L.A. Son My Life, My City, My Food
Los Angeles: A patchwork megalopolis defined by its unlikely cultural collisions; the city that raised and shaped Roy Choi, the boundary-breaking chef who decided to leave behind fine dining to feed the city he loved—and, with the creation of the Korean taco, reinvented street food along the way.
Abounding with both the food and the stories that gave rise to Choi’s inspired cooking, L.A. Son takes us through the neighborhoods and streets most tourists never see, from the hidden casinos where gamblers slurp fragrant bowls of pho to Downtown’s Jewelry District, where a ten-year-old Choi wolfed down Jewish deli classics between diamond deliveries; from the kitchen of his parents’ Korean restaurant and his mother’s pungent kimchi to the boulevards of East L.A. and the best taquerias in the country, to, at last, the curbside view from one of his emblematic Kogi taco trucks, where people from all walks of life line up for a revolutionary meal.
Filled with over 85 inspired recipes that meld the overlapping traditions and flavors of L.A.—including Korean fried chicken, tempura potato pancakes, homemade chorizo, and Kimchi and Pork Belly Stuffed Pupusas—L.A. Son embodies the sense of invention, resourcefulness, and hybrid attitude of the city from which it takes its name, as it tells the transporting, unlikely story of how a Korean American kid went from lowriding in the streets of L.A. to becoming an acclaimed chef.
Wednesday, November 06, 2013 7:00 PM
HOUSING WORKS USED BOOK CAFE
126 Crosby St. ( between Prin New York, NY 10012
Friday, November 08, 2013 12:00 PM
XHIBITION KITCHEN/ CHARTWELL’S
106 Saint Stephen ST Boston, MA 02115
Friday, November 08, 2013 6:00 PM
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Room 117 808 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA 02215
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 7:15 PM
LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY
630 W. 5th St. Los Angeles, CA 90071
Friday, November 15, 2013 7:00 PM
BOOK SOUP
8818 Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90069
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 7:30 PM
SKYLIGHT BOOKS
1818 N. Vermont AVE Los Angeles, CA 90027
Friday, November 22, 2013 6:30 PM
OMNIVORE BOOKS
3885 Cesar Chavez St. San Francisco, CA 94131
Street-wise, honest in its admission of trials and punctuated with vernacular swagger, Choi’s debut pays tribute to family and his enduring fascination with the melting pot of Los Angeles.
— Kirkus Reviews
“While [Jacques] Pepin’s autobiography was the epitome of the traditional chef’s life, it may be that Choi’s will be the same for the new generation … “L.A. Son,” co-written with Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan, pops with Choi’s hip-hop verbal rhythms.”
— Los Angeles Times
‘With driving metaphors coming fast and furious throughout this memoir cum cookbook, there is no doubting and no pulling away from Choi’s gritty embrace of L.A.’s mean streets.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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