Porto’s Bakery

Unfortunately, I’ll be leaving for Northwestern Tuesday (my summer is officially over), so this will be my last post on the SFVguide…for now.  I hope you enjoyed reading my reviews and checking out these restaurants.  I’ve got to say that it’s been a lot of fun discovering new places to eat and things to do, and it definitely made my summer more exciting.

This is one of the posts I am MOST excited for. Why? Because it brings back such good memories of a delightful brunch I had.  And looking at these pictures just gets me hungry again.

Porto’s Bakery has two locations: Burbank and Glendale.   I went to the famous bakery in Burbank and it was a LOT bigger than I imagined it to be. Inside the Spanish-style of the building, there is a snake of a line leading up to glass cases filled with the most delicious-looking pastries.  There was also a dining area that was filled with people carrying their bakery boxes to sit down and eat with a cup of coffee.

Porto’s is a Cuban-style bakery that has been in Glendale for over 35 years serving specialty cakes, pastries, desserts and even sandwiches.

The long line moved quickly and before I knew it, we reached the glass cases before I could decide what I wanted.  Oh my goodness. The choices were overwhelming…cakes, red velvet cupcakes, fruit tarts, rolls, creme brulee, cookies, and all different types of pastries!  However, my research and the advice from friends was to head straight for the potato balls and cheese rolls because they were Porto’s best.

Potato Balls

The Potato Balls were different than I expected – they were fried potatoes with a savory meat interior.  They are delicious to eat piping hot and the flavors juiced out with each bite.  I soon realized that ordering one potato ball per person was definitely not a good idea, I wanted more after I finished.

Refugiado - guava and cheese pastry

We also orderd the refugiado, which is a guava and cheese pastery.  It might seem a little strange because guava’s not a fruit you typically see in a fruit pastry, but this little number proves that it should be.  It’s the perfect mix of tart sweet (guava), creamy sweet (sweet cheese) and flaky sweet (the pastry).

cheese roll

The cheese rolls from Porto’s are made to perfection with delicate flaky pastry coated with a sugared glazed and filled with sweet cheese, sort of like a Danish.  It leaves your fingers all sticky, but the constancy of the thin pastry combined with a smooth sweet cheese creates a wonderful texture.

Pear Danish

I also loved the Pear Danish, which actually had half of a peeled pear in the center of the pastry, surrounded by sweet cheese.  All this made me wish we had ordered more savory pastries, but hey, you live and you learn right?

I really want to go back and try all the different goodies that I wasn’t able to try the first time, because everything looked so, SO delicious.  Porto’s, you have a new biggest fan.

Locations:  Glendale – 315 North Brand Blvd, Glendale, CA 91203

Burbank – 3614 W Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505

Good Ole’ Grandma Kim’s

This is another one of my favorites around these parts, a little restaurant tucked away in a nearly abandoned shopping center near the intersection of Roscoe and Topanga.  I keep going back because there’s always plenty of seats available and simply because I like the food.

Grandma Kim’s is a family-owned restaurant that started nine years ago with very humble beginnings, according to Richard Pai, the general manager.  The idea came from fellow churchgoers who loved to eat the food Grandma Kim made.

“They asked her to open a restaurant, and she did,” said Pai.

Although Grandma Kim has since passed away, her family keeps her legacy alive and continues to serve authentic Korean food.

Seafood Pancake

This is my favorite appetizer Pachan, or seafood pancake.  It’s another one of those savory pancakes that is made of various types of seafood and green onions all fried together with dough.  You cut it up like a pizza and give everyone a piece to dip into black vinegar/soy sauce.  When you eat it hot and crispy it tastes simply delicious

Kimchee Tofu Soup

This is best eaten when its really cold outside, so you can warm yourself up to a steaming bowl of spicy Kimchee Soon Du Bu, or soft tofu soup.  But…consider its summertime in the Valley, prepare to get all sweaty.

Galbi

The classic Korean BBQ -Galbi, or thinly sliced boneless beef with a tangy sauce.  I can’t say I’m an expert at Korean food (or any type of food for that matter), but in my humble opinion, this Galbi is really good.

The food at Grandma Kim’s is a little more pricey, around the range of $10-20.

Location: 8384 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Canoga Park

Brent’s Deli

Hello San Fernandians! I just got back from a trip to Taiwan, and so I apologize for the long haitus since my last post .  I know you must all be dying to know where to eat next, so here it is…the top rated deli in LA!

Located in a shopping center on Parthenia, I knew that Brent’s Deli would be a big deal from the fact that they had valet parking outside the unassuming restaurant.  And for good reason too – I couldn’t find a parking spot for the life of me!

Inside, the customer is first greeted with a bakery and a bunch of people waiting to be seated.  The owner didn’t have time to talk to me because of the lunchtime rush, but according to the menu, the deli was bought by the current owner, Ron Peskin, in 1969 when it was failing and in debt.  Peskin ran the deli until it became the number one deli in LA, and has since opened another store in Westlake Village.

I found the prices on the menu to be a bit more pricey than I expected, with their famous pastrami and corned beef sandwich about $13.  But once the dish arrived in front of me, I found out why it cost so much.

Pastrami and Corned Beef Sandwich

In a few words: it was HUGE.  If you’re looking for your run of the mill one piece of pastrami sandwich, then this sure isn’t it.  But if you’re looking for meat MEAT MEAT with a few slices of bread, then OH BOY you are at the right place.  It took me a while to figure out how to fit the sandwich in my mouth (I finally had to contend with first taking a bite of the pastrami sections, then of the corned beef section), but when I finally tasted it, it was SO good.  The meat is sliced so thin that it’s delicate and tender and every bite is FULL of flavor.  Half the sandwich made me full.

Potato Pancakes

We also ordered latkas, which are potato pancakes that came with apple sauce and sour cream to dip in.  I didn’t think it was anything too special, but then again, I might of just been wayy too full from the sandwich…

I would definitely recommend this place, just be prepared to wait for a table if you come at lunchtime and be SURE to come with an empty stomach.

Location: 19565 Parthenia Street, Northridge

Las Fuentes

Uf! Just realized that I haven’t updated in a few days, I just feel like I’m getting lazier and lazier–like I’ll eat at all these amazing places, but get too lazy to post about it.  But fret no longer! I am back!!

SO, let me introduce you to a Mexican restaurant I ate at a few weeks ago…Las Fuentes!

Walk inside the Reseda restaurant, and you are greeted with bright bursts of color. If you want me to describe the decor in one word, I’d say BOLD.  In two words maybe FIESTA FIESTA! Ok on to the real deal.

So when you first enter, you walk up to a cashier where you order your food and pay for it, then you pick it up at a different window and seat yourself at one of the colorful tables (with hand-painted chairs too!) The menu includes a number of your usual Mexican dishes like burritos, tacos, quesdillas and tortas for a pretty inexpensive prices – $6 for burritos and around $10 for dinner plates that come with rices and meat.

Carnitas Burrito - inside and out!

I ordered a burrito with carnitas and it came covered in a pool of cheese (which just made it so much better).  The burrito was pretty good, not too spectacular and the carnitas was a bit too salty.  Later on I found out that Las Fuentes is known for their amazing carne asada and that I totally ordered the wrong dish.  Hmm, well I guess I need to go back and try it again.

Address: 18401 Vanowen Street, Reseda

King’s Burger

When I tell friends that I’m making a blog introducing restaurants in the Valley, they starting listing off their favorite restaurants. And a large number of them start with “Well, of course, King’s Burger…” So, I brought a camera, a friend and an empty stomach to check out this unassuming restaurant on Reseda Blvd.

Inside, the restaurant looks like any other burger joint, but one glance at the menu and you’ll see something a little bit different.  More than just having the usual fare of cheeseburgers and pastrami sandwiches, the menu includes quesadillas, teriyaki bowls, and sushi.  It’s perfect if you’re in a group of friends who can’t agree on a type of food to eat, King’s Burger pretty much covers it all.

The reason for the Asian foods that you usually don’t find at your usual burger place is because a Korean couple bought the restaurant 15 years ago.  They asked their son, Young Cha, to help them run the restaurant.  Cha had previously worked at a number of high-end sushi restaurants and after he started working at King’s Burger, he found some free time to make sushi.  Cha’s sushi menu is filled with different rolls that he had made for high end restaurants, but the only difference is the price.  The sushi here is around the $7-$11 range as opposed to the more expensive fish found in his previous restaurants.

King's Special Roll

I tried one of Cha’s creations, the King’s Special Roll.  It consisted of a imitation crab and avocado roll, fried, covered with fried lobster and fish roe, drizzled with sauce.  Oh my goodness.  The quality of the sushi here was top-notch.  If I closed my eyes, I could imagine myself in at an expensive sushi restaurant on Sunset Blvd with dim lighting and minimalistic furniture and, of course, an eye-popping bill to top it off.  But instead, I was at a burger joint surrounded by families and everyday people on their lunch breaks and best of all, I just spent around $9 for this roll that completely filled me.

King's Burger

To prove that King’s Burger does have its namesake, this is a King’s Burger.  It’s HUGE with a generous portions of beef patty and pastrami.   My friend found the burger really tasty and extremely filling.  If you get this one, good luck opening your mouth wide enough to fit that in your mouth.

Cha admits that working at King’s Burger is a really different atmosphere from working in Hollywood, but he likes seeing regular customers coming back time and time again because they really like the food.  On the particular afternoon I visited the restaurant, Cha said that he pretty much recognized everyone at the restaurant and because of this familiarity, he plans to continue making amazing sushi affordable in the Valley.

Rating: 9.5 for quality + price

Location: 9345 Reseda Blvd, Northridge

Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria,

This place is in Valencia, but at work, we ordered at 36 inch pizza. OH my GOODNESS it was huge. And tasty!

It wouldn’t fit through the door, so they had to turn it sideways, which crushed part of the pizza. Also, there was no more room on the table so we had to eat over the pizza box. CRAZY!

Location: 26570 Bouquet Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita

Fab(ulous) Hot Dogs

One Sunday after church, some friends wanted to grab a quick bite and demanded that we go to Fab Hot Dogs.  One of my friends was getting his wisdom teeth pulled the following week and wanted Fab Dogs to be the last solid food he could eat for a while.  I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.

Fab Hot Dogs might be a tiny store hidden near the intersection of Tampa and Vanowen, but it’s gaining in popularity everywhere with its appearance on  “Diners, Drive-in’s, and Dives,” a popular show on the Food Network.  The show is hosted by Guy Fieri, who travels around the U.S. finding the best of every kind of food.  Fab Dogs had been chosen to be on the show, making it the only restaurant in the SFV to get that honor.

Fab Dogs started when Joe Faborcini, who use to own Italian restaurants, started traveling around the U.S.  He discovered that different parts of the country had different styles of hot dogs, and he wanted to bring these different dogs to the same place.  Also, he was shocked to find that nowhere in SoCal could he find the hot dog of his home state of New Jersey, “the Ripper.”  The Ripper is a “hot dog fried in vegetable oil creating a charred dog with an extra crunchy texture,” according to the Fab Dogs Web site.  The menu includes hot dogs for $3-$5 from places as varied as Kansas, Carolina, Coney Island, Chicago and L.A. (For full menu click here.)

Suitably, the L.A. Street Dog is its most popular dog.

Carolina Slaw Dog

I ordered the Carolina Slaw Dog, and it came with a hot dog drizzled with chili and mustard and covered in cole slaw.  The slaw seemed pretty random at first, but after tasting it on the dog, I marveled at why I hadn’t tried a dog like this before.

OK, so let me now tell you about my love at first bite with Fab Dogs (I started a new paragraph for emphasis, it really was that amazing.)  What sets Fab Dogs apart in my book is the dog itself – the casing around the dog is tight so when you bite into it, the dog snaps and there is an explosion of flavor and meat inside your mouth.  Add to that the soft hot dog bun, chili dripping everywhere, and tangy, crunchy slaw and you got a hot dog to die for.

Coney Island

My friend got a Coney Island dog which comes with melted cheese and carmelized onions (as you can see!)  We also ordered tater tots which seemed to be covered in salt, instead I prefer the garlic fries although it really makes your breath stink the rest of the day!

Writing this post makes me want to go back there again…seriously the best dogs I’ve had in the Valley

Location: 6747 Tampa Ave, Reseda, CA

Mediterranean Bistro

Taking a break from Asian food…

During a lunch break last week, I drove over to meet a friend at a Porter Ranch shopping center, and we decided to skip the usual Subway and eat at Mediterranean Bistro.  The restaurant was a cozy little place nicely decorated with mirrors climbing up the walls to the ceiling.

We both ordered the same thing: the $9.95 Combo Plate lunch special which came with Fattoush Salad, rice, and Chicken and Louleh Kabobs. These lunch specials are available Tuesday to Friday from 11-3.

The salad was very fresh and had just enough dressing to cool me down on this hot hot day.

Chicken and Louleh Kabobs

The main dish of Chicken and Louleh Kabobs with rice and yougart sauce was flavorful and not too dry.  Louleh kabob is made of ground beef and spices cooked on a kabob.  The only thing was that after bringing leftovers home with me the smell of the meat was so strong that it filled up my whole car.

The lunch special I tried was pretty simple and decent for a quick lunch, but the portion sizes aren’t big enough if you’re really hungry.

Location: 19735 Rinaldi St, Porter Ranch

Sam Woo BBQ

When I return home to the Valley on breaks, this is usually the first stop I make on the way home from LAX – Sam Woo BBQ in Van Nuys, after which we go buy groceries at the 99 Ranch Market (a Chinese grocery store) next door.

Roasted Duck

Sam Woo BBQ is part of the history of the Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles.  Restaurant manager John Lau explained to me that  Sam Woo BBQ started in 1979 in L.A.’s Chinatown.  According to Lau, authentic Chinese restaurants didn’t exist until the 1970’s, before which they only had Chop Suey houses that served American-Chinese food.  Sam Woo BBQ claims to be the first authentic Cantonese cuisine, first selling only BBQ duck and pork and fried wontons but later on became a full restaurant. The restaurant starting opening in other areas where there was a high concentration of Chinese people such as Rowland Heights and Alhambra.

The Van Nuys restaurant sells the usual barbeque duck and roasted pork fare, but also has a wide variety of Hong Kong-style food from rice dishes to noodle dishes to seafood, beef, and porridge.  Lau says his customers are about 80 percent Chinese immigrants and the rest are people who live around the area.

Sam Woo doesn’t let you make reservations and the restaurant is almost always packed, so be sure to come early (dinner rush is around 6 o’clock).  They’ll make you take a number when you come in, and because the capacity is fairly small in comparison to the amount of people who come here every night, you usually have to stand around waiting for tables to clear up.  The prices for most dishes range from $6 to $10 (the higher end is mainly for their seafood) and it’s best to eat these dishes family-style so you can try a little of everything.

Preserved Egg with Pork Porridge

We ordered Preserved Egg with Pork Porridge (although you can’t really see the egg in the picture…or the pork for that matter).  If you’ve never had this type of rice porridge before, what it is is white rice cooked in chicken broth until the rice is very soft.  Then they add preserved eggs – which are known in Chinese as “1,000-year-old eggs” which are black-looking eggs that have a distinct flavor.  It tastes really good in the porridge, but really nasty with orange juice. Trust me.  The Porridge at Sam Woo has just the right mixture of taste and texture so that it’s not too salty, but good enough to eat by itself.

Beef Wonton Soup

Beef Wonton Soup is always one of my favorites, the noodles are skinny but firm, and yeah, the soup base does taste a lot like MSG, but that’s what makes it taste so good.  Just be sure to have a cup of tea ready in case it gets too salty.  The soup is filled with bok choi, large chunks of beef, and savory wontons with skin that fits perfectly around its meat filling.

Shrimp Fried Rice

The Shrimp Fried Rice might be a common dish in a lot of Chinese restaurants, but the one here again is seasoned to perfection.  It’s not too oily or too salty like some other kinds of friend rice, but its light and filling to eat with other food or by itself.

Fried Tofu

The correct way to eat Fried Tofu here is to 1) take a fried tofu and place it in your plate. 2) use a spoon to cut through the fried outer layer. watch the steam rise… 3) use the spoon to scoop some of the soy sauce dipping sauce, and 4) pour the sauce into the tofu.  Biting through the crispy exterior, you’ll find the soft tofu inside…but be careful not to burn yourself, it’s always piping hot on the inside.

Beef with Satay Paste Chow Mein

To be honest, I’ve never been too big of a fan of Chow Mein.  I just can’t really handle the concept of making crispy noodles soggy with sauce – I want it either to be crispy or soft, one or the other.  But I did like the Satay flavored beef and other toppings on this dish.  Satay sauce is a kind of salty and spicy sauce that is actually made from a mixture of seafood, peanut, garlic and soy sauce.

Pudding Tofu

Finally for dessert, I got the Pudding Tofu.  Not sure that’s what it’s called exactly but it is comprised of very very soft tofu in a sweet soup that is usually ginger-flavored.  This is melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and when I got my wisdom teeth pulled a few years back, I ate this everyday.  No joke, this was pretty much all I was capable of eating.

Anyway, I’ve introduced a number a dishes in the post, but one of my favorites that isn’t pictured is the Ying-Yang Fried Rice, or as it’s called in English, Shrimp & Chicken Friend Rice (Cream & Tomato Sauce).  It’s fried rice, half of which is covered in a white creamy sauce with shrimp while the other half is covered in a sweet and tangy tomato sauce with chicken.  It’s made to look like the Ying-Yang symbol, with half of it red and half of it white.

I highly recommend this restaurant for anyone who enjoys authentic Southern Chinese food.

Location: 6450 Sepulveda Blvd # G, Van Nuys (in the shopping center with 99 Ranch Market and Pho)

History of the Valley

One time my brother and I were just flipping through books at a local bookstore and we stumbled a book about the history of the San Fernando Valley.  It was so crazy to see black-and-white photos of the hill on which our house now stands, and finding out that it used to be a meeting place for Native Americans, who had named the hill something like “Black Snake Hill”. It’s so hard to fathom the lives of the people who stood on this same ground 200 years ago.

Anyway, on the topic of the history of the Valley, I found this site called The Valley Observed that is completely dedicated to “San Fernando Valley history, lore and sense of place.”  It’s written by Kevin Roderick, the author of The San Fernando Valley: America’s Suburb (which might have been the book we picked up…but it’s been so long that I can’t say for sure, and I want all my facts accurate before I make such allegations).  It’s a really interesting read with news, history and links, but what I really like is seeing those old pictures from back in the day when Ventura Blvd was just grass and cows.

Reading what Roderick writes really gives me a sense of ownership of the place I call home.  See what rich and unique history we have gives the Valley an identity that is more specific than just being a part of the LA County or a location on a map.  It makes me proud to say I’m from the Valley.

Like, omigosh, soooo totally proud.