The food world is experiencing a pop-culture renaissance like never before. Chef and author Anthony Bourdain is as famous as any rock star, Julia Child’s Mastering The Art of French Cooking is once again a New York Times bestseller 48 years after its first printing, and even college students who order Domino’s three times a week for a midnight dinner watch “Top Chef” as if it starred Halle Berry or Brad Pitt, not Tom Colicchio. The fact is, food is cool. In fact, it is even hip now to go to a farmer’s market or to discuss your favorite local bistro with a red cup in hand at TNC. I have always been picked on for being a food “snob” ever since my elementary school years when I would bide the time in Mrs. Williams’s third grade class writing menus on my binder paper instead of multiplication tables. As a “foodie,” I love eating both the braised short ribs at the wonderful and very refined Lucques near Hollywood just as much as I enjoy the short rib taco at the very popular Kogi BBQ Taco Truck that roams Los Angeles most nights. There are moments when a double-double with a Neopolitan shake at In-N-Out is the perfect meal, and others best suited to a tapas dinner at my favorite restaurant in the village, Viva Madrid. Of course, I would say that just about any moment of the day is an appropriate time for a chocolate ginger cookie at Some Crust Bakery. The restaurant business is all about copycats. Have you ever noticed that every frozen yogurt place looks the same and that every small bistro would be fined by the cuisine police if their menu did not have pork belly and tuna tartare on it? In the dining landscape it can seem daunting to find a restaurant that is slightly more unique or of slightly better quality or a slightly better deal than its brethren. The Los Angeles area is Disneyland for food lovers, with some of the best bakeries, markets and restaurants in the world intertwined with thousands of tiny hole-in-the-wall places serving every ethnic cuisine known to man. There is no better reason than dining to explore this wonderfully diverse region and at least begin to comprehend what freeway goes where. I’m sure no student has the city of Bell on their must visit list. Yet, the chiles en nogada at the wonderful La Casita Mexicana are more than enough reason to visit beautiful Bell.

Restaurants Mentioned in this Article

Lucques 8474 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

Kogi BBQ Truck Various locations; see website for details

In-N-Out Burger 1837 Foothill Boulevard, Upland, CA

Viva Madrid 225 Yale Avenue, Claremont, CA

Some Crust Bakery 119 Yale Avenue, Claremont, CA

La Casita Mexicana 4030 Gage Avenue, Bell, CA

Spago 176 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA

El Huarache Azteca 5225 York Blvd., Highland Park, CA

For restaurants that do not have table service, I simply rate them on the same scale of zero to four stars with just one overall rating. It would be unfair to directly compare Highland Park’s El Huarache Azteca to Spago in Beverly Hills. Both are spectacular but in entirely different ways and for entirely different occasions.