Philadelphia Sandwiches

First, I have to talk about cheese-steak for a minute. Say it out loud - slowly: C-h-e-e-s-e s-t-e-a-k. Hot cheese. Hot steak. Sounds great, doesn't? Sounds deadly, too - cholesterol, fat, calories - there is nothing good there. Sounds like something out of the 50's - before we worried about all those bad things. I remember my mom would make a roast beef for dinner, and my father, my brother, and I would fight over what we called the "burnt fat" - the dark brown fatty crust on the outside of the roast. Nowadays, I cut that off and throw it away ... well, not really - I still eat chicharrones - but I know I should cut it off and throw it away. And I know I should NOT be eating a Philly cheese steak sandwich for lunch. At least, not very often.

Now, my problem is - I want an authentic Philly cheese steak sandwich. I have never been to Philly - so I don't really know what that is. And maybe there isn't any single authentic version. But I have tried a few - and they did not SEEM very authentic. Isn't the cheese supposed to be a thick liquid, spooned on top of the meat? Should it have peppers, and onions? And one store owner said his sandwich could never be authentic, because you cannot get an authentic Philly roll without using authentic Philly water.

Well, I may not know what's authentic - but I know a good sandwich when I eat one. And the Philly cheese steak sandwich, with onions, peppers, and mushrooms added, at Philadelphia Sandwiches in North Hollywood, was dee-o-lish-us! Maybe it was the perfectly cooked onions and mushrooms (I have been trying to get good grilled onions on my burgers here in LA with no success) - but the mixture was great - hot, tasty, melted, on a crisp, toasted roll ... I just ate the sandwich a half hour ago, and my mouth is watering as I read this!

The fries were good - nothing special - and the sandwich (the 6" version - they also have a 9" inch size) was enough to eat on it's own, so you don't really need the fries. A large diet coke was truly large. (I hate Diet Pepsi.) The fries came with a real bottle of ketchup - no little packets here.

The restaurant is in a pretty cheesy (no pun intended) part of town. But on a cool winter day, the sandwich just hit the spot. Give it a try.

Philadelphia Sandwiches
11112 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood - (818) 985-4929

Amir's Falafel

One of our favorite places for lunch is Amir's Falafel, located at 11711 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. My wife and I have been eating at Amir's since it was a little walk-up stand on Laurel Canyon Place. For a while, he had a second shop in the Glendale Galleria. We had not eaten at Amir's very often for many years, but started going again regularly about a year ago.

Amir offers 2 kinds of schwarma - lamb and turkey, or chicken. The sandwiches are great, if somewhat messy. Plates are huge - altho we may get some extra since we are sort of regular customers. His falafel is great - crunchy and tasty. I love his hummus - which could be because I am used to "healthy" (meaning low-fat) hummus from Trader Joe's and the local farmer's markets. Amir's is rich and creamy - delicious!

I think that just about everything here is home made. You can see them cooking large pots of chick peas almost any time you go, for example. Prices aren't really cheap - but the plates, for example, are big enough for two to share - we add a side order of falafel if we are really hungry. The sandwiches are big enough for two, as well - but have you ever tried to cut an overflowing pita bread sandwich in half? Just go for the whole thing, instead - you won't be able to resist eating it all.

Let's get started!

Welcome to my new blog about food - primarily about restaurants in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles - but, really, anything about food at all. I started thinking about this yesterday as I was driving somewhere with my wife, and all these ideas kept popping into my head. Now I just need to put them down on "paper."

The impetus for this is the fact that I am eating out for lunch on my own a lot more - my wife has some health problems, so she is not accompanying me, which has freed me up to try a lot of restaurants she had no interest in. Nothing fancy - just all the small places I have driven by over the years, and wanted to check out. I'll try to give you some sense of the place, of the one or two dishes I have tried, and of other food topics that they make me think of.

Right now, I am going to put down some thoughts offline, trying to capture that stream of consciousness I had in the car yesterday. I don't expect anyone to find this now - but if you do, come back later for some real content!

Dan Kronstadt