Memorial Day Trip Itinerary

Tire Shop Taqueria!

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My 0.02.

I think you do yourself a disservice by focusing your food choices on what you cannot get back at home. Focus, instead, on what the place you are visiting does well (regardless of whether you can find the same kind of dish or cuisine back at home).

Taking your example, Chinese food is such an expansive and broad category that there are things that NYC does well, that LA does not, and vice versa. Same with Thai. The cuisine is so diverse, even before you get into the nuances between Northern and Southern Thai, that there will inevitably be dishes in LA that are not only more unique than those in NYC, but arguably worth seeking out even if the same type of dish is extant in NYC.

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I’m going to agree with this. When I visit New York or San Francisco, I always eat Chinese and Italian, even though there is plenty of it here inLos Angeles.

That being said, if I was coming from a land where the Japanese food is expensive, to a land of plenty like Los Angeles, I would eat a lot of Japanese food. A lot. And Mexican food.

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@ipsedixit Yeah… Not gonna lie with 2.5 days of time to spend eating in LA, I’m definitely more likely to want affordable Japanese and Mexican food than Chinese food. I’m also balancing the desires of my travel mates (thus Connie and Ted’s, Bestia). I get what you’re saying but that makes more sense for a long trip to LA from NYC rather than a quick one.

@Chowseeker1999 this is super helpful! I’m going to share with my travel mates and see what they think. Thank you!!

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NY Thai is a joke.

I have heard of this place called Pok Pok or Poke Poke some dude name Andy or Candy

But yeah NYC doesn’t look to promising on the Thai maybe 1-2 places in Queens looks okay. I see one Isaan specialist.

I think I said this somewhere else…

In LA and Southern California you just can’t say you want to eat “Mexican” or “Thai” or “Chinese”. That is too broad.

I did not mean for this to become an LA vs NY thread.

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Okay you are staying in Ktown…

You gotta hit up Isaan Station.

Get the BBQ Chicken (Gai Yang), a papaya salad, and some sticky rice to mop up the chicken juices and papaya salad juices.

If you still have it in you hit up Pollo Ala Brasa for the best Peruvian wood fire roasted chicken.

If you want a true unique LA dish hit up Dino’s and get the chicken and fries, extra sauce.

My top places for tacos?

-Guerilla Tacos
-Ricky’s Fish Tacos
-Tire Shop Taqueria
-Leo’s on the weekends only
-Tacos Quetzalcoatl
-Mariscos Jalisco
-Carnitas El Momo

Those are the specialists…

Some good generalists…

-Avenue 26
-El Chato Truck
-Since you will be in Ktown. El Flamin is a popular truck, I would stick to the fresh quesdillas/other masa stand to the side.

And then you got a lot of these nameless taco stands all over from Highland Park in the Northeast to the Westside to all over South Central. There is a few of these in KTown but the location escapes me at this time. These are usually solid. If you see a copper pot, you want that stuff in there

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Yah. Sorry. You are right, not the point.
But I’m a former NY-er who has a hard time resisting the urge to point out West Coast superiority in certain areas.
Bagging on NY is not actually in our Mission Statement, per se (hahahahaha).

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it’s our default state - a rivalry in good fun, until hip hop artists start getting murdered again.

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And on weekends you can hit up Olympic Mercado

(Not all the vendors in that article are still there btw)

Probably some of the best quesadillas around. And hot churros from the fryer.
If you don’t like crowds it will be uncomfortable. It is a unique experience.

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Speaking of which, has anyone tried the new Drago location at the Petersen Automotive Museum?

This article should give you some ideas. What does it mean to be a chef in Los Angeles in 2017? We asked a few of them

I would love to troll this Drago restaurant and possibly get kicked out with Rocky references.

“Dragoooooo!”

“If he pasta, he pasta”

But grown men don’t do these things.

I’m coming from New York, so Chinese and Thai food I can generally get here<

I guess you pulled the trigger without even realizing it. After reading this statement, I bet the majority on this board shuttered hard enough to cause a shift in the Pacific Plate.

The San Gabriel Valley is about 385 square miles in size, the majority of it is filled with food from mostly Chinese-based cultures. The area’s breadth and depth of food is beyond words.

LA has the largest expat Thai community outside of Thailand, and is home to the first Thai Town outside of Thailand as well.

Yeah, to get a good feel of either of these general cuisines in LA will take time. So maybe your thoughts on narrowing your coverage is wiser. But if you decide to try one, I would go with Thai, as Thai Town is easy to get to from Koreatown, and as already mentioned, you can find great Thai food IN Koreatown as well.

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I’m going to be going to LA for Memorial Day weekend, staying in Koreatown.

reading comprehension fail, my bad. we can clean up these last 3 posts now.

I’m sure President Mochi will grant you a pardon. You are far too valuable to be thrown in the dungeon.

friday
bestia

saturday
republique
guerrilla tacos - 8301 Beverly Blvd
animal

sunday
gjusta
connie teds
night + market

monday
coni’seafood
lax

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Cool. Can we stop arguing about whose Chinatown is bigger? Thanks.