We’re savoring our second cup of organic Sumatra Vienna roast, reveling in our view of the Observatory and mulling over a hike when a segment on KCRW’s Good Food show got our glad-to-be-in-LA stomach churning. This past weekend Jonathan Gold, whose LA Weekly column we embraced as a guide when first landing in town, was babbling on about LA’s restaurant grading. The Dirty Noodle Eater denounced inspections as “culturally biased” (sounds like racist to us) and as not profiling a restaurants food handling, thus having no bearing on the third world offal he makes his name reviewing. He then encouraged listeners to ignore the grades implying they only reflect bureaucratic nit picking on an eatery’s infrastructure. Now our restaurant manager stint on the Upper West informed us on the back-of-the-house horror show that’s par for the course in New York and since 2009 was a banner year for food borne illness across the United States, we find making it trendy to flout health inspections highly irresponsible. We’re thrilled the A, B, C system is one of the best manifestations of tax dollars at work anywhere. So the Legman ran Gold’s podcast by LA County Public Health for their reaction; not surprisingly the agency found the Counter Intelligence scribe to be spreading disinformation.

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LA’s Dirty Noodle Eater got a nod from Anthony Bourdain in today’s New York Times, where in an overview of the decade we’re leaving the traveling tv chef writes “The brilliant, pioneering work of LA Weekly’s Jonathan Gold was honored with a Pulitzer Prize, the first time for a food writer — and this, surely, was a Very Important Moment…” Being ever critical implies selectivity in our book. A man who will eat any god damn thing is a novelty, not a connoisseur.

King Kong vs. Moby Dick (detail) by Michael X. Rose

rather it’s low as you can go in LA’s brilliant restaurant grading system. While NYC patrons remain oblivious to filth and vermin eateries, Angelinos are alerted by signs mandated to be publicly displayed. Doesn’t mean they abide: Pulitzer winning eater J.Gold famously fears no filthy noodle. Nor does comic James Adomian, found peering longingly into this shuttered Thai joint on a recent evening along Hollywood Blvd. He’ll be back, C or no C, he tells the Legman.

Lara in noodles and furs, Silver Lake

Our first foray as Legman LA takes us to Silver Lake where we find a telling sign of the Great Recession. A noodle line.

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