Expresion Oaxaqueña: A Culture at Its Best

J.T.1 Comment

Take it from a well-fed L.A. denizen with Oaxacan roots: a visit to Expresion Oaxaqueña will lift you from Los Angeles into an oasis of the finest Oaxacan flavor.

Like any treasure in L.A., the place is easy to zip past when racing against the traffic lights, but if you’re smart enough to pull over to the side of Expresion to give it a shot, you’re not going to forget it. On a first visit with a small party, I’d recommend trying out their chicken mole.

In case you’re wondering: yes, it IS every bit as wet and chocolaty as it looks. And yes, when mixed with tender grilled chicken it IS going to dramatically alter the way you like your chicken and sauces.

On another visit with a larger party, I’d recommend the tlayuda, which is basically a little island where the sand is made up of ground beans and queso fresco on top of which there’s sprawled a little village of avocados, tomatoes, chorizo, and a bunch of other goodies just waiting to get wiped out by the waves of a furious appetite.

Again, by the time you’re done, the tlayuda WILL make you rethink about the way you like your Mexican food. It might even make you rethink about your political affiliation through some crazy food-coma induced epiphany. Or about the start of the universe.

The face of a food-coma, at Expresion Oaxaqueña.
The face of a food-coma, at Expresion Oaxaqueña.

Either way, only one thing’s for sure: as any of my friends or family could tell you, these dishes are only THE BEGINNING of what Jerry Seinfeld might call a long and meaningful relationship between you and Expresion.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: it can’t get any better. But of course it gets better.

After you’re done with your meal, sure you can wash it all down with some horchata or piña colada, but doing so would only be smart if you followed these drinks up with some of the finest coffee available in Los Angeles.

Let me put it this way. In all my years of devotedly treasuring hot chocolate, cappuccinos, white chocolate mochas, and other sweet and dark flavors, I often wondered how it was that I didn’t quite take to coffee like so many of my friends claimed to do, quietly believing that most of the coffee generally found in cafes was actually rather bitter and stale despite my peers’ appreciation for it.

At Expresion Oaxaqueña, this suspicion was confirmed RIGHT ALL ALONG. I couldn’t treasure what we generally call coffee in SoCal because I simply hadn’t had the cinnamon-rich sweetness of OAXACAN COFFEE yet!

To put it lightly, ever since I rejoiced in this splendor, my standards for coffee have significantly been updated: Basically, if it’s not Oaxacan coffee or at least within range, then it’s probably not really worth it, to be honest with ya’.

Think I’m just exaggerating?! I can assure you that if you’ve got a sweet tooth like I do, then sippin’ on Oaxacan coffee will drive your taste buds CRAZY! After all, do you think anyone who wasn’t CRAZY would ramble on as long as I have for a single drink?! Of course not. But I’m not crazy anyhow! I’m just in love with the cafesito here!

Seriously though, can someone get me a refill already?!

If you’re in the Koreatown area any time soon, don’t miss out! Rest assured, I won’t.

How the Job Hunt Imitates Chess

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The job hunt is on. Earlier this week I officially joined the influx of recent college graduates looking for work in an effort to reach the next chapter of my legacy. After sending out my resume to at least thirty different organizations, it’s become clear that the hype about joblessness isn’t just hyperbole after all, but it’s for real! It’s harsh. It’s cold out there. And it reminds me of chess.

In chess, when my game starts heading into a direction that I dislike, a wave of regret washes over me. I look back, and I want to think about what I could have done better. Similarly, as the job hunt bares its fangs, I consider my days as an undergraduate student and think about how I could have done more; I think to myself: maybe rather than spending so much of my time chasing great conversations, girls and poetry, I could have spent that time looking for certain work to fall back on after graduating, like at a diner or some office. Or, if not that, I think I could have focused more on my assignments in order to have greater accolades to walk into the game with, and thus a safer, smarter position. Then I think that maybe I could have just chosen another major, or gone to a technical school instead of a community college.

A tough chess game inspires the same kind of regret, where after I find myself in a rut of anger over the mistakes I made which placed me in the tough spot to begin with, I not only just want to quit the game right then and there, but I consider the very act of taking the moment to play as the biggest mistake of them all.

For a moment I want to believe that I never should have played the game to begin with, and that considering my terrible track record, which could only worsen with another terrible game, I should just avoid approaching a chessboard ever again.

Of course, a moment later, I can only smile at this line of thought, as giving into the idea that I simply had too much fun during college could only be as crazy as believing that I’d be better off in my life if I’d never learned how to play chess. Both of these things aren’t just bad ideas, but they also forget about the bigger picture.

The truth is –my favorite truth, at least– is that even as I spent so many of my days and nights throughout college as an avid socialite looking for a good time, I was also simultaneously growing my network, writing, and taking advantage of ever more opportunities to further my potential; since the moment I joined the Model UN club during my first year at Pasadena, in addition to being a student, I was also a writer, an activist, a leader, and a world’s worth of other things that made the college experience ten times more memorable. More than anything, though, I was adventurous!

Not only did I trust that going after great ideas, great conversations, and other kinds of pleasure would simply make me happier than the students who focused solely on their work, but I also trusted that my happiness was the most crucial part of being a great student, writer and all that other stuff in the first place! In hindsight, I think it’s fair to say that those decisions paid off, as I’m still as filled with a love for adventure today as I was six years ago when I first stepped into the unfamiliar territory that was a college education.

With this in mind, not only does it hit me that I was right on track during college, but I also realize that even if there was a better way to do things, it’s all over now anyhow! And that just like a bad relationship, bad spaghetti, or a poorly calculated chess move, what’s done is done, but it’s also done for good reason. So that I can learn from it.

In turn, being hard on myself for the way I’ve chosen to lead my life isn’t just akin to a blunder of a chess move, it’s also counter-productive! After all, I’m looking for work, aren’t I?! In order to deliver the best on my resumes and cover letters, I have to feel my best.

Once again, then, the job hunt is just like chess; if I’m going to play, not only do I want to play with deep focus and resolve, but I want to play with the confidence that I CAN WIN.

And how do I do that? Well, I can consider how over the span of thousands of games that I’ve played, it’s true that I’ve lost many, many times. However, it is equally true that I’ve also won many times.

The same is true with my track record during school, along with my track record applying for a job: whether it was a lazy cover letter, a grade I felt I didn’t deserve, an interview that could have gone better, a poetry slam I could have done more preparation for, or any other test of my character which didn’t turn out the way I wanted, the simple truth is that I’ve won some, and I’ve lost some. But the thing is, I am ultimately determined to win more than I lose.

Which leads to the last point. In the time after college, until further notice, the job hunt itself is my job at the moment! Or the ultimate chess game. While this might seem obvious at first, what might not be so clear is how I’ve got to approach the job like I treat the game;  with chess, each game is a little different, and possibly even harder than the last. But in keeping my head up and working through the losses with the same resolve that leads to the victories, I am confident that I will see a better day. A day in which I’ve got more wins than losses, and then some.

As such, I’ve got to get back to work! As always, the game awaits me yet again, and I live to play. It’s just what I do.

September 11, 2001: 13 Years Later

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Los Angeles, Runyon Canyon
Los Angeles, Runyon Canyon

Today marks the thirteenth anniversary of the World Trade Center Attacks. I believe that if there’s a single day in modern history that marked the loss of innocence for my generation, the millennial generation, it’s definitely the day now known as ‘9/11’. Or at least, this is what should be clear to most people who consider themselves informed. What’s more true, however, is that everyone has been affected by 9/11; whether we’re aware of it or not, history binds each citizen of the world to another, indefinitely.

In 2014, neither the U.S nor the world is actually any safer following the ‘war on terror’ declared by then President Bush on September 11, 2001. In fact, not only is the U.S still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan (not to mention Pakistan, Yemen, and–in a matter of days–Syria and more), but it is also still mired in a spiritual and political crisis from within, as war abroad is intrinsic with war on a domestic level.

Simply put: as long as unchecked privilege, prejudice, and ignorance continue to inform the decisions made within our governments, and within our schools and universities, and within the work environments that we’re a part of, we will continue to lose our way from the common humanity that brought so many people of this country together on that tragic morning.

Rather than just commemorating 9/11 for the sake of entertaining patriotism, then, we should lend our attention to what is still lacking in our policies toward human rights both in the U.S. and around the world. In doing so, we can finally move from working against one another to working with one another. This, I believe, is the only true way to honor each life lost since that day, and each life that’s still being lost to war, bigotry, and the countless other brutalities we inflict on one another in the name of civilization.

We can do it. If we are honest enough with ourselves about how far we’ve come and how far we’ve still got to go as a nation and global community, we can still be more civilized, righteous, and whole. Of course, it’s not just difficult to take a critical look at ourselves and one another, it can be one of the most difficult things of all.

But if on the morning of that terrible September day there were enough heroes who gave their lives to help their fellow men and women in need, surely there are still enough of them left to take a moment for others today, none of whom are tougher, nor smarter, nor better in any way than those before them, but whom instead are just as human.