Midtown Lunch

If you’re a fan of The D you’ll want to check out this week’s episode of the Food is the New Rock podcast.  The show starts off with Jack Black proclaiming his love of Zankou Chicken, before mentioning their favorite BBQ places in the Valley (Ribs USA and Dr. Hogly Wogly’s).  But the best of the show was reserved for Cafe Gratitude, which JB called a cult and a front. ” I think all the people that work there, actually, after the restaurant closes I think they all just start making love. And they sleep there. And they live there.  It’s not just a restaurant, it’s a way of life that Cafe Gratitude.”  You can download the episode for free on iTunes or stream it at www.foodsithenewrock.com

Tenacious D will be hosting The Festival Supreme next weekend at the Santa Monica Pier.

Just a couple of things to let you know about this week…

First… Food is the New Rock, the podcast I do with Chuck P from KCRW where we talk to chefs about music and bands about food, turned one year old this week.  And to celebrate our 50th episode we had Chef Roy Choi on the show.  Midtown Lunchers will know Roy as the genius behind Kogi & Chego, but there’s also Sunny Spot, A-Frame, and the soon to open Line Hotel in Koreatown. But we didn’t really talk about all that.  We talked about hip hop, Alice Cooper, and Grateful Dead parking lot egg rolls.  You can download the episode for free on iTunes or stream it from the Food is the New Rock website.

And speaking of the Food is the New Rock website, the 2013 list of Eater Young Guns was released this week, and on Sunday they’re having a big party at LACMA featuring food, drinks, and a performance by the up and coming OC band Yellow Red Sparks (get your tix here.)  We ended up asking their lead singer for some food recs, and he mentioned El Caserio- an Ecuadorian spot on Virgil.  Definitely sounds like a lunch that will be happening in my near future.

But wait.  There’s more!

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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.