391243 Thu Apr 12 20:48:30 -0700 2007 22 2 Los Angeles Area 0 2476569 I'm looking for real street food. Not taco trucks, not hot dog stands, not pizza joints. You know, food from carts, vendors or even folks selling from the trunks of cars. I want delicious stuff from quasi-legal or illegal and very mobile sources. So far I know of the ubiquitous Mexican snack of hot dog wrapped with bacon, the tamale ladies and Mexican dessert drink sellers. Does anyone know of a really good tamale lady? The one I knew of where I used to live on DeLongpre near Highland in Hollywood wasn't very good. Too much masa. Also, I was wondering if there were other ethnic street food other than Mexican? San Gabriel, K-town, Lil' Saigon, Thai Town, etc? I think there are a couple of vendors who hang out in front of the Hawaii Supermarket in SG. Not sure what they hawk. Gracias! Thu Apr 12 20:48:30 -0700 2007 18631 DeliciousRhino 1 2476587 Sorry its Mexican but for those interested: I was walking up 6th street, two saturday nights ago and the scene was crazy, unbelieveable. So many people on the streets - it was really dark - looking like they were buying stuff from people who had spread out a blanket on the sidewalk and set out their wares. You could barely push yourself through the people but every 20 feet or so you came across a little set up - usually a woman with a grill or one of those frying 'discs' and people all huddled around - their faces barely visible in the firelight. This stretched from the NE corner of MacArthur park until the Food 4 Less [more or less]. The concentration of sellers was on the north side of the street but I was walking on the south side were there were plenty of food vendors. No posted signs for the most part...and you will need to bring spanish skills. Thu Apr 12 20:55:50 -0700 2007 2476569 14086 kare_raisu 1 2476603 If you're ever in K-town, there is a korean market on western and 5th, called California market, and on most days there is a silver truck/cart in front of the store. They sell Ho Duk, which is a traditional korean street vendor food, a korean pancake made from rice (kind of mochi texture) and the inside is filled with sweet bean, honey, cinnamon, and pine nuts. They cook it right there, and it's yummy. Thu Apr 12 21:02:47 -0700 2007 2476569 89377 spicychow 1 2477158 How about Indonesian Street Food. The name of the gathering is Pondok Kaki Lima, and it happens every Saturday from 10am to 2pm at the Duarte Inn parking lot in the sleepy city of Duarte. In it you'll find dishes cooked up by families, little old ladies, and ex-restauranteurs. Check out some pics here: http://elmomonster.blogspot.com/2006/03/pondok-kaki-lima-at-duarte-inn-duarte.html Fri Apr 13 06:49:26 -0700 2007 2476569 11757 elmomonster 2 2498510 I've been this place before. My wife is Indonesian and she wasn't all impressed with the food there. She said that there's a lot of Indo restaurants in Loma Linda Fri Apr 20 00:34:09 -0700 2007 2477158 90814 Vegasbuff 3 2498964 Can you reccomend any please? Fri Apr 20 07:31:46 -0700 2007 2498510 14086 kare_raisu 3 2499211 Sorry your wife didn't care for it. Which vendor did she try? And what did she have? There are about six or seven food stalls there, cooking dozens of different items each (and some experiment with selling different dishes every week). Realistically speaking, they can't be all winners, but in the dozen meals I've had there, I can say that there were only two I didn't completely enjoy. There's one vendor that does a Nasi Bungkus that wasn't very good (better and cheaper at Toko Rame), but that same vendor does the most unbelievably decadent Es Durian (Durian shake). Another vendor does one of the most scrumptous Nasi Gudeg's I've ever had. And I've had Nasi Gudeg in Yogyakarta. The same booth also produces Soto Mie which is absolutely divine, lots of chewy kikil (tendon). What I'm trying to say is: Visit more than once, or try more than one item, and you will be gustatorily rewarded. By the way, although they are part of the same organization, the vendors are fiercely competitive with each other. It's quite fun to watch how they try to one up each other every week. The ultimate winner? My stomach. http://elmomonster.blogspot.com Fri Apr 20 08:42:59 -0700 2007 2498510 11757 elmomonster 1 2477207 Wat Thai LA might qualify. http://cheapeatsbangkok.com/sites/eatsnstuff_html/html/wat.html Fri Apr 13 07:11:23 -0700 2007 2476569 11046 Curt the Soi Hound 2 2479911 And there's always the fruit sellers who won't pitch in to the wat -- they're on the street on the west side of the temple complex selling fruit for $2.50. There's also the usual collection of Mexican fruit salad sellers. I thought that was required to be a roving thing until I saw Brianna's in Anaheim, which is an actual store. Some of the roving ones sell tejuino or tepache. Fri Apr 13 22:43:11 -0700 2007 2477207 10811 Das Ubergeek 1 2477719 In Santa Ana, there are a lot of street food by the federal court and downtown Santa Ana. For Chinese street foods, the closest would be the HK Supermarket Plaza in Rowland Heights. They have stands, not carts, with HK Fishballs, sticky tofu, and other stands. You can just hop stand to stand and pick up different Asian specialities that are usually sold in street vendor cards in Hong Kong or Taiwan. Fri Apr 13 09:24:43 -0700 2007 2476569 59502 WHills 2 2477788 Second HK Supermarket Plaza in RH. Love, love, love the HK Fishball House. Noodle soups with shrimp for under $3! Can't beat it with a stick! Some pics and a review of what I'm talking about: http://elmomonster.blogspot.com/2006/01/hong-kong-fishball-house-rowland.html Fri Apr 13 09:42:31 -0700 2007 2477719 11757 elmomonster 3 2477879 WOW! I've driven by for YEARS and had no idea there was a shack there! Thanks! :) --Dommy! Fri Apr 13 10:01:05 -0700 2007 2477788 10659 Dommy 2 2479908 This is a very good suggestion -- and it has the right taste and "feel" as, say, the fishball stands and "honeycomb" stands in Mong Kok. Fri Apr 13 22:41:30 -0700 2007 2477719 10811 Das Ubergeek 1 2477844 It really depends on the neighborhood. We have TWO tamale Ladies on our sleepy street in Culver City (One out of a van, another from a grocery basket), but we have many latino neighbors. Two streets up from us, if they even caught wiff of a Tamale Lady, they'd call the cops! :P Also, try heavily latino churches on Sundays. The Cathlolic Church on Inglewood and Culver always has a great selection of street vendors as well the Church ladies often sell the most amazing tamale and pozole right in the parking lot. --Dommy! Fri Apr 13 09:55:08 -0700 2007 2476569 10659 Dommy 2 2478309 Man, this is more than I dreamed! Thanks all!! Keep 'em coming!! I'll be doing a lot of driving!!! Fri Apr 13 12:16:02 -0700 2007 2477844 18631 DeliciousRhino 3 2478499 In the Pico-Union/Koreatown vicinity it's top heavy with street food. One good place is St. Thomas Church, I think it's around Pico and Normandie, great food on Sunday morning with tons of vendors. Going east by Pico and Union especially outside La Adelita there are good vendors with all kinds of good stuff too. Fri Apr 13 13:09:19 -0700 2007 2478309 55281 TastELA 1 2478568 The best tamales I ever had were sold by a guy with a cart who frequented the bars in the Silverlake/Echo Park area around closing time. So, if you find yourself at the Short Stop around 1:30 a.m., you will be in luck! Fri Apr 13 13:25:31 -0700 2007 2476569 11028 DanaB 1 2479147 In Echo Park there's a lot of street food on Sat/Sun, but of course it is all Mexican: At the actual park near the playground you will find elotes (grilled corn on the cob with lime, mayo, cheese, chile and butter), bacon wrapped hot dogs, tacos, raspados On Logan b/w Sunset and Park there's a taco lady who sets up on the sidewalk On Echo Park Ave b/w Sunset and Park there is at least one fruit stand (lime and chile!), a churro truck (these are great), and a woman making what I think are called huaraches (a masa dough stuffed goodies, looks like she might use blue corn masa. they look and smell delicious, but i have not tried them yet) At the corner of Lemoyne and Sunset (next to the pawn shop) a woman sells champurrado and atole (I usually see her there in the morning, but she might not sell it as the weather is getting warmer) If you go, make sure it's the weekend as there are many more vendors than weekdays. Fri Apr 13 16:08:10 -0700 2007 2476569 21564 themirthmobile 2 2486149 this is a deliciously awesome post. also, check out the alameda swapmeet. http://www.chowhound.com/topics/82695?query=street%20food Mon Apr 16 13:11:31 -0700 2007 2479147 16200 greengelato 1 2486204 The food stalls at the HK Supermarket plaza in Rowland Heights is good for lots of Chinese food. The MacArthur Park neighboorhod, especially on the weekends, has loads of people I saw a guy selling ceviche out of the trunk of his car a few days ago on 7th. Echo Park too... but honestly many of the heavily Latino neighborhoods have this sort of thing going on. And on the weekends, at night I sometimes go over to East L.A. and look for the illegal taco carts that have Al Pastor made with actual fire against the spit (most of them use the electric kind) You'll notice them because of the smoke and the many people gathered around. Olympic has a couple that come to mind, but the entire area has them. Mon Apr 16 13:26:39 -0700 2007 2476569 47527 mcmal 1 2486590 Seems like the legal food stalls nowadays are at the farmer markets. I noticed quite a few at the Torrance market, and there are 2 at my local Diamond Bar market. Mon Apr 16 15:16:10 -0700 2007 2476569 46671 notmartha 1 2496584 I used to live in Pasadena and just to the north in Alta Dena there used to be people selling bbq on many of t5he street corners there Thu Apr 19 12:31:53 -0700 2007 2476569 90689 ozbuc 1 2498486 At the Beverly/Vermont subway station you can usually find a fruit cart all day, and in the afternoon rush hour there are several more vendors. Most of them sell whole fruit, but there are also a couple of ladies selling cooked food. The other day I had a really delicious deep fried chicken empanada-type thing, served in a plastic bag with some onions and some salsa. The masa had that rich, corny home made taste, and the contrast between the warm, slightly crispy chewiness of the empanada and the cool bite of the onions and salsa was wonderful. I am not an expert in central American food, so I don't know what this thing was called or to what country it belonged, but I will definately go back and look for it again. Fri Apr 20 00:08:37 -0700 2007 2476569 36614 OCchowman