Thursday, November 26, 2020

Take-Out Review: 4-Course Thanksgiving Dinner from Norms - Santa Ana

This year’s Thanksgiving dinner was from Norms. 

But so was last year’s, and the year before that. 

So other than getting it to-go, a slight increase in price, and a pandemic that’s curtailed all other plans and adversely affected all our lives, nothing’s changed.

Norms
102 17th St.
Santa Ana, CA 92706

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Check Out My Latest TimesOC/LA Times Story!

Read my latest story for TimesOC on how, what, and where I ate out these past eight months. 

Click the link below! 

TimesOC: How an OC food critic navigates takeout and drive-throughs during the pandemic

Monday, November 02, 2020

Take-Out Review: Kiko's Lechon Manok - Artesia


THUNK THUNK THUNK. It’s the sound of a cleaver chopping a big hunk of crispy pork belly into smaller hunks. I find comfort in its rhythm. It’s my idea of ASMR. Whenever I hear it, I know I’m in the kind of place where the thing to order is cha siu, siu yuk, or a mahogany-skinned duck hanging in the window. 

But this, my friends, is not a Chinese BBQ joint (there’s no duck or cha siu). It is a lechon manok specialist, the Filipino analog. But that same comforting chopping sound and the promise of a good meal is also here. 

The specialty of the house is a beautiful rotisserie chicken that gives Costco’s a run for its money. But the purpose of my visit to this walk-up window is the lechon kawale, deep-fried pork belly with luscious layers of meat and fat, and a noisy, crunchy skin that rattles my skull when I chew—CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE. 

It’s an even better ASMR sound than that chopping cleaver. 

Kiko's Lechon Manok
18915 Norwalk Blvd.
Artesia, CA 90701