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california January 25, 2019
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Get your west coast bites on: Here’s how to eat your way through LA

When traveling to new places, I’m really just trying to see what’s good with the food.

That’s why trips to LA are the best. It’s one of the few cities that offers me the same kind of variety, quality, and scale of food that can be found in my glorious hometown, NYC.

My latest trip to LA featured a stacked lineup still it left me wanting more. There’s just too much to eat out there to hit in just one weekend. Let me take y’all through the ways I toured LA with food as the proxy.

After getting in late Thursday night, I wasn’t able to take full advantage of the grub until Friday morning. So, the first stop had to be worthy.  That’s why I decided to pull up to Eggslut out in Venice.

 

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IT’S THE WEEKEND! 🎉🍳🎉🍳🎉 📍 @grandcentralmarketla 📸 @tastesofny

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Now, you might think the best bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich is only exclusive to New York City bodegas, but Chef Alvin Cailin who started the food truck venture turned permanent restaurants will prove that wrong. Eggslut brings the classic breakfast sandwich to a new level.

I went with the vintage bacon egg and cheese, featuring a hella runny fried egg. I would also recommend the Fairfax Sandwich, which substitutes the fried egg for scrambled ones.

For my next stop, I needed an LA classic for lunch — tacos. I prefer my tacos from a street truck or taco stand.  It needs to be authentic. I need the kitchen to greasy and for validation a little old man walking around, picking up empty Jarrito bottles.  If it has a ‘please wait to be seated’ sign, I’m not trusting those tacos.

For dinner, I had to do it big.  I made my way to Inko Nito in the Downtown Arts District.  Inko Nito featured a wild menu of family-style Japanese dishes.  It had everything ranging from sushi and sashimi to skewers and a whole bunch of fried options.  Hit up this spot with a date, or a couple of homies.

Trust that you guys will be filled to the brim with quality Japanese eats.

 

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📸 @foodiexbun Eenie meenie miney mo, which dish is your favorite? Let us to know #inkonitola

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As we all know, Saturday afternoon’s are made for groups of girls to hit up their favorite brunch spots. Not looking to get caught up in anything too overwhelming, I decided to check out Bru’s Wiffle in Brentwood (yes where OJ may or may not have done that thing. THAT Brentwood).

Anyway, Bru’s offers a great menu with a wide range of breakfast and lunch options.  They claim to have some of the best chicken and waffle plates around, but I’d be a fool to get that anywhere in LA besides Roscoe’s.

My breakfast tortas were dope and the vibes were great. It was exactly what I needed.

For Saturday night dinner it was time for another big showing.  This time, in the form of Jon & Vinny’s.

When you first walk in, you might think the place is kind of corny.  Neon signs, trendy patrons, and a small narrow layout make up the inside.  It’s the total opposite of the dimly lit, white table cloth, tuck my napkin in my shirt kind of Italian restaurant you’re used to pulling up to.

That’s not what Jon & Vinny’s is about. This place was easily some of the best Italian food I’ve ever had.  The food is wild.

It was truly a family-style dining experience where everything from the appetizers to the main pasta dishes was fantastic. My personal favorite was the spicy fusilli. The wait staff likes to sell it to customers as the “favorite dish of all the rappers.”

 

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Already missing Jon and Vinnys @jonandvinnydelivery 🙌🏼🍝😭 #eeeeeatscon #jonandvinnys

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They’re not just blowing smoke up your ass.  Last time I was there, I saw Tyler, the Creator enjoying a plate of it.  If that’s not enough to convince you, Michelle Obama has been known to frequent the spot when she’s in town.

I knew it would be criminal to not stop at In n’ Out on my way back home on Sunday.  So I decided to make a last minute stop before hopping on the plane.  I don’t have to tell what’s good here.  If you know, you know.

While I thoroughly enjoyed all of my eats while there, I can’t say there wasn’t more food that I wish I had.  I already mentioned Roscoe’s, but that’s definitely not it.  There’s also the Hawaiian BBQ, breakfast burritos, and countless sushi spots I wish I had while I was there.

Guess that just means I gotta get my ass back out there again for another trip filled with more quality bites.

california November 10, 2017
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27-year-old Stockton, California mayor is paying residents $500 a month just to live there

When you think of Stockton, California the first thing that probably comes to mind is Nick and Nate Diaz, the badass weed-smoking UFC brothers who’ve been repping the 300,000-person town for over two decades now.

Other than that, it’s mostly known for being one of the most dangerous cities in the US with 1,408 violent crimes a year, according to Forbes.

But now Stockton, California is making headlines for a different reason.

After electing Michael Tubbs, a 26-year-old mayor (who’s now 27) last year, Stockton is experimenting with an innovative program that will offer residents a universal basic income of $500 a month, or $6,000 per year that lasts for a three-year period.

The program is called the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, or SEED, and is helping combat the very harsh struggles many of the residents go through.

In addition to having one of the highest crime rates in the country, one in four people in Stockton live under the poverty line. In fact in 2013, they became the biggest city to have to file for bankruptcy, according to CNBC.

The solution of SEED came when Mayor Tubbs did his research on the poverty going on in his city and how the wealth is distributed. Growing up as a part of this community, Tubbs understands what his residents go though and what they realistically need.

He told Vox,

“Growing up in poverty and seeing how much of some of the stress came from trying to stretch dollars to pay for necessities, like bills or school uniforms. When things came up unexpectedly it would cause a lot of hardships.”

According to Vox, the first $1 million from the program is coming from the nearby Silicon Valley Economic Security Project, “a pro-basic income advocacy and research group co-chaired by Facebook co-founder and former New Republic publisher Chris Hughes.”

Stockton isn’t the first city to experiment with a basic income program for residents. Cities from Ontario, Canada to cities in Finland and Kenya have all assisted their people to help deal with poverty.

Tubbs is far from the first elected official to try this out but at 27 years old, the youngest mayor of a town with a population higher than 100,000, he may set the trend in US cities going forward. He continued telling Vox,

“The stress isn’t because people don’t have character. It’s because people don’t have cash.”

The more cities start to elect people who understand their residents like Tubbs, the better the solutions we’ll have to help those who really need it.