Los Angeles ethnic markets

Seth Kugel, the NYTimes "frugal traveler" has a piece today on ethnic markets in LA. It's necessarily highly selective, but interesting reading nonetheless.


I am not certain but free registration may be required, which allows you up to 10 articles free per month. They're clamping down.

With some exceptions, large ethnic supermarkets (as opposed to the corner bodega) are not a "thing" in NY like they are in LA and Chicago. This comes through. Odd but decent selection of spots with a focus on fancier/NYT readership friendly 'hoods (eg, Westwood and Glendale for foods outside their actual core neighborhoods). I agree with the one commenter that Thai is a serious ommission. But I always like to see items like this in the Times. There is a large contingent of people who will read and enjoy that wouldn't think to look at LTH or even Jonathan Gold.

Interesting piece from Street Gourmet LA about the Olympic Market.

If anyone wants a copy of this or any other NY Times article via email - feel free to PM me. I have unlimited NY Times access.

Dave148 wrote:If anyone wants a copy of this or any other NY Times article via email - feel free to PM me. I have unlimited NY Times access.

Nice idea. I'll make the same offer.

1 mile west of El Super lays Guisados. So instead of the absolute junk he ate from the Mex mkt (per his photo), he could've had some real-to-goodness tinga & mole tacos topped with fiery fresh habanero salsa, finished off with melon agua frescas for < $10.

Seafood City is also rather depressing. It's packed with nothing but imported, farmed, frozen fish. At a local branch, the 2 supermarket food court restaurants (one is Filipino Chinese) were repeatedly shut down due to vermin infestation. Think about that -- rats inside a super market.

No idea why this writer skipped the impressive Ktown markets with their huge selection of panchan and prepared foods, or LAX-C with its satays, sticky rice, khanom krok and vast variety of curries. No wait, I do know: cuz "joo dunno".

NYT, save Jennifer Steinhauer, needs to stop covering LA.

You said what I was thinking, but I don't live in LA so expected you to pop up. And I distinclty saw what you wrote there.

TonyC wrote:1 mile west of El Super lays Guisados. So instead of the absolute junk he ate from the Mex mkt (per his photo)...

Yyyyyyyyeah, I don't know how El Super in Phoenix compares to El Super in L.A., but it's pretty limited and sterile here. It's the "I just need a few Mexican staples and don't want to drive all the way to the good market" place.

That particular El Super is legit, since it's in East Los. They have their own tortilleria, carniceria, panaderia (that bakes fresh through out the day), ad nausea. It's packed with locals looking for cheap cecina and beer; on the weekends, the parking lot is festive (think: Don Pedro Carnitas, or Uruapan), with various vendors hawking tamales/champurrado/paletas/aquas frescas, etc.

But again, the writer decided to buy junk food, which is rather befuddling.