I have always been a fan of downtown LA’s Grand Central Market. And while the place is flush with old school spots that I have reviewed in the past, there are now new school spots intermingling with the old in perfect harmony. One of these goes by the name of Eggslut. How it got this name may forever be a mystery (well, at least the “slut” part), but it is undoubtedly a hit that draws crazy lines on the weekends at prime brunch hours.

So I’ll first say that if you don’t want to wait in a long line, arrive sometime after 2. But if you’re prepared to wait the 45ish minutes to order it’s also not so bad because the food comes out within minutes after ordered, so it can just be chalked up to a typical wait at a diner.

But I digress; what matters is the food. I ordered the simple Bacon, Egg and Cheese sandwich, which is made with the aforementioned bacon, cheddar, an over medium egg, chipotle ketchup and a brioche bread. Eggslut unquestionably knows how to prepare an egg. That goes double for the perfectly crispy bacon and just-right melted cheddar. In fact, everything was in perfect harmony for my first couple of bites.

Unfortunately, that was followed by a series of bites that were overwhelmed by the ketchup. I should state here that I am a fan of ketchup. It is something that has played a joyous role in much of my life, but it is a good thing that there can be too much of, especially when it covers up the delicious taste of eggs, bacon and cheddar instead of enhancing them.

It was surely worth the wait to get a taste of Eggslut; and the breakfast sandwich almost set a new bar for combining egg, cheese and bacon. Yet, it wasn’t the perfection I had hoped for and if there’s a similar line next time I’m at Grand Central Market there are a number of other great options that will keep me from going hungry.

While down at the Grand Central Market, my girlfriend (that’s for you, Joel) remembered she had seen one of the stalls on The Best Thing I Ever Ate on The Food Network. This stall was Sarita’s Pupuseria, which specializes in…wait for it…pupusas! You know, everyone’s favorite Salvadoran food. I am a huge fan of pupusas and while I may not know what Salvadorans look for in terms of a good pupusa, I know what this unvegan likes. The pupusa featured on that show was the basic bean and cheese, so we ordered one to split just to find out if it could hit the list of the best things we ever ate.

Pupusas here were made completely from scratch, so it took a while for them to fry ours up on the griddle, but it was great to see them put it together and I definitely don’t mind waiting for freshly-cooked food. When it was ready, our number was authentically called in Spanish and we grabbed our pupusa. My girlfriend destroyed her half by putting cabbage on it, but I kept mine pristine and cabbage-free.

In the process of eating, I found that I was a fan of this pupusa, but could it really qualify as the best thing I ever ate? Sadly for Sarita, this was not the case. In fact, strangely enough I have eaten better pupusas in North Hollywood. So what was the problem? Well, I’m glad you asked. The pupusa had some strangely distinct flavor that I was unable to put my finger on. It might have been coffee or who knows, but whatever it was, I didn’t want it. On top of that, I felt the dough was still, well…doughy. I like a pupusa that you can pick up in your hand and eat, but this one didn’t offer that to me. In general, it was still quite tasty, just not worth making the cut as one of the best things I ever ate.

So the moral here?

Don’t believe everything you see on TV.

After my first time at Grand Central Market in Downtown LA, I knew I had to go back. Fortune smiled on me over the weekend and brought me back to that special place that makes you feel like you just entered a market in Mexico. Honestly, I’ve never been to a market in Mexico, but in my mind, this is what it’s like. Although I enjoyed my food from Ana Maria’s, this time I once again went for a stall that looked crowded. I found Tacos…Tumbras a Tomas.

Rather than a line, there was just kind of a mass of people ordering. I stationed myself where I thought would be best and waited for a few people before one of the friendly guys behind the counter took my order. Having seen a couple other people walk away with burritos ($5.50), I decided that was what I needed and ordered one with carne asada. The guy told me it came with beans, rice, cilantro, salsa, onions and the meat. I chose the hot salsa, asked for it without onions and was tempted to get some cheese with it, but having eaten cheese for breakfast I decided against it.

Within moments, my massive burrito was ready. This thing would make a Chipotle burrito its bitch. For real.

I found a stool to eat it and tore into some seriously delicious burrito fillings. The ingredients had all mixed together in the burrito, so each bit was an amalgam of flavor. I much preferred this to those burritos where you have to take about six bites to get each flavor in. The asada was juicy and although every once in a while I came across a dried up burned piece, the majority was pretty great. National Casino Review – https://i-casinos.net/casino/national-casino/ The hot salsa wasn’t terribly spicy, and I wouldn’t have minded more of a kick, but it was still pretty good and added some nice flavor to the beans and rice.

About 3/4 of the way through, I couldn’t handle another bite. That doesn’t happen very often. Usually in the battle of unvegan versus burrito, the unvegan wins, but on this day the victory belonged to the burrito. Nonetheless, it was a battle I enjoyed losing.

So once again I must thank the huddled mass of people in Grand Central Market. So far they have not led me astray.

While thousands of fools were waiting in the long lines of the LA Street Food Festival to get the same food they could get any night from those Twittering food trucks, my buddy and I made a great decision to head for a different part of downtown LA. This was the Grand Central Market, a glorious collection of restaurant stalls, produce vendors, butchers and more. Almost dead center in this gem of a market was a Mexican place called Ana Maria’s. We took a page out of my Asian handbook and decided that since this place had the longest line, it had to be the best.

After strolling around the other aisles, we hopped into Ana Maria’s line and got a glimpse of a great looking dish called a gordita. Not at all related to the gordita crunch that fills my stomach and haunts my dreams, this seemed to be a more authentic gordita. This seemingly small food was usually filled with a choice of meat, beans, guacamole, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lettuce and sour cream. That was a whole lot of food to worry about, so to simplify things, I ordered one with just carne asada, beans and guacamole. I paid my $3.50 and waited for the nice man behind the counter to prepare my unvegan gordita.

When it was ready, the thing was just oozing with meaty goodness. $3.50 was a small price to pay for the size of this gordita. I was happy that despite my unvegan order, the thing was still packed as much as a gordita with those vegetable fillers. The guac was kind of viscous, which made my first bite a big green mess. But that first bite sure was delicious. Each bite made the gordita fall apart just a little more, but it was worth it. It came with a fork for a reason.

At first, I had ordered the gordita because it seemed small and I would be able to order more food from a different stall, but by the time I was done, my stomach was heavy and there was no room for more. That gordita truly did me in and was certainly the cheapest non-fast food lunch that I have ever had fill me up like that. Ana Maria’s in the Grand Central Market was certainly a great decision with very accommodating workers. i know next time I make it t the Grand Central Market I’m going to want to try something new, but it will be very hard to pass up another stop at Ana Maria’s.