Emchap’s Shit from the Internet 8/22/18 🍠
This past weekend I got to do two of my favorite things: eat ridiculous food and see ridiculous art. I emerged full of sugar and culture and very smug with myself.
The food portion happened in Koreatown, at Sul and Beans. Sul and Beans is, as I learned from curious nutrition fact googling, apparently kind of a rip off (name-wise) of a larger Korean dessert cafe chain called SulBing, which is delightful to me. (If tech doesn't work out I'm moving to South Korea and opening a Morcnagles.)
Not-Sul-Bing came across my radar because it was listed as an essential Korean restaurant by Eater and it stayed there because it turns out most of what it serves is bingsoo, which is what snow cones would be like if they were good/covered in red beans, a food that I love.
It turns out Sul and Beans is in a mall composed primarily of Korean/Japanese shops, which meant that it was next to an outpost of Somi Somi, the taiyaki place I visited in San Diego and enjoyed completely. It was also above both a Daiso and an H Mart. I was delighted.
I ordered coffee bingsoo to go; I was not entirely expecting what was given to me, which was shaved ice + condensed sweetened milk (very on board), coffee mixed in (great), red beans and almonds on top (excellent), in a 24 ounce container (did not anticipate!). I took the giant dessert vat home with me, poured in the add-on container of additional sweetened condensed milk, and ate the entire thing in my underwear directly in front of my a/c unit while wishing for LA to be just slightly less hot. It was great.
My art adventure took the form of an invite to Sparrow Mart, an art installation in the downtown Standard Hotel (just in case you needed reminding that I am a young and hip millennial; of course there was a moderately unsettling Jenny Holzer piece in the lobby).
The art exhibit was a painstakingly recreated American supermarket, with all the stock made of felt. Everything was for sale, should you wish to put it in the branded shopping cart and take it up front. This included a felt (though I believe non-functional) ATM and broom. It was bizarre. There were children losing their shit. I had a great time.
Neither my friend nor I bought anything, but I'm glad to have had the experience. It felt a bit like seeing a claymation version of the world, in a very real and trippy way. It's weird to be in a space that feels definitely designed for Instagram.
I'm off tonight for an unexpectedly packed evening: a drink with a friend and then dinner with colleagues at a place that advertises that its water is cleaned with reverse osmosis, followed by a show double-headlined by Kimya Dawson and AJJ (fka Andrew Jackson Jihad). LA continues to be great and weird in equal measure.
Shit to read
I enjoyed this article on Lawry's, an item that I absolutely know exists and have I think never eaten
This piece on Tessa Thompson is so good
This infosec talk summary made me laugh
Anyone who likes urban planning and human design conversations should read this article about a neighborhood in New Orleans
Much of this author's feelings about Korean food are my feelings about the entire concept of Judaism
I want to make ice cream
This week's shit to eat was absolutely inspired by this list of 100 easy summer recipes (though the amount of grilled clams and lobster on here are the most northeastern thing in the world)
Loving yourself has absolutely nothing to do with finding a partner and advice that indicates otherwise is dumb
Jen Dziura reminds us all that we all have business models and freelance writers typically have very bad ones; I am really fascinated by the idea of what the life choices of typically highly-educated, poorly-compensated women who write most of our content do to change what our narrative is about motherhood
Shit to eat
Buy some lettuce at the farmer's market (A+ you get to feel smug) or the grocery store (less smug but also you still bought lettuce so)
Clean the lettuce, chop it up, and stick it on a plate
Hardboil some eggs (put them in water an inch taller than they are, boil it, take it off the heat, cover and leave for 13 minutes)
On top of the lettuce, add some rinsed chickpeas
Think about how gross chickpea liquid is relative to other bean liquids (very)
Add half a can of tuna (the good kind in oil)
And a quarter cup of chopped up olives
Pour some of the tuna oil on there
And a dash of red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Peel one of the eggs (they should be done now) and chop it up
Add it in
Take a photo and post it online to indicate that You have eaten a Salad
Eat it while camped directly in front of the fan, and try to minimize how much tuna oil you get on things
Shit to watch
I really enjoyed this interview about making values-based decisions