Fabulous Breakfasts, Splendid Lunches : Hand to Mouth: A Gourmet Guide to Street Food

Foodies may gush about their favorite Beluga caviar mousse or truffle consomme, but when the subject turns to more down-to-earth cravings, inevitably people will start reminiscing about their favorite street foods--juicy ballpark franks or sticks of garlicky satay lifted from a charcoal brazier in Bangkok.

Whether in Singapore or Mexico City, street chefs cater to everyone from cabbies to Armani-suited businessmen, and their regulars cherish dishes that have taken lifetimes to perfect.

In the past decade, Los Angeles has inherited wonderful street-food cooks from just about everywhere. They’ve moved their woks, tandoors and comals into mini-malls and shopping centers; their menus are often written only in Mandarin, Hindi or Spanish. While their livelihoods depend on satisfying the longings of homesick compatriots, they are also appeasing the culinary wanderlust of the rest of us. So much is out there, it would be impossible to cover it all here. We’ve left out our favorite taco stands, Asian noodle joints and falafel places, but we did so to flaunt some of L.A.’s less-familiar street snacks.

MEXICO

With Los Angeles’ upsurge of authentic Mexican eating places, tortas , cocteles de mariscos , jugos , licuados , paletas and raspadas are everywhere. For the uninitiated, these terms translate to sandwiches, seafood cocktails, fresh fruit juices, frothy fruit-and-milk shakes, frozen fruit bars and snow cones.

The heart of Mexico’s street-side eating is still antojitos , or “little whims,” that include tacos and other corn-based snack foods. Antojitos come filled or topped with a traditional gamut of meat cuts unavailable as yet at Taco Bell, from the simplest grilled beef carne asada to the more exotic braised lengua (tongue) and sesos (brains). Wading through L.A.’s sea of mediocre antojito places taxes the digestion; finding these was a revelation.

At the epicenter of the expanding Latino community, El Gallo Giro ( 7136 Pacific Blvd., Huntington Park, (213) 585-4433, also in San Gabriel, Santa Ana and Los Angeles ) is antojito heaven. Everything at this huge, stylish, white-tiled emporium is made from scratch in an immense open kitchen, but the Central Mexican-style quesadillas are what draw me back. A cook pats out a thin round of corn dough as you choose from the various fillings (perhaps a tinga of braised beef that blares with the heat of chipotle chiles or the milder shredded beef machaca ) . Then the turnover is closed, deep-fried and topped with shredded lettuce and rich crema Mexicana.

Rigo’s ( 13662 Oxnard St., Van Nuys, (818) 787-2899; also in North Hollywood, Los Angeles and Canoga Park ), a taqueria renowned for outstanding gorditas, eschews tough, pre-made gordita shells. The cooks at Rigo’s fashion each shell to order, and the rim on each twice-fried corn patty makes it look like a mini pie pan. Next they layer in their own creamy homemade beans, your chosen meat and a little tower of salad, capping it all with another gordita shell.

Based on seafood cooked in its own light broth, true Mexican-style seafood cocktails are rather like gazpacho. Into this chilled soup go avocado chunks, fresh tomato salsa and sometimes a touch of catsup; you can crank up the heat with hot chile sauce. A great broth and very fresh seafood, requisites rarely attained at many marisquerias (seafood eateries), are what make the cocteles so fine at La Playita ( 3306 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 452-0090 ). A converted burger stand in Santa Monica, La Playita always has a line in front of the orders window. The excellent Mariscos Sinaloa ( 1901 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 413-7840 ), a former fast-food place now painted an intense ocean blue, serves a more baroque cocktail, the compechana , a mix of shrimp and other seafood crowned with a fresh oyster.

If Patina served tortas , they would taste like the ones from Super Tortas (360 S. Alvarado 6, Los Angeles, (213) 413-7953; also in Sun Valley) . Super Tortas’ patrician sandwiches are light years away from the usual soggy versions requiring a knife and fork. Grilled meats for these tortas, among them lean beef rib-eye and shredded breast of chicken, top a firm, toasted bun with a garnish of ripe avocado.

What sets good paletas apart from ordinary Popsicles are the luscious tropical fruit flavors and, in some, the fruit pulp. The range of flavors is huge, including guava, mango, coconut and jamaica (hibiscus flower). For paletas de leche , fruits or flavorings are blended with milk. In some neighborhoods, paleta vendors sell their wares from bicycle-driven carts. Many procure their paleta supply at El Paraiso (515 N. Mednik Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 263-0748) , a shop also open to the public.

At the minuscule Paleteria El Oasis (2758 E. Gage Ave., Huntington Park, (213) 585-3561) , local business people rip the cellophane wrappers from the paletas faster than the fifth-graders who come in after school. Raspadas , another El Oasis specialty, are crystalline mounds of crushed ice, drizzled with a syrup that contains real fruit.

One of the most charming raspada stands, The Original Snow Cone Factory (3557 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (213) 269-0109) is inside El Taco Loco. The 40-year-old enterprise, an East L.A. fixture, also uses fresh fruits in its syrups (unless you order bubble gum or horchata ), so flavors change with the seasons. Raspadas always come with a witty straw with a mini shovel at one end, allowing you to eat both syrup and ice together.

On a weekend afternoon, nothing beats the Alameda Swap Meet (4501 Alameda Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 233-2764) for local color. It comes as close to a true Mexican tianguis --weekly outdoor market--as anything this side of the border. Here are Los Angeles’ freshest churros , those fluted, egg-rich crullers. Using Rube Goldberg-style contraptions, vendors squeeze strips of doughnut dough into hot oil to cook as you wait.

VIETNAM

Few foods demonstrate the multiculturalism of Southeast Asia as well as banh mi . These hefty hoagie-style sandwiches, made on a crisp French roll, are piled high with cold cuts and garnished with marinated vegetables ( banh mi means bread in Vietnamese, and the meats are adapted from French Colonial charcuterie).

Banh mi shops serve sandwiches made of pate or cha lua , a cold cut with the texture of bologna and taste of Chinese meatballs. Usually, the best banh mi to order is the dac biet , which roughly translates as house special.

Thanh Nhan ( 9569 Bolsa Ave., Westminster, (714) 839-1440 ) makes its own pate, cold cuts, even mayonnaise. Banh Mi 99 ( 9812 Bolsa Ave., No. 100, Westminster, (714) 775- 8834 ) is a wonderland of Vietnamese-style snacks stacked inside and on top of counters. At Ba Le ( 18625 Sherman Way, Reseda, (818) 342-9380 ), a homey cafe, the frail lady behind the counter layers on the cold cuts with a generous hand.

Banh cuon, sheer, silky sheets of rice noodle rolled around a stuffing of meat or shrimp, are a fixture of every Vietnamese deli and supermarket. The pre-made banh cuon sold in markets is like warmed-over pizza, so discriminating Vietnamese prefer the steamed-to-order banh cuon at Tay Ho (1039 E. Valley Blvd., Golden World Mall, San Gabriel, (818) 280-5207 and 9242 Bolsa Ave., C, Westminster, (714) 895-4796) . At the table, you ladle sweet-spicy dipping sauce from large glass jars. Try banh uot , pillow-soft unrolled noodle sheets topped with Vietnamese cold cuts or sprinkled with crispy onions.

MACAO

Diamond Square in Rosemead crams more kinds of Asian food under one roof than you could taste on a two-week Asian vacation. One shop, Yee Shun Deli ( 8150 E. Garvey Ave., Rosemead, (818) 572-4388 ), which has outlets in Hong Kong and Macao, specializes in a gingery, silken-textured steamed-milk dessert from Macao. This custard-like marvel is sold chilled, but it’s worth the short wait to get an order warm from the steamer. Yee Shun also addresses Los Angeles’ multiculturalism with Indonesian-style satays and creamy coconut milkshakes. 8

There is little else in the Indian food repertoire more habit-forming than chat . These savory snacks, fixtures in urban India, are sold everywhere--crowded train stations, bus stops, at the beach in paper cones. The amply filled deli cases at Mirch Masala ( 8516 Reseda Blvd., 8, Northridge, (818) 772-7691 ), an Indian sweet and snack shop, provide a quick take on all kinds of chat. They include garbanzo bean fritters, potato-stuffed samosas and trail mix-style blends of marvelously spiced nuts, deep-fried chickpea-flour noodles, roasted beans and puffed rice. But there’s more to chat than these Frito-Lay analogues. Bhel puri , a salad-like blend of potato chunks, garbanzo beans and onions splashed with sharp, fresh cilantro chutney and a sweet-hot tamarind chutney, is one of many freshly made in Mirch Masala’s kitchen. And chat is only half of Mirch Masala’s wares. A second deli case holds all sorts of sweets called mithai. At India Sweet House ( 5992 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 934-5193 ), another exceptional chat and mithai emporium in the Pico-Fairfax area, whole-wheat flat breads stuffed with curried potatoes (aloo paratha) or cauliflower (gobhi paratha) head a long list of offerings.

At Surati Farsan Mart (11814 E. 186th Street, Artesia, (310) 860-2310) , browse over the display to the beat of Indian rock music. Farsan means snacks in the Gujarati dialect, and this shop does its own regional take on chat. Try pani puri, crisp golf-ball-sized bread puffs that you fill with savory beans and then douse with a cooling minty water before popping into your mouth.

EL SALVADOR

Anyone who’s ever eaten Salvadoran pupusas can’t understand why they’ve never become a food craze like tacos or sushi. The best of these ground-corn patties, stuffed with luscious cheese or shredded meat, have thin crusts around generous fillings. A garnish of lip-numbing spicy pickled cabbage called curtido always shares the plate. Once only clustered around East Hollywood and Pico-Union, pupuserias are now turning up everywhere. Among the best: Papaturro, ( 4109 W. Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 660-4363, also on Vermont Avenue ); Mi Casita Salvadorena ( 14860 Van Owen St., Van Nuys (818) 988-6171 ); Pollo Campero ( 5067 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 953-1470 , also in Van Nuys and Huntington Park) ; La Flor Blanca ( 12571 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove, (714) 539-8795 ).

INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA

Southeast Asian street chefs fling their murtabak dough high in the air, stretching it to a handkerchief-like delicacy. Then they spread it on a heavy, black iron grill and wrap it around a meat or egg stuffing. The resulting savory pastry of Indian origins has to be one of the greatest gastronomic joys of Indonesian-Singaporean-Malaysian street eating. These pastries are the best reason to visit Sudi Mampir (12728 Sherman Way, North Hollywood, (818) 764-1892) .

Another popular Southeast Asian grilled bread, roti canai , comes forth steaming from the kitchen of Little Malaysia (3944 N. Peck Road, 8, El Monte, (818) 401-3188) , where Fai Khaw and her family pamper expatriate Malays with dozens of street-style dishes added to the regular menu on weekends. Her popiah is a tissue-thin crepe stuffed with crisp vegetables and shrimp, her mee Siam a splendid mix of Thai-like curry seasonings on noodles.

There’s also ice kacang , an exotic snow cone in a bowl, which is drizzled with rose syrup and embellished with garnishes--such as chewy, translucent palm seeds and corn kernels--that are unfamiliar to the Western dessert vocabulary. An even more baroque ice kacang comes topped with a scoop of ice cream.

The most authentic West Javanese street food comes from Toko Rame (17155 Bellflower Blvd., Bellflower, (310) 920-8002) where lempur , a tamale-shaped rice roll, is stuffed with succulent chicken. The banana-leaf-wrapped arem-arem longtong berisi has a little strip of marvelously spiced ground meat at its center. Risole, a crepe stuffed with stewed chicken, is an Indonesian equivalent of a blintz. My favorite sweet, talem singhong , a brown-sugar-sweetened cassava pudding cake, has a rich coconut milk topping. Go on weekends when the selection is widest.

TAIWAN

The Taiwanese are fanatical snackers. From the droves of vendors clustered in every Taipei neighborhood come pastries, noodle dishes, iced and hot sweets. 99 Ranch Market, (818) 307-8899 , in San Gabriel Square (140 W. Valley Blvd . , San Gabriel) has recently installed a street-food center to the right of the door as you enter. The servers behind the counter ladle out sweet peanut soup. Snacks include beautiful orange yams cooked in a light, sweet syrup, scallion breads (best eaten warm) and Chinese tamales, the sticky rice triangles stuffed with mushrooms or sweet red-bean paste and wrapped in banana leaves.

ENGLAND

Every culture has devised foods that travel well. Cornish coal miners used to take football-shaped meat pies, called pasties, with them into the mines. They brought the pasty tradition to the American Midwest, where it survives to this day. At the Pasty Kitchen (3641 Katella Ave., Los Alamitos, (310) 431-9747) , the ovens go all day, and when you pick up your chicken or beef with vegetable pasties, they will still be warm.

Guppy’s Pasties (12849 Sherman Way, enter at rear, North Hollywood, (818) 982-5109) makes the traditional pies but they’ve also translated the pasty into an original California-style snack. Guppy’s vegetarian pasties, chile-chicken pasties and chile-beef pasties have a crust made with canola oil as the shortening.

ARMENIA

Armenians will argue the merits of lahmajun from Uncle Jack’s (1108 N. Kenmore St., Los Angeles, (213) 664-8842) or the Sasoun Bakery (5114 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 661-1868) , both in Hollywood’s Armenian enclave. This ultra-thin, pizza-like snack smeared with a well-seasoned minced-meat-and-hot-pepper topping is as ancient as it is wonderful. And both bakeries sell their lahmajun warm from the oven.