A Very #Mid Year Review

Reflecting on 2023

Donna Summer (1977)

The alternate headline here was “The Year in Bad Food,” but I thought that sounded way too pretentious and tone deaf, even for my standards. The more I try to reflect on this year, the more I realize how much it’s turned me into a malcontent. I’m squeezing the last bit of positivity and future-hope out of my fingers to type this, mostly because I don’t want there to be proof anywhere on the internet that I actually admitted this was a bad year (or “spoke” badness into my year at all). I remained housed, funded, un-incarcerated, bored, and in relatively good physical health. And though most meals were unenjoyable, disappointing, and forgetful, I still remained fed. And I’m grateful for this.

I haven’t been excited about a meal or restaurant in probably five or six years. Definitely post-pandemic, and even pre-pandemic it was always a struggle to find a friend who really loved going out to dinner as much as I did. I’d usually rotate through the friend roster til I finally found someone game for the “2 martinis, bowl of pasta, and 3 hours of gossip”-type activities that healed my soul. (For those asking, “current me” isn’t friends with any of those people anymore. I’m so embarrassed at how many hangs I initiated, how many miles I drove crosstown).

Having to beg people to come out to dinner, happy hour, or brunch is unique to my time here in Los Angeles. In New York, leisure-with-fork was natural, necessary, and normal.

These days (years?) I just do it whenever I feel like, and I usually do it alone. Though, that doesn’t always make things easier in a city with famously bad service, restaurant kitchens riddled with cat-sacrifice rumors, and forever underwhelming, inconsistent food. Mid, as the kids say.

This might’ve become the year where I learned to skip dinner altogether, or at least prepare for disappointment. The restaurants I’ve loved over the years have been slowly going out of business, and high rents and bad management have forced my favorite bartenders in to corporate careers.

However, there were highlights. These are some:

• Slamming my laptop shut and ordering a bowl of Moules-Frites from Zinque in Venice

• Sachi Sushi’s entire lunch menu

• Saturday mornings with Cofax Coffee’s Chorizo Breakfast Burrito (add avocado + extra green sauce on the side)

• Poolside Sliders for mid-day lunch at Tropicana

• Also, a poolside Mezze platter from Avalon Hotel’s Chi Chi

• A Wally’s three-cheese plate with a glass of Beaujolais

• Picking at a bowl of olives at Gemma, before my Pappardelle shows up (🗽)

• Mortadella. Anytime. Any place.

• Driving to the valley to pick up a Sushi Sampler Plate from Katsu-ya To-Go

• The chicken salad from Holiday House in Palm Springs

• Double-Double Protein Style (add pickles and ketchup) even when I’m not on a diet

• A Sugar donut from California Donuts (but it’s gotta be the one on Hollywood Blvd)

• Post-hike pitstop at Water Grill Santa Monica for Peruvian Diver Scallops

• Whole Foods seasonal surplus in general, especially the 5-for-$5 vat of yellow mangos from this summer

• The garlic naan from The Dutchess in Ojai

• A seedless watermelon + spoon

• Stopping mid-Vegas roadtrip (in Yermo) for a perfect single vanilla cone from Dairy Queen

• Ezekiel Toast with honey and self-salted butter at 2AM

• Good veggies with the most delicious garlic dip at The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos

The year in treats.

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