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· 2ND OF MAY, THE YEAR 2005IT DRIPS
Guh archives have been reinstated in full, after some finagling. Now I am reading through old entries and listening to Weezer, the urine-soaked blanket of nostalgia enveloping me completely. Eight blog years is about 200 in human reckoning.
Jess and I drove down to LA this weekend, where Brad is. Brad has a girlfriend these days. He also has a Nathan. Nathan also has a girlfriend. As far as I can tell they spend most of their time driving to places. We had Roscoe’s and soon tofu, which I’d like to try making, strangely. My windshield acquired several strata of insect internals. I always have difficulty characterizing LA when I’m there. It’s the kind of city filled with places selling New York pizza and Philly cheesesteaks, but has no local specialties. That extends past the realm of food, I assure you. My only conclusion so far is that the people of LA like cars, a lot. I’m sure if I lived there for a while I’d get a better handle on it. I saw the Star Wars line. It was small and sad. We actually parked right next to it, walked right by it, and only returned after 45 minutes when a security guard down the road directed us back. Like Camelot, LA is a silly place.
2 COMMENTS
saw this thing on the food network about pizza. some guys really tried to make an authentic new york pizza place in l.a., but they found their crust just was not coming out like the crust of a new york style pizza was supposed to. turns out the water in la is so different in compostion from new york water (i’m guessing it’s way more treated (can you say “chlorine”?) and lacks the yummy minerals and such the catskill-derived nyc water has) that it totally changed the consistency of the crust. so they analyzed what was in nyc water and now make their own nyc style water for their crust, which i guess hit the mark.
i guess the local specialties would be the strange mixes of flavors and ingredients, which is kind of ubiquitous in major cities now, but i think originated in california. or maybe just add avocado and voila, you have california cuisine. actually, you’re right by the supposed originator of california cuisine, chez panisse, listed as one of the top 1000 places to visit before you die in the book of the same name.
I am well aware of the proximity of Chez Panisse, and have in fact made the pilgrimage. 999 more places and I can die. However California cuisine, nebulous as it is, isn’t exactly localized to LA or the Bay Area, and yeah, strange admixture characterizes all world cities. LA is sort of like a guy who keeps smiling and shaking your hand, so buffered by amicability that it’s hard to actually meet him, in any meaningful sense.