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.

Aunty Maile's Hawaiian Restaurant - Torrance

Every ethnicity has an auntie. They all look a little different on the outside, but on the inside they’re all the same. That auntie is always your family, though not necessarily by blood. Portly and sweet, she cooks like a five-star chef but her plating and her palate speak in softer, more familiar tones. She's just a little better than your mom, which you would never EVER admit to your mom, and unlike your mom? her job isn't to keep you healthy; it’s to challenge the waistbands of all of the pants your mom just bought. She’ll spoil you just like a grandma but she’s a little younger and a little bit cooler, and she has a smile that can melt an iceberg and a glare that can turn bread to toast. 

I don't know what Auntie Maile looks like, but I do know what she cooks like. She’s an auntie that will start your day right with a rock of a Loco Moco every time you spend the night. Little kid you couldn’t wait to peek under the cover of this over-easy egg, and adult you would gratefully half-heartedly stab at that baseball-sized beef patty beneath.

You’ve barely finished breakfast but she already has her mind on lunch. She fries you up some Chicken Katsu as a “light” option...until she douses that crisp panko-crumb concoction with a hearty helping of her homemade gravy. 

Or you get Furikake Chicken, depending on what she wants to make. She always uses dark meat for a fiercer flavor, and the meatier qualities cluck through the furikake glaze. You get a mix of salty and sweet with a sprinkle of seaweed and sesame.

Her weekly Costco trips always include an industrial vat of furikake, and in her hands it’s more versatile that salt. She even uses it to make Poke, seasoning scarlet chunks of the other red meat.

Saiman Noodles are a taste of after school nostalgia, a bowl of bagged ramen noodles in clear broth. Made with whatever is in the fridge, this bowl is a chop suey of layered egg chunks, fish cake, and chashu. A couple guise and a bushel of bok choy sneak their way in as well.

Dinner get even more meaty, if that’s even possible. Kalbi Short Ribs are sliced super-thin so they soak through with sauce. You can peek between the web of marbled fat on these, but be prepared to chew as the connecting cartilage can be a little tough.

I prefer the Kalua Pig and Cabbage, with a pork is so soft and juicy it's like a soup inside the shredded meat. Smoky savor permeates the plate, subtle yet so very there.

Every order comes with a Macaroni Salad, and it’s the only thing that isn’t quite enough. Her recipe  seems so simple with just salt, pepper, and an even coat of mayo, but every bite begets another.

You'll never go hungry in Auntie Maile's kitchen. The portions are generous, the ingredients are fresh, and the love in palpable with each delicious bite.

Banadir Somali Restaurant - Inglewood

It's a new world we're living in, most of it not so good. But not all new experiences are bad, and a rice plate at Banadir serves a steaming reminder of just how good going outside your comfort zone can be.

The Goat and Rice is the best comfort food. In the world! A heaping helping of tender, bone-in chunks are lean but not-so-mean, and their savor permeates al dente spikes of basmati rice fragrant with nutty spices. Onions alternate between mildly caramelized and mildly crisp, a highlight to the bouquet of sharper spices; pinches of cumin and dashes of turmeric.

The Lamb and Rice is a similar thrill, dominated by gameyness, strong but soothing. Dip all your meat in the bright green hot sauce. It's bright and refreshing, a highlighting burn of something peppery and hot, with a lilt of mint and lime. Just dip lightly because it hurts so good.

The Beef comes in long, skinny strips, tossed with tomatoes and leaves of basil. The beef is bit dry here, but I did ask for them to substitute anjera for rice, so there wasn't anything to hold the moisture in. 

Get a side of Anjera if it doesn't come with your order. It's like a pancake married a crepe but a pinch of Ethiopian injera snuck its way in. Barely sour, only a hint of that fermented flavor, fluffy but thin. 

My only other critique is that we didn’t get the promised tea or the banana with any of our meals so do check your order before you leave. That said, the portions of food weren't exactly lacking, and I didn't really miss either one.

Times are tough, but all we can do is support each other, and businesses hurt by the lockdown are a good way to start. Banadir is one shop worth saving. It's a taste of a beautiful country you may never see, and it's a delicious taste of a cause worth keeping. 

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.  

Nikuman-Ya UPDATE - Gardena

A new quaran-theme is born: foods that look good despite being haphazardly thrown on a plate. 

The containers go directly into the trash to minimize potential contamination, and let’s face it, my re-plating isn’t pretty. These fluffy Bao-clouds from Nikuman-Ya survive the transfer intact, but the photo is hardly advertising. This virgin-white pork-stuffed puff is all sorts of tasty, but my picture makes it all kinds of pasty... the only thing pastier than me. Don’t let my photography deter you. The pork filling is tender and juicy every time, though I’m more seduced by the shrimpy sass of the slightly spicy seafood bao.

The Pork & Cheese Bao is a dumpling wrapper around a large Bao filling, with a crusty layer like a chicharron but it’s cheesaron. Sounds weird but it works. Get this one if you prefer, or just get the regular. One order of either is big enough to share if you’re getting other stuff. 

The Pork and Takana Dumplings are a mash-up of the two. A chewy dumpling wrapper err on the side of thick and is pinched into a bucket-bag purse like a mini-bao. Same tender pork, mixed up with leafy greens, a veggie with a drier texture like chaya and a deeper flavor like the leaf of a mustard green. 

Their entrees are also worth a gander. The Crab Fried Rice is firm but light, with all the crabby flavor you could ever want infused into every bite. Visible crab bits, even in this crude AF photo, highly recommend if you’re feeling fried rice. 

Essence of mapo tofu. The ingredients are all there and the peppercorn numbing-burn will linger, but where Chinese food tends to shout, this one has flavors that whisper so listen up.

Close your eyes and point to something on the menu if you can’t decide. It’s going to taste great, guaranteed, and especially if it’s bao. There’s a not a lot of menus that can make that promise, but Nikuman-Ya can deliver. And if you can’t there and literally need them to deliver, don’t miss out - have Doordash do that for you. 

El Barrio UPDATE - Redondo Beach

At El Barrio, I definitely prefer the taco. It’s a concise, more concentrated meat-purse in a bold blue corn tortilla. But you do get a lot more food in a burrito for not that much more money, and all of it is lip-smacking, tummy-filling good. Just find someone equally hungry to split them with so you can switch it up and try them all.

The Al Pastor Pork Burrito is so sliced-off-the-spit tender that the middle cries a little with every chew. Little bits of pineapple add a splash of citrus, and the salsas add pinches of spice to perk up the rice-and-beans-in-a-wrapper. 

I love the toasted cheese crust. It does double duty in keeping the burrito closed and adding crispy crunch to a soft tortilla. Crunch contrasts the juicy in the Carne Wagyu Steak Burrito, and the green salsa brings a mildly wake-me-up kind of sting. 

It's a rare day that I don't miss the meat, but the Cauliflower Con Mole Burrito doesn’t need it. The roasted cauliflower has a robust texture, lighter but just as filling. The mole adds an earthy depth, and I wish they’d smear some of that black magic on everything else.

I guess the birria fell off the delivery menu, but it was the best thing ever while it was there. I’m waiting for it to come back, but there’s not a single thing on the menu not worth having. The delivery fees aren’t fun, but I’d pay almost anything for one of El Barrio’s tacos. 

Saigon Dish - Lawndale

There is nothing more nerve-wracking than recommending ethnic food of your ethnicity. I can count the South Bay Chinese restaurants I’d endorse on one hand...or may just one finger, and it’s such a punch to the gut if someone doesn’t like your food.

I’m told there’s barely a handful of good Vietnamese food around here as well, but Saigon Dish did come recommended. 

A gander at the menu indicates some degree of authenticity. An overwhelming selection requiring  a system of numbers exceeding 50 promises a long list of things I can’t pronounce.

Warm up with the #28, the Bun Tom Cha Gio Thit Nuong, a classic. Vermicelli with al dente noodle-floss, with fresh grilled shrimp and sweet, tender pork and an egg roll that’s moist and savory with thin, crispy skin. Toss it all in fish sauce, and enjoy the mix of hot and cold. The photo makes the meats look stingy, but trust me, it’s buried treasure under all the noodles.

A couple of banh mi because I was curious, and the fillings are pretty good. The Spicy Lemongrass Chicken is perky and seasoned well enough. 

The Grilled Pork is savory with a sweeter finish. The  breads are store-bought hoagies, but $5 per sandwich is practically free and I’m not about to bash that. 

The #52. If you’ve run out of comedies on Netflix, as me to order “Mi Xao Don Thap Cam.” It’s a house special, crispy noodles like a bed of Asian nachos, doused with a soupy stew of everything. They call it a stir fry, but the juices are thickened by starch, and you get a mix of so much meat. There’s whole fresh shrimp, slices of chicken, gluey dices of beef and fish and shrimp, vulcanized into meatballs. This mix has a fishy finish, an acquired taste for some, the flavor of home for many like me. And if you're worried about portion size, don't. This is literally 1/4 of the order.

I like it. I like you, Saigon Dish. I can’t go to Garden Grove right now but for now, I can settle down with you without having to settle for you.