Alegre Nacho - Everything I want to eat: Sqirl and the new California cooking

Mom. The woman who followed her dreams and required me to do the same. Youre the Kool Thing. This book is for you.

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Contents

FOREWORD

When I think of Sqirl, I think first of the mythical neighborhood food gathering spots of song, like Alices Restaurant. You can get anything you want at Alices Restaurant. And of course thats true if what you want is turmeric tonic and a sorrel pesto rice bowl with feta (and lacto-fermented hot sauce), or rhubarb lemonade with buckwheat pancakes made from cactus flour. Of course I didnt know I wanted these things until I started coming to Sqirl every Saturday and Sunday morning at 8 am to beat the line almost four years ago. Since then, Ive been meeting with a growing Saturday breakfast club. By now Ive come to love these weekend morning talk-fests so much that Ive set my iPhone alarm to make sure I dont miss a minute. There at Sqirl, the bunch of usa prosecutor, a violinist/librarian, a movie producer (me), and assorted actors, writers, and... smart peoplediscuss crime, music, politics, and just about everything else on this green earth every other Saturday breakfast club in Iowa might discuss except that we are in Silver Lake, the hipster part of LAa hotbed of late nighters and risersand the place is jammed with a line around the block and we are gabbing away highly caffeinated at the crack of 8.

A great restaurant makes a neighborhood. And a neighborhood is defined by its favorite restaurant. Located in a particularly squirrelly and as yet ungentrified part of our nabe, Sqirl retains the things we east-siders love about the east side: Funkiness, a downtown NYC urban decay mixed with haute cuisine you dont have to dress for. (Also its hard to find, like a test.) Its coffee is better than in Milan, whether it be a cup of Joe, cappuccino, or exotic hot beverages that fit perfectly in the hood, with a healthy twist: e.g., vegan horchata made from Koda Farm brown rice and Medjool dates. (!) Really.

At Sqirl, we look at each others orders and comment, even if the diner sitting across from us is a stranger who then isnt any longer. Oh, I love the brown rice porridge, its the best ever. Youre having the crispy rice salad? Next time order the house bacon with it. You never tasted bacon like this. Also, I might add, I accidentally eat healthily at Sqirl. I cant help it. Even the bacon is healthy.

And the line! The extravagantly down-dressed regulars fresh from the manhole/wormhole that connects Sqirl with its compatriot foodies in Brooklyn. There are newly arrived Japanese with a list of baked goods to buy from some inspired tour book mixing with movie and tech locals and their self-costumed children, all of whom I now know. You can get anything you want at Sqirl. Including a brand-new family of people who all live near you and know what you like to eat for breakfast. And if you ask sweetly, we share.

Lynda Obst

Lynda Obst, Sqirl Family

Citrus party at Mud Creek Ranch in Santa Paula, CA

A cookbook is an incredible snapshot in time of cultural context and personal story. In this case, against a restaurant backdrop. And thats what is interesting to me. Learning about the cookbook author through their food and voice. The good ones are unafraid to be opinionated.

Friday, February 19th at 2:45 pm. Evan Kleiman in conversation with Jessica Koslow

Hands please

68 degrees and falling. Trenchcoat weather.

Ron Cornelsen was a peach

Dawgs of Sqirl

Yasmine Khatib ponies up at the bar

INTRODUCTION

In 2011, I started a jam company called Sqirl in a tiny corner space on the edge of Los Angeless Silver Lake neighborhood. At first it was just me and one employee, Ty Swonger, squirrelling away to the sounds of Sonic Youths Jams Run Free on volume LOUD. We had daily jam sessions. The following year, when I expanded Sqirl into a caf, I wasnt sure people would find me. The sidewalk in front is in rough shape. There is no convenient place to park, which, in LA, matters a lot. And yet, people do come.

) to go, if they are in a rush. In the afternoon, they come for our rotating selection of baked goods: from the pillow-soft Valrhona fleur de sel cookies to the malva pudding cakes with oozy insides and crystallized crusts. Depending on the season, they might find spiced apple butter, strawberry rose geranium preserves, or Blenheim apricot jam to take home in a jar or, if they prefer, to enjoy spread over a slab of brioche toast.

Every day, Sqirl closes at 4 pm. We put the same care and attention into breakfast and lunch that most restaurants direct toward dinner. Why shouldnt breakfast and lunch be just as refreshing and inviting?

HOW I BECAME THE GIRL BEHIND SQIRL

In 2005, after earning a masters in communications from Georgetown University, I moved to Atlanta. Everyone was asking me what I was going to do with my life. The truth is, I had always wanted to cook.