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Podcasts Take Two
A Recap On All Of Our Best Food Conversations
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Dec 26, 2019
Listen • 48:57
A Recap On All Of Our Best Food Conversations

Oaxacan food's special place in L.A., the history of the iconic restaurant "Musso and Franks" plus, the history of soul food in Los Angeles.
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Photo by Chuck Coker via Flickr Creative Commons
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Oaxacan Food in Los Angeles

We want to bring you a conversation we had a few months ago about Oaxacan food and the special relationship between California and that Mexican State. The connection is so deep that there is a thing, if you will, called Oaxacalifornia. Call it a state of being, a movement ...or just something that defines the many indigenous people who've come from Oaxaca to live, work...and contribute to the golden state. In Los Angeles alone, there are some 200,000 people from Oaxaca living here... with many settling in neighborhoods in Koreatown and  West L.A., near Palms and Mar Vista. You've probably noticed the many restaurants — offering mole-smothered tortillas, barbacoa and chilaquiles that can all be washed down with Mezcal that smoky agave-based spirit that's become so popular here.  Because of all that...we brought a group together for an In Person event back in October to talk about Oxacalifornia and its influence in Los Angeles.

Guest:

  •  Javier Cabral, editor of LA Taco and co-author of the new cookbook "Oaxaca: Home Cooking from the Heart of Mexico"
  • Elina Shatkin, LAist food editor 
  • Odilia Romero and Alfonso Martinez, husband and wife team. She runs the non-profit migrant group, the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations in South LA. HE operates the pop-up eatery Poncho's Tlayudas, just behind her office.

Musso and Frank

Back in 1919, Frank Toulet decided to open a restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard called Frank’s Cafe. At the time, Hollywood was in its infancy but it was already on its way to becoming the entertainment capital of the world. When the eatery opened its doors, there wasn’t another restaurant for miles. In the early 1920s, Toulet partnered with a restauranteur named Joseph Musso and their business venture soon took on a name that lives on today: Musso & Frank Grill. So what’s next for the Hollywood centenarian? That’s what we went to find out.

Guests:

  • Mark Echeverria, chief operating officer at Musso and Franks
  • Hadley Meares, LAist writer

Soul Food in LA

Let's talk about soul food. A quick web search turns up no less than 400 results in Los Angeles alone. With SO many choices, it might be hard to know where to go, so writer Jay Connor did the hard work for you. He penned the article "Where To Eat Soul Food In LA Right Now" for our web site, LAist DOT com. It's so good, we pulled from the archives our interview with him from earlier in the year. That day, Jay and A Martinez took a trip out to the restaurant My Two Cents on Pico to get a taste of some SoCal soul.

Guest: 

  • Jay Connor, writer