Searching for the Culinary Soul of Los Angeles

In most cities, the phrase «food politics» might evoke images of grocery-store deserts or Bibb lettuce growing on a solar-paneled roof. But in Los Angeles, for Pulitzer-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, it’s in a bowl of pho, or fish kidney curry, or an order of tacos calabacitas. «Food is political here,» he has said. «It plugs into the rhythms of the city and the world and engages all the important questions of social justice, health, diversity, and inclusion.» Above all, food is a way to navigate and communicate between the Southland’s countless, often disparate cultures and ethnicities—the breadth and depth of which are often poorly understood by outsiders …READ MORE