Food critic Jonathan Gold attends a 9-course marijuana dinner

Pulitzer-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who recently departed the L.A. Weekly to join the Los Angeles Times, writes about his experience attending a nine-course "Marijuana and Chinese Herbs" dinner hosted by serial restauranteur Nguyen Tran and prepared by chef Laurent Quenioux. High Times columnist Elise McDonough, author of the newly-released "The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook" (look for my Boing Boing review soon!) was among those in attendance. Snip from Gold's review:

When Nguyen Tran emailed to tell me about an extravaganza he was setting up at an acquaintance's house, a special herb dinner in which each of the many courses would involve fresh marijuana, I did not necessarily beg to be included in the feast. The first time I met Tran, on a social-media panel somewhere, he happened to be wearing a banana suit, and he has been known to show up to food events dressed as a tauntaun from "The Empire Strikes Back." I like his Starry Kitchen, a pan-Asian lunchroom in a downtown office-building food court, and I admire the running pop-up restaurant he mounts with chef Laurent Quenioux. But the notion of an “herb” dinner wasn't especially my thing. The last time I had sampled this particular herb was many years ago, in the course of reporting a story on Snoop Dogg and his 15 pit bulls, and its culinary uses were not apparent even back then.

Read the rest here.

(Photo: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2012: Marijuana leaves are laid out in preparation for one of several courses.)

• [Mack Reed]

  Dinner that gives you the munchies sounds like a moebius strip meal.

• [Alex Williams]

  I was there, and it was an excellent meal which concentrated much more heavily on the delicious chinese dishes and herbs than the weed.  Also, while they weren’t talked about in the article, the subsequent paired cocktails, especially a warm coconut milk chai with hash, were quite potent.

  • [Xeni Jardin]

    WHY WAS I NOT INVITED

• [Hamsterdam]

  “Extravaganja”

• [hypersomniac]

  Course 10: Spliffs were passed around with copies of the new Mars Volta record pre-loaded onto ipods.

• [ill lich]

  “So how was dinner?”

  “I. . . I can’t remember.”

• [niktemadur]

  Scary stuff, ’cause I’ve read that when ingested and digested, you’ll be intensely stoned for at least 8 hours.  That’s waaaaaay too long.
  A Brian Eno quote sums it up best for me:  “If drugs had an on/off switch, I’d take them all the time”.  Amen to that;  once on a bad trip, you’re stuck with it for a subjective eon.

  • [crnk]

    I heard that masturbating makes you go blind. 
    I do however agree with the quote in your second comment.

    • [niktemadur]

      Erowid says:
      “Smoked, onset 20-90 secs, duration 2-4 hrs, after effects 2-4 hrs;
      Oral, onset 20-120 mins, duration 3-9 hrs, after effects 12+ hrs”
      http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_dose.shtml

      And yeah, masturbating makes hair grow on your palms, too.

      • [Itsumishi]

        “Scary stuff, ’cause I’ve read that when ingested and digested, you’ll be intensely stoned for at least 8 hours.”
        No, no you won’t. Not unless you’re consuming quite a strong dose. In the case of this meal, it sounds like writer barely felt the effects, and being someone that hadn’t “sampled” marijuana for years, he had no tolerance.

      • [ocker3]

         Does oral include aerosolised, or just eaten?

        • [niktemadur]

          Eaten, I would imagine.  Aerosolised goes straight into the lungs.

• [Ian Anthony]

  “I did not necessarily beg to be included in the feast. The first time I met Tran, on a social-media panel somewhere, he happened to be wearing a banana suit, and he has been known to show up to food events dressed as a tauntaun from “The Empire Strikes Back.”"

  I’m still trying to find the part that would make me not want to hang out with this guy.

• [malcolmkyle]

  An appeal to all Prohibitionists:

  Most of us know that individuals who use illegal drugs are going to get high – no matter what, so why do you not prefer they acquire them in stores that check IDs and pay taxes? Even if we could afford to put anti-narcotic police on every single street corner, we also know that at least half of them would soon become dealers themselves. Gifting the market in narcotics to ruthless criminals, foreign terrorists and corrupt law enforcement officials is seriously compromising our future.  

  We simply cannot continue with a policy that has proven itself to be a poison in the veins of practically every free nation on this planet. Even if you cannot bear the thought of people using drugs, there is absolutely nothing you, or any government, can do to stop them. We have spent 40 years and trillions of dollars on this dangerous farce; Prohibition will not suddenly and miraculously start showing different results. 

  Do you actually believe you may personally have something to lose If we were to begin basing drug policy on science & logic instead of ignorance, hate and lies? Maybe you’re a police officer, a prison guard or a local/national politician. Possibly you’re scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, the many kick-backs and those regular fat bribes. But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies, vats of acid and marauding thugs carrying gold-plated AK-47s with leopard-skinned gunstocks? 

  You may find lies easier to tell, but they do nothing to prevent the existence of truth, they do nothing to help you sleep at night, and they do absolutely nothing to help those who depend on you for their safety and health.

  Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition-engendered mayhem! 

  Prohibition Prevents Regulation : Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

  • [Itsumishi]

    I agree completely, but remember “Astroturfers will be banned.  Cut-and-paste or nearly verbatim talking points are considered astroturf.”

• [malcolmkyle]

  Maybe you’re a police officer, a prison guard or a local/national politician. Possibly you’re scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, the many kick-backs and those regular fat bribes. But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies, vats of acid and marauding thugs carrying gold-plated AK-47s with leopard-skinned gunstocks? 

  Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition-engendered mayhem! 

  Prohibition Prevents Regulation : Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

• [malcolmkyle]

  An appeal to all Prohibitionists:

  Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition-engendered mayhem! 

• [License Farm]

  Hooray for Elise! She’s an awesome person & I’m glad she’s getting noticed for this book.

  Xeni, I’ve suggested to appropriate parties that you ought to be interviewed for HIGH TIMES or its sister publication, MEDICAL MARIJUANA. I may be able to speed the process by doing it myself; I’ll be in touch about it. After that, I’m sure you’ll have to flog off invites to such parties with a stick.