Welcome back to Good Taste, your weekly look at the Bay Area food world. Today, we see what’s cooking with the best rapper in the world.
Tom Shimura is an internationally acclaimed MC who goes by the confident and apt moniker of Lyrics Born. You may have heard one of his songs (like 2022’s “I’m the Best Rapper in the World”), seven solo albums, or his two Latyryx albums with Lateef the Truthspeaker. Their debut, The Album, remains a landmark of ’90s Bay hip-hop.
Now he’s gone from dropping bars to chopping scallions: Toward the beginning of the pandemic, Shimura started a casual cooking video series called Dinner In Place, and has upgraded to a full production and kitchen crew for the just-released Season 4. After watching the first episode and getting a peek at what’s to come, we’re sending him some virtual flowers and a snack for making a professional and entertaining series that deserves as wide an audience as possible.
The premiere episode features a guest appearance by SF chef Chris Cosentino, who makes his version of a Japanese Convenience Store Style 3x Egg Salad Sandwich. If there was a convenience store that made Cosentino’s egg salad sandwich, which has yuzu, ikura, duck egg, chicken egg, and crispy chicken skin, it would do very well indeed.
All of the Season 4 dishes are creative originals that explore Shimura’s Japanese, Italian, and Jewish heritage alongside the cultures of guest chefs including his partner, singer Joyo Velarde; Nelson German, chef-owner of Sobre Mesa and alaMar Dominican Kitchen; Gil Payumo from Señor Sisig, the successful local Filipino food truck and restaurant group; and Michael Twitty, the Black and Jewish cooking star.
Viewers will learn how to make fresh dishes such as Jewdon, Everything Bagel Sushi Roll, Sinigang Ramen, and Koshersoul Collards.
Bay Area rappers as national cooking stars is becoming a trend that we can support—Shimura’s one-time collaborator E-40 just announced that he will release a Goon With The Spoon cookbook with Snoop Dogg on Chronicle Books in the fall.
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