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    Home » Little Hangover Cure - Little Hong Kong Café

    January 2006 Uncategorized

    Little Hangover Cure - Little Hong Kong Café

    little hong kong cafe, west los angeles, ca

    Little Hong Kong Café
    2129 Sawtelle Boulevard (between Mississippi and Olympic)
    Los Angeles, CA 90025
    310.478.7329 or 310.391.8958

    When your first meal of the day is at 2:00 in the afternoon, dressed in an oversized sweatshirt to cover the ridiculously wrinkled outfit that looked great when you first left the house sixteen hours ago, remnants of glitter and gloss mixed with eyeliner smudged across your temples, you sexy thang, that's a pretty good sign that you had a great time last night at Vanguard, even if you don’t remember much of the drum nor the bass after alcohol-induced antics on the patio.

    little hong kong cafe, west los angeles, ca
    strip search for little hong kong

    We went to Little Hong Kong Café on Sawtelle for breakfast. Technically, Little Hong Kong Café doesn't serve breakfast in the traditional bacon-and-eggs sense of the word “breakfast.” If we’re getting technical, then technically, Benito’s at 4 am was really breakfast. But wor won ton soup and spicy pan-fried noodles was our first meal of the day, so it was a breakfast of (dance) champions for us.

    Little Hong Kong Café is exactly what its name suggests. Catering mostly to a younger Dragonball Z Asian crowd who, I suspect, attend UCLA, it serves café-style Chinese food in a far less formal atmosphere than a regular Chinese restaurant. It fits right in with its casual strip-mall neighbors like Hurry Curry, Blue Marlin, and The Place. The menu offers a little bit of everything – a few small fried appetizer things like won tons and eggrolls, some soups, fried rice, and even slightly more complicated “House Specialities,” fried fish filets, chicken cutlets, and other deep-fried, stir-fried dishes. However, one does not go to Little Hong Kong Café to eat slightly downscale Royal Star nor slightly upscale Panda Express. One goes to Little Hong Kong Café to snap out of a hazy stupor with steamed white rice or chow fun noodles drowning in sodium-spiked, oily, greasy deep-fried, spicy corn-starch thickened – delicious? depends – sauce.

    Little Hong Kong Café is not awesome Chinese food. In fact, I can confidently say that Little Hong Kong Café is not awesome food, period. However, it holds a special place in my stomach because there are many a hazy, hungover memory attached to it.

    You see, everyone has their own tried-and-true morning after medicine. A lot of people turn to a nurse named Bloody Mary. Some people swear by two tylenol chased with an effervescent Alka-Seltzer cocktail. Others will have nothing but a double-tall double-caffeine mocha java lattebucks. There’s a reason why delis and diners are full on weekend mornings, too. Sausage and eggs scrambled in bacon grease and flooded with maple syrup will “soak up the alcohol.”

    little hong kong cafe, west los angeles, ca - wor wonton soup
    wrappers as thin as tissue

    Me? After a long, glorious night out, I want nothing less than a giant bowl of spicy, salty, brothy soup.

    In the past, it’s been yook-gae-jahng, a beef and green onion soup that’s so super spicy that red hot chili oil floats on top in a massive, deep slick that would excuse the Exxon Valdez. Unfortunately, Koreatown is a long way from the Westside, especially the morning after, so I settle for local Chinese food. As I always say, “Boozers can’t be choosers.”

    The wor won ton soup is a very simple clear broth that any other time, might seem slightly bland and uninteresting, but at the right time, is utterly refreshing and purifying. Steam opens my sinuses, filled with cigarette smoke that never quite gets properly ventilated out of the club. I can breathe. Since I have gotten my sense of taste back, I simply add hot chili sauce to the broth to add real flavor. Won tons aren’t the usual thick-skinned dumplings sparsely-stuffed with some token unidentifiable “filler.” I have no idea what “wor” means, but it must refer to a tissue-like wrapper that barely holds a little ball of meat. Again, they’re a little bland, but nothing a little chili and soy sauces can’t fix.

    little hong kong cafe, west los angeles, ca - pan fried rice noodles
    brain fried - pan-fried

    While I love the wide, flat rice noodles called chow fun, we tried the thin, pan-fried noodles on this last recent trip to Little Hong Kong Café. They were crisp, almost to the point of crunchy at some parts, which made for better saturation with the disgustingly delicious sauce. Of course the chicken was a little dry; no doubt some of the vegetables were slightly overcooked; certainly the sauce was laden with enough sodium to send my pulse through the roof.

    Exactly the kind of kickstart my body needed.

    tags :: food : and drink : chinese : restaurants : reviews : los angeles

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    Comments

    1. djjewelz says

      February 06, 2006 at 6:20 am

      lol. I've ended up at Hodori the last few weekends. You know Vanguard now hosts D&B nights every wednesday: http://www.bassrush.com/

      Reply
    2. sarah says

      February 06, 2006 at 6:25 am

      awesome!

      but wednesday nights? isn't that a school night?!?! ;)

      Reply
    3. Silvia says

      February 06, 2006 at 8:39 am

      I'm NEVER ever going to read this site at nights EVER again.
      I'm on day 4 of my Very-Serious diet then I saw the perfectly crisp noodles, I swore my laptop has smell-o-vision.
      Game over, off to the kitchen I go.
      Oh you flighty willpower, ye have abandoned me once again.

      Reply
    4. sarah says

      February 06, 2006 at 4:19 pm

      silvia - you totally made me laugh! funny thing is, it's pretty hard to post about this atuff and look at the picture to, you know? well, you DO know. LOL! i, too am on a *cough*diet*cough* - not hard core, but still, i must have a littel restraunt where once there was none, and boy is it hard. hm...maybe i should post something about that. with a picture of the tofu i have to eat. LOL!

      Reply
    5. Xericx says

      February 07, 2006 at 6:24 pm

      Little Hong Kong is good for the westside. And the prices are pretty low here!

      Reply
    6. Anonymous says

      February 07, 2006 at 6:56 pm

      "In fact, I can confidently say that Little Hong Kong Café is not awesome food, period."

      Then why do you go? Just so you can complain about it?

      Reply
    7. hermz says

      February 08, 2006 at 1:21 am

      Whoa, you are a bit behind. ;)

      Reply
    8. sarah says

      February 08, 2006 at 2:34 am

      xericx: the funny thing is, the prices aren't THAT low, but like you said, totally good to have it on the westside.

      anonymous: i go because i love the wor won ton soup when i'm hungover. and yes, i love to complain ;)

      hermz: ltj bukem.

      Reply

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