lapl.org

A King's Tropical Inn menu from 1938

Exploring the LAPL menu collection is an ongoing project in which we'll take a close look at the menus owned by the Los Angeles Public Library. Read about the project here.

A couple of weeks ago, we received this reader inquiry from Bob:

"In the 1950's there used to be a restaurant on La Cienega Blvd. around Jefferson known as King's Tropical Chicken Restaurant. In the front of restaurant was a courtyard with a koi fish pond. What ever happened to it? And what is the correct name? I used to go there as a kid with my parents."

After a little futile Googling, I decided to put our old friend the Los Angeles Public Library Menu Collection to the test, and wouldn't you know it, they have quite a few menus from King's Tropical Inn, beginning in the 1930s and on up through the 1960s. The last menu they have is dated 1963.

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Grand Central Publishing

Betty Goes Vegan

What happens when Betty Goes Vegan? Pull out the Aqua Net and your best pair of Silver Lake stilettos. Brooklyn-based authors Annie and Dan Shannon are serving up vegan bacon cheeseburger hash, Greek sliders (with vegan ground beef), "faux cassoulet" (beans, vegan beef broth, Tofurky sausages), spinach Waldorf salad dressing (Vegenaise), and "soy nog" cheesecake. These are American (Betty Crocker?) classics that have been "converted" to the vegan lifestyle. Vegan or not, we have to admit those vegan glazed and powdered sugar doughnuts are looking pretty great right around the morning coffee rush.

Yes, the book was inspired by Julie and Julia. Only here, not the blog, but the scene in the movie when a lobster was boiled alive. Annie, a PETA staffer, was reportedly upset by the scene, hence the tweaking of classic recipes. With so many vegan cookbook promising to wow us with uncharted chef and farmers market creations, it's refreshing to see a new vegan take on on comfort food. And really, don't we all have nights when we can't shake those cravings for a bowl of "beefless Stroganoff"?

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Flickr/waitscm

Cheese

Aged cheeses are delicious, although 7,500 years old might be a bit much. But that's how old the practice of cheese-making may be -- much older than previously thought -- according to an article in the journal Nature.

Scientists have reportedly discovered 7,500-year-old pottery fragments that have small holes throughout and may have been used to separate curds from whey, Science Recorder reports.

"In the tough days before refrigerators, early dairy farmers probably devised cheese-making as a way to preserve, and get the best use out of, milk from the cattle that they had begun to herd," according to the article in Nature.

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Kikkoman soy sauce

It may never come to a theater near you, but a film with heart, soul and soy sauce has been cooked up. Make Haste Slowly is a mini-doc that tells the story of how Kikkoman's ubiquitous condiment came to be such a big hit on tables everywhere. The trailer, now showing on YouTube, is as compelling as any big screen preview and whets your appetite for more. (And we dare you not to get a little choked up when you watch it.)

According to an Adweek story, Make Haste Slowly delves into the 300-year history of Kikkoman, from its founding in feudal Japan to its current status as the best-selling global soy sauce manufacturer. Kikkoman is hoping the 24-minute film will be shown on the Food Network or other cable channels.

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Peter Moruzzi Collection

"Go to these places now. Don't wait. This may be your last chance to immerse yourself in a vanishing world." So says Peter Moruzzi, author of the just-published book Classic Dining: Discovering America's Finest Mid-Century Restaurants, a glossy, full-color, coast-to-coast tour of the restaurants your parents or grandparents went to on fancy occasions -- many of which are still with us, at least for the time being.

To celebrate the release of the book, this Saturday at 7 p.m. Wacko/La Luz De Jesus Gallery is hosting a party -- the Dresden will be pouring their Blood & Sand cocktails, Tam O' Shanter will be making sliders and Lawry's Prime Rib will be giving away 50 of their famous seasoned salt and pepper caddies, customized for the occasion.

Recently we asked Moruzzi to recommend the best of Los Angeles' classics. Turn the page for his picks of this town's 10 Best Classic Mid-Century Restaurants -- see them while you still can.

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B. Rodell

Whenever the subject of food threatens to become tedious, I turn to a book of culture where eating is front and center. This weekend I came back to In The Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food by Stewart Lee Allen, a 2002 book that takes the history of food and taboo and organizes it by genre according to the seven deadly sins.

Fittingly, Allen begins with original sin, and covers the debate over what fruit Eve would have been tempted with and how the apple ended up with its scandalous reputation.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Picketers and protesters outside a Hollywood fast food restaurant, shouting slogans and attempting to dissuade customers from going inside. A scene from Chick-fil-A in the last week? No, it happened at a Carl's Jr. a short distance to the east ... in 1989. The protest, on Aug. 30 of that year, was the first of several at Carl's Jr. locations around Greater Los Angeles.

Spurred by founder Carl Karcher's contributions to pro-life/anti-abortion candidates, pro-choice groups staged the series of protests, which may or may not have affected sales at the prolific fast food outlet. At a December 1989 protest in North Hollywood staged by the San Fernando Valley chapter of the National Organization of Women, about a dozen pro-choice demonstrators held up signs urging a boycott while about 65 abortion opponents, alerted to the protest by ministers and a conservative talk radio talk show host, waved food items at passersby in support of the restaurant and Karcher.

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Orly Olivier

Strawberry pie at House of Pies

House of Pies, located on the corner of Franklin and Vermont in Los Feliz, is one of those places that catches your eye for a second on the drive past -- the indeterminately retro style of architecture, the old-school diner facade and, of course, the promise of fresh pie.

For many locals, House of Pies is a cherished local haunt, a place that's been in the same location for more than 40 years and is as reliable today for a cup of coffee and a slice of strawberry pie as it was in 1969. But many of its most regular customers might not realize the fascinating and lonesome history behind House of Pies -- it's one of the last remaining branches of a Southern California empire launched by the creator of IHOP in the 1960s.

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Dano/flickr

Cracker Jack

Before kids were playing with iPads in restaurants, entertainment could materialize in less lustrous packages -- literally, the package of a mediocre snack. The classic baseball gut-stuffer (along with peanuts and a couple of sweat-beaded hot dogs), the Cracker Jack combination of globbed-together popcorn, molasses, and peanuts always played second fiddle to the novelties lurking within each box. If you harbor fond childhood memories of ripping into boxes and grasping for prizes, you may want to drop by Calabasas Hills this weekend. On July 28, beginning at 11:00 a.m., Profiles in History will auction off the world's largest collection of Cracker Jack prizes as part of the four-day Dreier Collection auction.

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jgarbee

Assorted David's Signature Beyond Gourmet Jelly Beans

If you've never heard of local candy maker David Klein, it's likely because the inventor of the Jelly Belly sold the rights to the formula trademark* a few unfortunate years too soon -- perhaps not surprising for a guy who signs emails with dangling consonants ("thankssssssssssss"), talks like he is on a constant sugar high, and recently produced a quirky documentary of his jelly bean life story with Weird Al Yankovic as a guest star ("Ohhh, Weird Al loves Jelly Bellys," Klein says). Business acumen aside, Klein is a great, down-to-earth guy who truly loves candy, quirky wasabi flavors and all.

For over thirty years, Klein has also been on a personal candy mission with the corporate sorts over at Jelly Belly, whom he says never gave him public credit as the inventor of those infamous game-changing jelly beans until recently. Klein also recently got back into the jelly bean business himself with the launch of namesake candies in flavors like ginger, wasabi, and root beer (still his favorite flavor). Get our interview with Klein, and more on his new jelly beans, after the jump.

* Squid Ink Note (7/9/12): Jelly Belly representative Tomi Holt emailed this clarification: "Klein never owned the formulas and was not involved in the candymaking processes. Klein was a participant in a transaction to sell the trademark name and logo which we purchased." Klein's response to the trademark issue: "Yes, the idea was mine to make the product but the formula used was developed by them... I had been buying the product from them (they were my contract manufacturer)."

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