A Tortilla Sandwich Called Mulita

So I discovered mulitas in La Taquiza near USC last week, first described to me as "a quesadilla on steroids." Well, I went, I tried and I'm officially hooked. I know it's been around forever so it isn't earth-shattering news, but it was exciting to learn more about Mexican cuisine (anyone know whether it's a regional thing?). I couldn't find much information on it online so I can't tell you much about where it comes from. Even some of my Chicana friends didn't know what they were.

Suffice it to say that they were crispy on the outside, warm and hearty on the inside and a bite combining both, well, divine. I got the carne asada mulita with guacamole inside. The piping hot concoction comes with cheese, little chunks of grilled meat and a spread of guacamole -- all sandwiched in two delightfully toasted corn tortillas.

It's only $2.25 but hearty enough for a meal. I washed it down with some jamaica, my favorite Mexican drink. My only regret is that I didn't get the al pastor mulita. The shrimp and fish mulitas -- the latter coming batter-fried (yum) -- also looked like winners.

I'll definitely be going back for more. It serves all the other stuff one may look for, burritos, tacos, etc. For now, I'm going to sample all the mulitas I can get my hands on. The roasted something salsa was nice and spicy, adding a balanced kick to my mulita.

La Taquiza
3009 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90007
(213) 741-9795

Filipino Comfort Food

I don't know much about Filipino food, but the few times that I have had it, I didn't love it. I know now that it was probably because the restaurants weren't great. I found one that I liked -- Barrio Fiesta in Eagle Rock -- and I'm told Cerritos has even better ones.

Eagle Rock has a sizable Filipino population but I wouldn't have known about Barrio had it not been for a fellow foodie and Eagle Rock resident. From the outside, Barrio looks like a Mexican restaurant but step in and you will be treated to a veritable Filipino feast (like its name that means Party Town), complete with fresh lumpias and the most comforting chicken adobo.



My favorite was the chicken adobo, bone-in pieces of chicken slow-cooked to perfection in a marinade of dark cane vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and black peppercorn, among other goodies. The meat was tender with just the right acidity to balance out the saltiness. I liked the hard-boiled quail egg touch, although some of my fellow diners were grossed out by the mini eggs (their loss!). There were little treats that popped out as you lifted a chicken leg or wing from the hearty marinade/sauce. Fluffy white rice was the perfect accompaniment to neutralize this dish. It helped that the rice came in the cutest steel containers and tasted freshly made.



Just like the Sariwang lumpia. While I never shy away from deep fried foods, I liked this fresh version of lumpia better. The word, "fresh," may be a misnomer here, since it's not exactly raw like with the fresh Vietnamese rolls. Rather, it's like a thicker crepe stuffed with pork strips, minced heart of palm and other things that are all wrapped in a lettuce leaf. The crepe is then doused with a slightly sweet and caramel-like sauce made from garlic, starch and stock and sprinkled with crushed peanuts.

Another excellent dish was the chicken soup, called Tinolang manok. The stock had an exquisitely deep flavor and had an interesting mix of spinach and green papaya in it, which probably contributed to the fresh after-taste of the heart-warming soup. I can tell when good quality, fresh chicken was used from the lack of an unpleasant gamey taste or freezer smell.



The Guisadong Betchuelas (first photo), or sauteed green beans with pork and shrimp, was good - almost like a curry dish for its spice-tinged juices and melded together very well with the vegetables. My least favorite was Sotanghon guisado, a glass noodle dish with chicken, cabbage and other vegetables. I found it a tad bland and the noodles were dry and tangled.

I washed it all down with a refreshing Kalamansi, a Filipino lime drink made from a citrus fruit (I predict a summer cocktail using Kalamansi may well become the next drink du jour - maybe it already has). I was worried it'd be too sweet (from my previous Filipino dessert encounters) but the drink was just right.



All in all, a good meal (and learning experience for this Filipino food novice). Good service. Easy parking. What more could you ask for? Barrio was formerly in Glendale and moved to this location about a year and a half ago. Live music/performances on weekends. Not sure if this is for everybody, but karaoke is also available.

Barrio Fiesta
4420 Eagle Rock Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90041
(323) 259-5826

Not All Fish Sandwiches Are Created Equal

I don't like to admit that I could like a restaurant located in a mall, but Gulfstream is an exception. For one, it's affiliated with Houston's, which serves my favorite burger in LA so far. The menu is similar to Houston's, and food just as good. I'm not a big fan of the dark interior and old school decor, but who cares when the food is this solid? It is pricey, so it isn't somewhere I would go regularly. If you're in the Westfield mall, at the movies or near Century City, it's worth stopping by.

The crab cake salad was exceptional. It came with a mix of greens including frisee and watercress, silky avocado and refreshing grapefruit. The light, creamy dressing was right on, complementing the crab cake well without feeling like it was tartar sauce disguised as dressing. The crab cakes were perfectly crispy on the outside and was creamy and moist on the inside. I could actually taste crab that wasn't at all fishy and appreciated the generous chunks of crab since it's hard to real, chunky crab (especially in a cake patty). On a hot summer day, it was the perfect starter.



I resisted the temptation to get a burger. If Houston's burger is so good, I could only assume Gulfstream's would be just as good. But I got the fish sandwich instead and it was excellent. It was as good as the fish sandwich I've had at Houston's. It's what a filet-o-fish sandwich (I can't believe I'm quoting an item from the much disdained fast food chain that will remain unnamed) would taste like if an ironchef made it. The fish, while fried, was airy, fluffy, not too salty and definitely not fishy. The works included shredded cabbage, dill pickles and red onions. But what brought it all together was the fantastic pink sauce (tasted of mayo, some kick, maybe capers and parsley?) that bound everything into a soft, warm bun that was perfectly toasted.

Who knew I could be so wowed by a humble fish filet sandwich? The restaurant's site boasts that all the fish it serves were caught in the last 24 hours. Not sure if that's humanely possible given the fish probably comes from all over the world, but nevertheless I'm sold. The side of wild rice, corn and almond was interesting, but nothing spectacular.

There's one in Newport Beach that I haven't tried.

Gulfstream
10250 Santa Monica Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90067
(310) 553-3636

Spicy Pork in a (Green) Blanket

The Korean food kick continues. The great thing about living in LA is having the luxury to indulge in the various kinds of Korean barbecue and hopping on to different restaurants that do one specific thing very well.

For Sigol Ssambab on Western in Koreatown, it's the delightfully spicy barbecued pork sliced super thin, cooked tableside and wrapped in a mound of greens with a dab of spicy and salty fermented soy bean paste.

The marinade is just right -- not too sweet or spicy -- and the meat has the right amount of fat that renders upon contact with the grill. The sizzling sound can't be beat and the aromas of garlicky reddish pork that glistens will have you downing these babies pretty quickly.



The kicker is that you feel like you're eating healthy because besides being the other white meat, the pork is wrapped in at least five different kinds of greens. Take your pick from red leaf lettuce, napa cabbage, bok choy, sesame leaf, chicory, steamed white cabbage, herbs, among others. You can even have a sheet of seaweed to wrap your meat in if that's your thing. My favorites are the sesame leaf known as kennip and the steamed cabbage.

I also love this restaurant's version of the fermented soy bean paste, ssamjang (below), that accompanies every barbecued meat and green wrap. It's usually mixed with spicy chili paste called kochujang, but this place offers a milder-flavored paste in its more raw form -- not mushed into a paste so the fermented soy bean grains are barely ground.



It's also a great deal if you go in groups of at least two because portions are big and the greens come in unlimited supply. After the meat fest is over, you get another full meal of rice and fermented soy bean stew (yes, Koreans love all things fermented) with vegetables and tofu. I like the rice that's mixed with black rice, which has a much smokier flavor and is healthier.

The word, "ssam," meaning wrap, has recently become more recognized (at least in NY) with the popularity of Korean American superstar chef David Chang's Momofuku enterprise. From the readings and television appearances I've seen of him, he is best known for a steamed pork in greens version known as bossam. Sure, he does a lot more with the pork and the accouterments are different, but essentially the same concept. I have yet to find a good bossam place in the US, but maybe I should venture to his explosively overbooked joint next time I'm in NY.



(323) 467-0100
480 N. Western Avenue (between Melrose & Beverly)
Los Angeles, CA 90004

A Full Korean Meal in a Bowl

Judging by the back-to-back posts, I must be on a Korean food kick. Can't help myself. This is a quickie entry on my favorite bibimbab place in Koreatown -- Jeon Ju. It specializes in the super-hot stone-pot bowls of rice mixed with vegetables and meat, seafood, or no meat at all. You can order a non-stone-pot version that comes in a regular bowl if you don't like food that is too hot temperature-wise.

But the stone-pot functions not only as a thermos that keeps the rice and all the goodies in it warm, but it also helps to create a crunchy rice-crust at the bottom that you vigorously scrape at the end of your meal (or beginning, depending on your level of patience). If the fried egg is done sunny side up like in most establishments (not in this one -- egg comes out almost fully cooked, which takes a bit of the fun away from popping and cooking the egg), you can also use the stone-pot to cook the egg by searing it in the bottom of the pot.



What I like most about Jeon Ju is the meat topping that comes with the kalbi dolsot bibimbab. Usually, meat in bibimbab is ground meat of dubious origins. But this is marinated rib meat that's been boned, so you only get the tender slightly salty, sweet and most definitely garlicky morsels of meat. Add some bean sprouts, mushrooms, fiery kimchi, zucchini, carrots and radishes, mix it with rice and red pepper paste (pictured below), and you have yourself a healthy bowl of bibimbab that also hits your recommended daily vegetable intake.



It doesn't hurt that the banchan, or side dishes are reasonably solid. They include three kinds of kimchi -- a regular nappa cabbage, radish and water kimchi. There were stir-fried dried baby anchovies, jelly topped with a soy sauce and scallion dressing, steamed broccoli with red pepper paste and stir fried fish cakes. You also get a comfort-foody sea kelp soup that is even healthier than the bibimbab. Check out the mixed bowl below. Jeon Ju is a city in Korea's southwestern Cheolla Province from which this stone-pot dish hails. Stone-pot bibimbab is hence called Jeon Ju bibimbab.



I recently saw Mario Batali present a stone-pot bibimbab dish on Iron Chef America and recalled seeing the judges ooh-ing and ahh-ing about how creative it was. Um, hello? I hope Batali gave proper credit to where he got the idea and equipment from because I missed the first part of the show. By the way, portions are big, so one bibimbab translates into three meals.

Jeon Ju
2716 West Olympic Boulevard #101 (at Vermont)
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 386-5678

No Longer Second to Shik Do Rak--CLOSED

Update: this place has since closed down and been remodeled but I have yet to try the renovated joint. RIP Hanyang.

It was truly serendipitously that we ran into Hanyang again, after having written it off when it first opened a while back. At the time, this Shik Do Rak wannabe was merely that. It sought to emulate ttukbossam, the rice paper and chadol barbecue of thinly sliced meat wrapped with some green onions and spices. But it wasn't impressive.

We headed to Hanyang in this day only because Shik Do Rak was too booked as it is undergoing renovation and has much less room during the Friday night rush. Alas, we were pleasantly surprised. The meat was tender and fresh; the banchan (side dishes) were solid; but most importantly, the green onion mixed with a fiery red sauce that you dab onto the meat before you wrap it in a thin rice paper was extremely flavorful and addictive.



What I liked about Hanyang was that it has a chopped romaine lettuce and red lettuce mix as well as an all-green onion mix that is tossed in a garlicky and vinegary red pepper sauce that complements the meat so well I couldn't stop stuffing my wrap with this green and red mixture. The vinegar gave it a refreshing touch so the fat from the meat wasn't too heavy on the palate. Like Morangak, the ttukbossam (moniker for this kind of rice wrapper with meat) place I like in Garden Grove, it had the pickled radishes -- large round slices of radishes pickled in a slightly sweet vinegar sauce. The radishes are big enough to double as wrappers to mix things up a bit.

The only downside was the rice wrappers were too thick and stuck to each other too much so it was cumbersome to peel them off.



It helps to have solid kimchi, the signature spicy fermented dish and other side dishes such as potato salad and the rustic oogeoji namul, a dark brown leafy vegetable seasoned with garlic, salt and sesame oil that tastes just like the countryside. The mushrooms and sweet potatoes on the grill were a nice touch. The prices weren't bad either. It wasn't as cheap as Shik Do Rak but came close. All that meat and side dishes followed by a meal of rice, savory egg custard and fermented soybean stew for about $30? This could feed a family of five.



Hanyang
3429 West 8th Street
Los Angeles CA 90005
(213) 385-9292

Cold Noodles with Hot Broth on a Hot Day

I'll say it right off the bat. I don't go to Chilbomyunok for its nengmyun, the cold, soupy buckwheat Korean noodle dish that is classic summer food. I go for its deep-flavored, most comforting food of all times -- yooksu, literally translated as beef broth.

It would be a misnomer to call it mere beef broth. The yooksu here, which the restaurant uses as a base for its nengmyun, is so complex and delicious that it makes up for the average nengmyun and banchan, or side dishes.



It's nothing pretty to look at, but the minute you slurp its perfectly seasoned, warm goodness, you can't get enough. Before you know it, your noodles have arrived. The curious thing is that if the nengmyun uses the same broth base, then why is it that the flavors are skin-deep compared with the broth separately? The only explanation is that they dilute the broth significantly. Sometimes I order the beet-red bibim nengmyun (above) as opposed to the less spicy mool ("water" as opposed to the "dry and mixed" kind) because I think it's harder to the get the mool nengmyun right.



I have yet to find a nengmyun place as good as those in Korea (Think Kobaksa Nengmyun). Perfect broth (seasoned to taste with mustard and vinegar) with chewy buckwheat noodles, half a boiled egg, slices radishes, crunchy Asian pear slivers, cucumbers and a few slabs of meat. Now that was summer in a bowl. Sometimes I actually miss those hot, painfully humid summer days in Seoul. Even the monsoon season. But I digress. The bibim nengmyun doesn't have as much soup/broth and basically comes "dressed" in a spicy and slightly sweet red pepper sauce with the same ingredients that go into the watery version. When it's good, you won't care that you've developed a red moustache around your lips from the spice.



Ok, so it is one of the better places among the slim pickings, but not sure that's saying much. To be fair, their banchan of potato salad, zucchini, radishes, and especially the onion and greens salad were decent. The bindaettuk, or mung bean pancake, is a bit too greasy and diluted (not enough mung bean in the patty mixture) like most Korean restaurants. But it's crispy and does the trick if you're hungry.

Skip the dumplings. The meat filling tasted too strong.

All told, the broth makes a visit worthwhile. Check it out. They also serve barbecued meat at the table but I would go to other specialty places like Soot Bull Jeep or Park's Barbecue (bulgoki only) for that.

Chilbomyunok
680 West 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90020
(213) 387-9292