Latest news with #Firstborn
Eater
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
4 Restaurants to Try This Weekend in Los Angeles: May 23
Every Friday, our editors compile a trusty list of recommendations to answer the most pressing of questions: 'Where should I eat?' Here now are four places to check out this weekend in Los Angeles. And if you need some ideas on where to drink, here's our list of the hottest places to get cocktails in town. For affordable Chinese takeout: Combo A As food prices continue to rise, getting an affordable but satiating meal is at the top of many people's minds. Cue Combo A, a longtime Echo Park Chinese restaurant that stuffs takeout containers to the brim with chow fun, orange chicken, and beef and broccoli. It's easy to walk out of here with enough food to spread over multiple meals for well under $20, and the quality is far beyond what would be found at a fast food chain. The orange chicken is tossed in a well-seasoned sauce and remains crispy even after cooling down, while the barbecue pork is tender and flavorful. You can even go half and half on combinations of fried rice, chow fun, steamed rice, and chow mein. Add in sides of cream cheese-stuffed wontons, egg rolls, fried chicken, or pot stickers, and wash it all down with boba. 1411 Echo Park Avenue, Suite 101, Los Angeles, CA 90026. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest For a group gathering with fantastic bites and sips: BLVD MRKT Getting a group of friends together with varying tastes can be challenging, but not if you know where to go. To make sure there is something for everyone, head to BLVD MRKT, a Montebello food hall made out of shipping containers. BLVD's got a unique charm to it and an even more uncommon model that mentors and showcases new businesses next to more established ones. At the center of the dining courtyard are community picnic tables covered by umbrellas. Star by taking a lap to see what's appealing — in the complex you'll find pupusas from Vchos, a Oaxacan mocha from Cafe Santo, chilaquiles verdes via Los Taquero Mucho, or bites from Cold Pizza (it's served hot), For the Win, and a Mexican Lollipop cider that actually tastes like watermelon candy. Once everything is prepared, sit at a table and let the joy take over. BLVD has excellent programming happening every week, and on Memorial Day Bluey (the animated cartoon series) will be at a meet and greet that kids will adore, along with fruity and creamy paletas with face painting. It's an excellent plan on any weekday or weekend, so start inviting. 520 Whittier Boulevard, Montebello, CA, 90640. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest For an elegant Memorial Day dinner in Chinatown: Firstborn For a few weeks after it opened in late March, Chinatown's Firstborn was the talk of the food world, drawing curiosity, excitement, and some eyebrow raises given its location and price. The latter point will probably continue to be in contention, but for now, expect some of the most innovative modern Chinese cuisine in Los Angeles right now. Chef Anthony Wang is treating this like his first feature film and creativity abounds from the plate to the space (FYI, his sister is filmmaker Lulu Wang). Some dishes are brilliant, like steak tartare over soft tofu and tofu gnudi with artichokes. Barbecue cabbage is a show-stopper, scorched like burnt marshmallows but exuding an unnatural sweetness. Combined with the heady leek vinaigrette, it's easily one of the most creative dishes I've had in awhile. Cumin lamb saddle carries traditional Sichuan flavors in a luxurious form with a woven bundle of shredded potato elegant enough for a Michelin-starred restaurant. It's like a reimagined Chinese steak frites with the tenderness and gentle gaminess of lamb that's frankly superior to beef (there, I said it). Order more dishes than you think, as portions are on the smaller side, and expect to pay over $120 per person with a drink or two. If Wang can continue to draw the artsy/well-heeled crowd, I expect Firstborn to gain some major eyeballs come awards season (consider this a culinary 'For Your Consideration'). 978 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest For an underrated seafood gem in Melrose's 'Michelin Mile': Koast While Kevin Meehan's tasting menu restaurant Kali is under the knife, his new seafood spot down the street should be your Larchmont/Melrose dinner reservation of choice. Speaking to Meehan prior to opening, he considered Koast his ode to the East Coast seafood restaurant, with much nicer touches and some LA style. Raw bites are inventive and well-portioned, like local bluefin with vadouvan or sea bream sashimi with ponzu, shiso, and wasabi good enough to be served at Nobu. Grilled prawns in thyme butter offer the succulence of a backyard barbecue with the sweet, tender complexity of the best shellfish from New Caledonia. The lobster manicotti could be the most fun dish on the menu, properly spotted with finely chopped chives that wouldn't make sense at a red sauce joint. The cheesy, gooey mess studded with lobster chunks is the ideal counterpoint to the raw fish. A syrupy salted caramel brown butter cake topped with whipped cream awaits those who must get dessert. 6623 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest Related The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles Sign up for our newsletter.
Los Angeles Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
One of L.A.'s most exciting new Chinese restaurants lands in Mandarin Plaza
In Chinatown's newest restaurant, mapo tofu inspires steak tartare, pillowy gnudi are made with tofu (not ricotta) and medallions of table-side-sauced lamb saddle evoke Sichuan's cumin-spiced lamb skewers. Firstborn fills the long-empty former Pok Pok space in Mandarin Plaza with subtle Chinese touches, including jade-green tiles and a window to the kitchen reminiscent of what one might spot in a Beijing neighborhood hutong, or alley. Chef-owner Anthony Wang — who cooked at restaurants such as Destroyer, Auburn and Ink — is exploring the identity of Chinese American cuisine in a manner both true to history and to his own story. 'I've always wanted to explore Chinese cuisine, but I didn't realize how little I understood until I really started this project,' Wang said. 'For the first time in my career I can take a deep dive and look at the expansiveness and the history and culture of not just Chinese food [of mainland China], but also Chinese food in this country and how it's grown and developed over the past 100-plus years.' One of the first cuisines he began toexplore was Sichuan, traveling to Chengdu in 2018 and tracing the origins of its famous chiles and spice — and then researching even further, to a time before the spice trade reached the region. But Firstborn is just as much a reflection of Wang growing up first-generation in Georgia. His sweetbreads in pig trotter ragu evoke his memories of eating pork knuckle at his grandmother's house. The house-made chile crisp that tops the chef's signature fried chicken carries a smoky heat and fruity note via the secret ingredient of Morita chiles, marrying the fragrance of Sichuan and Mexican cuisines in a nod to L.A. His parents emigrated from Beijing in 1989 due to the protests and violence in Tiananmen Square. The family landed in Miami, then a desert of Chinese food and ingredients. Wang's mother began to get creative, substituting American items to whip up the modernized Chinese cuisine that Wang and his sister, Lulu, ate through their childhood: dishes like a kind of beef Bourguignon with Sichuan peppercorn and star anise. Wang thinks of it as 'new Chinese American cooking,' which also makes its way to the bar. Beverage director Kenzo Han (Steep LA, the Varnish) built an 'East meets West' menu that also lifts inspiration from the kitchen, with options such as an osmanthus and fermented rice sour, a sesame old-fashioned, a baiju-and-tea negroni, and a springy martini that involves house-made celery oil and carrot eau de vie. Nonalcoholic concoctions include hojicha orange milk punch and an adzuki swizzle. For dessert, pastry chef Jaime Craten (formerly of Vespertine, Destroyer and Meteora) balances sweet and savory with lighter options like almond tofu with citrus, jujubee and osmanthus, or chamomile custard that's topped with a refreshing apple-and-cucumber granita with a kinako shortbread cookie. Wang calls it an honor to debut his restaurant in Chinatown — adding to the legacy of the area's century of Chinese businesses — and to continue to explore what the cuisine means in the neighborhood, in the U.S. and in China. 'For me,' Wang said, 'It's a journey. This restaurant's open now, but this is something that I think we're just starting with, and it's something that I really want to continue exploring not just throughout this restaurant but throughout my entire life.' Firstborn is open Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10:30 p.m. 978 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, (213) 537-0142, Beverly Hills' steak-centric Matu now has a westward sibling in Matu Kai, which follows up the 2021 restaurant with some of its greatest hits and a slew of new dishes. Like Matu, Brentwood's new Matu Kai specializes in Wagyu: Plancha-cooked filets, wood-fired rib-eyes, picanhas, New York strips and more are prepared in the semi-open kitchen, sparks and flames often flying. These steaks can be ordered a la carte or in a set menu, though many of the newer items can be found a la carte. Look for fresh Uovo maltagliati in a rib-eye ragu, Wagyu meatballs in pomodoro, crying tiger Wagyu tenderloin satay and more. Like its sibling restaurant, Matu Kai also offers the popular Wagyu cheesesteak sandwich, which is available only at the bar. Matu Kai is open Monday to Thursday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. and Friday to Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. 11777 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 134, Los Angeles, (310) 810-2501, A Chicago sandwich shop rife with cultural and familial inspiration recently debuted at the base of the Platform complex in Culver City, with panini-pressed stacks that can include tabouleh, chile crunch, harissa mayonnaise and more. Chef-owner Mitchell Jamra blends his Lebanese roots into some of the flavors of All Too Well, a quick-casual sandwich offshoot of his Mexican-Lebanese restaurant in Chicago, Evette's. All Too Well, while named for the Taylor Swift song, is inspired not by the singer-songwriter but Jamra's family and his long lineage of Chicago deli owners that traces back to the 1920s. The chef's first Los Angeles restaurant offers the Chicago location's most popular items such as the Bombay Chulet, which layers turkey, prosciutto garlic mayo, arugula, stracciatella, fried onion, chile crunch and fig jam, as well as the L.A.-only secret-menu Tunaverse, which tops tuna salad with a red pepper spread that blends ajvar with muhammara. All Too Well debuted as a one-year pop-up within Platform, but Jamra tells The Times that he has plans to stay in Los Angeles far beyond that. 'I'm bonded with the city now,' he said via email, 'and we are in for the long haul!' All Too Well is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 8850 W. Washington Blvd., Suite 101, Culver City, The popular chicken-focused offshoot of Los Feliz mainstay Kismet can now be found in Pasadena. At the latest outpost of Kismet Rotisserie, which sits at the border of Altadena, the whole pasture-raised, non-GMO chickens spin slowly behind the counter, the seasonal vegetables come primarily sourced from local farmers markets, and everything is made in-house. Chef-owners Sarah Hymanson and Sara Kramer offer rotisserie-chicken plates with sides such as roasted vegetables in tahini; smashed cucumbers in caraway vinaigrette; schmaltzy roasted potatoes; and hummus with freshly baked pita, along with salads, fresh-squeezed juice, bone broth, kids' meals, cookies and pudding cups. Unique to the Pasadena menu is a new, collaborative monthly sandwich special, where proceeds benefit the local chapter of education nonprofit Families Forward. This month find a spicy Niçoise pita sandwich made with Fishwife; in June look for an Italian sandwich from local chef and 'The Bear' culinary producer Courtney Storer. Kismet Rotisserie's newest outpost offers catering, a quick-and-casual format, and indoor and outdoor seating. Kismet Rotisserie is open in Pasadena daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 1974 Lincoln Ave., Pasadena, (323) 412-4400, Kristin Colazas Rodriguez began Colossus out of her home in 2018. Now she operates four outposts spread across San Pedro and Long Beach, and the latest features a full cafe menu, a bakery case flush with croissants and pastries, and an evening-only pizza program just off the San Pedro harbor. The newest Colossus recently debuted at the base of the Vivo Apartments complex, serving morning items such as the signature croissant breakfast sandwich with house-made sweet potato hot sauce, lunch and lighter bites like salad Lyonnaise with fresh croutons, and dinner such as meatballs in gravy, sourdough gnocchi and a range of daily pizzas (in Long Beach, the pizzas are available on weekends only). Whole loaves of bread and pantry goods such as tinned fish, dried heirloom beans and jars of jam are also on offer, and beer and wine are in the works. Colossus is open off of the San Pedro harbor Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 511 S. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro, (213) 444-0077, A weeklong celebration of Latin cuisine kicked off Tuesday with hundreds of participating restaurants — and many offering special items and set menus. Dine Latino Restaurant Week, an initiative spearheaded by the national Latino Restaurant Assn., runs through May 18 and includes more than 200 restaurants spread from Camarillo through L.A. County, as far east as San Bernardino and Riverside, and as far south as Costa Mesa; even a few San Diego restaurants are joining the event, as is one operation in San Jose. The event aims to support Latino-owned restaurants reflecting a range of nationalities and cuisines, including Mexican, Brazilian, Ecuadorian, Colombian, Salvadoran, Peruvian and beyond. Find a map of participating restaurants here, with more businesses to be added.
Los Angeles Times
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The 10 best memoirs of the 2020s, from Mariah Carey to Michelle Zauner
Calling all bookworms! Welcome to the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter. Calling all bookworms! Welcome to the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter. I'm Meg. I write shut up and read, a book newsletter. I'm also on BookTok. I just flew through Amy Griffin's 'The Tell.' Her memoir — a powerful investigation of repressed memories, sexual trauma and the quest for perfection — took me less than two days to finish. Instead of walking to the gym, I took the train, just so I could have more time to read. Then I picked up Lauren Christensen's 'Firstborn.' My waking hours were at the mercy of the memoir, a moving account of the loss of her first child, Simone. I fought off sleep to keep reading and when I awoke, the book was the first thing I reached for. I turn to the stories of other people's lives to make sense of my own. There's no memoir I won't read, except for Melania Trump's. I'm a glutton for the juicy celebrity tell-all, but there is nothing like being surprised by an unexpected or unknown author. As we approach the decade's halfway mark, I thought I'd share some of my favorite memoirs from the past 5 years, as well as the titles I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this year. 'The Meaning of Mariah Carey' is best experienced as an audiobook. Carey's memoir is an incisive deep dive into her elusive persona. Come for the reflections on her long-spanning career — and the true account of her rags-to-riches story — but stay for Mimi bursting sporadically into song. André Leon Talley's 'The Chiffon Trenches' is also a wonderful audio experience. His distinctive voice oozes charisma and authority, and his front row seat to the fashion world provides 50 years' worth of stories—about Karl Lagerfeld, Diana Vreeland, and of course, Anna Wintour. Dr. Michele Harper pulls back the curtain on life as an emergency room physician in her debut memoir, 'The Beauty in Breaking.' Through her patients, Harper discovers how to heal, all while contending with the racism and sexism in an overwhelmingly white and male-dominated profession. 'Minor Feelings,' Cathy Park Hong's book of essays, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir. In her collection, Park Hong blends cultural criticism and memoir to examine the covert racism that is pervasive in our country. Her work is a celebration of her identity as an Asian American artist and a call to question white colonialist notions. A member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Elissa Washuta unpacks the commodification of Native American spirituality in 'White Magic.' Through layered essays, Washuta explores the effects of colonialism on sacred practices, as well as her heritage, and her struggles with men, drugs and alcohol — and how magic runs through it all. When I first read 'Crying in H Mart' by Michelle Zauner, I stayed up all night to finish, and I wept the whole way through. In her debut memoir, Zauner (who performs under the alias Japanese Breakfast) celebrates mother Chongmi's life, and mourns her early death. Zauner's tender tribute — and reckoning of who she is without her mother — is transformative. Suleika Jaouad's 'Between Two Kingdoms' is one of those memoirs that will knock the wind out of you. Jaouad's world turns upside down when she receives a leukemia diagnosis at 23. Four years later, she has survived, but is unsure of how to reenter the world, so she set out on a 100-day road trip to find out. My copy of 'In Love' by Amy Bloom is stained with fat teardrops. After Brian Ameche, Bloom's husband, receives an Alzheimer's diagnosis, he decides to end his life on his own terms. Bloom details their journey to Switzerland, where a nonprofit offers legal suicide, and paints us full vignettes of their love story along the way. Ina Garten's 'Be Ready When the Luck Happens' is a a four-course meal — plus dessert. Garten's words sing off the page. Reading her memoir makes you feel like you're in the kitchen with her, and Jeffrey! Getting a glimpse into Garten's life story is fascinating, and her cheerful demeanor and can-do attitude will galvanize you to chase your dreams. 'Grief Is For People' by Sloane Crosley grapples with the complexities of loss. She shared a piece of advice in an opinion piece she wrote for The Times in 2024: 'Give the grieving person a reprieve from the interrogation, the lion's share of which they will conduct themselves. Give them this for the same reason you would offer to do their dishes or run their errands: so they can get some rest.' Honorable mentions: (Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to whose fees support independent bookstores.) Anyone who's anyone is going to be at The Times' Festival of Books next month, including National Book Award winner Percival Everett, 'Wicked' director Jon M. Chu and aughts pop icon Joanna 'Jojo' Levesque. Scheduled for April 26 and 27, the 30th anniversary of the annual literary festival brings more than 550 storytellers to the USC campus across seven outdoor stages and 15 indoor venues. Itching for a mystery? Here are the four best crime novels to read right now, taking you everywhere from Alaska to Maine to Kaua'i to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is pressing pause on his press tour for his new book following his vote to move forward with Republican spending legislation last week. In 'A Better Ending,' James Whitfield Thomson looks back on the events of summer 1974, when his younger sister Eileen died at the age of 27 from a gunshot wound to the chest. His sister's death was quickly ruled a suicide, although it bore all the hallmarks of murder. There have been so many noteworthy memoirs released in the last five years, and the next five promise to make this a decade filled with notable works. Here are 10 due out in 2025 we can't wait to read. See you in the stacks — or on Goodreads!
Washington Post
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
In ‘Firstborn,' an author recalls the dream, and loss, of her daughter
Lauren Christensen's memoir, 'Firstborn,' begins with an epigraph from Louise Glück's poem 'The Wild Iris': 'Hear me out: that which you call death/ I remember.' Christensen lost her first child, Simone, in early 2023, delivered stillborn at 22 weeks' gestation.
New York Times
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
From Welcoming New Life to Mourning Its Loss, in 22 Weeks
There are two fierce, fragile fighters in 'Firstborn,' Lauren Christensen's touching memoir about the life and death of her tiny daughter, Simone, who was stillborn 22 weeks into Christensen's pregnancy. The great accomplishment of this book is that I feel I have gotten to know and care for both tenacious people — perhaps Simone a little more than her mother, through her mother's book. Christensen's journey starts in her 30s with a series of unforeseeable events, all told with dry, offhand charm. These begin when Christensen surprises herself by loving a novel with a taxi-yellow cover that crosses her desk at The New York Times Book Review, where she works as an editor. Smitten, she finishes it in one sitting and, when she runs into a colleague, surprises herself further — while maybe a little bit high on 'tiny edibles' — by praising the book to the skies yet struggling to recall its title. (In what is either a running gag or an act of assiduous restraint, she never names it in her memoir, but there are enough clues for a reader to identify it as Gabriel Bump's 2020 novel 'Everywhere You Don't Belong.') After the review runs, the author follows her on Twitter and she follows him back; one thing leads to another until finally — after much video chatting during Covid lockdowns — they fall madly, unstoppably in love and buy a house together. Christensen's narrative style underlines interesting particulars while sliding over much that we are left to guess at. What we don't know, we may not need to know. (To paraphrase Henry James, there are some conversations we are not meant to overhear.) One of my favorite passages in the book concerns the way Christensen both did and did not want a child. Astutely, she notices every waver, every 'maybe, but.' According to her, 'A life with Gabe alone seemed to me as full as a life could possibly be.' According to her sensible therapist, to whom Christensen gives full credit, 'if I was neither menopausal nor using any form of birth control, she said, then I was trying to become pregnant.' And so she does. Yet in the kind of foreshadowing that life offers, the pregnancy is touched from the start by mortality. As Christensen undergoes routine ultrasounds and meets her midwife, her family is simultaneously grieving and supporting her beloved grandfather Gong Gong, who is suffering from Parkinson's and memory failure at the end of his long life. Christensen asserts his right — and hers, and ours — to be something other than dignified, to be 'miraculous and embarrassing, fundamentally ungovernable' in our bodies. 'Despite our delusions,' she writes, 'none of us ever had much control over our lives, or our deaths, at all.' Gong Gong's decline lets us meet the rest of Christensen's family: her mother, who grieves by doing what must be done, her younger brother, her grandmother, her stepfather, her father and more extended family, who come to us not as full portraits but as supporting characters whose meaning and role remain clear even if their faces and personalities are not quite defined. It is in the painful, detailed events of Simone's death in her mother's womb and the wrenching decision to terminate the pregnancy — along with the politics of that choice, and the urgency to ensure the mother survives even though the baby will not and cannot — that Christensen's spare, sometimes glancing style serves so well. Every moment, every transition, from first doctor's meeting to Simone's last heartbeat to the final hugs from the mostly excellent and caring nurses, is given to us. The title 'Firstborn' is plainly a reference to Simone, but in this memoir of mothers and daughters it is equally a reference to Christensen herself. There is the thread throughout of Christensen's reunion with her mother, a hard-working businesswoman whose frequent absences during Christensen's childhood are mentioned many times, and forgiven many times, until there are no complaints and no need to forgive. There is just love, and the care a mother gives her daughter, no matter what; and finally and always the love this mother, Lauren Christensen, gave her daughter, Simone, in this life and beyond.
