The Cat Dish

#CatTravels: Eating in the 626

By Catherine Toth Fox • October 17, 2013 • #CatTravels, Food

People in California relate to area codes.

562 is Long Beach. 619 is San Diego. 818 is Burbank. 213 is Downtown LA. 415 is San Francsico. 805 is Santa Barbara and Ventura. And 310 is Santa Monica, Malibu, Compton and Beverly Hills.

Today, I was hitting the 626. This covers most of the San Gabriel Valley and nearby neighborhoods like Pasadena, El Monte, West Covina and — here — Arcadia.

And this is where my pal, Jay Terauchi (@chef_jay), decided to feed me. We toured around with fellow blogger extraordinaire Amy Shuster (@backyardbite) and the 626 food expert Kristie Hang (@626foodettes) who — I’m not even kidding here — is like Google for this area. Ask her about any restaurant and not only will she tell you where it is but what to order — and sometimes how to order it. (Yeah, she’s THAT serious.)

So after a quick stop at Crème Caramel in Van Nuys — see my blog about it — Jay and I (and my mom) met up with Amy and Kristie at Din Tai Fung Dumpling House for some dim sum — and some great conversations.

Here’s what our eating adventure looked like:

Meet the team

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So here were the LA food experts I got to dine with. From left, Jay, Kristie and Amy.

#CatTravels: A visit to Crème Caramel LA

By Catherine Toth Fox • October 16, 2013 • #CatTravels, Food

“You have arrived at your destination.”

At least that’s what the voice coming from my mom’s smartphone had said.

We looked around. There was a squat building to our right with a kosher deli and a vacant space next to it, its windows covered in brown paper. But no bakery.

“Where is it?” I asked my mom — or maybe her smartphone. “It has to be around here somewhere.”

I parked the rental car, got out and looked around. On the very corner of this stretch of shops was a glass door with what appeared to be a cupcake with legs, holding up a spoon. The dessert declared, “I’m not a cupcake!”

“I think this is it.”

Crème Caramel LA in Van Nuys hadn’t been open a month when we arrived on Sunday morning, eager to try the custards and bread puddings it had already become known for.

Owner and baker Kristine de la Cruz had spent the last two and a half years schlepping her desserts around farmers’ markets all over Los Angeles, sometimes going to three in a single day. She had built up a loyal following of fans craving her vanilla custard, bread puddings and mini pies with flavors like coconut pandan, ube and Thai tea. The next step? Open a dessert boutique, of course.

So she did.

She found this 646-square-foot space in Van Nuys on Burbank Boulevard where she makes and sells her desserts alongside other goods — gourmet popcorn, gluten-free cookies, chocolate hazelnut spread, freshly baked baguettes — by local artisanal foodcrafters. (She hasn’t given up farmers’ markets, though. Here’s the list of places she’ll be at.) She evens has a small breakfast menu with items like Spanish tortilla and strata with kale, apples and cheddar cheese.

Though she has expanded her menu a bit, de la Cruz knows what has — and will continue — to draw customers to her shop.

“We’re not trying to be an expert in everything,” de la Cruz says. “We know that custard is our wheelhouse.”

Here are more photos from the shop:

Crème Caramel LA

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It's not the easiest place to find — GPS does help — but trust me, it will be worth the effort.

#CatTravels: From Little Tokyo to Koreatown

By Catherine Toth Fox • October 15, 2013 • #CatTravels, Food

Every big urban city has ethnic neighborhoods, and Los Angeles — with about 3.8 million people from 140 different countries speaking 224 different languages — is no exception.

And that’s just the urban center. The larger metro area boasts 12.8 million people, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second-largest in the United States.

There are little ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Little Ethiopia (most expensive gasoline, we noticed), Little Armenia, Tehrangeles, Thai Town and Historic Filipinotown.

But the two neighborhoods I wanted to take my mom were Little Tokyo (what we used to call Japan Town) and Koreantown.

According to the 2010 Census, non-whites made up just over half of the population of LA, with Asians totaling 11.3 percent. So it’s no wonder these neighborhoods are here — and, at least with Koreatown, growing, too.

We started the day in Little Tokyo, hit a bakery in between, then bought dinner in Koreatown.

Here’s what that adventure looked like:

Breakfast

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Points for thinking ahead. I ordered a chocolate croissant from Andersen's Danish Bakery & Restaurant the day before to have for breakfast, and it was perfect.

#CatTravels: A visit to King’s Hawaiian Bakery

By Catherine Toth Fox • October 13, 2013 • #CatTravels, Food

On my first date with Derek — we went hiking with my dog, Sunny, and another I was dog-sitting — he told me about his family.

And the only thing that stuck was the name, “King’s Bakery.”

His grandfather was the brother of Robert Taira, who founded the popular — and still missed — Robert’s Bakery in Hilo on the Big Island. Like the rest of the family, Derek’s dad worked in the bakery, too, until he left Hawaii for college, then moved to Kona to work as a teacher.

Derek didn’t grow up like his cousins, working at what was later called King’s Bakery. (Robert had had moved his shop to Honolulu on King Street.) But he did have fond memories of visiting the bakery when his family was in town, seeing his Uncle Robert at work there, and eating ice-box cookies and custard-filled eclairs.

Production of the bakery’s popular sweet breads moved to California in 1977. And King’s Hawaiian Bakery, as it’s called now, opened a full-service bakery and restaurant in Torrance, Calif. in 1988. Four years later, the King Street location closed for good and the entire operation — including the Taira family — moved to Southern California.

The Torrance location took off, serving both locals who had moved to California and folks who loved local-style food. In 2002, it opened its second location, a casual bakery and cafe called The Local Place. It’s in Torrance, too.

And all this time — despite three trips to Southern California since then — I had never been to King’s Bakery. I’ve never even driven by.

Well, that was going to change on this trip to Los Angeles.

I got in touch with Eric Chang, a local boy who moved to California to work for King’s Bakery as its brand manager about 10 years ago. He, along with his wife, Jessica, planned to meet me for lunch on Saturday. I was curious to see the bakery I had often visited when it was open in Honolulu — and I really wanted to try the famous Paradise Cake I had heard. so much about.

I didn’t even eat breakfast that morning.

Here’s what my lunch at King’s Hawaiian Bakery looked like:

King's Hawaiian Bakery

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This location opened in 1988, and though I had been here three times since, I never made it down to Torrance to stop in.

#CatTravels: Quick spin to Santa Barbara

By Catherine Toth Fox • October 12, 2013 • #CatTravels, Food

I have to admit, I didn’t really “get” Santa Barbara at first.

But I could say the same thing about LA in general.

On my first two trips to Los Angeles, the last being 12 years ago, I didn’t care for it. Too spread out, too aggressive, too much concrete.

But fast forward to now. I’ve traveled all around the world, lived among skyscrapers in Chicago, learned to enjoy wine — and visiting LA this time around has been different.

I can appreciate the vastness, the quick pace, the crowded highways. It gives this city its charm, and I can now understand it.

But Santa Barbara was tougher to figure out.

I didn’t know where to go or what to look for. We just parked the car and started to walk — and slowly, it all started to make sense.

My only regret, though, it not making it to Santa Ynez Valley, where, I think, the real Santa Barbara would show itself. I think this is where people “get” it — and I’d understand more why this bustling coastal town is so beloved to travelers — and not just wine drinkers.

Here’s what our afternoon in Santa Barbara looked like:

Chocolate Maya

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We had accidentally pulled into a municipal parking lot — first 75 minutes free! — and found this little chocolate shop.