You would have a hard time finding _________ IF YOU LEFT Los Angeles...

[Ciao Bob]

1 - A comparable variety and quality of Chinese/Taiwanese, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mexican restaurants.
2 - A really good Spago.
3 - Worse Cajun/Creole/West Indian Food
4 - Pink's (and that's probably a good thing).
5 - Paparazzi stalking restaurants.
6 - Pop-ups.
7 - Humphry Yogart

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Spago
176 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

[Wonginator]

French Dips. Went to a sandwich shop in Vegas and asked if they served one. The owner never heard of it, so I had to describe it to him.

[mangetoutoc]

Great Mexican food! Moved to S. FL a while back and, must say, the Mexican food there could be considered heinous at best. The great Jamaican joints kinda made up for it, though.

Diverse Asian food + ingredients - Though, the rest of the country is catching up, slowly but surely. Even poor Ft Lauderdale had a pretty serviceable Vietnamese market last time we visited and my bro tells me they have some great places within a reasonable drive of where he is in middle-of-nowhere TX.

There are groovy, little pockets of ethnic food goodness which build up in unexpected areas, giving folks there a taste of what we take for granted here. We were quite pleasantly surprised, for example, to have some very, very good Mexican food in the middle of BFE rural GA. But, ha ha most of America, it will very rarely even scratch the surface of the awe-inspiring variety we have easy access to every day. I guess that's why we all tolerate the cost of living, smog, traffic, hipsters, etc.

[hnsbmg]

Over the years, Miami has had the occasional excellent Mexican restaurant, but they always seem to fail, while places like El Torito prosper. I never understood that, given the multi-Latin culture and love of spiciness.

More generally, I wouldn't make the broad statement that leaving LA would mean you couldn't find great Mexican food -- Chicago, Texas, and even San Francisco ;-) come immediately to mind!

[jackattack]

Paletas.

And hot dogs wrapped in bacon

[schrutefarms]

Gnar-gnar dogs!!! Just had one Friday night, totally sober of course :)

[wienermobile]

Langer's pastrami.

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Langer's Delicatessen
704 S Alvarado St, Los Angeles, CA 90057

[schrutefarms]

The smell of Canters. Distinctly LA, and brings back so many (great) memories.

[kevin]

sushi

vietnamese food

phillip's bbq (i think it's very unique0

[bad nono]

Fabulous fruit from the farmers markets. Peaches are crack in LA, and I'm not even talking about the citrus. Special mention to the green figs that are red inside from Mark Boujikian's farm. I know they're not organic, but that is the most sinful fruit I've ever eaten.

And, since I'm French and assuming somehow I'd leave to get back home, good Asian food (all of Asian cuisines, with the possible exception of Vietnamese) and, more than Mexican cuisine, I'd miss pupusas and Peruvian cuisine as well.

[ObseleteOscar]

I got back from Hong Kong a few days ago and we happened to have the fridge stocked with 20 something ripe peaches and I ate them all in the next 2 days. Peaches here indeed are crack, you really just need to know where to get them. The best peaches I had though were from a farm in Sacramento, and I must say those were like crack x1000. (I finished the whole box of around 20 in about 24 hours time.) Oddly enough both times I did not have any kind of stomach problem! Really can't think of where I'd get those kind of peaches outside of LA though.

[rcompton]

Website appropriate question: where do I get good fresh peaches??

[liveloveat34]

really good korean food. that and mexican food...i moved to NYC having grown up in the Valley and now living in Denver. oh how i miss the LA food scene!!

[J.L.]

... crickets chirp...

I know this is a different question, but I think I'll head over to the original "You'd have a hard time finding ___ in L.A." thread...

[wienermobile]

Korean BBQ. I love Parks BBQ.

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Park's BBQ
955 S. Vermont Ave, Suite G, Los Angeles, CA 90006

[wienermobile]

Dim Sum. I love Sea Harbour.

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Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
3939 N. Rosemead Blvd., Rosemead, CA 91770, USA

[granadafan]

Comparable dim sum in the Bay Area, but that's the only other place, except perhaps Vancouver.