Hardly Any Fair at All: The Mitsuwa Torrance Hokkaido Fair

Due to a strange course of events, I actually ended up at two food events last Saturday. After returning home from the aforementioned LA BBQ Festival, I drove down to Torrance for the Mitsuwa Market Hokkaido Festival. I actually didn't know what to expect, but I heard good things from I Nom Things and LA OC Foodie. What I found when I entered the store, was hardly a fair at all.

See what I found...

Maybe it was the fact that in was indoors. Maybe I just had too high an expectation. Maybe it was just the supermarket setting that threw me. Whatever the reason, I felt like this was more of a Hokkaido Sale than a Hokkaido Fair. Sure, the stands featured seafood and supposedly other treats from Hokkaido, but it just seemed like Mitsuwa was featuring special items. They set up a special seafood section selling fresh fish, beautiful crabs and other assorted fruits de mer. I was still quite full from the barbecue festival however, and didn't feel like springing for a king crab bento box for $20. In retrospect, it might have been money worth spent, but king crab can be $9.99 per pound when it's on sale at Vons.



Not wanting to leave empty handed, I did wait in the unbearably long line for the desserts. From the look of it, the fair was much more popular than anticipated. They ran out of melon pan (melon flavored pastries) and were only serving Hokkaido-style soft-serve and cream puffs. For $3, the cream puff was terrible. For $2, it would be bareable. For $1, it would still be wildly overpriced. I regret not getting a chance to try the melon pan though. On the other hand, the ice cream was a delightful treat. Not cheap either, slightly under $3, it did offer something unique. The taste was undeniably milky, something you can't easily find in the States. All I can say is that it reminded me much of the milk in Asia, but if you haven't had it before, I don't exactly know how else to describe it except "milky." I want to say that it has a vitamin taste to it, perhaps with a powder sensation. Some Japanese milk flavored candies have this flavor and they are much easier to find in Asian markets.





While I left without quite feeling in the fair spirit, it was a nice trip. I'll admit that I may not have had the full experience because I didn't buy any seafood and didn't try the famous Hokkaido miso and butter ramen. Besides the dessets, I also bought some groceries for a great dinner made by my girlfriend and some somen for lunch. It was my first experience with somen and I highly enjoyed it as a light lunch. So even though the Hokkaido Fair was not quite what I expected, this was one time when I didn't complain about life being unfair.

^

Read More

LA BBQ Fest Debriefing

Looks rather grim and not that impressive, huh? I think that's the general sense I got from the long-awaited barbecue festival. Strangely enough, the weather seemed to match the mood of most of the participants. All around me people seemed stuffed, but not particularly satisfied.

See why after the jump...

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say that the festival was a failure. I just felt that the hype surrounding it definitely deflated some of its impact. For one thing, the vendor list of pitmasters seemed to change several times. Of the eight barbecue tents, there were only three from out of town. Granted, LA might have some excellent meats, but I was looking for something I couldn't get locally. The fair itself also seemed rather small, taking up just a corner of the Santa Monica Beach parking lot. I could smell the smokers from Ocean Boulevard, but there wasn't one sign pointing me down to the festival. If it wasn't for the aroma, I couldn't be sure this was actually it.

I tried three places with HC, Will and Thi: LC's Kansas City Spareribs, Southside's Elgin Texas Hot Sausage and Brisket, and Bandana's St. Louis Spareribs. The crowds of lines were good indicators of which barbecue tasted the best, and LC's line was by far the longest.

LC's BBQ



As you can see, LC puts a lot of work into their ribs. What I liked best is the care that went into the ribs themselves rather than heavy reliance on heavy sauce. Tender, but still with enough resistance to the teeth is exactly how I like my ribs. Spare ribs tend to have more fat, thus being more tender than baby back, so they are actually my ribs of choice for barbecue. Although you're more likely to get a rack of baby back here, St. Louis and Kansas City have healthy traditions of using the spare ribs. Tastewise, the ribs had balanced flavors that you don't find in most bad barbecue. All too often meat is usually too salty or cloyingly sweet. The spare ribs at LC's tent were savory with a coating mouthfeel and a hint of smoke. Call it umami or call it whatever you want, but these ribs had a ton of it. I'm not sure what kind of recognition LC's has in Kansas City, but they certainly made an impact with their barbecue in Los Angeles.

Bandana's BBQ



LC's was a tough act to follow. They were indeed some of the best ribs I've ever had. I turned to St. Louis for some competition. For some comparison, I got to the fair right when they opened and there was hardly anyone there. We still waited ten minutes or so for LC's line. When I turned to the Bandana tent, the ribs were lined up on the table waiting for the customers to come. If you look closely at the picture, you can see how dry the ribs are. They were overcooked and flaky. It occurred to me that this was not that much different than beef jerky. Only a variety of sauces made it palatable. Yet even with a whole bottle of their spicy bbq sauce, I still would not pay $10 for their ribs again.

Southside Market and BBQ



From Elgin, Texas comes this Southside barbecue truck spitting out hot links and beef brisket. The brisket was terrible; even doused with sauce it was tough and flavorless. The sausage was not as hot as I had hoped. It was definitely greasy though. I thought it was a juicy frank when I bit into it, but it just coated my mouth in oil. Eating it with raw onions helped take the edge off slightly.

Leyna's Babycakes
leynaskitchen.com


Although I only had a piece of the strawberrilicious cupcake, it was indeed as light and fluffy as advertised. Even the frosting didn't weigh me down. I wonder what they put in these things to obtain that consistency. As of now, I think Leyna only does catered orders, but maybe one day you'll see a Leyna's Babycakes store...at least until Sprinkles sues it out of existence.

All in all, some things I would've liked to see done better:
-Display of instructions and banners for the event
-Smaller portions and cheaper prices
-Better representation from outside the area
-Something to cleanse the meat palate. Maybe a salad?
-Other bbq type activities besides just eating

Maybe I missed out by not going to the local pitmasters, but I can always check them out on my own. For more event details, refer to my previous entry

^

Read More

Los Angeles Barbeque Festival

Updated summary

This weekend is the Los Angeles BBQ Festival. I was originally just going to blog about my experience there afterwards, but I realized it would probably be a good idea to let my readers know too.

Click for details...

Saturday and Sunday (9/13-14) at the Santa Monica Beach adjacent to the pier.
Noon-6pm

Admission is $10 or $50 for VIP. As far as I know, VIP gets you cutsies in lines.
Use the discount code "YELP" buying tickets online to get $5 off general admission and $15 off VIP.
As if the admission is not bad enough, food is separately priced at $10 per bbq item, $4 desserts and $2-5 beverages.

Pitmasters Include:

Parise Pit BBQ - Mac n Cheese
Gus's BBQ - Smoked Brick Chicken and Baked Beans
L.C's BBQ - Kansas City Spare Ribs and Baked Beans
Bristol Farms - Chicken and Vegetable Skewers
Mr. Cecil's California Ribs - Beef Ribs and Cucumber Tomato Salad
Southside Market and BBQ - Elgin Hot Sausage and BBQ Brisket
Baby Blues BBQ - Memphis Baby Back Ribs and Mac n Cheese
Bandana's BBQ - St. Louis Spare Ribs and Potato Salad

Desserts:

Leyna's Kitchen - Velvet Cupcakes
Essential Chocolate Desserts - S'more Brownies

There will also be some music entertainment. For more information, check out
labbqfest.com

^

Read More