Heyo!
I’m writing this hungover.
This here newsletter is called the move, and hey, here’s one move I love when I’m feeling alcohol-contaminated after a long night: Go into Sister Pie at 8AM, and grab one of their mystery bags for $5.
The mystery bag amounts to an assortment of day old goods on the cheap. Usually ranging from cookies to savory pastry, they go pretty fast in the morning, so get there early to nab the deal. I wish more restaurants would serve mystery items. We’ve embraced omakase (more on that soon); it’s time we also embrace question-marked bags full of pastry chef randoms.
On this day, I got some salty, nutty, chocolate chip cookies. They were huge, too. I ate all 4 cookies within two hours and then took a nap. Sister Pie’s pastries last for quite some time, and they don’t seem to lose quality, either. Put your faith in this delicious enigma, and you’ll be rewarded.
*burppppp*
The 101 Best Tacos in L.A. Dropped Last Week
Last week, the L.A. Times released their 101 best tacos and it made me homesick.
I mean damn. What a rad, comprehensive list they put together. It makes me sad that I never got to try so many of these taco joints. When I lived in L.A., I found my 6-7 taquerias and stayed loyal. Angel’s Tijuana Tacos (my favorite), Leo’s, Mariscos Jalisco, Tacos Tamix, Simón, and Tacos 86 were my go-to’s. Even then, it’s not like I tried their entire menu, which is what the folks at the Times did. I love this quote from my pal Stephanie Breijo, who ate 21 tacos in a single day.
“The hardest thing about this is you can’t just try one or two tacos,” Breijo said. “If you’re going to test the menu, you have to try basically the entire breadth of what they offer. It’s not just going to one place and trying one taco. It’s going to one place and trying like seven tacos.”
The sick, almost obsessive dedication to “doing the damn thing right” is one of the hallmark traits of being a good journalist. I have serious admiration for the folks at the L.A. Times. Bill Addison’s writing is poetry. Betty Hallock was a joy to work with in the past. Same with Daniel Hernandez. I haven’t met Jenn Harris or Daniele Dorsey, but I do read their work often and it’s great.
If you live in L.A. (some of you do!) I really, really think you should be subscribing to the food section at the L.A. Times. Pay for it. Read about food often. If you’re an Angeleno, food (and the people covering it) deserves your attention and thought! That’s if you have the disposable income, of course.
Hey, speaking of disposable income: Subscribe to The Move! Vecino’s Omakase review is a paid post, so you’ll have to upgrade to read it.
There’s great tacos in Detroit, too.
I’m now craving tacos, which brings me to Vecino (a restaurant I reviewed both for Hour Magazine and for my own newsletter) and their new dinner series: Omakase Mexico Pleno. The menu is set to be a monthly, eight course, chef-driven (vroom vroom!) tasting menu exploring the flavors of Mexico by region.
And I love that regional focus.
When I got to Los Angeles, I realized just how geographical Mexican food is, and how I’ve been overlooking that my entire life like a dummy. Sonoran-style tacos are different than Tijuana-style. Then there’s the Baja, fried fish-influence felt everywhere in San Diego. Conchinita pibil comes from Yucatán, Oaxaca is known for tlayudas, and so on and so forth. The regionality of Mexican food is nuanced and vast. So, I was excited to see Vecino’s tasting menu lean into that regionality.
The Review
It should be said that I showed up to this tasting menu kind of drunk.
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