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Notes on Living in Los Angeles

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Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#21

Post by rootusrootus »

Uhhrrr wrote: post #8
thesausageking wrote: post #2

I lost trust in the whole article when it came to the paragraph on food. LA has a great food scene, but I would put Tokyo, Bangkok, Barcelona, Chicago, and probably another 5-10 cities ahead of it. Saying "Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close" is myopic.

For some weighting of variety and quality it probably does very well. But yeah, this is best read as a love letter, where some qualities of the beloved are overlooked. Similarly, "if you wake up at dawn in Los Angeles, and you have good time management skills, you can go for a walk on the beach, then go skiing in the afternoon, then fall asleep in the high desert at night" is probably true, but you'd better like the…

I'd rather try the same trick in Portland than LA, though we may not be able to satisfy the high desert requirement. Still require some driving, but it wouldn't be as brutal.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#22

Post by chews »

thesausageking wrote: post #2

I lost trust in the whole article when it came to the paragraph on food. LA has a great food scene, but I would put Tokyo, Bangkok, Barcelona, Chicago, and probably another 5-10 cities ahead of it. Saying "Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close" is myopic.

As an angelino I disagree, and I say so because of logistics. LA has access to the world's nexus of food.

Almost every sprig of lettuce you eat comes from California, we get the food that travels the least and access to the best foods that have to travel the most, I say this because my brother is a food importer at LAX. I get to eat mangos from Pakistan, starfruit from Indonesia, and steak from Japan with ton's of frequency.

My point is, we serve as a nexus for food delivery and with choice of ingredients the best foods are made.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#23

Post by carabiner »

Some surprising realizations I had living in LA for 7 years, that were not mentioned in the article:

- Great cycling weather. LA has come a long way in bike lanes and buses that can carry your bike. It's not all about cars.

- It's basically working class due to the garment and aerospace industry. These are filipino and hispanic workers that have families and live generally outside of the trendy neighborhoods (or they do, but in cramped conditions). Most of HN will probably never interact with this demographic though.

- Your "LA is fake" speech as a disgruntled transplant is super lame and cliche, and lamer than actually being a fake/shallow Angeleno. Get over it. It's fake if you hang out with fake people. I found it refreshing to meet people who were not the standard tech bro who lifts weights.

- Great outdoors. Hiking, rock climbing, limited skiing. Take a sailing class thru UCLA.

Edit:

- LA food: Best East Asian (especially Chinese), Mexican, and Persian food in the country, and possibly the best Ethiopian. LA I thought had the highest density of high-quality but midrange ethnic restaurants that you could visit for a weekday lunch. It is not as good for technical haute cuisine that you'd find in SF, NYC, but it's the best for food that you could actually eat everyday.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#24

Post by fiftyfifty »

mylaaccount1 wrote: post #7
thesausageking wrote: post #2

I lost trust in the whole article when it came to the paragraph on food. LA has a great food scene, but I would put Tokyo, Bangkok, Barcelona, Chicago, and probably another 5-10 cities ahead of it. Saying "Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close" is myopic.

I've been to 2/4 on your list (Tokyo + Barcelona) and the only conclusion I can come to is that it's hard to name a "best" food city because food preferences can be so personal. With that being said, NY + LA are my personal two favorite cities because these two cities combined cover such a large swath of the globe. No, the food is not as good as the country of origin, but it can get pretty close. And then you have su…

Agreed, I've spent quite a bit of time in Bangkok and Tokyo and while the Thai and Japanese food is incredible in those two cities, the selection of other ethnic foods is pretty limited. You won't for example find Mexican, Brazilian or Moroccan food in these cities. When it comes to both quality and selection of ethnic food from around the world it's hard to beat the large US cities.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#25

Post by bowmessage »

MrGando wrote: post #17

> My impression is that Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close. I have a galaxy-brained theory about why this is. Restaurants decline when they sell prestige, rather than food. (This is why Manhattan is often not a good place to eat.) Stops reading and closes the window. Seriously, what the hell. LA is a great place to eat, but for the love of G... Paris? Tokyo? NYC also kicks LA's ass to the g…

> If you’re reading this, and I would like you, perhaps this will incline you towards living in my city.

The city _personally_ belongs to the author, how could he be wrong?

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#26

Post by 0xB31B1B »

MrGando wrote: post #17

> My impression is that Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close. I have a galaxy-brained theory about why this is. Restaurants decline when they sell prestige, rather than food. (This is why Manhattan is often not a good place to eat.) Stops reading and closes the window. Seriously, what the hell. LA is a great place to eat, but for the love of G... Paris? Tokyo? NYC also kicks LA's ass to the g…

“Best food city” has a lot of dimensions to optimize against. Are you looking for cheap-ish ethnic food? Haute cuisine? Prevalence of vegan options? High quality fast casual? IMO extremely difficult to rank cities in the top tier of food against each other absolutely and LA is def top tier.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#27

Post by yokaze »

thesausageking wrote: post #2

I lost trust in the whole article when it came to the paragraph on food. LA has a great food scene, but I would put Tokyo, Bangkok, Barcelona, Chicago, and probably another 5-10 cities ahead of it. Saying "Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close" is myopic.

I can't speak about Bangkok, or Chicago.

On Tokyo, Barcelona, and to a lesser extend LA, SF, I feel more confident to say something.

It is greatly a question what you are looking for, and the author quite apparently appreciates the variety.

And I have to give it to them, I do not think that Tokyo or Barcelona are in the same league there.

That is not to disparage the quality of the food. I hold Tokyo in high regard, and would say it is the place I would most likely feel confident to go to a blindly chosen random Japanese restaurant. In Barcelona, you already have to filter out the tourist traps. (Hint: Paella & Sangria)

But in both places, it felt to me more dicey if would like some non-local food. It always seemed to be heavily adopted to the local preferences. But maybe my experience is outdated.

My armchair theory is, that both cities "suffer" from the fact of having a great culture of own cuisine. Not sure, if their customers do not appreciate the otherness, or the cooks are preemptively trying to "fit in".

As the author writes, LA is a melting pot, and I have eaten there great food from all over the place, especially when the menu was only half-translated. But then, it may be a prejudice, I am less confident that I can pick a random place, and receive the same quality as in Tokyo.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#28

Post by acwan93 »

carabiner wrote: post #10
thesausageking wrote: post #2

I lost trust in the whole article when it came to the paragraph on food. LA has a great food scene, but I would put Tokyo, Bangkok, Barcelona, Chicago, and probably another 5-10 cities ahead of it. Saying "Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close" is myopic.

Jonathan Gold was food critic for the LA Times, and is the only critic to win a Pulitzer. Michelin doesn't rate in LA any more though, then again Michelin has always been biased towards Western European high-end cuisine which is not really were LA shines.

Michelin is back in LA after Jonathan Gold's passing:

https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/california/us-los-angeles/r...

Lots of overlap between Jonathan Gold's 101 list and the Michelin star list.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#29

Post by jayd16 »

MrGando wrote: post #17

> My impression is that Los Angeles is the world’s best food city, and it’s not close. I have a galaxy-brained theory about why this is. Restaurants decline when they sell prestige, rather than food. (This is why Manhattan is often not a good place to eat.) Stops reading and closes the window. Seriously, what the hell. LA is a great place to eat, but for the love of G... Paris? Tokyo? NYC also kicks LA's ass to the g…

It probably depends on how heavily you weight variety, casual vs fine dining, and whether having a food truck with an awesome cheesesteak is the same as "LA has awesome cheesesteaks".

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#30

Post by presentation »

fiftyfifty wrote: post #24
mylaaccount1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been to 2/4 on your list (Tokyo + Barcelona) and the only conclusion I can come to is that it's hard to name a "best" food city because food preferences can be so personal. With that being said, NY + LA are my personal two favorite cities because these two cities combined cover such a large swath of the globe. No, the food is not as good as the country of origin, but it can get pretty close. And then you have su…

Agreed, I've spent quite a bit of time in Bangkok and Tokyo and while the Thai and Japanese food is incredible in those two cities, the selection of other ethnic foods is pretty limited. You won't for example find Mexican, Brazilian or Moroccan food in these cities. When it comes to both quality and selection of ethnic food from around the world it's hard to beat the large US cities.

Speaking as a Tokyoite, you absolutely can but you just won't see them if you're a tourist staying for a week in the most central parts of the city. All in all, it's true that there's more variety in US cities - but I guess I don't value variety as much as you do.
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