Road Trip – Page 45

LA Road Trip – Marukai West Covina and Shau Mei Restaurant; Ogo and Smelly Tofu?

July 16, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip

*** Note: Marukai West Covina is now Tokyo Central

Feeling really ambitious, I decided on a Road Trip to LA. The objective; Ogo from Marukai. I left at 715, and actually got to the Marukai in Gardena, 10 minutes before opening time (115 miles in 90 minutes – talk about making great time!). I decided to call the fish Dept and ask if they had Ogo; well they told me that they were out, and so it seems was I, out of luck that is! Well, just to follow-up I called Marukai in West Covina, and was told that they had Ogo. So I decided to go for it! What the heck, another 40 miles really wouldn't make a difference. When I drove into the parking lot of Marukai I noticed that there was alot of work going on the storefront.

I walked in, and there it was, Ogo – $7.98/lb. So basically a package of ogo cost less than 3 bucks. One really good thing about the West Covina branch of Marukai is that they are less busy and thus able to give really good service. I looked at the tuna in the fish case and none of them looked really good, plus all were less than 3/4 of a pound, and I wanted a larger quantity. So I asked the fish cutter if I could get a piece that was about a pound or more. His response "of course", and went and cut me a fresh piece. I also picked up a few goodies like One Ton Chips.

After grabbing a pretty huge lunch, I was ready to hit the road! But I decided to take a drive down Colima Road, through our old neighborhood of Rowland Heights, and there have been a ton of changes since I'd been here last. But Hong Kong Plaza was still there, and crowded and bustling as usual. You basically take your life into your hands when trying to park here on a weekend. We lived a half block away and used to walk here. In Hong Kong Plaza is the Taiwanese Deli Hsia Hsia Shau Mei Restaurant, home of the smelliest of the smelly tofu I've ever encountered!

So smelly, I can't even eat it! But the Missus loves it. This little deli/restaurant serves "hot table" dishes, has a menu of over 100 items, and also serves an array of Taiwanese "shaved ice", drinks, and snacks. Watching me place my order, was the stuff sitcoms are made of! You see I realized, that in all the times we'd been here, I had never placed an order, I let the Missus order in Mandarin. Also I don't really speak any Mandarin! So I tried to place my order for "Cho' Dofu", "huh?", "Cho' Dofu", she shakes her head and holds her nose, "No you don't want!". So I laugh and go, "than i want 2 order", and she laughs and rings it up (fried tofu w/odor, $3.50/ea). It was quite a wait, I really don't know why, everything else here is really "fast", but it must be something to do with the preparation. Come to think of it I really don't know much about Smelly Tofu at all. Here's a scientific article on "stinky tofu" courtesy of eatingchinese.org. She handed me the bag of Cho Dofu and I walked to the car and gingerly placed it far from everything. Unfortunately, some of the smell of the tofu had come off on my hand, ick! So what's the smell like? Well, if "Faces of Death" had "smell-a-vision"…. I arrived home and one order of tofu was devoured in a minutes flat, amazing! While reading the menu my wife noted, "hey look, they now have "Hot & spicy fried tofu w/odor", great, a double whammy…..

A couple of notes on Shau Mei, most of the business is conducted in Mandarin. Prices for most dishes range from $3.50-$6.00. We've received some really rude service here on occasion, especially when it's busy, most of the time it's just indifferent, today it was really nice. Don't let my story of Smelly Tofu deter you from trying this place. I've had many dishes here and some have been pretty good. I've also had smelly tofu at other restaurants, and have enjoyed it. It's only that this version is a bit much for me.

Hsin Hsin Shau Mei Deli
18438-1 East Colima Rd
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
626-964-1833

So what happened with lunch and what about the poke? Well I had the worst commute I've ever had on the '5' returning from LA – 3 hours! So I'm a bit tired, I'll post the other items in the (very) near future!

Road Trip – Sushi Komasa and Little Tokyo

May 27, 2005 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Sushi and Sashimi

*** An updated post on Komasa from 05/30/2006, can be found here.

Having the day off, we decided on a road trip to Little Tokyo, and our favorite little Japanese Restaurant/Sushi Bar there Sushi Komasa. We attempted to time our arrival to opening time for Komasa which is 530pm, at ended up in the Japanese Village Plaza Parking lot at about 520.

Sushi Komasa is a little operation with about 5 tables and a bar and serves only dinner. Though it’s not the most well known of establishments, it’s our favorite for good reasonably priced sushi and was a regular stop for us when we lived in LA.

We were happy to see the familiar Komasa lantern next to the door, but surprised to see 5 couples already waiting ahead of us. It seems that the word is out and Komasa is getting busier. We were able to snag the last corner table, ordered our tea (no sake for us, we had a 115 mile trip back to San Diego), and quickly marked our order off of the sushi order form; 5 orders Albacore, 2 orders Maguro, 3 orders Hamachi, 2 orders Hirame, 2 orders Tai, 1 Negi-Hama, 1 soft-shell crab roll, oh yeah, and one order ankimo.

This was met with the usual “Are you sure you want all this, this is alot of sushi?”, to which we gave the “Oh, yes, we’re REALLY hungry, the sushi here is so good” response. Plus we’ve driven over a hundred miles to be here, so we’re getting our money’s worth!

The Ankimo(steamed monkfish liver) was the first to arrive, smooth and silken, served with thinly sliced cucumber and green onions, in Komasa’s sour, yet tangy ponzu, this is always wonderful. I’ve been told that good Ankimo tastes like fresh crab eggs. I don’t know, but the Ankimo at Komasa is consistently good.

Next to arrive was half of our sushi order:

No need for explanation. The Albacore was topped with grated ginger and finely sliced green onion, tonight the Maguro was not as good as previous visits, but the Hamachi was heavenly, buttery, melt in your mouth delicious!

The second half of our order arrived just as we were finishing up the first – you’ll notice a few pieces missing, I’m new at this “photographing my food thing” and actually started eating the Tai (snapper) and Hirame (flounder) before realizing I hadn’t taken a picture of this dish! Oh well, needless to say, “delici-yoso”……

Our bill came out to a reasonable (for the amount of sushi we ate) $63. Komasa also makes an excellent Chirashi and good Tempura. Most Nigiri are about $3.80. Good solid old fashioned sushi!

Sushi Komasa is open from 530pm Tuesdays thru Sundays – closed on Mondays.

Sushi Komasa
352 E 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA
213-680-1792

We usually “hit” Fu-getsu-do before Komasa, and buy some mochi and other goodies to have for dessert. This Japanese confectionery shop was founded in 1903 and is still run by the same family today. It’s located on a portion of first street declared a National Historic Landmark.

But today we stayed around the Japanese Village Plaza and ended up having some Gelato from Mikawaya, another sweet shop located in the plaza. Cool and refreshing, a nice after dinner dessert.

We then walked down Second Street, crossed San Pedro and onto Ellison Onizuka Street and Weller Court.

I did some quick shopping a Marukai – bought some Okuhara Kamabuko, and other snacks. Also of note, a membership card is not needed at this location.

Some notes on Little Tokyo, there are 3 markets located in Little Tokyo, Enbun in Little Tokyo Plaza, Marukai in Weller Court, and Mitsuwa (used to be Yaohan) which has it’s own Shopping Mall on Third Street. Restaurants and shops abound. Little Tokyo is a quaint, safe, and fun little community that is anchored by the Japanese American National Museum, and is one of the places in Downtown Los Angeles that feels safe walking at night. Every year the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center hosts the LA Tofu Festival which is a fun time. This year it’s scheduled for August 13th and 14th. Though slowed by shifts in population and economy, we were amazed to see a frenzy of building currently going on in the Little Tokyo area, which hopefully ensures a prosperous future for the area.