Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
The thin friendly waiter said that we have to try this. Before he did, he asked if we were vegan and how we found out about the place. Giant Robot was once in downtown LA. We were in a loft in Little Tokyo and I'd frequent the exact spot where Shojin restaurant is located. There was a spot called Cafe Lauren, which was one of the best around. Anyone been there? Recently, I took a walk through,...
The thin friendly waiter said that we have to try this. Before he did, he asked if we were vegan and how we found out about the place. Giant Robot was once in downtown LA. We were in a loft in Little Tokyo and I’d frequent the exact spot where Shojin restaurant is located. There was a spot called Cafe Lauren, which was one of the best around. Anyone been there? Recently, I took a walk through, just to see how things are in the mall. I ran into Shojin, it wasn’t open for business yet, but it looked nice. Shojin to my knowledge is a Buddhist related meal. You’ll eat Shojin food if you stay at a Buddhist temple. I’m sure the food won’t be as extensive as what you get at Shojin in Little Tokyo. Above: Organic Tomato Tartar. The white blocks: it’s tofu cheese. I don’t like cheese in general, so I had to ask what was in it. It’s tofu and miso with tomato and avocado. It’s a salad like appetizer that you pick at, and it’s refreshing and tasty. The tofu does have a cheese like texture, but it taste like tofu. This is Tsukune or Fried Garden Seitan. It’s a meat ball dish made with seitan that’s quite simple, but the sauces were great. The soy sauce with scallion had some sweetness to it. The other reddish sauce is a homemade ketchup which had a slight salsa flavor. I preferred the soy sauce. Yes many things are organic. They do their shopping at the farmer’s market in downtown. Even the lemon in the water (if you ask for lemon) will be an organic lemon. It’s the same layout as Cafe Lauren. I got the Shojin Okara Cake. It’s not okra, it’s okara, which is sort of like the dregs of tofu. This one is mixed with cashew, mushroom , and garlic. Certain Japanese markets will give it to you free, and if you know what you’re doing, it turns out great. Below it is a brown rice porridge which tasted great with the okara. This is the bento box. This has a little bit of everything. The BBQ Seitan in the left corner was amazing. Then raw kale with tofu was simple, Japanese pumpkin with some pumpkin seeds had some veggie bitterness, and hijiki which is a seaweed with carrot and gobo was tasty. It comes with brown rice. This is the healthiest dish they serve. Whoa there… That’s what I had to say when this came. Green Tea Moss Cake. It’s larger than it looks when it shows up. It’s the green tea, azuki bean, and date, cake that comes with rice cream. There’s toasted almond, dried apple bits, and oats and matcha sauce. Shojin is located on the top floor of the Mitsuwa market building in Little Tokyo. Park at level four, walk across the bridge, and take in your parking ticket for validation. It’s not a quick rush place, and it’s...
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That's Monkmus, a director, drawer, animator, who joined up at lunch time today at gr/eats. It's a nice warm day today, and a friday which makes a lot of people happy, but in the end, it's like another day for me at GR. Saturday is almost like a monday or a tuesday. A Sunday... well, that's like a wed or a friday. Monday is just like a tuesday, which is like a wednesday and thursday and a...
That’s Monkmus, a director, drawer, animator, who joined up at lunch time today at gr/eats. It’s a nice warm day today, and a friday which makes a lot of people happy, but in the end, it’s like another day for me at GR. Saturday is almost like a monday or a tuesday. A Sunday… well, that’s like a wed or a friday. Monday is just like a tuesday, which is like a wednesday and thursday and a Saturday. I’m not making much sense, but you get the idea. Like in a Debby Deb lyric (or the opposite): Weekends are not made for fun. Meanwhile gr/eats keeps rockin’ serious. That’s the okra rolls above. Tofu meat balls. Tofu meal ball “oyako” donburi. Of course oyako means parent and kid, which is like chicken and an egg, but this is tofu ball and egg. Hmm, can they be related? 1/2 paella. Yes, this was good. That’s the middle of the tofu ball.
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I'm excited. Usually, you have to go to Koreatown to get good soontofu. But now on Sawtelle, next to Beard Papa is Tofu Villa. At the spot of a past boba shop, this place is the first on the westside that I think actually rocks. I can't exactly say it's better than my favorite K-Town spots, but this isn't bad at all. Bad soontofu usually is watery with chunks of tofu floating about, but this one...