The Origin

There are two real obsessions I have in life. Side note: a lot of my friends will tell you I have many obsessions in life, but the two I have chosen to openly blog about are FOOD and LISTS. First, let me explain the obsessions and then I’ll explain what this whole blog is about.

FOOD – As a FFK (Former Fat Kid) I’ve loved food for as long as I can remember. In fact, my mother often embarrasses me with the story that I used to literally pant when the baby bottle would come out of the fridge. Her rendition of my “panting” sounds more like an obese person experiencing an asthma attack, but Mom tells the story once every three months regardless. Though I’ve stopped panting at the sight of refrigerated food and gotten rid of the husky Levi’s and “baby weight” I carried right through junior year of high school, a FFK will always have food on their mind. There is nothing like spending a Saturday afternoon with a punch-bowl sized serving of #4 Spicy Ramen from Orochon in Little Tokyo or driving to a strip mall in the Valley to try Uncle Andre’s BBQ platter because Mo’Nique mentioned it on Oprah. Momma Precious was right by the way…those Texas Ribs are worth the drive.

LISTS – I really enjoy crossing things off lists, but not like your typical to-do lists or grocery lists…it’s more intricate than that. For example, I recently read an article in LA Magazine about 10 Small Towns around the city that are worth a day trip. So for the past several Sundays a random assortment of friends/roommates/significant other have been everywhere from Whittier (quaint and Hoover-era like) to Calabasas (Kim Kardashian’s store was smaller than I expected). This obsession with lists probably stems from my really ‘cool’ childhood when I collected Happy Meal Toys. My next-door-neighbor, Whitney, and I had extensive cross-referenced checklists of the toys we had in our collection and the ones still needed to be rescued from garage sales. If I only had completed that collection of Animaniacs from ’94 maybe I would have gotten over this list obsession…but alas that didn’t happen. On the bright side, it means this blog CAN happen.
 

THE BLOG – Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Kelly, the best friend of my dude John, sent him this article in LA Weekly. 99 Things to Eat in LA Before You Die is the perfect storm of aforementioned obsessions so of course I had to accomplish this feat of edible enormity. ‘Things to Eat Before You Die’ was a twinge to morbid for my taste (pun intended), so after much deliberation and blatant ripping off of a loved one’s idea I’ve named this blog “99pLAtes”. Get it – pLAtes (cause that’s the city I live in). Genius, I know – I’ll take all the credit.

So the next few weeks, months (not years and hopefully it doesn’t end up killing me) are going to be filled with what some crack squad LA Weekly Reporter calls the 99 Best Dishes in Los Angeles. Bring on the sashimi, sandwiches, fried chicken, chicharrones (?) and more parts of a pig than I’ve ever cared to eat. So hang on to your forks and knives, cause this here is set to be the most overindulgent ride in Los Angeles. (Points to those who get the reference)

To all the foodies out there: Feel free to send an email or leave suggestions of other artery-clogging good eats here on the blog. There can’t only be 99 Things to Eat in LA Before I Die. Your edible entries are welcome.


Special thanks to Mike Van Waes for his logo design. Check out his stuff here:
www.vexedwisecracker.com/