Eats Around Saatchi LA

Red socks

Sushi Ken Redux

We return to Sushi Ken today. The quality of this place never ceases to earn respect.

We’ve eschewed our go-to dish, the broiled-mackerel and sushi lunch set, and opted instead for a classic chirashi-zushi bowl (see pic below), a dish that varies widely in execution. It’s a dish that is broadly subject to the chef’s interpretation, style, available ingredients and the season.

The essential concept is sashimi and fish eggs on a bowl of rice with lots of other items like seaweed, pickled and non-pickled veggies, and fish cake slices mixed in, as well as wasabi and other garnishes.

The diner can mix it all up into a mess or pick and pair items from the bowl to create various flavor combinations.

Think of it as a super yummy sushi mash-up.

Chirashi-zushi at Sushi Ken on Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance

Baby’s Badass Burgers

The Story

Today’s lunch was another food-truck dining experience. This time around, we and 300 SSLA staff got a meal from Baby’s Badass Burgers (BBB), a made-to-order hamburger-making machine on wheels that roams the greater Los Angeles metro area. The lunch was paid for by the folks at MSN (you see, Microsoft isn’t completely evil).

At any rate, we were a bit excited about this because we’ve been eating some super-ridic awesome food-truck meals recently and because the truck was featured in an episode of Entourage, a television show we’re fans of (and to which we have fond connections).

BBB was providing a choice of two types of burgers, a regular “All-American” and a veggie version of it. The usual soft drinks were provided as well as a massive coronary-inducing variety of heavily salted potato chip brands. See below to view some photos from the experience.

Ratings & Notes

J-Mic: 6.0 - Not taking into account the long line (we waited nearly an hour), the burger was decent for a food truck. They did mess up my order and make me wait an additional 10 minutes, I’m knocking a point off the 7.0 I would have given them because of the poor service. The burger was good, but could have been better.

NYDude: 6.0 - BBB gets a thumbs up for cooking up a competent, serviceable hamburger on a truck. Burger’s can be tricky. It’s a food that doesn’t travel well in general, so serving up burgers made-to-order is a smart step. BBB also gets full marks for using fresh, simple ingredients and for having above-average “tasty-licity.” But the burgers are uninspired. Let’s face it: This burger ain’t some taste-bud-rockin’ gourmet shit. For something better in the area, go to Counter. Or better yet, fly to New York and try chef Daniel Boulud’s truffle burger at Bistro Moderne.

Yummy or not?

Branding!

The line for BBB, non-Hipstamatic version.

Hipstamatic pic from our spot in the ridic long line for a Baby’s Badass Burgers’ burger in the SSLA lot. We’ve been in line for 40 mins. Arrrrrgh.

“…As seen on Entourage.”

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Istanbul

Cake!!! Google gave this to SSLA.

Review: Green Truck On the Go

Green Truck On the Go is a food truck serving organic gourmet Mexican tacos in Los Angeles. It was our lunch choice for today because Facebook paid them to set up in the SSLA parking lot and provide free lunch to agency staff, some 300 or so people.

Ratings & Notes

J-Mic: 5.5 - Even though the price was right - Free! - the food was average. I expected more options for the tacos and menu in general.

NYDude: 6.9 - Solid, organic, fresh Mexican food prepared by folks with tightly-fastened foodie-goggles. Though tasty, the tacos lacked some of the edge and authenticity we’ve come to expect at most taco joints. Thus GTOG was a bit underwhelming. But they score major points for their sauces, especially the pink beet sauce. (Beets! Who’d of thunk it!?)

SSLA peeps queue up for the organic gourmet Mexican food truck provided by Facebook.

NYDude’s food-truck taco plate.

Shot of “Green Truck on the Go” and it’s taco-making operation in action at SSLA.