Hello Friends,

I'm back. What does an Angelena do the first day upon return from a trip abroad? Have a Good Food team meeting, of course! Followed by Mexican breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomato, onion, jalapeño, with rice, beans, and tortillas at my local, CJ's Cafe on Pico. Then I took the dusty truck to the car wash and stopped at the grocery store for milk and produce, and then, the unpacking and laundry, and even some, gasp(!), ironing. May I lie down now? Of course,  the beautifully dyed linen pillowcases I bought are too big for my pillows. So, after measuring them, I'm googling pillows. I'll probably find the right size, buy them, and hate sleeping on them. All because I fell in love with some pillowcases in Lecce. Why is finding the correct pillows so problematic?

I'm intensely jet lagged from a missed flight connection. So with all the havoc that causes, let's leave it here before I overshare even more. I will say that watching The Big Bang Theory on the plane after finally making a connection in London saved my sanity. The Flake candy bar I purchased at Heathrow also helped.

Good Food Team Weekly Dining Tips:

While I was in Bari, I ate twice at Al Sorso Preferito. Their Instagram feed is justly filled with images of their famed Spaghetti all'Assassina, but for my second meal, I opted for a literal tableful of Antipasti Misti. Artichokes fried and also in vinegar, meatballs (no sauce), stuffed and gratinéed mussels, shrimp in oil and lemon, mozzarella, and on and on. My version of heaven. I also loved the Tiedda, a traditional Pugliese dish of rice, mussels, and potatoes.  

Gillian has been cooking her way through The Bean Book, and this week made the Heirloom Bean and Caramelized Fennel Gratin using Rancho Gordo's flageolet beans. "It is amazing how much flavor one leek, two fennel bulbs, and four cloves of garlic can bring to a dish. The buttery bread crumbs and parmesan on top didn't hurt either. Highly recommend if you're feeding a crowd."

Elina brings us a two-fer of passover options. The matzo ball soup from Habayit, a little restaurant in a strip mall on Pico in West LA, and the chicken liver from Akasha. Both are fantastic(!), she says.

Laryl was down for the count and, in a bout of nostalgia, turned to Luden's Throat Drops, formerly known as lozenges; the Wild Cherry flavor, of course.

Still putting one foot in front of the other, Evan

Emily Mester's childhood was punctuated by an excess of what she calls "getting." In her debut collection of essays, American Bulk, she explores how our lives are impacted by what we consume. As she shares her family's particular Costco relationship, she explores how the joy of Costco doesn't lie in thrift, it lies in bulk.

Does your family use the Costco coupon book like an instruction manual? Journalist Ada Tseng thinks that for many shoppers, Costco goes beyond simply a stop in a grocery store — it encompasses a lifestyle. Her family goes on the weekend, but also has weekday forays for gas. For them, it's almost like a scavenger hunt for deals. Gearing up for Lunar New Year, Tseng decided to poll the Los Angeles Times' audience to find out, "How Asian is your Costco?"

In his book, The Secret Life of Groceries, investigative journalist  Benjamin Lorr goes beyond the store to look at the supply chain. For example, he rode with a trucker who made $100 during the week he spent with her, despite the inherent dangers of the job. While for him, "Growing up, food was just food," he says, now it's become a vehicle for performative consumption. In the same way that people may buy a Rolex to demonstrate their taste, consumers exhibit identity, health, and ecological consciousness by the brands they choose to eat.

Patti Civalleri was fascinated by Trader Joe's founder Joe Coulombe, who famously targeted a new audience of "overeducated and underpaid" consumers with his hand-painted signs and an iconic shopping experience, so she co-wrote Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys. It details Coulombe's mission to build an iconic shopping experience.

Angelena Freida Caplan was a giant of the produce business who started nudging Americans to expand their palates back in the 1960s. She entered a man's world in her skirt, nylons, and heels and marketed the heck out of fruits and vegetables that weren't in most of our vocabularies. Kiwis, mangoes, shishito peppers, starfruit, and blood oranges all found an audience due to Frieda. After Frieda's passing in 2020, Gustavo Arellano reflected on her place in the culinary canon in a story for the Los Angeles Times.

LA transplant Vanessa Anderson, aka The Grocery Goblin began finding her way through her new city by documenting our markets on TikTok. Her visual images are accompanied by voice-over essays that narrate each market in their community with engaging details and back story. You can find her videos on TikTok and her essays at the LA Times. Beyond the products on the shelves, the videos are about the people who live and shop in these neighborhoods.