Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For sustainable choices and items to avoid on local seafood and sushi-bar menus, check
the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch ( www.seafoodwatch.org ) website, also
available as a free mobile app.
Los Angeles & Southern California
There's no telling which came first in LA: the chefs or the stars. Perhaps no one has done
as much to popularize California's fusion-style cuisine nationwide as peripatetic Austrian-
born chef Wolfgang Puck, who began his career as a celebrity restaurateur when he
launched Beverly Hill's Spago in 1982. Reservations at chefs' private tables are now as
sought-after as entry into velvet-roped nightclub VIP rooms.
As with certain Hollywood blockbusters, trendy LA restaurants don't always live up to
the hype - for brutally honest opinions, read reviews by Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic
Jonathan Gold in the Los Angeles Times or follow him on Twitter (@thejgold). Then join
in-the-know locals in Koreatown for flavor-bursting kalbi (marinated barbecued beef short
ribs), East LA for tacos al pastor (marinated, fried pork), the San Gabriel Valley for
Chinese dim sum or on West LA's Sawtelle Blvd for ramen noodles made fresh daily, to
name just a few foodie detours.
When it comes to seafood, Angelenos were enthusiastically picking up sushi and
sashimi with their chopsticks when most of America dismissed raw fish as foreign food
not to be trusted. Wanna know the quickest way to start a food fight in LA? Ask Angel-
enos who they think the city's best sushi chef is. Further south, San Diego may not have an
official food, but the entire city obsesses about where to get the best fish tacos. All along
SoCal's coast from Malibu to La Jolla, surf-and-sun lovers cruise Hwy 1 in search of the
quintessential seafood shack too.
Made in California: Wine, Beer & Beyond
Powerful drink explains a lot about California. Mission vineyards planted in the 18th cen-
tury gave California a taste for wine, and the mid-19th-century Gold Rush era soon
brought a rush on the bar: by 1850, San Francisco had one woman per 100 men, but 500
saloons selling hooch.
Today, California's traditions of wine, beer and cocktails are being reinvented by cult
winemakers, craft brewers, micro distillers and saloon revivals. North America's only indi-
 
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