Looking at one of the first to turn a food truck concept brick-and-mortar, Jonathan Gold takes kindly to the Flying Pig Cafe’s new Little Tokyo spot, even if you have to drive to it instead of the other way around. He says the cooking is “slightly more ambitious than the truck,” with duck-fat fried rice, pork-belly kakuni, and scallops with smoked mango, but you’ll still find the carne asada tacos. And that’s a good thing. [LAW]
As noted last week, S. Irene Virbila’s weekly reviews are now bi-weekly, so today C. Thi Nguyen (at least they have the initial thing down) grabs some Persian pizza at Westwood’s Café Glacé. What exactly is Persian pizza? First, the crust, which “feels like some brilliant Persian cook had a frozen supermarket pizza and liked the basic idea but was inspired to make it better.” It’s somewhere between a foccaccia and a “spongey-crusted” pita-sized pizza that you top with ketchup and ranch dressing. It’s what you’ll find all over Tehran, explains the owner. Nguyen is enamored by it, as well as the sandwiches. [LAT]
Of course Jonathan Gold would end up in Koreatown for Japanese tonkatsu–it’s just how the man rolls. This week, he seeks out his new favorite crispy fried pork cutlet at Wako Donkasu, where the portions are big, as are the menus, the vibe is cheery, and the prices are low. “The food comes, fitted into compartments in a wooden container: cabbage salad lightly dressed with a squash-inflected dressing, a bowl of miso soup perhaps, and the pork cutlet, which is the size and shape of a deep-fried Zagat guide, perfectly crunchy, trimmed of most of its fat,” he writes. Adding: “You are finished before you know it. You are happy. You look forward to the evening ahead.” [Tags:
