Top 10 Bites of LA County Fair 2014

by: guest blogger @iam_robot

The 92^nd Los Angeles County Fair opened last Friday, August 29^th 2014, featuring the best of greasy delights, larger-than-life Chinese lanterns, 70 carnival rides, Monster Trucks, EDM clubs, and of course, Capuchin Monkeys.

Being held in Pomona Fairplex’s 487-acre land since 1922, extreme foods (consisting of anything deep fried, wrapped in bacon, or on a stick) will always be the main attraction despite organizers’ utter resilience to display newer attractions. This year, a new nighttime exhibit, called as Luminasia, will feature larger-than-life Chinese lanterns replicating wonders of the world, LA landmarks, exotic animals, and the twelve symbols of the Chinese zodiac. Also, as an avid animal lover, I’m curious to see what Mojo’s Wild & Crazy Lagoon has to offer. This is no ordinary petting zoo - they’ll have peacocks, monkeys, kangaroos, camels, and many exotic creatures. Definitely don’t miss out Zor when you’re there, they’re fire dancers performing ancient tribal dance using flaming swords, ball n chain, and other fire manipulation tools.

Last Wednesday, August 27^th 2014, I was very fortunate to attend the media tasting of foods to be featured at the Fair.  Me and my brother had a field day. We ate so much, we could barely move at the end of the night. We wanted to try as much as we could for the blog – making sure readers are making the wisest/ informed decision in picking out their foods. Just remember, greasy food should be eaten with care – don’t eat them unless it’s worth it!

With that said, here are the bee’s knees:

1.       Ramen Burger by Keizo Shimamoto

Always been a fan of the original ramen burger. I was the fad chaser who lined up for 2 hours a year ago and I still make my regular visit to their stand in Koreatown. But if you never had one, ramen burger is terrific. The ramen is a little crisp on the outside but breaks apart easily when you bite into them. The quarter pounder patty is definitely the highest quality – it’s cooked medium rare and topped with a teriyaki-like sauce (I presumed it’s a combo of mustard, mayo, onion, and soy sauce). Then the arugula and scallion bring both sweetness and peppery to the party. Anyways, give it a shot – you don’t have to be drunk to eat this – it’s 600% percent better than many of the most overhyped burger joints in LA.

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Quintessential Los Angeles and LA's Top Late Night Dining

As I had said in my post yesterday, I had been asked by Foodie.com to make "collections" of my top picks in Los Angeles. Here are two more, featuring the top late night dining in the city (not surprisingly there are a few from K-town, thanks to the abundance of 24-hour restaurants there)


I also made a list of the Quintessentially Los Angeles cuisine. I had a harder time with this collection - how do you define what is quintessentially LA cuisine? I know Din Tai Fung has made it to tons of LA's iconic food and Best of LA lists, but I didn't want to include places like that which is a chain that originated from outside of LA. Instead, I'm looking for things that you can only get or started in LA.

My "Collections" of LA's Top 16 Special Occasion Restaurant and Best Restaurant Bars

I was asked by Foodie.com to make 4 "collections" of the top spots in Los Angeles. It's a pretty easy way to make lists, I can just search for a restaurant and click to add to my collections (it's not just for restaurants but you can do the same for recipes on the site as well). Then you write a blurb about why it's in your collection. So far it's quite easy to use although the search results give you restaurants from around the country so for common names you have to sift through a bit.

Well, anyway, here are two collections that I made. One is LA's best restaurants from special occasion dining, from steak to sushi worthy of a splurge and celebration! (note: the widgets unfortunately don't show the full collections. To see the other restaurants you'd have to click "See collection")

Another collection I did is the LA restaurants with the best cocktail bars (yes, there are many other great cocktail bars but I specifically chose the ones in a restaurant for this). I ventured as far as Pasadena (1886 Bar - technically separate but it's connected to the Raymond Restaurant after all) and Seal Beach (320 Main).