The Find: Get in line at La Cocina del Camaguey

Now this is the kind of fast food I can get behind.

Our "find" of the week is La Cocina del Camaguey which is pretty much the definition of a hole-in-the wall. They are a cash only, takeout only kind of joint, located in the back of the El Camaguey Meat Market on Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. Let Bill Esparza fill you in on the details:

"...regulars line up for affordable, soulful Caribbean dishes such as arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), rabo encendido (braised oxtail) or mofongo (mashed plantains and cracklings).

La Cocina del Camaguey has been building a loyal customer base with its specials of the day: a savory beef picadillo (ground beef in a stew of tomatoes and peppers) or camarones al ajillo (garlic shrimp) accompanied by smoky herbal rice and beans served separately, or mixed together in the theologically integrated moros y cristianos (Moors and Christians). At $5.99, it's one of the best deals in town."

Read the rest of Bill's review here. And if you check out La Cocina, report back and tell us what you thought of it.

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--Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch

Some of the appetizers on the menu at La Cocina del Camaguey. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Find hidden Thai delights at Krua Siri in Thai Town

Here's an early look at what's coming in this week's Food section:

A brand-new flaming star of glorious, singing, singeing Isaan Thai cooking has landed smack in the center of Thai Town. But it's hiding behind a false face. Krua Siri smells right, but the menu seems all wrong. It's chock-full of such depressingly non-Thai dishes as orange chicken and Vietnamese pho -- the sort of pan-Asian pandering that typically marks an insincere kitchen.

But press the waitress for her favorite items and she might start dropping dishes that appear nowhere on the menu. Press her enough and she might casually mention the existence of a "Thai menu," at which point every food-hunting alarm in your head should start blaring at once. Click here to read more about our find of the week:

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Photo: Thai sausage on the menu at Krua Siri Thai restaurant in Hollywood. Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Everyone's going loco over Taco Asylum in Costa Mesa

 
Is there room in Southern California for another hip taco slinger? Judging by the lunch crowds at Taco Asylum, there is indeed. They're lured in by creative taste combos such as lamb with ratatouille, background, wild mushroom with fried chickpeas and parsley salad, center, and a grilled octopus taco.

That's why it's our Find of the week.

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-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch

Photo: Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Guisados taqueria in Boyle Heights

Ricardo Diaz is on his way to building a culinary empire. Three years ago, Diaz and his in-laws opened Cook's Tortas in Monterey Park. There, sturdy, rustic rolls are baked on-site, everyone sips pineapple-celery and watermelon-mint aguas frescas and dessert brings soft corn cakes and biscuits smeared with loquat marmalade. Now comes Guisados, the new Boyle Heights taqueria from Diaz and business partner Armando De La Torre. Here, guisados achieve ascendancy; these are humble stews and braises that you'd otherwise most likely find simmering atop a home stove. What's next from Diaz? 

Read more from this week's Find here. 

 

 

Ever crave liquid pork?

 
Here's a sneak peek at what's coming in this week's Food section: Our Find of the Week is Ramen Yamadaya in Torrance:

Tonkotsu is the heart of the matter at Ramen Yamadaya, an unassuming little ramen shop in Torrance squeezed between a skate shop and the 405 Freeway. Proper tonkotsu broth is made by simmering pork bones for the better part of the day, and the result is a lush, intensified, liquefied pork. A good tonkotsu broth feels like a crushed velvet smoothie.

Yamadaya's tonkotsu broth looks promising: cloudy, dense with porky particulate. A first sip doesn't disappoint, revealing a sensuous version of tonkotsu broth -- almost fuzzy, like drinking a pork Snuggie.

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-- Rene Lynch
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Photo by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times.

Chutney takes center stage at this Afghan restaurant in Lake Forest

 
Here's an early peek at what's coming in this Thursday's Food section:

As you might expect from a restaurant called Chili Chutney, the condiment is everywhere: streaked across piles of rice, dabbed on crisp flatbreads, blotted up by grilled kebabs. Jars of the stuff — gleaming containers of pure verdant green and sticky maraschino red — are on display. It's elevated to a place of honor at the months-old Afghan restaurant in Lake Forest with grand ambitions. That's why it's our Find of the week. Read the rest of the review here by Miles Clements, as well as some menu suggestions:

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Photo: A signature entree at Chili Chutney in Lake Forest -- quabuli pallow, a basmati fried rice cooked with lamb and spices garnished with carrots and raisins. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Do you know about the secret menu at Little London Cafe?

 

Going to the Little London Cafe in Alhambra is kind of like going on a quest -- a tasty quest for cuisine native to Kalimantan, a province of Indonesia — the Indonesian bit of Borneo.

It helps if you know about the secret menu, and you don't mind acting the mime to get what you want. The food is worth it: The menu includes nasi campur, above, which consists of barbecued pork, pork sausage, seasoned fried chicken, flavored egg with eight spices, cucumbers, white rice, gravy and Kalimantan chili sauce on the side.

Let C. Thi Nguyen be your guide on this culinary quest to discover this week's Find. He can tell you how to navigate the menu, because it's probably not in a language you can read. (Unless you speak Indonesian.)

-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch

Photo credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Herb- and meat-topped flatbreads top the menu at Zait & Za'atar and Wraps Xpress

 
Here's an early look at what's coming in this week's Food section:

Are you familiar with manakeesh? They're pizza-like flatbreads that are as thin as gauzy sheets of vellum, an herb-rubbed and meat-smeared gateway to the eastern Mediterranean. And they're the specialty of the house at Zait & Za'atar and Wraps Xpress in Anaheim. The city's Little Arabia is already crowded with similarly specialized Lebanese bakeries, but Zait & Za'atar may be the most accessible. That's why it's our Find of the week.

Photo credit: Katie Falkenberg / For The Times

Beijing Pie House is not about sweets but all about delicious

If the name Beijing Pie House makes you think of a bakery filled with sweet confections, think again. We're talking meat- and vegetable-filled pies, savory pancakes and so much more. I defy you to read the first paragraph of this story and not e-mail friends to make a date to go check it out:

Trying to eat a warm, doughnut-size meat pie from Beijing Pie House with any sort of decorum is a real challenge. They're probably best consumed leaning over a huge plate or the kitchen sink, because the garlicky juices spurt out in every direction the instant you bite into the crisp, potato-chip-like crust.

Read more about our Find of the Week: "The Find: Beijing Pie House in Monterey Park."

Photo: For the pork homeland meat cake, above, thin dough layers alternate with spice-suffused minced meat. Baked to a shimmery burnished gold, every bite yields a mouthful of kaleidoscopic textural contrasts. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Single-origin beans, exacting brewing methods at Cafecito

 
Here's an early look at what's coming in this week's Food section:

The Heliotrope Cafecito is a sweet little place. It's down the block from Los Angeles City College and it's built for students: lots of inside seating, big communal tables. Music is an iPod running through a guitar amp. There aren't any fancy barista uniforms, just some chilled-out youngsters behind the counter — though there's a gleam of fanaticism in their eye when they take up their coffee-making implements.

Angel Orozco — founder, roaster and co-owner — started on the supply side of the coffee business. He became a roaster, then a farmers market vendor and finally opened the first retail location of Cafecito on Hoover Avenue earlier this year, and the second location on Heliotrope a little more than a month ago. They'll do you all the perfect foamed little espresso drinks you want, but if you chat for a while with the folks behind the counter, you'll figure out where the shop's heart is at: single-origin, Central American coffees, roasted light and individually dripped, to show off the peculiar soul of each bean. Read more: The Find: Cafecito Organico.

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Photo: Heliotrope Cafecito. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times