Warm phở broth is comforting on rainy days, fresh pickled veggies in a bánh mì are refreshing during hot summers, and fried pork rolls are a popular snack to pair with at any time of the year. But the lesser-known Vietnamese dish called bánh khọt gives us yet another reason to fall in love with Vietnamese food. This bite-sized dish is a crunchy one-inch, cup-shaped crepe, made from rice flour and coconut milk batter, topped with shrimp and ground pork and served with pickles and fresh lettuce for a hands-on, do-it-yourself wrap. One local place to try the dish is Bánh Khọt Lady, a restaurant in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Orange County, an area that is often overshadowed by its neighbor to the north, Los Angeles. Although LA County has the highest population in the country, the “OC” is not far behind, ranking as the sixth-largest county in the nation. Both counties share a deep, diverse history and culture, dating back to the Native American Tongva people who lived in the area before waves of settlers and immigrants called it home.

Scott Kohno knows when a new customer is about to come into Yama Sushi Marketplace because he hears the locked front door rattling. As the store’s regulars are already well aware of, the front door isn’t used at Yama. There’s a sign out front that directs customers to enter through the back door, where the parking lot is located. The small store is divided into two rooms. Upon entering from the back door, there’s a small table in the center with cute Japanese stationery items, and pantry items and bottles of sake line the shelves to the right. A refrigerator on the left is full of cold drinks, nigiri sushi, and sushi rolls that have been packed that day. The second room is where one finds the heart of Yama Sushi Marketplace: the fish counter. Hungry customers take numbered tickets and wait their turn to get freshly sliced sashimi.

At the edge of Los Angeles’s modern downtown stands a link to the city’s Spanish colonial past. El Pueblo de Los Ángeles was one of the earliest settled areas in what is now L.A. County, and today is home to such attractions as the last standing adobe house, the city’s first firehouse, and, most importantly, one of the oldest family-run restaurants in California, El Rancho Grande. Poised to celebrate 95 years of operation on the area’s historic Olvera Street, this family has grown with the city, preserving and sharing traditional foods since just before this area was designated as a Mexican-style tourist marketplace in 1930.

Bánh Mì Mỹ Dung is a tiny sandwich shop disguised as a humble fruit stand – bananas in varying stages of ripeness hang from the awnings; stacks of boxes filled with green onions, mangoes, rambutans, Thai peppers, and leafy greens are lined up in front of the entrance. The store fits no more than ten people at a time, but it may be one of the most popular locations to visit in Los Angeles’s Chinatown, and a favorite stop for guests on our Culinary Backstreets tour: Exploring America’s Culinary Frontier. Chinh Le is the manager and face of the business, and in the far back corner is a small area where Chinh’s sister prepares the shop’s well-known sandwiches. This humble locale is the counterbalance to a neighborhood whose identity is currently in flux. Found steps away from a plaza that hosts chic restaurants attracting influencers and customers from across the nation, Mỹ Dung (a name left over from the previous owners, which translates to a female name meaning “Perfect Beauty”) attracts local Chinese community members as both a place to gather and to purchase fresh produce, sweetened condensed milk iced coffees, and affordable Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches.

While to-go and delivery meals have seen a particular resurgence in the past few years, hungry Angelenos have always turned to takeout as a great way to enjoy the city’s food. L.A.’s vast culinary offering and great takeout options means that you can enjoy a Thai picnic on the beach, take a bag of fresh Mexican pastries for a long commute, or bring home boxes of Detroit-style pizzas for an easy group meal. Whether you’re hoping to try something new or just want to skip cooking dinner, our local guides have handpicked some of the best takeout eats from our archive.

In a relatively young city like Los Angeles, not many places have been open for more than 90 years, and even fewer have been open that long while staying relatively under the radar. Eastside Italian Deli is a delicious exception, having been around in the neighborhood that is now known as Victor Heights since 1929 (though it originally opened as Eastside Market). A small neighborhood between Chinatown and Echo Park, Victor Heights is often called the “Forgotten Edge,” but it was once home to a community of Italian immigrants who shopped at places like Eastside Market on a regular basis. These days, Eastside Italian Deli gets a steady stream of diners on weekday afternoons, from blue collar workers to high school students on summer break.

As one of the unsung heroes of traditional foods in Los Angeles, soondae (also known as Korean blood sausage) is having a resurgence in popularity, thanks to culinary pilgrims who make it their mission to visit Los Angeles, a city known for some of the trendiest and best-tasting Korean restaurants outside of South Korea. Wedged into the corner of a strip mall between a beauty salon and a print shop, the tiny Eighth Street Soondae, beloved by the Koreatown community since 1990, is possibly the best place in L.A. to try the dish.

The historic Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles looks very different today than it used to. Opened in 1917, Grand Central Market began as a public market with a variety of vegetable stands and meat and poultry shops, a place for people to get their daily groceries. Over a hundred years later, the market still stands, but a big revitalization project that started around 2013 has transformed this local landmark. While the architecture and interior of the market remains mostly the same, the project has drawn new, hip food vendors to the historic space, now lit with vibrant neon signs. On weekends, long lines form around popular stalls like Eggslut and Broad Street Oyster Co. Among the new vendors, legacy businesses are still holding on, serving both longtime and new customers.