(nearly) everything i ate in los angeles.

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Are you ready?  Here we go.  Other than the photo above, of excellent fish tacos at El 7 Mares in Silver Lake, we’re gonna go in chronological order.  Ready?  OK!
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Bun Rieu — tomato & pork-based noodle soup with shredded crab, fried tofu, and pork ribs.  Homemade by mom.  I should add that this was breakfast.
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Family lunch at Il Fornaio in Pasadena.  Not the greatest food, but al fresco + decent pizza + wine + family = can’t complain.
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Sunday brunch: BBQ pork + wonton noodle soup at one of those roast pork + duck shops in Monterey Park.
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Sunday night: drinks, burgers, truffle cheese fries, and lard-fried popcorn at Umamicatessen.  Yup.  The famed Umami burger is no joke, people.  Order it.
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On Monday we had a big family BBQ-slash-birthday-party at my parents’ place.  Lots of aunts and uncles and cousins showed up.  Dad made steaks.  Mom and I handled the appetizers.  Homemade gougeres!
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On Tuesday, J came to town, and my mother and I met up with him for lunch at Pizzeria Mozza.  The crispy duck leg with lentils is a Tuesday special; if you’re going to LA and plan to stop by Mozza, I recommend scheduling a Tuesday visit, just for this.  It is excellent.
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On Tuesday night, J and I met up with old friends in Thai Town, at a place called Yai, recommended by our pal Rosten.  This is the catfish salad.  This was one of I think 8 or 9 dishes we ordered, and the only one I managed to photograph — I was too busy catching up with friends and gorging myself silly.
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After we had the delicious fish tacos pictured at the very top, J and I went on Wednesday afternoon to Yuca’s Tacos, a little shack of a place situated in the parking lot of a liquor store.  We ordered and devoured the carnitas and cochinita pibil tacos.
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Completely forgetting the fact that many museums close on Wednesdays, we found ourselves in Little Tokyo in the middle of the afternoon, not quite enough of an appetite for ramen, but in need of something cold to drink.   Into Demitasse we went for some cold-brewed coffee — pictured here is their very intense Kyoto brew.  A sipping coffee, I was warned.  Duly noted; we sat and read for a while, a respite from the heat outside.
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Inbetween our two meals at Sapp Coffee Shop for their wonderful jade noodles, we stopped at Pa Ord to try out the boat noodles (top) and tom yum noodles (above).  Both were great, though eater be warned: in the mild-medium-spicy spectrum, their ‘medium’ is no joke.  Sinus-clearing is an understatement.
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Later that evening, my parents, cousin, and I supped at Lukshon, and had quite a feast.  I was snapping photos of all of our dishes, and though it’s unclear whether they thought I was a reviewer, after our dishes were cleared, they brought out a plate of desserts, on the house.  Everything pictured here was fabulous, especially the dan dan noodles, sichuan lamb tartare, and the black rice with Chinese sausage and fried egg.  Goodness gracious, that rice was glorious.
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Last (photographed) meal: a birthday dinner for my father at Lazy Ox Canteen.  There were cured meats, a crispy rabbit liver salad, some grilled octopus, and a bunch more that I’m forgetting since, I mean, you try remembering the details of a gazillion meals.  At the end of the meal, dad wasn’t in too much of a dessert mood, so instead of a candle atop a slice of cake, we got him some beef carpaccio to fete his big day.
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Ok, I’m going to go lay down now.
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