Saturday, March 28, 2009

Rock Star Lunch Tour, Day Two: Partying Like A Broke-Ass Rock Star, Sapp Coffee Shop and Scoops Ice Cream, LA

I may have a paycheck in my future, but I certainly ain't gonna pre-spend it all at one restaurant. What I love about LA is that you can one, have a good lunch at Spago, and two, have about four even better lunches for the price of that Spago lunch. The economy sucks, yo. You gotta stretch your dollar as far as you can; have that Spago lunch and you may not be able to afford those Christian Louboutin's you've been eyeing, especially since your company just slashed salaries by 10% across the board. And God forbid you wear your Payless Shoe Source platform pumps to the next big meeting--you'll surely be the laughing stock of the department, which could lead you to get fired. Then what???

For Day Two of my Rock Star Lunch Tour, I'm going to show you where you can party like a rock star (and with dessert) for a little over ten bucks after tax and tip!

You've probably seen Sapp Coffee Shop a bajillion times when the Travel Channel repeats the LA episode of No Reservations. Hell, you've probably even gone there so that you can sit exactly where Tony Bourdain sat. (Oh, you mean only I did that???) Whatever the case, go there and order what my noodle-whoring friend recommended to everyone's favorite bad boy chef--the Thai Boat Noodles--and you can't go wrong. It's quality and quantity all for under six bucks--a smorgasbord of tasty animal goodies like beef flank, brisket, tripe, meatballs, liver, tendon, and fried pork skins doing some synchronized swimming with rice noodles in a most savory blood-thickened soup. If this genius composition of spicy, salty, sweet and bitter flavors and crunchy, chewy, snappy, and creamy textures doesn't float your boat (pun intended), Sapp's got a boatload (another pun intended) of other Thai dishes for dirt cheap.

No doubt you'll need something to cleanse your palate after all that funky noodley goodness, so take your warm belly a couple miles south to Scoops in the Hel-Mel area for some very innovative gelato. Sure, it's been blogged and yelped about close to six million times over the last three years but I don't care. It's good, the flavors are like none you'll ever have and owner-creator Tai Kim is as sweet as can be. On this particular Tuesday afternoon, I treated myself to a scoop of Brown Bread, texturally interesting with bits of Grape Nuts, and a scoop of Strawberry-Lychee, light and refreshing. Unless you go absolutely ape-shit here and gorge yourself with gelato, Scoops should only set you back a few bucks. (But don't forget to leave them a little something at the counter!)

So there you have it, folks, a rock-star worthy lunch with dessert for next to nothing! Pretty soon you'll have cut your monthly expenses down so much that you'll be strutting down the aisles at Big Lots in your sexy red-soled Louboutin's in no time.

Sapp Coffee Shop
5183 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 665-1035

Scoops Ice Cream
712 N. Heliotrope Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 906-2649

9 comments:

weezermonkey said...

[whispering]

I've still never been to Scoops.

[insert embarrassed look here]

Oishii Eats said...

Damn DG...are you submitting these photos to Gourmet mag? I seriously love the 2nd shot. Your D300 has some amazing crispiness just like the pork rinds.

Food Marathon said...

What kind of crazy food nerd would sit in the same seat as Bourdain....
oh, us.

Anne said...

Congrats on the new gig!

e d b m said...

WeezerMonkey. *Looking at WeezerMonkey through computer monitor.*

Pam, congratulations on the job! Get five more and you can be Jamaican! I haven't eaten at Sapp for a long time. I can recommend a few other places you can try Thai Boat Noodle soup. i actually made some at home with frozen beef blood and it was very good. say hi to baby chay-chub.

Anonymous said...

oh sapp is definitely my favorite place for tbn! whenever I'm hankering for some offaly iron, I head straight for sapp. that rich broth is like none other. i prefer it over ord and definitely over the broth across the street at sanamluang (although their noodles are better)

scoops must be the happiest place on earth (well atleast to matthew :)) naturally always a stop after sapp :)

Daily Gluttony said...

Weezer Monkey,

shhhhhhh, i hadn't been to scoops until recently either. hee hee.

that & the fact that i have never been to the kogi truck makes me a foodie rebel. ;)

Jeni,

Aww, thanks girl, you are too sweet! I do love me some D300 and chicharrones.

Food Marathon,

Damn right!

TAG,

thanks so much! it's nice to know I can still eat out & not feel guilty that I'm giving my unemployment checks to restaurants.

EDBM,

thanks mon, five job! haha

where else do you go for TBN? I've had them at Yai--they were *meh* I realy hope you don't say Sanamluang...the last time I was there I got so grossed out when I pulled my chair in and I got all this sticky glop on the part of my hand that touched the chair.

choisauce,

i get offally iron cravings too! is it a woman thing? hahaha

dealinhoz said...

Pam, Ruen Pair and Ord have ok versions. I'd actually take Ord's over Ruen Pair. But I really enjoy this mom/pop shop called Thaitown Noodles. Place holds no more than like 16 patrons and it feels like you're in a mom's kitchen. it's very homey food. her style of TBN is not as robust as Sapp's. maybe we can go here.

Kung Food Panda said...

DG: Sapp and Scoops, what a combo! :)

Blog Widget by LinkWithin