THE CITY TOUR, A DAY OF NONSTOP ETHNIC EATS

On our third day in L.A., I needed to visit my optometrist, who's located in Monterey Park, about 30 minutes east of the Westside. My mom also wanted to give Tom a city tour, since it was his first time in LA and apparently I wasn't doing a good enough job. (I like to stick on the Westside) So we packed into the car early and headed out. After I'd gotten my eyes checked, it was time for some breakfast and I wanted to stock up on some ingredients. For those of you unfamiliar with LA geography, Monterey Park is where a ton of Taiwanese, Chinese and Asian people live. For people who've always wondered how there can be people living in the U.S. who don't speak English, it's cause they've never left their little world and visited an ethnic community. Think Flushing in Queens, Jackson Heights in the Bronx or in this case, Monterey Park. You don't need to know English to function in this world, and actually, if you don't know Chinese, you'll have a much harder time.

Our first stop was at a giant herbal grocery store. My mom wanted to pick up some random ingredients, and I got some dried shrimp, scallops and shitake mushrooms. I used to love going into these places as a kid, cause they had all kinds of crazy ingredients. Like sharks fins, dried seahorses and turtles. The Chinese have a long history of Oriental medicine, so apparently, each one of these ingredients has it's own uses. The just used to freak me out as a kid. Anywhere, here's a pic of a bin of an assortment of dried sea cucumbers.And here's a pic of the ginseng section, which was huge. They have ginseng in all different forms and different grades.
Our next stop was for some traditional Taiwanese breakfast (what I call Taiwanese dim sum when I'm in Boston). Here's a pic of a rack of freshly steamed buns. In this area of LA, you can count the number of non-Asians that you find on one hand. This place had no English in menu.

Here's the guy standing in front a pan of freshly fried dough. Normally, I order one of these with my soy milk, but I wasn't in the mood that day. I ordered Tom beef in a sesame pocket, which I was a little disappointed in cause the beef looked dry and Tom confirmed it. Here's my bowl of hot soy milk, and a tea egg on the side. The soy milk was yummy as always.
And lastly, here's my scallion pancake. I was not thrilled with this pancake. They deep fried it rather than panfried it, so though it was crispy, it was completely drenched in oil and not very appetizing at all.Continuing on our city tour, we drove west to downtown LA where we visited Olvera St. I actually hadn't been here in at least 10 years. It's a really historic part of LA, one of the oldest streets in the city, which had a high concentration of Mexicans. Now there are a bunch of kitschy shops and there's a mission, just very California. I wasn't so interested in the knick knacks, but I was interested in a sign that said "Mr. Churro". Of course, I had to get a Mexican churro, which was being fried as I entered. We had a wait a few minutes for it to finish cooking, and then it was dusted with cinnamon and sugar and served. I ate it as we walked along, but I got stuffed pretty soon and handed it over to Tom. It was so yummy and warm, though.We got back in the car and continued to drive West and ended up Hollywood where we saw the walk of fame, and Tom got a cream puff and cheesecake stick from Beard Papa's. Apparently, Beard Papa is a recent phenomenon in LA, though we've had it on the east coast for a few years now. But it's amazing how that quality differs from one store to the next. The one I had in LA was actually quite good, but the ones at Fanuiel Hall suck.

After driving back to the Westside, it was time for lunch. I was stuffed full, and asked that we go somewhere where I could just get a salad or tofu. My mom decided to take us to Torafuku, which is a Japanese restaurant located right next to the Westside Pavillion. Apparently they are famous for their rice, called Kamado rice that's cooked in a special way. And they have homemade tofu. They have these huge rice pots located at the front of the restaurant where they cook rice in an old fashioned style. I took a pic, but I can't find it right now.

The restaurant was full when we arrived, even though it was a pretty big space, (apparently there was a private party in the back) so we snagged the last available table. The place was full of Japanese people, and I've always told you guys to eat where the natives eat. Here's a pic of the sushi bar. We were each served a little saladAnd then I got this little bamboo pot of freshly made tofu served with some ground ginger and soy sauce. It really didn't taste that different from normal tofu, but the texture was definitely silkier. It was expensive, though. $7 for this little guy.A lot of their stuff is made in house. Like the rice seasoning shown here. (aka Furikake, you can buy it in bottles at Japanese markets and use it on rice).Tom got this lunch set, which I think he enjoyed.My mom and I shared the chef's choice bento box. Even though I was stuffed full before I got to the restaurant, I still managed to eat half of it AND a whole bowl of rice! I was amazed at myself, I didn't know where I was putting it all. But the rice was quite tasty. Again, not so much for the flavor, but the texture. It just seemed extra springy.Ok, after this, I still continued to snack and eat dinner. But at places I've talked about. So I'll finish this post with a great pic of the Ugly Dolls exhibit at the Giant Robot 2 store in West LA. Isn't it great? Have you ever seen so many Ugly Dolls? (and there were Ugly Doll pinatas, too). AHH, so much yummy eating in one day, and it was only our 3rd day in LA!