What I Eat as a 28-Year-Old Film/TV Development Assistant Making $28/Hour in LA

Half definitely wasn’t enough, because my stomach grumbles loudly in the middle of the meeting. Super cute.

2:50 p.m. Back at my desk and finishing the remnants of my salad from the mini fridge, but it got a little too cold in there, so the lettuce doesn’t have the best texture. The remaining quarter that I don’t finish goes in the compost bin in the kitchen.

7:30 p.m. I made the mistake of drinking some water, because it wakes up my stomach and reminds me that I’m capital-H Hungry. It’s finally below 70 degrees at night again, so I’m craving soup and decide to go to It’s Pho, a strip-mall restaurant. I get my usual, beef pho with extra beef. I love that Southeast Asian and Mexican food have limes, cilantro, and green onions in common. I finish almost the entire thing, leaving a pile of sliced white onions and bean sprouts at the bottom of a little pool of broth. With tip, it comes out to $25.90; not bad, considering how much meat I got.

8:15 p.m. On my way home, I stop by It’s Boba Time, a local boba chain, and order my usual: a large strawberry milk tea, which comes with diced strawberry pieces. I love the little cut of salt on top of all the sweetness. I also get S a regular jasmine green tea. I wish boba tea were a little more acceptable as a professional food. Wouldn’t it be fun to network with someone over bright purple and blue and orange drinks? I feel like that would get ego out of the way immediately.

I eat my boba pearls by slicing off the soft bits with my front teeth, then chewing on the centers with my molars; once I’m done, I tear off the plastic lid and use my straw to scrape the rest of the milk foam off the sides of the cup. Since I used the kiosk to order, it wouldn’t let me tip, so I pay $11.25 for the bobas and slip a couple of dollars into the tip jar. I’ve worked both retail and food service, so I sympathize with the teens behind the counter overwhelmed by the evening rush of even more teens. At home, I manage to make it last until nearly 11 p.m., because I immediately start playing video games and can only drink between matches.

Thursday total: $37.15

Friday

7:30 a.m. Work-from-home day, so I have some time to stay in bed to scroll on TikTok. I munch on the last of my Froot Loops Jumbo Snax.

9:00 a.m. Smoothie time. The organic strawberries I got from Vons are, unfortunately, much better than the Trader Joe’s ones and more consistent in quality. I feel like we should add a real grocery store, not just Target, to our grocery stops. Our dog gets to lick both the empty yogurt cup and the empty peanut butter jar, and it keeps her entertained for half an hour. She almost looks outraged when I finally take it away.

2:55 p.m. Feeding the dog lunch reminds me that I forgot to eat lunch. I pop three slices of my leftover pizza from Wednesday in the toaster oven. I mostly peel off the cheese and eat the crust. I love it.

6:45 p.m. I meet my friend Z at Melody Wine Bar, which has a beautiful patio surrounded by hedges. We both love sitting outside when the weather is nice. Z drinks a Sifer ‘Casi’ 2023 orange ($17), while I drink a chilled Borachio ‘Show Pony’ NV red ($17). Since I worked later than I anticipated, I didn’t have a chance to eat dinner at home like Z did, so I order a side of housemade focaccia ($4). This is some of the best focaccia I’ve ever had—it’s very lightly toasted, so there’s just barely some color, and it’s soft and chewy on the inside. Excellent texture. I also go for the kow soi tagliatelle ($20) with braised beef shank, crispy wonton pieces, and pecorino. The noodles are delicious and chewy and I love the pile of garnishes on top, including cilantro and shallots, but the broth has one too many warm spices for my taste. A corner of my mind spends the rest of the dinner trying to puzzle out what it is exactly.