TableConversation.com

The L.A. Riots--Remembering the Terror

The 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots has brought out a flurry of reminiscences of those scary days, so I thought I would add mine to the pot.

On the day when the police accused of beating black motorist Rodney King were acquitted, I was in Rowland Heights with my colleague from the Los Angeles Times food section, Minnie Bernardino. We were researching Chinese restaurants and groceries and gathering recipes that were to be tested and published in the food section.

Even now, when I hear of the Taiwanese dish Three-Cup Chicken, I think of that day.

Returning In the early evening, we drove past crowds near City Hall and the police department. We had been concentrating on our work, hadn't heard the news and wondered what was going on.

When we reached our office it was dark outside. I went to the company garage to get my car, but the gate had been lowered and secured, and I couldn't get in. I had to go back into the office and call for help. Meanwhile, Minnie had seen a car burning on Broadway.

Someone finally let me into the garage, and as I drove away, I heard gunshots.

Early the next morning, I went to the dentist in Beverly Hills, unaware of how bad the violence was. The dentist advised me to call my office.

A clueless person there (I was pretty clueless too) said I had to come in, and so I drove through a disorderly mess of traffic and looters on 3rd Street, only to be told to go home as soon as I arrived at The Times. 

I drove west on 6th Street and saw looters rushing into a shop at the corner of 6th and Rampart to grab audio equipment and small appliances.

A computer shop on a corner just west of where I live was ransacked. Looters were roaming my neighborhood, and a car with four of them turned into my driveway. I thought that was the end, but they backed out and turned around.

The sky was black from the fires. I brought in animal carriers in case houses were torched and I had to flee with my pets. 

Memories fade, and the destruction has been repaired--the computer business near me vanished years ago. But when I drive east on 3rd Street through Koreatown, I often think of the young man who was shot to death that night as he tried to protect his pizza shop. Then I remember the dark skies and the fear.

 

Pizza Pockets Pop Up at The Charleston

It's great to be a first-nighter. That's how I got in on the debut of pizza pockets at The Charleston.

This Santa Monica gastrolounge has come up with its own version of the supermarket snack. The dough, made there, is filled with mozzarella and San Marzano tomato sauce, which is also made in The Charleston kitchen. 

Fresh, not frozen, these are big, savory, adult-size pizza pockets for the happy hour, which is every day from 5 to 7 p.m. If you're a late type, there's also late happy hour, from 11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday.

The Charleston, 2460 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90403. Tel: (310) 828-2115.

From EatMx: The Top Spot for Chilaquiles

If you like chilaquiles, find out the place to get the best, with lots of variety. 

From EatMx.com: Great Corn Cookies

El Cuate is the guy who makes the best gorditas de horno. They're from El Coacoyul, near Zihuatanejo.

Finding New Tastes at Wat Thai

Wat Thai's Songkran festival last weekend brought out the usual food stalls serving papaya salad, boat noodles, grilled meats and sausages and mangoes with sticky rice.

But there were new tastes too, such as meat jerky like you've never tasted, not the usual chewy stuff you'd pack on a long hike, but thin and crisp as a potato chip, maybe even more crisp.

Blackies Originals pork jerky (above) has only been on the market for about five months. The thin chips of oven-baked lean pork come in two flavors. Both are seasoned with soy sauce and sugar, but one is also spiked with pepper, enough to produce a minor burn after you chew and swallow it.

The jerky is made in Chino. So far you can get it only at a few farmers markets in Orange County. Check Facebook and Twitter for locations. 

If you're looking for Thai plants plants such as kaffir lime trees and Thai basils, you can usually get them at Wat Thai festivals.

The plant booth at Songkran this year was set up by Art't Garden & Supplies in Arleta, not far from the Wat's location in North Hollywood.

The plants were pricey, but try and find a bai toey (pandan) plant at Home Depot (the plants with long slim leaves in the photo above).

Along with kaffir lime trees, the booth sold two types of Thai basil, bai horapha, which is sweet basil, and the less common bai kaprow, or holy basil.

If you missed Songkran, you can still get these and other plants at Art't's garden store, 13235 Bromwich St., Arleta, CA 91334.

About TableConversation.com

Come eat with me. We'll taste food from all over the world, much of it in Los Angeles, and not just because I live there. This city has probably the greatest assortment of ethnic food in the United States, from Bosnian and Bulgarian restaurants to taquerías,  cevicherías, pupuserías  and hundreds of places to go for Thai curries  and Korean barbecue.  If you live somewhere else and never visit Los Angeles, there will still be plenty to enjoy—wines to taste, books to cook from, thoughts about food, travel stories—and recipes seasoned with authentic flavors.

Conversations are meant to be shared. Through TableConversation.com I will share with you what I've learned during many years of writing about food, traveling to far places and exploring my own city. And I invite you to share with me your own favorite places to eat and perhaps a recipe or two.

The recipes in TableConversation.com are original, not extracted from other publications, unless part of a book review.  I've tested them all, and because I don't believe in food that is complicated, pretentious and ridiculously expensive, they're all dishes you can make easily at home. Some may call for unfamiliar ingredients that will lead you on fascinating excursions to ethnic groceries.  However, I  find much of what I need at my corner supermarket. That's because ethnic cooking is no longer out of the ordinary. It's what a lot of us do every day.

I think of food as a delicious link to people and places. Even the simplest meal can be a study in cultural diversity, but TableConversation.com is not about studies and philosophy. Its purpose is to add fresh new pleasures to your table and take you on culinary adventures aimed at making daily life as delicious as it should be.

This Web site and all contents are Copyright 2006-2012 Barbara Hansen.

Make These Authentic Chilaquiles from EatMx.com

Chilaquiles, tortilla hash--whatever you call it, it's delicious. See an authentic Mexican version on EatMx.com, then make it yourself. 

From EatMx.com: The Pinkest Mole You'll Ever See

A wild mole, stylish ceviche and severe frustration--three more highlights of the Food & Wine Festival in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo. Read more at our sister publication www.eatmx.com

Going Meatless Shanghai Style

Shanghai No. 1 is loaded with meaty dishes--peppery-sweet steak cubes, braised pork, crab roe, abalone, chicken feet and the like.

Think you should avoid it if you're a vegetarian?  Then you'd miss out on meatless dishes good enough to rival the others.

From the appetizers, you can choose cold sweet and sour marinated cucumbers (above) and marinated green broadbeans. 

Deep red Shanghai style lotus root (above) is stuffed with glutinous rice and bathed in sweet honey sauce. It's so good, you may need a double order.  

What a surprise to find an extraordinary salad in a Chinese restaurant. It's crown daisy with cumin, a leafy green (Chrysanthemum coronarium) with sweet, acidic dressing and a surprisingly prominent taste of cumin.

You're more likely to have run into crown daisy at a Korean market, where it's known as ssukgat.

Delicately flavored rather than drenched with sauce, steamed eggplant comes topped with tomatoes and sliced garlic. 

Oval rice cakes are combined with green onions instead of meat.

When ordering this dish and vegetables such as ong choy, pea tendrils and other greens, make sure the sauce does not include meat broth or oyster sauce. Then you can relax and enjoy a delicious, and safely meatless, meal. 

Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Village, 250 W. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, CA 91776.  Tel: (626) 282-1777.

Gangsters and Good Food

It was great fun watching thugs slash and bash each other in the Korean film "Nameless Gangster" at CGV Cinema in Koreatown.

The action wasn't as bloody as it sounds, certainly not enough to upset a stomach full of bibimbap. A good thing, because it was excellent dolsot bibimbap (at top), nice and crusty

Rice, meat, vegetables, egg (cooked crisp, the way I like it, by the hot stone bowl) and a salad on top, all tossed with spicy sauce, a perfect pre-Korean-movie dinner. Otherwise it would have been frustrating to watch the gang guys eye each other over what looked like very tasty meals.  

The restaurant, MaDang 621, is right below the theater in Madang Plaza on Western Avenue. It's so stylishly Korean that you think you're having dinner followed by a show in Seoul.  

The menu includes several versions of bibimbap, including a cool one topped with raw beef (above). Barley tea and a few banchan came with the meal. The sweet rice drink sikhye, with a couple of pine nuts floating on top, followed.

For my taste, that's better movie food than popcorn, nachos and a soda. 

MaDang 621, 621 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005. Tel: (213) 384-2244.