Worth The Wait in Long Lines at Howlin' Ray's

I'm ready for the new Star Wars ride at Disneyland Park coming soon in a few month.

I heard the Star Wars Galaxy Edge ride will be phenomenal with the state of the art effects and plenty of excitement that will satisfied everyone in the whole family. Just like that... so are about 200,000 people expected to come to the amusement park and wanting to get on that ride. Just like that a reservation system is on hand as you might need to be on a waiting list of over 10 hours just to get in line for that ride.

Fear not folks, I got plenty of practice waiting in line this year. Good ol' Howlin' Ray's provides plenty of training for that long wait.

If you have not have heard of Howlin' Ray's, then you probably didn't have a pulse with LA food scenes or just hidden under the rock the past 3 years. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to catch up once you see the line to buy one of their famous Nashville hot chicken.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Johnny Ray Zone when he first opened up his brick and mortar front after his sting of sling his chicken at his food truck. Funny part of the story was that he opened up this front in a plaza at Chinatown that was more known for souvenirs and imported Chinese goods. In the front of that Far East Plaza was abundance of Chinese BBQ takeouts and other Cantonese restaurants.

Medium Chicken

Time have changed obviously as there are more hip openings from a coffee shop (MIA), ice cream stand, a bao place from an east coast transplant, hip Taiwanese joint catered to the westerners, and an upscale version of Filipino restaurant all have opened up around the same time as Howlin' Ray's.

After seeing the restaurant gain popularity from local media and social media presence, the place blew up with long lines from young and old seeking this Nashville Hot chicken people have often heard, but never able to experience it unless you travel farther east. Surprised no one ever caught on to that as there are many options of different fried chickens in southern California, but never this variety. Nowadays, you can't turned around without some announcements of a new Nashville style hot chicken being offered up.

Medium (level 3) and Mild (Level 2) Chicken Sandwiches

What makes this place that popular for a long line? I guess it all starts with the chicken. There six different spice levels you can choose. I often settled between Mild (#2 on the hot scale) or Medium (a step up from Mild). You can go on a dare and try their Howlin', which was taste numbing, sweat inducing, and nosebleed crotch of a hot heat.

The smell of this heat can already make your eyes watery. Just by touching it will already leave that smell on your hand for hours. The nosebleed is not exaggeration for some of us as we are never able to muster through the whole breast or leg without feeling sniffle and the cries of mercy. Not sure it's pain or tears of joy, as eating Howlin' level can be both at the same time.

The thing I admired about the chicken and why I was waiting in line every quarterly was the fact the meat was juicy and the crispy skin was not flaking like a weak butter skin. I hated the water down skin you see from a certain well known chain. The meat was important, but the battered fried skin was one of the few things I enjoyed about Howlin' Ray's version of fried chicken.

When I first started coming here, the line was probably less than 20 minutes. Gradually as the words of mouth got out, it expands to 40 somewhat minutes. Then you know it got serious when it is over a hour. Then for some eff'd up reason, it now gets ridiculous at weeknight for 100 minutes. (I had been told the line can be 4 hours on weekend afternoon at times).

Whole Bird - Medium

For those might be getting discouraged, we heard expansion is coming. When there is more places opened up, dividing up the crowd to various different joints work. It is often a line killer. Remembered the first "Salt & Straw" opened up and there was a wait? With more locations, it destroyed that long wait. We are hoping this would be case as well for another Howlin' Ray's joint.

For me, I'm getting the hang of waiting in line and practicing in advance of the new Star Wars ride. Pro tips on waiting in line, get a few friends to wait with you. There is never a dull moment and the excitement can be heightened.

After waiting more than a hour, I still have favorable impression of the fried chicken.

Now as in for that wait for one ride...... let's hope it doesn't take up the whole day for one ride.

Howlin' Ray's
727 N Broadway #128
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Battle of the Iron Guts @ Orochon Ramen (Little Tokyo)

Once upon a time, I do have an iron gut and a metabolism that an unlimited buffet would not be able to defeat my stomach. I don't need any exercise tips from Michael Phelps to help burn whatever amount of calories I was able to consume in the good old days. However, I never was able to factor in one element: time.

That was the whole interesting challenge that I needed to overcome in this infamous ramen-ya in Little Tokyo. Orachon Ramen, the little noodle house on the top floor of Tozi place behind the Omni Hotel, is famous for one reason: The #2 Challenge.

What is the #2 Challenge? It's supposed to be one of the most spiciest and most chili filled inducement bowl of ramen that was ever introduced. The whole idea of this concept was that you will pluck down a fair amount of money (as in 50 cents extra on top of your bill) and finished off an extremely chili spiced ramen bowl in 30 minutes or less. What is the prize in this? You'll see it in the end of this review.

#2 Special (Soy Sauce soup base)

The broth for the soup contains 13 different spices (stated in their website). You will be able to choose from three different soup base (Miso, Soy Sauce, and Salt), where then next you will have to choose the spicy level of your soup, with the #2 special being the most extremely tummy wrecker out of the whole menu.

The waitress gave us an important tip about finishing the bowl in 30 minutes. She suggested to us to get the soy sauce broth because it's easier to digest. Miso is suppose to be thicker and more likely to slow you down with its heavier texture. Some people don't respond to salt base as well as the soy sauce because it can add a whole new element of salt during the contest. Salt being the thirst inducer, meaning you will slow down and drink water. Drinking water will then add more volume to your stomach contents.

One Contestant decided to put green onions on his #2 ramen bowl

So obviously, our friends and comrades who wanted to participate in this macho ritual of downing the entire bowl of ramen with soup in 30 minutes, have all chosen Soy Sauce as their soup base.

As in for me, I chickened out and ordered the #4 Orochon ramen (medium spicy). You get to see a big different soup as the Orochon #2 have chili marks all over the bowl (visible ring marks can be seen on the bowl above the soup.

Noticed the top bowl have chili ring marks above the soup?

While I watched my friends sweat, slurp, and even thinking of strategy on how to finish the bowl, I was enjoying my plate of gyoza and leisurely finishing my soy sauce based #4 ramen. One of my friend even employed the straw technique of sucking the soup first before attempting the noodle.

Gyoza (fried dumplings)

It was not pretty watching them laboring hard towards the finish line as I can tell the bowl of chili in the soup is killing them. I looked around the place and saw a loner's corner, where a single seat was facing the wall. Then I realized the prize that was given to the victor... the honor of having your polaraid picture taken and placed it on the bulletin board.

The Loner's Corner with the bragging rights photos

Yes, that's the prize. Bragging rights to be on that board. With so many people competing for that prize, they kept a scrapbook of all the past contestants who were able to finish within the 30 minutes time limit.

The review about the noodle and soup, it's not that remarkable. The noodle was fine, but very ordinary. Not much to speak off either about the soup. I think without the attention getting, spicy #2, this place probably would need to come up with a hook for coming here. The noodle tasted like it belongs to any noodle soup, but it was soup that didn't quite sit well with me. If you are asking me to name the 13 spices, it's not very noticeable enough for an educated guess. In that regards, it was not really special for all the hype it made out to be.

My #4 Orochon Ramen Bowl (Soy Sauce soup base)

I probably think the #2 challenge was the whole attraction for coming here as it proves to be very popular among the thrill seekers.

Note: Three of my eight friends and colleagues who competed in this contest did not finish. The other five barely made it under 30 minutes.

Orochon Ramen
123 South Onizuka street Unit 303
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 617-1766

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New adventure of Pakistani cuisine @ Al Noor (Lawndale)

Not too long ago, I used to be situated down in South Bay where I was working at for awhile. I have heard a lot of great recommendations for Indian or Pakistani restaurants that is supposedly rival Little India in city of Artesia.

For many months I had been dying to come here since I found out about this tiny little restaurant that served Pakistani food that was very close to my old job. To be quite honest, I also used to live within walking steps to Little India in Artesia, but never really explored the area's Indian & Pakistani food. That was one of my big regrets back then, even a dread that my old job's was surrounded by some great Japanese and Middle Eastern places. Now I'm just dying to try a Pakistani place some of my friends had been raving about.

Coming over here wasn't much of a problem as the place was easy to find facing Inglewood Ave. The little strip plaza was so low key, I was a bit surprised that a tumbleweed didn't' blow over the parking lot. Yes, nobody mentioned it, but it is really very dead around this part of the town.

The restaurant wasn't much to look at and it is in many ways a hole in the wall. The low maintenance value on the decor reflect on the fact there's no ambiance to speak of, as you can still see the wall need a fresh coat of paint. In essence, the food will have to be the masterpiece of the whole entire place as if it was hinging on it.

We started it off our meal with a garlic naan which has plenty of garlic for flavorful taste and a great compliments to our dishes.

Garlic Naan

Shortly after that, some of our dishes had started to arrive. One of the first dishes to arrive was the chicken tikka malasa . The sauce feel like a medium spicy, but one of our dining companion had remarked in that it can get spicier in many other times before. Luckily for us, we didn't get any burning sensation in our tongue as the chicken tikka malasa's spiciness level was just right. It brings out the flavor without been overpowering.

Chicken Tikka Malasa

The most spiciest stuff we got for our meal was this beef dish (Alaoo Qeema). Wow, the pepper really stood out in this dish. Although it was really spicy, the sauce never masked the flavor of the dish and the beef was wonderfully taste when you savored it in your tongue. The potatoes that accompanies it gave it some balance like it would it do on a curry dish. Very nicely done I thought.

Alaoo Qeema

The lamb was the controversial dish as it was somewhat of a miss in our table. I couldn't tell in that was a lamb. Maybe I originally thought it was a pork all along until someone pointed the weird taste. We tried to conjure up what the dish might be until we realized we had ordered a lamb dish to go along with the Chicken Tikka Malasa. I guess we can put a little saffron rice to compliment that dish, but it still would feel like we were a little bit off.

Lamb

All and all, our dish average out around $6 and with about 6 people ordering with a sweet mango lassi (nice little smoothie shake), it average out about $12 among each of us with tips included. Not too much of a back breaker and a good meal overall.

The service and the food comes out much faster than I anticipated. Plus with the way how the place looked, I thought for sure it's cash only place, but they do take credit cards. It show never to judge the book by its cover.

Saffron Rice

I was skeptical looking at this place, but I did have a wonderful meal at this place. I probably would not suggest bringing a large group as the tables were not that many in a small restaurant. Luckily, we came on a slow weekend day as it was not a problem.

Al Noor
15112 Inglewood Ave
Lawndale, CA 90260
(310) 675-4700

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Pigging out @ Ham Ji Park (Koreatown)

I was contemplating a few weeks back in getting on a diet. Not that I worried about looking good in my figure, but after writing my review about M Cafe de Chaya, I did had some pondering thoughts.

After a momentary break, my weakness took over and the first thing I thought about was needing to make a list before the diet. One place that I have always wanted to try was Ham Ji Park.

Marinated Pork Spare Ribs

For the longest time I had some craving for their popular marinated pork spare ribs. Supposedly it was something to die for based on some talks whenever the discussion was about this place. So on a cool Monday night, a few of us went down to the 6th Street location in heart of Koreatown to grub down on some of those ribs. (there is a Pico location off K-town that was recently opened up).

Please remind yourself to make a reservation. Don't assumed like I did thinking it was going to be snap that people will leave right away after a meal. People like in our group could commensurate over a few bottles of beer or soju with their hearty meals. I didn't planned that much ahead of time and waited about 35 minutes for a table on a Monday night.

Once We got situated in our table, we proceeded to chow down on that above mentioned marinated pork like there is no tomorrow. To me it was not bad. It was tender and have that little sweet taste to it like it had a secret sauce. With a dash of some seasoning and needed to be grill to perfection, this thing can probably win some top BBQ prize. The only reason I thought it was not bad only because I was more impressed with the other dish we ordered.

Pork Neck Bone Soup with Potato

That "other" dish is the pork neck potato soup. This was the one I was looking for to all night. The pork bone meat was slowly stewed and added potato in this rich, thick hearty soup. I think that because we were waiting for so long for a table, we devoured the pork bone stew once it arrived on our table. The soup wasn't too spicy, but it did have a little kick to it. It's the slow stewed pork that was very tenderly cooked that is the main attraction in that dish.

We also ordered a very peculiar dish for a supposed appetizer or a starter (it was the last dish to arrive). It was the spicy squid kimchee noodle dish. It comes off with noodles bundled in an half ear bun with the spicy squid in the middle of the plate. Then you stirred it up and mixed to your liking. I don't know if it was because people didn't want all of the noodles to be mixed and would eat the kimchee squid by itself, but we had mixed all of the noodles in to the spicy squid.

Spicy Kimchee Squid with Noodle (before and after it got stirred)

The spicy squid was also very delicious. Not only all three dishes were very satisfactory, but it also fulfilled a nirvana for me right before I got serious about the diet. I know the pork ribs at $17 a pop will be the main attraction to coming to this location, but I want to give a special shout out to the pork bone stew with potato as it deserves my kudos of the night.

Luckily there was a cafe next door that served Korean shaved ice. That destroyed any chance of any diet I had in my head. There was always next week if it ever gotten that serious.

Ham Ji Park
3407 W. 6th St.
Ste 101-C
Los Angeles, CA 90020
(213) 365-8773

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Southern Thai at Its Spiciest @ Jitlada Thai Restaurant (Hollywood)

In a weird way, I have been more apprehensive in trying Southern style Thai food as they tend to be more spicy than their counterparts of Central, Northeastern (Issan) and Northern Thai food. I also tend to keep in mind that it's saltier as well, which I had been known to be a weaksauce in trying those dishes.

Salty and spicy food tend to blow me away as I can be hapless after a full meal of this type of cuisine. Luckily, not only have I survived here, I love to try out more of it.

Vegetable curry

One of the big items in Southern Thai food tends to be their curry. For example, we had a Southern Style Vegetable curry which tends to rich, flavorful while being intensely spicy. This was just the beginning because it will get more intense with progression as each course goes along.

yam som muang papaya salad

Mango salad with puffy fried catfish

The tamer item to calm your palate would be the mango salad with puffy fried catfish and the fried curry shrimp (Kung Phae Chup Thawt) . Those were easy to consume and was surprisingly not too salty to keep your palate ready for the dangerous lava.

Lamb Curry

Now we are off to curry land in full mode with an interesting ingredient of Turmeric (part of the ginger spice family). That green leaf provided the coloring of the curry for the Lamb curry and the flavor for the fried chicken .

tom khaa kop: robustly-flavored coconut milk soup with fresh galangal and frogs' leg

puu nim phat phong ka-rii: soft-shelled crab stir-fried with curry powder and assorted vegetables

The moment of truth came at the test of will for your tongue and taste bud when the Tom Khaa Kop (robustly-flavored coconut milk soup with fresh galangal and frogs' leg) and the Soft Shelled Crab with Curry Powdered came out. Both have the strongest spicy meter up at full blast. You could still appreciate the texture in the curry and the taste in the meat. However, your tongue is going to take that beating while you are enjoying the rich poignant flavor of each of those dish. There was no subtlety about how strong the spiciness it was going to be.

Ice cold cumcumber, lettuce, and carrot to cool off the burning sensation of the spiciness.

To calm our tongue down, we got a bowl of iced lettuce to reduce the hemorrhaging we had just suffered. We did also had a few veggie dishes like a Chinese Broccoli and the other Papaya salad (Yam Som Muang).

We lived and we get to tell about it. We could have taken the easier route by getting the BBQ stuffs, but there would be no fun in that. The place is somewhat small, but can fit a large group. The service is always great in here with a few smile to go along with it.

kai khii min tumeric fried chicken

In the end, I found the dishes to be flavorful with beautiful rich texture in their ingredients. I would have to come back here to try out their other dishes on their traditional dish menu.

Just be warned...Southern Thai food is very spicy. If you are looking for something calmer, then go with the veggie dishes first, then with fried stuff dishes and then progress to the spicier stuff. It's really your only option.

You just don't want to kill your appetite with the spicy items first.

Jitlada Thai Restaurant
5233 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA, 90027
(323) 663-3104

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One of the Best SE Asian Cuisine @ Renu Nakorn (Norwalk)

Part 1 of the Renu Nakorn series

This Thai restaurant was one of Jonathan Gold's favorite back in 2005, but was not on his Essential 99 list the past two editions because the place was closed for two years due to constructions and remodeling of the plaza which the restaurant is located at. They changed the street numbers of the place, but the exact location and phone numbers remains the same.

When I visited the place a few years back, I really thought the place should be bulldozed and make way for some rinky dink shopping center because it was very run down. Now, I'm just glad they are brand spanking new with a much bigger space. The restaurant itself has brighter colors and more vibrant decor to suggest much more happier mood.

Back then, the place probably will sit only 25-30 people for one big party. With the addition of additional space, it now has possibilities to hold more than 4 large groups. I was happy to see about 8 booth tables on both side of the walls with 4 rows of smaller tables in the middle of the room that can be combine to 4 long tables for larger parties.

The food itself has always been on the spectacular side. It never seemed to let me down and always got me curious on what to order. I love their traditional Northern cuisine which tends bring out the best flavor in their dishes.

Some of my favorite dish that I like to share with others were:

Roasted Duck Curry

I love the scrumptious of the duck with a careful lathering of the curry pouring over it.

Scallop Panang (steamed scallop with creamy curry sauce with cognac)

This dish has this unique creamy curry sauce made it worth possible because of a dash cognac added on to it. Probably is my favorite seafood dish here.

Sai Qua (Northern Sytle sausage)

This particular dish has so many different components into stuffing this sausage. It made molecular gastronomy a forgone conclusion. Even the this Northern specialty had me guessing what is involved in this unique sausage.

Peek Kai (Stuffed Chicken Wings with ground pork)

Speaking of molecular gastronomy, this chicken wing with pork inside made Turkducky a common happenings. Having two meat going in as one big wing will make me forget Kyochon's big mess.

Mee Krob Rad Na
(crispy egg noodle topped with superb sauce, shrimp, chicken, straw mushroom, and vegetable)

Last, but not least, a personal favorite of mine whenever I stopped by was this noodle dish they have. It is a crispy egg noodle topped with superb sauce, shrimp, chicken, straw mushroom, and vegetable that if they ever decide to do a stir fried, I would have totally go ga ga over it.

This was one of my favorite thing about experiencing Thai food was having something unexpected that pulled my imagination and come up with something else altogether that was very unique. There are plenty of other dishes that I have ordered (you can browse through the photos) that really put me in a transfixing mood with my eyes gazing fixed upon it.

This restaurant also catered to the working folks who are looking for quick and cheap, they do have an excellent price for lunch combos also. They have the traditional Northern cuisine for the folks who want to try something that hardly get served here and traditional BBQ stuffs for the folks who are looking for something that is very common. You can't really lose on either front.

**POST NOTE: (11/14/2008): This restaurant is back on Jonathan Gold's Essential 99 List for their 2008 edition after a two year lay-off due to remodeling.

Renu Nakorn Restaurant
13019 Rosecrans Ave
Ste 105
Norwalk, CA 90650
(562) 921-2124

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Some Like It Hot..and Some Don't @ Chung King (San Gabriel)

If there is a movie named after the food served here, it would be "Some Like It Hot".

Alas, it wasn't sexy hot like Marilyn Monroe, but an awkward hot just like how Jack Lemmon felt wearing the lady get-ups in the movie.

On a faithful afternoon, I went in very blindly on what to expect from the food served here. Didn't do much on the research or read up on the dishes that was served here. So I let my dining companions who do have good ideas on what to order at this location. We were very excited to try out this location because it was highly recommended by LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold.

The location of this restaurant is a stand alone restaurant on San Gabriel Blvd away from the busy streets of Valley Blvd and Las Tunas where galore of Chinese restaurants are bumper to bumper next to each other. It is a quiet small little yellow house in a street that is surrounded by local small businesses that is pretty much resembled what The Andy Griffith show was showing on its re-runs.

It is a small place with two big tables and a half dozen small booth seats. I was getting the feeling the decor matches with a Catina or a Mexican restaurant as I'm pretty sure the restaurant took over the former resident of this establishment. There is an AC blasting to cool down a hot afternoon, but a fan was blowing right into one spot of the table. Our waitress told me ahead of time in not to sit at that one booth because so many customers were complaining their hair was going to be cold dry, so I took it as a sign to move into another table before my dining companions shows up.

Before we ordered the dry beef, we tried to ask a question about a beef/fish in small pot as we wanted to know if the dish comes in a soup bowl. Our waitress was a little dismissive of the question and quickly suggested the dry beef in pot as she insisted that was the most popular dish. In a way I was taken aback by the exchange, but I was a little bit more appreciated when the dish came out because it might signaled to me that the fish was not good that day (or they found it easier to cook it along with the lamb. As the pictures indicated, they looked almost identical).

Dry Beef in Pot

My overall thought about the food runs in the line of it's spicy hot for people who appreciated, but not necessary for people who want just to try something new. The dishes are Sichuan (or popular spelled Szechwan) specialties that relies so much on Sichuan peppercorn which has this super numbing effect of making it spicy hot for all the diners.

The beef and lamb we have ordered with the spices are stirred dry until it was ready to be chew. The cold chicken in many of the other Chinese specialties would have been served with wine sauce or dipped in soy sauce. At this location, it was lavished with good amount of spicy pepper and thick hot sauce to change the flavor of the chicken. The won tons themselves were dipped in a bowl of spicy hot soup.

Spicy Chicken

For a brief moment I actually lost a sensation in my tongue as my taste buds went south after a bout of spicy food. After deciding to power through the spicy food and not slowing down because the spiciness of the food will overpower you.

I realized in that I really never got the full fulfillment on the flavor or the taste of the food. The spiciness can be overpowering and done it with a bit much to turn you red instead of letting you enjoy the succinct flavor of the regions of the food. That was a bummer point for me throughout the meal.

Spicy Hot Lamb

It is also a "take it or leave it" kind of a place, where it's not like Shin Shen Guimi where you dial up or dial down the spicy level of the food. It is very hard to tell whether or not they overdone the hotness of our food or this was the norm. If it was the norm, then we really were sweating after our meal. I felt like I was in Sahara desert searching for that elusive water fountain. Luckily our server came back often to check on us to get us plenty of liquid to quench our thirst.

Spicy Won Tons

After our initial order, the service was actually very good and attentive throughout the course of our meal. We really needed it throughout the meal to get our water refilled.

After enduring the pain and sufferings of our spicy food, I can honestly say that Orochon Ramen is nothing compared to this place. I probably would suggest people to come here if they love spicy food.

What's left of that dry Beef in small pot. All those hot peppers and spices!

Be warned though, it's not easy to endure for the people who are used to mild or medium spicy.

Chung King
1000 S. San Gabriel Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 286-0298

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