January 2018 - A foodie adventure in Los Angeles
It took recommending City of Gold, sending a copy of Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants and the prospect of escaping Toronto winter in order to convince my friend Robert Nishikawa to finally come and visit me in LA. To his credit, Robert booked an entire itinerary of reservations (cross-referenced with his friend's Bill Addison's America's 38 Essential Eater recos) a month before arriving with his friend Jeremy, whose delicious food photos can be seen on Instagram at #FoodGuyTO.
1996 - Back when companies used to have lavish office parties, Robert and I would go to eat all the food and to guess who was in the closet. 2018 - Produce section of Eataly in the Westfield Century City, LA.
Coni' Seafood - Whole grilled snook fish and tacos. So crispy and tasty!
Republique - matcha green tea latte. Brunch here was worth the wait. I could have eaten the entire pastry case.
Sticky Bomb at Republique, a warm, cream-filled brioche bomboloni, pineapple, bacon, coconut, macadamia nuts.
Photo we snuck of Oscar-nominated actor Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea), having brunch next to us at Gjusta.
First stop before dinner...Roy Choi's Kogi Food truck for Korean tacos. Parked in front of the Los Angeles Ale Works in Hawthorne, near SpaceX.
Japanese rice balls from Sunny Blue, the food of Robert's childhood. His mother would make these as snacks for their road trips. 3 flavors: salmon, miso mustard and sunny blue curry. Photo in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Farmer's market.
I didn't know it at the time, but meeting Robert at a party of a mutual friend in 1995 would be the start of all good things. He had just settled in Atlanta after travelling around the world in a job I aspired to. Years later, after he helped me to do the same, we were both assigned to work in New York City, where we took turns flirting with the models/bellboys at the newly-opened W Hotel, and stayed up late watching Will and Grace. Robert has since moved back to his hometown of Toronto, but we have met up regularly in Atlanta, New York and now LA. Since attending culinary school, Robert was a plethora of information on cheeses, breads and pizza dough during our culinary adventure in LA.
Hope we will have many more years together of feasting across the world!