Category: Food

BEST OF LOS ANGELES 2017: MEZCALERIAS AND MORE

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READ IT AT LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE (in print too)

Ready your appetite, your liver, and your sense of adventure — it’s that time of year again: Los Angeles Magazine’s BEST OF LOS ANGELES. I had a huge haul this year, play-testing (for your benefit, not mine, nope, didn’t enjoy this at all, haha riiiiiight) three finalists in each of 13 categories, which for convenience’s sake I’ll split here into two super-categories. In the WHAT TO EAT zone (page one of the long list on the mag site), I crowned winners in the domains of: Fancy Grilled Cheese (No. 4), Coffee Concoction (No. 5), Mezcaleria (No. 6), Barcade (No. 13), Cemita (No. 18), Rare Liquor Retailer (No. 19), and Cheese Appreciation Class (No. 26). In the WHAT TO DO space (page two), you’ll find: True Crime Tours (No. 40), L.A. River Kayak Tour (No. 48), Laser Tag for Adults (No. 50), Picnic on Mars (No. 54), Hip Bowling Alley (No. 55), and Distillery Tour (No. 57). Whew. And the latter should include a quick Q&A in print. Now go plan your entire summer.

Juicy J Is Cooking with Weed (and Chris Sayegh)

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READ IT AT BILLBOARD (in print too)

Memphis rap OG Juicy J gets a lesson in cannabis cuisine from fine dining stoner Chris Sayegh, aka The Herbal Chef (“THC,” of course). I sat in on the entire thing, and while I interviewed the two of them afterward, you really just want to read this for the play-by-play: “Juicy J holds a single flower with a pair of extra-long tweezers cautiously, as if the tiny bloom is a hunk of uranium. His hand seems to lilt ever so subtly, pulled to the right by three heavily studded gold rings. But the rapper gets it together and, at the last second, sticks the landing…” Toldja.

The Beak-to-Claw Movement Takes Flight

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READ IT AT SLATE

Call it beak-to-claw, nü-poultry, or alt-bird for all I care, just don’t call me late to dinner. Hardy har har. Bad jokes aside, I interviewed a handful of chefs known for doing very good things with fowl—either reinventing the role of the chicken in fine dining and fast-casual, introducing birds of a different feather (sorry, I can’t stop) to their well-curated cuisine. The goal, specifically, was to trace this trend from its U.K. roots to its (in-progress) U.S. expansion as part of a three-part series very noticeably underwritten by Jaguar. Sadly, I got no cars or meals out of the gig. :|

Best of Los Angeles 2016: Poke Edition

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READ IT AT LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE (in print too)

It’s the year of the tuna — ahi, specifically, and in poke form (that’s “poh-kay”) in case you haven’t noticed, which, if you live in Los Angeles, would require never leaving your home or reading about food trends on the internet. So yours truly mustered up the nerve to eat five bowls of delicious fish and various thrilling toppings at five different L.A.-area poke purveyors, all for the sake of journalism and sparing you, dear reader, the terrible inconvenience of doing such a thing yourself. You can read about my best poke pick at Los Angeles Magazine, and then plan the rest of your day around the best falafel in the city, and the best late-night happy hour too.

Los Angeles Mag’s Best of L.A., Starring Carrot Cake

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READ IT AT LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE (in print too)

For the first time in my life, I found myself with a cheese budget. It was glorious. Sadly, the results of that painstaking research appear in print only: the crowning of Cheesemongers of Sherman Oaks as the best (duh) cheesemongers in the city. On the L.A. Mag site, though, you can find my entries on carrot cake, gin joints, Filipino food, bone broth, dinner and a gig, bird-watching, outdoor gun ranges, and build-a-bot classes for kids. How’s that for range?

Munchella: On Culinary Stars and Coachella

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READ IT AT LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE (in print too)

Coachella is right around the corner and good grub awaits. I talked to Short Order chef Christian Page and Sweet Clementine’s pops boss Layne Eiler about the relatively fresh phenomenon of fine dining and epicurean snacks coming to a music festival near you. If you’re actually going to Coachella (I am), look for the next hot Buzz Bite while some band plays in the background. :/