For cramped New York, an expanding dining scene
April 1, 2019 9:43 AM   Subscribe

No one associates New York, a city in the eastern United States, with good restaurants. That's beginning to change. -- For cramped New York, an expanding dining scene, Los Angelees Times
posted by Room 641-A (70 comments total) 35 users marked this as a favorite
 
In America's Untamed West, A Fresh Young Food Columnist Brings Sarcasm To The Table
posted by phooky at 9:49 AM on April 1, 2019 [20 favorites]


"In Los Angeles, we’re spoiled by the breadth and quality of our dining options"

Bringing out the least plausible line in the article early, rookie mistake.
posted by mhoye at 9:51 AM on April 1, 2019 [3 favorites]


Is this something I'd have to live inside of a coastal megacity bubble to understand?
posted by escape from the potato planet at 9:57 AM on April 1, 2019 [18 favorites]


Fun article to post on April Fools.
posted by azpenguin at 9:57 AM on April 1, 2019 [5 favorites]


I loved this as a resident of a city that's been the target of many condescending New York Times articles that seem shocked to find out that food and culture exists west of the Hudson.
posted by octothorpe at 9:58 AM on April 1, 2019 [31 favorites]


Admittedly, that's quality trolling. Extra dry.
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:01 AM on April 1, 2019 [31 favorites]


that pepperoni is basically sliced lap cheong genuinely got me howling irl
posted by cendawanita at 10:05 AM on April 1, 2019 [10 favorites]


"the happening Murray Hill neighborhood"
posted by Automocar at 10:06 AM on April 1, 2019 [4 favorites]


Dry indeed, but not Marilyn Hagerty dry.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:08 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


The author was the NYT "Frugal Traveler" columnist for three years. I especially liked how one of the snark-links to the NYT was to his own piece on LA. The metacommentary will eat itself.
posted by fedward at 10:14 AM on April 1, 2019 [32 favorites]


LA isn't the only city that gets annoyed by condescending NYT food surveys. The New York Times Covers D.C. Food, Local Media Gets Mad (Again), and New York Times’ Latest Tour of D.C. Restaurants Barely Mentions Steak
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 10:22 AM on April 1, 2019 [6 favorites]


"In Los Angeles, we’re spoiled by the breadth and quality of our dining options"

Bringing out the least plausible line in the article early, rookie mistake.


No that one's true, food in LA is amazing and unbelievably diverse.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 10:30 AM on April 1, 2019 [20 favorites]


Yikes, thanks for the April Fool's reminders. I read this headline and said "what the fuck?!" clicking into this fold as my blood started to boil. So many thoughts circling my head before even RTFA.
posted by hexaflexagon at 10:30 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


I loved this as a resident of a city that's been the target of many condescending New York Times articles that seem shocked to find out that food and culture exists west of the Hudson.


The only culture that exists in Jersey City is in yogurt. There is some pretty good food, though.
posted by mikelieman at 10:32 AM on April 1, 2019


This is amazing and I love it so much.

(I know I got trolled up above, but I love LA too much to let that sort of comment slide.)
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 10:35 AM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


They’re calling it the new York.
posted by Segundus at 10:41 AM on April 1, 2019 [13 favorites]


Just change a couple things around and this is almost like an alternate history news article where the US never expanded beyond the Mississippi River.
posted by FJT at 10:41 AM on April 1, 2019


I do love some good link-based snark and this article gets it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:56 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


My friend from the Bay Area (well I thought they were a friend) blurted to me "There's nothing in LA", when I was planning a day visit. I was really looking forward to LA even on such a short trip, so by the remark I was shocked and didn't know how to reply.
posted by polymodus at 10:56 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


Reminded me of this article from a NJ paper: Hey NYC, this is what it sounds like every time you write about New Jersey
posted by fings at 11:02 AM on April 1, 2019 [8 favorites]


For those who haven't been subjected to what this is parodying/in case it's not obvious: the NYT / Gothamist / ok, mainly the NYT have a looooong tradition of "discovering" Los Angeles at least once a month, - which usually entails a NY writer renting an Airbnb in Venice or Silverlake, going to the most basic, bougie restaurants imaginable, and then being like "the 'Angelenos,' as the hippest denizens of 'Tinseltown' call themselves, can't get enough of the $12 avocado toast at Sqirl."
posted by joechip at 11:03 AM on April 1, 2019 [33 favorites]


This made me laugh out loud: "Near the large quadrangular park in the middle of the city, horse and buggy is, shockingly, still the preferred mode of transport."
posted by PhineasGage at 11:11 AM on April 1, 2019 [26 favorites]


My friend from the Bay Area (well I thought they were a friend) blurted to me "There's nothing in LA", when I was planning a day visit.

Years ago, my sister announced on Facebook that she was going to be visiting LA, and someone wrote something along the lines of "don't go! There's nothing in LA but soulless, empty people who only care about looks and money. I went there once, and it was a horrible place!" And my sister was like "well, also my brother and a bunch of my extended family..."

It's hilarious, because people honestly believe that LA is this awful, empty husk of a city that's all cars, smog, and shallow wannabe celebrities. When I told people I was moving there, more than one person said it was the city "where dreams go to die" and that I'd wind up miserable, surrounded by stupid, superficial people; I ended up loving LA, and I met some amazing and smart people there. Plus, it's like people don't realize that LA isn't all white people trying to be celebrities. The stereotype is some white woman snapping a selfie in front of the Hollywood sign, but the majority of the people I knew were Latinx or Asian (which is why I loved that this article called pizza a kind of tlayuda, and a bagel a kind of bao -- NY Times is all "it's like a bagel, but...").
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 11:15 AM on April 1, 2019 [28 favorites]


They’re calling it the new York.

Now that they're considering decriminalizing pot, they're calling it the new Amsterdam
posted by phooky at 11:17 AM on April 1, 2019 [15 favorites]


going to the most basic, bougie restaurants imaginable

YES, I loved the super lame deli and diner recommendations. It was kisses-fingertips perfect.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 11:18 AM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


My friend from the Bay Area (well I thought they were a friend) blurted to me "There's nothing in LA", when I was planning a day visit. I was really looking forward to LA even on such a short trip, so by the remark I was shocked and didn't know how to reply.

Well, thanks to the Avogadro's number and dilution combined with the sheer physical size of LA they're mathematically correct. At any given point in LA there is mathematically nothing there, and this can be acutely felt in reality if you are left to fend for yourself on almost any given street corner on foot, especially if lacking any food, water, cash or banking instruments, at which point LA is effectively reverts to the geological desert that it is.

Sure, there's actually lots of stuff in LA but to reveal any of it requires a very complicated web of science, engineering, physics and vector math that suspiciously functionally resembles a spacetime-folding tesseract from A Wrinkle In Time, complete with the risks of being waylaid by Ecthroi or taking a wrong turn or exit and getting lost and stuck in Camazotz.

But on the other hand LA has paletas.
posted by loquacious at 11:24 AM on April 1, 2019 [6 favorites]


Metafilter: like a kind of baked tlayuda
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:30 AM on April 1, 2019 [3 favorites]


It took me a bit to unlock the magic that is LA (lived here for 23 years this summer.) Other big cities, like NY, Chicago, Boston, etc all sort of force themselves on you. If you're there, you have no choice but to engage with the city. It doesn't matter if you're passive - the city is in your face.

LA, doesn't reward passivity. You have to be a willing and active partner with the city. It's stupid easy to live a dull unassuming existence - wake up, go to work, eat dinner, go to sleep, rinse, repeat. But it you engage with the city thats how you get the meat of the true city in all of its weird glory. What you think you're going to shove 18ish million people into a city and not be able to find everything you'd ever want?
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:31 AM on April 1, 2019 [12 favorites]


This same writing style is also, of course, suited to writing about the sporting life.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:34 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


One of my theories is just that the really insufferable aspects of cities are mostly connected to their dominant industries. So DC is awful inside the political bubble; NY is horrible inside finance and fashion; LA is horrible inside Hollywood; SF is horrible inside tech.

But if you're outside those bubbles you can enjoy the good parts. And LA and NY both have the advantage of simply being big enough to not get totally eaten by their respective big industries.
posted by vogon_poet at 11:34 AM on April 1, 2019 [14 favorites]


Interesting point, vogon_poet, although I could also argue the opposite, having lived in each of the cities you cite: inside the bubble, each city is focused and fascinating, while outside the bubble everyone else has to suffer the overwhelming impacts of each city's dominant industry-and-therefore-culture...
posted by PhineasGage at 11:40 AM on April 1, 2019 [5 favorites]


There's nothing in LA

This is part of the experience of living in California: SF folks dump on LA. LA folks dump on OC. And all three dump on SD.
posted by FJT at 11:42 AM on April 1, 2019 [5 favorites]


Plus, it's like people don't realize that LA isn't all white people trying to be celebrities.

I feel that from DC. So many people characterize us by the clowns that the rest of the country sends here!
posted by sallybrown at 11:44 AM on April 1, 2019 [11 favorites]


No that one's true, food in LA is amazing and unbelievably diverse.

Yes, I completely agree. Having lived in both cities, LA trounces New York in the food arena so hard it isn't even fair.

After having spent so much time around New Yorkers and their illusory superiority about their city's food compared to LA, I loved this article so much.

It's hilarious, because people honestly believe that LA is this awful, empty husk of a city that's all cars, smog, and shallow wannabe celebrities. When I told people I was moving there, more than one person said it was the city "where dreams go to die" and that I'd wind up miserable, surrounded by stupid, superficial people; I ended up loving LA, and I met some amazing and smart people there. Plus, it's like people don't realize that LA isn't all white people trying to be celebrities. The stereotype is some white woman snapping a selfie in front of the Hollywood sign, but the majority of the people I knew were Latinx or Asian (which is why I loved that this article called pizza a kind of tlayuda, and a bagel a kind of bao -- NY Times is all "it's like a bagel, but...").

Yep! People's feelings about LA usually say a lot more about their own preferences/privilege/circumstances than anything about the city. If all you know about LA are boring white people, well...
posted by Ouverture at 11:53 AM on April 1, 2019 [6 favorites]


The bicoastal food discussion reminds me of the The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel.
posted by exogenous at 11:55 AM on April 1, 2019 [11 favorites]


LA, doesn't reward passivity. You have to be a willing and active partner with the city.

Oh absolutely. You need an insiders knowledge of where all the great places are because it's a bit difficult to navigate through a city that's so sprawling. I think most visitors just judge the entire city by what they see in the touristy areas of the west side.
posted by cazoo at 11:57 AM on April 1, 2019


> You need an insiders knowledge of where all the great places are because it's a bit difficult to navigate through a city that's so sprawling.

It's also hard to find a last minute backup, in my opinion, because there's no relationship between there being an interesting restaurant on a block and there being anything else relevant to you in say a half-mile radius.

If you get to a restaurant and it's closed or full or less appealing than you imagined, it's back into the car (or call another Uber, or wait for the next bus). In NY, Chicago, SF, etc., you can usually just walk a block or two to another restaurant of equivalent quality.
posted by smelendez at 12:06 PM on April 1, 2019 [9 favorites]


And all three dump on SD.

That's because SD puts weird shit like french fries in their burritos. They were quarantined several decades ago for this ontological crime by the powerful Burrito Union of Regional Producers.
posted by loquacious at 12:37 PM on April 1, 2019 [10 favorites]


Oh this is so, so perfect. And, as an Angeleno, I agree with what people are saying about the real LA vs. the stereotype. What was it Jonathan Gold said? Something like "I want people to live in the whole city" not just the precious bubbles of the Westside or behind Beverly Hills gates.

Also I had Guisados for dinner last night and I'm having sushi for lunch, so #winning.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:53 PM on April 1, 2019 [5 favorites]


I've heard they have museums in New York. It's fun to see the Big Apple finally getting some sophistication.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 1:00 PM on April 1, 2019 [3 favorites]


It's also hard to find a last minute backup, in my opinion, because there's no relationship between there being an interesting restaurant on a block and there being anything else relevant to you in say a half-mile radius.

I live in Atlanta, where we have the same problem (except on our Magical Road Of Tasty Food).
posted by madcaptenor at 1:11 PM on April 1, 2019


Ah, this cover in food travel journalism.

That's because SD puts weird shit like french fries in their burritos. They were quarantined several decades ago for this ontological crime by the powerful Burrito Union of Regional Producers.


And everyone in SD is glad to be in none of the above areas. Thank you Camp Pendleton, aka The Los Angeles exclusion zone. Without that we'd be a part of Mega City Two in no time.

Seriously, we a pretty smart kid in a class of valedictorians. When you can compare our Mexican food to TJ, and our Asian cuisine to LA, you start not standing out.
posted by zabuni at 1:13 PM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


This is part of the experience of living in California: SF folks dump on LA. LA folks dump on OC. And all three dump on SD.

I thought it was Oakland where there was no there there.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:18 PM on April 1, 2019


The joke being that Los Angeles doesn't even really exist.
posted by 1adam12 at 1:20 PM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


Because I'm procrastinating, here's a love letter to LA:

I have yet to find Korean food outside of LA that was as good as what I could get on Western Ave.

You can find food from pretty much every region of China and Taiwan in the SGV (plus, that's the only place I've ever seen, and eaten, Vietnamese fermented pork balls).

The Thai food in Hollywood is far and above the best I've ever eaten, with tons of stuff I've never seen anywhere outside LA (like fish/shrimp cakes, crispy pork, and whatever you call that beef jerky-type stuff -- it helped that we had Thai family friends ordering for us half the time).

The ramen in Little Tokyo (or on Sawtelle) is very good, and a family friend was really impressed when I mentioned we'd had tsukemen in LA.

Armenian food in Glendale. Armenian food in Glendale! I used to live in Little Armenia, but I think the food in Glendale was better. Also, a few really good Lebanese places in the Valley, too.

Nothing here in Maryland approaches the quality of LA (or really, anywhere in California) when it comes to Mexican food. None of the awesome tlayudas, no menudo, no fruit vendors on the street. Nobody can outdo LA tacos. Fight me.

Not everyone can agree on the best LA taco place. For me, it was El Matador. I think a lot of people were into Tacos Por Favor. Actually, I think the idea of a "best taco in LA" seems sort of lame, honestly. I think there are regional best tacos. Like, there's no point driving across the city, because there's going to be a decent taco place near you (unless you're in a shitty neighborhood like Pacific Palisades). I used to live near Ricky's Fish Tacos, which was later named the greatest taco in America by some food magazine (Ricky always recognized me, and would be like "haven't seen you in a while!" -- which made me feel bad because sometimes fish tacos give me heartburn, so I didn't go all the time). My brother in law loves the tacos from the Salvadoran place near them here in MD, but I don't have the heart to tell him I think they're awful (tough, dry, flavorless meat, although the tortillas are handmade and pretty good).

One thing I missed when I lived there was Hainan chicken, which is apparently a common thing in parts of the greater LA area. Actually, I missed a lot, since it's hard to get to everything. Did you know that I never made it to Langer's the whole time I lived there? I also never tried the Ethiopian food on that one street, and I never made it to that suburb that was supposed to have the best Indian food outside India (I used to live with an Indian guy who took a lot of trips there).

This comment is getting out of hand. There are too many places to list, and I'm going to wind up seeming like I'm downplaying some quintessentially LA cuisine. No, I haven't forgotten the soul food I've eaten, or the Persian food, or the Puerto Rican food, or the Cuban food, or the halal Pakistani food, or the halal Chinese food, or the Halal Indonesian food. I will never forget $1 pupusa Wednesdays at the Salvadoran place across the street from LACC, when the whole place would be packed with students, and we'd get takeout for late evening rehearsals.

Point is, if you were plopped down on any random corner in LA, you'd probably be pretty close to something interesting.

Also, I think SD is fine? Who shits on San Diego? OK, I guess I have heard people shitting on San Diego, but I feel like most people I know just think of it as the smaller, more laid back city in Southern California.

Alright, I'd better get back to doing uncool stuff, like looking for jobs instead of thinking about good food in LA.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 1:21 PM on April 1, 2019 [22 favorites]


Shapes that haunt the dusk, you have made me both hungry and homesick. :(
posted by betweenthebars at 1:51 PM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


Yeah it feels weird to conceive of LA as a single geographical zone. Anything west of Koreatown basically does not exist in my mental map, it's just too damn far for me. I'm not complaining, I live in the San Gabriel Valley, within a mile of half a dozen Jonathan Gold recommended restaurants, half a mile away from Chengdu Taste's toothpick lamb, Savoy Kitchen's Hainanese chicken, and three Uyghur restaurants.
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:54 PM on April 1, 2019 [5 favorites]


complete with the risks of being waylaid by Ecthroi or taking a wrong turn or exit and getting lost and stuck in Camazotz.

Oh that explains Orange County.
posted by wildblueyonder at 2:22 PM on April 1, 2019 [4 favorites]


One thing I missed when I lived there was Hainan chicken, which is apparently a common thing in parts of the greater LA area. Actually, I missed a lot, since it's hard to get to everything. Did you know that I never made it to Langer's the whole time I lived there? I also never tried the Ethiopian food on that one street, and I never made it to that suburb that was supposed to have the best Indian food outside India (I used to live with an Indian guy who took a lot of trips there).

* For Hainan chicken, Side Chick is massively popular and now has a proper retail location in the Westfield Santa Anita mall; a lot of Thai restaurants in Thai Town also serve their own properly great version
* Langer's is great, but the price is pretty ridiculous for just a sandwich
* Little Ethiopia is wonderful! Although it's hard to say if Lalibela or Meals by Genet is the best joint in the city
* The neighborhood you're talking about is Artesia, which is great, but I'd also recommend people check out Little Bangladesh (located right inside Koreatown)

What an incredible city.
posted by Ouverture at 2:53 PM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


Food Talk Central's Los Angeles subforum has a lot of coverage of food in LA, complete with long posts with plenty of photos. I was reminded of them, because they have also eaten a little bit of Hainan Chicken Rice.
posted by FJT at 3:01 PM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


This is part of the experience of living in California: SF folks dump on LA. LA folks dump on OC. And all three dump on SD.

And San Diegans just shrug and go back to enjoying the best weather and burritos in the state
posted by Aizkolari at 3:32 PM on April 1, 2019 [3 favorites]


Letterkenny voice: Elllaaaayyyy.
posted by axiom at 5:30 PM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


It's hilarious, because people honestly believe that LA is this awful, empty husk of a city that's all cars, smog, and shallow wannabe celebrities.

There's probably some causal relation with my being from New York, but I have to admit that I used to buy into this totally (of course without ever having been there). Then I moved to Oakland, and went there for a weekend, and totally loved it. Of course the most commercialized bits of LA and LA culture are intolerable, but like vogon_poet says, that's any big city that has a particular commercial focus. I love Oakland, but I'd happily move to LA*, and especially anyone living in SF right now who shits on LA has to be located a good distance away from consensus reality.

* Especially since, IMO, Oakland is in some ways the northernmost outpost of SoCal, and it's the same things that make it that that make it an amazing place.
posted by invitapriore at 5:47 PM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


When I was a wee child a half century ago, Orange County was Disneyland, San Diego was the Zoo and SeaWorld, and Los Angeles was the San Fernando Valley where we lived, the Wilshire District (not all the way downtown) where my dad worked, and the West Side which you drove through to get to the beach. And my parents' favorite restaurants were no clue to L.A.'s eating scene since they preferred steak houses, Polynesian places attached to Tiki Bars and the original El Torito (now a chain of 60 taco houses).
As a grown-up, I explored the coast from Malibu to Long Beach, what they call Downtown and as far East as Pasadena but there is still a lot of Los Angeles I have never explored. L.A. represents a dozen "cities", only half of which I've ever really explored and I still fall into the trap of comparing every Mexican restaurant to El Torito.

Semi-related, growing up with the Los Angeles Times (which had the good sense to have a comics page), I'm happy to see it begin to develop into a true National Newspaper, of which this is only one sign. (Another is its announced involvement with Apple News before the NYT and WaPo.)
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:48 PM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


The best Ethiopian I've had in LA was just off Fairfax on Pico at a place called Awash. Their veggie combo is really tasty and they have a grilled chicken thighs dish that is so good that we fight over who gets the leftovers (if there are any).
posted by mogget at 6:00 PM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


after a decade of lurking, this is the post that inspired me to [break my never-paypal oath and ] create an account. Two years in Oakland, one in SF, nothing compares to LA!
posted by boomdelala at 6:23 PM on April 1, 2019 [8 favorites]


I loved this article so hard. Clicking every link just makes it even funnier, linking to a series of disdainful NYT pieces. He worked hard and did a great job.
posted by honey badger at 6:54 PM on April 1, 2019 [3 favorites]


invitapriore: "Especially since, IMO, Oakland is in some ways the northernmost outpost of SoCal, and it's the same things that make it that that make it an amazing place."

?!?!?!

posted by crazy with stars at 7:32 PM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


crazy with stars: I feel like there are strong links especially in car culture and hip hop. Re the latter, for sure the Bay Area scene is kind of its own insular thing, but there are a lot of strong and enduring personal links between the underground rappers in both cities. I know people from both places who’d attest to that.
posted by invitapriore at 7:38 PM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


I live in LA and may have to leave soon for career reasons. I'm so sad about it. It's still possible that I will decide to take the career progress hit to avoid leaving.
posted by scose at 7:46 PM on April 1, 2019


Be sure to read a response tweeted by Lucas Peterson.
posted by mogget at 8:50 PM on April 1, 2019 [4 favorites]


Oh that explains Orange County.

Yes... and no... I'm not sure if there's any excuse for Orange County. It's like Don Delillo's turgid hypothalamus and rotten lizard hindbrain went on a fortified wine picnic somewhere near where they built Mile Square Park and took up eugenics and abusive architecture as cross-linked hobbies and then got bored and broke up after developing about half of Irvine.

I grew up there and I'm still rather cross about it. The tacos were fucking good, though.
posted by loquacious at 11:27 PM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


Amazing. As someone who has lived in many a city the subject of a condescending and vaguely racist NYT lifestyle article, this makes me so happy.
posted by Emily's Fist at 11:31 PM on April 1, 2019 [5 favorites]


LA, doesn't reward passivity. You have to be a willing and active partner with the city.
It's also hard to find a last minute backup, in my opinion, because there's no relationship between there being an interesting restaurant on a block and there being anything else relevant to you in say a half-mile radius.

I agree with both of these, as a regular LA visitor. By 'active', it means you have to Google where you are going first, because if you just try to 'find something' randomly, then your choices will be a diner that hasn't been updated since 1950 (in a bad way) and the restroom smells like a sewer plant and is about 25% overpriced, a hamburger place with red and white decor and only serves hamburgers (it's like a southern California rule that all must be red and white and no other food can be served - you want chicken you go to the diner), and a taco place that is not good but is fine, and a Subway.

As long as you google first, you are golden.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:38 AM on April 2, 2019


I had East Coast feelings about California for a long time. Going to San Diego in 1999 only made those feelings stronger. I thought California was all oxygen bars and an inferior ocean*. Then a few years later, the mister and I went to LA for a wedding. Leaving LAX, I was suddenly hit with the inexplicable feeling that I was home.

Although, coming from RI, I'm still amazed at how long the roads are. We were very confused at the number of times and places where we crossed Doheny, to the point where "Fucking Doheny" has entered our household language.

*My Atlantic is angry and gray, best enjoyed on an overcast day. It's a look but don't touch thing.
posted by Ruki at 7:49 AM on April 2, 2019 [2 favorites]


"I'm walking here" -- ha, really?

It's "I'm WAWKIN' Hee-a!"
posted by DMelanogaster at 7:58 AM on April 2, 2019 [1 favorite]


My Atlantic is angry and gray, best enjoyed on an overcast day. It's a look but don't touch thing.

Come to San Francisco sometime.
posted by madcaptenor at 1:49 PM on April 2, 2019 [5 favorites]


*laughs in Cascadian*

I once posted an image of nothing but #FFFFFF grey and claimed I was welcoming our overcast blanket back home after a week of too much sun and people believed that it was actually the cloud cover.

Thing is is I based the color off an actual picture that was almost impossible to tell the difference between the solid grey and the picture of cloud cover.
posted by loquacious at 1:25 AM on April 3, 2019


that pepperoni is basically sliced lap cheong genuinely got me howling irl

You know, I think they might be on to something here. If I didn't have a bunch of chorizo at home, already sliced for tonight's fathead-esque pizza, I would probably take this idea for a spin. Lap cheong is basically stupid with sugar though, sadly.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:11 PM on April 3, 2019


Los Angeles has got to be the only city where people who have never been, or been there once, often confidently tell you what the inhabitants of LA are like. It’s usually simple and easy cliched descriptions, but I think they believe it makes them seem like a world-weary expert when using platitudes and banalities like “plastic” "shallow” “superficial” “be nice to you while stabbing you in the back” that you often see in Hollywood celeb gossip rags. And often said by people who have no connection to the industry where those terms are often used.

I love Lucas Peterson’s piece. It’s not really about trolling NYC’s food scene or even NYC, but purely trolling the New York Times. Everyone recognizes the exact NYT style of writing in this. It's anthropological, self-absorbed, ethnocentric and, of course, very, very white.
posted by savvysearch at 6:26 AM on April 7, 2019 [6 favorites]


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