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About a decade ago, in the halcyon years of the early 2010s, Los Angels underwent a culinary renaissance. The city transformed from a metropolitan area notorious for its deficit of high quality cuisine to one of the driving forces of a new American cooking. Restaurants like Animal and whatever Jose Centano was cooking pushed culinary culture forward, forefronting a masculine style of cooking focused on offal, fat, and a primeval savory richness. Suddenly the entire city was consuming foie gras, pig ear, and ox tail. Over the course of a decade, this style of cooking disseminated through the city, infiltrating every neighborhood and ethnic enclave. Japanese food featured hearts, livers, and pickled meats. Mexican cuisine fixated on tongue and stomach. Bacon and brussels sprouts could be found on every New American menu. Unfortunately, like all good things, this shift was not to signal a permanent change. Instagram reoriented cooking to feature aesthetics first, and ingredients second. The focal restaurants of this movement slowly lost favor and dissipated from business. The people, as with anything in our fast changing city, moved on. Los Angeles once more became a city of route, pedestrian cooking. So where to find exciting, unexpected flavors? The answer, as always, lies in the most unexpected of locations. Any exciting cooking this city has to offer can be found in the nooks and cranies of this metropolis's ethnic strip malls. Within these unassuming locations can be found the richness of a globalized culinary culture. In Koreatown one can stumble upon gopchang - delicately grilled cow intestines. The sidewalks and hovels of Thaitown feature the breadth of Northern Thailand and Laotian delicacies, which encompass everything from fermented crab to raw meat salads. Little Armenia is home to basturma, a specific varient of cured beef salami. The most delectable of sushi can be discovered in any neighborhood across the great swath of our city, with fish sourced from the San Pedro fish market, the busiest and freshest seafood depository outside of the many islands of Japan. Though the most prominent restaurants from its culinary heyday have since ceased to exist, Los Angeles is still a culinary capital of unparalleled breadth. One must simply know what neighborhoods bear fruit, and what unassuming storefronts are ripe for the plucking. The dingier the restaurant, the greater the prize, and the adventure one must take to get there only makes the meal all the more worthwhile.
Nov 4, 2023
Related Recs
The love and support for LA after the recent fires, and anytime people help strangers, gives one a fleetly glimmer of hope in humanity. One of the things to truly love about gridlocked and vocal fried LA is the food. We're spoiled in NY, but the produce in California is the next best to Italy. So if for no other reason than to show love for a hard business, during hard times, some of my favorite LA food spots are: Speranza, Lolo, Gra, Cafe Stella, Tower Bar, Jar, Pace, Gjusta, Locanda Portono, Fluffy’s. Not to mention great tacos, and fruit cups galore. All so good.
6d ago
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Koreatown
🧖🏽♀️ Wi Spa
🍢 Dan Sung Sa
🎤 Brass Monkey
☕️ Cafe de Mama
🍛 Danbi
🎳 Shatto 39 Lanes
🎱 Koray Billiard
Echo Park
🌮Angel’s Tacos
Echo Park Lake
🍨 Fluffy McCloud’s
📚&🖼️ Heavy Manners Library
🍹Bar Flores
NELA
Lincoln Park
🎶 Lodge Room
🛍️ Rose Bowl Flea
🍔 Troy’s Burgers
🖼️ Guerrero Gallery
🛍️ St. Vincent Thrift Store
Ascot Hills Park
Los Feliz
Barnsdall Art Park
🥖 Figaro Bistrot
📚 Skylight Books
🎥 Los Feliz 3
Little Tokyo
🍣 Sushi Gen
🛒 Nijiya Market
🍵 Cafe Dulce
Chinatown
🥪 Philippe’s
🍷Café Triste
🍸General Lee’s
🎶&🕺🏽 Grand Star Jazz Club
🍖&🍷 Lasita
Hollywood
🥞 Clark Street Diner
Wattles Garden Park
🍔 Hollywood In-N-Out
📚 Counterpoint Records & Books
Boyle Heights
🌮 Milpa Grille
🌯 El Tepeyac
🛍️ El Mercado on 1st St
DTLA
🍱 Yuko Kitchen
Vista Hermosa Park
💐 LA Flower Market
🛍️ Santee Alley
🖼️ ICA LA
West Hollywood
🛍️ Out of the Closet (Furniture Store)
🎶&🥡 Genghis Cohen
🥡 Formosa Café
🛍️ Scout
🍺 Barney’s Beanery
🍸 Bar Lubitsch
A little bit outside:
Santa Paula Punch Bowls
El Matador Beach
Huntington Library Gardens
Golf N’ Stuff
Apr 14, 2024
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The legacy of Jonathan Gold lives on at LA Taco. There is no better place to understand Los Angeles than this bastion of independent food journalism helmed by Javier Cabral. Soul bound with city, this is the source code. If you’ve recently moved there, read LA Taco. There is no other alternative. A champion for the city’s street vendors and the food they make - there’s real heart in the writing, real fire. Come for the food guides, stay for the local policy coverage. Love Los Angeles? Buy a membership and support street-level, groundbreaking journalism. Honor the taco.
Aug 17, 2021
Top Recs from @illithiddude
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Why stream movies online when you can spend even more money and take up even more space with an exhaustive collection of blu-rays, dvds, and for the truly committed, reels of 16mm film. Trust me fellas, nothing gets a lady randier than when she sees you have the vast majority of the Criterion Collection arranged against your bedroom wall. Ideally physical media should be paid for with your parents money, but if you are a so-called "self sufficient adult" it's also acceptable to purchase these movies with your own hard-earned cash. And if anyone is to question your propensity for accumulating the aforementioned objects in question, just remind them of how the bit-rate and sound compression is vastly superior then what you get through streaming. When in doubt, always remember the bit-rate!
Nov 2, 2023