KFI’s John and Ken try eating off of our own Miles Clements’ plate

Last week, for reasons best known to themselves—most people call it xenophobia—KFI radioheads John Kobylt and Kenneth Chiampou were having on-air aneurysms over the opening of the latest segment of the Los Angeles light rail system, an extension of the Gold Line from Little Tokyo to East LA.

“Free rides for all the illegal aliens!” one of them said with hate-fringed cheer. (I’d tell you which one, but, you know, all white people sound the same to me.) “Who’s going to take the subway—the subway—to East LA if you’re not an illegal alien?”

The long-running John & Ken Show specializes in this kind of thing; it’s kind of a happy-to-be-hateful, fun-time hug-a-thon. Maybe you remember the live broadcast they did last year outside that Alamitos Beach-area apartment house where the convicted sex offenders lived.

This time, however, The District Weekly’s food editor Miles Clements got a mention for some freelance restaurant reviews he did as part of the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of the Gold Line opening.

“The Los Angeles Times . . . I mean nothing, nothing better than cheap transit for illegal aliens to get the Times’ juices flowing,” said either John or Ken. “They got four writers—four writers: Linda Burum, Miles Clements, Betty Hallock and Thi Nguyen—to write about the food you can eat about along the Gold Line extension stops.”

“You’re kidding me,” said either Ken or John, “because they have only two writers for the main [story].” (This was pretty much the spot’s only serious bit of journalism critique.)

“‘Call it the sushi-torta express,’” John or Ken said, skimming the Times’ lede. “It’s a ‘light rail lifeline to the incredible variety of restaurants that surrounds each of the eight new stations.’” Neither was impressed.

“Izakaya—you know what that is?” Ken asked John, or vice versa, bringing up the Japanese bar-with-food concept. “You’re into all the weird food. What’s Izakaya? I-z-a-k-a-y-a.” Spelling it didn’t help.

“Sukiyaki joints, roast-goat specialists. . . .’ Roast go . . .—What is that? They’re selling roast goat!” one of them bellowed.

“I went to an Indian restaurant a few weeks ago,” the other one said. “They had goat curry. I thought of you.”

“Did you eat it?” his co-host asked.

“I did not eat it,” his co-host answered.

The guys who won’t eat it are always the first to start beating their gums about it. But make no mistake: they totally eat it.

Tags: gold line, John and Ken, KFI, LA Times, Miles Clements, xenophobia