You are here
Back to topCounter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles (Paperback)
Description
“Gold changed American food writing."--Time
The only food critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, Jonathan Gold pioneered a humanist’s approach to reviewing restaurants: COUNTER INTELLIGENCE collects over 200 of his legendary reviews, which were as much about Los Angeles’ neighborhoods and people as about what you were going to eat. He revealed the hidden kitchens where Los Angeles’ immigrant communities fed their own, including the best of cuisine from Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Burma, Canton, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam and more. Not to mention the indigenous dishes of L.A. car culture: the perfectly-prepared hamburger and the quintessential hot dog.
Originally published in 2000, COUNTER INTELLIGENCE remains an entry point to the food of the country’s most diverse culinary landscape; though some of the restaurants it lists have vanished as the twenty-first century has worn on (and its prices remain a point of nostalgia), “you could read it like a novel and be very satisfied (Ruth Reichl)”.
About the Author
The first food critic to win the Pulitzer Prize, Jonathan Gold (1960-2018) wrote restaurant reviews for Los Angeles magazine, California magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Gourmet magazine. His book Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles collects critiques originally published in his long-running column for the L.A. Weekly.
Gold was also the subject of the documentary, City of Gold.
Praise For…
Gold’s “curious, far-ranging, relentless explorations of his native Los Angeles helped his readers understand dozens of cuisines and helped the city understand itself….He may not have eaten everything in Los Angeles, but nobody came closer.”—Pete Wells, The New York Times
“Gold redefined the genre.”—Los Angeles Times
“Before Tony Bourdain, before reality TV….and (before) people really being into ethnic food in a serious way…Jonathan…got that food was a gateway into the people, and that food could really define a community.”—Ruth Reichl, former editor-in-chief of Gourmet and author of TENDER AT THE BONE
