Art and Tacos in Los Angeles
Some work-related meetings took us out to Los Angeles, giving us an opportunity to see a little bit of the city.
Brilliant sunshine and cloudless skies; the diverse jumble of Koreatown, where karaoke bars press up next to taco shops in strip malls; the hipster haven of Abbot Kinney, the warrens of Little Tokyo; freeways crammed with cars as far as the eye can see. Despite the traffic, LA gave us a welcome reprieve from the grind in DC. There’s a free-spirited optimism in the sprawling city, and a blending of cultures that breathes excitement and innovation and life into the food, the art and design, and the businesses we encountered. Hopefully, we’ll be out there again in the near future—but until then, we’ll take a little of that west coast spirit back home with us.
Exploring Abbot Kinney Boulevard
The Marciano Art Foundation, housed in a gleaming, renovated Scottish Rite Masonic Temple off Wilshire Boulevard, features works of contemporary art, including a Yayoi Kusama exhibit. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s thought-provoking sculptural exhibit, Life Cycle, which addresses the global refugee crisis, was housed in the building’s cavernous auditorium.
Eidos by Franz West
Frances Stark’s “Bobby Jesus’ Alma Mater”
Also on the agenda: food. We bit into crispy tripe and grilled chicken wrapped in soft, chewy tortillas at the tiny taqueria Sonoratown (made with flour trucked in from its namesake town in Mexico). We grilled bbq meat and offal in a parking lot late one night at Filipino restaurant Dollar Hits, where the skewers are indeed a dollar a piece. And we sampled creamy pork belly topped with cavier in the elegant upscale brasserie République in La Brea. ⌁
Tripe, chorizo, and grilled chicken tacos from Sonoratown in downtown LA
Grilling Filipino bbq at Dollar Hits
Sampling Seolleongtang, a Korean ox bone soup, at Sun Nong Dan
Dinner at République, a French-inspired restaurant housed in a structure originally built in 1928 by Charlie Chaplin and designed by architect Roy Seldon Price.
Creamy pork belly topped with caviar
Uni and foie gras