Counter Intelligence - by Jonathan Gold (Paperback)

About the Book

Gold is a hound for the best food in all of Los Angeles. In "Counter Intelligence" he collects the best of what he has eaten across the city in an alphabetically organized guide that covers broad, deep ethnic and traditional food outlets. Ratings, pricing information and cross-references by location and food type make this book easy to use.

Book Synopsis

"Gold changed American food writing."--Time

The only food critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, Jonathan Gold pioneered a humanist's approach to reviewing restaurants: COUNTER INTELLIGENCE collects over 200 of his legendary reviews, which were as much about Los Angeles' neighborhoods and people as about what you were going to eat. He revealed the hidden kitchens where Los Angeles' immigrant communities fed their own, including the best of cuisine from Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Burma, Canton, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam and more. Not to mention the indigenous dishes of L.A. car culture: the perfectly-prepared hamburger and the quintessential hot dog.

Originally published in 2000, COUNTER INTELLIGENCE remains an entry point to the food of the country's most diverse culinary landscape; though some of the restaurants it lists have vanished as the twenty-first century has worn on (and its prices remain a point of nostalgia), "you could read it like a novel and be very satisfied (Ruth Reichl)".

Review Quotes

Gold's "curious, far-ranging, relentless explorations of his native Los Angeles helped his readers understand dozens of cuisines and helped the city understand itself....He may not have eaten everything in Los Angeles, but nobody came closer."--Pete Wells, The New York Times

"Gold redefined the genre."--Los Angeles Times

"Before Tony Bourdain, before reality TV....and (before) people really being into ethnic food in a serious way...Jonathan...got that food was a gateway into the people, and that food could really define a community."--Ruth Reichl, former editor-in-chief of Gourmet and author of TENDER AT THE BONE

About the Author

Jonathan Gold was born in Los Angeles, went to school in Los Angeles and served for many years as the chief food critic for the Los Angeles Times. The reviews in COUNTER INTELLIGENCE appeared in Gold's food column for L.A. Weekly. He also served as a New York restaurant critic for Gourmet. In addition to his Pulitzer prize, which cited Gold's "zestful, wide-ranging restaurant reviews, expressing the delight of an erudite eater", Gold won nine James Beard Foundation awards for his writing, including the MFK Fisher Prize for distinguished writing and the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award. He was also the subject of the 2015 documentary "City of Gold". Gold died in Los Angeles in 2018.