Sampa's Gourmet Pizza

🇧🇷 BRAZIL
📍 2413 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Lomita, South Bay
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 No Alcohol
🌱 Vegetarian Friendly

If you have ever visited friends in São Paulo, Brazil's largest city and financial center, it is almost a certainty that they took you to a rodizio-style pizza joint. Similar to the churrascaria restaurants serving all-you-can-eat cuts of meat that have become popular in the United States and other places where Brazilian foods are enjoyed, pizza in Brazil is also usually enjoyed in this format.

Instead of grilled meats brought around on skewers to be knifed off on your plate, a pizza rodizio sees servers holding fresh pies hot from the oven. As they circulate, you can grab small slices of as many pizzas as you want or order from a menu, a great way to sample a variety of toppings. In the United States, you are lucky if a pizzeria will deliver you a pie with different toppings on the two halves, but an average pizza night in Sampa (the nickname for São Paulo city) sees diners eating four, six, eight, or even a double digit amount of different slices.

Tiny Sampa's Gourmet Pizza opened in Lomita in 2018 (and expanded to a slightly larger location in Marina Del Rey a year later) with the intentions of hosting pizza rodizio nights, and had successful ones before the pandemic started in early 2020. If you make a reservation and bring a big enough group, you can still ask for this, but for now rodizio nights are still on hold despite the owners wanting to get back to them when possible.

Like many foods in Los Angeles, the pizzeria began because its owners missed some tastes from back home. They put this home in their name, the state of São Paulo is shaded into the logo, and scenes from downtown are printed in a large mural on the wall of the dining room. At the top of the Brazilian Specialty Pizzas menu is the São Paulo ($23, below).

The namesake pie has three main ingredients: shredded chicken, sweet yellow corn, and catupiry (think soft, spreadable, savory cream cheese), which is layered over the mozzarella and tomato sauce at the pizza's base. While there is tomato sauce on many of Brazil's favorite pizzas, it is usually quite thin and not nearly as important a component as the variety of toppings.

Many pizza snobs will furrow their brow at the toppings that can be found on a Brazilian pizza, but diners who enjoy experiencing all the variety the world has to offer will enjoy this just as much as the pies that come from Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Japan, and Argentina. Corn might seem odd for someone who has never eaten it on pizza before, but start with the São Paulo and see for yourself how well these tastes work together.

Because Brazilian pizza is quite thin and sometimes loaded with many heavy toppings, it is of course best to plan your time around eating inside the small restaurant and not getting your pizza boxed. They have shakers of oregano and Parmesan cheese, but the condiment you will desire most is the hot sauce from Minas Gerais that you will see on most tables in São Paulo. Oregano is already dusted on many pies, so grab a bottle of this medium-spicy bright red sauce and lather your slice up as desired.

When you eat here, you will see quite a few customers coming in to pick up pizzas they have called in to order or placed online. Plenty of pepperoni and marinara pies are made alongside the top Brazilian picks on the menu. While the cities may be seen as rivals, these São Paulo expats also make a version named for Rio de Janeiro ($24, below).

This is a meatless pizza that has a provolone and catupiry mix on top of the mozzarella, making for a supremely cheesy treat. Big meaty hunks of hearts of palm are the star of the show, weighing down the slices enough that it is best eaten with a fork and knife. Oregano balances the taste spectrum, but once again a few shakes from the Mineiro hot sauce are the best finish.

On future visits you can sample pizzas with Portuguese sausages, cooked ham, hard-boiled eggs, and even tuna with olives. To cater to the non-adventurous pizza crowd, they also have an array of Italian classics, but that side of the menu will never seem appealing when you talk to one of the owners and see their passion for the pizza of Brazil.

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Casa Córdoba

🇪🇸 SPAIN (Andalucía)
📍 2331 Honolulu Avenue, Montrose, Verdugos
🅿️ Very small lot in back, street parking
🥤 Beer and wine

While the city's food media is busy celebrating modern Spanish and Basque-influenced restaurants opening around town, it seemed a good time to head to now 10-year-old Casa Córdoba. Mostly appreciated as a neighborhood restaurant and known by locals and those that pop over from Pasadena, the building is designed like the Roman/Moorish villas in southern Spain but lives right on Montrose's main drag.

That design is an important part of buildings in the region of Andalucía, and its interior courtyard goes to great lengths to show off the breezy patios of this hot part of the Iberian peninsula. If the weather permits, try to score a table there. The cities of Sevilla and Granada may be more known in the region nowadays, but Córdoba's history as a center for Roman and Islamic cultures in different time periods make it such an important place to learn about Andalucía.

While not sticking exclusively to the food of Córdoba or the greater region, the restaurant does have some southern specialties that should be tried. But rest assured most of the customers here have already dined in many times, and there is no right answer when deciding what to order. Classic tapas dishes are executed just as nice as regional specialties that you may have never heard of before.

The tapas start coming out fast and furious, just as they might in a Spanish bar when served free with drinks. Even before the glasses of wine are all filled, a hot plate of albondigas ($16, above) shows up shortly after the full order is placed. These already show off the influences from the other side of the Mediterranean that linger heavily today, a mix of Moroccan beef merguez and decidedly non-halal pork chorizo. They swim in a shallow tomato bath and get a manchego dusting, and eating them just makes you more hungry.

It may be raining and cold, the mountains above Montrose even got a decent amount of snow, but do not pass up the opportunity to enjoy a cup of salmorejo, a cold soup that originated in Córdoba. Salmorejo Cordobés ($11, above) is a thick puree of tomatoes and garlic that almost everyone in the city will tell you to order if you are visiting. It is bright with sour acidic notes and always comes with a crumble of hard boiled egg and serrano ham to be mixed into the soup.

As much or more than the rest of Spain, seafood in Andalucía plays an oversized roll in the appetites of most people. One of the table's favorite dishes on this night was the mariscos de la casa ($26, below), fresh mussels, clams, and shrimp that have moved straight from the sea to this white wine and butter-filled bowl laced with garlic and herbs. Even the bread is top notch, and you should not feel ashamed to use it to soak up every last drop of the delicious juices down at the bottom.

Pintxo champiñones con gambas ($20).

Chistorra y esparragos (16).

Tostas de anchoas ($16).

The meal continued on with nonstop hits like the three above, tapas-style dishes executed flawlessly and providing a good array of tastes. The shrimp and mushroom dish seemed to show up on every table in the restaurant on this night. For good reason, they could not be turned down and like many things come as a portion of four. Two people are enough to have a wonderful dinner here, but gathering a group of four is ideal.

Even with those four, by the time the paella Casa Córdoba ($45 small, below) arrives you are already feeling some pressure against your belt. Paella is cooked and served in the namesake metal dish as it should be, and the house version is a more southern take on the Valenciana, with small cubes of duck and chorizo underneath much larger (and weirdly bland) hunks of chicken. The rice is the star with very slight but good socarrat, the crispiness at the bottom that has all the flavors of each component concentrated within a caramelization.

You might need to get up and take a walk to make it happen, but at least one selection from the dessert menu is rewarding. Natilla ($10, above) is a fairly light option, a milky sweet custard with vanilla and cinnamon served with crispy wafers that can scoop just as well as the small spoons provided. Make sure to grab a white raisin in each bite as well.

On a nice warm night with no one waiting for your table, you will find yourself wanting to linger with another bottle of wine or maybe a round of Estrella Damm beer. Even diners who are coming from outside of the area will immediately feel like a regular here as the service is just so friendly and attentive. Another walk around the block and you will be ready for that nightcap.

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Sal's Gumbo Shack

🇺🇸 UNITED STATES (Louisiana)
📍 6148 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach, Harbor
🅿️ Street Parking
🥤 No Alcohol

With the recent opening of a second location in Bixby Knolls, it was time to revisit the original Long Beach Blvd. Sal's Gumbo Shack, which is now 11 years old. The corner spot got an exterior facelift in 2017, but the delicious Louisiana cooking coming out of the kitchen has remained top notch. While prices have risen quite a bit like most of the industry, dishes from The Big Easy and its wider area are still worth coming here for, especially the namesake gumbo and jambalaya.

Depending on when you come in for a meal, the small dining room is usually not too busy. The phone keeps ringing though, and orders come in through the internet, so the kitchen is constantly in motion even when only one person is operating everything. No matter how many things are being juggled at once, the mood is always good and the kind heart and hospitality translate to the food.

A lot of the menu here holds up well for pickup and delivery, but one particular New Orleans dish should be eaten here immediately if possible. Sometimes referred to as the "poutine of the South" by writers not from Louisiana, boo fries ($14.99, below) have a long history all their own. Some of the same concepts are there in theory, but the dish feels quite different from the Canadian staple.

Rather than a corn starch-thickened gravy, the fries here are smothered with a rich layer of roast beef and its juices. Cheese curds would get a weird look so far south, so they are omitted in favor of shredded cheese applied right before serving. This starts to melt pretty fast and makes each bite have a nice gooey strand left connected to the rest of the bowl.

But of course you came to Sal's for gumbo, the roast beef and cheese is just a warm up to the main event born in southern Lousiana and now the official dish of the entire state. Its home is even in the title of the dish on the menu; Louisiana gumbo ($22.99 medium, below) is a thick seafood and rice stew that has the essence of the coast of the gulf in each bite. In addition to crab and shrimp, a generous amount of chopped sausages are thrown in.

There is usually celery, bell pepper, and onion in a gumbo, but any vegetables used in this version have been thoroughly cooked down in the meat stock. Two crab legs stick out of any order, with shrimp submerged with the rice and other meats. The tastes are so bold and concentrated that you can safely add water when reheating at home if you want to thin the stew.

The other shining star of the restaurant is jambalaya ($13.99 small, above), which is even more reliant on rice. In this preparation, the rice is cooked in a tomato and pepper broth until the liquids have reduced, when sauteed shrimp, andouille sausage, and chicken are added. It comes in three portion sizes, and you will be sad there is not more if you make the same mistake as shown here with a small order.

Po'boys are like pizza and even enjoyable when forgettable, but know that these Louisiana specialties are obviously not the priority at Sal's. A shrimp po'boy ($14.99, below) is simple with battered and deep-fried pieces of the crustacean placed on a soft baguette and drizzled with mayo. Po'boys come with a side of fries, which are slightly under-cooked but tasty with a dusting of herbs.

You can also get crab and/or shrimp boils here at Sal's Gumbo Shack, cooked traditionally and served in plastic bags with or without corn, potatoes, sausage. A half pound shrimp boil ($13.99, below) was purchased on this occasion and enjoyed, a chance to get your hands dirty and dig in as you would at one of many riverfront restaurants in southern Louisiana.

As the seafood in New Orleans and Louisiana is always guaranteed to be fresh from the morning's catch, a place like this can excel in Los Angeles simply because of the quality of the ingredients available from the sea. Long Beach is a long way from The Pelican State, but Sal's is definitely a piece of home for families that have moved from the bayou and a treat for everyone else that loves the food.

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Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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Armin Meat & Deli

🇮🇷 IRAN
📍 8521 Foothill Blvd., Sunland, Verdugos
🅿️ Small parking lot in front
🥤 No Alcohol

It has been just over a year since Sunland's new Persian meat market cut the red ribbon at their opening celebration in late January 2022. But a look up at the sign which says "Since 1973" gives a hint that this is not the beginning of the story. The owner also has had a catering operation for some time, and obviously more than one generation has went into the history and recipes.

You can come in and get fully prepared for grilling kebabs and other meats at home, but lovers of sandwiches will be especially pleased with the daily offerings, almost all of which can be stuffed between bread and loaded with parsley, onions, and sauce. If you walk in to order, preparations take about 30 minutes, so you will find most people familiar with the place phone in their lists and come to pick up when everything is ready.

Beef louleh kebabs are laid out in the refrigerated case ready to cook at home for $6 each, and the familiar Persian ground meat favorite is indeed hard to resist. All boneless meats can be purchased as easy to eat sandwiches as well, like this beef louleh sandwich ($13.99, above). The kebab is joined by freshly chopped parsley and onion, or you can choose a more US-style version with lettuce and tomato.

Some choices are better with tomato, like the beef tongue sandwich ($16.99, below), which also has a nice layer of pickles and a zippy sauce that transfers from the tongue into each side of the French roll. The Persian tongue sandwich is usually a good entry point for those that may be squeamish with alternative cuts of meat, and the delicious version here is no exception.

The orange marinades of prepared skewers laid out in the case were tempting enough for a chicken thigh sandwich ($13.99, above) to be ordered. Somehow the flavors of this were even more than their appearance hinted, the tender dark meat pieces bursting with juices and spice with each bite.

The market also sells cups of sosis banderi, chopped up beef sausages swimming in a spicy sauce that will remind you immediately of any time you may have spent in Iran, especially the southern regions close to the Persian Gulf. The word bandari refers to this southern region, although now sandwiches with this spicy treat can be found just about anywhere that street food can be purchased.

Armin Meat & Deli also make their own sausages stuffed with cheese, which can be purchased by the link or also on another roll. The cheese dog ($13.99, above), or sosis paniri is a fun choice, as melted cheese runs out of the fried sausages after biting them. This is served with tomatoes and the house sauce, and while maybe not quite at the level as the other sandwiches, was a lot of fun to try.

Since there were no plans to get back home to a grill, the lamb chops ($5 each, below) provided a good way to sample at least one of the non-sandwich offerings of Armin. Easy to pick up with your hands for those that are eating on their car hoods or at a dark dive bar nearby like all this food was, the chops are simple and beautiful.

Like the chicken thighs, the marinades they are using are are eye-opening. Or maybe eye-closing, as you savor that first bite and each afterwards, flavorful but still allowing the quality of the meat to shine through. With one of these in each of the four mouths that enjoyed this meal, a string of Mmmmms rang around the table at the bar.

You can also grab pork ribs or hot wings at the meat market, or get more sandwiches with beloved Persian mortadella made with pistachio or one of their four house-made bologna. Eating sandwiches might seem like an ingrained part of the culture of the United States, but Iran should always be taken just as seriously when it comes to stuffing meats into bread. A Persian sandwich spot in the United States is just simply next level.

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SukaSukaSaya

🇮🇩 INDONESIA
📍 3087 W. Pico Blvd., Harvard Heights, Central Los Angeles
🅿️ Very small parking lot
🥤 No Alcohol

In Indonesia, if you heard the three words that make up the sing-song name of one of Los Angeles's newest restaurants, it could roughly translate to "just the way I like it." This seems to be the mentality of the new owners, who focus their menu around the famous Indomie packaged ramen that comes from the country, creating dishes just the way they would want to eat them.

Certainly everyone reading this must have attempted to create their own versions of hearty and delicious soups at home based on their favorite packaged ramen, maybe sautéing some vegetables, boiling an egg, and even adding meat to join the dried noodles and delectable powdered MSG packets. But chefs that were willing to start a restaurant based on their own creations warranted an immediate visit when they recently opened just south of Koreatown.

A few influences seem to be included from that nearby neighborhood, with bulgogi making an appearance in at least one dish and Korean ramyeon available for substitution with Indomie. Certainly this is not traditional Indonesian food, but that is not the goal of the proprietors, who have created a variety of rice and noodle dishes as well as many types of drinks.

Appetizers seem to use Japanese inspirations, with edamame, gyoza, tempura, and katsu among a range of options. Some of these show up stuffed into burritos with Indomie as well. Everything arrives by friendly robot (above), including drinks like lemonade ($4.50, below) infused with lychee or passion fruit.

If you want to add bulgogi to your noodle bowls, feel free, but it seems that the main reason to come here is to experience what they can do with Indomie. And to be clear, people who have no space in their heart already carved out for Indomie might not see the fun in a menu that concentrates on the product. If your cabinets at home are full of packets, head here immediately.

A good place to start is the seemingly simple bakmie sakaw Jakarta ($12.47, above and below), a fully loaded bowl of dry ramen, served with ground chicken, chicken and vegetable gyoza, a hard-boiled egg, greens and crispy bits. Stir everything together and dig to the bottom, making sure to pull the meat's juices up into your noodles. It is surprisingly tasty and comforting.

Since the bakmie sakaw is delicious but has no heat, eat it first when you pair the dish with Indomie goreng SukaSuka original ($11, above), which uses the spicy mi goreng ramen and adds plenty more chili. Corned beef is one of the options for protein (their term), and seems like a no-brainer. It comes with a side of very spicy sauce, but this seems better for the bakmie sakaw or maybe a burrito.

Speaking of which, the opportunity to eat a burrito stuffed with delicious Indomie absolutely could not be passed up. While you should not pass on this opportunity either with a chicken katsu ramen burrito ($8.90, below), it will become clear quite quickly that Indomie is better in its more natural state, straight from the packet or in creations like those above. But it does feel good that Los Angeles is no longer a city where it is impossible to find a burrito stuffed with the best packaged ramen in the world.

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Maghreb Apron

🇩🇿 ALGERIA
📍 10817 Venice Blvd., Palms, Westside
🅿️ Parking lot behind store
🥤 No Alcohol
🌱 Vegetarian Friendly

EDITOR'S NOTE: This new vendor does catering orders and is now popping up in the West LA International Market, where this article is based on. Please check with them for hours/locations.

For the most part, the food of the Maghreb in Los Angeles has so far been limited to some Moroccan kitchens around town, with a small sprinkling of Tunisian, Libyan, and Algerian if you look really closely. This collection of countries in Northern Africa known as al-Maghrib in Arabic, meaning the west, has its own distinct flavors taking in centuries of influence from Arab, Berber, and European Mediterranean countries across the sea.

A new Algerian-owned business has recently started popping up to offer the cuisine of this region at Venice Blvd's West LA International Market, which has served the Westside's halal eating communities for quite some time. Using the name of the region for the business rather than one country, the flavors and ingredients are also a reflection of this larger identity.

For the past two weekends, the business has popped up here on Fridays and Saturdays, a small steam table with prepared foods that are assembled when customers come to order. A set menu of couscous and rice dishes is complemented by a soup and dessert that rotate from day to day. The chef also has weekly meal services and catering that you can take advantage of through social media if you love everything and need more.

The menu lists four different types of couscous available: vegetables, chicken, lamb, and something the chef calls couscous royal that combines all three with merguez. A display of couscous with lamb was sat on the counter in a tagine (above), so this seemed a natural place to start, but the kofta and rice dish as well as both daily specials were ordered to create a full meal that in reality was more than two.

Feel free to start with dessert, which on this day was a lovely basboussa ($5, above top left), a semolina cake that is moist with syrup and spiked with orange flower water. This spongy treat will satisfy your sweet tooth while not overdoing it, the toasted almonds on top deliver the final crunch necessary to round the whole thing off.

The couscous with lamb ($23, below) itself comes with two meaty sections of shank, which have obviously been cooking elsewhere for quite some time as the meat is easily separated from the bone and very tender. A section each of cucumber, carrot, and potato have also been cooking for quite a while with the meat, and chickpeas and deliciously sweet white raisins round out the toppings for the dish. A small container of harissa will be in your takeout bag, and feel free to stir in spicy ribbons of this into your couscous for an added kick.

The most simple menu item is probably the rice & beef kofta balls ($18, above), but the rice is far from simple and flavored with what might be an entire spice cabinet. The beef meatballs retain a bit of the tomato sauce they come out of, and the whole meal is supremely comforting. Every grain of rice was eventually extracted from the container and enjoyed.

The soup of the day ($7, below) this past Friday was harira, a tomato-based stew thickened with flour and full of chickpeas and lentils. The flavor of onions and garlic are in every bite, and this may have the most spices possible without being even a hint spicy. Grab a portion of this if she has it, memories of eating it on travels in North Africa will come right back to you after just one taste.

Harira is eaten in both Morocco and Algeria, but Algerian chefs usually omit the lentils making this more of the Moroccan variety. The chef will probably tell you it is her style though, not that of any one country, as even tasting each harira at a night market will give you quite a lot of variety in recipes. Squirt in a bit of fresh lemon juice right before eating if you have it, break off a piece of bread, and enjoy every drop.

For the time being, Maghreb Apron plans to be continuing these Friday and Saturday pop-ups at the market (below), so find her in the afternoon either of those days in coming weeks. You get the sense that bigger things will come soon for her business, so this is your chance to get a taste before everyone else is crowding the future restaurant.

West LA International Market

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Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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Victory Produce

🇦🇲 ARMENIA
📍 19801 Vanowen Street, Canoga Park, San Fernando Valley
🅿️ Parking lot
🥤 Wine/beer available for purchase to go

Especially on a weekend, you are likely to see a plume of smoke rising from near the entrance of the Canoga Park Victory Produce. These are the smoke signals common here in the Valley and Glendale, advertising rows of Armenian kabobs being grilled over charcoal. Even after you have finished a full meal, this kind of marketing is too difficult to refuse, and you find yourself in the parking lot to see what is available.

A series of wave-aways by various staff at the grill, checkout lane, and then the meat counter at first made it seem like the store had no desire to sell food to strangers. But there was one employee that worked on the grill and eventually explained the process. A later look into online comments shows that this is not unusual, plenty of self-absorbed Yelpers left their nasty reviews in their normal "I'll show them!" way.

But show up with a little patience, and you will have a good meal, or three more likely. This grill is not setup for immediate purchases, they are working on call-in and catering orders. From the sound of it, a lot of Valley families get large platters of kabobs from this market, and for good reason. But if you do want something to go, and do not need to eat it right away, check out the top of the prepared foods counter at the back of the store.

On this day, there were beef and lamb lule kabobs and also pork ribs. The friendly guy who showed the options said everything was cooked today and could be purchased for takeout. If something freshly grilled was desired, you could select uncooked kabobs from the meat counter and have them made in about 25 minutes. Since the three bellies that came on this day were already full, some of each of the three options were selected along with some groceries and bottles of Georgian wine from the market.

Both of the lule kabobs ($6 each, above) and pork ribs (sold by weight, below) were easy to warm up later in an air fryer, but would be even better if you had a grill that could be fired up back home. Raw red onions and parsley are garnished on the meat and you get some lavash with any order. Warm that up as well and you have a perfect and economical meal.

The star of the market is their pork ribs, which seem to be marinated with liquid magic. The three pieces purchased below came to the princely sum of $6.42, and next time the same mistake of such a small amount will not be made. These are fantastic, and must be amazing served fresh off the charcoal. Call in and place the order when you are about 20 minutes away and life will be very good to you.

As you wait for your order to be placed in containers, you might start looking around and find other items that find their way into your cart. There is an array of pickles available that look good, and depending on the season you will also see pickled tomatoes, apples, watermelon, and more. This appears to be a popular place to shop for these, so turnover is likely enough to keep them fresh.

Back at the prepared foods counter, there are big containers of fresh soups like borscht and kharcho, a stew of beef and rice with walnuts and a cherry plum kick. The borscht ($7, below) came full of large cubes of beef in a rich and flavorful broth. Make sure to have some fresh dill on hand to sprinkle on top. The container was enough for two bowls like the one shown, just about the cheapest meal two people can have in 2023. If you have other favorites from the market, please let everyone know in the comments.

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Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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