Chef Marilyn's Soul Food Express

It’s easy to find Chef Marilyn’s Soul Food. Just head south off the 10 at Crenshaw and look for the line that stretches out the door from 10:30am to 9pm. It’s easy to be tempted away by the smoke from Phillips Bar-B-Que, but Chef Marilyn’s has a line for a reason. Advertising “99-cents and up”, the tiny cafeteria-style eatery sells food a la carte (or a la Chinese buffet). The prices range from 99 cents for dishes like lima beans, neck bones and links to $8 for oxtails. There is also a location on Pico.

The menu rotates, with check marks on the chalkboard next to items in that day's hot buffet. Know what you want and don’t dawdle. Service is friendly, but there are 15 people behind you. You pay the cashier at the end, just like at a cafeteria. The next thing you know, the line moves you right on out the door. This is a place to pick up your plate and go home, or enjoy it on the hood of your car. Remember, there is no shame in eating on your bumper.

Chef Marilyn was brought up in Louisiana on creole and Cajun food. It especially shows in her cornmeal-crusted catfish, perhaps their best dish. With main dishes, you can't go wrong with anything smothered or fried. Some people go crazy for the meatloaf, but I haven't tried it myself. I always order the catfish; it's so good I could eat myself to death like a goldfish and float up to the top of the fishbowl.

Leimert Park Eats: Mama's House

I think I have found it. I have found The One. True, I have not eaten at every soul food restaurant in LA (yet), but if I had to pick the one to settle down with, Mama's House would be it. Hidden away in an old-fashioned strip mall on Crenshaw Boulevard, Mama's House has been quietly gaining fans for the last seven years. The room is comfortable, filled with family photos and bric-a-brac. It almost takes a minute for you to recognize the Japanese windows and realize you are sitting right in the middle of a sushi restaurant, sans sushi. Instead of raw tuna, the glass display case is now brimming with sweet potato pies. Not a bad trade, really.

When "Mama" Juanita Penland reached the age of 68, her kids decided to buy her the restaurant as a present. In the relatively short time since they opened their doors in August of 2000, they have won two prestigious Hoodie Awards as well as the heart of the community.

Mama's house has a deft hand with meats, turning out succulent short ribs and smothered everything. The sides are also stellar, particularly the yams and the macaroni and cheese. The greens, grits, red beans and black-eyed peas do not disappoint. The banana pudding is the genuine article, made with evaporated milk the Southern way. It dominates the banana pudding playing field, which is not easy around here. To be able to compete with The Cobbler Lady a few doors down, you know their desserts have to be good.

Breakfast may be the most uneven of all meals. Mama's chicken and waffles are impressive, with chicken wings that are so huge they look like deep-fried bats. The waffle is not quite Roscoe's but you really can't complain. The turkey links are also a standout, although on one visit they were cold.



The service is either shockingly fast, or noticeably relaxed; it is just kind of at random. Take-out orders are sometimes left sitting unless you remind them twice, and the friendliness factor can vary. Ride with it. The food is worth it. Especially the catfish.

The first time I ever ate their catfish, a feeling of tranquility and well-being settled upon me. As I realized there was no way I could finish the entire meal and leaned back in my chair, the waitress passed and asked, "How was everything?" I said. "I just found Jesus."



Mama's House (323) 290-0657
3864 Crenshaw Boulevard, LA

Leimert Park Eats: Shabazz Good Foods

It may look like your average, everyday taco truck, but the Shabazz Good Foods truck is not slinging the usual carnitas. Every Sunday, you can find their truck parked on 43rd and Crenshaw at Leimert Plaza Park. They sell not only the infamous bean pies, but blueberry cream pies, pineapple cream pies, and a few soulful lunches.



The red snapper sandwich is the easiest thing to eat in the park, and probably your best option. The chicken wings start at 5 dollars for 10 wings. They come with french fries that are about what you would expect from a truck. Both the snapper and wings are deep-fried, with a tight seal and crisp coating. Beneath the cornmeal coating is a boiling hot grease bomb waiting to explode. Be cautious biting into the meat until it has cooled, or it will be like Squirt gum of fire. After the initial bite, the greasiness is not too pronounced, and the meat is hot and tender.



The Shabazz restaurant in Leimert Park has been closed to walk-in business. They are now a center of operations for the bustling catering operation. 2618 W Martin Luther King Jr. Los Angeles, CA 90008-2745 Phone: (323) 295-5469.



For a sit-down meal, you need to head over to their restaurant on Crenshaw and Imperial. 2636 W Imperial Hwy Inglewood 90303

If you can't find the Shabazz truck, you can always find the bean pie man and at least get your pie fix.



Some people are unfamiliar with bean pies and are understandably wary, but people who won't eat them are truly missing out. A bean pie is very similar to a sweet potato pie. The ingredients may be unfamiliar, but it's really no stranger than carrot cake or pumpkin pie.



The Shabazz Bakery is connected to the The Nation of Islam, and some people have issues with supporting them in any way. I figure that I give so much money to the man, what's a few dollars to the other side of the coin? A bean pie is a bean pie is a bean pie.




From Wikipedia:

The Tribe of Shabazz refers to an ancient Black nation in Africa, according to the oral history of some enslaved Africans in America. It is found primarily in the writings of Wallace Fard Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad, and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X adopted Shabazz as his surname to honor his membership in the tribe.

Leimert Park Eats: M&M Soul Food

When people think of Leimert Park, they usually focus on Leimert Plaza Park and the one block of Degnan to the north. But the neighborhood of Leimert Park encompasses the eastern side of Crenshaw Boulevard, including Crenshaw and King Blvd all the way north to Rodeo Road. M&M Soul Food sits right beneath one of the blue signs delineating the Leimert Park neighborhood.

When you see a soul food restaurant on television, nine times out of ten it is going to be M&M Soul Food. They are one of the most visible soul food restaurant in Los Angeles, along with Roscoe's and Stevie's. At one point they seemed to be opening up an M&M on every corner. As one person on the Chowhound board put it, "They are determined to become the Denny's of South Central."

M&M Soul Food really is like Denny's in more ways than one.



Like Denny's, the best meal you will find here is breakfast. Thick, fluffy, almost bread-like waffles and homemade biscuits are sure to please. Staples such as grits and eggs are cooked just right, which is not as common as it should be. M&M offers a wide variety of meats with breakfast, including hot links, liver, salmon croquettes and chicken wings. My favorite by far is the fried catfish. Only in New Orleans and South Los Angeles am I able to eat catfish for breakfast. Served as a whole fish, the bones can be perilous, but the filet lifts off easily. The exterior is crunchy and satisfying, while the meat is flaky and fresh. I must warn you that everything comes with a big pat of margarine unless you request otherwise. The ice tea is sweet tea and the lemonade might make your teeth hurt. This is Mississippi soul food, after all.



Also like Denny's, the cooking here can be uneven. Everything depends upon knowing which dishes to order. The fried fish and the moist barbecued chicken are outstanding. The chicken is one of the things that has kept me coming back to M&M. The BBQ ribs, however, just can't stand up to ribs that have been smoked for hours over real wood chips. And when Phillips is just a few blocks away, there is no reason to bother. The smothered dishes suffer from an uninspired and salty gravy.





Where M&M pulls it back together is with the side dishes. Their yams are the rock star of the vegetable world. I have tried to duplicate them, and I believe they are boiled in a simple syrup of sugar and water for hours. The greens, mac and cheese and red beans are also stellar. Some days it is worth stopping in just to order the "vegetable plate".



The baked goods are made at the M&M on Imperial and brought in daily. The banana pudding is unpredictable. The nilla wafers are crunchy on top and mushy in the middle, so it's the luck of the draw. The peach cobbler is supersweet soul food at its best.

Word has it that there are "some M&M you go to, and others you don't." Originally, the M&M empire was owned by a woman named Mary, who has since passed on. When she retired, she sold some of the restaurants to Patrick Brown. He runs this M&M and another one on Crenshaw and Imperial. Mary's son runs the M&M on Centinela and the one in Carson. Most or all of the others have closed down. There was also a popular, but unrelated, "rogue" M&Ms on Degnan that recently went out of business.



The food is good, in some cases excellent, The service is efficient, and perfunctorally friendly. Something just feels off about M&M. It can't shake the anonymous feeling of a Denny's. Perhaps a local shopkeeper put it best when she told me, "It just seems like nobody loves that place."


M&M Soul Food (323) 299-0982
3552 W MLK Blvd. LA CA 90008

Attention Customers! Do You Know What You Want?

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