Meet Victoria Kuang | Food Blogger & UCLA Grad

We had the good fortune of connecting with Victoria Kuang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Victoria, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
I used to define success solely through academic and professional accomplishments. When I was in high school, I was tunnel-visioned towards getting into college. When I began undergrad at UCLA, I was tunnel-visioned towards securing a post-grad job offer. While placing such value on school and career did prove to be effective, as I am very grateful to soon be graduating from a great university and working for my dream company, I also realized that my definition of success was way too narrow.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Now that I have graduated from UCLA, I will be working full-time at Google as an Associate Account Strategist starting in the summer. I received a return offer for the Google Customer Solutions team after doing Google’s BOLD internship program last summer. I am really excited to move up to the Bay Area and to start a new chapter of my life, although @loskuangeles may not make too much sense as an Instagram handle anymore.

Speaking of my food and travel blog, I am really excited to continue pursuing it as a passion project outside of my day job. I originally started @loskuangeles during quarantine in 2020, and it has slowly but surely grown to be my favorite creative outlet. Some upcoming projects that I am looking forward to include documenting my month in Hawaii in May, as well as my experiences exploring the Bay Area once I make the move.

Over quarantine, I did a lot of self-reflection and realized how much I truly value work-life balance, which is why my career and my hobbies are both priorities to me. I am proud of the fact that I have a much more well-rounded perspective on life than I did back in my freshman year of college, and I hope to continue expanding my worldview throughout my early twenties.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Mornings should always start off with a hike – Malibu coastal hikes, such as Point Mugu and Tuna Canyon, offer insane views of the Pacific Ocean and are my favorites. After hiking, I like to head straight to brunch, something that LA definitely has no shortage of options for. My favorite brunch spots include The Butcher’s Daughter, Malibu Farm, and Eggslut.

Once we’ve gotten our brunch fix, we could go shopping at Westfield Century City, sightseeing at the Venice Canals, or perusing at the Getty Center. Any of those activities would make for a fun and easy afternoon. For sunset, I would take them to Point Dume in Malibu or to Griffith Observatory (for a bona fide La La Land movie moment).

Dinner options are also seemingly endless. We could go to Tsujita on Sawtelle Boulevard for tsukemen (Japanese dipping ramen), Zzamong in Koreatown for jjajang myun (black bean noodles), or Pasta Sisters in Culver City for – you guessed it – pasta. After dinner is when the night truly begins, and it could go in one of two ways: either we take it easy and cruise through Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills, or we do the complete opposite and go out clubbing in West Hollywood 🙂

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This might sound generic, but I genuinely would not be where I am today without the love and support of my parents. When I was younger, my parents exposed me to a variety of extracurricular activities, but ultimately gave me the agency to decide what I wanted to pursue, which fostered my independence and self-motivation at an early age. During high school, my parents never hesitated to wake up early on a weekend morning to take me to various club events. In college, they were just a phone call away, always willing to be a listening ear and a source of moral support. I am eternally grateful to them for all the sacrifices that they have made—and continue to make—in their own lives in order to propel me forward in mine.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loskuangeles/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vkuang/