need ideas for a local, day-long, food oriented teambuilding exercise

[tastycakes]

i need to come up with ideas for a 3-day professional development session for my company that is relatively inexpensive and involves learning about food/wine/beer/farming etc. the sessions usually last 5 hours and must be within a 1.5 hour drive from central los angeles. there can be different trips and subjects for each day. this will be taking place in january. any recommendations are appreciated!

[Servorg]

How about coming up with some edible items that are somewhat obscure (okonmiyaki, etc.) and doing a "phone photo" scavenger hunt with teams trying to get finished (in all senses of the word) first. You could even give bonus points for the "drink" category or "side dish" category. Then let them loose in Downtown LA with all eating/finding being done via "mass transit" lines...

[Kitchen Queen]

OOOOH Fun! I like this idea Servorg:)

[Kitchen Queen]

How about a Citrus Move in Santa Paula and Ventura. Santa Paula is a really great place to start 'cuz it is the citrus capitol of the world. Cesar Chavez is an icon there and you can take a mural walk around town. Some murals depict the farmers workers that live(ed) and worked in the local fields (Oxnard and Delano)

http://www.santapaulamurals.org/

www.santapaulahistoricalsociety.org

http://www.limoneira.com/ - a great place to go! Also,

Ventura Limoncello - CoVentura Limoncello Co

2646 Palma Dr # 160 Ventura, CA 93003-7738 [phone]
You can even include a stop @ Underwood Family Farms. The one in Moorpark is very big and one can go into the fields and "pick your own" stuff
www.underwoodfamilyfarms.com

[reality check]

Food along the train lines. $6 for an all day pass, allows you as many stops as you want.

Gold Line-Chinatown, Little Tokyo and East LA.

Red Line-I'm calling it the hot dog line since many hot dog places are near the Red Line. Hollywood & Vine- Skooby's and Papaya King., North Hollywood- Vicious and Soul Dogs. But, other dining options are near red line stations.

Purple Line to Koreatown.

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Skooby's
6654 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

[calliope_nh]

I like the strawberry picking idea.

How about sushi making lessons.

[Local]

You might contact Abby who sets up culinary outings all over LA and reports here on Chowhound... www.pleasurepalate.com - email address is [e-mail].

http://www.culinaryclassroom.com/corporate-private.html

http://www.lafoodworks.com/LAFoodWorks/TeamBuildingCookingParty/index.cfm

http://www.simple-gourmet.com/SimpleG...

[AAQjr]

Find a local farm to visit, pick some strawberries ect.. Something like Ishibashi or Fairview Garden Farm's Center for urban Agriculture would be great. I think Michael's does a guided tour of the SMFM that ends in lunch. I bet you could schedule a tour/tasting at San Antonio winery.

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San Antonio Cafe
1110 E 7th St, Los Angeles, CA 90021

[bulavinaka]

I forgot to mention that serious models for in-depth coverage on specific foods can be found on "diet-laureate" poster exilekiss's blog. He's done some pretty serious food coverage that might also help:

http://exilekiss.blogspot.com/

[bulavinaka]

"Crawls" of various foods are common - the San Gabriel Valley would work for dim sum, xiao long bao, dan dan mian, beef rolls, etc., assuming that these would fall under your sessions' guidelines. Sea Harbour, Elite, 888, NBC, Mei Long Village, Jin Jian, Dean Sin World, Din Tai Fung, Lucky Noodle King, Chung King, New Chong Qing, Yunnan Garden, 101 Noodle Express, JTYH, and Happy Kitchen would respectively be at least a start.

Beer? Would gastropubs work for this? I'd also throw in beer-intensive places like The Daily Pint and The Stuffed Sandwich. A-Frame, Waterloo & City, Wurstkuche, Father's Office, Library Ale House; also breweries like Angel City Brewery Eagle Rock Brewery would probably be included.

Farms make me think of Harry's Berries, Weiser Farms, Pudwill, Coleman and Santa Barbara Pistachios.

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Din Tai Fung Restaurant
1108 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007

Chung King Restaurant
1000 S San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776

101 Noodle Express
1408 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801

Mei Long Village
301 W Valley Blvd Ste 112, San Gabriel, CA 91776

Stuffed Sandwich
1145 E Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA

Daily Pint
2310 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405

Dean Sin World
306 N Garfield Ave # 2, Monterey Park, CA

Yunnan Garden
545 W Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776

Wurstkuche
800 E 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Father's Office Bar
1618 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA

Happy Kitchen
301 W. Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA

New Chong Qing
120 N San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91775

Eagle Rock Brewery
3056 Roswell St, Los Angeles, CA 90065

JTYH Restaurant
9425 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770

Lucky Noodle King
534 E Valley Blvd #10, San Gabriel, CA 91776

A-Frame
12565 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066