Cheap but Hip: Sunny Blue Onigiris

Ever tried onigiri on steroids? Onigiri, those Japanese rice balls often eaten with sprinkled preserved plum or vegetable flakes, is tasty, but pretty stark. Sunny Blue, the Santa Monica establishment added fresh premium ingredients such as miso beef, curry chicken, shitake mushroom, and mayo shrimp, fresh mixes them into the onigiri on the spot and wraps them in a sheet of seaweed to make a "made to order" delectable snack for the customers. Each onigiri is about $3.50 and is a satisfying snack in itself. Two or three of them makes a meal, although you might be hard pressed to not want to try each of the different flavors.

Now, Sunny Blue has a second location in Culver City, on Washington Blvd. Try it. Have a ball.

Sunny Blue Santa Monica
2728 Main St
Santa Monica, CA 90405
310.399.9030

Sunny Blue Culver City
12608A Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90066
310.751.6306

Unhipster's Hangout: Cheap lunch at Jackson Market

My husband worked at Sony's for over a decade but didn't know about Jackson Market just south of Sony until I took him there. Jackson Market is a cool sandwich and salad place with a nice assortment of artisan sodas and cookies. Wedged in a residential part of Culver City just south of Washington Blvd and Motor, Jackson Market's permit to operate in that location must have been grandfathered in since the area is obviously residential with no other commercial businesses in sight.

In the market, you can have the folks behind the counter prepare for you made to order sandwiches: On a piece of pre-printed check list, just make your selection of bread, fillings, cheese, and vegetables. They also have some tried and true favorites as well a great soup of the day and desserts. After you turn in your order, you wait for about ten minutes. During this time, just head on over to the refrigerated drinks section and pick out your beverage. This place has all kinds of sodas from small beverage makers. You can eat at the back of the market where there is a tranquil and charming outdoor courtyard, or you can take your food elsewhere.

Yesterday, we went to Jackson Market, ordered one turkey/cheddar on ciabata to share, had a bag of Lays Wasabi potato chips and tried one of their new sodas:the Marquis 03 Energy Drink. It was buy one and get one free, so I got the Mango Ginger flavor and my husband got the berry flavored drink. The total tab came out to be around $11.00 for the two of us. It was a bit chilly to sit out in the courtyard, so we took our sandwich to the Carlson Park nearby, sat in the car and ate our lunch while watching kids play. It was a perfect lunch outing.

Jackson Market and Deli
4065 Jackson Ave.
Culver City, 90232

Unhipsters' Hangout: The Wonderful Food at Gonzalez Northgate Supermarket

Northgate Gonzalez Market used to be called Top Valu Market, 4700 Inglewood Blvd, Culver City. . Recently, the ownership changed and the price seems to be a tad more expensive than before, but the grocery selection here is amazing. It's a Mexican supermarket, so you can find plenty of ingredients I need to prepare Asian, Mexican, or other cuisines, as well as your typical American fare. Northgate carries a great selection of peppers, both fresh and dried. I love their jalapenos, poblanos, and bell peppers. 

All kinds of peppers.

  
There are also many interesting Latin American ingredients that I don't know how to use that I often wished someone at the market will start holding cooking classes to show shoppers like myself how to use the ingredients to prepare Mexican food. Every time I go to Gonzalez's I spend hours looking at the ingredients, and wondering if I dare prepare them without knowing how. Other times, I will just go up to a shopper who is looking at the same ingredient I'm looking at and ask her how she prepare those ingredients. Most of the time, I get some really helpful answers. Other times, the shopper can only speak to me in Spanish, and we'd look at each other and just laugh.

Tomatillows, Yucca, Carrots, Pinto Beans

Northgate has the freshest cilantros, scallions and radishes at reasonable prices. By reasonable, I mean at least 30% off the mainstream supermarket prices. Top Valu also sells a wide selection of prepared salsa, flan, guacamole, crema, and ceviche. It has a bakery with all kinds of bread. I receintly bought their corn bread. It's so moist inside that I can eat the whole thing by myself. I also always go for the four for a dollar bread rolls and use them to make subway style sandwiches. You simply can't beat the price and deliciousness.

Salsa, guacamole, and ceviche from Gonzalez' Northgate Market.

Unhipster's Hangout: Johnnie's French Dip Pastrami

Are you sometimes tired of all those hipster locale's such as Abbott Kinney Blvd., Highland and York Blvd.? Silverlake and Echo Park . . . .? Do you sometimes feel like you don't belong in those places because you are not dressed hip enough to be seen there? Do you get sick of the $5 lattes, and cappucinos, $15 glasses of wine, $18 small plates and $45 entrees in those oh so chic places? And do you sometimes notice that when you go to those places, the clientele are the white folks and Asian folks and wonder where does the rest of Los Angeles go? Well I do. Sometimes it's just nice to walk into an unpretentious place with good food, reasonable prices, a diverse clientele, and friendly staff, and walk out feeling like you've just been to some place real good.

For those of you who feel "unhip" occasionally, or all the time, I'm going to write about some down home places I like called Unhipster's Hangout. The first of these places I'm going to talk about is Johnnie's Patrami Restaurant in Culver City which has been around since 1952. Situated on the corner of Washington Blvd. and Sepulveda, Johnnie's is a throwback to the Americana of the olden days. (Not that I know exactly what the olden days look like since I didn't come to the US until 1978). It's a diner that serves fried chicken, hamburgers, pickles, coleslaw and the world's best pastrami sandwich. There are three kinds of seating: stools around the counter,  booth with high back bench seating, or outdoors on picnic style tables around a fire pit. On the counter and tables, there are little juke boxes where you can queue up songs from selections such as "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Monday Monday", "Gloria", and many more oldies and not so oldies but goodies.

The wait staffs seem to be from another era: Surly and no nonsense elderly ladies who look kind of unfriendly, although our waitress tonight was a young woman who is awfully nice and polite. (I just checked their website and what do you know? Some of the waitresses are originals! How cool is that!) When you look around, you don't see any hipsters, just downright unhip older folks like me who've probably been coming here forever for the famous pastrami sandwich and chili fries. There tonight were older African Americans couples,  older white folks, an old Asian/caucasian couple, and some African American young men. The pastrami sandwich isn't exactly cheap at $12.75, but it's huge and enough for two people. I like mine with melted Swiss cheese. The cup of joe is not espresso, but has unlimited refill. By the time I walked out of Johnnie's, I felt as if I've rediscovered a treasure, and hoped that hipsters don't swarm here any time soon.