Roy Choi and Anthony Bourdain on Tackling L.A.'s Biggest Stereotypes

Earlier this fall, CNN held a luncheon at Roy Choi's Koreatown eatery POT to unveil the network's new interactive series Street Food with Roy Choi. On the show, Choi meets up with influencers and trendsetters on the streets of LA, including YouTube star Michelle Phan, filmmaker Jon Favreau (whose movie "Chef" included Choi as a consultant) and DJ Tokimonsta. Superstar chef Anthony Bourdain, who executive produces "Street Food" with Choi, also appears.

At the CNN event, I asked Bourdain and Choi to reflect on what they think are the biggest misconceptions and stereotypes that persist about L.A. Here's what they had to say:

Bourdain: That it's Hollywood. Roy said the single most informative thing anyone has ever said to me about LA, and it totally changed my perspective. I was wondering why LA doesn't have the fine dining scene that New York has, as many Michelin restaurants and French guides.

I asked, "Are you not paying chefs enough, what is it?" And he said, "Look, the culinary spine of New York is European. That's not true here at all. The whole cultural culinary spine of LA has always been Asian and Latino." It's also LA's greatest strength. What I want to do when I come out here is eat Mexican and Central American food. I go to K-town. I just want wallow in delicious Korean food as long as I can because we don't have it as strong [in New York].

One of the satisfying things of shooting a show here is we thought it might be a challenge to do a show in LA that never shows the Hollywood sign. We didn't want to show any white people at all. We wanted to shoot an entire episode and never leave Koreatown. I've barely scratched the surface. Jesus, can you imagine Jonathan Gold's Rolodex? How long it would take to go through all of those restaurants? That is endlessly fascinating to me.

Choi: I'm from here, and I have a little bit of a guard dog's watch on this city when people talk shit about it. I try to really make people feel our city. Sometimes it's not through words. A lot of times the residents of our city don't have the chance to fight back because English is not their first language. What I try to do as a bridge is represent the people of this city and the strength of our city. Through that I am able to find a flavor that once people taste it, it changes their lives.

That's how LA is. A lot of people find a new life for themselves in LA. We have a lot of New Yorkers on this show, looking at how they came here and never left. There are a lot of misconceptions about this city because it's so new and there's a lot of flashy things, that it's all paper thin. But we're not what you want us to be. Why people can't get us is they try to fit us into something that relates to something else. This is fresh out here.

Bourdain: But you are really shitty drivers out here. That part is true.

Choi: You're always fascinated by the left turns out here.

Bourdain: Merge, people, just merge. It's not that hard, just decide who's going first! I'm obsessed with the cliches though to. I'm obsessed with old Hollywood. Right now I have a mania for the Garden of Allah, this long gone hotel on Sunset. I have historical obsessions here that I'm looking to incorporate into my show somehow.

It was a great conversation... but the reason to visit POT is the food, of course! Here's a sampling of what we ate that day:

Kush Salad (Asian greens, radish, fruit, pine nut mustard dressing); Kat Man Doo (steamed dumplings); Potato Pancakes; BBQ Veggies; BBQ Spicy Pork; Kimchi Fried Rice; Old School Hot Pot (marinated rib eye bulgogi, noodles, kimchi, scallion, sesame); Cabbage Hot Pot (soy bean paste, veggies, tofu, squash, potatoes)

More pics:

It Was Probably Inevitable: "Sh*t People Say in LA," The Video

Given the "$#*! People Say" video trend on YouTube right now, this was inevitable, right? Here's "Sh*t People Say in LA," written by Heidi Niedermeyer and Elena Crevello. (h/t Blogging.la)

A "Drive" Tour of Los Angeles

The recent exploration of real, gritty Los Angeles in film and TV -- as popularized by everything from "Collateral" and "Southland" to "(500) Days of Summer" -- expands again in the new Ryan Gosling feature "Drive." Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne calls the movie "one of the most perceptive recent attempts to understand the peculiarly standoffish personality of L.A.'s built environment."

More:

Don't expect glamour shots of Walt Disney Concert Hall, Griffith Observatory and other postcard landmarks; what you see through the windshield of the cars in "Drive" is largely the drab, closed-off and forgettable cityscape of the Southern California commercial strip.

Whenever any building in the movie shimmers or gleams, it is because it is being seen from an impossible distance, shot from a helicopter gliding over Bunker Hill at night or hovering Oz-like way off on the horizon. Otherwise, the characters in "Drive" spend most of their time in elevators, cheap apartments, greasy spoons and parking garages, grimly navigating a downmarket version of the anonymous urban interiors that the architect Rem Koolhaas once dubbed "junkspace."

The L.A. Times film blog 24 Frames takes us on a tour of "Drive" locations here. Some highlights:

MacArthur Park
Real place: corner of W. 6th Street and S. Park View Street, Los Angeles

Echo Park market
Real place: Big 6 Market, 500 block of S. Rampart Boulevard, Los Angeles

Shannon’s Garage
Real place: Picture Car Warehouse, 8400 block of Reseda Boulevard, Northridge

L.A. River
Real place: L.A. River near Reseda and Victory boulevards, Reseda

Ninos Pizzeria
Real place: Vincenzo’s Pizza, 11000 block of Balboa Boulevard, Granada Hills

Pawn Shop
Real Place: Santa Clarita Elks Lodge, 17700 block of Sierra Highway, Santa Clarita

Point Mugu
Real Place: Point Mugu State Park and beaches

Fifteen Years in Los Angeles: I'm An Angelino

"Where are you from?" It's an easy question for most, but as the years tick by, it's become increasingly complicated for me.

I went to high school in Hawaii, and for years that was my easy answer. After all, it's where I spent my critical formative years. Where I had my first real journalism job, a paid internship at Hawaii Business magazine. It's where I learned to drive. Where I first got to DJ on the radio. Where my modern music tastes were formed (thanks, Radio Free Hawaii). Where I had my first kiss. Where I found my voice.

When I arrived in Los Angeles in 1996, straight from college in Chicago (and a quick five-month stint in Washington, DC), high school -- and Hawaii -- still seemed fresh. I was just 22, after all, and hadn't been an adult long enough to have put down any roots.

My first few years in Los Angeles seem like a blur now. Actually, whenever I hear Bran Van 3000's track "Drinking In LA" (above), it brings me back to living in L.A. in my mid-20s, in the mid-1990s.

But then I got older. And became more aware of my surroundings. I met someone, and she happened to live in Los Feliz (on Franklin Avenue, natch). Together, we began taking advantage this big, wonderful city. We spent time downtown. We explored via public transportation. We went to festivals, visited hole-in-the-wall restaurants and attended events big and small. We started this blog. We threw two races around Los Angeles. We chronicled the demise of landmarks like the Ambassador Hotel (and helped throw a wake in its honor). We started an annual walk that traversed the city. We got married, bought a house, had kids.

Hawaii seems so long ago now. And hell, so does drinking in L.A. at 26. But as I age and put down all of those roots, I feel closer to Los Angeles than any other place I've lived in my life. (Granted, I've lived in Los Angeles three times longer than any other place in my life.) It's been an amazing, transformative 15 years, Los Angeles. I'll keep laying down those roots, if you don't mind, as an Angelino. (By the way, according to D.J. Waldie, that should actually be Angeleño. But I honestly feel like I'm still working toward earning such a title. Maybe in another fifteen.)

Previously on Franklin Avenue:

Decade in Los Angeles: Go East, Young Man (June 2006)

Explore L.A.'s Hidden History with Jim Heimann

L.A. Time Machines suggests that "Chris Nichols and Jim Heimann have to be two of the greatest living Restaurant and mid-Century Modern historians around." Which is why it's fitting that Chris, a Los Angeles magazine staffer by day, emailed this must-attend event for anyone obsessed with L.A. history:

"LA Erased," An Evening with Jim Heimann
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Walgrove Auditorium
1630 Walgrove Ave.
Los Angeles 90066

Please join The Friends of Walgrove and The New School-West preschool in welcoming Taschen author, editor, and graphic designer Jim Heimann for a rare evening exploring the hidden history of Los Angeles. Part slideshow, part rambling travelogue, this will be an evening filled with unusual and arcane images and tidbits about the city we all love. Tickets $15. Limited seating. Email now for your tkts to newschoolwest@earthlink.net. There will be limited seating.



Chris refers to Heimann (author of "California Crazy," above) as "my mentor, my hero." Good enough for me. Plus, he notes, it's a charity event.

"Why Can't I Find A Decent (Blank) In Los Angeles?!"

Stories like this one make my skin crawl: "Los Angeles rivals New York City when it comes to transplants. And one thing all transplants share is a list of gripes about what was better about home. For New Yorkers it's bagels and pizza. For Austin, Texas, natives, BBQ. For Chicagoans, jazz. For Bostonians -- everything. But just scratch the surface and there's a little bit of everywhere in these United States of L.A. Read on and beat the homesick blues."

What is it about the L.A. transplants who never bother to get to know their adopted city? I'm constantly surprised by people who have lived here for years, but still don't know the basics about Los Angeles, don't pay attention to local politics, never venture into certain parts of town and refuse to become part of the local fabric. (I can't wait to get the Militant Angeleno's take on this piece.)

Hey, there are plenty of spots here in Los Angeles when I want to get a mini-dose of Hawaii (the ever-growing L&L Hawaiian Barbecue chain, King's Bakery, Whittier College's Hawaiian concert series, etc.). But I also don't whine that "things are so much better back home" -- perhaps because even though I'm a transplant, Los Angeles now is home.

A few lines that bug me:

"Austin transplant Jenny Sperandeo cites the El Rey, Spaceland and the Troubadour as venues worthy of Austin's close-knit music scene": Well, gee, thanks. The Troubadour just celebrated its 50th anniversary, so I'm glad it's been deemed worthy.

"Without so much as a dedicated country radio station, L.A. is no cowboy mecca.": I'm thinking the people at KKGO-FM 105.1 "Go Country" might disagree.

"As for deli food, lower your expectations: Filmmaker Rachel Zabar, whose family owns famed New York deli Zabar's, isn't impressed with L.A.'s efforts. 'There are no decent Jewish delis. I've been to Jerry's and thought it was a joke.'": Well yeah, Jerry's is a joke. Why no mention of Langer's?

An Early Christmas Present from the City of Los Angeles

Ahh, L.A., you shouldn't have!

I mean, seriously, L.A. You shouldn't have. C'mon, it was a Friday evening, 5:30 p.m., and the meter had run out just three or four minutes earlier. As I walked out, thinking I still had a minute left, I ran into Officer Flowers, typing my license plate into the car.

I tried to win him over with kindness. Didn't work. He handed me the ticket. "Hey, Merry Christmas to you," I said, as he handed it back to me. He opted not to humor my sarcasm. "Same to you," he exclaimed.

Ugh.

He then went to work on the car behind me. Coincidentally, that car owner also popped out of the building just as Officer Flowers was computing the ticket.



Here he is, handing the ticket to the car owner, who was not amused. Ho ho ho!

Loving To Hate, Or Hating to Love Los Angeles?

Looks like L.A. Times blogger Peter Viles didn't expect the heated response he received when he posted this question, inspired by news that 89,000 people left California last year:

Why are people moving out of L.A. and California?

Get a load of some of the comments:

People can sugar coat it any way they want! We left California in October simply for the fact that it is in third world status and I don't understand the language!

Posted by: Janice Gammill | December 20, 2007 at 09:38 AM

++++++
why at least once a week I think about leaving California:

--the cost of housing (obviously)
--the fact that all the good jobs are clustered in areas we can't afford to live in
--high taxes
--obscene property taxes
--the knowledge that the state is just going to waste all your tax money anyway
--high utility costs
--the price of gas
--congestion that makes even a short trip through the suburbs at least half an hour
--corrupt state politicians
--free health care for illegals while native borns just go without
--the steady march toward "Mexifornia"
--some of the worst schools in the nation (see "Mexifornia" above)
--the fact that even CSU and the UC are moving out of reach for the middle class....

Posted by: do I have to draw you a diagram? | December 20, 2007 at 10:19 AM

With so much anti-L.A. vitriol (not to mention those offensive remarks), Viles now admits he goofed on the post:

I asked, "why are people moving out of L.A. and California," which was a fair question but also leading -- an invitation for L.A.-bashing. I could have asked a more balanced question, something along the lines of, "how do you rate the quality of life in L.A.? Is living here worth the price?"

As a result, the new post is now mostly filled with L.A. boosters. No surprise I'm in the booster category. Of course L.A. and California (especially California) have problems -- but what place doesn't?

I remember back in Hawai'i, the cost of living was so high, and jobs so scarce, that there was a lot of talk back then of a "brain drain" -- as locals hunting for top-tier jobs wound up having to move to the Mainland for a decent job. Could that ever happen here?