Wednesday Food Adventure

[choweater]

Down from Seattle with all of Wednesday open to check out some good eats I can't find up my way. Plan on snooping around at Santa Monica Farmers Market, and I've got a comrade with wheels to get all over town if need be; hoping to connect with a small group who live all over LA.

I'd love any suggestions in affordable spots for breakie, lunch and dinner for this Wednsday. Any style of dining is fine - from taco truck to Hunan bistro to SoCal/LA cuisine (remember, affordable though).

[chez cherie]

hope this isn't too late--after the farmer's mkt, you might like to head to andrew's cheese shop. he makes mozzarella on wednesdays, so it's drippingly fresh and lovely.

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Andrews Cheese Shop
728 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA

[choweater]

Nice rec! We'll try and get there.

Heading to market right now. Def hitting Mariscos Chente for lunch but still not set on dinner. Jitlada is a consideration, but other ethnic cuisines as well as local SoCal spots are in the running. Is Animal something I must get to (and stretch my dining budget at little more?

We'll be trying to limit our travels to the westside tonight and might extend our budget to $30-40 but I'm not ignoring the cheaper street food option either.

[namstermonster]

i didn't particularly like any of the dishes i tried at animal but their tres leches is KILLLLER!! :)

[Bjartmarr]

You may want to define what you mean by "affordable" -- I'd call $20pp (excluding drinks) for dinner "affordable", but there are a few suggestions here which are well outside that range.

[choweater]

I'd like to spend 10-15 bucks on lunch and 15-25 (tax and tip) on dinner, not including drinks.

[westsidegal]

you can easily meet your budget at mariscos chente. (their lunch and dinner prices/offerings are the same).
you will need to exercise some care at jitlada, as some of their items will catapult you over your budget limit.

you might consider persian food. my favorite is shamshiri grill on westwood blvd. which offers a wide selection of lunch specials within your budget as well as having regular dinner prices within your budget

[Servorg]

If you want lunch close to the SM Farmers market then head over to Mar Vista and eat at Mariscos Chente (MC) on Centinela (15 minutes from the Farmers Market in Santa Monica). They bring fresh seafood in from Mexico every week and they have the most mouth watering and hard to find Sinaloan / Nayarit seafood. If you look at the place link and then scroll down the page you will find various threads on the wonder and beauty of this places food.

Add: Here is the largest thread on MC: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/585334

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Mariscos Chente
4532 S Centinela Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90066

[choweater]

Thanks for this rec, Servorg. We went to Mariscos Chente after the market for lunch. I was blown away by the camerones de aguachile and ceviche mixto (ok with the imitation crab, loved the freshness of everything.) The real surprise was their camerones de la ajillo. The cheese and garlic sauce was naughty - I scraped every last bit off my plate and the roasted chili laden rice was great.

[Servorg]

Thanks for coming back with a report and glad to hear you all enjoyed it as much as the rest of the hounds (with a very small subset who haven't) who have been devouring their food. I'll be interested to read your review of the rest of your meals.

[Bjartmarr]

If you're fine with driving, then after the FM you could head over to the San Gabriel Valley for various flavors of Chinese -- check other posts for specific recommendations. For dinner I'd definitely stop by Jitlada (Southern Thai). Scoops for dessert.

If it weren't Wednesday, you could go to Spicy BBQ for Northern Thai as well.

[choweater]

We're fine with driving (don't worry, we have plenty of traffic in Seattle, too). We aren't wed to the idea of being confined to one area after the Farmers Market or for dinner.

Thanks for the suggestions so far; I hope the LA Hounds can guide me well!

[Ciao Bob]

So much territory, so liitle time!
Some current favorites:
Hunan Seafood in San Gabriel
Monte Alban - Oaxacan
Ham Ji Park - K*town ribs and pork neck potato soup
Animal - everything
Jitlada - Southern Thai
Ord Noodles

[lotta_cox]

Not sure what part of town you plan to be in, but Silverlake Wine does a Wednesday night tasting at the Standard downtown from 5-8 and it is a blast. Snacks from the hotel kitchen will also be served, and I have always enjoyed the food there. Additionally, there are lots of new spots to check out for dinner while you are downtown. Yxta, Rivera, and Drago Centro are three of my faves. I would personally hit the wine tasting from 5-6:30, then go to one of the afore mentioned restaurants. If you go to Drago, you can walk.