Midtown Lunch

Singer/Songwriter Meiko is this week’s guest on Food is the New Rock the weekly podcast I do with Chuck P from KCRW, where we talk to musicians about food and chefs about music. You can download or stream the podcast for free from iTunes, but we also had her share her favorite places to eat lunch in Los Angeles…

Name: Meiko

Occupation: Singer/Songwriter

Favorite Kind of Food: Japanese

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Food that sucks

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Hama Sushi and Daikokuya Ramen in Downtown LA.

The “goto” lunch place you eat at too often? Tomato Pie in Silverlake

Place You Heard of Thanks to Midtown Lunch: Hurry Curry of Tokyo

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? The Boiling Crab in Alhambra, CA

Dream job location (anywhere in the world), purely for lunch purposes, and why? Japan for the amazing food and people, of course! If anybody knows the best places for sushi in Tokyo, let me know…

Got a rec for Meiko? Put it in the comments. Her album The Bright Side is out now, and she’ll be doing a tour of the west coast in September. And, as always, if you want to be next week’s Profiled: L.A. Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d want to nominate), email me- zach@midtownlunch.com.

Photo courtesy of Hanhonymous

If you’re reading this site, I’m guessing it means you like food.  But if you also like music you should be listening to the podcast I just started with Chuck P from KCRW.  This week’s episode features Mac McCaughan, the guitarist of Superchunk and one of the founders of Merge Records (the label behind Arcade Fire, Spoon, She & Him, and more).  He talks about getting food tips from Fugazi and Yo La Tengo, but the important part for fans of L.A. lunch is that he showed up to the studio with fish tacos and stingray ceviche from Ricky’s Fish Tacos- which we ended up talking about for the first 5 mins of the show.  From the looks of this post on Twitter it probably was just something he did special for a television taping, but may I be the first to it should become a regular menu item!

You can read about the podcast here, and download it from iTunes.

Pulitzer Prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold at Bronson Island

If you are reading this site I’m guessing you know exactly who Jonathan Gold is, and likely follow his recommendations religiously.  But did you know that Jonathan Gold started off his career as a music writer?  And not just any old music writer, but one who extensively covered the L.A. hip hop scene around the time of its inception.  What does that mean in laymen’s terms?  The dude went to BBQ’s at NWA’s house, hung out with Snoop Dogg while Doggystyle was being recorded, got a nickname from Dr. Dre, and stinkeye from Suge Knight (which may or may not have caused him to switch careers).  Stories you can hear on the first episode of the Food is the New Rock podcast, recorded live at Bronson Island by me and Chuck P (from KCRW).   Every week the podcast will feature a food person talking about music or a musician talking about food, and can be downloaded via Soundcloud or iTunes for free.  Enjoy!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled lunchtime content to bring you this news: the preview episode of the Food is New Rock podcast is now available!   If you haven’t seen it yet, Food is the New Rock is a little Tumblr side project I started last year to celebrate the places where food and music intersect, but since I started off in radio I always hoped it would evolve into a free podcast.  The preview episode is 35 minutes long, and features Mike D from the Beastie Boys and Chef Roy Choi talking food and music, and you can download it from iTunes or Soundcloud. On future episodes I’ll be joined by my co-host and all around music geek Chuck P (from KCRW), so if you like what you hear please leave a comment and subscribe to receive future episodes over on iTunes.  You can also follow FitnR on Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter.  Thanks… and we now return you to your regularly scheduled lunchtime programming.