A Beautiful Life’s mother-daughter team opened ABL Hollywood on April 22 in a 35-seat space formerly used as a boba shop. Aja Dawson and her mother, Barbara, draw on Jamaican-Chinese heritage through dishes such as jerk fried egg rolls and chen pi ji-style chicken wings. Aja grew up in Los Angeles and previously sold patties and Jamaican food through pop-ups and a food truck before opening A Beautiful Life in 2013. The menu blends Jamaican staples with Chinese diaspora influences, reflecting historical migration to Jamaica beginning in the mid-1800s. Offerings include oxtail macaroni and cheese, patties, coco bread, jerk-seasoned fried oysters, escovitch snapper, ginger branzino, curry fried rice, and oxtail platters with caramelized plantains and rice and peas.
"Aja Dawson and her mother, Barbara, explore their family's heritage in dishes such as jerk fried egg rolls and chen pi ji-style chicken wings in an intimate 35-seat space that used to be a boba shop."
"The new project diverges from the often traditional Jamaican dishes that can be found in Los Angeles's Caribbean restaurants by exploring the intersection of Jamaican and Chinese diasporic cultures, which has a long history: records show that, as early as 1854, English plantation owners in Jamaica brought over Chinese and Southeast Asian migrants to work as indentured laborers."
"“When growing up, my mom made jerk chicken bao,” says Aja. “ABL is all about paying homage to my family, mom, grandparents, diaspora, and the intersectionality of what makes up our genetic code.”"
"On the menu, diners can find crowd-pleasers like oxtail macaroni and cheese, traditional beef and vegetarian patties, coco bread, and an oxtail platter with caramelized plantains and rice and peas. Oysters get doused with jerk seasoning before being fried crispy, while jerk fried egg rolls arrive filled with a choice of earthy jerk chicken, vegetables, or fall-apart oxtail."
Read at Eater LA
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]