Wilder Hungers: Coachella, California and Young’s

HI STRADDLERS, So much to tell you all! Sorry for my absence as of late. I got a new job writing for Epicurious, which has been a dream. On top of that my girlfriend and I went to California for Coachella and stayed for a week after to do some road tripping and desert exploring, but more on that later!

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First, let me tell you about this amazing dinner we had at the Young’s vegan pop up restaurant last night. When the lovely Laneia e-mailed me and asked if I wanted to cover the event for AS, I said yes without even knowing what it was. After doing my research I learned that Young’s was started by Jessica Young and Alexander Meyers, two French Culinary grads like myself! They are basically doing some pretty epic things with local vegetables which I will prove to you right now.

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Here’s what we ate: The amuse-bouche was a cipollini onion with a caramel and crispy fried ginger situation. It was the perfect morsel. Course 1: Fava beans with spring pea custard, chickpea crisps, and mint

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Course 2: Ramps with barley cooked in tea, vanilla-glazed turnips, and pineapple sage.

The dessert course was everything I love all at once on a plate. There were beets, blackberries, cacao butter, and dark chocolate ice cream.

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Many thanks to Jessica Young for having me and taking me to a state I can only describe as veggie nirvana. If you’d like to get in on this, Young’s is popping up for two more nights — use the code #AUTOSTRADDLE when you reserve your tickets!

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Now. Let’s talk California. Oh how I miss it. I brushed the dust off my sandals this morning (because it was warm enough in NYC for sandals!) and I shed a little tear thinking of how much I miss the desert. After staying in Palm Springs for Coachella we headed to Joshua Tree, LA, and eventually Vegas and Death Valley. Here are some photos of our trip and some of the tasty yummies that went along with it!

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Gabriella

Gabriella has written 26 articles for us.

13 Comments

  1. gorgeous photos, the food looks amazing, and I need a weird green jumpsuit like that in my life

  2. Venice Beach is just something else. All the food here looks tempting. What is the red-ish stuff in the last picture, with the rice?

  3. Yeah, I love it too….any chance of some food captions if you have time? :)

    • Of course!
      The pizza is from Gjelina in Venice. It had nettles, garlic confit, fresno chili, raclette and parmesan cheese. On the side we had turnips with chimichurri.

      The egg sandwiches are from Eggslut in Grand Central Market. Mine had soft scrambled eggs, chives, cheddar, caramelized onions, and sriracha mayo.
      My girlfriends had turkey sausage and honey mustard aioli

      The bottom picture is from Sqirl in Silverlake. FAVORITE PLACE EVER. My dish was brown rice with sorrel pesto, lacto fermented hot sauce, sheeps feta cheese, black radishes, preserved lemon, and poached egg. Then there was the brown butter lemon verbena blondie. My girlfriend had brioche toast with kale, tomatillo puree, the hot sauce, and a fried egg!

      :))

      • Thanks Gabriella. Those flavour combo’s sounded damn good.. Thanks for sharing your adventures, beautiful food and landscape photos… so inspiring :):)

  4. I feel the same way looking at this as when I read Beyonce’s Tumblr. Like, do we even live in the same universe? How is it possible for you to be so gorgeous and interesting and surrounded by such gorgeous and interesting things all the time? (I understand there is editing, but still.)

    I love this column so much.

    • This is probably the best and sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me <3
      I've been waiting my whole life to be compared to Beyonce in some regard.

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