{"id":545,"date":"2012-04-24T13:23:38","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T20:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=545"},"modified":"2012-04-24T13:28:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T20:28:00","slug":"notebook-on-cities-and-culture-s1e17-food-film-and-frugality-with-99-cent-chef-billy-vasquez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=545","title":{"rendered":"Notebook on Cities and Culture S1E17: Food, Film, and Frugality with 99-Cent Chef Billy Vasquez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-546\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" title=\"billy cleaver\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/2012\/04\/billy-cleaver.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"242\" height=\"300\" \/>Colin Marshall takes a trip to the 99\u00a2 Only Store and beyond with Billy Vasquez, better known as the <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/\">99 Cent Chef<\/a>. They discuss the store as a prime venue for peoplewatching (whether the people dress in their Sunday best or in pink-striped miniskirts); the appeal of midcentury Googie diner architecture; how he drove out to Venice Beach on the 10 and stayed in Los Angeles for 37 years; the meaty usefulness of both chorizo and soyrizo; asparagus, a product you&#8217;d never have found at any 99-cent store a decade ago; 99-cent Italian beer with 99-cent Italian pasta, and 99-cent German beer with 99-cent German chocolate cake-coated marshmallows; ingredient substitution (like cumin for curry powder) as the essential skill of the 99-cent gourmand; the strange allure of <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/2008\/10\/corn-dog-party-video.html\">Vienna Sausage corn dogs<\/a>; inventing the only <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/john-cassavetes-red-pepper-olive-oil.html\">pasta that pays tribute to John Cassavetes<\/a>; the suicidal possibilities of marshmallow ropes; the delicious possibilities of <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/2010\/10\/portabello-crab-rockefeller.html\">portobello crab rockefeller<\/a>; the Banquet-to-Contessa spectrum of <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/search\/label\/frozen\">frozen dinners<\/a>; the two-piece 99-cent deal to be had every Tuesday at <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/2008\/03\/my-99-cent-dinner-with-nuno.html\">Popeyes&#8217;<\/a>; the Los Angeles Expo Line as a glorious passageway to places like <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/2010\/08\/earlez-grille-hot-dogs-in-south-la.html\">Earlez Grille<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/2010\/08\/lets-be-frank-100-grass-fed-beef-hot.html\">Let&#8217;s Be Frank<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/2009\/03\/chef-marilyns-soul-food-express-99c-up.html\">Chef Marilyn&#8217;s Soul Food Express<\/a>, and his adventures at <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/2009\/11\/subway-ride-to-squash-blossom.html\">cheap eateries on rail lines past<\/a>; how his Cajun heritage taught him, with nutria and crayfish, that you can eat anything; his street photography, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/the99centchef.blogspot.com\/search\/label\/restaurant%20nocturnes\">Restaurant Nocturnes<\/a> video series that came out of it; and all of the fascinating contradictions of Los Angeles, a city both beautiful and tarnished, that just might disappear if you don&#8217;t water it.<\/p>\n<p>Download the interview from <em>Notebook on Cities and Culture\u2019<\/em>s feed <a href=\"http:\/\/colinmarshall.libsyn.com\/webpage\/s1e17-food-film-and-frugality-with-99-cent-chef-billy-vasquez\">here<\/a> or on iTunes <a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/notebook-on-cities-culture\/id266539442\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colin Marshall takes a trip to the 99\u00a2 Only Store and beyond with Billy Vasquez, better known as the 99 Cent Chef. They discuss the store as a prime venue for peoplewatching (whether the people dress in their Sunday best or in pink-striped miniskirts); the appeal of midcentury Googie diner architecture; how he drove out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notebook-on-cities-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":548,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}