Roy Choi Gives an Incredibly Detailed Review of Edibles

Roy Choi may be best known for bringing Korean tacos to the streets with food truck Kogi BBQ, or perhaps, his efforts to provide healthy fast food to underserved communities with Locol. But, the LA chef has another passion point that he has yet to turn into a full-fledged business: stoner culture.

Choi isn’t shy about his love of weed — he even has a pizza restaurant and cafe called POT. And from a recent interview in Culture Magazine, which covers cannabis culture, as well as past interviews with vape magazine Tokewell and even coffee culture website Sprudge, it’s clear that, if he wanted to, the chef could make a separate career out of reviewing edibles. Here are some of his best lines:

On how edibles miss the mark:

“Every time you eat them it can be a little like ‘Russian Roulette.’ I still haven’t had the feeling of eating a beautiful batch of strawberries from the farmers market that have just come into season or beautiful loaf of bread fresh from the oven at Tartine. There’s supposed to be a sense of honesty behind food, and I don’t know if there’s a sense of complete honesty behind edibles yet, and because of that it hasn’t fully evolved the experience for me.”

On cannabis sugar:

“Actually, I was messing around with [cannabis] sugar a few years ago, which was pretty good; a teaspoon in your coffee in the morning unlocks a lot of doors.”

On his recent experiences with edibles:

“Most recently, I ate a cookie at Outside Lands and it fucking floored me; people were worried about me. I was at the concert, and I was out for about six hours. I woke up, and Lorde was playing, and it was wild and foggy. Recently, I ate some dried fruit, some mangos and stuff, that were a nice little buzz; a nice high. There have been some paper sheets that I’ve eaten that have been real chill.”

On how the culture has changed:

“I think there is absolutely a larger acceptance and less of a social stigma with weed now. People are less worried about it. The openness has changed. Even edibles have changed things. Vape culture has changed. People aren’t just stoned now, they are more responsible and they’re just walking through life just a little tilted now. We’re definitely communicating better as people. A lot more ladies are smoking now. It’s brought a feminine gangster touch to the culture. The ladies got their game tight – bongs, paper, vape, it’s just beautiful.”

On the possibility of a Roy Choi-led cannabis coffee shop:

“When cannabis becomes legal you can bet I’ll make a dope ass weed coffee shop for sure tho.”

• Serving Up Style [Culture Magazine]
• Issue 2 Feat Roy Choi [Tokewell]
• We Interview Chef Roy Choi About His New Koreatown Coffee Bar [Sprudge]