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Notes on Living in Los Angeles

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Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#41

Post by mym1990 »

jayd16 wrote: post #12
mym1990 wrote: post #9

At the end of the day, this is an outlook of someone who enjoys the city, and I can get behind that. But there is not much in this article that wouldn't still hold true if you replaced Los Angeles with 'X well known metropolis in the world'. I moved to San Francisco a couple of years ago and had a negative mindset going into the move given my circumstances at the time...and you know what, I had a bad attitude that le…

I don't think many other places have the geography or the sprawl but I agree many cities are under appreciated.

This is true! Tokyo was pretty crazy though.

One view I would take is that every city is simply unique in its own many ways. I don't necessarily travel somewhere and right away compare it to other places, I feel like a greater experience can be had by just appreciating where a person is in that moment.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#42

Post by bluGill »

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…

People need to eat, most several times a day. As a result there is great food anywhere there are people because the people will be looking for places to eat. What is lacking is often variety. I know of many towns barely large enough to support one Cafe (some are good some bad). The bigger the town the more likely it is there is something good.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#43

Post by simonw »

The thing that sold me on LA was seeing that Atlas Obscura lists 221 things there!

https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/los-angeles-califo...

I've visited rather than lived there, but the overwhelming impression I've got is that LA is /weird/ - in all of the best ways.

That density of creative people - with a business model that actually supports them - plus areas of the city that are affordable (at least in comparison to the SF Bay Area) means LA has an abundance of quirky and interesting culture to it. And great food.

There is an entire area of LA full of prop rental warehouses which I am very keen to explore on my next trip there.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#44

Post by twinkletwinkle_ »

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…

Anecdotally I have a French acquaintance who dreads his trips back home because the food is so terrible. Paris might be famous for fine dining at the extreme top end, but that doesn't necessarily make for the best eating.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#45

Post by in3d »

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 wish people would specify how many restaurants they visited in each city they judge. I think 50 is the minimum before we can judge any city as a whole. NYC > Chicago > SF > LA > Miami.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#46

Post by ng12 »

timavr wrote: post #32

Lived in LA for a decade plus. The biggest problem in LA is the traffic, plus that you need a car to go anywhere. Try to go on average day from Griffith Park(Observatory in the picture) to Santa Monica(surfing). You will hate your life. People who live in LA are kinda used to crazy traffic, but if your value your time, LA is not the place to be

I feel like the author covered this pretty well. If you have the luxury to organize your life around the terrible traffic (e.g. living and working in Venice) it's fantastic. If you need to get on a highway to get to work your experience will probably be much worse.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#47

Post by dry_soup »

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'd rather eat Japanese food in LA than American food in Tokyo, and it's not even close. But the average restaurant is probably better in Tokyo than in LA.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#48

Post by tinyhouse »

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 disagree about Chicago. Good food in America is only where there are many foreigners, esp from Asia. Los Angeles and NYC have the best food (personally I prefer NYC). Outside of the US there are much better cities but if you're into diversity of different foods, then LA and NYC are excellent. Tokyo for example has way better Japanese food than LA but not so good Middle Eastern food for example.

LA also has the better access to a variety of fresh fruits and veggies because of its weather. That also influences the food scene.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#49

Post by solomonb »

timavr wrote: post #32

Lived in LA for a decade plus. The biggest problem in LA is the traffic, plus that you need a car to go anywhere. Try to go on average day from Griffith Park(Observatory in the picture) to Santa Monica(surfing). You will hate your life. People who live in LA are kinda used to crazy traffic, but if your value your time, LA is not the place to be

I grew up in Hollywood. The secret is to not try to do multiple outings across town in one day. You have to treat all the different neighborhoods as individual cities and just go somewhere for the day. Once rush hour hits, just expect to stay where you are and enjoy yourself until traffic lets off.

Re: Notes on Living in Los Angeles

#50

Post by simonw »

secondaryacct wrote: post #37
yokaze wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

I m not sure what level of pricee you expect, also. But LA is really far and hispano-american to be truly neutral culinarily. I'm french and therefore a bit food snob. I live in Hong Kong, a place where the local food is 3 USD a meal, and the meat dicey while most nationalities, French especially, are represented at all price levels. It's still going to be skewed toward Asian taste (where are the Camembert sushi, a s…

The food scene in larger American cities like NY, LA and SF is fantastic - and I've spent a lot of time outside of the USA.
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