Grand Central Market: Los Angeles, CA
Despite the fact that wedding preparations have meant this post was unacceptably delayed for nearly a year, I couldn't complete the posts about our Los Angeles adventures without including this fantastic spot (and the next one which will be our final post on Los Angeles)!
The Grand Central Market was one of those places that I'd heard about but wasn't quite sure what to expect... so naturally it ended up being one of the best experiences we had in the city.
Located near the Los Angeles City Hall and Little Tokyo, the market is made up of a wide variety of stalls selling everything from coffee and ingredients to full meals and drinks. Helpfully, many of the stalls have counter seating to cater to visitors on their lunch breaks (or just hungry tourists like us!).
We started by walking through the market to get the lay of the land and work out what we wanted to eat since there were so many different options. In particular the market has a wide variety of stalls representing Central and South America but there are plenty of other cuisines on offer too if that doesn't strike your fancy.
The market had everything - fresh produce, specialized ingredients, cooking utensils... basically everything you would need to create an authentic dish from any number of cuisines.
Finally we made our way around to Sarita's Pupuseria. I had read about it in several reviews of the market and, having realized that I'd never actually had a pupusa, we knew we had to give it a go! Made with cornmeal, a pupusa is a type of flatbread that is usually stuffed with a variety of ingredients.
When you walk around the stall, you can see these ingredients on display as the ladies make each pupusa to order. We went with the "frijol con queso" (beans and cheese) and the "chicharron con queso" (pork and cheese) options.
While sitting at the counter waiting for our pupusas to arrive, we noticed they had a La La Land poster displayed on one of the columns. One of their claims to fame is that Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling had a scene here in the film. I think it's particularly telling that despite their combined star power, it's actually the pupusas everyone talks about! I hadn't seen reference to the film in any of the reviews I'd read so we were pleasantly surprised to make the connection.
Fortunately, the pupusas themselves more than lived up to they hype. They were nicely browned on the outside while the insides were oozy and delicious. My favorite was the beans and cheese version since it had the perfect balance of savory flavors. I've since attempted to recreate these tasty flatbreads in our kitchen here in London but I haven't quite got the hang of them yet. If I lived in LA, I would definitely be a regular visitor to this stall!
After we finished, we headed out in search of something else to try and stumbled upon Wexler's "old school deli soul food" on the other side of the market. Offering everything from eggs and bagels to classic sandwiches, we knew we had to stop here.
One of Matt's absolute favorite sandwiches is a proper New York style reuben so of course we had to see how Wexler's version compared. Made with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on fresh rye bread - it was delicious!
The bread was buttery and lightly toasted, the cheese perfectly melted and the very generous portion of meat was overflowing... basically the perfect sandwich according to Matt. It also came with potato salad and pickles. Perfection!
If you're in the area, I can't recommend these two stalls and the market as a whole enough. Definitely make time to pop in for a tasty treat! We even grabbed a quick coffee to go on our way out - literally everything here is delicious.
Details:
Address: 317 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: https://www.grandcentralmarket.com/
Hours: 8am to 10pm daily
