Tired after work, kids hungry and time running out? Head to these markets with excellent meal offerings.
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Every market has at least a few quick-serve options. Out here in the San Fernando Valley, the deli counter deserves more credit than it gets.in Encino feels like an Iranian-American Whole Foods. The produce section is full of fresh herbs, fruits, and some of the most well-curated Persian cucumbers around. There’s a full-service butcher offering grass-fed beef and cuts of halal lamb in traditional marinades.
All great for meal prep — but tonight, we’re hitting the hot food line. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. Is there a facility like the Garden Grove chemical tank near you?
How to find out If the near-disaster in Orange County has you worried, you can find out about facilities near you — and keep tabs on them by getting involved with government regulators. Their steam tables are full of khoreshs like bademjoon , fesenjoon , and their signature ghormeh sabzi .
On the far side, there's rice dishes like sabzi polo , sweet shirin polo , adas polo , and squares of the famously crunchy tahdigMany people are buying for families, but don't overlook the single skewer — it comes with rice, bread, a roasted tomato and a roasted poblano pepper. Make sure to hit up their bakery and take home the 3-foot-long scrolls of sangak, the more circular tuftoon, or the seeded barbari flatbread..
Founded in Van Nuys, this Mexican-American grocery store now has 60 locations in California, and they just opened their firstin Arizona. The Valley has a number of locations, but my favorites are the recently remodeled stores in Van Nuys on Sherman Way and Woodley and Canoga Park on Roscoe and Topanga. For dinner, go first to the in-house tortilleria, where they make several sizes and varieties, from blue corn to Sonoran-style flour tortillas.
They also make tortilla chips and those tasty chicharrones de harina — puffy, deep-fried flour puffs that evoke pork rinds but are fully vegetarian. Since you've got chips in your cart, head to the fresh guacamole bar up front. Pull a premade container or have one made to order . Grab some salsa while you're at it; the salsa verde and pico de gallo are worth it.
This could be a snack on its own or an appetizer for what's coming. If you happen to feel a bit hungrier you can get a full plate of Eastern European dishes. Stuffed cabbages, chicken kotleti,duck legs, and grilled fish. You can take home containers of chicken noodle soup or borscht.
If you need a quick bite you can pick up a Georgian khinkhali dumpling, creamy cheese blintzes, a beef samsa hand pie, or a fried potato pirozkh bun. They’ve also got an impressive lineup of signature sandwiches like the Maestro or the South Beach both served on Dutch Crunch bread.
I’m pretty sure we’re going to get both, next time my wife and I have a night out on the town.since I was a kid. I loved going with my mom because I got to have a say in what we would eat at home.
If I was lucky, after the staples she'd let us hit the salad bar — and maybe, just maybe, the macaroni & cheese from the service deli Over the years, Gelson’s has “home-cooked” our family passover dinners, birthdays, and Saint Patrick’s day. Sometimes it's just an easy family meal — bring the kids to the counter and let them build a hodgepodge of chicken tenders, potato wedges, and slices of Wolfgang Puck pizza. My wife will always get the tuna salad, which she swears is the best in L.A. Me, I go straight for the pre-boxed Spago-inspired Chinois Chicken Salad and a demi baguette. Their chicken noodle soup and vegetarian chili are worth a mention too.
Every birthday cake in my wife’s family is catered by the in-house bakery, Mamolo’s Fine Pastries. We’ve eaten every cake they make, but are still working our way through the pastry case. Our family favorites are probably the fruit tart and Princess cake. If you’re not in the mood to bring home an entire cake, the rugelach and alligator pastry are always a winner.
I’m often in this parking lot at the corner of Sepulveda and Victory slurping down lunch at Pho So 1, getting a boba at Ding Tea or trying to figure out how many friends I’d need to eat that whole barbecued duck at Sam Woo Village. , the largest Chinese supermarket chain in the United States.
The San Fernando Valley is not the San Gabriel Valley — this Van Nuys branch may be your only option for Chinese groceries in the region. The shelves are stocked with fish sauces, mulberry vinegar, Indonesian curry packets, agar agar powder, braised abalone with shiitake mushrooms, and at least seven brands of canned quail eggs. The seafood counter has live fish and crab aquariums; the freezer section stocks hot pot staples like fishcakes and lobster balls. Hungry now?
Head to the back for hot food — Chinese American combo plates with orange chicken and chow mein, dim sum-style shrimp shumai, chicken rolls, and char siu buns, plus braised pork belly bowls served with pickled mustard greens and hard-boiled eggs. Up front, an 85 Degrees-style bakery turns out croissants, red bean buns, and roll cakes.
It’s totally OK to eat that shrimp shumai in the parking lot, but don’t go too far, because you might want to get another one. , the grocery chain that originally opened in 1977 out of an old Von’s and has grown to 13 Southern California locations, half of them in the San Fernando Valley. It's a full-service supermarket with national chain staples and international products.
The kind of place where you can buy Armenian basturma, Ukrainian banana-flavored Minions-branded chocolate, boxes of Guatemalan chao mein, Colombian soft drinks, and Salvadoran sour creams. It’s also a goldmine for after shopping bites. At every location, you can buy their deli-packed dolmas, hummus, babaganoush, gigante beans, purple sauerkraut, and some farmer’s cheese or Bulgarian feta. All of these side dishes pair perfectly with matnakash, Armenian fingerbread, which you can easily eat a whole loaf of in the parking lot.
Jon also sells warm Mexican-style tamales chicken, beef, and sweet corn tamales that are pretty tasty. The Reseda and Van Nuys Sepulveda locations also have the micro-chain of Sasoun Bakery in the store. There you order Armenian pastries like beorek triangles, meaty lahmajune, za’atar-laced maneishe, and tahini bread. The Jon’s on Sepulveda also has a Market Grill, a hot food line serving Iranian stews and kabobs alongside enchiladas and Hawaiian chicken.
I recently had a hearty bowl of lentil soup with a piece of sangak flatbread straight out of the oven. It’s stacked with items like barbecued skewers, deep-fried crispy pork pata and lechon kawaii, grilled pompano and tilapia, and chicken inasal,marinated in vinegar, calamansi and annatto. You can eat this a la carte or, as a combo meal served with rice or pancit, or as a family package.
For a quick bite you can get the viral Ilocos empanada, a bright orange deep-fried hand pie filled with ground beef , shredded papaya, mung beans, and a fried egg, to be dipped in a vinegar sauce. You’ll probably also need something sweet, so don’t sleep on theYou come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit.
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Quick Dinners Pick Up Dinner Supermarket Ready To Eat Meals
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