Going Dutch: Save Room for Mitsuwa’s Gourmet Food Fair and the Holland Festival

Little needs to be said of Mitsuwa’s Gourmet Food Fair other than that chefs and specialists are being flown in from Japan to the Torrance and Costa Mesa stores for a four-day celebration of ramen, takoyaki and, um, apple pie.

But Memorial Day weekend is big enough for two feasts, so Long Beach eaters listen up: Sunday is the annual Holland Festival at Police Officers Association Park behind Long Beach Towne Center. There’s Heineken and herring, but more importantly is that the Holland Festival is a second home to vendors from Duarte’s Pondok Kaki Lima. All the jackfruit curries, pork sate and durian drinks you’ve come to love will pack up and head south for the day. There’s no reason you shouldn’t do the same. Find the flyer below.

Leftovers: Oumi Sasaya

The udon (and tagines) of Oumi Sasaya for the L.A. Times:

PHOTO by STEFANO PALTERA / L.A. TIMES

A queue of naked noodles waits to be dressed with delicate daikon sprouts, quivering poached eggs and oil-slicked strips of blackened bell pepper. Ingredients are plucked from bowls, plates, bottles and jars and laid onto the loose nests of udon, each shard of seaweed and ring of green onion in its right place. Lomita’s Oumi Sasaya is a noodle house of seemingly effortless elegance, minimalism maximized to the fullest.

It’s a feat achieved in the details. Here, waitresses pour pitchers of broth with one hand guarding against even the smallest splash, and hourglasses accompany orders of hot sake, which aren’t to be sipped until the last grain of sand tumbles down to the dune below. The restaurant is dedicated to these simple rituals of service that reflect its meticulous Kansai-style noodling.

Read the rest here.

Leftovers: Nosh Cafe

A taste of Australia in San Pedro for the L.A. Times:

PHOTO by CHRISTINA HOUSE / L.A. TIMES

Morning clouds float through downtown San Pedro like dandelions caught in a port breeze. In the distance, cranes sprout from behind stacks of cargo containers like trees atop a corrugated mountain range. It’s a collision of industry and history, a nascent neighborhood of century-old stores and glistening new lofts. And feeding it all is Nosh Cafe, a homey hub of a restaurant that prepares simple, seasonal cooking with an Australian accent.

Tins of golden syrup (a viscous amber treacle) and jars of Vegemite are edible ornamentation. Squat bottles of Bundaberg ginger beer sit in kangaroo-clad four-packs. Nosh surrounds itself with these Aussie essentials, flavors of empire and independence alike. For owner Susan McKenna, they’re tastes of home.

Read the rest here.