Frank Shyong
@frankshyong.bsky.social
Journalist, most recently as a columnist for the LA Times. I write about food, culture, neighborhoods and Los Angeles at a newsletter called Lunch Box on Substack. Bento.me/frankbear
I feel like 5x more affection for people's obviously, unfake-ably crappy hand drawn art now in an age of AI slop. Here are my sloppy but sincere drawings of ekiben, Japanese train station bentos.
November 22, 2025 at 11:33 PM
I feel like 5x more affection for people's obviously, unfake-ably crappy hand drawn art now in an age of AI slop. Here are my sloppy but sincere drawings of ekiben, Japanese train station bentos.
For the past year or so I've been researching ekiben and Japanese train bentos and this illudstrated guide is my attempt to distill this all into a user friendly format. It has a short history of ekiben, my picks and favorites and tips on how to find them. please enjoy substack.com/home/post/p-...
November 19, 2025 at 10:59 PM
For the past year or so I've been researching ekiben and Japanese train bentos and this illudstrated guide is my attempt to distill this all into a user friendly format. It has a short history of ekiben, my picks and favorites and tips on how to find them. please enjoy substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by Frank Shyong
I remember about 30 years ago, when I went on an elementary school field trip, you could basically fill a freezer with grunion from the take season, both from your own take and the take of others who didn't want the fish.
November 11, 2025 at 2:03 AM
I remember about 30 years ago, when I went on an elementary school field trip, you could basically fill a freezer with grunion from the take season, both from your own take and the take of others who didn't want the fish.
serious LA/socal question here - who is regularly eating grunions (these fish that seasonally squirm ashore here) and like, is there any way I could join you? Is there still such a thing as a midnight grunion fish fry?
November 11, 2025 at 1:21 AM
serious LA/socal question here - who is regularly eating grunions (these fish that seasonally squirm ashore here) and like, is there any way I could join you? Is there still such a thing as a midnight grunion fish fry?
Thanks to AAJA Los Angeles and the CCF for sponsoring this Rosemead screening on Nov 13. I’ll be doing a q and a with @josiehuang.bsky.social after. Come say hey! Tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/movies-as-...
Movies as Mirrors: Lucy Liu & Frank Shyong on AAPI Mental Health
Join us for a free screening of ROSEMEAD followed by an introduction with Lucy Liu and a conversation about AAPI mental health.
www.eventbrite.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Thanks to AAJA Los Angeles and the CCF for sponsoring this Rosemead screening on Nov 13. I’ll be doing a q and a with @josiehuang.bsky.social after. Come say hey! Tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/movies-as-...
Imagine me in all my effortful decorum parsing whether to use streamer slang about harmful addictive drugs and then being out-cool-guy’ed by Ezra Klein. Thanks to the council of youth who provided me with essential side-eye during this time
November 7, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Imagine me in all my effortful decorum parsing whether to use streamer slang about harmful addictive drugs and then being out-cool-guy’ed by Ezra Klein. Thanks to the council of youth who provided me with essential side-eye during this time
Give me an entire mockumentary style show about the NY Post headline meeting. Imagining some guy in suspenders pounding the table, red in the face, screaming "it has to be more racist," a terrified designer on the verge of tears reversing the direction of the "r"
it was so sweet of the NY post to make a special commemorative issue
November 6, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Give me an entire mockumentary style show about the NY Post headline meeting. Imagining some guy in suspenders pounding the table, red in the face, screaming "it has to be more racist," a terrified designer on the verge of tears reversing the direction of the "r"
Wrote about one year of newslettering frankbear.substack.com/p/one-year-o...
One year of Lunch Box
On thrilling victories, humiliating defeats and coming home
frankbear.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Wrote about one year of newslettering frankbear.substack.com/p/one-year-o...
I’d love for it to be true. But I’m pretty sure that absolutely nothing will stop us from admiring rich and popular people. And being able to enjoy wealth and attention with a low follower count is really just a kind of elite privileged wealth aesthetic. www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
It’s Cool to Have No Followers Now
As social media has become older, more manipulable, and more automated by artificial intelligence, flouting online popularity has gained a new cachet.
www.newyorker.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:22 PM
I’d love for it to be true. But I’m pretty sure that absolutely nothing will stop us from admiring rich and popular people. And being able to enjoy wealth and attention with a low follower count is really just a kind of elite privileged wealth aesthetic. www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
It feels like we're in an age of content where the game is make an ocean of slop or disappear. It's the factory farming but there is 0 potential, even discussion of regulation. This slop on our feeds is a pollutant. We need an online space free of them, just as we need oxygen w/out carcinogens.
November 3, 2025 at 8:52 PM
It feels like we're in an age of content where the game is make an ocean of slop or disappear. It's the factory farming but there is 0 potential, even discussion of regulation. This slop on our feeds is a pollutant. We need an online space free of them, just as we need oxygen w/out carcinogens.
Reposted by Frank Shyong
In short, the ANES data shows:
📉 Social media use is shrinking
💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~50 points to the right
🧩 Platforms are splintering
🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme
📉 Social media use is shrinking
💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~50 points to the right
🧩 Platforms are splintering
🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme
October 30, 2025 at 8:09 AM
In short, the ANES data shows:
📉 Social media use is shrinking
💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~50 points to the right
🧩 Platforms are splintering
🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme
📉 Social media use is shrinking
💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~50 points to the right
🧩 Platforms are splintering
🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme
The LA fitnesses in SoCal are just stunning this time of year
October 30, 2025 at 10:38 PM
The LA fitnesses in SoCal are just stunning this time of year
Reposted by Frank Shyong
This was just posted by a CBS News producer on their Instagram stories.
October 29, 2025 at 9:44 PM
This was just posted by a CBS News producer on their Instagram stories.
I've written and deleted so many tweets this am bc desiring attention doesn't mean I have something to say, and honestly this is a caring and community-minded course of action that more of us need to consider. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
Why Biden’s White House Press Secretary Is Leaving the Democratic Party
Karine Jean-Pierre feels that Democrats were so mean to Biden that she is becoming an Independent.
www.newyorker.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:39 PM
I've written and deleted so many tweets this am bc desiring attention doesn't mean I have something to say, and honestly this is a caring and community-minded course of action that more of us need to consider. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
Loved this story on how and why the Del Tacos in Barstow taste different/better by Farley: www.sfgate.com/food/article...
This California fast food empire is still run by one man
A small city hides unreal food on the way to Las Vegas.
www.sfgate.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Loved this story on how and why the Del Tacos in Barstow taste different/better by Farley: www.sfgate.com/food/article...
I was racially triggered into watching Love is Blind via Patrick Suzuki clips (Asian guy afraid to say he's Asian on Love is Blind) discourse and wrote this because I have no other way of reporting the crime: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Lunch Box Letter #5: Love is Blind, establishment media, toilets in public, comedians in politics
Do we distrust establishment media because it's just too good at uncovering the truth? Did I get through that sentence without laughing?
substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 6:38 PM
I was racially triggered into watching Love is Blind via Patrick Suzuki clips (Asian guy afraid to say he's Asian on Love is Blind) discourse and wrote this because I have no other way of reporting the crime: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by Frank Shyong
Planters and landscaping continue to be installed under the guise of "civic beautification"... but the ugliness gives the game away.
Their true purpose is the private co-opting of public land, as well as the displacement and erasure of our most vulnerable community members.
Their true purpose is the private co-opting of public land, as well as the displacement and erasure of our most vulnerable community members.
October 23, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Planters and landscaping continue to be installed under the guise of "civic beautification"... but the ugliness gives the game away.
Their true purpose is the private co-opting of public land, as well as the displacement and erasure of our most vulnerable community members.
Their true purpose is the private co-opting of public land, as well as the displacement and erasure of our most vulnerable community members.
Were you thinking about sandwiches? Here is a guide to my favorite in LA, including their history and cultural origins: frankbear.substack.com/p/the-lunch-...
The Lunch Box Atlas: Sandwiches in Los Angeles
A good sandwich supports its own weight, moves well and maintains structure through multiple bites. Not everything is a sandwich, but many things are.
frankbear.substack.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Were you thinking about sandwiches? Here is a guide to my favorite in LA, including their history and cultural origins: frankbear.substack.com/p/the-lunch-...
No Kings Protests good, actually
October 21, 2025 at 7:46 PM
No Kings Protests good, actually
Zohran cool and all, but I'm curious, who would be the closest thing to LA's Curtis Sliwa?
October 21, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Zohran cool and all, but I'm curious, who would be the closest thing to LA's Curtis Sliwa?
Went to No Kings Day in Riverside and wrote about how we should let the protest be cringe frankbear.substack.com/p/let-protes...
October 21, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Went to No Kings Day in Riverside and wrote about how we should let the protest be cringe frankbear.substack.com/p/let-protes...
Reposted by Frank Shyong
Investigating LAPD-press incidents in Los Angeles on Saturday. No doubt LAPD violated court injunction. Just a question of how bad.
So far I think only minor injuries to press. Still confirming. Not a passing grade regardless.
Preliminary leads in blue at top. Please share evidence if you have!
So far I think only minor injuries to press. Still confirming. Not a passing grade regardless.
Preliminary leads in blue at top. Please share evidence if you have!
California Press Rights Tracking Doc (Consolidated)
docs.google.com
October 19, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Investigating LAPD-press incidents in Los Angeles on Saturday. No doubt LAPD violated court injunction. Just a question of how bad.
So far I think only minor injuries to press. Still confirming. Not a passing grade regardless.
Preliminary leads in blue at top. Please share evidence if you have!
So far I think only minor injuries to press. Still confirming. Not a passing grade regardless.
Preliminary leads in blue at top. Please share evidence if you have!
This was a fantastic story. Even just a small amount of tech literacy and caring makes an enormous difference in needy immigrant communities. Interviewing seniors in Chinatown I'd always be conscripted to open social media accounts and write quick emails.
My colleague @lihanlihan is flying home for the first time in a decade to see his family. He left us with a banger of a story about a Microsoft engineer who has found unexpected beauty in a Chinatown SRO.
sfstandard.com/2025/10/17/c...
sfstandard.com/2025/10/17/c...
How a Microsoft data scientist found community in a Chinatown SRO
Lei Huang moved into his Chinatown single-room-occupancy hotel as part of a social experiment this year, thinking he’d last only two months. Instead, he found a community worth staying for.
sfstandard.com
October 17, 2025 at 10:20 PM
This was a fantastic story. Even just a small amount of tech literacy and caring makes an enormous difference in needy immigrant communities. Interviewing seniors in Chinatown I'd always be conscripted to open social media accounts and write quick emails.
mentally preparing for the inevitable paywalling, price hiking/enshittification of AI LLM's. It willl be a whole different paradigm of disparity when only the rich can afford to use generative AI
October 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
mentally preparing for the inevitable paywalling, price hiking/enshittification of AI LLM's. It willl be a whole different paradigm of disparity when only the rich can afford to use generative AI