Newsletter: Counter: Izakayas and more tacos
Simbal in Little Toyko.
It’s been a high-stress week for some of us, between the last days of Kobe Bryant and the IRS. If you eat to deal with stress, and even if you don’t, we have some suggestions for you, starting with Jonathan Gold’s latest review. This week, Jonathan checks out a restaurant in a hidden corner of Little Tokyo, where he finds creditable cocktails and Vietnamese-inflected small plates. Because bone marrow and chile jam can be just the thing to help you through the end of a sports era.
Elsewhere, we follow visiting chef Enrique Olvera as he stops by three of this town’s best taco specialists and considers the dichotomy of high and low cuisine, which is even more of a moving target these days. Other pit stops this week include a breakfast spot in Hollywood that’s open only at night, and a new wine bar that pairs its wines with Thai street food. And yes, we have some tax day deals, as you can cope with stress — or celebrate the NBA playoffs this weekend — through a surfeit of tacos, but also with 66-cent martinis.
A Vietnamese izakaya
Short rib pot pie with lemon grass, annatto and beef tendon.
This week, Jonathan reviews Simbal, the newish place in Little Tokyo from chef Shawn Pham, a Sona veteran whose first restaurant reads kind of like a Viet izakaya. There are small plates, “eccentric” cocktails, bone marrow and banh mi salads, all in a lofty space that is as interesting as it is hard to find.
Considering tacos with Enrique Olvera
Enrique Olvera, the chef known for Pujol in Mexico City, samples some of L.A. best tacos during a visit here. He likes the cultural crossover that is taking place inside the city’s tortillas: bulgogi tacos, pastrami tacos and so on. “Here you find people from everywhere with many different interests,” he says. “In a way, Los Angeles is like a spice route now — a lot of people from many places.”
Food writer Gillian Ferguson talks to chef Enrique Olvera as the noted Mexico City chef checks in with a few of this town’s best taco trucks and taquerias. Olvera, whose restaurant Pujol is world-ranked, considers the “spice route” of L.A.’s food scene, as well as the relationship between high-end dining and street food.
Tax day deals
Because doing your taxes often requires some incentive, with or without the IRS, Jenn Harris scopes out some tax day deals, including 66-cent martinis and $1 oysters. If you’ve already gotten your refund, then congratulations — and maybe buy your friends a round of one-buck PBRs.
Breakfast at midnight in Hollywood
Breakfast all day has always been a thing (thank you, diners and truck stops!), but now there’s a new restaurant that serves only breakfast — only at night. It’s called Nighthawk Breakfast Bar, and it’s neither in a strip mall nor off one of our many clogged freeways, but in Hollywood. A very good place for a joint that specializes in candied bacon, drunken French toast and spiked cereal milk.
How to pair wine with Thai street food
Tired of going to a wine bar and eating cheese and charcuterie with your glasses of Riesling and Txakolina? At a new Silver Lake wine bar called Same Same, you can order super spicy laab, spring rolls and grilled pork skewers with chile dipping sauce instead. Sounds way more fun to some of us.
Your “City of Gold” reminder: It’s playing. Maybe go see it. Maybe don’t go hungry, which brings us to ...
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