Lacquered has a perfect mashup of a burrito stuffed with grilled farmer’s market vegetables and saut\u00e9ed garlic noodles with a bit of melted cheese to hold everything together.<\/p>\n
Naturally, when I thought of noodles with vegetables wrapped in a tortilla I figured it was going to be a mess to eat, but the melted cheese has a way of keeping things in place. The vegetables are so fresh that they snap when you bite into the oh-so-satisfying \u201cburrito\u201d with a refreshing crunch. Notes of char on the vegetables lend a nice depth to the flavor, along with the caramelization on the noodles from being saut\u00e9ed in savory garlic sauce.<\/p>\n Latin America, meets Italy, meets Vietnam?<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a runner who\u2019s into carb-loading then this might be your ultimate dream food\u2014and if you\u2019re like me and not a runner, this might be the food of your dreams.<\/p>\n Lacquered is at 3626 E. Broadway, 562-881-8105 lacqueredlb.com<\/a> Insta: @lacqueredrestaurant.<\/em><\/p>\n The Thai curry pizza at the pizza joint of the same name is a wonderfully fun reinvention of Americanized pizza. Sweet aromatic curry with a thick coconut milk base replaces the tomato sauce, taking on more of a white sauce role. Bean sprouts, bell pepper, onion and sweet Thai basil complete the flavors of a Thai curry; all that\u2019s missing is the rice, and the heat\u2014but you can request a bit of tangy Thai chili sauce on the side.<\/p>\n If the crust were handmade rather than that frozen processed crust too commonly used in the making of pizza in Long Beach, this would land in the top-10 best pizzas I’ve ever eaten.<\/p>\n Best value: Order from the website.<\/p>\n Thai Curry Pizza is at 929 Redondo Ave.: thaicurrypizza.com<\/a> 562-987-3295.<\/em><\/p>\n Auld Dubliner offers three fun mashups that are worth the stop:<\/p>\n Corned Beef and Cabbage Taco ($3 each): <\/strong>Corned beef and cabbage tacos with horseradish mayo and pico de gallo are a wonderfully tasty hybrid of Irish, Mexican, and a bit of Jewish cuisine. What looks like a simple street taco at first glance is actually something completely different\u2014and after that first bite, you realize you’re eating a culinary rollercoaster!<\/p>\n A brunoise of succulent corned beef morsels in a healthy pile, slathered with horseradish mayo, and topped with shredded cabbage and pico de gallo, all resting on a moist flour tortilla.<\/p>\n Creamy mayo laced with horseradish replaces the cilantro cream or \u201cBaja sauce,\u201d and reels you in adding the idea of a playful kick that never quite arrives. The flavor hearkens to eating a corned beef sandwich on the Lower East Side of Manhattan or sinking your teeth into a Reuben, but then the cool freshness of the pico de gallo pulls your taste buds back to SoCal as everything melds together. Yum!<\/p>\n Curry Chips ($5): <\/strong>Complex and aromatic, this basic yellow curry, spinning with turmeric, cumin and coriander adds a sort of sweetness when generously ladled over the chips (fries). A dash of salt over the top acts as a net holding the different flavors together, giving the fried potatoes their own familiarity and making the curry a much more interesting flavor.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a unique mashup because while most people associate curry with India (among many places) the name curry is in fact a British anglicization of the Tamil word kari<\/em>, meaning sauce. It seems curry chips were introduced to England and Ireland by Chinese immigrants in the 1970s when fish and chip shops started becoming Chinese takeaway. The chips were kept on the menu for the English and Irish customers seeking the comfort of the ultimate hangover cure, but topping them with curry seemed the best way to merge chips with other items on their menus, like curry, and it stuck.<\/p>\n Banger wontons ($9): <\/strong>These are just as they sound, Irish pork sausage with onions wrapped up in wonton wrappers and deep-fried, served with a dipping sauce that’s both earthy and tangy with just a hint of spice made from UK’s favorite HP sauce, mixed with a touch of U.S. hot sauce.<\/p>\n A little on the gamy side, and extremely oily, but it’s easy to see how this late-night bar snack would be an absolute craving after a few pints.<\/p>\n Auld Dubliner is at 71 S Pine Ave. 562-437-8300. aulddubliner.com<\/a>; Insta: @aulddubliner.<\/em><\/p>\n How is Bahn mi a mash-up?<\/p>\n When the French occupied Vietnam in the 1850\u2019s they insisted that the Vietnamese learn how to bake their precious baguettes with the flour they were shipping in with their other supplies, since bread was a staple of the French diet (I\u2019m paraphrasing, obviously to keep this history brief). Bread, however, was considered far too valuable to allow the Vietnamese people to eat. The French felt the Vietnamese not worthy since they easily lived off of rice and sea fare. \u00a0Long story short, when the French moved out of Vietnam in the 1950s, the local people were free to put whatever they wanted onto the baguettes, traditionally made with French ingredients like pate, mayonnaise, sardines, butter, and cheese. But the Vietnamese preferred bean sprouts, peppers, pickled vegetables, and the freshness of native cilantro.<\/p>\n I tried three banh mi\u2019s in an effort to eat an authentic one, and it was difficult because of the three I tried, one had the best bread, one was the most authentic but had the lowest quality ingredients, and one had the best flavor overall, but the bread wasn\u2019t great and the ingredients weren\u2019t an authentic banh mi.<\/p>\n The best bread was at Bite Mi at the LBX ($8).<\/p>\n The best overall was at 1,2,3, Pho on Third Street and The Promenade ($8.45).<\/p>\n The most authentic was at KC\u2019s Banh Mi ,1171 E. Anaheim St., offering classic ingredients like pat\u00e9 and sardines($5.98).<\/p>\n This final cultural mashup story is my favorite because, while a good Caesar salad is a great thing, a true classic Mexican Caesar salad is very hard to find. Sure, there are a few Mexican restaurants that have a Caesar salad on the menu, but they always try to infuse the salad with Latin American ingredients when there’s no need because the Caesar salad is\u2014well, technically speaking\u2014a Mexican dish.<\/p>\n Enrique’s makes the list for its classic Caesar salad: Romaine, with a house-made anchovy dressing (which in this case seems to be a little bit closer to a mayonnaise base than an actual Caesar dressing, and seems to omit the dash of Worcestershire sauce) with rich flavorful flecks of anchovy, along with house-made croutons and shaved Parmesan.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/07103345\/Lacquered-Noodrito-1110x832.jpeg\")
Thai Curry Pizza ($14.99 for web orders; $17.99 for call-in)<\/strong><\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/07103610\/Thai-curry-pizza-1110x832.jpeg\")
Auld Dubliner ($3-$9)<\/strong><\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/03\/Auld-dubliner-wontons-taco-1110x832.jpeg\")
Banh mi (prices vary by location)<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/07103935\/123-Pho-1110x832.jpeg\")
Enrique\u2019s Mexican Restaurant ($9.50)<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/07104152\/caesar-salad-enriques-1110x832.jpeg\")