We’ve long been fans of SinoSoul.com, and are happy to bring you a new irregular “how to” column from its author, Tony Chen. First up is a how not to: 9 helpful hints on how not to be an asshole diner…

1. Do not crowd the salsa bar.
Let’s say you’re at La Isla Bonita, or Tamix. You’re rockin’ your skinniest J Brand, and you just got some new titanium skewers on your fixie. The night is already lovely because the trompo man is looking rather generous with the pina shavings. It’s time to stock up on the salsa verde (because sala roja just reminds you too much of the Democratic machine in Los Angeles). You head to the salsa bar, elbows out, just like the peewee league b-ball coach taught you.You’re an asshole. The taco truck commissary owns the salsa bar, no matter how snug your balls are feeling this evening.

2. Put the camera away, girl.
Any photographic equipment, larger than a mobile phone, is Kardashian’s Ass. Anyone who brings an 1DS MkIII with mounted 85mm f1.2 to Picca is an automatic a*hole– it matters not that you’re actually the new Andrew Scrivani. Three fashion/life style bloggers shadowing that one plate of charchuterie at Wood+Vine? Just stop, we beg of you. It’s a train wreck hence everyone must rubberneck, but immediately we all want to bleach our cornea.

(Continued)

Today, I was in the mood for a burger and all the burger options in Duarte were basically all about fast food and that wasn’t going to do. In-n-Out was also a possibility since it was just a 10-15 minute drive, but my picky palate said no because it was craving a new burger experience.  In the back of  mind, I remembered hearing about a restaurant in Monrovia called The Market Grill that is supposed to be known for their burgers so off I went.
(Continued)

Kalbi Burger will be hosting a competitive eating contest, or challenge, on July 24th, 2011. You think you got what it takes? then read on….

(Continued)

Phil’s Diner Cheeseburger: An excellent burger and awesome onion rings, $8.50

Opened in the 1920′s, the original Phil’s Diner was set up in a small train car located on Chandler Blvd, a few blocks from where it is located now. During the early ’80′s I’d eat there regularly, usually having the Idiot’s Mish-Mosh (eggs and potatoes and a whole bunch of other stuff). The place was always packed, and its small size meant you got up close and personal with your hungry neighbors. At the time the place was decidedly not some trendy eatery, with great gobs of goo coating the single exhaust fan behind the flattop. But it was a local landmark. During that era, “Phil” was an Asian man whose attitude provided half the reason I’d want eat there.

The place was closed down in the 90′s and the train car languished in disrepair. Thankfully its been rescued and moved a couple of blocks to its current location on Lankershim in the NoHo Arts District. Opened in April, the new owners have cleaned it up, added a proper hood over the cooking area and a few tables outside. Voila, a trendy neighborhood eatery! The inside it still tiny, with so little room behind the counter that two people can only pass each other with great difficultly. Of course that makes it fun to watch.
(Continued)

Apaseo El Alto ~ Guanajuato ~ Mexico

Long before Los Angeles’ food truck fetish with Asian-fusion tacos, Pueblans had already traveled down that road.There are many incorrect stories about the Lebanese influence in the taco arabe, or arab tacos, but actually the original creators of these Pueblan curiosities were of Iraqi descent.

It was in 1933, that the Tabe Mena family first served what is now known as the taco arabe, an adaption of the Greek gyros sandwich, which lept from lamb and a yogurt or tahini sauce to pork loin and chipotle. Other families of Iraqi heritage dispute the Tabe Mena family’s claim, but the Tabe Mena family maintains that their grandfather Jorge Mena, who had fled the Turkish invasion of Iraq in the late 1800′s, was the first to set up shop.

The Tabe family is still behind the spit of one of the largest tacos arabes chains in Puebla, Antigua Taqueria La Oriental. There are currently over 300 taquerias in the city of Puebla that produce this iconic taste of Pueblan cuisine.

Read the entire article and review of Antigua Taqueria La Oriental on Street Gourmet LA

The ceviche de camaron in particular is one of the best I’ve had

For geographical reasons that are beyond me, a 10-minute drive south of LAX will land you in a section of town that holds one of the best collection of Mexican seafood restaurants in Los Angeles. Draw a small circle on a map where the nebulous borders of Inglewood, Lennox and Hawthorne cross and you will find it includes such solid marisquerias as El Puerto Escondido, Mariscos Moni, and the highly-regarded Mariscos Chente, roughly forming a Bermuda Triangle of mariscos inside of which many others are hidden. One of my current favorites is the tiny La Sirena Azul, which lies in a quiet stretch of Century Boulevard located in South Inglewood. It’s not so much a restaurant as a kitchen with few tables out front, flanked on either side by a dusty jukebox and a beer cooler.
(Continued)

When it comes to Filipino Food, I always enjoy championing it and in the process, I hope it encourages people to give it at try. On that note, I thought I’d do another post about Magic Wok, a Filipino restaurant in Artesia. This is actually my second time blogging about Magic Wok. Click here to read about my very first experience dining there. At Magic Wok, I went with a group of friends and we shared 12 dishes and compared to previous restaurants I’ve been to, I feel that Magic Wok is the closest to restaurant home-style Filipino Cooking that I’ve experienced.

Simply, it’s because there’s no fuss or muss about the food. There are no fusion flavors in play or interpretations of Filipino cooking. The dishes aren’t made to look pretty or served in fancy dishes. That’s not to say that the way the dishes are prepared here represent all of Filipino cooking. Like any other country, dishes can differ on a regional basis, but basically, what you see is what you get at Magic Wok.

Our meal started with Sisig. In the Philippines, traditional sisig is usually cooked with the pig head and may include parts of the face, ears, brains as well as other left over parts of the pig. My experience with sisig here has been varied. I’ve had it as a sizzling dish with crispy pork meat and chock-full of chicharon (pork rind) bits and also as a sauteed dish of marinated pork cheeks. The version at Magic Wok utilized fried pork with skin cooked with carrots and scallions, seasoned with garlic, black pepper and citrus. It was actually one of the favorite dishes of the night.

Following the sisig came the Fried Bangus. Bangus is a milkfish that is a popular fish in Filipino Cuisine and is known for its many tiny little bones, so always proceed with caution when eating it. Fried bangus is first marinated in vinegar, pepper, garlic, lemon or calamansi juice and sometimes soy sauce before being pan-fried to a golden goodness. The lovely thing about this bangus is that the fried fish skin also absorbs the tangy flavors of the marinade, so it’s tasty from the inside-out.

(Continued)

First event coverage of the new year and Candy Coated made it out to P-Dogs in South Gate. This location specializes in a variety of hot dog combination’s. On this particular night they also were having a cruise night with car clubs such as Pride, Maniacos, Lo Nuestro, La Gente, Stylistics, South Side, Classic Creations, City Wide, Thee Untouchables and Better Days. To view more of theses photos visit, Erwin Recinos on Flickr.

The first time I ever heard about Cacao Mexicatessen was from reading an article somewhere about their duck carnitas tacos. Those tacos sounded so delicious that I filed the name of the restaurant in the back of my mind as a place to hit up when I got a chance.  A year later, I finally got a taste of those Duck Carnitas Tacos (duck confit, avocado, vinegar, onion, radishes and chile oil) at the 2010 East LA Meets Napa Event and in the process also sampled their Wild Boar Chorizo Verde Taco (ground boar, Mexican spices, avocado and pico de gallo) as well. Wow! They were absolutely delicious and I loved the thickness of the handmade tortillas. I can’t believe I waited a year to try their food.

A month later, I finally made a trip Cacao Mexicatessen’s actual restaurant in Eagle Rock and in fact, I went there 3 times within a month and a half.  That’s pretty unusual for me because generally, it’ll take me months before I re-visit a restaurant, let alone weeks.  Walking into Cacao, I could see it really was also a working deli.  Available for purchase were prepared foods, cheeses, tortillas and various other Mexican foods.

Ordering at Cacao means perusing a menu near the counter before placing your order.  Since I already tried the duck carnitas and wild boar tacos, I opted to order 3 other tacos from their menu along with a couple of other items.  One of those items was a Cucumber Agua Fresca.  It was just a tad sweet, but still very refreshing and I loved the added touch of the fresh cucumber slices added to the drink.

The other item was their Mexican Corn on the Cob (grilled white corn, queso cotija, lime aioli and powdered chili).  The sweetness of the corn and the tart, spicy, salty flavors of the condiments really made this corn sing on my palate.  If you’re planning on eating the whole corn, I’d limit myself to just one or two tacos because it’s quite filling.

Now let’s talk tacos.  The three I ordered all came on one plate. I took a bite out of the Tocino  en Chocolatado Taco first.  Made with house cured bacon, salsa de cacao, creme, bean puree and Serrano chilies, I thought these ingredients made this a more unique taco.  The salsa de cacao had a slight bitter and sweet taste to it which went well with a little bit of heat from the Serrano chilies, but then the creme did a good job of softening all the flavors together.

Second to receive my undivided attention was the Chicarron de Pato (fried duck skin, cabbage, radish, onion, cilantro and salsa verde).  The funny thing about this taco is that if I hadn’t known ahead of time, I may not necessarily have identified the skin as fried duck skin.  The skin didn’t taste “ducky” per se, but regardless, crunchy skin, crunchy cabbage, radish and everything else made for a delicious taco.

Third but not least was the Venison a la Yucateca (shredded venison, achiote, habanero, red onion and cilantro)  The ingredients were quite complimentary to the venison with the achiote providing a hint of earthiness, the habanero with a bit of heat, the cilantro adding some pepperiness and finally, the red onion with just a hint of sweetness.

(Continued)

Head over to the adjacent park and have yourself a picnic starring some of the best fried pork this city has to offer.

Throw a stone anywhere in LA, and your bound to hit somewhere that serves carnitas. Even Taco Bell, currently involved in a lawsuit contesting that its beef is actually beef, tried their hand at a rendition of the carnitas taco. Despite the many bastardized and sanitized version that are available, there remain places in this city that serve carnitas that truly pay homage to what you’ll find in Central Mexico. One such establishment is the family-run Zamora Brothers Carniceria, located just north of Belvedere Park in East Los Angeles; not to be confused with a unrelated Zamora Bros. further west on Cesar Chavez Avenue, nor with another in Pico-Union that closed briefly last year due to a fire. This particular Zamora Brothers serves food ‘”estilo Iripuato”, or originating from the Mexican city of Irapuato in Guadalajara. The building’s exterior is decorated in regal red and blue colors crowned by a slightly disturbing mural of a teary-eyed pig ready to be cooked.

(Continued)