Seoul Town Tapas @ Breadbar on West Third

The wife and I went to dinner at Breadbar on West Third to try Chef Debbie Lee's Seoul Town Tapas, a pop-up concept restaurant with a twist on Korean Pub food. She was also a finalist for Food Networks "The Next Food Network Star" (season 5). Hadn't really heard anything about how her food/concept was being received (good or bad). Considering Breadbar is one of our favorite places in general, figure we can never go wrong.

Upon seating, for your pre-meal appetizer, they give you kimchee daikon radishes which were quite tasty and not too spicy.

For our first appetizer we had the Chips and Curry Bean Dip, which was really good, the chips were made from wontons, light and crispy. The bean dip had fairly smooth texture to it and the curry was definitely there, but not overkill. A good all around dish between the tastes and textures.



After the dip we had the kimchee citrus pork with roasted fuji apples skewers, which were very tasty and the pork with roasted apple paired nicely, mild but with flavor. Followed by Korean Rice Cylinders with maple smoked bacon and a jalapeno ponzu. Can't really go wrong when bacon is involved, although I didn't really taste much more than the bacon. Both of them had a nice ponzu dipping sauce. 

Next, we had the Chicken Meat Balls, which was probably one of our faves. It was almost like sweet and sour chicken in meat ball form with a caramelized outer texture. A little sweet and savory and good all the way around (pun intended).

We then tried the Korean Fried Chicken (dark meat). This was good, not great or exceptional, especially for $16. It didn't seem that different then regular fried chicken. I had heard later that there was a Soy Braised Chicken Breast on the menu that was really great, but it was rotated out for the fried chicken, maybe it will make a come back. 

Lastly, for dessert, we tried the Grilled Nutella and Blueberry Sammie. Pan de mie bread grilled with sweet blueberries and Nutella. Simple and great. Uh, yah, yum. My wife hasn't stopped thinking about it either.

Overall, I enjoyed the meal itself, even though I was expecting something a little more exciting (I think Chef Ludo set the bar pretty high for pop-up concepts). The prices were affordable though, the portions were, well, tapas style so it was more then enough for us, but we eat light. We're planning on going back at least one more time. There were plenty of other tasty sounding dishes to try. The pop-up was supposed to end on April 10th, but it was just extended to May 1st. You can find more info about it here.

Flying Pig

Still getting caught up on my posts. Going up later then planned.

After many months, finally tried the Flying Pig food truck. No line (love it when I can time it right) and the service was fast and friendly. Had the tamarind duck taco and spicy pork taco. I really liked them both. The duck taco was quite good, it was more shredded in texture. Had the tangerines, pickled beets and daikon sprouts. A lot going on, but nothing overwhelmed or overpowered anything else. Nice flavor balance between the pickled crunch of the beets, tangy/citrus of the mandarin oranges with tamarind duck. One of the more unique taco offerings as far as food trucks go.



The pork taco had a little heat to it, but with a richer flavor. It had shaved green papaya on it, I believe they said it had an adobo sauce on it as well. I got mine without the cilantro cream sauce, just not a fan of cilantro. That whole soap taste thing. I think this was a good example of less is more. Only a few ingredients in the taco itself, it didn't really need anything else.





I look forward to trying them again. I know I'll be getting both of these tacos again and definitely want to try the pork belly buns next time. Yummy oinky (and quacky) goodness.
Follow them on twitter here.

Yum Yum Bowls

Tried Yum Yum Bowls the other day. Mostly Thai style foods. I tried the Yellow Curry with chicken. I found it to be ok. The curry itself had some nice flavors going on, but I found the potatoes a bit on the starchy/under cooked side, the carrots were alright and the chicken was tasty, but also kinda rubbery. It struck me as late night delivery food. I'll probably try them again at some point, they had quite a few menu items, well priced and the service was friendly.

Uncle Lau's Island BBQ Food Truck

Chef on Wheels got a make over and a new branding, they are now Uncle Lau's Island BBQ.
I hadn't visited his truck in a little while with the surge of new trucks rolling out and the frequency that they are hitting the MTV area for lunch, AKA food truck alley, so I haven't been visiting my favorite trucks nearly as much. All of his food seems to be pretty much the same as before, not much in the way of menu changes, which is good. I usually get the pulled pork, which is really one of the best I've had in L.A. It has a really great moist, mild smoke, with light flavor. Satisfying, never disappointed. I haven't tried much else from him other then a couple of chicken specials, I just like the pulled pork that much. I will try some other things soon. They have a repeat customer punch card now, which is pretty cool. Ten sandwiches, 11th is free. Be nice if more trucks did that. Good and easy incentive. Follow them on twitter here.

Tasty Meat!

Tasty Meat, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

A little bit late in posting this, been a bit behind the past few weeks.

Tried the Tasty Meat! Food Truck. They do a Turkish twist on the wraps. I had wanted to try the Cuban sandwich, but it was sold out (wasn't the first time either). Appears to be popular. I tried the Chickwich, which is very gyro like. Pita wrapped marinated dark chicken, lettuce, tomato but with feta, tahini and tzatziki sauce. Wound up being a bit sauce heavy for my liking, but that's normal for me. Next time I would ask them to go light on the sauces. Chicken itself was, well, tasty. And it was filling. A little hard to eat due to the sauciness though.



They had said they were going to be getting a new wrap design for the truck, not sure if thats
happened yet.

Will definitely try them again, really want to try that Cuban sandwich.

Dim Sum Truck

Tried out Dim Sum Truck on their first lunch visit on the West side at the TLofts the other day, kind of a soft roll out I suppose. I've had limited experience with dim sum in general. Over the years, I've had it here an there and most of the time they weren't that great and yet so many people love them so there has to be something to it right? Nice thing with the food truck scene is being able to try so many different kinds of food that is of actual good quality. Figured this would be a good way to get re-acquainted, especially since I haven't been disappointed by a food truck yet, so odds were that it would be good.

I had twittered them earlier in the day about how late they were going to be sticking around and they let me know pretty quick, which was great since I was taking a late lunch that day.



When I went to order, I was given a paper menu check list, similar to a sushi menu. They recommended the shu mai (shrimp and pork), you get three with an order, and the hum bow bbq pork bun, you get two to an order. They also gave me a dessert on the house, the sesame ball. By the time I finished ordering, it was already up. The shu mai was really good, this was one of the better ones I've had. I've had others there was too much of the seasoning coming thru, like green onion. Not these, it was on the mild side so you can taste the pork and shrimp, the dipping sauce adds the zing. That dipping sauce was amazing, nice and savory, ginger, soy sauce with a bit of garlic and it had a touch of heat to it. Really makes it.




The bbq pork buns were good, hadn't had one of those in a number of years either it seems. And I think this was the first time I've had a toasted/baked bun versus the steamed kind. The bread itself was light and sweet, the pork filling was good, mild yet sweet with a little bit of savory coming thru from the pork itself. I think I would prefer having the option of being able to order just one though, very filling to say the least.




The complementary dessert was interesting and really good (and a nice gesture). Very mild, light, but chewy, with a (I believe) lotus jellied like filling. The smokey crunchiness of the toasted sesame seeds and the texture of the filling was quite good.

Looking forward to trying them out again. You can really create many different combos and everything is very affordable. You can follow them on twitter here or check out their site here.

Funny Thing

Funny thing happened at lunch today. Usually on Thursdays (as of late) I try to hit Kogi on Olympic near the TLofts. Most of the time, since last summer, its been the Verde truck and crew. After a while, I got to know the name of the guy that runs that truck, Mike. So every time I go to order I say "hey Mike, how's it goin?" and he always says "hey Leandro, how are you what can I get for you?". I always thought it was pretty cool to try to get to know the people who's food you enjoy, even if just by name. Well, today, I walk up, we exchange greetings and before I could order or Mike says anything, one of the cooks yells "two pork tacos no onions/cilantro!" followed by lots of laughter, followed by the other cook yelling "605!" The price of 2 tacos and a Diet Coke. Made me laugh and my order was up before I could put my wallet away. I guess they know my order and I think that might make me a regular.