Food, Glorious Punk Rock Food

Oki Dog is hallowed ground in Los Angeles punk. This is an image from the cool Hot Dog Spot blog, and it shows the new Oki Dog location on Fairfax Ave., around the corner from the old Santa Monica Blvd. location - the one where we 1970s punks would hang out forever into the night, enjoying the freak show of the pill-popping counter guys, totally speeded out, making the weirdest combination of food involving hot dogs and tortillas.

Indeed, hot dogs themselves have a warm spot in many a punk rock heart.... witness some images from the Punk Turns 30 opening reception at Goner Fest 2 in 2005...a hot dog cook-out hosted by Memphis's greatest punk men - Eric Oblivian and Final Solutions frontman, Zac Ives, who are also the proprietors of the Goner Records Store and label.


Here's Eric getting the party started.


Aron Ives and Zac enjoying Gus's Fried Chicken, another Memphis carnivorous delight.


Chris Martel of Watch Me Eat a Hot Dog fame.

But reading today's New York Times, as I do each and every day (after all, it IS the paper of record, no matter where you happen to be living on any particular day), I read with great excitement, a story about punk rock vegan chef, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who sounds like a total kitchen goddess. She told the Times, “I think vegan cooks need to learn to cook vegetables first,” she said last week during a cupcake-baking marathon. “Then maybe they can be allowed to move on to meat substitutes.” My sentiments exactly. Me, I'm not a big fan of fake meat. I think if you're a vegetarian.... eat vegetables, not fake meat! Me, I also just plain love food - and I don't miss meat in a meal if the food is good. Before I go on, I recommend checking out the piece in the Times and then visit The Post Punk Kitchen for a great read, and some punk rock action in the kitchen and some recipes. This is not your 1970s hippie vegan action, OK? Because my generation of punk rockers, from the 70s, were vehemently anti-hippie and everything they stood for. This is some kind of vegetarian movement I can live with.