Los Angeles is one of the only cities in the country where you can experience cuisines from almost every country in the world without leaving the city. It might take an hour of bumper to bumper traffic to do so, but it is possible nonetheless. However, the Los Angeles Times has fixed this problem, allowing you to get in your car just once to experience a plethora of different delicacies from around the world. They do this by hosting an annual Food Bowl one weekend out of the whole year in Central LA. This food bowl serves as a central hub that allows local restaurants to conglomerate in one place and showcase their food to people not willing to drive across the city (which is no easy feat). From Thai street food, to American barbeque, to dim sum, to cheese crusted tacos, to vegan ice cream, the world is really your oyster (they have those too!) at the Los Angeles Times Food Bowl.
If near unlimited food options isn’t enough to convince you to go, there are also celebrity guests each of the three nights of the event. This past Friday, Danny Trejo from Trejo’s Tacos made an appearance for “Fiesta Friday” and even showcased a live cooking demo for the crowd. Saturday night’s celebrity guests included Chef Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn from Bangkok and social media influencers Nick DiGiovanni and Ahmad Alzahabi (aka “The Golden Balance”) for “Saturday Night Flavor.” Finally, to round off the annual Food Bowl, Chef Marcus Samuelsson from Red Rooster, Tiffani Thiessen, and Timothy Hollingsworth from Otium made appearances Sunday afternoon for “Backlot Brunch.” All days included a live cooking demo from one of these beloved chefs.
Chef’s Danny Trejo,Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn, and Tiffani Thiessen performing live demos.
Celebrity guests weren’t the only thing that changed each day, vendors and restaurants also did too! Although there were some consistent spots there for all three days, many places were only there for one or two days, further incentivizing people to go if they wanted to try a certain restaurant.
I’m really grateful that I got to attend all three days as part of the Bello team. As a self-titled “foodie”, I was almost overwhelmed with the amount of vendors there. It was probably the closest thing to perfection I have ever witnessed. I’m glad I was able to go all three days because I would not have been able to hit all the spots I wanted to in just one (this would have been a huge tragedy). I’m one of those people that would rather try new places than repeat one spot, so this was the ultimate opportunity to do a giant food crawl. The best way to do it is to grab a bunch of friends, a bottle of wine (or two), and a bunch of different items from a bunch of different spots. Then, you all meet back and eat family style (the best way), so you get to try as many different cuisines as possible. Trust me, there’s some surprisingly delicious food combos out there.
However you go about it, the Los Angeles Times has blessed foodies like myself with this Food Bowl. It’s a shame it’s only one time a year, but that’s more of a reason not to miss it! So mark your calendars for next year and in the meantime, enjoy good food.
