Sees Candy Little Old Lady Ive Never Done It and Ill Never Do It Again
California Today
See'south Turns 100. Plus Other Quintessentially California Foods.
Avocados, In-N-Out Burger, sourdough bread and more.
LOS ANGELES — To the untrained center, a strip of littered sidewalk forth Western Avenue appears to be cypher more than an empty storefront that was recently home to a java shop.
Simply if you look carefully, there are clues virtually the edifice's more distant past: The brick facade is painted white, fragile carvings adorn the eaves, and if you crane your neck, you can see the modest plaque nailed to a streetlamp that marks the spot equally a historic site.
Hither, in what's at present this metropolis'south Koreatown, the first Encounter'southward Candies opened a century ago this calendar month.
When I was growing up in Southern California, Encounter's treats felt ubiquitous; the candy boxes, given as gifts, oft piled up in our house during the holidays. Just until a few weeks agone, I hadn't known that the visitor'due south headquarters were in San Francisco, let lonely that the original store was two miles from where I live now.
In fact, three-quarters of the visitor'due south 250 shops are in California, the See'southward chief executive, Pat Egan, told me. Information technology is 1 of the oldest businesses founded in the state.
"If yous're born in California you take information technology for granted," Egan said.
Concerned I had some California bullheaded spots, I fabricated a recent plea on Twitter for people to name foods they associate with California.
There are some easy ones, where it'southward right in the name: California cuisine, California-fashion pizza (information technology's existent, there's a Wikipedia page), the California roll and the California burrito.
And at that place are crops we grow in abundance: avocados, almonds, pistachios, grapes, boysenberries, strawberries, garlic and more.
Simply beyond that, things go murkier. My Twitter question yielded hundreds of suggestions and a fair amount of bickering but no articulate answer.
Plenty of chains started here — In-N-Out, McDonald's, Male monarch Taco, Taco Bell, Tommy'due south and Trader Joe's — simply so many take expanded out of land that the California association has faded.
California has specialty dishes, but they tend to exist regional: Santa Maria tri-tip, the San Francisco fish stew cioppino, Los Angeles'due south chicken and waffles, bacon-wrapped hot dogs and doughnuts sold in pink paper boxes.
In that location are Asian and Latin American foods that California does well — tacos, burritos, Korean BBQ, dim sum, sriracha — but you could contend those aren't truly Californian considering they originated elsewhere.
The obvious rub here is that there are nearly 40 million people living in California and probably but equally many opinions almost what constitutes Californian food. And, every bit I've realized about myself, nosotros enjoy a certain happy ignorance most the things we eat.
The snacks nosotros binged late at night in college or the takeout we grab on the way home from piece of work experience similar such personal choices that we're rarely thinking about their place in a greater food taxonomy. The meals are satisfying and available, and that's the end of it.
When I asked my co-worker raised in the Bay Area about California foods, she brought up boba tea, Philz Coffee, Ike'due south Sandwiches and sourdough staff of life. But she didn't mention two of her favorites — See'south and the chocolate-dipped ice cream sandwiches It'S-ITs — because she hadn't known their California roots.
It wasn't until she was watching the Netflix show "Never Have I Ever," and saw a Sherman Oaks family unit with a Encounter's Candies cabinet that she realized her parents had also tended to buy See'southward boxes in bulk. And information technology wasn't until her conversation with me that she realized maybe at that place was something Californian almost this.
When I was a kid, I dismissed Run into's because I didn't like picking through the assorted boxes that often sat on our kitchen counter. It wasn't until loftier schoolhouse when my best friend dragged me into a See'south shop that I got to choose my flavors and my opinion inverse. (My favorites are the raspberry creams.)
Last week, I walked into a Encounter'due south shop and took in the familiar black-and-white checkered floor and the framed photo of Mary See.
Charles Run across began the business in 1921 using his female parent Mary's recipes for maple walnut creams, Victoria toffee and other candies. The company chop-chop expanded — it had a dozen stores in Los Angeles past 1925, later on moved into shopping malls and in 1972 was sold to the billionaire Warren Buffett — simply Mary's face up still appears on every Encounter's box.
The woman working backside the counter offered me a free sample, a tradition whose origins I've learned have been lost to history.
She reached beyond the drinking glass case to hand me a special chocolate created for the company's centennial. I gladly accustomed the footling slice of California.
For more:
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"If the timing was correct and we saw the driver, two or 3 of us would each grab a basin and stitch the street to see him, and if we were lucky, he would fill our bowls with chocolate." — The San Francisco Relate asked readers for their See'due south memories.
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Lucille Ball visited the See'due south factory in Los Angeles to prepare for ane of the most famous episodes of "I Love Lucy."
The rest of the news
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Covid-nineteen boosters: Country public wellness officials said all fully vaccinated adults should be able to receive a booster shot regardless of C.D.C. recommendations, NPR reports.
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Psychedelic medicine: War machine veterans in California and beyond are campaigning to legalize the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs.
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Opioid lawsuits: Two contempo decisions from a California trial gauge and the Oklahoma Supreme Court suggest that a reliance on public nuisance law to concord the pharmaceutical manufacture responsible for opioid deaths might not be effective.
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Redistricting drafts: Afterward losing a congressional seat, California is redrawing its political maps, which could alter central districts, The Associated Printing reports.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
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Firefighters' spousal relationship sues: Firefighters are suing Los Angeles over a vaccine mandate and seeking a temporary restraining lodge against its enforcement, The Los Angeles Daily News reports.
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New hearing Friday: Will the Britney Spears conservatorship end today?
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Celebrity sightings: See Billie Eilish, Steven Spielberg and Miley Cyrus at the LACMA gala.
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San Diego climate target: The city released its goal to reach net zilch emissions by 2035, Voice of San Diego reports.
Cardinal CALIFORNIA
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Dust bowl prevention: Legislators set aside $50 million to assistance farmers reimagine land that is sitting idle, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
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Deadliest highway: A new written report finds that Interstate 280, between San Bruno and Cupertino, is the deadliest highway for wild animals-vehicle collisions, The Associated Press reports.
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Cal football game Covid-xix outbreak: More than two dozen members of U.C. Berkeley's football game team caught the coronavirus despite 99 percentage of its players being vaccinated, The Associated Printing reports.
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Sexual set on investigation: The investigation of former Mayor Dominic Foppoli of Windsor escalated with a law raid of his home, The Press Democrat reports.
Hamburglar alert
On another food front end, Florida's governor this week tried to lure In-Northward-Out Burger out of California — gasp! — where the chain was founded, and into the Sunshine Land.
In-N-Out, a California institution since 1948, has refused to enforce local wellness rules in several parts of California that require customers to testify proof of Covid-xix vaccination to enter the indoor areas of businesses, including restaurants.
"We refuse to go the vaccination police," the company said last month after repeated violations of San Francisco's local mandate forced health inspectors to temporarily close down its Fisherman'south Wharf location. Since then, indoor dining has been suspended at the restaurant, along with several others in Contra Costa Canton.
More than than 250 of the chain's 370-plus locations are in California. The impending showdown has intensified Republican claims that California, led by Democrats, is less business-friendly than Thou.O.P.-dominated states such every bit Florida and Texas.
Last month, after the closure in San Francisco, Florida'south chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, wrote to In-N-Out's president, Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson, expressing his sympathy and noting that Florida opposes "harsh lockdowns and mandates."
On Monday, equally the metropolis of Los Angeles began a sweeping new vaccine mandate that includes indoor dining, that overture was followed by one from Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.
"I wasn't in the room during the phone call, but I sympathize information technology was a productive conversation," the Florida governor'southward spokeswoman, Christina Pushaw, wrote in an electronic mail. "If they tin identify suppliers for all their ingredients here, which we believe is possible, In-Due north-Out could expand to Florida."
Not so fast, In-Due north-Out has since countered.
"The phone call was at the request of Gov. DeSantis and the principal purpose was to plant a business relationship," the company's chief legal counsel and concern officeholder, Arnie Wensinger, said in a statement. "While we are thankful for the gracious invitation, In-Northward-Out Burger has no plans or intention to expand operations or move its corporate headquarters to Florida."
State records show that, as recently as Apr, In-N-Out was awarded a $7 meg tax credit in return for a commitment to create 224 new jobs in its home state. "California is passionate about supporting local businesses, and In-North-Out is a California tradition," said a spokeswoman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, Erin Mellon.
At an economical pinnacle this week, Newsom noted that California's economy has rebounded considerably despite pandemic restrictions. And he had fightin' words of his own for Republican rivals: "Swallow your heart out, Texas and — I'm going to add, only as a picayune punctuation, specially — Florida."
— Shawn Hubler, Times correspondent based in Sacramento
Where we're traveling
Today'due south travel tip comes from Max Farbman, who recommends the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Park in Pacific Grove most Monterey:
"Information technology is an extraordinarily beautiful place of solitude with celestial flight all around you."
Tell the states nearly your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
And earlier you become, some good news
In their spare time, a lawyer and a neurologist in Los Angeles are helping at-gamble women escape danger in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan.
Jahan Shahryar and Dr. Ayesha Sherzai, both of Afghan descent, accept assisted with bringing at to the lowest degree 65 women to the U.s., NBC Los Angeles reports.
"They're the biggest threat to the Taliban authorities considering they are powerful, outspoken women," Shahryar told the news outlet.
Thanks for reading. I'll be back Monday. — Soumya
P.S. Here's today'due south Mini Crossword , and a inkling: Pack animal of the Incas (five letters).
Shawn Hubler, Steven Moity and Mariel Wamsley contributed to California Today. You lot can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com .
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/us/sees-candies-california-foods.html
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