Foods of Los Angeles (bills, Lebanese, best)

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

Notice he said decent carne asada.

ok, you got me on that one, but actually some of the best I have had was in a couple restaurants in the DFW area. The big difference between what you get in TX and So Ca is like the difference between a So breakfast and a Ca breakfast. In the south no breakfast would be complete if you didn't have grits or biscuits and sausage gravy. In Ca we rarely saw that as part of a stardard breakfast. In Tex they serve Tex/Mex, in Ca they serve Mex, Mex. and in NM they specialize in South West Mexican or just plain NM food as they call it.
Nita

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bungle

They have "carne asada" here. They call it Fajita style or something. I don't know? I drove by a Mexican market the other day I need to check out. I tried a "traditional" hole in the wall Mexican place the other day and ordered some tacos. They were nothing like the tacos I'm used to. They were close, but completely lacked flavor which really amazed me. Not in a good way.

Carne Asada I've seen in Dallas, is what they call a thick slab of skirt steak at tex mex places. Not the thin type I'm referring to.


Fond memories of hanging out with friends, getting bored and deciding to buy like 20lbs of carne and calling all of our friends to come over.

I am trying to think of a couple of places we used to go when we lived in the DFW area. I'll ask my daughter next time I talk to her if I think about it.

Now, there are a couple of Mexican dishes I didn't like at all in Dallas, one is tostadas. To me, they should almost be a salad, in Texas they are just beans on a tortilla. By the way, what part of the Dallas area do you live in? We lived NoWest, in Denton County.
Nita

[BVitamin]

Originally Posted by jlgarfield

I have always wondered: SF has their Chinese Food, Seattle has their coffee, San Diego loves Mexican food, so on and so forth, but I have wondered- what food item defines Los Angeles? Or is it a bunch of them that they can't choose?

And on an unrelated note, how easy is it to get an LA Kings ticket? I love that team.

While I agree SF has great Chinese food, LA and NYC also have just as good Chinese food, I haven't made the distinction that SF has the better one. As far as having the best Chinatown, SF wins, hands down, perhaps that affects the sense of the food.

NYC's Chinatown is um, has this distinct smell to it (maybe it's just me), and it's always crowded, literally shoulder to shoulder and nudging/pushing people aside, I suppose you can say that for the most part of NYC but it just seems more so in Chinatown. Chicago's Chinatown is just a joke.

To answer your question, I think Los Angeles just has a general mix of food from around the world. And as for Mexican food, I believe it's more of a SoCal thing. I've always wondered why the general use of 'SoCal' doesn't apply to San Diego but it's included when separating California into North and South, am I missing something here? Sorry to digress.

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by nmnita

The big difference between what you get in TX and So Ca is like the difference between a So breakfast and a Ca breakfast. In the south no breakfast would be complete if you didn't have grits or biscuits and sausage gravy. In Ca we rarely saw that as part of a stardard breakfast.

Grits are still a rarity (which is just fine with me, yuck) but biscuits and sausage gravy is a ubiquitous menu item all over So Cal. You can even get it in places that serve Mexican food. Oddly enough, the best b&sg I've ever had, and that includes extensive traveling through the South, is served right here in Etiwanda, not 5 miles away from me.

[smokingGun]

I'm wondering why there's not a stronger tradition of Southern comfort cooking in So Cal considering the huge number of Oki's and Arki's who migrated here in the 1930's and 40's seeking better opportunities. Maybe children of the Dust Bowl think of Southern homecooking as symbols of privation & hardtimes they'd rather forget?

[Curmudgeon]

[quote=smokingGun;15362920]I'm wondering why there's not a stronger tradition of Southern comfort cooking in So Cal considering the huge number of Oki's and Arki's who migrated here in the 1930's and 40's seeking better opportunities. Maybe children of the Dust Bowl think of Southern homecooking as symbols of privation & hardtimes they'd rather forget?[/QUOTE]

Not hardly! My wife, a northern California native thanks to the Air Force, resembles those remarks. Her mother was from AR and her father from OK. She's a great southern cook, but one with a flair. You might even call her cooking southern-Californian fusion. She's also pretty adept at Italian and Asian fare which are some of my specialties as well. We mix, match and have a great time together in the kitchen!

[HarryKerry]

Strange, but every foreign born individual from Asia (Chinese, Korean Japanese, all of them), Africa, Middle East, you name it, all say that LA has the best of their country's true authentic food. Yes, LA has the palatable westernized versions, but these folks are talking about the real things like very exotic delicacies that sometimes aren't on the main menu or is even gross by our standards, and these are not junky places but very nice places with an affluent feel and outstanding staff and service. Many of these folks living in Las Vegas or Seattle or other cities (of course, New York ethnic food is authentic) just smile and say how wonderful the food is in Los Angeles, real your fill in the blank _____ ethnic food, so much better in LA, I go to visit friends just for the food, sometimes they say. Oh, I always have to eat there, they say.

So, I guess it's the authenticity, even in the westernized versions of the food, they say it still beats just about any other city, except for New York being equal for some but not all LA ethnic food. LA is way too large and diverse for such a designation. That has always been our problem, or strength. You really can't define LA very well.

[UB50]

Saveur Magazine did a whole issue about Los Angeles this year: The latest from Saveur Magazine - SAVEUR.com

This is a good essay in the magazine: http://www.saveur.com/article/Travel...gry-Metropolis

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by HarryKerry

Strange, but every foreign born individual from Asia (Chinese, Korean Japanese, all of them), Africa, Middle East, you name it, all say that LA has the best of their country's true authentic food. Yes, LA has the palatable westernized versions, but these folks are talking about the real things like very exotic delicacies that sometimes aren't on the main menu or is even gross by our standards, and these are not junky places but very nice places with an affluent feel and outstanding staff and service. Many of these folks living in Las Vegas or Seattle or other cities (of course, New York ethnic food is authentic) just smile and say how wonderful the food is in Los Angeles, real your fill in the blank _____ ethnic food, so much better in LA, I go to visit friends just for the food, sometimes they say. Oh, I always have to eat there, they say.

So, I guess it's the authenticity, even in the westernized versions of the food, they say it still beats just about any other city, except for New York being equal for some but not all LA ethnic food. LA is way too large and diverse for such a designation. That has always been our problem, or strength. You really can't define LA very well.

This is a good point. I'm not foreign born, but I would also say that LA has the best of all of those cuisines. Especially from non-European countries -- but for European food I would probably say NY has it better. I would suppose there is plenty of both the western and "authentic" varieties for everyone (although I generally shy away from the word "authentic," because tastes change between generations anyway and influences criss-cross between countries), because as you said, LA is way too large not to have it all.

[wrcousert]

Originally Posted by smokingGun

I'm wondering why there's not a stronger tradition of Southern comfort cooking in So Cal considering the huge number of Oki's and Arki's who migrated here in the 1930's and 40's seeking better opportunities. Maybe children of the Dust Bowl think of Southern homecooking as symbols of privation & hardtimes they'd rather forget?

Most of their descendents don't remember or care about where they came from. Assimilation.