Baroo: Did This "Free-Style Experimental Kitchen" Just Usher in the Latest Hot Neighborhood?

pork belly taco

If you are driving east on Santa Monica Blvd. and you overshoot the mini-mall that is home to Baroo, "a free-style experimental kitchen" of Korean-influenced fermented foods, you will probably find parking just a little ways past Wilton Place. You will traverse a short stretch of sidewalk that's home to at least three businesses catering to Oaxacans, a dubious nightspot known as Gold Diggers, the doorway to the Harvey Apartments. 

the kombucha fermenting area

The mini-mall is deserted at night except for the blank white lighted sign in front of Baroo. For some reason I thought I had already read an article deeming Baroo "the most hipster restaurant ever," but maybe I imagined it. It was probably this Eater article instead, What's Up With This Bizarre Fermentation Restaurant in a Hollywood Strip Mall?

Inside the small cafe is a communal table, shelves stocked with fermenting potions in various stages and a counter piled high with notable cookbooks, a nod to tradition and technique also seen at places like St. Martha.

If Sqirl is too bougie now, but you like the vibe and want even more fermented veggies in your grain and egg bowl, then this could be your spot. I confess, I have not yet eaten a full meal there, but I couldn't resist posting some early impressions from a small gathering I attended.





I'm not even sure if the pork belly tacos we tasted are on the menu, but they certainly should be, since they were Hoisin-intensive, fatty in the best way, mildly spicy flavor bombs. Natto wraps, on the other hand, are not the strongest fermented soybean product I've ever tasted but are still most likely a taste that appeals to a select few.

On the blackboard menu, only an oxtail pasta dish has meat in it - most of the bowls are composed of a number of unusual-sounding ingredients (roasted Koji ink cream, Jobs tears) and grains, possibly with an egg on top. Several Kombuchas are brewing on the shelves with innovative flavors like Rose and Elderflower, along with a slew of pickles that can be ordered in a $2 tasting plate.

Open just three weeks, Baroo is headed by chef Kwang Uh, who worked at New York's Picholine and Daniel and staged at Noma, then opened this simple yet innovative restaurant with his friend Matthew Kim. I'll certainly be back soon to what those Jobs Tears are all about.

East Hollywood: It's the next frontier. De Sano Pizza knows that already -- and maybe soon, everyone will.

Baroo, at 5706 Santa Monica Blvd, is open for lunch and dinner every day except Sunday.

Carousel Restaurant: When the Original is Still the Best

The interior is brighter and more open than before.

In this month's Los Feliz Ledger, EatingLA paid a return visit to Carousel, which has recently redecorated.

Why to go: After more than 30 years, a recent facelift and a beer and wine license is the perfect reason to revisit Carousel in East Hollywood, which still turns out some of the city's best Middle Eastern cooking.
The look: Carousel retained its 1980s mini-mall ambiance for decades, while the more lavishly decorated
location on Brand Boulevard in Glendale seemed to get all the attention from the Tcholakian family. Now Carousel's original restaurant on Hollywood Blvd near Normandie is more inviting, with an opened-up layout, black and white photos and carved wood accents replacing the hotel-room art and frosted glass dividers. Bright canvas awnings shield the sidewalk tables from the parking lot, and some even bring their doggies to dine al fresco.

Carousel is now serving beer and wine

The food: After trying "modern" Mediterranean dishes elsewhere like kale tabbouli, you might find
yourself dreaming of Carousel's perfectly-balanced fattouch salad or its bracingly tart, herb-flecked cabbage salad that's the perfect foil to the richness of charred lamb kebabs or creamy hummus. The homestyle Lebanese dishes at Carousel define the flavors that others experiment with, but sometimes the original is still the best.

Vegetarian sampler is the perfect way to try everything

Entree kebabs and samplers are a good value for plenty of food, but make sure to explore the more unusual corners of the appetizer menu. Tabbouli comes in regular and a "red" variety with sauteed tomatoes and onions, while hummus gains another dimension with toppings of ground beef or Armenian soujouk sausage. Carousel was where I first tried muhammara, the fruity, lightly- spiced dip made of red peppers, walnuts and pomegranate, and it's hard to find a better version. I had already tried fattoush salad before I ever went to Carousel, growing fond of the combination of crunchy pita slices, cucumbers, tomatoes and purslane. But as soon as I tasted Carousel's bright citrus-sumac vinaigrette, I could tell a new standard had been set for the signature salad.

Beef Kofta

Kebbeh, or steak tartare, is one of the most popular traditional dishes, but if you prefer beef to be cooked, try Beef Kofta, fried torpedos of ground beef and pine nuts that start the meal off just right. You'll want to assemble various deliciously garlicky concoctions using pita bread and meats as a base, so make sure appetizers include several spreads like smooth eggplant mutabbal or moussaka and creamy lebneh (yogurt cheese).
Save room for baklava and Armenian coffee after dinner, and or try something different like the fragrant rosewater and Lebanese cheese desserts.
To drink: Lebanese and Armenian beer and wine work well with herb and onion-laden dishes, or try
housemade lemonade, bright green tarragon soda pop or traditional yogurt tun drink.
Must-tries: Muhammara dip, fattoush salad, eggplant moussaka, chicken lula kebab, lamb kebab
Good to know: Middle Eastern restaurants easily kids, vegetarians and gluten-free diners. Carousel's catering also feeds many of the Eastside's parties and celebrations. The menu at the Glendale location may be slightly larger, but Hollywood location is convenient with its parking lot, and it's easier to carry on a conversation without the live entertainment featured in Glendale some nights.
Carousel, 5112 Hollywood Blvd., 323-660-8060

Lacha Somtum: the Thai Restaurant You Should be Going To

What if one of the best Thai restaurants in Los Angeles opened in Hollywood, but hardly anyone realized it?

Lacha Somtum has been quietly rolling along for about a year now, while trendier Thai restaurants in Silver Lake and Chinatown get all the attention.
The restaurant attracted a small flurry of write-ups, mostly for its specialty in more than a dozen types of somtum, the tangy, spicy Northern Thai papaya salad. But the Thai Town restaurant, which is typically deserted around 7 p.m. (presumably it gets busier later on), is far more than just a papaya salad gimmick spot with plenty of other dishes that put twists on traditional Isaan cuisine.

Papaya salad with black crab, Thai eggplant

But first, the papaya salad: Green papayas aren’t sweet like their orange relatives. Shredded with tart lime juice dressing, the salads are a refreshing – although still spicy — counterpart to hot soups and curries. The usual preparation combines crushed peanuts, fresh chilies, long beans and dried shrimp or fresh crab. Here you can add salted egg, crispy pork, clear noodles, Thai eggplant or ground catfish to the fiery mix. Some don’t even have papaya at all, but instead offer corn, mango or fruit salad instead of the shredded fruit.

Kon Kaen-style duck larb

Besides papaya salad, one of the other mainstays of the Laos-adjacent Isaan region is larb, a salad based on ground meat mixed with chilies, lemongrass and lime juice. Crispy fried larb -- ground pork patties stuffed with cilantro, chilies, rice powder and lime juice -- are a terrific way to start a meal. For something a little less fried, the tangy duck larb is a must and is rounded out by roasted rice powder to create a flavor bomb of staggering proportions that ranks with the year’s best dishes.

nam kha tood - crispy rice salad

Crispy rice salad isn’t easy to find on typical menus, so by all means try Nam Kha Tood, where puffed crispy rice throws a wildly flavored party with ginger, chile, peanuts, ground pork and green onion. Silver Lake’s Night + Market’s version might be a bit better balanced, but this version draws no complaints.
Northern Thai isn’t really about noodles, so while the special crab pad thai is solid — if a little too sweet — take this chance to explore other areas of Thai food, like the hot pots bursting with giant prawns and tiny squid in a lemongrass-perfumed broth.

mussel pancakes

If you’re eating with several people, try yet another deep-fried indulgence: mussel pancakes — a mild and crispy mountain of battered mollusks baked into an egg base, topped with bean sprouts. Eat it right away for maximum enjoyment.

crispy fried pork larb patties

All the familiar Thai dishes are on the menu here, but really, the reason to eat here is the Northern Thai salads and hotpots. Most of the dishes are just exotic enough to be exciting, without some of the more unusual ingredients found in some of the city’s uber-authentic Thai restaurants. If you try the Tom Yum Chicken Ovary, please report back, as I've yet to sample it. Spice levels are geared for Thais, so when in doubt, ask for mild.
Open for lunch until midnight, the restaurant is usually practically empty earlier in the evening, making it a good choice for groups or a spontaneous meal. Delivery is available but many of the deep-fried dishes will work much better eaten on site.

Lacha Somtum
5171 Hollywood Blvd.
(323) 486-7380

Lacha Somtum was reviewed in April's Los Feliz Ledger. 

De Sano Pizza Bakery: So Italian, East Hollywood Might Need a New Little Italy Sign

East Hollywood is already divided into Little Armenia and Thai Town, but now it may be time to carve out a Little Italy neighborhood on desolate eastern Santa Monica Blvd. near Normandie. The brand-new DeSano Pizza Bakery is so Italian, the Nashville-based pizzeria has a .it web domain, normally reserved for websites based in Italy. It's so Italian that not only are tomatoes, flour and oregano are brought in from the boot, but large bags of Italian sea salt line the hallway of the giant pizza bakery.
It's so Italian that one of the owners, Marino Monferrato, was previously general manager at Cecconi's in West Hollywood, while the main pizza-maker is named Massimiliano Di Lascio and some of the pizza-makers are conversing in Italian while they toss around the dough. It's so Italian that the TV plays soccer instead of football.

Not for locals only: In these days of all-local everything, bringing in nearly everything from another continent sounds almost counter-intuitive, but the proof is in the pie, which is very good indeed.
More tender and giving than the crust at Mother Dough, yet more substantial than Pasadena's Settebello, it's a true Neapolitan pizza with just the right heft. (Lago di Argento, take a note: this crust has just the right amount of salt.)

How-to: The staff is so friendly that they're already waving you in as you step one foot out the car door that you've parked in the spacious adjoining parking lot. You order at the counter in the front room of the former auto shop. Of course you can get it to go, but there's plenty of picnic-style seating in the large baking room. If you've ordered a spinach or caprese salad to start, it arrives right away, and the staff solicitously tears off pieces of paper towels from the roll on the table for napkins and offers cups for water from a fountain. (There are soft drinks and Pellegrino to drink; no wine or beer.) The pizzas cook quickly in four wood-burning ovens and are brought to your table in 10 or 15 minutes at most.

Pizzas are available in medium and large, and two fairly hungry people can easily polish off a large. The buffalo mozzarella cheese was milder and more chewy than I'm used to, but worked well with the broccoli rabe and sausage topping we chose. Next time, I would try a Margherita, which comes with sauce and can be topped with sausage, peppers, proscuitto or mushrooms. Most of the specialty pizzas don't have tomato sauce, so ask if it's important to you. There's also calzones and cannoli or gelato for dessert.
The verdict: DeSano Pizza instantly shoots near the top of the list of L.A.'s best pizzas, ranking right up there with Vito's and Mother Dough. (I'm not counting Mozza or Sotto because fancy restaurant pizzas are in kind of a different category.) And the best thing is that getting a solid 'za in L.A. is no longer a difficult quest, with so many good recent additions to a city that only 10 years ago didn't serve up many decent pies.

DeSano Pizza Bakery
4959 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Alexandria)
Hollywood
323-913-7000 (open 11:30 am to about 10 pm every day)

Crispy Pork Gang: The gang's all here for crunchy pork bits

With a fun-to-remember name and open 24/7,  Crispy Pork Gang and Grill has beome one of Thai Town's newer hits. Located at Hollywood's veritable nexus of Thai goodness (the mini-mall at the corner of Hollywood and Hobart that also houses Ruen Pair, Red Corner Asia, Ban Khanom, etc.), Crispy Pork Gang departs from the all-too-familiar Thai menu by offering numerous dishes larded, so to speak, with delectable bits of crunchy pork. You're likely familiar with the Thai penchant for starting out with a heap of oh-so-nutritious Chinese broccoli and then showering it with a flurry of fried cracklings -- it's a standard menu offering at most Thai restaurants. But Crispy Pork Gang takes it a bit further, making the piggy cubes available on several other dishes.

crispy pork fried rice

Crispy pork fried rice is likely not the healthiest dish you will eat this week, but I'm willing to bet it will be one of the most delicious, with each grain of rice coated with a bit of the dissolved pork fat and uber-crispy bits of pork dotting the dish. And there's green beans and red peppers mixed in, so you feel like you had your vegetables.

boat noodle soup

Crispy Pork Gang's soups are available in small or large sizes, very convenient for getting to taste more dishes. The boat noodles are textbook, available in either beef or pork, and it's hard to imagine a bowl that has more going on for $3.50. Duck soup with crispy pork is another intriguing option. We didn't try anything from the small Grill section of the menu, but next time we'll certainly do Lime chile trout or Grilled jumbo squid.

fried morning glory salad

Fried morning glory salad is a bit greasy, but then, what do you expect if you order a "salad" made out of fried vegetables? Morning glories are also available stir-fried with crispy pork on top. Also available with crispy pork: Papaya salad and probably just about anything else, if you ask for it.
Prices are super low, and the desserts like mango and sticky rice sound good if you haven't already filled up on pork cubes. Delivery is also available.
Crispy Pork Gang
5253 Hollywood Blvd
(323) 465-9796

Hoy Ka Thai Noodles: Familiar flavors with a new name

 BBQ trio of pork over rice

The Thai town restaurant scene is constantly evolving, and though old favorites like Jitlada, Sapp and Ruen Pair are still going strong, it's always worth checking out the newer -- or renamed -- entries. Formerly Ord Noodles, now spiffed up with a new sign and known as Original Hoy Ka, it doesn't really matter because the Hollywood Blvd. joint is still cheap, friendly and packed with the Thai flavors Angelenos love. I haven't been to Crispy Pork Gang a few doors down yet, but in the meantime the BBQ pork over rice will provide the week's dose of Vitamin P, as FoodGPS would have it. Barbecue pork covered in neon red sauce, slices of Thai sausage and perfectly fried nuggets of chicharon result in a porcine trifecta that's a bit on the sweet side but can be customized to your liking with the accompanying bowl of broth, jalapeno-spiked sweet soy sauce and the well-stocked chile condiments tray. Drunken noodles are a textbook rendition, with a medium amount of wok hey and a medium amount of chiles melding into a maximum amount of flavor. Tom kha kai is slicked with more red oil than the average cauldron and is milder than the medium spice order requested, but it's still a fine bowl of coconut, galangal and kaffir lime-scented happiness. Hoy Ka serves up approachable Thai food, nothing too scary here, but solid renditions of favorite dishes make it a popular stop for either lunch or dinner up to midnight -- just bring cash, though you won't need much.
Hoy Ka Noodle
5402 Hollywood Blvd.
323-463-1339

Pa-Ord Noodle: Fiery and friendly Thai tastes

Chinese broccoli and crispy pork

Pa-Ord Noodle at lunchtime has to be one of the friendliest restaurants I've eaten at in a long time. After I awkwardly attempted to order my boat noodles "pet ma," which I thought meant "sort of" spicy, a table of four young women giggled at my pitiful attempt and insisted I stick with what the server described as "medium." They taught me the word for medium, which I've now forgotten, but it turned out to be the right call as Pa-Ord's medium was just about right -- almost as spicy as I wanted, though a bit more than Kathy preferred. Then an older Thai couple started talking to us about Bangkok, since a large photo on the wall pictures the floating market with Pa-Ord's owner Lawan Bhanduram working on one of the boats.
Bhanduram previously ran Ord Noodle on Hollywood Blvd., which like nearby Sapp was known for its boat noodles.

Boat noodles

I ate Thai food for several decades before attempting boat noodles, scared off by ingredients like beef blood, tripe, liver, and mysterious rubbery beef balls. When I finally tried the murkily delicious broth a few years ago, I was quickly won over by the combination of flavors like star anise, five spice powder and kaffir lime melding with strips of beef, chiles and noodles. (For a great recipe and description of the soup, see this post from Eat Drink + Be Merry). It turns out there's nothing scary about boat noodles, though I didn't actually eat the bits of liver that helped give a nice funk to the broth. At Pa-Ord, there's a choice of four types of noodles for the soups: egg noodles, wide rice noodles, thin rice noodles and even thinner rice noodles. There's also Tom-Yum soup with noodles, duck noodle soup and several other types like seafood soup and pork offal soup. The stir-fried noodle dishes like drunken noodles are fairly standard -- Pa-Ord's strength is mostly in the soups, though the papaya salad comes recommended.
But don't forget your vegetables. Fortunately, at Pa-Ord, the Chinese broccoli comes topped with hefty hunks of impossibly crispy pork skin. Hopefully you will not have just come from a cholesterol test at Kaiser down the street, and you will be able to carefully savor how well each cube's fatty crunch plays off the slightly bitter, somewhat spicy greens.

Pa-Ord Noodle
5301 Sunset Blvd #8
Hollywood
(323) 461-3945

Delphine adds to W Hollywood buzz

Since I missed the opening of the W Hollywood hotel, I was surprised to find a full-blown schmoozing scene spread throughout the patio bar and lobby of the brand-new hotel when I arrived for a press dinner at the W's restaurant Delphine. Ex-Balthazar and Pastis chef Sascha Lyon is adamant that it's not a typical hotel restaurant -- run by the same dining group that owns Boa and Sushi Roku, the French Riviera-style bistro has its own signature style but certainly feeds on the hive of activity that is the hotel. The menu is seafood-intensive, but with prices that are reasonable by glitzy hotel standards and plenty of staple items -- burgers, macaroni and cheese, croque monsieur -- to satisfy late-night noshers and hotel patrons. Open at 6:30 am for breakfast and late into the night, the restaurant should be a handy commissary for all manner of folk who pass by Hollywood and Vine. In keeping with the South of France theme, there's specialties like pan bagnat ($11), pissaladiere ($13), moules frites ($17), brandade, giant seafood towers and bouillabaisse as a special some Fridays. As for the food? My arctic char had a pleasantly crisp skin and was nicely cooked, but the cocktails we tried from the adjacent Station Lounge were uniformly way too sweet.
If I had a lunch meeting or was hosting visitors who wanted to hit Hollywood Blvd., I'd still check out Delphine for some moules or pan bagnat, just for a little Riviera reminder.
(And don't miss the lovely historic Cote d'Azur photos on Delphine's website.)

Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg": "an outstanding L.A. movie" featuring Musso and Frank

Variety's Todd McCarthy says "Greenberg" has probably the longest scene ever shot at Musso and Frank, and is "an outstanding L.A. movie," that strikes "a fine balance between the beauty and the blight, the ease and the hassle, the luxury and the basic, the stimulating and the banal." It opens March 26 through Focus Features.

Bike Bender blasts through E-Ho

Quaffing a rose-flavored soda pop at Sahag's Basturma on the Bike Bender.

Bike bender #2 went off well on a somewhat steamy East Hollywood afternoon Sunday, as 26 bike riders (and two lasses on a seagreen Vespa!) convened the caravan for EatingLA and FoodGPS's second Bike Bender. The last edition in Highland Park concentrated on Mexican food and beer; this time it was Armenian and Thai tastes and as always, beer. At stop #1, Sasoun Bakery, we tasted lahmajune, spicy cheese bourek hot out of the oven, tangy spinach bourek and date-nut cookies.

The afternoon was already heating up at stop #2 as we crowded into tiny Sahag's Basturma, where for 25 years they've been turning out spicy soujouk sausages, subtly-spiced, juicy finger-sized maaneg sausages and fenugreek-laden dried basturma (above), which gave us the Yiddish word pastrami. Soft bread, pungent olives and pepperoncini complemented the meats, which some paired with rose and tarragon sodas.

At stop#3, Bhan Kanom Thai, warm coconut khanom krok pancakes were just coming out of the molds, while the crepes for "Thai tacos" (above) were sizzling on the hot griddle before being topped with a marshmallow-ish cream and bits of salty egg or sweet coconut. Taro coconut cakes were not as universally loved, but I liked their lavender color and nutty flavor. While it didn't take long to cover the ground for the first three stops, we were all happy to arrive at the last one, the cool, dimly-lit Blue Palms Brewhouse, where each biker got to try two beers. My favorite was Ballast Point's Sculpin IPA, but there were plenty of others to enjoy.
Stay tuned for another delicious, sudsy Bike Bender in January -- possibly a Chinese New Year's edition!

East: David Judaken's cathedral to Hollywood excess

Cute bartenders and cocktails with silly names -- East is everything Hollywood could want.

Nightlife impresario David Judaken's East Restaurant and Lounge on Hollywood Blvd. probably isn't the kind of place you're going to hang out much if Best Fish Taco in Ensenada is your idea of a big night out. But if you've got friends in from out of town who want to check out Hollywood nightlife, or a hottie you're looking to impress, this could be the place. East, right next to Lucky Devil's, is Judaken's first full-on restaurant, and it's designed by reliably over-the-top decorator Dodd Mitchell. Mitchell incorporates everything from fire, paper, leather and tree branches to mirrored tiles and a few safari style elements -- the overall effect is "Rich people on safari in Asia get lost in a luxurious abandoned cathedral." The dining room at the rear is particularly stunning, with high, arched ceilings, walls lined with rough white stone and secluded booths in nooks.
We were invited to a preview of the restaurant, which opens Tuesday, and the food was just right for Hollywood crawlers who don't want to be weighed down before a night of clubbing -- several preparations of sashimi and crudo with various sauces, seared ahi with yams (above right), Jidori chicken, a nicely cooked skirt steak, and my favorite, an appetizer take on lobster rolls with lobster meat perching on heavily buttered brioche slices.
The cocktail menu is saddled with some unfortunate names meant to provoke conversation -- and titters -- i.e., "I'll have a Facial please, and my girlfriend wants a One Night Stand." Some of the cocktails are much better than their names, though, and several of us enjoyed the Reckoner, made with Ri whiskey, red bell pepper, purple basil and lemon.
With its striking design, East is worth a look and a cocktail for anyone interested in restaurant design or Hollywood nightlife.

Boho opens Tuesday in Hollywood

We brought you a preview of Boho's decor last week, and the Arclight complex gastropub is now ready for its closeup starting Tuesday. Even if you're undecided about the mismatched chairs and thrift shop paintings, courtesy of Spacecraft, you'll want to check out the primo beer list with selections like Green Flash's Le Freak, The Lost Abbey's Avant Garde, Stone's Dry Hopped Old Guardian and Alesmith's Nautical Nut Brown Ale. And that's just San Diego county. There's another 21 or so craft beers on tap from Belgium, Oregon, Maine, New York and more, as well as gastropub fare like pizza, charcuterie, pastrami and burgers from the Oinkster's Andre Guerrero. No offense to the Arclight cafe, but Boho, you've got much more to offer.

Boho: Good beer, Arclight-close

Kitschy knick-knacks and lamps make Boho cozier than the rest of the Arclight complex

Assorted bloggers, Hollywood bar owners and others got a preview last night of Boho, the beer/pizza/farmer's market driven small plates place that's replacing Charcoal in the corner of the ArcLight theaters complex. It's still owned by Adolfo Suaya, but he's brought in the Oinkster's Andre Guerrero to do the menu and Verdugo's Ryan Sweeney to select the 25 beers on tap. Designer Kris Keith of Spacecraft brings a different look to each place he designs, like Bar Delux and La Buca. I'm still deciding how I feel about Boho's kooky mix of mismatched dining table chairs, old books, thrift shop art and '70s lamps -- it all seems a little incongruous next to the slick Club Sushi, although it's certainly more cozy. But whether the combo of 20 ft. tall ficus trees and old teddy bears appeals or not, the idea of being able to grab some amazing beer before or after the Arclight is very welcome. I tried the excellent Moylan's Harvest IPA and an unusual sour, champagne-like triple gueze that Ryan was carrying around with him. Here's a look at the proposed menu from FoodGPS. Boho opens around March 20.
Since Kris Keith is designing half of Hollywood right now, we also talked to lawyer-turned-publican Alex, who's opening Public House at Cahuenga and Selma in April. He's planning two dozen beers on tap and a menu of basically burgers.
We also heard about Essex, another pub opening on Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas around April, which has Chris Ennis working on the menu. Owner Greg Link told us how Essex's historic building was used as an illicit gambling den in the old days, and even had an escape passageway for when the cops raided the building.
With all these spots plus Blue Palms, Hollywood is fast turning into beer central -- or one hell of a walking tour!
Menu details: The ambitious, not quite-yet finalized menu includes small plates like Fried Oyster Po' boy sliders ($9) and roasted marrow bones; Bigass plates like Oxtail Catalana or an Oinkster Pastrami plate ($16) and sides such as baked fennel with roasted shallots, bacon and gruyere cheese, as well as a pulled pork pizza ($14). Oink, oink!

Loteria Grill: the Mexican restaurant we really needed

The high-ceilinged space is simply decorated yet welcoming.

Plenty of high-style Mexican food is flooding into Downtown right now, but what's the rest of L.A. to do? Assuming you're ready to brave Hollywood Blvd. (don't try this on Oscar weekend), the answer is to eat at Loteria Grill. No, not the little stand that's been one of Farmer's Market's best bets for several years now, but the big new one with a full liquor license just up the street from Musso & Frank. The menu is similar to one at the stand -- largely tacos, tostadas, sopes and burritos with mostly flavorful fillings like cochinita pibil and nopalitos. At lunch Tuesday, there was a special of shrimp tacos in a spicy Chile Morita sauce, and these babies were just simple and delicious. Fresh shrimp with a chile kick in a homemade tortilla -- this dish didn't need anything molecular to make it sing.

One friend had Enchiladas Suizas (above) with the vegetarian zucchini and roasted corn filling; also clean and zingy. Another friend's chile relleno duo was a touch less successful; the ancho chile was a bit too chewy, the plantain filling of the other not quite as compelling. Crunchy jicama salad (below) with chipotle dressing was also delightful in the mouth; I'll be making this one at home for sure. Even the black beans, usually an afterthought, were savory and rich in some superior way, and the smoky, creamy salsa with the free (take that, Malo!) tortilla chips was also a bonus.As the photo up top shows, there's a good selection of tequilas at the bar. And you know, I don't really care if it's 40 or 100 kinds, or whether there's a tequila sommelier -- basically, what you want in a Mexican restaurant is a solid margarita and food made with some attention and care. And that's just what you get at Loteria Hollywood. But I shudder to think what it's like on a Saturday night when the clubgoers come out.
Tip: At lunchtime, there's no valet and Hollywood parking meters are pricey now, but one block north on Yucca, there's unlimited free parking.

Jitlada's new dishes: some fiery, some fun

Crispy morning glory and shrimp salad

Saturday night at Jitlada was absolutely packed, so we were lucky to get the last table before the waitlist started when we stopped by to try a few of the new dishes. There's now a small card of specials on the tables and Jazz will also tell you about other specials not listed. Most of the dishes on the specials card are on the pricier side -- lobster tails and such -- so we tried the two dishes Jazz suggested: pork belly with sator beans in yellow curry and an unusual salad of crispy morning glory stems with shrimp. The morning glory dish was a big hit -- crunchy saffron-colored batter coated the morning glory stems (they're similar to pea shoots in taste), which were then paired with shrimp in a light tangy dressing, showered with fried shallot slices. When the dish of cabbage and carrots on ice arrives, you know you're in for some serious heat, and pork belly with sator beans was serious, alright. The pungent yellow curry sauce was definitely one of Southern Thailand's hotter offerings, with slices of tender pork belly combined with Thai eggplant and the wild-tasting sator beans, topped with stalks of Thai peppercorns (left). Eating this dish is like passing a class in advanced Thai cuisine. I was less enthusiastic about shrimp and pineapple in lemon yellow curry, since hot pineapple slices in soup didn't work quite as well as some of the other dishes. Matt loved one of the old favorites, the rice salad, for its perfect spice level and combination of so many flavors, with lemongrass leading the charge. We were pretty full after all this but couldn't pass up the luscious sticky rice and mango topped with creamy condensed milk. As I said hi to Tui in the kitchen, a nice-looking salmon curry dish came out, looking somewhat less dangerous, spice-wise, and I made a note to try it next time. (I love intense heat, but it's not always easy on the other guests I'm eating with, and it tends to obscure the taste of dishes that come after it.)
It's great that Jitlada isn't resting on its much-deserved laurels, but continues to try new dishes and push the boundaries of authentic Thai food without resorting to "fusion" cuisine.
Tip: Make a reservation on weekends, or eat on a weeknight for even more attention from Jazz and the kitchen. And don't miss the framed receipt on which Matt Groening drew Homer Simpson when he ate there.