Food that's not Kafkaesque
Sunday I got to thinking as I read Geoff Nicholson's essay in The New York Times Book Review about how: Franz Kafka "was a food faddist, a sometimes passionate vegetarian, a drinker of vast quantities of unpasteurized milk and, according to current diagnosis, also an anorexic. There are those who claim that his short story 'A Hunger Artist' is autobiographical, the story of a man who can fast indefinitely because he's never found any food he likes."
What I was thinking was, what a weirdo. How ... Kafkaesque. Because I have found so many foods I like that it's a wonder I'm not big as Dallas. Along with the good stuff cooling in the fridge waiting on tonight's dinner at home, there are these fine victuals out there to laud, the first within a few minutes drive of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, where I can be found at lunchtime Mondays and Tuesdays, the latter on and just off Colorado Boulevard, lunchtime home for the rest of the week:
The beef salad at Chang Thai Cuisine on Arrow Highway in Irwindale: A near-perfect version of this personal favorite way to ratchet up the roughage and protein after any high-carbing that may have occurred over the weekend. I order it every single Monday I'm at the Trib. Really spicy - maybe 7 on a 10 scale - cold, crisp iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, red onions and perfectly seared strips of steak.
The scrumptious tacos dorados at Birrieria y Cenaduria Apatzingan, 14901 Ramona Blvd., Baldwin Park, take you back to the time before there were (north of the border) "soft" tacos on restaurant menus at all - and while downing the ropa vieja version (there's also chicken on the menu, but don't bother) at this small dive where virtually no English is spoken, you won't miss the unfried version one bit. Four to an order, which seem impossibly too much to eat, and yet I've never left one to take home. With chopped lettuce, rice, beans and very good crema.
The creamy hummus at Sahara on East Colorado Boulevard, a favorite of police Chief Barney Melekian and it would seem the entire Pasadena Armenian community. I've eaten hummus around the world, including in the Middle East, and I've never had better, or anything approaching the smoothness of theirs.
The crispy basil beef at Daisy Mint, the new Thai on Colorado west of PCC. An unusually chic little place as all you foodies know, I finally got there just last week; with its organic pots of tea and slightly artier décor than your average Thai, this place is going far. I got my first lunch with good brown rice, and found the dish more loving-hands-at-home than out of the standard California Thai restaurant cookbook. But quite good.
Not that it needs any further adulation, but the egg-salad sandwich at Europane, which, if you're a regular like everyone at the newspaper is, you call Sumi's. The best poached eggs in Christendom sliced on top of toast with a tomato tapenade is what this sandwich is, far from the mayonnaisey goop of most so-called. Of course her breads and fancy desserts are the best in the San Gabriel Valley - but not enough time is spent celebrating the simply joys of Sumi's chocolate chip cookie, which is the best I've ever had.
The falafel wrap at Pita Pita in the same block as the Star-News - just a dang fine falafel sandwich, to the point that, as often as I grab a to-go there to take back to my desk as I write, I never order anything else. Also the iced tea is unusually good - is there cardamon in it?
The golden tofu at Taste of Bangkok directly across Colorado from us - my vegetarian daughter will accept no substitutes. I wish I could fry the soy so perfectly at home, but I can't. This keeps it crisp but entirely without a rubbery outside.
The tempura in the lunch special at Japon Bistro two doors east of us - and, if I'm splurging at Clarence's sushi bar, a pint of Sapporo draft and the albacore.
Speaking of splurging, and so long as the recession recesses Robert looks to be staying closed for lunch, but the seafood salad at Bistro 45 on Mentor, especially when someone else is paying, is lovely with its many mussels. And shrimp. And loxy salmon. And I can also recommend a bowl of soup at the bar if you're alone; you'll be in the middle of the action with the waitstaff, which is fun.
Down Lake from us, don't miss the squid-ink risotto at Celestino. Or whatever the special risotto is that day. A white-tableclothed spot on the streetside patio with the real Italian waiters makes you think you actually live and work in a sophisticated town.
Even Kafka couldn't stay picky if served these dishes.