What to Know
- In the review, Peterson jokingly "tries" some New York classics: pizza and bagels.
- Peterson manages to get some non-food-related jabs in, too.
- However Peterson feels about New York and its “unlivable” condition, he ultimately gives its food scene a thumbs-up.
LA’s superiority complex is no joke. In an April Fool’s review of New York’s dining scene, LA Times writer Lucas Kwan Peterson repeatedly compares the “quality” Los Angeles food scene to that of New York, a “culturally bereft” and “dystopian” wasteland.
In the review, Peterson jokingly "tries" some New York classics: pizza and bagels.
“My first culinary encounter was with pizza, a mysterious kind of baked tlayuda, covered in macerated tomatoes and milk coagulation, and occasionally smothered with a type of thinly sliced lap cheong called pepperoni,” he said. On bagels he writes, “the Jewish-style delicatessen I am well familiar with — Los Angeles has the strongest deli scene in the country, after all — but I’d somehow never had a bagel before, a dense version of a baozi that’s boiled, then baked.”
Peterson manages to get some non-food-related jabs in, too.
“One could be forgiven for not wanting to visit New York at all; it’s no wonder chefs and other creatives are leaving in droves. Personal space is not available, nor even particularly desired,” Peterson said. “Residents willingly live in densely packed warehouse-like buildings and commute daily to the Midtown neighborhood, the city’s cultural and spiritual hub, to labor.”
However Peterson feels about New York and its “unlivable” condition, he ultimately gives its food scene a thumbs-up.
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“Beneath the city’s coarse exterior, there are gems to be found,” Peterson said. “Enough, I wager, that you’ll definitely want to spend a New York minute here, or maybe two.”
