Feeling a Little Closer to Lahaina in Carson

 Back Home In Lahaina 

519 Carson Street

Carson, CA 90745

I may have passed my obsession on to my sister. Like me, she has gotten into audiobooks and even outread (or listened?)  me last year. She had been wanting to get another library card to increase her book selection. I suggested going to a Los Angeles City Library branch to get her one of their library cards. They have the fifth-largest collection of books in public libraries in the US, so we headed to the closest branch, which happened to be in Wilmington. This also allowed me to try a restaurant I had heard good things about, Back Home in Lahaina. 

It was serendipity that I brought my sister here. Like so many people, Lahaina holds a special place in her heart. In the early 90s, she worked a summer at the iconic Pioneer Inn, which was destroyed by the wildfires of August 2023, like the rest of the town. That disaster brought out such a need for not just the large Hawaiian community that inhabits the South Bay, but anyone who has a connection to the town to help out, remember, and just want to be near something that reminds them of how Lahaina used to be, and hopefully will be again. 

For many, that place was Back Home In Lahaina. This restaurant, opened in Carson in 1998, has become a meeting place for all who want to feel close to what was lost 2,500 miles across the ocean. The large murals that dominate the dining room make it easy to feel a proximity, highlighting what Lahaina once was and will hopefully be again. There are even replica street signs and built-out storefronts of the historical seaside town. It almost feels like you are transported back there as soon as you enter the space, which makes this place feel special, even before I had my first bite of food here. 

Almost every best Hawaiian food list that appears online or in print media lists this as one of the go-to spots for Hawaiian cuisine. It's a restaurant, a bakery, and a small market selling Hawaiian goods. The Back Home In Lahaina menu is four pages full of Hawaiian staples: lau lau, kalua pork, spam musubi, poke, and others. Most entrees are priced right around the $20 price point, and as you'll see soon, they do not skimp on the portion sizes here. We were seated, our order taken, and we waited patiently for our food to arrive. 

Up first for my sister and me was the Kalua Pork Lumpia ($6.99). They stuffed kalua pork inside wonton skins with this fusion dish and deep-fried them. I was let down by this starter. The outer skin was not as crispy as I would have liked, while the pork inside had a good flavor, but I found it on the dry side. The provided sweet and sour sauce helped moisten things up, but it detracted from the taste of the kalua pork. I'll stick to the traditional Filipino lumpias next time. 

On the way up here, I talked up the fried chicken I have had at other Hawaiian restaurants (Da Hawaiian in Huntington Beach being the best I've had so far), and I guess after 50-plus years, I have proof that my sister actually listens to me sometimes. She selected the Lahaina Fried Chicken Plate ($12.49 plus $2.99 for the upgrade to Bacon Fried Rice) as her meal on this early evening. Here at BHIL, they use boneless chicken nuggets, which were very solid. I'm always partial to chicken off the bone, but these were almost as good. The breading was crispy and perfectly seasoned, and the chicken underneath was tender and juicy. The chicken didn't need a sauce, but I used the provided teriyaki, a good complement to the savory chicken. The fried rice was worth the upcharge, as it was good and not as oily as other places tend to serve it. My sister skipped the ramen cabbage salad and got two wontons filled with sausage instead. They were excellent. She took half of this home for lunch the next day, as the portions were very generous. 

I also took half of my meal to go. As is my custom when eating out, I always veer towards a combo meal or, in this case, a platter to ensure I try as many things as possible on my initial visit. This #1 Platter ($19.49 plus a $2.99 upcharge for sausage fried rice) featured the same delicious fried chicken that my sister enjoyed, kalua pork, beef teriyaki, cabbage ramen salad, and a scoop of macaroni salad. This kalua pork was much better than what we had in the lumpia at the start of our meal, but some bites were still dry. The beef teriyaki was OK, but nothing really stood out to me about it. The ramen cabbage salad was bland, and the mac salad was good, but its serving size was dwarfed by the mound of fried rice and cabbage on the plate. It could be evened out. The chicken and fried rice saved this plate. 

We did not need dessert, but we had come all this way, so why not? I had not done my research, as I learned later that the item to get is the haupia cheesecake, which gets rave reviews. We tried the Pineapple Upside-down Cake ($3.49) instead. It was good and moist, but I was hoping for more sweetness. Next time we're coming for you, haupia. 

Back Home in Lahaina was a good but not great Hawaiian restaurant. If you are in the area and craving food from the islands, this place will satisfy your cravings, and you will likely have food leftover for the next day. I had high expectations, and although they were not met, I would definitely visit here again if I found myself nearby. I would not skip the fried chicken and try their loco moco, kalbi short ribs, or BBQ pork. We experienced excellent service on this visit, and the food came out quickly. This restaurant embodies the feel of Maui, and that's well worth a visit if you are missing all that was lost in the fires almost a year ago.   

Out of five banyan trees (because the banyan tree is viewed as a symbol of hope by the people of Maui, and luckily, the banyan tree that was planted in 1873 in the center of Lahaina is showing signs of recovery after the fires), five being best to zero being worst, Back Home In Lahaina gets 3 banyan trees. 

For more information about Back Home In Lahaina, click here to visit their website: https://www.backhomeinlahaina.com/

Booking It to Top Shelf Tacos in Carson

 Top Shelf Tacos

23551 South Avalon Blvd. 

Carson, CA 90745

Okay, I know what you are thinking. Carson? What has brought me to the South Bay? Well, I've become quite obsessed with audiobooks since the middle of last year. Instead of paying for another subscription service, I decided I'd borrow audiobooks through our public libraries. 

I had two local library cards already, then I learned that by being a California resident I could get library cards from other areas if I applied for them in person. I found out that the Los Angeles Public Library is the 4th largest in the US, and with the closest branch to me being in Willmington, I decided I'd combo my new library card with a new restaurant review. After some quick research, I found myself at Top Shelf Tacos in Carson. 

Top Shelf Tacos is located in the Plaza Avalon shopping center, which is also home to a Domino's Pizza, Fresh Food Ranch Market, and other small retail shops. Like so many before them, Top Shelf started out as street vendors in the South Bay, then came pop-up locations in other restaurants, and then finally in 2015 they opened this storefront.  

Their impressive four-and-a-half-star rating with over 1,000 reviews is what drew me to Top Shelf Tacos. The menu is pretty easy to navigate. There are seven protein options, and then you choose how you want to use them; tacos, burritos, loaded fries, nachos, tortas, bowls, sope, or a quesadilla. There's also a shrimp cocktail and ceviche to pick from. Nothing here is more than $14, so I quickly made my selections at the register and waited about five minutes for my number to be called. 

I started my meal off at Top Shelf with a trio of tacos. I went with the Birria ($2.50), Al Pastor ($2.50), and the Carnitas ($2.50). As you can see from the pictures above, these tacos come with just a corn tortilla and the meat that you choose. They do have a salsa bar which allows you to dress your own tacos. I tried both the red and green salsa, which both had a decent kick to them, but did not overwhelm the proteins. The best of the bunch for me was the pastor taco. I liked the contrast between the little fatty pieces and the tender meaty slivers. The flavor was spot on as well. The carnitas won the silver medal on this early afternoon, as it also had nice contrasting bits of pork encased in this sturdy corn tortilla. The birria was fine with its flavor profile, but it was a little more on the soupy side of things. Not a bad taco out of the bunch.  

On their Yelp page, they get plenty of love for their Top Shelf Fries ($14.50), and after my first few bites, I can understand why. This starts with some fries on the bottom and then they add beans, grated cheese, crema, guacamole, and my protein of choice, carne asada was layered throughout. This did call for tomatoes as well, but I'm not the world's biggest fan of that seeded fruit. These were the best-loaded fries that I've had in recent memory. They were layered nicely, so every bite had a little bit of everything in each forkful. The fries stayed crispy even until the end, which was not actually that long, as I scarfed these down rather quickly. The carne asada was not overcooked like a lot of places tend to do. My only qualm with this was that there could have been a bit more guacamole included, but otherwise, this was a top-notch version of carne asada fries. 

Just for good measure, I got an Al Pastor Burrito ($8.50 plus $1.25 for guacamole) for dinner a little later at home. This burrito was good-sized but manageable. The flour tortilla was filled with plenty of that good al pastor that I had in my earlier taco, whole beans, onion, and cilantro. I modified this by omitting the rice that usually comes with this and adding cheese instead. A very good modification if I do say so myself. I did forget to get some extra salsa for this, but it was just fine with some Tapatio that I had in the fridge.  

I have to say that Top Shelf Tacos was a pretty solid spot for my library card adventure to nearby Willmington. All the meats that I consumed here were very good, while the carne asada fries were one of the best I have encountered through the run of this blog. If I lived in the area I would definitely have this spot in my heavy rotation at mealtimes. Service was fine, and the dining room was clean and comfortable. I can definitely see myself coming back here when I have to renew my library card, or maybe sooner. 

Out of five airplanes, (because the city of Carson hosted the very first air show held in the US way back in 1910), five being best to zero being worst, Top Shelf Tacos gets 3.5 airplanes. 

For more information about Top Shelf Tacos, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.topshelftacos.com/

Punching Your Ticket for New Food at Stubhub Center

Taste of Stubhub Center

18400 Avalon Blvd.

Carson, CA 90746

I'm not going to write about this great event and try to fool you into thinking I'm a soccer enthusiast. To be truthful, I try to get into soccer every four years when the World Cup rolls around, but then there's always some sort of awful call, or I get tired of watching the players rolling around on the ground trying to draw penalties. I know athletic skill is involved here, but flopping is the biggest reason I tune out when soccer comes on.

So you ask, why am I at Stubhub Center? My love of food outweighs almost everything. I was told that many great new food options are being offered to the LA Galaxy supporters, along with many craft beer options. I also wanted my good friend Richard, one of the biggest fans of the Galaxy, and soccer in general, to experience this event with me. So we left work a little early and braved the traffic on the northbound 405 freeway.

This was my first visit to Stubhub Center, which is not only a world-class venue for soccer but also has an 8,000-seat tennis stadium here and a soccer stadium with over 27,000 rabid fans. Opened in 2003, Stubhub Center has hosted some of the biggest soccer games in Major League Soccer (MLS) history, has been the setting for some of the hottest entertainment acts around today, and is located on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills. Even though I'm not a big soccer fan, I am a sports fan, and being this close to the field was pretty impressive. I may or may not have gone out there and kicked a few imaginary goals for my adoring fans in the stands. All that running around made me hungry, so I was looking forward to seeing what the folks at Stubhub had in store for us.

I was told this was not your typical stadium grub, and the first thing we tried, the Hawaiian Tuna Poke confirmed that. Poke is all the rage right now, with many restaurants solely serving these tasty dice-sized morsels of seasoned tuna. This was a good version, with plenty of avocados and cucumber slices on the side, and it was simply seasoned to allow the natural flavor of the tuna to shine through. An excellent light option for fans who don't want to eat heavy, they have the energy to cheer on Alan Gordon and the rest of his LA Galaxy teammates.

Also, not something that you see every day at sporting events was this Korean BBQ Short Ribs with Asian Slaw. These were probably one of my favorite things I had this evening. The short ribs were easy to eat since they were so tender and tasted great. I'm a big fan of short ribs, and having these while watching sports, would be a winning combination.

You've probably had nachos at baseball and football games, but nothing like these from Stubhub Center. No gross orange liquid cheese here. They use real cheese, roasted corn, cotija cheese, and some delicious tortilla chips. Not overly heavy like other ballparks nachos, you still have the energy to cheer on your LA Galaxy.

The hits kept coming at Stubhub Center, with this Jamaican Jerk Chicken served with Quinoa Salad and Yucca Fries. The chicken really did have a jerk feel to it, but it was a little clumsy to eat because it was such a big piece. The yucca fries were pretty solid, even though I'm not a big fan of yucca. I also am no fan of quinoa, as I've been burned by it many times during the run of this blog, but the girl next to me raved about this salad, so I'll take her word for it.

Of course, Hamburgers are nothing new at sporting events, but this might have been one of the better ones I've had at a stadium. I liked the natural bacon strips used on these burgers, and the cheese melted perfectly. The burgers could have used a little more condiments, but they are still juicy burgers. Garlic fries are all the rage right now, and these were excellent. Fired nicely, with a good crunch to them, and the right amount of garlic was used here.

After all this food, I did not try these Pizzas from Fresh Brothers, but they looked pretty tasty. Fresh Brothers is a pizza chain that is expanding instead rapidly, and it just became the official pizza of Stubhub Center earlier this year. So I'm looking forward to trying them out real soon.

Not only is the food being upgraded at Stubhub Center, but they have also added many local craft beer choices at many of the concession stands here.  We were talking with the craft beer guys here, and they said that this South Bay area is becoming a hotbed for craft beer in Southern California. They rattled off over a dozen brewers producing their beverages in this area, many of which are available at Stubhub Center. I enjoyed the Absolution Hefeweizen, as it went down smoothly on this relatively warm day.

I left Stubhub Center pretty impressed. The food was, of course, pretty stellar, but I was most impressed with the fact that they were taking chances and bringing items to a sporting event that you usually do not see. Talking with a few people from Stubhub Center said that soccer fans are more demanding of their food than other sports fans, and their concessions have to reflect that. But they nailed it with the new food items we tried.

The end of the LA Galaxy season is fast approaching, and if you haven't been paying attention, they currently are sitting in first place, with two games to go, and then they will be trying to win their MLS record-leading sixth championship. So you have one more regular season game (October 18th against the Portland Timbers) to try this food available at Stand 18, located on the Stadium Club end of the stadium. I might not be the biggest soccer fan in the world, but food like this, they might have made me a convert.

To find out all the latest things going on at Stubhub Center, including their schedule of events, go to their website here: http://www.stubhubcenter.com/