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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.
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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
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I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so Mexican food is an instrumental part of my diet and overall happiness. Instead of wading into the endless LA v.s. NYC food debate, I just want to share some love for a few of my local favorites: Factory Tamal for unparalleled chicken mole tamales (buy an extra dozen and freeze ‘em for later), NeNe’s Taqueria for hype-proof birria, and For All Things Good for tlayudas + fresh masa to-go.
Dec 9, 2021
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The best tacos in LA, it’s my go to lunch spot. I love their watermelon agua frescas, the queso tacos, and the fact it’s in a strip mall and owned by a highland park native.
Sep 20, 2024
Top Recs from @shyan
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It’s hard for me to earnestly recommend a cookbook this expensive (It’s out of print!), but Pawson’s first book, a rec of a rec via the New Yorker’s Helen Rosner, is singularly outstanding. Yes, yes...A cookbook from an Englishman? The thing is, it’s decidedly un-British, continental in all the best ways, modern in its disposition, and prescient in it’s cookbook design. As a very goofy dude, operating a very unsexy business, Pawson’s work is a godsend. He approaches food in a holistic way - less so a manifesto, more so a journey through his mind. First, the kitchen from its bones - counterspace, appliances, hobs, things of that nature. He is an architect after all. The ideal oven size? At least 900mm by the way. Alongside the 200+ recipes in the book you’ll find some real elite food writing provided by Annie Bell. Brilliant and beautiful prose that you shouldn’t gloss over. Pawson recently released his second cookbook earlier this year titled Home Farm Cooking. I haven’t read it, but I reckon you should buy that instead. Don’t shell out hundreds of dollars on a cookbook unless you’re a collector or got money to burn. Live well.
Aug 17, 2021
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I recommend Oliver Levitt, Gabe Wells, AJ Marcus, Ezra Miller, and Caleb Miller. Some of the best people I know. Our fatal flaw? Our original sin? We like each other too much. Truly, madly, deeply. We love hanging out, foreal. They’re very much a centering force in my life and I would be lost without them.
Aug 17, 2021
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Hear me out. Twitch is synonymous with gaming - mainly advertiser friendly content targeted at teens and children. But for me, its real value lies in the illegal streaming of movies and television. No cable, no problem. There’s Bobygamesdotcom who’s Calm Crazy About Movies series started my love affair with Jerry Lewis. An expert on pre-code Hollywood, and forgotten gems from the 50s, and 60s - a wealth of knowledge on everything from von Sternberg to slapstick. Who needs film school? If you like cult horror, sci-fi, and anime - look to Bakoon who streams almost every night. The real shit that got me through quarantine though? Non-stop Anthony Bourdain from my man Pedro from Brazil, who started this channel in March 2020. It’s fucking Tony, man. 24/7. What more is there to say? RIP Moviepassed aka Hollywood Entertainment.
Aug 17, 2021