Dining at The Original Farmers Market

[AlliK]

bookluvingbabe said:

Sounds fabu!  We're spending 3 days in LA before Hawaii next month.  I haven't been to LA since 1999 so I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. 

Try AOC... yum!

And if you head to the farmer's market, Loteria Grill is great for Mexican food. My other favorite for a cheap snack when I lived there a couple years ago was Diddy Riese in Westwood Village - for $1 you get two big, fresh, warm chocolate chip cookies sandwiched around a big scoop of ice cream. $1 also gets you 2 cookies and a carton of milk. Ah, I miss that place...

[Sundae in the Park]

On Thursday I had the opportunity to visit the Farmers Market on 3rd & Fairfax. I passed on the pork sausages but found Lite My Fire - the perfect shop for adventurous hot sauce lovers.

Loteria Grill - an authentic mexican food stand in the LA Farmer's Market with great tacos, etc. We ordered a variety - cochinita pibil (pork), chicken tinga, and chicken in poblano mole and all were delicious. Imgaine...the tortillas actually taste like corn! Lime agua fresca and a side of nicely stewed, rich black beans rounded out the meal.

Another lunch I has was at the Farmer's Market near the Grove, at a stand called Singapore's Banana Leaf. I was introduced to this place a few years ago by a friend who was good friend with the family that runs the place. The cuisine is Singapore/Malaysian/Indonesian food. All the ingredients are really fresh and it's not at all expensive. Everything is also served on a banana leaf. I got the Rojak salad, a fresh salad with cucumber, sprouts, apple, pineapple, fried tofu, and peanut-tamarind dressing- awesome. We got the paratha - like a fried dough that is ripped apart and dipped in curry sauce. For entrees we had the Me goreng, a fried noodle dish, and the Beef Rendang, a slow cooked beef with coconut/ginger. A great lunch.

Went to the LA Farmer's Market and had a delicious breakfast at Â¡Loterí­a!, a stand serving delicious Mexican food. I got their Chilaquiles - tortilla chips soaked in rojo/red sauce topped with queso fresco and crema mexicana.

On my last day in L.A. I had coffee and a warm glazed donut at Bob's in the old Farmer's Market--it's one of Jonathan Gold's "Ninety-nine things to eat in L.A. before you die" and an old favorite of mine.

I spent a lot of time at the Farmer's Market and had a donut at Bob's and ice cream at Bennet's. Both were incredible. I also ate lunch at Pampas Grill where I made a salad from the well stocked salad bar and selected a piece of bacon wrapped chicken to make my own really yummy salad. I also had breakfast one morning at Loteria Grill. I ordered wrong. I was sad. It was still really good but I didn't love what I ordered. Can't wait to go back though..

I quite like the Banana Leaf at the Farmer's Market at the Grove - pretty good renditions of Malaysian classics like beef rendang, roti paratha, and mee goreng and the folks there are very friendly.

I've had the taco sampler platter at Loteria Grill and thought they were just fine. It was nice to get a variety of flavors but none of them were particularly memorable. In this land of many tacos, it has to be special to stand out.

I've been back to Banana Leaf several times and the food has always been solid.

I've tried a savory crepe at the The French Crepe Co. and it was kind of cold and bland. Definitely cured me of my perpetual crepe longing whenever I pass by.

At the Pampas Grill it's fun to get a variety of meats and sides, and everything I've tried is at least slightly above average for steam table/salad bar food (though you should concentrate on the meats). The meats have distinct flavors and textures and aren't generally overcooked (difficult to do in this situation!). It's a pay-by-weight place and there's usually a fairly quick-moving line.

Moishe's Restaurant always calls to me when I'm in the Market, but in the end the Middle Eastern food there is never exciting. It's fine, but there's better to be had in Glendale or Tehrangeles.

I can never resist grabbing a piece of toffee from Littlejohn's English Toffee House. Watching them make it destroys my willpower every time. There's enough turnover that I've never had a stale piece - always a delightful crunch!

BTW, the Superbowl is an excellent day to hit the Market while avoiding crowds

Parking in the lot is difficult so I generally forgo trying to get a validated space and just park at the Grove garage instead. They don't accept validation from the Farmer's Market stands but it's worth it to avoid hunting for a space, and you can always get validation from a Grove merchant if you're going shopping.

[DonRocks]

Come back onto the stage, and take a bow for having written this masterpiece-of-a-post, Christine.

Anyone who sees Christine's post, and doesn't "Like" it ... I'm going to amputate your private parts with a dull knife. Not only did she write - and *link* - her own original text, she also rounded up every previous reference to The Original Farmers Market we have. I guarantee this post took close to two hours to research, write, link, and assemble. Really - two hours, if not longer.

Thank you, Christine. Just ... thank you. I know what went into doing this, and it will serve people going forward for a long, long time. Yours is one of the greatest posts in the history of this website.

Do you know how much Christine got paid for doing this? *Nothing*.

Thank you!

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ETA - Quality writing does not go unnoticed.

[dcs]

October 27, 2017 - One Day Only.

100-Year-Old Magee’s Kitchen Celebrates With $1 Food at the Farmers Market - History and cheap eats at one of the city’s longest-standing eateries, by Farley Elliott Oct 26, 2017, 9:30am PDT, on la.eater.com.

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Magee's Kitchen (DonRocks)