What's the best food to have in Los Angeles?
Welcome back to the Learn English Podcast, the podcast teaching English in context so you can learn naturally.
On today's episode, I want to talk about Los Angeles.
The reason is, is because I teach English online to students who are learning it as a second language, and I have had a lot of students ask me this past week about some protests that have been occurring in LA.
The reason that there have been protests is because Los Angeles is a unique city when it comes to the United States.
It is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country.
It has a lot of immigrants.
It has a very high immigrant population.
And on today's episode, I want to explore that.
I'm going to tell you about the culture of LA by talking about the food of LA.
There are so many different ethnic neighborhoods, so many different unique and fun things that you can eat if you ever do visit the city.
And that's what I want to focus on today.
So if you're interested in learning more about the culture, the diversity, the food of Los Angeles, And of course, if you want to practice your listening comprehension and build your English vocabulary, then follow along because we're about to begin.
Before we begin, I want to remind you to look at the description of this podcast episode.
There you will find a list of the words and phrases that I used so you can study them and build your English vocabulary.
Now let's talk a little bit about Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is a huge city.
Los Angeles has about 4 million residents that live in the city, and if you expand out to Los Angeles County, which includes the areas around Los Angeles more than just the city itself, it has about 10 million people.
This is a very large area, and that's what makes Los Angeles so important when it comes to Southern California.
Now, I live in Southern California and I recently did an episode on the Los Angeles fires.
I was not expecting to do another episode about LA, but LA has just been in the news so much this year that I've gotten so many questions about it and I really just wanted to do this episode to really discuss Los Angeles and tell you a little bit about the culture and the food there.
It is also a very ethnically diverse area.
That means there are a lot of people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and it is something that we call a minority -majority city.
When you look at the population of the United States as a whole, the most common racial makeup is white Americans.
But in Los Angeles, that's not the case.
People who would be considered minorities in other states or in other cities actually make up the majority of the city.
In Los Angeles, only about 25 % of the residents are white Americans and the remainder are people who are not white.
This includes a large Hispanic or Latino population.
About 50 % of the people who live in Los Angeles are of Hispanic or Latino descent.
There is also a very large Asian community, Middle Eastern community, and of course, African American community.
LA is one of the the most ethnically diverse places in the entire United States.
Now I was born in the Los Angeles area.
We moved when I was very young.
So I don't say that I grew up in Los Angeles.
I grew up about an hour away from Los Angeles and I don't spend very much time in the city, but I did go to college there.
And the reason why I am how I am, the reason why my ethnic background is what it is, is because of this whole immigrant community and this diversity that is part of the history of Los Angeles.
For example, one of my cousins is half Mexican and half white.
His wife is half Japanese and half Bolivian.
They just had a baby that is now a mixture of all of these things.
And that's just California.
That's just Southern California.
That is the place that I'm from.
That's what I'm used to.
And that's the diversity that we have here.
That's what happens when you have a city that has one third of its residents who were born outside of the United States.
And it is something that I celebrate.
Something that I have always grown up with thinking is a strength of LA, of California, of the United States, that we have this beautiful diversity and that we have of all of these people who are part of our community.
So on today's episode, I wanted to do a love letter to this culture and this food culture of LA.
A love letter, when we say that, it could be an actual letter or message that you send to someone, usually a romantic partner where you talk about how much you love them and care about them.
But when we're not saying that about an actual person, when we're using that more metaphorically, not talking about an actual letter.
What a love letter means is a way of celebrating, a way of honoring something.
So this is my love letter to Los Angeles and the diversity and the food culture that exists there.
And that way, if you ever do visit the city, maybe for the World Cup next year, maybe for the Olympics in 2028 or any time after that, you know what you might want to try if you ever do visit the city.
If you are from one of the countries that I'm going to mention, maybe you don't want to try the food from that particular ethnic group.
For example, if you are from a certain country, you might think that the food should taste a particular way.
And if you come to Southern California and you have the food, you might not think it tastes the exact same as home.
home personally I think that's to be expected because you're in a different country there's different fusions there's different ingredients that are available there's different people cooking the food so it's not going to taste exactly as home if you are from one of the countries that I'm going to mention maybe you want to just skip your own particular cuisine and try something else but in general I would say that the food here is really good there's a lot of different options and that's really what I want to talk about if you come to LA you have to have Mexican food.
The reason is is that because we're so close to the U .S. and Mexico border, there are a lot of people who are from Mexico or who have Mexican heritage.
That means that you're going to have a lot of really good Mexican food and just Hispanic or Latino food in general.
That's common, of course, through all of the border states, the states that border border Mexico.
But when we're talking about Los Angeles, that just is one of the major culinary influences in the city.
Now there are some fast food Mexican places that you will see when you come to the U .S. You will find them across the United States.
You'll find them in Southern California.
If you are looking for good Mexican food, please, please do not go there.
Of course you can go there if you're looking for fast food, but if you're looking for something actually good, don't go there.
Don't even bother. The places that I'm talking about are Chipotle, Taco Bell, Del Taco.
You will see commercials for them.
They're not very good.
They do serve food.
It's just not that great.
You really want something more local, something more authentic, something that is just better quality and better tasting.
When you're talking about eating Mexican food in LA, some of the types of foods that are available are burritos and tacos.
Those are some Some of the more common things, there are a lot of street vendors in Los Angeles.
You will find people who sell food on the street, maybe in carts or maybe out of trucks or vans and they make the food kind of right in front of you.
That is a really good option.
Burritos, you can really get almost any time of the day.
There is something called a breakfast burrito and if you have not had one, definitely try that.
it is usually breakfast food like eggs or sausage or bacon cheese just wrapped up in a tortilla and usually so good you can get those in a lot of different places but if you haven't had one before i would definitely recommend that there's also tamales which is more popular around christmas time but you can usually find people who are selling them when i drive to work in the the morning there's usually someone that I see who is selling them on the side of the road so there's places even restaurants will sell them.
There's also something called elote which is corn on the cob and they put different toppings on it.
Usually this includes mayonnaise and chili and that's another popular option.
Another thing that maybe is not as common but you can find is menudo so menudo is a soup a lot of places will sell it on Sundays it is a soup that has hominy and has tripe tripe is cow stomach lining so not everyone likes that but if you do come to Los Angeles if you want to try it you could definitely have it again I have not had real menudo that has that in it because i am vegetarian but i've had vegetarian menudo and personally i like the soup but it's something i grew up with um if you want to try it though definitely you can do that now besides those you also have seafood options a lot of mexican food
also can have seafood so if you are someone who likes seafood more than maybe a beef or a chicken option those are also options and you could try those as well when we are talking about downtown l .a there is a street called Olvera Street.
Olvera Street historically has been influenced by Mexican people, people of Mexican heritage, and it's one of the places that claims to have invented taquitos.
Taquitos are stuffed tortillas.
You put some type of filling, you roll the tortilla, and then you deep fry them.
There's some other places that claim to be the birthplace of taquitos.
I think they're also called flautas in other places.
I had never heard that term before but I heard it recently and it is just kind of an easy street food.
Kind of something that you could eat relatively quickly and it's really good.
I love taquitos. I love them.
They're one of my favorite things ever and you can definitely get those at Alvarez Street, at other places across LA in Mexican restaurants, they sell those.
They have chicken, beef, vegetarian options that usually have potatoes and another good thing to try if you are interested in those.
In general, Mexican food can be a little bit spicy.
We tend to use a lot of salsas on Mexican food so maybe you want to taste it before you just pour it onto your food because if you're someone who does not like spicy things, like for For example, I cannot eat anything spicy.
I'm not good with spicy food.
I usually don't use the salsas that come from restaurants because they're just too much for me.
I wouldn't be able to eat my food if I used it.
If you are like me, if you are not able to handle spicy things, you might want to test the salsa or maybe even just ask the staff, the waiter or waitress that's at the restaurant and see how spicy it is.
And also, if you're someone who doesn't like spicy things, do not buy things that have have peppers in them like jalapeno peppers.
For example, chili rellenos are stuffed jalapeno peppers.
Sometimes they use ones that are very mild but if you go to a real authentic place you can get stuff that's very very spicy.
So just be aware of that.
You can always ask.
The staff will help you if you're someone who doesn't like spicy foods but there's a lot of spices.
There's a lot of flavor when it comes to Mexican cooking.
Besides the Mexican community there's also a lot of different Asian communities in LA we'll start in downtown LA and there is an area of downtown that is referred to as Koreatown now we usually don't call it that we usually just call it K -town and K -town means Korean town there's a lot of Korean influence if you are interested in Korean food definitely check that area out because there are a lot of Korean restaurants for example Korean Korean barbecue is extremely popular if you have a group of people, a group of friends.
It's very popular to go to a Korean barbecue place.
There's a lot of options.
You get to cook the meat kind of right in front of you, and people love going to that.
When we're talking about Korean and Mexican food, there's also something called Korean fusion.
This usually involves taking Korean foods and putting them in items like a taco shell or a tortilla.
So you're mixing Korean and Mexican cuisine together.
and making a fusion food.
Fusion, as a word, just means to put two different things together, and that's what they're doing in this case.
Very popular, started in Los Angeles, and it has definitely spread to other places across the country, so it's not the only place you will find Korean fusion, but it is very popular in LA, and if you're interested in checking that out, I highly recommend it.
Look up some Korean fusion places, and you can see what this type of mixture, this type of fusion cuisine is like.
Of course, you can get other Korean foods such as kimchi and bibimbap.
There is just so many options.
If you are in downtown, that's one thing you can look for.
Something else that's also in downtown is Little Tokyo, a Japanese mall market area, and then a lot of Japanese restaurants.
I would recommend a ramen place.
There are a lot of ramen restaurants.
Of course, you can get sushi as well.
There are sushi bars, a lot of really expensive sushi places.
If you have the money and you want to splurge, you can go to some really nice sushi restaurants.
If you're looking for something though that's more affordable, definitely a ramen place.
Ramen is relatively cheap, also pretty good, I think, personally.
You can also find Japanese bakeries.
You can get Japanese desserts relatively cheaply, so that's a good option.
There is a part of LA that's also referred to as Filipino Town.
There is a huge Filipino population though in Los Angeles and in Southern California.
When you look at the United States, the most people of Filipino descent are in Southern California.
There's a huge population here.
So you can definitely find Filipino places that have adobo or have halo -halo.
Halo -halo is a drink, kind of a sweet drink that you can find at places.
There's also a Filipino fast food chain called Jollibee.
There are Jollibee locations in Southern California because there are so many Filipinos here.
And it is a fast food chain.
So maybe it's not the greatest tasting compared to a sit down restaurant.
If you are in Hollywood, which is in the northern part of LA, then there is a place called Thai Town.
It is the only Thai town in the United States.
It is the only place place that is recognized as a Thai town.
Because again, LA has a lot of Thai people.
I lived in Thai town for a little bit when I was in college.
So I can definitely tell you it is a fun place to be.
If you go to Thai town during the Thai New Year, there is a huge festival, there is a temple that people go to, you can get a lot of different things.
If you go to that festival, you can try a lot of different foods.
And when we're talking about Thai food, some things that you could try, you could try a papaya salad you could have pad thai both of those are noodle dishes one of my favorite desserts in the world is sticky rice with mango this is available during the mango season so you can't always get it with mango but you can usually always get sticky rice but i love sticky rice with mango it's one of my favorite desserts it is rice with a condensed milk that makes it sweet.
And then with the mango, you mix the mango with it.
And personally for me, I love it.
I think it's amazing.
Not everyone does, but if you are going to a Thai restaurant, you could try that as well.
And if you are brave, you can try the Thai chili.
Like Mexican food, Thai food can be very spicy.
I am not the person who has ever tried Thai chili because I know I would die.
I know that would hurt me too much. So I don't have it.
But like I said, my best friend is from Thailand and And she said her personal motto about eating Thai food is that if you aren't sweating when you're eating it, then it's not good.
So she just pours chili onto her food and she uses the Thai chili sauce.
So when she eats it, it is so spicy that she starts sweating.
So if you are brave, if you want to try the Thai chili, you definitely can.
If you go to a restaurant, you almost always will get Thai chili with your food at a Thai restaurant.
and you can start with a little bit you can see how you like it or of course if you're brave you can really just pour that on there and have that full thai food experience another place in la is chinatown chinatown is around broadway in la it's not as big as the chinatowns in other cities for example new york has a very big chinatown san francisco is the place in california that's really known for is Chinatown.
So Chinatown is there.
It's in downtown LA.
If you are in that area, that's a good option.
However, if you go to the east side of LA, right outside of LA City, there's neighborhoods called Monterey Park and Alhambra and Montebello.
That's where I lived when I was in grad school.
And there is a huge Chinese community there.
There are some buildings means that are not even in English, right?
You will see Mandarin characters for the names because of the influence that's there and because of the community that's there.
Like I said, I lived there.
That is the place where I feel most comfortable in Los Angeles because that's where I stayed for a couple of years.
And in terms of food, there's a lot of different things you could do.
So you can get dim sum.
Dim sum is where they bring food on carts and you kind of just look look at it and see what looks good and get whatever you like from the cart.
And then at the end, they total up what you ate and you pay that way.
You can also get a lot of vegetarian options.
There's actually a local chain called Happy Family Vegetarian and it is Chinese food, but everything's vegetarian because the owners were Buddhist. I personally love it because I'm vegetarian.
That was one of my favorite places to go.
You can definitely find those options as well.
And of course, just traditional Chinese food.
A lot of Cantonese as well from the Hong Kong influence and Taiwanese.
So if you come to Los Angeles and you are craving boba, boba is a great thing to get in LA and in Monterey Park and in Chinatown because there's a lot of different boba places.
Personally, my favorite is Half and Half.
It is my all -time favorite boba place ever.
But there's a lot. so there's a lot of different available places that you could go to of course there's chinese bakeries you can go and get chinese bakeries and something called shaved ice now in southern california it is super hot so one of the places we would go when we wanted dessert we wanted something sweet and something cold we would go to a shaved ice place you have shaved ice which means ice that's kind of been shaved or crushed tiny little piece of ice they put condensed milk on it.
You can get fruit in it and then you get this giant bowl of it and you share it with your friends.
So maybe you have three or four people with you and you go and you just eat shaved ice.
You sit there, you enjoy your time in the afternoons is when we would go and it was just a lovely dessert, a nice way to cool off.
Now the last Asian community that we're going to talk about is the Vietnamese community.
The Vietnamese community is very strong in LA but especially in Orange County.
Orange County is just south of LA.
It's in the general LA region.
If you're from LA though, you definitely do not think that Orange County is LA.
It's a separate thing, but it's very close.
And maybe you go to Orange County because if you're interested in visiting the amusement parks such as Disneyland or Knux Berry Farm, those are in Orange County.
There is a huge Vietnamese population in Orange County.
It I think is the highest concentration of people of of Vietnamese descent in the entire country so you can definitely go there places like Westminster for example have a huge Vietnamese community if you go during the that festival you can enjoy really a lot of the Vietnamese culture and experience that and you can really see what that's all like I can say personally when I was in graduate school in Los Angeles I have a lot of Vietnamese friends and I was actually a member of the Vietnamese Student Association.
I'm not Vietnamese, but a lot of my friends were and you didn't have to be Vietnamese to be part of the association and be on the board. So I was the director of health awareness on the Vietnamese Student Association.
Fun fact, in terms of Vietnamese food, some things that you can get, of course you can get pho.
Pho is spelled P -H -O.
If you don't know how to pronounce it, you might say pho.
That is not how it is pronounced.
It is pho. And it is a soup, a vegetable and meat soup.
Very healthy. Also has noodles in it.
You can also get Vietnamese sandwiches.
A Vietnamese sandwich is called a banh mi.
And one of the most popular chains, local chains through Orange County and LA County is Banh Mi Chee Kalli.
The reason why it's so popular is that the banh mi sandwiches are very cheap.
You can get three sandwiches for like $10 or $12, which in LA is crazy.
Everything's more expensive than that, so it's really popular for that.
Also, it sells boba, boba milk tea with a banh mi.
You're set, right? You get that and that's the perfect meal.
Banh mi sandwich and a boba milk tea.
You're good to go. Another popular chain is Lee's.
Lee's also sells sandwiches, but it's really known for its iced coffee.
It sells Vietnamese iced coffee.
And if you are a coffee lover or a dessert lover, if you like stuff that's sweet, Vietnamese coffee is amazing.
I hardly ever drink coffee.
I don't think I've even had it in the last decade.
But oh my goodness, you can get Vietnamese coffee.
It tastes so good and you have so much caffeine.
And so you drink it and you just feel like your eyes are huge.
They're bugging out of your skull is what we say.
And personally, I loved it.
I loved Lee's sandwiches and especially Lee's coffee.
Another important community, especially in the city of Glendale, which is right outside of Los Angeles, and that is the Armenian community.
If you're interested in Armenian cuisine, definitely go to Glendale.
They have a lot of different Armenian places, Middle Eastern places that you can go to.
Glendale, Burbank, that part of Los Angeles County has a very strong Armenian and Middle Eastern influence.
Persian communities, for example, is also there.
So another area of Los Angeles that you could check out and foods that you could try.
Now, in addition to all these other communities, there's also, of course, of course, the African American community.
This is especially prevalent south of Los Angeles, for example, in South Central, in Long Beach, Inglewood.
Inglewood has a lot of the sports stadiums. So if you are coming for the World Cup or for the Olympics, there are venues in Inglewood and you can find places, of course, to eat there.
With African American culture, some of the restaurants will be soul restaurants where you can find what's called soul food.
This is traditionally food that's more found in the southern part of the United States because of the African -American influence with it.
This includes fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collard greens, which are a type of vegetable.
When you're talking about popular restaurants, the most well -known is Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.
This is another local chain, multiple locations, but if you're interested, they are known for their fried chicken and, of course, for their waffles, which is why it's It's called Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.
You can actually get both at the same time, which to me as a vegetarian has always seemed like the most amazing combination.
I haven't had it, of course, but it just looks so good to me.
I don't know why. I wish I could have that.
And the last recommendation that I have is Porto's.
Porto's is a Cuban bakery, another local chain.
There are a few locations in Southern California.
And it is personally one of my favorite bakeries.
I have not been there in a while because I have not gone to LA in a couple of years, but it is so good.
They have different pastries, different sandwiches, but you can get empanadas, you can get different pastries, and it is so good.
Another place that is very popular with locals.
And if you are interested in that, again, another place that I highly recommend.
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you learned a little bit about the ethnic makeups, the different neighborhoods, and of course the different foods that you can try if you do end up visiting the city.
LA is unique. It is different from other cities in the United States.
It is huge and it is so diverse.
So if you do end up visiting, please consider checking out some of these different types of foods and seeing what you think about them.
If you liked this episode, if you like more episodes like this in the future, please let me know.
We can definitely talk about different foods, different cultures, different things to do in the Los Angeles area.
So if you want more episodes like this in the future, please leave a comment and let me know.
Also a reminder to look at the description of this podcast episode so you can find the list of words and phrases that I used in the episode so you can take them and hopefully start using them in conversation yourself.
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