Purge / LA / Big Bites, Small City

Almost a month since I came back to SoCal.

My PS4 run has subsided and I’m putting in far fewer hours. When I first came back home I went through a bout of retail therapy. Buying up a buncha gadgets/toys I kinda wanted to fill a void.

I’m on the tail end of that as well and have realized fully what I knew all along—buying things doesn’t do much for me.

I think back to my media purge days—days of going overboard trying to eradicate every non-work-related usage of the internet in my personal life. Uninstalling the web browser on my phone so I’d focus more on the world around me. Denying myself Netflix/TV during solo quarantine and relying on books/podcasts instead.

Absolutely over the top. But I think the underlying idea was worthwhile. And the practice of purging every once in a while is a good idea too.

Cut on the non-essentials. Force myself to keep a quiet mind for a while.

Might dip my toes in again. Pick one day a week to go over the top like that. Maybe Wednesdays? A nice mid week break to declutter the noise.

Yeah—I’ll try that out this week (hope I remember) and see how it feels.

Quick catchup on the last few weeks. Some highlights:

Visited Grand Central Market / Downtown LA
Originally went for the eggslut but that was closed.

Got tacos instead at Villa Moreliana, a taco shop with more cuts of pork than I ever remember seeing on a single menu. Got the tripas and chicharron tacos. Tripas were great—the right combo of fat/funk that I look for in a taco. Only wish they were slightly crispier.

Chicharron were almost too chicharrony. Crunchy to a fault. Too much crunch detracting from what the taco’s really all about—the meat.

Good price, great flavor. Would go again.

We also got donuts at Donut Man. Not a huge donut guy to begin with and the one we got (Tiger Tail) was meh. Some of the other flavors looked great though.

Wandered around after eating. Downtown LA was a weird mix of pre/post gentrification. Even just a street over you could feel a drastic difference.

After lunch in DTLA we headed over to K town for KBBQ with Raymond (and his friend Jay). Hadn’t had KBBQ in a while but it was pretty mediocre. Was shocked at how poppin K town was that night. Put my name down for Quarters and Kang Ho Dong and the wait times three and two hours, respectively.

K Town with the fam
We’ve been in celebration mode since Harry got a new job. Got lunch at Jae Bu Do, which serves Korean seafood barbecue. Course after course of various seafood dishes (shrimp, clams, lobster, eel, etc.) as well as some other Korean staples (buchimgae aka Korean pancake, corn cheese).

Good overall. Hadn’t been here in two years. In the absence of this restaurant I built this grand expectation of what the meal would be and was subsequently a bit disappointed. Would recommend though. Unique and I haven’t seen any other restaurant do anything similar.

Next time I go to K Town I’d love to get some ganjang gaejang (raw soy marinated crab). A top tier Korean dish in my book.

Big Bites, Small City

This is a new segment suggested by Harry. If you’ve ever driven past a small town/city and wondered what kind of food that place might have then this is the segment for you.

We start this segment with Burnin Mouth, the hottest new place in the Collection food court. With my newfound expertise on Nashville style chicken sandwiches (had Howlin Ray’s a few weeks ago, no biggie), I can soundly declare that Burnin Mouth is an even better spicy chicken sandwich spot.

I ordered the Coo coo sandwich at an Ugly spicy level and it was an experience. Spice sneaks up on you like a devil. A mix of spicy/tasty that drives you to keep chewing. By the end of the meal I was pacing around and shaking myself in an attempt to drive out the pain. Didn’t work but I’m glad I went through it.

Next time I’d probably get a lower spicy level though. Spiciness fugs me up these days.

California in a photo. Even just looking at it now makes me want one.

The second spot I’d highlight is the elote cart in my neighborhood. This very exclusive spot will be hard to track down. Only available on the weekends near the park where the neighborhood kids play baseball. Not only do they serve the only known elote available in walking distance from my house, but they also serve a variety of other Mexican snacks.

I’d seen this spot a number of times on different walks around the neighborhood. Mom, in her omnipresent overabundance of caution would consistently protest when I’d suggest going.

This time around I went alone with Dad, the far more lenient of the two.

We ordered two items—elote for me, strawberry ice for him. All for the cheap price of six dollars.

Strawberry ice—delicious. Right on the verge of too sweet, but not crossing that line.

Elote—delicious. Korean and Mexican cuisines consistently have these parallels. Corn cheese at the KBBQ spot. Elote at the Mexican cart. No wonder Korean Mexican fusion is one of the most accessible fusion foods these days.

Harry and I discussed fusion foods on a walk recently. One combo that I think would be delicious that doesn’t seem to have been done: Korean Halal. Imagine halal rice, some veggies, a nice layer of korean barbecue (bulgogi, for example) and a spurt of that delicious white sauce. Doesn’t that sound like something you’d want to eat?

Anyways, back to the elote: absolutely hit the spot. This particular elote was a great representation of that essential elote flavor combo. Sweet, juicy(?) corn, a nice layer of mayo, and a layer of spicy seasoning for that added kick/tang. My only wish is that the corn came off the cob. Elote is too hard to eat cleanly.

This has been the first edition of Big Bites, Small City.

Thanks for reading!

That’s it for this week. For the upcoming week I’m going to get my sleep schedule back in check and give this occasional media purge a shot.

Here are some random photos from the last two weeks: