Los Angeles cult recipes

So, I am guessing you may not have realised that Los Angles has 'cult recipes'. We know about Hollywood and its big sign, Rodeo Drive and Venice Beach, but recipes? Don't they all just drive up for a burger?

Well, yes. And YES. And, not really.

Let's begin again. The author of this book loves burgers. He and his friend Adrian make sure they have at least one every day. So he really knows his burgers and he loves LA.

He also loves how the Angelenos care about local produce - he tells us upfront that the city's nickname is 'the farm of the United States' - because of the diversity and volume of its agricultural production. Bet you didn't know that!

That's two new bits of information. And by the time you have finished looking through this book you will have many more.

Like what is a nice young man from Bordeaux, France, doing reviewing the hot eating spots of LA? And who makes the best buckwheat blueberry pancakes (Cora's Coffee Shoppe), the finest cioppino (that's a fish and seafood stew) found at Santa Monica Seafood, or prawn tacos at Venice Beach?

Let's say you're craving gomasio brown rice cakes (as you do) - well, Kitchen Mouse at Highland Park can rescue you. Want something specific such as an alcohol-free decaf tiramisu? Head for Caffee Delfini in Santa Monica. You'll find kimchi nachos at Komodo, mac and cheese pizza at Pizzanista!, vanilla donuts at Randy's Donuts (the place with the big donut sign on top) - even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (I kid you not!) at Joan's on Third.

You get the drift, and to help even more there are three indexes: an address index, then one for ingredients and one for recipes, the latter grouped according to district, so you can find anything quickly.

Every one of these cult dishes has pictures and a recipe (doh! you guessed that - the book is called Cult Recipes!) and there are plenty of burgers as you would have expected.

One hundred recipes from over fifty great LA eateries. You will never want to leave town.

*******

Los Angeles cult recipes, by Victor Garnier Asorino, published by Murdoch Books, August 2017, hardcover, rrp A$49.99

- reviewed by Sally Hammond

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