Rich Crab - Los Angeles

A tucked away, K-town strip mall eatery features the freshest, crabbiest Korean crab. If the incredibly popular tasting menu is any indication, the seafood and stew are sublime. 

Get the combo B and get ready to really dig in. Each table gets an entire box of plastic food-handling gloves for good reason, and you’ll never leave the table without something orange staining your chin. 

Honestly, just give me a bowl of rice and a bunch of Banchan and I don’t even need the food. Theirs cover all the bases. There's fish cakes and greens with tofu, classic kimchi and pickles, seaweed and bean sprouts. 

Goes well with the combo kick-off of Kimchi Pancake.

Spicy Marinated Crab has a bright red sauce that's sweet and slightly spice with a feel like gochujang. The crab meat is a semi-cooked texture, not obviously raw but not the meaty steamed stuff either. 

Soy-marinated Crab is a new adventure, a whole raw sea-stinging crab full of gooey roe. Best when consumed over warm purple rice. Spoon some rice into the shell as well and mix it up with the guts for some extra savor.

The Spicy Seafood Stew is a sea-savory soup with a sweeter finish, full of chunks of fish, head-on shrimp and even an entire octopus. It’s not extremely fishy, though it's clearly seafood-forward, and it has an indescribable finishing flavor that saturates your senses and really makes you pause.  

The Seafood Pancake was an add-on of our choosing, an egg-based mix of calamari, shrimp, and so many leeks. Didn't need it but didn't regret it either. 

It’s all about exploring new eats, and learning more about Korean cuisine has always been a goal. There is so much color, so much richness, so much depth, and of all the new-food experiences I've had, Rich Crab has been among the best this year.

Cadoro Bakery - Inglewood

Drive slowly as you weave your way through back streets of warehouses, slow down when you see the sign they sat in the middle of the street. Park along the curb and head up to the bright yellow take-out window, a stark contrast to the sterile white of the warehouse. 

Their sliced bread is probably the best thing since sliced bread, full and half-loaf options cut fresh for your order. The sourdough is to die for.

The cafe menu has a selection of sandwiches, also a few offerings of salad and soup. The Short Rib Panini will set you back $16, but it's worth it for the melt-in-your-mouth shreds and caramelized onion. 

Oh man, this is good. Come for lunch and get some bread to go. No place to sit, and the view isn't picturesque, but the sandwiches are all you need to see. 

Aduke Nigerian Cuisine & Lounge - Inglewood

Aduke has been on my bucket list, and a free Friday had me meandering up to Inglewood. I've always wanted to try Nigerian food, and I'm told their takeout was fabulous...last year. 

A lot can happen in a year, and things started going south here immediately when we stepped up to order. We stared, wide-eyed, at the overwhelming menu and asked whether a tempting-looking dish of baked chicken gizzards was supposed to be an app or an entree. The young man at the register squinted in confusion, mumbling, "We have a chicken gizzards dish?" as his eyes frantically scanned the menu behind him. 

Conventional wisdom dictates that if the staff aren't even aware of the dish, you should order something else. So we asked what we should order and complied with the suggested combo plates. One was white rice, plantains, and Curry Goat, chunks of miserable meat like rubber with a watery yellow sauce that can only be described as an approximation of curry. It's like a person who has never seen, smelled, or tasted curry described curry to someone else who then tried to make it.

The Jollof Rice combo had potential - the red sauce, a tomato-based spicy almost-gravy, had such flavor and the side of greens was fresh. Unfortunately, the beef and the fish looked the same and both had turned to jerky from sitting in the warmers for what was probably several days. We arrived around noon and I can't imagine anything could get so dry in a single morning.

We also tried the meat patties, which were honestly no better. The beef patty was very bland with a pale, cooked but not browned crust, and the fish was mostly dry dough with a small swipe of salty stuff in the middle. 

I don't know what happened between last year and now. I've only heard good things about Aduke, and even Eater LA has heaps of praise. That said, I am deeply disappointed with the very poor quality of the food and felt like we got handed a bunch of leftovers that should have been thrown away. I just can't imagine this is the best Nigeria has to offer, but after my experience at Aduke, I'm hesitant to find out further.