Joan's on Third
8350 West Third Street
Beverly Hills
323-655-2285

Painfully trendy spots where you go to see and be seen - it's just not my thing. Why dress up to go to a deli? I need to wear HEELS to a diner? Oh, but it's TRENDY? Heck no. Not the route I like. I'll dress up for a fancy 5 course dinner, that's just respectful. But these places that traditionally have a laid back vibe, I savor dressing down. Joan's on Third is one of those places that is a deli, yet costs as much as a fancy sit down meal.

Not to say that their food isn't edible. It definitely is edible, very good, even. But when I'm dropping 20 dollars ON MYSELF for a simple lunch...then there's something to complain about. Sherrie and I snuck over to Joan's while I was still in Beverly Hills. Parking was horrible and we encountered an old man who refused to stop blocking an alleyway. After threatening to call the police (Sherrie was fake dialing!!) he finally moved...anyways, that has nothing to do with the food does it? Part of the experience of being in Beverly Hills I suppose.

After finally finding a parking space, I elbowed my way through the crowds and placed my order of a turkey meatloaf sandwich with chili aioli, on a baguette. This sandwich was ten dollars. On its' own. Nothing came with it but pickles - overly sweet, like candied pickles, so I avoided eating them. The meatloaf itself was moist and good, I almost couldn't believe it was turkey. The baguette was fresh, the mixed greens were crisp. Tasty.
This square of mac and cheese was a slice of heaven. Cheesy top, gooey insides, I know they definitely used more than 3 cheeses in this. The usual drawbacks here: the price and no crunchy breadcrumbs on top? I guess I can forgive for this level of decadence.
Sherrie got a roast beef sandwich with horseradish creme fraiche - did I mention this was a hefty 11 dollars? At least they didn't seem to disappoint on the taste end of things - the beef was thinly sliced, looked really moist and I especially liked the alfalfa sprouts - nice touch! The roll looked good and fresh, but more of those sicky sweet pickles. Eh.

Sherrie chose some Israeli couscous (the couscous with the big pearls) as an accompaniment to her sandwich. Mushrooms, onions and green strands of stuff flavored the huge wheaty carby deliciousness. I had a taste and thought it was good, but it's hard to mess up couscous - you know exactly what you're getting into.
I also needed some sweets to get me through the day - so I got a chocolate cookie that was very disappointing. I mean, it had the basic needs of a chocolate cookie - chocolate chips, cookie dough - but it was hard as a rock. Overbaked, and not soft in the middle. I like soft cookies...and a hard cookie is even more disappointing when there's no milk. So thumbs down on this.

Sherrie also followed suit and got a peanut butter cookie. Same problem as my chocolate chip - hard as hell, you could break your own teeth on this thing. A shame, because the ingredients seemed good...

If you got a bucket of money and you don't mind spending it on deli food - come here. If you're a little light in the pocketbook, try somewhere else for your sandwich needs.

Red Corner Asia (RCA)
5267 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027

I admit that I'm really far behind on my posts - Supper club is meeting up this week and I haven't even put up last month's posting! Yes. I've been a lazy food-blogger. Not to say that I don't still take plenty of pictures (if you've been checking my flickr account then you've seen) - anyways, here's last month's supper club outing to Red Corner Asia - also known as "RCA".

One of the first things to be set in front of us after putting in all of our orders was Steven's Volcano Chicken - which had a great presentation, as the plate LITERALLY was on fire. But as we looked closer...that spit that the chicken is on looked mighty familiar...and yes, unless someone says different, this chicken was cooked by Ronco's Showtime Rotisserie!! I've always wondered if that Ronco thing works....well I got my answer that night when I tried some of the chicken...it was very decent. Go Ronco!
The flames didn't show up in this picture, but again, they were pretty cool.
Morning Glory and chicken plate, that Steven ordered. I really like morning glory, I just didn't know what it was called in english (I know it as "oong choi"). Crispy, not overcooked, great plate of veggies.
This was Connie's Spicy Beef Salad: Thinly sliced of grilled beef tossed in spicy lime juice with lettuce, cucumber and onion. This was a great beef salad - REALLY spicy. Connie's mouth was on fire after she had eaten about a quarter of this...check those huge slices of beef!
This was Jane's tofu fried rice. It had a really good taste to it - the sauce they used was really tasty, the rice was nice and fluffy, the tofu was firm and took the flavor really well. I stole a lot of it...thanks again Jane.

This is Lori's Yellow Curry with Chicken (I think)...Bamboo shoots with chicken in spicy yellow curry with coconut milk. Rich, delicious, and great over white rice.

Kevin's RCA Ribs with Panang Curry sauce was amazing. These ribs were cooked down to the point where they were so tender they fell off the bone, and the curry gave it that extra little kick.
George's RCA Spareribs and Pork over rice. The flavoring of the meat really seeps into the rice, making it super meaty. Awesome. Also, doesn't George's thumbs up look like a weird deformed foot? Yes. That's exactly what it looks like to me.
This is my Pad See-yew - big, flat rice noodles covered in sweet savory sauce, with egg and mint. This was a combo pad see-yew so there was beef, chicken, shrimp, whatever they had in the kitchen. I always order Pad See-yew at Thai restaurants - those flat noodles are one of my favorite dishes, and this one did not disappoint. It was probably one of the top 5 pad see-yew's I've had in my LIFE and that's not an easy feat. It was a huge serving and I could only finish about half.

This was Anna's Pad Kee Mao - bell peppers, onions, chicken and smaller cut flat noodles tossed all together in spices. Anna said she was sweatin' after eating this dish...so they really poured on the hot sauce!
And last but not least, here's Dom's dish - probably the best one of the night - the Kung Pow Pasta. The sauce was thick, hot and spicy, the noodles a great consistency with a good BITE, cut fresh veggies and chicken rounded out the meal. Awesome.

RCA's service was fairly quick, and could accommodate all of us at the same table. Parking was a nightmare but parking on the street was also an option, as was parking in residential areas. We had a good time and left stuffed. I can't ask for any more!