My Favorite Breakfasts in LA
RECS #29: "Hamnet," Khruangbin, and "The Brutalist."
Dear friends,
I’m writing this on Sunday, and I’m sprawled out on my deliciously plush bed, having just woken up from an hour-long nap. Outside my windows the bare trees that flank my block continue to shake and sway in the wind that hasn’t stopped blowing since the first day of the year. My limbs and lips are starting to crack, no matter how much lotion and Aquaphor I apply to them, and I’m thinking about how I have to go back into the office this week.
The past few days have been quiet. I attended a fabulous get together on New Year’s Eve and have been recluse-adjacent ever since. I ran some, grabbed a warm coffee with Al in Williamsburg, and experienced “Luna Luna” with Conor. But, mostly, I’ve read, watched movies, and ate my mother’s cooking. I anticipate this next week, and probably the rest of 2025, will be a constant buzz of activity, so I’m savoring this time without obligation, but more on that later.
READING: My favorite gifts to give and receive are books. It’s a privilege to know someone well enough to predict their tastes—whether to pick fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classics. Unsurprisingly, I gave books by Elena Ferrante, as well as by Patrick Radden Keefe, Rebecca Makkai, Flannery O’Connor, Emily Henry, and Naoise Dolan. From my mom, however, I received “Hamnet,” by Maggie O’Farrell. I’m not often drawn to historical fiction, but this fictionalized account of Shakespeares’ family life has swept me up. It’s vivid, whimsical, and romantic, and it’s been a welcome companion to the bitterly cold weather. Before this, I whipped through “Intermezzo,” which I was prepared to dislike. Sally Rooney’s previous book felt unsurprising and stale to me, so I was apprehensive about her latest. And while it had its flaws, namely the flatness of two of its main female characters, the novel’s depiction of siblinghood—with its intimacies, melodrama, frustrations, and steady loyalty—was moving and precise. I wept through the last few pages.
EATING: I spent the days between Christmas and New Year’s in Los Angeles, where I ate lots of cookies and a couple of great breakfast sandwiches. On these short trips back to the Valley, I give up on efforts to eat anywhere new. All I want are my most reliable favorites: tacos from Cactus, a sandwich or a salad from Aroma, sushi from Katsu-ya, and a breakfast burrito from Erewhon. It is totally inauthentic, but it is literally the only thing from the over-priced grocery store that I crave—with its crispy potato strips, fluffy eggs, cheese, and bacon. Unfortunately for me, I arrived on a Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and was told that breakfast was finished, because apparently no one in Los Angeles has ever slept in. Anyways, I wound up at Uncle Paulie’s Deli, a New York-style shop that has long been a favorite of mine, and picked up a mortadella, egg, and cheese on a poppy-seed Kaiser roll. It was creamy, salty, and the perfect companion to my post-run, post-night-out headache. A couple days prior, I opened up two boxes from Ggiata, a Jersey-style deli that has storefronts all over L.A. One was filled with “The Lily,” a sandwich with eggs, prosciutto, arugula, and cheese, and another filled with their rosemary and parmesan hashbrowns. While New York reigns supreme when it comes to breakfast sandwiches, these two delis satiate my savory morning cravings every time I’m on the other coast. We did, thank heavens, make it to Katsu-ya, where we ordered the classics: spicy tuna on crispy rice, albacore with crispy onions, a baked crab hand roll, and spicy rock shrimp tempura. No matter how many other locations they open, the Studio City Katsu-ya will remain superior for its unfussy atmosphere and delicate bites.
CONSUMING: As I said last week, one of my resolutions this year was to try and dive deeper into musicians I like—listening to an album all the way through instead of the singles that Spotify recommends. Over the last few days, I’ve indulged in, and thoroughly enjoyed, “A La Sala,” by Khruangbin (apologies to Tara and Caitlin to whom I didn’t listen when they separately told me about this band months ago) and “Sound & Color,” by Alabama Shakes, which I am so delayed in discovering. Otherwise, I’ve watched a few movies, including “Nosferatu” and “The Brutalist.” The former was beautiful but, despite great performances, empty; the latter was beautiful and, despite being three and half hours long, enriching. Next up, I’m eager to see “Nickel Boys,” “The Substance,” and “Sing Sing.” In between all of this, I binged season two of “Bad Sisters.” It got messier than I thought was necessary and wasn’t as smart and tight as season one, but the Garvey sisters are ridiculously fun, so I watched the whole thing in three days.
SAVORING: It was a quiet week, apart from New Year’s. The Wednesday start made the first five days of January feel like a restful purgatory. Work was slow and entirely virtual, so there was nowhere I really had to be. I allowed myself time to spend on my more actionable resolutions (stretching more, journaling in the morning, reading at night), as well as time to just lie around watching television or movies or reading or scrolling, though I’m trying to limit that last one. I can’t say any of it made today feel like an easier Monday to surmount, but at least I felt like I’d used the beginning of my year wisely and peacefully.
Talk soon,
Erin
I get so excited when I see a new Dinner Conversation in my inbox. They just get better and better. So glad you liked Hamnet, and I miss Katsu-ya. The one in Studio City is the only one.