004: Labor Day in LA
I really struggled to write this week's reflection—I had already missed a day on my publishing schedule (I usually publish on Wednesdays) because I wanted to give myself more time, but I just really don't think this piece is coming together the way I want in time for this week's issue. I'll let it marinate a bit longer but that'll mean that there's no original food for thought this week—sorry!
menu
food for thought | skipped this week—sorry! I made a beefier bites section to compensate though 😣
restaurant | LA restaurant round up!
recipe | the most "LA" thing I know to make: earl grey tea pie
bites | someone ordered a Kia by accident on Amazon • my dad and kurt cobain •
restaurant
LA Restaurant Round Up!
Here's a follow-up to my LA guide with a list of places that we actually went to. (Same with New York, I'll post a roundup article at a later point! Here's a food photo dump in the meantime though.)
Friday night: Parks BBQ — This totally lived up to the hype—which means a lot given that this place is known as an establishment and "the best KBBQ in LA." It was delicious and was surprisingly affordable for the quality of meat we got.
Saturday morning: Cabra — our first experience with what we would come to call "shrinkflation": overpriced items for tiny portions. The food was at best mediocre, which was surprising to me for a new restaurant so highly rated and hyped. At least it was somewhat aesthetic, but I'd argue La Mar Cebicheria Peruviana in San Francisco does a much better job at that (with portions twice the size for the same price).
Saturday evening: Maccheroni Republic — I know there are fancier and "better" Italian restaurants all over LA these days, but this place is SO solid and consistent at a great price point (all dishes are still <$20). It has a great signature pasta (the Bianchi et Neri) and was still as good as I remembered. I know I wasn't just biased because my friends all ordered the same thing and one thought that it was the best pasta he's had. Here are some apps we ordered as well:
Saturday dessert: Sunright Tea Studio and Wanderlust Creamery in Old Town Pasadena—both good boba and ice cream options, conveniently close to each other in Old Town Pasadena. These were much welcomed on a hot day—the temperature was still in the high 80s despite it being close to 10pm.
Sunday morning: C&M Café — We met two of my friends here for brunch. 1/ The menu looked so good, it was hard to decide what to order! 2/ the açai was the good kind—free of bananas and served with a sorbet texture. I could see why this underrated spot is a favorite of my friends'.
Sunday snacktime: Erewhon & Alfred at Abbot Kinney—the smoothie is just a strawberry smoothie. Erewhon, surprisingly, wasn't any more expensive or special than Berkeley Bowl except for a few items (one brand of water sold for $25/L... and there was a $50 tub of ghee somewhere too). And Alfred is solid as always, despite its super Instagrammable storefronts.
Sunday dinner: Connie & Ted's—this place was great! We ordered 3 types of oysters, grilled monkfish, lobster rolls, and crab cakes. I just forgot to take pictures since we were in a hurry to go to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl afterward. I did, somehow, remember to take a picture of this funny sign there:
recipe
Earl Grey Pie
This is probably the most shared recipe from my notebook—I call it the most "LA" thing I know how to make since it originally started as a copycat of The Pie Hole's Earl Grey Pie. Over time, however, I've found that I like my pie more: it's less sweet (I use whipped cream instead of a white chocolate mousse) with a stronger tea flavor.
Last year I hosted an LA-themed party in my home for two friends who were moving down there, and this was the featured dessert. Once upon a time I also sold these for a fundraiser and raised over $2,000!
Interested? Here's a link to the recipe.
bites
A bit beefier this week in lieu of the original piece that I usually have in "food for thought." This week's Bites are articles or small reads that have piqued my interest lately—TBD if I'll write a response piece or essay to process these further.
someone ordered a Kia by accident
How weird are your social media algorithms? Probably not as weird as mine. Presenting the top of my Twitter feed:
Well, it happened. I accidentally pressed my joke Amazon dash button that orders a Kia Sorento. pic.twitter.com/jZxw6xWAvd
— michael (@MULCH_EATER) August 31, 2022
The ensuing thread is equally hilarious—with random netizens coming out of the woodworks to show off their joke Dash buttons, and another suggesting for him to take his Kia to Kohl's and return it for a full refund and $5 Kohl's Cash ("You don't have to pack it up or anything"). I... probably need to curate my Twitter with less mind-numbing content but still, this was pretty funny.
my dad and kurt cobain
I've been in a memoir mood lately (could you tell?)—Here's a particularly touching one from The New Yorker, titled "My Dad and Kurt Cobain," an excerpt by Hua Hsu from his upcoming book. I love the duality of identity he struggles with, between his two biggest influences as a teen: his well-intentioned conformist immigrant parents and his love for Kurt Cobain, punk rock, and alternative culture. Especially as a kid from the Bay, it's interesting to see his observations of Cupertino and growing up as an Asian kid in the 80s and 90s, vs. my experience in the 2000s and 2010s.
Some of my favorite quotes:
The suburbs were amenable to a kind of haphazard, gradual transformation—flagging businesses were remade by new waves of immigrants, and strip malls began turning, store by store, into archipelagos of hyper-regional Chinese food and the latest in imported hair fads.
The first generation thinks about survival; the ones that follow tell the stories.
Later still, I came to recognize that assimilation was a race toward a horizon that wasn’t fixed. The ideal was ever shifting, and your accent would never quite be perfect.
... sometimes, the “normal” people is more easy to adapt to the reality which fills with not ideal situation and needs compromise. That’s the dilemma of life: you have to find meaning, but by the same time, you have to accept the reality. How to handle the contradiction is a challenge to every one of us.
has self-awareness gone too far in fiction?
I guess I'm also on a The New Yorker kick lately too—this article is an older one, a review/critique of Sally Rooney-type fiction, where the protagonist's journey is one where they become self-aware vs. where they overcome the problems raised by their awareness or situation and mature and grow (like a traditional bildungsroman). (Sally Rooney wrote Normal People and Conversations with Friends, which have since been made into TV series.)
This type of fiction is especially popular now that "wokeness" is seen as a virtue—but I also agree with the author's sentiment that the true growth of a character (or any person, really) shouldn't just stop at the awakening—is there any true maturity or growth that's achieved other than just more self-awareness? Sometimes I also struggle with these thoughts myself—I've done some work to understand the problem, but is just understanding without taking action enough?
Wendynoms is an independent newsletter that provides you with 1 restaurant recommendation, 1 recipe, and (at least) 1 fun link or food for thought every week, so that you will always have something to eat and chat about while eating. Please send questions to hello@wendynoms.com. Happy reading and happy eating!