Counter: More songs about buildings and Asian food
If you’re reading this, you’ve made it to the weekend and you’re finally opening your email. Congratulations, and go get another cup of coffee.
You’re also maybe figuring out how far off you are in your March Madness brackets, how many times you need to see “City of Gold” to know how to ID Jonathan Gold’s pickup truck and, like some of us, how many of Jonathan Gold’s 101 you’ve somehow neglected to hit. Good luck with that!
You could do worse than start in the San Gabriel Valley, where there are a good number of Jonathan-approved restaurants.
Thus to this week’s section, in which Jonathan considers the excellent bowls at Mian, the new Chongqing-style noodle house. As an added bonus, he’s itemized a few of his go-to Chinese restaurants with the name “tasty” in their own headlines.
And there’s more: Deputy Food editor Jenn Harris gives tips for sushi lovers, assesses Shake Shack and gives some news about chef Ray Garcia. (Hint: what to eat during the Kobe Farewell Tour.)
Noodlepalooza
Chang Su mixes his noodles at Mian restaurant.
Where has your favorite restaurant critic been lately (other than, you know, at your local Arclight)? In the newest restaurant from the folks who brought us Chengdu Taste. In other words, those lines outside that shopping mall in San Gabriel are not for concert tickets or a secret boba stand, but for Mian, which is Jonathan’s latest review. Bowls of noodles!
Tasty and tastier
Annie Yu serves herbal tea at Tasty Garden restaurant in Alhambra, one of Jonathan Gold’s top SGV restaurants with “tasty” in the name.
If you spend much time driving around the SGV, you doubtless have noticed that many of the restaurant names can be repetitive. The same numbers, the same adjectives. This makes for great car conversation, of course, while you’re driving around Valley Boulevard, but it can be a bit confusing. Jonathan plays the adjective game, with five of his favorite Chinese restaurants with the name “tasty” in their titles. Hungry yet? Right.
Say arigato to your sushi chef, please
If you don’t have a sister who lives in Toyko, as some of us do, then sometimes it’s good to get pointers from other sources. So Jenn heads to the sushi bar and walks through some of the more gauche sushi mistakes some of the uninitiated make, which includes, by the way, rubbing those chopsticks together. Sorry, sorry.
Shake Shack!
From left, the Roadside Double burger, the ShackBurger and the Chick’n Shack from the new Shake Shack in West Hollywood.
Jenn Harris gets in line with the crowds at the new Shake Shack in West Hollywood and provides us all a handy PSA, six things to know about Shake Shack. Because: The near-legendary burgers are just as good as the ones in New York City, and — wait for it — there’s booze.
More reasons to go to a Clippers game
Love chef Ray Garcia’s food? Of course you do, especially those lardo tacos. Well, now you can eat it (although, sadly not the lardo tacos, at least yet. Hi, Ray!) while you watch Chris Paul play basketball. Garcia is opening a new B.S. Taqueria in the Staples Center. (See also: LudoBird, Dave’s Doghouse, Taylor Swift.)
Your “City of Gold” reminder: It’s playing. Maybe go see it. Maybe don’t go hungry, which brings us to...
Jonathan Gold’s 101
Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers.
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