Wednesday, March 12, 2014

A Breakfast Tour of Downtown LA's Grand Central Market

Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles is one of the most exciting food destinations lately, with tons of new vendors opening up shop. I was recently invited to a breakfast tour of some of these vendors, new and old. Since it's breakfast, we of course started with G&B Coffee.

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Not only do they have amazing coffee and cappuccino (with almond milk!), you can also get Donut Snob's amazing donuts here.
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Our next stop was Sticky Rice.
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What we had for breakfast was actually a snack that they will have in the afternoons, Kanom Krok. They have a special pan to make these delicious little coconut custard cakes.
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They were so good I snuck in a second, sssh!
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The management isn't just focusing on bringing in new vendors, but they also want to make sure the old ones do well. For this tour, they've spotlighted Jose Chiquito, popular for cheap sandwiches, burgers, and burritos.
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For breakfast? Breakfast burritos, of course. Despite all the hipsters hanging around on the weekends, you can still find the families and workers who've regularly come to Grand Central Market enjoying their Jose Chiquito lunch.
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Next door to Jose Chiquito is DTLA Cheese, the specialty cheese retailer.
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We had bites of toasted bread topped with Fromage d'affinois and lime marmalade 
Fromage d'Affinois
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We then moved over to Valerie Confections for some sweets, starting with mini versions of their popular salted caramel croissant. Their popularity is well deserved.
Caramel croissant
Creme fraiche scones with housemade marmalades. I was stuffed but could not stop eating these buttery scones and trying out the different marmalades and jams with it.  
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Last but not least are some fluffy pancakes with maple butter! Why bother putting both butter and maple syrup when you have this maple butter?
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The last food stop was Eggslut, which draws long lines every weekend.
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I haven't been here prior to this but really enjoyed the jar of white cannelloni beans with Nueske bacon and coddled egg. It was both a healthier and interesting take on an egg dish for breakfast.
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The very last stop was Press Brothers Juicery, where we finished off with some fresh pressed juices.
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One of their most popular juices is the Drop Acid which has quite the kick from the habanero and ginger. I also liked the Liquid Gold which has pineapple, apple, lemon, and mint, but my favorite that day was one of their seasonal flavors. I don't quite remember what was in it or what it was called other than the lovely honeydew melon as one of the ingredients.
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As you can see, there's no shortage of exciting places to eat at Grand Central Market and these aren't everything and they're also adding more vendors soon. Micah Wexler is opening up a deli, there will be a pizzeria coming soon, as well as an oyster bar!

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