, but tasty. The dominant flavors are citrus and fish, without the spice you might find in a Mexican or Peruvian ceviche. If you haven't had it, it's definitely worth trying.

So far, I've ordered Little San Salvador's ceviche three times. The fish was tender and fresh, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, except for a little inconsistency from their kitchen. Twice the ceviche was great. Once it was only ok. (I think they used garlic salt this time instead of regular salt. It wasn't bad, but the flavors didn't work as well.) Still, I will order the ceviche again.

A few last words on Little San Salvador to end this post:

The service is friendly, the prices are very reasonable (you can easily have a good meal for less than $10 per person - not including drinks), and they are open late.

Little San Salvador Restaurant
901 N. Western Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 466-1170

Monday - Thursday: 9:00 am to 11:30 pm
Friday - Sunday: 9:00 am to 1:30 am

Mas' Islamic Chinese Restaurant

One of my favorite restaurants in LA isn't actually in LA.  It's in Anaheim, which, despite what the Angels would have you believe, is not Los Angeles.  Traveling from LA to Anaheim can be a painful, traffic ridden nightmare, but Mas' Islamic Chinese Restaurant is worth the drive.

Before I go any further with this post, I should note that Mas' isn't a Xinjiang restaurant.  (Xinjiang is a region in China inhabited by Uyghurs, who are traditionally Muslim, and who have a fantastic cuisine that I'll save for a future post.)

The main differences between Mas' and non-Islamic Chinese restaurants are:
1. The food is halal.
2. There is no pork on the menu.  (see 1.)
3. The menu has a section for lamb.
4. You can order bread instead of rice.

In many ways, Mas' is just a very good version of a standard American Chinese restaurant, with offerings that should be familiar to anyone who has ever had Chinese food.  But it's the differences that make it worth the drive.

You'll understand what I mean if you go there and order:

Knife Cut (Dough Sliced) noodles - it's like lo mein, but about a billion times better, with thick noodles that are truly satisfying to bite into.  I dream about these noodles.

Stir-fry Leek with Five Spiced Beef - if you're not Chinese, your waiter probably won't let you order this dish.  Not at first, anyway.  He'll try to talk you into ordering Orange Chicken, or some other unchallenging dish that Americans are supposed to prefer.  Insist on the five spiced beef.  If you're not familiar with the Chinese five spice mixture, the flavors might be different from anything else you've ever tasted, and sort of strong, but most people I've gone to Mas' with have loved this dish, and no matter how much we've overordered, there haven't been five spiced beef leftovers.

Moo Shu Lamb - lamb makes for excellent moo shu, and the the portion size is pretty awesome: eight burrito sized pancakes, plus an extra plate of leftover moo shu.

Sesame Bread with Green Onion - one of the best things about Islamic Chinese food is that you can eat your food with bread instead of rice.  Not that there's anything wrong with rice, but Mas' sesame bread is pretty awesome- it's a flat bread, encrusted in sesame seeds and studded with green onions.  The bread comes in two styles: big and thin.  One order of either is easily enough for six people - possibly eight.  I always order both breads and I always end up with far too much.  Unless you're looking for leftovers, you may as well just order one.  Get the thin.
(A note to the onion phobic: the bread can also be ordered without green onion.)

Also think about ordering:
Lamb with Pickled Cabbage - the waiter will probably try to talk you out of ordering this one, too, but it's very good, and has a nice acidity that cuts through some of the heavier flavors.

And I hear the Beef Noodle Soup is very good, but I haven't tried it yet.


I would probably avoid ordering anything that you can find at any other Chinese restaurant.  Mas' versions are fine, but nothing special.  For example, the honey walnut shrimp are fine (and people on yelp rave about them), but I've had better closer.  If you're going to drive that far (I'm assuming that most of my readership lives outside the Anaheim environs), the food had better be special.

Also worth noting before you make the trek: while I haven't had any problems, I've heard that if you show up in shorts and a tank top (or other revealing clothes), that you might get sent away.  It is a halal restaurant after all.

The portions are fairly large, and the prices are very reasonable.  Bring a group (6 - 8 people would be ideal - try to make reservations first, because it gets busy), and expect to pay less than $20 per person (including tip) for more food than you could possibly eat.

And if anyone wants to carpool, let me know.

601 E. Orangethorpe Ave.  Anaheim, CA 92801
714-446-9553

carrot sticks

In yesterday's NY Times, there was an article entitled Schools Dangle Carrot Snacks, but It’s a Tough Sale.

According to the article, some schools are trying to provide healthier vending machine options - like carrot sticks - but the kids aren't interested.  Maybe kids just don't like carrots all that much.  But maybe there's another explanation.  Maybe the carrots they're selling in these vending machines just aren't delicious.

A few months ago, there was an interview on NPR with Dan Barber, chef/owner of the Blue Hill restaurants.  Among other things, he spoke about carrots, and the science of growing delicious carrots.  It turns out that carrots have sugar in them, and the sugar makes them taste delicious.  This sugar is measured with a Brix test.  A really tasty carrot might have a Brix score of 12.

He tested carrots grown at the Stone Barns Center farm, and they scored a 13.8 - off the charts deliciously good.

He also tested commercially available carrots that you or I could buy in a store.  These carrots turned out to have a Brix score of 0.  Zero.  Zero is bad.  On a scale of zero to delicious, zero is not delicious.

The NY Times article didn't report the Brix scores of the vending machine carrots, but industrial farming regularly prizes color and shape over flavor, so it wouldn't be surprising if the vending machine carrots scored poorly on a Brix test.

Maybe the problem isn't that kids don't like carrots.  Maybe the problem is that schools are trying to get kids to spend their money on food that doesn't taste good.  Obviously this is just speculation, but it's speculation based upon years of buying disappointing produce at grocery stores.

I'd be curious to see if the NY Times would do a follow up to test the quality of the vending machine carrots.  In fact, I'm going to email the reporter right now.

scones

I've always found scones to be disappointing.

I liked the idea of them, but more often then not, they were dry, tasteless, and best avoided.  Even at their most edible, they were merely a delivery device for jam and/or clotted cream.

Despite my reluctance to order them, I've had a whole bunch of scones in my day - from teahouses in Santa Monica to teahouses in the UK, and plenty of cafes, bakeries, grocery stores, and home kitchens in between.  The things just keep on presenting themselves, like occasional reminders from the universe that life contains its share of bland disappointments.

But then I went to Diner in Williamsburg, and while we were still reading through the menu, my friend Andrew Shapiro (the composer) ordered a scone for the table.

The Diner scone was a revelation.  It was everything a scone should be, and everything every previous scone hadn't been: moist and delicious, and yet somehow still a scone.

Before we had finished eating it, I was thinking about ordering a second.  I was also insisting that the people at the table next to ours order scones.

And now I guess I'm here on this blog insisting that you try Diner's scone, too.  Not just because it's really worth eating, but because it's proof that the way things have always been is not the way things must always be.  And that's a little reminder we could all use now and then.  Especially if it comes in pastry form.

Introduction

Who am I, and why am I writing this blog?

I'm an artist based in Los Angeles.  I'm not a professional chef, but I can feed myself.  I'm not a professional food critic, but I would like to play one on tv.  (More on that in a bit.)

When I'm not writing this blog, I'm probably painting or editing the novel I'm trying to finish/publish.  Or posting things to my art blog.

So why am I writing a food blog?

One: I have an absurd need to share my restaurant suggestions with other people (but no desire to bother putting anything on yelp).

Two: I would really like to be a judge on Iron Chef one day.  Writing the Great American Food Blog seems like a step in the right direction.

My qualifications?

I've been eating food for most of my life.

My college admissions essay was about a sandwich. (I got into my top choice school.)

I regularly drag my friends to remote places for food, and they continue to join me, talk to me, etc.

 

I don’t know.  What qualifications did Jonathan Gold have when he started out?  He ate at a lot of places, wrote about it, and people agreed with him.  Eventually he got a Pulitzer.  All I’m looking for is a guest judging spot on Iron Chef.

I’ll post things on a regular-ish basis, so please follow/bookmark/check in semi-regularly.

With any luck, you’ll find some new good things to eat, and I’ll get to be on tv.

Thanks for reading,
Steve