We'll be exploring categories from dairy and sweets to beverages and meats in our Summer Webinar Seri…
A Los Angeles Food Trek
Print »
Email »
Subscribe »
IMAGE: In-N-Out double double by Flickr user diyosa.
It might seem counterintuitive to think of Los Angeles as a mecca for meat. But then again the City of Angels has forever been awash in contradictions and madness. Consider something as seemingly all-American as the Beach Boys: While Brian Wilson was sitting inside a sandbox recording some of the most iconic music in history (e.g., Good Vibrations), his brother and bandmate Dennis opened the doors of his Bel Air mansion to Charles Manson and began wandering around Sunset Boulevard in a robe, while giving away his possessions.
Nothing about Los Angeles ever makes sense.
So in that spirit, we decided it was important to begin our trek on Monday, a spirited jab at the bourgeoning “Meatless Monday” movement.
Huntington Meats and Sausage: They Get It
Thanks to the success of retailers like Whole Food Market and Wegmans, as well as the more general interest in high-quality eating, there is now no shortage of places to buy expensive meats.
And yet, very few of these retailers seem to really understand meat the way Dan Vance and Jim Cascone do. Long a staple of the farmer’s market at 3rd and Fairfax, Huntington Meats is not the sort of “undiscovered treasure” food critics and fans like to keep to themselves. Quite to the contrary, these folks are more than happy to entertain the masses with their over-educated staff, unique offerings of heritage meats (e.g., Kurobuta Pork) and a wide variety of handmade sausages.
What sets Huntington Meats over the top in our book is that they actually understand that a great hamburger requires a high fat content. So many work under the mistaken belief that the leaner the beef, the better the flavor.
And then there is the health issue. Several of the more knowledgeable grocery retailers in our hometown of Seattle will not sell us a high-fat content mix because it “violates the store’s commitment to health.” Kurobata pork at $28 a pound? No problem. But no high-fat ground beef for you!
Rest assured, there is no such foolishness here. Popularized by Nancy Silverton, their special blend was described to us as prime chuck (about 10-15% fat), ground with 13% of pure sirloin fat. That comes to a yield of about 28% fat. Yes!
Our excitement at this triumph of taste over mediocrity was tempered by the fact that the only way we will ever be able to experience such bliss in our hometown is to invest in a high-quality meat grinder.
Los Angeles: a city that really knows how to grind its meat.
Canter’s Deli: It’s in L.A.
Upon entering Canter’s Deli you become very, very aware that the folks from Guns N’ Roses have been known to hang out there. There are dozens of pictures and handbills plastered all over the walls attesting to this fact.
Marc Canter maintains a site on eBay offering his book Reckless Road: Guns N' Roses and the Making Of Appetite For Destruction, as well as a wide assortment of GNR memorabilia.
If you visit the Canter’s website, you’ll see they are very excited to tell you about the restaurant’s history, all of the famous people and political figures known to frequent the place and the numerous films and TV shows shot in the restaurant.
Among the many celebrity guests listed on their website you’ll find David Brenner, Henry Winkler and Charlene Tilton—the holy trinity of the Where Are They Now? club.
All of this is a way of saying that like the rest of Los Angeles, Canter’s is very proud of the fact that they, too, are from Los Angeles and will miss no opportunity to remind you of this fact. This is part of the Los Angeles imagination.
We sampled both the hot corned beef and hot pastrami sandwiches. Gigantic piles of braised meat stuffed within two slices of rye bread. Both were really quite nice and probably worthy of the great voyage.
But the food here isn’t necessarily the point. You don’t go to Canter’s so much for the food or the meat. You go to Canter’s to be in Los Angeles. It’s part of the city within the city.
In-N-Out: Let Los Angeles Keep It
It’s something of an admittedly enjoyable cliché to visit In-N-Out while traveling to Los Angeles. To that end, we’ve long-since tired of listening to people as they rave on and on and on about this place.
Yeah, we get it that they have a special menu and you feel like part of an elite group when you order the “4 x 4.” Only, it seems you’re not so cool now that they have the full secret menu plastered all over their web site.
So this time we decided to try to get to the bottom of this mystery by heading out to In-N-Out with a couple of longtime Angelenos. As we dined we didn’t interrogate them regarding the subject at hand. We simply ate and talked.
As we finished, we asked them about In-N-Out, whether their meal today was good and so forth. As they immediately began gushing, we asked, “So what is so special about this burger? What sets it apart from other burgers? Is it the meat?”
They paused before suggesting that In-N-Out was better than McDonald’s. Point well taken. In-N-Out probably is better than McDonald’s. But beyond this distinction, they really couldn’t say much other than that they had been coming here all their lives.
And therein, we submit, lies the answer.
You see, this is a city that has given a lot of itself in the way of food culture and asked for little in return. Among others, Los Angeles has given us McDonald’s, Denny’s and Krusty Burger. And thus far, In-N-Out is something that folks in LA can keep to themselves. In this it is like Skyline Chili—a cherished icon, a memory they can call home.
Yes, In-N-Out really is a decent burger. But more importantly, it’s their burger.
Animal: They Play Chefs on TV
There are few things quite as jarring as eating fried bunny legs on Easter. But, that’s exactly what we did.
Upon first glance at Animal’s menu, the uninitiated might make the mistake of thinking that this is some version of what some call “challenging food.” All of those “weird things” that Andrew Zimmerman guy is always eating. This is a menu, after all, littered with things like pig ear, lamb neck, veal brains, pig tail and, of course, bunny legs.
But once you take the plunge you come to see that there is a marked intuitiveness across the menu here. It only makes sense that if you can confit a duck leg, you can surely do the same to a rabbit leg, with the result being a reasonably familiar flavor and texture profile.
Smack in the center of the “nasty bits” trend—the “nose to tail” philosophy created by Fergus Henderson at St. John—Animal still manages to excite and innovate. Marrow, for example, has been popping up everywhere for the past four or five years, but theirs is surely one of the finest incarnations. At once silky and savory, the marrow comes to life with the addition of a zesty Chimichurri.
But lest this turn into yet another restaurant review, what’s important to recognize here is that Animal represents the schizophrenic nature of Los Angeles at its best.
You see, Animal was founded by John Shook and Vinny Dotolo who formerly had a catering business called Carmelized Productions. Along the way they starred in the Food Network reality series “Two Dudes Catering”—a caricature of “bad boy chefs” who “do things their way,” while catering to the stars. Think Johnny Knoxville from Jackass only substitute a lamb shank for a skateboard.
Like many others in Los Angeles, these guys are cartoon characters who embrace their caricatures to do really killer things.
Remember, it’s LA baby.
Birrieria Tepeque – One Word: Goat
There was no way we were going to leave a place like Los Angeles without gorging on goat. Lacking the time or energy to do a proper sampling of Birrierias—places that sell goat tacos—I took the advice of the Taco Taskforce over on the Gastronomy Blog and headed Straight to Birrieria Tepeque.
Taskforce folks make reference to the fact that this is “Michoacan-style” Birria, although we’re not sure what that’s supposed to mean. What does matter is that once you’re here, you just can’t stop stuffing your face with goat. To heck with the tacos part! We learned that a Birria is a sort of braised meat stew often served with tortillas.
According to our taco experts, what sets Tepeque apart is their use of baby goat. It would be so nice to be able to peg this as one of those “next big” trends like, say, Korean tacos. But Americans have always been very stubborn when it comes to swapping out other animals for their beef, pork, chicken and fish.
First Plane Home: Spring is Done
It was only upon our trip home—while dining on lamb medallions on Virgin America—that we realized we had actually managed to consume almost all of spring’s best treats in less than two days.
A meal at Susan Fenniger’s Street covered most of the spring vegetables. Our meal at Animal covered veal, rabbit, asparagus and pea shoots. Birreria Tepeque checked the baby goat off of our list. And, of course, there is the aforementioned lamb on Virgin America.
Despite what some may argue, Los Angeles is the home of post-modernism. It is a city built of imagination in a place otherwise challenging for human life. Nowhere is this more evident than it its approach to food. Its everything and anywhere at once. It’s the heart and soul of innovation in the American food world. Unlike New York, it doesn’t have to try. It just is.
Want even more on meat?
Join us for part two of our summer-long, category-specific webinar series! We'll explore trends in meat from choice cuts and sourcing to rockstar butchers in the know. Register here.
Come Trek with Us!
Psst! Interested in tagging along? We offer customized excursions! Our Cultural Trends Trek informs and inspires product development, design, marketing, brands, strategy, retail and product experiences, and so much more. To learn more or to schedule a Cultural Trends Trek, check out our menu of services.