Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles
by Jonathan Gold
Recommended by B.J. Novak
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Counter Intelligence reads like roaming Los Angeles through other people’s kitchens: quick entries, vivid observations, and a long tail of “you probably haven’t heard of this” meal ideas. What works best is the sheer specificity—dishes, places, and the sense of ethnic communities feeding themselves. The main limitation is lack of a single storyline; if you prefer explanations over impressions, or you want practical, repeatable guidance (how to recreate, what to order first, why it matters), you may find the abundance of recommendations repetitive or uneven.
This summary and audience guidance are AI-generated from the book's description and its recommendation history, last updated May 2026. Recommendations, quotes and sources elsewhere on this page come from published material and are not generated.
Jonathan Gold has eaten it all. Counter Intelligence collects over 200 of Gold's best restaurant discoveriesfrom inexpensive lunch counters you won't find on your own to the perfect undiscovered dish at a beatenpath establishment. He reveals the hidden kitchens where Los Angeles' ethnic communities feed their own, including the best of cuisine f...
Difficulty:hard
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View available editions on AmazonWhy recommended
Recommended by 1 source and appears in Food, Hobbies, and Food.
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
B.J. Novak
“When I first moved to Los Angeles, Jonathan Gold's book "Counter Intelligence" is what taught me to see it as a city of neighborhoods and people. If you are interested to learn why he meant so much to people, the documentary "City of Gold" beautifully captures his spirit.”
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Consider Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen. Recommended by 10 sources.
“Accidental Presidents offers eight narrative portraits of men who succeeded to the U.S. presidency without election, using anecdote-rich scenes and readable context to show how personality and circumstance interact with office power. It’s strongest as a set of self-contained stories that make succession stakes concrete for non-specialist readers; it does not prioritize dense archival argument or exhaustive methodology, so expect some interpretive generalizations and repeated themes across cases. Use it for fast historical orientation rather than scholarly deep-dives.”
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
