Monthly Archive for September, 2009

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Border Grill Truck – Los Angeles

Published by Gastronomer on September 21, 2009 in Los Angeles, Meals on Wheels, Mexican and Restaurant Review. 9 Comments

The meals on wheels movement has made it possible for ordinary people and aspiring restaurateurs to introduce new culinary concepts during a down economy thanks to lower start-up costs and seemingly endless demand. Whereas the bulk of roach coaches crisscrossing the city, including Cool Haus and Dosa Truck, were launched by amateurs with little or no prior restaurant experience, the Border Grill Truck is the product of seasoned veteran chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger.

Based on their successful Border Grill restaurants in Santa Monica and Las Vegas, the mobile effort serves up Mexican tacos, quesadillas, and ceviches made with modern flare. From efficient service to thoughtful presentation and solid food, it’s clear that the truck has benefited tremendously from its brick and mortar roots. While it’s admittedly silly to compare a professional product to those of novices, I can’t help but declare the Border Grill Truck the king of the roach coaches. For goodness sake, they offer appetizers, entrees, and dessert!

The Astronomer and I bumped into the Border Grill Truck while getting our drink on at this year’s Septemberfest at Paramount Studios. The line was ten deep when we pulled up, but it was only a matter of minutes before it was our turn.

Our order was taken by an apron-donning man standing outside the truck. After scribbling our wishes down on his pad, he handed The Astronomer a ticket. After presenting our ticket and payment to the expediter, we scooted to the left window for pick-up. Our food was ready soon after.

The Border Grill Truck churns out good looking eats complete with colorful garnishes and sturdy containers. We started with a Peruvian ceviche made with mahi mahi, lime juice, ginger, aji amarillo chile, and pickled onions, all in a corn tortilla cone ($5). The fish was pleasantly tart and tasted very fresh. The tortilla cone bordered on stale, but still managed to provide a fitting textural contrast to the ceviche.

For The Astronomer’s main entree, he dug into a carne asada taco with caramelized onions, salsa fresca, and guacamole ($3). I had the awesome task of eating all of the guacamole because The Astronomer’s not too keen on avocados. The large hunks of avocado were buttery and smooth; my boy doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.

According to The Astronomer, the taco sans guac was a solid effort. The meat wasn’t particularly tender or any more special than other mobile taco experiences, but the complete package was flavorful, well portioned, and tasty.

I couldn’t choose between the Baja fish taco ($3) and the avocado taco ($2.50), so I ordered them both. The fish taco, which was served with chipotle honey and a creamy salsa fresca, was deliciously different from other fish tacos I’ve tasted. The thinly battered fish nuggets worked well with the creamy fixins, even though it was a mess to eat.

The avocado taco with chipotle salsa, creamy corn relish, and pickled onions was a very satisfying vegetarian option. Each of the ingredients was bursting with freshness and flavor.

For dessert, we shared an order of dulce de leche-infused churro bites ($3). The churros were deep-fried to order and arrived finger-scorching hot. Whereas traditional churros are innards-less, these were doughy and gooey with caramel. Swiped in a bit of cool whipped cream, the cinnamon- and sugar-coated churros were muy excelente.

After lunching at the Border Grill Truck, we were ready to drink our weight in beer and cider. Bottoms up!

Follow Border Grill Truck on Twitter @BorderGrill.

POWER RANKINGS

India Jones Chow Truck > Dim Sum Truck > World Fare Bustaurant < Border Grill Truck > Cool Haus > Lomo Arigato > Don Chow > Kogi > Marked 5 > Dosa Truck > Phamish

Tacos El Fenix – Ensenada

Published by Gastronomer on September 19, 2009 in Ensenada, Mexican, Restaurant Review and Seafood. 8 Comments

12 p.m. It took a village to pull me away from La Guerrerense, but I grudgingly boarded the bus knowing that our next stop was for fish tacos. Along with carne asada burritos, these more or less fueled my high school years in San Diego, so I was curious to compare and contrast the version I grew up with to the ones made in Ensenada.

I love how the boy in this photo is clearly indifferent to fish tacos, while his parents are eagerly awaiting their orders. Living in this delicious city, I’m certain that the little one will be a card-carrying foodie in no time.

The fish tacos at El Fenix are made of shark, which is a really big fish if you think about it. Each tender fillet is dredged in a tempura-like batter with mustard and spices and then fried in lard. The fillets are fried twice using a stainless steel comal. The first fry is to cook the fish, while the second one is to crisp up the batter seconds before serving.

The freshly fried fish was gently laid atop a warm corn tortilla. A plethora of garnishes including cabbage, crema, pico de gallo, and various salsas were available tableside to personalize our tacos to taste. What sets El Fenix’s fish taco apart from the Rubio’s of the world is the vibrantly crunchy batter. I was very impressed by the level of crispness achieved and the absence of extreme greasiness. Score one for lard.

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Tacos El Fenix
Corner of Espinosa and Juarez (Calle 5)
Zona Centro, Ensenada

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BAJA BITES: 2 Days, 3 Cities, 18 Meals
Introduction > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > 6 > 7 > 8 > 9 > 10 > 11 > 12 > 13 > 14 > 15 > 16 > 17 > 18

La Guerrerense – Ensenada

Published by Gastronomer on September 17, 2009 in Ensenada, Mexican, Seafood and Street Food. 6 Comments

11 a.m. After a breakfast of pit roasted goat in Tijuana, the Baja culinary blitz crew was whisked seventy miles south to the coastal town of Ensenada. Following a quick visit with the tourism board, we were taken to the corner of First and Alvarado, the site of Sabina Bandera Gonzalez’s tostada stand.

La Guerrerense has been serving up the freshest seafood tostadas imaginable to local Mexicans and visiting beach bums for the past thirty-three years. Of the eighteen dining destinations I visited during my forty-eight hours in Baja, this bare bones seafood stall topped them all.

Growing up on public school lunches, I had the most dreadful introduction to tostadas. Thankfully, Ms. Sabina’s creations had nothing in common with the mushy pinto beans and wilted iceberg lettuce of yesteryear. My first tostada consisted of sea urchin on one side and sea cucumber on the other. The fruits of the sea were freshly caught and incredibly vibrant in color.

One bite of the tostada and I was completely enraptured in its deliciousness. The intensely briny flavors of the sea had me swooning and sighing. I’ll forever remember La Guerrerense as the place where I finally understood the complexity and goodness of sea urchin.

Even though the tostadas were flawless on their own, a selection of unique homemade salsas was available to dress them up. My favorite contained whole peanuts and dried chilies in a spicy oil.

I was tempted to order another sea urchin for my second tostada, but braved up and branched out to cod (bacalao) and sea snail. Both were fantastic, but with thoughts of sea urchin still dancing in my head, I couldn’t quite give this tostada my full attention.

Instead of a third tostada, I opted for a Pismo clam prepared two different ways. On one side was a clam cocktail, and on the other was a ceviche with ketchup and avocado slices. Freshly caught seafood served without fuss is one of the finest pleasures ever. A drink of cebada (barley, milk, cinnamon, and sugar) was on hand to keep us hydrated and to offer a sweet counterpoint.

La Guerrerense is open every day except Tuesday from 10 AM to 4 PM.

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La Guerrerense
Corner of 1st and Alvarado
Zona Centro, Ensenada
Phone: 646-174-2114

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BAJA BITES: 2 Days, 3 Cities, 18 Meals
Introduction > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > 6 > 7 > 8 > 9 > 10 > 11 > 12 > 13 > 14 > 15 > 16 > 17 > 18

Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa – Rosemead

Published by Gastronomer on September 16, 2009 in Banh Beo, Banh Hoi, Los Angeles, Nem Nuong, Restaurant Review, Rosemead and Vietnamese. 19 Comments

After sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for a solid half hour, it was clear that my dreams of kicking it with carnies and eating deep-fried White Castle burgers at the L.A. County Fair had to be reassessed. Of course I was looking forward to the smelly petting zoos and dizzying Tilt-a-Whirls, but wasting a beautiful summer afternoon idling on the freeway wasn’t in the cards, so I did what I had to do. “There will always be next year,” consoled The Astronomer.

With Plan A kicked to the curb, we moved on to Plan B—cruising for grub in the San Gabriel Valley. Twice in the past week, I’ve received recommendations for a Central Vietnamese restaurant in Rosemead named Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa. “It’s one of the best,” said Hong, one half of the Ravenous Couple. “It’s in my top three and I’ve been going here for years,” said Wesley, one half of the Two Hungry Pandas. After confirming the address with yet another Panda, we made our way to Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa in time for lunch.

The restaurant was operating at full capacity when we arrived. After placing our names on the waiting list and moseying around for fifteen minutes, we were seated at a table for four.

In between placing our orders and the food arriving, I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Are you The Gastronomer?” asked a friendly looking gentleman. “And you’re The Astronomer!” he said while pointing at Vernon. I can’t remember whether or not we actually confirmed our pseudonyms, but we did invite him and his friend to join us. Surely, it was the least we could do for the first readers to spot us out in public!

We started off with an order of banh beo ($5.49), a dish from the city of Hue. The twelve steamed rice cakes arrived in shallow porcelain dishes piled atop one another. Each cake was sprinkled with dried minced shrimp, smeared with scallion oil, and finished with a crisp “crouton” of rendered pork fat.

To eat, we spooned a bit of sweet fish sauce atop the warm banh beo and dug in with spoons. Once while visiting Hoi An, The Astronomer and I ate banh beo using flat wooden sticks! The steamed rice cakes were doughier and less pliable than the ones we enjoyed in Vietnam, which surprisingly bothered The Astronomer much more than me. I love how my boy’s become a Vietnamese food snob.

Next to arrive was the house special, a selection of Ninh Hòa-style grilled pork meatballs and skewers ($14.99). In the great tradition of Vietnamese do-it-yourself dishes, the protein was accompanied by rice paper and a forest of greens and herbs for garnishing and wrapping. A curiously goopy orange sauce (tuong nep) was served on the side for dipping.

The bevy of meats included nem nuong (sweet pork skewers and meatballs), nem cap (pork patties wrapped in banana leaves), nem chua nuong (sour pork patties), and cha ram tom (shrimp egg rolls). The classic nem nuong were my favorite, although the others weren’t very far behind. I skipped the strangely sweet orange sauce and dipped my rolls in nuoc mam instead.

My favorite dish of the afternoon was the banh hoi ($8.25). The woven mats of rice noodles were topped with thit nuong (grilled pork), tau hu ky (shrimp cake wrapped with bean curd), shrimp egg rolls, scallion oil, and a smattering of dried shrimp dust. The texture of the banh hoi was just about perfect, soaking up the nuoc mam like a gauzy sponge.

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Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa
9016 Mission Drive
Rosemead, CA 91770
Phone: 626-286-3370