Pulitzer prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold’s annual list of 99 essential Los Angeles eateries is a big deal for us Angelenos. The man has exquisite taste and a feel for this great city like few other contemporary writers. This year a few motivated foodies have created more user-friendly forms of said list, making it easy for us all to eat our way across the city over the holidays. There’s a Google Maps version here and a spreadsheet here. I’d like to personally recommend the absolutely over-the-top temple of fat, Animal and the revelatory Oaxacan cuisine of Gueleguetza where the Laner family will be having Pavo en Barbacoa this Thanksgiving.
 
via Fishbowl L.A., thanks !

 
from Luxist via Jonathan Gold, thx !
 

“Something about Hello Kitty just makes me think of the dump truck load of saccharine that it takes to give a lab rat cancer. The wine is actually quite pleasant, with hints of red fruits and a nice floral bouquet. It is not cloying at all, as some sweet sparklers can be.

 
From our very own Los Angeles treasure, food writer Jonathan Gold’s current column in response to a reader’s question: “Is there a food equivalent to a snuff film? “

Dear Ms. W:

Zhou dynasty gourmands enjoyed rat, which they called “household deer.’’ I have heard of a bean, grown in Indonesia, that is so delicious its fanciers are willing to endure the inevitable three days of excruciating liver pain that follows the feast. My friend Ruth was telling me the other day about the strips of jellied water-buffalo skin she enjoyed in Laos, available with or without fur. None of those is available here, although as it turns out I did once try a version of that water-buffalo skin in a long-deceased Little Saigon cafe. There is a place in the Wilshire District that looks a little like the back office of a disorganized accountant really, no tables or cooking smells, where you sit for a while on worn vinyl chairs and are eventually, or possibly, or rumored to be able to be, brought the bosintang you have come there for. Takeout only. Allegedly. And I have heard that lately, it is strictly BYOD. Either way, I have never managed, or even been tempted, to try the goods. Goat stew is an acceptable equivalent.

In Little Tokyo, you once could get braised bear paw, at an absolutely bowel-clenching price, until the Chinese restaurant that served it was shut down. Hamhung in Koreatown once featured a dinner of barbecued tiger, lion, elephant and antelope, all legal oddly enough, until the ‘92 riots and the Japanese recession stanched the flow of rich Tokyoites to that part of town. (Hamhung still does have very good buckwheat noodles with seafood, which you should keep in mind when the weather gets warmer.) Meat smuggling from Europe has been substantially more difficult lately thank you, underwear bomber!  but if you ask around at better cheese stores, you should be able to find the raw-milk cheeses you desire. As for endangered species practically all sea fish seems endangered at the moment, at least in the long run. In season, Urasawa will sell you fugu, the kind that can kill you if it’s indifferently prepared, and charge you as much for it as you paid for your first car. But even in Los Angeles, as far as I know, you will find neither primates, nor human flesh, nor coelacanth. And we’re all better off for it, I think.