"L.A. Son - My Life, My City, My Food"� - Memoir and Cookbook by Roy Choi

[Seanchai]

I flew through this Christmas present in a couple of days.  This is a riveting read although some may be intially put off by his hip-hop vernacular.  Stay with it and you get a poignant story of a guy who's lived a crazy life so far.  Restaurant latchkey kid, door-to door jewelry hustling with his parents, juvenile delinquency, lowrider, gambler, financial worker, cooking school at the CIA, hotel chef, food truck and now restaurant owner.  Given his success creating the Kogi Taco food truck and subsequent restaurants in Los Angeles all celebrating hybrid cusine, the recipes are all over the map as well in a good way, tweaking comfort food classics with some different techniques/ingredients.

I've already made the gumbo (his tribute to Emeril Legassse's Essence Of Emeril cooking show that kickstarted him from a partying low-life to his cooking career) and it turned out great.  The flanken short ribs for the Korean grill classic kalbi have been marinating overnight  and are on the menu for today.

[cheezepowder]

I bought the book but haven't read it yet.  Sounds good!  I'm planning to read it this month (when I'm hiding out at home from the cold weather).