Food reporter’s notebook: The best restaurant food I ate around Sacramento in June

Eating out is part of the job when you’re The Sacramento Bee’s food and beverage reporter. And every week or two, there’s a meal that really stands out.

It’s not the kind of thing The Bee would write up in an independent story. It’s just the kind of thing that makes me tell a friend “Hey, you know what you should try?”

I’ve been telling a broad network of online friends about my favorite finds since late February, when I began writing The Bee’s free weekly food and drink newsletter. All items listed here were first announced in the newsletter, and you can sign up here for those recommendations each week, plus relevant articles and musings on the Sacramento restaurant scene.

These restaurants aren’t necessarily new, trendy or centrally located. They’re just stops I’ve come across on my never-ending smorgasbord from Yolo through El Dorado counties, places that stand out for their ingenuity, taste and/or ambiance.

Look no further than Tortas Chilangas Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl for Sacramento’s deepest selection of tortas. Formerly known as Taqueria Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, the Aztec mural-filled restaurant at 6035 Franklin Blvd. has a new name that more accurately reflects the 16 types of enormous Mexican sandwiches that greet customers first on the menu.

The norteña torta ($11.75) stuffs chorizo, quesillo and pork leg called pierna between sliced telera bread along with the ubiquitous tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, avocado, beans and mayonnaise. I couldn’t resist picking up a couple tacos ($1.75 each) as well, mostly as vessels for two beef cuts scarcely found around here: suadero, a smooth, thin cut taken from between the leg and belly, and deshebrada, shredded, slow-cooked flank with an aggressively meaty flavor.

Midtown Sushi isn’t traditional, and they’re good at it. Formerly known as Lou’s Sushi before an ownership shakeup in 2017, the restaurant at 2801 P St. is a plant-based favorite thanks to rolls that highlight vegetables rather than fake it with imitation meat, like the vegan Irishman ($13.50) with sweet potato and avocado inside and marinated eggplant and blackened Brussels sprouts on top.

My waitress said the deep-fried, creamy unagi sauce-coated secret tofu ($8.75) is one of the menu’s best-sellers, and it was easy to see why. There’s fishy options too, of course, like the Simple Simon roll ($16.50) with salmon, scallops, tempura shrimp, avocado and little bits of lemon that, along with the daikon sprouts topping, nicely cuts through the roll’s heavier elements.

For quick, inexpensive, freshly-prepared Middle Eastern bites in Arden Arcade, look to Sinbad Market & Bakery at 3033 Hurley Way, Suite 103. Jars of sour cherries and pomegranate molasses lead to a front counter with sweets and varying degrees of flatbreads.

The flattest of all would be lahmacun ($4 or $5 topped with a fried egg), a thin Turkish dough circle topped with minced tomato, onion and beef. Bulbous, chewy za’atar manakeesh ($4, also available with cheese) is thicker and smothered in the herb blend. Full-on pizzas with halal toppings such as beef shawarma or chicken sujuk are heftier still and run $9-$25, depending on size.

Then there’s the dessert case. It’s full of simple, unlabeled shortbread sprinkled with sesame seeds or filled with date paste. I also grabbed a square of gooey knafeh ($4.80), a Palestinian treat filled with sweet melted cheese and topped with shredded phyllo called kadayif.

While reporting on downtown K Street’s pandemic woes and hope for rebirth, I ventured out a block to Cafe Connection, the inexpensive Caribbean/Indian pre-pandemic state worker favorite. Debbie Rajkumar and Ken Chan’s 13-year-old restaurant at 1007 L St. is best known for its enormous jerk chicken burrito ($10), in which I substituted tangy coconut rice for plain.

Beef patties ($3.75, also available with chicken or vegetables) refer not to undressed hamburgers but to the pasty-like hand pies sold throughout Jamaica. The highlight for me might have been pholourie ($3.75 for six), chewy balls of fried dough stuffed with yellow split peas, spinach, chickpeas and spices and served with a thin tamarind dipping sauce. Native to Trinidad and Tobago, these fritters went down easy with a sorrel tea ($3.50 for a small, $4.50 for a large).

This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.