City of Gold is a documentary in which Jonathan Gold explores the food culture of LA. Given my little side project of working my way through Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list, seeing this movie was a must for me. I was so excited to hear that they would be doing a City of Gold event at the Wiltern – which included a screening of the film, a Q&A with Jonathan Gold, and a tasting of foods from a variety of LA restaurants (with proceeds from the food tickets going to Food Forward, a great LA organization for food recovery and hunger relief that I have volunteered with!).
You know an event is going to be good when you walk in the door and the first thing they do is hand you a giant cookie.
After watching the film (which was a fascinating look at the culture and personality of LA, not just its food), we got to see the man himself – Jonathan Gold! And hear from the filmmaker Laura Gabbert, facilitated by Evan Kleiman (LA restaurateur and host of KCRW’s Good Food).
Then, it was time to eat! And eat we did.
Kye’s – Vegan Nahm Jim
Kye’s – BBQ Pork, Black Bean Brownie
Guelaguetza – Oaxacan food (check out my Guelaguetza Gold Dig!)
ediBOL – Miso Peanut Ramen
Lalibela – Sambusa
Lalibela – combo on injera
Pasta Sisters – Italian food combo
Jitlada – Thai food (check out my Jitlada Gold Dig!)
Here’s Looking At You – Soft Shell Prawns
Mapo Galbi – Chicken Dak Galbi
Mexicali Taco – taco (check out my Mexicali Taco Gold Dig!)
Squarefritz – Coxhina
Ya gotta have a Beer Sampler to wash down all that food!
And there was a table of Dessert Cups. These reminded me of the Asian dessert that’s sort of halfway between pudding and jello. Mango, strawberry, and green tea. They were good!
To top off an absolutely fantastic night, the Salt & Straw truck was part of the tasting. We got two scoops of every flavor! Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons, Freckled Woodblock Chocolate, Silencio Black Tea with Coconut Straciatella, Roasted Strawberry and Toasted White Chocolate, Honey Lavender.
Look how happy we are with our 10 scoops of ice cream 🙂
