Tasty Noodle House: Dailin' in to cleanly-flavored Chinese

cold sesame chicken noodles, Tasty Noodle House

It can be strangely difficult to find a good-quality, straight-up place for a relaxed Chinese dinner in the San Gabriel Valley. Dim sum is out; the dumpling houses are great, but the menu can be limited for several people dining together. Newport Seafood and its like is good for a group but gets pricey fast if the group likes lobster; the Sichuan places are likely to alienate at least one of your friends. Noodle Planet or Tasty Garden and the Hong Kong-style cafes tend to be heavy, greasy or bland or all three. Something like Mandarin Noodle Deli is about the right speed for a varied group of eaters.
This time our search led to Tasty Noodle House, one of Jonathan Gold's finds of last year, located in San Gabriel just a few doors down from Golden Deli. The small but comfortable minimall spot specializes in seafood-intensive dishes from Dailin province, but we were feeling less jellyfish and pork kidney-ish and more Chinese comfort food-ish, so the Dailin specialties like oyster soup and jellyfish head will have to wait for another time.
Tasty Noodle is one of a very small group of Chinese restaurants that aspires to higher-quality ingredients and lighter, less-greasy preparations, and it seemed like everything we ordered was a winner.

Jalapeno beef, Tasty Noodle House

Scallion pancakes (seen behind jalapeno beef in the foreground) are a million times lighter and less greasy than the usual version, though the scallion flavor isn't very pronounced, the flakiness more than makes up for it. Jalapeno beef wasn't especially spicy or complex, but the straightforward dish had clean flavors and the meat lover in our threesome claimed it as his own. Braised green beans were again much less greasy than usual, but still had the slightly charred wok hey that makes this dish work so well. Hot 'n sour soup gets an unexpected jolt of flavor from dried shrimp and sea cucumber, putting it right up there with the top hot 'n sours in the city.
Northern dough-intensive dishes like dumplings and bao are stars on the menu, and our pork/shrimp/leek dumplings somehow became twice as wonderful after sitting for a few minutes while the medium-thick, rustic wrapper rested and the flavors coalesced. Since it was a zillion degrees outside, we chose cold sesame chicken noodles over dan dan noodles, and the simple dish was perfect for a summer night. This was one of the most enjoyable meals I've had in a long time, and we'll be returning soon to try pan-fried pork buns, seaweed strips in garlic and vinegar, ma po tofu, and perhaps the sea snail with jellyfish and fungus.
Tasty Noodle House
827 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel
(626) 284-8898

Pubbing it through Hollywood at Blue Boar

The Blue Boar sports the Union Jack

It would probably take a major earthquake to dislodge the venerable barflies from their spots at Ye Old Cat 'n Fiddle -- I'm pretty sure some of the patrons were stuck to the furniture when the Cat crawled down from Laurel Canyon.
But if you're up for a newer pub experience in Hollywood, Curtis Nysmith's Blue Boar is just a wee laddie of one month old but already has a lived-in pub feel. Just a few doors down from the Burgundy Room on Cahuenga, the Boar has taps of Old Speckled Hen, London Pride, Blackthorn Cider et al, and a menu that marries traditional pub food with L.A. preferences -- think sausage pasties with chicken sausage, Scotch eggs made with chicken sausage, bangers and mash with -- you guessed it, chicken bangers. With an upstairs dart lounge and more games up front, it's a festive scene that would make a good stop before the ArcLight or Egpytian Theater, even if you're not a dedicated Hollywood bar crawler. Always an Anglophile, I'm liking the push for more Brit-focused bars, like Pasadena's King's Row and now Blue Boar, which plays all British artists on the sound system, from Gary Numan to Rod Stewart.
Blue Boar Pub
1615 N. Cahuenga

Battle of the fall food fests: Will you go to the Taste or Los Angeles Food & Wine?

Todd English hosts Los Angeles Food and Wine's bowling night

Are food festivals the new film festivals? Los Angeles only recently started to see multi-day food festivals; last year, the L.A. Times' first Taste festival was held on the same weekend as the Beverly Hills Celebration of Food and Wine. This year, the Taste has vastly expanded to a four-day multi-venue festival over Labor Day weekend, while the founders of the Pebble Beach Food and Wine festival are also plotting four days for Los Angeles Food and Wine from October 13-16 at various venues including L.A. Live. It all sounds like good fun, but the prices are somewhat outrageous. These are festivals strictly for a well-heeled crowd who might be getting their first exposure to "street eats" while safely ensconced on the Paramount lot.

Here's a brief guide to help choose if one or both is the way to go:

L.A. Times' the Taste:
Selected food celebs: Giada de Laurentiis, Aida Mollencamp, Marcela Valladolid
Local luminaries: Ludovic Lefevbre, Susan Feniger, Roy Choi, Michael Voltaggio, Sang Yoon, John Sedlar
Always fun to see: Julian Cox, the Beer Chicks, Jet Tila
Coolest events: The Art of Mixing at Paramount, $125; Taco Tequila Tryst at Paramount, $125
Food Noir, Downtown, $125
There's an app for that: The Taste app available for iphones.
Charity tie-in: Orgs that benefit include Share our Strength, Los Angeles Conservancy, L.A. Times Family Fund


Los Angeles Food and Wine:
Selected food celebs: Tom Colicchio, Rick Bayless, Daniel Boulud, Paul Prudhomme, Todd English, Tyler Florence, Bradley Ogden, Charles Phan
Local luminaries: Nancy Silverton, John Sedlar, Roy Choi, Sang Yoon, Michael Cimarusti, Josiah Citrin, Ben Ford, Walter Manzke, Joe Miller, Suzanne Tracht
Coolest events: Brew B'Que on the Santa Monica Pier, $95; Pins, Pigs 'n Pinot at Lucky Strike with Todd English, $125; California Clambake with Tom Colicchio, $350.
Too late: Already sold out are the $2,000 founders dinner, lunches at Cut and Patina, and Rick Bayless on the Magic of Mexican Cuisine.
Charity tie-in: Wolfgang Puck's Sunday Brunch ($500) benefits St. Vincent's Meal on Wheels

Mercado: a preview of nuevo Mexican in Santa Monica

After successfully launching Yxta downtown last year, Jesse Angel Gomez announced plans to take over the former Serenata di Garibaldi spot on 4th St. in Santa Monica with Mercado. Gomez and Mercado chef Jose Acevedo hosted a Mercado preview at Yxta last week accompanied by a Partida tequila tasting, where we got a preview of some of the dishes to be expected there. Mercado is aiming for an October launch, with a rustic/industrial redesign featuring an upstairs tequila bar.
Now that's a hunk 'o pork: Carnitas were rich and tender, though they might have been even better folded into a handmade tortilla with an interesting array of salsas. The rice and cauliflower didn't pack enough flavor to stand up to the crispy puerco. Camarones al mojo de ajo with green beans and rice (shrimp in garlic sauce) also seemed a bit mild, though the shrimps were plump and meaty. My favorite dish was the squash blossom soup, with a nice jolt of heat firing up the creamy base. Acevedo certainly knows how to cook his pork, but located right across from Border Grill, Mercado is going to have to summon all the vivid flavors it can to distinguish itself from the rest of the pack.
Mercado (1416 4th St., Santa Monica, opening targeted for October)

Highway 395: Road of jerky, pie and chicken-fried steak

 Tioga Gas Mart/Whoa Nellie Deli overlooking Mono Lake

A summer roadtrip on Highway 395, from Lone Pine to Lee Vining by way of Mammoth, isn't necessarily a gastro-tourism experience. With a little effort, the California tourism folks could rebrand this lonely highway the Pie Highway, the Jerky Road or the Trout Route and cultivate a whole new group of visitors. But if you have an appreciation for solid American specialties, there are treasures to be found along Highway 395. Just a few hours drive from L.A., the scenery along the way is spectacular, from the otherworldly rock outcroppings of Lone Pine's Alabama Hills to the Alpine feel of the Little Lakes trail or the desolate beauty of the tufa towers of Mono Lake. For our first visit to the area, we stayed in a cozy house from Airbnb -- I knew nothing about the location south of Mammoth other than that it seemed close to Pie in the Sky, which came highly recommended. Here's a few highlights along the way:
Pie in the Sky is located at 10,000 ft. high Rock Creek Lake, nine miles up the road from Highway 395. On any given day, freshly-baked pies will include boysenberry, rhubarb, apple, banana cream, peach and several more. At some $6 a slice, the pie in the sky is a bit high, but it's hard to beat the experience of ending a long hike along a gushing mountain creek with a slice of fresh fruit pie with a crumbly, slightly sugary crust.
We stayed walking distance from Tom's Place, an old-school roadhouse that's been in operation since 1917. The food's not fancy, but the enormous platters of chicken-fried steak, pot roast, burgers and tuna melts go down just fine after a day in the mountain air. Several sturdy beers from Mammoth Brewing and Indian Wells Brewing are available, so skip Tom's Orange Crush-flavored house brew.
Everyone recommends the Whoa Nellie Deli at the Tioga Mobil Station near Lee Vining. It's definitely some of the better grub you'll ever get in a gas station, but it's fairly pricey and jam-packed with French tourists. My salmon salad was bright and healthy, but for the first of several times, I wished for some of the trout that pack the local lakes. I don't quite understand why there's millions of fish in the lakes, but all the restaurants serve frozen fish and generic hamburgers.
Mammoth Brewing Co. offers free tastings of all 11 of their very good beers, as well as growlers and large bottles to take home. Highway 395 is an aromatically hoppy IPA, while Real McCoy amber is also a fine choice. Might as well try them all, the better to find a favorite.
 sides of smoky bacon, Mahogany Smoked Meats, Bishop

Eric Schat's Bakery in Bishop is another of those must-stop places with tons of tourists and annoying signs like "no pictures inside the bakery." The raisin-sunflower energy bread, signature Sheepherder's bread and chile-cheese bagels are all highly consumable, but don't make that your only stop in Bishop. Mahogany Smoked Meats has been smoking since 1922, and they seem to have it all figured out. Sandwiches at the lunch counter have names like Hog Heaven and are made with their deeply smoky bacon and other meats, while the butcher counter sells housemade jerky, sausages, smoked turkey, pork chops, elk salami and of course, bacon.
With snow, high winds and 100 degree summer temperatures in the lower regions, there's not many edibles growing along Highway 395. Fortunately, the area still holds plenty of treats for the determined eater. Here's more photos of the trip on Flickr.

Beer Belly: Cruncha cruncha burning love

catfish 'n chips in a bag, with shaking and dipping sauces

I've been to Beer Belly twice in two weeks now and I'm already plotting my route on the subway so I won't have to drive home next time. That's the time when I'm going to need to settle in with a beer tasting flight and whatever new items pop onto the ever-changing menu. I might even have to take a friend who has an iPhone, so I can get in on the jukebox action. Beer Belly is a little beer bar hidden in the back of a Koreatown parking lot, that rocks a rotating selection of craft beers, a tightly-edited menu full of crunchy, crispy, salty dishes that pair perfectly with beer and a friendly crew headed by owners Jimmy and Yume Han and chef Wesley Lieberher.
Lieberher can fry like nobody's business, whether it's fried okra, fried boneless chicken, or the catfish and chips, with a crust that shatters like a ninja kicking in a candy glass window. The fish's batter is made with Craftsman Poppyfields Pale Ale; grilled broccoli and cauliflower comes with cheese "whiz" on the side, the cheese sauce livened up with a piquant shot of Victory Prima Pils.

Even hopheads need their roughage

One night, pork belly sliders cozy up to tart pink cabbage; another time, there's smoked whitefish mousse, or mussels steamed in Deschutes Twilight summer ale, or artichoke chips. The duck fat fries are a constant, if heart-stopping companion to 12 mostly Californian brews like Black Market Anglo-American Brown from Temecula or Port Brewing Mongo IPA.
Matt liked the music ("Anyone that plays Nada Surf is ok by me," he says.) My not quite legal son liked the root beer float, and vowed to return for the deep-fried Oreos. And I liked the holy trinity of IPA, catfish nuggets shaken up with seasoning in a paper bag, and fries dipped in gumbo tartar sauce.
There's free parking in the lot next door, you'll likely run into someone you know, and it's near the Metro red line station. Plus, Beer Belly opens at 3 on Sundays, for an even more mellow scene (the room gets a little loud later at night). But wait, there's no patio, you say. Han says that could soon be a reality. Or perhaps you say, if the chef is from Philadelphia, why don't they serve gourmet cheese steaks? Well, that too, will soon appear on the menu. Just as long as they don't take off the catfish.
Beer Belly
532 S. Western Ave.
213.387.2337
(closed Tuesdays)