Grazing LA with Jonathan Gold

Yelp Weekly has a Q&A with Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic who writes LA Weekly’s terrific Counter Intelligence column. Here’s a taste:

Yelp: Being a native Angeleno, in your opinion, what makes LA so unique?

JG: There are too many to name, but I am very fond of the Alameda Swap Meet, Al & Bea’s at lunchtime, the bar at Musso and Frank’s, the mind-blowing southern Thai curries at Jitlada, Koreatown in its entirety, and the Hollywood Farmers Market.

Yelp: Every foodie has a guilty pleasure, so tell me, do you have a favorite fast food restaurant? (Sorry, I had to!)

JG: The Rosemead branch of Lee’s Sandwiches, the mammoth Vietnamese banh mi operation, has a drive-thru window now. That’s living: house-made Vietnamese charcuterie on a freshly baked baguette without getting out of your car.

Read more of Aunny De La Rosa’s interview with Gold here.

In a recent column this summer, Gold revisited Fred Eric’s Tiara Cafe, an eclectic and unexpected gem in downtown LA’s Fashion District. “Eric’s Asian-tinged, pan-Mediterranean menu is still painted in 17 shades of farmers-market salad,” Gold writes. “There are bubbly, skateboard-shaped lengths of flatbread served with curried squash, preserved lemons and harissa, and a selection of `Freshwiches,’ rice-paper rolls stuffed with spice-tinged `Thai’ cobb salad, with grilled tuna and vegetables, or with shrimp, mangoes and Granny Smith apples. Low-carb and fat-free, Freshwiches are big with the perpetually fasting fashionistas that make up a big part of the clientele. A Cuban-style pressed sandwich is made with smoked duck and house-pickled cucumbers, and noodle dishes come both vegan and not — I suspect there is no system of culinary belief the kitchen cannot accommodate.”

Summer Staycation

The LA Times business section looks at this summer’s travel trend — the staycation. Faced with sky-high gas prices, many Southern California travelers are planning getaways close to home. Hotel reservations here are up from last summer (by 9 percent, says the Times) and families are loading up the car and driving to area theme parks and attractions that don’t involve costly air travel.

Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said Southern California might have a unique advantage over other major regions of the nation in weathering the downturn in travel.

“You have 21 million people in Southern California, so there is a big market right in your own backyard,” Kyser said. At the same time, “there are a lot of things to partake in without going far such as Catalina Island. Our backyard is a pretty exotic and fun place.”

Booksellers are seeing a renewed interest in close-to-home travel books. At the Barnes and Noble Marina Pacifica in Long Beach, for example, community events director Cindy Patterson has created a special SoCal travel table and shoppers are snapping up her selections. I’m delighted that Cindy’s picks include Great Escapes: Southern California.

*Photo: a slice of Malibu’s spectacular coast, courtesy of Veronique de Turenne. Malibu is one of the cool getaways featured in Great Escapes: Southern California.