Langer's

704 S Alvarado St
Los Angeles, CA 90057
(213) 483-8050

www.langersdeli.com

Langer's, the iconic Jewish deli in Los Angeles, was established in 400BC, but I haven't managed to get there due to the limited operating hours. They have the traditional Tanakh length menu highlighted by several pastrami sandwiches. On my visit, I also wanted to get the liver & onions, just to understand how that dish even makes restaurant menus. But I've heard the chickens are force fed and I won't support that.

So, what is pastrami? You basically take beef brisket, the underside of the cow's belly, and brine it (salt and water), dry it, season it, smoke it, then mark it up 300%. That's pastrami in a nutshell. Here's a simplified home version:

Making Pastrami

(video)

The food arrived 3 minutes after we ordered it and they will serve you as long as you get in the door before 4PM.

$12.25 #19 Pastrami, Swiss Cheese and Coleslaw, Russian Style Dressing (9)
This is the best pastrami sandwich I have had. The only relative comparison I have is Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich in Montreal and Langer's was better. The meat was amazingly tender and went great with the rye, coleslaw, and dressing.

$11.60 Hot Pastrami and Swiss Cheese (7)
I got this one with on a French roll. The pastrami was just as good. I just gave it a lower rating because it's best served on rye and it was better with coleslaw and the dressing.

Other reviews I have read tend to complain about the prices and the limited hours, 8AM - 4PM. And I would tend to agree with both. There is, however, free parking a block east of the restaurant.

LA Magazine's 101 Cheap Eats - Ranked!!

It was only a matter of time with the economy in its current state that we temper our Michelin studded taste buds and are forced to become acclimated to how the other half lives. Los Angeles magazine knew we were out there and perhaps too ashamed to admit it, but we were in desperate need of a guide to the gang-infested eateries and C grade establishments in the city.

The May 2009 issue of Los Angeles magazine gracefully toured us through, at my count, 116 of the best Cheap eats around. Broken down by cuisine, they included a few taco trucks, required institutions, and chefs' picks.

So I'm putting down my Riedel, picking up a spork, taking off the coat, lacing up the pumas, and if I still don't feel like one of the locals, I may curtail my showers. Yes, I've taken it upon myself to eat through all of them, a few at week, and ranking them 1 to 116.

Out of all the restaurants and dives featured, it was the cover pic that had readers salivating the most. And it wasn't even offered at any of the joints. It was actually created in a photo studio and intended to resemble a burger at 8 oz. If I was 8 oz., I would have replicated it and marketed it as the LA Mag cover burger and they would have been sure to get press from the magazine itself.


Rankings:
(Updated weekly)

1 Nickel Diner
2 Wurstkushe
3 Langer’s
4 La Casita Mexicana
5 Umami Burger
6 Cook’s Tortas
7 Shin-sen-Gumi
8 Baby Blues BBQ
9 Shamshiri Grill
10 El Tepeyac
11 Beverly Soon Tofu Restaurant
12 Loteria Grill
13 Atch-Kotch
14 Skaf’s Grill
15 8 oz. Burger Bar
16 Kokekokko
17 Falafel Arax
18 Veggie Grill
19 Pollo a la Brasa
20 M Café de Chaya
21 Otafuku
22 Casa Bianca
23 Nanbankan
24 Café Brasil
25 Papa Cristo’s
26 Pho 79
27 Din Tai Fung
28 Los Balcones del Perú
29 Philippe The Original
30 Daikokuya
31 The Park
32 Spitz
33 Zankou Chicken
34 Tasty Garden

How Hot Dogs Are Made

After watching Food Inc., a documentary taking an unflattering look at the American food industry, I became curious how some of nature's most unsuspecting gifts are made. Take the purity we know more commonly as a hot dog.

How Hot Dogs Are Made

(video)

If you're not grossed out yet, note that Joey Chestnut finished off 68 hot dogs at the 2009 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest to win the competition. That's over 20,000 calories of mechanically separated mush.

Yuri Japanese Truck (Closed)

Various locations
Los Angeles, CA
www.yuritruck.com

They had a location in the heart of Melrose and closed up shop. Then they had a truck, but neither of their websites are working. So, it looks like the its the first of the food truck failures.

$7 Tilapia Bowl (8)
Talking with the chef, he got his hands on some fresh tilapia in downtown the same morning and decided to serve it in a rice bowl with some greens. It's dishes like this that remind me how simple preparation on seafood is so approriate. It was lightly grilled with salt, pepper, and finished off with lime. It was better than some restaurants preparation of seafood.

$4 Tuna Crunch Roll (2)
I wasn't expecting much from this dish and it still disappointed. It was just so oil from the crunch, it even seeped into the tuna.

$2 Green Tea with Yuzu (8)
They basically take brewed tea and add a tablespoon of yuzu marmalade that you can find at Asian markets. It was simple, but was quite refreshing and my girlfriend oved the drink so much I actually went and got a jar of the marmalade to use at home.

Kogi

Various locations

Los Angeles, CA

(714) 697-4683

www.kogibbq.com


Kogi, the cult-followed food truck, got its break by handing out free samples to bouncers and receiving press from local food bloggers. It's largely the cause of the uber-specialized lonchera surge in Los Angeles.

A good way to skip the line is to find it outside a club before the drunks stumble out after last call. I caught it at about 10PM in West LA on a Friday night and there was no line. I got one of everything to see what all the hype was about.

$5 Kimchi Quesadilla (3)
By definition a quesadilla should be dominated by cheese. This was not and I'm positive, not even Heston Blumenthal could convince me that kimchi and tortilla chemically belong together. The flavor combination just didn't work for me.

$2 Korean Short Rib Taco (8), Spicy BBQ Chicken (7), Spicy Pork (7), Tofu (6)
As far as taste and flavor goes, the short rib taco hit a perfect 10, the downside I saw was how fattening and greasy all the tacos were. It made perfect sense why they got a strong following outside bars and clubs. That was the first thing I thought when I ate one, this would be perfect after a night out drinking. It reminds me of when I read LA Times review of Animal and she dinged them big-time because the fat content in the food. The difference being that Animal, doesn't solely rely on fat for its flavoring. Chef Choi may want to think about testing a pure butter burrito, wait they kind of already have that.

I'm glad I tried it once, but I wouldn't return until their flavors rely less on grease. I do think they deserve some major kudos for inspiring all these other creative food trucks.