Taco Maria in Costa Mesa has always been one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in LA.

Chef Carlos Salgado is originally from Mexico but spent over ten years training in some of the best kitchens in the US, including 2-Michelin starred restaurants like Coi in San Francisco and Commis in Oakland. He opened Taco Maria in 2013.

Prior to achieving a Michelin Star, Chef Salgado was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef West consecutively for the past four years, and was named Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2015.

Dining During Covid

Notoriously challenging to book, this Michelin-starred restaurant got even harder to book during Covid. They removed all indoor dining and limited seating to parties of four. They also opened up bookings only 1-2 weeks in advance, so Bryan diligently logged onto their website (at midnight in Hong Kong!) to grab seats for us during popular, coveted weekend slots.

Taco Maria - The Food

Bryan booked Taco Maria for our actual 20th anniversary (yes, we've been married for 20 years!) which also happened to be our first day in the US after flying in from Hong Kong. We went with Bryan's parents and got one of the best outdoor seats right under a huge olive tree! Bryan's parents loved it so, so much, so we went back a month later.

Honestly, everything is good, so you can't go wrong. The menu isn't very big. In fact, we (a group of four) literally ordered every single item on the menu. It was glorious to try so many dishes!

I love the blue corn tortillas, grilled avocado, salads, and Nantucket Bay scallops. Bryan loved the duck, and his dad was a huge fan of the steak.

This is one of those places that we will always seek out whenever we are in Southern California. Just remember to plan ahead in order to secure a booking.

Highly, highly recommended!

Update 2023: Taco Maria closed in July 2023 due to its lease ending. The owners are looking for a new space and hope to open again.

Taco Maria Los Angeles
3313 Hyland Ave
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Other Posts in this Series (Some to be published in the next 1-2 weeks)

Traveling During Covid – Our Three Month Trip Around the World
Majordomo Los Angeles – Part of David Chang’s Momofuku Empire
Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary at Taco Maria (During Covid)
Daybird LA – Best Szechuan Hot Chicken
Playa Amor Los Angeles – Amazing Mole
MÍRAME Beverly Hills – Modern Mexican

The post Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary at Taco Maria (During Covid) appeared first on Tiny Urban Kitchen.

This is part of a larger series about our trip to California in December 2022. The posts in this series include Tony's Pizza North Beach, Angler, and Daego Kalbijjim.

The North Beach neighborhood in San Francisco is the Italian district of the city. Not unlike in other cities, the North Beach neighborhood is close to Chinatown and also downtown. There are many Italian institutions that have been there for decades. Tony’s Pizza is one of them, serving many, many different types of pies, several of which have won prestigious awards.

The line to get into Tony’s can get quite long, especially on weekends or during festivals. We arrived before opening tine at around 11:45AM on a weekday and found ourselves behind a growing line of people trying to get into the first seating.

Salad

The Tony’s menu is pretty easy to navigate. There are several different styles of pizza, as well as pastas, appetizers, and more. I was personally floored at the number of pizza styles in a single restaurant, and even more impressed that multiple styles had won awards. They had, for example,Neapolitan (one of their most famous), Roman, New York, Detroit, St. Louis, and more. 

We ended up going with a Neapolitan Marguerita, New York style sausage, and Detroit style tomato and basil. Oh my goodness, they were all really, really good! 

The Neapolitan had a nice charred bottom, chewy crust, and flavorful toppings (hello San Marzano tomatoes!).

The New York style was nice and crispy, and the toppings were super flavorful.

Finally, the Detroit style had a lovely charred crispy Parmesan crust that was just perfect. The crust itself was soft and leavened, almost like focaccia. It was also excellent.

For starters we had a “Gigante”, which is a gigantic meatball (one is enough, it is huge!). We also got a Caesar Salad with anchovies, which was solid. 

All in all, certainly come here if you want to try many different pizza styles. It’s really fun! It’s best to come with a larger group, since the pizzas are not small. We had 4 people, ordered three pizzas, and probably took at least a whole pizza home. Thankfully, they heat up beautifully and the leftovers certainly did not go to waste.

Tony's Pizza San Francisco

The post Tony's Pizza North Beach San Francisco appeared first on Tiny Urban Kitchen.

This is part of a larger series about our trip to California in December 2022. The posts in this series include Tony's Pizza North Beach, Angler, and Daego Kalbijjim

What kind of food do you recommend to someone who travels between Hong Kong and Europe? As you may know (if you follow my blog/instagram these past several years), I’ve traveled quite a bit between Europe and Hong Kong these past couple years.

This was the issue vexing our local friends in California, who were trying to find places to recommend for us. In the end, their recommendations largely came down to Mexican food and local California cuisine.

Angler embodies that California spirit: fresh seafood, local California produce, a slight Asian influence, and a convenient location right near the Ferry Building. The Michelin star is icing on the cake.

We decided to treat a few of our SF relatives to a meal at Angler in SF. 

Dining at Angler San Francisco with Friends

The moment you enter Angler you get a sense of an upscale hunting (or fishing?) lodge with moose heads, fish statues, and more hanging up around the place. 

I immediately felt the warmth and friendliness from the entire staff. The server gave us genuine honest advice about what to order. When we asked multiple servers what their favorite dishes were, they each gave us their own honest opinion (not “canned” answers vaguely saying “the most popular dish is . . . ). 

Multiple servers recommended the U10 scallops, so that was an obvious “go.” It was delicious, seared perfectly (barely cooked inside) and served with a creamy, flavorful sauce. 

"Stabbing" the Radicchio

The radicchio salad was presented in an unusual way, filled with a beet and radicchio dressing that would “bleed” when you cut it with a large steak knife (which they provided).

They even gave us bibs to wear during this course, since the beet red juices would splatter. The salad was refreshing and the dressing had a nice, deep rich flavor.

Seafood Starters

The raw oysters (we ordered West Coast oysters) were serviceable, but not nearly as good as the really nice fresh ones I’ve had at other places. 

The tuna tartare served with tomato jelly (and seaweed rice cracker) was fantastic, and I secretly wished for a larger portion. The tomato water jelly added a lovely, refreshing note to the richer tuna tartare.

Thousand-Layer Potato

The potato is thinly sliced and deep fried as a whole potato. The resultant “potato”, when sliced, reveals seemingly thousands of layers, thus the “Mille-feiulle” potato. 

The final “piece de resistance” was their roast chicken, which they said was a signature dish. Coming from Hong Kong, I have pretty high standards when it comes to roast chickens, and Hong Kong makes some of the best roast chicken in the world.

This roast chicken had a beautiful crispy skin (like those in Hong Kong), and was nice and tender. It was served with the whole legs (including feet) on, which is a bit unusual in the US (though perfectly normal in Hong Kong and even other parts of Europe). Bryan, who loves chicken feet, happily ate one of the feet.

Dessert: Ice Cream!

The soft serve ice cream dessert was perfect for the 5 of us to share, with each of us taking a large spoonful. It would be a pretty big dessert for one person (though I am confidant I could finish it, since I have no limits when it comes to ice cream).

General Thoughts - Anger San Francisco

All in all, I thought the food was very good at Angler. My favorite was the tuna tartare with tomato jelly, though I also very much enjoyed the scallop. Everything was executed at a high level, and overall I thought the restaurant was great. The staff were super friendly and totally made us feel like we were at home. We ended up staying pretty late, but never once did they pressure us to leave. it’s a wonderfully warm and cozy restaurant, and I wouldn’t hesitate to come back. 

On a side note, I especially enjoyed the music, which was a flashback to the late 80’s, early 90’s music I listen to in middle school and high school.

The post Angler San Francisco - 1 Michelin Star appeared first on Tiny Urban Kitchen.

Apparently one of the hottest food trends to be sweeping through California right now is Daego Kalbijjim. Just imagine: fall-off-the-bone beef short ribs, potatoes, carrots, and rice cakes, all mixed together in a sweet-savory beefy sauce and topped with a load of mozzarella cheese. The result is a saucy, cheesy, messy but oh-so-delicious pot of goodness. The overall dish is served in a hot stone bowl and cooked for 2 hours (though they pre-cook a lot of it). They ask you to order ahead to avoid waiting, but I think so many people order the traditional Daego Kalbijjim that they probably have a lot of pots going at once. We received our food about 30 min after ordering (not 1.5 hours). 

On the side they gave us some Kim chi and pickled radish (an important balance to the richness!)

The place is PACKED. We arrived before 6PM on a Saturday and had to wait close to 2 hours for a seat. Thankfully, the location we went to was right next to Japantown, so we actually really enjoyed shopping around the area during the wait time. You can follow along your place in line via the Yelp app, so it’s quite convenient. We ended up not even exploring the whole area before it was time to go back. If you plan ahead, you can put your name down before you wish to eat, and then wander around the area.

Leftovers pack well, and almost everyone left with a pretty large container full of leftovers. Our table of three ordered a small Kalbijjim with extra rice cakes and extra beef. This made for the perfect amount of leftovers to take home. My friend said the last time he came, there weren’t enough rice cakes and people were fighting for them. This time it was perfect.

I’m actually quite inspired to try making this dish at home. It seems like the perfect type of food to serve at a larger gathering.

Daego Kalbijjim

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Our friends raved about this place when they visited less than a year earlier (during the pandemic!).

"You have to try the mole, it is amazing."

The chicken mole at Playa Amor, a modern Mexican restaurant in Long Beach California, is indeed amazing. You can even get the mole with tater tots, a nostalgic crunchy throwback smothered with their delicious, intense, and smoky mole. It's good either way, though I think the mole pairs best with the chicken.

Enjoy the chicken mole on top of Playa Amor's homemade tortillas together with some salsa, made-to-order guacamole, and other toppings. It makes for a pretty fantastic bite (see below, Exhibit A).

We ate at Playa Amor twice. The first time we ordered take-away and enjoyed it in our hotel room. We thought the food was so good that we invited Bryan's parents to come with us a second time (and actually eat at the restaurant). Both times, the food was great.

They have a pretty big patio that is partially protected with clear plastic "curtains". There is also a pretty sizeable inside area, if you're comfortable eating indoors. All in all, the food was excellent, reasonably priced, and really fun. For us, it was really convenient because Bryan's parents don't live too far from Long Beach.

Other Posts in this Series (Some to be published in the next 1-2 weeks)

Traveling During Covid – Our Three Month Trip Around the World
Majordomo Los Angeles – Part of David Chang’s Momofuku Empire
Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary at Taco Maria (During Covid)
Daybird LA – Best Szechuan Hot Chicken
MÍRAME Beverly Hills – Modern Mexican

Playa Amor Long Beach
6527 Pacific Coast Hwy
Long Beach, CA 90803, USA

The post Playa Amor Los Angeles appeared first on Tiny Urban Kitchen.