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September 24, 2008

la española

Paella pans.

One Saturday soon you may find yourself craving paella and a little day trip. On that Saturday I suggest you get in your car and, with a good and hungry friend, head down the 110 toward Harbor City, home of La Española Meats. You won't be entirely sure where Harbor City is and, during an engrossing conversation in the car, will realize you have not been paying attention to the exits at all and did you pass it? You will turn around, head back toward the 405, realize that no, you did not in fact pass it, turn around again, then resume your drive and the engrossing conversation.

But don't worry about the delay. It will only help build up your appetite for paella.

Cured meat sample!

When you park outside La Española, an unassuming building on a dead-end street, your friend will ask you with some incredulity if you have brought her to a warehouse. Actually, you have: the market supplies many of the upscale food shops and tapas restaurants in Los Angeles. But on Saturdays they make paella. There are tables and chairs outside under a cheerful awning, and giant plates of paella for a mere $8.50. Big families who clearly have been coming for paella on Saturdays for years sit chatting and eating. You hear that sometimes someone brings a guitar and there is music and maybe a little dancing, but today there will be none.

But that's okay because: PAELLA. Your Styrofoam takeout container will be loaded with saffron-tinged rice, the plump grains hiding chunks of tender meat and seafood. On the side, a plate of sliced crusty bread, olives and charcuterie. To drink, an orange-flavored Spanish soda called Kas, because that's what the man inside recommended. You and your friend will get kind of quiet as you start to eat. The filtered sunlight, the briny olives, another bite of paella: Saturday lunchtime bliss.

Yes.

After eating, you will head inside to check out the market and also the sandwiches, because someone at the table next to you was eating a long, narrow sandwich that looked really freaking good. You and your friend will debate getting a sandwich, decide against it -- it really was a lot of paella -- and instead sample the various cheeses and cured meats, striking up a conversation with the man who recommended the orange soda. You'll find out he is the warehouse manager, that he drives all over LA making deliveries to the shops and restaurants which buy the market's imported products. "Wait -- I'll give you something!" he'll say after a couple minutes of conversation. You will wait, hoping he returns with a wedge of sheep's milk cheese or wizened chunk of salume.

Instead he will hand you two thin aerosol cans. You and your friend will look at them. Deodorant spray. Spanish deodorant spray. "I hope you aren't saying we need this," you'll quip and then you'll all laugh. It will seem to mark the end of the conversation and the two of you will say your goodbyes. As you are leaving, you hear him say to one of the women he works with, "That was the only thing I could give them." Cheese and cured meats it is not, but you'll still appreciate the gesture, even if you do end up slipping the can into the box of things going to Goodwill in hopes that it will help out some smelly soul.

And anyway: PAELLA. It will be impossible to not leave La Española happy. I dare you.

La Española
25020 Doble Avenue
Harbor City, CA 90710
(310) 539-0455

Posted by anjali at 7:31 PM | Comments (1) | Categories: Market | South Bay

September 18, 2008

food dude

My friend Will is the Food Dude on Spike TV's website. He makes things like cold pizza sandwich (vile) and chili con corndog (terrifying) seem almost palatable. And he blogs about no-knead bread! A man after my own heart...

Posted by anjali at 9:56 PM | Comments (1) | Categories:

September 3, 2008

khun dom

Isaan, the northeastern region of Thailand, is the poorest area of the country, beset by droughts, floods and depleted soil, making for a hard-scrabble life as far as eating goes.

Yet somehow the food is seriously great. Isaan cuisine is more sour and spicy than what is found in nearby Central Thailand. Som tam (green papaya salad) -- a.k.a. the dish I'd most like to be stranded on a desert island with -- is from Isaan, where it is served with sticky rice rather than the usual steamed jasmine rice. Sticky rice is the staple crop I'd learn to grow on my island, in case you didn't know. If it wasn't for the whole girls-getting-married-when-they're-as-young-as-14-for-the-dowry thing, I'd wish I had been born in Isaan, so I could have spent as many years as possible eating the food.

Perfect sticky rice.

So I was excited for Khun Dom, a Thai restaurant in a barren region of Melrose, an area beset by graffiti, exhaust and generally awful traffic, making for a hard-scrabble life as far as eating goes. The place secretly specializes in Isaan-style salads, a fact apparently unknown to most of the patrons, who load their tables with pad Thai, fried wontons and the other usual Thai menu suspects.

Nam tok and greens.

With that in mind, Rob and I ordered three salads: beef nam tok (grilled beef salad), nam kao tod (pork and crispy rice salad) and som tam with dried shrimp, along with the essential sticky rice. After the rice arrived, wrapped neatly in foil, the beef nam tok appeared, accompanied by a plate of Thai basil, Chinese long beans, cabbage and other greens -- the perfect thing to munch on between fiery bites of beef. (It wasn't until my first visit to Thailand that I realized why my dad used to often chow down on, say, a fourth of a head of cabbage alongside his stir-fry and rice. I always just thought he really liked cabbage.) The nam tok ended up being Rob's favorite dish, the grilled beef dripping with spicy lime dressing and meaty juices.

Lovely and tasty nam kao tod.

The nam kao tod was the highlight of the meal for me -- I loved the gingery bite and the slick, crispy bits of rice -- but what made it even better was following up each mouthful with a chomp of fresh greens and a chunk of perfectly cooked sticky rice. Isaan synergy! The rice was a restaurant sticky rice revelation, delicately chewy, without the unfortunate soggy spots often found at the bottom of bowl.

Som tam, you are too sweet.

The only disappointment was the som tam, which was overly sweet and not spicy at all. Next time I'll try the blue crab som tam instead of the dried shrimp.

There's no alcohol on the menu, but I bought a beer at the shady liquor store next door, which the waitress kindly opened for me and poured into a frosty glass. Sitting in Khun Dom sipping a cold beer and munching on nam kao tod and greens could almost make me forget I didn't go to Thailand with my sisters this summer. I'll just pretend it's my own Isaan desert island.

Bliss.

Khun Dom
4681 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 663-1086

Posted by anjali at 11:38 AM | Comments (7) | Categories: Hollywood | Restaurant