I am not dead and I Like Cardone's Deli

We ordered delivery from Cardone’s for the office today and we certainly ate well. Phone service was really pleasant and although it took a while to arrive, everything was well packed and the panini were warm. We ordered a Wartime Five Families Sandwich ($8.25) which was reported to be of excellent quality, a meatball sandwich ($6.99) which surprisingly was judged less tasty and well constructed than the Palermo’s model and a cheese and tomato ($6.75) and Portobello panini, ($7.25) both of which I would have again. I’m not crazy about pasta salad in general nor about Cardone’s in particular but the potato salad is excellent and at $2.95 a lb. I’ll sneak it in to parties this summer.

We also got half a dozen freshly made and delicious (no citron! Yeah!) cannoli. The menu is limited and unless one is a big cheese and/or pork eater, there aren’t a lot of choices but even with the teensy selection, Cardone’s is certainly a contender for being our very favorite delivery resource in the neighborhood.

Cardone’s Italian Deli
3206 W. Sunset Blvd. (at Descanso)
Los Angeles 90029
323-906-9080
M/W-F 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
S&S 11 a.m to 6 p.m.
Closed Tuesday
Free Delivery

Lunch Box Love Offerings from Grandma

Mystery Object

Something carefully wrapped in a napkin which was then inserted into a sandwich baggie.

Mystery Object Revealed

Yai at the Hollymont Plaza

In that they are close to my place of employment, I like the food and we have known the folks forever, my Thai eating is largely confined to Suriyo and Sompun on Santa Monica Blvd. Because the children’s theater group, after having been rejected my people, has found a new home in the bosom of the Lutherans, I find myself often with time to kill near the Hollymont shopping center, the one graced by Jon’s Market, Fatburger and that store where all the moms rush to pick up those emergency white shirts for school performances. When I was a kid my dad and I used to order Green River for a big green fountain from the Woolworth Five and Dime where the Rite Aid is now. I have not been brave enough to try the fish and chips place but I have made it into Yai twice now, once for dine in and once for carry out.
It’s an ugly restaurant with too much sort of mean spirited signage like "Cash Only" and the menu indicates that drinks ordered without ice will be charged double. Little not warm nor fuzzy touches like that were sort of a turn off, but there are a couple of really excellent, if not mind blowing dishes. I like the dry egg noodles with duck a lot. More adventurous diners may gravitate towards the wild boar on the menu, but while we are loosening our kosher standards a bit, this is just beyond the pale. The thing I liked the most though was a simple apple salad with lemon juice and chiles. Really refreshing. The chicken sates were nice but not as good as the ones at the Hollywood farmers market, and oddly served with diagonal slices of commercial white sandwich bread. I brought home a pornographic fried trout for himself and despite 20 minutes in traffic, it was crispy on the outside and truly moist and flavorful on the inside when it hit the table. The barbecued chicken was on the sweet side but not lacking in complex and slightly funky flavor.
The service when we dined in was quite slow and a bit confused. When I ordered carry out though, the order was prepared quickly, well packaged and complete. Overall, if you don’t need love with your food, this is really good take out resource with easy parking, which more and more effects my dining decisions.

At Long Last, Kellogg Ranch

Driving back from the Springs I spontaneously stopped at the Farm Store at Cal Poly Pomona after years of curiousity. The first thing on my mind was Dr. Bob’s ice cream. I was happy to see a pumpkin flavor I’d never seen before and the ultra illusive Brown Sugar Strawberry Sour Cream. There was a decent selection from beef and lamb raised there on the campus. Alas, I had no portable cooling device so my shopping, while extensive, was confined to non-perishable products.

There is some of the typical overpriced bullshit high end pretty food gourmet stuff but there is really an ample selection of some interesting jams and salsas made at the farm itself and even something called Pecan Coconut filling which might be a good brownie topping in the future. We also filled a jar with delicious local honey from an awesome looking vat.

I was under the impression that dairy products from the campus were sold here too but the milk was Broguiere's and the cheese selection was utterly undistinguished. There were some nice local baked goods and I purchased too some gorgeous citrus and broccoli grown there on the campus and a lovely box of local strawberries.

And how cool is it to return from a little vacation and not have to rush out to the supermarket?