Yes, I am posting retroactively...
and because of the current covid-19 pandemic in 2020, this particular establishment is open only for takeout and delivery...
Below, the south entrance of the Grand Central Market in L.A.
To refresh your memory, I am resuming my Epic Birthday crawl posts from last year where we traversed the OC and LA for Filipino Food movement establishments . I actually had two birthday crawls - one with Bert & TC and the other with the Educator GF's. This one was with my family.
Sari Sari Store had opened at the market the previous year and we wanted to check it out. It's by this neon sign that reads, "Filipino Rice Bowls".
A "Sari-Sari" is a neighborhood convenience store in the Philippines. The word means "variety" or "sundry". In our respective parents' provinces, sari sari stores were ubiquitous. You want to buy a newspaper, cigarettes, candy or a soda? Go to the sari- sari store. It was also a place where folks would gather and just hang out. They served an important social and economic function for many of these towns and villages in the homeland.
The Sari Sari store in this market was decorated to have that 'sari sari' store feel...many popular Filipino products were featured on the shelves, like Ligo sardines, Spam, Vienna sausages, packaged noodles, and the like...
Plus stickers and posters on the wall and a sign that proclaimed, "Try our World Famous Buko Pie", which we certainly did!
We didn't get too much here. First of all, we would be eating real lunch at another Filipino spot in North Hollywood and dinner at LASA LA in Chinatown was still on the agenda. So, this was more of a shared snack between us three.
TC and I had table snagging duty while Bert stood in line to order and pay for our food.
Mango slushie. Damn, this was more than one year ago and I honestly don't remember. I ended up looking at my flckr photo description. Thank goodness I started doing that.
Since they touted their "bowls", we got the Tortang Talong bowl - this was an eggplant torta (like an open faced omelette with split and grilled eggplant) served over rice and topped with a fried and runny egg.
This was pretty damn good! My dad's tortang talong is better, but we've never had it served this way. It was hipster priced (I believe close to $13) but you know, they have to pay that rent!
Their buko pie was as delicious as it looked. For those of you that don't know, buko is young and tender coconut meat. The crust was excellent as well.
Give me that crust!
We noticed that the funicular ride, Angel's Flight was back in action!
Sari Sari Store
317 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Social media: @sarisaristorela
I won't even bother linking the four letter word reviews.
So, even though this post is dated 2019, just know that in 2020, restaurants and other eateries were pretty much closed from Mid-March and April, with some open only for take out. Late May 2020 would have some places open for socially distanced dining.
No comments:
Post a Comment