JSLALALAND

CITY & ITS PEOPLE

Where to go in LA when you're homesick

Homesickness in LA usually starts with craving one dish. This map of Taiwanese flavors isn't sorted by area but by what you're craving: breakfast, rice balls, beef noodle soup, braised pork rice, popcorn chicken, tofu pudding, boba.

Translated from Jasmine’s original Chinese. The illustrated slides are on the interactive reader.

Key points

Full text

  1. When you're craving a Taiwanese breakfast

    Huge Tree Pastry (Monterey Park): rice rolls, soy milk, sesame flatbread, cash only, closed Wednesdays. Four Seas soy milk (Hacienda Heights): soy milk, fried crullers, turnip cake, also cash only.

  2. When you're craving a purple rice ball

    Yi Mei is in both San Gabriel and Rowland Heights: purple rice rolls, soy milk, beef rolls.

  3. When you're craving a bowl of beef noodle soup

    Corner Beef Noodle House in El Monte has handmade noodles; outside the 626, Pine & Crane (Silver Lake, DTLA) has beef noodle soup, braised pork rice and shaved ice.

  4. When you're craving braised pork rice

    Half and Half (San Gabriel) is only open Thursday to Sunday; Joy in Highland Park has braised pork rice, dan dan noodles and scallion pancakes, the Eastside's taste of Taiwan.

  5. When you're craving popcorn chicken

    Zero Gravitea (San Gabriel) opens at 6 p.m. and runs till midnight, closed Tuesdays; hours change, so check IG first. Golden Leaf is closed Monday and Tuesday. Late-night popcorn chicken is the 626's gift to us.

  6. When you're craving tofu pudding or shaved ice

    Meet Fresh is in Arcadia, Temple City and Hacienda Heights: taro balls, tofu pudding, grass jelly; City of Industry also has Taro Yuan.

  7. When you're craving boba

    Chicha San Chen has spread from the 626 to Koreatown and Sawtelle; Kuei Ji, next to 99 Ranch in San Gabriel, is its first overseas franchise; Oolong Tea Project in Rowland Heights closes at 7 p.m.

  8. When you miss the night market

    Bopomofo Cafe in San Gabriel: creative drinks, popcorn chicken, mapo tater tots, Taiwanese flavor with a bit of LA playfulness.

  9. When you're so homesick you don't want to go out

    Order Taiwanese snacks and frozen dumplings on Weee!, cook a pot of white rice in the Tatung rice cooker, and do the time-zone math before calling family in Taiwan (Taipei is 16 hours ahead, 15 during daylight saving).

  10. Two-city mirror

    In Taipei, the breakfast shop is downstairs; in LA, the breakfast shop is a 30-minute drive. What's everyday in Taipei is, in LA, homesickness you have to drive to.

  11. When you're homesick

    Every time you get that bite, it's like someone saying 'welcome back.' When you're homesick, go have a bowl, then get back to work.

In this series

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An original JSLALALAND field guide by Jasmine Chang (@jslalaland).