It's Not the Best

People who write about food are understandably excitable people. Many different kinds of folks exist in this big beautiful world but in this particular example we are going to focus on the ones who take an interest in what they eat. It’s very important to understand from the get-go that this is not everyone. For a very broad, completely unscientific, and not at all researched or confirmed point of view (AKA mine); Some people in the world don’t have enough to eat. Some people do have enough to eat but it’s not a priority to them, and then some people have enough to eat and take an interest and curiosity about what it is they are consuming. The following only refers to the latter group.

Like many things today this phenomenon appears to have been heavily shaped by the internet. There was a time where in order to have your message heard by multitudes you had to be editorialized in some way. Newspapers, books, television - in order to get your message into any of the widely distributed mediums you had to first pass through throngs of people whose job it was to review your information and decide whether it was factual and fit for public consumption. These days this concept does not exist. We still have newspapers, books and television but their ability to reach millions within seconds is vastly surpassed by online methods of posting something on an app with a reach of billions.

Your chances are now much higher of having an audience for your musings. Due to this the number of voices has drastically increased. Be it not on me to say whether the quality of these voices has maintained, increased, or crashed to previously unthought depths. You already know what your opinion is on that matter. Personally I find it easy to ignore the majority of this noise by simply not engaging on said apps. It’s very purposely easy to get distracted. And in this regard, I too end up consuming some of the current era of instant food journalism through acquaintances sending these things to me. I love these people and their hearts are in the right place. I know you like food. This post is about food. Please examine this post. Thank you for sharing.

This is all wonderful. Of my most firm held beliefs, the strongest one is that everyone out there on this planet should do whatever they want to do. I do however take umbrage with the semantics.

“Guys we found the BEST pizza in LA.” No you didn’t. You have sampled such a small proportion of the available options that it’s impossible for you to possibly know. Let’s not even get into the deeper concept of personal taste and historical attachments. You’re not Jonathan Gold. I know this because you’re posting and he’s dead. I was at a lunch with Mr. Gold mere weeks before his passing. Attica from Melbourne came to LA to cook an ‘Aussie Barbecue’. The food was to my taste irredeemable. Every fundraising sausage sizzle that I’ve sampled in the southern hemisphere had better sausages on bread than the chefs from the “50th Best Restaurant in the World” (©San Pellegrino) could muster up in a carpark in DTLA. I don’t know for a fact that this wasn’t a contributing factor in Mr. Gold’s death. Neither do you.

I bring up Jonathan Gold because he had a system. He stopped at every strip mall. Every mom and pop operation hiding on the second story of a development in the San Gabriel Valley. His opinions were concise and researched. Mr Gold just told you what he liked. When he said a restaurant was good you knew it came from a place of careful contemplation and comparison that would stand up to scrutiny.

You ate 10 pizzas in the last month. This is impressive, if not from a dietary standpoint. But you still haven’t tried a wildly large majority of the other available options enough to be declaring anything ‘The Best’.

In writing I wish to be honest. I don’t want to talk about food in terms of ‘Best’ or ‘Greatest’. I too am prone to hyperbole, but I’m working on being better. Because while I’ve consumed more food than most Roman legionnaires could shove down their gullets after winning over most of Europe, I only know what I know. And I like what I like. I am not here to tell anyone what’s best. Only what I enjoy. I will always endeavor to keep things logical.

For example, I’ve been around LA (and Ensenada) eating every example I could find and I’m yet to discover a fish taco I enjoyed more than Ricky’s. I hope you’re well in your retirement, man. You were doing God’s work, and you’ve earned your time relaxing in the sun.