“Teriyaki is cheap and kind of dirty,” said Debbie Sarow, a bookstore owner who often eats a brown-bag lunch at her desk. “Everybody here is focused on what’s in their food, but teriyaki sauce is mysterious. You can’t figure out what’s in there, and that scares some people off.”
John T. Edge’s United Tastes column in the New York Times explores localized specialties, often focusing on the way the experience of immigrants alter the food. The series began last March with cashew chicken in Springfield, Missouri (which inspired a response from Lotus as her last Folo post). He’s done Arizona hot dogs (my post about that has caused a small but steady stream of folks in this area asking “Where can I get one on those”), New Orleans po boys, and (not so localized) sriracha.
This week he writes about the strange ways teriyaki has morphed in Seatle, to the point that restaurants with “teriyaki” in the name outnumber many major chains. And the reader should beware: he gives a detailed description of teriyaki corn dogs.
That Dining section in the Times on Wednesday is one of the good things about the world. That the Times has Oxford-related writers as good as Jonny Miles and John T. Edge is impressive. Their sports section is already formidable, and if they added Wright Thompson…
LA Weekly is a great source of food writing.
Here’s your Los Angeles food news:
The illegal bacon-wrapped hot dog:
http://www.laweekly.com/2008-02-07/eat-drink/the-hot-dog-so-good-it-sillegal/
Jonathan Gold can make any place sound good, as does this one, a pub called The Gorbals:
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-12-31/eat-drink/as-pub-food-goes-the-gorbals/
Here’s a story about stoner caterers:
http://www.laweekly.com/2008-02-07/eat-drink/food-dude/
Ooh Delta Law kids will be in heaven . . . two of their favorites things, Corn Dogs AND Teriyaki sauce! Sometimes I think they subsists upon the latter.