Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
21
The trend to vie w the car as an exten-
sion of the home persists today , with the
marketing of telephones, fax machines,
electric shav ers, VCRs, and mor e, all
capable of plugging in and functioning
inside y our car (or ev en coming as stan-
dard equipment). What mor e could the
auto-loving Angeleno ask for?
5
EATING & DRINKING IN LOS ANGELES
Once upon a time, the culinar y culture of
Los Angeles was defined b y the city 's
dominant M idwestern heritage. I t was
mostly a basic meat-and-potatoes far e, or
else bad imitations of what passed for
good eating in New York or Chicago. Sure,
there was always M exican and Chinese
food around, but ethnic cuisine was only
acceptable if it was toned do wn—the
spices reduced and the dishes emasculated
to fit in with Angelenos ' bland-is-best
sensibilities. I n fact, for far too long the
most reliable meal in the city was a burger,
a side order of greasy fries, and a drink.
Happily for those seeking mor e civi-
lized dining, the city's movable feast is now
globally varied. As one might expect, the
culinary car tography of L.A. parallels the
metastasized character of our ethnic com-
munities, with flar e-ups of gr eat food
emerging in the least-expected places:
tucked away in anonymous strip malls and
bracketed by a liquor stor e and a laundr y,
or hidden in decrepit sections of the inner
city. It's no coincidence that the traditional
DMZ betw een the East S ide and the
Westside, La Cienega Boulevard, is known
as Restaurant Row. It used to be that the
wealthy gourmands of B everly H ills and
West L.A. would head east for something
a little out of the ordinary, and this was as
far as they would driv e. Conversely, when
the citiz ens of the East S ide wanted to
splurge and step up for the night, they 'd
head west, winding up in the same place.
The culinar y scene r emained in this
stalemate until the '70s when California
Cuisine first hit the str eets, drifting south
from Alice Waters's Chez Panisse in Berke-
ley, daring local chefs to explor e the fr esh
and for eign. Throw in the cacophony of
herbs and spices brought to the city by the
Pacific Rim immigrants, and you begin to
get an idea of what's on the menu at L.A.'s
forward-thinking restaurants.
Who ar e kitchen gods of L.A.? F or
starters: Wolfgang Puck, Nobu Matsuhisa,
Joaquim Splichal, T ommy T ang, Nancy
Silverton and M ark P eel, Toribio P rado,
and Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger.
What's new? Dining alfresco, Indian-Asian
fusion, and Mexican comfort food. Thanks
to the new smoking laws, diners who have
to hav e nicotine with their food hav e a
whole new world to explor e, in backyar d
patios or sidewalk tables that offer ringside
seats from which to ey e the busy str eams
of cars jockeying for position betw
2
een
slow red lights.
And if you're wondering about those A,
B, and C ratings you see in the windows of
our local eateries, they 're the wor k of the
County Public Health Department, which
started rating the county 's 34,000 food
outlets in 1998. F ood-selling establish-
ments get inspected four times a y ear and
more than 75% of them get an A grade,
while only 3% get a C grade. But if you're
worried about mouse poop in y our pasta,
check out www .lapublichealth.org/rating
so y ou don't hav e any r eservations about
making your reservations.
