Starbread Bakery - Carson

Home of the Senorita Bread, get your fluffy little butter-rolls by fives and tens, fresh from the oven and ready to accompany any cup of coffee or tea. Theselittle guys are hollow on the inside, filled with crumbly butter-sugar air. 

It'll be gone in a day - it's that easy to eat, but it becomes senora bread if you leave it out overnight. It ages well after a quick zap in the microwave as the melty stuff has had time to soak into the center, and the bread develops a bit more texture. 

The malasadas are lovely, both guava and ube are aptly flavored with barely-sweet fillings to counter the sugar crust. The apple bitso is also fried and fun, but they're hard to appreciate when they've gotten cold in the case, especially compared to the freshly-baked main event. 

A fun bakery, great stuff overall. Walk away with a box of senorita bread but order more than you think you'll need - you'll be surprised by just how many you'll eat.  

Back Home in Lahaina - Carson

Inflation sucks. I feel it most when eating out, as my beloved restaurants can barely feed a family of four for under a hundred bucks, and even a modest meal at McDonald's will cost more than the just-in-case purse-twenty that's tucked next to my phone. 

Affordable food exists if you know where to look, and Back Home in Lahaina has it. $10-15 will get you a meaty Hawaiian combo with generous portions and so many sides. 

Small island, big food. The Back Home Sampler is an appetizer-meal for two, a full platter with perfect pieces of crunchy fried chicken, meaty balls of Kalua Lumpia, crispy triangle wontons, sweet grilled beef on sticks, and even a dense Spam Musubi, cut into thirds. Delicious, all of it. 

Loco Moco has two big beef patties, salty brown gravy filling every nook and cranny, oozing with two egg yolks into a bed of rice. 

Fried Saimin with Hawaiian bbq beef is island chow mein, wok-kissed with chunks of meat and shreds of cabbage.

The Luau Platter marks my first Lau Lau, and I really enjoy this taro-leaf meat-ball. Pulpy green cradles shreddy, fatty pork, a bit of smoke, and a savoriness more subtle than its juicy Kalua Pork neighbor. This iteration is plenty pleasing, but it has a more braised-in-broth flavor than a buried-deep one.

There are so many sides, and all of them are awesome. A traditional chicken long rice is a cup of comfort soup, a simple chicken-based broth holding thin noodles which have coaxed the flavor out of the shreds of chicken breast. 

The ramen cabbage salad has some snap, the mac salad is always my favorite, and although I still don’t love Lomi Lomi, theirs is the first one in which I can see the salmon. 

That platter comes with a square of Huapia Cheesecake, which may be the most uniquely delicious dessert I've had this year. Haupia coconut flavors the gelatinous cream, a texture and taste as light and uplifting as it is sweet and surprising. I've never cared for coconut but this one makes me a convert.

Incredible place, irresistible island fare. Every bite is a spoonful of sandy beach and swaying trees, ukulele strings strummed to the setting sun. The South Bay has plenty of good Hawaiian, and this one competes with the best. 

Top Shelf Tacos - Carson

I didn't expect to like this place, but Top Shelf Tacos are damn tasty!

The Burrito is a manageable size with a tortilla not so thick it conceals the filling, and this one has al pastor that has crispy edges like it was actually sliced off a spit. The rice and beans carry their own savor for a roll-up that doesn't lack flavor. 

No wraps for me, just a Protein Bowl with all the fixin's. I'm cool with carnitas, shredded pork simultaneously soft and fried over a bed of beans and rice. Even layers give you a little of everything in each bite, and the whole thing is just a big bowl of feel-good grub. 

The menu is simple, and I like the lack of anxiety. You pick your protein and you pick how you want it served, and they even have jackfruit if you want your veggies fancy. I didn't even think I'd like them, but they're like a less white-washed Chipotle with a lot more chill. 

Darrow’s New Orleans Grill UPDATE - Carson

What would you like? A Zeek or a Zeek?

The all-fried Zeek is king...or is it? Golden shrimp, catfish encased in a crumby shell, creamy potato salad all in a chewy roll...

Don't decide before you give the grilled Zeek a go. The shrimp are super tender, and the catfish is almost buttery, a feat when working with a bottom feeder that usually tastes like mud. 

Which did I like better? The Zeek or the Zeek? Depends on my mood. My gluttony favors the fried, but my arteries appreciate the grilled. The fried has an extra crunch, but the grilled has so much flavor. Solution: Go halfsies on both. I don’t know much about love, but I know I need someone who's always willing to share a couple Zeeks.

Darrow’s New Orleans Grill - Carson

Support black businesses. And more importantly, support the best businesses! Darrow's makes the best sandwich in the South Bay, and it's our damn fault if we let them go!

The best sandwich in the South Bay. You'll hear that a lot. Many dare to make the claim, but none of them make the Zeek. And none of them that dare to make this claim have ever had the Zeek. A po'boy with potato salad sounds like something you’d see on thisiswhyyourefat.com, but it’s unequivocally the best of the bayou between two slices of bread. Fried catfish has a crunch, and the shrimp are sweet and fresh under golden-brown breading. The creole potato salad cushions the rougher edges of the frying, and there is something about how the mashy potato and mayo bring it all together. It's also a literal glue so your sandwich never falls apart.

The Bayou Classic made me nervous - life is like a box of oysters - you never know what you’re going to get. Fear the salty pungency, fear the briny stench, and especially fear the freshwater oyster which tends to taste like mud. No fear needed, the oysters fry light, and the freshness kills the stench. The frying cuts the slime factor, and the texture and finish are more meaty than mollusk in a way. A bit on the saltier side, but stays on the tasty side. 

Fresh seafood seems to be their specialty. The Soft Shell Crab Po'Boy is a smooth and sizable crustacean, sweet and for lack of a better description, just really good. 

The Chicken Sausage is nice as well - made with dark meat to give it some extra flavor. The spice mix sings, but I wish it would singe a little more. It doesn't have that Cajun-Creole fire, but it would make one heck of a breakfast. 

Sides are important, and all of theirs are vegetarian. I prefer my collards with the ham, but these Bayou Blend Greens are a healthy, garden-y, god's-green-earth mouthful of bitter greens that have a refreshing pop. 

Also vegetarian, the Red Beans & Rice. The beans are soft-boiled, the rice fluffy but firm. Comfort food for sure. 

I recommend a soup and sandwich, specifically a po'boy to dip into the File Gumbo. I've had my share of gumbos, and this is the gumbo to roux them all. A brown, almost-gravy stew is spicy and meaty with crab and shrimp bringing out the seafood savor and chicken adding the meaty flavor. 

I support Darrow's. Because they are awesome! They roll out some of the best flavors that ever graced a roll, and judging by all the hits I've tried, they seem to be on a roll.  

Orleans & York Deli - Carson

The boy wanted a po’boy and Darrow’s wasn’t open. That’s the only reason we ordered here. 

Do pardon my cynicism, the food isn't bad at all. It's nothing you'll remember, but definitely nothing you'll try to forget. 

The Catfish Po’boy is nice. A good, golden fry with even breading on tender filets. Plenty of it packed into a soft sub, squished in with shreds of lettuce and slices of tomato. 

The Shrimp Po’boy is better pan-grilled. Some seasoning on some butterflied shrimp, though not particularly flavorful, is a nice contrast to the monotony of more breading. Plus you can pretend it's healthy. 

They’re not my first choice for Cajun, and they're probably not my first choice for anything, but they’re not really not bad, just not particularly exciting. They’ll satiate and minimally satisfy but don’t expect the fireworks. Hold out for Darrow's if you're local, otherwise save yourself for Little Jewel of New Orleans in LA. 

Poke Etc - Carson

Etc. Et cetera. Latin for "and other things", American for "the other stuff," or "the other stuff I don't care to mention." Well I'm sure the etc to the poke is fine, but it's hard to care about curry when you're face-to-face with shiny, market-fresh, chunky cubes of fish.

The Ahi with Limu is poke in its purest form, Hawaiian seaweed with a little bit of oil to bring out etc flavors of tuna.

I liked the tuna, but the limu left the slightest aftertaste. Plus the Limu could use a little more salt, seasoning, etc so I liked it better on the brinier Mussels. A saltier alternative is the Shoyu, a touch of soy and salt that doesn't alter the flavor, ideal for dressing tender arms of Octopus.

The shoyu works just as well with Salmon.

But Salmon with Wasabi makes for fun, smooth, neon bites that bite back.

The Ahi with Spicy Mayo renders the ahi obsolete, but annihilating properties aside, spicy mayo is still hella good.

Be sure to wash it down the salt with some island sugar-water. Hawaiian Sun is my senseless guilty pleasure.

Jus' Poke remains my geographic go-to, but Poke Etc has all the goods. The endless permutations of seafood and sauce are an unavoidably seductive selection, and it's impossible to stay away!