Missed out on Brian Addison’s Favorite Things of past? We got you covered—just click here.

Too many years back, I wrote a very self-indulgent listicle that was about so-called “essential” Long Beach dishes; dishes that I loved and could depend on as long as that place existed—and I wrote it because there’s something so elemental and useful about a specific great dish at a specific place. It was less about some grander proclamation than it was about, “This is just great food.”

And after a year of not doing such lists, I want to return to it. Not some grand list of “essential dishes”—that is too hard of a burden to put on a restaurant: You better have this and you better have it all the time. But for now, in this moment, I am happy to share some of my favorite things.

In other words: Why not just own the moment? Without further ado, here are the favorite things I’m eating right now…

Seasonal fish from Selva

4137 E. Anaheim St.

My love for Selva and Chef Carlos Jurado runs deep, from writing about his first menu to recently showcasing his uplift of Colombian food. It is a distinctly Colombian-American space that is not just unique to Long Beach but the region at large. And though the space will always be known for its smoked pollo—a dish that has helped defined the Long Beach food scene—what many don’t know is just how useful he is with the parts not put on a proper plate.

In this case, the current iteration of his seasonal fish. The hefty items that come in the pot—veggies and the fish itself—all depends on, well, the season. In my most recent visit, it was potatoes, plantains, and broccoli, while the fish was yellowtail. But the special part of this plate is the broth, used from the bits and remains of his smoked chicken. The chicken’s aromatics—turmeric meets smoked salt meets burning wood—paired with a hefty dose of cilantro and herbs, create a densely murky, wonderfully warming broth. I also happened to eat while it was raining and, well, it was a little slice of heaven and an ode to sancocho Colombiano.

Pizza Montanara from Mangiafoglie

2306 E. 4th St.

While my full feature on Mangiafoglie will arrive in the coming days, I couldn’t hold my excitement for this beautifully simply piece of pizza, pizza montanara. A staple in Naples, this pizza’s dough disc is fried—in the case of Mangiafolie, to a wonderfully airy, crisp, thousands-of-bubbles-along-its-skin finish—before being topped with tomatoes, salt, and fresh oregano.

Mangiafoglie might cater to vegans because Chef Paul Reese has been a dedicated vegan since 1999 by choice, but this is what food looks like when quality ingredients are exemplified at their finest. Quality tomatoes. Quality dough. Quality herbs. A solid house-made vegan parmesan that has a subtle sweetness with funk. It’s simply delicious.

Sweet potato gnocchi from Union at Compound

1395 Coronado Ave.

While you can also look for my updated feature on Union at Compound in the coming days, I couldn’t wait to show some love for Chef Eugene Santiago, whose Southeast Asian fusion popup Baryo has taken over the kitchen at Union. Across the past year, patrons who’ve repeatedly visited have watched the growth and evolution of Chef Eugene—and his sweet potato gnocchi is a prime example of how he has found a footing along with an identity for Union.

Never shying away from his Filipino roots and love for Southeast Asian flavors, this gnocchi—boiled and then browned in butter—is not excessively sweet and pairs nicely with a Thai basil pesto and bits of fresh English peas. Hunks of longanisa sausage, caramelized fennel, and citrus-dabbed kale finish the plate off with parmesan.

The whole Compound concept—restaurant meets art gallery—is reminiscent of Bestia’s opening in L.A., where their choice of space (the warehouse district of Downtown L.A.) was so unconventional that it made it cool. And Long Beach is deserving of such challenging concepts, particularly when it comes to its food—so go to Union.

Peanut butter and pickle sandwich from Dilly’s Sandwiches

4144 N. Viking Way

In one of the most joyous of sharings, I give you the mighty peanut butter and pickle sandwich from Dilly’s.

Surely, most of their customers are lifting up molasses rye slices stuffed with stacks of sliced turkey breasts or seeded rye bread slices filled with pastrami. But for the few in the know, they will be tackling an absolutely wondrous, off-the-menu peanut butter’n’pickle sandwich. It is, undeniably, one of the city’s best secrets: starchy white bread, crunch peanut butter, slightly sweet bread’n’butter pickles. Absolutely marvelous in its simplicity and nostalgia-inducing ability.

And every time I’ve forced someone to enjoy one, they do, indeed, enjoy it if not outright love it.

Sunchokes from Buvons Wine Bar

1145 Loma Ave.

Chef Alicia Kemper’s newly minted Buvons Wine Bar space—directly next to its sister wine shop in Zaferia—represents a radical return to something that used to be ubiquitous throughout California: the bistro that focuses on seasonality, using their tiny-but-mighty garden to every extend they can, and elevated simplicity.

Perhaps there is no better representation of Buvons Wine Bar that Chef Alicia’s stellar sunchoke dish featuring different textures of the root vegetable. A beautifully savory sunchoke purèe. Sunchoke chips. Brunoise of sunchoke—fried and tossed in brown sugar, smoked paprika, and cayenne—that has just enough moisture in it to make a bacon-like quality. All surrounded by a ring of radicchio—a gorgeously pink Weiser Farms Rosalba radicchio variety that echoes Veneto and Castelfranco but with much more subtlety on the bitterness—tossed in a house-made vinaigrette with pickled pomegranate.

Missed out on Brian Addison’s Favorite Things of past? We got you covered—just click here