California Sushi Academy (Centinela, N of Culver)

When you drive up or down Centinela there's a great little pocket where there's Mexican food, Japanese food, and Hawaiian and who knows what else. The California Sushi Academy is here too. Behind a VERY unassuming storefront, at lunchtime you can great great sushi inexpertly prepared by their students.

And it's dirt cheap.

We finally made time to get there for lunch. We got the last two seats at the bar, and then we sat and sat and sat waiting for our order to get done. Our chef was a little flustered (it was busy) and had the deer-in-headlights look. Another chef comped us a tuna roll.

When it came it was great. Very fresh, not over sauced like Katsuya's offerings often are. But these are students after all and let's say that the rolls aren't as tight as they should be. And occasionally, you get a little too much wasabi hiding under your pice of fish.

But it's dirt cheap.

And if you consider the flusterings as entertainment, it's an even better deal.

Well worth a visit. We'll be back for sure

Campanile -- (S La Brea)

Went with the Missus to Campanile (website SUCKS). We've been trying to go for, oh, 15 years now. So we up and hired a babysitter and went.

For starters, She got the squab and I got the ceviche. Both delicious. The squab was a larger serving than expected, and She was getting a bit worried about the points adding up. The ceviche was certainly not over-marinated and was sublime.

I got the porkchop -- delicious -- and the Little Lady got the lamb -- delicious.

All in all, worth the wait. The bread was of course (La Brea Bakery is right next door, in case you don't know) great. As for wine, we let the waiter steer us around. The white for Her was too too sweet, but my reds were yumyum.

Desert was the best strawberry shortcake ever.

Carniceria Sanchez - Inglewood Blvd (so of Culver)

This is a westside carniceria y tacqueria on perhaps the most deliciously aromatic corner for miles. Two tacquerias, a bakery, and a catering concern all inhabit this corner. Bandini has reviewed this one and the other one on his site. The attached store has LOTS of meat and a few veggies. Worth a look if you are in the area

I had the Little Man in tow. The ladies were out of town for the weekend so I decided we men needed a taco trip. I threw him in the car and hit the gas. I got carna asada, al pastor and, for the boy, a plain chicken taco. Since there's really no place to eat, I got it para llevar.

I was a bit disappointed in the pastor. More of a rub than a bbq or marinade or what had you. Mind you, it was very good, just a little different than I was expecting. The salsa complemented the meat perfectly. The asada was fine. Not awesome. All in all, it's worth a stop if you are in the area, but it's not a destination.

Oh, the boy LOVED the pollo.

El Sobroso truck - Westchester - Arbor Vitae (E of Airport)

This truck is normally on the south side of the street, but is sometimes on the north side in the shade. I pulled into a spot that left me all of 12" into the red zone. I hurried up and placed my order: 2 carne asada, 2 carnitas tacos. Then I bumped my head on the awning.

Lots of hot sauce choices to be had. No al pastor meat though.

When I got back to my car I had a $65 parking ticket. These tacos better be good, I thought.

They come with some onion-heavy guacamole that is either delicious or too onion-heavy. I haven't decided yet. The asada tacos had lots of little super crunchy bits -- a bit too pan-fried for me -- and they were too spicy. Now, I LIKE spicy, but on my own terms. The spice here tended to overpower the meat. My officemate agreed. The carnitas was too dry. No juice! I like-a the juice!

UPDATE: Went back a couple weeks later and got tacos that looked COMPLETELY different. I'll say that they tasted better too. I'm a bit worried at the wide variance in quality, but it's my local truck, so what am I to do? I'll be back for a third trip.

$1.25/taco.