Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Jonathan Gold Is Going Back Down Pico Boulevard
The ribs at Ham Ji Park. (Photo by patsun via the Creative Commons)
()
Jonathan Gold is going back to where it all started.Fresh out of UCLA in the early '80s and working for a small paper downtown, Gold decided to go on a quest to eat at every restaurant on Pico Boulevard. It was a lofty goal, but Gold felt it would give him a literal taste of a cross-section of Los Angeles, from downtown to the ocean. He never completed the whole trek, but would later write about it for LA Weekly in 1998, in a story headlined, "The Year I Ate Pico Boulevard."
(If you haven't read that yet, you must. Go ahead, we'll give you a minute.)
Gold's Pico Boulevard adventure was also chronicled in his book Counter Intelligence, and has inspired other writers, photographers, and even Thomas Pynchon, but it has been almost two decades since "The Year I Ate Pico Boulevard," and over three decades since the the actual journey itself. A whole lot has changed since then.
Now back at the L.A. Times, Gold has embarked on a new jaunt down that humble street. His latest review for the Times ends on the unassuming note, "This is the first in a series on Pico Boulevard."
Support for LAist comes from
For his first entry, Gold visits the Koreatown spot Ham Ji Park, whose location did not yet exist during that famed year Gold ate across Pico. The restaurant's reputation lies in their famous gamjatang, or pork neck stew (amusingly, the Korean name translates to "potato stew"). Gold writes:
Some people think that Ham Ji Park's gamjatang may be the single-best hangover cure in an area dense in hangover cures. The sputtering-hot soup certainly feels soothing, thick with potatoes, bathed in dusky chile heat. There are probably half a dozen other gamjatang specialists in Koreatown now, and each of them is glorious in their own way, but the density, the soft meat and the piney snap of this version always strikes me as the most pleasant — ranking above even the soup at the restaurant's uptown branch on 6th Street.
While this writer has not had the the gamjatang from the Pico branch of Ham Ji Park, he has gotten it from the 6th Street location and can attest to its quality there. Cinephiles may recognize the 6th Street location from Michael Mann's Blackhat:
hey film nerds guess where i'm eating for dinner pic.twitter.com/ae1AHfpIa0
— Push Carman to Open Old Wounds (@CarmanTse) February 4, 2016
While critics generally disliked Blackhat (I loved it), we can all agree on Ham Ji Park's gamjatang, right?
And after also extolling the virtues of Ham Ji Park's pork ribs (accompanied with soju, of course), Gold closes with: "And then you stumble outside, bloated and happy, on Pico in the fierce afternoon sun."
While only the first installment of a new series, we're already looking forward to what's next. Writing about places like Ham Ji Park on Pico Boulevard is what Gold does best. He can certainly write beautifully about the latest trendy and upscale restaurants in Venice and Los Feliz, but it's when he's singing the praises of humble strip mall joints and hole-in-the-walls that Gold is in his wheelhouse.
Support for LAist comes from
Related:
Interview: Jonathan Gold Says Los Angeles' Food Doesn't Get The Respect It Deserves
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist