Painter’s Tape - Gardena

Painter’s Tape. The name confuses me as much as the menu. What exactly is all of this? It’s not a specific cuisine, it’s not a specific style or theme, it’s just a list of food. But it’s a list of fantastic food so I’m too busy eating to ask too many questions.

There are some themes, sections of the menu that move along a similar vein. You have your meat and potatoes menu, for example, with these show-stealing Patatas Bravas. Chunky potatoes still crunch a little after half an hour in a car as they bathe in tub of garlic mayo with a bath bomb of paprika. The poached egg is fluffy like egg-white water (but not at all raw) and the yolk breaks into a gooey runoff.

Like meat and potatoes for breakfast? Put it all together in a big Breakfast Burrito. Open wide to get it all into one bite. There’s crispy-crust-creamy-core hash browns, scarlet-red bacon cured in sugar, eggs in a scramble, and cheddar cheese as the glue.

That’s a brick of a burrito, built for brawn, but you also go bougie if that’s a bit more your speed. Their Creme Brûlée French Toast is dessert on a slice of bread, a literally ladle of the good stuff.

The Texas Toast is the sugar without the cream. A sizable slice stays chewy despite being soaked through with milk n’ honey. It didn’t sound like much but condensed milk with honey is the nectar of the Asian gods.

It gets a little more Asian from here with sides like Honey Butter Chips. Thick crisps hold up under a gooey layer of honey, and every chip is laced with cayenne so every bite will nip you back. 

All cuisines have some iteration of fried balls of dough, but none more memorable than the Okinawa Hush Puppies. They’re fried with sweet flour the size of a baby’s fist, and the finish is a texture and taste  that channels mochi with a little less chew.

Green Beans are sweet with ginger and sesame, even sweeter with grated apple. Also Asian-inspired but a bit more creative than what you’d get from mom.

It circles back to American when you get to the section of sandos. The Fried Chicken Sandwich is their signature, and it’s everything you’d want in a sandwich. The chicken is impossibly juicy wrapped in a breading never sogs. It falls apart when you eat it, and you’ll never keep your fingers clean. What you will do is try to catch every drop of creamy honey mustard as it runs down the lettuce and plays off the pickles.

What’s more classic than a Chopped Cheese from NYC?  A dice of soft steak suspends in a latticework of cheese, a literal nod to the greatest hits of every deli and gastropub.

What is this food? It’s South Bay. Not Californian, nor is it Asian, it is South Bay. It’s that unique mix of all the cultures that coexist in this unique community, a taste of their inspiration combined. What is this food? Does it need a name? I call it fantastic food and that’s all you need to know.