The Food Desert situation

This is a video from LAANE about two women swapping neighborhoods for a day to find out about each other's access to healthy and fresh foods. One woman is from the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles, the other is from Santa Monica. Guess who has access to the better fruits and vegetables, including organics? Of course, the lady who normally lives in Santa Monica. In the barrio environment of Boyle Heights, fruits and veggies are hard to find, poor quality and expensive. And in Santa Monica, they are plentiful, they are accessible, and if you spend a little more you can get organics.

Where are we here in Panorama City? We aren't a food desert, that's for sure. We have a lovely Food 4 Less, and right behind it is El Super. Food 4 Less has a lot of the standard groceries we rely on day-to-day, plus a good meat department that has proven to be reliable over the decades. El Super is best for a really amazing produce department, plus one of the best bakeries in town. We also have Latino and Filipino specialty markets: Vallarta, El Pueblo, Seafood City and Island Pacific. However: we don't really have a place to get organic groceries. You can find organics occasionally at Food 4 Less, and even occasionally at the 99 Cent Only store (we've got one on the Panorama City side of Woodman) but no place that's consistent. We also have the empty hulk of the old Valley Food Warehouse which closed years and years ago, and is still vacant.

We need either a Trader Joe's or a Fresh and Easy to move in to the old Valley Food Warehouse space and give our neighborhood access to good quality food at low prices. Why should Granada Hills and Sherman Oaks have all the fun?

And another thing: we do have a whole lot of fast food places, two family restaurants (IHOP and Coco's) and a Hometown Buffet, but no really good sit down restaurants. People have nostalgia for places like the Red Barn and Phil Ahn's Moongate around here. We really don't have their like anywhere around here anymore. There is room for a nice restaurant people can take visiting family to and feel good about. I would think a high-end Mexican restaurant, something equal to El Cholo or Ciudad, probably could work here. Hello Hot Tamales...visit us here in Panorama City and we'll make you feel at home.

We are lucky here. We've still got a good food infrastructure here. But we could improve things. And people in less blessed areas need some major help. LAANC is suggesting City Council action on this. I don't know how helpful that would be. But something must be done to get fresh food to less privileged neighborhoods. We can pay now, by investing in these underserved areas, or pay later in the form of more expenditures on health care and disability.

Local delis get props...

Apparently Jewish delis are hurting Back East. However, they are thriving here on the Left Coast. An article in the New York Times actually gives props to two Southland delis: Langer's, just east of McArthur Park in Downtown, and the San Fernando Valley's own Brent's.

As a red-blooded Valley girl who was raised Jewish, with family hailing from New York and Chicago, I have grown to appreciate a good Deli. Alas and alack we have none in Panorama City anymore...the Deli that was in the strip mall on the Panorama side of Woodman is long gone, and that had been on the decline for a while before they packed it up. However, good ones are not far away. I agree about Brent's, but I really love Weilers on Nordhoff at Balboa in Northridge, and Art's on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City is still totally happening.

I am less fond of Jerry's Famous and Solleys, which is really the same deli under a different name. They serve rather nondescript generic Deli food at really crummy prices. However, the place has a bit of history...all through Andy Kaufman's comedy career he worked at Jerry's in Studio City. He never quit his day job because in his view you never know when your career will be over in Hollywood, and he felt it kept him grounded. One could debate that, however, he only quit after he started getting sick from cancer.

Anyway, it would be nice if someone took the plunge and opened a deli up here again. Perhaps just a stall in the Panorama Mall food court? I'd like a place where I could walk and get a turkey pastrami Reuben on rye with cole slaw on the side. Then again, we have delis here, they are just Latino and Filipino. Rincon Taurino has the feel of a deli but serves Barbacoa con Consume rather than Chicken Soup, and Toto's and Pinoy Pinay have Filipino soul food rather than Jewish soul food on sale here. Heck, we could use a Soul Food restaurant here too...oh well...

Eating good, Mexican style, in our neighborhood.

Panorama City has an embarrassment of riches with regard to Mexican food. Don't just go to El Torito or Acapulco or another chain to celebrate El Cinco de Mayo, try some local grub.

1.)Rincon Taurino, Nordhoff Av. and Van Nuys Blvd, and also Van Nuys Blvd. right next to the Ice Rink.
These are the same people. And like Stater Bros. used to say, it's their meat that made them famous. I don't eat beef anymore but I remember that their Carne Asada is especially succulent, marinated for 24 hours in a secret marinade that includes Mexican beer. Their Pork Al Pastor has just the right amount of snappy spicing and is lean and lovely. However, their Pork Carnitas is my favorite...rendered beautifully lean by having all the fat fried out of it. The interior of the meat is juicy, the outside appealingly chewy and caramelized. They'll make any meat as tacos, burritos, tortas, (Mexican submarine sandwiches) huaraches, (Slipper-shaped fried thick tostadas) tostadas or even quesadillas. If you want to maintain the fiction you're eating healthy, you can get fresh juices, "aguas frescas" (fruit ade) and "bionicos" (fruit cocktails) with your meal. Awesome.

2.)El Gordo taco truck, usually parks on the corner of Van Nuys and Parthenia. (North jog) This takes guts. The El Gordo truck usually parks a block away from Rincon Taurino, and they give them a run for their money. They are most loved for their Al Pastor but I like their grilled chicken. When you buy tacos from them they will throw in a little round totopo (fried mini tortilla) topped with freshly made frijoles de olla. (beans fresh from the pot) They also are very generous with fixins too: they allow you to take home fresh guacamole, pickled onions and carrots, cilantro, onion and two kinds of salsas.

3.) Vallarta, (the taco restaurant) Woodman and Chase, right next to the car wash. This is so you do not confuse Vallarta with the Vallarta Supermarket at Woodman and Osborne. The same people who own the supermarket chain own the restaurant. Like El Gordo, they have plenty of fixins for your tacos, burritos etc...in fact, they have a bar with not only salsas but guacamole, pickled carrots; sauteed onions, scallions and chiles kept in a heater; pickled Jalapenos, and even a sort of Mexican cole slaw that has lots of heat.

They specialize in seafood there. Shrimp or fish in your tacos or burrito or whatever doesn't cost any more than less luxurious toppings like chicken or beef or pork carnitas. They also do Mexican seafood cocktails, seafood soups and seafood plates. The prices are extremely reasonable.

4.) Dos Arbolitos, Nordhoff and Woodley. The "Mexican" combination plate is actually a California invention...tacos, enchiladas and whatnot on a huge plate with rice and beans and other goodies and served with endless bowls of tortilla chips and salsa. This is what most people think of when they think of "eating Mexican." It's restaurants in Los Angeles like El Cholo, which opened in 1927, The Original Spanish Kitchen, which opened in the 1940s and closed under mysterious circumstances in 1961, and the original Encino El Torito, which opened in 1954, that made the rules for popular Mexican restaurants to follow.

Dos Arbolitos is an institution in the North San Fernando Valley, and for good reason. They have elevated the Cali-Mex combo plate into high culinary art. If they were on the Westside they would be pulling in $20 or $25 per entree like places like Ciudad does. But they're in humble North Hills, the next town to the west of Panorama City, and so they are quite reasonable.

In 1999 they closed down because the shopping center their original location was in got torn down. Despair set in as locals jonesed for their favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurant. However, a year later they opened up in their current location, and there was much rejoicing. (Yay!)

They make the standards, but try some of their more creative entrees like Pollo con Mole enchiladas and Pollo Alcaparrado which is Spanish-inflected (yes, Spanish, not Mexican!) chicken sauteed with capers and onions and served in a tangy, complex sauce.

The original chef there died a few years ago, but his protege has inherited his mantle and his secret book of recipes. His cuisine reigns supreme.

There's other good places nearby like Pescado Mojado, but these are my favorites.