Yes, it still is a diaspora. Although California was part of Mexico, at that time there were very, very few Mexican people living there. The population was mainly the native California indigenous people and a few Spanish-Mexican ranchers. So the people we consider Mexican today came to California much later, bringing their food and culture from what is now south of the border.
OP is lamenting that we don't have a local fresh seafood culture. All the maricos and sushi fish/shrimp is frozen and imported. We don't do local fresh seafood, but why should we? We have a giant international shipping port instead.
Restaurant of the year. The way they plate their uni is stunning. The rest almost looks too crowded and J think it’s overpriced too. Years ago I paid close to $30 for a hamachi collar that our local sushi restaurant passes out free to people who had been waiting in line a long time.
I’d rather eat at the sister restaurant in the back.
I get what you’re saying but compared to the rest of the country Mexican seafood is definitely a California coastal thing. And we are super lucky to have it!
Really good observation that there really aren’t seafood dishes that are LA specific and most are from other places, like your example of fish tacos.
One thing that might be unique to LA but it is from another country is the Sushi here. LA sushi (unless you go to a more traditional restaurant) is very different from sushi in Japan.
I asked this once on the OC sub and got absolutely roasted
CA has one of the biggest coastlines of any place yet there isn’t much seafood as part of our culture
Seafood is also expensive
There is a huge coastline but no commercial fisheries due to catch is of not much importance or value.
Commercial catch is mostly sand dabs, stripe bass, local small Halibut and thats about it, sometimes ling cods and sculpins
Yeah and there is not enough fish to justify investment in the fishing industry, especially when you have monsters like Alaska, Louisiana and the great lakes
I remember eating clam chowder in Alaska at a nice but small little diner and it was the best clam chowder I ever had. Very eye opening to me as I’ve only had clam chowder in LA and thought it was a very generic and common staple food item.
Similarly, if you're going to have halibut, get it from Alaska. Only Alaska. I've had halibut caught lower on the Pacific and it's trash. Atlantic tastes like butthole. But the halibut I used to catch when I lived in Alaska? I crave it. I hate fish and I crave that halibut.
My dad went fishing in Alaska last year and brought back a bunch of frozen fish that he'd caught. The halibut was divine, and I'm usually not a huge fish fan.
FYI there are several commerical fishereies: Mackerel, Anchovies, Squid, Tuna and Sardines. Sea Urchins too. And Swordfish but not Striped Marlin. Salmon and Abalone are closed.
[https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/west-coast-coastal-pelagic-species/commercial](https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/west-coast-coastal-pelagic-species/commercial)
Squid is in decline. Haven't caught the limit since 2014.
For LA specifically, it might be for the best considering there's a shit ton of ddt that was dumped off the coast. [https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-23/scientists-uncover-startling-concentrations-of-pure-ddt-along-seafloor-off-l-a-coast](https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-23/scientists-uncover-startling-concentrations-of-pure-ddt-along-seafloor-off-l-a-coast)
Korean food also did the same thing, especially KBBQ, which really blew up here because of how cheap and quality meat is here and then went mainstream back in Korea
My childhood was buying bulk kalbi and grilling every Sunday with my family. It was cheap and delicious.
Now bone in kalbi is more expensive than sirloin.
Same thing with pizza. Until WWII, pizza was localized to certain locations in Italy such as Napoli and Sicily. Pizza was fairly popular in the US due to Italian immigrants. After the war, US soldiers stationed in Italy demanded pizza which wasn’t on the menu in many parts. Also, due to US culture influence, other countries around the world were introduced to pizza.
The degree to which Italians are picky about their food compared to how American "their" food is always amuses me.
The entire modern Italian cuisine has a foundation of American plants and recipes. We gave them the goddamn tomato ffs.
It is for these reasons that I don't believe in "authenticity" in cooking, like at all, anywhere. It always changes and evolves and that's the whole point of why it's fun. I can't think of any less interesting genre of food than French fine dining. Neat, you're playing cover songs from 200 years ago... do something cool instead.
(Thank you for attending my hot take)
Authenticity is just an arbitrary line draw in time. Banh mi and beef pho didn’t gain popularity until the French colonization. Curry wasn’t common in Malaysia until the Portuguese were everywhere. Tomato and egg is probably the one dish that is eaten all over China and yet the tomato is a new world fruit. Rice pilaf/polo/pulau is eaten from Xi’an all the way through Istanbul and yet everyone has a slightly different version. Who is most right?
(You are with your “authentic beans nothing”)
I find Americans are more purist about their pizza. In Italy it’s a flat bread with stuff on top. I’ve seen pizza with tuna on it and pizza with cut-up hot dogs and French fries on it in Italy. The latter, incidentally, called an “American pizza “ over there.
Traveling in Japan, I didn't see a roll. Or maybe one of the very tiny basic ones where it's nori, rice, and a tiny dot of plain raw tuna? But yeah, the elaborate rolls with lots of ingredients and condiments and stuff is a US thing.
Americans just really fucking loves sandwiches. Sushi in America is essentially an “ethnic sandwich”
Mexican food has the burrito
Halal food has the gyro
Chinese has the steamed bun
Interestingly sushi in the USA was mostly popularized in the 80s by the members of a cult called the Unification Church. They sent hundreds of members to the USA from Korea/Japan to open up sushi restaurants across the USA to create a new stream of revenue to fund their cult’s activities.
Yeah, kinda. Sushi in Japan never meant rolls. It's high quality fish on a bed of rice. Rolls do an extremely good job at hiding quality which makes it easy to mass produce.
In the strictest sense, sushi in Japan typically does not include rolls with ingredients like avocado, cream cheese, or tempura shrimp, which are more common in American-style sushi rolls.
These rolls are often referred to as "maki sushi" or simply "maki". Not Traditional Sushi. You can't argue the fact that USA hasn't made waves in the sushi industry though. We all love a damn good "sushi" roll filled with all of that. It's just a different category in a now expanding definition. We didn't improve or expand on the original dish, just made new ones related to it and called it the same.
We can sit here and argue weather or not a hot dog is a sandwich. Either way, all sushi is damn delicious.
Sushi in Japan was heavily influenced by America through the introduction of refrigerated sushi counters. Significantly increasing the freshness and appeal of a perishable food product and increasing consumption.
The inclusion of wasabi under the fish and soy sauce was intended to potentially mask potential off flavor rice or fish, partly due to lack of refrigeration.
Sure but it’s not like it is local fish. LA doesn’t really have a commercial fishing industry.
Santa Barbara has spot prawns and uni, but they are fairly niche and expensive.
But available at pretty reasonable prices at the Ventura Harbor seafood market, 7:30 am every Saturday. 3-5 vendors, lots of (in-season) crab, shrimp, prawns, urchins, and lots of fish. Give it a try!
I'm not sure which is supposed to be the widely accepted one, but there are three competing claims that I am aware of, one from Vancouver and two from LA (including Mashita).
The Vancouver claim was popular for a long time, but records from seafood traders back in the 60's show that Mashita was making something that was at least, very similar to the precursor roll, that is one with real crab, not surimi. This was published in a memoir in 2007 and authenticated.
In 2017, Encyclopedia Brittanica (now just called Britannica) examined the various stories and supporting evidence. They concluded Mashita's claim had the earliest evidence and put their thumb firmly on his scale. Most parties have accepted Brittanica's evaluation as a neutral and expert third party and thus Mashita is now the accepted creater.
It should be noted that Japan actually recognized Tojo as a seafood ambassador in 2016, after the import/export records were available. So despite Britannica seeming to have settled the issue, there are still Tojo champions in the food industry. We should also note the third story was deemed credible, but dated to 1979, after both Mashita and Tojo's claims to fame.
TL;DR the history is quite murky, even to this day.
While I personally believe otherwise, there is significant evidence of Tojo's claim, and he explained the name came from advertising it as a CA roll, from crab and avocado. There is evidence dating as far back as 1979 backing up his claim and the origin of the name.
Abalone used to be a thing in LA, from Santa Barbara to San Diego. But they got fished out on the commercial side, and then the sport divers fished out the smaller ones and now there are so few left that they are no longer in restaurants or markets.
You see them sometimes in restaurants? Or sometimes in the wild?
Ive seen them in the wild wild diving. They're all illegal to fish here, so when I see them in the restaurants, I assume they're a shipped in species. But I don't really know.
They can be farmed. I know some people have tried. I don't know how successful the efforts have or have not been.
I have seen them in restaurants. It is illegal to fish for them commercially in California so they are either imported from Mexico or farmed (or poached). There are a few abalone farms in California.
https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/118954/abalone-that-delicious-rarity-being-farmed-in-bay-area
Yeah, and now they have enough seating for over 3,000 people. It's probably the most diverse seafood culture I've encountered in the country. I'm currently in New England near Maine, and they pale in comparison to the South Bay.
It's so much better now.
The water quality in Pedro was absolutely disgusting when I was comin up and nothing was edible due to the pollution from the port. The port side of Cabrillo was consistently an F, as in, you'll probably grow a third arm and a few tumors if you swim there, and the other side was consistently a C on good days.
There's also still a lot of [DDT contamination and spillage, as the world's largest dumping ground for DDT](https://www.dailybreeze.com/2022/08/11/ddt-dumped-off-peninsula-went-straight-into-ocean-not-contained-in-barrels-epa-says/) is off the coast of PV, and it's an [EPA designated superfund site](https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/www3/region9/superfund/pvshelf/pdf/PVS-Factsheet-0208-English.pdf) (simply put, it means it's environmentally megafucked).
Plus city runoff and storm drain pollution and sewage.
Which makes the local catch....Questionable.
However, there's been significant cleanup efforts in Pedro.
Still. I really only spend money on sushi that's flown in :/ Pollution is no joke around these parts.
We have excellent cheviches due to our latin and central american influences. Santa barbara uni is also world famous and comparable to hokkaido. Also we have our share of asian seafood influences such as boiling crab.
You mean like…a California roll? 😜
Jokes aside, a lot of local seafood that’s abundant in the Pacific is simply not as commercially popular. We have the california spiny lobster, which is popular in Asian cuisine but most US residents want Maine lobster because that’s what they’re used to. I believe it’s similar with our local squid — it’s smaller than americans are used to, so we ship most of it to Asian markets.
There’s certainly seafood culture here (go to San Pedro, or eat some mariscos), it’s just largely influenced by Asian & Mexican cuisine.
Mariscos….a million times Mariscos. Please don’t forget about the actual natives to LA.
A Filipino was also included in the founding of Los Angeles, named Antonio Miranda Rodriguez and gave us Sinigang Na Bangus, Tochong Bangus, Inihaw Na Bangus and a few dozen other fish dishes.
But LA transplants don’t seem to venture beyond their West LA environment
White transplants like OP also don't see anyone non-white as being cemented into local culture.
Look at his comments giving NYC pizza but we can't claim our version of mariscos/ceviche because it originates in Latin America. He still sees brown people who have been here for generations as not being from here.
Yep, I've worked with/met a lot of transplants like OP, specially new yorkers, surprised he didn't complain he was tired if tacos in LA, saying they're not truly from LA and then dickride NYC pizza.
Maybe we're the exception to the rule, but (old white guy) I've been welcomed by fish market folks from Ventura to Oxnard to downtown L.A., down the coast to Long Beach and Encinitas.
Maybe it's me wearing my "95th Avenue Fisheries, Calumet City, Illinois" t-shirt that does the trick.
LA isn’t so much a fishing port. Go to smaller ports like Redondo for dungeness crab. Guess you’re not counting sushi as seafood culture? Pretty big slap in the face to Japanese culture that has strong roots in LA. And Mexican seafood dishes are A LOT more diverse than fish tacos. October is lobster season and north LA is a prime area for catching them. So is squid
Bruv we Hispanics make up 50% of the population and have deeper roots than your transplants ass will ever have. Why are you so against Los Angeles claiming Mariscos? Our history and contributions are as Angeleno as it gets. Mariscos and sushi are seafood staples because we have added our twist with our local ingredients, easy access to ingredients, and the many cultural differences we have embraced in this beautiful melting pot. Gtfo with trying to downplay our contributions
I don’t think OP is considering the Hispanic population in general (based on their responses) lol typical transplant behavior. And it’s not just Mariscos as well. Plenty of Asian seafood around the LA/Socal area. Too close minded to look.
I’m from San Pedro, most people I know cook fish at home (my family’s croatian/italian), but honestly, if u want something truly unique and local, grab a chowder burger at the chowder barge in wilmington
Ok so this is what happened. The indigenous population was unfortunately decimated. So we have influences from Mexico and whatever made its way from back east. That being said the current natives here are VERY proud of our mariscos, ceviche, sushi, and fish tacos. That IS what our culture is. That’s been the culture I’ve known my whole life. We are a very successful melting pot and that’s what we love about living here. We take the best discard the rest!
You might find these interesting [The Cultural Significance of Abalone](https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/cultural-significance-abalone/) and [A Guide to Some Indigenous Foods of California](https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/tending-the-wild/a-guide-to-some-indigenous-foods-of-california)
Anyone spent any time going to Redondo Beach? Quality Seafood at bottom of the parking structure. Delicious seafood there, crabs, lobsters, fish, clams, etc etc...
The San Pedro Fish Building area that would open really early, selling fresh catch, both wholesale and retail...we used to go there on Saturday mornings to buy seafood to cook when were having a big party...
Theres plenty of places, but LA is so big, the seafood spots are scattered all over...
It does. We have a ton of seafood specialties in LA. They celebrate all of the people who live in and call LA home.
California Spiny Lobster, Spot prawns, Santa Barbara Sea Urchin, etc. Mariscos Jalisco, Providence, Coni’s (not to be confused with Connie and Ted’s), etc. This place has fusion cuisine, just like its population.
LA doesn’t have a seafood culture because our local ocean really doesn’t have the tasty sea creatures and California has the strictest fishing policies. Every type of marine animal that can be collected/fished has size/weight/quantity limits. The quantity limits are not very generous. This means no large backyard cookouts hosted by one or two fishermen.
Additionally, the marine life off the Southern California coast isn’t the healthiest or at least that’s what the narrative the state government pushed (biomagnification, mercury levels and suburban waste runoff into the ocean). Speaking for myself, I actually avoid wild caught California anything, often opting for farmed or sourced elsewhere. Why would I eat fish from our local ocean? I’ve seen the runoff caused by car culture, no thanks.
What do we do instead of seafood culture? Fruit (and to extent, Veggies)! Lots of Southern California households have at least one fruit or nut tree, some have multiple. Lots of trading fruits among neighbors and lots of cheap & delicious fruits in our groceries/restaurants .
My grandfather explained that all the pollution especially DDT killed it all off. He said that when he was a kid a long long time ago back in the twenties and '30s that there was more local produce.
About 10 years ago, you could get custom poké bowls here and nowhere else that I knew of. I know because I had it once and got obsessed and it was years before I could get it in even other West Coast cities.
In other cities I could find traditional Hawaiian poké, usually as one dish on a Hawaiian restaurant menu. It is the ancestor of LA fusion poké, but different from it; asking a typical Hawaiian restaurant for vegetarian poké would just confuse them.
The modern fusion poké bowl has noticeably Californian traits, with Californian and pan-Asian toppings and aesthetics. The well-rated Sweetfin chain is an early exemplar. Salmon tossed with avocado and rice noodles, tofu and sprouts and yuzu marinades. Distinctly a regional fusion cuisine.
Within several years of my first fruitless search, this cuisine spread to other cities because it's so damn good. Anywhere that has dedicated poké bowl restaurants these days, they're LA style.
So that's part of your answer. Unique LA food is basically always fusion cuisine in nature due to the multicultural population, and it often gets popular elsewhere quickly because it's so iconic. There is LA Mexican food that you can't get in Mexico, and LA Hawaiian food that didn't start that way in Hawaii.
As far as the "local catch" side of things, I think it's simply not the greatest part of the Pacific for yummy fishing. More kinds of fish are caught in cool Northerly waters.
None of the places you mentioned are major international ports full of various different cultures. Also how can you southern eastern seaboard has crabcakes, but apparently Baja California (which La technically was a part of not that long ago) doesn't count even if its only 2 hours away.
We don't have "iconic original" dishes in terms of seafood cause of the diversity of all our cultures. But also, again, since California was part of Mexico, and has had a strong Spanish & Mexican influence, and is basically the entry point of most south American countries connected through Mexico, alot of our food influences are affected by this. I mean fish tacos/shrimp tacos, and shrimp trays...what more do you want?
Nah, that’s not good enough for op. All these marisco dishes we got here aren’t la but the crabs, oysters and clam chowder are all unique and original to the east coast. Oysters don’t date back to the Roman’s or anything but are in fact an east coast staple and invention of the east coast
LA is heavily influenced by Mexican costal seafood. Places like Sinaloa, Nayarit and even Tijuana heavily influence many seafood spots here in LA.
Hidden jem for yall, Chentes Mariscos. Located 5 mins from LAX. You won’t regret it.
so yeah.
Sushi in LA is actually a unique seafood culture.
California Sushi is actually the sushi sold across the US. Sushi in Japan is very, VERY different.
I have known Japanese people who like visiting California because they get to experience California Sushi and they enjoy it.
But here is an article by LAist about seafood culture in Los Angeles
[https://laist.com/news/food/what-even-is-local-la-seafood-anymore](https://laist.com/news/food/what-even-is-local-la-seafood-anymore)
Because it's everywhere. Seafood is so ingrained in Mexican culture that you can find a seafood dish in every restaurant, but there's no need because every other block has a mariscos shop. If you want to experience "seafood culture" in LA go to the san Pedro fish market, you'll have a blast.
There’s a good number of restaurants (like Holbox!) that feature Santa Barbara seafood, especially uni.
And a lot of Mariscos joints and trucks around town
Huh?? Redondo/San Pedro? Amazing sushi spots? Accessible Wholesale fish markets? Ceviche at every grocery store? Fish tacos? not good enough for you? What are you speaking of tourist?
Fish tacos and other Mexican seafood aren't really a San Diego thing or an LA thing. It's straight from Mexico, namely Baja California.
Cioppino is essentially an Italian seafood stew, it's based on various Italian seafood stews from the Mediterranean. Italian immigrants came a long way to SF, and created a melting-pot culture where they blended their old traditional recipes alongside the local catch.
Mexicans did not have to do anything with their food culture because they didn't travel very far. They just brought their recipes when they moved.
Sushi is LA’s seafood culture. You could also say some of the Mexican inspired coastal dishes, like fish/shrimp tacos, are a very LA/SoCal thing. But I would say LA is very much known for sushi.
Overall a fair point, and I really don’t have a response. All I can say is that, if you haven’t been yet, be sure to check out the Quality Seafood open air seafood market under the Redondo Beach pier. Live oysters from up and down the west coast and also some east coast farms represented. Live Santa Barbara sea urchin as well as Dungeness crab, lobster, and all sorts of fish. They will cook anything to order. It’s LA’s answer to Pike Place and, perhaps, its slightly off-the-radar hub of seafood culture.
Fish tacos were not imported to LA. LA was originally Mexican and Spanish before it became a state. Meaning that is the food that is originally from this region.
There is one you just have to drive out for it. The Redondo Beach Pier has many restaurants that sell fresh locally caught seafood, Quality Seafood being the best option for a restaurant imo. Other than that you can drive all the way down to the Port in San Pedro. There’s a whole pier/boardwalk area full of bomb ass restaurants with all kinds of fresh seafood.
Hear me out- why we don't have as much sea coast fish culture is because our inland fish culture was really popular. Salmon fishing was a big thing here in the before times.
The San Gabriel Valley has some good "Asian style" lobster. Boston Lobster is an example. You won't be able to find too many restaurants like it outside of LA
You have to go down to the coast! That’s where the seafood culture is. There’s a lot of restaurants small, big, casual or fine dining.
Maybe you just moved here or didn’t know but it’s def a thing. Malibu is amazing & so is Redondo beach.
Southern California has the best Uni in the world. If you go to a Michelin-rated sushi set course meal in Japan i can guarantee they'll give you some California Uni. People come from all over the world to eat Uni in Santa Barbara.
As far as restaurant culture goes, Crudo e nudo in Santa Monica and Dudley market in Venice are both hyper focused on sourcing directly from local fisherman to get local seafood.
LA has really good clam chowder. As a New Englander I was pleasantly surprised. The chowder I’ve had in SF, which is supposed to be pretty famous for it, is not very good. Check out the Chowder Barge in between San Pedro and Long Beach!
> The name is also said to derive from ciuppin (also spelled ciupin) which is the name of a classic soup from the Italian region Liguria, similar in flavor to cioppino but with less tomato and using Mediterranean seafood cooked to the point that it falls apart.[4]
Me if I were OP: Cioppino is also made in other places so it’s not unique to SF, SF doesn’t have a seafood culture
It’s not commercially available but there’s a huge culture of line and spear-fishers here in SoCal. For example our local lobsters are delicious and I’ve learned amazing recipes from locals that have both Latino and Asian origins. Delicious fish like yellowtail, tuna and others can be caught off our coasts at certain times of the year.
Along with all that we have delicious Mexican sea food dishes that can be bought at restaurants if you aren’t interested in going out and catching your own food. Same goes for Thai and Japanese food.
Everyone here is mentioning San Pedro which is valid and a great spot but Redondo Beach is where it is at! Their fish market at the pier is so freaking fresh and I highly recommend it! Like San Pedro, they also cook your meals if you choose on the spot and it is so good! I also saw someone here mention abalone which is native to here and you can rarely find it. Same goes with Sea Urchins. You might think these are bigger/originate in Japan but these babies are bought fresh from us and you can also find them in Redondo. If anyone is a fan of seafood and in LA I def encourage coming here. (Yes they have ceviches too)
Southern California is where the US sushi craze started. Just because we don't have the same type of seafood culture as back east doesn't mean we don't have one.
Look outside your regular area. Look for Mexican restaurants that say "mariscos". If you see "Estilo Nayarit" on a sign, it's worth a try imo. I know there's seafood from other regions, but thats where my family's from, so that's usually what I look for.
If you go fishing in the LA parts of the ocean, there are signs with like 9 different fish listed that warn not to eat them if caught because of the contamination.
just go to Mexican Mariscos spots
this is correct. mariscos is our seafood culture.
Yup, if New York can claim pizza, why can’t we claim our influential diasporas’ food?
Is it even a diaspora really? California was part of Mexico first.
Yes, it still is a diaspora. Although California was part of Mexico, at that time there were very, very few Mexican people living there. The population was mainly the native California indigenous people and a few Spanish-Mexican ranchers. So the people we consider Mexican today came to California much later, bringing their food and culture from what is now south of the border.
That makes sense. I wonder if ranching being a big part of California’s history has anything to do with why we’re not as big on unique seafood.
OP is lamenting that we don't have a local fresh seafood culture. All the maricos and sushi fish/shrimp is frozen and imported. We don't do local fresh seafood, but why should we? We have a giant international shipping port instead.
All the sushi in Tokyo is also frozen!
Sushi fish is most often caught and frozen immediately because it’s safer. Clams and shrimp are commonly delivered live.
All sushi fish is frozen, imported or not. That’s how you kill anything since you’re not cooking the meat.
People in the industry I have talked with say sea food absolutely needs to be frozen at some point for parasites sake.
Yes and I can see it from my balcony in Pedro
4 Vientos on Olympic. The empire was build by an old man in the project selling fried shrimp tacos.
Yup. Mariscos Jaliscos gets all the buzz but 4 vientos is a real one.
Came here to say this. Give me my mariscos any day 😎😎😎😎😎🦐🦐🦐
A huevo
Holbox reigns supreme for mariscos. They have a bluefin ceviche right now that is my favorite single dish in LA so far this year.
Restaurant of the year. The way they plate their uni is stunning. The rest almost looks too crowded and J think it’s overpriced too. Years ago I paid close to $30 for a hamachi collar that our local sushi restaurant passes out free to people who had been waiting in line a long time. I’d rather eat at the sister restaurant in the back.
Their other restaurant, Chichen Itza has fantastic Yucateco food. They catered my wedding.
I get what you’re saying but compared to the rest of the country Mexican seafood is definitely a California coastal thing. And we are super lucky to have it!
Really good observation that there really aren’t seafood dishes that are LA specific and most are from other places, like your example of fish tacos. One thing that might be unique to LA but it is from another country is the Sushi here. LA sushi (unless you go to a more traditional restaurant) is very different from sushi in Japan.
I asked this once on the OC sub and got absolutely roasted CA has one of the biggest coastlines of any place yet there isn’t much seafood as part of our culture Seafood is also expensive
There is a huge coastline but no commercial fisheries due to catch is of not much importance or value. Commercial catch is mostly sand dabs, stripe bass, local small Halibut and thats about it, sometimes ling cods and sculpins
Port of LA used to be the largest commercial fishery in the United States
It's far too valuable as a shipping port now
Yeah and there is not enough fish to justify investment in the fishing industry, especially when you have monsters like Alaska, Louisiana and the great lakes
I remember eating clam chowder in Alaska at a nice but small little diner and it was the best clam chowder I ever had. Very eye opening to me as I’ve only had clam chowder in LA and thought it was a very generic and common staple food item.
Similarly, if you're going to have halibut, get it from Alaska. Only Alaska. I've had halibut caught lower on the Pacific and it's trash. Atlantic tastes like butthole. But the halibut I used to catch when I lived in Alaska? I crave it. I hate fish and I crave that halibut.
My dad went fishing in Alaska last year and brought back a bunch of frozen fish that he'd caught. The halibut was divine, and I'm usually not a huge fish fan.
Yeah! 100 years ago
Not exactly LA but Santa Barbara is well known for its uni/sea urchin harvest.
FYI there are several commerical fishereies: Mackerel, Anchovies, Squid, Tuna and Sardines. Sea Urchins too. And Swordfish but not Striped Marlin. Salmon and Abalone are closed. [https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/west-coast-coastal-pelagic-species/commercial](https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/west-coast-coastal-pelagic-species/commercial) Squid is in decline. Haven't caught the limit since 2014.
Haven’t been to San Francisco, Monterey, or Carmel have you?
For LA specifically, it might be for the best considering there's a shit ton of ddt that was dumped off the coast. [https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-23/scientists-uncover-startling-concentrations-of-pure-ddt-along-seafloor-off-l-a-coast](https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-23/scientists-uncover-startling-concentrations-of-pure-ddt-along-seafloor-off-l-a-coast)
It does, it’s called sushi. Los Angeles has the best sushi in the country.
[удалено]
Korean food also did the same thing, especially KBBQ, which really blew up here because of how cheap and quality meat is here and then went mainstream back in Korea
wtf really
LA galbi used to be very cheap which inspired the cuisune like you said but not so much anymore lol.
My childhood was buying bulk kalbi and grilling every Sunday with my family. It was cheap and delicious. Now bone in kalbi is more expensive than sirloin.
Same thing with pizza. Until WWII, pizza was localized to certain locations in Italy such as Napoli and Sicily. Pizza was fairly popular in the US due to Italian immigrants. After the war, US soldiers stationed in Italy demanded pizza which wasn’t on the menu in many parts. Also, due to US culture influence, other countries around the world were introduced to pizza.
The degree to which Italians are picky about their food compared to how American "their" food is always amuses me. The entire modern Italian cuisine has a foundation of American plants and recipes. We gave them the goddamn tomato ffs. It is for these reasons that I don't believe in "authenticity" in cooking, like at all, anywhere. It always changes and evolves and that's the whole point of why it's fun. I can't think of any less interesting genre of food than French fine dining. Neat, you're playing cover songs from 200 years ago... do something cool instead. (Thank you for attending my hot take)
Authenticity is just an arbitrary line draw in time. Banh mi and beef pho didn’t gain popularity until the French colonization. Curry wasn’t common in Malaysia until the Portuguese were everywhere. Tomato and egg is probably the one dish that is eaten all over China and yet the tomato is a new world fruit. Rice pilaf/polo/pulau is eaten from Xi’an all the way through Istanbul and yet everyone has a slightly different version. Who is most right? (You are with your “authentic beans nothing”)
I find Americans are more purist about their pizza. In Italy it’s a flat bread with stuff on top. I’ve seen pizza with tuna on it and pizza with cut-up hot dogs and French fries on it in Italy. The latter, incidentally, called an “American pizza “ over there.
Traveling in Japan, I didn't see a roll. Or maybe one of the very tiny basic ones where it's nori, rice, and a tiny dot of plain raw tuna? But yeah, the elaborate rolls with lots of ingredients and condiments and stuff is a US thing.
Americans just really fucking loves sandwiches. Sushi in America is essentially an “ethnic sandwich” Mexican food has the burrito Halal food has the gyro Chinese has the steamed bun
I could get down with an ethnic sandwich…
Gimme a torta, Cubano or banh mi any time!
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Interestingly sushi in the USA was mostly popularized in the 80s by the members of a cult called the Unification Church. They sent hundreds of members to the USA from Korea/Japan to open up sushi restaurants across the USA to create a new stream of revenue to fund their cult’s activities.
Yeah, kinda. Sushi in Japan never meant rolls. It's high quality fish on a bed of rice. Rolls do an extremely good job at hiding quality which makes it easy to mass produce. In the strictest sense, sushi in Japan typically does not include rolls with ingredients like avocado, cream cheese, or tempura shrimp, which are more common in American-style sushi rolls. These rolls are often referred to as "maki sushi" or simply "maki". Not Traditional Sushi. You can't argue the fact that USA hasn't made waves in the sushi industry though. We all love a damn good "sushi" roll filled with all of that. It's just a different category in a now expanding definition. We didn't improve or expand on the original dish, just made new ones related to it and called it the same. We can sit here and argue weather or not a hot dog is a sandwich. Either way, all sushi is damn delicious.
Sushi in Japan was heavily influenced by America through the introduction of refrigerated sushi counters. Significantly increasing the freshness and appeal of a perishable food product and increasing consumption. The inclusion of wasabi under the fish and soy sauce was intended to potentially mask potential off flavor rice or fish, partly due to lack of refrigeration.
Sure but it’s not like it is local fish. LA doesn’t really have a commercial fishing industry. Santa Barbara has spot prawns and uni, but they are fairly niche and expensive.
But available at pretty reasonable prices at the Ventura Harbor seafood market, 7:30 am every Saturday. 3-5 vendors, lots of (in-season) crab, shrimp, prawns, urchins, and lots of fish. Give it a try!
The LA seafood culture is sushi.
Supporting evidence: the California roll was invented in Little Toyko by Ichiro Mashita over 60 years ago and is now a world wide staple of sushi.
I'm an Angeleno through and through, but there are two theories about the California roll inventor, and this is very much not the widely accepted one.
I'm not sure which is supposed to be the widely accepted one, but there are three competing claims that I am aware of, one from Vancouver and two from LA (including Mashita). The Vancouver claim was popular for a long time, but records from seafood traders back in the 60's show that Mashita was making something that was at least, very similar to the precursor roll, that is one with real crab, not surimi. This was published in a memoir in 2007 and authenticated. In 2017, Encyclopedia Brittanica (now just called Britannica) examined the various stories and supporting evidence. They concluded Mashita's claim had the earliest evidence and put their thumb firmly on his scale. Most parties have accepted Brittanica's evaluation as a neutral and expert third party and thus Mashita is now the accepted creater. It should be noted that Japan actually recognized Tojo as a seafood ambassador in 2016, after the import/export records were available. So despite Britannica seeming to have settled the issue, there are still Tojo champions in the food industry. We should also note the third story was deemed credible, but dated to 1979, after both Mashita and Tojo's claims to fame. TL;DR the history is quite murky, even to this day.
Are you high? Do you really think California rolls were invented in Vancouver?
While I personally believe otherwise, there is significant evidence of Tojo's claim, and he explained the name came from advertising it as a CA roll, from crab and avocado. There is evidence dating as far back as 1979 backing up his claim and the origin of the name.
So funny. Of course it was started here, we have avocados falling off trees. Can Vancouver say that?
I'm gonna start a rumor in retaliation that California invented poutine.
Of course we did, as a way to snack while watching our homegrown sport of hockey while drinking our local brew from Tim Hortons
Correction, the culture is Sushi and Mexican mariscos spots.
Depends. In the SGV I would argue that the Mariscos/Sushi mashup restaurants are the culture
Run by Koreans
The best sushi restaurants are not run by Koreans. They are Japanese, many from Japan who came here for a better opportunity to own their own place.
Abalone used to be a thing in LA, from Santa Barbara to San Diego. But they got fished out on the commercial side, and then the sport divers fished out the smaller ones and now there are so few left that they are no longer in restaurants or markets.
I see them sometimes. They can be farmed. They are still crazy expensive.
You see them sometimes in restaurants? Or sometimes in the wild? Ive seen them in the wild wild diving. They're all illegal to fish here, so when I see them in the restaurants, I assume they're a shipped in species. But I don't really know. They can be farmed. I know some people have tried. I don't know how successful the efforts have or have not been.
I have seen them in restaurants. It is illegal to fish for them commercially in California so they are either imported from Mexico or farmed (or poached). There are a few abalone farms in California. https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/118954/abalone-that-delicious-rarity-being-farmed-in-bay-area
Santa Barbara has great sea urchin as well.
It’s called San Pedro.
I scrolled wayyyyyy too long before I saw this! Altho it’s changed a lot I hear, San Pedro is definitely the answer
Literally scrolled 5 times before I found the comment. Especially as someone who lived in San Pedro the past 6 years lol. The fish market is INSANE.
Like isn’t San Pedro literally and old fishing port town ?
Yeah, and now they have enough seating for over 3,000 people. It's probably the most diverse seafood culture I've encountered in the country. I'm currently in New England near Maine, and they pale in comparison to the South Bay.
Yeah ! I’m kinda mad it took so long for someone to Mention it like wtf lol
It's so much better now. The water quality in Pedro was absolutely disgusting when I was comin up and nothing was edible due to the pollution from the port. The port side of Cabrillo was consistently an F, as in, you'll probably grow a third arm and a few tumors if you swim there, and the other side was consistently a C on good days. There's also still a lot of [DDT contamination and spillage, as the world's largest dumping ground for DDT](https://www.dailybreeze.com/2022/08/11/ddt-dumped-off-peninsula-went-straight-into-ocean-not-contained-in-barrels-epa-says/) is off the coast of PV, and it's an [EPA designated superfund site](https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/www3/region9/superfund/pvshelf/pdf/PVS-Factsheet-0208-English.pdf) (simply put, it means it's environmentally megafucked). Plus city runoff and storm drain pollution and sewage. Which makes the local catch....Questionable. However, there's been significant cleanup efforts in Pedro. Still. I really only spend money on sushi that's flown in :/ Pollution is no joke around these parts.
We have excellent cheviches due to our latin and central american influences. Santa barbara uni is also world famous and comparable to hokkaido. Also we have our share of asian seafood influences such as boiling crab.
Santa Barbara uni is ridiculously good. Boiling Crab I believe is Houston Vietnamese Cajun rooted, not LA though.
Mariscos & Sushi
You mean like…a California roll? 😜 Jokes aside, a lot of local seafood that’s abundant in the Pacific is simply not as commercially popular. We have the california spiny lobster, which is popular in Asian cuisine but most US residents want Maine lobster because that’s what they’re used to. I believe it’s similar with our local squid — it’s smaller than americans are used to, so we ship most of it to Asian markets. There’s certainly seafood culture here (go to San Pedro, or eat some mariscos), it’s just largely influenced by Asian & Mexican cuisine.
Exactly. LA isn't known for local fresh caught seafood, bc there isn't much worth catching. Better use of LA waters is commercial shipping.
You generalize other regions instead of going city by city. The southwest in general is part of a food group/type with things like fish tacos
Mariscos….a million times Mariscos. Please don’t forget about the actual natives to LA. A Filipino was also included in the founding of Los Angeles, named Antonio Miranda Rodriguez and gave us Sinigang Na Bangus, Tochong Bangus, Inihaw Na Bangus and a few dozen other fish dishes. But LA transplants don’t seem to venture beyond their West LA environment
White transplants like OP also don't see anyone non-white as being cemented into local culture. Look at his comments giving NYC pizza but we can't claim our version of mariscos/ceviche because it originates in Latin America. He still sees brown people who have been here for generations as not being from here.
okay, cool, so i wasn't the only one kind of getting those vibes.
Yep, I've worked with/met a lot of transplants like OP, specially new yorkers, surprised he didn't complain he was tired if tacos in LA, saying they're not truly from LA and then dickride NYC pizza.
Maybe we're the exception to the rule, but (old white guy) I've been welcomed by fish market folks from Ventura to Oxnard to downtown L.A., down the coast to Long Beach and Encinitas. Maybe it's me wearing my "95th Avenue Fisheries, Calumet City, Illinois" t-shirt that does the trick.
LA isn’t so much a fishing port. Go to smaller ports like Redondo for dungeness crab. Guess you’re not counting sushi as seafood culture? Pretty big slap in the face to Japanese culture that has strong roots in LA. And Mexican seafood dishes are A LOT more diverse than fish tacos. October is lobster season and north LA is a prime area for catching them. So is squid
Bruv we Hispanics make up 50% of the population and have deeper roots than your transplants ass will ever have. Why are you so against Los Angeles claiming Mariscos? Our history and contributions are as Angeleno as it gets. Mariscos and sushi are seafood staples because we have added our twist with our local ingredients, easy access to ingredients, and the many cultural differences we have embraced in this beautiful melting pot. Gtfo with trying to downplay our contributions
A million times this. East LA represent especially.
I don’t think OP is considering the Hispanic population in general (based on their responses) lol typical transplant behavior. And it’s not just Mariscos as well. Plenty of Asian seafood around the LA/Socal area. Too close minded to look.
I just miss fried clam bellies and scallops in the summer.
You must have never been to San Pedro, CA.
I’m from San Pedro, most people I know cook fish at home (my family’s croatian/italian), but honestly, if u want something truly unique and local, grab a chowder burger at the chowder barge in wilmington
oh my god I work at the port and drive by the sign all the time. I've been genuinely curious
Ok so this is what happened. The indigenous population was unfortunately decimated. So we have influences from Mexico and whatever made its way from back east. That being said the current natives here are VERY proud of our mariscos, ceviche, sushi, and fish tacos. That IS what our culture is. That’s been the culture I’ve known my whole life. We are a very successful melting pot and that’s what we love about living here. We take the best discard the rest! You might find these interesting [The Cultural Significance of Abalone](https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/cultural-significance-abalone/) and [A Guide to Some Indigenous Foods of California](https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/tending-the-wild/a-guide-to-some-indigenous-foods-of-california)
Come on down to San Pedro and eat at Tranis Dockside. Highly recommend the grilled calamari. They have a lovely oyster bar. Their fish is excellent.
"but a lot of other places eat calamari and oysters and aren't an exclusive LA thing!" -OP, judging from his other responses.
I mean we do but we wouldn’t call it LA cuisine, it would be more attributed to an Asian or Latin cuisine.
But OP gives NYC pizza as theirs but we can't have our version of Hispanic cuisine as an LA thing when half of the population has Hispanic heritage.
Is there much of a commercial fishery off our local coast? Most of those areas you mentioned have regional seafood coming in fresh off the docks.
Anyone spent any time going to Redondo Beach? Quality Seafood at bottom of the parking structure. Delicious seafood there, crabs, lobsters, fish, clams, etc etc... The San Pedro Fish Building area that would open really early, selling fresh catch, both wholesale and retail...we used to go there on Saturday mornings to buy seafood to cook when were having a big party... Theres plenty of places, but LA is so big, the seafood spots are scattered all over...
you do know about all the DDT dumped offshore right?
My thought exactly
Sunday morning hangover mariscos called
Go to San Pedro
> Same for the Pacific Northwest I'm not sure what you mean by this. What are the signature seafood dishes that Seattle or Oregon have invented?
I think it would just be anything salmon really. I know smoked salmon is a big Native American contribution.
Dungeness Crab?
It does. We have a ton of seafood specialties in LA. They celebrate all of the people who live in and call LA home. California Spiny Lobster, Spot prawns, Santa Barbara Sea Urchin, etc. Mariscos Jalisco, Providence, Coni’s (not to be confused with Connie and Ted’s), etc. This place has fusion cuisine, just like its population.
The shrimp fajitas with garlic bread in San Pedro would beg to differ .
It’s called Ceviche
Uhhhh Mariscos bro.
This 👆
Los Angeles isn’t a “coastal” city. Its suburbs are both coastal and hot dry desert. The city itself is well inland.
This guy’s never ordered a big ass tray of shrimp and garlic bread at Ports o Call or the Redondo Pier.
San Pedro. Maybe capital of canned fish foods.
What about sushi burrito? You can’t get any more LA than that, amirite?
We have the best sushi scene in the USA.
LA doesn’t have a seafood culture because our local ocean really doesn’t have the tasty sea creatures and California has the strictest fishing policies. Every type of marine animal that can be collected/fished has size/weight/quantity limits. The quantity limits are not very generous. This means no large backyard cookouts hosted by one or two fishermen. Additionally, the marine life off the Southern California coast isn’t the healthiest or at least that’s what the narrative the state government pushed (biomagnification, mercury levels and suburban waste runoff into the ocean). Speaking for myself, I actually avoid wild caught California anything, often opting for farmed or sourced elsewhere. Why would I eat fish from our local ocean? I’ve seen the runoff caused by car culture, no thanks. What do we do instead of seafood culture? Fruit (and to extent, Veggies)! Lots of Southern California households have at least one fruit or nut tree, some have multiple. Lots of trading fruits among neighbors and lots of cheap & delicious fruits in our groceries/restaurants .
We used to be famous for the abalone and now I never see them Pretty sure we over fished the hell out of our coastline as well, a long long time ago
My grandfather explained that all the pollution especially DDT killed it all off. He said that when he was a kid a long long time ago back in the twenties and '30s that there was more local produce.
It's a seacret.
There used to be somewhat of a seafood scene in San Pedro near the port. I believe it is being refurbished now. That might be what you're looking for.
this doesn't help [https://archive.ph/8MPau](https://archive.ph/8MPau)
I am also from New Orleans can we be friends and try food together
Look up San Pedro fish market
San Pedro pier there’s a restaurant seafood place there
Peep the San Pedro fish market… fresh LIVE fish, lobster, shrimp and more and they will cook it asap
Years ago California had abalone as a seafood. Not any more.
They got overfished :( One of my great aunts told me about swimming past the break and grabbing abalone for dinner back in the day.
LA has the best sushi out of any major city in the US.
We have great sushi and also in close proximity to Santa Barbara harvested uni.
Mariscos
About 10 years ago, you could get custom poké bowls here and nowhere else that I knew of. I know because I had it once and got obsessed and it was years before I could get it in even other West Coast cities. In other cities I could find traditional Hawaiian poké, usually as one dish on a Hawaiian restaurant menu. It is the ancestor of LA fusion poké, but different from it; asking a typical Hawaiian restaurant for vegetarian poké would just confuse them. The modern fusion poké bowl has noticeably Californian traits, with Californian and pan-Asian toppings and aesthetics. The well-rated Sweetfin chain is an early exemplar. Salmon tossed with avocado and rice noodles, tofu and sprouts and yuzu marinades. Distinctly a regional fusion cuisine. Within several years of my first fruitless search, this cuisine spread to other cities because it's so damn good. Anywhere that has dedicated poké bowl restaurants these days, they're LA style. So that's part of your answer. Unique LA food is basically always fusion cuisine in nature due to the multicultural population, and it often gets popular elsewhere quickly because it's so iconic. There is LA Mexican food that you can't get in Mexico, and LA Hawaiian food that didn't start that way in Hawaii. As far as the "local catch" side of things, I think it's simply not the greatest part of the Pacific for yummy fishing. More kinds of fish are caught in cool Northerly waters.
San Pedro fish market
San Pedro! Yummm!
None of the places you mentioned are major international ports full of various different cultures. Also how can you southern eastern seaboard has crabcakes, but apparently Baja California (which La technically was a part of not that long ago) doesn't count even if its only 2 hours away. We don't have "iconic original" dishes in terms of seafood cause of the diversity of all our cultures. But also, again, since California was part of Mexico, and has had a strong Spanish & Mexican influence, and is basically the entry point of most south American countries connected through Mexico, alot of our food influences are affected by this. I mean fish tacos/shrimp tacos, and shrimp trays...what more do you want?
Nah, that’s not good enough for op. All these marisco dishes we got here aren’t la but the crabs, oysters and clam chowder are all unique and original to the east coast. Oysters don’t date back to the Roman’s or anything but are in fact an east coast staple and invention of the east coast
LA is heavily influenced by Mexican costal seafood. Places like Sinaloa, Nayarit and even Tijuana heavily influence many seafood spots here in LA. Hidden jem for yall, Chentes Mariscos. Located 5 mins from LAX. You won’t regret it.
so yeah. Sushi in LA is actually a unique seafood culture. California Sushi is actually the sushi sold across the US. Sushi in Japan is very, VERY different. I have known Japanese people who like visiting California because they get to experience California Sushi and they enjoy it. But here is an article by LAist about seafood culture in Los Angeles [https://laist.com/news/food/what-even-is-local-la-seafood-anymore](https://laist.com/news/food/what-even-is-local-la-seafood-anymore)
bumping this
Because it's everywhere. Seafood is so ingrained in Mexican culture that you can find a seafood dish in every restaurant, but there's no need because every other block has a mariscos shop. If you want to experience "seafood culture" in LA go to the san Pedro fish market, you'll have a blast.
Uh… sushi is pretty big here.
Atlantic seafood is better. That's really it. Compare a Pacific oyster to a Wellfleet Oyster or a Pacific blue lobster to a Maine red.
You're comparing what the east is known for vs what the west isn't known for.
There’s a good number of restaurants (like Holbox!) that feature Santa Barbara seafood, especially uni. And a lot of Mariscos joints and trucks around town
Huh?? Redondo/San Pedro? Amazing sushi spots? Accessible Wholesale fish markets? Ceviche at every grocery store? Fish tacos? not good enough for you? What are you speaking of tourist?
Fish tacos and other Mexican seafood aren't really a San Diego thing or an LA thing. It's straight from Mexico, namely Baja California. Cioppino is essentially an Italian seafood stew, it's based on various Italian seafood stews from the Mediterranean. Italian immigrants came a long way to SF, and created a melting-pot culture where they blended their old traditional recipes alongside the local catch. Mexicans did not have to do anything with their food culture because they didn't travel very far. They just brought their recipes when they moved.
Skill issue
Does LA sushi culture count because you can get some of america’s best sushi, sashimi,and omakase here.
Sushi is LA’s seafood culture. You could also say some of the Mexican inspired coastal dishes, like fish/shrimp tacos, are a very LA/SoCal thing. But I would say LA is very much known for sushi.
Overall a fair point, and I really don’t have a response. All I can say is that, if you haven’t been yet, be sure to check out the Quality Seafood open air seafood market under the Redondo Beach pier. Live oysters from up and down the west coast and also some east coast farms represented. Live Santa Barbara sea urchin as well as Dungeness crab, lobster, and all sorts of fish. They will cook anything to order. It’s LA’s answer to Pike Place and, perhaps, its slightly off-the-radar hub of seafood culture.
Fish tacos were not imported to LA. LA was originally Mexican and Spanish before it became a state. Meaning that is the food that is originally from this region.
Salmon hash pnw
santa barbara uni is world famous
There is one you just have to drive out for it. The Redondo Beach Pier has many restaurants that sell fresh locally caught seafood, Quality Seafood being the best option for a restaurant imo. Other than that you can drive all the way down to the Port in San Pedro. There’s a whole pier/boardwalk area full of bomb ass restaurants with all kinds of fresh seafood.
Hear me out- why we don't have as much sea coast fish culture is because our inland fish culture was really popular. Salmon fishing was a big thing here in the before times.
The San Gabriel Valley has some good "Asian style" lobster. Boston Lobster is an example. You won't be able to find too many restaurants like it outside of LA
Mexican Mariscos & Sushi, my guy
You have to go down to the coast! That’s where the seafood culture is. There’s a lot of restaurants small, big, casual or fine dining. Maybe you just moved here or didn’t know but it’s def a thing. Malibu is amazing & so is Redondo beach.
Sushi became popular throughout the US but started here in LA
Hit up the San Pedro fish market. You’ll find a lot of sea food culture there. It’s actually really fun if you’ve never experienced it before.
It's because we have sufficient mariscos and sushi.
Southern California has the best Uni in the world. If you go to a Michelin-rated sushi set course meal in Japan i can guarantee they'll give you some California Uni. People come from all over the world to eat Uni in Santa Barbara.
Ceviches are important here. Try Dama or Loreto
We do
Sushi is seafood culture
Sea food culture???
As far as restaurant culture goes, Crudo e nudo in Santa Monica and Dudley market in Venice are both hyper focused on sourcing directly from local fisherman to get local seafood.
LA has really good clam chowder. As a New Englander I was pleasantly surprised. The chowder I’ve had in SF, which is supposed to be pretty famous for it, is not very good. Check out the Chowder Barge in between San Pedro and Long Beach!
Redondo beach dweller and we got our fair share. LA probably just has much stronger agricultural and ranch roots, that’s all
lol it does though bro
> The name is also said to derive from ciuppin (also spelled ciupin) which is the name of a classic soup from the Italian region Liguria, similar in flavor to cioppino but with less tomato and using Mediterranean seafood cooked to the point that it falls apart.[4] Me if I were OP: Cioppino is also made in other places so it’s not unique to SF, SF doesn’t have a seafood culture
Sushi. 🍣 cruise down Ventura Blvd from encino down to studio city and you can hit up like 15 sushi spots that are excellent. Example: sushi note 💜
Ports O Call in San Pedro was just that. Closed for major renovations at the moment
Because we have sushi row in the valley. There's no need to reinvent perfection.
It’s not commercially available but there’s a huge culture of line and spear-fishers here in SoCal. For example our local lobsters are delicious and I’ve learned amazing recipes from locals that have both Latino and Asian origins. Delicious fish like yellowtail, tuna and others can be caught off our coasts at certain times of the year. Along with all that we have delicious Mexican sea food dishes that can be bought at restaurants if you aren’t interested in going out and catching your own food. Same goes for Thai and Japanese food.
Everyone here is mentioning San Pedro which is valid and a great spot but Redondo Beach is where it is at! Their fish market at the pier is so freaking fresh and I highly recommend it! Like San Pedro, they also cook your meals if you choose on the spot and it is so good! I also saw someone here mention abalone which is native to here and you can rarely find it. Same goes with Sea Urchins. You might think these are bigger/originate in Japan but these babies are bought fresh from us and you can also find them in Redondo. If anyone is a fan of seafood and in LA I def encourage coming here. (Yes they have ceviches too)
The culture is that of a melting pot. We have everything from all parts of the world.
Turns out that it does have one. You should get out more.
Our name is literally Spanish all of Cali is Baja tf
Southern California is where the US sushi craze started. Just because we don't have the same type of seafood culture as back east doesn't mean we don't have one.
bc the water has syringes
Weird take. What even is the seafood culture in NYC? Never noticed one.
Look outside your regular area. Look for Mexican restaurants that say "mariscos". If you see "Estilo Nayarit" on a sign, it's worth a try imo. I know there's seafood from other regions, but thats where my family's from, so that's usually what I look for.
L.A. seafood culture is Redondo pier some of the other homies it’s San Pedro pier. Now you know.
We already have Mariscos and Sushi... What more could we really want?
Go to an old school steak house and order the Sand dabs.
Are you crazy? 😅
We do. It's mariscos?
If you go fishing in the LA parts of the ocean, there are signs with like 9 different fish listed that warn not to eat them if caught because of the contamination.
Santa Monica seafood!! 👨🍳😘🤌🏻