LA Weekend: No Car, Never Better

Tacos al pastor at Los Campos Tacos

Picture this: Los Angeles with no traffic.  No driving up and down crowded streets looking for parking.  No passing on that third glass of wine in anticipation of a long drive home. Impossible, you say?  Sure it is possible.  All you have to do it leave the car behind.

Is it easy to travel around California’s most infamously traffic-clogged spread out city without the use of a car?  Yes and no.  It really depends on where you are staying and what you want to do.

It was in that spirit a couple of weeks ago John and I spent a long weekend in Venice Beach and purposefully decided to do without a car.  We were looking for a beach hotel with proximity to long, ocean runs.   We needed access to great food and some cool bars.  And everything needed to be no more than an easy walk, bike ride, or taxi away.  

Here’s how we did it.

FRIDAY

Pork Cheeks at La Cachette Bistro

Afternoon: Arrived at the Hotel Erwin in time to watch the sun go down from our ocean view room.   Located one block from Venice’s famous boardwalk, music wafted up from the street where someone seemed to be playing Jimmy Hendrix at any hour of the day to the beat of the drum circle out by the sand. 

Evening:  Our friends picked us up for a group dinner at the consistently delicious French bistro, La Cachette, three miles north in Santa Monica.  Pork cheeks, cassoulet, tuna tartar, frisée salad, even a vegan plate for one friend all served with the utmost graciousness from the staff.  They didn’t even seem to mind we closed down the place.

SATURDAY

Morning: Walked catty corner to the hotel for lattes, full leaf green tea, and New York Style bagels at Collage Cafe.

Afternoon: Ran up the paved boardwalk past Santa Monica pier and back.  Rewarded ourselves with tacos al pastor and jamaica at Los Campos Tacos next to the hotel- as good as any taco stand in LA. 

Tagliarini Nero with Calamari at Tasting Kitchen

Night: Walked up to Abbott Kinney, Venice’s main artery of hipster life.  Pre-dinner, The Otheroom was unusually empty.  Pulled up a stool for an AllagashWhite and a glass of French Sauvignon Blanc.  Up te street, we scored a table in the main dining room at Portland influenced TastingKitchen after only a twenty minute wait.  Feasted on gnocco fritto and burrata, escarole salad, tagliarini nero with squid, and buccatini amatriciana.  Caught a ride home with our dinner companion. 

SUNDAY

Seared albacore with yuzu at Wabi Sabi

Morning: Round two at Collage Café plus the New York Times from Beach Market by the Marina del Rey pier.  Sunday paper was totally worth the 1.5 mile round trip walk.

Afternoon: Rented bikes and pedaled up to The Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica for lunch.  The valet parked our bikes in a hidden back area.  No one seemed to mind our slightly sweaty bodies as we tucked into cappuccinos, flatbread pizzas, and towering turkey sandwiches while taking in the epic coastline view from Penthouse, the top floor restaurant.  Continued the bike ride until the sun went down.

Evening: Pretty chilly out so caught a cab ($7) to the far end of Abbott Kinney for a solid sushi dinner at Wabi-Sabi.  Sipped on gold-flecked Bunraku sake while munching on seared albacore sashimi with yuzu.

MONDAY

Morning: Round three of coffees, bagels, and New York Times.  Almost like we were in New York but with better weather and an ocean view.

Afternoon:  Round two of beach run plus tacos and hibiscus drink.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

Fluke crudo at Gjelina

Evening: Met up with some old friends for beers at Larry’s,  a slick new beach bar around the corner from the hotel.  Perfectly empty in December, I could see how this joint with its massive tap beer list and airy rooms is probably packed during the summer season.  Caught a ride to Gjelina on Abbott Kinney.  Ignored their hour wait warning based on experience.  30 minutes and a glass of wine later our party settled into seats by a heater on the patio.  Cured meats, mushroom toast, caramelized Brussels sprouts, cheesy arugula pizza- the courses and the wine kept on coming.

TUESDAY

Pork and Fermented Bean Curd at Mao's Kitchen

We bid farewell to Venice by shaking it up- our run was followed by lunch at the appropriately Venice-cool Chinese restaurant Mao’s Kitchen, conveniently located next to the coffee shop and across the street from the taco stand.  Dumplings and stir-fried pork with fermented bean curd hit the spot. 

We walked, we ran, we biked, and occasionally caught a ride.  Happy well-fed bellies, plenty of sunshine and open water, LA was at its best and the car was never missed. 



Amy Powell is a food and travel writer based in New York City. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell

A Good Find in the Upper West: El Malecón

Cafe Con Leche at El Malecon

Two people can eat really well for $20 in New York.  And no, I’m not talking about upstate New York. I’m talking right here in the city I live, on the island of Manhattan. 

I discovered El Malecón the way most good food finds come- through a friend who lives next door to it.  Indeed, I do not have much of a reason to be hanging out on W. 97^th and Amsterdam were it not for visiting this friend.  But the day she first took me to eat at this gem of a Puerto Rican restaurant was the day I started thinking up reasons I might need to spend more time in this far North section of the Upper West Side.

You see and hear the deliciousness of El Malecón before you taste it.  The store-front is plain (it doesn’t even show up on Google Maps) save for the golden brown chickens rotating in an endless circle on the window rotisserie.  And if you were to wonder the about the authenticity of this place, one pause to listen to the conversation at the busy tables and all doubts are put to rest- everyone speaks Spanish. 

Rotisserie chicken and all the fixins'

I don’t speak Spanish, gracias, but that wasn’t a problem.  The waiters speak English too.  I’ve been a couple of times and though the servers recommend a half a chicken per person, a half a chicken for two people to share is more than enough.  The reason is that this luscious bird comes with a lot of friends- yellow rice, black beans, and really excellent buttered bread.  Add sides of fried plantains and yucca, they might just have to roll you out the door. 

Boiled yucca with pickled red onions is as unappealing to eat as it is too look at.  But other than that one failure, every side I’ve had has been almost good enough to make a meal in of itself. 

Total cost for this feast for two with café con leche to finish? $15-$20, lunch or dinner.

The décor is plain and the service sometimes non existent (not unusual to be served food with no utensils with which to eat and no server in sight) but the food is really good, really filling, and a far cry from the pretension of “casual” restaurants in other unnamed neighborhoods.  I might not suggest El Malecón for date night, but for an Upper West Side adventure- say after a trip to the Natural History Museum or before catching a show at Symphony Space- this restaurant is just right. 

From one friend to another, you will thank me next time you are on the far Upper West looking for a place to eat.  You’re welcome.  Or as they say at El Malecón, de nada. 

El Malecón- 764 Amsterdam Ave (at 97^th St.), New York, NY

Amy Powell is a food and travel writer based in New York City. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell

Indian-Bangladeshi and All Lit Up

Inside Milon, Indian-Bangladeshi restaurant New York City.

Walking down Curry Row on East 6^th St. of New York (between 1^st and 2^nd Avenues) on a recent evening, no less than a dozen people beckoned me inside, each promising their Indian restaurant was better than the other 22 Indian establishments that stretch down this block and around the corner on 1^st Ave. 

                           

I don’t remember why we started coming to this one particular curry house, but I think a friend of my brother’s from law school had insisted the restaurant up the stairs and to the left at the corner of First Avenue was a stand out in the sea of masala sauce.  And yes, it is the one dripping in Christmas lights. 

You cannot help but have a good time at Milon, a restaurant where you must duck to get in under a couple thousand hanging Christmas, chili pepper, and now for Halloween, pumpkin lights.  And nearly every night- at least every time that I have been there- the main lights will dim at some point, raucous Indian music turned up, and the staff will dance and sing Happy Birthday to some patron for whom it is almost certainly not their birthday.

Most importantly the food is cheap and delicious.  Lamb curries come simmering on hot platters.  Chicken jous is bathed in a rich sauce of almonds and cream.  Parathas, dripping with ghee and stuffed with chopped garlic, arrive fresh and steaming off the griddle.

 

Like many on curry row, Milon does not have a liquor license.  Luckily the Indian market, down the stairs and to the right, has stocked an increasingly better selection of beer over the years. Everything from requisite Taj to Japanese Hitachino Red Rice Ale is available to quench your thirst from all that Indian-Bangladeshi spice. 

And even if you go all out on beer like we did on a recent night indulging in some large format German and Belgian selections, the total price of dinner plus drinks (from the liquor store) is unlikely to set you back more than $50 per couple.  I don’t know about you, but I have yet to find many places in New York where you can eat like a Raj and drink like a Trappist monk for the cost of a one-way cab to JFK.  And don’t forget the Christmas lights. 

Amy Powell is a food and travel writer based in New York City. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell