Best of L.A.: Food and Drink

—Jill Stewart

BEST-VALUE COFFEE ROASTER

Star Foreman

Star Foreman

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El Pollo Inka

15400 Hawthorne Blvd.
Lawndale, CA 90260

Category: Restaurant > Fast Food

Region: South Bay

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More About

• Nicolas Taborek
• Noah Galuten
• Liz Ohanesian
• North-American Food and Cooking
• Meat

Usually you smell Alana’s before you see it. Hints of cocoa, berries and hot beans waft through the air, leading your nose to a small stand at the farmers market where 34-year-old Eric Stogsdill completes his wares on the spot with a hand-built roaster. His tastes tend toward Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia and Ethiopia. He describes his favorite beans like a kid in a candy store: “I prefer more nutty, blueberry and chocolaty coffees,” Stogsdill says. The Santa Monica native got his start at Starbucks before graduating to Cow’s End near Venice Pier. He also spent two years getting mentoring and advice from the master roaster at the Conservatory for Coffee, Tea & Cocoa in Culver City. Spying opportunities at local farmers markets, Stogsdill this year launched Alana’s, named for his 4-year-old daughter, as a roving operation that also provides free home delivery. What sets Alana’s apart from his vast, high-end competition is price. You get a gourmet product, a custom, on-the-spot grind, and a little education from the ever-enthusiastic Stogsdill for about $10 per pound. His hand-stamped, brown-bag finds — his selections often change from week to week — will also fill your pantry will olfactory bliss. Culver City Farmers Market, Main St. off Venice Blvd. Tues., 3 -7 p.m. La Cienega Farmers Market, 1833 S. La Cienega Blvd., La Cienega Heights. (310) 922-9671. Thurs., 3 -7 p.m.

—­Dennis Romero

BEST GLENDORA-BLE SUGAR FIX

Screw the endless, day-to-day, nonsweetened, nonfat, drip-coffee, triple-shot Americano routine. Classic Coffee in downtown Glendora, a virtual hot spot of PMS survivors and deadbeat college students, will have you out of your South Beach Diet and into a carbohydrate coma before you can say spumoni gelato. With such unique creations as frozen hot chocolate and horchata con espresso, the idea of ordering a plain cup of joe seems downright sorrowful. Not to mention the Bavarian pastries, slabs of tiramisu, and cheesecake squares leering at you from the lighted pastry case beside the cash register. And if you are lucky enough to come on a Monday night you will be able to join a plethora of different people from the community for the weekly game night, laced with sugary indulgences as always. So go ahead and melt your face into a double Ghirardelli mocha, then blow. Your daily Colombian black drip will one day learn to love again. 148 N. Glendora Ave., Glendora. (626) 335-3313, classic-coffee.com.

—Kirsten Hall

BEST HOUSE OF DUCK

If you have even a passing interest in Peking duck, you would do well to become acquainted with the aptly named Duck House, L.A.’s premier location for one of China’s most famous culinary contributions. The restaurant’s version of the dish arrives at your table looking like a work of art: shimmering morsels of bright-orange crispy duck skin are arrayed around the perimeter of the plate, the fowl’s succulent, deboned meat is in the center. Drizzled with hoisin sauce and wrapped up with thin spears of scallions and cucumber in a tortilla-thin pancake, it’s hard to imagine why one would eat duck any other way. The restaurant is shiny and new looking, a bit on the formal side and perfect for a special occasion. Make sure to give at least an hour’s notice if you intend to eat the Peking, and plan on forking over $32.95 per bird. 501 S. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park. (626) 284-3227.

—Nicolas Taborek

Best FOODIE-FULL BOUNTY

If you want rock-star chefs trailed by television camera crews under a morning’s low marine layer, and farmers’ stalls loaded with O’Henry peaches and Blenheim apricots and Meyer lemons and Russian fingerling potatoes and Gaviota strawberries and wild purslane and stinging nettles and fresh garbanzo beans and, well, imagine what else, then the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market is the place for you. It’s better than a Food Network show and a lot cheaper than a trip to Whole Foods. There may be bigger markets, or those with more specialized produce or prepared foods, but this is the one you go to if you want to see Spago pastry chef Sherry Yard picking through pluots in her pink chef’s jacket. Maybe it’s because this market is held in a blocked-off section of Santa Monica’s Promenade, or because everyone seems to know each other, or because restaurant people cluster in small groups drinking Hans Röckenwagner’s coffee and speaking Italian and French, but if you wander through the crowds and stalls you’d swear you somehow strolled into a European town square on market day. Arizona Ave. & Second St., Santa Monica. (310) 458-8712.

f—Amy Scattergood

BEST UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF FRYING

Fried meatball — sounds heavy, right? You’re probably picturing a giant, dense Italian meatball, coated in flour, egg and bread crumbs, then dumped into a vat of hot oil until it becomes a dripping wad of protein so greasy that the mere sight sends your body into preemptive cardiac arrest. Well, this is not that kind of fried meatball. At Izakaya Bincho, the small, homey restaurant hiding in Redondo Beach, they serve simple, country-style Japanese comfort foods, meant to be paired with beer and sake. Their meatballs are small, made from free-range Jidori chicken, have a light tempura breading and come in a bowl topped with grated daikon radish, chopped green onions and house-made ponzu sauce. It’ll also be the first opportunity in your life to say “I want something light. How about some deep-fried meatballs?” The chef, Tomo-san, prepares other fried foods as well, like spicy wings, green-onion fried chicken, and (trust us) chicken gizzards. In the end, these meatballs (and Izakaya Bincho itself) are a great excuse to explore the little-known Redondo Beach Boardwalk, which feels like an odd fusion of Coney Island, a biker dive in Malibu, and some small port town in the Mediterranean. 112 N. International Boardwalk, Redondo Beach. (310) 376-3889.