El Bacano

🇩🇴 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
📍 13009 1/2 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood, San Fernando Valley.

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Taínos LA

🇵🇷 PUERTO RICO
📍 9020 Owensmouth Avenue, Canoga Park, San Fernando Valley
🅿️ Parking lot for pickup customers
🥤 No Alcohol

EDITOR'S NOTE: This location is a shared commercial kitchen space (ghost kitchen). Orders are placed online for pickup or delivery.

The question of the husband and wife team that run the brand new Taínos LA ghost kitchen at the northern edge of Canoga Park is the question of many other relocated New Yorkers that have chosen a life in Southern California: "Where in the hell is the Puerto Rican food?" While there is one excellent choice in Cypress, and a couple other less excellent options sprinkled around town, there is far from an abundance of the cuisine from this distinct island.

At the beginning of December the new pickup and delivery kitchen quietly opened up in the same spot that Natureal Foods originally started, but word began spreading quickly through the city's small Puerto Rican community with videos on Instagram and TikTok showing very excited eaters. In this corner of the Valley there is really nothing like it, so anyone can really get behind the success of Taínos LA, created by a chef from Puerto Rico and her husband who came to Los Angeles about ten years ago after twenty years in New York City.

Despite the name of the kitchen, which refers to the indigenous peoples that once flourished on the island and many surrounding neighbors in the Caribbean, the menu here is a representation of the modern pork, beef, rice, and plantain-heavy Puerto Rican diet, foods that were introduced after colonization. They first started showcasing their cooking to friends and other connections in the San Fernando Valley, and this business is the next step in the process of reaching more people with a food that remains quite rare in the region.

Each main entree is large and filling enough for two people, but Taínos LA also offers a good range of tasty fried goodies to supplement meals with here like empanadillas ($4 to $5 each, above) that can be stuffed with chicken (as seen above), beef, or even pizza, a kids favorite that you will see all over Puerto Rico. While you might be tempted to call this an empanada, that is a completely different dish on the island.

The second fried starter that was sampled was the alcapurria ($5, above), a ground beef fritter that is unique because the dough surrounding the meat is made with yucca, plantain, and a bit of pepper. This can be enjoyed with the house mayo but is even better with a kick from their delicious pepper vinegar sauce that comes with any order.

For folks that have grown up and spent their entire lives in Los Angeles or other places without much Caribbean representation, the most unique dish to try from Taínos LA is probably their mofongo, which can be paired with shrimp, skirt steak, or roasted pork shoulder. The shrimp gives you the opportunity to enjoy their lovely garlic sauce and simultaneously ruin the day of anyone you have a conversation with after eating it.

The mofongo y camarones al ajillo ($22.99, above) is pretty much a show-stopper, pounded green plantains are joined with more garlic, salt, olive oil, and stock and fried before being paired with the meat of your choice. In restaurants you will sometimes see this served in decorative wooden pilones, the vessel used to mash the plantains and other ingredients.

If you are in the mood for pork, like Puerto Ricans always seem to be, you can choose it with your mofongo or as a plate with an order of pernil con arroz y gandules ($15, below). Thick, fatty cuts of the pork shoulder are overlaid on arroz y gandules, rice that has been simmering with a tomato-y sofrito, more pork, and pigeon peas. If you do not order a dish that comes with this very Puerto Rican rice preparation, grab a side of it from the vendor with your order.

The beef stew known as carne guisa ($14, above) is the island's version of a hearty meat and potatoes meal, and comes with plenty of gravy and a side of white rice. Big, thick cubes of beef take most of the volume of the container, which holds a deceptively large amount of the stew. The potatoes and carrots are cooked perfectly, and the seasoning will take you straight back to wherever you enjoyed your first Puerto Rican home-cooked meals.

The same can be said about the asopao de pollo ($14, below), a chicken and rice soup full of the flavors of the island. Whether with chicken or shrimp, this soup might be found on the weekly specials section of their menu, so grab it if it is available. The liquid of the soup itself almost fully soaks into the rice, creating a thick flavor bomb in each bite, but even adding some water at home when warming it back up did not take away from the enjoyment.

You can and should make sure there are plantains in your order, and they have plenty of ways to make that happen. The simplest of these options are orders of tostones ($4, above) and amarillos ($3, below), savory and sweet versions respectively. As indicated by the price, these are on the small side, so order multiples if you desire a full plate of either.

With nothing in the order instilling any feelings of disappointment, Taínos LA is obviously a big upgrade for Los Angeles. It will be great to see if their business takes off enough that they can move into a full restaurant and become a permanent fixture in the city. Fingers are crossed.

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Karibbean Cuisine

Hidden within El Bronco Taqueria

🇩🇴 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
📍 5427 Venice Blvd., Mid-City, Central Los Angeles

(Located inside El Bronco Taqueria)
🅿️ Plaza has a small parking lot
🥤 No Alcohol

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was written about a Thursday-Sunday operation in El Bronco Taqueria. The chef now has a food truck as of February 2023 that parks 1831 S. La Cienega Blvd. behind the Jersey Mike's on 18th Street.

And so the trend continues of having only one or even zero Dominican spots available to Los Angeles eaters. For a very brief time in late 2020 and early 2021, a self-proclaimed New York City-style chimis spot opened in Bellflower, but it seemed to disappear almost before it started. Now after another year and a half break with zero, Santo Domingo-born chef Ilonka Garcia is once again trying to prepare her foods for the city, this time in a part-time deal inside another restaurant.

Based on some shared information online, it appears that this little Dominican fix has been operating since sometime around April, but the only hint of it outside of the chef's circles and Dominican community is a neon sign that lights up in the window during open hours. Unfortunately this would be impossible to see driving by on Venice Blvd., so hopefully the word can continue to spread from patron to patron.

The chef is currently sharing space and a kitchen with the operators of El Bronco Taqueria, who have a big, colorful dining room and spacious cooking area to make it all possible. El Bronco has been around for decades, a local spot that still sees a decent stream of regular customers coming for lunch. During this visit, their owner was a couple hours late to get things set up and Chef Ilonka had to give some customers the bad news.

While there does not seem to be a lot of cross-pollination yet, hopefully this can change as regulars coming in for El Bronco's food discover what Dominican guisados are all about. It is a cuisine that Los Angeles has not had much of over the years, but as more and more Caribbean people choose Southern California instead of Florida and the east coast, Los Angeles County keeps seeing a wider variety of Caribbean flags being flown.

There are complimentary bottles of water for diners at Karibbean Cuisine, but also grab a fresh jugo de chinola ($4, above), which puckers your cheeks with an unexpected tartness. Chinola (and sometimes parcha) is the word Dominicans use for passion fruit instead of maracuya, and this juice tastes more like eating the actual sour fruit than most. Just a touch of sugar is added, it is excellent.

When you get close to the counter and talk with the chef, you are likely to see big pots of bubbling and steaming guisados, especially if you arrive near the beginning of service when she is setting up. For those new to Dominican cuisine, guisados are the place to start at this restaurant, make sure to ask what is available on the day you show up.

Pollo guisado ($13.99, above) is dark and rich, and looks full of flavor. On first bite, there is even more bold taste than you expect and the wooden chair you are sitting on suddenly feels like a comfortable fluffy sofa. Some recipes throughout the world just have a way of holding you like grandma would, and this chicken stew is a warm embrace.

The cuts of meat are also good and prepared well, the only thing you might be lacking is an extra scoop of gravy which the chef will be more than happy to provide. Once it starts to get sucked up by the rice, you will feel there is never enough.

On this day there was also chivo guisado ($17.99, above), and seeing as how the first guisado was an expression of love, the goat version was ordered to go so it could be enjoyed later. Like most plates here, a big portion of white rice and a cup of red beans comes with the meal. The beans (which Dominicans call habichuelas and never frijoles) are nothing like a can of Goya Dominican Red Beans, so you can thankfully put that out of your mind. Instead, it is like another guisado and has enough ingredients to be as flavorful as if an entire pig had been stewed in the pot.

The guisado itself is also just about perfect, combined with the habichuelas it is almost like getting a two-handed slap in the face from deliciousness. The goat has likely been stewing for at least a couple hours, tender meat that has barely a hint of the gaminess that makes many avoid this choice.

If you are more in the mood for beef, ask the chef to prepare a plate of bistec encebollado ($15.99, above), a thin cut of good steak sauteed with red onions. The dish hums loudest when you combine the sweetness of these onions with the savory bistec, lightly rubbed with salt before cooking. Bites of these together with the beans and rice, and sometimes sweet plantain, are like being back on one of the island's many tropical beaches.

You can usually find seafood options like shrimp in coconut sauce or fried whole fish served with tostones, but also grab some Dominican-style fried empanadas if she has those available. In fact, get enough to take home. Stop by and welcome chef Ilonka back to the Los Angeles restaurant scene. Hopefully for everyone, this one will last a long time.

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Saraba Belizean Cuisine

🇧🇿 BELIZE/GARIFUNA

📍 3655 S. Grand Avenue, South Central, South Los Angeles

(Inside Mercado La Paloma)

🅿️ The market has a parking lot, street parking when that is full.

🥤 No Alcohol

EDITOR'S NOTE: Since officially opening in the market a couple months ago, Saraba has kept a very "loose" schedule. Hours seem to have stabilized, but please call ahead to ensure they are open.

While as many Garifuna people live in the United States as Honduras, the nation with the most in native Central America, the west coast sees quite a small sample of that number. The Bronx has churches and festivals with the yellow, white, and black Garifuna flag waving everywhere, but the outward expression of this culture and people is a bit more hard to find in Los Angeles.

The only Garifuna chef around has been here and there since back in 2015, when a food truck and pop-up operation was formed, but times were very irregular and the cuisine was extremely difficult to track down at times. Thankfully a permanent location has finally been settled, and it could not be at a better spot than the wonderful Mercado La Paloma.

Garifuna culture spans the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua but this chef's takes come from the northernmost of these in Belize. Setting up shop in the mercado gives it the perfect neighbors in Chichén Itzá and Holbox, who serve foods from neighboring Yucatán that have been similarly influenced by centuries of Mayan culture.

For now the menu and the vendor seems focused on introducing "standard" Belizean fare to the market, with offerings similar to that of other restaurants in this part of South Los Angeles. The one dish listed on the menu that is specifically Garifuna is hudut, but takes an hour to make and therefore will not be available to customers on their lunch break unless they have planned ahead.

It is a shame that the word Garifuna itself has been scrubbed from the name of this business, which used to be called Gusina Saraba Garifuna Cuisine, but the hudut ($25, above and below) is definitely worth calling ahead for if you are planning to come. The softball-sized sphere of yellow it comes with is called machuca, made by mashing sweet plantains and used like the various starches in West African cuisine like fufu.

If you sat down at a Garifuna table, everyone would have a bowl of the soup in front of them and a large ball of machuca would be placed in the center for everyone to pinch off pieces while they ate, creating a very communal atmosphere. Garifuna people all live near the Caribbean coasts of their respective countries, and as such a big portion of their diet is based on fish and seafood.

The fish here was less beautiful than usual because it suffered from a brief transport home, the sweet and rich coconut milk-based sauce covering some of its top. But this is how it looks once you tear into it anyways, so some mixture ahead of of time did not hurt any of the enjoyment.

In the coconut soup there are many onions and still crunchy okra along with quite a few sprigs of thyme. Chop up some of the orange scotch bonnet pepper you can see peeking out if you would like to set the dish on fire. If you enjoy this one, it might be worth speaking to the chef about other Garifuna dishes he has in his repertoire to see if anything else can be pre-ordered.

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Island Boy Café

🇬🇩 GRENADA

📍 5025 W. Pico Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, Central Los Angeles

🅿️ Street parking with valet available at night.

🥤  Full Bar.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is not a Grenadian restaurant, it has a more pan-Caribbean menu and a full report will be updated when other dishes are tried.

If you have ever lived in the Caribbean or in a place that has access to the cuisines of its many islands but now spend most of your time in Los Angeles, you find yourself in the bowels of search engines and social media posts searching for more. Waiting for the next spot to open as the city slowly expands its scene beyond Jamaican food can seem hopeless, but every once in a while a fun event promising vendors pops up, or better yet a pan-Caribbean restaurant with shrimp imported from the Bahamas and the promise of Grenadian brown stew chicken.

Island Boy Café is right underneath Island Girl Spa Bed and Breakfast, both institutions about a year old in a leafy area of Pico Blvd. The chef grew up Trini in Brooklyn but has a grandmother from Sauteurs in the north of Grenada, very small despite being the fourth largest city in the country and known for fishing and the beautiful bay that shares its name.

The interior is colorful with pastels and almost gives the hint of a sea breeze since every surface has been given lots of love and attention. You can sit at a couple tables outside but this feels less like an island with cars buzzing by on the boulevard. If you come during a weekday afternoon, the restaurant is sleepy but seemingly in a state of preparation.

With a velvet rope and valet stand outside ready to go, it is when the sun sets that things get going at the café, with live reggae music every Friday night and plenty of other events the rest of the weekend. It was not the music that was sought out on this day, but rather the promise of a food not yet seen on a restaurant menu in Los Angeles.

That dish of course is the Grenadian brown stew chicken ($15 for lunch, above and below), a meal as far from Jamaican stew chicken as you can imagine. Another difference is that it is not sitting in a steam table ready for immediate consumption, this dish takes 25 minutes of prep time and if you are getting it for takeout it is a good idea to call in the order ahead of time. Sitting at the bar or in the restaurant is pretty comfortable though, and with a full bar your time can be passed pretty easily if necessary.

What separates the flavors of the Windward Islands, Trinidad, and Guyanese food from that of the Greater Antilles is the use of different spices and plenty of cassareep, a dark sauce made from cassava root. The most forward taste in this delicious brown stew chicken dish is soy sauce, which combines well with onions and garlic, and what seems like a hundred other spices.

The chicken is browned with all of these sauces and spices and braised with sugar as well, providing just the right amount of sweetness for that final bite. Chicken must be served bone-in for any stew chicken, and rice is important to soak up all the extra juices that you will not want to miss. Sweet fried plantains are the final addition, just as good eaten in between bites of the chicken or saved until the end for a treat.

For next visits, the menu promises shrimp imported from the Bahamas as mentioned, as well as Trini-style curry, coconut-steamed Guyanese salmon, and a Tobago roast chicken that all sound sublime. Maybe next time will be during a reggae night to enjoy the mood of the place even more.

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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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Wah Gwaan Jamaican Kitchen & Bar

JAMAICA 🇯🇲

📍 4371 Crenshaw Blvd., Leimert Park, South Los Angeles

COVID-19 UPDATE: The restaurant is open for indoor and outdoor dining. Most customers seem to be coming for takeout orders.

If you are zipping over the lovely hill through View Park on your way to Inglewood from Leimert Park, the familiar smell and smoke hits your nose long before you see the actual barrel drum cooking jerk chicken. In the rear parking lot of Wah Gwaan, a newly opened Jamaican restaurant at the southwestern edge of Leimert Park, the smoker starts well before opening time and sends its signals into the air throughout the day.

Just across from the community hub of Leimert Park Plaza and located in a corner unit that has been home to a Starbucks, a pizza joint, and a fried fish spot in the last fifteen years, Wah Gwaan hopes to last a bit longer than its predecessors. Its big Jamaican flag and palm trees set the vibe and are hard to miss, especially while waiting at the light in the intersection. The new Leimert Park Metro station will be just across the street when the Crenshaw line finally opens.

While the smells emanating from the kitchen are undoubtedly delicious as they are opening up a bit late at 11:30 on a recent weekday, this might not be the time to pop into Wah Gwaan (Jamaican slang for "what's up?"), at least while they get their feet under them. After seeing and smelling the smoke drum out back, a small order of jerk chicken ($15, below) was ordered, but the cuts pulled from the steam table were a bit tired and ended up being quite dry.

Maybe later in the evening when there is greater turnover and the bird is fresh from being grilled is the time to do this. Based on the spices and the jerk sauce, this definitely has the potential to be really good. As with other entrees, the meats are served over a bed of Jamaican-style rice and peas and with a couple slices of fried sweet plantain and a small piece of festival.

On occasions where what is presented and ready is not necessarily what is the right order, the seafood menu can be even more enticing. These require cooking from scratch and the wait is worth it in the case of the curry shrimp ($25, below), also served over rice and peas but with so much more of the salty, spiced curry sauce that hardly a grain or rice can avoid drowning.

Seafood prices might seem steep compared to those of the other meats and even oxtail, but if the shrimp are any proof it is because they use high quality and fresh ingredients, and plenty of them. This dish has over a dozen big, snappy crustaceans and easily feeds two just like any of the other plates that are considered "small" orders.

While some dishes might not be available certain days due to rotation, any Jamaican restaurant will usually have a daily rendition of brown stew chicken ($15, below), again a "small" size. Once again this suffered a bit from being the first order of the day and had not been rotated with something cooked fresh, but once again you could tell it had good bones.

The stewing made the meat more tender than the jerk, so this held up better. A more deeper brown than usual, the spices followed suit with this sharper color scheme as well, not mellow at all. Some of the cabbage and nibbles on the sweet plantains were more rewarding with this dish than the others given the contrasts.

The bar component of the restaurant's name has yet to materialize, but maybe the business will be expanding into the space next door that shares the front patio. On weekends when there are events taking place in Leimert Park Plaza, you can naturally see the front patio as a beacon for those ready for their first drink of the day.

For now, the mostly takeout affair overlooks a community hub that already thrives. If the kitchen can make that hub look back and want to thrive together, it could be a very special restaurant and space.

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Cafe Cuba & Cakes

CUBA 🇨🇺

📍 12215 S. Hawthorne Blvd., Hawthorne, South Bay

COVID-19 UPDATE: The restaurant is fully open for indoor dining.

Whether it has been vandalized or oxidized, the signage on fast-paced Hawthorne Blvd. is almost impossible to read, allowing this long-running Hawthorne favorite to hide in plain sight. You probably would not get a whiff of the glorious breads being made in the back while at full speed down the boulevard either unfortunately. It takes a friend's suggestion to find your way here, and one look at the families and groups that you will see eating together is proof of that.

If you take your meal at one of the well-spaced tables inside, you will see people walking out with multiple bags of 40 cent bolillos, Cuba's staple bread loaf, and if you peek into the back kitchen you will see rolling bakery carts with many trays of breads and sweets. If you do not make your own cubanos at home, make sure to save some space for dessert or just come for coffee and a pastry since it is obvious the bakery is doing so well.

This is also all the more reason to order one of their many sandwiches, of which they have all the favorite Cuban options like pan con bistec, milanesa, lechon and of course the cubano itself. If you prefer the medianoche ($11.95, above), the same sandwich ingredients as a cubano but on a sweet egg-y soft bread, you will be impressed by the one here. This is pressed in the toaster just like the others, creating a crispy top and making sure the insides are nice and close.

What makes this one of the best Cuban sandwiches in town is the perfect ratio of ingredients and pickly-ness. If someone compares this to a ham and cheese sandwich, they deserve a slap in the face. Despite having both of those items, the keys to a delicious cubano or medianoche are the juicy pernil, which is excellent here, and a layer of crisp pickles.

Moving on from the bread and bakery related dishes, having full meals here is rewarding simply because they make a very delicious sofrito. More than a spice or a sauce, sofrito is the foundation of a Cuban home kitchen and is an assortment of always aromatic ingredients and spices that are sauteed together with cooking oils to use as a base. Many of the platos here (served with rice and beans, plantains, and bread) have meats served with sofrito, so whether you are in the mood for oxtails, pork, beef or chicken, plan to enjoy every bite.

While you are likely to find ropa vieja at any restaurant calling itself Cuban, the beef pot roast of this island nation called boliche ($18.95, above) is much more rare because it requires a very talented chef. Thick slices of eye round look dry and tough at first glance but are perfectly tender and juicy. Some slices are stuffed with olives and chorizo in the center like you often see with this dish, but the good cuts of beef and wonderful sofrito would be enough to satisfy on their own.

All the platos have a choice between white rice and black beans and moro, as well as tostones or maduros, so get two options to have all four of these things simultaneously. There is no weak link. You also get a half piece of toasted bolillo with these as well, especially useful to make sure no drop of sofrito goes wasted on the bottom of a plate.

The costillas de puerco ($16.95, above) are just as satisfying as the boliche, big pork ribs also living in the sofrito. These are again cooked by someone who knows very well what they are doing and have the comforting taste of many decades of experience somehow. Every bite of these and the pork-y black beans that are a must order are a full taste of Cuba.

Hopefully you have room for one of their delicious pastelitos before you leave, but even if you have stuffed yourself silly take some home for later or tomorrow morning with your coffee. The pastelito de guayaba y queso ($1.35, above) has the perfect ratios of guava paste (which you can also buy a block of!) and cheese. The flaky bread around it all is made with skill as expected.

Cubans and Cuban cuisine lovers in Hawthorne are very lucky to have a place like this nearby, but honestly it is also worth driving to from wherever you live if the cravings creep up. From coffee and a bolillo in the morning to a large round of platos fuertos at lunch and dinner to the end of the night with that medianoche, this restaurant is doing everything right.

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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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Joan & Sisters Belizean Restaurant

🇧🇿 BELIZE

📍 3709 S. Western Avenue, Exposition Park, South Los Angeles

🅿️ Street Parking

🥤 No Alcohol

There are some places in Los Angeles that have been part of the city's fabric for so long that the pandemic came along and never even phased them. They can measure their existence in the amount of times fresh blue paint was needed to apply to the morning sun-soaked facade and have survived so many milestones before this latest.

The generations who have been part of the 40 years or so existence of Joan & Sisters on Western Avenue have adapted to a lot more before COVID-19. They took the pandemic in stride, moving the few tables to storage and focusing on takeout, which was the bulk of their business already. Their dining room is now just open space but is still surrounded by bursts of color on the walls and the feelings of tropical coastal Belize.

Newcomers will direct their eyes to the handwritten menu board to the left of the counter, but note that many items are only available on certain days of the week. Cowfoot soup and boil up will need to wait until the weekend, while other things are available Monday or Thursday only. It is a rhythm that has been in place for years if not decades, so asking for a dish that is not available on the day you walk in is an immediate way to stand out from the loyal patrons.

But do not let that stop you, as the friendly folks here that run the place will be smiling behind their masks and are always really welcoming. Some things do not have any description and some foods have names you may be unfamiliar with, but do not hesitate to ask about anything. This is food they are proud to make for their community, and are happy to describe to people that are new to the cuisine of Belize.

Belize is a country that identifies more strongly with its Caribbean island neighbors than with the other countries of Central America or México, but that does not mean that their food is not clearly rooted on the mainland. It has the distinct influences from precolonial Mayan cuisine that are familiar to those that enjoy foods from Guatemala, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Chiapas. But since it was eventually colonized by the British, it also shares the names, shades, and spices that many of the English-speaking islands do, and some of the food mashups like meat pies.

Joan & Sisters is open at 09:00, the best time to show up for these and other baked goods and pastries which you will see in the case at the counter. Some of these will still be warm, while others are wrapped in plastic from the previous day like the jam roll seen at the top left of the photo above. Either way, by lunchtime a lot of these will be gone for the day.

You will see the "e" at the end of tamale in English-speaking Belize.

The Belizean tamale (above, also called a bollo but not here) is probably the way their food culture most intersects with the other neighbors in Central America. This large banana leaf-wrapped and steamed beauty is full of on the bone meats, sometimes pork but here a full chicken drumstick in spicy stew first encased in spicy masa and then a plain one. Grab at least one of these two-toned tamales each time you go, it is just about big enough for a meal for one person but more fun to share.

Available daily are stew beef and stew chicken (below), which is ready in both dark and light meat versions. Either way, ask for a little extra juice as you will hear other customers do and always say yes to the question of whether you want potato salad and onion sauce. The latter might remind you of Salvadoran curtido but is laced with habanero peppers and should be applied with care.

Each plate is always available with your choice of white rice and stewed beans (above) or the common combo (below) of rice and beans which Belizeans consider part of their national dish. This combo has rice browned from stewing with chicken broth and the whole thing is thickened by coconut milk and tastes most of garlic and onion.

The price of oxtail has skyrocketed everywhere, but a plate of Joan & Sisters oxtail (below) is worth every penny. They load their takeout containers with far more than it should ever hold, so be mindful to keep your bag upright or there could be trouble. The pieces they use are all grade A and very meaty with just the right amount of fat. The gravy is addictive and will make you wish you had an extra container to drench everything else in your refrigerator with.

The biggest influence from the British Isles comes in the form of a meat pie (below), but instead of being in the form of a patty as seen in Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, the meat pies in Belize resemble those in England, Australia, and New Zealand or look more like a muffin like this one.

Inside of the crisp exterior is a beef and potato mix that certainly has the touch of grandmas everywhere, but this one would never be found in Britain as it would kill them with spice. In Belize you will often eat these for breakfast, and the heated case at Joan & Sisters will only have a few left at lunch, but if you grab them for warming up later they are just as delicious at night.

A few tarts pop out the most visually from the case in the counter, and ordering and eating one will cement the fact that this restaurant is doing great things with their baked goods. The coconut tart (below) is a great option for a sweet tooth, filled with sugar, condensed milk, and nutmeg.

It must be obvious by now that nothing is disappointing, so go ahead and order those conch fritters and whole red snapper if you are more in the mood for seafood than chicken and beef. The recipes that have survived everything Los Angeles and the world has thrown at them for the last 40 years are always going to satisfy new and old customers alike.

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I COULD USE YOUR HELP

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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Caribbean Soul Kitchen LA

PANAMÁ 🇵🇦

EDITOR'S NOTE: An updated version of this article (04 December 2024) is available as part of the Historical section of our Substack page. Check that out here:

https://eattheworldla.substack.com/p/caribbean-soul-kitchen-la-panamanian-los-angeles

It seems like travel down Wilshire Blvd. usually takes place at 50mph or at a standstill riding the bumper of the car in front of you. Luckily this kind of traffic gives you time to look around and take in your surroundings, including the new openings like Caribbean Soul Kitchen LA which surprised those gridlock warriors and just opened their new bricks and mortar on Saturday.

But what to make about those seemingly competing three parts of the facade? Panamanian pride, Caribbean soul, and the flavors of Central America. All three, please and thank you. It is that top piece that is the most enticing in a city that has but one non-regular source of Panamanian food.

A hint of the flavors you will find inside is in the form of a colorful mural that dominates the interior space. For now some of the more unique dishes, frituras, or hojaldre that are exclusive to Panamá are not yet to be found on the menu dominated by familiar Jamaican hits, but when discussed briefly it seemed to be the hope to expand in the future.

The main offerings for now are their grab and go "bowls" which combine a source of protein and a bed of rice and peas (notable for this description rather than gallo pinto) and cabbage. Stewed chicken, oxtail, and even cauliflower for the plant-based needs.

On the same list as those bowls, but really more in its own category of its own given its true Panamanian nature is the sancocho ($15.50, above and below). There are versions of sancocho all over Latin America and the Caribbean, but only in Panamá is it considered a national dish. There is garlic and onions, as well as culantro and a specific instruction to squeeze a good deal of lime in the soup once it is ready.

On the first bite, non-Panamanians will suddenly be jealous of sick days in that country. This bowl is the essence of warmth and comfort, chicken soup for the soul for sure. Plenty of yuca, chayote, rice, and corn make this very hearty.

While the rest of the menu strays into Caribbean (mostly Jamaican) waters as mentioned, a small little hint of Panamá can also be found in an order of patacones ($6.50, below). An order is not gigantic, but pairs well with the soup and are cooked perfectly.

Smashed discs of green plantain are fried just right and salted well. It makes sense to order these with any other dishes here, especially if you have memories of meals in Panamá, which almost always include at least two or three on the plate. Alongside plates of meat or fish, these are almost as essential to round out meals as rice and beans.

If you browse through the social media and history of this business as a pop-up/pickup vendor, you will notice a prominence of one dish in particular. Step inside the new restaurant and you might be shown a photograph of it as well. And there it is at the top of the "a la carte" menu just saying hello.

Thankfully the jerk mac ($8.50, below) does not disappoint. This is no mediocre mac n' cheese, instead the work of a talented chef with a thick slick of jerk sauce running through every pasta elbow.

They make and bottle a few beverages (all $8) that look like good refreshments as well, if you need something to wash it all down.

Or maybe for the next time you are stuck in that Wilshire Blvd. traffic.

📍 5354 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, Central Los Angeles

🇵🇦🇵🇦🇵🇦

I COULD USE YOUR HELP

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.

Thank you!

VENMO: @JAREDCOHEE

CASH APP: $JaredCohee

PAYPAL: (no account necessary, use link)