The Shrimp Guys

The Shrimp Guys, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

The Shrimp Guys food truck, or trailer, well its towed by a regular truck. Anyways, heard some good things about their shrimp and had a chance to try them out. I ordered the 5 piece garlic and butter shrimp with a scoop of rice for 5 bucks, they have a 8 piece with 3 scoops of rice for 8 I think, pretty good value either way. Their was no shortage of garlic or butter, really tasty. Although you really need to eat them fast, shrimp does not hold heat for long. I enjoyed it though, service was friendly and fast and I would definitely hit them up again. They had a coconut lime dish that I know I'll be trying next time. Follow them on twitter here and check out their web site here.

Crepe'n Around

Crepe'n Around, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Been a big fan of crepes for many years, goes back to getting married and spending 2 weeks in Paris. Getting a tasty crêpe de jambon et de fromage from one of the many street vendors quickly became a favorite of mine. The Crepe'n Around truck is helping fill that need. I've eaten at their truck twice now and both times were great.

The first one I tried was the Maple Braised Pork. Wow, oh wow was this good. It was quite literally a full course meal wrapped in that crepe. The pork is maple braised with apple chutney, toasted walnuts, and mixed greens with a honey-dijon sauce. Very satisfying and a wonderful balance of flavor and textures. 

The second visit I had the ham and brie crepe. This was an updated version of the traditional ham and cheese crepe. This one had brie with caramelized onions and whole grain mustard. Another nice combo of sweet and savory. I really liked the addition of the grain mustard and the onions were just right. Really enjoyed it. Need to try a sweet crepe next time.

Both times the service was great and friendly (and fast too). I'm finding myself craving their crepes now. I highly recommend checking them out. Check out their web site here and you can follow them on twitter here.

Gourmet Genie To Go

Recently tried a new food truck for lunch, Gourmet Genie To Go. Everything is Mediterranean style, kabobs, pita wraps and some taco fusions. Also, its all organic and comes from local sources or farmer's markets, which is always a plus in my book. Spent a little time talking with the owner/chef Max. Really nice and friendly guy. I always like it when chefs take a little time to chat with their customers.

I tried three different tacos, chicken, fish and lamb. I quite enjoyed all three of them.

The fish, which is mahi mahi, was dense and firm in texture, but still flakey. Grilled with sweet onions, topped with pine nuts and instead of white sauce, he used tahini sauce. Nice twist on the classic fish taco. 

The lamb was terrific. The lamb was grilled and lightly seasoned with hints of savory and sweet with Italian parsley, red onions some jalapenos and juicy grilled cherry tomatoes. Very satisfying.

The chicken taco was really good. Lightly seasoned and grilled and served with a cabbage salad on it, gave it a refreshing crunchy texture. In fact all of the tacos had a nice balance between taste and texture.

  

For dessert I had the date rolls and the birds nest. The date rolls had a thick buttery exterior with a date paste which had a very light sweet taste. The birds nest is similar to baklava with the layers of phyllo dough, but with toasted pistachios on top and a light honey type of glazing to it. Nice textures.

I definitely recommend checking the Gourmet Genie out, terrific food, great prices and service. They tend to make the regular stops on the West side, T-Lofts, MTV and 31st and Ocean Park, plus lots of others. You can follow them on Twitter here and check out their website here.

Plaisir

My wife heard about a new French cafe that recently opened near the Trader Joe's in West Hollywood. We had planned an afternoon at the Melrose Trading Post (flea market) which gave us a good excuse to stop by and grab some food to go.



We were greeted by Daniel, a co-founder who was really nice and friendly. We chatted with him while we oohed and awed all the tasty looking Parisian snacks. He offered us some samples of their mousse which was really good as well as this wonderful home made lavender ice cream that had this great blue hue and was very light in taste. There were quite a few other ice cream choices, but we decided to save the ice cream for one of our next visits.





We got a ham and cheese croissant and a lemon bar to go. The croissant seemed larger then your standard breakfast size. It was very flakey and buttery with a little bit of chewy pull to it, in others words great. The ham was sweet and a little salty and went really well with the gruyere cheese all warmed lightly. It was really simple and good. Just big enough for us to split. I know I'll be getting this again.



We saved the lemon bar for later. I think this was one of the best lemon bars I've ever had. Nice, thick and dense lemon filling that was sweet and tangy, but not overly sweet despite the powered sugar on top, which I did like. Also had a thick buttery crust to it that rounded it out. Definitely big enough for two people to split.



You can find more info on their site here and follow them on twitter here. I highly recommend checking them out, made for a nice Paris like afternoon. I know we'll be going back.

Breadbar Baguettes

Breadbar baguettes, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Just a quick post today. I go to Breadbar on West Third just about every weekend for croissants and turnovers and quite often get their ham baguette sandwich to go for later. They have the best baguettes, and croissants, in town. They had just put out this stack of baguettes and had to get a picture. I always get great service from Daria and Edi. Even better, its a short 5 minute walk from home. : D - I highly recommend them.

Forage Restaurant L.A.

Forage Restaurant L.A., originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Forage Restaurant. Nice little space in Silverlake. Everything is fresh and organic. Had the baked chicken with farro salad and grilled bread. The chicken was cooked just right, tender and juicy with a tasty crispy skin. The farro salad was really good as well. They have a menu that stays mostly the same, but with ever changing specials.

Forage, as the name suggests, was encouraging customers to bring in their own grown produce to contribute to their menu. They're very community driven. Apparently it was going so well that the L.A. health dept paid them a visit and told them they could no longer do that out of health and safety concerns, whatever. This link has a recent statement from Forage about the situation and how they're currently dealing with it by giving the produce to charity and food banks and encouraging others to help feed the hungry.

You can follow them twitter here or facebook.

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.