Piping Hot Pupusa's at Tony's Front Yard Joint

Homemade, super excellent Pupusa's for pupusionados. After half dozen visits with various friends and neighbours, we now consider this the go-to place in 90018.
Louis
There is a new-ish place in the neighborhood that seems to operate on the fringes of legality, so we will not share the particulars of the address here in this public forum. Suffice it to say that, if you are reading this you probably know us and can email or call directly to find out the coordinates if you haven't already seen the place yourself.
We ate there tonight and this is front yard cuisine at its very best. Fresh made pupusas with all the fixins grilled up fresh, crunchy, and hot. Tacos on homemade tortillas. Burritos that we didn't try. Basically anything you can imagine made with corn, beans, cheese, and meat plus some delicious marinated vegetables, the cabbage slaw, and all sorts of salsas, one that was super super spicy. Everything was delicious and the price was right, $18 stuffed four people including drinks.
Open just a few nights a week. Highly recommended. Go there now.

UPDATE: Check out this write-up on LosAngeliciousTimes.com!

Sky's Gourmet Tacos

Sky's Gourmet Tacos
5408 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90019-3945
(323) 932-6253

It's right across the street from the House of Pain bakery and got great reviews on Yelp. So I'm willing to say, OK, we hit it on a bad day...  a really bad day... Someone else should go and see if this place warrants the 4 star reviews it's getting on Yelp. Or maybe it's just that the meat stuff is better than the veg.
Confusing to order, took forever, food was so-so.
I was with people who aren't as picky as I am, and even they weren't stoked.
Maybe their extensive vegetarian menu is just for looks and no one really orders from it.

Also, they have a truck. 

Gourmet Genie

http://www.gourmetgenietogo.com/

I was really hungry on my ride home from Echo Park on Tuesday, but I didn't feel like locking up my bike and going inside a building to get food. I passed a couple of meat-centric food trucks, and my stomach was growling. Any food truck with a picture of a fuzzy animal on it that serves a factory farm version of that animal is super gross to me, even though the wafting scents smell pretty delicious.
Hoping to run across a truck with some vegetarian options, I turned down Hope Street, and near the corner of Hope and Olympic, there was the Gourmet Genie parked, advertising Mediterranean style cuisine.
I picked up a hommus pita wrapped sandwich for five dollars, and took it over to a lovely park in front of the Fashion Institute to eat. I was suddenly transported into a different city than the usual Los Angeles. A man was playing a guitar in the grass, and everywhere I looked, benches were occupied by people eating lunch or just enjoying the nice weather.
The sandwich was super. Tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, hummos and some other stuff I'm probably forgetting. The hummos was a bit chunky, with some garbanzos left intact. The proprietor of the truck said it was an old family recipe, but I don't care if he found it on the internet yesterday- it was fantastic!
The truck parks on Tuesday and Thursday evenings after 4pm on Hoover near Jefferson, in front of the Starbucks, but for up to the minute information on their whereabouts, follow them on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/gourmetgenie2go

Ta Bom truck

Brazilian tapas in the neighborhood?  Sim, at Ta Bom (It's Good), the city's only Brazilian lonchera, typically moored late afternoons on Jefferson near McClintock.  Thus far, I've sampled--with great satisfaction--the Coxinha (a croquette like delicacy), the ground beef pastel, Salpicao (a veggie wrap with shredded carrot, jicama, olives, and more), a top sirloin taco, and the Kibe.  Kibe is a cross between a meatball and falafel: extremely fine ground beef, combined with onion, mint, and wheat bulghur.  Excelente!  Most items cost between 2 and 3 dollars, and there's Guarana on hand for a wash down.  (Also, the staff will give you pointers on your Portuguese.)

www.tabomtruck.com

La Flor Blanca

La Flor Blanca
1279 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90008
(323)735-1802

In the mood for piping hot pupusas? Next door to the Indian place on Jefferson is this really yummy Salvadorean place that is festively decorated with images of El Salvador and serves up a full menu of food including excellent pupusas. We didn't try anything but the pupusas, so can only report on them. The pupusas are delicious indeed and come with a generous heap of tangy fresh cabbage slaw and zingy salsa. A delight! Cash only, but you don't have to bring much.

CHIC WINE BAR

5545 Pico Blvd - little west of La Brea
323-525-0234
I thought Chic wine bar was brand new - but it's been around about a year (supposedly it is owned by the same people who own a place called "Bloom" which is very nearby - but I have never been to that place). Anyway, the food is very good and it is practically in our neighborhood. I had the wild boar meatball fettuccine (little dry, actually) and Bob had the clam linguine.
Appetizer: seascallops in blood orage reduction- terrific -and desserts -top notch- chocolate cake and cheesecake!
Very nice service and a good selection of beers and wines at good prices.

I will definitely go back. Actually, on May 19th they are having a special goat dinner (goat cheese appetizer, roasted goat main course, goat milk ice cream dessert) and I am thinking I will probably go then.

prices moderate (entrees 12-18$$)

New Wellington Square Farmer's Market

There's a new farmer's market in the neighborhood. It's on Sunday mornings, and it's located in the parking lot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Washington, 2 blocks west of Crenshaw.
The great thing about the Seventh Day Adventists is that they are vegetarians, and so all the prepared food at this new farmer's market is veg. The tamale people that show up at the Hollywood Farmer's Market are there will a wide selection of vegan and veg tamales. Yum. Also, vegan soul food, and a couple of bakeries.
There is a decent selection of produce vendors selling various fruits and vegetables.