In components of America the place there are literally discernible seasons like winter and spring, The Previous Farmer’s Almanac aphorism, “March is available in like a lion, and leaves like a lamb,” truly has that means.
Right here in Southern California, the place there’s little distinction between winter and spring, I want to think about March by way of the culinary days. Which might imply that March is available in like Peanut Butter Lover’s Day (March 1) and Oreo Cookie Day (March 6), melts into Nationwide Artichoke Hearts Day (March 16) and Nationwide Poultry Day (March 19), finally resolving into Nationwide Melba Toast Day (March 23) and Nationwide Nougat Day (March 26), earlier than concluding with my favourite of the times of March: One thing on a Stick Day (March 28).
I really like issues served on sticks, for causes that don’t even start to method rational.
There’s truly a scientific cause that meals tastes higher on a stick — and consider me, it does. It’s referred to as “retronasal olfaction,” and it refers to the truth that our perceived sense of style isn’t actually about style in any respect — it’s about scent. In case your nostril is stuffed, there’s likelihood you received’t have a clue as to what you’re truly consuming. And the nearer the meals will get to your nostril, the higher it tastes. A piece of rooster on a skewer is so a lot better than the identical rooster eaten with a fork and knife.
The opposite cause we love issues on a stick a lot, apart from the dearth of cleanup required and the portability, is the straightforward enjoyable issue.
Yearly, there are new meals on a stick launched at county and state festivals throughout America which don’t simply method zany, they break by way of each possible barrier. That listing is insanely lengthy: On the Ohio State Honest, you’ll discover large cherry gummy bears on a stick. The Oklahoma State Honest has bacon-wrapped caramel apples on a stick. On the Arizona State Honest, you’ll discover mealworm-covered caramel apples on a stick. The Illinois State Honest brings us fried Oreos on a stick.
After which, there are skewered meals which have unfold from coast to coast: fried alligator on a stick, deep-fried butter on a stick (critically!), spaghetti & meatballs on a stick, chocolate lined bacon on a stick and, for these want of a little bit of wholesome eating, the Iowa State Honest has salad on a stick — served surrounded by extra pork-on-a-stick creations than you’ll be able to, effectively, shake a stick at.
We’re about half a 12 months away from the Los Angeles County Honest in Pomona. However within the meantime, we’ve received no lack of skewered tasties served at an abundance of native eating places. You most likely received’t be consuming them strolling round; on this case, the stuff on a stick is eaten sitting down, typically with a utensil. However…it’s nonetheless on a stick. And it tastes good…as a result of it smells good.
As ever, do keep in mind that these sticks may be sharp. I can’t discover any circumstances of individuals puncturing themselves throughout the course of a meal. But it surely may occur. And I’d hate to have to elucidate to the EMT of us that you just had been accomplished in by some actually tasty rooster chunks. Although, I’m positive, they’d admire the snicker.
Pita Pitaki
3401 Cherry Ave., Lengthy Seashore; 562-424-0446, www.toasttab.com/pitapitaki/v3
Allow us to start with the skewers — rooster, pork, shrimp or veggies — plates of potatoes, rice or fries; with Greek salad and pita, and lamb chops, gyro (lamb, rooster or pork), half a rooster, salmon and rib eye steak.
Then, allow us to transfer on to a pair of splendidly wealthy and warming soups, a pair of Greek classics — the a lot cherished egg and lemon soup in rooster broth referred to as avgolemono, and an exceedingly wealthy lentil soup with the identify “fakes” (which might be not pronounced the best way it seems). They arrive with selfmade bread. Actually, for $5 for a cup, and $7 for a bowl, they’re gentle meal.
After which, it’s on to the stuffed phyllo dish referred to as pitakia — a type of Greek empanada, one stuffed with feta and herbs, the opposite with feta, spinach and leeks — and also you positively have a first-rate gentle meal, starting to lean towards a correct feed.
And there are various, many extra appetizers — mezze — so as to add to the combination, making for extra of a feast than a snack. This can be a well-defined grazing delicacies. Many little dishes make for a really completely happy meal.
After all there are stuffed grape leaves — dolmades. There all the time are. They usually’re simply good — completely happy little taste grenades. The falafel and hummus are required as effectively for a well-balanced feed, as is the tabouli.
And, sure, there’s a Greek salad, as a result of there must be. However there’s additionally a village salad, and a exceptional salad referred to as roka, made with dried figs, walnuts and a cheese referred to as graviera, which is nearer to gruyere than to feta. In actual fact, if you happen to didn’t understand it was Greek…you most likely wouldn’t understand it was Greek.
Boubouffe Mediterranean Grill
5313 E. 2nd St., Lengthy Seashore; 562-433-7000, www.facebook.com/boubouffegrill
You may have a lamb burger for breakfast at Boubouffe Mediterranean Grill. Now, I do know that appears like a humorous factor to say. However on a menu of waffles and pancakes and omelettes, effectively, a lamb burger is the odd dish out.
I suppose it’s sort of breakfast, because it comes topped with a fried egg. And a fried egg does say breakfast in a loud voice. However subsequent to the a number of omelettes made with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and feta cheese, a lamb burger is a bit completely different. And for individuals who need one thing apart from the identical outdated standard, effectively, it’s a pleasing diversion. And so is Boubouffe Mediterranean Grill.
It’s an open-air restaurant on the jap fringe of Belmont Shore the place in my expertise, you’ll be able to land a desk even on a Saturday evening. It’s spacious sufficient to accommodate a crowd, but in addition far sufficient away from the middle of 2nd Road to permit for informal drop-byes. Which for these of us silly sufficient to attempt to get right into a excessive profile, excessive quantity joint like Simmzy’s, is a pleasure. It’s a restaurant for the remainder of us.
If you happen to want extra causes to go right here, there’s a collection of kabobs, which not solely style good within the restaurant, in addition they journey very effectively. (If you happen to can have a lamb burger for breakfast, you’ll be able to have a a rooster kofta kabob too.)
As soon as once more, there’s a mix obtainable, which makes selecting a lot simpler — skewers of rooster, lamb and beef are good. However the dish that actually appealed was the rooster shawarma, which is actually rooster gyros, effectively spiced, grilled on a spit, and sliced skinny. It was crispy and enjoyable to eat — like child meals served to grownups.
Although breakfast is basically American in its tone, lunch and dinner head for the Med, with a wide variety of small mezze, bigger salads, and even bigger kabobs. In the beginning, it’s the mezze I really like, for like many people right here in SoCal, I gladly decide for a lot of small tastes, moderately than one large style. (It has one thing to do with our brief consideration spans, which in flip have one thing to do with the hours we spend caught on the freeways. I believe.)
Just about the whole lot they serve at Boubouffe comes with a basket of steaming scorching pita bread, which is a lot extra soothing than an extraordinary basket of generic air bread. That is bread with substance. And that substance is amplified with heat. It begins the meal off very effectively.
And so do the a number of hummus variations — all of that are served collectively on the Hummus Combo plate. There’s our outdated pal baba ghanoush as effectively — a dip of grilled eggplant. By dips alone can you reside effectively at Boubouffe.
Uncle Fung Borneo Eatery
5716 E. seventh St., Lengthy Seashore; 562-494-3888, orderunclefungborneoeatery.com
Peter Then — aka Uncle Fung — has accomplished extra to convey the flavors of Borneo, Malaysia, Indonesia and the South Pacific to Southern California than simply about anybody else, for which he actually deserves our thanks, and possibly a Beard Award, and, frankly, if it existed, a Nobel Prize for World Delicacies.
This can be a world of tastes so amazingly intense, so mouth-pleasing, so tummy-happy-making, that it’s a shock there aren’t eating places providing the chow of the area in each spare mini-mall house. There are colours to this cooking; it pretty effectively glows on the plate.
And right here we’re, contemplating the numerous deserves of gado gado, which is usually described as a salad, although it stretches the that means of the phrase as we all know and revere it right here in SoCal. I suppose it’s a “salad” extra as a result of it’s manufactured from greens, than due to its greens, which appear on the plate as a little bit of an afterthought — although lettuce, cabbage, cucumber and bean sprouts all seem.
There’s rooster satay too — spelled “sate ayam” in Malay — which is a reassuring dish to seek out, for it comes with extra of that good peanut sauce and a few sliced cucumber, coated with fried garlic chips. It’s straightforward to say that rooster satay is rooster satay, and what’s the massive deal? However, with its seasoned, skewered and grilled marinated rooster, that is satay on steroids and stilts. It’s a head above the standard.
For the true Borneo expertise, these are dishes that have to be had. Alongside, after all, with the fried roti prata flour pancake, which seems like a dish mamas made all over the world for his or her sprouts. It’s a pancake with ranges of taste, a depth of style. And it doesn’t harm that the curry sauce that comes with it’s a curry sauce to dream about.
A lot of the remainder of the transient, however well-focused menu is given over to noodles and rice; this isn’t a low-carb delicacies, not even shut. Order an excessive amount of, as a result of that is chow that tastes nice when reheated later that day, or the subsequent, and even the subsequent.
I may simply eat the Borneo hokkian mee for breakfast — and in reality did. It’s a beautiful toss of egg noodles, barbecue pork, rooster, mushrooms, scallions, fried shallots and varied different veggies. It’s additionally a number of meals, particularly when you think about it comes with a bowl of the recent, healing home broth with the noodles.
Additionally on the menu, there’s a trio of Singapore-style noodle curry soups, which appear to be extra noodle and curry than soup. And to clean all of it down, there’s tropical fruit tea, chrysanthemum tea, Borneo-style milk tea with grass jelly, Borneo-style chocolate drink, honey inexperienced tea, iced milk, and Borneo-style espresso — which like Thai and Vietnamese espresso, makes our American joe style like a really weak sister.
Toko Rame Indonesian
17155 Bellflower Blvd., Bellflower; 562-920-8002, www.tokorame-restaurant.com
A necessary place to start is with the satay (right here spelled “sate”) part of the menu, for the satays at Toko Rame are fairly great — rooster, lamb and beef, served individually or in a mix, which is the best way to go, for the chunks of meat are smallish, served on a stick, and disappear shortly.
There’s additionally a satay Padang, which the menu tells us is a West Sumatran preparation flavored with a spicy yellow sauce. The egg rolls (lumpia) and the potato desserts stuffed with spiced floor beef (kroket) are fairly important as effectively. And don’t neglect the roti — flatbread with darkish reddish beef curry.
Past the apps, a meal could seem redundant. And but, there’s a lot extra. This can be a delicacies constructed round rice, tons and many rice. The fried rice — nasi goreng — makes the stuff served in Chinese language eating places appear pallid and unhappy. It’s tossed with lamb, tripe, salted fish, shrimp, rooster, tofu, veggies — and Surabaya-style, with fried beef, fried rooster and an omelette.
Rice is the premise of the biggest part on the menu — the mix rice plates that embody the aforementioned nasi rames — rice with wildly spiced beef rending (in a brownish sauce you could style for a very long time), fried rooster, a hard-cooked spiced egg, a potato cake, pickles and a vegetable curry that I confused for a soup. Or, possibly it’s a soup.
There are eight rice mixture plates, and greater than sufficient for a few meals in every case. There’s a piece on the menu of rice desserts (lontong). And, not surprisingly, most each dish is served with steamed rice; they have to undergo truckloads of the stuff right here. They undergo loads of chili sauce and peanut sauce as effectively.
There’s no multicourse rijsttafel at Toko Rame, although with almost 100 dishes on the menu, there’s a lot to select from. Or at the least there’s for these of the adventurous persuasion.
This can be a tiny restaurant, with only a handful of tables, a counter and a kitchen that may be glimpsed within the again, with a small employees juggling a number of dishes. The employees may be overwhelmed; throughout lunch one time, the one server couldn’t get the tables bussed till most diners had left. Between folks coming in, folks ordering takeout, and the assorted unique drinks and desserts she needed to assemble, I used to be stunned she didn’t burst into tears. (She did warn me there have been a number of orders forward of mine, and I’d have to attend some time.) However she stored it collectively.
And so did the handful of diners, who had been dreaming of lumpia and nasi rames and beef rending and gado gado and any variety of dishes that style much more unique than they sound. Contemplating how small the kitchen seems to be — and the way small the restaurant positively is — I don’t know the way they do it. However they do. This can be a style of a world far-off, in a setting that feels far-off. The place you can even get your nails accomplished, some hair extensions, and a go well with whilst you’re at it.
Panvimarn Thai Delicacies
4101 Bellflower Blvd., Lengthy Seashore; 562-425-2601, www.panvimarnthaicuisine.com
We’ve received a number of good Thai eating places right here in Southern California, and it’s gone manner past the times when Siamese eateries would label themselves “Thai-Chinese language” — as a result of nobody knew what the heck pad Thai and mee krob could be.
We’ve moved from the times of generic Thai, to regionally particular Thai, the place the cooking of the north and the south are acknowledged as distinctly completely different, and the affect of neighbors like Laos, Burma and Vietnam are each revered and duly famous.
Panvimarn Thai Cuisine is exclusive, not simply due to the standard of its cooking, but in addition as a result of the meals is served in a room that’s, if not precisely elegant, at the least lots nicer than the norm, with a mess of wall decorations and hangings, and a way of being at what could be among the best locations to dine off Sukhumvit Highway in Bangkok.
And what does one dine upon on this sedate setting? Nicely, the menu is each encyclopedic — and a bit goofy, with sections headed “Oodles of Noodles” and “Rice Is Good.” On the coronary heart of the menu is a piece referred to as “Panvimarn 9 Curries,” which ranges from emerald inexperienced curry (inexperienced coconut sauce), ruby curry (crimson coconut sauce) and gold curry (yellow coconut sauce), to unique like roast duck curry, child pork rib curry and spicy shrimp curry.
After all there’s beef satay and rooster satay (“sa-te” on the menu), skewered and served with a peanut dipping sauce. “This may tickle your style buds and make you scream of extra!” says the menu. From the North comes house-made pork sausage with ginger and cashews, together with fried Thai beef jerky, a dish that verges on full and complete dependancy.
Probably the greatest methods to pattern the menu is with the appetizer plate referred to as a Panvimarn Delight — satay, spring rolls, shrimp blankets, chicken-and-shrimp-filled cash baggage and fried wontons. There’s additionally a wonderfully good appetizer of noodles, inexperienced papaya, shrimp and peanuts referred to as Bellflower Boulevard — a reputation most likely unknown on the Chao Phraya River. However what the heck?
The menu goes on and on — many soups, many salads, excellent barbecue rooster, and a piece of “Meatless Meals.” As with Indian cooking, vegetarians cam be very completely happy right here — the spices are so intense, you received’t discover the absence of meat. In actual fact, you’ll most likely have fun it.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
