"No corner of the city was untouched by Jonathan Gold, who had locals crawling throughout the city to try everything from the best xiao long bao to goat birria: “The day I got back to Los Angeles, I went to El Parian on Pico, to try the birria while the taste of 9 Esquinas lingered on my tongue, to see if what I had once called the single best Mexican dish in L.A. measured up to the best of Guadalajara. It came pretty close. The tortillas were thick and fresh; the chile-smeared rib meat was crisp on its bones. The broth sang with garlic and spice but mostly with a strong, goaty essence, a barnyard smack that could as well have come from the Jalisco mountains instead of from a restaurant a few blocks from the convention center. It tasted of Guadalajara. And of home.” [LAW]" - Crystal Coser