/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/39252210/2009_12_elparian-thumb.0.png)
Right off the bat The Goldster declares "El Parian, [his] favorite Los Angeles birria restaurant" followed by a lengthy discussion on the foods found in Guadalajara and Jalisco. After recently spending time in South and Southeastern LA Gold sampled birria almost every day: "stewy birria and crunchy birria, boiled birria and birria that tasted like a Sunday roast." However, he writes "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]