New Year, New Me, New Ingredients, Better Pizza, Papa Johns. Welcome to a whole new year of B.S….
Bites
Everyone is eating meat. 🥩 No one is drinking rn.
Ghia founder, Melanie sent out a bunch of ‘dry’ resources in her latest substack. 🍸
I’ve been thriving off my Sunset Cultures Kombuchas and Shrub mixers. Highly recommend the Strawberry Fennel booch + the Santa Rosa Plum shrub!! 🍓Use the code DRYJANUARY_SUNSET for 10% off ;) 🌞
Speaking of dry Jan… wine is now available at Cookbook Echo Park! Where they fit the bottles in that tiiiinny store is a separate issue 🍷
Shin’s Pizza of the month is ‘HAWAIIAN’ — roasted pineapple & prosciutto cotto. 🌺
Kumquat’s January special is the Artemisia Latte: organic stoneground mugwort powder from S. Korea, unsweetened macadamia milk + organic date syrup.
Kismet’s cookbook comes out May 7th (avail for pre-order here)
*Catch* Fishwife on Sharktank Friday, Jan 12th 8/7c on ABC.
Chamberlain Coffee launched a yuzu matcha 🍋🍵
Oatly dropped a ‘no’ sugar version. Read more about it on their blog (called OatlyFans) nice
‘Paul Giamatti Dines With His Golden Globe Award at In-N-Out Burger’ is giving ‘Oscar Winner Joaquin Phoenix Celebrates Award With Vegan Burgers at Monty’s’ 🍔
Back in June, I wrote about Beans. 6 months later, they’re making headlines. Tanya Basu wrote about how they went from a neglected side dish to a glamorous main character, for Eater. 🫘
Acid League announced the closure of their online store, (you can still find them retail) I was surprised how disappointed their comment section was… Not everyone lives walking distance to a shoppy shop.
Sam Rogers, your favorite ‘chef to farm liaison’ started a substack — her first issue was about the weirdest, strangest, least appealing, most wrongly-judged fruit — the cherimoya.
This 1975 MoMA Artists Cookbook featurs recipes from Salvador Dali, Alice Neel, + Roy Lichtenstein… Andy Warhol’s soup looks bomb. 🥫
Popup Bagels is coming to LA via Chain 🥯 ( I still don’t quite understand what that is) Gourmet takes on chain restaurant classics. It’s invite only. Anyway…
A Few More Openings
Stella (not the cafe), opens February in West Hollywood.
^ Camelia will be in the former Church & State space — v excited for this one in the wake of Konbi.
Baker’s Bench will open it’s Apline St. location in March according to a short lived IG story. Baby Bistro (going in nextdoor) says they’re ‘pretty sure’ they’ll open early summer.
Flouring just opened in Chinatown — Pastry chef Heather Wong previously worked at Bottega Louie, SweetSalt, and Josephine. 🍰
The retired Mohawk Bend space is flipping to a Pit Fire Pizza. boo
Wednesday Jan 10th the former Cafe Birdie space became The Arroyo Club — a new neighborhood cocktail bar slingin’ burgers.
In August, Cafe Birdie announced a change in their biz model from full service to counter service. With no notice, they eliminated 9 servers, sending them away with 2 weeks severance. Neighbors weren’t happy about it. ❌ By October, they temporarily closed. This is their re-opening. ^
Slurp & Sip, a cook-your-own ramyun restaurant opened in in K-Town Jan 2nd.
‘At Slurp & Sip, ramyun (the Korean word for instant ramen packages) is priced between $5.99 and $6.99 and comes with optional add-ons of egg, corn, and white rice, which cost an additional $1 to $3.50. To order, first pick a ramyun package from the wall, take it up to the counter to get a bowl, and then choose toppings. The cooking process is mostly automated, with specialized machines from Korea that bring the soup, noodles, and add-ons up to temperature and cook them to the diner’s preference. A free toppings bar includes chopped scallions, cilantro, jalapeno, lime, and sliced onions.’ — Eater
While I love to see more affordable options — I personally consider ramyun private…. an intimate experience to be enjoyed alone at home. I couldddd get into a delivery option, offering packaged noodles and small portioned out amounts of fresh toppings like green onion, mushrooms, american cheese, etc.
A couple closures…
Melrose dessert legend Sweet Lady Jane closed 12/31 after 35 years of biz. More on Eater.
RIP Pea Anderson’s, an I5 legend.
Recent Bites
I’m going to skip over my San Diego eats and make a separate issue for that ;) Here’s everything else…
Started a long drive with a Philz Impossible mcmuffin. Top notch road fuel.
My mom introduced me to Stellar Pretzel Braids, which I’ve had on airplanes before… but the flavored ones are diff, ok? The Buffalo and the Bold + Herby are absolute bangers. Apparently you can get ‘em at CVS.
NYE Oysters — This has quickly become a new holiday tradition for me. What can I say, I love to shuck. Annie made her famous caramelized onion dip. We had lots of bubbles, threw some Amarena Fabbri cherries in our glasses for shits and gigs. I adored this Pet Nat from Sip Snack… we also got a Brut mag from Highland Park Wines, cuz every special occasion needs a a magnum.
Genghis Cohen: the ultimate birthday party spot, and perfect for our girl, Annie. Apologies for this brutal pic of a veggie dumpling. I hardly took any pictures — we were cackling all night. It’s super affordable ✔️ they’re ready to host big parties ✔️ lazy susans of course ✔️ We each picked an entree so we had 11 to share. Perfect amount of food.
The Moo Shu Vegetables brought me straight back to childhood. My fave Chinese spot growing up used to wrap them for you tableside with two big squared spoons. (Shout out CJ’s, now DJ’s in Larkspur)
Mackenzie made this gorgeous lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting (tinted with turmeric) and candied lemons that Genghis Cohen kindly dished up for us. Tasted like sunshine and was the perfect conclusion to all the crispy hot food.
Little Fish: Everyone flipped out over this congee on my IG story, and for good reason, it was amazing. I love browsing Dada market while I’m there too. (Only note — the white fish toast is a p smol for how much $$$ it)
BCD Tofu House: Wow, it’s been wayyy too long. I usually order the vegetable option in water broth (I really wish they didn’t call it that). The Japchae is prolly my favorite though. I could eat those slippery sweet potato noods all day. Makes great leftovers too.
Oakobing: Green Tea and Injeolmi flavored shaved ice served with mochis and a sides of condensed milk. OK I’m not really into ice cream or sweets much, but this was delishhh. Thanks Monica for popping my cherry.
Chloe’s Kill Covid Soup: I’m so lucky to have friends who take such good care of me when I’m sick!!! 🧡 Chloe dropped off a big ‘ol deli of harissa spiced carrot, lentil & squash soup with a cilantro jalapeño salsa verde. I topped mine with the new Fly By Jing Chengdu Crunch which I’ve been obsessed with. (Also recommend with instant ramen…)
I toasted Bub’s olive bread with my ‘Jazzy Butter’ — chopped capers and minced preserved lemon folded into Miyokos.
**Not pictured, but my go-to sick delivery is Joy. I get the large size of their hot and sour soup (only $13 bucks), wontons, plus a bunch of cold sides to carry me through a few days. It keeps well too. ;)
Happy to report I don’t have covid anymore so more eats next week!!!
🔗 Last Week’s Most Clicked Links:
Grubstreet’s Top 3 Stories of 2023 (worth a read if you haven’t already…)
Pea Soup A and Sweet Lady J my heart can’t take it! 😩