Quintessential "LA" Food?
So I've been on a food adventure with my pregnant wife, where I'm trying to get every possible type of food into her belly (the hope being that the kid will have a wider palette).
I've compiled a list of countries and food, as well as more localized stuff for the US.
So I've got Pizza, Hotdog, Soul Food and others for the US, but I simply can't think of anything for 'LA'.
I'm totally willing to subscribe to the idea that what we do is the mashup, it actually seems to fit nicely with my ideas on what LA is about, but maybe someone has a different idea?
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As much as I love bugers, tacos, and chili dogs, I think of the quintessal LA food as our SALADS. Our main-dish salads.
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re: mar52
Steve2 in LA
Oct 29, 2012 02:38 PM
So it's going to be "Come to California! Try our Chinese Chicken Salad?" We need something a little more thrilling. Maybe something flammable?
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re: mar52
Servorg
Oct 29, 2012 02:42 PM
According to the wacky wiki Madam Wu, while popularizing the CCS, didn't invent it (again, according to wikiped's): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_...
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re: bulavinaka
Late to the party as usual. Sometimes the brain doesn't respond all that quickly. The one thing (I think) that started or was "invented" in California are the caesar salad. I later thought of the donutman's strawberry or peach donut. Before I get smacked down by the mods, I've had donuts by a place in Quebec City (just outside the wall) that were of even much better quality with fresh whipped cream inside. Maybe donutman does this; don't know.
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Savour
Oct 22, 2012 10:36 AM
If we're going street food (like Chicago dogs or NY Pizza (or Chicago Pizza and NY hot dogs)) then I think we're definitely talking cheeseburgers. LA is a burger town. However, I've long said that the quintessential LA meal is a Chinese Chicken Salad and an Arnold Palmer. Analogous to Cioppino and Chardonnay in San Francisco.
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My neighborhood where any given hour you can pick from one of 10 taco trucks feeding the gardeners/workers/contractors.
I can't think of one other city where this happens.›9 Replies-
re: latindancer
Steve2 in LA
Oct 21, 2012 01:04 PM
Believe it or not, it happens in New Orleans, now. ALL the time. The city tried to pass an ordinance to stop it but it didn't do any good. Apparently, New Orleanians like tacos too.
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re: bulavinaka
Will Owen
Oct 21, 2012 01:24 PM
This is an interesting turn. Though I'd never call the taco "quintessential LA", the taco truck emphatically is; yes, its popularity has spread, but it's enough of an LA symbol that the artist John Baeder (see his book, "Diners") did a series of taco truck paintings and had a show of them at a gallery on Wilshire ten or so years ago. When he'd exhibited a food-truck painting in Nashville, he'd hired the vendor to serve his fried chicken and fried potatoes from his truck in front of the gallery. We were hoping he'd have the same deal here, but he told us - very grumpily - that the cheapest truck he could find wanted $1500 for three hours. What he didn't understand was that not only would the truck guy be losing about that much in sales, but he'd be losing the goodwill of regulars who'd be expecting him to be in his usual spot.
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re: Will Owen
Steve2 in LA
Oct 21, 2012 02:44 PM
This IS interesting. I think the original poster was interested in food unique to LA rather than the delivery system. I mean a taco off a truck is no different than a taco off a cart or through a window, is it? I was looking at the recipe for the Brown Derby's Grapefruit Cake and that IS quintessential LA. Good luck finding it but still . . . anyone think of stuff like that which is still around? (Chasen's chili also springs to mind with the same issues, though.) What about a Cobb Salad? (Like you can't get one everywhere, still it originated here.)
Of course, if you're talking "original" pizza originated in Italy, hotdogs in Europe and Soul Food in Africa and the Caribbean. It's ALL derivative so then what?
Really, most everything we have, started somewhere else and was carried here. So, with all else failing, I fall back upon the Oki Dog. Sad, huh?
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re: Servorg
wienermobile
Oct 21, 2012 03:48 PM
From a 2005 Chowhound post:
The hamburger (as served in a modern bun)
The cheese burger
The chili burger
The corn dog
The chili dog
The fortune cookie
The sundae
The "california" pizza
The "california" bagel (chocolate or fruit flavored)
The "california" pancake (chocolate or fruit flavored)
The California Roll
The donut hole
The Shirley Temple
The Roy Rogers
The Crispy Taco
The Taquito
The french dip sandwich
The drive through, and modern fast food in general
The Smoothie
The milk shake
The Monte Cristo Sandwich
The Cobb Salad
Denny's
Baskin Robins
McDonald's
Carl's Jr
Taco Bell
Sizzler
Winchell's
International House of Pancakes
All "Googie-style" diners
The mega-buffet (eventually spawned Hometown Buffet)
The super-market-
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re: wienermobile
Will Owen
Oct 21, 2012 05:30 PM
Wrong about the supermarket, if you're following the description of that as a self-service grocery store. Piggly Wiggly (1916) was the first of those, and the first PW was in Memphis. A&P I believe was the next chain to follow that model. The first true modern supermarket, with separate organized departments, was King Cullen in Queens, NY (1930).
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Any assertion that LA doesn't have iconic, homegrown food is, IMHO, absurd. If anything, it has a surfeit of them, as listed here. There's nothing wrong with it being Mexican; California was Mexico before it was America. Taquitos were invented on Olvera Street. Tortilla chips first produced here, too. But yeah; I'd go with the burger. Tommy's, Bob's, In 'n' Out, Apple Pan, even McDonald's... Ours.
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re: jesstifer
Too bad Mago's on Centinela is gone. Between their zillions of menu items that melded together everything from burgers to chicken katsu to wieners to saimin to charsiu to chili to tortillas, I think they were a major factor in upping the avocado factor in SoCal. Avocado was an option in just about everything in their menu. Mago's created an irresistable gravity that pulled disparate ingredients from various cultures into one kitchen. And that was the beginning of truly eclectic food that is so emblematic of food in LA.
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re: bulavinaka
Servorg
Oct 20, 2012 01:19 PM
"...to chili to tortillas..."
Well, now you're talking the quintessential, gut busting Oki Dog: http://www.oki-dog.com/ (which inherited the mantle from Mago's)
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There is no quintessential L.A. food. L.A. is where everybody comes from somewhere else. What is quintessential about L.A. is the amazing variety of food from all corners of the globe, and the endless innovation in creating new variations on the original substrate.
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re: lokier01
JeMange
Oct 19, 2012 05:23 PM
LA food icons: (can an inanimate object be an "icon?")
-California roll or any other wacky sushi roll
-Chili Cheeseburger like those served at Tommy's
-The Apple Pan Style burger, which my dad (who grew up in New Jersey) still refers to as a "California Cheese Burger" even though he's lived in LA for over five years
-The French Dip - invented in LA.
-The serving of Pastrami as a fast food item (The Hat et. al.) and the act of slapping it on burgers and dogs.I'm sure we could come up with at least a few more.
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re: WildSwede
JeMange
Oct 19, 2012 09:59 PM
I don't know if it's still the case but even back when I was a kid (I'm 40) in New Jersey, diners would have a "California Burger" or "California Cheeseburger" on the menu, which meant it was served with iceberg lettuce and tomato with a little plastic tub of mayo on the side.
Our favorite hotdog joint, "Hiram's" in Fort Lee, which was featured on one of the early No Reservations episodes, was known for their hotdogs but had a minimalist burger that was just meat (and cheese if you opted for it), slapped on a toasted bun. Somehow, the damn thing managed to be delicious - they sourced good meat and had a flat top that had been perfectly seasoned since the Truman administration.
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re: JeMange
scottca075
Oct 19, 2012 08:29 PM
Bob's Big Boy invented the "double burger".
Abalone used to be a quintessential LA food until it was over fished.
The pizza reinvented as it was by Ed LaDou and then popularized by Spago and commercialized by CPK.
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re: scottca075
Abalone did suffer from overfishing but what pushed them over the edge was a disease that decimated the populations in the late 80s. They also can't breed unless they're in dense groups, making the effects of the disease even more pronounced since it thinned out the population to the point that they couldn't breed effectively anymore.
Anyway, to the OP, the quintessential LA food IMO is a styrofoam take out box with some kind of mind-blowing ethnic food you never heard of before you moved here....
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re: MarkC
wienermobile
Oct 19, 2012 05:43 PM
That is the joy of Los Angeles eating. We are the true melting pot of the world. All other cities should be jealous of the diversity of our food. Dim Sum or Cuban pastries for breakfast, Langer's pastrami or a double double for lunch, Korean BBQ or Ramen for dinner and street tacos or gourmet sausages for a late night snack. Now aren't you glad you live here and pass the kimchi.
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re: wienermobile
My dad was a born and bred New Yorker. He ended up, mid twenties, having to leave New York and then settling down in the Midwest for the rest of his life. He was incredible at finding amazing food anywhere. A fabulous cook as well.
But I moved out here, got married, got a house - and he and my mom came to visit. I took them to Portos. Chinatown. Alhambra. Pasadena. Pico Robertson. And he looked at me and said "You're never coming back are you?"
He knew how much fun LA was and is, foodwise, And he knew how lucky we were and are.
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JeMange
Oct 19, 2012 01:49 PM
No place outside of Japan takes sushi as seriously as Los Angeles.
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re: lokier01
Servorg
Oct 19, 2012 02:18 PM
While sushi started in Japan, the fact that we find a "California Roll" everywhere these days speaks volumes about the effect that Los Angeles has had on sushi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_roll (whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing, the impact can't be denied).
Of course there is also "California Pizza" and it got its start here too (with a similar version up in SF about the same time) courtesy of Ed LaDou: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californ...
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re: E Eto
Porthos
Oct 21, 2012 11:21 AM
I didn't realize it until AyrtonS' last post, but I'm pretty sure AyrtonS was kidding around regarding hot sake...keeping in line with the hot rice and overly ponzu-ed sushi theme of how UN-traditional some places in LA have become while claiming to be "serious" about sushi.
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re: Porthos
"I didn't realize it until AyrtonS' last post, but I'm pretty sure AyrtonS was kidding around regarding hot sake...keeping in line with the hot rice and overly ponzu-ed sushi theme of how UN-traditional some places in LA have become while claiming to be "serious" about sushi."
Wow, we agree on our fish planks and you get my humor too!
Once a customer sitting next to me at the sushi bar wanted the chef/owner to recommend the best sake he had to offer and the chef proudly presented him with a bottle only available in Japan (near his hometown no less... seems like they always say that?) and was just brought back from Japan by his sister, but it would be $250. The customer said sure and asked the waitress to warm it up for him as he always drinks his sake warm! You know what kind of sushi he got for the rest of the night!
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EarlyBird
Oct 19, 2012 01:38 PM
Taco trucks. Maybe the entire taco truck experience was born here in L.A.
Sure, we've got great dogs and burgers, Italian, hot exciting restaurants with celebrites dining, but other cities do too.
But pull over to a taco truck on a busy street after a Saturday night on the town and get a perfect tortilla stuffed with carnitas or lengua, walk over to the formica table lit by a bare bulb running off of a car battery, where you can add some onions, cilantro and home made salsa, take a bite and say, "I'm in LA."
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re: E Eto
Will Owen
Oct 20, 2012 12:33 PM
The bacon dogs here seem to be a Mexican phenomenon. Those I've seen in markets are in a package that says, "Como en la calle!" - "Like in the street!" - which is ironic since regular street hot-dog vendors aren't allowed to sell them. They require special inspection and a permit.
I'm going to reiterate something here: all the items proposed as especially significant to LA's food culture have been brought here from someplace else, EXCEPT for the Almighty Cheeseburger. The burger itself may have been hatched at Louis Lunch, out in New England, and it's possible that a few souls may have slipped a slice of cheese in there for the hell of it, but it was a long-gone drive-up at the edge of Pasadena on West Colorado that began to make, advertise and sell CHEESEBURGERS. And this one sandwich has become the default choice for walk-in, drive-in and drive-through diners throughout the length and breadth of LA County.
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re: JeMange
Will Owen
Oct 20, 2012 01:05 PM
Dang! You're right! Although I don't see cars lined up at all the French Dip drive-throughs ;-)
Seriously, although that is perhaps an item more closely identified with LA than any burger, the cheeseburger's very universality and availability are what makes it so very LA in nature: that's us. That's the Everyman's food. That's Julia Child keeping a list of In-N-Out locations in her purse; that's a local fancyburger joint posting a sign about how some idiot on Chowhound said theirs was "The Best in LA!!"; that's … how many threads on that one item here? Whereas the only real argument about French Dips is who did it first.
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re: Will Owen
JeMange
Oct 20, 2012 01:12 PM
No need to go agro, dude! :)
I agree about the passion thing and - as someone who has lived in LA for over a decade - I must sadly admit that I tend to prefer the way burgers are prepared in NYC than in LA. Up until relatively recently, burgers in LA were a fast food (meaning not cooked to order/to an internal temp) thing whereas burgers in NYC are more of a pub/bar food. A big, fist sized, fatty chunk of ground steak cooked the way you like it. Can't say as I'm much of a fan of In-N-Out or the lettuce sandwich that passes for a burger at Apple Pan or Pie and Burger.
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re: Will Owen
Putting it differently. Say I were making a cartoon show where every character was their respective food. Broad strokes here. Italian Guy is a Ravioli, German's wurst. Of course there could be a general American Apple pie guy, but I feel like there are pop sub characters within the US. Would the LA 'surfer dude' be a cheeseburger? I mean, it sort of fits with car culture and drive thru's n' what not.
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re: JeMange
I agree with the French Dip. When I moved out to LA as a kid in the 60s it was the only thing in LA that we didn't have in Chicago (home of the Italian beef sandwich). The only Mexican food I remember from back then was taco stand food not much different from today's Taco Bell.
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wienermobile
Oct 19, 2012 01:03 PM
This link should help: Start eating now.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/689937›6 Replies-
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re: lokier01
Servorg
Oct 19, 2012 01:16 PM
"I mean, New York can be snooty about Pizza, Chicago their hotdogs. What do we get to be snooty about?"
Sushi and Hamburgers...without a doubt. For example, this thread started in 2006 and extends into 2012: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/312209
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re: Servorg
Will Owen
Oct 19, 2012 01:27 PM
Servorg speaks truth. However, the cheeseburger is a genuine LA invention - Pasadena, actually - and to many of us is THE typical Los Angeles food item. Few other regions have so many ongoing arguments about which burger is the best and how is defined; it is probably the most frequently debated subject on this Board. One major upside to this is that if you want a truly lousy burger you're pretty much stuck with McDonald's!
If you check out any of the burger threads you'll see how many categories and subcategories are considered: chain, restaurant, bar, bistro, under $10, over $10, gourmet, etcetera. If that's not a sign of its special place in our local food culture, I'll eat my … buns.
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re: lokier01
westsidegal
Oct 20, 2012 09:26 AM
mexican and mexican-inspired food.
my favorite being mexican seafood in the style of nayarit and sinaloa.
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