Los Angeles Pizza…

…is not necessarily a contradiction in terms.

The vastly overwhelming majority of what is here is, admittedly, barely edible, and in some cases downright disgusting, but there are three places in three areas of the city where I’ve found something to keep down.

The first place could be on any corner in any town in New Jersey, Eastern PA or Southern NY. It’s called Village Pizza and it’s in downtown Larchmont. The pies are 16″, made with high-quality dry mozzarella and are an excellent example of how good [American pizza](http://omnivorousfish.com/node/334) can be. It’s a thin but bready crust, at once crispy and chewy, imminently foldable and delicious.

The sauce is a little flat, but salt is always a matter of taste. I give it 4 stars out of 5 for an American pie.

Village Pizza
131 N. Larchmont @ Beverly Blvd.
Phone: 323-465-5566

They have a Hollywood location, but I can’t vouch for it. Maybe this week…

Oatmeal

I’ve been eating a lot of oatmeal lately. It’s ostensibly good for you, but you know what? It just tastes good. I’ve even been eating the instant stuff sometimes….shhhhhhhhhhhhh – don’t tell anybody.

Shopping

One of the reasons I crawl up the walls here in socal is that food shopping is a nightmare. The overwhelming majority of the farmers’ markets are substandard and the supermarkets don’t carry things that are **BASIC** compared to other parts of the country (like, I dunno, central california).

Yesterday, however, I had a really pleasant shopping experience at Gelson’s. They’re a little pricey, but they stock a lot of things that I actually want, unlike ralph’s, von’s, albertson’s, etc. I found the store to be sort of in between a nice Von’s and a whole foods, with prices to match the description. Some good finds include oldschool Stretch Island Fruit Leather (five bucks a box – not bad) and reasonable prices on a number of fair trade teas. There was a real availability of sustainable choices, which is sort of necessary for me to even go into a store except under duress, unlike some stores where they carry Horizon Organic (which is totally fucking evil, btw) and think they’re doing you a favor.

To be honest, I walked right past the produce and meat aisles, because I always do in supermarkets, but I might actually bother to sniff around the veg on my next trip.

I don’t know what their corporate ethos is like. Their website is predictably opaque, which is reaosnable for a retail food company. The people working there were really informed and seemed genuinely happy to be there, two things we can’t say for Whole Problem. Maybe the CEO eats babies for breakfast, I don’t know yet, but at the very least it’s an alternative to the price-fixing, union-busting, product-stealing, organic-demeaning, unsustainable WalMart of health food, Trader Fucking Joe’s.

Listening: NPR National. Public. Radio.

Thought for the day

Do vegetarian moms pour cans of black bean soup all over everything?