The wall is brightened by a large mural riffing on Marvin Gaye's "I Want You" album cover, and eclectic tunes, from Bob Marley reggae classics to the theme from "Diff'rent Strokes" seep from the sound system, and the employees are upbeat. It doesn't take much fine tuning of your own ears and palate, though, to catch the satisfying "snap" as you bite into a loaded dog inside Otis Jackson's Soul Dog, a new hot dog and soul food joint in the NoHo Arts District.
Quick Bite: Otis Jackson's Soul Dog
Chef Marilyn's Soul Food Express: 99-cents and Up
It’s easy to find Chef Marilyn’s Soul Food. Just head south off the 10 at Crenshaw and look for the line that stretches out the door from 10:30am to 9pm. It’s easy to be tempted away by the smoke from Phillips Bar-B-Que, but Chef Marilyn’s has a line for a reason. Advertising “99-cents and up”, the tiny cafeteria-style eatery sells food a la carte (or a la Chinese buffet). The prices range from 99 cents for dishes like lima beans, neck bones and links to $8 for oxtails. There is also a location on Pico.
It's Bento, Baby! Asian Soul Kitchen Truck Rolls Out This Week
Another food truck is getting ready to roll out this week. The Asian Soul Kitchen is the creation of food and entertainment industry pros Akiko Konami and Richard Wright, and will offer up traditional Japanese dishes as well as inventive fusion items and soulful fare ("a little bit o' Asian and a little bit o' Soul").
The Taste of Soul 2009: Cobbler and Bean Pie
The Taste of Soul 2009 was hot, hot, hot. And that’s even before you start talking about feasting on the hot links and Cajun-spiced fare. The festival of food and music that turns Crenshaw Boulevard into a state fair kind of ambience happened during last Saturday's steamy afternoon.
World Wide Tacos: Soul Food Worth the Wait
Sometimes near the corner of Arlington Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr, Boulevard you’ll see them huddled outside in the dim of the fluorescent light. They aren’t there to smoke a cigarette and it’s not an Alcoholicos Anonimos meeting. Soul food tacos are the objects they desire.
Recession Obsession: Soulful Jazz Brunch in Leimert Park
The Official Recession has been upon us for fourteen official months. It’s still not a reason we can’t enjoy life. This is LA -- we have a million inexpensive options! A Recession Obsession is meal (or activity) that is fantastic whether times are good or bad -- because it's just that damn good. We last loved on Zankou Chicken and Santa Monica's Tacos Por Favor. Today, we...
Miss Peaches Rolls Out the Barbecue
Miss Peaches on Lankershim has just premiered a new weekend barbecue menu for the summer. This cozy little cafe, formerly known as Angelina's, brings a welcome breath of southern comfort to NoHo. Famous for their fried chicken, Miss Peaches usually only pulls out the barbecue for its popular catering department. But this summer you can get your fix while relaxing at a table surrounded by their white picket fence.
Leimert Park Eats: Mama's House
I think I have found it. I have found The One. True, I have not eaten at every soul food restaurant in LA (yet), but if I had to pick the one to settle down with, Mama's House would be it. Hidden away in an old-fashioned strip mall on Crenshaw Boulevard, Mama's House has been quietly gaining fans for the last seven years. The room is comfortable, filled with family photos and bric-a-brac. It almost takes a minute for you to recognize the Japanese windows and realize you are sitting right in the middle of a sushi restaurant, sans sushi. Instead of raw tuna, the glass display case is now brimming with sweet potato pies. Not a bad trade, really.
Neighborhood Project: Country Club Park
Sometimes the news really does paint our wonderful town as something of a racial powder keg, which makes it all the more gratifying when you stumble across a truly diverse neighborhood. Hugging the western border of Koreatown, just south of tony Hancock Park and just north of West Adams, sits a neighborhood where true diversity is a reality. Just how diverse is Country Club Park? Ask yourself this; where else in town can you find a vegetarian soul food restaurant steps from a Goth club, across the street from a Korean church, next door to a Mexican market, up the block from a Korean BBQ, next door to a sushi place? It’s no wonder the LA Legal Defense Fund calls this neighborhood home. Every group in the city seems to be represented. And though the tenuous presence of gangs and pockets of poverty cause hiccups, homesteaders of all backgrounds seem eager to discover this unusual urban enclave.
Pencil This In: Friday
For those of us not stuck on the 15 to Vegas, here's what's going on around town tonight:
Leimert Park Eats: M&M Soul Food
When people think of Leimert Park, they usually focus on Leimert Plaza Park and the one block of Degnan to the north. But the neighborhood of Leimert Park encompasses the eastern side of Crenshaw Boulevard, including Crenshaw and King Blvd all the way north to Rodeo Road. M&M Soul Food sits right beneath one of the blue signs delineating the Leimert Park neighborhood. When you see a soul food restaurant on television, nine times out...
Leimert Park Eats: Cafe Soul
As Lou Reed put it, "The first thing you learn is you always gotta wait." But when you are jonesing, you are always willing to wait. And the catfish at Cafe Soul definitely brings the jones down on me. Cafe Soul opened this past October in the location that was formerly home to the Kitchen on 43rd Place. The changeover was so fast, I'm not sure the restaurant even closed its doors. Cafe Soul...
This Week in the World of -Ist
This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King, and appreciated their beautiful skyline.
Larkin’s Joint Offers Food for the Soul
Eagle Rock has a new soul food restaurant housed in a cozy Craftsman called Larkin’s Joint. With Chef Larkin Mackey at the helm, this delightful eatery has already received much acclaim after a series of tastings available to those on their mailing list. It’s an endearing experience eating at this place, you feel like you’re over at a Southern auntie’s for Sunday supper. Mackey calls his cuisine “contemporary soul food” and it’s an updated,...
Daichan: Japanese Soul Food
Studio City's Daichan is heaven for a Japanophile like me. It will quite possibly take a lifetime to eat my way through its massive menu that has countless selections based on the combined and varied influences of Japanese and Hawaiian cuisine. You'll find everything from basic sushi and sashimi dishes to traditional curry and katsu (like the popular breaded and fried pork) plates, along with dozens of tempting appetizers, noodle bowls, rice bowls, and...
Google 411: No Foolin'
Google Voice Local Search, or Google 411 Experimental -- as the robot's greeting would have it -- is live. In Google's ongoing efforts to take over the world, this service is free, no ads and it connects you directly. The Googleplex also managed to push the product live (experimental) less than a month after Microsoft announced their acquisition of voice query software developer TellMe.
Jonathan Gold's Top 12 Manifold Gifts of the Pig
Jonathan Gold just might be both the first and last word on food in the city. His Counter Intelligence column is the centerpiece of his coverage of consumption in the Eat/Drink section of the LA Weekly; many of his findings are tidily compiled in a book of the same name that we urged you to buy earlier this month for the person on your list who's ready to take their dining out to the next level. His quest for the exotic or unusual has been known to provoke countless taste buds in the readership he's earned since he signed on at the Weekly in 1986. We also love his regular on-air visits to Evan Kleiman's "Good Food" show on KCRW. Gold's Best of 2006 is an homage to the pig. Bon appetit!

