Kuya Lord - Los Angeles

For me the food at Kuya Lord was indescribable...or maybe just unpronounceable. 

Because I have a lot of words for the string-tied, herb-filled Lucenachon, a Filipino porchetta with skin that cracks like a splintering plank of wood when you break it and makes melty crunchies with the liquid fat at meat beneath.

Inihaw Na Sugpo Sa Aligue is a mouthful...of beautiful blue prawns with such gooey, spicy heads still on, just oozing with garlic chili sauce. 

Lechon Kawali is lovely, all belly, good skin. Dip in vinegar for best results.

All trays come with Java Garlic Rice, which pairs well with any protein. The ropy noodles of the Pancit Chami have a fantastic texture and a fragrant sweet n' fishy finish. Housemade Achara is best between bites to break up the big meats.

Everyone's had a little lechon, but Kuya Lord goes above and beyond. The porks are perfection, the prawns are a marvel, and the sides are satisfying as well. I dare say this is the best Filipino barbecue in LA, one I'll be frequenting in pursuit of porchetta. 

Sampa - Los Angeles

Filipino fusion with Filipino friends. Fare from a chef who combines classical training with Filipino flair, a rather fascinating find. 

Starting with an app of Tempura Squash Blossoms, you can see the proficiency with hints of creativity. The calamansi adds a scent of citrus to the cheese, the blossoms carry their delicate fragrance, and the zucchini keeps its texture.  

Of all their dishes, the Skyflake Caviar is the most interesting by far. A pile of all the good stuff served on Filipino saltines, the combination of wagyu with uni and caviar creates a surprisingly cohesive umami mix. 

How can you not get something called "Crab Fat Fried Rice"? Aromatic and authentic with a buttery crab that goes quite deep, this dish has just enough flavor and just the right amount of restraint.   

The Crispy Duck Pancit, unfortunately, is my least favorite of the lot. The duck is woefully underseasoned and sadly unadorned. Simply sliced and laid across the top of scant shredded veggies and very few noodles, this noodle dish is little more than a miss, especially at the whopping price of $48.

The Ube White Chocolate Souffle should get props, if nothing else for daring to serve a souffle. This souffle is solid, well-risen and not too much egg, with a lovely pandan anglaise to be poured inside. 

I didn't love it all, but I do remain intrigued. Unfortunately, I don't think I could truly see the skills of this chef based on what we ordered, but I see some real potential in the flavors of those apps. I need to come back to Sampa to try a few more things, and based on what I've had so far, Sampa is something I'd gladly try again. 

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.  

Pork Belly Filipino Kitchen - Lawndale

The first thing 5 year-old me thought when my family moved to suburbia was, "How do I get out of here?" I've yearned for big-city life for as long as I can remember, and lazy little Lawndale is not where I thought I'd settle down. It's a curious place, both square miles of the smallest South Bay city, but it has a concentration of spectacular southeast Asian cuisine, the newest being Pork Belly right off Hawthorne Blvd. Brother-sister just might be the new mom-and-pop as these sweet siblings are among the South Bay's more formidable chefs. The food here is cafeteria-style, but don't be fooled by the glass-guarded kitchen trays. Everything is hot and fresh and even more delicious than it already looks. 

In a world incapacitated by inflation, it's refreshing to find that only $10 buys a bowl of rice with a hearty entree and 4 little lumpia. A good deal for a sensible lunch, and it's only $2-4 more for a 2-entree plate (without lumpia).

The food is so good it's impossible to pick just two, but make sure one is Pork Adobo. Tender chunks of browned meat melt in your mouth, with a just-right ratio of salt to fat to a dash of vinegar to make it lift, not sink in your stomach. Jam some rice into the puddle of leftover juice - don't waste a single drop. 

Jackfruit Curry, omg. Coconutty-milky all the way. Mild flavor, creamy with a lovely shredded-meat texture, slightly sour, faintly fruit. 

They comped us a bowl of what I fondly refer to as their "pork and sour soup", and it's a lovely, simple broth with a savory and sour finish. 

I think this was called "Sweet Pork" or something. The meat looks dry, and I expected basic barbecue. But it's tender right under, plenty juicy, and the sauce it's soaked up has a lovely balance of sweet with a sour surprise. 

There are moments when you’re just so proud of the person you married, and my husband got all my adoration as he ripped into the tail-half of his freshly Fried Pompano. With a spoon in one hand, a fork in the other, he severed every sliver of light white flesh from those spiky bones with all the precision of a surgeon and the casual enthusiasm of an Italian twirling pasta. I dare say he’s stripped it bare, a feat even I struggle to accomplish.  

I thought I was meh on Longanisa, but it turns out I've never had a good one, not until I had one here, at least. These are salty but also sweet, super savory, love how the casing pops. There's also simple strips of steak with onion that are so juicy, with that acidic uplift that makes you keep eating. 

Lechon literally pales in comparison next to the more colorful pork adobo. The skin is chewy and crisp, the meat is tender enough, but it's unseasoned so it relies on sauce. It's made well, but compared to all the other amazing things they make, this one can be skipped. 

Hello, Halo Halo, the best I've had. Big bits on the bottom range from red and white beans to chunks of jelly and jam. A sweet square of flan hides in the freshly blended, milky middle, and a  dense scoop of ube ice cream sits on top. I imagine there's an art to eating this, a critical speed of eating slowly enough not to get an ice headache but fast enough before it melts. I haven't found it yet, but I'm happy to keep eating this until I do. 

Their Flan is also the best flan I've ever had. It's a flying saucer of a perfect solid cream. 

The food is heavy, make no mistake. There will be a coma to come, and you're not coming here to eat a modest meal. A good chef can make a delicious and heavy meal, a great chef can fine-tune filling food to make it not so heavy. Here, the chefs are exceptional. I can eat so much of this stuff and feel full but never gross, and every bite is just pure joy.

Silog - Torrance

Jollibee is Filipino fast food, and Silog is Filipino slow food. 

Appetizers like little Lumpia take some time to cook, and these meat and veggie delights are fresh from the fryer.  

Chunky cubes of Lechon Kawali Silog are cooked not once but twice, and the crisp crust yields to rivers of fatty, porky juice. 

Sisig Silog is so savory. Chopped, gooey braised bits with crispy chicharon for texture and garlic aioli to make it cohesive and rich. Mix in the soft-boiled egg with a gooey yolk, and it's the best rice bowl you'll have this week.

The Tocino Silog is bacon candy...candied bacon; sweet, thin, chewy cured pork, finished with tropical fruit.  

Desert is Halo Halo, which surprisingly survives the transit, just eat fast or the ice will be water. Scoop up the bits of red bean, combined with candy-fruit, add the milk and grab some ube ice cream on the way up. It's a sweet treat at the end or an excellent accompaniment to the meal. 

Get it fast, eat it slow. All the meats melt in your mouth, and you'll want to savor them forever. There's a delicate, exquisite quality to this classic comfort food with an unmatchable attention to detail. I've had good Filipino food, but this place even puts Lasa to shame. 

Jollibee - Torrance

Filipino fast food is fun, fun. fun!

Jollibee is drive-thru full of joy for containers of ChickenJoy. Fried chicken, sometimes fresh, thigh and drums, whites if you want, with gravy for dipping if you so desire. Sides like rice and mashed potatoes are meh, but they make a good meal on the run. 

Fried chicken comes in a sandwich if you so choose, the Original Chicken Sandwich is a fast food staple. The patty is decent meat, and the bun is a little nicer than what you'd get elsewhere. 

Have a holly Jolly Spaghetti, the pasta of your childhood dreams. The tomato sauce is all sweet and it's full of chunks of hot dogs a la Sheldon Cooper, sure to win over even the pickiest of kids. 

The chicken is joy, and the dessert is just bliss. A pudding-like purple filling in the Ube Pie, a little more sweet and tropical in the Peach Mango, gives McDonald's apple pies a run for their money. 

They were sold out of halo halo. CRY. Oh well, I could use another excuse to drive through again. 

Sari Sari Store - Los Angeles

“Guess what I ate?” has become “Guess what? I ate!” Food was always a passion in life, and I always believed that life was too short to not eat well. 

Well that passion is gone and I’m left with an appetite that accommodates nothing, and I force feed myself crackers to stay alive. 

This is the first protein I’ve had for days. This bowl of Sisig Fried Rice has bits of fatty pork head are a liquid melt, and the crispies add some texture. The peppers add a little pep, and they incorporate the onion to for a sharper contrast. The gooey fried egg glues it all together, and considering I can barely smell meat without gagging these days so you can bet when I’ve eaten at least 12 bites, Sari Sari must have done something right. 

I almost finished the Halo Halo, and that's another minor miracle in itself. It’s icy and light with layers of watermelon slush, textured tapioca, and a leche flan that has cream for days.

I'm far less familiar with Filipino food, and it's a genre I want to get to know. It's a rarer find, but GCM can always be counted upon. I have little basis for comparison, but I can objectively say Sari Sari is delicious

Lasa - Los Angeles

I don’t know much about Filipino cuisine, but I love my limited exposure, which consists of whatever the nurses at county made on Doctor’s Day...and Lasa. It’s a heavy cuisine, full of sauces, fats, and starch, usually in a colorful array, so many textures, colors, temperatures that collaborate and contrast like a palatal opera. 

A fizz-tastic Green Mango Soda starts things off, a not-so-sweet carbonated concoction that tunes up the palate and cleanses it between courses.

The Inasal Skewers are strong, a bold leap into the unfamiliar for me. The tender, chewy texture of chicken gizzards reverberates with the savor of meat laced with ginger in a dark annatto marinade, and sukang sili vinegar sings soprano with bold notes of acid.

My favorite dish is the Rockfish Kinilaw, but it's definitely not for everyone. I'm told it's a Filipino ceviche, but that won't prepare you for patis. Ah, patis. The Chinese have a version of this, but the one here is on steroids. A pungent, punch-in-the-throat fish sauce that tastes like a velvety baritone. It starts so smooth, but it sneaks up from behind to deliver the ultimate sucker-punch, and even the anger-issue cucumbers (i.e. smashed), smooth avocado, and usually neutral watermelon radishes are no match for this patis.

The Inihaw Na Hipon is a bit of a break from the novel and the foreign, a bit whitewashed for the guests who can't handle the strong stuff. It's neutral, like a song someone would play at a garden party, and unobtrusive, nonintrusive, aesthetically pleasing array of blandly-grilled shrimp on sticks. Fried shrimp heads are the best, but these heads need to be better fried. The shell was a bit painful to chew in several places, and I ended up spitting a few pieces out. 

Of the entrees, the Twice Cooked Pork Belly is the table's favorite, and it's hardly fair. There's a giant slab of juicy, crispy-on-the-outside belly that releases rivers of fat-juice. Smokey eggplant puree and fresh summer squash are embittered by ampalaya powder, a healthy contrast to all that fabulous fat. 

The Surf & Turf is an interesting interpretation. I've never had longanisa before so I don't really have a basis of comparison, but I do like it. The filling is gentler than I expected, lightly spicy and lightly spiced. I do wish they had done something more with the octopus, though. 

The Lumpia Sariwa hits a sour note with me. I HATE any food that's been deconstructed. The sauteed mix of peanut-sour cabbage, root vegetables, etc are a delicious hot mess, but not putting it together changes a spring roll into a fall-apart salad. Other than the crepe getting soggy, it really does taste good, but deconstructing is like taking something someone else made and not being bothered to put it back together when you're done, and most people don't appreciate that.

The dessert menu is promising...so we ordered it. All of it. The Market Fruit Ginataan is a less sweet and likable lighter option, coconut cream with peaches and tapioca.

You can't go wrong with Condensed Milk Ice Cream with a coat of black sesame polvoron, and this one probably the best dessert in Far East Plaza, even with Scoops only ten feet away.

The Kesong Puti Fritters are the underdog a mix that sounds like it could be exceptional...or an exceptional disaster. The fritters are fine, like a firmer beignet from NoLa, and the salted duck egg custard is a brilliantly creative topcoat, a sandy icing of yolk and salt.

I like Lasa. I don't love Lasa, but I like it. The food has potential, and I see definite glimpses of genius despite what little I know about the cuisine. I would eat here again in a heartbeat, just to experience the full variety that they have to offer, and maybe next time, they'll have ironed out the kinks.