West Coast swing: Los Angeles II (Downtown and Echo Park)

The Original Farmers Market isn't the city's only gigantic food hall. Grand Central Market in downtown LA also evolved from a public market that was established in 1917. The most recent influx of ethnic and gourmet food outposts began in 2013, coinciding with the international food hall movement. As soon as we stepped into the cavernous establishment with industrial decor, Mei Ling and I had to pause to catch our breath. Before us stretched a forest of colorful neon signs proclaiming the offerings of countless food stalls in a vibrant, open layout that extended as far as we could see. If the authenticity and quality of the food here matched the visual impression, we had arrived at food hall nirvana.

For the next half hour or so, we toured the amazing selection of food stalls trying to decide how we were possibly going to choose what to eat, or really how to choose what not to eat. We ruled out the numerous Mexican options, given that we were going to visit a Mexican food hall in East LA later in the trip. Our first selection was a Salvadoran pupusa filled with our chosen selection of carne asada, nopal, and squash. The pupuseria was a particularly popular and energetic spot with a fairly long wait, but the savory tortilla stuffed with delicious meat and vegetables was more than worth it. We complemented the pupusa with a blisteringly spicy aguachile from the cevicheria next door.

Once we found a table to enjoy our food, we noticed an enormous line snaking around the entire dining area. We discovered everyone was waiting to buy food at a restaurant called Eggslut at the south end of the market facing South Broadway. Given that hardly any of the other restaurants had a line at all, the lengthy queue for Eggslut was quite impressive. We tried to peek at what people were getting and all we saw were egg sandwiches and orange juice. Finally my curiosity got the better of me and I asked a couple of girls on the line whether the food was really worth the wait. They looked at me strangely. "It's Eggslut!". OK, I said. What's so amazing about it? "We haven't eaten here yet. But everyone says it's really good." I told them I was really surprised people would wait that long for an egg sandwich given that they were on the threshold of an enormous food hall with dozens of restaurants selling delicious preparations of every imaginable cuisine. It's the best food hall I've ever seen in the entire world, I told them. "Really?". They didn't sound excited. I'm sure it's a good egg sandwich, but there's no way it could be so much better than everything else on offer at Grand Central Market. It's a reminder that once something gets hyped on social media, it takes on a life of its own. I think at least half the people on that line were there just because the line was so long.

Even after we were full we found it hard to leave. We took one last tour through the market taking mental notes which restaurants we would sample on our return visit. There would be plenty of chances in our three full days left in Los Angeles. We got some coffee for ourselves and treated the kids to a sugar rush at an old-fashioned candy stall that was just too beautiful to resist.

We had a narrow window of time to squeeze in a kids activity before Spenser would need to sleep so we raced north up the freeway to Discovery Cube, one of Los Angeles' many children's museums. The view from the road looked nothing like anywhere I've seen around the world. We were surrounded by low, brownish hills with very angulated, furrowed contours. It looked like a landscape one might expect in a place like Mongolia or Bolivia or possibly even another planet, but here we were just a few minutes away from central Los Angeles.

The kids had a fun time at Discovery Cube. It was hard to get them out of the first area which had giant blue building blocks and a cupcake decorating lab. The biggest hits were the home inspection game and the hockey exhibits on the second floor that were funded by the Kings of the NHL. Overall I found it better than our Children's Museum in Miami but not as good as the ones in Houston or Milwaukee, and a far cry short of Experimentarium in Copenhagen. We'll have to try Kidspace on our next visit. Two of them within four days would have been too much.

The Friday afternoon farmers market was in Echo Park, a hip neighborhood just north of our home base. Before the market, we checked out the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, a unique novelty store with a time travel theme and the memorable motto "Whenever you are, we're already then". Aside from the items related to time travel, there were some really cool games and projects for kids. I picked up a dinosaur model whose pieces were all punch-outs from thin wood sheets and a book of science experiments for the home. It's hard to leave without making a purchase. Aside from the fact that a lot of the stuff is really neat and useful, the profits go to the community reading and tutoring center 826LA which owns the store. Before we left, we made sure to take the opportunity to be the front window display for a few minutes.

The Echo Park farmers market was a bit of a letdown after the previous day's extravaganza at South Pasadena, but I still got the chance to try some delicious Senegalese foufou. Dinner was still on the agenda, and there were two more food halls on my list in downtown LA. Corporation Food Hall is a fairly recent addition to LA's food hall pantheon, and it was surprisingly empty on a Friday evening. There was a relatively small collection of kiosks in a much more orderly arrangement than Grand Central Market. The place had a very modern, urban vibe with some whimsical touches. One of my favorites was the Italian kiosk Funculo, a play on the Italian profanity "fan culo" with a pair of forks displaying their middle prongs on the sign. The bar at the back presented their cocktail menu on old-fashioned View Master projectors. We had a pretty good meal of noodle dishes and gyoza. Hopefully the relative lack of custom at Corporation on the night we visited was only because it's predominantly a lunch spot for people working downtown. I'd hate to see such a unique establishment fail to establish a permanent presence in LA.

The route to the other downtown food hall took us past Pershing Square, which was nicely dressed up for the holidays and had a busy ice skating rink at the far end. Despite the fairly heavy presence of homeless people in the area, no one seemed remotely threatening and we weren't bothered at all. The sidewalks were pleasantly busy with people who were out for the evening. It was markedly different from the evening scene, or lack thereof, in the downtown areas of Miami and other major American cities we've visited. We finally arrived at TASTE food hall but despite the sleek appearance of the mall that housed it, the culinary offerings were a disappointment. They were mostly higher quality chains with a sterile atmosphere, just a step above a regular mall food court.

We'd only been in Los Angeles for two full days but we hadn't felt this thrilled about a new city in a long time. I was reminded of my first time exploring London with Mei Ling, and our visits to Tokyo and Prague. The best part was that my expectations had been so modest, which made the neverending awesomeness of LA even more satisfying. We still had two and a half days left, and many of the best experiences were still to come.