Related Recs

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strip mall cuisine

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.

@illithiddude

Nov 4, 2023

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NYC Mexican Food

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.

@aliza-abarbanel

Dec 9, 2021

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Villa’s Tacos

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.

@windser

Sep 20, 2024

Top Recs from @shyan

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Frank Heath

Part How To with John Wilson, Part Channel 5, part Longmont Potion Castle…I got introduced to the work of Frank Heath last year by my much smarter friend Noa Ryan so I’ll just let her speak on it:“There’s a sad, funny comfort in Frank Heath’s multimedia work, which is generally about humanity, bureaucracy, and the end of the world (and the “end of the world”). It’s equal parts playful and careful, joining research, make-believe and aesthetic acuity in what end up feeling like gestures of tenderness towards the tragicomedy of human affairs and longings. If you are looking for cynicism you won’t find it here, but you might end up liking the alternative :)”PS: If you have a link for Crypts of Civilization or Last Will and Testament hit my line.

@shyan

Aug 17, 2021

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Bags from 1733

I’m a ripstop addict. I love workwear. I love technical fabrics. I would buy a ripstop suit if I could. (Anyone have a link?). I also live in New York and use a tote bag. Summer showers and cotton totes don’t mix, and they don’t do too well in winter either. The answer? Seventeen. Thirty. Three. (Not to be confused with all time British technical-ware brand 6876). Chicago outfit, real good product. If you need to move something in the city or take it out of town, they got you. All weather conditions. I’d like them to make me an apron, so if you guys see this...let’s talk. Keep this in mind: I won’t name any names, but watch out for imitators. Buy original.

@shyan

Aug 17, 2021

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Living & Eating - John Pawson, and Annie Bell

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.

@shyan

Aug 17, 2021