la trip recap
reunited with matsui, my greatest love of all time
every year, the boy and i make a drive down to la to spend time with his family. his mom lives in japan now, but his sister and his v cute niece and nephew (aka “niblings” — but i think that’s a weird word lol) live in his hometown of torrance. we spent an afternoon at the beach, got to go to one of his nephew’s basketball games (he plays in the same league that the boy played in as a kid!), and ate at one of my favoritestest favoritestest restaurants: matsui.
matsui serves solid, homey japanese food — good quality, no frills, and probably the best value set meals i’ve seen anywhere. an udon and three handrolls for $18? i’m in. a mini udon, seven-piece nigiri, tempura, and a salad for $18 as well?? now, that’s a craaazy deal. value aside, it’s also delicious — did i mention that already?
of course, a trip to la can’t just be about eating at matsui (though tbh i wouldn’t be mad about it!!). the boy’s been toying with the idea of moving back to la for a few years, so we try to use each visit to check out a new neighborhood. this time around, we stayed in alhambra, a very chinese suburb in the san gabriel valley, and spent a day wandering around highland park.
what i enjoyed about highland park is how walkable it feels. there are multiple blocks filled with coffee shops, bakeries, vintage stores — my kind of neighborhood (though, like many other parts of la, it’s definitely been shaped by gentrification in recent years). one of my non-negotiables for all my homes is having a coffee shop within pleasurable walking distance. and i say “pleasurable” very intentionally, because after many visits to la, i’ve learned that a “20-minute walk” to a coffee shop might actually mean trekking past gas stations, crossing under a freeway, and not seeing a single other pedestrian the entire time.
food highlights!
tried to group these by neighborhood-ish but forgive me if they’re not grouped the way an LA local would. gmaps locations are linked as well if you click on the name of the restaurant.
central LA
fondry (highland park): so many fun pastries to choose from! loved the pistachio cream danish and kouign amann
villa’s tacos (highland park): i appreciated that these tacos were dif from the other street tacos you’ll find in la and was a big fan of their housemade blue corn tortillas. plus, for $4/taco they also include guac which i feel like makes it a steal in today’s economy. faves were asada and the nopales + beans.
parks bbq (k-town): kbbq in la is one of the boy’s musts. we’ve tried a few in ktown but none have been that memorable until parks bbq. i loved the la galbi, and the fact that they actually give you lots of banchan (eight!!)
san gabriel valley
kang kang food court (alhambra): finally tried the shengjianbao here! i was not expecting it to be one of those hole-in-the-wall chinese takeout places lol. they were pretty good! i think sjb is one of those things where everyone has different preferences and gets v picky about them — i prefer the dough on mine to be thinner.
yi mei (san gabriel): solid taiwanese bfast spot — recommend the black soymilk, savory soymilk (i add soy sauce + black vin to mine), and fan tuan
nbc seafood (monterey park): they still do cart dim sum here!! the steamed dumplings, esp the hargow, had thin, chewy wrappers and were super plump with filling.
south bay
fun fact: torrance has the second-largest ethnic japanese population in the US — second only to Honolulu!
spoon house (gardena): japanese-style pasta house that’s boy’s childhood fave. the tarako (mentaiko) pasta was delicious + love the $1 salad heh.
sakae sushi (gardena): located right next door to spoon house! it’s takeout-only sushi spot with a limited menu of 6 different rolls. my favorite is the mackerel.
matsui (torrance): neighborhood japanese spot for udon, soba, and sushi. everything here is good
i always leave la feeling like there’s still more places to try, more neighborhoods to explore, and more time i wish we had with the boy’s family. but i’m grateful for the familiar rhythms: a stop at matsui, an afternoon at the beach, a new neighborhood to wander through..
if you’re an la regular, what are the places you keep going back to? and if you’ve never been, i hope this list gives you a few ideas for a future trip!
thanks for noodling around with me.
x christy